CRHA Regular Meeting   2/22/2021

So I'll call to order the monthly meeting of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.

It's a virtual board meeting Monday, February 22nd at 6 p.m. And I need to read the code.

This is Governor Northam's executive order number 53 that allows us to meet virtually during the COVID pandemic.

issued an executive order EO 53 restricting public gathering of greater than 10 persons.

Accordingly, code 2.2-3708.283 permits public bodies to meet electronically to discuss business required or necessary.

to operation of the public body in discharge of its lawful purposes, duties, and responsibilities in times of emergency and to address COVID-19.

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

Okay.

Commissioner Green?

Here.

Commissioner Slaughter?

Commissioner Mayor Walker.

Wonderful.

And let's have a moment of silence before we begin.

Okay, thank you.

For general announcements, since I'm looking at Ms. Johnson back on the screen, which is awesome, I wanted to share with everyone that might not have seen the news that Joy Johnson won a major

as they call it a major award from the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

Dole Bear.

Yeah.

So this is an amazing national award and we'll have to send, I think it's on the CRHA

Facebook page, but the link has been going around.

So we'll make sure to share that.

But it's amazing.

And it's also nice after Miss Joy's been out for a few weeks.

So

So if folks don't know who Cushion is, they should look her up.

But she was a Quaker.

She's not living now.

She was a Quaker.

But she did a lot walking on the hill and talking to senators and implementing affordable housing

policies and negotiating and all.

But the one amazing thing that people don't seem to get, but she did get it, was that she really and truly advocate for one, her board members who don't understand, and two, the residents, because the residents really is at a disadvantage.

However,

She was instrumental in the housing trust fund that the coalition now have.

That's one of the reasons why we have that and I think we have benefited from it.

I think, I hope I'm not speaking out of time because I think that trust fund

took her down to the states.

But anyway, if I was gonna get any award, any award, I've already gotten the Dr. King Award, but if I was gonna get any additional award, it will be that one because she was very grounded and I really understood what grounded meant.

and still me.

And I hope I'm living up to her namesake.

So Charlottesville couldn't even give me an award that mean anything.

But just saying, I'm throwing my shade.

Not at you, Nikaya, not at you, baby.

But anyway.

And I just want to say one thing too.

This award, I'm accepting this award, but I didn't do all of that work.

Other residents did, you know, other board members did, residents across the nation did, you know, the Bertha Gilkey, the Martha Johnsons, you know, the Pioneer Public Housing, it's, you know, the J.R. Flemons, you know, and I could go on and on, Dee Dee Gilmore, Shamour Cooper, all of those folks.

Everybody in PHAR, that award is for everybody.

It's not just for me.

So I just want to be able to say that Holly Edwards, Dave Norris, all of the folks who I dragged to those conferences so that they could see a different glimpse of what I was seeing about how we could actually make affordable housing happen.

And so the work that PHAR and myself has done,

Awesome.

Thank you.

And there's nothing else more exciting here.

We'll talk about the groundbreaking later.

In terms of announcements, we have a work session coming up Thursday, the one that's been canceled twice because of icy roads.

and then a regular meeting next March 22nd.

The safety meetings continue every Tuesday.

Next it'll be March 2nd and then March 16th at six o'clock.

And then we have, oh, a new redevelopment meeting time to try out and see who can make this time but it'll be every first Thursday at 5 p.m.

and lastly, Resident Service Committee has been restarted and that happens every second Tuesday of the month at 1 p.m. and all of these have associated Zoom links that will be on our website but I just wanted to announce there's many meetings happening all the time.

Just that the next safety committee meeting is gonna be on March 2nd at 6 p.m.

Awesome, cool.

Okay, it's time for public comments.

Hi Chair Rucker, this is Joe Rice at the Communications Office.

Hi.

Hello.

And yeah, if any of our attendees would like to address the commission at this time, please click the raise hand icon and you'll be called upon in the order of hands raised.

Once you have been activated, please unmute your mic and you'll have three minutes for comment.

We have Brandon Collins.

Brandon, you're on with the commission.

Good evening, CRHA.

This is Brandon Collins.

I'm an organizer for PHAR, the Public Housing Association of Residents.

We are the federally recognized resident council and resident advisory board for public housing in Charlottesville.

And we take that duty seriously and hope that you all do too.

And for the most part, I think you do.

But feel free to check out the regulations and see all the awesome rights that residents are granted

under federal law.

Not a whole lot to say.

I do first want to do two sets of congratulations.

One is for PHAR's board chair, Joy Johnson, and the award she received.

We're extremely happy about that and looking forward to the virtual ceremony in March for that.

but also wanted to welcome PHAR's brand new interns so every year PHAR runs an internship program for low-income residents of public housing they earn a stipend while they learn about civic engagement and participate in organizing and given PHAR capacity to organize and do lots of awesome things

So our current new PHAR interns are Alexis Cooper, Sleithia Carr, Ashley Freeman, and Gwen Allen.

And Gwen is a HTV recipient.

So welcome to them and I'm sure you'll be hearing from them as time goes on.

I do also want to thank Mr. Gilmore for attending.

I hope you all will engage with

him as much as possible with the idea in mind that community-based solutions to violence intervention is really probably the most effective thing that can happen.

You all have a safety action plan, which we fully support and we appreciate you moving forward on that.

But the bottom-up grassroots approach to dealing with violence in the community

It's really the only thing that can make a difference on a major scale.

So we hope that you will, rather than put restrictions on them or put demands on them or lots of requests on them, rather let them, you know, get the things they need from you in order to do the work that they're attempting to engage in.

