HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-20-2012 Housing & Community Development CommissionAGENDA
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
DALE HELLING CONFERENCE ROOM, CITY HALL
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2012
6:30 P.M.
1. Call Meeting to Order
2. Approval of the August 16, 2012 Minutes
3. Public Comment of Items Not on the Agenda
4. Staff/Commission Comment
5. Nomination and Election of Officers
6. New Business
• Public Hearing & Approval of the FY12 Consolidated Annual
Performance & Evaluation Report (CAPER)
(Located at www.icgov.org/actionplan)
• Selection of Projects to Monitor in FY13
• Timeline for the Annual Review of CITY STEPS
7. Old Business
Allocation Process Committee — Update
8. Adjournment
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CITY OF 1OWA CITY
MEMORANDUM
Date: September 13, 2012
To: Housing and Community Development Commission
From: Community Development Staff
Re: September Meeting
The following is a short description of the September agenda items. If you have any
questions about the agenda or if you are unable to attend the meeting, please contact Tracy
Hightshoe at 356-5244 or by email at tracy-hightshoe@iowa-city.org.
Nomination & Election of Officers
Every September, the commission nominates and elects a Chair and Vice Chair. The
commission will nominate and vote for these two positions at this meeting.
New Business
Public Hearing & Approval of the FY12 Consolidated Annual Performance
Evaluation Report (CAPER)
The CAPER is a HUD required document that the City must submit to HUD within 90
days of the end of the plan year. The report describes the federally funded activities
undertaken by the City and its partners, and the accomplishments for federal fiscal year
2011 (City FY12). A draft of the CAPER is included in your packet for your review and
comment. At this meeting, we will be asking HCDC to approve the document for
submission to HUD.
Selection of Projects to Monitor. This year there are 26 projects to monitor.
Commission members will need to choose 3 projects (one member gets to have two). A
list of projects, with the agency's contact information, is included in the packet. Please
review and indicate at the meeting which projects you would like to monitor during FY13.
Timeline for the Annual Review of the Consolidated Plan (CITY STEPS)
We are in the process of reviewing our CITY STEPS Plan. Details will be forthcoming
regarding the number and locations of public meetings to solicit input regarding the
Consolidated Plan. It is anticipated that all the community meetings will take place
before the October HCDC meeting. HCDC will also hold a public hearing at their
October 18 meeting. If HCDC decides to recommend any formal plan amendment(s),
the proposed amendment(s) will be forwarded to the City Council for their consideration.
We will keep you posted on the dates and times of the meetings.
Old Business
• Allocation Process Committee Report
MINUTES PRELIMINARY
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
AUGUST 16, 2012 — 6:30 PM
DALE HELLING CONFERENCE ROOM, CITY HALL
MEMBERS PRESENT: Michelle Bacon Curry, Andrew Chappell, Cheryll Clamon, Jarrod
Gatlin, Holly Hart, Jim Jacobson
MEMBERS ABSENT: Scott Dragoo, Charlie Drum, Rachel Zimmermann Smith
STAFF PRESENT: Tracy Hightshoe, Jeff Vanatter
OTHERS PRESENT: None
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE CITY COUNCIL:
The Commission voted 7-0 to recommend to City Council approval of the
proposed amendments to the Iowa City Housing Authority's Housing Choice
Voucher (HCV) Administrative Plan and Admissions and Continued Occupancy
(ACOP) Plan.
CALL TO ORDER:
The meeting was called to order by Chappell at 6:30 p.m.
APPROVAL OF THE MAY 17, 2012 MINUTES:
Jacobson moved to approve the minutes.
Gatlin seconded.
A vote was taken and the motion carried -0.
PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA:
None.
STAFF/COMMISSION COMMENT:
City is encouraging paperless packets. Committee agreed to view packets online, but
staff will continue to mail larger reports and applications to commission members.
City Council completed its Strategic Plan, which identifies economic and community
development goals and objectives such as neighborhood stabilization.
