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Home My WebLink AboutAffordable Housing Board - Minutes - 05/07/2020 AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING May 7, 2020, 4:00-6:00pm Remote/Online via Zoom due to COVID-19 5 /7 /2020 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER: 4:01 2. ROLL CALL • Board Members Present: Jen Bray, Catherine Costlow, Diane Cohn, Rachel Auldridge, • Recused Board Members: Kristin Fritz, Bob Pawlikowski, Tatiana Zentner • Staff Members Present: Beth Rosen, Yaz Haldeman, Sylvia Tatman-Burruss, Adam Molzer, Lindsay Ex, Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Brittany Depew • Guests: Marilyn Heller, Steve Kuehneman, Jenny (no last name listed), Dustin Harrington 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION a) Marilyn Heller—League of Women Voters – panel on mobile homes will be next April, at meeting today it was shared that landlords are threatening to evict tenants with steep fines o Sue gave suggestion to visit https://www.fcgov.com/socialsustainability to learn more about governor’s eviction moratorium 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Diane moved to approve March minutes. Catherine seconded. Approved unanimously 4-0-0. 6. NEW BUSINESS A. Review of Private Activity Bond Committee’s Recommendations—Sue, Social Sustainability Every year, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) gives the state of Colorado private activity bond capacity and can be paired with 4% tax credits. City has prioritized affordable housing projects for PABs in the past. Previously, have had enough capacity to meet demand. More projects are using these 4% credits than previously. Received $44.5 million in requests which shows great activity in our community but only have $8 million in capacity to provide. Decided to prioritize new construction and projects in better position to move forward. Committee (with representation from Social Sustainability, Finance & Economic Health Office) recommended that Housing Catalyst receive $3.89 million and Mercy Housing receive $5 million. Comments/Q&A: • Diane: Request from Housing Catalyst is a partnership, why did the request just come from them? o Sue: Housing Catslyst is the project manager so they took the lead on the application, and they will be issuing the bonds. AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 5 /7 /2020 – MINUTES Page 2 • Diane: The gap between capacity and request amount is the largest I’ve ever seen. Is CHFA (Colorado Housing & Financing Authority) looking at that? o Sue: There is some discussion about changing the legislation at the federal level. • Jen: When it comes to new construction, are they unable to proceed without PAB? o Sue: The bonds are contingent on receiving tax credits, but there are other possibilities for them to acquire bond capacity. • Diane: What if they don’t get the 4% tax credit? o Sue: Once you have the bonds, it’s not competitive for the 4%. • Jen: I’d feel comfortable going with the committee’s recommendations, but also want to encourage other applicants to apply again in the future. Diane moves to support the Private Activity Bond Committee’s recommendation to allocate bond capacity to Housing Catalyst and Mercy Housing. Catherine seconded. Passed unanimously 4-0-0. B. Ranking of CDBG Applications—Board Members Board members shared their individual rankings for housing applicants Loveland Housing Development Corporation, Volunteers of America (VOA), Care Housing, Habitat for Humanity, Mercy Housing, and Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N). Initial rankings: 1-2. VOA & Mercy (shows prioritization of new construction) 3. Care Housing 4. N2N 5-6. Habitat & Loveland Housing Rankings after discussion (to be shared with CDBG Commission): 1-2. VOA & Mercy 3-4. Care Housing & N2N 5. Loveland Housing 6. Habitat for Humanity Comments/Q&A: • Rachel: Between Mercy and VOA, I liked the focus on seniors. Between N2N and Care Housing, saw importance to rehab older units. New construction is helpful but some of these units haven’t been updated in nearly 40 years. o Sue: I agree that it’s hard to evaluate the need for rehab against the need for new because they’re both so critical. • Diane: This might be one of the hardest rankings we’ve done. Every project has merits, though I leaned a bit more toward new construction. • Jen: It was challenging to not have the full discussion with the CDBG (Community Development Block Grant) Commission, although we did get to watch the online presentations. I ranked VOA very high because it seems evident they are likely to get the LIHTC (Low-Income Housing Tax Credit) grants from CHFA (Colorado Housing and AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 5 /7 /2020 – MINUTES Page 3 Financing Authority) this year. The reason for this request was due to construction cost increases, so it felt about ready to go. • Diane: Is Care Housing also eligible for CHDO (Community Housing Development Organization) funds? o Beth: HUD waived CHDO this year. Certain guidelines being waived for this fiscal year (FY19). Care Housing working to get board composition back up to meet CHDO requirements. Their current partnership with Housing Catalyst does not allow them to apply for CHDO financing since Housing Catalyst isn’t eligible. • Diane: I want to talk more about the Care Housing and Housing Catalyst partnership. o Sue: Right now, they both own some units and once the project is complete, Care will own all of them. o Diane: In the short-term, this wouldn’t be adding units to our inventory. o Catherine: Were they going to make them permanently affordable? o Jen: 40 units that have fallen out of affordability but could go to market value if not renewed. They’d renew them for 40 years. o Sue: We’re not technically adding units but it would be ensuring their affordability for at least another 20 years. o Diane: I’m not saying it’s not valuable, but the immediate benefit isn’t as clear. • Jen: Have any applicants listed any changes due to COVID-19? o Sue: The short answer is no, and the long answer can come from Beth Rosen. o Diane: It seems like there will be supply line issues. o Beth: I reached out to applicants asking that specific question. All responded back that they’re planning to move forward as stated. o Sue: Many of these projects secured supplies ahead of time so may not be affected by supply line issues. • Diane: The rehab projects are usually quite expensive, and we all agree it’s important. Can we adjust the number of units that get rehabbed in this round? o Sue: Do you mean you’d like to fund all of them? o Catherine: I would try to fund the top 4 applicants, not all of them. o Jen: I agree. o Beth: There’s nothing that prevents a project from applying again next year. • Catherine: Do we know how much funding we have total? o Beth: We are about $800k short of making all the requests. Have $3.3 million in requests and $2.5 in available funds. • Diane: Will we see a summary of the comments before they go to CDBG? o Jen: Yes, I’ll provide talking points with board members before sharing with CDBG. o Adam: Would like rankings in writing ahead of time, and for Jen to present and speak to them at the meeting on Wednesday, May 13 at 4 p.m. Rachel moved to approve rankings as discussed. Catherine seconded. Passed unanimously 4-0-0. C. Status Report on Strategic Housing Planning—Sue, Social Sustainability At the work session on April 14, City Council gave approval to broaden scope of next housing plan. The past 3 have been specific to affordable range only, the next plan will likely cover middle AFFORDABLE HOUSING BOARD REGULAR MEETING 5 /7 /2020 – MINUTES Page 4 incomes as well. We were in the process of hiring a Housing Manager when the hiring freeze occurred, so leadership decided to appoint Lindsay Ex as Interim Housing Manager. She will be in that position for about a year, at which point a competitive process will take place. 7. BUSINESS a) City Council Six-Month Planning Calendar—not discussed b) Council Comments—not discussed c) Review 2020 Work Plan—not discussed d) Open Board Discussion—this is Rachel Auldridge’s last meeting, her resignation will be accepted on Friday, May 8, 2020. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS a) Liaison Reports—not discussed 9. OTHER BUSINESS a) Update on Affordable Housing Projects—closed on North College Land Bank parcel, first new land bank property since 2006 b) Future AHB Meetings Agenda—don’t know what next month’s meeting will look like 10. ADJOURNMENT: 5:23