CRHA Regular Meeting   9/28/2020

Okay, I suppose we'll go ahead and get started.

Let me make sure, and I have my phone in case anyone's texting that they're missing it.

Okay, we'll call this meeting of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority to order.

It's Monday, September 28th, 2002 at 6

And this is a virtual meeting.

I have a little statement to read about why we can have a virtual meeting.

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.

The code is executive order EO 53, restricting public gatherings of greater than 10 persons.

I don't know if that's current number, but still.

Accordingly, code 2.2-3708.2A3 permits public bodies to meet electronically to discuss business required or necessary to operation of the body and discharge of its lawful purposes, duties, and responsibilities in times of emergencies,

and to address COVID-19.

Therefore, this meeting is held electronically pursuant to Virginia law because the COVID-19 pandemic makes it impractical and unsafe to assemble a forum physically in a single location.

And Leslie, can you do a roll call of commissioners?

I'll take it.

Okay, I can do it.

Commissioner Mayor Walker?

She can't hear either.

She can't hear, but she's present, so

Oh wait, she's gone.

Maybe they're trying to come back in.

They turned it off and trying to come back in.

Okay, well, let's go ahead with the moment of silence and hopefully they can get back in and hear us.

So let's take a moment of silence before we begin.

Okay, Ms. Walker, can you hear us?

Mayor Walker, this is Joe Rice.

Obviously you can't hear me, so this is not gonna do any good.

Let's see if that shows up.

I'll tell her he's gonna write.

Let's see, maybe we can, why don't we skip ahead and, oh, actually we don't skip public comments first.

I was gonna say we could read over the minutes and approve the minutes while we're trying to figure out the audio issue.

So let's just do that.

Everyone, if you need time to look over the minutes, let's take two minutes, look over the minutes, and then we can approve those while we try to figure out what the issue is.

Oops.

So Chair Rucker, it looks like we lost Mayor Walker again.

I did let her know that to check her audio options by clicking the caret next to the mic to see if a correct speaker setting was on.

But I also told her to call me.

Okay.

I think we could go ahead and we have enough people.

Let's go ahead.

Do you think it's okay to go ahead and approve the minutes?

Or should we wait for her?

I feel like it's something we can do.

Let's go ahead and approve the minutes.

Did everyone ever have a chance to look over them?

Okay.

I second.

Okay, all those in favor, we need to do a roll call.

Mr. Osteen?

Yes.

Dr. Henry?

Dr. Henry can...

Here.

Thank you.

Ms. Goldblatt?

Yes.

And myself and okay.

I think we're good.

All right, so the minutes passed.

Yes, I do have one announcement.

So one of the items identified in our caps for HUD to address our corrective action plan was to draft a new admin plan for the HCV program.

So that plan has been drafted and is posted on our website for public comment for 30 days.

We do plan to put it in front of the board of commissioners at the next meeting.

and I did send a copy to the RAP which included FAR legal aid.

Great, thank you.

I'll send a copy around.

All right, thank you.

And next meetings, they're on our agenda, but just in case anyone's not looking at that.

There are safety meetings every other Tuesday.

Tomorrow there's one, October 13, October 27,

There are six for all the dates and the Zoom link is the same.

Yeah, that's right.

There's also there's a passcode that's included in all the login.

I'm working on trying to get rid of the passcode, but it seems like it's an automatic Zoom setting.

I don't know if I can override it, but make sure when you click on the link, you will need the passcode to enter.

The redevelopment meetings continue on Thursday at 2.30.

And Mr. Norris, who may not be with us tonight, but he typically emails out the Zoom link.

So most of us have it.

So please ask if you don't have it.

The board will meet again on October 26th.

And I tentatively,

I was hopeful for a work session if we do this sort of you know in between the monthly board meetings have a Thursday work session and that time seemed to work so I'm not sure what we need to talk about yet but let's hold that time as a work session if we need something to talk through.

Okay, any other announcements?

Okay, so does anyone from the public have any comments they'd like to share?

Yeah, so I just want to welcome our attendees to the CRHA regular meeting for September 28th.

If you do, if you'd like to address CRHA, please click the raise hand icon.

If you're joining us by phone, just press star nine.

And Chair Rucker, we currently have

One person with their hand up, Mr. Brandon Collins.

Thank you.

Good evening commissioners.

I am Brandon Collins.

I work for PHAR, Public Housing Association of Residents.

We're the recognized resident council and resident advisory board for public housing here in Charlottesville.

You can call us at 434-984-3255.

I don't have a whole lot to bring up, but start off on a positive note.

We are still feeling really comfortable with Mr.

Sales and the amount of communication and collaboration we've been able to have with Housing Authority.

since the last month and a half or so.

And we feel pretty positive that progress is being made in a number of things, particularly the approach to dealing with vacancies and just a lot of stuff.

We know you have a lot on your plate, but we do appreciate the collaboration.

So I'm sure we're all committed to keeping that up.

I did want to just mention,

The past weekend was pretty rough on public housing neighborhoods, large crowds of people and lots of problems.

Maybe not necessarily something new, but I think a lot of folks out here are feeling a lot of frustration, certainly PHAR is, and residents certainly are as well.

I know that the safety committee has probably done more work than previous attempts at addressing these problems, but we're still, it really feels like we're not sure what needs to happen.

So for what it's worth, there is a safety committee meeting tomorrow night.

We're going to continue to encourage residents to participate and

Encourage that committee to work towards action and implementing things that can make a difference.

And maybe this board has some ideas as well.

So just wanted to bring that up.

I did have a question somewhat related just to clarify.

I see that CRHAs, SUDs, you had three of them, and that none of those are for rent related issues, which is good.