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
August 16, 2012
PAGE 2 of 5
o Staff encourages commission members to review the Strategic Plan (in next
packet) and will discuss at a later date common goals, strategies, etc. Will
discuss when the commission reviews the annual goals in CITY STEPS.
• Consolidate Annual Performance and Evaluation Report comes out in mid September.
Will need to review our progress in meeting CITY STEPS goals.
New Business
Discuss Requiring Davis Bacon Requirements for all CDBG/HOME Assisted Projects
o Policy to ensure contractors pay decent wages to workers
• Q: Does this include health insurance?
• A: Jacobson: No, but if the contractor does not pay benefits, they must
pay cash fringe benefits to workers if they are union members.
• Q: Is this for CDGB and HOME projects only?
• A: Jacobson: Yes. This is a gap filling measure.
o Housing Rehab memo stated they estimated contractors spend between 40%-
50% of their budgets on labor costs.
• Vanatter: So, depending on the company, total project cost might go up
from 18%-38% on average, depending on company if prevailing wages
required.
o Hightshoe: Projects currently exempt from Davis Bacon are usually CDBG and
HOME projects for housing rehabilitation. Davis Bacon not required for
residential construction if not more than 8 homes for CDBG or 11 homes for
HOME.
• These workers might not be union workers.
o This proposal targets workers with the lowest wages
o Q. Do we pay higher wages at the expense of building/assisting fewer projects?
o Jacobson: The proposal should be narrowly applied to withstand council
review/approval.
o Comment: This proposal is premature and a divergence from HCDC's scope.
• Small businesses might be priced out of the market.
• Some of these workers might not merit a higher pay rate based on type of
work performed.
• Hesitation about advocating for this proposal as City Council has not
directed HCDC to research this issue. If the Council asks the
Commission to look into this then the Commission should take up the
charge.
o Response:
• Jacobson: Contractors should improve efficiency to meet wage goals and
could accept less profit to ensure adequate wages. Encourages a wage
floor, not necessarily the prevailing wage requirements per Davis Bacon
but possibly $16-18$/hr. State grant programs/incentives look for wages
at 130% of the county's median wage
o Comment: Will the City adopt a policy to only hire Johnson County workers or
that the City should pay all their employees above a certain minimum threshold?
o Comment: This might be creating problems rather than solving a problem.
There was a consensus by the commission not to proceed with
researching/advocating this issue to City Council. Chappell encouraged
interested individuals to advocate directly to City Council. If Council directs
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
August 16, 2012
PAGE 3 of 5
HCDC to review or research minimum wage thresholds for CDBG/HOME
assisted construction work, the committee would do so at that time.
CDBG/ HOME Allocation Process Committee Update
o Survey outcomes
• 30 questionnaires were sent out, 7 were returned.
• Focused on overall application.
Monitoring Reports
Few received, over summer so could have been a busy time
Vanatter: The survey was awkward to respond to from the perspective of
a homeowner applicant. The application and evaluation criteria focus on
renters.
• Entities that have received a tax exemption from the city attorney,
which is an interesting way to put it because they receive
exemptions from the city assessor, acknowledges some benefit to
someone paying property taxes to the city, which is why we still
give credit to payments in lieu of taxes.
• Site Visits
o Chappell: Though some say they are critical, he finds them
very unhelpful. He relies more on an application because
everyone is able to provide the same information. Thinks
commission should decide whether visits are wanted or not
and not make them optional. Decide on a way to deal with
entities that don't have anything to show.
o Comment. Think visits should not be mandatory. Some
people process information differently. Drum benefits from
the visits but does not want them to be mandatory because
not everyone needs to go to get all the information needed.
o Another problem with mandatory visits is that many of the
commissioners have visited many times already and don't
need to go back again.
o Chappell: Said that he respects the applicants enough to
do visits again but wants to know what the expectation is
from having a visit.
o Comment: You can see better from a visit how much
impact the problem is going to have, such as where a hole
in the ground is located, condition of a building, etc.
o Current process is good- always trying to make things
more streamlined but nothing from the survey leads us to
change the process.
