All right. Can everyone in the Zoom? Hold on. >> All right. Can everyone in the in the Zoom hear me? Can people hear me? No. testing. Yeah. Okay. Why is that happening?
All right. Well, my laptop seems to just not be working, so I may be flying a little bit. Does anyone have the agenda open in front of them? Because it was in front of me digitally. So, I may ask you to help steer me through the um agenda if I don't have it off the top of my
head. But for now, I'll um call the meeting to order. Uh good evening everyone. Uh welcome to the July 8th, 2026 uh meeting of the city review affordable housing trust fund board. Uh my name is Joe Graalisi. I serve as mayor Keith's appointee um as chairman
of this board. Um and we'll begin by roll call. Uh so our vice chair I'm Matt Wilford >> here >> and treasurer and IO >> here. >> Okay. And Judy Goslin >> here. >> Dean Harris >> here. Uh Laya Petri
>> here. >> Lori Manzo >> here >> and Deb Frank. I do not see Deb. Um all right. So noting the presence of a quorum. Uh we'll move to the next agenda item which is our treasures and
financial update. So for that we'll go to an IO. >> Uh good afternoon everyone. The current balance of the affordable housing trust committee is $995,18147. Uh this balance is reflective of the approximately 167,000 that is encumbered for the next two payments to the
neighborhood developers. Interest for last month was recorded at $3,663.74. Also, a payment of $10,000 was made in June. Thanks a lot. And this was provided by Suta Newton. Thank you. >> Great. Thank you. Just again, I'll
appreciate um the stewardship of the fund, you know, by NIO and by all of us to get that fund up in the million-doll range. Um allows us to continue to consider a lot of the great initiatives that we'll be discussing moving forward. So, uh thank you very much for that. Uh
I believe so having technical difficulties with my computer. So, uh Matt, if you could just guide me to the next item on the agenda, which I believe is uh the buy down program. Is that right? >> Yep, that's right. >> Terrific. Uh so just as a recap uh for those uh watching at home or for just to
kind of get everyone on the same page, uh for the last few months we've been discussing a buy down program. Uh so just to explain what that means, uh it's sort of a supercharged version of down payment assistance. Um the main differences are it has a wider range of
AMI that we can cover, you know, from low income all the way up to moderate income. Uh we have a few different funding sources for it identified. Um so CDBG funds specifically for the low-income households. Uh the down payment assistance funds that we're
receiving from the state that we can repurpose and package into this program. Um since we still have some leftover funds for down payment assistance that are unspent. Um and then also existing um additive affordable housing trust
fund dollars, you know, that we're able to think about allocating based on our stewardship of the fund. Uh the purpose of the program and what it's going to do, that's a little bit different from the $10,000 down payment assistance program. Um it is considerably more generous. It buys down where the term
comes from. So, not the interest rate, but actually the financial gap between um the affordable price for a unit for someone at a certain median income range and the market price uh to a to a degree that's capped, right? So, in the documents that were sent out, it's not
unlimited. It's not someone can buy a $2 million property and have it bought down to what's considered the affordable price, you know, for their AMI. Um there's a specific cap on the amount of assistance. Um, but it's designed to bridge the gap between sort of a
middle-of-the-ro market property in Rivier and um the quote unquote affordable rate. So mechanically, what's different is not just the larger amount of assistance uh but also the fact that there's a deed restriction that goes along with this. So for the $10,000 down
payment assistance program, um there's no deed restriction. It's, you know, just 10,000 made out as a zero interest loan to the buyer. Um this would go obviously considerably further in the amount of assistance but it would put restrictions on the property. It would
create deed restricted affordable ownership property. You know kind of we're envisioning a sort of starter properties uh but with a little bit more restriction on it. So in the first 10 years of the deed restriction um it's a fully affordable deed restriction. So
this the price would have to be resold at the affordable price the same way we'd calculate for a deed restricted unit. Uh and then from years 11 to 20 under the current drafted program design that we've been working with um it shifts to a partial sort of hybrid deed restriction uh where the profits on the
sale of the property would be split uh the proceeds between the seller uh and the affordable housing trust. So money would come back into the trust and then after 20 years the restriction would expire. Um this is under what we have drafted now. Obviously we can modify
that, we can discuss it, but that's you know the the framework we've been working around. Um, and I think functionally the biggest difference in what this can do and the reason why I wrote that memo of how we want to sort of market and ramp up to it is that if
