 with item two roll call all right I'll just ask for everyone to say here if they are here when I call your name Commissioner Olson your Commissioner Downey commissioner Burke and vice chair test here great let the record reflect that all commissioners are present via conference call except chair Owen and that does not include the two vacancies thank you Nicole so we go to item three statements of abstention hearing none we're moving on to item four study session there is no study session so we're now moving to number five public comments on non-agenda items we don't have any public comment at this time thank you we will now move to item six approval of minutes February 24 2020 draft minutes hi this is Steve Burke the only comments I have is that there were three items 12 1 12 3 and 12 4 where it had me making the motion and and I don't think I made the motion I typically don't as when I was the chair so I'm not sure who made the motion but Nicole might go back and check that and see if there was somebody else who made that motion other than me and then make that modification place great I can do that and then the minutes will just be approved as amended if you agree that's certainly fine with me do we have approval of the minutes then the current minutes of February 24 2020 I certainly I was this is Wayne I would move to approve the minutes I'll second that Steve Burke okay um Nicole yes the minutes are approved we can move on that was amended yep thank you thank you um so we move on to uh item seven chairman commissioner reports this is Steve nothing here uh Steve do you have any uh comments or questions on the commissioner reports this is Steve I do not okay with that we'll move to item eight committee reports and I don't believe there's any committee meeting that has taken place since our last meeting so we'll move on to item number nine executive director reports communication item good morning vice chair test I have no report today communication items there seem to be no communication items so we will move on to item 11 consent items resolution allocation excuse me resolution 11.1 resolution allocation of article 34 units for sage comment located at number 6 and 80 college avenue I just suggested uh I think if there's typically no comments then uh you can move make a motion that accepted yes yeah okay um so we will move to um a motion to approve the consent item I'll make a motion this is Phil I'll make a motion to approve the consent item Steve here I'll second that motion thank you and um are we needing to do a vote of all of us yes a roll call vote is needed okay thank you roll call then please we're uh sorry we're experiencing a little technical difficulty Nicole has stepped away she's on her way back all right sorry about that guys can you tell me who moved the item chairman Burke I was chairman chairman I was going to tell you when I second I I uh I perfect and who seconded the item uh commissioner Burke Burke was the mover and who seconded no commissioner commissioner Olson made the motion commissioner Burke seconded thank you okay and a roll call vote uh commissioner Olson hi commissioner Downey hi commissioner Burke hi and vice chair test let the record reflect that the consent agenda passes with four eyes okay at this point we're moving to item 12 report items 12.1 is report adoption of annual public housing agency plan okay good morning commissioners thank you this is Rebecca Lane I'm the manager of the housing choice voucher program for the city of Santa Rosa thank you and I will be presenting this item today in one second thank you Brian we were having some trouble with the PowerPoint excuse me just one minute thank you Rebecca okay good morning commissioners and thank you for participating in this meeting under these extraordinary circumstances my name is Rebecca Lane and I'm the manager as I said of the housing choice voucher program for the city of Santa Rosa housing authority I'm here today to present the required pha annual plan I want to assure you and anyone in our public audience either live or if you're watching this later that we will continue to engage the community in the conversations that we're about to have and what's being presented here today as we move forward towards the fiscal year for which the plan is being presented we are currently operating at the housing authority under essential operations only and as we return to normal operations we will resume the plans that I'm about to present the pha plan is a federally mandated document and process that requires pha's to share and discuss their goals and objectives with the community last year we presented our five-year plan today's annual plan it provides an update to the five-year plan as well as new information since the five-year plan was presented the most significant change that we plan to make in the Santa Rosa housing authorities procedures is the conversion to an electronic waiting list we believe an electronic waiting list will be more efficient operationally and allow greater access to the community and that the process will be more secure and accurate the pha plan outlines strategies uh to for the housing authority to meet our program goals and it provides as I said the annual updates for housing authority activities in this case for fiscal year 2020 2021 our plan conversion to the electronic waiting list is in its beginning stages we've been working with our it department behind the scenes for several months now to develop an online system uh and just so you're all aware currently our waiting list has been um since the housing authority has existed uh been a paper-based waiting list so