##VIDEO ID:rGn3cLdDUX4## okay so R TV is unmuted now so is the can you hear me now Noah yes yeah I can hear you awesome all right I think we're good and with that we will get started thank you for your patience while we worked through the wonders of modern technology all right uh good evening everyone welcome to the August uh 14th 2024 regular meeting of the city of rever affordable housing trust fund board uh my name is Joe gravi um I serve as chair of this board um under the guidance and support of Mayor Keef um we'll begin with attendance uh we have both virtual and inperson participants so if you're virtual when I call your name just unmute yourself and say present um so Claire and zerillo present CLA anoi present okay I'm just going to go across because I think we have perfect attendance Lea Petri president Lori Manzo present Deb Frank present Dean Harris present Matt Wolford present awesome well great to have everybody here um and then I'd like to also acknowledge that we have Lena here from the city of Rivier uh we also have guests from JM Goldson we have Noah Harper here um and we also have guests from tnd so a pretty packed agenda so we will get right to it um and I will cook it over to you for the latest uh update on financials absolutely good evening everyone my name isio sakei I'm the treasurer of affordable housing trust committee I'm going to uh explain the the current budget as presented to me or provided to me by su Newton currently the budget for the affordable house committee trust fund committee is $647,500 27 great thank you very much um so we are going to kick off um with a review and discussion of the draft strategic plan and so for that I'm going to in a moment tag in Noah Harper uh from JM Goldson I trust that everyone had a chance to take a look at that and review saw a few people offered some comments and feedback but it seems like in general we thanks to the great work that we all did together going through some of those exercises and planning processes we're we're in a pretty good shape but uh I'm going to have Noah talk through it a bit and um take it away no Joe that's really it just wanted to give everyone a last sort of final chance to give us any other feedback you'd like to have us incorporate into the plan before you guys go ahead and finalize it so um if you don't have the thoughts right right now feel free to email them to me as well I've got my notebook handy um but would just love to hear if you guys have any other U edits or or comments you'd like us to make the only quick thing I'll ask to clarify is I'm not sure I know we got the updated financials last week I'm not sure if one of us sent around a version that included that piece of it um other than that everything else should be unchanged I believe I did but let me know if I I sent the old version and then maybe the next day I sent the updated version thanks to niio for getting that over to me but you guys let me know if it didn't make it over your way yeah so did anyone did anyone either not get that or not have meant to offer some commentary via email and would like to do it now that we're here um in person y all right well Noah maybe if you just want to give like a really quick high level your you know where the process is what it looks like and what the next steps are yeah I think really the next steps are if there are no sort of like lasting comments it's for the board to to vote to adopt the plan and say like this is what we're going to work on going forward okay and would it be uh maybe make the most sense to just give folks the month to review that or do you need that to be done quickly okay yeah we'd be happy to give you guys another month I want to make sure it got to everyone's inbox and yeah I want to make sure everyone's on the same page with the plan terrific uh does anyone have any questions so I'll plan we'll plan on putting on the agenda for next month the formal adoption of this plan uh but do not mean that do not take that to mean that you have to hesitate to reach out about any proposed changes questions Alternatives uh we'll send it around again today um just to make sure everyone has another chance to review it uh but in general I would just say that a few things stand out to me you know some things that are just completely continuous with what we've been doing since we first started this board here and a half ago uh and other things that were changed and modified you know with the with the assistance of the Consultants I think what's unchanged is that we have a group that does a really good job of like talking through where there's so many different ways that you can tackle the challenge of affordable housing and R and we all acknowledge that you know the piece that we have of it is pretty small um and from the beginning of this board we've done a really good job of kind of talking through there's lots of different things that we can do that have kind of a small impact but what is the ways that we can make the biggest impact and um that's feasible and realistic for what we can do and I think that we've done that informally right since we started but I think the formal process of doing that um Noah um and the team there put that literally on paper when we did those exercises and wrote out different priorities and broke into our small groups and uh so I'm just really proud of the work everyone did on it and also grateful that now we're going to be able to kind of formalize that we have some stated priorities um specific goals that have some numbers attached to them and the beginning is kind of an outline of a of a budget which is terrific and so that'll help not only us make our decisions uh but it'll also help um those that are going to look to the affordable housing trust fund for support for projects and they kind of view us as an ally in the community so great work by all and uh really appreciative Noah of of you and your team and the work that you've done this thanks Joey appreciate working with you all and yeah I'll I'll pass it on to Jen as well I'm sorry she couldn't be here tonight and and looking forward to the to the meeting next next month terrific um I don't think this requires anything more than just a quick mention of it but Lena you can feel free to jump in if there's anything else but the next quick item to mention is that um as we all know we've been involved with um adding to the affordability component of the condo project at 133 Salem Street uh and the lottery um is actually going to be held on Monday for the affordable units uh anything else beyond that that we need to touch on or so I'll just repeat that for the mic so uh the lottery is going to be it oh feel yeah feel free to oh do we yeah when don't we bring that out so mhm all the technology has been terrific tonight we're doing we're doing great great hi everyone Lorena scalero Community Development planner and conservation agent at the mezan level so on Monday August 19th the lottery for the 133 Salem Street project will take place here in the council chambers at 6: p.m. I just wanted to give a thanks to Matthew wolfer