City Council Meeting   5/1/2023

Okay, are we, uh, no, we're waiting for Brian, yeah He's usually Yeah, that's why we're waiting in a minute or two

taking advantage of the break in the action to try to get my computer booted up properly.

May 1, 2023 Charlottesville City Council meeting will please come to order.

Ms.

Councillor Payne?

Here.

Councillor Puryear?

Here.

Here.

Okay.

Is there a motion to approve or to amend the agenda?

I move to approve the agenda.

Is there a second?

Second.

All right.

First time in two years, three years.

Please cast your vote on approving the agenda.

All right.

It works.

Miracles of Modern Technology.

Okay, so this meeting will be divided into two sections.

Normally we have a closed session at 5.30 but we don't have any closed session business tonight.

So first is a work session to hear and discuss a presentation that will not involve a council vote.

Then we will recess and we will come back for the business meeting as regularly scheduled at 6.30.

the State of the Unhoused and Unhoused Services.

Mr. Mayor.

Members of Council, can you hear me?

Thank you for your time this afternoon.

We do have a presentation as well.

I don't know if that's able to be brought up.

There we go.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

Okay.

Amazing.

So you can progress to the next slide.

So today I'm going to talk to you about Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless for a bit.

MR. I'm sorry about that.

MR. Of course.

And I want to talk to you a little bit about our organization, what we do, provide an update about the current state of homelessness and some information about what's been working and also what's needed to move forward properly on homelessness in our community.

And then again, I'm really excited for you to hear from our direct service provider partners as well.

So we are what's called a continuum of care lead agency.

and what that means is that we are dedicated to providing coordination for a continuum of services that are addressing homelessness from street outreach to homelessness prevention to emergency shelters to housing programs that help people find and move into housing subsidized rent and also the supportive services that help people connect to basic needs and also to things like employment or mental health substance abuse services

to find housing stability.

So across the whole gamut of services our organization was set up to provide coordination for that system of care.

We are not a direct homeless service provider and we are dedicated to serving basically our clients are the direct homeless service providers themselves.

So we exist to try to make sure that the services that do exist in the community are coordinated effectively and efficiently as possible.

You can move on to the next slide.

So to do that, our vision at BRAC is that homelessness is rare, brief, and non-recurring.

And our mission is to collaborate with communities to serve individuals and families, to help them find housing stability, financial wealth or health, and improved quality of life.

And so to do that, we work in these different areas.

Again, like I said, homeless services coordination.

So what does that look like on the ground?

It focuses a lot on ensuring the connection points between homeless service providers like shelters or housing services or street outreach.

Those are being made properly.

People reaching out for homeless services who need help because they're falling into homelessness get connected properly to the care that they need.

And that looks like a coordinated entry system is the name that we call it.

So how do people actually reach out?

How are we taking care of that properly?

And how are we connecting people to the resources as best we can?

Policies that govern that?

Our responsibility of our organization, our board of directors, as well as just the processes.

What's the best way to have this set up?

That's our area, is the system approach, as well as things like coordinating case conferencing, so shared case conferencing, so focusing on clients who need help.

We bring in partners from across the community to focus on individuals

and help those individuals move forward housing plans.

No one organization can solve homelessness in a silo and so we must work together as a community and that's what our organization is dedicated to working towards.

There's no such thing ultimately as one organization's clients versus another's.

It's really our whole community

Community's clients essentially that we're all working towards helping move into housing.

Quality program development is another area that we focus on where we work with organizations to either create new programming to address homelessness or improve existing programs that address homelessness.

And we do that through a number of ways through meeting one-on-one with organizations, technical assistance, and sharing best practices or connecting their staff with training.

Another big way that we make programs possible is through grant management.

So I help apply for funding.

Largely we focus on federal funding and state funding.

And outside of pandemic-related relief funding, BRAC brings in around $1 million annually to homeless service providers in the community to address homelessness.

And during the pandemic, we also were able to bring in and manage about $2.5 million annually

that was just related to the COVID relief effort for homelessness.

So we focus on the grant writing, grants management, budgets, grant reporting, all those types of activities that keep federal funding and state funding coming to the community for homeless services.

And then finally, we focus on leadership on ending homelessness.

And what that looks like is we partner with providers

People who have experienced homelessness get feedback to provide a coherent vision for what it looks like to actually not only manage the crisis that people fall into of homelessness but have actual vision for a functional end of homelessness.

And that's what leads to things like focusing on collaborative efforts with affordable housing developers like the Premier Circle.

Project or other affordable housing developers to try to bring more subsidized housing opportunities to people experiencing homelessness.

So larger term or larger focus on bigger scale partnerships to really address homelessness at a greater scale is also what

Brock focuses on.

Currently I'm the executive director, the only staff member, and so recently HOP's funding from the city has allowed us to increase our administrative capacity.

Thank you very much for that support.

You can move on to the next slide.

Real quick about the point in time count.

You can move on to the next one.

Point in time count is a snapshot of homelessness.

and this is the numbers of people experiencing homelessness at a given point in time and you can see under 2023, I hope it's not too small, there's a total of 191 individuals that we identified in the community experiencing homelessness on one night, January 25th, 2023.

143 people were in shelter programs locally, 34 were living outside unsheltered in the downtown area and 14 were in transitional housing projects.

You can see a spike in 2022 and a decrease from 2022 to 2023 in the sheltered count.

That's that orange line.

And in the middle of 2022, we were in the height of the pandemic, as it were, and we had a number of people at the Premier Circle Emergency Shelter Project

that was at its height as well as additional people we were focusing on sheltering and hotel programs.

Since then we are working towards sunsetting the premier circle shelter program and we do no longer have as much funding for the hotel sheltering and so you can see a decrease in the sheltered individuals from 2022 to 2023 as a result of that.

And also because of that decrease in some of the shelter capacity, we did see a small but definite increase in the number of people living outside in the downtown area from 26 to 34 individuals.

So you can move on to the next slide.

Sure.

I was actually participating in the point-in-time count on the

the night, one of the nighttime sessions and I was struck by how few people we saw.

The weather was awful.

It was cold.

It was rainy.

I suspect that some people who might otherwise have been more visible had gone into sort of a deeper shelter of some sort.

Did you have a sense that the numbers that night were accurate?

It's a great question.

First of all, thank you, Mr. Mayor, for helping out with the pit count.

It means a lot.

I think it's accurate for the downtown area.

That's what we focused on for the unsheltered point-in-time count.

But it is difficult to get a true accurate

count of individuals that may be in cars scattered throughout the community.

That's more difficult for us to identify.

But I think for the downtown area, I feel confident in that number.

Yes.

Thank you.

This is the number of chronically homeless individuals in the community and that over time.

It's on a decrease since 2021.

And again, I attribute this primarily to our Premier Circle Emergency Shelter Program, which you'll hear a little bit more from Jason about.

But we are sheltering a number of chronically homeless individuals in that shelter and have focused a lot of housing assistance to help people move out of that program and into housing.

And you can see

what I believe is evidence of that decrease.

You can move on to the next slide.

That is a snapshot of homelessness at a point in time, but this is the number of people who have fallen into homelessness over a year, 459 total people over a year from April 2022 to 2023.

And again, at any point in time throughout the year, it's around 200.

So not too different from the night that we also documented in January.

You can move on to the next slide.

This is, I think, an interesting piece of data that I wanted to share with you as well.

Of all the people that experienced homelessness in this area, April 2022 to 2023, 77% of those, so large, vast majority, three quarters just about, had not experienced homelessness in our area in the two years previous to that.

So essentially it was their first time experiencing homelessness here locally.

So it may look visually like it's the same individuals, but that's a very small percentage relative of the whole population of people falling into homelessness over time.

You can move on to the next slide.

Okay, so what holds us back?

You can move on to the next slide.

You know, in a nutshell, it's the number of units that people can move into that are affordable.

And I know this isn't new information, but it is the truth and it is the largest variable holding us back from addressing homelessness properly.

206 days was the average length of stay in emergency shelters from April 2022 to 2023.

And you can move on to the next slide.

But it was only 48 in 2019.

So a significant difference.

largely attributed to the lack of housing options for people to move out of shelters and into housing.

Shelter programs work when there are options for people to move into housing.

Shelter programs don't work as well, meaning there's not turnover for new people to move into the shelters when housing options are so low like they are currently.

And you can see it has a significant impact on the length of stay that people are then staying in shelters and therefore staying homeless.

You can move on to the next slide.

The other variable holding us back, like I said, is the number of shelter beds as well.

So our community needs around 60 to 70 additional year-round emergency shelter beds to adequately meet the need.

And I'll say this as well, that shelter needs are directly related to the number of housing options that people have access to.

You need less shelter if you have more opportunities for people to move into housing, because when people move out of shelters, that creates an open bed for someone to move into that shelter program.

So are you saying that we need 60 to 70 more additional beds?

That does not equate to 60 to 70 more actual buildings, but 60 to 70 more beds in locations that we currently have?

Or are you saying we need another location that will house 70 to 100

People.

It can come in different ways, but essentially we need opportunities for 60 or 70 additional, or 60 or 70 people on a given night to find shelter in the community year-round.

You know, Pacham provides seasonal shelter.

I'm familiar.

But in the summer months, essentially, we lose, we need that capacity kind of year-round is what I'm saying.

And it can come in different places, obviously in different ways, but at the end of the day, that's

essentially the number that we feel like would meet the need for emergency shelter for people living outside.

So what would that look like?

It could look a number of ways, and I think I would, if it's okay, defer to

Maybe follow up with you afterwards for more details about how that could look, but it could look like renovating an existing building, increasing capacity at existing shelters, finding a new building.

I'm an example person, so if you say that means two homes that will house

35 people each.

That's an example.

I'm not saying that that's what's happening but what I need is an example.

Probably

Renovation of an existing building, purchasing or building new right now with construction costs.

In my opinion, if the city or another entity or foundation is going to invest that level of money into a new building, I think what's most needed are new permanent units if you're going to invest that level of money into the issue.

Because like I was saying,

The number of shelter beds you need is very much related to the number of opportunities you have for people to move out of shelter and into housing.

So I think renovation is probably the most realistic and cost effective option to increase shelter capacity.

The Haven is a day shelter, so people do not sleep there overnight.

This does not include that.

Or reflects the fact that the Haven is just a day shelter.

Correct.

Correct.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Next slide.

I'm so sorry.

Sorry, yes, yes, thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Marshall.

So it's about 143 at the height, like we had in the point in time count in the winter, and we lose about 40 or so in the summer, so about 100 in the summer.

in terms of shelter programs.

And I can follow up more in detail after.

I apologize, I don't want to take up too much time from my colleagues that also need to present.

Okay, will do.

Thank you.

You can move on.

Next slide.

So rental assistance and permanent supportive housing work.

even in a housing constrained market we have seen with the premier circle program that you'll hear a little bit more about

We've had pretty incredible progress in helping people move out of shelters and into housing because we had focused rental assistance programs like the CSRAP or the Charlottesville Supplemental Rental Assistance Program that's funded by City Council.

That has been instrumental in helping people move out of homelessness and into housing and other subsidy programs like that, like the Haven's Rapid Re-Housing Program and like Region 10's Permanent Supportive Housing Program and Virginia's Supportive Housing's Permanent Supportive Housing Program at the crossings.

are all working, but we do need more units to be able to help people move in.

Many people had vouchers, still do in the community, and wait long periods of time finding units even though they have rental assistance available.

and Virginia Supportive Housing is building a new permanent supportive housing development a year away and they need help because of rising construction costs with capital costs to help in that program as well as project-based vouchers so I just wanted to also make that clear that that is coming we're lucky lots of communities are scrambling to figure out how to create new housing we do have a program that's coming and it and it still does need help you can move on to the next slide

just a quick because of those rental assistance opportunities and our coordinated focus on target populations we've been able to decrease the number of homeless veterans from around 20 to 25 annually to six currently and we're almost ready to move to four homeless veterans which is a milestone for us actually in this community so just wanted to provide an update that it's possible it's not a mystery how to address homelessness but it takes you know

Community Focus.

And so thank you so much.

I'll move on to the next portion, which is the homeless information line.

You can move on to the next slide.

And I look forward to following up with you all afterwards, too.

Hello, everybody.

I'm Misty Graves, Director of the Department of Human Services.

One of the pieces of the coordinated entry system

that Anna will talk about in a little bit is how folks get into one of the doors when folks get into the coordinated entry system.

If they're experiencing homelessness or at risk of experiencing homelessness, where do they go as like a one place that they can call to get served?

So the Department of Human Services operates that hotline, the homeless information line.

You can go to the next slide.

We do that from 2 to 5 Monday through Friday with funding from

Brack.

It's basically a place where they can speak to a person that calls them back.

Talking about volume, which is important for you all to note that this up from this first three quarter section of time we've received 755 calls from 259 unique callers.

One of the additional things that we do is if they're not eligible for our homelessness funding or programs we can refer them to other

resources and organization in the community that can.

The next few slides I'm not going to spend much time on, it's just more demographics.

I will share that next fiscal year we will be able to expand the time in which the homeless information line is operational.

It will go from 9 to 5 Monday through Friday and it's going to switch from, we're going to hand it off from our organization to the Haven to operate that on a full-time capacity.

