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AHAC Minutes 03/19/2024March 19, 2024 MINUTES OF THE COLLIER COUNTY AFFORDABLE HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE Naples, Florida, March 19, 2024 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, the Collier County Affordable Housing Advisory Committee, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9 a.m. in REGULAR SESSION at the Collier County Growth Management Community Development Department Building, Conference Room #609/610, 2800 Horseshoe Drive N., Naples, Florida, with the following members present: Chairman: Steve Hruby Vice Chair: Jennifer Faron Arol Buntzman (absent) Thomas Felke Gary Hains Commissioner Chris Hall (absent) Todd Lyon Hannah Roberts Paul Shea Andrew Terhune Mary Waller (excused) Bob Mulhere (DSAC liaison, non -voting) County Staff Members Present: James French, Department Head, GMCD Cormac Giblin, Dir., Housing Policy & Economic Development, GMCD Lincoln Price, Economic Research Analyst, Housing Policy & Econ. Development, GMCD Heidi Ashton, Managing Assistant County Attorney Mike Bosi, Director, Zoning & Planning Department, GMCD Donald Luciano, Assistant Director, Community & Human Services Division, PSD Rey Torres Fuentes, Operations Support Specialist I, GMCD Louise Jarvis, Executive Assistant to Commissioner Chris Hall March 19, 2024 Any persons in need of a verbatim record of the meeting may request a copy of the audio recording from the Collier County Growth Management Department. 1. CALL TO ORDER & PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Chairman Hruby called the meeting to order at 9 a.m. and the committee recited the Pledge of Allegiance. He then detailed the rules for speakers to address the AHAC on topics. 2. ROLL CALL OF COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND STAFF Mr. Giblin called the roll call. A quorum of eight was present in the boardroom, in addition to a non -voting DSAC liaison. He noted that Ms. Waller was excused and said 7.g should be moved to the beginning of the meeting so AHAC members don't have to wait for the introduction of Bob Mulhere, the DSAC liaison. [7.e. was then heard] 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA AND MINUTES a. Approval of today's agenda Mr. Terhune made a motion to accept the agenda. Second by Ms. Roberts. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. b. Approval of the January 16, 2024, AHAC meeting minutes Mr. Terhune made a motion to approve the January 16, 2024, meeting minutes. Second by Ms. Roberts. The motion passed unanimously, 8-0. c. Approval of the February 20, 2024, AHAC Subcommittee meeting minutes Vice Chair Faron said she didn't attend that meeting due to a conflict so she won't vote. Chairman Hruby noted that the preamble on the title page, p. 1, should say subcommittee and the chair and vice chair should say subcommittee chair and subcommittee vice chair. On p. 4, under Mr. Puchalla's comments, The Housing Alliance (THA) should not have an "Inc." after Alliance. Ms. Roberts made a motion to approve the January 16, 2024, meeting minutes. Second by Planning Commissioner Shea. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0, Ms. Faron abstained because she didn't attend that meeting. [Ms. Faron turned in a Form 8B for that reason.] 4. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS AND PRESENTATION a. Land Trust Presentation (M. Puchalla) Mr. Puchalla, executive director of Housing Development Corp. of Southwest Florida dba Collier County Land Trust, detailed a PowerPoint presentation: • The Housing Alliance's work as a non-profit parallels the AHAC's objectives. • HELP is the only HUD -approved local housing counseling agency in Collier County. Certified since 2009, experienced the flows in the marketplace, the recession, foreclosures, hurricanes, a pandemic, etc. • Meet with individuals and households within the community to help with housing 2 March 19, 2024 suitability and sustainability issues. Providing a navigator concept. • Noticed no matter how much education and preparation they did, without inventory, it didn't make a difference. • In 2020, received funding to incorporate and launch the Collier County Community Land Trust. The goal is to acquire land and hold it in long-term renewable ground leases for development of both rental and home -ownership opportunities and serve as a nonprofit partner in development deals. • The community land trust model removes the land cost from the equation for someone who wants to purchase and hopefully helps to find a subsidy, like the SHIP (State Housing Initiatives Partnership) downpayment assistance program. • First deal: Phase One is Ekos Allego, partnering with McDowell Housing Partners. A 160-unit affordable senior rental development. 