 So good morning everybody and thank y'all we are going to go ahead and call this meeting of the affordable housing task force together. Thanks again for all of your great work. Today our agenda is actually really light. It's really just to go back to our two action items from last month and try and put a bow on those so that we can at least have those to move forward. But initially I want to start with the approval of the minutes from January 12th meeting. And Erica sent those. I do have one correction. It has that Chris Zimmer was not present, but Chris was present. He just didn't have his audio, couldn't get his audio on Chris. So, so I do want to make that correction that he was present. But other than that, after a review of the minutes, did anybody else have any corrections or deletions from the January 12th minutes? Okay. If there are none, is there a motion to approve the minutes from January 12th? Emotion approval. Is Matthew's motion? Who was the second? Jennifer. Jennifer. Okay. Thank you. All those in favor, you can raise your hand or say aye. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So the minutes from January 12th have been approved. What did I see? Jeff. I was just saying I know I just saw somebody come in. We've got Jeff here. Okay. And so we're going to get started. Last time we had a really good discussion regarding what the definition of affordable housing should be. I think one thing that they're, depending on who you're talking to, there are lots of different definitions that people have in their mind. And for the public engagement committee and public education, which is really where we need to get started, we need to be able to all have a definition that we are not just using within ourselves, but also as we are communicating with the public and going to really educate the community about what affordable housing really is and what the needs are in our community. We need to have a definition that is not legalese or not profession folks driven, but real talk so that everybody can kind of galvanize around that definition. So I do know that Erica was pulling together some of the ideas. I think Jennifer had, I think when we left, Jennifer actually had a really good definition that she had written up. And I think Erica was trying to pull that together so that we can have this. So this is kind of where we left off. So I think we need to have this discussion and finalize what our definition as this task force is for affordable housing. And so it is quality rental and home ownership opportunities for people at various income levels that build complete and thriving communities. It's not just about housing, but it's also about economic opportunities. Affordable housing should be based on what a person or family can pay for while still having money left over from basic necessities like food, transportation, healthcare. And then we also had a note of what we consider, what we consider affordable depends on households, not a set number and how we can translate that into a thriving community. So I think the last two were really just kind of notes. The first part, the quality rental and home ownership opportunities for people at various income levels that build complete and thriving communities I think is where Jennifer left off. So if we could, and Brenna and Jennifer, you can jump in because I know you guys have been working around this. Can we start kind of work smithing this so we can get something that we all can coalesce around? This is Jennifer. I think at the last meeting, I can't remember who brought it up, but someone had a good note of various income levels, but also accessibility levels, something around language, around accessibility. Erica is going to be helping us try to get that. So we can say, Erica, we're going to add income and put inaccessibility levels. Another thought that I believe you highlighted councilwoman divine was about ability, including some language. It was Julianne who talked about accessibility issues, and you agree that age, income, and ability should be included in the definition. I talked about the living wage. Erica, can you do my favor? Can you put what you have back up there? Yes, ma'am. You're on second. Quality rental and home ownership opportunities for people at various income and accessibility levels that build complete and thriving communities. I know what I said. I think various income levels actually hits the living wage to a certain extent, so I don't know if I want to mess it up, but if we left it adding in next to various income levels, but income and accessibility levels, how about adding something like affordable housing is a continuum that provides, okay, hold on, Mary, okay, okay. So I like that. So starting, continuing that provides quality and quality rental and affordable was a quality rental and home ownership opportunities for people at various income and accessibility levels that build complete and thriving communities. Any thoughts on that? Jump anybody, Ivory, Jeff, anybody can jump in. I'll send it out to everybody, but I want everybody to kind of say whether or not they feel comfortable with this. This is Sue, and I apologize because we've had a housing project that we've been working on with the navigators, and I've missed a number of meetings. The one thing I would mention is when we talk about accessible, we need to be thinking about special needs so that certain housing might be more expensive because of an individual's accessibility, possibly because of disability or inability to access transportation and need for public transportation. So I don't know, when I think of accessible, I often think about it in relation to if somebody has special needs, and I wonder if we're using it in that same context or a broader context. Good point, Ivory. Yeah, the just kind of piggyback in off of what Sue just said. I think I do like the word continuum because I think continuum covers all layers of housing, whether it's accessible or it also talks about, it covers the, whether you're 30%, 50% or 100% of the area median income. So I think if we use the word continuum and remove the word accessibility because I think