 I started recording. I don't, you can see if Eric will join us or sit. Yeah, I expect we'll see them in the next five minutes, but let's get started. I don't have any announcements. Does anybody else have an announcement? Yeah, I can share the agenda, I guess. Okay. Okay, I mean, we will learn things as the meeting goes on, but I don't have anything specific that I'm aware of that's going on. Okay, the first order of business is to review the minutes from the August meeting. And I sent that out probably 10 days or so ago. With my first detailed description of what we would be talking about. So opportunity for questions or comments about the minutes from August. I guess you must have done a good job, Lucia. No comments. Not even on the length. Nothing. Okay, well thank you Lucia. So we can put those in the bank. And anybody who wants to know what we were doing in August and look at our website. As soon as we figure out how to get them on the website. Okay, so a week ago, there was an afternoon forum. Sponsored in part by Amherst neighbors, but also by ourselves, the Amherst affordable housing advocacy coalition. The Am and also the League of Women Voters of Amherst. We can always count on. And the focus was partly on kind of the status of what's going on with housing in Amherst and what the future may hold. And then the second part of the forum focused on housing needs for older adults. So I don't know how many people had a chance to attend. It just occurred to me this afternoon to send out some of the materials from it. I sent out the slides for my presentation and also some notes that I got from Mary Beth Ogowitz and Jerry Weiss. So in general, it was one of our better attended forums. There were about 60 people in attendance. We didn't quite get all of their names and email addresses, but we got a good number of them. And we'll be following up and Amherst neighbors is also following up with people. I think they're going to do some kind of a satisfaction survey. And we'll see what happens when all that comes back. So any comments or questions about the forum? I am just like even though I did put a link to the video and the presentation. And a few things on the trust webpage. And I can post John the notes that you sent today. You know, the other presenters. So the video is now available. Well, it's, um, yeah. So it's just a link to the zoom one. It's just a link to the zoom one. And it's actually that link off the replace it when it gets posted somewhere else. So. But it works. It works for now. Sue Lowry's as you had trouble, but everyone else I emailed a number of people and they all could access it. So I don't know. Okay. Well, we'll try and make it generally available. And then we'll replace it. I guess we're waiting for the Amherst media virgin. Yeah. Okay. Well, hopefully in the next week or two. Right. One of them will have it. Um, let's see. I had a few notes or questions coming out of the presentation. I think there was certainly a lot of interest in the idea of doing a development for older adults. Um, I heard about that from some people after would who followed up and said, how can I get involved in that? Uh, and I'm not sure quite what the answer is to that at the moment, but I hope there will be an answer. And we can find a way to for people to participate both in the discussion of what it should include. As well as, uh, Advocating for such a development. Um, One interesting note. I learned. I think this is from a chapel bulletin that at late August, the department of housing community development, uh, released a new notice of financing awards or not awards, but applications. And among them. And it's probably happened in the past, but I haven't been paying attention was an announcement related to, uh, developments for seniors with service needs. So, uh, DHCD looks like it's definitely welcoming applications of this kind. And, uh, obviously we don't have anything that's going to go in right away, but I'm assuming that they'll be repeating that announcement next year and the year after. Welcome Erica and Sid. Good to see both of you. Thanks for coming. Uh, Let's see. So that was a good thing. Um, One other thing that I think was helpful. Was getting some information from Mary best and also from Jerry Weiss about the population in need. So at some point when we're putting together. An application, we can use some of that background material as well to support, uh, the idea that indeed there is a need for development like this. That there are and will continue to be seniors and Amherst. Who need, uh, an affordable housing place. Um, As, as they age. Let's see. Um, other comments or questions. Can I just, I just would like to say there was one thing that was disappointing to me and that was to learn that. Should we want to do something like a housing development that was mixed ages, which would also there seem to be interesting. There isn't really any funding to do that. Um, All the funding for, um, elder housing is for elder housing and everyone has to be old and you can't. That was, I just want to say that I was, Cause I'd rather live someplace where it's not all old people being old people. And, uh, And so I just want to say that that was kind of a disappointment. A truth, but a disappointing one. Yeah. No, I think you're not the only person who was disappointed with it. Yeah. Or like, yeah. Or, I mean, right. Or, you know, What a developer go through the lengths of having. You know, separate projects on the same site. So they can fund it differently. And that just seems like a pretty big run around. Um, You know, one thing John, I thought of afterward is, you know, what we didn't discuss was aging in place, which, you know, we mentioned that as seniors are staying in Amherst. And at some point I felt like, you know, you were thinking, oh, that's a bad thing because the homes are available to newcomers, but at the same time. Um, I think that just speaks to housing production in general, but I think, you know, it is a big, you know, people may be more comfortable staying where they are. If it's not, you know, if they're not over housed. And so I think to me, that's still another program or aspect of it is, you know, how can we accommodate aging in place for those who want to do that. So. Yeah, there are programs actually to support that. Um, I'm trying to remember, I heard one from. Paul. Now I'm blocking on his last name begins to be anyway. Uh, he once worked for. Uh, the. Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. And part of his responsibility was to. Uh, essentially administer a program in which people could apply. For essentially a no interest loan. To retrofit their house. To make it more appropriate for, uh, people with disabilities. Or, I mean, not necessarily exactly a disability, but if you're aging and you anticipate the need, for example, for a wheelchair or for other accommodations in your house, you could apply for this low interest, no loan between from, uh, Pioneer Valley Planning Commission. I can't remember who funds it. And, uh, Uh, it would be a great way to pay for those kinds of costs. Anyway, uh, Sue Lowry and I talked about doing a separate program. Um, I think that's a good idea. Cause I didn't think that was appropriate to try to squeeze into this program. Especially since I hog so much of the time. Um, anyway. Uh, I agree, Nate. It's something that, um, Amherst neighbors is going to look into. And I think they'll have a separate program on it. And I think, you know, absolutely there's a need to find ways to. I don't want to stay where they are. Right. Oh, I thought, um, John, would there be any way that. It would be easy and not onerous. So go back to