 For those who are new to us ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigative journalism with moral force Today ProPublica reporter and Jeanette Damon will moderate this discussion with key local stakeholders from the Reno community And all of you also have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of that panel Conversation so keep thinking about those questions as we're running through the session I want to thank the folks at the downtown Reno library for allowing us to use this beautiful space What an incredible space it is And for assisting with coordination on top of that we have their tech folks here helping us out throughout the day And have been complete lifesavers. So thank you all so much for that as well I'd also like to thank McKinsey and company for their support of today's event This event is being held in partnership with Nevada Humanities and the Reno Gazette Journal who have both been incredible partners in Pulling everything together today. If you aren't already familiar with them I definitely encourage you to check them out. We do have folks here from Nevada Humanities Who you can ask any questions of after the session? So feel free to pull them aside if our Nevada humanities folks actually want to raise their hands so everyone knows who you are Awesome. They do some incredible work here So feel free to again pull them aside and ask them some questions Before officially introducing our moderator I'd like to remind everyone that this session is being recorded and live streamed If you registered online, you will receive a recording of the event via email It will also be available on ProPublica's YouTube channel. If you didn't sign in online No worries as long as you checked in at the front of the room We will send a recording of that email to the email that you listed It's now my pleasure to introduce to Reno Local and today's moderator Anginette Damon Anginette is a reporter at ProPublica who focuses on government accountability and prior to joining ProPublica She worked at the Reno Gazette Journal and the USA today network. I know that she is familiar with many of you here And vice versa, so we're excited to hear from everyone on the panel today I hope you all enjoy the session again I'm really looking forward to your questions at the end of the panel be thinking about those I'll be walking around with a mic after the panel To take your questions and I'm going to go ahead and pass it off to Anginette from here Well, thank you very much and thank you all for coming today It's really great to see all your faces on a Saturday morning and a special thank you to our panelists Who are also giving up part of their their weekend in the month of December right before the holidays to join us for this Really important conversation, you know, I don't I think it's fair to say that pretty much every individual in this community Has felt the impact of the city's housing shortage in some way Homes are more difficult and more expensive to get are becoming increasingly difficult to hang on to for those Who have had stable housing even for for years in this community? Five years ago the average rent was a thousand dollars a month Today it is more than sixteen hundred dollars a month The median house price was under three hundred thousand dollars today It's well over five hundred thousand dollars and we're meant to afford this on a median income of under sixty grand a year But the situation is increasingly dire for our neighbors who make the least amount of Income and are struggling to support themselves and stay housed The suffering caused by this housing shortage is pretty stark just a few facts to kind of put that into context Reno's extremely low income renters face a shortfall of more than 11,000 units in this city The Reno housing authorities waiting lists are so long that they are regularly closed off to new applicants for for subsidized housing in Each of the last three years the city's unsheltered population is hit a new record high and While there has been an increase in capacity and shelter capacity Those those new shelter campuses are almost always full Meanwhile that housing relied upon by the poorest in our community in many cases is being demolished or remodeled or Purchased by another landlord And people are really struggling to to stay on stay in the houses that they actually have So what can we do to help? We've assembled this panel this morning to help answer exactly that question So this conversation Our panelists are here to help us one better define the problem of affordable housing in this community Describe the existing barriers to affordable housing and to help us identify Potential solutions and how the community can can involve themselves in in those solutions So let me without further ado Let me introduce our panelists First we have Dane Hilliard He is the co-founder of Green Street Development Corporation the largest developer of affordable housing in northern Nevada He has 30 years of experience in building and financing affordable housing Including building over 2,000 affordable apartment units in Washoe County and just as an aside when I was starting at the Reno Gazette Journal As a baby reporter I wrote for the business section and I wrote about Construction and development and housing and this guy would always return my phone calls We have Christine Huss She serves as the executive director for the Nevada Housing Coalition The Nevada Housing Coalition is a statewide member-based Non-profit working to promote and advance affordable housing for all Nevadans through education advocacy and collaboration Councilmember Devin Reese. He is the at-large Reno City Council member. So he represents the entire city He is also a local attorney and primarily practices civil litigation with a statewide law firm of Hutchison and Steffen Devin is proud to represent labor unions small government entities businesses and families and Wendy Wigglesworth. Thank you so much for being here. She is Ryze's outreach director She brings firsthand knowledge from the community to rise by building relationships within our community of unhoused neighbors If you don't know Ryze runs the women's shelter Wendy holds a support group for transition called Inside Just to help guests have support in their transition into stability She is also a facilitator at a window between worlds art transforming trauma-based workshops on our place campus Eric Gordon, thank you so much for being here He has a partner with Lewis and Roka and has practiced land use in real estate law here in Reno for the past 15 years He represents Jacob's entertainment the company developing Reno's me online district He was born and raised in Reno and in addition to his law degree. He has a bachelor's in urban planning We'll see we have one empty chair here. We have one panelist who will be joining us on Lilith Baran With the ACLU. She is a well-known housing activist in the community Unfortunately, she had a flight canceled last night So she is madly dashing to try and and make it here on time So we look forward when she gets here. Hopefully that chair will be will be filled Okay, we will dive right into The start of our program here and Wendy, I'd like to start with you if I could okay As someone you've experienced being unhoused yourself. You are out in the camps almost daily Working with with people as they transition either from being on sheltered into housing Can you can you describe the housing problem in Reno as you experience it? Well, I could do that a few different ways like In general in town, it's it's a crisis that I think has gotten like not addressed for way too long When you're outside trying to get a house, it's it's really hard to get a house because there's nothing available There's a lot of people that live outside that work and even doubling up, you know with your friend You they still can't afford it and then when they can it's a matter of if it's available If you have like a companion animal or if they see the record Street address on there I don't want to say it, but I know a lot of landlords will look at that and it will affect their personal opinion of putting you through Which is and it's just that's just human human stuff, but From over here, it's it also let me see I wrote down some proper Stop laughing at me I'm not even gonna tell you yet. I'm just joking Okay as an overlooked community crisis that needed attention as our population grew from over here It seems like solutions are glanced at then passed on So many units are now gone nothing to replace these homes or the homeless rates as as they continue to grow and available being too Few and too expensive compared to the wages paid and we've grown as a town, but the places to call home hasn't Yes, I think that's exactly right even when there might be Opportunities available as there's different barriers that stand in between individuals Well, like I still live in a motel because I can't find anything and I'm recently getting callbacks Okay, hey your waitlist is up, but oh your your media your income is is over the low medium that we're requiring and And that's that's such it's frustrating because I don't I mean I don't want to make more to get more I don't know I just Think if you feel comfortable with this, I think some people have an Image in their mind of what it is like to live in a motel and Reno Would you mind describing any of your experience living in a motel? Well, it's a motel so you you have to understand there's people that come in and go 20 for hours because it's Reno And it's a drive-through town But it's just like it like when you live in a studio apartment. It's the same thing. It's the same community It's just like an apartment complex, but they're not all kitchenettes and they all don't have ovens and refrigerators and bathtubs But it's still an apartment complex. It's just called a motel, you know because some of the motels do the weekly and monthly and You know, I think they're great for first option up when you're moving out of your parents house and the last option But also the re-entry like that's where I moved in when I was outside Yeah, and now there's they're not there Like, you know, let me get away from my mom and move out real quick option of 135 a week I mean 20 years ago isn't isn't even an option anymore and Yeah, does that make sense? So it's just it's just like a normal place. Yeah, thank you very much for sharing that with us. I appreciate it Dane