 We're going to see you. We're here with lots of friends. They have great conversations and they ask questions. I just want to go through the order of what we're going to do here today. I'm Mayor Kelly Gertz, the Unified Government of Atkinson Park County, and I'm here to welcome you along with Val and Daniel, who is Atkinson Housing Authority Chair. I'm just happy to be here as well. It's an opportunity to partner, unify government, and we're so excited to be a part of that, to bring some affordable housing at this community. All right, great. So we're going to discuss the project. Certainly have everybody introduced themselves in just a second. Here, I've had about a half hour of questions and answers and then Chairman Daniel and I are going to go and we're going to execute the memorandum of understanding that's been approved by both of these parties. So I'm very excited to be here. So I'm going to begin just by going around the table and letting everybody introduce themselves. Great. I'm Commissioner Mariah Parker, District Attorney. I'm Michelle Pearson, Commissioner with the Atkinson Housing Authority. I'm Darlene Stern, Resident Commissioner on the Atkinson Housing Authority Commissioners. I'm Jim Smith, Atkinson Housing Authority Commissioner. Val and Daniel, Atkinson Housing Authority Commissioner. Charlie Raddick, Advertising Authority Commissioner. I'm Frank Plano, with the Atkinson Housing Authority Commissioner. I'm Mike Dery, I'm the Atkinson Park County. Russell Edwards, District 7 County Commissioner. Ken Denson, District 5 County Commissioner. Melissa Link, District 3 Commissioner. Jared Easton, District 3 Commissioner. Okay, how do you do, good job. District 6. I hope I did my job. Yeah, you did. I'm ready. I'm going to be the Spartan District 9 Commissioner. Well, we couldn't be more excited to be here today as certainly we announced on Friday and reiterated over the last several days. We've been fortunate to partner as two local public organizations along with two private development groups, the Columbia Residential Group as representatives here today and the Jonathan Rose Group, to seek a redevelopment of a broad swap of North downtown Athens. Certainly centralized on the experiment known as the Bethlehem Midtown Village Area, but certainly transcending that including public properties that surround it as well. We've described this in many ways as having two perspective paths. Certainly the path that I think everybody who's sitting with us today desires to see is the path upon successful passage of the spas referendum on November 5th of this year. We have committed $39 million of the respectful before to have $1.5 million affordable housing fund to redevelopment of this area. And if we go down that road, we're going to see transformational redevelopment that's going to retain at least as many deeply afforded units that currently exist along with a set of workforce housing units that also be likely subsidized with low income housing tax credits and then a set of market rate units as well. We're committed to both the sort of near term success of the residents who currently live there as well as playing the long game. So we want to make sure that everybody who lives in Bethlehem is able to return. That if there is any displacement and we don't even know what that would look like because that has yet to be developed in terms of the specifics of the plan. There is displacement that would be fully funded through the program. Nobody would pay a dime to move off the property or to move back on the property. And everybody who's a current Bethlehem resident would see their rent levels retained if they're retaining their current income level. Rents there, of course, are dependent upon their income levels. So if somebody jumps from making $10 now or making $20 now, that'd be the only thing that would affect their level of rent. We also believe that this is really going to be a jewel of downtown in the long term. One of the challenges that we faced when this property came on the market in January is prospective competition from other bidders, particularly bidders who might be only interested in a for-profit component for this part of downtown, or who might be interested in unwinding the affordability in the near term. What we as partners want to do is preserve the affordable component in the long term. So certainly my son, in 30 years, would be able to walk through the property and know that it could be home to a broad swath of happens. Through those, you have lots of dollars in the pocket and those who are just getting started live or who are on an upward trajectory. I think it's fair to say we also recognize that simply having kind of multiple strata of the income stream would be next to each other while it historically and research-based says that you go to crime, is the only thing that we have to do. We have to ensure the social cohesion of the community. We have to ensure that we're injecting service supports into the community and it will work with camping gloves with those residents, certainly as we've done through this transition. So I'm going to shut up, but I'll just say I'm interested here in the first from Balvin, but also from every member of these bodies as they can express their thoughts and their desires from each other. And then again we'll take some questions. Growing up in public housing, I grew up in Broad Acres. So it has found an effect in making sure that all persons of all income can live together in Broad Acres. When I was there, we had doctors, we had principals, we had teachers, all living in Broad Acres. Would you imagine that? It didn't matter what you were making, what I was making, and that was our perception of Columbia-Rookside. We know as the housing authority that HUD presently want to eliminate all public housing. And that's why we went into the Columbia-Rookside partnership with the Jack Allwells Project to make sure that low-income housing is maintained and people can feel good about where they live, regardless of income. It's so important that they become a part of it, that regardless of how much you make, it doesn't matter as long as I take you to my place, you take your place, you take your children, I take you to my children, and we can live in a homonymous relationship. And that's the whole idea. And I want to share this with you. I was at the Notre Dame Georgia game a week ago, and we had 93,000 people that cheered you. It didn't matter what color the person was in school, in touchdown, all it mattered was that he was in University of Georgia. Now wouldn't it be wonderful that we could have a society like that? Four hours we were like that. Think about that now. Four hours we did not care who scored, as long as it was the Georgia Bulldogs, we were all happy. That's what kind of society we need to have a life long. It doesn't matter what color you are, as long as we're working together for a common core. Thank you, chair. I appreciate it. Like some other input from commissioners, and I will say that this has been a collaborative effort, not only in this last year plus when we've been very actively at the table together, but really over multiple years, I think you might have just thought a lot about how the moving pieces of the geography of atoms can fit together in a positive way for public income. Certainly, Fort Mavita has been at the table with residents, dining room tables, taking care of them and their babies for many years. So this is something we both are thinking. I will say something, Kelly, and I appreciate the words of Dr. Daniels himself and certainly the authority members being here. The thing I would like to say is that this presents our community with a great opportunity. I mean, no, I'm hard pressed to think about how many communities or even counties in the state of Georgia, much less than the country, that committed $40 million to an affordable housing project that is designed to help make life better. So I'm hopeful that the community will proceed this well and then we can get moving. So I think it would be a transformational thing for a lot of lives. I want to quail some of the question and concern that some people have because this is what we, on this side, went through all of Jack-o'-well's life. Who are people going to be misplaced? They're not going to have anywhere to go. Where are they going? All the people that Jack-o'-wells didn't come back. Whoever's telling that, they're just telling them about it. Okay. Other than guidelines, they have to come back. But like that, the