The board discussed logistics for an upcoming affordable housing resource fair and reviewed draft standardized templates for future developer funding requests. Members also examined technical updates to formulas regulating fractional housing payments and zoning incentive bonuses.
[Roberta Cameron]: All set. I'd like to call the Affordable Housing Board meeting for Wednesday, September 2nd to order. To roll call, Madam Mayor. Present. Penny Taylor?
[Penelope Taylor]: Present.
[Roberta Cameron]: Kayla? Here. Listen. Roberta Cameron? Here. Carrie Weaver? Here. Teta DeRosa?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: You're muted. Are you muted?
[Roberta Cameron]: I'm here. And Lisa Ann Davidson, I'm here. Going on down to approving minute meetings. Did everybody have a chance to review the minutes from the July board meeting? If there are no edits to the board meeting minutes for July 15th, I'd like to request a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. Seconded. We'll do a roll call. Madam Mayor? Yes. Penny?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: Kayla? Yes. Roberta? Yes. Carrie? Yes. Tedda? Yes. And Lisa? Yes. Did everybody get a chance to review the minutes from the August 6th fundraising working group meeting? If there are no edits, the working group minutes from August 6th. I'd like to request a motion to approve the minutes.
[Penelope Taylor]: I so move. Second.
[Roberta Cameron]: I'll do a roll call. Roberta? Yes. I'm sorry, Madam Mayor? Yes. Penny? Yes. Kayla? Yes. Roberta's already there. Carrie? Yes. Teda? Yes. And Lisa? Yes. And did everybody have a chance to review the minutes from August 25th fundraising working group meeting? If there are no edits to the working group minutes from August 25th, I'd like to request a motion to approve the minutes. So moved. Second. Madam Mayor? Yes. Penny?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: Kayla? Yes. Roberta? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Carrie. Yes, that up. Yes. And Lisa. Yes. Great. All minutes have been approved. Moving on to the resource fair updates and logistics. Turn that over to city staff.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay. So as you know, the fundraising working group met twice in August. A confirmed moderator and three panel speakers. We're going to ask each of the speakers to talk for five to 10 minutes and then have a panel discussion moderated by Erica DeRoche from Housing Medford. The questions we were thinking we would ask them, just big picture, were basically what is affordable housing for folks in the room who aren't familiar with exactly what that means. How much does it cost to build an affordable housing unit? And then how does that happen? How do we get funding and kind of connect it back to that overarching theme of the event? And then beyond that, we want to have open for Q&A from the audience. And we were also thinking we would have like a board where people could write on Post-it notes what their questions are as well. So try to engage. We'd probably do that beforehand. So we could pull down those general questions or the audience. Um, in terms of outreach, we've worked with city staff on Sufa signs. If folks know what those are like bus stops, um, the billboard that we have, I'm coordinating with the comms team for being on the robo calls, social media posts in the mayor's newsletter.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Um, I was in the robo call last night.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah. Oh, no, I reported it.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: It's going on tomorrow.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay. Okay.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Wonderful. Um, And then we also did distribute flyers for this event at the back to school resource fair or resource day. So those are some of the updates on that front. I do have just as of today, I was speaking with our new communication specialist and she shared some draft language for like social media and the mayor's newsletter, which is not 100% finalized as I believe. So if it's helpful, I thought I could just pass it out to see if everyone thinks this is appropriate. I did include it for those on Zoom in the calendar invite, if you want to pull it up. And then, Izzy, if you have it handy, maybe you guys can just pass it around. If you have it handy, Izzy, maybe you could share your screen as well.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, let me do that right now. Thank you.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Oh, and I'll take the X because I didn't grab one for myself. So I think the main thing I wanted to touch on was just to be clear about who all we want to feel invited to this event, because it's kind of a little bit two purposes. Initially, we were thinking fundraising. We ran into the fact that we have to be very careful about that. We can't just ask for money, of course. we thought to make it more impactful, we would make it this resource fair format. So we have, I think, 12 organizations who are signed up to table. And so there's kind of that component of folks who need housing assistance, want to learn more about housing resources, and then also more like targeting on housing advocates as well, people who would be interested in this panel discussion. So all of that is kind of what's going on. And so I don't know if we want, I mean, we want to distill that probably to a sentence or something, but I just wanted to share this language to see if this looks good, if people want to make edits, because I was working with Anna, the near-income specialist, and she said if I have feedback, I could work with her on that.
[Roberta Cameron]: This looks great, yeah. It's mask, what's DVM?
[Katherine Buckingham]: I think it's just her initials, her organization, Housing Partners. Kenna, do you want to speak more to Darielle's background and her organization?
