Housing Trust Fund Board, Regular Meeting

1. 0:05Okay, Jeff is about to join me. So when Jeff joins, we'll get started. >> Yes. >> Um, by the way, um, Seria Usha is here. I don't think you guys have met yet. Um, but, uh, Usha is one of our longest serving common trust fund members. From the beginning. >> From the beginning. Yeah. >> Yeah. Three years. 5 years. >> No. >> Four. >> Four. >> Four. Four. Three. Four and a half. >> I remember every seat was taken. >> Yeah. >> That time. >> Yeah. >> Was a big deal. >> When you were doing what you doing the uh the um Oh, the the $500 thing. >> That wasn't here. That was something else. >> Oh, the UBI program. >> UBI, but that wasn't I was a trust one. That was from that was Spark, right? >> Yeah. Um, Promise was administering it
2. 1:07and the funds are from Spark. >> Yeah. >> What kind of program was it? >> Huh? >> What kind of program? >> No. >> Um, universal basic income. >> So, why are you moving back? >> Mhm. >> Was it $500 a month or >> Yeah, for five I think 3 years or 5 years. I think it was five, but it was like 128 or 130 something like that. >> Yeah, they did three different colors. >> Yeah. >> So, there was supposed to be a report. Did any Did they ever produce a report? >> Yeah. Mhm. They >> did. Sparker promiser. >> I think Walt have posted it. You Google it. There's another their website for >> Columbia did the report. Yeah. >> Colia. >> Yeah. It's going to be a weekend. >> When is the parade? >> 2:00. >> 2:00 on Saturday. >> Saturday.
3. 2:08>> I'm going to be in the choir. Choir dancing queen. >> I'm next week. I'm only 17. I got to find my music. I lost the music. Either that or just take it. >> Nobody got to be a certain age to know that song. >> Everyone knows that song. >> 25 years old. >> It's an old song though. >> That's only 25 years old. No. >> No, it's older than that. It's older. >> Older? >> All right, we got I got to look it up. I'm going to look it up. I put that on my to-do list. >> It's like 50 years old, >> something like that. >> Is it that old? 75? >> No, I don't think so. >> Um, okay. Jeff is trying to get on, but we'll get started cuz it's 510 and we got to be out of here. Um, so, uh, calling the meeting to order. We
4. 3:13have Seria and Usha. Jeff is on as well. Awesome. Um, did you guys get to review the main minutes at all? No, >> I couldn't. >> Okay. So, we'll return to that next meeting. Um, so sorry. Um, I just have two things to discuss. First is just thinking about what we want to prioritize working on next few months. Um, so we had come up with basically like six things at our last meeting. Um, here's Jeff. >> Hey Jeff. >> Hey. Sorry about that. >> No worries. Um, we just got started. Um, so we got Gua here in the room and then you and Ser. Um we we're just talking about we only have two things we need to discuss
5. 4:15tonight. The first is choosing housing priorities we want to work on and the second is just want to talk about a tenants rights forum question. Um so let me see if I can share my screen again. >> Can you repeat the first thing again Michelle? >> Sure. Going over uh housing priorities for this year. And I'm sorry I have >> um so I have them up on the list. These are the six that came up at our meeting last month. So working on zoning update for the city, the county's distress building inventory and thinking about if there's anything that's kind of lowhanging fruit for rehab in Hudson. um they transitioned from Galvin to the next entity that's going to be doing like how to help make sure they're doing getting set up to do grants and other like homeowner support. Um we discussed a revolving fund for home repairs which
6. 5:18is definitely like a bigger lift but um something to consider. We discussed the need for some like more outreach and education and then um we talked about any ways to find like sustaining donors or donations to the housing trust fund. Um, so those are the six that we kind of talked about the last meeting. Um, just wanted to see if anyone had anything else they thought about they wanted to add to that list. >> I have to study more. >> Okay. Um, so out of these six, I wanted to know if you guys can if there's two that stand out to you the most. And so in terms of what we could do, it could be anything from research or like kind of thinking about ways to support someone already doing this stuff or it could be um I don't know planning events or anything. So just out of those, which ones are the most interesting or the most feasible for us to work on? >> Hello Jeffrey, it's Usha.
7. 6:22Um I I would say the outreach >> Yeah. Yeah, I like the outreach education. >> Okay, that's definitely something we can in our house. >> Yeah, um what else? >> And then we uh the home revamping >> that I think is also very important. So, in terms of like, so Usha, if you couldn't hear, I said home revamping. Are you talking more about like um like full house rehab like vacant things or more of like the trying to get like a revolving fund for like lowcost home repairs type stuff? >> Yeah. Low cost home repair. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> You know, like if you were to get a plumber, you know, a plumber could go to four different houses within a bedroom. >> Yeah. Yeah, that would be very costefficient. >> Yeah. >> Um, okay. What uh what are you thinking, Serena and Jeff?
