[yrhasc] Wednesday meeting

[Alden Robinson]

Hi Judy & Co.,

I have recorded the gist of your other prominent disucssions from the 12/19 meeting in the draft minutes.  I am attaching those minutes as a Word file (changes in red); I am also pasting them below.

Feel free to respond with other input. 

Best,

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; 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". 

The committee discussed methods for determining the community's need for housing.  Judy Paolini expressed concerns that the Year-Round Housing program was catering specifically to the needs of YRHC members.  Leah Doughty said that the YRHC had made several choices that knowingly excluded some of its own members, and that it was not tailoring its policies to itself.  Mark Greene suggested that if people are excluded from the program, they will be easy to spot as it progresses and the committee can make adjustments. 

Judy Paolini agreed but said that she thought it important to play devil's advocate, as the YRHASC needed to be impartial and methodical.  Mark Greene agreed but said that although the committee is independent, its work is not unrelated to the YRHC's planning.  However, he said that once the YRHASC develops the application process, its selection of applicants must be completely uninfluenced by outside input. 

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.  

Meredith Sweet expressed concerns that the community's needs had not been adequately determined.  She suggested the Town needed to be clearer about its reasons for having a housing program.  She also said the committee needed to be careful not to discourage diversity in the community with its criteria. 

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.  


-----Original Message-----
From: yrhasc-bounces at townoflongisland.us on behalf of JudyP
Sent: Mon 1/14/2008 9:11 AM
To: YRH Application and Selection Committee
Subject: [yrhasc] Wednesday meeting
 
Hi:

It's been several weeks since our last meeting and I think we should 
spend a few minutes this week getting our most recent decisions 
included in the proposed application. Then the new secretary can 
provide us with a clean copy for your next meeting.

Alden: when you sent out the minutes from the last meeting I 
requested you include the other discussions, not just those that 
resulted in a decision on the application. Will you have that in time 
for this meeting?

See you all on Wednesday,
Judy
-- 
Judy Paolini
TPDA
207-871-1813 office
207-329-6153 cell
judyp at tpda.com

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