HARTFORD — After a nearly two-hour long discussion Tuesday, the Selectboard approved a Twin Pines Housing grant application on the condition that the nonprofit and town form a task force to create a safety and monitoring plan for the property.
The $1 million Community Development Block Grant would help finance a proposed 48-unit affordable housing development off Sykes Mountain Avenue that is also tied to a neighboring 192-unit market rate development being built by Black Rock Investments.
The Selectboard directed town staff to submit the grant application on behalf of the nonprofit ahead of a March 2 deadline, but if a task force has not been formed and started preparing “a safety plan and reporting process demonstrating meaningful collaboration with local social service agencies for the property” by June, the town will withdraw the application, according to the motion made Tuesday.
The provisions “feel like tangible ways to move forward, hopefully addressing community concerns and also allow housing to happen,” Selectboard member Miranda Dupre said in a recording of the meeting.
The decision came after a contentious Feb. 3 meeting at which many residents protested the application and lodged complaints against Twin Pines’ operations at several other rental properties in Hartford, particularly apartments at 747 Hartford Ave. that are available to people who have been chronically homeless.
At the meeting, Twin Pines tenants and neighbors said they were concerned about drug use and public safety issues at the other Twin Pines-owned properties. Some alleged poor management and maintenance by the nonprofit housing developer and said the properties increase the burden on Hartford emergency services.
Tuesday’s conversation began with tension, with some board members expressing frustration with Twin Pines and Executive Director Andrew Winter, who they said had shown an unwillingness to work together ahead of the meeting.
In a Feb. 11 memo included in meeting materials, Winter said some suggestions the Selectboard made at the Feb. 3 meeting were impractical, or contended that Twin Pines already had systems in place to address some of the issues raised by residents.
In particular, Winter objected to having the Selectboard review Twin Pines’ work against its strategic plan every year because the document is “internal” and “intentionally aspirational in nature,” so it is not a reasonable benchmark.
“As a highly regulated, private nonprofit, this is an unacceptable intrusion into the organization’s activities,” Winter wrote.
Twin Pines would be willing to work together with the Hartford Fire and Police departments, staff and residents to develop a safety plan, Winter wrote.
While some board members were comfortable with this, others said Tuesday they were confused or dissatisfied by Winter’s approach.
“This response did not make me think that there is currently the commitment to deep cross-sector partnership that I think is needed to shift the model,” Board member Ida Griesemer said. “… The response — that we’re already doing this — is not sufficient for me.”
For Griesemer, it is crucial that social service agencies be involved in the conversations too.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Winter struck a conciliatory tone and told the board he was open to whatever collaboration the town requested.
“I’m committed to working through these issues at (747 Hartford Ave.) and working through the issues to be a better organization and I’m sorry. … I’m hearing you,” Winter told the board. “You don’t feel like I’ve been a good collaborator, and that’s on me.”
Winter also described the ongoing work Twin Pines has done to support tenants and address community member concerns since meeting with the Selectboard on Feb. 3.
For example, Winter said, Dartmouth Health this month embedded a community health worker at the Upper Valley Haven who will also work at 747 Hartford Ave. to support tenants.
“The hope is that if we bring in some of these services directly to folks, that it gives another avenue to get people into treatment,” Winter said. “… I do think that more services is probably going to be part of the tools that we need.”
The community health worker started at the Upper Valley Haven on Feb. 2, following discussions that started last August, DH spokesperson Audra Burns said Wednesday. The DH population health team is in ongoing discussions with Twin Pines about extending the service to 747 Hartford Ave. this spring.
Other board members approached the conversation with more openness toward Twin Pines and cautioned against creating too many conditions that could prevent the project from moving forward. The whole board agreed that the nonprofit housing developer fills an important need in Hartford.
“I’m just afraid that if we don’t do some of this, our town is going to suffer in another way,” Board Chairwoman Mary Erdei said. “If there isn’t housing, we’re going to have more people on the streets again.”
Erdei said projects like the embedded social work program suggest “that there is an effort being made” to address concerns and to do so quickly and she emphasized the importance of building more housing in Hartford.
She said she was comfortable moving forward with the grant application if a safety plan is created.
The group unanimously directed Hartford staff to file the application ahead of a March 2 deadline, because the timeline is too tight to create a full task force and safety plan before submitting the application.
“We can go ahead in approving the application and then we still have plenty of time and we still have authority to figure out exactly what we want to condition,” Vice Chairman Mike Hoyt said Tuesday.
The Vermont Community Development program is scheduled to meet to consider applications in June. The town can withdraw the Twin Pines application until then.
The board acknowledged that Hartford may have a broader problem with how rental properties are governed in town, but board members ultimately decided that it would be inappropriate to require a safety or management plan for all rental properties in town based on one project.
“We really have to kind of get on it as a town and as a Selectboard and town staff to establish solid overlays that really deal with this in a more coherent fashion, because this feels like backpedaling to me,” Board member Tim Fariel said. “I feel like we’re far enough down the road with this particular project process that it would feel awkward to me to reject what they need to make this project work.”
The $1 million grant is just one of several pieces of funding for the housing development, but Winter said not having the money could stop the project from moving forward. It could also threaten the future of the larger 192-unit development that is relying on the affordable housing project for state permitting exemptions and funding from the sale of land. The town’s land use boards approved the developments jointly in 2024.
Winter said he is “happy to participate” in a task force focused on community relations and tenant satisfaction, and in developing a safety plan in collaboration with the town and social service agencies.
“I appreciate what you’re trying to get which is to have some teeth in it so that you’re able to hold me and my staff and others who may be involved in this process accountable,” Winter told the board.