City Council - Community and Economic Development Committee

okay um bring us back to order here our next committee meeting is community and economic development that is chaired by council member jce cotton thank you council president uh today we have uh two items before us the first is Bill number um sorry um I was just going to say before you begin um since I sit on the opportunity Council board and the opportunity council is the operator of the shower program I believe it's one step removed but in speaking of the City attorney I am in abundance of caution I'm going to recuse myself from this item and then I'll be back thank you council member Stone and I ordinarily joined on this committee by council member Stone and council member Huffman um I will uh ask council member Anderson to sit in um for this agenda Bill item um sorry about that okay great uh so this um item is amending the interlocal agreement between wam County and the City of Bellingham to operate the interim shower program the city council authorized a budget expenditure of $320,000 on September 11th 2023 to contract with the opportunity Council to operate an interim Community shower program at the rear parking lot of City Hall on October 16th 2023 the council approved an interlocal agreement that memorialized an agreement with Wacom County to pay for 50% of the cost of the program operations contract this action today will authorize the mayor to enter into agreement to extend the term of the interlocal to now expire at the end of 2024 this corresponds with the extended

operations of the community shower program which will continue for an additional few months due to the delayed opening of the way station project which will replace the shower program and with that um I will turn to um Community Economic Development man manager uh Tera andine good afternoon thank you um as as a reminder this was always intended to be an interum program um we started it when we um closed the showers at Arie Hannah and um this was always intended to be in place until the new Way Station um opens which is scheduled for October of this year and the way station which is located in County Health Department um facility on State Street will offer hygiene services to our community uh I wanted to also report out that as of August 8 um 3,29 showers um have been taken behind um our offices here at City Hall and they have served uh 486 unique clients um I would say that's not great news as far as our the unique number of individuals seeking um these services but good news and that we're able to offer those services to people in need um in August there have been 17 5 unique clients and over 400 showers thus far this month um so again this just this modification not a change in in funding just extends the term so that we can continue to collect 50% from wam County thank you I'll turn now to the committee for questions or comments Andor a motion council member huffin um well you answered my one question uh I noticed that when we started this um we aim to offer around 500

showers each month to approximately 350 people and I wanted to find out if we were um that busy and sounds like we certainly are that busy um if not more so um I will go ahead and move approval additional questions or comments uh council president uh you can you can take uh C Mar Anderson she's suing on the committee if you want no I was just pointing there's questions that direction okay okay uh I guess my question is what happens to the to the infrastructure that's currently behind city hall there's quite a bit of infrastructure back there sorry I didn't mention that but um when we purchased this shower trailer um we knew we were working with homes now to develop a new tiny house Village for them so when this wraps up and when we um have the permission to move forward on our tiny house Village it will move to Our intention is that it will move to the site that we acquired for the new Village on Northwest so it'll be used by homes now thank you great um council member Anderson just for clarification because this will go to the end of the year um will Way Station do you do they have a date that they're expecting to be open is there going to be some overlap for them to set up they're telling us that it's mid October um but we know how construction can kind of slide so we just we just posted this agreement to be the end of the year in case it has to operate longer move approval I think we already had that on the table so um I seeing no other discussion um all in favor say I I I

all opposed um any exensions great um we'll bring that for recommendation forward tonight uh we have one more agenda bill before us today that's um bill number 24 um 218 uh a modification to the housing Levy administrative and financial plan for lowincome home buyer assistance and um the staff will present a proposed modification to the low income home buyer system assistance funding guidelines as reflected in the housing Levy administrative and financial plan and um with that I will turn it over to um housing and services program manager Samuel Lutz thank you very much um yeah Samuel let with the planning department housing and services program manager on the community development team um this item as you described is a modification to only the home ownership chapter of the leevy administrative and financial plan um as mentioned in your memo we're looking at more substantial changes to bring forward to you regarding this plan having to do with the overall goals budgets things like that but today we're really just looking at a small proposed change only to that chapter um and this change really um is coming before you after uh a request from culan Community interest specifically but also after really many many months of us realizing that that was um just too low of a subsidy to bridge any kind of gap between Folks at 80% of the area median income who are the folks who are eligible for the home buyer program and the cost of uh homes on the market today um even condominium

