Thread by @shayshinecastle

As mentioned, we're having a little discussion on BHP, the city's main provider of affordable housing: 1,597 units, plus 1,411 vouchers — about 5% of Boulder's households.

Presentation with lots o' data: documents.bouldercolorado.gov/WebLink/DocVie…

They've grown A LOT in recent years, adding 501 units since 2016.

I suspect that's why we're here. I've heard rumblings for the past few years about their management amid all this growth, and they got louder after the recent chop shop / drug and weapon arrest at 30Pearl.

Some resident complaints are to be expected in a housing provider of this size, so it's hard to sort out if BHP is an outlier.

733 new units in the pipeline, exec director Jeremy Durham says

72% of BHP households earn 30% of AMI or less. For a house of 3, that's $33,870

The avg income across all BHP is $17,017. More than half (53%) of residents are families with children. Avg income: $29,896

Just in case you're interested in who you're protesting when you're protesting affordable housing.

BHP also houses 210 formerly unhoused individuals. The city has a new rule that a certain % of new housing has to be reserved for the formerly unhoused.

One-quarter (25 people) of BHP's team is in property management; slightly more are in maintenance: 28 people.

BHP has a 97% occupancy rate.

"It's a lot of work for residents to re-certify their income," Durham says, which they have to do each year to prove they can stay in affordable housing. 1,275 re-certifications each year

Wi-Fi is free at 78% of BHP properties, and will eventually be at all of them. Which is kinda nice.

Ya'll helped a bit with that: In approving extra $$ for the broadband buildout so that it connects to BHP properties.

Durham talking a little bit about how BHP gathers resident feedback. "Around 70% of residents would rate them as v satisfied or satisfied," he says. We are looking at ways to bring that up.

"We're the only housing authority I'm aware of that's above a 4" on Google reviews (which seems weird that housing authorities would be on Google reviews, but OK). BHP is at a 4.5, which is highly unusual, Durham says.

Durham: "We try to structure and work as hard as we can, but it's challenging to be a property manager. Living in community can be challenging. Stuff is going to come up. We have processes in place" for when they do.

Grievance policy is here: boulderhousing.org/resident-conce…

It includes an ombudsperson

There are several overseeing agencies and orgs, which do a number of audits and compliance checks and stuff.

"We have very few findings against us," Durham says, then explains one of them: A voucher holder overpaid by $14 one year, resulting in a finding.

I believe these findings are public for all providers of affordable housing. Will try to find those...

BHP has gotten 40% of all of the state's renovation tax credit $$ since 2016, despite making up 1.7% of the state's housing/population (I missed which those were, but whoa either way)

Boulder's affordable housing program is much, much more advanced than most cities.

That's bc it started so long ago: circa 2000

In part* because it started so long ago. Not the whole reason.

Nice explainer of vouchers and what they are:
- Federally funded rental assistance that covers a portion of the voucher holder’s rent
- BHP vouchers can be used anywhere in Boulder County

- Vouchers can be transferred to any of the 50 states and US territories, but , but 75% of them stay here
- Families pay an average of 32% of their income toward rent, and the voucher covers the rest (up to established payment standards based on HUD Fair Market Rents)

- Households for elderly and people with disabilities pay 26.5% of their income toward rent

"This is the deepest level of affordability we can provide, is when we have a voucher," Durham says.

Durham: "We have an excellent program that HUD has a ton of faith in. That level of trust helps us get vouchers."

"The need for affordable housing is tremendous," Durham says. 54,000 renters pay more than 50% of their income toward rent in Boulder County. That doesn't include the folks who drive in to work here.

Durham: "The mere threat or rumor of tax reform led to the main tool of funding we use — tax credits — plummeting in value."

Some good visualizations of how much BHP has grown in the past 6 years

We've tried to keep up with staff, Durham says

Also forgot to mention another cool stat, which is that 49% of BHP properties have rooftop solar. They try to make utilities as cheap as possible for renters.

Durham on Prop 123, which will set aside state $$ for affordable housing: That can bring substantial amounts of $$ to Boulder, provided we can make some adjustments to our planning process — particularly how quickly we process affordable projects.

Yates q on internet service to BHP: You've got a deal with Comcast to provide service to 78% of your residents. We could connect maybe all of the BHP properties to high-speed fiber for about $3M. Should we?

So I guess you *didn't* help in providing that free internet. My b.

Durham: That would be a 22-year payback for the city, and save us $134,000 a year in Comcast internet cost. If the city could offer that for free, which I'm not sure you're able to.

"I'm trying to be a good partner to the city. Idk that that makes sense."

Joseph: You have 4,000 residents. What % of those were satisfied in those customer surveys?
Durham: 87.5% got 3 stars or up, 70% 4 or 5 stars

Joseph: You mention the ombudsman process. We've had ppl coming to council many, many times with concerns, questions, process. How long have you had that ombudsman?

