all right good evening everyone uh welcome to the February 12th 2015 uh meeting of the city rever affordable housing trust fund board uh my name is Joe grai I serve as the mayor's appointee as chair to this board um we have guests or not guests we have
members joining us both in person and virtually today so I'm going to do a roll call um and if you're joining us virtually I just ask that um you know you just shout um shout it out and we should be able to pick you up through that uh but if I miss anybody please let me know but I believe everyone is here
one way or the other so I'll begin the roll call um with Claire and zerillo here and anio is sping here and Deb Frank here Matt wolfer here uh Leila Petri here Lori
Manzo here and Dean Harris here all right so I do see the presence of a quorum and I'd also like to note that we do have in attendance Tom scosi uh on behalf of the city of Rivier um so thank you Tom for joining us um we'll begin running through tonight's agenda items
so we'll start as always with the treasurers update uh so in iio sure good evening everyone my name is analo swii I'll read the current balance for the affordable housing trust committee again this is provided with the great courtesy of assut Newton the current balance is $675,000
uh thanks to the great efforts uh of everybody and also thank you to the members of the city council for a constructive process and you know getting to yes you know getting to something that everyone could be comfortable with uh Tom I don't know if you want to share a little bit about that uh plan and um the vote that
happened to ratify it sure um so for those of you that were following we've been I think first presented this plan to the council in late November um had a subsequent meeting in December and then you know things kind of settled down during the holidays but um many of you
all were at those initial meetings and stayed through for the long hauls it made its way to various committees um and the council was really receptive and you know had some great feedback and um slight tweaks really we we just made to the final plan that was adopted I think
by an 83 vote of the council last Monday um the tweaks were pretty minor um just to go over a couple of them so there was a suggestion to allow single room occupancy or sro's by right um and that was pretty soundly rejected
by the city council and I had my own concerns about putting that in into practice so um that was removed um and then other things were really just some tweaks here and there so there was language that said two and three families being allowed by right across the city and we just you know wanted to
think about both with regard to that and um zero lot line building having a more for focused targeted approach um if and when we bring those zoning changes to the city so this was just a plan with a series of tools and our toolbox um and
the next step will actually be bringing those to the council for indiv individual votes at a later date um and we'll intend to do that in the new year um starting with a few of the sort of lower hanging fruit projects that we'll be partnering with on uh with the trust
so the first of those will be the six tax title properties that we'll be handing over to the trust hopefully with a council approval and vote um for then uh us to go out to an RFP seeking a developer to create some affordable housing uh home ownership opportunities
so uh we'll be taking projects like that as they come throughout the year and in in the years to come it's a Five-Year Plan um each and every one of those tools if we were to use it would you know require Council approval at some point in time in a later date so this is
really just the start of the work not the end um but we're excited to move to this next step and thank you and I think one of the things that was gerine to what we did and I was glad that you know what we ended up doing was just communicating it better rather than really changing what
we were trying to accomplish uh which is really clarifying um that one of the tools that we want to have in that toolbox is the opportunity uh for folks to sell to the city you know if they have what we like to call naturally occurring affordable housing um and I think the the classic example
we might all think of is like a small like a three family building or like a small apartment building that's been owned you know owned and occupied by a resident uh they may be retiring or downsizing or moving out or whatever the case may be um and in conjunction with
Tom you know and with the council we're able to really clarify this isn't compelling anyone to sell it to the city uh but giving them the option you know giving the city the opportunity um to purchase these and then be able to use them for affordable housing development I think that ties in obviously to what
we're doing with the um RFP process but I think it's something that should be a great opportunity for us to preserve affordable housing moving forward so I was glad to see that that made it um made it in um so other any any questions on the housing production plan um I want
to make sure that I'm keeping an eye on the virtual attendees as well but I don't see any raised hands but feel free to shout them out if you have them great um so another thing that's sort of a conjunction effort between this board
um and Tom's office uh and will continue to affect us also just really quickly U moving forward with um H dip um Tom by the way I have a call with Becca George tomorrow just to kind of hone in on some things and clarify some things that she
