 Board of Commissioners, can we have a roll call? Chairwoman, I've got it right. Commissioner Christ. Commissioner McCoy. Commissioner Yopro. Martin Sallie, Assistant Director, LHA. Tim Hall, Assistant City Attorney. Kimberly Gaines, County Supervisor. Sarah Arnie, Public Safety. Ali O'Donnell, Housing Director. Commissioner Yelgo Farrie. Commissioner Martin. Okay, thank you. Do we have any... Oh, Harold. Harold, introduce yourself. Director Harold Gaines. Does Erica need to introduce herself? Yeah. Thank you, Erica. Do we have any agenda revisions? Can I have a motion to approve the March 21st, 2024 minutes? I move that you approve the March 21st, 2024 minutes. Second. Commissioner McCoy. Second by Commissioner McCoy. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed. That passes unanimously. We're now at public, invited to be heard. We have three minutes per speaker. There's no sign of this, so... Shipheel was first when I saw it. Strider was here before I was. Oh, Strider? Strider. I feel a little unprepared. I just got this material two hours ago. Oh, my goodness. From the Bill Bank use and from the San Susie House and the trailer park in South Boulder, 2018. But anyway, the basic thing is, I don't know if it's a new management or they just started acting that way, but two to five months ago, and everything has been so attacking us that it's hard to know when and what transpired. But all of a sudden, they started attacking almost all of the trailer park owners. I got this note on my door after I was in church one night I come home and said, I have not paid my rent. They already had my rent for two days. And they never acknowledged to me that they had already cashed my money order, but they did tell Susan when we had the mediation meeting. The mediation was, there's a young girl local. She didn't know anything. She'd just been trained to be abusive. And there's a regional lady who was, just everything is absolute. Arbitrary has nothing to do with health safety, decency, anything like that. It's a violation of what we have been living under up in there for 15 years, some for 24 years. And everybody gets these threatening notices on their door every week. It's arbitrary. It's not clear. Like one example that says you cannot have a clothesline. Well, the trailer park put in the clotheslines. And you cannot hang up clothes to drive. Well, trailers aren't big enough to have a driver. And many of those things, it says I cannot have a filing cabinet. There's nothing in the words, but they say filing cabinet counts. They call it internal furniture. Well, you can't even see it. Like this, you can't even see it unless you're standing right in front of it, looking at it. And they say, well, I got two small tables in case friends or, I mean, I'm a writer. I like to sit out in the sun and have access to my material. And for example, this one, you cannot have this one. And it's totally arbitrary. It's absolute. There is no mediation, no consideration, no acknowledgement. I had cleaned out 95%. I had quite a bit of stuff there because my church squeezed my bigger storage locker into my smaller one and everything else got stuffed there. So I got rid of that. 95% of it. Stan had some stuff in my place. He got his stuff out. I had to buy another storage locker. And at one point, the example of just one quickie, the regional manager said, well, you could have a lattice. But then in the same sentence, she made it into a life. You can have a lattice, but you can't have the tarp to protect against the wind and the snow. So you have to tear that out anyway. And it's just everything is arbitrary, absolute, and different from the last 15 years. All of a sudden, it's whole new set. So are you still working with Susan Spalding on this? Well, I'm willing to, but I want to work with LHA and Bill Van Dussen just told me that we have rights under the law that I need to learn about. Okay. Thank you, Sterter. Thank you much. I have nowhere to go and I'm with Section 8, so I like that. Kill the Law, 219 Francis Street. I just want to mention that the clothesline prohibitions that Strider was complaining about are actually quite common in age-away neighborhoods throughout the city of Longmont. So this is a thing that actually affects many people in the city of Longmont, and this is an extremely unfortunate example. So just food for thought. So commissioners who also happened to be mayor and members of council, in partnership with Prosper Longmont and Longmont Public Media, Longmont Housing is taking off a book club to bring members of the community together to talk about the rising cost of housing problem. The first book that we are reading is called Escaping the Housing Trap by Charles Morone and Daniel Heritage of the nationally-recognized organization Strong Towns. The book describes the tension between the financialization of housing and the need for housing to shelter and the actions that municipalities can take to address the crisis of housing affordability. We invite you and any member of the public to join us in reading the book at longmonthousing.org. Our first meeting requires no reading and is on Monday, April 22nd at 6.30pm at Longmont Public Media. We'll have a presentation with all the information you need to get the most out of reading the book and also we'll include a presentation by Elizabeth Bodewin, the curator of history at the Longmont Museum. We've placed this event on the council calendar in compliance with the Colorado Open Records Act and Launch Longmont Housing has purchased a copy of the book for each one of you. We'll have them at the next council meeting because the book's not out yet it'll come out next Tuesday. Members of the public can pre-order the book at barbed wire books or place a hold on a copy at the Longmont Public Library. Thank you. Before we accept the gifts we have to know what the price is. I believe the book retails at $28. I was going to mention Strider's situation and what it is is that you got little alterities of HOAs and we got this situation where we got corporations buying up trailer parts because they figured out that they could buy them up and they got trapped people and they raised the rents a lot. Sometimes they try to intimidate everybody that they start enforcing rules and they try to make it pristine so they can basically resell it in place. So what it is is the city I think really needs to adapt some of the state requirements so stuff can be enforced on a local level by the common people because trying to get enforcement through the state is a difficult process. If it's local and the other thing is a lot of these HOAs and trailer parts what they're doing is they're trying to keep minorities and marginal people basically exclude them from housing things like restricting parking on the street you can't park in your own driveway a lot of it stuff. The city I think needs to enact basic rights to people because essentially the state law has something if you're just a irritating person a lot of times you'll get forced out of your community. The state law says if they're doing something like