CRHA Meeting   4/22/2019

Doing this every month would not make sense.

I think we're agreed that we definitely would like somebody to join us on the bench up here on a regular basis to be local and I look forward to a conversation about what sort of makes the most sense and we appreciate your willingness to work with us as we add those pieces back into our representation.

I just want to thank you for the help that you've already given us.

Like I said earlier, we're faced with the name.

Thank you for having me.

It's been a pleasure and I think we accomplished a lot even though we didn't see each other in the same room.

I'll say that I've enjoyed having the opportunity to work with you and your firm.

on the occasion that I have had to mention to the HUD field office, we're represented by CWM and there is immediate recognition and I think

A respect or understanding that the folks are preeminent housing attorneys in Virginia.

So that helps me a great deal.

I think it helps the housing authorities.

We're not trying to reestablish that relationship.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate you have a long drive back so if you don't stay the whole meeting.

Thank you.

So let's pick up where we left off.

Mr. Bellamy, I really wanted to say thank you for arranging the conversation that we're having now with the city attorney's office and the city about partnership and all the ways that we might work together.

And I do think that there are some great options there that we should discuss as a board.

I am concerned about, as we venture forth into new territories, introducing areas of conflict that maybe could be easily avoided if we just didn't go there.

And so I just want to sort of throw that out.

I really appreciate Mr. Blair, who's the new city attorney, because I know Mr. Brown left after many, many years.

And so Mr. Blair's got a lot of new folks on staff.

There's a lot of energy there.

I think definitely a willingness to be of service and a willingness to share our mission.

But I do think that in the long run there are a lot of things that either we're exceedingly pleased with the representation we have.

and or our areas of conflict that I just want to be cognizant of and be clear about when we're making a decision on how to ensure that we have legal representation locally.

Like most of the veterans said, we've been gone a long time without an attorney.

I feel uncomfortable.

I think we all feel uncomfortable about it.

And we need to make a move to make that happen.

So I'm feeling comfortable with what I heard you all discussing already.

I think it's really on us to kind of define exactly what we're looking for locally so that we can then sort of

Well, I think that we all need to understand what the city is offering.

Did everyone not get the email?

So we talked about this in the last meeting about setting up the time and then I sent the email to everybody with the time and the date.

Yeah, Betsy texted me at the last minute that things had come up.

We knew Ms. Oliver was ill. Mr. Osteen was traveling.

So I'm sorry.

So we did have a publicly announced meeting.

Sure, so they talked essentially in regards to how we had Mr. Gore before obviously Mr. Gore has moved on and we have a whole new city attorney's office helping us with procedures just on a not day-to-day basis but when we're up here

really just the minuscule things like, sorry, it was a very lively conversation, so I'm trying to use my words wisely.

I'm sorry, I had some notes.

Some of the things that they suggested were maybe helping us with FOIA or the conflict of interest items.

Procurement, they suggested that the attorney could help us with that.

And then just meeting, procedure, as we've got questions about the appropriateness of certain actions at certain times, they could certainly help provide that kind of guidance.

To add to that list, I wanted to ask you Wes, the City Attorney's Office also represents the City Police Department and to the extent to which that may be a beneficial relationship when we're discussing barment issues, barment policy, barment training, and if there are any barment issues that arise.

You know, I think the other piece that we haven't really focused on but Mr. Collins brought up in his comments tonight is it's time to, you know, redo the ACOP for us to really get on schedule to do, you know, regular annual updates to all of our administrative documents and plans.

Like we just reset the admin plan for HCV.

It's time to sort of reset the ACOP.

and then sort of keep on top of that and HUD is regularly issuing things that say you have to do this and I don't know sort of which kind of pocket that might fall in but it's a, again it's somewhat of a specialty because you need to be following HUD law so it probably makes more sense to be in the CWM camp but you know I think we're,

How do I say this?

We're so appreciative of the city and its partnership.

And yes, it is true that we are not a major cash flow entity.

That said, it's also really,

It's important, I think, for the Housing Authority to be an equal partner and to be able to fire people if they're not working well for us.

And so I guess I just have some hesitancy, not that Mr. Blair and his staff aren't wonderful, but given the long history that the Housing Authority did have being represented by the city attorney's office,

We actually worked pretty mindfully to separate from the city and bring in Delphine as representation in the not too distant past for I think good reasons and I would hate to sort of kind of undo all of that without being very very careful.

You know we really really appreciate the gift but does it put us in a position where then if things aren't going well we actually

Yeah I think there's no reason why if they're not doing what they're supposed to do or that we want them to do we can't just tell them bye.

I mean everybody's adults and we're all professionals and we can tell the city at any time if we don't feel like your services are up to par then we need to go elsewhere.

I have no issues or qualms of telling them that but in the immediate

Well, I think it sounds like a lot of rhythm talking going on right now.

And you're kind of confusing me.

I don't know what to do or where to go.

But I think that there needs to be a closed session that we all get together again to discuss this so that we can hear.

However, I still agree that we need somebody in that seat.

Does anybody disagree that we need somebody in that seat?

No.

And by our meeting next month.

if at all possible.

I think we'd really like to hear you all's input because I am firmly in the camp that says while it is not free, I would prefer to have representation that did not come from the city just to avoid potential conflicts in the future and to maintain sort of the equal footing because we just went through a process of separating from representation from the city.

And I think that's a discussion that we need to have because

And we can have it closed doors.

That's fine.

I just will say this last comment.

Julie, you're absolutely right.

That's what I'm saying.

We have a gift horse in the mouth and we're, in my opinion, like giving them the stiff arm.

and then the other part is I don't think personally it's fair for us to hold this new city attorney and the way the office runs based off of how the last city attorney was ran because we wouldn't want someone to hold our current housing authority and board by the same measure that our last ED and board operated.

and this city attorney has shown to be very different, no disrespect to anyone, but to be very different from the last one.

And he has even said as much, correct me if I'm wrong in our meeting, he is willing to be a open partner at little to no cost.

Wes, I do want to ask you,

So we have a brand new city manager's office.

Well our interim city manager is okay with it and I'm just based on my conversations with our new city manager Dr. Richardson

I guess therein sort of lies a bit of my heartache around this is that I really want an attorney that works at the will of this board, not at the will of city council because while we have wonderful friends on council now and we would not be where we are without your support, we know you're not going to be here next year.

