 Good afternoon. I'd like to call the October 23rd 2023 housing authority regular meeting to order Members of the public may view and listen to the meeting as noted on the city's website and as noted on the agenda As a matter of housekeeping, I'd like to remind commissioners to keep the microphones muted unless they are speaking The city of Santa Rosa committed to us creating a safe and inclusive environment free from disruption We will not tolerate any hateful speech or actions and are well-staffed to monitor that everyone is participating respectfully Or they will be removed if necessary. We're also immediately in the meeting Kirk, please explain how public comments will be heard at today's meeting At each agenda item after the item is presented the chair will ask for housing authority commissioner comments After the commissioner comments the chair will open the item for public comment For members of the public attending in person when the chair calls for public comments after an item is presented Please go to the closest public speaking podium and the upper tier of chambers Once situated at the podium the clerk will unmute your microphone and Permit your permit your comment to be heard Public comments will be limited to three minutes per speaker per item Public comments are limited to one comment per speaker per item Additionally, there is one public comment period on today's agenda to speak on non-agenda matters. That would be item five This is a time when any person may address the housing authority on matters not listed on this agenda But but which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the housing authority Before I ask the clerk to do a roll call for attendance to assist with streaming the meeting and capturing Commissioners as they are speaking. I want to remind commissioners to please ask the chair to be recognized before asking a question or making a comment This will allow time for the cameras to shift to a new speaker Please ask I'm asking the clerk for a roll call, please Okay, we'll go ahead and do roll call for attendance We will start with commissioner Smith here Commissioner Newton here Commissioner Conte And Let's see commissioner Friedman will be absent commissioner Downey It's currently absent And vice chair LePenna Also absent and then chair Owen here Okay, let the record reflect that all commissioners are present with the exception of commissioners Friedman Downey and vice chair LePenna Thank you. I'd like to move to item three which is statement of abstention Are the commissioners if there are any statements of abstention in today's meeting Hearing none will go on to item four, which is a study session And I believe Manager Rebecca Lane is presenting While she's getting the presentation up item 4.1 is a study session housing choice voucher program administrative plan Update to administrative plan changes required by the housing opportunity through modernization act Thank you for your patience commissioners My name is Rebecca Lane, and I am the manager of the rental assistance programs for The city of Santa Rosa And I am pleased today to join you again with a second in a series of presentations Regarding the housing choice voucher administrative plan Update to administrative changes Administrative plan changes which will be required by the housing opportunity through modernization act of 2016 So first an overview of the purpose of the administrative plan And the voucher program The housing choice voucher program is a primary rental assistance program under the department of housing and urban development The housing choice voucher program is administered by public housing authorities That operate under contracts with HUD The Santa Rosa housing authority is currently contracted to administer 1925 housing choice vouchers The code of federal regulations part 24 is where the regulations for the housing choice voucher program are found And additional guidance appears in public and Indian housing notices or pih notices And discretionary policies within Those regulations are determined by the local housing authority board of commissioners And those policy decisions are outlined in the local administrative plan As such the administrative plan must be adopted by the housing authority board of commissioners at a public meeting And changes to the administrative plan are often specific to a certain subject and Effect only parts of the administrative plan. It is a lengthy document. It's about 600 pages Of just going over all of the rules and regulations of the program They're restated in the administrative plan how the the federal regulations that are not flexible and It's also the document where local policies can be outlined And an example of that is the project-based voucher program So that's determined on a local level whether or not those policies need to be in the administrative plan And then an example that you'll see later on in the meeting Is Information and policies and procedures related to the administration of the waiting list for the program We do have regulation changes That's not a program that was available to every jurisdiction That are anticipated in 2024 under hotma, which is the housing opportunity through modernization act That was passed in 2016 But the implementing regulations were just released last month September 29th. So between the last time I was here to talk about these changes and And now we did get the implementing guidance from HUD and One of the things that also changed in that guidance was the timeline for when those changes need to go into effect So we are We have much more of this information than we did last month. This slide is a little bit of a repeat of Last month just as a reminder Of what we need As a housing authority in order to move forward with the hotma changes So the first thing is that we were waiting on last month But that we have now is the implementation guidance that was issued On september 29th We have a new data transmission form So every family that's on the program there is a Report that's generated in our software To indicate where the family lives what their income is who's in the family All of that information is transmitted to HUD on a particular electronic form that form has been completely revised the new one was Published on october 6th That will be the one that we are required to use once the policies All go into effect in addition The way that we transmit the data and where we transmit it to is changing That is currently Our financial information and our household data information are stored in two separate systems One is called the voucher management system One is called the public and indian housing information center And both of those are merging into one Called the housing information portal That is still very much in the testing phase So we can't Transfer on to the new policies under hotmail until we're also able to Transmit the data into the new system So Excuse me that We do have access to that system and we will be testing as soon as it is ready for us to do so The local software that we write and maintain here in our housing authority Also will need to be updated in order to reflect the changes to the forms that I have mentioned So there's some major IT effort going on behind this as well The requirement to transfer to the hotmail rules because they are so different than the current rules Do have to go all at once so it's an all or nothing effort And we now know that we have to complete the transition no later than january 1st of 2025 The september 9th publication of the implementing guidelines did tell us a little bit more about the timeline when I was here last month What I the information that we knew was that we had to Publish our new administrative plan Before january 1st of 2024 But still without a go live date for the hotmail rules to go into effect So that's changed now We do not need to come back to you before january 1st of 2024 With the new plan instead that will be closer to march or april Depending again on some information that we're still waiting for from hud the the it Efforts that we need to make sure that we're testing and are going to be successful So by april is when we will present the new administrative plan under the new rules And it will be due to hud Roughly 75 days before our fiscal year start date of July 1 So yes, there it is april 17th 2024 is when our specific deadline to submit To update our administrative plan, but because there are still Some updates that need to happen from hud Regarding specific policies We are still anticipating that we will be publishing An administrative plan under which we will not be fully operating so in that document we will have pre hotmail policies as well