 We need you Wayne, we need you ready Sarah good afternoon everybody I'd like to welcome you to the special meeting of the housing authority May 20th 2019 meeting and we'll start with Roll call, please chair Burke here Commissioner Downey yeah vice-chair Johnson Morgan Commissioner Olson Commissioner Owen and Commissioner test is absent so let the record reflect that all commissioners are present with the exception of vice-chair Johnson Morgan and Commissioner test Thank you To statements of Abstention if any member of the Commission needs to abstain from any item now's the time to announce that Don't see any need to do that. So we will move to the study session Which is item 4.1 and it's a review of our 2019 2020 proposed housing authority budget Yeah, good afternoon commissioners the Dave Gwine director joined by Kate Goldfine our administrative service officer This is a presentation that mirrors what? The city council is receiving across departments over the next two days in study session where they review the budget before acting on it So this is your opportunity to have Kate go through the numbers ask your questions And if you are accepted with this budget, we'll be bringing it forward in the month of June for your formal action So again the housing authority mission is on the screens to ensure adequate decent safe and sanitary housing for qualified people within Santa Rosa Consistent with federal state and local law and many times I think many times a few times some commissioners asked what is the housing authorities mission statement? This is it if you like we can include it in more of documents throughout the year We have a couple key initiatives and challenges for the fiscal year first on the rental assistance side We're up to approximately 2,000 households on the program that includes 414 Veteran households under the VASH program. We also have 250 porting clients from other jurisdictions So way of background if a if a voucher holder moves to Santa Rosa The housing authority ports them into our program and starts administrating that voucher We've been using the resources of the program to promote development of a new affordable housing unit also known as project basing Section 8 there's a review going on currently by a committee of the of the Commission And we'll have a recommendation proposals in front of you at the June meeting on that topic as well And we you have established partnerships resources to reduce homelessness and assist eligible fire survivors There's an item later on the agenda to have you considered another 24 vouchers for fire survivors On the housing trust side of the shop for challenges and initiatives Just a reminder that we have a loan portfolio consisting of a value now of 120 million dollars We monitor the compliance over 3,000 housing in it so it continues to grow And we administer a few acronyms here from the federal side the community development block grant the home program and housing opportunities for people with AIDS That is going to be acted on by the city council and we'll show up in your budget as well for those programs We also are pursuing disaster recovery resources. The most notable is the community development block grant disaster relief DR funds We're always looking to pursue additional funding opportunities and further affordable housing in Santa Rosa and Also the big bulk of the work of the trust is to solicit evaluate originate proposals for your consideration and then close those loans And lastly the housing authority assets under management for the trust. There's over 5,000 units now And in the rental assistance program just over 2,000 households of vouchers being administered I have a breakdown of the pending units under the housing trust. That is the 338 unit that is the Lantana, which is 48 units Boyd Street 46 units and herms veterans village, which is 24 units. Those are loans you've previously approved All right. Good afternoon Chair Burke and housing authority commissioners as Dave said my name is Kate gold fine I'm the administrative services officer for the housing and community services department And I'm happy to be here presenting the fiscal year 1920 budget for you today We follow HUD regulations specific program and funding mandates and the policy direction you provide throughout the year to formulate the authority's budget By reviewing the budget in study session today and approving it at the budget hearing in June You're directing us to expend this money to further housing authority goals in accordance with federal state and local law This slide shows the budget at its highest level We're proposing funding sources of 41.1 million an increase of 4.8 over the prior year Rental assistance program revenue increased 7.1 million substantially to cover increases in housing assistance payments The housing trust decreased by 2.3 million mainly from one time disaster related funding in 1819 not repeating in 1920 And I'll cover that in detail in a moment We're proposing expenditures of just under 44 million with fluctuations occurring in all programs The housing trust is netting an increase of 337 thousand in expenditures most notably in loan activity And in the trust expenses exceed new funding sources by about 2.8 million And we're utilizing about 3.2 million of carryover uncommitted funding from prior years To round out the trust budget and i'll explain that in more detail when we get to the housing trust section The rental house rental housing assistance program expenses increased over 7.3 million and administration decreased about 30 000 So first i'd like to review the administrative budget and then i'll focus on the two program areas The administrative budget is a little over 1.4 million and it includes two cost centers First the housing and community services of the acronym up there is hcs department cost center is about 237 thousand dollars It's shown in purple on the pie chart And that's the budget for goods and services that serve every division in the department and every division pays for its portion Based on the amount of salaries in that division as a portion of the whole So the housing authority pays for 68 percent of those Costs because the two housing authority divisions salaries equal 68 percent of the total salaries The services and supplies there include general office use supplies Paper and pens are copier costs the department share of city liability Professional organization dues things that are used by everyone throughout the department Next hcs department information technology costs That's determined annually by the city's cost allocation plan consultant And that covers department-wide technology related costs such as it staff support like our help desk Hardware for city servers computers monitors telephones Commonly used software like our internal and external websites microsoft office suite human resources financial budget software HCS department overhead is also determined by a cost allocation plan consultant And covers the department share of legal financial human resources staff Facility and equipment use and costs for city management So that's the hcs department cost center The second cost center is the housing authority cost center and that's about 1.2 million dollars And it's shown as orange slices on the above chart And that is the portion of Admin staff and goods and services that serve the two housing authority programs the housing trust and rental housing assistance programs And those costs are allocated to other programs in the department or city when the housing trust Or rental assistance programs are the main staff for those programs and that happens occasionally and that comes into play with this year's budget So if we move kind of around the pie slice housing authority services and supplies are just under 25 000 The bulk of that 20 000 is for the federally mandated annual audit of the rental housing assistance program And audits of the housing trust federal funding. The rest of that is a small budget for housing authority professional organizations such as narrow small conferences training and meetings budget The staffing costs there include the authorities share of salaries and benefits for administrative staff that serve the department Housing authority information technology includes hardware Like I discussed before and then the reason that it is higher there is that each division in the housing authority has its own Software system that requires it support So the rental housing assistance program has a software system that helps it manage and track All of the information related to the 2000 clients that it administers vouchers for And the housing trust like we said is tracking over 120 million in loans And there's significant monthly quarterly and annual reporting that go along with that funding And so we work closely with our it department to ensure that we're meeting those goals and utilizing our software effectively And then it also includes the housing authority share of citywide software such as for internal and external websites meeting agenda assembly and broadcasting Recruitments and hiring cash receding budgeting all of those software systems Finally housing authority overhead the largest expense represents the housing authority share of costs Uh to utilize city resources And so a great example of that is accounts payable because we send hundreds of checks and electronic payments To landlords each month totaling right around 1.7 million dollars We work closely with the city's finance department to prepare and send and reconcile those payments Another example of that is accounts receivable or revenue We're also receiving payments from other housing jurisdictions and the trust is receiving loan repayments We work closely with the city's accountants and budget staff to make sure We're tracking and monitoring that correctly and meeting all the federal guidelines We also pay for a portion of city attorney staff support for these meetings The attorneys review all our agenda our agenda items contracts funding agreements loan paperwork Public records act requests and assist with other legal issues as they arise We work with human resources for all of our recruitment and hiring safety emergency and risk management And we pay for use of city buildings for these meetings and to house our staff and the housing authority Programs also pay for a share of city council and city management costs So you'll see line items for allocated costs in the housing trust and rental housing assistance programs And that represents their share of these costs This is the year-over-year comparison for both administrative cost centers We decreased a little under 30 000 Staffing decreased because some admin staff is now charging directly to the housing trust for specific measurable work in that program services and supplies are flat And as I stated before the information technology and overhead are determined by the city's cost allocation plan consultant and those both Rows minimally, but the net result is a decrease of 30 000 So now I want to focus on the funding and expenditures of the two program areas The rental housing assistance program and the housing trust The slide shows all the new funding coming to the housing authority in fiscal year 1920 and it excludes administration The funding for the rental housing assistance program is in blue and funding for the housing trust is in green We're getting new funding of just under 39.7 million The federal government provides 93 percent of that and those pie slices are polka dotted in this chart if you