 That's a good thing to say yeah, I mostly stole it from our campus good Hey Patrick, I think I'm okay Yeah, I tell you, we have two phones No more chalk thank you. Good evening like to call the Durham City Council meeting to order for Monday December the 4th 2017 December the 18th at 7 o'clock p.m. And we certainly want to welcome all of you all in attendance. We're glad you're here tonight Could we now please take a moment for silent meditation? Thank you I'm not now going to recognize councilmember Charlie Reese Who's going to lead us in the pledge the flag or help others lead us in the place? Thank you, mr. Mayor. It's a privilege to sit in this seat and have this responsibility that was so ably performed The last council bar for my colleague Eddie Davis tonight. We're joined by truth 451 the Boy Scouts if they'll come on up as They do come up. I will They are going to lead the pledge for us this evening That's a lot of Boy Scouts, that's awesome Twice as many as there were earlier And they're going to bring the mic you guys want to walk all the way around here and Folks here in the audience If you're able to do so and if you it is your custom to do so, please rise and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance Thank you truth 451 appreciate it guys excellent job Scouts. Thank you Thank you councilmember Reese and I would ask the city clerk to please call the roll Mayor shul here mayor pro Tim Johnson here councilmember Austin here Councilmember Freeman here councilmember Middleton here Councilmember and council Maurice here. We have two ceremonial items tonight Both of them very glad to have on our agenda and the first is the neighborhood spotlight and Could I ask Jeanine Wardrick and members of her family and friends that she would like to have come with her? Please come on up. Can you make it up the stairs? Okay, great night. We're presenting one of our neighborhood spotlights and I'm very excited for this Jeanine Wardrick is the recipient of the neighbor spotlight for the month of December 2017 the neighbor spotlight spotlight award recognizes community members that have gone above and beyond and Volunteering their time to serve the community this month Jeanine Wardrick a resident of Ridgefield neighborhood was nominated and selected because of the Wonderful work. She's done in her neighborhood She's helping to coordinate and implement the health e-community project by soliciting the support of other residents and conducting outreach for Participation sharing encouraging and informative information to help residents reach health goals Assisting in the preparation of the neighborhood improvement service neighborhood matching grants application Working with neighbors to paint the healthy mile trail in inaugurating its use with the girl trek team Congratulation congratulations Mrs. Wardrick on being the December neighbor spotlight for the city of Durham And thank you for all the work you do to improve the Durham community And I will now ask if you would like to come forward But before I do are there any other residents that would that are here that you would like to Have stand up in your support, or is this your group? Okay Great come on up. This is a good time to take pictures And I will also be presenting this neighborhood neighbor spotlight award the certificate is awarded Jeanine Wardrick in recognition of valuable Contribution of the Ridgefield neighborhood and then it enlists those wonderful things that she has been doing it signed by Tom Bonfield our city manager and by myself and we're pleased to present this to you Ms. Wardrick And I hope you might have a few words to say to us I've just like to say that this is an honor It's been great working with healthy community in Ridgefield Subdivision and where we're trying to help everyone live a more healthier life and just thank you very much All right now we're gonna have a human rights day and bill of rights day proclamation I'm gonna ask Joan Walsh to come forward from the Durham bill of rights defense committee and the NC stop torture now Joan and any other people that are here with you who would like to come please come forward I'm gonna read this proclamation Whereas the city of Durham is home to a diverse population is committed to the human and civil rights of all of its residents Is guaranteed by the bill of rights and whereas on October 20th 2003 the city of Durham adopted both the bill of rights defense Resolution and the resolution supporting the rights of persons irregardless regardless of immigration status and Whereas torture is a blatant violation of human and civil rights violating legal faith and ethical traditions the US Constitution an international treaty such as the Convention Against Torture to which the US is a signatory and Whereas the non-governmental North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on Torture NCCIT was held on November 30th and December 1st of this year to examine the role of North Carolina's airports specifically those in Johnston County and at the Global Trans Park which were used by aero contractors limited for its participation in the United States secret global torture program launched soon after September 11th 2001 and will continue to investigate the testimony of its 20 witnesses with a view toward a full report to be issued in 2018 and According to witnesses at the NCC IT hearings a 2000 investigation by the New York Times in a 2012 UNC School of Law report Aero contractors an aviation front company established by the CAA in 1979 at the Johnston County Airport in Smithfield undertook a leading role in transporting detainees to secret Indefinite detention and torture and was responsible for the rendition to torture at CAA black sites of the minimum of 33 Detainees and for the rendition of at least 15 others to foreign governments known to torture and Whereas when governments fail to act citizens have both a duty and an opportunity to do so and Citizen let inquiries have a long and honorable history in North Carolina and beyond of exposing human rights abuses and creating momentum for Accountability and redress now therefore I Stephen M. Shull mayor of Durham, North Carolina to hereby proclaim to sever 18th 2017 is human rights day and bill of rights day in Durham and urge all citizens to take special note of this observance and Reaffirm our support of the bill of rights and of the civil liberties a guarantees to all residents of Durham and of North Carolina and Further to take special note of the work of the North Carolina Commission on inquiry of inquiry on torture a non-profit organization created to address the issue of North Carolina's role in secret detention and torture and to craft a model of Accountability that can inspire similar efforts elsewhere witness my hand in the corporate seal the city of Durham, North Carolina This the 18th day of December 2017 and now I'll ask Joan if she would like to come forward and say a few words. Thank you Thank you mayor Shull and members of the city council Just over two weeks ago. I attended the hearings held in Raleigh by the North Carolina Commission of Inquiry on torture 20 witnesses were heard including military officers legal experts and another member of North Carolina stop torture now Who lives in Johnston County and works there to expose error arrow contractors at considerable risk to her own livelihood? Most riveting were the Skype testimonies of one survivor of the US torture program and the spouse of another survivor Who is unable to testify himself? Both these survivors are good men who were in the wrong place at the wrong time Like so many who were tortured during the horrors of the previous decade After these testimonies there were tears in the eyes of the 200 or so people who were listening So many lives have been destroyed by the US's illegal and useless torture program It has damaged our country's reputation worldwide and provides cover for other countries to torture as well Including torturing our own captured troops The NC commissioners determined beyond doubt that arrow contractors should be prosecuted for war crimes There must be accountability at the highest levels for these crimes and survivors must be helped to rebuild their lives Thank you for this proclamation and for Durham strong stand in support of civil and human rights Are there any announcements by the council? I do have one announcement Uh, this is the final Meeting the city council meeting. There'll be one more work session of our city clerk The honorable d and gray We will be celebrating and in a way I will mention in a minute But I do want to say that and has served for 33 years in the city of Durham and has been the city clerk for my six years on the council And does a remarkable job. She has A wonderful staff that she has brought together And one of the one of the real tributes to ann is that her staff never leaves They have been there the the staff of our clerk's office has been serving Most of them Seriously for many many years It is a it is a wonderful group of people that she has brought together And it's because of her leadership that this is true Ann is and keeps us on task. She keeps us organized She makes sure that we're we're complying with lots of different laws about public records and minutes and committee appointments and We're just so grateful to her service in the on the third monday of January We will be honoring ann in a more official way here at the in these council chambers And we will be on that day Declaring Let's see what that day is Help me with the date ann january 16th. Thank you charlie tuesday. It's not monday, mr. All right. Thank you. It'll be a tuesday. It'll be a tuesday. It's after martin luther king day We will be declaring that day D and gray day in the city of Durham, north carolina And we're all looking forward So and you can come to the meeting and not have to worry about a dag on thing but accepting the the accolades Right All right, and now we'll we'll move to the first order of business The priority items. I recognize the city manager for any priority items. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Good evening everyone No priority items from the city manager's office this evening The city attorney. Thank you, mr. Mayor. I do want to bring to council's attention that documents have been added to Gba Item number two city council vacancy. These are the three documents that were created at the council sub subcommittee procedures procedure subcommittee meeting Last wednesday. I just want to bring it to your attention and to the attention of the public to the extent that they want to take a look at that Thank you. Do we need a motion? Thank you very much and then any any items from city clerk No, mr. Mayor. No items This is your last chance and are you sure you don't want to have any items? I'm sure thank you And now we'll move to our consent agenda The next order of business is the consent agenda all items on the consent agenda may may be approved by One vote unless an item is removed by a council member or a member of the public for separate consideration at the end of the meeting tonight I'm going to read each of these items now Item one resolution for the city of Durham to become an intervening party and do great case ease dash seven sub 11 46 Item two can be found in the general business agenda item three Durham city county appearance commission interlocal agreement renewal item four contract amendment one to the housing opportunities for persons with aids Item five amendment to contract for consulting and technical assistance engagement phase two between the city of Durham and enterprise community partners ink Item six purchase authorization for go Durham replacement buses Item seven southeast regional lift station amendment number one to the professional engineering services contract item a two inch water line replacement construction contract with jf wilkerson contracting company ink item nine Neighborhood data works contract to manage and operate the city's neighborhood compass item 10 contract sw 50d for north duke street pedestrian improvements tip number eb 57 15 item 11 contract sw 51 d for entity 54 pedestrian improvements tip number eb dash 57 0 8 item 12 contract sw 52 d for los alt street pedestrian improvements tip number eb dash 57 0 3 item 13 contract sw 53 d for rainer street pedestrian improvements tip number eb 57 0 4 item 14 odyssey drive culvert replacement sd 2018 dash 01 and alpine road culvert replacement sd 2018 02 Item 15 through 18 can be found in the general business agenda as public hearings I will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda with the uh with to approve the consent agenda so moved second Any discussion if not all I guess we don't we press our buttons don't we we don't say I Uh, madam clerk will you please open the vote? I'm still getting the hang of it Close the vote it passes six to zero. Thank you very much And now we'll move to the general business agenda I'm going to Change the order of this agenda a little bit colleagues. I'm going to move item 18 Uh to be first which is the f y 2018 19 annual action plan needs public hearing Because I know we have a number of people here who would like to speak on that So we'll be uh moving that first. Is that work for you all? Thank you staff So we're now on item 18 f y 2018 19 annual action plan needs public hearing Mayor shill as shill members of the city council Reginald johnson director of the department of community development The item before you is a public hearing one of two public hearings that were acquired For the city of durham to hull is part of the entitlement federal entitlement process From the u.s. Department of house and urban development The purpose of the public hearing is to receive Our public comment as I said it was first One of two that you we will hold before the adoption Proposal and adoption of the annual action plan in may of 2018 What I would do I introduce to you miss will mccany's federal programs coordinator Who will introduce the uh item and read into the record the certain Information that must be shown in the record and then we'll can proceed with the public hearing Thank you Good evening mayor shill and members of council evening The purpose of this public hearing is to receive citizen comment on community development needs in Durham as it relates to the receipt of community development block grant known as cdbg The home investment partnership program known as home The emergency solutions grant known as esg And housing opportunities for persons with AIDS known as hopla This public hearing is the requirement for the preparation and submission of the city's fy 18 19 annual action plan This meeting was properly advertised in the herald sun and via general listserv As a recipient of cdbg Home esg and hopla funds The city is required to hold at least two public hearings Prior to the submission of the annual action plan The first meeting must be held early in the development stage of the plan We anticipate the second public hearing will be held approximately late april or early may In addition the city is required to publish a copy of the draft annual action plan for at least 30 days Prior to its submission The city's annual action plan must be submitted to HUD by may 15th The department of housing and urban development has not yet announced the fy 18 19 entitlement allocations So for planning purposes The city expects to receive approximately 1.8 million in cdbg funds 800 000 in home funds Approximately 160 000 in esg and 328 000 in hopla funds In closing a summary of these comments from this public hearing and written comments received from citizens during the development Of the annual action plan will be incorporated into the fy 2018 2019 annual action plan Thank you Thank you very very much You are you'll have heard the report from the staff and i'll declare the public hearing to be open and i will first entertain Questions and comments from the city council and questions or comments for staff Thank you, mr. Mayor. I was wondering if you all um could respond to The questions that we've been getting Today via email from some of the um homeless services organizations about allocations for homeless services funding in the budget Yes, reginal johnson our director of department of community development To the extent that i'm Familiar with the questions the questions involve What are the allocations for homelessness services? So this will be part of the recommendations for homelessness services We do not have any allocations In terms of open up the application process for cdbg as we have in the past What our plan is that we will reveal next year. So this is a little bit premature We're going to use dedicated housing fund to increase overall increase the funding for the homelessness system There's some things that we do need to work on as according to the uh report It was from focus strategies which includes several different areas which i'll go into but are not part of this funding Okay, thank you. Do you have a sense of why these concerns were brought up? There were very specific numbers attached which made me think that people had been looking at a budget That met that was from your office that had specific amounts that were being allocated to different like funding pots The questions referenced the application process that was just opened. Okay, and in terms of cdbg in the