as post hotmail policies And ideally be able to project in that publication by april 17th of 2024 What specific date we will transition to the new rules But at this point I don't know if we will be able to do that or not because there are so many other moving parts that have yet to unfold so in addition to The changes Under well in addition to the policy changes under hotmail some examples of those Are that there is going to be an asset limit implemented on the program? of $50,000 Technically under the regulations very strictly interpreting that What that means is that if a family if a household has more than $50,000 in assets Then they will not be eligible for the program However, there's a lot of caveats to that that in some of those details and exceptions to that policy are still being Discussed at the federal level So that's an example of some of the significant policy changes that are going to Come under hotmail in addition The hotmail regulations are changing the inspection standards The inspire standards. That's the national standards for physical inspection of real estate those standards are meant to Join together all the different types of inspections that federally assisted housing falls under So right now the housing choice voucher program operates under One set of inspection standards and public housing Under another and multifamily housing yet another so they're joining across all the different program types one inspection standard This won't be too different for us because we've actually been a pilot agency testing these standards in parallel To housing quality standards for about four years So we're very familiar with them and this won't be too big of a lift It's just again waiting on some technical information in so far as transmitting the data to HUD And then we'll also anticipate As we always do that there's some minor language revisions in the plan So this timeline we've updated since last month But just as a reminder last time I was here this first study session was just a definition Purpose overview of the administrative plan The second study session today, uh, we uh, have just gone over the anticipated timeline for the implementation Of hotma and our next study session, which I don't yet have a date for We will Present the draft administrative plan and we will seek direction about the discretionary policies that we do have still under the hotma regulations And then at some point before April 17th of 2024 We will bring the full administrative plan with your feedback on those discretionary policies And I am quite certain at this point that we will still need to come back After april 17th of 2024 For just additional Cleanup of language and and other things that might still be pending by the time of that april submission And that concludes my presentation. I'm happy to take Any questions? Thank you, kate. Any questions from commissioners? Okay, um This sounds like they're all pretty much standardized Changes, um Coming down from hood Is there any Uh local tweaking that gets done Yes, there is um Some degree of discretion within certain policies And we're still fleshing that out as to which ones We do have control over and which ones we don't often What that looks like is that hood has A Past a regulation and given Choices to a local jurisdiction about how You know to a degree how you would like as a local jurisdiction to Implement that particular change But there are some things that are set in stone The asset limit is one example where the Discretionary policies associated with that Might relate to how we verify a family's assets Or but but there's no flexibility about the asset limit itself right and the application Dates on this Will we be having an opportunity to review these changes? Yes. Yes. So the next study session Um Which I At this moment. I don't I can't say for sure what month that might be that we'll be ready to bring that But at the next study session That's what I plan on doing is asking for your feedback where there is discretion where we do have Opportunity to implement something that makes sense for this jurisdiction Okay, okay. Yeah, because I'm um I'm interested when we get to the point of possibly expediting some of the The real estate inspections, you know, if that's a possibility. Do you see that as being something that we might be able to do? locally by expediting do you mean The like the scheduling of inspections or Yeah My experience has always been when a person is Moving into a new property That An inspection is set up whereas if we have a A property that's been built by the city and With our funding and we pretty much have been With it along the way. Can we have like one inspection boom city is I understand Unfortunately, no, we won't have any discretion As far as that is concerned Inspections will still be required It's the standards to which we are inspecting that are changing And they're largely the same Certain items a broken window for example, it would that would fail an hqs inspection It will also fail an inspire inspection. It's just a matter of Making the Inspection standards similar across the board for all the different subsidy types. Yeah, it just seems like a lot of Time and Human time and effort that goes into that whole process And if I can just elaborate on that for a second too is the regulations do require Have a sunset date for inspections. So for instance, if we inspect a unit and no one moves in within 30 days We have to reinspect it And that is per had regulations. So Frequently, we'll have landlords who say this unit is ready to lease staff will go out there Inspect the unit and if no one's moving in Within 30 days, we have to go reinspect Commissioner smith Yeah, can you define uh assets? You said you have this $50,000 asset level. What what is the definition for assets? Yes, well, I can tell you as best as I know right now Which is that that refers to Cash in your hand in bank accounts 401ks property Um, so any um Any asset uh those the combined value will not be allowed to exceed $50,000 Mr. Newton Thank you, rebecca. Um a couple questions on implementation Uh They push the date back to january of next year Do you think that will be because we have to transition overall at once right? And so do you think you'll have everything you need? From hud in order to meet that january 1st deadline even after now that it's been pushed back I do think that we will meet that deadline the january 1st of 2025 or really december 31st of 2024 is the the The very last deadline and that I think that hud will stick to They have given us more flexibility right now in How and when we'll roll out the policies and they did that because they were hearing from so many jurisdictions that Have publishing something on january 1st of 2024 that no one In september knew what it was going to look like Was unrealistic So I do think that they've already provided some flexibility on and extensions to the deadline So I don't think that date will be pushed back any further my I'm anticipating I'm hoping Imagining that our transition Will coincide with the beginning of our fiscal year, which would be july 1st Okay, and so you feel like you have everything you need at this point from them to stay not quite yet, but uh, yeah You're hopeful that you'll have it when you need it. Yes The thing I'm curious about is the it burden. There's new Database I guess that you guys will be inputting your information into And then hut is developing that but you mentioned Number of updates that need to be done in-house. Now is that to align with this database or is You mentioned forms and things like that. Yeah, so our software is developed in-house by our it department and that software takes all the information that our staff is entering about the family data and Puts it into this electronic format that is submitted to hut and both the form that is filled out by the software system and the Uh database where we submit that information. Both of those things are changing Um, the new forms the electronic forms were just published on october 6th But our it department is already completely on top of it. Uh, I've been answering emails this morning about questions from them about You know different things. So I I don't uh have any concerns that are The amount of work that Is being put on our it department for this is going to delay it in any way. They're very efficient. Okay So going forward, uh after this sort of wave of work that needs to be done to implement it Do you do you anticipate it'll be that the same amount of work for Those folks going forward or more less? I mean, hopefully you'd hope that a change like this would streamline things and create less work a lot of times In actual, it's not the