that it's a violation. The city really needs to make things like that part of their local ordinances so a code inspector can actually enforce some of this stuff instead of trying to get some overtaxed state person to do it and things like when people are trying to rent a place banning you got landlords taking deposits from people not deposits but just to apply for a place they're charging like $300-400 just to apply and then they don't want to give it back if you don't get the place the city needs to establish there's actually the HUD regulations saying that's illegal but trying to get a federal thing enforced is almost impossible you have to file a federal lawsuit against the landlord that didn't give you back your $100 a lot of times it's more $200-300 and most people don't know about it but if there are local rules that make it safe for people to rent make it so people aren't being excluded through things like oh you can't park on your own street thank you very much seeing no one else going to close the public hearing the public might be worried old new business the sweet slam concepts we'll be seeing Molly O'Donnell I'll be reporting on this one you'll be seeing an item most likely at next month's LHA board meeting requesting authorization to execute an easement for the dry creek trail but the city side parks department is working on designing right now and hoping to begin construction on shortly so what you see here is going to show that but that is being drafted right now that easement is being drafted right now so that is not yet totally in effect but it's a little bit challenging to see but the proposed trail alignment in the thatched orange and the trail easement would be this green line, the blue line you can ignore so the reason we're talking about this tonight however is that we do have an option agreement to allow element properties the same developer that did Zinnia to develop this backlog behind the sweets so there's some history in that that Harold might jump into because he was involved at the time this was a little bit for my time but when LHA was trying to build Fall River they needed extra cash on hand to help close the deal and so they approached the city and said would you buy out half of the land behind the sweets just a paper exercise not necessarily saluting the lot itself to be in the ownership structure of that land so that we could get some funds to help finish the Fall River project and council at that time agreed the property acquisition occurred and so now the city and the LHA own this backlog behind the sweets 50-50 as part of the Zinnia when we're working with Element on Zinnia back in maybe 2019 when they were first getting started the option agreement was for the area where Zinnia is now plus this backlog and so that was the phase one of the option agreement in this area is the phase two we were reviewing that option agreement when we were considering this easement to see if it would trigger an amendment of any sort and it does not it would just require consent from Element to be able to construct that easement but it did make us start talking to Zinnia Element about what we should be planning for back there because the option agreement requires that Element obtain a li-tech award by the end of 2025 for this option to still be in effect so in order to do that we need to start get moving in order to hold the option as is and so we just wanted to conceptually talk about what the LHA board would like to see in terms of a product back there so we've worked in working on this easement we worked with Element to do kind of a conceptual plan very conceptual here about just to see what could fit back there and if it could fit within and still accommodate the trail easement and knowing that there's a riparian set back there and the FEMA flood plane is mapped here as well just to see what was possible on that backlog so this is what you see here is a conceptual building 63 units you can see this is a drive aisle and potential parking areas still and meeting the pocket park requirements that are assumed to be that would have to go into site planning but really what it looks like right now is certainly feasible 63 unit building how many stories I'm sorry so Zinnia is four stories podium with wood on top so I would assume it would be the same there similar so we just we brought this to the advisory board here last week just to say if you wanted to make any recommendations to the board start thinking about it they asked for an outline of some options to consider and so that has not come to fruition yet but we really wanted to start the conversation with the board and then we don't need to take any action tonight but it's more brainstorming ideas to eventually get some real direction to element on what you all would like to see so wasn't this the property that when we had you and Harold and I talked about the Dolores project that I personally would really want to see that so very similar to the Dolores project so for the rest of the board that members that weren't on that tour about half of it so we went down to Denver where they have an affordable housing development that has a 45 bed shelter for women and transgender people and then permanent supportive housing units attached to traditional affordable housing and so people could the idea was to show hope and move people along and transition them up and out and so that was a super interesting idea I totally agree the one challenge that we've come up with since then is that they got that shelter element paid for by the tax credits because it was in a QCT this side is not in a QCT so the tax credits couldn't pay for the shelter but so there would have to be another funding element attached to be able to do it that way so that was the one piece of information that we had first of all what's a QCT and second do we have enough like first floor housing for mobility challenged residents because that comes up every so often and it seems like designing it in the beginning would be a good thing yes it's a qualified census tract so HUD designates qualified census tracts each year and lie tech projects in qualified census tracts essentially get the it's kind of a bonus on the credits so they could attach for example if the ascent was in a qualified census tract the ECE could be covered by the tax credits because it's a service for the residents but it's also more for the broader community in this case if it was in a qualified census tract the tax credits would pay for the majority of a shelter or services or some sort of service oriented element of the project and then the second question on mobility units we are actually LHA when you consider the entire portfolio is exceeding the minimum required for mobility units when you consider it all together that's why in Aspen Meadows when we did the construction project we actually added extra mobility units to make sure that the entire portfolio was covered and we are meeting the requirements I'd say the reason that I ask is because people living in non LHA properties on vouchers frequently seem to be claiming