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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 04/04/2019AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING April 4, 2019, 4:00-6:00pm Colorado River Room, 222 Laporte Avenue 4/4/2019 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER: 4:06 2. ROLL CALL • Board Members Present: Jen Bray, Curt Lyons, Diane Cohn, Rachel Auldridge, Jeffrey Johnson, Catherine Costlow • Board Members Absent: Kristin Fritz • Staff Members Present: Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Brittany Depew • Guests: Marilyn Heller, Kathryn Dubiel, Tatiana Zentner 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION • Marilyn Heller, League of Women Voters o Event on April 22: Safe housing for survivors of domestic abuse o Minka “mini mansions” tour on Friday, April 26 at 2:00, 735 W 37th St, RSVP preferred to mmhellers@gmail.com o Shared statistics from “Making Room: Housing for a Changing America” 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Diane moved to approve March minutes. Catherine seconded. Approved 6-0-0. 6. PRESENTATIONS AND DISCUSSIONS A. Board member photos Board members had photos taken by City Clerk’s office for transit passes. B. City Plan Discussion Ryan incorporated the board’s changes into the draft that was forwarded along to Council. Jen read draft memo and sought feedback. Comments/Q&A: • Jen: Are there any changes we want to make to the memo? o Sue: We might want to clarify that Twin Cities means Minneapolis/St. Paul. Are we asking them to consider the whole plan or just the one statement? o Curt: Just the statement, although they should read the whole plan. AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 4/4/2019 – MINUTES Page 2 o Jeff: Has that plan been adopted? o Curt: Yes. o Sue: We could add a new sentence to the first paragraph about the board’s appreciation that these changes were incorporated into the latest draft. • Sue: Was your intention to include the mocked-up version in the memo? o Jen: Since he already included them in the draft plan, I don’t think we need to. • Jen: I’ll make these changes and send to City leaders. o Sue: Can you include Ryan, too? o Diane: And the board? C. Competitive Process Ranking Board members each provided their ranking suggestions for the three housing applicants. After initial rankings, Volunteers of America (VOA) was the top choice, and Habitat for Humanity and Housing Catalyst were tied. After some discussion the ranking landed on 1.) VOA 2.) Housing Catalyst and 3.) Habitat for Humanity. Comments/Q&A: • Diane: I put Habitat at the top because the CHDO [Community Housing Development Organization] option allows them their own set of funds since there aren’t others available o Jen: That’s the same reasoning I voted them in third position. o Diane: I would want to be clear with CDBG [Community Development Block Grant Commission] about that being the reason Habitat is lower in our rankings. o Sue: We can explain that when we send rankings to CDBG. • Rachel: For Housing Catalyst, they are creating housing for people who might not be able to find housing elsewhere. There aren’t enough transitional services out there. o Jeff: I wonder what they could do to “graduate” people so that others can use that service as well. o Diane: I think of SROs [Single Room Occupancy] as pre-permanent supportive housing. o Sue: I do think PSH [Permanent Supportive Housing] is intended to be permanent, while SROs can be but may not be intended as permanent. • Sue: Now that we have our ranking, what comments do we want to have Jen bring with her to CDBG? • Jeff: For VOA, I think it’s a great location. There were some on CDBG that questioned location, but I think that was over-weighted. CHFA [Colorado Housing Finance Authority] frowns upon housing close to trains because that can often be where lower-income housing gets relegated. In Fort Collins, this isn’t the case; some AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 4/4/2019 – MINUTES Page 3 of our most expensive housing is near the train; it’s clear it’s not a discrimination issue. o Rachel: I would agree that some of the concerns on that project were weighted toward personal preference. o Diane: This is the only project that adds units. Our goal is to ensure we are continuing to add new units. o Catherine: And it’s a new player. o Sue: The main concern I heard at the neighborhood meeting was bringing that many people in and how that will affect traffic. • Sue: For Housing Catalyst, I heard support for preserving 15 units, serving a population that can be challenging to serve, and can be hard to replicate. o Jen: I also like that they were looking at it as a comprehensive 20- to 30-year project. Not just a stop gap measure. o Jeff: There was concern about not having a capital needs assessment, but it made sense why they didn’t. o Sue: What I heard them say on the application was that they had done one a couple years ago and it wasn’t enough, so they went above and beyond that. o Jeff: Thoughtfully designed. • Sue: What do we want to say about Habitat? o Jen: That we almost ranked it separately because they were the only CHDO applicant. o Diane: If the other projects were also CHDOs, the rankings could have looked different. o Jeff: Why wouldn’t they be funded? o Sue: I think they will. The question is just whether we should deploy the CHDO funds now or wait. o Jeff: Deploy them now. o Catherine: It’s almost harder for us because we don’t know the dollar amounts. o Jeff: Homeownership is wonderful, and we would recommend 100% funded if possible. o Diane: And the Harmony Cottages project continues to impress. • Sue: CDBG met last night, and they’re not doing any presentations for human service applicants this year. They also talked about ranking tiers, so they don’t have to belabor the money on each one. • Sue: Let’s make clear that we agree these are all funding worthy; we have no concerns about these projects. AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 4/4/2019 – MINUTES Page 4 7. BUSINESS a) Council Comments—not discussed b) Review 2018 Work Plan—not discussed c) Open Board Discussion a. Halligan Water Supply Project: The board discussed the project and their interest in hosting a staff member to speak more about it. No one felt it necessary to provide specific feedback to this document. d) Liaison Reports a. Diane will be going to the Senior Advisory Board meeting to speak from the perspective of both Volunteers of America and the Affordable Housing Board. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS a. Placeholder—no current updates 9. OTHER BUSINESS a) Update on Affordable Housing Projects a. Land Bank: reissued Request for Proposal for Kechter and in the process of entering negotiating agreement with one of the respondents. Next step is feasibility study and market analysis. Aiming for 100% ownership. b. Just certified Mason Place as an affordable housing project. That’s 60 units of 100% affordable, targeted to 30% AMI [Area Median Income] or less. b) Future AHB Meetings Agenda a. Next Thursday, April 11 is the joint board meeting, 5-8 at the Senior Center b. Next month AHB: Water Conservation team presentation c) City Council Six-Month Planning Calendar—not discussed 10. ADJOURNMENT: 5:36