on revie TV can you confirm that you can hear me good evening uh welcome to the March uh 12th 2025 meeting of the city R affordable housing trust fund board my name is Joe grai um I serve on behalf of
May ke um as the chair of the board um this is our regularly scheduled monthly meeting uh so we will begin um with attendance uh so I do know that our vice chair um Claire en zerillo you mentioned that she was unable to make it
today um so we'll go through the rest of the membership um anoi okay and Lori Manzo here okay Leila Petri here Dean Harris here and Matt
woler here and then I don't see Deb Frank um so I'll note that although I know that she's often commuting at this time and joins us remotely so we've got the remote access there uh and that's the case if anyone were to uh wish to participate remotely as well um so with
that we will go right into our agenda as we have a pretty good number of Updates this month um so we'll start with the treasures update sure good evening everyone the current balance of the affordable housing trust committee As Told to me by the uh assistant budget director suan Newton is
677 72173 100,000 rather 677 100,7 12,000 2,073 sorry for the error thank you okay any questions on that okay moving forward we're going to go to subcommittee reports and so this one I'm
pretty excited about so since the last meeting um we had an opportunity to form two subcommittees uh and really start to dive into a couple things that we really want to accomplish in 20125 uh one related to kind of a big picture conversation on fundraising um and one
related to home ownership projects to take what we did last year um which was sort of subsidize this condo project uh to increase affordability and see how can we build off of that right how can we find additional home ownership opportunities so I'm going to have us report out um on those committee
conversations then also scheduled the next one uh and I'm actually going to start with Matt because Matt was kind enough to send a really detailed overview of some of the things not only that we discussed on our uh home ownership subcommittee but then some of what he's researched since then so man I'm going to kick it to you to report
out on that subcommittee cool yeah we'll we'll start with just quick highlights from the meeting so you know we had Claire Dean Joe myself there um you know just talked about the intent of these meetings really being a place to Workshop ideas
and and figuring out how to try to create uh affordable home ownership opportunities um one of the main things we kicked off in this first meeting was just kind of getting a list together of uh the world of you know investable options like what are what are the different things that we can do we've
got uh a list of five things right now and you know probably this list grows over time as as we continue to to work on it um but those five items were uh the first was tax title properties RFP so you know uh we spent a lot of time
talking about that one but just helping evaluate bids on that as they come in uh uh B was uh working with habitat or similar nonprofits to help fund projects so you know that's something that maybe is a little bit more difficult to for us
to go out and like Source opportunities and and be proactive about but um definitely uh something we're going to want to participate in when those opportunities show up and kind of come in direct to us uh the third item down payment assistance again something we've already done and spent a lot of time
talking about uh and kind of the two two new things uh that we had follow-ups on the first was you know thinking about um incentives for Adu or in-law conversions um and that was actually one of the follow-ups of the meeting is Joe is
chasing that down with Tom to kind of figure out like what what even can we do there like do do we know if other housing uh trust funds have have done something similar um and just like what what would that look like but the basic idea is you know can we can we figure
out a way to properly incentivize the development of of uh adus and that might be you know like offering a $20,000 grant for someone who wants to convert a portion of their house to uh an Adu you know that fit certain standards and
obviously we'd have to at least ensure that you know at the market rate rent that it would rent at it would be like a form of naturally occurring affordable housing um and the second one that uh required some followup and the one that
we're really kind of focusing on uh fleshing out right now is looking into uh market rate housing conversion and we kind of talked about it in two flavors the first flavor being uh you know the
the trust fund direct investing in two to four Family Properties uh and converting them into condos so you know really really doing everything uh completing the purchase renovation and sale inhouse putting it all on our
balance sheet um the opportunities with doing it that way are obviously you know we we have uh a bigger impact if if we're coming in and uh doing this cuz we're able to take a a building and deed restrict uh every single one of units um
it's potentially a more efficient use of capital than working with private developers because we don't have to you know bake the 15 to 20% uh profit that you know an investor is going to expect on a condo conversion project um and we
have a lot of control over project location and uh renovation outcomes which is like kind kind of an important thread that we'll we'll get back to after um and the risks on that strategy are you know obviously
