Housing Task Force

Housing Task Force Meeting #12 Thursday, May 9, 2024 7pm Village Hall Conference Room Attendants: Arley Arno, Monica Fonseca,, Aldo Vitagliano, Andrew Weiss, Ursula Winchell Absent: Margaret Adamson, Lisa Cordasco, Chester Edwards, Jane Lippman, Kathy Pandekakes, Catrina Shivers Luis Yumbla Meeting opened at 7:05pm We postponed approval of minutes as we did not have a quorum. Discussion: Monica Fonseca gave a brief review of the meeting she attended with Kathy Pandekakes of the Mamaroneck Coalition of Affordable Housing on May 3, 2024 (see attached notes.) Discussion on history of Affordable housing lawsuit Are we looking to get affordable housing with tax credits? Is there land to be acquired for a site on affordable housing? Is there optimum village land/lots and/or commercial lots that could be converted? Do we really want another affordable housing building or would we prefer affordable units sprinkled throughout? We have potential of approximately 350 units coming online based on approved projects, and how can we make sure that those units are managed and run properly at inception, but also continually run where they stay affordable? How do you make sure that they qualify and stay affordable to who is eligible? We need developers’ ideas and also should get someone from the Village to speak to the group to understand the language in the code and what protections are or are not in our zoning code. The County only reviews and manages at the beginning, via lottery and such, but does not follow up to ensure the units stay affordable to those qualified for them. We should have someone from Port Chester Planning to hear our concerns about affordable units. There was a letter sent to the Chair and Co-Chair from Tim Foley the director of the Builders and Realty Institute offering to speak to the Task Force. Joe Canavo of Great American has workforce housing and multi-family units and could talk to us about the need and what a workforce housing owner would want to see to keep their units affordable. Do we want to encourage developers to put money into a pot to build affordable housing? Or do want to go the way we have to create units, but then try to make them more affordable for the people in Port Chester? It’s an easier sell if we are helping the people in Port Chester. We should speak to Blanca Lopez to find what additional funding is available at the County level, and also what is available from New York State. Is there a way to change the code so that we do not have to offer to the 9 county region? According to two of our past speakers, Norma Drummond and Louis Larizza, typically, even when it has to go to 9 county region, the people applying for units are usually those from the community. We should explore both options that necessitates marketing with or without the 9 county region. We should also explore the Housing Needs Assessment to determine what their recommendations are in order to create more affordable housing, such as hiring Village staff and creating a department. We are suspending May 23rd meeting. Motion was made by Andrew Weiss, and seconded by Monica Fonseca and passed. June 13, 2024 and June 27, 2024 would be the next two meetings. We will have meeting in July on July 11th and one in August on August 8th. Future guest speaker ideas: Blanca Lopez Nick Williams David Mann Joe Canavo Greg Cutler or Curt Lavalla Shelly Mayer Monica Fonseca and Aldo Vitagliano will reach out to the above list to determine availability. Should we have a financial person that could explain the breakdown to make things feasible for building? IDA has some worksheets that show the breakdown of projects, with or without tax credits. The worksheets are project specific however, so it would be difficult to give exact numbers on affordable housing units in a general sense. We should be allaying some of the NIMBY (not in my backyard) arguments and make a point that we are trying to help the people in the Village. We will follow up on absentee members when Chester Edwards returns. Meeting was adjourned at 7:48pm by passed motion made by Ursula Winchell and seconded by Monica.