other day, I'm not going to tell you what I'm doing when I came up with this riddle. Even the people that don't come back, guess what? Someone that qualified will be in that position. There will be no less units for public housing residents. No matter what, if nobody comes back, everybody that happens like me, it will still be that same number of units for a qualified person on the waiting road. Whether that individual comes back or not, no student or rich guy, rich man, none of these people will be able to fill that slot that's allocated by the contract, by what we were doing. So that's one of the things we've heard and we still hear. Are they not coming back? Well, that's a choice that they made on different areas. But I can assure you that if they don't, someone that meets the public housing authority guideline will be in those units. So that takes away all the other woody ups and woody ends, or who's coming back. I wanted to follow that statement because I heard it too. And I've heard it from some people I thought would tell it. And I got really tired of hearing it. So this is how I answered this question. Give me the name of one person. Just one. Give me their name and their contact. I will follow up with them personally. And if it is true, that means I'm lying. That means I've been telling them all this wrong. Nobody can give me nobody's name. Nobody can tell me where nobody's at. The folk that I know personally cannot go back. They have told me personally that was their choice. Nobody's taken away anybody's choice. I am so glad that we are making this move. Oh, the other argument I get is this doesn't not create wealth. It wasn't designed to create wealth. It's designed to be a stepping stone towards wealth. As we do this, we should be in immediate conversation about home ownership. This conversation should go right into how do we create home ownership. And the oddest part about it, home ownership is a big responsibility. And a lot of folks don't understand. When I get my taxes at the end of the year and have to fix something, that ain't no play job. So when we talk about we want people in homes, are we putting them in homes for a temporary vacation because they're going to lose it sooner or later for whatever, we need to prepare people for those moves. So this, to me, takes care of an immediate problem for us to move forward to something else. I'm ready to start talking about home ownership and what that looks like. The big thing that I'm here over and over again is the concerns about folks being displaced. And throughout the conversations that we've had about this for going on three years now, that confirm was always at the forefront of our conversation. And we are committed to making sure that anybody who lives in this community definitely comes back. But also that the process for moving people out and building new properties, that there's a possibility of keeping them as close as possible to the community. And I was just talking and you look at the footprint of what's there now and how low the density is. I'm really committed to pushing that we explore phasing of the project that allows as many people as possible to stay on site and in the immediate area. You know, so folks are moving across town. But I mean, there's so much possibility here because of its downtown urban location and the possibilities for mixed use. We're not only creating housing, but we have the potential to create real opportunity and real jobs for people in real services. You know, to have some of those wraparound services outside there is a health clinic right there. There's possibly some real childcare and we've got the linen house right there. We have the park right there. We have the potential to create a truly diverse and holistic community. And that's what we really need to do more of in general in Athens and across. I apologize for my casual tire. I've been working outside chasing my summer down. This project is a case where the government is acting to renovate and restore a privately held apartment complex, privately held apartment complex owned by a landlord that lives in Atlanta. I've driven through several homes in the past year and just seen a tremendous amount of litter and garbage and broken down fences. It was a sad place to see. It was a sad place to see. There's folks who do business and private real estate operators sometimes for whatever reason. They just don't care. They just don't care about what they own and what they provide. Luckily in this situation, an opportunity presented itself for the government Athens-Clarke County to cooperate with Athens Housing Authority to purchase this privately held apartment complex and renovate it, build something new for the folks that live with it. This private entity secured loans to renovate some years ago that were backed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Because those loans were backed by that entity they had to provide section 8, that obligation would carry forward with what the government is going to do here. Like Mr. Maddy said, we're going to provide the same number of quarterly units if not more. So I think this is a great step, a great opportunity being seized by these two governmental authorities to step up to the plate and beautify a neglected, privately held apartment that was in disrepair and neglected and was not a safe place for children to live. The number of shootings we've had the past few months in that area is reprehensible. I know one would be current on a playground and children at Barrow Elementary witnessed it. That's why we're around this stage today and are proud to sit at this table to stand with our partners here at the Housing Authority and take a step forward to take over control of this privately held apartment and turn it into something that I think the Athens community is going to be very proud of and will provide a safer and more livable place for the children of this community and for the students of Barrow Elementary. Thank you everybody who's worked on this project, staff at Athens Housing Authority, staff in the Manager's Office. Everybody around this stage, I'm excited. I'd like to dig back a little bit on what you just said. Years ago there was some studies done in my early career as a police officer. It's called a broken window somewhere. Section of a city up north somewhere, I can't remember exactly. Everybody there had all the broken windows cleaned up and they just tracked the crime in that area for a certain time and the crime actually went down. And the only thing I want to say is that with me, this is a quality of life issue for the residents that are there now and future residents beginning with the physical condition of that property and it is a mess. You don't believe that you ought to go in some of the units like that. And I think once that is accomplished, then all the other things need to be done. Don't just leave it alone at that. There are other social issues that need to be addressed with people that live there. But I agree with that. Like I said, I was a police officer for 41 years and I can tell you some stories about I just wanted to reiterate some comments I made meeting last night regarding the precedent that had been set historically for developments like these and the very real fears that some people have regarding what this looks like. It may not have been true for Jack Garwell's development but in the era of urban renewal guided by an ideology of white supremacy. Developments like these gave way to new structures and new institutions that did not benefit the people of communities like Woodskillet or the Bottoms or Linnentown and that now, perhaps too late, we are beginning to study and understand the gravity of. And I bring this up because I don't want to dismiss people who want to stay involved in the process, who are worried about the process, who believe that oversight is necessary. I want to invite those people into the conversation because I think that as long as we are partnered throughout this process we can ensure that it is equitable and thus to where all parties involved, the residents of this development especially, and to ask if there are currently scheduled any future touch points for people to come converse with the folks sitting at this table about what steps to come will look like. To that question, Portioner, the intent is and I've had my conversations with those of the housing authority including Director Rick Parker this year about having very frequent touch points. Obviously there will be that design and planning