Providence Committee on Finance-Tuesday, May 27, 2025-5:30 PM

Good evening. My name is Melanie Anthony. I am calling to order a regular meeting. I've been speaking on. I am the chair.

It is Tuesday, 05/27/2025, and it is 05/30. Of birth, please.

Chairwoman Anthony.

Present.

Vice Chairwoman Taylor?

Yes.

Councilor Angela? Here. Councilor Graves? Here. Councilor Sanchez?

Present.

We have five present. We have a floor.

Wonderful. I'd like to thank, mister Mississippi's first office. Thank you very much.

Our. Thank you for all you do. With that, madam, first, would you please read item number one?

Resolution endorsing and urging passage by the General Assembly of House Bill 2,025 h dash six two seven two, an act relating to taxation, property subject to tax patients.

Okay.

Do we have anyone here to present on that with this? Okay. And for do we have any response on this? Actually, Erin was supposed to contact Both of

them. Make contact with me. I never would watch.

Aubrey is at Famous House. Okay. Thank you. Okay. It's in.

Yes, sir. I'll take a motion. Well, yes, I'll take you off. Okay. Is that a thing?

That's in oh, I mean, with the. A.

Remove motion. Yeah. No

one's No one's It's interesting. Alright. So I think we're all set. Alright. I just called you.

How are you? Have a seat at the end of the table. Okay. Now if you wouldn't mind getting sworn in. He's right to your right hand.

Let's turn on the panel to it perfectly that the testimony you're about to give is a truthful truth and nothing about the truth. And please state your name for the time. Any names? Miss Neese, thank you so much for coming to see And I know could you tell us a little bit about why you're here this evening and what you're looking to wear for us? Absolutely.

So thank you for having me. I'm sorry if I missed the wait. You're very well. So for those who don't know me, I'm Amy Hazel. I'm the CEO of Amos House.

And I'm here. He house Amos House owns a number of properties to provide housing for folks that a four zero eight one housed, and we have houses throughout the city of Providence. Most of them have been able to get tax exempt status through the city. And in the last couple of years, we were asked to go in general signing of that resolution from the to give us tax exempt status for purchases that we made during the manager as well. Okay.

So just so I can be clear, so the prior all your prior properties have been tax exempt? The car we have we have properties that we're paying taxes on. Out of how many? Out of 20. Okay.

So we alright. So you're looking for tax exempt status for those three. One second. Yes. Okay.

Yes. Alright. And, certainly, we're all very familiar with the one full work we do. I think we've all heard in awe all the time of everything you do for this city. I'm going to open it up for any questions or comments.

Yes, counselor Sanchez. Oh,

I thank you, Aileen, so much for being here. I do wanna give Aileen a shout out. She got a honorary doctorate degree with the university this past weekend. And then, yeah, obviously, we're very familiar with the work, and definitely appreciate it. We just had a couple of questions Mhmm.

As the finance committee in terms of, maybe any future ID plans to purchase properties. We we definitely give, in a very gratitude for the work that you do. But as a finance committee, especially with how, difficult our finances are right now, we hesitate a little bit to to grant any future tax exempt statuses without knowing exactly what your plans might be, going forward.

So we are in the process of working to put a master plan forward at which it will be. The one thing I do know is that we have received in federal appropriations in $20.24 $3,000,000 to secure additional housing, and we're hoping to include that. Beyond that, we don't have any current plan to purchase more than just that. So we are also we have been we have launched a behavioral health clinic for Venator in Stas community, and we may be looking for a space because we're at the we have space that our headquarters at 465. That is not in we're in the process of just exploring that as an option.

What I will say is that everybody who lives with us is at 30% AMI. Some are 80 to 50% AMI. So we're really charging the lowest rents possible to the folks that predominantly have had a hard time finding housing. In most of our venues, except for the we do accept that are not tax exempt yet. We pay all the utilities so that we don't even pass that cost on to the tenants.

I see.

Thank you. Mhmm.

Okay. I think we Yes. Yes. Uh-huh. Thank you for being driving.

She loves everything you do. Also, Miguel should have said three. So Fair enough. Quick question. So for the three properties you currently pay taxes on, do know what you paid last year?

Roughly, $28,000. Thank you. That's it. Alright. Any other questions, comments?

Anyone would like to make a motion?

I would play.

I Oh, absolutely. We haven't had a second. So if you'd ask Yeah. Did you wanna ask her a question?

Well, I'm just going on my colleagues' point. Yeah. I I wouldn't be hesitant with the future. The three properties that do have, I've seen No. At least I mean, not.

But I'm glad I just got the future. Okay.

And you said you're planning to do a master plan, talking and that will include your future That's for the appropriations that we have not to find the space that we can identify for the with the $3,000,000 that we have to hopefully add an additional 14 units. 12 to 14 depending on fasting where you find the space. We want to have him on this.

I think what's really kind of trippy here is that this is a state bill. It's written this way. If there was anyone outside of folks working in in our unhoused population, I would definitely hesitate. But as is, any future developments are gonna be, 30 to 50% AMI. Can you guarantee that?

Yes. Absolutely. So, I mean, that brings a little more comfort in moving this, resolution forward. And I hesitate also on the timeline of the state calendar and where we're at, where I think we pushed this, forward. It's really gonna be tricky to to pass that approval of the state house.

You mean by the end of the session?

Yeah. It's kinda where I'm at. But

K. So if we have a motion, another discussion, I mean, what would you like to do? I did make a motion to have a resolution. Which are in today in the matter. I haven't made a motion to We don't have the option.

But second that motion

to. So They didn't a discussion.