All right.

I'm gonna call the meeting at 631.

Welcome.

Uh chess committee meeting.

And Angie, would you mind taking a roll call for me, please?

Sure.

Representative Goldberg.

Good evening.

I'm here.

Representative Gross.

Gross is present.

Okay.

Representative McEwen.

Present.

Representative Polak Palak.

Sorry.

I'm here.

Representative Price.

Present.

Representative Sivestri.

Present.

I'm letting Kendria over now.

Hold on.

Okay.

Representative Walston.

Present.

Okay, Representative Weirs.

Present.

And Representative Yeager.

I don't see him.

No.

He is excused if he's not here.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

Welcome everyone.

We have two, I think, wonderful items on our committee tonight.

Can I have a motion for item number one?

It's a rejection item, chest 32.019.

Uh allocation of 500,000 to Pacific House Inc.

to facilitate the development of 15 units of affordable housing at 66 Stillwater Avenue.

So move.

Second.

We have a motion and a second.

And uh would you, Ralph or Emily, like to introduce the item and take the floor?

Uh sure, I'm happy to.

So uh this item is um or let me start this way.

The Affordable Housing Trust Fund Um approved $500,000 for Pacific House for a project that's located at 66 Stillwater Avenue.

Um it's for uh 15 uh new deeply affordable units.

So about half the units, seven units are uh for people making between uh zero and 30 percent of the area median income, and the rest is for uh people who are making below 50 percent um of the area median income.

Um so uh this is actually uh a second um appropriation to Pacific House for this project.

Um they received, I believe it was in 2022, 750,000, or let me put it, it was allocated.

They haven't received any money yet.

It has not been dispersed.

Um but uh they have asked for uh another um uh $500,000.

And uh as they explained, uh this is necessarily uh in in to cover increased construction costs, as you all know with um uh prices going up.

Uh construction costs has been going up uh significantly since the pandemic.

Um but there's also uh changes in the federal policy that are affecting their work.

Um so uh that's why they have asked um for um another uh $500,000.

Um overall for the overall project cost, this is still um a relatively small uh proportion um of uh the total cost.

So um at its uh meeting last week, actually uh the Affordable Housing Trust Fund Board uh approved the commitment letter um for Pacific House.

So um I would like to ask you to um uh I guess reject the item so uh that the money can be um uh uh awarded uh and we can work with Pacific House to uh get this project going.

Thank you, Ralph.

Um I don't see any hands, but I do remember this came in front of us.

It was approved or rejected uh unanimously through the board of finance, correct?

And I do remember that this was going to be an issue um that they thought about it.

Was it last year?

So I will let people ask questions.

I see Representative Gross, you have your hand up.

Yes, thank you.

Um I'm a little confused.

So we're we should be rejecting the item if we want to approve it.

Yes, it's one of those fun ones.

But shouldn't we be voting no on the rejection?

I'm I'm confused.

Yes, you vote no on a rejection to approve it.

So when we take the vote, if we want it to happen, we vote no.

Okay.

We're rejecting the rejection.

Right, right.

Oh, I see.

I see.

Yeah, we're rejecting.

So we're not rejecting, we are approving by voting no on the rejection.

Okay.

Yes.

It's a logic trick.

Right.

Okay.

Um, my my other question, uh, Ralph, what is the uh the total cost of the project?

Just so we can put this money in perspective.

Um, I don't have the total cost, maybe uh Emily.

Do you have it?

But um you can uh say that uh for affordable housing, the unit costs about uh $600,000.

So if you take the 15 times 600,000, that would um uh get you the uh rough project cost.

So the um like uh uh 1200 uh 50 or 1, uh 250,000 uh that uh were approved by the Affordable Housing Trust Fund together, probably cover two units out of the 15.

Yeah, and I think um I I don't have it exactly in front of me, but my recollection was the last thing that they submitted to us was maybe around uh 10 million.

I see.

So this is this is just a small portion of the overall project.

Okay, great.

Thanks.

Yep.

Uh do I see any other hands?

Uh let me know if I'm missing anyone.

But I'm excited to see this come through because I remember it came up a while ago.

So all right.

Um with no other questions.

Let's take this to a vote.

Angie, would you mind helping me keep track of it?

Sure.

Um and then again, just a reminder if we would like to have the $500,000 go to Pacific House for this project.

We are voting no.

Okay.

Okay.

Do I need to make a motion to vote?

Yeah, you just call it as the cheer.

Okay.

Andy, I need your help with the okay.

Um actually we could do a voice vote for this one.

And if we have any differentiators, we'll go back.

Um, all in favor of oh shoot.

Because it's a rejection item.

So all in favor of the rejection.

In favor of rejecting this item, say aye.

I oh no, no, you don't.

Wait, wait, wait.

Let's start over.

You're you're welcome to vote I if you would like to unapproving it.

But um, all in favor of rejecting this item say aye.

If you want to approve it, you say no.

Okay, starting again.

Um, for item chess 32.019.

All in favor of this item, say aye.

All in uh gosh, I need help.

I've rejecting this item, say nay.

Nay.

Yeah, absolutely not.

It's terrible.

Okay.

Um any abstentions.

Okay.

Andy, did you get that?

We are rejecting this item.

Yes, I did.

Okay.

With great vigor.

All right.

Um, moving on to item number two.

Do I have a motion for chess 32.020?

So move.

We'll have to move that.

Second.

All right.

We have a motion and a second.

And this is another rejection item.

Uh it's an allocation of 150,000 to Charter Oak Communities to provide security deposit for up to 60 new housing choice voucher recipient recipients.

