Housing Commission

8/22/2023 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Jack Commo, Robert Millar, Anna Wageling, Deac Decarreau, Leslie Black- Plummeau, Jessica Bridge City Staff Present: Jazmine Hurley (Staff Liaison) Councilor Charles Judge (City Council Liaison) Call to Order by: Meeting Start Time: 6:05 PM Minutes Recorded by: Anna Wageling II. Public Comment None III. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Decision: Approve Motion by: Jack Second: Anna IV. Discussion: Reorganization of Housing Commission Members Appoint a Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary - these positions will be in effect until June 2024. Jessica is willing to serve as Chair. Deac, Jack, Anna, and Leslie nominate Jessica as Chair. Jessica Chair by acclimation. Jack willing to serve as vice Chair. Anna, Deac, Robert nominate Jack as chair. Jessica nominates Anna as Secretary, Deac seconds. V. Discussion: Housing Commission Work Plan FY24 l LL and tenant could go under renter protections l Suggestions feedback: we are more policy focused instead of tasks l Houselessness and insecurity is more project-based- these are topics presented, but not something that we should be doing l 3+ bed incentives: enacted in 2022, no longer incentives after Act 47 (density bonuses already allotted with the new housing bill) l Maybe switch- homes built for people with AMI 120 or less l #2 - we did send over ideas, but did not receive feedback l #3 - should it be make recommendations instead of assess since it has been labeled as need? We can do assess and make recommendation l #5 - pretty broad, the rest are specific. Bylaw scrub to see what needs to be adjusted, hard to achieve in FY24  l #2 - we did send over ideas, but did not receive feedback l #3 - should it be make recommendations instead of assess since it has been labeled as need? We can do assess and make recommendation l #5 - pretty broad, the rest are specific. Bylaw scrub to see what needs to be adjusted, hard to achieve in FY24 VI. Discussion: Housing Trust Fund Changes Interest Rate Buydown l Jazmine meet with Prabin to look at changes l Labeled as pilot until we figure out funding l Same AMI limit of 120? Can’t lower it at this point l Apply to the IRB and DPA? l Jack: open to it l Balance: ~350k l Leslie: open to it because of lack of applicants, might need both l Jessica: if stacking the programs increases utilizes usage, worth it, by default they should qualify for both l Jack: 6 total listings in Winooski at this moment on Realtor.com l Jazmine: Prabin refers many people to DPA loans and they can help people stack l Jazmine: will work on the language and will bring back to next language HIP: l waitlist is always open, always accept people in rounds, 2-3 mote apps than funds l prioritization matrix: location, project readiness, time-related components, more knowledge means more competitive l Our program does fill a gap for people in Winooski l Deac: easier to support the bigger people- they always get the funding l Jessica: if there are 20 applicants, how many are owner-applicants? How often do they actually receive the funds? l Leslie: maybe ask how HIP verifies design and/or to make sure that work is done l Robert: can we ask them who is falling through the gaps? l Deac: you can use your voucher for a home purchase, people often have a hard time getting a loan Questions from Prabin: l who is person verifying work, contracting with Efficiency VT or? TBD on that once Jazmine talks to Heather ¡ Deac: support accessible units, group WHA uses to help with design ¡ Deac and Leslie will chat about buying using vouchers VII. Discussion: Short-Term Rentals in Winooski l Increase in STR availability has brought down their cost, it has increased long-term housing l Leslie: looked at the 79 (at the time) hosts of rentals. Most were in-state, not Winooski residents. 13 were residents, 21 from Burlington, etc. -Winooski now has 86 l Jazmine: Burlington released report on their compliance- will bring to the next meeting l Jack: we have to act on it because Burlington and S. Burlington, we will be affected. We can work with Burlington and SB more in terms of tracking the issue. l Jazmine: hard to create policy if we cannot enforce it l Jessica: we get asked to provide recommendations on complicated issues that are complicated everywhere. The way we have always made decision is looking at data, at priorities of our community, left ourselves flexibility and elbow room. We are deeply  l Jack: we have to act on it because Burlington and S. Burlington, we will be affected. We can work with Burlington and SB more in terms of tracking the issue. l Jazmine: hard to create policy if we cannot enforce it l Jessica: we get asked to provide recommendations on complicated issues that are complicated everywhere. The way we have always made decision is looking at data, at priorities of our community, left ourselves flexibility and elbow room. We are deeply committed to solving the problem to the best of our ability. There are other projects we have had to reel back because of staff time- one of the goals is to make the structure we recommend to be sturdy. We don’t want to tax resources that are already taxed. II want to highlight and cheerlead the work we are doing at the HC and this is really important. We are sandwiched in between the two and we will be the next place where STR are the hot thing. I don’t want to ring the data bell- we aren’t trying to have an unintended negative effect because we are not doing anything about it. l Doug Campbell (public): lives next to STR. 10-14 people are in the house in any given time. Goal should be to support quality of life, has gone down a bit in the past year l Put gravel right to the fence line, they eventually top-soiled it a bit. l Just a ski flop house, there is no oversight l Owner-occupied is tremendous- if the owner from Colchester was required to live there too, there wouldn’t be 14 people in the home l Jack: there is a safety issue here as well. Airbnb in Old Montreal that caught fire this winter and it was not up to code l Anna: public safety level- if the owner is not local or reachable, hard for police to respond l Deac: preservation of affordability, safety, affordability, 3+bedrooms, preservation of neighborhoods, etc. Staff should be able to handle it-financial component l Jazmine: now 86 units not available, huge jump from 30-something l Leslie: we don’t know what would happen if STRs weren’t available at all l Charles: ownership of space accounted for when moving forward, interested in protecting 23% who are owners of the units l Jazmine: asked about STR in landlord questionnaire- asked if it is owner-occupied and if they live in Winooski l Doug: draft regulation for city council to read and a timeframe l Jack: double down on-the loss of apartments and properties that were long-term rentals. We don’t know if they would be opportunities if they were not airbnbs, but we already know that we lost that number l Leslie: would be good to get reflections from Burlington and can we pick which parts to apply to Winioski l Deac: WHA could help offset some of the costs Timeline and next steps: l Looking at Burlington and how it could be adapted, a good starting point l Jazmine will reach out to smaller tax bases as well, like Ludlow l by next meeting, establish goals l Jazmine will send ordinance, Burlington report on compliance, guide l Elaine can maybe come to the next meeting for policy side of things l Jazmine will bring information from Host Compliance VIII. Adjourn Motion by: Deac Second: Jack Meeting End Time: 7:52 PM Second: Jack Meeting End Time: 7:52 PM