who unteer to help the lottery agent pick the names out thank you Matt we appreciate that um and again reiterating this is the exciting culmination of kind of a long process we started this board with one of probably I think the first thing that we all coalesced around was we want to do some sort of deed restricted home ownership opportunity and the way it was going to look we we talked through a few different Alternatives but I'm really excited with the way this came up out so awesome uh work by all okay next um on the agenda we have tnd so they're going to do a presentation um on a project they're working on at 110 Ocean AV um update on the project some of the needs um and then answer some questions about it so with that I'll turn it over to you guys if you want to introduce yourselves um and then I will pull up the um slideshow that you sent me no sorry I'll try that again uh I'm stevea farer I'm the director of real estate at tnd hi I'm Cassie Woodhouse I'm a senior project manager with tnd iant I am it's having a little finicky issues again so just one second while I pull this up but if you want to just maybe do a very very quick overview of the project while I pull that up for you and then we'll we'll get that started sure um well thanks for for having us here we're excited to share this 110 ocean uh project that we've been working on for probably about two years now um right now ocean the 11 Ocean AV is uh owned by North saic Community Services and they have a group living environment there where seven folks um live in a group living setting um and they reached out to us about two years ago and said you know the the buildings reaching um a point where they need to make some physical changes to it and they're looking all around at the building Tex them and thinking that there's a better way to meet their mission on that site than by solely providing U the group living environment so after a couple months of of conversations with them um we entered into an agreement to to work with them to redevelop the site um about a year ago we were here in front of the zoning board of appeals uh and they approve the Redevelopment uh so we'll be recreating the group living environment that's there now um but for eight residents so an additional resident um we'll also be creating a 5,000 foot office space for uh northa Community Services adult and clinical and Community Services team their accs team so they'll be on site and it'll be a place where they it's a place where they'll support those residents but also residents living in community based settings throughout uh the community and it'll also be a place where people can come to get services and then on the upper levels there'll be 48 additional affordable homes primarily for families so in total it'll create 56 affordable homes um and a new office space for nscs and I think a lot of for North soua Community Services and I think a lot of the folks who will be in that office space are providing Services currently to people in the community but they're not they don't have an office space and they certainly aren't able to coordinate in the same space with their colleagues so I think that'll be a really um exciting addition so this um I just put put it through on the share screen on Zoom so this is another thing that in the past has we've been able to show presentations that way so hopefully this is coming through for rever TV there we go um let me just full screen maybe we'll we can move to the next one the next slide um I'll just say for those folks who aren't familiar with the neighborhood developers um we're non profit we were formed in 1978 not full screen hold on give me one second this St be crazy no problem okay one second uh continue with the introduction and then I'll I'll open this up full screen I think I see what I did sure I was going to say the neighor developers is a nonprofit We were formed in 1978 and we served the communities of Chelsea Everett in R um in addition to creating affordable housing we really do take a comprehensive approach to community development so many of you have probably interacted with tnd the community uh building department has been really active in um in organizing efforts particularly around Shirley AV um we have resident services who work with our residents in existing properties including at 525 Beach and one beach and 571 R um and we also have our uh connect Financial Services um where we provide a a a slew of services around both stability and financial Mobility so uh help folks with graft applications um English languages assistance Etc okay and so it should be up now if you would great okay terf so I think we kind of covered these first two slides so may move to the terrific third one and I'll Cassie take over cool um so Steve kind of talked about uh if you go to the next slide um the general site but this is where it is located so 110 ocean is part of that that ocean AB neighborhood that's had a lot of Redevelopment like he mentioned there's bigger buildings there it's uh across uh from the MBTA blue line there's a pedestrian bridge that carries folks over to the Garfield School in that neighborhood um so that's a really convenient location as well um and these are just some of the other amenities that are right in that neighborhood um as well as being very close to the beach next slide so this is one of the early renderings that we have um just highlighting some of the elements that we've included in the building and that we do try to include in our buildings whenever possible um passive house design which means like a really tight envelope uh so that you can minimize the need for heating and cooling uh those efficiencies are are uh created by the design elements that we incorporate it's going to be all electric uh and it is meeting the the height of the buildings in the surrounding area while still achieving seven stories um by utilizing cross- laminated Timber which allows us to kind of condense the floor plate in between floors and really maximize the number of homes that we can provide to people at this location um we did also design all of the electrical systems and spaces to be elevated above the first floor so that they're outside of the flood plane and and really um lend themselves to the resiliency of this site lasting quite a long time so this is the ground floor showing the parking and that you know the only thing that's down there is the the plumbing and uh a entrance to the building with uh postal spaces and the elevators um and a bike storage and then the rest of the the stuff is is going to be upstairs so next slide um so the second floor here showcases the two group living uh apartments that are four bedrooms a piece on the lower half of that uh layout and then the 5,000 ft office space is uh on the back side of the lot closer to where the Garfield school and the blue line is located um and on each floor we really did try to take advantage of the fact that there's a corner where you can see the ocean and so Community spaces Community Gathering rooms are are all located on this corner here so that people