##VIDEO ID:0g8_fqUjnlc## to attendance but I'll start taking that down uh so good evening everybody uh welcome to the Wednesday January 8th 2025 meeting of the city of Riv affordable housing trust fund board my name is Joe graphi our chair of the board um and we are having a virtual meeting uh today due to Renovations in the city council chamber so because of that this meeting is being held via zoom and being recorded um for recordkeeping purposes uh so we'll start um just with the roll call with thinking of attendance so myself I'm president vice chair Claire en Zello pres Treasurer and iioi pres Lea pres Dean Harris present Matt wolfer present Lori Manzo present I see that Deb uh Frank is not here um then I think that is everybody so and I think Deb said that she was gonna try to join in and then I see that we're we have representation um from the city from Tom scosi so with that we'll start with the treasurers update on finances so we'll kick it over to you and I sure good evening happy New Year everyone U my name is this is the TR the report the current balance of the affordable housing trust committee uh the current balance is $668,500 7587 cents thank you very much uh so for the next agenda item I have update on firsttime home buyer program I'm actually GNA slightly amend that um to also just be some general updates from the chair um so we're in the process of as many of you know Lena escalero um moved on at the end of the calend towards the end of the calendar year to new opportunities for her which is very exciting although we will miss her her contributions so Tom will be our Connecting Point uh from the from the city at this point uh and it also means that I'm in the process of trying to take on um some of the processing and communication with applicants to the firsttime home buyer program to get some of those funds out the door to folks that are eligible uh we have eligible folks and we're just they're in their waiting window to get their purchase and sale agreement um and then at that point we'd be able to expend the funds and so I'll keep you all updated but I'm just trying to pick up you know where Lena left off with um tracking eligibility communicating with applicants Etc so that is ongoing and I anticipate having more updates for you on that um you know as we move forward um the other major update from my corner and you all noticed this via a batch of emails that you got from me all at the same time so apologies if they were overwhelming or it was a bunch of calendar invitations but in conjunction with Claire to make sure that we are absolutely on top of um public records and our agenda items and tracking everything and being on top of next steps uh we set up a just a regular workflow that we're going to use to get our agenda items on the board get the agenda posted get the minutes posted um and assign follow-ups and so those are those calendar invitations that you received from May uh where we're going to be consistent each month with when the call goes out for agenda items and we're certainly asking and and hoping that folks will bring agenda items to the table you know whether that be types of projects that you're interested in as undertaking um things that you think we should study you know educational opportunities for us to learn more um you know please do uh but then also it's to hold ourselves accountable as board members um and as officers of the board of you know getting agendas and meet in minutes Etc done in a timely manner so uh hopefully that was not confusing uh but if anyone has any questions feel free to reach out to me um any questions on any of that before I turn it over to Tom for some of the updates from the city Side no all right so I see you have Tom who I think is reporting live from a parked car the magic of uh these virtual meetings uh with updates on a few of um City initiatives that touch our work thanks Joe can everybody hear me okay yep great yes um so I'll I'll actually start with the housing production plan um which know many of you uh were on our advisory committee to help put this plan together and um have been listening along and a lot of uh the work and progress of of that working group in in conjunction with uh the work that jam goon had been doing with the affordable housing trust appreciate everyone's support So in um November it was first presented to the council um the housing production plan and then was referred to the council as a whole committee um which is basically just a fancy way of saying uh a meeting of the full city council where it's sort of the only item on the agenda and so we did that just before the holiday break um and I presented the plan and kind of walked through what it is and um what it isn't the last piece being particularly important because there was some um Flyers that went out into the community that gave indications that um any vote taken on the plan would lead to sweeping changes in our zoning code and um some other I'll say somewhat um misinformation about what was going to happen if this plan was approved um and you know it was it was really well received by the council and I think they understand full well that what this plan is going to do is provide the city with the toolbox of different strategies that we might want to employ to um build the right kind of housing in the right locations across the income spectrums both deed restricted affordable but also Workforce housing um that might not be deed restricted but is Affordable um to working people and um it was pretty well received and will go to another council's whole committee meeting later um hopefully later in January perhaps early February it's it's a bit premature to say because there'll be a new um election of officers for the rever city council I think on Monday of next week and the new council president will set the agenda for for all that moving forward um but we'll be meeting soon and and hopefully they'll be voting to adopt the plan which the planning board unanimously voted to do so in in November um and at that meeting they'll also be talking about the Housing Development incentive program otherwise known as hdp um which is a tool we'll be hopefully using to drive