we have um year's worth of uh paper applications that we'll hold on to we're going to do this as what we're hoping as more of a uh a hybrid um so we're going to still maintain the existing waiting list uh so that everyone who's already on the waiting list stays on the waiting list they keep their place in line on the waiting list and um any new applicants for the waiting list will be an electronic system uh so those people we hope to bring online to apply and of course we're going to engage as I said in a very robust community conversation about that to make sure that all of our providers social service providers are aware of how the system is going to work and that they can support their clients in participating in the application process as well as our staff will also have um computers available in our offices um during the time the waiting list is open and we will continue to use the library system as we have before with the paper-based waiting list system uh and we um will uh be providing uh paper uh as an alternative for people who uh need a reasonable accommodation and can't participate in the electronic waiting list process so there will be still a paper-based um alternative uh going forward uh without without anyone here to make eye contact with I can't do should I pause for questions at this point about the waiting list yes there are no no public um we should probably ask the public at this point um but hearing none I believe we can open it up to commissioners comment this is Wayne I have a few questions okay for Rebecca Lane my first question is what mechanisms are going to be used to enforce and determine when income discrimination has taken place sure sorry I I was um not finished yet with the full presentation I apologize I was uh try I'm moving on to the next bullet point um so yeah I will get to the uh the discrimination point in one second here so our the other update that's included in our annual plan is just an ongoing uh we're continuing to use project-based vouchers as a way to uh create new affordable housing in Santa Rosa and uh to we use that funding to leverage additional units it's been very successful so far uh and we're going to continue doing that so long as the use of project-based vouchers continues to meet that goal and so long as we're under the statutory limit of the number of vouchers that are being used for uh project-based vouchers uh and then the final update is yes we as uh department uh sponsored and presented to the Santa Rosa City Council in the end of 2019 uh an ordinance to ban discrimination against voucher holders it's a source of income uh discrimination ordinance that was successful and this at the same time the state of California passed a statewide uh source of income discrimination law so we are working we during that process of presenting the local ordinance we had really great discussions with our landlord partners in the community of the California Department Association Norbar and others we're going to continue doing that as we engage with the public around an education campaign about what that really means how landlords are supposed to comply with it right now we know that um the first thing that we're seeing the change on the ground is landlords are asking participants for what their portion of rent might be in the property and what the housing authorities portion might be in the property and so that's been a little bit of a change for us and we're happy to provide that information our best estimate um so that the the tenants can income qualify for the property using the voucher as income under the new definition so we're we're doing a lot of just day-to-day work with landlords as they're working under those uh new guidelines and we're planning on doing a much larger community education campaign about it in partnership with those uh those organizations that we've already been working with and some other new partners as well fair housing and like so let's so we are recommending at this point the department of housing community services recommends that the housing authority adopt the annual public housing agency plan for fiscal year 2020 2021 which does include a planned conversion to an electronic housing choice voucher program waiting list the continued use of project-based vouchers to create and preserve affordable housing and community outreach and education efforts regarding the state and local ordinance's banning source of income discrimination against housing choice voucher participants in rental housing the adoption of the annual pha plan is required by the united states department of housing and urban development for local administration of the housing program and now commissioner downy i will answer your question can you remind me your question about the discrimination policies my mechanisms are going to be needed to determine when discrimination has taken place and what resources will voucher holders have to seek assistance in the instance of income discrimination yes thank you for that question so for that we're going to be looking to our partners in the fair housing office for the northern california fair housing advocates we're working very closely with them not only during the process of developing the ordinance but they promised in the beginning that they would be very eager to help us educate tenants about their rights under the ordinance and we will continue to work with them as well as california of rural legal assistance and disability services and legal center all of which provide services to low-income families in san rosa okay rebecca this is when again they ask another question okay natural disasters appear