 We thank you all for being part of this. I wanted to just take a few minutes of your time to give you a brief overview of what has been accomplished since the creation of the housing task force in August of 2017. So as the mayor mentioned, there are five individuals that comprise the task force, Jim Bailey, Marianne Boneta-Vedosaval, Jim Dawson Jr. and Laura Garcia. We have created a process that enables us to have public meetings every other week where information is presented to the task force that will inform our policy priorities. And these public meetings are also a great opportunity to hear directly from a community. And so this is not the first community meeting that we're having. This is the first large scale community and public meeting. But throughout the course of our process, we have been hearing directly from many of you that are here today and others that couldn't be with us. And I wanted to just emphasize that the community engagement piece is really critical to the success of our task force. We can look at data, we can look at history, we can look at best practices, but if our recommendations don't reflect what is happening on the ground, then I don't think that those recommendations will be really based on reality. And so that's why we're all gathered today. And this is also an opportunity for you all to provide feedback to us on the vision that we have set out and the mission or the specific sort of tangible steps that we hope to accomplish at the end of this process. The first thing that I think is important for me to point out from the vision statement is this opening statement that reads, San Antonio will be a place of opportunity for all current and future residents where people have a right to place and to meaningful participation in the decisions that impact the lives and the places, their lives or the places where they live. And really the vision is that everyone will have a place to call home. Everyone will have a place that they can afford. When we talk about housing affordability or affordable housing, I think it's important for us to be reminded of what does that mean? That means that family that is able to afford a place where they're not paying more than 30% of their income is able to have a sense of stability, a sense of ability to be able to pay for the other expenses that are necessary to help their family. And so we're always mindful that as part of this process, we're thinking about everyone and making sure that as the mayor said that people have a place to live with dignity. And so that is the vision that we have set out for ourselves. We welcome your input and we welcome your feedback. Moving on to the vision statement, and these are basically the objectives or what we have set out to do as part of this process. One is that as I mentioned that our process will be grounded in making sure that we're using data to inform the recommendations that we develop, but also looking across the country to see how other cities are addressing some of the challenges that they see. And then creating opportunities to hear directly from community members like you all today. So the mayor's policy making process will be grounded in community and data and best practices and making sure that this is an inclusive community engagement approach. We will gather information from various experts, residents and housing stakeholders. And at the end of the day, we will make sure to delivering a comprehensive question of housing framework. So we can, so how are we going to get there? Wow, I'm feeling a little nervous because really, this is a very historical time, I think for us to be gathered here today to have a focus on housing like it's never been had before. I want to share with you that I've been in the housing and community development world for maybe about 20 years. And housing always seems to be kind of the last thing that people think about. We talk about employment, we talk about education, we talk about access to social services, but we rarely talk about housing in the way that I think we need to talk about housing, right? We need to ensure that when we are thinking about education and health or employment, that we're thinking about the ability for individuals to be able to have housing that is affordable, housing that is a quality, housing that allows for people to be able to thrive, housing that allows for people to be able to feel safe, housing that allows for people to be able to say that this is my home, this is the place where I come to be myself, where I come to rest, where I come to refuel. And it's really incredible to see you all here because I think you all recognize that in order for our city to be able to address the challenges that are in front of us and ahead of us, both from in terms of population growth, we know that the city is growing at a very rapid pace. One of our experts during the courts at the public meetings that we have had shared with us that by 2040, this city will be growing by a million people. So by 2040, we will have a million new residents and that's both a result of just natural growth but also migration that is coming in. So how do we stay ahead of the game? How do we ensure that as our city grows, that we are growing housing to ensure that everyone has the ability to have a place that is affordable, accessible and safe. So thank you all again for being part of this conversation and discussion and as we go through this process, we have mapped out a timeline that we hope will get us to developing this comprehensive housing plan. And it started with our meetings in October. We are now in this month of December having our first community public meeting. We hope to be able to have two more community public meetings before the final presentation of our plan which is scheduled for May of 2018. And throughout the course of this process, we want to ensure that the