Today's meeting of the Fort Worth Housing Housing and Finance Corporation.

First item of business is the approval of meeting minutes from April 28th.

All those in favor?

Any opposed?

Seeing none, motion passes.

We have written reports.

Matthew Mondero is here if we have any questions.

Are there any questions on the written reports?

Alright, seeing none.

Next, we have a briefing on the affordable housing bond program.

And Anderson Stout is here to give us that.

Good afternoon.

I want to provide an update on the affordable housing bond program.

So far to date, we've developed a proposed allocation timeline.

We've identified allocations for all priorities, which we'll show as we go through the presentation.

We've engaged with all the municipalities seeking guidance and best practices to just try and figure out what's working or what's not for regional partners.

So as we in as we build and develop our policy, we can incorporate best practices.

The proposed target areas will be neighborhood improvement areas, opportunity zones, urban villages and transit oriented districts, neighborhood empowerment zones, and revitalization areas, and then this map actually just shows in the blue where all of these areas are concentrated across the city.

Again, not limited to just these areas, but these are the areas we want to focus on as we target affordable housing across the city.

In terms of allocations, we are considering 4 million in home ownership opportunities that will be used for which is a vacant large site preparation and pre-development cost infrastructure costs.

Same distribution for multifamily rental development, which is a vacant lot side preparation and infrastructure costs.

Um that will go to gap financing vacant lots of funding infrastructure that could either be for the multifamily developments or single family developments.

We'll consider projects as they come in and allocate them based on those funding.

For multifamily rental, non-profit and for-profit developers, we want to leverage our private and other sector investments and um to work in collaboration with affordable housing.

Fort Worth Housing Finance Corporation.

This will be what we will use to actually score our developments or deals that come through.

We want to make sure that they are ready.

So project readiness, financial feasibility that they are strong, and the developments make sense that they are considering the neighborhood neighborhood compatibility that whatever is developed aligns with whatever development style or architectural style in the communities.

Equity in terms of the units that will be bro produced, and leverage the ratio of bond funds in the private sector investment.

So we haven't um figured out the percentage allocation for those as we develop the policy.

We'll make those determinations, but these are the high-level criteria we'll be looking at as we evaluate deals.

Um this is our timeline, it's an aggressive timeline, but uh we would like to get all of the funding spend within um the next four years so we can show um we have development deals and that the program is successful um by the time the next fund um comes around so um to mid 2026 through the twenty twenty seven we wanna we'll be working in one console doing a lot of evaluation um developing um doing outreach and we wanna release our first funding availability in twenty twenty seven we want to focus on land acquisition and investments um that will include ready for construction political construction in FY28 we want to be focused on construction so we want to make sure we have projects in the works that we're working to get those funds in twenty nine we want to focus on debris and competition um developing or what that as was minimum major expenditure affordable compliance and loan repayments.

These are some of the things we will be considering as metrics um to track the work um as it goes along um the amount of affordable units generated um both on the single family side and multifamily side um number of units per one dollar so leveraging all funds um it creates a land required and the value of new capital infrastructure that we were able um to put um into the system and this is a question I have thank you for putting this together I appreciate this um first I wanna say um how remarkable it is that we're all sitting here talking about the first ever housing bond that the city of Fort Worth has put forward so I want to thank the voters for um for speaking on that but I have some issues with um what's proposed here mainly when we know better we do better in every academic uh in the planning space in the in the uh in the government space that I have ever read and I've read up on some of it right I have a master's in city and regional planning so I I'm I'm not flying blind here talks about how bad policies that promote single family developments are for communities.

In fact our own development says our our own um code talks about infill development and how we as a city of Fort Worth promote infill development.

Where are we gonna find cheap property because this is affordable so where are we going to locate cheap infill property to build these new homes?

My guess is is that we're not right I have a lot of infill property in district nine and district nine does not see a lot of new construction homes.

District three does district six does district eight and seven where they have lots of green land.

That does not jibe with the mayor's effort to uh to preserve open space right this is going against I feel like what our city policies are and we know better.

Now I think it is important that we have an option in this bond for ownership too often when we talk about affordable housing we talk about rental properties but there's a reason why we talk about rental properties and that's because you get more bang for your buck.

You can put 300 units on a piece of property that would take you ten times the amount of space to put single family homes so why are we specifically stating that this ownership opportunity has to be for single family homes when there are so many other types of more appropriate and better use of our tax dollars types of of of housing that offer the ability for people to buy in that are not single family homes.

