hello welcome to the affordable housing trust meeting for Tuesday July 23rd 2024 um we do have a quorum this evening um we have um Sue um Angus Kim Mark and myself present uh we are expecting to have Bartlett join us and I believe that Matthew nous will joining us um a little bit later um this evening um when he's able so let's go ahead and and get started um I know that on our agenda we're going to need to um move things around just a little bit because our guest um this evening um Carolyn Reed from Habitat for Humanity is in joining us until about 7:15 is that right Marin okay great so I guess we can go ahead and go right into item 3A which is is our strategies for lrap and we have Amy with us this evening so thanks for being here and if you wanted to go ahead and um discuss with us any new applications or or the renewals that would be great all right so um we don't have any new applicants to present this month we did have somebody apply um but their assets exceeded the cap so um and it was a trust not a a IRA or 401K retirement plan so they were not eligible at this time um we have some folks that are transitioned out of the program um we have one person that that has a successful transition they have moved um to State subsidized housing and that will be effective August 1st which is great um we have another um participant that has aged in place as long as possible um and now they are transition in to a more medically appropriate setting so um those two folks have closed out um I do have the recertifications for the folks that have because we were updating everybody's stuff as of um the fiscal year so I have those folks did you just want me to ramble through them really quick some I think that would be a good place to start and so um just to reiterate this is um the reason for this is because we wanted to have everybody starting in the month of July yes okay yeah so sorry that's okay I just want to welcome Bartlett thank you sorry it'll be late Amy go ahead all right so we have LP 2 this is a um family of four um their current rent is $1,850 a month not including their utilities um their monthly income is $ 7,355 a month um they are on weight list and they are accessing all public benefits um one of the um adults in the household is the source of income the other one is um disabled okay thank you okay so this is lre 7 um they are um a senior couple and so twers household um their current rent is $1,885 a month and their monthly household income is $463 666 so they are also accessing all public benefits and resources and on the weight list just let me know if you want me to stop um I'll W 10 um oh did you want me to list preference points I completely forgot to do that should I do that y yes please okay I'm sorry that's okay okay so the first the household that I presented lra 2 they have 10 preference points and LP 7 which is the second one I presented they have also 10 preference points thank you Amy Amy Amy real quick can you say how long both of those have been in what year this will be for them in the program um so I didn't mark that down I believe lre 2 has been in the program lre 2 has been in the program since its Inception and 2019 and L rep 7 has been in the program I think this is their third year thank you um see lre 10 um monthly household income of 1,826 this is a single um senior uh her monthly rent is $3.99 and she's got 11 reference points so how will it work in terms of the um since the amount is now 500 are we effectively paying the entirety of the rent now or is it pro-rated in some way so the way that we reward rewarded it I believe was up to $500 so we that's how we had worked it with these we can if that's something that we want to look at we can definitely put that into consideration okay my understanding was that we would pay the if the rent was less than 500 we would pay the amount of the rent but not more yeah right right okay I just wanted to confirm that thank you um so lre 17 this is another household of one um income $2,268 a month and the rent is 650 again not including utilities um and and that is 11 preference points and L rep 20 this is a household of two on the monthly income is $4,940 rent is $1,850 before UT utilities um and their preference points are eight and then lre 22 um household size of two monthly income is $2,865 a month and the rent is $1,870 a month before utilities and the total preference points is 11 and then lre 27 which is the final one that was required for recertification is um $27 a month for monthly income household size of one and the rent is $440 they have 11 first points as well and 27 is a household of one yes yes um we had a couple that did not need to do their recertification we had two that just came on and June and then with an effective start date for July one and then we had two that had been within that time frame uh where they didn't need to complete new paperwork okay so these are the seven that were recertified for that July date okay yeah all right members any questions or comments okay seeing none thank you very much is there um any other detail that you wanted to share with us about the process or anything else uh I definitely do think that the process will be much easier with it being and with everybody being on the same timeline um I I think it'll be much easier to manage um so initially it was an undertaking um but the now that we have everybody in the same um time frame for Renewal it will be much easier to track and it'll be easier to print out their applications send them out um for recertification so it'll it'll definitely make it a lot easier to manage okay good well I'm glad that I'm glad that this turnaround is um is hopefully going to be beneficial to to your team yes all right um the only other thing that I wanted to mention about LP is um we did make the request to um Michelle the town accountant to transfer the $90,000 for the 2425 fiscal year um and that was the money that was um awarded um uh to be able to be transferred over from CPC so she said on July 9th that they were focused on doing a large check run um before um she could look at booking all of the CPC items from the town meeting um so the next step is that she will continue to keep us apprized and and I'll inform everybody here once that transfer happens but in the meantime we're we're good on on cash to be able to cover everything great awesome any other comments or questions regarding lrap nope Amy anything else no nope not on my end great well thank you so much to to you and your team for all the work that you did to to get us into this um into this alignment yes it was it'll be good it's going to be good for us so definitely much easier to organize so terrific well thank you thank you all right so um let's move on then to our next item on the agenda strategy 2.1 derky Farmhouse um Mr Harvey um what is the latest on on derky the latest on derky is that um the property line next to the conservation land has been surveyed and um part of that um that area was was mode um so that the surveyors could actually um Place stakes in the ground and the stakes would be visible because the grass in most of that area um is is taller than the three- foot Stakes um the uh there's an agreement with Tad ducet to do the um to organize the the uh testing of the ground for septic purposes um he is I believe arranging a a date with the highway department to um get some equipment over there and and do that test with in the presence of the nooba Board of Health and um I don't know if that date has been settled yet um but I know that the the site is now ready for um that next step of of U digging the test pits and determining what the septic capacity of the site is okay maren have you had heard anything else about the date um no I haven't heard anything um what I do have is a bill from um uh s Bell for the mowing the field mowing the came to $230 and um we did already receive and I did already pay the bill for the surveying um since the trust had voted be previously on the um contract on the um proposal for the um surveying um that bill well that's in that Bill's in process I just signed off on that today okay all right I I believe Sam was out um he has a big full-size tractor and a with a big you know I think 8 foot wide mower that he Towes around and he was there for two hours um he got it there he does um similar mowing for um Amy green of the Conservation Commission on other conservation plots so he's familiar with her requirements and um the pattern that she expects so um I I thoroughly approved of his work and I support paying his bill yep I would agree so one of the things that I want to make sure that we we do and please um you know keep me um on top of it is to make sure that if we do have expenses coming through we need to make sure that we have you all um give us the approval for that so in this particular case as maren mentioned we have the 23 for the mowing by um Mr Bell we have the um survey work um done by places Associates um and I believe that's about 3,300 is that correct Marin correct and then we expect uh $2500 for the septic testing and potentially another 500 for testing fees um that um come through from the Sha Health correct so all that will be around 65 $500 to $7,000 so um as Bartlett mentioned these are all tasks that need to be done in order for us to get to that that information point of understanding you know what can be feasibly um uh built over at derky farm so um any comments or questions on that yeah let me add that I did walk most of that site before the mowing with Ted duet so he does understand what we're looking for and where we're looking for what the likeliest spots are that we Our intention is to build as close to the road as makes sense and the septic system would be in back of it um where the ground is actually there is some flat or flattish ground so um he he understands our expectations and I think um you know he he very much appreciated walking the site with me and um seeing what what we were after sounds good well um will you be following up with him with the date yes terrific thank you very much Bartlett um so um can I have a motion to approve um funding for this work at derky um maximum up to $7,000 so moved second all right all in favor um Sue yes Bartlett yes Angus yes Kim Mark yes and an is a yes okay thank you everyone for your approval of those expenses tury Farmhouse so and bartett thank you very much for um following up with um Mr ducet for the next step of actually getting that perk testing done when that happens is um would you please um let me know as well because I'd like to be able to go over if possible okay we'll do thank you all right so moving on to strategy 2.2 which is Hager so um there was a a walkthrough on July 8th and and um I don't believe that Bartlett or I were part of that walkth through um the planning board was invited to to do a walkth through um um so what can you tell us about it um yeah thank you it was very exciting for me anyway to to go walk through the site that's been um growing right next to town hall um we've been talking about it since probably the last six years um and it's uh was very nice of the developer to offer a s sidewalk um for the planning board members um they uh did invite um Senator Eldridge he was able to come as well um and he said some very nice things about Littleton being able to create um housing um different types of housing um in the community and I do remember the Great feeling of um when the co-housing group first called and saying um you know we're we're looking for a site but we can't find any towns that have zoning that could support um senior co-housing we started talking about what they want and looking at the senior residential development bylaw and it seemed to be a fairly good match uh so during the site visit um we were able to walk through the federal