had questions on so I'll report back to you on that but do you want to just give it a level kind of where things are at with that yeah sure so that was also approved same night by the council I think similar vote um and it's a tool in the Shirley Avenue and the Green Street
zoning districts that we we created which are like density bonus districts for anyone looking to build at least 20% affordable if it's uh larger than 8 units and less than 8 units just um you know somewhere in between um it's a tool where we would look to provide local and
state tax incentives to encourage affordable housing development in those two districts so I should say mixed income development because it'll be a little bit of both um it's also a tool you can use for market rate Housing Development and the other H tip plan is
for suff downs and as you all know that property does not have affordable housing um it was approved at a different time in the city's sort of trajectory where we needed more Mark array housing and um now we're in a bit of an affordability crisis so there were some questions that came up about um you
know affordability with regard to that project and um some suggestions that perhaps if there was some local tax deal made there there could be some contributions to the affordable um Housing Trust Fund um to help offset
that um that impact but that those were approved and now um submitted to the state and we're awaiting State review Once the state reviews the projects then any projects that fall within the purview that want to execute a local tax agreement with the city that would have to go in front
of the city council um and we anticipate the the first big project would be suff downs and we'd anticipate that happening Sometime Late winter early spring great thank you very much um any questions for for Tom or about that
program okay seeing none um this also is just tied in I had it as a separate agenda item but the RFP process for those city-owned properties uh so the next step in that is going to be requesting a conveyance of the properties to to the affordable housing
trust fund uh for disposition of them uh and so Claire I see you are joining us virtually here um I'm going to be working with you to get that um drafted um unless you think there's any reason not to move forward with that for the next council meeting Tom I think that
that probably makes sense that was our plan is to get that in for the next meeting I agree yeah um and so just so for folks to catch them up I know that we've talked about this a few times but it's also been delayed a little bit so just to make sure everyone's up to speed
and I see a thumbs up from Clara so that's good um those six city- owned properties that Tom mentioned you know as we've discussed we are going to put those out to bid where there's going to be um a preference for affordable housing but we're going to consider a number of different Alternatives right
if FKS bid we may have the opportunity to use proceeds to go into the trust fund or have those um properties developed as affordable directly uh and that process really kicks off by conveying the properties um to the trust you know for for this for this purposes
so uh Claire and I will get to work on getting that in front of the council for the next meeting and then the properties will come over to the trust and then at that point they'll go out to bid and we'll all be part of that process of really evaluating bids that come in um and weighing the pros and cons right of
different kinds of bids um so I know we've been over this a bit but I just want to always make sure that everyone's fully up to speed um so any questions about sort of the mechanics of that about that [Music] process okay um another kind of new
somewhat breaking news item from this week um is related to the firsttime home buyer down payment assistance program um we received an additional earmark uh from the state uh I believe was that of um 75 um 75,000 so triples the capacity
of the program and we didn't know it was coming so special thank you to Senator Edwards for making that one happen and um providing a very happy surprise for us uh in our inbox early earlier this week um when we saw that come in so we have now um reopened the program uh and
the application online uh we'll be doing some more aggressive marketing uh in in the next week getting the program out there we wanted to just open it back up because we knew there were folks in the community that had asked about it before and hopefully this can be the first kind of public way of stating that and uh you
know we look forward to new applications we can we can take plenty in with with this additional support so we're grateful to Senator Edwards for bringing this to the table yeah I've got a quick question has this been announced already these open this new open uh bids I just
it I just did I guess um no but more formally we'll be doing that in the next couple days sure so folks listening or watching can apply now or leave you a website everything yeah you can you can apply now you heard it here first breaking news yep it's breaking news now
and we're also I think all um going to pick up on those efforts and so I think like for instance Deb I know that it would be great to chat with you and I'll give you you know we'll speak at your convenience about how to promote it on your end for folks that maybe are already receiving some other programs
like some State programs how we can really bundle those together and and increase the impact and make more people know that it's a available to them um you know Dean if there's the opportunity to get that in front of more you know residents of the Housing Authority that might qualify and be interested so if we
