CRHA Regular Virtual Meeting   6/22/2020

Okay, I call to order the monthly meeting for the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority on Monday, June 20, 2020 at 6pm.

This is a virtual meeting and I will read the Governor's Executive Order allowing us to meet this way.

Governor Northam issued an executive order EO 53, restricting public gatherings of greater than 10 persons, which I think now is 50.

I'm not sure, but it still applies.

Accordingly, code 2.2-3708.2

Page 3 permits public bodies to meet electronically to discuss business required or necessary to operation of the public body and discharge of its lawful purposes, duties, and responsibilities in times of emergencies and to address COVID-19.

Therefore, this meeting is being held electronically pursuant to Virginia law because the COVID-19 pandemic

makes it impractical and unsafe to assemble a quorum physically in a single location.

Leslie, would you like to do the roll call of commissioners?

I think we lost her.

Can you hear me?

Yes.

Chair Riker?

Yes.

Vice Chair Oliver?

Here.

Commissioner Goldblatt?

Present.

Commissioner Osteen?

Commissioner Talbert?

We have a quorum.

Let's have a moment of silence.

A lot going on in the world.

Just take a moment before we begin.

Thank you all.

So for general announcements and meeting dates, I can mention some meeting dates.

And then if anyone has other general announcements they'd like to share, please go ahead.

I know that the next

The next regularly scheduled meetings are the redevelopment meetings that have been continuing Thursday at 2.30.

And our next monthly meeting in July, I believe it's July 27th, but we're going to double check that and we'll send that out.

There was thought that maybe we would combine July and August into one last summer meeting as had been done in other summers.

But it's scheduled for July 27th at this time.

Are there any announcements from anyone that they'd like to share with the community who might be listening?

Okay, I have one that an announcement I don't know I see Kristin's on the line and I missed a meeting today but know that if residents have children that are at home they cannot do a summer camp and thinking ahead to the fall there is a group working on trying to provide some support

and I believe there will be a survey coming out just to see the ages of children that might need support and what kind of support and also a list of online summer courses and camps that have been collected that may be free or subsidized at some level.

So Kristin Singh will be coordinating that for us and maybe has more information on that later.

Anything else?

Okay, so we'll move on to public comments and our comments.

I believe if, I think I see Dave Norris on here.

I can read those if you want to start with those.

And then if we have other members of the public that would like to speak.

So we did, as many of you know, we solicit comments from the public for the board meetings through our CRHA comments at gmail.com email line.

We received two comments.

from that email line today that I'd like to read to the board.

First of all is from Dave Krovitz says, to the CRHA management, I live close to the apartments that you manage on Sixth Street at Bowling Avenue.

Every night for the past several weeks, there have been a tremendous number of fireworks, large and loud and by the hundreds, launched from the parking lot of this apartment complex.

This begins about 7 or 8 p.m. and continues until 2 or 3 a.m.

These fireworks are shot over the top of our houses and are certainly a huge fire and safety hazard.

As well, many here including my household are getting little to no sleep night after night.

I reached out to the city and Chief Brackney directed me to contact you directly and ask that you address this.

So that is the purpose of this email.

Can you please make an effort to stop these fireworks?

Thank you, Dave.

The second email that we received from CRHA comments at gmail.com was also about fireworks.

It's from Brian Decker.

To whom it may concern, I live a few houses up Monticello Avenue from Sixth Street.

Every night for the past several weeks, hundreds and hundreds of large and loud fireworks are set off from the middle of Sixth Street at Bowling Avenue and from the parking lot of the CRHA housing at that same location.

In the daytime, the area looks like a dump for firecracker or detritus.

This begins between seven and eight p.m. and continues until two or three a.m. every single day.

These fireworks are large, littering the ground all over the area.

Simply driving into the parking lots is an easy measure of how much is being launched.

They are bursting over top of our house and our neighbors' houses.

This is an obvious fire and safety hazard.

We cannot sleep.

Our dog paces all night long.

Our neighbor with dementia is suffering tremendously.

The non-emergency number to the police has been called by myself and multiple neighbors each evening.

The police are patrolling and doing what they can, but are referring people to contact you, i.e.

CRHA at this time.

Please help get this under control and also communicate with the surrounding neighborhood on what action is being taken.

For reference below are the relevant ordinances and laws, kind regards, Brian Decker.

And then he proceeds to cite a code from the city and from the state regarding the illegal nature of fireworks.

I see Ms. Green is on here.

Yeah, I've heard about it.

I do want to say it's not an isolated incident.

It's just not about public housing.

My daughter live in the Orange Dale, Bailey Avenue, and it's like a constant competition for some reason.

I don't know if the COVID people are bored.

