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Sonoma County. The chosen spot of all the earth as far as nature is concerned, according to the famed plant wizard Luther Burbank Diverse County, with 1,010,000 acres of land on 1574 miles of scenic roadways, Cinema County is rightfully famed for its agriculture did a culture, industry

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and recreation as well as for the amazingly successful ethnic and economic mixture of its more than 340,000 residents on for the forward looking philosophy of its local governing bodies. Now we invite you to take a closer look at Sanoma County in the eighties with your host

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rich McGlinchy. How you going? Everybody, welcome to another edition of Normal County in the 80. We're gonna be talking on this subject of the subject matter of our program is going to be low cost housing, and we're gonna be talking to three members of the Burbank

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Housing Development Corporation. First will be talking to on the left of your screen Jamie Walsh, who is not only a see what is your title is for his. Burbank is president of the operation. She is also the executive director off the community development Commission didn't say

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that's correct, which embraces our housing authority. And on the rightist green is rust. McKibben and Rust is the executive director of the Airbag Housing Development Corporation. Uh, no cost housing, which they be H D. C. We'll call it, is devoted to and is organized to serve.

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I guess in such a work is of critical importance in this county has been for some time now, before we get into actually disgusted Ph. D. C. I like to know a little bit about the individual, Janey human with us before, but I'm sure that our

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audiences for gotten all of the monumental things that you just little background about Cheney walls all right about myself. Personally, I came to the county in 81 actually with the Planning Department and in 82 started with Sonoma County Housing Authority. Um, I've been the director there

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for the last couple of years, and we're now the Community Development Commission. That means that the Board of Supervisors sits as the commission, and it does embrace the public housing authority for the entire county of Sonoma, excluding the city of Santa Rosa, and we're also the

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redevelopment agency for the county, and our focus is housing and community development activities. All right, uh, what are some of the housing related activities of the of the CDC? Let's just say the primary right. The primary development activity would be through Burbank Housing Development Corporation and

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the Board of Supervisors Set Up Bhd see to be the nonprofit developer throughout the county. So as such, the bylaws state that the Housing Authority director shall be the president of the HDC. And there are also other board appointed members, uh, by the Board of Supervisors

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who sit on the board of directors. So this corporation is really the most important asset that our county has a faras development of new housing. And they've done quite a bit, which will be talking about a Sfar as the commission. One of the other avenues that

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we have for helping in the development of housing is to loan money through our community development block grant funds. Sonoma County receives approximately $2 million every year, and it's been the board's policy to use at least half of that money toward housing related activities. Ah, sometimes

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we loan money to different developers and primarily be HDC for side acquisition. Those community development block grant funds can be used to acquire sites or for other kinds of pre development costs, however they cannot use for the actual construction. So the HDC has to find other

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sources of financing for the actual construction of it. So this is just business. That's really fascinating. I mean, that really puts a load. They they have. They have a big task, and I think they've done real well. Uh, they think she wouldn't touch on Well, I

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should just say that the commission also has is one of its, uh, objectives to preserve the existing housing stock. And if we didn't do some kinds of things to rehabilitate and preserve the existing stock, we may be losing some of our substandard housing. So we have

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a quite a large loan program toe loan to individual owner occupants in order to rehabilitate their homes. We also have a program where we can loan to landlords. Teoh rehabilitate the rental stock so those air some other ways that the commission really helps out in the

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housing field. But naturally we look to be HTC to be our developer in the council as we said at the start or echoed remarks we've heard many times. Low cost housing is really a critical problem in this county, isn't it? It's a problem, really throughout the

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nation, because with the interest rates and with the cost of construction, the cost of side acquisition, it is really very, very difficult to build a project and to be able to sell the homes or rent the homes at an affordable price. Aziz you know, rents around

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Sanoma County are fairly high, and the objective of Bhd C is to get the rents lower than the market rants, which is very, very difficult. Yeah, it is. We're gonna ask a question or two arrest coming. And then, uh, I should have mentioned earlier that midway

