##VIDEO ID:uX5VE6tMkqo## [Music] okay I'm here all right I think I fixed I fixed that problem okay all right so it's 6:30 so we'll we'll begin all right good evening everyone um welcome to the Wednesday October 9th 2024 uh regular meeting of the city of Riv affordable housing trust fund board uh my name is Joe grai chair of the affordable housing trust fund board we will start with um taking attendance for the meeting um just making note for the record we do have a few folks that are participating virtually um as well as a few who let us know in advance that they're unable to make it um but just running through uh myself and present Claire and zerilla here okay thank you I know that anio is absent today um Dean Harris is also absent today I do see Lori there um I'm here Lor Lori thank thank you for being here but if you have to go at any point don't worry about it thank you um Matt woler here okay and Leila Petri here and Deb Frank here perfect so we do have the presence of a quarum so thank you for that um we are going to have to skip past the treasurers update because the treasurer is not present uh I'm not the treasurer but what I can tell you is that um the main thing that would be demonstrated and any change um to the balance um is going to be likely in the next couple of months the actual pay payout of the down payment assistance program hopefully which is a good segue into that agenda item so I wanted to update everyone first on how things are going with the firsttime home buyer down payment assistance program secondly kind of next steps and then third I'd love to gather feedback on um you know if we'd like to try to do something again expand it change it you want to open it up for discussion um so as of right now we received since opening the application nine applications um for the first time home buo program um they've all been screened for eligibility um there are a few that were immediately not eligible due to not meeting the residency requirements um or not meeting the income requirements uh there are a few others that are pretty much close to to being done so we think that you know within the next couple of days sort of final documentation will be complete to deem that they're eligible now once folks complete their income verification The Residency verification verification that they pre-qualify for a mortgage um and that they've either enrolled in or completed a firsttime home buyer Workshop um and this is thanks uh very much to Deb for making sure that we got this clarified at the last meeting because actually we didn't have this on paper so we we gathered it around everyone to make sure that this was clear um the eligible applicant will receive a letter confirming that they're eligible and I'm going to send you all a draft of what that letter will look like um to the people that are deemed eligible um and from there they'll have six months to enter into a purchase and sale agreement um now if at the end of that six-month window they've been unable to do so for whatever reason and they're able to demonstrate like good faith effort that's ongoing um to try to get there then we can make it we could have an extension and we can talk through what that application for an extension would look like um internally as a group uh but that was in consultation with the mayor and in consultation with Tom scosi uh that was the window that was deemed to be appropriate um to give folks the time the runway to to gain their eligibility but then have time to go off and use it um and then as a recap I know we discussed this but it's always good for a refresher um the way the assistance is actually paid out um is in the form of a forgivable loan um so essentially you know if you um the loan is Forgiven if you continue to I think it's over four years or five years maintain your residence maintain that as your primary residence um within the city of R so if you sell it or you know move or purchase another residents and use that as a rental or something like that then the loan is not eligible to be forgiven you'd have to repay it um but obviously we're operating from a budgeting standpoint under the assumption that we're going to allocate the full 10,000 to all five eligible folks and 50,000 will go out the door and that we're not going to get it back that's our that's how we're going to budget it that's how we hope it works out right CU that would mean that the program was a success and did what it was intended to do um my kind of comments on the process and I'd be curious to other people's perspectives um you know obviously there's always more that can be done to promote these things and I know that we did have some flyers at the Fall Festival um there's been some postings on social media in addition to the newspapers and R TV and we saw uh sort of the splash of applications come in usually the day after it ran in the paper that's kind of logically when we've seen it um but beyond that you know one problem that these types of programs face and I've heard this feedback from other boards and other communities as well uh is that particularly now in this current interest rate environment um kind of threading the needle of folks that meet the income guidelines to qualify for this program so they have to be at 80% of area median income or below um but have a healthy enough income to be able to pre-qualify for a mortgage and then frankly win a bidding war for something that's available uh and be able to afford that mortgage um it's a pretty narrow subset of people and then you narrow it even further with the 2-year residency requirement you know where it's someone who's been a resident of rev purchasing and rev now I think it's good that that's the rule like that we set because that's the purpose of what we're trying to do is to create opportunities for a residents to put down roots in the city um but it does narrow the pool of applicants like it's pretty small