[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.

Affordable Housing Review Board Monthly Meeting January 26, 2026

Agenda

Transcript