I did wanna clarify, so those folks who are deep in on rent, how much access they have to repayment agreements,

and not getting so far behind that when things get a little better that folks aren't super stuck, been meaning to just clarify that at some point.

So, and I think otherwise we'll reserve other comments for later, but I just wanted to bring those up and hope you all have a super productive meeting.

Yeah, please.

So as you stated, none of these are for nonpayment of rent.

We actually are working with everyone to sign repayment agreements.

And we've also tapped in with three different rental relief funds.

The state rental relief fund, which became available for subsidized housing,

Tenet's probably about two weeks ago.

So we've been trying to work through that.

We've also working with Gretchen Ellis with the Pathways Fund through United Way, which is a city fund.

And we're also working with Holly, which is another city fund for rental relief.

We're reaching out to them and sending every client who owes back rent

Okay, and we have another attendee with their hand up, Mr. Don Gathers.

Mr. Gathers, you're on with CRHA, you have three minutes.

Mr. Gathers, can you hear us?

Hello, can you hear me?

I just wanted to piggyback what Mr. Collins just said.

I'm sorry, this is Don Gathers, Public Housing Association of Residents.

I look forward to working with

with Mr.

Sales, from what I've seen, he has some very innovative ideas and has literally hit the ground with both feet running.

It's an exciting time and I just, I'm anxious and eager about the future of what we might have in front of us as far as CRHA and PHAR.

I share the concern of the incidents that are going on in our sites.

And as Mr. Collins said, there was another incident this weekend.

But again, I will reiterate my offer to help and assist in any way that I can with that.

Don't know exactly what that might look like, but we certainly need to coalesce as much as possible and try to figure out collaborative ways to make sure everyone stays safe in our communities.

So whatever I can do, whatever can be done, let's put our hands together and our feet on the ground and get busy doing it.

Thank you.

Yes, and Miss Johnson, go ahead and unmute.

Okay, can you hear me now?

Yep, sound like Verizon.

Hi, good evening, my name is Joy Johnson and I wear several hats but I think tonight I'm gonna be wearing the resident hat because I've had a very stressful day today.

because of residents who are pleading for help, asking for help.

And I'm just don't know what to say.

I'm a little dumbfounded.

I'm a little frustrated.

I feel like all the work that we have put into resident involvement

Maybe it's looking like it's not effective anymore because we don't seem to be effecting any change.

It wasn't just one site that was calling out because all of our site was effective.

There was a shooting on West Haven.

Someone was talking to me about that and what are we going to do?

And I don't know.

I just feel like we pay more taxes than Donald Trump.

We probably richer than Donald Trump, but

It just seemed like we are on a desert somewhere that is just lost.

My heart has been very heavy all day.

I have a bad ankle, but I stood on my ankle just listening to people talking to me and pleading.

So, I don't know.

Something has to happen.

We have people crying out for help.

and earlier I said that maybe we need to have a march on poor people for poor people because it seemed like public housing is just out there by itself.

It seems, I'm just trying to reiterate some of what people are saying today.

Do we have any other attendees that would like to address CRHA during this public comment section?

If so, please click the raise hand icon or if you're on the phone, press star nine.

Okay, thank you.

Does anyone have, I mean, I think we're all very frustrated with the situation, well, in the world, in the country, but also at the public housing sites with, you know, and just the conditions of living there, not feeling safe.

I'm not sure what to say at the moment.

I have to think it, you know, think about it.

Does anyone have thoughts on moving forward?

I was trying to, I didn't hear comments.

Brandon was echoing, and then Mr. Gathers was repeating that this weekend was very tough, lots of problems and frustrations.

Okay.

I just was making sure I didn't hear anyone, miss anyone before then.

I'll say on my end, since I play another role in the city, probably since,

You know, probably late spring, we've been having some pretty intense and I guess uncomfortable conversations about how to handle some of the concerns that are going on in the neighborhoods.

When I came to, you know, when I was elected to council, part of what I ran on and part of what I really hold dear, so I don't know the answer to this is,

to not police communities the way they've always been policed.

And that's a conversation that Chief Brackney and I have consistently had where I'll make a comment like police park street the same way you police first street.

That was brought to my attention in the spring that that was problematic and that some people in the community felt abandoned

Some people felt like I was okay with their children being harmed.

And there was a lot of back and forth about that, which none of that, if anyone knows me, is true.

But what I do know is that the way that those communities were policed and even managed by CRHA in the 80s and 90s did not work.

for families.

They also don't work for people who have some challenges, who may not be doing everything that we would like for them to do, but we haven't figured out as a community how to help people heal.

So that's what I've been trying to ask the question.

I feel like some of the conversations I've been a part of, there hasn't been any grace involved in those conversations.

It has been, these are people who are problematic and they just need to go.

And how by any means kind of necessary.

And that's just not a philosophy that I agree with.

And I am with just one person.

I want people to be safe.

The weekend after the shootings, I guess in August, when we got the call about them, Chief Brackney and I talked, I think it was a Saturday or Sunday.

And the officer's presence were increased for that weekend.

And they were increased a little bit longer after we had a follow-up discussion the next day.

What happened shortly after that and Chief Brackney of course knows more information than I because I don't do day to day with the officers, but I think some officers who may have been doing what they thought they were being asked to do, we started getting some feedback downtown about the fact that we were being abusive to the community.

by doing the very thing that was asked.

And Chief Brackney made some decisions about the fact that CPD should not be involved with embarment.

So we should not be the people who are saying that, you know, individuals who are barred from the property, while we recommend it.

So she made that call, which is not all I don't disagree with.

Okay.

I'm sorry.

I don't know why my name is coming up.

Okay.