um I'm if if I may ask um we did not put any limitations on the ability for them to stack our $10,000 with other grants or down payment assistance did we we did not and in fact it's very much intended to do so okay so have so having having said that that doesn't necessarily cap things in the same way Mass housing has a $30,000 down payment assistance that can go along with that 10,000 so and the qualifications are the same definitely and I think part of the challenge and this is I don't have the solution so I'd love to you know I think that getting the message across to folks about the different programs that are available and how they can stack on top of each other is difficult and this is something that I experience I mean you all know it's a different range of folks it's not home buyers but you know in my day job working at a shelter agency where folks are trying to move out of shelter and into permanent housing um understanding the Maze of various programs that you're available that you're eligible for is complicated right I think um you know in that instance you have different programs around rental assistance different programs around assistance for like moving expenses or furniture or that can help with you know other kind of immediate needs and how they stack on top of each other it can be confusing and difficult to navigate um I do know that it's something that the city has tried to kind of train the community liaison on with 311 is to kind of be able to help people who who reach out with housing questions and I know that they've had housing families in in the past I'm not sure if this is really in their kind of ballpark or if they're more so working with Folk that are like facing eviction or kind of at that extremely low income income level uh but thinking of ways that we can better connect people with resources so they understand that you know there's this wide range of possibilities that exist and can be out there and that qualification can happen um even if you don't have a lot for a down payment because of the assistance that's available um I do think For Better or For Worse right the applicants that we get probably do know about the other programs because they also know about ours I mean it's just unfortunately you know there's this information Gap that exists right in the community folks that maybe are reading the paper watching rev TV plugged into these sorts of things um and folks that are not um but yes to answer your question it is stackable so I'll reiterate that I think maybe that's worth reiterating on social media like if there's another post that goes out from the 's office May's office with's that yeah yep mayor's office put out a post on Facebook and on Instagram um advertising it uh I believe in four languages um and maybe that can be reiterated as part of it is that it's a stackable benefit you know where there's other um programs that can go on top of it to make more folks potentially be eligible um so I don't have so those are the two kind of things that I've identified as if there are ways to do them better next time we do something like this I'd love to think through them right it's the publicity piece it's maybe how it ties into to other resources that are available um and making sure we're kind of casting as wide a net as we can and getting everyone that might be eligible for it um like I said don't have solutions to that but I think it's helpful to identify problems I think has anyone had a chance to click through and go through the actual application itself and kind of see how it works from a user standpoint I thought that that was really well done and well designed um that was Lena and the team that really put that together but um certainly would you know appreciate feedback on that like user experience process if you had a chance to click through it um and the fact that everything is timestamped helps us know you know what order applications came in and things like that um but do folks have their own feedback thoughts things that we should be considering as we perhaps do this program again in the future and make some tweaks or changes to How We Do It um I want to add something because um after the governor sign the Home Affordable house in Hong at they have something that Aria maybe will be uh good for our city is the new credit to for ownership production tax credit that is a new credit to incentive production of home ownership units targeting household on incomes up to 120% M credit helps to the gap between the developer cost and the estate estimate of the value of the finished homes so I think maybe we could take uh this advance for our city to build a new units for whole ownership yeah thank you for sharing that if you want to distribute that um you know around to the board so that everyone's up to speed on that obviously there's a lot in that legislation we're learning you know more every day about some of the different opportunities that exist which is terrific um other thoughts on sort of challenges with the program good things about the program things that maybe like we already identified one thing that we know we didn't do in advance that we need to make sure we do next time which is what's the time frame for being in purchase and sale um so I'm sure that as we go through this process with all the different programs that we're going to run we're going to learn you know little hiccups and things and mistakes that were made along the way so yeah only thing I was going to add the I thought the application experience was was good too but um maybe next time around we can put some thought into like um how we can kind of get the business community involved just as far as like you know the top 10 selling agents in R and lenders and just making sure they're aware of the program like people who are incentivized to make sure their buyers can get across the line just just so they have that in their back pocket that