And like I said, the next few slides, if you want to move through those, where they're calling from.

We see majority of the callers are from the city of Charlottesville, other in Elmere County and some of the outlying localities.

Next slide.

Racial demographics about who's calling in are collected there.

And the next is

She did.

That's my first slide.

Misty, thank you so much.

Members of City Council, thank you so much for your time this evening.

My name is Anna Mendez.

I have had the privilege of supporting the team at The Haven since November.

Before I begin my remarks, I would like to acknowledge two of our board members that are in the room here supporting us.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for being here.

Before I jump in to explain the role that The Haven plays in addressing the needs of people experiencing homelessness here in Charlottesville today, I would like to provide you with a little bit of history and background about how we came to be the exceptional organization that we are today.

In late 2005 and early 2006, a group of diverse community members came together and voiced a desire to open a shelter downtown where people experiencing homelessness were regularly hanging out.

The following year in 2007, Hollywood producer and UVA alum Tom Shadiak was in town filming the movie Evan Almighty.

Mr. Shadiak ended up purchasing the property that is now The Haven at 112 West Market Street and donating its use to the community group.

Producer Shadiak and the community group's vision was to open a low barrier full service year-round overnight shelter in downtown Charlottesville.

Unfortunately, NIMBYism resulted in the city restricting use of our 20,000 square foot four story building to providing day shelter services only in our basement and only from the hours of 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

daily.

After two years of extensive renovations paid for by Mr. Shadiak, the Havens Day Shelter opened to the public in 2009 under the restrictions of our special use permit.

Next slide, please.

I feel like I have so much power.

I just speak and the slides change.

Since our day shelter opened in 2009, we have been opened 365 days a year every single year.

Last year in 2022, we provided support to over 440 unique community members experiencing homelessness in Charlottesville.

They visited us a total of over 19,000 times.

We provided over 17,000 warm and nutritious meals, over 3,000 showers, over 2,500 loads of clean laundry got washed and dried at The Haven last year.

Additionally, The Haven serves as the legal address of record for over 500 community members experiencing homelessness or housing instability.

As such, we sort and distribute over a thousand pounds of mail annually.

Just think for a minute how difficult it would be to be a member of a community if you did not have a reliable and stable place to receive your mail.

The Haven also stores the personal belongings of 80 people experiencing homelessness in the Charlottesville area every year.

We were able to accomplish all of this great work last year

in large part to over 5,600 volunteer hours provided by community members.

So Haven volunteers that are hearing my voice either in this room or in the Zoom world, thank you so much for your service to our community.

We have begun to do some projections for service numbers in 2023 based on first quarter data and we anticipate that 2023 will be our busiest year yet at The Haven.

We anticipate serving over 500 unique individuals who we believe will visit us over 20,000 times and that we will provide over 20,000 meals.

We are seeing demand increase for our services because homelessness is really a housing problem and Charlottesville is increasingly experiencing a housing problem.

Greg Colburn who is a professor and housing expert at the University of Washington has very conclusively established that wealth inequality and lack of housing availability are the root drivers of homelessness in the United States and unfortunately we see both of those things colliding here in Charlottesville making the perfect conditions for increased homelessness.

Next slide please.

As proud as we are for all of the services that we The Haven directly provide to people experiencing homelessness in our community, we also know that we are not the experts in everything and we cannot be the solution to all of the unmet needs of people experiencing homelessness.

We also know that not having stable housing is a barrier to accessing supportive services.

That is why we are really proud to open our doors and partner with community agencies who are best positioned to provide some of that support.

So every single week department at the city's Department of Social Services is at the Haven helping people with their food stamp applications.

Medicaid recertifications are an incredibly big deal right now that is happening at the Haven.

Thanks in large part to city support.

The Blue Ridge Health District is here at The Haven on a regular basis offering HIV testing, hepatitis C testing, distributing Narcan to individuals and flu shots.

The UVA Health System runs two clinics weekly out of The Haven, a primary care clinic for people experiencing homelessness as well as a psychiatric clinic for people experiencing homelessness.

UVA Health System also provides COVID testing and vaccinations at the Haven as well as foot care and blood pressure screenings.

We're also really grateful for the Home to Hope team and Region 10 who know that they can use our space as a base to connect with individuals as well.

Next slide, please.

The Haven is certainly most well known for our day shelter services and actually many people in Charlottesville think that that is all we do, that we only provide day shelter services.

In reality, 50% of what the Haven does is our housing department.

The reason that we are so committed and invest such a significant portion of our time, energy, and revenue into our housing department is because the mission of The Haven is to end homelessness in Charlottesville.

People who are sleeping outside, people who are sleeping in places not fit for human habitation, for example, structures that lack plumbing or electricity,

and people who are sleeping in shelters are all people who are still homeless.

People who are sheltered are still people who are experiencing homelessness.

Sheltering people is a crucial, crucial, crucial aspect of harm reduction but sheltering people alone does not reduce homelessness and that is why we have invested so heavily in our housing department.

Every single year, The Haven, through the work of our housing department, helps 200 local households exit or avoid the experience of homelessness.

We do this in fidelity with the Housing First Model, which is an evidence-based intervention proven to reduce homelessness in a financially responsible way.

The five principles of the Housing First Model are access to housing with no predefined readiness requirements,

choice and self-determination, a recovery orientation, individualized support, and meaningful community and social integration.

With the advocacy of the Havens Housing Department, I am really excited to report that three Charlottesville residents experiencing chronic homelessness signed leases for permanent housing

effective today, May 1st.

So that is really, really wonderful news.

Unfortunately,

Demand continues to far exceed the Haven's capacity.

I'm really grateful to be able to report that the Haven has received an additional $200,000 for our Rapid Rehousing project in 2023, but even with this increased funding, we are still falling incredibly short of being able to meet the full community need.

What is the status of the conversation on allowing the Haven to be a night shelter?

Yes, and interesting, this is a phenomenon that is not happening only here in Charlottesville.

There are many communities across the United States in which

Certain groups were very active at preventing overnight shelter from happening and those same groups are now some of the loudest supporters of increasing access to overnight shelter.

We're seeing this right now happening in Asheville, North Carolina is probably the closest example to us here in Charlottesville.

We are very committed to

housing people and people who are sheltered are people who are still homeless and a barrier to housing people infidelity with the housing first model is there must first be housing available.

So the Haven has had initial conversations where we've indicated a willingness to explore the idea of

Opening our doors to provide year-round overnight shelter as as we had originally say we I wasn't around but as was originally envisioned by the Haven back in 2005 and 2006 and

and are currently in the process of securing a consultant to provide a feasibility study around what location would, all kinds of questions around how would that most... It's complicated.

We no longer have a patron who's willing to write blank checks at a snap of a finger, unfortunately.

but we are in the process of looking to do a feasibility study to answer that question directly.

Were we to become a year-round overnight shelter we would also want that to come with a significant investment in our housing department because as Anthony alluded to earlier

People, like our shelter system is only as effective as our ability to move people out of shelter

into housing.

One of the ways that we envision could be very successful in doing that is with the launch of a master leasing program.

So that would look like the haven.

We would enter into a lease with a landlord.

We would assume all of the responsibility for the unit and would also

pay the rent for that unit in exchange for us being able to sublease to anyone we wanted to, regardless of past credit history, past eviction history, or past criminal background.

Thank you.

Yeah, I would just add to that briefly that I think City Council is ready and willing to amend that SUP at any time.

I know it's something that me and Councillor Pinkston have discussed briefly a little bit and we've

floated before, so definitely don't think of us as a barrier.

We're willing to absolutely work on that, whether it be your organization, a partnership with Pacham, or whoever else in order to provide shelter at that location, if that's the best path forward.

I would also just say, at least for myself, I absolutely don't see the

permanent shelter versus housing as an either or conversation, but 100% both and.

And that's just where I'm coming from.

So I wouldn't view any investment in overnight shelter as being saying, oh, that's the solution rather than providing housing.

But it's necessary.

Yeah.

Hi there.

My name is Jason Whitehead and I'm the director of Pacham and it's good to be here today.

I also wanted to acknowledge a few Pacham board members that are here as well.

This first slide I'm going to return to at the end of the presentation so if we can move to the next slide that would be great.

So just to give a brief organization overview of Potchum for those who might not know is Potchum is established in 2004.

The only shelter in town at that point is the Salvation Army, which is what you would call medium barrier.

Potchum is established as a low barrier shelter so that we could serve folks who substance abuse mainly.

and so it is designed as a winter overnight emergency shelter initially starts as just a men's shelter but soon thereafter sets up a women's shelter as well and it's based on a model where we collaborate with the faith community a number of congregations around the area that act as the actual host sites for the shelter and so we usually have a men's shelter

at one church or a women's shelter at the local synagogue, for instance.

And since it's been around since 2004, we've been able to establish amazing partnerships with faith congregations.

As it says here, we're up to 80-plus faith congregations that we partner with in one way or the other because the food effort that

we serve dinner every night at Potchum as well is a really big piece and then as we progress along the years and I'll get into this a little more later but we've also started to add specialized housing programs really focusing on homeless women and homeless seniors if I could have the next slide please

So this slide right here what you'll see is the darker blue line is unique guests, unique individuals that we've served over the years and then the lighter blue line is bed nights.

So that's actual nights where folks have stayed with us.

As you can see we're starting at 2004 on the left and coming up to current time.

As far back as 2011 unfortunately we were serving a minimum of 200 unique individuals a year and that's for just our winter shelter season which was at that point only November through March.

and then you see that we actually peak we actually I think we served 252 unique individuals in the 2018-19 season and by then we had expanded from end of October into mid-April if you can do the next slide please like all organizations

The pandemic really affected us and took us a vastly different way.

The different colors here are yellow is in our congregate, church-based shelters, lighter blue, La Quinta, darker blue, premier circle.

You can see in January 20, we would have served 111 guests just in our congregate shelter, but by April, once the pandemic has set in, we're actually moving

Out of congregate spaces, we actually did partner with the city to continue to provide congregate shelter.

You all made the key rec center available to us, but by July we have shifted our services to this

Oh, sorry.

Hotel motel model.

We were at the La Quinta through April of 21 and had a max.

We were completely full at the La Quinta with 65 individuals.

This was a special type of shelter.

Basically, you saw it in some locales around the country, but kind of a new type of shelter to serve.

folks that were more medically vulnerable to the coronavirus.

And the really big thing for Pacham was that rather than being seasonal, we were suddenly 24-7.

So folks were at the hotel all day, every day of the year.

and then in May of 21 as I'm assuming you all know our community various partners have come together to purchase the old red carpet site which became known as Premier Circle and we

We opened that in May of 2021 and transitioned everybody from the La Quinta over there and but as a much larger site so by say a year later we actually have almost a hundred people staying at the red carpet that again was

24-7 where folks were it was still a shelter still very much run by a shelter but folks you know were able to know where they were staying every night and then that yielded some amazing results that I'll get into a little later and then it was still really important to us during that stretch to provide what I'll call traditional Potchum

So we were still operating in churches, this overnight emergency option, you know, where folks are dropping in or, you know, UVA might discharge somebody that day or police might call us at 2 a.m.

and they've located somebody out in the cold on the corner that needs a place to stay that night.

If you go to the next slide, please.

And so what you see here is kind of some different numbers and I'll take you through a few layers here.

Of course the running the hotel and having that amazing capacity for folks really impacted the number of guests we were serving in congregate.

So you can see that 2020-21

We only serve 84 in our Congress shelter.

And part of that also was we were having to follow COVID specific restrictions.

So all of a sudden, six feet between everybody's sleeping station.

So that really kind of impacted.

We went from serving, say, 45 men a night to only accommodate 25.

And then by the time we get to Premier Circle, we've actually served 177 total guests since that opened in May of 2021.

And like I said, we are still doing

congregate.

So we had peak numbers say in January of last year and this year where we're sheltering around 150 people a night during the winter stretch.

As you can see, and this is a national trend as well, but our number of seniors has been really rising.

You can see from how many we ended up with at Premier Circle.

But one really neat thing about being able to do Premier Circle was the ability we had to really develop relationships with our guests and really dig down, really deep dive with them.

What are their housing barriers?

What are the challenges to them getting housed?

And even the stability that Premier Circle offered our folks and then

On top of it, this past year, especially once it was announced that Premier Circle would be closing this year, an unusual amount of housing resources were made available to us.

It's usually pretty slim pickings for overnight emergency shelter.

Our case managers and I have Sada, Heather and Liz here from our case management team.

Incredible work.

Seemingly impossible but we've transitioned 75 individuals to permanent housing since Premier Circle opened which has been really incredible to see.

And the lesson I've really taken from that, which has been echoed by some other folks, is just how important it is, particularly with shelter, to make housing resources available from us.

Anthony gave us that earlier about length of stay.

Folks aren't supposed to live at a shelter.

We're a safety net.

They land with us and we're hoping to move them on to something better.

So I would encourage, whether it's the city, the county, to keep investing resources and particularly with shelter.

The next slide, please.

and so this is really this is a few of the folks that we've been able to get housed particularly in the past year as you can see they're all really happy to have keys in their own place and really the the last thing I'll add is just

You know, with Premier Circle Sunsetting at the end of June, Potchum, we're really busy planning the next season of overnight shelter, kind of getting back to where we were pre-pandemic, which is being able to serve a more expanded number of people.

