Good afternoon, everyone. Wow, that is loud. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our weekly celebration
of service for Rotary. My name is Tracy Yovanovich, and I'm pleased to serve as your president and honored
as well. Please silence your electronic devices. And I think for our where in the world, if this works,
let's see.
There we go. OK, so as you all know, I'm sharing Rotary Clubs around the world. And this one was particularly
interesting to me. I do a game every day to keep my mind fresh called Worldle, not wordle, worldle.
And you have to figure out what the country is. And it's it's actually kind of hard, but it helps you
learn more about country. And Kiributi is one that just makes me crazy because it's one of these little
islands. And trying to find that on Google Maps is virtually impossible. So when I saw this
They had Rotary. I was like, well, I'm going to share with everyone this one. It is part of District
9920, which is a district larger than the entire geographic United States in size, right? Because it
stretches so far across the Pacific Ocean. But it's very sparsely populated. So there's 53 clubs in
the area. And Kiribiti was founded in 2019. And it has 10 members.
Now, small but mighty, because if you look, and I put it in bold, they have done about a $2 million
worth of work working on immunizing children on the 21 inhabited islands. I feel like we're going backwards
here, I'm just going to say, in the U.S., but that's okay. And the Gilbert Islands is part of every
child has a future.
Even though they're 10 members, they work closely and really get a lot accomplished. So I thought that
was absolutely fascinating. So if you're ever in Kiributi, please take a flag and make sure you go to
one of their meetings. And on that, we were going to do a reflection and Judy and I were communicating
over email. And I think we're going to just, I'm gonna just do a quick update given the topic that we
have today on housing.
I was sharing with Wendy that there's a book I read called Abundance. Ezra Klein and Derek Thomas wrote
it. It's a fascinating book. I highly recommend it. It talks about how you can grow the economy through
reducing bureaucratic tape, shall we say. And that's just one small message of it. That's the one I
want to focus on. And the reason I want to focus on that, when I was in Denver about a month ago, we
took Luca for his internship. And I lived in Denver back in 87, and they had
traffic issues galore, the downtown was looking a little shoddy. Fast forward to a month ago, they've
got train systems in place on multiple train systems in place. They've got ADUs, the alternative dwelling
units in place on multiple locations. They're gentrifying the neighborhoods. It's unbelievable. I could
not believe it. And
Somehow they have managed to figure out how to cut through the bureaucratic red tape. And I share that
because as progressive as we think we are here in Bloomington, we have a lot of no's. We say a lot of
no's and we weaponize zoning and we go to the meetings and we weaponize zoning some more. And we want
change. We all say we want to see affordable housing. We want to see people in houses, but we don't want
change and I'm sorry but you got to have change in order to do that. So I encourage us all there's a
couple locations specifically one on Sayre and College Mall Road you guys all know where doctors drive
they think they used to call it back in the day there's a house there that they've added an ADU and
it looks beautiful it looks just fine. Then there's another one that I just saw in the works
I almost drove off the road on High Street and Woodstock, literally on the corner. They're putting a
house in there, just a small little house. And so it can be done. I'm sure they had to go through quite
a bit of red tape. But I also hear us all talking about, I can't stand the apartments out in Kmart.
I can't stand the apartments. But guess what? It looks better than the Kmart building did.
The infrastructure, the infrastructure is a problem. There are things to come through it.
But I share this because we need to be open-minded. And we like Bloomington the way it is. That's one
of the reasons we all come back. But change is inevitable. And if we want people to be housed, we've
got to open our minds. So with that, I will turn it over to Mr. Change, Winston Schindel, to introduce
our guests. Where are you, Daddy? Come on up. He left.
Well, it's my pleasure to introduce our guests today and to welcome all of them to a club that really
believes service above self. So, if when I call your name, if you would raise your hand or stand up
and let us recognize you. Stacy Marotta, guest of Liz Erwin. Steve Bishop, guest of
Liz Erwin. Becky Non, guest of Brad Meyer. Do you? Well, listen, I got to tell you about this one. I
went to this guest and I said, I'm sorry, can you help me with your last name? I got the first one.
And she said, I don't think you could pronounce it. And I said, OK, is it all right if I just call you
by your first name? And she said, yes. So let me introduce Vuja. Rita Cruz, guest of Tyler Nichols.
And of course, Tony Huang, guest of Jim Bright. Welcome all.