mobility limitations and then they get a bad neighbor and they can't move around inside the building that they have a lease for because of accessibility of the unit that they're in and they're in like the only one or something so that's the reason I ask because people can't get away from an odious living situation right now so a couple of things that we've talked about the kind of it's a framework on the qualified census tract it's inherently the same issue that we are dealing with the project so you know when we were looking at the early child care component have the Aspen project been in a qualified census tract we could have put that into the basis of the project it wasn't so we're having to look at other fun options for that piece in early child care in that facility one difference in this location while it's not in a qualified census tract it is in an enterprise zone so one of the things that we can do is really dig in and potentially pre-certify with the state as part of an enterprise zone and that may be able to do something similar that you would see in a qualified census tract but we'll need to dig into that a little bit more Harold did you mention something that I didn't quite understand that the block from Boulder Shelter had mentioned something about background services can you explain that well I think when we look at the area and we look at what options we have I think one of the concerns that has been brought forward to Mali is you know right now every unit on the site is permanent supported housing and so there is a conversation about watching the density of permanent supported housing in a single location and if you think back to the Dolores project you know one of the things they had was they had the shelter component they had permanent supported housing and then they had what we would consider traditional affordable housing and that was one of the pieces that Mali and I talked about is you know that's really kind of a missing piece of this site is more of that traditional affordable housing that we built so that could be an option that the board could consider and you know we've thrown out other options in terms of if you look at a podium style structure potentially having space to bring to lease to service providers who serve members of our community that utilize permanent supported housing and affordable housing as an option we talked about utilizing space for some of our services that we have as we're running out of space in this facility so there they could really be a mixed use concept in terms of ground floor activity services with other components to this but I think what they were communicating to us was really watching how much permanent supported housing were allocated in a single location yep so would it be possible with a four story building that part of it is the shelter part of it is transitional but could not one floor be traditional housing as people move up and out that can't care of some of the concerns that there wasn't enough traditional housing I think the concern is more how many permanent supported housing so once the city is built we'll have 130 and so I think the concern that was coming up is just was more of a request please consider how many high needs people are going to be on site and considering how the interactions with each other so just thinking about having opportunities using that back lot for ways for the existing permanent supportive housing residents to be able to look towards the future as well so that could include services could include traditional affordable housing that's more of an extension of the comment but that is where it was coming from for me it would round out the idea of a campus type of solution for people in need I'm not going to say just unhoused but even if someone is living on their own in their own unit somewhere else they could still use hopefully the wraparound services like addiction and health work is that what we're thinking about as well or is it just contained to the Swedes area Zinnia I don't know this is just a thought process that I'm kind of going through well it seems like this other concern may weigh more heavily because we don't want to ghettoize any kind of subsidized housing which means that we I would say that while I really like the idea of wraparound and basic services for street living people I propose things like that multiple times but maybe this is not the place for it because we want a more functional group of people living in this situation and providing role models and and just not not lumping all of the people who need a lot of services together I mean we don't want to end up with something like true I go right I was in St. Louis when they grew it up we don't want to get there I would like to see something more upscale maybe even a combination of the unsubsidized but you know 80% type housing probably with that is financing grants and so the factors that we'll say this the factors that we'll weigh in regardless once we have an actual deal there will be a market study that will say if that area and the general market in that section of town could support certain percentage of affordability units so 80% for example that market study will drive a lot of the decision making on the investor side and so that would that would be telling I would say that something that this site has going for it is that we constructed 55 units of permanent supporting housing permanent supportive housing with virtually no public negative comment it is it is a site that is traditionally if you're gonna if it's going to face opposition then that is often when it's in established neighborhood or near more single family residential so that is something that this site has going for it so it is I think it's just something for the board to balance the concentration argument versus the campus argument if you do it do it well with the services etc I think they're all pieces to pretty all the way I just wanna make note of the fact that out of sunset way over here in the parkway right in this corner is a very active child care center supports these businesses in this area and so we're talking about density in terms of people that need a lot of support that might get on to it with the child care center being that support I've just seen that on my side too would you like do you mind if Sarah spoke? I'm just on my side 10 and a half of the space I mean it's been there for quite some time and as far as issues with residents there's a lot of residents maybe if you drive in there you're constantly seeing them go to the gas station walking around we have not had any issue I mean I didn't have to look it up maybe one or two very minimal issue with the residents that are currently living there and you're correct but if we look at the data that we have I don't think that we could support that it would be an issue there could be an offshoot of a problem it could always happen but what we've seen in the past doesn't indicate that we will and when we do have a problem folks this week are very active they're apt to contact me public safety police if there's an issue