The only thing we can do is send out a mass letter.

to read the policy to the people in the community about it.

We do have Millennium that's getting out the cars and walking the property now.

We also need the residents to step up and kind of help us out with who they know

is participating in it.

It's like a mad competition.

My daughter said her dog is a nervous wreck where the neighbor on the right hand is competing with the guy on the left hand and they're doing it.

So it's just not about public housing.

It's just the area right now.

But we did talk about sending a letter out to the communities and housing to let them know.

Great, thank you, Claudette.

So a letter to the residents, Millennium for Extra Security.

It sounds like this is, I know where I live, by the river here, well, on Chesapeake Street, we've also had fireworks the past few nights.

So it may be that there's something about people being pent up in the summer.

but we'll do our part in terms of asking the residents to help out and having Millennium specifically work on this.

This is Osteen.

Why isn't it a police matter at some point?

And I can answer that a bit.

Thanks.

Sorry about that.

I guess grappling with a lot of issues in the community right now first it appears that for fireworks maybe fire would be the first to respond and a noise complaint we would

You know, send a warning.

So we've been having these conversations too.

And I even called today to speak with Kathleen to see, because there are some people who've actually went around to try to see where the noise was coming from.

And it's not just, there's public housing, it's been Cleveland Avenue, Six and Bowling, there are sites all around the community.

So that's one thing.

we are trying to figure out from our standpoint what this what it looks like and it's just a um it's a free that's climate that we're in today anything that we made is anti-black lives matter and that's the spin

Community is placing on everything.

And so trying to not incite or, you know, create a reason where someone has heard people are pretty worked up about the police right now.

That is, you know, a conversation that we are having to have internally.

But there is a noise ordinance and some of the fireworks are illegal.

and those are conversations that the city that we are having all in this bigger context of the movement that we're in right now and the defund the police calls and some other very emotional relationships in the community not wanting to put anyone in a space where anybody's health and safety is jeopardized.

So we're trying to

I appreciate that answer.

Thank you.

Can I ask an additional question?

I'm thinking about the particular climate and I know that because of the COVID-19 restrictions, the various meetings, the maintenance committee, none of those groups are meeting, but I'm wondering if there's any way to try, even virtually, to have a meeting of some of the residents living in the area because I imagine that

They too have kids and dogs and that this is disturbing them too if there's an opportunity to talk to some of the residents and to see if there's a way that working with them that there can be a solution in addition to sending a letter if some of them say I know some of the people who might be setting them off and I can talk to them.

or something if there's a way that we can try to build resident capacity while thinking about ways that they might be able to start.

That might be something that's already happened and I don't know what's possible given connectivity issues, but if there's any infrastructure at all, people who are already meeting anything we could do, I'd be very happy to like send out a Zoom link or get involved in some of those conversations.

I think this might even fall into the safety committee which we're trying to work on reviving right now.

Right, was that the, that was the committee that, not Claudette Green, the other Ms. Green was heading, and so that facilitator was not a CRHA person.

Should we think about one of the commissioners taking that on, or I know PHAR is already represented, you know, I'm just trying to think about how to move that along.

I think we should have some conversation about it.

Okay, just so that we're able to, that would be a good venue, you know, that meeting.

I had been to a couple of them and it seemed fairly productive to have, Millennium was there, the police was there, CRHA staff was there, PHAR was there.

And I think having everyone at the table together worked really well.

Other public comment.

I just wanna know, because I know eventually we're gonna have Pharr comment.

I just put this into the chat, but Wanda Johnson had written it in the Q&A box.

She says that she and Brandon can't get in.

The phone-in option isn't working.

It looks like Brandon has his hand raised now.

Oh, I see it.

So Mr. Wheeler, we have a couple of people who might be able to help.

This is Brian Wheeler.

I'll be glad to check on the phone number.

It does require a webinar ID as well as a phone number.

So when people call that number, then you put in the ID and hit pound.

Let's see.

Brandon just he wrote into he says he's here.

So we have at least we have at least one far person.

Hi.

Brandon.

Good evening, commissioners.

Yeah, the phone thing was for somebody else who couldn't get on.

It sounded like Monday was figuring this out.

I'm not quite sure I can check.

Don't have a whole lot to say this evening.

I'm Brandon.

I work for PHAR, the Public Housing Association of Residents.

We are the Resident Advisory Council and Resident Advisory Board for Public Housing in Charlottesville.

A quick note about the safety committee.

Glad to hear that a commissioner will share that.

I think it's really important to have CRHA staff involved with that committee in order to have really actual implementation.

I think we've had problems in the past with committees that didn't always have full staff participation.

So just encouraging that, and I know that that can happen

and we'll talk a whole lot more about that stuff in the future.

