[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Let's call the meeting to order. Ready, Barbara? Yes. Roll call, please.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Commissioner Janvier.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Here.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Commissioner Foley.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Here.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Commissioner Holyne. Here. Commissioner Lister. Here. Commissioner Luongo. Aye.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I think I remember Jeff saying that flag would be moved by somebody. Approval of minutes. Regular meetings held on October 20th, 2022.
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a question to ask of the Director. On October, the meeting resolution number 2021-052. Michael, 20?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: I'm sorry, can you repeat that number again? Sure. 2021-052. Page 7. Page 7.
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm going to read it if I may. Request of the Executive Director to certify all administrative employees, including the Executive Director, are compensated as salaried employees without benefit of overtime, bonuses being included in said employee's annual compensation. Now, someone gets a bonus. Is that right, Jeff?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: I'm not aware if anyone gets a bonus. Huh? I'm not aware if anyone gets a bonus.
[SPEAKER_03]: No. You're paying, okay? Yes, sir. And you're the attorney, too. Yes, sir. And the attorney part of it is a bonus.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: No, sir.
[SPEAKER_03]: No. Part of my salary. When did that become?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: From day one.
[SPEAKER_03]: I thought that DHCD said that you could not exceed it, you'd have to get it as a bonus.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: DHCD at one point in time said that. And did they correct it? They did not approve my contract.
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: So it has been a salary ever since and before that. It's always been salary. I don't work for bonus. I just want to clear this up because we have three new members.
[SPEAKER_03]: You were told or we were told or they were told us that The attorney part of it would not be included in the salary. You could get it as a bonus, if I remember correctly.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Is that a question or a statement? Both. Well, at one point in time, they agreed to approve my contract if we said it was a bonus, so that we submitted my contract after the board voted to include it as a bonus. They did not approve my contract. The board then voted that since it wasn't a bonus, it was actually my salary to rescind the vote for it to be a bonus because they wouldn't approve the contract. Just recently, I have met with DHCD, and they haven't approved my salary. They haven't approved my contract, nor have they approved the Housing Authority's budget. And we had a meeting with the director of management, and they're in a position now to be able to approve the budget. And when it was reported on the budget for DHCD purposes, which is 4% of our budget, Theresa has to make a notation that it's extra payment. They call it a bonus, but it's extra payment. When in reality, I have a contract with this board, which indicates it's salary. And so it's salary, because 96%, more than, yeah, exactly 96% of our budget for administrative purposes is federal. And that's part of the law, let me finish please, that's part of the lawsuit that the appeal is being heard on Friday of this week, where this board, for the three new members, this board is one of 13 plaintiffs suing DHCD because of the way they deal with the executive director contracts.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, and that appeal has been going on for about a year or two.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Probably less than that. Well, no, no, I think you're probably more than a year. Well, the case has been going on for about three years. Okay. There was a hearing last November 2nd, where the decision came down sometime in springtime. And that was against the housing authorities. And the appeal is being heard on Friday of this week. But as far as I'm concerned, as far as the board is concerned, And as far as the authority is concerned, that's salary. Because if it's not salary, it impacts what my retirement would otherwise be. So I'm not willing to take it as bonus. That's the significance.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, the one time you talked to someone over at the retirement board, is that correct?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: I spoke to someone at the retirement board, yes. And they gave me questionable information.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'm just concerned with the bonus. It's not a bonus. When we get, I see your contract is on tonight.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Yes, sir.
[SPEAKER_03]: Should we discuss it then?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: As far as I'm concerned.
[SPEAKER_03]: Excuse me, I'm speaking. Okay, I thought you were done. There's a couple of things that I would like the three new members to know. That's all. It's fine. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move approval of the October meeting if there's no more questions.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: I second that.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Thank you.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: Do we have to approve the meeting, the other meeting minutes? The special meeting?