I'd like to know how we got to that decision and how we change it.

Yeah, I'll jump in.

If you can go back to the the slide that shows the four million for the home ownership.

So you may recall when we started the public outreach for this odd proposition, it was restricted to single family.

And so that's what a lot of the community heard initially, and then council asked us to broaden it so that all housing types were available.

We had heard a preference for single family throughout that public input.

And so we thought it was important to expand that a bit to include duplexes, townhomes, cottages, not just strictly your traditional detached single family.

We have a lot of vacant lots within loop 820, where we've got a lot of neighborhoods that we could double their density just by filling in with single family or duplexes or town homes.

So that's that's part of the thought is that where we've got single family zoning or B2 family zoning or other zoning where we have vacant lots that we think it's appropriate to infill on those lots.

I agree with you that from the density standpoint, we want to densify our multifamily areas and mixed-use areas as much as we can.

Um and so I don't I don't want to say that we're limited on housing type at all.

Um, my sense is from an ownership standpoint, it's hard to get condominiums to work in Texas, and so that's why we weren't looking at ownership on the multifamily side, but on the other housing types.

Um, but certainly we don't want to limit ownership and folks building equity and building wealth by only having a rental product available.

But I I do think we're totally flexible on the dollars that go where, um, how they're how they're allocated, but but in terms of where we have vacant lots, the majority of them are in single-family neighborhoods.

Um, but the density win, you're exactly correct, comes with the multifamily development.

So what is dollars per project?

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Um why are we not just giving this to the um community land trust who has already an operation set up and to do this?

So that's exactly one of the options that we have, right?

You've got folks like community land trust, you've got a um you've got the habitat, you've got the housing channel, and others, and and it looks like Casey might want to speak to this, but yeah, there's a lot of existing partners who do single family building.

They do, but the community land trust is the only one that keeps them affordable in perpetuity.

I mean, habitat for humanity, they get to sell their home for equity.

And so, yeah, let me let Casey address the how we would maintain affordability with different potential developers.

Yes.

So the points you make are great.

I mean, there are good points.

They're ones that we've considered as well.

I do want to add a little bit to your first question in terms of how do we decide on the four million for um single-family home ownership.

Part of the reason too is a lot of the funding that we get currently now through the federal government to address affordable housing needs.

We're currently doing that for multifamily.

And so the idea was with this bond program, this would be an opportunity because if you recall from our housing affordability strategy, one of the things noted in there is the lack of affordable single-family home ownership opportunities.

And so this presents an opportunity to address that.

I will caveat that by saying that there are a lot of different affordable housing needs in the city.

10 million dollars is a small amount, and so we're not going to be able to address all of the um different needs, but this is a start.

Um, in relation to the community land trusts, we are considering them as a partner through this bond program.

Um the purpose of this presentation is to really provide the high level of framework just to make sure that we are on the right track.

And then once we have agreement, we pres um previewed it with the city manager's office, um, wanted to preview it with you all before we started developing more of the details.

But we do anticipate that the community land trusts will be involved in, and I'm sorry, I'm out of breath.

I just came from a baseball tournament, so I've been rushing.

I was not playing it, my little one was playing.

Yes.

Okay, Michael.

Yeah, just backing up what uh Chair Beck said, I community land trust is a good thought.

I think for this body, it might be worthwhile to know what are all the options out there.

My understanding with habitat is yes, I think it's a 99-year lease, so if it ever they want to sell it, it has to go back to habitat.

So I think it might be just us knowing the lay of the land before we as we figure out what all the options are.

But this is a good start, but I think we just need more complete.

And one of the things I would like to um discuss is as part of um the bond meetings.

We did talk about that we wanted to do a competitive process, and part of that is to see what all of the different affordable housing opportunities that are going to be coming through in the next few days.

And so I anticipate that there will be groups like Habitat and Community Land Trust and other developers who are already active in the city of Fort Worth, and then also new ones who will um present.

We didn't want to limit ourselves to ideas because there may be projects coming through that we had not considered, and so we did want to um keep it open for some flexibility.

I do have a question.

Okay.

So one of my concerns or I guess I'll just say question before I'll label it a concern is how to um Councilwoman Beck's point, how do we ensure that we're gonna spread the wealth with regards to where these affordable housing projects are going to be proposed?