those slides that you had and put the, remember how the, uh, the legend wasn't there. So you didn't, it didn't say what those graph things were. Is that a hard thing? Could that be like whenever it gets uploaded to wherever, somewhere it's going to be uploaded to, could that get added? Uh, yeah, I think it could be added. I, I can't recall now, which slides didn't have the legend. Yeah. It didn't have a legend in PowerPoint. So it's up online now that, you know, the, the next slide or the second slide has a legend. The one, you know, it was about like, uh, Okay. Demographics or something and, you know, housing over time, but one of them didn't have a legend, but I didn't see it in the PowerPoint either. So it may not have ever been. Okay. I'm just curious if it, I just, whatever, go ahead. Yeah, thanks, Carol. Usually those things can be fixed and usually they should be fixed before the presentation. But sometimes I miss them. You know, I'm used to seeing what the slide is. And so I don't think about it from the point of view of someone who's seeing it from the first time. So yeah, we can definitely do that. Yeah. I haven't pulled up now. Yes. The changes in Amherst population over time. And there's a, you know, four or five lines, but it's hard to say what they are. Okay. We can work on that. We have a good person on the case. Uh, let's see. One of the things I was wondering about Nate, since I haven't heard anything is what's the status of the town's purchase of Hickory Ridge? I don't know. No, I think it's, it's, you know, it's always like, oh, it's moving forward. And I think, I mean, I think we're, the town's supposed to purchase it this month or next month, but, um, you know, it's been delayed before just because the owner is waiting to hear about permitting and financing. And so, um, but I think I really, I really thought that the end of this month was the. Kind of the, you know, kind of it, but. So it's the owner who's holding it up. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if the town has some questions, but yeah, I mean the owner, you know, applied for, um, I think I don't know if everyone knows, but you know, the owner applied for a pretty big solar field on the property. And I like two separate solar fields and he's waiting for financing and then, uh, some other things. So I actually think the owner applied over a year, like maybe a year and a half ago, uh, for solar. And I guess it's just taken this long for it, for that to be approved or for something to go through with it. I don't know the details to be honest, but. Yeah. I didn't want to go back to Carol's question about, is there any way to get families in as well? And Nate did say we could have perhaps a separate development, although that's potentially problematic, but, um, at one point I was thinking that there's a small piece of the property on the east end that could be set aside for affordable housing from to be developed by pioneer Valley habitat. It wouldn't bring a lot of kids onto the property, but it would bring on a few. Uh, I don't know if there's a way to do more than that. Uh, I don't know. Yeah. You run into various problems. Given the size of the property that's developable. You know, it's not. It's not easy to put two projects side by side. On, uh, what is a fairly small. Piece of property. The point of view of. You know, doing a larger development. But we'll see. I mean, I think Hickory Ridge will have, you know, other. Other uses proposed by the town or by the community. So I think, you know, As the housing trust that we like, you know, we can advocate for housing in general, or if there's, you know, a specific kind of housing, whether it's, you know, age restricted or not, but, um, You know, so I think that, you know, there is supposed to be a public process this fall and next spring to help decide how to program Hickory Ridge. Well, I think it. You know, At least prior to that or leading up to it, we need to decide how enthusiastic we are about seeing a development for older adults on that site. Right. Because it's Nate said that we'll be competing alternatives. And so we need to make a good case. That's what we want to do. I don't know. I mean, you know, I don't know if like fire if, you know, the fire department, if that's an appropriate site, I don't know if it, you know, public works, senior center. Um, you know, other municipal offices. I mean, I don't, you know, I, I feel like recreation. I mean, I feel like. Any, you know, there's probably a number of town departments that may have ideas, whether or not it's a physical building or, you know, it could be programmed, right? If the land can even be programmed for something. Um, But, um, yeah, I'm, you know, Okay, but you haven't heard anybody saying. No, I mean, no, at one point, efficient, you know, us fishing wildlife was, you know, kind of interested or there was some talk about having some offices there or. Making it like a regional site with programming or, you know, I, I don't. I feel like, you know, there's been ideas that have been mentioned, but nothing is really, as far as I don't know, um, but it's been there for a long time. And I mean, what, what is it really? You know, getting traction. Other than just. Okay. Thanks. I mean, you know, there's the existing clubhouse and parking lot. And so. I mean, you know, I don't think that clubhouse and maybe it could be reused, but, you know, it becomes a, you know, A bit of a project to clean up the site and get it ready. If there is a development. Okay. Um, Erica noted that green leaves has. Erica. Correct. I actually lived there for two years and other than the family one and as you drive into it from where the Marriott is the first building is actually over 55 and and then behind it there are condos for over 55. So there were three buildings when you drive further in there were all families and the ones in front were for over 55 and it seemed to work very well. It's great having this intergenerational interaction. Okay. Yeah. I mean that's a pretty big piece of property that Greenleaves is on. What do they have? Five or six buildings now and they're building another one? It's pretty big and they're now called Vistas. The other thing that was really nice is that it was right on the walking trail. So for both for families and for seniors. It was just really great to have that recreational piece right there and they also had kitchen gardens available. But yeah, it's huge. It's pretty. Yeah. Well, Hickory Ridge is going to be a conservation area with the walking trail. So it'll have that as well. Just one reason why I thought it would be a good piece of property for this. Okay. Is there anything else to be said about that? I just wanted to mention one other thing now that I think about it. There were also one or two questions about how we get UMass to add residential units on campus. And I don't have a good answer to that. As far as I can tell from talking to people at UMass, there is no plan, whatever, to go beyond the 900 units or so that they now plan, which are mostly replacement units for things that they've already taken out like what is it? Village. North Village. Thank you. North Village and Lincoln and Lincoln Apartments. Right. I mean, Lincoln's still functioning, but it will be taken out. And so the net new number of units will only be 300 or 400, I think. They do have a huge plan. I'm sure if they have the money for it. They had a possible plan of building residential or actually dorms, or let's just say residential housing up in, I can't remember what that's called, but up in where Sullivan is across from Sullivan, I had once seen that they had actually thought about putting more