process that involves what the sticks and grits will look like, what kind of amenities are on site, where the garden will be, where the playground will be, where the parking lots will be, you know, there will be a pond or a fountain there, all those kind of physical things. But what we really want to do is make sure that that's not a one and done, but in fact that we're having very consistent meetings and very consistent communication with the current residents and the public. And so I would anticipate a newsletter cycle that's going to go forward for many years to come in which we get regular updates and have regular interactive sessions. Great. Yeah, I think with all of those in place I have confidence that this can be a great benefit for our community. I just wanted to say that and I'm sure everybody knows that as a resident in public housing I live in Dennis Coward so I look right across the street coming back down and I've seen it go down. I've seen the trash that you talk about. I've seen things that go on that shouldn't be going on and it's important I think that because they weren't elected for so long if the management didn't care about them then they didn't care about the property. It wasn't their home or not their home. It's a place to stay and I think we're trying to make it where it's their home and safe for the children, safe for the families and safe for our senior citizens. Since Rick has died up here, I'm going to give him credit so I don't get too many things. I'm not sure about this yet. You know, one of the things that led us through the Jackal Wells and led us to this is the people that sit on this side and our main thing has always been what's best for the community. And as we got ready to do that, we found a wonderful apartment in Columbia Felt. Not just, oh they got all these slides and stuff like that, but actually to view what they had done 10, 15 years ago not just this sad week of not this new thing and even the teller, they had input into moving apartments and they proven themselves beyond the shadow of it now as to what we're doing there. As a businessman, say, I remember urban removal. They said urban renewal, but I remember that. They came to do it and some folks never recovered. I remember model cities and I remember all of that kind of stuff. But now on the inside, I see that unless somebody wants to go to jail, unless generally they want to lose a lot of money, they got to stick by the roof. They got to play the game fair because if they're in violation of not allowing some person to come back on this day, then their money is really at risk. They wind up doing that. So again, the biggest fear that I hear people talking about is, you're not going to do this before people. They're not going to have any time to place. I live in Bethlehem. I was one of the first residents there in 1969. I was raised by the first daughter of that. She adopted Milwaukee. I lived there. It was a wonderful place. We had local management and we had local people that the resident, we knew if you didn't do right, you would go and as it's how with our people, no, if you don't do right, you go. The rule is we're not going to come up with a new rule. We're not going to start doing something we're not doing. This is the rule. You can go to any of our developments and any of our properties and say, wow. And many people have done that because it comes down to a management team, a board of government, a chair, and we have that. And now in this new development, we have a partner. And they've done this and they take pride in that too. So there is no way that anything, urban, unannual, or most policies, all that will happen because we know what's going on. See, too many times people didn't know what was going on when there was a little game. They didn't know what was happening. Well, I think we've done a great job of getting everybody involved, everybody knowing everything there is to know about it and that as we go forward with the many needs that we will have with the residents, they will feel more and more comfortable because something has to be done. But what drove that place down was out of town, out of care and management. And now here we're able to change it and with the help of Mayor and Commission, the dollars are there that we can bring it back to life because as Chairman Dannis said, one of the most important things is where do you live? And you know this too, Russ, where do you live? Look, that's a down mark. I remember when that was an upkeep and we want to bring it back to that. And by bringing all the other things that you're going to avail of that, we can do this. It's good. Why wouldn't we do it? Jared? Yeah, I just want to reflect back as in this, I think to the public, this is about something that suddenly we have to do in the last two weeks. That's not the case. This has been brewing for a long time, four years, at least. So the incident seems to be a little bit sort of heavy. Rick Parker has been, the guy that's been down in the trenches, figuring out the finances and the engineering costs and doing all this homework that we're incredibly important to figure out how much is this going to cost, is it feasible, and who's going to do it? It's all been going on behind the scenes. So a lot of people who aren't here tonight, including former commissioners from the last class at the Mater, who deserve some credit, a lot of credit here. But I got to say, Rick Parker made us feel confident that he knew what he was doing honestly. And so we were able to take the next step, the next step. We navigated through these negotiations and all of this stuff, just absolutely brilliant, brilliant. And the work on the last project that happened before we gave this conference, that everybody involved, you know what they were doing. Thank you, Mayor. And yeah, first I just want to thank Dr. Rick Parker and this entire board for, I know we all did a lot of work throughout this, so I appreciate y'all doing that and carrying it. And definitely everybody who was here before we came on, because I'll admit never I came on, and there was a lot of necessary secrecy around this project due to it land purchase. And so when I came on, I had a lot of questions and concerns. So I definitely understand why people and the community who are just not hearing about this also have questions and concerns. And I think that's valid. But I don't think that that needs to turn into, it's unfortunate that it's turned into a lot of the misinformation instead of just questions and concerns. And I appreciate Alex's comments and real comments about we're not going, anybody who doesn't come back to this, they're not coming back because they chose to come back. This body, and I'm sure there's board will not be supporting this project if that wasn't true. And I do also agree with Commissioner Link that I would love to see a way for us to do this in phases, that we can absolutely limit displacement to potentially nobody being displaced off of this track. If we can do that in a way, I think that that should be prioritized. But going back to the concerns people have, I've been the Bethel, anybody who's been the Bethel understands that things did not continue the way they were. There was a link that landed the situation basically. I think this project is able to take back that land, as Commissioner Edward said, from this private developer who was not giving the residents there the care they deserved, and instead of taking it back and giving it back to the people. I think that's the mission that I see in this. And I understand that the history that's there and that's valid. We need to be aware of that and always keep that in check. But I think it is so important that this community, this body, we have to believe that there's a right way to do this, because we have to do something. There has to be a right way that we can help people get to the quality of life that everyone deserves. And that's do that. We have to provide quality housing to people with the background services that we put here. But we have to believe there's a proper and a right way that puts people first that we can do this. And that's just the body, these two bodies are trying to do. So I really, anybody who's got those questions, concerns, which again, I had at the beginning, we'll answer those, we'll engage with those, but please try to be cooperative with us and try to make this successful instead of hoping that it sings. Jim. A very brief comment, although it's certainly true that this did not happen overnight during the