way it works. It's more. I'm just curious what you think, right? The it the it work. I think I can't answer that yet because we haven't been able to access the testing site Because not ready for for housing authorities to be testing yet Um The work for the staff the eligibility workers on our our front line folks This is not streamlined for them. This is more work for them. So that's unfortunate and one of the One of the ways that we are looking at the discretionary policies is What will present more administrative efficiencies so that we can save some time Because we know we're adding a lot of time In other ways how so for more frontline folks the verification procedures the The way in which we make a determination as to whether or not we will review an income change We used to have more or we currently have more discretion over When a family reports an income change, whether or not we're going to Change that portion of rent. So our current policy When that happens if your income has gone down Then we're going to readjust your rent because you you should be paying less rent if your income goes up We're only going to go through the process of making a change to your rent if you're if it's a change of greater than 20 percent because on balance it's more work to do that that gives the family some more Income in their pocket And we can't we won't be able to do that anymore under the the new regulations The the determination as to whether or not An interim Reexamination will be done is based on much more complicated factors than whether or not the income has gone up or down So it's things like that All right, I appreciate it and I guess in the administrative plan We'll see some discretionary things that that hopefully make it a little easier in the implementation I hope so too Thank you any other questions from commissioners So I have a few questions We used to have the waiting list on paper And now it's all electronic is that being completely converted over? So that's the subject of my next presentation the report I am But that we have both now basically is the answer to that so we do have an online system And we also still have paper applications To and I think Rebecca correct me if I'm wrong is we keep the waiting lists that we received in paper until we exhaust those waiting lists So we are still working through The prior applicants who applied via paper. So that's why we have those still in place the Most recent waiting list which we just completed this summer was electronic with the exception of individuals who requested accommodations So if you have access issues or other limitations that would prevent you from applying electronically Then we provided an accommodation of a paper application Thank you and all that data is housed with the city Or is it go up to the waitlist stays here locally? Yes, okay So it's not transmitted. I'm just kind of concerned about security with it being transmitted back and forth No, that's completely the waiting list is totally in-house. That's not the people that are on vouchers That is transmitted up to HUD and any income verifications down. I don't remember those done annually Uh at minimum they are done annually. Yes, okay, and that's the income verification sets all done online now Yes, so the electronic systems that I mentioned that we're currently using the pick system and the vms system The pick system is where the family data is transmitted And one of the reasons that is being replaced by the new system is because of information security The new system will be more secure Okay, thank you. Any other questions from commissioners? Um want to open it up for public comment Not seeing anybody in chambers for open comment. Uh, we will do email any email There are no email public comments for this item. Okay, so I will go ahead and close for For um public comment on this one item This is a study session. So we don't have anything to vote on We will go ahead and go to Item 4.2, which is overview of loan payments All right, thank you very much chair. Oh, and the next study session is an overview of loan repayments And I will be presenting it with nicole delphi orantino who was our Housing community services manager for the housing trust While she gets the presentation up We put this presentation together to respond from Respond to a commissioner question from a previous meeting And thought it would be beneficial for all commissioners to receive the information And have the ability to ask questions as we we go over it So just to give you some quick background on our loan portfolio. We currently have Value of about 182 million and this is all of our loans put together We track these via software that our it department that rebecca just spoke about Created for us and they provide regular maintenance So it helps us monitor the sources of the loans the term and other compliance aspects The majority of the loans that are approved by the housing authority have a 55 year term And that's from the date that the deed of trust is recorded With a few exceptions, they are secured loans. They're secured against the property They accrue simple interest three percent Again, there are a few one-offs where we'll have slightly different interest rates or if a loan was funded Through this data, california. There's one program that requires a one percent interest rate But the majority of loans that are coming before you are three percent simple interest 55 year term And they require repayment of surplus cash So surplus cash Is determined on an annual basis All of these loans are required to provide us with audited financial statements at the close of their year generally The project loans run a calendar year. So january 1 to december 31st So each spring we receive we being nicole's team receives Audit of financial statements for each of the projects The general practice is that the property owners hold these in individual limited partnerships to isolate them from other Investments and then also to protect the limited partners interests So the surplus cash is determined by reviewing the Operating income and the operating expenses of a project Some of the items that are deducted as operating expenses After actually some of the things that are listed after the operating expenses Are the deferred developer fees? And so you may see this as we're reviewing loans If a project's going to take a two million dollar developer fee They may choose to leave A million of it back in the project and then pay themselves back as the project goes gets up and running So we would see that coming out of the project once it's it's in service Also, the partnership has management fees these generally about 25 to 30 thousand a year and that's for expenses associated with the partnership Oftentimes our loans are behind loans from the state of california So they will take their loan repayment from surplus cash ahead of us And then we also do see ourselves sometimes In reimbursement situations with the county of sonoma. So we'll also see repayment of loans from the sonoma county community development commission So this is a high level example of maybe a little bit difficult to rate on the larger screen But hopefully it's clear to you on your your individual devices But just walking through what some of the the income and expenses are for a project So you'll see the majority of rent in this particular example is from actual unit rent They may receive other revenue from laundry fees or if there's other fees on the property those Do vary by by project site? Most common operating expenses are the salaries and benefits for the employees of that particular Project that could be the the manager the maintenance staff Um property utilities. So these water trash PG knee for common space or depending on how they they handle the individual units Repairs and maintenance is oftentimes one of the larger expenses on the sites A property management fee Depending on the project owner sometimes we'll see In-house management like for instance with burbank housing they have their own management arm But there is a fee associated with that or other projects may hire a third party manager for the site General administrative expenses would be the costs associated with the office for the for that management The management of those units and then finally insurance for that project So you can see With the revenue we had about almost $900,000 in operational revenue and then we're deducting about 400,000 in operational expenses Our loans the housing authorities loans to these projects are deferred But the majority of projects will have a first mortgage that requires regular debt service So you'll see that coming out of the The project's income The fee associated