residential halls up there. And then also where they have torn down across from the Korean church. I have seen plans a long time ago too. I just don't think they have the money for it. Yeah, I haven't heard anything in regards to those two areas at all. That was a long time ago. Yeah, at least 10 to 12 years ago. Were they part of the master plan for the university? Which has kind of been shelved? Yep. I mean, what I understand is the reason even slow to develop new projects is because the cost of building and essentially the cost of borrowing money in order to do that building is more than they can afford. It's not simply that they can't take the loans, although they're using state money for capital projects in other ways, mostly to build research buildings, which they can rent out to private companies for space. But also the costs of repaying those loans are higher than what they can retrieve and rents they can charge the students, which is the reason why they've gone to this public private initiative, which is now temporarily stalled, I guess due to the pandemic, and that was an experiment to see if they could do that successfully and then potentially go further. But until that plan is completed, there's nothing on the drawing board as far as I know in the university's planning office. And I don't know if there's any interest in the administration. I guess they've got other things they think are more important. Yeah, I do think that having students off campus isn't a bad thing in terms of taxes or economic development for the town, right? So if you kind of sequester all the students on campus, they don't leave to go to downtown businesses then go to restaurants. So I actually, whether it's on campus or off campus, I do think that having maybe more housing for students specifically isn't a bad thing, but I don't necessarily think it has to be all on campus. So when we did the housing market study, the consultants, you know, recommended, you know, and referenced other universities where they had off campus areas that were zoned for it, right? So you could have different types of neighborhoods or developments. I mean, the town did look at the gateway, which a lot of people didn't like, but at the same time, it wasn't, you know, it was an idea of trying to connect UMass and downtown with, you know, kind of a mixed development along North Puzzle Street. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad idea to have some type of off campus development. You know, I just... Yeah, I agree, but there's not much land in Amherst. Right. If UMass could encourage that kind of development just a bit to the east of the campus in Hadley, that would probably be helpful as well. But as far as I know, Hadley has restrictive zoning policies that wouldn't allow that kind of development. I don't know if anybody has a different perspective on that. Okay, let's go on to the next agenda item. Unless there's somebody who's an observer or participant who has a comment, I don't see any raised hands. So, okay, we'll move on. The next question that people may be more interested in is the discussion of the use of ARVA funding. We talked last time about a few ideas, which are on the agenda. And then based on that, primarily Nate took some work that he started prior to the meeting and expanded it. People may recall that Sean Mangano had asked all of the town department heads and other key people to pull together some information about what the unmet needs are that could be met by using ARPA funds. So, this is what Nate sent in to Sean. And part of it reflects our discussion at our last meeting. It actually goes on for three pages, right? Yeah, it's hard to see it all on one page. Yeah, we should have sent it to you. My apologies for that. Oh, I saw an email, John. I guess I assumed it was sent to everyone, but maybe it was just sent back. So, I think we can send it out. Yeah, so the town was hoping to do is have this, this is really an identification chart of kind of eligible activities and then an explanation of the need and the reason why it could need the ARPA funding. And so, the town had submitted, the point department, we submitted something saying housing. We had a few different kind of parts of housing. But then after the last trust meeting, it was kind of, you know, more specific in terms of, you know, like a dozen different types of housing or part, you know, something related to housing that could be eligible. And so, my understanding of the process is that there was a number of these submitted and the town is combining them or, you know, creating a master list matrix that they'll use to then seek public comment on, you know, areas to be funded. And so, I think the trust, you know, we could still, as a trust, still make recommendations and, you know, in the next few weeks or however long it, you know, whatever the process is, but at least we're able to get this in there for consideration. And we can, I can email that around. I thought it has been, but. Okay, there are elements of this I know because I reviewed it and made some suggestions today that are consistent with the ideas that we talked about at our last meeting. So maybe we should jump to those now. There were three ideas and I kind of added a fourth, which is really a part of the third idea. So I guess we should take a look at those three things that were on the agenda. Yeah, I guess it's the, these, it's really hard to, here's the last one, it's on a different page, but. Yeah, again, these would justify the kinds of proposals that we talked about, but they don't specify them here. Right. So we had three major ideas that we talked about. The first one was weatherization and retrofitting of heating systems for affordable housing units that are in multi-family or multi-unit developments. The, these are all on your agenda. The second one was the purchase of the University Motor Lodge for affordable housing or shelter. And the third one was a new or expanded mortgage subsidy program for first-time home buyers. And then related to that, I had a note from Megan McDonough. She pointed out there's the town owns a parcel in the North Amherst, really off Pine Street. It's a pretty small parcel. It's probably appropriate for either one house or maybe two houses or two family house. And she was asking what the status of that piece of property is and whether that also couldn't be included in this since it's town owned property. And it, again, it's not exactly, well, it would be subsidizing a home that would be built on a piece of land that could be for one or two first-time home buyers. So those are the three major proposals. And I guess my question to you all is what do you think about these? These are all ideas we talked about last time. Does anybody have any new thoughts or thoughts about how we should push these or how much money we should ask for these programs? This is in the context, I believe, of something close to $11 million in total ARPA funds that would be available. And I would assume that a significant portion of that could and should go to community housing. So comments from the housing trust or we have people outside who want to. Didn't you share that some communities were asking for specific percentage and then we could determine how to sort of spread that out among these three ideas. And then I think you actually raised, actually, beyond the North Amherst parcel, you raised the issue of supporting people and being able to live in their homes. So retrofitting their homes to be able to stay, seniors to be able to stay in their homes. Okay, that's a new thing that I don't think I recalled. But just to answer your first question, Erica, what I said was the