all want to think about best ways to promote this opportunity um since we didn't get a ton of applicants the first go around that that fit the guidelines so I think that um we certainly got enough right like we we definitely I think we'll get enough applicants at some point to fill up the full demand
but we know that there's probably more people out there that are interested in it that may qualify for it that we just want to make sure that we do as good a job as possible getting the word out to folks and I would stress to people and maybe this is something we could change in our language um if you are pre-qualified and and you
work through all the steps you don't have to immediately have a property that that you you have and I'm wondering if maybe that was why it was a bit slower again we we've got plenty in the queue so we've got folks that need it but it was maybe a bit slower because we're in
like the winter time where it's not a lot of people are thinking about this right now but this is actually the perfect time to apply and get qualified because in spring when the buying season really heats up that's something you can have and is it six months Joe yes yeah
so after you're approved you have six months to find a property so this is the time really to apply and you know we've got a press release and we did um announcements in multiple languages way back when I think we need to refresh all those and and maybe add some points
about that so people know they've got a little bit of time they don't they don't need to do this immediately do you have a DAT deline the deadline is when the funds are exhausted so um it's open rolling but kind of first come first serve uh so
we'll be sure to mention that in all the Outreach about it um Deb I do see that you're unmuted and I want to make sure to get your input here because I know that yeah I think this becomes even more important um because effective January 1st Mass housing changed their uh DPA
program so what you used to be able to receive uh $30,000 at 80% Ami now it's 60% Ami because they were running low on funds and they had to reduce it so so that's you know so that's made some difference so I'm I can certainly help
promote it I do seminars at least twice a month and I I will add this one to my list I didn't add it before because I thought we were going to be out of money really quickly but will I will add it to the one I start doing next week terrific
um outstanding so I'm going to work on um another round of like the press releases and materials that we did last time but I certainly encourage everyone and Deb you have the natural opportunity to do it but think about you have plac organizations you belong
to work personal where you live you know where there may be opportunities to promote this unconventional ways to get the word out there um and we're going to work with the mayor's office to to make sure that it's promoted on social media that it goes out to Veterans Affairs that it goes to every kind of office where there are folks that might be
interested in this and want to learn more um because it's a terrific opportunity and uh like again um as Tom mentioned it was unexpected to receive uh the increase this year so we're excited about that and really grateful for the opportunity to do this so um any
further questions about that otherwise I'd say just be on the lookout for for these promotional materials about it uh links to the application and spread the word and get it out there okay questions comments okay so another item that we're
working on um that I've been talking about with Tom and that I Envision the trust taking a role in um is you know we talked about a home repairs program for possibility for seniors uh as they age in place um as you know and as we all
discussed um in order for us to operate this through the trust it has to be a specific allocation from the city council to fund a a project like this if they were so willing to do so uh or from the state budget uh it's not something that we could fund out of the general you know funds that we have for the
affordable housing trust fund under the definition of it uh but if we were to receive particular city or state funding to do it it's something that we could do um so Tom and the the mayor and I have explored some of these options uh and we're we've kind of got a bit of a plan
in place so I don't know if Tom if you want me to kind of go through a little bit of what would that might look like um so I'm in the process obviously we want we will have to work in conjunction with the city council um to request funding for it um but the mayor and Tom
and myself are fairly confident that there'll be a lot of support for this of essentially creating a program where folks can apply um for funding to do we'll have like sort of an approved list of types of projects that are based on accessibility
right so things like a wheelchair ramp or like handrails um other things that are necessary for folks that are aging in place in their home and might be needed for um accessibility uh and we're going to use the same sorts of eligibility
requirements that we Ed for the first time home buyer program which is Rev residency own rock occupancy uh but then we also will add in uh the you know being a senior citizen um but it'll also be at that 80% Ami um just like all the
programs that we run out of the affordable housing trust fund for eligibility um our thought right now is to have the applications available via the riv Senior Center which just you know kind of makes the most sense logically um as the starting point for that but then I would ask the trust fund
