SWAMPSCOTT — The Affordable Housing Trust met on Monday to hear Charlie Patsios, a Swampscott resident and developer, discuss his affordable housing project at 491 Humphrey St.
The project’s inception came about when Patsios learned through town surveys that Swampscott was “deficient” in senior housing, affordable housing and workforce housing.
“I realized I needed to do something more,” Patsios said. “It was brought to my attention on a property that came to the market, 491 Humphrey St., and I looked at the property and I immediately knew that this was an opportunity for us to do something that we had so far only talked about.”
The property is on a bus route, near the beach, close to parks and in a part of Swampscott that hasn’t “seen this type of development,” he said.
“I looked at all these things and I said, ‘Well, someone’s got to do something,’ and I guess I kind of condemned myself to being a person to expect someone else to do it and not me, and I said, ‘It’s what I do for a living — maybe I should do it,’” Patsios said.
He purchased the property and is now in the process of moving forward with the project, which consists of 12 units with an affordable rate at about 80 percent, he said.
“This is a vision I have. I made the investment, and I need the help of the Affordable Housing Trust and the community as a whole to be able to move this process quickly,” Patsios said.
Patsios originally went to the Affordable Housing Trust for aid on “how to move a development project forward,” Chairperson Kimberly Martin-Epstein said. Now, he’s coming to them for some funding for his project, she said.
“He’s coming to us for actual dollars to subsidize the development of the project so that the project will be affordable,” Martin-Epstein said.
While the Affordable Housing Trust cannot provide a lot of funding, it can act as a supportive entity by “endorsing a project,” Member Marriane McDermott said.
“Our investment is helpful but more symbolic,” McDermott said.
Other ideas for the project were discussed at the meeting, including passive housing, which is a type of building that doesn’t use many utilities because of its high efficiency. At the next meeting, Patsios and the Affordable Housing Trust will go over the “nuts and bolts” of the project, Martin-Epstein said.