Do we have anyone online as a guest? Winston, we are all Rotarians online today. OK, thank you very
much. Booya, don't worry. It took him two years of my marriage for him to learn to pronounce Yvonnevich,
so. Yeah, much less spell it. That's right. All right. There we go. So for birthdays and anniversaries,
Tyler Nichols and Scott Walters had birthdays on Sunday, the 26th. Amy Kendall, I know you're in here,
you have birthday coming up on Friday. And I have a birthday on Saturday, one year to Medicare, that's
all I'm saying. For anniversaries, it's a big deal, let me tell you. Yeah, but I still have a 20-year-old
who's gonna be taking Obamacare for a little bit longer, so we weren't thinking about healthcare, I'll
just say. Anniversaries, Mr. Baker, who is back. Stand up, Mike, where are you?
24 years. Connie Chicalis, six years. And where's Connie? And Patrick Smith, seven years. Patrick? All
our anniversary guys are here. That's awesome. All right. And so for announcements, Hoosier Hills, we
still have 11 slots. I know it's on a weekday, but we need to get those 11 slots. I think everyone's
aware of the hardship and the funding cuts that Hoosier Hills has gone through, so we need to help and
step up. Please, please, please, Michelle's got a sign up sheet.
I think it's the 10 to 12 shift, the 12 to 2 shift that needs help. So if you could help us out, that
would be fabulous. We also have this Friday, my sister's closet is doing a ribbon cutting out at the
college mall location. It's right across from Blondie's Cookies, and that is from 11 to 1. The ribbon
cutting itself will be at 1130, and so we'd love to have as many rotarians there as we possibly can.
And then lastly,
Please sign up for Q3. We still have a couple for August 11th. And then lastly, please send prayers.
Natalie is in town. Her father's health is declining. So I know she'd appreciate your good thoughts
and warm prayers. All right. And on that, I believe we have happy dollars. Mr. Mike, where are you?
Do we have any happy people in the audience? Lynn's very happy here.
Are you getting to my person? All right. Oh my God. I am very happy. I recently returned from a stunning
trip to the country of Croatia where my partner Peter is a 100% Croatian and it was his first visit
and we were both in
I am exceedingly happy after months and months and months the very last part of our project which needed
an engineer for HVAC and
Electrical has been hired and not only was he hired, he reduced his fee to us by ridiculous amount when
he heard about our project. So I am so happy and so grateful. Anybody online? All right. Any other happy
dollars out there?
I might as well be more happy. The Chicago Cubs have the fifth best record in Major League Baseball.
But they're second in the National League Central, but we are very hopeful, as any Cub fan would be.
I just stole one of Lynn's dollars.
to tell you that there's a really good play going on at Eclipse Productions. Gani did a great job talking
about it, Doubt. It's a very thoughty play, and I encourage you to go. You can get a ticket. There you
go. And I owe you. All right. Thank you, everyone. And those dollars. Oh, we have Dave Meyer. And these
dollars go to Teacher's Warehouse, by the way. Well, I have a
funny thing to be happy about, but I'm happy that Cindy and I are out of Assembly Hall because on Saturday we spent
from 1 p.m. until 11 p.m., no, midnight, helping as extras in the filming of the Little Five movie that's
being done. And so we saw the sausage being made of filming a Hollywood movie. And I hope every,
oh yeah, we were, we made a news clip in Indianapolis Local News where I was sitting there reading my book
And he was looking ahead. There was a lot of downtime in there. But anyway, it was a really fun experience,
and I'm sure the movie will be great. It's targeted to come out in, I think, a year, this fall after next.
That's awesome. Well, thank you for sharing, and hopefully everybody has seen the crews around setting
up town. It's exciting to be a part of a community that has so much rich history and so much
rich possibilities. On that, I think, Mike Wade, if you would come up and introduce our speaker, please.
Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to introduce Wendy Goodlett, President and CEO of Habitat for Humanity,
Monroe County. Wendy began her association with Habitat for Humanity in 2007 as a volunteer. My own
son Travis volunteered, and when I asked him this week what did he get as a volunteer in high school
with Habitat for Humanity, he said he learned an incredible amount.
about carpentry, caulking, blow-in insulation, bathroom tile, and many more skills that he applied in
finishing the house that he currently lives in. That's one of the unsung benefits of being a volunteer
for Habitat for Humanity, the skills that you learn. Wendy has two daughters, which have just
left Bloomington for Chicago to begin careers.