I did wanna say as you're talking about sort of reopening with a phase three or phase two, I just wanna throw out there, the health and safety of tenants is vitally important.

Folks have been struggling for many months

and whether or not the governor says everything's cool, you know, health and safety wise, it's still a struggle.

And I personally would appreciate housing authorities continuing to do the extra precautions that you've been taking to ensure that folks are healthy and safe in their homes.

I did wanna add that the housing authority was super awesome about including PHAR staff with your repayment agreement training.

I'm really sorry that I missed that, but I think that it's going to be a big deal as we're coming out of official restrictions.

And I would encourage housing authority to maintain a moratorium.

It might be hard depending on what HUD decides it's going to do but at the very least be prepared and proactive about repayment plans not just waiting for residents to come to you but you know making that integrating that as part of the process when somebody is behind on their rent and you know I'm hoping there's not a ton of those folks a lot of folks have had a lot of help but

The crisis continues and the financial hit to residents is deep and is going to be long lasting.

So repayment plans are a piece of helping people not fall all the way down.

But I would encourage maintaining a moratorium on evictions.

Just also want to throw out a reminder that revising the ACOP and the section eight admin plan, those discussions do need to be revived.

I'm not sure what CRHA staff, how much progress they've gotten into that since COVID happened, but that's all stuff that we really want in place before people move into new buildings and renovated homes.

and that's a pretty big undertaking but we're looking forward to engaging with you all or re-engaging with you all on ACOP.

Lastly, Commissioner Oliver and Commissioner Talbert

I've been amazing public housing advocates and hardworking members of CRHA for a very long time.

I would like to just say a couple of things.

Both of them were PHAR interns.

Latita was in one of the groups that I facilitated, and Audrey was sometime before that.

But I think it shows that leadership can be helped along.

It can be developed.

It can be encouraged.

And I think our program speaks a lot to that.

But honestly, the work of these women has really been based on their integrity and their vibrancy and their ability to do the work.

A whole lot of changes have happened

in their time on the Housing Authority.

I believe when Commissioner Oliver came on, Connie Dunn was still here.

It was really messy.

When Commissioner Talbert came on, it was messy.

And I believe we were actually marching in the streets when she was first appointed when she was a resident in public housing.

and I wish I could name all the amazing things that have happened, but an amazing turnaround for this housing authority has happened.

And a lot of that's because of the hard work of these two women and they will be sorely missed.

I'm excited for new commissioners, but I just, I can't say more than, I can't say enough about these two and the extreme amount of hard work that they've put into this work.

Hope you'll stay connected and I know you will, but PHAR really appreciates your service to the residents.

And then lastly, I think, you know, as Kathleen returns to a different position with the housing authority than the interim director position, I think accolades are also deserved.

Kathleen has done a lot for this agency in a really short amount of time, had a lot of mess to deal with and has handled quite well a national health crisis and pandemic.

and I would say probably the most responsive director we've ever seen in terms of communication with PHAR.

Sometimes it's formal, sometimes it's been very informal, but extremely helpful and we really hope moving forward that that approach is adhered to and we expect to have Kathleen's judgment included in all major decision-making for the Housing Authority.

But that's it for now.

I'm sure I'll chime in later.

Thank you.

Are there other public comments?

I'm looking at the chat to see if Ms. Wande, not Joy Johnson, Ms. Johnson is trying to get in.

Wanda, are you still trying to get in for comment?

Okay.

All right, thank you so much.

So for updates from commissioners discussions and board work sessions, we haven't had a work session.

Do any of the commissioners have any comments before we move into the approval of minutes?

Okay, so let's go to the approval of minutes.

I can't say all those in favor.

Roll call for who's in favor.

Mr. Osteen?

Yes.

Miss Goldblatt?

Yes.

Yes, for the emergency meeting on the 14th.

Thank you.

Miss Oliver.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, wonderful.

Oh, it's Miss Johnson.

Hi.

I've been trying to log in since six o'clock.

I'm sorry.

That's okay.

So we'll move on to approval of resolutions.

So as Brandon and representing PHAR mentioned, this is Miss Oliver and Miss Talbert's last meeting.

We have a resolution for each of them.

And I would echo his comments.

I mean, I've not been on the board as long as they have.

So I learned a lot from them.

You know, when you're new, there's a lot to learn.

And it was wonderful to be able to learn from them even, you know, just sort of watching them all.

So does anyone, I have the resolutions before me.

I really wanted to thank Miss Talbert and Miss Oliver for their service.

I've learned so much from them.