That's all.

So what I was hoping that would happen at some point, what I think people are more frustrated with the fact that

I guess things are not happening the way they have traditionally happened, that we haven't come to a like, okay, what is this short-term solution?

And that may mean increased police protection, you know, presence, whatever, response.

And what is the longer-term solution?

Because we know that that doesn't work.

So I sat in a meeting with our, you know, some of the officers, the leaders,

And I asked them the same questions, how is this going to be different from the policing that I grew up seeing in the 80s and 90s, right?

And if someone can answer those type of questions for me, and that we're just not writing people off because they may not do or act

You know what's going on down there, right?

All of the nightclubs and everything are closed.

And so basically what we have are open air nightclubs.

So everything that would be going on in the nightclub is now going on on the streets.

So if you can shut down these because there are nothing but COVID hazards.

So you could just use the COVID laws to shut down a lot of this because there's too many people in specific areas.

And that's why they're doing it.

They don't have anywhere else to go.

No, it's not that hard to understand.

I don't think anybody's having a challenge with understanding this, but it's what is the response?

So if you send officers to these sites, they are more likely than not going to discover something.

There's going to be something that there's a law against that someone will be violating.

Whether we agree with those laws or not, the officer's job would then to be follow the law.

So then when we get our report the next month and say from these neighborhoods, X number of people were arrested, then we have to deal with that also when that's not ultimately with anyone at City Hall or a lot of us at City Hall wants to happen.

And so it's how to get these messages out or give these direction to the communities in a healthier way.

And I understand that

There isn't anywhere to go now because of COVID, but when we talk about long-term strategies anyway, a lot of our problems stem from the fact that a lot of our adults and youth don't have activities in other spaces anyway.

That's an issue that we have in the city that's a big part of the larger problem that we haven't fixed.

And so even trying to get to a,

Resolve, like, you know, trying to come up with those solutions.

I don't know what that answer is because I feel like I'm not a part of every conversation and people are intentionally out of some conversations and that's both and that's people from the community, that's people on staff, you know, I am left out of things.

And all I can say is I'm one person,

I am going to say how I'm feeling.

And I don't feel like that we should be sending the police in to just sit when kids walk out of their homes, that it's a police at their front door.

You know, it's like Hoover's, an agent at every mailbox.

I do not agree with that type of practice.

But it's also the conversations we had around the time

that the shootings will happen on First Street, no kid should have to live with someone shooting, having to drop down on the floor of their house with potential bullets coming through their walls, windows, can't stand outside of their front.

Stu, that shouldn't happen either.

But I don't feel like we are coming up with solutions to say we know why these type of behaviors exist.

Do we hold the systems that created these behaviors or do we hold people who haven't been able to grow out of these behaviors accountable for doing exactly what they were created to do?

And if we don't create a better sense of community, then we are just going to have systems, the systems that we know

work I guess temporarily where police are coming in or things are going or individuals are gonna be faced with eviction.

So that's just what I've been dealing with for the past few months with trying to have these conversations with CRHA from Kathleen and then John and

Thank you for all that.

And I know that at least I feel it's harder to have some of these meetings on the computer.

when really what you want is people to be able to come together and talk in each neighborhood because not every neighborhood wants the same thing.

There's differences across all our sites.

And even when you get the variations from within the neighborhood, right?

The different stories.

But I think what I heard from Joy and what I've heard from her for a couple months now, and I understand that she's frustrated, is that the bottom line is how do we create this change

in culture, because that's the only way you build healthy neighborhoods anyway, but how do you keep people safe while you're working on this larger systemic change?

Mr.

Sales, are you connected?

Can I say something?

I think one of the things that concern me and frustrates me is that

But Miss Corrine that is unfair because when have the police been called and not shown up?

So sitting in the neighborhood and responding to violence within the neighborhood are two different things.

No, I've heard it from residents that they have called Taven.

Our security firm has also had the same complaints.

They've called numerous times to CPD and they've received, we are busy, we can't get to you, we're not off the rise to do that.

So there's a larger

That's the dialogue that we must have about the situation and how we look at it holistically and not just an emergency response, which is what we have been doing.

We had eight cars on the scene two days ago, whenever it was.

But there was incidents going on in three different places on Madison Avenue, as small as Madison Avenue is.

And folks were

What was I saying?

How would I say it?

Confronting the police officers.

And I've had occasions where police officers have talked to me and said they are reluctant to do anything because they don't want to conflict with whatever the public housing policy is, you know, in terms of certain things that go on.

So they're at a point where they don't know whether to act or not and how that will

react with regard to the community.

I think what conversation I've attempted to have is with the police chief to talk about how we can work around this and get to MOU because that's a conversation that we've all had was getting a clear MOU with the police department.

I wish I could get some communication, a lot of communication to her, but that has not worked.

I've reached out several times since I've taken over on August the 3rd.

I've had no luck.

I've reached out to several city folks to also get in contact with her and I've had no luck that way as well.

So we're temping now that conversation, but it has to be conversation that they want to have.

I know in meeting, and just to add to that, hopefully if we can get to the point of having an understanding where there's no police standing there asking questions, but there's a kind of directive of what we, I mean, obviously in an emergency, we need whatever help we need, but for these, you know, more minor incidents, how they should be behaving,

One of the things I have been thinking about is when we had had some safety meetings earlier in person before COVID, probably last year, it kept coming up that the, and this is the police departments, you know, kind of

their purview but whenever there's been more community-based policing where a couple of police would you know tend to be the people seen on certain sites and get to know the

All of the community, not the people that we're trying to keep out or what, you know, not just identify people having maybe a negative effect in terms of safety, but getting to know the kids, walking around the site, knowing people that it seemed like the police we were talking to, that that was seemed like a more positive approach.