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: Technically we have 30 days for those minutes to be prepared and presented to the board or at the next board meeting
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: It's usually the process. It's not something, though, that the AP's office has come down on before. We try to do that in a reasonable way.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: I noticed it wasn't on there, but I was picking through this trying to see if I missed something.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: public input? There's no one here. Can I get a motion to close public input? Thank you. All right. Executive Director Jeff, would that be, do you want us to stop? I'm sorry. Would you have enough time for executive director report until five o'clock?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Okay.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: All right. Thank you.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: I'm just going to give this to the board members. We made a presentation this past week to the city relative to salt install. Thank you. And that's just a copy of that to give you some information. I'm not going to go through that. It's fairly extensive. other than to say that this was a review with a number of departments from the city, and the city looked very favorably upon the authority. And so the site plan review is nothing that is final at this point in time, but it gives you some good background as to where we're going. We've met with zoning. We've met with conservation, we've met with planning, we've met with the fire department, we've met with a number of different entities in the city, and we've received a very favorable report. And so that'll bring you up to date, hopefully, with where we are with self-install. I'm gonna deal in a few minutes with the With the funding aspect of where we are, Natalie Hanson is going to join us by Zoom. She is one of the two planners, primary planners, who we're dealing with at Cambridge Housing Authority, and they're excellent. Right now, we're in the middle of the relocation for Saltonstall. There are 20 units on each floor. There are 17 units that are vacant right now on the 11th floor. We've relocated those residents. There's 10 units on the 10th floor which are presently vacant so that we've got 3 units on the 11th floor and 10 units on the 10th floor that we need to continue to move out and then we'll be moving toward the buffer floor which will be the 9th floor. And then we'll continue on down floor by floor as we go. Right now, we have a number of openings at the authority, the assistant maintenance director. Unfortunately, that position is open due to the death of Steve Dattaro and the promotion of John Madore into the director's position. We've got the modernization project manager position that's been vacant for a while. We've been trying to fill that. We have a prospective candidate for that right now. Lease housing coordinator, we had one retirement in the leased housing department, so we need to fill that position. We also have a part-time resident services coordinator's position we're trying to fill, three administrative assistant positions. And we're also advertising right now and have been interviewing for two custodians. As was said just a few moments ago, the resident meetings, we've had resident meetings here at Saltonstall. We've had resident meetings at Walkling. We've had, I believe it's our third set of meetings that are going on right now at Walkling for development purposes. And we are tonight having our third meeting with the the neighbors of Walkling Court. I'll be taking them on a tour. I believe it is probably the next Sunday or the Sunday after there's going to be a walkthrough with Medford Housing, the Medford Housing Group. And Lohser, I think there might be some members of the CPC there. So you may get a notice from them. You certainly can let me know. I'll let you know, I should say, when that is going to happen. And we'll do a walkthrough there. Anyone has any questions on that or on any of the reports that you've got, that'll be the extent of my report this evening.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Are the resident meetings right now at Walkling just to sort of give them an overview and get their buy-in type situation? answer questions, concerns?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Yeah, we've done this, we've done this before, a few times before, to just inform them as far as where we're at and what we're doing and to use your expression, the buy-in. They've been very supportive.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: So each time are you presenting new information or is it just? Yeah, yeah.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Yeah, okay. What it is, is it's the progress that we're making and going forward.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Is Darlene in attendance at that meeting as well?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Yes. She has been. Most of the meetings have been earlier in the afternoon, and she certainly has been there. My anticipation is that she's there. And what we have are literally headphones. That's pretty neat. Headphones that she speaks into and she interprets. All the folks who speak Haitian Creole. which is a large number of folks up there. But we did that here too with a lesser number.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Thank you.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Madam Chair, unless there are any questions, that's the end of my report.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Any other comments or questions? All right, can I get a motion to close executive report, please? So moved.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: We have a motion to close.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All right. Move to new business. Resolution number 2022-060, consideration of request of Secretary Director to adopt and implement new flat rates at a range of not less than 80% of HUD fair market price for public housing to be effective January 1st, 2023. Move approved. All in favor? Aye. Resolution number 2022-061, consideration of request by Executive Director to approve a salary allowance for tenant furnished utilities and other services. Move to approve.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: Second.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: All in favor? Aye. Thank you. Resolution number 2022-062, consideration of request by executive director to approve organization regulatory reference and plan and policy updates to the HCV administrative plan as provided.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: I'll move to approve the resolution.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: Yes sir, I'll second that.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: All in favor? Thank you. Resolution D, resolution number 2022-063, consideration of request of executive director to approve the moving to work amendment to the annual contribution contract ACC.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: Somebody just explain to me what this is.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: I was just going to ask you to clarify this.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: The moving to work is what we had applied for where we are developing an asset assistance or the asset development program for residents where the Housing Authority is going to do primarily two things at this point and that is to contribute to a bank account to a resident and be able to report the success that that resident has in paying their rent in an effort to increase their credit worthiness. We're meeting almost on a weekly basis with the folks from HUD in developing this moving to work. The significance of moving to work also though is it creates some fungibility. as far as the Housing Authority to be able to move monies that were previously dedicated in Section 8 into public housing and public housing into Section 8. But this is an effort for us to begin to outreach to the residents. There's a now with the award for us and 18 other housing authorities who submitted an application for this that the board had approved previously. We're one of 126 moving-to-work agencies out of anywhere between 3,500 and 4,000 housing authorities in the nation. So it's resident-based. The reason why this amendment is here is because the annual contributions contract is that contract which HUD enters into with the housing authority. And so this amendment actually adds to the original annual contribution contract. It's a HUD requirement for us to execute.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: And from, if I'm not mistaken, when I start with the, oh my gosh, I lost my train of thought. When we got this, the explanation that I had also was for also helping those that don't know how to save, to kind of like save up and stuff like that, right?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: That's one of the ultimate goals is to encourage them to do that and to give them a reason to do that.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: Who, did HUD create this program? Is this a program created through HUD?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Moving to work is a whole separate agenda that HUD has, and they have what they call cohorts within that, and this is, I believe this is called the fourth cohort, and we haven't applied previously, but we've applied at this point in time. And the main motivation for us to do this, I should say the secondary motivation for us to do this beyond that of assisting the residents, was because this will more than likely benefit us going forward with the construction of this building based upon the fungibility that we would have and the ability that we may have to affirmatively impact the rents that are here. But moving to work is just that. It's been around for, I'm going to say, at least ten years. Kayleen, maybe a little bit more. Yeah. And what it was, was an initiative to move these residents to work.