investment both in suff towns and the two 40R smart growth districts that we created in Shirley Avenue and the lead trailer park um area with the intent to encourage affordable housing development um it's kind of a flexible zoning tool um and that I should say that the 40R is a flexible zoning tool H dip is a flexible financing tool that can provide local tax agreements and a state tax credit that can be quite lucrative um to help support and drive housing production um and so all that's going to go to the council pretty soon and I I left the RFP question at the end because that is something we're going to leave off the table until there's votes on the housing production plan and H dip to muddy the water and and just kind of focus on one thing at a time um those two key um agenda items and then that'll be the next one up so whenever the U housing production plan and hdp are approved will then get into the disposition of um those properties uh you know with the intent being to hand them over to the affordable housing trust then to through RFP uh look to find opportunities for affordable housing production at those thingses so those are my updates for now happy to take any questions if you have them thanks Tom uh so my main question would be and this may be the answer to this may be hold off because it's just we we want to take care of a couple things at a time but as we build up towards actually moving forward in the RFP process what kind of guidance might be helpful from trust members in terms of kind of visioning or prioritization of what we're trying to do with the disposition of those properties can people hear me no we can yeah Joe Joe I can hear you fine I'm I'm having a nice coners ation with myself in the park car because I had um it stuck on mute um but a good question sorry about that um I I rendered you speechless yeah exactly exactly um you know I think with regard to the the trust goals with with this RFP process I would encourage I guess more than anything really to keep an open mind to think about how this could be used as a tool to support the trust in that each each site that we're looking at might benefit the trust and benefit affordable housing in rever differently so there might be some sites that work really well for affordable housing production um and there might be others that would actually be better selling to the the highest price and using the um the proceeds of of that uh sale to help support the trust activi in other ways so um and you know we might also look at opportunities where maybe a developer will want to come in and do a few different sites and maybe one of them will be market rate but the proceeds from that could drive um affordable housing production on another site I think I would I would definitely recommend when you're putting the RFP together to ensure that affordability is front and center uh of the the criteria you use to select somebody um but also that you know you're making sure whomever we select is somebody who has the capability and the capital to get a project done and ultimately will lead to outcomes that will benefit uh the trust and affordability in rever more generally either through direct um you know provision of affordable housing units or through proceeds that the trust could then um expand their activities with thank you for that sful background does anyone else have have questions about that I appreciate everyone's patience because I know that I feel like every month my update on this is next month we should have more uh but just a few things kind of got stacked up uh towards the end of the year as they tend to do and we want to make sure that um you know the H dip and housing production plan um is getting across the finish line but this is going to be a key opportunity for us uh another thing that I would add and just Tom can tap in if he wants to add anything to this is we're going to continue to be um you know I'm in communication with Tom and we're in communication uh about you know as opportunities present themselves as potential new development opportunities are kind of moving forward in rier we do have some flexibility and it'll be kind of up to us as to whether we want to expend we have a little bit of extra money right that it looks like after we kind of account for the first time home buyer program um to do you know to provide some additional support for affordability for something this year and it's kind of up to us to think about do we want to um solicit ideas to kind of we always are listening right because we've had for instance neighborhood developers came to us and talked about a potential ask which they've not made an ask to us but they might around 110 ocean have uh or there's others you know that may come to us that have you know like habitat had come and asked about receiving some funding uh but then there's also the possibility of you know we know that we're coming up on a new fiscal year and there's going to be a free cash allocation that comes into the affordable housing trust fund we don't know how much it's going to be um it's the same percentage the 10% of the free cash allocation but we don't know what the total free cash is um and you know I don't think it's appropriate for us to speculate uh but then we'll have a little bit more right and so we can think about something larger and that could be you know kind of going back to what we did last year which is what's an a process that gets us to the most financially efficient way to do a home ownership type subsidy project right so there's different ways that we can consider using the funds that we have and um you know to Tom knows and there's an open line of communication that you know as folks are coming before the city if there's a way to encourage affordability and we can be a part of that recipe we're happy to do so um and Tom I don't know if there's anything else that you know makes sense to to talk about when it comes to that but just we're always looking out for folks ideas and um also happy to listen to ideas if people have them no nothing out on my end great anyone have any questions about that dripping uh with that I think I mentioned you know I have kind of a big agenda item