Rockingham Area Land Trust votes to dissolve
By HOWARD WEISS-TISMAN / Reformer Staff
Saturday April 9, 2011
ROCKINGHAM -- The Rockingham Area Community Land Trust membership has approved a plan to dissolve the organization, paving the way for Windham Housing Trust to take over most of the group’s properties in Windham and Windsor counties.
The RACLT membership voted unanimously for the dissolution at the group’s annual meeting which was held Thursday night in Springfield.
The Springfield-based affordable housing group, which owns and manages more than 500 units in Bellows Falls, Westminster, Athens and 17 other towns in the two counties, has been working on the plan for more than a year.
It has been increasingly difficult to manage and grow the organization in the current economic climate, and RACLT board Vice President Steve Geller said the board approached Windham Housing Trust to ensure that a local housing group will be able to continue serving the tenants.
"It was a bittersweet decision," Geller said Friday. "A lot of people have been involved with Rockingham Area Community Land Trust for a number of years and many of us would have preferred that this not happen, but ultimately we decided that this is the best thing for the tenants and for the housing they live in."
Over the past year both groups have been looking at the proposal.
With federal and state funding drying up, the RACLT board decided that it did not make sense to compete with WHT for grants and programs.
If the deal goes through, then WHT would manage all of the affordable housing across Southeastern Vermont.
Once the agreement is final, WHT’s portfolio would almost double, and the group would manage more than 900 units.
The details of how the deal will go through are still not settled, but generally RACLT will cease to exist and WHT will take over the assets and liabilities of most of the group’s properties.
At the meeting Thursday the membership approved the proposal, but the RACLT board still has to formally vote to move ahead.
Anyone who rents a RACLT unit could have voted Thursday, and more than 400 people were mailed information on the dissolution vote, though fewer than 40 people attended the meeting.
One of the potential stumbling blocks still holding the deal up is WHT’s decision not to take on the mobile home parks that RACLT currently owns.
RACLT owns and manages four mobile home parks with about 57 units, but the consultant hired by WHT recommended that the group not take over management of the home parks.
WHT does not want the mobile home parks, Geller said, because it would be too much of a strain on the organization to manage the parks, which are in rural areas in Rockingham and Windsor County.
Geller said the tenants could form a co-op and take over ownership, or another non profit housing group in the state could take over.
Either way, Geller said, RACLT will not be able to finalize the deal until the mobile home parks find new owners.
"We will continue to manage the organization until all of the assets are disposed of," Geller said. "The board members believe in the mission, and it is very hard to se it ending as an organization. What has been driving us is the knowledge that we would continue to struggle financially, and with this option, we’re turning the properties over to a group that has the assets and ability to manage them and take care of the tenants’ needs."
WHT has scheduled a meeting for April 21 and Geller said the group is expected to develop a more detailed plan within the next 60 days.
WHT Vice President Jeff Shumlin said the group has done a detailed analysis of the proposed acquisition, and the RACLT membership vote Thursday was a big move forward.
Shumlin made it clear that the Rockingham group approached WHT, and it was not something they were out looking to take on.
But it will now be up to the WHT membership and board to take the next step to approve the plan.
"A lot of work has gone into this. It is a big deal," said Shumlin. "There are still some things that are up in the air, but this seems to make sense. We think that we would be the best candidate to provide the same kind of programming that Rockingham has."
RACLT has been mis-managed for years and years. Every property they own loses money despite enormous public subsidies. They are the only organization in Springfield to be voted down at town meeting with their request for funds. What does this tell you?? This is not a dissolution due only to a recent scarcity of public tax dollars, but to very poor decision making and even worse management right up to the present.
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