So between like 50 and 60 folks a night and also getting back to having

and expanded season.

So we're looking forward to partnering with the city and the broader community about addressing homelessness.

But thank you.

Thank you, Anna and Jason and Misty.

Yeah, how do you all coordinate together?

I guess there's at least four organizations represented here, the city, BRAC.

Right.

And we also fund Families in Crisis, which is a program that helps in lieu of physical family shelter, helps families experiencing homelessness with hotel stays.

And what is that program?

They are.

Actually, Region 10's housing program and their program at large is very large.

Hundreds of housing voucher opportunities, about 34 of which are funded by HUD to focus on chronically homeless individuals, so people living outside in shelters for long periods of time, at least a year, with a disabling condition.

I want to jump in to add a bit of an answer to that question I think one of the really exciting bright spots around collaboration has been over the last year I mentioned the Havens housing programs and we have three unique programs one of which is called rapid rehousing and for the last year we have dedicated

so many people can hear me in the Zoom world.

The Haven in partnership with Brock and with Potchum has dedicated 80% of our rapid rehousing slots to individuals who are transitioning out of premier circle that Jason told you about.

So it's just a way for us as the administrator of rapid rehousing funds

to be able to help get people out of a temporary housing situation and exiting into a more like permanent solution and that has been an incredibly bright spot and strong partnership.

Heather is here.

Real quick, more concretely, we also, thank you, Anna, and that's so true, that partnership between organizations is key, and we help facilitate those kinds of agreements or partnerships or policies about who to work with in terms of prioritizing people with health conditions or other types of, you know, prioritization policies.

We work on that but we also kind of more concretely manage a database system that's shared among all the homeless service providers in the community as well as other homeless service providers that we don't fund and that allows for a lot more detailed collaboration between case managers and programs because it definitely takes a village and so the database system is a crucial piece of that coordination as well as

frequent meetings as well.

Shayla Givens, or Shayla Washington, I'm sorry, at The Haven is a coordinated entry manager.

She hosts a weekly meeting with homeless service partners.

We also do case conferencing, so we focus on individuals and we work on housing plans, and we do that twice a month.

Mr. Mayor, as I understand your presentation, and thank you, it was excellent, the bottom line is

We need 60 additional shelter beds and your recommendation is renovate an existing building and not spend the money in building a new shelter and keep investing in housing.

Well, I would say that I agree with Councillor Payne that it should be seen as a both and because we need housing.

Housing ends homelessness.

And if we as a community only invest in shelter opportunities, it doesn't improve our ability to actually end homelessness.

And you can see actually in our data that peak

was representative of us increasing shelter capacity only and not a capacity to help people move into housing.

So it should be seen as a both and.

But I think renovation is a compelling way to increase shelter capacity because it uses resources, I think, in a more effective way.

But that's, I don't know, that's my personal take on it.

I'll hop in.

I would say I think that if we're able to move forward with a feasibility study around offering year-round overnight shelter, I think that is one of the key questions to answer is like what is the way...

I mean it's very tempting to say there's a building at 112 West Market Street that was originally envisioned for this very purpose and that was 15 years ago, right?

And so we want to make sure that the solution that we come up with today is the solution that best fits the environment that we have now and that we anticipate having in the future.

We don't conduct a point-in-time count in the summer, so we're talking about 50 however many beds during that time.

We actually don't know the demand for that.

So I have a couple of comments.

I really appreciate all of the work that you all are doing in the community.

It's really vital because it's hard for anyone to really thrive if you don't know where you're going to lay your head that night, and it's just really vital.

So there's a couple of comments.

One is

you know it's just ironic that today with my hat on as a career counselor for the county just working with a lot of different people a lady was new into town today from Decatur, Georgia

and needed a place, didn't have a place to live.

I referred her to David for the services.

She was in the county getting some other information.

But I know that other social services in the state give people tickets to Charlottesville because of the services that we offer.

So it's one of those things.

I know we want to provide more, but I think that if we build a temple, we might get

a lot, you know, and I'm not saying we shouldn't do it, but it's going to be difficult for the city of Charlottesville to do it all by itself.

We're doing, I think that we're really hitting above our weight class and what we're providing in social, I mean, in this arena, and I think it's good that we're in a position that we can do it.

The haven with the

being able to provide an address.

I can't even count the number of people that I've helped with their resume, helped apply for a job that they were able to put down that address as their place of, you know, of their residence because you just have to have that when you're filling out an application.

So thank you so much for providing

That service, it's vital.

And same with Pachum, with the overnight service that you provide, our church, we haven't done it for a few years because we're way out in rural areas and I think with your new program you want to have them to be on bus line.

That's the way we are doing it.

I understand sometimes it was difficult when people, like, they had to go, but they couldn't because there was nothing out there but darkness.

It's like, no.

But, you know, I was able to help many of them because I was an overnight

at 10, 11 o'clock at night because with their resumes and job searching, it was great.

They could get a lot of service.

It's a big need out there in the community.

I'm glad we have this collaborative spirit.

We're going to need it to address it.

the issue because housing as I was leaving work today someone that was coming and I work for the county social service someone else is coming up to the window saying that they had just lost their housing and seeking help from them and I'm sure that they will probably be referring them to them or we have a housing office as well so it's a it's a big need and it's really hard for people to

to thrive, you know, again, if they don't have a place to lay their head, and I think it's one of our vital services that I think that the city needs to be part of, as well as the university.

Jason mentioned Salvation Army.

I think that the university needs to be as part of that as well, and I know they're trying to play a part in it.

So I just want to thank you all for your important work.

I just think that if the

the organizations that's in this room today the board members the volunteers $5,600 I think you mentioned that's incredible so you need to give your continue to give them kudos for their work because I just feel like with all the volunteers and the agencies that we have that this community would just look and feel and just be a lot different it wouldn't be I think what people think it's it's special so thank you all for your work and I'm looking forward to the

So permanent supportive housing right now essentially focuses on chronically homeless individuals.

So those individuals with longest histories of homelessness, disabling conditions, and usually the most barriers to housing as well.

Currently in our point in time count, there was 53 individuals as of today, or as of January, I should say, who were chronically homeless.

And people do

become chronically homeless over time and that's one problem with long shelter stays and not enough housing options is because people will become chronically homeless over time and then the need for permanent supportive housing increases.

It is something that

should be invested in ongoing in similar ways to housing in general.

There needs to be housing across a spectrum of income sources.

There needs to be similar opportunities for people experiencing homelessness to access housing, whether that's through a development like Premier Circle permanent supportive housing or the crossings to something like Region 10's

you know housing choice voucher based system where they have you know rent units in the community and so there's number of ways to increase permanent supportive housing opportunities over time that aren't building new units except and building new units is also very much needed but we have we do have a lot of housing that's new coming in our community and if there are ways

There should be ways to carve out a number of those units, whether that's through vouchers or project-based vouchers to be designated for people experiencing chronic homelessness or just homelessness in general.

That's important because programs like the CSRAT program, we were able to partner with CRHA to focus and prioritize those units for households who are experiencing homelessness and that kind of access to housing assistance

is crucial.

So in terms of numbers permanent supportive housing at Premier Circle that's coming in about a year will provide about 80 units of permanent supportive housing and that will get us to the door of ending chronic homelessness but we will need those types of opportunities that are designated set aside for people experiencing homelessness to continue on ongoing because

like Anna mentioned and like Councillor Wade was saying, the housing crisis we experience it now but we unfortunately won't see the effects of its homelessness.

It's going to continue over time and we need to continue battling it by continuing to invest resources into housing in general

But then a part of that needs to be set aside for experiencing homelessness.

So I can follow up with you more about in terms of detailed numbers that might speak to your question.

But 80 at Premier Circle will get us close to the door of reaching a functional end for chronic.

I want to just jump in and add something to that.

My background before I was at the Haven was in mental health and huge proponent of permanent supportive housing.

And I also just want to ground us in the reminder that permanent supportive housing, while it is completely evidence-based and effective, it is also our latest and most expensive housing intervention.

and that is because it first requires someone to become chronically homeless in order to be eligible to receive it.

And so I am hoping that as a community we can work towards a future where we don't ever have anyone who qualifies for permanent supportive housing because they never experienced homelessness for 12 months in a row.

in order to qualify as someone who has experienced chronic homelessness.

And just to address one of the comments that Councilmember Wade made, absolutely we see new faces in the day shelter every single day from places that are not Charlottesville.

That is 100% true.

What is also true and equally more true is that

the vast majority of people who are regularly using Haven services are individuals who they themselves or their families have incredibly long histories in the city of Charlottesville.

That was a surprise to me.

I have been at the Haven for six months and some like

the hyper locality of the people that we see at the Haven was really and truly a surprise to me.

So I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that this is

An issue that is affecting people who have been here for generations.

If I could add something real quick to you, just to speak to the folks that are currently at Premier Circle right now.

We're actually down to basically around 30 folks that are still there, and I'm hoping that it's under 20, let's say, by June.

But one thing that we really experienced, particularly the case management team in trying to transition folks to housing,

is we actually have folks that have housing subsidies in hand, but there's so many other challenges to them securing housing, basically criminal records, evictions, there's so many barriers.

So I guess which is kind of

The point of my question is if the city is going to create a plan to make a meaningful difference what is kind of the number of units we need to be investing or partnering to build because at least correct me if I'm wrong but my understanding is whether it be permanent supportive housing or technically it's not permanent supportive housing typically someone

is going to need a voucher and they're going to need that place to live.

And in order to avoid those barriers, a lot of times it's going to need to be housing units or development that government proactively partnered in investing in and creating to intentionally remove those barriers.

I don't know if that makes sense.

But it's kind of like, with that in mind, what is the number of units we need as a goal to try to figure out what additional sites do we need to purchase?

No, thank you.

It definitely makes sense.

And the number fluctuates based on the housing market.

It fluctuates based on the population of people experiencing homelessness.

And we actually had a study done with Corporation for Supportive Housing in 2021 that looked at our

of the existing resources we have in the community, looked at the housing market, and they gave us a whole rundown that I'd love to share with you about what they see as the need over time.

Like I said, it looks diverse in terms of opportunities.

Some of it is new development.

Some of it's like what Anna talked about and what Jason's talking about, which is basically a master leasing program helping

lease a unit so then you can overcome housing barriers because there are individuals with rental assistance in hand who can't even get into the existing units to more simple things like CSRAP programs.

So across the board,

You need different amounts.

We have worked with consultants to help provide that.

I'm happy to follow up with that.

Out of curiosity, even just at a high level, in what ways do you work with CRHA?

Because I know they've talked about when they purchased

Well, I would definitely agree with that.

While CRHA had not previously had a homeless preference for housing choice vouchers, they have agreed to implement one and then also keep the housing choice voucher wait list indefinitely open for people experiencing homelessness, which I was very, very happy about.

And that is exactly the type of partnership that

leads towards functionally ending homelessness.

The other huge partnership was the CSREP program, the Charlottesville Supplemental Rental Assistance Program that BRAC was able to enter into an agreement with them to

prioritize those vouchers for individuals who are homeless.

It was about 75 over a year, and we focused a lot on Premier Circle.

Huge part of that was helpful in those numbers that you saw, as well as the emergency housing voucher program.

That was a COVID relief effort from HUD.

Since the pandemic in particular, our partnership with CRHA has really blossomed.

Yes, absolutely.

And final question for Jason and Pacham.

Yeah, I mean, definitely running a year round shelter like we've been doing basically since April of 2020.

Definitely have come to really appreciate what it does for our guests and what it allows, how it allows us to partner with them.

So

Yeah I mean

Location and how to do it is definitely a big thing.

The numbers needed.

I mean, you know, we traditionally would have served like around 45 men and 15 women a night, so space.

And definitely the support services that really need to be married with shelter, whether it's the UVA Health Clinic that's both been very involved at Premier Circle and

and the Haven has been great but definitely like we're talking about being able to attach housing resources as well.

I would say one real lesson that Pacham took from doing year-round for the last three years is I think really recognizing the need for it and so we have begun to look into that and even

meet with a consultant.

Yeah, so yeah, that's it, and just would echo what others have said.

I guess one of the takeaways from this presentation, at least in my mind, is thinking of

collectively as a city, not just city government, we have to invest in a permanent year-round shelter, and that is a safety net entry point to connect people with permanent housing, which I think Potchum Housing 75 people shows how critical it is to achieving that and kind of

How do we become a partner in helping us get there?

I have one final question, Ms.

Mendez.

I will answer that question before I forget the thread of Council Members Payne's question, which is I would say one thing that we absolutely must, that our community must prioritize if we move to offering

year-round overnight shelter is an incredibly strong commitment to being as low barrier as possible.

If we are really and truly interested in moving 36 people off of the downtown mall, we need to make sure that our services are accessible to them as possible, which means being as low barrier and as appealing and trauma-informed as possible, which segues nicely.

City Manager Rogers into answering your question which is first and foremost I have a follow-up meeting with the National Alliance to End Homelessness on Friday where they are going to tell us if they themselves are capable of doing a feasibility study or if they're going to refer us to kind of an outside an outside contractor and I think first answering the question of

Where does it make sense to do it?

