04-25 Joint CC and HRA Work Session CITY COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES
Richfield, Minnesota
w * Special Concurrent City Council and
Housing and Redevelopment Authority
111,11)(1m%n
Work Session
April 25, 2017
CALL TO ORDER
The concurrent work session was called to order by Mayor Elliott at 5:37 p.m. in the
Bartholomew Room.
Council Members Pat Elliott, Mayor; Edwina Garcia; Michael Howard; and Maria Regan
Present: Gonzalez.
HRA Members Mary Supple, Chair; Pat Elliott; Michael Howard; Doris Rubenstein; and Sue
Present: Sandahl.
Staff Present: Steven L. Devich, City Manager/Executive Director; and John Stark,
Community Development Director; Pam Dmytrenko, Assistant City
Manager/HR Manager; Mary Tietjen, City Attorney; Jared Voto, Executive
Aide/Analyst.
Item #1 PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION REGARDING AFFORDABLE HOUSING
Mayor Elliott addressed the audience and introduced principals from Aeon to the audience.
The members of the Aeon team introduced themselves.
Eric Schnell, Chief Operating Officer for Aeon, spoke about the purchase of Seasons Park and
the work they do to keep units affordable.
Christine Hart, Community Developer at Community Action Partnership of Southern Hennepin
(CAPSH), introduced herself and other presenters, Lisa Horn, CEO of VEAP, and Lael Robertson,
Staff Attorney with the Housing Justice Center. Hart provided an overview of the upcoming discussion
on the trends in affordable housing and talked about the consortium of 20 service providers in
Hennepin County that came together a year and a half ago, known as the Suburban Hennepin
Housing Coalition, which is looking at issues in suburban Hennepin and trying to find gaps in the
services they provide.
Horn discussed who VEAP serves as a basic need social service agency. VEAP is an active
member of the Suburban Hennepin Housing Coalition and works closely with Hennepin County in
providing integrated services. She discussed the issues VEAP are seeing with their clients; the work
they do to help clients and working with an affordability and accessibility problem in housing; helping
clients navigate with landlords; and keeping people within their communities. She also spoke about
the need for a comprehensive approach to this issue.
Hart noted an information guide that was handed out and discussed information on it, including
that 73% of rental housing in Richfield was naturally occurring affordable housing.
Robertson discussed the Housing Justice Center, a non-profit law firm, which has been
working with cities and counties to keep and create safe, suitable, and dignified affordable housing.
Special Concurrent Work Session Minutes -2- April 25,2017
She discussed the rental/housing market is a very tight currently in the Twin Cities area. She
discussed options that Richfield could implement, including:
• Identification of buildings and documenting the problem;
• Advance notice period;
• Help preservation to buy at risk buildings;
• Right of first refusal;
• Local programs offering rehab financing in return for affordability commitments;
• 4d property tax program;
• Prohibition of Section 8 discrimination;
• For cause eviction;
• Incentives to address landlords concerns about renting to certain groups of tenants;
• lnclusionary housing;
• Increasing local government leverage through zoning; and
• Rental assistance.
Hart further discussed having strong and proactive language in the comprehensive plan about
affordable housing. Robertson added that the comprehensive plan is a tool to layout Richfield's values
and what we want Richfield to look like in the future.
Mayor Elliott invited Hennepin County Commissioner Debbie Goettel to speak from the
County's perspective. Commissioner Goettel spoke regarding the difficulty of instable housing, shared
handouts of County programs available to residents, a new program called the Naturally Occurring
Affordable Housing Fund, and the need to identify at-risk buildings that provide affordable housing
currently. Mayor Elliott commented he thought the County is a more viable partner and better
resource in the current political climate.
Council Member/Commissioner Howard thanked everyone for attending, stated we should
continue the conversation, and suggested Richfield hold a forum on housing, similar to a forum Eden
Prairie held in their community.
Council Member Regan Gonzalez thanked everyone for attending and agreed with the forum
on housing and asked the Council and staff to review the list of options available.
Council Member Garcia thanked everyone for attending and agreed that everyone needs to be
on the same page to form sound policy moving forward.
Council Members and HRA Commissioners all thanked the presenters for the information and
allowing them to look proactively at the issue and thanked those in attendance at the work session.
ADJOURNMENT
The concurrent work session was adjourned by unanimous consent at 6:43 p.m.
Date Approved: May 9, 2017
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