[Speaker 21] (0:06 - 0:07)
Good evening everyone.

[Speaker 6] (0:08 - 1:21)
Welcome to our second series of the housing seminar hosted by our Swamps Guts Senior Center. My name is Marissa Meaney. I am the Land Use and Development Planner in the Office of Community and Economic Development in Town Hall.

I'm joined here by my colleagues tonight, Heidi Weir, Director of our Senior Center, and Sabrina Clopton, Assistant Director of our Senior Center. Also here is David Grishman from the Select Board. And before we kick off tonight's presentation, I just wanted to make a preliminary announcement about our session next Monday, October 7th, same time, same place.

We will be talking all about accessory dwelling units, maybe more commonly known as in-law apartments. I will be part of that panel and we will be joined by Derek Thomas from Incremental Developers in Salem, as well as a local resident, Mae Cadigan, who herself lives in an accessory dwelling unit. And moderating that panel will be Ted Dooley, our Chair of the Planning Board.

But to moderate our session is Kim Martin Epstein. Tonight, she is the Chair of the Swamps Gut Affordable Housing Trust. So I will turn it over to her to introduce us to our panelists and kick us off.

[Speaker 1] (1:25 - 3:25)
Okay, hopefully you can hear me. I have a pretty loud voice, too. But before I do all of the introductions, I would like to start the event today, an event at which we are discussing our use of our land, development, redevelopment, and community making with a land acknowledgement.

I also note that we're almost upon the day that this town and many other towns in the Commonwealth have designated Indigenous People's Day. Land acknowledgements are derived from and are rooted in indigenous diplomacy. They were a way for tribes to acknowledge the land when visiting or countering other tribes.

As a non-native person, I'm not in a position to pay a diplomatic homage to the tribes whose homelands we are now meet, homelands on which we now meet. I'm more appropriately acknowledging that European colonists violently took dominion over this region and divested the Massachusetts and Namkeag people of their territory. I also recognize that descendants of these tribes and other New England native people carried the burden of intergenerational occupancy of their unceded land.

May our work today and beyond tonight's meeting endeavor not to exacerbate that injustice. This or any land acknowledgement does not get us off the hook for the appropriation of the land and also lack of action, but it does begin to address the education and awareness building goal. And I know we are in a room of people who are interested in talking about the needs of vulnerable people, vulnerable neighbors, doing right by doing good, and maybe even righting wrongs.

So let us go forward tonight in that spirit. Tonight I'm going to have each of the other panelists introduce themselves briefly and give you a taste of what we're going to be discussing in each case. And then I'm going to start with some preliminary definitions and kind of concepts that help us talk about some of these projects that we're doing in town with a little bit more facts and specificity.

So I'll start over here with Holly Grace from Benebrith Housing. Hi, can you hear me? No?

[Speaker 4] (3:27 - 3:55)
So hi, my name is Holly Grace. I work as a senior project manager with Benebrith Housing and this evening we will be talking about our work in Swampscott at the Michon and our future work to create veterans housing.

[Speaker 1] (3:57 - 4:00)
I have Kevin Johnson from the Swampscott Housing Authority.

[Speaker 5] (4:00 - 4:11)
Hi, I'm Kevin Johnson, the executive director of the Swampscott Housing Authority. We have, I run all the state aided public housing in Swampscott.

[Speaker 2] (4:14 - 4:36)
Hi, my name is Joe T. Fault. I'm a divisional vice president with Wynn Residential.

So I'm in the property operations and myself and my team will be involved in the lease up and future operations of the Westcott Apartments opening up next spring, summer. I'm right down the street here. Happy to be here.

Thank you.

[Speaker 3] (4:37 - 4:47)
Hi, I'm Lauren Canapari with Wynn Development. I work with Joe. I'm on the development side at Wynn and we are excited about the Westcott opening right down the street.

[Speaker 1] (4:48 - 8:23)
So I have this kind of running list that I update and change whenever I do these kinds of meetings and it's, you know, definitions and acronyms and things that, you know, people in the housing industry just use and throw off their tongue all the time and we realize that, you know, without any regular knowledge of these, this conversation just becomes a lot of gobbledygook. So I wanted to insert a few, some definitions initially and then kind of help guide this conversation with some things that, you know, maybe you know, maybe you don't know, but I think it's really good to kind of have these frameworks. So the first thing I wanted to do is define what I like to talk about when I talk about affordable housing.

You know, everybody should live in affordable housing. That is, everybody should live in housing that does not cost burden them beyond a certain percentage of their income. I think the guidelines that we use in the United States is 30% of your disposable, you know, your net income should not be spent, more than 30% of your income should not be spent when it comes to your housing costs.

So if you're spending more than 30%, you're cost burdened. So everybody, whether you're earning something more like 100% of the area median income or more, or whether you're, you know, barely making ends meet, you know, your housing costs should not exceed 30% of whatever it is you do make. So when we talk about affordable housing, we're talking about housing that people can afford in this framework.

I know we throw away, throw around some different definitions and it gets kind of gobbled. A lot of times people refer to low-income housing and to me that, well, and it's not the same thing as affordable housing. Affordable housing is this concept where people can afford to live in their home and low-income housing is a very specific designation.

It targets a very particular income level and, you know, in general we are not able to develop low-income housing without the use of development and operational subsidies. And what do I mean by subsidies? I mean money that comes from a public body to either buy down the cost of building it so that the developer can charge lower rents and be able to pay back their construction loan.

So either, you know, and or operational subsidies, which is something everyone's often familiar with, like Section 8. A Section 8 contract will allow the landlord to receive an aggregate of fair market rents, but the tenants who are living in the subsidized units pay only 30% of their income at some income level. So with operational subsidy and we have development subsidy and we cannot build housing for people whose incomes are considered low-income without subsidy.

And that's an economic fact that we are all, you know, becoming painfully aware of. So today we're talking about all of it, any and all of it. If definitions come up, I might jump in and help you clarify them.