I wouldn't say you're wrong for that.

That's smart.

You don't know what it's going to be like.

next year.

But I would say, I think it would be, I think that's absolutely, you're smart, you're absolutely right.

I think it would be hard pressed with the community's outpour about affordable housing, supporting the housing authority for whomever's on council to come and say, nah, the city attorney doesn't need the support, we don't need to support the housing authority board.

That would make their life even more hectic.

I'm just controlling that way.

Okay, thank you all for indulging us in that conversation.

Yeah, we do tough stuff up here.

I just want to actually say a big thank you to my board members for being able to have tough conversations in a very civil manner and really listening and to our audience for supporting us in that.

I think we're the most civil group that happens in this room these days.

I won't say that, but thank you.

We now have time for the housing director's report.

I guess we need to talk about vacancies.

We're down to 36 with 7 offline, making it an active of 29.

We have 10 pending lease-ups.

Will you speak in the microphone?

Oh, I'm sorry.

You're so quiet.

Overall, I think it was a total of like 52.

Massive progress happened.

Yes.

Yes.

So I'm eager to get that 10 pinned in least up to take us to 19.

UD's have dropped severely.

We had seven.

We dismissed six.

We have one.

that will continue in two weeks and we don't have any rents at this time but we have nine repayment agreements.

The accounts receivable is showing at 16,348.67.

Monthly activities for this month.

Crescent Hall had a self-defense class sponsored by Sarah.

Crescent Hall's had a bed bug workshop today.

West Haven has an upcoming cleanup day for the 27th.

Yes, Miss Johnson, we will be sending out flyers.

Crescent Hall's had a cleanup day on the 13th.

For May, PHAR has decided to sponsor a meet and greet for CRHA staff that we will be attending for the community.

Resident Service Committee has asked the CRHA to do a lease briefing discussion for their meeting.

Staff was in training this month, the first two weeks, April the 3rd and the 5th, we did yardie software, which was very beneficial to me.

All of the management staff attended April the 9th,

with the exception someone had to stay in office and take the rent payments because we couldn't adjust the date.

April the 9th through the 11th we had REACT training, hands on REACT training, not just sitting in the classroom.

We went through every community we have and that was with the maintenance and the management staff walking.

The Community Resource Committee is still up and functioning.

The Department of Social Service has sent us all the eligibility team that will be there on Wednesdays for four hours.

Sarah is still there, Pace is there, Region 10 and Human Rights.

Unlawful detention.

Oh, but that's a great idea.

Yeah, they can work one off by taking the course.

And we want to make it as short as possible.

We want to make sure it's beneficial so we're looking for the right person to facilitate that class.

Excellent.

And that's it.

So the unlawful detention, can you explain that to me, what you guys are attempting to do?

If you get three, there's the possibility that we will not renew your lease.

So what we're going to do to get people in a better standing and help them out as far as financially and seeing what they're working with is to offer a budgeting class.

Gotcha.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you, Miss Green.

So are you responsible for the housing horizon?

It looks great.

Thank you, Miss Green.

And now we have our redevelopment coordinator's report.

I just had a question or comment.

Ms. Green doesn't have to come back up.

One of the things from Mr. Duffield as well, one of the things that I've heard and I think we've had these discussions before, excuse me, in regards to the GED program.

So we do the equity package a couple years ago.

We set aside, I think it was $20,000

for GED classes in our public housing sites.

And I know the city, we did a Go GED program in which we had some of our public housing residents take advantage of, but there still should be money in that pot.

One of the things, since I am leaving, Miss Oliver, specifically, one of the things, yeah right.

One of the things that I would like to see us do though in all seriousness is utilize those funds.

So we had before, and Ms. Johnson was a part of it, Ms. Gilmore and several others, in which we had teachers come from the GED program, come to the community, work with the residents in regards to taking the GED classes, and then we have money in that pot that also pays for the GED class.

So I would love for us to see that be utilized in the immediate future because we have money for it.

So again, can get our folks GED training.

And I know Mr. Frank Freeman at PVCC is interested in facilitating a partnership in which we can have assistance, excuse me, tuition assistance from those who live in public housing to come to PVCC.

If I need to help facilitate that as well, we can.

I really would like to see that happen.

I ain't trying to create more work.

Yeah, that's all right.

All good.

Thank you.

So Miss Green, I guess you and I, I'll send you an email now.

There are no other questions for Ms. Green or comments about housing issues.

We'll talk redevelopment.

Mr. Norris?

Good evening Chairwoman Jones, commissioners, Mr. Duffield.

So I am going to briefly recap the report you have in front of you and at the conclusion of my comments I would like to invite Mr. Griggs forward if you wouldn't mind and just share a few thoughts.

He's been with us all day today kind of doing a deep dive into Crescent Hall specifically.

and will be here with us all day tomorrow as well to continue that dialogue and talk a little bit more about section three.

I'd love to have you come up and share a few thoughts in a moment.

In the report, we talked a little bit about what's the latest at Crescent Halls and South First Street.

Again, to recap, we are waiting for the outcome of the low-income housing tax credit scoring process.

We'll know by May 31st if we receive funding for both those projects.

In the meantime, we're continuing with

for resident engagement at both of those sites.

Thanks to PHAR and the Crescent Halls Tenant Association, we have a working group that meets regularly that's been working with the architect and his folks to continue developing designs and development plans for Crescent Halls.

We've had some meetings at South First Street and thanks to Bruce Wardell, we're going to be

Kicking off a much more intensive engagement process at South First Street in the coming weeks and months to start talking about the master plan for the whole site.

So a lot is going on on the ground with both of our phase one projects and we're very excited at that progress.

Phase 1.5 as you know is the Levy Avenue Avon Street site.

We received some very good news as mentioned in the report.

The preliminary results are now in on the environmental assessment and the good news is that they found low risk to human health and will not require very costly, very time intensive

Remediation Process, which is what we were all worried about.

And there are two specific suggestions they're making to contain any contamination.

One would be prohibit us from drilling a water well, which we can't do anyway by city code, by city rules.

And then secondly is just to cap the existing site with the building and construction work, which is what we do anyway.