same with the daycare center they're very low on calls yeah there's I think one of the reasons that we actually have a security contract on the side of the Swedes is probably more about the people that are residents of the Swedes that are impacting the livability of the residents in terms of some of the issues that we're seeing you know I think we're at a better spot with our residents because the last time I was at a coffee and conversation and coffee and conversations with Sarah they were telling us you need to look for this problem here and this problem here and this problem here so and if it's interesting we're seeing that external influence that I think in some cases actually challenges the residents that live there and to add to that with this additional construction and creating more density we've seen the trend is a lot of our on-house folks are looking for private property they know that it's taking longer for them to be moved along so we have had issues up along this ditch right here on the north side significant they're gone now but it took us a long time to do all the work to move them along so with more people in there I don't see the issue of the I'm not saying they'll be totally gone I don't see them visiting that area as often and Paul here on the 21st of child care center there was even a stabbing there years ago that happened right outside that and we had the child care center persisted but as soon as the people on north Longmont the businesses there started having trouble with breaking into their garbage there was a lot of traffic pretty much between those railroad tracks there I think it's a perception problem but then parents don't want to leave their kids there and now that child care center has closed so we've lost it we've lost it in our neighborhood and sorry this one is very active and supports those businesses in the area and so you know on the positive side we have a portable housing there that doesn't have a lot of access to that kind of service very close because it is industrial there's lots of work you can walk to and then child care would be right there too I'm just worried about too much density being a problem for parents when they see that dropping their kids on it's just because of that and we miss that different child care center and that's one of our goals is to keep those child care centers open are there any other thoughts on what this property should be used for or or Jojen said we need some more Joe Lesson named Jojen and said we need some more buffets hahaha oh yeah that's good she's not wrong so because this is city and LHA land whatever ends up happening would end up coming back to both but I just wanted to start the conversation um and give some ideas to elements so if you'd like to express any now to have element look into or if you'd like us to come back with some options we could do that too are we looking at a particular demographic you know because we have a whole lot of housing aimed at senior residents we would like to apply some demographic pressure in favor of younger people staying in Longmont or even moving to Longmont if they have jobs here so would some kind of Viva whatever it's called kind of concept of something that is for people aging out of foster care or just you know people coming out of their own families and starting at an job is that a possibility though such people might be more resilient in terms of acceptance of their neighbors I think what that would be is traditional affordable housing and then when in design you try and just like we are designing a scent to be family friendly we're not going to have any preference necessarily but that is something that we could do to try and so like singles and young couples from the aesthetic and etc so what space are we here what space would you be hearing from the background I'm hearing boys yes he's from the great y'all so are we looking at the city of Longland area it is one parcel owned jointly so it's not split up it's not split up it is this general parcel starting from the where you have the images of the pocket parks and all that that was all conceptual okay so that kind of confused me so I could jump in and report again this is before the city was involved in the housing authority they needed 750,000 on Fault River the city with affordable housing funds purchased property for 750 we took from a majority ownership interest in the property and at the time we negotiated where we have ultimate control on the property in terms of what was developed on it because we didn't have a housing authority now it's a little bit different since we're intertwined with each other but that's a good history so I'm going to just pop in go ahead I was going to finish with I was just asking well something I would like to see is there's going to be an ongoing component to this is really I'm thinking about the life skills wraparound services how can we get people who are in these units and even other residents or other individuals or unhoused who you know getting folks on a trajectory to be able to live a sustainable life so knowing how to pay bills, knowing how to budget, knowing how to find a job and keep a job so having some kind of um place or a hub that we can tap into you know along with city funds and LAJ to be able to support ongoing sustainability for residents who are kind of like on that verge of you know they don't have those skills to to keep a job they might find a job and then they can't sustain it so we're looking at that sustainability to help people stay in housing and help people stay employed is that it? yeah that's it that was wonderful it was we should applaud so I liked Marcia's idea about children aging out of foster care I think that is perfect but also Mr. Yarbrough mentioned together with the kids who were in that program as well a lot of those you know I should say a lot they might be couch surfing individuals as well so they do fall under or could fall under the homeless or unannounced umbrella of people who need housing just keep that in mind I don't know where they fall in any kind of paradigm of health or under the LAJ requirements to be able to be housed element had actually proposed that as an idea to be on about youth I think we should look at that I really like Marcia's idea and I know that it would be nice to have something like that here in Longmont for our youth and I don't know if any of them even know how to fill out applications for voucher and to be on section 8 or you know any of that so to be able to have a point place to go to knowing that it's here in Longmont just for them it will be amazing I can't even imagine to me that's part of supportive services it isn't just supporting mental or physical health but it's skills oh there we go any other really good suggestions thank you that's what those kids are doing Oreo cookies I'll leave a rooftop a rooftop buffet there is this trail we used to lead to the China buffet but I don't think the China buffet is a business make a building high and we can shoot our fireworks I'm a huge pilot over there there's a lot of pavement right