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HomeMy Public PortalAboutAffordable Housing Trust -- 2022-06-02 MinutesBrewster Housing Trust June 2, 2022 5@00pm Virtual Meeting Housing Trust Members Present: Donna Kalinick, Tim Hackert, Ned Chatelain, Maggie Spade - Aguilar, Madalyn Hillis -Dineen, Vanessa Greene Others Present: Robert Tobias -Finance Committee liaison, Jill Scalise, Housing Coordinator Absent: Paul Ruchinskas 1. Call to Order: Chair Hackert called the meeting to order at 5:OOpm, read the required notice for virtual meetings, and declared a quorum. 2. Citizen's Forum: There were no citizens asking to speak at this time. 3. POAH & HAC proposal for Millstone Community Housing update- Ms. Scalise said that the Select Board, Preservation of Affordable Housing and Housing Assistance Corp. are in negotiations for the Land Development Agreement and Lease with town legal counsel. Chair Hackert also noted that the response to Glenn Casey's email from Peter Lombardi, responding as the Chief Procurement Officer for the town, was posted in the packet. 4. Housing Trust Goals and Priorities Update- Mr. Chatelain said that Ms. Kalinick, Mr. Lombardi and Mimi Bernardo, our Finance Director held an initial meeting a few weeks ago to work on the financial plan for the Trust. In doing so, we looked at the Trust goals and initiatives, existing funding sources of CPA funds and short-term rental revenue. It was a productive first session, getting organized and looking at available funds. It is important to consider that CPA funds have certain restrictions on them. Ms. Kalinick said that one of the decisions that they made is to show the sources and uses from each category and then have it roll up to a total because we have multiple funding sources. The Housing Trust Financial Forecast really needs to take into account all of the housing programs, like CDBG funds. Next steps will be for Ms. Kalinick to meet with Ms. Bernardo to go over the type of spreadsheet that they will use and then; their team will review that before it comes to the Trust. In the meantime, Ms. Kalinick will provide an end of the year statement of expenses and revenue, as she did last year. The financial plan is a work in progress and will be a good tool for the Trust to have as well as the CPC and Select Board. A long-term financial plan is a goal of both the Trust and Select Board. Chair Hackert said that the update to the Housing Production Plan will likely inform the financial plan and the financial plan is needed to have a joint discussion with the CPC. Ms. Spade -Aguilar said that their working group of Tim, Jill and Maggie will be meeting to start working on the guidelines and will have a draft for the July meeting. Chair Hackert asked if there are any more thoughts on the Community Housing Forum for the fall. There was not an update. Ms. Kalinick said that from the last minutes, our last discussion was that over the next few months, we need to pick a date and a venue to plan around. Ms. Hillis -Dineen noted that there was an attendee with their hand up. 1 Chair Hackert asked if we should go back to Citizens Forum. Ms. Kalinick said that when we started, there was a citizen on but then they were not during Citizens Forum and now they are back on, so it is up to the Chair. Chair Hackert read the rules for Citizens Forum and asked for the citizen, Ms. Carol Anderson to be let in. There were technical difficulties. Ms. Anderson did not have audio. The Chair said she could email her comments to Ms. Scalise or join the next meeting. 5. Housing Production Plan Update Community Meeting Thursday June 16 at bpm- Ms. Scalise thanked people who have participated in the process, most recently providing feedback on the draft goals. Housing Production Plans need to be updated every 5 years. The draft plan will be presented to the Select Board and Planning Board in a joint meeting on June 6th followed by a virtual community forum with a presentation to the public. There will be a two-week comment period after those meetings. Ms. Scalise will send out the draft plan to the Trust and other key town committees for comments back to Ms. Scalise or Barrett Planning. Final adjustments will be made to the plan with a public hearing in July for approval by the Select Board and Planning Board before being submitted to the State. Ms. Spade -Aguilar asked if major revisions will be made after the Community Forum or if it will be adjustments. Ms. Scalise said the revisions depend on the comments that are made. There has been a lot of work, research and community input to date, but this is a working document. 