July 27, 2016

MAMMOTH LAKES HOUSING, INC.

 Board of Directors Meeting

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

1:00 p.m.

Mammoth Lakes Library, Ellie Randol Room

400 Sierra Park Road

Minutes

 I.    Call to Order

II.    Roll Call

Members present: Colin Fernie, Larry Johnston, Kirk Stapp, and Bill Taylor

Members absent: Lindsay Barksdale and Jiselle Kenny

Stakeholders: Craig Schmidt, Evan Russell, Tom Hodges, Thom Heller, Steve Osterman, Cleland Hoff, Ruth Traxler, Sarah Vigilante, Abagael Giles and Ted Carleton

III.    Public Comments

No public comments were given.

IV.    Stakeholders Summit Series on Mammoth Lakes’ affordable workforce housing – First Summit on housing needs

Question 1: How does the need for affordable workforce housing impact your organization?

·         TOT increases drives a need for more service employees

·         Minimum wage increase: How will it impact housing needs?

·         Employee turnover increases due in part to housing problems.

o   Leads to more money spent on training and overtime pay

·         Increase occupancy in Home

·         Service levels impacted by employees picking up slack from lack of employees which leads to burnout

·         Negatively impacts professional recruitment:

§  Sheriffs

§  Town Staff

§  Hospital

·         Hodges MMSA: The mountain is content with the housing they have currently and have no further needs in terms of workforce housing

·         In the peak winter months’ people are found to be camped out in their cars, vans, etc. because there’s no affordable housing

·         Most police officers live in Nevada or Bishop and commute because it’s cheaper

·         Fire chief position is an example of a hard to fill position because applicants simply can’t afford to stay in town because of the lack of quality housing for reasonable prices

·         Mid to High level management has trouble finding adequate and appropriate housin

Question 2: Lack of Inventory was cited as top reason your employees have had difficulty securing appropriate housing. Please elaborate.

·         Quantity and quality mismatches

o   Many homes with large price tags lack real value

·         Availability of unit sizes

·         Quantity of energy efficient units and homes lacking in this department are more common than not

·         Lack of pet friendly rentals

·         The price of the ownership units in town aren’t matched with quality. For the price the homes are “piles”

·         People don’t want to live in extremely expensive homes that look the way they do in Mammoth Lakes

·         Energy efficiency is a serious problem in Mammoth, many homes with high energy costs due to outdated windows (single pane), poor insulation, roofs, etc.

·         Housing stock in need of renovations and upgrades

Question 3: Rental housing was the biggest housing need today. What does that look like?

·         Multi-Family must have appropriate parking

·         With enough storage, parking, amenities, etc. units could be built smaller if storage was sufficient

·         Bike storage

·         A serious need for higher quality rental units

·         Demand exists for smaller 1 bedroom units for mid-level management types

·         Mobile home space rents

o   Uncontrolled, serious need for oversight

·         It needs to be affordable town or house style

·         Parking is an issue especially multi-family parking

·         People are willing to rent smaller units if there is adequate storage, parking, bike storage, amenities, etc.

·         “Nice” rentals are few and far between, save money with shared amenities

·         Serious need for smaller, 1 bedroom units for middle management “millennials” who aren’t quite committed to the community

·         There is a county-wide land and water shortage that makes it nearly impossible to build in other places in the “valley”

·         Fire control and management are very large barriers to developments in Crowley Lake and elsewhere due to the lack of water and fire suppression resources.

·         Crowley Lake feels as though Mammoth Lakes is dumping its problem onto them and quote, “sending them undesirable rental populations”

Question 4: Ownership housing was the 2nd largest housing need today. What does that look like?

·         Does better rental stock dismiss or lower the need for ownership units?

·         Space for kids to play, space for a family

·         Storage

·         Parking

·         More privacy

·         Mobilehome space rents controls and energy efficiency are a serious concern

·         Need for mobile home park space rent control

·         Mobilehome parks house part of the workforce housing of Mammoth Lakes and need to be preserved and protected

·         Mobile home park rent control successfully done elsewhere, why not Mammoth Lakes?

·         Low quality rental options push people into ownership who want to live in “nice” homes

·         Would a better rental stock with higher quality units decrease the need for more ownership options?

·         Developments without transient (overnight rental options) options, more owner occupied ownership

Summit #2 – Resources and Solutions will be held on August 17, 1-3 pm at the Mammoth Lakes Library, Ellie Randol Room.

V.    Adjourn