And she not only participates in Habitat for Humanity, but also provides Habitat for Humanity's best
friends to new dogs. Without further ado, here's Wendy Goodlett. Well, thank you so much for that warm
introduction. And thank you all for having me here today. This is a great opportunity.
Tracy, your remarks could not have hit the nail on the head, as we say in construction, better than
they were. And the timing couldn't be better. Normally, I would never be brave enough to stand up here
and talk about legislation, let alone federal legislation. But we have some exciting things to discuss
and what I'm calling unicorn legislation. It's pretty unique.
Even materialized and it did become law earlier this month. Alright, so we're going to talk a little
bit about habitat in particular our relation with this legislation. We do focus on homeownership. The
legislation covered a range of housing options and we certainly support that, but I'm going to really
focus on the homeownership piece of it today.
So I'm going to give you a little context about Habitat's work. And one of the things that you may not
know is that we spend a lot of time and effort on advocacy at the local level, state level, the federal
level. We have a huge team of federal employees that work on advocacy and also the international level. So
The reason we focus on homeownership is that it remains one of the most important pathways to economic
stability, wealth building, and community participation. It's getting harder to achieve homeownership
and sustain it. Starter homes are in record short supply. Competition for those homes drives up prices,
leaving low to moderate income households unable to purchase a home.
There's also restricted access to mortgage capital. My banking friend in the room may not want to hear
that, but there's also just really stringent lending requirements, challenges with down payment. Part
of that is generational wealth, the lack of generational wealth among low income homeowners to help
with that first down payment and limited availability of affordable financing products.
Existing homeowners are also in a challenging situation. They're facing increasing pressure from rising
insurance premiums. My insurance agent in the room is probably not happy to hear me say that. Combined
challenges demonstrate that affordability concerns extend beyond purchasing a home and include sustaining
ownership over time.
The urgency of these challenges underscores the need for policy actions that ensure homeownership remains
achievable and sustainable for families across diverse communities. All right, so Habitat for Humanity
plays a significant role, as I said, in advancing affordable homeownership through
and developing and revitalizing neighborhoods. And we are doing that right here in Monroe County. We
are building out our third habitat neighborhood in Monroe County. And I hope that we get to do another
in the near future. So this workplaces our organization in a unique position to observe. Did I do anything?
Okay. Are we good on audio? Okay.
All right. So we're in a unique position to observe the practical challenges that families encounter
while pursuing safe and affordable housing. In Monroe County, Habitat's experience extends beyond housing
production. It includes helping families understand the responsibilities of a mortgage. For any of you
who have signed a mortgage before, you know those documents can be a little bit overwhelming.
We teach money management classes to homeowners. We have a six-month money management program to help
ensure their long-term success. And we strengthen our community through the partnerships that we build,
the education that we provide to the community, and the volunteer engagement of people coming out, building
with us, raising funds for us, participating in Women Build. I've seen a couple of women builders in here.
So because affiliates work directly with households, local governments, lenders, and community stakeholders,
Habitat's policy recommendations are grounded in real-world experience rather than theoretical assumptions.
Habitat's mission centers on helping people attain strength, stability, and independence through housing,
making its perspective especially valuable when evaluating federal, state, and local housing policy
opportunities.
Alright, at the center of Habitat's housing policy platform is a commitment to fair and inclusive
opportunity. Effective housing policies should reduce barriers that disproportionately affect specific
populations and limit access to affordable homeownership. Policymakers must consider how regulations,
financing systems, land use practices, zoning,
and housing programs affect individuals with different economic backgrounds, geographic locations, and
life circumstances. A fair housing approach seeks to remove obstacles that unnecessarily prevent families
from pursuing homeownership while also ensuring that policy solutions do not unintentionally create
unequal outcomes. Inclusive policymaking requires active engagement. That's why I'm here speaking to
you today.
with impacted communities so that residents have meaningful opportunities to contribute their perspectives
and experiences. By incorporating community voices, decision makers can better understand local conditions,
identify unintended consequences, and develop more responsive solutions. And I will say that
our representatives in Congress are really good at listening. And we take a trip to DC once a year to
participate in Habitat on the Hill.
and those conversations are always very robust. They're well educated on housing and the problems of
housing and are really interested in solving that problem locally. Preventing unequal harms is equally
important as housing policies that benefit some groups while burdening others can deepen disparities.
