Affordable housing is our most important issue. So why didn’t anyone notice the Fraser River Valley Housing Partnership’s March hearing?

During its incredulous hearing on Fraser’s “affordable housing” project — St. Louis Landing — no one seemed bothered by statements from the anointed developers, the Mountain Affordable Housing Development: “I currently don’t own the project and don’t intend to,” said Matthew Ginzberg. That’s MAHD on affordability goals.

When town staff explained that MAHD’s project won’t see positive cashflow until years 11 to 15, no one blinked.

When MAHD explained how restrictions guarantee only 20% of this project’s properties go for less than 80% of the area median income and the rest can be sold at market rates, there was trivial pushback — even though MAHD originally proposed 82% of the project at or below 80% of AMI.

When MAHD predicted initial (18 month) construction to start 2026, no one noted their original proposal specified a 2023 groundbreaking. That MAHD may now see $3 million in assorted fee income before a single unit is sold is of no consequence. And it doesn’t matter that the originally proposed local builder team sold out to a Front Range business. 

That MAHD deserted its original proposal is ignored. The notion of the town owning “market products” at huge public expense — to cross subsidize and push out some ephemeral, unspecified “affordable” housing — wasn’t in the 2022 MAHD plan. Its first notice to abandon the promise to limit market-properties to six out of the planned 176 units came mere weeks after the town of Fraser’s recent municipal election. 

MAHD’s bait-and-switch game must be arrested by the housing authority. Otherwise, we are poised to approach affordable housing like an elephant giving birth to a gnat.