last month, I think it's important to realize that we're essentially still near the beginning of a long process. If it's an iron-in game, maybe in the second inning, in fact, we have a reason to be optimistic and I'm highly excited. So I'm glad the commission is as well, but there will be a lot of hard work and a lot of planning and many more things to do. And today is a mild soon, a reason for celebration, but it's a celebration near the starting point of what will be a healthy long process. We have the property of a contract, but we don't want to control it one bit until a closing will take place later if and when we get there, which I expect you won't. Most of the conversation has been centered around the infrastructure, the building, the fixing work, but we've got to make sure we keep the residents in front. When people do not have hope, you're not going to get a lot out of it. There's a need to reestablish the residents association. Just like we talked about mentoring kids with all the mentoring programs we have in the community, we have to have both to step up and mentor families. We have to have faith-based groups to come into our community. It is going to take a while before everything starts looking like we are envisioning or what we imagine, but there's some things that we can do now because if we educate and support these families now, we won't have to worry about urban relief. We won't have to worry about people speaking for other people because they will have the tools and skills to speak for themselves. We need to give people knowledge and information and set free. We should not be trying to enable them. And a lot of times when we're getting in certain positions, it's almost like, oh, I know something that you don't know. But we need, if we have information that we can get out there, the workshop that Tim and I were at today on economic development, I learned a lot. And I wish I had known that before I got on this mission. I probably would be able to win. But I learned a lot. We have to know that these residents are poor. They're not stupid. They're not dumb. We have to give them this information and let them loose. And they will do the right things because they will be doing it for themselves and not be doing it for them. The days of handouts and giveaways is over. It's over. It's not coming back. And I do believe that's been one of our problems in society. We've done too much giveaway, giveaway, and no responsibility. But everything we do, there is a consequence. We all have to be accountable for what we do. And now we have folks, they feel like they're entitled. They don't matter. And then when you get put out, all you hear about the thing, but what did you do? You didn't put out, you know. So we got to help people to understand that, you know, there's just responsibility. And I believe that we sit down and talk to folks like they are human beings and intelligent. They'll get it. You don't talk down to people. You look broke up. And if you can't say nothing good, just need to be quiet and listen to somebody else. But I hope we don't forget about the capital investment that is going to be needed to lift these folks up. It's not going to be bricks and mortar. It's got to be some hands on. I see Pastor Betsy here. I just want to thank her for all you've done. I got a little jealous there for a minute. It took my babies. And me, we got, there are names of folks that have really invested in these folks. And so we need, but we need more names. We need more people to stand up. And that's while we're building this building, let's build up the folks at the same time. Sure. I left our meeting on Friday with the President. It's very helpful and optimistic. I hope Vita, the core of this, yes, we're talking about brick and mortar in the building, but it really goes down to the people. And so I was glad to hear that we came together to have that meeting on Friday and talk to the residents that are living in Bethel now first. And they had an opportunity to ask their questions. They had an opportunity to express their concerns. And hope that meeting here and positive feedback from them was exciting and inspiring. But it also took me back to when the House Authority undertook this very similar project with Jack Harwell. Because that's exactly what we did. And I remember month after month, that board meeting, sometimes multiple board meetings in a month. And our affectionately known, our 7 a.m. tropematics meetings, that we were hearing all of the outside folks, all of the media folks, everyone who did not live in our meeting had their false comments and their feedback. That they had all the issues, all these concerns that our own residents who we talked to one by one house by house did not. Because they were every part of the project. So I'm very hopeful and excited that we're able to come together as a team on this. Because at this point, the House Authority has a blueprint that we work with Columbia Residential then. And if we continue to follow the process that we went from then keeping the residents at bay, letting them drive the car, we did not. The reason there was a pool there, the reason their computers in there, their reason there's a gym, that's because that's what they said they wanted to see in their community. And we said, okay, we follow that process. And so I think if we continue to do that and stay engaged, I'm hopeful about this project, because we're going to hear it regardless whether, to your point, you know, it's going to happen. And that's okay. But I think we have to remember that we need to listen to the residents first. Because that's who we're impacting. We're the best who's moving, that's who lives we're touching. And so I'm excited that we are able to come together and add one more partner with the county being a part of this project. But also knowing that we have a blueprint, we have a process that will work to be fast as we need for it. I think we'll pause at this point and spend just a little bit taking questions from anybody who's here in the room. I know it's covered some ground that probably those who are interested in, but if there are any questions where you'd like a deeper dive or there's an aspect of this, either historically or just in terms of perspective, we're looking at in the months ahead, we'd definitely be happy to answer anything that's on anybody's mind before Jeremy Daniel and I go execute the MOU. Being a senior citizen myself and knowing that books like Columbia has a certain building just for seniors, do we know yet that that's going to happen at this development? Certainly very well could. I would find it likely that it would, particularly if you think about the very broader area that's not just the 13 acres of downtown village at the 28th expanded area. How would this stand for senior housing? So, I want to go back to something that Commissioner Parker and Commissioner Knox talked about as far as the history of the city and the impact of urban renewal. And a lot of people's concerns of if this is going to be another one. Just as Mr. Knox said, there's not a lot of people who know about the history. You lived it. There's a lot of people who are alive who can talk about that, but they're not heard. I've been working with a lot of folks from Linnentown for the first time that they are actually heard. I hear a lot of frustration coming from some of you about this isn't urban renewal. Stop pushing back against us. That's the tenor that I hear. And that's the tenor that other people would hear. Don't do that. Instead, teach people what that history is and own it. Because when you do that, you actually humanize what happened, both past and present. And you respect the people who live in Bethel now who may actually continue to ask you and are afraid. If you want to gain the trust of people, then teach history as it really happened and own it. There are lots of ways to do that. So I want to encourage both bodies to make an effort throughout this process to teach what urban renewal was in the city. Because you'll find that when you do that, there's a lot of people in the white communities who need to know that. Because they may jump into this and think that everything is going to get smoothly. No plan goes smoothly. And along the way, you have to find a way to fill those gaps. Teach what urban renewal really was all the residents from Linnentown. They want other people to know what happened to them. Teach what happened at the site of Bethel. Because that is how you start to rebuild a community that has felt, that