can see that Of the federal funding 34.2 million is allocated to the rental assistance program mainly for housing assistance payments And there's a tiny portion of non-federal revenue for the rental assistance program that includes Restitution reimbursements from clients who have Underpaid their portion of the rent and are paying us back and that's the bottom line there on the pie chart restitution reimbursements If you move around the top slice of the pie the federal funding that is managed by the housing trust is about 2.5 million And that's community development block grant home and hapla as dave mentioned housing opportunities for persons with AIDS HUD we're getting about 1.4 million for cdbg 675,000 for home 437 for hapla and hud announced that those are our final allotments about a month ago Moving around the pie the non federal funding sources available to the housing trust are about 7 percent of the total And they include housing impact fees which are fees paid by developers whose market rate housing Impacts the surrounding area and the city has chosen to dedicate that resource to the housing authority for affordable housing The authority also receives a portion of general fund real property transfer tax per council policy We get repayments from prior loans and in addition to the new 1920 loan repayments We utilized all current year loan repayments through december of 2018 Over and above the amount we budgeted we budgeted very conservatively because we don't want to Think that we're going to get funding and commit it to a developer and then not get it and not be able to fund them So in 1819 we budgeted to receive 65,000 in loan repayments and we had received that amount through december of 2018 And we're utilizing all of that in the 1920 budget The trust also receives compliance monitoring fees and a small amount of rental income from its property at brookwood All right, this slide shows how we're going to utilize. Oh go ahead. Yeah This slide shows how we utilize that revenue into expenditure categories So we're proposing expenditures of um under 40 a little under 42.2 million The largest single expenditure by far is rental assistance. And this is paid directly to landlords for housing choice voucher clients So the housing authority is essentially a pass-through entity funneling those federal funds to landlords in our community Loan activity is budgeted at nearly 5.7 million this year It goes to developers as dave talked about earlier our loan activity increased a lot As we're utilizing every resource we can and i'll explain that in detail when we get to that section sub recipient funding includes the federal hopua funding that goes to that service provider and the portion of local funding That goes to our federally mandated fair housing services provider project budget is federal cdbg public services funding which the city council has designated for homeless services The next expense if you move around the pie is salaries benefits and services and supplies for the program staff who work directly for those two divisions Salary and benefits include are about 2.8 million of that Services and supplies are about 460,000 and that's the equivalent of a little over 18 people And finally allocated costs represent the housing authority share of that administrative cost center that i spoke of earlier Do you have a question? If you go back to The city general fund rptt to 749 thousand There are new recording fees for any document that's recorded in the county And i think believe that's a statewide that are going toward affordable housing. Does the city receive those is that in that category? How do those funds flow into the city? Note it's not in this category. That's a statewide resource and so developers and or the city when they publish their Regulation and guidelines can access those funds from state hcd Have you out requested those funds or is that process not in place? the first round is for Capacity building it's called and so we're looking at which nonprofits might need to fit that definition So we're researching that currently Okay, now i'll review each program area specifically. This is the year over year budget for the rental housing assistance program Program is budgeting to receive 34.2 million and all but 10 000 of that is from hud This is an increase of over 7.1 million over the prior year The increase is due to higher per unit assistance projection in 1920 So in fiscal year 18 19, we budgeted to expend $950 per unit per month In 1920 we're looking for we budgeted to allow expenditures up to 1200 dollars per unit per month and we'll work closely with hud throughout the year to monitor these expenses Additionally, we're budgeting to receive more port in clients based on an upward trend that we're seeing in the current year So as dave mentioned port in clients are clients who receive their voucher from another housing jurisdiction And come to live in santa rosa that other jurisdiction pays us Their housing assistance payment and we pay the landlord and we get part of their administrative fee for administering their voucher. We were budgeting for about 250 port in clients per month in fiscal year 18 19 we're budgeting for 300 per month in 1920 and then The other part of that revenue from hud is the administrative allowance that allows us to run the program In expenditures the program's budgeting to expend nearly all of its resources Staffing services and supplies increased by 58,000 you'll see there The largest drivers of that is an increase in the amount of time charged into the program by a code enforcement technician Who is performing quality control inspections of client homes? So one of our duties is to Ensure that our client homes meet the hud standard of living and we're utilizing a code enforcement technician To assist us with our quality control inspections And then overall health and retirement costs also increased The staffing that you discussed they're looking at staffing services supplies of 24 is that were that That new positions that represents a new an addition to staff It's not an addition to staff It's a person that is in the our department's code enforcement division that's going to expend about I want to say a little less than half their time assisting our rental housing assistance program with the housing inspections So it's an allocated cost This is not that that is how allocated costs work, but this person is charging directly to the program It's not an administrative staff. It's another program staff charging in If that makes sense Okay, does this person do all of the inspections for the voucher program? I don't believe that they do all of them the answers no so the housing quality inspections are still done by The staff of the housing voucher program. However, the regs require a quality control inspection Of a percentage of those of those inspections and that's what this person does Oh, so that's that's a new requirement that wasn't in existence in the past. Okay Yeah And additionally our overall health and retirement costs increased this year as well Allocated costs increased 77 thousand and this is solely because the homeless services division of the department Is no longer paying their portion of them and has completely separated from the housing authority for budget purposes I want to explain this. It's a little tricky. So up until this budget the 1920 budget The homeless services division of the department was considered a part of the housing authority Specifically a part of the housing trust for budget purposes This is kind of a leftover from the city reorganization that occurred about three years ago Homeless services used to be managed and staffed by the housing trust In the past few years the homeless services program has expanded significantly It now has its own manager and program staff and is truly no longer part of the housing trust So in the fiscal year 1920 budget We worked closely with our budget and accounting staff to separate homeless services from the housing trust This means that the rental assistance and housing trust programs Are now almost fully responsible for the housing authority administrative cost center The homeless services division as well as all the other divisions in the department still pay For the hcs department cost center But the housing authority staff is solely dedicated to housing authority programs and is paying Nearly the full cost of housing authority overhead So you might remember that the admin budget actually decreased about 30 000 However, the two programs are paying a larger share of that decreased amount And we've spoke i've spoken several times of rental assistance is the authority's single greatest expenditure We're projecting a per Higher per unit amount in fiscal year 1920, which is the reason for the increase And then projects in the housing choice voucher program is just the portion of hud vash and that's veteran clients security deposits that have been returned to us upon the clients move out We had about 3000 of that available last year. We don't have that resource available this year This slide just reiterates what i just explained so i won't spend too much time here And now i want to focus on the housing trust proposed funding and expenditures The housing trust is funded by 13 different federal state and local funds each with its own rules and regulations Federal and state funds are the most highly regulated and local funds somewhat less so So the federal government announces Our our entitlements in spring each year and each federal program has an administrative allowance But none of the federal admin allowances cover the actual cost to run the program So we make up the difference with local sources The current state funding that we're receiving is for cal home grants one related to the fire Disaster and one unrelated And the local sources as i described before impact fees real property transfer tax loan replacements Compliance monitoring property rental And the amount of funding in those local funds varies greatly from year to year Particularly in the fee and tax and loan repayment funds So often there will be large swings in those funds from year to year and that occurred this year So in the funding source table at the top revenues are budgeted to decrease by 2.3 million And the main driver of that is two one-time funding sources related to the october 2017 fire disaster that are ending in 18 19 There's a 1.5 million for the community development block grant disaster recovery consultant to assist us with that And there's a 1.2 million dollar state cal home grant For loans for income eligible coffee park residents. So those aren't repeating in 1920 Our total federal funding also decreased by about 50 000 And these decreases are offset by the use of current year loan repayments received in excess of budget that i spoke about earlier Transfers in are the way that the city categorizes inter fund transfers And this is the housing authority share of just the city's real property transfer tax amount And the city finance department projected no change in that year over year. So the amount's exactly the same And additionally there's 3.2 million of funding that's carrying over from fiscal year 17 18 That we did not commit in 18 19. So it's available for use in 1920 I hope that makes sense in the city's finance system That shows is excess revenue in fiscal year 17 18 and then it's categorized as reserve available budget in 18 19 So I can't budget it as new revenue in 1920 without double counting it So it's not reflected in the new revenue