 Okay. Anyway, thanks, Nate. I think we should get started. I just recorded this as being recorded. So you should be all set. I expect that the town manager will be joining us. I don't know in half hour. 45 minutes. He had a TSO meeting. It started at six 30 and was going to join us after that ended. Okay. So. First thing is that I'm going to read a statement, which I haven't done before. I don't know if you've all missed this very much, but I'll just say pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021. This meeting is being conducted by remote means. There is no in-person access to the meeting. Members of the public who wish to attend may do so by following the instructions for action. Post it on the town website for this meeting. A video recording of this meeting will be posted on the town website. Two to three works weeks after it has occurred. Okay. So I've done my duty. I suspect that. And. Let's see. We have present. Allegra. Rob. Sid. Myself. Carol. And Erica. Also pat the Angeles or liaison from. The town council. Rita and Nate are also on. As is more a keen and Janet. And I expect Kevin noon and also to join us a little bit later. So that's where we are. Okay. Did I miss anybody? No. Okay. So I have. Two announcements. And if anybody else has any announcements, you can offer those as well. I see you. One is Francis Goyesh for is moving to Boston. And we'll be resigning in September. And we'll be resigning in September. And we'll be resigning in September. And we'll be resigning in September. In the community action forum. Indicating their interest in joining the housing trust. So we will have an opening and should. We'll try to. Fill it as quickly as we can in the fall. The second announcement is we've received six applications. From candidates to a place. John Page is our intern. Research assistant. Four candidates will be reviewed. And we'll be resigning in September. Hopefully we'll have a decision by the end of the week. So it was a little slow because I moved a little bit slow on this. But I think we should be good. Okay. There are no minutes from the June meetings. They should be available shortly before our August meetings. So nothing to review for tonight. And the next item. On the agenda. Is the review of the final update on the covert emergency rental assistance program. And I'm going to call on Janet. To give us a report. You all should see the. Data table or. Report that she sent out to me yesterday. Which I think I forwarded today. I think we should be ready for the next meeting. I think we should be ready for the next meeting. Or maybe not bizarre or maybe not bizarre, but if John's not here, is anybody taking minutes of this meeting? I am. More or less. Thank you. We have a recording through zoom, a transcript. So then I can, I can always turn it into something. A little legible. Okay. Thank you. Just checking. Yeah. We will have minutes. Okay. Thank you. So. John shared. The final report. So I don't know if folks had a chance to look at it. Or had questions about it. I briefly out. Thank you. I'll put it off. That helps me. So, yeah. So if you look at sort of the totals for round one and one hundred and ninety six applications received. Fifty approved applications. The town assisted folks with $99,060 and 50 cents, which I think is a pretty fantastic. Number. As a reminder, I did halfway through the report, start excluding folks that were ineligible. So as you recall. Ineligible are people who didn't live in Amherst. Mostly people who didn't live in Amherst. Either didn't have a COVID reason. Or were subsidized and not behind on their rent. So we, I stopped including those numbers in the table because it seemed to sort of be skewing the percentages a little bit because those folks, you know, really weren't even eligible to apply. And if it wasn't for the online application wouldn't have even really filled anything out. So. Yeah, so that's where we're at. We did have. You know, our incomplete number remained, still remained a little bit higher than I think we'd all expected. Yeah. In round two, about 36% were incomplete overall about 42%. We had a much higher incomplete rate in round one, as you may all recall. So that's where we're at. Since our last report, John asked me to update you on sort of, so last time I think I sent a report was in April. And so since that time we had received four new applications. And three of those got approved. So those are included in the total number, obviously. And that's since April. So that's over three months or just June. That was from between. April, May and June. So that's where we're at. So we had three new applications. In June. Actually, we stopped taking applications, I think sort of in the beginning of June, so that we could make sure that we were. Gonna be able to process everything by the end of June. And then as you may all recall, you approved the ability to pay some rent past June. So the folks that got. They got approved at the end. All were able to still take advantage of that three month. So, you know, some of the folks that applied that at the end, we had only originally approved for one month just for the month of June, for example, because the program was ending. And then we were able to extend that. So those additional applicants who came in at the last minute did get the full benefit that all of the other applicants had received, if that makes sense. It does. Okay. Yeah, I'm happy to answer any other questions or comments. I remember one point. Did we look at race and ethnicity or were the numbers of those households so small that there wasn't much to look at? Um, I could look, uh, You know what I, so I could get you that information after the meeting. I don't, we track that in a separate place. So I have a tracker that tracks all the application information. And then the race and ethnicity would get entered into our database where, uh, after they filled out all of their documentation. So I don't have that at my fingertips, but I could certainly give you send you that report if you're interested in the race and ethnicity. Yeah, I think there may be some interest in that. I should have asked you before. Okay. I could, I can tell you language. So there were about 25 applicants. And this is just for round two. That had languages other than English, primarily Spanish, but we had a few other languages also. And what was that number of percent? It's 25. Okay. Of. Yeah, I think so. Let me just make sure I have. Oh wait, let me add this filter. The total applications or the applications that were approved. That was total applications. Okay. Yeah, it was 25 of the total. Okay, thanks. I have a question or more or maybe a comment. I think it would be really important for us to get from you before we're finished with our relationship with you. I'm sure it's long term, but just what we've learned from this, because I know in the beginning we pivoted a little bit, you brought back to us some things that you thought were barriers, but even the outreach and what we could learn from this, because I'm sure this is not going to be the final disaster or emergency that we're going to be facing. So it would be really good to have some of that qualitative information. Sure. I can certainly put together that for you with, you know, I could talk to the staff to see what they have for feedback and then put something together for you. I mean, I think, you know, anecdotally, I mean, your program started a little bit earlier than some of the other town programs, but it started as what we thought was an emergency, right? That there was no other resources out there. And that I think what we saw is that the state and the federal government really came in with a lot of resources. So where we thought that