Affordable Housing Trust - Regular Meeting

[Music] Uh uh it is 7:33 and I'm I will call the uh what's today? I'll call the September 15th, 2025 uh affordable housing trust meeting to order. Uh we have uh a small number of agenda items, but we'll see what that translates into in terms of uh meeting length. But uh guess we can we can jump in. Uh oh, yeah. Uh Amber just said Fiona's uh on her way to uh joining on Zoom. So, yeah. Uh, maybe we want to,

Mr. Chair, do we need a roll call? Oh, yeah. Roll call. Good day. All right. Uh, so, uh, Dan Kusher, present. Brian Landin, present. Colleen Roy here. Uh, Sarah Sarah Salu Young. Yes. Here. All right. Did I say that right? Yes. Saloo. Mhm.

Awesome. All right. Now we're officially uh in compliance with Zoom. All right. Uh so do we want to I feel like we kind of want Fiona to talk us through the uh the speaker she got lined up for the um the outreach meeting. So maybe we can take a look at goals. You know, it's kind of just on here. It's a standing uh agenda item. Um any thoughts on the goals? Yeah. Anybody want?

Yeah, I had so as kind of new guy. Um you most of these are obviously new to me or my first first crack at them. Um so a couple things I didn't know like when we get to something like the the grant agreement policy. Um do we and I think we referenced policies a few different places. Um, is there an interest in in formalizing that? I think, um, obviously we've got the one grant agreement in place. Maybe we could we could either get something on the shelf so it's there or, you know, hold off until another one might cross our path. Um, I just didn't know if that was an action item or more of something's a tracking item for going forward.

Okay. Yeah, I don't think we do have a written policy on that. I feel like the the two bullet points here are kind of makes sense. Yeah, kind of what the goal is.

Probably want more details in there. And then um guess associated with the grants, but maybe just jump down to the subcommittees. The grant agreement with GSX technically calls out um or says that there's a subcommittee um of the trust that is kind of responsible for managing that agreement. Was that subcommittee? I know we didn't really touch on it uh when we did the reorganization, but was that subcommittee created? Does that exist or do we need to is that kind of an as needed for 1727? Yeah,

I think that was more that was like a temporary thing. I don't know if we ever formally dissolved that. Uh but yeah, I think that was mainly just like in the um kind of early uh negotiating uh phase of it.

Okay. Um, and then I know Colleen and I talked a little bit about the um the audit requirement. Um, did have we ever put that in front of Kathleen O'Donnell to get her thoughts on um either pushing through that change to both we would have to amend both the bylaw and the um um the trust governing document. Name's escaping me at the moment. Uh, but I'd probably want her to

I don't know if we've run it by Kathleen. I I think I saw there's a mention the state law that governs affordable housing trusts and uh there's something in there about doing an independent audit. So, I mean, might be worth running by here. Yeah. So, yeah, especially if there's something statewide. Um, are we I I I would hope we're covered since kind of the way we've been operating, but just leaving the trust operations kind of funneled under the the town's annual audit. Um, and kind of removing any any implicit requirement that that we have to do something separate. But,

okay, those are those are my main questions. We can probably circle back to the um outreach meeting. We've got Fiona on. Yeah. Hey Fiona. Hey. Sorry I'm a little bit late. That's right. We just started. Um so we just talking about the the goals a little bit. Um but yeah, we can uh let's go back to the uh outreach uh meeting and um yeah, Fiona, do you want to kind of give us an update on the speakers that we have and all that stuff?

Sure. So um I we spoke Amber and I got on calls with um MHP and Chapa. Um, I had been talking to Barrett Planning Group and EOHLC as well, but what we kind of came up with and wanted to really kind of relay to this evening is that if we have many speakers, we probably will start to lose people. So, we were thinking two would make sense and which would still allow the trust time to do their introduction and welcome and then follow-up Q&A session after. So, um, given Chapa's and MHP's extensive experience, um, with community engagement, as well as having people that are local to the area, we thought that they would probably be the mo the the best option. Um, Barrett Planning Group is based out in Hangingham and EOHLC is obviously based in Boston and MHP has somebody who's actually in South Burrow quite frequently and Chapa has somebody who's also in a nearby community. So, it actually made perfect sense. So, um I when we discussed with them they had availability um on the 6th and could do the community barn uh from 6 or 6:30 to 8/8:30. I think 6:30 was something we wanted to flow by the trust because it'll just give people a little bit more time, you know, people who are commuting home eating dinner and stuff to be able to to make the event. um chapa. So I did upload to the materials um a breakdown of the topics that um chapa and MHP would be specializing in