here But it is reflected in the expenditures and it's reflected on the summary sheet in your agenda packets The bulk of that 3.2 million Is impact fee revenue which came in significantly above what we budgeted We had about 1.8 million of that carrying over The other is loan repayments and some uncommitted real property transfer tax And this is the particular funding that is being used in the focus NOFA that the housing authority That your budget subcommittee or your subcommittee is reviewing and I believe they are going in front of the full authority in june Okay, now we'll focus on expenditures Oh go ahead So if we're looking at this If I understand here correctly you have expenditures of 8.3 million in revenue of 5.4 and you're bridging that gap by Income or reserves that you pulled out of 17 18 Exactly Okay Now the impact fees that you see coming in which you had on an earlier slide, I believe Mm-hmm. How do you project those you look at activity coming through the building department? How do you look at that? We do somewhat look at activity through the building department and we also budget pretty conservatively So we are budgeting we've budgeted 1.5 million for the past few years And when and if that revenue comes in higher than budgeted we can use it in the next year or we can In the past um commissioner berg will remember this We have come to the housing authority mid-year so that you can appropriate that excess revenue and use it mid-year If it rises to a great enough amount to make it useful for a developer Thank you. Sure Okay, now we'll focus on expenditures staffing services and supplies increased pretty significantly for a few reason Uh first admin staff are charging directly to the trust rather than having their costs allocated through the admin budget We were able to specifically track a few things that the admin staff is doing specifically for the trust and I believe this more accurately Divides the charges between the housing trust and the housing assistance programs As more salaries were charged to the program benefits increased as well and retirement and healthcare benefits increased for all staff And additionally I budgeted more towards admin in fiscal year 1920 to give us a slight cushion for expenses In fiscal year 18 19 were projected to be at or over our admin budget in most local funds So in 1920 I utilized more local resources to provide more admin budget I did this purposely this year Because we have more funding available for loan activity And the slight relative slight increase in admin will not impact our ability to fund loans And any unused admin from this year will become available in next year's budget Allocated costs increased 85 000 solely because homeless services is no longer part of the housing authority No longer part of the housing trust and no longer paying those housing authority admin costs And I can Explain that again if you needed I explained it in detail in the other one Loan activity increased 2.7 million that is partially a function of timing and partially because revenue came in higher than expected So the timing aspect we're using 425 000 of excess loan repayments that we received over budget in this fiscal year Rather than waiting to budget it in fiscal year 2021 And we're utilizing a huge portion of that 3.2 million of carryover funding This sub recipient funding is the next category. We're receiving about 16 000 less for hopla funding this year That's the decrease you see there The project budget 1920 amount reflects the amount of available cdbg public services funding which the city council is designated for homeless services The large decrease is because that's where the two disaster related That's where the funding was budgeted. That's the cdbg dr consultant and the cal home grant were not receiving new funding for that in 1920 and then finally the housing authority has a The housing authority has a reserve policy for the housing trust that requires 15 percent of admin expenses to be reserved annually And this 1920 budget meets that requirement This slide substantially says what I just discussed so I won't spend time here As does this one and that's um shows that we need the housing trust reserve policy So finally the next steps in our budget process are that we will be in front of the city council tomorrow and wednesday along with all other city departments We'll be back in front of you on june 17th To ask for your final approval of the housing authority budget and we'll be back in front of the city council at their budget hearings on june 18th And this concludes the presentation Thank you. Uh, first ask if there are any other questions comments from other members of the commission I think I have a question Um, is this dedicated staff that's hired solely to deal with issues of the housing authority or is this a pool of staff that's being paid from different budget codes for different administrative needs So a little bit of both there is program staff that is dedicated solely to housing authority programs and then admin staff like me or um, sarah or dav Serves the whole department and so some of our costs are allocated to the housing authority and some of our costs are allocated to other program areas So basically overall the expenses are up substantially um And I didn't I mean I've listened to all you said But that's a lot 22 percent 24 percent. That's a that's a stunning number to have your expenses go up one year to the other Um, does it look like something to be a continuing on that plane? Or do you think it's going to level out or can we do anything to bring it down? Well, it depends on the funding category. So we want to see loan activity go up Um, it's it's okay in general if rental housing assistance payments are going up Um, because those are reimbursed or given to us by HUD I would expect that our admin would level off this year Um, I under budgeted in 18 19 and I didn't want to do that in 1920 So it I would expect that next year admin would level off For loan activity will utilize everything we have available if Real property transfer tax or loan repayments or impact fees are down significantly or our federal allotments decrease We won't be able to budget as much But this year we are Well, that's a lot. That's all I have to say. That's a lot and and uh, I would certainly Um Try and get a handle on that. I mean 22 percent of years. That's just crazy Thank you Commissioner Owens. Do you have any additional questions? um, so this will be what would be beneficial for this because if you look at the The allocations of costs And anybody's had to go through an allocation process process for costs. It's it's confusing and it clouds what's really going on And what would be beneficial is if we had a better understanding of the housing authority What are your direct costs? Are those costs going up? Where do you see them going up? Um, how are they funded because when you start moving people's times between allocations It completely clouds the issue and having an understanding of what's going on with expenditures Is there something specifically you'd like to see? I don't know how to answer that because it's so clouded. Okay. Um Because when you talk about people that were part of your department that aren't anymore part of them's being allocated out and FTEs is a great way to go You look at full-time Employees fte's and start saying this is how many people we have on staff This is what's going on with those people. This is what their salaries are This is what their benefits are and those are going up Obviously, and then you look at it in state Of that we keep x percent in r's And y percent is allocated out What gets allocated to your department? You don't really have any control over unless i'm missing something. That's correct So Well, it can absolutely skew the numbers in terms of expenditures in regards to How much your budget has gone up you don't have control over that We want to be able to focus on what the where there is control And so having an understanding of of what's going on with staffing levels What are salaries and what are benefits and what are and how those are split? And you look at in terms of what salary increases are and what benefit increases are And then of course we include pensions and in such For the program staff it sounds like what you're saying because the allocate okay because allocations can be skewed From year to year and it's difficult to be able to have an understanding of that when you bring it in Is is commissioner olson said that's a large increase It's difficult to understand how that increase can be controlled or managed Because allocations can swing things significantly year to year. Yeah okay, I know we've had discussions On this general issue in the past. I remember a couple years ago. We had a consultant come in and It was more focused on the allocation To the department from the city for overhead, but this is a little different You know On another agenda item there is a process that could be explored and that would be if there was a motion made to Have a more specific Presentation scheduled for a future meeting kind of drilling down into the questions that you raised That would be an option for the commissioners to consider Trouble timing quick consultation here. We probably we can add that information on the june 17th meeting if you like That works that would be beneficial again the focus is being on controllable costs. Yeah, I understand So we'll focus on the program area costs. Correct. So You know drilling down a little further because I'm sure that's all what goes into you putting together the budget It's just not a part of the budget over. Okay. Yeah Right and as a side point if you're looking at the costs for voucher systems And as the allocation went up from nine fifty to 1200 on average Of course that number is going to go up, but that's part of why we're here. So that's fine But um that cost should be going up because that should the revenue side of it because it's just It's almost a swap. Correct. Correct. Okay Thank you. Yeah so Going back to the discussion about the homeless services So that function is still within the department of housing and community services Um So kelly cucumber doll is responsible for that. Correct. And then that that she reports to you David. That's correct. Yes And then So so how does that? How does that change anything that might come for a policy? Determination Does it does it mean it comes to the housing authority of the city council? Yeah, those homeless matters still go straight Directly to the City council as a general fund matter What kate was referring to is The city manager reorganized some departments three years ago in 2016 and this is a legacy accounting Process where Part of our accounting staff in the first year Insisted not to make that shift because they thought this was a temporary situation with the homeless services second year we had Little deeper discussions about how important this was to make this shift and it finally is occurring now So it's an accounting snafu so so The result of that is is it is it has not been Uh part of the policy purview of the housing authority for some time It's been the city councils, but now it's also out of the housing authority's budget, which it probably should have been earlier for the reason Interesting, I mean that provides lots of clarity to me. I wasn't quite sure what our role was in respect to homeless programs and responsibilities So now I understand it better And commission that's not to say that perhaps the city council will want