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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCommunity Development Block Grant Commission - Minutes - 03/11/2020 CDBG COMMISSION REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING Wednesday, March 11, 2020 5:30pm 222 Laporte Avenue Colorado River Meeting Room, First Floor 3/11/20 2 0 – AGENDA Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL At 5:37 PM the meeting was called to order by Josh Johnson. • Commission members present: o Michael Kulisheck o Nick Verni- Lau o Serena Thomas o Olga Duvall o Josh Johnson o Steve Backsen o Sara Maranowicz o Pat Hastings • Commission members absent: o None • Staff members present: o Adam Molzer, Staff Liaison, CDBG Commission – City of Fort Collins o Beth Rosen, Social Sustainability – City of Fort Collins o Hannah Tinklenberg, Social Sustainability – City of Fort Collins (Minutes) • List of guests and public o Ingrid Decker, City Attorney – City of Fort Collins (presenter) o Ethnie Tryk, Community Member o Laura Walker, Larimer County o Heather O’Hayre, Larimer County o Holly LeMasurier, Homeward 2020 2. AGENDA REVIEW Josh Johnson reviewed the agenda with the Community Development Block Grant Commission (“CDBG”). The commission accepted the agenda without modification. 3. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION • None 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Olga Duvall motioned to approve the February 12, 2020 regular meeting minutes as presented, Steve Backsen seconds the motion – unanimously approved. DocuSign Envelope ID: 650BF50A-A9AE-4455-AF3E-2107265B5F9F CDBG Commission REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING 3/11/20 20 – AGENDA Page 2 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS • None 6. LEARNING SERIES PRESENTATION a. Affordable Housing - Beth Rosen – Social Sustainability Department Beth Rosen, Grants Compliance & Policy Manager, joined CDBG members for a presentation on housing priorities/needs and considerations for funding recommendations. Beth allocates federal grant funds, manages the contracts, and ensures the City is in compliance with all grant funding related to HUD. Beth provided an overview of the continuum of housing affordability and HUD’s definition of income levels, Area Median Income (AMI), which is calibrated by household size. Affordable housing is the housing that serves households at or below 80% AMI. Historically, the lower the income the harder it is to secure housing. Critical housing needs (homelessness and subsidized housing) is in the 0-30% income bracket, affordable rental housing (workforce housing) is in the 40-60% income bracket, and 60% is the maximum income that is funded through the low-income tax credit for affordable housing projects. Prior housing priorities focused on 60-80% as the target range for moving households from rental housing to affordable homeownership, but due to rising housing costs, we are no longer seeing this happen. Staff and City Council are assessing affordable and attainable housing and the housing inventory in our community. When comparing housing applications, pay attention to the number of units and the percentage of AMI being served. Currently, the City is operating under the 2014-2019 Housing Strategic Plan. The City is hiring a housing manager to address issues on attainable housing and development of the next affordable housing strategic plan. There are four priorities in the current strategic plan that relate to funding and the competitive process: 1) increase inventory of affordable rental units; 2) preserve long-term affordability and physical condition of existing housing stock; 3) increase housing and supportive services for people with special needs; and 4) support opportunities to obtain and sustain affordable homeownership. Beth provided an update on where the City is at in achieving new units and the gap, per the annual affordable housing goal. Sara Maranowicz asked if there is a breakdown of inventory across the different AMI percentages. While not readily available, Beth shared that the low 30% AMI bracket is the hardest to obtain as these units would never compete with market values. The majority of units in our cash credit properties are in the 60% AMI range. In theory, the higher-end units can subsidize the lower-end units. A gaps analysis is currently being conducted and will report on the units missing in the different income levels. DocuSign Envelope ID: 650BF50A-A9AE-4455-AF3E-2107265B5F9F CDBG Commission REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING 3/11/20 20 – AGENDA Page 3 Serena Thomas asked why the City does not use living wage to determine funding and what is the current living wage in the community. Beth explained that given HUD is our primary funding source we need to use their definition of income limits and align our programs to their guidelines. Sara Maranowicz added that the annual family self-sufficiency income for a household of four (assuming infant and toddler childcare expenses) is above $75,000. Steve