accessibility is just, it gives people a narrow definition. Well, people think that it's just talking about one group of individuals when the word continuum covers all levels of housing availability in the community. Good point. So continuum, and I hear you, and because we're talking about as we go out, continuum, okay, I want to make sure that people understand when we're talking about the opportunities that is for a variety. So when you talk about continuum, do you think that we need to add anything, clarifying continuum, or do you feel like everybody's going to understand continuum means the whole spectrum of no matter where you are, income, accessibility, reentry, age, everything. I think if you change where we say affordable housing is a continuum, take out that provides input of quality, you know, housing. So I think if we just take that that out and do of, and I can't let me move my, I got you guys picture in front of the other part of it, of quality rental and home ownership opportunities, yes. And Dylan just put in the chat, also, he suggests adding the word equitable. So yeah, there, Erica. Is it equitable and or we're going to do equitable, common quality, is there going to be something else? That's what I can't think right now of a good grammar with that. I was just thinking in the conversation that we're having related to income, disability, all those sorts of things. I think quality is certainly very important, but equitable might cover those things as well. The grammar is not coming to me. How about equitable, comma, inclusive, comma, and quality rental. So when we talk about equitable, we're also talking about inclusivity. That's really important language to have in there. Absolutely. And I'm not a grammar guru. I just thought usually when I make that mistake, spell check when I'm checking my grammar tells me to put that comma before the end. So that's why I'm suggesting. I think they change the rules. The rules keep going back and forth about a comma before the end. I know. Recently, I picked it before the end. I refuse to change. I'm an Oxford comma guy. I like after the word income levels comma that builds complete and thriving communities or comma building complete and thriving communities. Let me put it in there so you have to see what it looks like. I like building too. Yeah. Could we include safe under building safe, complete and thriving or is safe a part of thriving? A lot of commas going now. Yeah. Yeah. Commas twice. Affordable housing is a continuum of equitable, inclusive, and quality rental and home ownership opportunities for people at various income levels, building safe, complete and thriving communities. Something's missing. Yeah, you could take, yeah, pull down that it's not just, that's our side note, but the definition I think is at the top. Yeah. Something. Let's see. Sorry, all my keyboard is going crazy over here. I think Laila Anna is at the tail end of her doctorate. So that's probably why she's not here, but I know she likes to play with words. Maybe you could say in order to build safe, in order to build, maybe, safe, complete and thriving communities. It's kind of making it a little bit bigger again, y'all. Stuff's moving around. There we go. This might be semantics, but is affordable housing critical to building or is having affordable housing as we defined it critical to just having a safe and complete thriving communities? I know build is a good action, and we're always trying to build, move forward, do better, but just thinking through, for people at various income levels, creating or critical, which is critical to have a safe, complete and survive, almost creating the need or justifying the need, right? The need is to have a safe, complete and thriving communities and affordable housing as we defined it is a critical component of that to some other options around build. I agree with Chris on that, and I would like to work create. Yeah, I would simplify it maybe to after various income levels, comma, which creates safe, complete and thriving communities. But that's just my thought. Yeah, I mean, personally, I think it's critical, right? I know critically it might be, you know, an overreach and I don't know, I personally think it is, it is critical to have a complete and thriving community. So where after levels, comma, which creates safe, complete and what which which is critical to creating safe, Brenna says she's agreed, she agrees, which is critical to creating safe, complete and thriving communities. Yeah, I just like because I can I can see us collectively or individually reciting this definition. And I personally would put a lot of emphasis on that word critical there. So so creating a right so when it gets ready, even if you read it to yourself, we'll probably put a lot of weight on that. I just know if I was reading it to somebody, I'd be saying income levels, which is critical to creating safe and complete and thriving communities. I think that when you get into the which is critical part, you're kind of leading into a mission statement. I'm not which is not a bad thing, but you're kind of leading into your the mission of the the task force. It's good though. Yeah. Yeah, I think we could repeat it in the mission. I like it. So let's read it. Affordable housing is a continuum of equitable, inclusive and in quality rental and home ownership opportunities for people at various income levels, which is critical to creating safe, complete and thriving communities. This is Mary Louise. Can I make one suggestion? Yes, ma'am. Substitute various with every income level. Yep. It goes that inclusive part. Take out the S from levels. You're going to say every. Any additional comments? I like it. It's good. We got a winner. Yay. Yes, I think we got a winner. All right, Erica, save this. Yes, ma'am. Can we get you want to go get a vote on it or just consensus? It's good. Well, let's go ahead and get a vote on it. So we have it. All right, for all those. Is there a motion to approve this as our definition for affordable housing? I so move. I second. So move by Sue Berkowitz, seconded by Ari Matthews. