 I can share my screen if that's easier. Great agenda. And just for everyone, the committee and the public, the. The hearing and the meeting will be as you know, it's being recorded. And of those organizations that are being reviewed tonight are there. Is everyone is here to represent each of those probably. I think so. Okay. Are we ready to. Commence. Yeah, I guess, I mean, I need a little intro just for everyone, you know, for the committee as well as the public, the. You know, DACD, the Massachusetts department of housing and community development requires that at least once a year during the. You know, during the program year, we have a hearing to review current activities and also receive comments on kind of the funding process. And so our 20 grants started later than usual. It started in March, April of this year. And so this hearing is really focused on the 2020 block grant. We've held a public hearing for the other grants. And at this time, the 18 and 19 grant and our COVID grant are basically finished. And so we're close to wrapping up. So really the only grant that's ongoing is the 20 grant. Right now. So I think we're in good shape. We only have one grant. Sometimes you have three or four grants that are ongoing at the same time. So it's nice to not have that over a lot. So we're here to, you know, to receive comments from the, hear a report from the activities. The committee can ask questions and the public can ask questions. And then we have, you know, number two on the agenda is, you know, comments on just the general. You know, kind of public process, which. If the state keeps the schedule from last year, the application will be due in mid September and the committee in the town would start a public outreach process in March or so. You know, and begin that and then have, you know, work our way towards a September applications submittal. So we haven't received any updates at all about the next fiscal year or the grant year. So we're just anticipating. That it'll follow the same schedule as, as last year. Okay. So I'll read should begin in March of 22 or just, you know, right? March of 22 that would give us, you know, six to seven months to hold an outreach process. You know, do the request for proposals and do everything and give us ample time to submit an application. Okay. Great. So are we trying to wrap it? I guess the question is, are we trying to wrap this meeting up within. We're just trying to divide up the time for organization for the amount of a lot of time that we've. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I think that would be plenty of time. Okay. So maybe we'll try. Sorry. I was just going to say, I'm going to need to head out at about eight, eight 15. Okay. Something great happened. Why don't I just go to like. Hold on. When, when Becky spoke, something happened to my screen. We can see you still. Yeah, I can't see anybody. I try speaking again. No, that's so weird. I just stopped sharing my screen. I don't know if that changed anything. I'm sorry. Oh, there we are. Okay. I didn't touch anything. Okay. So, um, any other. Overview that you need to give Nate or Ben before we. Begin and I begin. No, I think, um, there's now 10 members. Um, you know, 10 members of the public in the audience. And, you know, we have a quorum. So I think, I think we're all set. Before I start, why are Nate and Ben. Coming to us from the 19th. Yeah. This is, this is the background I don't want to talk to a historical commission. It's a holdover from them. Solid. I should change my background. I had a spooky one for Halloween. And then now I just put this on. That was great that you noticed that. Um, so how about if organizations limit their time. Um, I'm just going to give you a little warning, you know, at four minutes and I will be, have my little timer set here and we can move forth. So are you, uh, Nate and Ben, are you representing Amherst housing Watson farms? Uh, no, that's, um, well, actually Gail, would you want to go around this, introduce yourself and the members can introduce. I'll start off on Gail Lansky. I chair this committee and I've done this a number of times. Um, I'm a member of the committee. Uh, I am Rika Clement and, um, I'm a member of the committee. Uh, Lucas Hanscom also a member of the committee. My first of these go around, but, uh, yeah, it's been entertaining. I'm Becky Michaels. Um, also fairly new to the committee. I think this is my first one of these particular ones of these meetings. And I'm Matt Larson. I'm a member of the committee. I'm a member of the committee. I'm a member of the committee. Before I even knew it, I'm now the second oldest member of the committee. Well, this is longest serving. Yeah, I was going to about to say, you don't know your second oldest. Yeah. Okay. We can go around, but we could leave that for another day too. Okay. Um, and then Gail, I had mentioned to a Lori Millman that they could go first and then get to social service. Yeah. Sure. I didn't know if you were going to do capital first and then get to social service. But yes, I did understand that Lori had a commitment. So Lori Millman from the center of new Americans. You are on timer is, um, going. Hold on, man. Let's, uh, Lori will let you, uh, you can unmute yourself again and then let us know if there's anyone else in the center for new America. You can raise your hand or. I think I have a student. Sure. Okay. Yep. So why don't we let Sue Chang say a few words? And then if you let me screen share, I can share a PowerPoint that way. Sue Chen can go back to her family. Is that okay? Ben, do you want to, can you, why would have to become a panelist to share the screen you think or. Um, I think so. Yeah. All right. So. So Chang, you, you, you can unmute yourself and speak. Yep. Um, hi everyone. My name is Sue Chang. I'm from Cambodia. And nice to meet you. Um, I have been the United States for two years. And I have learned English at Center for New American. Almost two years too. And I, I had finished nurse at Center for New American. I, right now I live in Amherst with my family. And I really thank to all of you and Center for New American for help my whole family. And CNA help me all everything. Like finding a job. And Soran, wifi, babysitter, photo, picture, and especially nurse at training class. And that, that this is important to me. And have discussed and resolved all about the problem. And have all emigrated people. I really thank to you all. Thank you, Sue Chang. So I'm just going to quickly show a PowerPoint presentation that will give you an update on this past year and Sue Chang, I'm fine with you going back to your family. I, um, Sue Chang was a nurse in Cambodia. And so recredentialing as a nurse aid here in the United States was important to her. Um, so that she could get a job while she, um, figures out whether or not she wants to recredential as a nurse. So as everyone knows, as Sue Chang said, we teach English for speakers of other languages. And this past year, we have been both hybrid. So partly in person and partly online. And in Amherst, we're offering four levels of class from pre-literate to high intermediate. Um, during the pandemic, we welcomed quite a few refugee families into our Amherst classes. And now we are welcoming Afghan evacuees. We have 20 Afghan evacuees currently living in Amherst, and they are coming into our classes. Um, this is the nurse aid training that Sue Chang was referring to, and this is this past year's class doing their clinical training after they finished their, um, classroom training at Smith Boat. They were at care one. Um, we celebrated students, artistic traditions. Um, our celebration of the arts in the spring, which we always do online again this year. Um, our students have gotten good jobs. Sue Chang said that we helped her to get a job, but we've also helped quite a few other students get jobs. The student below also an Amherst resident is employed at Cooley Dickinson. Um, I've spoken before about the alumna that we have at the Musanti Health Center. And now we have another student who's working there as well. And three of the refugee students, um, we helped to resettle and now working at Trinity Solar because it was their job, their dream to do, um, solar installing. Um, our students have enrolled in and graduated from college. Um, we have distributed a lot of emergency relief aid as I've spoken about before. So that translated to paying people's rent and utilities and buying food cards. Of course, in this online arena, we've also purchased and loan tablets and hotspots and installed Comcast in two homes in Amherst, where there was so many people trying to zoom in that a hotspot wouldn't do it. Um, we coached over 65 immigrants through naturalization last year. Um, and continue to offer both TPS, especially to Haitian immigrants and DACA deferred action for childhood arrivals. And so what really what that all boils down to is creating access for people. And in that context, we also began a diversity, equity and inclusion initiative. It's been funded by the beverage foundation. Um, and it is being led by our staff and our alumni. We don't take anything for granted. We leverage all of our grants with fundraising and 30 poems in November is our annual fundraiser. We're right in the middle of it. And we have already exceeded this year's goal of $65,000. And in their own words, like Su Cheng said, um, our program helps people achieve their goals. Some of you may know, Glen is daily. You may have seen her at the mobile market where she works in Amherst. She was one of our students for many years. She was one of our clients and she became a US citizen. Um, on Monday on last week, I'm sorry, on the 10th and 11th and posted this ecstatic message on Facebook. Um, and thank you for giving me a chance to give you an update on our program. I hope I'm within the, um, within the limit. 