 And if we get a couple more folks jump on, I'm sure Erica will help me get them. So I want to let y'all know we don't have minutes from last month's meeting. Erica, as y'all can imagine, we've had two elections, we've got transitions happening. And so Erica, understandably, has had a lot on her plate. And she called and was very apologetic for not having minutes for this meeting. And I told her that we were certainly okay with not having minutes at this meeting. We pretty much know our conversation last week, last month, and everything just is a continuation. But we will have those minutes to you guys by the next meeting of the task force, which I assume will be in January. And I'll talk a little bit about that at the end. But by the next meeting, you will have the minutes from that meeting and this one. But I wanted to go over just a couple of things. And like I said, this is not necessarily scheduled to be a long meeting. I know it's the holiday season. Everybody has a lot going on before having holiday lunches, people are getting ready to be out of office. So I know we've got several members who are unable to make it this morning. But they have kind of sent some information and hopefully we'll get them on moving forward. But the first thing I wanted to discuss with you guys, and I think Erica sent out the agenda. The first item that I wanted everybody, Erica, I just want to make sure. I don't see things saying we're being recorded. And I want to make sure we're doing what we need to. I have one moment. Let me reach out to Jesse. Okay. This meeting is being recorded. Got it. It just hit me and I was like, I don't see that little recording. So anyway, I'm not going to repeat everything, but we are now recording so that we have this on record because this is an official meeting of the city committee. And so I want to make sure we are all proper in order. But the first thing that I had on here that I wanted to kind of brief you all on is and some of you I've spoken to you individually about this and some may be aware. But after we had our conversations earlier this year on the color of law, one of the things specifically Mayor Liles and Charlotte mentioned that they did that was very helpful for them and Charlotte is they did an equity survey for their city and having that data and that matrix was very helpful for them as they move forward with a lot of their initiatives, whether it's housing, whether it's health disparities. We know that equity there's a lot that's intersected in a lot of these things. You guys have heard me talk about equity a lot over the last few months. And I will tell you that I probably will tell you that people still really don't understand equity the way they need to. And so certainly, hopefully that will will change in the next year or so. But one of the things that we asked was that city council actually and have an equity survey done for the city of Columbia. And so we did do an equity survey, which results were released to us a couple of months ago. They have every member of city council, as well as the majority, I believe, of county council members and our two school districts have received this data in informal meetings. And I'm not exactly sure what's going to happen as far as from the city's standpoint of having conversations. I will tell you that I think I will continue to have conversations in the community about the data and the equity survey. But one of the things I wanted to just lift up the metrics that Dr. Kathleen Brady, who I think, Brian, you may know, I think she mentioned she knows you, but Dr. Kathleen Brady from the Greenville area did this equity survey for us. And in the equity survey, they looked at lots of metrics. Of course, they looked at, you know, financial data. They looked at education, school to prison pipeline, et cetera. If anybody really wants to see the whole thing, let me know. It's like one hundred and twenty six pages, but it's very illuminating to understand where we are in the Midlands. I believe, as you know, in regionalism. And so since I was driving this force, I asked that the city not limit the data just to the city of Columbia. But we looked at Richland County as a whole. And we also look at Lexington County. And so the data is aggregated among those three jurisdictions. And so I'll share with you, I'll share with you the whole survey if you guys are interested. But there are a few pages that specifically deal with housing. And I apologize. I scanned it in and meant to email it to you guys before the meeting. But I will email that so that you have it. But I did want to just talk about a couple of things. Erica, or am I able to share my screen? I think it says I can give me a second. I want to share with y'all a little bit of data. OK, all right. Can everybody see this? Give me a thumbs up if you can see my screen. OK, good. So as we know, and most of you guys, the work that you do, you deal with equity. So I don't have to go in the deep to have on what equity is. You guys get it and part of hopefully as Jennifer and Brenna help us figure out how we have the conversations about affordable housing in our city. We will we will talk about the equity part of that as well. But there's a couple of things I just wanted to show you guys from this from the data. And I'll email this to you guys right before we end at the end of the end of our meeting. But there is a whole section that was completely on housing. And they start off really with talking about the fact that of course, housing is the single largest expenditure of most households. And so that's why this is a very important indicator when you're looking at equity within your community. And so if you don't have affordable housing, it is it affects people's economic mobility and being able to address issues specifically of concentrated poverty. And so in here, it talks about how US the US Department of Health says that racism continues to be prevalent in the housing