[0:02] 2026 and this is the monthly meeting of the 
affordable housing review board. Going to  
[0:11] call the meeting to order with roll call. Brady 
McCertie he's on his way. Rebecca Strike Keley.
[0:27] Miranda Penner here.
[0:32] Troy Pal here. Paul Schneers here. Tracy Terrell
[0:42] and Valerie Denise Black Turner.
[0:52] We do have a quorum for this meeting 
and with the bitter weather outside,  
[0:56] we do thank all the board members for 
making it as well as our applicants.
[1:09] Sorry, technical difficulties sir. 
Okay, a review of the agenda is  
[1:14] um we're going to approve next or November's 
minutes. We'll have a uh two presentations  
[1:23] from the housing development loan gr loan program 
applications. Uh we'll do couple of updates and a  
[1:31] reminder and then we'll open it to other business 
and open discussion and then adjourn the meeting.
[1:42] Okay. Does anybody have a motion 
to approve the November 24th,  
[1:47] 2025 meeting minutes? I motion to approve the 
November 24, 2025 meeting minutes. Second.
[2:00] All in favor say I. I. I. All oppose.
[2:09] passes for Libro.
[2:17] Next item of business is housing development 
loan program applications. There are a few  
[2:23] presentations here. the um each application 
your applicant will have up to 20 minutes  
[2:31] uh to present and answer questions on 
their uh proposals. We have a Commonwealth  
[2:39] Development Corporation and Menite Housing 
Rehabilitation Services. So without further ado,  
[2:45] I'd like to ask uh representative of Commonwealth 
Development to come forward and present please.
[3:14] Good afternoon.
[3:17] Uh, so you can hear me online. Um, appreciate you 
having me here today. Uh, Danny D Franchesco with  
[3:24] Commonwealth Development. Um, and so we are 
here today to uh propose a project at located  
[3:31] at 212 North Market Street in uh Witchah, which 
we're calling a former Landmark Square building.
[3:41] So, just to give you an idea of who Commonwealth 
is, um, we are a national affordable housing  
[3:46] developer based out of Madison, Wisconsin. Um, 
I do have to say, and I've already mentioned to  
[3:51] a few of you, I did not bring the weather from 
up north down here. Um, city of Witchaw actually  
[3:56] got more than Madison. Um, we probably beat you 
in temperature uh -40° chill, but I was looking  
[4:04] forward to coming here and getting some warmth, 
but uh that was the opposite. Um, and so yeah,  
[4:10] like I mentioned, we are a national affordable 
housing developer. Uh, we've been developing,  
[4:15] you know, since the late 1990s and we developed 
over, you want me to admit that? Oh, okay. Um,  
[4:23] and we've developed over 130 oral housing projects 
across 15 states. Um, you know, again, we've been  
[4:30] just strictly national oral housing. That's all 
we do, uh, is low income tax credit projects. Um,  
[4:37] the project that we're looking at is located 
at 212 North Market Square, which would be a  
[4:41] historic conversion um, where we would convert 
the building into affordable housing. And so with  
[4:47] that, Commonwealth has a vast experience where we 
completed over 20 projects. um where we converted  
[4:52] historic buildings into affordable housing. Um 
another thing about Commonwealth is we are a  
[4:58] long-term owner. Um so we don't develop and then 
look to sell, you know, in three or four years.  
[5:02] We're here for the long haul and we're going to be 
integrating with the city and work with, you know,  
[5:09] communities and organizations that are based out 
of Witchah. Um as we our property management team  
[5:14] is a local, um we get Omega is our property 
management company as well as working with a  
[5:19] local general contractor. So again, you know, 
Commonwealth will be partnering with local  
[5:23] organizations and, you know, being here for the 
long haul. So just to give you just an overview  
[5:30] of the site, again, it's located at 212 North 
Market Street there along uh Market Street and  
[5:36] First Street. Um, and currently it's a vacant uh 
building. I know um it's probably a familiar site  
[5:42] to most of you based on uh last year's submitt. Um 
and so again, we're looking to do something very  
[5:49] similar um where we're just looking to convert 
uh this building into 53 units of oral housing.
[5:57] And so this is just a breakdown as you probably 
saw from the application of you know how we're  
[6:02] breaking the units down. So 100% of the units 
will be all affordable. And so when I say that  
[6:07] I mean they'll all be at 60% of the area 
median income or less. And so, you know,  
[6:12] this breakdown is really based on how to be 
competitive when applying to the state agency. Um,  
[6:18] so you can see that we have a majority or we 
have a vast majority, you know, between one,  
[6:23] twos, and three bedrooms for individuals and 
families. Um, the reason we like the site,  
[6:30] um, it's a very competitive site 
from KHRC standpoint and scoring,  
[6:34] but we also love the the downtown location. And we 
think it's very ideal for residents to, you know,  
[6:40] not have to rely on a car um and be able to 
live downtown, have access to public transit,  
[6:46] a lot of local shops and entertainment, you know, 
all within this area. Um and so we really like  
[6:51] um you know, where this is located in the 
downtown area. Uh some of the amenities that  
[6:57] we'll have for this project is we'll have on-site 
uh management. So we Omega will have a full-time  
[7:02] property manager and maintenance. Um there we 
will have a community room for residents to  
[7:07] gather um you know along with a fitness center um 
business center computers that tends can use free  
[7:14] of charge. Um so really you know trying to make 
a very encompassing you know workload play all in  
[7:21] the downtown area here with the typical features 
that you see in a market rate development.
[7:29] Um these are some photos of the interior of the 
Landmark Square that we've pulled. Um we did tour  
[7:35] the building about uh probably now five or six 
weeks ago with a local GC um to get a sense of  
[7:42] pricing, you know, in order to be making sure that 
our numbers are aligned when proposing to KHRC.