8. 7:34>> I'm sustaining donors maybe. >> Yeah. And that might be kind of like a outcome of the outreach education of >> I was I was gonna say I'll sink into whatever whatever we choose but I I do think the zoning >> is important. >> Yeah. Um okay. So, no matter what, I mean, the city has the um the zoning update grant that the state still hasn't give us on contract. Um but whenever we get that, like we'll be concerned and I do think it's something that this committee can be involved in either, you know, having a position on the steering committee for that or thinking about some suggestions for the housing component of it. >> Isn't there a zoning committee? There's the zoning board of appeals. Yeah. Mhm. >> Um Okay. So, out of these outreach
9. 8:37education across the board, do you guys think are you thinking more about events or like online media or like what what do you think is most effective? Are you and is it more effective to like have more in-depth conversation with a small group of people or to have like short quick messages that get across to a larger group of people? >> They both serve their purpose. >> No, I was thinking of maybe going to the high school talking to students who then they could talk to their parents. >> Mhm. >> Yeah. Sometimes at the uh lunch breaks they could give you a table. >> Uhhuh. >> You get some brochures or >> Yeah. >> Uh to to Osha's point, I think personal engagement would be uh important. I I don't you know it doesn't necessarily
10. 9:40have to be the school. That may be a good idea. But like even like kind of on the same vein as doing voter registration when using that waterfall Wednesdays maybe maybe having a table um sharing information so that we can engage more people or other events and things you know things of that nature. >> Yeah. And you know Jeffrey on Wednesday isn't there the um >> down at the river? >> Oh yeah. A lot of different. >> So that could be like a little table there. Yeah. Yeah, most of the people here are from >> Yeah. >> And I'm You didn't ask this, but I'm willing to participate in that activity as well. >> Awesome. >> Very good. Jeff is volunteering. >> Um, so when we first started the housing trust fund, we did a lot of engagement because we wanted to kind of figure out what people wanted to do with the programs and like we have gotten a lot going since then. Um, I guess we don't have the same pot of money we did then.
11. 10:42Um, what what do you think is the most important thing you're trying to do with engagement? Is it trying to learn what people need or is it trying to kind of like I don't know break down some misunderstandings about affordable housing? Like what do you think is the most important component or message in the outreach? >> I think that if we hear like straight directly from the renters like what's important Yeah. >> Directed from Yeah. >> So surely the audience is more of like people who are struggling with housing. >> Correct. >> Okay. Mhm. I'm also curious because we passed good cause um I don't know a year and a half ago and I don't know if people know that it is in effect or how to like like if someone's rent goes up a
12. 11:46legal like more than good cause allows it's up to the tenant to bring that issue forward and like fight their landlord which is a lot on a tenant. Um, so I'm kind of curious if anyone is trying that or, you know, >> Well, I think when tenants know that something is happening that shouldn't be happening, I think they they're very active. >> You think so? >> Yeah. >> I feel like for me personally, I've always been like, I don't want my landlord to get mad at me, so I'm just going to like be quiet about this, you know? Um >> that's why the education that's you know >> if you open your mouth you're not going to be kicked out and you are >> I mean now I I know my rights like you know thinking about >> um when I was younger it was always just like >> what else would we want to like get across to people or learn from Well, you know, it could be an open form
13. 12:51where they might have some very good ideas that we ourselves never even thought of. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> And you asked that question again. Um, Michelle, I'm sorry. >> It's okay. Um, so you said like we want to understand more about like what renders mean, render conditions. I was just asking like anything else that we want to get across to people or learn from people. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um >> so we want to we want to find out what their needs are. Um and then whatever education we can give them and >> for example sharing resources with them, truth in renting. Um, you know, I don't know if this is necessarily our responsibility, but it wouldn't hurt like encouraging people to, if they can afford it, to protect themselves with renters's insurance, um, ten advocacy, you know, things of that nature. Anything anything to help them, uh, protect themselves as a tenant and be a
14. 13:55better. >> I agree. I think the more we educate people about available resources and you know hear concerns that the better we can serve the community. >> Yeah. I also think curious what you guys think about this, but we've had so many new people move into the city in the past couple years and I'm not sure how aware they are of um how much rent has gone up or like how much people have been displaced and is there a way to get them more invested >> and so you know when we have public hearings for you know the housing authority or something else if we have more supporters, >> you know, maybe like over the summertime down at the river. >> Yeah. >> Um, you know, we could have a little program history of Hudson. >> Mhm. >> And just talk about the way Hudson was, how it's evolved, >> rents have gone up, people have been displaced.
