Housing Commission

City of Falls Church Housing Commission MINUTES 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: April 19, 2022 PLACE OF MEETING: Virtual MEETING CALLED TO ORDER BY: Joshua Shokoor at 6:31 p.m. THOSE PRESENT: Commission Members Planning Commission Liaison Meredith Anderson Derek Hyra Jordan Hicks, Vice Chair City Council Liaison & members Joshua Shokoor, Chair Letty Hardi Hannah Jordan Caroline Lian Phil Duncan Staff Guests Dana Lewis Gene Gresko Kayleen Mark Mansour Abdul-Malik Alicia Garcia Gabrielle Happi Derek Hyra Paul Boesen Minutes from the March 8, 2022 meeting were approved as amended. Proceedings: Meeting and Roll called to order at 6:34pm – Chair Joshua Shokoor Reading of Virtual Meeting Notice – Staff Dana Lewis Approval of Minutes – Chair Joshua Shokoor Motion to approve as amended by Joshua Shokoor and seconded by Meredith Anderson. Motion  passed. Welcoming Falls Church – Refugee Program Assistance Update - Paul Bosen Bosen gave an update on the refugee assistance program. The City and Welcoming Falls Church are determining the best way to move forward providing the assistance to the families. The program will create a rent voucher program and administer the program internally or do direct payments of funds to landlords. There is a plan w to work with landlords to accept partial payment of funds from Catholic Charities (CC). Bosen also said the program is getting a lot of people who are interested. Private donors want to help as well. There is an opportunity to look at old buildings in Falls Church and single-family homes. Meredith asked about the people who have been on the wait-list for some time and other families receiving housing assistance before them. Joshua shared the funding is from separate streams and this money is specifically for refugees and this is a $50K one-time program. Dana specified this is ARPA funds. Meredith asked how easy it would be to identify the five families to help. There is a partnership with CC(CC) and Lutheran Social Services to help establish criteria to identify families and it will also be based on homes that are available and the family size. Hannah pointed out the adult literacy center is ready to help with the language barrier. Amazon 2 Homeownership Program Update – Mansur Abdul Malik – NHP Foundation Alicia Garcia introduced Mansur Abdul-Malik, NHP Foundation, who spoke about the Amazon Homeownership Program and how the program will benefit people with certain AMIs. He stated the focus is on 50-80% AMI. He discussed equity sharing to continue the program. He also discussed what is involved in the developer fee and the amount. Homes within the range are sold pretty quickly and the inventory is low for the range of $300-700K. Based on AMI, the plan is to sell to the next person in same AMI bracket and when the house is sold, part of the equity goes to the city to help purchase more homes. Compared to DC and MOCO, the 80% /20% equity model works, and this gives the seller the incentive to buy another home especially if family size grows. The City will receive additional funds to grow the program in the future. Caroline asked if there is consideration in doing an equity approach based on a scaler model where the shared equity model changes based on home value. He stated they are looking at what the market is doing now and they didn’t look more specific on a tier system if more or less would go to the city based on value. Developer fee – Mansur detailed the scope of work in this process and said the 12% is a typical rate of a developer. They are also willing to apply for additional funds to help with the program. With the Federal Home Bank Project there is a high probability of being funded. Some expressed they thought the fee was a bit high and Mansur said he is open to discuss. It may be possible to adjust the scope to decrease the fee. Caroline said she wants to meet with Alicia and Dana about this and she wants to make sure she has some time to understand before giving feedback and appreciates the detail. Derek Hyra shared his concern is the property prices will get higher. He also stated this is a project where homes are being purchased that are already constructed and not needing much rehab. Alicia shared it may not be as quick as one assumes selling a home to an affordable buyer. The buyer will need a preapproved mortgage sheet, first time housing classes, apply for grants etc. and this can be a lengthy process. The buyer is coming from a waitlist and may not have all of the things align that is needed to purchase. Alicia stated the buyer may also need to work with different agencies to do savings plans etc. The carry cost NHP will have willl be heavy while we hold the homes for the home owners. Mansur said they are taking on all the risk for the City and it’s not just the work that is going to be done but the human resources needed to manage and execute this. Letty Hardi questioned how does the developer fee compare with other programs? Alicia said she will provide comparison to the council. Development firms in VA typically take 10-12% depending on risk. Alicia said next step is to get the approval from CCcouncil and for Wyatt to sign off on the May 23rd session. She will be bringing to the working session on May 16th before the meeting on the 23rd. Alicia is going to the work session and everyone will send their comments to Dana and she will send to Joshua to create a memo. Amazon 3 Acquisition Strike Fund Update – Staff Alicia Garcia Alicia said she is working on a MOU with the City and Wesley. She is waiting on Carol to review. She is working with city attorney to transfer the property to the EDA to allow refinance to go through smoother and help with the City not owning property. She is also working on the procurement phase 1 which is an environmental study where a group does a review of the land, looking for lead and things that can be harmful to people living there. She is also doing requests for quotes for the phase 1 assessment. Wesley provide some people for quotes. 310 S Maple needs extensive repairs. Affordable Dwelling Unit Update – Staff Kayleen Mark Kayleen discussed managing the ADU program and wait-list. She explained the current priorites on the waitlist. There is a total of 123 persons. There are 8 people on the priority 1 list, 60 people on the priority 2 list and 55 people on the priority 3 list. She also mentioned that she is currently developing the homeownership waitlist (16 people). She discussed the current available ADUs at Founder’s Row and Verso which is a 55+ community and working to get those filled. She is also working on outreach within the city and has reached out to FCCPS to reach employees in the school system. She also discussed relocating tenants from S Maple. Letty asked about opening up the wait list to people outside of the City. Dana said based on the details in each individual filed covenant some ADU properties manage their own list. Other  • The Fields finished fixing the issues at the property. Kettler management provides weekly updates. There were 5-star reviews from tenants and no complaints of mold, they took care of the rodent issue, and even had an Easter egg hunt for residents. Bike racks were also installed on the property. There is positive feedback from residents. Dana will send update and pictures to Council. Letty said she hoped going forward they do what they need to do and not wait until it reaches the City and the newspaper to fix issues and address complaints. • Letty asked to add revisit setting housing goals and that we should monitor the progress and measure what we are doing and what the housing stocks should be. She stated we should validate current housing stocks to set goals for the future. • Intern is coming soon to help go over the data and know what current stock is and the goals will help with future development. Meeting Adjourned – 8:19 p.m. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This document will be made available in an alternate format upon request. Call 703-248-5005 (TTY 711).