industry. And we have to look at equity in a way that not just racial equity, but economic equity to make sure that we are giving people out of poverty and that we are addressing the other indicators such as health and education, because if people are not in sustainable housing, like we all talk about all the time, you're not going to have that opportunity for people to actually thrive, especially young people. So a couple, I just wanted to show you they talk about the homeless rate, I won't go into that a whole lot. But Jennifer and Anita, y'all might know or be interested. They use the point in time data in here. And looking at kind of where we are in the city of Columbia's of this Richland and Lexan counties and the top 10 with the state's highest point in time counts. We of course expect that we're the metro area, but they did point that out and give us some information. But what I really wanted to point out is home ownership rates by race. And one of the big things that they talked about is home ownership, of course, is the biggest way for economic mobility. And in nationally, as well as, of course, here locally, African Americans, home ownership rates are extremely low as it compares to white Americans. And then, of course, we've also looked at Hispanic here. That's the national average, but they told gave us the data for Richland County, Lexington County in the city of Columbia. So just wanted to share this with you guys. If you look at city of Columbia specifically, where you've got the white population is about 52 percent of the overall population, but 68 percent of home ownership. Inverse of that is true, whereas African Americans are about 35 percent of the total population is about 25 percent of home ownership. And then with the Hispanic population, about 6.9 percent of the overall population, but about 2.3 percent of home ownership. And so looking at this data, the equity survey, of course, gives the recommendation that the city and the county in Lexington need to look at how do we increase home ownership in minority populations because you've got more of the population, but less home ownership. So that was one thing that I wanted us to know from this survey that I thought was important to point out. And then we talked about rental rates. And the inverse of that, as you could imagine, is true on rental rates. So when you look at in the city of Columbia, again, 52 percent of the population is as white, but 40 percent is our rentals. You've got African Americans, 35 percent of the overall population, the 50 percent are the rental population. And then Hispanic is about almost even 6.9 percent total and 5.6. This data actually is from 2019. So there's about a two-year lag in this, but it's pretty much the same. And, Brian, you can tell me if you think there's vastly different. But I just wanted us to kind of see this as we talk about affordability, especially in the communities and the neighborhoods that need affordable housing and then how do we, you know, of course, talk about affordable rental as well as affordable home ownership? And then they have a whole part on here, affordability. You guys can read it when you get it. But they gave us, of course, a percent of households where rentals are spending at least 30 percent of their income. And if you look in Richmond County in the last five years, you're looking at 21 to 21.2 percent, which actually if you look at the trend, it looks like we're doing pretty well. But it's still something that is alarming for us to have so much. And then the last thing I wanted to point out on here is on here they had the best practices for policies to ensure affordability, affordable housing for all. And a lot of these are things that we've already talked about. But one was raising funds to increase the supply of affordable homes, which is what we've talked about all year through housing trust funds. Jim, they have on here and housing bonds. And so those are two two two things that they recommend also requiring or incentivizing the inclusion of affordable housing within new development, using inclusionary zoning, community benefits agreements and density bonuses and other tools preserve affordable renting rental units, particularly our apartments located near job centers, public transit and services ensure strong tenant protection, such as just cause addiction ordinances, anti-harassment policies and rent control to prevent displacement and implement a renter's tax credit to help reduce rents for low income families. And so these are all best practices from the National Equity Atlas. And so I know we have talked about all of these before, but I think it just confirms the work that we're doing. But it also gives us an opportunity to see how all this plays in the overall the bigger picture of, you know, building a more equitable city and addressing equity in the Midlands in a way that housing, of course, is a big part of that. So I think that was the last chart I wanted to show you guys. This is just interesting information. This is not new for us to know. But they did talk about a segregation segregated communities. Richland County, we are the third highest segregated community in the state is what they had. And I thought that was interesting right behind Charleston and Buford. And then they also went into that we have high concentrated poverty in different areas. And so it gave us some data on that, like children that are living in concentrated poverty by race. And so this tells you African American children at 15.1. You've got Hispanic children at 7.7. And then right now or this year, you've got 9.2 and white children at 1.6. So it just tells you this is from the kids count data and tells you where children are in concentrated poverty. So if you want better outcomes for kids, then you have to improve the outcomes of where they're living. So with that finishing up, I'm going to stop sharing my screen and want to know I'm going to email, like I