 to enjoy the break in December idea that I've decided to really study the Columbia Compass and how it correlates with the committee so I was kind of those those are the kind of things that excite me you know the stage of my life but the first thing I wanted to do was call the meeting to order I think that Erica is going to take the role via the participant box is that okay and you should have gotten the minutes from the October 11 2022 meeting is there a motion to approve the minutes as written yes I move that the minutes be approved as written we have a motion by miss Bean and is there a second second by mr. Gunnals and so we're going to approve those by acclimation is that okay with you miss Erica yes ma'am thank you all right cuz we want to get to the punster so today I wanted to have city staff to really talk about all the things that the city of Columbia is actually doing because as some of our discussions were going on I was like well we do some of this so we don't do that the first part of our meeting will be with Miss Missy Gentry leading I think she's gonna have some other people but I do think that as we have this discussion on housing and affordable housing it is good to know exactly what we are already doing or if there are things that we tried that didn't work and we can't do and so missy is going to lead that presentation for us missy used to be my boss y'all miss Herbert you didn't need to say that good morning and I'm really just going to be the intro to the presentation because as you'll see with the presentation we're getting ready to do we have a lot of folks city staff members very actively engaged in this topic and working within our communities to make a difference from an affordable housing standpoint so we're going to start the presentation I think Charmaine Clark is going to pull it up and she'll guide us through it as different staff members are speaking as to their responsibilities so let's let her pull it up so our topic is everything housing and we just wanted to walk through if you'll move to the next slide Charmaine and I'll do a brief introduction we've separated it into corporations and city departments because I think it is very important to recognize there is a distinction we do have I'm going to call it two development corporations without getting into the weeds and why it's only two now the first would be our commercial arm of the development corporation and the second listed the TNDC slash CHDC that's our residential arm so they're going to speak first they are not city proper so it's important to remember they do things a little bit differently they work alongside the city and very closely with the city but they also have their own distinct boards that take actions and manage their assets and so the staff members that you'll hear speak are city staff members but they do work for a board that's independent of city proper so I wanted to point that out and then our actual city departments that will speak will be planning and development services office of business opportunities economic development code enforcement and community development and with that councilwoman Herbert I'm going to let Felicia Maloney who's our director of CEC start the presentation and we'll just walk through the slides and take questions at the end if that's okay that's perfect thank you so much all right good morning councilwoman Herbert and everyone else on the line so I am going to be very brief we only have one residential property and most people are aware of that if you've been on North Main and that's the veranda at at North Main so this is what I will call a young independent senior living you have to be 55 or older to live at the veranda this represents the veranda represents a total of a ten million dollar investment in the North Main corridor and truly believe that since that investment has been made we're starting to see more development along the corridor it's close proximity to good services transportation of course it's across the street from Hyatt Park pretty much there on site or in the building next door we have physical therapy we have a dental office a podiatry office and a pharmacy family pharmacy that's been there in the community for 40 years so I encourage everyone to utilize the services of the small businesses there on North Main I've heard often that didn't recognize or realize that the physical therapy company was there but they've been there for 15 years and it is a small husband and wife team the veranda was a 9% low-income housing tax credit project I was very proud or the abort was proud that at the time we just we scored the highest score in the state I think we have 135 it was the final score but it's 52 units and 52 affordable units and six of the units are market rate units and they're broken down as indicated here on the slide there are 12 affordable at 50% AMI 40 affordable at 60% AMI and then there's six market rate units the units on the end are the market rate units the typical income for people living at the veranda is between 11,000 and 26 9 and on there I also included the website to the veranda at North Main so because of the 9% tax credits this is highly scrutinized with compliance and there there are just a lot of compliance issues to get into the veranda and maybe not issues but challenges so they take people in any order in which they express an interest if they qualify we we have another project property that's on Sunset so I'm just listening to one vacant property that CZ owns and it is on Sunset Drive here near the hospital that we have not developed yet so that is all that I have and I'll be happy to take any questions question do they remain 100% occupied there are 98% occupied that's just generally is where we are right now where market rate units are are the ones that are not always occupied the affordable units thank you and Felicia this is Tina what is them what's the market rate so right now 50% the market rate units are right around 975 and those are two bedrooms and that is a picture of the countertop in one which I wish I had at my