governor had suggested that 20% of the state ARPA fund should be spent on housing. And we might or might not regard that as a benchmark. You know, if the total ARPA funding available for the town is around $11 million, we're talking about potentially $2.2 million if we use that as a benchmark. But there's no reason that somebody pointed out that it needs to be limited to that. We can ask for whatever we think is appropriate, given what we consider the need is. And then the town manager and town council will look at that in the context of other things that are proposed. I don't think we should be shy, is what I'm saying. I see Alyssa and Laura have their hands raised. So, Native, you could allow the two of them to speak, please. Sure. Thanks. I have a question. I don't know what ARPA means. American Rescue Plan Act. Thank you. It's something Biden proposed in this past oh, at the beginning of this current calendar year, I think. I was mentally trying to make it be regional planning something, and that wasn't working. Thank you. No. Okay. And Laura? Yeah, hold on a minute. I'm just going to... All right, Laura, I think you're going to mute yourself. How's that? I could hear you, Alyssa. It's good. Okay. Nobody flinched. I was like, oh, so I would make a strong pitch for the town to purchase a permanent location for Craig's Doors. Among the things that you're considering, I just feel like that has a much higher need priority than some of the programmatic elements that you're looking at. And I see the ARPA money as being kind of a one-time large resource. It's a once-and-done kind of thing. So, for me, it makes sense to pair it with a large capital expenditure rather than something that might be more programmatic. And I think there's going to be expectation to kind of get the money out the door. And I know you guys worked on that rental subsidy program. And you know programmatic funding is it's slow and steady rather than kind of out the door. But I just, I feel like that is such a dire and pressing unmet need for Craig's Doors to have a location that they can stay in year-round and depend upon. So that's my pitch. Thank you. Okay. And Kevin Noonan has a hand up. You're in disagreement with Laura probably, right, Kevin? No, but the 20 bucks is in the mail, Laura. Thank you so much. Which is right. We have 30 people living there right now. And the least that we have was prior to 2022. So if we could purchase that site, and we did talk with Jane Lechler, who used to work with Laura, about purchasing that. And the traditional model that Laura would be most familiar with, the University Lodge wouldn't probably be economically feasible because of the high cost of acquisition. But if the ARPA funds could be used for the acquisition cost, I think we can work with DHCD and CDAC to get the kinds of money that we need for programming and for renovations. It doesn't need a lot of renovations, but it does need some. And it would be a great thing since there's 30 people living there already. There's only 20 rooms where we double the people because they've been vaccinated. It would certainly go a long way to establishing a beachhead for people who are homeless in this community because right now there's almost nothing. There's no way. That's the problem we have with moving people out of the motel is that where do we move them to? There isn't any affordable places to go in Amherst. So the other thing I think I mentioned last time, and I must say it's nice to be back in the same time zone as you guys. That was a late meeting for me. You know what I mean? It just needs to have a, we need to have some place to send people. And right now Amherst is just totally untouchable. So if we could capitalize on these ARPA funds and acquire that site, I think it would be an excellent opportunity. Plus we've proven, I think I said this last time, to the neighbors around that there's no problem with coexisting right in the center of town. And it's very convenient to transportation for all our guests as well. So I'll stop there, but we just want to make a strong pitch for that. Okay, Kevin. I have to, Sam, a little uncertain about whether you and Laura were talking about the same thing. I hear you're talking about using the University Motor Lodge essentially as potentially a set of studio apartments with priority given to people who are homeless. Yes. Okay. Whereas Laura was talking about a permanent home for Craig's Doors. So to us, I guess it's one of the same, because we do both. We're trying to sustain this permanent supportive housing that we, well right now, it's transitional supportive housing, but we're trying to sustain that. And we also are trying to find another congregate site to operate this winter. Okay, but I mean, it almost seems like two choices. You know, we could say, okay, we need a million dollars in ARPA funds to purchase the University Motor Lodge and establish it as permanent supported housing with a priority for people who are homeless versus we would use the million dollars to purchase a permanent place for Craig's Doors as a seasonal shelter. And those seem to me not obviously in competition, but as separate ideas. Right. And if we were to rank them from our point of view, we would go with the permanent supportive housing first rather than congregate shelter. Because congregate shelters can gravitate toward congregate spaces like church, social halls. They're not ideal, but they, you know, we've done that for over a decade. Right. And not just here, it's, you know, I've done it for close to 30 years. That part is easier to accomplish than this permanent supportive housing, which is what our goal is. Uh, congregate shelters, especially in the time of COVID, are not the way to be focusing, you know, but not the focus we want to have right now. So you'd have to ask Art Laura, which she meant, but tend to think she probably agrees that permanent supportive housing would trump a congregate shelter any day of the week. Okay. Lord, do you want to come back for a moment to respond to that? All right, Laura, you can unmute yourself. Yeah, I don't want to argue with Kevin. But I do feel like Craigsters is such an essential service. And it's hard to watch it have been so thin over the years. And I don't think it should be seasonal. I just think that creates a lot of issues. So I do feel like there needs to be a permanent home for an emergency shelter because I don't think we ever get away from needing some emergency beds. And I totally agree that permanent supportive housing is a longer term solution to homelessness for sure. Okay, thanks. And Elizabeth, hey, good to have your hand up. Hold on a minute. Can you stay a little talking for Hi, Elizabeth, you can unmute yourself. Hi, can you hear me? Yeah. Oh, first of all, I appreciate everything and the conversations that are going on and all the work you guys are doing on affordable housing. I just wanted to clarify something. And I guess I should have asked this earlier. But we kept saying affordable housing for older. And then I heard affordable housing for elderly. And I just wanted to make sure you all knew that there are a number of older adults who are not elderly who also are struggling right now with affordable housing and Amherst. Okay, so I just wanted to either clarify that or just make that known. Thank you. Okay, when you say older, what age are we talking about? So I have a young man that I know who was living at the Perry. And they're renovating his floor and had to move. And for a really long time, six months, finally got into an apartment, but for a long time we couldn't find one that he could afford. And he works for the town and he grew up in this town. And