And welcome, Mr. Gilmore.

Super thrilled about John's report, including demographic information.

It's really hard to see, but I'm really excited about that and appreciate that.

Still a little worried about the vacancy situation.

I know you all are working hard and you have a really hard deadline coming up.

So anything we can do to help you meet that deadline so everybody can take a deep breath and move on into the future.

That would be great.

I think the future does need to include an attention to the needs of current residents who have been very patiently waiting for progress as you all get things straight with HUD and get your vacancy rate under control.

So we do look forward to that future.

And also very much looking forward to the budget

and the Capital Fund and we wanted to suggest having an additional community meeting about the Capital Fund since it was very difficult to get outreach done for that and gain broad participation so hope you'll take that under advisement and I always encourage commissioners to ask lots of questions of Mr. Gilmore and lots of questions of Mr. Kessler who's here also to get really in tune with redevelopment and the

Future that is really here and arriving right now as we speak.

If anybody else would like to address the commission at this time, please click the raise hand icon.

Or if you're joining us by phone, press star nine.

And we have Don Gathers.

Don, you're on with the commission.

Good evening, everyone.

Just real quickly, thank you all for the meeting.

I too wanted to really thank and welcome Brother Gilmore for being here this evening.

And thanks to the city for the donations or the contribution, the monies that they put forth for the Stop the Balance program that he is very much out in front of.

and if anybody else would like to address the commission at this time, please click the raise hand icon.

Okay, thank you.

And again, there's another moment for public comment at the end of the meeting.

On the agenda, next we have a redevelopment update.

Mr.

Sales, where did you go?

I can't see.

We did move the redevelopment update a little hidden agenda.

We have Jay Kessler here to give that update.

I didn't want to take up a lot of his time.

So Jay Kessler has been working as the owner's rep for the construction.

And Mr. Kessler, oh, sorry, before you begin, I don't know.

There may be people that don't know

what you do.

Thank you, John and Betsy and Brandon for the introduction and for the commissioners for having me tonight and for the opportunity to work on the redevelopment.

So I work as an owner's rep as a representative, as a consultant really to your development partner, Affordable Housing Group, LLC that was set up.

But effectively I represent owners who have a significant role to play.

And in this case, the owner is different than my normal clients because it really is AHG and CRHA and it's PHAR.

Owners have a significant role to play in the success of their design and construction projects.

I bring a 30 plus year construction background.

I started working as an owner's rep, working on my own in 2010.

So I've been doing this a little over 10 years and effectively I bring a skill set to a team who is building a project that they may not reside

on their staff.

I mean, CRHA, PHAR does not have a need every day, at least up until now, does not have a need every day to have somebody with project development and construction experience who knows the design side of the project, the building side, manages budgets, tries to keep the two firms that are under contract to the owner, which are the architect and the contractor

moving in the right direction and accountable for what they committed to when they went into contract to either design or build the construction project.

So that's what I do is bring that set of skills to a team.

You all know affordable housing and housing policies.

And in my year plus working on this, I've learned things about HUD and lingo

requirements that I never dreamed of knowing and glad we have those experts on the team to manage all that.

And hopefully I bring an expertise to help manage the design and construction side of the project.

So any questions about that?

And I am a lifelong resident of Charlottesville.

I've been here since 1959.

So it is exciting for me to

have a role in this work.

I understand the importance of it and I'm thrilled that it's moving forward in Charlottesville.

Updates, we do have one project underway.

I think as it mentioned, we did the muddy part of Breaking Ground on February 8th.

We've had some challenging weather in the first part of the schedule.

but the contractor's pushing to overcome that and keep things going.

The project completion date is June 20, 2022.

So that's when we can look forward to having those 62 new units.

Right now they are working on getting erosion and sediment control set up, getting security fencing up, getting signs and banners up so people know what's going on when they drive by if they're not familiar with it.

The next big milestone to look forward to if weather starts to cooperate a bit will be the first week or so of April of having the first building pad ready.

So by the time we get into later April and May, we'll start to see vertical construction happening when we get to May and things really starting to take shape.

seeing Brauno and John and the CRHA team here.

They're dealing with the other aspect of this project and side effect, which is they're moving out of the maintenance building, which is a stress on their operations.

But come March, that building will be demolished to make way for some of the utility work that has to happen.

So any questions on South First Street?

On Crescent Halls, we're not quite as far along.

We are in the final stages of trying to negotiate the contract and guaranteed maximum price, the contract price with GMA Construction out of Chicago.

I think probably most of you know that Cornelius Griggs has been involved in this project for, we were talking about that today.

He's probably got two years into it.

So I think we're all excited

of trying to get to that finish line.

We had hoped to be there at end of last week, didn't quite get to where we have a final contract in place and all the information and documents that Jeff Meyer needs to get us to closing.

Once we get all that, Jeff needs about a week to close.

So presuming we get done this week, Jeff should have us closed by March 5th, thereabouts.

where I would expect GMA and their local partner, Martin Horn Construction, their local team to start having a presence setting up their construction office facilities, et cetera by mid-March.

And come early April, we would start to see some actual construction activities on site.

Their plan is to start on the re-roofing of the building

once the eighth floor is vacant so that we don't have too much noise for residents living there and to start demolition on eighth floor.

That schedule is dependent on residents voluntarily agreeing to relocate to other units in Crescent Halls.

I know the CRHA team has been working on that and I believe right now has all the voluntary

relocation agreements secured or at least verbally.

Residents are happy to see this finally get going.

I can't share with you if we start early April when the completion date would be, we think it's gonna be about a 19 month project that has not been firmed up and finalized yet.

