CPC Subcommittee on Emergency Housing Relief 4-24-2020 MTG NOTEBeverly Community Preservation Committee
Subcommittee on Emergency Housing Relief
Meeting Notes
Meeting Date: 4 -24 -2020
CPC members participating: Heather Richter; Derek Beckwith; Thomas Bussone, II; Nancy Marino
CPC Committee staff: Denise Deschamps
As Vice Chair of the Beverly Community Preservation Committee Heather Richter called the
Subcommittee meeting to order. Richter explained the purpose of the meeting and identified the CPC
members participating and that Committee staff, Denise Deschamps, was also participating in the call.
Deschamps stated that her purpose on the call was to record notes for the meeting.
Derek Beckwith proposed that the Subcommittee select a chairperson to facilitate the meetings. Nancy
Marino nominated Heather Richter. Beckwith seconded the motion and all voted in favor of Richter
chairing the Subcommittee.
Richter reviewed the items on the agenda. She then noted the guidance that CPCs state -wide, had
received from the Massachusetts Housing Partnership as well as from the MA Community Preservation
Coalition. It provided some key questions to pose /consider if a local CPC is considering the award of
funds for emergency housing relief. Richter, Marino, Beckwith and Deschamps participated in a state-
wide conference call that took place on April 22, 2020, which was organized by the Citizens' Housing and
Planning Association and Massachusetts Housing Partnership. Richter mentioned that guidance
received from multiple sources emphasizes the need to reach out to local or area community
organizations that understand housing needs, to get a sense of what the needs are in the community, at
the present time. Marino added that the City of Salem emphasized the relationships they had created
over a span of years with local and area partners and these relationships helped them to assess current
local needs in a timely fashion. Beckwith had contacted Harborlight Community Partners in anticipation
of today's subcommittee meeting to ask the organization if they would be available to provide the CPC
with technical assistance if the CPC needed to develop a framework for a program. HCP confirmed that
they would assist with this effort if asked but they were not seeking this role. (Note: If HCP did assist
the program would assist Beverly residents, community -wide, it would not be limited to HCP residents.)
Committee members discussed who the beneficiaries of the funding might be. They first discussed the
individual households that might benefit and how they would be selected. It was suggested that
individual households to benefit should be those households that do not qualify for other assistance,
that fall between the cracks, but that there also needs to be some type of income cap.
Richter mentioned that there are a number of local and area organizations that could be contacted to
provide their thoughts on needs in the community such as United Way, Salvations Army, Beverly
Bootstraps, Beverly Housing Authority, to name a few.
Beckwith agreed that it was important to assist people that do not receive and who do not qualify for
any other type of assistance. He mentioned the RAFT (Rental Assistance for Families in Transition)
program and its limitations. It is a valued program that assists households at or below 50% of Area
Median Income (AMI) and there is a cap on the amount of assistance it may provide (currently $4,000
over a 12 month period per household). Therefore, the CPC may want to consider providing assistance
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to households with income between 50 -100% of AMI or that have reached their cap. He also suggested
that in order to identify need in the community it may be helpful to identify the industry sectors
experiencing the greatest impact from COVID -19 and then by using census data determine the number
of Beverly residents working in these industry sectors to establish general need. He quoted a Pioneer
Institute study stating that the hardest hit industries are healthcare, retail, hospitality and construction.
According to census data 11,262 Beverly residents work in these sectors.
Thomas Bussone noted the challenges of administering a program such as the need to verify income and
assets as well as to determine eligibility criteria that should be in place. What entity will be determining
if a household meets those criteria. This effort needs to be undertaken by an experienced agency.
Beckwith mentioned the challenge of determining the amount of assistance each eligible household
should receive. There is interest in providing meaningful assistance to each eligible household yet there
is a desire to help as many as possible who are in need.
Richter mentioned that, in the area, there appear to be several programs either in place or to be put in
place in the very near future that are using local CPA funds to provide emergency housing relief. She
mentioned both the North Shore Community Action Program (NSCAP) and Action, Inc. Currently, the
City of Salem is partnering with NSCAP. It would be helpful to more fully understand their program
guidelines. Bussone asked if agencies providing assistance to a greater area would accept our
guidelines. The Subcommittee members agreed that the CPC is focused on providing rental housing
assistance such as rental payments. These funds would not be used to create affordable housing units.
So there is the possibility that if the CPC recommended funding for the purpose of emergency housing
relief that they could vote to provide this funding to an entity already providing this type of service - but
that the funds provided by the Beverly CPA would need to be directed to Beverly residents.
The Subcommittee members revisited the list of local and area agencies that might be contacted in
order to assess community need and gaps in services. Richter then named ten local /area agencies that
the Subcommittee could reach out to for their thoughts. These agencies are: YMCA of the North Shore;
Salvation Army; Beverly Housing Authority; United Way; HCP; St. Vincent DePaul; Beverly Bootstraps;
NSCAP; Action, Inc. and the City's veterans' agent.
Beckwith broached the topic of the amount of CPA funding that might be designated for the purpose of
emergency housing relief. He also noted that determining need and the amount of funding necessary is
complicated by the fact that the medical community does not know if COVID -19 will experience a
resurgence at some later point in 2020. If that were the case, funding may be more critical at a later
date. Bussone also pointed out that the Governor has placed a moratorium on all evictions for a period
of time. Once this moratorium is lifted, or as the end of the moratorium approaches, there may be
many more requests for assistance.
The Subcommittee members unanimously agreed to reach out to the 10 organizations previously named
are ask them two questions: (1) what are the gaps in rental assistance that are threatening households
impacted by COVID -19 and that may result in homelessness; and (2) do they already have a rental
assistance program in place for households impacted by COVID -19. Suggested deadline for responses to
inquiry: April 30.
The subcommittee will meet again via conference call on Monday, May 4 at 10 AM.
The meeting was adjourned.
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