might um help too was probably a miss not not doing that proactively on this one yeah that's a good idea um going to note that for the minutes and for the notes to send it around you know I think we did have a few inquiries that came in um from Brokers and I think that they would then pass it on to folks um I don't know if any of the applications that we got came from that but I think if we were more proactive in reaching out to more people it would obviously open up more um eyeballs to it yeah just making sure that the people who are doing the most business in the city like you know get the flyer in their inbox um like I don't think it has to be like a major Outreach campaign we could we could definitely manage that definitely um so definitely making note of that other either application experience elig like eligibility we kind of in the box of what it is right the only piece of the eligibility that we have control over is the residency piece and I do think two years is the right window you know maybe one year you know but I think you wouldn't want to make it longer than that but you obviously want to make it something that can is demonstrable that someone's been here like I'd be open to it being one year but I think two is probably where where I would come down um but the income piece we don't have that's based on state you know State guidelines the federal guidelines so we don't have wiggle room on that one um so two things I would like to mention um for the next time keep in mind that your pre-approval is only good for 120 days yeah so if we have a six-month window our pre-approval is expired and we don't know what's happened so I would say that if we're going to extend it this time we should at a minimum require an updated pre-approval and then in the future maybe have it four months at a time you know yeah just to make sure that we're getting keeping the pre-approval up to date that's good that's thank you for that um I would agree that next time we'd probably want to just line up those windows to have them match each other that would just be logical um other feedback on the program so for f for folks that are watching um the application portal is still open so if you or anyone you know um is a potential firsttime home buyer and rier you're going through the process uh we do encourage you to apply um it looks like we have a few that um are definitely going to be eligible as long as they kind of finish up their paperwork and go through the purchase and sale agreement but I think it's two or three that we're pretty sure are going to be so which would mean that there's still a couple um spaces available for people that complete their application complete the pre-approval complete the firsttime home buyer process um or course work um so definitely encourage anyone out there that might fall into this window to apply um and to spread the word to their friends neighbors family Etc um okay any other commentary or thoughts on this program okay so with that we'll move on and this is another um where unfortunately Tom and Lena aren't here um but I think I would love to just get people's thoughts and have a discussion on this um so one of the things that we've been talking about for a few months is the disposition of some tax title properties uh some Ser some properties that came into the um City's hands via the tax title process um and part one has kind of been activated which is that um a um there was an RFP to get someone to handle the like marketing of the properties and um why am I blanking uh like a broker to do some of the marketing and kind of try to walk any potential buyers through the process of possibly doing a development on these properties so that was part one um part two is actually finishing the RFP for redevelopment of these properties and what that would look like uh and concurrent with that there's going to be a legal process that the city needs to go through um that's going to involve requesting that the city council declare these property Surplus um so that they come out of the custody of the tax title custodian and can be transferred into the custody of the affordable housing trust fund um I'm fairly confident that that will not be an issue you know we appreciate the city council's support and the mayor's support of these types of Endeavors um though obviously we're happy to talk with anyone that has questions um so that process needs to happen first and our hope is to get that in motion for the next city council meeting which is coming up on the uh last Monday of October which is the 28th so 21st 21st I've heard okay I've seen 28th on the City calendar I've heard 21st from you um uh you know what zoning is the 2 maybe the 28th is the city council meeting let's get that clarified um I think you're right okay I think I'm just hoping that the 21st meeting that I'm dreading won't happen and I'm just manifesting it but I guess I think the 28th is's the city council meeting I believe that to be the case uh I've been operating under the assumption that we need to have that ready by the 24th or 25th to submit for the city council so if I'm wrong about that um please let me know uh because we don't want to miss the deadline um so that'll be the next step in the process and then from there you you know I think the way the RFP is going to be designed and we're trying to model it after what some other communities have done but also think about what makes sense for us um is that the most advantageous bid for the property will not necessarily be the highest bid right it would be um advantageous towards use for affordable housing uh with a particular advantageousness if that's a word uh for home ownership um projects so they'll be the opportunity to evaluate any proposals that come in there's five Lots um that are part of this and I would say that the level of buildability on them varies I'll I'll say you know there there's one that there are a