Marblehead continues search for new housing board member

MARBLEHEAD – Selectmen are still looking for another at-large member of the town’s newly formed Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board.The board includes nine members: the five selectmen, one member each from the Fair Housing Committee and Finance Committee and two citizens at-large.Selectmen have confirmed John Jennings as the FinCom’s representative and a Fair Housing Committee member has been nominated. The board is expected to act on that nomination next week.After selectmen called for applications for the board in November, however, only one person stepped forward.Ann Arada was unanimously appointed Dec. 10 after telling selectmen she spent the last two decades "creating affordable housing of various types, mostly as a bureaucrat."Board members are hoping that someone else with an interest in affordable housing – housing priced to fit the financial constraints of low and middle-income families – will step forward.Appointees will serve two-year terms. Selectmen run for re-election every year.The board will oversee funds provided to the town by the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which started with $52.5 million for local communities that want to create and preserve affordable housing. In the past five years bond sales were used to generate another $350 million.Anyone interested may send letters of interest to the selectmen’s office at Abbot Hall, 188 Washington St.