Staff will be taking into consideration the concerns and comments from last night's meeting and bring forward additional information to the Housing Commission at a public hearing scheduled for next month's regular Housing Commission meeting on August 25, 2004 at 4:00 p.m. at the Community Development and Engineering Services building in the Siskiyou Room. The Planning Commission could hear the ordinance changes in October and the Council would hear the changes after that.

Concerns from last night's meeting included:
     Period of affordability.
     Will these ordinance changes make any difference?
     Need for a regular source of funding.
     Do we need a rental study? Rent stabilization.

Their new project at 2001 Siskiyou Boulevard is a federal program call Mutual Self-Help Housing. Qualified buyers can get loans for one percent. Families have to help build their houses. They are getting ready to submit their pre-application. They have potential buyers that will come in at the start of construction. The first year they plan to build eight to ten units. The second year they are working on negotiating for a second piece of property to finish out the project. Demele said it looks like they are will be building three bedroom units and that will require more parking adding more site constraints to their design.

Goldman said he was told the eight to ten units could be done exclusive of any other project. For the first time, he is hearing RVCDC will be entering into a federal contract requiring 15 units. Demele said by the second year they have to have their second site ready to go. It can be anywhere with a population of less than 20,000. A site has not yet been located.

Finance - They met on July 12, 2004 to discuss further the development of the Housing Trust Fund and the CDBG changes in the program year. The Finance subcommittee will meet every second Monday at 7:30 p.m. in the Siskiyou Room.

Education - They are planning an event for the fall to invite the stakeholders and general public, inform and educate the participants about affordable housing and celebrate successes by honoring organizations and people for their efforts in affordable housing. They want to show a summary of solutions. They want to invite bankers, employers and developers to participate. The Housing Commission was supportive of this idea as it is a part of the Action Plan. It was suggested the subcommittee should think through measurements that can be reported to the public annually to create the feeling of progress. And, to decide what it is they want from the stakeholders and bring in a speaker. There is money in the budget to pay for this event. (In the future, the Housing Commission budget will be shown on the agenda.)

Philip Lang discussed an affordable housing plan involving the sale of bonds. The plan is attached to the minutes. Lang wants the following from the Commission: 1) attention to what he has to say, 2) study what he is offering, 3) ultimately the Housing Commission's endorsement, 4) recommendation to the Council to pursue this plan, 5) and adoption of an affordable housing policy by the Council that includes programs like he proposing. The Commissioners had several concerns they discuss with Lang. He will return with different hypotheticals and Goldman will do some research, meet with Lee Tuneberg, Finance Director, and bring back additional information. This item will continue to be on the agenda (Project Updates), updated each month and Goldman will decide when there is time to review it at a future date.

Goldman read an e-mail from ACCESS voicing no objection to the program year to the fiscal year. They would like to see applications sent out to interested parties at least two months in advance of the due date.

PUBLIC HEARING
Ron Demele, RVCDC, said he basically concurs with the change but he prefers Option 3. They are currently working around an existing timeframe thinking the applications will be coming out in August and Option 3 would not disrupt their process. It can take months to negotiate for properties.

Jackson said to keep in mind how to use staff's time most efficiently. Hartzell said it is important to work hand in hand with the providers and their feedback is important.

Goldman said in terms of administration, they would have to issue two RFP's this year, instead of one, and issuing one for $275,000 and one for $200,000 instead of $475,000. It changes the scale of project that could be funded. The aggregation of funds in Option 1 is preferred by Staff. If Option 3 is going to be the recommendation of the Housing Commission, he asks that they look at RVCDC's confidence in the project going forward in a timely manner. The project needs to be well developed at the time it is applied for. The readiness to proceed issue is of great importance.

Voisin/Korth m/s to adopt Option 3 with consideration of input from Staff. Voice Vote: All favored.