We have a building, we have 20,000 square feet of space, but that does not necessarily mean that that building is the

Beth Stilett said you all should come visit please come I know some of you came to our open house if you didn't come to our open house come visit it would require a significant renovation of the of the physical space before we could open our doors and so it could in fact make more sense to

think about hosting year-round overnight shelter somewhere else.

And I think doing a feasibility study to answer the question of how could we do this in the most cost-effective way is absolutely the first responsible step.

I would also imagine that as excited as I am to hear council's energy around year-round overnight shelter, this is an undertaking that is going to require

More than moral support, I would also say financial support from big players that are in this room, potentially including UVA, certainly Albemarle County, the BRAC, the Blue Range Area Coalition for the Homeless,

has a catchment area not just of the city of Charlottesville and Albemarle County but also Green, Nelson, Louisa, and Fluvanna and I think that we're going to need their investment and buy-in as well because when someone is experiencing homelessness in Afton maybe they're already working in Charlottesville right so then they just come to Charlottesville

and live out of their car in Charlottesville.

But they think of themselves as a Nelson County resident.

So really bringing that intergovernmental collaboration to bear once we have a sense of what is the financial cost, both of creating year-round shelter and also having a significant investment in novel housing interventions.

So one question I had and I don't know who the right person is to answer.

everybody collectively.

There have been studies that have shown that the one I like to refer to because it is so seemingly improbable is out of Utah showing that when you house people you save more money than you spend because they're not having emergency room visits, they're not having all of the other services that were

offering.

We have.

I will say that this is pre-pandemic numbers, N1, and it was actually Khaki Dimmick who did this.

So crash course in history lesson, BRAC, which used to be known as TJEC, and the Haven actually used to be one entity that for a hot second was run by Khaki Dimmick out of 112 West Market Street.

and while she was there she and I will send this chart to all of you this evening she was able to shift for one human being right so she's not we're not doing any type of like randomized control but she just looked at one human being that the Haven was able to get into

out of shelter and into permanent housing and the cost to the community dropped by over $20,000 annually.

There's one human being that is not a randomized control study.

I'm not going to encourage anyone writing a dissertation to cite that as a source, but I do think that that is encouraging to show what the national

data alludes to, which is that housing people who are unsheltered actually in the long run saves communities money.

Well, and let me just say is, you know, I sometimes get into political discussions

with, shall we say, folks who don't agree with me.

And that's one of the points that people always ask, you know, why are we spending this kind of money?

And the most effective answer I can give is this, you know, the quote from the folks out in Utah that says, basically, it saves money to do this.

I'll follow up with some research in Richmond, which I know is not Charlottesville, but pretty close.

VC did a study that found around on average costs for chronically homeless individuals to the community were around $35,000 to $40,000 per year.

Wow.

But providing supportive housing was around $15,000 to $20,000 a year per person.

One night at the UVA ED is a couple thousand dollars if I understand it properly.

That's a month's rent in one day.

You can see how that extrapolates out.

I would love for UVA to be a part of that discussion as well, obviously.

I would assume for us the biggest practical step would be advancing our ability as a government to purchase land, purchase housing units as the first step to investing in them to create that supportive housing.

But especially ten and a half square miles, we're not going to get there unless we get involved in the business of purchasing land or us in partnership.

Any other questions, comments?

Any of those of you all in the audience want to say, they didn't talk about my program?

Okay.

All right.

Hearing nothing further, thank you all so much for coming and thank you for the work that you do.

It's important.

Folks, it is now time.

We're done with the 4 o'clock agenda.

We will now recess until the 6.30 business session.

For those joining on Zoom, there is a separate Zoom link for the 6.30 p.m.

session.

And so come back and see us in an hour.

And as I noted before,

This is one week when we do not have a closed session so we're just in recess until the 6.30 session begins.

Thank you all.

Anybody online, thanks for tuning in.

Those of you who came, thank you for coming.

Okay, wait a minute.

Yes, he has it.

Is somebody saying something about the bike race?

Okay, that's fine.

I was going to do it in the city manager's report.

Oh, well, you can do it then.

Yeah, that's fine.

One, two, three, four, five.

Mr. Rogers, are we ready to go?

Ready to go.

Okay, folks, it is 6.30, and we are going to begin the 6.30 p.m.

We'll start off with a moment of silence.

Announcements.

Counselors, any announcements?

First, we have a proclamation.

Well, first, announcements.

Yes, I have an announcement.

Mr. Alex Zanz, my help list award winners 2023.

Maya Holliday, second grade homeschool, Fluvanna County.

Eli Johnson, fourth grade, Orange County Elementary School.

Ellison Rakness, 7th grade Charlottesville Catholic School, Lily Simpson, 12th grade Monticello High School.

The award winners are gathering on May the 11th, 2023.

Again, that's Mr. Alex Zand's My Help List Award Winners 2023.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

It's my pleasure to make this proclamation.

And also, as you know, as a board rep, I serve on Jabba's board.

And we're doing great work there.

And I see Marta is here.

Thank you so much, Marta, for your leadership.

And May is Older American Month.

And whereas Charlottesville includes a growing number of older

residents who contribute their time, wisdom, and experience to our community, and whereas communities benefit when people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds are welcome, included, and supported, and whereas the theme of Older American Month is aging unbound, recognizing the importance of not limiting our thinking about aging,

exploring and combating stereotypes, emphasizing the many positive aspects of aging, inspiring older adults to push past traditional boundaries and embracing our community's diversity and where Charlottesville recognizes our need to create a community that offers the services and support that older Americans

that older adults may need to make choices about how they age and whereas.

And now, therefore, the Charlottesville City Council hereby proclaims May 2023 to be Older Americans Month.

We urge every resident to celebrate our older citizens to help create an inclusive society and to accept the challenge of flexibility, of flexible thinking around aging.

Signed this day, May 1st, 2023.

And Ms.

Keene is here to receive and if you would like to make a comment or two we'd be happy to hear from you Ms.

Thank you so much for recognizing the benefits and the skills and wisdom of older Americans this month and thank you for your constant support.

City Council has always been and was the first of all the jurisdictions to be supportive of Java and older Americans and we appreciate your continuing to do that and it's always a pleasure to come before you all and

You'll be seeing lots of interesting and good things about seniors throughout the month as we pepper the airwaves and social media with ways to remember it's Older Americans Month.

Thank you.

Ms.

It is an honor for me to read this proclamation as the daughter-in-law of our ivy beyond the wall, Pauline Sims Perrier, our fourth supreme basilisk.

Whereas Adafi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated was established on the principle of service to all mankind 60 years ago on February 10th,

1963 by 13 college educated ladies in the local area and whereas the Ada Phi Omega chapter is one of over 1,000 chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated, an international service organization founded in 1908 on the campus of Howard University in Washington DC and which is the oldest Greek letter organization established

by African-American college educated women, which is comprised of more than 355,000 members in graduate and undergraduate chapters in 12 countries, including the United States, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Canada, Dubai,

Germany, Japan, Liberia, Nigeria, South Korea, South Africa, and the United States Virgin Islands, and which is often called, quote, America's premier Greek letter organization for African American women.

And whereas, Adafi Omega Chapter supports higher education scholastics, providing scholarships annually

to six high school graduates in pursuit of a college education and whereas Ada Phi Omega chapter over the years has contributed to and supported many local nonprofits and initiatives such as backpacks and snack packs for students.

Coat Drives, over 2,000 pairs of shoes to the Salvation Army, Alumni Burley School Fund, the American Heart Association, Volunteering at Jabba, the Thanksgiving Turkey Giveaway, and the Alzheimer's Association Walk, just to name a few.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Charlottesville City Council

hereby takes great pleasure in recognizing the Ada Phi Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated upon its 60th year anniversary celebration May 6, 2023, paying tribute to its charter members

for their efforts and foresight in establishing this organization in our city and surrounding communities.

Signed and sealed this first day of May 2023, Jay Lloyd Snook, the third mayor, and Keena Thomas, clerk of council.

Hello, I am Pam Brown and I have the honor of serving as the President of Ada Phi Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated.

First and foremost, I want to thank the City Council of Charlottesville for bestowing this honor on our chapter.

We're very proud of our 60 years of service and this is quite an honor.

As stated before, Ada Phi Omega Chapter was founded on February 10, 1963.

And one of our charter members still lives in the city of Charlottesville, so we're Lilia Brown.

And we have numerous members on city council and working with city council and for the city.

Our chapter is 45, Dynamic and Motivated Women Strong, and we live by our motto, service to all mankind.

So I would like to ask at this time for all of my sisters in the room to stand, whether you're an Ada Phi Omega or not.

So I just would like to acknowledge all of my sisters.

Thank you for all the good work that you do.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

As a charter member of the Charlottesville chapter of the Lynx Incorporated, it is my honor to read this proclamation.

Whereas the Charlottesville chapter of the Lynx Incorporated was chartered on March 28, 1998,

based on the tenets of friendship and service 25 years ago by 20 African-American women from Charlottesville and the Central Virginia area who endeavored to provide much needed services to our community.

And whereas the Charlottesville chapter of the Lynx Incorporated is one of over 299 chapters of the Lynx Incorporated with over 17,000 members

is an international not-for-profit corporation established in 1946.

It is one of the oldest and largest volunteer service organizations committed to enriching, sustaining, and enduring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other people of African ancestry.

whereas the Charlottesville chapter of the Lynx Incorporated supports five facet areas the arts services to youth health and human services national trends and services

and International Trends and Services.

We support local African American students and their families through mentorship, educational scholarships, health and wellness seminars, literacy and other areas impacting our local children and families.

whereas the Charlottesville chapter of the Lynx Incorporated has sponsored author sessions for the Virginia Festival of the Book, given to the Children's Dental Clinic, the Charlottesville Free Clinic, sponsored the Beaufort Girls and the Burly Girl projects and donated countless items to local charitable organizations and food banks.

Now therefore be it resolved that Charlottesville City Council

hereby takes great pleasure in recognizing the Charlottesville chapter of the Lynx Incorporated on its 25th anniversary today, May 1st, 2023 for the chapter's continuing commitment to provide quality leadership and service to Charlottesville and the Central Virginia communities today and in the years to come.

Signed and sealed this day

May 1st, 2023, Jay Lloyd Snook, the third mayor, and Keena Thomas-Clerk.

Thank you so much City Council for this honor in recognizing our 25th anniversary.

Our motto is LinkedIn Friendship Connected in Service.

Our members are friends transforming communities through service.

Our vision is to enrich communities and improve the quality of life for people of African descent through friendship and service.

And our chapter has been doing this for 25 years and we hope to do it for many more.

May I have my link, sister?

Stand, please.

Thank you all for your service.

While we're speaking of service, we have a recognition as well.

The recognition is for the 54th annual Professional Municipal Clerk's Week.

which we find ourselves in the middle of this week.

Initiated in 1969 by the International Institute of Municipal Clerks and endorsed by its members throughout the U.S., Canada, and 15 other countries, this week is a time of celebration and reflection on the important role of the clerk's office.

The earliest of public servants in local government along with the tax collector, the eminent political scientist Professor William Bennett Monroe,

wrote in one of the first textbooks on municipal administration in 1934, no other office in municipal service has so many contracts.

It serves the mayor, the city council, the city manager, and all administrative departments without exception.

All of them call upon the office almost daily for some service or information.

Its work is not spectacular, but it demands versatility, alertness, accuracy, and this is particularly important in Charlottesville, no end of patience.

The public does not realize how many loose ends of city administration this office pulls together.

These words written nearly 90 years ago are even more appropriate today.

Presidential proclamations were signed in 1984, 1994, 1996 declaring and confirming municipal clerks week to be the first full week of May.

We take this time to recognize our professional municipal clerk Keena Thomas and her staff for the value

for the value that they bring to the City of Charlottesville.

Ms.

Thomas achieved the designations of certified municipal clerk in 2016 and master municipal clerk in 2021.

I'm curious to know what a master municipal clerk does that's better or more important than a mere certified municipal clerk.

All I know is doing a great job.

And she continues to be an advocate for lifelong learning.

Happy Municipal Clerks Week, both to Keena, to Max Cecilia Robinson, to Monica Mallory, the other members of the office.

And I just want everybody to know how lucky we all on council feel to have the three of them trying very hard to keep us organized.

and they do a great job with a lot of stuff.

They deal with a lot of people and virtually everybody that I've talked to has interacted with them, has nothing but praise for them and we depend on them greatly and thank you very much Keena and congratulations to you and your office here in Municipal Clerks Week.

And I should have, when we were talking announcements, two quick announcements that are somewhat related.

One, there was an announcement, a press release out today.

If you were downtown, on downtown mall at all today, you may have noticed that artwork from more than 500 Charlottesville City School students from pre-K to grade 12

is now on display throughout the downtown mall.

If you look in windows you will see artwork from kindergarten on up and it's just a neat way to liven up the downtown mall and to recognize the artistic talents of our young people.

Related to that at the McGuffey Arts Center

is the All High Schools Art Show which starts tomorrow in the second floor gallery of the McGuffey Art Center with artwork from Charlottesville area high schools including CHS but not limited to including also Monticello, Albemarle, Western Albemarle, St.

Anne's, the Renaissance School and Tandem Friends School.

So if you are inspired by the artwork that you see on the downtown mall and you want to go over and look at the artwork in McGuffey, that's also pretty cool.

