 Green Mountain supports services to empower neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Major support also includes Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Ala Israel. All people know limits. Welcome to this edition of Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns and achievements of the differently able. I'm Lauren Seiler, and before we begin our program today, which is a very informative program with Down Street Community Development, we would like to thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services and Ala Israel. We would like to thank Mike Rahmer of Down Street Community Development for joining us on this edition of Ableton on Air. Thank you for joining us. What are the missions and goals of Down Street Community Development and your history? That type of thing. Yes, certainly. So, Down Street is a private non-profit affordable housing service provider. Pretty much our mission is to foster social justice and an effort to create collective prosperity for all. And we do that through the power of housing. So we oversee all of central Vermont. That includes LaMoyle, Washington and Orange Counties. And we provide affordable rental opportunities to individuals and families. We steward single-family homes to keep them forever affordable, regardless of the market trends out there. We also provide homeowner and home-buying assistance programs, education, downpayment assistance, and financial guidance. I'm sorry to interrupt, downpayment assistance, because I remember when we were first getting our apartment situation situation, capstone community action helped us with the downpayment for rent for the first time. So explain how you guys do it. Certainly. So the downpayment assistance that I was mentioning is geared towards home buyers. So not from a rental perspective, but from a home buyer perspective. And we, due to the funding that we have at our disposal, every year we have a handful of vouchers, let's call them, that we can give to eligible home buyers. And it's up to 20% of the value of the home that we can assist in downpayment. And I believe it's up to $20,000 in total. That doesn't include, wait, so you said home. But if it's a rental, it's for like a home that you would be buying rather than renting. So I know Vermont has situations like trailer, park situations, such as such. Or do you guys help with that at all? We do. I want to say that we steward and oversee five mobile home parks across central Vermont, four or five. I don't quite recall the exact number. And how that works is we oversee the land. We own the land. And we rent out the land to the mobile home owner. And so we keep the property up, all the infrastructure, all of the tenant or homeowner relations. We oversee all of that. So we understand that on Friday you guys have a huge event that's happening, which is opening of the new Taylor Street apartments. Yes, sir. And the transit center. And the GMTA. So how have you, how does Down Street, or how have you with Down Street worked with GMTA within this? So what is our role? So we, in addition to being a housing services provider, we are also a developer. And that's one of the very unique characteristics that sets us apart from many other organizations and nonprofits in the area is that we develop housing. And so we are one of the co-developers, along with our partner, Housing Vermont. And we have co-developed the Taylor Street apartments and transit center. The city, Montpelier, also played a very critical crucial role. How so? In regards to the transit center, they own all the land. And they are the ones that will be, in addition to Green Mountain Transit, will be overseeing the transit center itself. And they've also, and I need to just say that the city, Montpelier, has kept this project moving along. The project dates back to the 90s, when it was originally first discussed. Why did it take so long? That's a complicated question. There are a lot of... I'm sorry. No, no, no. You're good. There are a lot of different pieces. There was some mediation that needed to take place with toxic materials in the soil and parking lots. So that took many years. And just to be honest with you, these development projects take time. For another example, French Block Apartments on Main Street in Montpelier. We also co-developed and we currently manage. And if you recall, the French Block Apartments, which is the largest commercial real estate in all of downtown Montpelier, was vacant for nearly 80 years. So we redeveloped and rejuvenized that property. That building was vacant? The top two stories above Aubuchon's. Yeah, it used to be a restaurant there. And originally it was housing. And that project was 10 years in the making. That's one of the things that a lot of people tend to not understand. They think the project starts when the shovel gets in the ground. So quite frankly, it could be many years before that. I can remember them doing it. I can remember them doing it. All right, let's talk applications for a minute and the application process. Let's say someone, OK, now Taylor Street is 30 apartments. Correct. Correct. When we spoke on the phone prior to this interview, it told me that there was 19 apartments that were based on income. Correct. Or something. Yep. What is the definition of market rate when you're going into applications? Sure. Difference between 30% of your income and then market rate? Yeah, so good question. And I'll use Taylor Street