It is 7 PM. We'll call the meeting to order of the Richfield Housing and Redevelopment Authority of September 15, 2025. Um, we'll start with roll call. This is new. Take note. Um, and then we'll move on to the open forum. So, participants can share their comments in person, by voicemail, or email. and also may request to participate virtually. Um, if there's anyone here who was called in for the open forum, seeing there's no one in person. No, >> there was not. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. So, that takes us to item number four, approval of the agenda. Is there a motion for approval? >> I'll move approval. >> Second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments, questions, changes? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. opposed. The agenda has been approved. Um, taking us to item number five, approval of the minutes. >> Uh, motion to approve. >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments, changes? >> Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. Opposed. The meetings minutes have been approved. Uh, are there any presentations tonight? >> There are not. >> Thank you. I'm taking us to item number seven, the consent calendar. Executive Director Pailman. >> Thank you, Chair Ree Daniels, members of the board. The consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the HA and one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved. No further HR action on these items is necessary. However, any H commissioner may request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and placed on the regular agenda for HA discussion and action. All items listed on the consent calendar are recommended for approval. Item A is consideration of a loan agreement and related documents with Penn Station Apartments LLP for a tax-based revitalization account grant. Item B, consideration of an estoppel certificate and an assignment and assumption agreement of the contract for private redevelop private development with the Richland Riley development. I submit these items for your consideration. >> Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the consent calendar or any um that would like to be moved? >> I'll move to um approve the consent calendar >> and I will second that. >> It has been moved and seconded. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed. The consent calendar has been approved. Item number nine is public hearings and I don't believe we have any public hearings. So taking us to item number 10, resolutions. Um our first resolution I'll turn over to executive director Paleman. >> Thank you. And um Assistant Director Urban will present the report tonight. >> Thank you, Chair Vice Daniels, members of the HA. In 2023, the state legislature passed a metro area sales tax and dedicated a portion of the funds toward a state level rental assistance program called Brit Home Minnesota. All housing and redevelopment authorities that administer the federal section 8 housing choice voucher program were eligible to apply for bringit home funding. The funding formula for which is based on the amount of income eligible households located in a community. In March of 2025, the HA submitted an application for funds and was awarded1,4,264, which includes two years of program and administrative funding and up to $55,000 $55,14 in startup costs. The funds are expected to serve between 35 and 45 households with ongoing rental assistance. The bring it home program will be operated similarly to the housing choice voucher program with some modifications designed to allow the HA to utilize the funds more efficiently. The modifications include bringing home vouchers will be awarded through a lease in place system. In other words, existing Richfield residents who have a current lease will be eligible to apply for rental assistance. Unlike the federal housing choice voucher program, bring it home voucher holders will only be able to use their vouchers in Richfield. The bring it home program will open for applications once a year. Applicants will apply and their names will be kept on file for one year. Residents will need to reapply annually. The bring it home legislation requires that priority for the program be given to families with children under 18 and earning under 30% of the area median income. In order to fulfill this requirement, up to 30% of the vouchers will be reserved for Henipin County's schools to housing program. This program works with the Richfield Public Schools to support precariously housed families with temporary rental assistance and case management services. Bring it home may be able to provide either the rental assistance portion of that assistance andor participants on that program may transition from the temporary help to the more permanent bring home assistance. The HAS's application also includes the option to set aside a portion of the funding for projectbased vouchers if the HR were to choose to support a specific development with projectbased subsidies in the future. Several due diligence items, including a resolution approved by the HR board, are due to Minnesota Housing by October 15th. Once the due diligence items are submitted, Minnesota Housing will prepare a grant contract agreement. Setup and marketing of the Bring It Home program will begin in early 2026. Staff estimates that we will begin using the first vouchers by the second quarter of 2026. And I will add that we believe that the admin funding that they're providing will meet our costs and that we will be able to increase some of the hours of our current part-time staff in order to meet the needs of the program. With that, I am happy to answer any questions. >> Great. Yeah. Answer our questions. Um, I don't need the answer to this tonight because it just occurred to me, so I haven't given you time to do any research, but as you were reading through, you talked about it's based on the amount of income eligible households. Do they look at like the Department of Revenue or how do they figure like people's taxes to figure that out or is it based on who's applied for home the housing vouchers? >> They use census data. >> Census data to figure it out. >> American Community Survey, I believe. Yeah, I can confirm that though. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Um I'm just obviously this is this is exciting. Um but what what happens after two years? Will it be like the same application process? >> That's our assumption. Yes. Assuming that the sales tax continues in effect, >> right? We it was a very they had promised a simple application and that's what we got. So it was it was it was relatively easy to to deal with. We'll have to learn as we go. I think there will be things that come up that we'll have some challenges and we have great staff that we'll we feel confident we'll be able to figure things out as we go. >> Okay. The sales tax is is presumed to be ongoing, right? It would just be an act of legislature that would take >> Right. Right. Exactly. How will this work with our kids at home program? So that is a a four-year program. Um so in theory you could apply for bring it home to have more permanent assistance. Um that does serve uh families earning up to 60% of the area median income. We are going to focus on 30% or lower. We'll prioritize those but then the next level of assistance that so we'll we have a point system where you'll get the most points for that level. The next level I believe we have single either elderly or disabled adults will get the next level of points. Then it will be families who earn between 31 and 50%. So somebody on the kids at home program they are required to work 30 hours a week. So they tend to have those slightly higher incomes might not be eligible. >> Great. So, we will allow people on the bring it home list if they're also on the section 8 waiting list which you can sit on for many many years, right? That you can continue to stay on that because that voucher is more portable. >> Uh, so talking about waiting list, do we anticipate that we will have much more demand than we actually have money for? >> Remains to be seen. We'll see. Part of why we don't want to keep an ongoing waiting list is that that multi-year waiting list gets old. It's a lot of work to maintain, to keep track of people, for people to continue to keep track of us. They might be on multiple lists. They have to turn in forms. It's it gets complicated um to keep up with that. So, we'll see. I think we're going to have to do some work with our apartment owners to you. We have a lot of owners that refuse to accept section 8. We're hoping maybe because there isn't an extra HUD lease involved. There isn't necessarily an extra inspection, although I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing always. Um, depends on the owner. So, we hope to be able to convince some owners who maybe currently don't accept section 8 to go with this option, but it remains to be seen. Great. and we have we're really anxious and ready to get going, but until we have money for startup costs, um it we kind of need to wait to do some of that work. >> Okay, thanks. Any other questions? Or I will wait for a motion. >> I will make a motion to adopt a resolution accepting a bringing it home Minnesota funding award and authorizing the chair executive director to execute the grant contract agreement. >> Second. It's been moved and seconded. Any further comments, questions, or concerns? Yes. Go ahead. >> Um, this is just a comment. I think it's fabulous that we have this money to use, and I appreciate everybody that worked to get it for us. >> Absolutely agree. Thank you. Anybody else? All right, seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Opposed? The motion has been passed. All right, that takes us to item number 11, other business. Seeing none, um I will move us to item number 12, the executive director's report. >> Yes, thank you. I just have two quick things tonight. First, um exciting news that Hemple did close on the three uh Noah apartments that the HA helped them to purchase and they have already applied for permits to begin some of the exterior improvements. So, um that's really great. They've set up a meeting with our staff to talk about building management and um yeah, really excited about that. The final um improvement costs came in at about $7.2 million that they will eventually put into the three of those buildings. You'll remember that um units are improved as tenants turn over. Uh so that's over time, but like I said, they're starting on exterior improvements already. So that's great. Um and then also we were awarded another grant by the Met Council. Exciting that we um were awarded um $22,000 to help us develop a new housing program based on the study that we conducted earlier in the year and um how to prioritize and use those LAA funds for programming. So, um, that work we like with Bring It Home, we'll be using this money to, um, augment some of our part-time staff costs. Um, and that will begin hopefully in October. So, more good news. >> Madam Chair, one question if I may. >> Um, is the $7.2 million more or less than what they originally uh, figured for the Hemple uh, improvements? >> Significantly more. >> Okay. Thank you. Um item number 13 then HA discussion items. Is there any HA discussion items? >> Seeing none, I will take us in our 14 approval of claims. Is there a motion to approve the claims? >> I'll make a motion to approve claims. Uh second. >> It's been moved and seconded. Any comments, questions, concerns? Seeing none, all those in favor say I. >> I. opposed. The claims have been approved and that takes us to adjournment. Thank you everyone.