now oh jeez I think we're getting slapped okay we have two more we have some more to cover okay Annie and Millie's place partnership update I've been taking that I got this update from Lisa our regional housing our regional property manager so she's been in contact with Annie and Millie's they hosted a veterinary clinic in partnership with the street dog coalition on January 30th with booster shops on February 26th she said you guys are interested in having Annie and Millie's do more with our residents not just with LHA residents but also voucher residents so she has been in contact with the organization they are very interested in doing more their board is currently working on clarifying their current programs and looking to expand and build partnerships with the annual clinics and other properties so they're seeing how that will work with their mission and then also interested in expanding past PSH but also people who were on vouchers within the community or truly at risk of becoming unhoused they do help cover up costs of veterinary services especially as they escalate they will look at the costs and see if they can partner with other organizations and veterinarians in Longmont to cover that and they have some upcoming events May 5th they're going to be at St. John Episcopal in Boulder they're doing initial vaccinations and general well checks spay and neuter vouchers June 1st at Bethlehem Lutheran here in Longmont to do follow up needs for May 5th new guest initial vaccinations spay and neuter vouchers and then June 22nd again at Bethlehem Lutheran here in Longmont to follow up from the June 1st visit and then any additional necessary check of care needed so this was a discussion that was brought up at the February 20th LHA meeting so this was just a report back based on that information we researched we have a density map of where housing choice factors that are not in LHA properties where they are being used I'm thinking particularly about countryside local home part in the context of Annie and Millie's because there's a veritable population explosion of Chihuahuas there I'm serious this is no I mean everything there's clearly some community building going on there because everybody's got two or three really interesting and you can't the security dogs whatever a lot of them there and they might need care and especially some kind of a low cost spay and neuter event might be good I don't know if it's somebody's side gig then maybe not so he used to be with he's involved with them now and I could connect the two of you that'd be great he's involved with countryside or with Annie and Millie's yeah sure I know Annie and we do have plans to we don't have a map showing voucher holders however we are in talks with the other housing authorities on getting information to their voucher holders who live in Longmont so once we have more information about this we can just send that to their program people and have them disperse that information we don't have a reciprocal agreement to share data about the residents so we have to rely on them to share that I was just thinking of as a housing authority is it worth our time to nudge Annie and Millie's into a direction of a particular neighborhood I think we're targeting outrageous I think you should contact Becky Doyle and get an app for that she's pretty responsive I've asked her for weird map layers and she's screaming you just done a roll to make sure sorry don't be sorry I'm glad she wrapped up in a blanket I don't know are there any more comments on Annie and Millie's and you are done with your update thank you I thought it was very interesting now Commissioner you had said that you would make the motion for Aspen Meadows Senior Park was floored I think Harold so commissioners a brief background of this Aspen Meadows senior apartments is a property that is in the Longmont Housing Authority portfolio prior to the city integrating in with the housing authority the Longmont Housing Authority began the recent vacation process and so as you know now that's when we go in and we get funds we essentially refinance properties that we give funds to make capital improvements to that property all the development work and the design work was done prior to the city getting involved with Aspen Meadows apartments right at the point where we started finding that transition one of the first things that we undertook was actually having to secure the financing for that project because the initial investor fell out and we had to find another investor so there was very little in terms of the architectural design and the other work that was all done ahead of time went through the process made improvements to the units and we noticed that there were some issues with flooring that we've been trying to resolve since late 2022 and 2023 staff is requesting the board authorize us to file a lawsuit if needed and take all the legal steps necessary to preserve our client so I'd like to make a motion to direct staff to continue working on a solution to the flooring issue and take all necessary steps to achieve a solution including if such action is deemed necessary initiate legal action to rectify Aspen Meadows senior apartments flooring failure it's been moved by councilor commissioner Hidalgo Ferry to give direction to staff to continue working with Aspen Meadows flooring and take legal action if necessary it's been moved by councilor McCoy all those in favor say aye all those opposed that passes unedits 6 to nothing with commissioner Aaron Rodriguez absent we're on the interim executive director's report development of the bonus commission for indulging me tonight to connect with Molly I got something for my son who got something at CSU so I do want to risk getting you all sent as well so thank you for allowing me to do that tonight I'm going to turn it over to Molly to go over the development updates so we are in construction at village place our village on main to keep it simple still trading my own right we have our we've done two wings now one on each side of the first floor and we've got residents moving back in generally the feedback is very good about workmanship and materials and then but no construction job is perfect so we are people are living in it now construction is starting into the common areas it's going to be more disruptive so we're really trying to engage with the residents right now work through requests and questions as they come and just trying to keep everybody in good communication right now because we are about to peak on construction on the inside the common areas will be worked on from now through the end of June or so construction work outside in the parking lot and on the inside will be June through August so we're about to hit so trying to work with residents to get everyone ready otherwise things are going good on schedule on budget so that is that property Zinnia's construction is also moving right along on schedule they will be completing in September with lease up happening until October we've been preparing with the entire team including Element and Boulder Shelter and