specifically. So for Taylor Street, 30 apartments, 19 of them are income restricted based on your income, the household income, as it relates to the average median income of the area. And so for the 19, your income needs to be 60% or lower of the average median income. OK, 60% meaning what? 60% of the typical median income of the area. I don't know that number offhand, but for one person, average median income might be $40,000, let's say. So then your income in order to be eligible for those 19 apartments needs to be 60% of 40,000 or lower. And then so your question around market rate. Market rate is our way of just kind of categorizing those types of apartments. But our market rate for Taylor Street is 80% to 120% average median income. So again, 40,000 is the AMI, average median income. You can be between 80% of that number or 120. So you could make more than the average median income up to 120%. That then that's for the 11 apartments. OK, so you, Down Street gives a French block, you deal with Taylor Street coming up. Yeah. Where else within Montpelier area do you guys? Well, so we Montpelier, I don't recall the number offhand, but we have 140 apartments in Montpelier, 20% our market rate. Does that include Taylor Street coming up? It does. It does. But we are now restricted just to the capital area. So our service area is across central Vermont, LaMoya, Washington and Orange counties. And a large majority of our property portfolio exists in Washington County with the exception of Bradford. We have several apartments, I think 80 apartments in total in the Bradford region. And that's in Orange County. The rest are in Waterbury, Williamstown, Waitsfield, Warren, Barrie, Montpelier, Calis, and so that's in terms of our properties, which are about 50 or more than 50 in total that we steward. And so quite frankly, we oversee over $70 million of property value across central Vermont. That doesn't mean we have $70 million in the bank. If we did, totally different story. But we're a nonprofit. We operate as best and efficiently as we can. But that's where our properties are and our services span across all three counties. Because how Vermont works is in the affordable housing space, there are different regions where our counterparts, Champlain Housing Trust, Twin Valleys, Whirl Edge, Wyndham & Windsor, and others, they have different areas of the state and we have central Vermont. So question, as far as homelessness is concerned, we understand that there's Good Samaritan helping out, the big picture. If someone is homeless or about to be homeless, do they get priority in your developments to make them not homeless anymore? Or is there a rule? So in regards to this question, we work with Good Samaritan Haven, as you mentioned, Family Center for Washington County, Washington County Mental Health, Capstone, Good Beginnings of Vermont. I mean, the amount of partners that we work with are seemingly endless. And we don't necessarily give priority to individuals. Like it's not you apply and you automatically get bumped up. But what we do do is we have a rating system that we utilize that if you are a family of five who are homeless versus maybe you're just an individual who's looking for an apartment, but you're living in one now, there is a sense of urgency to the family of five who's living on the streets. And so we work with all of our partners to figure out what is the best course of action for all of our applicants, right? Because quite frankly, everyone tends to have something, right? And dealing with some root cause of challenges and struggles that they're going through, whether it might be domestic violence, whether it might be substance use disorder, mental health challenges as well. And when you speak about homelessness, it's also looking at the root causes. Housing is certainly a solution. What do you mean by root causes? So those that I mentioned, it's not just a financial issues that cause people to be homeless. It's quite often other root causes like domestic violence, mental health, you know, substance use disorder, list goes on. And we work with our partners to tackle those root causes at the heart, because that's the only way we're going to ever stop homelessness. Since you said that, there's a situation where they're supposed to get rid of homelessness within 2020 and that's why a lot of these apartments are popping up. You think we'll ever get rid of homelessness within Vermont? We're trying hard. Hey, I remain optimistic of that. It is not, unfortunately, a technical challenge, and there's no technical solution. Housing is part of the solutions, but it's going to be multi-layered, many different vast array of services and approaches to be taken to end homelessness. I, you know, I can just speak from Downs Street's perspective. Again, we have a strong commitment to assisting those who are experiencing homelessness, who have in the past, believe 18% of our entire portfolio. So we provide homes to about 820 residents, 25% of them are children, and at 18% of all 820 previously experienced homelessness before they got into our permanent housing. So we are dedicated to helping solve this troubling challenge that we all face in this community. Besides the Taylor Street thing on the top of the Friday, is there any huge things that are happening with Downs Street now? Any exciting? Yeah. A lot of exciting stuff. Go ahead. A lot of exciting stuff. Well, I'll just plug one. We just released a brand new website, very