So very good news there.

which means that we hypothetically at least would be able to get moving on development plans for Levy Avenue and Avon Street a little sooner than we expected so obviously that's not our primary focus right now but we will be turning our attention to that in the near future and as Miss Oliver has said repeatedly that's going to involve a lot of collaborations and discussions

not only with our residents but also with the Belmont neighborhood and other key stakeholders.

So I want to give a big thank you to city council and to Dr. Bellamy specifically for the funding that they did provide in the coming year's budget that has happened since our last board meeting.

I believe it's the largest single infusion of city dollars in history forever.

public housing ever so we're very grateful of the three million dollar commitment this year of course the overall redevelopment effort is going to cost well over a hundred million dollars so we're going to need continued city support but that's a great first start and thank you Dr. Bellamy for your leadership on that.

And I also want to give a big thanks to PHAR and CLIC, the Charlottesville Low Income Housing Coalition for advocating and working to raise the importance and visibility of the affordable housing crisis in our community and specifically the need for public housing redevelopment.

So thank you to all the folks who helped make that happen.

Relocation plan.

Thank you to Brenda Kelley for coming forward with a draft of a relocation plan.

The Redevelopment Committee has been reviewing it and amending it.

The most important part in the process of reviewing and finalizing

A relocation plan is sitting down with the residents at Crescent Halls which we will be able to shortly do now that we're getting a better understanding of how the construction phasing could work and you'll be hearing a little bit more from Mr. Griggs on that point.

So we look forward to sitting down in the very near future, in fact before your next meeting because our goal is to get that relocation plan thoroughly vetted by residents and be able to bring it to you for your May meeting for approval.

So that's the plan.

We'll hopefully be able to make that happen.

Demolition and disposition, I wrote this memo a week ago and in the meantime we've had a little bit of a change in that.

We learned of an environmental review process, public comment process that we have to undertake with the help of the city which won't delay it extensively but it just means we have to put it out for public comment.

The environmental assessment piece of the demo display application, we have to put that out for public comment.

Did you receive word back from the city?

I have not.

So Dave has made an ask of the Neighborhood Development Services staff who typically oversee this type of engagement piece.

Right, so we didn't want to wait until your next meeting to approve or at least to authorize your executive director to submit a demo Dispo app.

So the thinking as Mr. Collins referenced earlier is that we get working with city staff to jump through that hoop with the environmental review process.

and then we would take the Demo Dyspo app itself and sit down with our Redevelopment Committee over the next week or two and make sure everybody's on board with it.

Again, mostly it's just checking boxes but there are a lot of attachments to it relating to resident engagement, relating to the environmental assessment, et cetera, et cetera.

So, but time is definitely of the essence.

So, hopefully, the resolutions before you tonight simply say, here's what's happening

We want you to be able to deputize Mr. Duffield to sign off once the apps are finalized and we're ready to go.

I have a question.

Yes, sir.

And this may be a little out of the box, but I think

It's worth discussing from PHAR's perspective, you like when I do that one day?

She said no, she don't like when I do that.

From PHAR's perspective, the Housing Authority Board's perspective, and the community's perspective as a whole.

What if, because as you alluded to, it's going to take about a hundred million dollars to do redevelopment as a whole, and council, we've tried to do so much, but I wouldn't

Press, I love that that's going to be the norm.

That's why we tried to get as much as we could now.

But while we have this group, what if we were to approach the university and ask them for a $50 million commitment towards affordable housing for us specifically?

President Ryan has spoke at length, and I've seen him.

We've had different discussions.

I know they've spoken at length in regards to how they want to do something for the community.

They have an $8 billion endowment.

Everywhere you turn around, I just

tweeted this and put this on Facebook.

Thanks for retweeting it, John.

You know, a lot of people, they have these symposiums, these conferences about affordable housing and public housing, and then we only have 12 people who come to the meeting.

Seven of them are staff.

The other five are far-ups.

If we want to be serious from our board's perspective, there has not been an ask.

from us specifically to the university about this is clearly what we want.

I was going to do something on my way out, but I do think it would be stronger if we did something, because I was going to ask for the check myself.

But I think it would be worth us having that discussion.

I know he's had his committee on equity and so forth, but they came back saying the same thing that we already knew.

So we need to make the ask.

I think, Wes, I think really one of the biggest

I love these people so much I'm just going to leave you.

But in all seriousness though, like Mr. Duffield, I think that this ain't got to be about me.

Because this will literally go past my term on council.

But we get the ball rolling and we draw the attention.

What it is, is they've never had an ask.

And Miss Jones, you can correct me if I'm wrong.

Since I work at UVA, that the new president has, I mean, seemingly I've heard him speak a few times now, but he seems to legitimately care about this.

So I feel like there's a momentum and a time that we've got right now.

And so I agree, I don't know what the exact

ask her how to... Well you shoot for 50 and then if they come back with 20...

But there's a lot of...

There's a lot of backup I think that they could add.

For real, he told me this.

He said 50 million dollar bond last year and I laughed at him and then at the council meeting I told him he's crazy.

But he's absolutely right and because of that we got the largest, not because of all of y'all, we got the most money we've ever put in.

So like, we just, I don't know what's wrong with us saying to UVA,

Listen, you guys have said, like you said, you talked about this and whatnot.

Here's our plan.

We want $50 million that will address this site, this site, this site.

We're already working on it and so forth.

What are you going to do?

Let's run it up to the board of visitors.

Let's run it up to the director.

Let's run it up to whomever.

I think we could get some pretty quick statistics to back it up.

I'm just saying I've got some stuff and there's stuff out there just to say here's some bullet points of what we're

What's causing some of this inequity here?

So we'd like to cash in here.

No, I didn't say I was doing the work.

I said, here's the idea.

I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

It's not an official subcommittee but we charge you all to talk about it.

Just preliminarily put it on the table I think

I think one of the areas that we need to continue to consider as part of our overall strategy is the home ownership piece.

If we're making this kind of an ask, how can we fold some of that into the overall program?

I agree and it's important to keep in mind there are universities around the country that have played a very active role in supporting community housing economic development so there are precedents and it doesn't even necessarily need I mean it'd be great if they cut us a 50 million dollar grant but

Maybe it's a long-term, low-interest loan, a socially responsible investing kind of approach, but an infusion of anywhere close to $50 million would be huge.

All right.

All right.

Good evening and thank you for having me today.

This is, I think, my fifth visit to the beautiful city of Charlottesville, so I want to thank you guys for having me again.