it's significantly more involved operationally it'd be a big uh like time and resource commitment from this board to run a program like that um another risk is you know versus working with a private developer we'd have to rely on our own project underwriting rather than
relying on someone else's expertise so you know there's the risk we pay too much money for the property up front there's the risk we under budget on the renovation there's the risk we over assume what we can sell the properties for on the back end and it can just end
up costing us more than expected um and obviously it's more Capital intensive and that's probably the biggest hurdle for us right now is you know realistically we don't know exactly what the dollar figure is but it's you know somewhere in the neighborhood of a million to a million two and that would
obviously be difficult for us to fund today um and then option b is you know instead of trying to to do the whole uh process a toz ourselves um just working with private investors and
developers um offering some form of Grant or subsidy to influence people who are already planning to do like a two to four family condo conversion to sell one of the units as uh deed restricted affordable and you know benefits of
doing it this way we get to benefit from their experience we don't have that kind of underwriting risk uh it wouldn't be management intensive it would require less Capital per project so you know instead of having to fund $1.2 million
and maybe selling those units for $800 to $900,000 on the back end and like that would really be our cost of doing the full funded like us managing the project um instead of doing that um we
would just what whatever that one unit Delta uh is between what a unit could be sold Market ver ver what a private investor would have to sell it for affordable like whatever it is $110,000 $120,000 that's all we'd be funding we would just be kind of funding that Gap to incentivize the creation of an
affordable unit um and yeah I guess last last kind of opportunity to think about for that one is um you know there's probably some benefit to uh doing it this way because it lets us kind of sprinkle affordable
units in where you know there's mostly market rate housing so you know we're kind of integrating affordable units into the housing stock in a little bit more of an organic way so I think that's kind of the one like true upside to doing it this way versus you know just doing an entire building um and
obviously the risk is less control over locations and and project outcome so with the uh option A you know we have the benefit of making incremental decisions that have knock on effects like picking properties that you know
it's it's on a main thorough way and it's kind of like the last eyesore left that really brings down the feeling and you know creates a sense of distress in a neighborhood or a square that otherwise like shouldn't have it and we can be the ones who come in and like really change that um and same thing on
the renovation like you know we can make decisions like planting mature trees to really bring up the look and feel of a neighborhood and really improve it whereas you know a private developer who's operating on a profit probably isn't going to going to do those kinds of things um and I'll try and wrap quick I know
I'm starting to drone but um the follow-ups to this so right now uh we're doing uh market research um we've built out a property scorecard it's basically a project level p&l
um uh to model out what that like first option looks like and the goal between now and the next subcommittee meeting is to like get 5 to 10 real properties either stuff that's actively listed or stuff that's recently sold sold um and to underwrite them so we could really
intimately understand what these costs look like is there more benefit doing two-bedroom units versus three-bedroom units doing two families versus four families like where do we kind of get the most bank for our buck and the most leverage on the capital we're spending um and then kind of phase two after you
know presenting those findings to uh the home ownership subcommittee is going to be uh uh The Next Step which is really uh working in the differences in cost build between option A and option b CU I think the other part of you know we we know private developers are going to
need to take a 15 to 20% profit but you know there's other realities on the cost side we have to contend with our project probably takes longer than a private developer so we're going to have significantly higher carry costs we're going to be paying Insurance taxes Landscaping Etc while we hold the
property um and most likely our kind of structure of prevailing wages that we would have to pay versus what you know maybe a private contractor can do is going to be a cost Delta too um if we were doing this we'd probably have to hire uh like a really high quality GC
who can handle the project A to Z and so you know that's another 10% fee that maybe depending on the investor we're working with isn't part of their cost stack so getting really sharp on the differences in costs between those two strategies um to really understand what
that Delta is is it the full five uh sorry 15 to 20% profit or or is it more like a 5 to 10% risk premium for us not having to take that like underwriting risk which feels a lot more reasonable um and then also working in uh what we
don't have in the model right now which is um just outcomes based on affordability guidelines like what the actual affordable sale prices of these these units would look like versus Market um and end goal being you know
we're coming here in April and are really able to lay the entire thing out and answer all the questions like how much Capital does you know a direct investment required per project how much for the grant program um what are the average