to be our new norm is there any resources available from voucher holders who may experience a disruption in their income as to prevent them from losing their housing sure um so yes i i agree with you um we're my staff right now and all of our program participants are dealing with a third year in a row of sort of unprecedented activities so yes we're on a call tomorrow with a national call with housing authorities tomorrow about what waivers of regulatory requirements might be allowed under the circumstances the current circumstances but there is a fair amount of discretion that individual housing authorities have already and we're we've taken those steps so as i mentioned in the beginning we're already operating on um you know essential functions only at this point and that does include for example uh processing interim recertifications if a family has lost their income as a result of the current situation so we are already getting those uh requests and we're expecting frankly a tidal wave of those requests in the coming days so that we can recalculate a tenants portion of rent uh based on the fact that they've lost their income because they are sheltering in place we also are hopefully going to find out more tomorrow about inspection requirements and what we can do to make sure that we're practicing safe community engagement around visiting people in their homes there might be self-certification uh that's coming available as a waiver for biennial inspections and we've already modified our move in inspection protocols to make sure that our inspectors are not uh they're staying socially distant from the landlord as they're there to do the inspection they're wearing protective clothing and gloves and that sort of thing um so we are finding out more every day and at this point we are available for our participants our business offices are closed but we are working and uh engaging with our participants over the phone through email and uh we're we're moving forward with the required parts of the program thank you thank you rebecca are there any other comments from commissioners this is uh Steve Burke uh commissioner test vice chair test i just kind of two two general things one is uh rebecca has been any consideration and is it even uh possible to have like a single place where people who are interested in signing up for the voucher program could do that within the city of santa rosa for all of the assisted developments within the city are you talking about for the two housing authorities or also no i'm talking what i'm suggesting is i i just wonder if uh there rather than have the city of santa rosa housing authority have a list and then you know a few dozen uh assisted developments have have their individual list would be to combine those into one city-wide list that's certainly something that we can explore i like that idea and there is i know one uh agency in san francisco that helps uh communities create more of a centralized waiting list for all affordable housing types and certainly as part of this process as we move towards an electronic waiting list we can explore that yes it might be more feasible you know with the electronic list so you know that's a question about i don't know if it's possible but if it is it seems like it might be a major advantage and avoid confusion for people that are trying to sign up you know to attain a voucher um and then the other other thing i i i guess i would just kind of pose as something for um the other commissioners to consider and the staff to consider would be this i mean this is a big issue um in a lot of different ways and the questions that commissioner downy raised even expanded those issues it seems like it might be appropriate at some time in the not too distant future to have a study session and to delve a little bit deeper into uh how things are working you know with the city ordinance and the state ordinance about uh non-discrimination and uh kind of the other aspects of the waiting list and how people are accessing vouchers it just seems like there's kind of more more to know and um if there is a thought and uh other commissioners agree to it maybe setting up a time to do that and the future would be a good idea uh this is rebecca sorry yes we definitely plan on coming back for study sessions as well as the actual policy change uh for certainly for the electronic waiting list but also any other of these topics um that the commissioners wish to study deeper will definitely be back with study sessions when we're back through this current situation yeah thank you rebecca um any other comments from commissioners um um i believe these two important items on 12.1 are thank you so much for bringing them up they are huge uh for the housing authority and for people um who are on the waiting list so with that i'm going to call for a motion uh this is steve burk i will make a motion uh to adopt the resolution of the housing authority of the city of santa rosa approving and adopting the public housing agency annual plan for fiscal years for excuse me fiscal year 2020 through 2021 i'll waive the reading of the text this is phil olson i suck in that motion thank you nicole all right great i will do a roll call vote commissioner olson yes commissioner downey yes commissioner burk and vice chair test hi let the record reflect that item 12.1 adoption of the annual public housing agency plan passes with four eyes with that um we move to adjournment i want to thank everybody for calling in it's under difficult times and situations and i really appreciate your efforts to make this happen but that we're adjourned thank you diane thank you thank you diane