And for whatever reason,

They haven't been working that way.

And I'm sure there's a lot of ideas of how we can go on.

But it did keep coming up that there are models that might work better.

And that's within the police department.

But maybe it's time in these safety meetings, but also with

and Chief Brackney to try to think of some short-term solutions because the systems take a long time, as we know, to shift, you know, the kind of bigger issues between millennium and maybe some community police, you know, some sort of more non-emergency police presence in a way, you know.

I don't know.

Anyone else have thoughts on this besides we need to just get in the, so to speak, in the room together?

Yeah, I mean I think some of what Miss Choi said, we've been hearing in the safety committee meetings, we've worked hard to move towards becoming a policy committee in addition to being a place where we hear residents concerns.

and I think that's largely because of residents feeling that they come to a lot of meetings when nothing gets done and so we've tried to push towards concrete outcomes so that when people come to meetings they feel like they're contributing to something but I think it's really concerning and disheartening to hear these stories and so I don't know if anyone who's watching or listening what we really need is

We just need more participation from residents.

We need to hear more voices.

And I think that I have a lot of strong opinions about policing but one thing that I feel very strongly is that safe communities are about strong communities.

And so it's a really difficult right now, a moment right now to imagine building strong communities because we can't be in person together and we can't do a lot of the things together that make for strong communities.

But that's why we need more resident voices.

I just would love creative ideas.

We've been hearing really amazing creative voices.

Some of the PHAR interns, sorry, Miss Katrina Cooper has had really, really great ideas about resident led community initiatives on the different sites.

And I just, I'd love to hear, not just me, we'd all love to hear more of that.

And so,

So yeah, so if there's people listening in terms of safety at the last meeting, we talked about the parking policy since a lot of residents felt that parking was becoming an issue that was helping to encourage people to linger and that there was a safety issue there.

So we talked about the parking policy that has been, my understanding has been sent out.

And we're going to be talking about this MOU with the police and we're going to be talking a lot about cameras.

I know cameras, some residents really want them, some don't.

We'd love to hear your opinions on cameras.

And I've asked some of the staff to begin by telling us a little bit about some of the data on cameras and how effective they are at preventing crime.

and what different options there are so that we can make as informed a decision as possible.

So the notes from each meeting, I send them to PHAR and to the CRHA staff.

I don't know if they're published anywhere, but they can be if anyone wants to read.

But of course, if you have any questions about the safety committee or you wanna join us, please feel free to email me.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Any last, not last, but any more thoughts on this at this moment?

Okay, let's go ahead and move on.

We had been talking about getting the other committees up and running.

The safety committee is pretty well set.

And I just wanted to officially make sure we have a commissioner on each

committee and I had some notes from a couple meetings ago where we had talked about different committees we wanted to be on so I can make you know I'll just name some people who were interested in them and I think if we have at least one commissioner on each committee I don't know that they have to run it like Miss Goldblatt I mean I think that's awesome

but there could be a staff member too that helps to schedule and you know to keep things going so between a staff member and a board member we should be able to get a consistent schedule down and start to kind of keep that and build the agendas.

So right now the safety is Miss Goldblatt and I think Miss Slaughter said she wanted to join.

Obviously anyone can, well it has to be publicly noticed, but those two can be the official

sort of board members that will be at the meetings and that can then report back to us.

Ms. Green isn't on here tonight, but I know, so the Redevelopment Committee, often there's many of us that have been involved in that.

Typically, I try to be there.

and Mr. Osteen's been there, Miss Walker's often there, also for her role at the city.

So I don't know that we need to add anyone, but I do think we should, maybe we need to have, maybe that's a work session thing is to make sure all the new commissioners are kind of up to date on what's going on with redevelopment.

You know how have decisions been being made because they're typically being made in this committee and then brought to the board so that these committee meetings are really where there's most of the discussion.

But then also moving ahead, we've sort of been in this

you know, anticipating these new projects starting and we haven't yet been, you know, we're gonna have to shift to the next step.

I'm thinking ahead.

So anyway, I'm just thinking aloud, but I think it'd be, maybe that's a work session topic just to get everyone up to date who hasn't been able to be in those meetings.

Let's see, we had the personnel and staff.

or I guess personnel related to staff committee and Ms. Green was interested in working on that.

And just tell me if anyone else wants to add their name to these.

Resident Services, Ms. Henry, that she was interested in.

And I think I would be interested, you know, I mean, not to, I don't want to take up a spot from a commissioner, but I would try to join some of those.

And I think we need to talk to,

also to Joy Johnson who was chairing or co-chairing those for some time to get some idea about how who had been invited to those and definitely I would like to see adding the school system into that just to because right now that's a huge

player since children are being educated you know in their homes hopefully with internet so just you know to add any of the resident services but also reaching out to important players in the city which else do I have I have finance I have Miss Henry or Dr. Henry was also interested in

And then maintenance was the last one which Mr. Osteen has been active in, Miss Slaughter had been for a while.

And I don't know if we want to add on the parallel track hasn't been discussed as much recently.

Dr. Henry, the parallel track has been the idea that some of the

And I think that housing won't be redeveloped soon because we have to move through all of the different sites, which takes time.

So the idea is being a parallel track is that which sites can get improvements that aren't total redevelopment, but what do they need as they wait 10 years?

So that's a discussion that, you know, had been going on and kind of keeps stalling, I think just because the new construction takes so much energy and momentum to keep going that the,

parallel track hasn't been discussed quite as much anyway so those are it's one two three four five six committees I will write all of this down I realize it's a little bit odd on the screen without any without writing it down

But I'll send those to you and maybe the staff, maybe Mr.

