Uh welcome to the uh air affordable housing committee along with the air affordable housing trust board meeting. In accordance with chapter 2 of the acts of 2023 suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law OML, public bodies otherwise
governed by the OML are temporarily relieved from the requirement that meetings be held in public places open and physically accessible to the public so long as measures are taken to ensure public access to the body's deliberations through adequate alternative means. This meeting of the AR affordable housing trust will be live
on zoom and air affordable housing trust and affordable housing committee will be live on zoom. The public may participate remotely by joining zoom meeting ID 818509-7403 or by calling 929-205-6099. For additional information
about remote participation, please contact Alicia at ahersy at air.mma. us or 978-772-8220 extension142 prior to the meeting. And so, um, I believe, uh, Janet, do you want to call your board to
order? I want to call ours to order. Right. You all set? Yeah, please. Okay. I'm going to call the Affordable Housing Committee meeting to order at 6:17. Thank you. And I'll call the uh the
housing trust is is I started out by by with I've already read the thing to get us open. Um, first thing is our agenda. Uh, could somebody from the trust please uh move to approve the agenda? So moved. Thank you, Sean. Do I have a second from the trust? Second.
Thank you. I'm going to give that one to Colleen James, but thank you very much. She got there. She got there first. Great. Not upset. Not upset. Okay. So, next we have a presentation by the Deon Crest Tennis Association, uh, the DCTA. And Connie, before I hand it to you, if
it's okay with you guys, um, we got a lot of people here and I don't know how to get everybody on my screen all at once. So, I'm going to ask that we uh kind of do a hybrid. if you would like
to be um acknowledged, please raise your hand so I can figure out because it'll because it'll but you know in the software if you can raise your hand and if I seem to be ignoring you speak up. I I can only see six or eight people at any one time. So and I don't want I
don't want anybody to be to be I don't want anybody to feel like they're being left out. Is that fair? Thank you all. It's I people who are used to me running these meetings know we're a little bit informal just because of that reason. Okay, great. Connie, why
don't I turn it over to you and you've got a presentation, correct? Uh, I do. Um, and that presentation will be u uh facilitated by an attorney u Dan Carlston from uh Foleyhog out of Boston
because I couldn't figure out how to do it. Okay, Dan. Yeah, we we'll get to the presentation in a minute, but I I just wanted to uh have a few opening remarks if I may, Mr. Chairman. Of course. Please, county, go for it. First of all, I'd like to thank
the uh air affordable housing trust and the air affordable housing committee for holding this joint meeting tonight. Um this is uh a matter that is just DCTA is is very excited about. We have been
working for almost four years non-stop trying to secure the affordability of the housing units in the Devons Crust neighborhood. Uh, of course, the biggest obstacle has been sight control. And we're happy to
announce tonight that as of March of this year, DCTA's development park partner, the Shocket Companies, and uh Brady Sullivan have entered into um it's a 50 plus page purchase and sale
agreement with all kinds of due diligence provisions, but it puts us on track to get site control of the Devons Crest neighborhood. and with that be able to uh preserve uh initially up to
35 units and eventually the entire 114 units as affordable units. Um I I' I'd also like to thank and we've had an incredible team working together with DCTA um donating all kinds of free time on a
proono basis. Uh we've we've had Jeff Mullen and Dan Carlston from Foley Hogue uh a premier uh law firm out of downtown Boston. Matt Thaw who's an expert in affordable housing financing out of Brooklyn,
Massachusetts. Uh Dick Bower and Ann Jocknik from the Mass Law Reform Mass Law Reform Institute out of Boston. Um, uh, David, uh, Abramowitz, um, from, uh, Goulen and Stores, again,
another premier, uh, law firm out of downtown Boston. Uh, of course we have our uh DCTA members, Denise Baralt and Bill Barlo and many others that have uh, you know, we we've had countless
meetings and they've been very instrumental in trying to uh, direct uh, uh, this project uh, into a direction that would best serve the the tenants at uh, Devon's Crust. Um, thank you to our state senator Jamie Eldridge for helping
to secure a $250,000 uh grant uh to help us with our efforts and our state senator Dan Cena. Special thanks to Secretary Ed Augustus from the um Executive Office of Housing
and Livable Communities who actually got the Shocket Companies, their principles together with Brady Sullivan at his office to push this deal to a to a head. Um, and thank you to the Air Board of Selectmen, the Affordable Housing
Committee and Affordable Housing Trust for their letters of support, uh, which help certainly helped make all of this possible. And Alicia Hersy, uh, for all of her efforts in trying to acting as a resource and and helping to pull uh,
tonight's meeting together. Um, so I' I'd like to uh, actually we have a couple people to present. uh one of which will be Denise Peralta, tenant at um uh at Devon's Crest and Bill Barlo.
I'd like to hear have them give a couple uh words to the uh boards tonight and then we'll turn the presentation over to Rick Hanken and and uh Bert Radiker uh principles of the shocket companies who are partnering with DCTA
uh as our development partner and which it's their company that would actually be doing the uh the purchase of u the uh the 114 units at at Devon's Crust. So Denise, if I madam u madam and Mr. Chairman, uh with your permission, if I
could turn the meeting now to Denise Peralt for uh a few words. Okay, perfectly fine with me. Yep. Good evening everybody and thank you for this opportunity for um Deans Crest uh to come before uh you at this time to
discuss our situation. Um, I'd like to thank the town and all the elected officials on behalf of the DCTA board members and the Devons Crest tenants. It has been a long unknowing journey since 20 June 2021. Many of us could never have imagined that we could come this
far. This has truly been a blind faith walk. We have worked hard and continued our ongoing due diligence to get where we are. Though there are some things to sort out, we are truly optimistic that we will reach our goals. We appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day
and we look forward to finishing the race. The town's continued support is critical to our chance of success in this really enormous project. And again, thank you very much. And now, Madame Chair and Mr. Chair, if
we could have Bill Barlo, uh, also a tenant at at Devon's Crest say a few words to the to the committees. That'd be fine with me. Committees and trust. Thanks, Denise. Oh, thank you. Thank you everyone for their interest and uh I just would
reiterate everything that Denise just said. Uh and and basically just wanted to add that um the financial support that the town can give us is is critical to our success here and
we appreciate anything that we accomplished tonight. Thank you. So without uh further ado, Madam Chair and Mr. Chair, if I could uh now have uh turn the meeting over to uh uh Rick or
Richard Hanken, president of the Shocket Companies, who's the development partner with DCTA um and he'll actually uh walk the committee and trust members through the u uh the presentation that we uh have sent out to to all of your members. And
once Rick and and Albert or Bert Radiker from his company uh are done with the presentation, their presentation, uh I'd like to then uh circle back and actually articulate uh the specific request and the reason that we're before the uh the committee
and the trust tonight. So without further ado, u Rick, if we can turn uh Rick Hanken, if we can uh have you uh take over from here. Thank you. Thank thank you, Connie, and and thank you um to all of the members of of the the
committee and and and the trust. Um so I'm I'm Rick Hanken. I'm the president of the Shocket Companies. We um own and operate roughly 56 5700 apartments throughout New England. Um we've been
around for over 50 years. Um 95% of what we do is affordable housing in in one way, shape, or form. Um and and really um we're so grateful for the time that you're giving us tonight. Um but I'm
also always amazed um at at folks um good folks in so many cities and towns. I'm sure there are other places you might want to be at 6:30 um on a t on a on a Wednesday night, but the fact that you give, you know, your time commitment
to to to help solve this incredibly important crisis. Um you know, I I I I may actually someday get paid for all of my work. Um uh but but for you all volunteers, it's it's um it's really quite inspiring. So, thank you and thank
you for the time. Um, with me, um, is Bert Rodigger, um, who is our, um, vice president of acquisitions and development. Um, and, um, I'm going to do a lot of the talking, but Bert, feel free to interrupt me. Bert um, uh, uh,
in addition to leading our development acquisition efforts, is a very, very deep and broad technical expert um, in every program that's ever been invented for affordable housing. Um I think he may actually have invented uh a few of
them. Um it's been um an absolute honor and privilege to get to work to get to work with the entire team. Um and and getting to know Denise and Bill um uh has been a pure joy and and you know we
want to succeed for Bill and Denise and the rest of DCTA if for nothing else. Um so uh again thank thank you for the time. So um I'm not sure how much each and everyone knows
about the specifics of the the the Devon Crest journey. Um some of you may may know more than I do having been in town for a long time. um andor the um technicalities and buzzwords and
abbreviations and you know lexicon of affordable housing. So um I'm going to sort of move through the presentation and if I'm overspeaking or underseaking or underexplaining or using you know terms that are familiar to me and part
of my everyday lexicon um please stop me so that you know we can make sure that everybody is is you know sort of up to speed. Um, so you know, as as you all know, um, initially built in the 40s and targeted to military families, Devon's
Crest Village, you know, for years was an excellent option for low and moderate income families. Um, it's what we call naturally occurring affordable housing. um uh apartments that are available to
folks um who are um you know not high wage earners at rents they can afford. Um Noah as a class is a dwindling resource in this state and in this country because
um when typically naturally occurring affordable housing is like Devon's grrest um owned by um a family uh and it's been passed down from generation to generation and the professional
developer ers and owners would look at it as being undermanaged. Look at all the extra rent you could collect if you did a little more landscaping and you fluffed and buffed some of the
apartments. And so they scour the world looking for places like Devon's Crest that they can buy based on the in place rents and then put money
into force out the folks who are living there. Put money into the units. Clean them up. Make them a little nicer, a little newer, a little fresher. and then go and rent to people at market rents.