typical project level economics look like um uh all of that and just three calls to action just a few questions for this board to think about before we get that far um uh first one being just thinking
about how how to value you like having that control over the project outcome and and renovation Scopes um second one being how we want to think about environmental issues so that's another thing we can have an impact on here like we could decide we want to go out of our
way to buy units that haven't had lead base paint remediation and do that remediation you know um obviously that's going to add to the cost um but um it's something we can do or we can do the opposite and avoid it completely knowing we're going to have cheaper Renovations
um and stretch our Capital further um and the last thing we want to think about and this is probably for the fundraising committee is like how how big of a hurdle is really the larger Capital stack required to do um the option A where we're balance sheeting the properties you know like is is that
actually a hurdle or is that actually a good thing like is this is this kind of a program which could be really compelling actually something that could help us you know work with the city the state or other sources to to fund raise thank you for all that that was
terrific um is it and I'm not sure if you sent the notes that you had in advance to just me or to everybody but I'm going to make sure they get to everybody yeah just so that way they can basically it's what he just talked about um so a chance to review that a few things that come to mind for me and then it'll open it up to everyone's thoughts
you know when I think about your calls to action I value the control highly you know I think that that's something that in an ideal world would be really really important for us you know to be able to look at locations neighborhoods Transit access School access you know different
types of um issues that relate to you know where we we'd want to promote affordability um so I think that's important you know but then to flip it over to number three I think the the St the stack is a big hurdle right and so that's why I tend to defer to the idea
right now mentally you know if I were to kind of think about what I would urge or consider consider it would be to kind of try to set up a grant program um for private developers doing like a condo conversion or doing a purchase of a two to four family home um I like what you
said about thinking about some of the environmental issues I think that's maybe a little outside of our scope um in terms of focusing on that as being a priority but I think it's worth thinking about moving forward um I think that when I personally and I want to applaud
you for the research you've already done and look forward to um and I'm sure we'd all like to help with that you know continuing to research some of this moving forward when I kind of zoom out and look at the big picture of some of the things that we have moving um I think that so the RFP process which
Tom's not here but I'll provide some updates on that will give us an opportunity I think to see some new builds come on board now they won't be ones that we manage they won't be ones that we own and make money back from uh but they will be opportunities to kind of see
um new construction happen which I think is Val valuable um through a combination of affordable and market rate um and then I also know that um you know I should be able to so next month uh Laura
Christopher from Mass development comes back from maternity leave she's the one who I had some of the conversations with about the Community Land Trust effort uh and once she's back I'm going to have her come and collaborate with us again and kind of pick up on where that is where we might get involved you know I
think and this is going to tie into some of the research I did on the on my role in the fundraising committee too uh you know it is true that most of the best kind of fundraising options that exist for this type of work require a 501c3 structure that we don't have but
that like a land trust entity might have and that type of work might work better as a collaborative effort you know with a land trust unless and until we move to a point where we have like an inclusionary zoning ordinance or Community preservation act or some sort of larger like sustainable funding
source so I want to you know do the research I don't want to um Speed Ahead I want to make sure that we're being thoughtful and deliberate but I think looking at like the whole scope of what we have we're working on um looking at that sort of subsidy piece of it I think is really valuable and something that
could be a really good idea um I wasn't able to find a lot of similar examples of like this type of program specifically although I was able to find you know Salem and a few other affordable housing trust boards um obviously they what they often do
instead of kind of doing what we've done where we have more limited resources so we create like a targeted program and do it that way um there are a few trusts that have I think pbd is one that like they'll put out a round of funding and they'll say you know we're making a million dollars available which you know
we generally don't have right and we're going to request applications from those that are interested in doing affordable housing development or projects or something over a certain window and we'll review them based on certain criteria uh and that has included um