Sales or Ms. Glenn Matthews, you could help figure out which staff could work on which committees and then between the staff and the board members start setting a consistent time that we can publish for residents.

to keep those going and whether or not you know some of them probably don't need to be as often as the safety meeting that one is more urgent obviously maybe some of them are just once a month figure out you know that how frequently we need to meet and then who besides mainly we want to get residents involved but we also would hope that then we reach out to anyone else

in the community that could be helpful or have insight depending on what the topic is.

So commissioners are there any other committees that you are wanting to join or oh yeah Osteen just texted that maintenance yes for him.

I mean I know we all have a lot going on but I think we have a pretty good list we have at least a commissioner on each

each piece.

So I'll write this up, send it to you and Miss Glenn Matthews and Mr.

Oh, yeah, that would be great.

I think some died out just because redevelopment, maintenance, there's some that are just more, they were more active, but then when COVID hit, you know, they really died out.

And now we have some new commissioners, so we'll try to revive these and then, because we can't be everywhere and then each of us can help to report back on these.

Okay, so I'll send that out to you all in an email and don't respond all, just have the email.

You can respond to me individually.

Okay, I think that we've gotten everything, it sort of jumped around, but Mr.

Sales, would you like to, or whomever would like, we have both a update on the budget and our HUD score, hopefully improvement or,

And I'm going to do both of those.

Okay.

That's okay.

We were awarded approximately $658,000 in public housing shortfall funding, which we can use to get our public housing up to par in any deficiencies that we see in operations.

So such as

Vehicles, we've talked about restocking for maintenance so we're not running to Lowe's every day for items.

We are potentially looking at leasing or purchasing a structure for the maintenance department because that structure is going away in phase one.

and we were not able to secure anything with the city for maintenance.

And we have not had any progress with finding space without taking community space at any of the other sites.

So if we stayed at South First Street, we would take the community center, but then we'll have to move again in a year once that is redeveloped because that's also going away in phase two.

And that'll be the first part of phase two that gets impacted.

The finances are included.

We are positive everywhere except for the HCV program.

And the reason we had an issue there, the government makes a decision on how much funding to send to each housing authority.

Oftentimes that amount is not enough.

And we have to tap into reserves in order to fulfill the leftover.

So HUD will then come and rectify that issue and refund us the funding.

So that should happen within the next couple months.

So you'll see that change in the report.

All the other places we are actually doing really good, really positive in every property and central office center.

The HUD scores, I would say, and I think HUD would also say that we're making progress towards improving our scores.

We won't actually have any scores back until sometime in probably April of next year.

Both Ms. Hite who is the HCV manager and Ms. Green who is the public housing manager are making great steps to address both of those programs.

We've put out close to 90 vouchers on the street within the last month and a half I think.

We have about 26 that are gonna be leased out really soon.

So that's a drastic improvement to where we were.

and public housing.

We're finishing vacant units.

The number does not look good, but that's because we're doing a lot of transfers.

So we're transferring individuals from one site to another site due to safety issues, maybe for reasonable accommodations or just because they've requested to be transferred.

And we are also getting a lot of individuals that are getting housed with the voucher.

that are not a lot, but a decent amount that are coming from public housing.

So they're leaving a vacant unit.

So you're adding more units to your stock.

So the number hasn't drastically increased, but it stayed steady, but it's not because we haven't been working.

We're turning the units.

I think we finished three or four units last week.

We're projected doing out three or four this week.

So that's what I have for the budget and HUD score.

Are there any questions about that one that I can address?

Okay, and for the executive director report.

As I stated earlier, the admin plan has been drafted and posted on the website.

We don't have a wait list for the HCV program.

So in order to open up that wait list, we must get an admin plan that's been approved by the board.

So that's why it is going to be on a meeting agenda for next month.

Otherwise it will be an operational issue.

So that is exempt.

So we're going to be waiting for a public comment from the residents and the community.

And we'll look to address those comments before bringing it to the board.

If we can't address them, then we will make sure that you all know what those comments are and why we could not change or why we were against the change.

We're currently working to adjust schedules for operations.

We are testing a 4-10 schedule with HCV program as of this week.

We have worked it out, so we always have coverage.

We'll have extended coverage every day.

So we're testing that.

We're also looking for office space.

And part of the reason why we're testing it is because we have so many people in that office.

We've hired a new HCD manager.

So now she's also housed in our office.

We're currently trying to work with the city to get office space.

And I would say that conversation is progressing fairly well.

Had a meeting with interim city manager, John Blair on Friday.

As I mentioned earlier for the bank space, we're looking to purchase potentially or lease.

We found one site and the cost of leasing it for five years.

If we leased it for additional one year, we would have bought the site, paid enough to buy the site.

So we're looking to see what funding we can use from HUD to purchase that site since it will be a public housing maintenance facility.

because they will be drastically impacted by the redevelopment.

It was not planned in the redevelopment to rebuild the maintenance shop.

So we must look for another solution.

And I think that's all I have.

If there are any questions, I can address those.

Oh, one more thing.

Oh, and Brandon, it's almost been two months.

Mr. Osteen is writing to ask about REAC in October and is there a timeline and value in hiring an inspection firm?

I'm just reading it since his internet went out.

I should have given that update, I'm sorry.

So what would have been a REAC inspection October has been pushed back to March.

We have procured a firm though.

So they're not only going to inspect every unit except for Crescent Halls.

That's gonna be in January.

That's great.

Oh, and Mr. Osteen says great.

In terms of the space for the the maintenance shed, I guess this might be something that I can ask you about later, I suppose.