I know we're going to talk about tenant selection. We're going to, in Michon, in future developments, we're going to talk about it for the Housing Authority. We're going to talk about it for the Westcott.

And so we'll have a little bit of conversation about tenant selection and fair housing so people understand how that tends to work. And so with that, I'm going to turn this over to Kevin. You're first.

[Speaker 5] (8:23 - 8:24)
I'm first? Oh boy.

[Speaker 1] (8:25 - 8:45)
So we'd love to hear about the Housing Authority and I think it's important to distinguish the Housing Authority from privately developed affordable housing, such as the Michon or Westcott. And it's really important. I think people understand the difference about what the Housing Authority owns and does and how you're organized and run.

[Speaker 5] (8:45 - 9:29)
So I would say that there are three different types of housing developments. There's the private developers. There's the federal, for instance, like Lynn.

Lynn Housing Authority is a federal housing authority. And then you have what's called state-aided in Massachusetts. There are only three states in the nation that actually have their own housing authority, state-aided housing authorities.

There's a little bit in New York. There's a little bit in Connecticut, but it actually got divested from the state. And then Massachusetts.

In Massachusetts, we have, I think it's close to 44,000, 44,000 units of state-aided public housing throughout the commonwealth.

[Speaker 1] (9:31 - 9:38)
And so people understand what properties you're, you know, under the purview of the Swampscott Housing Authority.

[Speaker 5] (9:38 - 10:12)
So we actually have four different properties. One's Ryan Place, which is a communal housing situation, which is right on Ryan Place Street. Then we have our family housing.

And you'll get this, each one of them has a project number. We actually call that our 200 project, which is family housing. And that's been around since right after the Second World War.

It was built back in 1947. Then we have Duncan and then Doherty, which is right next to the the Wynn property.

[Speaker 1] (10:13 - 10:19)
So Kevin, can you talk a little bit about how one becomes a tenant of the Housing Authority property?

[Speaker 5] (10:19 - 11:38)
So, okay, there's a separation. I think that there's a lot of misnomers or misconceptions. We get a lot of calls from people saying, oh, where's my number on the list?

In Massachusetts, you have the Section 8 programs and the federal housing programs, and those are actually the numbered list. And right now in Massachusetts, it's 10 years for someone to get on actual federal housing programs. And then in the state, the state's done a really good job of prioritizing needs.

So the state list is based off a priority of needs, and there's certain priorities. Say if a person's a veteran, say if someone's a Silver Star mother, or someone has some sort of medical issue, or if they actually live in the town where the Housing Authority is. So the state uses a third party called ASG that sets those preferences.

And it used to be that the Housing Authorities used to do that, and a lot of the Housing Authorities got overwhelmed, so we've outsourced a lot of that. There's a website you can go to, and I'm sure a lot of you have heard of it, called CHAMP, where you can fill out as many different housing authorities as you want.

[Speaker 20] (11:40 - 11:42)
What? What is that? Can you spell that?

[Speaker 5] (11:42 - 11:43)
CHAMP. CHAMP.

[Speaker 20] (11:43 - 11:44)
C-H-A-M?

[Speaker 5] (11:45 - 12:08)
Yep. C-H-A-M-P. Yep.

And that's really where you sign up for public housing. We really cannot touch people until they come on our poll list. And that's based off of needs and priorities, what the Housing Authority needs, and what the priorities for the people being selected are.

[Speaker 1] (12:10 - 12:34)
I know that the Housing Authority property in Swampscott has been around a while, and it definitely could use some love. And I would like to talk about this a little bit more, after everyone's had their presentations as well, but maybe just give us a little taste of some of your goals, and what you're thinking of in terms of how we can care for our Housing Authority property.

[Speaker 5] (12:35 - 13:40)
One of the biggest issues, at least in Swampscott, and we see this in our vouchers, and I've mentioned this before, right now we have close to about 60,000 individuals on our list for Swampscott. What's the population of Swampscott? 15,000.

So, you know, there's a huge need, not just in the region, but also in the community, for state housing, or public housing. We are looking at doing some different developments. We've been working with the town, looking at trying to find some funding for a study, possibly doing some redevelopment on our properties.

So, and it does take time. Usually a normal public housing project, and Wynne would know this better than anyone, usually takes about four to five years, from the conception, to finding the financing, to putting the shovels to the ground. That's about average.

So now's the time to kind of look at that.

[Speaker 1] (13:40 - 13:48)
No, thank you. Holly. Okay.

[Speaker 4] (13:50 - 13:51)
I have some slides.

[Speaker 1] (13:51 - 14:01)
Holly has a few slides, and then, you know, also we'll talk a little bit about how, we'll talk a little bit about what you've done, and a little bit about what you're hoping to do.

[Speaker 4] (14:04 - 14:38)
So, thanks. I work with Benebrith Housing, and Benebrith Housing is a non-profit organization, and our mission is to ease the housing crisis in the Boston area. I work as a project manager for the organization, and so I work on new developments to try to find sites, get them permitted, get them financed through a variety of sources, constructed, and leased up.

So, a lot of teamwork that goes with that. And, did my slides disappear?

[Speaker 6] (14:38 - 14:42)
The screen just said, looks like something went wrong, so that's always a great message.

[Speaker 4] (14:42 - 15:24)
Not really crucial, but they're fun to look at. There's some nice pretty pictures. Round two.

Okay, all right, so we're ready for the next one. It doesn't want me to go to the next one. There it is.

Okay, so here are some photos of a mix of the developments that we've worked on in the Boston area. These aren't all in swamscot, and our organization has worked on a variety of different housing types that include mixed income, which maybe needs a definition, but includes a variety of income types.