25 seconds to spare. Nicely done. Thank you. Anybody have any questions for Lori? Um, I was very interested to hear about the, um, um, newly arrived Afghan families and, uh, I'm not sure if you are serving them. Uh, do you see a larger pipeline coming down or are you? We, we, we have only about half of them here already. And we are scrambling as fast as we can. And we're working with Catholic charities. They find the housing. They get them enrolled in healthcare. They get the DTA. We teach English. We're going to help with employment. We've got about half of them here. And there's. 50% more coming. Catholic charities is licensed to resettle 60 in this region. That's not, that's over and above with Jewish family services in a century. A car alliance are doing further in Hamden County. Um, and it's intense. Many of them are preliterate. So, um, zoom classes really are not an option where offer, we'll be offering in person classes. The outpouring of volunteer support is amazing as well as our support. Um, and both the Catholic charity circles of care and our trained volunteers are supporting. And we're planning a job fair with the career center for them in about two weeks. That's great to hear. That's something that we never would have anticipated when we were awarding this grant. So glad you're able to meet that demand and, um, wish you all the best in that. Thank you. Thank you for the support. So Lori, I just have a curiosity question. Do you have staff or, um, folks in the community that speak the languages that these refugees are familiar with or speaking? Um, not really. I mean, they speak Dari and Pashto. Um, we have Iranian students and people, Iranians who speak Farsi can also understand Dari and Pashto. There are some Smith college students and a few other translators. The Accentria care has a language bridge, which is a translation service, which we have a contract with, but it's a good question. Um, translation is appreciated and welcomed. Um, not all of them are not able to speak English. So there's a range. Um, some of the students can speak English. Um, even some of the students who can speak, cannot write, can also speak. Um, but yes, translation is, um, is a challenge for sure. Thanks. Any belts have questions for Lori? Nate or Ben? No, I mean, you know, the, um, you know, every, all the social services for the 20 grand, you know, I've submitted their quarterly reports and they're spending down their activity. So, you know, we don't have any concern in terms of their progress or meeting the goals this time. Okay. Thank you so much, Lori. Great presentation. Thank you so much. Thanks for letting me go. Good luck on your next commitment. Okay. Should we just hop back up to the top of the list? Sure. Okay. Um, so who's representing Amherst housing authority Watson farms? Chad Howard is here. Hey Chad, you can unmute yourself. I think you should be able to speak. Hey Chad, your screen is still, um, still blank in it. I talking is permitted. So I don't know if you're, if you're trying or. Wait another second or two. Want to come back to him. Yeah, let's do that. Okay. Um, All right, Chad, we're going to put you on hold for now and come back. Valley CDC. Sure. Yeah. ID, you can unmute yourself. There you go. Hi, my name is Dee dice and I'm representing valley community development. And I have with me, Sarah Sargent, who is the brand new as of, I think two weeks now, a small business program manager. So which is why I'm giving this presentation because she's still getting oriented to all the details. So, uh, valley community development supports small business. And, um, certainly we know that. Not only in Amherst, but everywhere, small businesses have been so affected by COVID. And what we've seen in Amherst in particular is that our one on one, um, assistance has been really helpful to businesses. Um, most businesses. Really, you know, especially retail, um, home-based businesses, several of our businesses in Amherst are home-based businesses have been so affected, um, that, um, you know, they're looking for, you know, the ways that we can help them are, you know, grants and helping them, uh, procure grants, um, you know, working with them on different accounting systems. We're finding that many small business don't, they don't have any accounting system at all. And so when, um, you know, we have a lot of different grants, the PPP grant, and, uh, the COVID related grants came down. One of the first things they needed to do was, um, give us a P and L. And many businesses had no idea even how to do that or where to start. The other thing that we noticed it was really large was that, um, people lacked the computer skills to fill out forms. And because we've been working with the COVID grants with Amherst, um, someone, um, particular to helping small businesses with that. And he said to actually go to businesses, take pictures of their tax returns and then, um, file them in because people either didn't have the capacity or the knowledge to upload them on their computer. So we feel like our work is really important in trying to get them out to speed a little bit so that they are ready for the next grant and also through doing, working with the COVID grants, we just see the need as tremendous. Um, right now we, um, have started again with, um, running workshops. We're running every month a, uh, starting a small business workshop. And we also started with, um, the marketing. We did a, it's called marketing crash course, but we're in the, um, because of this transition with Sarah taking over or in the middle of, uh, creating a very robust, uh, calendar of workshops. So I think that's about it for wrap up. I welcome any questions that you have. And you give us a rough estimate of how many, um, how many businesses in Amherst have, uh, been part of your grant. I would say right now we've done one on one work with between 12 and 15 businesses. And so that certainly doesn't mean 12 to 15 hours. It means that's the number of businesses, you know, some businesses you work with, you know, five to 10 sessions. But the other people are two to three sessions. And because we really, uh, you know, we don't have a blanket program. I mean, it's all customized according to what they need and what stage they're at. Thanks. Okay. Let's have questions. I just wanted to add that because we've been working in Amherst with the COVID grants. We, it's really been a wonderful process because we have gotten to know a lot of the clients that are low to moderate income. And so, you know, we're helping them with all the technology in order to get to apply for the grant. And when they get the grant, um, then they need help deciding, you know, how to, you know, make sure it's all documented, of course, but also, um, how to use that in the best way possible. So it's really, um, keyed us into Amherst in general with a low to moderate, uh, income population. So it's been a really a nice dovetail between both programs. Thanks. Questions. Anybody else. Nate. Great. Well, thanks. And welcome, Sarah. I'm sure I'll be working with you. Yep. Yep. I look forward to it. Okay. Do you want to try back for Chad or? He emailed me and said he was having trouble. He said he's calling in. So, um, I'll try and try him again, just through the computer. And then we can see if, um, if that doesn't work. I'm going to promote you to panelists that might help actually. Just to see if that. You should be able to unmute yourself now. And I'll also allow, there's a one call in number. Allow that person to speak as well. I don't know if that's Chad, but. Can you hear me? Yes. Hello. Hello. Hi. Is this Chad? Yes, this is Chad. Great. Welcome. Sorry. I've been some trouble with my computer mic tonight. So I called in. And, um, so here I am. You're on. So Amherst. Um, this project is that as a construction project at the Watson farms development on main street and Amherst. Um, involving siding replacement across the entire development. Um, we, we have not did the project as we have indicated in our quarterly reports. We are running behind on the, on the project due to. You know, construction material inflation from the time that we had submitted our application. To now. And so we've been jumping through hoops to. Um, first try to see if there were alternate materials we could use to. Um, to kind of get us back within our, our initial budget. Uh, which proved to not, uh, work out for us. And then the second thing that we did was we just looked for some more money to try to mend the gap between. Um, where we were at and what we had for, for funds through CDBG and, uh, and our capital HUD grants. Um, our, our architect is, is, is, uh, estimating that our construction is going to be north of $300,000. And we have, you know, the $200,000, um, CDBG grant, as well as, um, a couple of $20,000 and, um, and HUD grants. So we do have federal reserves that, uh, in working with our accountant. Um, we can use towards this project to, to mend the gap and allow us to bid this project. Um, however, that's just going through an approval process right now. And with HUD and, uh, as long as we get approved for that, which, which we are being told that we will be able to, we'll be able to, uh, use those additional funds to bid this project. Um, immediately. We're thinking that the project needs 120 days for construction. And so we're, we're awfully close at this point to, um, you know, get pushing it right up to the end of the, you know, the 12 month cycle for the CDBG, uh, grant. So that is a concern of ours. Um, overrun on the, on the 12 months. Funding is not as much of a concern anymore. We do feel pretty confident that we can get the 100 to $150,000 additional from through our reserves to, um, to fund this project. It's a critical need. The project is a critical need and we can't, we don't really have very many options other than to complete the project. Um, so funding is not, not as much of a question anymore, but the 12 month cycle certainly is a, is a, is a question mark in our mind at this point. And would you remind me what, what's the, what's the end of the 12 month period? Well, that's just the, that's the, the, the grant itself from CDBG is, is runs on it from a, I think believe it's April 12. Okay. Was the, was the initial signing of the contract. So, you know, they're in the past. We had a one project several years ago overrun and, and we sought out extensions. Uh, which were granted, but I know that that's not always the case. And Nate probably knows a little bit more about potential extensions at this point. We're not 100% sure that we even need an extension, but we're very close considering and waiting 120 days for construction and not have having bid the project yet. Yeah, I think. So I was going to just jump in. I think the grant might go through June 30th. And so I was just trying to look that up. We could always just, you know, have a contract extension. So you don't have to rush it or have people work in really cold weather in the winter, depending on conditions. So, you know, I'll just, I can follow up tomorrow with you. Knowing that, you know, yeah, I mean, I've told the city that there's been some delay and so we haven't extended our grant with them yet. But so I think we have until through June of 22. So I can just confirm that. I think that would help tremendously because we are pretty much at a point where we're ready to bid. We've, we've, we've really planned this project quite thoroughly at this point considering the amount of changes and alterations we've explored and trying to, you know, fine tune our budget. So we're ready to bid. We're just waiting for the approval on the additional funds from through HUD through our reserve, federal reserves. And, and we could bid it, you know, get right about now so that's our only concern at this point is the, is the, it would be the 12 months and if that's if that's less of an issue then we're, we're, you know, we're excited to move forward with this. That's your time. Any questions for Chad. Just, just out of curiosity. Chad, what, what is the material what kind of citing are you still planning on. Well, originally we had we had requested for like a hearty, like a cement board type hearty plant type materials because that was what was existing and the committee and HUD don't, don't approve vinyl siding at family housing because of durability issues. However, with our budget constraints, we, we are, we, I guess we, I guess the approval of the of using a vinyl siding will be hand in hand with the approval of using our federal reserves to fill the budget, but our, we have shifted gears to go with a vinyl siding. I guess I have a question do you, I mean not that you have crystal ball but I know everything having to do with construction has, you know, gone up so much since the beginning of coven, but I'm wondering if you are aware at all things are leveling off or starting to come down a little bit price wise. Yeah, I haven't seen things come down you know we've been a lot of projects on our state and federal properties. I haven't seen anything quite start to come down but it does seem to have leveled off. It was, it was a really attaining the materials is still a big problem but the price of materials is is. It's not it's not it doesn't seem like things are still inflating dramatically at least. I think I think we should for us to bid the project once as soon as we get approval bid it and lock in a price at that point. Can you consider are you doing are you going to do a phone backed vinyl just for durability or is it just a straight vinyl siding. Well, we're using a rigid foam material. We wasn't the not the deciding itself is not is not insulated, but we are using insufficient on over the sheen. Other questions. So neat you'll follow up tomorrow. It looks like we can we can extend it through June Chad so that you know that's a simple, you know, yeah, that's great. Great. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Me does that cause you a lot of paperwork to extend the grant. No it's not saying the grant it's just saying the contract with the housing authority so that's not. It's nice to have a 12 month implementation window but they usually gives they give usually give us a little bit of cushion so because there's been some delays will just, you know, it's, they, you know, it's fine with housing authority. All right. Town of Amherst mill. I guess I can speak to that the. We're the product is extending the multi use path for me sadly road across 116 what you know there's an existing crosswalk, and then it's going across the bridge, the pedestrian bridge and then paving a walkway on the north side of no lane so there's an existing sidewalk and then there's some area where there isn't so it's creating a new, new and, you know, repaving existing one. It's going to be five to eight feet wide and connecting to graph park so that's that is the designs are almost finalized it's going to the conservation commission. We had, we had sought quotes for a surveyor over the summer to do it in a consultant but everyone has been so busy. It was just think their window was a lot longer than we were hoping so town staff and doing all the wetland work the surveying and everything. It's been really helpful so that's you know the Department of Public Works is undertaken that, and now they're going through permitting with the conservation commission, because some of the work is in the riverfront and the floodplain. I don't think it's in the floodplain but it's in the riverfront and so I don't think that'll be too, too much of an issue. There's a list to bid it in January and then you know have construction start in the spring and still be done by June 30. So, you know, we're still working toward the June 30 deadline. You know price escalation is a concern like Chad had mentioned and so there's a few pieces to the project that may need to be eliminated there was like an overlook section where there's like, you know a little spur of a trail worth it with some seating. There's a crosswalk that went across Mill Lane to connect the sidewalk to the south. You know that there's none of us really been discussed with public works but you know some of it is based on the bidding. When that happens you know are there things that we may need to eliminate just because you know of again right this budget was developed a while ago before it started increasing so much and so, you know, I met with public works the other day and they're confident that we still can do it with the budget we have but maybe some you know there may need to be some material substitution or some changes. Can I ask a question for some reason I don't have my notes from prior meetings up. Is this a carry over from the other milling project that this is a you know this is an independent. It's a carry over you know it was received in the we applied in 2020. And so it's only, you know, there's, you know, we had allocated 300,000 from the 20 grant for this project so it's only this one, only the 20 grant the 19 and 18 grant paid for East Hally road. And so it's not really, I mean it's not a carry over it's just you know kind of the continuation of that project but the funding isn't hasn't been carried over. Okay, I have to say a lot of I see a lot of use of that East Hally road. You know, multi use path so be great to have extended. Yeah. Yeah, we agree it's disappointing it's taken so long but um, you know like I said it was hard with coven and then coming out of coven it's been, you know, still a challenge finding consultants and, you know, outside help. There was a growth park last week with some small friends and I was blown away by how great the project is and how many people were there it's really an amazing place so to have this multi use, you know, path in place so folks can walk from all those housing complexes would be great. I mean, I mean they can walk now but walk confidently and safely. Right now I agree I was there a lot this spring, just, just with my family to and I was amazed at how busy was. It's really nice. Thank you. Any other questions for Nate on milling. The timer. You came in under time. All right. Amherst community connections. All right, let's see. Hi, good evening everyone. This is wayling greenie. How are you all. Thank you so much for having us here tonight. And I like to talk about money. We are getting a lot of money for the people we work with, and the money comes in the form of the benefits. So this particular season started March, when we started our CDBG funding for the cycle, we focus on how to get more public benefits to the hands of the people. So therefore, they can save the cold cash to pay the rent. So this strategy has worked. So I want to tell you about the benefits that we are able to obtain for them. As you know that the child tax credit is $2,000 to $2,500 per child depending on the age. That's a big federal grant federal program that we are working hard to get many families to be eligible for. So if a family that we work with has three children, they are getting about $6,000 to $7,000. And that's a lot of money they can use to pay for the rent. And the other thing that we help families obtain snap benefits because of the pandemic. The snap has become very generous. And they waive a lot of documentation requirements that we know how to do. So therefore a family used to be getting about $200 or $300 of snap benefits. Right now we are able to get them almost double the amount. And the third thing that I want to brag about is our emergency broadband benefits application program. Because of the COVID-19, the federal government approved so much funding for many benefits and EBB emergency broadband benefits. It's something families used to be hard pressed to get internet connection because as you might know, it costs upward of $60 for the very basic service. But thanks to the EBB benefit, we are able to secure for many families, so they are paying about $10 a month instead of the $60. So therefore the savings is $50. We're talking about. And the next thing that I want to talk to you about is that we are very happy. The raft program is in full swing. Thanks to the CHAPA grant that we just received yesterday. We will be putting out even more workers on the street to get families and individuals eligible to apply for raft. But so far since March this year, up until now, we have about $100 plus thousand dollars we are able to secure for our participants, families and individuals. And the average received about $3,000 either for the rent that they anticipate that might be behind due to loss of seasonal work or money that they owe to their landlord. So we are able to secure both money to pay forward to the landlord because of anticipation of drop in income and money to pay the back rent. So thanks to CHAPA's grant that we have just received notified yesterday that we will be hiring our community members. And primarily these are community members. They speak the following languages. Come here, Spanish, Creole. These are the populations in the town of Amherst have the need for raft financial assistance to pay rent or pay utility arrears. So we are training our community outreach workers. And today we had our first gathering. Talk to four mothers, they came with their children, and we have started the training, asking them to reach out to their own language community, and to help them interpret, educate them about the benefits that they could receive that you do not have to be behind on rent. You do not have to have received the 30 day notice to quit. No, you want to get the money and prevent homelessness prevent from going to housing court. So these are the things that we have been focusing on. So money is the key word, but preventing homelessness by stretching the public benefits dollars they can receive. In order to preserve the cash, it must have to pay the landlord. And the final point I want to share with you is that we also have received the DPH Department of Public Health state program called low threshold housing. So we have been provided with the grant to house 10 units, 10 people or 10 units for people who suffer from substance use disorders and or mental health diagnosis. So this is a statewide program and we are one of the seven agencies chosen in the statewide competition. So we are able to provide not only the housing, but a very decent case worker ratio one to 10, one case worker for 10 residents. So this is a very exciting program. We are engaging the community and we have collaborators, our local shelter or the Cooley Dickinson hospital or the BHN behavior health network. They have reached out to us. We are talking about collaboration using the bed, the units to house patients who are about to be discharged, but they are homeless. And they also suffer from the substance use disorder and or mental health disorder. So these are all wonderful programs that we have been doing, but we will not be able to do any of these. If it weren't because of our dedicated interns case workers. So our ratio is also very good. Every intern has 10 cases that they are handling. And altogether we have 10 case workers. So everyone is kept very busy. But we also have an outreach worker who does outreach, talking to about 300 also of households. Really, you've got about 20 seconds left. Okay, that's about the time I need. So therefore, everybody is working hard. And the goal is to prevent homelessness in the community. Thank you. Thank you. I have a question. You mentioned something it's raft RAFT. Correct. Can you explain what that what it stands for please. Okay, it stands for residential assistance for family in transition. Thank you. And it's meant to be for families who either be high on rent, or behind on utility, or they need money to move into their apartments and need to pay for first month last month and security. RAFT is run by wayfinders in our region. And we have great collaboration with the raft regional office wayfinders. So therefore we are relying on them to process applicants from our agency ASAP. And that has been very productive in the relationship. Great. Thank you. Questions for Wayland. Wayland one question. I know that kind of around the country people have been talking about upticks in