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Progress was made in August on Organizational Development, Professional Development and operations of the Dovie Trust, despite challenges of delayed funding and commensurate staffing. In staffing, new professional support came with an Americorps/VISTA placement at Voice. The “Owner Services Specialist” who began in July and advanced his orientation in August, is supporting networking, services, and advocacy with affordable housing owners, including preservation efforts coming to the forefront with planned San Miguel Apartments development. This is a potential Dovie Trust property, and the first of a large scale development to become part of the Trust. Large scale developments, with multiple layers of funding and investment, pose interesting potential barriers to progress with the Dovie Trust, because affordability covenants need to be approved by each. This is a challenge we will return to repeatedly in the coming months. In training, Voice staff attended the COLT CCLF Training that was facilitated by Grounded Solutions, August 6th. In terms of operations for the three pilot buildings a part of the trust, a meeting was held between Relative to leadership development and engagement, both the board of the Trust and Voice as fiscal agent occurred during the month, including preparatory consultations with key board members and University of Chicago faculty, relative to draft by-law governance updates that could be considered for the Trust board. At issue is plans to rebalance directors including replacements for two founding board members, as well as owner and tenant reps and CLT supporters/professionals that will make up a “tri-partate board” structure to be put into place sometime in 2025. Most importantly, staff engaged with TA Consultant for Ownership Initiative to strategically plan for RFP or Structured Outreach to our most important operational ally, our lender and Community Development Corporation. Significant prep was made in advance of August 16th half-day site visit, with significant work to follow through year end.

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Regarding member benefits, chief among them is property tax relief, which helps to make affordable housing more sustainable over time. This was reaffirmed during our preceding strategic planning, and since – in conversation with housing organizations and potential Trust members of the future. There are many other potential benefits for members of the Trust, but these will mostly await work until later in 2024-25, including with upcoming local and state QAP opportunities to provide input into public policies. Following on the Social Cost Appeals Training Session last month, with affordable housing providers, supporters and public officials as the primary audience, Voice anticipated the beginning of technical support consultations to organization reps. After outreach to Northside Community Resources, one such session occurred with Giselle Hennings. She works with as many private and non-profit multi-unit owners as any agency on the northside, primarily for applicant/referral of tenants for placement. Making them aware of this strategic approach to lowering taxes is something they can encourage and bring value to their owner communications, and, some of those same owners can be part of education, outreach and marketing (below).

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As referenced above, the Social Cost Appeals training which happened in July, and which was memorialized on video in August https://bit.ly/SaveTaxes_SaveAffordableHousing , was a real step forward in outreach, education and marketing on the key issue of sustaining affordable housing. Two other related initiatives have even more potential impact on future activities of the Trust. One is the culminating efforts of a broad housing, service, advocacy and legislator Preservation Task Force that have formed with the significant help of Voice of the People and ONE Northside. Preparatory meetings and virtual calls took place during the month to prepare and begin to organize for a September Town Hall, where among the Social Justice agenda items, was enlisting government support at all levels for Saving the Leland Hotel and the San Miguel Apartments, representing 208 units of affordable housing in the Uptown community. Voice’s role has been to educate and inform non-profit, legislative and community representatives to the critical issues in saving these buildings, and introducing them to the concept of “permanent affordability” as a unifying feature included in community land trusts, and “investments in services” which is a key factor in affordable housing sustainability. As mentioned, Voice and NHP Foundation, a national non-profit, are position to purchase the San Miguel, and if all mitigating factors/barriers are navigated, this could be a significant addition to the Dovie Thurman Affordable Housing Trust.

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We have detailed in the past how certain objectives could not be achieved on original timely based on slowed grant distributions and the uncertainty of successor support. However, we’re gratified by staffing addition from Americorps/VISTA where most of salary/benefit costs are covered by this federal program. And, we are in process now of adjusting the CWEB work plan and budgets through year end. However, work plans for an organizational start-up, encouraged and supported by the City CCWBE Program, and a traditional “Pre-Development” Project with a range of acquisition, building, professional and property management reimbursable “hard costs” – differs greatly. The City, in its vouchering process, is now asking for “Proof of Progress” in ways that are not reasonable. We are not equipped, like a law firm that bills in 6-minute increments for example, to track our progress in administration, with proposals, for communications and media, or even phone calls to TA Providers, allies, leaders, prospective supporters and future members of the Trust. We may request of meeting with the City to discuss this.

A long-delayed decisionmaking process by the lender of three buildings slated for the Trust, resulted in conditional approval of affordable housing covenants that we did not find acceptable. We had intended to reach out to other lenders to assume our very favorable loans on existing properties. However, the opportunity to work with Owner Initiatives, a city-approved and funded TA Provider for community land trusts, to do a more deliberate outreach or manage an RFP process for CDFIs, was exciting to say the least. We not only want a lender for Trust properties, but also a promoter of this strategic approach to community development, and provider of financial services… Stay tuned for more on this.