um based on their experience. Um CH uh let me pull that up. Sorry, let me I didn't have it um at the ready. Chapa was going to be focusing on more in kind of specific um examples of creative housing solutions and projects that have been done, especially projects that have been done in the area as well as tips and tricks for um engaging and supporting local affordable housing projects. whereas MHP would be uh specializing more in some of the uh root causes of the housing crisis, how we got here. um provide some some cool data uh for us to be able to use um explain, you know, the Massachusetts is is in a housing crisis and this is why we need more affordable housing and the merits of affordable housing and also speak to uh kind of similar to what we were talking about last meeting where it's kind of like a typical you know this is how you know how many people live in affordable housing and kind of a very basic demographic kind of breakdown and like this could apply to all sorts of people like see here. So, that's really where we we left off. The MHP did um say that uh Amber, I can't remember her last name, but Shelly uh a woman named Shelley on their community engagement team would be available and she will be blooping in another person just finalizing their availability. And Chapo would likely be Lily Link who is the head of the community engagement unit there. So, um I think that's pretty much it. Um I wanted to kind of talk through the agenda and get your thoughts on

the topics and whatnot.

Just a a comment there on on both those um before jumping into the agenda. First of all, thank you both so much for taking the time to reach out to them to coordinating that call, pulling this together. I know it's a lot of work and I hope that it's this kind of work and doing so is nice connections for you and and good you know kind of that there's a positive out of this extra work. Um, I guess my thought here of these summaries is it seems like M MHP and just having MHP would make sense for this particular meeting. And then with Chapa, maybe it would make sense if we invite them to one of these meetings because that I would really benefit from and I think this group would benefit from a discussion around kind of creative solutions for affordable housing community engagement that would be really helpful especially in in advance of our next town meeting or whatever we decide to do. Um, but it sounds like MHP is really aligned with the information that we want to present to the broader community of really painting that picture of why affordable housing is so important and why we need to dedicate resources to it. That would be my thought. And also keeping in mind time. I think maybe if we just have two speakers, we just have MHP and then we have um someone or multiple people from the trust. But that's that's my first uh jumping in here team. So if anyone else feels differently totally open to discussion but that's just my thought.

Yeah, thanks Sarah. I think that u I appreciate the the kind words. Yeah, it was it was really great connecting with them and yeah, I mean I'm I'm if the trust is agreeable, you know, I'm more than happy to connect with uh Chapa and tell them, you know, we will be doing a similar workshop in the spring or whenever we decide to do the future one and we can engage them at that point. So that's fine. Yeah, because it sounds like they could help us like it sounds like they actually are a resource like they could almost be involved in helping us doing this meeting. Mhm. Am I is that? Yeah. Am I correct in understand? Okay.

Yeah. I they they offer all sorts of um services for communities to take advantage of um r you know ranging from presenting to boards and trusts to I believe that they offer actual services like providing presentations for trust to be able to use speaking on behalf of trusts etc. So yeah, I think that they they do a little bit of everything.

Okay. one one piece that um I was really interested in um from the the list of topics that were um under the chapa speaker because it's a blind spot for me and I don't know if anybody else on the trust or or um the owner or anybody else can speak to this intelligently but um the overview of the lottery process and getting into affordable housing is something that I thought you know might be something depending on on who were able to get to the um to the the event um that's something that could add value not just you know to help the trust understand the process but um could help you know members of the public as well. Um

and I don't know um I guess Amber or Fiona when when you were speaking with either MHP or Chapa um did either of them feel constrained by you know the 20-ish minutes or um like they might want to go longer if we only did one of them or if did you know 20 minutes or so sound like it worked for for both? Yeah, the 20 minutes um seemed to be the max that either speaker wanted to do because we you know they were saying pretty much you start losing people after 20 minutes anyway. So um yeah, they they said we keep it keep it around then and I think they can probably condense whatever we asked them to and make it fit into the 20 minutes or or even less if they need to.

