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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-0413 VLHA Meeting MinutesMinutes Vail Local Housing Authority (VLHA) April 13, 2016 at 3:00 PM Attending the meeting were members: James Wilkins Steve Lindstrom Mary McDougall Scott Ashburn Molly Murphy Town staff attending the meeting: Alan Nazzaro George Ruther A quorum of VLHA Members being present, the meeting was called to order at 3:05 PM. The newly appointed Board Members were welcomed and sworn in by the Town Clerk, Mary McDougal, reappointed for another five-year term, and Molly Murphy appointed to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Craig Cohn for the remainder of his term. Ms. Murphy gave a brief introduction regarding her position as property rental manager for VVMC. She detailed how the hospital spends over $1 million per year on housing, parking and transportation for its employees due to the limited availability of housing in Vail. She manages 59 units in the town and is constantly seeking more. She sees first hand the struggles employees face on a daily basis trying to attain housing in Vail or Eagle County. The hospital supplies free buss passes to any employee, who wants one. The Board acknowledged that her knowledge and expertise on these issues is a welcomed addition to the VLHA. I. Meeting Notice and Approval of minutes The Board considered the minutes sent from the VLHA Meeting held on 3/31/16. They requested minor changes to the minutes and tabled acceptance till the changes could be made. II. Lottery Recommendations Staff disseminated a memo regarding updates to the Housing Guidelines, which contained some recommendations and points of discussion from previous VLHA meetings regarding the Lottery Process, Deed Restrictions, and general related issues in the Housing Guidelines. The board first considered the Master Resale Lottery provisions in the Housing Guidelines. In keeping with previous discussions, they reiterated that there should be a Master List of housing lottery applicants requiring a minimum of deed restrictions requirements to “make the list”. This list of potential buyers would then be used to populate lottery lists for specific units, as they become available. Applicants for the Master List would have to update their status annually to show that they remain qualified. A summary of the discussion of Master List requirements and Lottery changes is as follows: Basic compliance with deed restriction requirements of residency and/or employment in Eagle County with no weighting for residency/employment in Vail. Intent of occupancy as primary residence and maintain that primary residency for the length of time that they own the unit. Can still own property in Eagle County (this issue would be examined at time of lottery or purchase). * True Lottery, i.e., pull names of all qualified applicants from receptacle (with no weighting for longevity) equal opportunity for all applicants. Lottery will be for units as they come available not just once a year.** All applicants must take the approved homeownership class before participating in the lottery on a specific unit. The prequalification letter would be due at time of lottery and not for the Master List of qualified applicants. * There was discussion about allowing ownership of other property in the County, if that property were to be deed restricted or rented long term to qualified employees in order to keep the unit in the rental/EHU pool. ** Applicants on the Master List would be offered the opportunity to be in the individual lotteries for specific units and would have the choice on which units they wanted to be included for consideration. For the Lotteries on individual sales the following criteria changes were discussed: The basic criteria for the Deed Restriction in existence on the specific unit must be met at time of the lottery. Intent of occupancy as primary residence and maintain that primary residency for the length of time that they own the unit. The applicant must be currently employed at a business located within Eagle County which holds a business license with the appropriate jurisdiction (Town of Vail, Town of Avon, etc.), must be employed an average of 30 hours each week on an annual basis, and must maintain this level of employment for as long as he or she owns the unit.* Neither the applicant nor any member of the applicant’s immediate family (including, but not limited to, spouse and children under 18 years of age) may own residential real estate in Eagle County at the time of application, except where that real estate is deed restricted as a Town of Vail employee housing unit with a resale appreciation cap. A current residence may not be deeded to a corporation or other entity in order to qualify the applicant for a Town of Vail deed restricted unit. ** The applicant must be prequalified with a mortgage lender at time of lottery. For all Town of Vail deed restricted three bedroom units, the applicant must have a household size of 3 or more persons. For the purposes of determining household size, applicants may include all persons related to the applicant by blood, marriage, or adoption. If the applicant plans to include dependents, they must be continuously listed on federal income tax forms and reside in the household at least six months and one day out of every 12 month period of time. A pregnancy may be counted towards the family size requirement as long as a note from an Eagle County doctor is provided.*** All participants in the lottery must attend a home buyer education class as specified by the Town or provide proof of attendance within the last year prior to the actual lottery. * This criterion would not need to be met for Resident Only (RO) units, depending upon the language in the specific deed restriction on the unit being sold. ** There was discussion that this criterion should come into play at the time of purchase and not at the lottery. Also there was discussion regarding allowing ownership of property to continue if a deed restriction were placed upon the property or a condition of the contract were to maintain it as long-term rental to qualified employees, thus keeping the unit in the rental/EHU pool. *** There was discussion that this criterion should be removed from the lottery requirements, because it was thought to be counter productive to the goal of attracting young families to town and precludes young married couples from consideration, who are planning a family a few years down the road. Further thought and discussion regarding how to handle single adults in this category must be had. After much discussion on the details underlying these criteria, it was determined that further discussion and review was needed for recommendations to be finalized. The Board did discuss the need to eliminate longevity of employment or residency in Vail or the County for defining eligibility or giving preference in order to give equal opportunity to all those seeking to own homes in Vail and to attract residents back from other jurisdictions, who would prefer to live in town. III. Deed Restrictions Recommendations: A discussion was held on the Deed Restriction topic. Occupancy requirements may vary by deed restriction type, if we adopt the RO criteria and tie some units to income levels. It was noted that if we consider variable restrictions that correspond to amount of subsidy on the property, such as “the higher the subsidy the more restrictions are imposed”, then would a Master Deed Restriction become unnecessary or cumbersome. The legal ramifications of this situation need to be examined. It was also discussed that the appreciation caps for varying levels of subsidy should be investigated. Should there be lower appreciation caps for higher subsidy units? Does a 3% flat rate make units become less affordable in the future? The benefits of home ownership go beyond Real Estate investing. The subsidy, the tax write-off, and the ability to own rather than rent need to be considered, when looking at appreciation caps. There was also discussion about tying the appreciation cap to the increase in AMI over time. This would allow variable appreciation rates at various income levels based upon which AMI bracket the unit was priced at. Staff will compile the notes from the discussion and additional ideas on deed restrictions to be discussed at the next meeting on this topic. V. Next Meeting It was decided that there needs to be a meeting of the VLHA begin review and discussion of the Chamonix development proposals, which are due on April 28th. It was decided to meet at 8:00 AM on May 3, 2016 in the Small Conference Room at the Community Development Office. There being no further business the meeting adjourned at 5:35 PM. Respectfully Submitted, ____________________ Housing Staff INTRODUCED, READ, ADOPTED AND APPROVED this ______ day of ___________________, 2016.