information that we are gathering, the recommendations that we intend to make, that they are transparent, that you all have an opportunity to weigh in. So we have created a website that allows for you to track the information that the task force is not only contemplating or discussing, but also that will allow you to provide feedback to all of us. And then just the last thing that I will also share with you that is yet another sort of opportunity and way for you to continue to be involved in helping us come up with solutions is through the creation of what we have called technical working groups. In this process, in the last three months, we've heard from a number of experts and from a number of city staff members about some of the key challenges and key opportunities as it relates to housing. And collectively, the task force has come up with these five broad areas of focus. We think that by focusing on these five broad areas, that we will be able to move the needle on housing and make a significant impact. But we wanna test that with all of you today. We want to ensure that we have not left anything behind. And so as part of your discussions within the table, you'll have an opportunity to let us know whether we're on point missing something. And so your information, the discussions of what we had today will inform not only the overall process, but if they will also inform these five policy areas that are of interest to us and that we intend to focus on. And so let me share those five areas. The first area is making sure that we understand the housing situation for special populations. And that includes individuals that are homeless, individuals that are chronically homeless, individuals that are aging out of the foster care system that need a place to be able to transition to be independent, but may require supportive services. And so we're very interested in understanding how big is this problem? What are the opportunities? Who's providing supportive housing in our city? What do we need to do to expand housing availability and opportunity that ties services to ensure that special populations are being served? So if you're interested in that area of focus, please, you know, weigh in, let us know what ideas or solutions you may have. The second area of focus for us is looking at the coordination of housing system that allows for us to better understand how many housing units are being produced, how are dollars being invested or utilized? Are we maximizing, do we have an effective way of making sure that the dollars that are coming in, private dollars, federal dollars, state dollars, that those dollars are truly aligned to producing the maximum number of units? We have good data within the city, but quite frankly, we don't have a coordinated and integrated housing system across the city. It's hard to go to one place to figure out how many units are we producing for families that make $20,000 a year, or how many units are available for individuals that want to buy their first house? And what does it take, who's producing housing, who's providing housing counseling? We don't have that information in one place. And so our hope is to be able to look at how other cities may be addressing this, and then opportunities to partner with the non-profits or profits and private developers that are interested in strengthening and developing an integrated and coordinated housing system. The third area of focus is looking at financing or funding sources that are available to create and to further or expand affordable housing opportunities. And this is not just looking at funding sources from across the federal and state government, but also looking at some of the creative things that are happening in the communities where small-scale investment is occurring, and there are some innovative and creative ways of bringing in dollars to make that happen. And as an example, I'll share with you that we're very interested in better understanding the pilot housing program that has been developed by Councilwoman Shirley Gonzales in District 5. We think it's a very innovative way of bringing community developers, the university, and the non-profits together to address housing availability, housing rehab, and also home ownership opportunities. So that's the third area of focus for us. The fourth area of focus, or the themes that have emerged, is that we cannot produce enough housing simply by thinking about public dollars. There's not enough funding that is coming in to be able to address the large demand is need. And as many of you know, or those that have been tracking the federal budget, there's plans to continue to cut those dollars even more from public housing to Section 8 and home and CDBG. And so we have to think about the private sector and the opportunities to bring in private sector, private development, and so we recognize that there's a tremendous opportunity for private developers to come in. But we also recognize that there are some barriers that need to be addressed in order to facilitate further development. And that there are also some priorities that need to be made at a community level to ensure that we're mitigating the impact that this has to communities. So that's our fifth area of focus. Our fifth area of focus is ensuring that we understand issues of displacement, displacement issues of gentrification, what the impact that development is having in communities. How do we protect the character and the history of neighborhoods while also recognizing that there are residents that are looking for housing and are moving into neighborhoods. I don't think we have had a very focused on this conversation about this issue as a community. And this is our opportunity to be able to have that and to hopefully be more proactive. You know, in some communities across the country, they are so far to the other end that it's so difficult