CITY OF DANBURY
 Danbury Housing Partnership
 155 Deer Hill Avenue
 Danbury , Connecticut 06810

Minutes of April 3, 2008

Attendance: Barrows, Lemme, McLachlan, Nolan, Sangut, Scalzo, Schierloh, Shepperd, Sistrunk, Sullivan, Valeri, Zaborowski

Absent: Coelho, Elpern, Lima, Payton, Pitts, Radano, Yamin

The meeting of the Danbury Housing Partnership was held in City Hall, conference room #3c, on April 3, 2008. Chairman M. Nolan called the meeting to order at 3:08pm.

The minutes of March 6, 2008 was reviewed by all present members. A motion to accept the minutes of March 6, 2008 was made by P. Schierloh, seconded by W. Shepperd, passed unanimously and placed on file.

There was no public comment.

Chairman M. Nolan reported to the members regarding that the Annual Report was submitted to the Common Council on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 and was accepted. Mr. Nolan was appreciative of the contributions made by all participants in writing the report. There may be further questions from Council members after reading the report.

Also reported was the Housing for Heroes Initiatives for the veterans housing. This is the part of our End Homelessness Plan initiative in targeting veterans. We will be working in concert with the City of Danbury in submitting an application to the Federal VA office capital and per diem grant to expand the shelter by the City to 5 beds designated to VA vets. This is the same application that was submitted last year and also was developed through the subcommittees’ of the Partnership to continue with the process for this year. The Nonprofit Development Corporation of Danbury has volunteered to also submit a grant for a transitional/permanent housing facility, which is part of the overall Housing for Heroes Plan. The plan of action is to have a step method of shelter, transitional housing then permanent housing. This would be for single beds to even family housing. The first part of the application is just for single beds and those that are in the shelter. The application will be submitted next week.

Regarding the 120 Main Street Police Station site, the Housatonic Valley Tourism Commission Council is doing a regional housing assessment. The Housing Partnership is requesting from the Council that they include the 120 Main Street site as a case study that could be a component of their housing assessment that they are doing on a regional basis.

One of the questions being asked through the assessment is the actual needs for seniors, and whether the requests applies to ages 62 or 55 years and above. The Council feels that most of the models in the region for senior homeownership are for 55 years and older. This is the component that should be investigated in more detail. Conversations were made between HVECO and HMA out of Hamden, Connecticut regarding the scope of services. Mr. Elpern will be looking at the scope of services that they will be providing to make sure it is something that we feel is quantitative, because they are proposing a cost of $5,000 to $7500.

The Housing Partnership will be looking at the total costs of our requests to the Housatonic Valley Council. The other part of this rental vs. homeownership process is that HMA is investigating and discussing homeownership opportunities for seniors that are available for 55 years old and older and meet the 60% of median to 120% of median. This is a limited target population for rentals and is an example that is not being used in other communities and therefore would make a very good case study. Jonathan Chew felt comfortable for this to be a case study and we need to see if we agree to this.

Mr. Nolan is going to Washington, D.C. on April 9th and 10th to attend the 3rd Annual National Summit for Jurisdictional Leaders. This Summit is the 3rd Annual Summit of the U.S. Interagency Council to End Homelessness. This is similar to the recent Regional Summit in Boston and the National Summit being held in Washington. Mr. Nolan will bring any information back to the Housing Partnership to add to our mission.

Mr. Shierloh presented the staff report. The Block Grant policy committee made recommendations for funding for this year’s block grant funding which has final approval from the Common Council. Included in the initial recommendations for funding are:

  1. $5,000.00 for Project Homeless Connect
  2. $50,000.00 for Transitional Facility for veterans

Mr. Schierloh reported on his investigation on the title of the report regarding to “end homelessness” that Ms. Valeri had inquired at the last Partnership meeting.

Committee reports were provided to Partnership members:

  1. Public Relations, Marketing and Education Committee: Mr. Schierloh reported that a quorum was not met for their meeting.