evictions in our region. Have you felt that there has been an uptick or have we been able to avoid that concern recently. I want to say that we have been very blessed in this region. We are able to prevent a lot of homelessness. Thanks to the infusion of raft money. And also there is a regulation in the book right now. One of the issues is one of the three states that if you have applied for raft, then the judge cannot accept an eviction from the landlord. By giving our participants a confirmation letter from us stating this applicant has applied for raft and use that letter to give to the landlord. The landlord don't even bother to go to housing court to file for eviction because the money will come. You just have to wait. So therefore that has prevented a lot of homelessness or eviction notification. Thank you. Any other questions for Wayland. Ben. Committee. No. Okay. Thank you very much for such a detailed report. Thank you so much. Bye bye. Big brothers, big sisters. You know, they they're, you know, Jesse left as their executive director and I'm not sure there's anyone here right now to represent them. Jesse Cooley left. She did. Was that recent? That was pretty recent. I think I forget when I, when she, when I received that email. Didn't know. Yeah, I was surprised someone, someone said, oh, did you hear about it? And I was like, no, and then sure enough a week later. She sent me an email but I was, I didn't know that was happening. Wow. I think she would have, but I was surprised to let you know personally. Yeah, I guess it was on. I mean, we choose. Yeah, I mean, I guess it was in September that she was, you know, she let us know. And I think she was, you know, sometime in October or something that she would be leaving. Is there anybody is the other, isn't there another Jesse. She also left. So yeah, I don't, yeah, much maybe they weren't, if they were contacted no one, no one is here. No one. Okay. So do you end up reaching out to them to get a status report. Yeah, they submit quarterly reports and I'm surprised. I thought if we send it to just Jesse by accident or just the email would have been forwarded but they're still, I mean they still submit their quarterly report and then you know we saw invoices coming from them. So who's at the helm. Yeah, right now Tom had been stepping in. And Miranda McGuire, we're both kind of filling in. So are they board members who are those people. Tom and Miranda, they were their staff of big brother, big sister, someone was a case worker supervisor, I think Miranda was the same one so they were, they had both been, you know, involved in working with the mentors and then also supervising and you know doing things on their independently and being a manager of her program so they were both kind of filling in together. I just googled it. I just googled it now and apparently October 20th in the Gazette that said that Susan Nick Castro has been named the program director for BBBS of Hampshire County, succeeding Jesse Cooley. I guess that brings us to the Amherst survival center. All right, Lev, you can unmute yourself. Thank you. Can you hear me. Yes, perfect. Well thanks so much for having me. Really appreciate being able to check in with the committee about our progress on CDB goals so far has certainly been an incredibly busy and important six months or so. And since the start of this April contract, the Amherst survival center has continued our expanded COVID pantry programming that has included increased allocations of food grocery delivery delivery curbside pickup and expanded outreach. And in September, we also reopened our onsite pantry to in person full choice shopping, which has just been amazing for anyone that's familiar with the center's layout. We're now using the space that previously was dedicated to fresh food distribution. And we also knocked out the walls of a storage closet in the food pantry proper and has that has, I don't know, tripled the actual shopper space for the food pantry, which has enabled people to use much larger carts to accommodate the much larger allocations of groceries and to also have people spaced out to be able to shop more safely and that has just been so delightful talk about just the simple pleasures of being able to pick out all of your own food people have just been so happy whether it's getting to select like specific snacks that a picky kid likes or planning for specific meals. People have just been really excited for that. And certainly that is always our philosophy that of course people should be able to pick the food that works the best for them and their families and what they will actually and so we're really thrilled to have that. And but it's also been really interesting we were actually anticipating a larger shift from people who are on delivery back towards the in person shop and we have certainly seen some drop off there have some people been some people who had been getting delivery or had been getting curbside, who are now coming on site and shopping for themselves but it's been fewer people that have made that shift, then we had anticipated and that's really because what we keep hearing is that the speed and not having to wait in line and not having to get out of your car if you have kids in the car rushing home from work of curbside or just the convenience of delivery has made such an enormous difference for people. I've heard repeatedly that folks have said oh I used to only make it every couple of months because that would be when my work schedule would work but now I know that I have reliable access to food every month that's you know this large grocery delivery that's coming every month so that has really just solidified our commitment to maintaining these expanded programs because the access of their providing is huge. So our goal for this 12 month contract period was to provide free monthly groceries for 1500 to 2000 low income Amherst residents and to date we have provided more than 250,000 meals worth of groceries to 1529 Amherst residents and that includes 424 kids and 234 seniors. And I was really we, over the summer I guess in into September we completed a pretty extensive survey of food pantry shoppers, and lots of really important feedback and lessons learned and information about things that people want more of and just really great learning opportunities for us but it was also really important to see that 96% of our food pantry shopper said that due to the Amherst survival center food pot food pantry that they were more food secure and 95% shared this food enabled them to repair healthy meals at home. And 99% of the survey respondents said that they would recommend the Amherst survival center to a friend. And that to me just, I think that might be the most important metric almost to me in the whole survey because I feel like what that gets that is people feeling like a space or a service is meeting their needs that they are being treated well that the food that they're getting is high quality we also asked about all those things and there were a lot of experts there as well but it talks about an overall of if you think that this is sufficient enough that you're going to be willing to say, Hey, this is a place that I go and access food and it's really great why don't you come with me, or why don't you go to other important pieces. Oh, I think I skipped over when I was sharing the numbers of those 1529 Amherst residents that we've served so far this year, 794 have received grocery delivery so we've really more or about half of those we're just over half of those Amherst residents that are being served are in fact being served by delivery and continues to be a really one of the other pieces that we formalized just within the last couple months was maintaining our expanded kids boost program so this was a program that's been in place in the food pantry for several years providing additional groceries for families with children. During the months when there were school vacations to make up for the loss of school provided meals. And so when COVID hit we expanded that because students weren't out of school for a week they were out of school all months every month, and we made that across the board. But we got such positive feedback about that and we're continuing to hear again through our survey and also through anecdotal evidence that it really was families with kids who are most likely to tell us that they needed more food. So we've just institutionalized that at this point and have that expanded kids boost. It's all month every month for every family with children ages zero to 18. So really just expanding that access and making sure that families have good, high quality, healthy food, as well as also kid friendly items things that older kids and teens can prepare for themselves, those kinds of things. We are still working on our plan to increase to the full two weeks of food. Our goal for this year CDBG was to maintain the recently increased allocation of eight to 10 days worth of food. And that is up to we're solidly at 10 or more days per household. Some many household sizes are actually already getting the full two weeks, and we're working to get that up for everybody and figuring out those plans. So, 20 seconds left. Okay, great. Thanks so much. The last piece that I'll just say is around our ongoing efforts to increase the sourcing and availability of culturally appropriate foods. And this has been something we've been really focused on with our local Latinx community, something we're working on now with our local Chinese and Chinese American communities. And the, our recent welcoming of many Afghan evacuees and refugees to our local community have really prioritized that, both in terms of language access, as well as halal food, halal meats, other specific items and having that available so that's another key priority for us at this time. Thank you. Wow, so much going on questions. Great question. So, love, you mentioned that you've increased the child, the food for children. And they're, they're in school so when they're out of school will you increase it further. That's a great question. At this point we have just instituted that families with kids and it's really I mean we do include additional kids specific items. But especially for anyone shopping on site with choice it's just additional points for produce and additional points for protein and additional milk and additional so it's just extra food for those families with children. I believe that the bigger shift for us is really just recognizing that those were food pantry shoppers that were identifying that they need more food and kind of supporting families with accessing that on a more consistent basis. Other kids are specific are also eating school provided meals, but you raise a really good question. I'd hope that the additional food that we're providing now will help to cover that in terms of months with like a week long school vacation. But I think as we look ahead to next summer. That is a very likely place where you raise a really good point in terms of increasing further than and we'd certainly be open to that. And so you're letting folks in now to shop and is, are you, I'm sure you're limiting the number of people that can come in at a time and not line up like in the past. So are you managing with your existing hours just serve everybody because you can only