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in the program Janie has to depart and Don Mittleman is going to join us up here. Rest Before we asked anything about your your position is executive director of the D. C. How about little background about Russ McCubbin? Well, I came to be HDC January this

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year, and prior to that, I had worked as the director of a nonprofit housing group in Berkeley and prior to that I had approximately 10 years of experience working with both local governments and nonprofit organizations on various aspects of low income housing, new development, rehabilitation, uh,

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property management. Very happy to come up here. Teoh Snowmen County because they're really tremendous opportunities. When I was 10 years, Well, part of it initially was in New York City for several years, and then the rest has been the Bay Area that was housing coordinator for

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the City of Livermore for a couple of years. And I work in Marin County with a number of non profit housing groups for 4.5 years. Okay, uh, getting to our a reason for having you with us today as the executive director of Ph. D. C. How

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about briefly describing B A T's C's housing problems, and maybe who benefits from Okay? Well, Ph. D. C was created primarily to serve low income households, and that's been defined as households under 80% of the meeting income for the county, adjusted by household size. On looking

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at 26,800 for a family of four, as an annual income is the maximum serve. The upper limit of that, and obviously our focus is to serve people the lowest incomes possible within that spectrum that we can, given the available funding from federal and state, local and

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private sources as a charitable tax exempt organization, are focuses exclusively on providing housing for folks in those income levels. Ph. D. C. Pursues a number of housing programs to serve that that income group. We have rental projects, one of which we completed in the Santa Rosa

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area for 40 units, and we have to others under construction. Another one we own we purchased. As as it waas. We also have an owner builder program that serves also low income people have the wherewithal to put in approximately 30 hours a week toward building their

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homes, supervised by Burbank's program. And there are some special state programs set up to help support that our rental projects air for both families and senior citizens and within our rental projects are some units that serve really the very various, very lowest income levels. So we

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really to try and serve an entire spectrum of of low income households. In both Ronald ownership projects a new area were starting to explore right now is the concept of a cooperative, the hopes our hope is to have something as affordable rental, but provides a form

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of ownership and kind of a cross between ownership, the security of tenure and pride of ownership combined with the affordability of rentals. You had a number of projects that you've worked on so far, but one of the things that digress for just a minute. One of

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the things I think that ought to be noted about here is the fact that one of your programs was nationally acknowledged recently. Um, you were You were there. Teoh, Pick up the award. That's correct. What, uh, what was? The award was enormous. Recently, the award was

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from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials, and that is the National Organization for Housing Authorities for redevelopment agencies. And it's quite large. It is the support group in Washington on we have our own lobbyists in our own large organization. They have a program every

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year to recognize those housing authorities or commissions or nonprofits who have done some outstanding work in various fields, such as architectural design or other kinds of innovative areas. And Sonoma County Community Development Commission and Burbank Housing Development Corporation won the National Award for Housing Program Innovation

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for our 40 unit rental project in West for the West Avenue Apartments in Roseland, and that apartment project was just completed in March. We had our ribbon cutting ceremonies and all of the units are occupied by all lower income families. It's an all family project. Many

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of the families earn less than 50% of the median income and their two handicapped units, and we feel that it's a really nice looking project. The award itself, however, was because of the complex financing, um, sources that had to be put together. We have our Community

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Development Commission that made available funds for the side acquisition we have to state agencies involved Thes California Housing and Finance, California Department of Housing Finance Agency and the State Housing and Development Corporation. And those two agencies have loaned money to be HDC to make the the

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construction available. We also had to private lenders involved, so the financing was very, very complex and because we could serve 100% lower income, which is very unusual, it's easier to have a mixed project because we could do that because we had those sources, then we were

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able to win this national award, and it was very exciting. It really waas uh, you wouldn't work my comment on that to you. Must have been pretty proud of that. Oh, yes, it was quite a recognition for Burbank is a relatively young organization also for Sonoma