we get the word out correctly, this program can hopefully appeal to people that right now aren't even thinking about accessing the down payment assistance program for RER because frankly $10,000 is not really enough money for them to really think that, you
know, home ownership in Rivier is accessible to them. Um, if you think about even a family that lives in Ravier and might like Ravier and want to stay in Ravier, but they consider the cost of housing in Ravier verse somewhere else, you know, particularly what you might get, you know, for the dollar, uh,
Revier just might not be on their radar. You know, even if they knew about the 10,000, which they might not, it's still maybe not going to be enough to to tilt the scales. I think this program, even though it's certainly not as scalable as the $10,000 down payment assistance program, not without a huge infusion of
money. So, we consider this a little bit more of a of a pilot, uh would allow us to create deed restricted properties, you know, without having to build deed restricted properties, which is obviously very expensive and allows us to do that with properties that are already in the market. um and help some
families that you know might not even consider it think okay if I am able to apply for and get this program uh staying in this community you know acquiring a home in this community is something that's accessible to me. So, I
think um I'm happy to walk through kind of how it works again because I know that it's been a couple months of us deliberating it and going back and forth on it. Uh but I wanted to get into more the mechanics of here is some of the information that we're going to capture as a requirement of the application.
Here's how we're explaining the mechanics of the program and how it works. Uh and then also here's how we're going to work together as a board and then my department in planning and community development. uh how we're going to market the program and make sure that we get it in front of as many eyeballs as possible so that folks are
aware of it, they access it, and we make sure that we can support families that really need it. You know, because I think that we're not unique in this, and we've probably had better uptake of our down payment assistance program than maybe any other community in the area, which is something we should all be
proud of. But we still have unused funds, right? as does uh the North Suburban Consortium because fewer people apply for these programs than we have slots just because they're not quite enough to to bridge that gap. So, before we get into like the brass tax that I sent out, which hopefully I'll be able
to actually now open the documents on my computer now that it's not crashing, um any questions or kind of broader discussion topics about the program generally? Questions, comments, thoughts, feedback? rendered everyone speechless. Um, okay.
I'm gonna hopefully be able to open the file now, but for those that might have it in front of them, Judy, you gave me some great feedback on the application, which I really appreciate. There were some errors and typos that you identified uh that through iterations of the editing process didn't get fixed.
So, thank you from that. Some things that got mismatched about references to page whatever and section seven and different documents. So definitely going to take a pass through that and make sure to fix those. Um, so I welcome your feedback if anyone has either other
typos or technical errors or really like mechanical questions about what information we're capturing, what the application requirements are, etc. >> I had a really quick question. Um, is this application going to be available
in multiple languages? Yep. So, uh, our plan would be for it to be by default available in four languages. So, that's English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. Uh, so through the, um, community ambassador's office,
um, located here at city hall, we translate all of our key government documents and web um, resources into those four languages by default. Uh, and then additional languages could be made available by request. So that would be if someone, you know, reaches out and
says they want it in German, uh, we can reach out and find resources to access that, but we don't actually have them on staff. So that's how translation, um, works for these, if that makes sense. >> It does. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure that people who don't have
English as their first language are able to access this as well. >> Yep. Nope, definitely. And I I appreciate you you flagging that. And um also we I'll try to make sure as well that it's more visible. I know that when we first launched the down payment assistance, I think it was there was
something wonky about the link where it was hard to find the translated versions. Uh and I will make sure that that doesn't happen this time. So thank you for thank you for flagging that. Okay. Other um questions, comments, feedback? >> I probably just make one about the
eligibility table. I know there is a placeholder for a link there. Uh and then there's a section for it in part one. Uh could we just I guess instead of having a link there, is there a way to actually flesh out part one in case the link fails or changes or something like
