JOINT COMMITTEE ON REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes JOINT COMMITTEE ON REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES ALD. ROBERT BAUMAN, CHAIR Spencer Coggs, Preston Cole, Mario Higgins, Ald. Khalif Rainey, Antonio Perez, Maria Prioletta, and Ald. Russell Stamper, II. Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, 286-2231 Fax: 286-3456, lelmer@milwaukee.gov Legislative Liaison: Aaron Cadle, 286-8666, acadle@milwaukee.gov Tuesday, May 29, 2018 10:00 AM City Hall, Room 301-B 1. Review and approval of the minutes from the April 16th meeting. Meeting unofficially convened at: 10:06 A.M.; officially convened at 10:12 A.M. once a quorum was attained. Members present: Maria Prioletta, Preston Cole, Ald. Bauman and Jim Klajbor for Spencer Coggs, Mario Higgins (arrived at 10:12 A.M.) and Anthony Perez (arrived at 10:14 A.M.) Members excused: Ald. Russell Stamper and Ald. Khalif Rainey Mr. Higgins moved, seconded by Mr. Klajbor, for approval of the minutes. There were no objections. 2. Communication from the Department of City Development on Housing Infrastructure Preservation Fund Activities. Mr. Yves LaPierre said they are wrapping up work carried over from 2017 and those properties should be on the market in a month. 2430 N. 2nd St. has an issue as the contractor working on that property went out of business and they are working on getting the company's bond and will either use that to complete the work or will re-bid out the remaining work. Mr. Larry Kilmer, Dept. of City Development, spoke about issues relating to an exterior wall at a property in Ald. Bauman's district. Ald. Bauman supported having the work done with this fund and the buyer just then purchases the property. The prospective buyers' lender need to know the estimated costs, not the perceived costs. Ald. Bauman is concerned the buyers may not buy the property due to this issue. Mr. LaPierre said they're also going to do limited roof work on a property in Garden Homes. 3. Communication from the Department of City Development on the Lease-to-Own Program. Ms.Rhonda Szalli said there are 12 active participants and 12 active participant through ACTS (Allied Churches Teaching Self-Empowerment). 4. Communication from the Department of City Development relating to the Rehabilitation to Rent Program. City of Milwaukee Page 1 JOINT COMMITTEE ON Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES Ms. Amy Turim said 5 houses are completed and fully rented at a cost of approximately $75.000 each. Costs for duplexes tend to be a little less. The group that was doing renovations will no longer be doing it, so that will be an issue for the city. The property management is going well with Friends of Housing, but not the rehab portion of it; Ms. Turim anticipates it will be a challenge to find a good general contractor over the summer. The dept. is also being asked to work with other city departments to work on lead testing and remediation with $500.000 of the original million dollar buget remaining, but the Council is always asking about lead testing and remediation, both for paint, soil and water. A basic question is also which city-owned properties should be tested. Ms. Turim will continue her discussions with Ald. Stamper on this matter. 5. Communication from the Department of City Development on the Strong Home Loan Program. Mr. Larry Kilmer said 18 loans have been approved for strong home loans and 76 are pending. They have organized 27 community outreach events promoting the strong neighborhoods program. Ms. Amy Turim will follow up on the city property sale that was to have $40,000 going to the strong homes loans program as a condition of the sale. Ms. Prioletta said the Associated Bank agreement is in final draft form and they are working out the final details. The revenue will be used to fund the 2019 program. 6. Communication from the Dept. of City Development, Neighborhood Services, the City Attorney and the Mayor's Office regarding potential acquisition of the Rashad portfolio as the first phase of mayor's plan to create 10,000 affordable housing units. Ms. Prioletta said the city is looking at the porfolio to have development partners take control of these properties and Ms. Turim said there is an actual process that needs to be followed. Assistant City Attorney Kail Decker said Mr. Rashaed has been ordered to sell the properties, but there is no requirement that the city be the selected buyer. Ms. Prioletta said this is similar to working on foreclosed properties. Mr. Perez and Ald. Bauman would like to obtain some type of written plan. Existing programs will also be incorporated as part of this goal, which is 10,000 housing units in 10 years. Ms. Prioletta said the initiative has 2 components: one focusing on home ownership and the other on increasing quality affordable rental units. That is being done through incentives and TID amendments. Ms. Yepez-Klassen is also looking at what city work leverages work by private companies as well and that would be included in this count, as well as work by the housing authority. Mr. Cole said it would be better served to wait until the departments report back and be patient as the parties are working on it. The framework will be revealed at the Community and Economic Development Committee meeting on June 27th. 7. Communication from the Mayor's Office, Department of City Development, and the City Attorney's Office relating to activities, revenue and expenditures of the Strong Neighborhoods Plan. This matter was held. City of Milwaukee Page 2 JOINT COMMITTEE ON Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES 8. Communication from the Department of Neighborhood Services relating to the Compliance Loan Program. Steph O'Connor, DNS, said 6 loans have been completed, there are 29 applications pending and 32 have been approved. The average age is 61 with an average income of $16,900. The work has generally not covered lead laterals since it has been typically covering exterior renovations. There is an individual on Highland with a leaking lateral, so it might not meet these program qualifications, but there might be other city programs that this project could meet. In the past 6-8 months, the program is looking at raising the income limits from 50% to 60% of median county income and also using the language "observable code violations" rather than issued orders so owners don't have to call in their own violations and get them into the system. Any changes would go through the Common Council. 9. Communication from the Department of Neighborhood Services relating to demolition and deconstruction. This item was not discussed. 10. Communication from the Treasurer's Office, Department of Neighborhood Services and the City Attorney's Office relating to efforts to pierce the corporate veil of legal entities such as LLC's that own real property in the City of Milwaukee in order to expedite the collection of funds owed the city and to expedite compliance with DNS orders. Mr. Adam Stephens, Deputy City Attorney, said the city has been successful in negotiating public nuisance cases on the near south side and has been more active in the bankruptcy court in fighting bad landlords. Assistant City Attorney Gregg Hagopian was successful in bringing the national conference of the Center for Community Progress to Milwaukee and he presented at this conference. Ald. Bauman is concerned is that not a single Council member was present to present at this conference. Ald. Bauman was allowed to tag along for 30 minutes and attendees seemed eager to have his input on the political process. A number of aldermen active in this area were upset at being excluded. The city clerk was notified of the conference dates. 11. Public Comment There were no members of the public present. 12. Set next meeting date. Monday, July 9th at 10 A.M. Meeting adjourned: 11:03 A.M. Linda M. Elmer Staff Assistant This meeting can be viewed in its entirety through the City's Legislative Research Center at http://milwaukee.legistar.com/calendar. 171233 Communication relating to the 2018 activities of the Joint Committee on City of Milwaukee Page 3 JOINT COMMITTEE ON Meeting Minutes May 29, 2018 REDEVELOPMENT OF ABANDONED AND FORECLOSED HOMES the Redevelopment of Abandoned and Foreclosed Homes. Sponsors: THE CHAIR City of Milwaukee Page 4