Redevelopment Authority - Regular Meeting

It's all, like

I'm, like It's

all so

shaky. Especially with little ones and men too, I'm like, I don't know how you get to be selective. Yep. And I'm I'm trying to be better about that too, but it's hard.

It's like, you gotta be every you do. You do.

You wanna be to everything you can.

You wanna be a face

in the community to So it's six zero one

there in

one of West Dallas.

I see that we have Mike here and Nina and Jerry and Paul and Rick. So we have a quorum.

Alright.

So I just call the meeting to order. I don't see any public comment. Our last public meeting was 12/16/2024. Man, that was I can't remember those minutes, but I walked I went through them, and they looked okay to me. So I would move to approve. Anybody? So moved. Second. Looks like it's unanimous. That moves us on to our three business items tonight. The first one is an update on the redevelopment authority loan programs, ID number 25Dash00666. I'll turn it over to Jeff. Alright.

That doesn't look like a football game, Jeff.

So before I get to the report on our different loan fund balances, bunch of 02/22, the audit is completed. So we extended 02/22 for affordable housing. We used the one year extension on it. So with that one year, brought in $9.09 37,000. And the way our policy is here, 75% goes to that affordable housing development fund, and the 25% per state statute goes to the affordable housing rehab program. So that's really helped replenish these accounts. Kinda seeing here, we've got the

Jeff, could you just go back one slide real quick to let me just write down some notes so

I Sure.

Give it to the council? Yeah.

I'll put it in my email list too.

I can

Okay. I heard somebody else need a paper agenda.

Oh, I think what did you got up there?

Thank you. Okay.

Thank you.

Sure. Not even though there's one. Too. So in the rental rehab program, we've got about, you know, 337,000. That one, we sent out a bunch of letters. We're trying to get people that haven't you know, somebody's been sitting out here, like, twelve years with their deferred. Now you can't do deferred. We changed that policy last year. I think we did that December. So there's no more deferred loans in there.

So we're trying to encourage people to get on payment plans, especially those we have some that have you know, have I do have interest on it. So this interest just keeps accruing, you for the last thirteen years, know, at, like, 3%. So we haven't had a lot of success. We're just, trying to trying to encourage that. We do get payments back from the big one we get is from Ken Berkshire Kensington, the multifamily that we assist with this.

It's got, like, a 166 units every year. They pay us $64,000 in principal and interest. The affordable housing rehab program, that one is dwindled to to the point where we're gonna shut the program down or pause it until this tip 22 money came in. So now with that, that fund is up to $247,000 on that one, and that's the one for the homeowner single family homeowner rehab. Then the development fund, this is the one that you know, our goal is to use this as for gap financing or constructions or anything to help assist in creation of new new housing units, whereas the other one is more about fixing up existing.

So with the with the new influx of money, we've got a balance uncommitted balance of about $1,500,000. And then we do have some outstanding loans for with Habitat, and those will kinda come in. There's some agenda item here to maybe for a couple more. But at least trying to maintain a high balance in case we have a bigger project come in where we could really make a difference with this fund. And then storefront activation program.

By the end of last year, we had committed all the funds in there, and that was further it was ARPA funds. So we had everything committed by the end of last year, which we did. We've got quite a few loans that are in repayment now and a few more that should be wrapping up by probably summer. So we're getting money in every month, you know, getting repayments. We've already kinda we went from, like, zero to, like, $60,000 over the past couple of like, since maybe November. So more more money's coming back into there. We've we're talking to some people about maybe some projects come up as soon as this fund gets enough money back into it. So that's status of all of our loan programs, if there's any questions on it. Yep.

I was talking to a developer the other day because I was showing some drainage issues he had on one of his projects. And and I said I made the comment that what we need is affordable housing. And he said, well, there's no money available. And I said, well, we have some available. And I said, quite a bit available. He says it probably isn't enough. Yeah. And so I I, you know, I just I mentioned that, well, get in contact with, you know, the city and see.

Yeah. I think they're kind of

So I I'm sure you're doing your due diligence of making Yeah.

We got this program, but then you can stack this on top of, like, the WIDA. WIDA's got three different programs.

K.

DuPont's in the type of development. They've got infrastructure access, so you can extend the infrastructure for affordable housing. Then they've got vacancy to vitality where you can take a vacant commercial space or and then make that into housing units. And then there's the can't remember exactly. It's a store the upper floor program. So for, like, places like downtown, you can we have those units. So there's some some loan things in there, and they are they keep loosening up. Originally, they said, you know, they kinda made a ruling that we can use we can stack that with our TIF affordable housing. And now there's some a bill out there now that might even lose them more where you can actually use an actual TIF district in the WIDA. Because right now, the WIDA, you cannot if you use the WIDA funds, that project could not receive any TIF funds, could not have received it.

