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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHCDC 5.19.16.pdf AGENDA Housing and Community Development Commission Thursday, May 19, 2016 6:30 P.M. Helling Conference Room, City Hall 410 East Washington Street 1. Call meeting to order 2. Approval of the April 21, 2016 minutes 3. Public comment for topics not on the agenda 4. Staff/Commission Comment 5. Consider a recommendation to City Council regarding potential affordable housing strategies 6. Discuss capital improvement planning for public facilities 7. Adjournment MINUTES PRELIMINARY HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION APRIL 21, 2016 – 6:30 PM DALE HELLING CONFERENCE ROOM, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Peter Byler, Syndy Conger, Harry Olmstead, Matthew Peirce, Emily Seiple MEMBERS ABSENT: Bob Lamkins, Dorothy Persson STAFF PRESENT: Kris Ackerson, Tracy Hightshoe, Steve Rackis OTHERS PRESENT: Maryann Dennis, Mark Patton, Brian Loring, Bruce Teague, Crissy Canganelli RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: By a vote of 5-0 the Commission recommends approval of the Iowa City Housing Authority FY16 Annual Report/Annual Plan. By a vote of 5-0 the Commission recommends the reallocated FY17 CDBG and HOME budget to City Council: Housing Requested Amount Allocation Recommendation Re-Allocation Recommendation CHDO operations – THF $ 16,000 $ 16,000 $ 16,000 Diamond Senior Apartments $237,636 $ -- $ -- Habitat for Humanity $ 80,000 $ -- $ -- MYEP $ 65,000 $ 50,000 $ 50,000 The Housing Fellowship $300,000 $134,000 $ 58,000 Shelter House Permanent Supportive Housing $290,000 $250,000 $275,000 Subtotal $988,636 $450,000 $399,000 Public Facilities Arc of SE Iowa $160,000 $ -- $51,000 CSCC Childcare $145,000 $ -- $ -- DVIP Shelter $ 45,917 $ -- $ -- MYEP Facility $ 60,000 $ -- $ -- Shelter House Winter Shelter $160,000 $ -- $ -- United Action for Youth $ 50,000 $ -- $ -- Subtotal $620,917 $ -- $ 51,000 CALL TO ORDER: Byler called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2016 Page 2 of 11 APPROVAL OF MARCH 10, 2016 MINUTES: Peirce moved to approve the minutes of March 10, 2016 with minor edits. Conger seconded the motion. A vote was taken and motion passed 5-0. PUBLIC COMMENT: None. STAFF/COMMISSION ANNOUNCEMENTS: Olmstead mentioned that the Affordable Housing Coalition will be hosting a conference June 17 and the evening of the 16th there will be a get together so perhaps the Commission would want to change the meeting time so they can attend. The conference on June 17 will be at the Radisson. Ackerson provided an update, at the last meeting the Commission discussed the Community Serving Community Daycare, and Persson suggested they meet with people from Home Ties, the daycare at the Mennonite Church. Ackerson set up a meeting and they went to visit with them and the director of 4Cs, which operates that daycare, said there is a lot of unmet demand for kids that have state childcare assistance. They decided to apply for a special exception needed from the City and if that is approved they will come back to the Commission for funding. The special exception relates to parking requirements in the zoning code. Ackerson also mentioned that the promotion of Community Development Week went well. There were lots of donations that were taken to Shelter House. They also received letters from past CDBG recipients who contacted the press and congressional leaders. Ackerson also shared with the Commission some news articles. One was from the New York Times about HUD not using criminal background checks as a way to select tenants. There was discussion on the City’s policy of looking back five years for criminal background checks, and helping to mitigate situations where housing is denied. Ackerson noted that the City is hosting five workshops at Kirkwood for people who are interested in starting a business. Hightshoe stated that City Council is going to start talking about affordable housing strategies and therefore are hoping that two or three of the HCDC members would like to form a subcommittee to create some recommendations for the whole Commission to hear in May and then forward onto City Council. CONSIDER A RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL REGARDING APPROVAL OF THE IOWA CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY FY16 ANNUAL REPORT/ANNUAL PLAN: Byler asked if anyone had any questions or comments about the plan. Byler asked Rackis if the list at the end of the report was all applied to the previous 12 months. For example, the sale of the 18 units, and the reallocation of the money to Scattered Site Housing, could Rackis share more information with the Commission on that sale? Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2016 Page 3 of 11 Rackis said that sometime in the 1990s the Housing Authority had the Broadway units that HAACP now owns, 18 units, and the City sold them to HAACP to convert them from public housing to transitional housing. The proceeds from that sale, the City has to use that money to develop additional public housing. At the time it was a direct replacement of 18 units. $1.2 or $1.3 million is not going to get the City 18 units in 2016. When they go to Council in June, they could propose to use those funds to expand public housing, whether that be new construction or not. Rackis noted his preference would be to look at neighborhoods where they do not have public housing units and buy homes that are for sale on the open market, rehab them, and then convert them into the public housing stock with HUD’s approval. Byler asked if this was not the money that would be spent in the Chauncey Building, and Rackis confirmed it was not. Rackis said this money has not been sitting in City accounts since the 1990s, HAACP didn’t pay off the loan of the purchase of the 18 units until about 7 years ago. The money that is going to the Chauncey Building is the proceeds from the sale of the Scattered Site Public Housing units. Byler asked about the $1.3 million reported in this action plan and what are the stipulations on the use of those monies. Rackis said that money is to be used to replace the 18 public housing units, so it has to be used for City ownership. Rackis explained uses for other funds could also be used in partnership for public housing as well. Rackis said the Iowa City Housing Authority has $2.9 million available and $1.0 of that amount is committed to the Chauncey. Olmstead asked for clarification on the public housing waiting list versus the HCD waiting list and if a person or family could be on both. Rackis confirmed they could, which is why he presents them separate on the annual report. Byler asked how they get more vouchers in a given year. Rackis said they don’t, there are never any new vouchers. The only new vouchers are the veterans support housing vouchers. The City just received notice that they can apply for six additional HUD vouchers. Byler asked if someone moves to Iowa City from another community what happens. Rackis said the City would either absorb that voucher and make it one of our own or bill the other housing authority but it doesn’t change the number of vouchers, it becomes one of the 1215 the City is allocated. So by absorbing that voucher what it means is no new person is taken off the waiting list and given a voucher. If project based voucher providers opt out of their contract with HUD, the vouchers may be converted to tenant based vouchers. Seiple asked about the home ownership program and if someone becomes a homeowner that voucher cannot be used for rentals ever again. Rackis said yes, but they do have a cap of 3% of their 1215 vouchers to be used for home ownership. He also noted that most families on home ownership reach a point where their income rises above the point where they will continue to qualify for assistance, and then that voucher will be freed up. A homeownership voucher can be converted back to a rental, provided the family has complied with the homeownership obligations and mortgage obligations. Seiple asked how they calculate the utilization rate, and how it can be over 100%. Rackis said that is an average; at any point in the year they could be over-utilized or under-utilized, so while they were at 101.3% when people go over the income for the program, they are counted in the program for 6 months even though they are not receiving assistance. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2016 Page 4 of 11 Olmstead moved to approve the Iowa City Housing Authority FY16 Annual Report/Annual Plan. Pierce seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the motion passed 5-0. MONITORING REPORTS: Mark Patton (Habitat for Humanity) gave a report on construction projects. He began with an update on the two homes being built on Prairie Du Chien. Patton talked about the families that they serve and their double blind selection process. Habitat is both the builder and the banker, and these are set up as 25- year mortgages. There is no interest on the mortgages. In the double blind selection process they had 75 applications last year and they were only able to pick 6. The applicants must have okay credit and cannot have too much debt. They have found that immigrants are mostly picked because of their credit (or fear of credit) whereas Americans have more debt. All the families are given a full year of financial classes and financial counseling. DISCUSSION OF FY16 PROJECTS THAT HAVE NOT COMPLIED WITH THE ‘UNSUCCESSFUL OR DELAYED PROJECTS POLICY’ Ackerson explained that this is an annual review because HUD does not want the entitlement city sitting on money and not having it spent. So the awarded projects that have not spent at