I'm going to piggyback off of the conversation we just had and follow up with some information from Chicago.

So I sit on the Chicago

Investment Commission, and also the Chicago Community Land Trust Board.

And six years ago, we also made an ask to then President Obama for $1 billion in investment in Chicago for public housing.

And on his way out the door, he gave us a half a billion dollars to the Chicago Housing Authority.

So I think that you shoot for the stars and you'll land on the moon.

So I think you should definitely go for it.

That would be my advice.

So I grew up in public housing in Chicago.

and Cabrini Green, which at the time was the largest public housing project in the country, housed about 4,100 units.

Today, Queensbridge in New York is the largest public housing development of about 3,100 units, where we do work there as well.

Started this business of mine in general construction, construction management development.

and consultancy back in 2009, worked in this industry for a long time, spent 16 years working for a company in Chicago called Walsh Construction, spent a couple years out in Washington DC working for another firm called Clark Construction.

So I'm very familiar with the affordable housing space.

Our firm focuses on affordable housing across the country.

We have offices in Dallas, we have an office in Chicago, and hopefully soon we'll have an office in Charlottesville.

So we are focusing our efforts on affordable housing across the country.

We also do work for the federal government and the diplomatic housing space and also military barracks.

So you'll find us at Fort Hood, Fort Leonard Wood, and a bunch of the other military barracks.

I'm also a veteran in the United States Army.

I spent 11 years in the Army as a captain.

what we call the Army Contracting Officer, so building barracks across the country and military barracks.

Did two tours overseas and during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom as well.

So I've been working with PHAR and the Housing Authority here for the last probably about 13 or 14 months, maybe a little bit longer than that.

Just really as a pro bono advisor, just assisting them.

I met them when they came with a delegation to Chicago and they were introduced to me.

by some of the folks

It's a different type of transaction.

There's a financial one, but there's also a social transaction.

And the social transaction is a lot bigger than the financial transaction, because it'll never be successful if you don't reach the people.

So with that, we focus our development and our opportunities on that.

We focus on the people.

Our company employs about 116 folks.

Of those 116 people, 72 are public housing residents.

Those are 72 public housing residents.

from the City of Chicago that would not be employed if it were not for our firm.

And as we expand in Dallas, right now our staff is about 11, and of that 11, 5 are from public housing.

So we are continuing that trend in Dallas, Texas as well.

But it's important.

Because when you go into communities and you start to do work and you invest in those communities, the people who live there and have made that their home should be the first to realize the investment and the impact within those communities.

And when that doesn't happen, you create this descent of inequity and people get unhappy and there's no success there.

So our goal is to, being boots on the ground, is to make the folks' lives that we're going to impact through the development, we want that to be a positive experience, but we also want them to be able to participate.

in that experience as well.

So we're meeting with everyone here in Charlottesville.

I think that's been at the forefront of the conversation that I've continued to have as we meet.

What I've seen is that there's something unique going on here in Charlottesville that I have not seen, not even in Chicago or in Dallas.

There is a sense of urgency and everybody seems to be on the same accord.

It's about helping the residents and it's about helping the people.

And I've seen the residents have a very, very large voice here in Charlottesville, which I have not seen even in Chicago or Dallas.

So I think that's very important because they're driving the bus and they're not just a passenger on it.

so I think that's extremely important.

What I've seen as we begin to push the process forward as I mentioned when I was here in December that we were a little bit behind the gun.

I'm starting to see things pick up a little bit which is great.

Today I spent my day walking Crescent Halls doing more of the construction work.

I'm an engineer by trade so I like to get dirty even though I get to wear a suit every day these days but I still like to climb in the holes and actually figure out what's going on in the building so we did that today for a number of hours.

I was at Crescent Halls from 8 this morning until about 1130.

I just really walk in the building looking at the guts with the architect up on the roof and climbing around and just figuring out what do we need to do to make this renovation process as smooth as possible for the residents.

I'm pleasantly surprised and happy to deliver some news.

I think in the phasing report that I sent out to Riverbend a few months ago that was included in the light text submission, we had a tiered approach to the phasing for the construction.

which show that we would need 49 units available to us at the present time.

It looks like we may be able to do a floor by floor renovation taking two floors at a time and we would only need 30 units available to us at that particular point in time.

Now, I do like to put an asterisk by that because there are some things that need to be qualified.

like the existing stack system and if that needed to be replaced and some other things that may impact us being able to renovate on the floor by floor but of the half a dozen or eight or nine unit buildings that we've done of this type in Chicago and the two we have under construction in Dallas we've been successful at doing those on a floor by floor basis and it really makes life a lot easier especially when you're in a senior facility where everyone can't utilize the staircase even if they wanted to

You still have to provide access to a working elevator and you have to provide a free and clear access to that elevator as well.

So working very hard on REM to make sure that regardless of whoever winds up being the contractor on the job, that there is a clear plan in place for them that the housing authority has to be able to implement a process that's going to ensure the safety of the residents.

But also ensure that the product is turned over to the housing authority and it's one that you can be proud of.

and have for the next 15 to 30 years.

So with that, I wanna thank you for your time and I look forward to spending more time here in Charlottesville.

I love the weather.

Thank you for making it hot for me because in Chicago, it was 41 degrees when I left, but just so happened today, it was 79 degrees.

So clearly when I leave, it gets warmer and when I get back tomorrow, it'll be, or Wednesday morning, it'll be 50 degrees again.

So I'm not too excited about that.

Thank you.

I just want to add, you know Mr. Griggs is committed because two weeks from now he's getting married in Mexico and we are thrilled that even though he's in the final stages of putting together his wedding, he still took time to come here to Charlotte.

Thank you.

Are there questions or comments from the board?

Yes, behind tab four, you'll see a resolution 1395

Authorizing the Housing Authority to submit a demo-dispo application to the HUD Special Application Center.

I'll read through this briefly, and then we will discuss as needed.

