Good evening and welcome to our September Amherst Affordable Housing Trust meeting. Thanks to those of you in in the audience and to our uh members. I guess we're still um maybe give a minute to see if uh some of our of our other
members join. Um but we do have a quorum. So, let's just uh wait uh one more minute. Thank you everyone for for being uh with us on Zoom. Well, why? Why don't we um go go ahead
and and get started and um we will hope that our remaining members join shortly. Um so let's tell uh you all we're making a few minor updates to the sequence of the agenda for this evening.
We have uh Laura Baker from CDC here to give us some some updates and and so we're looking forward to to hearing from her shortly. And we have invited um uh our our friends in Amherst from uh the
the visioning project which has um you know deployed their energy towards housing and and we're really excited to hear um about that and how we can work together and um and we're also excited to have uh Linda Slaky from the
community Ammerst Community Land Trust with us to tell us about um opportunities and and to work together and and projects that are developing um right now. So, um
uh Greg for for introductions, can you what were you imagining? Oh, just I I think you've you've done well noting our um uh our guests. Um, and I I guess we're at the point now where I think um uh trust members have
all seen each other before, so we don't need to do that. But maybe that was a muscle memory. Um um but if we want to um get into liberatory visioning, I can kind of tee that up and and Okay, Pamela and and Philip or
Okay, great. And I just uh to our um you know members in in on Zoom who haven't joined us since we have new members. I I'm delighted that we are joined this evening by Rob Alingham and Bob Pomememoroy in addition to uh Algra
Clark and Alex Cox who um have have been you know I've been with them now for a little while. Um uh and so yes uh please uh do you want to promote the uh the visioning project? So I'm going to welcome uh Pamela Young um and Philip
Avila and promote you both as panelists. So Pamela and Philip look out for a uh a notice on your screen to join the conversation as a panelist. Um and um I'll just note that Pamela and and Philip are my esteemed colleagues uh at
in in town um and um were um kind of uh play a very hands-on role in this laboratory visioning project which we're going to hear about. um um jointly um Pamela as director and Philip as assistant director. Uh they run the town's DEI department um and are doing a
lot of great work um you know around um sort of you know you know you know exploring inclusion in our community and uh and sort of widening um uh the breadth of participation um and also sort of really um uh letting uh you know encouraging efforts to inform our work
as a town uh you know as a government as a community. Um, this was a really cool example, this liberatory visioning project of that work. Um, so, um, uh, I'm excited to hear about it. Let's see, do we have, uh, our guests here and, uh, we have
Pamela and Philip, welcome. Um, so, if I missed any key introductory points, by all means, uh, uh, Pamela or Philip, please let us know. But, um, I', I'd love to hand it off to you. And uh you know this was a big project but as the housing trust as we noted we're interested in you to hear about the
whole thing but also you know how these housing priorities might have bubbled up and go from there. I'm going to stop sharing my agenda here and give it to you. Thank you Greg. Uh no missed introductions. Really appreciate that. We have a quick little uh presentation
that we would like to share with you all. Do you have an option to share? Do I need to? Uh it looks like I try and do that or remember how to do so this late in the day here. Uh let's see where I start. I
think you want slideshow maybe. Yep. That's it. All righty. So as uh we stated the liberatory visioning process here I am Philip Avula. Just want to um throw that in there. Pamela is also on
the call here. So liberatory visioning timeline began in 2021 um through the community safety working group recommendation. In 2022 our department was created in 2023 Dr. Love trained the
first group of facilitators. 2023 to 2024 the facil facilitators held a bimonthly community dialogue session which um is continuously going on from um this 2024 Dr. love conducted a second
round of facilitation for trainers 2025. From February to May, we had about 20 listening sessions held um really getting what um that was about and then from 2020 or in May of 2025, uh the
final report was given to us. Right? So the final report um I think you all have had a chance to re it on the DEI department website or we can send um a hard copy over for you. Uh the
um liberatory visioning listing sessions consisted of 20 in-person online and individual interviews. Sessions were held in town hall, the Banks Community Center, at various houses of worship, with high school students and seniors,
and with BIPO organizations. We made an attempt to reach as many folks in town as we could, and to have these sessions um around the community um and as many places as possible. Uh and we were quite pleased with our turnout.
[Music] So through those listening sessions, we kind of um asked um a baseline question of what does an equitable, just and um inclusive Ammeris look like to you? And so then from there, we kind of went off
into discussions as you all saw through the report. Um housing came up. So we're going to highlight some themes um through this presentation of what themes came up from housing and then just kind of the sub themes a part of that. Um so expansion of affordable housing and some
sub themes there were updates to the housing production plan, zoning reforms such as reducing families um single family zoning, increase the supply of affordable housing units for low and moderate income residents, specific
strategies to address housing exclusion and affordability, and new incentives for affordable housing development. Uh, one of the uh, other things was around first-time home buyer assistance uh, programs to help low and moderate
income residents purchase homes um, and increasing access to. And I'm sure you all are very familiar with the statistics, but it's worth repeating. So, the average cost of a home in Ammerst is over $530,000.
while the mean income uh for a person in Ammerst is only at $65,000. So housing affordability is a a critical issue for many of the people who reside in the community. So the next theme that came up uh was
student and family housing balance recognition of the need for both student and family housing. develop solutions that balance the needs of university students with those from year-round residents. Promoting university built student
housing and regulating rental practices to prevent overcrowding and exploitation. So, one of the major themes that came out through these conversations um was to have community-led policy development. And that is a theme that
resonated not only around the issues of housing but other areas of concern. Hello. Yep, you're there. Okay, my screen just went black for a second. All right. Um, so around so not
only um having community voices around issues policy development around housing but also around a lot of other issues that were raised through the report. Um, I we know as a town department that it
can be difficult sometimes when you're seeking feedback from members of the community to get really meaningful feedback, but we just would want to encourage you to continue to make every effort to do that. Um, one of the things that uh we would love for people to take
advantage of are translation services that can be offered to the community through our office, through an earmark from Mindy Dom, um, through the health department and through the purchase of translators, through the use of ARPA funds. So, as you're con thinking about
ways in which you can reach the community, um, think very broadly, use our services. We have a newsletter, use crest. Um they're are also willing to help um spread the word and and engage with individuals around not only issues
of public safety but also other community concerns um and use our translation services. One shameless plug that I'll put in now is that we're hoping to continue the work of liberatory visioning by applying for a
grant um through a private foundation called the heart and soul communities. And the purpose of heart and soul uh communities is to have resident driven policy decisions and civic engagement. So that would be another opportunity to
learn more about the needs and desires of members of the community. All righty. And the last uh theme here for housing is year-round shelter and um social services. So establishing a permanent year-round shelter for
unhoused residents and expanding access to social services for unhoused residents. And I just want to highlight through the liberty liberatory visioning process, we also um conducted a ton of um just outreach and interviews with everybody and kind of said as well as
when we were um asking the baseline question there, you know, we weren't going to give any identifiers or identifications as to anybody that said anything. And so really having that trust in the community um was well um received on this project and we really
appreciate the community for trusting us and doing so. And so just to be able to then openly share um you know their feelings about what it is that they would like to talk about and that was uh great to see the community come about.
And so this last slide just lifts up the three most requested action items from the liberatory visioning project. um the need for community space, support for education, and of course, our topic tonight, affordable housing. And I just want to encourage you as you're thinking
about future housing projects that you also think about creating projects that um provide community space u because those two things can be linked. And um one of the things that we heard over and over again in our conversations was a
need for people to gather and to get to know each other and have an opportunity to really establish strong relationships. So thank you again for having us and we're happy, Philip and I, to answer any questions that you may have.
Thank thank you so much for for joining us and for all the work that you're doing actually uh bringing people's voices out. Um and uh we're we're grateful to have you. So uh members, what what questions do you have? What ideas would you like to um you know
present and and get some feedback from uh Pamela and Philip about Algra, please? Um hi, thank you guys for coming tonight and for sharing this information with us. I think it's really telling that
many of the other agencies in town have also found affordable housing to be a primary concern. Um, thinking about the reparations committee as well and a lot of their work centering on housing.
Um, so I guess my question is what happens next with these recommendations? I mean I think so are we doing a lot of studies you know on the housing front on the racial justice front and
all of these are important but where do we get what's the next push for this and and how do we continue to bring the community voice to the places that are making the decisions beyond just this group but kind of the bigger groups in
town. So, um the report has been given to the town manager and it would be his responsibility to um bring it forward to the town council. Um we'd love to have the town council invite our department in to talk about this report as well as
a few others that we've worked on um last year. Um the next action step that we will take as a department is to pursue this heart and soul community grant. Um uh the the grant in my opinion
aligns very well with the work of liberatory vision. It is community resident uh driven work. It um anticipates a collaboration between um uh members of the public, nonprofit
organizations, for-profit profit organizations and municipal government. the way in which the heart and soul organization sets up these communities or supports their communities. It's a two-year uh commitment to work with them
as they as as Ammeris would establish this heart and soul foundation. Um we've uh see ourselves as a department as conveners of this group and um would anticipate at the some point within the two years or at the end of the two years
it would be a separate uh organization outside of municipal government because it is really meant to be communitydriven, resident driven and um outside of uh the public sector. So I think that's the next big step for us.