Yeah, I was going to say I don't have a huge preference. Um, to me, I think it might almost come down to how long we wanted the event to run and if we if we wanted to to include one or or both um this time around. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a really good point. I I do think that third bullet would be really interesting um for the community to to hear. So, just like Yeah. to give them direction that for this particular audience I think that's relevant but that we would love to partner with them if they're available on the other two

especially ahead of another meeting next year. Mhm.

So, the uh 50 people we want to invite is is staring me right in the face, and I feel like that's a huge number, and I don't want to let these speakers down. Um, since a lot of these topics seem generic enough that a lot of other affordable housing trusts in the area might be um, facing the same things, should we be reaching out to other communities and inviting their trusts directly so that we can uh, fill the room maybe?

Yeah, Colleen, I think that's a really great idea. I think just yeah anybody who's in you know in the region that's doing affordable housing is should be invited and um feel welcome to come um because then it's then idea sharing happens and we can really start um picking people's brains like some trusts some trusts may be newer some trusts may be like very seasoned and can offer advice so yeah I I that that's a great idea and we were we were thinking of doing that so yeah I know the 50 people is um that that was my thing I want to make sure that we advertise this as much as possible and get a ton of people. But yeah, and I I I share the concern of like just wanting to make sure that we're not wasting anybody's time, especially if they're, you know, if they were driving from far distances, which is kind of why we chose speakers that were closer to the area. So, you know, in the event that we would get, you know, 25 or 30, um, that it wouldn't be, you know, too much of a bummer, I guess, which I don't think it will happen, but do we have contacts for other area um, trusts or interested parties? I have my planner friends that I reach out to. Basically all the planners that touch crafting. I'll start there. And uh I might just send something out. We have a list serve as well. Um the central mass wouldn't CMRPC be a resource too? Weren't they working with a lot of local affordable housing trust that they could uh maybe push it out to?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. We will for sure reach out to them. Yeah, because my my thing and I think what Amber and I were trying to accomplish this evening with you all is like just like narrowing down what we're going to do because we right because the advertising will need to start in earnest as soon as possible so we make sure that we can get get the people and also be able to report out to the community barn like this is what we're anticipating etc. So, yeah.

Cool. Yeah. If we're um I mean, if we're inviting like other uh affordable housing trusts, I feel like the other um Chapa bullet points, then uh you know, could be useful for a lot more people.

Yeah. Um, I mean they're also useful for the public too, but you know, like it's a little bit more useful for the trust like us who are actually like the the people who are going to be exploring creative housing solutions. Um, but like I I also feel like that it seems like a lot of people have like a a narrow idea of what affordable housing is and even just learning about, you know, other ideas would be great for regular members of the public, too.

Yeah. And I think um I think at one point we had talked about um having kind of a more targeted invitation to probably the planning board and and ZBA. Um, and I think that is helpful for them too when they hear things, you know, some of like the common complaints and even some of the the feedback that that I assembled and and sent out um from some of the public comments on on recent projects. Um, you know, how and why does it make sense that these developments tend to have fewer school age kids than we might expect and and you know, answers to some of those questions uh some of the things that we have in the presentation. So, um I think getting some of those folks in the room um to hear some of the information um wouldn't hurt as well. And I think some of that chapa um material could could be helpful for them.

Can we add um CPC to that list of target invitations because affordable housing is one of the tenants of CPA? Yes. Yeah. I think it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to to blast the um the the all, you know, department and um and committee um list serves, but I think those of us that serve on some of those other things can can try to drill the the point home a little bit um if we can get an announcement in the uh select board meeting. Yeah, absolutely. List of announcements.

Perfect. We'll do. So, I think logistics wise, um, it sounds like we're locked in to the 6th. Um, do does anybody have an issue with 6:30 to 8? Um, and I guess is there anything else, uh, Amber, Fiona, that you need us to to decide on to be able to start promoting this?