this program was going to get over utilized, we realized that we were in some ways competing with all of the other programs out there. But I can also, I can get, I could, that's a great point, Erica, and I can get back to you with some other, you know, sort of things we learned, things we would do differently, things that we, things that we wished we could have been, could have done or weren't able to do and more things that went really well. Are there any other questions? Well, I feel Jenna and her staff at community action, Pioneer Valley have done a really good job on this. And I'm going to propose that I, I haven't composed this, but that I send a letter to community action, Pioneer Valley, basically saying how appreciative we are of all their efforts and administering this program. I don't know if we need, maybe we should take a formal vote. I propose that as there a second to the motion. Yeah. Okay. So we'll do a quick rundown. Erica. Yes. Sid. Yes. Carol. Yes. Rob. Yes. Yes. And I'm a yes. So that gives us six to zero. Yes. Okay. Thank you. So I thank Erica. I thank, I'm sorry. Jenna for all the work that you've done. And I really appreciate your coming tonight and having come to earlier meetings. And I appreciate that. And I appreciate that. And I appreciate that. And I appreciate that as well as the promise to. And a few bits to the report that you've given us. And I, I mean, I do hope that, you know, our relationship continues. I think for us, particularly. It's been really great to work with so many households in Amherst. We typically, you know, historically worked with a little bit more families in North Hampton, which were closer to our offices. And so. We've actually had a, you know, it's been a great opportunity for us to work with residents that I hope will continue to. Call us when they need additional services. And, you know, really, I mean, I appreciate all of the, the thank yous, but I didn't do hardly, but most of this work other than create reports and come see you. My staff really worked super, super hard. And so I will share with them. Your kind words, because it really was their efforts. And, you know, me just compiling numbers. So I appreciate it. Right. Thank you. So I'll get that additional information over to John and. Thank enjoy the rest of your meeting. Right. Okay. Bye. Okay. So our next item. Is to meet with Kevin Noonan. Kevin here. I don't see him, John. Do you want me to send him an email quickly or? Sure. I don't know. I can't remember. Yeah, I told him he would be second on the agenda. Maybe assumed it would be a little bit later than this. So he's not quite here yet. Okay. So we can push that back until Kevin joins us. And. Okay, we have at least a couple of updates on projects, all of which are good. So one is the East street Belcher town road RFP. And the other is getting started with the evaluation. Of strong street property to see if it's. Developable. Nate, do you want to talk about both of those? Yeah. Let me just finish the middle of Kevin. Sorry, my camera is not working. I also have an issue and I forgot to. Start my computer again. For the meeting. So we can start with, I'll start with the easy one, the East street. East street belcher town road RFP. The town attorney had some questions, staff. John Reed and I met. This week. The comments were actually kind of minor. I think the, the big changes, the letter of intent, you know, we had. We're requiring that the East street school building be reused. And we wanted a letter of intent. 30 days after the site visit to gauge interest. And that's not. In keeping with 30 B procurement regulations. Whoops. So we can't, you know, we can do a letter of intent, but it has to be due at the same time as proposal. So it defeats the purpose. So instead we're going, we eliminated that piece of the. Process. We're going to have a mandatory site visit. And then we can kind of gauge interest at the site visit and then make a determination whether or not we want to amend the RFP. We want to amend them to, you know, not require the building to be. Preserved. So it's. You know, there's some work around there. And there, there was also. I mean, as a few years old, there's some cases. That went to the state about how much detail. Is written in RFP. And if it becomes kind of like a tailor made project, as they call it for a town. So, you know. There are some requirements, base requirements. That need to be moved to the comparative criteria. Just so it's not too specific of a project. So for instance, like requiring dual head charging stations at a certain ratio. That almost is too, too detailed or. Asking for certain things in a management plan. You know, so we, we just, we move some things. So the, the. Attorney suggested that some things be moved just to the comparative criteria, just so that. You know, a bidder, a potential bidder doesn't complain. That the RFP is, you know, is. Yeah, I don't know too strict or something. Can I ask a question? Are those things that are actually illegal to do, or just the lawyer is saying, don't do it because it's a bad idea. Yeah. So there's, there's probably a handful of cases where. There have been complaints to the, the state. About, you know, a procurement process. You know, in Lyman terrace and Holyoke's a big one. And there was another one out near Boston. And, you know, so we just don't want that to happen. Right. So it's just a matter of if it's a competitive bidding process. And someone feels like, you know, we, for instance, what if we say, oh, this is, they're not a responsive bidder because they're, they didn't do the dual charging stations, but every other, everything else was there. They could say, well, that's just, you know, that's, that's beyond what's necessary to review a proposal. Right. It's too specific. And so I don't think there's been any, you know, case law or anything necessarily on it. I think there's probably just some legal opinion that borderline, you know, I don't think there's been any, I don't think there's been any legal opinion. There's some way to try to keep us from doing anything different and keep us keeping on doing what's always happened. My opinion, two cents. I'll shut up now. Actually, Carol. I think what we ended up seeing from Sharon ever, who's the town attorney who was giving us advice. Is that she founded acceptable. As long as these very specific items were in the highly advantageous column. She did not like it when we had them in the advantageous column because it made it look as if they were absolutely required. And so I think those items have not been dropped entirely. They've just been moved over to highly advantageous. So we haven't lost them entirely. Oh, that's cool. Is that right? Yes. It's right. And also, you know, the issue, the, the issues that have come before. The inspector general have had to do with the fact that. To the extent that it looks like there's too much control being exercised by the municipal municipality. That in fact. The municipality are in the case of, you know, one of the cases was, one of the cases that was actually the Holyoke housing authority. That if there's too much control, that it should have been a public construction project. And that's not where we want to go. Because of the complexity and the, the additional costs. So if there's this really strong municipal control over design guidelines and. The, the revert or, you know, where the property could come back to the municipality or say to a housing authority, if something went wrong, that the IG is saying. This really is a, this is a public construction project, but, you know, that's, that's why we do. You sort of do the handoff through the RFP. And it's hands off from there. So once you've identified the developer, then