our mental health partners to prepare for lease up and use any lessons learned that that team went through on Bluebird Boulder the sister project to this one to implement any of those lessons learned since that so fresh there so what do we have else? Ascent, we are rolling right along to an anticipated closing on Ascent in July and then turn around and start construction at that time as well you'll see a good amount of items coming forward to prepare for that closing between now and July in the next couple of meetings getting everything worked out there in terms of the Early Childhood Education Center we have promising news from Color to Health Foundation we do not have an actual dollar value yet but it's just going through final tweaks of Milestone and things that they want to see kind of deeper in the agreement that would be coming so as soon as we have that good news we'll share it and otherwise just a full court press on Ascent we've got development opportunities coming at us that we're waiting through to see how to prioritize things, work on our projection of when we need to time certain projects through the next several years and so that's all underway is there any other properties Harold that you wanted to touch based on that I didn't hit? One thing that I wanted to talk about that unfortunately I can't get into very specific detail now but it is likely that we're going to need another executive session and commissioners to talk about a potential development opportunity and get negotiations and negotiators this project is a little different in that it's affordable housing but it's also potentially income qualified attainable housing and the rental side Molly and I have had a handful of meetings and all of them discussing different financing options I'm bringing this up today because we have a really good meeting today that brought some clarity on how we're going to how we can finance a project like this and so just adding to what she's saying development opportunities are continuing to come in we're continuing to evaluate those we do have the ability now to be really look for those who can maximize our revenue potential and how that applies in the future so we'll probably need an executive session in May with a board to talk through some of these issues that's really the big one for me oh well when we look at this, I remember a few years ago before we started building projects as the city council and as the housing authority board you all set a target for us on projects in terms of the number of units that you want to build and I believe that number was six units six properties six properties in five years and to just recap what you've seen so Christmas too was the first one that's leasing up right now as we speak Zinnia will be leasing up this year we're going into construction on a scent quality am I forgetting well we originally included the project that you all agreed as the city council related to ownership opportunities number four just wanted you to know and that's equating to how many units Molly oh gosh I gotta pull it it was something a lot I know over 300 over 300 units in that kind of frame I wanted to say that to you because I think the vision that you all set for us in terms of what we needed to do to you know we wanted your major points of housing you're really now seeing that start to move out of the system so the work that you did in that goal setting session has really allowed us to see where in our start it was not really development related but I did want to take this opportunity to part of the director's report to say you've also made a number of decisions that it's really kind of this really shifted the organization in a way that is making us better but I think in terms of staff capacity has helped us a lot and if you look at if you look in the room and you look at budget decisions that you've made that has drastically helped us make a start with the one with Tim Holt and really bringing in a housing attorney to work with us it's definitely streamlined the process made my life easier you can look at Sarah in the work of funding the police officers of Sarah works with this dealing with the safety issues and then obviously with Kendra and the accounting that you've been able to do in the most recent addition is long and I will tell you when you said that you actually said that as both of me as part of my city manager evaluations a few months ago that said you needed an assistant director in this world and I appreciate that because that's what it's for and I can tell you what I've seen since Lawrence joined our team is it's just another critical piece in taking this organization to the next level and we talk about this a lot this is a we and this is the team of the commissioners and staff and I really wanted to take this opportunity to thank you because what Molly and I have realized out of this is when you get the right people and you bring on that support it's actually brought some calm to us as well and let us look further out in the future and so you know not too extremely high expectations but you know the folks in this room are just killing it and when you bring the right people together you can do some pretty amazing things and when you have the right team including the commissioners I think it just sets a different trajectory for us so I wanted to say thank you so you all cannot leave in your position I wanted to compliment you from our last meeting that when we got a chance to actually be on location and I think Harold said that maybe we would be doing that a little bit more often and I'd like to see that because I think it's great to see these things up front I agree not at eight o'clock at nine though but not at nine not at nine so I want to say right back to you Harold that I am so impressed with the team you've put together because it's fun working with them I mean they're fun people and I think that that's a huge part of a team is that you've got to enjoy what you're doing you have to like who you're working with and be able to voice your opinion whether it's an opinion that everybody agrees with or not and I think that's what I've noticed and I really appreciate about that because you can't move forward and if you can't work together and just respect your points and come to a conclusion that actually moves you toward the target you're trying to get to so I think that the team you've put together is amazing and so thank you you're welcome they're not shy they're not supposed to be in that room with you they're shy it does seem like we are either so that's good so if it's okay with you we'll move to the operational update so do you have anything on public health and safety I do if you'd like me to go yes please alright so we've added two new meth detectors to ones that village on Maine in a non-construction area and the other one is at the suites we picked those locations for signal strength so that was the real detriment of the first few devices that we had for signal strength so those are monitoring those daily and we also have the one up at Fall River so keeping tabs on that