 And then it goes on to the town has a really exciting YouTube channel. So all the meetings have been posted to the YouTube channel. And so if ever you want to go back, this can be available online. I'm glad you mentioned that. It is helpful and it is kind of funny, you know, you can see how many times the meetings been viewed. Are we at the top of the list? Maybe this will be on the top of the list. It's a surprise blockbuster. Two thumbs way up. Yeah, so it looks like there's 15 members in attendance right now in addition to the committee. And Gail, I don't know if you just want to start us off and maybe do introductions. And then we can just launch right into the, just let me know. So the people that are attending can't see us. Can't give us just the status of, you know, the other people than noncommittee members. I think everyone can see us. They just, we can't, they, you know, we see each other as panelists and then, you know, as they speak, we'll hear them, but they can't, you know, they, they just can't. Start talking or control the screen. Okay. So welcome to the public hearing. It's very exciting evening. We have three new committee members tonight. And so. I'm just going to go around in order of the way that I see people. I'm Gail Lansky and I chair this committee and I've been on the committee for, I don't know, four years, at least, at least. And I live next door to somebody who's below me. Nat. And I love being on this committee. So I'm going to call on. Nat next we'll go to the old timers and they'll bring in the new people. I'm not Larson. I don't feel like an old timer. I think this is only my second full round of grant. The grant cycle. But it's always great to hear what's going on in the community, all the. Great things going on that we can support. Paul. And I think. This is my fourth round, I think. Andrew. Andrew Grant Thomas. I think I'm also a second rounder. Okay. And we have Becky. Hi. Well, I'm very much a first timer. Excited to be here and to be joining the committee. And I really look forward to tonight. And Rika. Yes. Also a very new member, not even really fully a member yet. But anyway, looking forward to it. Glad to be here this evening. Thank you all. Thank you all. And Lucas. Hello, Lucas hands come. I'm also a new member. Same as everybody else. I'm happy to be here. And look forward to working with you guys. I had that. Good luck to talk with Paul briefly during our swearing in, but that's about it. So. There you go. Welcome. And last, but not least Ben. I'm a planner with the town and I'm helping Nate with as the staff liaison to the CDBG committee. Also relatively new. Great. Welcome, welcome, welcome. And I'm sorry, but I have to open my agenda and see where we're going next. I can share the agenda. Great. Thanks. Can I just tell you, Gail, that. The whole last but not least. Always makes me chuckle, right? Like, I don't know. I don't know. So these are someone else who's leased. We were to visit that. All right. I won't say it anymore. I'd like to be. I'm leased. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. So we, thank you for sharing the agenda. So here we are gathering in a public hearing. To receive comments and suggestions from the local residents regarding our priorities or community priorities for the 2021 meeting. I'm going to jump in. I'm going to jump in and let you all had a chance to read the documents that. We'll send out. There was an Excel spreadsheet with the rankings. There were lots of really helpful comments. So. Are we going to just jump in and let people start to speak. Nathaniel. Yeah. So. Yeah. This is Nate Roy. I'm staff planner and help with the committee as well. The. The committee was sent some, I think it was just last night. So, you know, pretty recently in terms of. The available information. So we can, we can preview that after the comments. So if you have any questions, I guess hover over your name and there's a raise hand function. So then as you raise your hand. We can call on you and you'll have a chance to speak. There's 16 people in the audience. As Gail mentioned, there is an online form that's been completed. I think there's about 190 responses to that. They keep coming in. And there's a lot of comments. So yeah, I think that. You know, people are comfortable raising their hand. We can. Gail, you know, I can allow them to speak and then we can just go down the list. If that works. That sounds good. Do we want to try to limit the amount of time that people speak to make it. Fair as far as the length of the meeting going. We could just say it. I mean. There's only three hands raised right now and there's 16 people in attendance. So, I mean, we could just do. Three or four minutes. I'm not. Sounds fair. Yeah. Okay. All right. So I'm Caitlin, you're, you're up first and I'll. I think if you unmute yourself, then you'll be able to speak. Okay. Great. Can everybody hear me? Yes. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you so much, Nate and Gail. Appreciate the opportunity to speak. My name is Caitlin marquee. I'm not a resident of Amherst, but there are some residents here tonight with me who I'm hoping we'll get the opportunity to speak as well. On behalf of the Amherst mobile market, which is what I wanted to talk about as a community priority. So if you're not familiar with the Amherst mobile market, you can go to the Amherst mobile market. I'm a resident of Amherst. I'm a resident of Amherst and I'm a partner in a partnership with moneyhands farm core, which is an Amherst farm in 2020. The goal of the market is essentially to bring healthy fresh fruits and vegetables to people close to where they live. And those are also happened to be local fruits and vegetables. over 25 Amherst residents who were experiencing food insecurity and who are majority people of color, about 50% of whom were Latinos who speak English less than very well. The sites for the mobile market were chosen by the group of residents and we visit four of the eight environmental justice communities in Amherst. One of the sites that we visit is the East Hadley Road neighborhood where many of the folks who work for the mobile market live and you might be aware that in that neighborhood the average income is 65% or less of the statewide median income. 22% of the population speaks English less than very well. 26% of households lack access to a vehicle and 19% of households receive SNAP. We try to address these gaps by providing fresh produce really affordably and like I said really close to home for folks. People can pay with SNAP, they can get reimbursed through the Healthy Incentives program, they can pay with WIC, Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program, coupons. The farm shares that are distributed through the program are extremely affordable. Most produce is available for a dollar or less per item. Over the course of the season we had over 100 people sign up for farm shares and pick them up regularly and roughly half of those were reimbursed through the state's Healthy Incentives program which is available to people who are on SNAP or EBT. And then throughout the season the market sold over 5,000 units of produce to like I said folks able to who might struggle to access it otherwise. There are a lot of other statistics I could give you. You know certainly we have shown for example our survey data shows that 71% of the population the market served had an annual household income of under 50,000 and 33% had an annual household income of over under 15,000. But I think what is really special about this program is really the people who are leading it and who are who are making it what it is. Of the 12 paid mobile market employees, 10 are over the over the summer season were residents who were involved in the planning process. All of those employees were people of color. Three quarters spoke where Spanish-speaking Latinos and two-thirds of those spoke English less than very well. And 11 of the 12 market employees were residents of the housing complexes served by the market. And one of the mobile market employees is here tonight. Her name is Glenys and I know she's joining by phone. The last four digits of her phone number are 8570. Would you be able to unmute her, Nate? Sure. Yeah, so I can't tell and I'm not sure if she can tell. I just allowed the I think you have to unmute your phone but you can you know I'm just allowed to speak. So I think Glenys to unmute your phone you have to press star No. Yeah. Star six or star nine. Star nine I believe. Yeah. Can you hear us Glenys? These are hand raised but you're allowed you're allowed to speak. I think maybe the one of those is hand raised and one of those is unmute. That's like the hands raised now. Sorry, it's hard when I can't see who else is here. Is Rosanna Salazar on your list? Yes. Could you allow her to speak and and Glenys maybe you can keep trying to figure out how to unmute yourself? Yeah I think it is star six I just left it out. Yeah. Rosanna are you there? Let's see. Rosanna you can unmute yourself. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, thank you. Yeah this year has been the first year of the market. We have gone through a long processing push. We have worked with the community and practitioners who work in the area. It has been a great experience for the community. A space was created where the community has been able to express itself and tell about the needs and obstacles that they must overcome on a daily basis. Together we have prioritized the needs and with the necessary funding this Amherst mobile market became a reality, a real. The Amherst mobile market is an opportunity to increase access to fruits and vegetables next to their communities. It has been an opportunity to work, to connect with the rest of the community and empowerment opportunities for families. We all want this project to continue. We want residents to continue receiving benefits from the Amherst mobile market. We are talking about empowerment, about food, about security, access, engaging leadership connections. Thank you. Yeah thanks Rosanna and it looks like Glenys maybe we can hear you now. Yeah hi can you guys hear me now. Yes yeah Glenys go ahead I'd love for the committee to hear what you have to say. Hi everyone my name is Glenys and I was one of the Amherst mobile manager. I'm just gonna speak from my heart. This project was awesome you know it made a huge impact on me because transportation where I live it's really hard. I had to like take the bus to go to the grocery store even if you just buy just one onion and one green pepper it's just like it's an issue because it would take me like two hours like one trip just to go to like stop and shop because I had to like take two or three buses and the Amherst mobile market you know something so local with such a good product and really affordable you know it's it made a huge impact you know for better and and I've seen I also saw that a lot of people faces you know so that was my experience with them with Amherst mobile market. I'm just really hoping that we could do this again next year and the year after. Thanks so much Glenys and Rosanna and that that I think just wraps up what we had to say about the Amherst mobile market. Thanks so much to the committee for your listening ears really appreciate you hearing our comments and being here. Caitlin this is Gail I just have a quick question. I have volunteered in the past with the Amherst survival centers mobile market on Wednesdays that goes to South Point. That's still happening and how does that combine or work with what you're doing I'm just curious. Sure so we have a good and strong partnership with the Amherst survival center. We Healthy Hampshire actually support the distributions they've been doing at East Hadley Road and on you know at the South Point and Boulder's neighborhoods since the pandemic started. Love and I are in regular communication we think that food insecurity is a multi-pronged issue there is no you know single way to fix it and so we really see the programs that the survival center offers like the free mobile pantry and the mobile market which really supports our local farmers and supports people to buy fresh produce that feels really fresh and wonderful and special to them and we see both of those as part of the solutions to food insecurity and Amherst. I see and are you there on different days or how does you know in this in this summer over the 2020 season we were at the East Hadley Road neighborhood on Saturdays midday Saturdays so we visited four different sites on three different days so we were at Olympia Oaks on Tuesday Fort River Elementary School on Thursday and then Butternut Farms and East Hadley Road on Saturday. Great thank you anybody else have a question for Caitlin. Great thank you Caitlin and thank you Rosanna Inglenece. Thanks so much. Who else Nate? This is Judith Roberts. I'm from the Literacy Project can you hear me okay? Yes thank you Judith. Okay thank you Nate and Gail and the committee for giving us a chance to speak. The Literacy Project is an adult GED program high school equivalency program in Massachusetts we take the high set test now the high school equivalency and we are normally located at the JCA in Amherst although this year our classes are totally online and I'm happy to say that they've been working out really well online we have very good enrollment or attendance. We have given out laptops to students who are unable to access our classes who don't have a computer at home. We serve three distinct populations and again our students are studying to take the high school equivalency test so they're studying in five subject areas science social studies math reading and writing so we have immigrants and refugees who were denied education in their home country for one reason or another. We have some young adults who high school did not work out for them for various reasons and then this year we're also seeing the newly unemployed adults. I have a student I hope she's here I can't see if she's here. Shiraz Shahif Dean or is she in the audience Nathaniel? Judith we all did get the letter from her yeah if she's not there so we do have that as a as a student she does she does show up on our uh panelist list oh okay so she yeah okay so she was going to read a letter that she wrote about um her class if that's okay yes okay go you can go ahead Shiraz if you have your letter with you okay my name is Shiraz Asha. Shiraz I can't hear you right now can anyone hear her no no no Shiraz she just dropped off the panelist list she did my panelist list no I see her there can can you hear me we couldn't hear you for a bit so I wasn't sure what happened you want me to read it again yes please my name is Shiraz Asha I'm currently a student at the literacy project in Hammers since 2018 I'm an m hust resident a single mother with five kids and have goals to pursue a career in health care that would best support my family for a healthier and more stable lifestyle I grew up in Colombo Sri Lanka and unfortunately I was unable to complete my education there since then I have always wanted to study and I never thought I would be able to access the resources that would allow me to exactly that after 20 years the literacy project has been the most surprising and wonderful experience it will change my life and my children's as well I still can remember my first day at the literacy project I was super scared awkward and uncomfortable I had not gone to school since ninth grade back in my home country and to experience school in the united state was an even bigger fear however the literacy project first teacher replaced those feelings completely completely I was so I was no longer insecure about myself they helped me feel accepted and helped me to believe in myself I was able to connect with my peers in class share life experience with another and study with them in free manner after joining the literacy project I realized that there were so many adults just like me who were also unable to complete high school at young age were finally accomplishing that my teacher is preparing us for high set high school equivalency examinations along with teaching us college English I enjoy her classes a lot mainly because of how humble patient she is with all of her students even when I have a hard time trying to explain something she will without question try to understand me and help me better explain the topic this year due to COVID-19 things have been hard for everyone however we have been given opportunity to take part in college classes at greenfield community college while we are preparing for high-set exams even though it has been challenging for me I still feel like I am so blessed and I'm able to spend time with my kids every day and take part in class virtually my final goal from the journey is to complete high-set exam and get through my college classes afterward which will later allow me to land a job for medical administration coding I will always be grateful for the opportunity that I have been given and the people that I have met during the journey at the literacy project I feel like the school is so valuable and supportive for the other adults who finally are able to invest in themselves to complete their education and following their dreams thank you thank you thank you Shirasa oh yeah very welcome beautiful beautiful job reading um thank you never did this before great job um so the literacy project is getting people ready at like Shirasa to go on to community college uh job training programs and jobs that will enable them to better support their family and this work is more important now than ever um so we are really happy to be in Amherst and um we have had in the past um support from the CDBG so thank you very much does anyone have questions for us thank you Judith thank you Shirasa thanks all right see uh the next on the list is um hold on is Laura uh Reichsman Laura you're allowed to speak hello everybody hear me yes I am here I'm the director of family outreach of Amherst and we provide housing support we do a lot of work with folks these days uh helping them get unemployment benefits and then maintaining those benefits we are working with folks every day on issues that are arising around kids being home parents still having to work parents not being able to work having very little funds helping them access things like food or medical care and so I'm here tonight to make a case for why our housing retention program should continue in this next cycle of CDBG funding as you all know the um eviction moratorium has been lifted right at this moment uh landlords in Amherst are not um giving people eviction notices a lot of that reason is because the CDC has a moratorium on actually kicking someone out of their home so even if they go to court they wouldn't be able to leave right now um that's our best guess we are getting clients that have 14-day notices we've also been collaborating with western mass legal services and the housing court and we are a designated spot where folks from Amherst can come to our office and participate in a housing hearing through zoom and the beauty of doing that is that there will be an advocate there will be a family outreach of Amherst advocate with them which is really important and one of the reasons we um it's so important that this program continue is that at some point moratoriums really truly will be lifted landlords will in fact start eviction processes and we really need to be at the ready which we are now but it's looking like it's going to certainly go into the next cdbg funding round and families will need advocacy and support more than ever and we are we are certainly doing all the work we can to help folks stay on top of their rent continue to pay make you know agreements with landlords we're doing an awful lot of work around mediation and budgeting although it's very hard to budget when you don't have any money a lot of our um most of our case workers speak Spanish we have a large population of folks because of their immigration status they are not eligible for unemployment and so they have no income right now so we're doing a lot of work with those folks to help um we also work with a lot of folks who have jobs like at Wendy's and sort of low wage jobs and with school with the kids home from school that's something that