board to sort of help with vetting and communication with app ANS um as well as sort of administering the program after we dispersed the funds uh where you know we're still kind of ironing out the details but the thought would be you
know once we get a estimate from a licensed approved contractor that's been approved and vetted by the building department um you know a partial payment could go out you know via our fund uh and then we'd have to get proof of completion of the project to pay the rest of it and so I would Envision this
board would you know we split up taking some responsibility for like overseeing some of those to conclusion um and then also there'll be a clawback provision you know where folks can't sell the home within a certain period of time after the um they
do the repairs right because the the idea is uh this is to help people age and place in those properties not just to sort of improve the value for resale right and so that'll be part of what we monitor um as a board as well so
um we are going to work in conjunction with the mayor's office on getting that sort of application up and running um and I Envision that we'd be able to do that within the next couple of weeks you know have kind of an update for everybody but um I certainly would like this board to take an active role in
kind of vetting those applications overseeing the applications and the process and seeing it through so um does anyone have any questions about that um and by the way the only thing I would add um just to make sure because I don't want anyone to get confused um we did
receive you may recall a proposal from Habitat for Humanity to do something like this similar uh we determined that our best method to do this was to you know not go through a third party but to have it be a city administered program
um but we certainly appreciated getting you know their feedback because there's someone that's done this before uh but this would not be through a third party entity this would be administered by the city you know we'd be doing the evaluation of Eligibility um and overseeing the dispersement of funds so
that should reduce administrative costs because I think if you all remember when we had that Q&A session about it you know we were concerned with limited budget the sort of amount of overhead that we'd have to pay for um this should reduce that you know it should be pretty straightforward uh a pretty straightforward list of approved types
of projects and if we get that we'll be able to get the funds right out to the folks that need it so um that's the plan of attack on the senior home repairs program and we should have updates on that for you within the next couple of weeks but does anyone have any questions about
it are you and the mayor working together to do the proposal to the city council or how yes uh so um we like I said I I think the mayor will want to have his conversations with the council about where it fits in their priorities but I think we envision moving pretty
quickly on this is that a pretty accurate statement Tom yeah I get the thumbs up from Tom so um yeah so I would envision having an update for everybody on this well before the next meeting this will be you know within within a couple of weeks for sure okay any other City related updates
Tom I just have the space as like City updates as needed on housing related issues no okay seeing none um so as we discussed at the last meeting I think to help us continue the momentum um and take these monthly meetings but then
moving into working sessions to allow us to really accomplish our goals um last month we talked about forming a couple of subcommittees and we can always form some more but I think it makes sense to start with two um one dedicated to fundraising opportunities um for the
trust you know whether that be through finding private fundraising opportunities or supporting efforts like um the community preservation act and other ways to get more funds in the door uh and then the other dedicated to home ownership projects and I think in
particular uh what I would ask the subcommittee to do is really you know begin to sink our teeth into what are our different options that fit sort of the budget that we have um to do the next home ownership project that we do like the last one that we did
was that condo project which was great you know I think Tom knows that we would love as a board should the opportunity present itself to supplement a commonwealth Builder type application again if we had another similar project come along line but those don't happen every day uh so we might need to just
think differently you know about the next project and so that could be you know purchasing a property that's for sale which is something that we've talked about doing in the past um or something else right so I think that that's going to be like the role of this subcommittee is to really sink our teeth
into it I know Matt you know you're going to participate in this and you've talked about maybe building some relationships with Realtors or Brokers and trying to kind of get their perspective on what's available so I I think by formalizing these subcommittees and getting the workload out of kind of
just these monthly meetings and into more in uh informal sessions in between uh this will help us make progress on that as a critical priority for us um so I've been in touch with both subcommittees and so we've got calls set up uh for the 18th which is this coming
Tuesday uh and then Thursday the 20th uh for each of the respective uh subcommittees the the one on the 18th being the um home ownership subcommittee and the one on the 20th being fundraising um after all the various