I've only been on the board for a year, but I'm sorry that Latita isn't here, but I have learned how to ask questions from her, how to be really thorough, and how

and sometimes I think as a new board member when I've been confused I've been afraid to ask a question because I think it makes sense to everyone else and I have learned so much about speaking up when things are confusing and so I really appreciate that and Miss Oliver I've really learned what strong advocacy looks like, what it means to stick to your values and to say that sometimes the

Thank you anyone and I did tell Miss Talbert if she doesn't make it we can

We can formally read the resolution again when she's able to be with us.

I'll go ahead and then if anyone else wants to chime in.

Can you hear me?

I've only been on the board for a short time.

and well, six months, but with COVID, we haven't been meeting regularly.

I had been in other meetings like the Redevelopment Committee meetings with Miss Oliver.

So I've seen her and heard her voice and perspective.

more than Miss Talbert but I appreciate I think when you're like even hearing Brandon say that both of them came through the leadership training program and you know one of my first thoughts was just some of the stuff that they got you just can't get even from a leadership training program they you know you want that kind of fierce advocacy you know

in the room when you're there.

So I wish that we had more time together and Miss Talbert definitely, I only have experienced a few meetings with her and I really enjoy watching her ask questions and listening until she gets very clear answers that she's comfortable with and I really enjoy

you know being a part of that so I wish we had had more time together it's probably the only thing that I have you know to say but I hope that both of you know that what you all bring to the table is needed in the community and so many people benefit from it so

I hope they already know that we just voted for a position Miss Oliver on the Red Street Task Force.

Thank you.

And does anyone else want to comment?

And I wish we were in person because I feel like we could have a much more celebratory ending for this.

It's a little bit awkward on a call.

But yeah, I totally echo Miss Talbert.

I realize she helps us all realize sometimes when we have been discussing something over weeks that we've like dove really into some subject matter and she always kind of brings us back to remind us that in these monthly board meetings when residents may be watching, we need to back up and explain it clearly.

because even though we've been trying to understand it for ourselves and so you know I've had a little more time to think about it we get into discussions and sometimes it's really hard to understand what we're even talking about so I always appreciate when she kind of brings it back and says like all right let's how do we say this for people that haven't been thinking about this for a couple of weeks

um and I know Miss Oliver also had already been a so she's finishing six years both are finishing six years and Miss Oliver had been a commissioner previously on the board so this is her second sort of ending of a of a term um all right I'll go ahead and read the resolutions um

I will, okay.

And Ms.

Slaughter, I think is trying to get on the phone.

So resolution 1414, a resolution recognizing the dedication and effort of Ms. Audrey Oliver and her service to the residents and HCVCSRA participants

of the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority during her six-year tenure as CRHA Board Commissioner, Board Treasurer, and Board Vice Chair.

Ms. Oliver volunteered and was appointed by the Charlottesville City Council to serve the CRHA community as a commissioner of the CRHA Board of Commissioners beginning in July of 2014.

and whereas Miss Oliver was appointed to serve the CRHA community as treasurer of the CRHA Board of Commissioners beginning in July 2016 and whereas Miss Oliver was appointed to serve the CRHA community as vice chair of the CRHA Board of Commissioners beginning in July of 2019.

And whereas during her tenure on the CRHA board, Ms. Oliver has worked diligently to represent the needs of CRHA residents while ensuring the ongoing health and wellbeing of the agency.

And whereas Ms. Oliver has brought her institutional memory experience in history with the CRHA and commitment to the fundamental values of public service.

and where the Board of Commissioners and Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority wishes to express its appreciation for the admirable work that Ms. Oliver has done on behalf of the CRHA community over these past six years.

therefore be it resolved and known by all that with much gratitude the board of commissioners of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority do recognize and formally commend Ms. Audrey Oliver for her admirable efforts exercised on behalf of the residents of the CRHA thus benefiting not only those directly served but the greater Charlottesville community as a whole.

So anyway, thank you to Miss Oliver.

I very much hope we can find a way to celebrate you in person at some point.

And I'll move on to Miss Talbert.

And I'll go ahead and read hers and

We can read it again if she can join us, maybe come in next month, which is what we had done.

Mr. Bellamy had missed his final resolution.

For some reason, I think he was out of town.

Anyway, CRHA Resolution 1415, a resolution recognizing the dedication and effort of Miss Latita Talbert in her service to the residents and HCV

CSRA program.

Oh, hold on.

Oh, she is still not with us.

That's what she was telling us.

Program participants of the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority during her six-year tenure as a CRHA board commissioner, board vice chair, and board treasurer.

Whereas Ms. Talbert volunteered as a commissioner and was appointed by the Charlottesville City Council to serve the CRHA community as a vice chair of the CRHA Board of Commissioners beginning in July of 2014.