Whereas Creston's Halls is a public housing apartment building and site located at 500 South First Street in Charlottesville, Virginia, defined as Charlottesville property parcel number

280218000, and whereas Crescent Halls is currently subject to a deed of trust between the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, and the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority, and whereas Crescent Halls is an eight-story high-rise building consisting of 105 apartments, as well as community common areas and administrative office space situated on 2.38 acres and

Whereas CRHA, working in tandem with our Resident Advisory Board, the Public Housing Association of Residents, seeks to completely rehab and refurbish the Crescent Hall's property, retaining the site as 100% affordable, low-income housing development, supporting 105 tenant leaseholders, and whereas in 2017, CRHA and PHAR developed a resident-led

Redevelopment Approach to Public Housing Redevelopment, grounded on PHAR's positive vision for redevelopment, planning efforts, and community engagement, as well as CRHA's residents first organizational vision.

And whereas this resident-led redevelopment initiative has mandated that residents advance all planning and decision-making throughout the development of the proposed project in coordination with the local jurisdiction and community stakeholders,

And whereas the City of Charlottesville has endorsed and provided all necessary approvals for the proposed rehabilitation project and has committed $1,875,000 in capital funding to assist CRHA in the construction of this project,

and whereas HUD demolition and disposition application approval is sought under 24 CFR 970.17C for improved efficiency effectiveness through onsite development of low income housing.

now therefore be it resolved by the commissioners of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority that the executive director is hereby authorized to take all necessary actions to submit a demolition and disposition application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Special Application Center for the rehabilitation and refurbishment of 105 apartment units at Crescent Hall's facility, VA 16-AMP2.

Thank you.

All in favor?

Aye.

And next we have under tab 5 a similar resolution for our South First Street property.

You want to walk us through that one?

If you want to just highlight any sort of major differences between the two.

The significant differences obviously are the location.

This demo application is not a rehab refurbishment.

This is development of new units on our currently undeveloped property at South First Street, the Ball Field area.

The resolution identifies again City of Charlottesville support in the amount of $1,125,000 and it cites a different CFR as this is considered a disposition of vacant land.

Other than that, the passage of the resolution

Is there a motion?

I move to accept resolution 1396 approved to submit demo-dispo application to HUD for South First Street and develop land.

It's pretty thrilling actually.

Yeah, and I know Dave mentioned it, but a huge thanks to everyone here in this room, Brenda Kelley, PHAR, our partners in the city, our advising staff at Riverbend for really sort of getting us to this point to date, so thank you.

and, gosh, we're really just moving right along.

I will.

Yes, thanks.

Chairman Jones, commissioners, behind tab 6, you'll find the executive director's report

dated April 19th, 2019.

In the cover memo, you can see the major activities that we've been focusing on during the reporting period.

Again, the demo-dispo application as well as the relocation planning efforts have been underway.

We completed redevelopment funding applications and submitted those at the end of March.

The parallel track planning that Mr. Collins alluded to earlier is effort that is currently underway and I think Mr. Collins summarized very succinctly coming out of that meeting there is some additional clarity that we need to perhaps from a board level help define

The next step in the process, as I understand it and please help correct me, is a reconvening next week during which we look through the existing capital fund budgets that we have open and determine what funding sources there can be used to help support

Modernization and parallel track activities in addition to the city funding that has been designated for modernization.

We got a sense of what kind of resources we have available to pursue this.

The next piece is to, and should take place at the same meeting, is to have some candid conversations with our existing maintenance staff who see the conditions of the properties day in and day out and help us to identify sort of what are the systemic opportunities out there that we can take advantage of to create modernization in certain units.

As Mr. Collins said, there is some struggle between how do we make definition between standard maintenance activities versus true modernization project.

I think that's something that, while they certainly overlap,

I think that's something that we should probably need to discuss again on a board level and be able to help create some parameters.

I don't know if that's something we need to do at this meeting.

Mr. Collins, would you like to join us?

I honestly don't have a position.

I think we're searching for a position and a vision that we can all kind of come to grips on.

So I was thinking perhaps our board chair might be a better source of information.

Sure.

Hey, Miss Slaughter.

How's Chicago?

I'm sorry, y'all.

So, as I was sitting back there and still thinking about the conversation, the robust conversation that we had at the Parallel Track meeting, I think I'm more convinced now that the Maintenance Committee and the Parallel Track should be one to be able to

You're shaking your head, but it's- I'm processing that recommendation.

Because, again, because of, and the reason I was saying that is because of the things that needs to be, that is routine, that can shift to capital, and that what will be modernization.

Right, so to me it is in three categories.

I think Mr. Osteen kind of helped us to see that the last time is that, and we was hoping that that's something Cornelius could help us with going forward is how we make the parallel track work in such a way that

even though the work is going on with Crescent Halls and we're looking at building something new that we're still maintaining what we have because some of those long-term probably will be relocation units.

I also think that a maintenance supervisor or a capital improvement person is really, really needed.

I don't think that we can take on all of the above and not really have someone with the expertise that can actually say, you know what?

And I think part of the conversation going forward is gonna have to be about which site we're gonna modernize and which site we're gonna just maintain.

So this is why I was saying that I think we need to have

because you know the maintenance committee and the parallel track work is one I think you get much more because you have board members there and you will have residents there and we can prioritize some things if folks need to go off in a subcommittee to do work then that's fine but I just think I'm just I'm overloaded okay

and Audrey is overloaded.

We're at meetings, we're splitting up now to go to different, different meetings and, you know, Carolyn, you know, Crescent Halls is where they need to focus.

So I'm just trying to make sure that we're utilizing the energy and the people that we have.

to be able to still deal with the other population needs but also to make sure the parallel track is being discussed.

So that's kind of what I was wrapping my head around since the last meeting.

I keep missing some of the maintenance meeting because it's on days that, you know, if they have it on Wednesday, I work, so I can't be there, but I think that

Miss Oliver at the meeting had a good idea about let's hear from staff and I do think it's critical that the housing director is sitting at that table and basically telling us right and the maintenance people what they're running into we can sit around the table or you know I'm not I don't want this

People at home, I don't want you to take it the wrong way, please.

But we've been saying and carrying the message for a while, we need to hear from the people who are doing the actual work, what it is.

And this is where I feel like

After your honeymoon is over, I feel like having convenience in the room to basically help us.

But I just think for the housing authority, one of the most investment that I think that, and I don't know if it's in the budget or what you can do, but I just think that we have gone too long without a maintenance supervisor and someone with capital experience.

We can get maintenance supervisor services if we come out of capital.

So they wouldn't be officially CRHA staff, but we would find a consultant who has expertise in this area who would serve these needs for us.

And just another caveat, there's been discussion at the maintenance committee meeting.