15. 15:01So, is there any way we could do a survey um trying to determine uh people trying to determine what rents are, what they were, and what they are now for people maybe two years back or if they knew what how much rent they're paying and what size unit they have. >> Yeah. >> And you know, general idea of what area they're in. >> Yeah, I think that's good. We might even want to tag on if you know if there is a resource or two that they'd be interested in what would help their um what would help give them more stability like transportation or whatever because all of those are kind of built in not built in but necessary you know they help make a decision on where you want to live. >> Right. Right. Um, I'm also wondering, oh, sorry, was someone saying something?
16. 16:06I'm wondering if there's a way to bring longtime residents and newer residents together in like a low pressure environment to kind of like talk and get to know each other in a way that's not uh setting things up for like >> I think that's really hard. Yeah. Um I don't know but I I you know like I think there gension between new residents and old residents and I don't know how to bridge that. >> You have to make a barbecue. You know something like that could bring >> bring people together on a common ground. Food is always very good for that. >> Yes. I mean, each of the restaurants would contribute something like a a taste of Hudson. >> Yeah. >> But very informal. >> I like that idea. >> What do you think, Jeffrey? Think we could get people to uh you know, I mean, you see, you know,
17. 17:08signs for all kinds of events. So, the river is a great place and it's the best weather is now. >> Yeah. I mean, I'd go around to, you know, different eating places >> and ask them. >> Yeah, I like that. >> And and since I am at the housing authority, I can share, you know, as long as it's bipartisan information, I can, you know, do some some work there as well. >> So, so I have built-in survey folks. In other words, >> gotcha. Gotcha. Um, sorry, Kelly just said she's got bad service, so she can't join. Um, I just had another thought. What was it that your uh your suggestion made me think of something? Um, you'll come back to me. >> Okay. I was going to say I could say it
18. 18:12again. No, I don't. >> Hi again. >> Um, I hope they don't know. It'll come to me. I think these are really good places to start with some ideas. Yeah. Um, okay. So, I will um put together some like next steps or thoughts and we can kind of think about from there planning something to get on the calendar for Waterfront Wednesday. And maybe talking Oh, I know what you're thinking. Regarding restaurants, I do think that maybe we can also try to tap a little bit more into the business community. Um, just because I feel like it's sometimes like a I I think it's like pretty clear at some larger employers that when you have shrinking
19. 19:15populations as of housing cost like you're losing your customer base and your employees, but I don't know. I think sometimes there's a way to maybe activate some of the small businesses to be more involved with caring about, you know, h having housing for customers and residents and stuff. So, I like your idea of bringing businesses into I mean, someone told me that um you know, Spark at one time they bought up a lot of housing >> to give to their employees. >> Mhm. >> At a very low rent. >> Yeah. >> You know, not that anyone's going to do that, but >> mom's got the two houses on Fifth that they're fixing up. >> That's in place. >> Yeah. I think Bartlett House in Gent does that where like they let people live up on the second floor, >> right? So So we don't really have those many big businesses here in the hospital, right? School. >> Yeah. >> Number tapping tapping into the businesses is a
20. 20:20good idea. >> Yeah, >> it's a great idea actually. >> Um Okay, cool. So, quickly thinking about like a revolving fund for home repairs. if we we have money in the trust fund and I guess I'm thinking like what could we do with let's say we had $30,000 or something like I think what's tricky is like is there a way to lend out money to people to make you know upgrades or something that's like very low interest or something but we know we'd get it come back to the fund you know what I mean >> you you said loan out money for what? >> Like small emergency home upgrades or home repairs. Like I think about like for example like in the winter people like had especially this year when like a lot of pipes burst you know they needed money immediately to handle
21. 21:23repairing pipes or heat or something but it's takes a lot of time to get money from you know a bank or something like is there a way we could have a program that we could lend out small amounts of money but we would need it to come back. >> Well how do we guarantee the returns? >> Yeah. Mhm. >> Other than maybe promisary notes and you know I mean there's there can definitely be some contractual things but what's our recourse if people don't pay us back. >> Yeah. >> I mean we don't give the funds you know >> right you'd have to have like your own list of workmen that you would send out. >> Yeah. Then you you know people are going to pay back. I don't really know. >> Yeah. Were you saying something, Seria? >> Yeah, I was just saying how, you know, low interest evolving loan funds um like homeowners can repay the loan over time or um as payments come back, the money
22. 22:27is loaned out again to other, you know, residents and this can stretch like the 30,000 much further than one time, you know, granting. Maybe our next step is just doing some research on if other small have this in place and what they do >> and you know I think it's again it's a good idea but we definitely have to let people know that this is I mean that will be one of the incentives. It won't be necessarily incentive, but the reason to pay it back is because this is a shared fund. So, we're helping you, but you're, you know, when you pay it back to us, the goal is to help someone else. So, >> right, >> I mean, it it's definitely going to be a good faith activity the way it is right now, but >> we don't want >> Yeah. And I wonder cuz CDC does so many microloans. I wonder if they have any