62-plus independent living community with 10% of the units for extremely low-income residents at 30% of AMI and 90% of the units capped at 60% of AMI. Phase Two is Ekos Cadenza, a sister future project with another 160 senior units with the same income and rent restrictions, six to eight months behind Ekos Allegro. • Connected with Healthcare Network of Southwest Florida to bring the mobile unit and offer immunizations and basic medical services. • "Senior residents" was one of the major preferences the bank was looking for Ekos was one of 28 developments funded nationwide. Only two in Florida. • Affordability component secured through a 50-year, land -use restrictive agreement so there are 50 years of affordability. Role is the non-profit general partner. HELP helps the developer access resources through the Homes for the Aged Program, which requires a non-profit general partner. That includes funding and a property -tax exemption on this property, which is available through Florida Statutes. • All monitoring will be done through the property management company. This is a Low -Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) development, so there will be state and federal monitoring. • The Community Land Trust will try to help with development and land preservation, real estate. The Community Land Trust's mission is to provide permanent affordable housing opportunities in Collier County. HELP will be dealing with housing assistance and counseling and people in the community. HELP's mission statement is to provide home -ownership opportunities and financial strength through education and counseling. That's the counseling piece, the people entity. The Housing Alliance will focus on education, advocacy, and philanthropic opportunities. The Housing Alliance is new, but it will be more about uniting resources to drive the other two missions, so it all funnels back to helping people get to more permanently affordable housing. • The Housing Navigators concept fits the AHAC's objectives, such as contacting employers. Already contacted Collier County Public Schools and NCH, which have conducted workforce housing surveys. Discussion ensued between Mr. Puchalla and the AHAC members regarding impact fees and low-income housing tax credits. Chairman Hruby shared Low -Income Housing Tax Credits usually sunset after about March 19, 2024 15 years. That's where they balance out, they sunset so if you give a waiver for 10 years, it doesn't follow the alignment with their funding source, the Low -Income Housing Tax Credit. Discussion ensued between Mr. Puchalla, the AHAC members, and County Staff regarding impact fees, low-income housing tax credits, philanthropic endeavors, Collier County Community Foundation, impact fee waivers, impact fees relation to the cost of constructing housing more affordable. Mr. Giblin told the AHAC. • There's been frustration with the ESP (essential services personnel) renters and reaching out to new developments coming online. How do they get notified? • This is an issue that staff has been dealing with since the Planning Commission and the board started putting ESP -preference clauses into the new PUDs because no two ESP definitions are identical. • The Division put together a list of all ESP contacts, including NCH's and Physicians Regional's HR managers, and HR managers for the city of Naples, the Sheriff's Office, etc. For all the employers on the list contact information includes names, addresses, phone numbers. • Once a unit is available, a developer can use the list to mass email information. The AHAC is on the list so when there's an availability, the AHAC can announce that at a public meeting to get the word out. 5. PUBLIC COMMENT John C. Johnson, who is running for District 3 county commissioner, told the AHAC: • Affordable housing is not affordable. Desires to think outside the box and build condominiums. [Mr. Terhune left the meeting at 9:56 a.m.] Jessica Turner, who represents the Southwest Florida Home Coalition, told the AHAC. • Represent: Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Hendry, and Glades. Collier is doing the best work. • The coalition is working on a regional housing study. Data collection is done. Getting deliverables before the final report in November. Final report will be available on the website. • Group focused on policy "encouragement" more friendly than "recommendations" with partners including The Salvation Army and Michael Overway from the Hunger & Homeless Coalition (of Collier and Lee counties). • Working on evictions prevention. Regional effort was too large. broke it down because each county is different. Partners include Legal Aid, county clerks, nonprofit agencies and Human Services agencies. Collier County has a fund to help people at risk of eviction. • Working on trying to get people to accept more housing choice vouchers. Chairman Hruby thanked her for the update. March 19, 2024 6. DISCUSSION ITEMS a. Subcommittee Recap Two different strategic planning documents, annual report and AHAC action plan. To make a more streamlined