we do on a daily basis so you know it's called housing retention and that has so many legs uh that that are attached to what housing retention means and um we've got um you know all our case workers are really hard working hard and we'll continue to do so and really um you know what I would say is this can this work really needs to continue and really needs to be funded so we can continue it thank you Laura any questions for Laura from the committee okay thank you so much all right I'm back sorry I had a little interruption with the kid thanks Laura all right let's uh let's see big brother big sister you're allowed to speak thank you for having me uh this is Jesse Cooley so I'm the director of big brothers big sisters of Hampshire county um thank you for your time tonight and good to see all the committee members and welcome to the new ones it's great to see you thank you for being on the committee um I we were here at the last hearing um and had some of our program participants here so I won't repeat everything they said but I'm glad that you were able to hear from them about the positive impact that this program um has in their lives we had two of the parents of current mentees or littles in our program on that call and then two of our current bigs who were able to weigh in and for those of you who might be less familiar with our program I'll just say to give you the overview we are a youth mentoring program one-on-one mentoring throughout Hampshire county um and we have partnerships in Amherst we work in collaboration with the um the public schools and with UMass and Amherst college and so we match community members whether they're adults in the community or college students at those colleges we match them one-on-one for mentoring relationships with young people um in in Amherst and that's what the CDBG funding provides we're very honored to be current recipients of the funding and I really want to advocate uh for youth development in general to be one of your priority areas for this coming funding cycle um and then just to tell you a little bit about what we do and why I think it's really essential now um you know a mentor can provide friendship and support and connection for a young person that's always important and ever more important now when young people are so isolated from many of the important people in their lives you know from their teachers from their peers from their coaches from family members who can take them out and do things with them or just give them some special attention and so um we find that our families are saying this feels more important than ever to have the connection of the mentors in their lives and we are worried about the mental health of young people in our community as this pandemic continues as schooling whether it's remote school or a hybrid model or home school whatever it is right now we find that most of the families that we work with and those who are waiting on our wait list for mentors are really expressing a lot of stress and concern over the well-being of their children and a mentor can also help just provide some respite for families who are experiencing their own stressors so we hope to be able to continue our programming and to expand it this year as we continue to get referrals from the Amherst public schools from our partners there and to hear that there really is is still a need and I want to say that um you know unfortunately youth programs have not been a recipient of much or any COVID relief funding nationally that's been true and locally as well so it's another reason that I would just respectfully ask for you to consider it to be considered in this funding cycle that's coming up. Another thing that we do at Big Brother's Big Sisters besides our our focused work of providing mentoring relationships and supporting those relationships is that our staff has really close connections with the families that we work with so we're able to connect them to resources like the ones you've already been hearing about tonight so because we work closely with Family Outreach of Amherst and the Survival Center and the other programs in our area we're able to find them the resources they need sometimes even deliver them you know we partner with Amherst Survival Center to deliver food to the families in our program who aren't able to get there for the food that they that they need um partnered with Family Outreach to deliver gift cards grocery gift cards to families and whenever we find that there's something else that could be useful so for instance because kids are online so much more now we talked to the parents in our program and learned that doing a internet safety training an online safety training would be really important and we provided that for them last week again working with partners who are experts in this area. So I appreciate all the work that you're doing we're going to keep doing what we do and partnering with you helps us continue this important work. Thanks Jessie can I ask you a question so are you are your Biggs and Little's meeting in person this autumn or this so far or just remotely via Zoom? That's a great question of course so since March we have been mostly online as an operation we with the weather when it started improving and COVID cases started going down in our region working with other programs and really creating safety protocol we were able to allow Biggs and Little's to meet in person outside wearing masks you know I could share more details of course some other time about that but we that has been very helpful to a lot of the matches of course to be able to see each other and go for bike rides and go for walks and that kind of thing but we did have to for several months only have people meet virtually and we anticipate perhaps having to go back to that and then of course many of our college students are not back in the area anyway so they're staying connected virtually so that's been a really interesting shift challenging and also we've seen the amazing strength and resilience of our Biggs our volunteers who are being creative and figuring out ways to really stay connected and provide support to their Little's when they need it so much and also you know the families and Little's really working hard to keep these connections strong we provide group gatherings via zoom and to try to make just make some community because we used to gather in person as a group frequently and that was really nice for the participants of our program so we're trying to do that as much as we can virtually and just provides activity ideas anything we've learned a lot about all the ways you can have fun on FaceTime and we share those resources with our matches so that they can stay connected great thank you anyone have questions Jesse thank you for being here tonight thank you hi Jan you can unmute yourself i'm going to ask for Carleen to speak first if that's okay Carleen sure Carleen you can also unmute yourself thank you good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this evening and all your valuable work on on the committee as the program director of the Amherst Bible Center and a long time Amherst resident I would like to voice my strong opinion that food and nutrition be a top priority for the upcoming CDBG application process regardless of a potentially more supportive role by the federal state and local government to tackle COVID-19 we know that the economic fallout of the crisis will continue long after we have the physical health risk under control at the Amherst Bible Center here's what we know for certain food and security is rising rapidly feeding America projects that food and security will rise 56 percent in Hampshire County this year that's one in eight county residents and more than one in six children food and security is significantly higher in Amherst than the county as a whole a conservative estimate indicates that at least two to four thousand more Amherst residents will experience food and security this year alone the economic devastation of the pandemic will persist long after the immediate threat to our physical health and as we've seen in previous processions low wage workers and people of color will be hit the hardest and for the longest this committee is aware of the Amherst survival centers bold action taken to date to provide more food to more people admit the crisis the CDBG cares act funds awarded by this committee will be a huge part of our ability to increase services to Amherst residents this year as we prepare to serve 50 percent more people in Amherst alone that is roughly 3000 Amherst residents in our food pantry we are working to increase pantry allocation from one to two weeks worth of groceries increase fresh produce and increase access by delivering ASC pantry groceries to up to 1500 people each month we have increased language access to pantry services and our hiring of three additional bilingual staff making our bilingual staff over 50 percent in addition we've expanded curbside and onsite grocery pickup options the CDBG funds and areas that we identify that we're discussing tonight will come into effect when the cares money has ended exactly at a time when it would be extremely detrimental for services to drop back to pre-covid love levels food and nutrition need to continue to be a top priority for our community the situation right now is dire and many in our community as we've known from past periods of high unemployment that as the economy reopens low wage workers those with limited work histories limited english language skills and those with less formal education are disproportionately likely to experience higher rates of unemployment and underemployment for longer periods of time so unfortunately the public health crisis of food insecurity will continue to persist even after we've successfully crested the COVID courage it's worthy to note that before COVID-19 the Amherst survival center served roughly 2000 Amherst residents in our food pantry these were people who were struggling financially when the economy was supposedly thriving we are seeing these folks in a much worse state now they need more food more consistently to make ends meet the pandemic makes