to Eventually transfer some or all that responsibility back to the housing authority, but right now it's a key community issue And so they're holding on to it. Yeah, and that's our program. Okay Um, thank you unless there's any are there any I don't see a card up here So as far as I know, there's no member of the public that wishes to speak But if they do raise their hand, but I also see that Our commissioner down. He has a comment and I see another so if my hearing is correct It sounds like disaster-related funding Is beginning to wind down So if that hearing is correct Moving forward Is there a larger build-in With this new budget And the unfortunate event of any activities in the future related to natural disasters so that we can Get in there and help people as opposed to waiting for the state or the fads to step up and Come in and help us out Oh, I'll try and answer that but if I miss a point Remind me. So in the budget presentation That cost is going down because it paid one time for consultant services Federal and state funding to assist in the disaster still has yet to arrive Um, the community development block grant dr money is an example that will be going to the city We're told it will be sometime this fall For a multifamily project Things of that nature. There's also Mitigation funds to try and have the community do improvements to Mitigate the effects of a future disaster. So escape routes warning systems were in discussions with washington on Relocating a fire station to a safer location So that I just wanted to clarify the what you saw in the in our budget housing authority budget was a consultant cost one time but the actual Delivery of funds to assist people are is going to be this fall And I do see a gentleman There's a microphone up here if you wish to make your way to that and if you can give us your name and your comments I'd appreciate it mosque off and i'm I really appreciate the report and presentation you gave The question I have is Is this mic on Yeah, sir, can you um, there's a button on the side of the podium to bring it up if you want to bring the microphone closer to you Oh The question I have is With all these increases in the budget Are you going to be serving more people or are you serving the same number of people and just raising the amount that you're allocating for the support Kate if you can give a general response that would be helpful Yeah, general response an example would be this year the housing authority will be Revealing three notices of funding availability Instead of just one that's an example of the additional Household service creation of new affordable housing and we're improving existing affordable housing. Okay, so there's more activity And which would result in more units as it carries forward That's the voucher program Um Yeah, that that's the same amount of vouchers. It's an increase in per voucher per month cost Yeah, thank you Okay, um, we are then ready to move on to Probably add the public I guess it's another opportunity for public comments in addition to the one that we've just had on that specific budget discussion So any member have any general comments they wish to discuss on non-agenda matters See then, okay, we'll move to approval of the minutes and So I'd first ask if there are any questions or suggested modifications to the minutes by any member of the commission Don't see any so we will accept the minutes as submitted. Thank you under chairman and commissioner reports I'll start off and it's the Try to make this brief although some of the information has gotten into some some detail that I picked up from Uh a meeting that I attended last Wednesday, which is the mayors and boards and commissioners lunch Boards and commissioners are invited Typically on a monthly basis to join the mayor the mayor makes comments kind of helps bring the board and commission members up to speed on major activities and involved with the city and One of the things that Probably most of the time wasn't spent on but it's an important one for all members of the commission to be aware of an asset There's a mandatory requirement And it's training it's sp 13 43 and I believe that everybody has received notice of that if they haven't Make sure that you get information on it. I do have some some here and essentially It's the sexual harassment prevention training and there are like two it's like six different dates and everybody on Boards and commissions of the city including the city council It's mandatory that you attend So I want you to Certainly be aware of that and in addition to that training. There's also a It's not a mandatory training, but it's an important training. It's the board commission committee's orientation And it's uh, there's one date and that's may 29th three to five and council chambers and So that one is kind of an overview of board and commissioners responsibilities and kind of the nuts and bolts so Particularly for those who haven't been on the commission for a long time. I encourage you to attend. I plan on attending Just for a refresher and I encourage other people to do the same And then the the mayor Took time to discuss I believe it was the content of the may 7th city council meeting and it was the tier one and tier two Priorities that the city council has discussed so there were several pages with lots of detail But financial stability is certainly on the top of The council's line But there certainly by the city manager who made sure that it ended up there and I think that makes sense uh recovery and resilience, which is something that We've talked about a bit today Comprehensive housing strategy general plan update rental inspection program is being discussed downtown housing intensification of housing downtown In the bennett valley senior center to be used as a shelter Those are all issues that the council has identified as important and wants to pursue vigorously homelessness And then the implementation of the climate action plan And then there were tier two Objectives, which I won't go into detail on and there then there was a timeline for these various issues to be addressed by the city council, but the mayor made it clear that he Wanted and expected the boards and commissioners to be aware of the council's objectives and priorities And to support those to further the goals of the city as determined by the city council so You know if you haven't watched that Meeting and if you have time to be able to do it is is available on tape and I plan to plan to do that and And that will give you some more detail other than what I've been able to do this afternoon The The one thing that that is on the agenda and I referred to it a little bit earlier is is a process for Having an item put on the agenda for a future meeting which we which we haven't Haven't adopted that and but I'm thinking that this might be a good time to See if the other members of the commission Agree with me that We ought to have that put on a future agenda if it's june or july It's not really that crucial but but adopting A policy similar to the one that you provided information on later on in the agenda And it's just I mean under Chairman and commissioners reports is when a member Of the commission if they had a desire to have something discussed would request At the item be added to a future agenda And then if the other there was a consensus or if it needed to a vote on On the part of the commission it would then be added So that would be a way to bring up items and That would be similar or identical to what the city council does so Um, so I don't have no of any reason why we can't do that Is there a consensus that we we have that on the agenda and and then I would ask staff could you Modify what the city council does so that it's earmarked or specific to the housing authority Just a clarifying question chairman. So the housing authority Mirrors council policy in most areas already What you're seeking is a A separate action where the housing authority adopts What I write in the monthly activities report if we don't need it if it's redundant to do that I'm fine with that. I I think it would be it because you're mirroring other Council policies how to make motions second things of that nature Rosenberg's rule of order Or of an awareness issue that correct all members of the commission know that if they have an item Burning item that they like to have discussed and put on the agenda this under in our this this case Item seven on the agenda would be the place to do that correct if I was planning on going through that a bit when we got to Um the monthly activities report. Yeah, so I'm fine with that if it's something that we already can Can rely on and I'm good with that certainly Um So we move to uh, unless there are other Comments, excuse me. I guess we're at the point where the committee there are committee reports. So let me ask if there's I just have a quick question Will we be having a Not a retreat not an in-service, but a launch in or some sort of a gathering off site sometime this summer that may be facilitated by an organization on development person to Help us be better at what we do So that would be a question to the other commission members as we've done that in the past as a board And Usually there's uh, it's receded by a committee That puts together an agenda along with the help of staff and we have used Consultants and you know in the past. I think we've maybe one or two times been at the legends Could restaurant banquet room by the golf course So if that's something that you know other members find valuable I think it's Personally it's a little too early for me to be able to respond to that being meeting number three so But it's always to always in favor of finding more efficient ways to work and work together as a team is is Valuable use of time Commissioner owen. I'm sorry. Can you speak closer to the microphone next time just for the record? Thank you so Maybe a little premature is kind of what I'm hearing and commissioner olsen hasn't spoken if you have a Opinion on it like to hear it now or we can we can give it a little bit more time and then if you could Return Several meetings down the road and suggest that we will and maybe hopefully when we have more Members of the commission here we can pick that up and consider going forward with it, but I I think there's general Support at least for me and it sounds like at least one other member of the commission to to do that It's just a matter of the timing for that the under committee reports, and it's been referenced already that there is a Subcommittee two subcommittee meetings later this month on the 28th one's for the no fun one's for the project based voucher committee And commissioner test johnson and myself will be involved with that meeting just as fyi And I think we're two nine the executive director report communications items so Um, we have nine point one and I think Kate is Here to make any comments on that unless there's any questions. Well, this is provided for your information Uh, it's a quarterly financial report. So if you have any questions, I or Kate could respond Yep Give you a minute more to kind of catch up and if you have anything, let me know if not we will move on to 9.2 So under the monthly activities report 9.2 have several Bullets that we can talk about but uh back to the chairman's comments earlier about How to place items on the agenda certainly to keep a top of mind If there's an item that you'd like to have discussed on housing authority business You would ask for a motion you would make a motion and