couple that are challenging you know that I think that um and I'm not sure if the zoning analysis got to everyone yet but I'll make sure that it does um where it's possible to build like a single family or a duplex on the property but it require extending the street and extending all the utilities like there'd just be some expensive um pieces of the process um but it's possible that someone might have a vision for it that allows for that um but the other thing that we do have the option of doing as part of this process is selling any of the properties just to the highest bidder and then using money that comes in for that into the affordable housing trust fund to use for other initiatives so we will have have the opportunity to evaluate applications across the Met like the metrics and criteria of affordable housing Housing Development verse you know Revenue that could come in for anything that folks want to do with it on a market rate um that would allow us to invest in affordable housing um I would love to see and I I want to kind of get people's thoughts in an IDE world you know one entity might be interested in all five of the properties um even though they spread across the city you know there's some that are more over by the Trav area there's others that are more kind of like Broadway or near American Legion Highway um but if there was someone that was interested in all of them and perhaps it was a mix of market rate and affordable um but also I'd love to see like I know we've talked about like habitat as an example of a type of organization that does this type of work um a bid that might be a low dollar bid but it involves you know that can be a city contribution to doing an affordable housing project and there's the opportunity for that entity to raise money or use the resources they have to do a home ownership project on some of the parcels so I would like to see all of that um and I do see a question from Lori uh is this for home ownership only or is it also open to other um housing for lower income people it's open to any um proposal to build any housing ranging from extremely low income all the way to market rate um and with a preference for affordable of any kind and then a preference for home ownership uh per kind of I'd say guidelines and parameters that we've set and I would say that this is a good opportunity for folks to chime in if you wouldn't want that to be part of of it but I think that when we went through the goal setting process we kind of did state that right with limited resources we kind of have a preference for this type of project but it doesn't mean it's the only thing that we would support right we'd want to look at maybe there would be a bid that came in that was to build like low-income rental housing and for whatever reason that was the best and most advantageous use of the properties um we should look at that I will say that you know not being an expert in these things um and maybe I'd love to hear your your thoughts and I mean we all have our areas of expertise because the most you can do on any of these Parcels is a two family um and most of them are probably best as a single family and maybe with like an Adu it would be tough to do like deed restricted extremely low income housing just because the math doesn't really work without density um that's my impression I could be wrong you know i' like I'd be interested in seeing kind of what's out there but with kind of s a set of single fames or duplexes you're probably more likely to see kind of that mix of like 80% Ami and and market rate to make the math work but certainly would be open to hear people's thoughts on how we'd want to evaluate any potential bids like ways that we want to Market it so that people know what the opportunity is um and other thoughts that people have on this process I guess just a general comment I think the the better we can do getting this in front of people and just the more kind of bids and plans we can solicit the better um and yeah I think we should definitely go into it with an open mind in terms of like what could get put on these properties like not just thinking about maximizing you know the the number of affordable units on day one but thinking about like what's the actual highest and best use of the property because if we allow someone to develop you know two affordable units with a market value of you know $450,000 say for like that duplex versus if we can get a market rate bid that Nets $900,000 maybe we can add two units to the housing Supply albeit not affordable units but that's still allowing people to move up and creating like more Supply down the line and we're netting that extra extra money to go you know put two affordable units somewhere else so I guess that would just be like my kind of thoughts on is like we should keep an open mind when we're going through that process um yeah I I think we definitely want to have like a good plan going into it so we're not just getting bids from you know three or four investors definitely um and I think that we will have the ability once the properties are hopefully in our possession um and they've been transferred to us at that point we would have you know the the opportunity to try to do that and be creative and get spread the word and get the word out there to as many different different types of biders as possible um and we would all as a group you know have that ability to evaluate um different bids that come in so thank you for that I do see Lori added an additional comment in the chat so I want to make sure I'm being mindful of folks participating remotely um hearing from folks right that it's hard to stay here due to the um cost of a home or cost of a mortgage exactly that's exactly right um and I think that's why we've kind of set that priority to try to see Home Ownership projects but of course we want to see any type of project that might be useful or beneficial to to