approach, decided to have one, the annual report, and incorporate everything AHAC is working on. A discussion ensued about combining the annual report and the AHAC action plan. A discussion ensued and the AHAC decided to hold off on sunsetting the subcommittee. b. AHAC Policy Statement Mr. Giblin reported. • In November, the County Affordable Housing Fact Sheet was prepared and contained data on need, affordability, and recent policy -based actions. The goal was to assist the AHAC and others in the community to describe the county's housing affordability situation. • The committee asked for this to be simplified, make it the size of an index card so the AHAC can have a clear, concise mission statement and some bullets to describe housing affordability and our division's and the AHAC's actions over the past couple years. Ms. Roberts made a motion to ask Mr. Giblin to move forward with making a summary of the County Affordable Housing Fact Sheet. Second by Planning Commissioner Shea. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. Action Item: Mr. Giblin will prepare a summary of the Count, Affordable Housing Fact Sheet. 7. STAFF AND COMMITTEE GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS a. Timeline for 2024 SHIP Incentives Report (C. Giblin) (Completed during the last item.) b. DSAC Update (H. Roberts) Ms. Roberts said Mr. Mulhere knows more about the sidewalk discussion. Mr. Where reported: • The DSAC discussion focused on building sidewalks where there is no connectivity in the rural Golden Gate Estates. Doesn't matter whether you build a sidewalk as long as you pay the county the money that's required. • There were some LDC amendments a few years ago that provided some relief to those standards and those are in place. Ms. Roberts said they also discussed the event for the rollout of The Housing Alliance. c. 2024 Apartment Survey (C. Giblin) Mr. Giblin reported: • The county used to perform a quarterly survey of every apartment complex in March 19, 2024 Collier. Stopped for about a year. Decided to resume after the new GMCD division was created. Completed in January in partnership with CHS. • The survey is included in agenda packet and is on the website. • It's a phone call to every apartment complex countywide to ask how many units are available; how many one bedrooms, two bedrooms and three bedrooms are available; what is the charge for a one-, two- and three -bedroom apartment? • It's a snapshot in time with several years of data in the same format. • Shows trends evolving: From the January 2023 survey to January 2024, prices decreased a few percent. The vacancy rate improved again marginally. There were no units available for low-income apartment seekers. Almost 400 units available in the moderate -income section for Naples. There's another section for Immokalee. Immokalee increased a lot more than Naples. • The data is listed at: CollierCountyHousing.com in the tab that says "I need housing." • The data is only as good as the date that we made the call, but there's contact information. Action Item: Mr. Giblin will send Vice Chair Faron an Excel spreadsheet of the apartment survey. d. Collier County Developments Approved Since 2017 (C. Giblin) Mr. Giblin told the AHAC. Enhancements made to the list: This is a list of every development approved by county commissioners since 2018 that include an affordability component. Reviewed the information in the header columns for each development on the list. (the name; address; if they're open; the rental rate for a 2-2; shows whether it's approved; the total units in the development; the number of affordable units; what percentage of the development affordable units comprise; and the number built and opened to date, breaks down affordable units by income level targeted: 30%- 140% of AMI, ESP preference only, financial contributions to the counties Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Various boards, the community, Clerk of Courts, and County Manager's Office have asked for this information to determine progress and targeting of our units. The board has been good at targeting units in 80%-120% of AMI. Action Item • Mr. Giblin will email the revised apartment survey to AHAC meinbers. A discussion ensued and the following points were made: • The University of Florida Shimberg Center is the state's housing data clearinghouse, which provides the County's need numbers when drafting the housing element. • On the list, 4,500 developments were approved, but only 734 have been built so far and some are under construction. Need to know how many units will be coming in the next several years, not just number that were approved. • A couple developments are rural towns and villages with 20- or 30-year horizons. • Use CityView software to track from the building permits to the Certificate of Occupancy. March 19, 2024 • Gap housing goes up to 140% and are only available to homeownership. • When "Gap" was