Evaluating policy choices through the lens of fairness and inclusion helps ensure that efforts to increase
housing supply, improve access and strengthen resilience
create broad and lasting benefits for families and communities. So I want to talk about the three federal
action areas that Habitat for Humanity focuses on. You can see them up there. Increasing housing supply,
broadening homeownership access, and improving homeownership resilience. So our framework is organized
around these three areas. Increasing supply is needed to help moderate home prices as well as rental rates.
If more people have access to home ownership, then the rental market will need to lower prices to remain
competitive. We must incentivize investment in affordable housing development. It's very straightforward.
The single greatest data point to support the need for broadening access is that the average age of
a first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old. Improving resilience includes building better homes to reduce
energy costs as those costs are going up.
and to protect against climate impacts and disasters. Together, these three priorities represent
a comprehensive approach that recognizes homeownership challenges at multiple stages of the housing
journey. Framing policy discussions around supply, access, and resilience provide a clear structure
for evaluating legislative proposals and identifying practical solutions capable of improving housing
outcomes across communities.
So this is the unicorn legislation that I mentioned at the beginning of the presentation. The naming
convention is a combination of what came out of the Senate and out of the House. So they each had a
different name. They combined it into one big name, the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. Don't want
to leave anybody out. So this act represents a comprehensive bipartisan effort to address housing
affordability and availability challenges across the United States.
I think it's really important to let you know how the votes fell out, because it is so overwhelmingly
bipartisan. The Senate passed by a vote of 85 to 5 on June 22, and the House approved by a vote of 358
to 32 the next day. The bill subsequently became law on July 11, so earlier this month, without the
president's signature. This bipartisan support suggests
recognition of housing affordability as a significant national concern requiring coordinated action.
The legislation contains more than 50 provisions designed to expand housing supply, reduce regulatory
barriers, modernize federal housing programs, and improve coordination among housing-related systems.
Rather than focusing on a single challenge, the Act takes a broad approach that addresses multiple dimensions
of housing affordability.
By combining incentives, regulatory reforms, program improvements, and implementation support, the Act
seeks to create conditions that encourage housing production while improving effectiveness across existing
federal programs. So, why does it matter to Habitat? And why should you care locally?
The Act aligns closely with our mission and program activities because it addresses many of the structural
barriers encountered by affiliates in our partner communities. By expanding available tools, the hammers,
and resources, the legislation creates opportunities for affiliates to increase the number of families
served while strengthening local housing ecosystems. Several provisions target obstacles that can delay
development, increase project costs,
or limit access to affordable home ownership activities. Opportunities. These include regulatory complexity,
zoning challenges, funding limitations, and inefficiencies within federal housing programs. I think
that was a pretty self-reflective thing to include to recognize that the programs could be more efficient
and effective than they are existing federal programs.
The Act's significance extends beyond federal policy because its ultimate impact depends on how we implement
available opportunities at the local level. So Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County will use this as
a platform for community-level action that can support affordable and sustainable homeownership goals.
So first and foremost, we must make it easier to build. It is very much a supply problem. A major focus
of the legislation is increasing the supply of affordable housing through a combination of local planning
support, funding flexibility, and innovation incentives, which
Can you hear us online? Yes. Yes, we can hear you online now. Thank you, Joy. Yeah, OK. That's all right.
So we've only used CDBG for infrastructure funding in the past. It's going to be great if we can actually
use it for home construction. Obviously, we do infrastructure at the beginning of a project, and then
it might be years before we can use it again.
I'm excited about the carrot versus stick tactic of the Innovation Fund, which is designed to reward
measurable increases. So local communities are going to have to show how that has increased in housing
supply, encouraging communities to pursue solutions that generate tangible results. I'm all about a good KPI.
Collectively, these provisions address four key levers, which is the diagram on the left, for housing
production, zoning, funding, local capacity, and incentives. By strengthening each of these
areas, policymakers seek to reduce bottlenecks that restrict development and make it easier for communities
to produce additional affordable housing units.
So I would love to say that this is an actual diagram that we utilize in our work, but I had AI generate
it, and I think it did a pretty good job with my very limited prompts that they gave, so I must not
have been the first person to give that prompt. Reducing delays and uncertainty is another important
objective of this legislation.