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, and we'll send this out this afternoon as well to continue to have it and look on it. But excellent. Excellent. I like that. Okay. And so the second item that we left placeholder last week or last month was about our affordable housing unit goal. We did ask Kristen, her staff, to do some additional research just because we had a conversation around what was bold but also reasonable. And so to understand kind of where we are currently, we asked Krista if she could pull what currently has been being added into the market annually now. So Krista, are you able to share your screen or do you want to just report it out? Yeah, I'll just because it's just a bunch of tabs on Excel sheet. So I won't do that to y'all today, but we're happy to send it to you. But there have been some multifamily projects that have come along. You know, we've got the West Avenue, the Lord Place apartment project, of course, that's been constructed in two different phases, as well as the point at Elmwood, which is under construction now with the senior housing near Elmwood and Reed Street. In addition, we've got, we've had a pretty significant uptick in our single family construction over the past three or four years as well, with a good amount of that being in a more affordable, you know, 88 to 100 percent, we're still sorely lacking, of course, and below that point. So I do believe that it was to Lila Anna's point that we do have product coming on the market, but we certainly could do more. And the point at Elmwood is, you know, a 58 unit development. And the Lord Place, we've got 12 units in each of those buildings, one, two, three, and Ms. Matthews may be able to help me more with that in each of those six buildings. So some product with multifamily, but certainly we need more as that on the rental side. Happy to answer questions. Do we know the economic motivations of those? I'm just unfamiliar with those products of creating those affordable housing units within it. I mean, are they received, was it part of a grant, that part of the funding that required it? Is it, you know, there's a couple different ways we get these, whether it's dedicated or just market driven. And generally, there's an economic incentive for the developer when it's a dedicated affordable housing unit. Do you have any idea of kind of what the drivers are, what the incentives are within those properties that are creating those units? I'm pretty sure the point at Elmwood is a li-tech project. Okay. Well, that'll do it. Yep. Yeah. And Lord Place, someone else may be able to help me with that one. I'm not certain, but that would be my assumption. We don't get many market driven developments without some incentive to meet that need. Yeah. I raise Lord Place, is that public housing or how are you? Yeah, it's li-tech as well for that property too. Yeah, I assumed something of that size would be li-tech. I mean, from the single family, just for those that maybe are unfamiliar with li-tech, those tend to be very expensive, complicated, large, lots of attorneys involved, you know, so they'll be generally in the multi-family, but if the need is more in the single family, those are generally more grant related or just outside of li-tech. And Chris, this is Gloria. Both those projects also received grant funding through CDBG disaster recovery dollars as an added incentive. So that is, that kind of gives us an idea of that's just two projects. In addition to those two, Lila Anna's is coming on on board within the next few weeks. I don't recall exactly the number of units. Does anybody know the number of units? Chris, do you know that? No, ma'am. I can look it up while we're talking maybe. And then just kind of give you guys an idea. I've had conversations, so Kevin Connolly is in, he's in negotiations of trying to do a project in Columbia. I'm very happy about that because I will tell you, I think I've mentioned this before, that Kevin is one of those private developers who does excellent work, but in the past has been somewhat frustrated with being able to do projects. And so at one time, not sure if he was going to, not sure if he was going to be more in Columbia, but he did call me last week actually and said he's looking at doing a project. And then I also talked to Bob Hughes and he is actually looking at doing a project on Bull Street that will be affordable housing projects. So there are people out there, and to Lila Anna's point last month, about our goal. This is, there's a lot of private developers who are out there and with the now the 4% from the state, I think that's going to incentivize more development. So I would caution us to shy away from being too bold because I think that there are opportunities, especially if as we do our work and we educate and continue to bring the community along regarding what the need is and what needs the affordable housing needs. Our teachers, our firefighters just had a conversation with someone earlier who said that people don't realize affordable housing is us. They hear one thing and they think something else. And so that's part of our role as we do that. I think that they'll be private developers if they don't feel like they're going to have to necessarily fight with the community and then they get the support financially. I think you're going to find more developers who will be doing something. So with that said, we we settled around 10,000 units over 10 years. But what we talked about was saying for 2021, 2022, what would be a nice goal to see if we can try and at least see this in there. Ivory, do you feel comfortable? I know it's already been in the media. So do you feel comfortable just sharing some of the challenges that you have with maintenance on existing units so that we understand that as we're talking about adding units, there are likely units that are also coming out of the market too. Yeah, certainly. Before I share some of the examples of what we are undertaking here, I would like to add that with the a lot of folk being involved with taking advantage of the new legislation with the 4% allocation of credits with the state, the recent laws changing. We have had a number of private developers to contact us