[Teda DeRosa]: Yes, so DVM. It is her initials for her name and housing partners because she's a developer as well at, and her company, they build affordable housing. She works very closely with the city of Boston and she has built, you know, affordable housing like affordable home ownership housing as well as rentals so and she's worked on those projects she also does lotteries in her company so it's a little like overarching when it comes to affordable housing she kind of hits all of the the buttons, the right buttons when it comes to dealing with affordable housing. She is someone who has lived in affordable housing as a child and has made it her mission to make sure that everybody has a place to live and that they can afford to live where they want to live. A lot of people in the city are priced out. We have that issue here as well. So she is a wealth of knowledge. She has very great connections. And, you know, she eats, breathes, lives affordable housing.
[Roberta Cameron]: That's awesome. Thank you. Then I only have one suggestion for a Hypo, it sounds like when they say who she is, it says from DBM Housing Partners. The name of her company? Oh, is DBM her company's name?
[Teda DeRosa]: Yes, yes, DBM Housing Partner.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay, thank you.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Do you want to say through the chair, Dariela, her name and then owner or operator of DVM Housing Partners?
[Roberta Cameron]: I just didn't know if I did. I did. You think it was like, I thought exactly what I was thinking. I was thinking it was different. It didn't realize that it was part of her name or the company named DVM Housing Partners. Yeah.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So from the CEO, CEO of DVM Housing Partners, I mean, whatever.
[Roberta Cameron]: It was just I thought that it was just her initial surname. It's been a long day, sorry. It looks great. I don't know, did we see a hand from Penny earlier?
[Penelope Taylor]: You did, but I've changed my mind, so this looks great, thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: Okay, thank you. Does anybody have any comments or feedback on this communications? Okay, good, thank you.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Um, and then the other thing that's new as well, um, we've heard a very generously wrote some talking points and we do want to share them with KP law in advance, just to make sure we're very cognizant of the aspect about fundraising. Um, so if you're comfortable, I thought we could just pass them out and people can take a look. You want to pass them around? This is just a rough draft.
[Roberta Cameron]: So input and I know. I had suggested things for Lisa to say and for the Housing Medford representative Erica DeRoche, but I assume that when you get to the mic, you'll actually use your own words, but I just wanted to kind of draft the tone of the message.
[Katherine Buckingham]: And Roberta, do you want to say for a second who Erika DeRoche is?
[Roberta Cameron]: So Erika DeRoche is one of the leaders of Housing Medford for the last couple of years. She's been our facilitator who kind of keeps us in line and gets things to happen. And she's been a spokesperson for the group. And she's an architect. So she works in housing development, but I don't think that she identifies in any way with affordable housing development She's learning, like all of us, more about, because I think probably her exposure to the field and to being a housing consumer has led her to be concerned about affordable housing and to want to learn everything she can about how to advocate for it. So that's, I think, her story about being a housing advocate with Housing Medford.
[Katherine Buckingham]: And actually, at the same time, let me pass around. This is a like a palm card handout that we had crafted earlier that KP Law Legal Counsel had approved. And so you can look on the back of it specifically and there is language about how can I contribute. And so I feel like we're okay to just pull this language, but I just wanted, you know, make sure everything's good. So this is sort of what I was basing. I made some edits to your Roberta as well, because Roberta had initially said the trust can't solicit donations, but I think because she's not on the trust and KP Law approved this, we can say her bullet point at the end, donations can be made directly to the trust at the QR code. And we haven't printed it yet, but we have updated this palm card to have the QR code here that is we'll link directly to the website that we created, which can receive donations.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: So should this flyer mention, or in the text mention that Erica is the moderator? I think you know it's more of a panel discussion. Yeah, that's a good idea. Like in the letter opening a small so she's off not really speaker she's a moderator, then the people know it's the better understand the 630 piece speakers panel discussion. I would do.
[Katherine Buckingham]: And Izzy, if you want to just scroll down to maybe Erica's part as well. I think the most important part, if you scroll down, would be the closing statement.
[Roberta Cameron]: This is very good. Thank you, Roberta. You're welcome. I feel like the focus of the talk is going to be the panel and moderated discussions. So spend less time talking about the history of the Affordable Housing Trust. Kind of just give a very high level overview This is great. Thank you.
[Katherine Buckingham]: And one thing you'll notice is I did highlight the Affordable Housing Trust at one point because we don't actually have a mailing list. I just wanted to check to see if we thought that would be something we would want at some point. I believe our office has a constant contact account. We have different listservs within it. I believe at no cost, we could add a separate one for the trust right now. our office PDS, like when we have usually monthly newsletters, like we'll advertise something like this. And then just for everyone's awareness, we do separately have a listserv for folks signed up for affordable housing lottery notices. So when there's a new opportunity for lottery, they will get those notices directly. And those are two different listservs. But I just wanted to raise it as a discussion if we wanted to have a separate listserv.