subsidizing like market rate small scale projects of like two to four families something like that of including affordability as part of it so this unprecedent for trusts doing something like that I think part of the research that we have to do is kind of what that number looks like I know we talked about
150,000 in the subcommittee meeting I think that that number is aligned with you kind of look at the Delta for that uh Northern Strand Salem Street condo project that we did the sort of Delta between the market rate and affordable price that would cover that uh and then
I also looked at some other similar um projects where there was affordable units and market rate units and that would work I think where we need to make sure we're double triple checking everything is that there's additional costs associated with this type of project that are different from the
Delta between like a market rate and an affordable unit and a new condo development um you know for instance if someone's buying a Triple Decker and it's currently three Apartments um to convert it to three condos would require like putting in
different meters you know different kind of costs that come with condo isation you might have to establish a condo board so what proportion of those types of expenses first of all around how much does that cost and what proportion of that would would be apprpriate to subsidize from our end and also would
encourage people to apply for funding so I think that we as we continue to research and kind of look at those real world examples and also talk to people that are doing this work that's I think what we'd want to explore um is are there major like cost and logistical
barriers to the type of naturally occurring affordability that we want to encourage um that we need to take into account when we set up a program like this you know I think actually running a program like it would be fairly straightforward where we would put out a
call like a request for proposals essentially um set a certain budget for it based on what we have um and we could set set up an online application portal put it out there through you know through banks put it out there through developer the developer Community that's
known and through the media um and encourage that you know but I do think that that's probably going to end up even though we have to kind of tie up some of the other logistical pieces uh being more feasible for us in the short term you know 2025
26 um then I mean looking at just a cursory glance on Zillow of some of the like triple Deckers that are available in R even some of the ones that you'd consider to be more on the needs TLC side you're looking at like a
million dollars um so I personally share Dean's passion for like we'd to get into a point where we have sustainable Revenue sources and stuff that's kind of producing money that comes back to us uh I'm just not sure that that route is going to be an option to us in the near term but we should keep keep researching
it so now I'm droning too so I think we both did our drone our share of droning so I want to make sure we're opening it to um thoughts from others and feedback from others on this subcommittee work uh when it's available I I can share what we discussed as well in our fundraising group to kind of compliment
with yeah yeah it all I'd say it all ties together so feel free to yeah sure basically uh well I'd like to start off by identifying the folks on the committee Joe uh Lea Lori Tom and myself uh we met over the zoom call and we
discussed we discussed a framework by which we can approach uh fundraising because there are lots of ways to do it and they kind of boiling down two there's public and private uh opportunities for fundraising uh but specifically in the private sector as Joe mentioned before there are uh we
talked primarily about Partnerships with the uh the the CLT this Community Land Trust uh because we there are limitations uh that or there are opportunities that exist when we partner with them as a the rc1 C
501c3 uh and that they can go out and for example reach out to potential sources of donors such as Banks and others in the area uh that might be able to contribute to the funds because what we would like what we know about housing
in general it's Capital intensive so generally the folks that we would try to reach out for in the private sector would be financial institutions insurance and such so one of the things we discussed was Crea an inventory of Banks and financial institutions in the
area I I've done so it was a pretty straightforward search uh there are about 150 or so banks in the Mass area and about 50 or so in the spe and that are like in the immediate area and that that have what's called cash deposits
These Are banks that are governed under this Mass General Law chapter 10 essentially saying that if these banks have a cash deposit uh then they have to they're they're under this sort of this this supervision the reason why that distinction is important is because
those Banks generally have a community presence they have a charitable Foundation that we can appeal to with working with this 501c3 uh or this nonprofit organization and that's one General approach in the private sector so essentially we would
one way to go about it if this all works through with Partnerships is working with a nonprofit uh we would basically go out to these various different financial institutions that have these shable wings and then we would uh apply for their grants some of their grants are actually they have Windows uh some
of them are due in May some of them are due later some of them rolling all of which are inventory in the list that I'll share with the group and we meet next uh the other thing we discussed is working in the public sector looking perhaps providing grant writing assistance to Tom and those folks in the