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County. And I think right, they acknowledge the the fact that snow, my county, really has a model from any other counties around California terms the close cooperation between the county and a non profit housing developer and to make use of the various state funding programs, they're

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still available. So I think we should share that award with good, all of us. Yeah, there's credit to go for everybody with Janey. What can local government do to address affordable housing needs on? Do you have any examples around here? Sure, there are a lot of

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things that local governments could do, and their Primary avenue is through these community development block grant funds. They can make available grants and loans to private developers. Really, they don't even have to be non profit for buying the site that writes down the one of the

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major portions of the cost for development of palace ing. They can also participate with private lenders and private developers and trying to have some mixed units for affordable housing. They can also make loans to private individuals, as we've done for owner occupants or loans toe landlords.

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Um, I think there's there's a variety of sources. Sometimes it's just the basic support of the local government, whether it's a city government or a county government, just to be able to support those groups who want to pursue the development of affordable housing. In some cities,

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they actually wave the sewer fees or or different kinds of fees that are available. Some cities actually use their redevelopment agency money to pay for those fees, and that actually writes down the cost. For the nonprofit developer group is trying to develop the house is one

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of the things I want to be sure to get into you. Is this, um how does Saddam counties effort to provide affordable housing compared with other areas of the country? I think very favorably, do you? We have really done a lot. I think we've got the

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support of our Board of Supervisors and our commission. Um, for example, our policy for at least 50% of the money to be used toward affordable housing. Of all of the money that we received from our community development block grant funds the fact that our Board of

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Supervisors set up Ph. D. C. They said we want a nonprofit developer in the county to develop this housing. Um, they have also been very supportive of our housing authority and whatever kind of rental assistance that we can provide for our lower income citizens. So compared

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to other counties, we have really, I think been a model is Rest has said in participation with those private developers or nonprofit developers who are very serious in wanting to build this of badly needed affordable housing. Um, you've been the director for what, Two years? Three

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s to almost 2.5 years. Okay, uh, how many projects has be a beach is completed four projects and we're we've got three projects under construction. Right now. This is a lot. It is a lot for for a fairly new non profit and for just that, the

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various obstacles that always occur whenever you're trying to make to develop any kind of housing project, and especially when you're trying to make those rants or the ownership projects less than less than market value. Eso So that's a lot. We have the 40 unit project. That's

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our rental project in West Avenue, and we have we own 18 units in Sebastopol that's known as the Grabenstein North Project. We have built a construction contractor built project in Ca Toddy, and that was a Puy DE, which means that all it was you built as

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a planned unit development and those units were sold and they were sold to all lower income families. And we also had a self help project in L Bereano and that was using Farmers Home Administration financing. So part of the efforts is really in researching all the

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different financing sources. And those were 12 homes where the families actually participated in building their own homes in their 12 detached, very nice single family homes that those families helped to build and are now living there. So those air four major projects and maybe Don can

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tell you about some of the projects that are under construction. Now we're gonna talk Teoh to Russ and Don and just a little bit Thank you for thanks very much. We'll be back in just a moment. We'll talk more to come in and do a little

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bit about Public Housing Development Corporation. First, these important messages. This is Father John Cruise, director of Hannah Boy Center. Please listen to a good friend of our boys. This is Jodie Marsh, and I'd like to talk TV about Hannah Boy Senate in some oma, California here

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a game. It's saving a child site. Call toll free 1 806 38 23 100 Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to this tradition of Cinema County in the eighties, we were talking earlier to Janey Walls, director executive director of the Community Development Commission. Be sure I said

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that, right? And we talked a little earlier to rust. We have some more questions for us. McCubbin, who is the executive director of the Burbank Housing Development Corporation that our new guest for this half the program. I Do It. Dodd, Mittleman and Don is a member

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of the Burbank Housing Development Corporation and she is a businesswoman. Also done before we ask a question here about the Ph. D. C. How about background? About a little bit. Okay, Um, I'm a land planner, land planning consultant, which means that I take projects through the

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planning process for various individuals, and that's been very useful on the board with us doing development, work, its ties in very nicely and basically my reason for wanting to get involved in Burbank housing Waas that I had traveled all over the world in in India. I

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had seen people that were living on the streets, and we're fortunate if they could have a piece of cardboard delay on. So the housing issue is is very keen to me, and I feel fortunate to be able tow to serve that need. Where were you born?

