Local Housing Partnership
and
Provincetown Housing Authority
Judge Welsh Hearing Room
October 21, 2005
9:00 a.m.
LHP
Members attending: Arturo Alon,
Scott Campbell, and Tim Hazel.
PHA
Members attending: Arturo Alon,
Margaret Carroll-Bergman, and
Nancy Jacobsen
Members
absent: LHP: Cindy
Bowes (excused)
Dixie Federico (unexcused)
PHA: George Bryant (unexcused)
Staff: Patrick Manning, Maxine Notaro and
Doug
Taylor
Others Mary Ann Bragg
Both meetings were called to order at 9:00 a.m.
Motion: Remove Hensche Lane from PHA agenda.
Motion
by MC-B Seconded by
AJ Voted 3-0-0.
Meeting
Agenda
Joint
meeting with the Provincetown Housing Authority to discuss Affordable Housing
Trust Fund
AJ began by talking about the Affordable Housing
Trust Fund and the CPC funding.
Margaret Bergman said that the town voted there was a certain percentage
of money that was ear-marked for administration costs in the Community
Preservation Act. The group wondered if
the CPA money could be used for salaries.
Tim said that some of the money can be used for an administrator’s
salary. Tim continuing said, “We need
someone who knows how to mesh all these boards and their aims.” (It seems as though there are multiple
boards working on affordable housing and a coordinator of these multiple
efforts is needed, i.e. an affordable housing specialist who would be able to
advise, monitor, etc.) MB asked, “How
much are we looking for? $50K – for a
full-time position?” Doug Taylor said
that maybe a full-time consultant would be the way to go and then you would
have the contract to satisfy and not all the attendant benefits. There are ways of not having a full time
staff position. Lots of options from
Patrick…… he said it doesn’t have to be
a staff position. Doug recommends a
contract. Tim would like to see a full
time person for perhaps 3 years out and then the town may look for funding on
its own.
MB said that she doesn’t see why the trust fund
couldn’t go toward administration. She
would like to do a joint funding with the town. Before last January – they interviewed candidates for an
“affordable housing specialist” and then it was turned down by the BoS. Patrick said that neither Board has the
authority to tell the town that they have to hire someone. There are a lot of functions, i.e.
monitoring, etc. for a full time person.
If the town owns property then the town is responsible for
monitoring.
Tim – if we could alleviate the funding
question….. then it should be a sole person dedicated to this. Patrick said that the trust fund allows 10%
of income for salary. Mark Latour (the
former Assistant Town Manager) never had a job description thus never got any
extra money from the fund.
Maxine said that you’d have to do more tracking
with rentals than with ownership. Doug
added that you review the income of the person who is renting and get all the
verifications, etc. and - down the road - make sure that it doesn’t
fall thru the cracks. Patrick agreed saying
that there are no checks and balances after the people get in.
Income verification, - 1Bs and 1Cs – and no
criteria for any of these proposals.
Deed restrictions, - if somebody resells – make sure they are doing it
properly. Doug doesn’t have the time to
follow up on any of those. Regarding a
finding, “Is this a safe habitable space,”
Patrick said, “Even if you had a specialist, they would still have to
get input from BoH and the HA.”
Tim asked the million dollar question, “How do
we stem the flow of condo conversions?”
“Could a housing specialist do this?”
“We have to do a housing lottery – do the people already ensconced get
ousted?” The specialist could also be a
resource. Doug said that the education
would be a large part of it. They need
to have an educational process.
There are too many lists of people needing
housing and only so much to go around.
Patrick Manning said that the groups working on
affordable housing all have different guidelines. It would have to be much more uniform. Potential developers, landlords, etc. could all use the help,
i.e. can a unit can be added if it becomes affordable? Doug gets affordable housing questions every
day. Doug would like to have the person
housed downstairs and handy to all information. Tim thought that maybe
the person could be responsible for having a data base and it might even help
the Town get funding.
Doug said that it would be easy to come up with
a job description. Scott added that it
certainly sounds like a full time position.
Patrick cautioned that the funding part of it is rather tricky. Before we advertise – we should know what
the salary will be, what the job description will be. Tim agreed by saying, “We need to get the ball rolling.” Margaret asked, “Should we go before the
BoS?” The group said, “Not yet – not before our ducks are all in a
row.”
Both groups were of a mind that Patrick Manning
seemed to be the most knowledge-able and perhaps he’d like to apply for the
position. Maxine said that the position
would have to be advertised. Patrick
Manning seems to be the person……. Tim
said that we are getting ahead of ourselves.
There are a lot of these components that would go into the mix. Doug will look into the job
description. Laura Shufelt might have a
handle on this. Patrick feels it would
be valuable for all of us to get job descriptions from all over the Cape in
order to see what they require of a housing specialist.
An employee might have to be evaluated each year
and would have to make sure that the position is funded. Pat said that once everything is in place
then you need the BoS on board with you.
If it’s not going to increase the taxes, the BoS would be more willing
to support this proposed position.
AJ asked, “If there is not enough money – could
we add to it?” Pat has tried to get it
increased to 30% but the legislation shot it down. Margaret said that we have 10% of the trust fund. $270K is in there.
The meeting spawned lots of questions and no
answers. The group will be talking to
Michele Jarusiewicz and there may be money out there that we don’t know
about.
Patrick said it’s really the landlord’s
responsibility to monitor the income of the tenants and file
appropriately. Most of that is an
annual income. Margaret Bergman said
that we need to finalize the guidelines of the trust fund. PHA will find out the limitations of the
trust fund. Tim will look at the
guidelines and then we can finalize the trust fund limitations.
The next
meeting of the LHP will happen on November 18th.
Motion: AJ motioned to adjourn the PHA meeting at
9:50 a.m.
Recommendations
brought forward by CHR
Dixie and Cindy are in attendance. Let’s leave it for next time.
Minutes
There were none available to review. This will happen at the next meeting.
The
LHP meeting adjourned at 9:51 a.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Evelyn Gaudiano
Approved by ____________________________on
______________, 2005.