6. Housing Coordinator Update including Serenity at Brewster and Brewster Woods and Town Meeting -Ms. Scalise provided an update about town meeting. $375,000 of short term rental revenue was allocated to the Trust via the Town budget. The CPC housing articles passed and included funding for the Housing Coordinator position at 30 hours, funding for the Pennrose project in Orleans which is rental housing at the former Cape Cod Five bung, and funding for the Community Development Partnership (CDP) Housing Institute. A vote was not taken on the CPC funding formula because a quorum was not present. The article to transfer custody of 212 Yankee Drive to the Trust passed and will be discussed in a future agenda item. Ms. Scalise said that both Serenity and Brewster Woods lotteries for the affordable rental units are open and applications are due July 15t. Housing Assistance Corp. (HAC) is overseeing the lotteries. Serenity is for 55+ residents and has 27 rental units up to 80% of the area median income and Brewster Woods is 30 units of family rental housing for low to moderate income residents. Information sessions were held via zoom for both lotteries. Ms. Scalise has received numerous inquiries. In just the first week of May, she received 50 inquiries and sIn e also sent out 60 emails to folks who were on an inquiry list. Ms. Scalise noted that the regulatory agreement for Serenity Brewster has been submitted to the Department of Housing and Community Development. She also submitted a request to the DHCD to add the 27 Serenity units and the 2 Habitat homes on Red Top Rd. to our Subsidized Housing Inventory, The Town is moving forward with the FY21 CBDG grant with Brewster as the lead. We have received a few proposals for a housing rehabilitation administrator that need to be reviewed. Ms. Kalinick and Ms. Scalise have been working 2 to get the program moving. Ms. Scalise noted that she recently received a thank you note for a resident who had their roof replaced and that they did not have to worry every time it rained anymore. Mr. Chatelain asked when a decision will have to be made about next year's lead town. Ms. Scalise said she thought it was in the spring. Ms. Kalinick said that the State is proposing changes to the CDBG program which might move the application to the fall. Ms. Kalinick said that the town put out a Request for Proposals for a grant administrator and hired Bailey and Boyd. They have been great to work with and have helped launch the program. Mr. Chatelain asked if we had to make a decision today would we continue as lead. Ms. Kalinick said that she would. She feels that support programs are equally as important as creating housing and was one of the items that came out of the HPP survey, how important it was to help people stay in their homes. Ms. Scalise agreed that she would remain as lead community as well. Bailey and Boyd are extremely competent and have made the workload for Jill and Donna very manageable. The transformative nature of this program is critical and being the lead community has been worth it. Ms. Hillis -Dineen said that the leadership that Brewster has shown in terms of housing initiatives is not going unnoticed by other towns and organizations. She was at an interfaith luncheon today and someone said they really admire what Brewster is doing around housing. Ms. Scalise said it a whole team of people, it is everyone. For example with CDBG, our treasurer collector, Lisa Vitale and our finance director, Mimi Bernardo stepped up and said they would do it. We are fortunate to have department heads, committees and the community support our housing programs. Ms. Scalise said that she has received an email from Carol Marie Anderson who did not have audio before. Ms. Scalise read the email that stated she did not have the ability to have audio and asked that the chat be turned on and that she be allowed to comment and not discriminated against because she does not have a computer or phone. Ms. Kalinick said that the Town made the decision not to enable chat for a number of reasons. Ms. Anderson can email Ms. Scalise which she is able to do. 7. Update on Request Extension for Housing Trust Community Preservation Act Grant for Preservation of SHI housing. Ms. Scalise did bring the request to the CPC and they approved a two year extension. 8. 