house but anyway that island is literally nine and a half feet long and we installed all energy efficient appliances in the units they're all energy star we install the refrigerators the washers the dryers the stove the stove have suppression system on them fires is pressure systems on them so we installed all of those ourselves and there's a and I guess I could say there's also a large community room that residents can rent out or whatnot rent out but reserve to have family gatherings there's a gym there's also a computer room and there's a game room with a pool table and game tables so there are some activities on site as well we squeezed a lot until our 1.35 acres or as much as we could and Felicia I know we did some tours as y'all were opening it with it being at capacity I don't know if y'all do tours but it's a great facility if anybody hasn't been in it it's really nice and a good addition to Northman yeah sure man will you advance the slide and we'll move on to the other corporation hello my name is Harrison Joseph can everybody hear me I'm the director of teen development and also Columbia Housing Development Corporation I'm going to talk to you about teen developments properties that it has it has seven properties the first of which is Auburn Hill which is a town home it was developed with conventional loans as well as HUD's CDBG and home funds there are currently no vacancies it's a two three and four bedroom facility and they are 30 town homes the market rate for for this property is a thousand two hundred and and sixty eight dollars per month there's nobody paying that rate nobody in there is over income so they pay the listed price for the two three and four bedrooms burns we have a three vacancies it is it has 16 apartment units it is a two and three bedroom unit it is five hundred and forty one for the two and five sixty three four three bedroom and as you can see it is below market rate so all of these the because they were developed with various grants and low interest loans all of the rents that the tennis play will be typically below the market our third one is Oak Hill is an SRO which is a single room occupancy it is a totally subsidized by HUD's program so how that one works if one is homeless and they qualify the we send them to the housing authority the housing authority approves them if the unit is approved then they gain occupancy the homeless person becomes housed right now we have 10 vacancies we are currently working on those vacancies and partnering with the city's homeless shelter as well as the housing authority to get those filled forest Oaks is our second SRO facility it has no vacancies and the rents range from 417 to 471 Waters Crest is our newest development it has eight townhomes again it has no vacancies the market rate for that one is 115 I think there's one person that is actually over income and is actually paying the market rate all others are paying the lesser amount of 267 and 766 Forest Oaks is our elderly development again it is there is no vacancies it is one and two bedroom units mostly one bedroom units it has 69 units and it again is a 202 and it is totally funded through HUD so and the way that works is they look at a person's income they look at 30% of their adjusted income and they pay what they can afford given that formula and then HUD pays the remaining amount correction that's ends of forest there I said ends of oh sorry that's in for what did I say forest Oaks I'm sorry so ends are forced so yes are there any questions about the apartment that we have available so we are currently in possession of a vacant lot 2314 Pinehurst the future development is elderly and there will be approximately 50 units on that site the only other vacant site that we have is on Belmont okay the residential lots so the residential lots and I'm just I'm not going to read this word from word I'm just going to go over it the residential lots are typically owned by Columbia Housing Development Corporation we have roughly 40 of these lots we are partnering with the city and for profit to develop a majority of these lots uh we the city has a two half peas out which encompass probably I want to say about ten lots that they're that they're looking at one is in the Bellfield area and the other one I cannot recall exactly where the other one is um and I'll chime in here I said it's vocal Washington Heights and the King lion straight areas King Street area so so they're looking at to doing that um they have come in uh the the for-profit developer has come in with with pricing uh the city the city along with us are looking at those pricing to see if they actually will work with the the neighborhoods we think that they will and that seems to be a very promising way to develop the rest of the properties now how these properties became vacant was they the city was given a grant for a neighborhood improvement grant a NIP grant and they and also some CDBG money and they demolished blighted um blighted properties uh or I should say the non-profits demolished these blighted properties and have taken care of them with the hopes of developing them at a later date it has come time to develop them and we are looking forward to to to developing at this time are there any questions about the vacant lots and Sherman if you'll go to the next slide I think it's just got a big list of um a lot of the lots so think we can proceed on I had a quick question you you're in possession of 40 does the city have more lots that are available other than the 40 so and Harrison I'll take that so the combination of the corporations in the city um yeah we have some but most of the vacant lots are owned by the corporation so there's there's probably a handful that the city owns that the king lion street property that's part of the rfp that those are actually city owned but again most of the vacant lots that we feel feel like are within our area of influence with corporations or corporation so I went over the first two items of this one so I will go down to the the third one and we are currently um the city uh the