We are um hoping that we will tie up a few loose ends and be able to apply for the grant in October. Um if that's the case, then it's likely we will in to launch the next segment of our work probably in January and then would have
a 2-year period of working with them. Um we are we're more than happy to send you all information about heart and soul and we would love to have um the support of this uh board or um as we apply for the
grant because we'll be seeking letters of support um from organizations in the community and from town boards as well. And Philip, please weigh in if I missed it. No, you you covered it. You're good.
Thank you for that. We'll we'll be happy to to to to to provide support. Just uh let us know. Uh Pamela, thank you for for that opportunity. Um I guess I'll jump in with a question. I'm not seeing another hand.
the kind of information and and uh ideas that you're that you were able to pull together is information that the trust should really be keeping up with on a regular basis. And I'm wondering if you have ideas about how our organization
can um listen better in the community. So uh um Philip, please weigh in. As I alluded, getting community feedback is not easy. I mean, it has not been easy for us as well. And I think we all resort as town boards to the typical
ways of uh sending out surveys or asking people to um respond to some sort of evaluation. And what this project really envisioned is a one-on-one conversations with folks or small groups um really having conversations and listening
sessions and focus groups. And so while that is really um time consuming and also a lot of you know manpower, I would suggest that you use all of the means possible to to get that type of
information. And I think that you can rely on our department and on the crest department as partners in and seeking um information using non-traditional ma uh ways. Yeah. Yeah. And I think certainly um
also you know when we are doing this grant and have the upcoming work from the heart and soul maybe that's something that we could think about this is a community-led initiative right so maybe we have a topic around housing and really throw those parameters around of you know I I really do and in the
presentation I alluded to it people really felt like well I don't want to say anything because I don't want it to be like brought up that like oh he said this she said that and blah blah blah and so in a way of you having that trust of yeah we're we're here just to take
the notes of the themes rather than the anode an antidotes of you know someone said this or someone said that. So having that trust is uh established through kind of just those initial conversations.
Thank you Rob. Hi. Yes. I had um I just had a quick question because I found it very intriguing about the uh number one request being a community space. Um did you get any sort of further
information on that? Is is that something you're able to elaborate on what if that's people had a vision of what that might look like or an idea in in mind? I would just like to hear a little bit more about um about that because it's interesting that was the
the main thing that people were looking for in the community. Yeah. So I'll I'll go first Pamela and then if you haven't you jump in. So space around town I mean is a commodity. I think even us as a department trying to find space for community programs that we're trying to put together. It's it's not as easy as
one would think. And so in doing so of course the community feels so as well. You know, if you have something that you want to put on and you're kind of told like, oh well, go check this room, go check that room, and everywhere's not available for you that's free, then it becomes, well, now you have to rent out a space and is that something that you
can afford to do as a group? Is that something you can't afford to group do as a group? And also, people are just looking for a place to gather. I think that was one of the main things that we heard is that after the pandemic um or going through the pandemic a lot of people lost that sense of community and
so people would really like a space just to gather and get in. I mean even in those listening sessions um one of them that I remember someone suggested that the DEI office should hold uh weekly coffee sessions just in our office to have people just have a space together.
So even as simple as that, you know, people are just looking for somewhere to go to build that sense of community. Of course, um the youth um I was privy to do the youth um le workshops there with Dr. Leven. A lot of youth brought up the case that you know after school there's
nowhere for them to go. There's uh nothing for them to do. They don't really want to hang out at town hall. The banks community center closes at four o'clock. And so where does that leave them? And um what does that look like for them? I think um in those conversations, especially with the library being um reconstructed right
now, you know, that was a main issue that that was an easy access place to walk and go to and right now that's not going to be the case for them for a few years, however long that library project will take. I don't have anything to add. I think Philip sum summarized the concerns well.
Yeah. Okay, great. Uh Bob, please. Sure. um on one of your slides, I forget you mentioned um developing strategies uh around exclusion uh and affordability of housing. I'm just wondering the are
those things that you've already been doing and that are deeper in in the report that you've done or are those things that you're looking to develop going forward? So, oh, go ahead. I was just going to say I think it's something that we're looking to develop
to go further further as a community not um I think our department would not be the one to take that initiative on but you have certainly voices that can contribute to it. So certainly yes. Great. Thank you. Any any other questions from our group?
I guess I have one more little uh brief question which would be do you see how we could deploy our educational mission affect you know are there messages that you think the trust can get out to the community?
So I think um there are some members of the community who understand what you do and lots of people who do not. Um the the process of buying a house is complex for even individuals who have you know who are savvy and understand the market
in real estate and all of those. So, anything that you can do to help um educate folks about how they can prep prepare to be home owners, um what are their options for affordable housing, all of those sort of education things I
think are are really useful and would be helpful and would be welcomed. Um and uh just a last shameless plug for us, we're happy to put any uh of your programming um in our newsletter. we have a monthly newsletter that's distributed in the
community um and we'd be happy to include that um and to promote those events. So yeah, one thing I'll just add on um with the events is that you know one thing that we have found is having act um food available to people that really draws in the crowd there. But also we've heard in
previous um gatherings that we've had, you know, transportation sometimes is an issue. So, making sure that the location is there or having some type of transportation to there as well as child care. Um, sometimes that's an issue for people to participate in. Um, you know, if it's via Zoom, it's a little bit
easier. So, just stuff to think about when you're putting on programming. Thank you so much. That's very, very helpful and definitely part of what we want to do. And, you know, we have members who are very committed to the education and and outreach. So, I guess I would like to thank you for stopping
by and for the work that you're doing and um we'll keep you in mind and I hope you'll keep us in mind as well if we can be of any help to you. Have a good evening. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. Fantastic. So, um shall we
hear from Laura Baker and an update for um the project that they are? Yes. Um and oh, there's Laura. Um uh and Laura, uh I I I'm going to promote you to a panelist if that's okay. Um I think
I have to for you to show slides. So, click on the the notice and here you come. Here's Laura. Here you are. Welcome. Hey.
And Laura, if you could, you know, introduce yourself. Uh, so you, you know, I'll let you do it, but we have some new members, so it would be good to, you know, I see that. So, my name is Laura Baker. I'm a real estate project manager at Valley Community Development and I've been coming to these meetings for many
years and I see a lot of new faces. Um, which is kind of exciting. So, hello. Um, I'm kind of standing in for Jess Allen who's the project manager for a development called Ammerst Community Homes. Um, some of you know a lot about
of it about it, for some of you it may be new. Um, but it's a 30 uh unit development in North Ammerst. um condominiums that will be sold to first-time home buyers. So, I just wanted to grab maybe five minutes to present an update um to this to the
trust. You've given uh time and money to help facilitate this project. So, we just wanted to kind of share the news about how it's going. So, I'm going to share a very brief slideshow.
Can you all see that? Not yet. Oh, I think sometimes it takes a minute, Laura. Um, so I think there we go. There it is. So, you just got to do go to the slideshow and you're good.
Don't make me act it out. Okay. How we doing now? Great. Perfect. Uh, this is an image. Uh, building's under construction. Um, hopefully people know where this is located. It's on a parcel of land about
9 acres um near Ball Lane. It's abudded by Ball Lane, Papa Hill Road, and Montikue Road. So, uh we are 25% complete in construction. We are four months ahead of schedule.
We expect homes will be done uh in sometime in the spring of 2026 and then completing all the site work that summer. Uh we anticipate having the lottery for the home buyers in late winter, early spring 26. We to date have 300 a little
more than 300 households who've expressed interest in buying. We have a an online form that people can fill out and submit if they have interest. 115 of those households are from Ammerst. We have 62 households that are either mortgage ready or expect to be ready by
the time we have the lottery. and 29 of those are from Ammerst. Our outreach and marketing challenge is really reaching the 100% area median income households. Uh people may recall we have 80% AMI
limit limited homes and 100% AMI. Um so far we're seeing more applications come in from that 80% sector. Um whereas we have 10 homes for that that population group and we have 20 homes for the 100% AMI group. So, some strategies that
we're deploying uh include outreach to local workers um and we're doing some direct outreach to home ownership clients um of valleys. And when I finish, I think I would welcome people to um give us other suggestions if they have them.
Um so, this is kind of where people can get information uh if they're interested in applying. Uh we do have a website set up. You could fill out your interest form on there and you can register for an information session. We've already had some information sessions. We're
having a strong level of attendance and interest in those sessions. So, we have a couple coming up this fall. Um, and we do review not only the project, but a range of issues for first-time home buyers, getting preapproved, down
payment assistance, and training classes. Y um this is just showing the site. This is taken maybe a week or two ago. Um you can see that we have multiple buildings going at once or total 15 buildings. So they build them kind of in a domino
pattern. And you see just you know foundations in the front and then you look back and you see uh you know something that's just being framed and then something that has you know the sheathing on the roof and then to the left of that something that actually has a roof and windows.
