Welcome everybody. Welcome to the Westport Housing Authority meeting as of June 18th, uh 10:00 a.m. Um, this is being filmed and recorded, this meeting. Um, so we're going to start with the uh
uh call call to the order by by the uh um management agent. Call the by the chair to the management. Yep. Okay. Roll call. Tim Kaden here. Uh Liz Collins, Pauline Broador here. Henry Lineer here.
All set. Okay. Uh wouldn't mind standing for pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. Okay, we're going to move the object a little bit. We have two two uh wonderful guests here tonight. We have uh the chairman of CPC, Benny Sllay, and chairman of the Westport Affordable
Housing Committee, um Craig Dutra. and we're going to have some discussion this morning regarding some potential opportunities for the housing authority. So, if if you two want to sit there and and and and go from there and then we can
and and then we can start. Thank you for coming by the way. Thank you. Okay. I hope you uh Yeah. I I just I I just like to welcome you know both of you here today and uh you know there's a lot of
opportunity I think in the in the uh you know in the town of Westport to to talk about affordable housing you know different opportunities and so forth as far as the the CPC is concerned. Um, I know there was uh there were several,
you know, email resources that you that you had sent me that I that I had an opportunity to review and uh, you know, we are always looking to to collaborate, you know, with the CPC to improve the property here at Greenwood Terrace. Um,
so I don't know Betty if you wanted to, you know, you know, just give an overview, you know, of what the CPC's role is and, you know, the different opportunities that, you know, perhaps the housing authority could avail itself of, you know, with the CPC. So one of
the um somebody um one of the areas in which the community preservation uh committee can recommend to town meeting for funding is affordable housing. And across the state affordable
housing's always been very difficult. Um it's it's very complicated as you know and especially for the affordable housing trust. For the first few years when I was on CPC um we had a couple of projects small
projects um in inside the wood terrace but we were told by the community preservation coalition that it was illegal for us to be doing those projects. Uh at that time, Liz Collins
was the CPC uh liaison representative with the housing authority. She was probably chair of the housing authority at that time. So for many years, we never had any quests. We never had any communications, nothing. So it's
bothered me because now for the last two years, I've been the liaison to the affordable housing trust and I'm seeing what they do, etc. and and I know that there is this public housing here and I was just trying to figure out um what
CPC could recommend for the housing authority and I went looking through the internet believe it or not and I found this letter which I' I've given I have you all seen the letter it's was written in 2013
uh it came from Elizabeth Hayer associate director the division of public housing and and rental assistance and it was utilization of CPA funds for preservation of existing public housing units. So I went and I looked at the uh
on the coalition's website they have um all the information about every single project that's funded through CPA funding in the state. And I found that there were other towns that were doing things with CPA with uh CPA and public
housing. So I contacted Craig uh and I spoke with you and both you gave enthusiasm about this whole project of perhaps finding ways to help fund the public housing. Uh, and I asked
Craig if he would join me today uh, and come here because they have um the, and he can talk about that, but they have the capability to be very helpful to you and they're the that's the group that we've been financing for the last few
years. So, there are certain specific requirements in order to finance a public housing unit. It's mostly external, but I hope you you have this paper. If not, has everybody got seen
this? Oh, yes. Have you have you seen this? Yeah. Okay. So, it's interesting in um uh for CPA, we make the distinction between preservation and rehabilitation. And rehabilitation activities are not
allowed, but preservation activities are. And what are they is one of the questions. Um building envelope and site work to preserve the structural integrity of the housing. Roof sighting and window replacement to asssure the
water tightness of the housing. Upgrading of dangerous electrical or plumbing services. replacement of dangerous building systems with threatened housing units and installation of hardwired smoke alarms,
sprinklers, and other fire suppression systems. So, this is this is kind of you I think you get the idea that you have to be protecting. It isn't the you can't rehabilitate. We can't put in new stoves
and things which we tried to do many years ago. So I just wanted to share that with you and that and you think about it and if you come to uh CPC we we take uh applications in September