there's no coming back. There's no, you know, exercising up by the trust or by the municipality, except for, for town boards, except for the permitting process in what goes on with the development. So this is very kind of gray area. And, you know, it's on a case by case basis, but I think we just want to err on the side of, of caution here, not to be. So, you know, so specific as to have somebody say, oh, this should be public construction. I think there's concern to that, you know, the procurement regulations say that has to be like free and open competition amongst, you know, bidders and if things are so specific, it almost looks like we're tailoring it to say maybe one person or one respondent, right? It becomes, it could be difficult for others to respond and meet all those criteria. So, I mean, it's happened before, not at this level, but, you know, for instance, we can't specify a certain brand or material. It has to be, you always have to have an equivalency condition in there. Even if you like, you know, even for instance, you know, you want to use a certain light pole, you have to have, you can't just certain require just one, you know, one thing. I don't think, I don't think it's really major actually. At first I thought it was really daunting, but I think the way we handled it is, is a good one. I think the bigger challenge is still the reuse of the street school building and how many people developers, applicants would be interested in that. Hopefully we'll know within 30 days. Oh yeah, as part of an announcement, I guess I would say, you know, I went to the opening at North square the other day, it was hot, but there's a lot of good speakers and the state, you know, really gave a lot of accolades to Amherst and, you know, and for that project, but I will say hearing the governor and lieutenant governor, it's great that, you know, they, you know, they really applauded Amherst for taking advantage of grants and for looking at housing. And so it to me, it just bodes well for future projects, right? So it's, it's something that they know that, you know, the town will work through an applicant through the permitting and, you know, we'll try to help a project through to success, even if it, you know, does take a long time or if it's complicated. So, you know, I was just pleased to hear that, that, you know, some communities they may not, you know, they don't have that experience or they might not have that kind of relationship with the state, you know, or the state may not know the community as well. I feel like the community thinks Amherst, the state thinks Amherst was a really good job. So I was pleased that they, you know, I feel like they're in that position. Yeah, that's great. I have to admit that I skipped it because of the heat. I was a little late. I was debating myself. But I was, you know, in terms of like this project, you know, I think it's, you know, I think it's, you know, I think it's, you know, I think it's, you know, I think it's, you know, I think it's the East street and Belgium road product. I just feel like, you know, again, it's something that, you know, we're asking for certain bedroom mix to, you know, to help a need in town. And I just think that, you know, it'll help the product possibly get funded, you know, maybe. And, you know, quicker than if it was another community, right? So as opposed to waiting, you know, two, three rounds, it could be, you know, maybe one or two. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Strong street. I think the, you know, the town manager, there is a disposition, a disposition policy and a, kind of like an ad hoc committee to look at land. And so at the trust's request and John's urging, the town manager said that, you know, the, the trust can kind of have a first pass at the property in terms of looking at it for housing. You know, we're, we're lining up what would be the, what would be the, what would be the, what would be the, what would be the, what would be the number of consultants, you know, what kind of services we need. Looking at, you know, site, developability, whether it's, you know, digging test pits and maybe doing a survey, clearing some, some areas to look at the property wetlands. And so I'm not sure, you know, how much other staff will be involved. You know, I think, you know, Rita and I can help manage with some consultants, you know, for instance, I'm a meeting with my supervisor to determine, you know, how much we can expect other town departments to paid in this, or is it just going to be, you know, everything, you know, a private, private contracts. But it is good that they're, you know, they, they said that's, you know, a go ahead. You know, Dave Zomac has reached out to the neighbors before, and I think he may already have again, letting him know that this property is going to become active in terms of people going out there. And so it's, you know, it's, it's, it's definitely starting. So. Nate, I haven't asked you this, is there water and sewer on strong street? There is, but not, not right at the, at the intersection of, you know, where this road is, you know, so there's a, you know, like a private driver, common drive right now. And it doesn't on strong street though. It is, but there's tracks, you know, to the west. So, right. I thought there was an actually an easement on the western part of this property for utilities. And so I had, I had STPW about that. You wouldn't, you'd bring them up through the, you know, instead of coming up the road, you bring them up another way. Yeah. You know, and. You know, so I was, the intent of the year, so he's going to look at it. I just want, I, you know, but yeah, someone, someone actually already bought a lot, right? So what happened was probably like 20, I don't know it was more than 20 years ago, someone proposed like a 13 lot subdivision. And, you know, let's be permitting the loss were created. You know, the road was laid out. And then the product never happened. So it's basically like a paper street, right? So it's on paper, it's on plan, but it has never. Happened and because of, but then because of, um, um, You know, issues with paying the property taxes, the town took this property through tax title. And so the town's owned it and this paper subdivision is still in place. And so, you know, it was like 11 to 13 lots. And so, you know, I think as part of this due diligence, at one point we discussed it, you know, and Rob, you said, maybe, maybe, uh, some of these lots, if it is developable, it could be sold as a market rate to help subsidize affordable. I feel like there's probably a number of options of what could happen here. Um, but I was going to say is one of the lots was actually purchased by a private entity years ago, and they still own it. And so one of the, one of the end lots on the cul-de-sac. So I think they were probably hoping this was going to happen. And it never did. So they own this, you know, they own a lot out there. And there's one lot with the house on it. It is one or two. Yeah, right. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's 11, you know, I don't know what, what could happen out there. Read it to your point of utilities. Yeah. If we can get utilities up, I really would love to do some test pits because the neighbors have said that it's ledge, you know, that it's pretty rocky. And so. Um, If there's houses there that are part of the subdivision plot, or are they part, are they not, they must have utilities that got there somewhere. No. Yeah. You know, I was going to try to pull up a map quickly. There's only one house that's was part of the subdivision. Yeah. And it could have, it could have a well and septic. If you didn't bring the lines back in, but that's, you know, that could possibly be done without huge expense. Yeah. I think some of it is just also kind of like, you know, John wants to get these things right. Lined up. No, you know, it's a good thing. I think the other one is going back to East street RFP, the, um, you know, there's two houses on the. Belcher town road property and an RFP we said, you know, the developer would work with the town to maybe move. Move the houses. So there's also a few smaller town owned properties is one like on old farm road and a few others that. You know, if it becomes feasible or something that the house could be moved, maybe, maybe there, you know, A house from Belcher town road could be moved to a site. So, you know, there's no promises or anything there, but, um, So people, sorry, I'm wrong site. So for a strong street, if, I don't know, if, is the screen visible? Yep. Yeah. So here's where these purple lines are. This is the, was the subdivision, right? So it's a considered a private way now and they came and. You know, this whole. You know, these, all these properties were part of the subdivision. You know, now really it's just acting as a private driveway for this one house. And, you know, this lot right here on the end. Um, 12 C 19, this is privately owned. So someone purchased this, the rest of this. All is town property. And so, um, That includes the two smaller lots that are. Yes. Towards the front. Yep. Yeah. So includes everything. You know, and, uh, so yeah, and for utilities, Rita, here's the utility map. So it's, you know, they stop right here. Okay. You know, but the tenant engineer thought there'd be a way because these lots right here come through here. Right. And so the tenant engineer thought the better solution might be to bring the utilities up. Up this way. Anyway, so that little, is that little blue thing signify water. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Town water on 10 on the lot. That's the furthest. That's in the subdivision there. Right here. Yeah. Where the cursor is. Uh, for the one where there's the house on the, yeah, that one. Yeah. You know, I'm trying to grab it. It's a, um, It would show the, um, if there would just be for a water card. Doesn't mean that there's town water. Oh, I see. Oh, okay. Yeah. But so yeah, I think, you know, there's a few things that to do on this and we can get that started this year, you know, in this, this summer. Nate, if, if, if you bring utilities from that, uh, Place out at, I guess the eastern side of the lots. Um, can those also serve those, uh, smaller lots that are not part of the back. Section of the property. I guess it depends on where you've branched that out. Right. Yeah. So I mean, I think those are all considerations for how. You know, um, you know, this is on a hill. So everything goes downhill, right? The tracks and train tracks are right here, but everything, you know, so this is a high point. So, you know, it's, it's either gravity fed this way or gravity fed that way. So, um, yeah. I mean, it might make sense just to come up right the road, but that's something we have to, you know, someone would explore. Yeah. Cause I wouldn't want to skip those smaller lots. Towards the front of the property. Right. Because we could do something with them as well. As you said, they could be sold or conceivably they could be needed to, uh, uh, Pioneer Valley habitat. Right. Right. For development also. If the utilities were there. Yeah. And the road. I'm trying to select this, but I can't see what it means. Yeah. So I, you know, it's, I think it's an exciting opportunity. It could be home ownership, you know, a smaller development, but at least it's something, um, you know, unless the town purchases another property, there's not too many municipally on properties right now that are. Available in the sense that this is right. There's not. I think Hickory Ridge is a future one that's coming that the town is in negotiations with the owner. Um, but I think there'll be a lot of competing uses there. Um, and although the sites really big Hickory Ridge is very, you know, over a hundred acres, there's maybe. I don't know. It's anywhere from five to eight, five to 10 acres that could be developable for housing. You know, it depends on a few things there. So it's not. You know, it's not even necessarily as big as this property, even though Hickory Ridge itself is a large property. Um, Yeah, I just one other thing I was going to add is that the. State has a new financing program, which comes from mass, uh, housing finance called, I think it's community builders. That's intended to, uh, focus on home ownership. And these locks are within an eligible. Uh, census tract. So that potentially gives us a path to create some home ownership properties at that site. If everything else works out. Yeah, no, it's funny. Actually you mentioned that, John, I think it was like almost a year ago, Paul and I spoke with, um, representatives from the state in this program. About Amherst. They mentioned the East street school site and yeah, uh, a few block groups in East Amherst are eligible for a few programs because of. I don't know, demographic or some information. I'm not sure exactly why it was eligible, but, um, they were excited to hear that there could be some projects. Uh, that could, you know, um, match with the program. Well, this is a good opportunity. And I think we'll spend some time talking about Hickory Ridge in August, uh, because I don't want to just let that go. Uh, if there's possible for us to do something on it, I want to define what we'd like to do so we can put in a bid, so to speak, or, uh, uh, using the part of that property. It's available for affordable housing. So just so I'm going to zoom out and just so everyone's aware. I mean, if you can. I don't want to select anything. If, um, yeah, I mean, on your travels before the next meeting, if you want, you know, on West Pomeroy here, you know, this, this big, you know, the golf courses here, but, you know, this whole product here is Taylor Davis landscaping. Um, but this whole area is, uh, Hickory Ridge. And so, um, you know, other department is not great, but the idea is that right here, you can see where all the lines are. This is where it kind of drops off and it gets his lower, but all along the street here. And in this corner is, um, you know, this area is all upland all the way to the clubhouse. So there is some potential along the street. Um, the town's also talking about using the existing pathways. You can see here and making some pedestrian connections to. Um, East Hadley Road and River Glade Drive and actually having some walking paths that connect all the way through to the village center. So. That's it. It's an exciting opportunity. So we'll take a closer look at that when we meet in August. But it's, it's open. I mean, it's. You know, I don't know. Um, But the status is right now, but you know, you can drive by and at least take a look at it from the street. Yeah, you can probably drive into the. Parking lot for the clubhouse and get a feeling for where that is. And, uh, if you're in that parking lot, the clubhouse obviously itself wouldn't be developable, but what the land on which it sits would be as well as land to the east of that, there's a strip of land that, uh, as Nate said, backs onto property owned by, uh, Taylor Davis. That property is actually closer to a bus route than I think strong street, the strong street property. Oh yeah. Strong street is not close to a bus route. This is pretty close because it's, you know, a stone's throw from the, uh, village center. In primary lane in West street. So again, we can talk next time about what we think might be. Possible there. Yeah. I was like, Paul had joined us and I thought I promoted him to a