Backsen asked what realistic leverage the City has to preserve manufactured housing. Beth directed that Sue Beck-Ferkiss would be better suited to answer that, however, there is current dialogue between City Council and internal departments. Larimer Home Improvement Program’s housing application provides emergency repairs and home improvement assistance to mobile homeowners (who own unit but rent their lot). The City’s Mitigation / Anti-Displacement Strategy, outlines invention and tenant-rights in the event that a mobile home park, within City limits, is sold for redevelopment. Pat Hastings requested clarification on the relationship between the inventory projection, new units added per the funding recommendations, and if these will reduce the gap. Beth confirmed that anything approved for funding will add to the inventory of new units and noted some units in the pipeline expected to go online this year, with and without HUD funding. For 2020, the City has approximately $2.2 million in funding to allocate (CDBG funds has slightly over $1-million, HOME is $860,000, and the City’s Affordable Housing Fund is $550,000). Adam Molzer highlighted that our available grant funding was finalized early this year and will not expect any noticeable changes in the days leading up to funding deliberations. With the exception of any loan repayments received in March that would increase funding available. Without guiding decision-making for funding, Beth wants the commission to feel informed when comparing the applications. The staff summary of each application summarizes factors to consider such as alignment with the affordable housing strategic plan, project cost, per unit cost, funding stack, funding needed, and previous funding. Other considerations include historical experience of the applicant, readiness to proceed, timeliness, other funding sources, land under contact or land ownership, etc. The Affordable Housing Guidance Chart shows every project next to each other to compare major components. Application presentations should address costs associated in the project. Spreading the money across multiple housing projects reduces the funding for each project and prevents the projects from moving forward. Projects need full funding to proceed. Consider the entire request in ranked order based on timing and need, and alignment with the affordable housing strategic plan. Projects not funded in 2020, will need to come back next year to reapply. Steve Backsen asked Beth to define “move forward”. This means that the project hasn’t received all the funding needed. HUD may have an expiration date on the funding, therefore, DocuSign Envelope ID: 650BF50A-A9AE-4455-AF3E-2107265B5F9F CDBG Commission REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING 3/11/20 20 – AGENDA Page 4 the applicant cannot sit on the City’s conditional commitment and wait for other funding to come through. One application this year received conditional commitment last year and has reapplied to fill the new gap (due to increased costs). Rehab project applications have also received initial CDBG funding when the projects were developed. It’s okay to not fully allocate money if funding is not available to support a project moving foward. Beth can reallocate and hold back the least sensitive projects and applicants can reapply the next year. Olga Duvall asked about expiration of CDBG and HOME both expire but have different rules. CDBG allocates these funds to projects that can be used quickly. HOME provides two-years to use funds. Josh Johnson asked Beth to explain deferred developer fee. From a high-level they can write into the project up to 12% the total cost to develop into the project that would be additional funding/loans against the project when they complete. Beth concluded her presentation by stating she will be available during deliberations. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Conflict of Interest Policy – Ingrid Decker – Senior Assistant City Attorney Ingrid Decker is the Senior Assistant City Attorney joined the commission to review the City’s Conflict of Interest Policy. Handouts were provided to commission members. The primary provisions that govern ethical behavior and conflicts of interest are found in the City Charter and City Code – available on the City website. Materials are included in the boards and commissions manual. A board and commission member who has a personal or financial interest in the decisions being made must disclose that information to the City Clerk. The member should refrain from voting, attempt to influence, and/or participate in the decision-making. That comes up most often in boards taking applications from outside agencies and make funding decisions about money going to those agencies as there may be particular personal interest (i.e. volunteer, board member, etc). After reviewing the charter and code and think there may be a conflict of interest, let Adam know and /or contact Ingrid directly to talk it through, however, she cannot make a decision on your behalf. A variance can be