house and the new um addition on that um the units are what they say nearing completion um Still Still definitely under construction um but the Cottages in back are have are um inhabited and the uh second house in the back um that was a single family home that will become their uh Gathering uh community space it was uh it was it was a great uh great walkth through um so good to take a moment to see uh the results of of all the Z planning and zoning and and permitting and construction okay great and then just as a reminder um to everyone so there are um two affordable units that will go on the Shi is that correct UH 60 and an 80% I believe correct um and the application timeline is open now applications are due by the end of July and all questions um on that go to sebb housing um so if you no know of anybody that's even remotely interested send them to sebb and they'll walk them through the application process y yeah and the other part of this particular um agenda item is I we we added the YouTube link for that um SBE housing group that uh created a video of the process so if you haven't had a chance to watch watch that um has anybody taken a look and clicked on that link to watch it yeah so what did you think of it I thought it was very informative and very well done I yeah I think it helped to answer a lot of questions about who qualifies and what the process is and right what they can expect yeah because that can be overwhelming in the beginning if you're not familiar with it and I thought that did a good job of explaining it in understandable terms y so for anyone who hasn't watched it I I would um recommend getting some some popcorn and sitting down with it okay um so those are the the two um affordable units and then there are other units as well Marin at 100 and 120% is that right um correct there's a I'm not going to remember the number but the 60 the 80% Ami units that go through the lottery process and there are um qualified units at 100 120% Ami and then two also at 150% Ami that will those last two will be D deed restricted for five years the rest of the affordable units will be de price restricted for um in perpetuity great right um any questions for Mar yes Marin uh this is Angus I have a question uh how did the people who have already inhabited get in there where the construction still ongoing and applications are being solicited from the public yep um the construction has been going on in phases the first phase was completion of the cottage units that are in back two duplexes and one Triplex and they had to satisfy building department and emergency services that there was um that the units were habitable and that um Emergency Services was a well that they're able to get the ladder truck back there basically okay yeah all right thanks for that all right well thank you so much for that information Martin I'm so glad that you were able to walk through it and and um be able to share that with us thank you um if you could please um talk a little bit more as well about our next topic which is um reviewing the letter to lwd and and the select board um so at the June meeting we had discussed several town-owned properties and whether or not the trust want would want to make these um trust projects um and the one outcome from that discussion was that we could formally ask the select board and water Commissioners to put a deed restriction on those homes um so the way I heard the um the the vote at the last meeting was to ask for um deed restrictions on the 242 King Street and the um why am I drawing a blank the oh the 31 Shad stream right sure so I looked up the assessor information 31 Shad street is uh fairly U simple process it's a single family home um that will be end up connected to town um and it's been inhabited uh since it's been inhabited since before it was sold to the uh town and the town is currently using it as a construction site so it's in in Fairly good shape so that one is a simple process um and then the second uh house is the 242 King Street that's the um larger um I guess Colonial um in front of the wastewater treatment plant um assessor's office lists that as eight bedrooms and assessor's office lists that as a duplex um so as soon as you saw eight bedrooms and two kitchens um I started thinking about how the numbers might work um and if two affordable units could be sold at that site um it might um help generate the funds needed to do um some of the updates and upgrades that'll be needed to that um but that was not part of the letter other than um uh you know just a request to the select board and to the um Board of Water Commissioners consider to consider putting the deed restrictions on and offering uh to work with the affordable housing Trust on that process happy to hear any any comments to the drop that was was sent around yep thank you for for drafting that and it it would seem that there was um one highlighted number around the estimated sales price um were you able to get that number confirmed in any way well that's going to depend on the interest rate at the time of sale okay all right but that's just giving folks an idea okay correct comments questions well I think it was it's a good idea to ask and it's was a good letter Kim Kim go ahead oh I think she clicked herself off uh oh we wait for her to come back on again well okay I guess a question would be has there has Marin has there been any feedback or any resp response from either of those boards um we this is a draft letter for has not been sent yet all right well I guess my question is premature Kim it looks like you clicked yourself off it actually I'm I'm somewhere that I shouldn't be tonight so I'm using my Hotspot so I'm wondering if we can walk through those or should we wait until that conversation goes a little further when you say walk through those you mean physically walk through them right those two properties to get a sense of that market price or that how how to help that along is that useful or is that not yet uh neither property is going to be sold for the foreseeable future so okay so it doesn't matter 31 chatex street is probably the earliest and it wouldn't be on the market until at least May I I have I've been in that property but and I've been in 242 King but not for maybe 10 years and not throughout the whole house but are we thinking that if we were to sell it then we would do all the things like electrical and all the things or just sell it as an antique what is the idea behind that well I drafted the letter um just kind of as a starting point for the discussion um see the the big request from the trust is to have a deed restriction put on it how to make that happen and how to have these turn into habitable affordable units is certainly up for discussion and we'll likely take some time um to to work through that process thank you so much yeah and I would say that once we we do have some communication back from either the select board and or the water Commissioners that perhaps it could be a discussion on one of their agendas so so maren there's a I assume both houses are on the new sewer system so there's a betterments associated with them too does that get would that then end up getting rolled into the housing price or what how what would happen with that um I don't see how that's any different than having to upgrade a septic system it's all part of their cost of the real estate it it's just that the betterment is something that's tied to like it's a physical lean on your tax bill effectively right right much the same as the requirement to update a septic system when a house is sold it's all rolled into the cost okay yeah that's the way I think about it anyway okay yeah so at at this point then does anybody have any um thoughts about uh not moving forward with a letter otherwise um we'll go ahead and and have Marin complete it put on letterhead and Marin if you want to let me know when it's ready Bartlett and I can go in and Ty it no comments or concerns about it I think it's a good letter for opening the discussion with those boards thank you for doing that Marin that's great yep anytime great thank you for letting us know Marin so it's a 702 right now and we have a couple more items we can get through um real quick what I wanted to mention um is that once we have the discussion with Carolyn about the questions and um I did not receive any Mar and and I did not receive any questions from anybody else that we wanted to ask her for this evening but as they come up we can go ahead and um see if she would be amenable to to answering cold questions um and then once we have the discussion with her we as a trustee group still need to have a conversation um outside of of when she's she's on the call with us so just hang tight and we can continue with that conversation okay all right so for now let's keep moving forward um strategy 5.1 which is our event in August um Kim could you please provide an update on the plan for promoting this event and the registration yes so thank you so Anna and Mark and I met so that we could discuss how we're going to get them enticed to come to this meeting Mark found a h financial planner who can come to this meeting and so then he was able to secure a room at the library so we have that an and I worked very briefly on a very short um flyer so that we'll um see about that I can send that out uh I sent it to Anna last night so she could take a peek it's very brief and it doesn't give very much information other than the facts so we would in my mind send a letter or put that letter of um intent into the bulletin and then say see the attached form um and I think the exciting part is let's find out who has what for questions then we can plan more information to be ready for them and they would be seniors who are considering at some time in the next say decade to selling their home and they don't know the process and they don't know whether or not they qualify for one of the housing situations that we're going to be offer offering and then what that looks like so that's partly affordable and also partly uh what is the process for them to get their home ready so that they're ready when they actually have the opportunity to do so okay um we as part of the getting the word out um I believe Liz put in a blurb into the broadcaster um Mark do you happen to have that um handy to to read it out to everybody because I can't seem to find my copy I don't know that I have the blurb that she put in I know it was called Aging in place um and I thought we were going to talk more about what the different Financial options are for you know whether it makes more sense to stay in your house and renovate um you know to buy something else or rent and talking about the financial implications of those so but I don't have the blur from Liz okay all right um so questions from from folks about the intention of this particular event on August 21st okay one of the questions that um that I did have and I uh wanted to to just touch base on this I think um Mark um I'm wondering if we should give the final flyer um information that's going to actually go out to folks have that reviewed by Town Council simply because if we are providing any sort of financial information would there be any concern about um giving out liability or yeah exactly I didn't quite think of that word but yes liability um so is that something that you could perhaps run by Town Council once Kim puts the final version together yeah okay all right great and Anna since I'm on the on the Fly here do you have the flyer that I sent to you last night can you do a sheet a screen share um basically it's a it was very quick it's the five who what where when and why and how to connect and so obviously that's the that's the very briefest of brief if we want to do an actual letter to them we can speak to that we can we can explain much more um