I'm just thinking in terms of if there's any help that the board members can help reach out to anyone or

If anyone knows of any space that's about 3,000 square foot or a little bit larger industrial space, fairly open, that can fit about eight vehicles.

and let's say at any given time, 10 water heaters, 10 washer, 10 set of air plants, and maybe enough cabinets for five units.

Please let us know because we are looking to find just two that are for sale or lease in the Charlottesville area and one is 11,000 square feet so it's way more than we will ever need and one was about 3,400 square feet and that's a lot closer to what we're looking for and they're both in the same price range when it comes to leasing.

One of them

Previously talked to the guy and he mentioned that they're also open to selling it.

And if we're gonna lease it for five years, I would much rather purchase it.

Yeah.

So one of the search requirements we put in was a five mile radius from South First Street because South First Street is pretty central to a majority of our sites.

So the one we located is off Avon extended.

Great.

I wonder if there's any, and I'll shut up about this.

I'm just, any, and I'm sure you've thought of this, but talking to other affordable housing providers, you know, if there's like, if we had to get the one that was the larger amount of space, you know, if we could even rent out or consolidate some of that equipment or, you know, I don't know.

This is probably a longer term discussion, but

If we did have too much space, what could we do with that space?

And maybe there's room for collaboration or maybe something else could be done there.

Well, I will say one firm that comes to mind, maybe Leap.

I know Leap at one point was looking for more space because they were gonna expand.

I don't know where they are with that conversation.

This was something we talked about.

I want to say before the pandemic.

So a lot has changed since that, but they may be willing.

Great.

Any questions for Mr.

Sales' comments?

Mr. Osteen says roller derby.

All right, let me find my agenda.

We already had the safety committee update, the redevelopment update, I believe it's Miss Glenn-Matthews gonna report.

Hello.

Dave's in Ghana, so I'm gonna fill in.

We're getting close to closing hopefully by the end of October and one of the biggest challenges we've been looking at is resident engagement during this time.

We recently worked with PHAR and got out letters to everyone in Crescent Halls giving an update from Mr. Norris on what was happening and we also attached a 90-day notice just letting them know in 90 days and thereafter things would be happening.

As well as PHAR helped us draft some pictures and drawings that were very helpful.

I've gotten quite a few calls since that letter went out this past week.

We're hoping as soon as Dave gets back from his trip to also start having some information on the TV in the community room at Crescent Halls to share with residents.

And I've been purchasing tape and various things so I can explore.

creating some space in the relocation office to maybe meet with one or two people at a time while spaced out with windows open because we do have some residents in the building that I think really need to have a one-on-one conversation because I really want to make sure they understand what's happening.

We haven't hired a relocation coordinator yet.

We're still working on that process.

So I'm sort of the interim with that as well and a lot going on.

We're learning a lot right now, just on our feet about different ways to engage with residents.

And if any board members who have different ideas, please send them our way.

They can also be part of the resident services conversation.

We're looking at creative ways.

PHAR's had a lot of good ones about how to do hearings for our annual plan.

And I think we're just gonna be looking at just various methods that we can use just to get information out.

some maybe public television on Facebook Live.

Yeah, that sounds good.

I mean, as much as we can.

I know the only things, I'm talking like personally, with my job at UVA has been meeting like outside, fairly distanced apart with masks on, but that's only works well with like one or two people to hear each other.

But I was thinking maybe for the residents who need the in-person,

I've got access to pop-up tents where we're willing to explore lots of things.

We just want to keep everyone safe.

Okay, so in terms of the agenda, we're up to our next period of public comments and then Rita added a closed session that it's not really annual meeting preparation but annual meeting, usually in July.

The board meets to appoint officers.

So I believe in the past, I'm trying to remember, there's just been a chair, a vice chair and a treasurer.

So there's three like titled positions.

So that's just for us to iron out because we haven't done it yet this year.

And then that's all we have for tonight.

So public comment, please.

And if anybody, any of our attendees would like to speak during this public comment, please click the raise hand icon or press star nine on the phone.

Hello.

Two things.

A couple of things quickly.

I questioned it the last time that you all went in closed session to talk about your new board or your new officers.

That was something new.

I didn't know that.

You all could do that.

They used to do it in public, but now they're not doing that.

And so just wanted to ask the same question this year.

That was one.

Number two, I think Miss Green, Lisa Green, being that she has been on the planning commission, that she could be a good help to the residents, now the women at South First Street who are doing the planning.

and the maybe new residents who may join also because there's some technical stuff that gets crammed with residents and I believe that she could be a real good help

to helping people to understand design and all the other stuff.

And there's some other people that will be good, but being that she's on the board, I would think that she could be very helpful to residents-led design and planning.

On the safety committee, Ms. Walker, before you came on, what I was saying was I had a tough day today because I was in a couple of communities and people were just kind of laying me out about not hearing what residents are saying.

you know as being a leader you know you're not doing anything or whatever so I just had a rough day and my heart was heavy still is heavy because I feel like people are crying out for some help and they feel like they're being left out.

I also want to say that you know the more I talk to Mayor Walker

and some other people like Don and even one day, sometimes they say things that just click with me a little bit more and make me tweak some of the way I'm thinking about things.

So I just wanna say the way I see this is that there's three parts to this safety thing.

It's CRHA, it's the resident,

and it's the community and the city because we are in the city and so I just want to put that out there that I am thinking proactively

But I'm also getting my ass beat in the community because people feel like, you know, and I respect how they feel because I have to.

This is how it's impacting them.

This is how they're feeling.

And they're basically saying, y'all are not listening.

Y'all are not doing anything.

What are y'all gonna do?

Wait until somebody get killed.

So that was just part of my frustration and maybe I shouldn't have said a lot, but I was just, I had a tough day today.