Next, let's see.

Okay, I guess we're through the...

announcements and recognitions and so on.

We have missed that for the last three years and so glad we've got a good crowd here.

Yes.

consent agenda number two minutes April 3rd regular meeting three resolution 2023 city climate protection program program support grant with leap $78,833 second reading part a is an appropriate is appropriating $78,833 from the 2023 climate protection program support grant to the leap

to LEAP, second reading.

Part B, authorizing the city manager to sign a memorandum of understanding between the city and LEAP for grant funds to support the climate protection program and promote energy performance improvements.

Four, resolution.

There are five resolutions to award FY23 Charlottesville affordable housing funds, and they're all second reading.

Part A is $187,500 to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority for a public housing HVAC equity project.

B, $67,806 to Community Services Housing Incorporated for rehabilitation repairs to preserve community services housing properties C, $225,000 for Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville's Transitions to Home Ownership 2023 Project D,

$167,972 for Piedmont Housing Alliance Anti-Displacement through Prospect Home Ownership Project E $186,722 for the Virginia Supportive Housing Premier Circle PSH Project with conditions

Five, resolution, appropriating rescue squad assistance funds grant funding for AEDs in the amount of $14,550, one of two readings.

Six, resolution, authorizing participation in a cooperative partnership application for state opioid abatement authority grant funding, one reading.

Seven, ordinance, amending city code section 22-4, methods of procurement authorized.

to increase the bid bond limit from $100,000 to $200,000.

All right.

Thank you.

We'll now take public comment regarding items on the consent agenda that were just read by the clerk.

Each speaker will have up to three minutes.

In the Zoom webinar, you may select the raise hand option to be placed in the speaker queue.

If you've joined by phone and wish to speak on the consent agenda, you may press star 9.

We will alternate in person and virtual speakers.

If you are someone who has signed up to speak, this is not your moment yet.

That will come in a few minutes.

This is just for the things that the clerk just read.

Is there anybody in council chambers who would like to speak on a consent agenda item?

Okay.

Are there any virtual speakers?

Yes, Mayor Snook, we have one raised hand, Teddy Durfee.

Hello, can you all hear me?

Yes, we can.

Great.

To all members of the Charlottesville City Council, my name is Teddy Durfee.

I'm a fourth year student at the University of Virginia, and I write to share my thoughts on investment in making Charlottesville a more walkable and bikeable city.

I see both environmental and economic benefits to this legislation.

From an environmental standpoint, you stated in your most recent climate action plan that on average around 70% of Charlottesville residents use a private vehicle to commute.

This high percentage contributes to a transportation sector that made up around 26% of Charlottesville's total greenhouse gas emissions in 2019.

Investment in more bike and walking access on roads could significantly reduce this number and data from your 2015 bike and pedestrian master plan update helps prove it.

This plan surveyed Charlottesville residents and asked their comfort with biking on a road with cars.

Although it seemed around half of residents would not be willing to participate in a more bikeable city, the rates at which residents responded enthusiastically were far above the national average.

Based on conservative calculations, Charlottesville residents emit around a thousand pounds of CO2 from their vehicles every year when they elect to drive to work.

With over 18,000 households in Charlottesville, just a small percentage of citizens venturing to bike to work would make a major difference.

Beyond environmental issues, building a more bikeable and walkable city is good for the economy of Charlottesville.

Our hubs of commerce and community grounds revolve around the ability to navigate by foot.

I think our historic downtown mall, XR Park, and even the UVA corner are examples of these.

These places give local merchants the foot traffic they need to thrive and welcome more customers.

Investment in a more walkable, bikeable city will allot this to more parts of our community.

I feel that even limited investment in a more bikeable and walkable Charlottesville will go a long way for our environmental and economic efforts.

Thank you.

Anyone else present?

Corinne Sweeney No, I think.

Okay.

Then the comment period for that will be in just a few minutes.

So hang on, call back, and we'll get you then.

I should have said that to the last speaker but didn't want to interrupt.

All right.

So we'll close this portion of the public comment period.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

Any further questions or comments from Council?

So now we get to, again, now for the second time, we get to push our buttons for the first time in three years.

Go ahead and take the vote, please.

We actually hear it voting.

That's right.

Mr. Mayor, Council, yes, there's a written report, but I want to highlight a couple of items.

Mayor, Council, and the Charlottesville community, I want to take a moment to congratulate Paul Byer and his colleagues at the TomTom Foundation.

on organizing and hosting another great event for our community.

Paul provided me some highlights.

The attendance, about 23,000 people.

The block party attendance was 9,000 on Friday night and 10,000 on Saturday.

I was there on Friday night and I witnessed it.

It was a great, great feeling.

They had 187 speakers and 100 sessions.

A number of partners participated in that event, including the city of Charlottesville being one of the sponsors.

The block party was a great presentation of Charlottesville community.

All segments of our city were represented and I commend Paul and his colleagues for doing the outreach and making sure that everybody showed up.

I look forward to working with you on making that event an even greater event in the coming years because I just think it's fantastic and a good thing for the community.

I am as a public administrator very favorable towards festivals in every community I've been in so I'm a great cheerleader there.

I want to shout out to the girls on the run at Burnley Moran School.

They sent me this nice card.

The city manager doesn't always get nice mail.

But this card says, Dear city manager and staff,

Thank you for devoting your career to our community and keeping it in working order.

We appreciate you for following through on the decisions that are made based on what the citizens desire.

We are grateful that you work toward making our city a better place.

Sincerely, Burnley Moran, Girls on the Run, Spring Team 2023.

Thank you very much, young ladies.

We wish you much success.

I assume it's a track team and I hope they win everything this year.

Another point I want to make is that Mayor Council, we will conclude the interviews for City Attorney this week, and my plan is to come to you for interviews in the intervening weeks so that you can make a decision at the next Council meeting.

I also want to announce that after six months,

since our last fire chief permanent fire chief left and Chief Thomas serving as interim I'm going to initiate the search national search for fire chief.

Chief Thomas has done an excellent job but I think it's a good practice always to have an open process and I'm sure that he will apply

and will be a very competitive candidate in the process and we look forward to concluding that in the next hopefully within 90 days.

Yes, sir.

The application process for the KIF intern program did close today at 5 p.m.

But any organization or business that would like to be a partner to receive and support a KIF intern may still submit any information on that.

You just simply go to the Community Attention Youth Internship website.

That link is provided in the written document.

So any business that would be interested.

I have two quick items.

The first being that the new permitting software went live today, so building permits can be initiated online.

It's a soft process, so we're working out the kinks, but soon all customers will be able to submit their applications online and track progress.

That's what we wanted to also be able to do with this.

and then the remaining aspects of permits will come in the fall.

So we're just doing building permits for now and then everything else will come live in the fall.

And then I also wanted to single out our fleet division.

They were recognized as honorable mention for the National Association of Fleet Administrators, 100 Best Fleet Awards.

Our goal is to win next time.

And Ines Gonzalez joined us as executive director of the PCOB today.

We welcome her to the team.

Antoine Williams joined us as the housing program manager.

We've been without someone leading our housing efforts directly.

So he moved from Florida and arrived today.

Alex is ready to put him to work.

So sure, you know, slowly, slower than we all want, but surely we are making progress on filling, you know, some of the key positions in the Senate.

That's great.

Thank you.

Well, I'm honored to be recognized.

But of course, I think it's really on behalf of a big team and a community that really wanted to tell a story about Charlottesville.

So I accept that honor really on behalf of dozens or probably even hundreds of people in this community that made TomTom possible.

And Michael, I saw you cheering it all on on Friday night.

And Councillor Wade, I saw you cheering it on.

Bryan, you were there as well.

Lloyd, you were at a number of sessions, and I saw you at the crowdfunded pitch night.

So I guess what I just want to, besides passing that honor on to other people, I would just like to say that I think with TomTom, I'm optimistic about the future of our city.

And I think especially when we're friends and we build trust with each other,

and we see the interconnection that we all share.

So TomTom this year ranged from tours of the prison to highlight restorative justice and re-entry to many conferences from everything from psychedelics and yoga to technology to creating a beloved community to pitch nights to block parties to culture and really it's like

I think the message is just we all have a sake in the future and so I hope TomTom can be a platform that continues to have a broad and welcoming invitation and particularly as it goes into the future because I know that it's 11 years old I don't know that everyone has always felt welcomed at TomTom and that's something we're just again trying to change that as much as possible make sure people know

that we've all got a stake in this city and if we do it as friends, it's going to be a really positive one.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I tried to get to the hardware store and was stymied.

All I can say is even the slowest ones were going faster.

It was impressive to me that they were able to

So let's now come to regular community matters.

We have six preregistered speakers leaving ten slots for additional speakers on community matters.

Each speaker will have up to three minutes to speak.

and we will now open the floor to the preregistered speakers.

Our first registered speaker is Jordan Perez.

Is Mr. Perez here in the room?

Come on up.

Good evening, City Council members.

My name is Jordan Perez and I'm a first year undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

I will be calling Charlottesville my home for the next few years and as such I feel that it is my responsibility to represent students and advocate for a cleaner, safer way to travel throughout the city.

It is important to me that I can reach various locations without pumping greenhouse gases into the air we all breathe.

Everyone travels, making it a particularly important aspect to focus on.

Whether it is to and from work, school, or other activities, we are always commuting in some way.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, travel contributes to 38 percent of U.S.

greenhouse gas emissions.

The issue is not everyone has the ability to travel cleanly.

As a college student with virtually no money in their bank account, the purchase of an electric vehicle is not feasible.

Many low-income families find themselves in similar situations where the purchase of any new car would be a huge financial burden.

The Charlottesville Climate Action Plan states under the Transportation Section that electric vehicles are more affordable for low-income families due to tax credits.

However, when adding the federal and state tax credits totaling $10,000, the cheapest electric vehicle on the market, the Chevrolet Bolt at $26,000 would only drop to $16,000.

According to the U.S.

Census Bureau, the median household income for Charlottesville families in 2021 was $63,000.

Most families cannot justify spending 26% of their annual income on traveling cleanly.

Sustainability is about protecting the environment in an economically viable and fair way.

The choice to be sustainable is not meant to be left to those with the money to install solar panels and buy electric vehicles.

Unfortunately, Charlottesville does not offer an easily traversable environment for walkers or bikers, which greatly limits the ability of low income households to travel throughout Charlottesville cleanly.

I urge you to follow through on your climate action plan and start making Charlottesville more accessible for walkers and bikers today.

Thank you, Mr. Perez.

Our second pre-registered speaker is Kate Fraley.

Ms.

Hi, I'm Kate Fraley.

I live in Charlottesville.

I come with hope today.

I'm hopeful because I listened to some of the Virginia Behavioral Health Commission meeting last Friday.

They discussed the shortage of mental health staff and the need to have workforce development and a pipeline.

In the February 2023 Mental Health and Wellness Newsletter, they outlined how very bad the shortage is already and the need to do something about it.

and Senator Deeds has successfully gotten into the budget though final passage hasn't yet been done.

Funds for raises for community service board employees and increased Medicaid coverage for behavioral health services and a couple of pilot programs.

This effort will help people get services and help people stay in their jobs.

I don't think though that it helps create new behavioral health ready to work people.

I'm hopeful that the widening recognition of this urgency in the crisis in staffing will lead Charlottesville to take an active approach supporting a pipeline for individuals interested in working in the behavioral health field.

I believe there is still COVID money yet to be spent and some of it the interest money that has no strings attached.

As I see right now there are plenty of jobs and enough training programs and places to get required practice hours

for peer support or recovery specialists, and there are jobs requiring a high school diploma.

Some employers require additional specific trainings.

I'll be sending you an email all about this later.

The next step in the pipeline is where I see the biggest need and the potentially the quickest positive outcome.

I found very few jobs that require an associate degree.

UVA has some responsibility in increasing offering for the baccalaureate, masters, and PhD

level prepared clinicians, but that is a much longer process.

Right now I see opportunities in KTEC and PVCC.

KTEC already has health related programs.

PVCC wants to help the community address workplace shortages.

They could work together to be a hub for training and PVCC could count the trainings at KTEC as part of the requirements for an associate's degree

thus developing a degree that would especially meet our current need for people ready to work in behavioral health services.

I'm hoping that the city will organize a group of people that are employers, trainers, educators, service providers in our community to get together to figure out how to develop a pipeline.

We need it locally.

We need it now.

We need it in a real big hurry.

Thank you, Ms.

Fraley.

I'm John Faltz, 1501 Rugby Road.

I just recently learned that the city plans to build a multi-use path along the south side of Barracks Road from Buckingham Circle to CVS at the corner of Emmett Street.

What are we thinking?

It's too steep for bicycles to go up the path from CVS.

It's over 10% and that's twice the I-64 going up which is only 5%.

And it's impossible to use downhill without breaking the law because there's only sidewalks at either end.

I'm not anti-bike.

I commuted to the University by bicycle for 35 years.

I live near Derry Road.

I know this route.

The real problem is to manage the tricky left turn down there at CVS and get on to Emmett and get off as quickly as you can into the parking lot.

This is not an easy place to bicycle and you can't get there from the south side.

It's too steep.

I never go back that way.

I always go back by way of Rugby Road because that's a gentler grade and I can get up to my area.