[Roberta Cameron]: I have some suggestions. I think that general, so PDS will have a table and on the PDS table, you can have the affordable housing listserv and general PDS newsletters. And if you want something more targeted to the affordable housing trust, you're likely to maintain a list of stakeholders and you'll fire information to them directly. If you want to give them information, for example, if there's coming out or something that you want to send to people who are specifically interested in the trust. Otherwise, is newsletter is probably accurate and often. people's junk mail. Constant contact newsletters or mailings end up in people's junk mail anyway, so important information you want to send to people directly and not Through constant contact.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, So it sounds like probably we don't need.
[Roberta Cameron]: It's my thinking, but you could add to this list if we have a separate list served for people who are looking for I think I heard Catherine say that they have a list for affordable housing lotteries.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, I think just add it into the talking points so that it's clear that that's an option. Okay. Yeah, well, I just thought it'd be helpful to get your input on this since these things combine the comms and these talking points are kind of the Yeah, we were framing eventually.
[Roberta Cameron]: Do we want to do a QR code for somebody to be able to just sign off for information on housing lotteries?
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, so this is updated. So what we have updated, and I did include it in the calendar invite for folks on Zoom, but we just updated it. So this QR code is like donate here in the bottom left. And then we currently have the middle one saying visit our like MHT website. And then the right one is visit the action plan. You could keep it as sign up for the newsletter. That would be the PDS newsletter, or we could make that sign up for the affordable housing lottery. I don't know if we would want more than three QR codes. So if you guys have thoughts about the most important QR codes, that would be great too. Also like, Within the, I think, personally, I think we could drop the action plan, because if you go to our website, pretty clearly advertises the action plan.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, I think the people who need to know about the lotteries is more important than the action plan, which will be covered with the website. Yeah, right.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, so I'm hearing just to confirm one for donating one for our website and one for the lottery this serve.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Great. I think both would be fine to to sign up for the newsletter. Okay, well, I mean, I don't think it'll be too much.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, I mean, it would fit. Yeah.
[Roberta Cameron]: I still have all the information that That would also be a really handy way to tell the old version apart from the new version.
[Katherine Buckingham]: This is great. Oh, yeah. I see. I was making notes until the night later. Okay. Izzy, I think you can.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you to the fundraising committee.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Is everyone still there? Um. I don't know if that message was, but anyway. Okay, great. Um. Just double checking what I had on my update list. Um, so the calendar invite I did send to you all you should have, I think, says starting at five, just because folks had mentioned if they wanted to come early to set up, I don't think you all need to, but if you are planning to come a little early, I feel like we're going to get a bunch of tables. And we've invited the groups that are tabling, obviously, to come earlier to set up. So maybe just individually let me know what your plan is. But it starts at 6. So I mean, feel free to come whenever. If you want to come right when it starts, that's great, too.
[Roberta Cameron]: I just noticed something. You say that your email is at the bottom.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Oh, yeah. I'll add that. Yes. Yeah, it had mentioned contact Catherine, and I was like, I should just add my email on this.
[Penelope Taylor]: Yes.
[Katherine Buckingham]: All right, Tyler, Roberta, do you have anything else you want to add? No.
[Teda DeRosa]: No, I'm good. I think we covered everything.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you both for all the work that you've done on this topic. Yeah.
[Katherine Buckingham]: and Roberta have both been amazing, so I'm very grateful.
[Roberta Cameron]: Moving on to item number four, future funding request. I'll turn this over to Katherine again.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, this is just a quick update. We have talked to Medford Housing Authority. They are interested in coming back to us for phase two of the Walkman Court project. They haven't reached out yet, but I anticipate that'll happen this fall from last time we spoke to them. And also, as you saw on the flyer, Gabe Ciccarello from MHA will be speaking as well. So we're really connecting with them a lot, which is great, I think. That's all.
[Roberta Cameron]: And going on to the affordable housing linkage nexus.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah. So as you all know, we had a nexus study commissioned to basically figure out the economic feasibility of having essentially an impact fee or a linkage fee that would fund affordable housing. We worked with a consultant. He wrote a report. We got feedback. Now we have a final report and it looks like everyone is pretty much on board with it. So the next step is, I believe I will be working with KP Law on just like drafting ordinance language. We'll probably keep it similar to the other linkage fees we already collect in terms of what that language will look like. And then it will go back to city council for their final approval. So that's where things stand. And as soon as it's all fully complete, I'll certainly let you know, since that will be a source of revenue for the trust.