informative, much easier to navigate through, and I would direct everybody to go to that. We have a new blog. We're going to be providing a lot of helpful tools for financial health and wellness and how to thrive in your, you know, rental space and so on and so forth. So check out the website, DownStreet.org for more information. And in terms of exciting endeavors, you know, one thing that I can say that I'm quite proud of with my colleagues and I at DownStreet, we're not just staying with, you know, the traditional approaches to housing, because ultimately we do great work. Our partners do great work, but housing remains to be a challenge here in our great state. And why is it a challenge? Many, you know, many reasons. One, need funding, more additional funding. You know, ultimately, construction is expensive. You need more money to be, to have in order to create more housing and incentivize new developments and renovations. And it's also the cost of housing and the lack of infrastructure that might exist for, you know, public utilities and works. But something that we are doing, we're trying to be as entrepreneurial and as innovative as possible. So we actually have a handful of pilot programs that we're working on today. One is called the Neighborhood Housing Program. It's an effort to revitalize blighted, you know, abandoned homes, fully renovate them and sell them fortably to families of modest incomes. Is that similar to Habitat for Humanity? I'm not quite as familiar with Habitat's programs and services. Basically they're afraid of Habitat for Humanity takes a home somebody has, or a home that somebody in comes and fixes and repairs. Yeah. It's similar to that. But one approach that we're taking is to ensure that the renovations of the property make it so the total cost of the home is present when it is bought. Because quite frankly, particularly with Vermont, when a large portion of our homes are some of the oldest in the country, when you buy a home, three years later, you have a big expense you weren't expecting because the heater broke or what have you. So when we renovate these homes and sell them to families of modest means, we are guaranteeing that they have at least 12 years before they ever have to make any capital improvements to the property. Which is when you think of in terms of financial wellness, that's a big deal. Is that allows you to see exactly what your expenses are going to be and be able to budget and plan accordingly? And we work with those families to do that. So that's one pilot project that we have currently going on. Another is the Residences for Recovery Initiative, less of a pilot, but more of a statewide effort that we have started and are leading to accelerate the development of recovery residences for individuals and families struggling and recovering from substance use disorder. Residences meaning drugs and alcohol. Correct. Opioids would be would be a mainstream item today. Now a big question, I mean we can extend this question, but I think it's an important one. Yeah. Why are landlords afraid sometimes to rent to certain populations like people with disabilities? Sure. Yeah. Well, I can't speak to the actions and perspectives of others. I just, I can't do that. Well in your opinion. Sure. In opinion questions. No, sure. And you know, from Down Street's perspective we are a property manager. We're landlord, if you will. An affordable landlord with a mission. We use that mission to guide every action we have. But we are overseeing properties. And so I'll be the first one to tell you that there are times where some of our residents can be challenging to house and work with. I think that's just you're bound to have that. But again, we are fundamentally committed to connecting people to the resources and services that they need to thrive. Because we don't believe, we do not believe that four walls and a roof is enough. That's not where housing should end. Do you make your apartment accessible? Yes. And if they're not and they need to be, we make that, we make changes. So that's one thing. If someone has a disability or if someone has a need that the apartment does not offer, we work with them to either get them into an apartment that does offer that, or we make the commitment to. So what? The wheel. The what? The wheel something. Like would you guys provide like bars in the bathroom? Certainly. Shower shares and different things like that. Yeah. May I add on just to a few of the other exciting things that we've got going on? Go ahead. So in addition to the Neighborhood Housing Program and also Residences for Recovery, which I'll just say with that, that initiative came from a call of action from the Opioid Coordination Council that the Governor Scott appointed back in 2017. We commissioned a study and found that there's there's roughly 200 beds for people in recoveries from substance use disorder that are available today, but the need is about 1200 beds. There's a massive gap. And so there is a massive gap across the state. And so we again are leading this initiative. We're bringing all of our partners and affordable housing service affiliates together and also service providers together and and bringing them to have a conversation and then to accelerate the development of these recovery residences. We've added three and our goal is to add 12 total by the end of 2020. 12. 