he lives in this town. And it's a shame that, you know, he was almost homeless. But he's not now, because we found someplace, but it took a lot of research and work and asking and pushing for that to happen. So, and he's in his mid 30s, single man, no children. So, you know, some of the things that people get when they have certain demographics in their repertoire, he couldn't get because he's a single guy, no kids, you know, but yeah. Okay. I mean, when they become available, and I know Valley Community Development expects to break ground this spring, the studio apartments at 132 Northampton Road might be a place. And then even longer term, depending upon what actually gets built at our Belcher Town Road East Street School site, there may be some opportunity for single adults as well. But the most immediate thing in the offering is for the Amherst studio apartments. I mean, the problem is that there are lots of needs. Our job is to get as many projects as we can into the pipeline. Unfortunately, that still means doing them one by one. Right. So, again, I appreciate your work. I'm also on the Human Rights Commission and I brought this up as an issue and they said, well, why don't you just, you know, why don't you listen in on this meeting and offer some things if you can. But so I appreciate the work that you're doing. And I understand how difficult it is right now and how difficult it is in a pandemic and then how difficult it is in this town. So, thank you. Thank you. And I appreciate your coming. And I'll look for your advocacy as we push other people to meet the kinds of needs that you're talking about. Yes. Okay. Other people commenting on what should be a priority or how much we should allocate. I know I saw a comment in the chat that Erica said, why don't we just put money into everything, which is fine with me. We don't necessarily have to say this project gets $25 and this project gets a million. Let me comment on something. I mean, some great points have been made, but I'm hoping as we go forth and we're looking at some of these projects that we also look at our racial and ethnic diversity for some of these projects. I mean, one thing that, you know, I'm pretty sure we've talked about this and I think I'm talking to the converter here is that more and more our town is becoming wider and wider. A lot of our folks of color specifically cannot afford to live here. It's really interesting because somebody asked me to help him with getting some signatures for him to be on a ballot for something in town. And as I'm going around, I have a large group of friends and a lot of them are folks of color and I was stunned at how many of them don't live in Amherst. And that is just, and some of them make decent money, but they just can't afford right now to live in town. So as we go ahead and pushing for this project and we all in different circles, I know that we need to keep advocating more and more for, you know, racial and ethnic diversity in town. And I know there's, you know, people say said there's a lot of other diversity. I know that, absolutely. But our racial and ethnic diversity in town of Amherst is disappearing. And if it wasn't for some of our grad students and that are here who are international students or, you know, they bring their families here, I don't know where we would be as far as our, you know, full-time racial and ethnic diversity. So we have to keep an eye on that. We have to advocate for that. And as we bring in some of these projects in and we advocate for more projects, let's make sure that we keep that in the forefront of our minds. So I just want to say that. Thanks, Sid. I agree, although there's a funny thing going on with the population statistics. And it shows that Amherst, as contrasted particularly to the towns around us in Hampshire County, are more diverse rather than less. I think we are now 75% white, whereas the number was probably higher a decade ago and even higher a decade before that. And what I'm curious about, and maybe you can help us figure this out, is whether whatever points Amherst is getting for being more diverse are due to the university's recruitment scope of both undergraduates and graduate students. Correct. I believe that that's exactly where the diversity is going. I mean, with my work in ABC, I was comfortable to learn myself that a high school, I believe it's like 41 or 42% considered folks of color. And I didn't think that, but a lot of it is due to our grad students from not just UMass, but Amherst College and probably Hampshire College that I hear that have families that contribute towards that diversity. One thing also is that I'm pretty sure the population of Amherst has grown, right? So percentage-wise, yeah, we might be a little more diverse. And I know diversity is not just visual, right? Because there's some people that may be diverse and you don't see it. But visual diversity is also important. I mean, personally, I'm not seeing that, especially during the summer times when a lot of the students leave. There's not a lot of diversity in this town. And it's pretty hard to recruit folks. I can tell you at UMass, you know, I talked to a lot of people and a lot of folks that we recruit, especially a lot of African-Americans. Number one question is, you know, is there community in Amherst of African-Americans, visual community? And a lot of times, no, there isn't, right? Where do I get this? Where do I get that? How can I connect with these certain organizations? We don't have a lot of that stuff. So it becomes even recruiting folks to come to town. It becomes kind of a problem because people are not seeing that diversity. And John, I was going to say also, I think the census in the last 20 years has changed their demographic categories. Whereas someone might have said, why? Because that was the only thing that, you know, like, most of the categories that they hit other now, they've expanded options. So I mean, I don't know exactly how that, you know, if that's the case. But I do think if they're offering more choices, then we're going to have more selections. And so sometimes it's hard to compare, you know, 2020 data to 2000 data if the categories have changed. I don't know exactly how that has, but I know it has a little bit. So I think it's probably getting more refined. Whereas like, you know, I was a block grant and the HUD data is still only, you know, their 10 ethnic categories, so whatever it was from 1973. And so, you know, that's easier to track every year, whereas census data can, you know, they've updated it to form the last few times. So Isn't it, I don't know which data source, but at some point, some number of years ago, did it not change so that people who are in school used to be counted where they, their home base was, and now they're counted where they're going to school. So suddenly a whole lot of people are here that look, looking like they're here that didn't look like they were here before. Yeah, it's kind of, I think it's a choice for students is like, were they registered to take the census so they could take it out of Amherst, right? I think or they could take it out of their, you know, their, their home. I, but, you know, more might be, might be that they are, you know, as a whatever date, they're really a student in Amherst. So then it counts to Amherst. Yeah, I mean, we focused a bit on that in planning for the RFP for East Creek Belcher Town Road, in terms of how we can do better outreach to communities of color. But it doesn't necessarily address the problem of people who could afford to live here, but are reluctant to do so. I remember when we had the forum on racial equity and housing, a sold of Bustamente