And whereas Ms. Talbert was appointed to serve the CRHA community as a treasurer of the CRHA Board of Commissioners beginning in July of 2019.

and whereas during her tenure on the CRHA board, Miss Talbert has worked diligently to represent the needs of CRHA residents and brought her expertise and her own experience with the HCV program to light.

And whereas Miss Talbert's commitment to a resident centric approach to the management of CRHA demonstrates the fundamental values of public service and asset-based community leadership.

and whereas the Board of Commissioners of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority wishes to express its appreciation for the admirable work that Ms. Talbert has done on behalf of the CRHA community over these past six years.

Alright, and we have a third resolution.

and first so this is the resolution to negotiate contract for the executive director position for CRHA and before I read it I just wanted to say thank you so much to our search committee

That was chaired by Miss Goldblatt and Miss Oliver.

I thought personally, you know, I thought they did a really great job of moving things along, being transparent and kind of keeping everyone in the loop of the process.

So thank you.

And thank you to everyone else who is on the committee that may not be on the call, but the residents.

I see Brandon Joy was on the committee.

Dave Norris was on the committee.

So thank you for everyone for all your comments and participation in time.

So the board met on

Oh my gosh, I think it was Friday.

Was it Thursday?

Friday?

Thursday.

The board met in a closed session.

and voted to hire John Sales as our permanent executive director.

He comes to us from the city.

He's now the housing coordinator with the city of Charlottesville.

So has been involved and understands our redevelopment process to date and where we are.

And we're excited for his hire.

I'll go ahead and read the resolution and then I know that John is a participant in the call.

I don't know if he can jump over to webinar and just say hi, but

We'll welcome him wherever he lands on the Zoom call.

So a resolution to negotiate contract for the executive director position, whereas the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, hereafter CRHA, is a local housing authority and whereas CRHA is governed by an appointed board of commissioners, which is empowered to make all managerial

and financial decisions for the authority, including the decision to enter into employment contracts with its employees.

And whereas CRHA wishes to hire John Sales to serve as the permanent executive director of the authority.

Therefore the board by unanimous consent does this 22nd day of June, 2020 hereby authorize and direct the board chair to work with the board attorney to negotiate Mr.

Sales

Contract and based upon that negotiation to execute an employment contract for the position of executive director with salary and benefits commensurate with his experience and qualifications, not to exceed those set forth in the published job posting.

I don't know that we need to vote on this because we voted.

I guess we vote on this even though we already voted, but this is to vote to move forward with the contract.

and then I can give a quick update after the vote.

Great.

So I'll do a roll call again.

Miss Goldblatt?

Yes.

Miss Oliver?

Yes.

Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Miss Slaughter, are you on the line?

Not sure, okay, so myself, yes.

And let me check the participant list if Ms.

Slaughter's showing up.

Ms.

Slaughter, if you can hear us, make sure to write.

Oh, Ms.

Yeah, I heard.

I thought you were there somewhere.

Are you voting yes to the resolution?

OK, thank you.

Good to hear your voice.

Thank you.

I'll give a little bit of an update.

And Mr.

Sales, I know you're on the call, so we can say welcome to you.

Thank you for being with us tonight.

We're really excited to work with you.

I thought I would just give an update.

We're working through his contract.

I think anything of content has been agreed on.

But Mr. Oberg, our lawyer

Notice some things in the contract.

So we're gonna work out kind of the legal, make it a tighter, better contract.

And then we're also going to update the performance review because Mr.

Sales will be in a six month probation period before his contract, the full contract kicks in so that we're very clear about what he's going to be, what we're looking at at that performance review.

So the board will be working on that with the hope that right now the start date is probably August 3rd, although he's being very flexible and easy to work with in case we need to move it.

But August 3rd sounds like it'll be the date for him to start.

I keep looking.

So John, excitement.

Welcome, Mr.

Welcome.

Welcome, Mr.

Great.

And we will find a way to roll out welcomes to residents and different stakeholders once we get, you know, we've got a little bit of time to plan out how to introduce them to all of our different committees, stakeholders, and obviously work with the staff.

as he gets rolling.

I also wanted to mention that Miss Glenn-Matthew has really

stepped up in her time as interim as I think also Mr. Collins mentioned.

Not only did she kind of step up and kind of dig into some of the more troubled, detailed aspects of CRHA that had been kind of waiting for someone to work through.

and has really moved our, I think, relationship with HUD and given us a positive direction for making some changes.

But also through the past three months with the COVID-19, as was stated, she stepped up and tried to anticipate the needs of the residents and how we could get ahead of COVID-19.

helping them, supporting them, thinking about the moratorium on evictions, going for several grants and being very successful with that to ensure that we would be able to help those residents who will need help to stay in their homes.

It's very hard to shelter in place, obviously, when the place is

Unstable, so I really commend her for stepping up to the plate and she has agreed to stay on until Mr.