said, email that portion to you. If you want the whole survey, let me know and I'll email you both as well as the executive summary. But there's there's probably some some deeper dive information that we can do there in the future. But I wanted to just elevate that for for this committee's just knowledge. Any questions on that? Okay, so with that, I wanted to next go into, you know, we've talked about earlier this year that we wanted a annual goal that we can talk about where we need to be going as to not just keeping the existing housing stock, which we know we're losing some, but adding units, affordable units into the inventory on an annual basis. And so we need to know kind of where we are in order to figure out where we need to go. And so I asked, we said we would talk about at this last meeting in of the year in December, we would talk about where we were as far as affordable housing, housing units that were approved or went into inventory this year, got the certificate of occupancies, and the ones that are permitted and slated to come online in next year 2022. So I asked Krista to pull this information for us. And so Krista, if you could go over this information so that we could have this as we start thinking about what what's a reasonable goal as far as annual affordable housing units in the area. Certainly. Thank you, Ms. Devine. So it's the next year is rather encouraging. This year, and these are identified affordable housing projects. So we've had some single family residential come through and what we see are the construction costs, but we can't guarantee that those are going to be affordable and remain affordable. So these are all rental projects that are identified as affordable. And this year we've had come online 63 units. But next year with the total of approximately 10 units, we have nearly 1800 units planned. Now some of these, depending on construction timelines may creep into 2023 as well. But and Brian may be able to speak to this more. I credit some of this with the workforce and senior housing, senior affordable housing act for the incentives provided to that. And I think we've heard anecdotally from a lot of these developers that that is what is driving some of these projects and driving them into future years. There is some conversation going on about that credit at the state level. And I think some of the projects I read you could probably speak to that are being discussed at the treasurer's level. I think there's a committee. So we need to make sure that they continue on. And Ms. Divinas just kind of comparing this to our market rate and looking over the next two years as to what's come through for approvals and under construction. It too is around 1800 units around 650 of those are student student housing purpose based student housing built projects. And again, these are these are multifamily and in our larger projects as well. So this doesn't necessarily account dealing for some of the Haven projects that that you all might be doing that we're not aware of on the radar necessarily but scattered site that are going on. And of course, Columbia housing is doing a lot. You remember every presentation and what they're doing to help with this number. There's a lot of those projects that they're helping to facilitate. So overall again, just to summarize next year and maybe bleeding into 2023 around 1800 units. Happy to answer questions. It's awesome. Thanks, Krista. And I know that ivory has some. I don't know if ivory's units would be a part of that 1800. Yes. Okay. So it's kind of taking out what housing authority is doing are all these private developers. Well, some of them. So they are private developers that they're they're partnering with the housing authority. So you've got some of that at Congre point at Colonel's Creek Garden Lakes. So these are private developers, but they are partnering so public private partnership. I was just kind of thinking outside of I guess those those programs we know that a part of 2030 the 2030 plan that CHA has are there others and the like Kevin Connolly others. I'm just trying to kind of get a feel like once ivory's program is or what their plan is kind of done, or do we still have that kind of demand and capacity that our private developers are doing? Yes, I would say as long as this state tax credit stays in force, we will continue to see development happening. I think it's and those who do this development can speak more to it than I can. But this incentive is really helping close the gap on the financing for some of these projects. So 1800 and y'all that's kind of close to what we had talked about one time before we when we first started talking about a goal we had said something about like maybe 2000 units a year. And then we we kind of shied away from that because we were thinking that without knowing where we were that's ambitious. And so not sure if that's going to keep up, but you know, I think that that gives us at least an idea if that's the kind of demand that you'll have or kind of projects that are being planned to finance with the influx of federal dollars and different programs with the American Rescue Plan and America Jobs Act if feel that better passes and some what some shape or form there's going to be money for affordable housing and that as well. So I think we can just see this increasing. I do think that there are some other options. And Reggie didn't make it on here, but I know Reggie and I've been kind of talking about what some of the other cities are doing as far as housing bonds and things like that. But right now what's on the table? It sounds like it's pretty good. Any other thoughts? Ira, did you want to share anything about kind of that number? And does that sound like a realistic number? You know, on a continuous basis moving forward? Absolutely. I think one of the critical things is as long as we maintain access to the state credits, which our General Assembly intended for us to use them in