[Roberta Cameron]: Great. Anybody have any questions before I move on to item number six? No? Fractional payments. Going back to Kath.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, that update here is since we last looked at it, it went back to CD board. They approved it. At this point, it basically will go back to city council. What we had worked on basically was refining how calculations are made in terms of what the actual fractional payments are. If people want to learn more about that, Izzy was very involved and did a lot of spreadsheets, et cetera, to give example calculations. So she is prepared to talk about that if folks are interested. So I leave that up to you all.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Sure. Sure.
[SPEAKER_03]: A little bit of an update. That would be great.
[Unidentified]: The chair.
[SPEAKER_03]: Should I share the spreadsheet then?
[Katherine Buckingham]: I think that'd be great.
[SPEAKER_03]: Let me just share my screen and then let me know if you are able to see this.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, can you expand it to be full screen? It might be easier to read.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Thank you. Yeah, like Catherine mentioned, pretty much what this spreadsheet is, is a way to calculate what the actual fractional payment would be. So as sort of like a high level overview, what we're doing is trying to estimate what the maximum sales price of a comparable affordable unit would be. And then you're taking the difference between the market rate price and then the affordable unit and then applying that by the value of the fraction to get the total payment. So as an example here, you can see that some of the things that you need to look at are the different monthly payments. So that takes into account the real estate taxes, the private mortgage insurance, the homeowner's insurance, and the association and condo fee. And then using those numbers, you have to sort of play around with them to maximize that. and that is compared to the HUD values for the maximum monthly housing cost. So, for this example, we are using a two-bedroom, which would be a three-person household, so you have to reach the $3,085 in monthly housing costs. And I think what might make this a little easier maybe to digest is we had, as a way to sort of test the calculator, we had compared it to an actual affordable unit. So on the right side here, we have the original values of what the house costs. So we put that into the calculator, but when you do the math, that doesn't actually maximize the cost. So once we had those base numbers, we kept adjusting the numbers until we reached that maximum. And so that brings us to the house price of $398,000. And that's what we actually use to calculate in this situation what the sales price would be. And then using that, you would find the difference, which if I can pull it up. would end up being about $80,400. So that payment would go into the trust. So in terms of actually using this, I think PDS staff would still have to do the math of figuring out what the comparable unit would be and then calculating that. But this was a good exercise in figuring out what that process would look like. Because I think it would be staff that are doing these calculations.
[Roberta Cameron]: This is great, thank you.
[Teda DeRosa]: Does anybody have any questions?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, it was me and one other intern, we sort of drafted this and then it went through several iterations. But other staff were also involved in sort of figuring out what made the most sense to actually be used in the future.
[Teda DeRosa]: That's amazing.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. So the terms and the tables that you have at the top, do you list the sources of data where you've drawn these assumptions from? Or it would be really helpful if you did list those, because then over time, as those factors change, we could pin those numbers to the sources of where each of those come from.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's a great point. I think for some of them, we there were some assumptions that were made for sure. So we can definitely edit this to make sure that it's clear where we're pulling things. So for things like the interest rate and the private mortgage insurance, that was based on us sort of doing like market research and figuring out what those numbers tend to be. But that's a great point. And I think the other thing that I didn't mention is that for other things like the association fee, those we pulled by looking at the deed. So again, when it comes to an actual unit that you would have to calculate, it would need to be unit specific. So this example is just a hypothetical, but that's a great point that we should make it clear where these numbers are coming from.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, if they don't, like if you didn't pull the interest rate from a specific place, you could just describe your methodology. to each of them so they know how to replicate that methodology. And then, thank you, Roberta. I'd also make a suggestion. What I heard was it's per unit. And if you have multiple, let's say you have multiple affordable units in a project, I would maybe take the, everybody's condo association fee may be different based on the interest of their interest in the property. So doing an average condo fee for the entire building.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. Yeah, that's a great point.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. That way you're only doing it once. You're doing it once for the property. Did I hear that there's plug and play with the numbers? So it's not?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes, yeah, and that was sort of the tricky part is we had the original values of the unit, but in order to maximize them, you do have to sort of adjust them. Yeah, so that was also, again, something that staff would have to sort of play around with to make sure that it reaches that maximum number.
[Maria D'Orsi]: I just had one question.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Would you mind maybe just going to the cell where there is a calculation? Like, how did you get to the 3,085? It's just hard entered right now, I think, so.
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, for the total monthly housing costs? Correct. Yeah. Yes. So because we knew that it had to be that, we kept tweaking these numbers until it reached that. Yeah.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Yeah. In the future, you could probably do a goal seek, but I get it now. Yeah. Yeah. OK. So that one was the sum, and then you're just showing the two side by side. Thank you. OK. My only other question about the calculation would maybe be to add a date. somewhere in the calculation. And, you know, I think also linked to Roberta's question about where the sources come from, then those sources should probably be data as well. Cause I'm assuming, you know, the interest rate was one thing I didn't even think of when we talked about this originally, but that can change quite a bit.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Maria D'Orsi]: So a date of when it's calculated and then when all the sources are entered, that kind of thing.