But now there's a new bill. I don't I'm not sure the status of where it's at, but that may also open up opportunities for, you know, better way to fill that gap with a few different programs from TIF to lead into our for housing fund.

Thank you. Does anyone have any further questions?

One, mister chairman. So are there any other tips or kids that are open that might provide funding to these programs in the near term?

I wanna say maybe 2028, we might have one to close that we might close and extend. I think that's 11. And then in the future, there's a few other ones that in the horizon. We've got a chart of one where we're close them, and we're on each one we kinda evaluate when we get today or whether it's you know, we should extend that or if we can get the money to come back in for something. Right. There are a few more opportunities coming up. And a little further down the road, if we could do something like so two to 17, which is really big. It has a big fund balance. I mean, it's got a lot of property in it, the increment's pretty high. So that'd be really good.

It'd be almost similar to when we close the shops at the Fox River where we got, like, $1,900,000 into these programs. So Okay. Yeah. We just we look at each district as it as it's kind of approaching its closing date and then make the determination whether to extend it for four hours, we'll bring it to the common council.

Thank you.

Anyone else? Any questions? No? Nice presentation. And that'll bring us to ID25Dash00667. Review and action request by Habitat, the Humanity of Waukesha, Jefferson counties for affordable housing development fund construction loans for Lots 1 And 13 at the Dominican Park subdivision.

So right here, I've got a chart of all the outstanding construction loans that have gone through the redevelopment authority. A little bit of note, 302EastMainStreet, that has a closing now scheduled for May This week. This week? What is this week? Okay. This Friday. This Friday. So we'll get that back in the program. The two next two are kinda scheduled

to be May 15 and May 3030. Nice.

Yeah. So this so those will be the springs. So that we'll have that money coming back in, there's $400,000 back in the program. And then we have the two more recent ones that think were approved late last year for the $200,000 for 431 Oakland, 422 North Greenfield. So what the request is for two more of those $2,000 loans, but for lots 1 And 13. And what we wanna do with this when we had talked with Habitat is prior to this money going out, we wanna have some additional money coming in. So this will be tied to like, so each one of these so each disbursement, the $20,000 will be tied to another one in Dominica Park coming back to us with principal and interest.

So that would 20,000. Are you referring to a different number? The 200,000.

Sorry. Okay. Fine.

Thank you.

Yeah. 200,000. So so we would hold off till we had a building permit issuance, which is the term of all of our loans, and then they pay one outstanding loan, and then that money can go back out. That way, we don't have so much money tied up with one development. It's been good because these funds are going out right now at a 3% interest.

So, you know, Habitat used them for a year and a half or, in the case of me, like, two years. So we're getting that principal interest back, which helps build up our fund a little bit. And then when he's getting used, we haven't had any other proposals to fund anything with it. So with that, staff would recommend approval of these $200,000 construction loans from these lots. And then with the terms, just talked about the release of it being tied to the other 3% annual interest, and then repayment will be due at the time of sale or transferred to the selected Habitat family. Do know if you wanna speak anymore on that, Melissa?

I think just, yeah, underscore that, you know, it looks like a lot when you list it there, which it is. But we wanna keep the approvals ahead of us so that we can keep our construction schedule on time.

Do you want

me to move? So that we can stay on schedule. Right? So, yeah, 400,000 will be coming back fairly quickly here in the month of May. As as you can imagine with the warm weather, now we're able to put flat work in and start closing and starting pretty aggressively. So Dominica Park will be done by December 2026, so we're really kinda turning the corner. If you drive by now, almost all of Oakland is under construction. Lot 1 would be the last one.

Just for clarification, this comes out of the affordable housing development fund, the 1.5? Yep. And what's your you said it's what's the turnaround between construction and or what's the anticipated turnaround between construction?

It's about ten months. You know, we say longer in case, you know, something happens, which could be the case, but typically about ten months.

Yeah. In some cases, like, one of the $200,000 construction loans that you had approved last year.

We haven't.

No. We did have. Yeah. That they have. Yeah. They haven't got the money because they're waiting for their billing permits. So while they're getting approved now, they may not get released for a few months depending

on Yeah.

Permits get in in their schedule.

K. So

just so I understood the presentation, Habitat for Humanity has $800,000 outstanding, of which they're gonna get a 100,000 back to us May 2. On the fifteenth, approximately a 150, and the thirtieth, about a 150. So by the May, we'll have $400,000 back. Yep. And then the program we're giving out or approving potentially tonight is for another 400,000. So it'll be pretty much awash by the May.