that manner to create more affordable housing opportunities, I think that we'll certainly see be able to make a dent in the number of units that we need in our community. And I think the other piece of it is that while we use a lot of times we use the state credits for the larger projects, I think that there's the smaller projects that will end up being created because of those larger projects that we certainly need to possibly take a look at maybe what's coming through the permit process from the city and also the county as well to capture those numbers. So I certainly think, you know, I feel comfortable that we will certainly see more and more interest in creating more affordable units. I know here at the Housing Authority we have several projects that have not made its way through the through the process yet that we still yet will be submitting to city council next year and the first quarter of next year to have the city support on issuing bonds for those, you know, for those projects and certainly keeping our eyes on what the state fiscal accountability authority and the treasurer's office and all of those folk might do to revise, you know, how those projects will come in and how they'll be vetted in terms of priorities. And I was hoping that Reggie would be here maybe to speak to that and he's not. Is there any additional information on that ivory where you think this task force needs to be aware or be helpful? You've got so many organizations represented here as far as what is being contemplated on a state level about those tax credits. Is there, I know you've had a rally and, you know, are there any other actions you think this group needs to at least be mindful of and be potentially pursuing? I would say not right now. We do next Tuesday, the 20, I think the 20th of this Tuesday, the state fiscal accountability authority is having their last meeting of the year and at this meeting there are 13 affordable housing developments. They're all across South Carolina. We actually have four that are on that agenda and those are being considered for approval by that board. And so, you know, if you can tune in, there's a link. We can get that link shared. They do their meetings virtually and we can, you know, have Ms. Belton share that link with the group. Brian, do you have any updates? Brian may have some updates as it relates to that group. Yeah, I mean, I think what Ms. Maddie's meeting is, it's the 21st at 10 a.m. from today. So, our agency has certainly been in contact with SFIA. They've requested information about these projects that are proposed. Basically, what's happening is these are all various issuers who are all seeking what's called volume bond gap authority. So, there's a certain amount of money that the IRS gives each state to issue in taxes and bonds and in South Carolina SFIA is the organization that essentially formally approves those transactions. And the thanks to the state tax credit as well as some arcane changes in federal tax law that were passed last December, there's been a dramatic increase in the number of people who are coming to the SFIA looking for bond authorization to finance affordable rental housing. So, yeah, our agency has certainly been involved in that process. And yeah, we're certainly expecting a thorough review of those projects in that meeting from today. All right. Thank you, Brian. Okay. So, any other questions, y'all, about Chris's report on where we are in any discussion and conversation? Just if we went to 1800 is good. If we went to, if we did the stretch goal, like we mentioned before 2000, 2000 gets us to, and I guess I should talk about the deficit first, but to go back to the deficit that we were all kind of working with about 16,000, which I believe is more now than just because of the number of units we've had that have come out and with COVID. But if we were going on the 16,000 and you look at a 2000 goal that gets us there in about eight years, we had talked about a 10-year goal. And I guess this is just, this would be a recommendation to city council. So this would, you know, they certainly would have the ability to decide whether or not they wanted to, you know, commit to this goal or what have you. But this would be a recommendation from this task force to actually set a goal that could be reasonable. And based on, based on that goal, they could go up or down. But does this committee, does anyone want to throw out, does this committee feel comfortable at saying a goal of 1800, saying a goal of 2000 over the next 10 years, a year, I'm saying that would be an annual goal over the next 10 years. And that would get us over the 16, 18,000 unit goal that we're thinking we need. Any thoughts on that? We did 2000 a year over 10 years as 20,000 units that we're adding. Councilwoman divine, I thought with a 16,000 unit deficit right now and what's needed for affordable housing, I think that's, you know, if we could hit that goal, that reduces that 16,000 each year. And over a 10-year period, yeah, we might still be behind, but certainly would be, we'd be in a lot better shape than we are today. So I think it's an admirable goal. Thank you, Jim. Any other thoughts or comments on that? Brian, do you feel like that's a realistic goal? I mean, there's, I think as Christa kind of hinted at, there's a lot of moving parts that dictate how much affordable housing is able to be produced. And certainly, you've got the resources that come from SFAAS, the housing state entities, you've got potential local funding that could be pulled into play. You know, I certainly think that 16,000 number that I came up with in my analysis about a year ago, I think that certainly is reflective of the high level of need. And you know, as you said, it's a stretch goal. I think it's, I think it's a stretch goal. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's a stretch goal. I think we need to, and again, this is just going to be a recommendation. We'll see, you know, what the council decides to do. But I think if this task force is comfortable with making that as a recommendation as a stretch goal, at least that gives somebody something to measure to see as, as they move forward, whether or not between private developers and incentives, and then that may also help as far as funding incentives that the city considers moving forward. If you know if they have a goal to, to hold themselves to, it might help with saying, okay, we're going to have incentives available to help developers meet this goal. Mr. Davis, did you have your hand up? You're muted. You're still muted. I'm sorry. I said I would, I'm in agreement with, you know, the point before us now in terms of, you know, long-term goals, the numbers and the real story and the report you summarize tells us that if we just look at the Midlands, and you may say Columbia in particular, you know, the need, the need is there. I don't see anybody not justifying whether you want to go with 16,000, 8,000, 20,000. And if, if you don't keep it on the table, then there's no, somebody has to push that. The numbers speak for themselves, and other entities, other governments need to look at those numbers. And when you look at maybe a scattered approach, that means if you just look at the city of Columbia, you run the, I think you run the risk of depopulation of people who really need housing. On my way this morning, I got a call from a lady in the harbour scenario. When you look at rent stabilization, she was complaining that she's got a note on her door that told her that her rent is going to go up from about $800 per month to about $1,700, $1,800. Single mom, she just can't afford that. But there's something going on with rent controls also. And the higher the rents, the less availability you're going to have for people who are the target of the committee's work. So I guess in a roundabout way, I'm saying I would not pull back on the numbers that are on the projections that are on the table now, period, as a capital city. And if you look at the overall needs and the middleton, no matter where you go, the housing shortage exists. And I think the one thing Columbia needs to show is that we're serious about decent affordable housing, period. You also want me to define, I'd just like to add a few comments. When I was in Greenville and we did our affordable housing study, we had a consultant that worked with us. And before we got the results, we all just kind of toyed around ideas about the number of units that we thought that we needed in the affordable housing range. And what we found when the results came back in was that there was a lack of housing stock for all income categories. And so of course, when there's a lack of housing stock for all income categories, the people with the most resources are going to be the folk who are going to have access to those units that would have been traditionally made available to people at moderate to low incomes. And so as Council, Councilman Davis was just talking, it just reminded me of that from the $800 a month all the way up to the $1,700 a month. And it just sounds like, if we look at affordable housing in a silo and not really look at the need for housing across the board, then we might be missing out on the mark when we're setting the numbers. And I say all that to say, I don't know what the right number is, but I do agree that we do need to maybe shoot for something that's more realistic and attainable. I'm just thinking about even the units that we work on that require so many people to check boxes. The box checking process sometimes is 18 to 24 months. And before we even have a groundbreaking and start construction, and then you've got another 24 months of construction. So I would say maybe for the city, if this goal is for the city of Columbia proper, then I would probably say maybe a third of that 1800. I would probably be more comfortable with a third, especially if people are measuring us on seeing bricks and mortar. And not just what's on the ground to be built, because there's so much that kind of, there's so many barriers. Administrative, political, you name it, that could halt these projects. Community, there's so much at stake. I could jump in for a second. So I think what Ms. Matthews says is on point, I should point out that 16,000 figure that was Richland County, not just the city. The comparable number for the city limits is about 7,500 in terms of a rental housing deficit. And the other thing I wanted to highlight is I think that, and this came out in the Greenville study, was that there does need to be a component that is designed for low and moderate income homeownership. If for no other reason than, because we have an exceptionally short housing inventory, and that's a statewide nationwide challenge right now, if there's not essentially homes for people who are currently renting to move up into and purchase, those people are unable to exit renting, and that it drives up demand for rental housing, and therefore increases the cost of rent. So certainly, I think a comprehensive strategy would include some affordable homeownership component. So, Brian, can I ask this, and this will go back to, I guess, the goals and the recommendations as well. So I mentioned to this group before that we had talked about, and I've spoken to Ms. Shotcher about having Dr. Grady do an actual housing needs assessment for the city of Columbia, because the number that he's given us, yes, 7,500 was for the city, and then Richland County was that 16,000. And so we've been using 16,000, because really the Midlands, that's our goal is to make sure this whole area is covered. But the numbers that Krista has given are just city numbers. So I want to make sure I point that out. But one of the things that Benita and I talked about, and rightfully so, and I think is wise of her as a director of an agency, she preferred us waiting until after the elections to make sure that