Housing Commission

MINUTES HOUSING COMMISSION City of Falls Church PURPOSE OF MEETING: The five-member Commission is appointed by the City Council for three-year terms. The Housing Commission maintains awareness of housing needs and opportunities, including affordable housing; proposes housing policy initiatives and changes; investigates fair housing complaints and conciliates these complaints; mediates conflicts relating to the Virginia Residential Landlord & Tenant Act and offers reconciliatory services in conflicts relating to other housing laws. DATE OF MEETING: December 11, 2018 PLACE OF MEETING: Winter Hill Apartments – Board Room MEETING CALLED TO ORDER BY: Chair Brenda Heffernan at 6:30pm THOSE PRESENT: Commission Members Staff Brenda Heffernan, Chair _ X__ Dana Lewis _X_ Jordan Hicks, Vice Chair _X_ Alex McMillen _X_ M.T. Gutmanis ___ Planning Commission Liaison Joshua Shokoor ____ Lindy Hockenberry __ Peter Davis __X__ Student Liaison FCHC Liaison Katherine O’Neil _X__ Thom Vaccaro____ Kaylee Stillwagoner _X_ Council Liaison Visitors Letty Hardi _ X__ Phil Duncan __X__ Kamilah McAfee__X__ Minutes approved from November meeting. Next Housing Article- The Commission has three articles left that are waiting to run. There is Don’s article concerning millennial housing, Thom’s article on senior housing and Julio’s article on housing in our region in general. Comprehensive Plan- The City recently received housing and demographic information from a consultant. This data will be used to construct the comp plan chapter and build an argument for affordable housing and the need for housing in general. Staff is currently working with the Planning department to create a first draft. Affordable Living Policy- The Policy is planned to go to work session on 1/7/2019 and hopefully will be adopted at the City Council regular meeting on 1/14/2019. Steve Prague Affordable Housing Champion Award-The HC made three nominations for the award. They included: Hannah Jordan from the Winter Shelter, Julio Idrobo- past Housing Commission Chair, and William Hale – Pastor of Knox Presbyterian church. Voting on the award will occur at the January meeting. The Fields Update- Kamilah McAfee, the Vice President for Real Estate Development at Wesley Housing Development Corporation, came to give an update on the Fields apartment’s tax credit situation to the Commission. These were the major takeaways: • The Fields is a Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) property, the only one in the City of Falls Church. The LIHTC program is a federal program that incentivizes private companies to build affordable housing for low income Americans through tax credits. • The program is a 15 year affordability program. The Fields was first approved in 1996 and again 15 years later. Most projects have 50 to 60 years of affordability. The thirty year mark will be in 2026. • Once these tax credits expire in 2026 the units at the Fields will no longer be committed affordable, they will revert back to market rate. • The private investor that Wesley is partnered with, Kettler, is being difficult as they want maximum appreciation on the property. Sun America is the limited partner and VHDA is the only loan on the property. • Wesley has offered to buy out Kettler but cannot afford to do this alone. The units are currently worth about $50,000-$100,000 per unit. This would be 4.8-9.6 million dollars in 2018. This is what would be needed from the locality in order to make Wesley competitive to successfully receive 9% tax credits. • One option is to reapply and refinance the property to stay affordable. This would also involve a City contribution. • Another option could be to redevelop the land and add enough density that could keep the current 96 units affordable. This might possibly require a zoning change from the City. Wesley asked City housing staff to see what can currently be done by right. ADU Ordinance and how it applies to Setting Rents and Eligibility- Staff will explore where to set the income eligibility range to best serve Falls Church clients. The current 50-80 percent AMI range is a bit restrictive and the range may be expanded to serve more people. Sprague Housing Report • Should we have a housing survey question in the News Press? • At a presentation one of the commissioners heard the Director of the Winter Shelter talk about the lack of single room occupancies (SROs) in the City • Commissioners will talk to Don Beyer housing affordability as they may redevelop land. Meeting ended at 8:30 pm