requested in the instance that a conflict of interest is declared that may create a problem on the board. Verbal recognition, recusal, and/or removal from the voting discussion is acceptable. Adam would like to be aware of any possible conflicts of interest before scorecards are submitted and the deliberation meeting. DocuSign Envelope ID: 650BF50A-A9AE-4455-AF3E-2107265B5F9F CDBG Commission REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING 3/11/20 20 – AGENDA Page 5 b. Grant Funding Protocol Adam passed around the protocol created by the commission and used at last year’s deliberation meeting. Before deliberations in six weeks, Adam would like consensus from members that this is the protocol to be used again, with or without modifications. Sara Maranowicz requested language clarification that the aggregate desired amount of recommended funding is referring to the dollar scorecard recommended. Adam said this matches the desired amount of recommended funding on the balance budget. Josh Johnson said the process worked well and he is supportive of the process moving forward. He asked Adam to clarify the meaning of attempting to ‘pull up’. This means that commission members will not attempt to influence, or “pull-up,” any human service proposals in the final rankings based on personal preferences. During deliberation this may impact the ranking and averages of the collective scorecards, essentially altering the work that has been done in advance of the deliberation meeting. Serena Thomas requested a reminder on the decision process for the funding proposals. Adam gave an overview of the color-coded ranking system used last year, which was intended to help facilitate discussion, but did not necessarily determine full funding for any particular colored section. Each application was discussed individually. This sparked questions from commission members who participated in last year’s deliberations. Adam shared last year’s final funding recommendations as a refresher of the process used last year. Pat Hastings mentioned that the percentages used in last year’s deliberations and questioned if they will work similarly this year. Funding available is comparable as last year so percentages should work similarly. Josh Johnson motioned to approve for protocol for 2020 deliberations, motion seconded by Steve Backsen – unanimously approved. Adam will share the protocol spreadsheet the day of deliberations. 8. COMMISSION MEMBER REPORTS • None 9. STAFF REPORTS • The next CDBG commission meeting is on March 25, 2020. This meeting will include a work session with the Affordable Housing Board and affordable housing projects will present (six total, starting at 5:45pm). Each applicant has approximately 20 minutes to present, share handouts, and accept questions from commission DocuSign Envelope ID: 650BF50A-A9AE-4455-AF3E-2107265B5F9F CDBG Commission REGULAR COMMISSION MEETING 3/11/20 20 – AGENDA Page 6 members. Funding will not be discussed. The open public commission meeting will begin after presentations and members of the public and presenters are welcome. • Some have asked if COVID-19 will impact public meeting format. Until further notice, the City is operating business as usual. If plans change in the coming weeks/months, back-up plans will be implemented. • The City recently sold a property used for childcare for 30 years. The City Manager has requested proceeds be designated to the childcare issue (a Council priority). Adam and staff from Sustainability Services Area are looking at how funds could be invested to increase childcare capacity. • Teaching Tree Early Childhood Center is having an open house / ribbon-cutting ceremony on April 2, 2020 at 6:00pm. • Scoresheet spreadsheet hard copies provided to the commission. Each member has received a link to Zoomgrants (grantmaking portal) where funding recommendations will be inputted by commission members. Please reach out to Adam if you need any technical assistance. • Budgeting for Outcomes (BFO) – the City is working on budget offers for 2021 and 2022. The City’s budget director and interim CFO are forecasting the next few years to have very little growth. Council priorities have recently focused on Social Sustainability, particularly on homelessness and housing. The reality is that funding for the competitive process may remain the same. There will be opportunities for public input in May or June, as more information is available. OTHER BUSINESS • Boards & Commissions “Reimagining Boards” meeting – included a discussion on experiences, diversity, and how to make that happen. Presentation on oil and gas. 10. NEXT MEETING a. Wednesday, March 25, 2020 | 5:30pm | 222 Laporte Ave, Colorado Room Work Session and Grant Presentations with the Affordable Housing Board 11. ADJOURNMENT • Meeting adjourned at 7:20 PM. Minutes were finalized and approved by the CDBG Commission on ____________________ City of Fort Collins Staff Liaison: ____________________________________________ Adam Molzer DocuSign Envelope ID: 650BF50A-A9AE-4455-AF3E-2107265B5F9F May 4, 2020