that? >> Yep. So just um I I'll make sure that like this draft is cleaned up, but just generally speaking, what I'm putting together here is not going to be like available on paper. We're going to take this and convert it into that online laser feed system like we have. So, the
format's going to change the a little bit. The links are going to change a little bit, but yes, um I agree we should put the actual table at least for like one households of one to four right on the front. Uh we are going to need a clickthrough link just because I don't think I want to put like household of
nine or 10 or 11 on there even though we may have some. Uh it just might get a little bit too much information on one on one page. But I appreciate the sentiment and agree that we should put uh some of the figures right on the front. Thank you >> others. >> Yeah, maybe maybe this is somewhere in
the application and it it's already addressed, but I know in the attachments list we're asking for a lead based paint report if it's available. How do we plan to actually handle that? Say we have a building that's had an inspection, found lead, it's never been remediated. is
that going to be ineligible and do we need to kind of detail that? >> Yeah, so that's a really important question and one that I actually need to flesh out because it's a little bit of a quirk of the program funding. So, because this is partially funded by CDBG
funds, um, anything that is funded by CDBG has to very specifically follow guidelines under CDBG housing programs. Not that we don't want to make sure that there's lead remediation in all homes, but it's a very specific requirement for those. So the way we've been handling it
for the down payment assistance program and I need to confirm that this would hold muster uh with CDBG is if um the property does is not waving inspection um then we will accept the inspector's
report and report back on issues as kind of meeting like various guidelines for um housing safety and if it is waving inspection then we we have sent someone from DP PCD to do what's called like a hands-off
inspection and go and take a look at the property. Uh we've only had to do that once. Uh as far as lead paint, um that's a different process. And so technically how that works beyond inspection is something that I actually need to flesh out within our department for compliance
purposes. Uh I see Judy leaning forward and you probably know more about this than anyone here. So I'll kick that over to you. >> There's a law in Massachusetts now. it's about a year old that um no offers can be accepted waving inspections. Every
property has to have an inspection and if they come in and they notify you that they are waving an inspection, you're not allowed legally to accept that offer. So, I just want to make sure that everybody's aware of that. >> Great. Well, that helps solve part of
that problem. Uh would that inspection generally include your knowledge of lead paint? lead paint is a different piece of your inspection. You've got that. You're going to have um some other specifics, mold and other things that need to be considered, but those are in
addition to the normal inspection process. You have to get experts in that. The thing is is for homes that have passed lead inspection or they have been certified as um lead free now there's some mass
databases that you can go on and confirm that through the certification program >> wrong I pressed the wrong speaker button. uh I may ask you to work with me on helping kind of that process and how we make sure that properties that we're certifying their lead paint remediation
status uh particularly if they're pre 1978 >> just one other thing in November all in um appraisers are going to have a very detailed list that they have to go through to appraise properties now all due to the AI capabilities they have to
notify specific gas stoves and everything else is it a Wolf is it a regular all these things they're going to get very very specific. So I I'll be more than happy to get all that requirements for you. >> Thank you. Much appreciated. Other thoughts, feedback, thing things to
flag. >> Okay. Um what about because I know some uh owners when they selling they say don't want to you know for example if the house is for 500,000 and this is the the owner want to sell
the house but after the inspection they saw so many things and sometimes they say owner don't want to accept inspection they have something that uh the sale the buyer do something if
the the whole governor want to avoid the inspection because I saw people have the trouble when the people try to buy the home the the owner don't want an inspection.
>> I'll have to defer that question to Judy. She would probably have more knowledge on this than me. >> They have to allow by law to have an inspection. thing is is during COVID a lot of folks were going in waving inspections in order to get their offer accepted and that created a lot of um
home equity issues. So now they're allowing this the mandate is is they cannot deny you to have a home inspection. In fact, if you're selling the home and you know that they're going to wave an inspection by law now, you're not allowed to accept that offer.