Streamlining environmental review processes is intended to accelerate project approvals while maintaining
necessary safeguards. We are all about protecting the environment, but sometimes that process just drags
out for months and months and really slows our ability to build. Promoting the use of pre-reviewed housing
designs in an effort for communities to accelerate the approval process, that's happening locally with
the Hopewell project, if you've been following that.
Faster approvals and greater predictability can significantly reduce project costs. There are a lot
of soft carrying costs that developers have that the longer a project takes to get approval, the more
expensive it becomes. And those pre-development costs directly impact how much that house sells for.
So Habitat's in a unique situation where we can absorb that because we have donors that are helping
fund, but other builders and developers cannot do that. It's why they're not building affordable housing.
It also opens the door for more local developers for that very reason to build market rate missing middle
housing. Again, we recognize that we are missing everything from affordable apartments up to, you know,
the standard beyond starter home, right? The family homes that people can move into to free up those
starter homes. Streamlining procedure does not eliminate oversight.
Rather, it seeks to reduce unnecessary administrative burdens that slow construction without improving
outcomes. I think that's a really key piece of it. For Habitat affiliates, nonprofit developers, and
local governments, these reforms may support more timely project delivery and greater housing production
capacity. Next, I want to provide a high-level overview of programs for repair and resilience. This
is something we've been doing resilience for a while.
here locally, but repair is something we're just getting into, as well as the home program, which we
currently rely on pretty heavily for funding. So sustaining homeownership requires more than helping
families purchase homes. It also depends on maintaining safe, stable, and resilient housing over time.
Section 202 of the legislation establishes a HUD pilot program focused on whole home repair efforts.
eligible assistance includes grants and forgivable loans that can support needed repairs, modifications,
and improvements. This is something that's been happening in the rural areas with USDA loans and grants,
but not something we've been able to utilize here locally. These investments help households address
maintenance issues before they become major financial burdens or safety risks. The legislation also
includes provisions related to disaster recovery.
So Habitat has come to understand firsthand the challenges of climate disasters as we had two tornadoes
destroyed by a tornado in May of 2025. So that's the remains of our warehouse. It also authorizes and
reforms Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery programs.
for a three year period with an emphasis on better serving low and moderate income households following
major disasters. Those tend to be the people who are either uninsured or underinsured. And it's a really
difficult process to access funds, to be able to rebuild, repurchase items for an apartment after you've
lost it. Together, these initiatives recognize that resilience encompasses both preparedness and recovery.
So the home,
Investment partnerships program remains one of the federal government's most important affordable housing
tools. This is something that Habitat advocates for every year on the Hill. We're optimistic about the
reauthorization and reform of the home program to improve effectiveness. The legislation expands eligibility
requirements and provides greater flexibility for supporting housing related infrastructure investments.
It also streamlines environmental review requirements for certain small scale housing projects. I think
that's a very reasonable expectations, including infill development activities and property acquisition
intended for affordable housing. So as it stands right now, if we were to purchase an infill lot and
wanted to do construction on that for an affordable house, we still have to go through the environmental
review process at a level that it's just not really
scalable for other people doing work in that area. For us, these reforms should reduce administrative
burdens and accelerate project implementation. They also may enhance the value and usability of home
funding. So innovation is something I don't think we talk about enough, but it's the key to increasing
our housing supply.
The way that we've been building homes forever is great, but there are better ways to do it, and I think
we need to explore those. So I want to quickly mention some portions of the legislation that address
these opportunities. Emerging construction approaches offer potential opportunities to increase housing
supply while controlling costs and reducing project timelines. Title III of the legislation introduces
new standards related to manufactured housing,
and addresses barriers encountered by modular housing developers. The legislation also authorizes HUD
to examine the feasibility of a standardized code framework for modular homes and to evaluate the cost
effectiveness of offsite construction techniques. These are all things that Habitat affiliates across
the country are trying in order to, again, bring down those costs, ensure reliable construction, and
build more quickly.
Manufactured housing, modular construction, and other off-site production methods can provide alternatives
to traditional site-built housing, particularly in markets experiencing labor shortages. It's really
hard for us to find licensed contractors here. Land constraints, another problem here, or affordability
challenges. By encouraging innovation and examining opportunities for standardization, policymakers
seek to reduce uncertainty and promote broader adoption of efficient construction approaches.