And in the case of Devon's Crest, it's exactly what happened. It's it's such a common story and it's absolutely heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking um that that that you know developers are going to make their profits on the
backs of people who just need a place to live. Um, so in 2021 I right the property was sold to to Brady Sullivan which is a um major player in New Hampshire. Uh I think they're the biggest landlord and owner in Manchester
and um they also um have holdings in in in in uh Massachusetts and in Rhode Island. Um, and they bought it like any other quote unquote value ad developer would,
which was we're going to buy it. We're going to renovate. We're going to double the rents and, you know, we paid it. We we bought it based on a,000 a month rent and we're going to own it at 2400 a
month rent and we're going to make a bloody fortune doing that. Um, and so that's what happened. Um, so Brady bought it and went about its plan of um, raising rents so that folks would
leave um, and then when they got the units back, putting money into them, rehabbing them, and then reenting them for a,000 or 1,200 a month more than the previous tenant was paying. Uh the result
being really painfully the displacement and potential displacement of the current residents and while not as personally troubling um devastating for the Commonwealth
because once this housing goes to market it never comes back and the Commonwealth is desperate for affordable housing as you well know. So, in an effort to save their tenencies and find a way to protect the units before they were all
lost to the market, Bill and Denise and and a handful of others formed the Devon Crest Tenants Association. They began meeting. They were able to get um a non-trivial earmark from and through Senator Eldridge's Eldridge's office to
pay for consulting services, um to fight evictions. They got pro bono legal help. And I will say um a lot of the folks and and and Matt and an um uh uh uh and others are are on the call. Uh Bill
Bower uh a lot of the folks um who have been involved giving their time mostly for free. David Abramoitz um are some of the luminaries in the affordable housing business, not just locally but
nationally. Um, and you know, these people are all in and have been so helpful and we're so grateful for all of that. Um, again, uh, uh, Shocket's been working pro bono for a long time. Um, but we might actually get paid, but
that's at this point not really what it's about. Um, it it's become an absolute passion play to be able to preserve these housings and go have a party with Denise and Bill. That's what I'm holding out for is the party with
Bill. Uh, next slide, please. All right. So, the tenants endeavored to be able to buy the property from Brady Sullivan and took a few runs long before I ever got involved.
And Brady was not going to talk to the tenants because they did not believe as seriously intended as they were that they were serious potential buyers
because they didn't have a balance sheet. They didn't have experience. They didn't have a big bucket of cash. So from what I've heard, they just sumearily ignored the tenants for a very
long time. So the uh the team in its great wisdom said, "Okay, let's put out a request for proposals and let's get a professional developer um who can work with us to make a
serious bid to Brady Sullivan." And when Brady Sullivan looks at the the the resume of the developer, the development partner, they'll realize that that this is somebody who's got a balance sheet, who's done this before, and knows what they're doing, and we can bring him to
the table. Um, Shockit was thrilled to have won that um to have won that competition. Um, and and that was in the summer of 2023. um and the goal, right, and the
agreement. And and by the way, we've worked with our company has worked with um nonprofits for for for 40 of our 50 years. Um our largest partner is a national faith-based nonprofit
affiliated with the United Church of Christ based out of Long Beach, California. and we've acquired over 3,000 apartments for them uh in New England. Um we also work with um the
Fenway Community Development Corp. and did a project with them and we're currently working with Alustin Brighton Community Development Corp. to to to to preserve some housing there. Um, and in every case, Shockit ends up being a
small P partner because of some of the vagaries and nuances of how the world works. The owner has to be the nonprofit. Um, and that was our initial plan that we would work with DCTA to structure and execute a
transaction that would preserve the housing. Right? That was to my mind the most important uh both current and future and ultimately allow for tenant ownership of the
property. Um, as time progressed, and I'll get into this in a little more detail, it became apparent, um, that there was no way to structure a transaction where the tenants could have ownership
immediately. And so we thought about, and you'll hear about how we proposed to get them ownership um, while doing, you know, uh, uh, succeeding in the other goal, which is to preserve the housing. So, we're here
today to to to talk to you about um the project um and then to begin a discussion about the kinds of resources that we're hoping um we could encourage you to contribute um uh uh to be helpful and and I'll I I'll continue on sort of
the program and then hand that specifically back to Connie. Uh, next slide, please. So, I was out for a walk uh in Pasadena, California, visiting my stepdaughter in
college when Shane Brady finally returned my call. This was November or October of 2023. at that time um working with DCTA, we had sent him a firm offer to
purchase. Um he finally got back to me and basically told me in no uncertain terms that there was no price at which he was going to sell this. This is his business plan. This is what he does.
I asked him, I said, 'I would stay in touch. Perhaps you'll reconsider. Um, but don't underestimate the residents. Don't underestimate their ability to use their political power and their
political will to to to make this, you know, harder for you than you might otherwise like. So, why not sell it to us? take your profits, which you'll get some profits, and go do something easier. No, no, no,
no. Um Denise and Bill were never going to give up. Um and so neither were we. And um the the the the pressure campaign, which you all probably saw around town, uh
continued. Uh the secretary came out and made a visit. Um Kate Racer who is sort of in charge of allocating the state scarce resources has made a visit and I have never seen in my entire career a
project where the secretary and Kate are as engaged, involved and committed to to to making something work. Um again um testament to Denise and Bill and the the DCTA folks. They're really hard to to
ignore or say no to. Um so, um as Connie mentioned, um I kept bugging Brady. I kept hearing no, no, no. Finally, I was able to arrange a meeting with Brady,
myself, and Secretary Augustus. And lo and behold, uh Brady said, "Look, if you'll pay me the assess the appraised value, not assess the I'm going to go get an appraisal. If you'll pay me the appraised value, then we can
do this deal." Um it took another three or four months, but um finally um in um March, we were able to execute a purchase and sale agreement. Um and we've been working
like crazy um to to complete our due diligence. Um and and what that means is we've done the full gamut of environmental testing. We've had our architects and our
contractors all over the property to develop and price a scope of work um to a rehab the 35 units that haven't been
touched to a standard at least as nice as what Brady has done in the 79 units that he's renting at market um which is a pretty good standard. Um my my folks in walking the site, the architects and
engineers have been pretty impressed with the level of fit and finish. Um you know um uh uh uh but we're going to see what Bill has to say about what he wants his unit to look like, but that's that's another story. Um
uh we um also in parallel with doing our due diligence. So we've got to do a survey. Uh we've got to do some other things. Um we've been working hard to find a private investor. Um and and you know
we've got good news in that we have somebody who is very very very interested. Um and that's was sort of a final piece. um we've not been able to come and and give you this level of detail. um in
large part due to a confidentiality agreement. You know, Brady having I would say through fault of his own um ending up in a adversarial relationship with the residents is
loathed for information to get out that he's afraid if the deal doesn't close could be used against him. So, we've been really, really careful and knowing him and who he is, um, I don't want to
get in his crosshairs for litigation because it's my uh uh uh uh uh conf confidentiality plate. So, so if we're overcautious, um, my my apologies. It's it's it's just the situation. Um, at some point, obviously, we're going to have to tell
everybody the purchase price. Um, and and that is still confidential. um the the the state has enough information um to be able to rationally tell us how much money they can give us and that's
all part of the process as well. Um next slide. Rick, I'll uh I'll just chime in that when the confidality is uh ended, the state will be reviewing the appraisal. They'll be signing off that it's a a reasonable value. So the town doesn't
need to worry that um somehow they're funding uh excess cash going into somebody's pocket. Yeah, I think that's really important. The the the the as part of the process before the state ever gives anybody any money, they
do an appraisal to make sure that because of the state funds, the seller isn't getting paid more than it would be worth. otherwise. So, thank you. Um, did you skip a slide? Could you go back
one, Dan? Is that the next one? That's the next slide. Yeah, I think we're on the next slide. Yeah, that's that's correct one, right? Okay. So, as you know may know, property consists of 37 buildings,
most of which contain two units with a few containing up to six. um spread across four streets um in what I see as a very attractive rural location with excellent access to intermediate roads to Route Two.