I I want to get a sense from all of you how you'd like to present it because I'm there to present on our behalf not there for me so any any feedback is really great would be helpful yeah let me see if I can pull it up a sec on a second Mar do I have access to be able to share I'm sorry you're muted Marin I assume you're saying yes I can yes okay could everybody see this yes okay um let's see here I'll just have everybody read this [Music] um so the one thing that isn't on here is um the time which I think Mark confirm just to conf it's actually on there later yeah okay I tried to put it twice so that everybody could see there we go the when thank you we could also add till 3:30 so that they know that there's a stop time or we could say three however I don't want them to feel like they can't speak I want them to know that there's time but I also don't want to be till 7 I think Mark has a shorter um version of the link that to uh to Liz to add into the broadcaster terrific so yeah so that's we can make this be colorful we can make this be beautiful but basically it is a this is why we are gathering them right is do you want to stay in your home do you want to move and what does that mean for you in all of the ways that it could affect you and I can eliminate anything that you'd like me to get out of there and I can add whatever you feel like we're missing I'm thinking that if we just use the same language that is in the broadcaster that way it's consistent it that would probably be the most um helpful um that that's my feedback is let's just use whatever was put into the broadcaster so then people see the consistent message I'm sorry I just can't find it I don't know what happened to to my copy of that um but yeah let me go ahead and stop screen sharing and um welcome to Matthew for being here this evening um and then U what thoughts do folks have from what we just shared so I can take that blurb and turn it into a pretty flyer and send it out and I'll send it to Anna and and Marin and then if you want to share it with everybody that would be great and then we'll get the final feedback and I can get it over to Liz would that be helpful yeah okay and yeah and if folks can share it out um paper copies um in fact Mar I wanted to ask what would it take for us to be able to get Maybe I don't know what do you think Kim maybe 50 paper copies created yeah that's easy for us to do we can do that great we could probably leave some at the library and then also at COA and then pack some up a couple of places around town all right that works can we do so we in the in work we use a lot of C QR codes so that they can just scan it with their phone and then just have the link that something that the seniors are also doing and would that be helpful because if we print these out that link no longer works and they have to type it in so what's the very best way for them to have a live link a simplest way to connect to make that work well on a printed like you said on a printed flyer the link isn't going to work and the simp way would be with the QR code um sure some there's there's enough CL enough seniors would be comfortable with it or I couldn't tell you I couldn't answer how many would be comfortable with it but I mean we'll leave it as one senior that uses it so right right me too right so I will I will add that to it all right that sounds great thank you so much Kim of course all right um well we have a full Board of Trustees with us this evening and I see that Carolyn has just joined Marin thank you for having her in Caroline thank thank you so much for joining us this evening oh thank you for inviting me um I'm Anna Houston um we met a couple years ago um back when I was part of Jim's team so it's good to see you it's great to see you um I wanted to have each of the trustees introduce themselves um and um we're all we there's seven of us and and we all come to the board um with various um appointments so as an example um I'm appointed um by Our Town Administrator as as his design um and I'll go ahead and and ask Sue to go sorry about that um I'm Su milander and I'm the Council on Aging rep Angus uh Angus Michael I'm uh a trustee with specific knowledge Bartlett hi Bartlett Harvey um I'm also on the uh housing authority and I was uh perly involved in the habitat project in 1999 habitat 2000 in Littleton my wife was more involved in that so I am very much looking forward to um pursuing this project excellent thank you Bartlett um Mark uh Mark racher I'm on the select board the select board representative of the for of Housing Trust Kim hi I was part of the the build for Habitat back in 99 I can't believe it was 99 so that shocked me Bartlett so I was a a proud Helper and that was fantastic and I'm looking forward to this I'm on the board here as the local realtor and market knowledge person hi Carolyn good evening uh finally we meet um I'm on the select board um I think I'm the Housing Authority designate on this board I'm I'm actually not sure they we've switched around a couple times um but I think I was the person who initially had the idea for this um had to step back for a little while but I'm really happy that we're going forward with it and I'm looking forward to helping great and um you know our Our Town planner maren tohill yes hi Mar and I also wanted to introduce um the neighbor to this particular project um she has been um uh very engaged coming to our meetings and um in fact had a couple of the questions um that we posed and so um maryi Ellen would would you like to introduce yourself hello everyone um hello Carolyn I'm Mary Ellen Lions yes I am probably the closest neighbor to this so I'm very interested to hear uh your thoughts on this project wonderful I'm glad you're here yes thanks thanks for having us and thanks again Anna for soliciting those questions absolutely um so Carolyn I know that you've talked with maren and and Jim and uh what just a little bit of background what we are trying to do here is a first for us um in term not just in terms of um first for for um for most of us but but the board um did not exist in 1999 and so I'm sure there was a a fairly different process that was going on back then um so now we we do have the board um we we do have funding that is principally from the CPC and we have our charge um to be able to um create and support um affordable housing in Littleton so given that this is our first project we we do have many questions and and many questions around um from our RFP that was sent out as to what your response is and then being able to figure out how this um is advantageous for for us here in Littleton so I presume that you received the questions that we had initially did and I did prepare little presentation summarize the proposal and answer some of those questions okay so if it's okay to share your screen I can start with that or we can jump into the questions whatever works best for everybody well how about we we watch your presentation and then we we can get into the questions okay thank you I think the host has to let me all right looks like you're ready to go okay all right can you all see that yes all right I'm got to go back at the very beginning if that's better okay so just first a quick refresher on who we are habitat north central Massachusetts um our vision is the same as habitat International it's a world where everyone has a decent place to live and we bring people together to build homes community and hope the way habitat Affiliates are set up we're all independent offices so this office covers 30 cities and towns in Easter Western middle sex and Northern West County and we're responsible for raising all our own funds within our area to do our building and for setting our um strategy within the the affordable housing realm and I'll tell you about that in a second so these are all the different towns we cover so we go as far and there's a couple more here um as far west as athal and as far east as Acton so our two major programs are New Home Building and right now we've been building about two homes a year year and in the coming years it'll be more like three three to four as we um try to meet the enormous demand for affordable housing we also have another program called the critical home repair program and our goal here is to maintain the affordable housing stock that we already have in the area so we do 24 to 30 critical home repairs as well as building the houses and we have a um separate construction manager that does that so we serve residents earning less than 60% % of area median income the homeowners do have to have an income um they also have to have a need for affordable housing so living in currently living in a place that doesn't meet their need this is a firsttime home buyer program so generally they're coming out of rental units and they have to have a willingness to partner All Families will put in 200 to 350 hours helping to build their house um they will have a mortgage it'll be 0% and their mortgage payments are set that they pay no more than 30% of their gross income for their housing costs so principal insurance and taxes must be less than 30% because over years and years we have um found that that's what makes homeowner successful and we do stay I know one of the questions was what happens after we sell the house to the homeowners the homeowners do have a one-year warranty um and we hold the mortgage so we work with our homeowners throughout the life of the property um during covid we did offer some homeowners who weren't able to work for barrance to add a few payments to the end so that they could stay in their house so we don't forgive the mortgage but we work with our homeowners to make sure they're successful our homeowners also need to go to first-time home buyer class for the year before and the year after moving into the house we do Financial classes and Financial Training with them um we do start a local project committee when we build in a town and ask the town's people to join and be a part of the process and every homeowner will partner with a family Advocate from the town to learn about um how to own a house in Littleton where you pay your taxes where you go for the water bill so that's part of the program as well so our new homes are generally three bedrooms two bathrooms 12200 Square fet so that's been our model and the last six houses have been that model it's a a small ranch single story um this house that we have proposed is a little bit different than that model but um because we wanted to propose and we're open to ideas here but we wanted to propose a unit that could support more people and have three bedrooms and have a unit that would be fully accessible um and could be an aging in Place unit so it would have the accessibility be a little bit smaller but on one on one floor our homes are now designed to be fully electric we do intend to put solar on all of the homes it a little bit depends on the utilities and the layout of the property and how much um solar energy we can get but they are designed for that we designed them to be compatible with the character of the neighborhood um the the most successful homes are in mixed neighborhoods with market rate homes and the house design is based on site requirements so what I proposed in the RFP is what we think would work well on the site but we will need a tight septic and so we might play around with that design a little bit to make sure it fits really well on the site most of the land we get is donated um some of it is through the town like what you guys have done through the affordable housing trust we've had local Builders donate some land um we've worked with local builders on their 40b development sometimes and we've had a couple of properties that individuals have donated to us um this property will have and I should have changed it I still I'm kind of old