has not just felt, but has been so pushed out. So I want to encourage you as a way to listen to residents to reiterate what Commissioner Thornton has to emphasize, to put residents first. This is how you put residents first, by telling real histories and not being afraid of anything, and even if you are afraid of it. Because to be honest, we don't have to believe that this is going to work. We don't have to make that belief at first. We need evidence coming from you. You're the ones accountable. We don't need to believe that. We have to have evidence. So give that evidence. And one way to do that is teaching history in a real way. So that's my encouragement to you. I have to say this and just say it, but I'll just say it. This is not our job per se. You said us. This is a community thing. What I would like for you to do and anybody else, if you have something to offer to the table, like, only I like to work with the residents about urban renewal, nobody's going to push back on that. Nobody's going to say, no, we don't want to give food or whatever. You know, there's a lot to be an elected official, which I am really getting a little nervous about at times. But most of us that ran this last time, we ran on a platform of community, I mean community. Not the big guys in the little youths. So we need, that's not my expertise of teaching. That's not me. But if you say, Alveda, let's have a forum or urban renewal. Let's do that. You got experts and you got folks that went through it. Let's do it. So you volunteered. People need to tell us what you want to do. And let's do it together. But please don't give me nothing else to do. I, besides Ms. Prowley, and I, we're probably the only two people in here that lived through urban renewal. And I can assure you that there are nine people at this table that wouldn't have, that didn't have a chance of being at the table when they came through with that. And 9 out of 15 of the people sitting here couldn't have been there. And probably the other guys couldn't have been there either, when they brought in my own seat. See, we have to put this into perspective when we talk. It was segregation, right? Okay. We had brought in and we had part of it. It was a whole different thing. And none of the people that sat at that table good or not good had any intention of doing anything other than to make money what they would do. So now we have a community involved and we're asking everybody in the community to come because it's going to be one of those either you're with us or you're together. And they say, we've got to do something. And I've heard so many stories just like I hear about people not being able to go back, I hear horror stories about urban renewal. And believe it or not, that was, that was a fairly good story about urban renewal. So some people got wealth and all of that. I've got people that look like me. So it wasn't all of that. But we need to tell a whole story. But again, we learn from history. And I think because we're sitting around here, yeah, we can teach them what happened. It doesn't have a chance of having it with this group. But the people that we have a voice now, but we don't need to get about it. We don't need to go back and dig old graves and do all this. But we have learned and we invite everybody, everybody, and come with something productive and let's share and let's move on. Because the train is pulling down. So I find the thing about displacement and then the response from, you know, the very recent response from the community, which is called dissent, a lot of people agree with the Bethlehem project, I trust project. And a lot of people didn't trust in the project and haven't yet. But I remember Charlie in 2010 at the SNAE at the Mayoral Forum. When the moderator asked the question, there's about 67 candidates up there, including Mr. Maddox. Do you support public housing? Charlie Maddox was the only one that raised his hand. And then the moderator brought the question to the audience and there was about 50 or 60 people in there. We had just really sorted a new wave of community forums and town halls at that time. And two people raised their hand out of 50. And a good many of the audience kind of laughed about that. Okay. So you were dissent in 2010. But you were the singular dissent. So now we come back to 2020 or near 2020. And I just want to say that at least among the younger generations, in my opinion, displacement is the number one issue. But the difference between 2010 and 2020 is these people that feel displacement is a top issue of anti-poverty struggles, they will work with you and they'll work for the community if they don't feel like that there's an error of, oh, we're doing this and this and that. And so thank you, Charlie, for being the only person at that table to support public housing in 2010. Okay. And then my question is, so remember these kids want to help y'all. And they will work a lot of hours both in the community and in front of the computer to make them successful. And then my last question is, it's a transportation issue, I'm assuming that we're going to have some economic development features and maybe some childcare features. But people and students at Athens Tech are the only students now in Athens, Georgia that can't get on a bus for free. So that might be one reason of many white people don't trust the status quo. So the question is, for Kelly or whoever else wants to answer, the question is, and for mobility issues across the board, are the people in the new community of the North Athens new community, are they going to be able to get on the bus and go to Athens Tech without having to pay a fare? Well, I'll kind of start broadly, Michael, and kind of then narrow in point when discussing this project earlier today and affordable housing broadly, that you always have to think about affordable housing in a bigger context than just where you lay your head. That's a piece of the conversation in terms of community health and community dynamics. But you also have to think about people's upward trajectory. You have to think about their own individual life development. You have to think about job opportunities that exist and higher education opportunities that exist in the community. And so a lot of the programming at Athens Tech in college reflects the kind of things that we'd like to see people be able to move into. The commission has made a commitment to workforce development for $200 to workforce development, new local dollars just in this current fiscal year. So I think you certainly see the members of that body standing strong behind that. Just in terms of nuts and bolts, and you know this because you've been an advocate for transit access in the past. The reason that University of Georgia students have fair free access to transit is because that's part of their steepity. And so that's sort of an institutional priority. The university is made, in my college, is made out of priority. We're certainly talking about ways broadly that we could enhance our trains of programming and moving toward fair free access for seniors who are disabled in this current fiscal year or K-12 in younger students a few years ago. I think you're probably going to see some new innovations in the next few years very broadly. We want these that are really going to hit the high note on to make sure that we're not just talking about a better place, you know, grant and countertops, stainless steel appliances, but we're talking about a better life opportunities than we've got has to include higher education. So it's a very brief follow-up question. Do you want the people really balling as a community to be able to talk about it and go straight down and south without having to move? I do. In fact, I mean just this fiscal year we made the commitment so that they can get there not only from the south but from the north down Highway 29. And so I think we'll be seeing some programming innovations in the next couple of years. Yeah, I believe. Exactly. Those that look like, we'll see. I just was part of the conversation with Kevin Tanner from the Georgia House of Representatives, he's chair of transportation committee about how some of this can look. That's great. Thank y'all for all your care. Hi, I just have a logistics question to help me understand it because there's a lot of discussion about replacement. How does it actually like happen? Like what's going to happen if I were living there? You know, am I going to be, how do I find another place and come back? I just like wonder what the logistics