Um, it's, you know, when I first went to look at it, um, if you were the, you know, uh, uh, uh, the Martian being dropped in, you know, you would think you were
in a nice single family neighborhood. Um, so, you know, to my mind, the the quality of life for the residents is great. There's open space, there's air. Um, you know, um, uh, so, you know, we we really like that and that we might be
able to actually, you know, the the the the like the opportunity to to to preserve it for for, you know, lower and moderate income folks. Um, so as I uh uh uh since acquiring
Devon's Crest in 2021, um Brady has renovated and rerented 79 out of 114 units, hence leaving the 35 what we call original tenants, paying
the old affordable rents in un renovated units. As part of our due diligence to prove out the value, we needed to make sure that when they when they rehabbed and rerected a unit, they
were actually collecting the rent they told us they were collecting and that they didn't have a ton of vacancies because they were asking too much and couldn't fill them or and that they weren't having big concessions. So, you
pay 2,400 a month, but I'll give you two months free. And all of that proved out. So, the renovated units have rented quickly at their full market value and have stayed fully occupied. Best we can
tell. Next slide, please. Thank you. Um, so we we we've been working through and we've been iterating with the DCTA and all of the professionals to get
to a program that we think can work for us, for an equity investor, for the state, for the town, and most
importantly for the residents. Um, and so what we're intending to do, uh, is to renovate the remaining 35 units to the state's standard.
Um, and it appears that the 79 previously renovated units will comply. Um, which means we don't think we're going to need to touch those units. Um, as I said, we're we're confirming the rent rolls, right? Is it
really full and are people really paying what we're told they're paying? Um, what are their expenses? Um, uh, all the environmental studies.
We also um have not yet begun but must uh confirm tenant incomes for eligibility. Um so Brady has been loathed to let us
reach out to the residents to get income data. um he's concerned uh and and we've done this dozens of times where we go out to the residents uh and we tell them that um we really
need to collect your income data. It may result in lower rents. It may result in smaller increases going forward. Um worst case, it's neutral, but we need
your help. Um Brady is loathed for us to communicate with the residents and deliver that message until he's sure that just about everything else that we've got to get done to be able to successfully complete
the transaction has been done. He doesn't want us to go get all this information from the residents, get their hopes up, get their expectations up, only to have us come back and say, "Sorry, your survey shows that, you
know, you've got all these easements that were never recorded and it's a mess and I can't get a lender to lend against this, for instance." So, we're working on that. Um once acquired um our company, our property management company
will um operate the property. Um and um you know, we've got a I'm I'm really proud of our long reputation operating affordable housing with local, federal, state regulators, um always paying
attention to us. um what we do we would do anyway. Uh but the check and balance is cuz you don't know me, why should you trust me? The check and balance is that we've got the state all over us and and they think we do a great job. So, we're really excited
about that. Um there will be a recorded affordability covenant um likely perpetual um limiting rents and occupancy such that
um 100% of the units will be limited to um folks earning 80% or less than area, median, and intel. I'll get into the details on the next slide, but and and
that's really important, I think, because once that use restriction is in place, all 114 units will be added to AIRS's subsidized housing inventory for the purposes of your chapter
40B calculation. Um and so you know whatever the fiscal implications are of 114 units in air um that's not going to
change but you're going to get 114 extra units in the numerator and none in the denominator. Um, we found that to be really compelling in Franklin, Mass, where we did something similar with naturally occurring affordable housing,
288 units that once we bought it, we put on the regulatory agreement and the town was thrilled to pick up 288 units in the numerator with no change in the denominator and no change in services.
Um, next slide, please. So, subject to and Bert has cautioned me, right? Subject to final negotiations with um the state, um we expect that the
35 unrenovated units will be restricted to incomes no more than 60% of area median income. with rents capped at 30% of 60% of
AMI. Um and and let me just stop there because um those are terms and and and benchmarks that that we in the affordable housing industry talk about all the time. Um does anyone have any
questions about what that means? Okay. Um, it's expected that the residents the the the the the 60% or less residents will get projectbased subsidies um uh uh uh
vouchers of some kind that will go to the unit and will be available to the current resident. Um and when the current resident leaves the voucher and the subsidy will stay for the next
person who we will bring in who will need to make less than 60% of area median income. Um the remaining 77 79 units would be set at occupancy of no more than 80% of area immediate income
with rent set at 30% of 80% of AMI which is that's the the the the 40B standard is you know 80% um for for wet burn minimum of 25% of the units. Correct. Okay. Um, no current
residents will be displaced if their household income exceeds the allowable limit. We expect that there will be few, if any, folks um who make more than would be allowed
under our covenants. Um, if there are um they will continue to do what they're doing, pay what they're paying. Um, and when they leave, we will have an agreement to rerent to them in accordance with the affordability
covenant. So, if somebody uh somebody's making 90% of area immediate income, they'll be they'd be counted as a you know, that unit would be counted as a future 80% and when they leave, we would reent properly. Um and and and part of
what we do as a company um and part of what we all do managing affordable housing is this compliance function where we wade through the the the the regulations and make sure that um we're certifying all our residents properly,
their forms are being filled out, and that they actually qualify. And then we report all that back to the state or the feds as the case may be. um as a condition of any financial support the town hopefully will provide. Um you all
would be among the parties to the affordability covenant. Um and you know you would have the right to enforce its terms. I could never imagine a situation where we would breach any of them. Um
but but you would have um uh uh uh uh uh you know you would have rights um uh which you'd be able to um use um if if necessary. Next slide please. So, timing. Um, it's amazing how quickly
time moves when you think you have a long time for due diligence and to get your ducks in a row. Um, we've got until about May 18th to complete our physical due diligence on the
property. So, that means we've got to satisfy ourselves as we already have that all the environmental stuff is right. um that the work is done well and we need to be comfortable that there's enough
money in the project on the day we close to rehab the 35 untouched units and to be able to fund whatever
capital needs are reasonably anticipated. for 10 years. Um and so we're working through those numbers and and once that finalizes that will inform lots of other decisions how
much help we need from the state um all of that. Um let me let me let me also just mention um as part of the um and and and a little separate from the affordability covenant. As I said the the the dual
goals were to preserve the housing as affordable and get resident ownership. So part of what we will agree to with the residents is that um at the end of 10
years DCTA will have a right of first refusal to be determined specific language um to buy out the investor. So the the the private investor just wants to be in for 10 years and the plan would
be to sell to DCTA uh at the end of that 10-year period. So the day we close, we've accomplished the first goal to preserve the housing. It'll take 10 years and if all goes
according to plan, DCTA will end up in an ownership role. Um, and part of what what Chocket is committing to is over that 10-year period working with the residents on, you know, how do you manage this stuff on the ground? Um, and
working with them on what is a tax credit transaction, how's it structured, what does it look like? So, sort of building some knowledge to be credible to tax credit investors at the end of of the 10th year. So, we've got until May
18th on physical due diligence. Following that, we've got up to 90 days to close. So, the way it typically works is um we complete our physical due diligence and now all of a sudden we've got a good
faith deposit and uh we can terminate the transaction for any reason until May 18th and get our money back. Once we hit May 18th, for the most part, that deposit, what we call goes hard,
which means if we can't perform, we lose that deposit. Um, after the end of this due diligence period, we'll have up to 90 days to get to a closing. And a condition to close
is that we've got all of our subsidies from whoever is bringing them, the state, etc. um in hand and have the money to be able to show up at a at a at a closing table and and and write a check. Um if the 90
days come and we're not done, we'll have two opportunities to extend for an additional 30 days. So the goal is um to close
uh 3 months after May 18. May. I was counting my fingers. June, July, August. Um, I've circled in my calendar a September 30th closing to be perfectly honest. Um, if we can go faster, that's better.
Um, so we're currently finalizing our financial plan. As I say, the the the the due diligence, we we we go in with some assumptions. We prove them out or not. We rerun numbers that says how much more or less money we need, right? interest rates are moving the whole
time, right? So, you know, that affects how much we can borrow. Um, we are seeking an equity commitment from partners and and I've got I've got my dream investor bugging us every day
to get him some more information so he can give us an actual term sheet, which is that's when you know you're really you're really getting there. um and here tonight to discuss financial support from the town. So again, assuming all of
this comes together, we'd be expecting to close in the late summer or early fall of 2025, which I don't know, that's September 31st in in in my book. Um, next slide, please. So, I'm going to hand this over
to Connie. Um, but and and I've I've may have gone on and on and I do have that tendency. So, apologies if I've given you too much information, but but you know, if anyone has any questions of us, um, you know, Connie, is now a good time
or or you want to just wait till the end? If we wait till the end so that the members of the uh committee and trust understand what it is that we're we're asking from them. Thank you. And Mr.