panelist, but he's disappeared from my screen. Um, I don't, I don't see him, John, do you know, I don't, but, uh, if he's around, he'll probably become visible. Yeah. Soon enough, uh, more, almost more significantly. I don't see Kevin yet. No, I don't either. I emailed them. I haven't heard back. Okay. Yeah. I think we're done. Unless there are other questions about either strong street or hit three rich, I should stop and ask people with questions or opinions. Suggestions related to those properties. Okay. The next item is state legislation. Uh, I have a brief report on something that we discussed. I think it was the last two meetings. Um, there is a, uh, a proposal, uh, that I think started with, well, I wouldn't say it started with Joe Comerford. It actually started with, uh, Representative Connolly in the house and Senator Comerford in the Senate. And what that would do would give the towns, the authority to include, uh, an extra fee or on, uh, an extra fee for houses that were sold that are above a certain threshold, say like half a million dollars. And towns could impose a fee of anywhere from half of 1%. I believe to 2% on that. And then the funds would be used to a full, to support affordable housing. In the town and towns where there are housing trusts. Like Amherst. Uh, those monies would go into the housing trust. So all that is possible. And we had, uh, actually voted unanimously for people who were there. To support that legislation. I have to say I have not actually gotten letters off to either Mindy or Joe indicating that or anybody else. However, I got a note last week from Ellen Schachter. Uh, Ellen works for the town of Somerville. And she is director of the office of housing stability. And she's leading a statewide effort actually to. Uh, lobby or advocate on behalf of this bill. And so when she asked me, I said, great, I can sign on to it. Uh, the housing trust already agreed that was a good idea. So we're on board supporting it. I think she has about 55 signers now. Uh, there are also a number of legislative sponsors. And so maybe we'll see some action on this. I will send letters to, as I said, Mindy and Joe. I just haven't gotten them off so far. So that's kind of where we are legislatively. Um, I don't have anything new to offer. Uh, if anybody else has anything else coming from. Uh, their own analysis or Chapa or whoever. Uh, that we should talk about this as a moment to offer it. Paul, I was just saying that the housing trust. Voted to support legislation that would allow. A small real estate fee on properties above a certain. Uh, purchase price, like half a million dollars. That's in the legislature now. Uh, we've signed on to a statewide group. Uh, supporting that. And, uh, we'll also let our representatives know that we're in support of that. And maybe committee chairs or whoever else seems to be appropriate. Okay. So that. Gets us through. Item seven, unless I missed somebody who wants to. Speak about. That or something else related to legislative advocacy. Okay. The next item that I have is discussion of applications. To the community preservation act committee. These are applications that I've typically submitted to CPA. Pretty much every year since I became chair. And usually I remember to do it at the last minute. So I don't consult with you all, but instead I say, Oh, by the way, I submitted these. And everybody should review them. And, uh, I hope you'll all vote to support it. So that I don't have to withdraw it. So this year I'm reversing that. I'm doing it properly. I sent everybody the, uh, two draft applications. Uh, there's at least one thing. I promised Dave's omic. I would change. It refers to potentially five. Oh, sorry. 12 acres available for, uh, development at Hickory Ridge. Dave said the number is smaller. It's between five and eight acres. So I will change that. Um, other than that, I think the drafts that I sent you are pretty good. One involves. A $30,000 request for a technical assistance consultant. Uh, which would be over two years. We've actually spent probably a little bit less than that in each year, but better to be a little high than a little low. Uh, the major thing that it outlines is the value. That we've already had from consulting over the last two or three years. Outlining or at least naming the specific tasks that Rita has been involved in. And then goes on to list the tasks. That we anticipate she'll be working on. Uh, over the next two years at least. So that is. That proposal, are there questions or comments about that? Okay. I don't see anybody raising their hand or saying. I can't believe you wrote that or whatever. Uh, okay. And then the second proposal is much larger. It's for half a million dollars. And, uh, It's basically a kind of open-ended. Request for support. For affordable housing. Which means that again, as it has in the past, the money could go potentially to purchase property. The money could go for, uh, Doing due diligence as we're planning to do in the strong street property. The money could go to help to support a developer. Uh, who's. Has a specific project. That has been approved. So any of those things are possible. Uh, it also could go to support an emergency rental assistance program. Uh, which is something that I. Uh, referred to in the application. So it's pretty open-ended. I will say for the past. I guess two or three years. We have asked for half a million dollars. They've never given us that. On the other hand. Um, if they were to give it to us. Uh, then we could definitely make good use of it, not necessarily immediately, but over the three year period. Or perhaps more that we would have to spend it. And I always figure again, a better to aim high than to aim low. Um, I think that's a good estimate. Uh, my guess is they'll probably end up approving. Something like $200,000. Uh, which is certainly better than nothing. Uh, the amount of money that we currently have in the trust from CPA. Is probably Nate correct me. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000. Yeah, that's a good estimate. That's a good estimate. Okay. How much of the emergency rental assistance program we end up paying for versus how much is the town's use of. Uh, federal grants. Uh, there may be even a bit more. But basically that's where we are. And that's a nice amount to have. Uh, because it certainly enables us to do due diligence. Um, if a developer comes to us and says, I want to do X, Y, or Z. Um, we may be in a position to provide that support, or they may simply, if it's a much larger amount. Um, go back to the community preservation act committee to request it. I would say last year. We did very well. We asked for money to support the purchase of Belcher town road. Um, they recommended and town council approved $600,000. Which is bonded. Um, which is, or has paid for the acquisition of the Belcher town road property. Uh, so overall, I think that housing has done very well in the last few years with the community preservation act committee. Um, in addition to the trust programs. They have funded. A rental assistance program run by Amherst community connections. And they've also funded a home ownership program. For a valley community development. And going back a little bit further. Um, a home ownership program. Uh, for. Of the Amherst community land trust. Um, And if you go back even a little further, uh, they've, uh, provided support to pioneer valley habitat for humanity. And I'd like to see them doing all of those things again. Um, particularly building up on the home ownership side. So, uh, I'm asking you to prove also approve. Um, I'm not going to go into details, but you all have the detail. So that if you have questions or comments, this is a good time to bring them up. Just gratitude