[Roberta Cameron]: I would strongly suggest standard operating procedure and walking through how you're doing the methodology. And I've seen some communities just use one percentage, not look at the market when it comes to bank interest, just pick a percentage of interest and just have it flat. Doesn't matter when it comes out. It might make it a little bit easier than going back and forth. But this is great, thank you. I have a question, but before I ask my question, I'm gonna ask if anybody else have a question. So my question is, this is just for homeownership. What have it, how would you calculate for a rental property, assuming that we would get rental properties that have a fractional unit? Would it be the same methodology?
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes. Catherine, you might maybe know more than me, but I think from my understanding, it would be the same process. You would assume that that rental unit, you're calculating the price as if it were homeownership.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, Izzy, I'll double check on that.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Just one quick question on that note. If you were going to do it as a rental property, you're trying to get to the value, but then you would probably not have a set condo fee in the condo box. Exactly. So then you'd have to either leave that out or assume like a base regular condo fee.
[Roberta Cameron]: But if you keep in track of the condo fees of an average, you can then average it out and take your median. This is great. Thank you. Does anybody else have any questions? Thank you, Lizzie. Thank you, Catherine. Yeah, plugging right along here. We are on to item number seven, affordable housing incentive bonuses. Turning that right back over to Catherine.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, so this is basically city staff caught an issue with the way that incentive bonuses were originally written. So for developers, if they want to maybe, for example, get an extra story, they can do X, Y, Z things to get these incentives. And the way we had structured it as if you make extra affordable units, that would be one way to get these incentives. But it was structured as a percentage, like if you go from the baseline requirement of 10% up to, I forget what it was originally, but like 13% maybe. But when you do the numbers, it could actually turn out to not even be an additional unit. So they could say, oh, well, we'll do 13% and then do the math. And it's like, well, it's still just one unit. So Izzy and the same other intern who helped with the fractional payment calculation did a lot of research into how can we structure it to make sure we avoid that issue so that if people are giving us something, it's actually concrete worth getting the bonus for. So, Izzy, could you pull up that spreadsheet too and walk us through your solution to that problem we identified?
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, like Catherine mentioned, there was sort of a loophole there that needed to be fixed. And I should also mention the board is in the process of revisiting all of the incentives. So they had sort of restructured this affordability incentive and then they'll be going through the others right now, actually. So this is just like high level overview what the new table would look like for these specific incentives. So for the first incentive 1A, which is deeper affordability, you would apply this multiplier, which is 0.3, by the total required affordable units, which I believe is I think for 10 to 24 unit projects it's 10%, and then 13 for 25 to 49, and then for 50 or more unit projects it would be 15%. So this new multiplier ensures that the number of affordable units doesn't change, but the mix changes. So now we would have some units at 65% AMI and then the remaining number of affordable units would be at 80% AMI and one other sort of problem that we saw was that originally there were multiple layers so you could do one of the incentives for an additional story and then do even more for two stories but to keep it consistent we just reduced that so If you provide this deeper affordable mix, you could get one additional story. And then incentive 1B is more affordable units. So for this incentive, all of the affordable units are at 80% AMI, but you're providing more of those units and that would be worth half a story. It's the same concept of taking a multiplier and applying it to the total required affordable units. And then I'm not sure if, I think you guys can see the example, but so for a 21 unit development, three affordable units would be required. You could redeem incentive 1A, and you would provide one unit at 65%, and then two units at 80%. So it's still three affordable units, but the mix changes. If you wanted to redeem incentive 1B, you would provide four units total at 80% AMI, so that's one more additional affordable unit. And then alternatively, you could also redeem both of them. So that would be four units total, but two of them would be at 65% AMI, and then the other two would be at 80% AMI. So it's possible that If they provide both incentives, they could get an additional 1.5 stories and they could choose to couple that with another one of the development incentive bonuses to get even more. from a high level overview that's how it would work and then to make sure that that actually holds true for all of these cases we did run all of those scenarios which you don't need to necessarily look at all those numbers but part of the problem that existed before was that for some of the different unit projects, we weren't actually getting anything from the developer, but they would be getting additional stories. So we just wanted to make sure that for all of these scenarios, that this incentive actually resulted in something.
[Roberta Cameron]: You guys have been busy over there over the summer. Deep in the spreadsheets. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions?