These strategies may support greater housing availability, especially when combined with other reforms
that address land use permitting and financing. I think I might have gone too far.
Just one. That's all right. Okay. Title 10 includes provisions aimed at preserving homeownership
opportunities for individual families by limiting specific purchases of newly constructed single-family
homes by large institutional investors. I know you've probably all heard that there are
There are out of town, out of state investors coming in and purchasing homes that could easily be turned
into affordable single family or duplex housing. The restriction applies to investors that directly
or indirectly own at least 350 single family homes. This measure is a way to reduce competitive pressures
that can make it more difficult for families to purchase homes in certain markets, ours included.
This provision aligns with the broader access theme emphasized throughout the legislation and habitats
policy priorities. Expanding homeownership opportunities requires addressing both supply side constraints
and market conditions that influence housing affordability and accessibility for households seeking
stable housing and long-term economic opportunity. So,
This is where the rubber meets the road, right? We need to make sure that it gets implemented in our
community. So successful implementation will determine whether the legislation achieves its intended
impact. There's still a significant amount of work to be done at the federal level before we will see
the effects locally. We will be closely monitoring HUD guidance, grant announcements, implementation
timelines, and regulatory updates related to the act. Habitat will continue to engage locally on zoning reform.
If you ever want to come spend an evening with us, we will on a regular basis be at city meetings. So
come join us. Permitting improvements in planning initiatives. We are working to identify projects involving
repair and housing development that align with newly available funding tools and program resources.
So trying to figure out where that all fits together to maximize our opportunity. Habitat, as you know,
is a trusted housing developer, builder, and leader in Bloomington.
We know our efforts to influence change are compounded when we involve local stakeholders and leaders
like you. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act provides new tools that align closely with Habitat's
mission and policy platform, but long-term success will depend on leadership, inclusive policymaking,
collaboration, and sustained commitment. By leveraging these opportunities effectively, we can help
more families obtain and sustain
safe, stable, and affordable homes. So I wanted you to see some of the beautiful faces that motivate
those of us that work at Habitat to keep doing the hard work, to keep fighting the battles that we can
to provide more opportunities for people, because policy without a focus on people is pointless. So
these are the reasons I get up and go to work every day.
These are families, it's a mixture of families who are currently in our program. We're building their
houses. There are some that we've completed their homes and they're just waiting to close. And then
Valerie down here in the corner closed on her house last week. So lots of reasons to celebrate the work
that Habitat is doing in our community. I'm ready for questions.
Wendy, I'm going to open up with a question and just ask you, can you tell a little bit more about the
three areas that you have, how many houses you're going to have to finish the third one and any thoughts
about where the fourth one might go? Maybe you all can help me with the fourth location. That would
be spectacular. So our three neighborhoods, one is the first was Cedar Chase, which is out west, southwest
of Walmart. So out in the county.
trail view, which is just off of 11th and near Opportunity House. And that was completed a few years
ago. And then we began building out Osage Place, which is adjacent to RCA Park. And if you know where
the power line trail is going in, it will connect
RCA Park to Switchyard Park. So just south of that power line trail is Osage Place. We are finishing
construction on the houses in phase one. So those will be wrapped up this fall. That is 30 homes. And
we have begun construction in phase two on homes that there will be 39 of those total. I think in the
next four years, we will need to have purchased, if we're going to do another neighborhood, we will
need to have purchased something within the next
year and a half, probably, so that we can get through that lengthy planning process and prepare to do
infrastructure work and get ready so that in four years we're ready to build the next house. Thank you,
Wendy, for your presentation. You mentioned unequal harms in your presentation, and as a preface to
that, many of us disagree with some of the diversity, equity, and inclusion
changes, which were intended, I think, to re-level the playing field, or marginalized folks were at
the benefit of the larger population. So I'm a little bit confused, and maybe you can help me out with
that. But it has to do with inclusive policy making, which seems to be the opposite to me. But at any
rate, unequal harms meant that some groups benefit at the expense of other groups, and you're trying
to avoid that.
It seems the population that you're helping are many of the more marginalized cultural and racial groups.
So how do you, at the expense of others, which is the majority population, how does that equal out in
your mind and through legislation? Yeah, I'm not sure that I think of it as unequal being the larger
population, being unequal to the larger population.
because there are just so many factors that go into that, right? If you look at the data points of,
so for example, homeowners have 400% greater net wealth than renters. It's a fact, it's a data point.