Again, one of the things for this week, but that would put the completion sometime out there.

Fourth quarter of 22.

So looking forward to getting that project started.

There'll be challenges with being occupied during the renovations, but that's gotten a lot of discussion, a lot of planning that we'll keep an eye on all that and communication as we go.

Any questions about the Crescent Hall project status?

So on both projects, the last thing I'll share is on both projects, I meet with the owner and I mean the architect and contractor team twice a month.

We go over nitty-gritty project details, review where they are on schedule, how do we overcome challenges, review pay apps, things like that.

Then those are on a Tuesday, the Thursday following each of those meetings, we've established a vision keepers meeting

We had our first one.

We have our second one coming up this Thursday, so it'll be two weeks since our first one.

And that's a group of CRHA, PHAR, Legal Aid, and residents from both the South First Street and Creston Halls communities.

And it's a chance for me to update them in more detail than I've done here on the project status, identify challenges that we have

input that we need, feedback that we need, things that need to be, would help to communicate out into the two communities so that residents know we've just gotten that started.

We will refine that process as we go and we need to solve how we're gonna disseminate that information farther out into both the Crescent Halls and South First Street communities as this team learns to work together

and I meet those challenges at communications.

Okay, no.

I'm just wondering if like what, so I know you mentioned the weather's been a challenge.

I'm wondering about just like, are there potentially any other delays that we might, I mean, I know nobody anticipated anything like COVID, but I'm just wondering about things like the closing and the financing.

So on South First Street, you're closed and ready to roll money for the project is in place.

You know, there'll be the,

typical or for me, typical things in construction that the contractor will need to resolve about material deliveries and coordination and all of that, that in this project in new construction, really the biggest challenge to schedule that's not in the owner, I mean, in the contractor's control is whether the way the contract is set up is that

There are a number of weather days to expect each month based on historical NOAA averages.

And if there is adverse weather greater than that, and we define that by the amount of rain or amount of snow in each event, then yes, the contractor is allowed to request additional time each month.

And we will have a log and track that.

and agree or disagree whether or not we're in excess of the historical average.

On Crescent Halls, once we get to closing and Jeff assures us that as soon as we have everything finalized with the GMA, he has got bank financing, everything in place, lawyers are ready to go.

Once we get to closing,

will agree on a notice to proceed and start date with GMA and their contract time will start to tick at that point.

On that project, weather really won't be a concern.

I mean, we're inside the roof they're gonna do early, so if weather impacts them and it takes them an extra two weeks to complete the roof, that won't delay their overall schedule.

It's not on the critical path.

and same with the site work being done.

They're forecasting about six months of site work over a 19 month project.

I think they'll have time to do that without delaying completion.

So there our risk more is in our ability to relocate from four to four in the period of time allowed, which is two weeks to get residents.

So when they finish eight for renovation and it's brand new,

Residents from 6-4 will have to move up to 8 to clear 6 to start renovations there and move our way down through the building.

So the owner has a responsibility to get that relocation done.

And then it is a 1975 building.

And we think we know the building and have looked around a lot.

but they could do demolition on a floor and we could run into something concealed and unexpected.

I think those odds are limited, but not Zebra.

And that would be the other place.

And then COVID does present some issues with supply chains.

I've got another project going on.

We ordered some different hardware.

The owner didn't like some door hardware function

the way it was originally designed.

And yeah, we're told it would be in February and then all of a sudden we got a notice because of COVID it'll be end of April.

So hopefully we don't get caught by that and COVID will start to be in everybody's rear view mirror but there is an exposure there and both contracts do make that the owner's liability to provide extra time if that happens.

That was my question too is what is the, you know, what's in place for materials?

Neither contractor has identified any, but they

As I said, in the negotiation of both contracts, they both reserve their right to request a time extension if they get caught.

And if they identify that they can't get door hardware from this manufacturer that we were planning, we also have the option to look at other manufacturers who may be able to meet the date and they can get out of one agreement and move to another and we'll look at

I mean, two by fours are hard to find right now.

Yeah.

And that's, so that's definitely an issue on South First Street.

But I know our contractor, Breeden Construction, factored the cost risk into their contract.

So if the market changes,

They're at that risk, not us, not the owner.

And as far as delivery, I know they're already working with their suppliers to buy out the package and ensure delivery.

And unfortunately, they're not going to Lowe's like us and paying that four or five times the price.

Great.

Other questions?

Well, thank you all.

And I appreciate it.

Great.

Mr.

Question for you.

Is Mr. Gilmore going to, on my agenda,

I'm trying to think.

Yeah.

Yeah, he's going to present during my time.

It was a last minute thing.

The agenda was already posted.

So we'll add him to mine.

Yeah.

OK.

Okay, great, wonderful.

So, and also in terms of redevelopment, maybe Kathleen can speak to this, but there will be a virtual groundbreaking ceremony.

Oh, she's writing about it in the chat.

Oh, move to March 7th.

And unfortunately, you know, for COVID, we can't bring a large group of people together, but we can mark that this is very exciting, you know, first groundbreaking for CRHA.

Well, in many years.

and I'm thinking, you know, hopefully when there is something called the ribbon cutting at the end, when people are moving in, we can have an in-person much larger celebration.

So Kathleen mentioned it's on March 7th and there'll be some details if anyone wants to log in and just hear more about the project.

Okay, so updates from commissioners, board sessions which were canceled.

We have approval of the minutes from November 23, 2020.

Okay.

Leslie, are you here?

Yeah, she's up there, but I think her audio, she may be having some audio issues.

Yes.

Okay, and it's approved.