>> Okay. >> So those are some of the things that they're um I I'll get the specifics on that that we can include. So everybody's clear on that, >> but you have to allow a home inspection on your property. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Other questions,
comments, feedback on the application itself. >> Thank you. I know it's got some stuff that I need to fix with it. Um, but I think in general we're on the right track. we don't really need to collect a lot more additional information than we did with the um down payment assistance
program. The document that's going to be a lot longer and more complicated than I'm going to have you all review than the application compared to the down payment assistance program is the deed restriction. Um so for the down payment assistance program, all we had people do was sign a promisory note, right? that
is notorized and filed at our office and DPCD is responsible for monitoring these and checking in over the course of the five years to make sure that they're in compliance. Um we are not comfortable just doing it that way for a you know
$75,000 plus loan. Um this is going to be something that's filed uh at the registry. It's going to be a deed restriction. Um, and it's going to be a lot more detailed and lengthy um, and a little bit more of a process. So, uh, I'm working with our legal department to
draft that document and we'll get that over to everyone. That'll be kind of the next step. So, um, questions on that. All right. Uh, so with that, I'd want to move into the, um, launch plan. Uh, so this is really key to me. I think one of
the things that uh I've been thinking a lot about is how do we make sure that we get word about this program out to people in a really fair and equitable way. I think that obviously if we do get the word out about this program, there's going to be a lot of interest in it and
we want to make sure that everyone kind of has an equal opportunity to have their ducks in a row to apply right when it opens. Uh because I expect that we're going to have more interest in this pretty quickly than we'll have funds to give away. So making sure that you know
you don't have to be the type of um you know highly civically engaged person like us that might watch Rever TV or something to know about it. We want to try to really get the word out and and make sure that everyone has a fair shot. So my thought was, you know, if we are all on board with the application and
getting it online and getting it approved and moving forward that we tidy that process up this month, but then rather than opening it up right away, we have kind of this two-month ramp up period where we're marketing it, announcing it, getting the word out, but not actually accepting applications yet
and making it like incredibly clear in flashing lights and big bold font to the world. applications open up September 23rd or whatever date we pick. You know, let all the banks know, let the schools know. Let the community know through flyers, social media, workshops, etc. Um
that if you're interested in this program and you think it's something that applies to your family that you fall in this income range and this is something that you can benefit from, uh go to your bank, right? Work with a lender, get preapproved, get your various documents lined up for income
verification, etc. um and maybe even begin the process, right, of trying to find a home that's within your price range that fits with what you're preapproved for for a mortgage. Um so that's the guiding
principle behind the rollout plan. Um the first phase around public awareness is obviously the usual things that we always do. So, social media through the city of River, which we'd ask you all to kind of help us amplify. Tag all the banks and all the other city departments
for their for them to amplify that. Get physical flyers to city hall, the river public library, um houses of worship, uh all the public schools, public housing facilities, uh largecale rental properties in the city, really places
where we think it would be of interest, right? And we want to get a critical mass of these out and about. um and really just counting down and building it up multiple times, you know, over the course between um nowish and September 23rd. Uh we'd also want to plan to work
specifically with banks. So I've got a list of all banks that have a physical presence in the city of River. Uh I am fairly confident that we have a point of contact at every single one of them already that we've been in touch with in some capacity. And so I may ask the
board to help me and we'll divide and conquer and you know we'll have our list and we'll reach out and say here's the program. Here's how it works. You'll let your um staff know to talk to potential um to talk to your clients that are interested in buying a home about this
about the program and how it works. And I'm here as a resource to answer any questions that you have about the program. Uh so I'm going to be deputizing all of you to to help me with that. Um, we'll figure out how many banks there are, divide by the number of members and and get everyone on that.