area so uh I'm going to open up because there are other folks that are in the that were on the meeting that on the call that like that may contribute but basically that's kind of what we discussed um one of the things uh also we we want to work is together with Chapa uh cha is a organization that
always work for the h ownership and for the housing uh and this next week will be a special meeting and uh we planning to attend them to learn how how they can help us with different I you know is
that I can help our program on our city for affordable housing trust F so is that step by step you know looking agents and private sector to help to build it up our you know our font to to
get the final ISU for the affordable house Ina so I think it's just looking at partners and the private sector and uh and Cha two and is the beginning for the for the resource we try to
find thank you did you have okay and then to crystallize actually cuz um I also have my report out on adus um when it comes to the Home Ownership side but I'll tie everything together too because I know we talked about some of the fundraising as well um as I mentioned my
side of it so in iio was kind of looking through banks I was looking more at foundations um so there are some charitable foundations that have been established that do sort of infrastructure work affordable housing work uh my very cursory review and quick
verdict is that you know without a 501c3 structure where heavily disadvantaged if not impossible to get some of those so um it was worth kicking the tires on but that doesn't look like a good Avenue uh but I think it could be a source of partnership with nonprofits uh or a source of partnership with the land
trust and when I think when I say source with nonprofits you know we've talked about we've had various nonprofit organizations come in front of us that are interested in developing affordable housing and so um keeping kind of a breast of some of those opportunities could help them you know with some of
what they're unlocking um I do want to ask you anio um cuz my initial thought was working to schedule the next subcommittee meeting for this group after Laura comes back to kind of hone in on land trust stuff but you mentioned that you looked at some different
deadlines for things that we might be eligible to apply for is there one that's a little bit more urgent that you want to make sure the one in May I actually have it itemized obviously I can yeah I'll share it with you uh later but basically uh as I went through and
produce the inventory I checked each of these Foundation groups and as I mentioned some have dates that are hard and fast this one in May I'll share with you which there was like 150 Banks I don't remember which line it was I've been in those shoes I know it's hard to keep track but then there there are some that have rolling schedules but by and
large that most of them have a fixed date I guess it ties into their own internal fiscal calendars uh so yeah the dates are important y great so we'll work on getting we'll we'll have a call sooner just to make sure that we're touching base even if it's quick uh but then we'll really look to the following
one is when we're going to really dive into Land Trust stuff I do want to report back just when it comes to adus you know we talked about the possibility of now that adus are legal Statewide and then the details of that are kind of being hammered out as to what that looks like in R uh and I know that's something
the city is working on uh but once that is kind of ironed out we'll have the opportunity to look at whether we can support um Adu conversion and that could be something that falls with within our role as affordable housing trust the most built out program like this that
exists is in Boston because Boston's kind of had this Adu law for a little while um so I'll talk a little bit about their program and then things that maybe apply to us or things that maybe don't apply to us that we might want to make sure to do differently uh so first off
they offer two different programs uh to support um taking I think a two to or one to four family and adding an Adu um one is technical assistance of up to $7,500 uh for the sort of design and
permiting process um my initial thought um is that we might not need that side of it as much you know I think it's more complicated in Boston I think some of the permitting fees and um costs probably are a lot higher kind of on
their side but I might be wrong so I want to make sure that that we research that but um I know that the that's the general impression is know is that building in the city of Boston itself is more complicated and that it might not require that amount of technical
assistance what we might want to focus more on if we kind of are trying and pick our spots is they also have a $50,000 um Loan program uh and so this is a zero interest loan that's repayable upon sale of the home so it's really not
expected to be money back in the door um it's support for folks that are really interested in kind of long-term having an Adu on their property that are owner occupants um so it's up to $50,000 and then some of the things that they do
that they have for resources that we maybe might not have so we have to think about it are um people that receive this are assigned to City staffer to kind of help oversight of the construction process of the Adu um we frankly