with conducting the annual audit for the project Then we'll have partnership management fees and then if there's any fixed assets that they need to Purchase for that particular property So in this case you'll see that the the surplus cash that was available is a little over $12,000 And that would then be split among the various Lenders who have deferred loans for the project There any questions on this slide before we proceed? What's your new Yeah, can you explain what it means is that what deferred loans? What what does a deferred loan mean so our loan like our loans deferred There are no required payments unless there's surplus cash, but with a first mortgage you have an established repayment Cycle so they're they have to pay monthly Debt service payments. That'd be your principal and a crude interest on the loan. Yeah, thanks Any other questions? Mr. Conti Are these loans ever transferable? I'm sorry. Could you speak into the microphone? Are these loans ever transferable? Our loan documents do provide some provisions for the transfer of a loan It does need to be reviewed and approved by the housing authority So we want to vet the the organization that would be Assuming the loan make sure that they are in line with the intent and purpose of our Funding I do have a question on here. So Purchase the fixed assets that usually you'll see lenders have a requirement for replacement reserves Which means it's a reserve for replacing windows down the road the roof down the look down the road not necessarily for Fixing a broken window or something Are those counted as an allowable and expense? The replacement reserve or the the fixed assets replacement reserves Are an allowable expense and in this particular example? It wasn't showing up as a line on them. But yes, we often see that and it is required, I believe in hcd loans require a set replacement reserve for the projects and tax credits as well And when you're talking the difference between Partnership expense management and property management fees that would include on-site and off-site Property management or owner expenses associated with the properties that correct? Yes, um, so we'll have the on-site expenses So the salaries and benefits for the on-site management, but then the property management probably has them back end Expenses probably accounting or something that you would see in the property management fee So that's to collect all of those those costs And then Items that I've seen for these properties sometimes the cities will defer their fees those For building permits or or connection fees that sometimes happens for affordable projects Are those senior to these loans? What I've seen most common is when we have fee deferrals those will come out At the conversion to perm when we convert from the construction loan to the permanent loan So oftentimes during the final cost certification Okay, and that wouldn't be included in an annual Audit and financial statement because this is looking at you know say year 10 of a project So if there were deferred fees Of those would have been repaid those have been taken care of by now And oftentimes that's how the city structures it is if there was a deferral of say park fees It would need to be repaid When they convert to their permanent financing. So when the first mortgage comes into place Um, I don't have any other questions. So thank you very much Next we want to just quickly walk through How you're seeing the loan repayments? From surplus cash. So in 2022 and this would be for expenses that were income and expenses for the calendar year 2022 We received approximately 600 000 in loan repayments And the way it breaks down is we return it to its source fund So we want to go to the next slide We attributed it all back to where it came from. So that's how On an annual basis when you're looking at the funds that are available to lend The amounts will greatly exceed what what our you know, cdbg entitlement is because every Loan that had cdbg In it that provided us with surplus cash. We're going to put the portion of the principal and interest back into that fund So you can see we have a rather big chunk for housing grants We'll see a lot of home and cdbg And then our local funds which are the real property transfer tax and in lieu housing fees. So those are the most common Funds that are repaid and then go back into our Loan pool to relent This is just kind of a summary of what I just explained And so that's how we develop the revolving loan fund And on an annual basis when we're looking at about a little over two million in federal grants and then several million In local funds that we generate We're able to take the the principal and interest from repaid loans and put that back into our revolving loan fund For upcoming nofas So that was a quick summary of our loan repayments and nicole and i'd be happy to answer any questions Any questions commissioners I'm going back to the Beginning on background All loans have three percent simple interest. How did you come up with that simple interest number? And I'd say not all loans the majority of them. Unfortunately. I don't know off the top of my head how we arrived at three percent But it is in line with what we see from other lenders Um We didn't change it when the market You know when interest rates were very low. We were still lending at three percent right now It seems like a pretty good deal in the lending environment But I but I don't know exactly how they arrived at three percent And the other would be It's just simple interest rather than compounded interest like a normal Hi, thank you for the question. Yes, it is simple interest We are in the business of making sure that these units stay affordable and not necessarily Going to income production For the housing authority. So with that being our main goal It is industry standard to keep it at simple interest rather than compound interest so that the properties can retain A portion of their profits to put into the replacement reserves and whatnot to help keep the properties In a good working condition You know the questions from commissioners Mr. Conti Um, yeah, I have a quick question. Um Are they backed government backed for any default? So In these particular examples, we're just talking about our loans. Um, they're secured by adida trust if there's a first mortgage Oftentimes those are from um lending institutions. So they would be in jeff Please jump in if i'm Way out of my lane of knowledge, uh, but those would Would they have government protections for a first mortgage a commercial as a commercial lender? Well, just to the extent In general general terms of any mortgage loans Who's ever in first position has for first right if there's a default And if they foreclose the loans that are junior, which these loans are junior They're subordinated to a permanent lender's dita trust. They would be wiped out But that doesn't necessarily mean that the first lane because if you looked at what we did We were talking about the earlier slides for the cashflow You'll see that debt service on the permanent loan is is senior But to the extent that the surplus cash was not being Paid to the city that would be a default on this loan and then the dita trust on The city's loan would take care and I will see the city attorney shaking her head correctly. So I think i'm doing it, right? Um, so you could have a permanent lender that's fine No default getting paid, but that doesn't necessarily mean the junior lane Which this would be is could still go into fault Because that cashflow is not being paid back and under the terms of the agreement. Okay. Very good. Thank you Any other questions? So one to carry through on this because it's it's a 55 year loan And to the extent that the end of 55 years the surplus cash was inefficient Not sufficient to pay all of it. It's it is forgiven at the end of 55 years Is that correct So now the loan terms are 55 years the loan becomes due and payable at year 55 For any balance remained owing of the principal and interest that has not already been paid by the interim surplus cash payments And if the property is sold the loan becomes due and payable. Is that correct? If they don't wish to have it assumed by the new owner Then yes, it would become due and payable But the regulatory agreement would survive any loan payoff to ensure they continued affordability for that 55 year term And again as we were talking earlier in terms of seniority the regulatory agreements even senior to the of any permanent loan So a permanent lender has to if they were to take it back that regulatory agreement stays in place but Which requires the below market rate Units whatever was put in place to make an affordable project that