to rescue neighborhoods, right? From LA to New York to San Francisco to Portland, right? You know, there are some communities that were not proactive, that did not address this early on. And I think for us, you know, here in San Antonio, we know, we recognize that there are some neighborhoods that are being impacted by this. And you know, we know that that is affecting residents and the fabric of community. But I also believe that it is not, that we are in time to be able to address it in a way that is thoughtful in a way that allows for us to have a balance, a balance in terms of protecting neighborhoods but also in terms of providing opportunity for new residents that are coming in. So those are the five sort of big themes that have emerged in the last three months. Those are the five areas of focus that the task force is grappling with. As I mentioned, we don't know everything. We may be missing some things. We are looking to hear directly from you all in terms of are these the five areas that are the most critical? Are we missing something? As you think about these five areas, is there something there that I didn't mention or that you all think is really important that the task force considers? So the opportunity to have that level of input will be while you're having the table discussions but also at the end of the meeting there is a comment part that each of you will receive and you'll be able to provide us that level of feedback. So I think I've talked enough. And I thank you all so much again for being here. We are going to go ahead and pick off today's public meeting with a panel presentation. As I mentioned, we want to ensure that this process is informed by what's happening on the ground. And so Linda Jimenez from Jimenez and Associates who I did not recognize early on but Linda Jimenez from Jimenez and Associates and her entire team, thank you for organizing all of this and thank you for staying true to the vision that the task force has as it relates to having this community engagement process that was grounded in stories and the experiences that people have. So I'd like to go ahead and introduce Linda Jimenez to introduce our first panel conversation before we begin the conversation at the table. Thank you. I mentioned it is to give you all some experiences as she said on the ground. People are going to talk about their own personal experiences in the house. Some of them have been relatively successful in some of the struggling, it just really depends. And we have a fairly good range of experiences I think. What we wanted to do with this panel was to introduce the ideas, some of the range of experiences. Because I know that a lot of you all here have had a lot of different experiences with us. And so you kind of want to just begin to talk about what this might be. Our first panelist then is Walker Perry and he's going to speak to you about his acquiring of home and what that was like for him. Good morning everyone. How you all doing? First I want to say thank you Linda for allowing us to be here on the panel and also thank you to Brandon Doenberg for putting on the mirror. And Ms. Lord is thank you. Can I just keep him real with y'all? The process is hard. I'm from the east side of San Antonio. So if anybody knows about that area you know it's very challenging to be here. However, I was working for an economic development agency a couple years ago. And working in the east side you would want to believe that the dream is for you too. Especially if you're working in that neighborhood and I grew up there and I kept going around asking out these shows. How can I get a house? I'm saying everybody get houses inside my neighborhood. And they were like, well there's no houses for you. I'm like, me there's no houses for you. I see houses everywhere. Well these houses are not for you. And so I didn't want to accept that answer. So my wife and I, she's from New Orleans, Louisiana she came after Katrina. So she knows about hard times. And me growing up on the east side I know about hard times. So we were a perfect fit for each other. We already knew we wanted to get a house. But she had four kids coming to a relationship. I have four kids coming to a relationship. So that's eight kids together that we have. And I split up. So not only taking care of each other we're taking care of eight kids. We're trying to go to school. We're trying to have a career. We just want to be somebody. And why not have a home? Why not have a home for eight kids? Well I went back to my former employer. I was like, hey, you know, there's a chance for us to get a house. Can you help us out? And you're like, I know you know some people, some lenders, somebody. And I've been working in this community. Everybody who knows me or inside knows and I'm very diligent in that community. And my former employer told, my wife and I, nobody told trying to have those eight kids. Well, I'm not Eric anymore. So it's a former employer. I met someone during that time. My name is Dahlia. Can you stand up? She's from Crockett. Crockett National, that's her name. Okay, I was downtown at the library working at my former employer, advertising. This is an economic development agency designed to help East Isles, right? So I'm representing this country, I mean that country, this company, saying that we're gonna help you. But at the same time, I'm not being helped. So after I got done, Dahlia walked up to me. I didn't know who she was. She said, I have $200, I need to give away. Do you want a house? So we got to talk and she was like, look, I can help you get a house. I can show you everything you do, but you need to do exactly what I'm telling you to do. And I went home and I told my wife and she talked to Dahlia and she's like, yeah, let's do it. So we did everything Dahlia told us to do. Dahlia stuck with us. She said, don't do this, pay that. Don't do