past we have had Opened up about 130 thousand for homelessness services, which we did not have in this particular process for cdbg In terms of the esg allocation We opened up the process with the entire amount to be allocated toward Rapid rehousing So is the plan for that funding to be provided by the dedicated housing fund instead of the federal funding? One of the things that we're going to talk about in the next next year is What are the priorities for our homelessness housing system? And so we will look at that But there are some other items that are actually from the report that look in terms of uh will be more important In terms of our homelessness system For example, a coordinated intake will be was one of the items that was listed in the report We're at retina. When do you anticipate that the focus strategies? Report will be presented to either the city council or the joint city county committee something previously. This was a joint city county committee discussion I would suspect Probably around february one of the things that the homeless services advisory committee who has already received the report They're making recommendations So that we're not just presenting report and findings, but also solutions That will come in time for our budget process. Thank you Mr. Mayor if I might Yes, councilmember meddleton and then councilmember freeman then councilmember reese. Thank you, mr Mayor, thank you reginald for all the work the staff does This is more of a I guess a statement question So at this very moment because there are a lot of people concerned Is it fair to say that at this very moment? No decision has been made that will impact Funding levels as we stand here tonight as we sit here tonight for homeless services in the city So one of the things that's important is how we define homelessness services as I share it with you We're looking at it from the system level And what we did when we opened up the process we opened it up a little different There will be a shifting of priorities that we would discuss next year. We're going to Include our federal funding as well as our local funding In terms of increasing the overall funding for the homelessness system is what will be proposed. It's a little bit premature right now Thank you, mr. Mayor Thank you Thank you john um reginald Uh, I just wanted to follow up on middleton's question and just ask the more specific question around Will the homelessness homelessness services be wrapped into some of the housing conversation because I think I asked this question like earlier around whether or not Our affordable our affordable housing conversation was actually going to be moved into more of the mainstream of How funds are distributed and I know that homeless services are under your department So I just wanted to make sure that that is also included and our affordable affordability From zero all the way up to 80 or 120 whatever the percentage is in a more collaborative way Yes, that is a plan that we have proposed for the Next spring as we part of the budget process if you well, you may not know that the previous city council In terms of the interbrow's community partners report Make ask us to focus Specifically on the homeless housing system Which we did and how we did that we incorporated I had the enterprise community partners to Engage uh focused strategies a firm out of california to help study our homelessness system and based upon those reports We'll be actually be looking at Uh, what we need to do to strengthen our homeless housing system There's some there's some specific items and it will be uh comprehensive And I want to make sure that in addition to the comprehensive side of services Is also within the organizations that do partner with us That there's some look at who's on the boards of these organizations and who's providing the services that they they're representative of the population that's being served Yes, we do follow the homelessness of herd requirements. One of them is specifically that members of organizations that service a homeless Members of the homeless community have a homeless person or formerly homeless person on their board and that is something that we do Look at thank you that will be part of our process continue to be part of our process council member race Thank you, mr. Mayor Thank you for that information visual. I appreciate appreciate all the work that goes into Trying to implement the strategy that we gave you last year I just want to clarify some of the information that we've received from the advocacy organizations to make sure that we're talking the same language about the same money Is it true that previously a HUD cdbg funds were available for homeless activities um in Durham Yes, that is true And is it now true that because of a decision that's been made in the administration Those funds are no longer available for homeless services. That is true Based upon the application that was open. Yes For cdbg money cdbg right, but so the cdbg funding that was previously Made available for homeless activities is no longer available. That is correct That also true that the esg program the emergency solutions grant program That typically rewards somewhere awards somewhere in the neighborhood of 153 thousand dollars For eligible activities around homeless services has now been Allocate now being allocated solely to rapid rehousing activities. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay And is it true that there was a funding workshop recently where this was explained to the Non-profits and eligible agencies that typically apply for funding through these two programs for homeless services. Yes, that is correct. Okay Can you help me understand what Those agencies were told at that workshop about Whether they would be eligible for some other type of funding in the future I can tell you that we did not discuss other funding because the focus of that workshop Was one dedicated housing fund as well as our federal entitlement process Funding so we did not discuss what will become available in the future So You told the These agencies and non-profits at this funding workshop That two of the main sources of funding that they have in the budget from the city were no longer Be going to be available to them, but didn't tell them they might be able to get money from the city in another way in the future That's correct Does that You mean to do that? We mean to do that Well, what I would share with you is to look at the purpose of the funding workshop The first purpose of the funding workshop is to outline the funding that is going to be available for this particular workshop And what is the application process in relative detail for that? That's the purpose of the workshop Mr. Mayor, all right. Thank you for that information. I appreciate it Uh City manager Reginald, could you clarify to what extent the this staff recommendation was made to the homeless services advisory committee? and uh, what the homeless services advisory committee's Recommendation was in that regard So we did not uh present to the homeless services advisory committee any recommendations on cdbg Funding we normally do not do that What we do for the homeless services advisory committee is at the end of the process That we do make present the recommendations as it relates to esg to the homeless services advisory committee for their review and approval So then could you clarify why the staff made the uh the recommended? Allocation change in priority. Yes. Yes, I can and be glad to so one of the things that's important Is that we look at the analysis that it's come back from focus strategies in terms of our homelessness system One of the city's key roles is to focus on the system not necessarily an individual organization There are some key weaknesses that are in our system. One of them is that Uh, yes, we have persons that are in a shelter But we need to be able to find places for those persons to go and so that means uh housing navigation and into divine Into finding the patients places for people persons to go So that's one piece piece that we are going to be working on Another piece is the coordinated intake particularly for those persons who are individuals We do some uh work with families But the vast majority of those persons who are homeless are in our single persons But we have no coordinated intake system For those persons and the federal uh mandate uh from the u.s department of housing and urban development Is going to force us to prioritize that particular piece In terms of coordinated the third thing is that in terms of the housing management information system Which is the data that we use to gather and track homelessness systems We've been part of a statewide system But it has not serviced our needs at all And so one of the things that we're going to be have to to do is to uh in some respects go with a smaller regional coalition of Continuum of cares to get the needs uh get our needs met And I believe that recommendation was approved by the homeless service advisory committee last month That was approved by the homeless services advisory committee And that we are doing analysis to come up with the final number On that it's going to involve some other players across the state In terms of our provider, but yes that uh was recommended by the homeless services advisory committee. Thank you Thank you council members and thank you very much reginald and now we will hear from members of the public and then council members Will have another opportunity to ask questions and so forth. I'm going to read the names of the people who have signed up to speak There are 21 people who have signed up to speak Each speaker will be given three minutes I'm going to read your names and as I read them, uh if you could Come over to this side of the room To be speaking with at this podium Ryan Furman Wilina Lorraine day Layton short I'm sorry Lee and short. I apologize Lee and short John Hardin Peter Gilbert Jay Harris Kelly Mitchell Marcia McNally Tony Tosh Deontay Devone I'm sorry if I did not get that name right Jason Devone Olu Tosh Eric Smith Earl Bratt Earl Bradley and Sandy Demary So that would just be one person. Are there are they both here? Just Earl Bradley and Sandy Demary both here. If so raise your hands Sandy I see you okay All right, you all have signed up. I assume this means you both want to speak is that correct? Okay, so we'll have I'll call on you each separately Yolanda Brown Colleen Herbert Carolyn E. Hinton Linnea Foster Angel Lewis any Pio glue I'm not sure I can read the handwriting Okay, and Sandy I see you've signed up again. Okay, so great Anyone else would like to anyone else that would like to Sign up to speak please sign up card right here at the clerk's table sign up here at the clerk's table, please All right, we will begin now with Ryan Furman. You have three minutes Thank you, mr. Mayor It's truly a privilege to be able to address this council as a member of a nonprofit We have to sit on the sidelines for the election But I really watched your campaigns with interest Many of you campaigned on trying to level the playing field for low-income populations in our community and people of color Many of the organizations you're going to hear from tonight are trying to do just that We are on the front lines of poverty in our community Trying to move homeless households into permanent housing and connect them with employment and services Ryan, Ryan, excuse me a minute. I'm sorry. Yes Would you please give your name and address? I apologize. I should have said that originally I'm Ryan Furman. I live at 1406 Norton street here in Durham So the proposal you've heard from community development tonight effectively zeroes out the community Community development block grant funds for all of Durham And the proposal regarding the emergency solutions grant would only fund rapid rehousing So organizations that do homeless shelter that do shelter services that do street outreach that do food None of these agencies would even be eligible for funding And I want to be clear that this is not based on outcomes or performance The agencies that provide many of these services are high performing and meeting or exceeding community standards set by our homeless services advisory committee So this has this is not about ineffectiveness This would have a tremendous impact on families and families moving forward and many of our partners So we receive $50,000 in cdbg funds for case management that effectively covers a full-time case manager with benefits at the shelter That's working every day with our families and trying to move them into permanent housing We also receive just over $40,000 in emergency solutions grant funding for shelter operations With the cost of our shelter program that basically runs our shelter for about two weeks Under the current proposal we would go from roughly 92,000 to zero Dollars and would not be eligible to reapply in any of the categories where we had formally applied I want to voice clear support that we believe in our affordable housing plan in Durham This is an absolutely necessary step that y'all are taking we need places for our families to to live We believe in rapid rehousing. We partner with our friends at housing for new hope They help get our families out of the shelter and into permanent affordable housing in our community We are acting like this is a zero-sum game with no new resources in our community We have added a second penny on the tax rate, which in my understanding will bring five and a half to six million dollars more per year when that when that money comes in So I don't feel like there is a need to defund what we're doing in our shelters and on the front line In order to pay for housing we're an entitlement community because of our poverty rate That money is designed to help low income and homeless households make a better start in their lives Let's keep it where it's supposed to be so I'm saying this with full understanding of the gravity Of this of this sentiment, but I have to say this I am losing confidence in our leadership at the department of community development This decision was not made with any input from the homeless services advisory committee The citizens advisory committee the council to end homelessness or any other group that's involved with homeless services activity in this community It wasn't communicated the impact. We didn't even know until we showed up at the funding workshop Now we're hearing that it's not maybe not a final decision If you go to the community development website tonight and look at the power point from the funding workshop Last tuesday the 12th it clearly says no cdbg No esg for anything other than rehousing and tonight we get vague promises about future funding. It's not good enough We need this money for poor and homeless folks in this community. So I'm asking you to please intervene If this is a basic needs hearing, I'm going to say we need cdbg. We need esg for homeless households. Please do the right thing Thank you very much Wilena lorraine day Thank you, mr. Mayor um members of the city council. My name is kevin mack me I'm a social worker and a family services coordinator with families moving forward I'm here to read a written statement by miss day. Sorry. I'm sorry We're happy to take the written statement and you could hand that to the clerk will be great But people have to speak for themselves here. Thank you very much But we are happy to take the statement and we'll be distributed. Thank you Thank you so much and now we'll hear from lee and short Please state your name and address Hello, hello everyone. My name is lee and short My address is 300 north queen street and this is and this is my daughter aliyah I was I was living in a very nice two bedroom apartment with my daughter Um working full time in may my car broke down So I had to start riding the city bus And then when I started riding the city bus I started losing hours because as everyone knows the bus is not like a car So basically I just started getting behind on my bills and I couldn't keep my rent up any longer So in october I received an eviction notice I called all the shelters around Durham and all of them was full It just so happened that families moving forward called me and said they had a room available for me and my daughter to come stay If they hadn't called me I would have been on the streets with my daughter And I would have definitely lost my child And definitely I would have lost my job but more important I would have lost my little girl I'm sorry. Take your time miss short. It's okay But while I'm at families moving forward I get to keep my job I go to work every day I feel safe I feel safe there with my daughter Families moving forward has helped me in the process of finding my own place So it's so important to me to to fund shelters like families moving forward because Like I said for families like mine, it's a place to land in hard times Because I'm a single mom and that thought that day of having to live on the street with my child That's a bad feeling So I just thank god for families moving forward Thank you. Thank you miss short We're now here from john harden. Hi john harden. I live at two surrey lane here in durham Thank you very much for allowing me to provide input on this important issue specifically The allocation of cdbg and esg funding away from homeless activities To activities associated with the city's affordable housing plan as we heard earlier For the past two years. I have served as the president of the board of directors of families moving forward And we have learned about families moving forward from the previous speakers Prior to becoming president of families moving forward I volunteered for 17 years with the durham interfaith hospitality network Where I interacted with hundreds of homeless families to help them get back on their feet Learn new skills and thrive I've been a resident of durham for 20 years During that time I have watched this community change a lot And I recently heard him saying That sums up those changes. It goes like this durham kept the cool Took the brains out of chapel hill and left the boring in raleigh Now I work in raleigh and in chapel hill and I love those communities But my family and I specifically chose to live in durham because of its cool It's a big part of which is due to durham's sense of community Fundamental to this community is how we help our least advantage The poorest of the poor families literally in the crisis of homelessness The cdbg and esg funding have been critical for supporting the front end continuum for these families of care for these families In fact, it's my understanding that if the cdbg and esg funding were to be directed to other activities Organizations like families moving forward would receive no funding from the city of durham In particular, the cdbg funding is enough to support at least one full-time position at families moving forward A case manager who works directly with families such as the the family you just saw to help them get back on their feet These skills are critical for leading a happy healthy productive and prosperous life The more people who learn them upfront the less our needs low income housing on the back end My understanding that was that the decision to redirect cdbg and esg funding away from homeless activities To other activities was made with little or no public input As a longtime resident of durham and as a volunteer helping homeless families I urge you to keep the cdbg and esg funding for homeless activities In the 2018 19 budget process in future granting and grant cycles This would be an effective and efficient way to help minimize our need for low income housing. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Hardin and now we're here from peter gilbert Good evening. Mr. Mayor and members of the council Hasten article to a council member Reese that I hope you'll take a look at my name is peter gilbert I live on 601 swan street in durham, north carolina And i'm a staff attorney with legal aid of north carolina where I represent tenants facing eviction Here in durham much like the tenant that you just heard from so The last thing that I want to do is to be in competition for funding with Organizations like families moving forward and that work that is currently provided by the direct providers to homelessness And I hope that will continue, but I also want to speak about The eviction crisis, which I think is a necessary part of any conversation about homelessness in durham Many cities have realized that by investing in providing counsel to tenants who are facing eviction They can actually save money in the long run in terms of homeless Homeless providers. I hope I don't need to tell anybody about the eviction crisis that durham is facing And the numbers that you've seen the excellent reporting done in the independent And uh, there was a recently an article in the durham herald sun that durham has the highest rate of evictions of any of the 10 most populous counties in north carolina Um, we know that affordable housing funding overall is in decline federally and the number of subsidized housing units is in decline overall So most of the low-income and low-wealth families in durham are going to be relying on the private Unsubsidized market and that's not going to change in durham And so if we want to have a conversation about preventing homelessness And providing affordable housing in durham a big part of that conversation has to be addressing The 800 evictions a month that are filed in durham a number Which is both under and over inclusive in terms of the number of people displaced due to eviction Many people are forced out without there ever being an eviction filing Some of those who are filed against are able to work something out with their landlord and avoid being removed by the sheriff I'm hoping that when the city does its analysis of fair housing what used to be called the analysis of impediments to fair housing That's now the assessment of fair housing that this eviction crisis will be part of that as I think it is an obstacle to fair housing in durham Other cities have recognized That funding attorneys to represent tenants in eviction is a cost-effective way to deal with homelessness New york city has recently adopted A program to fund a right to counsel to fund a lawyer in every eviction case Because they realized that they could save $320 million a year that they're already spending on direct service to shelters and other providers And I don't think we can afford to cut the services that are currently being provided Like I said the family is moving forward in the other shelters But I think that as far as part of the conversation for funding affordable housing going forward in durham We need to consider Funding attorneys to represent tenants in eviction cases the consequences of evictions are not just the individual consequences The the loss of a job as we heard about earlier the children being displaced from school They're also the intangible consequences of the breakup of our neighborhoods But it contributes also to the rise in housing costs in durham overall every time an eviction occurs Every time somebody is displaced the rents tend to go up The most cost-effective way to deal with affordable housing and homelessness in durham Is to keep people in the homes that they're already in and to keep those neighborhoods together. So as part of that I hope that you will um learn what the other cities have learned and consider funding Tenants to have lawyers and eviction cases. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Gilbert We'll now hear from jay harris Good evening, mr. Mayor our elected officials. Good afternoon jay harris 1023 coke row here in durham, north carolina I stand here to represent As the chairperson for healing with care here in durham, north carolina And we have been committed for over the past 22 years in the fight against poverty AIDS and homelessness In creating our strategic plan for the upcoming year and years we need funding Like other agencies that will for mention And the other numbers have been given out. So I won't go over that again We have our agencies have been repeatedly denied And the upcoming plan looks very bleak And I have a question. Is it the mission Of durham the city of durham? To relocate the homeless population out of the city of durham If it's not it has the appearance Of that very thing Our agencies need your help People who are sleeping under bridges need your help Families living in cars Need your help Please help us Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. Mr. Harris and now we'll hear from kelly mitchell Hello, mr. Mayor and our city council. Um, my name is kelly mitchell. I stay at 1508 great man drive No, um, I was in treatment for 90 days After our left treatment, um I was afforded employment and housing immediately at, um Prosperity recovery and um We just asked him to please fund our request of $500,000 to help ensure job training housing rapid rehousing For prosperity recovery and care incorporated. Thank you Thank you very much, mr. Mitchell And now we'll hear from marsha mcnally Marsh mcnally 203 north church street durham. I'm here on behalf of the affordable housing coalition and we are in the process of formulating a more formal comment on This funding source, but Before the year ended we wanted to do something a little different than we usually do We usually wrangle with you all On a daily or weekly basis and rather than do that We wanted to acknowledge the city council and the staff's Work and leadership on moving the ball forward on affordable housing generally in 2017 um A short list of accomplishments include include Uh giving dha. I think 4.3 million dollars for fey at place Uh increasing the um tax to two cents Uh hiring new staff to implement the affordable housing plan neighborhood stabilization Jackson street Being significantly about affordable housing the extent to which it's about housing Let's see. I've got a list For those of you who are running for office participating in the candidate forums and pledging to Make affordable housing a high on your priority list And there's probably a lot of other things that we don't even know about but we just wanted to Give you our appreciation and we have cards for you To express that You can just leave them with the clerk Thank you very much miss mcnally and now we will hear from tony tosh Good evening mayor Good evening Good evening to the city manager and the city council I'm the one of prosperity recovery. Mr. Tosh. Just give me one second Could you give your name and address my name? My name is tony tosh I live in 133. We'll go straight in dumb. Thank you I want to thank all of you guys for having me here, but i'm the owner of prosperity recovery and I've been working people from the shelter training them a job trade I'm very emotional Forgive me fan start a little bit But people from the shelter the old mayor mr. Bill Introduce me to some gang member of fugar old fugard in and Madukau terrorists I work those guys train them give them a trade to learn how Learn how to eat on themselves when they need when they guide me for my program now I'm working people from the homeless shelter I have people from the homeless shelter that I work I train and I move them to My house Ruben and houses I have about 10 people a couple of them with women here today We need help I've been using my money She'll fund this program, but I don't have no money no more people like care family move forward There's more companies and they need helps Miss care helps me have every now and then with financial power when I run through Don't have enough money to make a payroll to my guys Please help us mr. Mayor city manager You'll please help us to Support us with all the small business people like me. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mr. Tosh We will near now hear from Deontay Devone. I'm if I've got your name wrong. I apologize Hi, my name is Deontay Devon and um and I And I just graduated school Where do you reside mr. Devon? Can you repeat that? Where do you live? What's your address? 55 Dayton street. Thank you. Um, and I just graduated high school and um Thanks to mr. Tosh. He gave me a job with um prospect of recovery and And glad because it's kind of changing stuff for me Thank you Thank you for being here very much. Appreciate your being here and I want to thank you mr. Tosh for the work you're doing Thank you so much. Thank you And good luck to you And now we're here from Jason Devon. Hey, how you doing mr. Mayor and council is that i'm pretty nice and right That's my nephew right there. Um, I stay in mcdougal terry 255 Dayton street And what we do working for ton of touch on the prospect of recovery I'm a scarce tradesman and what I do my job is we're trying to get all the young guys like him A chance I'm a teaching the trade. I'm a showing the trade Painting carpsie is what we do and show them how to eat How to live and try to make their own way instead of guns and drugs get them off the street and train them That's the problem that we have. We don't have enough older guys like our self That's willing to train our young guys to show them a right way to live So that's what we that's what all prosperity is about and just getting young guys off the street getting the drugs Leave the drugs alone leave the guns alone come on and show you how to work And once you learn this skill you can eat forever You can always make money to take care of yourself. Thank you. Thank you very much Thank you very much mr. Devon and we'll now hear from olutosh Thank you mr. Mayor city of council and mr. Manager for giving me the time to speak tonight My name is Eric And when I was staying it are you smith mr. Yes, sir. I'm sorry hang on one second. Okay. Is olutosh here Oh, okay. You're next. All right. Go ahead mr. Smith. My apologies. We'll do it that way. That's fine When I was staying at the shelter For three months until I met tony tosh ceo prosperity recovery services He gave me employment and place place of my own and if it wasn't for tosh I would still be at the shelter now More people need to be able to benefit from prosperity recovery services and care Please fund care dc rc And prosperity's recovery services requests for five Five hundred thousand dollars Thank you very much. Mr. Smith. We appreciate you being here. Thank you. Welcome Good luck to you And now we're here from olutosh Hello council. Thank you for taking the time to hear what I have to say um, my name is olutosh. I live on a three two will grow street and throughout the years and um While I've been staying in Durham, I've helped volunteer with prosperity throughout my high school to learn trades and also Help find non-profits that can also support what they're doing. Um, and I would just like to say that In my opinion More people could benefit From prosperity and I think that it's a great cause And I would just like to say I support The drc and care and the requests along with prosperity for fifty thousand And that's about it. Thank you. Thank you very much, mr. Tosh And now we'll hear from Earl Bradley Good evening. I live at 1807 Palmer street Durham, North Carolina I'm with Durham community land trust and What we are is like A lot of people that I know Have like vouchers that it's hard to find House and affordable housing and it's like community land trust We they basically work off donations and If we don't have enough donations How can we fix up the properties for these families and most of them live off social security and it's like They can't find nothing and it's hard and or they lose they lose their voucher and so Durham community land trust try to give them a chance to Find places and we got property that need to be fixed and It's like we can't get no help to fix them up Like so what Can they do Thank you very much, mr. Bradley And now we're here from sandy demary I'm sandy demary and i'm at 819 north street And i'm thrilled you guys are here because I know you're all about affordable housing. So it's very exciting I'm also with DCLT Durham community land trustees Um, which we think of as a great solution for Durham's permanent affordable housing needs I'm i'm on the board. I've been there for About 10 years now And i'm specifically involved with community engagement and a lot of that is about making a difference And um, so we've been in the west end and south side now over in east Durham and east Durham I Was so surprised to see the shape these properties are in You probably all know the history. They would have been sold to an investor in new york and Torn down and then the folks in them probably would have been on the street So we took the risk in these 53 units To make sure to keep these tenants in place But they're unsafe Unacceptable housing for the way you or I would think that they should be Um I know that during the Durham can meeting the those of you who are running and for office pledged to Help fund the the large need that we have for those 53 units over the next couple years It's a big project. So we're going to need multi-year strategy planning to do the fix up Kind of like the capital improvement programs multi-year planning. It would be nice if that we could do something like that for affordable housing Please help us Continue to help meet your goals about not displacing people Focusing on low income residents And to bring these units up to par It's getting urgent winter's coming Um These folks are going to be cold and they're spending way too much money on electric heat Because of bad insulation So This whole idea of making a difference I'm Visualizing hoping that hosé will be happy in his apartment over on park avenue And i'm hoping that you'll help us with making a difference there also. Thank you Thank you, mr. Emory and we'll now hear from Yolanda Brown Hello, mr. Mayor and city council I'm Yolanda Brown. I live at 140 presidents drive and ward three And I am have been on the board of directors for four years for urban ministries of Durham and currently the board chair And so I'm here Just to share a little bit about umd We are the primary homeless shelter and emergency service provider for our Durham neighbors experiencing homelessness and poverty We I am here to oppose the elimination of HUD Cdbg and esg funding for homeless activities Urban ministries of Durham and families moving forward provided dignified place downtown For our neighbors to go for help and umd is currently providing shelter for over 140 men women and children today Beyond shelter umd provides breakfast lunch and dinner seven days a week To anyone who was hungry through the community cafe That's nearly 5 000 meals per year or more than quarter million free meals each year CDBG funds are critical for