Town of Eastham - Affordable Housing Trust
January 4, 2011 4:00 PM
Minutes
Timothy Smith Hearing Room
Trustees attending: Andy Cederbaum, Bill Burt, Kyle Hinkle, Matt Wissell Excused: John Knight
Also attending: Leedara Zola, Baily Boyd Associates; Tim Bueller, Orleans Housing Authority; Linda Burt, Eastham Selectman; Sheila Vanderhoff, Town Administrator
The minutes of the December 7 were approved unanimously.
Community Preservation Committee presentation: similar to last year but Andy was a little more aggressive. Leedara put the presentation together. The fact that they only meet once a year is a problem. Leedara suggested that maybe the Trust should spend some time doing some planning in one of its meeting so that we are clearer about what is needed. The CPC basically denied the first request because they don’t understand what the trust is doing. One question they asked was what are the checks and balances in the Trust.
Tim Bueller, Executive Director, Orleans Housing Authority (OHA): regarding the 4-unit housing complex on Herring Brook Road. The owners are ready to sell this to the OHA; their asking price is currently at $620,000. There are 3 renters there already, and the current owner will vacant the unit they are in. It’s a good building, in good shape and the OHA sees it as a good purchase. All units are 2 bedroom; electric heat; utilities are separate. OHA has $300K set aside by Eastham for this kind of purchase. The one concern OHA has is that the rentals are high which is where
the Trust could be of help. The question of income qualification was raised – Leedara noted that this is solved by waiting for over-income renters to leave.
The question was raised of funding for maintenance and up-keep. Tim explained that the Housing Authority keeps separate accounts for each of its properties. Basically, the ownership of the property is turned over to the Housing Authority. First step: have the Trustees agree to the idea. Second step: put a pro-forma together that includes the debt coverage ratio. Should the Trust approach the bank about debt coverage. The property has already been approved to be made into condos, so doing this project would preserve it from becoming summer- rather than year-round housing.
Leedara will put together numbers using Housing Authority, Trust and Home Funds which is County housing money that would provide $25K per unit. She said there are “strings attached” to the County funds that she will list. Tim said he would rather go out and borrow the money than have the strings of the Home Funds, which are “forever”.
Next month, we’d like to see paperwork about this. Andy would like to use this to go back to the CPC to ask for $300K from them to replenish the Trust funds that would be used. The Trustees authorized Leedara to work with Sheila on the RFP. It was noted that once the over-income people are gone from a unit, then the unit can be counted toward the affordable housing stock.
Purcell Property: transfer of the property to the Trust. People in the subdivision to the north don’t want anything built in their back yard. The case they are making is that no one is supposed to build there, there’s already affordable housing and it’s environmentally sensitive. They wanted to put a warrant article together to keep the transfer from happening. Town Meeting already approved the transfer of this piece of land. If the abutters do come to Town Meeting with a warrant article, the Trust needs to be sure the piece of land that it owns is not included in that. It was noted that the deed transfer should be done by the end of this week (first week of January).
Stern & Wheeler Report: ATP Environmental did the work – tests done since show that this is not a viable place for town water. This may be reflected in the environmental report.
The next meeting is February 1, 4:00 – 5:00 PM.
The meeting adjourned at 4:55 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
S. Kyle Hinkle
Clerk
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