[Speaker 1] (15:24 - 17:37)
When we talk about income levels, we're talking about how people's income fits in with what has been designated as an area median income. So, HUD, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, creates these metropolitan statistical areas and then figures out what the median incomes are for those areas. And so, when we set income levels and then rent levels for geographic areas, it's based on this information that we receive from HUD.

So, typical income bands that are addressed in affordable housing are, you know, people who are at 30 percent or lower of the area median income. That's, you know, that's very, very, very low income. And people, you know, 50, there's some federal programs that look at the 50 percent AMI ban.

Tax credit projects, low income housing tax credit projects really are targeting the 60 percent ban. We have a lot of other federal, not so much federal, state and local programs that like to target 80 percent. We've got workforce housing.

It's a word we use now, which is at 100 percent to 110 percent AMI. So, you know, when we're talking about mixed income, you can still have all the units restricted to different income levels and still have people, you know, targeting people who really need income-restricted housing. But even if you're at 100 percent of the AMI, you're going to be cost burdened without restricted rents, I think, in this region.

So, that's what mixed, and a mixed income project would have a variety of income levels and also nicely usually a variety of bedroom sizes. And you can't, you know, and the lovely part is you can't tell what's what and everybody's living together. And the housing quality standards require that.

And so, mixed income projects are really exciting because you really get everyone, you get a lot of different varieties in a particular development. So, sorry.

[Speaker 4] (17:37 - 24:51)
Thank you. Thank you for that. So, back to Beneath Housing.

We've worked on a variety of different housing types, including mixed income. Thank you. Affordable senior, including here in Swampscott, and affordable housing for all ages.

And if we have some more pretty pictures on the next slide, cross your fingers it works. And we, like many other private developers, work hard to make sure the designs of our buildings and units are competitive and attractive as compared to market rate units elsewhere that are not affordable with these income restrictions. So, these are some photos of developments we've recently completed.

Next slide, please. So, something that's a hallmark of our organization, Beneath Housing, is our resident service component. This is really important to our board members and me as a staff person.

We think it is very helpful to have resident service coordination for the folks that live in our developments, in our buildings. So, what does this mean? Here are a few photos showing there's a party, some gardening, some outdoor spaces that kind of look nice and busy.

Next slide, please. So, I tried to zero in on some of the aspects of a resident resident service coordination. And typically, we have a staff person that works in the building and can meet with residents who basically helps residents who are living in our buildings to access services or extra help as needed.

And I guess an interesting and sometimes puzzling aspect of this is the resident service coordinator doesn't actually do the helping but links the residents to other service providers that are experts in whatever is needed. So, there's an on-staff position that during pandemic times, these folks were instrumental in helping making sure our residents were as comfortable as possible. There was some grocery delivery and things to help with those very scary times.

Links to service providers who help working with the populations in our buildings. Things like fitness classes either taught by the resident service coordinator or bringing in extra help or extra expertise to do those. Organizing things like group trips and health and fitness wellness screenings.

So, there's often flu shot clinics or blood pressure screenings especially in our senior developments and celebrations. So, an important part of having the resident service coordinator position is to help with social programming as well as wellness programming and things as people I guess are residing in our buildings and in senior buildings as they're aging. We also have resident service coordination in family developments and they help families with all sorts of issues that they might have with child, child care, job situations, financial planning, things that are more targeted towards I guess their population.

Next slide please. So, here in Swampscott, I had the I guess privilege of working on the Mashon School and the town very wisely had an RFP process regarding this once vacant school and timing on this I'm not quite certain but the school had been vacant the first time I'd seen it. We toured it, there were spiders, there were puddles in the basement, wasn't pretty.

So, the town in its wisdom went through a process to find a developer to do something with the school and the neighborhood housing competed for the privilege of doing that and we were selected. And these are some before photos of the Mashon School. So, as you can see it was an old school and there is a historic building I guess approximately 1920 was the vintage in that if I'm remembering this correctly and there is a 1950s addition to it.

So, this is what we had under agreement when we got the RFP. We worked closely with the town to design it permanent and get financing for it. And the next slide please.

Here are some photos of what it you know looks like after with very attractive units especially in the old school building component which has extremely high ceilings and big windows and it's great but also in addition that we put in the plates in this approximately same location as the 1950s addition had been but still appointed very nicely and attractively and we have resident service coordination for the building.

So, this the Mashon has 38 units they are for households with someone aged 55 and older and it's fully leased right now with a waiting list of approximately 100 names and I guess good news bad news the list is still open if anyone wants to add their name to that although it's a question of when those names would come up because there is a lot of demand for affordable housing as we all know. Next slide please. So, we are working closely with the town on another site in Squamish Scott that the town is wisely working to create affordable housing on.

So, this site is at Pine and New Ocean and called Veterans Crossing and these are some photos taken recently there is a vacant lot there and it's located adjacent to the VFW that's currently in operation and next slide please. So, we're working closely with town officials and staff and our plan we would love to build approximately 42-ish units age restricted to 55 and older to have a preference for veterans and of course we would have resident service coordination and included in that would be more emphasis on services that would be needed for veterans and links with veterans service providers. That concludes my slide presentation but I'm happy to answer questions whenever we can.

[Speaker 1] (24:51 - 25:25)
Let's pause for some questions now and then we're going to go on and next we're going to talk about the Westcott and what Wynn has been doing. So, this is a good time to start with some questions. Oh wait a microphone.

I think we have the question was if you could talk to some of the income the income limits that will be identified in the in the upcoming development.

[Speaker 4] (25:25 - 25:40)
So, details yet to be determined but our current thinking is that the maximum income will be 60 percent of area median income. Does anyone have the matrix around what that means?