starting in September you have until December to apply. In January, we make our decisions uh and it goes to the town and the town looks at the finance committee and the board of the select board look at uh the projects, get back
to us and then we go to town meeting and suggest these these projects as you all know at town meeting. So, I'm offering you this opportunity if you have the need here. Um and I turn it over to Craig. Thank you. Can I thank you? And
my guest has just arrived. This is Bob Goza. Bob uh works uh uh very part-time at town hall for the affordable housing trust as as a contractor. And his responsibilities are uh to keep us
running on time and and and on schedule, but also uh developing a lot of the um uh uh the you working with applicants for some of the different programs we have. and he's been with us what 10 years Bob 11 okay time flies um so and
and the other area that that I was interested in and that's I think I mentioned that to Paul the other day is um there's a lot of land here and um and one of the things that we're looking for is developable land where we don't have
to incur a large ac site acquisition cost to build affordable housing And uh another area of opportunity, I think we just issued another RFP and Bob can talk a little bit about it for um that
purpose. It's very difficult cuz we've looked at some properties um you know with with you know the market's doing well if you own a house and if you own property it's not doing well if you're in the business to acquire property. and um and and what what we're trying to do
is ask people uh to uh reply to an RFP that um would ideally have them donated property to us, but realistically is going to have a cost associated with it. And uh maybe 12
years ago, we did our first major development. We did Noachchoke Village over on American Legion Highway. I think it was 55 units. Um 54 54 units. Um and uh it's been an overwhelming success.
But one of the reasons that we were able to do it, it was land that had come into possession of the town through tax title. Um there were some there were some obligations that we had to fulfill. Um some of the land was not developable. were able to go execute an agreement
with the Westport Land Trust to uh have them take over a portion of the property for um land preservation. But um I think the CPC has been pushing us um I would
say nudging us um threatening us the last couple of years. I'm saying that sarcastically, but really to uh take a look at long larger scale projects. And so Bob, if you want to describe what that that one is a little bit in terms
of what we're looking for. Um should I just say comment? Um actually the uh the CPA funding was used to buy the 7 and 12 acres. Yes. At no the rest of it was uh
tax uh related tax leans and so forth. So, and um the project I think was like 19 years. I mean I I remember Liz was heavily involved in in that at the time. It predates the affordable housing trust.
It does. Yes. Sorry. Go ahead. Okay. Well, uh the RFP that the trust has just issued uh parles of land, eight more areas that would have the potential to uh support
uh multifamily housing. Uh 30 plus units is the goal. Uh we would consider of course any potential sale or donation of land for that purpose. Uh we've had some interest from land
owners but nothing uh concrete has come forth at this point. Of course, in keeping with uh the trust general goals, they would also always consider small apostles that have the potential for uh
single family or multifamily uh units. We just completed one uh uh two family parcel uh on southern mode in cooperation with Habitat for
Humanity. They're always looking for lots or small parcels that they could use to do small scale projects. So, uh, basically the trust is looking for any kind of parcel of land that is suitable
for development either large or small scale. And thanks to the CPA, we have uh uh ear funds uh that we could move quickly if land became available.
How I'm sorry. Go ahead. Okay. So question um in terms of the land here, is this something that you would work with the housing authority and it would be uh controlled and and managed by the
housing authority or would that have to be something different? Um I'm not exactly sure. I think a lot would depend on what you want to do. If you if this uh surplus land is accessible, if it's
developable, uh your options could be either giving it back to the town which give it to us or I don't know what what uh rules and regulations govern your board, but I was
I was going to ask basically the same thing. what would the you know if we you know if we did you know respond for example to the RFP um you know what would the role of the housing authority be that's that's you know you know basically the question
that was asked um would you know would we partner with with you or would we have to surrender the land I guess is the question well the only example is no village and that's run by the the builder
Uh and those are basically rented out. They're rental units. Um and I it is uh Greenwood Terrace rental use. Okay. So that that those types of questions could be answered once you submit something.