we hear the term affordable housing a lot. Can you talk to us about what what does that actually mean? How is that sure? The federal government basically defines it this way It based off the area of immediate income and the number of people in the household So a low income is considered someone that makes 60% or less of the area And then the rent is based on that Very low income is 50% or less of the median Oh, is it my mic not the right spot? It's a little bit off So it's pretty simple Low income is considered people that make 60% for the intermediate income Very low income is people that make 50% or less And extremely low income is people that make 30% or less So that's how it's defined at the federal level and that's how we define it here when we do tax credit Projects and so we're talking in that case Specifically about subsidized housing. This is tax credit housing, which is what we do And so it's considered affordable housing low income housing. Yeah Christine can you talk a little bit that we have there there's different types of housing that winds up being affordable, right? So, you know, we have developers that come in and take advantage of the tax credits and different assistance in order to build subsidized housing Lily is here. Please come to it Got this There's a microphone for you. So, yeah, you can put that or you can hold it whatever you feel Whatever you feel comfortable with it. Yeah, like me Let me read Lily's bio real quick. I know I kind of described what she does but Lily joined the ACLU of Nevada to continue her fight for freedom and restorative justice Through the year she has combined activism research and artistry to better the community in creative ways and the issues She is most passionate about our criminal legal reform housing rights and education. So thank you for braving all those And so Christine back to this question about kind of the universe of what is affordable housing whether it's subsidized whether it's motels whether it's You know, naturally occurring Units that are in the community. Can you give us just you know, kind of a An overview of the current state of affordable housing? Sure. So first I also want to kind of expand on the definition of affordable housing So as Dane described, we're often talking when we talk about affordable housing. It's super complex It's particularly affordable housing that has income restrictions associated with it to make it actually affordable and the reason those units exist is because As an industry as a sector the government we would consider housing unaffordable when you pay 30% or more of your income on rent and Those numbers are actually staggering with the number of people particularly That are as Dane mentioned either very low income or extremely low income individuals and it holds true in Reno But across the state the number of people that pay more than 30% of their Income on housing costs and then if you stretch that even further more than 50% When a household is paying more than 50% they become very high risk of homelessness You know really one medical emergency away a car breaking down that that they lose Their housing so they're very housing insecure So We definitely lack the amount of affordable housing. I did and I see one of my partners here in the audience For kind of the current state of affordable housing in Reno. I wanted to kind of talk about Also, how many units we have and so again when I talk about affordable housing I'm going to talk about those units that have income restrictions Right, so certainly we can talk about increasing inventory Overall and how that may impact pricing for houses to become more affordable, but again talking about the Income levels of those especially in the very low or extremely low income. That's still a different conversation So when I talk about units that have restrictions I leaned on my partners at the Nevada Housing Division because I collaborate For sure and we're lucky to have an awesome state entity Helping us with affordable housing. The team is fantastic. So I leaned on them and said hey What is our current state that and I also did some reading all of you could do some reading too by the way These reports are right up on the housing division site. So the city of Reno has 6500 units At the end of 2019 that our income restricted right tax credit units and I got that from the 2020 annual housing progress report For the Nevada Housing Division, we have 385 units of new construction so brand new developments going up 385 units and 610 units that are being rehabbed So units that are already affordable the good news is they're staying affordable and being rehabbed and these projects are were approved at the Board of Finance Additionally Reno has at least in the pipeline and I know Dane could say that there's even more right But this is what the Housing Division knows and shared with me an additional 457 units of new construction So in the pipeline I Kind of just want to translate that if we think about 2.3 individuals per household So that's a unit in the tax credit. I know that's really Complex and we don't have to go into detail But it's our number one production tool and preservation tool to build affordable housing We have 842 units of new construction either already approved or in the pipeline that the Housing Division knows of Dane could probably enlighten us to a few more. That's almost 2,000 more low-income households in Reno that will be supported So coming up that's helpful It's far from the 11,000 units. We need that you reference to Anjanette And it's far from serving our need but just wanted to kind of set that stage if that's yeah, thank you That is very that's very helpful and I I think we're going to get into this conversation a little bit more but just as Dane and I were talking before they started just that the approval process that affordable home Builders have to go through Can take more than a year So it's just this very kind of slow incremental process. So when we talk about, you know hundreds of units in the pipeline You know, there's a lot of steps that that they need to jump through in order to Be vertical so to speak. Anjanette I didn't just naturally occurring affordable housing which you did and kind of the article was about that naturally occurring affordable housing So we don't necessarily track our naturally occurring affordable housing, right? So when it exits when it's no longer affordable It's not necessarily that some alert is going up and that the city gets that notice and oh my gosh What are we going to do? Sometimes it does happen that way and there aren't necessarily special tools There are some tools that we can use that we the same tools we use for new development But naturally occurring affordable housing doesn't have any subsidized subsidies attached So there is no reporting right these numbers. I'm talking about our properties and units that have subsidies attached so we can track them Thank you very much for that All right, Lily. Thank you again for being here As you're an activist for a housing justice in the community, I have seen you at rallies at demonstrations you're at city council meetings You're doing a lot of work with the people who are living outside at the moment and helping to keep that area Safe and clean as possible you and your friends But I'm wondering through that experience What do you see as the biggest housing issue for policymakers to solve? well, I would like to walk it back pre great recession and to address generational wealth and racial inequities that created this crisis in the first place the reason that we're seeing these problems is because Mainly of the people who own homes are white and that's because of direct redlining and racism that occurred during those times I challenge anyone who owns a home pre Great recession to tell me that they spend 30% of their income on their mortgage I don't know if anyone spends 30% of their income on their mortgage And I think that if they did we wouldn't be looking at the crisis that we're looking at right now I think that's a huge amount of money when I know that there are people Who are paying more for rents than than others pay for mortgage and it's rooted in racism And Reno has a very deep and rich history of it when it comes to housing And I think that we cannot have this conversation unless we Address the racial roots of the racist roots of this market. This is not an accident This was the planned thing and many of the people that are outside are black and brown and what we're seeing is the criminalization of these people when they were set up to fail and I think that that is the where I would like to direct the conversation back Probably every time you talk to me because I don't think that we can have one conversation without having the other So I think that the biggest issue that I'm seeing is As far as aid workers go we were told there are resources and they're not directed how to get those resources We're told that there are issues with people living outside Assuming that those issues don't happen with people living inside Plenty of people do drugs and have messy homes inside also And we don't go to their houses and make sure that they're clean all the time and then send the police to remove them from their Homes when their houses aren't clean and when they're doing drugs I think that that is That is particularly egregious I know that I was fortunate enough to grow up in the wealthy community. However, I've never Lived in a home owned by my family. I had two working grandparents my entire life I will probably never own a home and my son may never own a home as well But I do know that living in that wealthy community in Washoe County and incline village That the amount of drugs and alcohol that were used inside homes and the amount of crimes happening inside of these Multi-million dollar mansions were much much further Exacerbated than I see outside I've seen more drugs inside mansions and I've seen on the side of the river and I think it's time to talk about that I mean just to reinforce what you're saying and there You know, we don't read about this every single day We read about it in cities like Chicago and Baltimore and Boston But you know a few those of us who are homeowners in this audience If your home was built in a certain period of time between the 30s and the 60s if you go back and look at your CC and ours My house this applies to it says specifically in there that non-white people are not