can have a beach view when they're in those spaces next slide so um this is a typical upper level um and it does show the affordability that we have so the area median income is the kind of metric that they use to establish what the the rent limit is um so in Riv we know that we've seen a lot of households that are not having the increase of income that that other communities are seeing and so in this project we have designed and tried to build the budget around hitting uh rents that are no greater than 50% area median income because that that rent limit is actually more reflective of the community members that were um trying to service with this building um so we do have three bedrooms two bedrooms and one bedrooms on the upper five floors uh and then the uh eight group living beds but two four bedroom apartments are on that second floor uh 12 one-bedrooms will be 30% and they will be facilities consolidation fund units and those residents will be receiving services from North suffa Community Services as well but that's not the case for the other uh the two bedroom and Etc right so yeah the the two-bedroom and three-bedroom units some of them will be 30% Ami but they will all just be General um population and and a Revere um Lo local preference when we do that Leisa and so the for the ones that are North suffk clients it's like an existing client pool uh that's already been selected or is there a process for how they would so there's one resident that will be likely returning they have the option to return because they are living in a one bedroom on the site right now uh the other 11 households that would be served by that it it's it's a referral process so they may have folks identified already although I feel like it would probably be early for folks to be waiting um but yeah they do have their own pool of of folks and if we do feel like there are people that that you know have applied otherwise to the one bedroom but they should be receiving services or could be receiving Services we do direct them to North suff to try and start that process as well thank you should I move on yep a question this is just for RIA residents patients from residents or not exclusively um we can do a preference but there are limitations on that based on Fair Housing and I think previously it's been 75% 70% 70% um and so what that is is that those applicants get like top preference based on the lottery number it's this quite big rigor but they do get a preference in the lottery and you okay suok they have a office on Chelsea right on the Broadway but this is just a regular office or they have a uh that'll Contin that that office will stay there it'll continue to to be there they have several other office and that'll continue to be their main office they have several other other offices uh in this space in particular they have a a team that they refer to as their accs team which provides comprehensive services to people who are living in community based settings and most of them are working from home coming into the office when they need to providing services in folks house it'll it'll provide a space for that team to have a dedicated office space and work out of um so it won't replace the office in Chelsea it'll be in addition to that and this might be more of a lenic question so the lottery having a preference piece does that work the same as the as the ownership ones like that Mass housing does them where there's a certain poll that's just the residents until you hit the certain percentage and then all of those that don't get picked go into the General Pool and there's then another Lottery where a Riv resident that wasn't picked from the riv portion still theoretically could be picked in the other one it's just that's it's no longer separate for them is that how that works it's sort of similar there's one there will be one Lottery um and you know they everyone will get a number based on it coming out of the lottery but then sort of the first the 70% of the units will have a rever preference so if you know person number one is not a rever resident then it'll go to person number two Etc until the 70% is sort of full and then Rivier residents will like you said still be in that lottery so it doesn't mean that it's that they're limited to 70% of the units it just means they have a preference for 70% of the units I I should note that you know the preference is the maximum that can be given by law for fair housing um when we're closer to the closing process we'll uh apply to eohc the executive office for housing and livable communities they've always approved that maximum preference in the past so we're confident they do it again but obviously we can't you know we'll we'll do everything we can to make sure they do so I have the next slide up but does anyone have other questions before we go to that I know you're starting to kind of get I have another question I know uh Suk also they have a provide service as students from the Ria students just not just for the high school for all then so this is me the patients the be residents they going to apply if they have a student they are you know working with them or how this work for example I know some cases on uh they have special cases on the high school right now and they get attended on the Suk so hold this work for that parents um so when we're when the project is almost done we'll advertise and it'll be open to anyone in R and we'll reach out to also Community groups and and we're happy to add this group to it we want to get the word out sort of as wide as possible and so we'd encourage everyone to apply and in the application they'll you know any preferences like in this case a preference for someone who's receiving Services through dmh or or Nora Community Services they'll be able to kind of check a box on the application that says you know they think they might qualify for that and then again it'll it'll go through a lottery but you know if their number you know if we're um but checking that preference will help us identify that that they might qualify for it even if they're not um coming in specifically for that does that answer the question yeah I know because sometimes I'm working with uh uh with the nurse Department in the high school and I know some cases working with that and in Chelsea so I know how this work and maybe I can provide information so that parents that are the kids are they are on special treatment special because I know uh the program is going to your home and working they have a family you know they have different steps and most of them they are from the high school so let's talk after the the meeting or or afterwards and we'll make sure we you know again we're pretty far out on construction but when we get to that point we'll we we have an affirmative fair housing marketing plan that will be approved by the city and will be approved by the state and in it we'll list I don't know 50 organizations that we're going to that we'll send applications to and we can include you know the specific people at the high school or yourself or whether it's the nurse's office