Um, people may recall this is a passive house design and so it features ample windows on the south facing side and this is just a picture from the outside and the inside. Uh, the houses have front porch entryway
areas. um we are able to preserve um um a good chunk of open space on this parcel. And this is just a view looking out one of the windows which is awesome
and that's it. Great. So, uh let's have any questions for Laura and I guess also suggestions about how to target. Can you maybe give us a little bit better sense of the nature of the challenge so we might be able to be helpful?
Well, I will give you um Yes. So, just to to have a frame of reference when we say 100% AMI currently for a twoperson household that is a little over $96,000. For a fourperson household, it's a
little over $120,000. And I think one of the challenges we have both with home ownership and rental housing is folks in this income category don't always tune in when they see that affordable housing is advertised because
they think it's not them. Um so there are misperceptions about who can benefit sometimes from affordable housing, what it means. So I think it's making people realize, oh, you know, it's me, I could apply. Um and then the other challenge
is you have a window of affordability. So you can't make too little, you can't make too much. And that is one of the challenges always with the kind of work that we do. All right. So who who has a question or
a brainstorm idea for for for Laura? He please. Yeah, thank thank you Laura. I'm one of the new members. My name is EJ. Just to introduce myself. um uh 4 months ahead of schedule is is is amazing. I just maybe if there's any sort of just like
quick summary of like how that was achieved. Uh that would be just illuminating. Yeah. And kudos to that. I can take zero credit. But um so I I think it's really down probably to the quality of the general contractor that we have working on the site. So we we
have Kaider Builders. they do have an in-house um site company which also may be a benefit in this case in terms of there's a lot of this is a big site a lot of site work so the coordination that they're able to achieve um I think it's mostly their to their credit
and then through this process were there any lessons learned that you think that should be more widely known for a project like this that that should be more wellnown at least in the building process or planning process the building process, the program design
or is it like kind of standard fair and things are kind of just going better than than usual like oh with the being ahead of schedule? Well, not only that, but just in general like were there any like interesting lessons already learned that that that you and the team are taking away from this? So, one one of my takeaways is
when this project was initially uh planned, the first architectural drawings, they were duplexes. Mhm. Um they were not passive solar. And so, unless you are very intentional from the early design stage in making a passive
solar uh dwelling, you don't get a passive solar dwelling. So, for folks who don't know, passive solar means lots of southacing glass. You basically stretch your building east west so you can capture all the sunlight. You
minimize the windows on the north and then you provide shading for those windows on the south side. So the idea is you get sunlight streaming in solar gain in the winter and then when the sun is higher than the sky you have shading. So, it's one of the most efficient ways
to build um for our climate um because it really reduces the amount of energy you need to use to heat and cool a building. When we told the architect that we really, really, really wanted it to be passive solar, it was a whole
redesign. Um and so I'm glad we did it. It possible. It wasn't easy for them to do. And um it was harder, but with some you know conviction it um it can be done and the
people who buy these homes will benefit forever uh from the fact that that design choice was made. Thank you. Sure. Bob, hi. I'm new as well. I'm Bob. I know. Hi.
Hi. Uh so and also less familiar. So, a question about the lottery process that you have. You mentioned that a number of the people that are interested are already mortgage ready. Um, I don't know if that's like pre-qualification or pre-approval. Um, when you get to the
actual lottery, is that going to be from a pool of those who are mortgage ready or is the broader? It's the mortgage ready. Yes. So, I guess a a companion question to that would be um for those who are
first-time home buyers but not yet pre-qualified or whatever, are there programs that are assisting them and how to do so? Yeah. Yes. So, we started marketing these homes a while ago. So, we really have
about a 2-year window to let people know about the program, hopefully bring them into the fold. We have an in-house um first-time home buyer counselor at Valley. So, that's the whole idea is that we expect to have some people who
are interested who aren't ready who with some diligence and training and saving maybe can get ready by the time of the lottery. So, you saw that, you know, that 62 households who either are mortgage ready or who look like they can
be mortgage ready with some effort by the time of the lottery. Um then we'll have folks that just are really not going to be ready usually because they just don't have nearly enough income. And so we work with those folks to find
other affordable rental housing um if they don't seem ready for home ownership. And then I guess sort of like the last question sort of circling around to how can you reach out to more people and I'm guessing that you're already doing this
in terms of mortgage lenders then are they actively promoting or mortgage lenders in the area at least are they actively promoting? Well, we're actively talking to them. I don't know if they're actively promoting it or not. Um but yes, that is one
channel. local realtors, local uh mortgage lenders, um are folks that we try to reach out to. Okay. Thank you. Sure, Alex. Yeah. Thinking about the outreach component of the families and households
that have expressed interest. Do you have an idea of what's driving most of them to this fact? They're engaging, what their interest point is in terms of getting information. Alex, you may have cut out a little bit. Do you think you can maybe uh slightly
closer to the microphone? Oh, sorry. It's I'm on campus. Our campus Wi-Fi is being prickly today. Um, thinking about the families that have expressed interest already. Do you know where most of them are approaching this project from? Like, do
you have a good idea of how they're hearing about the project and what your most successful outreach has been so far? I don't personally. I think others do. So, that is information that I can go back and send to the partner to the trust um for your
next meeting because I'm sure we're tracking it. I just don't know personally. Thank you. Sure. Yeah, good question, Alex. That um that will be helpful.
Um all right. Well, Laura, we're really excited and uh really excited that these homes are going to be ready in the spring and and uh a lot of people are going to be very lucky to move in. Thank you. Thank you. And uh anything else that we can help
with in the meantime, Laura? I think the main thing is is spreading the word and and sending people our way. The the easy um URL to remember is own own amherst.com. Own
ownamhersst.com. Okay, everybody. Amherst.com. That will tell you about the program. It will give you that chance to fill out an interest form. And we're really doing that so that then we can have someone reach out oneonone and talk with each household that's interested because each
situation is unique. Fabulous. Thank you for your time. Thanks for making time for this. Of course. Byebye. And uh we have uh we're lucky to have a lot of our uh kind of close stakeholder
uh supporters and friends with us this evening. Um we are going to welcome uh let me look at the just get the names right. Linda Slaky and Mora Keen from uh Ammerst Community Land Trust to
tell us what what what their vision is in particular for uh collaborating with us. I'm not I'm not sure how you said my name because I hit the button. Okay. Yeah. Well, I said exactly why you said whatever you just said.
Okay. Blakey, I I said for your last name. All right. Uh so I am the uh president of the board of the Amoris Community Land Trust and one of its founders. That grand title means that I do a lot of the staff work. We we were until the beginning of July a
totally volunteer organization. We now have amassed enough um reliable funding from various private sources that we were confident enough to hire a halftime staff member. So I can't make a big point of our being all volunteer
anymore, but we still do. And like Habitat always will depend heavily on volunteer labor. So um Rob Crowner was a member of this trust for a long time and he is also a member of the board of
ACLT. So when his term came to an end, um I plan to come to as many of these meetings as I can make myself. So, I'm here partly just to listen to your deliberations tonight, but Gaston kindly offered me an opportunity to catch you
up on our projects. So, to the newcomers, let me say that I spoke to this group in May. Um, and I won't repeat that, but I think you actually have a recording of that if you if you want to sort of poke around in what I said earlier. Um, I've been reading your
plan recently. I I don't feel like I'm on top of all of it, but my eye kind of got stuck on the your five-year goal of having uh 20 new affordable home ownership opportunities uh that that you've supported or
initiated. Um so I've um I have a stake in our experiencing one another as organizations, as partners in this effort. Um we exist basically to promote affordable ownership in in Ammerst. Um a parallel goal for us however is
neighborhood stabilization. So while part of our portfolio is new build, uh much of it um is um rescuing family homes that would otherwise be acquired very quickly uh by speculative
um investors and and the rents very quickly go out of reach of families and working people in that situation. So we cultivate the awareness within neighborhoods that are especially at risk of our work. And after about a
decade of doing that, that's really paying off. We've suddenly have the experience of people coming forward almost faster than we can handle them inquiring whether we would partner with them to be sure that affordable they could sell their home affordably and
there would be someone who would be able to manage what they need to get over a whole range of circumstances. So I do have three slides which I hope I can go through in just about three minutes because it it does help. So um
if I can do I have permission to share? Will it allow me to share if I click yes? Okay. [Music] Should be loading right there. It is there. Yes. Yes, it is. And I can still see
most of you. So this is a very quick recap of information that I did share in May with some update. We have four active pre uh projects at the time. We have seven families already in residence and these are our four active projects.