Chairman, of course, we defer to you. Well, I was going to ask you to see if you can put a little bit little bit. Do you This has been a very good and fascinating and very complete um presentation, but I think we're getting near the end where people are probably itching to ask questions and the plan will be to let the trust and the
committee ask questions as soon as possible and then other people who are involved. So, if we can get to that point quickly, that'd be great. I appreciate it. So, Mr. Chairman uh Madame Chairman um you know as as part of uh the financing to make this project
a go the state of course uh which is going to be looking at committing upwards of $10 million maybe more than that in subsidies for this project. to do so, the state looks for the the locality, the town of Air in this
instance, to also make a contribution, a good faith contribution towards the the project. And what DCTA and Shocket are looking for the town to do is a contribution of $5,000 per unit. Um, you
know, that would total $570,000. um whether that comes from the uh affordable housing trust or in part from the community preservation act through its uh through the community preservation committee. Um I'm sure
there'll be some give and play between the two. Um you know that that's what we hope to iron out with the trust the committee and the uh community preservation committee moving forward. Uh in addition, we will be also approaching the board of selectmen for a
tax incentive financing agreement. Again, uh trying to uh freeze the the current tax rate for this property or the taxes for this property um at their current level for a period of time is is
going to be critical uh to its financial success. So with that, u Mr. Mr. Chair and Madam Chair, I I turn the meeting back to you and uh welcome any questions uh from your membership. And and by the way, just
briefly, the last slide, if I may, if you're looking for some more information about uh Devon's Crest, uh Devon's Crest Village or the Shocket Companies, we've got some websites at the end of the the written presentation that was provided uh for you to check out as well. Thank
you. Thank Thank you, Connie. Um I'm gonna ask if it's okay. Yeah, thank you for to unshare because that'll help a great deal in both Janet and I being able to see who is looking to ask questions. Uh Janet, just to make it um is it okay with you if we ask for
questions from the trust and the committee right now to start and then open it up to people to other folks? Um sure. Uh okay, that would be good. And then I would ask Yeah. No, I'm looking for peoples with their hands up. That's
all. Um, James Stevens has his physical hand up. So, James, why don't you take Why don't you kick us off? Now, I think this is a little off base. Uh, I last asked Rick a question about
did he say if you have a family in there currently and if you find their AMI is over the limit will they rent be increased or will it remain the same? It it will remain the same. So the the
assumption is that everybody is paying what the market will bear because that's what Brady Sullivan does. So, you know, we can't just unilaterally say we're going to raise because you make
too much money, we're going to raise your rent $200. Um because that's not the market rent. So the expectation is no the the the the the rent will increase whatever it increases 2 three 4% a year um and they can stay as long as they like and they will you know but
again as soon as they leave somebody will come in um uh that that that is below 80% of AMI. Thank you. No one. There will be no there will be no playing
around with rent increases to force people out. No. No. I I I didn't see it that way, but I I just thought that if you would look at it and if a person lucky enough to have the income over that limit, then you would think their
rent would reflect their income. That's all I was talking about. Yeah. The only the only caveat I'd make to that, Rick, is that at the present there are a number of units at varying different rent levels. Um, and to the extent
someone might be in a unit that has a very low rent level that has a higher income, that rent might eventually work up to the reduced rent that the state would require under the use restriction of of lowered rents. So, it sounds like
a very complicated answer, but we've got just as an example, market rate rents up 22 $2,400 and some other rents uh considerably below that and a restricted rent um that would be somewhere in the
middle. Um so uh but the intent is to have everyone paying a rent that's affordable to their income uh and no dramatic increases in rent at any given time uh from where they are today. Thank you James. That answers the question for
you. does, but it seemed just a little unfair. If I'm lucky enough to have the income, if my AMI was over what it should be, I'll just be a lucky person to be able to pay the lower rent. But that's just the way it is. Right. Right.
Listen, so Rick, I think we finished this one. Okay. I'm I'm just I'm going to keep moving along as best I can. Sean, my bad. No, not not at all. Not at all. Um I run a kind of informal, but I want to keep moving. Sean Copeland has his hand up and Colleen put her hand up
so she's after Shawn. Uh Sean, go ahead please. Yeah. Um I actually have a few questions but so bear with me. But um my first question is um what is the process? So 35 units would be the initial and then what is the process to
get the other units? Like do they come into the this after they become available? Like how how does that work? The assumption is that when we go and get information from all of the
residents as to what their income is, the assumption is that all all of the people in the market rate units are at or below 80%. Um there may
be a few exceptions, but based on where the rent is um uh and and how much income you need to qualify to pay that rent, right? So a a a landlord if if the rent's 2,000
um and and and you know you make 4,000 um no one's going to you know landlord's not going to rent to you. So, we can sort of back into the sort of HUD 30% rule. So, if somebody's paying 2,200 a month, and that's 30% of their
income, odds are they're making less than 80% of AMI. We will not know until Brady gives us access. And for the for the 60%, the 35 units, we're assuming absolutely everybody there is currently below 60%.
But again that that's what we've got to prove out. So the initial or the purchase agreement is for all the units at one time. Is that Yes. Okay. Um and then since these are going to be created as deed affordable
units. Um isn't there a requirement that they be um a lottery system that includes like people that are on the state's waiting list for affordable housing? Yep. And does the fact that we're willing to keep people that are already there, does that violate that in
any way? Um, no. They they typically will allow an occupied property that's having a restriction added on to it to um allow those folks to remain in their in their home. The the state's rules are very uh skewed towards not displacing
anyone. Um, if there were a number of vacant units, then yes, those vacant units would be subject to a lottery. Um, typically it's when you have more than five units, I think, is kind of the the general rule of thumb. Then you'd hold a
lottery uh for those five units. Um, and and pick folks from that when they would be available. But the lotteryies are more typically for new construction. This is what we would call a preservation transaction where you're trying to keep folks in their homes. Um,
and the rules are slightly uh uh uh different on on a preservation transaction. But but you do raise an interesting point and I've got to talk to our operations folks about whether we will be required under these programs to maintain a waiting list which is
different from a lottery. Okay. Um sorry. And um oh the other is assuming that the units that need to be still be renovated um the renovations I'm assuming are ones are
extensive where will the residents who are occupying those units now where will they live during res renovations? So um great question. Um the plan as we sit here today is um there are a couple
of vacancies. The goal is and people turn over naturally. So the goal is to get to three vacant units. We will go and rehab those three units and then we'll call Bill and we'll
say, "Bill, we're coming in on Tuesday and we'll pack him up and we'll move his stuff to one of those vacant units and we'll set him up so he was isn't even going to know except that he's in a renovated unit. His kitchen will be set up. His food will be in the in the in
the cabinets and then they'll do work on his unit taking three to four weeks and then we'll do the process in reverse and we will cover all of those costs and it will be as seamless and easy as possible
for Bill. Okay. I'm sorry, just two more questions. Sorry. No worries, Sean. These are good questions. Go for it, please. Are we seeking um federal funding and will there be a certain number of units set aside for section 8
specifically? So, um indirectly a lot of the funding that's used comes from the federal government. Um section 8 in particular is what we're intending to look at using. There's a similar program funded
at the state level called MRVP which essentially does the same thing. Um there's a very uh intricate set of rules for each. Um if we can get the state version of section 8, we may look to use that because it has some more favorable
uh uh uh uh aspects for a project like this. Um but ultimately we'll be using whatever we are uh given. Um and uh there is uh as I said uh some of the funds that comes indirectly uh through the federal government but the state and
most of all the federal funds the state is the allocator the manager the controller of the funds whether they're originally sourced from the federal government or sourced from the state government. Yes. So we don't think there'll be any federal regulation for the most part. any of the money coming
from the feds through the vi, you know, through the vi through the vouchers will be administered through a local housing authority or through the state and that's who our regulator will be. Right, Bert? Correct. There there'll be some federal uh rules, but the the bodies
will all be state employees. Okay. And my last question is, um, so you're saying that your investor only wants to be in for 10 years and the plan is for the DCTA to eventually be
the owners of that um at and they'll have first right of refusal. At that 10-year mark, if they are not able to purchase the property um and the investor is to offload it, it does have to remain affordable. Is that correct?