Uh, yeah, date, uh, daytime, location. Make sure that works out for everybody. I think obviously we know the date is probably fine because it's one of the three that were proposed. Um, so I think we're good on that front. Um, the Sorry, I just had a my gosh, it's been a long day. So I so I think just if we wanted to have just um the trust in one other speaker and who that speaker would be or if we want to stick to what we have here. It seems like I'm hearing that there would be some benefit of having chapa as well as MHP. But I know that um we floated the idea of also maybe Chapa coming and helping with more at a later date. So, I just want to be able to tell the speakers where to be and and also make sure the program is tailored to what the trust wants, you know. Um, like MHP can probably speak to a some of the things that Chapa that we have slated for Chapa, you know, MHP does everything. So, you know, that's also an option. I think I think just based on everyone's comments and I appreciate that and especially with Colleen's point of inviting other affordable housing groups in local towns and then uh both Dan and Brian's comments, I think it actually makes sense to just keep this agenda as is. So, I retract my original feedback. Um I think it still would be worth it if they're open to it like at a later date. We'll worry about that later. Um but uh yeah, I agree. I think I agree with Brian. it would make sense to uh have this information shared for the general public as well as that kind of affordable housing and other local planning people. Um so yeah, I'm I'm so sorry for my or not going to apologize u but uh I I retract my earlier comment based on everyone's feedback and I think this agenda looks great.

Yeah. Uh I I personally will uh be a little bit late if we if it starts at 6:30. Um I'm fine with that if uh other people are fine with uh doing the trust introduction part. Um but

yeah, who wants to do that? I can introduce the I can kick it off if you'd like. Um I'm usually the one who does the hey thanks for coming. Um we are here because this is the you know um this is you know the trust event and we turn over to allow you know allow the trust members to introduce themselves and you know provide some feedback on um what you know what they do and their goals or whatever you know however we want to structure it but um yeah I can kick I can kickstart it. I I usually will do it like you know for anything that was like master plan or housing production plan or anything like that I was always the the intro person. So, I'm happy to do that.

Yeah, I think um a lot of the the slides that we had that are kind of statistics focused, I feel like that might end up being a little bit redundant with what some of the speakers are talking about. So maybe just kind of keeping it only focused on uh kind of a brief update kind of just almost just enumerating uh the things that the trust has been doing the past few years um and you know just mentioning the current status of things um probably would get you to that pretty close to that 10 minutes.

Yeah. Yeah. I I agree Dan. And I I think that if the trust I just wanted to make sure that um you know Nicole and some of the key points that Sarah had been bringing up um etc like all of that is is highlighted and and relayed in the way that you want. And I was originally had thought okay you know maybe we'll do a couple of like fun facts off the top and have the trust kind of present that. But I I do agree that I think the speakers will probably be getting into that. Maybe not as Grafton specific. probably be more state state and regional data points. But yeah, I I I would think that maybe we should leave that and we'll leave that for the speakers to handle um just because they'll have access to data sources that you know public and and private that they use or whatever. So they might just be able to handle that in a better way.

Yeah. Okay. So, maybe like one or two slides that just show like the basic uh statistics demonstrating that there is a serious need for affordable housing in town and just kind of stick that sort of uh proving that there's a need for this before we jump into you know the uh the speakers. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. Cool. Um,

cool. Yeah.

Yeah. So, uh, I'd be fine with 6:30 and just getting there, you know, probably around 6:45ish myself, unless we want to do it at 7 and then I'd be there on time. I don't really have a preference either way. So, I guess we could stick with 6:30 if that if we think that'll be better for attendees. I don't I Yeah. Um I think it probably would be fine because this the speakers would be kind of planning to be there for the majority of the v of the event anyway. Um, they're at least going to be planning to be there until 8. So, I I think that would be fine if we wanted to wait um for Dan.

Yes. Does anyone else have a preference? No, I'm fine either way.

So then just uh does that mean Dan, are you doing the intro for the trust? Sure. If we start at seven. Okay. Okay. Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you on the spot. It was just that um since you talked through that. Yeah, I could do that. Okay. And we don't think that um that would create an issue for for either of the speakers.

I don't think so. as long as we can start shortly after, you know, definitely start having them speak no later than se uh 7:10 cuz then if we're going by this, MHP will be on um you know 7:10 to to hapist and then um chapel will be on from half to 102. So I think it'll be work it will be fine. It'll still be the same. Well, I think we'd still be able to wrap up by by 7:50 or shortly thereafter.

And actually, yeah, just backing into the times, I think we had Q&A slated for 7:50 to 8:20. And I think if we back up to the beginning, I think that almost assumed a 7:00 start anyway. Yeah. So, yeah, we shouldn't be going too late.