corporations and the for-profit are currently working together uh to and pulling the resources uh enabled to uh again develop these properties and we're going to probably use this model over and over again until all of the targeted areas become developed uh we will also use the city's uh loan program and I think that would be best explained with the community development but they have they have three loan models that they use uh for potential buyers of affordable single family homes so that was my question actually but these going to be rentals for purchase so they will be for purchase and the majority of them will probably use the city's loan programs and the intent adjacent to many of the parcels that are included in the rfp and all by the corporations there's a lot of churches that have some vacant land in close proximity our our hope is once we start this model that some other property owners with vacant lights in these um distressed communities will follow suit and make their properties available as well so we will continue to encourage that and um work towards that goal and missy I'll say that I'm I'm already like working to connect some private developers with churches because they buy the property but they really have no idea how big of a task that is to actually develop it so we will be having a bigger meeting too with some of the preachers to try and help give them as much support as we can right okay if I may also add councilwoman harvard um we too would like to be a part of that conversation as you all are where we do have families that we work with to um help them become self-sufficient and many of them are in fact interested in home ownership and so there may be an opportunity to partner there so that we can create some additional homeowners through our section eight home ownership program okay and I think that we are or at least that's a part of the plan um is to work together to use some of the people on your list right it is so one of the things we're hearing from the um developers associated with RFPs is we really need to get some folks pre-qualified so when the homes um constructed and we can get a ceo there's a buyer to move into it so we are we're working with Columbia housing and and I'm not the one doing that this thing so I can't tell you who we're working with directly but I can find that out but we're working with Columbia house in Richland one as well as city of Columbia employees so you'll hear that um we're planning on bringing some financial counseling services and really working to get a good list of pre-qualified buyers so that we can move these homes fairly quickly and start new homes as soon as they're occupied so I think it's a great model um and look forward to seeing it happen it's awesome so sure man we can move to the next slide please morning Christine Hampton here with planning and development services um some of you all may remember this slide we've updated it which is the current um planned or permitted projects for 22 23 um we can provide this for you but the the message here is we have a lot of units coming online here within the next year so um around 2300 um a little under 2000 uh the one at columbia's unit on the bottom is actually market rate but it's a lot of of units coming online and so we thought we wanted to include that next slide we also wanted to let you know um about the new unified development it's not quite so new but it's still newer development ordinance that was passed by city council and some of its impacts on affordable housing um one of the largest is the ability to have multifamily in greater locations primarily along our corridors which we think will hit a number of goals one is to provide more heads along some of our corridors that are somewhat distressed um taking some of that excess commercial inventory off the books but then putting people in those locations so that we provide greater demand for the services and retail in those areas accessory dwelling units are now permitted in our single family districts um with conditions and finally um city council has removed or reduced parking requirements in in a large number of our mixed use areas so again decreasing the requirements for those especially for affordable housing and around the country they've shown that that does actually lead to increased affordability i'll turn it over oh wait christa can you go um accessory dwelling units some other people on the zoom may not know specifically what that means can you explain that to them most certainly yes pardon jargon um a term of art people like to use grady flats um or garage apartments um those types of units they can be within a certain size um for these in our single family districts uh the front property the main property does need to be um owner occupied but you can then have a frog you know an extra unit above your garage it can be that you rent it to provide additional um funding for your mortgage so it makes the unit more affordable for you but then because these units are often smaller those in themselves are affordable also it can provide housing for caretakers um if you need to take care of an aging parent or um sometimes a child with special needs so there's all sorts of terrific ways these can be used thank you for that clarification or extra good morning i'm aisha driggers with the office of business opportunities and one of the important considerations when it comes to housing is access access to goods and services so that's where our office comes in we can offer um through our commercial revolving loan fund funding to small businesses that are located in the city of colombia so not only providing access to those residents but also it's a way to foster economic development in the community and increased job opportunity and i've listed a couple of um funding projects that we provided over just the past year um healthcare facilities restaurants retail shops we've done barber shop salons all those things that are important to residents when um deciding where they want to live um this funding is provided to startups our existing