because that was how the use and the use agreement will be recorded. It's be recorded. It will typically run somewhere between 30 and 99 years depending on what elections and requirements are placed on us as we do
it. But the the minimum would always be 30 years. Um it can never be in true perpetuity. You can only go to 99 years because of another uh arcane state statute I believe. Great. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank
you. Okay, Sean. Thank you. Colleen, you had some questions. Yeah, and I think that last comment or question was a perfect lead into what my question was relating to. Will all 114 units be
deed, you know, essentially for that 99 years? because I think and Janet I'll let you you know back me up on this but whether it's CPA funds or whether it's affordable housing trust funds which right now have all come from CPA funds
um we would then I think be required to have the 99 year deed restriction. Am I correct in that Janet? If we're that's putting money towards all 114 units. Correct. I
mean we are we do look for 99 year um because we've lost so many being 15 or 30 year. So that's been our agreement now um when we do up our grant agreements that it's either in perpetuity or 99 years. So you're right,
Colleen. Yeah, it's certainly the intent that these remain affordable forever and that the use restrictions survive changes in ownership. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, other members of the trust or
the affordable housing committee that may have questions? I can't see everybody. Yeah, Alicia has her hand up. Alicia. Okay, great. Alicia's part of it, too. And I think Pat Bagy has one um question, but go Alicia, please. I just wanted to know if you are going to write
this under a lip um local initiative program or Lau. Uh unlikely local initiative is typically intended for projects that don't get any real cash subsidy. Uh this would be getting
an actual cash subsidy from the state. Um so uh the the lip process would really not be necessary. The point of local initiative, it's a program I uh administered at one point in my career many decades ago. Um was created to
allow access to essentially the 40B process and allow towns to get credit for affordable housing that didn't have a direct subsidy from some affordable housing program. It was a mechanism to set up use restrictions on projects that
didn't have any other source of restriction. Well, the thing that I'm looking for is just to make sure that they make stay on the um SHI list, you know, the unit list. And so I assume that you would go through the state and make sure your
restrictions are accommodate the state. And that's the one thing that I do find is with the state they do make you do a yearly review of everybody's income. And um correct you also one of the things
that I often do is I leave some units off the um affordable so that if I don't have to displace people again the um the units restrictions will be
recorded. They will require annual reertifications of the folks that are in there. They are structured such that they are not uh going to be displacing folks if their income increases over time. None of the current Massachusetts
affordable housing programs require you to displace someone if their income grows. What it does require um in a what they call a mixed income property where you've got market rate people and and low-income people living together, if someone's over income there, their their
classification changes to becoming a market rate person, which means even though they haven't left, they've left the count and you have to take the next market rate unit and make that a lowinccome unit because that person's been reclassified. But all of these
programs um none of them require anybody to be displaced um if they if they increase their income. Bert Bert, isn't isn't it true isn't it true though that in a rental property um as long as 25%
of the units are at or below 80% you get credit for the entire development in the SHI? That's a whole different issue, but yes. Um, no, I'm I'm addressing Alicia's question about um issue of that's a 40B. I don't know if this still qualifies
under this sort of this will qualify as 40B eligible. It'll be on the subsidized housing inventory. That's the whole purpose of of the subsidy and the use restriction of that process. Bring it down to the 10% I would think you count towards the town's 10%. Correct.
Thank you. And we can we can we will make sure Alicia that we work through this with you and the experts and that we get it right. Um and and we've got the use restriction. It's built into the underwriting and the
value. So we will paper it any way that you need it papered because it doesn't matter. It's the use restriction that's got the economic value or not. Okay, thank you Jeff. Thank you. Um Pat
Ken Diskin um had a question. I got a couple of question as well. So have you folks had the DOC come out and do any of the due diligence with you double check the buildings what they're supposed to do?
They've been out to walk the site with us as well. They've uh looked through the properties. Um, part of our review process will involve them reviewing our plans and specifications when those are uh uh completed. Um, we're still in the process of of creating our plans and
specifications. At the moment, we've had engineers, architects, contractors, uh, surveyors, you name it. Uh, environmental consultants. We've had people crawling, literally crawling under, over, and around uh, all of these
buildings. So, you've done a 21E or whatever the next level is on the property, obviously. Correct. Yep. Time. Um, these units are on separate lots is the way I understand it. Does that mean that every single lot is going to get a recorded document for the restriction?
Um, I believe so. Well, that's a question I'd have to run by my lawyer how they structure that, but the restriction would cover the entire uh the entire property, but I believe it may need to be uh recorded um 35 times because of all the different lots that
it sits on. I think there's more than 35 lots over there. Well, the the 114 units that we are proposing to acquire, okay, are I believe on 37 lots. It's not the entire uh Devon's Crest neighborhood.
It's It's only the ones that are currently in the ownership of of this uh bundle. And we definitely are anticipating the um uh uh recording nightmare. Um I'm trying to just avoid it. Um and and hope
the lawyers will be able to figure it out, but it it you you raised a a a great point and it's going to be a pain, but it'll get done. Most projects have a single loft, for instance, with a big building on it. This is totally Exactly. No, it's a little different. We we uh
are going to have to review our our estimates for legal fees and titles and recordings to make sure we I was just thinking that, Bart. Yeah. Okay. Ken, do you have other questions? Yeah. So, following up on the existing people that live there. So, it's interesting that
you you think that those people are below most of them are below the 80% AMI. If someone has a lease, do you you anticipate that those leases are fiveyear leases that are there? Is that typically what Brady Sullivan does? No, they're typically one year. One year.
Yeah. One year leases. That's all. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, that's that's no big deal. Yeah. So, so you there's obviously an independent appraiser that's doing the pro doing the due diligence of coming up with the appraiser. That's a feebased
service at this point in time, correct? Yes, there's typically we we uh obviously can't get into all the numbers, but there is a process typically where the seller would have their appraiser and the state would have their folks and there'd be some review of uh both on that. So, it was fairly uh
involved process of reviewing evaluations and is the Scottet Shocket Companies, excuse me, pronunciation. Are you guys a nonprofit business or are you a for-profit organization? We are we are for-profit.
Okay. And but the partner involved in this particular angle is trying to get the credits that are allotted to a nonprofit or whatever this type of um close. Um so they are this particular investor and there are a few that do
this. They are best I can tell aggregators of bank monies which the banks get CRA credit for. Okay. So they're a conduit for banks to get CRA
credits. Um so that that's my understanding. Just a last question about the the units themselves. Did you happen to check with the um the you know how many building permits were pulled is what I'm getting at and you know the value of those permits and the extent of the work that
was done on the units. You obviously know that. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. I think Pat uh Bag Latimer and by the way Ron Morrison is with Pat on the phone. So Ron's from the committee and Pat's from
the trust and they're both in attendance. So Pat, why don't you go ahead please? Go ahead. Ron has questions. That's Ron. I'm assuming when the uh in you've been talking about the income limits, but haven't heard the number. Are you using
the uh HUD income limits? For instance, two people uh cannot earn more than $105,850 a year. They'd be considered moderate income. Is that correct? Yes. We're using we're using the the HUD the
Exactly. the HUD uh and I'm going to looking them up now. The HUD section 8 income guidelines. It's a chart. It covers by different bedroom sizes. I mean, sorry, by different household sizes. One, two, three, four, five, six persons in the household. Um, and then
the programs establish rent as a calculation based off of those uh, numbers where essentially the rents are set to um, an equivalent of 1.5 people per bedroom and 30% of that income
figured as a cap. It's a it's a guess to be a little convoluted in how all these things are calculated and certainly can give you a chart that shows how that all lays out. the state has a number of charts that they prepare that show what all the um rent calculations are for a
given area. Um but uh and then we would have uh different levels of income depending on whether you're at the 60% level, the 80% level uh or or some other level. Uh if if that's uh additional uh
requirements are are placed below the ones that that I just uh quoted. Yeah. And you've got the same numbers. So, I've got the I haven't seen the 2025, but the 2024 the twoerson household was 104,200
and 80%. It's now 105850. Yeah, I've been looking everywhere. I gota I gotta find the the the they just I I know they announced them. Alicia to you. She got it to us. Yeah, we're gonna keep moving, guys. We're gonna keep moving. Please. Sorry.
Ron, do you have more questions for Pat? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Well, not not on that specific uh issue, but um the other the other thought I had was the average two-bedroom unit in town is uh now renting for
$1,888. Uh you'd be able to charge up to $2400, correct? Um so for a for the higher level income uh category a twobedroom a twobedroom would
be 2900 29 okay the average in town is 1888 just as a point of information. and and we're modeling everything over what uh uh uh based on what we have seen from his in place
leases in our due diligence and his rent roll. So he's he's like 2250 I believe for a two and 2400 for a three. Right. Well, we rent u Well, anyway, the average in town Yes.
is 1888. So he's considerably already over what the average air renter will pay. Yes. You know, if they go someplace else in town. Yep. And we that was a concern for us, right? So, you know, are
you you know, can can you support this? Are you really getting it? Are you staying full? And the answer has been that he's totally full and he's getting those rents without concession based on our due diligence because that was we were concerned about that as well. Is he
is he getting you know too much point to make to the town here Rick is that um you know despite what the current uh scenario is relative to that the purpose of doing a transaction like this is to ensure that these units are are locked
in at a restricted rent. uh over the long term as inflation kicks in and things change. While today you might be able to find some units on the open market that are below this restricted level. uh by by going through a transaction like this and and setting a
rent uh use restriction at a a calculated level, you are uh ensuring that there is a long-term uh ability to to have uh an affordability level in place if the market uh continues to rise. All right. And the one other
question I have is after 10 years you said that the uh the tenants association will own. How did that work? So to to to be determined
um but what we've done in the past and others like us working with nonprofits um is that somebody like this was the initial structure that was proposed that that was agreed before some technical
issues made it impossible is that um to the extent that the attendance association did not have enough experience nor enough of a balance sheet to be able to borrow the debt and the equity required. Um they would partner
up with somebody like us. So when we work with you know not particularly well capitalized nonprofits um they are the owners. We go through a low-inccome housing tax credit transaction and we do
all of the work. We put up a portion of our balance sheet to to to put up the guarantees that the nonprofit can't. In exchange for that, we get a portion of the developer fee and um we
get to property manage for 15 years, the term of the the low-inccome housing tax credit use restriction. At the end of 15 years, um we're out. We're done. um you know the the the the the tenants own it,
right? Um and and they do with it what they will. Um so that's sort of the structure. Now if you know somebody dies and leaves the den the DCTA, you know, $50 million, then they're not going to
need our balance sheet or anybody's help. Um but but that's sort of how we think about it. Now, I don't know what 10 years from now the whole world will look like, whether there'll even be low-inccome housing tax credits, but that's the assumption for now.
Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um Sean, you got your hand up again still. Yeah. No, I just said um I just one of the things I know Connie said it was for the select board, but I was hoping Carly could speak to the TIFF um portion of the
presentation. Thank you. Carly, you wanna you're on mute. Yeah, there we go. Hi everyone. Um, my name is Carly Antineellis. I'm the assistant town manager. Um, I I'm here in, you
know, on behalf of the board, select board and the town manager. Um, so I've just very briefly heard and I saw the presentation um earlier this week on the TIFF. I'd like some more information on that because as a for a classic tip, this
project wouldn't qualify. Um, it's really reserved for economic development, business creation, job creation. So, I'm just I'm definitely curious on why that was chosen as as terminology or or the you know, your
re or your desired avenue to go down. Do you want to take that or shall I? I'll let I'll defer to you, Rick. Okay. Yeah. So, I think that um we I think we use that and and as
more of a term of art than science. Um, I think that, you know, it was meant to be sort of a catchall, um, that we would love to start
conversations about, um, tax property tax relief of some kind. Um, you know, we're we're going to buy it for more than its current assessment. Um, you know, what if anything can we do to uh
minimize the um increase in the assessed value in in the property taxes paid above what's currently being paid through whatever mechanism you all think is rational, rational, reasonable, and
makes sense. Okay. So, yeah, I would Um, I wouldn't I get what you're saying, but obviously moving forward, we wouldn't use the term tiff. Okay, we will strike that. Yeah. So, the other thing is if the town were
to give any I know you're going to be asking the trust and um for you know that 5,000 per unit and whatnot, but if we were um to enter into a special property agreement like a special tax assessment agreement is what it's
called, that would need select board approval. would also need town meeting approval and it doesn't seem to fit in the timeline as our next we just had town meeting Monday night and our next one is not till the end of October
put that on people radar I think it's 20 I think it's October 28th this year not looking at my calendar not looking actually I have my calendar right here but yes uh first month la 27th this year October 27th which was also My um question regarding
um the other financial commitment um if we don't have time town meeting again until October but you are planning on a closing date in September um how does that work out in the timeline? I don't know that we can figure that out
at this present time. Sean, I want to say a couple things. This has been very very illustrious of what the you've taken us through um a great deal of information this evening. It's been very helpful. I think we've got a fair number of things that we have
to discuss and figure that out. Sean, I I don't even know the answer to the question of the town meeting. I mean, our town meeting is set by law. So, I I don't know what that answer is. I don't know Carly would even have that answer right now. Um Colleen Kier's got your
hand up quickly. Just a quick question about the trust funding, right? Some of the money that we have in the trust, does that need to go through town meeting to be spent? That's
why we asked for it from CPC. So, it may be that there's some funds available, but I don't know that our balance allows us to get 5,000 per unit without Yeah. going to CPA and going to town meeting and I can speak to that you know any CPC
funds and I believe affordable h the trust would need town meeting approval CPC sure I'm not 100% on the trust I and my understanding and this is an operating understanding not a perfect understanding is that the money is there
so that we can show good faith but we can't spend it without the town voting at a town meeting or whatever is appropriate action the town and select where we would have to take if the select board's involved in that. Go ahead, Janet. Jeff, I think for the trust, you better look at the bylaw because I think it is available. So, we
don't have to go through town meeting just like the conservation trust. I mean, conservation fund. However, CPA funds definitely have got to go through town meeting. I mean, that's Yeah, I think Janet's correct. I think the funds we can spend, but again, our balance
wouldn't allow for the $570,000. Exactly. Yep. Okay. All right. I know Ken's got a question and then I've got a question afterwards. Go ahead, Ken. Thank you, Janet. Actually go back to Janet. So, is let's let's take it just a step
further that the trust funds can be committed. However, can we commit the trust funds to a deal that has not been closed? Again, Ken, I don't know the answer. Maybe Janet Ken, I just don't know. In other words, you could make you could make some kind of I guess an
understanding, a memorandum of understanding. But how do they turn the funds over until you have the bonafide sale? Mr. Chair, yeah, I don't think anyone would expect that anyway. Usually these funds would come at closing
simultaneous. It would be a a condition of any approval would be a closing and a whole number of other things uh that that would occur. And I would make the same assumption, Ken. I just don't, you know, we're get we're getting way down the road. I think we've got a lot to cover between now and
then. Other questions from people. And Janet, you had something to add. Yeah, I I do because um on on average those 79 um units, what are their what are the rates that they're paying now for rent? Is
that the 22 to 24 you're talking about? Yes. 2200. Yeah. All right. Rick, are you operating with an average price? Just can you share that? Um, yeah, I can't. Um, okay. I I I'm just
I'm I'm afraid of him. Um, I'm not asking you to do anything that's going to put the Kaibos in anything. As soon as we can and we're getting close to saying enough already. You know, if you want this deal to close, we've got to disclose. Um, but the rents, we've got the rent roll and and it's they're
they're the rents are uniform. Uh, I think it's 2250 for two and 24 for a three. Uh, and I would ask the question how many twos and three how many threes there are, but maybe we get that we get that details from you at a at a later time too. Yeah, Jana, go
ahead. Yeah, hold on, Alicia. Um the other question is you mentioned you know about some federal funding whether it's going to be project based uh section 8 and it's possible that the housing authority or the um state will manage
those. Have you spoken at all to the housing authority with regards to that? We've got we're we we we we spoke to them a while back generally, but but we need to talk to
EOHLC and get more guidance as to the type of vouchers because that will inform who it is that we need to talk to. So, if we're MRVPs, that's the state administers those, right? Um if it's projectbased section 8
that will be through a housing authority um you know um so so we just don't know um but once those um tea leaves clear uh we'll we'll we'll we'll be talking to
the um housing authority. Okay. All right. And then my last question is after the 10 years and the tenants are able to go ahead and purchase the property, will they then become sort of like an HOA so that they can continue the maintenance and do they have to take
all that over? Um I don't see it that way. Um I I would defer to the tenants. Um what what it would more likely be is a standard low-income housing tax credit partnership where the tenants would be
the 1% general and the investor would be a 99% limited partner. So, and the the as the general partner,
the tenants would be responsible for hiring a property manager who would then manage, you know, the property manage. Um, so excuse me, Frank, for a second. I heard you say that shocket stays in for 15 years on property management and with
the 10 with a 10-year sundown on the initial investor. I just made the assumption that shocket may be around for five more years should the DCTA want to keep you there. We will stay as long as they want us. But but this deal this deal will just be for 10 years because
they may want to go get somebody else. any anybody who is helping to guarantee the tax credits is going to want a 15-year management contract because things can get screwed up during those 15 years and you need to be in control. Got it. Thank you. Does that answer your
question, Jennet? Um, yes, it does. Thank you. So, okay. Thanks. Um, I'm going to Kurt Fuscowski, who is here joining us. He's also the chairman of our finance committee, has his hand up. But I want to just quickly ask, is there anybody else on the housing trust or the
uh housing committee that has a question before I kind of open it up to Kurt and you know the regular riff raff and just just speak up. I can't see everybody's picture on Zoom picture. Alicia, please go ahead. Um I just was wondering if we could have a better
breakdown on the 79 units. Um what are so I know that with um say a housing authority each unit is the rent is calculated on their income 30% or 35% of their income. Is that the route that
you're talking about going or are you setting the the in the rates at the 30% of the AMI? It would be the based on the 30%. It it depends a little bit on the program. So, we'd likely have some vouchers uh through the section 8
program in here. The people in those units, it would be based on a percentage of their income. Everyone would be paying 30% of their income. In the nonvoucher units, it would be based on 30% of a calculation of the income
category, but not 30% of the actual family's income. So, one of my problems with that is we're part of Cambridge and what Pat and Ron, who are local realtors, were trying to explain is that we rarely can get 30% because we're part
of the Cambridge district and we don't really usually get that kind of tenants. They can't afford the the Cambridge numbers. We we're assuming whi we assuming that um the vouchers because
you got to for with with the vouchers it it's rent reasonleness is the standard and so we're assuming that if a market person is paying 2400 that the voucher will pay us 2400
and the resident will pay 30% of their income. So a lot of times what I see is you might get some vouchers, you might get 16, you might make you might get 20, but we do need to talk about that that other percentage of the units and what
kind of rents are they really affordable. So our plan our plan is to get a combination of 35 vouchers and soft funding to make the
deal work. So, if we get zero vouchers, right, if we get zero vouchers, we'll be looking for another four or five million worth of subsidy that we would
put in the bank and and we would use that money to subsidize the current rents that the 35 people are paying, which is around 1,100 or,200 a unit, which is way below 30 of 60. So, yeah,
we absolutely we we we hear you loud and clear and we get caught in this trap all the time where we come in like the conquering heroes. We're preserving your housing, but sorry, your rent's going up to 30 or 60. And they're like, "But I only make 30% of AMI." So, we're
sensitive to that. Um and and you know, whatever input and guidance you can provide would would would be great. But where does that where does that other three or four million dollars come from the state? So as we sit here
today as as as in the slide, um if we get 35 vouchers that pay market rent, we need about 10 or 10 a.5 million from the state. And that would be for the 10 years or
for the single year. Rick, that's it would be forever. Thank you. Well, for the 10-year period that you're involved. Um, well, it was essentially for the purchase of the use restriction, which is, as you've said, a very long term, if not in essentially perpetuity. Okay.