prices are are quite High um and so Kion Community Land Trust and other um agencies that help low-income home buyers do have additional subsidies that they can layer on top of the city subsidies like um State Commerce subsidies for home buyer assistance so this is not the only funding that helps and in addition the city spends um a little bit more than 50% of our funding for the home buyer program comes from federal funds through the home um the home program through the HUD program um so Levy is used in either paired with home funding or in addition to home funding to allow us to do a little bit more um so this change would bring the limit for those resale restricted homes um for the city particularly the the levy subsidy to $775,000 per home um and then we're also proposing to bring the unrestricted um subsidy up to 40,000 now that is a subsidy that's um contributed to in addition by the Washington State Housing Finance Commission um so the total subsidy for non- resale restricted homes would be about $65,000 um with that increase due to that match with the commission um we also have uh support for new construction of homes which is not what we're talking about um particularly with this this is really about the down payment assistance program that we do um over the past 5 years we've helped about five homeowners a year so it's small program it's not utilized um a lot uh only in particular circumstances a large percentage 39% per of those used over the last 5 years have been

new homes so Homes Construction through the telegraph Town Homes project for example um that Habitat for Humanity has done then we can come in and bring that price even lower um to help folks so happy to answer any questions you may have questions and comments from uh committee uh council member Stone thank you very much um so I I believe I already know the answer but because it was noted that this request came forward specifically culan Community Land Trust and that corresponds included in the packet I just want to be clear that if these changes are adopted by Council that would be applicable to all homes in the program and not just culan homes correct correct other questions uh Council over uh thanks for the presentation this afternoon I I wanted to get some clarity um I think more for the benefit of of the public so they can understand where the funds are coming from you cited a couple different funding sources you you cited home and I believe that is the home investment partnership program is that correct correct okay and then um Washington State financing commission and I can only assume that some of the funds would come from the Bellingham Home fund from for other other parts of that subsidy is that right correct yeah the housing Levy is is how I refer to it just because the Bellingham Home fund sometimes gets confused with the home investment partnership program of Huds um so apologies for that but yes absolutely the um the Bellingham Home fund the housing Levy is um a

significant source of funds for this follow you said housing Levy the one that was the what was it one10 one1 1% that was passed council manically is that sorry um so the Bellingham housing Levy was um adopted by the vote of the people um when you all approved that to go on the ballot for the second time in 2018 um and so um that is in addition to the affordable housing sales tax that that's those are funds that also go towards housing supports um the affordable housing sales tax is really not something I'm talking about today at all because the um we're only able to help those up to 60% of the area median income with the affordable house housing sales tax dollars um and typically that's not the income bracket that we're looking at for the home ownership program could you know could be but it's unusual for that to occur so really it's the housing Levy the Bellingham Home fund um that's the property tax Lev Levy that allows us to use a portion of those funds for those earning up to 80% of the area median income and that's really what we draw from for the home ownership program uh the federal HUD home investment partnership program also allows us to go up to 80% of the area median income for some home ownership supports so those are really the two uh funding sources that we're able to use for home ownership um the Le the housing Levy Bellingham Home fund administrative and financial plan um dictates the budget that we as staff work within for using utilizing housing Levy funds

um that provides a budget of 180,000 a year which was outlined in the memo for home ownership specifically we have not used that much per year so there is some banked capacity available um and then again that is matched more or less with Federal home investment partnership funds that we can use for the home ownership program to cover everything from new construction of homes to these down payment assistance programs so um we're just looking at um being able to utilize more dollars per home um but we're not today asking you for more money overall to be used for home ownership I'm seeing no other questions I'm looking for a motion I'll go ahead and move approval thank you and um I think council member Stone's back on the committee now so okay good um all in favor please say I I all opposed any extensions great and we'll bring forward that recommendation tonight um that's our last agenda item so um uh we will turn it back over to president Hamil okay once again we are ahead of schedule thank you um for the presentation this afternoon and we'll go ahead and resume I think we're at 1:45 is our our next uh committee meeting and that is going to be Parks and Recreation that's chaired by council members skip Williams and we'll begin in about 20 minutes