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Texas And proud of it. I don. What is your business or professional Backup? Your land planner. Land use planning your your land use planners and kind of walked with things through for people over there. Okay, Uh, what is your role with Ph. D. C. I'm on

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the board of directors, and I was appointed by Janet Nicholas, and it's an 11 member board and with various members of the of the board are appointed by the different supervisors. And then we also have, ah, couple of members of the board that one from the

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administrator's office and one from the auditor's Office. And that's very helpful toe Have that close tie in with accounting. Why are you asking me specific questions about what is your role? I mean, your members are diverse. You said 11 member group. They are diverse, and I

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thought perhaps maybe one was in point of you were appointed, probably because of your knowledge of these matters. On your your professional background, there may be another member appointed for some other financing or something. That Is that true? Yes. And we have We have various committees

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that that pull on the individual strengths. I work on the committee that deals with new projects going in, so of course, that's the planning background comes into comes into play there. We also have members on the administrative committee and eso That's another one that puts into

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effect those this sort of administrative and business related needs. Russ. It's something we're not of throwing. Here, I think, is how can people find out about Ph. D. C's rental on ownership projects? And then maybe it's a second question. All in one. How do people qualify

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for the ownership building program? First, differ. I think it's very important that the public and strictly interested low income persons know how to get access to our programs. The whole point is to serve those folks. And perhaps not enough is known about Burbank housing. Um, we

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do have an office here in Santa Rosa on people should simply pick up the phone, give us a call at 5 to 69782 and that's our business phone. Our business hours are roughly 8 30 to 5 Monday through Friday. We do have ah on answering machine

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for other times, even over the weekend. So we'll get back to people, uh, if they call it other times. And we welcome people to inquire about our programs. As you mentioned, we have rental projects as well as owner builder programs for the rental projects. Um, we

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do have an application process waiting list, and we'd be happy to get people started on that on. They should simply call our office for more information about that. As Jenny Walsh mentioned we on a 40 unit apartment project in Roseland area of Santa Rosa, Western South

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Avenues. We also have an 18 unit apartment project grabbing Sting North and Sebastian Pool. And we are building two additional projects rental projects right now, one also on sabbatical, 42 units and a seven year senior housing project in the city of Snow. Madonna has been very

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instrumental in um for Owner Builder program. We have a project now under construction, Petaluma, 32 town homes. That's well under construction. The families have already been selected for that program. We organized the owner builder families prior to the start of construction because we need to qualify

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them for the financing to make sure that we have the time to do the proper orientation, training and tools and so forth so that we know we have ah, viable group of folks before we even start moving any dirt at all. In terms of the project

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site, however, we're quite excited. We have, ah, 40 unit project coming up in Santa Rosa. We hope to start construction the first phase of this next summer, sometime summer of 1988. This is in Northwestern Center Rose that we own the site and we're seeking put together

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the funding for construction right now. So we will be doing some advertising with priority to folks who live and work in Santa Rosa, doing some marketing for that next January February and allow about six months. And people were interested in that. Particular people who live in

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work in Santa Rosa should call us fairly soon about that. But they will be hearing more. All right, he mentioned the fact that you from Chino Valley, right? Okay, um, let's take that particularly describe some of the housing need Internal Valley and then discuss what's being

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done to address these names. A major need in Sonoma Valley. You may be aware of the fact that we have one of the highest percentage of retirees in the state. And so that's a major need is our retirement population, our senior population. So we are presently

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constructing a seven unit senior project in the city is constructing a 34 units senior project, and our project was accomplished through ah, land donation from the county and a substantial grant from the city and that that kind of cooperation, I think is excellent and really speaks