there was still a priority for this with the mayor and members of council and to move forward. And so we've held the official request for them to do this housing needs assessment until we could get a new administration seated. I've not spoken to the new administration, I've spoken to two of the incoming council members, and it's a priority for them. But I don't know where council will be as far as this goes. So I was going to suggest that we put in our recommendations that I'll be presenting or giving the report on this meeting next week's council meeting. I was going to put in what our recommendations are. And so I was going to put that a recommendation needs to be an official request from the new administration to South Carolina State Housing for this needs assessment. So I want to give y'all that background and that's why that hasn't been done yet. But Brian is with that, would that be the same as the Greenville study that would be the same with what Greenville did? Well, as much as I would like to to my own horn, I mean, Greenville hired a paid consulting firm that was able to bring a lot more resources to the table than a two-person state research office would be able to provide. So I don't want to promise that level of polish, I guess. But certainly, you know, we produced a statewide housing needs assessment once in 2019 and again earlier this year, and certainly would be in a position to, you know, obviously, if the recommendation is made, we would want input from the new city administration as well as other relevant stakeholders on what such a project would look like. But, you know, certainly, we would be in a position to make relevant evaluations and recommendations that would inform the city's decisions on policymaking. Okay. And that's what I was thinking. So I think to Ms. Matthews' point about having the study that I think you can have a goal and then that study can maybe inform things moving forward, like whether or not it needs to be adjusted and certainly give some some clarity around there. So I think our professionals here, Ms. Matthews and Dr. Grady are suggesting that it be a third of the 1800. Is that what y'all are I'm hearing? Yeah, that's that's my my recommendation. So that's about 600 units. And that would be just for the city. So that's about a 12.5 year to get to the 7500 in the city. I really think there will be more. You know, but I do agree. I understand about being cautious. I'm a stretch goal type person. I like setting goals that that stretch you into it. And I think that the this this problem is so huge that has not been addressed in a way that I feel like is meaningful enough that, you know, I can I can say this in the next 16 days that we need to hold our elected officials accountable for these these goals. And so I'm willing to say I think we need to give a recommendation that was a stretch goal that actually holds, you know, that people can actually say this is what we're going to get. If you know, we know that there are lots of factors that come into play, but I also feel like we are in a very unique position nationally with resources and a national conversation on the housing crisis that I think if if if we don't, you know, go big right now, then we all need to go home. That that's my thought. And so I feel I feel like we need to stretch it, even if it's not the 2000, you know, say a thousand. Dylan if it's sentenced. Yeah, so Dylan suggesting maybe say, you know, 600 for the next year and then incrementally increases in this, it would be up to this task force and or whatever mechanism the city uses to reevaluate that goal, maybe, you know, be reevaluated annually by city council. But I also think that if nobody says there should be a goal, I don't think anybody else is going to try and push for a goal. That's my thought. Yeah, I agree. I think holding us to a number and getting some firm commitment from everybody is certainly moving in the in the right direction. I think, you know, from the housing authorities perspective, we we like to under promise and over deliver. And so, you know, we do recognize the, you know, affordable housing is such a it's such still a negative word to some people. And we are still in the inner space of sometimes being low hanger fruit for conversations that aren't very productive. But I think the six, you know, we the 600 is something that we can certainly meet. Sue's making a suggestion. What about 10% of the need, which is 750, sends a message that will be addressing the need in a way that could be evaluated. So do we feel comfortable saying 750 goal that will be evaluated on an annual basis? Yes. That's perfect. This is Sue. Yeah, I obviously that's I think that makes sense. I mean, 10% is not a huge amount. But it's definitely it's not an overwhelming amount for those who are going to be charged with developing the housing woman divine. What type of dollars would that cost the city to bring 600 units on? Maybe Jeff could weigh in on that. It's a big number, isn't it? That's a loaded question too. I think that all depends on a lot of things. Yes, it's a loaded question. Because you have to evaluate the style of project you wish to deliver. Commodity prices will vary up and down over the 10 year period. If you look at some, you know, estimates of projects underway, that's 70 million dollars or more or 100 million dollars. So you got to get a sense of as the dialogue was talked earlier from the remarks of focusing on specific unit sizes for specific income classes or uses. I mean, those prices will vary. So I think collectively, we're going to have to develop a public partner, public private partnership agreement, in essence, to try to even target the goals of 600 to 750 a year. Because I just think structurally we're a bit challenged into having it fully publicly financed to a point. But I also think there's growing economy in the state that should get private engagement. Yeah. So Columbia City Council just approved, for