allowed in that development So when we talk about Racism in this community and others that lead to these housing equities. It's very real. So thank you for being here Garrett, thank you very much for being here. I would really like your perspective a little bit on the broader landscape when it comes to housing development in Reno I think it has the most disproportionate effect on on The lowest of income people are neighbors in this community, but it's also being followed at other income levels, right? so, yeah, if you could just kind of describe talk about that broader landscape of housing development and then With the neon line district in particular there's talk about Maybe 300 units will be included in that maybe 3,000 housing units will be included in that Can you talk about what types of housing we might see come to fruition? In that district, so that's a long rambling question, but it's easy Sure. Well, first of all, thank you for having me, you know on a personal level my Family's been here for 50 years born and raised so really appreciate being part of this on a professional level Representing Jacobson entertainment. We heard about this and contacted you this week and said, please include us in this conversation So thank you for having us. Let me try to break your question up in in a few parts So on the income side on the broad swat of incomes and the Impacts I also pull a little you know a little data just to kind of understand what's happening out there So I think when he hit it on the head. We're really dealing with availability and then affordability If you look at wages to your question about income Average wages in Washoe County grew 9% and in 2020 and in the last year, it's raised 30% So wages are growing in our community The average wage in Washoe County now is over $28 an hour. If you go out and look at trick It's even higher than that. I Just reached out to local economists I thought that'd be helpful just to get some of the wage information So I think back to the point availability and affordability. I think the availability side as far as the higher income wage folks It's just the availability is the issue but I think we're all here to focus on the other point of affordability with our non workforce and low wage households and how to stabilize that on the Availability side inventory is coming in 2020 Over 12,000 people Excuse me over 22,000 people moved to Washoe County and only 12,000 new units were constructed So a big discrepancy of new units versus people moving in and that's kind of a balanced out that which is important On the broader landscape, I can just speak for I think kind of many of Developer in town it comes down to really three pieces just materials land and labor cost trying to make deals pencil if it's Affordable housing project for Dane if it's a market rate project. There was a workforce housing project Trying to make these deals pencil with land cost. We can all agree land cost have certainly shot up labor cost As well are extremely expensive and materials I've never heard the word lumber futures and since the last couple weeks or months that you actually have folks Developers from affordable housing to workforce to market rate Looking at what the cost of lumber is today next week next month I know a handful of projects are actually going to pull a building permit and get built next year Because the lumber futures are finally stabilizing and you can get these these deals to pencil One example I can use is 301 State Street This is a parcel that the city owned next to Bertha Miranda's the city granted an economic development project to that developer and Developer said I want to pay fair market value for this property the value appraised that a half million dollars for that property The city council said we'd like to see some workforce housing on that property If we're going to give this property to you at fair market value, we want to make sure there's workforce housing 10% So the appraiser Hired by the city Recalculated what that means and that dropped the value of the property to a hundred and sixty thousand So just ten percent of workforce housing for a project was a sixty five percent reduction in the price So about fifty thousand dollars a unit So I think trying to get affordable units on them in the market Private developers or private landowners across our community are not going to give a sixty five percent discount when they sell their property to do Affordable so I think that means we need to hopefully appear kind of talk today about what the government can do Philanthropic involvement and many of your organizations to kind of bridge that gap to make sure Market rate workforce, but especially affordable Compensal and finally I appreciate the question about Jacobs entertainment a couple things one When Jeff when Jeff Jacobs came to town a lot of people don't know this He is been an owner of the Goldust West here in Reno Also an Elko also in in Carson City for over 15 years So he's been here for a while. He purchased the sands and then had a vision of dynamic mixed-use Entertainment district with two to three thousand housing units as you mentioned entertainment Amphitheater Retail commercial really have a dynamic Investment in downtown and that was a result of looking at Reno's downtown action plan Which I think all the council members supported their number one goal of this community was Focusing on on downtown so what he did from day one and I'll just take a minute or two You broke the question out. It was kind of a long question From day one when mr. Jacobs showed up a lot people don't know this but he contributed 1.5 million dollars cash to the Reno housing authority There was a delta to finish the willy jay win Apartments on Sutro Senior affordable housing 44 units. There was a delta of missing 1.5 million So he wrote a check said I want to be part of this community right away Let's move that development forward in our district and I say our district. I think this ventures communities district Sarah's and arms has 60 units affordable housing in the middle of the district That's not obviously going anywhere next to that facility is the courtyard Which is also subsidized housing another 240 units. That's existing That's existing housing if we can if I could just get you to jump a little bit forward to kind of future looking You know what what kind of housing is could be in this district and as mr. Jacobs can be building it is he just selling land to other housing developers? So far, you know, we talked about the different tools that that the city has to to encourage affordable housing They haven't quite yet. Maybe they will in the future been brought to bear. There's no requirement for that So, you know just briefly if we could jump forward a little bit perfect. I'll summer. I'll follow up here perfect so Jumping forward Jake mr. Jacobs purchased the Crest in which was the number one calls for service in downtown Reno for domestic violence for crime for prostitution That's now been converted to 46 affordable units So Renault the flats is affordable units right now per HUD standards going forward mr. Jacobs any apartments that he builds Will have 10% affordable housing included in that project and that does not pencil for what he paid for the land But we've always said it's been in some articles some hasn't been included That's part of the project as far as other developers coming in to build other areas within it Probably be market rate given the cost of the land in the development But we should Jacobs has made sure to have an affordability component moving forward. Does he have plans to build any housing? He does we're currently in for a tentative map on a condominium project on 2nd Street Thank you personally will be building so 10% of those units will be affordable. That's the condominium project So not not the for sale product won't but any future apartments Projects will have that component and we're already carving out footprints around the area I'm happy to share that with you of where those potentially could go. Okay, great. Thank you very much for that I appreciate it and I hear you in the audience also sometimes when we talk about Economist data and numbers they don't match with the lived reality in the lived experience I do I do believe that the median income probably is $28 an hour because we have a lot of city officials making upwards of $300,000 a year Developers like these gentlemen sitting up here So I do believe that that probably is the number we have a city manager that got a raise of $136,000 for one year of work So I think that yes That probably is the number and the people making the decisions are making almost a half a million dollars a year on the poor And that is probably when you average it with the actual number that workers are getting which is like $15 an hour Hopefully that maybe Maybe that's correct But also if I could expand to on the lumber thing there are many many environmentally appropriate Solutions to not using lumber at all such as hempcrete which is another legislative thing that should be happening growing hemp for hempcrete and other sustainable uses of And other sustainable ways to build are also really important But I again, it's really it's really hard to hear the word affordable and Here that it's also affordable means 30% of your income. So I just would like to do an experiment Please raise your hand if you own a home Raise your hand at 30% of your income is your mortgage Thank you Thank you. And thank you. I we will have time for audience Q&A So if we can try and keep keep that discussion on the stage for now, but we will be getting to you and Devon I think that that brings us to you. I think we we've we've already heard a little bit of The universe that you are working in as an elected leader and as as a policy maker as you are listening to All these various points of view and trying to solve a problem How would you describe What people are experiencing and how would you describe how the council is trying to meet that? Yeah, I think it's an important question What you are seeing both in the audience and when you're outside of this rumors were in a crisis Right, we can agree or disagree on the cause of the crisis the root cause the sub causes but people are hurting people are You know, they're in a position where life is Has been made very difficult not only by the pandemic but by national factors that are largely out of their control And so people