this, do this, do this. And she stuck with us and got us print proof. And they don't top that. We got the loan through Dahlia, but we hit a roadblock. That was a house on the east side of the choice footprint. Now, according to the choice footprint, they supposed to have funding for houses for home repair. Well, when I went to the city or whoever was involved, they said that funding is not for you. That funding for somebody else who has a lot more money, who's in a high, a taxi bracket. I'm like, well, I'm a resident of the east side. And I don't know about y'all, but marriage is a business. And if we don't, marriage is a business. And if we don't have what we need to have to fix our homes, then we're not gonna do what we need to do. To make a long story short, we got the house. Home ownership is what it is. Don't clap yet. We've been in this home since May of 2016. When we moved in, there's no AC unit. We've been living in the cold, living in the heat right now. So we don't even have an AC unit or a heat unit in our house. So we're investors, just like a business is. And before I close, I just wanna say one more thing. The power of home ownership. For somebody who came as Oogoo's rent, his whole life, watching my grandma pay rent, watching my mama pay rent, I've never seen somebody pay a mortgage. And for me to go pay a mortgage, it only compelled me to look at my son and feel like I was worth something. But it compelled me to get back into college. And right now, I'm getting ready to graduate with my business degree, because Dahlia inspired me to want to be somebody. So I just wanted to tell everybody before I close, no matter what your income is, if you have somebody that's very important to you, stick by them and just keep pushing and God is gonna bless you. Thank you. That was very inspiring. Thank you, mom. Our next speaker is Terry Lindemuth. Lindemuth, I'm sorry. I can, I can, the Lindemuth part I can write. And he is gonna talk to you about a permanent, permanent supportive. And it's Terry Lindemuth. I'm 62, I'm a veteran. And I've gone through a lot of process getting my wife out right now. I lost my job, the last part of it. I ended up being convicted and when I was addicted, I was fortunate enough to be able to go to GI Forum. When I went to GI Forum, they didn't think they could to help me. They got me into an apartment and they helped me with the land, the utilities, everything. I mean, as a part of that support of 1000, permanent support of 1000. That is so very important for a lot of people. Once I was done with that, my case worker with my veterans section, I was taken in. I got an apartment in the same complex. I had to move, but I got another apartment in the same complex. So it wasn't a big pass. What they did for me was huge. They took me in, they worked with me, they did whatever they had to do to get me a place to live permanently. Permanent support of housing. I'm an advocate for it because it works so well for me. And it should work for those that are out there looking for housing. I mean, there are a lot of homeless people out there that are looking for a place to live. And they don't know what the process is to get through that. So they need people to reach out or they need to reach out as well. Because I'm an advocate for this, it works. And I'm proof that it works. And I'm happy where I'm at, I'm happy where I live. I'm comfortable, it's good for me. It became very good for me. And I'm a lot happier than one of us. So it worked. I mean, I went through the process step by step, whatever I had to do, I went to classes, I filled out applications, I talked to different people that would help me. It's something that we need to concentrate on to help these people out there that are struggling, that are on the corners, that have no place to go, they need our help. And I don't know exactly what that help or what those steps could be, but it's important that we help these people to find housing where they can be a lot happier than what they are right now out there on the corner somewhere looking for food, looking for covers. Because the other night, it was pretty cold and snowy. I mean, there's a lot of people out there that's just really obsessed with me that they don't have a place to go to. I'm just happy of the way that the process went. And it's important to have people that are working with that process to help other people to get through it, but especially the veterans' administration to help me a lot to get where I'm at right now. And I applaud them, I'm very happy to go there. Thank you very much. Mr. Rodriguez, who's going to talk about, she was in section eight housing and her experiences with that in a special program that's off her head. I'm correct to housing in 2012. It's working for McAllen, Texas. Back in the church there. I came here when we were four kids. And I got into housing, and they have a program that I felt that I could try out, of course, houses and everybody. It was on my bus. We had plenty of everything that I could get into, especially from the four kids. So I got into housing. I got into my home. I did the program. They had a lot of programs. I went to school, I went to college, I went to school. I went to this program. I did everything they told me on the travels and everything. I got an internship at a very good company. It's the University of Wisconsin. I actually got a job there at a library with my four children. I got to another F&S program, a health submission program. It was there five years. They did everything they told me. The other day, they gave me a check. Thought I won the lottery. I'm in a school and an elementary, but there's no problem. I did the housing program works. I stick to it. We have a lot of programs that are consistent and get informed of all the programs, the benefits they have. Just search and it's got opportunities for me. Just very