Because when I look at like property values and how much, you know, just retail for lack of a better word, market cost for different properties.

It seems like there will be some of us, some of our districts will be impacted more than others.

So while I'm a huge proponent of affordable housing, I just want to make sure that we're not going to continue to propagate a problem that I hear my residents um expressing all the time.

Yes, so the idea would be to spread it around as much as possible, but as you'll notice, even just from the map, there are um at least three districts.

When we talk about all of the different target areas that we're targeting, there are at least three council districts that don't have any of these target areas, and so it is very feasible that at the end of spending these 10 million dollars that we won't be able to put affordable housing in each council district.

We do hope that with the projects that we are able to bring online that that will generate more um public support for affordable housing, so that when it comes to developing the next bond program, there will be an opportunity or there will be an um a support for increasing the dollar amount.

But I mean, to be honest with you, ten million dollars.

We're not gonna be able to hit every district.

We're not going to be able to address all of the issues, but it is an opportunity to kind of basically pilot the idea of affordable housing program and to be able to show what we can do with the little bit that we get, and then the idea that if we're able to get more, we can do a little bit more across the city.

But that's exactly my question.

So you don't have a lot, and so in order for it to go a long way, it would seem like you'd have to take the best value.

And I'm trying to understand how you're gonna make that determination.

So part of it will be again with the competitive process.

So going through the different um, we kind of have the criteria here.

We're gonna be looking for of the projects that are um identified that developers have ready to go.

One, which ones are able to be uh implemented as quickly as possible, which ones can bet best address our affordable housing need, which ones are compatible in terms of the financial feasibility, and so we will be assessing all of the projects that come our way and making um kind of our best guess decision as to which of those projects are the best.

So so Casey, I'm gonna go on the record because I'm a state of plane.

To me, what you just said is alarming to me because those things to me, I don't really need to feel like I need to know the numbers to know where that's going to land, and so I want to just go on the record with saying I don't want to continue to be proliferated in district six with affordable housing projects.

I want to I think we definitely need them, but it seems like we're being proliferated with them, and so whatever that process is gonna be, I think it's gonna have to be more than just looking at where it's gonna be easier.

It seems to me easier is where it's already at where feasible it seems like it's gonna be where it's most affordable.

So that to me targets a few of our districts, and we need to figure out how we're going to make sure that we balance those interests for all of it.

And I appreciate that.

And I'm done.

I'm not trying to be combative, but I just want to plainly state where I'm on that, where I am on that.

And I appreciate the feedback, and that's the point of it here because we have not developed the nitty-gritty details, and so based on y'all's feedback, then we can go back and identify like if there are specific types of projects or areas of the city, then we can incorporate that as part of our more detailed policy.

But we hear your feedback and we will um take that into consideration.

Um Casey, I have a question, Councilman Beck.

I I Idea that this is a great first presentation and it's generating a lot of conversation.

I think maybe we need to workshop this a bit more and get better.

And I I don't have a way of doing that necessarily, and also would love to have some of our outside partners in the room at the same time and even get their real-time feedback in an open meeting to kind of spitball some ideas before we formulate a process because I do think um I want this to be successful.

It needs to be successful for us to ever have future bonds on affordable housing.

So that's just a suggestion to the chair and open to suggestions from council also.

I would I appreciate that.

And I you had no way to know that of the timing, but you know, yesterday um major bill passed um the Senate, the American, whatever we're calling it, building more in America, right?

And it's the whole purpose of that is to build more housing stock, and by looking at the bill, or at least highlights of it, um, there are a lot of places where there's synergy.

They're offering a lot of money for communities that are doing work like this, like trying to make sure we have enough housing stock, they're offering grants.

Um, and so what I would like to see is I know that it just passed, and so you know, um, I don't expect y'all to be experts on it.

Well, that's y'all, and but um um uh how we can develop this bond program to capitalize on that, like for just by way of example.

They have a 200 million dollar competitive grant program for local governments that demonstrate measurable increases in housing supply, incentive incentivizing reforms, such as streamline permitting, density bonuses, and zoning changes.

So I bring this up because it there's more to it than just me complaining about what the data, you know, the academics say um we have we now have federal law that we can use to um to to gain more to to leverage on this, and so I'd like to see how um what was passed impacts what we're doing and how we can shape that bond program to capitalize on maybe potentially seeing some additional grants, certainly.

Yes, we can definitely do that.