are They're desperate for solutions. So ultimately, I think the question that comes to us as council members And one of my colleagues is in the audience council member doers here. Thank you for being here is Helping member doers a tenacious advocate for Many of the issues that we're talking about today and it's a privilege to serve with her I guess ultimately what I would say is that every day each council member is Asked questions that touch on all of these subjects and each day we are looking for solutions. We are Listening to folks with lived experience. We are in the community. We are going to other Communities to find out what they're doing that's right and working. We're reading And you know, there's just there's no one-size-fits-all approach that's going to solve it There's no one solution that everyone is going to agree on There's no way that anyone can Say that they have ownership of the way to fix it or what the path ahead is I do think that Lily was correct that our starting point ought to be an acknowledgement of the structural factors both Race and capitalism that have created the conditions in which we operate And sometimes those become very academic and we can get lost in the numbers and the AMI and the focus for my part I think if we focus on people We'll find the best path forward Okay, why don't we I'd like to Go down the line here and ask a question a quick question. Well, maybe it's not quick, but Kind of set the stage of What you all think we're up against as a community. So the question is in your drawing from all your own Experiences in this realm. What do you think is the single biggest barrier to affordable housing? And we can start with you Dan. Sure. And again my reference point is tax credit affordable housing and we have had great experience with the city and City Council they Recently sold us a piece of property in downtown in the neon line district for 206 senior formal apartments The city actually asked us to do some extremely low-income units and they lowered the land price even more which is my line with what you were saying God the land price is probably the biggest hurdle right now and then impact fees are second We're spending about fifteen thousand dollars a unit even if it's a small studio apartment just an impact fees City of Reno is the only city in the state that has created an affordable housing incentive And they basically waived the sewer fee, which is seven thousand dollars of that fifteen if you provide affordable housing The only city in the state that's done that So I to me it's fees the cost of construction have gone ridiculous And we build market rate and affordable and the construction costs are the same The only difference is you might have a you know more expensive appliances or a bigger clubhouse, but we're building the same unit basically So construction cost impact fees the land cost And then the process if you want to get into that is flawed that how we have to go through this year process We have to apply in December for a project. We can't build for a year Only one application day the year in the home fund round, which is ridiculous. So we've missed projects Kells councilman doer. We had a project award. We missed the cutoff for the home fund application So we had to drop the project 160 great senior units So anyway, the process is flawed. It needs to be improved and it's hard to get through change in the process Process probably Watch the government at all levels for a number of years and I'm talking about the financial process not the construction Approvals the construction approvals are fine. It's this finance process to do a tax-free deal And those finance processes are not created by the city. It's the home home fund process Yes, it's a consortium of cities and the county and it's just been it's been the same process for 30 years And just needs to be changed. You're going through the city of the county and the state Yes, yeah, the home consortium consists of the city of Reno city of Sparks and the county all working together to distribute federal Grants for affordable housing, but they only have one application day to year. So we lose We could do another 500 units a year if that process was changed Okay Christine in your experience with the single biggest barrier. Yeah, I think that's a again a really big question Because as councilman Reese referenced Right affordable housing is really different right. We've talked a little bit about supportive housing Transitional housing rise to come out of rise and have a home You need supportive housing that maybe has case services that comes alongside you So that you're set up for success so you can transition into one of Dean's more affordable units where you may need less services Ideally to home ownership The system is definitely not set up, but I would tell you what I think is the Hardest part of affordable housing again councilman Reese nailed it. There is not one solution We currently have a recommendation to the state that they invest 500 million dollars in affordable housing I wish I could tell you that I actually think that would solve all of our problems. It won't So I would tell you I think our biggest barrier to affordable housing and addressing affordable housing And I live right here in Reno too so I get to watch firsthand as well is us Actually all of us in this room in my opinion are the barrier to affordable housing. I've been thinking about this a lot Incredible partners at the state You know, there's nobody's perfect, but I can tell you the city of Reno has done some amazing things We have developers at the table Staff I get to work with staff. They're incredible For the people of this city, but I think it's all of us as a community I think really need to ask ourselves do we really want to Solve affordable housing because I can tell you there are so many different ways I watched Rita Reno and the accessory dwelling unit conversation, right? That's an example It's not an end-all solution, but it's a piece Right again when we think of affordable housing and all these different pieces that need to come together for all the different income levels Our workers those who may have disabling conditions on fixed income right those trying to transition into home ownership It's really us Jeanette and Jeanette. I think and I know that's a strange answer maybe But if our community rises up and says we want to solve it There's so many different ways we can do it and I think we can yeah, no I hear I hear what you're saying I've watched as someone who's covered The the city for a number of years there used to be a slide and I haven't seen it recently and this will lead Into your your answer here Devon and it was basically like a jigsaw puzzle slide that When city staff in charge of working on the housing issue would put that it was a it was a puzzle and it had different You know affordable dwelling units was on there construction of affordable housing shelter there are lots of different pieces on that and when affordable or when Accessory dwelling units or tiny homes grammy flats and people's yards came up Staff had worked a long time on a policy for that and at that meeting There are some very loud opposition from people who already own homes and are living in the neighborhoods That would have been allowed to build those and and it was stopped in this track So when you say that us all of us here in this community have a role to play in this I hear what you're saying Okay Yeah, the answer is very similar Except I would phrase it in Coalitional politics way. I think that we as a community are at times very divided over a subject Which I think is very at its core something we can all agree on which is that everyone is entitled to Safety and shelter and food and the resources necessary to Be happy healthy and well and that's from all sides of the political aisle There is no Doubt in my mind that fundamentally people want Good things for other people its human nature I think to believe that people are that that housing to human right for example Even if ultimately you get to it from a different perspective and you can talk about The construction costs and the barriers through access and the you know different kinds of structural racism that undergird the history of this country and Still not get to a place where you're able to find a solution So when we are in council at times we hear a lot of very honest heartfelt pleas from people who talk about their lived experience and then we get a call Usually a caller because they don't come down and the caller says, you know I'm angry because there are people who are living in the alleyway near my house Right, and then there are people who say I want to go to the park And so you just have all this swirling emotion Around an issue which we we have to just peel off in the ways that we can with the tools that we have and separate out all of the some of the politics of it some of the ill will that people have towards other people and so if we I think Our colleagues think a lot about that because at the end of the day again, we are living in a very Difficult time. I think it's a result of a lot of factors that all are I hope bending towards economic justice Social justice equality movements across the country and the globe. I also think it is hard because We're not unique. I don't think Reno is this strange place That is disconnected from other places People are struggling everywhere in every part of the globe there are people who have been Not been able to fully engage in civil society because of inequality Wealth income gaps that are widening all those things, but ultimately it's about people and coalition building I think is the way through it And Wendy from your work with people On this level, what is it? What's the biggest barrier out there that that we need to address? Well, I think out there because again as a community we've grown and the places to call home There just isn't they're not there and I know building them upgrades everybody for openings And I know we have a lot of things building in the meantime, but like right now when you're out there that doesn't Do any good for us So I have to say there's to the lack of availability on what's available and the wages that are paid for one family It's just not it's not enough, you know But you it's I think it's unfair to make a business go from like nine to twenty dollars an hour because then Your business goes under but the wages some somewhere we