[7:50] Um so just want to give you some kind 
of examples of what we've done on past  
[7:54] projects. So, this project you're looking at was 
a conversion of a former uh manufacturing casket  
[8:00] company as well as the cheese manufacturing 
company. Yeah. Um and so we converted it into  
[8:08] um two boardwalk life um apartment projects there 
in Pondac, Wisconsin. Um another example here is  
[8:17] uh down in Oklahoma City. We converted 
a former uh elementary school that was  
[8:21] built in the 1920s and converted that into 
62 units of uh senior affordable housing.
[8:30] And then this just kind of gives us an idea of, 
you know, unit finishes that will have, you know,  
[8:34] again, typically what we try to do is, you know, 
make everything look feel like it's a market rate,  
[8:40] um, you know, property with the finishes, 
but obviously at the aorable rents.  
[8:46] Um these are just kind of some examples of the 
Pondelac building of what we did with the interior  
[8:51] um with the historic component involved. 
Um so we really do like these historic  
[8:56] deals. They're very unique. We have in-house 
architecture team that has a lot of experience  
[9:00] with having to work with these unique 
spaces and you know being able to turn  
[9:05] um you know these former buildings that weren't 
meant for apartments you know into livable units.  
[9:12] This is another example of the one down in Dunar 
Common. So, you can see on the bottom there  
[9:18] uh there's a unit there with an old chalkboard 
um in there. So, I think it's kind of cool,  
[9:22] you know, where each unit had proposed 
and kind of have its own uniqueness to it.
[9:30] Just a rough timeline um for you all. So, we 
will we have submitted the pre that was due  
[9:36] uh last week or no two weeks ago, sorry. um tok 
and they're right now is going through the preapp  
[9:43] uh process and then we'll be invited um should 
we move forward with the poll application that  
[9:48] would be due miday of this year with finding 
out about an award um end of July of this year  
[9:54] and so with our timeline and our experience with 
historic properties we would anticipate closing  
[10:00] on the the building having our investors and 
lenders all lined up by May of 2027. Um, again,  
[10:07] typically on these historic deals, we get our 
architect in there to really find every nook  
[10:12] and cranny of, you know, making sure all the 
asbesus testing and mold testing that has to  
[10:16] be done throughout that due diligence period. 
It just has a little bit of a longer lead time  
[10:21] um to get there. But again, we're projecting a 
May 2027 closing um with a completion in August  
[10:27] of 2028 um with units being ready 
to occupy in 2029. Um and so yeah,  
[10:36] one other thing I'd like to add to is 
this will be Commonwall second project  
[10:39] um in the city of Witchah. We're currently uh 
working on closing a 42 unit multifamily project  
[10:45] there just south of East 47th Street along South 
Broadway. Um different project. It's a 42 unit new  
[10:52] construction walk up style. Um but again, so we're 
very familiar or getting familiar with, you know,  
[10:57] working with the city and the county probability 
permit timeline and just going through, you know,  
[11:02] just each municipality has to process. So, you 
know, this will be the second project if awarded  
[11:08] um in the city of Witchah. So, we're very 
excited of kind of continuing that momentum  
[11:12] of bringing addition additional affordable 
housing units um here to the city of Witchah.
[11:20] And then this is just kind of a highle overview 
of the sources and uses that we're looking to  
[11:25] bring into the deal. Um so as most of you know um 
you know receiving these home funds is extremely  
[11:31] competitive. Um as we're aware and you know 
goes a long way in applying to KRC and can  
[11:37] really be the difference of getting an award or 
not. Um and so you know we were making a request  
[11:42] of $213,000 from the city of Witchah and home 
funds which would come out to $4,19 a unit. Um  
[11:50] you can receive five points if it's 4,000 or 
more. So we're trying to get the minimum also  
[11:55] understanding the city of Witchah has available. 
Um and so again the vast majority is really coming  
[12:01] from your federal and state historic tax credit 
pricing along with you know permanent loans. Um,  
[12:07] and so when it came to construction costs, again, 
we tooured the building and worked with local GC,  
[12:13] um, that's going to be doing our project, 
um, the other 42 unit project in Witchah. So,  
[12:18] we have a good rapport with them to get a sense of 
cost because, you know, going into these historic,  
[12:24] you really never know what costs are going 
to be until you get behind the walls. Um,  
[12:28] so with the knowledge that we've had on past 
projects, you know, we we're very confident the  
[12:32] numbers that we're showing today. Um and so yeah, 
this just kind of gives a a sense of where you  
[12:38] know the capital stack lines up. So you can see 
there's a lot of sources um coming into this as  
[12:43] well as applying to KGRC for additional home and 
housing trust funds as well when we apply to them.
[12:54] Um I guess with that I don't know if it's 
questions now or objective if the board  
[13:00] has questions now you can ask them or you 
can reserve the right to ask after the next  
[13:05] presentation I just have a question is there's 
tax credit or not I'm sorry there's historic  
[13:14] there's already historic credits against this 
building is there historical tax credits yeah  
[13:20] so The project is on the National Register of 
Historic Places and so we've reached out to our  
[13:25] investors that have done past historic deals with 
us to get um you know pricing on what those would  
[13:32] be for the historic side. So it does qualify 
for federal and state historic tax credits.
[13:47] You mentioned a special population Who 
who is the special population? Yeah. So,  
[13:54] uh we um in our application have set aside 10% to 
be for uh special needs and so that'll be mental,  
[14:01] physically disabled. Um so we'll have units that 
will meet those requirements that'll be fully  
[14:06] accessible. Um we would be refurbishing 
the elevators that are currently there  
[14:10] um to make sure that there's, you know, full 
access for the complex to those residents. How'd  
[14:16] you get them in the building? That building's 
not ADA. Um, so that building for 10 years,  
[14:22] so I know lots about that building. Yeah. 
So, we've actually had to deal with this  
[14:25] on a school in Iowa where we had to install lift. 
Um, but they put the three steps out front. Yeah,  
[14:33] it's Yeah, it's unique. Um, I'd have to go with 
our architect on I don't know the slope on that.  