we're looking at getting a quote to get some for Christmas too on the units that have not been rented also asking keep asking the questions where they are where they are with their technology to kind of mesh with what we're doing here in one month another piece about meth recently Heidi and I believe the directors of the county have put together a meth task force with the county they asked myself and Molly to be on that task force and as you know it's a very complex topic and there's a lot of challenges and impacts of use and especially when it is regarding to our housing industry so I think due to our lens and our expertise and some of the things that we've seen and had experience we're going to be sitting at that table and we're really going to be having conversations regarding what to do, how to move forward do we contact the state regarding lowering some levels to make things more feasible once we have more information on that we'll bring it to you and I know that I met with on a side note that this involves you all is that the whole meth information just in general that you had asked about we met today with Molly a little bit and Grant and Dane and Jeremy and we're going to be putting a presentation for you together on that so I'll let the other folks talk about when that's going to happen but just look forward to that cameras I think Harold informed you that he put a VDA for two weeks out to get his ball rolling he's had that there well no I didn't inform them I pushed him to be pursuing that that's what I meant with the VDA out so that is exciting for us especially the coffee conversations that's a constant question for our residents about cameras what's the scoop very exciting and that's moving forward and next slide we'll be working very intricately with that whole system set up for cell signal especially at Fall River and Spring Creek like I said coffee conversations have gone very well lately people seem to be you know a lot of the same issues keep coming up and I think staff is doing for instance like a maintenance piece but I think staff is doing a very good job especially me we lost some folks we're trying to hire some folks I think we're doing our best to keep up and keeping the peace with everyone and last the coffee and conversations is posted on the next slide I wrote who's doing that next door I'm sorry next door next door next door next door next door next door next door I think it's holding people to their commitments to attend but I thought that was pretty cool I don't know who's doing it do you know who's doing it I think there's probably people in the property and so the property manager's doing monthly or all at large she knows more about it but I come in quarterly and meet with them on the camera piece that Sarah talked about this is become my numbing work and it's not the cameras it's the procurement process so overall from the system standpoint we're taking more of a systems approach to this we're bringing in general fund which is the easiest but we're bringing in CBG funds and we're bringing in RFI funds and those two have created a nightmare in the procurement process based on the rules and laid clarifications from the Treasury Department actually but CBG funds are easier than the RFI funds when it comes to this type of work because the Treasury guidance is a challenge but we think we've threaded the needle and we'll be moving forward on that so Sarah go ahead go ahead Senator do you have anything else I don't oh go ahead okay I know that the contractors haven't been in very long at all but have you noticed any difference that they're in have you like any of the units or anyone entering the building that has meth on them or smoking head so we have not placed them in any units that are occupied the only units that we've had them in are unoccupied and had tested positive those were the units unfortunately that we're having issues with battery signal strength we were getting the information that the new platform that they've designed have not had battery issues we're getting some indications and we're trying to follow that is it is it ventilation through the hallway you know when we can see some of the cameras if someone walked through and we're trying to pinpoint the data is exactly for a time and date so have you seen a few things yes but nothing to really press moving like this is all just information gathering at this point in what we're going to do with the information and working with property craft and that's another piece that now that Lisa's back we're following up with that company that gave a presentation to us I know Harold talked to him about it last time but they offer a different type of remediation and it's fast so working with those folks if we do find anything so yeah it's kind of a work in progress I just want to make sure those metdetectives are working they are we're getting a lot of inquiries about them okay good so the battery issue we knew they were the battery issue that we could seem to figure out now that we're getting clarity the batteries are lasting now and so we're ordering Eric is going to order 20-ish I'm using my contingency fund for that and that's going to be a combination both of the housing authority properties and some city rescue facilities so it's sort of the next level of testing I have had conversations with Sarah's point with the ownership group that we partnered with on Christmas too and Sarah's getting information so we can present it to them in terms of acquiring the metdetectives to put into the non-leased units that's important for us because the deal that we struck with NGL on that property is that in seven years we're going to take ownership essentially of both Christmas 1 and Christmas 2 and so the more we can do to protect that property for that transition for the better for us and that was actually one of the first deals that we did okay great thank you for that so is that it? I mean that was all you have on your agenda Carol did you want anything else? operational updates from Lauren really quick okay so we have some vacancies in a lot of our units a handful of meth units some as you know have been down for a long time given the amount of work that's going to go into them and lack of insurance that we have now but there are a few that are being cleaned or in process getting ready to rent so we're seeing more turnover of those units and releasing those and I just wanted to say as far as like an operational standpoint with staff coming on at this time and sort of getting my feet out under me and getting a handle on things it's been really eye opening and great I'm not moving as fast on things as I would like to but really excited for the future and what's going to be coming the other thing that I wanted to say was to give kudos to our housing choice voucher team Aquila and Shelby they just had an audit last week and got zero findings which is what to call their file rate perfect and then also since our last meeting when you guys first met me we just promoted Patrick one of our maintenance technicians to their supervisor position and that