wouldn't have those resources within the building department interview they're already strained you know over capacity on a on a good day uh but there may be some potential in the future for like could planning and Community Development have a staffer devote some time to that type of project so it's something to
think about um they also offer seminars on this Adu conversion process maybe we could piggy back off of theirs you know maybe Mass housing will start doing things like that because it's going to be a Statewide phenomenon and not just within Boston uh but I'd say that
offering seminars within R itself you know probably not going to be cost effective for the amount of projects that would happen uh the other thing that I just flagged when reading their program guidelines that I'd need some clarity on for our side is that they
offer the loans um for residents that are up to 120% of Ami uh I know that you know we have guidelines around 80% Ami um what we're allowed to spend money on what may be possible and I'm going to
try to get some clarity on this um is that if the rent is set at you know the affordable rate for someone that's 80% Ami or below um for an Adu that we help subsidize or do a loan to that would fall within our scope even if the
funding goes to it's sort of like you know when we if we were to subsidize a developer they're not making under 80% of Ami right but it's for purposes of creating housing that falls within that income range um so those are some of the kind of unanswered questions but I think
in terms of answered questions I think the idea of an Adu conversion Loan program is something that could be really cost-effective it could really help us create affordable housing I know that um Deb was not able to make it today but she did specifically mention that kind of getting that Capital to get
the projects off the ground is something that's a huge barrier to Adu Construction in Boston right now and that the loan program makes a huge difference and so uh um I I think that's something to prioritize I'm going to continue to put that on my plate and I'll tag folks in to help just kind of
research what that program design might look like you know what a reasonable amount of money would be and then what we could do to replace the fact that we don't have the kind of capacity to assign like a building department Stafford to oversee these CU sort of like the senior repairs
when we talked about that one thing we want to be mindful of is you know not that we would be required to but I think that if we're offering loans to support construction projects within the city you know we want to make sure that that's a licensed and
reputable contractor that's doing the work that there's oversight of the work that's done that there's a report back that it's done you know how it was supposed to be done and that huge overrun um cost overruns are avoided um you know it wouldn't cost us more
because the loan that we'd be giving is a fixed amount but it defeats the purpose right if it ends up being a huge hit to the taxpayer to the homeowner that they have to pay a lot more than they thought because they got an estimate that was too low or some you know a project that wasn't managed
appropriately so I think that's always my big like fear slash concern when it comes to any sort of Loan program for a construction project is we just want to make sure we want to think about what that oversight would look like so I know Tom's not here um
but one thing that is the case right now is that they're kind of a little understaffed in planning and Community Development and maybe it's something to explore more when they're a little built out you know there's no like new Lena there's another staff member Who's down so um maybe something to think about and
keep researching but not to Fast Track until we kind of know how it would be administered so any questions about that on the Adu piece that all make sense to you yeah um but yeah I think that I'll look into whether the technical assistant side of
it would be necessary I think that if we were to focus on one or the other I think the loans probably make sense um but I think we have a lot of balls to kind of carry forward when we schedule the next subcommittee meetings both in terms of kind of looking at what that subsidy might be on the home ownership
side researching some of the costs for the if we were to kind of do the the bigger capital expenditure um linking up with Community Land Trust looking at some of what anio has put together for funding opportunities and then also looking at the Adu um programs so I think mission
accomplished in terms of kind of creating these working groups and allowing them to kind of take bigger ideas and move the ball forward so before we move to other items um just wanted to see if anyone had any further questions or comments about any of that just to Circle back to fundraising
like outside of writing grants um like as far as like accessing like private funds through donations right like not not like taking investments from private parties but
like what what can we do there like how like I don't know if you guys have looked into that but like could we like if we want to do this like Grant subsidy program for the condo conversions like is that something we could go you know set up a GoFundMe and have a $500,000
goal and like Hey we're putting up the first 250 and like here's why we want to do it's going to beautify neighborhoods and so on and so forth like so I'll I'll answer it from like a legal and a technical standpoint like legally yes we can fund raise uh folks can donate it's sort of like the scholarship committee
