MINUTES
CALL TO ORDER
Chair
The Commissioners welcomed new SOU representative Alexandra Amarotico
Commissioners Present: |
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SOU Liaison: Alexandra Armarotico |
Carol Voisin |
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Richard Billin |
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Council Liaison: Alice Hardesty, absent |
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Staff Present:: |
Aaron Benjamin |
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Brandon Goldman, Housing Specialist |
Graham Lewis |
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Carolyn Schwendener, Account Clerk |
Bill Smith |
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Absent Members |
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Steve Hauck |
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APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Voisin/Benjamin m/s to approve the minutes of the
PUBLIC FORUM
No one came forth to speak.
REPORTS AND UPDATES
Subcommittee Report
Education – No meeting.
Goldman picked up the Housing display from the Public Library and put it in the lobby of the
Land Use – See discussion under Clay Creek RFQ
Finance – No meeting.
Liaison Reports
Council – No report
Planning –Benjamin reported that at the last Planning Commission meeting the Havurah project was approved for 13 Units. The approval came with several conditions one being that the developer make an arrangement regarding the flood water system. They did not discuss any affordable units or workforce units with the project.
CLAY CREEK RFQ - The Commissioners had the opportunity to review the applications prior to tonight’s meeting.
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Habitat for Humanity - Denise James was present to represent Habitat for Humanity. She explained that Habitat for Humanity has been in the
The Commissioners questions with Ms. James’ responses:
Habitat has purchased two lots in Central Point one of which is scheduled to begin construction in February of 2008. Though they have committed themselves to the one project in Central Point if they make a commitment with
Habitat has a very large volunteer base. They have an AmeriCorp Vista person who recruits and coordinates. They receive help from Habitat International and are already scheduled out through March with outside groups coming in to help. They hold monthly recruitments for volunteers and currently have more volunteers then they need. At one time this summer they did have a little trouble recruiting in Ashland at which time they hit the streets hard looking at civic groups and different organizations for volunteers.
It took a total of three years doing two units each year. This was partially due to funding.
Yes, Habitat sells the land with the house and hold the mortgage. The houses they are currently building in Ashland are through a partnership with the Ashland Community Land Trust. The Home owners will pay a renewable lease fee every month to the Trust. Habitat is not entirely opposed to having a trust but what they really want is to give the opportunity for home ownership which would include the land.
Habitat sells the house for what it cost to build. When the house is sold they appraise what the monthly payments will be to insure that they are not more then 30% of their monthly income. When they sell the house they take the difference between appraised value and the actual selling price and that amount goes into a sleeping second mortgage. Habitat has the ability to subsidize it themselves if they cannot make the house affordable for the family, by putting a little bit more of the first mortgage into the second. Each year that the family remains in the house making payments Habitat for Humanity forgives a portion of that second mortgage. If the home owner stays throughout the life of the first mortgage, the second is then forgiven in its entirety. If they choose to sell early, they need to pay the difference of the second. A restriction with the
They always were until they began the Central Point project in 2003. They found such a land crunch they realized they needed to produce as many units as possible. Now they won’t always necessarily be Single Family detached and they see townhomes as a likely model for the future.
Five hundred hours of sweat equity. Two hundred hours for each adult in the house and one hundred from other friends or family. There needs to be at least one hundred hours in construction. There are other ways they can build sweat equity such as helping with fund raisers, events or work in the retail store.
The volunteers do not have a contract. They try very hard to build relationships with the volunteers and they have found them to be a very dedicated group of people.
Because the families are paying for the house they track all the building costs and the family pays those costs. Many materials are donated and lots of contractors donate their time. A lot of the products are set up nationally as well as locally such as paint, appliances and insulation. Some of the work does have to be sub contracted out such as electrical and plumbing.
When they started the Ashland project about a year ago they worked in partnership with the City of Ashland with the Earth Advantage program. They found that this is something they want to continue to do and have continued forward with it in the Medford project and have since found more resources for donations to go forward with that goal.
RVCDC-Andrea Miranda, Director of Finance and Operations and John Wheeler, Director of Acquisitions and Construction spoke for RVCDC.
Ms. Miranda commended the City for using this parcel for affordable housing and for seeking out a well qualified non profit developer to partner with. RVCDC is a seventeen year organization. To date they have built 42 units of affordable housing all to 80% and below AMI. Historically they have done rehabilitation of existing housing until about two or three years ago when they started to use both the Community Land Trust model and Sweat Equity building component to do new construction. Recent projects include the nine units on Siskiyou and Faith,
Commissioners questions with Ms. Miranda and Mr. Wheeler’s responses.
Mr. Wheeler stated that
RVCDC started construction in October of 2005 for the nine units on Siskiyou and Faith. That project was completed in December of 2006. They are currently ready to begin construction of six units at
Mr. Wheeler explained how YouthBuild is another component that will help get the houses built. There is a YouthBuild crew leader on staff full time partnering with the Job Council and Rogue Community College. YouthBuild takes High School drop outs and trains them in construction for nine months to a year, and they help build the affordable housing as part of their on-site training. Participants also get their GED’s or can take college courses during this time. They tried to use some CDGB money for Ashland Youth Built but could not recruit enough Ashland Youth.
They work wherever the projects are. The agreement is that
If they do an Urban Self Help there is no grant money that comes along with that to pay staff costs. They are looking at a small fee attached to every purchase price of the home to pay the construction supervisor or project manager to off set the staff costs. They receive no state funding at all so they are dependant on Foundation Grants, Bank Grants and local or federal government money.