lost something in what how the wages don't match What everything else is like raised to and I think there's like a big disconnect in there that I think Yeah, yeah, I hear you Thank you Yeah, what do you think is the biggest barrier to affordable housing in this community? It's tough act to follow I think many of my many my responses have been have been made But I know we might get in this a little bit later, but I think Locational opportunities as well. I think it's fair to say every lord in our community should have affordable housing in it And sometimes there's zoning barriers or other barriers. I mean I was interesting. I was looking at midtown Prior to this meeting and there's a cap on density and height in midtown And you think that might be a great opportunity to have additional affordable housing mixed-use opportunities I think all the data reflects you don't want to put for housing in one location You want to spread it out? You want to be integrated with with the community with workforce housing with market rate housing? So I love my urban planning degree I love doing planning and additional law and I think we get together in panels like this and Figure out where it should go and how it should go the the cost and economics So hopefully work itself out as we get out of this COVID and the supply chain comes back online But I think sitting down with that maybe even a map and working with groups like this and figuring out the best place And places and opportunities. I would might be my suggestion Yeah, I definitely want to hear some thought more thoughts on on zoning and how that is kind of stood in the way to Building housing when we talked about density and height than in midtown You know the restrictions on be being able to put housing in different places Is it time to get rid of single-family zoning? You know, it's a question that I would like to hear some of your thoughts on When we get to it, but I'm Lily I can see that you are bouncing in your seat. What do you see? I'm sorry if my brains are slattered all over the auditorium right now The biggest barrier to affordable housing is greed People should not be making money on taking other people's wages and calling it rent That is the biggest barrier. You should not be able to have your only job Should not be going to the mailbox and getting a check from someone who worked their ass off for 40 to 60 hours a week And then calling it work. That's not work hoarding of wealth is the biggest of the biggest barrier We have people that I think that maybe if we did an experiment and we inflict it where everyone who does have a mortgage Pays 30% of their income for one year towards the crisis I think we'll be looking at a different city almost overnight and it could be happen very quickly I think that people are not ready to both in the way of Then I see it all the time with them anti racism people are not willing to sacrifice What needs to be sacrificed to solve the problem people want to have their cake and eat it too We have poor people helping poorer people and then people at the top telling us how to do it effectively That have never helped any of these people the way that other folks do We are going to our jobs and then going to the river and then going to the motels We're not even accounting for people that are living in seagull suites, which is not stability That is not that is still housing insecurity We're not seeing the people up top. We have never seen anyone trickle down It's never trickled down and we're still doing this trickle down economy kind of thing this guy Sorry, he doesn't care what the biggest barrier to affordable housing. It's you never well It's on his job. His job is to represent a corporation that is there to make money on other people That's that's what this job It's not It's not fair to sit here and act as if there is this difficult Solution the gift the difficulty relies in the the wealthy's inability to share What? Yeah, I'm not is everywhere. You're right. That is everywhere Yeah, it's and it and at one point as we've heard before the meek will inherit the earth people will stop Being polite about this people will find the people will finally got so sick of this that they will do something about it And it's not going to be something that everyone that is palatable for everyone and it's happened historically time and time again And it's getting ready to happen now. So either build faster up to your pockets Keep this conversation respectful, but I would like to hear Dane and Garrett What your reaction? How did what is your response when you hear Lily talk about this? What she sees as and what a lot of people I think and in the audience in the community see as We have people living in very difficult Conditions and then we have people that are Earning a profit in many ways off of some of those conditions What's you know trying to keep this again trying to keep it Little less emotional maybe but what what's your response when you when you hear her talk about that? a Little bit new for me to hear something like that to be honest with you Yeah, and I do affordable housing. That's what I do and I do make a profit I don't make the profit that I would on a market deal And we're providing 500 affordable housing units a year through government subsidy. That's about all the money is there to do So I understand what you're saying. I agree. I mean, it's if we're It's not just us. It's pretty much everywhere Every city right dealing with the same issue So I like totally here you understand what you're saying. I feel for it. I feel for it Look at living more than the $28 an hour, but not millions Probably In the low twos You couldn't have spared any of If I did only margarite housing it would have made a lot more then I could have spared more But I chose to do affordable housing too Okay, yeah, would you since you were pointed out in those comments, would you like to say anything in response? Yeah? Well, I guess just personally It's nice to meet you You know, I am I'm at if we're gonna get a personal hair You know, I am you know, I grew up in the apartments behind Reno high school the single mom May I finish a single mom She worked a couple jobs. I worked the pet smart washing dogs in between Baseball practice and go into school and no it wasn't a silver spoon And I love this community and I feel like at this point in my life I can try to represent folks who also love and want to invest in this community I think sometimes we all talk over each other of what we're doing for this community because I could probably list Myself and my family everything we've done so my clients have written very very big checks to help different causes That may not be your cause and we should probably talk about that but other causes in this community and so I think probably the problem here and the barrier maybe is this kind of confusion and This function We all are in our little worlds and our different bubbles and finally today all of our bubbles are starting to come together and From the politics to your cause to your cause all of our causes and so I think more opportunities like this publicly Privately figuring out how we get more folks down in the river figuring out how we make deals pencil figuring what policies in the Downtown action plan and the master plan should be amended in order to open up the barriers So I look forward to getting your contact information and having coffee next week and figuring out You know what else I can do personally or some of my clients can do that help your cause And that yeah, that brings us to what I kind of the next the next question here is as we do We have very different experiences and jobs on this on this panel, and I'm wondering If you could talk a little bit about what bear what barriers there are to communication and Collaboration, I mean is that something that that you all have experienced? And how do we how do we kind of bridge that? Well, I think like as far as like everybody who's like completely opposite on like our goal or our beliefs even though We all want it. We all agree. We want more housing here like I'd like to put it straight I think we all need to leave our social status our political beliefs our religion and our like like Assumptions about everybody that we're talking to at the door when we come in and have these meetings in general because like I can point out Like this it's okay. They're your brothers. Oh this that's your community We're all in the same goal We just have to like swallow that pride pill because it's bullshit and you put that away And then everybody's you know you take all that big coat off and then everybody's just like humans All on the same page realizing that there are all these other humans that don't have homes are still they're still family They're still humans just like us It's one paycheck away anybody in here can be out there And if we if we just put all that out and just work on the problem instead of like the blah blah blah around the problem I think I'm just saying like because it's just like that everybody's so hung up on it's like you come in it's like Oh, I see that you believe this oh, I see you're this political party We already have that like angst about everybody that we're talking to and if that was all put away I think there'd be so much more time and let's drama to figure it out. That's a bolts conversation. Yeah, I can say When we're trying to do a formal housing project we often get neighborhood opposition and get sued the project gets stopped It happened on to us last year At the same time there was a market rate project going through the approval process no opposition But because we're doing affordable family housing. We got sued Cost us an extra year 100,000 dollars legal bills So talking about the community as a whole when you have people that just perceive affordable housing as dangerous or whatever We got to you know the education process, but it doesn't matter. It's not my backyard We don't want the ADA units right people say that this is we want people my backyard or whatever that quite literally in that case So anyway, it is challenging And it's a lot of challenges, but that's that's a big one and it's just regular you know people who Christine you do work all over the state What are what are your thoughts about some of these barriers to communication and maybe a little bit about About that that stigma that we still hear when you say the term affordable housing and You know people who have