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Yeah. Okay. If I had a choice out of the cohorts, this is the one that I would have wanted to participate in and was, simply because of the direct benefit it will pose to the residents. And just one supplement to that. One of the suggestions that HUD has raised is to just provide $10 a month to the residents. That just shows that they're putting money into a bank account every month. It doesn't necessarily help them. So I may come back to you for a recommendation for more than that. But the fact that we can report on their credit worthiness is significant, because then they'll be able to buy a car. Or in some cases, in conjunction with the FSS program, for individuals who are saving to have money to put down for a mortgage, it'll help them.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Thank you. Second, can I get a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Thank you. E, resolution number 2022-064, consideration of request by executive director to adopt and implement payment standard at a range of 90% through 110% of HUD's small area fair markets rent for the Section 8 voucher program zip code 02155 to be effective for recertification move and initial lease with an effective date of January 1st, 2023.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Madam Chair, if I may, I'd like to table this. I'd recommend the board table this. We're waiting for information to come back from HUD to allow us to go forward with this. We've submitted some qualifying documentation but need to have HUD's affirmative review of that before we go forward on this. So I would ask the board to table it. Second.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Thank you can I get, all in favor? Aye. Thank you. All right. Resolution number F. Resolution number 2022-065, consideration of request by executive director, subject to the successful conclusion of final negotiation to select Enterprise Housing Investment, LLC, as the low-income housing tax credit equity investor for the comprehensive modernization of MHA Saltonstall, LLC, and authorize the executive director or his designee to execute a letter of intent and any of all documents necessary to the Executive Director shall determine to effectuate entering into agreement with Enterprise Housing Investment, LLC.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Okay, this is, if I may, Madam Chair? Yes. This is the memo that I had sent to you. If you would just hold that. Okay. Just a little background, Natalie Anson, who is a planner for Cambridge Housing Authority, is going to come on at 5, correct? Correct. At 5 o'clock, so I'll just give you a brief introduction. Natalie has been working with Margaret Moran. Natalie has been the one who has been working closely with Enterprise. They responded to a request for proposals that we had submitted for a syndicator to put together a group of investments for the purpose of the housing authority being able to utilize low income housing tax credits. Natalie will certainly speak more on that. But what we were looking for was approximately $60 million worth of investment through the low income housing tax credit program. And we had in the vicinity of approximately 35 million. There were some questions that were raised by the remaining investors, since the housing authority didn't have the requisite experience in dealing with low income housing tax credits. Cambridge has come forward and has indicated that they will partner with us and they'll partner with us and provide some oversight to the Housing Authority during the construction period and for a short period thereafter. And with that assurance, the enterprise has been able to raise the additional, it was actually an additional $25 million to the $60 million figure. So what this explains is what the background is of the fact that soft install is presently 200 apartments. We anticipate the addition of 22 new one-bedroom units based upon a reorganization of the units on a majority of the floors and a reduction of the two-bedroom units from 20 to approximately 11. The installation of new heating, cooling, and ventilation system, upgrade of fire protection, and installation of new fire command center, replacement plumbing and electrical systems, modernization of bathrooms and kitchens, replacement of the windows. Next page. Replacement of the roof, new cladding of the building, addition of an outdoor terrace dedicated for resident use, and reorganization of the MHA's ground office. ground-floor office. Now the the cost we've dealt with consequently construction we've worked with the architect and with Cambridge for the completion of 100% construction documents. I know Jim and Paul will be familiar with that. Construction now is expected to begin in February of 23, and the financial closing, which we originally had hoped would be in November, is now going to be pushed back into January, basically at the request of mass development, not of the authority. You'll see the total development cost in the box is $138 million. And then you'll see that the efforts that were made in order to secure an equity investor. Natalie, good evening. Hi, good evening. Okay, can we push it a little forward?
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: I'm just going to put a microphone at the speaker here to see if that helps.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: You know what, Barbara, you want to put her right up here, slide her this way, and then put the mic right here.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: I don't know if that's going to be close enough, but let's check and see.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Put it underneath.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Do it the other way.
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: Can I try saying something?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: No, no, you do it the other way. Get this through first. Let a man do it.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Hey. Oh. Maybe he's being recorded, mister. Oh my god.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: Really, her office and family.
[Unidentified]: It's almost like being there for two. Let me turn it off.
[SPEAKER_03]: Can you hear?
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: You want to sit here and I'll sit there? You can get closer to the speaker. You can move.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Or just sit here. Seriously, I'll move. Okay, can you give a shout out? Natalie, thank you for joining us.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: I have just given the board a brief overview which basically entailed
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: the first page of the memorandum that was sent to the board just recently. And we were just touching base on the second page where it began with the solicitation for the equity and debt proposals. And that is really your ballpark where we're at right now. If you can just give them a rundown from that point forward, that would be very helpful.