[14:39] If you change that to a slope and if it would be 
within code or not. I don't think it would be. Um,  
[14:45] you have enough. Yeah. Sidewalk. Mhm. But we have 
in house architecture team that's looked at this  
[14:51] and I know the limit is one option and I think 
the other may be I know there's the back back door  
[14:59] option for the back room but I don't think that's 
going to suffice. So um that be the front door.
[15:14] Any other questions at this time?
[15:22] Okay, thank you D.
[15:43] Oh, you're good. Thanks. Up next to 
present is min housing and rehabilitation
[16:25] Good afternoon. I'm Byron Adrian with Midnight 
Housing and our proposal is for a 46 unit  
[16:35] uh senior tax credit u project that we 
plan to submit to uh HRC this year and  
[16:43] it's on two sites. You can see those are 
on the screen. 8031 East Gilbert and that's  
[16:50] uh just a couple blocks south of Kellogg on Rock 
Road and then also 1511 West 27th Street South,  
[16:59] couple blocks west of Senica um on 27th Street 
South. And these are a couple properties that the  
[17:08] uh Presbyterian of Southern Kansas has had 
approached us at Menite Housing on as far  
[17:13] as doing uh affordable housing development and 
we're very interested in talking with them and  
[17:18] looking at the possibility and so we've 
moved forward with this proposal and we  
[17:23] have Bill Hendris here from the presetary 
who would like to make several comments.
[17:34] Hi everybody. I am Bill Hendricks. I'm moderator 
of the trustees of the Presbytery of Southern  
[17:39] Kansas. Like many denominations, the Presbytery 
of Southern Kansas finds itself in a season of  
[17:47] numeric and episcopal decline. So we have these 
two properties that are owned by the Presbyterian  
[17:53] that are currently being considered for 
alternative ministries. In late 2023,  
[18:01] seven elders from the presetary gathered to 
consider options for these two properties after  
[18:08] significant due diligence and consideration. The 
decision was made to partner with Menanite Housing  
[18:14] for the development of affordable senior housing. 
The reason that we chose Nanite Housing is that  
[18:20] they are local and have an extensive history 
of successful management of senior properties.  
[18:27] Among other considerations, the criteria for 
establishing these two properties as affordable  
[18:35] senior housing included the need to honor the 
65 plus year legacy of the ministries of these  
[18:42] congregations in these two locations to create 
something that would be complimentary to each  
[18:48] neighborhood but most importantly something 
that would serve an additional ministry need.  
[18:56] These two properties, if developed, will assist 
the city council in responding to the appeals  
[19:02] of justice together for affordable housing 
and they will develop vacant land within the  
[19:10] city limits so it makes transportation 
easier for the residents. Thank you.
[19:24] And Menac Housing is a local nonprofit 
organization located here in Witchah Mission  
[19:31] is and has been for many years provide affordable 
housing in the communities we serve. Most of what  
[19:37] we have developed in the past is in the Witchah 
uh area. We have worked with KHRC for 35 years,  
[19:45] developed 22 uh LITC properties, over 900 units, 
and we currently manage um a little over,300 units  
[19:56] in 35 properties all in Kansas. That includes 960 
units at 24 properties here in Witchah. And in  
[20:07] those we got 226 units at the four properties 
that are uh witchaw uh city uh rad properties  
[20:15] that we have taken the over the property 
management on. So we're very excited about  
[20:22] the opportunity to have two local organizations 
with a common goal come together to provide  
[20:29] additional affordable housing for the Witchah 
community and specifically for seniors here. So,  
[20:35] a little bit about the description of the project. 
Again, 46 units, seniors, uh to be 55 and older,  
[20:44] two locations. Uh we've got the unit mix split 
evenly between one and three bedrooms. You can  
[20:52] see the square footage. Each unit uh includes a 
safe room and a onecar garage. Both locations,  
[21:02] both the Gilbert Street and the 27th Street South 
would include a building, pub house building,  
[21:10] uh that would have a community room, kitchen, 
restrooms, exercise equipment, outdoor patio,  
[21:18] and we do have on-site manager, uh 
part-time on-site manager, part-time  
[21:23] uh maintenance technicians, and then I announcing 
would be responsible for the ground maintenance.  
[21:31] And this gives you a picture uh rendering 
architect's rendering a couple views of what the  
[21:36] uh the forlex design looks like. And we've 
uh used this design on another project that  
[21:44] uh we developed in Newton about 5 years ago. Uh 
we just got approval to the second phase there. So  
[21:50] we're going to do a similar look here in Newton. 
um is very well received in Newton and u we've  
[21:58] identified few improvements from from that project 
that we've included in with what we're proposing  
[22:04] to do here. So uh forlex design you see the front 
elevation garages um you know pretty much on side  
[22:12] uh side view and then the rear view. the rear 
view shows the open back patio and we do um have a  
[22:21] divider in the middle between the interior units. 
When we were um developing the Newton project,  
[22:28] we did have dividers on the end, but um when 
we talked to the residents, they really prefer  
[22:33] to have that open. So, it's a nice open look back 
there. So, each resident would have its own front  
[22:39] entrance, own onecar garage, and its own uh rear 
patio. And then the site plan, this is at 8031  
[22:48] East Gilbert there, uh, close to Kellogg and Roth. 
Uh, here. So, the forplexes, there's six forlex,  
[22:58] six forplexes that you can see uh, on the site 
plan here. And then on the East Gilbert site,  
[23:09] we do plan to keep the existing church building. 
And so the building is right here. And we would  
[23:18] use the sanctuary and fellowship hall. And there's 
also a good size kitchen already. We would use  
[23:25] those here for our community space and build out 
the amenities that were shown on a previous slide.  
[23:33] And then we are looking to use the north wing of 
the existing building to put a couple units in  
[23:39] there, one zero and one two bedrooms. So, we 
believe that we could really do an efficient  
[23:45] um construction property here by keeping the 
existing um building utilizing that for some  
[23:51] of these amenities and also a couple units 
rather than doing demolition on this one and  
[23:57] uh and building new. On the U South property, 
the 27th Street South, we would plan to  
[24:06] uh demolish the church building based on where 
it was located. we just couldn't um work that  
[24:12] into the plans and we'd have the uh five forlexes 
for 20 units. And then here where it shows office,  
[24:23] that would actually be about a 1500 
ft² office/lothouse uh facility there.