Thank you. I just wanted to double check on that. Thanks. Sorry to jump in, but I wanted to make sure I understood that. Now, now if we get on the other on the other, if we get zero vouchers, we're going to need to internally subsidize Mhm. those people at their current rents and on turnover.
And we'd need an extra 4 million that we put in the bank and we'd pay principal interest like your 50-year mortgage, right? And and and and protect the folks that way. Y and I would assume I would assume that the me would that money be invested in order to bring returns that
will help carry the load. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Um Mr. Fiskski has been very uh patient. So without anybody else speaking up, I'm going to turn it to Kurt for his question. Kurt. Kurt, do you have a
question? I don't think he can hear me. Not sure he can hear us. Oh, Kurt, you're muted. Uh, we can't hear Kurt. Anybody else have anything? He's He's muted. He need to unmute himself. Yeah. Cute. Can you Kurt, can you unmute, please?
Oh, he's still muted. Yeah, I think he's lost his ability to Oh, now he is. There you go. I still can't hear him now. Kurt, we still can't hear you. So, going back to I'm not I'm not sure what the
pantomime means, everybody. So, Kurt, why don't you try and disconnect and reconnect? With that being said, um if there's no other um stuff going on, uh I'm gonna ask Connie if we have
further questions, uh should we channel them through you? Yes, please. Okay. So, Kurt, if you can't get your question put together now, we can get you an answer outside of this meeting. Okay. I Yeah, Kurt, your audio is not
working at this end. Is it in the chat? I I Kurt, can you put something in the chat quickly? But I I do want to move us along because the we got the trust has got a couple thing a couple of things we got to take care of and it's getting to
be almost 8:00 p.m. Um I'm conscious of the time. I want to say thank you very much to uh the DCTA and I want to make an observation. Um we've used two uh terms of art this
evening that have caused problems. one Connie, you were very good to tell me about a na na uh naturally occurring affordable housing as opposed to Noah. And as I explained to you, we we're working with Noah. Um Kurt just says, "Thank you to Bert
and Rick. He can't figure out his unmute to work." So that's number one. And the other one was the TIFF. Yes, TIFF is something that we uh use all the time, but it's obvious uh that that was a term of art to be used. And uh well, that may or may not be something we work on in the future.
Um, I am happy to and I think Janet also Janet if people have questions from the committee, why don't we f why don't we funnel those directly to Connie as needed? Correct. Okay. Um, I don't think we're opposed to maybe meeting
again at some point. And what I'm going to be doing now, just so that uh Connie and your crew know what's happening, is we're going to set our schedule for the summer for the housing trust. Um, and uh, I'm hoping that we'll set our our for our May, June, and July schedule. So, that will be something that we that
we um, uh, can share with you so we don't go through the back and forth we went through over the last couple of weeks to put this meeting together. Uh, with that being said, Janet, do you have anything for the affordable housing housing committee at this point? Because I have you as a journeying next on the
list for you guys and I was understood that. I I mean the only thing is like again if you're looking for um CPA funds um it's got to go to the October town meeting but if you're going to be putting in an application that
application has got to be in by August so that we can have a um so the CPC can go ahead and have a um public hearing in early September. Yeah. So let let me help you with that all so you can put
cal your calendar time meeting is the 27th October September 27th all applications for CP have to be acted upon through a hearing of CPC. They ask and require the application to be written in August. I'll tell you right now the sooner you get it to them the better it works because they have to
schedule hearings and have them. So that's that's moving moving backwards from October 27th, September and August. And please don't wait till the end of August. Uh, some of us actually aren't always at our desks all throughout August. So, I would just let you guys
know about that. That would be the calendar. Is there a specific application form or Yes, there's work with Janet directly on it. Yeah. On the on the C on the CPA or the CPC website on the town, their applications are
there. Exactly. and Connie, I've been successful in filling it out a couple years in a row, so it's not absolutely 100% as confusing as you might think it would be, but it's it's pretty good. So, take some time to fill that out. Um, and that's I want again. Go ahead. I I
also want to say thank you, you know, for the presentation. Um, it brought forth, you know, a lot of information. Um, I also agree about the uh term of art um for the the two items. Um, so
with that and if our committee doesn't have anything else to go ahead and ask, uh, I'll ask for a motion to adjurnn. Make a motion that the housing committee. This is for the housing committee. Correct. Yeah, this is for the housing
committee, not the treasure. Make a motion that the housing committed be a join. Okay, James. Second. All right, Ron seconds. All right. So, we can go ahead and adjourn. Anybody who wants to still remain, Jeff,
are they able to? Yes, please. You may remain. Um, James, I would ask you to stick around for the housing trust side of the business. And Pat, also don't hang up your phone because you guys are important to us getting the schedule done, which is next. Uh, we also want to talk about ARAP very quickly. Thank you
all everybody for your careful attention this evening. Uh, it was a lot of information and I'm sure there will be questions coming forward. M Mr. Chair, just just one follow-up question uh with respect to the the housing affordable housing trust. Should we wait till your
schedule comes out for future meetings and then do we get back on your schedule? I I imagine that that would happen. Um Connie, I know we're probably going to I I don't I'm not going to spend any time with the trust discussing this this
evening very much after this. I think we've got a lot we a lot of information came through. So um my first step is to set our May, June and July schedule so we have it in front of us. So that's an information that you have. Okay, very
good. um and and that knowing what was coming down the pike from you guys. That's why I want to make sure that we get the May, June, and July because with June and July being um July especially summer months, people do travel and we typically meet the last
Wednesday of the month and we will uh again I'll be discussing that with our members to find out if that's going to work or not. You can stick you can stick around if you want, but I do want uh we got to spend some time talking about the air rental assistance program. Uh, next on our agenda and I'm gonna ask Alicia
to take to start. And Bert, thank you very much. Rick, thank you very much. I do appreciate it. Denise and Bill, haven't seen you in a while, Bill. Good to see you. Um, thank you guys very Thank you very Thank you. Thank you very much uh for uh spending the time. Thank
you. We're grateful for the opportunity. Yes. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Thank you. Madam and Mr. chairman. Thank you. Okay, I'll just I'll follow up at a later later date for your your uh calendar. Yeah, we'll get it to you
by email in the next day or two, Connie. We just we have to go through the process of finding our dates and we have to make sure the town has the dates for us. We have to make requests. So, it'll it'll get you as soon as we have it. We'll get it to you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Um, so affordable housing
trust. Alicia, you want to take us through ARAP, you're on mute, dear. There mute's been killing us tonight, guys. Alicia, can you find the Jeff, I'm sorry. I thought I was muted.
I'm unmuted. I'm sorry. I was going to suggest that maybe we do the dates first because um Okay. Some of this is a little private. So, okay. So, guys, May would be the next opportunity for us to have a meeting. The
last Wednesday in May is the 28th of May. Does that work for people's calendar schedules? It worked for me. Thank you. I It's probably not going to work for me, Jeff, because I think I'm going to be out of state to a
graduation. Okay. Thank you. And Colleen had to pick up pick up one of her kids, so we'll have to work with her later. Um if it doesn't work, let me know. But Sean, yeah, it works for me. Cindy,
best of my knowledge. Okay, so 528. June's going to be June 25th. Anybody that does not work for at this point hearing? None. Let's go with June 25th. And finally, July would be the
30th of July. Anybody have any big for me? Is it a Wednesday? I can make it work. I can make it work. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay. So, we will make requests through the town offices tomorrow
morning when they're open to make sure 6:15 the 20th of May, the 25th of June, and the 30th of July. And then once we find back from town, we will move forward. Okay. Is that the 28th of May or the 20th? Did I miss
your May? Benteoo. 28th. Okay. Okay. And if it's if it's confirmed with the town, you'll let us know these dates. I will I will, James, and I will follow up with your um other email address because I do know that you don't always get on the on
the town email. So, all right. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. Cool. Okay. Now that we're uh we're a private party except for Pixel 8. I'm not sure who Pixel 8 is, but they're welcome to stay. Um yes, they are. Hey, this is Chris.