Um they were u they were at the stage when I last spoke in which we certainly hoped they would all fall in place but there were a lot of action was needed and uh this summer has been very productive. um particularly 61 Fearing
Street. We're very close to scheduling a closing. This is an example of one of our models. The house appraised at $650,000. The family um an elder member of the family had lived was living in the house
until quite recently has now moved into senior housing close to one of her children. So her three sons are prepared to offer the house uh at 500,000 which is a very substantial gift on their part
um but still out of raid range of even the 100 to $120 AMI family. So we have raised uh $150,000 from private donations basically by just soliciting the neighborhood. This is a lynchpin
property. If it goes to speculators, it'll threaten Hall of Fearing Street, which is a mix now that we hope remains relatively stable. So, we're feeling very jubilant that that uh we're ready to go on this one. We're at the stage of
scheduling a closing. Uh 277 Lincoln needed a lot of work. Um that work is almost finished. The donor has been paying for that work. She's also looking forward to are actually having a close closing um this fall and the simplest
one is actually 20 best. One of our models is that a donor can give the land and sign a ground lease which is a contract on their part that when either they move or if they die still resident their heirs are bound u by a sale price
that will make it affordable. So the one that we want to spend a little bit more time on the next couple of minutes is 174 Amity Street. Um so this is the slide that I showed in May just to to place it for you. This is
Amity Street at the top of the picture. So the library is up five or six houses and on the other side of the street and on this side of the street if you walked up the street in this direction you'd be at um at the Ammer cinema just to place
it in your minds. There is an existing Victorian era residence with the potential to be divided into three family units and uh we proposed two additional ones which we would partner
with Habitat to do the building and we have since discovered we've been proceeding through our um due diligence uh and also be actually beginning design and planning and are just just about
ready to settle on exactly the appropriate model to uh go for permitting because we will need some accommodation for what we see as the best use of the land. So we now have full architectural drawings for the u
the units in the historic building which makes it easier to begin to price it um accurately. Uh, one little piece of bad bad news we acquired, we checked for wetland and in the southeast corner there is a wetland
patch. So, we're now working with the conservation commission. Uh, we had an informal conversation with them last week and we were encouraged uh to submit a proposal that has the new building outside the 50-foot boundary, but they
seem open to the idea that they wouldn't hold us to the 100 foot boundary. And we can comfortably fit the two new buildings, both of them closer to the street, whereas the original drawing we had shared with you before had one of them behind the existing house. That
would be too close to the wetland area. We've recently engaged a surveyor and a civil engineer um uh to assist us in the parts of preparing permitting the application.
and Habitat is is on board with this project has been participating in the planning right from the very beginning. Um, and we we've now gotten to the stage where we're working on the details of our agreement exactly who is going to do what and what the timeline will be. and
we are approaching the community preservation act fund um and we will be approaching you for support um when a few of the things that I um list in the the first few bullet points as
activities in progress um we we hope within a month but certainly by November to be able to come with u a fully developed proposal to you for support that is with the due diligence at a place where you can feel comfortable
that uh about issues of feasibility in the project. Um so I think I promise we'd get through this quickly. Uh I'm happy to answer any questions. Um and uh that's
okay. Thank you so much, Linda. And you know, to to put a few things in perspective that we've talked about, but to connect them here, we voted to recommend to the planning board
last year that we supported this downtown project not having affordable homes in lie of making a payment. that payment. Um, a very big check, handwritten check was deposited uh recently and and so, you know, we have
resources that are really for the purpose of getting replacement homes for the homes that weren't built. And so this project has particular appeal to me in being a downtown project. Of course, that other project was rentals. This is
a home ownership, but the trust has expressed its commitment to um enhancing affordable home ownership in Amherst as well. Um uh I I think that what is interesting and and challenging is that
um this is a kind of a first time development experience for the community land trust, right? you're you're this is a big project and um so you know I'm I'm going to be very curious to know who's the who's going to be the project
manager and and I'm also curious to know um what's the kind of plan between when um you know funds would hopefully be coming from the community preservation act
um you know in in a year from now. what what is the plan for the property between acquisition and and starting the development project? These are some of the questions that that are on on my mind and and I I I wonder what questions are on on your mind um members of the
trust that we might pose to Linda while she's here. Um, of course, this is just kind of foreshadowing um the the formal proposals not before us, but um it's an exciting project and and a great opportunity for the town. um if this
vision could become materialized. Do you want me to actually answer the question? Sure. Yeah. Sure. Since no one's jumped to the to the to raise their hand yet, please do. Okay. So, we have a working group that's been meeting bi-weekly since just about
this time last year. Um the I I think probably the de the definition of project manager at the moment I'm the project manager um in the sense that I'm sort of keeping all the pieces moving
toward the goal. Um the other members of the working group include two people with very substantial experience in this kind of work. One is the architect Bruce Colum who is doing this work pro bono. Um like Habitat there are many parallels
to Habitat as well as their actual partnership. We depend heavily on the expertise of people who would otherwise be quite costly u to a developer who was doing this for profit. So Bruce is volunteering his time and doing the
design work and also advising this and over the course of his career he has served on at least one of the town committees although he doesn't at the moment that would be reviewing this. So he's very knowledgeable about the questions that come up around permitting
for example. Um and uh and we also um have the good fortune to have Seth Lawrence Slavas on our working group. Um, you may not all know that name. Seth Florence Slavas um uh is the president
of Wright Builders and uh has worked for them for a long time. Worked his way up to being president when Jonathan Wright um finally retired and um Seth works for a very upmarket builder and his heart is
in affordable housing. He's also on the board of Habitat and he's well known in the trade. so to speak, for being very interested in in what they can do to further a um affordable housing. So,
both Bruce and Seth uh worked on a much smaller scale project, a single home on Best Street, and that was the occasion of getting to know them. And when I called them um to very definitely ask if they would visit the site with me and
just advise ACL as to whether it was realistic to think of taking this on, they they were all in when they saw the opportunity. So they've been uh proceeding the drawings I referred to, those are all Bruce Cumm's drawings. If
you've seen his drawings before, you recognize his hand. That um we also have Hetty Stardup who serves on the historical commission. This is not a historical house per se. Um but it it
certainly has features that are historically interesting. One of the design features, the new build that will be close to the street uh will be carefully designed so its street facing side would at first glance you would
think it's been the next door neighbor of the Victorian building for a long time um rather than being an interruption um in the streetscape. Um and HDI has been invaluable in terms of advice. Um and then our treasurer Rob
Crowner uh serves on this working group. Who am I forgetting? Oh, the donor. Uh the donor family is the gross family. Their grandparents lived in that house for decades. Um it has it is now the property of three siblings. Um, and
Deborah Gross actually approached the town some time ago uh to just explore whether the town had any interest in her grandparents' property uh becoming affordable housing. Um, and Nate Mallaloy, bless his heart, sold sent her
to us and um, here we are. So, she actually works on the working group. She's an experienced grant writer, has worked in the nonprofit sector as part of her career in Boston for a long time, well,
mostly in the arts, but she has a good sense of how these things proceed. So, that's the level of expertise we bring. Um, Bruce has made an explicit commitment to doing the architectural work and Seth is
cheerfully serving on the working committee. Uh, but I have yet to approach him explicitly. I actually had this conversation earlier um with Greg and Nate Mallaloy as to whether we needed to go out for bid for a builder
or uh could we approach someone that we had confidence we could work with. Um, so it it's on my to-do list now to begin to explore with Seth uh whether right builders themselves would be interested
in being the builder and explore with my board whether they're happy with going with that or whether we want to have some kind of bidding process. But we will in any case have an experienced builder. So the construction supervisor as opposed to the project manager, okay,
will be a person with experience both at this scale and with houses of this type, not just new build. the drawings that Bruce is being very sensitive to the interior of the house which although it's been rental for a long time and
needs um a facelift has been kept in good condition and it retains a wonderful collection of its um original features like two huge uh embossed tin ceilings that look like they were just put up in the two main
um okay so Good. You you your volunteer team has a lot of expertise. Um and that's a very strong start. And um maybe before we uh we wrap up, Linda, can you
walk us through the u the vision of your timeline? Yeah. Well, um we let's see how to put this. Um we know what the family wants. the family is prepared to accept an offer of $475,000
for this property, which is depending on what you take to be its market value. It's about half of what Zillow thinks it's worth. However, we have had it formally appraised. Um, and the appraiser, who had complete access to the interior and knows how much updating
is required, came in well below Zillow. But in the meantime, the family had agreed that they would accept 475,000 for the whole property. Um so um
we can clo close basically um as soon as we have the money to acquire it. So our immediate goal is to acquire um sufficient funds. We have enough funds in hand to do the the
pre-acquisition work. Although we do have a grant of CDBG funds in the FY25 round. Right now the town is waiting to hear whether um our bosses higher up the line are going to eat that money rather than give
it to Massachusetts. But um it it is part of the town's proposal to the state for CDBT funds to pay this about $65,000 in pre-acquisition costs. If push comes to shove, we can cover those costs,
although we would prefer to have that having won that proposal. Um and that together with the um the actual property acquisition and the related again smaller scale legal um that would be the
first step is to actually acquire the property. We are thinking of asking the CPA where the money would first be available almost a year from now July 1st. Um by that time we will be more than ready to begin the renovation of
the old building and again the effort will be mostly um well a major effort on permitting will go along in parallel over those months. So acquisition permitting um and or perhaps permitting acquisition because
whoever funds the acquisition may want to see the permit already in place. So we move forward on both those funds at once. fundraising and permitting. And then uh we hope next summer again pending fundraising and and this will be