folks in the community so definitely appreciate the the comment Lori um so that's something that it's not quite like the ball hasn't quite moved much further than it was a month ago because there's just steps that we have to go through in the city council process but we're kind of coming up on the rubber meeting of the road on that one so start to think about um how we want to do Outreach around the RFP and how we want to evaluate those bids and Matt you're you're doing exactly the type of thing we should all be doing which is thinking through the cost benefit of different types of bids that might come in and how we would want to weigh them um but we certainly appreciate the partnership of the planning and Community Development team on working through this process um and it's certainly an opportunity for us to either add units or bring in some revenue or maybe both you know depending on how things shake out so uh excited to see that move forward yeah other questions thoughts on this piece yeah great um another thing I was just going to quickly note um is this isn't quite um an affordable housing trust f fun project but it's something that we should all be aware of um is um the planning Community Development team is hopefully going to be moving forward with an application to create an H dip District within the um within a few um the suff Downs area um and the sh leav area in Rivier so this is an incentive program through the state um that allows some tax incentives um to help spur housing Housing Development uh and we are going to try to utilize that to specifically incentivize affordable development you know particularly like when you think about the shirle AV neighborhood the amount of market rate that's been built which um we've seen a lot of that um but are there ways to use these tax incentives to make the math add up to add more affordable units as part of the project um so I don't have a ton of details on what this would look like yet because it kind it's kind of working through the process but the maximum that um AG dip districts can do for um below market rate low income units is 20% but 20% would be a lot more than what's in a lot of developments that exist in the community now so um stay tuned for that I think that's another one that um needs to go through a city council process and if and when the city moves forward with that um that proposal there would be a public hearing via the city council that would be open to everybody so obviously I would encourage affordable housing trust members to be plugged into that to attend it to share their thoughts any questions about that knowing that whatever your question is my answer is probably going to be I'll write that down and we'll ask Tom okay it's not a question it's just when to share something about the for the home act to about the community basement C task credit that we can also take advantage to because the individuals donating uh 1,000 or more to the Community Development corporations or nonprofit Comm Community Support organizations that has been our C CITC receive a credit uh of 50% of their contributions so this is that uh will be good for the investors and Developers for the community they take advantage of that yeah absolutely and I think that that's something that um we're really appreciative um of Tom and his team you know when we do have development opportunities in the city are being super mindful of what the resources are that are out there to encourage and incentivize affordability as being part of it um and I think we've seen an increased emphasis on that over the past you know year and a half which I think is something that we're all um pleased about um so more information about that one will be forthcoming um another item we had held was just additional updates from planning and Community Development and we don't have them because they're not here uh I know Thea is away for the long weekend um and Tom had a scheduling conflict I believe the same meeting that Dean is at so um that's why we're down a few people today um so with that um were there other topics that folks wanted to bring up I know as well we have um public participation as well either in person or via virtual um things that we want to put on the agenda either for this meeting or for future meetings seeing none terrific and then the last thing I would just say is um we I appreciate the work everyone's put in to kind of get us to this point you know I think we went through a period of time where I think for like a solid four or five months we both had like hour and a half long meetings and we had to have subcommittee meetings and special sessions and like Zooms in between uh and now we're kind of at the point where we we invested that time and things are starting to happen which is terrific um so that's exciting you know I think it's a Testament of the work that folks have put in and we already had one example of folks benefiting from these uh the work that we've all done which is the Salem Street project which is exciting um and now we're going to have another once we start awarding these firsttime home buyer programs so exciting to see that come to fruition and and um looking forward to continuing to do what we can to maximize what we have for resources to support affordable housing so with that any other comments questions I'm also making sure to take a look at those participating online I do see that Claire reiterated the council meeting is on the 28th so that's good that we have that clarified um a that's good because that's how much time I thought we had to get all the materials ready uh and B it's good that we we all know what date it is so 28th Circle that um I think there's going to be some business before the council probably that'll be of interest to everybody so just make note of that date okay do we have a motion to adjourn second second okay all in favor any opposed all right thank you very much e for