area for sort of future planning because I think we want to build off of as I mentioned having this workflow in place of having agenda items and really trying to um have a kind of structured meeting and I think part of these structured meetings will include uh bringing back some of these sort of educational type sessions that we did to help learn more about different opportunities that there are for us to support initiatives in the community um one that I definitely want to do but I think is a bit on pause because uh Laura Christopher at Mass development is on a well-deserved maternity leave and we're very excited for her um is working with some of the folks in the community that are trying to explore the possibility of starting a Community Land Trust which is something we talked about uh and my hope is that once we're able to do that we can have someone from the community Land Trust come and present and talk about some of the work they're doing in ways there may be for us to collaborate with them um you know we've had tnd D I think Dean it would be great to just hear an update um from your end you know from your team on even if there's not a specific Nexus with the trust and our funds some of the modernization work and things that are happening at R your housing authority I'm not asking you to do it off the cuff now uh but like maybe at the next meeting that would happening now if if you'd like to hear but I me yeah I'd i' would love to hear it yeah so so currently we we have a there's two main focuses that we have right now and that's the the coolage street Constitution area where we have have an RFS um it's delayed a little bit by the state um we were supposed to get um um uh bids from uh Architects and Engineers to come up with a master plan for the about 40 acres worth of land over there uh to redevelop that that that portion of of public housing to add um Workforce units and and marketer units and and redo those public housing units on that coolage Constitution Adams Court uh Proctor and kushman sites um it's for about 350,000 the the dates been pushed back for designer selection to I think the 22nd of January um so we're looking for a huge Redevelopment of that of that area and again that's just for the master plan that'll that'll form the blueprint of the development that'll happen over the next you know 5 10 15 years there and then shortterm wise we have an application in uh with eoh hlc to convert uh 110 112 shli AV uh there's two three family buildings there which has two uh two bedroom units and four three bedroom units and you know add a five to six story building in that place much in line with what's being built on Charli AV um but to subsidize it with um with project basing some of our Section 8 vouchers um and and to create you know somewhere between 20 and and 40 units right now um we have a an engineer designer uh that's submitting I'm working with I just met with them today uh three different proposals uh for myself and my team to to look at and then we'll make a recommendation to the the board of directors and kind of what area we think we should go in um and then we'll be looking for a backing from uhlc um in developing that par land over there uh so those are the the the two things that are on our plate right now um Tom's been been part of it every step of the way with us um and so we look forward to to bring those to fruition that's all really exciting um and obviously always happy to take the time to learn more figure out of there ways that we can work together in Partnership but while we have everyone is in know and have questions about what's happening with the Housing Authority obviously there's a lot going on and uh it's a chance to have that conversation for sure I see Lori you got your hand up feel free to unmute hi so the question that I had really quickly is um as far as the updates to the siding and the roofing and stuff like that for the Constitution kulage Street area um do we know if that is still something that is in the works or if it had been pushed off because of funding or because of the weather I'm I'm not shove the question with that I don't know what that I apologize I had been because we were talking about the um improvements to the buildings around here on Constitution and cool coolage and stuff like that and I just that question popped in my head so that's why I asked no what's but what's the question though we were talking about the master plan and are you asking if your house is going to be sided in the future I was asking if it was still um planned out or if there H if there's delays because of the weather and or because of funding because um I know that it we had disussed before like a while ago that that there it was um supposed to happen but then there was a whole mess of everything so I just wanted to double check and see um if those modernizations those safety um precautions or whatever you would like to say so Capital Improvement projects go forward as funding is allowed so the the Housing Authority gets um $900,000 a year on the state side um and that goes to fund capital projects uh through the 300 units at coolage Constitution the six-story building the units at Liston Towers the 40 units at Adams Court the 40 units at Pro kushman the 26 families um you know or so in in the shirle AV area the 50 units at Garfield in Elliott and it costs about $150,000 to side window in and roof a building in coolage Constitution area for for a gang of four um so that you you're limited in in in five six buildings uh a year if you were to reside them so it's a it's a slow process so yes absolutely that's why I was at when he mentioned when it was brought up I just it popped in my head to ask about it um just just to clarify for people who might be watching at home that around in the these units that it is still in the works of being done but there is a process so thank you so much for being willing to explain okay yeah so I think moving forward as um you know as these modernizations continue if there's an opportunity for some of what we do to to have a Nexus with supporting some of this like mixed income development you know we'd love to have the conversation so let's let's make sure