I'm so confused sometimes where I'm at.

But here's been some discussion about having

a team of people who are contracted to do walk-throughs and all.

We already have that team.

That team is an asset manager.

Okay?

And so I don't think we need to go down that road.

I think the housing director has that under control.

Thank you, Ms. Johnson.

That makes a lot of sense to me, especially the idea of the systemic, what you're talking about, the systemic problems versus maybe the one-time fixes.

And it'll just take a while to prioritize all of that and which sites.

But it makes sense to have maintenance.

Well our next, and I don't have the date, I guess it's next Monday at noon we have our next parallel track meeting at which time we walk through the capital budgets and we talk with the maintenance staff and I think coming out of that

What I hope we can do is then start identifying, okay, what are the kinds of projects that fall into a modernization scope as opposed to standard maintenance?

I'm not trying to be funny here but I think this is also a time why I think we need an attorney but one thing that I would love for us to do at this meeting so that we don't belabor it because you have your meeting and then you have to come back and get approval if we could authorize now those committees of moving forward with after the meeting on Monday and then

Yeah, I don't think there's anything that would force it to come back to us, but thank you for wanting to keep things moving forward.

I agree, I think that at the parallel track meeting on Monday, it would be ideal to sort of have a discussion about

for a contract and what that might look like.

And I totally understand that we're all stretched thin and this is a huge need.

I totally agree that it's really not going to get any traction or move forward until we have that body who's in charge on a day-to-day basis.

And I think when that happens we'll

maybe sort of leave it up in the air as to how much the committees or the work gets combined.

You know, the one thing we all know is that maintenance issues are really important.

People live them day to day and that they will take a whole meeting to discuss.

So I guess I'm just still wary about marrying them so closely because I feel like

Bigger, long-term modernization projects just only the air time that they need to get fully fleshed out in committee when maintenance is also mixed in because it too takes a lot of time.

And I do think as we get more of a handle on maintenance and get

you know housing director's office and hearing from staff and as some things get into place then there'll be more space for that conversation but I just want to be cognizant that we really do need a body to lead the conversation and that for a while it might be mostly maintenance focused.

That just seems to be the reality of the conversations I've been in for the past couple of years.

But it's all not to say that we're not thinking about the parallel track.

And I really think, you know, bringing this group, this committee, a scope of services to flesh out that really sort of focuses on, you know, big picture rehabs or, you know, air conditioning, air conditioning units, testing those out, some pilot projects.

I think it's really key to include some financing and procurement expertise as a part of this package as we think about it, whether it be on the legal side or in the expertise side of whoever we have come in and be the day-to-day brain behind this.

like a major position.

So, I mean, maybe they, you know.

They're scheduled to meet once a month.

But they haven't been.

But our next maintenance meeting will be, what would I say?

We had to postpone it this month because Commissioner Talbert nor I could be there.

So we'll keep you posted on that.

I was just saying for now maybe make sure to invite the whole maintenance, try to get the maintenance committee at the parallel track meetings.

for a start.

So I think they need a backup person on the committee to win.

So let's find a backup person that can set- Well I agreed to be that backup person and

You have to have communication with each other.

I think it's a must.

Yeah.

I think that Commissioner Talbert and I both need to come up with, I mean, you know what I'm saying, some kind of, if she can't do it, then just as you have, or need be, just this week, said I can't make it.

So are you willing to make that, have that conversation or are you willing to make that conversation with her?

Of course.

Oh, okay.

However, I will say that.

And I'm sorry, I will, and staff can help.

While it is ideal for board members to be present, and we so appreciate the effort that the board's been putting on this, given that our housing director staff is really kind of

More active than they were when we originally formed this committee.

How do you all feel about in the instance like you just gave when the board members weren't able to be there, staff going ahead and having the meeting with residents that come and then sort of reporting back to us.

Okay.

That way we can get some consistency for residents.

right if that's what's standing anyway just to make sure that we Charlene oh it's Charlene Green coming to maintenance meetings as well as yeah okay the whole green team I like it

Okay, good.

So we'll relay that to Commissioner Talbert as well, that while it's always the hope that she be there to lead the conversation and represent the board in addition to you, Miss Slaughter, that if on the chance something happens and she's not able to be there, we know you're going to be out on medical leave for a little while.

I'm sorry, you need to come to the front.

When we have the meeting, it's not as big of a turnout as the ones that we have in the daytime.

It's a night one.

So it hasn't been a real big turnout.

Like the resident one, it's nice.

Okay.

So we'll take that under advisement.

Thank you.

Maybe do some consulting to find a time where we get more turnout.

But it also may be the case that we just don't have any traction with this committee yet.

So thank you.

Yeah, you might not be able to be here in person, but Mr. Duffield, we have ordered Chromebooks for any board of commissioners who needs a Chromebook to be able to conduct housing authority business as a commissioner.

And they're in boxes right over there.

No, that's okay.

That's good.

And I'm going to touch just a couple other points.

I got invited late last week to go down this week to the Vaccado Virginia Community Development Housing Organization.

Annual Conference.

HUD is down there giving a talk on redevelopment.

They asked if I'd come down and they wanted to talk about, wanted me to share what was going on in Charlottesville and my intent very much is to sort of turn that and to

Leading into a discussion of what resident-led and truly resident-focused redevelopment means rather than just what they want to hear is how the process works and what forms you put in and things like that.

every intent to just say look that's fine but that's not what gets the work done and done well.

What's made us successful is the partnerships and so you know I may have to call you to come get me or something like that.

I may not want to hear that but we'll see.

I've included

Let me hear an update on the Charlottesville Supplemental Rental Assistance Program.

I was asked by the HAC last week to give an update, and so I'm providing for you essentially what I gave to them.

The first page is a program history that follows how we've gotten to this point from the sort of inception of the idea in 2016 to finally go into contract with the city in 2018.

The next page is the parameters.

City Council allocated $900,000 in funding for use within the fiscal year ending 2018, implemented essentially a 35% holdback, leaving $585,000 available to support the program, programs to provide

Assistance to low income families at 60% of AMI or less and families must live or work in Charlottesville to be able to use the program.

The other piece was that the programs essentially mirror our HCV program.

To date we have served 89 families.

We're currently assisting 77 families.

So we've had 12 families that have migrated off the program.

