Housing Committee

Lower San Antonio Collaborative
Housing Committee
Meeting Minutes
January 23, 2002

Present: Jennie Mollica, LFCD; Deva Dawson, Fannie Mae; Catherine Firpo, CEDA; Sky Dufaux, OCHI; Owusu Amoakohene, USC; Don Davenport, SACDC; Eric Cone, SACDC; Phil Palmer, Community Bank of the Bay.

Presentation and Discussion: Community Bank of the Bay

Phil Palmer gave a brief summary of the history and programs of Community Bank of the Bay, the first federally-certified Community Development bank in California, which opened in 1996 with the mission to promote community development in low-income areas. The bank lends to developers, churches and small businesses by soliciting investor’s deposits and equity investments. CBB can also attract deposits linked to a specific development project; they now are raising funds for the West Oakland land trust and for land trusts in general (in Oakland, Richmond and San Francisco, a program supported by Fannie Mae), which may be used for land acquisition, construction, mortgages or IDA matching funds. In the future, CBB may partner with Fannie Mae to offer single-family mortgages. They also are exploring ways to encourage insurance companies to link investments to development projects.

A question-and-answer period raised the following issues:

  1. An acquisition loan for a land trust may be made if the sponsor shows the ability to repay the loan. Investments may be made with low or no interest and with an open payoff period. Developers may be able to carry the debt service by linking the development budget to other projects with income.
  2. To date, CBBs only investments in the San Antonio area have been in the Fruitvale Main Street project and in small businesses.
  3. The New Markets Tax Credit may impact CBB, which is already a CDFI and a CDE.
  4. Bart of the AECasey Foundation did visit CBB and may be interested in linking deposits to benefit community development projects.

Data Analysis Update: Urban Strategies Council

Owusu reviewed the available data, including 1-year data on blighted properties (not necessarily for sale, but with multiple sitings). Sky commented that OCHI has sent out 30 letters to owners of blighted properties and received no response. Committee members recommended mapping the sites of properties with 1 siting/multiple sitings, with zoning overlay, to facilitate site assembly. Questions arose around how this data would be made available, who would be able to access it, and if funding would be available for this sort of land assembly. The City may one day consider the use of eminent domain. For properties with liens against them, if the liens are less than the value of the property, it may be possible to purchase through the City’s receivership program at affordable prices. The City Manager’s office is apparently considering this issue.

Vacant lots have also been mapped. These could be grouped according to size. It can also be noted if the lots are attached to an existing building. A CD could be made available for queries by all interested parties.

Committee members agreed that it would be easiest to use the data if it were available on a CD, but that we should be wary of speculators if the data were made public. Now, the database can only be accessed at USC, but the Casey Foundation is supporting the development of the on-line data warehouse with UCB input.

Specific analyses requested by the Committee members include:

    1. recent house sales, by band of price category (for use by Homeownership Center)
    2. vacant lots by size
    3. commercial sales (separate from home sales, of great interest to SACDC)

The next meeting will take place Wednesday, February 27, 2002, 3:30 p.m. at Urban Strategies Council, Preservation Park for a full demo of the database.