seek a set a second To add it to a future agenda under number seven chairman or commissioner reports and then It was the march meeting. I think there was a couple Motions made that We interpreted as staff weren't quite sure we're The person making the motion would would want to Stop reading the text and so we add the Council procedures and protocols basically if you Want to make a motion you would move the resolution read the title And simply state and wave reading of the text See if you get a second and then action could be taken. So I just I just shared that as reminders going forward Yeah, thank you for bringing that up, Dave. I you know with With new board members last time I was Not sure how to how to respond to it because we were having motions without the reading of the title And so I was asking the question to help how important that was so I guess ask the other commissioners when you get to the point where there's a Resolution that has to be active on coming up If you can get that before you and decide if you want to make that motion and just read that title and say wave the Reading of the text that will kind of put us Back in the process that we've been using in the past Thank you Anymore under 9.2 multi activities report Can I ask a question about lantana? The status of lantana. I know that's one that we funded with the idea that it would be under construction Post-taste and I don't remember exactly what post-taste was but I was thinking it was getting in the springtime You're absolutely right post-taste means june And we just met with the staff of burbank this morning That that month is probably going to slide by a month maybe two based on waiting for Planning department to approve environmental documents so they can start moving Start doing the site grading That's good news. It's a project that needs to be Underway that's been a tough one that's been a struggle. So thank you for that So unless there's no other comments under Item nine or nine point one nine point two will move to the first report item And it's report the request for From community support network to extend the terms of the housing authority loan For nine three three grand avenue and the principal amount of $50,000 for an additional 20 years in antsy manchester Making the staff report Good afternoon chair burk and housing authority commissioners The item before you today is a request from community support network to extend the term of their housing authority loan for an additional 20 years So the original loan of $50,000 was made in 1989 for the purchase and rehabilitation of 933 grand avenue Which is a five-bed facility for people with behavioral health issues earning 50 of area median income or less The original loan was 3 simple interest for a 20-year deferred payment term And you approved a 10-year extension in 2009 extending the due date to 2019 CSN is requesting an additional 20-year extension to the term of the loan with a revised due date in 2039 The the request from CSN meets the loan modification criteria approved by the housing authority in 2018 In that review of the audited financial statements and operating budget confirmed that CSN is not currently in a position to repay the housing authority's loan Analysis of all debt on the property Which is a housing authority loan and one from the department of housing and community development Also known as hcd shows a loan to value of 55 And loan modification criteria also require confirmation that the borrower is in regulatory compliance But there's no current regulatory agreement in place for the property So staff is recommending securing long-term affordability for the property via standard regulatory agreement in exchange for approval of the loan extension And finally your recommendation It is recommended by the housing and community services department that the housing authority By resolution approve an extension of the term of the $50,000 loan made to community support network For 933 grand avenue from july 18th 2019 to july 18th 2039 deferred payment at 3 simple interest per year Be happy to answer any questions. There's also staff here from community support network To answer questions if needed Thank you Questions from members of the commission There would be a 20-year extension on the loan That's correct in return for a regulatory agreement There's not on title at the current time. That's correct. What would be the length of the regulatory agreement? We anticipate a 30-year regulatory agreement And what would be the requirements that regulatory agreement? Typically a regulatory agreement will require Compliance with income limits and then rent amounts as well and utility allowances if those are applicable Which I doubt they are in this case and currently it's a 50 percent or below correct And that that would be the so there would be no change We would just document what's in place at the current time. That's correct And are they paying the three percent interest at the current time? It's accruing, but there are no payments due at this time So interest is accruing and it will continue to accrue if you extend the term of the loan deferred Deferred into a maturity correct. Are there been any payments on the loan at all? No The original learn. Excuse me. The original loan was also deferred payment The other comments questions So beyond the services that you're providing in your five bed permanent housing facility Are you in any kind of a position in the near future to take on more clients or to Provide more services to people in this particular population The tom bieri the executive director of community support network is heading to the podium to answer that for you Thank you for the excellent question So, um, that five bedroom facility is full. We have five people in that facility We are in the process of finishing up a capital campaign to Acquire our 10th home sanctuary villas, which will bring an additional 11 units on board But that particular unit that we're talking about house that we're talking about is fully optimized at this point Mr. Olson Is it uh, is it understood when we give these loans at the payments in the interest of deferred? In other words, we never anticipate anybody making a payment. Is that right? We don't anticipate a A amortized payment, but we do expect payment at the end of the term if possible, and if if the borrower is not in a position to repay at that time Then we might come back to you if they made a request for another extension Yeah, the the original intent You know was to basically keep the units that were assisted Uh to to be there as long as as possible and if there was to be A sale for some of their purposes and the housing objective were to be lost Then there would be a a remedy to recover Up this portion of the funds that were committed, you know based upon To hope and expectation that property value values do increase over time, which is certainly the case here um so the main objective is having A need being met in terms of affordable housing for as long as you humanly possible and not doing And not resorting to a grant and and being able to accomplish that so that's kind of the general thought behind that Imperfect, but that's what was what was behind it. I'm a little interested in I am interested in knowing the condition of the unit and whether or not there Are improvement needs and if there are how those are going to be addressed if there is there a strategy for that I'd be happy to address that so We have just Completed a number of deferred maintenance items at the grand property that included the installation of new roving on the houses The houses have been painted recently in addition um My team and I wrote grants to private funding sources to pay for those things so That's how we have been, you know, there's very little Money in the budget to take care of those maintenance items and some of the larger ticket items can't be paid for within the existing budget So we very assertively Right grants and that sort of thing to private foundations and the such to pay for these things whenever possible And we've been able to be successful there recently Thank you for that response Do we do inspections from time to time or are willing on this particular request so we know the condition of the unit? That is a part of the regulatory agreement that we inspect units periodically. Okay, so Okay As I understand, there's no debt record against the property No, there is debt recorded against the property. There's the housing authorities alone And above it and priority is the loan from hcd Would the regulatory would we ask those? Two trusted holders to subordinate to the regulatory agreement We could ask it's unlikely that hcd would subordinate And then the regulatory agreement would go after the housing authorities alone Doesn't hcd have a regulatory agreement also? I believe they do Yes, they do How much will this regulatory agreement match the one that's existing on the property? That's a good question. I have Cindy struck. I'm the finance director. So Htt does have a regulatory agreement on the property and I believe that's also up in july of 2019 And what was the question? Well, I just want to make sure that the regulatory agreement is there if it's Don't want to have duplicative language in the two regulatory agreements, but if it's expiring I believe it is expiring, but they're way behind schedule and trying to put that back together Is there a way that That regulatory agreement the one that's being proposed can go through city council City attorney's office to make sure the language can we combine those? I'm just trying to be more efficient So if you're looking at title on this you'll have the regulatory agreement And then the two loans and that regulatory tournament needs to be senior to the two loans on the property Yeah, all of our agreements go through the city attorney's office for review prior to execution and recording And I just want to point out that there is Pretty consistent verbiage in all the regulatory agreements from all the various state county and city governance organizations that it's very you know community support network provides a very specific surface We we help folks out many of which are gravely disabled or at risk of becoming gravely disabled due to mental health instabilities So even though we we Serve this highly specialized population all of our regulatory agreements Just say the minimum saying that we're going to serve low-income housing So I think there's a there's a really nice rationale and fluidity to that that it just It allows things to to to work Thank you To what degree are you confident that hcd will grant the extension? We have a letter indicating that they're they're intent and it as i'm sure you're aware None of none of these government agencies are in the business to be acquiring property They're in the business to to keep these properties being served for the disadvantaged populations that they are serving And so I think the question underneath the question is Yes, we continue we intend to continue serving the disadvantaged population that we've been serving since 1972. There's no there's no Proposal or chance that we're going to change our mission. We're going to do exactly what we've been doing since 1972 and hcd communications Hcd communications continue to signal their intent to support us in doing that Thank you. Thank you Before we have a motion, I'm just gonna I don't have any cars, but I just want to make sure no one in the audience public wishes to speak Apparently not so I would seek Chair Burke