our approach to community preservation act fund to begin the renovation. Um with good luck and a following wind, we could have families in place by a year from Christmas in the old building. And then uh Habitat is expecting that
they will in the meantime be fundraising for the new build. They will be offered a a ready site. Uh we will do the permitting work and the site preparation and except for the details that the builder would have to do. Uh and they
are expecting that that will be on their calendar to do the new build at the earliest in um fiscal 27. Uh so their their families will be in place later, but we plan to do at least
initial rounds of marketing together so that everybody that comes into the community uh understands that they're part of a a project of a certain scale. And by the way, we expect to find a formal homeowners association just for
these homeowners because they will be they will have to make decisions about their landscaping and play space and things like that and upkeep. Um, and the rest of our homes are scattered all around Ammerst. So, we intend to actually form an HOA for the this
cluster. And Linda, is your vision that you would be landlords for the for the first year then? Yes, that is there are sitting tenants in the building. Uh although Deborah has been candid with them about uh the plans
and some of them have left, I'm not sure whether an efforts being made to refill the rooms given that the earliest they would absolutely have to move out. Well, when we start construction, it will be uncomfortable. Although you can do a lot of things and still have not
need to displace the tenants, but um All right. We we will hold the property for an interval. Um I I need to check that nothing has changed since the last time we bought property. And when we bought our property on North Ammerst, our first
partnership with Habitat, they did the build on it. We discovered that we have two years grace before we have to pay 10 property tax on property that's in in that transition phase, but we will be fiscally responsible for it for an
interval before we've realized the revenue from the sales. So we have a commitment from five college credit union bridge loan. Okay, very good. Um, Linda, well, I think we have a view of of the the scope
of your vision and how you you hope it plays out and um we look forward to kind of seeing um it in the next uh you know, phase of of concreteness, what you know, one one big round of
concreteness further down the line. Thank you very much for giving us this time. I know you have a lot on your minds tonight. Yeah, I'm gonna be an observer for the rest of the Okay, excellent. Thank you so much. Yeah, I know you're trying to move this along, but any of you who want to are
very welcome to contact me or Mora who's sitting uh here also. Mora is the clerk of our corporation. Um and many of you would recognize her name from the Amorest India, I think. But um we we
plan to be available if questions occur to you later. um particularly if you're new members and would like some personal introduction to what our model is and what we're doing. Wonderful. All right. Well, then um I guess you can hear how we proceed. Um uh
so Greg, I think we we've got our um kind of internal updates next, right? Or some town updates. Uh yeah, town updates. I can go back to my my slides here. Um um
hopefully you've all got my slides. So um so yeah, some some quick updates on a few things. Um um some of which you've heard about before, uh one of which is new. Um the um uh engagement we're doing
with the South Ammerst School uh project and hopefully folks can see my slides. Yep. Um um that is the one down on what is known as Fiddler's Green or the South Ammerst Common. Um and we're working again with um uh what is now known an architecture
firm known as Joy Squared but made up of principles of the narrow gate who we worked with on the VFW project um or that that sort of short-term engagement. Um so Joy Squared is uh is sort of you know in kind of early design phases right now coming up just with some
concepts um and um they will um uh you know hopefully have uh we'll have a public presentation of that final product which will be three different possible directions the town could head in um uh sometime probably looking at I'm guessing late October now in that
you know where we are you know it's kind of moving a little bit based on our ability to schedule meetings with towns staff and them. Um, but we had we did a public meeting up in the uh in June. Um, we've been uh conversing with um affordable home developers um on
viability and kind of looking at that. Um and we are kind of discovering some some interesting stuff around permitting and uh just sort of how the site looks from the perspective of um different uh types of affordable home developers and and so there's going to be some good
information there. Um we uh raring the housing production plan uh is kind of the other uh thing happening right now. You you've all some of you who've been on the trust have heard a great deal about that and offered feedback starting over a year ago. Um and that is now in a
draft uh form that we've had since early June. Um the council did send it to committee. Um the uh community resources committee met today. I wasn't able to be there myself, but I think it was more of an initial look. um you know at it um
goal I think is to not is for the community resources committee not to hang on to it for too long and to get it back to the council in November sometime um hopefully for approval and we would then send it on to the state um for uh for their approval you know of the housing production plan. Um, so but the
uh uh they today and uh certainly I'm told the CRC committee will or the CRC I should say will probably look at it again on the 25th of this month. Um the inclusionary uh fee and ll adjustment.
Oh, okay. This happens every time. My screen went black for a second. Um the inloop fee adjustment um uh which we uh as the trust uh sponsored um is moving right along. Um that is um uh the um CRC
and planning board have both closed um their their hearings on it and sent some uh recommendations back to the council um which um and those recommendations are largely complimentary. There's no real conflicts there between them. Uh the council um uh should be able to get
it to the um forgetting what G stands for, but um u something in legislation. Um but basically it's um uh you know a subcommittee that looks at this kind of thing and they will hopefully be able to
uh get to it um on Tuesday on on the 6th. Um sorry. Um actually thinking these dates might be a little late and maybe this is a I might have put this date down before I got an email from the council leazison but in any case it's coming um no later
than than the 20th um will be the second reading is my understanding of it. Um the ADU ordinance uh update for the town to um comply with a new state legislation requiring us to approve accessory dwelling units by right also
continues a pace. Um and I I think uh you know informally I've heard come around the bend um in both CRC and the planning board. Um, and the interesting thing about that, which I'm super excited about, uh, in particular, is um, by law, this the town has to, um,
approve a type of accessory dwelling unit, which is the state calls a protected use unit. Um, meaning most homeowners are eligible to build one, um, you know, uh, by right with, you know, with, you know, just basically as long as it meets building code. Um uh
but Ammerst um is and and the big difference on the protected use ADU is uh no town can uh require owner occupancy of that ADU. um what Ammeris is going to so you know in conversations right now and this could change when it
gets to the council but um the idea remains in in strong consideration that the town along with the protected use ADU also does what they're calling a local ADU uh which would basically allow for a larger building um so instead of
the 900 foot protected use ADU it would allow for I'm not sure where they are right now but somewhere around 11 or 1200 feet a slightly larger larger unit, those two or 300 square feet are significant. Um the local ADU would require owner occupancy of of one of the
units. Um so and what that does basically is it um you know it creates you know a different avenue you know for possibly an entity like the community land trust to do creative stuff. Um you know or if if folks want to have a bigger ADU and commit to ownership
that's their right too. um you know so I think there might down the line be creative ways to use that um for um you know for neat ownership stuff um along with the protected use one which will be available for owners or renters um and then the last thing um which has been in
the news there's a gazette item uh that I just recently saw about it um it's been in a few different sources is that there is a exploration uh right now by Beacon Communities which is um my uh which is the uh same developer that did
uh North Square um which is uh the former Kohl's property. Um and the uh the Beacon community's um concept is just that right now they have not made a um any kind of proposal to the town other than um sort of informal questioning and and doing right now
they're basically doing due diligence on the property. Um they've made it public that they're doing that due diligence but there's not uh a formal you know submission to the town yet. That said though, um the the concept um as as I understand it, um in in fairly modest
form, I haven't gotten a formal, you know, deep presentation on it, but is that it's probably two separate projects um you know, separate, you know, one a senior building of around 90 units and then one a family affordable building um at something around 110 or 120 units is
the current um uh vision for it. Um which is early um but you know and all those would be affordable. So, a pretty neat addition to our stock of affordable homes. Um, it's likely that they'd be seeking resources from, you know, various parts of town. Um, you know,
possibly, you know, tax relief or, you know, money from CPA, you know, it's conceivable they could come to us, you know. So, you know, that and that's as a fairly big project. Um, you know, that would go through, you know, a fair amount of process on different committees in town. Um, the site is not
impossible. There are wetlands on the site. there's some navigation to do there. Um, you know, so it's very early, but it's an exciting prospect for you know, some affordable homes. Um and then if we can still see slides, the the big reveal which which we gave away as uh the other big update is we received um
you know the fee in Lou for the town uh really you know for the trust's use uh for the the South Ammerst project or the you the South Pleasant Street project. Um and that's now in bank account um and part of our um our trust balance. Um so
um those are kind of my quick updates. Um, and I'm apologies. I'm going to uh refresh here and if I lose, I will come right back. Um, okay. Um, yeah, Algra, please. So, this might sound like a stupid thing to ask,
but could somebody from the town be in touch with the school committee because they keep on talking about putting the sixth grade academy at South Ammerst and I keep on sending them our information, telling them that we've been in the
process of like citing something there potentially for um if that's helpful feedback And yes, my understanding again is that they turned it over to the town. Um, you know, yeah, I, you know, and I,
um, that's my understanding as well, you know, but I haven't seen the paper. Um, so I'll, you know, I will, um, I'll I'll I'll look into that and and talk to the appropriate folks in that regard and and have myself or or somebody, you know,
uh, maybe Dave or Rob reach out. Perfect. Thanks, Allegra. Well, uh it's a good set of updates. Um our kind of policy influence is showing up and that um in lie adjustment and the
check also showed up. So now we've got uh we've got some money that we need to deploy. Um and and so I think that that's a nice segue into our um you know check-in now and and figuring out how
we're going to turn that necessity into reality. Um maybe uh so we are at that part of the meeting, right, Greg? We're Oh, we are. Yes. Um okay. Um
why don't we um kick off with uh HJ and and and Bob sharing their um their first pass at stakeholder mapping uh which is an I think a great exercise to open our mind a little bit to our network and and
how we can um pull pull resources together. Sure. Let me get the presentation up. Um Bob, I do apologize. just kind of cobble something together last minute. Um, but nothing's really shouldn't be that surprising.