Um, you know, we're going to ask them to to flag it for um their employees, but then or excuse me, for their staff, their clients rather. Uh, but also I'm going to attempt in the next couple of weeks to work with River Public Schools andor
the River Public Library to host another workshop. I think a few of you came with me to the one in Chelsea uh that was held where a bunch of banks and community organizations came to participate in it. I think this would be one that would be really specifically focused on first-time home buyer programs. So it would be the buy down
program, the regular down payment assistance program um and the one plus mortgage program. ask the banks to come and participate um and really do it in one of the schools or in the library and market it aggressively to public school
parents as well as regular users of the library. So uh we will try to pick a date for that and so I'd ask all of you to help me with coming to that event making it work smoothly spreading the word friends neighbors etc. um
and just do this workshop, you know, encourage people to kind of get their ducks in a row, right, to be able to apply. Um then once the application period opens, uh the way it'll work is we'll accept the applications on a rolling basis. So it'll be first come,
first serve rather than like a lottery process or something like that. Uh they'll be approved based on when everything is in. So, not based on when you first submitted your application, but when you have successfully submitted every single item that's needed to
verify your eligibility. So, your income verification, your mortgage preapproval, um you know, proof of citizenship of your residency or connection, things like that. Once all those documents are received, you'll be granted from my
office a eligibility certificate, uh which lasts for three months. So, if you don't already have a purchase and sale agreement, you'll have a three-month window, which we can then extend on a case- by case basis if they're like actively searching and maybe came close but haven't gotten there yet or
something. Um, where the money, the funds for their track are kind of encumbered where we're holding the funds for them and then behind them, we'll have a wait list established of priority order if there's other folks that have been approved. Um, and so if folks eligibility expires, then like the next
people who've submitted their information on the wait list would then move into the slot to be eligible. Uh, so this would go on until we'd set the deadline for the program as December 31st. So that'd be the last date to apply. Um, that would mean that and also the last date to get all your stuff in
if you already applied. So that means that the absolute latest that we'd issue an eligibility certificate is December 31st. So, the latest that it would run until is the end of March, their eligibility certificate. Uh, and then if for some reason, which I do not anticipate, not
all the funds are given away by that point, uh, then we roll the money back into the trust and use it for future down payment assistance programs. Um, maybe something like this or maybe just the regular 10,000. Um, so that's sort of the timeline, the pre-launch, the
launch, and the administration. Uh, I just wanted to see if folks had either questions about the process, about the memo, or suggestions that you would have on kind of what to add to this rollout plan.
>> I had a really quick question. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, I know that with a lot of people um, buying their homes and stuff like that, they have to go through a firsttime home
buyers seminar and get a certificate with that. Um, is that going to be something that we um require for this program that we're the buy down program or um?
>> Yes. Uh and so uh we that is one of the requirements. You have to submit your first-time home buyer course certificate. Um that's another part of the reason why we want to get the word out in advance of it opening or if you haven't taken it yet, you want to at least get enrolled in it. Uh what we
have done and twice I think is I came to the board for approval on this. If someone had everything else lined up and they had a purchase and sale and they were enrolled in their first-time home buyer course but didn't complete it yet, I've asked this board to agree to wave temporarily that requirement and just
make that make them have to come back and submit the certificate certificate of completion after the fact. Um I'm open to doing that again if the circumstances call for it. But we do require um and I think it's ironclad required under CDBG terms that everyone
has to uh complete that um course. >> I think that's where um on one of my comments I said we should put a checklist right at the very beginning of all the documentation we provide that they already know how to they know what they need to do before they even start the process and that that way they don't
start doing the application and then they stop and put the checklist right up front. This is it. And I think it's important that if we think we're gonna get the um response that we're going to get, do it once. Get it all done once.