to find a time to keep these updates coming does anyone else have questions about the r r um properties and some of the work that's happening with them okay um then I wanted to throw out a couple of other things that I want us to get started on you know just because we talked about adding some structure and um to what we do and kind of now that we're a little bit more experienced and kind of know the the flow of things and I would really love to revisit the idea that we had talked about of having some subcommittees to help kind of steer and guide some of the specific types of work that we've made priorities um there's two that I want to Bubble Up to the surface right away but then there might be some others that people want to talk about but there's two that I want to talk about um one is with regards to fundraising um so there are a number of sort of foundation funders and grants and things that may be interested in make in supporting the work that we do and I think that we should explore you know how we might be able to access that uh and then there's also opportunities to do private fundraising much in the way that like the scholarship committee has done you know of kind of doing just fundraisers in the community um you know an iio I think you have no choice but to be a part of this uh sub committee if we form it as the treasurer but if there's one or two other people you know and I'll do it as well but have that have a particular interest in that piece of our work I think it makes sense to have monthly check-ins in between meetings and just really focus on and report back on um you know let's take some concrete steps to see what kind of funding might be out there to supplement what we're getting from from free cash so if that's of particular interest to one or two people and they want to throw their hat in um and then before you uh jump at that they said the other one that I wanted get get established is um one that's really focused on um I know we all do this but just sort of in a standardized way exploring costs I suppose of um affordable home ownership opportunities so like if we were to do another subsidy like we did where the last one that we did is we had we had the opportunity to do a per unit um subsidy as part of like that larger uh Redevelopment and that's the route that we chose but if you remember we kind of looked through a lot of different options like we looked at does it does it make sense to try to buy a home that's on the market that you know maybe needs some TLC and do we want to like purchase that and resell it you know at a affordable rate and subsidize essentially the difference between that and like the market cost like that being a possibility for us or um you know one a unit in a Condo building or a full Condo building and you know U like so ex basically scanning the market and opportunities that exist maybe having and I think Matt had talked about this like opening communication with Brokers Realtors you know folks that might be able to give us some insight into this um and then also just comparing that with like what are the other tools that we have at our disposal that we can do similar kind of small scale home ownership projects whether that be a Habitat for Humanity type model you know not necessarily using them but like doing something similar to what they do um I know this is kind of Broad and vague but I think that you know so a few people with a with a particular focus on having a report out on just like here's what it would cost to do one or two units of like small scale affordable home ownership and here are different options and presenting them even if they're things that frankly we probably oh we have a cat joining us that we probably can't afford right now right but if we were like just to know aspirationally that these are opportunities that exist out there um so those are two subcommittees that I'd love to like form and have in at least kind of formative conversations on between now and the next meeting and I would love to know if folks are interested in leaning in you know and focusing on one of those areas yeah I think both are really cool obviously the fundraising I'd like to be a part of that one and uh yeah excited to get started I'd also probably add in maybe the including some of the options you mentioned maybe we can explore some grant writing opportunities as well to kind of buttress some of the options you mentioned but yeah I would like to get part of the uh fundraising committee yeah I second that I mean they both sound uh very interesting and i' I'd be up for either of them and I think I definitely um can like bring some kind of either their valuable skill set on the latter committee um some Network reach on the former committee so yeah happy happy to take part in either of both yeah I think we're all going to be needed for everything um but I think you know Matt I'd love to have you kind of run point with me on just that first conversation that we have on the exploring kind of home ownership and the market side of things and an IO on fundraising and grant writing and we'll get like appropriate City staff involved in it are there others that have a particular interest in one of those two areas um you know where you'd want to just kind of get into some of this planning process that we do in between meetings yeah I'd like to participate in the home ownership part I I thought that that was a great bang for our buck I think that being able to help subsidize a family or a a person into a unit for 250,000 about that um in this in this climate is is is a great thing so I'd like to investigate that further I'll write that down I'm happy to join with um Matthew and Dean just because I'd like to stay away from fundraising in my official capacity as a city employee but I'm happy to give ideas there too and more just in all honesty to learn from Matt and Dean because I don't know a lot about the home ownership market so I'd like to try to lend my skills and also learn at the same time a little more yeah okay so I'm gonna I appreciate the so the volunteering so we're going to cap that there because we can't have more than half of the members on part of any conversation due