created the maintenance vacancy that Sarah was mentioning and we are actively recruiting and getting ready to interview for that position we've opened it up not just for tech one but a tech two so that we can hopefully get some more skill sets in and have a lot of future planning so we have one technician who has HVAC skills and certifications which is really important for cost savings to LHA and so we're looking to fill future planning more skills and certifications to sort of keep that going and really create a pipeline for your progression for staff so yeah that's kind of what's going on with our properties we've been getting through a lot it's just going to be a work in progress for a while for me I get used to everything and everyone yeah we're seeing good results do you guys have any specific questions could make questions if I could add real quick some of the things that Lawrence is already doing these are things we didn't have time to really dig into so one of the first moves that she suggested that Molly and I were thinking is we actually moved maintenance to Lauren so Lauren has direct supervision of her maintenance so we bifurcated the property managers and the maintenance group and I've had a chance to meet with Lauren and Patrick and really setting down the information about operational reports, what you're doing and empowering them to really get that information because that data is going to be really important to us as we assess what our operational capability is and really seeing what we can get done on a daily basis and setting benchmarks in terms of unit terms and things like that, holy to it so part of what she's a bit overwhelmed when we did, but we did based on her recommendation and then digging into things like we're dealing with reports right now and really her ability to begin and give us the information I think lets us assess in a different way versus getting caught in the weeds and so that's really the operational capability that we're gaining out of this would you agree Molly? Absolutely the intent was to okay let's dip our toes in and move from bit to bit of the areas of work that need attention but Lauren's style is a little bit more jump right in and let's just figure it out right now because you've got to figure out the big stuff and then the rest can start to fall into place easier that way so I appreciate it, it's been a lifesaver I love her I love my self-care I heard from staff across the whole organization that they're seeing a different Molly now, it's like meeting a holy Molly because she has more capacity to breathe and so that's really nice they said my shoulders were never so relaxed and I have a lot of plans, I have a lot of goals on streamlining operations where we can gather more data because it's hard to make budget decisions going forward for not only new projects that we're planning and budgeting for for operational but just for the organization as a whole and so we really need that data in order to make those requests and so it's going to take a while but I'm hopeful and we have a great team so I'm not worried it's just a matter of getting together the other thing that we did bringing this team together is really the next phase of the work that we have to do we brought in the psychologists that I've worked with for 20 years almost now and we really focused on individual communication training so everyone went through and took a disk assessment which basically is the first look at how you approach the world and how you communicate what I really like about this disk assessment it also tells you how you communicate under stress and really getting everybody to understand each other's perspectives and how we work what was interesting is we found some very distinct things that we needed to deal with because almost everyone fell in a similar section of this and part of the characteristics that we learned is they hold things in I'm not that that's true and so really working and empowering people to not do that, that was a piece of it the second piece of it was really what we call the parent report and without going into too much details what it really does is again it looks at how you approach the world and what your best self is and what your shadow self is and how you react in certain situations this is a test that I actually started to use on public safety departments because what it's starting to identify what are your triggers as an individual and how do you respond to certain things so that we can train and teach people to avoid the triggers we spent about two days doing that work with the team and different components and how they work with each other then as a broader group and that's really been setting the stage for us in terms of communication and how we go forward we're going to do some more training on this in turn and really get into things like resiliency self care and things like that because distress is significant but I wanted you to know that because I did that with this group I also did it with my leadership team on the city side but we're going to start working more on this as we get down the road because part of a good team is good communication and every time I've been through an after-actual review on any issue of communication is number one and so this is really getting us to the point where we understand each other so when Molly says something that triggers me I know it's a trigger and I don't fall into that trap although she doesn't have it all the time it's really understanding or when I communicate to them because I'm one of the few deans strong as deans in the group and so I can trigger them basically now I communicate it's helping me adapt to their styles so that we're a stronger unit that's the last piece of the operational report but I just wanted you to know that not only are we working on the technical and the tangible we're working on the teamwork side of this as well sounds great it was like our shadow self I think it's a good idea for all of council too how do we communicate shoot a year ago yeah we did I mean it was similar but there we didn't talk about no shadows no there was a little bit out of order so it was just to know I don't share my review well and if council is interested in it I'll talk to a couple of you because you came in after I did it and it's really insightful and what I will say personally it's actually helped me at home as much as it is anywhere else because I can contain myself pretty well at work but at home it's one of my shadow self to show itself and it's actually helped me catch things and so it's as a board if you're interested in doing this be happy to talk to you all about it okay great thanks for offering that up so is that the end of the reports that is the yes so can I have a motion to oh I'm sorry go ahead Mr. Holmes did you need an additional motion for us to protect all of our rights in regards to our legal rights yes absolutely so can I have a motion to adjourn I'm here to adjourn second I'm here to adjourn although some people say I I I'm not that old I'm not that old bye I'm going to be in third bye