It's just it's a little complicated. Thanks, Chris. Thank you very much. Okay. Uh, by the way, and I didn't Alicia, I got to stop you for one second. To everybody who is on from the affordable housing trust,
pixel 8 is Chris Valentine. Chris Valentine is a resident who lives here in town who is interested in joining as an adjunct member of the trust and we've not been able to get us all in one room for a while. So, I want to say thank you for joining us, Chris. Thank you very much.
So, I'm gonna guess that Chris isn't gonna want to join anymore. I think I know enough about Chris that you're There's Chris right there. I think I think I think Cindy, it's going to take a heck of a lot more than that to move to move Chris on. Okay. Hey,
Cindy. Good to see you. Hello. Um, okay. Alicia, I Yeah, sorry, Alicia, but I'm I'm so excited that so Chris has a family and we don't always work on the nights for Chris. That's what's happened. And we haven't had meetings because we haven't had quorum. So, it's
just been one of those things. But anyway, um, and so, thank you, Chris. So, Alicia, go ahead with the ARAP program. So, we've done very well on our AAP except for we've kind of committed to 13 people, but three of them are not
quite ready to be in and we're only have 12 grants. I have leftover five months worth of grants. I am allowing each group, each family to get qualified as they can. There is a unit that is not
qualified at this point. There is a family unit that is fixing their qualification because they had somebody in the unit with them that they didn't want in with them. And there is a a final one that I qualified and approved
her because she's already on the program, but she's always the last one on the program because she's the least, you know, needy. Okay. Um, and I can say to her because she had on at the weight list, she hers doesn't turn over for
another 3 months, so into the next year. So, if need be, I what I came up with was that I would tell the last person that gets qualified of these 13 because for different reasons, I thought I had
12, one didn't qu the unit didn't qualify, but now they're talking about getting the unit to qualify. So I then approved another person because when the unit didn't qualify, it looked like they weren't going to be able to go forward.
So after thinking about this, I thought what I will do is the last person who ends up qualified of these 13, I will give five months to them unless the board at some point wants to vote an extra seven months for this one time
period. and we don't need to do it tonight. Yeah. Uh and if I may fill in, so Alicia and I talked about this and this can be a very confusing conversation if you think about it. I of course broke it down to numbers. 12 people 12 months is 144 months. We can
have we have and because people enter and exit the program not always on the 12 month at the same time on those 12 months we do have this carryover from before of these five months. These people need the
help. So, we may not be able to give them a full 12 months right now, but we don't know if people will be leaving the program in the future, but this lets us help somebody for 5 months. Did I say it correctly, Alicia? Yes. And and if we feel that that all families need it, we
can vote. We do have the money to vote an extra seven months if we want to as well. But we don't need to make that decision right now. Exactly. We we we do have the funds because they went unspent in previous years for this specific use.
Yes. Okay. Is that clear as mud, guys? Yes. Okay. Very clear. Get a budget for you for the next meeting or maybe even before the next meeting to talk about um how much we do have other than rental
assistance funds. A couple things I want people to think about is are we okay with not asking for our rental assistance funds or not asking for our CPC get give
um when before we h like in springtown meeting because we qualify people and we contract with people but if we don't have the funds in the bank we need to ask for it in the fall
and we typically ask for funding in the fall for any reason we're going to need to ask for them in the fall. Yeah. And we moved to the springtime meeting this year after we made decisions last year about it. I actually think it
sounds weird to go twice to the well in one year. Yeah. But I think going in the fall because the program starts in January that we need to have the money in our pocket in the fall. and I don't think it's being greedy. So, um, let's
figure that out and we'll put and we'll discuss that at the next meeting and take a motion on it and stuff like that and fill out the application so that we go into the fall town meeting having made a request if that's fair with people. It's it's a belt and suspenders approach, but it because we hadn't figured out what we
were going to do, we waited until the spring. But I think we need to get back on the fall m on the fall meeting schedule going forward. And I think that'll work better for us. It work better for Alicia and stuff like that. Um I think that's it, Alicia. Was there
anything else? No. No, that's it. Okay, great. Um I say this every single time and everybody thank you so much for all that you're doing for the trust, but I got to tell you, I get phone calls from Alicia sometimes and Alicia is doing her best to make everybody happy and boy,
everybody seems like a lot of people surrounding Alicia at all times. I am so happy that Alicia is there and um so I just want again Alicia thank you so much for all that you're doing uh for this um
any general comments about the um presentation we had today. I think you did a great job coordinating because there's a lot of questions and comments and whatever, you know, because we had a lot of people knew a little about some of everything
and they all wanted to let us know that they knew some about different things. So, the meeting was really extended as a result of everyone knowing a little bit about his particular area and add those comments, but it worked out great. And thank you.
Thank you. and and and it was a long meeting and I appreciate everybody's patience with it, but I think that information was uh I mean you could hear a pin drop. People are interested in hearing it. Um and I'm sure there's going to it's going to generate conversations. By all means, if you have questions, send them to me. We'll get
them through to Connie as quickly as possible. Um yeah, Alicia, I don't consider 2400 a lowinccome unit, an affordable unit. Um just I I Okay, so here's what happened. We had a
first date. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry to say it anyway else, but you know, it's that first day in class. We all we all got the information. We kind of got the syllabus. Now we got to move forward and figure out how to make it work. You don't consider that to be a lowinccome
either. The people that are are are looking to get this done. That's a first offer. Oh, okay. It ain't going to be that. Yeah. And that's also the ones that are already the ones that are already in there, that's what it's going
to be. But once they're out, we're going to have to contract lower than that. And like you said, um the numbers out here are based in Cambridge and Arlington and a bunch of
towns that No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is air. Shirley, we're gonna we're going to get it down. get it. And yeah, and and you know, I'm f I think honestly I'm going to put this out there for discussion or not right
now. Um 500 thou 500,000 whatever the round number 500,000* 5,000 times 11470 half a million dollars. Mhm. Somebody's gonna say a half a million dollars for
35 units because we don't for hold on Cindy. Cindy, please. Because there's 35 to start and I believe this is one of those things that has to be discussed. That's all I'm saying. Okay. I I didn't I
Jeff, I was with you. I calculated the 5,000 is times 114, but 79 are already done. So, what are they doing to you with those 79 units that they need 5,000 for each of them? That was my thought. They're looking Yeah, exactly. And I
think what they're looking for is um I I don't know why. That's a question we're going to have to ask and get the answer to. Looking for buyin from the town. Eventually, the town is going to benefit from those affordable units that's going to go towards our 40b 10%. That's what
they're looking at it as, like you said, first date. And all I'm saying, Cindy, is that will be a question someone has. It's first question I had, but that's okay. Um, cool. Uh, we've scheduled the meetings. We've talked about the Arap. Alicia, would you
like a motion? Yes. To handle that five months. Okay. So, I'm gonna bounce back to that. Oh, no. Oh, yes. To give out the five months, but I might come back to you because I hate to just give people only five months, but we don't
need to do this right now other than a motion to go be approved to spend that five months. I would make a motion. I will second that. make a motion that we direct Alicia to enter in the five months for
the person she's identified at this point in time. Second that. Okay. Second. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Good. I'm gonna I'm gonna vote vote by name. Uh James, how do you vote?
Uh you're muted, sir. Yes. Thank you, Cindy. Hi Pat. Yeah I Sean I then chair says I thank you Alicia for doing that. Um
that's it. I'm sorry just one sorry one more question. Go ahead on the Devon's Crest thing. Um, are we So, uh, sounds we all agree 2400 is not affordable and maybe nobody here knows, but can we
negotiate with them before committing anything that what we would like to see as a lower rent? I know they talk about like fair use or whatever, but at least a lower starting rent. I feel it just feels kind of weird to give them half a
million dollars to reent the units at the same price they are now for a guarantee that next year they won't go up that much. And Sean, you just said what's been on my mind and as I thought this through and
Cindy I I the answer Cindy you said yes and I agree with you. This needs to be a point of discussion. I think the convers obviously Bert knows what the heck he's talking about and um you know the other question I have
Sean is can they guarantee how many units will be coming back coming to become more affordable in a year probably not one knows how long people are going to be living somewhere so there's some unknowns there and I would actually I'm not sure Shark tells the
places we need to talk to about this But, you know, maybe Janet with the housing authority has an idea of how long people stay in units. There's an average to this. But I'd rather have a better feeling for, you know, are those 70 some odd units going to come to us?
How many per year in the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, seven, 8th, 10th year? I'm pretty sure that's a question someone's going to ask besides me. And I don't know how to get comfortable with that information, Sean, along with what the rent's going
to be. So maybe we have to invite uh Bert I didn't get his I don't have his last name on the top of my head. Uh back in to talk about how that works. Uh Bert Roiger. Yeah. I'm sorry. I have to go. Um good night Pat. Thank you.
Made an order. I'm so sorry. Thank you all. No, don't be sorry. We're we're we're a two-hour meeting. Whoever does that and thank you Cindy for taking notes. And now we're out of quarum. So yes, I
would move that we I would move that we adjourn. Yep. Second. Thank you all. Good to see you all. Have a nice