I would never use this so-called multi-use path.

The city wants more bike paths and there are better places to put it.

Why don't we use the money to create a really internet network?

I attached a map.

and there are details I tell you about for those of you who can't see.

We could connect existing portions of our multi-use path along the bypass into the McIntyre Park.

We've got a wonderful underpass under the bypass could connect with Rugby Road, Rose Hill, which has

lanes on either side.

That's where we should be spending our money.

We claim to be an environmentally conscious city.

Building a short, useless, multi-use path and cutting down 53 mature trees to do so doesn't strike me as being environmentally friendly.

Why are we doing this?

Thank you, Mr. Fultz.

Next speaker is Mila Ranocca.

Mila.

Mila.

Good evening, members of Charlottesville City Council.

My name is Mila Ranocca, and I'm an undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

I'm speaking today to comment upon the city's use of natural gas.

Charlottesville's goal is to hold a temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius with a 45% reduction of CO2 emissions from the 2010 level by 2030, according to Charlottesville Climate Action Plan.

While the city has been taking many steps towards this goal by investing in programs such as the Charlottesville Gas Energy Efficiency Program, it hasn't been doing enough to efficiently transition to renewable energy sources.

California's recent decision to end subsidies expanding natural gas is a good example of the significant changes Charlottesville should be making.

The change saves taxpayers approximately $164 million a year in California.

In contrast, Charlottesville has spent $250,000 in the past year installing gas lines for free.

In addition to these costs, Charlottesville has been investing in technologies to advance gas efficiency

safety such as gas meters for abnormal operating conditions or AOCs.

The recent contract received a successful low bid of $1.7 million to reduce the backlog of AOCs.

Although safety of gas pipelines is important as seen by the 90 gas pipe leaks

and Charlottesville's system in the past year.

This allocation of investments may lead to more stranded assets than investing in renewable energy sources.

Rather than looking to spend money on clean resources, the city is requesting a federal grant over the next five years, replacing low pressure gas pipes with high pressure for West Main Street.

Estimates for the cost of these projects are between 1.2 and 1.5 million.

Charlottesville should not continue to invest in projects such as these that are expensive and work against the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

Instead, the city should invest in moving away from gas and towards renewable energy that will continue to serve the city past the next 30 years.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Emily Johnson.

Is Emily here?

Ms.

Hi, yes, my name is Emily Johnson and I am a clinical social worker at University Medical Associates, but I am here tonight as a community member wanting to support the efforts for the homeless population.

Since January, I have been working closely with the community and there has been a significant increase in

those patients being evicted that are complex with their medical care and I just wanted to provide support in regards to what was addressed earlier as far as the expenses that it is putting on the rest of the community members when somebody is homeless.

A lot of what I see on a day-to-day basis is decline in mental health when they were once stable

I've also seen a decline in their ability to maintain their care as well as access simple resources such as food, transportation and down to like hygiene and laundry services.

So I just wanted to provide that information from an outside standpoint.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Johnson.

Next up is Myra Azmat.

Did I get that close?

Myra also?

Hello, City Council.

I am an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, and like many of my peers, I'm here today to urge you to make Charlottesville more of a walkable city.

In the Climate Action Plan, it was indicated that we would like to increase and encourage our walking and biking and prioritize actions that support low-income households and have intersectional benefits.

I believe that prioritizing walkability will make Charlottesville safer, more environmentally friendly, and be economically beneficial to the city.

Walking is the cheapest form of transportation, and increased rates of commuting can save money for low-income residents, especially through fuel costs, time spent commuting, and environmental damage.

A study by the Urban Land Institute indicated that homes in walkable areas

self-ruptured $20,000 more than similar homes in non-walkable areas, and the Federal Office of Technology estimates that homes built in urban areas cost the city and taxpayers $10,000 less in public services.

I urge you to revisit the recommendations listed in the 2015 Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan and update it to keep residents informed, as I believe that the implementation of many of those policies

can increase the amount of sidewalks and bike lanes in Charlottesville, which was residents' main concern with travel as recorded in 2022 by the Piedmont Environmental Council and presented to you all.

The plan recommends the construction of a new sidewalk starting at 6-3 in Star Hill that will cost $92,000, which I believe should be prioritized due to its relatively low cost and location in a low-income neighborhood, as well as the economic benefits it will bring, as mentioned above.

I hope that this will be the first sidewalk bill out of many and I thank you so much for your continued time and effort invested into City Council and for listening to me today.

Thank you, Ms.

Azmet.

All right.

So now we have 10 remaining speaker slots.

Virtual attendees wishing to speak may select the raise hand option in the Zoom webinar to be placed in the speaker queue.

If you're on by phone, wish to speak during community matters, please press star nine.

And again, we'll alternate in person and online folks.

And we've had a fair amount of action in person.

Yes, Mayor Snook.

Ms.

Good evening.

Okay, so I want to touch on a few things.

Number one, Lloyd, you shouted out the bike event that occurred this weekend.

It took place between Roadtown Preston Avenue.

I got a lot of complaints from community members, and I'm sure you all have received the emails already, that the bus route was altered, of course, because you had shut down the street from 9 to 430.

So here's the thing is that the bus did not go to the top of Washington Park.

which it could have went to the top of Washington Park.

They could have had alternate bus routes for people who had to go to work.

I feel like the lower income community members in this community were completely left out during planning.

They were not thought of.

It definitely shows that we

tend to cater to the haves and not the have-nots.

So many people complained that they were unable to catch the bus in normal places that they would catch the bus.

And even though you had to move the bus routes for this event, you could have still had the bus come to certain spots that was close enough for people to walk to.

That's number one.

Number two, I wanted to talk a little bit about TomTom.

You all are congratulating Paul Byron.

It was a great event, not going to lie.

It's a great event.

But this is why I was pushing for the Unity Days to be something that you all continue from a standpoint of it brings our city together.

We've been so divided here in this city.

Again, people on the bottom tend to feel like they are left behind and that you don't care.

So with that being said, you should consider having some type of unity days programming that the city sponsors and basically distribute the funds like you did in 2019.

It's a great event.

It brings the community together.

I know different people even sitting up on the board right now that attended some of the community day events back in 2019.

I mean, the unity day events, I'm sorry, back in 2019.

It gives every person in this city, whether they're at the top, whether they're at the bottom, doesn't matter where they stand in a socioeconomic standpoint, an opportunity to

B at an event offered by this city.

The last thing I want to talk about is we have an artist talk about climate change, bus stop shelters.

People riding the bus or choosing to ride the bus deserve to be covered from weather.

You cannot say that you care about people in your community and you do not have bus stop shelters.

I'm in the Sorensen Institute and at the Sorensen Institute there was a big presentation about how the shelter for coverage for individuals riding a bus, why it's a huge issue.

Charlottesville was one that was a part of that as well as Albemarle County.

You should be protecting people from weather.

If you're going to provide public transportation, it's your job to also provide coverings for them, whether it's rain, hail, sleet, or snow.

Thank you, Ms.

Hudson.

Is there anybody in person who would like to speak to us?

Well, here, I'm looking at the woman in a black sweater.

Okay.

You got it right.

Thank you.

My name is Isabella Gattuso.

Right.

Good evening, Charlottesville City Council.

I have the speech for now, so I'm running today as a first-year student from the University of Virginia, advocating for increased walkability in this city.

You know, we've had many people present on this tonight, so stop me if you've heard this one before.

Ha ha.

But hopefully you can see how close this issue is to mine and many of my classmates' hearts.

I've recently been apartment hunting and I've noticed that the more affordable housing options don't often correlate with safer pedestrian routes, which is why I want to speak today on making that accessibility available to a greater number of Charlottesville residents.

The proposed solutions that Charlottesville has offered in its Climate Action Plan are terrific for lowering our carbon footprint, but the problem is with many long-term projects, planned developments such as mixed-use residential areas need to be constructed first.

So this brings up two issues I want to address.

First, expansion of mixed-use housing doesn't solve existing problems in infrastructure.

Bike lanes in the city suddenly have no barriers against traffic lanes and or require bikers to turn on to oncoming traffic to get to a sidewalk.

The Climate Action Project mentioned investment in these areas, especially with shading on existing routes, but investments will require a connection between existing routes to maximize safety.

As a Charlottesville Tomorrow article states, the walkability of a city is determined by the perceived safety of a street, which could be solved with consistent implementation of the Seville Plan Together Comprehensive Plan with a focus on improvement in high density areas.

Second, construction produces obstacles to walkability.

So I'm echoing Ms.

Hudson a little here, but I'm a member of the Madison House walking bus and construction requires that we take a longer, more dangerous route, which is especially pertinent when walking with younger children with smaller legs.

Further construction on McCormick Road blocks the vision of both drivers and students living in dorms where other construction runs a similar risk.

According to a CNN article, drivers have become more reckless over the pandemic, which means that notions of danger in the street have only increased, limiting the ability of Charlottesville residents to

excuse me to walk to get the essentials they need.

The council has said low-income housing is a priority and I respect that so construction would be disproportionately hazardous for the same people the council is attempting to help.

In this aspect I only ask that Charlottesville stays vigilant in making sure that construction standards are either timely or meet safety requirements around pedestrian crossings.

I appreciate everything the council has done and I thank you for the work you put in.

I really do admire the work you do and every time a Cav Daily article comes out I'm like wow.

That is cool.

I'm proud to be part of Charlottesville.

So all I ask today is that there's greater consistency in the implementation as we move towards a greener Charlottesville.

Thank you very much.

Yes, Mayor Snook.

Ms.

Hello, everybody.

My first thought is first of all, I want to honor and thank David Dillahunt so much

I'm actually tearing up just now, but anyway, he is the Deputy Director of Communications, but he has three hats, and he has been so supportive of the city for 20 years and more, and really we need to put out there that, you know, he needs

a communications director to help him do his job which he only actually is getting paid for one you know and anyway I just want to say please

make a concerted effort, maybe even talk with the Chamber of Commerce.

As I travel through Charlottesville doing different things, all of those speakers prior today to me have actually touched on things that people are talking about.

I was petitioning for Michael Payne and I walked around the neighborhood

and all those issues of safety and signage and things like that need to be addressed.

But I was watching PBS and the Richmond Chamber, I mean the Richmond Council meeting.

I don't know why, but anyway, they have designated councilors to different neighborhoods.

I think that's a great idea.

The different councilors and managers

are designated to be responsible for events for problems and things like that and come back to the chamber and talk to everybody and that's what they do at their council meetings and they're individually responsible I thought that was really cool they like have their own districts also I want to say that I attended

The Botanical Gardens, I was a volunteer for the TomTom Arts and Crafts.

And one of the girls on the run, we designed sort of a spiral thing that sort of, it's really cool.

And she was really talented.

And I sort of gave her the idea that she might be able to make some money for their efforts.

But then also I want to say I have solar on my roof.

And I got that last Thursday.

And as a matter of fact, David Dillahunt is going to help me put it on my show, my TV show, because I actually videoed the whole thing for CPA TV.

And I want to say that that's because I'm old and I had an income under, I think, $50,000.

I got it free from Dominion.

So anybody who is in that category can do that.

Thank you, Ms.

Hoffman.

All right, now we come back to in person.

Ms.

So I'm Tom Gallagher.

I live in, you need to start the clock.

I live in Charlottesville and as many of you probably may or may not know the westbound traffic on Barracks Road approaching Emmett Street going down the hill on Barracks Road is often backed up pretty far and so and this problem would probably be improved by adding another right turn lane and in fact the city has proposed to add

another right turn lane from Barracks Road to go north on Emmett Street.

And in fact, the city bundled together this right turn lane from Barracks to Emmett with a combined mixed-use path.

That's a path for bicycles and pedestrians going up the south side of Barracks Road.

And the city was successful in submitting this proposal to the SmartScale program of VDOT, the Virginia Department of Transportation.

So that all sounds great.

The only thing that's wrong with this is that a mixed use path actually requires that the four foot wide sidewalk on the south side of Barracks Road be replaced by three feet of barrier between the roadway and the path and ten feet of path.

Okay, that's 13 feet.

So in other words, it moves the bank back by at least 9 feet.

So what does that mean?

So what that means then is that the trees on the south side of Barracks Road get wiped out.

As John Foss has already told you, there are 61 mature trees.

I counted the trees that are eight inches or more in diameter.

That's like this.

And there are 81 of them along that stretch of Barracks Road.

And God knows how many that are smaller.

But the real point is not how many trees it is.

It's what the effect is.

And in fact, you have in front of you a picture taken looking down Barracks Road.

So what's on the left hand side of the picture is the south side of the street.

So now there are trees there.

If this, in fact, this program goes through, there will be no trees there and there will be essentially no

Canopy over the street, which there is right now.

So as has been pointed out by John Falls, this bicycle path, well, people walk up Barracks Road now.

They do not bicycle up it.

And the bicycle path is basically useless because it's too steep.

No one is going to go up it.

So finally, the city is

getting its right turn lane by cutting down all the trees on the south side of Barracks Road.

Is this what we want to do?

I mean, that's the question I'm asking you to consider one last time.

Thank you, Mr. Gallagher.

Okay, Ms.

Members of Charlottesville City Council, my name is Corinne Sweeney, I'm an undergraduate student at UVA and I'm here to comment on the Charlottesville community's future in financing the green energy transition.