homes now come out in droves to quite literally oppose that Yeah, and I think again this kind of comes back, you know, the reason I'm here sitting up here today is Because the housing coalition and then definitely myself I'm here for solutions We are in crisis and we can dwell on our crisis and it's for lots of different things But I'm here to tell you there are solutions and As we think about communication, but not in my backyard If you drive by an affordable unit that Dane builds they're gorgeous Gorgeous homes that any of us would love to live in You know, and so when we think about some of these that are built and again, I'm talking about those with federal subsidies You know, they have more requirements even than some of just private sector developments that go up There is definitely a stigma across the state I would say the conversations we're having here in Reno are in other places for different reasons, right? If I talk about Nevada Southern Nevada has its challenges in different ways though But we're having the same conversations rural Nevada Right, you think you could drive two hours and find something more affordable but there's other challenges that actually they're also struggling with affordable housing and But what's really important is to have the conversation to communicate To know each other and know where we're coming from and I love that Wendy putting aside. I would say housing is not partisan Right. It doesn't matter what your political leanings are housing impacts all of us but the communications and collaboration the misperceptions of affordable housing are Certainly there and it's really confusing. We say 30% AMI 50% AMI You know, and I do say hey, I hear you you want to build it and be done with it But guess what some people actually just need some help with services and that's not gonna end There's no government that's gonna solve it. I don't actually believe that government should nor can Solve affordable housing. That's why again, it's all of us in the room coming together with our private sector partners Mission-driven developers to get it done. It's interesting to hear you say that because I have seen a lot of Work on the national level that says, you know, federal resources need to be brought to bear here that you know The private market is not meeting this need local governments are kind of ill-equipped to do it So maybe and that that kind of brings this in because I do want to get to audience questions So I'm going to ask one last question I'm kind of merry-go-round here and that is to focus on Get our conversation Turned towards what are the the solutions Emily? I do real quick. I do want to kind of apologize I wasn't trying to imply that you were being disrespectful at all. I was just trying to keep the conversation But as we as we turn now to kind of our closing question for the panel discussion so we can get to the audience questions What are the immediate solutions? We as a community can do to help those Experiencing homelessness or the threat of homelessness and what long-term solutions should be implemented now So why don't we start? Is it possible to rely just a second to Tap on to Christine's point. Yes really quickly. I do think that there are a couple of governmental things I actually have really robust conversations with Councilman Lisa and some others about Which one of them would be repealing Dylan's rule for rent rental Rent control because we're seeing quite a bit of rent gouging Another would be an impact fee that goes towards a different kind of affordable housing where right now we have I believe a Door fee that goes towards parks and rec and it would be nice for those to go to other services And then another it is absolutely a non-partisan issue because as we saw this session we have Democratic real estate agents voting down and put affordable housing bills So that's kind of the thing that I do agree that it's completely non-partisan. It is about your you know your career We have a part-time legislative legislature They have to have job some of those jobs or a direct conflict with the good of their constituent So that was the only thing I want to say about about that as far as government goes and Then you're asking what can we as a community do for homelessness? We could stop calling the police on them. That would be very helpful One of the issues that we're seeing and I know I was out of town yesterday and we have a like a Network of folks working with people that were being swept behind you and are we have somebody awaiting Housing into a rehab facility that's being swept up again You have someone, you know, we have people dying and We have a huge amount of money and as we saw we had a consultant come John Decarre mine from grace and he is perhaps one of the people that is closest to solving one of these issues In Gainesville, Florida, and he said he's never seen money thrown at this issue like he has in Reno Not means that somebody's making money somewhere where we came up with the figure that I did not come up with the figure the figure was set on the record that was fifty-five thousand dollars per bed would have been the cost of Care's campus, and I would show us that handing handing seven hundred people fifty-five thousand dollars would have a greatly alleviated the issue that we're seeing right now I think they really come down to everyone needs money not everyone needs a voucher Not everyone needs a rehab people need cash That is it's been studied that that is the quickest way to help someone that is homeless give people cash They spend it on whatever it's not your it's not your problem So I think we need more folks that are at the top that have the resources getting down and doing the work I see a lot of people that are very generous And it's so nice that you'll leave something on your porch or whatever for us to come and pick it up We have to understand that there are people that are really Really using they're running on fumes to deliver these resources to other folks And we need other people with boots on the ground right now There's a river cleanup happening led by the river stewards with and Beverly Harry And we did that also last week and a lot of the along the waste that we're seeing is excess waste It's not waste from people who are on house. It's kitchen sink. It's racing tires It's it's waste that is not it is not created the way that people think it is and if they were down there to see it Then we would all understand you have to put ourselves in these other people's Shoes and I did see some of the folks at the redevelopment agency meeting Right before the cleanup they did show up to the cleanup They think that it changed their perspective of what well the problem actually is and this water are protecting the water and protecting the land is Paramount for everyone and there are indigenous solutions That should be indigenous lead for this crisis We should I mean I feel out of turn not having someone you know from a community here Anyway, because they should be the people that are making these decisions and helping us break the gap because we do have an Environmental crisis we have a humanitarian crisis and we have to have everyone You know coming together to figure out what it is because in the in five years or ten years We're gonna have a conversation or a panel talking about why can't we have clean water for these communities? How do we all get clean water? What do you think about the water rations and I don't want to be having that discussion Yeah, thank you very much for your thoughts on that Did you want to go next Kevin? Um, I just wanted to add that one of the communities that I think has been maybe overlooked is the faith-based community and the Non-governmental organizations and nonprofits, right? So yes, there's government solutions to parts of it There are private individuals doing work. There's the mutual aid society groups But you know we have father-to-parties here. We have I think someone from our Lutheran community There are other folks who are also doing the work and so I just didn't want to exclude them from being part of that solution Your question though was really directly about what are the things we can do and do now? So, you know by the a confluence of events related to the pandemic The city of Reno has received a lot of money over the last couple of years So the first part of that ended up being really to the cares act as a result of that We move very quickly to stand up the new community assistant center the next wave of money is the ARPA funds and so the city of Reno will Receive in the neighborhood of $50 million There's lots of red tape about how it can be sent on what in what manner and over what period of time But the community conversations like this and the ones that the state engaged in kind of on a listening tour Are part of that discussion right there? How do we spend those dollars and my absolute belief is that a large portion of that? Maybe all that I don't know will be spent on addressing housing needs and again, you know housing is one issue Homelessness is another they're related But not always directing the same solutions at them and so I think that you know Money is not going to fix everything, but certainly I think it's going to be part of the conversation One very very brief departure The city jumped very quickly when the pandemic began to marshal resources to expand the shelter And I'm wondering how and if that same quick response Marshaling of resources could be put towards actual housing for individuals Yeah, for sure I think that's the goal is that the city of Reno which perhaps and we can look at the historical origins of it never should have Been involved in sheltering issues right there are some legal and state laws about who is responsible for that And who should pay for it? But they were they for the last 25 years and I grew up in St. Vincent's downtown working in that community and when it moved to the CAC It'd be set a whole range of things that have historically Channeled the energy of the city in a different direction And so my response is now having moved away from the sheltering piece of this discussion That the city's sort of laser-like focus I hope and I know my colleague council member doer and I have talked about this before will be on housing now and Lily hates it when I say it, but it's true Governments don't move fast I know but not everyone gets to hear the conversation we've had and and and the truth is is that