are. Someone talked about doing it in stages, but and I don't know if the other development how it happened. So what happens? Like what's the process for the residents and the situation or has been it? Maybe different. I understand, but the process of the residents would be a voucher. They could take that voucher and find their place. I had to stop you. That was the that was the process for Brookside because the subsidy at Brookside was public housing. These are section eight subsidies and so vouchers will not necessarily be used. They will stay on a lease with that property and will sub lease if necessary. They'll never really leave the the control of the property so they'll always have the right to come back because it's a different kind of subsidy. Sorry. Thank you. It's a different kind of subsidy. So let me take a stab at the question of the process. And Jim, please feel the jump. My business partner, our business partners here as well. First of all, we are meeting with every single resident family individually before we ever take possession. And if relocation becomes necessary, there'll be a full-time staff person that will hand walk them in the actual department at Jim, our business partners, Columbia Residentials Company that does these relocations. We will hand hold them all the way through the process. We will help them locate people. We will not simply say because it's not public housing, the voucher situation. We'll be helping them locate suitable apartments or locations for their family. They'll have input into that. We're not just going to say, okay, this is it. Take it or leave it. We'll be walking them and hand holding them through the process the entire way. Every penny of all the costs to move, all the connection fees, everything associated with the move will be completely borne by us. No resident will be out of dime for the move away or the move back. We're currently to address Commissioner Link's concerns. We are seriously looking at methodologies because those Section 8, those Section 8 subsidies are so valuable and you do not want to lose them under any set of circumstances because we're committed to having all 190 stay with the property. We're going to be very, very careful about how we do that, including looking at whether or not we can do a situation where we do some consolidation moves to one side of the property and develop it in phases. If we do the Brookside-like transformational project that we all hope we'll be able to do, it will have to be done in phases. You cannot get enough tax credits in any round of tax credit awards from the state to do this big a job in one lump transaction. There's a limit as to how many you can get in any one given year, so it will absolutely positively have to be done in phases. The fact that it has to be done in phases and the fact that so much of the property is vacant right now gives us some unique opportunities to address just exactly those various concerns. I will, however, tell you the same thing that we have told the residents from the start, and that is we want to be totally honest, totally transparent. We're going to have many, many, many, many meetings, dozens and dozens of meetings. We're going to stay engaged and we're going to try very hard never to make a promise that we can't keep. That's how you win trust. That's how you win trust with the residents. That's how you win trust with the public. You stay engaged. You have lots and lots of meetings. You are as transparent and truthful as you can possibly be and you try really hard not to make any promises. So I'm not making any promises that the approach is going to be a phased approach. I'm telling you that we're looking at that very, very carefully. So I hope that answers your question. That helps a lot. While you're telling me that, I was listening very carefully. How many units are there now and how many units will there be that are affordable and how many units will there be that are private? I don't quite understand private. So similar to what we did at Brookside. Brookside is one third deep subsidy public housing, one third workforce housing in the form that is modest subsidy, which is low income housing tax credit, and one third market rate. And that mix allows for a very wholesome community. It also allows for the development of the property in such a way that every single unit is built to exactly the same standard. So it does. So for example, at Brookside, when you knock on the door, you can't tell who you're knocking on and every unit is built exactly the same way. So the public housing residents at Brookside are receiving the unit and living in the unit that looks exactly like the market rate units and is built to full market rate standards. So you're really lifting up those populations and giving them a unit and a lifestyle that might not be possible if you weren't functioning mixed income where you've got sort of it's not really true. So don't have a hard attack on say this gym or anybody else. It's not cross subsidization, but it sort of is in that the presence of all those income streams on the property allows for something greater than the individual whole if you try to do any one of them as a as a standalone without the mixed income. What's the difference between those two, the deep subsidy and the workforce rate? Okay. So when I that's a good question, what what deep subsidy what I mean by deep subsidy is and that includes section eight includes public housing, those kinds of programs. A deep subsidy program would be defined as where your rent floats entirely based on your income. So if you make a very tiny income, you pay a very tiny rent. And when your income goes up, you pay a slightly higher rent. And by the way, when your income goes down in most rental situations, your rent never goes down. You know, a normal rental unit when your income goes down, that's just too bad. And a deep subsidy program when your income goes down, your rent also goes down. So that's the section eight subsidies that are there on the property. Now there are 190 units and we intend to to maintain that 190 units. What I mean by workforce housing is that is not run through the US Department of Housing or Development. That's a function of the Internal Revenue Code of the United States of America, in which low income housing tax credits are available and sold to people who need to offset their taxes. And the sales of those low income housing tax credits create a huge pile of equity that can be used to build the property and draw down the amount of debt that you have to have on the property, which allows you to set a more affordable rent than a market rent. And by law, and Jim, you can you can check me on this. I'll let him give me the percentages so I don't get it wrong. By law, the the rents are set for those at what percent of immediate income? Hi, I'm Jim Brown. I'm from Columbia Residential and I'm a partner in Brookside and we're helping the housing authority here. The tax credit program works off of 60% of the area median income. And so the rents are set at various levels. There's a competitive process for applying for the tax credits. And so we would apply and we did at Brookside to set aside units at various levels, some at 60, some at lower rent levels in the property. But all of the property needs to be at 60% of area median income or below as far as getting those tax credits. The rents are set based on whatever the area median income for Athens-Clarke County MSA is. And so they may go up, they may go down each year, but HUD publishes those those income levels and what the allowable rents are. And you cannot rent for more than that level. And you also have to certify that the people living in the community are at income levels that meet that level. In other words, if you want to live in one of those apartments, we need to certify your income such that you're not above 60% area median income. And likewise, the rent can't be above that level. And the last point is median income is that point because lots of people don't necessarily know what that is. And I'm not going to go, I'm going to give an example rather than the exact number. The area median income is that point at which half of the population makes more than that amount and half of the population makes less than that amount. So if you're at 60% of the median income, that's really the bottom 30% of the population. So that's what you're talking about. Area median income broadly just, you know, without getting it exactly right, $50,000 in Athens-Clarke County. So 60% of