Sorry, recepiens, I can say it.

Households.

Okay, Emily or Ralph, would you like to so um uh the housing choice vouchers, they're also known as Section 8 vouchers.

So uh that is um a federal program uh that provides uh rental assistant to um eligible households.

And uh Charter Oak actually was uh lucky enough to uh uh being awarded uh more Section 8 vouchers um from the federal government.

Um but they have um a fairly short time period to get people into apartments, and in many instances for uh low or extremely low income households, um the problem is uh making the security deposit.

So uh in order to make sure and to not lose uh those section eight housing vouchers.

I think they have to uh rent uh uh or or get them into apartments uh by December of this year.

Uh they have uh put up this program where they help uh those households uh paying uh uh the down payment uh assistance.

So uh they asked for uh 150,000 from the affordable Charter Oak.

They're also putting in 100,000 of their own uh resources um in this project.

Um obviously uh uh when uh someone moves out, uh the money would come back to Charter Oak and Charter Oak and deploy it um for other um security um deposits.

Um I think this is a little bit of a special um application because it's the first time that the Affordable Housing Trust Fund doesn't support brick and mortar project, but this is sort of a program uh um item.

And um I think uh uh it's uh good to see that the affordable uh housing trust fund is branching out uh a little bit and and tries to address different uh uh components of the housing um crisis and the housing problems um that we have in the city.

Um so uh yeah, that's in a nutshell um what this um allocation from uh the affordable housing trust fund um is about wonderful.

I'm very excited to see this one come through.

And I see representative Jeff Weirs, you have your hand up.

Yes, um, this isn't a question, but it's really a comment as someone that works in real estate and works with uh tenants and landlords and from time to time working with section eight uh vouchers.

Just for I I think it's worth noting.

I think this is an amazing opportunity, amazing um um thing that we're potentially putting out there.

But I think uh it's worth noting what a security deposit typically is.

Um I can't really say it's the standard, but ask a landlord asking for two months security is very very common um in our market.

Um it it would be the equivalence of a place that is renting for 2500.

Um, you need to come up with $5,000 as a security deposit in addition to your first month's rent.

So for um, you know, for many of the um section eight applicants, that would mean they would for a 2500 rental, they would need to come up with 7500, you know, up front, um, which is I will say nearly impossible for many of these people, and this is definitely an enabler um that will help them.

Um it's also worth noting um state law, um, security deposit uh um if you're 62 years or older, um a landlord cannot ask for more than one month's security deposit.

But I think it's fabulous um that this opportunity is out there, it's gonna definitely assist uh people that are um on vouchers.

Thank you.

Couldn't agree more.

Thank you.

Um Representative Gross, you have the floor.

Thank you.

Um yeah, I just want to be clear.

So this is money.

The the Section Eight, the federal government isn't isn't providing or they don't provide um any of these security deposit vouchers.

So this is something that we're doing sort of on top of the Section 8 housing to I guess enable people to get the Section 8 voucher.

Yeah, the Section 8 voucher is for the rent, but it does not cover uh the security deposits.

Uh so uh it closes really uh this program really closes the gap uh between uh the security deposit and and the rent payments for uh for those types of tenants.

Right.

Is this the first time that we're uh doing something like this?

Um I'm not sure uh if um Charter Oak has done this uh in the past or any other of the uh organizations that deal with housing in the city.

Um that's fine.

Thank you.

Um thank you.

Uh Representative Price, you have the floor.

Thanks very much.

Uh Ralph, I know I think you said it, but I just wanted uh uh understand how many units will this cover from a deposit standpoint.

I I missed that, I'm sorry.

Uh so the city uh it's for up to 60 uh eligible uh uh parties.

Thank you, sir.

I yield.

Thank you.

I do not see any other hands.

I will also echo.

I think this is phenomenal.

Thank you.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead, Representative Walston.

I see you.

Um good evening, Director Blessing.

Could you repeat uh you said something about the security deposit and when they move it stays at a place?

I didn't catch it because my iPad isn't that loud.

Uh I mean the the money, so obviously you get your security deposit back um after you move out um off uh uh uh a place uh if if there's no problem with uh the apartment so uh in that case uh um charter oak would get the money back.

They could in theory give it to the same household again if they move uh to another um uh uh apartment uh and are still eligible for section eight.

Okay, okay, sorry.

All right, thank you.

You're welcome.

Are there any other hands?

No.

Um okay.

Um I'll just wrap up by saying again, I feel like this is a pilot program.

I have not seen it come through, and I know for the past five years, how many people have struggled?

They get the vouchers, and then we lose the funding because they can't even move into a place.

So bravo, whoever initiated this.

Thank you.

Um with no other questions, I will move this to a voice vote.

So this is again a rejection item.

Same thing.

So all in favor, say aye.

Um, and uh forget how to say it.

Thank you guys.

Laugh with me.

Reject to approve.

Reject your proof.

Thank you.

Reject approved.

Or say nay.

Nay.

Nay, absolutely not.

Okay, uh we unanimously reject this item.

Thank you, and please keep us posted how it goes.

Uh again, bravo.

Absolutely.

Thank you very much and have a good night.

Good night, everyone.

Thank you.

Good dry.

We need a motion to adjourn.

Um, do we need a motion to adjourn?

Well, we've completed the agenda.

So well, I'm gonna keep you guys here with me for a little while.

Okay, uh, motion to adjourn.

A quickest meeting, I think, in history.

Uh second, and all in favor.

Good night, everyone.

Good night.

Bye.