familiar strategies like couponing and visiting multiple markets in search of the best prices difficult and even dangerous while such strategies have evaporated for these cost minded folks so we have job opportunities and other financial resources many low moderate and fixed income Amherst residents that were previously food secure are experiencing food insecurity for the first time this past October the Amherst survival center food pantry distributed just shy of 50 000 pounds of food to Amherst residents the equivalent of 41 000 meals that number has more than doubled than October of 2018 all these folks need the Amherst survival center food pantry groceries more than ever there's not a single day and I'm not exaggerating not one single day that we are open to the public or have coordinated site deliveries of survival center groceries or are available for curbside pickup but I don't receive a phone call an email a social post that is overwhelmingly filled with gratitude from our community members many of those conversations are littered with troubling phrases like I just don't know how we could have made it through the month or my kids will have food this week word thank you I mean it thank you so much this has made such a big difference for our family and worse yet we don't know what we would do without the survival center as the program director I am delighted to hear community members are pleased with our service and that what we can provide is helpful to them but is there there is always the ever present in their gracious communication the need for food assistance sadly we expect that need to grow for the folks we are currently serve and for the many additional people we anticipate to serve this year in so many ways responding to the needs of the community has been a dedicated partnership only strengthened in our resolve during the pandemic big brothers and big sisters has delivered Amherst survival center groceries to 13 families that's 71 individuals each month since March healthy Hampshire house supporting our delivery to the boulders and south wind apartments serving 44 families over 170 individuals family outreach of Amherst has been referring families to us while they're helping folks sign up for delivery and supporting individuals and families with so many other essential services and of course Craig stores has offered a daytime resource to many of the individuals that we see more facing homelessness we have definitely done this together it's been and will continue to be a challenging time I am humbled and inspired by the collective hard work and dedication of the Amherst community to see all of our residents through but especially those who are suffering food insecurity the critical service the Amherst survival center resides for the town of Amherst has never been more clear we are prepared and able to see this through we need your support to get get us there so we thank you for your consideration of this critical investment in the food security of Amherst residents thank you thank you Carleen does anybody have a question for Carleen I'm just going to speak for a moment or two so as you heard from Carleen this is Jan Eidelsen I'm on the board and a long time volunteer at the survival center as you heard from Carleen the ASC now is all about food COVID has changed our priorities and we have temporary temporarily suspended our health clinic and our community store because it's all about food all of our space is devoted to food we get this food from the food bank food drives and we constantly shop for the best deals pallets of food come in and pallets of food go out daily we all know how COVID has decimated people's lives fear along with feelings of hopelessness and despair I witnessed several people in tears as we bring out their groceries because for that moment there is relief I saw Melissa sobbing and I worried that we goofed up because it happens through her sobs though she explained that she couldn't believe that she was bringing home 140 pounds of food to her kids today I have met young children come with their non-English speaking parents they are prepared to beg we do not give people a chance to beg Abidah explained that her mom was scared they are Muslims can they still get food this Northampton family of four received 165 pounds of food and they were prepared to each carry 40 pounds home since they walked here however we could drop their food off at their door international students who can't go home are fortunately signing up for our pantry now we do monthly deliveries to those who are stuck in the dorms because they cannot go back to their homes parents can now feel like providers again as they bring food home Philip shared how powerless he felt without income since COVID his partners at home with the kids as he filled his car with heavy bags of food I felt like he was standing a bit taller than when he arrived excuse me we check in with families if we haven't seen them when people are scared we deliver to their doors when people have no transportation we deliver to their doors when people of many cultures try to navigate their way we have a simple registration process and in five languages we have extended our hours we have curbside pickup we add special foods for kids and cultures and for those who have various food sensitivities our volunteers and staff want to make sure that everyone feels welcome and precious when they enter our parking lot Jim McGovern Joe Cumberford Mindy Dom Paul Bachman past and current health directors have all commented that they are impressed with our ability to increase our food access while employing the most safe and stringent COVID protocols you know as many tons of food that go to our neighbors daily community still exists at the survival center even with six feet apart our neighbors know that they can still come to the survival center and feel seen we can have many stories about Amherst food and security and how that survival center makes life a little easier I do want to say that it is COVID has been horrible but it has created an opportunity for us to work with other social service agencies partnership and that's been I've been able to witness um humanity in its most honorable so food is the fuel of our community right now so together we're trying to support each other thank you thank you Jen question no it's a question um hi Jen this is Rika um you're right no notion mentioned by Northampton you're a little fuzzy can you can you try again I think I started to interrupt you but is that better yes it is yes okay um so I heard Jan you mentioned a Northampton family and I actually didn't realize that the Amherst survival center served families outside of Amherst can you speak about that that's a really good point I meant North Amherst family thank you thanks for that opportunity to clarify yeah okay great thank you any other questions thank you Jan see uh Betsy McGinnis hey everyone and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak I'm speaking on behalf of family outreach of Amherst just to support as a long-term board member advisory board member the incredible work that they're doing and how complicated it is now um we have we have landlords who have handymen who are threatening children with having their locks changed if they don't pay their rent we have fear in a part you know among clients and things that are really hard to deal with and we are really lucky in Amherst that we have family outreach to hold hands with the with the clients and also to mediate with the landlords to make them see that these are illegal tactics and they're they have no place in our community um I've seen family outreach go through many different iterations I mean housing is certainly critical right now unemployment is critical um and you know there are many challenges emotional trauma stress that happen all the time with our with our client families but they're exacerbated by what's going on with COVID so you're supporting family outreach's efforts are amazing I mean in normal times on Mondays we would have someone at housing court to help every family avoid eviction because there's nothing more dismantling for a family and for children than to be evicted from their home so the more that we can all do to help keep families safe and secure the better and I applaud the work the survival centers are doing and big brothers big sisters and we're lucky we can all pull together and do as much as we can to have a safety net to take care of people in these troubled times anyway thank you for your time and thanks for your good work and I hope you will continue to support family outreach I think I love seeing that all the dollars are spent locally and stay locally and they are magnified by how much they help other people thanks so much thank you Betsy Lori Milman you can speak thank you everyone for inviting us to the hearing and I just want to say that adult education as a strategy for economic independence and stability has long been a priority of the town and this committee and we've been fortunate to be funded and have used the funds to leverage all kinds of other support and like everyone else who has spoken for sure we're seeing tremendous need and like everyone else we work in partnership with all of these wonderful organizations our students who are immigrants and refugees and quite a few asylum seekers are now being called upon to be teachers of their own children as their children are home learning that's not really possible if they do not speak English or not proficient with technology so that's what we do we teach English classes for free we purchased hotspots we know that the Amherst public schools have purchased hotspots for many of the students we have a family of refugees in North Amherst where there was something like six adults and four children trying to use the internet in the morning we actually paid for a Comcast installation for this family because without internet it's impossible for them to connect so we have tablets that we purchase and we lend we recognize the depths of the need we've been fortunate to be funded by the community foundation and have distributed about seventy three thousand dollars in