I Might want to move very fast, right? I individually and personally might want to Be opening up the record Street facility for example, but the But but again, it's not just me I don't get to make all the cheer-sisions, right? It is a Collaborative process where I have you know six other colleagues and then the county has colleges. Well, you're okay. This happens We're all human beings Maybe it's like I'm getting to an amazing point I Guess ultimately It's not that I don't want to move faster, but you know Lawyers move very slowly finance departments move very slowly So we push them as fast as we can within the confines of you know our own resources and staffing issues I do think that we are making and you will see after the first of the year Some fairly significant announcements about where this community is headed from the city of Reno's perspective Only into the housing area. I don't want to you know share those with you because it's really not fully baked, but We have Opportunities the goal is to go out and execute on those opportunities and and because we are not focusing on the sheltering piece Anymore our focus will be on housing and that's housing at all ranges, right? There are folks who cannot afford and they zero dollars of income, right? There are folks and so that's why we look at different kinds of things like the village on sage Street and the hopes tiny homes village and Different kinds of opportunities, but again all do speed that we can I'm ready. All right. Thank you very much Okay, let's get to some audience questions here. I'm if you want to raise your hands I almost feel like we need to draw Mindful the time they spend on the mic We do want to get to as many questions as we can and again just a reminder Please be respectful to everyone in the room And I am going to pass it on along to the first person while I do that If you all please suit in towards the middle We do have folks on the side that would love to have a seat if you'd be so kind of to let them have one So Basically what my question is is when you asked about What the main barrier is to? Not finding a solution to affordable housing and Reno and of course I can't speak for anyone else, but give it not him. Well, we've come out of him. We're Because I only make eight hundred dollars a month my question is as a panel that was set up for today Why is there? No on-house people or low-income people on this panel because they are going to be the ones That explicitly know what barrier to not finding housing is so Why is that the case? Why is it everyone up there? has a home or owns a home And I know I know when you and so I know they are the two closest To what I'm asking but again, why is there someone that isn't currently on house up there right now? Or someone that is extremely well-income like myself up there to actually say From experience what those barriers Yeah, I appreciate your perspective and I would love to get your contact information because if we have that another panel I will say as someone who helped put this panel together. Sometimes it can be difficult to get speakers from all Levels, but you know, Wendy you personally I was outside for ten years I've only been inside for four and and I'm like I've grown through every channels And I'm like by the grace of rate rise am I able to pay but I am the biggest person because like some of the Like our grandma like say say my friends grandma was in one of those motels It was tore down and she's on that you know seven forty one a month. Where's she gonna go? Where's what she can't do the like I Got your back. I'm totally like I'm representing for that because I was out there. I get it and I still identify as being out there Let's get more though. Yeah Yes, well, we we've tried to do that and when I was asked to be on it I asked if we could find someone else Unfortunately and Wendy was the person that I suggested because I know she's the closest person there are two two factors Number one I don't want to be in the space to retraumatize someone because I'm triggered to stop right now And I'm not even sleeping outside, and I'm like hot, you know number two They're being swept at such a rapid rate. We can't keep we wouldn't have been able to find them So how you guys doing my name is Tony I'm familiar with Lily and Wendy very familiar with them It's had the fortune of pleasure to work with Wendy when I worked at Rise and I'm working with Lily and helping them with our Improperly protests and stuff, but I have a three-part question for the panel. So one is I Just looked up the run of a flat pressing. It's 250 square feet for anywhere between 1100 and 1200 a month with no kitchen It's a renovated motel room. How is that affordable for seniors and to What plants are there for the cast away and 7-eleven motels? I live a block away from them and my heart broke when I seen a lot of these seniors who relied on them Being forced out the only home they know of and it can afford because there is no affordable housing for seniors and the disabled those who rely on social security and Three I've lived here roughly 20 years and the old sundowner building has been vacant for jet I don't even know how long before that. So why can't that be turned into affordable apartments? Yeah, do you want to address the question about they cast away in the 7-eleven? Sure, I appreciate the question Cast away in 7-eleven. Yeah, those those tenants have been Relocated the No, I'd like to let me let me so let me address this We have a regional housing manager Kelly Wilson and I think many of you Many of you know her she's two rows behind she's two rows behind you certain be happy to she can meet with she can meet with you She's relocated successfully, you know close to 400 tenants with with cash With first and last month's rent with furniture with presents for their kids Move them all around this area and upgraded them. We would say in their living situation. I think we've been very very Sensitive Kelly Wilson, I think is a person if you haven't met you should met she cares She has every tenant they have her cell phone number that she can reach out at any time And so I think we have been very sensitive and spent, you know hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars In those relocations to to make it right. I can also say, you know on the taking a step back from kind of the personal Jacob's thing but back to the bigger discussion, you know, there's this word that I found Some of the planning research I've done is called high opportunity neighborhoods and the idea is not to have Housing low-income housing all in the same area You want that spread out throughout the city throughout the wards? I can say where people live, especially where children grow up is critical to the long-term well-being Including life expense expectancy health and income So there is an argument or a position that having that saturation That was low-income units in the three or four acre area three or four block area Versus trying to spread it out and having these discussions about how we can get density bonuses additional Units and places having all of us Support projects right if Dane has an affordable affordable housing project All of us should be standing in front of the city council and supporting it to kind of counteract some of the negativity from the neighbors That will hear even market rate housing. We all know that the more availability of units will help with affordability I've set up their council on my own many times advocating for an apartment complex in Award that might not be downtown and it's packed the room saying we don't want this here I would love you to be standing up there saying no We need to have more density in this area. We need to have an affordable housing Component in this area. So saturating it all one place and trying to spread it out again Is my my goal that hopefully all of us can work on moving forward? Yeah, it was a two-part question, I don't know definitely Dane. Do you have any thoughts about this on down there or some of these other? Underused casino towers. I mean you and I when their dorm blew up, you know circus circus use their tower for housing There's been some examples of quick turnaround housing and how can we get more of that? Yeah, I'll say a couple things one is that the city does not own any housing We it is all done through renal housing at the wordy During the pandemic the city of course move very quickly to open the event center as some sheltering space But the sundowner The sands tower that's going through innovation a lot of these there. I it's in my mind It's fools gold because I don't know what the Condition of them is many of these places are have been long vacant their owners Don't know who they are. We've talked about as a city whether we need to have vacancy taxes, right? That would tax owners for leaving things out of you know, circulation Obviously the sundowner was never intended as housing. It is you know motel stock And I just haven't been in it for a long time My guess is is most of those buildings whether it's that or the remada in I mean The city of Reno has explored whether or not we could go out and purchase a motel And we explored that when the cares money came it was not something that we could do legally I think we're we're waiting until January to talk about some of the ideas About those kind of properties. So stay tuned there There has been a lot of success across the country California in particular Of government agencies buying some of these hotels and motels and refurbishing them into housing pretty quickly So it's a good why don't we go to someone on this? My people occupying those buildings and protesting outside of them first So I just hope that the city has is aware of that if that occurs That's how that happens. Thank you. Maybe someone from the side Just went from 800 to 16 And so Thank you for sharing that An important topic You're right We don't have the city and the reason why is because the legislature has not granted that authority to us So our lawyers have said city of Reno. You cannot on your own go out and do that even if we wanted to I don't know that we would I have some academic debate about it But That's not true and so I will talk if you want to talk to me about it later rather than yelling I was having a conversation with this woman Our mayor has taken the lead on many of those issues and again I think it is incumbent upon us to Approach the legislature and see where