SOUTH HADLEY — Applications to join the board of trustees for the town’s first Affordable Housing Trust opened earlier this week, taking a major step forward in creating an organization dedicated to developing deed-restricted affordable housing in town.

An Affordable Housing Trust is an private organization that raises and allocates money, buys land and devises strategies to build more affordable housing units in South Hadley and preserve the affordability of those units, according to a statement from the town’s Department of Planning and Conservation.

A board of seven people will head the trust, consisting of a Select Board member, the town administrator or other town administrative representative, and five community members with relevant expertise in real estate law, architecture, planning, banking, finance and real estate. At least one member should be a resident of affordable housing.

“Board of trustees has a really important role to oversee the use of trust funds for creating and preserving affordable housing in the town of South Hadley,” said Jen Goldson, a consultant with JM Goldson LLC hired to guide the formation of the trust. “I know sometimes it’s tricky to attract folks to apply for something like this, but it’s a really important role for the community, and could make a big difference in the town.”

Goldson appeared before the Select Board on Tuesday, explaining the board’s role in appointing five of the board members. Each position will serve a two-year term, with several seats serving a one-year term in the first year to allow staggered appointments. Applications will close on Dec. 20 at 11 a.m.

Many details of the trust, such as funding sources or strategies toward acquiring more affordable housing, will be decided by the trustees. Goldson explained that starting on the first meeting in late January, board members will outline priorities, identify funding and create a plan to meet these objectives. Town Administrator Lisa Wong said it’s too early to say how the trust will operate.

“There’s a lot of different situations that you could be in to create that housing, and that’s part of what we’ll work on when we work on the plan with the board of trustees,” Goldson said. “Do you want to look at town property? Do you want to do more private development deals? Do you want to work with a nonprofit, like Habitat for Humanity?”

Goldson estimates the workload for board members will average about a 90-minute meeting once a month and an hour of prep work between meetings. She notes that this may differ if a certain project has upcoming deadlines. All of this, however, will depend on the trust document and board members.

“There’s some structural things that would need to be decided now, and then there’s a lot of sort of operational things that then the trust members itself would decide, and that’s at a later point in time,” Wong said.

To apply to the Affordable Housing Trust’s Board of Trustees, send an email with a cover letter and resume to Anne Capra, director of Planning & Conservation.

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.