Unitarian
Universalist
Affordable
Housing
Partnership

Meeting called to order by chair Bob Aderhold
Nan will write minutes

Treasurer's Report: Kay Dawson

As of our last report from FUS UUAHP had a fund balance of $19,412.
Thursday night I submitted 2 items for August:
$110 reimbursement to Carol Koepp for Target Gift Certificates to acknowlege the youth who did several days of in-service work during the UU Habitat Build Week and
$2,000 Alliance for Metro Stability grant approved that night.
These will bring our balance down to $17,302.

Update Unity Housing building: Mary Mills reported that Unity decided, after much deliberation, not to go ahead with preserving their affordable housing building. It will be raised. UUAHP had committed 15K of their funds as a grant towards this project and we need to put this money to work on another project. Mary reported that one of the reasons Unity decided not to go ahead with the project was that they forsee expanding their church in less than 5 years- the time frame that the affordable units would be in place. Their minister shared his experience and knowledge with another affordable housing project his former congregation had been involved in. His experience told him that you build relationships first- and not just start a project because a property is there. House of Hope also did not approve the funds for the project, which were 50K. There was also some unknowns and concerns in working with Third Way Network. Kay Dawson mentioned that we may be able to incorporate the lessons of this experience in the YIMBY presentation. The suggestion was made that we go to other UU congregations who have had experiences with affordable housing units and find out what they did. It might also be beneficial to go to other denominations who have been involved with affordable housing projects. Out of this might come a " best practices" list.

Housing Fund: What to do with our $? The following were suggested as organizations we might consider: Yimby Campaign with MICAH; Plymouth Congregational Church projects; Corporation for Supportive Housing; and Third Way Network. There were several discussions on what to do with the $, but Jo felt we needed a full special meeting to talk in depth about this. Carol White felt that we needed more people to start new projects. There was discussion about raising more $ at the YIMBY services and several felt we should not- Barb and Connie in particular felt this service should not solicit funds. Some congregations do regular special collections and might want to collect for housing the day of the YIMBY services at their churches. It was decided to leave this to the individual congregations and we would have further discussions about funging.

MUUSJA Update: Voter registration is going great. Jo mentioned that the steering committees of both UUAHP and MUUSJA still need more participation and representation from all congregations. We got an update on the events happening when William Sinkford would be in town. Jo reported on the matching fund grant from Veatch. We have to raise $4,000. we have $16,000 so far.

Habitat Update: Summer work camp went well. There was a good article about Heritage Park in the City Pages magazine. Nan will put together an article for all congregations about summer work camp and send to Betsy Allis for distribution to newsletters.

YIMBY Campaign: Bob will work on a commitment sheet to pass out during YIMBY program. Jo and Barb will meet with Joy Sorenson Nivaar of MICAH to talk about campaign. We need to do research on affordable housing "hot spots" for each congregation's area. Two communities have said " no " to more affordable housing- Coon Rapids and Brooklyn Park. They are instead giving density bonuses to UPSCALE housing. Brooklyn Park has actually decided to do density reduction and is demolishing affordable units. Fridley is our first YIMBY presentation. Barb and Connie will meet with the Fridley SA chair and minister for the pre-meeting to see what they want. Bob will do the music for the service. He will also revise UUAHP flyer for a handout.

Alliance for Metropolitan Stability Request: Grant of $2,000. Jo recused herself from vote since she is an employee of Alliance. Bob does not ,ike the idea of just acting on a request. The money would be used for their operating budget. Barb felt that it was good to grant the money since they are one of our partners and do good work for housing. We had also given money to MN Housing Partnership Barb moved and Carol seconded that we give the $2,000 to Alliance for Metropolitan Stability. Passed unanimously.

Night Out On the Street: a program with Plymouth Church where youth sleep out for homelessness. We will take the idea to our congregations and see if they want to participate in the Spring of 2005. Connie will talk to Fridley, Carol- FUC, Kay-UUCM, Bob-FUS, Barb-FUC. This is a ready made project to support. Money goes to Plymouth Church, but we would need to get the UU name out there and credit and billing for our participation of we decided to go with Plymouth projects.

Community Stabilization Project- Jo said there is potential to have partnership with them for exploring issues around racism- how do others see UU ? MICAH is also doing anti-racism training. This is something to think about for our next meeting.

Respectfully Submitted by: Nan Corliss