A national transition to green energy is on the horizon, not just for the wellbeing of the environment, but for the health, safety and economic benefit of citizens.

In reviewing the Charlottesville Climate Action Plan, I would like to highlight the noted strategy to advocate for and support a state level green bank.

Green banks use small amounts of public funds to prime the pump to attract private investment to clean energy.

opening access to capital for a clean energy transition through a revolving fund.

It's essential also to note that these are not public grants, but rather to create an incentive, lenders to the bank will receive a rate of return.

While I understand that the Virginia General Assembly authorized its creation in 2021, the implementation is not making progress it needs to.

Given this, I would like to highlight that green banks can also be installed at the city level, and I urge Charlottesville to consider this option.

Opposition to green banks often stems from high upfront costs.

However, it's proven that overcoming this hurdle will drastically decrease energy bills later, making all housing more affordable.

I would like to note that the Connecticut Green Bank launched a residential solar investment program that made installing solar panels more affordable for over 30,000 households in low income areas, specifically black and Hispanic neighborhoods to lower their cost of living.

The program structure led to 86% more solar installations in majority black neighborhoods than a majority white neighborhoods, making significant strides towards environmental equity, a pillar of Charlottesville's action plan.

Additionally, regarding social benefits, the Fairfax County Green Bank feasibility analysis also highlighted the co-benefits of green banks, including improved air quality and job creation.

Finally, implementing a local green bank will establish Charlottesville as a leader in Virginia's energy transition and help spark statewide action.

I believe this strategy will go far in improving sustainability in Charlottesville and cultivating an equitable environment.

Thank you.

Next, in person.

Oh boy, what am I going to do here?

Yeah.

Cool.

I'm here to help drive home the point a little further with Sweeney.

Good afternoon.

Well, good evening all.

My name is Kenia and I'm an undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

I'm here to express and share my comments regarding the clean energy transition here in the city of Charlottesville.

as well as its financing.

There are a variety of challenges regarding this particular topic.

Still, I believe that overcoming these challenges will allow for present and future prosperity, serving as a learning experience that future cities may apply to their own infrastructure.

In order to become a city worthy of its motto, a great place to live for all of our citizens, I ask that you consider some of the topics I share with you.

On the 10th of September, in the year 2020, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy reported that low-income households spend three times as much of their income on energy costs than low-income households, which earn twice as much as the federal poverty level.

In 2021, the American Community Survey used five-year estimates to determine that 23.1% of Charlottesville population was impoverished.

Though these estimates published by the U.S.

Census Bureau are not comparable to certain geographic levels of health estimates, the number to be strived for is zero.

This past March, Charlottesville's Climate Action Plan detailed the section around funding climate action.

Some of the challenges listed included a limit in loan availability to clean energy projects.

Difficulty in acquiring loans based on eligibility, the possibility of loan defaults, and the generation of initial capital.

Further in, solutions to these issues can be found through the use of green bakes and CPACE.

Defaults and the lack of support and availability for loans can be resolved by green bakes, providing the capital to step up when people fall through, providing for those in the community who are less likely to be given loans.

I believe that we are running out of time to make an effective difference in the lives of our present and the lives of our future.

Our current society places great importance on money, allowing it to restrict the freedoms of those who are less fortunate than others.

In order to take steps to close these class divides, we must unite for the common goal of bettering ourselves and our neighbors too.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, so in person.

Hello.

Hello.

Members of the Charlottesville City Council, my name is AJ Farkas.

I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia.

I'm here today to comment on the future of the natural gas utility, specifically in Charlottesville.

According to the Charlottesville Climate Action Plan on page 72, within the city of Charlottesville, 87.5% of the municipal gas utilities customers are provided natural gas service.

including the installation of more than 100 new gas lines annually in recent years.

This is simply unacceptable.

Further, Charlottesville Gas Utility takes part in a carbon offset program which, you know, whether it's suspicious or perfect, assuming that BP's offsets work perfectly, they only offset 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions, which does not align with Charlottesville's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by, as said, 45%.

To meet this goal, the adoption of natural gas in Charlottesville sort of has to take its foot off the gas.

but we're doing nothing but accelerating.

According to some studies by Beherd CVA, the majority of Charlottesville residents who do not have natural gas service are at least somewhat likely to buy an electric cooktop or range or something electric in the kitchen.

When residents already have natural gas service installed, they are significantly less likely to consider an alternative.

Of course, the more we install, it sort of makes sense, the less people are going to look at other things.

The subsidization of natural gas insulation must be halted immediately, especially since the climate action plan has been added as the amendment to the comprehensive plan.

There are many options in terms of possible solutions that my colleagues have addressed and how it's been addressed in other locations, but the bottom line is pretty simple.

We need to take steps to halt the expansion of natural gas and the subsidization of natural gas

in the city.

A change to the city code needs to be enacted immediately and let us know it can be proposed by any member of the council.

Thank you.

All right.

Next.

Good afternoon.

My name is Charles Melvin and I am a first year undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

I am speaking tonight alongside a number of my student colleagues to further advocate on making the city of Charlottesville more accessible to bikes and being more pedestrian friendly, broken as a record as it may sound,

it does show the gravity that us students face especially because as a full-time student who does not have a car or driver's license I utilize the accessibility of biking and walking each day.

This allows me to have a first-hand perspective

in seeing the benefits that bike and pedestrian accessibility would bring in meeting the goals of the Charlottesville Climate Action Plan.

According to assessments from the Charlottesville Action Plan, approximately 30% of greenhouse gas emissions come from fuels used to power our vehicles, the city vehicle fleet, transit buses, school buses, and mobile equipment.

According to a 2021 study published in Transportation Research, Part D, Transport and Environment,

Cyclists have an 84% lower carbon dioxide emission from all daily travel than non-cyclists.

This means that making Charlottesville more accessible to bikes and being pedestrian friendly will have a positive impact on our carbon emissions and help meet the goals of the Charlottesville Action Plan.

In order to promote use of bikes and walking, we need to improve our sidewalks and bike lanes.

We need to add sturdier and more accessible bike racks in key locations around the city and especially on UVA grounds for students.

We also need to make it easier for people to walk and bike to key destinations such as schools, parks and shops.

This could be achieved through traffic calming measures such as speed bumps and roundabouts as well as by improving the condition of sidewalks and crosswalks.

Nextly, we need to raise awareness about the accessibility of biking and walking in the city of Charlottesville.

This could be done through media campaigns, community biking and walking events such as 5Ks, and partnerships with local businesses and organizations.

In short, a bikeable and walkable city is not only possible, but I believe most essential for the environmental future of Charlottesville.

Mayor Snook, we do have one additional raised hand.

All right.

Ms.

Hi, members of the Charlottesville City Council, my name is Michelle Harnish and I'm an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia.

I'm speaking tonight to comment upon Charlottesville's tree canopy.

I live near Emmett Street, which lights up bright red on the city's heat map.

Star Hill and 10th and Page, also bright red, are home to many of Charlottesville's lower income households.

Notably the tree coverage in these neighborhoods is sparse.

These are the neighborhoods that will face the worst of our warming climate with average temperatures higher than the rest of the city because they have no canopy to provide reprieve from the sweltering heat.

Something must be done.

I would like to commend you for the gold you have already set forth to preserve the tree canopy in the Charlottesville Climate Action Plan.

I'm especially fond of green bracelets which would connect parks and natural resources to walkable and bikeable paths.

everyone in Charlottesville deserves access to green space at the same time a balance must be struck between high density affordable housing and urban forests if correctly implemented green bracelets are a great compromise even if the shade isn't directly in their backyard it would still be easily accessible to residents of denser neighborhoods

In addition to green bracelets, I approve of the vast majority of your goals for the urban forest outlined in the climate action plan.

As of now, though, they are just that, only plans.

Change will not come unless you devote the right workforce, funding, and attention to your project.

Your actions speak louder than a 96-page PDF ever will, so I implore you to strive for tangible progress as soon as possible.

Lastly, I would like to thank you all for your time.

I recognize that the Climate Action Plan took passion and effort to complete.

I appreciate your commitment to bettering Charlottesville's future, and I encourage you to keep going.

The road ahead is well planned, but I want to remind you to line that red with trees.

Thank you, Ms.

Harnish.

Next in person.

Oh, dear.

Good evening, members of Charlottesville City Council.

My name is Dylan Jerome, and I am also an undergraduate at the University of Virginia.

I am speaking tonight to comment upon the future of the city's natural gas utility.

As it stands, according to the Climate Action Plan, the city of Charlottesville provides natural gas services to 21,300 customers.

It is simply not feasible for Charlottesville residents to continue to rely on natural gas utilities as they currently do, as combustion of natural gas is not only incredibly environmentally harmful, but also among the most expensive and inefficient forms of energy production.

The 2022 Gas Mitigation Survey Report conducted by UVA's Center for Survey Research found that only 26.4% of respondents feel that it is extremely important that they have natural gas available to their home.

This indicates to me that the harmful impacts of natural gas combustion are not sufficiently justified by public want and need for the service.

Furthermore, the same survey asked respondents who did not have natural gas services how likely they would be to consider buying an electric cooktop or range.

Over 50% of respondents would be very likely or likely to do so.

These results indicate that Charlottesville residents would explore alternative heating options if they did not automatically have access to natural gas.

The Climate Action Plan cites the valid concern that a move away from natural gas may initially increase energy prices, having an outsized impact on economically marginalized communities.

However, this simply means that the move away from natural gas must be accompanied with an increase of subsidies to greener forms of energy.

The plan mentions renewable natural gas and hydrogen as well as electrification as potential ideas for such a shift.

I would suggest based on the newly available funds released in the Inflation Reduction Act by like federal efforts that this might be a great opportunity for a local community to move forward in step with our federal government in terms of

providing greener energy subsidies.

It is imperative that the City Council acts on these suggestions and passes legislation that would allow for decreased subsidies to natural gas and increased support for renewable energy.

Good night.

Thank you.

And unfortunately that gets us to 16, so we will not have any more public comment right now.

If you want to stick around,

There will be another public comment period at the end or you can go home and zoom in and comment when that time comes.

I'm guessing looking at this thing it's probably going to be an hour or so.

do what you all want.

I'm sorry I couldn't get to all of you.

The next action item, first action item is the TJPDC Home Consortium Five-Year Consolidated Plan.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the City Council, City Manager, and the Deputy City Managers.

Tonight, staff in partnership with Thomas Jefferson PDC will be presenting to you the five-year consolidated housing and community development plan as mandated by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

To make the presentation is

Laura Jean, but before she'll come up here to make the presentation, I just want to provide some overview for the city council.

As an entitlement community, the city is required by U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development to prepare a multi-year housing and community development plan.

Some communities do three years, but the city opted to do five-year consolidated plan.

Our current plan is scheduled to expire June 30th and with that we are required to prepare another five year plan 2023 to 2027.

What you have before you tonight is the five year plan with the one year action plan which basically spells out the community development entitlement and also

the home fund that the city receives as part of the consortium.

what you have in the packets it's staff reports and you also hear from Laura Jean tonight and then finally after the presentation and the questions council will have three resolutions to act on one is for the CDBG the next one will be for the home funds and then finally approval of the five-year consolidated plan and the one-year action plan

and then with that I would like to introduce Laura Jean who will make the presentation on the five year action plan and then perhaps another recap of the presentation that you guys had when you had a joint public hearing which is actually the first reading for this particular plans tonight.

So with that I will introduce Laura Jean.

Good evening, city councilors.

My name is Lori Jean Tolune.

I am coming tonight from TJ PDC.

Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you about the consolidated plan that we've developed.

If we could advance the slides.

Thank you.

So as you are aware, these are funds that come down from HUD that Charlottesville receives as part of the home consortium, our regional consortium that involves

six different jurisdictions, including Charlottesville, which is the lead jurisdiction.

The goal of these funds is to address the housing needs of households who make less than 80% of area median income.

If we could advance the slide.

The amount of funding that will be coming to the consortium this year for home programs is right here before you, $785,000 total.

And then that is split up as shown on this graph for this coming year.

And then each year it's split up fairly similarly.

A certain portion goes to TJPDC to administer the funds.

A certain portion is set aside for what is called CHOTO, which are basically housing nonprofits.

and then all of the remaining funds are split evenly among the six jurisdictions.

So as you can see, so Charlottesville will be receiving the 98,000 as well as the CHOTO funds for this coming year because that is on a rotation every six years.

All right, we can go on to the next slide.

So the consolidated plan, as Mr. Ikaifuna explained, is a helpful moment for us to just stop and make sure that these funds that HUD does give to us for home and CDBG are being used in ways that reflect what the community needs.

So this is a chance for us to listen to the community, hear what they're needing, understand where the gaps are and if anything needs to change and how we administer this.

The full plan

I'll be very brief tonight but the full plan can be found on the TJPDC website, tjpdc.org for anyone who wants to review it.

Of course you all have seen it and have the summary of the consultations that we did as well.

If we could advance the slide.

This is a long list of organizations and leaders that we consulted with in order to help develop this plan.

Everyone who is listed here we spent 60 to 90 minutes listening to, sometimes one individual representing the organization, sometimes multiple individuals.