Yeah, I'm really excited to hear this presentation by Mr. Gilmore.

So the safety committee most recently has been considering a camera policy.

We've worked it back and forth for some time, and it should be going to the board pretty soon.

But it's an attempt to co-author the policy with residents, but also to make sure that residents really feel like they have control over how cameras will be used on their properties.

So we've talked a lot about that.

And then there's been some discussion just around like lingering safety concerns, some of which have subsided because of the winter weather.

But I think people are looking forward to the spring and thinking about ways to prevent violence before it happens.

There's a lot of interest in community based solutions.

A lot of people would really love to hear from community members.

And there's been

Some talk about inviting people to come present at the safety committee meetings about some of these initiatives especially given the situation with COVID that a lot of the solutions people have posed require presence together which is hard to do right now.

So there has been some talk for the next meeting about the question of a loitering policy and we've got some legal questions about whether or not loitering is actually

An issue, whether or not we want a policy, but we're hoping to start a conversation with residents about that, to have some questions answered by CRHA staff and by some of the lawyers to see what it is that we want.

I just want to be on record again, I know I've been a pain about this, but all of those camera policy, watering, the towing, like all of those types of things, we just really have to make sure that it's an equitable process.

It's going to be very hard to not

misuse, something like a camera policy and it's just making sure that whatever is presented and then ultimately voted on is fair and that we get as much input from as many families as possible and not just a few.

I know that people thought

and it did take us a while to get to even what the Buck Squad piece on the street, what they are hoping to do in the community, but they are very different approaches than we traditionally had.

And I would just like for us to think about what does those non-traditional

and hopefully Remedies look like and whether we make immediate investments in these very traditional modes.

Again,

Got beat up about not being for safety, but I am for safety.

I just want to make sure that people are not, you know, always under the, you know, big brother type watching every move you make and that once you implement things like cameras,

Yeah, when it comes to the camera policy, you should say like, there's still, there is no policy right now and that means that residents have an opportunity, residents and community members have an opportunity to say that they don't want cameras at all or they don't want them to be used in ways that the policy

has been written and so the draft policy has gone out and read statements, but we will be hosting the meeting so we can always come back to the camera policy if people come on March 2nd at 6 p.m. and they want to talk about it, there's no reason not to return to it.

We'd initially planned but it got canceled because of the snow, a 4 p.m. meeting since a lot of families at South First Street said that 4 p.m.

on Tuesdays or Thursdays worked for them.

And so we thought maybe that would work, but it got canceled because of the snow, but we'll be rescheduling something like that in March to see if that time works better.

But we do wanna hear really widely from residents because I don't think that anyone who's been attending those meetings wants to feel like they live in a police state, but I think they've also seen the ways that that's not an effective way to be healthy and safe.

So yeah, I really am looking forward to hearing more about

Any other questions for Miss Goldblatt?

Thank you for continuing those meetings, to chair those meetings.

Oh, okay.

So now we have, we're going to discuss the official CRHA redevelopment and committee membership.

Kathleen, I don't know if somebody has the image.

I can look for mine that we could maybe share the screen of the list.

I'll give a little bit of background.

The redevelopment committee was established because we needed a way to make decisions and move forward on

just the timeline and where to start honestly, how to start the ball rolling.

Eventually that was formalized into a voting membership.

Again, being able to move forward, hire contractors, enter into partnerships.

Some of the people originally on that committee are no longer with us.

So we need to update it.

And maybe, I think for now, maybe we just talk about updating it and whether or not the number is correct or you know other amendments might be taken up in the Redevelopment Committee itself.

But the committee itself is, it's been focused mostly on South First Street and Crescent Halls over the past year or so, because that's the most pressing, you know, needing to get that moving along.

But initially it was established to kind of take the longer term planning and timeline of all the properties and how to move through and improve all of them in whatever way is appropriate.

just so you know for people who may be interested in joining that.

Mr.

Well, we need to have a discussion on who the board representative, because we have a board position open because of Mr. Osteen's resignation.

I believe Alice Washington was already voted on.

And I don't know how the executive director position is handled.

I don't think we need to vote on that one because I think it probably goes by the executive director, not the person in the position.

Okay.

Okay, thanks.

I don't know if I can share either, but I'll try.

Go ahead, Miss Walker.

No, I just, it has you already on there.

And then it's the replacement for Osteen's position.

Okay.

Is that something, do we make comments or do we vote on this?

Do we make comments?

I mean, that makes a lot of sense to have the mayor on the committee.

Is this the same meeting that people just said would be changed till five o'clock, the third Tuesday or something?

Am I sharing?

Sorry.

No, you're sharing your screen, your documents, your documents.

That's helpful.

Nevermind.

Yeah, Miss Green, I think the Redevelopment Committee has only, I mean, the actual membership was established for when there has to be a vote.

Oh, thank you, Miss Glenn-Matthews.

Which hasn't happened very often, honestly.

It's only been on big decisions, what project is gonna be begun first, the contracts.

Anyone can come to the actual meetings.

So this, honestly, this is for when there needs to be a vote.

So that does not preclude people from

coming and adding, you know, feedback and helping with the committee.

I'll also note that my, unfortunately, my term will be up in, I think whenever it turns over in July, June or July, Miss Slaughter and myself.

So there'll be another place there for someone to step in, a commissioner to step in.

We could also, well, anyway, we can have Miss Walker as our designee.

Some of the other, I know that if one of us couldn't be there, we can always put that there is a substitute in other commissioners, sort of like the legal aid has someone who is the person that votes, but there's also a designee.

The idea was that each partner in the projects would have someone voting.