emails back and forth and Communications I believe we settled on noon for both of those and I just want to make sure that everyone got those Communications that they're still on board with those times uh and they're good to start digging our teeth into those topics um at
subcommittee meetings next week sure I've had a question actually about partic ipation from the city itself uh for fundraising in particular are there any framework or legal responsibilities that we should be aware of when we're talking about fundraising
activities on behalf of the city or the as a representatives from as a representative from the affortable hous trity for example if we were to go with uh fundraising presumably to the private sector are there any there any literature that we should read so that we will be in accordance what the
appropriate appro is for that lastly would it possible to include someone from the city just as like kind of an oversight to say we're doing it in accordance with you know thew I would want to run that's a really really good question so first of all um as a special
City employee is my term as chair of this board I'm trained in conflict of interest law um so I'm glad that you brought that up um I think that even though I think the other I'm not the other members of the board required to receive that training um well have you received the conflict of interest
training I would love that if there is I the training also yesterday um it might not be mandatory but we might want to offer it as an option and so maybe we can look into seeing if that's possible through HR it it's pretty simple and straightforward yeah I don't I don't
think that would be a problem it's just a link you can share it's an online training um at the same time happy to be a sounding board with some of those like very legitimate concerns that we should think through once you guys have developed kind of a fundraising scheme or some ideas in terms of I think
obviously I don't want to um speak for the pretty straightforward training that we'll send around to everybody but obviously you know I'll be part of these conversations to help and be a sounding board too but the the main thing is of course always making sure I'd say the
driving force behind a lot of this conflict of interest rule is just making sure that there's not a crossing of streams between your personal interest and the interest of the of the city or the public entity that you're representing right and so I think where the potentials for conflict of interest
arise involve your personal kind of business interests or work interests um and so I don't want to um speak out of turn on that I think I'll get the link around to everybody so that you can all um you know follow along with that training and learn more about it uh but I'm glad that you raised that because
that's obviously particularly when we're talking about money um you want to make sure that everyone's kind of up to speed on on conflict of interest law I think for sure I know that Claire would be well trained on this and Dean you know given their status as well can anyone hear me I'm driving I'm
sorry yes I just wanted to flag that um my office also has a lot of guidance and literature from the Attorney General's office regarding fundraising by either city employees or board and commission members and the trust fund's a little bit different because we are authorized
to solicit donations and accept monies and land and things like that so I can put together kind of a um compilation of what we have and share it with everyone on our board so we feel extra secure in addition to the conflict of interest stuff that um you guys are going to
share thanks a lot Claire that'd be very helpful I think you know before starting any project like this it's kind of good to know what the framework are what are the limitation that sort of thing and understanding what has you know what the appropriate procedure is to do certain things we want to run a foul for it so
anything that you can do to provide guidance would be extremely helpful and the link as well so although it might seem root and kind of like boring it's kind of good to know specifically these are the requirements and expectations for anyone dealing on behalf of the Cs especially in regards to finances yeah I
think that's a really good point I'm glad you brought it up and so we'll make sure to get those resources out to everybody um and we've got these calls set up for next week to begin sinking our teeth in you know I think that um this is exciting opportunity for us to just kind of take the next step on some
of these ideas um I know that they're both really Central to what we want to accomplish as we think of bigger and better goals so I'm looking looking forward to those conversations with everybody uh Deb I see you yeah I don't see any emails about the subcommittees you know what I think that
you were not um at the last meeting and therefore I don't think we notified you about that so thank you um I'm going to email you um I think I would suggest I certainly wouldn't want supposed to tell
you what to do but I would suggest that um being involved in the subcommittee on home ownership projects would be an amazing fit for you and your background and your experience I would agree yeah obviously you'd be happy to have you you participate whatever you'd like but I I'm going to link you in with that
subcommittee um and so they're going to have um that's going to be a zoom call at midday if that's okay with you you know I know it might not be possible next Thursday yes uh Tuesday sorry next Tuesday uh so the 18th at noon so hopefully that
