The Amen Chorus.
By Jim Conley • Jun 15th, 2007 • Email This Post to a Friend •
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Where to begin on the bizarre morning meeting of the Brookline Housing Advisory Board as it considered gifting an additional $1.7 million in public funds to the Catholic Church? I suppose the theme from the meeting is that our so-called experts on affordable housing (current and former) are in full supplication to the affordable housing gods.
The theme took hold the moment former Brookline Economic Development Director Amy Schectman offered to “get down on her knees to beg that the Housing Board approve additional funds.” Schectman (also a member of Brookline Town Meeting) exhorted the Board to go forward in order to avoid “the disaster to public policy” that would result from this project not being realized.
I tried to raise the point with the Board that an equally disastrous public policy might be found in handing over nearly $2 million in public funds (that we’ll likely never see again) to a religious organization. They’ll have none of that, the Board. The developer for the Church barely resembles a religious organization, so say Board members
Oh really?
When I pressed Lisa Alberghini, the developer at St. Aidan’s, to tell us who the president of that only marginally religious organization might be, she replied by saying: “Cardinal Sean O’Malley.”
“But,” says Alberghini, “the Cardinal is acting as an individual not as head of the Church.”
Now that’s an odd coincidence, because I’ve been thinking that I can avoid having to pay Brookline property taxes by acting as an individual and not in my capacity as a resident of Brookline.
The Housing Board sees the Church as a quality developer of affordable housing. And that mitigates any Constitutional concern they may have in gifting the $2 million. Gee, good for them. They get to decide the parameters of the separation covenant all on their own.
Some say the Catholic Church provides a better education than the public schools, but we don’t give families tuition vouchers to attend them. Some say the Catholic Church has the right idea on family planning, but we don’t give them public funds to run health clinics.
Those who are willing to abandon the principles of a free society are asking the rest of us to get on our knees as well. Rights are lost through a process of erosion. And you tend to see the ruts when you’re closer to the ground, but by then it’s too late.
Jim Conley is publisher of On Brookline.
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“THE DISASTER TO PUBLIC POLICY ….”
Is Amy suggesting that the Town is the investor/lender of last resort for this project? Is Amy suggesting that the Town’s $3 current investment is at risk if the Town fails to put up another $1.7 million? If the Town kicks in with an additional $1.7 million, and the project is still not realized, would this, according to Amy be a “DOUBLE DISASTER TO PUBLIC POLICY? I believe in the SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE but not the SEPARATION OF THE TOWN AND ITS AFFORDABLE HOUSING FUND on such a high risk project. Perhaps the BETTER PUBLIC POLICY OF THE TOWN would be not to make this type of investment without appropriate controls.
Let me add my comment from the prior Post on this topic:
Can the Housing Advisory Board be accused of St. “Aidan’s abetting” with this recommendation? While the meek may inherit the earth, where will they live in the meantime? How many affordable units would have been in place, and for how long, if instead of the affordable housing in lieu of payments, the affordable units had been provided on site? HAB can easily calculate this as it has the information necessary to do so; but it might be too embarrassed to do so. And add to the referenced “how long,” how much longer, if ever, it may take before St. Aidan’s affordable units are ready for occupancy. Just keep in mind, if HAB has its way, a total of $4.7 million invested by the Town and no end in sight. At some point in time, there will be accountability.
But Amy will not have to be held accountable as she is proceeding on a wing and a prayer.