school the new name for dhcd is eoh LC so it will have a deed writer it will be affordable in perpetuity we will sign a regulatory agreement with the town to make sure that it is Affordable forever if the T if the homeowner does decide to move and we've only had that twice in our 36 years but if they do decide to move um we can be one of the monitoring agents and the town is always one of the monitoring agents so the homeowner would need to come to us and say they are ready to move and some homeowners have gone onto a market rate house that they've been successful enough to go onto a market rate house but the monitoring agents have the right of first refusal and we will search for another homeowner who earns less than 60% of area median income um we generally try to partner with with vocational schools I think it's a win-win so for this home we're going to try to partner with nishoba Valley Tech um that allows the students to have a learning place where it's on the job training and they get to build a home a whole house we also save money on electricians plumbers HVAC so it's a win-win for us and we've done that with the last several bills as well um and the housing cost I know there was one question on why this housing that the budget as it stands right now was different from and higher than the one for air and it's mostly based on the site so the air property it's um zero setbacks so there's not a lot of site work to do because there's not a lot of sight and it's an infill so there was a property there before so we're fairly certain we're not going to hit ledge and it is very very close to the um sewer and water connection so the fees there are just a little bit less because the lot is a little bit different I talked about the local project committee so we are very serious about partnering with the community that's why I'm so glad there's a neighbor here and that all of you are community members within Littleton because that's what makes it successful is working alongside the community and we provide the structure the insurance the construction manager but the LPC really as I said helps the family become acclimated helps select the family we usually have someone from the community sit on our family selection board um so what happens when a family qualifies is they have to fill out an application that's kind of like a mortgage and we have professional loan Originators who look at the financial side but the family selection committee will work with the families they'll assess need and willingness to partner and then the um anyone all the families who qualify financially will go into a public Lottery and the town does have the ability to do local preference the town of Littleton would need to apply separately we're not allowed to do that the town would need to apply to eohc if they want local preference for this house and then that would be the first pool that we would use in the lottery so these homes the one on the left is kind of close to what we're going to be building in air we had to make it a little shorter and skinnier to fit on that lot but this is a home that was side by-side Colonials that we built in Fitchburg previously the home on the right is um the last home that we had built in air um and that was more of a ranch style and we ended up going with a ranch style because we hit ledge so that was the and then this would these were the pictures that were in the RFP of what this home would look like now this house um was originally designed for a lot in Stow so this is what I was talking about where one unit would have a smaller number of bedrooms and the other unit would have a larger number of bedrooms but the entire footprint is still about the same as a market rate house in the neighborhood and that was it that those were all my slides so now I'm happy to answer questions and Carolyn before you leave that slide you had mentioned that one of the units um would be accessible so which of these units the one on the left or the right and how would they have that accessibility on the left and if you look at the top left picture you can see the ramp coming directly from the driveway into the side of the house so we've designed a ramp coming up the side instead of stairs and then we've designed the inside so that it is ADA Compliant so there's enough radius for a wheelchair to turn in the bathroom and in each of the rooms okay and um uh in terms of garages is that something that you just don't do with habitat or is it this particular site we generally don't um it was Millard Fuller who started Habitat for Humanity and his quote was that we House people not cars having said that um we have built there was one house in air where it was required by the town for us to build a garage um actually all or houses that we've built in air have had garages so it adds to the cost of the house but if it's something that the town requires we do build them but it's not in our general build plan okay all right um and we have all done a carport before for a gentleman who was disabled and needed not to be in the weather so we've done well and that was one of the questions that I had for um the members of the trust was um for everybody to think about that given given our weather here in Littleton whether or not we need to have something that looks different than this um because of of the weather situation so something for us to consider um before you leave this slide I just wanted to ask if the um trustees have any questions mine was the same covered for wheelchair accessibility either carport or garage or something or can the house can that section be built on a slab so that it doesn't have to be up there or will they both have basements how how is that set up um this house was built on a slab so generally what not what we've been doing is as we begin the site work if we're able to put a basement in because in New England people tend to like the basement um if we can do it economically if we don't hit ledge then we put a basement in and if we can't we switch to slab and then if we switch to slab we generally build a shed to go with house and so at this particular site Matthew I don't know if you know enough about the site about um as to whether to speak to whether or not ledge would be hit on that particular area I think there's a very high likelihood that there's ledge somewhere under that house or under that parcel you mean yeah well I mean under any footprint you pick in that in that lot I think there's an 80% chance that there's ledge under it but you never [Music] know okay what other questions do we have as it relates to the proposed house plan would it be okay if I asked one Hanna it's Mary Ellen yes go ahead I was just curious I'm trying it's very small and I'm trying to look at that but where that driveway for the house actually will be like in coming off of tahad I'm trying to understand this picture like whether my I'm at 79 toan my driveway like goes right by that property line so I didn't know if this picture with the driveway in it is is you know proposed driveway off of tadan or or where that driveway would actually go into the house it is right now and I have to say that the rendering is not it doesn't show the full driveway because we have not yet done the site plan so we have not yet got out a civil engineer to do the site plan um I'm expecting that the driveway will be much longer than what's shown here okay but I have not had the only civil engineering work that's done been done so far is the um perk testing that have been done to prove we can have a septic system here okay I just I know it's tight like I know it's a tight it's a funky property I know Anna you know walked through that with us um and so it's it's very curious when you say there's no garage like it I I don't know it would be interesting to see what the actual plan will look like because you wonder where they will put any cars you know because it looked like it was very tight between the septic the house and then there's water like where will cars go but you know obviously once you get that engineer out there it'll be interesting to see what the plan does end up looking like yeah it's so I when when the perk test was done um places Associates did have a proposal of where the house would be that you might have seen and we have two civil engineers who sit on our site selection committee who had also looked at it and agreed that it needed to be really tight up against the where the septic is going to be and that we probably need a Presby system to take as little space as we could for the septic and have it be as as tight as we could for that but they didn't lay out the driveway yet okay thank you I was just trying to get a sense of where that was but that makes sense if you yeah okay thank you very much and and this would still go through the entire um uh process um with the planning board so that's where you would see a lot more of that information Mary Ellen yeah yeah thanks s if we need a variance it would go through planning board right otherwise variance would way we're gonna want as much Town input as we can oh sorry I just I'll just clarify that um planning board um doesn't have review for um single family homes or or two it would be um likely be a variant through the zoning board of appeals but they have um strict uh require well not strict but requirements for um uh plans to be reviewed okay well there you go you for that clarification so yeah but still there there would be um more review on it if if appropriate so thank you um any other questions from folks before we we take this off just jump right in because I can't really see everybody line now yeah no I I don't I I'm don't have a question about the the drawing in front of us um but I do I I would like to talk about um how much of the construction actually will be volunteer labor I know that there's a lot of people who you know think that they want to go out on a Saturday and swing a hammer for a couple of hours um and I don't really know how how useful that is to you and where um Carolyn you see the the um you know I mean there's obviously you know the the licens trades um but you know where how much labor can can we expect the town's people to contribute to this or would you like to see so we um we generally have volunteers Wednesday through Saturday every week while we're building and we have up to eight volunteers a day and that's how we've built all of our homes and and it works great and great people can do amazing things even if they don't have knowledge of the trades and um we tend to hire construction managers are super patient and like teaching people about it um what we have done for the last few builds when we're partnering with the trade school is the trade schools are generally there 8 to oneish and then we'll have volunteers from one to five so it won't be a full day during the school year but we'll do afternoons and Saturdays and then depending on the family selected um if they're not able to build some some people are not able to build on Saturdays they prefer Sundays then we would open Sundays as well but we generally do have volunteers for on every house and the family has to be helping to build it as well so you'd be looking for a lot of Labor I mean this the more there is the better for you exactly and we have found and I think definitely in Littleton because I know the last build it was a lot of faith communities that came together but then we had a lot of towns people built but we also have a number of Corporations who will send teams I know Workers Credit Union comes three times a year Main Street Bank comes twice a year so we have um Banks and corporations that come we're also building up another nice team of regulars and so three days a week we have two to three people who come regularly and they can help and be crew chiefs for the other volunteers