excited and have a brand new home. Yes, we have Mr. de la O. Who's going to talk about this place, the process. My name's Venom de la O. I live at the Mission Trauma Homes. And well, at first, I started as homeless and then I got a place, a residence, a friend of mine staying there, but it was really at Cheyne House. And he told me, take care of my house. I'm going to Las Vegas and Gamble, see if I can get some money. So when he was over there, he died because a doctor told him that I stopped drinking, but this is for the doctor. So when I heard that he died and that we're going to sell the house. So I had applied for housing. And at that time, I received the letter that I could go into housing as home. This is a blessing. Now I got a place to go at. So I went into housing on a fair avenue, on apartments. I was there, living there for about five years. And then, because I'm a veteran, I'm a Vietnam veteran. And so I applied for different cases that I have. So they stepped up my check. So they are in the housing, it's a little small apartment. So I said, why am I paying so much for this little place? So I said, I'm going to buy me something so I can call home. So I can live there for the rest of my life and have something there, I can own. So I went to the Mission Trial and applied there. So they sold me a treatment. So I started living there. I said, this is a place where I'm going to die. I'm going to die here, because it was next to the San Antonio River, and I liked the scenery and everything. So after that, living there, and then, we had different managers coming in and out. And then it started getting bad there. And then we had to move out. We all had to move out of there. I said, no, I'm not moving out. Because my, my trailer house was, I know it was leaking through the walls. I could hear the water into the walls. And then it was running through the floor and then my medical man made a hole in the floor. And so I had to get some help and get the medical bed out of the way. So they could, my brother, put a lighter in there. Fixed it. And then we had to move out. And they told us, I told them that my trailer wasn't movable, because it was running. And they said, we're going to see an inspector there. So we can check it out. But when the inspector went in there, it just looked around the ceiling. He said, nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it. It's movable. I said, it's not movable. It's going to fall apart. And so, so I stayed there. I was one of the last ones to move from there. I didn't want to move. So, and then I had to go to the hospital. I got pneumonia. And then after that, when I came out, one of the representatives of the man, but the man, she went over there and asked me what was my problem and how come I didn't want to move. And I told him, why don't you don't move? I'm not going to get anything. And I don't want to move. And it's not going to fall apart in the trailer. So after that, I went into the GI forum, heard about that, I was a vet. So they went over there and they talked to me and they said, we have a house on the east side that we want to fix down. And they'll probably give it to you. So, but you have to stay somewhere. So, with that money, they gave me, they gave me 2,500. And so, I bought a van and I moved my things to the, and I wanted to put it where you kick your things and then, yeah, and then after a year, they gave me the house, but I still need some work on it. I need some, put a heater, central heating, that's what I need. So, okay, thank you and that's all I have. I'm working on it all the time. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Lala. Our next speaker is Christian Reed Agba. She's going to talk to you about her situation. Good morning. I am an entrepreneur. I am my husband, oh, oh, sorry. I am my husband, definitely E-C-R-E-L-L-C, a full-service public relations and strategic management firm. Five years ago, I relocated to San Antonio from Detroit, Michigan. My husband is a Trinity graduate. He met here in San Antonio. He's also a Nigerian immigrant. We launched our business on necessity and meaning that we could not find positions that we felt fit our education here in San Antonio. I think I went on about 150 interviews and coming from Detroit, where I was a procurement executive, where I had six years at Blue Cross for Children of Michigan and really worked hard for my business in 2012. To provide public relations, social media management knowledge, grade, cashee, internet, SEO, all that, all those environmental marketing products. Our firm has now been listed quite a lot in terms of small business management skills, capabilities, and capacity. But we would not have been able to do that to scale our business from just social media to now full-service public relations and corporate event planning had we not moved into an old income housing project on the West Side. We moved into the gardens at San Juan Square three years ago and we were absolutely, it wasn't necessarily a last minute option. It was a very calculated option. My business was not viable for venture capitalists, but we didn't want to get to our business loans. We were living in a very expensive luxe apartment downtown, it's supposed to be one Broadway. And we made some decisions to kind of give up our comfort or something that was extremely different. We wanted to scale down so that we can scale up. It just so happens that the apartment that we were moving to would be twice the size and half the rent for our $1,500 a month studio apartment at 12th and you were moving into a nine and a half and you said you'd to work with condo on Zara Zamora and we only paid a little less than $200 a month. We were able to hire six employees. We do about $125,000 of small business vendor sales. So we actually put money back into our area community. We hire small businesses from our area. So