Affordable Housing Review Board Meeting

Documenter name: Charlie Tannehill

Agency: Wichita City - Affordable Housing Review Board

Date: Aug. 26, 2024

See more about this meeting at Documenters.org

The meeting was called to order at 3 p.m. Aug 26, 2024, by chairperson Valerie Black.

Board members Valerie Black, Rebekah Starkey-Keasling (virtual), Maranda Penner, Jack Silvers, Brad Snapp (virtual) and Troy Palmer were present.

Staff members Logan Bradshaw, Assistant Director, Housing and Community Services (HCS) Lance Dixon and Lynne Ogubere, Real Property Program Specialists, (HCS) and Sally Stang, Director, (HCS) were also present.          

Meeting minutes from July 29, 2024, Aug 5, 2024, and Aug 19, 2024, were approved.

Dixon provided an overview that the purpose of the meeting was to approve Applicants who responded to the RFP for the renovation of public housing units offered through the Affordable Housing Fund. Of the four Applicants, Wichita Habitat for Humanity, Large Enterprise,  and Residential Housing Solutions, LLC received approval for full or partial funding and one applicant, Project Prosperity was declined for this round of funding.

Bradshaw presented the funding slate to the board based on the board’s ranking of applicants property requests. Jack Silvers stated that he was confused on how the ZoomGrants entries were to be entered. Corrections were made to the slate to include his scoring.

Discussion was held on the best method to evaluate the applicant’s requests. It was decided to review each individual applicant rather than by each property address.

The following funding recommendations were approved by the Advisory Board:

A.     Valerie Black moved to accept the request from Habitat for Humanity for funding one block of Piatt Steet at 100% of the request. The motion was seconded by Silvers and passed unanimously.

B.     Black also moved to accept the request from Residential Housing Solutions at 100%. The motion was seconded by Troy Palmer and opened for discussion. After discussing concerns as to a funding source and the timeline, the motion was amended to approve Residential Housing Solutions with the contingency to shorten their timeline to meet the guidelines of the funding for closing on properties by the end of 2024.  Motion passed unanimously.

C.    Maranda Penner moved to decline the request by Project Prosperity due to an overlap of properties that had been awarded to Habitat for Humanity. Motion was seconded by Palmer and passed unanimously. It was requested that Project Prosperity be encouraged to bid on properties in the next round of funding.

D.    Palmer motioned to accept the remaining 11 properties requested by Large Enterprise. There was discussion as to Large’s experience with grant-based programs, investment in the community, and out-of-town location. Silvers responded he was voting no on all of the Large requests. The motion passed 5-1.

Several properties were listed as no-bid and will be returned for the next round of funding in the 2025 RFP.

Palmer mentioned the difficulties he feels local builders and developers are having in providing affordable housing and questioned if anything can be done to help eliminate some of the red tape involved. Sally Stang referenced the International Building Code that mandates requirements and stated that his question is outside the scope of this Advisory Board.

Rebekah Starkey-Keasling encouraged those applicants who did not get selected to apply in the next RFP.

The motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Black and seconded by Palmer. The meeting adjourned at 3:45 p. m.

Summary

Summarize the 3 most important outcomes or takeaways from your notes....

• Habitat for Humanity received full funding as requested.
• Residential Housing Solutions LLC received full funding with a contingency to shorten their timeline to a completion date in 2024.
• Large Enterprises was approved for partial funding for 11 houses instead of the 16 requested.

Follow-Up Questions

What are you left wondering? Ask up to 3 of your own follow-up questions...

• Why wasn’t the board more thoroughly trained on the new ZoomGrants application?
• Was the balance between home ownership and rental achieved through this round of funding?

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@citybureau.org with "Correction Request" in the subject line.