So we really appreciated so much community.

input throughout the whole process of trying to understand what folks are seeing.

We also reviewed available data that was pertinent to our region and to these topics.

And then we also surveyed the community.

We received almost 500 participants on that survey.

And so all of those different sources for information have been incorporated into that plan, which, as I said, could be found on the website.

And I'll quickly summarize some of the findings here.

Next slide, please.

So this is probably not surprising to anyone, but this is what we found.

The most common housing problems, first of all, are cost burden.

In our region, a great number of people are paying more than 30% of their income on housing and housing-related purposes.

So specific to Charlottesville, 29% of Charlottesville households are paying more than 30% of their income on housing.

The second item that kept coming up again and again and the data is very clear about is that there is not affordable rentals available.

When it comes down to renters, 50% of Charlottesville renters pay more than 30% of their income on housing.

And then we also found that there was a fair amount of substandard housing including rentals, especially rentals that are more affordable to low income households.

And so that needs assistance as well as a lack of accessibility features for

people who have disabilities or aging.

Next slide, please.

Really quickly, the populations disproportionately affected by the lack of affordable housing are those who are extremely and very low income, so below 50% of area median income, those who are renting, households with children, special needs populations, folks with disabilities or who are aging, often on fixed incomes,

Black and African American households, formerly incarcerated individuals, and their families are all disproportionately affected.

Next slide, please.

In our market, we see that the population is growing faster than the housing supply.

A lot of new units that are being built are often not affordable to a large portion of our residents.

We're seeing smaller and smaller household size, and we have extremely low vacancy rates.

We have 3.4% here in Charlottesville in 2021, whereas nationally it was 5.8%.

Next slide, please.

In the survey, these priorities were identified there in order, but also this is only the top priorities that people gave us.

There were many, many priorities listed as well as in our consultation.

So again, if you want to read that, please read the full plan.

But affordable rental housing is top priority for so many people.

I think it was about 80% of those who completed the survey.

That was their highest concern.

And in our consultations, it was almost every single consultation that we had.

and then you can see the rest of this slide also has a long list of other things but on the survey mental health and transportation often came up very close actually to affordable rental housing even though it's on the bottom here.

Next slide please and we can probably jump past this one because I think it's the same graph again.

Thank you.

So this is the CHOTO rotation that I mentioned earlier.

Charlottesville will be receiving the funds this year.

PHA will be building affordable home buyer homes.

And we can jump forward again.

One more slide.

Thank you.

So over the course of the next five years, with every single jurisdiction included, this was our estimation of the funding and how it will be split up in dollar amounts.

So the greatest portion will be going to producing rental units over the course of five years.

Next slide, please.

and these are the activities that Charlottesville is committed to for the next five years using the home funds.

So as I said year one almost $200,000 will be going from Charlottesville to PHA to develop six to nine homes that can be purchased by low income home buyers and then in the remaining four years you can see the rest of what Charlottesville has committed to and that is done through an RFP process.

and so they will be designating who will be providing these services using these funds.

Next slide, please.

Oh, I'm sorry.

What I wanted to add was that there are also the CDBG funds will be available that Anthony will come speak about in a minute.

and that will cover coordinated entry so the homeless system of care for 20 people per quarter, living wage jobs which involves workforce development with the literacy volunteers, micro enterprise which is through the Charlottesville investment collaborative and home rehab which will produce four unit or I'm sorry rehabilitate four units and then the CRHA redevelopment projects so CDBG funds will also be

dedicated to those and that is part of both the five-year plan as well as the one-year action plan.

And I wanted to just add to that HOME ARP funds, which is a whole different subset of funding that's coming down through HUD that is connected to the HOME program, but it's through the ARPA funding, is going to be $347,000 and then Charlottesville has selected to

commit that to developing new rental units for low income households.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mayor Snook, Vice Mayor Wade, Council Members, Ms.

Thomas.

My name is Anthony Warren.

I am the grants analyst with the Office of Community Solutions, and we're here to ask you to consider and approve three resolutions, as my boss, Mr. Cofuna said before.

One, to approve the five-year Consolidated Action Plan

the one-year action plan which is specifically what the next set of slides is going to talk about and then two resolutions to appropriate the funds therein.

So the city of Charlottesville receives its allocation from HUD as an entitlement community.

This action planning process that we're engaged in helps us maintain our eligibility for those funds and

While the home funds are managed by the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission, the city receives all the CDBG funds.

We get our allocation from HUD and then we engage in a deliberative process of reviewing applications, requests for funding from area nonprofits based on, if you want to go to the next slide,

a series of priorities that council spelled out last year, including micro enterprise assistance and focusing on housing in our own particular way, workforce development, access to quality childcare, homeowner rehabilitation, down payment assistance.

Council also set out two set asides to ensure funding to core goals around economic development and another $89,000 set aside for public facilities improvements.

We will come back and talk to you about that at a hopefully soon date.

and then at the end CDBG admin and planning budget shall be set at a cap of 20% and that money is used for a variety of different purposes.

and we can talk about those later.

If you want to go to the next slide, this year we brought together various members of the community, all of whom were appointed by council to review these applications.

We received a number of applications that fell into certain categories.

Task Force members came together we developed some evaluation criteria and they went and scored on a scale of one to four on each of these 13 criteria brought those scores back together and created kind of a composite score for each application and then the hard part started

If you can go to the next slide, please.

This is an overview of the applications that we received.

The numbers are kind of small on the screen, but if you add them all up, the amount of money that was requested to meet community needs far out past the amount of money that we had available.

So I do not envy the task force members.

They had to make some very difficult decisions.

They did so with dedication, attention to detail, and a focus on maximizing the impact of this limited amount of money on the greatest number of Charlottesville residents.

I was very impressed by their work, at the end of which they made funding recommendations which we bring before you tonight in one of the resolutions.

And if we could go to the next slide.

These are the funding, an overview of the funding recommendations that were made.

At the very top you see the amount of money that we estimate from HUD with the proviso that because they're federal money administered by HUD these numbers could change at any time for any reason based on their preference.

We have the two set asides at the very top.

I've left aside the public facilities improvements because that was not recommended for funding against the project because we were still evaluating several possibilities for the use of that money.

The task force at the end recommended funding these programs, the Charlottesville Critical Rehab Program by the Albemarle Housing Improvement Program, Resident Centered Redevelopment with Charlottesville Public Housing Association of Residents, Microenterprise Entrepreneur Programs by the Community Investment Collaborative,

beginning level workforce development by the literacy volunteers of Charlottesville, Albemarle counties, and the coordinated entry into homeless system of care by the Haven at First and Market Street.

And just by way of background, the task force began its deliberations looking at the home funding recommendations because it had the smaller pot of money

and we received one application from our Charlottesville-based CHOTO organization, the Piedmont Housing Alliance, which is going to pool the $98,000 that they were awarded with money from the HomeARP allocation and some other funding sources to try to really maximize their impact.

there.

You should have before you somewhere.

If not, I have copies of it, the resolutions that we're asking you to review and approve tonight.

So I just had one, maybe it's to Sam.

Sam, are we going to update those priorities again?

I guess we do it every September or is that for a couple of years or?

I think Alex will take that.

The council doesn't have to update those priorities.

However, you can if you think in your wisdom

and there are some new things staff can consider.

Okay.

And so my only comment is that we got a report on this earlier, some of us, some background information.

and I was really excited, Laura Jean, when you showed me the consultations that you all did and the fact that you spent, you know, 60 to 90 minutes, I think you said, with, you know, that long page, you know, just having those discussion meeting one-on-one or with groups to get real authentic input.

So thank you so much for making that effort.

I know that it took a lot of work, but I think the result is an incredible

I agree.

Yes, likewise, agree.

I know I have often been a critic of the CDBG recommendations sometimes, but I think this has been a process that really worked and resulted in really great recommendations that maximize impact.

and I'm prepared to support it as well.

And just a comment, this is something I'd raised at the Planning Commission meeting but, you know, I'll just highlight it again.

It's in the consolidated report that is not surprising but is just striking to see the data you have there that the median household income of black residents in Charlottesville is $39,000 whereas for white households that number is $85,000.

You know, I know it's just striking to see that in there that our median income for black households in this city is about 50% of area median income, about a majority of our city is 60% AMI or below and that just really struck me because so many of the housing solutions we discuss will historically have been 80% AMI or maybe we'll get down to 60% AMI and yet that leaves out the majority of our community or your average black household in our city and

Anyway, I just wanted to highlight in that report.

Any comments down here?

Well, I'll just add I suppose to what others have said that it's an impressive quantity of work and I appreciate the attention to

to the public input and to the detail.

So we have three separate resolutions.

Do we have to have three separate votes then?

I would like to hear from the attorney.

Right.

Mr. McRoberts.

Well, this has been two readings, so really what you're talking about is a personal preference.

I believe I have all three up.

I don't know.

Do we want to just do them all three?

Mr. Payne, are you going to read them individually and we vote on them collectively?

Is that what you're going to do?

That's fine.

That's true.

It is a public hearing.

All right.

we will open the public hearing and as before you have three minutes if there's anybody in the room here who would like to speak we'll alternate between you and folks online anybody here who would like to speak on on these issues all right anybody online who would like to speak to us on on these matters Mayor Snook there are no raised hands

All right.

Then I will close the public hearing.

I would move to adopt the resolution for the appropriation of community development block grant funds anticipated from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development as part of the city's FY 2023 to 2024 annual action plan in the amount of approximately $410,468.

Sure.

as well as to adopt the resolution of appropriation of home investment partnership program funds anticipated from the U.S.

Is there a second?

Second.

Okay.

Any discussion, comments, questions, anything else?

Are we ready to vote then?

All right.

Please vote.

Okay.

Mr. Mayor, before we leave, I just want to shout out to our staff, Anthony Warren, the grant analyst, and Laura Jean.

They were new.

Laura was hired in November 2022.

Anthony came to the city in December and they were dumped on, you know, in terms of this plan that they need to help us to meet the timeline and they worked very hard and today we've got a city council acting unanimously to approve this plan so we transmit that to her and wait to hear from them so I want to shout out to them.

Thank you very much.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor, members of Council.

I'm Chris Cullinan, the City's Director of Finance.

This agenda item is a resolution requesting approval to transfer $1,710,854 of an unallocated American Rescue Plan or ARP funds.

Staff request funds be transferred for the following uses of the following amounts.

Number one, $1,375,854 for our Human Resources Department to purchase and implement SuccessFactors Human Resources Information System, or HRIS $240,000 to update the City's ADA Transition Plan and $95,000 for the Fire Department

including $30,000 for public outreach or public safety messaging materials, $5,000 for Stop the Bleed kits training and outreach, and $60,000 for ballistic vests pursuant to departmental policy for responding to certain calls.

Again, these are existing ARP funds which have been unappropriated.

from both our revenue replacement account as well as our main tranche of ARP funds.

If you adopt or if you approve a resolution of all of these transfers, that will leave us with about $2 million left in our ARP funds, roughly 10% of our original allotment.

Staff continues the process of identifying needs resulting from the impacts of COVID-19 virus.

This resolution includes requests to support public health response, address negative economic impacts caused by the public health emergency, and provide eligible general government services.

With that, that concludes my presentation.

We'd be happy to answer any questions.

If you need some more specific discussion about any of these items, I could answer some of those.

We've got some other folks in the room who probably have a little bit more information.

Questions, comments, staff?

Sure, this is one others have, but reading this report is the first time I've ever heard anything about this success factor HRIS system.

What is this?

I can fill in some of those blanks and then I know Mr. Rogers can as well.

So our Human Resources Department, quite frankly, is in need of an information system to manage all the city's human resources information, employee information,

compensation, learning management, training, all of those things.

We've had that need for quite a while with collective bargaining on the horizon.

And there's a greater need to make sure we can centrally collect that information, manage it, understand it, be able to understand all the different inputs and outputs resulting from that success factors is an SAP product which marries up with our current ERP system of our financial management system.

So the two systems will be able to interact with each other.

which is especially critical in things like time management, compensation, managing collective bargaining contracts, those sorts of things.

So this is a key piece of technology that, again, has been in need for quite a while.

But again, with collective bargaining on the horizon kind of brings that to the forefront and makes that need more urgent than perhaps maybe it has in the past.

Thank you, Chris.

Outstanding explanation.

This is one of our highest management priorities.

We've got to provide support to strengthen our human resource department.

It's been languishing for years.

And as we are going forward with the new SAP system, it makes total sense to me.

And this is a similar question I've had with all of these ARPA allocations.

What was the process for these to jump out as the top uses of those limited funds?

So the process has been with both the ARP money and with the CARES money is that all departments are aware of those.

And so the way the process has worked as proposals come forward, they come in different waves, so to speak.

So these have come over the last several weeks, several months, so we collect those together.

The first filter is just simply one of does it meet ARP requirements?

Is it an eligible use as defined by the U.S.

Treasury?

once it gets passed through that filter it then goes to the city manager and his team that from a policy perspective from a strategy perspective from the other needs of the city where do these fall out and so with with those two pieces of information they then come to you as the final deciders of is this the highest and best this is certainly staff's recommendation

Can I ask a quick question?

It's connected to yours.

So just, you know, speaking hypothetically, if we didn't have this ARP money, is this something that would have been part of next year's budget probably?

Yes.