[Maria D'Orsi]: I have one. Yeah, Kayla. I just have a question. I remember this a while ago now, but could you refresh my memory about in the additional story of units, are all of those market rate units or are we, are they coming to the table saying a 10 unit building needs an additional story as there would have been a variance, but we're doing it under the affordable housing overlay. So otherwise it would have been, let's say a seven unit building. without the overlay?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: I think I might have the answer. It's Janelle or maybe Catherine now usually tries to get the affordable units mixed on different floors in different locations throughout the entire building based on how many they have to do. So that they're all not just stuck in the garbage or the generators or whatever. So planning office does try to make sure that they're spread out.
[Roberta Cameron]: So when they do another story, that they're gonna include an affordable, presumably, on that other story.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Yeah, I think I was almost saying, like, if you could do 10 units as of right, I'll call it as of right, under current zoning, and then you're going in for the affordable housing overlay bonus, which means you get another story, does that mean you get 13 units?
[Katherine Buckingham]: I don't know if I'm... You're saying how many more units come from that additional story? Correct.
[Maria D'Orsi]: And do those get, were those already in their base number and those are already mixed into, those are already part of the base number that they're doing the affordability percentage of, or are those extra three units bonus market rate units? Not specifically in a story, but I'm just saying in general.
[Katherine Buckingham]: If I'm understanding correctly, I think it would be however many you add, Like you would still have to have the correct percentages. So then it's not like you would have a penthouse level of all new market. Like it would still, to the mayor's point, have to be evenly distributed.
[Maria D'Orsi]: So the base number, like on the left-hand side of the charts, that is going to be the total number of units in the building when it's all finished. Yes. Bonus already kind of included. inside that number. Yes. Not on top of it. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. It's a good question.
[Roberta Cameron]: Anybody else have any questions? No. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. We are moving. Where do we go now? We are on number eight. Number eight. Formalizing application templates. So, and this is for me before I pass it off to you. I'm sorry. This is for our housing developments, because that's our way of doing it.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay. Correct. So this, I, we have looked at this previously and we just thought we wanted to have a standard application for anyone looking to receive funding for housing developments. Historically it's, you know, been rolling based on what we funded so far and we're comfortable with that, but we just want everyone to have to submit the exact same things. So I think it's included in this packet. In addition to that, the one thing to point out is we added one thing to the last page, which is more of a spreadsheet that we actually. we worked with Teresa from the CPC. This is what they use. And it's just a way to like clearly spell out what the costs are. And also we wanted to get a sense of, have you applied for funding from other sources as well? Just so it's like, we're not the only place you're coming. We wanna see that you're making good faith effort, trying to keep together running for multiple sources. So that's kind of also a way to get at, if we feel comfortable that this seems like a viable project, et cetera. So that's the one thing we added for your review. And yeah, just wanted to share that.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. Just a comment. I would make sure, and maybe this is something that some of the other trust board members can provide input on, But on that last page, especially in the summary of project costs, maybe we want to take a second look at it to make sure that the categories are appropriate for the Affordable Housing Trust and the housing development costs. Because I think this is the same list of categories that CPA has, which might not be funding the same kinds of things. Hmm. So fast acquisition construction contingencies. Sign.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, I think we were going to actually delete that. Okay. Okay.
[Roberta Cameron]: But I don't know if a study falls under affordable housing trust either. So delete study. Can somebody remind me when we're looking at application requests, do we look at the rate of return having to meet a specific... If we looked at a DSCR. Miami DSCR. Debt service coverage. There we go. Thank you. Yeah. And we want it at like 1.15? A minimum, yeah. A minimum of 1.15. Yeah. Right.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Okay.
[Roberta Cameron]: That would be my only cities. My only thing love having this last page seeing where it is, but looking at a complete performance, a performer would actually show what their returns are. This, this kind of sets it up.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Can I just. So just making sure that I understand the format. It looks like, let's just say like proposed source number one, let's just say it's CPA funds, third example. And then it seems like you want to categorize the expenses that are being used by that source. And I think that definitely makes sense for CPA. I don't know if that makes as much sense for the affordable housing trust, because it'll kind of go generally, if there's like pre-construction or like acquisition costs, that makes sense. But I think if it's just kind of a blanket standardized affordable housing development, they probably won't be able to break up like 10% of the affordable housing trust is going to go to construction and 10% to the contingency. So it might just be a little easier to like list the sources and then list the expenses. So they're separate, they should still equal each other. But this one I understand it's probably because each source needs to be clearly defined as to the different uses that it's being linked to. And I think for us, we don't need to have that amount of specificity.
[Roberta Cameron]: And we're actually part of our, thank you, Kayla. Part of our application is we want, we actually want to see the development budget and the operation budget. Yeah.
[Maria D'Orsi]: Yeah. And I think this would be a great example template for numbers two and three, basically of our under section 5B, if we wanted to use it as that. That was on that page you were.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Which one?