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: Sure. So As Jeff probably mentioned, a key part of the financing for the renovations of Saltonstall Apartments is the low-income housing tax credits that the project will receive. And in order to get an economic benefit of that, you need to have an investor who purchases the credits. And so the MHA put out a request for proposal on July 7, seeking both lenders for the project, but also the tax credit investor, which is what today's memo is about. It was a challenging process to get an equity investor on board for the project for multiple reasons. It's been a challenging year overall for equity investment. A lot of the big investors had already signed up all of their money for this year, and that was partially due to the fact that Projects that were supposed to close last year ended up closing this year. And they also had staffing shortages. And as you know, interest rates have been going up, which changes the calculation of how much the interest rates are worth. The other item was that because it's a very large project, you either need to get a very big bank to provide a direct placement, or you need someone who is willing to work with multiple investors to pool them. And that meant that a lot of investors were too small to invest in this project. And then finally, One of the challenges was that, you know, although the MHA team has a lot of significant executive experience, the housing authority as a whole has not done a low-income housing tax credit project before. And investors, given the fact that there, it was a challenging year to get funding really focused on the projects where there were more There was more experience with low-income housing tax credit projects. So essentially what we did was we engaged in direct conversations with investors who had said, You know, we're interested in this project. We know that this is a really fantastic opportunity, but we have these concerns around the lack of LIHTC experience and the lack of having a balance sheet that has sufficient unrestricted cash to provide guarantees for the project. And out of those, we spoke with a limited group. And out of those, the investors that we're recommending today, Enterprise, came out the next August. And so just to give you a little bit of background about Enterprise. So Enterprise is a non-profit. They're based in Maryland. They're a non-profit that has a mission of expanding affordable housing. but one of the things that it has is it has a subsidiary that works with investors to find investors to buy low-income housing tax credits for projects like Saltonstall. And there are also a, so I am a senior project manager at the Cambridge Housing Authority, one of the development consultants working on Saltonstall, and I have experience working with them before on Cambridge Housing Authority projects, and we found that they are a very good partner to work with. So that brings us now to the stage where it says analysis of enterprise equity proposals. And I just want to check, people can hear me okay? So I'm going to give a bit of an overview of what makes this proposal strong. And I'm open to questions. I understand that it's a lot of new material. So they gave a pricing of $0.94 per dollar. That results in an equity investment of roughly $62.7 million that they will be providing for this project. The chart that we've included here essentially has some of the key terms of their investment that in reviewing the proposals MHA paid special attention to. So the first question is So enterprise acts as a syndicator. That means that they are the middleman between you and the investor. And so one key thing is always to ask, well, who is the investor? Because you want an investor that you have a face and a name to. And you want to make sure that there is a list in the industry of investors that can be predatory and you want to avoid working with them. So in this case, the investors are Citizens Bank, Cambridge Savings Bank, and First Republic Bank. And as part of the investment, they will hold 99.99% of the MHA Saltonstall LC, which is essentially going to be holding the Saltonstall building. MHA will be the managing member. So there's a managing member that holds 0.01%, but essentially does all of the day-to-day work and makes the decisions for the project. So that is the MHA SALT Install Manager, LLC. So that's understanding the kind of overall structure of the investment. A key question that came up in the selection of the equity investor was the question of who would service the guarantor. And essentially what the investor looks is they want to make sure that the riskiest time for a development project is during construction. What happens if construction prices go up? What happens if there are change orders? Who will cover that cost? And then there are other guarantees related to making sure that the building operates at a break-even basis. And so what they wanted was, in addition to having the Medford Housing Authority as a guarantor to have the CHA join the FHA and act as joint guarantors. And essentially, that's in part because the CHA is more experienced with light tech developments, and they also have a larger balance sheet. And so the agreement that was negotiated with Enterprise was that MHA and CHA would act as joint guarantors, but only until the last main guarantee expires. And that's the operating deficit guarantee. So making sure that the project reads even and that it can pay its debt service. And that's expected to go away three years after the project completion of the permanent loan conversion. So at that point, the expectation is that the CHA will step out of the guarantor structure. But in terms of the managing member, that's going to be held, a majority of that will be held by the MHA, a smaller part by the CHA. And this is a structure that's used in order to avoid related party issues. And that has to do with accounting and legal issues related to MHA providing a loan to the project and also being the original owner of the building. And what it does is, it helps with MHA being able to have the investor exit the partnership in year 15, and I'll explain that more now. So the way it works, just generally with the tax credit program is that there's a 15-year compliance period for the low-income housing tax credits. So that means that when I mentioned earlier that the investor will enter the MHA SALT Install LLC structure and hold 99.99%, they want to do that for 15 years because that's how long the project needs to be in compliance with low-income housing tax credit rules. However, after that 15 years, you, MHA, want the investor to exit, and you want to hold on to the building. And so, essentially, what we negotiate with the equity investors is that there are multiple multiple tools in your toolkit that you can use to have the investor exit and for you to have the building. And I've listed some of these below, but essentially what the aim of these exit options is essentially for the Medford Housing Authority to be the sole owner of the LLC after 15 years at no cost or a little cost, but the idea is to get you as many options so that you essentially have no cost. And one of the best options is you have an option to purchase the building or purchase the interest by just assuming the loans. So you're not paying anything for it, you're just taking on the loans that are remaining. So I'm now at the, bottom of that chart that says exit tax relief. This year is related to when the investor exits at year 15. There sometimes are situations where there's a tax that will be levied on some of the benefits that they've approved from the project in terms of depreciation. And the negotiation here with Enterprise is that if there is a need to exit tax relief, Enterprise will pay that and not the Medford Housing Authority. And then the last, I think the last main thing to acknowledge is that the equity LOI has, it thinks that the Medford Housing Authority will continue to be the agency providing managers and maintenance at Saltonstall. And we're, you know, the Cambridge Housing Authority is available to provide some oversight and also mentoring to make sure that the Bedford Housing Authority is meeting the low-income housing tax credit rules. So I think all in all captures the memo that Jeff provided. I'm happy to answer any questions or give more details about any particular item that's of interest.