77 families equates to 242 people.

137 kids under the age of five.

105 adults, two elderly individuals, and 24 disabled.

As we sit here today, we have three families who are still searching for housing.

We are no longer enrolling participants in the program.

We do have a waiting list.

We've had a total of 151 applicants over the course of the past year.

30 of those have been unable to find housing.

Nine participants were previously homeless.

We had 10 slots allocated for homelessness.

and we have 20 participants who are in self-sufficiency programs and the program allowed 20 slots for self-sufficiency.

To date, we've expended $447,544.

Our monthly rental expenses are just under $50,000.

Our projected spend by the close of this fiscal year will be $547,294.

Remember we had $585,000 available from the city, so we will likely come in below the amount that was available.

Average rental assistance is $647.

A projected year two need if we continue to only serve 77 families.

would be about $650,000 and that assumes a 10% increase in costs and again no more families than we currently serve.

I think the program's been successful.

I think it is being successful.

I would agree.

You know, this is one of those programs that is just fun to be part of, right?

You help people get in housing.

I think it's achieved the goals that the city council's looking for.

We will go in front of city council, I believe on May 6th, and well, that's, we don't know.

So on the applications of the folks that are not able to find housing, the 30 that weren't able to find housing,

Yeah, the way the program sets up is written today.

When a family comes in and enrolls in the program, they have 90 days within which to find housing within the city.

If they can't find it within the city, we have the option to extend it another 90 days.

They can continue to look in the city and they can look in Albemarle County.

If at the end of that 90 day period they're unable to find housing, then yeah, that's

sort of expended the timeframe that we're able to help them with.

Now, I think within this number of 30, I think a number of folks have probably voluntarily withdrawn, moved out of the area, something of that nature.

I don't know how many are sort of, am I saying that, or am I?

Okay, I mean, if I'm...

and the program set aside what 10 10 vouchers if you will 10 slots for homeless 20 slots for self-sufficiency right all others to roll from our housing choice about we make

make it available to those on our housing choice voucher list with the caveat that if they accepted the city voucher, the city funding, they didn't lose their spot on the housing choice voucher list because the city funding is maybe temporary.

And yeah,

So that is happening?

Yes, I did have one.

who went through Albemarle County though.

And then even though our wait list isn't open, I'm very curious just personally, and this isn't a city issue so much, or it's devil in the details, but of course when we adopted a new admin plan that then also applied to this program and just sort of curious in general how it had been a lottery system before, now we have a preference-based list system, how

That might have changed the program or how we are doing and sort of implementing that.

And folks want to know about what 37% of our clients are residing in Albemarle County.

The other 63% are finding homes within the city of Charlottesville.

And we're still holding that set aside as the set aside?

Fantastic.

Thank you.

I've been hearing about you.

Good things.

very quickly on the financials.

We're at the year end and what we'll find, these are preliminary year end numbers.

As we sit here today, we close the year $25,000 in the red.

I say this is preliminary because we have

We have funding that we have not received primarily from the city that should make that change significantly.

For $25,000, the whole we're waiting on $74,000 in support of the residents on the job program.

Assuming

City Council agrees to release that portion of funding, how to greatly impact our bottom line.

We also have expenses related to additional security services that I know we talked

At this body at the time, we agreed to expand.

There was some question as to whether or not the city would be willing or able to help support us in that additional expense, but that expense is about $57,000 greater.

It is absolutely what we need to do.

It does impact our bottom line.

We have some redevelopment funding that is currently pending, outstanding with the city that we are.

I don't know.

I made a report.

Are you familiar with any?

I said are you familiar with what the potential holdup may be in terms of releasing the funds?

Right.

For May 6th, okay.

I'm assuming it'll be on the consent agenda or will it be on the consent agenda or will it be a presentation?

Okay, got you.

Is there information that's required, additional information that's required?

Miss Kelly, would you mind coming up and addressing if you had a moment?

Yes, please.

For the record, Brenda Kelly, Redevelopment Manager with the city.

So when the funding was approved by the city council,

There were some requirements by the city council they wanted and there was a funding agreement put in place and many of the items in the funding agreement that were required were not complied with.

So staff is not able to authorize the release of the funds, only city council can do that.

Yeah, I know the reporting requirement, quarterly reporting requirement wasn't met, but we submitted the closeout report and I think demonstrated that the project goals were met.

I understand, I don't know, are there comments that are coming back to the Housing Authority?

Yeah, I absolutely agree.

Okay, I'll work on my part.

Alright, cool.

So, let me work on that.

That would be higher up that reviews the reports.

Which would be Mr. Murphy or?

Yep, it might be the budget office.

Cool.

All right, so then we could probably clear that up.

Yeah.

Make sure that staff recommends it.

I'll also be talking to colleagues on council.

And we set.

That's it.

For CRHA, for the, yeah.

Thank you, Ms. Kelly.

See, problem solved.

There you go.

We're good.

Are there other questions and comments from Mr. Duffield on the financials, year-end closeout numbers?

Commissioners, thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Duffield.

We now have a brief moment for the Resident Services Committee report.

Who would like to present that?

No, no, that's all right.

Were you at the Resident Services Committee?

Wonderful.

Thank you, Ms. Johnson.

George Johnson, 802A Hard Drive, and I am one of the co-chair of the resident services committee.

The resident services committee was met on April the 11th.

And as you can see, I won't say who are the people that were present there.

So we basically talked about

The following the calendar, the Resident Services Committee, we decided part of what we did with our work plan was that we needed to come up with a calendar for the whole year and to put different subject items that we talk about.

As you know, for folks who are probably joining the first time,

have these resident services committee meetings on different sites for three months in a row and then we shifted.

And so we were at West Avon, we've been at Crescent Halls, this will be the third meeting at Crescent Halls and then we will move to South First Street.

But what we heard from the residents at Crescent Halls was what Miss Judy speak about which was security.

and the concerns about when crime is committed that people have nowhere to go and so the Resident Services Committee decided that we would just flood Crescent Halls with services because and so we asked them what services they want and at a Resident Services meeting they basically gave us some idea.

We had Sarah, Sarah was there

Pace was there, they also talked about Bingo, so right now on the calendar there will be a counseling session, safety session, and they had a defense group, right?

They had a defense group that came in that was put on

by Sarah.