• Didn't hear a lot of anger from the respondents
• Said that the survey validates everything they are doing
• Process question
o Encourage the use of Survey Monkey for future surveys.
• Can get anonymity with survey monkey by locking
outlP address
Emma Goldman Clinic
• Funding: $25,000 was allocated, but only $14,000 was
spent/reimbursed as the software was not purchased as early as
they had liked. The project was more expensive than expected,
HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
August 16, 2012
PAGE 4 of 5
vendor quotes took too long, and they could not make a decision
in time and only incurred $14,000 in expenses by June 30. CDBG
requires that funds be incurred to receive the funds.
• VNA
• A lot has been purchased. About $230,000 was spent out of
$300,000 allocated for lot costs. A capital campaign to build the
project is being launched. An office building is being built to
reduce their overhead costs. A 6-month building permit was just
obtained.
• IC Parks and Rec
• Money moved from parks acquisition to Splash Pad at
Fairmeadows Park. The RFP is going out in September. Bids will
be accepted at the end of September/early October and
construction will begin in October. They added a parking lot, which
will not cut into the soccer field.
• ED Fund
• Molly's Cupcake franchise opened.
• There was $77,000 left in ED fund and another $67,000 was
added. This should assist another 4-5 businesses. NDC does not
provide a financial review unless there is no lender is involved.
They can technically still apply for CDBG funds without a private
lender involved but, if not, NDC does need to review their
projections.
Housing Rehab Memo
Best year they have had in a while because the allocation of funds
from the HCDC went very quick due to the number of applications
submitted.
ADJOURNMENT:
Clamon moved to adjourn.
Jacobson seconded.
A vote was taken and the motion carried 7-0.
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HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
GENERAL RESPONSIBILITIES
The Housing and Community Development Commission (HCDC) consists of nine Iowa
City residents appointed by the City Council. They represent, as nearly as possible, a
cross-section of the Iowa City population in background, ideas, geographic location, age
and socioeconomic status. Committee members serve for three years.
The purpose of HCDC is to advise the Council on community needs in general and on the
use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment
Partnership program (HOME) funds from a citizen viewpoint. To accomplish this HCDC
provides systematic communication between citizens and policyrnakers with regard to
community development projects. The Commission's work has been primarily directed at
developing, coordinating, and reviewing the City's activities carried out in conjunction
with the City's Consolidated Plan (CITY STEPS). In addition, the Commission reviews
the Community Development Division and Iowa City Housing Authority policies and
periodically makes recommendations to the Council regarding these policies.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN FISCAL YEAR 2012
In FYI the City of Iowa City and its subrecipients expended $2,402,893 in CDBG funds
and $864,797 in HOME funds on 49 projects that assisted low -moderate income persons.
To ensure that community needs are met, HCDC members monitored projects throughout
the year.
The City's annual CDBG entitlement amount is approximately $630,000. In May and
July of 2011 the City received $2.7 million in CDBG prograrn income. Aniston
Village, LP, a Low Income Housing'rax Credit Project in Iowa City, was awarded
$2.9 million in Iowa CDBG Disaster Recovery Housing Funds through the Iowa
Economic Development Authority (IEDA) to finance the construction of 22 homes
for affordable rental housing. When Aniston Village LP secured permanent
financing, $2.7 million was repaid to the City and IEDA allowed the City to retain the
funds as program income to be used in the City's regular CDBG entitlement program.
This amount represents over four times the City's annual CDBG entitlement amount.
Due to the inclusion of these funds, many projects initiated in FYI will be
completed in FYI 3 and leverage and beneficiary information will be reported at that
time. The following projects were funded due to the program income received from
the IEDA: Wetherby Condos South LLC (Rental Rehabilitation), Shelter House
(Rental Rehabilitation), Isis Investments LLC (Rental Housing), City of Iowa City,
Fainneadows Park (Splash Pad and Improvements), Crisis Center (Facility Rebab.),
Iowa City Free Medical Clinic (Exterior Renovation — Completed), Iowa Valley
Habitat for Humanity (Property Acquisition — Employment Training), and Visiting
Nurse Association (Property Acquisition).