the operation of that community cafe We also provide access to a clothing closet and food pantry for families And working poor in Durham for Durham citizens who are homeless We provide case management workforce training and placement assistance in aftercare With these services we are on on track to help About 300 people in their homelessness this year this fiscal year The city of Durham downtown business and everyone in the community benefit from having these services available Help and individuals secure employment income to pay for housing providing case management to help with this housing search Apply for vouchers or advocate with landlords And offering access to food and clothing to stretch precious household services Resources are all services that should be supported in some part by the city of Durham However, each activity has a cost and a loss of any funding that supports this work would make it Challenging to continue to provide all of these services to people who just need some help um The current modest investment by the city is leveraged by private and foundation dollars to support thousands of Durham Mites and poverty and help over a hundred people in homelessness every year, which is projected the triple this year The loss of funding for the services our partners in the fight against homelessness are facing will put a further strain on all of us and meeting these needs Given the certain uncertainties in our country our state and in our city For our low-income neighbors. We need these services to stay intact now more than ever So considered in the cost of the city providing of all these services if it had to do so directly um, I'm certain the city And the residents would do their part to support organizations Working with our most vulnerable residents So my appeal is to ask that you will continue to allocate at least the current portion of the cdbg Black grants for homeless activities for now and in future grant cycles. Thank you for your time Thank you very much miss brown And now we'll hear from caleen herbert Could you please state your name and address sure caleen herbert and my address is 3505 whether we drive Um, thank you all for this opportunity to speak this evening I am resident of durham parishioner in northeast central durham, and I am a member of the homeless services advisory committee As a member i'm here to support all of the organizations who provide services to persons with issues of housing security We need to ensure That there is funding diversity To provide equitable housing options for the residents of durham where it's needed the most And so I'd further like to state that i am in support of the requests of the agencies that are spoken before me And that are here tonight. Thank you Thank you very much miss herbert And now we'll hear from carolin e hinton Good afternoon council members and mayor. Good afternoon I'm here on behalf of healing My name is carolin e hinton. Thank you. My address is 5418 whip poor will street Durham north carolina. Thank you, you know, and I'm on behalf of my business healing with care Who provide homelessness services for veterans and others? What I've done is propose a needs list And I will provide it to you so that you can see it from our available Funding that is designed to end homelessness First we need diversity and funding for all populations domestic violence Veterans and people living with chronic diseases Right now agencies like healing with care Durham crisis response center Triangle empowerment center Acura and others are not being considered for funding Care and dcrc maintain state and federal grants and Formally received state ESG funding, but now the city department of community development has Eliminated their participation in the federal mandates for housing By excluding care dcrc And others We diminish the impact Of services to our target populations We need $200,000 for emergency assistance and rapid rehousing for homeless people Including people with chronic illnesses like hiv Diabetes domestic violence substance abuse and reentry Second We need to expand services for those who need and qualify for affordable housing Currently the affordable housing plan does not meet the needs of the homeless and low income people in this community citizens of Durham Have increasing difficulty finding safe and affordable housing every day Our agency is challenged with seeking safe And affordable housing Without support We need $200,000 to support programs that invest in rehousing Counseling training reentry and income building such as the agency operated by tony tosh We need to look at the long term versus the short term outcomes and support a workforce Being able to afford housing third. We need it Ordinated intake To provide access to homeless programs. It is the only way to fairly and equitably Provide service to everyone Thank you very much miss hinton I asked to signed up for one of my board members But since she's not here, I have it in written form and I will give it to your secretary. Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much And now we're here from linea foster members of the council Mr. Manager My name is linea foster. I'm at 13 27 kindle drive I'm here to talk to you today about The cdbg esg and home funds and how they're being allocated Today, I'm here to request $500,000 in funding First we want to ask that you invest in funding diversity Agencies that serve specific populations need to be funded domestic violence veterans Other groups they're they're ignored Right now they are marginalized and the funding allocations are biased and they include racial and gender inequities Lesser known agencies like care and dcrc receive federal money and state money But are unable to receive esg here in our community Since the city took over and they have never been successful These continuous practice not all practices not only injure And diminish the value of longstanding community agencies. It harms the people they serve To we want to expand those served by affordable housing It takes the whole continuum to keep someone housed The current affordable housing plan and derm doesn't meet the needs for most homeless and low-income people We need homes that programs that invest in rehousing counseling training and building income to help people transition to housing From the long term Affordable housing begins with the workforce Three fun coordinated intake. We have to stop the limited approach Uh prioritization, but just by just helping one area HUD wants us to create a functional system that supports the entire homeless system Chronics families veterans youth sick healthy black white Latino women men young and old Our community is not fully utilizing all the beds available We aren't housing the homeless quickly. Our system is actually keeping homeless people homeless longer No one should have to sleep on the street and derm Thank you Thank you very much miss foster And now we will hear from angel lewis Good afternoon. Good afternoon My name is angel lewis and I live in a hotel right now. I'm homeless My self and my grandson Although I have a section 8 voucher I find it hard to find housing for him and myself I'm in this hotel for two weeks someone put us up in it for two weeks and after that I don't know where we're going. I've been out every day Every week with the help of my friend reader Helping me to find different places I even went to this affordable housing meeting today To learn more about Who can help me and my grandson? I went to the shelters I did everything everyone told me to do And I'm still homeless They was telling me if I have somewhere to sleep at night that I'm not considered homeless But after these two weeks, uh, I guess it takes me to be out in the street To be considered homeless I just ask for your help Please Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Lewis. Ms. Lewis. Did you say you do have a section 8 voucher? Yes, sir. You do. How long have you had it? 20 years so I just moved down here three years ago I still have my voucher and I've been going out to different houses, but They say that I don't qualify for them but the rent When did when was the last time that you had a house that that you were using your voucher to pay for? As of the 13th of november of november Oh, no, no 13th of december december Was the last time So that was just a few days ago. That was just last wednesday wednesday thursday Okay, so and you you are now out looking using your voucher looking for a place to live Is that what you've been doing it? Yes, sir. And I went to housing twice But it was turned down because they said I didn't have the right income For my voucher and the place that I was looking for Okay, um, would you um You've been in touch with Durham housing authority. Yes And you have one of their vouchers. Yes, correct Okay I'm gonna ask If a member of our staff could talk with you after the meeting And uh, and and and maybe get in touch again with the Durham housing authority section 8 staff. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much Next next speaker I'm sorry. I can't really read this last name. I apologize any PO glue Maybe so rigs beat. Yes. Okay. Could be yes, sir Um, are you ready rigs be? Uh, no, I'm a son. Okay. Is is any rigs be here? No, sir. Okay. You would you like to speak? Yes, sir Okay, have you signed up? Yes. Okay. What's your name? Frederick Morris Johnson Uh, my mother's a little sickly Hang on just a second sir Frederick Morris Johnson Yes, sir. Okay. Mr. Johnson. Could you state your name and address and you have three minutes? Thank you Okay, my name is Frederick Morris Johnson. I live at 3418 modicine apartment h in Durham My mother stays at 1013 North Guthrie Um, I want to talk about the uh, the familiar project My mother is running out of her voucher in january And I think she needs more time She paid her deposit and um And plus she's kind of sickly a little bit and um he's um She's a wonderful person. She um My father worked at duke 39 years And he would and he died six months after he retired And my mother never really had a nice house to live in Now my mother's a senior citizen Never thought my mama looked kind of funny being a senior citizen, you know I just really hopes that y'all can do something about it Mr. Johnson Let me just ask you Your mother has a section 8 voucher currently Yes, sir. And how long has she had her voucher? Um, she's been having a voucher for like a few months And has she been looking she's not found any place to live using that voucher at this point? Yes, sir. She found the place where they haven't finished building it yet Okay and uh She has her voucher through the Durham Housing Authority as well. Yes, sir. Okay Well, again, I'm going to ask our staff to just talk to you afterwards to connect you with the section 8 Observe at the Durham Housing Authority and see if they can give you some advice. Thank you, sir. You're a real nice man. Thank you Thank y'all. Thank you Thank you. Thank you, mr. Johnson And uh, here here we have some more people who've signed up. I'm going to read their names and we'll go in order David chris spell Derek Holloway Rita Anderson Leslie Burrell Rachel Stevens Brianna von Velsen Is there anyone else that would like to speak? if so, please, uh Come over here to the clerk's table and sign up. Okay. Well each person has three minutes again Please state your name and address david chris spell David chris spell one one four hillside avenue two seven seven seven Mr. Mayor members of staff and council I recognize it is hard to feed the village of Durham nonprofits with a single piece of bread However, I'm going to advocate for another population that has not been mentioned tonight. I was generally missed access to these funds that we're discussing If historical trends hold true in the next year, we can expect roughly 600 individuals to return to the Community from the state and carceral system does not include the jail and it does not include the federal system Of those 600 people roughly 200 will return without secure housing Due to a kink and HUD Definitions they do not qualify as homeless therefore losing many of the systems that could support them Due to dha kinks that are Being worked out as I understand most of them do not qualify for subsidized housing in the community Rapid rehousing is wonderful and all of the organizations that have spoke here do wonderful things But we have to have comprehensive solutions to housing in Durham We have to recognize a spectrum of services That acknowledges emergency shelters transitional facilities And rapid rehousing as part of the same solution I hope the department of community development and their future planning as most of this funding has already been earmarked in particular directions Consider the full range of diversity needed to attack such a large problem Thank you for your time tonight Thank you very much. Mr. Crispell and now we hear from Derek D. Holloway Good evening. My name is Derek D. Holloway. I live at 516 Clearing Bridgeway I'm the chair of outstretched hands community development corporation The founder of effect change cooperative cooperative initiative in Durham at 1020 highway 70 east I would like to speak this evening In regard to a community that I also believe is being under addressed Or uh completely overlooked and that's the chronically homeless I agree that emergency service emergency shelters transitional housing facilities are doing a Great job at their piece, but I believe that there is an approach that the city of Durham needs to Seriously consider and that's a model is to be improving a costly country to effectively reduce homelessness and at a Tremendously cost-effective rate and that's a model of housing first I have not heard it mentioned in the conversation of affordable housing In regards to the chronically homeless community These are people that are living in tents under bridges behind buildings organization Interacts and engages this these community these citizens of Durham on a weekly basis With no funding. I looked at the presentation For the workshop that was held last week Uh, a little discouraged to see that we though we qualify there will be no Funding available. It will all be allocated towards rapid rehousing um I believe that the approach um of housing first addresses the immediate need for Durham Chronically homeless community What has been proven across the country is that the cost in emergency care services rehab incarceration extended hospitalization is is in large part due primarily to those that we Uh classifies chronically homeless in our point in time count And I think the last count that I saw Durham says we only have 88 chronically homeless individuals. I know that not to be so I engage these people every week um But to the tune of $40,000 per person per year in expense of emergency care services shelter food rehab Extended hospitalizations and incarcerations. That's what is costing us to leave these people on the street When the model of housing first reduces that cost and expense by half As being proven state to state to state um, that it is the most effective way to address our Homeless issue and I believe it should be included in the conversation of affordable housing Um, Mr. Friedman address the issue. Are we Going to speak from zero and upward in regards to addressing the issue of affordable housing in Durham And I believe uh, we seriously need to consider that. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Holloway And we'll now hear from rita anderson Hi, my name is rita anderson and I live at 1101 south street For the last two weeks I've been beating the pavement trying to help a family find affordable housing The city is failing our community No man woman or especially chow Should be without decent living quarters There needs to be more money's put into programs that support homeless families until housing is found There needs to be Program, excuse me There need to be more programs to support Families that have children over a certain age. Most of the programs that I went to and attended. Um, this past week um on knock street Would not accept Ms. Vic and her family because her grandson is the age of 15 years old So he's too old to be on the women and children side, but he's not old enough to be on the men's side So that has knocked her out from several programs that are here in the city Um We also need to have the am i lowered for families Who are on fixed incomes Because we can't meet the qualifications of 60 It needs to be lower than that when you receive 700 odd dollars a month And as i've been experiencing with miss big this week, there are rental companies that are charging an application fee of anywhere between 25 and 50 dollars per person And also some agencies are also um requiring that you pay an administrative fee Which is a hundred dollars that none of that money is refundable So someone that's on a fixed income cannot afford that um Please put yourself as you go home tonight in their shoes Consider yourself sleeping on someone's sofa Is that home for you? The system looks good on paper But walking someone's shoes who is homeless and go through their daily process I know that this city wants a year does this thing where they go and they sleep out and portray Being homeless, but don't take your good sleeping bags and don't take your Parker jackets and actually sleep with just a t-shirt on and a light jacket and really experience what homelessness is Because what that does that model that you all portray is not real life for someone that can't find somewhere to stay I have somewhere to stay and to see my friend Going through not knowing where her next night is going to be. It's really really sad To see that we going from place to place and the places that they would like to put her are not decent And you say you're you're getting the homeless off the street. This is the best that you can offer Would you stay there? You need to put yourselves in their position and what we're seeing and what we're experiencing Because this is not fine I've stayed up many nights not knowing what my friend's next step is going to be Thank you, miss Anderson Leslie Burrell Good evening. Good evening mayor City attorney councilor everyone My name is Leslie Burrell and I live in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is next door I am I do have a voucher I'm a single mom. I'm a domestic violence survivor And I'm in need for affordable housing I'm on a fixed income. My son has autism He's just recently finished high school in law He's an ab student and He recently got accepted to central I recently lost my job. I work part-time I'm on the borderline of bright creek area But it's been very hard for me to find affordable housing Due to his social skills and him living off the Dorm We can't afford that So I was trying to be located here to Raleigh. I mean to Durham And it's been very hard to find decent housing I've been to Durham housing authority multiple times Um They probably know my name um I just I'm trying to be a real good role model for my son um I just really I'm I'm driving back and forth from Raleigh to Durham to get him to school And that's been very hard For me to get him back and forth And um I really need your help I really do Won't be here Thank you very much. We appreciate you being here. We appreciate sharing the difficult situation that you're in And we're we're working on these things a lot and Some of them take a while, but thank you so much for sharing that. Thank you for your time. Thank you Thank you Rachel Stevens Hello, my name is Rachel Stevens. Um, I don't have a speech prepared or anything today. I'm actually just speaking from my heart Um, I live at 3805 chimney bridge place in Durham There's a lot of people that came today. That's in the same situation You have smaller communities that uh Basically like certain age groups are reaching out to Different foundations making their own way to try to help The homeless situation the in the community situations But that's everybody pulling together as a village is supposed to do But there's only so much that everybody can do I'm happy that everybody that shared their story today. They can say that they're doing something to help the city My situation that I wanted to speak on today was the vermilion So we have this project that we've been anticipating For almost a year Very excited great neighborhood. You're down the street from everything. You're actually away from the shooting You're actually away from the sirens. You're actually in a good community And it's something proud to be proud of like, oh, I live by hope valley. I I live in that area I don't live by where this shooting just occurred or this shooting just occurred So it's very exciting and to be able to watch your kids outside in in in that area and not have to worry about Oh, this is going to be a drive by today Because I live in a bad area So people that I'm around that have Got accepted into this Facinity we're excited about it because of those reasons because the city at this point in this time. It's dangerous It's it's almost ridiculous to wake up every morning and you're seeing on the news Something got somebody got shot something happened So personally, I think that the communities if you break these communities out or outward and put Okay, this affordable housing here a lot of people won't have that much stress and that anger Because that's what's going on. You put a lot of people in this community It's not far from this community and this is all happening. So that's why vermelan Was very exciting because it's away from all those other communities where all this other bad stuff is happening But we're on hold waiting to move in people that have put down monies And we're waiting we're just waiting people picked out their their place where they're going to stay me personally I picked by the park so that I could see my three-year-old daughter play outside I like the community. You have a great foundation It's a great start for something better and more for everybody those situations that everybody have went through Those affordable housing is what helps that So me personally Help us out Thank you for your time Thank you, miss Stevens We'll now hear from brianna von velzen as miss von velzen is coming up Can I ask is there anyone else who would like to speak if so? Please sign up at the clerks table. You have three minutes miss von velzen Hi, my name is brianna van velzen. I live at 1605 sedgfield street apartment a I'm coming before you today as a citizen But I do work at duke chapel and I volunteered at community empowerment fund with people who have housing vouchers People who are experiencing homelessness People with disabilities and people who are returning citizens And I want to say that the cut to the cd bg and esg funding Would cripple The budget for several of the shelters Um, it's my belief that these shelters work an adjust this model Most of them or towards the justice model and that they're actually helping citizens get back on their feet um They're not uh, just like some charity case. That's just throwing money out there. Um, these shelters provide case management housing counseling connections to resources and they work with dhhs and other nonprofits To make sure that resources aren't siloed. Um And that's something i'm very concerned about as a citizen whose job is in those communities Um, and i'm also concerned because I see people unable to connect their vouchers with housing And so to me it starts with you have to you have to connect, um From street homelessness all the way up to people who have 80 percent AMI When you talk about affordable housing Because if you can't afford it, it's not affordable both my parents aren't fixed incomes and are people with disabilities and They cannot afford to live by themselves In the city that they live in And that city is not nearly in the crisis that durham is in right now So I just wanted to express my concern as you consider the needs of the community and you consider funding that um You reconsider the funding sources Um $200,000 isn't a lot in the city budget in my opinion Um, I think that expanding the budget would allow for diversification Of services. Um, i'm really excited rapid rehousing is getting more funding But it would be great if the other funding didn't have to be sacrificed For program services. Um, yeah, thank you. Thank you, miss van valsen Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item? Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item? All right, I'm going to keep this public hearing open for now and uh, ask council members if they have any other questions or comments at this point Mr. Mayor I did council member race Reginald still with us is how's it going? Oh, i'm doing fine. Excellent. Um Uh, now I had some difficult questions for you when last we spoke Um, but I wanted to make sure that everyone understood Exactly what you were saying. I wasn't clear to be before I asked those questions. So I appreciate your direct answers um, I want to ask Why the decision has been made to end the city's support for these organizations. Can you help us understand that? It's oh, as you as you know, uh from previous I've worked not to speak about specific organizations and we've talked about that Uh, let me let me rephrase my question. Is there some reason can you help us understand the decision? To stop the city's support for agencies and nonprofits to do the kind of work we've heard about tonight Yes, as I shared earlier We had talked working to be consistent with the strategy that we have adopted as well as the Uh, improving of our homelessness system now this So was it your understanding that when the city council passed our five-year affordable housing strategy that we should not spend money doing these things? No No, what why did you decide to stop spending money doing them? We work to Going back to the housing strategy as well as the findings from the report from the focus strategies What we're working on doing is realigning our system To be able to better accommodate and expand the homelessness housing system It's just not a one organization. When there's a system that services, uh, those that are homeless and in In the need of housing And so one of the things that's important to recognize There is a difference between the individual level and the system Level and one of the things that has shown up is that our system has some deficiencies as well that infects everyone Was it your expectation then that There was insufficient funding to fix the system while supporting the base level needs of the homeless population in Durham And is that why this decision was made? No decision was made to be as I shared to be consistent and try to Improve our system As you and if I'm sure that we will be doing a Presentation before the city council on the focus strategy report when we talk about the priorities that we have In where the challenges are there are challenges and working for working to Service any particular organization is not going to be one of the top ones as I've shared with you There are some that are system-wide that we need to focus on with the resources that we do have Is it your is it your idea then that by focusing on the system-wide concerns? That the needs in the community that are being met by the the agencies and nonprofits who came and talked to us tonight Would be addressed No, the purpose of this public hearing is to listen to the comments As we begin the part process. This is part of a process. It's not final It's not final until it's adopted by the city council in may And this is the beginning part of a process as we shared With you in the beginning we required to have two public hearings. Uh, and this is the first one at the beginning of the process So I'm not quite done yet. I'm sorry Is it your is it your belief then that So I asked Do you think that by addressing the system-wide concerns that you've talked about and that this report From focus strategies will help us understand better I asked if by doing that would though would Taking those actions, whatever they are address the community needs that are being met by the nonprofits that came and spoke tonight and you said No, that's correct. Okay So What would you have us? Do About those community problems is what else do we need to do? To help you understand that this is a priority as well because here's what I don't understand And again, you're the person in front of me to talk to about this and okay um The day that I voted in favor of this affordable housing strategy If someone had told me that would mean cutting funding to meet the community needs that we've heard about tonight And that we've had many emails about I would not have voted for the affordable housing strategy So if that was what you thought you were being told by this council I hope that you will come and talk to us about it again um This was supposed to be additive Not taking away from current work to spend money doing other things. That was not my understanding And if I gave you that impression by voting for this, I'm terribly sorry, but it was not my intention to do that um, and so I know we're As you've said this is the beginning of a process But I also have to say that it seems like The decision you've already made the decision it seems like As I've said as you have told me The city's not going to spend money meeting these community needs anymore and I just hope that you will Listen to the folks that have talked tonight Not so much out of their specific non-profit concerns, but about the community needs that are obviously going to be unmet if we stop funding these services and I won't belabor the point anymore. I know other folks want to talk but um, I just hope that that you will Bring us into this conversation Before additional decisions are made and I appreciate your patience with me. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you Thank you councilmember race councilmember freeman and then councilmember austin and then councilmember middleton. Thank you, sir Uh, thank you. I actually had a question. I wanted to hear more from mr. Peter gilbert I want to say about the eviction crisis that we're facing and the housing shortage Mr. Gilbert, can you come to this putty in place? And how nonprofits So you mentioned that you had you had statistics and I just wanted to hear if you had a few That you could share Specifically because I want to make sure that I'm well informed about I do so the big number Is that of the 10 counties in north carolina with the highest population of which darm is one Durham has far and away the highest eviction rate Of any of the 10 county 10 most populous counties in north carolina, which I think is the fair comparison There are other counties like edgcomb county that have higher eviction rates than durham But uh, hope we're not striving to compare ourselves to the poorest counties in north carolina What that means is that there's about one eviction case filed per 28 residents in durham That compares to about one per 63 residents in wake. So roughly twice the eviction rate that wake county is experiencing um I think that Some of the other numbers around that of those that's about 10,500 eviction cases filed every year More or less it varies from month to month and it varies a little bit from year to year It'll be interesting to see what happens as the city undergoes the rad conversion If there's a increase or or increased displacements as a result of that um Only about 400 from what I understand from director scott only about 440 of those eviction cases each year are dha evictions Right now. So the vast majority of the of the displacements displacements and the homelessness that's resulting from that is coming from private landlord tenant evictions um Even the very large non-profit housing providers like dclt and others make up only a tiny fraction of the units that are rented to low income And low wealth people in durham Even if you count the vouchers that's still only a small percentage of the overall need for affordable housing in durham Of those roughly 10 000 a year The numbers that I have from the sheriff's department is it looks like about a third of those Maybe a little more than a third a result in the writ of possession actually being issued So that's at the end of the process Studies from other jurisdictions make it pretty clear that uh, the landlord wins the vast majority of the time I can tell you, you know, you don't have to sit through many sessions of small claims or district court to know that Um, the landlord wins the vast majority of the time The landlord is much more likely to be represented by a lawyer in durham right now Unless you're represented by me or one person we recently hired at legal aid Thanks to a grant from the bar association tenants don't have lawyers. So we're talking about um eight to 900 eviction cases a month And I can't do that many um uh So I don't know what other numbers would help counsel person freeman, but so specifically I I want to say that the the evictions that you're talking about are specifically like going through the court process Do are there is there anywhere that you can find numbers of folks who haven't even gone through the court process? That's much harder uh to document um In north carolina, it is illegal to evict someone without going through the court process But there are many many tenants. I'm sorry. Can you say it one more time in the mind? I didn't hear I'm sorry in north carolina is illegal to evict someone through what is called self help eviction It does happen and I do those cases as well where a landlord will change the locks or turn off the heat or try to force somebody out Without going through the court process. That's illegal. Um, and it for the most part doesn't happen where we see that happening is on the The kind of borderline housing places that claim to be hotels, but really aren't in my opinion People who rent to the really the people on the fringes of society the most Vulnerable populations rent and boarding houses many times the owners of those type of facilities will will call the Durham police department To have people trespassed claiming that there's no landlord-tenant relationship and it's not an eviction So they don't have to use the courts When I hear about those and fight those I generally win The the numbers of how many people leave When they get a late notice and they know they're not going to be able to pay it and they know They're not eligible for dss assistants are hard to know I will tell you that dss as part of our eviction diversion program has told us that they're getting I think the numbers and I don't have them in front of me are Several hundred three to four hundred people a month are coming to dss It may be different than that actually a mr. I know I emailed some information to you earlier mr Vonfeld so if you can correct me I Was that I think it says 45 to 50 No 45 to 50 is the number of cases that are coming from dss to me each month And those are people who are in the court process The larger number is the number of people who are going to dss each month for emergency rental assistance Most of them are not receiving that emergency rental assistance because there's a lot of restrictions on the funding but People are afraid of the consequences of having an eviction judgment on your record because once you have an eviction judgment on your record It is much much harder, especially in this market to find somewhere else to move whether you have a voucher or not And so a lot of people are moving before they ever get the court papers or that process is ever initiated How how many that is? I don't think it would ask Thank you. I appreciate that and then there was another gentleman. I want to thank you. Mr. Gilbert The gentleman who is talking about the folks that are re-entering and I was just trying to find out more of the organization. David crystal I was trying to find out. I didn't catch the name of the organization or I'm the director of jubilee home And a member of the local reentry council The local local reentry council with CJ RC Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Councilmember austin. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Uh, mr. Johnson forgive me if you mentioned this But I just wanted to clarify. Will the homeless service services advisory committee have another opportunity to discuss this issue Yes, it will and when is that I would say in the They're working on it now their subcommittees of the homeless services advisory committee that are actually working now What we're hoping to do And what they're hoping to do is to be able to present a more comprehensive Recommendation along with the report to the city council sometime in the spring I would say probably about february because we want to have it in concert with Budget process, but they are actually working now. They've received the report and committees are reviewing it now Thank you Councilmember middleton. Thank you, mr. Mayor I want to firstly just make a statement. I think for the sake of transparency Before being elected to the council, I was on the board of directors The interfaith hospitality network, which is a precursor organization for families moving forward. I want to let that be known Um, if you look at the uh, if you tour the genesis home, there's a room there that's Furnished and on the plaque outside the organization the not-for-profit that I lead now Is one of the organizations that furnished that room So I just want to be very clear about my vestedness In this um in this debate in this discussion for the sake of transparency If I thought for one minute that our staff were in any deliberate way Targeting organizations that I feel a great deal of affinity for Then I'd be a big problem up here on this podium for them I want to be very clear to our fellow citizens about something at least as I see this discussion You didn't vote for an office of community development. You voted for us The buck stops with us Um Oftentimes staffs and and I know the staff works very hard. Um, they're not wayward. They're not at war With homeless services oftentimes we politicians will say we want an end And then we'll leave it to bureaucrats to kind of read the tea leaves as to what we want And how we want it interpreted. Here's what we say to staffs oftentimes. Here's a certain amount of money Uh be efficient Focus on systems We don't we didn't direct the staff to focus on particular organizations Um, so any any concern you're right to to email us. I don't in any way feel constrained by Any decisions or preliminary findings that the staff makes because ultimately it will be our decision Um, I think our staff Was being motivated by their best interpretation Of what it because if you think about affordable housing during this campaign, you know Depending upon how you define affordable housing and what was the best outcome. We talked about comprehensive affordable housing plans We talked about jobs being important as well This is a new council We may very well need to to clarify and re-clarify for staff what our goals are and what our ends are but I will say this Um, if this council and I hope it does if this council directs this staff to Restore funding or keep funding levels at what it is and I'll I'll self identify. I hope we will It is not because we are correcting a wayward or incompetent or insensitive staff I want you to interpret it as us reclarifying what our goals are and what our ends are as the people you elected Thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you very much I have some comments. I'd like to make as well. Um Just first of all What I think about the the one of the things about this discussion and I really appreciate all the people that have come out to speak And particularly those that have come out to speak to tell their own individual story and and the situations that you have been faced with And what I think this discussion has again revealed to us is we know anyway But it's always good to have a fresh reminder Even if it's unhappy reminder is a situation that we face in Durham around affordability of housing We heard from a lot of different people and we heard a lot of different perspectives One of the things we heard is that people who even though they have a section 8 voucher, which will pay Most of their rent They're still unable to find a place in Durham To use that voucher And the city you all should know that last year the city put Roughly 250,000 dollars of support to the Durham housing authority So the Durham housing authority could improve its administration of the voucher system and we could assist with that in addition to which We heard from someone tonight from A community empowerment fund community empowerment fund and other organizations have pulled together landlords In the in the mayor's a round table to talk to landlords about Accepting vouchers and what would be that what are the barriers that they have towards accepting vouchers? So the city Non-profit organizations and the Durham housing authority are working together to try to get people to take section 8 vouchers But we can't control what landlords will do There's also another effort being led on by the nonprofits To have a risk mitigation fund for landlords So that if you take a section 8 voucher and you have some concern about taking a section 8 voucher because you might have some concern about Who has carrying that voucher? If there's anything that happens to your Apartment and that person leaves there's a risk mitigation fund that would pay the landlord back for Up to I believe the current number is about a thousand dollars worth of any repairs that happen I see two thousand So the risk mitigation fund the work with landlords and the mayor's round table the city's funding of the voucher program the Durham housing authorities Are reworking its own section 8 voucher program? There's a ton of good work going on But there's still it's still up to the landlords to do it. We're trying our best But I want you all to know that that I want you all to know about those programs Vermillion I want to mention something about vermillion. So the vermillion was the recipient Of a of a nine percent low income housing tax credit 60 units of affordable housing Including six units which would be for people At 30 percent of the area median income or less the other 60 percent of the area median income or less vermillion Has run into financial trouble the city out of your city tax dollars As already put in approximately two hundred thousand dollars into vermillion to try to get them over the hump on their construction But this is a private developer and they Are still in in the financial situation where they're trying to get over the hump and get those built So that's not anything that the city controls We have supported them we have already subsidized them and we hope that they will be able to get over the hump In terms of get those units open a very much sympathized with the person who was here talking about that and I'm very hopeful that those units will come will come online Let me also mention a housing first philosophy for those of those folks who were involved in our homelessness Here in Durham You will know already that do this work that that is our philosophy in Durham That the gentleman talked about a housing first philosophy that is our philosophy That's the philosophy of our continuum of care that you cannot solve addiction problems mental health problems and other problems If someone does not have a roof over their head that is our philosophy And it is the philosophy our nonprofits that work on this and I appreciate your you're bringing that up I want to mention the penny for housing Just to be clear because we've gotten a lot of emails for this the penny for housing is added 2.75 million dollars Not five and a half million dollars to our housing our affordable housing fund still a substantial amount of money But you just wanted to clarify that Uh on the I want to just let the the members of the uh the the public know who are interested in the eviction issue And I want to thank mr. Gilbert for bringing that to our attention tonight That council that mayor pro tem johnson has been Working with us and with the city manager and we're going to have a presentation on the eviction work in at a work session At the in sometime early this year And that will include the people that are working on the eviction diversion program And the council will hear a report on that program and talk about How that's going and how we can continue that work and then finally The returning citizens uh that mr. Crispell was mentioning There the the local reentry council is working on how to house Approximately 200 people per year who are coming back to Durham from State prisons And uh this is very difficult work as you know There are lots of barriers for the people who are coming back And it's very important that these people be housed The connection between that work and our and our and our affordable housing work in general Needs to be tighter and there's a lot of good work that's going on about that The two they both reentry council and the the affordable housing folks are talking Right now those systems are pretty much separate, but this is this is very important work So i'm trying to say all these things just to say it's a big problem. It's multifaceted and we're doing we being the city All the good folks in reginald's department and other people throughout the city are doing a tremendous amount of work on this As are our great nonprofits and i'm appreciate hearing from umd families moving forward care Outstretched hands, which was my first first hearing about outstretched hands. I was very glad to hear that mr. Tosh There's a lot of great work being done and this is got to be our community's mission to make this right Let me just say on the I think that I think that Um, we have got to get We we need to fund these critical The critical work that's being done in these shelters Exactly which pot of funds that it comes from is on us And I think that what the what the community development department is trying to do in terms of They have a consultant in to try to rationalize the system and figure out what we ought to be doing and adding to the to the coordinated intake I hear all that i'm anxious to I hope that we we can do a much better job of that But we also need to figure out and my account my colleagues have already mentioned this It's on us to figure out how to fund this this crucial shelter work Not individual organizations. We have fair rfp processes that people can apply for So that we're not funding particular organizations organizations have to apply through the process But that these categories of funding are critically important and I know that we'll be discussing this more in the new year um Okay, uh anything else before we close this public hearing in the matters back before the council Councilmember johnson. Thank you. Mr. Mayor. I just had one last question for um, reginal johnson I meant mayor pro tem johnson Um, could you give us a sense of the timeline for this entire process and at what point Will be asked to make decisions about the budget and the funding The way I respond is that We have two processes So i'm going to pursue the federal process first And so the beginning of the process is that we Have a needs public hearing As we are doing now we are required to have two And the department administratively opens up the application process That's the way the the uh work Is done the application process is open through Uh, february. I think it's the end of february first of february Then the citizens advisory committee Reviews uh the applications The city manager's office reviews the applications in addition to the community development staff And then we look at the final recommendations that we have to put on federal I mean on public review Um by the end of april because the Annual action plan which has to be Heard by this council after a second public hearing Has to be submitted by may the 15th So that's the federal process Okay Then I will share with you the next process is is the process that we have for the allocation of General fund dollars which is part of our budget process Can can we can we stick to the federal process for just a minute? So So if at some point this council were to ask for some of the funding that's currently being allocated in different ways to be reallocated At what point would that happen and would agencies be applying without Knowing whether or not funding would be available if the applications are only open to the end of february So one of the things that we would have to do This is part of a needs public hearing that we receive comments And one of the things that we are available to do is that we can relook at the process that has opened us for it Just opened so that's number that's number one Then we will have a second public hearing We come before the council and the council in the end has to approve all of the final decisions And that goes to the annual action plan and we've had previous councils that have made different Allocation decisions at that juncture There is some concern and risk which at the appropriate time I will share at that time But that is the purview of the city council to be able to make those those final decisions Okay, thank you. My my concerns. I guess I'm My concern is that if it appears that there's no funding That people won't apply for funding And we would have to on the back end allocate that funding But because it hadn't been there during the application process. No one would have known to ask for it So is there a way to solve that issue? Yeah, I think there is I think we can go back and look at their application process Okay That'd be great. Thank you. Yeah, and I and I would also share that you know on behalf of the community development department The recommendation will that will come to you in total will have more money for funding for the homeless housing system than what we have now You're just seeing part of it now because it's a federal process, right I understand. Thank you. Um, could is there uh Never mind. I'm sorry. I'll follow up with you later. Okay about specifics about that Thank you. Madam Mayor pro tem any council members any other questions comments Okay I think that I want to appreciate everyone who came out for the public hearing. I know that the community development department Got a good sense of the uh, of the direction that the council is interested in and much appreciate your uh All being here and I'm going to declare this public hearing closed Thank you very much. All we were doing today was receiving comments. No decisions to be made Thank you very much and now we'll move to item 15 the venable center landmark designation um And this is to talk to public hearing to receive comments for the designation and to take certain options Excuse me. Mr. Mayor. Uh, the council does have to vote to receive the public comments. Thank you Thank you very much reginal. Do I hear a motion to receive the public comments? I'll move to receive the public comments Second it's been moved and seconded any discussion Madam clerk. Will you please open the vote? Close the vote. Thank you It passed the six to zero. Thank you very much and thank you for that correction reginal And now we'll move to item 15 the venable center landmark designation Good evening. Mr. Mayor members of council pat young with the planning department um I'm going to turn the mic over to miss carlo Rosenberg of our staff to introduce the item but I did want to quickly Certify for the record that all public hearing items before you tonight have been Advertised in accordance with the requirements of law and there are affidavits to that effect on file with the planning department. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Young Carlo Rosenberg with the planning department. Um, this is case ld 17 0001 Thank you Which is a request for landmark designation for land associated with the venable center The buildings associated with the venable center are currently landmarked Originally both the buildings and the land were landmarked The land contained a large parking lot and then last year the landmark status was removed For the purpose of subdividing the property into two parcels so that one of those parcels the parking lot Could be redeveloped in the future. Ms. Rosenberg. Can you excuse me one minute? I'm sorry Could you please shut the door and uh, you move outside if you'd like to talk and keep the door shut? Thank you so much. Appreciate it Thank you. I'm sorry. Ms. Rosenberg go ahead. Sure. So, um once the property was subdivided the Landmark designation was removed from Those parcels the present proposal is to redesign the parcel that contains the buildings Um, so this property is located just south of downtown at the corner of south rocksboro street and east pedigree street It is not currently undergoing renovations It is individually listed on the national register of historic places And the staff has found the property to be associated with events that have made a significant contribution To the broad patterns of local region or regional or national history And it has yielded or may be likely to yield information important to durham's history. Those are the criteria that it must need to be landmarked There's a table in the staff report that shows property tax assessments The tax value of the land is significantly lower than the tax value of the buildings And so the additional yearly loss of revenue Should the land be designated? Would be 3287 for the city 4363 for the county and a total of $7,650 per year The historic preservation commission gave its recommendation for landmark 50 on august 5th 2017 and the state historic preservation office issued a letter of recommendation on august 21st 2017 So I am here to answer any questions you might have. Thank you very much. Ms. Rosenberg You've heard the staff report. I'm going to declare the public hearing open and I'm first going to ask if there are any comments or questions by members of the council I have a few if no one else does as anyone else at this point Is the separation of a single parcel into two parcels Is that is what is referred to in the staff report is a recombination? Yes Okay. Yeah, it was a little confusing All right, and I was unclear about what the new boundaries are. Um, is the Is there Land inside the parcel that we would be Re-designating that is not building that is a courtyard or a You know a flat place a piece of land the Sort of empty areas. Um, there are two to note one is in front of The oldest building on the site which is at the corner of Roxburgh and pettigrew. It's a triangular piece shape of land um And then there's also a small parking lot in front of the Annex building and that parking lot would be included in the redesignation correct. Yes Okay, so the okay Okay, those are my questions. Thank you very much. Thank you if we have Members of the public to speak on this. I believe we have one um charlie Yokely and you did good with my terrible handwriting. I I'm impressed Uh, my name is charlie yokely 2905 meridian parkway. Um, I'm with the macadam's company representing the property owner um In this request essentially What happened was The property owner did not intend to remove the land around the building from landmark designation While the landmark repeal was going on for the larger parking lot what is now parcel 2 the recombination was done and At about the same time the repeal of the landmark designation was also approved And it was an an honest mistake that that land was removed from landmark designation So we're here today to ask that that be that land be put back designated as a landmark To encourage future preservation And the historic nature of that lot Thank you. Mr. Yokely sir Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item? Anyone else that would like to be heard anyone from the council have any more questions? Just a clarifying question Ms. Rosenberg is Rosenberg So I just want to make sure i'm clear The parking lot behind the venable building is not what we're talking about It's just that area within like the courtyard between the two properties It's specifically the Two areas that are fronting rocks for a street. So if you look at the that was all thank you. Okay. All right. Thank you very much all right Is there anyone else to switch to speak on this item? If not, then let the record reflect that no one else is requested to speak on this item And I now declare the public hearing to be closed and the matter is back before the council We are asked here to receive comments and also to adopt an ordinance designating the land associated with the venable center as a local historic landmark Mr. Mayor, I'd like to move that we accept the adoption of the local historic landmark. Thank you. Is there a second second Madam clerk, could you please open the vote? Close the vote It passes six is your thank you very much. Thank you all for being here. Thank you Is resin bird and now we'll move to item 16 zoning mac change the map change for 52 75 north rocksboro street Good evening. I'm jamie sunyak with the planning department There is a request for a zoning map change, which has been received for a 1.31 acre property located at 52 75 north rocksboro street The applicant requests to change the designation from commercial neighborhood to commercial general with a development plan The site is located with the eno within the eno river Basin overlay district The development plan commits to a maximum of 10,000 square feet a floor area For all uses permitted within the cg zone The site is currently designated commercial on the future land use map, which is consistent with the rezoning request Key commitments as shown on the associated development plan include site access points building and parking envelopes tree coverage locations project pound project boundary buffers as well as text commitments for a bus pullout shelter along the west side of north rocksboro street An additional right-of-way along the streets frontage for the funded tip project u 5516 The planning commission recommended approval 12 0 at their october 10th 2017 meeting Staff determines that these requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan And the applicable policies and ordinances Two motions are required to approve this item The first motion is to adopt a consistency statement Which is required by a gs 160 a dash 383 And then the second motion would be to Adopt a zoning ordinance change. I'll be happy to answer questions that you might have Thank you, miss sunyak. You have heard the Report of staff and i'm now going to declare this public hearing open First i will ask if there are any questions or comments by council members Just So I Because I was on the planning commission when this case came before us. I want to acknowledge that I approved or I agreed to the to the zoning changes based on the fact that there's not really anything in place that would prevent us from Approving it and I want to acknowledge that this Zoning case actually could put another business out of or another Commercial business out of business because it's a newer car wash Across from an older car wash And I just I just want to make sure that we're we're looking at ways to address this and going forward Acknowledging that right now we might not have that Thank you, miss. Thank you. Can I respond quickly? Yes, james. Anyak with the planning department? The development plan just so it's clear Does not specifically identify a car wash The developer did the developer did that is true The development plan specifically commits to a maximum of 10,000 square feet in floor area But with with that said there was a discussion during the planning commission Hearing by the applicant that the person who purchased the property May intend on building a car wash, but it is not limited If that falls through it would be open to Any other uses that are permitted within that zone Thank you, miss. Anyak I have here. I believe two people who have signed up to speak on this dale reynolds And tim sievers and is there anyone else who would like to speak? So anyone else and are you all both proponents? You are okay I'm going to Ask that you all each hold your comments to three minutes and We'll hear first Mr. See what you'd like to go first right Please state your name and address Tim sievers or vat associate 16 consultant place Durham, North Carolina Thank you, mayor schul jamie for your staff report and thank you council members A quick summary of the site and I promise I will stay under the three minutes The summary is the site is about 1.1 acres. It is the existing vacant burger king site There is a currently funded ncdot project that will actually divide Roxboro road. There will be a median in this road So that will in itself separate some of the uses. Yes, our intended use is a car wash But that is not being committed to a car wash To for the ability of keeping that open for future development There is a 10,000 square foot maximum building area which will help restrict development in the future just because of the size of the site Prior to the planning commission meeting We did mail out notices to the neighbors and neighborhood organizations Her a little bit of feedback. They were all Opponents they were proponents excuse me proponents of the site Most of them were actually excited about seeing the vacant burger king redeveloped As I said the intended development is a car wash a few comments on the development plan again 10,000 square foot maximum building area We're doing a 70 maximum pervious area building design commitments and some additional right-of-way dedication Which will provide a right-of-way for the current ncdot project Again, um Dale Reynolds will be speaking He is the owner and developer of the site and owner of carolina pride and autorefic car washes in the area. Thank you Thank you. Mr. Syvers. I'm sorry. I got your name wrong. I should know that by now. Mr. Reynolds You have three minutes Good evening mayor and council members. My name is dale Reynolds. I live at 105 avid short court Appreciate the opportunity to be before you tonight the property in question We think we can enhance the community with a redevelopment that property is the old burger king site that's been closed down for many years Be a good opportunity for us to develop a new facility there that would be A good car wash that will be one of the most efficient in water conservation There are so all the car washes that we own and operate are certified water conservation facilities Now this is the only industry that has that in the state of north carolina It's free when you mention about putting another car wash out of business That is not our intent in all the type of wash that we're proposing to build as an express wash The wash that's across the street from that is a self surf car wash where you do it yourself The other one is a full surf car washes where they do all those services for the customer We will be a different type of car wash not in that those competing types of businesses So it's not our intention to put anybody out of business but to provide a different services out there Additionally to that we will employ many people on different parts of the economic spectrum From lower income to middle income jobs as well. So our full Employment pay will be at $11 an hour We also offer benefits and all to employees that those other car washes do not offer to theirs as well So we're going to do many things that we think will be helpful as well The other thing we're looking at also is to if able working with some of the local Agencies and organizations it's employing some people on special needs as well So we do that with some of our other businesses as well So we can do that and that helps the community also So that's our plan is to put something nice and different that's within the community And if you look at our other sites that we have in the community currently we keep them maintained well We have somebody at all of them constantly with video So we do a lot of things to keep them safe and attractive and Facilitated people who want to visit I'd be glad to answer any questions as you might thank you. Mr. Reynolds appreciate it Thank you. So everyone else wishes to speak on this item Anyone else in the public that wishes to speak on this item? If not any questions or comments from council members Council member freeman Just just coming back to your comments. Mr. Mr. Reynolds or mr. Cybers. Mr. Reynolds Thank you. You mentioned there would be jobs Um, I would love to know how many if you do know already Yeah, right now. We're anticipating be eight positions there and then you mentioned that I was 11 an hour Yes, our full time employees are starting at 11 an hour and is that with benefits? Yes. Wow great. Thank you Yes, we offer I I just wanted to Dig into that a little bit deeper and then you mentioned using some Uh services for folks with disabilities as well. Yes, I currently employ some people on special needs I'm a former board member of the autism society in north carolina also And so we try and currently I have some people in the spectrum employed of us as well in other capacities Thank you. I wish a lot more of the developers could be more transparent. Well, thank you Thank you. Thank you, mr. Reynolds Anybody else in the public wish to speak on this item? If no one else wishes to speak well, I should ask council members anyone else If no one else in the public wishes to speak on this item I want to declare this public hearing closed in the matters back before the council We need to make two motions here one is to adopt the consistency statement The second is to adopt an ordinance of many of the unified development ordinance Do I have a motion to adopt the consistency statement? So moved, mr. Mayor. It's been moved and properly seconded. Please Madam clerk, will you please open the vote? Close the vote. It passes six. Is he right? Thank you very much, madam clerk And now do I hear a motion to adopt an ordinance of many of the udo move Second it's been moved and properly seconded Madam clerk, would you please open the vote? Close the vote. I'm sorry. Did I say that? It passes. Thank you. Thank you, madam clerk. Sorry for my lack of Articulate statement there And now we'll move on to item 17 consolidated annexation for sagewood and nickels farm This is also a public hearing item Thank you. Jacob Wiggins with the planning department Requests for utility extension agreements voluntary annexation and initial zoning map have been received from highland falls raleigh llc Or two contiguous parcels totaling approximately 93 acres Located along dot nickels road If approved this annexation would become effective on december 31st 2017 The applicant has requested an initial zoning designation of residential role Which is an exact translation of the existing county zoning designation Please note that if this request is approved it will create some new donut holes This is primarily a result of staff's request that the applicant include the right-of-way for dot nickels road Into this annexation petition as dot nickels road is the only primary public road access for these The applicant did reach out to at least one property owner and the what would be the theoretical donut hole And it's our understanding of that that property owner has no interest in annexation at this time The public works in water management departments Performed the utility impact analysis which determined that the city water and sewer mains have capacity for this project And the budget and management services also performed the physical analysis which determined that the request will likely be revenue positive at buildouts Um staff determines, uh, overall that these requests are consistent with the comprehensive plan and applicable policies and ordinances Um, please note that there will be three motions to approve this item that may differ slightly from what's in your report Um, it's half understanding that we're going to try to um consolidate slightly The first motion would be a motion to approve the annexation ordinance and the utility extension agreement The second motion would be to adopt a consistency statement as required by law and the third ordinance Or i'm sorry the third motion would be to adopt a zoning ordinance Um, and i'm happy to answer any questions that the council may have at this time Thank you. You all have heard the staff report. I'm going to declare this public hearing open And i'm going to ask if there are any comments or questions by members of the council I have a question. Mr. Mayor Councilmember middleton. Thank you, sir Attachment for we we would be actually creating donut holes to this Correct. Yes, sir Yeah, I may come back and revisit but thank you Yeah, again, I would say you know technically that is correct, but if you look at the context It's a little bit different scenario than some of the typical donut holes that we've just recently cleaned up I'd love to hear the difference. Yeah, absolutely. Sure. Yeah, I mean if I may so the primary Creator of this donut hole is the right-of-way for dot nickels road that we've asked the applicant to include This helps alleviate situations Take the the fire station on highway 98 is an example So that's actually in the county's jurisdiction. So if there's an accident in front of that fire station The city pd is not there fire stations not the first station that would receive