or whatever so I think the our goal is to make sure that anyone who could benefit from this housing knows about it and has the opportunity to apply great happy to have other questions but if not we can go back to the um the slides yeah and I'll I'll that's a perfect segue because that I think that's one of the main reasons why we wanted to come tonight as I said we've been working on it for a while uh we were here almost exactly a year ago talking to the zoning board of appeals uh and the project improved wanted to make sure that we're getting the word out to you even though it's really early um also it's ironic to be right after this strategic planning conversation because I think that you know we um we've created a lot of affordable housing in Rivier in the last few years and we want to continue to to be partners with you to create affordable housing so we want to make sure that you kind of understand generally the types of projects that we're doing and how you might support this project or other projects in the future um so I think those those are both two real two of the key reasons why we're here tonight I'm going to cover the last two slides this one uh shows the budget I won't go into it in a ton of detail I will say the project uh we can probably even skip to the next Slide the project um we applied to the state for funding this past uh winter uh and we were awarded uh funding in May so the project um as was conceived in August is sort of ready to go um Cassie was mentioning the design process we were doing during that period and obviously we're dealing with the same things that that every other developer in the world for-profit and nonprofit is dealing with in terms of cost increases and interest rates so right now we've got about a $750,000 uh Gap we're looking for to a bunch of different sources to to close that Gap uh we might come back to you to help us leverage some of those sources that would help us close that Gap there's no specific ask tonight I'm sorry can you repeat the number I didn't hear it it's a right now it's about a $750,000 gap thank you yeah so no ask to you tonight um in any way shape or form but I wanted you to just kind of see that and know that it's out there um and then I wanted to kind of just look at this duration too because I think I um uh BL helps tell a story a little bit of of affordable housing projects in general and how they come together so before we continue I'm curious about this number is it broken down into like obligations like the $700,000 Gap is it itemized in terms of what parts of that would go to in terms of what you need um that that way for example we would presumably let's say there was opportunity to for assistance we can see what is there and how it aligns with the goals that we have for our organization yeah I mean I think we could um I don't have this in front of me right now but I mean I think we have the budget that we submitted to the state uh in December when we applied for funding and we have sort of the cost increases from there um and you know some and we could go into a more in-depth Conversation Over You know what what's driving those and Etc um but I think in general again if we were to come to and ask in the future on this project or another project I think what we would say is really it's it's you know it's the entire project cost it's the nuts and bolts but it's also the you know construction loan interest and paying professionals and Etc and it's really creating the 56 affordable homes um in general that you know cost a lot of money overall it was on the last slide that was up there it's about a $40 million project in that includes acquisition and the commercial space as well as the 56 affordable homes and so that breakdown of what the sources and uses are was on that slide that I pulled back up if you wanted to show it so if everyone can sponge that in a bit and I I'll be sending this around to take a look um so I know this isn't a full you know line item by line item but this hopefully gives kind of some insight into so this is what the Gap is yeah it it's cut off because of the way the screen is so if we're seeing the entire slide it would say that I don't know if there's a way to like I don't know if so this is R whoever's controlling the r TV Zoom uh if you could full screen this that would be super helpful you can kind of you can sort of read the top half of the totals still a little piece that's underneath that that that makes it there but I mean you can kind of do the math yourself um I guess on that on that piece um there you go thank you other questions about anything uh presented about this so far and I do want to really quickly talk about the timeline on the last uh one um so obviously and again if you could do this on full screen I think it it shows uh I think the years are cut off at the end that might just be the way the screen guess well I can kind of summarize it you know as I said I think it was you know almost two years ago maybe a little bit more than two years ago we started talking to noric about their vision for the site how we could work together um and both meet our missions on that site um last spring we you know kind of formalized an agreement that allowed us to move forward the zoning uh uh the zba granted variances last August we were just in front of them to get them renewed earlier this month um we've gotten a local funding commitment from the North Suburban home Consortium last fall um in uh a funding commitment from the state this spring um we are hoping to start construction uh in the second quarter of next year um and we anticipate about a 2-year construction project um so that would put us you know having people moving in in early 2027 um so that's actually a relatively quick process of about about four years um 571 Rivier was was closer to five or six years um so again sort of thinking through you know the types of projects I think this is similar to the types of projects that we hope to be doing in the future and hope to be talking to you about in the future so also just giving that that information I think we' you know again we reached out to North the North Suburban home Consortium which is a partner of the cities um last fall you know two to two years before starting construction four years before delivering so wanted to kind of talk through that with you all um thank you so just a quick question I had for the for everyone's benefit that's maybe not as in the weeds with this sort of thing um could you talk through two things first off the types of funding that come in through eohc for this um like how that's secured and then secondly I know you talked about you're looking at a few different options for how you're going to fill that Gap and how we might you know we may be potentially able to help leverage some of that at some point which is all to be determined but I'd love to just hear you talk through what some of those options that you're going to be exploring will be sure um why I want to start by talking about what we go to eohc for um they have an application called a onstop application it