We would go to town council uh we would look at the experience around the state um to find that out. we could find it very quickly. Um to take on the administration of a of a 30 unit uh in a
building would be difficult I would think uh given all the responsibilities you now have but I think that can be worked out. There are no rules against the towns running these things if you're considered a town body. Uh but you're a
mixed town state body. Correct. So I think that that can be worked out. We could look into that. How much acreage do you have here? Excuse me. Um would you say where the 30 unit number
came from? Sorry, you mentioned 30 sums of 30 units. Units. 30 units is something they um he just mentioned Bob Harosa. He just said in the RFP up to they hope the eight acres would have 30
could have up to 30 units. Would you have back back up on that? Uh it's sort of just like the benchmark between small scale and large scale. Um
is there a deadline to respond to the RFP or is it open? Is it open-ended? Um the deadline was maybe two days ago. Oh, okay. But um we
have the ability to consider proposals that come in after that date. How many acres do you have that's not utilized here? I would have I would have to look at that all the time. You have a plan? Yeah. you submit your plan with wetlands,
that kind of thing. One of the things that we've discovered is that the the people who respond generally have to have there has to be other characteristics like transportation, uh that kind of thing that goes with
affordable housing. Um, and this is of course a very good uh a good location as far as that's concerned. Um, does the town own the whole property? The town does not own the property. No, it's it's own it's owned by the Westport Housing
Authority, you know, which is a quasi public state agency. Okay. Um, I know what a what you know what a lot of housing authorities have done is they've they've you know they formed you know uh nonprofit affiliate organizations to go out to develop.
That's what that's what we've done in Adelboroough. and we have a project pending in Attalboroough right now. Um, you know, that may be an option. Um, the housing authority itself I I I don't think could get involved with it, you know, you know, with any development.
We'd have to go the nonprofit route. We'd have to form a nonprofit, which is not hard to do um, as an option. Would would the ongoing maintenance and administration of the new units would
they be sort of all all in one with the existing units? Well, that would have that would have to be worked out with, you know, with whoever develops it. Um, but again, these, you know, these things take years to come to fruition, I I believe. Right.
I know with with our with our with our Adelboro High School project that we're in the middle of, we we don't expect that to be wrapped up until geese, you know, 2028. What delayed the financing or uh getting
approvals or Well, we're in the process now of doing all that. It's uh it's, you know, it's a it's a 51 unit development. were, you know, repurposing an old high school building into apartments and um, you know, we've we've had a nonprofit
um, at the Attleboroough Housing Authority for many years, but you know, we never, you know, it was never activated. You know, no one ever did anything with it. You know, the city put out an RFP for the high school for the for the old high school that has been
sitting vacant for a long time. Uh, they've been trying to get rid of the building for years. No one wanted it. Uh we partnered with a with a for-profit developer who came in and um so we're in the midst now of getting getting all the
you know there's there's historic there's um you know we're doing the civil work we're doing the environmental we have an architect on the on you know on the staff as well that's doing a lot of this. So it's a very involved process. I would imagine it would be it
would be something similar if we if we undertook anything down here. Um I would imagine it'd be good to look at the the property records and see the wetlands ability for septic systems. I assume
you're in septic systems here. Yes. Septic system. Uh and one of my hope was that the if the uh affordable housing trust could be of help to you even if they are putting out
the RFP they could come in and get and you could see the experience with the community builders. Um even the community builders may be interested. Um did you happen do you have to secure uh loans from the state? Did you have
anything? Well, with with the AL borrow project where, you know, we're doing LIT techch um you know, low-inccome housing tax credits, and that's a very uh that's a very cumbersome process, particularly now, you know, the environment is a lot different. Um but we're in the middle
now of um I I you know, we you know, there's certain rounds that you go into and you're usually turned down the first time you apply cuz there's other projects in the queue. It's it's the delay in getting you know on getting the you know the you know the actual
financing you know but there's but there's many different opportunities to get funding there's lit there's you know CDBG funding there's home funding it's uh to make these projects work you you need just uh um you know all sorts of
you know different funding to come together and that's what we're in the process now of doing so I'm wondering if the um housing that the RA is interested in in this at all. I'm not asking you to answer that now. Uh and to go through
these uh the difficulties of doing affordable housing on this property, but it just makes sense if the property is amendable to it and to either uh to to get a
private nonprofit builder to come in. it ends up that's pretty good and even to run it it's a question of running them here who who runs the Greenwood terrace the well the Westport Housing Authority
you know you know actually runs it but we are you know we're managed by the Alamaro Housing Authority I'm the director of the AMO Housing Authority and we have a management agreement to manage Westport so you've got a good example here yeah so we've been here
we've been here for exactly a year now and we've you know we've think we we you know we've done a fairly good job and um changes y so um you know now now that we now that everything you know in the office and
everything is kind of stabilized now administratively now you know we're looking to do other things and we know that affordable housing you know not only down here but all over the place is a is a huge issue especially Well, I'd like to make the point that in
fact since nucleot was put together after a long period in process the among other things that happened in that uh line was the expertise grew up uh
as a result of those 51 units of no. Uh and now we can have a discussion about what what financing issue can can go for and all all sorts of things that really weren't very positive.