[24:33] And this shows the unit mix, shows the rent 
rates and the various uh levels of uh qualifying  
[24:40] individuals based on their income. And so what 
we tried to do was to focus as many units as  
[24:47] we could at the various um different levels. So 
we've got an even distribution between 30, 50,  
[24:55] and 60% AMI. And that allows for a a a very good 
impact on those lowest um income individuals um  
[25:08] seniors that we'd be working with here. So the 
same number of units at 30, 50, and 60. We also  
[25:16] normally elect income averaging. We've done that 
for about the last four or five years as that's  
[25:22] been made available through KHRC. And what that 
does is allows us to provide some units for folks  
[25:28] that are above 60% area median income but below 
80%. Now you'll notice the rent rates are the same  
[25:35] for the 60 and the 80s. So we're not looking to 
really going into the project increase the rents,  
[25:43] but this does give us flexibility to allow 
for a little bit wider population that needs  
[25:51] to be served. If they're just a little over 60 in 
that 70% range, whatever below 80, they can still  
[25:57] potentially qualify. Not a lot of units, but we do 
have four units through the to have been electing  
[26:03] the income averaging. Gives us a little more 
flexibility there. The funding sources are shown  
[26:09] here and we do um uh include the federal state 
uh litec uh funding uh permanent loan. We will  
[26:22] be requesting both home and htf funds from KHRC. 
And then you can see we're requesting 200,000 uh  
[26:31] here from the city of Waw home funds. And uh you 
know that is critical for uh the application. It  
[26:39] does make the application stronger by um receiving 
uh as was mentioned at least $4,000 per uh unit.  
[26:50] So that's a critical piece of the application 
there. And then the timeline in this case,  
[26:56] we've already started a process to go through a 
zoning change. And you can see we've been involved  
[27:00] with that since November and have proceeded with 
the various uh uh meetings with um council members  
[27:09] and uh planning commission, planning staff, dab 
meetings, and we got city council next Tuesday.  
[27:17] So, so far it's met with positive uh reaction. 
from each of those groups. And so, uh, last step  
[27:24] would be next Tuesday. We'll see how things go 
next Tuesday. But, uh, in order to put this, uh,  
[27:30] application be able to move forward with it, we 
decided, let's go ahead and start working towards,  
[27:35] uh, getting its own multifamily from, uh, single 
family. And then um if we're awarded then we would  
[27:43] anticipate starting construction uh by March 
of next year 2027 and complete construction in  
[27:52] uh in about 12 months. So with that 
be happy to answer any questions.
[28:00] I'd like to say I love the collaboration and 
the partnership ensuring that not only are  
[28:05] you meeting the needs for affordable housing, but 
you're also um ensuring that the historical value  
[28:11] of the community is protected. I am curious to 
know what ministry you indicated there as long  
[28:18] as there's some ways to provide ministry in this 
development. Just curious what that looks like.
[28:27] There are a couple of opportunities for ministry. 
My wife serves coffee at Second Light two days  
[28:33] a week and there's a huge need for seniors down 
there with some really heartbreaking stories. So,  
[28:39] there's a ministry to aid those seniors. 
You've seen the rent levels here. They're  
[28:44] extremely affordable, $360 a month for the least 
expensive unit. We looked at the central landing  
[28:52] development that Central Community Church did 
on West Maple and Menanite Housing is managing  
[28:58] that. But listen to the the thrill in the 
lives of the people that had a place to  
[29:04] call home. When we began our due diligence with 
the nearby schools in each of these locations,  
[29:10] we met with the principles and the social 
workers of each of the schools asking,  
[29:14] "What can we do? How can we help?" The dominant 
response from each of them is we just need help  
[29:22] with bodies. We need people to come in and help 
kids get across pony to get to school. We need  
[29:28] people to come in and read. We need help. My my 
wife was a social worker with school system and  
[29:34] volunteered at Park Elementary School before 
it became second life. So she could go down  
[29:40] with Gracie, a kindergarten teacher with way 
too many kids in her class, and helped read,  
[29:45] and she became Grandma Susie. So in the same way, 
we see the opportunity for the seniors in these  
[29:52] two communities who are willing and able to go to 
the neighboring school that are not too far away,  
[29:58] read to the kids, and when you have 
that type of symbiotic relationship,  
[30:02] it's great for the kids and it's great for the 
seniors. So there's an ongoing ministry of support  
[30:08] with one another throughout the community. Thank 
you. Thank you. You know, we at Men House Housing,  
[30:16] we also really enjoy the opportunities to partner 
with other organizations here um in the community  
[30:22] a couple years ago. We partnered with Stepstone 
and uh develop Bluffy Place um Harry and Hillside  
[30:29] area uh 28 units for domestic violence survivors. 
And it was just such a need and we're just always  
[30:37] very thankful when we can partner with 
those organizations uh to meet a comp.
[30:48] Hi, this is Tracy. Um, can you hear me?
[30:54] Yes. Yes, Tracy, we can hear you, but you 
may need to go a little bit. Awesome. Well,  
[31:00] hey, the question that I had is can I 
ask why the distribution of the units  
[31:06] um do you have like data that supports that for 
senior housing they need more than one bedroom?  
[31:14] Yeah, for senior I think the question is uh for 
the senior housing why more than one bedroom and  
[31:20] we've over the years um we have noticed that the 
demand with seniors is actually greater for two  
[31:29] bedrooms than one bedroom. Even though most of 
the time the residents that are uh living there,  
[31:36] it's a one person household, but they really 
like having that extra bedroom for either doing  
[31:44] um like office work, you know, like an office 
space or craft space or just have a place that  
[31:51] their kids or grandkid come over to stay for, 
you know, a short visit, something like that.  