businesses whether they want to expand or get started in the community it also helps us address areas of light um we've been able to fund some projects that were vacant buildings and now there's a business in there um a barber shop for example is now in a previously vacant building so we're proud of those projects that we have we also wanted to make mention of a special project as a result of recommendations from our colombia food policy committee we identified some challenges related to food access so currently we have a food insecurity solutions initiative request for proposal that's out right now um that closes on february 28th but the idea is we want to work with a local organization or a small business who has a mission to provide healthy affordable foods directly in neighborhoods so i think that's just another creative way that the city is trying to address some of um the lack of access to healthy food options in some of our community and i'm happy to answer any questions that anyone may have about our um crl program or are we a small business hey good afternoon everyone um my name is ryan colman the director of economic development for the city of colombia so um just to kind of highlight and touch upon some of the uh economic development incentive programs that um we have used to increase some of the housing availability here in the city of colombia um the city in partnership with richwin county um for the past few years has had a commercial development program um which has been used to help incentivize the development of larger commercial projects and these are typically mixed use and multifamily style projects um the caveat being that um you know the the projects have to be certain investment thresholds which has been uh 30 million dollars of investment and up um i think one of the things two of the things that we have kind of come to understand over the past few years is that a um you know we we have a lot of opportunities to increase density um in in the colombia area um closer to downtown to encourage more vertical growth and to help bring the residential um population closer to the city center we're actually probably had a deficit of the amount of apartments that we offer when we compare and appear cities such as greenville and trawleston the other is is that um we have you know property tax challenges here in colombia that um have have kind of created a bit of an impediment to some of this development that we think you know would would occur naturally in in a balanced situation you know and so some recent analysis um that has been done you know kind of indicates that we're we're we taxed probably about 35 percent higher on property taxes than our peer cities of greenville and trawleston do and so this program was really meant to kind of a encourage um that density and development but b to kind of offset you know some of those issues with the property taxes um and i think it's been pretty good that started out as a student housing program back in 2014 to 2016 uh we had about five student housing projects uh that came out of that and then this most recent project uh or that the program has run from about 2019 and it just sunset on december 31st of 2022 uh one of the the other projects that came through was the wafsett-lincoln project which is now known as the the Sawyer on Lincoln um and it is a total project consisting of about 278 units but the developer did a lot of additional leg work to bring some some community amenities to the table so a lot of safety improvements um around some of the rail crossings where they're at over off of katalba street and then also they included some a number of uh income restricted and affordable units uh thank 14 units in total five of which for tenants making 50 percent or less of the AMI and then nine units reserved for tenants making 80 percent or less of the AMI um again this program did technically sunset about a month ago uh we're having some discussions right now with the county um as to what a possible continuation of this program um would look like so there may be some adjustments um to the the property tax advantage previously it was 50 percent we may bring that more in line with where our peer cities are at and then there's been some discussions as well about the 30 million threshold um as to whether that's too high and whether we want to modify that and and hopefully maybe make the program a little more inclusive to some other developers investors and developers as well and I'm happy to answer any questions about that um Ryan just a quick question this is Tina special source revenue credit that is for any project over 30 million not specifically for housing yes ma'am so what we've done is we've taken a traditional type of economic development incentive you typically would see these applied to manufacturing projects um as commercial housing is taxed at a six percent rate just as other commercial style projects are we've been able to utilize this this normal incentive and apply it to multifamily and mixed-use housing as well so basically anything that's got a commercial uh use um has some degree of application to it single family residential is the very obvious exception to that thank you yes ma'am good morning uh david hatcher with the code enforcement division i'm in charge of code enforcement here at the city of columbia which is in the police department um code enforcement we have an important role um to ensure that you know all housing in the city of columbia is safe um we serve a lot of times as advocates for especially low-income housing to make sure that their their units meet minimum requirements and landlords are doing what they're supposed to be doing um and you know with a goal to improve the overall quality of life of everyone um currently we have 21 inspectors not filled but we have 21 positions available uh of those we have inspectors that do commercial properties um we have some that are enforced the rental ordinance some that are enforced the vacant build ordinance but we have about 12 that are assigned strictly to deal with residential