they they weren't really positive uh uh or possible uh for um pre Nova let's say and and then Paul's group um obviously it lends a lot
of expertise uh to that we've got we've got stuff we can do and people that are uh able to to to talk light tech uh talk or it's authority versus a nonprofit.
It's it's a it's a tough journey but uh we're we're ahead of the game where we were back in uh whenever what do you recommend we do for you know a next step? What's what's your recommendation
to see if the property is amenable to development? Okay. uh and to if you've got anything written on the outer burough experience that perhaps the affordable housing trust CPC could look at that
um any surveys that might have done any surveys that we might have some of that information in our files okay might Leonardi is another we looked at this way back Um, you lived here. Oh, okay. I
remember touring that land with Liz and some other folks. But the land back here, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't know how we got there, but I thought we drove through the woods somehow and got to Was there any conclusion reached? Sorry. Through the chair. Is there any
conclusion? I don't I don't remember. It must be in the minutes. Well, Leonardi is going to be present at our meeting this afternoon. Please make president think virtually, but uh we can mention ask him to because um Leonidi um
he's an architect. He's a he's consultant with us. Um he he he came to us as our first sort of consultant and and was sort of oversaw the the the genesis of the Milksh project. Um what's
his last name? A R. Oh, I I I've worked with him. Yeah. Because communities. Yes, I've worked with him on on a number of projects. Yeah, I I know who I I I can reach out to him also. Okay. Yeah, he's our he's our consultant.
Have you folks ever discussed the possibility of expanding your footprint here doing adding units or uh they're not they're not making any more public housing. So that's why we have to go the you know
the affordable route via you know low-inccome housing you know housing tax credits. Um yeah, our first step would be then to look at the uh assessor's maps the lot, see if there's any abuing parcels that could help us get to a
different level. And um I don't want to speak to Liz Collins, but I know she's tried for years trying to get something going on the land back here. I've never heard of it. It's interesting. Really? No, I've been on
CBC 15 years. It was at least 10 years. I said it was at least 10 years ago. Yeah. So, the second aspect is that the second aspect is what kind of legal arrangements is would be available, you know, who would run who who would run
it, who would take responsibility for building it, how would you work that out? You've got experience. We would we would have we would have to have that, you know, that conversation. Yeah. Um, you know, we don't, you know, we don't have a construction team at our disposal. That's why we had to, we had
to partner with another entity to do the high school project. Uh, it, you know, it might be something that we would have to do here as well. Yeah. Maybe you could check with the state officials to see if you in fact have the authority to
give up a part of this parcel that you control. and what the process would be if it has to be a town meeting decision and if you would have to sell it or whatever.
Okay. Excellent. So I think the state has a lot of control over what you do. I would I would think so. Yeah. And then you know once we know how it could be done then we could look at the
site and think about tests and Mhm. that kind of thing. Most important thing for us is access. If you're going to do a 30 plus unit development, you need uh good access.