let X number of people in at a time. Another excellent question. So what we're seeing is your, your question alludes to several things which have been accurate so yes, we have still have extensive COVID safety protocols in place. Everyone is masked people are actually still waiting outside so they're just coming in when they're ready to shop. And as I mentioned, the pantry is set up very differently and with a much larger space. So we're able to provide adequate distancing so that folks are actually both have I think kind of a less crowded shopping experience and also have the space that they need to navigate safely. In terms of proximity and COVID. In terms of the issue of ours, the interesting piece that's happened is while we are serving more people. We continue to serve so many people through delivery and curbsides that we're actually serving about half as many people as we used to onsite in the choice pantry it's a little bit more than that but I don't know maybe 60% I have to run the numbers to be exact. And so, that has been, that's an important factor and then the other piece is that we have also added want to be cautious for any members of the public or listening we have, and we have a clear end time that is similar to what our end time was previously. But we now as long as people are registered by then we then have a buffer for them to finish their shop. So essentially, there is more time that allows that shopping. Whereas that used to all be rolled into the open hours. If that makes sense the way that I'm explaining it. It has been a challenge in November in particular people get more food because of Thanksgiving, and we also November is always our busiest month in the food pantry so we've been running into some challenges there so we actually we just extended that buffer a little bit and are still using some staff hours and I think we'll see if more people continue to come onsite we may need to expand our hours and our exploring options options for that so I think it's really important that people have the time to carefully select the the food that I think the limiting factor or what slowing people down is less about the number of people in the building and it's actually more that they're leaving with twice as much food as what they used to get at the at the pantry and so that takes more time to pick out, particularly the produce like they're leaving with so much more produce it's like and we have really good stuff and so they're just it takes time to decide what you want which is what everyone should have as the opportunity to pick what they want. I think that's something that we're working on operationally is to make sure that that's feasible. Thanks. Any, anybody else have questions. Yes, love. We hear a lot about food price inflation and supply chain disruptions and you're very creative and how you source food for the pantry but are you finding any disruptions or you know constraints and supply. That's a great question. Well, the first thing that I'll articulate is that the food price implications are having a really dramatic impact on who needs to access the food pantry and also the amount of food that a person snap benefits or other benefits at the store and thus the the issue of more food so I think the reason you know over the last several months increases there have really up the ante for us in terms of figuring out how to increase the amount of food that people can come and increase the frequency with which people can come etc, which we very much want to do it's a matter of the operational capacity to source that additional food and to have us open enough etc but it's something that we're working really hard on. So our own sourcing constraints. I'll just give a shout out and an enormous thank you to the food bank of Western Massachusetts, they have been absolutely unbelievable over the last 18 plus months so ever long we've been in this mess. In terms of their work, both just very directly and operationally in terms of getting food and increasing the amounts that we're able to get from them, but also their work and partnership with member agencies in terms of advocacy to the government and the federal government around me FAP and USDA foods. So we so far have not experienced severe supply chain disruptions in terms of what we're able to access. I think that sometimes we get more of something and you don't get something else for a while but in terms of overall quantities we've been able to do that. And we've also have been hearing and continue to hear that it's like well oh we don't know when there's going to be this change with the USDA like they're keeping these question marks that are like a month down the line. So have lots of plan B's and C's and D's for various ways that we may be able to address the shifts in that state and federal policy in terms of that food, because that will have an utterly enormous impact on us in any big shifts there. I mean we, I should know these numbers off the top of my head but I would say, I don't know, probably spend 95% of our food budget on 15% of our food or something like that. Like it's very specific items it's that we purchase fresh milk, because that's something that over and over again we heard from families that they didn't want to sell staple milk. And that's all we can get from the food bank or we purchase fresh produce to make sure we have produce that's available year round that's good quality or we purchase specifically culturally appropriate items to make sure that we have course staples that appeal to and meet the needs of our diverse community. So I think those are the pieces whereas you know we're never buying their course staples that we can always get donated and that's a real bulk of it. So real shifts and what was available through those systems will definitely have a have a big impact on us but so far we've kind of been able to mitigate the ups and downs there. I have a question that you mentioned before something about, I think in response to the question about having people come in more and needing more hours that you would would maybe need to staff up. When you say that is that about volunteers or is that actually increasing staff time and paid staff time. It would have to be both. The other thing they'll mention that maybe of interest to some members of the committee is not specifically related to the food pantry but we also in September at the same time that we opened the food pantry for in person shopping. We also opened the space that was from formerly and will again be our community store to be a warming center specifically for individuals experiencing homelessness and we've, and we've since expanded those hours to try to accommodate the majority of the time that the most congregate shelter at the church is closed so that people have a place when that closes in the morning to be able to come to us and so that's not something that we've ever had before and it was something actually that before was in conversation with Craig stores and trying to figure out if there was a better way for us to collaborate and provide that so that feels like a really important accomplishment to have longer hours of access and that includes both the warm space to be inside we have lots of calls and phone and charging stations but it also it means that we had now have extended hours for access to the shower and laundries and lockers and that's been very important now and will be really really important in February. So, but I, I do feel confident. I think we've learned a lot over the last year plus I feel confident with our covert protocols etc that we're able to do that in a manner that's still frankly pretty conservative safety wise and and will enable those operations to keep going. But that and potential increases in pantry hours definitely would require both increased staffing and volunteer time it's not one or the other questions and questions anybody else. I have another question. Another question. So I follow you on social media and I get all your communications and I know you've had a fair amount of staff turnover that Kara left and you've had food pantry managers come and go and has that impacted the efficiency in the way you work and has a customer any setbacks because there has been. It's been during a difficult time. No, I appreciate you asking that. Well, Carol leaving was a major challenge she had been with the organization for 14 years and really was just ready for a new chapter in her her career actually doing things other than other than finance so I feel really appreciative of her of staying basically through the heart of covert as she decided to do because that was a really important contribution so on the fiscal end of things. I personally in terms of my own workload and incredibly incredibly incredibly relieved that we just hired a new director of finance and admin who I think is fabulous Phil Gilfeather Gritton. And we were actually really it was fabulous Kara agreed to stay on in a very temporary interim capacity just doing our bookkeeping so between her and an outsourced nonprofit accounting firm I think we were well covered with that. I just learned more than I had ever known previously about the ins and outs of our audit process and some other things over over the last several months. And in terms of our program staff. It's interesting we had, we had some particularly significant turnover right at the start of coven we had several staff retirements folks who and I think frankly retirements that were absolutely hastened by the pandemic and not wanting to be in person at a place like the emmer, you know at a place serving the public and the emmer survival center. And in a dramatic expansion of our staff. So we have continued to have, you know, there has been some turnover but it has not been at a level that brings significant concern to, to me or the board ongoing, in terms of just some amount particularly among we had so many new staff who started at the same time there's kind of just a reality that some people are going to choose to move on to other other pieces. So really important learning lessons there in terms of and not all easy ones in terms of just really, you know, we grew really really really fast. We doubled our operations in a couple of months and doubled our staff in less than a year. And with that came some growing pains and some challenges and some mistakes that I made some things that you know we had to re calibrate in terms of, you know, getting to the right people doing you know each in the right places but I, I really can't speak Kylie enough about the team that we have it's been incredible to watch folks really grow into their roles and just take fully take hold of the vision for the center and kind of what we can be in our hope for what we're providing for folks who are coming and I think we're kind of just actually feel like we're we're hitting the stride with folks who have now now been here for around a year or just over a year and and really seeing that happen so it has certainly. Yes, they're, I don't want to minimize the importance of those transitions they've been really significant and some of them challenging and also feel really confident in in our team. Thanks, anybody else have questions. All right, thank you so much love thank you for the good work that you do and thanks to everybody for all the good work that they do. And