  1. Housing and Community Development Committee: Mr. Scalzo indicated that the committee met the hour before the Partnership meeting and discussed and reviewed 1-2-3 year goals. The committee will be developing a housing possibility data form that will include going to approximately a dozen contractors and landowners that the committee felt will meet the goals of our 3-10 year plan. The committee will gather information and pertinent data and report back to the Partnership. The committee wants to provide information as to what is going on in the community with developers and contractors.

Chairman Nolan indicated that the Partnership members should receive a copy of the Housing for Heroes Plan. Part of this plan discusses the probability of permanent housing and with information obtained at the Boston Summit; there is indications that Section 8 certificates specifically for veterans and their families, will be available for single, two or 3 bedrooms units.

In the way that this was indicated, Mr. Nolan explained that if there is a VA hospital in the State then a specific area would receive certificates. Mr. Nolan stated that there may be certificates provided in West Haven, however, Carolyn and the Housing Authority being a regional authority, are trying to obtain some allocations of those potential 70 certificates that comes to the State to be earmarked for our region. Mr. Nolan requested that Mr. Scalzo and his committee should convey at their meetings with developers/contractors to encourage housing for veterans.

  1. Social and Supportive Services Committee: report was given by D. Valeri. Discussion was made on updating the 10 year plan and the additions/revisions assigned to their committee. Karl Myers provided information on Dream Homes.

  1. Financial Resources and Fundraising Committee: Mr. Schierloh reported that a quorum was not met for their meeting. Ms. Sangut reported that there was several off line meetings with committee members related to the veterans initiative in getting the application prepared. Mr. Nolan indicated that the application needs to be completed and placed with the veterans no later than April 8, 2008.

Mr. Schierloh indicated that Mr. McLachlan had suggested that a celebration breakfast in conjunction with the one- year operation anniversary of the Housing Partnership should somehow relay to the community the progress and accomplishments of the Partnership. This could be initiated as a possible fundraising vehicle for Project Homeless Connect or some other worthy cause.

The senior housing feasibility study has been discussed and any further information obtained will be presented to the Partnership members at a later date. Ms. Barrows inquired if the Partnership was waiting for the HVECO to complete their survey. Mr. Nolan stated that the HVECO report is 30 to 60 days away from completion. The inventory of the region and the case study of the market is part of HVECO’s survey that the Partnership will receive feedback and more detail in the coming months. The 120 Main Street site development is still in negotiations and will be revisited when the needs assessment report is complete.

Ms. Barrows reported that Mayor Boughton informed the seniors at the Senior Center that the Police Station site would be developed into 40 senior designated apartments. Mr. Nolan could not comment on this City owned site that the Common Council would ultimately approve. Reports on this site indicate that approximately 38 to 40 one and two bedroom units could be provided for those individuals/couples in a certain income range. The financial part of this site would then have to be supported. Again, the Housing Partnership will not know the need of this site until the feasibility study is completed.

A footprint of what could be proposed for this building site has been initiated. Mr. Nolan stated that this is not a typical model for developers to come between 60-120% of the area median income for one and two individuals. It will take a combination of grants and low interest loans to get to a rental level to meet these objectives.

Update on the Veterans Housing Initiatives regarding the overall plan for the Housing for Heroes Plan proposal is to rehab a existing building presently on the housing market and eventually construct permanent housing, rehab existing housing and utilize vouchers. This plan has a time factor of approximately eight(8) years.

Ms. Sistrunk suggested that a commitment in terms of a date and time be requested in which the feasibility study will be completed. Mr. Nolan indicated that the HMA report should be finalized within 90 days. By July the feasibility should be completed and reported to the Housing Partnership. Mr. Schierloh would like to thank John Sullivan and Preston Maynard for their time and commitment in the veterans housing initiative proposal.

There was no update on membership.

Ms. Sangut reported on the agencies need to file and register their applications on-line. There are changes regarding finances for the application process which would also include projects such as Dream Homes, etc. Agencies need to register now since the process takes anywhere from 2-3 weeks completion. Discussion among membership involved the Next Step project(Connecticut Outreach West), New Neighborhoods from Stamford, etc., plans being submitted into the Planning Department, etc.

There was no further business to report. A motion to adjourn was made by M. Nolan, seconded by W. Shepperd, passed unanimously.