that is $30,000 a year. If you work that down to an hourly basis, that's basically somebody making $14,000, $15,000 a year who's out there working in the economy at a variety of different kinds of jobs. And so that's what we mean by we say low-income housing tax credit or moderate workforce subsidy levels. So you've got income based strictly on, rent based strictly on income for deep subsidy. You have this sort of mid-range, light-duty subsidy of low-income housing tax credits. And then you have a mix of full market rate. No subsidy at all. You pay the rent that that unit would command on the open market. So I hope that answers. And so the total number of units? So the total number of units, if it's one-third, one-third, one-third, that hasn't been decided yet at all. We're still way too early, but let's use one-third, one-third. If there are roughly 200 units there now and you do 200 units of tax credit and you do 200 units of market rate, now you're going from 190 units of housing to 600 units of housing. You're increasing housing in the downtown area, which is desirable. And you're also bringing in a lighter subsidy for working folks and increasing the amount of affordable housing because low-income housing tax credits are affordable housing as opposed to as opposed to. So you'd be doubling the number of affordable housing? Yes, so you're roughly you're roughly doubling it maybe more than that. We haven't finished the design and what the cycle there and you know we haven't run the performance, we haven't met with the community, you know this is this is very very early in the process. Take questions for about 10 more minutes. Rick, I guess it was a question. All of the apartments at Bethel are not subsidized. Aren't there some market rent apartments at Bethel? People are actually paying market rent? Yeah, just there are just a few that are that are under a different program and there may be a couple of markets. There's seven units that are under the tax credit program so they're paying the up to the tax credit rent. 183 are the on the half contract, the HUD section 8 contract. So on an average those seven, what kind of rent are they paying? Do you know? I believe those rents it depends on the bedroom size and but I believe they're in the five four hundredths of six hundredth range and it's limited they can't charge more than what the allowable tax credit rent is. And then the last thing is that the Athens Housing Authority has it's an esoteric thing we still have some a little bit of subsidy units that if we can get units built that we can apply some public housing subsidy we just have a few of those left and we might be able to uh actually add a few deep subsidy public housing units into that into that next there that property as well what and all that will be discussed and planned for and looked at as we move as we move forward. But it's too early to tell you everything because we've got a lot of meetings with the residents and we've got a lot of meetings with the community that need to occur before we zero in on any final designs or numbers. The last thing I want to ask you to do as great as possible is to explain the letter that the residents got that I showed you. What we need here somebody just want to say that is not because I got this letter. So it's a question I asked last night at the commission. Yeah so we explained this a couple of times at our resident meeting. Once we're finished with renovation we can drive higher rents but not resident rents. We can qualify for higher fair market rent levels for those properties that's what it's called the subsidy the total subsidy of now. And so you're required by law if you're looking at doing that to notify all the residents on a couple of different occasions to give them a chance to talk about the property and there's a there's a contact at HUD that they can comment to. So because we're required by law to do that those have just gone out and the so if you're just reading those and you're not reading them carefully you first see well the rents are at this level and they're at high levels of rent five six seven hundred dollars a unit okay and they're planning on going to eight or nine hundred for example. And if you're a resident and you read that and you don't read it carefully then you might say holy cow they're raising my rent to those well how am I going to be able to live here I'm going to have to move away this is a major problem you know what are we going to do no hear me carefully here. Those levels are what will be requested of HUD the total rent load for the property the residents only pay 30 percent of their rent if the rents go up HUD pays that difference the residents do not the residents rents now and into the future will always be based on 30 percent of their income and no residents rents will go up as a result of whichever path we follow whether it's modernization its loss doesn't pass or total trend group side like transformation if it does pass resident rents will always be 30 percent of their income now if their income goes up their rent will go up if their income goes down their rent will go down but all to send out those letters those letters have just gone out we explain that to the residents who were at that meeting we'll be explaining it to them again when we meet with them one-on-one we'll assure them that their rents are not changing but if you hear some rumor like that or that's gotten out there in the community nobody's rents will change everybody's rents will remain the same the letter that went out is strictly a legal requirement before we can eventually petition the U.S. Department of Housing or development for higher rents as the result of all the improvements that are going to happen on the property and that helps finance the improvements on the property and make up is part of the ability to allow us to do all those improvements on the property so nobody's rents are going up period that's that's that's an absolutely truthful statement what was the turnout at that meeting what would you guess Kelly 40 50 posts about 50 people so if not more yeah if not more and so so not everybody was there i have yet in my entire life to hold a resident meeting in which every single you know lease holder on the property showed up for the meeting and it's not as i explained to them uh this is that's not the only meeting that will occur uh we will have lots and lots of additional resident meetings hopefully at different times of the day where different people will be able to attend but we wanted the vast majority of the residents to hear about this issue first before it hit the newspaper it simply was not fair for it to show up in the newspaper over the weekend because of the press release on on friday and the need to put out the press release on friday uh we we just are deeply committed to the residents and involving them in the process so we met with them first there'll be lots more resident meetings to come jewell's gonna say i was gonna add um that that's correct but if residents can't be there um what we do is is meet with them individually because there's a whole series of things including the letter that rick talked about that are required to make sure that residents understand make sure that they're sat with make sure that they need to consent that they receive all that information so we always have this where we try to have as many meetings and as many people to turn out but if they don't we keep track of that we make sure that every household is met with individually and then of course they'll be the individual work on when we get to a point of any relocation so we can commit to that as well we did a similar development um with this purchasing and property from the same owner um in the past couple years and there's 204 apartments um and so all the things that rick said took place and and there's a very careful relocation of all the residents on a temporary basis they were all moved back had the opportunity to move back we also were able to add additional units at the site so it's it's very real there's a great deal of rights that are honored and the residents have and what really matters is the care that's taken with each individual family and how they're treated in that but it is a necessary part of the development and relocation and renovation process but um it's something we take with great great seriousness thanks chair does he yeah i just wanted to say um a lot of this conversation is great and it's only as good as the relationships that you develop with the people in