Okay, can everybody see my screen? Great. Okay, so what is a stakeholder map? So those were of us who were at the meeting um that we had at town hall um had mentioned a desire to kind of just like
he'd like to understand what who the stakeholders are um and stakeholders loosely if like people uh say stakeholders but basically it's it's those who are affected by or or or or we interact with it's just basically anybody any sort of level of interaction
u is considered a stakeholder. Um, and it it's it's designed to be a visual way to um help people or like help us really understand who the people the organizations that that that that are uh in contact with us essentially. So I
kind of laid out like the stages in which how a stakeholder map works. Um this is not a concept that we came up with. This is this is a concept that's just been around from like project management um basics. And so once you have your list of stakeholders, a way to
kind of we have a lot by the way that that have already been identified. I'm sure there are even more that that we could add onto the list. But basically a a good way to start categorizing your stakeholders and then eventually get to a point where we sort of just kind of understand holistically how are we
interacting with those stakeholders is to plot along an influence and interest axis. So very kind of like semi-quantitative. Um why why why would we want to do that? It's basically we want to be able to quickly identify how a particular stakeholder interacts with
with the trust fund uh sort of the trust and and and then it as as we sort of understand our stakeholder map you can also use it to opportunistically uh assess if there are any gaps or or or things that we should be uh maintaining
better uh a relationship uh essentially. Um, and then I sort of alluded to this before. It's also it's also nice to kind of just uh document a typical engagement strategy. Um, especially for key stakeholders just just so that
especially uh as a new uh member of of this committee uh I'm sure people can really benefit from just kind of understanding how how the business of the the the committee works. Um yeah, any questions so far? I I feel free to
just kind of jump in. Yeah, I would just add, you know, this is uh primarily motivated from being new and trying to understand the lay of the land. Um, it's also a draft at this stage, so it's it's, you know, not a a final final product and it'll probably change as
well as the relationships uh develop and so on. But um uh yeah, we hope it's we hope it's helpful. Yeah. So, how does this work? So, I'm going to focus on on one of the key pieces, obviously listing out your
stakeholders is stakeholders, and I'll get to the the actual working sheet um in a minute. Uh but once you have that, I I I mentioned um uh putting through a influence and interest kind of uh metric on on each of the stakeholders. And this
is just a rubric um that that we drafted. Um as I mentioned, it's semi-quantitative. So, you just kind of rank high, medium, low for both interest and influence. Um, I'm not going to read through the whole slide, but just to kind of highlight like let's say influence it,
it's anybody like since there's like a a huge money component to to to the trust, anybody sort of has has sort of control over how that funding gets to us or like you know the the the the whole fact that this whole whole committee exists like that. That's a that's a high amount of
influence on the trust as as an example. A low amount of influence is is someone or or an organization that uh doesn't necessarily uh weigh in on the decision-m process of of of the stuff that uh was is discussed on in some of
these meetings. And then you have a whole side on the interests who who really benefits from it who has an interest in affordable housing but also has uh competing priorities. and then and then the whole like range of it. That's that's kind of how how you generally get a rubric out
of it. Um, and I'm going to quickly and I realize I shared just the application so I'm going to have to redo this. Um, apologies. Make sure I actually have it up.
It's just a Google sheet. Um the first list is as I as I said just you list out all the stakeholders that you know uh including us. Um and then it's just a couple uh things that might help like what type of organization are are we talking about? Is it is it within the
town government? Is is it a partner? That's all this is. This is all draft as Bob mentioned. And then a ranking. All this is just kind of draft rankings. Just don't take this as gospel. And then hopefully we have some sort of documented engagement approach and maybe
a previous interaction. Um jumping back to the PowerPoint. um at the this is something that I I'm not I'm not in love with because because of all the overlapping names, but uh you
you try to get a visual out of it. And and the idea is that it's a quick way to kind of snapshot, oh, this is a person that given a certain work stream tells us, okay, yeah, this this person needs to be on some sort of communication chain and we need to get their feedback
in order to make sure the decision is well communicated or even if we need a a specific um uh uh we need we need to engage them before a decision is made for for example. Um yeah.
All right. Okay. Yeah. Seeking feedback. Uh does the rubric make sense? We obviously need help ranking stakeholders along the axis. Uh it's always good to test your your uh uh your model. Uh I'm a scientist, so just testing your model
and making sure it actually makes sense to you. Does it align with your expectations? And then uh lastly, how can this tool help with uh what the the housing trust uh work on? Uh well, that last question, I wonder
working on this, what what ideas did you um think of for for how um getting this kind of clarity can become something that we take advantage of.
Well, I guess you know in in the midst of a project I mean maybe if we we even think of the Amity Street um that the land trust is looking at. So as we start in with discussions and again particularly for those of us who are new
like who else should we be talking about or if someone comes to us and like who who is this group how does it relate to us? So it's I think foremost sort of a just informational for us. Um but it can also
then be I think um some institutional memory going forward. So um I think one of the columns in there was you know examples interactions that we've had already. Um, so in the future if you've got a record of that, oh well, you know,
we worked on the uh East Gables uh with this group and uh this was our contact there. Um it's just a quick reference or could be a helpful reference. Um I think you know some of you have been who've been at it a while, you sort of have
this internalized or you've got it in the equivalent of a rolodex somewhere, but um hopefully this would sort of serve that that kind of purpose. I I guess just uh responding that's that's helpful. And then I guess you're
asking what other um possible data or I wonder if we can if you can add whether it's geographic or other parameters that would allow us to sort them accordingly according to like you just said Bob. So, what what would be
the searches or sorts that would uh get us to focus on the right players? Um, in any case, having a just having a long list that you can look at is extremely helpful on its own. Um, remember, this is where I think we're going to
have to feel it out. And I think it's going to matter depending on what we're actually trying to accomplish. If it's if it's more or less like education uh related aspect, the the map is going to be very different from um assessing a development project for example.
Uh what do others think? Questions or or reactions or suggestions? I'm kind of curious which ones were the most challenging for you guys to classify either in terms of influence or you know either on either scale.
Um given that we haven't really vetted any of the it was mo mostly to fill the space and just kind of like test out the map. I I wouldn't say I I we were really equipped to say any particular stakeholder is hard to rank at this moment. Yeah. A lot of unknowns for us
right Greg. Um yeah and I you know reiterating some some feedback earlier today. Um I think there's to me this suggests a fun collaborative conversation maybe in a subcommittee of you know sort of um you
know folks with some institutional knowledge offering some insights on where to rank different entities or people or organizations. Um, and the other thing that I, you know, I want to know just in specifically in terms of of communication or community education, I
think it's a really interesting tool, um, to both like look, you know, where to, you know, to help prioritize communication efforts and narrow audiences, for example, um, to say, hey, you know, like let's look at a quadrant and figure out, you know, you know, a
communication framework for just this targeted quadrant, you know, of of, you know, of high influence. high interest people or you know whatever the combination is. Um that could be a really interesting way to organize and and strategically focus on engagement. Um and then also to sort of
look at you know especially entities that might have something in common and and say hey here's where they are now and then and then ask ourselves where do we need to move this set of entities on this grid. Um you know that might um be a neat way to um think about you know
which relationships we want to grow. um and and in which directions etc. So yeah, I think it it suggests a lot of of neat collaborative work and can help align us as a group too. Great. Um thank you very much. Yeah, I
mean I I I think it'll be fun to to apply it and and and uh use it in our decision making and and planning. I think it it seems particularly useful for the education and outreach work to
kind of have that that awareness. Um well, in light of time, why don't we uh keep hearing uh from from different folks on um updates since our last meeting? Um Carla, I guess you you had a chance to
to talk to Greg and and get an update on what's going on with Craig's doors. Yeah, I mean our our I think our goal during the time we spent together and Greg you can correct me as well was just to kind of you know I wanted to get up to speed on that project and get a sense
of um you know the players and um uh just how things were moving forward, where we'd come from, where we're going. So, um, and moving forward, I think that the idea was just, um, going to, you know, and it's a little bit complicated, as you know, cuz there's a, um,
leadership change at Craig Stores right now. So, they're kind of having an interim leader, but just, um, you know, I'm in the building usually on a at least a weekly basis. So, um, just going to make a point to kind of work on building and maintaining those relationships. Um I mean I'm
representing different you know a lot couple different things being a member of the church but also member of the board but you know um and just an interested member of the community with that particular population but um I I don't know if you want to add anything Greg about that piece.