actually starts with a pre-application where you know they learn more about the project make sure you're delivering affordable homes and they look for two critical items in that one that the project is zoned it can move forward and the second is that there's some type of local Financial commitment um in this case we got that through going to the North Suburban home Consortium which is a Consortium of eight communities that rever participates in that that gives out federal dollars for affordable housing projects like this um in the future we might come to this board at that time for a future project you guys were brand new at that time and we felt like it was you know you hadn't done your strategic planning we felt like it was a little premature to come talk to you then so I just want to you know bringing that up I want to be upfront that that might be the time you would a project in the future um and then we submit this application tolc um for a project of this scale we ask for usually ask for Federal Loan from housing tax credits um and we may also ask for State loan housing tax credits and they also have what we call soft subsidies which are um sort of loans 0% interest deferred payment loans that they provide to projects so we ask them for kind of a a pretty large slew of funding um and actually if we wanted to go back to the slides I could kind of show where that is um and then usually yeah so um the first line there I put lihtc that's low-income housing tax credits um and and so there's federal and state low-income housing tax credits we played uh applied for here we're also projecting a little bit of tax credits because we will have solar on the roof so that's about $23 million of the overall $40 million project and that's allocated through hlc we also asked hlc for 75 million doll which they awarded to the project in in May um so all told that's 3ars of the funding there's $1.1 million that comes from the home Consortium that we were talking about before um and then um there's a $7 million permanent loan a loan like anyone else would have um it's just a lower loan because our rents are lower and then we will earn um a fee based on a formula that hlc has it allows us to to pay our staff and to fund some of our other programs and to make sure we have money to do the next project and we will defer some of that which means we won't see it in cash we'll we'll get it in the future and so that's another million more than million dollars of of it so that kind of have that I does that sort of answer your question about sort of how the funding it does for me but I just want to make sure folks have questions I know these processes can be complicated um to you know with a lot of um um acronyms and things like that so just wanted to make sure that I thought that that was really well explained but want to make sure people have questions or good terrific yeah so you don't have the litec funds yet from from the state correct or the feds um we have a commit there's two different types of we have a commitment for the state litech the federal litech there's two types of um tax credits there's what's known as a 9% credit which you get a commitment for and there's what's known as a 4% credit and that you qualify for based on providing affordable homes and by using a tax exempt bond to fund at least half of the development costs um and actually the tax exempt bond is is the piece um that is slowing down constructions start right now because the state has used all of their 2024 tax exempt Bond capacity um and they're starting to map out their 2025 tax exempt Bond capacity so um so there isn't really like an award of tax credits for the 4% um so we wouldn't have that at this stage but we sort of have everything else and they're clearly committed to it we just need that tax exempt bond that will qualify us for it if that makes sense right well from what I understand there's a line for for that it's it's full and and and uhlc is hoping to do more and more deals smaller Bas 30 40 units with without any liech at all which is really difficult to do but that's so the timeline in your in your eyes to get the financing done yeah so I think that is the issue right um so there the state has spent all the 2024 um volume cap so there'll be no more taxes and bonds in 2024 they act I had a conversation with someone at Mass development um last week about this they're they're actively kind of like figuring out what are the 20125 projects we're advocating for this to be in it obviously it's got all of its funding lined up it's got it zoning lined up it's shovel ready sure um they haven't committed as far as I know they haven't committed to any projects for 2025 yet so I think the question will be will we get 25 volume cap in which case I think we'll start construction in the second quarter if we get 20 if they say no I can't imagine a world in which we don't get 2026 because we're clearly in that line and then we'd have to wait until the following January to start construction I mean in my opinion that you know you've got a $40 million project and you're at you know 39250 and there's there's a gap there that it would make sense for something for us to contribute somehow I mean that's something for us to deliberate on so I don't see that's out of the realm I just I think it's amazing now I think you break it down uh if you take the community space out of it but if at 56 units at 40 million you're at like $715,000 per unit and then you question why don't just buy everything in the city that's under 700,000 and turn it affordable before before you start building like even the 133 Salem Street right um if all the units there are are 500,000 um you know if you bought all the units that were there all 60 of them at 500 you're only at 30 million you save 10 million you've got you know more units affordable than than than are being created um you know that's just outside different thinking no but I I first of all I should say if you take the commercial out it the the total development cost starts with a six not a seven um and it floors me uh I've been doing this for 20 years and I remember when I started at tnd 9 years ago and we were proud we had a never had had a project that had cost more than $300,000 a unit and now you know it's standing in front of you 9 years later and it's twice of that I mean the globe did a story in January that talked about all housing being there so I think that is a reality that we're all dealing with and that's what what gets that taxes and bombed issue at the table I mean that's why it's here I would say the other thing that we're doing that you know we weren't planning on talking about today is we're really actively uh doing exactly what you said we we see again talking with our community building folks and just talking with folks in the community we see one of the biggest concerns that people have is displacement and we see that often happening when landlords who owned properties for a long time I have decided to keep rents low maybe to keep tenants in whatever they choose to sell the building fair market value I mean