[Speaker 3] (25:40 - 25:58)
We're going to talk about that in our we do have it yeah so oh look at that yeah we will we will talk about that in our presentation to all the different sorry kind of explain that just no I think it's I think for me you know when people are just saying area mean and income that's always you know what exactly does that what

[Speaker 1] (25:58 - 26:48)
does that mean you got the numbers all right so just hold for that and we'll get to those numbers all right so so this this project is is a concept right now it's not and and unfortunately it does take a very long time to go again from concept to you know a ribbon cutting so I think it's really it's really hard to give details and it's certainly there's no opportunity to sign up for anything but as the development of the financing and the development of the design is taking place you know the town's going to hear a lot about it but the town's already approved the use of the space for this project so hopefully once we can release I mean when there's details to release you know they'll be released

[Speaker 4] (26:52 - 27:39)
um anybody that would like to be added to the list or get an application to be added to the list can call the Michonne I have a phone number I can share with you if you would like that now okay a woman named Arlette is our property manager there and her Arlette A-R-L-E-T-T-E and her phone number is 781 584 8177 I'll repeat the whole thing 781 584 8177 that's the question over here yeah

[Speaker 1] (27:41 - 29:16)
it is not so let's just give a quick quick uh new definition or whatever let's talk about preferences for one sec just because I want to answer this question I'm just going to answer this question when we talk most communities when you're using town property I mean really do try to impose a preference a local preference so we you know try to figure out a way to prioritize Swamp Scout residents who fit these all of these other criteria first the constraints on a local preference and on any of and on some of the other preferences are what's called fair housing there are federal fair housing requirements that are imposed on a project that is funding public money so there's always a dance between you know doing what the town wants which is to prioritize Swamp Scout residents from to these units but also adhering to fair housing and so there are ways that this works out there's a housing plan that has to be approved by the state and there's a tenant selection plan and things have to be publicized and certainly as qualified Swamp Scout residents come aboard they're they're prioritized but it's almost never the case that there's going to be a hundred percent Swamp Scout residents because not all Swamp Scout residents that apply are going to there are going to be able to fit the other criteria anyway so there's a bit of a process but almost every single project that the town has anything to do with is going to have it's going to have a local preference in it.

[Speaker 13] (29:20 - 29:40)
I have a question about the income qualification if I understand correctly when you do what you call it your recertification you take in consideration some expenses such as medical etc etc so when you're referring to the income are you referring to the gross or the net income after?

[Speaker 1] (29:41 - 29:44)
Do you guys do you know more about the specifics?

[Speaker 2] (29:45 - 30:24)
I don't like to give holoticky answers but the answer is it depends so if you're talking about a program a subsidized program as was referred to earlier a section 8 program maybe a public housing program there are cases where things like medical expenses are deducted to calculate tenant rent when we talk about things like low income housing tax credit program we're talking about gross incomes and without deductions but generally when we talk about qualifying and what income you need when you're moving in where we're talking about gross incomes yes.

[Speaker 1] (30:27 - 31:12)
All right let's let's move on to and then we'll again we'll have more time for more questions so let's talk about the Westcott you I want to in addition to what everybody's dying to know which is when they can move in I do want to bring up one other feature that has been present in our in our developments and that's the use of zoning relief and in this case in the case of Michonne and in the case of the Westcott we used chapter 40 B to allow for the denser you know the denser use of the property to have more units to create more units for of housing so and I know the 40 B process is just one among the many challenges so you wouldn't mind giving a little bit of a

[Speaker 3] (31:12 - 32:43)
discussion about that and then we can sure yeah I'm happy to happy to talk about that you know I think as has been as people have said you know the the development process takes a long time right and there's many reasons it takes five years seven years however long to get these buildings built and a big part of that is zoning right 40 B is a it's a statute in Massachusetts it really allows for developers to do buy right zoning which means you know if we're gonna put affordable housing into communities the community can't say no because they don't like that right they don't want affordable housing in their community it gives us the right to put affordable housing you know basically as long as you know with with reasonable restrictions on it and especially if the communities have less than 10% of their housing stock is considered affordable so swamp Scott has 4% only 4% of their housing stock is considered affordable so this is a you know a high priority need for the state to get more affordable housing here and that was how we were able to zone the West Scott you know as as we did and obviously work closely with the town and the Affordable Housing Trust to do so and I think it's a it's been a great success to get 114 more units into swamp Scott and we do have a presentation to we can have a lot of slides we'll try to get through yeah we're gonna go we'll

[Speaker 2] (32:43 - 33:01)
go quickly by chance we were doing our lottery info sessions tonight so this slide deck is from our info sessions so there we'll probably move through them relatively quickly if we're taking too long just let us know and we'll go faster or if we go too fast we'll go slower yeah we know

[Speaker 3] (33:01 - 37:35)
there's a lot of questions so we're well you know go to the end so we can get to get to get to questions I think that's probably the most important thing so I'm Lauren canapari senior project director at Wynn and Joe is also here who is our divisional vice president for operations so you want to go through so you know I won't go I'm assuming a lot of people have seen the construction of the West Scott it's new construction building right next to the swamp Scott commuter rail station along the tracks there are 114 new units what studio one and two bedrooms it is mixed income at work you know hot-button word we just talked about in this case it means we have units for people at 30% of area median income at 60% at a hundred and ten percent and market rate units so you know a hundred percent of area median income that's that's the median that people are making in this area right so 30% we consider extremely low 60% low 110% is the workforce housing that Kim referred to and then market rate you know a small percentage of market rate units as well so you know our I'll say one of the things we pride ourselves on at Wynn is that everything looks like a market rate unit right everything has the same finishes the same amenities and you know you can see kind of it here are you know modern flooring stainless steel appliances you know we have a roof deck with grills and we have a pet spa and we have you know all of the things you would expect from you know we do have parking we have 131 parking spaces for the hundred and fourteen units we have bike parking we have EV chargers so pretty much what you would expect from a market rate Metro Boston development but you know for a mix of income ranges here's a rendering of what the front entry will look like we started construction last year construction is on time on budget completing I guess I should knock on some wood completing May May of 2025 should be our plan with you know the hope is that we're moving people in in June so that's kind of what we're what we're aiming for right now but I think it's gonna be a really special project you can keep going through the these are just some renderings of what you know all when we both went through the 40 B process with the town you know the town has say on you know what does the building look like right does it fit in it's we want it to look coastal we want it to look modern we wanted to fit in first want Scott here's some of our amenity spaces you know we've tenant lounges we have work pods we have lots of places for tenants to to gather and for us to host events here's just a typical unit you can see we have this you know oak flooring and stainless steel appliances it kind of all looks very modern and it's all an all-electric building it's passive house which means it's really the highest level of eco-friendly design that you know you can do so extremely well insulated and really kind of keeping that green on the forefront the design so these are just the the floor plans we have some covered parking we have exterior parking this is the first floor you can see some of that parking along with we have some units where you can enter directly from the street which will have little porches along the first floor along Pittman Road there so you can kind of just go through quickly the floor plans nothing too exciting and then on the fifth floor we have our roof deck which is you know another nice amenity space but I'll let Joe talk about you know how the lottery works we did bring some applications with us here and you know applications are open now the lottery is going to be in January and Joe's the expert so I don't want to steal his thunder I'm not an expert but happy to talk

