Egremont — Affordable housing and Berkshire County towns getting an equitable share of state funding were topics of discussion at a public forum held by State Rep. William “Smitty” Pignatelli (D – Lenox) and State Sen. Paul Mark (D – 2nd Berkshire District). More than 50 people attended the meeting at Town Hall on Monday, June 26.
Both Pignatelli and Mark have held similar public forums in other towns in the past few months.
At the beginning of the June 26 event, Mark told the audience that he considers his partnership with Pignatelli on issues facing Berkshire County to be very important. “There are only four of us who represent the whole county, compared to 160 members of the House [of Representatives] and 40 members of the State Senate,” Mark lamented. “Every time we go down to Boston, we’re vastly outnumbered. If we don’t stick together, we’re not as powerful.”
Pignatelli said that, out of all of the challenges facing Berkshire County, affordable housing is the biggest issue. “I have not personally seen a real estate market like we’ve experienced with COVID since post 9/11,” Pignatelli said. “When COVID came, what better place to have natural social distancing than in the Berkshires? There were younger people, including people from the east and the Boston area, coming to the Berkshires and buying real estate.”
Pignatelli said that the rush of real estate purchases squeezed out housing opportunities for people in the service industry. He said that, while the finalized state budget for Fiscal 2023-2024 is still in the works and may not be completed by the beginning of the new fiscal year in July, Gov. Maura Healey (D) has included in the budget $1.5 billion for affordable housing projects. “What that looks like [in terms of projects for Berkshire County municipalities], nobody knows just yet,” Pignatelli said. “But I think there are going to be opportunities to access money. I think [for municipalities] it is important to get ahead of that and have a plan [for projects], and then you can go and ask for the dollars. Just remember, [Berkshire County] competes with 350 other communities as well. Develop your plan locally, then the dollars will be there to help you out.”
When asked if the potential funds would be available for individual projects or municipalities, Pignatelli said, “I am hoping that it will be available for anybody and everybody.” He explained, “If you develop your own plan locally or have a specific project, I think it’s going to be very important. There is always a lot of money out there, and in my opinion, we should not compete with Pittsfield or Springfield. But small towns have a competitive disadvantage with gateway cities like Pittsfield or Springfield.”
Judith Goodman, the co-chair of the town’s Housing Committee, asked Pignatelli and Mark if there would be state funds available for rental housing and to purchase housing in the new state fiscal budget. “We do need to bring people into Berkshire County,” Goodman said. “We need to bring in nurses, technicians, waiters, and cooks. They’re not going to come into Berkshire County accepting a job thinking they can buy a house. They need to rent here, at least.”
“In the state budget, there is a great deal of money intended to help support renters,” Mark responded. “The prices continue to go up as the market for rentals and housing continues to get more expensive. I think whatever we can do to help a family or an individual stay in the house that they have right now is important. There is a lot of money coming out to support people that are currently housed. There’s money in the tax bills that both the House and the Senate have passed, that includes tax credits for renters and homeowners.”
However, Mark did not specifically say how much money from the fiscal budget would be set aside and how much in tax credits would be for property renters and homeowners.
Pignatelli told the audience that he is an advocate for home ownership, and told the audience that, in many cases, it is more affordable to own a home than it is to rent a property. “I am seeing $1,500 to $2,500 rent for one- to three-bedroom [apartments], and personally I don’t think that’s affordable,” Pignatelli said. “People coming to the Berkshires may want to ‘kick the tires’ and rent for a year or two to see if they like the job and the area, then maybe to buy. I do think there are great opportunities for home ownership.”
Pignatelli proceeded to tell the audience about how his son purchased his first home a few years ago. “With mortgage, insurance, and taxes, he is paying $950 a month versus $2,000 [he would be paying for a rental],” Pignatelli said. “He is building wealth and equity through home ownership, and you can’t break that cycle of poverty unless you help people build wealth and equity. You build that by owning something. I think that’s what we need to have, that kind of a combination of homeownership and rental affordability. I hate the phrase ‘affordable housing’ because I think that comes from a stigma. I like to flip those words, ‘housing affordability,’ because that’s a very different approach.”
While Pignatelli stressed the importance of home ownership, later on during the forum, town Housing Committee co-chairperson Doug Mishkin stressed to Pignatelli and Mark that “…preserving tenancies for existing tenants is essential” in Berkshire County. “We’ve got to provide to help those people,” Mishkin said. “While we have to provide more affordable home ownership [opportunities], we cannot lose sight of the importance for the acute need for rental housing to be created, and not just preserved for our workforce.”
As an example, Mishkin said that he is on a committee at Fairview Hospital and that the hospital has continuously dealt with staffing issues. “We have jobs to offer, but we can’t hire people because there’s no housing for them,” Mishkin said. “The Chief of Medical Staff, Dr. Alec Belman, tells me that there are roughly 370 positions at Fairview Hospital. He told me that, depending upon how you count, there are now between 30 and up to 50 of those positions that are unfilled. Job creation is one thing, but Fairview says they can’t fill those positions due to a lack of workforce housing, and primarily rental housing. It’s not just doctors and nurses, it’s receptionists, maintenance employees, and environmental services. Those are not people who are looking to buy a house. Right now some people are looking to find a place to rent so they can serve us in the community.”
Pignatelli talks about Lee’s lawsuit against Monsanto
Towards the beginning of the meeting, an audience member questioned Pignatelli and Mark about the town of Lee’s lawsuit against Monsanto. The lawsuit was filed by the town in early April against the company for its manufacturing of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) for decades. Back in February 2020, a controversial agreement was signed between Lee, the EPA, GE, and other parties to clean up the river and dispose of the PCBs at a toxic waste dump in Lee.
From 1932 until 1977, GE operated a Pittsfield transformer manufacturing complex, and the company allowed millions of pounds of PCB-laced oil to seep into the Housatonic River.
The agreement t0 clean up the river and dispose of the PCBs at a dump in Lee was signed by Thomas Wickham, who was then the chair of the Select Board. The town received $25 million as part of the agreement.
The audience member asked if the town of Lee could get out of the agreement and the creation of the toxic waste dump. “I don’t know if they can,” Pignatelli said in response. “They fought it every step of the way and they lost. The state did not even get involved in the PCB settlement. We took a strong position that no landfill should be in Berkshire County. GE challenged that position and went to court, and the court sided with GE and said that you can keep a landfill in Berkshire County.”
Pignatelli said that what has made the town of Lee’s case difficult to fight is a precedent when Pittsfield accepted GE’s plan to create Hill 78 in 1997, which allowed the company to dump PCBs dredged from the Housatonic River. “The argument was, ‘Well, you accepted [a dump in Berkshire County] more than 25 years ago, so why can’t you accept one here today?’” Pignatelli said. “It’s still ongoing litigation, but unfortunately, they have lost every step of the way. I think the next step is going to be after this ruling [in the case] is a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court. But I don’t know if [the town] has the bandwidth or the financial wherewithal to do that.”