works for you it work um we'll get you on that invitation and like I said that way we can begin and I think also there's a great opportunity for Synergy between that and the down payment assistance program too right now we have that available and maybe there's a way
to link those efforts together so um outstanding thank you for for flagging that for me all right any other questions about the um subcommittees okay seeing none
um okay so does anyone have any additional items for the agenda for today I have one I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anybody not at all so again apologies that I'm driving but I could not avoid it um I want to share with
everyone that I had to officially submit my resignation from this wonderful board with the mayor today it's not effective until April I have been expired for some time if any of you have noticed but I requested that the mayor not reappoint
me because I have a lot of um new responsibilities that I have to take care of after work starting this summer and so I knew I wouldn't be able to devote the time and the passion that this board deserves it you'll still have me I do volunteer my services as an
unofficial clerk um if you need help posting minutes and agendas and posting on the City calendar I am more than happy to do that because I still will be working here at City Hall every day so that's something that's still desired I would love to help out in that way but I
will not be able to contribute fully as a member uh in the way that I have the last two years so I wanted to share that with you all and um if you know anyone who is a market rate tenant because that is the position I hold I encourage you to talk to any colleagues or classmates
your neighbors and pass a name along to the mayor's office if you have anyone in mind that you think would be um a good fit for the board again I am the market rate tennis BX somebody who pays market rate rent which shouldn't be too hard to find in this city but I do want to thank
you all for always listening to me Babble and hear some of my silly questions sometimes but I really enjoyed my time and I still have a couple months with you all but I just wanted to share that with you all first Claire I think I speak for everybody when I say that your contributions have
been invaluable and we're so grateful to have had the opportunity to have you serve on the board uh we're glad that you're not going away right away um and also glad that we'll still have you as a sounding board and a resource for our legal questions and uh minutes posting
and agendas um and we certainly wish you all the best of luck uh I know that you have a lot on your plate but we're excited to see everything that you do so thank you for everything you've done for the board and just to Echo um what CLA said I have had some conversations with folks that you know
might be good candidates to join the board um although I don't think any of the people that I've talked to fall into that category of people that pay um market rate you as tenants as renting tenants in the city so reiterating you
know Echo um echoing that that we'd love to have someone fill that capacity um and so if you have folks that you recommend um you know please pass them along to us great thank you Claire and like I said we're sorry to see you go but glad
that you're not going too far thanks Joe thank you other items from anyone else CL we going to misset you agreed I'll still be here don't worry well it's good you know you you didn't
get to to do a meeting with the fancy new AV technology here in the council chamber so hopefully you get to do that next month you know before you go definitely uh for those participating remotely um hopefully everyone's been able to hear everything this is the first time that we've done a meeting
with the new AV technology in the council chamber but I think it's gone pretty smoothly so far um as far as I can tell I haven't I haven't gotten any word from anybody that nobody could hear me yet so I think we are in good shape all right other questions comments
agenda items things to put on for the next meeting anything like that okay well with that we will move to adjourn but before I just want to um remind everybody you know as we started last month we've kind of got this calendar process in place to get M get
the agenda out there to get the minutes posted to get the subcommittee follow-ups done I hope people have found that to be helpful and not a Nuance I don't intend it to be a Nuance but I do want to just encourage people you know to put their agenda items on the table if you have ideas if you have suggestions
if you have thoughts or even if your agenda item is just I think we should learn more about X Y and Z and you want to give me homework and you know have me go invite somebody to come and speak to us or talk to us about what we're doing I'm happy to do that um so like I said appreciate your kind of going along with
that um and I thank you for holding me accountable too and part of that will be making sure that we turn these minutes our draft minutes around in a timely manner you know and get them out to everybody by the end of this week so that you can all make your comments and we can continue to move forward um on all these items that we're working on so
uh we have a lot of balls kind of up in the air right now I'm excited to see them move forward between senior home repair as first time home buyer program and this RFP process so exciting times uh and then also getting the subcommittees going on fundraising and Home Ownership so uh thank you everyone
for your contributions today um unless anyone has anything else I'll make a motion to adjourn second okay any objection okay seeing none all right thank you everybody thank you