[Speaker 2] (37:35 - 37:39)
about I think there were a couple questions before we move on to the next section I know I saw one

[Speaker 3] (37:39 - 38:26)
hand sure oh sure so it's it's so this is this is 125 Essex Street right so we're at 200 Essex Street so we're really so you enter it like you would enter the Berks gym right right off of Essex Street right right this is this is where you see right here with these little porches or private entry units on yeah on the right that's Pittman is that that next little street next to that's Pittman and then if you passed our sign and made a right you go down to Berks gym okay if you're

[Speaker 9] (38:26 - 38:39)
coming yes so if you're coming so all of the the enter there all the traffic will be on Essex Street there's not another exit I mean there's another behind it there's no there's no she

[Speaker 3] (38:39 - 38:46)
behind yeah you turn off Essex on to element into our parking lot right like you're going to Berks

[Speaker 15] (38:46 - 39:04)
gym yeah okay thank you I may have missed it is this work yes yeah I can't really tell what is the website for the Westcott where we can go get the schedule what's on that screen right now yes

[Speaker 2] (39:04 - 39:18)
it is it's the it's the Westcott Swamp Scott dot-com and if you go to that website we will have all the information you need including the application itself and this presentation within

[Speaker 3] (39:18 - 39:27)
the next day or so right up there so everyone can see it a little bit bigger great handwriting

[Speaker 2] (39:43 - 40:05)
yes or if you google it you'll you'll find it you'll see it there I think we we meant to mention initially and I'll say now that this property is not income-restricted so it is I'm sorry is income-restricted not age-restricted so it is for all ages I just wanted to make sure we were clear

[Speaker 1] (40:05 - 40:32)
about that another another feature you didn't mention is that this project it was heavily lauded for its proximity to the transfer transportation this is considered a transit oriented development and as a result received additional you know sources of funding because of its you know obvious obvious yeah three-minute walk to the train lots of bike parking lots of

[Speaker 3] (40:32 - 40:40)
bike parking interior and exterior bike parking we have more questions we'll go to the questions

[Speaker 8] (40:42 - 40:48)
so the additional funding that you just spoke of does that put any other restrictions on you

[Speaker 3] (40:48 - 41:07)
or quotas that you have to know that's a very good question but but no it's really about the location of the site you know being in proximity to some to so much transit so it's just really for the state to incentivize people to build more housing near transportation centers

[Speaker 14] (41:11 - 41:31)
I'd like to ask all of you to move yourself closer to the microphone or pick up the microphone and move it closer to you they are not working at this part of the test how's this all right sorry about

[Speaker 7] (41:31 - 42:07)
that another question this is the best part hi I have a question about AMI yes a little bit more than I'd say so with the for example with the Westcott 30% maximum income would be thirty four thousand three hundred correct 60% minimum income would be fifty five thousand seven forty nine to whatever what happens to that person who falls in between right so unfortunately if someone has

[Speaker 2] (42:07 - 42:20)
falls in between programs they might not necessarily qualify for either there isn't necessarily an overlap in those programs that's right because you go from 30 to 60 to 110 there's also a gap

[Speaker 1] (42:20 - 43:51)
there between 60 and 110 and 110 to market well just to be clear so when when the initial application comes in the the the resident needs to be either 60% or lower 80% or lower or 100% or lower if at a point when they're living in in this in let's say you're you were living in a 60% you were 60% AMI when you moved into a 60% unit if your income goes up while you're still a resident you're now an over income tenant and you cannot be evicted for being over income you'll you know there's restrictions on how an over income tenant is treated and you don't get evicted for so so I mean it's really important to understand that the initial application are meant to fill these units with people who can pay at different levels and to achieve the mix of incomes and you know the operating budget for the for the developer needs to work needs to work but but if you I mean everybody wants people to be stabilized in their housing so that their economic profile can improve and there it is not a problem to earn more money you you don't get evicted there's a way that these units are managed as people's income changes that's correct sorry yeah I basically was if

[Speaker 7] (43:51 - 43:59)
somebody makes thirty five thousand four hundred dollars they can't look at the West High am I

[Speaker 2] (43:59 - 44:58)
correct so you're so I think I'm so I know that it everyone should apply there are a lot of their other factors so we would also ask a question about mobile vouchers for instance section a vouchers so anyone with a voucher is also welcome to apply anyone can apply to the property and once we get the application we look at the household income the household composition how many people in the whole household and place them on in the lottery once the lottery is complete on every every type of apartment bedroom size that they qualify for and income level that they qualify for but that that was correct if someone's income does go up there are rules set in place where incomes can go up to a certain level no one has ever evicted because their income goes up after they move in as long as you know everyone's honest on their application we assume people are so that's that's not an issue and I apologize I thought you were asking a different