to you for writing them both. Um, you know, and I, I. I thought that it did a good job of asking for money with. Not a clear idea of what it was for. I mean, if you had, well, we could do this, we could do this, we could do this, look at all these possibilities. I don't know. I just thought you did a good job of what seems like a hard thing to do to ask for a bunch of money without really, what is your budget? Well, it's all these bunch of possibilities. So I'm grateful. Thanks, Carol. I've done it before. So I had at least two years of requests to build on. Uh, not everything that you saw was fresh and a new. Uh, although, uh, certainly the conversation, the discussion about strong street and if we're rich, we're both new. Uh, and, uh, Uh, the emergency rental assistance program will not knew exactly was reporting on that. And I'm going to add a little bit based on the information that Jana gave us earlier in this meeting. If people have. Additional comments or they'd like to see changes. Um, if you transmit them to Nate, uh, he and I will discuss them and, uh, probably make them. Okay. So the trust knows the CPA committee hasn't asked for the proposals yet. You know, they, um, they're trying to do it earlier this year. Then, uh, And they have in the past, but, um, John's just preempting the process. Okay. I guess then we'll vote and maybe we won't vote on the two separately since there doesn't seem to be any, uh, specific concerns that have been raised. So I will ask for a vote, uh, to support the submission of these two applications to the community preservation act committee at such time as they have formally invited the applications. Uh, So I, I guess I move that we do that. Is there a second? I second it. Great. Thank you. Okay. So we'll go around. Uh, I guess it goes without saying that I'm in favor of it. Uh, Carol. In favor. Sid. Yes. Rob. Yes. Erica. Yes. Allegra. Yes. And Paul. Yes. Okay. So we're good. That means unanimously or. A comment. I'm sorry. I'm a little slow. No, no, that's okay. The only comment I have is that the documents look so close that I really had to read them a couple of times to make sure I didn't print out the same document. I don't know how you do it, but maybe on the top, make something up. So they know they're two separate and very different proposals. Okay. I'll try and do that in the past. When I first did this, I think I submitted it as one proposal. And the first time I did this. Uh, either the finance folks or the committee. Asked me to separate into two. So we now have a couple of different proposals. Okay. So we still don't have. Mac user. I think it's probably Chad has his hand raised. Okay. Sure. Hey, Chad, you can. If it's Chad, you can unmute yourself. Thank you. Um, just my same old question. Yeah. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You can unmute yourself. Thank you. Um, just my same old question every year has the CPA reached the level of. Transfer that we were told is typical for. CPAs to do for their housing trusts and in the state of Massachusetts. What was it? Something like that. Yeah, I think relative to other CPAs were fine. I don't think there are many towns of any that are doing better than that. Summerville or Cambridge may have higher percentages. But I honestly don't know exactly what they are. Chad. At one point, I, you know, there was some just informal discussion about the CPA funds. I don't think there are many towns of any that are doing better than that. Summerville or Cambridge may have higher percentages. But I honestly don't know exactly what they are. But at one point, I, you know, there was some just informal discussion about that. So I feel pretty confident that. We're getting our do. Thanks, John. Other comments or questions. Yeah. Summerville is really aggressive on affordable housing. So I would not be surprised if. 60 to 70% of their CPA funds go to that. I don't know, Paul, do you have a sense of that? I don't know that it's a big commitment of the city though. Yeah. Okay, thanks. Okay. Our. Next agenda item. Is an update on the draft comprehensive housing policy. About two to three weeks ago. The community resources committee of town council. Made a major change to their draft of this policy. At least as it affects affordable housing. And I was personally pleased with the change. Among other things, it sets a goal of 250 new affordable units. Over the next five years. A hundred of those are more or less already in the bank. At least I'm hoping they are. But things look optimistic. That would include the East street Belcher town road development. So we have to work on as we are working on. Additional development. So that we help the town to reach that goal. I think it's a regional blow. It's a bit of a stretch. But it's not out of the realm of possibility. Particularly if we work on strong street, I think that's a really positive change. I did write a note to Mandy, Joe, who's chair of the. Community resources committee. And I'll just read from it. It's very brief note. This latest graph to the comprehensive housing policy represents a very positive change. From the earlier drafts. There is new recognition. Of the unmet needs. And a significant greater commitment. To address them. There is also increased attention to the role of the university. As a source of the town's housing problems. With regard to the latter, I would recommend that taking one further step. I would establish a goal with respect to the additional campus residential grow. And I think that's a positive. And I think that's a positive goal with respect to the additional campus residential grow growth. To be no negotiated with the university. Capacity should be in Greece to serve the needs of at least. 3,000 additional students and their families. 5,000 would be even better. That should include affordable housing to serve the needs of low income students. So that's a personal comment. I didn't submit it on behalf of the university. And that's where we stand. I don't necessarily think the current draft is a perfect document. But from my point of view, the fact that it sets a very reasonable goal for affordable housing is a major positive change. I don't know if anybody else has any further comments about that. I just wanted to say thank you for having them come to the meeting because I thought it was a really good exchange. And I did, I do think they listened to us and did include these two items. But I actually have another question and this is maybe Paul can answer. The ARPA funding that's coming to municipalities. Is any of that's going to be used for infrastructure for developing affordable housing. I think there's a lot of needs and there's, there'll be a lot of demands and I think there, this, that's certainly one. And it really is about economic recovery and helping people emerge from the pandemic. And I think that's one of the priorities as well. But it's a pretty broad, it's a lot of money for the town. It's spent over three years. So there could be some possibilities there. Okay. Good question, Erica. And I do want to say that the meeting that we had with. Most of the community resources committee. I think it was only one person who wasn't present. I believe that was the catalyst for the changes that I was reporting on. So you're absolutely right. It was really a very, very, very important. And I think that was one of the things that was really important. And I believe that was the catalyst for the changes that I was reporting on. So you're absolutely right. It was really a valuable opportunity for us to talk to them. And to make our case. Okay. So. I guess Kevin hasn't joined us. I didn't anticipate asking you this Allegra, but since you are representative to. The town managers committee on