Uh so we'll give it a minute um and then we can get started even if they're running behind um since we've got more than a quorum. So we'll try to >> Excellent.
>> And I know that River TV can hear me. So at 6:30 I'll gavvel us in and we will get started. All right, it's 6:30. So good evening everyone. Uh welcome to the January 2026 meeting of the city of River Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board. My name is Joe
Graalisi. serve on behalf of Mayor Keefe as chair of the board. Uh and this is our first meeting of calendar year 2026. So happy new year to all and welcome. Uh we'll start with roll call. Um if you're here virtually just uh speak unmute
yourself and speak up to announce your presence virtually. Uh so Joe Gracei, myself here. Matt Wolfer >> here. Anoaki >> here. >> Deb Frank >> here. Lori Manzo.
Don't see Lori. Um, Leila Petri >> here. >> Judy Gosselin >> here. >> And Dean Harris >> here. >> Terrific. All right. So, we'll move right into our first agenda item, which is ratification of the minutes from
December. Uh, I sent all of those around to everyone for review. Um, anyone have any questions or objections? Seeing none. Um, do I have a motion to approve? >> Motion. >> Okay. Do we have a second? >> Okay. All in favor? I >> I.
>> Any opposed? >> Seeing none. Moving forward. >> All right. We'll now go to our treasurer and IO for an update on the budget. >> Uh, good evening and again, happy new year to everyone. Uh, I'd like to first thank Asuta Newton, the assistant budget director for city of Ravier in the auditor's office providing us this
detailed report. Uh the current balance of this trust is $889,182.3. Uh this balance is reflective of the approximately 167,000 that is encumbered for the next two payments to the neighborhood developers. Interest posted
for this period is 3,2 $3,000 $3,27 $3,00027.72 uh since the beginning of November. Uh 3 $3 31,46363 has been paid uh to date to the senior home repairs program. Thank you.
>> Great. And Io, um just for the record, can you repeat the current balance I can put into the minutes? >> Sure. $889,182.13. >> Thank you very much. Uh, and we'll stick with you and me um as a report back to the group um on behalf of the
fundraising subcommittee and some of the work we're doing to identify nonprofit and private partners to work with us on both the senior affairs program and perhaps some other um you know projects as well. Um so Annio and I both
participated in a meeting uh yesterday with a nonprofit partner. um won't get too into the details um just yet until we move forward a little bit, but you know, we're we're really talking and building off the conversation that we
had last month about um you know, the opportunity that exists to apply for funding from banks and foundations to partner that with what we do, work with a nonprofit, you know, be able to expand something like the senior repairs program or first-time home buyer assistance or all the other things that
we do, right? And you know, I'll let Annio kind of kick off with some of his thoughts, but one of the things that we want to work through is if we were to um work with a nonprofit partner with the foundation to expand the senior repair program specifically.
Uh I want to talk through, you know, what people think about what direction that should go in, you know, and and and how how to where to focus that. And so just to give some examples, you know, we can talk about expanding eligibility for the program perhaps to include persons
with disabilities or veterans. Could be, you know, veterans with combat status or veterans with disabilities or all veterans. Um we could focus on if we got more funding casting like a wider net, right, and giving out $5,000
grants to say 20 households rather than 10, just to give an example. Or we could focus on, you know, do we want to hone in on a few major projects, right? Like, um, I think we we've talked about this Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding
Together Boston are two nonprofits that work together to do a roof repair for a river resident um, recently. Um, the roof repair was, you know, that was a five figure project. And then all the other work that needed to be done inside the house hasn't been done yet, but they're working towards it. a lot of it
came from water damage and other things like that that it didn't make sense to do the work until they did the roof repair first. So, it ended up being it's probably going to be 15 to $20,000 worth of work. Um, but receiving this support allowed a resident to avoid, you know,
potential displacement, right? You know, this isn't just some run-of-the-mill like aging in place repairs. This is like really critical um destruction of the home, right? And so, um, I have no doubt that there are a
number of examples like that, you know, folks that need that support that are low-income seniors, persons with disabilities. Um, we can kind of look in that direction. You know, by the same token, I think the way that we did things worked pretty well, you know, where we didn't cover the full cost of like a
roof repair, even though that was one of the projects that got funded through the senior repairs program, but we helped, right? right? We helped defray some of the cost and um you know maybe that project wouldn't have gotten done if they didn't get the support or maybe it would have but this
helped them a little bit at the margins. Um so a lot of different ways to go with that. You know, I think another thing that we need to think through is um we made it we made this project such that um under the current senior repairs
