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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 07/06/2023AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 7 /6 /2023 – M I N U TE S Page 1 July 6, 2023, 4:00-6:00pm Online via Zoom CALL TO ORDER At 4:03 PM the meeting was called to order by John Singleton. 1. ROLL CALL • Board Members Present: John Singleton, Ed Hermsen, Jennifer Bray, Kristin Fritz, Sheila Seaver-Davis • Board Members Absent: Bob Pawlikowski, Stefanie Berganini • Staff Members Present: • Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Staff Liaison – City of Fort Collins • Ginny Sawyer, City Manager’s Office – City of Fort Collins • Meaghan Overton, Social Sustainability – City of Fort Collins • Tamra Leavenworth, Minutes – City of Fort Collins • Guests Present: • Alea Rodriguez, Housing Stability Program Manager, Larimer County • Marilyn Heller 2. AGENDA REVIEW – No changes. 3. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION None. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Ed Hermsen motioned to approve the June 1 Regular Meeting Minutes. Sheila Seaver-Davis seconded. Approved 5-0. 5. NEW BUSINESS A. Sustainable Revenue – Ginny Sawyer, City Manager’s Office • Ginny Sawyer from the City Manager’s Office joined the Affordable Housing Board members to provide updates on sustainable funding. Ginny explained that 3 out of 13 potential funding mechanisms remained: the franchise fee, property tax, and sales tax. • Sue Beck-Ferkiss reminded the Board that this issue would be discussed at City Council on July 25 and August 15. AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 7 /6 /2023 – M I N U TE S Page 2 • DISCUSSION: • Are any other living staples aside from food exempt from sales tax? No, just food. That came about when we did the Keep Fort Collins Great tax in 2015 and we increased the base rates tax by 0.6 but Council didn’t want to increase food tax beyond 2.25%. For the franchise fee, we are working with Excel to see what possibilities may exist for doing an automatic on-bill rebate for anyone who income-qualifies. • Are there any considerations being made since the latest report indicates that several people (especially seniors) are leaving the state due to tax increases? There’s an awareness and sensitivity, but as a City, we are looking for ways to provide the level of service that the community has expressed they desire. • Is there a way to dedicate any of the taxes to affordable housing? We aren’t dedicating certain amounts to any specific concerns or city goals. The money collected will eventually be allocated by the community and budget process. We don’t want to lock the taxes into certain categories, especially if the tax runs for 27 years. B. County Housing Work – Alea Rodriguez, Housing Stability Program Manager, Larimer County • Alea Rodriguez, the Housing Stability Program Manager for Larimer County joined the Affordable Housing Board members to provide an overview of the work she has been doing at the county since starting her role. • Alea began by explaining that in the county’s 2019-2023 strategic plan, they identified addressing affordable housing as an objective. In 2020, a Housing Needs Assessment was done by Routt Policy where 4 needs in Larimer County were identified: additional units, starter homes, diversity in housing options, and housing resources for special populations (older adults, mobile home residents, people experiencing homelessness, and people with disabilities). The county has narrowed down their role in affordable housing to 4 main areas: regional coordination, service expansion to unincorporated areas, evaluating and updating land use code and policies, and eviction prevention and renter protection. • For regional coordination, Alea explained that the county is part of the Northern Colorado Continuum of Care (NoCo CoC) where they work to contribute to their expansion and growth, and assist in their efforts to make homelessness rare, short- lived, and non-recurring. Through the NoCo CoC and in partnership with Homeward Alliance, work on the Larimer County Homelessness Strategic Plan has begun. The county is also working on updating the intergovernmental agreement with Housing Catalyst (Larimer County’s housing authority) to create transparency around how the county serves unincorporated areas. The county is also hosting a work session on AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 7 /6 /2023 – M I N U TE S Page 3 August 7 where 3 housing authorities across the region – Housing Catalyst, Loveland Housing Authority, and Estes Park Housing Authority, will present to the Board the work they’re currently doing and to discuss future strategies. The county also recently hosted a Proposition 123 convening where they invited all municipalities and towns to discuss Prop 123, answer questions about it, and learn which municipalities were thinking of opting in and what supports they needed. • For service expansion to unincorporated Larimer County, they have established the Larimer Home Improvement Program, which is run through Loveland Housing Authority. The program provides low-interest loans for repairs to all low-income homeowners in Larimer County and unincorporated Larimer County. • In 2022, the county was awarded the Innovative Affordable Housing Strategies Planning Grant from DOLA that allowed the county to do a land use code audit from an affordable housing lens. Cascadia was hired to do the audit and had 4 suggestions for updating the land use code that were brought to the Board and Planning Commission: redefining ADUs and allowing them in residential zones, creating “cottage clusters” (encouraging smaller dwelling units at lower price points where there would typically be one large single family home) in rural areas, allowing multi-family housing in rural commercial zones (but only in commercial corridors), and the creation of a mobile home park preservation zone. Cascadia is also researching