come as well great Ern this is Park I have a question about the financing so you said you take people up to 60% of Ami and then you also limit their cost of the housing so does that mean that you vary the length of the loans so if I was at a 40% Ami you'd give me a 40-year mortgage instead of a 30-year mortgage for example or something like that or how does that work you got it you got it so we can go from 20 to 40 years with our loans okay and that's generally how we manage that side of it and then I should say we do so it's under 60% of area median income and in our houses we generally find that it's between 30 and 60% of area median where um homeowners can afford to be in the house for our critical home repair program we don't have a minimum okay thank you so related to the the financing I I think one of the the questions that we have and at some point we we need to be more definitive on any business terms that that our trustees want to to really focus on but um we originally had identified in the RFP that the developer um would at its sole cost and expense construct two dwelling units on the property and it sounds like you have been um asking about the town contributing additional funding other than the land which we paid for um and so can you talk a little bit more about why you are making that request in in The Proposal that you submitted so as I said earlier we have to raise all the funds for every house in our area and so we look to any source that we can so there have been a couple of houses where Mass housing had a neighborhood stabilization program fund and we're able to apply for those um in Pittsburg we have some home funds that we're using to help build that house so we will apply for Grants we do have a line of credit where it used to be that we would raise half the funds before we would start building and then stop building if we whenever we needed to raise more funds and to keep it more fluid and to keep it so families can get into the house when they expect to we do have a line of credit that we pull off but we do have to pay that back so we're not like a um a for-profit developer where at the end they sell the house and can pay off all their loans because we hold the mortgage generally so we try to raise all those funds and um in towns that have Community preservation act funding we like you saw in do generally ask for some of the funding that's designated for affordable housing to help us build and so it's not a requirement but um what we're going to have to raise the 400 to 500,000 and so that's part of my job to just ask wherever I can but and that makes sense um I I did want to um note that I think in Littleton as perhaps in in other towns as well is that because we get our funding primarily from the CPC that uh I think going to them in independently would probably set off a lot of questions like well why why are they coming to us directly instead of going to the trust because um the housing dollars flow through or have flow through over the years directly to the trust to be able to to work to make these kinds of projects happen so I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of that yeah and I would take your Counsel on that whether that is um allowable or not yeah I I just doubt that the CPC would would look upon that favorably they might have a puzzle look on their face and it's different by town and I do have to say it can be a plus that it comes through the affordable housing trust because then you don't have to go for town meeting right it's already the designated that is correct plus um and it's different in different towns so I know in Acton they have you apply separately get some from CPC get so it's whatever is the norm in Littleton and in the in the project from 99 there was a great deal of I mean there was no CPC and there was no anything but there was a great deal of fundraising in the town to individuals and to organizations and and that campaign actually raised more money than was used in that particular house so um I think I think this the potential for raising money outside of CPC and when we oh sorry oh go ahead Matthew when we originally spoke Carolyn I think my initial conversation with you I was asking what the bottleneck was for building houses and you identified like paying a construction manager that you had two and so I my my first proposal to the affordable housing trust at the time which has some of the same members now was that we would pay basically pay the fee of the construction manager as a way to Kickstart this build so I think from my point of view um I'm I'm not I was expecting the trust to you know donate additional funds to this build and you know whether it's officially towards the construction manager or just generally towards the house I don't think that is Germaine but um you know I I realize we're already in this for donating the land and I think the trust also paid $200,000 as part of the purchase of the property as a whole um because the affordable housing was part of it so we we do have we have already invested but I think again from my point of view I expected there to be more asks I think the town has um additional um organizations or opportun unities if if this were to be put out there as an example we have a um very generous Rotary Club in Littleton that works on various projects around town so that could be another organization to add to your list um the um opportunity perhaps to talk with folks about donations uh in kind donations I don't know how that's reflected in your um experience but but perhaps as an example if if the septic system could could be donated I mean that certainly would eliminate one of the costs so there are various ways to be able to also contribute in that aren't directly dollars from from the trust yeah um so in in terms of what you explained uh uh some of the other questions that we have um let's see uh Mary Ellen I wanted to make sure that your two questions got got answered in reference to the families um one of the questions is um do families stay involved with maintenance of the house um does the town of Littleton invest more money into maintenance um so I don't know if you touched on the maintenance question at all no they will own the house um so part of one of the reasons that they help build the hous is to be invested and the other is to learn how the house is built and that helps them maintain it so they know where the electrical system went in where the plumbing system went in they help put in the floor they helped do the trim so that does help them to maintain the house we also do have a one-year warranty so anytime during the first year habitat will step in and help and then we do partner with our families forever so we have families who call and ask us um you know who do I call for this who do I call for that how do I fix this and we will step in but there's no expectation that the town of Littleton would then be involved because these are homeowners so just like with any other private home they own the home we just have their back a little bit Carolyn that um critical home repair then program that that that is not like if there was say some major issue that came up with the house is that what that's used for or is that just um helping people with an existing home that need help to stay in that home so um so we've done let's see 162 critical home repairs so far and I think two of them have been for Habitat homeowners and one was because their house was old enough that their water heater went and so we helped them replace it um I'm trying to remember what the other one was it was something similar so um homeowners could apply for that and even with the critical home repair program the homeowners it's a 0% loan for materials and so they do end up paying that back as well but primarily the critical home repair is any other existing affordable house just so we can maintain everything that's out there okay great I think you did answer the question because um I was curious to see what would happen if they you know if somebody had to move you know say and then you answered that in your presentation I think so I think both those questions were answered appreciate that yeah it doesn't happen often as I said because it is um they're getting a home set for their income and and the hope is that the families or the individuals incomes continue to go up and they could save for other things they're building generational wealth as Kim you know because they're owning a house right so they're building that wealth but if incomes can go up then they can say for retirement say for college say for any other incidentals that they would need and that's what we hope happens and then the one family I told you about um he got remarried they were dual income they were able to afford market rate they moved into a larger home and we were able to find another family who needed a starter home that's great that's what I was wondering about right because when you said building General generational wealth by buy you know um owning a home right a lot of that comes from selling the home afterwards and I know that this is supposed to be affordable imp perpetuity perpetu so that's what I was I it was just you know hard to understand how the process works but I think I understand stand a lot more now thank you yeah and it's a really good question because it's never going to be a windfall right so even even with how much Market um rate houses have gone up right now it still has to go to another family earning less than 60% or another individual earning less than 60% of area median income so families will generally get whatever they put into it and a little bit more but it will never be a windfall okay thank you I mean it's a wonderful program so thank you very much the one um additional question that I just wanted to touch base on is I think this will probably go back to um making sure that we have identified all of the costs so that we we don't have surprises and and as much can yes I saw some of the um the line items in the air project that you all have done where there were items such as utility connections marketing and appliances that weren't in the Littleton proposal and so I wanted to ask about those so I think the problem was just different formats of the budget so the budget that you saw in the air CPC application is what we do as we're heading into the build so in air right now we're about to get the permit signed off so it was just more fleshed out those costs in in the budget that was in the RFP is more in a bucket so we're still planning to do solar they still will have appliances um it's just it was a different format of the B of the build I know yeah I was just going to say we'll probably want to get a little bit more detail then um simply because uh as an example when one of the criteria is related to energy efficiency I believe yeah Energy Efficiency and Building Systems and appliances um I think there was only like one question about the energy efficiency so any more details about what that really looks like I think would be really helpful for us yeah yeah absolutely yeah and I can give you more of that detail and and we will as we do the site plan get more and more detail on the cost as we get estimates as well but just at a base level for the Energy Efficiency we meet the stretch energy code we do extra insulation we do a ton of sealing we will do a blower door test to try to get as low as we can um and with the solar panel that really helps as well um and then we are all electric our last several homes have had an EV charger as well that's terrific our sustainability committee will be pleased to hear that yeah and I mean it it helps both sides right like it's going to help with global warming and all the things we need to do but it also keeps the cost low for the family so if they can have a more economical