single and two family um lots in the city of columbia and are kind of spread out over the different police regions um the primary codes that impact housing the international private maintenance code which is generally just it's a general code that essentially identifies everything minimally that that property must have our residents must have to be livable or occupiable um we also enforce these rental ordinance um it requires all the rental properties in the city of columbia to be registered it also assesses um assigns points and assesses points for um rentals that are not maintained up to code or um if there's tenants that are not um behaving correctly they can get points assessed as well um some of the major complaints that we deal with um overgrowth grass can't be over 12 inches tall uh litter and debris all yards must be maintained safe and in sanitary condition uh abandoned daily vehicles any any vehicle stored in the city of columbia must be registered um and are operable uh front yard parking a lot of people like to park in the grass very in front of their house they can't do that they have to have an improved surface um and then again the structural violations which could be anything on the exterior um of the of the building uh from you know killing paint broken windows uh roof leaks uh heating to everything inside the building too to uh include make sure they have heat and running water and um electricity uh code enforcement we also do a lot of demolitions of substandard structures throughout the city since um in the last 10 years we've demolished over 200 homes um we have about 50 that we're currently working on um in various stages of the demolition process when we demolish these houses we do not own them they generally still belong to the property owners um we can um place liens for the cost of demolition on these properties but we do not own them uh for the most part these lots remain vacant um and you know the owners were unresponsive prior to demolition they continue to be unresponsive after demolition so we often are stuck maintaining these properties um due to the owners um not doing so we can also plainly place liens for any of the work that we do and we often do that um and we also enforce the vacant bill ordinance that requires all the vacant bills in the city for me to be registered um that's kind of a snapshot of code enforcement I can answer any questions if there's anything specific that anybody wants to know about well um I just wanted to make a comment um that this is an area you know as we try to encourage affordable housing we also have to really um make sure that the landlords are taking care of the property or ensuring that the tenants are taking care of their properties because that to me and from what I hear from constituents is that is what contributes to that negative connotation um a lot of times to low income housing so it makes code enforcement really really important but um that's just as a last resort you know we I like that we're talking about doing the education piece but the advocacy committee so that it's it's not always falling on code enforcement to have to um eliminate blighted neighborhoods this is to comment my two cents thank you well good morning I'm Dolly Herron and I'm the community development administrator and um talking about housing from the administrative and compliance um focus really in community development we are looking at how we can focus the entitlement funding that we receive and then utilize tools that are available to help focus a strategy for housing as a whole and particularly affordable housing so um from compliance um we do have a uh we have designated redevelopment areas that have been established um there are seven currently so re-evaluating perhaps or uh just looking at those areas um from a uh LMI perspective and making sure that funding is being utilized for the greatest impact in in these development areas so the seven um are listed there also every five years community development does a uh consolidated plan and our next plan um for the 25 through 29 uh fiscal years that process normally begins um in January of 24 however as we know because we're talking about affordable housing and housing now that the process really is starting now as we look um and develop a strategy um through this committee as well as all the components um that the city has to look at how we can focus our funding and that really is a is a a priority for HUD and how we can do a comprehensive affordable housing strategy to make sure again that those funds are targeted and used for the greatest impact another area would be exploring the tools that HUD has provided which is the city's neighborhood revitalization and strategy area the last designated in our essay was done when the empowerment zone um was established and it is uh the footprint of the empowerment zone the original uh empowerment zone that was done back in 2000 I believe so we have not assessed or reassessed um our area in a long time and so that is a tool that can be used to help us focus um the funding and utilize uh the the information that HUD has has provided and of course the the NRSA really is the groundwork for community growth and I and I think you know that's what we we want here in Colombia and to to make the neighborhoods attractive for investment and ensure the benefits of economic activity remain in the neighborhoods for long-term development so there's there's various reasons why this neighborhood strategy can work and also with HUD funding um you receive waivers that will help you reach your goals and so that is is a impact that these tools can have on our focus on housing comprehensively so the other areas um I know we have other community development staff online but this is just a a look at um the housing portion as well for community development and I think Dolores is online um and we'll go over that for you hello everyone I'm Dolores Shabazz I'm the program manager of housing for community development and um the mission for housing is to provide safe and decent affordable