that call I'd actually go to a volunteer fire department in the county Um, so let's say this annexation were to be approved and we did an annex to dot nickels right of way And that an accident happens at the intersection to these new residential subdivisions They even though the subdivision itself might be in the city Since the right of way is in the county at that point. It can't be served by city pd It can't be served by city fire. So it increases response times to those emergency situations. So To help in that regard we asked the applicant to please include the dot nickels road right of way Which as you notice on the maps it does leave some little strips Properties that will not be in the city at this time Thank you. Thank you Other council members questions or comments? I have one I In as I read this excluding the impact fees which for capital expenditures, but in terms of operating City expenses are exceeding city revenues With the annexation and the utility extension Is that do I read that right jaco? Um, yes, sir mayor. So at buildouts if you take the two cases in combination at build out including impact fee revenues It'll be slightly revenue positive There are some large expenditures up front. I mean if you want to reference attachment eight in your packet It has the full financial impact analysis and you'll see in years after build out when the city doesn't have those expenditures There's a lot more revenue being generated and Yeah, this is I hear you um I have Very is there is an attachment eight you mean really? No, it's It's attachment. Um, I think you mean, uh nine So attachment eight is the utility. I'm sorry the cost benefit analysis That breaks down the projected revenues in future years Right, it's I'm sorry numerations. It's that funny numbering thing. We do got it. Um You know, I just it's very unusual to see I don't remember of us approving and a rezoning annexation that wasn't Revenue positive for the city had built out. Am I wrong? Um It is rare. Um, sometimes you'll see and I'd be revenue positive at build out if it's a not for profit not for profit organization You said if you take the combination of these two it it does appear to be revenue positive at build out. Um, it is close Um, but looking at future years, I think this is where the city based on the projections We have as far as where the city would really see the benefit But I would say based on my experience in the last couple years This one is closer than normal for For profit more private development All right, but but I do see what you're saying about future years Okay, um any other questions at this point by members of the council or comments If not, we have had we have one person who has, uh Signed up to speak I believe on this and that's charlie yokely again. Mr. Yokely Yes, sir, uh, charlie yokely 2905 meridian parkway in durham with the mcadams company We're the consultant for the subdivision and the annexation And I think jacob covered it pretty well. So, uh, i'm here the engineers here and the Property owners here. Um, so We're really just available for any questions that you guys might have Any questions? Any questions? I just had a member freeman Uh The donut hole or the property. Have we spoken to the property owner at all? I would really like to Feel a lot more confident in this short councilman freeman. I'll defer the applicant I do know that they have spoken with at least one adjacent property owner And I can address that Charlie yokely again If you're looking at the two properties that are subject to the annexation There's that piece in between them that is the property owner We spoke to it actually came up at the neighborhood meeting that we had last year when this project got started and uh, he was In fact at that time that he was not Willing to have his property annexed into the city The issue with the the donut hole question came up During the annexation review. It was a comment from staff So we reached out to that property owner again. I sent him an email and I have If necessary, I have a printed copy that email. I believe I and I know I sent it to staff Um, and he again said that he was not interested in having his property annexed into the city Thank you very much. Sir any other questions or comments by members of the council If not, I'm going to declare this public hearing closed and the matter is back before the council Uh, we have been advised that uh, we can take the two first two items as a single motion To adopt ordinance as a annexing sagewood and nickels farm and to authorize the city manager entry utility extension agreements So moved there a second second, uh, madame clerk, would you please open the vote Close the vote It passes six to zero. Thank you very much. Mr. Mayor. I'll move the consistency statement. Thank you It's been moved in second that we adopt the consistency statement. Uh, uh, madame clerk, please open the vote Close the vote It passes six is equal. Mr. Mayor. I'll move the zoning ordinance Thank you very much Is there is there a second? Thank you. It's been moved in seconded to adopt the ordinance amendment of the udo Madam clerk, please open the vote Close the vote Thank you very much And now I'm so sorry that I missed item two We're going to go back to that let's just call it a rookie mistake But we're going to go to item 23 now the resolution supporting the temporary protected status program And then we're going to come back to item two council uh mayor pro tem uh johnson Would you like to introduce uh the the uh the item item 23? Yes, thank you. Mr. Mayor. Um, so this is a resolution supporting the Temporary protected status program and I'll just go ahead and read it into the record Whereas the u.s. Department of Homeland Security May grant temporary protected status including employment authorization and protection from deportation to immigrants in the united states Who are unable to return safely to their home countries because of violence natural disaster or other extraordinary conditions And whereas an estimated 322 i'm sorry 320 thousand people from 10 designated countries primarily in central america Hold temporary protected status and whereas on november 6th 2017 The department of homeland security effect announced that it will not renew temporary protected status for nicaraguan nationals effective january 5th 2019 And whereas on november 20 2017 the department of homeland security announced that it will not renew temporary protected status for Haitian nationals effective july 22nd 2019 And whereas the department of homeland security is studying whether to end protections for hondurans and salvadorans And whereas the center for american progress estimates that more than 13 000 beneficiaries of the temporary protected status from El Salvador honduras Resided in north carolina and that they and their children are integral participants in the social and economic lives of north carolina And whereas the city of Durham has long shown support for its immigrant communities including many immigrants from central america And whereas these families are an integral part of the community who should be welcomed and supported and we should protect vulnerable persons Who seek safety in our community? Now therefore be it resolved that the city of Durham supports the temporary protected status program and urges the department of homeland security To renew the program for nicaraguan Haiti to continue the program for eligible beneficiaries and to support refugees and other immigrants fleeing war Violence and natural disasters in their home countries. This is the 18th day of december 2017 Thank you very much. Mayor pro tem. We have two people who have signed up to speak and i'm going to ask them to come forward now The first is eliazara posada and the second is joseph fidel compost sorto And if you all could both come over here to this, um Podium and uh, you have three minutes Mr. Posada, if you could state your name and address, please Good evening. I'm eliazara posada. I live in um 13 25 jennifer street. I'm just down the road So I am the community engagement advocacy manager first and three spinal and non-profit that most of us know very well um And over the last couple of months we've been working with different uh city councils and and uh representatives to get this type of resolution passed not just here in durham, but in chapaco and carbro And now moving into wake county and goford and just trying to get the word out to Pass these kinds of resolutions um To many these are just a symbolic resolution and let's be real it is right But for our community for for the people who are affected by tps and who are may maybe losing their status and losing their homes It lets them know that they're welcome. Let's them know that Uh durham is a place where they can live. They can be free and they can be safe Um as the resolution states, there's over 13 000 tps holders here in north carolina alone with Over 11 000 children for either u.s. Born residents uh Together they make over 560 million dollars to north class g gdp um And I want to thank you all as part uh from innocent through spinal and from my personal uh myself That uh, you guys are taking these steps to uh acknowledge that our community is welcome in durham and Doing these symbolic measures that really go a long way to make sure that our community shows up to Uh the council and and starts learning not just about their own city But about their elected officials and what you guys can do for not just the latin x community But the entire community in durham. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Posada and now we will hear from Jose fidel campos sorto Good evening, everybody. Good evening. My name is fidel campos sorto. I live here in the 15 forest ox drive durham and I'm the vice president of the Um north carolina salvadorian association here and I would like to to thank all of you the city council Because of the resolution to support our Our partners From all the 13 countries the the people Are under this tps program so on behalf of national tps aliens and the north carolina salvadorian association we thank all of you For the support for our our people in In around the the world the countries especially in or the central american countries Yeah, that's that's uh We are here for to thanks all of you and in the near Future we would like to know specifically in in which actions We feel better That's support because this is a declaration But that's support us In order to feel more comfortable and We are We know you accept us as members in the community and we are Happy about that support That's enormous support Really, thank you very. Thanks. Thank you. Thank you for being here and Thank you to thank you to all the other folks who are here tonight and let me just say that I'm sorry you had to stay so long before we're about to have this vote But we very much appreciate your being here and staying here for this very important action Any council members have any other comments before we? Take this matter up. Mr. Mayor, I do I want to thank the mayor pro tem for for reading the resolution Uh, I just want to go on records saying that I think the resolution represents the highest standard values of Durham And I'm proud to support its adoption Thank you very much. I would just like to echo that sentiment and Thank you Madam mayor pro tem, would you like to make a motion on this? I would love to move that we adopt this resolution Second it's been moved in second that we adopt this resolution the uh, madam clerk. We shoot. Please open the vote Close the vote it passes six to zero. Thank you all very much Thank you for being here And we are we are with you And we very much hope that you are able to prevail and we're glad to add our support to your efforts. Thank you so much Now we'll move back to item two again. I apologize Council members. I simply overlooked it This is on the general business item. Uh, and Just pull it up here This is the Uh, city council vacancy to adopt the timeline to fill a city council vacancy And i'm going to ask Our city attorney patrick baker if he has any comments at this time. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Mayor members of council Um, in my recommendation, uh original recommendation I recommended that you take a consider seven different actions Um, one of which was to direct the city clerk to publish a notice of vacancy To determine the form of the initial application and determine the deadline by which the initial application should be Completed and returned to the city clerk. Um, as you'll recall, you took those actions During your work sessions suspended and voted on that and uh, and the applications have have gone out Um, council met, uh, although the full council ended up meeting It was a actually a council uh, procedure subcommittee meeting to take up the other Matters, uh, one of which was to develop and adopt criteria to evaluate the initial applications Develop and adopt a questionnaire to be used to further evaluate candidates um to develop and adopt a candidate interview procedures and to Uh, to propose a final timeline to complete this process. Um, all of which you took up in your Um, in your procedures subcommittee, uh hearing and there are three attachments That that specifically came out of that Uh, subcommittee meeting, which was the questionnaire the interview the candidate interview procedures and the the final timeline, uh, which All three of those would be in front of you tonight to consider adopting So would you restate again the three things we need to adopt Patrick? Uh, you would be adopting the timeline You would be adopting the candidate questionnaire And you would adopt the applicant interview rules and procedures Okay And there was a fourth one the the adopting the criteria to evaluate the initial applications I was never quite sure if you specified something other than meeting the, um, the, um Uh, the requirements of the initial application, which I think was where you you landed was that it would be vetted by The clerk that the initial the minimum qualifications are met Thank you very much one clarification Yes, please. I might just notice the attachment includes the it's revised number seven revised questions for the candidate questionnaire It's circulated with the city clerk um kind of a Version that included instructions and a place for candidate name Um, and so I wanted to bring that up here before we adopt this memo Can I ask, uh, just to clarify Councilmember austin Was it can you describe the differences or are they are they a few differences or are there a bunch of differences? They're they're very nominal differences. Um, essentially and I can Find essentially just had a heading Said candidate questionnaire of city of Durham at large vacancy Okay a space for candidate name and instructions on completing the questionnaire no substantive changes to the question Great, okay So patch we could adopt this yes that that as well. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you very much Other comments and questions at this point by council members Any comments or questions at this point? We have discussed at the Work session the a way in which we might want to vote on the final applicants I believe that was at the procedures committee I'm sorry. You're right. It was at the procedures committee Is this a good time to talk about that council members and patrick or should we Hold that to with the work session. Do you do it? Can you advise us patrick? um That I would really leave that up to you. It wasn't included in the materials here So I don't know if you want to take that up separately or you could yeah Council members you have any thoughts on that Mr. Mayor am I doesn't appear to me that Either the city charter or our council procedures manual dictates any particular method of selection And for that reason I think we don't necessarily need to decide that tonight. I think if we want to have a conversation about the The cost and benefits of any particular selection Method that conversations might be better Situated for a work session than a than a meeting of this kind So that'd be my recommendation is that we just take it up on thursday and Figure out the right kind of procedural setting to do that we can Figure that out good advice. Thank you. So that sounds right to you Patrick. Great. Thank you very much All right council members We are being asked to approve the timeline the questionnaire and the interview rules and procedures. Is there any more discussion? If not, I'll entertain a motion Can I just ask a clarifying question of the city attorney? Can we move to all these things on one motion? Is that appropriate? Yes, great in that case. I'll I will do that Thank you very much. Is there a second second it's been moved in a second that we adopt the timeline the questionnaire and the interview rules and procedures any more discussion If not madame clerk for the last time in 33 years, could you please Open the vote No Close the vote It passes six to zero. Thank you very much Mr. Mayor Madam clerk, did you were you able to find out the information about folks who may have uh, may have submitted applications today? It was two additional people. Okay. Just two Thank you Thank you very much I believe we are now at the end of our business And I will declare this meeting adjourned at 9 47 p.m. Thank you very much. Thank you, mr. Mayor. Thank you, sir Thank you