or other like committees that exist within the realm of it's a city budget entity but it's not it's like a separate fund and people can donate and and earmark funds to that fund I think on the technical side of it is where I I like that you mentioned it I know that
um you know like there's certain rules and regulations and I know I used to be the chair of the scholarship committee you know we couldn't take online donations because like the software that the city uses to take that in wasn't compatible
or something so I think that's changed I think they've updated that um but I know that that's always something that we want to make sure to be mindful of um but like from an from a idea standpoint that's definitely something that is legal um so I think maybe an IO we
should take that to the subcommittee and part you're already in contact with the treasurer's office and we should get a sense of like if people were to donate to us can it can it be online can we create like a fundraising goal page probably not like a GoFundMe but
something like that um is that allowed and is that possible and if so I think you know I agree that if we were to do a push like that it should come in conjunction with like we're doing a specific specific project right we're doing something that you know we're trying to encourage naturally occurring
affordable housing in R we're going to expend $500,000 on it and we'd love to raise that from people that are interested you know nonprofits individuals businesses in the community that have an interest in supporting naturally occurring affordable housing I think that's definitely an option for us
um so let's make sure to um bring that up with the treasurer's office to see like what the logistics of that would look like and then I think that we should coordinate an effort with once we launch one of these bigger initiatives whether it be adus whether it be subsidizing condo conversion or
something like that I'm getting Italian here um yeah Matt that was a great idea it didn't I never thought ofusing the online sources as a fundraising vehicle or a campaign it's a great idea I'm adding it to the list uh as U Joe was mentioning before
the governing framework the the legal framework of that uh is something that is not exactly clear to me in terms of letter of the law I I know generally those things are okay but yeah I will definitely thank you for that suggestion I'll definitely bring that up and I will work with the treasurer who I've been
working with th far to get the the the monthly update to see what the governing framework of that is and then hope we can integrate that in this a maybe a larger or collaborative campaign but that's a great idea thank you put that in the notes there awesome thank you
other comments thoughts feedback on those subcommittees so I am going to reach out I want to make sure that Deb Frank is part of the next um home ownership subcommittee and she's not here but she brings such an invaluable perspective with her um you
know work at the bank so I'm going to uh before we schedule that next one I'm just going to make sure that she's on an email and we set up a time I think for our fundraising subgroup we're all here uh I'm going to suggest we don't have to confirm this because you you can all look at your calendars uh but I'm going
to suggest next Wednesday afternoon you know um unless you think we need more time do you think we'd be ready to for as far as getting the uh the inventory together and all that yeah I can get that done by the end of the week so I'm going to suggest that uh I'll
send out for confirmation and then I'll work with our group on with Deb on a time that works for her so I'm going to call her to do that um okay great so we're gonna move forward from that unless anyone has any further
questions or comments so this is generally where we um have a window for Tom to give some City updates but he um was not able to make it today so I am not Tom uh I am wearing like a shirt that Tom would wear but I'm not Tom uh so I'll do my best to provide some of the types of updates that he would
provide just really quickly um so as I mentioned the uh so uh the request went to the city council to transfer the properties um that that we had talked to about out of the tax title custodians care and into
the affordable housing trust fund um once that's complete um we've also sent the rfps uh drafts to the purchasing department for them to review and have kind of in the queue it takes time for those to go out uh but then things are
moving right I know I've been we've been talking about this for a while that kind of got delayed because we had a few other things that Tom was had in front of the council that took some pre that took precedent like the housing ction plan that just took a lot of time to complete and the holidays and things like that but uh this is moving um so
that's actually a substantive update it went to the council and we're getting ready to get those rfps out so we're excited about that and we're going to be asking everyone for their guidance and feedback when that process moves forward um as was mentioned at the last meeting we received an additional earmark of
$75,000 to support the firsttime home buyer down payment assistance program um we put out an initial press release uh to call for applications and the mayor's office is going to help kind of promote that further applications have been light um so just keep promoting it I'm
going to send out a reminder to everyone you know get that out on social media get it to your networks um you know we got the other thing that I'm going to just put on our radar is that we got a $775,000 allocation I'm not going to ask for it today because we don't have seven
