ORDER-2022-107 : Appointment of Carolyn Federoff, 108 Ashland Street, to the Affordable Housing Trust for a three-year term.

Transcript (~9 min @ 0:58)

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▶ 0:54 Jack Eccles: tonight's agenda so this is the Health Education and Welfare Committee that will be on the legal and legislative committee agenda at 720 thank you anyone

▶ 1:08 Jack Eccles: virtually perfect the first order on tonight's without objection I will close public comment um the first order on tonight's agenda is order 2022-107 appointment of carolyn federoff 108 ashland street to the affordable housing trust for a three-year term i believe we have ms federoff and mayor broder with us tonight if there is no objection we can suspend the rules to hear from the nominee and mayor broder floor is yours

▶ 1:40 Paul Brodeur: thank you mr. chairman thank you the members of the committee as you know through the wisdom of this board and the administration we have made we established an affordable housing trust and we are now you know have the opportunity to to finally fill out the entire membership of the trust and start to put some of the dollars and more importantly the energy of the folks that are serving on the trust forward to make a real difference in a very challenging marketplace that I don't need to tell you all about you know quite a bit about it it is my privilege and honor to be here today to present miss Fedorov to you for consideration for that final trustee spot she has worked literally for decades in the area of affordable housing and she has done it in with an eye towards fairness with an eye towards access and she also happens to be a very accomplished lawyer that knows her way around HUD which for those of you who don't know what I did is the federal housing and urban development departments cabinet level secretariat within President Biden or within the president's cabinet. So she knows a whole lot about a whole lot of things that are related to this. I have a whole bunch more written down, but I think you know some of that story. So I'm gonna turn it over to the pro.

▶ 3:12 Speaker 1: Well, I thank you very much, Mr. Mayor, and thank you members of the council for inviting me. My name is Carolyn Federoff, and I am honored to be asked to be a trustee for the Melrose Affordable Housing Trust. Moreover, I am excited by the purpose that is set forth in the charter and by the Melrose Housing Production Plan.

▶ 3:39 Speaker 1: You know from my cover letter that I have 30 years of experience with the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a housing development attorney. My favorite was affordable housing, whether it was housing for the elderly, people for disabilities. I was the housing attorney responsible for the very first affordable housing for persons with AIDS in the country. There were many changes that we had to make to the standard program in order to accommodate this unique constituency.

▶ 4:24 Speaker 1: I also worked with cities and towns, communities on the use of their community development block grant funding for affordable housing. So I really enjoy looking at the possibilities, looking at how programs can work together in order to further affordable housing. Now what's not reflected in my cover letter and might be a surprise is that I also spent more than 20 years as the lead lobbyist for the HUD Employees Union, and so I had the opportunity to work on Capitol Hill to preserve, expand, defend housing programs, and that opportunity as a union activist to be able to pursue and protect affordable housing was also i have to say frustrating but joyful at the same time so for me the pursuit of vibrant communities open to all it wasn't a vocation it wasn't a career it was a passion and i am excited to pursue that passion in my home community and if there are any questions i'd be happy to answer them

▶ 5:58 Paul Brodeur: i'm going to preempt possibly a question because um is fedor referred to community development block grants? Just so you know, we don't get those. We don't fit the community profile to get those.

▶ 6:16 Manjula Karamcheti: Vice Chair Carmichael. Ms. Federoff, I don't have any questions for you from looking at your resume and your cover letter and hearing from you. 30 years at HUD is most impressive and you clearly will understand the complexities and just what it takes to make affordable housing happen in melrose and i just want to say thank you so grateful that you've applied for this and are willing to share your passion and expertise with us because it is an area that it's complicated it requires people like you with knowledge expertise and wisdom to to support us in moving

▶ 7:04 Ryan Williams: forward so thank you thank you very much counselor williams hi thanks for being with us um i loved reading your cover letter i actually spent five years fundraising for affordable housing senior housing housing for people with disabilities i raised a lot of money for one of the first and the pilot of the veterans supportive housing program in chicago that was co-funded by hud and the va and i also did a lot of work with hoplaw with the housing opportunities for people with AIDS in Chicago so I love hearing you talk about all those different elements because in Melrose we often talk a lot about affordability we don't clearly define what we mean by affordability affordable housing there's the HUD definition there's the kind of spiritual definition of affordable housing in your letter you talk about things like zoning neighborhoods sustainability funding of course land acquisition all these things that are a part of the affordable housing process layering the financing right this was bringing back a lot of memories for me so what do you think the role of the trust will be in the upcoming discussions around zoning housing housing production in Melrose what's your what do you think the ambition is of the members of the trust to be a part of that conversation I think that

▶ 8:17 Speaker 1: pursuant to the Charter that we are a resource for the council that we under

▶ 8:28 Speaker 1: the Charter we in fact have to come back to the council and seek the council and the mayor's permission in certain instances we cannot exercise that power unilaterally but but beyond being a resource I hope that we'll actually have the opportunity to come to the council and say hey we've got this idea what do you think you know what is that something that the council could get behind that you think would be a value to our community that sounds great let's

▶ 9:17 Speaker 2: get to it thank you what is the will of the committee now make a motion to

▶ 9:21 Jack Eccles: to approve second motion to recommend for passage by council williams seconded by vice chair karam chidi all in favor all right all opposed congratulations miss federoff it will be voted on in our next full council meeting on the 16th thank you very much thank you very much for

▶ 9:41 Jack Eccles: your support much appreciated the next order on our agenda tonight is um order sorry one second

▶ 9:48 Jack Eccles: and I clicked away from the link. Order 2022-111, Appointment of Elaine Breen of 18 Woodcrest Ave to the City of Melrose, Commission on Disability. Believe, do we have the nominee with us this evening? You can step forward.