Thank you.

Okay, let me go back to the agenda.

And again, I feel like all of these things are going to need more celebratory, maybe in-person, spread apart, some kind of more positive celebratory experience when the time comes.

to celebrate all of these people.

Yes, and real quick, I think Mr.

Sales is trying to talk, could we- Oh, okay.

I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity.

I look forward to serving the community and working with the housing authority to accomplish its goals and work with our residents, board and the staff.

So thank you for the opportunity.

Kathleen, I definitely look forward to working with you and getting to know everything that's going on.

Cause I know I've seen a lot of it, but a lot of it I have not seen.

And I know you've been in the weeds working on it.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Seale.

I wanted to start off by just answering one of Brendan's questions with the policies we're working on for the voucher program for admin and also the rent reasonableness is it was part of one of our corrective action plans and I talked to HUD about this and they had asked us just to pause a little bit well since we're under the waiver right now during

COVID and we're also using this time to we had the repayment agreement training which will be part of it and we're also bringing in rent reasonableness software and doing training with staff on that and so as soon as staff have completed that training I know Miss Green's been working really hard on these policies as well and we'll be bringing a draft to the board.

Our COVID update is

We just want to say that we will not be opening our offices to the public until we feel it's safe.

As we're looking at having to relocate all of our staff over this year, some of them in just a few months, we'll find Mr.

Sales is going to be looking for new space as soon as he starts and will be helping.

Just the great expense that it's going to require to provide a safe environment for our residents and staff may be better spent if we wait to invest it until after the move.

When we do decide to open offices, it also won't be a snap back to the way it was before.

It'll be careful, intentional, office by office and gradual.

We're proud as staff of the early action we took to protect the health of residents and employees.

And we really just want to be able to still focus on community health at the moment.

The virus is still here.

And this will remain our top priority as we work on the coming months.

We are working on bringing more staff back to work, but that's also still a bit of a juggle.

We have really outdated offices that don't have great ventilation.

So we're working on, we sent a draft of a plan for having employees return back to work and we're moving very slowly with that.

We want everybody to feel safe.

We're having a lot of conversations about it.

We've also been exploring other office locations that we can move to and we've paused a little bit on that as well because we want to have an opportunity to see if Mr.

Sales can be a part of that conversation.

Thank you.

Any discussion or questions?

I was just wondering if we could get some insight into, I appreciate the caution and say not to reopen until it's safe, but I would love some insight into some of the signs.

Are we looking for a particular kind of drop?

I mean, some things we would be looking at is if there's a vaccine and safe treatment for people.

Our current space, we're also looking at using technology to have better ways to communicate with individuals so they're in a safe space.

We know that even when there is a vaccine, we're going to have individuals who may not feel comfortable getting it or due to various health concerns, not be able to.

I predict it's gonna be a while and that's why we really wanna focus on using technology to provide just safer places.

There's a lot of models that we've looked at talking to UVA and the city as well, where they expect virus levels to go up, especially in the fall.

And we just wanna be prepared and mindfulness.

We can move on to development updates, which I'm assuming is financial development and not redevelopment.

I think that was supposed to be redevelopment.

Okay.

So either way, we'll do redevelopment.

There is some updates too, just with the grants we've gotten.

Okay, so redevelopment updates.

We do have, as Miss Glenn-Matthews mentioned, we've had some very big news just in the last week regarding two grants or two financing options that we've been exploring.

One is a very

Very competitive and rather prestigious grant that we were awarded this week from Governor Northam.

It's called the Vibrant Community Initiative.

This is a grant that's about it's a $2 million grant.

The state only awards two of these every year.

Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority won a $2 million grant and Newport News

won a $1 million grant.

These are for innovative housing and community development projects that are underway in the Commonwealth.

So we're really grateful to have that show of support.

This is specifically for our South First Street phase two project, which as you all know, has involved a whole lot of resident engagement and

This grant gives us an opportunity to fund some innovative components of that project around section three, which is probably the major driver.

Why we got that grant was our commitment to hiring residents and potentially contracting with residents for some of that work, but also the food justice angle and just the sort of holistic community development angle that we're taking with that project.

So really pleased at that announcement two days later,

We received word that our low income housing tax credit application for South First Street phase two was also approved by the VHDA board.

So that's $16 million in tax credits for South First Street phase two.

Between those two commitments, instead of already been approved or committed by the city of Charlottesville and some private donors, we now have enough funding

to move forward on south pursuit phase two, which is very exciting.

So I wanna give a big thanks to everyone who was involved in putting those two applications together, specifically Jeff Meyer from BCDC on our Welcome Housing Tax Credit application.