So there is a calendar that Miss Green is helping, not Miss Claudette Green, but Miss Charlene Green is working on to get the calendar full.

And I think they're working with Tenant Association and the Tenant Association.

So it's a collaborative idea.

It did not, we did not, we did have a police officer who attended

one meeting but they haven't and so I will talk to Miss Green about making sure that that police officer is a, and if you can help me Wes is to also make sure that we have a police officer who is a member of the Resident Services Committee who is attending so some of these safety issue can be, and I think at one point we had also said that

I think the security millennium should be a part of that also so that they can hear from the residents and address some of those things so we're continuously working on that calendar hopefully before we leave Crescent Halls that calendar will be set but even after we've gone working with the Tenant Association and the staff

to make sure that it is attempting to address region 10.

I will be there also.

What's the date again?

The date?

Thursday May 9th.

We meet every second Thursday of the month.

Thursday the 9th.

Is it at Crescent Hall one last time?

That will be the last meeting.

Got you.

Yeah, but Charlene Green is helping to coordinate that and I think Raphael

Holland is also working on that.

So we hear the residents of Crescent Halls, we're just trying to figure out another alternative to how, because they, for me what was just, whenever I look at that building, my heart really cringe, because it's another world in that building, right?

and you know, Audrey and I hear stories, Audrey hears stories, she says, Carolyn, whatever.

And so this was another proactive way of trying to do something and having, you know, cause when someone get raped, I know it's, I thank one day for letting me know that that's a trigger, right?

And even that,

when we're talking about things like that we have to be so sensitive about how we do that and so there's a lot of people in that building who they want to talk to somebody but they don't feel safe talking to that person because they don't want it to come back and so we need to find a way and services where somebody can fit for

feel free to have a relationship with them so that their needs can be taken care of and hopefully what we have in place will be a part of the redevelopment scheme.

We talked about the meet and greet.

Ms. Green talked about that a little bit.

We mentioned about Colenious Grigs coming in, but that date got changed.

So I did not, I thought I was lying about it.

It was supposed to have been last week, but it's this week.

And so I apologize for that.

The PEC policy.

A notice went out from Ms. Claudette Green, the housing director about that, which was, it was a reminder to people because you signed it within your lease.

And so it was a reminder, but the maintenance, I mean, not the maintenance policy, the parking policy is the other one that is coming up, that to send out reminder because it's getting warm now and,

Some asset manager is enforcing it.

It's not across the board.

We're hoping that it will be across the board.

And so I think she's going to be sending that out.

And then we talked about service.

So we had somebody from Mickey Drive.

So there is a big concern about Mickey Drive.

and so because it was brought up we're gonna make sure we're trying to figure out a way how we move some of the resident services meeting even in that direction right because that's a site that it just seems like it's out of sight out of mind we might be able to borrow the region 10 room if you can help with that we would gladly want it to be oh I'm getting a look that says maybe not there I'm not sure maybe what is it

Well, if you, yeah, you will figure it out.

Thank you, Miss Johnson.

All right, um, any questions or comments for Miss Johnson on the Resident Services Committee?

If not, that was a very thorough report, thank you.

I do, I have one thing.

I'll be sending a formal note to the board.

On June 29th,

There is a request for a race or excuse me a run a four-miler walk slash jog slash run and it's called run the streets so essentially there's an effort by several members of the community myself being one to encourage physical fitness amongst African Americans and specifically within

Traditionally African American communities in the city, so whether that's Tonsler Park, First Street, West Haven, so forth.

In any event, there's five Ks and four milers always going around in the city.

So the goal is to have a four miler that runs through our neighborhoods.

So the thought is to start at the Jefferson School, go from the Jefferson School, run up West Main, go into West Haven, from West Haven run up 10th Street, go down,

Pass the hospital, go through Prospect, go through Greenstone Commons, come out, make a left, go through Ridge Street, then eventually come through First Street, go from First Street, make a right, go up Elliott, make a left on Sixth Street.

Go down 6th Street, go through Friendship Court, run through the parking lot of Crescent Halls, make a right on Oak, pass the Daughters of Zion Cemetery, run past Barrett,

Thank you and from there go back to the Jefferson School.

So essentially again the idea is to encourage healthy living and running and seeing different folks jog and run through our neighborhoods.

So I wanted to run that by the board.

It's gonna be warm, but it starts early.

We've been running it.

My friends and I have been running it lately.

It's a little challenging, but the route is

Crawling?

Yeah, crawl, whatever.

But again, the idea is just to encourage physical activity.

So, you know, again, I wanted to run about a board, you know, hear you all.

And Grant, we just need to figure out if we need any sort of special dispensation for like if you like go through South First Street and not just down First Street kind of thing.

I love it.

I'm sorry.

You can't ride the scooter on the run.

Thank you.

Other business.

With that, I will give a couple meeting announcements.

Monday at noon at South First Street will be a continued discussion of parallel track and maintenance, followed by a redevelopment committee meeting at 1.30 that day.

And at that meeting, we will be, I can't remember what we're focusing on all of a sudden.

That's right, so we're looking at both to finalize the demo and dispo applications that we all approved grant signing this evening as well as really making the decision and how we're going to work together to make the decision on the general contractor for our upcoming projects.

and it's all at First Street, yes ma'am, thank you.

There will be a maintenance committee meeting, we're looking to finalize either the 25th or May 2nd, we'll get back to you all on that.

Resident Services Committee meeting is Tuesday, May 9th at 1 at Crescent Halls and the big deal is that our current meeting is scheduled for Memorial Day

and I heard back from both Betsy and Mr. Osteen that they are available to move that.

I had proposed some dates, but I wanted to run it by, and it sounds like Ms.

Slaughter will be out on medical leave, but Mr. Bellamy, what other dates you might be available in May?

I believe we were looking at, what did I say, Tuesdays or Wednesdays?

Or Wednesdays or Thursdays?

I think Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Oh, because of Planning Commission, Wednesdays or Thursdays in May, the 22nd, 23rd, or 29th, 30th?

Any day?

Really?

All right.

So it's a little before Memorial Day, but I think that's better.

All right.

So our next meeting will be Wednesday, May 22nd at 6 p.m. here in City Council chambers.

Yeah.

And if that's not available, we'll come back to you with Plan B.

But that's the intention.

Thank you all.

We now have on our agenda scheduled public comments for this evening.