to making sure that we're getting compliance and meeting laws if I if I cut Lori off and she wanted that subcommittee I'm happy to see that to her also I think I heard her talk right when I started no I was um going to say that I would be interested in the fundraising aspect trying to find out um what Avenues we can work with um because the more help we have the more help we can provide so that's awesome all right love to get started with you thanks that be exciting opportunity awesome we've got okay for myself okay either both okay I'll probably some fundraising for now but I think also we should look at you know let's get these started to see how it goes this kind of process of reporting out and if we find that it's not too much of a burden I don't want to burden anyone you know you all carve out this time every month and I appreciate that um but if we think that we have the I I feel like a sports team and needing to recruit I'm going out and trying to get some free agents here SOA feel free to join the team absolutely we love that um terrific oh so be on the lookout for communication for me about um you know kind of convening those conversations in the next couple weeks and kind of doing them regularly in between meetings um like I said I know our biggest next project has been on hold for months which is this RFP process and we we I appreciate everyone's patience because I think since like August September it's been we're getting it ready we're getting it ready we're getting it ready but this is going to be a really exciting opportunity for us to do you know some sort of small scale but impactful um affordable housing opportunities so I'm excited about that I'm excited about getting these subcommittees going and having some of these educational sessions so any questions about any of that none does anyone have any additional items or things they wanted to add on to announcements and things for the agenda um I had a very quick question as far as um finding out or maybe communicating with other communities that have the trust fund um committees as well to find out kind of what they what they do yeah or how they get their funding in or what they're putting their funding towards would that be something that we are allowed to do or it's encouraged and I think it's a good time to do it again so we did at the beginning and so lur you weren't you weren't here as part of this but we had um folks from Chelsea we had some folks from the state uh I think Salem we had a few kind of reports in but this would be a good time to do another one you know because it's been a couple years since we got this started so I think that's a really good idea the other thing that I want to make sure to do and particularly for our newer members that joined and and please let me know if you didn't receive this but we received at the beginning and I think I said to new members but maybe it's a good time for a refresh or two for everybody um we got some State materials that sort of helped outline from Mass housing like what an affordable housing trust is and what we're allowed to do um and what are examples of things that have been done I I will say that the the gleaning examples that they give are generally ones that have been done by trusts that have dedicated sources of revenue that allow them to do things like put you know $1.2 million into a development project to turn it from you know like a purely market rate project to a mixed income like we don't have that kind of those kinds of funds at our disposal but it's good to have that inspiration right to see what some of the or like purchasing and building three units of affordable housing on you know on a city- owned lot or something like that like different things that are a little bit outside our scope now but still good to know about you know certainly hope that we'll be able to build up our Revenue both from City sources and from elsewhere so thank you for that and we we we should definitely make kind of hearing from one of our bigger and more experienced um counterparts one of our kind of educational sessions moving forward so thank you for that thank you as well yeah other questions or additional items from folks I can quickly flag um the city that this is something that we're choosing to do as Heroes but we kind of are forced to do it and we're happy to do so we're coming into compliance with the affordable homes act which goes into effect um next month so maybe some zoning changes and a couple other things will be coming up within the next month or so to get us into compliance with some of the requirements um for single family homes and expanding uh rental opportunities and stuff like that so more changes to come with the already mountain of changes that Tom is juggling he's doing a great job of it we appreciate the work he's doing particularly down a down an additional person so we appreciate that other items questions if not um expect communication from me at the schedule that we outlined uh so uh about keeping those minutes flowing and follow-up items and we'll make those follow-up items really be getting those subcommittees going right and beginning to to dig our teeth into now that we're into 2025 you know how can we really push those two areas forward as priorities for us so excited for that um with that unless anyone has anything else I'll put forward a motion to adjourn second any objection none all right well thank you all for your flexibility today of doing this meeting remotely um I know that's very convenient for some not convenient at all for others depending on your setup super convenient for the cat which we appreciate and uh I look forward to seeing you all um in person in one month and being in touch between now and then just to clarify sorry just to clarify our next meeting is set for what date it's uh February uh 12th uh so this our usual second Wednesday um of the month at 6:30 p.m. but this will be back at City Hall in the council chambers unless there's some sort of issue with the chamber that happens between now and then which we do not anticipate but if that happens we'll let everybody know okay thank you so much have a great night everybody night everybody see everyone