Yeah. And have no impact on that balance. That's showing that first sheet to 1,500,000.0. That'll still be the same because we're not touching that with this. And then we also have any interest earned on those three loans going back in. Right. So

I I don't have any prop. I just didn't wanna go deeper. I wanted to leave approximately 1.5 for a new development if it comes out, and I didn't wanna put all our eggs in habitat even though it's an excellent organization. But as long as they're coming back reasonably as far as they're going out short term.

Makes sense.

Yeah. That's kind of our concerns we talked to most. We we did this one in one out idea with that way, it just kinda maintains their current balance their their balance sheet, and we saw them only locked in for a larger scale.

Mister Chairman, do you need a motion for this? Yes. I'd I'd like to make a motion as you just outlined.

I'm doing double duty here tonight.

I'd second that motion.

We have a motion and a second to approve $400,000 in new loans to Habitat for Humanity on the two lots mentioned. We could just get a vote. I'm gonna I. I'm Seeing that there is no objection, motion approved. That moves us to ID 25Dash00668. Review and act on a request by Habitat for Humanity Habitat $50,000 from the affordable housing rehabilitation program for their home preservation program for critical home repairs.

So before I get started, I guess we'll go back to the history of this. In 2021, when we first even actually before this fund our affordable housing programs were officially created, they're kind of in the approving of the ARPA applications. The council had sort of allocated the money. We're just trying get the program up and running. So once we got that funding, this is the first expenditure we did.

We took $50,000 from the affordable housing rehab fund and gave it to have it in the form of a grant so we wouldn't be getting paid back to make 10 loans for critical home repairs through their home preservation program. With the idea being we can take our 5,000, then Habitat can take their like, funding that they get, donations they get, volunteer help, and then so our money's going a lot farther. So I created a slide here just to kinda go over. You could see the blue represents the 500 or the the $5,000 loans we give each homeowner or we give Habitat for each homeowner for those grants. And then the orange is basically extra money that that money is leveraged through Habitat's fund. So you can see the exception of maybe two of them where it was, you know

Smaller projects.

Fund. Yeah. Small really small projects where our our money just covered the project and see how much how much has been add like, how much value has been added to those to the projects based through Habitat. And so it's kind of worked out exactly how we thought it would. Our money is leveraged much more Habitat money than we've sent out.

So but we we did the last loan last year for 410 Oakland, which is actually across Right by Dominica Park. Across the street from Dominica Park. So in that case, they they came back to us, and they'd like to do the same thing again, do 10 more loans or 10 more I guess, in their case, it's a loan for us. It's a grant $50,000 grant to fund 10 more home repair projects. They'll come out of the affordable housing rehab program, which has a balance of $247,000 in there.

And then there's different requirements that Habitat has and enforces on these. You know, the home the homeowners are at or at or below 80% of the area median income. The ones even lower than that are given priority for this. And they approved that all the projects, everything approved, and then they requested disbursement from us. When we initially proposed, we're just giving the $5,050,000 dollars in the RDAs.

It will be better that they're vetting them, then we double check them to make sure they meet our criteria and that they're in the city, and then then we send them the check for the $5,000 or 4,999. It's easier through our accounting to do it that way. I was gonna do requisition request. So with that, we looked at our funds and thought there's not a ton of money in this affordable housing, the rehab program. There's an option if it does get lower.

We have some CDBG funds that are coming back to us in the form of program income. So we have some additional ability to make some loans for households that are below 80% of the county median income level through that program. So with that, we're recommending approval of the $50,000 grant with the conditions on the 80% of the immediate limit. And then when they submit their request, wanna see how much they're giving that so we can kinda do another chart to keep track of this program to see how far the money's going. And then, obviously, funds only may only be used for projects in the city of Waukesha. Have debt reaches now Waukesha County and Jefferson County. These these anything our funds are going to roll in the city of Waukesha.

This is where most of the applicants are from anyway.

Gerry, you have a question?

When did we start the 5,000? How long ago was that? The program was approved in 2021. We didn't actually get money going able to go out the door, I think, till '22, I think.

Yeah. It took us a little while to get it

off the ground. Us getting the ARPA funds from the federal government, and then I'm getting the program up and running. So and they were pretty much spent by early this year. Think the last draw was. So took us about about three years.

So what is just to be clear, is this Habitat buys these houses?

No. So this is owner occupant rehab. So we it's a lot of roof repairs, some siding, some we work with the code enforcement team here in Waukesha. They'll send referrals our way for folks who are not in compliance, like porch repair or, wheelchair ramps, that kind of thing. But it's a lot of roofs.

How do you determine which projects become one of these 10? Our

other funding sources has a lot of requirements, so they have to kind of fit a lot of the home value has to be below a certain number. Their income has to be a certain they have to have insurance. You know, we have to we've got probably a dozen different data points.

So do they come to you?