housing um in the city of Colombia um one of the tools that we have that we spoke about you heard about um previously was our loan program we have three loans that we use the city lender one the city lender two and the affordable loan program um now the city lender one and the affordable loan program um is focused on providing loans for people that are low to moderate income 80 percent or below and our city lender two is for 81 percent up to 120 lmi um so what we use those for is to make sure that we can provide um a balance so that people who are lmi can afford loans to purchase homes in the city of Colombia and that is one of our main missions and tools um in the housing department um we also do affordable loan um development projects uh we do we use home funds and we release NOFA's um notice of funding and that provides opportunities to work with um nonprofit organizations to create affordable um development projects um in the city of Colombia um we recently released a NOFA um so we're working on that and we plan to hopefully release another one um in the coming um future to get another development we want to focus on rental development as well as um home ownership because there's a inventory shortage on affordable rental units in the city of Colombia um we also work with our development corporations to create affordable housing projects and we've heard from the development corporations um previously on the different projects that they've created and they partner with community development um so in efforts to continue to focus on affordable housing um these are certain strategies that we have um we also have another program called SHINE it's actually a new program that we've developed and we are currently implementing and that stands for single-family housing improvement for neighborhood enhancement and that is to help with rehabilitation of homes in our targeted areas for low to moderate income um applicants uh now the SHINE is a tier program um which we focus on different levels of um repair amounts uh we previously had a MAP program which was called maintenance assistance and there was a cap of $20,000 um what we found was when we went into homes to do the inspections in the write-ups that a lot of the repairs exceeded the $20,000 limit so we've created a new program to help us help more people and you know provide more assistance and rehabilitation which goes hand to hand with the affordable housing projects that we talk about when you talk about home ownership and the the projects of creating new homes that are affordable we also want to make sure that the neighborhoods around in the area those homes are also meet the the criteria um and we're able to assist them with the rehabilitation to enhance the neighborhoods as well we'll go to the next slide Charmaine and I think we talked earlier about the um the RFP that was out that's out working with the development corporations um and then SHINE this is a list of all the different tiers that we have in the program to help with the revitalization of homes in our targeted areas so we had a wait list for MAP that we've been since 2021 so what we've done is we've taken the names off of the MAP list and we've opened up applications to those people on that list and we asked them to have them back by a certain time so that we can implement those names for MAP into our SHINE program and put them in the correct tier of repairs that they need um now Dolly you want to talk about the the CDB CDBGDR or well before you before you go ahead I just want to make sure it's not lost um on the task force members that we get home dollars in and we get CDBG dollars in um and historically because historically we use those funds to help the development corps and the projects that they do through housing we ourselves the city we don't develop but um so for instance the things that we solve from TNCHDC a lot of those the annual allowments the annual entitlement dollars that we get not all but a lot of it goes to help the development corps that's want to make sure that was in there yes and I'm gonna get a time check from Missy because you know we have a start on time end on time and it's 1150 about how many more minutes do y'all have hello well it's only one more slide which is mine and then I want to I want to take okay um mine is okay neighborhood and financial empowerment I'm Sherman and Clark the community lives on for community development and just to overview because I know we are pressing for time my um division is just to engage the communities um when we are our funding are talking about affordable housing program we like to get the community involved coordinate with them to make sure that we hear um what ideas that they have or they may not have or what we can present to them as a department as a city um pretty much to um partner with local agencies like we do now operation hope um for those new homebodies to possibly facilitate homebuying courses and credit counseling workshops and currently we do have I love your block grant which took over for action grant where we give um grants for neighborhoods to get the opportunities to beautify their neighborhoods whether it's through different projects from aesthetics neighborhood signs and things of that nature so just to piggyback with what Dolly said on the con plan um the laws with affordable housing um my part is to keep the um neighborhood leaders involved to coordinate with them to hear them out as well as well as to display and advise them on the plans that we have for affordable housing and our consolidated plan all right and the last thing I didn't see that you all do is and maybe I missed it but y'all do homebuyer workshops we do we have that um but go ahead yes we do have the all access um quarterly workshops that we do that center around um credit counseling homebuying afforded by housing things of that nature and in April for um community development week or the month of April financial literacy month we are going to be doing a workshop on Thursday April the 20th um from 68 um at the Busby Street Community Center um