[31:57] So have that extra space for those seniors that 
can afford it. We've found uh there's actually we  
[32:03] we often times will rent out the two bedrooms 
for seniors quicker than the one bedrooms.
[32:24] Any more board member 
questions for Midnight Housing?
[32:33] Hearing none, we'll move into board discussion 
and a funding recommendation. Both applicants  
[32:40] uh will still be here if you want to direct 
additional questions to them during this time.
[33:17] Now would be a good time, I guess, to update 
you on the budget situation. Yeah. And why we're  
[33:23] doing an either or a forward here, excuse me. We 
currently have $245,000 left in the HDL budget.  
[33:34] uh one of these applications uh 
Commonwealth is asking for 213,000  
[33:40] and Menite is asking for 200. So that 
limits us to being able to do one award.
[33:50] And just to ask, it's not worth splitting because 
the part of the point is to get the points for the  
[33:57] LITC funding. That's correct. And can we change 
the capital stack for both projects, which I don't  
[34:06] believe at this point in time since they already 
submitted applications would be appropriate.
[34:29] I'm asking a question out of ignorance. the 
home affordability period. I'm reading through  
[34:34] the scoring sheet. Is does that line up with 
LITC? Is it the same time period? Um, no. It  
[34:43] the affordability period based is based on the 
amount of the award and in both of these cases I  
[34:50] believe it would be 20 years. Is that right? Be 20 
years of of uh portability period and monitoring.
[35:38] As far as points go, I'm pretty even with both 
of these candidates. Does anyone want to discuss  
[35:48] pros and cons such as building or um percentage 
of special needs as in weighing one higher than  
[35:58] another in our decision? Uh this is a really tough 
one. They're both incredibly strong applications.
[36:07] I thought about that too, Miranda. And one thing 
that stood out to me with the Menite and uh is the  
[36:14] first of all the collaboration. They're local and 
also the fact that their percentage of addressing  
[36:22] uh special needs population the percentage 
is much higher in the other proposal.
[36:33] I was seeing that as well and just 
feasibility of their units versus this big  
[36:42] uh 212 Market Street older 
property. But like I said,  
[36:47] these are both amazing opportunities, 
amazing builds. How do you pick?
[36:57] Did notice. I mean, based on that comment 
that Midnight is asking for two bedrooms,  
[37:02] that will likely go to single family homes, 
uh, renters, excuse me, single person renters,  
[37:09] that, you know, there is more housing per dollar 
being provided in the Commonwealth development  
[37:15] application if that's worth a consideration. 
So, it is less less of a special population.
[37:26] So, I guess it's kind of one of those cases, 
right? So, if this if they both if both these  
[37:31] projects go before and try to get LITC 
funding, right? Um, if they don't get the  
[37:41] additional amount, I guess, do we need to look at 
the likelihood that this is going to get approved  
[37:45] at the next level? So, if we don't push one over 
the other and it doesn't make to the next phase,  
[37:51] now we've just missed financing the one that 
has a likelihood of coming to fruition. Yeah,  
[37:58] Tracy, I forgot to ask Commonwealth 
while they're up here. It It's been  
[38:03] a while since it's been a month since our 
last meeting, and I done my research then,  
[38:07] and I thought I I still knew it. When I looked 
up the property Commonwealth was looking at,  
[38:12] I saw a really long development history. looked 
like a an IRB was applied for potentially other  
[38:18] funings like activity since 2023. I saw 
Menanite might have been a developer  
[38:24] partner at one point. Would Commonwealth 
be willing to talk about their development  
[38:28] history of that project? Like has it been a 
long time long process and not been approved?
[38:43] Yeah. So, uh, Commonwealth has been under contract 
with the current seller, um, late, uh, 2025. So,  
[38:52] I can't speak for a minute housing. They were 
the one with another developer last year that  
[38:57] applied. So, we had no affiliation. We're not 
part of that project. The other property that um,  
[39:05] is that you're working on in Witchah, is that a 
lit supported project or is that Yep. Yeah. So,  
[39:11] that one's a 42 unit new construction um 
walk up style. So, completely different  
[39:17] kind of product type. Yeah. 4% or uh 9% 100% 
affordable. Okay. You got your foot in the
[39:27] That res's
[39:31] property came before this board 
before your tenure call and  
[39:36] uh they received home funding at that time.
[39:41] So the question that I have is like kind 
of looking from the number of units, right,  
[39:49] that could potentially be in there, 
the location of the historic property,  
[39:54] plus taking into account other funding that 
could be stacked with this as far as the  
[40:00] historical funding. Now you're combining 
multiple funding sources in to take this  
[40:06] older building that eventually something's 
going to need to be done to it. Anyway,
[40:14] that's why I guess I'm kind of leaning more 
towards the Commonwealth project only from  
[40:21] the aspect of being able to couple it 
with other funds to make it happen. Um,  
[40:28] I don't know. What are your 
guys' thoughts on that?
[40:35] Sorry. So, there's a lot going on downtown and 
when you take that historic building, it's going  
[40:42] to take a lot of work. I am concerned that the tax 
credits are going to be enough to pay for the help  
[40:50] with the renovations that are going to be in 
order to stay in that historic registry. Um,  
[40:55] it's going to be a lot to to make happen. There's 
a lot of other construction going on downtown,  
[41:03] hotels. Um, more apartments coming. We need 
them. I mean, I think that's great. I I'm  
[41:11] leaning more towards a menite housing just for the 
component the the uh collaboration component that,  
[41:18] you know, the seniors seem to be getting the 
short end of the stick a lot of times when you  
[41:23] talk about like downtown apartments and stuff. 
There's they don't want to live downtown. They  
[41:28] don't work for downtown. We need more 
of that type housing in the, you know,  
[41:33] outside of the city. I'm leaning more towards 
the the Menanite housing just for that. I mean,  
[41:39] just thinking we need more 
more housing for our seniors.