example, they just approved five privately owned affordable housing developments on December the 7th at the last council meeting. Those five privately owned affordable housing developments that the Housing Authority plans to issue bonds for. That is 728 units at $92 million. Four of the five projects are, you know, new construction and then one is acquisition rehab. And so, but these all, you know, they just just depends on what the current infrastructure looks like. And that's where a lot of these funds go into when you're developing affordable housing is that you've got to, you know, people think that, you know, we have good we're building from ground up. But a lot of times we got to go underground. And then that's where a lot of the costs are associated with. And I think it starts kind of with a goal. Again, it could be a stretch goal, but it starts with the goal and trying to establish these partnerships. And so, you know, there will be a lot of different people from, you know, Habitat, I think Brittany, the goal is in 2022 to come back to Richmond County for some kind of project, right? That's correct. Yes. And we're currently, we're even we're even partnering with Columbia Housing Development Corporation to as well to be able to take on some additional properties to be able to further our footprint in Columbia. So, yeah, so, you know, that's from Habitat to, you know, Kevin Connelly type programs to what as CHA is doing. So, you know, I think it gives again, the city an opportunity to say, this is a goal, we know that we've got these projects going. And then also to the point of knowing financing, you know, there's a lot of priorities, but based on the monies that are coming in, you know, we want to set aside, you know, this amount for home ownership incentives or affordable housing developments, et cetera. I think it just it's all pieces to the puzzle. It's just right now, it's just our recommendation to say, hey, going into 2022, let's keep this top of mind, let's have a priority of saying this is how we're going to start chipping away at that deficit that we have, if we start at least monitoring the amount of new housing or affordable housing units that are being added back into the inventory. So, all right. This is a good conversation. I didn't expect it to last so long. So, it's a good one. But as I said, we have a short meeting, but we're actually kind of at almost at our hour. But anyway, so my report to council next week will be that we're based on the numbers we're looking at asking council to consider a goal of 750 units annually that will be evaluated annually. Right now, you know, Krista has permitted 1800, so that shouldn't give them heartburn for next year. We say and we'll say we know that there are things going up and down. But is this task forces position that if there's a there's a definitive goal that is the least of mind that people will stay conscious about how do we continue to chip away at that deficit. So, that'll be what I report if everybody's comfortable with that. Okay. So, next, and I just put all the committees on here I didn't know who may or may not have a report, but I put them all on here. I know that Brenna and Jennifer at our last meeting pretty much had a good plan. So, I wasn't sure exactly where you guys are Brenna. I don't know if you have a report that you want to make today. Sure, not a problem. We have, let's see, we have a communication strategy for community members and for outreach with partnerships. I can send that over it's about eight pages. And as well as we have from both of our committees a list of over 30 groups to do outreach to, as well as a draft outreach of what we'll say in a speaking capacity that I can send out as well. Okay. Great. Thank you. I know that several of us were actually part of a meeting that Jim invited us to last week with members of more justice because you know they've been working with the county on the housing trust fund aspect of it. And I know that that that plan is moving forward. One of the things that we talked about and Jim I've mentioned this to you a lot sounds like if we are going to get to at some point there is a trust fund and if there is a movement for a referendum for voters to vote on it. This education piece that we've been talking about is critical. And so after we get the information from Brenna there may be some use of Brenna and Jennifer's committee understanding the timeline that more justice is looking at. And then we talk about a work group working group or something, but at least you know so that we're kind of working together and not kind of counterproductive of kind of moving in that same direction of educating the public because if the public is going to get educated if they're going to vote for a referendum they need to be educated first. And so we need to make sure those things are aligning. I'll reach out to her and we've certainly heard that we've heard that in our in our research that there's still a lack of education out there on the need for affordable housing. And that cuts across council people that are unaware of it and the community that's not aware of it. So I'll reach out to Brenna and invite her to join the coalition. So we're blockstep moving forward. Sue, I don't know if you have anything. I know Lila in a text that she couldn't be here. I do want to talk with you Sue before my presentation next week because I think since we are not, since Judge Coball left there isn't anybody on the county as far as that I've had any conversations with about eviction court. But that's still certainly something I want to work with you on and see if maybe we can make either maybe a willingness to make or either a recommendation or kind of bypass the city altogether and you and I work together and talk to the county about eviction court. That would be great. I did want to let everybody see you froze. Did I freeze? Oh yeah, you're back man. There was an application that had been