we're on to family outreach. Laura. Francine is here. Okay. Hi good evening everyone. Laura had another commitment so she asked me to report this evening to the committee. I'm the program manager for family outreach of Amherst. I also may run and provide direct service to our community housing support program, which is funded by the CDBG grant. And the main goals of our program are advocacy with landlords, assistance with rental arrears and ongoing support for tenants who are in danger of losing their housing in Amherst. In the second quarter, we served 96 beneficiaries, and in the second quarter we served 105 beneficiaries beneficiaries so it's been pretty consistent. In the quarters we definitely applied for raft for many, many people was a total of 57 beneficiaries totaling in both quarters to apply for raft, which is the residential aid for families and transition to pay some significantly high rental arrears we're talking you know, eight to nine months of rents that were at like $1300. And one of the persons I applied for, you know, owed a total of like $24,000 in rent. So luckily, raft was awarded, you know, billions of dollars so they up usually raft with pre pandemic would only cover like $4000 max. Now they're covering up to the 20 and even more. And if the family is eligible that particular family, they did pay off her rental arrears, and then they also gave her a three month stipend of full contract rent to help her get back on her feet because they, you know, they they're being realistic where, yes, we're going to pay this money but if she's not back to work full time. She's not going to be able to sustain the rent. So it's, it's, it's really beautiful that they've been able to expand what they're helping they're really remarkable I mean we would have so many homeless families without that program. So as far as we also provide court advocacy, and since the pan since the moratorium I should say ended. There has been a little bit of an uptick of folks getting court summons is. But the courts luckily the Massachusetts courts are in favor of tenants and realize what the pandemic has created for the housing crisis. And so what happens I've been able to attend within these two quarters seven court zooms with families. What happens in those hearings is a continuance is automatically granted for three months, allowing that family to apply for rental arrears for draft. Then they will come back in three months to revisit how it's going, did they apply, did they get all their verifications and so forth. And then again it's going to be continued for another three months. They're working in the favor of the tenant because now we're at six months. But meanwhile, yes, there has to be a plan in place for them to be paying what they can towards their actual rent. So then they realize the court realizes raft also they're overwhelmed and they are paying a lot of they cover Hampton and Hampshire County. You know they know the process is long it takes it could take six months or more before landlord will see any money. But the courts are working with the tenants and not allowing the landlord to evict they have to wait. If that's part of the agreement if they're getting wrapped you must wait, and you cannot evict them. So that's that's definitely working in the favor of our tenants. Also another challenge that I've been seeing a large uptick on our families that are getting section eight vouchers. I'm working right now with a woman who recently got a section eight voucher through Cooley Dickinson a program at Cooley Dickinson, and she was behind in rent. So we apply for raft she's been approved. But you only have 90 days to use this voucher and she wanted to stay in Amherst so we cannot find a three bedroom in the payment standard for voucher in Amherst. The housing stock just does not bear affordable housing to match up with the payment standard just doesn't exist in unfortunately and not only in Amherst it's in the surrounding towns all over the state really it's an issue. Luckily I did find her three bedroom that matched the payment standard and it was actually with her current landlord. It was right over the Amherst line so it's very close you know to Amherst it would be Belcher town though. But the problem now is her landlord refuses to let her transfer to this unit until he gets the raft money. And that could take six months and then she's going to lose this voucher she doesn't put it into play. And we're not going to find another three bedroom in this area for her to utilize that voucher. So, you know, we're looking I'm trying to get, you know, see if there's a loophole in her lease. We're going to see, you know, if we can just get in people support and she's involved with like churches and there's other people get Mindy Dom involved and maybe reach out to the landlord to say, you know, cut this woman a break, you're going to get the money. You're always going to get the money once we transfer her to this three bedroom, because the portion of the rent will be paid by the voucher program so it's like a win win for him. And I understand, you know, the landlords are struggling with, you know, their, their businesses as well. So we have to be realistic on that but you know just now the challenge is trying to mediate with this landlord to see if he'll, you know, cut this woman a break and transfer her and then she'd be able to sustain the rent because if she stays in the unit she then she can't return to work right now because she has a three year old and no childcare. So he's not going to get his rent if she keeps her in this unit either. You know, so that that's just my current case that I'm, you know, the things we're seeing with our tenants are becoming more complicated than normal. I guess post pan, you know, post pandemic and I guess post moratorium ending. You know, the cases are just becoming a bit more complicated. They're not just so simple as just plain rental arrears either. I'll give you like a 20 minute, 20 second warning. Sure, no problem. So I guess I wanted to end on another. I know everything's kind of the negative so I just wanted to share a quick little positive story of a family I've been working with who throughout the pandemic you know had her struggles was, you know had on it was on unemployment, and out of work she returned to work but throughout the pandemic I provided her resources on home ownership because she's paying like $1,600 for a two bed three bedroom apartment in Amherst. So she actually followed through we worked really closely together and she was able to complete a first time home buyer program, and she has closed down a house. And actually on Monday was the closing, and she will be paying less than she was paying in rent for a home. It is not an Amherst is the, you know the downside. It's in Holyoke, but she'll still be an Amherst or you know she works at Amherst college so so still be, you know part here in town but you know that's that's a win win for her as well I mean, she's going to be paying mortgage at 1600 1500 less than she was in rent. So, I'm really happy for her and you know she really followed through and she was one that saved those stimulus checks for her down payment on a house she played, you know she played her cars right so she's able now to be successful I'm really proud of her so that's just I want to end on a positive and not all of the negative of, you know, housing crisis in Massachusetts. So, that's it. Thank you. Thank you for leaving us with an upbeat story. Anybody have questions for Francine. Okay. I think this concludes the review of the ongoing activities from fiscal year 2020 and brings us on to the item number two comments on the outcome effectiveness and ways to improve the CDBG process. Thank you so much for having me with me and Ben from your perspective I mean you're the ones that have to write the, you know, take everything right it get it out in time and how is the timeline work for you. Good, you know there's five members in attendance so we haven't we've lost a few members in from the audience who presented and maybe left. I don't have this topic I don't want to say it's perfunctory. I think there's always ways to change the you know change the process or improve I think you know every year we discuss whether or not, you know, currently funded activities or ones that receive funding and consecutive years may not get funding or reduce funding or do we wait priorities differently. So that's some of it. That could be part of the discussion in terms of the outreach. You know, I think we do run a pretty good program. You know, one year we did a survey to get community input in terms of helping develop priorities so I think, you know, on those lines you can consider what our other outreach methods in terms of trying to engage you know we have engage some other platforms, we could use to try to seek public input during the community priority, you know, phase of the process. You know I think I will say that the organizations we fund, you know, do implement their programs well so we don't have an issue with necessarily with you know extensions or running into problems you know sometimes a town project may go longer, you know, or you know one may go longer but I feel like we, you know I think the committee does a good job through the proposal review process of selecting activities that are capable of implementing their program and so there's a block grant round table it was just kind of local communities in Western Mass and it's grown to be more communities that receive block grant money and so at a recent meeting the other week some communities were saying that they still are trying to finish up their 18 and 19 years old and so, you know, we've been in that position where we've had project, you know grants that have been extended for the full three years, and we haven't lately and I think that's you know credit to the review of the committee and the process we have to select the activity so in terms of implementation I feel like we do a pretty good job I think some of what DHC could be asking is you know do we, you know other ways we could improve our public kind of process at the beginning or you know if we think so I mean I know you know it's more like a, you know it's a local decision, you know DHC hasn't, hasn't said that we need to they just ask that communities do this kind of self reflection throughout the year. I think what's always comes up when we have these the meetings with the deliberating over the proposals is, I don't like to use the word fairness but you know, is it equitable for organizations to get funded multiple years in a row, even though we may be having the greatest impact in the community. And should we give an organization a year off so we could fund so this the underdog so to speak, who doesn't necessarily get the weight when we're in the scoring process so it's a conundrum that we face every year so I don't know if this is a good time probably a good time to discuss it. Or at least you know consider that when we meet again in March, you know that that's, you know that could be a topic of discussion or you know we can meet again in January it doesn't have to be, you know we could set it we can set another meeting date to discuss a few of these. Yeah, I see, do you raise her hand. Sure, do you can unmute yourself. I think that you guys do a great job