program someone had to come with us come to us with their quotes with their estimates from a licensed contractor. Um and from there once we got those quotes and reviewed them and determine their validity then we would approve them and then reimburse once they paid out to the contractor. Again, there was some real
strengths to that model, right? It meant that we, you know, people had to find licensed qualified people to do the work. Um, we knew that these were going to be funds made available for so-called sort of shovel ready projects that were ready to go. Um,
you know, the downside is I think because it was a first come first-s serve program, if you weren't kind of together with it and already kind of probably working on this and getting your estimates, it was harder for you to become eligible. And I think that particularly could be true of, for
instance, seniors or persons with disabilities that maybe, you know, don't have as like internet access or connectivity to look up contractors uh that might not have maybe kids or your other relatives that are out there kind of helping them like shop around uh or
maybe have language barriers, cultural barriers, other things that might prevent them from, you know, being able to access uh contractors. So I think when we weigh what this program looks like if we were to put together, you know, a bid with a nonprofit partner or
a bank or a foundation to expand it. These are all things that we want to think about when we think about, you know, what does that look like if we were to expand the program. So I know I talked a lot. I would love an IO just to provide some your thoughts on kind of that conversation and then maybe open it up for some discussion. >> Sure. Also, I'll just essentially add
build on to what you mentioned. The meeting itself serves as an introduction to us uh to the community between us and the community partner. Uh we discussed in addition to what you mentioned in particular is about the achievements and uh things we learned from the previous
program. uh some expertise that they can share to us. That was a big thing that I took away from that meeting is that uh this particular community partner has lots of good expertise, lots of experience in this area and they can answer and uh provide uh this expertise
to crafting a policy proposal u or a grant proposal that would kind of fill in the gaps where uh we didn't initially anticipate because we were so new to the program. Lastly, [clears throat] yeah, what we took away, what some of the the next steps involved uh I I think some really good concrete steps on
defining what the parameters of the particular program we're proposing for the grant. Also, the roles and responsibilities of the respective partners, what we contribute and what they do and to the extent to which uh we can codify that into a something that we can all agree with, I think it'd be
really helpful to enhance the program. >> Yeah. So, I'd love to hear um you know from members your thoughts. You know, I think we have a really realistic opportunity to get private or nonprofit support or both and think about expanding this program from say like a
$50,000 program to a $100,000 program or $125,000 program. Um particularly given the success we had in doing it, you know, in the first place, it it proves that we can do it. It helps us garner more support if we were to do that. You know, I'd love with with all those
different big questions we put out there, we'd love to hear people's thoughts on input on how we shape it. You know, we could just take the same thing we did and expand it or we could modify it in some of those ways. And, you know, we'd be curious if people have opinions on that. >> No worries. um you know if not yet
[laughter] uh this is not a decision that we need to finalize now but it can maybe be something that we just start to think about you know. >> Sure. Also I propose that we kind of pick this up at the small uh fundraising one of the first agenda items that we could uh really focus on for our
fundraising committee is to kind of take a little bit ownership in this and then bring up some next steps or maybe a timeline of deliverables for the rest of the group for the larger group. Yeah, I agree with that. And Nio, if I could ask you to take the lead on certain dates to to schedule, that would be terrific.
>> Um, >> you know, I think that, um, as always, there's pros and cons of like just doing things that we run out of our own board versus maybe someone else takes the lead and we fund it. And does that take away some of our
control? You know, maybe. But does that also allow us to do more and help more? So, I'd say start thinking on that, right? And I think there's a lot of areas to consider. Uh we'll work within the subcommittee to report back on maybe some of what we're thinking the contours
of what this could look like. Um but obviously as always would appreciate anyone's feedback. Um any other comments before we move on? Okay, seeing none. Okay. Uh so we'll move ahead to the next
agenda item. Um, so this is just a report on sort of closing out the existing senior repairs program. So we just talked about it. Um, right now all of the projects except for one that we approved have been complete have been completed and funded. So that's great.
We're waiting on one more. My anticipation is this is sort of a weather related delay and it'll get done before too long. Uh, I will keep everyone posted if there's any challenges or hiccups with that, but we're coming up on, you know, a smooth and complete close out of the program.