He played the lead role on that.

And we wanna thank Ashley Davies and Chantelle Bingham for their work on the Vibrant Community Initiative grant.

But it was a whole team effort on both of those projects.

Could not be happier about the outcome.

And to date, that means we are well over at this point $75 million that we've raised in commitments for our redevelopment initiative, starting with the $5 million check from Dave Matthews Band back in November of 2018.

In the last year and a half, we've secured, again, over $75 million in commitments from a variety of sources for our redevelopment work.

So obviously what we're doing is resonating with people who write the checks, and that's huge.

And none of it would have been possible without the collaboration with PHAR and our residents, because I think, honestly, that's

One of the main reasons, if not the main reason why our projects are standing out is because of the commitment to resident engagement and resident-led redevelopment.

So a big thank you to our whole redevelopment team for all that work.

In terms of other redevelopment updates, I see Joy's on the call.

Section three is continuing to move forward.

Our residents completed the online training program.

As many of you know, a partnership with the city and PVCC on our first class of resident trainees and construction skills training.

They completed the online portion and last week they got out into the community and are actually doing some hands-on renovation work at Mickey Drive, practicing some flooring, some carpentry, some paintings.

I think this week they're doing some drywall.

Joey, I don't know if you want to

Anything you want to add to that?

So they have one week in the building and now they're back in class again this week, but they will be back on site again.

They had to finish out a core competence that they have.

And there's some folks who needed to finish or retake some tests.

So we started out with 10 and we ended up with 6 and most of them are public housing residents.

to three additional section three participants who are not in that class but they're working with CRHA and from what I'm hearing the staff is

Okay, they're doing a good job from what I'm understanding and there may be two more hires.

I'm just talking to people.

I had two down weeks because of death and me being in the hospital, but

Still, I have two people that we have to get to fill out application and then we will have two additional.

So that's like 11 people we have, will have in the section three program that is actually doing some work.

We have one who, and I kind of wish COVID hadn't been there, that we could have worked with one of the participants much more, especially with network to work.

That part of the support, I have to really get with Frank so that we can make sure that when people are falling through the cracks,

that they're getting the support that they need because I feel like one of them could have benefited a little bit more from network to work from more than what they were getting from Holly and the job club.

So that is basically it for me.

Thank you, Joy.

Thank you for all your hard work.

A couple other redevelopment related updates.

We received a presentation last Thursday at our project team meeting from GMA Construction regarding a potential new approach to renovating crescent halls in the age of coronavirus to minimize contact between residents and construction crews.

We're meeting with the

Relocation Advisory Team next Monday I believe to get some input from some of our public health partners in particular about that new scheme and wanna make sure we're dotting our I's and crossing our T's.

But I think it has some good potential.

So it's not a done deal yet but we're certainly doing everything we can to flesh that out.

Kathleen mentioned or asked about timelines

Both of our projects, we are currently aiming to get underway by August or September.

So that's the current plan.

Let's see.

I also wanted to note that we, as you all know, unfortunately lost Richard Shackelford.

He was one of the resident members of our Redevelopment Committee, who was an official voting member of the Redevelopment Committee appointed by the CRHA board.

So there is a vacancy now in terms of voting, the official voting members of the committee.

He was appointed to that committee because of his then role as president of the Crescent Hall Tenant Association.

I conferred with PHAR last week and there seemed to be a consensus that the logical sort of replacement would be the current president of the Crescent Halls Tenant Association, who is Miss Alice Washington.

I spoke with Alice.

She's eager and happy to serve if appointed.

And so we wanted to see if the board concurred.

I think if that's far in your recommendation, then I'm happy to move forward with Miss Washington.

Well, not all those in favor.

Roll call vote on that.

Any questions?

I think it makes sense.

Ms. Washington wowed the conference.

So that just gives her, she should just be put right in.

Let's see, Mayor Walker.

Yes.

Mr. Osteen.

Yes.

Ms.

Miss Goldblatt.

Yes.

Miss Oliver.

Yes.

And myself, yes.

Great.

Thank you all.

I just wanted to say a few congratulations to the team working on section 3 and on development.

This is just like, I can't imagine a more inspiring process and outcome.

I know you guys have been working really hard under really challenging circumstances and I just, it makes me

Really proud, I just feel very honored to be able to be on the board and I'm just, I am so excited about the work that you're doing and I can't wait to see more residents as part of the section three program.

I'm so, you know, South First Street was amazing and I can't wait to see the next site that's resident led.

It's just gonna, it's really, it's like, I mean, people are gonna write books about this.

It's almost unbelievable when she was talking, I was just thinking about when we were at the housing conference and the guy stood up and said, we can't do all of this.