I was just trying to understand what the difference.

When we put our subcommittees together, I was trying to understand what the difference in those and this was because I had been

I had expressed interest in that subcommittee, but it is not working out with my schedule to go to any of the meetings.

And so I didn't know what the difference was.

So we have, we have three resident representatives on the committee, Joy Johnson, Audrey Oliver,

and Alice Washington are all three residents.

So Joy is, okay.

So Joy is not acting as a FAR.

Just trying to- If I'm wrong.

I'm just trying to understand the makeup just the first time I feel like I'm seeing it.

So Ms. Oliver and Ms. Washington are residents.

Joy is too, but I don't know again if she's representing FAR.

Joy, are you there?

I can't see the screen now that this is on full screen.

You're on mute.

You're muted.

Joy.

And I was just talking.

Oh, gosh.

That's my Zoom call.

I fumble every time.

I'm not sure, I do have to go back and look at it.

I know I was, I threw myself in because they didn't want me on the Redevelopment Committee.

So I just submitted my name at the board meeting and they voted me in.

So I don't know if they voted me in as a PHAR representative or just a public housing resident.

Because the way they were doing it, the way they were, the way they were doing it, they didn't want,

Joy Johnson on it.

And so I just threw my name in at the ninth hour.

And I'm not suggesting, I'm just, first off, I'm willing to serve wherever I'm best suited.

But I do want to make sure that I understand.

I just didn't understand the difference between this particular

This is the subcommittee.

The title is not, for some reason when it was named, it was not titled subcommittee, but this is the subcommittee for the board for redevelopment.

So I know more than two members wanted to be on the redevelopment subcommittee.

So we published it as a public meeting when we were having it every week and we still publish it.

So we have a motion and a second.

Yeah, and I would suggest maybe when

The, when is it, next week?

The redevelopment committee, the redevelopment meeting is at five o'clock and perhaps we'll have, you know, different people who can come at that time.

We can talk about whether this mix is still, you know, this was designed

a couple of years ago now.

So we can always question the lineup and whether we want to add another, more people, less, you know, whatever.

I think it's up for grabs, but right now we just need to, if there is a vote, we need to vote on Mayor Walker being that person who can vote in that position.

Did we get a second?

We got a second, right?

Okay, I think we'll do a roll call vote.

Is this an acclamation vote or roll call, did you say?

I think it has to be a roll call.

Mr. Stales, I'm sorry.

Leslie, you're muted if... Or maybe not.

If you can hear us.

I'll take it.

Okay.

Commissioner Green?

Yes.

So I think we're all good.

I'm sorry.

Okay.

It's all right.

We'll fix it in the meeting notes, Jenna.

Don't worry about it.

And I think in terms of the committee, since we're talking about them, because I was thinking a list would come out or something, but I haven't missed any other financial committee meetings, have I?

No, we haven't started the finance committee, and we were waiting until we had

The Finance Director, Mary Lou, on board it.

The Maintenance Committee will be starting soon.

We will need another commissioner for that one since Commissioner Osteen resigned.

The Resident Service Committee has started.

The Redevelopment Committee, of course, has stopped and the Safety Committee has stopped.

Oh, and the Personnel Committee has not started either.

That's what I was asking.

I'm just writing a note.

Especially since they haven't been sent out.

Every time I see a meeting set up, I'm thinking, am I supposed to- Am I on that committee?

Yeah.

So I wanted to ask tonight.

Yes.

We'll resend it and we'll note the times and I believe the finance and well finance was waiting for Mary our finance director to join and personnel personnel may be just talking to staff and seeing what time is you know good for everyone so I'll resend that and maybe we can even I don't know I keep imagining that we could have a board like Google Drive or something where we keep

some of these documents if we lose them, but we can talk about that another time.

That's what I keep thinking.

There are various documents.

Probably most can be kept, well, we'll talk about this later.

Some can be kept with CRHA and some might be a separate

Okay, that is me.

So I wanna start off by giving a special thank you to the mayor, Mayor Walker and the city council.

At their last meeting, they did approve at least the first approval of two additional funding for CRHA's COVID-19 rental support program.

And about two meetings ago,

funded the eviction prevention program, which is a new initiative that we're starting.

It's to hire an eviction prevention coordinator and to provide some incentive money for the coordinator to use for individuals that are enrolled in the program.

We're looking to help about 10 families per quarter.

And so the incentive payments, the families will get on payment plans and we will use the incentive funds to pay one of those payments that the family would have to pay.

So then it gives them some incentive to stay on track and our coordinator will be helping find financial training, which will help with budgeting.

They'll be working with them to find job training if that's one of their goals and any other support that they may need in order to make them successful.

So the goal is to reduce the impact of potential evictions after the moratorium has been lifted.

Jay Kessler touched on one of the big things we've been working on, which is the office relocation.

Probably about 80% or almost 100% of our operations will be affected by the transition due to redevelopment.

Actually it is 100%.

So the ladies that were at the rental office at Crescent Halls have already begun to move.

We've have the HCV team at the Sixth Street Community Center.

and the public housing managers will spread out amongst the different sites.

So we'll have an asset manager at South First Street, an asset manager at West Haven and then a third asset manager potentially at one of the two sites just because we won't have any space at Sixth Street or Crescent Halls and the Crescent Halls will be about two years before we get our space back there.

The central office is slated to be fully moved in at 110 5th Street Northeast thanks to the city on April 1st.

That is the office space beside the garage on Main Street.

and the rental office will then begin transitioning to South First Street.

Maintenance has already begun transitioning because they have to be out of their space by April, I mean, by March the 15th.