[Speaker 9] (44:58 - 45:28)
question yeah I have one other question I'm reluctant to say it in a room but I'm concerned so I'm going to ask it anyway I was with a I was in a building with a large group of people who were talking about the Westcott and they mentioned there was some kind of problem with access like for a fire department access that no we've worked we've worked really closely okay I just want to make sure because I heard that a lot of people did I just wanted to confirm that it was yeah the

[Speaker 2] (45:28 - 46:19)
fire department is very specific about access to the building and both access and design so they make sure down to the foot that they have the turning access and etc yeah no we're happy to happy to answer that it's another question the front row mm-hmm yes yes and also the if you happen to miss the lottery deadline we still accept applications we will continue to accept applications and basically what will happen to that lottery list as it turns into a waiting list and the folks that were not on the initial lottery list are placed by date and time like you would typically see in any any waiting list going forward and I would just encourage people to I

[Speaker 3] (46:20 - 46:41)
hope everyone can hear I would encourage people to please apply because you hear these big numbers and Joe and I were just talking before this that we did another project where you know we took 400 applications to fill 40 units because people change their minds people move somewhere else so even if the lotteries closed and there's a waitlist I would still encourage people to to

[Speaker 1] (46:41 - 47:31)
apply for four units at any property there's a there's a state-level database that has recently come online called housing navigator and the great thing about housing navigator is somebody who's looking for a unit can look basically all over the Commonwealth for a unit but maybe maybe the frustrating thing for for a new developer a new development is you don't know how many people have applied that have also applied for things all over the place so I think you know the great thing is that this information is available for people to find units elsewhere but but to bolster a Lawrence point you just get on the list because you really you don't know what what the end of the day is going to be the result it's a website it's how it's called housing navigator yes

[Speaker 2] (47:32 - 49:32)
I believe it is housing I believe housing navigator calm I don't I believe it lists all upcoming and current lotteries as well so to list upcoming projects throughout the state so question here I understand the short answer is yes so the the rents are restricted by AMI so if someone that the maximum rents that we can charge for particular programs are set by HUD and set by the IRS so there's different programs a handful of different programs involved so there are maximum rents so just because someone's income goes up to a certain degree doesn't mean that their rents going to go up that same percentage the the answer is another politicky answer it depends so it depends on the program so some of the programs most of most programs require annual recertification so that's correct the state's workforce housing program only requires recertifications every other year so that's the hundred and ten percent level so there's a little difference between those two the least terms but it would not vary no just that recertification requirement everything else would be the same we sign yeah all the leases will be 12 months initially yes

[Speaker 3] (49:48 - 50:09)
that's a really good question that is a good question we do we do do a study to you know estimate what electricity costs are it's all electric property and that is factored into the rents that are charged I think is the easiest easiest way to say it that yes that that is

[Speaker 12] (50:09 - 50:33)
factored in hi Lauren and Joe thank you for for being here and sharing so much important information about the the Westcott project just one simple question are animals allowed in these in these new units yes yes they are any any size restrictions I believe don't quote me on this I

[Speaker 2] (50:33 - 51:00)
believe for dogs it's it's either 50 or 65 pounds for dogs yes we have a pet spa if you'd like we do have a pet spa to wash your dog we have a pet spa that's right fantastic thank you 70 okay see that's why I said don't quote me I was off his 70 pounds so yes dogs dogs cats typical household animals are allowed yes one in the back I have a quick question yes when you so application the

[Speaker 19] (51:00 - 51:05)
lottery you said is in January applications are available online are they paper and pencil as

[Speaker 2] (51:05 - 52:04)
well yep so we can go back to that screen if you like so applications are online also applications are available at Swanscott Public Library Town Hall and also at Cobb Hill Apartments which we manage in Lynn but you could print it from our website and scan it and email it to us with a signature just as a reminder make sure that everything is complete if there if there are blank spaces if the application is incomplete we will try to get back in touch with you repeatedly by email by phone by mail but we'd want to make sure that each application is included in the in the lottery so make sure that each each blank is filled out and do they have to be scanned and emailed or can they be physically dropped off it could be physically dropped off yeah at at Cobb Hill Apartments and when the address is on the screen and in the application package and I

[Speaker 3] (52:04 - 52:22)
believe our model unit will be open by February so you're welcome to to come and see it if that that helps and we'll have a leasing office open there as well right January for the lottery and

[Speaker 16] (52:22 - 52:28)
then it says December for the deadline so that's right right so the the lottery is literally a lot

[Speaker 1] (52:28 - 52:39)
so in order to be ready to do the lottery to do the actual choosing they have to have all the applications in and sorted and gone through and make sure they're all complete before that

[Speaker 16] (52:39 - 52:48)
that's all you get it done send your application and then you go to the lottery that's right yeah

[Speaker 2] (52:48 - 54:16)
so as long as the application is complete and you qualify for one of the programs you're in the lottery so once you apply you will get correspondence from us likely by email and by mail that says essentially thank you for your application this is your application number we look forward to the lottery by the way you do not need to be present for the lottery lottery numbers are assigned and then after the lottery we sort all of the various types bedroom sizes all of the programs and then we start contacting folks about coming in and verifying income so all of that will happen we'll have the lottery in January after all the sorts and everything are done we'll start calling people in January February for May June move-ins it's a lot of steps involved that's why it's we have to start so far ahead of time another question so yes so there will be on-site management so yeah generally they'll be there Monday through Friday but it could also be Saturday as well during the lease up will probably be there six to seven days a week security a full security security camera package currently do not have plans for on-site

[Speaker 8] (54:16 - 54:41)
security guards for the other population that is going to be living there can they sub lease at any point no you have to live at the property percent but the other percent they have to live there as well they need to live there as well yes whether we drink or have criminal records are they

[Speaker 2] (54:41 - 55:02)
asked that as well it's the it's the same application so we're there's some HUD questions that we have to ask there are certain HUD restrictions on that that's why the questions yeah everyone goes through the same background check anybody have other questions you know if

