Austin Housing Finance Corporation (AHFC) Meeting Transcript – 1/30/2025 Title: ATXN-1 (24hr) Channel: 1 - ATXN-1 Recorded On: 1/30/2025 6:00:00AM Original Air Date: 1/30/2025 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. Without objection, we will recess the regular meeting of the Austin city council at 1:36 P.M. So that we may go into a board of directors meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation. Without objection, we're in recess at 136. I will now call to order the board of directors meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation, and I will look to miss Demayo and Bartz and start off by echoing what council member Siegel said earlier. Congratulations and good work on the grant. >> Thank you so much. I have to thank our staff. Amazing. Putting this together in short order. >> If you're in the chambers and you're talking, I would please ask that you take your conversation outside so that we may conduct the additional business. Miss Demayo, you have the floor. >> So good afternoon, Mandy Demayo. >> Hang on, they're not [1:37:37 PM] >> Hang on, they're not listening to me. If you're talking and you're not miss Demayo, you may be messing up. Please take your conversations outside. Thank you. >> I'm the interim director of the housing department and the treasurer of Austin housing finance corporation. And I am here to present the agenda for today. And I welcome our three new board members to Austin housing finance corporation. There are four items on your agenda today. I offer them all on consent. The first two items are related to a community land trust development that we are pursuing with an organization called industry atx. It will result in 38 units of affordable ownership for folks at 60% and 80% median family income. It is located in district two. The first item is authorizing us moving forward with a loan agreement for approximately $7.7 million to make this project a reality. And the second item is an amendment to the certificate of formation for the hfc drowsy [1:38:40 PM] of formation for the hfc drowsy willow nonprofit corporation. The third item is authorize. >> You might move that microphone closer to your mouth, move your mouth closer to the microphone choice. Your choice. >> Okay. That's better. Okay. Thank you. The third item on the. Agenda is authorizing staff to move forward with a loan agreement. Has 80 project based vouchers from the housing authority of the city of Austin. This loan agreement is for a little over $4 million, bringing the total city support through hfc loan to a little over $8 million. The fourth and final item is for a project located in district four that is for the [1:39:42 PM] district four that is for the saint John's redevelopment. The former Home Depot site. This is with greystar development and is for $4 million for a loan agreement. It will result in 526 units of housing, and 106 of those units will be available to households at or below 50% median family income. I offer all of those on consent. I'm happy to take any questions. >> Members. Do you have any questions for miss Demayo? Yes. Council board member. Alter. >> Thank you very much. I wanted to ask kind of a more high level policy question as it relates to, you know, we have a lot of requests on hfc for our housing dollars and how you are balancing requests like we see for item number one, which is, you know, over $7 million for 38 ownership units. And ownership is something that we don't have enough of when we talk about these programs. But as [1:40:43 PM] these programs. But as demonstrated by this is incredibly expensive per unit, you know, comparing to the saint John's item, which is $4 million and over 200 units at 60% or below. And so I'm just I want to kind of understand your thoughts and how we balance that. And maybe do we need to reevaluate the ownership question just given its expense and the limited resource. >> We are? Thank you for that question. Council member. We are balancing a variety of different priorities that are all articulated in the strategic housing blueprint. This goes to the earlier item 101 12, which is help providing funding from the federal government to update the strategic housing blueprint to tackle some of those larger policy questions. The push and pull of where we invest our dollars and our resources. At this point, we try to balance that with our funding availability. We have some funding that is available, available for ownership development and some funding [1:41:44 PM] development and some funding that is strictly for rental housing development. So we try to balance that through our quarterly application process for rental housing development assistance and ownership, housing development assistance. Rhoda and oda, I will say that we engaged a consulting company, a national consulting company, back in June. This was a contract that went through hfc to look at our Rhoda and oda processes, our program guidelines, our priorities. We are in the process of that work has that initial stage has been wrapped up February 13th. You'll have an item coming before you for some implementation work. It's a smaller contract, about $200,000, and we anticipate that these first six months of this calendar year, we will be working to implement and implement all of the recommendations from guidehouse, which will include greater transparency in terms of our funding sources, funding availability, and also kind of tightening up both our [1:42:45 PM] tightening up both our underwriting guidelines as well as our processes for putting out solicitations and applications. >> Thank you very much. >> I'm sorry. Board member Vella. >> Thank you. Mayor. I just wanted to thank miss Demayo and the staff at the Austin housing finance corporation that $4 million for the saint John project should be the last puzzle piece that falls in place to make the project happen. It's going to be a great project. 