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Natalie, can you just address for the purposes of the board the aspect of the oversight that Cambridge would be providing in particular as far as ensuring that the participants are certified and eligible for the low-income housing tax credit program. And I'm basically looking to emphasize to the board that the difference today, as opposed to the way we qualify residents, and what will transpire when one of those residents, for example, may not be eligible, and we may have to evict them, as opposed to someone who's not eligible for the low-income housing tax credit program, and so, therefore, we lose that credit, and I believe that is in the vicinity of, I want to guess and say $220,000. Yeah, that's about right.
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: So that's a great question. So essentially, it's true that the way that certifications are done under the low-income housing tax credit program is different from how it's done under public housing. It's done at a very, there's specific forms that are required, and there's also different ways of calculating assets. And this is something that all managers can learn. But it takes some time to see how someone else is doing it. So one thing that we've offered is that MHA staff can come over to some of our low-income housing tax credit developments and shadow the managers as they're completing. these tax credit certifications in order to get a, you know, start to get a sense of how they're done. It's really important to get these right because as Jeff just mentioned, these certifications go to the state and essentially the way that the tax credit program works, is that it's based on the number of units in your building that have households that qualify for the low-income housing tax credit program. And that is, that $62 million that I mentioned earlier, is funding that Enterprise will be providing the MHA during construction. And it's based on what they think the credits will be over 10 years. So what happens is if you make a mistake in the tax credit certification and that unit is no longer eligible, then that tax credit unit, that unit will no longer be part of the project and essentially your amount of credits will be deducted and that is a big loss to Enterprise and ultimately it gets pushed down onto the managing member, because it's the managing member's responsibility to make sure that the tax credit certifications are done correctly. So the idea is, moving forward, that the CHA will work with the MHA to figure out a way that a CHA can provide some oversight of looking through the tax credit certification, providing some mentoring and training as is necessary. But the idea, too, would be to have a third party who's an expert on tax credit certifications review those forms before they're sent out to the state. So you have two levels of, you know, double checking. So the CHA will double check them and then the third party and then it gets sent on to the state.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Whereas today, if we find, as I said, we find someone who is not eligible, we can go forward and evict them. And we still get a subsidy from the federal government. What Natalie is saying right now is that if we do something incorrectly and it ends up voiding part of that credit, we actually will be there's a fine with that, correct? Or there's a loss of income going forward during that 10-year period. Am I correct on that?
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: So we essentially have to pay back the investor for the credits that they thought that they were going to get, but the project could not deliver. And that is essentially you know, that is finding money within a budget or the MHA's budget to pay that back. It's a scenario that can easily be avoided by having these double and triple checks.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: But it's significant. It's the significance of that management approach. which will ensure that it will not. And having the CHA as an advisor, and just for the board's information, I know Natalie's aware of this, I met with the executive director of Cambridge, and Margaret Moran, who is the assistant executive director in charge of planning and development, correct? Am I right on that, Natalie? Am I close enough on that? Okay, I met with them today to go over this and to discuss what the ramifications of this are and we have agreed for counsel that we've been using on this project to present to us and to move forward with a contract that I will present to the board that will illustrate what the relationship would be. I'm very comfortable with the fact, Natalie, and I mentioned this today to Michael and Margaret that the relationship that we have with Cambridge will continue because I would have wanted, even if it weren't required by Enterprise, I would have wanted Cambridge to continue with some sort of an oversight function and in some capacity because of your expertise and our lack of that expertise. When this program first started, the low-income housing tax credits were readily being provided to entities, and I use that word purposely, entities that didn't have the experience because there wasn't that experience out there. What it's evolved to though at this point is there aren't a lot of housing authorities out there that are doing what we're doing and with the assistance of Cambridge we're able to do that. We do see though the private companies out there who are participating in this and who are getting the tax credits because they have that experience. Are we overlooked because we're a public housing authority? Yes. But what Cambridge is doing, not only with us but with others, is putting us in a position to be able to do this going forward. And when Walkley comes along, we may have enough of a track record at that point in time to do this. without having that guarantee from Cambridge. And let me just tell you, that guarantee is probably going to be in the vicinity, it's 10%, as I understand it, Natalie, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it's approximately 10% of the total award of the low-income housing tax credit. And there would have to be funds set aside for that. And that may be at a 50-50. Breakdown, it may be a little bit more, a little bit less on one side of the ledger or the other, but Cambridge is going to put up collateral for that, just like we're going to through what will be our development fee that we will get. Natalie, if I misspeak, please let me, you know, please don't hesitate to break in. But Cambridge is willing to actually put that money up and have that money available in case one of the aspects of the guarantee do not come forward. Am I close to being right on that, Natalie? Did I interpret that correctly?
