The Fall River Community Development Agency held a public hearing on June 29, 2022, concerning a proposed substantial amendment to the HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME-R) for the 2021 annual action plan. Michael Dion, Executive Director, announced that the amendment, which aims to increase affordable housing units in the city, would be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) by Mayor Paul E. Coogan on or about July 29. The projected funding for the HOME-R program is $3,813,093. Copies of the draft amendment were made available at the Fall River Community Development Agency at One Government Center, the Office of the City Clerk at Government Center, and the Fall River Main Public Library at 104 North Main Street, as well as on the city's website. Residents had until July 12 to submit comments, but no testimony was provided at the hearing itself. Dion also presented findings from a HOME-R community survey, which gathered close to 90 respondents. The survey revealed that 88% of respondents believed there was not enough affordable housing in Fall River, and 57.47% stated that affordable housing units were what the city lacked most. Monthly rental costs were identified as the biggest barrier to finding affordable housing by 59.77% of respondents. Regarding funding priorities, 42% believed the production of affordable housing was most important, followed by 31% for the preservation of affordable housing. The Fall River Community Development Agency plans to focus on increasing affordable units, which will include housing restrictions on income levels and rent limits. The public hearing concluded without further testimony.
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Council
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good evening my name is michael dion i'm the director of executive director of community development agency and tonight we're having our public hearing on a proposed substantial amendment to the home investment partnership program called home r tonight's public hearing is being held to provide residents of the city of fall river the opportunity to express their views on the draft of the home our
0:25substantial amendment to the 2021 annual action plan being prepared for submission to the u.s department of housing and urban development copies of the home substantial amendment are available to you tonight the proposed home op substantial amendment was published on the city's website and citizens were invited to submit comments also copies of the substantial amendment are available for public review at the
0:53following locations fall river community development agency at one government center the office of the city clerk at government center and the fall river maine public library at 104 north main street residents have until july 12 to submit comments all comments received during this review period and testimony statements letters and petitions submitted at tonight's hearing will be used in updating the
1:20home art substantial amendment mayor paul e coogan will file the home our substantial amendment with the u.s department of housing and urban development on or about july 29th the projected funding includes 3 million 813 and ninety three dollars of home our program funding that will be used to increase the number of units we have in the city for affordable housing the format of tonight's public hearing
1:51will be to allow participants the opportunity to express their views on the proposed home art substantial amendment prepared statements to that effect will be accepted persons wishing to speak have been asked to sign a separate sign-in sheet and will be called to testify each speaker should state his or her name and address if appropriate the agency or organized organization represented
2:16tonight we have one participant but we do not have anyone that's here tonight to provide any testimony concerning a substantial amendment one of the items that's also available tonight that i wanted to bring to people's attention is we have done a home art community survey uh that survey has about 10 questions which can be accessed through the the city's website right on the front page of the city of florida's
2:45website which is www dot fall river fallriverma.org that survey asks questions concerning what are the priorities to use this home op funding for and so far we've had close to 90 respondents on the survey the majority of those respondents i have said 88 percent have said that there is not enough affordable housing in the city of fall river um they've also uh 32 percent um said that uh the greatest number of
3:28barriers uh against one group our families and single adult households um what housing resource does the city of florida lack the most uh 57.47 percent have said affordable units affordable housing units is what the city of fall river lacks the most um they've also a question that was particularly a lot of people responded to was what is the biggest barrier individuals and families face when finding affordable
4:03housing in fall river 59.77 said that monthly rental costs are the biggest barrier uh for individuals and families facing uh affordable housing um which of the following home are funding categories is the most important for frcda to focus on and that one came in at 42 percent of the people of the respondents believe that production of affordable housing is the most important uh activity that should be funded under
4:38home art the second most important activity would be at 31 uh the preservation of affordable housing so in the uh substantial amendment what fall river community development is focusing on is focusing on the increasing the number of affordable units here in the city those affordable units will have a housing restriction affordable housing restriction placed on them which means those units can only be rented to a
5:12certain income level and only a certain rent limit can be charged so um again uh you have until uh july 12 to submit comments on the substantial amendment those comments again could be submitted to the four river community development agency um and on june july 29th we will be submitting our substantial amendment to uh the u.s department of housing and urban development so i want to thank everybody
5:47who came tonight to participate i i want to thank the employees at the community development agency for working on this substantial amendment and with that i'd like to close the the public hearing seeing that there's no one that would like to provide testimony thank you and have a good evening