Greene’s video explained the city is receiving a total of $2,420,796 from the federal rescue plan, with half coming last year and the other half coming this year. She said the city can take its time with the decision on use of the money, which is needed by 2024, but added a caution that it must be spent by 2026 and waiting too long will cut short time to implement whatever purchases are approved.
“This is once-in-a-generation and shows how we are investing for the future,” she said. “We have done a lot of research and have tried to align (recommendations) with Council goals. We have done community outreach and a business survey for a broad survey of everyone.”
Greene said affordable housing was probably the area where the majority of their research was focused.
Part of the proposal involved a continuing partnership providing funding for the Family Resource Center to provide affordable housing with a social worker assigned to that effort. That work has already found housing for 13 families who had previously been served in the cold shelter service.
One possible option is the formation of a Community Land Trust as part of the housing effort. A land trust uses public funds to purchase property which is then sold to low-to-moderate income people able to acquire a mortgage. They can sell the house later but must do so within the guidelines of the land trust in order to “pay it forward” and keep the property available for continued housing for those needing it.
That effort could start with a portion of the city-owned land on Route 732 but she is proposing development of a master plan for the entire 42 acres.
She is proposing $1 million for the infrastructure to part of that land in order to prepare it for development by private developers working within the guidelines established for the area.
Option 2 is a public/non-profit partnership to acquire vacant property or homes for the non-profit to prepare them for sale to sell to low-to-moderate income families, similar to the land trust option and also with an initial outlay of $1 million. Both would depend on dedication of future CDBG money or HOME grants to sustain them beyond the set-up.
The recommendation to Council included four parts:
· $25,000 to the Family Resource Center to support case management staff
· $45,000 for creation of a master plan for the 732 property
· $150,000 already spent on the Cottage Community of Hester Road
· $1 million for city investment in construction of affordable housing units
That would account for $1,220,000 of the Rescue Plan funds.
In the category of economic development, Greene suggested a plan to encourage high-quality jobs in the community. She defined that as 100 new jobs paying $20 or more per hour within five years.
“We have already invested $113,000 in the workforce development center,” she said. “We are suggesting $266,000 to complete the curb ADA compliance which would free up CDBG money in the future to support the future housing non-profit.”
She also suggested a workforce development center be created at the high school to serve high school students during the day, but also offer workforce training for adults in the evenings.
“We’re really excited about this,” she said. “We can retrain adult employees. We will need additional grants.”
Those economic development projects would cost an estimated $1,179,000.
During the Council discussion, Glenn Ellerbe suggested a way to supplement available properties for affordable housing might be to look for donors, such as in estates, donating their homes to the project.
Mayor Bill Snavely followed that by saying, “I know of people who have moved away and not sold their home because they could not find a family to buy it.”
In their discussion of the economic development proposals, Ellerbe reminded everyone about certification testing required in many employment areas after training and said those tests require travel.
“Miami University does not have certification options. After training, they have to go to Butler Tech or UC,” he said. “Setting up a testing station would create a revenue stream.”
David Prytherch said he likes the idea of workplace training, but did not want it to become a situation of training people for Miami.
Snavely said he wants to see new businesses but wants a particular focus.
“We need to look at year-round business not dependent on the school year,” he said.
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