and and about the the location. Um it's not so much um the amenities that make a project favorable in those are the things the state awards points for when you're
they're looking at your application. They're looking at uh public transit access, access to shopping. um the job market, if there's work opportunities, etc. So, it's more like when you're applying
for the the grants and the the tax credits, those kind of things make your project more attractive. Sure. Would would you need a separate entrance other than here to get to to access? I would
think so. I would think so, too. Yeah, makes sense. If you're looking at 30 50 cars a day, you definitely don't want them going through your Okay. How many acres are here? I would I would have to look at at the
map to get the exact amount. Yeah. I don't know. We'll check his records first thing to see what it looks like where the wetlands fall. So for such a CPA project um we can help
financially in these these kinds of questions um I don't think it's been if you come to project to to the CPC and say uh we need some financial help to hire people to do certain things uh we can do that under
the the guise of uh affordable housing. Okay. Um, but you can also go through the um affordable housing trust because they have uh Leonard Orion and people who have that experience uh first and
see if they can help. I'm definitely going to reach out to him. I I I know him. We're meeting with him this afternoon. That's great. Why don't you come? Um All right. It's it's it's uh it's it's online, isn't it? also.
Yeah, online. You mean at town hall, but you have Zoom Zoom access if you choose to. Okay. Let me let me see what my uh what my schedule looks like and and I can do that. Okay. So, the other question is, do you have anything here
that fits the bill that you need? You don't they don't have to be you don't have to go one way or the other. You could do both. Right. You you had mentioned um you you had mentioned siding, you know, roofing, upgrading, electrical, exterior work. What's the It could be
internal if it's electrical, but it has it is it's mainly to preserve the building, just think of that, right? Uh and um if some projects are just on the edge and we're not sure, we go to town council. Hard hardwired smoke alarms.
Yes. Uh that that that would be something we you know we could definitely look into. Yes. Um that that stuck out to me. Safety and Okay, that's good. And you said that the
u uh the application period opens in in September. The deadline is December. Yes. The second Thursday of the month. Okay. No, I I'm I'm sure we can put I I can work with the board and put something together. And there's all the information you needs online at the town
website. Excellent. At the web page from the CDC. Excellent. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you. Very informative. I appreciate it. Yep. Very informative. Yes. Thank you. Good luck. All right.
Have a good day everybody. All right. See you. Okay. Moving forward, first thing I think what we're going to start with is the election of board offices. And to my knowledge, the only
election that we have is for the chairman of the board. Correct. Uh chair and vice chair. And vice chair. Right. That being said, is there a motion on the floor
to elect uh a a chair person? I I nominate Tim Clinton. I accept. Okay. That Okay. All right. Um you want to we'll vote one at a time. Um
let me see how we do this. So that so so Henry nominated Tim, right? Okay. And then you you you say are there are there any are there any other any other nominations? There are none.
It's a vote, right? Yes. Okay. Vice chair, who has been the vice chair on record? Uh Andrew Extro had not yet. Would you like to be here? Sure. Vice chair. Yes, sir. Okay,
that was quick. Okay. Okay. So, Tim Tim Kaden is our uh is our chair. Pauline Broador is our vice chair. What's the term for the office? One year. Well, till the next election. Yeah. One year. Really? Yeah. We we we reorganized uh
well, as we found out, the expectation going forward is right after the town election. I I missed that the last month. So hence why we're doing it uh this one. Okay. Okay. All right. Now
moving on. Number four, approval of the minutes of May 21st, 2025. Is there a motion to approve the minutes? Motion to approve the minutes. Is there a second? Second. Second. Any discussion?
All in favor? I. Any opposed? Hearing none. So moved. An approval of the warrant number 11 in the amount of 31,2955. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Is second. Approve approval of the warrant number
11 in the amount of 331,295. Second. All any discussion? All in favor? I. All right. I'm just going to pass the warrant down. So move down there.