[Maria D'Orsi]: Page 8. Although, is this attachment A? Sorry, is this attachment A? Yeah, I think we could do that.
[Unidentified]: Yeah.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yes, I may label it. Sorry. Yes, I may. I have another model of a summary table like this that maybe I can submit to Catherine and it could give you something to look at next time to see whether a different version of this would give the details that you're looking for or that you could be able to adapt it more to the Affordable Housing Trust's needs?
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, through the chair, I think that's a good idea. If you want to share that with me, I can integrate your feedback, other things, and then just try to make something that can be a little more tailored. And then maybe at the next meeting, present that back. And if people feel comfortable with it, vote on it at that time.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah, sure. through the chair, my experience with using a summary table like this is that it can be extremely helpful. And of course, the CPA is looking at different kinds of projects than the Affordable Housing Trust, but it can be extremely helpful to have a similarly formatted apples to apples one pager that we can like look at a glance and see what the project budget is telling us But we also benefit from having the detailed budget that the applicant prepares themselves that's relevant to what they're doing specifically as an attachment to that. So you could suggest a template to them and they could use that, or you could have this two-part summary page and their own format.
[Unidentified]: Yeah, thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you. Anybody else have any questions, comments? I would advocate for the one-stop application if they're submitting the application. Having that added as a document because it lists everything that it's there. It has what's the anticipated grants, what is the operation budget, and it goes through the 20 years to make sure that you're going to meet your one putting. In my view of looking at performers for developments, it's the numbers of course, but like how does it work out throughout the 20 year? Sometimes the first two years, they don't meet the 1.5, but they're gonna get it there in year three. And you're just gonna see the whole operation budget. You can see what their vacancy rates. It's just, for me, it's a big picture. Yeah, penny, penny first and then I was just pointing to the screen.
[Penelope Taylor]: OK, I guess there's something that came up in our last application that I want to see if it's baked in. And if it is with other applications, just let me know. But basically, we seemed very interested in how they were selecting applicants for the units. Would people know that this far in advance? Is that something like laying out the plan? Because I think we wanted to know about the lottery and who they were working with in terms of like, Leasing up this maybe is premature at this point in the process. I'm just like. Trying to remember when we gathered that information, I think it was like, during the meetings, but is that something to bake in now? Or am I getting ahead of myself with that piece? Thanks.
[Roberta Cameron]: In my experience, when people are first coming in for funding applications, they don't have that level of detail of the tenant selection because it really is going to depend on what other funding sources that are coming in that may be the ones that are guiding their tenant selection. I think with our last housing development application, we were filling the gap at the end of the project. So they had all of that stuff worked out when they started their loan closings at the very beginning of the project.
[Penelope Taylor]: Does that answer your question? It does, yeah. I was just like, should this be here? But it sounds like we'll figure it out later on. Thank you.
[Roberta Cameron]: I don't recall if our guidelines include a requirement that they provide a tenant selection plan before the end of the project, before the Yeah. So in my experience, when making the commitment and writing the commitment in a letter, you're going to say, we conditionally approve you for X, Y, and Z. Here are the due diligence that's going to happen. And as you start the closing calls, you're starting to mark up those due diligence pieces in the closing calls, because there are several other funding sources that are involved. Everybody gets on the calls. My experience has always been H housing, HLC, HLC. Um, they're the ones that are, that are giving the biggest money. So they're the ones that are really guiding the tenant selection, the tenant selection to make sure that they're going to meet for the, the subsidized housing inventory. Um, make sure that it's local preference, whether it's 50, 50, whatever it is, and start streaming that. And are we sure that whatever their 10 section plan is going to be in the end that that's going to be delivered to the city? Or do we have to ask for that to be provided to us? That is a great question.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Through the chair, I think it would just be part of the affirmative fair housing marketing plan, which the city has to review. they would put that plan together, we would review it, then it would go back to the state. So it's, I defer to you all, but I don't think we would need that level of detail for the trust because city staff will be looking at that later down the road and we will be the ones to look at like what is the local preference, things like that.
[Roberta Cameron]: That answers my question. Like I view that I view for a lack of a better analogy, the trust is the bank. We're giving the funds, we're laying out the terms of the loan, and that's sort of, I guess, the city staff compliance. Anybody else have any questions? No? Great. Thank you for doing the template. Let's see, new trustee updates. Oh, do we want to, I'm sorry, I totally skipped this. Do we want to do?
[Katherine Buckingham]: I think that was just if everyone was like ready to approve the template, but it sounds like there's some feedback. So we'll work on that. So I think we can come back to that.