212 Yankee Drive update, discussion and possible vote on next steps -Ms. Scalise said that the transfer of the property to the Trust was approved at Town meeting. Ms. Scalise and Ms. Kalinick met with legal counsel to discuss next steps. Legal counsel will record the transfer to the Trust. The Trust has oversight now and will sign legal documents. When the property ultimately goes to transfer to an eligible buyer, it will go back to the Select Board for final approval. One of the items that we reviewed with legal counsel was what is CPC eligible. Most of the rehabilitation work will be CPC eligible but the insurance is considered a maintenance item and will have to come out of other Trust funds. We also discussed the procurement rules for the property. Ms. Kalinick said it will go out to bid under Chapter 149 building laws; it will be subject to prevailing wage. We 3 have a pretty thorough list of what needs to be done there but we will be doing a walk through with our Building Commissioner, Davis Walters. A memo of next steps was included in the packet. Ms. Scalise said that an email came in from Ms. Anderson regarding 212 Yankee Drive. Ms. Anderson asked when the town first acted on taking possession of the property and was a lien recorded properly in both 2019 and 1995. Ms. Anderson also said that she does not believe there was a quorum present when the town meeting vote was taken, and she believes money was spent illegally prior to the town meeting vote. Ms. Kalinick said we do not have to address these allegations this evening. Chair Hackert re -read the rules for Citizen's forum and said that we will take her comments under consideration. Ms. Kalinick said we are not going to address this tonight and may address it at a future meeting. Ms. Kalinick said there is no vote to take tonight by the Trust. We just wanted to provide an update and next steps for the Trust. She thanked the Public Works Department for going over and mowing the grass there this week. 9. Cape Cod Sea Camps updates- Mr. Chatelain said their last meeting was site visits to both parcels. The Town is finalizing the scope of work to solicit for a consultant to support the planning process. Ms. Spade -Aguilar noted that this was her second time on the Bay parcel and it struck her how many structures are on the Bay parcel and that there is a freshwater pond on the parcel, near the beach. There are a lot of cabins, cottages and dorms. There is also a health center. Ed Barber, the property manager was on hand to answer questions and provide history. There are a few cabins that are heated and the health center would house the nurses in the summer. Ms. Kalinick said that the Pond Parcel Committee also held site visits to both parcels. In terms of the pond, most people are not familiar with the pond parcel at all. Ms. Kalinick noted that the solicitation for the consultant is an RFI not an RFP because planning services are exempt from procurement, but the Town has opted to use a comparative process to hire a consultant. 10. Housing Trust Appointments -Ms. Kalinick said that the Select Board will be doing re- appointments. The Select Board committee policy was included in the packet. We have (4) re -appointments: Ms. Kalinick as the town administrator's designee, Select Board member Chatelain, Mr. Hackert- resident at large and Ms. Spade -Aguilar -resident at large. Reappointments would be reviewed by the Chair and the Select Board liaison, Mr. Chatelain. Mr. Hackert, Ms. Spade -Aguilar and Ms. Kalinick all said that they are willing to stay on. Ms. Hillis -Dineen asked about the Planning Board representative. Her term is not up but she is now Chair and she was uncertain if the Trust seat has to be offered to new people. Ms. Kalinick said that she is the appointment from the Planning Board until her appointment runs out or she is no longer on the Planning Board. Ms. Kalinick also noted that when we updated the Trust bylaw, we staggered all the terms so that there would be continuity on the Trust. Ms. Kalinick said she could resign if she decided to and the Planning Board would have to appoint a new representative otherwise, the Planning Board would discuss this appointment next year when Ms. Hillis-Dineen's appointment expires. Cl I. For Your Information: None 12. Any other business not anticipated: None 13. Approval of Minutes from May 5, 2022: Ned Chatelain moved to approve the minutes of May 5,2022 with technical comment from Chair Hackert. Madalyn Hillis -Dineen second. A roll call vote was taken. Ned Chatelain-Yes, Donna Kalinick-Yes, Maggie Spade -Aguilar -Yes, Vanessa Greene -Abstain, Madalyn Hillis -Dineen -Abstain, Chair Hackert-Yes. 14. Next Meeting: August 4, 2022, at S:OOpm: Members were encouraged to attend the Housing Production Plan Update Community Forum on June 16th at 6pm. 15. Adjournment: Ned Chatelain moved adjournment at 6:01pm. Vanessa Greene second. A roll call vote was taken. Ned Chatelain-Yes, Donna Kalinick-Yes, Maggie Spade -Aguilar - Yes, Vanessa Greene - Yes, Madalyn Hillis -Dineen -Yes, Chair Hackert-Yes. Respectfully Submitted, Donna J. Kalinick Assistant Town Administrator Meeting Packet: haps•//portal.laserfiche.com/Portal/DocView.aspx?id=171876&repo=r- 153f9d98 Approved July 7, 2022 5