[41:48] Well, plus the location of the one, 
especially the one on 27th Street. I mean,  
[41:52] that's a prime integrated area 
for that to be infilled in.
[42:01] with other family members and things like that 
that could potentially be living nearby. I mean,  
[42:06] that's I said they both have good merits 
about them. I am concerned about parking  
[42:10] for Commonwealth. Where are 
you going to park everybody?
[42:20] Um, so with the property, there's 26. 
Um, we're currently in discussions with  
[42:24] neighboring properties. Um I spoke to one of 
the owners that owns the market center parking  
[42:29] garage and he's worked with um the national 
and the lux apartments and he rent stalls out  
[42:36] um to those to that ownership and then 
he's also working with um I don't know  
[42:41] the affordable house developer that's doing 
the is it market center 114 unit bond deal  
[42:47] um so we would look to potentially 
pay rest spaces for that parking
[42:56] You got to take it. Uh yeah, we we don't have 
anything set. So there goes your rent. Um but  
[43:04] yeah, we realized that was something that 
we needed to definitely address because when  
[43:07] we spoke with management, that was a concern 
was party. So you know, that's something for
[43:22] Um, can I ask another question 
from Menite as far as like you  
[43:26] guys going to the district advisory 
boards? It showed that you went there  
[43:29] in January. What was the feedback 
from area residents around there?
[43:38] Yeah, we've had positive responses from uh 
residents in both locations. you know, it's  
[43:44] been good to have discussions with them because 
they have brought up concerns that they've got  
[43:50] um at both locations. You know, they've uh talked 
about um uh security type of concerns that they've  
[44:00] got, especially for seniors. And so, we often 
times will um put in uh surveillance cameras. So,  
[44:08] after listening to them, we thought uh we 
definitely want to go ahead and do that.  
[44:13] um you know, we don't see the either one of these 
areas as a really a difficult area from a like a  
[44:20] crime or or is or that kind of a standpoint. 
Again, we've got a lot of properties in many  
[44:26] different locations in Witchah. Some that we 
were concerned about when we went in with the  
[44:31] developments and um and we've been we've been fine 
with the way we managed property. So, we don't see  
[44:39] uh from a crime or uh security situation any 
heightened sense that we need to be alarmed about,  
[44:48] but just having the conversations with the 
neighbors and listening to their concerns  
[44:53] has been very good. We we weren't required 
to have neighborhood meetings, but when we do  
[45:01] developments, we want to be good neighbors. 
So, we sent out uh postcards and scheduled  
[45:07] u neighborhood like town hall kind of 
meetings. We didn't have a great response,  
[45:11] but we at least allowed them the opportunity to 
come and listen to what the development uh what  
[45:15] our development plans were. We had probably maybe 
8 to 10 uh residents that were concerned enough  
[45:22] to show up and we had good discussion with them. 
And um I would say that we talked about drainage  
[45:29] concerns and we talked about specifically at the 
East Gilbert location which has Bostic Elementary  
[45:38] just to the east. And when the buses come in in 
the morning and the evening to uh drop off and  
[45:45] and pick up kids and and and parents come by, just 
the volume of traffic has been a concern. And so  
[45:54] I know Bill has started some conversations with 
principal at Boston Elementary and we want to see  
[46:01] what we can do to actually maybe help them with 
with uh improving the situation. We don't want to  
[46:08] go in and make any any situation worse. On the uh 
on the east side of the 831 East Gilbert property,  
[46:18] there is a an existing parking lot that when kids 
get dropped off and picked up uh that the the  
[46:26] the parents use that. And so we are uh starting 
conversations with the school since that a part of  
[46:34] our plan is to put apartments there. That parking 
lot would no longer be there. And so we want to  
[46:41] talk to the school about what's going to be their 
plan to take care of that situation. You know,  
[46:46] they should not really be relying on private 
property to um to to address that situation.  
[46:53] And so we believe there is um sufficient land on 
uh their property that uh that could be used for  
[47:02] parking. So our conversations, you know, it's not 
like it's always been totally positive. We never  
[47:07] see that when we go into developments. But we want 
to be open and that's what we've been and we've  
[47:12] heard from them and they've heard from us. And um 
you know, we did not get negative comments at the  
[47:18] DAB meetings. the comments that we've had were 
at the meetings we scheduled prior to that and  
[47:23] they've they've all got opportunities to come and 
share at any any of the dab meetings. So, um so  
[47:29] we we've had positive responses at really all the 
meetings we've had and good open communication.
[47:42] So, I have sorry to go back and forth, but 
I do have one question for Commonwealth. Um,  
[47:50] one of the things is the properties that are 
going up are the the properties that you plan  
[47:56] on redoing, are you going you're not going to 
be looking for a tax abatement later? Correct.
[48:05] Uh, yeah. Tax abatement currently is not 
anticipated. Yeah, no uh tax payment we're  
[48:11] applying for. We are going to be applying for the 
sales tax exemption again to be more competitive,  
[48:17] but at this time we're not anticipating um a 
request for a tax payment. Okay. So, whenever  
[48:24] these properties are developed or these units 
are developed from this property, then the city  
[48:30] of Witchaw and the county will be able to assess 
property taxes against that property. Correct.  
[48:37] Correct. Yeah, we uh we make sure when we go 
into a new municipality that we work with the tax  
[48:43] assessor because some of them each municipality is 
very different on how they assess low-inccome tax  
[48:49] credit projects. So, we want to make sure that 
obviously what we're putting in our model is  
[48:54] reflective of you know what they're going to tax 
it at. So, um but yeah, uh we are anticipating to  
[49:00] pay the taxes to the city and county. Okay. 
So basically part of the funds then will be  
[49:07] recaptured t taxpayer funds will be recaptured 
from property taxes where I know with the other  
[49:13] project they're applying to be tax exempt on real 
estate tax exempt on those properties. Our river  
[49:21] is not tax there's no tax payment on that. 
We have sales tax exemption but uh the river  
[49:28] project we are real estate taxes will be paid as 
well if that was your question. Okay, thank you.