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: I think you have more up-to-date information, but that sounds correct. Okay.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Theoretically, from a theoretical point, was I correct there?
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: No, you were correct.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Okay.
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: I have a question. The idea really here is, it is, as Jeff mentioned, it is challenging to enter the space without having done a low-income housing tax credit before. And public housing authorities, you know, I think that have an unfair reputation. And so, ultimately, and also the challenge of having, as a public housing authority, you have a balance sheet, but you have a lot of funding that's there that before you became moving to work agency was restricted funding. So there wasn't a lot of unrestricted cash that could be available to provide these guarantees that we briefly discussed earlier. And so the idea really is to have the CHA be able to come in and help as much as is possible to get the project over the finish line and complete, but essentially step out in order so that the MHA, the next time there's a project that requires a low-income housing tax credit investor, you now have the experience of showing that you've done this, that you know how to do the tax credit certifications, that you know how to manage a construction project of this scale. And it starts to open up the doors for the MHA to do more of these projects on its own.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: And if I can just add to that, the housing authorities that are getting involved in low-income housing tax credits that are not going the same route that we are going, end up foregoing the ownership of the units to a private entity who comes in, has that LIHTC experience, and who works with them to redevelop the properties, but then they take the units. Then they take the units. In our case, we'll have a ground lease with the LLC. And the housing authority will continue to manage the property. There'll be no private developer who will come in.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Hi Natalie, I have a question. Are you aware or can you give us some information what will make a tenant not qualify for the tax credit or no longer qualify for the tax credit if they were already a tenant? Do you have any information on that?
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so, well, first of all, I just want to start off by saying that all current residents of Salton Staub will have the right to return. And so, Jen McNabb has been looking at all of the residents and their incomes and assets to see where they fall in the category, because for the low-income housing tax credit program, technically, you have to be earning 60% of the area median income or below. There are some residents at Saltonstall who earn above that, but below 80% of area median income. And what we built into, and there's a separate rule within the low-income housing tax credit program that can allow those residents. So we built that into the agreement with Enterprise that there will be units that are available for those salt and stone households who are between 60 and 80% of AMI so that they can return. The major difference, as I understand it, between the tax credit or the certifications on the public housing side and the low-income housing side is just how assets are calculated. And what you're typically looking is the ones where You know, it may be, you know, that require more focus are the households that are just below 60% of AMI. Because then you want to get a real good, you want to essentially go through the tax credit certification process to make sure that they're below that. But a lot of your households are below 60% of AMI. with some buffer there. And then for the other households that are above there, below 80%, we built in the flexibility needed to let everyone have a right to come back.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Thank you.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Good question, Melissa.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Has the CHA been a guarantor in a project similar to this before?
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: If the CHA has been a guarantor of similar projects?
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, something similar. Yes.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Outside of Cambridge, correct?
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Yeah. Have you done this with other housing authorities or other agencies?
[MCM00001419_SPEAKER_01]: No, so this is our first time acting as a guarantor for non-CHA projects. So we ourselves have done roughly $350 million in line type developments. Most of our portfolio at this point has been comprehensively renovated using low-income housing tax credits, and we provided guarantees on those projects. But it is the first new step for us to work with another housing authority to support them in providing guarantees.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: That's great.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: And your executive director, I think I mentioned this to the board, but the executive director, Michael, had indicated today that your board had unanimously endorsed doing this with Medford and putting the Cambridge financial ledger sheet up as a guarantor in this instance. Is there a cost for this? There will be a cost, we're still negotiating that. With Cambridge. Yes, yeah, with Cambridge. But that cost will include not only the guarantee that they're going to provide, but also the staff assistance in oversight, relocation, things such as that.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Is that the contract you?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: That I referenced, yeah. And I'll bring that back to the board. Any further questions for Natalie? Okay, Madam Chair, we have a motion.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Can I make a motion?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: We have a motion. We'd like a motion. I'm sorry. We have a recommendation and we'd like a motion and a second.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: Okay. I'll make that motion. Second. All in favor?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Aye. Okay. Natalie, thank you very much.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Thank you, Natalie. Do you need a roll call?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: There's no money involved. Thank you. There's no money involved Madam Chair. Yes. And just to note that... It was a mouse, yeah.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: It was a mouse, yeah.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: Don't even tell me that. I know, that's why I picked my feet up.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: While we were sitting there, it just ran by over there.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Outside or inside? Just right now, inside.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: It just ran along the wall down there. I think it came in from... You thought it was a cat? A cat? It wasn't that big.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Madam Chair, just for the board's note, the motion is the one that is on the memo that I sent out, not the one on the agenda. The one on the agenda says it is for the comprehensive modernization and self-install LLC and we have struck the LLC from the motion.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Oh, okay.