Durham: Probably about 1.5 years

So very, very new. Interesting.

Folkerts asks about the HUD secretary and Neguse visit BHP recently.
Durham: The administrative burden of re-certifying for affordable housing is extremely high. "Almost everybody who is certifying their income for BHP has already done it with another agency."

Durham: For folks who have to re-certify their incomes with gov't agencies over and over, vs. those agencies being able to share that info... that's what HUD has proposed. To use income certification from other programs.

Folkerts: Prop 123 has 90-day approval requirements for affordable housing permits. Are there any other requirements for $$ that we should be aware of? And does that include the whole process?
Durham: I think the site review process isn't included in that. It's ambiguous.

Kurt Firnhaber: The state has also, they're going to be putting out funding for municipalities like ourself, to help create the capacity needed to help meet some of those requirements. They're defining those requirements better right now.

Brad Mueller, planning director: We're still learning, but it's on my radar.

Durham: The other requirement is that cities have a plan to grow affordable housing stock by 3% a year. "Boulder is in v good shape there, and has been a leader in the state."

BHP alone should be able to meet that requirement, Durham says, let alone what other developers contribute.

Speer: How many of our 733 units planned are going to be accessible?

Real dearth of accessible AND affordable units, not only here but everywhere.

Laura Sheinbaum: It's at a v minimum 5%, but generally we have higher thresholds we have to meet from the various funding sources.

Speer: Any plan to go above that? Our population is going to be growing and aging in the next several years. How are we planning now in the housing we're building?

Sheinbaum: Absolutely. We try to make our buildings accessible generally, and build our units so they can easily be made accessible. "There's def a lot of intention" to make sure our portfolio meets the needs of the community.

Durham: We have a process by which units can be retrofitted to become ADA accessible, even if it wasn't built that way. Residents can request that.

Speer: "What I keep running into is a situation that folks are really hesitant to come forward with issues about maintenance, rent payments," etc. Is there an option for an independent survey "outside of BHP" where people "feel more free and comfortable" to give feedback?

Speer: "I don't bring this up to be like, oh, you're doing a terrible job. I know that you really want this feedback, bc you've mentioned that a number of times. AND I'm running into folks who don't feel comfortable, bc they feel they're in danger of losing housing."

Durham: Yes to outside surveys and an independent ombudsperson. We have done independent surveys, and we'd be happy to partner on a neutral, third-party ombudsman.

"I have never seen an instance at BHP of somebody being retaliated against for complaining."

"But I'm sensitive to that dynamic, and folks based on prior experience, maybe have that concern," Durham says. We're focused on relationship building this year, "so that there isn't that unfounded fear that bringing a complaint forward could result in a loss of housing."

Firnhaber: Folks can also use mediation. We have a team of 60 mediators that work with the city. The majority of those are landlord-tenant mediations. Some BHP residents have taken advantage of that.

Winer: That's great news about the paperwork changing, possibly. When?

Durham: It's a proposed rule, which means it's going into HUD's rule-change process. I don't want to over-promise. "It's not going to be Monday."

Winer: What are your biggest challenges for BHP that didn't get into your presentation?

Durham: Something the council is familiar with — housing folks that other landlords might not accept, that becomes challenging. We had struggles in 2022, and those became pretty public.

Most folks have been successful, Durham says. Some has not, and that can be disruptive. We've seen that in small numbers, but with high impacts. That's methamphetamine. Every housing agency that I know struggles with it.

Durham: "We've tightened up our tenant screening, and we hopefully have done it in a way to minimize collateral damage" to unhoused folks, but also make sure those disruptions are minimized.

Winer: Do you feel you have enough wraparound services?
Durham: Yes. They typically do a phenomenal job. Our success rates are incredibly high: 85% at 30Pearl, 80% system wide.

"The challenge is that even that 15-20% of non-success has a really big impact."

Durham: "It can create so much concern in our community, and so much expense for an agency that is resource-constrained to begin with."

Wallach: We've had a lot of comments about oversight of BHP units. To what extent does the city have oversight over BHP units they have invested in?

Durham: The city has oversight with funding, rental licenses, etc.

Shelly Conley, who has apparently been with the city for 16 years and yet who I have never seen at a council meeting, is answering this one.

Conley: In the last 5 years, every unit in BHP's portfolio has been monitored once, at least twice. "It's exceptionally rare that BHP gets a finding." (This is related to compliance, auditing, etc. from gov't agencies)

Her point is: This upfront attention really helps prevent problems down the road.

"BHP is a model for affordable housing," Conley says.

Missed half of Joseph's qs, but Durham's response is: I'm interested in shifting some of that ombudsman work maybe into the city so it feels more neutral.

"We want folks to give us feedback, to feel safe giving us feedback, and to respond when we can," Durham says. "In some instances, we won't be able to: That's just reality." But we want to do as much as we can.

That's a wrap on this one.

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