would stay in place that way That regulatory agreement is senior to any bank loan Correct and typically in practice what we see at the when we get to the end of that 55 year term Is that the projects are still typically owned by a nonprofit? They wish to keep them affordable They typically look to re syndicate In which we would then extend when we come to the housing authority But we would seek approval to extend the term of the loan along with an extended regulatory agreement To keep that affordable project For a longer term I'm not mistaken the 55 year Term is new within the last 15 or 20 years. So we haven't seen any of these come to maturity. Is that correct? Correct? That's I was going to jump in after Nicole finished Probably within the last 15 years we've moved to a 55 year term prior to that it was 30 And so we have seen a handful of those come forward Where they have refinanced the property The request to extend the term of the loan and then also extend the regulatory agreement has come before the housing authority And it's our goal to preserve the affordability. So after we vet the The finances of the project and the the refinancing Our general intention is to support The extension of the loan term and regulatory agreement to make sure we keep those units affordable Thank you. Do any other questions from commissioners? You mentioned that the property could be sold During this time frame. Why would a property in affordable housing be sold? So I'd say it would most often occur in the case of a smaller nonprofit If they are no longer able to sustain their operations When we have seen those in the past they're looking for another nonprofit to to take over the project And if we have any Any ownership units will see those Turnover more frequently, but for like a rental project. It would be a nonprofit or a group that is no longer operating the units Or has had a shift in their mission And the city would have to approve any kind of sale or something like that Yes, again in our loan documents We we have the sale transfer So it would need to be a request to staff and then presented to the housing authority for there to be a change in ownership And then an assumption of the loan Just as a follow-up and my understanding is that any sale the property would be done with the regulatory agreement in place So you can't sell the property and then for make then make the property a market rate unit The regulatory agreement stays in place. Correct Any other questions from commissioners? Any public comment not seeing any public comment? We either have stuff our staff or ourselves here today will Small community any email comments There are no email public comments for this item Thank you. I'll go ahead and close comment public comments for this item 4.2. Thank you very much. This kind of gets Into a complicated, but the nuts and bolts of of how we do projects and every time we do these study sessions It's important for everybody to quite understand sort of understand how all this works We will go ahead and move on to item 5, which is public comments I'm not seeing anybody in chambers for public comments any email public comments There are no email public comments for this item Thank you. We'll go ahead and close public comments Um approval of minutes any commissioners have any comments on the draft minutes from september 25th Not hearing any comments. Um, this it doesn't require a vote. So we'll just put down that they've been approved Moving on to item 7, which is chairman commissioner reports and I understand that uh, commissioner newton had a question Yeah, just had a quick question I was reading about I was reading the press democrat. I know you love those questions that start that way but I was reading about this uh Bay Area housing for all bond that's sort of In the works and it sounds like a really good deal for affordable housing I was just curious if your department has a role and Sort of putting forward any, um, I don't know wish list items or or Drafting requirements or anything like that if there's any role for your department or maybe even the housing authority with that with that bond So the answer is yes, and we'll be returning to the housing authority at a later date um, the bay area housing finance authority is Operated by abag mtc. So the association of bay area governments and the metric politics and transportation commission They are advancing a housing bond in november of 2024 Um as government staff we can only provide education. We cannot provide any advocacy for voters um, but we are in the process of Learning more about what that means for our community Developing we will be developing a proposed expenditure plan to send to abag mtc And that will be done with review and approval of the city council and we'll share that with the housing authority as well We have not gotten to the city council step yet If the bond is to pass Santa Rosa could receive Anywhere from 120 million to about 240 and that's based on a bond size of 10 billion 10 to 20 billion dollars So again, that's really the november 2024 ballot another Item that needs to occur in order for that to be successful is a change to the state constitution that would Reduce the voter threshold In order to pass that currently it's at two thirds and they are looking to reduce it to 55 of the voters um so your Input from your department to the governing agency. I can't remember the acronym, but the uh, it will it be How that portion for santa rosa would be uh allocated? The expenditure plan as it is currently being contemplated Would I would require us to identify the the various? Types of housing and programs that we would put the money towards so the development of new affordable housing would be the primary interest But there's also I believe options for rehabilitation Renter protection. Um, so we would need to outline those programs and processes to administer the funds Thank you Mr. Ersmith on this, um potential bond uh, megan How do they just would they just give santa rosa? We'll say 120 million dollars put into a banking account and we would just draw down on it. Is that the way it would work? So this is jessica melin from the city attorney's office. No, it's okay. I just wanted to jump in. I may I'll let Director bassinger respond to this particular question But if you all would like to discuss it in more detail, it might be best to agendize it for a future meeting If we're going to get into an extended back and forth on the topic so So commissioner smith in response to your question that has not been determined yet is how the drawdown and If there would be several tranches of funding or one One lump sum Mr. Conti Um, yeah, I was just wondering if that bond could include something in terms of home ownership program Again, we that would have to be something we we contemplate right now. This is in its infancy um So there'll definitely be more information coming coming in the future and we will put this on the agenda for further discussion Okay. Thank you Following city attorney's recommendation. I don't if we get to the point Um, Megan where we think we're it's pushing closer because we're looking at over a year from now Um, I would like to have the come back from staff kind of explaining the outline of what's in the in the legislation even though We probably won't see legislation for this for quite a while in terms of a draft So what do you recommend in terms of having enough information to kind of explain how this would work Right now, uh, Nicole and I are participating in um Kind of educational meetings with abag mtc staff Once we have some more information we'll look to schedule something in the winter to present to the housing authority Perfect. Thank you so much um, any committee reports Oh, I need to open this for public comment. There's no public comment here. Any email public comments? There are no email public comments for this item. Thank you. I'll close for public comment on item eight Seven item eight any committee reports? Anything housing if there are any questions of staff? I think we probably already covered that um Following protocol I don't see any Public comment and chambers any email Public comments. There are no Email public comments for this item. Thank you. Go ahead and close for item eight and move on to item nine Which is executive director reports and communication items All right, so attached in your agenda packet is the monthly pipeline update Um, which gives you a look at how units are progressing um And what the housing authority is looking to see start construction in the near future A couple of noteworthy items that I want to mention this month is this friday and hopefully all of you have received Email invitation