they might be on the question It's not going to happen fast one of my colleagues councilmember doer is looking at whether we can use anti-gouging legislation to address that issue and it's something we're exploring so Again, I wish it were as simple as saying hey, we're just going to do rent control We don't have that power at the city of Reno even if we wanted it Understand understand Megan were you? Yes, my name is Megan Arshambo. I'm the director of Reno Sparks Neutral Aid I Would like to ask Garrett a question here. You had mentioned that renova flats was an affordable unit In an RGJ article on 10 25 2018 It was marketed that renova flats is the first market rate housing project in Reno for Jacobs Currently it has a $40 application fee and a hundred and fifty dollar admin fee Last no rent on there was a thousand dollars, but your website isn't even working to request current rates, so I Think it's kind of odd that you're up here telling us that Jacobs has already invested in affordable housing When renova flats wasn't initially presented in that manner To say that Jacobs is a resident of Reno is to say that I own of that I'm a resident of Ohio any longer because I still have $20 in an old savings account. My grandmother gave me in high school. I Just I want to see When you're up there answering this question of We have a condo project that's going to be for sale I noticed you didn't give any specifics on any of the affordable housing that Jacobs will build and The second part of this question would be Seeing as Jacobs isn't answering this question. Is there anything that the city can do specifically in Terms of new development to make some kind of regulation where those units have to be in place Built and or leasing So we're going to knock down a hundred that a hundred have to be replaced and leasing Before those hundred could be demolished because right now. We're seeing net losses Being told there's going to be a net gain in two to three years And that does not help the people who are being violently swept week after week and Lily's right a lot of us like myself volunteers with Reno Sparks Mutual Aid We're doing this out of our own pockets. I haven't worked for a year. I've been living on savings and I'm tapped out We're poor people are helping poor people and we're seeing dollars and figures getting thrown around And you know, I thank you for that Jacobs talking about his working-class background. I have a working-class background, too I could never do what you do, sir Thank you for that that question. Do you want to be a little more specific about that housing? I know our Nova flats is is At the median rate for studio apartments. It's above that Any any more specifics that you can give in terms of what might actually Come about in terms of affordable housing in the neon light district. Yeah, thank you for the question again, you know this week we Heard about this panel and tried Rapidly to get on it. So I hope that goes a long way to for you understand We want to be part of the conversation and be here and be here going forward as far as for Nova flats I confirmed again this morning that it's not Subsidized housing. It's market rate, but the reds meet the HUD guidelines. That's my understanding I've read the HUD guidelines. It does meet that. So that was that was my point. Sorry if I Caused any confusion about it being subsidized, but the rents do meet substance that do meet the HUD standards as far as moving as far as moving forward Let me say this as you've heard up here costs Land costs labor, etc Jacobs paid fair market value for every product every property in that area as you heard earlier to make an affordable housing Pencil project you need a 65 5% discount. So what does that mean? It doesn't mean we don't have any affordable housing in it It's we have to plan the whole district in order to figure out how you build the subsidized housing While you affordable housing while you move forward with the bulk of the project So I'm still saying here today to the 3,000 units mixed-use entertainment You know sparks has a great amphitheater in its downtown Reno showed as well But we absolutely know and I made this point at the redevelopment our development agreement was approved the other day That the next time we come forward with a vision Absolutely will include when we start talking about tax increments financing other things of that standpoint How we will make workforce housing and affordable housing pencil so okay We're getting very close to the end I do want to just say real quick that the invitation was extended to Jacobs well more than a month ago So I appreciate you jumping up here this last week to be a part of the panel But just I just want to say that his he was But could you could you address real quick this question of when? Housing is demolished why or how or should the city have a requirement to replace that housing? Yeah, I don't know the answer why historically we haven't I don't know if it's a matter of this whole Dylan's rule versus home rule state stop I can certainly look into it. What I do know is that Inclusionary housing is Another part of that toolbox and it may be the answer to that and so whether or not we pursue those things is really Council direction and decision But there I don't believe in state law There's any requirement then when a unit is torn down or removed from housing stock that more would replace it The other thing is is the motels were never intended as housing. I don't think right and so they absolutely have served that And and continue to do so if you look across the even the four-street corridor They do serve that capacity But they weren't built or designed for that. So I don't know what the design standards would be There are some vacancy taxes that are related to these concepts are related. I don't think they're disjointed from one another Can we expect that a more robust conversation and action will happen on these questions from council on the next without a doubt not only that But some of those conversations will happen With the Mutual Aid Society Megan Arvish M. Oh, and I are going to organize something after the first of the year Which would be very much focused on that Councilmember doer has requested town hall style meetings where people could ask questions Because again in a business meeting, which is what city council meetings end up becoming there's no opportunity for interaction You can't ask a question and I provide an answer then we go to it doesn't happen I Know just let me quickly Okay, I will be great first of all like to tell Wendy that the handout that I sent which was Part of my statement. I made on October 13th at council. I removed the word that you objected to No one's ever described my home with that word and I apologize for describing your home And Hello, we wrote this book Shane Phillips. I was now working for Regenesis Rena. My name is Gordon Gossage simple question Are you willing to have a conversation with Shane and myself one-on-one each of you? If not, please tell me that you can't and what Shane is he's at the UCLA Lewis Center of Housing And he believes there are three S's for affordable housing Gordon we see each other all the time and you know how to reach me. Can we ask the question? Yeah, go ahead. Thank you very much. You call me anytime and we'll hang out Yeah, just one last question We know that you received twenty four million dollars to build Affordable housing unit for seniors my question to you is when you get either big subsidies or Whatever tax rebates for providing low-income housing how long are you contractually obligated to provide low-income housing for and what is the Normal course of action for when that contract is dissolved In terms of continuing to provide low-income housing after the contract is dissolved my question for Devin is I was at the Sweep yesterday where hundreds of people were swept behind UNR. I Talked to the police officers and I talked to the clean and safe team both of them said that that was a directive from the city of Reno We looked up on the county website How many beds were available both at cares and at our place that number was 17? There was five beds available at our place There were more than five women that I saw while we were having that conversation There were literally hundreds of people swept we know that that is illegal under Martin versus Boise and that it is against our eighth Constitutional rights. So my question is how are you still ordering sweeps? Stop the sweeps. That's the number one thing that the government can be doing stop the sweeps. That's it It is easy. It is simple. There's no reason that you should still be Commanding sweeps are happening. There were pregnant women There were women that had severe mental illness in a state of psychosis that didn't even realize that their possessions were being thrown in the garbage so Before you come up here and say how good that the city of Reno is doing please question Why are you letting people freeze to death by continuing the sweeps? Thank you The answer on the affordability component so that I can get to your second question is it's dependent on the product It's 20 or 30 years that they're locked into affordability Right the second question and I won't be able to give you as nuanced an answer that you deserve given the time constraints Is that I don't think it's good for? pregnant women to sleep on railroad tracks, and that's the bottom line I understand I'm trying to give you I'm trying to give you An answer and and I'm a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer, right? Understand that we operate in the boys eating Martin arena We comply with it to the best of our ability. I believe if you think we haven't make it reach out to me And we'll sit down and talk about it So I know it's not an answer that you will accept but I'm trying to tell you I believe that we have built Capacity even this last week the county opened up another 300 Essentially beds in the adjacent facility so our capacity and and I think about it this way our capacity pre The Cares campus was somewhere around 325 persons our capacity region ride now is approaching a thousand so while it's not the answer you want It is getting people outside Understand that Place for them to go currently There is Thank you, thank you very much We are gonna wrap up this conversation for this particular time period, but I have great faith that this Conversation is going to continue as we go on