So they're going to be moving to the community center at South First Street until July 1st, when they will move over to Avon Levy, which is the former site of Community Bikes and Agriculture Group.

We are working to address the corrective action plan.

We meet

almost weekly to talk about where we are.

One of the big things we've been focusing on now is occupancy.

So we are, Brauno and I probably meet or talk every day about where we are with our numbers.

Right now we have 35 vacancies outside of Crescent Halls.

Of those 35, nine of them are ready and we are expecting to lease them up by the end of the week.

Brauno's team started working on three new units today and Habitat is still working on the six units at West Haven.

So I've been looking at the schedule and I pencil out almost every day, every night.

It goes through my head and I start working on the schedule where we are tracking it almost by the day.

So we are right on schedule to hit our occupancy goals.

Financial.

We are doing pretty good as I mean if you all look at the financial reports we're doing pretty good when it comes to all the AMPs.

We're always looking for ways to find additional funding to take the burden off public housing because that is one of the indicators that they look at when they look at your financial viability is how many months of reserve funding you have for each AMP.

So we've always tried to look for ways to repair that because it has always been an issue, it's not having enough reserve in case we have issues like COVID or there's a government shutdown and there's no funding, a funding bill hasn't been passed and that's happened a couple of times.

So we are addressing that.

We are looking at moving salaries to different places.

We were awarded shortfall funding.

We've looked at FEMA, using some FEMA funding to cover security and turnover vacant units.

So Kathleen has been working really hard on that, looking at other funding options out there.

So we have a couple of different things we're going to be going through within the next week or two to increase the financial reserves at all the sites.

So at the next financial report, you should see some additional funding on the sites because we're going to go back and reprogram some funds that we had previously charged to the AMP to create that viability for the sites.

Kathleen touched on the groundbreaking for March the 7th at three o'clock.

The CFP is posted on a website and the board work session is scheduled for Thursday at five.

And the draft annual budget should be posted by tomorrow.

Tomorrow close of business.

I just have one question.

When you were talking about redistributing reserve money, does that mean, I know in the past, amps perform differently and then money can be moved around.

Do they want to see a certain percentage of reserve in each specific amp or like a lump sum that can be drawn upon?

Thank you.

We can talk about it later, but when Crescent Halls is in the midst of being renovated, I guess those units are offline so they don't count.

Yeah, so I'll try to explain it as best as I can.

So right now the units count against us.

The units count against us until there's a signed contract between us and the contractor to do the redevelopment.

So right now it counts against us.

We, I mean, Melinda and I got off the phone with HUD maybe at like 5.30.

And that was like some of the last comments that we made was, hey, why are you all counting Crescent Halls?

We know you all have identified them that they're gonna be under HUD approved modernization.

So why do we still count them?

They still want them to be tracked.

And their justification is that 53 of them will still be public housing.

And my response was, well, we have 79 of them occupied as public housing.

So only look at the 53.

That is not what they want to hear.

They want to look at the 105.

Thank you.

OK. All right.

So tonight I ask Mr. Gilmore to come here from the Buck Squad.

We all know we've had a lot of safety concerns on our sites and the residents have requested that we do something to address the safety issues.

And there's been a lot of organic work done in the community and Mr. Gilmore is a part of that and is the executive director of Guns Down and is

was the creator of Buck Squad.

So we have invited him here to talk about that and see where we can have a partnership and we can provide some assistance on our end.

And he can help us out on our end to address the safety issues because we know we can be here all day talking about what will work, but unless it's coming from the community and there's community buy-in, it's gonna fall on deathly ears.

So Mr. Gilmour is here tonight

Let us know what he's doing with Buck Squad and how we can help him and eventually help us address the safety issues that the residents are coming to us with.

Thank you for having me, everyone.

I appreciate the invite.

Can everybody hear me?

Yeah, I appreciate the invite.

One of the things that

You know, like Miss Walker, Mayor Walker knows we try to be as transparent as possible to let the community know exactly what we're doing so they can have a feel of not only the specific parts of the program, but also the effectiveness.

But just to explain to you the basic foundation of the program, as Mr.

Sales was saying, I am the executive director of Guns Down, Inc., which is a Brooklyn-based program.

Organization, excuse me, that is centered around reducing gun violence.

And we saw the need for the program to be here, the organization to be here because of the recent homicides.

What we just experienced in the last few months in this city was it had never happened before in this small amount of time.

And it's something that's strange to me.

It was something that was unique.

and as an individual who comes from the environment, I had a friend who was killed on December 27th on South First Street, right across the street from the church.

His name is Jamarcus Washington.

We call him Buck and he was a good kid.

He was younger than me, but as I always tell people, it was the catalyst for a lot that's going on inside of me internally to try to do something to remedy the situation.

On December 28th, I came to Charlottesville because I was living in Richmond.

And I met with some guys who were already doing things in the community, guys who had a certain feel for the community because they were from the community.

And I picked together a team of 15 individuals who followed my vision.

I told them my vision.

I told them my plan.

You know, I told them how I thought that we could remedy the situation to help it.

And we had a roundtable with a couple of individuals, what we call high-risk individuals, those who are basically running certain neighborhoods in the city to try to get an understanding of what was going on and why was these violence being so rampant the way it were.

And we came up with an understanding and a solution, the best fit

what we thought could be something that would be effective and that is to do violence interruption, to be preventative and proactive in identifying a potential problems before they happen and also giving the community a resource, a hotline where they can call us when certain individuals saw the things, the spark was started that could lead to a potential act of violence with guns.