and that I just wanted to tell you this is the first year that Valley Community Development has been awarded money for the micro program. And I'm, you know, I think you guys do a great job in dividing up the money and even though, you know, our numbers certainly pale compared to the number of, you know, meals given out and, you know, I appreciate that in that you know helping small businesses help the community in general and help with hiring and so our reach is wider than the existing numbers. And, you know, from a reporting perspective. I mean, Nate you've been great as far as reminding us when the reports are due, and that they're not so cumbersome and hard that it really, you know, detracts from our mission and what we do. I just wanted to thank you and from my perspective you guys are doing a great job. And Valley's really appreciative because we are a new person in, you know, a new recipient. Thank you. Thanks, D. Sure. Yeah, I have something and I apologize for this weird light I tried to move. There are a lot of people in the other room and I can't find a place where I'm not. We can still see you and hear you just a little funny, but we still hear you. Fuzzy with like a beam of light in front of my face. Yeah. I, so I wonder if and I don't have it fully formed but if there's a way to think about ranking, doing our ranking in categories rather than everybody against everybody and also possibly setting aside some money. You know, whether it's specific amount or just knowing that one of the grants we give would go to a brand new organization. I think what I really appreciated about like the mobile market is that it saw a need in town and it created this program that met this need. And of course it's not as well established as anyone else because it's just here right so they can't be sort of as impressive maybe or and we don't have a sense of it being necessary for the community in the same way that maybe we think about like a survival center family outreach, but I think it's really important that we support organizations that are filling gaps that they're identifying and that are that are clearly there. It may not happen every year but I just think that that's maybe we just make that be a another priority that we look at of, you know, a new gap filling or something I don't know but I think it's important that we encourage new organizations to come in and to meet needs that maybe didn't exist or just weren't hadn't been identified yet. And I guess I guess I mean I again you know I haven't thought it all the way through but I think the idea that we're sort of ranking the survival center at that we're just looking at that final number. Right and so rather than saying okay these are the programs that help these, this, you know that that fill this particular need these are the programs that fill this particular need and rank those amongst each other. I think that the scoring would probably still be the same. I'm just comparing the survival center to the Center for new Americans because that's really an apples and oranges comparison. So instead it's all the programs that do work with immigrants all the programs that do work with and I know there's crossover programs that focus on food, you know, whatever. However, we decided to to identify those as, as categories, and maybe we said community priorities right so we have like, right, you know, certain you know so there's like seven you know youth mentoring and so my thought is that the committee want to that maybe we wait those those categories so that then is one way to do I think the category thing Becky you're saying could be difficult because what if you have seven different categories of proposal we can only fund five and so typically when we would you know when the town does this we it's a comparative criteria across the board of any proposal that submitted not breaking them down by specific categories and then comparing just like say three food and nutrition proposals or two, you know, you know, say like education adult education program is usually a comparison between all the proposals submitted is the way that you know, that's how we did it last time I guess I'm just thinking about how to think about things a little bit differently I guess and I don't, you know it would maybe result in the same or end up with the same result I'm not sure but just it felt like it was a little bit. There was this sense of sort of trying to figure out what's more important, somebody being homeless somebody being hungry somebody needing a job, and there's just no way to do that and maybe I mean it's maybe it's just an impossible task, but maybe it would be easier to talk about the the organizations in in their priority group rather than comparing to that do such drastically different work. I kind of wish there was some hard statistics, some sort of objective analysis of what the need of the community was is not not to discount what the feedback was from the community but just to give sort of a more, even if it's not 100% accurate, some sense the hard, you know where does it rubber eat meet the road, you know, and that's something I sort of missed as far as trying to come in and figure out what, you know, my function here was. But it is an interesting idea I like the idea that Becky I think brought up about. I mean we have one category, you know one thing where you just say this has to be new of new person like every five years you can reapply for it but that's it has to be somebody. And it gives people a chance to make an impact and come in and do something new that you know maybe shakes things up a little I don't know that anyway, that's. I also say that Ben and I met with the mobile market for example after their proposal and I think that, you know sometimes it's difficult to fund an agency. When they first apply because they may, you know they may not actually be ready to receive block grant money just in terms of what you know the block grant program has some strict regulations and so I think, you know what we do is encourage an applicant to apply again and working with the mobile market I think that you know there are some questions that we asked that staff we. I think you were there right we clarified and they said that some of their other. They applied to other programs had similar questions and so you know ironically that program. You know they're mentioning you know it's food but it's also a jobs program and it didn't fit neatly into a block grant category unfortunately for them. And some of it is that the block grant program, you know is based in regulations that are older decades old, many decades old but. So I think some of it is, you know as a person applicant they're just not familiar with that so the next time around if they apply hopefully we've helped them so that they can. So, you know, strategize and you know develop a proposal that can be more competitive so I don't, you know I think, saying that we just fund one new organization every year may not make sense because I sometimes I don't think they're ready. But I, you know, yeah I think, you know the committee has talked about is there ways to make it, whether it's more equitable or just, you know, fun different activities at some point and so you know there's probably a few different ways to do that. I would say about the categories is that. I mean obviously I'm not as experienced as many of you but so many of them seem to me to cross a lot of categories and so how would we categorize them or would we ask the agency to say to declare a category in which they want to be considered I mean that feels challenging to me to categorize them when there's just such a. Because all a lot of them my perception is that they are looking they're scanning the horizon and they're increasing what needs to be addressed within their program and so they may shift their own mission not mission but specific activities so it seems to me if we really want to fund some new ones. We might think about, you know, only funding agencies for X number of years and then having a break. So much to consider. Matt, you're going to get your hand up. Yes. I also love the idea of kind of new ideas and that mobile market was a great idea I loved what they were doing and the things that I struggle with is, I guess two fold one is that we have this kind of, you know, five social service projects. So that makes it really hard for us, you know, to, you know, give a small amount seed money to something new that's starting up. So that's frustrating. The second is I think we have a requirement that the proposal be either a new activity or continuation of an activity that we already funded. So, unless I'm reading this wrong, Nate you can tell me but if if we're funding someone, you know, for a number of years, and then we stop funding them, then when they reapply is that to be a new program. It's not really a continuation of something because we stopped funding them. So does that make it difficult for an agency, if we stop funding them to come up with something totally new something different to get money again. Yeah, I think the regulations they knew or expanded or continued so I think, and then there's a there's a you know a supplanting requirement to that if they receive state or federal funds 12 months prior to the application, they can't use you know they can't, you know, take the blocker money and put it in place of their other funding so I think it does, you know, it can be difficult for an organization that receives blocker money, say for, you know, a few years and then not to receive it because they may have already built some, you know, some program and so then they either have to reduce their program, right, you know, staff or whatever and then when they apply for blocker money would be an expansion again. I would say that they filled the gap and funding and it's a continuation of what was an expanded program I think there's ways to, so they don't have to, you know, you know, have this kind of literal interpretation but I do think sometimes, you know, communities say to that they like a blocker money, at least some every year because you can plan right if you get some planning money one year than the next year you can do the construction or the capital project but if you get money. You know, practically and infrequently right inconsistently it's hard to actually do projects because you don't know when you'll receive funding next and so you know the mini entitlement program is a three year designation. For instance, and I think DHD realize that it's nice to have that window where communities can have three years of a fund of you know known funding so that they can then plan for projects. Yeah, I mean I think the difficulty is if we look at the last five years, it's a, you know, there's, you know, not as you know there's a limited number of activities that have been funded, or you know similar activities. The other thing I was going to just raise and because I'm not quite sure what the best way to do it is but obviously we have two empty spots I guess on the committee. And I wondered what the process is, whether there's outreach done to bring in a diversity of voices, and it would seem to me that this would be a great committee for somebody who is low income for diversity of race of ethnicity of people who use some of the programs that we're funding, and how best to outreach to fill positions. Other than those of us who just randomly look to see what positions there are in Amherst that we can help with. That's good will remind the town manager's office they sometimes put out a press release and do some you know there's some public outreach. And I think the difficulty is if someone is associated with an organization that they may need to accuse themselves during the discussion and review so, you know, if I think, you know, the irony is right if you have someone with experience and say they, you know they volunteer, you know, associated with the group that submits a proposal then they are in a tough position. But yeah, and I think we can, I know the town manager's office works to recruit, you know, a kind of a diverse set of a volunteer so we can. I had spoken with Angela a while ago and they were looking at it. And I said, well, this was right, you know, in September and I said, you know, it's not worth at this point because the proposals do, you know, and the best time to do would be, you know, now actually right would to be at someone on board by January so we'd have new members. When we start the next process so I think it's a good reminder to to, you know, pick up on that. And now that I've done all that talking I really do have to go. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for these suggestions and I think they're maybe we should have another discussion sometime in January to kind of, I don't know expand upon what everybody suggested tonight it's late it's Thursday night everybody's kind of like done. But I love that everybody's been thinking about this because now's the time to create change before we go into the next funding cycle. Oh, Leves had her hand raised Gail. Oh okay sorry I didn't see it. I love you can unmute yourself. I'm going to promote you to panelists just because we're not hearing you maybe that'll help if we. Hi. Sorry what I was trying to say when you can hear me was is that is this appropriate are you is public comment allowed at this juncture in the meeting. Yeah, we're still in a public hearing, we know although the committee's been doing most of the discussing. Um, so I want to recognize I so appreciate the committee's consideration of this issue because I think this is an incredibly important like set of questions in philanthropy right now that you all are grappling with in terms of how does one define impact and how do you define readiness for funding and does somebody I just had a conversation with an old friend who's a colleague in New York talking about this like long and involved process with a program officer of a funding foundation for this new innovative program that they were doing and then like the very last stage they were like sorry you don't have enough data yet. Like of course because it's new so I just I want to commend the committee for grappling with this. And I also want to acknowledge sort of the potential. I can't pretend to be like an unbiased subject on this as a current recipient of funding, but I guess the, the two key pieces that really come out for me as I'm listening to you all are that first on the issue of new programs is that I think that it would be really important if the committee wishes to dedicate specific resources towards new programs that that be identified as programs meeting new needs or programs doing different things in different ways. So while, for example, while the mobile market has been is it was a new applicant CDBG, they are a part of a very long standing organization. And so I guess I would just as a community member would say like, yes, they're doing something totally incredible and I'm enormous fan of the mobile market and their impact has been amazing what they've done is like really really remarkable. And should that be considered differently than for example, it sounds like I heard wayling mentioned earlier about ACC is doing a new program around support I believe it was around raft assistance or some other assistance and so both of those are in new programs that are a part of long standing organizations. So I guess I would just encourage the committee to recognize that there may be, whether or not something is new to CDBG doesn't necessarily change whether it's a new organization. And that a very long standing organization can still do new and different things to meet new needs and need that sort of like startup funding to enable that process. So another piece that I would just ask the committee to consider and I mentioned this I've mentioned this a couple of times in my comments is that I think that it's really important for any nonprofit. How many exist to exist our function is not to be around the function of a nonprofit is to serve a specific mission is to have impact on against some measurable objectives of what its mission is there to do. So, I would just encourage the committee to feel really strongly that it's I don't see community funding as a matter of sort of doling out cookies to those that are more and less deserving. So, I believe that the community development block grant funds have come to the town of Amherst in order to achieve a set of objectives as laid out by DHCD and then as determined by the community priorities and that this committee's role is really to determine how best to allocate those funds in order to meet those objectives. And I think that's important in a lot of levels I think that's important in terms of the capacity to support new organizations that may not have as advanced administrative structures but can still provide really incredible impact. And I think that's important in terms of providing you know an organization that's been around for a long time but hasn't necessarily met CDBG reporting requirements but can really provide that impact and what support could be provided, and it also could be a metric around you know supporting an organization that has been a CDBG funded program and continues to provide that impact but I feel like it's just, I guess I would just encourage a conversation that is less about like the organizations and is about the impact for Amherst residents who are living with low and moderate incomes. And I have no doubt that that's where the communities like in or this committee's interests are totally at heart but I guess just kind of like from the nonprofit perspective. I feel like, you know, to some extent right like we're all businesses where I'll try and to like meet our, I mean we're nonprofits but like we're trying to figure out how to meet payroll and how to, you know, whatever buy the stuff we need to buy and you know pay our electric bill and get to the end and all of that stuff but there's also this piece of like we're here to do this broader impact and that I think is really what we should all be measured against and held accountable to by the community that if we're not providing that impact, then we then those resources need to be directed to another entity who can. I just want to respond quickly by just saying I think that our scoring mechanism allows us to be objective about the proposals and I think this year we had that lengthy discussion about how important it was to fund different entities, you know, youth food insecurity and folks facing homelessness and we had that really trying discussion and ended up not funding the mobile food pantry because we wanted to have an array. Across the board so given your last kind of summation I think that we're trying to do that too so that we feel like we're doing our job in supporting all the different needs or that people have addressed in their needs in the community. Thank you for your comments. So, should we plan on meeting again to kind of hash out some of these suggestions that were made this evening. Yeah, I think we could have a motion to close the hearing, we could just, you know, a good way to see if there's any more comments or so a few members in the audience and then. I think we could then set another meeting date. You know we get tentatively have some, you know, and, you know, early to mid January I guess, whenever the committee, you know, we want to make a motion to adjourn this portion of the meeting. So moved. Nate, did you not did you second. Okay, did you get those that we have to record that on paper recording it is sufficient. I'm taking that I'm taking this. Okay. So do we want to propose a date or do you want Ben to send out a zoom with a couple of options or what's the best way to look at the next first meeting of 2022. I thought it was helpful when Ben sent out by email that that seemed to work well for us it seemed to me with a couple of choices. Since Becky is not here right now so with that to. Yeah. Oh, maybe throw out some Thursday options. Okay. Yeah, I have a the only thing I can't do the third and I can't do the 19th. I'm sorry those are just hard days for me. You know that already amazing. Yeah, my wife's birthday is the 19th. There you go. Self preservation. Yeah. Yeah, and I think rounding out this committee with folks that don't look like us would be really helpful as well. We'll try. Okay. What's left, Nate. Sarah just raise your hand. Okay. I say you can unmute yourself. I am the new small business program manager for Valley CDC, but I know that you keep mentioning today, you know, rounding out your committee for those that may not be in the same situation as yourself. But I would encourage you to actually look at the organizations that you are already donating or the grants are being used for. Speaking with some of the members of that actually access those funds. So for example, speaking to a small business that has received counseling through Valley CDC. One of the business owners might be interested in participating on this committee or somebody from a housing situation, or anybody from Amherst survival center who currently receives the pantry there as well. So there's just other ways of reaching the community in which actually either accesses funds that are available through CDBG or might have connections through that. So that's just something a way of thinking about outside of the box here a little bit more. Thanks. And Nate, what about like concept of interest like you mentioned previously. I think there may not depending on, you know, their continued participation in the program. Okay. Or even putting up, you know, notices at places where people show up, you know, like survival center, like in risk community connections. So I mean some people are getting aid online and some people are getting in, you know, help in person so maybe that's an option as well. So is it really appropriate to invite directors of the various agencies to recommend people or approach people or is that a conflict of interest? I think I'll let the town manager's office do, you know, we have public outreach officers for the town and so we can make, you know, let them know that we're looking for two members and that we can, you know, I can, I'm not in terms of outreach methods and strategies, but I'll leave it to them. Okay. Great. Any other business. Okay, well thank you everybody for your participation on committee members presenters and nonprofits staff, then and Nate and then so then you'll get to us with a couple of options for January. Correct. Yep. Okay. All right. Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you. Happy Thanksgiving. Take care. Thank you again, everyone. Bye bye.