If we are making legislation that prevents people from getting into those homeownership situations,
that is unequal to that population, which is the marginalized population. So I think it just depends
on, you know, it has to be objective, not subjective.
And I think a lot of times when people are talking about unequal, they are talking about something that's
very subjective. So our focus definitely is on ensuring that those marginalized communities, as we always
have done, have the same access, the same opportunities. And if you want to look long-term back in the
past, there have been so many things that we have done that have unevened that playing field. And we
need to fix it. You're welcome.
Two questions. I read a book recently. There is no place for us. And one of the things I talked about
was that getting HUD money to build more affordable apartments, but they only had to do that for 13
years. Do you know if that has been addressed at all in this legislation? I don't, because that's a
rental issue. The HUD money that we receive, it does come with a time limit.
If you want to talk about lasting affordability, there is a time limit on those funds. So we are required
to sell to a homeowner that meets the HUD requirements for income. But what we do at Habitat is we want
to make sure that that does last farther into the future. So we write a first refusal for every mortgage.
And that extends for the life of the mortgage. If you're still in your home, still paying back your mortgage,
and you need to move out of state for some reason, we want an opportunity to buy it back so that we
can sell it affordably to the next homeowner. So I don't know specifically about that. Some of it's
rental, some of it is homeownership. It's been typically 15 years has been the affordability period.
Second question is, oh, I was talking to someone recently listening with kind of in horror. They were
talking about a developer who was, uh,
going to build modular homes, but it also had bought a lot of mobile home parks and was going to be
removing all of them that looked old, which also meant affordable. And that kind of fitted with the
New York Times article talking about developers, just like buying homes, buying mobile home parks and
pushing people out. Yeah. One of, I know several Habitat affiliates are doing this. We've looked into
it too. Could we replace those
dangerous living conditions for people who are in a mobile home. A mobile home in a tornado is not going
to survive. And so we want to get people out of those types of living situations. Could we temporarily
displace them to replace the mobile homes with a manufactured or modular home? We don't have a good
way of doing that locally, but there are other affiliates who are doing it successfully. So there's
always going to be somebody who takes advantage of opportunities to the
to the detriment of people who are living in those places. Um, but from an affiliate, from a habitat
standpoint, you know, we're trying to really just create better, more affordable and more sustainable
because mobile homes deteriorate extensively over time. Um, and we want to get people out of those dangerous
situations. Thank you so much for your comments. As always, I appreciate what you do, what you all do
as a service and how you say,
the important things that you say. My question for you is the city recently did an audit of their housing
internal processes. Do you think the county, is there any wisdom for the county to do the same? Some
of us have talked about that and I would love to get your perspective. Yeah, I think there's definitely
an opportunity. I will say that the city processes from habitats perspective are much more cumbersome
than what we deal with at the county.
partly because we don't have to get the health department involved for septic, right? We're not building
on septic systems. We're providing sewer connections. But also you have a great building department
and we really like working with the building department. So we would be happy to come in and talk about
the challenges that we face for us with the county. The biggest challenge is not being able to build
in the county because the density is just not there to make it affordable. You know, a half an acre because
and we can get into the, you know, politics of all of that. But when we went through the CDO, there
just wasn't an allowance for that density that we need for it to make sense, even on the periphery of
the city, to be able to build in the county. So when you talk about land, I think I didn't answer that
question. I don't know where the next
we're the next building that will happen. But right now we would have to be in the city of Bloomington.
And there are just not a lot of opportunities within the city of Bloomington. So Trent, we would love
to come talk to you about what we think the county could do to help us. Yeah, thank you. Speaking of
opportunities in the city, are you going to be using any of the lots in Hopewell? I was really hoping
nobody would ask that question.
There are a lot of answers, a lot of questions that still need to be answered at Hopewell. We don't
know what the cost of infrastructure is going to be. That will definitely determine whether or not we
can build affordably there. I'm never going to pass up an opportunity to build in an area that I think
is right for building housing.
But right now, there are just too many unanswered questions. I'm also not sure I want to be the first
one in. So stay tuned. I mentioned four years before we run out of land at Osage Place. We have been
buying infill lots so that we can fill a gap if there is a gap of time where we can't build
in a neighborhood. But I have a lot of hope.