excuse me, ancill to cast the grant assistant city attorney Staff had recommended that your approval be based on condition upon the approval of the regulatory agreement between the housing authority and csn That language was not included in the resolution So if you would like that condition To be implemented then I would suggest that you Move the resolution as amended and I could give you the proposed language if you like Why don't you please Is it lengthy? No, so it suggests that At the end of the resolution you just add the language subject to approval of the regulatory agreement between the housing authority and csn That's acceptable It's so that can be included. That's what is being recommended. So it would be reading of the of the title As amended inclusion of the language as presented. Yes And you want me to remember what you just said? No, you don't need to Just give it a go. I would I would so move that we And if I can you a little help here where's the title or so let's do this. Let's uh Help the newbie out here. Yeah, so if you just read that paragraph and then talk about the inclusion So I approve the resolution the housing authority with the city of santa rosa approving a request from the community support Now we're going to extend the term of the housing authority loan from the 90 for 933 grand In the principal amount of 50 000 were an additional 20 years inclusive of the language pertaining to the regulatory agreement and uh waive the reading of the tax Excellent. Thank you Okay, uh, unless there's any further questions, uh, we roll call please Oh, excuse me. We need it. We need a second. I'll second. Okay, mr. Olson seconds Now we can vote uh chair berg commissioner downy All right uh commissioner olson Hi Commissioner owen Hi Let the record reflect that the resolution passes as amended with the Four eyes and two nose or i'm sorry two absences Thank you Okay, move on to uh 10.2 and again, we have uh, ancy manchester making a staff presentation for the Housing authority loan guideline update and thank you. Good luck in your work with hcd Thank you. This item is a proposed update of the affordable housing program guidelines We currently rely on the low income housing production or lip subsidy policy that was approved in 2000 Staff is recommending modernization of the guiding principles to update and streamline the criteria under which Applications are reviewed and ultimately acted upon by the authority Staff reviews reviewed the funding guidelines from a variety of other jurisdictions including the county of sinoma The city of berkeley the city of san josea and the city of san amonica to use as guidance for drafting the new guidelines in front of you today The range of incomes outlined in the proposed guidelines is broader than in past to reflect the housing needs of the community The current market conditions and to align with the level of assistance allowed by funding sources like cdbg Including moderate income allows the housing authority to take a more active role in pursuing the city's housing for all goal Staff is recommending continuing to utilize a 3 standard interest rate for consistency with other funding sources and the current loan portfolio Requiring eligible projects to provide at least half of the proposed units to households at or below 60 of am i Meets the minimum unit mix requirement under a variety of funding sources again, including cdbg Updated guidelines do not include the maximum cost schedule to eliminate the need for an annual update of the cost schedule And the need for a waiver of the schedule by the housing authority It's mentioned in your staff report that over the last 18 years the maximum cost schedule has been waived more as it is More often than not for when you approve loans Some funding sources like home have statutory limits that must be followed as far as maximum subsidy limits So it is recommended by the housing and community services department that the housing authority by motion Approved the updated affordable housing program guidelines. We'd be happy to take any questions or any Inputs that you have any question So the requirement is that for projects that are 50 percent affordable. Is that correct? Yes has there been any look at Extending those requirements to 20 percent affordable Projects and the reason why I ask is because there are programs in place for Ben's density bonus if a certain number of units are Considered that are allowed in affordable rents And that would bring a bigger pool of developers into Providing affordable housing units because they would be able to have access to more programs. Is that a fair assessment? Mr. Olson, are you oh and are you referring to 80 20 deals? We're market rate financing for 80 percent of the units and 20 affordable. I'm trying to understand From what I can see in in in our marketplace is that there are incentives for developers to provide to have increased density If they provide a certain number of units to be affordable But the affordability Market and how that gets done and how it gets financed is very different than just market Yes So to the extent that and there are developers that are hesitant to get in the market gets us completely different from how they normally do business So if I look at at what we're stating here that this loan program is designed for units that are only a minimum of 50 percent affordable That would exclude Basically market rate developers that would Be possibly interested in doing taking advantage of density bonuses when the the requirement The goal is to try and get more market rate developers into providing affordable housing So the intention that we laid out is for consistency with our federal requirements as Nancy mentioned What we look for in projects that are Proposing a density bonus or compliance with the city's housing allocation plan Is that those developers are able to create those units independently without financial assistance? So those would be additional units that are coming to the city through the developers own financing and the density bonus ordinance that was recently updated and I believe was presented to the housing authority Also includes language that the developer should scatter the units throughout the proposed project So by introducing That component into our funding guidelines. We we might be able we might be Confining ourselves in that developers would try and isolate all the affordable units Into one building and not achieve the overall goal of dispersing affordability throughout a project That makes sense I'm just trying to have a better understanding of how we can Help market rate developers take advantage of density bonuses And provide programs for them and some sort of assistance through the housing authority To pick up that cost associated with the lower rent that they receive for the affordable units be at Whatever density bonus percentage that is in their project total No, I understand the question I think from our perspective the the density bonus isn't necessarily to Assist them with with the cost because in exchange for providing those affordable units They're getting more market rate units or other concessions. And so that would be the benefit that they're receiving absent financial assistance Hope that answers. Thank you I think I think there might be a language in the density increase program that that dissuades Use of both the density increase benefit to the developer and additional funding sources But i'm not sure about that the housing allocation plan has specific language in the ordinance That if you are creating units through the housing allocation plan, you cannot receive financial assistance from the city But the density bonus we have seen that occur in some of our affordable housing projects So we could have a loan on a property and that property could also receive a density bonus And they're using that to generate more units Or for the concessions that are associated with the density bonus. I guess the consequences of liberalizing that Along the lines that has been suggested as a possibility Would be that you might take funds away from some of the other Developers that would be vying for funds For for new development. I mean so there the The number of recipients would grow and so you would have maybe fewer dollars to do as much as you want But on the other hand, I suppose the benefit and a very tough Time to produce affordable housing as you maybe get more going. It's it's a it's a it's a kind of a big policy issue But I think in the past it's been looked at as kind of you know Two separate ways to increase the amount of affordability in the community Um to what degree have has there been input from Sponsors on these changes We did not solicit the input of sponsors because we we thought the changes were fairly General and beneficial to the sponsors, especially in regards to the elimination of the maximum cost schedule Which we continually waived. So we're just providing ourselves with more flexibility and consistency with other agencies yeah, I mean I Think generally speaking. It's a good idea to let folks know that are using This particular program to be aware of the changes just because we're not sure what their responses would be And the other thing is I'll just comment on I I understand and completely The suggestion to remove those cost guidelines On the other hand it kind of leaves I mean, there's no governor for cost If those are removed and that concerns me a little bit. I don't know how to Because I do realize that over the years it's typical for those guidelines to be waived Is the reality as staff we were discussing in the staff reports for Loans you are considering is to List say the last three affordable housing developments and the amount per unit subsidy in that case There might also be some similarities with the size of a multifamily development its location in town You know site topography Whether they already had utility connections So I we agree as staff that we want to measure the ask And that's what we thought we would do is look at at least the last three Developments you sponsored, but that's not in the guidelines currently Correct. So what what did these other communities do? Did they eliminate? Or did they have something similar to what you're Suggesting the the examples that we reviewed did not have maximum cost identified as Kate mentioned when she was giving the budget overview certain funding sources like home Provide a maximum that we can put into each unit. So that funding source itself restricts The maximum amount that can be provided per unit So there are other factors and I think that's alluded to in the guidelines that Compliance with federal requirements or other requirements that exist will be adhered to In addition to Dave's comment about looking at past projects As we lower the level of affordability we generally see the cost per unit go up So if it was a project that was just assisting Units at 30 percent we would likely anticipate a higher subsidy per unit because that unit's not going to generate as much revenue But we're also open to any comments you want if if you would like us to return to you at a later date with Additional items in here. We can certainly do that as well Yeah, so I guess I'd be looking I mean we'll raise some some tough questions and it's kind of curious to know what others might think about Some of these questions that have been raised Can you provide Little background as to why the maximum cost number has been waived generally in the past so the strikeout version is included in your