>> Yep. Good point. Um I'll make a cleaner checklist at the front and send everything around with that. And if everyone could just spot check that and make sure I didn't miss anything, that would be much appreciated. >> My thought my thought was along the lines of marketing. Um
we talked about talking to the banks. I think we should probably send this out to every brokerage in the city. Those are people that are actively working with people actively buying and this might open up in a door for someone. They say, "Oh, you really couldn't afford this or you couldn't afford this one." But it may open a door that they
didn't have before and and those people are ready to buy and they're actively looking. That's just my thoughts. >> Yeah, that's a really good point. I'll check and see if we have an actual centralized listing. Um if we don't, I'm sure we can get that information for sure. Judy, I don't know if that's something that like within the industry
that you'd have access to. >> Yeah, I I was going to say we're we're right outside of Boston with all the medical things. A lot of the banks right now, I shouldn't say a lot, there are quite a few that are offering 0% down for physician loans. And that's
a huge help. I've had um clients now that I'm working with that the 10,000 will go a long way looking at helping those that are just getting uh finishing their residency and looking for homes. And they're right here. They're already here. They're already renting on a lot
of places down here on the boulevard, the medical, you know, profession. That that I think that's a great market we could target as well >> and keep the professionals here. >> Yep. Yep. Definitely. So, making a note of that and we'll add that to the um rollout plan. I think it was an IO you
were sorry. >> No, it was just to follow up on the comment about the uh the required course for the first-time homeowners. It actually is specifically stated that it's required this home ownership education course, but it's read way down in the bottom. It's not one of the
bullet point items that Judy was talking about. So, yeah, I was just following up on that. >> Yeah, we we'll try to make that as clear as possible. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. And when you make um because I'm pretty sure it will be public, right? Uh
the program will be on for another city's residence and out of the rea can apply or no. >> Uh no. So this will be you'll have to have one of three local ties. either two years of revier residency
um having a child enrolled in the river public schools or working for a river based employer. Uh and we really got very specific about this because we had a little bit of a um query about how this applied for a different program. It's you work for a river based employer
uh for 30 plus hours a week for an employer whose physical address is in Ravier. Uh this wasn't for an affordable housing trust program. This was actually for the local preference for the housing lottery for 133 Salem Street. Uh we did have and this is
a flaw of maybe the design of how that was written. Um you had to work for a river based employer but you know it's like well I babysit for we can't really quite go by that because that's not really like a river based employer. It doesn't really meet like
that doesn't pay taxes business taxes to the city. Um, so we are being being more specific about the definition of what the reverb based employer means just to make sure not to be punitive but just to cut down on kind of things that we can't
properly enforce or verify. Um, like we can't really verify that someone, you know, volunteer babysits for someone for 30 hours a week that happens to have a Rivier address. That, you know, that may well be true, but it doesn't count
for purposes of this program. questions, comments, thoughts. >> Yeah. So, just to so folks know where the language came from for the local preference that basically came directly from those affordable housing applications with the exception of adding more specificity to what the
river based employer means. you know, it's designed for we have a lot of school department employees or library employees or maybe police or fire or whatever that may not be residents but obviously have that local connection. Um or folks that work, you know, for
a company that's paying taxes in the city and we'd love to allow them to, you know, work live within the community. So, um, hopefully that's clear, but if you want to all review that and make sure that I'm not missing language that is key for clarifying the rules, that would be terrific.
>> Okay. All right. Other questions, comments, feedback? So, yeah, prepare to be deputized. Uh, this is going to be a lot of work, a lot of outreach. I think we're going to have to do a lot more leg work than we did for the down payment assistance just to make sure that we kind of get this all
out there really aggressively. So, this is going to be a full a full team effort, a full team lift. So, appreciate everyone's willingness to participate. Um, so with that, I think we could probably move on to the next item unless anyone had anything else to add.