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: I think the construction is going to make more come.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Yeah, we think they see him now. I have never seen a mouse here in five years. Eight years I was here before. That was too cold outside.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: I would have caught it on this side. I just seen it. I seen it go under the chair and I watched it and it just ran that way and I'm like.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: I can't see it. I can't talk about it in my bedroom. Okay. Let's move to the next motion.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: I can't put my feet down.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: They don't need much.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Okay, go ahead. Let's move along. We have G. Discussions to Federal Education. Open for discussion.
[SPEAKER_03]: may I mention this a week or so ago to the director. And I just thought it would be a good idea. He's a hard-working guy. And I just thought that, you know, they need officers and things like that for different people. And I just thought that, you know, one of the development people walking below us, It would be a good idea to name it and put a plaque and call it the uh, it's Willis Ave Development. We could call it Willis Ave Development. I should probably proceed now on development. I just thought it was proper to do. He was always there at uh, Willis Ave. And uh, I just thought it'd be a nice thing to do.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: Right now at Walkling Cork is the Al Fondacaro community center which was dedicated to him. He was a prior commissioner. The staff had also spoken in regards to that Michael as having some type of dedication for Steve and we had brought up because we were doing the building over that maybe the lobby would be something to name after him as people came in as he was such a presence here. But I think it would be up to the board or if you wanted to include the maintenance staff as if they want maybe their new maintenance building when that's finished if that was named after him. But it certainly has been in the forefront of our discussion as well and I'm really happy that you brought it up here. I think it should be further discussion as this building evolves as to what we want to do. I think it's a great recommendation.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: I'll tell you, I thought of it when we mentioned building a new maintenance facility. It popped in my mind. I was gonna wait to speak on it. And I'm glad somebody else did, because I haven't been around that long. I kind of felt like I shouldn't bring it up, not really being here that long. But I'm glad Michael brought it up, and I did think of I don't really know what the extent of this new maintenance building is going to be, but if it is something that's, you know, I don't want to just like build some shack and throw a plaque on it for the guy after everything he did, but if it is going to be like a significant, like nice building or something like that, and he was, you know, obviously he was a big part of maintenance here, but I think, you know, I think a conversation should definitely be had about something being, being dedicated to him, something worthy of him.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I've been around here maybe a little longer than all of you. Just a little bit.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Yeah. I'm catching up.
[SPEAKER_03]: We have a building on the fells where he named it after one of the former commissioners of the Darby building. And on Canal Street, there's a building there that he named, I say we, the board at the time. Marion Phillips, who was a long time member of the board of commissioners, And I just thought it proper that, you know, and then LaPree Village, Pat LaPree was a member of the board who lived for many years in LaPree Village. And I just thought, you know, Willis Ave doesn't, other than seeing Willis Ave, it doesn't have a name in Walkman Court the same. We do have the hall at Walkman Court named after Al Fornacaro, who was a long-time member of the board. So I just thought one of the buildings I don't know if you, Jim, remember the Edgley Family and Method. I, for one, would like to see one of the buildings there.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: I agree, I mean, something, because there's some people that work somewhere for over 50 years, they never leave behind such an imprint, such, you know, a legacy behind. And Steve, for the amount of years that he's been here, he's not, he hasn't been 50, but he left his footprint, his handprints. a lot of things behind. I myself as well would like to see you know something named after him that he'd be recognized as the things that he did whether it be the lobby especially for all the thoughts that he put into this you know development here. or any other police, so I'm all for it.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: I think our thought is that he's never going to see this building come to fruition. And he was such an intricate part of all the meetings as to how it was going to be done. And I think that was our first thought, but it certainly needs to be a communal decision between everybody as to what you want to do.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: I think the staff, when they approached me on it, said basically the same thing that you all were saying, that we should name something after him. And they were indicating, as far as what Barbara and Losa just said, his involvement in the repositioning of this building and the renovation of this building. And he was instrumental in arguing with the engineers and the architects over what should be done. And more times than not, he got his, his way. I thought of what you said, Paul, as far as the, when Michael raised it, and I thought about the, the maintenance building. I mean, that's very appropriate. My only criticism of, of that was my own criticism of that was that That building is so far off the beaten path that we'll have a dedication and his family will be honored, but there won't be the visibility. And Barbara spoke to me about the lobby. know that's something people are going to walk by every day.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: You know so I think it's up for the board you know maybe the board thinks about it comes back we'll put it on the agenda again if you want and think about it and think about how to go forward but you know I certainly believe that he's worthy of that recognition as much as anyone else is that has had a building named after them. I would only I caution the board as far as Walkling Court because we don't know what Walkling Court is going to look like going forward. The community building that's there right now is in the way of being knocked down. hour I'll be dealing with the neighbors as far as what you know they they anticipate the design will be. so that's very fluid right now. that would be my only concern about walk-in but you know I think the ideas, the lobby, the maintenance building, Willis Ave, they're all good suggestions.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: do you guys need more time to come to think or is it something that you want to think about?