to issue multifamily taxes and bonds. And those will allow for us to help preserve a lot of housing units in our community. And so I think the preservation is another opportunity that we need to look at when we talk about the multiplying impact because those units that are currently affordable housing, we cannot afford to lose those in our community. So some of the things that we're doing here at the housing authority is we just recently launched a very aggressive affordable housing plan where we're going to touch every single unit in our portfolio. And some of the units that we've risen to the top of that redevelopment strategy are units where they have pretty much reached their useful life. And one of them you may have seen as a recent, which is Marion Street high rise. That development is almost 50 years old and 50 years ago when they built Marion Street, it was constructed out of materials that are different than materials that people construct buildings out of today. And so we've had just the way that the building was built. It's a modern deterioration inside with water supply lines and sewer lines in the building. So we've had to put it's 140 units of 56 of those units are currently offline and deemed uninhabitable. And those units have been offline some well with over four years. And so as the building continually ages, we're having to take more and more units offline. And so we are working with with a developer now to look at some replacement units on our Carter Street site. We have some land off of Carter Street that we purchased from the South Carolina Department of Mental Health. And so on that site, we're going to be putting some replacement units for those families. But I say that to say, there are a number of other developments in our portfolio that we are going to be taken offline in that order to be able to preserve those units. Marion Street, we've not decided as of yet what we're going to do in terms of what we're going to do with the building. Our main priority right now is focusing on the families. But if there are developers or people who are interested in looking at that site and partner with us to extend the future use of affordable housing, we are certainly open to having those discussions. And so I just really want to stress around the preservation piece where there is opportunity for preservation. We really, really, really need to make sure that we capture that those numbers in our overall plan for housing. So I know that we talked about the 10,000 units in the next 10 years. But if we could talk about the number that we're able to preserve, I think that that is a great economic impact. And more importantly, it keeps those units and our housing stock because if we take those units out of circulation, it's going to be extremely difficult to bring more back, especially in a short term. Yes. And Irene, I have a meeting with Councilman Dow later today to talk about that. So that is an excellent point. Even with our single family housing, that is a challenge, especially as some of our citizens age and their ability to maintain their homes and preserve them. And then if they pass and their family's ability to continue to maintain their home, that is one of the things that we see a lot with single family housing. So that is a good point to make sure that we're talking about preserving the existing inventory as well. But with that said, so those are some of the challenges that we have to think about. We're talking, even that 16,000 number that Dr. Grady gave us last month, that was before Allen v. Nick Court. That was before Marion Street. That was before other units that housing complexes that might have come offline since, I think, 2018. Brian was where that number came from. They're coming offline. So the number that is achievable, but bold, I think, helps us continue to not get into that deficit. So with that said, right now, Krista, with the numbers that we know of coming online this year, I think we're at, is that like about 200? In this year, just a second. For this year, it looks like we've got around 100. The others were from previous years. So we should have about 100 coming online this year. And that's just multifamily. Okay. So yeah. Well, that have started construction, I should say, pardon me. Yeah, that started construction already. And I guess that would be a ivory, I don't see any Julianne or Lala Anna would have this ivory from a construction standpoint to be online this year with occupancy. It would have to be under construction at this point. That's realistic. Yeah, for us, because ours would be more in the multifamily realm, so it would certainly have to be under construction right now for it to come online this year. And Ms. Devine too. Yeah. So last year, pardon me, I failed to, still under construction, you've got Pointe to Elmwood at 58. So that would bring you up to at least around 150, 160. Yeah. I remember thinking somehow, I think 200, 250 for this year, we're already at February is a reasonable goal. And that next year, even being as bold of trying to say 500 and working with some private developers, if you've got Kevin Connolly that might do 100-unit complex or 78-unit complex, I think you hit that number fairly reasonably. So does anybody have extreme heartbeat, heartburn? If we use a number like 200, I think is what I just said, 200. 