at that time approaches we will be um marketing that um event as well so once we display the information get it out we will love for you to display that information distribute that information to whomever you will like to give that information to we will have a lot of information so we always encourage people to come out and get the information and this is Dolores I'm sorry there was a um on the slide there was a piece about the um we will be trying to um send out an RFP to work with a HUD certified counseling agency to do quarterly workshops um for the citizens um because they changed the rule you have to be a HUD certified agencies to do the workshops and do the counseling um so in the coming um fiscal year we plan to work with an agency to have more of those workshops sounds good thank y'all so much um I've I kind of felt like a lot of the folks didn't know exactly what all we did well what all we do um but there are a lot of things that we are doing in affordable housing um and so I hope that the information was helpful and I want to thank everyone um for participating y'all did a great job um Missy do you have any closing comments before we do I'ma try for our committee chairs maybe five minute um update from your committee reports and I don't starboard and for a second time but if there's any questions you know folks later can submit them to us and we'll try to address them um all right thank y'all so much um so we are now going to go to the committee reports and if y'all have questions you know you can send them to me or Erica too um next is um at this advocacy can we close down the um PowerPoint advocacy committee report by Dylan gubbles is Dylan still here I'm here um I do not have much to report though so I'll fall into your five minute lane just fine um hold on hold on one second oh sorry can we close out the PowerPoint thank you so I can see faces again thank you go ahead Dylan I'm sorry I will try to stand still here um I don't have too much to report so I'll fall into your five minute lane um I think there was some confusion last meeting um and then calendar invites got sent separately and so I think some of us ended up in like the joint committee and then some of us ended up in the advocacy committee so um by the time we got there time was already there and we were in the the time that we were supposed to meet so the few of us kind of just gathered and talked about what we were working on um but we've really got to re-collaborate as a committee uh and and hear from everybody that was supposed to be in the room but I will say that I do know um that folks were still working on their educational pieces and then Jeff Armstrong and I met um to start working on the pieces of the um I don't know what we're calling it we're trying to we're actually researching now to see if technology already exists um but trying to coordinate our efforts and and cross uh reference and and give the resources across multiple organizations related to housing so Jeff and I are working on that and I know Sue and and and Miss Bean we're working on things on their end too so uh we just had some miscommunication on the meeting so we'll recalibrate um but we are working on things I just need to get you an update on where we are okay that's a great report Dylan I do want to add to that um I've been working with city staff on the campaign um to change the the face of affordable housing um and so I will circle back with Miss Bean and Miss Berkowitz um on what we've come up with and kind of get some input on that because we plan to launch that in April along with Fair Housing Law um I think that's it for that um all right and then Miss um I'm sorry Doctor Lila Ann sorry it's fine nobody remembers that part um thank you um and Ward are you still out there or have you already I am still here I'm still here I'm going to hand it off to you um uh since we technically are co-chairs and you you actually were present for um the last meeting and I was not I'm looking at the minutes though so I'm going to toss it to you real quick great good afternoon or good morning everyone um yeah really you know the the high I'm pardon me I'm I'm driving but just recapping the cliff notes from last meeting you know really we convened and determined that you know we needed to really see the menu of tools that were available to affordable housing developers um so that we can actually fulfill the city's goal of the um well of actually needing to meet the uh 7000 some odd affordable housing units within the city uh so that was a good start the other um the other area that we explored was the um strategizing a potential fund for affordable housing working on just the timeline and strategy of how that would be pulled together um and there's a third thing if there's a I do know I'm missing something if anybody was on that call or has the agenda in front of them if they could um notice me that would be very the the three that I have is the raise the capital identify underutilized land which I think uh Gregory was going to actually look at a map um and then gain access to the city resources which I think today was an incredible start thank you so much to the city staff for that presentation um as far as what is being offered um by way of resources with the city so um those were the the three and I do have the what we are calling the minutes that I will get out to our committee um that sound right mr. Mungo that sounds correct I appreciate it now I do have to run um if there's one thing since I well before you go I just wanted to say that I have been approached by at least one person in the legislature who is interested in an affordable um in a trust fund so I just just wanted we don't have one yet as such but there are people interested on a level higher than me so that always sounds good would be very interested to see how that would pan out so I appreciate the insight there and I look forward to continuing that discussion with the councilwoman sounds good um any questions regarding our last meeting before I run hearing none uh one question I have for you