They do. Okay. Yeah. So we kind of serve as like a general contractor. Yep. Gotcha. And support the work that way.

Go ahead, Paul. So it's not noted here, but you showed on the slide earlier that each one of those properties get $5,000 of the 50. So is that part of this program moving forward that it will be kind of evenly distributed or dispersed? Yeah.

I mean, they could do it if they have a project that's going to cost 2,000, they could request less, we can make 20 go farther. But it's been kind of across the board.

That's a

thousand dollars.

Costs aren't going down.

I'd say with roofs, windows, some of these, it's gone. It's gone. And we also are a referral for that. People will come to our counter, and we have their brochures up there, and we'll kinda talk. This might be a better project to talk to Habitat about versus our loan program.

So maybe I should have asked the question Would a different there be a time that this will help less than 10 properties, like we're going £10,000 or something like that?

Is the program requirement? Your request is structured exactly how this was delivered.

Yes. Right now, if this is further the way we have it written, it would be only the $5,000

per property.

Okay. Thank you.

And the reason to think how the rehab fund is, again, we're able to take what would typically be two loans. We because we typically do $25,000 loans for that rehab program. 51, there'll be two loans, turn it into a grant, and we're able to assist 10 homes. So that's kinda why we we support it. So just making our money go farther even though the money is not coming back to us. Improvements to the house, you know, helps the city as far as property maintenance, as far as, you know, assessed value. And it just it's been it's kinda been as it's basically just done what

we thought it would do.

Are these loans then to community members that you're helping with this, or are these funds that are grants to them? Do they repay these funds to you? It's it kinda depends on the buyer. Okay. Majority of it is a forgivable loan, but there is a small repayment for each, but it depends on the size of the job. Okay. This helps reduce that payment the homeowner would have.

Okay. Necessarily required to be Habitat for Humanity, but they are required to be owner occupied?

They're required to be owner occupied. They we haven't gotten to the point where we're rehabbing Habitat houses. So these are all kind of just regular citizens in the community.

And, Mike, does does this count as net new construction? Or

No. Because it's just repairs. If the if the value goes up

So for example, if they would add a porch, then that that wouldn't be under this program because it's not a repair.

No. If they repair the porch, yes. If they added a porch, then there our then our own phone would probably be more appropriate for something like that. Okay.

Yeah. The program is not doesn't do, like, nice, you know, like a wishful upgrades. It's critical to your keeping your insurance

Yes.

And staying safe in your home. So essential We've

also ours too when we first created it. We thought, oh, people are just gonna, Some people might use this just to, know, fix up kitchens and methods. We've had a few of those, but the more majority of ours, you and I, things like this, like doing new roofs, windows, grading, where they had grading issues for years and water getting. So we find that ours are really being used for repairs and deferred maintenance up some of them are doing upgrades, but so it seems like there's a lot of deferred maintenance out there.

No?

No? Wanna make a motion?

Miss Cheryl Mcgot motion to approve the staff recommendation of the $50,000 grant towards habitat preservation program those conditions as stated. Second.

Okay. Any questions? No. No. Well, if we can vote, M and I.

Aye. Aye.

That motion passed unanimously.

I wanna thank Habitat for the work work you're doing here

in the city. Yes. Yeah. I know it's not I feel bad. I'm trying to condense me not having to keep coming back. So I know it's a lot for one meeting, but thank you so much for the support, and I hope you're proud as you drive around the community and you see the great work we're doing.

Yeah. That's always been so long.

Thank you. No doubt.

And I just wanna make a communication. We are going to have Alderman Dan Manion on our committee starting next meeting. Mike Christine is moving on to license and ordinance. We've known him for a couple of years. That'd be right.

And He's he's landmarks too. Yes. And we're losing So, yeah, Dan Booty who Dan Booty. Was gonna leave, and then we moved the meeting for to the fourth for him. He's now leaving and moving Stevens Point. So so so if you would I wanna discuss with this group if you wanna move back to the third Monday if that still works for people. The reason being is Dan Manion's got a conflict now because he's on O and L, which is meeting right now. But I we wanna check with you guys first because otherwise the mayor would switch

switch switch.

I wanna

make sure.

I just wanna make sure that you guys are

is it different?

Either dates about the same for me. So Okay.

Well, you know,

so Fine, Melissa.

Then the committee says that it's okay to move the meeting to the third Monday.

It stands on three committees, so I guess. If you

could just send an email to us all. Yeah.

I'll update that. We'll update all the stuff. And for the next next month, as of now, we don't have any items. We'll see. It actually works better because next month would be Memorial Day. Monday, anyways, we'll reschedule that. So Yeah. And

with that, if there's nothing else,

I call a meeting engineer. Insurance, sweetie.