the future of the seasonals and the future of the community. And I think that was the most important thing. I think that was the most important thing. That we had over the years beyond. I know it's only probably only had one meeting since we talked about it the last time. Is there anything. That you have to, you want to report. I don't have much. I will say I have attended two of the three meetings. And I missed the most recent ones. So I don't have some of the most recent information. But I think that's the most important thing. I think that's the most important thing. And I think that's the most important thing. I think that the contract with the university lodge has been extended through next June or July. So at least there will still be those 20. Rooms. That are for. Individual. Individual rooms is not the congregate shelter, but they are still. Looking at different options for the congregate shelter for the fall. And I think. I think that the longer term vision for a more permanent. Place is also kind of considering. More of a permanent housing. Idea. So not necessarily. I guess considering, are we putting all the resources into a shelter? Are we trying to balance. Services and, and the emergency shelter with also creating pathways for more permanent supported housing as well. And I think a lot of the committee members feel that that's a pretty strong. Need in the, in the town. And so. You know, hoping that we can also advocate for. Creating more affordable housing and also perhaps working with local landlords around subsidy issues. Since that could be another pathway for. Housing. And getting people out of homelessness. So that's kind of, I guess that's the short answer for you. I don't, I can't say like, as of November 1st, we will be opening the doors here. I don't have that information. I don't know other committee members might have more ideas of what, as. What, where the options might be. But I think. As of right now. There will be some. Where else if there would be more hotel rooms again. And a congregate shelter or just looking for the place for the congregate shelter. Is there. Is the university. Is it you, you sorry. Out as a location, additional location for shelter. For next year. I. My understanding was yes, but. I could be wrong. I know that. For this year. And I don't know if I, I believe as they were like opening back up. That was the conversation was kind of. From my understanding, but that was not going to be an option in the fall, but I could. Okay. Old information. Because I belong to. The regional group. That is chaired by Pamela Schwartz, the pioneer valley. Something to end homelessness. Blocking on the full name at the moment. I do know that there's also discussion. Potentially perching. Purchasing a motel in Hadley. The. The possibility that state might fund that purchase. And convert it. Into affordable housing, not into a shelter. Or it might be mixed affordable housing in the shelters. Not clear to me. And probably not to anybody else at this point, exactly what will happen to it. But there are. Rooms like the university motor lodge that could be used for housing. Or could be converted into. Small single room only. With. A kitchen, a bath and living space. As. Valley community development is doing it. 132 North Hampton road. So that's at least in discussion. The state did fund. The city of Hadley. And that's the eastern part of Massachusetts. Yeah, father bills and mains. Thank you. Yes, right. And that may be a pathway. That could be followed. In Hadley as well. One of the concerns immediately, I believe is that the person who owns that property or the group that owns that property. May want a high price. And then. Would make it possible. Economically to do the development. I like where you want to say something else. I was going to say, I think that the group has. Or just going to start a conversation about are we, should we try and be partnering with some. Of the neighboring towns. As some of the population might be. Kind of transient between. Some of the neighboring cities as well. And I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. I think that's a good question. Yeah. If you look at the regional seasonal shelter data. And the information about where people come from. There's no question, but that. Amherst doesn't exclusively serve people from Amherst. Similarly, North Hampton doesn't exclusively serve people from North Hampton. And. If Hadley is to develop something, we get a certain amount of traffic from Springfield. And from other communities around the state, honestly. Yeah, I haven't. At least according to Kevin, part of that might be because of the lower threshold. In terms of behavior. Yeah. That's definitely true. The way they've operated the shelter. As a kind of behavior based shelter. So, without automatically excluding people who show up intoxicated. Does make a difference, but it also. Historically, the Amherst shelter was the one that. Started the evening, the latest. So if other shelters filled up. For example, North Hampton, they would send people to Amherst because they were full and no longer had any additional room. So there's a mix of reasons why. I'm not to say that what you just said is incorrect. It is correct. Any other comments or ideas. Related to the shelter or the shelter population. Okay. I only had one other item. It's a brief item. I have been asked by Amherst neighbors. I don't know if everybody knows what Amherst neighbors is. It's a group that formed now. Probably three years ago and was formally incorporated a little over a year ago. Persons who are concerned about. The older adult population in Amherst and assuring that they get access to services they need. They do work in concert. To some extent with. The senior center in Amherst. They have a somewhat different charge than the senior center. Unless there are reasons to cooperate. Anyway, I've been invited by a member of their program committee. Specifically my wife, Heather. To give a talk on. Housing, particularly housing related to older adults. In Amherst. And that would be. On. I've got it here. Thursday, September 4th at 4pm. So that's scheduled by Amherst neighbors. I'm not proposing to change it. But if I can get their agreement. I make, I may make that a housing forum. And invite a larger number of people as we have with the three housing forums. That took place in March. April and May. If anybody has an ideas. About what I should say. About housing for seniors or for older adults. Let me know. Particularly those of you who are older. May have some thoughts or possibly even Allegra may have some ideas. But anyway. It would be, it would be interesting to talk about that. And to think about what the role of the housing trust is and focusing on the needs of older adults. It's not something we've talked about. Although I have to say that in the back of my mind, as we've been talking about the possibility of something at Hickory Ridge, I was thinking that. A development for older adults might be appropriate there. But I don't know if that's going to work out. I don't know if that works well, but. That idea has come to me. I know that. Chris Brestrup, who is the. Planning director in the town has said. On a couple of occasions to me, when are you going to consider. Projects for older adults. So that's in my mind. And I'll probably be talking to Mary Beth, the senior center director and other people as well about their thoughts. I'm not going to talk about that. I'm not going to talk about that. I'm going to talk about it on Thursday, September 2nd at 4pm. And if anybody has any further thoughts about that, either let me know by email or bring them up right now. Well, I just wanted to, sorry. It looks like I agree. You wanted to say