We believe that

You know, these guys are communicating with guns because they have never been taught to communicate verbally or orally, to work through their problems.

But the group that I assembled, the team that I assembled, us having a first-hand knowledge because we were actually immersed in that lifestyle at one time, we have a first-hand knowledge, you know, of how things can arise from one word or from one action and able to identify the problem and to come to

to come to some kind of agreement or solution where we can try to solve it.

So informally, we gave our numbers out to everybody in all housing authorities and two other housing sites, Friendship Court and Fifth Street, what used to be called Prospect.

And we gave our numbers to individuals who we know were credible, who were streetwise and were connected to the community.

males and females and if they saw anything or they saw a beef about to rise they could call it they could call my number and the number that I had you know call the individual number I would dispatch guys out according to what neighborhood they grew up in or who I knew that they were related to or you know our job is about relations so I was able to dispatch guys to certain individuals which what we call high-risk individuals

to isolate them and to put them in a situation where they can calm down and think and make sure that the removal, they couldn't be connected with each other, they're both parties and we could resolve the conflict and it worked.

You know, the first week we did, I think I told Miss Walker, we did seven, I think seven resolutions that first week and three of those individuals, as we call in the hood, they were known as shooters.

They would be taken serious if they were threatening somebody.

These threats were serious from past experiences in the street.

But we were able to get inside and meet them at a coffee shop, take them to isolated places and have a dialogue with them.

And then also, once they agreed to calm down and have a peace meeting, we were able to do something called a commitment sheet.

We did assessments.

and we do something called a commitment sheet where the guys they sign off on it and the commitments are designed by my team and the individuals and it is something that they adhere to according to how they see it and from those conflict resolutions that we did that first week none of those guys had a problem with each other ever again so it works

In the process of doing that, I had one individual.

When I go, I sent one of my guys out about two o'clock in the morning to a situation, and he got a gun pulled out on him.

So it was a situation where his life was at risk, and I knew that we were operating off of instinct, you know, off of the love that we have for the community of trying to heal the community and being a part of the solution.

But I knew we had to have some more.

It was more to it.

So I investigated, and I came across something called Cure Violence.

and Cure Violence is a nationally renowned organization that trains individuals to do the work that we was doing informally.

And one of the guys, Marcus McAllister, a nationally renowned, I mean internationally renowned individual who has done conflict resolutions in Trinidad, Israel, Mexico, Chicago, New York, all the hotspots all over the world.

And we had a dialogue about it.

I take it to Ms. Walker and the city council, they had informally- It was frozen for a while.

What did I stop off at?

Yeah, you were talking about, it was right after the seven

If I get frozen again, someone please raise their hand please.

But on the semi-config resolution, we were very effective.

We stopped seven potential shootings.

The individuals that were involved, I know their history because at one point I was in the street and I have dealt with these individuals on the street level.

and I believe in my heart and my team believes that if we had not stepped in that it would have been something that could have been fatal or someone could have been hurt.

Over the last, since December 27th, we have done a number of conflict resolutions in the city housing.

Most of our conflict resolutions are done on the property of the housing authority.

You know,

My team, the team that I have chosen, they are credible, they are streetwise connected to the community, they're able to relate to the high-risk participants that, you know, that we come into council and we are empathetic because we have once been in that same, you know, in the same space, in the same mind state that they are and so we're very effective in our communication and our credibility allows us where we can

actually have a conversation with them because the guys are used to not having conversations.

Usually they communicate with violence because they come from environments of violence.

The low risk, the black community we already know disenfranchised, a lot of the times the perpetual cycle of destruction is led by violence.

Something that we was taught as a child, something that was handed from our paternal and maternal forebears, things that we saw

and we have the ability and the capacity at this moment in time right now to stop it and this is the first time that I ever seen anything like this happen before in my life and even me being a part of it is mind-blowing that we are put in this situation and it works you know because all this it started with a love and it started with love for the community and a passion you know to help heal but

We went through a training, we went through a seven week training thanks to Mayor Walker and the City Council who gave us, I raised $16,000 on my own, I got ten from the University of Virginia, I got five from a place called Carver, and Pastor Edwards out of the church on First Street gave me $1,000 so we raised $16,000 on our own because that's how important this training was.

And Mayor Walker and City Council covered the rest.

and the training was phenomenal what we went through we thought we knew everything when it comes to the street but as far as the interaction or how you interact with these high-risk individuals or participants as we call it we learned different methods we learned how to organize as a business we learned how to organize as a unit as a as an actual structure

where we can be more effective at our jobs.

And we have an actual board where you have a site director, we have a manager, and then we have something called community outreach workers and violence interrupters.

And the community outreach workers are trained to go in and do needs assessments in all of these housing authorities in the neighborhoods and to kind of hang out.

and to be a presence in these neighborhoods and to identify and detect violence before they happen and interrupt the violence before they happen and it works.

It's been working since we started it.

I think most importantly that in order to be an effective member, an effective person in this community as far as stopping this, you have to come from the same place.

You know, we speak the language of the people because we are the people.

My team, now I have a 20-member team, 20 staff members were trained, so they have the specific qualities to go out and do the work the way it's supposed to be done in an organized fashion, in ways that they can be safe, in ways that they can be effective, and in ways they can save lives.

The workers are responsible, like I'm going to backtrack a little bit, the workers are responsible for identifying and detecting violence, for interrupting the violence, and also we do follow-ups because we're trying to change the behaviors and norms.

We're trying to change the psychology and the mental aspect of this.

It's not something that we just stop the violence, but we have a part of the program where they come in and they get the mental health evaluations, substance abuse evaluations, needs assessment, anything that we can provide to them, you know, we provide to them.