car that charges and solar panels providing some of their energy it makes them more successful well as homeowners as well um so I wanted to ask um trustees are there other questions that we have for Carolyn this evening Bartlett yeah um this very technical I just um when you talk about stretch energy code and electric um and ceiling um do is there do you you normally put um ventilation included in that is is because once you get a house really tight then you absolutely need outside ventilation and a control we always have an Erv okay exch yeah because you would boil pasta and you're gonna get foggy windows right yeah right thank you um so Caroline what questions do you have of us um so I think the next steps are Marin and I um I am I'm redlining a land disposition agreement and then it will go to the town and so that's our next steps and then um we need to work on the regulatory agreement and the lip Lau the local indust of product project um local action unit for the executive office of um housing and livable communities so those are our next steps and so we're going to need to partner with you guys to get that done because it's um the lip Lau is the town in partnership with habitat so we just need to move forward with that and I believe you guys are going to require us to have the regulatory agreement which is what says that we're going to have it deeded affordable forever um before we close so I think those are our next steps and but I see our next steps is um our trustees um we have not had an opportunity to discuss a lot of the details um so that we can make sure that of our business terms are being identified so that you can address those properly um in response and then I think from there we would be able to move forward with the land disposition agreement um and so probably getting you any final comments questions that we have for those business terms would probably be our next move okay working on the land disposition agreement after that okay um and at this point are you feeling like you would want um local preference yes yes and so I heard you say earlier that that's something that we as a town need to apply for right okay and we have no no um feeling on that one way or the other we have no preference obviously on whether you do local preference or not but it just changes do the lottery yeah and I think part of that is that we have [Music] um we have talked about affordable housing um at various um events and meetings with with residents and I think if it were to be awarded to somebody local I think it it would just really help to reinforce what we're trying to do so and if it was not able to go to somebody locally then then that's fine it's still going to a family in need and that's what's most important y great well really thank you so much for your time to come and visit with us this evening and um I think you could hear from what folks had to say that that there is a optim about being able to together to to make this happen and so we just need to keep working together on on all the terms so that we can get there great yeah we're as I said before very excited to be partnering with Littleton again I know the family that moved in way back when is still there and she's so thankful and we're looking forward to doing it again yeah she's a great success story yeah she's fabulous yep she was our bus driver and kept very good care of my three children so she's very very caring it was nice to get to know her all right Carolyn well we will certainly be in touch okay thank you so much thank you thank you thank you okay so [Music] um what what are everybody's thoughts about about where we are right now and then we can talk a little bit more about um uh getting to the nuts and bolts of of the RFP it it feels to me that we have to do the site all the site specific work before we can ask more questions am I wrong in that picking an egg right I mean um I think part of what our task is I had an opportunity to speak with um Town Council Jenny Merill um this evening and the bottom line to it is we as trustees need to identify what are the most important things to us from a business perspective so that she can go in and negotiate that with um the attorney with habitat and so the business aspects are things like we really want to make sure that the accessible unit has a carport or a garage you know so so again that's just an example but it really requires us as trustees to go through with the fine tooth comb and identify what is it that we want so we can ask that um what is it that um we find you know um a non-negotiable um Matthew I heard you talk about the original construction manager fee um uh and and that that is something that um you had discussed and at the same time we had put in the RFP that you know everything to build the two units was at their cost and expense so I think we need to decide among ourselves what what is our number if you will that we are willing to go to and and I know at the last meeting we we put a number out there of $100,000 and in looking at the data that I I sent out to everybody from Air I think that number is too high I don't think we need to contribute $100,000 I think it can be less than that and still be a comparable percentage to what air did y um I would suggest that not all the conversation is ready to be had now right now the task for the trust is to um finalize um the land disposition agreement um um and then at some point when habitat has the exact layout for um their development um at that point they'd be requesting funds from the affordable housing trust um then they'd be able to have the detailed um well the design and the the detailed um uh construction well total cost um and they'd have plus they'd have um some of the information on on um what how their fundraising is going I heard from the trust that you wanted to be the last in as far as you know the donations um right so I I actually have different information from from Jenny Merill this afternoon and um she said no we need to identify what our business terms are first before we were to approach the the land um disposition and and the reason for that is because if we can't even come to terms with uh habitat on business terms then there's no reason to proceed to the land disposition agreement so um that's part of why I'm saying that we need to identify what those are and I didn't want to bring this up earlier um with Carolyn on the phone but it would include things like as an example Marielle and I'm I'm going to put forward um a request that you had and that is you know can there be Landscaping shielding between the the the property lines right and so that would be an additional cost is that a cost that we as trustees want to be able to to add um to this project and that we would be willing to you know make as an important comment and request in in the overall proposal right so those are the kinds of things I'm talking about um and um I'm very comfortable going through and identifying what some of those are but it would be great to be able to get your input as well as to what we think the most important business terms are appreciate that Anna um so um the RFP was um fairly detailed um so there what I'm hearing Anna is that you have a few items that you would like to add um to an agreement um right you're asking the trustees if there's anything else that they're looking to add that is exactly what I'm saying yes thank you so let me give you all an example in the RFP there are five comparative evaluation criteria we have not had a chance to talk about it so I'd like to do that now the very first one is building design quality materials and appearance um the the categories of of our um evaluation are in the response from habitat or those acceptable unacceptable not advantageous advantageous or highly advantageous okay so from a building design quality materials appearance what does everybody think right um I had originally said when I did this after we first got it was not advantageous because we didn't have the Ada information so now that we do have the Ada information I feel better about this but again we want to be able to get that inwriting from them as to what exactly they are intending to do for Ada in terms of building design okay because that wasn't delineated in their proposal the second criteria is Energy Efficiency and Building Systems and appliances um again I thought that was not advantageous simply because they hadn't provided any details tonight she provided many more details so that puts it into um the advantageous category for me but again that needs to be put in writing by them so it's basically asking them to put what they intend into writing so that we have that on record so that we can point back to it and it can be part of this land disposition agreement down the road so you'd want to identify the type of siding that goes on the house vinyl siding cement siding wood whatever right so again that particular item um number two was around Energy Efficiency yeah systems and appliances right so it goes to what your last question was and that in writing for us so that we have it well yeah she would put her put what she said in writing you know stretch code plus additional installation and ceiling I think that's that's adequate right and and anything else that we deem to be important right the third Criterion is um experience of The Proposal proposer excuse me clearly it's highly advantageous because they have 36 years in in doing this the fourth one is financial visibility of a proposal this one also I put is not advantageous because it says project budget has significant gaps and requires substantial assistance from the town so if in fact all we have to do is provide the $200,000 land which we already paid for and the construction manager fee then that will likely fit be aligned um percentage wise to the air project so then it seems like it could be very doable right um but if they expect the town to put in hundreds of thousands of dollars in addition to the land amount then it it would not be advantageous to us so we need to just confirm you know what that number is and I recognize that they need to know because whatever lender they're going to go to there the lender is going to want to see well where are you getting your money the rest of the money from before we lend you anything right so so Anna uh just to we only have one proposal to evaluate so the choice really is whether we want to put in up to $100,000 or we want to try again right well I I would actually say Mark that um the number is 68 I don't think we need to go any higher than that and we have them go out and try to secure it and if they don't then yeah we have to make that decision I think going to 100,000 is too much I don't know what other folks think but I'd love to hear your thoughts and I don't have I don't have that in front of me but I think that there when they say the town has to come up with the with the balance I think that's a small TAA town I don't think it's you know the town of Littleton I think it's the citizens of Littleton that there has to be a big fundraising effort that's that so it's not CPC money and it's not um habitat money it's it's fundraising money that is going to make that balance and I'm perfectly happy to have the up to $100,000 at the end as kind of a um you know stop Gap thing but I think we can raise the money that we need hey what what do others think again I think we've already asked enough of our town residents in terms of you know the $200,000 that was put forward for the land so that's my opinion and and this is a topic that we can continue to discuss now or or we can um come back to it in August after everyone's had some more time to think about it um I'll just put in my two cents and I've said this before which is I think this is a good way to leverage the funds that we do have we have