I can I got another property that went on the market last week in Chelsea and like three times in the marketing materials that talks about how they should increase rents and I think that's the only way they can justify these asking prices so we are trying we are actively engaged in trying to purchase the naturally occurring affordable housing that exists in the city because I think you're absolutely right right from a cost perspective that's a more efficient way to do it and it also is is really individuals who are at risk of being displaced and I think people would be amazed at the I know you mentioned that the units would be uh for people that what 50% uh median income in and in low in Ferrari area for those that don't know um you know if you're a one person household it's at $57,000 at 50% of the median income uh two people you're at 65,000 for three person household you're at like 73,4 so but still a really high number um if if you said you know people between 30 and 50 for these particular units and 0 to 30 over here or however you want to structure it so whatever your mix is so it's still people that are out there working and making a lot of money so it's it's good and I think if you know there's a short number to to make up that that it wouldn't be unreasonable in my opinion to contribute um to get it done yeah thank you for that I'll I'll add to that tax credit units in general are usually at 60% Ami we've watched Ami again being area median income we've watched that area median income over the last the area media the area is defined as about 100 communities stretching out to Weston we've watched that number in the last four years just explode in a way that I don't think is is as Cassie mentioned we've seen as um it just hasn't happened in the same way and rever so we specifically in our application to hlc said we don't want to have the units at 60% we want want them at 50% because that's where people living in Rivier are um and I think that that you know that increases the mortgage capacity that we or decreases the mortgage capacity that we have so I think we're really committed to that because we're trying to build these for R residents and we're again we're thinking about making sure that people aren't displaced from the community that they're they're living in but that that is you know that's one way that's not the way we want to do it but that's one way we could solve that gap for for sure and to get on my you know Soap Box a little bit um that's one of the real problems and challenges with the fact that we live in a Metro region that's so economically segregated you know where you have really frankly a small number of communities and rever being one of them that's at least doing something to you know pull its share of trying to um have some semblance of affordable housing and and some construction come online and a number that have really just done nothing um and you see the severe stratification between certain communities in inside 128 and others that you know have very different socioeconomic mix but we're all defined by the same area median income for these affordable projects uh and also we're all part of the same you know region we're one region when it comes to the boom and bust of you know the economy and when you see economic growth and you see demand to live in the region that squeezes everywhere but obviously the specific squeeze on the people that are most at risk is felt where those people live right and so that's places like River and places like Chelsea uh and that's why there is such a need you know I I'm as much of you know an evangelist as anyone for just in general we need more construction of all kinds but I think for the where the reason why there needs to be this really specific focus on um these you know percentage of Ami and a place like Rivier is exactly for that reason that's kind of in that short term these are the people that are feeling the the most squeezed by the circumstances that we're facing um I did want to give you a chance to talk about you know and so I'll just to let everyone know we had some informal conversations you know before putting this on the agenda and you know I think it was clear and obvious as we all know that like a full gap of 750,000 like we're not we're not able to assist with that that's above that's beyond even what we have in the in the pool uh and also this is this type of project and this type of um priority is important to what we do but it's only a piece right we have all these different priorities that we've lined up home ownership projects um you know first-time home buyer assistance other types of programs that we want to do uh that being said I think we're you know probably all in alignment that this is the type of thing that we want to see happen in the community um and is a needed part of the affordable housing mix um and so if there's a way that we can be helpful and one of the things I mentioned when we talked about our constraints you know financially and where this fits in is that one of the things that really Drew us to the Salem Street project and why that became such a big source of investment for us um is that we had the opportunity to leverage outside funds where you know we put a certain amount in but then that unlocked a lot more right in the state funding that came in um so with that I don't know if you want to talk through some of the things that you'll be exploring as like different types of programs that could fill that Gap I know that there's not a huge time crunch so you're probably going to look at a lot of different options and come to us if there was something that makes sense but I wanted to give you a chance to talk through some of that yeah I think um those are all good points and I think again you know anything that we would ask you for is leveraging $40 million in this case and I think in future projects we'd probably come earlier when we went to North Suburban home Consortium and said hey if you can give us this $1.1 million we're going to ask the state for 7.5 million plus all these tax credits um and we'd be sort of asking you there um for right now I think we want to explore um some foundations in particular um but some other public um resources and and most likely come back to you with a asset a fraction of 750,000 and then we could say you know again hopefully we've got we applied recently to the housing ministries of New England for example hopefully we've gotten a commitment there and we've gotten a couple other uh commitments and we've been able to shift this around and you know you can Le and and again I think that that I understand why that Leverage is important I think the one um thing that I'll add is that I also you know this project is going to take four or five years to get done and in the future again my my senses will come to you earlier in that moment where we really need that leverage the first time and I would say that you know we're not going to spend that money for two or three years at least and we might not even really need need it for four or five years so I I would um you know we