500 plus units, lots of affordability in it. There's some commercial units as well. A brand new park expanding from about, I think about two acres to about a four acres or so, just a lot of different community benefits that will come with it. It's been a long road to get to where we are. But again, I just wanted to say thank you. So excited to see this on the agenda and really [1:43:45 PM] this on the agenda and really looking forward to groundbreaking and construction. >> Any other questions of staff? Councilmember harper-madison. >> Forgive me, it may be in the backup, but who is the community development corporation? That's the steward for the community land trust for the d2 project. >> So the d2 project is Austin housing finance corporation. We have a community land trust, and we will be developing in partnership with industry at those 38 units, and those will be put into a hfc community land trust. Right now we have about 50 units within our community land trust, and we're set to more than double that with a couple of different projects on the horizon, including this one. >> That's good information. I was under the impression that we had to have a community development corporation in order to execute the task associated with community land trust and land banking. >> No, we do have hfc has a community land trust. It's. [1:44:45 PM] community land trust. It's. Austin clt, and we do sell homes to first time home buyers at or below 80% median family income. >> Thank you I appreciate that. >> Thank you. Other questions of staff before we go to speakers. Thank you. We will now go to speakers on the on the proposed consent agenda. >> Thank you, mayor, for item three. Zenobia Joseph. >> Miss Joseph. And it's my understanding she has signed up on another item as well. >> For as well. >> So you'll have two minutes on item number three and then two minutes on item number four. >> Thank you. Mayor, council I'm Zenobia Joseph. My comments, as they always are in the context of title VI of the civil rights act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, or national origin. As it relates to item three, the partnership with the housing authority of Travis county. I just want you to recognize that that property on fm 969 does not [1:45:46 PM] that property on fm 969 does not have a sidewalk, and an individual was killed in his wheelchair right by the dollar general. And at regency there is a roadside memorial. It is disingenuous to continue to use income as a proxy for race discrimination. The units that are north of us 183 tend to have 50 to 60% area median income, and those that are west predominantly are 80% area median income. And on the rail line as well as it relates to the saint John's project, I just want you to recognize the bait and switch. October 5th, 2023. There's language and backup that specifies that after 39 years, the city can have a reversion back to market rate units. So I would ask chito vela to go back and take a look at that and recognize this is the area where African-Americans owned 300 acres of land. And after people [1:46:47 PM] acres of land. And after people turn their heads, they were no longer even be able to live there. It is deeply disturbing, mayor, because these projects do not affirmatively further fair housing. So I think you recognize that it not only violates title six, but you're not in compliance with the fair housing act either. And so I want you to recognize once again, that you have not done right by African Americans. And so I want you to consider voting against the $4 million. It feels like the $4 million day at council, $4 million for item three, $4 million for item four. If you have any questions, I'll gladly answer them at this time. >> Thank you, miss Joseph. >> You're welcome. >> Miss, you. >> Wish to speak on item four or have you completed your comment? >> Well, I didn't know if you were combining the time or not. >> Mayor ma'am, you get you get to speak on both of them. That's why I said you can speak on [1:47:48 PM] why I said you can speak on both. >> Well, I'll take the time. >> I thought you might. >> So let me just talk about the transportation aspect of it, mayor. And it is germane. I want you to recognize that route 339 is a 60 minute black route that runs on fm 969, and that your staff and backup actually specifies that that is good access to transportation. But us 183 the busses that run there, 18 was a 15 minute route to UT. It is now 30 minutes, but still African Americans have to walk approximately two miles to get to the frequent bus line. I want you to recognize that that bus route is interlined with 237, which is community first village, and the people over there are waiting two hours in their wheelchairs when the one hour 60 minute bus is cut. I want you to understand that you have an obligation to do better by us as it relates to transit. It's in your city charter, and so you are supposed to fund transit, and it should be equitable as you are well aware. [1:48:48 PM] equitable as you are well aware. And so I want you to recognize that you've not done enough and you've turned a blind eye. We are actually in the far northeast corners, southeast corners of the city. And so at times it feels like it's lily white on the inside and it's browning on the outside. I would ask you to do better by us, mayor, I know you mentioned the values yesterday when you talked to Texas tribune, and if those values include equity and not just equity on paper, I would ask you to do more for us and to actually vote against these projects. You have the power and you can do it. And so I would ask you to comply with the federal law and to actually do more for black people. I don't understand why you have such an aversion to us. And let me just acknowledge that your cabinet is filled with black people making lots of money, but that is not making the city equitable. You'll talk about homelessness later, and I just want you to recognize the people who are living there. African Americans are over six times more likely to be homeless than our white [1:49:49 PM] to be homeless than our white counterparts, and this is not going to connect them to services. >> Thank you. Thank you, miss Joseph. >> That concludes all speakers. >> Mayor members, that concludes all speakers that have signed up for the board of directors meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation. I'll now entertain a motion with regard to the consent agenda. Motion is made by the vice president, seconded by board member alter. I'll call for any discussion on the item, but then at that point, I will ask if there's anyone who wishes to recuse themselves, abstain or vote no. Is there any discussion on the consent agenda as it's been laid out? Is there anyone wishing to be shown recusing themselves from a vote on the border of the board of directors of the Austin housing finance corporation? Anyone wishing to abstain from voting on an item on the consent agenda? Anyone wishing to be shown voting no on one of the items, seeing none in that case, the without objection, the consent agenda for the Austin [1:50:50 PM] consent agenda for the Austin housing finance corporation is adopted. Thank you, miss Demayo members. Without objection, we will adjourn the board of directors meeting of the Austin housing finance corporation at 1:50 P.M