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well of our of our community. Um, another need in Sonoma Valley is for more knowing come rental units and that IHS ah project that we're working on in the near future. Those are really desperately needed everywhere. Row income rentals talk to Jamie before the program and

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inter office, and we talked about some of those subjects. And that's why stressed that when we talk with her earlier in this program, it just critical need for no cost housing. And I know, for instance, where they have a sign up for Housing and Community Development

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Corporation. I think literally hundreds of people her line or waiting for homes and and they're just not happening fast enough But what you people are doing is really commendable because it is addressing that problem and it's doing something about it and not nearly enough yet. But

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what you're doing as fast as you can when you can in your book to be commended, let me ask you one other question. Here on this. What are some of the strengths and weaknesses of a nonprofit developer such as, Well, one of our strengths. Some of

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our strings are that we're able to deliver a type of housing that the private market can really deliver. Also, another strength that I'm very proud of is the fact that we are good neighbors. In essence, we are concerned about the long term aspects of a project,

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how it looks in the community, how we deal with our neighbors. If there's any kind of problems, we go out immediately to resolve issues, and I and I am very proud of that. Also, we have an excellent board and staff. We work very well together and

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were very hardworking. And there's a there's a tremendous amount of talent there with, um, an excellent ability to really see the goal and go forward and put any kind of minor issues to the side and really work on a goal. As far as our weaknesses, we

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are dependent on public funding. And, of course, with the federal housing programs being cut back, that does put us in in a difficult position. We are using various business methods. Teoh raise funds in other ways. And, of course, if there's anyone out there that would like

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to donate to be HDC would be gratefully and graciously rest. We got about 34 minutes left to us here, but, uh, two things that kind of like to talk about one of them I'd like You gotta summarized Roll over down here. A couple of minutes are

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See you breathe some, right? Some of the housing project that you mentioned to touch down a little bit, but summarized those again briefly. For what is it you working? Okay. Well, as Janie and Dull mentioned, we have three projects in the construction right now are on

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a builder project in Petaluma with 32 units. That's Magnolia, Magnolia Hills Town homes, Onda. We have ah, 42 unit apartment project grabbing Steen highway north in Sebastian Pool. That's now in the early stages of construction. Also cabaret Cabernet Apartments, which is the seven unit uh Reynold

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project for low income seniors in the city of Sonoma, West Napa and Seven Streets. And we have a number of other projects in the pipeline, as we say in development business that Aaron Pre Development Stages that 40 unit Owner Builder Project in Santa Rosa mentioned, We're

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also working on a project, another owner builder project in Cloverdale attempting to find a site for 29 units that be funded to the farmer's home program with 3 to 6% interest loans. Low interest loans were also looking for an apartment site, working with the county redevelopment

00:28:28.650 - 00:28:44.400

agency, working with Janey closely and finding a site of Sonoma Valley for an apartment project hopefully of some size. Um, we're also pursuing a number of other initiatives, and we have a couple potential projects in City Petaluma We hope to do is co operatives, and we

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already own one of the sites and were in the process of buying the other site, working closely with the city of Petaluma that's making available substantial amounts of funds for us, and that's really the key to our success It's really close cooperation with local governments that

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gets us off on the right foot, gets us the site and gives us the opportunity to seek the additional financing. Thank you for doing time Goes too fast, Jamie, wherever you are. Thank you. Uh, this program has been devoted basically to Burbank Housing Development Corporation, which

00:29:16.420 - 00:29:34.440

is a group that has done a tremendous job in dealing with low cost housing and in finding project that they can fund and bring to fruition and many, many more projects in the works and eventually make housing about corporation is going to work, have many girls,

00:29:34.440 - 00:29:49.470

stars beside his name for an amazing job. Done. We thank you. Rush for being here. Thank you. Doing. Thank you, Janey. And the program is accounted eighties. I'll be back with your next week. Remember, the county government family were related Agency Section eight, Housing Development Corporation.

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Good. Good night. Could have been up to you all. Okay,