packet and Some of the factors that are included in the maximum cost would be a per unit I'm sorry a per acre Cost and so the value that's shown as an example is unimproved land at two hundred and eighty nine thousand dollars per acre So I think you know given our market and the market we've been experiencing for the past 20 years or so since these were created that is Fairly out of line with what we're seeing So that was part of the the thought is that when we're we're so far out of line with with present costs Is there a value to having the maximum cost identified and even including a three percent escalator or railing on cpi Is there any urgency for adopting this because if there isn't I would lean towards a notifying You know the people that use the program that are proposing some changes and I guess the other thing I would like to see would be some Greater thought given to something to replace those cost limits if given the fact that they are Kind of antiquated maybe too broad, you know, there's lots of reasons why they're not working That's my general To answer your question. There is there is no urgency that you act on this today. This is good feedback We can incorporate those thoughts as well as solicit input from our borrowers anything else that Other members of the board would like to have considered Or did you agree that it should be postponed? And if so, do you agree with those two items or are there others? Yeah, I think we should hold off a little bit until we Get a better I honestly don't understand what we're talking about. So I guess I need to have somebody explain it to me So I think if the if I'm reading the housing authority correctly Perhaps a motion to continue this item to a future housing authority. Well, that's what I'm suggesting and I'm looking for So it looks like maybe there's maybe there is consensus for it. So if we're going to before we get to maybe a Motion on the resolution. I do see a member of the public that like to speak. I believe it's going on. Okay I misinterpreted that and I have no cards. So we're able to go forward with Excuse me. Do you have a comment? I'm sorry. So we're ready to go forward with the motion Even if it's to delay until those other two matters are addressed Um, Your comment about not having feedback from the development community on this. I think is very valid Um, I read through this and the changes don't seem that material But we're not the ones that have to abide by them and make them work So I would propose that uh, and I don't know we need to do another form of a motion that we would Uh postpone this item and get feedback and I'm looking for recommendations from staff in regard to how many People you would put this out to entities you would put this out to and say we're we're recommending these changes You are in the program. Can you please provide a review and see We'll make it as functional as possible I'm not sure that I heard it, but I'm curious to know if it was intentional or not the uh some ideas from staff Along the lines of something to replace those cost guidelines You know the the cost guidelines are fine. It's this that if the changes that are in here Um, if we could get recommendation for staff of how long it would take to have Um entities that are involved in current program provide feedback I think what we do is outreach to our current, uh, NOFA mailing list, which is 100 plus Developers and organizations that we continually provide information to and I would think returning probably in august We'd give adequate time for us to solicit their feedback digest that and come back with with a improved product for you We have a motion I'm looking for a second A second We have a motion in a second. I'm commissioner Ellison second it I'm sorry chair burr. Can you state the motion and I'm I'm asking staff for this time to give us the august date for the august meeting There would be august 19th. So you would move to continue this item until august 19th I'm sorry. Okay. So the motion would be to move this item continue this item until the meeting on oct august 19th Do you want to be specific or yes, okay? So and to notify the The sponsors of housing that would use this guideline and I think it is absent The idea about another more ideas from staff on something to control costs and because of that, I'm not going to support it but uh, but I understand that there's a Reluctance to do that perhaps So it's been a motion. It's been a second any further discussion I'm sorry. Would someone on the commission like to make the motion rather than me If I can do the correctly, I'll move to extend this Item until the august 19th meeting And you're looking for time for input from For a second with looking with staff being directed to come back with feedback if any from the development community that's involved with this program All right, and that motion would require a second Uh, so just for clarification with the clarification you still second That's my thought. Okay. No other comment if there is and we will do roll call Oh Commissioner Burke. No Commissioner Downey No Commissioner Olson. Hi Commissioner Owen. Hi So we did the motion does not pass And The options that I can think of would be another motion is made now or we Will postpone action until we have other members join us at a at our next meeting. Those are the two options I can think of Well, the motion to continue just failed So you may vote on the mo on the item We can still yeah, what you're saying is we can we can take action now Yes on a different iteration To approve the plan Oh, that's that's that's one option and they're approved the motion which is to Um Ask for a date certain to revisit it after it's been Submitted for comment and that motion just failed. I know So what I'm saying is what I what I think is is a possibility would be if there's another motion Other than those two that is The desire of a member of this board I mean that would be an it seems like it's either that option or it's postponing this item until Our next meeting So I I think you're um You can make a motion to table it Which doesn't require the date certain But if you're continuing to a date certain then you can't make a contingent on the rest of the members being here. Okay. Okay Gotcha, so Do you want to make a motion that it be continued to the day certain? I think City attorney says make an motion to table Yes, yeah make a motion to table this item Is there a second Yes, then the motion in a second any further discussion here in real call please So this is just the motion to table this yeah push it out. Okay. Good. Thank you Chair Burke Hi Commissioner Downey Hi Commissioner Olson And commissioner Owen hi Let the record reflect that the motion to table the item has passed Brings us to item 10.3 Which is a report on revision of the limited preference policy for disaster affected families on the housing choice voucher waiting list Good afternoon chairman Burke and commissioners. I'm jules pelican program specialist for the housing and community services And i'll be presenting today on the proposal to revise the policy for the limited preference for disaster affected families on the housing choice voucher waitlist The proposed change would allow households Displaced by the october 2017 wildfires from any sinoma county address to qualify for the limited preference So as a reminder the limited preference is a strategy for local housing authorities to respond to an urgent Unmet local need without reordering the existing waiting list The general waiting list would not be reordered and will remain closed 48 vouchers are currently available for the disaster limited preference The waiting list will only be open for those qualifying for this limited preference and that's on a referral basis Implementing a limited preference allows the housing authority to specifically and efficiently respond to the needs a very low and extremely low income residents after the wildfire disaster The proposed policy revision will offer assistance to qualified families who were residing anywhere in the county when the disaster occurred And experienced either direct or indirect displacement as a result For example households whose primary residence was destroyed or damaged would qualify for this limited preference Households who were secondarily displaced will also be eligible This may include households who were given notice to vacate due to their landlord's loss of primary residence To solicit applicants housing and community service partners with rebuilding our community snowman county, which is known as the rock This is a network of local governmental Non-profit and other organizations collaborating to provide a coordinated fire recovery effort And which has a center dedicated to serving fire survivors Data from the rock assessments indicates the continued need for assistance for fire survivors with pre fire addresses outside of City limits such as larkfield or the markwest area The proposed policy change will allow the housing authority to accept all referrals from the rock And to potentially address the unmet housing needs of all remaining fire survivors who are enrolled In the fema direct housing program I would be happy to take any questions that you have Thank you questions Can you give me a what you mean by limited preference? Yeah, the limited preference is um We originally had 24 vouchers in this preference for the for the waiting list and then in march the housing authority approved another 24 And these are dedicated solely to those who are eligible because of the fire So it's a preset number I'm concerned about the people who've been on that list for a long long long time and all of a sudden are being displaced And I understand the other people are burned out and that's a problem But i'm really uncomfortable with this. I have been since it first came up. So it's not new This doesn't change the number of vouchers It just enables people throughout the county who are impacted by the fire to utilize the vouchers that we already have Thank you How have you found a need to this to expand because it's as you just stated doesn't expand the number of vouchers But it allows people from outside the sitting limits To be able to to uh request The vouchers how has that need been assessed to this point that there is a need for such people in the markwest area Or park field Yeah, um to my knowledge that was the assessments that are done by the rock and they are in touch with everyone Who has this fuma direct assistance and they're finding that those that who are left are in those two areas specifically A key driver of this policy request Is the folks who are living at the fairgrounds and what we the fema trailers as former tenants So fema extended the Their payments for owner occupants displaced by the fire through the month of august But for renters it was going to expire two weeks ago And so we as the city appealed to fema to have The renters payments matched the owner occupants payments And at the 11th hour they agreed to do so And in that process we learned that At the fairgrounds there were between two and five households that were there that Previously lived outside the city limits And so it was the request to you today to extend the fire preference To folks who are either in the city prior to the disaster Or those who were outside the city prior to the disaster with the focus it would be Offered by the rock to these people currently receiving fema benefits, but it could also be other people could apply So the the city limits a defined area now We're going