So, that's really exciting. Um, any questions? Terrific. >> Yeah. No, it's great. Um, okay. So, next on the agenda, um, just an update on the ADU loan program. Uh my
goal and hope is that we can get this application up on the on the website within the next week or so. Um I wanted to share a let me just open this up. I sent everyone a link with like a web form
hoping to upgrade how it looks a little bit but I'll just share it on my screen so that we can all look at it. Um the wording of it is exactly what we already approved. So it shouldn't be anything new to anybody. Uh but let's just take a
look at it together. Um okay. So I believe the ADU loan program application should be up in front of everyone, right? Okay. Yes. So we'll just look through this a
little bit. I'll try to make the text bigger for people that are reading on the screen. Um, so again, it's language that we already approved, right? Um, so we start with the terms and conditions that the program is designed to expand the supply of affordable housing um by
supporting homeowners who wish to construct, legalize, or renovate ADUs. The loan terms, as we discussed, a fully forgivable five-year loan forgiven in increments so long as people adhere to the um guidelines of the program
requirements. Again, We already, you know, approved this, but we can always change it if people are having second thoughts or questions. Um, applicant must own the property. They have to reside at the property as their primary residence. Obviously, have to comply with all building and zoning codes and obtain
necessary permits. Um, and will be ineligible if they're delinquent in payment of taxes, fees, assessments, etc. Um, and then the affordability requirements. So, we're Uh basically we're requiring that rent cannot exceed
what's considered the affordable rent limit for 100% of area median income. So this is calculated based on HUD guidelines which then the city can interpret and update each year. Um that can be modified slightly based on you
know things like number of bedrooms, bathrooms, you know things like that. I can say that, you know, something along the lines of like a one-bedroom ADU, the affordable rent limit would likely be somewhere around like
$2,200 a month this year. So, we're not talking about like extremely low rent. You know, it's not something that rules out building an ADU for someone. you know, it's something that um still provides the income that they need to help justify the construction of the
ADU, but it also, you know, ensures that we have some affordable rental options for people that might need it in the community. Um and so that maximum rate would be certified each year by the city. Um and then the owner would submit a copy of the lease um for review and approval each year to make sure that the
lease is in compliance with the uh affordable rent requirement. Did I hear a question from Zoom or >> I've got a question. Is it possible to put a link there so that folks can learn what that 100% AD AMI is?
>> Yep. Make sure to do that. Good point. I'll make a note of that. If you see other things that you know flag as things that we should change, let me know. Um so for monitoring and reporting uh as you mentioned each year uh the
property owner will have to certify occupancy and rent compliance. Um and vacancy of more than 30 days without just cause may result in repayment obligation. So you know we want to keep it rented, keep it in use. Um, and then
if the homeowner resells the property, ceases to reside in the property or rents the unit above the allowed rate, then they have to pay back the unpaid portion of the loan. So, that's the sort of terms and conditions. I think one thing I'll try to do is make it a little bit clearer that you have to click next
to get into the application. I'll try to, you know, specify that. But then we have the property owners put in their name and address, contact information. I don't know what that option one is. So, yep, I'll fix that one. Yep, good
thing. This is why we double check everything. Okay. And then verifying eligibility. They own the property. It's their primary residence and that they understand the rules about having to maintain it as primary residence. I guess I'm not in test mode. I'm in
fill it out mode. So, right. And then this is where we collect information about the ADU project. So, you know, is it a basement conversion, a garage conversion, a detached unit, an attached unit, uh or, you know, an interior retrofit? Someone takes
bedroom or part of the home that already exists and and do a retrofit of it. Um, and then if someone says other or they want to add additional information, they have the opportunity to do it. Uh, we ask for estimated start and completion date. Obviously, I'll pro I'll probably
add a caveat that we understand that these things are subject to change >> when this application will be uh open to the public. >> Working with it, I'm hoping within seven to 14 days is my goal is the goal. Um,
we'll well, we'll probably get it done and then announce it that it's going to go live and set a date and put it in the newspaper so that way people know, you know, it doesn't just kind of pop up out of nowhere. People know it's going to go live on X date so that everyone has a fair crack to get in the application,
but should be finalized within about a week or so. Um, building permits in hand. um yes or no, you know, and then I'll probably add something on here that basically says your first step. People should know this
anyway, but you know, just in case they don't, that your first step if you're looking to build an ADU is to go to site plan review. Um so I'll make sure to put a note on there of how to apply for site plan review and go in front and kind of start that process of getting your permits. Brief description of the
project scope. I need to add an area ble to upload estimates and timelines from contractors. >> They have a deadline for this application. >> So, it's going to be just like with senior repairs, it's first come, first
serve. So, we're making $50,000 available. So, it'll be a maximum of five projects that get approved. And then the affordability agreement. So, exactly what we talked about, you know, that they have to make it
