|
| | 1. | | Review and approval of the July 9th and September 10th meeting minutes.
Minutes note: Meeting unofficially convened: 10:06 A.M.
Members present: Ald. Robert Bauman, Maria Prioletta, Mario Higgins and Jim Klajbor for Spencer Coggs | | | |
|
Not available
|
|
| | 2. | | Communication from the Department of City Development on Housing Infrastructure Preservation Fund Activities.
Minutes note: Mr. Yves LaPierre, Dept. of City Development, said there isn't a lot of change since the last report except a couple more properties were sold, for a total of 36 sold. Another property will go up for sale in about a month. They at are about $350,000 in carryover funds which will supplement the 2019 proposed budget. There may be one property added on Sherman Blvd. in the 15th aldermanic district. Sales are picking up and there is not such a need for the city to step in. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 3. | | Communication from the Department of City Development on the Lease-to-Own Program.
Minutes note: Ms. Rhonda Szallai, Dept. of City Development, said there is one closing for the first week in November and 2 properties in active rehab. There are 6 people in the financial coaching stage. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 4. | | Communication from the Department of City Development relating to the Rehabilitation to Rent Program.
Minutes note: Ms. Amy Turim, Dept. of City Development, said there are 4 homes rented and a fifth one has three applications pending. It costs about $80,000 per rehab and the account has a balance of $570,000. Friends of Housing (FOH) will no longer function as the rehabber, but solely as the property manager. Ald. Bauman said there is an investigative report going on about FOH using city assets on their private jobs. Currently all of the rent payments are being used for on-going repairs to the properties, so no cash flow is being generated. The department needs to determine if this is the best use of these funds going forward. Tenants are paying the utitlies and the city pays management fees to FOH The rents are more affordable than one would see in the market and there have been expensive lateral replacement costs. The final numbers will be calculated at the end of the year. In September the city added 85 new tenants due to the in rem list as the city acquired 130 properties in September. Some of these may not be confirmed as the city hasn't gotten inside these properties yet. FOH, per Martha Brown, manages these 5 properties because the city was trying to model managing these units like a private landlord would to see if that would work. It was anticipated there would be 12-15 properties, but renovation costs have been higher than anticipated. The city is spending more money on these properties than a private landlord would. Rental revenue goes to the redevelopment authority account that supplements the city budget for building maintenance. The city budget is created with the understanding that these funds will be coming in. David Schroeder, finance office of DCD, said this shows up as a separate line in the RACM budget. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 5. | | Communication from the Department of City Development on the Strong Home Loan Program.
Minutes note: Mr. Larry Kilmer, Dept. of City Development, has approved 42 loans totalling $625,000 so far this year. There is a loan committee meeting today and loans of approximately $100,000 will be approved. For the loans transferred to Associated Bank, that has been closed. The sale proceeds will fund the Strong Home loans in 2019 and will carry over about $200,000 from this year and that program will be sufficiently funded in 2019. Ald. Bauman would propose doubling the budget and do twice as many loans. Mr. Kilmer said applications are coming in daily; there is a demand there but he's not sure there's a double demand out there. Per Mr. Higgins, the intent of the program is really starting to bear fruit and people can get back to getting bank loans. Per Ms. Prioletta, so far staff has been able to handle the number of applications coming in. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 6. | | Communication from the Mayor's Office, Department of City Development, and the City Attorney's Office relating to activities, revenue and expenditures of the Strong Neighborhoods Plan and the proposed 2019 budget.
Minutes note: Item #6 and #8 were combined. A new deconstruction program was instituted in January and Ald. Bauman is concerned as this program is not being financially supported in 2019. Ald. Bauman calculated that a mechanical demolition takes 100 man hours while a deconstruction takes 800 hours. This would be a job-creation program as well as decreasing waste. Ald. Bauman is concerned as only one million dollars is in the budget for this program where he sees $2.5 million ia the needed amount. 283 properties are eligible for deconstruction and the city will deconstruct 25 of them based on the budget numbers. Ald. Bauman thinks there is at least $2.5 to $3 million worth of work to do. Ms. Irma Yepez-Klassan said there are increased costs with deconstruction. Ald. Bauman sees this low funding amount as sabotaging this program, which the mayor signed into law.
Ald. Bauman questioned where the sale proceeds of vacant lots and RACM vacant lots go. For these proceeds, per David Schroeder, 30% go to RACM and that goes into the RACM general fund which goes to paying RACM employee salaries who are now city employees and also to the City Attorney's Office for their real estate costs. Ald. Bauman questioned what the legal authority is for the transfer of this 30% of the funds. Staff thought there was an intergovernmental agreement, but no one has actually seen it. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 7. | | Communication from the Department of Neighborhood Services relating to the Compliance Loan Program.
Minutes note: Ms. Steph O'Connor, Dept of Neighborhood Services, said they have approved 57 loans this year, which is their entire budget. They have 10 applications for next year. They do hope to change the requirements to capture some people that can't meet requirements for other programs. Tom Mishefske, Dept. of Neighborhood Services, said the concern is staffing if the $800,000 amount is increased. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 8. | | Communication from the Department of Neighborhood Services relating to demolition and deconstruction.
Minutes note: Item #8 was combined with #6. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 9. | | Communication from the City Attorney's Office relating to legal proceedings against landlords with nuisance properties.
Minutes note: Kail Decker, Asst. City Attorney, said there have been no changes since the last report . | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 10. | | Communcation from the Department of City Development relating to mapping the locations of subsidized housing units in the City, as well as a recap by Aldermanic District.
Minutes note: Ms. Prioletta said that WHEDA provided DCD with all the tax-credit projects and affordable housing in the city. The chart shows the currently available subsidized housing by adlermanic district. Most of these projects will still be affordable over the next five years. Some HACM properties will also be listed in the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit column. There are also about 5,068 low-income housing vouchers, which aren't listed in this chart/map. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 11. | | Public Comment
Minutes note: There was no public comment. | | | |
|
Video
|
|
| | 12. | | Set next meeting date.
Minutes note: Monday, Nov. 26th at 10 a.m
| | | |
|
Not available
|
|
171233
| 0 | 13. | Communication | Communication relating to the 2018 activities of the Joint Committee on the Redevelopment of Abandoned and Foreclosed Homes. | | | |
Action details
|
Not available
|
|