and have been able to respond will be the grand opening for laurel at perennial park This is the site of the former journeys and mobile home park That the housing authority was able to provide financial assistance as well as project based vouchers To help develop the the senior affordable units. I believe it starts at 11 a.m. On friday So hopefully you are able to attend Staff is also working on the closing for burbank avenue apartments and again a closing references the execution and review of all the loan documents from the various lenders Burbank avenue was before you last month to Clean up some of the uh ownership structure for the project and that will be Uh developed by burbank housing and that's 64 units on burbank avenue. So we're excited to see that close and start construction Um last month. We also reviewed the down payment assistance loan program. This is known as d-pal And that's a two million dollar program that the city funded Uh applications opened at the beginning of october. We've received 53 so far They are currently being reviewed for eligibility and um the initial applicants will be notified Likely this week on their eligibility for the program Um so commissioner conty this goes back to your your question about home ownership This is a new opportunity for residents of santa rosa to apply for a home ownership loan And it would be up to 75 000 or 10 of the purchase price It's a deferred loan so no payments are required as long as you are living in the unit as your principal residents and because it's a An ownership unit for a single uh single family house condo. It's a 30 year term to match uh conventional mortgage And then finally, I just want to mention that the housing trust is beginning The consolidated plan process. This is a requirement of HUD that we have to do every three to five years To outline how we will be spending our cdbg home and hop of funding Um, so it's a rather lengthy endeavor that uh trust staff is initiating and will likely be before you in the spring I'd be happy to answer any questions Mr smith I noticed that on the current uh construction there are seven projects that If everything goes okay, we'll be completed by the end of the year Our reports and generated sent to the state that we have Completed these projects and we get credit for them So on an annual basis the city reports to this california department of housing and community development on the permits issued And then the permits completed and that's where yes, we report on The affordability of the units and receive credit for our regional housing needs allocation so depending on when those are completed and that requires the Um Their certificate of occupancy and the final inspections for the project So some of those in all reality might slip a little bit Um, but they're first reported when the permits are issued and then we follow up With the state on completion So uh take it uh overall the city is looking good and building affordable housing It's kind of a big question. Um so every We receive uh cycles rena cycles and they identify the number of units that we They would like to see us build in certain income categories Our current rena cycle is 2023 to I believe 2031 and requires a little over 4600 units at various levels of affordability um I think from from my perspective we're doing pretty good But it does take a lot of financing to meet those goals. Um So we don't we don't usually meet the the low income goals because As I'm sure you've seen in some of the funding requests that come forward We're usually putting in about a hundred thousand dollars of housing authority resources per unit in order to assist a project So it is difficult when we have new six million dollar NOFA budgets to provide enough financial assistance to advance all those projects And again The projects that we're seeing on this particular pipeline list Have benefited from disaster recovery funding from An increased amount of tax credits available at the state level again due to the disasters in 2017 And then the state has also had more resources available for affordable housing in the last few years than they have I'd say in decades Any other questions from commissioners Yeah, for the down payment program, I forget how So there are 53 applicants. I forget how many we thought we would be able to service with that program Could you remember what that was? Yeah, so we have two million dollars available. We are estimating help about 25 households we'll see You know, it depends on the purchase price because it's 75 000 or 10 percent of the purchase price So that's where we can get some some variation And hopefully we'll be able to assist more than Than 25. Yeah When when do we think those payments will will go out? One of that process finish up and those down payment assisted payments go out. So what happens is once buyers are determined to be Eligible, um, they are notified and they have six months to search for a home and get into contract That can be extended if they're making diligent efforts to To get into contract So I'd say in the next few months, hopefully we'll start to see the first loans closing And then those loans will stay in place for The term of ownership for that particular household or 30 years Thanks Any other questions from commissioners? I I do have a question the estimated completion date for what's under contract. How often this is reviewed I'm sorry. Do you mean for the projects that are under construction? Yeah, so I'm I'm looking for example that we've got The talk went to place 1115 Projects, um, it's not uncommon to have them slip in terms of their schedules. So Where is that? How how often are these Updated is that something that was looked at when the initial funding was put in place with the SMA completion or is this Is that calm updated every month? It's updated monthly And Staff is reaching out to the various developers to check on the timelines. Perfect. Thank you so much Open for public comment and again seeing no one in chambers I will now ask for any email comments. There are no email public comments for this item Okay, thank you. We'll close Close this item for public comments Uh, we will move on to item 10 for consent items. I don't believe we have any consent items We do not so no public comment on On that item item 11, which is a report item for an update to the housing choice voucher program administrative plan chapter 4 And we will open it up For rebecca lane to for presentation. Thank you Okay, good afternoon commissioners Again, my name is rebecca lane. I'm the manager of the rental assistance programs for the city of santa rosa And I am here this afternoon to present an update to chapter 4 of the housing choice voucher program administrative plan Which covers the application waiting list and tenant selection policies The housing choice voucher administrative plan as you have heard in Previous study session in this meeting as well as other study sessions and items Is the primary policy document for the housing choice voucher program There are primarily in the administrative plan the federal regulations outlined within that document As well as certain agency specific procedures and policies Where there is discretion at the local level to make certain decisions revisions to the administrative plan are reviewed and adopted through a public meeting process And as I mentioned today's review is of chapter 4 of the administrative plan Which covers the application waiting list and tenant selection procedures The reason that we're bringing this item is today is Basically to clean up language That is in the current version of the document We didn't want to wait until the full administrative plan since that got pushed back Into possibly april so this one was important to just take care of Primarily as you'll hear so that we can continue to accept referrals for one of our limited Preferences So the first item that we'll cover is The procedures for our waiting list So earlier this afternoon we had a question regarding the wait list And the waiting list procedures are not going to be affected by hotmail at all the Waiting list Policies that we have in place here at the city of santa rosa Have been in place for Several as long as i've been here And that is that we set Our determination of as to how you get on the waiting list and at what rank you're placed on the waiting list That's done randomly. That's done by lottery So that part is not changing We have just merged on to an online system for households to apply to the wait list So we previously have had paper applications those paper applications go out to the community And are returned through the post office and that All of those individual pieces of paper