the feasibility of certain projects for Larimer County, such as county land banks and establishing and sustainably funding a county housing trust fund. • For eviction protection and renter protection, Larimer County received over $20 million from the Treasury at the beginning of the pandemic for emergency rent assistance programs, but these dollars are now dwindling, so Larimer County is trying to find additional funding to replenish these dollars. • Several board members followed up with clarifying questions for Alea. C. Affordable Housing Board Composition - Ex Officio Member for Housing Catalyst – Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Social Sustainability • Sue Beck-Ferkiss expressed how advantageous it has been to have the experience of the local housing authority developer on the Affordable Housing Board for the past 8 years and how there has been discussion about having a seat on the Affordable Housing Board for the housing authority. Housing Catalyst is in favor and The City Clerk’s office will bring the issue to the Ad Hoc Committee on Boards and Commissions on July 19. City staff will recommend that the Affordable Housing Board composition changes to include an Ex Officio seat for Housing Catalyst and staff would be the ones to determine who would fill that position. • Several board members expressed being in favor of this change – stating that the person could bring their expertise to the group and that this change would allow the group to engage with the Ex Officio member more during the competitive process since the person would be a non-voting member of the Board and wouldn’t have to recuse AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 7 /6 /2023 – M I N U TE S Page 4 themselves. Jennifer Bray motioned that the Board recommend an Ex Officio Member for Housing Catalyst to the Boards and Commissions Ad Hoc Committee. Ed Hermsen seconded. Approved 5-0. D. Debrief Competitive Process – John Singleton, Board Chair • John Singleton asked the board members for feedback on the 2023 competitive grant process to gather feedback, critique, and ideas. E. Housing Strategic Plan – Meaghan Overton, Social Sustainability • Meaghan Overton explained to the Board that Council voted in favor of the rental registration program and since the appeal/referendum process is over, the decision stands. The decision is an appropriation of $400,000 which will primarily go to the staffing required to stand up a rental registration program that includes improvements to proactive inspections, software improvements, education and outreach resources, enhanced mediation for landlords and tenants, and enhanced staffing for community outreach. • The complaint-based system will stay in place with several additional resources added. Part of the cost is going toward education and outreach for the complaint-based system, since several community members expressed during public comment that not enough people know about the program, that it doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to, that there aren’t enough resources, that there aren’t enough mediators, etc. • Neighborhood Services is in the beginning stages of creating job descriptions for the program. • DISCUSSION: • How will the City enforce registration and make it mandatory? There is an entire enforcement section of the ordinance that lays out how to ensure all rental properties are registered. However, it is going to take approximately 18 months to ramp up the program before the City starts registering anyone. If a landlord isn’t registered, the City will know they aren’t registered, and will send a pleasant letter with the assumption that the landlord doesn’t know they’re supposed to be registered. If 30 days passes and they still haven’t registered, the City will send another letter. After another 30 days, the City will start with fining and continue enforcing from there. The hope is that like code compliance, we get somewhere around 96% voluntary compliance, but the enforcement tool is there if we need it. • Is it optional for landlords to report expected rent? Yes. Reporting the expected rent on a property is not part of the ordinance so it’s an optional question on the rental registration form. AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 7 /6 /2023 – M I N U TE S Page 5 • Is this program intended to be self-funded long-term? Yes. It’s been designed to be self-funded and to repay startup costs within the first 5 years. • Will there be a charge for registration? Yes. Since the fee may need to change over time, we did not include a fee in the code language. It’s the City Manager’s discretion to set fees. Although the pricing is not yet finalized, it will likely be somewhere around $37 for a single unit rental and $10 for each additional unit. We presume this cost may get passed to tenants, so we want to keep these fees as reasonable as possible. • Will this program provide any information about the true cost of homeownership (such as cost of upkeeping a property) or the housing market in Fort Collins? Probably not. At least not at first. This program is focused on housing health, safety, basic habitability, and making sure people have access to available resources. Eventually I think it could make it easier to reach out to landlords in Fort Collins and ask them questions in a way we can’t now. For example, we could do an annual survey of landlords in the future. This program could eventually give us an easier way to communicate and invite participation with landlords. I think there’s the possibility to learn more at the macro level as we go, but it’s not the primary intent of the program. F. Board Member Ideas • None. 6. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS a. Meeting Logistics • August meeting is cancelled. • September meeting will be in-person at 222 Laporte Ave with a hybrid participation option via Zoom. 7. OTHER BUSINESS None. 8. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 6:05 PM.