established, the median income was a lot lower than it is now. • The majority of our workforce is well under 80% median income. There's a median income and then the actual workforce income, which is lot lower. • Collier County's economic profile is pulled from LiCast. Action Item: Staff was asked to specify how many units will be built in five, 10, 12, 15 years from now once that information is available. e. Introduction of DSAC member/liaison (C. Giblin) Chairman Hruby asked Bob Mulhere, who will be the DSAC liaison to the AHAC, to introduce himself: Mr. Mulhere told the AHAC: • Shared his professional work experience. • DSAC is the Development Services Advisory Committee. Much of the cost for the Growth Management Department is paid for through permit fees, zoning fees and others, which are placed into an enterprise fund. Only activities more broadly not directly related to developments, such as Code Enforcement, etc., would be paid for by taxpayer dollars. • When the Board of County Commissioners adopted the current Land Development Code in 2001, the Board created the DSAC to look at issues that impact the development community, including impact fees and regulations so the development community's perspective on new regulations and other issues could be represented. Discussion ensued about the purpose of the AHAC-DSAC cross pollination because many of the discussions on the DSAC involve land development and costs and the future growth of the county. [Agenda item 3.a was then heard.] f. Upcoming Public Meetings (C. Giblin) Mr. Giblin reported. • There is one public meeting: the Fiddler's Creek PUD amendment, the Section 29 addition. Scheduled to go to the Planning Commission on April 18. The NIM occurred. • JLM Living and Mattson at Vanderbilt PUD were continued by the applicant. 8. NEW BUSINESS Chairman Hruby reported. • For a half -day tomorrow, the Housing Alliance and ULI are jointly hosting an initiative that the AHAC kicked off last June or July: What are the opportunities that Live Local provides Collier County, what are the obstacles to implementing it, and how can we make it applicable to Collier? • There will be a discussion and no presentations. Invitation only. March 19, 2024 Mr. Bosi reported. • During tomorrow's Board of County Commissioners meeting, planning to describe applying the Live Local Act, the associated densities, the height restrictions and how it's being applied by County Staff. Mr. French reported. • The County Attorney's Office spoke about this at the last Planning Commission meeting. Reanalyzing the approach taken in 2023 due to this glitch bill. • Attorney Ashton added the April 7 executive summary will address the original bill. • Also seeing an insurance gap. One of the news stations this morning featured a woman who lost her home and is now homeless because she can't afford the cost of insurance and her mortgage. • Starting to see this due to Risk Rating 2.0, a 14%-18% increase in flood insurance alone. That will create big issues on the affordable housing front. • Provided updates related to a disconnect between the developer, the architect, the GC, and what is being submitted to the County resulting in more reviews and greater costs. Lower the number of reviews and the savings can be passed on to the residents. • Need to talk more about accomplishments, what is the County doing with DSAC, the Planning Commission and the BCC and start celebrating some of those staff successes with the community to show that we have made advancements. Discussion ensued between the AHAC members and Mr. French about private providers not helping to move agendas faster and the review process being more efficient without the private provider, the County not doing the inspections while still taking staff time to track- monitor- and deal with- issues when they arise. As a result of private providers, building official and staff have more conversations with the County Attorney's Office than ever before. Specifying an instance from a recent example between private provider and contractors where County staff had to go to the job site because the plans submitted by and the reviews completed by the private provider did not make sense. Provided another instance with the County having zero visibility on this instance because the owner believed the County was holding up the permit/ CO, only to realize it's the private provider and GC. 9. ADJOURN Vice Chair Faron made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Second by Mr. Hains. The motion passed unanimously, 7-0. 10. NEXT MEETING DATE 9 a.m. May 21, 2024 Conference Room 609/610 Growth Management Community Development Department There being no further business for the good of the county, the meeting was adjourned by the order of the chair at 10:42 a.m. N. March 19. 2024 CO E HOUSING ADVISORY COMMITTEE Stephen These minutes were approved by the commitvtee on 5742) , (check one) as presented, or as amended 0