Bethel to the comments about this is their house not their home and nothing against whether you saw trash or not because if you saw trash there's always trash there but these residents will take their own trash bags and walk around and fill them up and they will fill them up with their children by them side to teach their children to respect wherever it is that they lay their head at night they do take a great deal of pride that Bethel is their home and if you haven't been in their homes then you need to go in their homes of course you have to be invited and so to be invited you have to be trusted and to be trusted you have to develop relationships with them and this isn't i've heard a lot of people say oh i've been over to Bethel or i've been on Bethel's property you can go on Bethel and you can never ever know anything about who lives in Bethel and so my comment is that this is about developing relationships because the fear and the angst and the questions and how many units and how pretty it'll be all of that goes away if they will trust you as a person um my question is for all of you who are going to be working on this project you know it sounds like you've all very supportive of it i didn't i wrote down i didn't hear that anybody was not supportive of it so what is that connection to your support of the splosphobe do you support that as well because supporting that means supporting this and and and to the residents they they do feel that way and then my challenge would be that if you have not been in relationship building relationship with these residents then my challenge would be that you do and by that i don't mean go find somebody who you can get to know i mean like get to know them hear their story because there's the story of what you were talking about but the more important story is the story of their lives why they're there who they are how long they've lived there did they move there a month ago like rachel who i met or have they lived there their entire lives with their family this depth of understanding who they are goes a much longer way than trying to figure out whether we agree disagree in what we call it so i don't even know why i feel compelled to say it except for i've spent the last 20 years getting to know these people and living with them in community and not just handing them food and not just giving them bus tickets but understanding where their need comes from and then empowering them to meet their own need so they don't feel like they have no dignity that they're not enabled they don't want to stay where they are they want to have an opportunity to have a life like they want and expect for them and for their children and i just i just i can't emphasize enough that the people and not the brick and mortar but the relationship because the relationship comes from building community so i just i'm excited about this i'm passionate about this clearly um but i also as a resident of athens clark county i want to know you know do you support this and do you support it publicly or do you support it in your heart as well yeah i think that's so important what you just said about building a relationship with families and i think that's one of the reasons i think we were successful in columbia brookside is that the housing authority had established a relationship by putting jack all will's community and hands with the people the boys and girls club yeah the housing authority gave a million dollars to the boys and girls so it's said to the community we believe in you we want you to have the same place your kids to go eat every day and that that that is so crucial because i think that relationship made it easier for us to transition to jack on west because the people believe in the community they can see because i think we had trouble with one athens one athens and you just alluded to that early on the people bought into one athens and then they got slapped in the face so the community needed something to validate the things we were going to do that's why i think the boys and girls club was so critical to build a community that they said that the housing authority was committed to the community and i want to add another thing to that the htl was building it was so critical again for the black community to believe in things will happen because before my sister went to over at north athens when they integrated it it stinked like hell when she was over there when they integrated it it shut it down over at lions out at the airport rocks would fly in the kids would have to hide up under the building up under the chairs when they integrated it they shut it down so when they started talking about destroying the athens building the black community said enough is enough and i think low income white people low income black people rich white people rich black people all voted for speed law so we can have the etwas building so speed law gives all of us and i had my wife and i had discussed it all the time because she didn't believe in speed law she thought speed law was an opportunity that more taxes but she finally realized that's why we have the etwas building that's why we have the new school that hillsman that's why we have all the wonderful education facilities in athens claud county and we have all the help from other people because of speed law so yes i agree with you building a relationship have helped the howlin authority to form a bond with the community i think that's why i'm glad we're partnered with it because they can see that the howlin authority and we're passionate about it because we grew up in public house i mean my daddy got a raise they got a raise and it was frustrating for a family and finally my mom saved a little money my mom making three dollars a day as a maid my dad went to the poultry and he would work 12 hours they were paying six dollars so i know the frustrations about trying to build a wealth and trying to help a community and that's why it's so important that i want to be on the board of howlin authority that we can make a difference in family lives each and every day and i'm a little vita i want home on the ship tim i want home on the ship i want each and every person have an opportunity to own a home my mom was so happy i never got a chance to stay in my mom's home she bought a little house on hang out on three dollars a day 15 dollars a week she was so happy to have a house so we're gonna have to we're gonna have to help working i'm not talking only about black people but working income white people too who are struggling to maintain their homes here in avans claud county i said this is a meeting of another day with kelly what are you what are you going to do with ten dollars an hour and trying to stay here in avans claud county if it's not two of you working together you are struggling let's be honest with you so it's going to take all of us and it's all of us not just who at the table you go back out of the community you say i expect you to have a decent place and i'm not waiting for that of course and i believe what you say you're a community working together i just add that's on behalf of kind of not only the current elected officials but those who were present last year in evolution of the swast package uh everybody that supported the affordable housing and uh i i was going to consider success when we began calendar year 2018 if we got a decade long swast with 30 million dollars of local money three million dollars a year um and it's now that successful beyond my wildest dreams because the listeners get pushed in the law upward and upward and upward and now we're talking about it 45 million dollars of local tax dollars that are going to go affordable housing year before so that day i think i hit the nail on the head i think it'd be hard for us to find a community that on a per capita basis has made a stronger local commitment to affordable housing for the tax dollars we spend it y'all i really appreciate everybody gathering uh chair gay don't i are going to execute this out of you now i think uh we've got three copies all right you start with one i'll start with one with a different ceremony okay we may have to stack it or we get on the corner so we go come on because otherwise you get behind we're not going to be able to see you no oh that's great all right all right sir and based on the convert of the you know vetsy's comments about staying engaged you're building relationships one of the things that we'll do is every time we schedule a resident meeting we'll be a lot of them we'll also be obviously community