you know a pretty big piggy bank and I don't think that that's a good reason to spend lots of money but um the opportunities for this group to spend money um that isn't purchasing a whole house but essentially get someone a whole house is not not a common thing um I think that we do well with the um the the rental assistance programs but that's relatively small and I think all of the other opportunities that we've looked at like as far as you know renovating the houses that were donated or given in L or you none of them really have been um have had a solid plan that is going to end up with a with a good affordable house and this is one of them and I think for that reason um I would be I I would vote for $100,000 um and uh because I think it's a good use of the funds that we have even though we would be paying proportionately more than other projects from other towns yeah yeah I mean you know I think we yes I even though um I don't mean that we should um I don't think we should volunteer it um I think that but but I do think that it that rather than um that we could be the back stop and finish the you know and finish it off if um they need they need funds up to $100,000 so I'm kind of with Matthew on this I think we've had I mean the town's owned this property for quite a while now to do affordable housing and we haven't done anything with it we have an opportunity to do it I don't really want to spend $100,000 on it but I think it's worth spending $100,000 to actually complete something right um I think going forward we probably you know in projects going forward we probably want to do a better evaluation of them UPF front before we buy the land and then go through this whole process to see what we really want to commit but I don't think the affordable housing trust when they bought the property ever really decided what they wanted to commit to the project so I don't want to spend $100,000 but I think it's a reasonable back stop to make this go forward and actually accomplish something any other input from folks I'm I'm new to not have gone through the rest of your conversation so habitat was a well oiled machine to collaborate with and I'm impressed with how they have kept their people and their houses and their their program running for such a long time and and being so viable that I feel like they are the right partners and that we're going to get more than what we think we're going to get and to get two houses that makes a lot of sense to me I don't have have a number to put out that wasn't what I was prepared to have a conversation about tonight so I I don't have that Anna but I love that um I think that's a great conversation for us to table until August a a concrete number and also maybe we can talk about how would we and who would we reach out to to do some fundraising how how are the other ways that we would do that you know that that's actually a good point and one that I personally don't think is our role at all uh you know asking rotary you asking other organizations perhaps in town that might be able to help contribute um would be Carolyn here's here's our contact information I I don't see that we would be the ones doing it I just don't I just don't think that that's part of our our role could we never done this before again except for that one the value added that the affordable housing trust can provide is the links to those other community members that would be able to help with fundraising as a town entity the trust can't um be be the fundraiser I I think that I think that the the community the what was what what was it called the town committee the citizens committee that that I think that should be the agent that does the fundraising and takes the lead on that um there's no reason we some of us individually couldn't be involved in that but I agree that yeah clearly the this this board is not going to be part of that uh fundraising yeah I just didn't want to add something else to our plates it also as maren just pointed out it also is not just add adding something more to our but as a town entity we cannot do fundraising I know that from COA we've been through that so that was going to be my question was that who who would be spearheading it but I think Matthew's right that it would be the um citizens committee or whatever their title was um and I I the whole thing to me is overwhelming so but I get overwhelmed easily um so you're very pragmatic so I really pragmatic okay thanks I'll take that I'll take it I'll take it I I understand what everybody is saying and I'm just trying to figure out in my head which comes first do we say yes we will do up to 100,000 or some other number or like you said do we ask them to put in writing exact ex ly answers to our questions or do we have to even be sure that fundraising Could Happen somewhere without it all coming from CPC we can't ask that um in my I my brain is spinning just for Where Do We Begin I'm for the project I yes yes I I think we all are and let me see if this helps okay so when I talked with Jenny today um what she said is um yes we need to define the the business terms first before we do the um the agreement um the land agreement um dispensing with the land and so we have already provided notice to them um on June 17th that they were awarded the um RFP um because they they were the only ones and it it it has a good start um so now what we need to do is identify those business terms okay and Jenny's going to be out of town um starting on August 3rd so she's out till the latter part of the month of August so that gives us an opportunity to be able to fully Define what those business terms are okay um she did say the the one thing that she would recommend that we not do is don't get into any design stuff that's not our role I just laughed and and I said you're right we won't so no design stuff no saying the bathroom needs to go here CU that's not our role sorry Kim um and then um she can negotiate that or she can negotiate those business terms and then once that's taken care of then she can go ahead and start to negotiate all of the legal terms um and what she said is what we wanted to be able to is get through the business terms first because these are the things that are important to us as a trust and then after that it can be the rest of the the the legal stuff that that needs to be hashed out between herself and habitat's attorney um she did say that we should make sure to include any affordability comments so for example the last criteria from our RFP is overall quality of proposal the not advantageous comment is proposal complete and responsive to some items and not others in RFP so one of the things that they had missed was um they really didn't talk about the units being on the Shi um that language what wasn't in their proposal but it is being put into the agreement because um Jenny was starting to put that in there but so those are all the things that that we need to talk about and we need to make sure are going to be in there as business terms okay so that's our job that's our task that we've been given and and we need to do that and so if if we can do this at our next meeting on the 20th and have those ready and she comes back from her vacation we'll be ready to go does that help Sue in yes thank you okay so Anna is there a reason not to have either habitat or Jenny maybe habitat start with what the business terms they see are and then we can evaluate and see what's missing rather than to come up with these business terms because we're never going to be able to do it on our own why not have someone suggest an agreement and we say it's missing this and missing that um or we could ask for copies of previous agreements that they've had I mean the one in air the one in fitzburg which would have those terms thank you brl so so what realistically we have right now is we have their proposal response right so that in effect is what we're looking at we need to look at their proposal and say well what in here is missing and to Bartlett's point you all also have what they said to air you can look at that as saying oh well they they did this in air I think that's important we should make sure to add it in our business terms okay um and then we also have the initial land agreement that we can take a look at which was a template from the town of Acton so again it's already gone through their process and we can look there as well to see well is there anything that's missing here that we would want to make sure gets incorporated as a business issue okay so Mark to your point I think we already have those documents we have our proposal from habitat we have the air comparative and we have the land disposition agreement to take a look at but I don't think those are the same thing because isn't the business agreement going to be much more of a legal contract that we're reviewing than the RFP that just says what they're doing I mean who's reviewing the the contract is just Jenny or are we reviewing the contracts well technically speaking that that contract the land disposition agreement um that's one contract but the business agreement is going to be another basically a contract right it's saying that their house is going to be on the sh Shi and it's going to be sold at 60% it's effectively a contract that they're writing up that they're agreeing to and it's I don't want to come up with the terms for the contract I'd rather review the contract and say What's missing than and compared to other ones than try and guess because we're going to get them wrong if we try to come up with them yeah you know I talked with Jenny this afternoon about that and and she pointed to what what I just said she said look at their proposal see where the gaps are of what you guys want and get back to me on that so where does that document end up what what form of a document does that take as a document that Jenny drafts yes Jenny Jenny will then take the bus business terms of what's important to us and make sure that it is in the ultimate land disposition agreement because anything that we have to formally legally agree to is going to be in that land disposition agreement and so there are terms in there that um here voted down so the the land agreement incorporates all the RFP conditions right so if we not that we are I understand we're we're not thinking about this but if we were to hold firm on the statement in the RFP that says a developer shall at its sole cost and expense construct two dwelling units if we wanted to hold firm on that that's where we would say to Jenny when you go into to negotiate with their attorney please hold firm on that we are not adding in any additional funding okay so that's what I mean that that's part of the RFP condition um um the second one is we require them to build two houses and that they must bring all the financing documents to Bear they need to be able to prove to us and to the lender that they have all the funding that is needed to be able to do this project so those are the three main points of what would be in this land disposition agreement and so our conditions are essentially our business terms right what what is it that we are conditioning this agreement to so there is no separate business agreement they're just the business terms in the land use agreement so why aren't we just on the land use agreement making sure that it has the business terms in it I don't understand why they're separate why not they're not separate but they're I'm just saying that we have to be able to provide them to Jenny and then she will incorporate them well uh this is Angus I'm not entirely sure what we're providing she's told us in the presentation that the uh each building is different based on the site and after evaluating the site they determine what they need and how much it's going to cost and that's why air is costing a lot less than uh