emergency relief and just got an additional grant from the fish family foundation which we will distribute as well and what we're doing is we're paying rent we're paying ever source bills we're paying heating bills we're purchasing food cards we are partners with the survival center we're delivering food to people who can't get there so we're all working together to create a safety net our students are the ones who were the first hit they're the dining workers at UMass dining services they're the dishwashers at all of the restaurants in town they're the folks who were laid off first and they have no safety net other than what agencies like ours and the other ones that you're talking about have come together to do but the point is that in the long run you know being able to be proficient in English be tech proficient have career preparation skills which we do get into the workforce is what's going to make folks self-sufficient and the funds that you give us are make a huge impact for us but they actually leverage an entire other series of investments so we hope you'll continue to make that a priority and thank you for for listening Laura this is Gail I just want you to state that your organization because I'm not sure you covered that in your opening oh sorry Center for New Americans I never know how I'm labeled with all these different zooms so thank you thank you any other questions all right thanks Laura thank you Amherst Greeney Connections you can unmute yourself hi this is Wei Ling Greeney I hope everybody can hear me yeah I am I am the founder and executive director of the Amherst Community Connections welcome to the new members who join the CBBG committee it's a wonderful public service I used to be on town meeting and serving in other committees and I know the time that you need to devote it to the committee so thank you today I want to bring to your attention by sharing some joy with you our agency has been so blessed by being able to tap into the town's funding the CPA funding so for the past four years we have received three separate fundings from CPA community preservation act so by getting the funds from them we are able to rent or pay rent for people who are homeless or struggling so right now we have nine vouchers so we have about 18 people in a course of a year they can go through our voucher program that we pay for part of the rent or we rent a unit for them and these are people who have to be an Amherst resident and they have to be chronically homeless or they have to be a risk of becoming homeless and in order to make sure that they can be successful exiting from homelessness or preventing them from becoming homeless again we are here today before you asking you to fund the housing-based homelessness solution and prevention program and this is a program that we have been running since we have received the town CPA funding so we are able to secure the big part which is housing for people but in order to provide the service to them we need your help by providing support service to them they are able to stay out of becoming homeless or can end their homelessness and because of COVID-19 as you all know a lot of the services can only do a tele-support or zoom type of meeting and our agency has to adapt to the changing of time so for the past eight months we have a team of eight workers they do tele-support meaning that by technology with zoom face time all these media we are able to reach out to people that we try to help and because of the savviness of our case workers we are able to complete a great deal of applications for affordable housing for snap benefits for social security application and we also have a team of six case workers who are on site they are able to provide in person face to face face to face in a safe manner so adapting to the time we know we need to be safe but as you know when people are able to see you to convey their suffering for you to work with them we understand there are times we do have to put on our face mask shield stay six feet apart in the well ventilated area so by taking these two approaches this year so far since march when we had to adapt to these two ways of operating so far we have served over 550 individual unique households and these 550 unique households about 90 of them are comprised of individuals they are in their 50s senior citizens some of them close to 65 70 because of their inability to navigate in applying for affordable housing which is very paperwork intense we are able to help them apply to many many housing so as a result these 550 unique individuals when we provide a service to them their hope for getting into affordable housing is just so much brighter so we have these statistics here to show you but I think the story will give you a better sense as I mentioned our average participants they are an older population 55 and up and the male and female breakdown is 65 male versus 35 female and a great number of them have disabilities and they suffer many of them for tri mobilities such as mental health physical disability and substance use challenges so because of these very severe disabilities their ability to navigate to advocate for themselves is very compromised so we have our caseworkers who are able to provide this support service to them so we have three simple examples I want to demonstrate to you we have a retired vet who because of a divorce situation that he lost his housing that he started renting and due to COVID-19 when he used to do travel veterinarian care for his clients he is no longer able to do that so because of that he has received a 14-day notice to quit he lost his income unable to pay the rent for the work he was he was doing so right now we are applying for example the town emergency rental fund for him so that's a situation we are trying to prevent him from becoming homeless by tapping into the resources available the second example is we have another gentleman who is in his late 60s because of a heart condition he had to retire from the work he was doing for the Amherst public public school system as a janitor so again he became homeless because loss of income back seven years ago so he was evicted due to non-payment of rent then afterwards he was not able to secure a employment because of his physical stamina is no longer there so we have been working with him for the past four months that he is staying in one of our housing units and right now we are working very hard getting him to be put on the permanent affordable housing voucher list so the third situation is a couple they are here in the community for several years because of their situation they are not able to pass the many quarry checks because of their quarry background is poor and their credit is poor so we are struggling trying to find ways to get them into housing but I want to remind you no matter how tough the situation is if you understand the social costs for chronic homelessness on average given the studies done in the field is $36,000 per person and this is the cost for people who are incarcerated in homeless shelter in crisis center all these contribute to the cost of the social costs of $36,000 per year in contrast our agency in the past four years have had this housing first program that we are able to provide housing and provide support service to them so therefore with a $12,000 of program per person the cost of their rent and the cost of our service so the social cost has been cut down to only a third and yet they are having a better quality of life and their prospect of getting into their affordable permanent housing is just so much brighter so much greater and so far we have had 25 people graduated from the program and the majority of them thanks to the funding that's supplied by the CDBG in the past year we are able to provide the best support service so their graduation rate is tremendous out of the 24 people that I mentioned 17 of them have graduated and the other three are right now in the program with us so I want to ask the committee to continue to support this very housing based homelessness solution and prevention program without the service the housing we have is not going to be enough for them to get out of their homelessness and to prevent their ever becoming homeless again so thank you so much for your past support and I would like to emphasize that with the service we provide it we are the only one really focusing on individuals who experience housing insecurity and in order to enjoy the food provided by our wonderful community of survival center or not with a loan or creak stores homeless shelter they must have support service in order to allow them to become independent self-sufficient community members not to have to rely on social programs to get them through but rather they can be a contributing member of this great community thank you so much for your help I appreciate it and hope you can give me some good questions that I could answer thank you thank you wailing questions well you did such a good job explaining I guess actually I have I'm sorry I have one question I was I just wanted to make sure I got the numbers right I think you said that you had nine vouchers that were specific to for specific apartments and then you mentioned something about 550 unique households and I just wondered if you could whether the households are people who are coming to you for assistance and then the vouchers are specific housing that you provide good thank you Becky for the question yes so far this year even despite of a COVID-19 in the past we have about 700 750 unique households seek help from us right now at the end of October our statistics is about 550 households and these are households that experience issues whether it's housing whether it's food insecurity a variety of reasons but half of them we have statistics to show you they all have housing related issues such as unable to pay for utility behind on rent cannot afford to pay security deposit so these are all housing related issues about half of them come to us for assistance and then we only have nine housing vouchers of which three of them are designed to be for people who experience chronic homelessness and right now we have written