available at an affordable rate and that they'll submit their lease to the city for review. So, you can see that there and then certify that the application is true to the complete to the best of your knowledge. So, um, from there, I think, you know, once we receive an
application, we'll go through a process very similar to how we did for the senior repairs program, we'll review it. We'll ask them to verify additional information, possibly bring things in or fax them if we need to like look at it. We we check with site plan review. We check with the building department, make
sure they have their um documentation in line. Uh and then we'll work on getting drafted sort of a formal loan agreement that's similar to the firsttime down payment assistance which also offers >> this this might be nitpicky but on the eligibility requirements can we specify
it being in rever >> it's just really nitpicky but >> no that's not nitpicky at all I think that's incredibly useful so yep good point um I will update that on the application and before we get anything published
send it around to everyone for them to take a look at and people want to hop on a call and look through it again. Any other questions, comments, things you noticed on the on the application that we might want to fix. If not, I'll stop sharing my screen. Um,
but as I mentioned, um, this is all in form what we already approved and discussed. you know, I appreciate it's not nitpicky at all. We want to make sure we get everything tidied up and good to go before we put it online. So, um, before it goes live, before we do an
announcement to the internet and the newspapers that it's available, I'll make sure everyone gets a chance to take a fresh look at it, double check for any typos, any errors, anything like that. So, um, any other questions or comments on this before we move forward?
No. Okay. All right. So, on to the next agenda item. Um, that'll be RFP responses for city- owned properties. So, without getting into specifics um on bids, I can
say that the bids closed um for uh one of the properties that we put out to bid um on Glendale Street, which is one of the tax title properties. Then, this goes back like a year and a half now. It was a bit of a slow and arduous process
to to do that. Um, and as we move into, you know, evaluation, I just want to, we discussed this when we first put it out to bid, but because it's been so long, I just want to do a pulse check. I think one of the things that we're going to have to weigh
is, you know, do we [snorts] prioritize exclusively construction of like an affordable unit on this lot or do we if the opportunity presents itself to receive something
comparable to its tax to its value to its assessed value and it's not for an affordable unit, but we're able to take that money, put it into the fund and use it for other projects, you know, that we see fit for affordable housing. Is that something that the board would be comfortable with? Um, so I hope what I'm
saying makes sense and you remember what I'm talking about, but please ask questions if not and would love to hear people's thoughts. So Joe, are you saying that we have the ability to let's say deed restrict the the
property as when we put it out to bid almost that the caveat is if you bid on this that you have to have an affordable unit on it and that's and that's what you're asking or >> so what we did do is we didn't do that. We didn't say that you we didn't require it. We said that our preference like the
way we preference the evaluation is for con construction of affordable housing and we kind of phrased it in such a way that we can accept any bid that sort of advances affordable housing in the community even if that's we
received the fund like I think our preference was to receive a really high quality bid to build affordable unit or to you know on these properties but we were allowed under the parameters of the bid that went out to accept some something else, you know, for an
appropriate price if that was the best and most suitable bid that we received, if that makes sense. um as we go into the evaluation phase, you know, I will be representing the board um in the evaluation of these, but
I want to make sure that my representation of the board is accurate to how the board feels, you know, about how to handle this. So that's why I wanted to just kind of get clarification. You know, I can tell you that my personal opinion is that if the best and most advantageous and most like
fiscally sustainable and realistic bid is from someone who just wants to either acquire the property because they're in a butter or they want to look into building a home on the property, but they offer
appropriate fair value for it, you know. So, the the assessed value of this property was somewhere in like the $60 to $70,000 range. It's not a super high valuable property because there's a lot of complications and challenges that can prevent construction on it. you know, there's a lot of different uh variances
that would need to be received and things like that. Um, you know, and my thought was if we receive comparable value, you know, that that we could use for the trust because technically these properties were transferred to the control of the trust from the tax title
um the tax title custodian for purposes of disposition by the trust. And so funds that come in would go to the trust and we'd be able to use that, you know, elsewhere, right? Like I think my ideal would be we get an affordable unit on
that property or, you know, if someone builds a single family home on that property, it's a deed restricted ownership unit, which I think is is possible based on what the bids might be. But if not, you know, I I think that the ability to utilize this and then,
you know, pivot and use the funds elsewhere is something that we should consider if that's the most advantageous bid. But I don't want to get out ahead of, you know, where everyone else is. >> So Joe, my thoughts are we we either look at it two ways. one, we're going to do a straight bid process where we're
going to take the highest monetary value and then of obviously we take that money and we put it towards, you know, affordable housing um causes or you you put out um like a like an RFP almost for the property where you have a a rubric
or a matrix there on on how we uh value, you know, affordability, uh price, uh usage, etc. Um that way it's it doesn't seem so arbitrary. >> Yeah. >> So go ahead. >> Yeah. Go ahead.