Littleton so obviously regardless of what we do um it'll all boil down to what the findings are on the land that's going to determine the cost and that's potentially why we're having to uh require $100,000 more than the other sites perhaps so we got to be careful um where we're going because we may end up with an agreement that's not workable and Jenny would let us know I'm sure she would so again if you all don't feel that like there are any other business terms that you want don't want to add in that's up to you but I do feel that there are some as I've mentioned that that are important that that I want to ask them to provide more detail around I think I'm kind of with Mark in that I don't know what I don't know and seeing another agreement would really be helpful Matthew what well if there was a land use agreement that they signed in air or you know um something that some some boilerplate thing or I I don't know maybe it's not boilerplate maybe each one is special but um the example of the carport is an excellent one it's something I hadn't even considered until someone brought it up so I'm I'm really looking at I would be more likely to have reasonable input if I could look at an example of of one of these where someone has thoughtfully gone through and thought Oh well we need to do this and we need to do that okay I mean we can ask Carolyn for that I think right we could yeah let me um touch base with Jenny tomorrow and and see what she has in terms of of something else for us to take a look at so does this land use agreement originate with Carol or with Jenny who's putting in the who whose initial draft is it it was technically ours because if you recall Carolyn said that she was redlining it so so it was something that already came from Jenny um well technically it came from Marin right maren because you put it together um I okay it's it's even a little more convoluted than that um at Town of Acton um had an agreement with habitat and I um updated that to some of the specifics that um to deal with this site and send it to Jenny as as a rough draft of something that habitat had worked with before um again first draft for discussion and I don't think it's difficult to add those um few items that Anna has mentioned as being important um and if there are other items then we can certainly add those and um circulate that all right so you're exped the redline copy back sometime um I just heard that uh tonight from from Carolyn also with her and see where could you distribute that to us I I'll distribute if there's an updated version yes certainly I will so what so this is what we'll do okay based on what I hear already saying you want to have an example of a completed land disposition agreement so that you could see perhaps what we're missing or what potential business terms could be um requested we will then um distribute that um we will meet again in August to be able to um work through any business terms that we want to make sure are included Ed um in any future agreement and we can provide those to um Jenny when she returns from her vacation and then she can put that together and start to negotiate those business terms and um at that point um let me see here from my notes about what she said um if we are able to negotiate everything um and uh after that um there she would move forward to execute an agreement and they would prepare a deed um and then she said down the road the bank would probably also require um certain cooperation from the town and you heard Carolyn tonight say that if they have a a lip application that they would need our input on that as well and then after that they um would be able to issue a closing date for the um transfer of the property so that's down the road but that sort of the process so this time frame that we're in entering right now recognizing it's new for all of us um this time frame that we're entering really is to try to make sure that we have defined everything that is important to us and then Jenny puts it into the agreement she negotiates it and then it gets done and executed okay and her biggest advice when I asked her so what advice do you have for us since we haven't done this before as a group of Trustees she said speak our [Laughter] minds so that's what she urges us all to do so thank you thank you all for your input so I think we're we're set on our next steps for this okay all right so I just want to do a quick time check before we we move on we're at 8:30 um one of the things that we were to discuss tonight is our code of conduct um and in that code of conduct there was a particular line in there that I added in which is that we do not have meetings that last more than two hours we're at that 2hour and I'd like to honor everyone's time for for being here this evening but we do have that very very all-important topic of our budget to talk to to discuss um and other items such as um the code of conduct want to thank sue for for her latest um content for the newsletter so is anyone prepared to talk about the budget and what you think that budget should reflect for the next 5 years because if we're not ready to talk about the budget we should definitely defer that and have it at top of mind for the next meeting I would suggest deferring it okay that's what I thought okay um can we do the code of conduct real quick y okay okay has everybody had a chance to look at that yeah yep okay so um any comments questions about that um so first thank you again to sue for for taking the first first try at that one thank you very much um I I did add one comment based off of a conversation with um Jim dougen the town administ rator under item 2 B responsibility to town [Music] Administration um I had asked for his input about how to seek assistance and information from town staff and he suggested this um he said [Music] um that that read request assistance and information from the town planner for housing related manners and the director of EHS for rental assistance matter so that's my only other comment on on this code of conduct Mr Angus uh yes uh that was one of the questions I had but I'm glad you you answered that I was going to say to put the the name of the officer and not their real names in the final draft uh but I uh wanted to direct attention to number three item I um I said something about not make statements or Promises of how you will vote on matters that will come before the full board until you have an opportunity to hear the pros and con of the isue during a public uh meeting of the trust so um I'm not sure this has ever come up before but uh if it does when you you're talking about um a matter that will come up before the full board is that the full is is she is this referring to the trust or is it the um uh the select board it's it's clear to me so this should be an issue that comes before the trust um as an example I suppose to extrapolate the meaning of this is that if we were to be on a final vote for a project like habitat and people started asking outside of outside of this meeting before we had a formal vote well how are you going to vote on that how are you going to vote on that and and people just start asking and talking a lot about it that we refrain from saying any statements or promises about how we intend to vote on it I believe that's what that means Mark your select board work does that make sense yes I agree with that it it does and that's why I was hoping that the first uh term there should be the full trust and not the full board because then when you say the full board then it's confusing is it the select board is it the trust so you want to uh correct that okay so use the word trust in the second sentence instead of board okay under item 3i okay thank you Angus a good document and thanks for putting it together great all right so with that change I have yes Sue go ahead I have a question question on um the part that you said Jim suggested with um asking like Liz in terms of the rental assistance I agree with uh Angus that it probably should be the department rather than giving specific names of the department head but I don't want to start listing everything that we should be talking to to that department about but it's obviously tonight we already in talking about having the um the Aging in place event you know we've had to or people have had to talk to Liz that wasn't about rental assistance so do we want to start listing every item that you could talk to the department about I don't know how you no I don't know how you short it but well how I get the point that we don't want to that we want to limit it so that we're not asking Liz or any other department for certain things and but well that that one shouldn't just say if it's going to list things it shouldn't just say rental assistance correct I would agree so here's how it could read request assistance and information from the town planner for housing related matters and the director of EHS for EHS matters sure okay I'm I'm easily pleased yeah well I'm glad that works okay so with that change and the other CH under three I changing trust instead of board um how does everybody vote do we agree on on those changes as this being our quot yes yes okay um I see yes from Matthew Bartlett angas Su Mark yes yes and I'm a yes so Kim's not here to vote okay so we're in agreement um code of conduct then should go to who is it is it Diane or who does it go to Marin um I'll find out and send it that direction okay great thank you so much so with that said then our next meeting is on August 20th at 6:30 p.m. is there anyone who will not be able to make that meeting you won't Mar no idea I'll be traveling but I'm I'll try to make it okay well we'd love to have you so hopefully you can make it and Marin you're you're not here correct ah it's very hard work um using up all the time that I I had coming that was missed I know I know but we want you to take it so Anna before we adjourn can we do the minutes so that we can actually have them posted and we're not too many meetings behind Okay I had one quick question on the minute um there was a certain portion of the minutes for the joint meeting that we had with CPC and those aren't available yet so are we still waiting for that portion of the minutes minen or can we approve them as is um I haven't been part of the discussion on the minutes between you and luys so I don't know how to answer that um yeah so if you recall at the last meeting we had about 30 minutes worth of content that was with the CPC was waiting for those minutes to be done so she could just include them into our minutes um so I would recommend at this point that the affordable housing trust if you're happy with the minutes that are available adopt that portion um from that meeting and then um save the review of the part of the CPC discussion um for a later date at least that'll get us partway okay sound good Mark so moved second all right um all in favor Sue yes Mark yes harlett yes Angus yes Matthew yes Anna a yes okay so we partially so we've approved the partial minutes of um June 25 Al also before we adjourn um I cannot do the newsletter for this month this coming month that's perfectly fine I was going to suggest that maybe we do it every other month and that each of us take a take a month well that's what I was going to suggest but fabulous great mind think alike all right so at the August meeting we'll identify who will write the one in September how's that okay okay we're all set see we finished the whole agenda all right okay well thank you everyone for all of your input tonight um we'll come back in August with um our conversation points around the budget and our conversation points around the um business terms for Habitat all right okay to adjourn adjourn motion second all in favor I I bye goodbye thank you all right thank you all you thank you so much for all your help