a grant to the CPA committee asking for six additional vouchers because of the needs is so great and people they have to be showing that they have tremendous of trauma disabilities and have to be homeless for at least a whole entire year in order to be eligible besides they have to be an emmerced resident in order to be eligible to participate in this housing first three voucher program and the other six vouchers are called the rental subsidy program and these this is a program supported by CPA and they are meant to be for emmerced residents who are not chronic homeless meaning they might be homeless for a month for two months but they don't have that significant needs for mental health chronic substance use issues and they have to have some kind of income in order to support them paying rent forward and what we do for these people whether they are chronic homeless in the housing first program or they are sporadic episodic homeless in the rental subsidy program we provide support service to them in order to help them maintain their status be housed and those who are chronic homeless we help them to receive substance use treatments to get employment to apply for disability and overcome their significant criminal background because of their criminal backgrounds and terrible credit history that in itself is an obstacle for housing so we pick the hardest one in the community to serve them because this is what we believe the housing is a solution to homelessness and housing is the foundation of a healthy community so based on the belief we want to say support service is essential to reach the goal of maintaining housing maintaining a healthy community I hope I have answered your question yes thank you thank you very comprehensively I appreciate it thank you any other questions for willing great thank you willing thank you very much if anyone else would like to raise their hand you have an opportunity it looks like there's still 13 people in attendance and there are no hands raised right now if there aren't I'll share the screen showing the summary results of the survey just you know so that it's shared publicly so the number of responses I can everyone see this what's on the screen I'll take that as a yes the you know we asked people to look at those the priorities that were last year and the request for proposals and then add any others and there's been you know I took this last night there was 176 responses I think there's 10 more you know one is the highest ranking and five is the lowest and you know if you scroll through the the different priorities they're all you know pretty close in terms of the average number so there's not a lot of variation you know food and nutrition was the highest certainly edging out you know support services for those experiencing homelessness and then household stabilization you know and then there is also health services and insurance navigation you know and then a number of the comments you know mentioned you know food and nutrition and housing especially at this time you know transportation was one which you know as a priority that's something we could consider you know and there was a few others in terms of really specific things but you know I think the I did send the committee member the spreadsheet of all the results and so there was a range of of comments but I think the the general sense is that the six or seven priorities listed here are still considered pretty high priority I you know I didn't see you know there was a few other services listed like I mentioned but they were could be encompassed by what was already here and I just got a question about the categories sure um is housing just so I'm clear on what they cover is housing stabilization sort of seen as as dealing with rent issues and homelessness is dealing with homelessness right in between those two right so you know housing would be trying to keep housing and prevent eviction or stabilize someone that's in the households whether that's through uh you know support services or direct intervention in terms of support for um rental assistance and then support for those experiencing homelessness maybe you know finding housing or sheltering transitional housing uh you know it's I think the difference there is you know it's a it could be um you know you're you know you are trying to find housing and it's a different type of um you know there may be a different clientele or different resources available so different programs may be helping those with homelessness than compared to those that are already in housing so Nate I thought this was really helpful and I was amazed that um we were able to get you know 180 whatever uh respondents and so um for the first time we've done this I thought that was an amazing response so thanks for doing the work to put that up then you you know you yeah we a lot of the responses came in the last week so I think the um yeah you know we tried emailing it and you net thanks for getting it out there too asking people to distribute it so I think you know I think we are getting we're still getting more responses and I'll send it to the committee the um I just want to make sure you know the public hearing is still open so I don't know if anyone has any comments if the public hearing um if there are no more public comments we could close the public hearing and let me share the agenda we could move on to the public meeting portion uh we're also scheduled to meet next week to discuss you know priorities and what we've heard tonight and review the request for proposals so Nate there's no one to speak to um non-social service um priorities there's no one here no okay you know I think some of the comments on the form you know housing you know providing more affordable housing in public infrastructure was mentioned um you know housing was mentioned a number of times but there's no one in the audience evidently okay just want to double check I don't think anything else is offering to speak so um I think we could have a motion to close the hearing and then we could have a public meeting if members would like it's a little bit of time I so move second all right and your seconds I think we have to have a roll call vote since we're on zoom so just to be official we'll have to go around and everyone has to announce their name and how they vote to close the hearing first of my vote in favor Becky Michael's I vote in favor and Andrew in favor Paul Paul in favor Gail Lansky in favor great so I think that's it uh you know Rika has not been officially appointed yet so she's here so when she is she can participate fully so for all those members in attendance the public hearings um officially closed thanks for coming the committee may have a public meeting to review what was just discussed and talk about the social services and non-social service priorities for this upcoming grant cycle there's a meeting um a week from tonight as well to finalize the request for proposals and um go over you know the schedule so the idea is to hopefully get proposals out um later next week they'll they're due December 18th and then the review process follows a similar schedule as last year it is on the committee's webpage so the schedule is outlined there if there's any questions excuse me need to do this Lucas oh evidently let me see if he's uh yeah I guess we did that's funny I there's Ben disappeared for a minute but he's back I guess Lucas totally disappeared um well I'll see if he's emailed I think we can you know we still have a quorum I'll email Lucas and see if he can uh join us again great thank you so I don't know if anyone that wants to has any comments or how we want to um so I had I had a comment on the um observation on the survey that went out and I was looking at these numbers and I was kind of informed by the discussion that we had I think maybe led by Andrew last year about how even on the committee some of us you know rank things higher or lower so it's hard to just take a raw average so if you look at the raw average all the responses were kind of between 2.2 and 2.8 and kind of hard to distinguish like what people thought was important what was not so I just went through in the excel file and tried to find you know the average for each respondent and then how they ranked each item in relation to that average so for their own average which one they thought was more important or less important and then put everything on a scale of one to five and it was interesting to me how in doing it that way the results were a little more kind of spread out and so for example in the raw average now 2.2 was the highest for you know food insecurity 2.3 for household stabilization and homelessness but when I you know went through and for each individual respondent looked at their average and how that worked out and put on a one to five scale the highest was still food at you know 1.0 because it's on a one to five scale but then the next closest one was homelessness at 2.5 and at 3 it was kind of tied household stabilization and you know health healthcare and so it was remarkable to me how there really did seem to be a real overwhelming response that you know food insecurity at this time is just viewed as so important to the community. Thanks Nat so did you actually do some summarization on the excel spreadsheet you could share or like you know some more so I hope you can see I can I can I can pass it out but if you look at the yellow bar chart there yeah do you email it to me I can send that around to the committee that could be that would be helpful okay yeah but basically that the yellow is kind of the raw numbers and then when I took each respondent and then put it on a one to five scale it actually looks you know much more spread out and the difference between the food insecurity and everything else was quite remarkable all the way down to you know five four youth I think maybe people didn't really understand what youth development was why that showed up so much lower but yeah I'd be happy to send that back to you and you can share with it with the group but I was impressed that so many people did respond and there were a lot of responses that were you know things additional that