our floors, our caterers, our drivers if we're bringing cars, all of that comes from our immediate area. We pushed everybody right back into small businesses. We have been of course, blessed to renew our lease once again and now we are saving up for recovery and planning in a field development to have it right on the West side. So we're scaling, we're looking, we're networking and we're building within our community. And so when we were introduced to the Sahara property of course it was shared that we would have to fall between different lines, different guidelines of our income and you know, every entrepreneur is poor. So that was easy. And then at the same time, you would have to work amongst some sort of economic development programs. So we work alongside WGC, the West side Development Corp to create some marketing collateral where friends will live on. So we also work alongside Live Finance to create some collateral to hopefully engage some audience members to think of live work units and what a live work unit can provide an entrepreneur. A live work unit allows for us to literally walk downstairs and we're in our office. We've been allowed, because of the cost savings we can dress that space and decorate that space and it's really, really cute to follow the one that's around. And we can also utilize that space for different other money making opportunities. So we have a follow-up rule, we have opportunities for folks to come in and teach little classes and teach typing to their students in our division because right behind our role of live work units is low income housing. And those are full of singing mothers with multiple children, Spanish-speaking families. So I'm learning Spanish, so we'll have this in 2018 though I have that teaching Spanish, teaching everything. So it's a community where we live. One thing we don't have is parking. So sometimes my clients get a little confused but at the same time we save so much money we can kind of coffee shop pop around the city. There's never a time where I'm not at the pro. Where I'm not at the pro. So we're moving within these communities because we're able to save so much because we're able to really plant our roots somewhere and we really appreciate the housing program for offering that to us. Thank you. Thank you so much to all of you as panelists. This was really, it was really, it was very moving hearing you all talk. It's interesting to see what some of the commonalities were. The struggles that you all have had to try and get housing but because of the benefits of the housing and the things that you can see that you can get when you actually get your housing you're willing to do the things that you need to do. And that there are a lot of programs and services available. And the other thing that I noticed that was interesting is that every one of them said they did what they were told to do by the programs. And that's a big help also. And the one thing that I think is a little bit different with this panel is that they live work experience. I think a lot of times we don't think about that with housing but that's really another whole another aspect of housing that we need to think about. And it's clear that the good housing is a huge benefit for people in so many different ways that a lot of times we sort of take for granted because maybe we're in housing and we just are used to it. So anyway, I want to thank all of you for being here today and sharing your experience. Some of you are not going to stay and some of you need to leave and I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to come here and share your experience and wish you the best of luck with everything you do. This is the traffic is, if anybody were to get sick during or have an emergency, during to get in and out. That's the only, that's one of the main complaints of traffic, but other than that, it's like things that they build like one day to the next. So you can tell that it's not, I mean, it looks like quality outside but because they build it so quickly and you have people with that. 70 years old, hopefully I'll be able to stay here and get up but I can't even fucking go. So what am I going to do in 10 years, maybe 15 years? I'm going to be stuck there because I can't drive. So it's just like, that's the difficulty I see is I look at and like she said, we don't have sidewalks, I can't walk outside my neighborhood. So that's feeling like enclosure because there are no sidewalks, and I can't catch the bus because it is like, they're setting up, they're making money, they talk crazy to the people and they're like, you have crime, just fine. They feel like that's your problem. You're truly like that. Let me have a chair. No, it's not. When you two, this time, you say this is your issue, you know, it's too loud. I had to pull my daughter out of Davis because administration, the street, they were pretty similar. And this is where we live, we have a family, she drives them out. So when I was in the office, that there's potential for people, we don't have the right people. We have factories, there's a new one, we have a new shop. There's great space, like, she's taking care of it. She's taking care of it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm not, I live, I live close to Frederick, Frederick is like the best street because it goes down to on 4 A.M. There's six lanes in the community. Even though I come today, it's not like there's two or four lanes down side. And it's 40 miles per hour all the way. People take advantage of that. I think we need to, we need to do something that we're cutting the lanes. Introduce. Once I'm all the transportation, I don't know what I should like to do. We're going to the facilities. We have a little less than 10 minutes to finish up. Make sure you have your two problems or two issues and one solution. Identify before we start the new products.