I really have had a tough day today about, and being that I am, you know,

And being that I am the chair of PHAR, it comes with the territory, I have to take it.

But you know, I also have to let you all know I'm feeling.

And the other part of it is that my heart is even heavier because of what's going on in the community.

You know what I'm saying?

and it reflects, it impacts us, it really impacts us because I think a lot of people in their conversation with me were basically saying and here's what's going on in the city so we know they don't care about public housing residents so I just wanted to share that

Thank everybody who have listened.

And if I am messing up, I am always open to constructive criticism.

But anyway, that's all.

And Joy, we have these conversations probably, I don't know, often.

I really do understand and there is not any part of me when I was given the feedback that there were families who thought I was okay that that translation from police in Park Street like you police First Street or whatever translated into I didn't care if their babies got shot that was very

It was just hard to deal with.

As Chief Brackney, our officers attempting to sabotage this so that the change in how policing is done won't happen because of feedback from community about officers telling them to talk to their mayor because I'm the one who don't want them in the community.

And

Then having the community where there are some people demanding increased police presence in the community, some of those same people and then other people in the community are in this defund abolish conversations.

And anytime there's a number that goes up and the person is black or Hispanic, we are criticized for tossing people into a system that's only created to destroy them.

This is, I mean, this has just been a really challenging time to try to figure out, even with all of that, with me trying to stay consistent to values of how do we do this in a healthy way that doesn't contribute to the systems that have been in place to destroy people and how do we create community

So that there are people who are saying, this stuff is not allowed here, right?

And that those voices are loud enough to push out if there are people in the community to cause harm and confusion.

And those are the conversations that I, you know, have been trying to get us

to create.

I've heard feedback, negative feedback about me from our staff at City Hall.

I've heard it from CRHA staff.

I'm telling you, I can't win in this community.

And the only thing that I'm asking is if we are talking about systemic changes that we just can't go back to the responses that we know

haven't worked while they will handle some of these things temporarily.

They they won't work.

You know, I know that Mr.

Sales that we had a conversation early on and I went back to see if that, if I missed the email, but it is on my radar now to set this, you know, meeting up again.

I know we had a conversation early August, I think about Chief Brackney.

but I haven't been on all the email chains and I went back and looked and asked you and I'll try to resolve that.

You asked about like John Blair and trying to find space and vehicles and stuff like that and you and John had a conversation I think the next day.

So if there hasn't been something that occurred I've already sent you back me a message about this.

We can start having conversations.

I think that we

have to figure out how we're gonna have this conversation where we're just not demanding what we have had in the past.

And also, I hope that we are also working to, even though that larger change is hard, that we also work on that.

You know, on that too, kids have a right to grow up in communities where there are not people outside of their doors wreaking havoc.

But I also believe that they have a right to grow up in communities where the police are not sitting right outside their door when they walk out of it.

Yeah, again, that's why I'm rethinking it because I know that there are, so I'm gonna make it real fast because we can talk about this another time, but this is why I feel like this is three parts to it.

It's the responsibility of CRHA and the contract that we have signed with them.

It's part of their mission to provide safe and decent housing.

And I feel like policies, this is just my personal opinion, I could be wrong.

I don't feel like I'm wrong though because I have talked to my residents to say, you have

Elise, have you read your lease?

Do you understand what your obligations are?

And even if they understand it, I don't believe they think it applies to them.

And I think that's kind of where I'm sitting right now is that in this, what's going on in the world, there are certain people that just feel like policies and procedure does not apply to them.

But again, I go back, I'm not trying to pass judgment on anybody.

Cause I used to be a part of the problem, but I changed.

is that this has to be a three-part thing.

And so I'm looking forward.

Okay, and we have one other attendee with their hand up, Miss Audrey Oliver.

Hi everyone, I'm Woodby Oliver.

Wanted to talk about some of the stuff that's going on in public housing.

I see when you have folks who are marching through the street saying that black lives matter.

I'm just wondering if that's a part of public housing residents as well.

Do our lives matter?

And I just think that it's obvious that we're not gonna get any help from the city.

We've been through this over and over again.

with the police department at all.

I don't think that it's the police that don't wanna do their job because they let us know when they come into the community and they have the conversation, they let us know.

It's not us that don't wanna do our job, we're just not allowed to do our job, but they're allowed to get big paychecks to do a job that they're just not allowed to do.

And if you talk about police who don't show up, we had a gas leak over here today on South First Street,

and the police were called so that we wanted them to block off the drives to keep cars from coming through the drive and they never showed up and then when they showed that they were told, the person who called said they were told that they were en route but I never saw them show up until after everything was pretty much over within the fire department had already left.

Then they started riding through the community.

For me, I would like to see the housing authority

the housing authority staff and the safety committee meet together, figure out how we take our community because we're going to have to do this ourselves.

Even if it talks about joy, like you said, I'm marching on poor people because that's what we're going to have to get through to get any attention.

And the other piece of it is that I think that we are at the point where we need to meet with all the city council and that they can hear outside of what's going on outside.

You see, if they're willing to help and if they're not willing to help, then we need to figure out

And so that's the kind of rhetoric that I'm talking about that I've been hearing from the community.

that the translation of what I've asked for for healthy police in the community has turned into I am controlling whether police can come into the community and do their jobs.

And it's not healthy.

One, Ms. Oliver, you've never had a conversation with me about anything that I've said to our police department.

So you don't know if they're giving you accurate information or not, but you've taken

I never said you.

We do, they need to hear outside of the story.

They don't need, we don't need a messenger.

They need to hear us.

We need to talk to them.

They need to hear us, not a messenger.