So it is one of those things that is really coming together and it's coming together really well and all the amazing work.

that everyone is doing, including Miss Johnson leading this and how passionate she's been about it.

And one of the things I wanted to say that part of working from home, what I have learned, working from home is really, really hard when you're trying to connect the resources.

It's much better to get in your car and just go sit in front of people because then, you know, but anyway, that's my soapbox.

But anyway, what I am also, I think what people have to understand is that

People have different learning curves and it's not always that straight and narrow thing and Dave and I have had this conversation

where I can read very well, right?

And I can comprehend.

But when it comes to testing, something just happens in my brain where I either overread or underread.

And I feel like other people are like me.

And so... You're muted.

Yeah, to put a person out of a class because they can't keep up, again, those are the kinds of things that I'm saying that in order to make somebody successful, you have got to figure out what is needed to make sure that person doesn't fall behind or lose because putting that person out of a class

kind of demeaned their, it does something to their self-esteem, right?

And so we have to continue to build it up.

Yeah.

And I agree with that.

There are so many things that we are having to unlearn.

And even at the global level, because students aren't able to take the admissions test to college, all of a sudden, those become null and void.

You don't need them.

And what we know in the first place is that you didn't need them anyway.

And they were used as tools to kind of keep people out.

And so especially when we're doing this work,

It's going to be important for everyone and especially people who we partner with to understand that, you know, most of the time when people are not starting from the same foundation is not by choice.

These systemic issues that

And so I hope that there's a commitment to kind of bend over backwards to make sure people need how what they

One last thing I would like to say is I think that I would like to really you know give a big shout out to my partner in crime Audrey Oliver because we have been in some meetings where we are looking at each other like why the hell are we in this meeting or we didn't bargain for this but also the other women from South First Street and I think

I shared this with someone last week that a lot of times when I go to conferences I don't just go to conferences just because it's you know I get to eat some of the best food and hang out with some of the best people but it's about networking and I think having the residents on a panel

there at the Governor's Conference, and then being able to network with Ashley Davie and myself, I kind of dragged her to go up to the panel and say, will you come to Charlottesville and see what folks are doing?

So I guess for me, it's networking.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, so I just want to say it's a big shout out to CRHA and I know Grant did this also.

I hope Mr.

Sales is hearing what I'm saying, but it is always good to get residents to a conference.

just to show what they can do or just to get them to see what is happening.

So again, big shout out to Audrey and the women, the 12 women from South First Street because they actually are making history.

They had me, they're making history and they will go down in history for the work that they have done.

Thank you.

Anything else related to redevelopment?

OK.

If not, those meetings are 2.30 on Thursday.

Dave Norris would be a great person to contact if you want to learn how to get into the meetings, but they're all public meetings.

So yeah, so last thought, we have public comments opened again.

Let's see, I think we can look at the participants, see if anyone wants to raise their hand or tell us that they want to, if they can call in, if they're having any trouble.

I do.

Oh, okay.

I see somebody else just trying to come in, Carolyn.

I just want to say thank you to everybody who spoke nicely and the beautiful comments.

I'm off the board, but I'm still a resident of public housing and I am still a leader in the community.

I'll still be here.

I'll be here to continue to support the board.

My mission is still to see redevelopment completed if I live long enough.

and to just to be here for the community and to continue to support the board and each of you, all of you have been great.

And I just ask that you continue to support the residents and that you do the right thing.

And I just really appreciate all the comments.

and at the time that I've spent on the board.

And yeah, it has been to my second term and I don't plan to do three.

This is my retirement time.

So this is what I'm trying to do, but I will be here to support all of you.

You're welcome.

Hey, y'all.

It's Brandon.

I wasn't going to comment because, Audrey, I think we should leave it at that if nobody has comments.

Well done, Audrey.

Wonderful.

Thank you.

That's good.

Yeah.

We'll leave it at that unless someone raises their hand quickly.

That's a good note to leave it on.

and so we'll see everyone again.

I also wanted to just call out the staff.

I can see your names on the Zoom call.

Thank you for being with us.

You guys, amazing job with all of the changes to support our residents lately.

Yeah, huge thank you to staff.

All of us who have been doing any remote working or working from home, it's just like this tremendous challenge and you guys have really stepped, been putting it in, found really creative ways to support residents to hear their voices.

Okay, and we'll do a roll call vote.

Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Mr. Osteen?

Mr. Osteen, I don't see his phone number.

He may have dropped out.

Ms.

Slaughter?

Yes.

Ms. Goldblatt?

Yes.

Ms. Oliver?

Yes.

Myself?

Yes.

And Mr. Osteen, are you still there?

You may have dropped off.

Okay.

Well, the vote carries and we will adjourn.

Bye.

Thank you.

Bye.