when we've talked to the North Suburban home Consortium sometimes we've asked them you know if they're comfortable sort of forward committing something so I would say that the scale of the project both in terms of time and money is the type of thing that you know in the future we might come and say we know you have X available we want you to do the seven other things that you all that like we're we're really excited that you're funding affordable home ownership projects and first-time home buyer stuff and we're really supportive of that we don't want to draw from that you know if we don't need it for three years are you able to give us what seems like a higher percentage um because you'll have hopefully have more income coming in anyone uh first of all I just want to make sure that I point out that Claire uh dropped into the chat she's participating remotely that this was a super informative presentation uh and she thanked you for that um I would certainly Echo that um other questions comments feedback uh from folks so if not the last thing I would ask um in addition to just keeping us updated and I'll be sure to send updates along um is it if you want to or feel it would be helpful to give a quick overview of anything else that you're working on right now or that you're able to speak to feel free to use the time yeah I think the biggest thing um is we're also like I said looking at Naturally occuring affordable homes um if you know if folks in the community are living in buildings that are being sold um you know let us know um you know we're also I think we've been working a lot with the TDI partnership in shirle AV about exploring what are some you know I think we've seen a lot of new development that's been market rate and primarily aimed at individuals we'd love to do one of the things we love about this project is that it's so close to shirle AV and it's focused on families and it it just brings a compliment to us so I think we don't there's nothing like in particular sort of on the drawing board at the moment but I would say that that we're spending our time as a staff focusing on naturally occurring affordable housing and on creating a family affordable housing in the shirle AV area um and so hopefully we'll have some opportunities in those two Realms to talk to you about in the future uh thank you and I again I I also believe this is an outstanding very informative conversation um the only question I have is uh timeline do you in one of your slides do you have a very detailed timeline of events and uh where would we fit either above in between or behind that timeline I um do you mean in future projects or in this one well I presumably it would be this project but if you have any other projects uh where would we fit in those timelines yeah I think in this project you know we need we need to close that gap before we can start construction and probably about 6 months before we can start construction so again we're aiming for like an April to June start so we're thinking between October and December we need to fill that Gap so I'm cautiously optimistic that in the next 30 days we can you know Identify some additional sources get some commitments or at least get um a a road map where we' be able to say okay you know we've solved two-thirds of it can you help us with this this piece or whatever but I think we're our goal is to really solve that n sometime this fall certainly by the end of the year so that we could be ready if we're able to get tax exm Bonds in 2025 to close in the second quarter and start construction thank you you're welcome other questions so we appreciate your time and uh thank you for the detailed presentation and keep us posted over the next uh month and maybe we'll see you back absolutely thank you all thank you all right thanks guys so the next piece on the agenda um is is an update on the first time owned by our down payment assistance program and before I turn it to Lena just for background as you all know we received a state earmark to support this so $25,000 um divided over five eligible households to give a $5,000 uh benefit too and then we committed as a board already to to match that so that would be an additional five so it would allow us to offer 10 to five eligible home buyers and thanks to the efforts of Lena and the team uh We've we've developed some guidelines and an application process and Lena is going to run through that a bit I'll send it around to everybody if you haven't seen it yet as well and we can work towards really getting this going so yeah we're hoping to launch on Monday as the same day as a lottery and hopefully we'll have our Flyers translated and maybe Matthew can help um pass along Flyers to folks um as well if anyone else wants to help out to that would be great um I'll be there for I'm sorry i s later I can do if I you know if you need it I can go yeah sure if you want to come and help um pass out the Flyers to folks um Al I can help with the translator in Spanish and Portuguese too okay I'll talk to you after this meeting then thank you and so really happy to have Joe helping support administer the program and help vet the income eligibility and the applications as are coming in um I sent along the program guidelines and the applications a couple of weeks ago but I can resend to all yep and happy to hear feedback if you have any I know that we really want to launch Monday but if you have time from now until Monday to provide that feedback that'd be great um also thinking about developing an Outreach plan to spread the word about it um we definitely want it to run in the paper do an announcement on rier TV um and also very open to any suggestions on where it could be shared on with what groups and Outlets is it on R's website is it going to be on R's website yes it will be and would you be able to just at a high level uh talk through the steps and the guidelines for eligibility yeah sure so where really opening it up for any R resident looking to buy a condo single family a multi family home but the second or third unit would have to be uh deed restricted affordable for a certain amount of years um and this could be either a at affordable prices or um a market rate price home they would have to uh present at least two years of being a resident in rier so we'll need some like um utility bills um tax income information I don't have it on hand on me but we can review more thoroughly if you have questions on it and they they have to buy the home in R there's a r housing a r resident that has to buy a home in R all right and they'd also have to complete a firsttime home buyer course yes a certified course through either chap said there was you said there was a term so does that mean it's forgivable yes these this is a grant program okay so it is forgivable it's now not a DPA no okay and so there's a few programs offered through Chelsea restoration happening this fall that can PE folks can take while they're filling out the applications and it's really an ongoing rolling basis application so as all when all funds have been exhausted the grant program closes