200, knowing that we probably got about 150 on-plat, there's some private developers who may have some things that they can do quicker. And I think that if they understand that they have support from the community, I think you're going to find some private developers. Shayla, the housing market for the single family is still pretty robust right now, correct? Yes, it is. It's still very robust, but it's getting really bad as far as houses under, especially under, I'd say about 180. I listed the house the other day and it was 32 showings on one house. So while some people are like, wow, that's amazing, I mean, you have to turn away 31 families who desperately, who are pre-qualified and ready to move, but there's just no inventory on the ground. So I've been talking to a builder here in town about looking for land, because I have the developer still interested in Columbia that did the Benedict project to see if we can find him some more land to do some more houses like that that can qualify for the area, LMI to keep it in an area where it is low to moderate income housing, but trying to find land to build more housing because the inventory shortage has gotten really, really bad is far as finding people housing in place to live in. We're basically begging people to sell their houses if they're under 150, but then it becomes a catch 22 because where do they move to? Inventory is still low. So while we want them to sell their home, we have nowhere for them to move to. So trying to get builders more involved in a builder's association in investing in affordable housing and low to moderate income areas is important. So is for, okay, so Mayor Louise is saying they have at least two funded in Columbia area 2021 and they're also looking at funding, funding for third build in the fall. Okay, great. So if a goal for the year of 2021 of 200 additional units in the market, looking at next time, kind of looking at, you know, the five year build out, but to for this year alone 200, do people feel comfortable saying that? And let me just tell you why I'm really trying to get us to a number. I think from this council standpoint, if we are presenting recommendations and work product to council and can say, you know, this is reasonable and that the city needs to constantly be looking at what is being added into the market so that we can, you know, start hitting off that deficit, then at least we have some kind of benchmark to be going after. So that's the goal here. See some head shaking is 200. Brian, what's your thought on 200 being reasonable for the remainder of this year, knowing that we've got some already in construction? Well, yeah, based on the estimate of 150 or 160 that are already in the pipeline, I think it's just a question of, it's a question of timing. You know, as Ivory said, you know, certainly for multi-family, it's got to be already under construction. So it's a question of how do you, how do you, where do you find that last 40, I guess? You know, that's a question of, that's a question of land, that's a question of money, that's a question of a whole bunch of different factors, but certainly, certainly seems like a reasonable target. And then we can, and I guess my thought is that we have a target, and I guess I'm not as wrapped around, because as we talked about, I'm not as wrapped around, I guess, as 2021, because clearly there are things that are already in pipeline. Some might not be under construction, but might be planned. So that's 2022. Maybe 2022 might be the year that we're looking at having a goal of a number. And then that can be part of the conversation with these private developers, you know, Kevin Conley, Reggie Bonner, and someone call me today. I can't even remember their name. I think MDZ. They're also in conversations with Bob Hughes about doing a project on Bull Street. So there are developers who are looking at Columbia. And so having a goal of that and knowing that that's part of maybe the city's goal might incentivize them to say, okay, there's the city, the city wants this, let's, let's try and move this plan along. So I'm kind of changing, maybe step back from the 2021 goal and understand that we'll monitor the inventory that's in 2021. We would love to see 200 units come on board this year. We'll monitor that to see how that is. But looking at how do we work with developers to look at a goal for 2022 and start, like Sheila talked about, you know, if there's some, some ability to help people find land that if they're ready to build, they just need land or help developers who are ready to, you know, who want to, you know, want to move forward, but they might need some additional support financing or a letter of support. You know, 2022 might be more realistic to look at a bigger, bigger goal. Council Member Devine, this is Mary Louie. Yes, might I suggest that we use 2021 to develop a baseline of how many units come online. And then based on that baseline that does come online, you make your projections for 22, 23, 24. I think that's an excellent idea. And Miss, Miss Devine, hey. Y'all, this is Miss Wilson, our city manager. She is super busy. So we are honored to have you pop in today. Thank you. I'm always listening and it's such good work. It's exciting for our staff to know that you all are so committed and setting goals. One of the things I was thinking about is I'm hearing you talk about what, and I love what was, is it race or reach? I don't want to mispronounce her last name, was saying about a baseline for this year and moving towards the goal for next year. But I also want to make sure when we're using our terms and definitions, like what are you going to define coming online? Are you looking for something permitted? Are you looking for the, to what you know, like you were just saying, because I think that's significant to some of the conversations that our staff spends a lot of time on as far as working with developers on their financing or if we have grant opportunities or what we know to maybe be in the pipeline versus what is actually permitted yet and ready to go and shovel ready, so to speak. So I think all of those things are sometimes things the public doesn't know things that are in the works. But like you said, for the development community to know that our staff is doing that due diligence with them, it helps them along their way. And I think for this committee and what you're reporting out, those may be some other, I guess, KPI or indicators or benchmarks that you might want to report out about as well. I would piggyback on that when we are doing baseline numbers, looking at rental versus home ownership and track both of those and then base your projections on the historical data in those areas. Mm-hmm. So I don't and I don't know if Gloria or Missy or Kristen want to chime in about like what from a staff perspective you think would be significant indicators for this committee as to you know, actions that are still happening. It may not be that you see the units