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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000-09-27 Housing MIN ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES SEPTEMBER 27, 2000 CALL TO ORDER - The meeting was called to order by Chair Larry Medinger at 4:30 p.m. Other Commissioners present were Madeline Hill, Nancy Richardson, David Fine, Carlus Harris, Joe McKeever, and Jan Vaughn. Joan Legg was absent. Staff present were Bill Molnar and Sue Yates. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Hill moved to approve the Minutes of the August 30, 2000 meeting. Vaughn seconded the motion and the minutes were approved. AFFORDABLE HOUSING OPTIONS FOR CITY EMERGENCY SERVICE PERSONNEL The Commissioners discussed the survey responses they received from the Ashland Police and Fire personnel. Of the 15 responses, some said they would be interested, some did not feel an affordable option would be a good investment, a couple thought the pay scale should be raised, and a couple like living in a rural area. Fine said the range of responses is roughly what he expected. The object is to raise the percentage of emergency responders that live in the city. Harris said this survey is just a snapshot of those that are already employed and are at different places in their lives. What will happen in the future when we have people coming in at an entry level with the cost of housing going up? He is not sure we can gauge the usefulness of an instrument like this, solely upon the response of the people who have been employed for several years or have not elected to live in the city in which they work. Richardson believes we should approach the City Council and ask that they look at a commitment to funding for emergency responders as well as others. If the Council is not interested, then we go on. She believes we need to think about what is financially feasible to build in the next five years. When approaching the Council, Fine suggested that the Commission should consider identifying a potential funding source. This will challenge the Council either to adopt that funding mechanism or to find another one they would find less troublesome. Cities in Oregon can tax just about anything any way. Fine said there is a limited purpose sales tax that is a tax only on the sale of certain commodities and certain services. He also mentioned the possibility of a collecting revenue from AFN for a franchise fee. Harris thought the Commission should recommend to the City to make this particular proposal available to new emergency service personnel who fall within some kind of income guidelines. He would be careful not to mix this proposal with any other proposal we would have for affordable housing in the City of Ashland. There are persons and entities that will have other issues around providing affordable housing to emergency service people that they may not have around simply providing affordable housing to low-income people who live and work in Ashland. There are a lot of issues endemic to this proposal that need to be addressed separately from other affordable housing issues. Yes, it is a good proposal to go to the Council and endorse, but he would somehow try to differentiate between this proposal and the separate proposal for long-term sustained affordable housing. Richardson thought it would be a good idea to have a forum and ask the candidates before the election how they would address the issue of affordable housing. Vaughn believes this particular project (emergency responders) would have tremendous public support. Hill is not certain. Molnar said there have been two issues pushing this program--emergency response and the benefits of having emergency service personnel living in neighborhoods and knowing what is going on in their neighborhoods. The Police Chief, in his response in an e-mail to Molnar, did not think by implementing this program that it would have a significant change in response from emergency personnel. He did think there were a lot of benefits in having these personnel live in the community. Fine said the Chief is right; it will not affect response in 99.99% of the cases. It will only have an effect in 0.01% of the cases where there is an emergency call back. Molnar noted that 50% of the personnel live in the City of Ashland. Molnar said he would check with the City Administrator to see when this item can be put on the Council agenda. Harris moved to approve, in concept, the project to make affordable housing through a trusted format available to emergency service personnel within the City of Ashland and pass this recommendation along to the City Council. Vaughn seconded the motion and it carried unanimously. Medinger, Vaughn, Richardson and Fine said they would be interested in working on the proposal to the Council and working on revenue sources. They will meet on October 3rd in Molnar’s office. Harris thought it would be important that the Council understands the City is putting up money for the land and the person would be buying the home and that it is sustainable. It is a subsidy the City is putting up for housing that will last in perpetuity. Medinger noted that we need to think about houses on the resale market, not just new homes. Harris said rehab is not out of the question either. Fine guesses there are probably three members on the Council that do not understand the land trust concept. Medinger thought it would be a good idea if someone on the Ashland Community Land Trust board give an explanation the night this is presented to the Council. ASHLAND COMMUNITY LAND TRUST (ACLT) UPDATE Harris said they have picked up a couple of new members. A lot of what has been talked about today is where the land trust is as far as being able to expand its ability to make affordable housing available as costs continue to jump. It is more and more difficult for the land trust to be able to acquire new properties and make them available. There was some talk among a couple of the members about becoming more strident in going to the city and saying “The time has come for the city to put up some support for this kind of activity in the city and to show they are truly interested in seeing sustained affordable housing in our community.” The ACLT has no staff. Without a staff, it is very difficult to obtain some of the funding sources and get the partnerships that might help in developing new properties. It has been discussed that the Land Trust may come to the Housing Commission and ask for help with a specific proposal for someone to identify grant sources, to make money available to acquire property or acquire a rehab project. Harris noted that the Institute of Community Economics is having their annual conference and would strongly suggest because there are so few of the Commissioners that have a working knowledge about land trusts that anyone interested should try to attend. It is in Albuquerque, NM on the 9th through the 11th November. Harris has additional information if anyone is interested. Molnar said the ACLT talked about marketing strategies. There was an idea of advertising at the Varsity Theater, putting an ad in the Lithiagraph which would encourage people to either join or donate land. Molnar met with John McLaughlin, Planning Director and Ken Mickelson, Parks Director, at the North Main park site because the ACLT is still interested in that property. They walked the site and tried to give Mickelson an update so he would be aware of what the land trust is thinking. The ACLT will probably attend one of the next Parks Commission meetings for an informal discussion about the house and property. Medinger asked that the Housing Commission would be informed of that meeting. Harris said ACLT has been granted Community Housing Development Organization status with the state. That means the ACLT can apply for its own funds and also gives them status so they have their own separate technical assistance contract with ICE (Institute for Community Economics). This helps them have more autonomy. Molnar said he and John McLaughlin met with the Director of Housing, Bob Repine. They toured some developments along with Debbie Price. Repine was blown away by some of the costs of housing. He asked about the ACLT. Molnar was explaining it to him and got the feeling that from the State that they are aware of the concept and know it has been around on the East Coast, but Molnar did not get a feeling they were that thrilled with it. Repine said they shouldn’t count on the state offering money for acquisition of land for trust models. If anything, they might look into being more of a partner with lenders in buying down interest rates. Molnar thought we might want to invite Debbie Price to a meeting so she can give the Commission any concerns the state has with the land trust concept. OTHER October Meeting Molnar will see if Debbie Price can come. Fine would see if Jane Hunt and/or Alan Bates might come to the next meeting so the Commission can talk about affordable housing and see their view on it. Hill asked if anyone attends a forum, report back to the Commission. ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 5:30 p.m.