are entered into Our system There's a lot of reasons that that is more, you know, administratively burdensome Both for the staff certainly but also for households to be able to access and apply So we had been working on an electronic wait list process prior to the pandemic but that occurrence really kicked that effort into high gear because we also had emergency funding available And we wanted to be able to get that to the community at that point in 2020 There was no office that was open And so we we launched for that particular funding source the online application process and since 2020 Have now fully merged over to the applications being Primarily done online We do still have paper applications for households and individuals who are not able to or choose not to Use the electronic process. That's completely fine. And we will continue to communicate On paper with those households And an important question came up earlier that i'll specify here This did not this merger of the wait list from paper to online application system did not Throw out the old waiting list. We still have everyone who has been on the wait list They just had an opportunity to create an online account for themselves Most people did Makes it a lot easier. You can update your Your contact information and those sorts of things You can also apply for additional opportunities For project-based voucher units for example if those units are Are aligned with, you know, what your housing needs are And We also are able to communicate general affordable housing information through the electronic system such as Last month with the depal Program rolling out we we communicated to everyone on the wait list that that opportunity was available So the electronic system has really just enhanced our Ability to communicate with the households who are in need of assistance And we still have the paper system available for for households who need it We Also Wanted to just Explain in the administrative plan document that this is now available and explain in that document How the How people access the the online system. So that's what has been Provided in chapter 4 with regard to the waiting list procedures And again, there's there's not any policy change here. The the applications are still selected by lottery and The that has not changed. It's just a the way to access the wait list the the other item that we're presenting to Clean up in the language is related to the limited preferences that we have on our wait list So currently we have one general and two limited preferences on the wait list The difference between a general and the limited preference is that a general preference applies to the entire waiting list the entire existing wait list And may if households qualify for it Move them up to the top of the list The one general preference that we have is if your If we had to terminate a family from the program because of a lack of funding that That general preference was established during Sequestration, which was the only time in recent memory that actual The threat to the funding for this program was was out there And because of the what was going on at the federal level in terms of budget cuts So we established that preference back then and HUD has encouraged us to maintain it Not because they anticipate that that will ever happen that we would have to cut families from the program because of funding issues but it's something that Is good to have in place in case of any funding emergency And the limited preferences are ones that Determine a specific percentage or number of vouchers Of our turnover per year that are set aside for a specific population or a specific local need And that requires that you partner with an agency that is working to To contact Those households that would qualify for the preference. So our limited preference are The two that we have one is It was established in 20 2018 for disaster Survivors folks who lost their housing as a result of the 2017 wildfires So in this item this recommendation is to eliminate that language from the administrative plan because We have fully utilized those vouchers and the partner agency Which was rebuilding our community the rock That agency has disbanded after this number of years So because that limited preference doesn't particularly apply anymore Then our recommendation is to remove it from the administrative plan And the second language revision is for a still active limited preference One that household to qualify can be referred under and that is for people experiencing homelessness And what we need to do here is just change the language to clarify that now Referrals for that preference should come directly from the coordinated entry system When we established this limited preference in 2017 The the systems were not the same as they are now Our partner is still the Sonoma county continuum of care But at that time the referrals were coming directly from all the different agencies who participate in the Sonoma county continuum of care and now the COC Has established a coordinated entry system Where by all referrals for all housing opportunities for people experiencing homelessness come through so we'll participate with With that effort By offering these vouchers. We're very familiar with that referral system and process because that's how all of the emergency housing vouchers have been referred so The recommendation is that the By resolution the housing authority adopt revisions to the housing choice voucher program administrative plan chapter 4 application waiting list and tenant selection policies To update the procedures to apply for the housing choice voucher program waiting list eliminate the limited preference for households affected by the 2017 wildfire disaster And update the referral mechanism for the limited preference for people experiencing homelessness And I am happy to take questions. Thank you any questions from commissioners commissioner smith. You know, I I just had one What the what do we do here to find new landlords to take section 8 tenants Is there a program an outreach program to convince Landlords to to take them on it sounds like a lot of them are reluctant So I was just curious what the city does to find more. I mean you can have all these vouchers, but if you can't use them They don't help Yes, we have participated in a number of outreach efforts and education efforts for the community For a number of years. It's it's really one of their consistent efforts our most recent Partnerships have been Not only with the nonprofit agencies But with the other housing authority here in our area the Sonoma county housing authority So we've done a lot of joint education efforts. We'll go to meetings of real estate professionals To present items and information about our program One of the ways that we partner with nonprofits is by If those agencies have funding available for other types of housing support such as case management Or security deposit assistance. We'll partner with those agencies to to continue Educating the community because there are more Dollars now in the community for other types of rental assistance not just the housing choice voucher So we've been able to work with the agencies that have that type of funding as a more general education effort The other thing that we That is now a factor is that the state has a source of income discrimination law, which means that solely on the basis of having a voucher or having another form of rental assistance That can't be a reason for a rental application to be turned down so the Northern California fair housing advocates as well as legal aid and california rural legal assistance Have done a lot of education around that and we've partnered with them on that effort as well So we've been successful to add new landlords to the program Yes, I don't have that data in front of me right now, but um, but we have We have seen new landlords particularly with the emergency housing vouchers Come come online and part of that is because there was additional funding under that program specifically for landlord incentives Any other questions missioners? Mr. Conte go ahead Yeah, I'm wondering um With the the date that a person gets on the the wait list And then the lottery how did that lottery system work? So we typically open the waiting list one for one month Every other year and during that one month we receive most recently We received seventy four hundred applications. It was a month and a half actually the last opening And we selected at random five thousand households from that seven thousand four hundred And so not only Were the applications that would be added to the list selected at random their rank was also Determined at random. So