Mr. Wheeler said they don’t have a hard budget worked out yet but stated they want to build three bedroom townhouse style single family [attached] dwellings. Mr. Wheeler put a hard cap of $140,000 and that price would include all the sustainable features.
They apply for the money by going through Community Frameworks in
Ms. Miranda said they have what they refer to as an “interested person list”, but not necessarily a pre-qualified list. They will send follow up letters to those people. At this time they don’t have anything available for the larger families and found that some applicants have backed away from the projects because the houses weren’t big enough.
Benjamin commented that the Housing Commission would like to see ACLT join with builders to help build projects that help reduce the cost of housing in the community.
Mr. Bradley stated that they have had a number of conversations with Larry Medinger and other builders. The reality is that at the end of the day the builders are still paying market rate for materials and labor. They can’t get around that, and ACLT delivers subsidized land and subsidized entitlements to that process. The builders are not going to take unwanted risks.
Street made the suggestion that John Fields be allowed to make comments regarding Habitat for Humanity since he arrived late and the Commission started the interviews early. The Commissioners agreed.
John Fields– Mr. Fields has worked with Habitat for 12 years. Habitat is a volunteer organization with a paid Director and a part time Field Manager. His original goal has been to get up to 10 houses a year. Mr. Fields stated that there are issues with the
Goldman reviewed the next steps regarding the RFQ. The intention of initiating the RFQ was to identify a developer. The Housing Commission would then make a recommendation to the City Council, probably at the February 19 meeting. The Council would select a developer to be a development partner with the City. At that point the City would be in a position of working with that developer to draft a developer agreement and start to undertake the land use issues and details of the project. Goldman said the City had been entertaining the idea of the project not being a 100 percent affordable development but a mixed income development. Market rate units could help offset some of the development costs.
The Commissioners deliberated and discussed the three proposals.
A selection committee, including Ayars , Hauck, Smith and Goldman, was previously formed to discuss these proposals and apply the selection criteria to rank each respondent.
Goldman noted that each of the respondents (Habitat, ACLT, and RVCDC) were each ranked first by at least one member of the selection committee. They felt fortunate to get responses from three capable organizations which made the task of ranking them more difficult. After the strength and weaknesses of each application were discussed and the point totals were aggregated, the selection committee ranked RVCDC number one and Habitat for Humanity and ACLT tied for number two. The Selection Committee recommendation being forwarded to the Housing Commission and the City Council was to select RVCDC as the developer.
Ayars shared some strengths of RVCDC
In Hauck’s absence Goldman summarized his comments from notes he had taken.
Smith expressed his thoughts on the applicants
Goldman shared his individual assessment as a member of the selection committee
Billin said that after reviewing the proposal he felt a little more comfortable with RVCDC’s application. He liked their game plan and liked the time frame to make it happen. Billin did like Habitat’s track record and the significant amount of resources they can drop on the project. Also liked the diversity and flexibility of ACLT. Overall he would recommend RVCDC.
Benjamin was concerned about the $50,000 subsidy with RVCDC’s request. He was also concerned about the volunteers it would take to get the job done with Habitat for Humanity. He noted that in ACLTs presentation they essentially backed out and deferred to the other respondents, Habitat and RVCDC.
Voisin was most comfortable with Habitat for Humanity. She felt their presentation was good. The depth of volunteers as well as the infrastructure gives her great confidence. She was concerned that RVCDC may have too much on their plate.
Lewis also had confidence in Habitat for Humanity. He really liked the YouthBuild component with RVCDC. Mr. Lewis said he is comfortable with either applicant.
Street agreed that both candidates were strong commenting that RVCDC had a more complete and thorough application.
Billin/Ayars m/s that RVCDC be the choice for the developer. Roll Call Vote: Commissioners Smith, Ayars, Billin, Street, Benjamin, Lewis YES. Commissioner Voisin NO. Motion passed 6-1.
Goldman agreed that this is a difficult site to develop. The Land use process alone is difficult though the City will be able to help. The entire parcel of land was originally purchased for one million dollars paying $8.67 a square foot. From the housing perspective they purchased a portion of the property for development from the Parks Department for $8.67 a square foot.
Benjamin asked Goldman if he recalled the size and the price of the Lower Pines project. Goldman did not remember that particular project amount but stated that RVCDC’s R-3 zoned property was $371,000 for half an acre.
ANNUAL ELECTION OF COMMISSION CHAIR, VICE CHAIR AND SECRETARY – Voisin/Billin m/s to nominate Bill Smith for the Chair. Unanimously approved. Benjamin/Billin m/s to nominate Carol Voisin to be Vice Chair. Unanimously approved. It was decided not to elect a secretary at this time.
Voisin thanked Bill Street for being the Chair. The Commissioners expressed their disappointment with him leaving the Commission and will miss him as a member.
PRESENTATION TO COUNCIL - The presentation will be on February 5 at
UPCOMING EVENTS AND MEETINGS
Housing Commission Regular Meeting – January 24, 2008 @ 5:00-7:00p.m.
Education subcommittee – January 9, 2008 @ 5:15-6:15
Finance subcommittee – January 8, 2008 @ 5:30-6:30
Land Use subcommittee – January 10, 2008 @ 11:00 – 12:00
Adjournment at