Okay. Management agent report. Okay. Thank you very much. The uh your as as per usual uh your your maintenance report is there. Uh again and this is this is just basically an FYI to uh yeah
show the war the different different kind of work orders that get called in and yeah. So last month there were 17 of them. So Dave was working on. So fairly standard month. Yeah. Um our our financial report uh is here uh we're in
very good shape. We're our reserves are right around 65%. It's right where you want them. Um all of our all of our budgetary items are uh you know within range. Uh there's no there's no red flags. Um
budget guidelines for next fiscal year should be coming out right around Labor Day. Uh so we should have uh some indication of what's going on. Uh we we suspect it's going to be a challenging budget environment in the coming fiscal
year just due to the um you know the uncertainty with Washington and and so forth and the the uh the increased cost with uh the whole the whole migrant crisis and so forth. plus the the economy slowing a little bit. So I don't
think that the um as far as housing authorities are concerned, I don't think the state is going to be as generous as they have been in the past, but we're not going to know officially until the guidelines get get released. And the interesting thing is um here in Westport
um our fiscal year ends June 30th. So our fis our our fiscal 25 year is just about over. Uh so the the financial reporting that you have is is through April. Uh but we actually start our fiscal year before we know what the
guidelines are for the budget. So that's good in a way because when the guidelines, you know, get released around Labor Day, we've already had 2 or 3 months of the new fiscal year. So you can kind of see where things are heading. So then we have to construct
our budget. But you already have, you know, almost a quarter in the books. So you can, you know, you know, you can construct a budget based upon what's already happened. So uh that's that's a a unique situation for um you know,
housing authorities that have a 630 fiscal year end. They don't have that ability if you're if you're on a calendar year, for example, cuz you cuz you're anticipating. But we have that, you know, we have that situation going on here, which is good. And then finally, the, you know, vacancy report.
We've got um um we're holding with with two vacancies. We we're working hard on the Champ system to qualify people. Again, apartment 2F um uh required a lot of updating, a lot of rehabbing uh due
to the condition of the unit, but uh we're making progress on that. So, uh, I anticipate by the by the fall, uh, these these two units anyway will will be leased. Hopefully, we won't have any we won't have any more vacants, but you
never know. These they come and go. They eb and flow, if you will. So, we'll see what happens there. And, um, just a reminder to the board, there's u I'm not planning on having any meetings in July and August. Um, obviously I'll uh I I I
will communicate through the chair and then any any resident issues or concerns I can I can deal with the resident board member. Uh we we have a good working relationship. So we'll keep that going. Uh so excuse me.
Yeah. So so right so right now our our next our next board meeting would be September 17th tenatively. Yep. That's all I've got. Okay. Um, is there anything else under the new business, old business or new business?
I see I have a question. Sure. The LITC the whole conversation so far around expansion or renovation or whatever has assumed that it's being financed through
the Lord from tax. Right. Well, that's that's how most of these affordable housing developments get, you know, get financed, right? Right. With with money internally generated and with some
external money locally uh is it not possible at all to uh to to do it. How's that? do it without it.
Well, I mean, it's possible, but uh the, you know, it's a multi-million dollar undertaking. So, I mean, I I don't know what the the you know, financial condition is of the affordable housing trust, but I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm going to say
that they don't they don't have they don't have $10 million sitting around. So, you're going to have to, you know, you're going to have to pull in, you know, different financing options. Hence why everybody always goes, you
know, leans on the low income housing tax credit because it gives it it gives a tax credit to the developer to build these things because, keep in mind, the rents aren't going to be they're not going to be market rents. No. So, the
rents are going to be lower. So to make the project financially feasible uh you you you have to pull in many different financing options as as you do with virtually any photo. Correct. That's right. I I I take your point.
Okay. All right. How about uh any commissioners comments? I guess we're into that right now, but y any other comments? Nope. Okay. attendance comments. Any comments
on the floor? What they were saying about the safety of the buildings, would that include the walkways, the step that you have to come down? Would that be considered part of the safety? I I think I think personally
it's got to be all looked at before any answers can come out. I don't know if I'm right or wrong, but yeah, we can uh we can bring that up. Keep in mind, you know, they said that the application period opens the, you know, the September in September, the third week in in, you know, in September. We can
um, you know, the, you know, worst case scenario is we, you know, we can put something together, we can send it in to the CPC and they look at it and say, "No, you know, that's that's the worst case scenario." But I I
you know I would agree with what you you said when we walked around there's you know there's areas that uh could use you know some paving. Yeah because in my building the step to come down there's a big gap in it like that settle right and
it makes it a little harder to step down because there's no railings. Right. Right. I understand. I understand. But will I certainly put that on the list? Definitely. Okay. Any other tenant comments?
No. Okay. Hearing none. Is is there a motion to adjurnn? So move. Seconded. Second. Any questions? All in favor? I. So move. Thank you very much for attending and the board will see you on September
17th.