FY12 project accomplishments are as follows:
♦ Leveraged $4,080,495 in private and public funds
♦ Economic Development Fund — Reviewed seven applications; funded three
businesses that expect to create 16.0 FTEs. Staff continued to market the fund to
the community and local lenders
♦ Rehabilitated 26 owner occupied homes
♦ Constructed and sold five homes to income eligible homebuyers
♦ Provided downpayinent assistance to 20 households
♦ Provided tenant based rental assistance to 21 families
♦ Assisted 1,995 persons who are homeless with support services and shelter
upgrades
♦ Provided operational funding to non -profits that assisted 10,849 persons
♦ Completed improvements to nine non -profits facilities. The mission of these
agencies includes assisting those with disabilities, the youth, with substance abuse
problems, those in crisis and those in need of health services.
PLANS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2013
A total of S1,794,322 was allocated to 15 projects, plus prograrn administration for
FY13.
The following is a list of the upcoming projects:
♦ Property Acquisition for Rental Housing —Charm Homes LLC, $61,650
♦ Rental Rehabilitation — HACAP, $290,014
♦ CHDO Operating Expenses — The Housing Fellowship, $19,260
♦ Acquisition & Rehab. for Homeownership — Habitat for Humanity, $90,000
♦ Owner -occupied Housing Rehabilitation — City of Iowa City, $400,000
♦ Accessibility— Community Mental Health Center, $100,000
♦ Facility Rehabilitation— Crisis Center, $160,000
♦ Facility Rehabilitation — DVIP, 176,076
♦ Playground — HACAP, $40,000
♦ Security Improvements — MECCA, $12,500
♦ Facility Rehabilitation —Neighborhood Centers, $111,500
♦ Economic Development Fund, City of Iowa City, $67,000
♦ Operational Funds — Aid to Agencies, $91,000
In FY12, HCDC was asked by the City Council to review the Aid to Agencies applications
and formulate a funding recommendation to the City Council. The City of Iowa City
provides financial support to local human service agencies through the Aid -to -Agencies
allocation in the annual budget. For FY12 that amount was $422,950. The sources of
funding are the General Fund ($289,146), Community Development Block Grant
($105,000), and Water and Wastewater utility bill abatements ($28,804). The agencies
primarily use these funds for operational expenses such as utilities, staff salaries and
supplies for their programs.
The following agencies received FY12 Aid to Agency funds:
♦ Arc of Southeast Iowa, $2,000
♦ Big Brothers Big Sisters, $32,000
♦ Compeer, $5,000
♦ Consortia for Youth Employment, $14,000
♦ Crisis Center, $40,000
♦ Domestic Violence Intervention Program, $52,000
♦ Elder Services, Inc., $54,000
♦ 4 C's, $2,000
♦ Four Oaks, $1,000
♦ Free Lunch Program, $2,000
♦ Free Medical Clinic, $7,500
♦ Housing Trust Fund, $8,000
♦ MECCA/ICARE, $18,950
♦ Mayor's Youth, $10,000
♦ Neighborhood Centers, $60,000
♦ Rape Victim Advocacy, $12,000
♦ Red Cross, $6,000
♦ Shelter House, $36,500
♦ United Action for Youth, $60,000
Combined, these agencies served over 26,000 persons in Johnson County. Depending on
the agency, 50-85% of the clients served were Iowa City residents.
In FYI 3, the City awarded $391,829 to Aid to Agencies which provided funding to 16
agencies. These funds consisted of $274,173 from the General Fund, $91,000 from
CDBG and $26,656 from Utility User Fees.
The commission will continue to assess Iowa City's community development needs for
housing, jobs, and services for low and moderate income residents, and to promote public
and private efforts to meet such needs.
COMMISSION MEMBERS
Andrew Chappell, Chair
Jarred Gatlin, Vice Chair
Cheryl Clamon
Charles Drum
Scott Dragoo
Holly Jane Hart
Jim Jacobson
Rebecca McMurray
Rachel Zimmermann Smith