Um, no. I I think you summed up pretty well, you know, and I think um, you know, sort of just um, you know, it seems like a lot of this work is about engagement and some of it's very strategic and focused and, you know, targeted and I think some of it is just sort of relational, you know, and and I
think, um, uh, the trust will benefit from both, you know. Um, and I think, you know, Carlos is really well positioned to, um, you know, sort of help you help be a bridge, you know, over to, you know, what's happening ILC right now and and all that. So yeah.
Yes. Thank you uh for for um helping us be have eyes and ears and and uh and hearts in in the space. Uh Carla um I think that's excellent for the trust. Looking forward to it. So good. Um uh Alex anything you want to
share from from your side? Yeah. Um I'm happy to share. Let's say it's a draft of a draft of I just focused on kind of getting some information chunked out on the page. So, let me go ahead and share that. So, I
promise it'll look better before I'm done. This is mostly, I think, just an opportunity for our new members to see kind of the elevator pitch mission statement that we've been working on and to think about what would be helpful. Hopefully, you can see my screen. It's
It has to get to the moon and back. Right. There we go. Okay, cool. So, I'll give our new members a chance to read through the the top little blurb. So, our topline summary Um, great. Well, I mean the I I I like
the way you center the strategy, introduce us. So, um I mean speaking for myself, I I I might have a couple of minor um I you know ideas, but I I like the the format and the way you center
the strategy as a way of explaining who we are. Yeah. Um I haven't given a ton of thought as to what else is on this in terms of on the back. I'd heard a couple different ideas at various times from the trust. One of them being an
explainer of what do we mean when we say affordable housing, thinking about like an AMI breakdown sheet. Another one being a list of resources for people. Another one being ways that people can be involved um and engaged with the
trust. So I'm happy to take direction on that now or to wait and reconvene with Algra and Greg in our subcommittee with anybody else who may be joining us. And I promise I'll work to keep refining this too. But like I said, mostly an opportunity to let our new members see
and comment on the top line. Yeah, he great work. Uh this this is that this is definitely I love the designs like it's it's it's got really clear fonts. Um can you just kind of quickly remind me what
the sort of like intended use case might be like? Like like help us frame this because that that's what I'm kind of lost on. Yeah. Um, honestly, I'm a little lost on it, too. So, any of our older members, Algo, I know we had talked about something that we could have when we
were playing or at events that would help explain who we were. I don't know if you had more vision for it. Example would be like the block party. Um, so I feel like last year we had Oh, yeah. That's coming up. We talk
about that tonight. Yeah. Like last year we had like a board like visions that people could add but I don't think we had anything really about what we were doing. So I think like something clear and concise to describe
us was kind of what came out of that conversation kind of in our debrief of how things went in our interactions with people. Um, but I also think if you know if we were like other community events, but I think
I think also it could be helpful for if there, you know, I don't know, if somebody has a lot of money and is like, I don't know what I want to do with my money and you're like, here, yeah, I I hear you. It's like murky sort of general use um kind of information in
informative flyer. I I think probably the only thing I would say is like there there's no mention of like a website or anything that people can go to. Um I think that that'd be like an easy thing to just add to just make sure we get we direct people to ways in which they can
continue to engage and not just get information off of this one flyer. Could we do a QR code? QR codes. Yeah, that's exactly something that directs like someone just knows, okay, this is where I go. Bob, did did you have your hand or did you Yeah,
exact same thing. I was just going to suggest a QR code. Okay. And you know, you know, you can make um pretty QR codes these days. Um you can. Yeah. Yeah. Um
excellent. So, do you think um do you have the like a text file that you you could send around in case people have little points? Like one little point was to maybe introduce the residents first before the staff. Sorry, Greg. But I
mean, the trust is made up of residents first of all, I think. Um yeah. Um okay. um like a are you asking for a way to provide like offline comments? Yeah. Yes. So, yeah, if if um if Greg
could send around the text that then we could give um you know, whatever little suggestions we might have that they can take into consideration. I will send that to Greg right now. But I'm glad that we mentioned the block party because I I I did not kind of see
it coming from with my trust hat on. It is in one week. Um, Greg, did you see it coming with your trust hat on? Uh, uh, maybe maybe a couple days ago. Uh, no, I did not. Um, I mean,
I will say, um, you know, last year we had a we had that HPP, you know, sort of outreach channel and we had um, you know, the trust was working on its plan, too. So, I I I think um, the questions would be a like what's what's the hook?
Um, and then B, you know, do can we staff it? Um, I, um, I don't know if I can commit myself to staffing it. So, that's Yeah. No, that's fair enough. That's fair enough. Um, all right. So,
unless someone um, uh, is excited to, uh, chair a table, um, I think we do the I think we do the block party on, uh, even years. Um, I will say I think um the DEI department's going to be there and the
HRC and or the human rights commission and the community safety committee are going to be there. So if we did have a flyer that could be like another place since those are um groups that we have in fact partnered with in the past like and I will be
there for a little while so I could um so what do we I mean what you know obviously it's not that hard to print a flyer um on some card stock um Uh,
can we give ourselves a deadline of um of of Monday morning to give any feedback? I mean, I I guess but you know, we're in the middle of the semester. Alex, do you think that um you'd have a chance to kind of make our
uh prototype, you know, based on the feedback and so we could run a a small print job for Thursday? Rob, please go ahead. Yeah. Um I just want to mention uh for the block party, I'm actually running an
organiz party. Um so um any anything that we can um I can do to help in that regard. Um with printing and stuff, I'm obviously going to be there, you know, the entire day. So if we need something to be printed
and put on the table, make sure everything kind of looks good, I can obviously do that. can oversee that I obviously won't be able to table. Um but as to you know having someone there on the day to do a few things I'm obviously
around so can can take things on and and also in regards to any logistical questions or anything please let me know. I'll be happy to help. Fabulous. And let let's let's let's take the let's take the nudge here and and and and do a prototype if uh it makes
sense. Alex. Yeah. I was going to ask Greg, if you were to print these, when is the latest that you would need them to comfortably have time to print them? Um, let's say close a business Wednesday. Okay.
So, if I can get a mockup done this weekend and send it out by Sunday, Greg, are you able to pass it on by Monday? Does that leave people enough time to comment? Oh yeah. So we'll we can take a short we
can have a short uh comment window from um from Monday morning to Tuesday um uh to Tuesday end of business. Is that and then and then you can get it
again Tuesday night, Alex. And yeah. Okay. And then um maybe Greg can coordinate with Rob and Algra to see that they get out to the right place. Sure. And yeah, and I think I can, you
know, I can certainly, you know, go see Pamela and and Phil and I Philip and I actually wonder um one strategic thing and I' I'd want to um uh ask Laura, I don't know if she's still in the audience or not, but one one interesting approach if they don't
already have a table, Rob, maybe you know if the CDC has a table um uh but um uh we we could put some sort of advertisement around. Yes. um the 100%, you know, around their
outreach um um on the other side while we're still figuring out what to put in the back side of it. All right. I think I think we've got a a loose process that's going to work um to not miss this opportunity. Algra, thanks
for kind of bringing us a little focus on that one. Good. and Rob, thanks for for for volunteering your your assistance. Um, I'm sure you're very busy. And to clarify, so Alex, you're going to send me a more updated version than what
you just sent me by by Sunday, correct? Yeah. What I just sent you was just the mission statement. Okay. Okay. I will not distribute what you just sent. I I'll wait until you send me something else. Um Okay. Um Yeah. And also just as I just checked
CDC are not tableing. They do or they do not. No. Okay. So I'll reach out to Laura um and Jess and see if I can um um and I'll see um Alex is that eight and a half by 11. Yeah. But I can make it a different size if you'd rather.
Okay. Let me see what they have so we can I I think maybe the like, you know, h the half size of that might something that you can I mean I'm not a marketing expert here, but something maybe a little smaller that you're inclined to like take and
fold in half and put in your pocket or something like a postcard. It could be it could be as small as as a postcard or like the big size postcard that like they use to promote clubs or something. Um well um the other big thing on our
horizon folks is the next um deadline to apply for CPA funds ourselves and it's it's an interesting um moment to be applying because we've you know we've gotten this other check and so we need
to be really clear about why we should be funded and um and I think part of it is having a a clear story about how we're going to deploy the funds that we already have. And so I would like to see
if there are, you know, one or two people who would be interested in um just kind of being part of the collaboration of getting um getting that proposal together. What what is the commitment? I think it would be um you
know a a meeting to talk through strategy with Greg and me and then um being in the kind of revision chain of the draft. Um you can ponder it but this this is something that we're going to have to do
and I think for you can see why the um there's some artfulness that's going to be involved here. Bob, please. Yeah. So, uh, timing wise, what's the deadline for the application? It's the Is it two and a half weeks, Greg? Do we have that?
