[yrhasc] minutes from last night

Fri Dec 21 13:38:08 EST 2007

Hello YRHASC, 

Below this message, I am pasting the draft minutes for your meeting last
night. I am also attaching the minutes as a Word document. Please let me
know if you have any trouble receiving either of these. 

I welcome any corrections you may have. I also welcome any suggestions
for ways to make the minutes more useful to you. 

Although I took notes on your entire discussion, I recorded only those
discussions that resulted in an actual decision related to the agenda
item you were working on at the time. That means I left out a lot of
your good conversations about the spirit of the project and the specific
responsibilities of your committee. However, I will happily work those
in if you feel they should have a place in the record. 

I enjoyed working with all of you last night. It is a privilege to work
with such a dedicated group. 

I wish you all a pleasant holiday if I don't see you beforehand- 

Alden

Town of Long Island
Year Round Housing Application and Selection Committee
Minutes, 19 December 2007

Meeting called to order: 6:33 p.m.  

Members Present:  John Billings (chair); Newell Stewart (Selectman);
Sandie Scheurman; Judy Paolini.

Non-members present: Mark Greene (Housing Administrator); Michael Floyd
(Chair, Selectmen); Leah Doughty (Year-Round Housing Committee); Tammy
Hohn; Madeline Collinson; Meredith Sweet; Mary Nanos; Alden Robinson
(Island Institute Fellow).

Minutes of previous meeting accepted unanimously.  

Old Business:  Review of eligibility and scoring criteria

The committee reviewed its draft application for the Year-Round Housing
program.

Sandie Scheurman suggested three wording changes:

*	Step seven on the list under "Application Process": remove
"applications valid for one year".  The committee decided to let the
wording stand.
*	Criterion two under "Selection Criteria": remove "(proof of
residency may be required)".  The committee agreed to remove.
*	Criterion three under "Selection Criteria": change to read
"signed pre-lease agreement from Year-Round Housing Committee".  The
committee agreed to change the wording.

Eligibility criterion #5: "Not a current property owner":  Judy Paolini
suggested that the criterion be changed to allow applications only from
people who had never owned property in the past.  Leah Doughty said that
the Maine State Housing Authority will classify people as "first-time
homebuyers" who have not owned property within the past three years.   

The committee discussed the possibility of handling property-ownership
as a scoring criterion instead of an eligibility criterion.  Mark Greene
and Leah Doughty shared the YRHC's approach to the question:  although
it would exclude some YRHC participants, the committee decided to
recommend that eligible applicants not own property at the time of their
application.  

The committee agreed to leave the criterion as "not a current property
owner".  

Eligibility criterion #1: "Pre-approval for a mortgage on a YRHC house":
Leah Doughty said that repeated requests for pre-approval will hurt a
person's credit score.  John Billings said that if the committee did not
require an initial pre-approval with the application, some time limit
would need to exist to prevent otherwise-eligible applicants from tying
up the housing program if they are unable to get credit.  Sandie
Scheurman said that the YRHASC was interested primarily in the
creditworthiness of an applicant, not so much in whether that person was
able to fund a house. John Billings agreed that the YRHC was responsible
for ascertaining the adequacy of the applicant's funding for a specific
house.  However, the YRHASC would still need to know the amount for
which an applicant was pre-qualified, as that would have a strong effect
on his/her ability to participate successfully.

The committee agreed that it needed more information from a banker.
Mark Greene suggested that the YRHC and YRHASC collaborate on hosting a
presentation on the 6th of February.  

Scoring criterion #6: Years of residency on island:  The committee
discussed several different options for this criterion.  John Billings
said that a person who has spent his or her entire life on the island
should get the maximum number of points, and that a person who has not
lived his/her entire life on the island should not be able to score the
maximum.  Mark Greene stressed that prioritizing residency on the island
was a way to ensure the applicant would be a good fit for the program.  

Leah Doughty suggested a "brackets" system, where a person who has lived
on the island for (for example) 3-6 years gets 5 points, for 6-12 years
gets another 5 points, for 13+ years gets another 3 points.  

Alden Robinson suggested that the committee not worry about coming out
with a total number of points out of proportion to other criteria, as
the value of each criterion can be controlled after scoring using a
weighted average system.

The committee decided to award five points to applicants who have lived
on the island for the past five years, and then one point for every five
years on the island before that, up to a maximum of ten.  

Scoring criterion #5: Number of people in household:  The committee
discussed whether the number of people in the household should have a
positive effect on an applicant's score.  Mark Greene said that while
the YRHC's objective was not specifically to prioritize families with
children, it did want to get the maximum "bang for the buck" by making
its projects serve as many people as possible.  

The committee decided to allot one point per each member of the
household, up to a maximum of five.  However, they decided not to
request the names and relationships of the other household members from
the applicant.  

New Business:  None

Public correspondence requesting agenda placement:  None

Public written correspondence:  None

Next meeting:   Wednesday, 16 January 2008, 6:30 p.m., Town Hall.

Meeting adjourned:  9:05 p.m.  

________________________________________________

Alden S. Robinson

Island Institute Fellow

Town of Long Island, Maine

(207) 766-2336

arobinson at islandinstitute.org

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