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: I think I personally would like more time and maybe input from staff and residents, like if Barbara tasked, you know, putting some ideas together, seeing how people feel, because I agree with you. I think it should be a prominent thing.
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't want to make a big thing of this. I really feel we should name, I can understand the walking court because you don't know what's going on in there, but Willis Ave, he was down there for many years before he became the head of maintenance. He cleaned up all of Willis Ave and back of the garage in Willis Ave, there was stuff in back there. It had been back for years and years, and him, Frankie Tringali, and Mario and Chris, they cleaned that whole place up. But I tell you, in back of the maintenance shed there, there was a truck, a pickup truck, and a tree actually grew through it. just putting stuff in there, lawn mowers, snow blowers, and then until myself and a couple of the board members went down there one time and seen what was going on, we brought it to the attention of the director at the time, who you people don't know, well, you know. was very good at it. So... What would it be called?
[MCM00001830_SPEAKER_05]: I'm sorry?
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Like the Dattaro development? Dattaro's Village. Dattaro's Village. To me, I thought it was. It's last name was Steve Village.
[SPEAKER_03]: When you say LaPree Village was like God's life for many years. Yeah. Because when LaPree Village was built back in the 40s before kids were around, That building, those buildings were put up for the men that came back from World War II. I think most of you know that. As they died off, then it became family development. It was estate development up until four or five years ago, but it became federal. You know, they made it federal when they added the two new buildings. We were there also at the time. And like I said, it was Light Guy Drive, and Pat LaPrie was there for many, many years, and he was chairperson of the board, and that's when we decided that we would have to hear it. So I just think that a building would be good. Willis Ave is Willis Ave, I just think that it was Steve Tattle who developed it.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Me personally, I don't even know why they call it Willis-Saff, because Willis-Saff is all the way on the other side. It's not even, you know, go through, you know. So at first, that's the first thing I thought. In the police reports now, it would be Willis-Saff. That was Village. It was like Capri's Village or something. I think that had a good ring to it. I don't know.
[SPEAKER_03]: That's my feeling. Yeah.
[cWHRmg4nTSM_SPEAKER_09]: I kind of, you know, obviously I haven't been around that long, right? Same with Kaylene, but I kind of second Kaylene's comment of just, I personally, I'm open to whatever we feel is right to do and there's something that should be done for the guy. I would love to just personally hear some feedback from the people that spent most of the time with him on what they think would be the best, what they think would be the best or what Steve would have wanted or how they feel the best place that represents him in this housing authority.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: provided with the name Dattaro Village for Willis or dedication of the lobby of the building of the reconstruction.
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you okay with that? What's that? Either Dattaro Village or the lobby. I for one would like to see Dattaro Village.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: That's my feeling. We can keep this on the agenda if you'd like and bring it back after I do a survey with staff.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Okay. All right. Was that just for discussion? I don't need to close that, right?
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: Okay.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: H, which is community preservation meet. Right now, we, in a process, I have not entered a report of hearing application to CPA, the folks that submitted application. So they, in a, presenting the application right now and the CPA have a second meeting to go through a second round of application. And then that's when we start going with the decision of who gets awarded with. So I don't really have much to report at this time. What are we looking for, $800,000?
[SPEAKER_03]: It's for just like $800,000 per year, right?
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Is that it?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: We're looking for much more than that from the city. Much more than 800? Yeah, we're looking for $2.4 million from the CPC. But to break it down. $800,000 this year, but we're looking for a commitment by the city for more than that. The city has identified between $2 and $4 million of opera funds will be dedicated to affordable housing. I've met with the mayor. and had discussions with the mayor. I've had discussions with the mayor and her counsel, two counsel, in going forward on a home rule petition which would allow us to, we talked about that I know previously. So, yeah, it's much more than $800,000 that we're looking for the city to invest.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: for this calendar year, that's $800,000. In this application?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Yeah. In this application. All right. The CPC has already provided us a very fortunate to have received $350,000 because that's afforded us the opportunity to begin the design process.
[SPEAKER_03]: You did that for the Pre-Village, the gas company? No, the Pre-Village was different.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: That was $462,000 for that. They provided us, subsequent to that, they provided us $350,000.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Number seven, executive session. Can I get a motion for that?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: That motion, Madam Chair.
[6zUtu0XZLH4_SPEAKER_05]: We need a motion to go into executive session.
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: That motion, Madam Chair, would be to conduct contract negotiations with non-union personnel. The first item on that agenda, I'm going to ask the board to table so there's no need for a motion involving that. So it's to conduct contract negotiations with non-union personnel would be the motion.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: and we would not be returning. Can I get a motion?
[Jeffrey Driscoll]: Second. I need a roll call. Yes.
[Losa Julie Genevieve]: Yes. Yes.