23. 23:30thoughts on >> it's business. >> It's business, but like what if there was a I don't I don't know. So maybe we just need to do a little more research like other places have had success doing this on a small scale. So okay, that's the action step is do a little research. Okay, so we have about 10 minutes left. Um the last thing I want to bring up is um so Mayor Ferris had mentioned that at a um like a town hall he did last week or two weeks ago, someone was asking about um kind of like tenant right questions and we were trying to think about if there's a way to have like a tenant a tenant forum but I I think the challenge is we don't want people to come with all these problems that we can't solve and then have them walk away feeling like kind of helpless or ignored. Um, and we've also
24. 24:34we we've done some like I know the the fair housing group at the county has done some and we did one online last year. We didn't get great attendance um for our webinar. So thinking about like what's actually useful to people and how you structure it to be useful if there is a need. >> What if um they held a tenant forum where residents could share their concerns but we also can invite like organizations that can actually provide the assistance to people. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. something like that. Inviting like like our code officer for example like is the one to handle a lot of things about warrant of habitability or like the health department like I think sometimes those >> like legal aid, fair housing, rental assistant programs, housing counselors. Yeah. >> Yeah. But it needs to we we'll have to drive the meeting to the extent that we let people know that these are the areas
25. 25:37where uh we can have people to answer questions from. There may be some things that we may not be able to answer or assist with. Um what we're hoping to develop from this is maybe general FAQs with uh uh u direction to what resources to go to for for whatever issue that they may be dealing with once we develop it. >> Makes sense. >> I also Yeah, that makes sense. Would it be useful at all? I know legal aated like Robert Romeaker is good about coming around to events, whatever. I wonder because we do have a little bit of money in the housing trust fund. If we were to critique this idea, I'm just thinking about right now if we could pay an attorney or two to come and almost have kind of like private office hours. Like you could come and talk to an attorney for 20 30 minutes about your individual situation. And like that's the extent of the legal help. like they're not going to cover me in court or anything, but just like pick their brain because I get
26. 26:39all these calls and like I'm not an attorney, but like um would that be helpful to people? >> I think the department does that. >> Yeah. >> Well, people just have to know that that service is available. That's the most important. >> Yeah. It's I feel like it's harder to get good attorneys who do housing support in our area, >> right? A lot of them are landlords themselves. So >> yeah, I love that. >> I think overall the approach is like building the trust um with people and to help the committee understand what residents are actually experiencing um and what fits the housing trust fund focus on the housing needs and you know eviction prevention. >> Right. Okay. >> You still is the housing officer, right? Okay. >> Um, >> it's currently vacant. >> Oh, >> yeah. >> Um, I was also thinking like what if
27. 27:43people had to submit their questions ahead of time in general so that we have time to like prepare like good responses so that I mean like I think we know what the resources are but also sometimes people don't want to share their particular situation in public. It's a small city, you know, and all the landlords >> know each other. >> So, maybe there's a way to kind of like do anonymous questions or >> Yeah, >> that's a good idea. That's definitely a good idea. That would take away some of the mystery >> and make sure that we're able to have the right resources there, legal aid as well as fair housing. Um, >> so yeah, I think those those things are Was that background or someone saying
28. 28:44something? >> Um, okay. This is a good list for us to move forward with next steps. Um, so what I will do is kind of put together some next things we can do between now and our next meeting and hopefully have a presence while it's nice and summary out. Um, before we open public comment, anything else you guys want to add or think about or throw in our >> when will the next meeting be? Next meeting is second Wednesday of the month in July, which is July 8th if that works for everybody. >> Okay. >> And okay, if there's anything nothing else then um any public comment? I just had this thought all the K voice a reason. Oh, not going to go through but uh I think the biggest thing we're
29. 29:48encountering you're going to encounter is uh people are overwhelmed and they're in despair and despairing and you know it's that whole um what's that feeling of degradation >> that uh you know and hopelessness. So that's I think the in terms of these tenants that are having issues. I think that's what So, you have to have a little bit of understanding of that. But then, well, I'm no expert on this, but I think that's kind of what you're dealing with. >> Yeah, I think it's >> it's a large part of it. >> I think so, cuz there's not a lot of options. You know, if you get behind on rent, if your rent is too much, like it's really >> What are you going to do, right? Robin Marquis. >> Yeah, I agree. Okay, public comment voted. >> Um, anyone else public comment online? >> Okay, then can I have a motion to
30. 30:53adjourn the meeting? >> Yes. >> Okay, made motion. Seconded. Awesome. Um, Usha, Seria, Jeff, thank you so much. I think it was really productive and helpful. >> Yeah, thank you. Enjoy your thunderstorm. It's over. Okay. >> Good night everyone. >> Good night everybody.

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