or take a Bustamente, I'm not quite sure. One of the things that she said was she and her husband had a great deal of difficulty getting a loan. And she felt that that was because they were Hispanic. And the way they were able to acquire the property they bought is that the people they bought from essentially gave them a loan, so that they could acquire the property. And so that's a level of work that we don't really think about very much. You know, how do we approach the banking community, the real estate community, etc. about opening their doors, so to speak, to a greater extent to persons of color who want to purchase an Amherst. And I'm not saying they're closed to that, but certainly from a soldier's description, it sounds like it's an issue and it probably still is an issue. As to as we get down the road with the reparations committee, because from my understanding, there was some talk of some of that money being used as kind of possibly as down payment assistance, if that's something that we can help advocate for and get the word out for about that. If that's something that would fall within the scope of the trust's work or our collaborations with other groups in Amherst. Well, to the extent that, excuse me, housing is one way or most significant way they want to spend reparations money, that could be important. I know from what Evanston decided to do with their reparations money, it was large and spent on housing to assist people as you just said, Allegra, in getting down payments. Okay, we have another person, I'm sorry. It's on the reparations, I'm on the selection committee, so the process is to select a few people, I think it's going to be seven that will then be presented to the town manager and they will bring it to the council. And once those people accepted, those are the folks who are going to be coming up with recommendation on how to distribute whatever reparations money's out there. But I think that there could be a role for advocating for housing subsidies, I mean, whatever we decide, I think that it could be a role for us to advocate to the folks who are part of this reparations committee to say we think that this would be a good place to put some of them out. Yes, Sid, I think, and then Erica, you've had some ideas too for the ARPA funding, so I think I don't know the process, you know, what the timeline is for the town, but I think John might, you know, we can keep this as an agenda item. And so we've already submitted the matrix to the town, I think we'll have to just keep up to date on how we, you know, what we send, you know, continue to send to the town. So, you know, we send kind of these general categories of need. And now we're trying to get some project specific ideas. And so, you know, if we like, you know, there's a few things mentioned tonight. And so, you know, the next step might be just sending these to Sean and see, you know, we can send them and he can have them. He said he'd always accept them and maybe I got out of schedule. But so, you know, what Sid, what you mentioned, Erica, you mentioned something else. I feel like we could send those off to Sean just so they're in the bank, so to speak. And then we may have to advocate at a later date for actually how the money gets allocated, but at least we have presented these ideas in their, you know, in their recorded. Because I think, you know, I think, John, I'll let you say 11 or 12 million, you know, the town has already spent money that it can be reimbursed from with ARPA funds. And then I know the schools get some and there's, you know, emergency response has can get some. And so there's, I mean, I think there's going to be quite a few competing interests. And so I think we could just take what we've meant. Well, you know, the three you have in the agenda, Sid mentioned one, right? I think Erica had a new idea. Maybe there was another one mentioned and then we just send to those six specific ideas to Sean and just, you know, we don't have maybe no dollar figure yet, but just say, here are, you know, six activities that we think are eligible and worthwhile to consider. And then we can just follow up with it as needed. I don't know if the trust members like that idea, but yeah, maybe we should vote up in that before we close out this topic. But even before that, Megan McDonough has her hands up. She's the executive director of Pioneer Valley Habitat. So let's give Megan a chance. Hi, thanks for letting me speak. I didn't want to interrupt the good conversation that was already happening. I fully support Craig's doors and the efforts that you're talking about around reparations. They all seem like very important issues around housing and justice to be able to fund. I'm not an expert on ARPA funds, but the webinar that Chapa did last month or so talked about for affordable housing development that they could be, that they were looking for either projects in qualified census tracks or for projects that affected disproportionately impacted populations, households, or geographic areas. So the reason we were bringing up some, there's some DPW land in North Amherst is that's one of those qualified census tracks. So in terms of getting approval, being an approved use, that is one of the things if we were going to build new housing, if it's in a qualified census tract, that seems like it makes it a straightforward case. So the DPW has some land up on Pine Street that it appears that the back part of that land is not being used for anything. And access might be able to be had for over the North Amherst community farm for a driveway. So this is a very specific proposal and as opposed to the broad initiatives that I think are also excellent, but just something I wanted to get into the mix because it's up there in a qualified census tract according to HUD. So if we do have funds supporting money for new homeowners, that would certainly fall under it. That is the kind of project that you're describing, Megan, right? Yep. You just have your eye and Bruce has his eye on that particular piece of property, which I think is great. I know. Well, finding land, as you were talking about, is a big challenge. So I think when anyone even has a glimmer of an idea, we sort of want to hunt it down and see if it's feasible. But overall, I'm really glad that home ownership is part of the mix as well as going from that spectrum from people struggling with homelessness to people who want to have that hope for disability and that home ownership can provide. Okay. Thanks, Megan. Well, maybe we should go back to that list and talk specifically about what to add to it as the next step. Yeah, I was trying to type the list as we were talking. So we have... It's on the agenda. It's right in the middle of the agenda. Yeah. No, I've already made some changes or additions. Oh, okay. Is that visible for everyone? Let me know if I've captured the program or idea correctly. Okay. So first question is, is there anything missing from the six ideas that Nate included on the screen in front of us? I would separate the two credit stores projects, listen both. Yeah. Okay. So one's permanent affordable housing and the other would be a permanent year around shelter, right, Rob? But the recommendation is the university motor lot would go for housing, right? And then there'd be a separate site... For a permanent shelter. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Good recommendation, Rob. Thanks. The E, Purchase Property for Home Ownership. We already own that property, right? The town owns that property or am I wrong, Nate? We do. I mean, I just, you know, when Meg was talking, I just want to make sure that, you know, is it, we have mortgage subsidies or grants for first time home buyers, which was on the agenda, and then, you know, is it a separate item to purchase additional property for home ownership opportunities? Is that, yeah, we think we... And then we can leave off the, you know, the Pine Street one, I mean, it is interesting. It was called and did email to town and we refer to them to public works. I don't know if there's ever any follow-up. They do use, you know, it's a larger, it's kind of a long property and they do use the front of it for staging. So when they did the Pine Street repaving and sidewalks, they, you know, there was, if people drove on Pine Street, there was a place where you could see like piles of dirt and gravel and that's the property that Megan's talking about. And so, you know, there'd have to be some way to split the property or do something with it. But I can delete, yeah, Pine Street, we own it, the town owns it, so hopefully we don't have to purchase it. So that would be a separate thing to take advantage of the existing town-owned Pine Street property for a home ownership project. And Megan, just for the chat, purchase of property or construction of, I'll say, affordable housing for home ownership. I thought her point was in whatever you call them, tract, whatever they are. Yeah, that might have to be a requirement of ARPA funding. So, you know, without getting too specific, I would, if we, you know, the trust, if we like the list, we could just send it to Sean and then really it becomes, I don't want to pass the buck here, but you know, Sean is the one who's really just studying how ARPA funding can be spent. So I, you know, I've heard the qualified census tracts before, but I can't say that that's the, you know, is that, you know, a total requirement or not. But also, some of these things in theory can be done without ARPA funds, like this one. Not that it shouldn't be on the list, but the Pine Street property, if indeed it is available, might have a simpler path than going through the ARPA process. So, you know, if we could actually access the property for affordable housing, it, I wouldn't say this is a simple matter, but it would be a matter of the town saying, okay, this is surplus property. Some or part of it can be given over to housing. And then we would ask town council for permission to use it for development of home ownership, which they might be very amenable to, since a number of town councils have expressed interest in our expanding opportunities for home ownership. The one that gives me the most pause, not because I don't think it's important, but because I do, is G, racial equity in housing and programs to support diversity of residents, not because it's not a good goal, but because it's a, how do we do that? How does that become a program that can be funded that we can ask for, so that would actually do that, that isn't, I mean, aside from what, what Allegra talked about, I mean, providing some kind of a reparations plan that would help provide down payment assistance or something for people of color or low income people or something. Well, it was from reparations, it would be for people of color. But I just, I think that's really important, but it's so much more vague than practically everything else on the list that it's just concerns me. Yeah, I mean, we could say something that, you know, that that, that is a criteria to be applied to all of the above, right? So that if we're supporting home ownership or mortgage subsidies, that that is a priority to have in those. So if it's not a housing specific right program, that it is something that is used to help prioritizer decide on, or, you know, can be implemented within a program. So, yeah, we can really like that, I like that, then Nate, it's about also setting up guidelines, right? You can always set up guidelines for any of these things. And so this is, this is a goal slash priority. When you, when you, you know, you know, subsidizing, you know, helping with the first time payment, helping advocate for additional money for reparations. So, you know, it's got to be in the forefront of every decision that is made, right? And guidelines, you got to come up with guidelines that people that are making these decisions have to go by, you know, because you're not really discriminating against anyone, you're just including everyone, right? It's how it's done. Okay, so unlike the statements about need that we submitted at this point, Sean doesn't have any guidance for us about what he wants to know, or what should be submitted about these ideas. So we could just submit them the way it is, or if we could conceivably think about expanding those descriptions a little bit, so that it's clearer what we're hoping to accomplish. I don't know, does anybody have any thoughts about that? I mean, John, I think, you know, if the trust votes on something like this, I think we could just send Sean the list and offer to, you know, to offer to, you know, make adjustments if he has questions, right? So we could send him the list. And if he wants a further explanation, you know, you and I can work on it or something after the fact. But I don't know if we want to spend a lot of time developing a, you know, summary for each of these, because I don't, I don't know what, how we'll use it. So. Okay, so let's not do a lot of unnecessary work is what you're saying. For now, right? I mean, John, you might want to do it anyways, but for fun. No, no, I can buy into the idea that this is sufficient for Sean, you know, without any knowing any more about what he would be looking for. Okay, so I guess we can either take a vote on sending the entire list to Sean or vote on them separately. Does anybody have any preference about how to go about this? I think we should vote on the entire list. And if someone doesn't want to vote on the entire list, then we can separate it. Okay, is anybody who objects to voting on the entire list? Okay, then I think we should move forward. Does someone want to make a motion to to have the housing trust endorse this list and send it along to Sean Mangano as part of his consideration for development of ARPA funding uses? I will. Allegra. Thank you. Is it seconded? Okay, then is there any more discussion or are we ready to vote? Okay, I will ask for people's votes based on where I see them in front of me on the screen. Carol? Yes. Allegra? Yes. Rob? Yes. Erica? Yes. Sid? Yes. Francis? Yes. And I'm a yes. So that means we are, at least for everybody who's here, unanimous in recommending this to the town. Okay, that's great. Now we want to move on to updates. And we have a few that are important. The first one is where we are with the East Street School Belcher Town Road Request for Proposals. Nate? Yeah, John, I fit. No, I'm kidding. John's been dogging the town, which is great. But Anthony, the procurement officer left, and so we did it took a little bit of time just to get things caught up. But the East Street RFP is ready. It'll be available Wednesday next week. And then there's a site visit three weeks after and then it's due at the end of November or something. So all those dates will be available on the town website next week. But it is live next Wednesday. So and it hasn't really changed too much since what when the trust has seen it, you know, there's a few little points to clarify with the town legal attorneys looked at it. And so I think it's pretty much the document that the trust worked on. Okay, that's great. Thanks, Nate. And so there's basically nothing for us to do at this point, except wait. And at some point, the town manager will appoint a review committee, right? So presumably that review committee will meet in