For Hopewell, it's just been a really large uphill battle. And I think it's been a great example of
the challenges within the system as Trent mentioned of working in the city. I have a question that's
more general housing related. I heard that in New York City, they're looking at some of the empty commercial
spaces that offices no longer use anymore.
Is that anything that exists here in Bloomington and is it something that could be utilized? It's been
discussed. It is also part of this legislation providing pilot programs for turning those industrial
or commercial spaces that are empty into housing. I think generally people are using it for rentals,
but I know it's been discussed locally. So I think there's definitely opportunity there because we do
have so many commercial spaces that are empty.
There is a question online when we have a chance. Let me go ahead and ask a question. This is also a
general question. It's about qualification, how you qualify applicants to receive housing under the
under the program. I've been delighted as an aside, I've been delighted that I am aware of at least
two refugee families that have gotten
approved to be habitat, householders, owners. And anyway, I think we would all benefit from knowing
a little bit about how you judge fitness for applicants. Thank you for asking that question. So all
of the applicants have to meet three criteria. They have to have a need for housing. So the place that
they're living might be substandard, overcrowded, unaffordable. Substandard is anything from, you know,
floors falling in in a mobile home to unsafe electrical insulation that's not performing HVAC systems,
things like that. A lot of times, the families that come to us can tick all three of those boxes. You
would be amazed at the living conditions that are also unaffordable for people. They also have to have
an ability to pay. So every Habitat House we build, the homeowners close on an affordable mortgage with us.
We base that on their income, not what it costs us to build the house, not what it appraises for.
Right now, our houses are appraising two, we build two-bedroom to five-bedroom. They're appraising for
$235,000 and up. So that's indicative of the supply shortage that we talked about.
And then the third thing is they have to have a willingness to partner with us. So it's really important
to us that they volunteer their time helping other families. They're getting those money management
classes that I talked about. They're getting homeownership classes, how to do indoor maintenance, outdoor
maintenance, avoid predatory lending, things like that. So they are in classes for a solid year, twice a month.
And then after that time, we have classes just to kind of keep them engaged. But they're also working
on the construction site. They're volunteering at ReStore. So every adult in the household that's not
a dependent has to contribute at least 250 hours of sweat equity. So when you think about having a job
or two, children, it's a big lift and people have to be really committed to successfully get through
our program. The income level that we're serving is 35% to 80% of the area median income.
Want to get that question online? Sure. Wendy, this question is from Jeff Richardson. He asks, is there
any concern about the possibility of the new jail being located on the Thompson site that is close to
usage? I'm not sure I'm pronouncing it. Homes that you referenced earlier. Yes, we do have concern.
The families there have concern, mostly from a standpoint of feeling marginalized if the jail were to
be placed there. We've moved them to a place that they see as a place of opportunity. They have great
amenities nearby. And the homeowners that I've spoken to just express concern about, again, being the
people that are being marginalized in our community. So there is some concern. There will be a decent distance
I based on what we have hit as we've done infrastructure work, I think it'll be really challenging to
build something there from a geotechnical perspective. But yes, there is some concern. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Wendy. In honor of your wonderful presentation, we'll be doing $100 quarter donation
to see jam. So appreciate that. I have one quick announcement somebody left a
Validated parking ticket up front. OK. We won't call out names. I'll give it to you. I'd like to thank
all our volunteers today. Our greeter, Lynn Schwartzberg. Guest introductions, Winston Schindel. Speaker
introduction, Mike Wade. Zoom host, Joy Harder, back fresh from Alaska. Good to see you. Reporter, Glenda
Murray. Camera and mic operator, Michael. What's wrong? Oh, OK. Not my best view. I'm just going to say.
photographer. Did anybody take pictures today? Did we get that? Ah, thank you, Dave Meyer. All right.
And then Jill, our executive assistant, and then our wonderful, very active today, Tyler Martin Nichols.
Our next meeting will be here in the Georgian Room on 8-4. Steve will be running the meeting as Vlad
and I are going to Denver to see Luca.
And then Melanie Cooper Pennington is going to be presenting. She has done the statue for Alfred Kinsey
and Ryan White here in the Union, if you have not seen them. I'm so disappointed I'm not going to be
here for that because our kids are actually great friends and I've not met her yet. Now, if you could
put the slides up and if you're able, please stand for the four-way test. Of the things we think,
say or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned?
Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned?
And fifth, is it fun?