12 new recovery residences them together, you know, by the they range from six to 10 people. So so if if that's a recovery of recovery residents, how would the rent be paid? Yes, or no, we're still working on that. And that's one of the complexities of this. This is a fairly new. It's a new approach to housing that that we affordable housing providers have never had to do. So that was why we took the tour. This is a new area. New area. And so Down Street has taken the role across the state to kind of pioneer and accelerate the development by by figuring out all those questions and offering solutions like a turnkey model to our partners. So that's another exciting thing that we're working on. And and I'll add two more. We are also we're good. We are also we have a pilot program around tiny homes. I heard about that. Yeah. So we have partnered with Washington County Mental Health and also Norwich University to design and build two tiny homes that will be designated towards individuals who are struggling with mental health challenges. But wouldn't wouldn't a tiny home? I mean, it would be so it's smaller than the studio here. I believe the ones that we have we've designed and are creating are about four hundred and sixty square feet. And so I'm assuming you're getting that size wise size wouldn't you wouldn't it bother. OK, if someone's claustrophobic, they wouldn't go into certainly. And this is not a solution for everybody. And that's that's a challenging thing around housing and and meeting people what where their needs are. But the misconception is that that tiny homes aren't going to work for everybody. Whereas if you go to anyone in Washington County Mental Health, there is a large need for for homes like that like a tiny house for individuals who are not able to thrive in a community home environment. Right. Like living in a rent rental complex. Right. So we have we're working with them to build these. These are a pilot just to see how it goes. And the other factor of this, as I mentioned earlier, you asked about why is housing why isn't there more housing? What's the difference? What are the barriers? One of that is the cost to develop. And so our our theory is we can we can extend every dollar every funding dollar by as much as three four times because the cost of building tiny homes will be a quarter or a third of that of a typical rental apartment. Yeah. So that's our hope. And then as a result, we will distribute all of our findings and to all of our partners to try to, you know, build up and bring new solutions to tackle the last thing because we understand it. Okay, Barry, you guys have Keith having you that big. Yep. Yep. Our headquarters in downtown. Right. So can you describe a typical let's say so you have studio apartments that are available one bedroom and on from there or or how does it work? How many bedrooms in the apartments? Are you are you asking specifically downstreet apartments or in downstreet? Yeah. When someone fills out an application. Yep. Right. How many? How many bedrooms? Studio one bedroom, two bedroom. Go ahead. It depends on on the property. So Taylor Street. There are studios. There are one bedrooms and there are two bedrooms. Yeah. Right. And for downstreet apartments, I believe they're which is where our headquarters are. We are first floor offices and a community space that anyone can rent out. Yeah. And then we have three floors of housing and 27 apartments above our offices. I believe there are studio and one bedroom apartments there. So it does depend on the property and the project itself. But I I believe the most is a three bedroom. But I'm not I'm not confident that that is fully correct. Well, we'd like to thank you for joining us. Certainly. Thank you. Is there anything else that you want to mention? No, we haven't. I guess I'll just mention again. Check us out on our on our website. That's www.downstreet.org. Yeah, downstreet d o w m street s t r e e t. And lastly, I'll just also mention if anyone's tech savvy, they can text the word downstreet to the number 33777 to join our electronic newsletter and join the conversation and stay up to date in all the good work that we do, including projects and events like the Taylor Street celebration this Friday from four to seven. And is there a number that people can reach you at or the downstreet main number? Yes, that's okay. We can we can edit this out. I don't remember us. Yes. So in if anyone would like to stop in our address is 22 Keith Avenue in downtown Berry, and they can always call us at our direct line of 802 476 4493. Okay, so that number is 802 476 4493 www.downstreet s d o w n s t r e e t.org. And again, thank you, Mike Rama. And your title is I'm the director of advancement. Okay, we'd like to thank Mike Rama and the whole downstream team for letting us be part of the for them letting them being part of this half hour of Ableton on air and we will be there by the time this airs Friday will have already passed. Sure. And you have will have already seen this and continue to see it. Again, if you want to contact us and see more Ableton on air, you can go to www.orcamedia.net. And we would like to thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and our lab Israel. Again, this puts an end to this edition of Ableton on air. I'm Lauren Siler. I'm Ali Siler. See you next time. Major support for Ableton on air, Green Mountain Support Services to empower neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Major support also includes Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Allah Israel. All people no limits.