put into HUD for a legal for legal representation by groups from around the state and unfortunately South Carolina was not picked. So I was kind of waiting to see what was going to happen with that application. It was done through 180 place. Unfortunately, the way it was written it didn't focus as much on legal representation as it did on marketing and social service and intake. So I think we're going to be starting from scratch again and I'd love to talk with you about how we because I do think it has to be done on a county level because it's through the magistrates. I'm absolutely getting back to looking for it again and I think that we would be in a good place to do it if we can get the right kind of staffing to help with making that work. Great. And then as far as Rich is not here and Julian is not here and I don't believe that Julian and them have met about accessibility. Anita, did you, did she give you anything? No, she said y'all had a thing of board. She had a board meeting or something today. We've got auditors here for some federal funding so she's tied up today tomorrow. So I didn't check with her on anything today. Sorry. No, that's fine. For all of you who may not be aware, Julian was presented with the Order of Palmetto last week and so when you guys see her, make sure you give her her congratulations. She very, very well deserved. She does so much great work in our community and we're happy to have her as part of this task force but make sure you give her her congratulations on that. Any other things from the committee before I go into my last thing? I just saw too where Sue received an award too from housing. Yes, I saw that on Twitter. Thank you. That was a really nice nice award. I'm not sure why I got it because there's so many people who do so much but thank you very much. I appreciate that. You are so modest, well-deserved as well. As much as you talk and are out there helping, we appreciate it. So with that is the last thing is so this is my last meeting as your chair. I will be no longer a Council person as of December 31st and so I am I've asked Councilman DuBall if he would consider chairing this task force and he is excited about doing that but he also we have not I don't know what's going to happen like I said we've got a majority in the Council and so I'm not exactly sure how things will go. This is the ad hoc committee so it's not one that is by ordinance and so by ordinance the mayor would appoint the chairperson since it's the ad hoc committee that I formed. I made myself chair and so we're gonna have to work through that over the next week. I'm not spoken to the mayor-elect about his intention on keeping this task force or even you know how it will work and so I hate that I don't have more information for you today. I am very hopeful that this task force will stay remain in fact as a city task force but I also know that there's a lot of work that a lot of us are already doing together so I know at some form this task force will remain together whether or not it remains a city task force or perhaps into something else I'm not sure but that's why I wanted us to definitely have this meeting today and to come up with at least some recommendations to the city which I'll make next week and hopefully they'll take those up and then I'll get some clarity but at any rate I think that moving forward starting into January there's going to be lots of conversations that we're having and I know more justice is having some conversations the county is having some on the trust fund and so what I would ask is that you guys could bear with us because I really feel like this is an amazing group of great talent and so I would like it to stay in place and I have no and I say that I have no reason to believe it won't stay in place but I just have not had those conversations so I just want to be honest that I'm not exactly sure what happens from here but you guys have been amazing giving great information there's still a lot of work that we need to do I will tell you guys I'm not going anywhere this is an issue that I'm so passionate about so y'all know I'm going to keep working which means I'm going to keep working with all of y'all to make sure that we're not just addressing our housing needs but this equity issue in a way that is really important not only to our city but to our entire region so I'll be reaching out on what that looks like um and that may you know maybe this task force it may be another uh a group but I will be reaching out hopefully um in the beginning of the year to talk about like how do we continue some some work together but with that said does anybody else have any announcements I will just say um happy holidays to everybody it's week from Christmas and I still have not gotten everything ready so I think most of us are probably in that boat but happy holidays to everybody and if anybody has any announcements or any projects that y'all are working on that y'all need to make sure that the task force is aware of please do so at this time okay I'm looking at Dylan's question and Sue um I don't again I have no reason to believe it's not I've just not had those conversations and um you know the mayor lex said during his campaign that affordable housing was important to him um this is his opportunity to show it so I'll just I'll just leave it there um I there like I said there's still so much work this is um staff has done a lot of work so I have no reason to believe it won't and Howard is willing to take the lead I just don't know officially so hopefully I'll be able to tell y'all after next Tuesday's meeting okay well with that said happy holidays to everybody happy new year and uh we will see what 2022 has in store for all of us but I know one thing is affordable housing will continue continue to be top of mind for all of us and we will continue to work to try and make a dent and make the lives of the people who live here better okay all right see you guys