weren't on our list like transportation or mental health services career and employment help things like that so I think there's a lot of you know thoughtful responses I was pretty impressed yeah I will say the town is looking at applying for a grant for transportation right now it is interesting you know I'm not sure how that would how you know cdbg could help with that but it is interesting that is a priority you know whether it's transportation to go to medical appointments or transportation for food you know to go to the grocery store possibility you know and other possibilities I mean the bus service does limit the number of bags you can have which you know when I realized that which is not you know I think it was just last year I guess I didn't realize how strictly they enforce that and it really does limit you know how you can use the bus neat the bus the pvpa limits the number of bag grocery bags you can take that not just a number of bags total so you know if you have a backpack in addition to grocery bags they limit that and then I think one like one person said tonight you know depending on how where you live you know you might have to you know change buses and so it is true that if you live in south amherst especially on east heavily road you have to go into the center of town and then change buses and then take another one out and it might take an hour just to go you know as a crow flies like three miles but because of the way public transportation works and then you're limited to things like three or four bags so yeah it can be an issue um I was just saying Lucas said his power went out and he said it's supposed to come back on at 9 30 so I don't I don't know you know he said ever source told him it'll be back by 9 30 I'll try to rejoin when he does I you know well I'm glad we're recording this because he can catch up yeah you know and I know he's in a cabin in the woods I don't know what that means but yeah thanks Nat for your comments um you know I think sometimes we've asked whether or not we should prioritize or rank order the priorities and you know the question is you know do we just say that there are these you know six or seven or five priorities this year and then you know we the committee reviews those and the proposal or do we try to assign a weight or some ranking you know based on the responses we've received in the comments so you know I think that's something for the committee we can discuss tonight or next week you know I think it's a difficult thing I'm not sure you know if we wait the proposals based on certain priority we'd have you know we could come up with a way to do that in the scoring system not only review proposals has there been data collected I'm not even sure how this would be done because I'm sure most of the services are done anonymously in some way but that shows the overlap of people using the different organizations so if somebody's getting food from the Amherst survival center but also using family outreach for something or the community connections for something do we ever know whether I need that kind of information only anecdotally I think that you know that's a difficult thing to cross-reference right but it's a good question Becky I tasked you with no you don't want to give me anything but has to do with the numbers put that out there right now I just I just have to say from my experience volunteering at the front desk at the Amherst survival center when people walk in whether they're from whether they're there for medical care to get a you know a monthly food box or to just go through distribution the only question that's asked is the town that you live in so to protect people but to not ask prying questions that's that's the only data that the survival center collects is the town and then obviously you can only get a food box if you're in one of the seven or nine catchment areas but you can go for a hot meal distribution free store from anywhere so from that and I think they're the agency that serves the greatest number of people in the community so I think that if there's overlap within other smaller ones who know I don't know how they collect their data yeah I mean we've heard that some you know you know the agencies will make referrals so I know that it you know it becomes available I do think some of it there is you know privacy of data so you know for some of the organizations and their activities I mean you know we you know households may have to sign a real you know a release to allow their information to you know be viewed by even the town so I think you know to have that ability to cross-reference could be difficult to you know we'd have to really work out a system but I know I've heard that people are you know do make referrals and they do use you know may use some of the same certain you know multiple services in town and so I don't know if anyone else you know has any comments on the priorities or how we'd structure that you know if not tonight then next week we will have to look at the request for proposals just to make sure that you know we think they're clear and we're asking the right questions of applicants and agencies you know we've refined it a bit in the last few years and you know I'm not sure if there's any any you know the new members too if there's anything you've seen that you know really needs to be changed or has caught your attention but you know the next week or so we'd really need to make sure we address those if you have any questions or comments can I just I'm sorry go ahead Rika you're hard to hear Rika the week you're kind of fuzzy is this any better no okay okay give your cell phone near your computer I don't know if you know I I don't know if that's a problem or not I I switch back and forth on my better is that better yeah um before tonight I was thinking it would be useful to have a sense of the priorities among or you know among the priorities but hearing it tonight I feel like it's such a web of services that support each other that I that feels harder to do having listened to this tonight it's just my initial thinking on that sounds reasonable um can I just ask I mean I kind of glanced today at the RFP that we had put out last fall and I'm wondering do we need to ask any pertinent questions as to how agencies fundings have been impacted by COVID like do we need to I'm throwing it out there do we need to get specific like that you know what is the increase that you see due to COVID what it how has your funding been impacted how's your budget been impacted just to get a little more on the nitty gritty to find out what what this year has wrought for people sure I mean I think the only my only question that would be you know we're applying this spring for money that's not going to be received until you know fall of 2021 so I guess the question would be you know is this you know you know are you know what an agency be applying expecting you know this change to be you know in effect a year from now you know a year from now when the contracts are started so I think yeah that's a good question I think we ask you know we could discuss whether or not that's a question to have in there because I think even if there's a vaccine by July I mean the economy is not going to spring back in any way shape or form you know like it was prior to March take a long time so I thought that might be a question that might be helpful to find should get the information from the agencies well maybe we could ask it how has it been affected and how do they anticipate it will continue to be right right yeah for instance if they're saying that they have like a 50% increase in and you know participation is that something that they anticipate will be sustained you know a year from now because then you know that would impact their budget and programming but I think that's a hard question to ask people since it's so uncertain and what would they be basing on that on and I mean I don't know I I certainly think it's useful to ask how it has impacted them I don't know I think I mean we do have to make predictions but that feels like the agencies will come at that so differently Andrew Paul not any thoughts well I would think that that even if we don't ask it we might get information about that because people are providing you know the budget information and balance sheet and so forth and so there might be an indication of what other funding they are not getting or what their needs are but there might not be as much you know narrative or explanation around that unless we ask it specifically right I mean it's implicit and maybe the questions we're asking is you know do we ask you know we want them to call it out specifically if there's a you know budget shortfall or you know a need increase yeah I mean I guess my thought is you know we're asking for you know programs that can be implemented in our you know maybe an increase in programming but yeah I'd hate for someone to project a large number right and then we award funding on that and then that's not really what the program is when it comes time to you know it's actually implemented so I just want to make sure right we're not we're not asking agencies to make a prediction that isn't accurate yeah did I say something so I thought that over the years that we've sort of avoided looking at how much they needed money as being a criteria for how much money they would get is that is my memory of it anybody else remember it that way well they have to submit a budget overall for their agency and they have to submit an overall budget for the pro for the activity so I guess I'm not really sure well I thought what was being said was to find out from people with the impact on their agency had been on their on their monies as a result of COVID isn't that what was said maybe I missed on the story do you have a question about that or you don't think that's the right way to go is that what you're well is that what's being said is to ask about their funding and what's the impact not to ask what they need because that's in the proposal I mean what is what's the question here can you clarify that I had just brought up that I was wondering in the narrative if we wanted to ask a