up out of the ground yet, but that doesn't mean there's not a whole lot of work going on between staff and the development community to get those projects to that point. This is Missy. We may want to report numbers both on permitted units and then the units with CO being, in my opinion, what would demarc whether the goals, you know, how we're keeping track of how close we are to the goal. But certainly I think there's such a time difference between when we permit and when a project gets a CO that is keeping that number on the radar as well. Right. I wouldn't want your numbers towards your goal to look too low or inflate it based off where the projects are in the process. And I think the other half of this is in addition to tracking the number of units, we've got to track what at what income levels are these designed for or who can afford to live in them because, you know, we're talking about a wide variety of needs, but, you know, in my estimate, I was kind of fixated on extremely low income households because there's got to be solutions at all the different price points, particularly on the rental side. Sam, you're on mute. No, I'm agreeing with the points of discussion right now. I had one question for Clarity. Clarity, when do we include the numbers as far as projections staff? We don't use projections from, I guess, I don't know if it's applications in our system or when a developer, for example, comes in for, let's say, annexation. Does that start the ball rolling as far as our projections or do we still wait and tell? Not groundbreaking, but I'm just not sure when those numbers come into play. When do they impact 2021, for example, Tameka or 2022? Christy, you know what I'm saying? That's Tim's gentry's point that, I mean, we wouldn't do it just based on an annexation. We would do it based on construction and permit applications. And then it's just a matter of construction timeline with regard to how long it takes to get COs. A unit would come online for us when it has its certificate of occupancy. Right, so that was Mr. Davis. I think I was on mute a minute ago. That's what I wanted to know from you all, from your perspective, what you felt comfortable with as far as what you're saying hit the goal or units coming online. Do you want to go about the way the staff views that, which I think is a safe way to do it, but I also think there's a lot going on leading up to that point that maybe you want us to capture as well, just anecdotally for you so you can also report that out so it doesn't necessarily appear that nothing's going on because there's always, there's lots going on. But how you capture that maybe towards your goal is the question as well. Oh, I just, just for my time on, you know, on the ground with folks, there is a process of different phases for bringing projects online. I find that sometimes maybe the sooner members of the public kind of know what's, I wouldn't say it's not necessarily on the table but it helps me for example to have certain discussions with folks when we start to discuss the need in this area and sometimes that's helpful and sometimes, you know, you still end up having to deal with uncertainties about where, where housing go and I'd like to see us as a whole really emphasize workforce because that's misconstrued also and and I know that helps with numbers all total but I think it helps with with the the education process to get folks to really come on board and be supportive of what we're trying to do and it's all based on needs that you know. Yeah, so I would say going back to Teresa's point I think I think tracking the COs and the permitted is is a good way to understand I think the CO is for, you know, when it comes online so that should be probably our goal number but tracking the the permits at least as helps us as Mary Louise talked about as we're whereas we're projecting forward and we're trying to get to you know what a goal should be. Yeah, Jeff said is building a sense of anticipation yeah it's going to come on so you know 2022 you know we know going into 2022 you've got a certain number permitted and then it helps us so I would like Ms. Wilson to your point and your question to track them both but when we're actually setting our number based on what Mary Louise said I think that's a smart let's track this year and we'll see you know what actually came online for 2021 what was permitted in 2021 that might come online in 2022 and then last quarter of this year we can make our goal for 2022 based on the actual data and Krista can pull the tracking from 2020 and 2019 as well just so we know because we do know that this year will be impacted just as slowly of course because COVID slowed some things so you know having a few years of data can help us making that decision yes ma'am and the staff we can help you all come up with a you know how to scale it what the benchmark should be towards your goal as well and then the co being the actual permitted ready to go projects and I love that that we we go live I will say I just got a text from someone watching and I know we've already said our definition and it doesn't hit the definition but this person just has to we consider maybe instead of using affordable housing start using the term attainable housing so and they sent me some information that Tampa has started using the term attainable instead of affordable and that just that helps but I just throw that comment out there because that was just given given to sent to me based on our conversation all right so right now just what I have here is that we are going to look at 2021 and use the 2020 numbers as a baseline and we can utilize will track what gets permitted this year what actually comes online this year from a certificate of occupancy standpoint and then using that data we can come up with goals for 2022 2023 2024 does everybody agree with that yes I do cool and then I know time is on here just add this to back to ivory's point about preserving some of the existing housing I know that we has brought forward concerns about the status of existing affordable units in the market so we will be tracking that as well I know Dr. Brady gave us a resource