Everyone who applied in 2023 has been added to the bottom of the waiting list because the other piece of our waiting list is that it's Just by time of application. So they've been added to the bottom of the waiting list below people who applied in previous years and the If you are first in the group who applied in 2023 or you are last in the group of people who applied in 2023 That number was also determined at random. So it's a combination of when you apply and the lottery system which we've Determined is the most equitable way to distribute the the resource But of course, um, those people who applied in 2021 or earlier Get priority Yes, so the people who are currently at the top of the waiting list applied in 2016 So they've been waiting And they are coming to the top of the list in order In the order that they're ranking which was determined at random applies Why is the wait list open then? What reason for that if you've already got so many people That's a that's a good question and um, there Are housing authorities that do it differently Um, we have determined that We want to be able to communicate with people especially now as we have more project based voucher units Those are Those might be specific to certain households. So for example At crossings on astin. We have six units small number of units, but they're all three bedroom units So those are great for large families And if you are currently on our waiting list and you have a large family you can See that Is available to you and you can apply for that and you might get that assistance faster than you would the tenant based voucher So because we have other opportunities that we want to communicate to people And because we want to offer some degree of hope that Even if it's a long wait We we want to be able to um stay in touch with people during the duration that they're on the list And offer them any other sorts of opportunities that um come along during that time And how are the people contacted? I guess there's going to be a few people who have already found housing Who would be bumped from the list? Um People aren't necessarily going to you know update Whether they're still looking or not Right. Thank you for that question I mentioned that we open the list typically every other year And in the intervening year the year in between We are updating the wait list. So we send out a communication To everyone who's on the list to say Are you still interested? Do you think you're still eligible based on your household income? Um And Please confirm that Affirmatively so if you have a paper application if that's the way you've chosen Then we'll send you a form and you have to send that form back And if you have opted for the electronic system, then that will all be through email and and through the household logging into their account So we do Check back in Frequently as well To make sure that people can Can opt out if they don't want to be on the list anymore Or If they have moved out of the area, you know, there's a lot of reasons why people might not stay on the list And that doesn't reorder anything that just might Put more room between you know one rank And and then the next one if five households in between rank number one and rank number six have Fallen out then you know rank number seven is going to be the next person so So we do that with the same amount of frequency as we do opening the list to try and keep all the information Fresh On average in a year, um How many people are taken on? To the program section eight program that depends on How much we are spending in assistance for the households that are already on the program So we're constantly balancing between The number of vouchers that we have In our contract with HUD and the amount of dollars that we're spending on providing assistance to The households who are already actively receiving assistance. So as our portions of rent Go up either because of our payment standards increasing because the rents are increasing or because households are losing income then the It might result in fewer families Coming off the wait list because the vouchers that we have available is also Connected to how much funding we have available So there's not like averages over the last few years Not counting maybe during the fires or something right? Yes, the last few years have been There's been something unusual in each one of them. Um, but Off the top of my head we we did call a lot of people from the wait list this year this calendar year Not a lot of households followed through with the applications. That's another piece Is that once you do get to the top of the wait list whether or not at that moment you're ready or needed? That can affect how many households were serving so I I don't want to Inaccurately answer that question so I can come back with that information about how many households Have come to the top and how many ultimately did receive assistance this year. Yeah, okay. Well, thank you Any other questions from commissioners Mr. Newton So what's the overall number on the waiting list now if it goes back to 2016 how many people are on there? Roughly About 7,000 right now so You just want to have something confirmed because I had somebody asked me in the community Why wouldn't qualify for this because I'm a one person and then not a household So a household can be one person Absolutely. Yes household refers to a head of household and that and any other members of that Household and it can we can serve single single member households as well as Families of multiple people can I asked? Our next meeting in the meeting following as we talk about this if you could put something together that basically shows This is the amount of vouchers. We have this is what the dollar amount is and in kind of show of I know we're going to have an aberration during the fires in covet But this is what our average Voucher dollar amount has been So people can kind of get them an idea And to balance that off. This is all data. I know that that you have that, you know one bedroom The in the way it works is there is a one bedroom fair market rent two bedroom three bedroom So if we look at that, this is kind of how the I think it's just good for the commission to see Here's one to three bedrooms. I don't know if studios may be And say this is this is the number of vouchers we have and this is kind of the average that goes toward that Is that data that you can be put together? Absolutely. It's also by bedroom size and show this is the fair market rent This is what the voucher is which means the balance, which is 30 of their income is with the rent payments Is that correct analysis on the on how it stratifies? so the household pays 30 of their income not 30 of the rent So The data that we'll have is the average housing assistance payment We can break that down internally by bedroom size, but HUD tracks it at just an average level across the entire program and that information Looking back and current is available. I actually on HUD's website So it is publicly available, but i'm happy to also put together a presentation To explain that to the commission and point out where that information is publicly available And also drill down a little farther into our data Yeah, again if it's more conversation to do by bedroom size just I wanted to see kind of a trend in terms of This is where the rents are going Because fair market rent versus if you were to look for an apartment, you're not always the same number right? And to look at what the fair market rent would be This is what the voucher is on average As it was in the last few years and this is therefore the the tenant would be paying their their 30 percent And that's 30 percent of gross income not net income. That's correct. Okay Appreciate that. Thank you Any other questions from commissioners? We don't have any public for public comment any email comments There are no email public comments for this item. Okay. Thank you. Uh, close public comment We do have a resolution to vote on uh, wanted to see any commissioners would make a motion for the resolution I uh Make a resolution or a motion to back the resolution We have a second a second Uh, can we go to a vote please? Okay, give me one moment. Okay, we'll do a roll call vote for this resolution. Yeah, we will start with uh, commissioner smith Uh, then commissioner aconte I Uh, commissioner newton. I And uh Chair oan I Okay, uh, that motion passes with four eyes with commissioners um Downey And freedman And vice chair lapena absin Thank you very much and as always i want to thank staff for Again another wonderful presentation and putting again all this information It can be quite complicated and we'll move to adjourn today's meeting. Thank you