question you know what increase in participation have you seen due to COVID and you know how has COVID impacted your funding it's not that ask for the money so much it's just part of the overall narrative that they would be supplying which I think like now said that they would probably do anyway you know it would probably be part of part of the information we receive anyway I'm not sure if we specifically need to ask I was just kind of throwing it out there yeah I guess the you know I think that's very valid to ask the impact as far as the demand on the program in the community what's you know how big a change has there been and but to ask about funding issues because that they've had which aren't related to the grant money that we've given you know I think that we'll end up getting a lot about how much money they need and didn't get in different places and I'm not sure that's helpful you know and as far as I know we're still you know limited to funding five social service activities you know and then that's only 15% of the or 20% of the grant budget so you know I'm not I haven't heard otherwise and so that's you know we'll have to assume that you know and if that changes moving forward we'll let you know let the committee know and everyone know but you know those are still the same operating procedures and Nate were you pleased overall with the number of responses to this survey since this is the first time we've done it yeah I mean a lot came in you know on the last week you know so at least you know the work the word got out there I think that's you know it is a small you know a sampling of what you know of the residents but I do think you know you know what Gwyneth did with his you know summary statistics of the survey you know does it highlight some things that you know we're not capturing I do think that you know there was a lot of mention of food you know food security and housing in the comments and so you know there you know I think a lot of them also fell in line with the other priorities that we've listed already so I don't you know I'm not sure that you know if there's you know the question then for me becomes you know is it uh does the committee want to prioritize and rank the and wait that you know the those categories differently you know as in years past we just say here are the six priorities check your box and say which one you've met and we also offer another category for someone to describe if they have another type of priority so or activity so you know the question is this year do we change it or do we keep kind of that same format where they just you know an agency you know just identifies what priority they're meeting and we we don't really give weight to one over the other do we want to have a brief discussion about that now or do you want to save that for next week I could save it for next week I guess unless members want to discuss it or ask questions I'd appreciate if we could do it next week so that I can just have a better look at the RFP and what it looks like right now or what what last year's looks like and just have a kind of a sense of the history sure that works for people okay sure yeah I mean I think like we said that you know the town typically funds five activities so you know if we're you know if we're waiting priorities you know does that then influence both the activities that are being recommended and then also the budget levels and I think that becomes you know it could be a difficult conversation if you know say if say one is weighted quite highly then you know do we font is does it if there's what if there's five food activities that are being proposed so they then get you know most of the allocation of funding and then you know there's been other discussions about you know if agencies receive funding in consecutive years you know is it good to try to get new agencies funding that are also meeting a community need you know DHCD hasn't you know doesn't require us to wait priorities and doesn't you know you know doesn't put you know it's can be a local you know local process but you know they're not expecting us to stop funding someone who's received funding in multiple years or to have these weighted criteria it's something that we could decide locally if we want. Do you see advantages to that me having weighted? I think it I think it unless we have a really good kind of rationale and then a good way to use that when reviewing proposals I think it could complicate review you know unless we have unless we have a clear way to make that that you know that kind of priority ranking as part of the discussion you know so if we do get a varied mix of you know a mix of proposals you know do we you know typically we would use their review criteria and then have a you know a ranked score that is part of the discussion and some you know some proposals score higher than others and then there's you know you know some in the middle and it helps us to sort those out but if we actually say okay these two priorities are the top you know how much weight we give those two priorities it doesn't mean that those those activities are going to always be on the top even if parts of the proposal are weaker in terms of you know say you know something so I I haven't really considered how that would you know I considered how it would you know factor into the review but you know some some communities for instance might just say well our only priority is you know finding housing for homeless individuals and then you know everything else isn't a priority but you know I think we have like you said a network of different agencies and so you know typically we have a number of different priorities and so yeah for next week if you know we can end this soon for next week I would look at the RFPs and then you know we do have page limits which I think worked well last year and there's been some discussion about you know could we you know can those be modified at all if we think that agencies don't have enough you know space to provide answers but I I thought it worked pretty well you know I don't know what other committee members thought but you know it made it a little easier to read you know we don't you know if my thought is if an you know DHCD does not read everything you know they put a page limit on what we submit as a town and so even if an agency submits you know seven appendices with different information DHCD if they say they want four pages and two attachments they only are going to look at you know that page limit and they they won't even read beyond it so you know I think what we the one reason why we implemented that was also to help you know help the committee but it was also to follow the DHCD application guidelines so we're not asking for more of agencies and that you know the state isn't even looking at when we apply so but if you know people think that you know if something needs to be modified or changed we can do that. Is that something you're asking about now or is that something we're going to talk about next week? I think we can talk about next week so you know if you look at the request for proposals we limited the narrative length and what we wanted a total application package to be say it was I don't know if it was like 15 pages or something and you know sometimes in the past someone would we'd have a page limit on the narrative but then we didn't limit attachments and they would put 30 pages of you know appendices with tables and different things to try to describe the program and so it just became you know somewhat convoluted because you know you'd have your narrative but then you'd have so many appendices that really supplanted the narrative and that wasn't you know we try to make it a little clearer in terms of what we're asking to you know be provided and then once reviewed and so if everyone is good I guess we could have a motion to adjourn and then we'll meet next week again through zoom and we can you know look at the request for proposals and the review criteria and we can just discuss the timeline I'm not sure DHC will have any more information out you know the they are they are quite behind schedule but they sent an email out in late october saying that even though they're behind they're not going to delay the application for this round so typically you know they would have made an announcement like two months ago with information about this coming grant cycle and they haven't in applications I usually do at the end of february and they said that they're not going to push that deadline back so I think they're just going to expect communities to have a truncated process so I think you know we're on we're on target but it doesn't sound like they're going to change anything so I think we just have to keep meeting you know get the RFPs out you know in a week or you know week and a half or so and then you know if they extend something at some point we could always amend the schedule but I think the schedule we laid out you know at the last meeting we I think we have to stick to it unless we hear something so you know unfortunately for the committee the proposals that we do in mid-december right before the holidays you get to have some nice nice reading and then you know you can get me questions and we go from there with meetings in january to review the proposals but sounds good and committee members can always send you know send me questions or comments by email you know so ahead of the meeting if you want if you have anything you know about the proposals or the review criteria or any questions you feel free to send those to me and I can share those distribute those amongst the committee or just you know respond to the members all right so I guess Lucas doesn't have power back so we'll I'll send him the link to the video and when we're done in that case I motion that we adjourn yeah thanks Matt all right I guess we just have like a hands raised vote in an eye for adjournment all right great all right thanks everyone so there's still a few members in attendance so the the meeting's ending the career meet again in a week and that'll be on the town calendar so thanks everyone I'm gonna end the meeting thank you thank you thank you