at his office that might could help us at least with understanding where things are so Tonya I just wanted you to know that that's not off our radar I think that's to ivory's point that we need to also track with the existing units that might need some TLC just to be brought up so that we preserve them in the in the market so we're that's still on our radar okay all right I do have a quick question with the projection numbers and whether permitted or OC I think I said OCD or something like that will we know which properties or which section of properties with low income middle income and on the higher end will we know what portion of those numbers will be those things which portion will be low income and which portion will be for middle class or a little bit on the high bracket yeah great point I think that was Dr. Grady's point too that you know when we talk about units we need to make sure that at least even though we have a total number of units that fit within our overall definition that we're tracking what segment of the population it meets the needs of so you know we'll we'll work with staff to make sure that we're tracking that as well Jim did I see you put a hand up okay well with that said those are the only two items I didn't want to give us too much I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to discuss those so Erica will get you guys a summary of what we discussed we now have a definition we now have an idea of we're going to start tracking our looking at our baseline for 2021 and tracking those numbers so if this me sorry let me check the chat okay that was Jeff's comment before does anybody have anything else to add for today what I'd like I know that some of your committees have continued to met I know a couple have not had a chance to meet yet this year what I would ask is that we go ahead and meet before next month I really think we're at the place with having a definition and being able to understand our game plan as far as the understanding the number of units I think we are really at the place of trying to dig deep into some some recommendations in each of our areas but for Jennifer Jennifer and Brenna and I know Jennifer and Brenna have already reached out to the staff of the city to support this is really the time I think we need to be having a conference have started talking about our plan for the community conversations Jim that'll help with you know any anything that we want to do in the future regarding housing trust fund you know I have proposed that we look at whether or not there can be an affordable housing bond issued and if we do that based on you know the city's bond rate bond capacity we'd have to probably go to a referendum for that so anything that we need the community even the developers are coming in and putting stuff in the or adding inventory we need to be having that as conversations so I think that really should be next on our priority list um in addition to some of the things that the committees are working on so we could start talking about what does that plan look like what does that action look like as far as the community conversations and education piece I think would be really important all right we are like at 1158 and the good really we're getting out a little bit early I will say um if anybody has any any projects you're working on that you want to let everybody know or any other issues I want want to open the floor for you at this time to to add anything see yeah I'd love to tell you all about a project we're doing with the Columbia chapter of the NAACP and they've started a housing navigator program especially in response to the pandemic but we're hoping that we will be able to make it um ongoing it's specifically to deal with eviction problems and we're calling it an eviction eviction diversion program um we're helping with putting together basically what is happening is folks um are volunteering as navigators and we're trying to get the the information out and the cases are starting to come in where uh if somebody is behind on rent specifically or have other problems the the navigator will talk to the individual and intake will be done and for cases where eviction looks imminent they're going to get immediately referred to South Carolina legal services which is the legal aid provider that would be helping anyways but we're hoping that by having this community piece it will get more people to know that they can call South Carolina legal services to get that assistance for folks who um are not immediately in the eviction process what we're hoping to do is get people either through the navigators to the resources that will soon be available through the city of Colombia and state housing authority housing finance authority so that we can start the negotiations with the landlord to get the rent reinstated and help keep people in the whole point this is is to as we say divert people from eviction rather than dealing with it once folks are um brought into eviction court and I should tell you that Colombia is piloting this for the whole nation so we're working with the national office on this as well and um we're hoping that what this can do is help people avoid court and help with the negotiations the reason we're having lawyers do the negotiations is it it is that one-stop removal from the emotion of uh an eviction proceeding to help get the person where they need to be in the process to help them access the resources that they need but to also make sure that folks aren't uh paying over and this is because of the limited resources that will be available have people uh negotiate get their their rent paid and yet they're still being evicted so we're real excited um it's very ambitious we're going to need to find a lot more attorneys to volunteer we've gone through the Richland Bar Association and we've done it through general uh e-blast but I think I'm going to have to start hitting the phones and guilting a lot of lawyers who should be helping with this because it's a great way to do pro bono I will tell you that the the Columbia chapter of the NAACP has done a great job in getting volunteers and Councilman Davis has been a part of