until we decide to maybe do a new one a new Grant round in the future could you just um reiterate like the income eligibility guidelines those would be the same as the HUD fed federal income guidelines % of median yes at or below at or below if they can get pre-approved and it works out with their financing okay other questions so I do it does sound like some people have had a chance to review and others maybe want to take some more time I do think that uh obviously we'd love to get this approved and formalized so that they can start on Monday what I would hope that people would be amendable to um is that we can vote to to approve this to start but that we certainly take time um in the next couple days and if there's a matter of of real urgency where we think that there's something that is really significant that needs to be changed or flagged for the program we can put up we can you know put a pause on it um and then we can call a special meeting to ratify a new version um would anyone have any issue with with that as a timeline yeah so my motion would be yeah so what I what I'd be looking for is to approve um these um this application process as I'll make a motion to approve this application process um under the guidelines that were laid out there um and that the city is free to begin advertising that this program exists we already made the vote previously that we expended that we've agreed to expend the $25,000 to match the state's 25 so that's already done we've already committed to doing this uh it's a matter of um a vote to approve these um guidelines in this process um which Lena kind of gave an outline of and have been sent around yes yes yes so I will make that motion do I have a second all in favor I second thank you Claire thank you Claire all all in favor I yes I and any opposed yep yes you're you're no I it's that one right is yes yes yeah okay so any any any opposition no okay seeing none um so moved um so we'll denote that for the record um and I'll make sure that everyone gets the most updated copy of it although it seems like folks have it um if you have any questions just try to look through flag them immediately between now and Monday um but otherwise we look forward to really launching this um please feel free to reach out uh not just to Lena but me so I'm going to be taking um a few hours a week um formally you know outside of my duties here to also help with administration of this program so I'll be coming into City Hall to help with that on a part-time basis so you can direct uh queries to me uh and also flag um places that we should be advertising and marketing this you know obviously we know about the usual places we know about the Rev Housing Coalition getting things out to the schools things like that uh but please reach out um and that also goes for members of the community as well maybe um participating other questions about this program great so I certainly encourage um anyone who wants to be there on Monday at the lottery to to do that um first of all just to celebrate uh the culmination of that process but secondly we'll be able to help really start really kicking off this this program and this project so terrific thank you any other questions comments on this okay uh so the other quick thing I'm going to mention and I'll let you if you want to add anything um is we're continuing to move forward with the uh process of disposition of city-owned and tax title properties and RFP has gone out for um uh brokerage marketing services and so you want to add anything to kind of where we're at yes we received two proposals one from Linway group associates and the other for broad sound real estate um so we're in the process of evaluating both proposals and once we've completed those evaluations procurement will open the technical price proposal and we'll decide from there whether we want to award the successful bidder so did you any questions about that so far yeah so then basically once we have that once we move forward with that process and have a bidder and have someone to do some of the um the marketing and brokerage Services uh that'll allow us to move forward with trying to find someone who wants to come in and use some of these properties um with a really strong preference for affordable housing development so we will be involved in that process moving forward as to kind of how that looks uh and also I'm going to that's something else I'm going to be involved in and and supportive of um through the city so you can feel free to flow questions through either one of us for that um but I will keep you all posted once that RFP process is moving forward anything else to add on this piece no but I did have two quick updates on our Shi on our subsidized housing inventory um the first is that 250 Broadway Dean you might know as this applies to um 40 of voucher holder um households living in 250 Broadway uh so 40 of the units are expiring the deed restrictions are expiring at the end of this calendar year originally there were 59 publicly assisted units at 250 Broadway um and these were serving extremely low and very low low income families um but since then in 2020 Mass Housing and the property owner signed a disposition agreement which I'm still trying to figure out what that means but it it's preser they're preserving 19 units as affordable for the next 20 years and so I'm working with our housing consultant L Russ to make sure that they will be preserved for the next 20 20 years and um the home Northshore Consortium has transferred over nine units um and they're they transferred over the Covenant hold their rights to us so we'll be updating our Shi to add o add those nine home ownership units um they're at uh some of them are on pitar Street um Rivier Street I forget the the other address but it's a good thing that at least we were losing some but we're gaining adding more to the Shi thank you for those updates any questions about either of those updates terrific um so I'm going to just roll the other item that we had was sort of visibility around our initiatives that kind of rolls into what we already talked about right as we're going to continue that we're going to be reaching out um through the news through TV I know I think Claire had to I think Claire is still there um we joked that you know you're not truly a Public Employee until you've done a sit down interview with rier TV so we may have to have her you know go go and do that um and help just talk through some of these initiatives but obviously always open to other ideas that folks have I think that we're Claire says yippe uh we're really excited about you know I think now that we're 18 months or so into this process of of launching the board that we're really making progress on a lot of the things that we're working on and we're excited to get out there and spread the word about it um with that I'm going to open up to any additional or late items or things that we haven't covered that folks would like to mention well then seeing none uh going to make a motion to adjourn second second all in favor I opposed you're free to go e e