Uh, I have a suggestion. What if we keep it at 6:30 and just do like mingling from 6:30 to 7:00 while people fill in and grab a drink and a snack or whatever? That's something I noticed about the EDC events that they hold at uh local establishments is that the the beer and wine component really drives attendance. And I don't know if that's too late for us to look into, too expensive given this location, but maybe something for the next one. Consider one of the locations the EDC uses and see what that does for attendance. Um, I don't know why, but put a beer in someone's hand and they they're ready to listen to whatever you have to say. So,

it's an interesting idea. So, start at 6:30. Start at 6:30. Make it clear to people that there's like a a mingling time at the beginning so people don't show up and, you know, Yeah. Just you just say doors open at 6:30, you know, program starts at seven sort of thing or Okay. Yeah, I think that sounds like a great idea. like that's so nice and and then as like trust members we can kind of be the little social ambassadors amongst the the group kind of getting people engaged and talking. I feel like that that's a great idea.

Amber that the feasibility of um providing alcohol is that is that doable or was that is that more for like the next time around? Um, I know they've done it at the community barn before um for events there. Okay. Um, we just have to um we'd have to get somebody that's um tip certified. Mhm. Finding a server would be the most difficult part. Yeah. Yeah. I I was just curious. I wasn't familiar with uh with with that.

I can take a stab at it. see see what we can make happen between now and November. Amber, I um I can reach out to you offline, too. I might have a contact that has a um a mobile um wine business that I can check the availability with them. Um and that that would kind of be a one-stop shop. Um

cool. Yeah, I know that. Um there's a uh the brewery in Upton will also they do events at the Willard House where they um you know they come in and serve. So maybe Yeah, do something like that. Cool. All right. Anything else on uh the uh outreach meeting? Sounds like we're we're good. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. This is amazing. I just want to chime in again, just repeat everyone that is working really hard on this and I just I think it's so worthwhile and I'm just so pleased to be a part of this. So, um I really appreciate everyone's effort pulling all this together. Same.

Yeah. I also want to commend um there's a lot of members of the trust who have been sending me information. Sarah, Nicole, everybody, Brian, and the the work that's been that you've all been doing on the back end is is also is very much appreciated. Um and impressive. So, thank you all for that. Um, and so I think, yeah, so I think what the marching, you know, what we're going to Amber and I are going to focus on now is, you know, we have a game plan, we have speakers, we have topics, uh, location, etc. So, we're just going to start making flyers, pushing them out, reaching out to the people that we discussed this evening, um, and just, yeah, doing some of that that follow-up work to to bring it to fruition on the 6th. So, all all good.

Nice. And and then just a quick kind of logistics of that. So our goal is 50 people. Um I think I already know the answer, but we won't have like a registration or anything like that. It's just like here's where the meeting will be and then like we won't know ahead of time if 50 people will be showing up or like 300 people. I mean that would be a good problem to have, but

yeah, that's a good point, Sarah. Um, so we've done in the past, and Amber, don't mean to keep putting you on the spot, but for when we did the didn't we have a QR code that was scanned that took um people to an area um or a forum rather to sign in for one of our past events? I think so. Um but I will say the the groups that we are inviting directly

like CPC we we might get more of a response there you know like the boards and committees that we're inviting or like the trust from other towns you know I I would hope that we would get um some idea of how many folks to expect from those groups I mean when we open it up to the public that I don't think we're going to you know have a good count there but Um yeah. Yeah. I think that like the direct invitations that we're going to be sending out will um will tell us some numbers for the Hi, it's Nicole. Can you hear me?

Yep. Um for the public piece of it, we can easily um create like a an Eventbrite um invitation that would collect um you know name um email address, whatever information we want um to ask for as far as like to reserve your tickets um and use that in conjunction with um the flyer or whatever. I was actually going to say um when Fiona was talking earlier, if we can get a PDF of whatever flyer we're making um just so we can push it out on um social media easily, that would be great. And then if we create the link for the Eventbrite or whatever it might be, um we could push that out at the same time and just see if people do sign up. I don't know if they will or not, but it might be a an extra way to get a little bit more headcount from, you know, the public attendance.