least half their funds by the middle of March are asked to come in and give an update to the Commission. Ackerson explained that the Domestic Violence Intervention Program had only spent about $9,000 as of mid-March because they had to re-bid their project twice, but now are about two-thirds through the project. Brian Loring (Broadway Neighborhood Center) discussed a calendar of their progress on their project. One of the reasons for the delay on their project is because the construction involves building onto a classroom, so in order to complete that construction they will need to move that classroom. They need to wait until school lets out to have another classroom open up that they can use. The classroom they need to use is at Grant Wood Elementary so once school is out they will move the Broadway classroom to Grant Wood. Loring explained that they did the walk through for potential bidders last Friday, bid opening is May 4, and construction is to begin May 23, with substantial completion by the end of August. He explained that because it is a preschool classroom, they can begin in September rather than when school starts in August so if the project goes a bit long they will be covered. The scope of the project is to create a new entrance to the preschool that is in the basement of the Broadway building for easier access to the preschool without having to go through the whole building. As part of the project they will need to relocate the furnace and washer and dryer. The amount of the entire project will be approximately $94,000. Bruce Teague (Charm Homes LLC) explained that his grant to acquire two houses has been delayed due to uncertainty in new Medicaid regulations. Since the April 1 implementation of the Medicaid changes they have made announcements of the opening of housing units and are working on recruiting renters. Teague noted he has two realtors looking for potential acquisitions but they are having difficulty finding properties in the appropriate price range. The allocation for this project was approximately $61,500. Byler asked if there as a date where it would become unfeasible for a closing to happen in time to expend the funds. Hightshoe said because its CDBG funds the Commission can decide how long they want to hold the funds for this project. If they have not found a property by June 30 then it will need to be discussed. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2016 Page 5 of 11 REVIEW AND CONSIDER RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL ON APPROVAL OF FY17 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN (ONLINE AT WWW.ICGOV.ORG/ACTIONPLAN) Consider reallocation of FY17 proposed The Housing Fellowship Project: Byler explained that at the last meeting the Commission funded four of twelve projects, including an allocation to The Housing Fellowship Project of $134,000 for a tax credit application. The Housing Fellowship responded that they were not confident they would be competitive for a tax credit award due to recent developments with the program. THF submitted a suggestion to move The Housing Fellowship allocation into the Shelter House allocation because The Housing Fellowship may end up partnering with the Shelter House in some capacity. Byler explained that the Commission can now decide how to reallocate these funds. There is still a minimum amount of HOME funds that must be allocated to a Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) which would be $58,000. The Housing Fellowship was the sole CHDO to apply for funds in this round. So the first question is what could be done with $58,000. Byler noted that anytime money comes back to the Commission, he prefers to have a discussion amongst all the applicants rather than just reallocate without input. Therefore he suggests $58,000 be allocated to The Housing Fellowship to purchase a home and then take the remaining $76,000 into discussion for review for any of the remaining projects. Maryann Dennis (The Housing Fellowship) said they could buy a house with the $58,000. Hightshoe explained that a recommended allocation needs to be decided at this meeting so the updated FY17 Annual Action Plan can go to Council. Crissy Canganelli (The Shelter House) addressed the Commissions questions regarding the scope of their projects. Canganelli stated that no other funding sources have been committed yet. They have an accepted purchase agreement for a property and are inquiring as to the maximum residential occupancy of that property. They need to isolate the permanent housing component and not include the low barrier shelter in the same building. They wish to just proceed with the housing. They are focusing on the chronic homeless individuals. The total project cost will be $1.6 million and the cost will still be the same without the winter shelter because they will still develop that space for common