Editors note: This story has been corrected to note that the Argyle project will be for low and moderate-income residents.
The San Juan Community Home Trust held an open house on Sunday, Jan. 26, at the Mullis Center to provide an update to the community and seek design feedback on the Argyle affordable housing development. The meeting began with an update about the project’s funding, an introduction to the design concepts created so far and ended with a design workshop where community members were literally gluing and drawing ideas onto posters to come up with solutions for meeting future residents’ needs.
The 40-unit project (assuming they’re able to create a development agreement with the town to increase from the currently zoned 20-unit maximum), is located in town at Argyle and Malcolm streets and is the Home Trust’s first project offering rental units. It’s also unique to affordable housing projects in that the intended recipients will be both low and moderate-income residents.
“What a lot of us know is that critical infrastructure on the islands is failing,” Executive Director Amanda Lynn said about the decision to focus on moderate-income housing.
“We don’t have school teachers, we don’t have people to take care of our utilities. We don’t have people to work in our hospitals or in our Sheriff’s Department. These things are all really challenging for us, and people who work in these jobs are typically not low-income, they are typically moderate-income community members. So we really wanted to dive into trying to build housing for those groups, and that’s an alignment that we have with all of our local governments.”
Unfortunately, the goal for moderate-income makes state funding difficult, as those housing dollars typically go toward low-income housing projects only. Although the original grant application to the state was recently denied, Lynn feels confident that all of the issues can be resolved and they will likely have the funding they need from the state by next fall. It’s also likely that other sources of income – e.g., from the County, from the San Juan County Home Fund and hopefully $4-5 million in donations from local community members – will be able to sustain the project in the meantime.
Bill Singer, director of architecture at Environmental Works Community Design Center (the architecture nonprofit that was hired by the Home Trust for the Argyle project) and project manager Karin Vijayanand presented preliminary designs. They were quick to point out that while completed-looking drawings may be seen throughout the community, they’re actually still early on in the process. These concept drawings were required for the state funding application, but are far from finalized, and now is the time for public input.
“We want your feedback, your ideas – how you dream this project could turn out,” Vijayanand said to the community members in attendance. “If you were a resident, or if you were a visitor, what would this look like to you? If you were a neighbor, or someone going on their morning walk, what would it look like from the outside?”
The rest of the meeting involved attendees gathering at round tables, looking at maps, marking up building renderings and designing greenspace. There was brainstorming about shifting sidewalks, creating intimate areas and larger community areas, playgrounds, laundry and driveways.
“One of my hopes for tonight is that we start to figure out the challenge that is building dense housing that is environmentally just and provides people access to the outdoors,” Lynn shared. “One of the biggest tensions I feel as an affordable housing advocate is that I’m always asking people to move into more density. But the trade-off of that, especially in a community like ours, is that people with more resources have a lot of access to nature and space, and we are asking those with fewer resources to live in higher-density housing with less access. So figuring out how to best utilize our outdoor space that’s immediately around the units is really impactful. I’m hopeful we can move towards that balance and keep providing open doors for the community to come in and give input.”
Future open houses are being planned and will be announced as timelines move forward with the city. For now, citizens can follow the Home Trust on social media, email Lynn or call the office to set up individual meetings if they’re interested in contributing ideas but couldn’t make the open house.
“I would love to submit permits on this project and really feel a sense that I know the whole community is on board with it,” Lynn continued. “And we can’t know that if we’re not hearing from people along the way.”