>> Um I hit unmute on the wrong button. Sorry. I created an echo. Uh so we did put we did do an RFP. Um so I apologize for any confusion on that. And the RFP basically did exactly what you said. So you're thinking correctly. the my my question
is just to make sure that I'm on the same page as everyone at how we evaluate you know what level of advant you know what so for instance you know I don't want to get into too specifics right because we have to go through a fair process but like if there
were no bids to build an affordable unit on the property we would have the right to reject any bid but we also could not do that right you know I think and I want to just kind of see what people's thoughts are before we get too deep into the process.
>> Hi, my honest opinion in regards to this is River desperately needs more affordable housing. If there is opportunity to have somebody
bid and provide affordable housing, whether it be a home or um a, you know, a studio and a oneb, you know, combined. I think that would be
better for the residents of the city to have more options that are affordable for them. Agreed. Thank you. Um, other thoughts.
Okay, so I'll keep everyone updated. Did Were you about to lean it in? Yeah, go ahead. It's tough because it really depends on the demand and you mentioned earlier some of the mitigating factors and building on that property and so you got to weigh the pros and cons of taking the the funds we receive from the sale
and that indirectly assists our ability to meet other needs for affordable housing versus just sort of like leaving the plot as it is with no bids. So it for me it's more of an economics supply and demand thing. It's hard to know
unless we get the bids. Yeah, I appreciate the the feedback. Any other uh comments on this matter? If not, I will let everyone know once we actually go into that evaluation, you know, and we'll report back um at that
point. Terrific. All right. Um moving forward. Um so, open call application responses. So, as you may remember, we put out this open call for applications with a deadline of
March for for a piece of the budget of up to $50,000 that we made available to anyone who wanted to apply for funding. And we received an application for that. So, we just received it yesterday. I sent it around to everybody for review. I don't intend on voting on this
now. Um, I just wanted to make sure everyone was aware of it and also use this as a reminder to anyone who's interested that we have that open application call round open through March. Um, so I will work with the applicant on setting up a time for them
to possibly come in and ask questions. This actually is um, North SuffK who already has come in um, before we kind of established a formal process. So, we are familiar with them. We were able to ask a lot of questions of them at the time, but we'll do that again, you know, to make sure that we follow the process
that we set out with this application. Um, but wanted to make everyone aware of that. Please read the application documents that I sent over. I emailed to everybody around five o'clock today. Um, so, you know, take some time over the next month to review that and be prepared with uh questions that you
might have. Um, you know, the the application asked for the full allocation of the 50,000 that we have available in this round. So, take a look at it, see what you think, and um you know, we'll make a decision as a group. Um any questions on that.
Okay. If not, uh do we have other additional or late items? I know that Leila, did you have anything that you wanted to mention? Yeah, sure. >> Okay. Uh I want to share with you that I
was chosen by Chapa. Chapa is the citizens housing and planning association to be part of the Massachusetts housing leadership. Um we are around 35 members from across Massachusetta.
So uh we start last Friday. So I hope so everything that I learn and I working with uh with Chapa with another departments from the um the commonwealth and another cities we help to our city
>> congratulations well deserved and um I know that you'll do rever proud and the work that we do proud you know as part of that that's terrific >> yeah thank you >> um any other late items additional comments you know, so so some follow-up items
kind of from me and from all of us. So from ANIO, it's scheduling that fundraising subcommittee meeting, using that as an opportunity to drill down on senior repairs program and its next steps. Um, from me, I'll make those tweaks to the ADU loan application.
We'll get it out. We'll get everyone to take a look at it before it goes live. um for everyone review the open call application um that that came in and for me uh report back to everyone on the RFP
and the bids that we receive and kind of how we evaluate them moving forward. Any questions about any of that? If not, uh I think we had a a tidy uh quick agenda today. So, well done everyone. Um any
last comments, last thoughts? Okay. Okay. If not, do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All right. All in favor? Any? >> Any opposed? >> I see none. >> See you next month. >> Good night everyone.
>> Everybody