Um we've been following it, um, but definitely we can do a deeper dive now that it's gone through to see um leveraging is a big part of what we're wanting to do, not only in terms of the target areas, the idea behind the target areas was leveraging redevelopment efforts that the city already has, and then also the idea is that not only will we have this 10 million dollars, but we will be able to um leverage it with other private and federal grant dollars.

So definitely leveraging is something that we want to see, and in terms of that federal bill that we can see that as well.

Um I do want to address um the mayor's comment in terms of the um getting feedback from our partners.

That is definitely something that we have an interest in doing as well.

Um we did we weren't able to um because we did want to present this to the HFC board before we presented it to the um outside public, but we did get kind of discuss some of um some components of what we were proposing with um a group within the city of Fort Worth that includes not only private developers but also nonprofit developers, and then we did indicate to them that once we had you all, once we present it to you all got your feedback, then the plan was to continue to work with them to make sure we develop this project in coordination with them because we want to make sure their efforts that's happening on the side.

Um, some of the things that we may be able to do, um, but then some things that may be better fit for private partners.

So we will definitely do that.

Councilman Nettles.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh thank you for the presentation.

I have a couple of comments I want to uh allude to.

Okay.

Uh a couple of comments.

Um, one, again, as Councilman Beck said, we would appreciate the citizens for voting for uh this housing bond.

And I and when we broaden it, it gave us the option to do more.

And so I think is I was gonna actually suggest the same thing that the mayor's assessed about a workshop, and it may be like a small committee because I do think that we need to do it as soon as possible so that we can have um successes going into the next bond.

And so um I'll I'll nominate myself and beg to sit on that partial committee with other groups, yeah.

Uh housing channels, um, all those nonprofits that are part of what they're doing in the city of Fort Worth.

And I will allude to say this as well that today's affordable housing.

It's not project-based housing, it is uh housing, single family housing with uh because I have a lot of in field houses that come and develop their brick homes, they're nice homes, and they can go in any community within the city of Fort Worth because they are built with quality.

And one of the things about this this housing fund is we want to make sure that homes are built citywide, not just in certain districts of certain zip codes.

And so I think it's important that uh when we talk about this, the city of Fort Worth is not building the homes.

Developers will be coming to us, and so it's gonna be hard to uh eliminate and say, well, we we don't want you in this district, we want you in that district.

So I think it's gonna be a comment of us to make sure that we already have partners that we work with with that we do with the infield housing um within your department uh that we continue to move that forward.

But I would like to get a robust, maybe just a meeting with a round table uh with some uh community partners with a couple of council members to kind of hash out and talk about what we can use these dollars.

It's not a lot of money.

We want to make sure we put them in and lastly, uh you mentioned the Dana already, uh, but I want to make sure that when we do move forward that if people come in and apply for these dollars more uh for one of those um sessions that we don't hold them back because we're saving it for maybe a complex or maybe single family, if that makes sense.

Yes, and that is the intent, uh even though we've identified four or four and two, those are kind of soft um measures, um, kind of to your point.

If there are more projects on the multifamily side or single family side, vice versa, we would want to have the flexibility to adjust the dollars as possible, and then even with the two million dollar um set aside, that is you know, if there's a really good project that comes after we um do the formal RFP process, we want to be able to have funds that are available to put in those projects.

Any other questions, comments, concerns?

None seeing none, thank you.

I appreciate it.

Look forward to working with you on this.

Great.

Um we have one more action item, and it's consider and adopt a resolution to accept funding to support affordable housing related to the city's chapter city's chapter 380 economic agreements in Casey.

Run on up, girl.

And I would tell you, so this was actually came to the city council for approval back in December 2025.

There was an informal report, and then also uh mayor and council communication that was approved in December.

The economic development department sponsored this.

The reason for needing this is now the HFC has to take formal um action to accept the incentives.

But basically, the incentive would be um for the potential developments.

They could get a five percent rebate on increases in their property taxes, and then those dollars could be sent to the affordable housing um, I'm sorry, to the housing finance corporation to be used for affordable housing.

Do we have any questions on that?

Seeing none, do I have a motion?

Y'all gonna arm wrestle over who's gonna make the motion?

Oh, are you second?

All right, all those in favor?

Aye, any opposed?

All right, motion carries.

Do we have any future agenda items?

Sounds like we had one, and it was just to bring back some additional information on that.

Um anything else?

None meeting is adjourned.

Y'all have a great day.