December, right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, maybe, you know, if a trust member or two really wants to be on that review committee, I guess we could just, you know, wait for that discussion. But I don't you know, I'll probably be a three to five member review committee. And so, you know, if there's any ideas to have someone who wants to be on it, that's you can send it to John or I. Yeah. Okay, yeah, think about it. I think we should definitely have trust representation on this committee. Okay, the next thing that is hopefully in process is the assessment of developability I'll use. I don't know if that's a real word, but of the property on Strong Street. It totally is a real word, John. I think John, I think you I think you imagine this at the September 2nd form and maybe because we talked about the last trust meeting, but I will say it's getting more publicity. So, you know, I know a few people have an email in the town asking what's happening on Strong Street. I think they're worried that it's already a development, you know, plan. And so we've told them that it's really just an assessment of the property. But I think, you know, there's probably some concern and maybe some maybe some people are happy about it. But, you know, so we're, you know, I emailed a few consultants, you know, they emailed me this week, they're getting some numbers. So, you know, they're essentially, you know, we're getting a scope of work together, we're going to have to bid it. We're probably going to try to combine services just so we're not bidding every individual task. So I think that's something I'm hoping next week we can kind of I can get moving. So it actually, you know, becomes a public, you know, a bid. So yeah, I mean, I have people looking at the site right now just to give some opinions. And depending on what they say, we'll figure out an exact scope of work. But people have, you know, some consultants have gone out to the site to look at it. Okay, great. Thanks. I hope we can get something out in town and time for them to be able to do that evaluation this fall. Yeah, I agree. That's what I'm hoping. The weather turns. Great. I'm hoping the costs are low too. I'm told everyone's really busy right now. So, you know, a few consultants have apologized. They just said that they're just they're working really hard right now. Francis is shaking her head. Yes, probably her organization's taken up all that time. Okay, the last item I had for updates is legislative advocacy. I guess we don't have Will with us this evening. I had a couple of things that I thought were interesting that I were part of an announcement from CHAPA that came out earlier this week that I thought might have some relevance for us, not today, but hopefully in a month or a year. One headline was that White House announces steps to increase affordable housing supply and the White House announced policies to increase the number of affordable homes with a goal of producing nearly 100,000 over the next three years. So that's a pretty substantial number, I think, even if it's spread across the country over the next three years. And so, I think, again, it's another incentive for us to do our best to come up with projects that we can get into the pipeline. So as money like this becomes available, we can take advantage of it. Let's see. A second thing that I thought was interesting, although it doesn't have any value for us immediately. It would have been great if it happened about a year and a half ago. But anyway, the U.S. Treasury released updated emergency rental assistance guidance to help accelerate the allocation of rental assistance. The updated guidance allows for self-adastation alone to document household income eligibility, provides flexibility for both payments to landlords and utility providers, and allows recipients to enter into partnerships with nonprofits to deliver advance assistance to households at risk of eviction while their applications are still being processed. So those are things that would certainly have been helpful to us and to the households we wanted to serve a year and a half when we started our own emergency rental assistance program. So if we have to resurrect it or maybe this helps out the state and helps wayfinders since they're still in the middle of trying to provide emergency rental assistance to folks. And the first second thing is something happening in Congress. Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden introduced what he calls or they call the Decent Affordable Safe Housing for All Act. The acronym is DASH for Decent Affordable Safe Housing. And it's to address the housing supply crisis and eliminate homelessness. Always a good goal. The proposal includes investments in the Housing Choice Voucher Program, changes to the Low Income Housing Tax Credits, and the creation of tax credits for renters and middle income housing developers. Again, that's a proposal in Congress. It has yet to pass. But still the fact that it's on the drawing board is positive. And I obviously hope as I'm sure you all do that something comes of it and that we're in a position to take advantage of it when that happens. It does happen. I assume that's money that probably will flow through the State Department of Housing Community Development. Although you never know, it might flow in part directly to communities that are trying to develop affordable housing. So that's what I have to say about legislative initiatives. I guess it's a mix of legislative, White House, etc. Does anybody else have anything to say about what's going on in the State Legislature? I have to admit I have not been focused on that. Okay, then we've really come pretty much to the end of our agenda. There are a couple of meetings coming up that I wanted to mention. The first one is the Town Council's Community Resource Committee will be meeting, I think it's next Tuesday, September 14th. So it's the upcoming Tuesday at 2pm. And they're going to be talking about making changes to the proposal for a comprehensive town housing policy that they introduced at the last Town Council meeting. And then Town Council will be taking that up again on a Monday later this month. I can't remember which Monday, but it's maybe it's the 20th or maybe it's a week later, but sometime around there, Town Council will be looking at that again. So if anybody has anything they want to weigh in with, you can go to the CRC meeting, or you can send a note to Mary Jo Hanneke, who's the Chair of the Committee. I can't go because I have a conflict, but I anticipate sending Mary Jo a note saying that they really have to pay more attention to the need for more residential units on the UMass campus. Then the Housing Coalition meets in about 10 days on Tuesday, September 21st, 6.30. If anybody's interested in that, you will all, I believe, do receive notices. And finally, the Housing Trust meets in October on the 14th, which is second Thursday in October, second Thursday in October, 7 p.m. Zoom link to be established. So is there anybody, any any other further comments or questions, either from the panelists or from any of the attendees? Okay, then I guess I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second. Okay, thank you all for your participation. I'll just go down and make sure everybody's in favor. Francis. Yes, thank you. Your last meeting. All you do is vote to adjourn. Thank you so much, Francis. Thank you, everyone. Yes, thank you, Francis. We look forward to your finding money for us in the future. Yes. Sid, are you in favor of adjourning? Yes. Erica? Yes. Rob? Yes. Carol? Yes. And Allegra? Yes. Okay, we're all in favor. Then I think we are adjourned. And again, I thank you all.