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ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – JANUARY 13, 2025 14 Mayor Grant asked if we could base it on house value instead of AMI. Councilmember Monson said that is what Roseville did. Mayor Grant said they say 80% AMI affordable home ownership cost. If you own your home, do they take the value times what the current mortgage would be and figure out how much you have to make? He would say base it on the median home value in Arden Hills. Anyone below gets 80%, up to $10,000 or 60%, up to $8,000. Councilmember Rousseau said that sounds good initially. She would like to know if we are pushing some applicants out. She wonders if there is an area where there is a concentration where maybe 30% of average households. She thinks that would be beneficial rather than having the hard line be the median household value. Mayor Grant said people who are retired can control their income more so than someone who’s working. That’s the reason for him suggesting median home value. Councilmember Holden doesn’t think there should be an equity component. There’s only $40,000. We were able to give ten residents $5,000 each, or whatever 50% was. Therefore, they were responsible for coming up with the other half. This program can stay the same this year. We got less funds. But you can have people getting 50% of the money and still help. She said just because someone has lived in a house for 40 years doesn’t mean their income is low. Councilmember Weber asked how much we applied for last year, that we ended up getting $45,000. Director of Public Works/City Engineer Swearingen it was between $70,000-$80,000. Councilmember Weber asked if the equity component had an impact on the grant amount. Director of Public Works/City Engineer Swearingen said no. Some cities appear to be exaggerating their numbers to get a bigger slice. He said Crystal requested $750,000. Minneapolis and St. Paul were at $1.5 million each. So they get a larger chunk. We tried to take a more honest approach. Councilmember Weber asked if he felt like an equity component would have made a difference in the amount received? Not necessarily to the application process, but to either going through applications quicker or narrowing it down. It sounds like ten people qualified. Ten people got it. Director of Public Works/City Engineer Swearingen said it is first come, first served. If we have applicants who meet the equity component earlier in the process, we would run out of money sooner. There is plenty of interest. We just don’t have a lot of funds to begin with. It’s lower than what we requested. Councilmember Weber said he would not support an equity component. If it won’t make a difference on the amount we are receiving.