All right.

But I was not referring to you specifically when I said about the police, because they have a boss and that's where their directors come to it.

And if you're a part of that, then yeah, you'll be a part of that.

I'm aware.

Nevermind.

I'm muted.

Thank you, Miss Oliver.

All right.

Anyone else want to speak this evening?

Okay, thank you.

I think, so now we can go into closed session and I need to, hold on.

I mean, Miss, and I'm speaking back to Miss Johnson's comment.

I'm happy to do this in public.

I think I was just going on what I had, what had happened when I was in the room.

So we don't need to do closed session.

Oh, well, this is very good to know.

All right, well then let's roll.

Yeah, we could.

I mean, we're operating as we are.

Commissioner Green.

Yeah.

We could also do it at the work session if she can make that.

Mr.

Okay.

So either the work session or the next meeting, we could do that.

And I would say in the meantime, just think about if you would like one of those roles.

In the past, Miss Oliver and I had discussed being a co-chair.

You know, these are titles that come from HUD, but they haven't

Vice Chair has been someone who stepped up and run the meetings, but the treasurer hasn't necessarily been doing that much with finance.

So I think we can maybe adjust whether they're just titles, which is kind of what they've been, except that I have been running the meetings, or if we want to attach a little bit more work to the roles.

But honestly, in the past, they've been titles.

Think about if you're interested in those.

And I think if we, whoever wants, whoever would like to be the treasurer, actually, we should probably have part of the finance committee in running or helping to run the finance committee.

Because I think in the past, we haven't actually, you know, done much with that treasurer role.

Okay, so we'll postpone that to the next session and it does not need to be a closed session.

We can just do it during our, you know, committee appointments or our commissioner updates at the beginning of the meeting.

Yes, Mr.

So we have posted for the finance director, I think we talked about the first meeting, we have found three good candidates.

And at the closed session, I was going to go a little bit further in that.

But I can ask now, are there any commissioners that would like to be part of that hiring panel, interview panel?

Okay, I think we're shooting for next Wednesday.

I think we have one to four between that time frame.

Thank you, Dr. Henry and Mayor Walker.

and maybe we'll brainstorm again we can't discuss this on email but send me a note if you have ideas for a work session but maybe one of the things Mr.

Sales I think last last month you had talked about there were various positions one was maybe a construction redevelopment construction manager position or some tech position you know maybe an update on on staffing and

And just a quick, Betsy, did you all get what I said about what constitutes a meeting, according to the last court case that was decided on that?

which isn't that you can't have meetings, it's more of that if there is these back-to-back responses on a meeting.

And so I said the case that has determined that and it's just something to think about because I don't know how you would get anything done if you can never send an email.

Yeah, I agree.

And I guess the other piece of it is, I mean, honestly, sometimes there's often what we need to discuss isn't necessarily anything that I don't want people to know.

Oh.

Before I decide to send an email, I just have to let everybody in the public know that I'm going to have this other people.

It is perfectly appropriate under the law to send an email to your commissioners.

What's not appropriate is when

So it's just if there's a time between the meeting, you know, between the responses and not

And usually that works out because everyone has a different schedule.

And I think I gave the example on council.

They are two counselors who usually are responding to things at

Knight.

Then there are two counselors.

I'm one of those people who will probably respond to everything immediately, no matter what time it is.

And so I have to be careful when, you know, like Heather, counselor Hill responds.

And then there's a counselor who is going to get to it, but you know, so usually there's two of us who have to worry about that response time.

and then the other three it's probably not going to be any close you know time close together and we've had that situation that's been described where Mr. Blair is like nobody responds right and so nobody else responds to this so you definitely

want to be very mindful.

It's easy and I think that's probably why we were giving the feedback we got the last time.

It's easy too if you're not thinking about it, but as long as it's not a, you know, back and forth discussion where it's like 1201, you respond to 1205, you respond, someone else responded 1207, someone else responded.

You know, those type of situations, it should work out for us to be able to communicate through email.

My experience has been that those conversations usually occur about something that has absolutely no importance at all.

What do we want to have for lunch?

Or something that is really, really important and people are upset and they feel the need to immediately respond.

And that's where you kind of get in trouble.

My suggestion is that a way around that is for the person sending the email to instead of carbon copying people, blind carbon copy them.

And that prevents everyone from replying all.

I never thought, okay.

I mean, in our case, I think it's usually nothing to, you know,

It's mostly communication, you know, we have a lot of information and a lot goes on, you know, Mr.

Sales and Ms. Glenn, Matt, you know, everyone, there's a lot that goes on every day in terms of public housing.

And most of the time we're just reading that information and the conversation is going on with staff, right?

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

I'm trying to think where, so anything else before we adjourn?

And please, you don't have to reply all, but think about what

What we would like to spend some time on on a work session where we don't have to have a formal meeting and we can kind of stick with the topic for a little bit longer.

The one idea I had was, you know, sort of redevelopment short and long term for the new commissioners who haven't been

You know, following along as a commissioner for so long.

And then also maybe Mr.

I also, at the last training, the lawyers had some ideas about, I thought that they'd mentioned a finance training.

Great.

We can ask that maybe we can schedule that for like the November, I mean, we could try for October, but if they need more time, could do that within the next couple of months.

I think that's a great idea, especially before budget.

Season starts.

Okay, great.

Second.

Okay, and I'll do the roll call.

All those in favor or I guess vote to adjourn.

Dr. Henry?

Aye.

Mayor Walker?

Yes.

Osteen says yes by text.

Miss Goldblatt?

Yes.

And myself.

Okay.

Thank you all very much for all your hard work.

And also to the people who give public comment, thank you very much.

We really need your input as well.