outside the city limits And understand it you know the fire was was mostly in the mark west and mark field area But where is that limit now extended to is that geographically defined? My understanding is that it's county at this point the entire county Thank you. What is the county is the county Doing something similar They decline to make this change or participate with us in this effort so The potential is For the first time ever that I can miss as far as I can recall That we might have People who are Within a preview of our voucher program that are living outside of the city limits And there's no they could be in C rancher Possibly I was going to say that the hud bash vouchers currently have that same Thing we do have people living in c rancher. So we are extending with the bash voucher program. So we are going to go Make visits to We do we inspect and uh I mean I guess in heelsburg and probably along the river We do yeah plenty in gernville. So that's that makes our that makes our whole Program much less efficient in terms of being able to Um Drive shorter distances and to go through all of the requirements of keeping people In the verification process in place Ultimately if that grows to too many units, it is going to have an impact on the cost of the Administrator cost of the program If that if that is a concern to the housing authority You could make that a requirement that If we are to assist folks Pre-disaster that we're in the county that they would have to find a rental unit In the city of santa rosa within the city limits But that isn't all the problem. I mean that just takes the That that means they have to find a place in santa rosa, which basically Maybe they wouldn't have before and so therefore somebody's trying to find one in santa rosa can't find one So i'm not sure that's actually the answer I mean the one difference in the bash program is that they're complexes So you make your visit and you could do For instance the verification of income and all of that rest to do an inspection in I mean with total of three buildings four buildings, whatever the Not necessarily we have individual landlords throughout the county for the bash program Yeah, so we've already gone down the slip. We already do that. But but to be clear These vouchers will be city of santa rosa vouchers. They'll just be available to people who are living outside of city limits Prefire if that helps If I So if I understand the existing Is that they had to be within the city of santa rosa? Displaced by the fire. So those two criteria And what we're doing is the displaced by the fire stays as a criteria But it's being extended to residents that were outside the city limits And what we're talking about right now is that making an additional requirement that Those taking advantage of it would have to find a unit within the city of santa rosa that is that what we're discussing That's correct Yeah That does seem to make a lot of sense. So we're not extending the the housing authorities Expenditures in terms of having monarchies I didn't I had no idea it was going all the way out to see ranch That's not a short drive So what is the pleasure of the commission? if if the county Would the county not be able to Do exactly the same thing as what's being proposed here Yes, they have that ability so and and and probably Probably more vouchers that are available as a percentage of the total vouchers in the program than the city has I would guess I would see those numbers for a long time, but Historically that's been the case another is a well Tough one Was there a reason why the county did not extend it? the reason we were provided is And you may have read this in the press democrat. They're going through um An overhaul of their waitlist management practices And this request came in the middle of that Activity and they felt that that would be A little disruptive to what they're trying to do to correct some audit findings or trying to get out from under I suppose one thing to consider would be to um have Further request of this housing authority commission extended to the county um A request to reconsider expediting that for The benefit of the people who are And the unincorporated parts of the county um and to Keep the programs as Um appropriate to their jurisdictions as possible if that's lack of a better term. Um, I don't know So how strong how strong is the staff recommending this is this is something I mean, it's it's a we want to help people Um, we have the capacity to be able to do that Maybe to some detriment to the people within the city program But the county has the same ability to do that This request originated from the city manager Where we didn't want to be in a position in August to say we can help you folks that are losing your FEMA assistance, but not you folks What does staff think? regarding the concept in general of using our vouchers Well, I guess you can take a section any voucher anywhere. Actually, can't you? So there's 48 vouchers in play That you've agreed to help fire survivors What this action is asking you to consider is Fire survivors who are outside the city limits And then if they do receive a voucher that they would live within the city limits I guess another possibility would be To define a geographical area That would be the city's sphere of influence or you know the That could be a possibility I don't see you You know I my perspective is that vouchers are a Rather complicated Thing to manage. It's a blend of art and science getting your lease rates up, etc This disaster was unprecedented. We have a situation where after almost two years we The folks that are be relying on FEMA assistance is getting down to a very small population I see this as a a good step and if with your agreement we would modify the resolution to require their occupancy Within the city limits as we currently do for points already made administrative efficiencies and everything else Would just to add another nuance to that Um to the extent can there be a preference? 48 vouchers we're talking about So could there be a preference that those 48 are offered to people that were displaced from the city of santa rosa And if those are not used when they certain time period Then it can be extended out to people outside within the Sonoma county so long as they have um So we maintain the preference my concern um Is that I don't know if this actually sets precedent, but we are actually helping people that are outside our jurisdiction I think you make an excellent point and we could we could incorporate that as well And by the way background the first 24 vouchers you allocated for this purpose. I think 21 Are already being utilized So the pool is down to 25 more vouchers Roughly and what do you think the headcount is or the household count is in regard to the femur? Because that's the source the people you're looking to is coming or being sourced or in a list is coming off of femur. Is that correct? That's correct yeah, and so With this with this feedback we can incorporate that city occupancy preference first and if there aren't any takers then it could be offered to Fire survivors have previously lived in county and they would have to have a unit within the city limits Correct to keep the maintenance cost the same I did i'm sorry to keep the maintenance cost for the for the housing authority the same Yeah, the administrative the administrative cost. Yeah Makes sense Excuse me commissioner down If I remember correctly the The wait list is being reorganized to Quote unquote come up with a more efficient model Is there a way to postpone this decision So that we know what the outcome of this wait list reorganization that's taken place It's going to look like as opposed to Speculating or guessing you know where these people are going to go Might be an option, but you know people are in desperate need of options right now it might it might not be Might might might be a little tube bureaucratic response in my opinion If we could do something to reach out to people and do our best. I think that I'd like to see us do that Mr. Oh, would you would you? Be prepared to make the motion. Let's see if I can do this correctly somehow. I get to be the guinea pig today on Then that's fine. So I'm going to move To approve the resolution of housing authority of the city center was revising limited preference policy for disaster Effective families in the housing choice voucher program waiting list with the caveats added That it is can be for recommendation can be extended to households Uh who were within the county of san of sonoma outside the city limits So that's one extension And this is um For the resolution the other requirement is that They have to be displaced by the fire The preference would then be that to the extent that there are um Vouchers available there the preference for the people that would be within the city of Santa Rosa if there are any It's still available Then they would be made available to residents that were outside the santa rosa city of santa rosa But they have to find units within the city of santa rosa to receive a voucher. Good job That's a long resolution. I think that's a good job for me to thank you So, uh, what's that? Do we have a second question? What's to be what's to be gained? Once we've decided to give give the voucher to the people who don't live in this city What's to be gained by having them have to get a unit in the city? It's not like there are units available in excess in the city I think it's from from my standpoint. My concern is is that We start to go throughout the county the entire sonoma county Having to do verifications and inspections and so Also, I'll just add that it already is we don't need to add that bit The the voucher is already just good in the city of santa rosa It's the city of santa rosa voucher change. No, no even before that change Oh, I thought it was because you talked about wiki up and We're we're extending it to people who were there pre fire But they will need to to live in the city. Okay All right, so I think we've I think we've exhausted the topping already to take a vote unless staff asks them questions or concerns And then I'll go ahead and second the motion is okay. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that Okay, so Could you reiterate your understanding? I think I'm a lost Commissioner Oh, and I'm sorry to interrupt me. I just I believe that the first two conditions that you stated are already in the row I was learning the role Okay, so it would only be adding priority to city residents first And then if there are any left then to county residents my only Concern about that piece is how long do we wait for city residents? to raise their hand before we open that up as our timeline front just Logistically how would that work? I I would respond this way we would be Tying it to the date FEMA ends their assistance to folks receiving it which is an august event perfect. Thank you And and I would just ask to make her the motion the second year to add that to the language Seems like that's important agreed Agreed Mr. Olson, you agreed in that I did okay, so we're good. Okay Any other questions? Are we ready for roll call? I think we're ready for roll call sir roll call please Chair Burke. Hi commissioner Downey Commissioner Olson Hi And commissioner Owen. Hi Let the record reflect that the resolution as amended passes with four eyes and two absences All right. Well, thank you all and it's time for item 11, which is adjournment and Good discussions throughout the day. Appreciate it. I guess I better do this