[Speaker 1] (55:02 - 55:20)
you want any general questions about development or swamps got affordable housing about their Sean public housing anything else that you might want to discuss or learn about tonight yes yes

[Speaker 4] (55:22 - 55:38)
but you can still apply yes but the waiting list is open it is age 55 and older and if you're interested in applying to join the waiting list you can call our let at the number listed on

[Speaker 6] (55:38 - 56:07)
the screen I just want to make a quick little plug to regarding the pickup applications for the Westcott at Swampscott Town Hall you can do that at customer service where you pay your bills I'll make sure that there's a constantly free filled printed stack of applications there and then if you have any specific questions you're more than welcome to swing by my office and community development also on the first floor just down the other end of the hallway my question

[Speaker 8] (56:08 - 56:22)
I'm just gonna say and also at the Senior Center as well well I'll be quick the future of swamps get housing Authority is it going to remain in Swampscott is your office always going to be in

[Speaker 5] (56:22 - 57:25)
Swampscott I think that's our Charter that we will be in Swampscott we are looking at plans to do some different developments here in Swampscott some different lands as I mentioned our family housing is if you look at my list of my waiting list I've got 60,000 people on my waiting list and out of that a majority of them are vouchers which we handle some voucher work but a big majority of that is family housing which is a huge need we have about 17,000 families on our waiting list so anything that we could do a mixed income development that would be really good to help alleviate some of the some of the high cost of rent in our area yeah okay

[Speaker 17] (57:34 - 57:48)
you do yeah yes that's okay now if somebody's already done an application with DH CD you need

[Speaker 5] (57:48 - 58:20)
to do a champ one as well well it depends if you want to get into state-aided public housing I think the DH CD I used to help run a homeless shelter and that's more for getting people that are vulnerable into state program federal programs for instance the state set aside or the state aided programs would all come through the champ start at champ I have a question for Westcott

[Speaker 18] (58:21 - 58:31)
does the rent include electric or what are part of what is included at the rent the rent is is the

[Speaker 2] (58:31 - 59:02)
rent only but the utilities are factored into the rent calculations so for the affordable programs there's a maximum rent that can be charged and then what's called a utility allowance that's deducted from that maximum so it's it's factored into what we're allowed to charge for rent so it would be rent plus utilities electric phone cable internet great thank you I would say with our

[Speaker 5] (59:02 - 59:44)
housing all our utilities all the water all the electric are provided and we're very similar we have residents actually we probably have one of the best resident service coordinators in the at the Swampscott Housing Authority and one of the things that we've really been working on is aging in place I know you just did something about that and really keeping people in their units for a long time because it is very difficult to find places as people age out and that's where a resident service coordinator comes in very handy one of the one of the things that I've

[Speaker 1] (59:44 - 1:01:01)
been doing a lot of in my regular day job is in addition to you know family housing and affordable housing you know just transit oriented is also looking at supportive housing which is it's a little bit more than you know resident services it's really trying to target populations that need very specific housing related services people who are coming out of homelessness people who have very specific health issues people who may be who are fleeing domestic violence there are different kinds of supportive housing as well so I think just something to keep in mind that these are other agenda mandate items that the Commonwealth wants to fund they have a whole entire funding round that's dedicated to supportive housing and they've been and also shelters now as well so you know it's everything it's it's family housing it's you know housing for young young professionals who want to relocate it's it's housing for people who are struggling with homelessness it's and everything in between and so each of these projects kind of tries to hit a different population and and address that with the kinds of services and so anyway just so you know and I think I think the veterans housing concept will really dig a little deeper on supportive

[Speaker 3] (1:01:01 - 1:01:49)
housing type of programming and we did also want to say that you know Wynn has several other properties in the area we have a big presence we're working on more properties in this region we have a few developments happening in Salem right now that are kind of you know three four years down the line but you know we have a lot in we have project in Lynn I mean Joe can talk a little bit more about all of our existing projects in the area since he's the he's the expert but I encourage you to also look at our website if you know this the Westcott isn't exactly the right one for you maybe there's some other affordable housing we have in the area that that may be

[Speaker 2] (1:01:49 - 1:03:07)
maybe good yeah so unfortunately nothing that's that's going to open anytime soon but as you mentioned we have two upcoming projects in Salem one right on the waterfront mixed income type of property right next to the T station that also includes the rehab of a couple of historic buildings across the street we also have project coming up on a piece of the old sale not all the Salem State South campus we're partnering with Avalon on that and that will our piece of that project will be about a hundred units hundred units of age-restricted 55 plus unfortunately as we've said that's probably four or five more years down the road but that that is happening and also recently we announced or there was announced some funding for a project we're partnering with New England homes for the deaf in Danvers so that specific population will have a preference for deaf and deaf-blind folks working on that campus so a lot to come for us but we're looking forward to joining the community here so thank you and I would say as I think was kind of

[Speaker 3] (1:03:07 - 1:03:22)
mentioned before that the Westcott does have a local preference requirement so there is preference given to people who live in the town of Swampscott so keep that in mind question how many applicants

[Speaker 10] (1:03:22 - 1:03:49)
do you typically get more applicants than you have spaces and if so to what extent do you get more applications than you have spaces well speak to the Westcott and other other examples of mixed housing like that what has been your experience between count of applications and people who get

[Speaker 2] (1:03:49 - 1:04:33)
accepted I have to say it depends again I'm sorry so we get generally for example we had a lottery in Lawrence recently for 86 units we received 12 there were 1,200 applications on the lottery list but in that same lottery Lawrence spoke about earlier for our one bedrooms specifically our 60% one bedrooms there are about 40 of them we had we had over 200 applications for those particular units we we processed or went through all of those applications and had to go to a secondary list so yes we get a lot of applications but there are pockets where we may go through everyone on the