Okay. All right. So, moving forward, Matt, can you confirm for me that it's the senior repairs? >> Yep. >> Yep. Um, so, as I mentioned in the past meeting, uh, we're very grateful for the city council and for Mayor Keefe for allocating another $50,000 to the
affordable housing trust and DPCD to administer another senior citizen home repairs program. Um, we have time to continue thinking about kind of how we want to run this. I do still want to continue to pursue the idea of trying to, you know, partner this with some
private funding or institutional funding uh or work with a nonprofit to expand the scope of the program. Uh but I also want to make sure that we're getting the work done. Um I think we're about two months away from reaching the anniversary of last year's program. So I
want to just at least not go another month without bringing up, you know, how folks feel about running another program. You know, I think that with 50,000 granted to us from the council specifically for it, we could probably add a little bit to it um and
maybe expand it a little bit at a bare minimum. Um I honestly don't think aside from trying to get more resources for it, we need to change the program that much. Um I was a little worried that it would be unwieldy to administer, but it actually turned out to not be at all. Um
we had very very few issues. Um, the biggest problem that we had was just sort of the access gap for folks that either didn't know how to get an estimate from a contractor or didn't know that that was necessary or needed
help getting connected. So, I'd say the biggest problem that I'd want to solve between now and getting an application up is is there like a fair, appropriate, equitable way for us to do that to form like a list of approved contractors or something like that. But on the flip
side, I don't want to complicate it too much because I also don't want to limit people. You know, it was pretty flexible, which I think is good. People were able to hire folks that they knew or trusted. Um, you know, they may have family or friend connections or folks that, you know, they trust or that they
know or that they've worked with before. And we don't want to prevent that. You know, we also had some projects that were as simple as this is a comfort height toilet that I need to buy from Home Depot and my son is going to come in and install it. And that was fine, too. Like, it didn't need to be um I
think the fact that it was not that strings attached and not that complex actually helped make the program really beneficial and helpful to a lot of seniors. So, I would not advise changing it too much from a structural standpoint, but I did want to stop, pause, reflect, you know, see if folks have their own thoughts, questions,
suggested improvements, ways we might make make it better, uh, or if the general thought is kind of build off of what we already did. Joe, I think the last time we kind of overcame that that issue of getting quotes with uh I think it was Don
Martelli um with the small small businesses in River, he had a list and there was some sort of a partnership going on with the city in regard to contractors that would go out for special local contractors um that would go give estimates and perhaps we could
just, you know, add that a sheet of that with with the application might might help. Yeah. The other thing that we had too was the um senior center has their um and I forget the name off the top of my head now, but they had um an an organization that they worked with that
at least would go out and give you a free estimate. They wouldn't necessarily be able to perform the work. Uh but it would at least be a resource for seniors that needed it. Uh and they had a partnership directly with the senior center on that. Um the only other flaw
that I'd want to not flaw but thing that we want to work out logistically is the way we did the applications last year. Um it was time based just like the other ones that we've done. So it was first come first serve. Uh, but we did have um you could either submit the application
online or for those that didn't want to or couldn't or didn't have the access to do it online, you could fill it out at the senior center uh where you would physically sit with one of the digital navigators at the senior center, work with them and they would submit it online for you. The reason why we routed
everything to online is so that everything had a time stamp just so that we knew exactly when, you know, Jane Smith submitted this on June 15th at 9:32 a.m. So there was no room for dispute or question or debate. Uh, and everything was fair and transparent. So
I wouldn't change that. The only thing I would flag is that the digital navigators at the senior center worked on, I think, like Tuesdays and Thursdays. So they would take appointments with seniors to come in and fill out their applications. But in the gap between like when they made their appointment and when they had a chance
to go in and fill it out and submit it, we got a whole ton of applications from people that submitted it online. So people that went to go fill it out in person at the senior center were maybe disadvantaged um compared to people that had the access to do it at home. I don't have the perfect solve to that problem.
So I you know it could be we just create a window on day one where you know digital navigator appointments are happening the day it opens as it opens because we did get some applications like right away at 8:15 a.m. the first day the application
opened. Um so we could time it right so that people are doing their inerson appointments at around the same time. That's one possibility. We could like accept applications in certain windows. There's different ways we could do it. I just wanted to flag that as an equity
issue to make sure that we weren't forgetting about it uh before we get to it. So uh I don't expect anyone to come up with the perfect solution to that today, but wanted to put it out there to the group for your thoughts or feedback. I really like the idea of having that
specific time period, the date that it opens, um the application opens. I love having that um structure for the seniors that have to go in and and do an appointment for
um the application to be filled out. I I think that's a really good idea. >> Okay. Yeah, I was leaning in that direction. So, I'll think on some other alternatives, too. I'll talk to it. I'll talk to the senior center. I'll talk to our digital navigators and to our
community um outreach teams and get their thoughts on what might be a good way to do it. But I think that's probably as good idea um as we'll come up with to kind of bridge that gap and make sure that everyone has a fair chance um at having access to the program.