Um, it was the 30th of this month. Um, uh, so 19 days. Yeah, two and a half weeks. Um, and so I Yeah, it probably would be good to target a meeting next week. Yeah. Um, and I'll also say too, I think last
year a small group crafted it and then we did have a recollection is it's a little foggy, but I think we shared it to the full group before we submitted. Yeah, we did. We we did give give folks a chance to comment. Allegra, I don't know that I would be available
for a meeting, but I could certainly be a reviewer if that would be helpful. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. And you know, really the it's um these are volunteer committees, so we're kind of, you know, we know what it's like to be on this
side of the table, so to speak. And so um yes, thank you. Uh Algra, I'm sort of in a similar boat. Um meeting, I'm not sure. Um but I to be in the reviewing. Okay. Thank you very much, EJ.
I could potentially be available for a meeting. So I I guess like pencil me in, but I would need to. Okay. Um, thank you. Yeah, I mean I I I think um we can we can we can figure
something out. We'll um we'll get an email uh started. Thank you very much. Um good. Uh so what what other uh business do we want to um address this evening?
uh Greg or or anyone else please. Yes, Algra. Um I just wanted to make everybody aware if you are not already um through emails from the network that there is a um
push for a ballot initiative for rent control measures. Um and so the campaigns are going to be kicking off across the state to try and get signatures. Um, and I believe there will be something locally in Springfield I think will be the hub of their Western
Mass outreach. Um, but personally, I think that could be something to think about throwing our support behind if it becomes a reality. So, just wanted to put that on the radar if it's not there already.
Great. Uh, thank you. Um, and there was a um I'm I'm on an email thread for the folks that are pushing to have the local option to do a transfer tax, particularly on expensive homes, which
would generate local income that could be used for, you know, affordable homes and other other things. And so, I guess they had a very good hearing uh earlier this week. the the folks working on that were cheering just to share another kind of state statewide initiative that's that's going on right now relating to
housing. Um so in terms of how we um focus our our energy next um we haven't quite reconstituted into new
committees um at this moment. I think that's that's okay. Um um but I'm I'm curious if people have thoughts about what might be a good scope or kind of
definition of of of of a committee. I mean we just to remind you all how we got here. We basically just created committees out of the pillars of the strategy and that had some value to it. But I think that maybe we want to be
more um projectoriented as opposed to those broad themes because you know development and funding are interlaced and maybe focusing on how those apply in given initiatives or projects might be more
effective. And so um in the short term I'm concerned with the CPA application. Um, I think the other the other initiative that I'd like to put out there would be to develop
a possibly um uh either a grant initiative or revolving loan fund to support uh something Greg and I talked about to support the kind of exploration before you purchase a uh a piece of land or get into a project to fund that
pre-development work of sizing up whether or something is feasible. And so we could kind of earmark part of our current bank account for that kind of work. We could put out a call for proposals. We could
look for projects to fund. That's one way that we might decide to deploy our resources and our energy. And I'm I'm curious if that's um resonating with anyone whether or not you are interested personally in working
on that. Do you think that that's a good direction for for the trust to go in? Yeah, Alex, I mean for myself, I'd certainly be interested in hearing more about it. I just ask that when that information be
shared, we make sure we center it and align it with some of the action items that we've already identified in our strategic plan for the trust to make sure that we're staying on mission in that way. Yep. Okay. Yeah. I mean the this would be in the
you know the development in getting things getting things moving. And I I guess the um the motivation for it is to put us a little bit in the catalytic role as opposed to just um you
know come to come come to the parents and ask for money like instead of just being passively receiving the initiatives that others may come up with on their own. Can we actually catalyze some initiatives? Can we be kind of
getting projects inspired as opposed to just waiting for the right projects to come to us? Algra. Um, I like that idea and I also have some concerns about like if we keep on
spending all this money on things that end up not being developable then we that that would concern me like and and perhaps there's a revisiting clause and whatever it is. If you know if we spend x amount of money and nothing comes to fruition then we
you know redirect our attention or something. No, no doubt. I mean I think the idea the the the the um fledgling idea here would be to budget x amount of money out
of our funds for that purpose. And so it would naturally be okay so we got through that. How was this a good idea? Was it effective eay? Yeah, I think could build on what you just said. It's basically
we don't quite know what the projects that we can uh with the let's say we just kind of pick a nominal but like smaller portion of the the rather large sum that we we saw on Greg's slide. Um and it it is it is I in my opinion I I I
I do agree that like proactively seeking what we can do with that money makes a little bit more sense to them. kind of waiting to see what what people might ask for. I think I think that's kind of the strategically I I like that. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I think our kind of our biggest failure would be to not
spend the money that we have. That would be that would be really unfortunate. Greg. Um, yeah. And just to sort of, you know, flesh out the vision and as you may have mentioned, but, you know, one one advantage and, you know, to like a revolving loan fund like this, you know,
just for those newer to the trust, you know, or development stuff is pre-development money um is generally like the hardest to find uh for developers of all types, really affordable and otherwise. um you know and so um this is a way you know this
can be a way to um um to to to draw developers in you know if if that resource exists um and is relatively easy to access um there's different ways to format it um you know but one but often how it works is you know if a project you know is you know like we're
assuming some amount of risk with pre-development investment right but then you know presuming the project comes through um that gets paid back when there's a construction loan or when there's permanent equity financing that comes with the later stage money um is is the basic idea. Um, an example of
where that might be a valuable tool is that South Ammer school site. Um, you know, we don't have a full report yet from, you know, from Joy Square, but one one of the things that we're learning is that the ceiling of units on that site,
you know, for sort of, you know, standard affordable housing developers, um, the way that they perceive it is the is is the inputs would be similar to something three times the size, um, as far as their time and resources, um, and
risk. um but the the the payoff would be would be less and so there'd be more hesitancy than there might be for a larger site. So making pre-development funds available might entice a developer to um you know to to take action on that
site where where they might not without you know a front-end subsidy. Okay, we're we're we're getting close to wrap up but let let's let's tie off this conversation. Tom. Um yeah, I think the general idea is um a good one um with some kind of
guideline as to maybe a proportion of our overall budget. Uh but my question is actually about our overall budget. So uh with the big check that's come in, what's the total current balance that we have? And then also um uh what's the
timing then for the next tranch of CPA funding? When does it actually come in? If it's approved. If it's approved. If it's um thinking positively. Um so um our current um uh our our
current balance uh for um uh for development funds is uh uh $1,339,000. Um um and that includes the inloo fee payment. Um and it um includes a the the
deduction of support for Amoris community homes um which was too large chunks. So that's kind of what the resources are there. And then out there somewhere and I haven't heard uh is another $40,000 uh for from um
the uh faith-based group that is is in the process of of dissolving very slowly. Uh, and for new members, there was a there's a nonprofit that's dissolving. They had $40,000 left and they're turning it over to us. So, that that's coming at some
point. Yeah. Um, so yeah. So, I mean, you know, the the reality is the trust has never had so much money in the bank and I see that as kind of scary because we need to deploy
it. It's of use to nobody in the bank. Uh, so I I just um I I we can't think of it the same way as you think about your own bank account. It's it's we got to make this money work. That's what it's there for.
Um, and so I guess uh w with that um welcome any any kind of reactions to to that theme um or ideas. Um but otherwise I I think it's important to keep our commitment to to to wrap up on time.
So yes, Greg. Yeah. Uh, no, I was just going to say, um, uh, you know, I think we we've we've heard from two members of our audience, but, you know, but but Ruby's here, and I want to make sure we, um, I certainly want to recognize, um, uh, Ruby
Meline Yates, uh, who, uh, is here, um, on behalf of Representative Dome's office, and we really appreciate you being here, Ruby. Um if you want to you don't have to but if you want to raise your hand we can we can welcome comment or Mora or Linda are also still in the
audience. Um um but we've covered that base. Yeah. All right. Okay. Um all right folks. Well I um I thank you all for for being here. I know that um a lot of our meeting today was kind
of taking in information which um um is less engaging than uh kind of working and kicking things around. Uh but it's really important. We are uh here to to hear from from the community and and uh
serve as connectors. And so um thank you for for for being here and and let's uh let's let's we're going in the right direction. Let's get our name out there next week. Thanks to the volunteers. We're going to make that happen. Um stay
tuned for an email from Greg with uh Alex's draft and um you know, let's see how we can give helpful suggestions. It'll be our kind of 1.0 um and we can get feedback from the community actually using it. Um so I look forward to that.
Thank you, Alex, and everyone who's going to bring that to fruition. All right. And an email is well with a notice, a meeting notice for um an invitation uh for um a CPA conversation.
Yes. Yeah. Uh um uh we will get that going. All right, everybody. Thank you and um look forward to seeing you in a month. Thank you. Bye bye. Thanks everyone.