[50:05] Brandon,
[50:08] he's sleeping.
[50:13] What did you It's interesting. He's sleeping. 
More so the discussion piece. I mean, weighing  
[50:21] these two. I think they're both great options. 
Um, I definitely do think that the uh Menite  
[50:26] Housing Program and specifically the senior and 
the affordability aspect is a little stronger. And  
[50:34] so that's that's where my mind's at right now. And 
I definitely don't want to discredit Commonwealth.  
[50:41] I think doing something with that building would 
be amazing. Uh, I think something needs to happen  
[50:45] to that building downtown. I hate that you're 
come I know I know this affordable housing,  
[50:50] so I got to be careful what I say here. 
I hate that you're coming in under that,  
[50:54] but I think there that's a great property to 
housing, but careful what I say in this board.  
[51:05] And to add to that, I can see how beneficial it 
would be for students who are going to school  
[51:09] downtown and how it could provide affordable 
housing. I would say that that's a um a plus  
[51:16] um in providing um affordable housing in that 
building. Um but once again uh with the menite  
[51:23] um I just I think that's um more viable 
option and I'd like to make a motion. Is  
[51:31] this a good time to do that? Certainly. Okay. 
I'd like to make a motion that we approve the  
[51:36] Menite Housing Rehab Services application for 
$200,000. Second. I have a motion and a second.
[51:49] All those in favor of the motion 
say I. I. I. Those opposed. I I.
[52:03] So I'm hearing four board 
members for the proposal,  
[52:12] two against, zero abstain. Is that correct?
[52:20] Okay, I believe the motion passes
[52:28] and housing will be awarded a commitment of 
$200,000 from the city of Wah's HLP fund.
[52:48] Having said that, the applicants 
are welcome to stay or leave or can  
[52:54] hang around until after the meeting if you 
have questions or discussion for chat. But  
[52:59] uh we certainly thank you for your presentations 
today, all the thought preparation that went into  
[53:04] it. We're appreciative of uh your willingness to 
help affordable housing in the city. That's right.
[53:15] Thank you so much. Thank you. Appreciate.
[53:28] We'll move on to the next item of updates 
and reminders. I'd like to update you on the  
[53:34] Country Acres request for proposal. That's 
26 housing units and five vacant lots at  
[53:42] um the northwest area of Witchaw. Uh that RFP 
was released on January 8th. Uh our property  
[53:51] walkthroughs were uh conducted January 13th 
through 16th and then an out ofstate group  
[53:58] actually walk through this morning. We 
begin receiving questions uh via email  
[54:06] for the question and answer addendum that we 
will uh post on January 28th. Proposals are  
[54:13] due February 13th and you guys will get this 
brought before you tenatively on the February  
[54:24] 23rd meeting here with the goal of presenting 
it to city council in March. Um, we're fairly  
[54:32] optimistic in this schedule. So, that'll give 
you something to look forward to next month.
[54:40] And one thing I did want to remind you 
of is um, regardless of when you started,  
[54:45] your board term ends March 31st of this year. So, 
uh, staff recommends that you reach out to your  
[54:52] appointing council member or mayor and schedule 
your future in the board. If you wish to remain,  
[55:01] um, they will need to, um, appoint you for 
another term. And if this isn't something  
[55:09] you want to continue to do, they would 
appreciate the heads up. I'm sure you uh,  
[55:14] find another appointee. So, just 
wanted to bring that out there.
[55:23] Having said that, is there any other business or 
open discussion? Yeah, I I'm very much putting  
[55:31] the cart before the horse here. Don't shoot me 
down. Um, the role potentially of this board could  
[55:37] change depending on how council votes on sales 
tax and the community votes on the sales tax.  
[55:43] Will that affect terms in any way? Should 
we be expecting this board to expand? Is  
[55:49] the work needed on our end um in the coming 
months or are we just uh we're just kind of  
[55:59] rolling through March and then we're good to 
go. We'll see what happens next term. I'm gonna  
[56:05] invite Sally to chime in here. She's on, but I'm 
I'm here too. Um it's it's status quo for now,  
[56:12] right? So um tomorrow this is a presentation 
of the guard rails and how we see it. But  
[56:19] um in terms of increasing financial resources 
to affordable housing in our community, it was  
[56:26] foreseen that a lot of the standard operating 
practices that this board executes will continue  
[56:32] to deliver those additional services. And there 
was talk of expanding just the size of this board,  
[56:38] but that's also not new to expand the size 
of this board because of the difficulty in  
[56:43] maintaining quorum if you will. So right 
now status quo you don't get off that.
[56:59] Any other discussion? So I do have one thing 
that I wanted to talk to to ask about. So  
[57:06] like right now from I guess the overall goal of 
the housing department and where the need is in  
[57:13] the community is there like so like for example 
with these two particular projects we had a lot  
[57:19] of you know they were close and I guess one is 
serving a different population over another. So,  
[57:27] do we have like a current list of what 
are we really short of what I know and  
[57:36] I know it's all housing, but are we short more 
one-bedroom units? Are we short more two-bedroom  
[57:40] units? Like where's the gap? So, if the city 
has a need and if the need is 10,000 units,  
[57:49] what's the breakdown of the gap that we 
have in our area now? Is there a way for  
[57:55] us to go find that? We need 44,000 
rooftops. That's how short we are.
[58:06] Steve, do you have any insight on that or 
sadly? No. No. And I'm also looking at coal  
[58:11] because right coal does a gap and needs analysis 
for our homelessness services sector. We've got  
[58:17] 44,000 units and generally we believe that any new 
rooftop is beneficial to the system because even  
[58:24] if it's not in the affordable range, you know, it 
rolls downhill to affordable when somebody moves  
[58:30] up the ladder, if you will. I voted against the 
senior housing, but that will open up homes that  
[58:36] currently need to be used by families, but are 
you know by like I it's a complex ecosystem. But  
[58:43] I hear what you're saying, Tracy, and I wondered 
the same thing as I was going through. Like,  
[58:49] which population is worth more points is kind of 
the harshest way to say it. Are seniors worth more  
[58:55] points than the disabled community? Is that 
something that needs to be defined by us? Yes  
[59:01] or no? Or is that just taken project by project? 