[Speaker 4] (1:04:33 - 1:05:13)
realist and move on to the secondary list we've had a similar experience outside of the city of Boston in the city of Boston the lottery list tends to satisfy the lease up in more suburban locations we often go through the folks that are selected through the lottery and then move on to the additional people added list so in essence if you're interested in living at the Westcott please apply to their lottery this is your best chance yeah thank you for that I appreciate that

[Speaker 2] (1:05:13 - 1:05:21)
lovely thank you yeah and I agree so you can you can apply now I had another thought but I lost it

[Speaker 1] (1:05:21 - 1:06:27)
so I'll leave it at that well and just so you know there I mean and it's when and the neighbors both do amazing work in the region and there are other developments that will come online within the next year that are there are a number of nonprofits on the North Shore that have active developments in Beverly and in Salem and in Lynn and so and they're all they all experience the same pressures on the lot or you know the same ratio of application to people who actually can fill the units so again if you look at housing navigator you'll see as some of these start to come online I just closed a project you know the financing for something that's being to to two separate redevelopments of historic schools in Salem and one of them is has will have age it will be age-restricted and one of them has artist preference and you know maybe it's a total of 40-something units it's not going to change everything but you know that plus the next plus the next keeps chipping away at it so you should definitely keep an eye out for these these are really lovely developments

[Speaker 3] (1:06:27 - 1:06:55)
done by very very excellent developers thank you Kim I would also say about to look on housing navigator because we're actually required now by the state to put every single one of our projects on there every every affordable project is on there so you know you're you're not going to find a better resource anywhere else that's where all of the affordable housing is listed so and you can probably I'm sure search by age restricted or income restrictions but it should all be on

[Speaker 11] (1:06:55 - 1:07:19)
there yeah I'll repeat the question so the question was a about dogs and dogs dogs barking and what

[Speaker 2] (1:07:19 - 1:08:35)
what do we do and noise in general yeah I mean it's especially if you're moving from a single family home your own home to apartment living it's an adjustment right you have people next to you most likely you have people above you you may have a dog below you so just like any noise dog barking noise would be addressed in the same way with the on-site management staff having a conversation with the pet owner speaking to the neighbors if there have been complaints you know and escalating again as with any other lease violations so if there continues to be issues with the pet lease violations and stronger notices going to court if we have to all of those same things that we would do with any other lease violations but really no one wants to end up in court so we try to work with every resident to help alleviate that but but yes especially if you're you're coming from a single family home to apartment life there is certainly an adjustment for for noise and people above you yeah you're welcome there's one more question in the back yes everyone be required to sign the pet policy there will be if we want to get into reasonable

[Speaker 1] (1:08:35 - 1:09:11)
accommodations maybe I'll just leave it there so this has been great really came with some excellent questions and we really appreciate your interest in these developments and also just in general any more questions I know it's been a little over an hour and so sometimes it's just time to be done but any I know anybody here on this panel is always available for additional questions I think you can call the management you can actually call the manager of the Michon

[Speaker 3] (1:09:11 - 1:09:30)
we can all be reached so if you have any additional questions I would encourage you on the Westcott swamp Scott website there's an email address for the property that we check daily and we respond to those emails so just if anyone has anything that comes up just send an email don't be shy

[Speaker 7] (1:09:30 - 1:10:09)
we're available one more question yes I have a question on topic off topic I think this was on the nest so you know anything you read on the nest isn't gospel right just like me it's like the other Facebook group it's one of the Facebook right it's kind of a fun place to just comment on stuff anyway but I think I had read on the nest that mr. Wynn when properties was in process of doing something with the marble head housing authority was that factual or I think that's I

[Speaker 3] (1:10:09 - 1:10:13)
think that's something that's in very very early stages I it's not a project that I work on so I

[Speaker 1] (1:10:13 - 1:10:46)
don't know I actually it's it's it's like real I mean and this is worthy of conversation only in that I had mentioned earlier that sometimes housing authorities can team up with private developers to do redevelopment and in fact Wynn is working with the marble head housing authority on just that I don't know how many units it's gonna be but it's pretty exciting because it's exciting because it's exciting because redevelopment of housing authority property is something that needs to happen and I think the best way to to get some of the funding that you can use is through

[Speaker 3] (1:10:46 - 1:11:01)
that private developer channels we have a lot of a lot of public housing that you know is 50 60 years old needs to be redeveloped and a lot of times we will do you know a public-private

[Speaker 7] (1:11:01 - 1:11:49)
partnership to make that yeah I thought that was very interesting that's real and just for the people in this room that do go on the nest you know that thing about the safety issue not that I'm taking over the meeting but I am you know I would Kevin the thing about the safety issue with the fire I was there as they were building I'm still there I live at Dougherty Circle so I'm there and the fire chief from Swampscott was there before they even put a stake in the ground to make sure that indeed they could reach every part of the Westcott and they were precise so they don't allow us to worry about anybody here that's worried about the safety of it that's reading

[Speaker 2] (1:11:49 - 1:12:15)
that on the nest just ignore it so that the story about that the story about Marblehead is correct but I frankly I know what you know at this point it may or may not be in my portfolio and I'm in operations so I don't get involved for quite a while but yes the fire department will not allow us or any other new building to open without multiple inspections and blessings thank you

[Speaker 6] (1:12:16 - 1:13:04)
very much one more plug about next weekend I'm sorry excuse me next Monday just wanted a quick overview of the accessory dwelling unit discussion you know given that we've spoken about affordable housing tonight one of the unfortunate main takeaways is that our affordable housing supply stock is very limited and you know that's that's the same across many communities here in the state and in talking about accessory dwelling units we are going to talk about creative ways that if you are a property owner you can create an affordable housing opportunity out of your own property it would allow you to age in place and possibly live with family members of your own of different generations so if that's something that you are interested in we would welcome you join the discussion we're excited to have you back thanks everyone