All right, other thoughts? Okay, so I believe we're just kind of into other miscellaneous items now. Is that right? Uh the only thing I'll briefly share an update on um is that the one feno project that we had discussed and done the letter of support for uh they also went before the north
suburban consortium uh for funds similarly to you know coming before our board for funds and the north suburban consortium um is an eight community collaborative that river has a voting member on which is me along with seven
other communities and so we receive funding from the federal government and we're able to allocate that to various affordable housing projects in the across the eight communities. Um, and every community gets one vote. So, we have to collaborate and share the funds and work together on how we get to how
they're spent. Uh, we came to the same consensus as the eight community forum really that our board did at Revier, which is that we wanted to state that we support the project. you know, encourage them to move forward, encouraged that they be supported by various state programs and loans that they apply for,
but they were not ready to commit funds specifically yet. You know, for the same reason that we weren't, you know, that they're not quite, you know, there's still a lot of obstacles that need to be overcome uh on the SA side with like site access, infrastructure, etc. Um, so it's not quite in position to receive
those funds yet. So, uh, no update really there beyond that. Um, and I think that's it. Actually, I guess Dean, if you want to briefly update, I mean, I think things are kind of moving forward with the master planning around the the housing authority site. If you want to share a really quick update on
that. >> Well, the final proposal be be given to the board on next Wednesday and they'll go through it and and take a look at that. Um, and then we're going to move as quick as we can to keep moving forward with it. Um,
I don't really have an update until the board ratifies the the master plan. I don't want to speak for that. >> Yep. Nope. That makes sense. Um, but that is a key component of, you know, we're continuing to, you may recall that this board was really heavily engaged in
the housing production plan that the city ratified last year. that housing production plan um sets really specific concrete goals for how many affordable housing units need to be built in the city of River by certain time benchmarks. Uh we're not there yet.
We're we're off the pace so we need to giddy up. Um there are a few projects that are going to that are coming along that will help us get there to some extent. Um I know that the next phase like the final phase of the Overlook Ridge development has a considerable
number of affordable units uh which will be part of that. There'll be some affordable units as part of one of the new projects happening on the beach. Uh but this housing authority project and adding the number of affordable units to the housing authority property uh will be key in us reaching those affordable
housing targets. So um we'll keep an eye on that and keep everyone updated. And I know that there's a lot of stakeholders including the board that need to provide their feedback before anything can be official. So nothing official to share other than that that process continues
and is a key part of our affordable housing strategy in the city. >> Other questions, topics, thoughts? >> Are they going to be able to for this buy down? Are they going to be able to stack say different programs like we've
got something say for 10,000 and then mass housing has something for 25. >> Are they gonna be able to stack that? >> Uh yes and no. So you're you're not going to be able to stack it with our down payment assistance program for the city. Uh just because we want to make sure that we're
supporting as many people as we can across the limited programs that we have. But you will be able to stack it with other programs other than that one. So that could be mass housing. It could be a federal program. It could be something from your bank. Uh and it'll also be stackable with the North Suburban Consortium down payment
assistance program. So that's a very similar 10,000 down payment assistance. Um but we're, you know, internally I think we've decided that we're going to try to make sure that households can only benefit from like one
uh program from the affordable housing trust just to make sure that we're spreading the limited resources we have around amongst more people. But good question. Thank you for for bringing that up. Okay. Other questions on any of these topics, thoughts, feedback.
Anything else? Open it up for public forum. All right. Seeing none, do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Second. >> Second. >> Yes. Yes. >> Oh, sorry. I see unanimous consent.
Seeing no opposition, we'll move to adjourn this meeting and we'll see you all in one month.