To the Editor:

Why are our elected officials portraying the new AvalonBay project at Princeton Shopping Center as affordable housing? With a mere 40 affordable units and 160 units designed to generate income for the already-profitable AvalonBay business, it is not affordable housing. It is the action of a large corporation consuming space and resources to achieve its own financial goals. Elm Court, Harriet Bryan House, Princeton Community Village, and the affordable units at Griggs Farm are examples of affordable housing.

The contributions AvalonBay will make to upgrades of Grover Park and to the Municipal Sustainable Transportation Fund are a tiny (tax deductible) portion of the overall budget of the project; but the costs to our community in the form of increased expenditures for education, public safety, and social services will be a permanent burden.

AvalonBay is not affordable housing done right. It is affordable housing done very wrong — for the benefit of a large corporation not any members of our community. We all deserve better.

Maryann Witalec Keyes
Franklin Avenue