this and we're real excited because as you all know Colombia is number eight not a good number eight bad number eight with a number of evictions and we think that this will help keep people in their homes and help landlords not have to evict people and create the stability we're all looking for and I went over by two minutes and I apologize but thank you for your indulgence you're you're no you're great and thank you so much for the work that you do and um yes Sam has been very active um in this project and actually brought forward a request so that the city could um lend some uh financial support for this program so we're excited about it and and this certainly can be a pilot as we you know move further so yes and we hope that this will go from pilot to a permanent program here in the state and it will help people uh avoid eviction Dr. Grady yeah I just wanted to do a quick plug to sort of mention it indirectly but our SC stay housing assistance program is uh hopefully launching imminently um and I put the sorry about that um there we go so uh this is 25 million dollars of uh cdbg coronavirus money from the original cares act back in march um that we're uh getting deploying uh with uh working with nonprofit partners and local governments what have you um there's a form on the website so anybody that that you know who is in need of housing assistance has uh you know either contracted covid or otherwise lost income uh due to the pandemic they can fill out the form and they'll be the first to to get the details of how they can uh apply to access that money so definitely want to make sure that everybody knows that that pot of money is out there and we certainly encourage everybody to to spread the word on that Brian would that be just rental or would that be mortgage payments as well uh it covers both both homeowners and renters are are eligible um more details on the website but yeah and and I actually had two other questions on that we're anxiously awaiting it um I saw some numbers that in the the last covid package there may be over 300 million that's going to be coming to South Carolina to help with rental assistance or housing assistance will that also be administered through the housing finance authority and when do you think you will have your mo you signed and ready to to help get that money out to folk uh so yeah so so um that's right there's 346 million dollars in rental assistance money that was allocated to South Carolina in the December uh spending package so that is um up in the year on what's going to happen uh so so that money about 270 million and change went to the went to the state uh the remainder were split among seven seven eligible counties that applied for the money um as far as I know there's been no decision from at the state level on on how that money is going to be spent or or allocated um so we don't I don't have any updates for you on that uh you know we've been in touch with the counties that are in their program they're you know very very early in the process of of getting those programs to a point where they can they can deploy assistance so we have the s.c. state program now um you know what what happens with that rental assistance money is is still uh up in the year great um and the other question I had was well are we going to start having conversations with the landlord community to let them know money is on the way because um we're you know constantly trying to figure out the best mechanism to have those discussions with the landlord community and we're pretty sure that our office is not the best one to to communicate that it needs to come from the state or from uh the municipality or county so so I actually have had um two conversations with the landlord association um so they're aware um I the question I kept getting was what was the time frame and I know that the website kept saying mid february so I would tell them that but you and I could talk offline about maybe the best way to make sure they're getting that information but um but I have talked to two of the homeowners or landlord associations that would be great thank you anybody else have anything to add well I'm excited y'all great work um Erica and I will work to get what we've done today in um a written form and out to you guys um at some point um keep one check the chat make sure okay okay so Erica put there we'll make sure um um Brian put the website in the chat but we'll make sure that's in the minutes as well and what we send out to you guys um so other than that um I think we are are good for today if your mitties can um meet and if y'all would always just CC me so if I can pop into a committee meeting I'd like to just to see kind of where we are and see how we can further support the committee work so that the when we meet here we'll have some items to either approve or report out and take action on um but with that said I don't know if Mary Louise jumped off I think she did uh so I need to talk to Mary Louise Chris I probably need to talk to you offline as well and I will I'll I'll send you an email and see when we can get together well if nothing else thank you guys I appreciate all this work I'm excited um just a couple things Christa um Tanya is asking the weights road project was 15 units um Tanya and I I know that information that's um homeless no more so I can get with you on um any questions that you have about that project um but um other than that I'm excited I think we've got some some great things um I've been doing some research oh I also wanted I did want to share that um councilman Daniel Rickman sent me some information regarding Asheville and they set a goal of 800 units within the next two years um so I did tell him we were working on goals and and would bring that forward to council um but I will the information that he shared with me that article I will send that out to you guys so that y'all have that as well um as well as a um an article that um the city manager sent me I'll send that to you guys so with that said thank you y'all have a great month um rest of the month and we will see you guys in March the year is going by fast so we got a lot of work to do okay see you guys