space. Canganelli spoke about visiting organizations that provide housing first for chronic homeless in Charlotte. This is all on a single site. They were extremely impressed with the design features of the facility and the security staffed on the property 24/7. They also had office space for staff and nursing staff. There was discussion on the design of the efficiency apartments planned and common space. Byler asked if anyone on the Commission wanted to make a recommendation, noting that no public facility was funded. There is $76,000 that can be allocated to any of the applicants. Olmstead stated his recommendation for funding DVIP Shelter. Ackerson shared the Commission rankings of the applications to assist with the discussion. Dennis noted that the Iowa City Strategic Plan states support for the FUSE project. That has not been noted in any previous City plan. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2016 Page 6 of 11 Conger shared her support of the FUSE project and committing the additional funds to that project. Seiple also stated her support for the funds to go to the Shelter House to support the FUSE project. Byler stated his preference is to fund either partially or fully the DVIP or Arc projects. Pierce asked if granting $51,000 to Arc would support their projects and Ackerson and Hightshoe believed it would be a good start. Olmstead moved to reallocated FY17 CDBG and HOME budget allocations to City Council as: Housing Requested Amount Allocation Recommendation Re-Allocation Recommendation CHDO operations – THF $ 16,000 $ 16,000 $ 16,000 Diamond Senior Apartments $237,636 $ -- $ -- Habitat for Humanity $ 80,000 $ -- $ -- MYEP $ 65,000 $ 50,000 $ 50,000 The Housing Fellowship $300,000 $134,000 $58,000 Shelter House Permanent Supportive Housing $290,000 $250,000 $275,000 Subtotal $988,636 $450,000 $399,000 Public Facilities Arc of SE Iowa $160,000 $ -- $51,000 CSCC Childcare $145,000 $ -- $ -- DVIP Shelter $ 45,917 $ -- $ -- MYEP Facility $ 60,000 $ -- $ -- Shelter House Winter Shelter $160,000 $ -- $ -- United Action for Youth $ 50,000 $ -- $ -- Subtotal $620,917 $ -- $ -- Pierce seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the motion passed 5-0. REVIEW ALLOCATION PROCESS FOR CDBG, HOME, AND AID TO AGENCIES FUNDING AND CONSIDER CREATING SUB-COMMITTEE Byler made two specific suggestions for these allocation processes. One thought is to possibly allocate a bit of money for applicants to work with an engineering firm to create a capital needs plan – all the plans would be created by the same engineer from the same perspective. It would allow for a more consistent analysis of the needs of all the different agencies’ applications. The other suggestion Byler has is to extend the funding round to two years so applicants can plan ahead using their capital plan and have time to find matching funds. Conger did voice concern about using an engineering firm would take away from the citizen aspect of this Commission. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2016 Page 7 of 11 Olmstead thought perhaps they need to look at 0% loans and then extend it over a long period of time. Hightshoe noted that is hard to do for public facilities because they will not have income to pay back loans. Byler asked if the Commission wanted to create a subcommittee to look into the allocation process more or just address this at a future meeting with the entire group. It was decided to put this item on a summer agenda. ADJOURNMENT: Olmstead moved to adjourn. Peirce seconded the motion. A vote was taken and motion carried 5-0. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2016 Page 8 of 11 Housing and Community Development Commission Attendance Record Name Term Exp. 6/18/15 9/17/15 10/22/15 11/19/15 1/21/16 2/18/16 3/10/16 4/21/16 Bacon Curry, Michelle 9/1/2016 X X O/E O/E X O O --- Byler, Peter 9/1/2017 X X X X X X X X Conger, Syndy 9/1/2018 --- O/E O/E X X X O/E X Jacobson, Jim 9/1/2017 O/E X O/E X X X X --- Lamkins, Bob 9/1/2016 O/E X X X X X X O/E Olmstead, Harry 9/1/2018 --- --- --- --- X X X X Peirce, Matthew 9/1/2018 --- --- --- --- X X X X Persson, Dottie 9/1/2016 X X X X X O/E X O/E Seiple, Emily 9/1/2018 --- X X X X X X X Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Vacant Demographics are changing. Transportation choices are changing. Urban lifestyles are changing. Housing preferences are changing. Daniel Parolek, nationally recognized architect and urbanist, will offer new ideas on how to build vibrant, diverse, sustainable, walkable urban places that create community while meeting today’s housing needs in: May 24, 2016 7 - 8:30 pm Iowa City Public Library, Room A 123 S. Linn Street, Iowa City Public invited. No registration or admission required! For more info, call 319-356-5230 MISSING MIDDLE How can a city adapt? Responding to the Demand for Walkable Urban Living