So the state is putting up 6.45m and the county had offered 3m more. All for 21 units of housing, or $450k per unit. No land cost. What's the total expected cost to build the units? And what's the expected operating costs? Is it safety to assume these are mainly one person units and no rent will be charged? Hard for the public to understand the overall picture.
If you really want to understand what's involved in developing this housing alternative get off line and talk wo Diana Rich or Jack Tibbetts to get the details. Your innuendos that this is a bad deal is not helpful.
Article with full story probably useful for people not following all details. The answers to "Mighty Jones" queries are available and were discussed at several city council meetings. Unfortunately, even when you get into the weeds the situation is not much better than Jones described. The City was the responsible party for submitting the application but at the time we heard there was an award, the city manager stated he had not seen a copy of the application. Did SVdP file for the city? That seems wrong.
Of course, there is the "expert" consultant hired because no one in the city has any experience with HCD housing grants. He pointed out among other things that the construction cost estimates were likely too low by nearly 1/2. A member of the Planning group or DRB at the time asked how they got the building estimate for the application given that a short time before SVdp still did not have final building plans. The council was told Sebastopol homelessness would be prioritized but our “expert” consultant told us what we all know that the County has a process. Once you are accepted it can be 2 years before applicants get an offer for housing.
Mr. Tibbits described a little used loophole where the Gravenstein residents could get market rate housing vouchers. This would make the project more likely to be profitable. You may be able to capture the confidence expressed at a council meeting that the County was all in with their $3MM. Now crickets.
You could look at SVdP 990 form. They don't have the assets on that form that were stated at the meeting. The publicly available form is a bit dated but to have those assets a bit of a cash infusion happened in the last year.
Some of his questions were answered at previous council meetings, but one big one--the ultimate cost of the project--seems to be a moving target. I'm working on nailing that down.
Or he can talk to our Vice Mayor Zoleman or Councilperson McLewis who voted against it for extremely valid and legally responsible reasons. It's unfortunate for the City of S. that Sandra changed her vote after being pressured by Diana and Jack because this is actually a fiscally irresponsible idea - ask any lawyer.
https://www.hcd.ca.gov/about-hcd/newsroom/california-awards-nine-homekey-projects-to-create-533-new-permanent-supportive-homes
This article demonstrates how out of the ordinary Sebastopol is in terms of size and budget to support 2(!!!) HomeKey Projects.
It's crazy that Sebastopol is taking on 2 of these projects when its only very large Cities or Counties that have taken them on.
So the state is putting up 6.45m and the county had offered 3m more. All for 21 units of housing, or $450k per unit. No land cost. What's the total expected cost to build the units? And what's the expected operating costs? Is it safety to assume these are mainly one person units and no rent will be charged? Hard for the public to understand the overall picture.
If you really want to understand what's involved in developing this housing alternative get off line and talk wo Diana Rich or Jack Tibbetts to get the details. Your innuendos that this is a bad deal is not helpful.
On the other hand, he's asking some questions I could answer in a future article.
Article with full story probably useful for people not following all details. The answers to "Mighty Jones" queries are available and were discussed at several city council meetings. Unfortunately, even when you get into the weeds the situation is not much better than Jones described. The City was the responsible party for submitting the application but at the time we heard there was an award, the city manager stated he had not seen a copy of the application. Did SVdP file for the city? That seems wrong.
Of course, there is the "expert" consultant hired because no one in the city has any experience with HCD housing grants. He pointed out among other things that the construction cost estimates were likely too low by nearly 1/2. A member of the Planning group or DRB at the time asked how they got the building estimate for the application given that a short time before SVdp still did not have final building plans. The council was told Sebastopol homelessness would be prioritized but our “expert” consultant told us what we all know that the County has a process. Once you are accepted it can be 2 years before applicants get an offer for housing.
Mr. Tibbits described a little used loophole where the Gravenstein residents could get market rate housing vouchers. This would make the project more likely to be profitable. You may be able to capture the confidence expressed at a council meeting that the County was all in with their $3MM. Now crickets.
You could look at SVdP 990 form. They don't have the assets on that form that were stated at the meeting. The publicly available form is a bit dated but to have those assets a bit of a cash infusion happened in the last year.
Some of his questions were answered at previous council meetings, but one big one--the ultimate cost of the project--seems to be a moving target. I'm working on nailing that down.
Or he can talk to our Vice Mayor Zoleman or Councilperson McLewis who voted against it for extremely valid and legally responsible reasons. It's unfortunate for the City of S. that Sandra changed her vote after being pressured by Diana and Jack because this is actually a fiscally irresponsible idea - ask any lawyer.
Hurrah!