something, but. You know, and I'm absolutely not experienced. About this, but I have seen some conversations about having. Intentionally mixes older adults with families, especially single parents. To help each other. So I'm just wondering if, you know, we, we can explore some innovative community oriented. Peer support, family support, community support models. That's not an either or, but actually provides an opportunity for intergenerational. Support. I think that's a great idea, Erica. And those are the kinds of discussions that we need to have. You know, I don't. I always wonder when we try to do something like that, which is very sensible. Whether we can do it in the context of whatever the state rules are that affect financing. But it's a very good point. And we should try to figure out how to do that. I'm just wanting to make sure I understand. I kind of thought you were asking, should this thing in September just be me going and talking? Or do we want to make it a bigger thing? That's a forum. And then at the end, you just said, so I'm not sure if you're asking us that or not, I guess. Yeah, I am asking you, but before I ask you, I have to ask Amherst neighbors what they think, because it's their event, not ours. But if they're interested, then my inclination would say, we should be interested. But if you have a specific idea related to that, Carol, please go ahead. No, I would just say that. Yes, if the opportunity is there, it seems like it would be a good opportunity for us to. Take on making it some kind of a forum. And ask, invite more people or whatever that means and not just have it be you going to do your talk. Even though you would be doing the talk, you know, I mean, I don't even know what my ideas are other than, yes, we should take it on if it's a possibility. Yeah. There's another thing I should mention that occurs to me. I had a conversation with Mary Beth. And she was talking to me a couple months ago. Oh, at least a month ago. And she is planning to do a survey of older adults in Amherst. Generally regarding need. And we talked briefly about including in that survey, some questions about housing needs. I haven't figured out how to do that, but she was interested. A lot of the survey is. Already. I've done a survey that's been used in other communities, but when I took a quick look at it, it didn't seem to have anything related to housing. And so I think that would be useful for us to have as well. I could have mentioned earlier, but it. I wasn't thinking about it. Until again, this moment. If anybody again has any thoughts about. I think, you know, the three, you know, cosponsored forums we had this spring, I think they were just really helpful to have a panelist of people. You know, and I think there's just a lot of great ideas that were. And stories that were told. And so I think it just, you know, just helps bring awareness and can help, you know. The springboard for different, different initiatives or programs. And so. Even just having personal stories, you know, this one. It's a timber could be helpful just, you know, I think it would be helpful to have a panelist of people. You know, I think it would be helpful to have a panelist of people who are aging in place to what Erica mentioned to. You know, what kind of programs could already be available. I mean, there's, you know, a progression of different housing types. And so I think. Yeah, I don't, I mean, I'm sure there's a number of topics that could be covered. It might just be good to. Hear about it. You know, I will say that. When beacon was. You know, I mean, they actually were working with Hampton college to do Verdean village years ago. And it didn't happen. And that was, you know, a model of. You know, condos. I think it was home ownership units for, for people that who could then could maybe take a continuing education courses at Hampton college or something. So there, you know, they're saying, well, we had already been in town. Pam Goodwin was like, you know, we really like cameras. We like this idea. So. I guess we're turned into a forum just to, you know, Yeah. It also means that I don't have to speak for 45 minutes or an hour, which is a good ideas. So I like that. Thanks. I don't know how this exactly fits in, but a thing that I have heard is that there are. People who are older who are on fixed income to own their own homes and don't know if they can stay because they can't So there's like a kind of almost an invisible home ownership problem or something or a potential home ownership problem. I don't know exactly what to call it and I certainly don't have a good idea what to do about it but it is it is something that I've at least heard is a problem for some elders in town. The same thing. The percentage of people who own their own homes were above the age of I can remember I think it's 60 who are cost burdened is much smaller than people generally who rent homes that are of a younger age but there is some evidence to support what I think Carol, and I've heard anecdotally the same thing so I think that you're right. John Matt Chad, Matthews raises hand raised. Sure. Hey Chad you can unmute yourself. Okay. I mean, Paul actually appointed me to the council on aging and aging is a bit of a specialty of mine. I can say that the elderly like a wide array of housing just like the other populations we serve. Some do not want to hear the pitter patter of little feet, and others really love it. We have a model in East Hampton tree house, where elders have family far around the country far away. Take on kids who are topping out of the adoption services and so there's elder and younger together. Carol mentioned cost burden homeowners. There is a service national service computer service that matches folks to rent. This is a college town. We have something called UMass off campus housing that is one of the biggest housing placement agencies. This is the whole end of this of the state. So there's a lot of things going on. The important thing is to offer a wide array of possibilities. We like to choose just like anybody else likes to choose. So that's, that's my comment. I hope the survey includes housing issues. Aging needs to form a strategic plan. They have a new director a new board. Things have changed. It's time for a strategic plan over there and that that study would really help with that. Thanks for your time. Other comments related to this. Okay. Well, I think we're pretty much come to the end of the agenda. I'll just mention that again, our next housing trust meeting will be Thursday, August 12. So please put that in your calendars. The housing coalition is not meeting in July, but it will meet again at the end of August. I think I have it as August 24. I haven't still hasn't joined us. Okay. Well, I will see if I can invite him successfully to come to our August meeting then. Anything else anybody has that you want to bring up before we close out the meeting. Or any, there's a few members in attendance. So if there's any public comment, you can raise your hand as well. I don't see any hands being raised. Yeah, I have more more and Laura listed as the other people who are attending. Okay. Then somebody want to make a motion to adjourn. I moved. Okay, thank you. Is there a second. Second. Okay, I don't think I'll take a formal vote on this. Anybody objects. Let me know. This is record. This is record time, John. I know. Yeah, I was a very efficient meeting. On the one hand, on the other hand, we didn't get to have more of a conversation about Craig Stores and some little sorry about that. But we did the best we could. So thank you everybody for attending and for your thoughts. Anything else. Please email me or I. Thank you again. Thanks. Have a good evening. Hi, everybody.