applicants yet but um once we get this out there and get some more or I'm probably going to request that we allocate an additional 5,000 to it to round it up to a clean 80,000 so that we can keep it at the 10,000 per person that we've set as the standard so far uh
rather than making the last one be 5,000 so would anyone object to that request if I brought it yeah I'm not going to do it yet but you know I think for the next meeting it might be something that makes sense um there's also we've continued to have conversation
internally with Tom and then with elder Affairs about a senior home repairs program I think the biggest concern that we have remains administrative obviously and so I think that um what we're going to end up needing and this is something
that it would be great if we don't need to discuss this now it's something that we can discuss in private what that would look like um for the first time home buyer down payment assistance I've like volunteered to be one of the screen to be at first one of the screeners and now I'm the only screener cuz the Raina
um left of the applications and I I get notified when they come in I carve out time even though you know it's not like my full-time job to review those to get in touch with applicants Etc um we'd probably need we would anticipate that a senior home repairs program would have a
ton of applicants there's just like a ton of need for it and a lot of interest in it uh and we probably need quite a bit of help you know with like administering the program reviewing application s reviewing estimates that come in making sure they're from qualified contractors Etc um if that's
something you might be interested in being a part of let me know um we're not quite ready to like to launch on this yet but that's one of the things that we're trying to iron out um so that continues to be a topic of conversation with the Elder Affairs department and
with myself and with Tom's office um any questions about that okay um or about the first time home buyer I kind of sped past that one um this is the spot for other City updates that I didn't know about and I don't know about them so they're not
they are not forthcoming um any other additional late items or other items that people want to add or be sure to mention and I that there was one from you yeah okay and um on Tuesday March 4 U there was a meeting where Senator
salty Dominico Senator Lydia edas representative Jessica Jan representative Judy Garcia and representative Jeffy Jeffrey turo were present an amount of topics that discuss with members of the housing Equity
Community is a group of Rivia and Chelsea about the affordable housing environment adoption dollars and is an ad a granting to a local to a local
option for a real estate transfer fee to to found affordable housing among others topics the leaders agree that is uh necessary to De um to deepen this the
study to the proposals for the good of the community not just for the future tenants it's just for the uh actual home owners of the city before approval both act um you know pass away so is uh this
continue the bill the bill is not already passed but they are will be attendant especially for the city of Rivia and Chelsea about it so after that they going to be updated but uh it's just they follow up they are pending
working for our city thank you and then the other thing I know that you I think had sent an email or going to send it but there's an event upcoming with Chapa that might be of interest yeah yeah Chapa will be next week uh um March 18 is a meeting for the
all Massachusetts they um it's a special meeting about affordable housing uh the inclusion Aron they have a different topics but the most important is working with the affordable housing what the uh
will be the deadline for the budget that the common we approve for our all cities around Massachusetts so they open so if you can register online on shaa will be attending
so yeah so if you could just send that around that email to everybody that'll be great um I've marked my calendar I'm going to try to make sure to attend um good to build those collaborate you know that collaboration as well um okay any
other additional items or notes from folks so the last thing I'll add is just some scheduling notes um and some other kind of administrative notes um so with subcommittees I'm going to reach out we talk tentatively about the next meeting and then we should also get the
following one on uh for after April 1 when Laura is back to talk about um uh the um Land Trust sorry I had to brain fart I've been saying that so many times and so it slipped my mind um and then I'm going to reach out to everybody about uh ours for home ownership I think
that does next week work or do you need a little bit more time to keep kind of Gathering or do you think that so I'm I'm actually okay so we'll look for yep so we'll look at two weeks out for home does that work for you Dean sure
okay um and then a note on the next regular meeting the full meeting in April so Clara is going to chare that one uh I'm going to be out of town that week I'll attempt to join remotely but I don't know that I'll be able to uh but she'll be there and then you know we'll have everything prepared in advance for
report outs so any questions but any of that okay well with that I hope everyone enjoys the improving weather I guess today it took a little step back but yesterday was very nice uh appreciate all the efforts uh moving things forward on both subcommittees and some of the
other efforts that we're working on and I look forward to seeing you all at the next meeting so can I have a motion to adjourn second second great all in any any opposed seeing none so moved
e e for