[Roberta Cameron]: Then we're moving right along to the new trustee update.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay, so I reviewed applications, did some interviews and made a recommendation to the mayor that we invite Megan Kelly to serve on the trust. And she was supportive of that and now working on the back end with other folks in the city staff to put together that, I guess, application, I don't know.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Just let the council know that that's who will be appointed in 30 days to object. Sometimes they approve earlier.
[Katherine Buckingham]: So yeah, I know I was here when Ted went through that process last year and she didn't have to go to city council and kind of get things formalized. So we are in that step and I I did notice that Megan joined as an interested member of the public, which I mentioned to her, she's welcome to do. So yeah, I don't know if you want to say anything, Megan, no pressure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, can you hear me?
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah, yes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, great. Through the chair, thank you. And hello. My name is Megan Kelly. I use both they and she pronouns. I am resident of Medford, obviously. Currently, I work for the city authorial for another week or two. And then in a couple of weeks after that, I will be moving over to the town of Burlington to serve over there. But I my background is in finance, and that sort of thing. So I'm hoping to be an asset to the to the past. Thank you for probably having me once the paperwork gets finalized.
[Roberta Cameron]: Yeah. Thank you, Megan. Thank you for joining us.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: And most people aren't going, I don't think the applicants are going to the council meetings as long, but we can provide them like a resume or something. Yeah.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Sorry. I threw the chair. I recall that the city council approved TEDA. Is that
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Oh, they had to have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why I don't know if Megan needs to go, especially if we have a resume. Yeah, not everybody's going to these meetings. They can be long, so sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Optional, I guess. Yeah, good point. So I'll work with you, Megan, on the logistics end of it, but I don't anticipate any problems.
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: All right, well, looking forward to. Hearing more and that meetings of 15. So hopefully by that, but you can get on that agenda and they approve it. And yeah, yes.
[Katherine Buckingham]: And I followed up with Lisa Kalyani. I know she's back tomorrow. Okay. So I'll just make sure everything's aligned on that end. Yep.
[Roberta Cameron]: Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, item number 10 regular status updates.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Okay. Not too much. I just wanted to let everyone know that we, or I presented to the climate equity council on August 19th, We are also currently in the process of preparing our application for fiscal year 27 funding from the CPC. And I've spoken with Teresa about that. And she said she anticipates that going forward, we may not need to do the whole application process every year since the CPC voted that they want to give they're required 25% directly to the trust. As part of our housing choice designation status, the CPC needs to commit to at least 25% of their funds going to affordable housing. But this year we still have to apply. I believe the amount is 600,000, that would be 25% of the total budget. So if all goes well, hopefully we will receive that. And yeah, just giving an update on that.
[Roberta Cameron]: just a quick question about the CPA dollars. Is there a CPA report due?
[Katherine Buckingham]: So I, yeah, they had a high level kind of like budget summary sheet, which was not very relevant for us this year since we didn't end up sending a lot of money out. And I went through it with Teresa. She okayed it, everything looked good. And then the actual application, is due September 11th. So if anyone's interested in reviewing that, Lisa, if you want to look, let me know. But Teresa indicated that basing it off previous year's applications, the trust still fundamentally is doing the same work. So it shouldn't be a heavy lift.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Yeah. And I guess the only other update is just to let everyone know we're back on a regular cycle. So first Wednesday meeting. So that would be October 7th. And as always, we can do hybrid here in Zoom. And I don't think I have any other updates. I don't know if folks have any other questions. Oh, one thing I did want to mention, I did have printouts of the flyers. And they're in the calendar invite as well. So just a reminder, if you want to share that flyer with anyone, spread the news. Also, once the city posts on social media, I can share the link to their update if any of you are interested in reposting it or sharing that post just to get the word out. But that was the only other thing I wanted to highlight.
[Roberta Cameron]: Thank you, Catherine. Catherine, before we do the flyers, are you going to make the edit and change the flyer to show that Erica is the moderator?
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[Roberta Cameron]: Maybe put a little square. I think that was the map. Perfect. All right. Then if there are no objections, I'd like to request a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. All right, Madam Mayor? Yes. Penny?
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: Kayla? Yes. Roberta? Yes. Carrie? Yes. Tara?
[Breanna Lungo-Koehn]: Yeah, she shook her head. Yes.
[Roberta Cameron]: And Lisa, yes. And we are adjourned. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.
[Penelope Taylor]: see you at the fair.
[Roberta Cameron]: If you were Teresa before a template for an annual report from the Housing Trust to the CPC.
[Katherine Buckingham]: Is that the like the kind of high level budget one that I just worked on with Teresa? I didn't see the high level budget one.
[Roberta Cameron]: So this is like about a The template itself is about three pages. It describes for the trust to list out the funding sources and total funding. Yeah.
[Katherine Buckingham]: That's what I've submitted to you.
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