Yeah, that's that's super easy and quick to do, Nicole. I think it's probably a good idea. At least because at least we can get some sort of um we can take the temperature of like how well the advertising is going and if we need to rev it up or whatever, just to make sure we're we're trying to get the the number. So, yeah, we can do that. We're going to do a hard push at town meeting, right? Like, can we get on the back page of the warrant?

Oo, I will ask Don. That's a great idea. Yeah, we have and we can do a hand out the flyers as a handout at the table as well, right? Yeah. Okay, we could do that. Sweet. Okay, cool. Maybe I could get it as the uh the cover page of the PowerPoint. So when people are coming into town meeting, that's just what's on the what's on the projector. That's such a good idea.

Yeah, that's Yeah, I think that'll be a really great way to to get the word out. Okay, awesome. Anything? Yeah, I think I'm good. I don't think I have any other other questions. I think I'm just going to make sure the speakers are aware that we're not starting until like 7. And um yeah, life is good.

Cool. if something else comes up in the meantime or whatever, obviously feel free to to just reach out to me as you all have been doing and um you know, we'll we'll coordinate accordingly. So, like if someone can't make that time, something comes up or whatever, you know, something like that, just let me know. All righty. And Dan, if you're running with the the intro, um, we just work with whomever to figure out the couple slides or or whatever you want to pull together. So, we don't need to run through any of those tonight. Uh, yeah. I mean, unless anybody else wants to do the intro, putting that out there. Good.

Okay. That's what I thought. All right. Um, Dan, I can help you with the intro. We can like tackle it together if you'd like. Okay. Might be easier that way. Uh, all right. Anything else before we move on to uh the minutes? Good.

Uh, going into the meeting in October, um, I guess what what do you all want to accomplish between now and then? I mean, we can get the flyer ready. Um Fiona and Dan can work on the intro. I I I mean I think we're good. Originally we had talked about doing like a run through in October, but since since we're having the outside speakers, I think that's kind of taken care of. So yeah, October we can just be finalizing. Yeah, I guess if like it's up to you both, but if like Dan and Fiona, if you wanted just do kind of pretend that it's like the meeting and just use the October meeting as a way to practice it just to kind of work out any potential I don't know um any issues or anything like that. And then I guess the other thing that I think we had uh discussed during the last meeting would be uh potential questions for the Q&A. So just making sure that we have information like stuff will probably come up about 1727 Upton Street. What kind of questions will they be? Just so that we don't necessarily have to have that information on a slide, but just so that someone or a few of us are kind of confident with some of the information or have a good reply. Um, so we could we could either I guess how we could approach this as an action item is we could all send Amber potential questions ahead of the October meeting and then review them during the meeting and kind of work out what information we need to gather

and if any question Oh, that was the other thing too because Matt wanted to do the survey and then we mixed that that If um this is having a lot of a lot of details but in on the flyer having if you have any questions in advance that you want to ask the board email or sorry not the board the trust email this that way we're prepared. I think that was going to be part of it. So we might also get a few questions via email ahead of our October meeting to review together anyway. So maybe that's an agenda item for October. Okay, cool.

Yeah, I think um you know, probably in the same vein um but it's been a while since we've got a real substantive update on 25 Worcester or or 1727 um Upton. I know, you know, Matt gave us a bit of an update last time around um on some of the um ongoings with 1727. Um, but yeah, if there's anything else new, um, it's been, you know, kind of radio silent for a while, but all righty. Anything else before minutes? So, just real quick for for my own um so we'll draft kind of a brief set of like maybe five slides for the intro to present for the trust to kind of review and Dan I'll send them to you ahead of time so you can

take a look and see what you agree or what you want to add or whatever. Okay. Okay, that sounds good. Thanks. I will move that we accept the um minutes to the August 14th, 2025 meeting of the affordable housing trust as presented. Second. Got a motion and a second. Any uh discussion, any corrections? Hearing none. Uh we will vote by roll call. Uh Kusher I. Landman I. Uh Colleen Salu I. Colleen, hi. And Nicole,

hi. All right, the uh minutes are approved and that leaves one thing left to do. Move we journ. Second. Motion a second. Uh Kosher I uh Colleen Roy I. Sarah I and Nicole I. We are adjourned. Thanks everybody. Thanks