all uh is there any way that the distribution for this call could be uh could receive the deck uh from today's um from today's presentation yes miss more can we make sure to send the um power point out yes ma'am thank you thank you all I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day and you count councilwoman herbert if I may um ask for one last privilege um I would like to share with the group uh on the 23rd at uh 10 30 we will um be holding a press conference with the united way at the location of the the grand motel on tunich um to at 10 30 in the morning to announce a very special affordable housing um project that we um have been working on for over a year now so um if anyone uh can join us we will we will get the official invitation out to everyone between now and then it has not been designed yet but uh 10 30 on the 23rd and that will bring 40 units of housing um to to the city so um mark your calendars anybody anybody not familiar with the grand motel the grand motel it is worth it is worth you know looking into um it is and the design will be incorporated into the design but it will not stay where it is so so thank y'all for that report I think we have one of the um quick note from miss shayla riley um and so we shayla made a transition and we didn't have her um we didn't have the updated email address so we have missed look our me and me and erica we talked about it but we have you back um and you had an announcement as well yes so in case um everybody is not aware um I have partnered with berkshire hathaway home services miller's real estate to be the president of new construction and land development for them my initiative is called raising columbia fc you can visit our website at raising columbia fc.com it's mainly based in talent retention because there's a middle market that's missing and housing here meaning if you have a student that is graduated from law school and they're making their wonderful $80,000 entry-level job they can no longer afford columbia so affordability is changing here and affordability is also time I think we all realize the value of time during covid when um we could not spend time with our family members due to distance and that also caused a mass migration back to south carolina from I know two of my friends personally moved closer to be back with their family but they ended up having to live with their family because they could not afford housing here um so affordable housing has a different look it has a different face it now looks like a 25 year old to 35 year old professional who is technically by some definition homeless because they are having to force to live with family members because they can't find housing here so we have a vertical um development initiative that's there so that we can create condos and townhouses in the city center that also means around the surrounding areas and noma secco weco whatever district you want to name um so that we can maintain um our talent here we have not just one university people seem to forget we have five total schools here in columbia and that's a huge part of that demographic and population and support of small businesses um I jokingly say most of our small businesses are more successful than the chain restaurants here and chain retail um just because um our local constituent support us so much so it's important to stay local we are locally owned or minority owned and we are also women owned so we are looking forward to working with the city as well as the columbia academic development department to create that middle housing for our young professionals and talented professionals I don't want to say young anymore because I just turned 40 last week but talented professionals I just made the move downtown and it's the best decision I ever made um so I just want to continue that and I don't want to be the land of the rentals so we want to make sure that people have home ownership opportunities that doesn't just look like a single family home what was that website again Cheva excuse me raising columbia sc raising like raising and I was born or raised from here that's where the and then my partner Andrea Reynolds he also was born or raised from here so locally owned women owned minority run trying to make sure that we have fair and equitable housing and sustainable housing as well as affordable so that way we don't face those things where we have all these apartment complexes it's going to be hard to create stability in our market so we definitely want the opportunity for young people to build equity even if it's just 1100 square feet and two bedroom one bath to start they're still building equity and they can still build a family and build roots here in columbia and I think that will also change what will be the landscape for what we look like and I think we should be a part of the conversation I don't think we should have the conversation just always be started by outside developers and Greenville Charleston wherever they're from we should have those conversations here well miss Riley as the mother of a 28 year old young lawyer has been trying to find a house and we just found something because well she's not homeless she's living here in my house so she's um but I totally get it you know I really totally get it um and the struggles that she had trying to find something um at an appropriate price point because again you know my thing is when you go I want you to be able to stay you know so you're not gonna buy too much you know in strain but so young professionals that is absolutely an area that we need to focus on um so that we can keep our young talent here so I appreciate that any other announcements for the good of the group all right y'all we still we still caught it off it's 1207 um thank you all so much and I will get with um Evonda and Susan for sure and there may be some other people I need to get with too all righty thank y'all so much thank you city staff I really appreciate you all great presentation today great presentation thank you all so much thanks councilwoman Herbert for doing this oh thank you