The gap is so big. We have to look at everything  
[59:08] like he just said, rooftops, rooftops, rooftop, 
however we get. That's what I was saying about  
[59:12] that Commonwealth deal. Hate that you're coming 
in not hate but that you're coming in because it  
[59:18] could be great 50s whatever unit apartments. Yeah. 
When I look at the Commonwealth versus Menites,  
[59:26] the percentage I think is what made me think about 
because they were only going to have like 10% of  
[59:33] the units available whereas seniors it's it's a 
broader uh group. the percentage was more right.  
[59:41] But I'm also looking at it like at what point if 
we if we're really trying to provide affordable  
[59:49] housing, it's one of those like in knowing where 
the gap is, right? If we understand that, hey,  
[59:55] like right now we know number one homeless 
population is what? Single men and women.  
[1:00:01] So it it's like okay onebedroom or efficiency 
units helps fill the greatest need right but  
[1:00:10] if the greatest need is Sally says hey we need 
a whole bunch of people because we need five  
[1:00:14] bedroomedroom sixbedroom units to support larger 
families then I guess it's also going back into  
[1:00:24] which is the highest best use of the resources 
that we're being given because eventually if the  
[1:00:31] resources aren't there or the resources, you know, 
aren't matching what we need, whether a sales tax  
[1:00:38] is passed or not, it's still understanding like 
where that gap is. Where have we identified that?  
[1:00:46] Because the cost to build multi-unit properties 
for three-bedroom or onebs, there should be some  
[1:00:52] sort of priority, not just to the total number of 
units, but to which needs to be served right now.  
[1:01:00] And if it's senior housing, then great. It's 
senior housing, right? Then we know and now  
[1:01:06] you could say senior housing, one bedrooms, two 
bedrooms. I I think it'd be a great problem for  
[1:01:11] us to have to talk about in the future of starting 
to ask our developers, hey, we really need one,  
[1:01:18] you know, we need 41bedrooms because that's our 
biggest need. I don't I mean you can speak to this  
[1:01:23] and I but I'm I don't feel like that's where 
we're at yet that we need so many rooftops,  
[1:01:28] so many different size rooms, units, everything. 
I mean, that's a great problem that we'll have to  
[1:01:34] address at some point hopefully. I would love 
for this board to get that far into it that  
[1:01:40] we need to start focusing in on certain 
demographics or sizes if you will. So,  
[1:01:46] but it also goes back to the per unit, right? It 
goes back to the cost per unit. If you look at  
[1:01:51] some of the other projects that we've given out 
funding to at $90,000 to be able to serve an x  
[1:01:57] amount of number of people where if the money was 
set back and going, okay, that $90,000 if some of  
[1:02:05] the properties that we hadn't funded before, there 
would have been enough funds to be able to support  
[1:02:09] both of these multi-unit projects. Then you're 
risking losing the a developer at that time.
[1:02:18] Troy, my comment is sort of around that. We 
need so many rooftops. The best facilities  
[1:02:27] are mixed mixed income, mixed sizes, right, 
in the right spots. Some developers need  
[1:02:35] to have that mixed one, two, threebedroom 
in order to for it to pencil. So, I mean,  
[1:02:40] we don't want to definitely get in the position 
where we're over like del we're overstating you  
[1:02:46] need to have a complex of efficiency apartments 
that are all for people that are 30% AMI. What's  
[1:02:53] going to be the outcome of that? Well, it's going 
to be more difficult to pencil. It's going to be  
[1:02:58] more complicated to operate. It's going to 
require more more social services perhaps.  
[1:03:03] So I mean we definitely don't want to impinge 
on the market's ability to self-direct and right  
[1:03:09] and make it do its thing. I mean this is come so 
this board does you know does allocate a lot of  
[1:03:20] funds but in terms of what this board allocates 
and what the private market constructs are they  
[1:03:27] even comparable in terms of how much housing is 
put on the floor put put out in the community is  
[1:03:34] it even worth that's what I'm trying to ask is 
it even worth having this conversation just in  
[1:03:40] terms of the impact this board's able to have 
compared to the private market when we know  
[1:03:48] what we really need is as many as many units as we 
can get you know online as possible. I don't know  
[1:03:57] the answer to that. Tracy just rhetorically 
Lance can I comment on something real quick  
[1:04:05] please? Uh is this Corey with this is Corey? 
Yeah. Yeah. I was a little under the weather,  
[1:04:11] so I didn't want to expose everybody. 
Uh, when we say 55 or older senior,  
[1:04:19] you can also be disabled and younger and 
qualify to be in one of our residences.
[1:04:30] So, we it's not just senior, it's also 
disabled and stuff like that as well.  
[1:04:37] And Cole, what we haven't necessarily done 
a good job of in the past is that, you know,  
[1:04:41] we've got 74 seniors at the homeless shelter 
and we've got these projects developing that  
[1:04:47] are specific for seniors. We haven't really 
been doing a good job of connecting those  
[1:04:51] dots like we did recently at Greenway, right? 
We've got 20 open spots at Greenway. We've got  
[1:04:57] 74 seniors at how do we connect the dots? 
We did a better job of doing that lately.  
[1:05:02] And if we can watch that and make sure that we can 
if we do target towards affordable housing needs,  
[1:05:09] we're also targeting the people who specifically 
need them or let the market drive itself.
[1:05:21] That was a good point. Thank you 
for your insight, sir, Corey.
[1:05:32] Any further discussion?
[1:05:38] Hearing none. Do we have a motion to 
adjurnn? I have a motion to adjourn.
[1:05:44] All those in favor? I I those opposed.
[1:05:54] Just one. Thank you all very 
much. I wanted to stay longer.
[1:06:00] That's good. I need it. I I 
need to be humbled around.