A lot of my guys, they were taking off for work to do the job.

Sometimes I had to give them calls while they had work and like three of my guys had two full-time jobs and for the love and just for the passion and just for the want and the desire to make our community better for our children because our focus is on the babies, our next generation coming up.

They take off their jobs.

They'd have been missing time.

So we're in a position now that we are actually a 501c3 corporation and we need money, we need funds to be raised

So I can pay these guys for their work.

But getting back to what I was saying, my workers are responsible for identifying and detecting violence, interrupting the violence, changing behavior norms, and changing community norms.

Each destruction is built upon a program manager, a supervisor, five outreach workers,

and five violence interrupters and hospital responders in case we have a shooting that we couldn't stop, we have an individual that is trained to go to the hospital and deal with the victims and deal with the victim's family and they've been trained by the best, like I said, Marcus McAllister.

Our specific job is to be preventive and proactive and to identify these situations before they happen so they won't happen.

What I am asking the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority is to allow us to be a functioning movement, a functioning organization inside of these housing projects.

We have three hotspots that we have identified throughout the city.

The first hotspot we call Zone 1, which is South First Street, which a lot of the violence has been perpetuated there.

The second hotspot is West Haven.

And the third hotspot is Prospect or Blue Ridge Gardens or Fifth Street on the Green, I think is what they call it now, which doesn't have anything to do with the housing authority.

But I'm in the embryonic stages of having a dialogue with the director over there.

So we have the support of Mayor Walker, who has been an advocate and an ally with us through the entire

Process because she comes from this she comes from the same environment that we come from so she knows the struggle and I have a dialogue with the other city councils who hold a direct Sympathy, you know, I can't say empathy, but they hold a sympathy and care You know towards the situation because they see how important it is and I think the fact that the shooting happened on Emmett Street calls everybody to wake up because this is a situation that happened in black community since I was born and

It's been happening.

I'm 45 years old.

I'll be 46 this year.

I can remember this all my life.

But now that it's affected communities outside of us, it's seen as a problem.

But it's been a problem all along.

But you have guys who are now ready.

We are trained.

If you accumulate the ages of experience, we have over 1,000 years experience with my guys as far as their age, as far as dealing with this kind of situation.

The wisdom that we possess, the knowledge that we possess, can't nobody do this job but us.

And it's been shown and proven through the work that we have done.

I keep our data and I keep our records and I'm transparent and I have an open relationship with Joe Patania and the Commonwealth Attorney who helps me along so we can stop this violence, man, and stop these babies from dying.

It's not a good thing to have one of the hardest things and I'm going to keep saying this everywhere I talk.

The hardest thing for me is to answer the question when mothers be asking me, why is my son dead?

When I have no answer.

Why is my son dead in the street?

And if anyone have kids, if anyone, matter of fact, raise your hand if you have kids.

I don't know how you could answer that question.

And it's very important that we never let that happen again.

I'm not saying that we can stop every incident of violence.

You know, I'm not Superman, my team are not superhuman.

But the work that we do is important in reducing it as much as possible.

We kill, we love what we do because we help in our community and we are trained now.

You know, we're certified to go in, which is very important.

You know, the BuckSquad, the acronym, if you don't know, it means Brothers United to Cease the Killing.

And next week,

I'm sending five of my workers out, five of my staff out to do community assessments through the entire low-income community in Charlottesville so we can get a feel of what's going on.

I'm in the process of sending two of my violence interrupters to go to all the high-risk participants or the high-risk individuals in the city, shock callers as we call them, and to have a dialogue with them so we can try to get this thing at the top so we won't have any more killing.

you know we do it for the love but we need we need actual uh we need fun we need funds behind this man because what happened is we have developed into a this has to develop into a career I left my job in Richmond when when Jamarcus Buck Washington died I left my job in Richmond and I came up here and I left everything and I come up here just to do the work just to do what I need to do to make this situation better because ultimately I am the cause of this you know at one point I was the prototype

and the epitome of what it was to be a gangster and my team we all come from the same background but we had an awakening and we want the best for the community and I always tell people wherever I go in the United States I come from a beautiful city.

I come from a city that cares.

I come from a city we have problems as we see from 2017.

We have a divisive spirit here.

But we have overall the spirit is beautiful.

We have a loving second chance community.

I've never been to a city like this before.

And we have the opportunity to stop this thing right now before it gets out of hand.

And what happened is, let me tell you something, it's been a product of the street.

If you don't catch this thing now, it's going to evolve.

It's going to evolve to something that the police can't handle because, and just from my own experience,

You know, pretty soon the police might start getting attacked.

You just don't know we're violence.

We believe that violence is a public health issue.

Violence behaves like a contagious disease.

It's like an epidemic.

And, you know, when you're treating an epidemic, the first thing you do is cut the transmission.

You know, violence has to carry the risks of an epidemic.

And if you do not cut the transmission, what's going to happen is, just like a

what's going on now with the COVID-19 epidemic start through clustering then they spread and the transmission gets rapid till it gets out of control and that's where we at you know we trained to be violence interrupters and we're good at what we do and that's my own humble opinion and I think Mayor Walker and the City Council, Joe Pitani and Chief Brackney and Captain Mooney I think they all can confirm what I just said to you

and we wanted to have some kind of partnership with the Charlottesville Redevelopment Housing Authority where we can have in those two hot spots that I just named South First Street and West Haven zone one and zone two where we can have some kind of site there where I can have my guys there 24 hours a day.

I can have them working there as shifts.

I know in the summertime what's coming up with the spring

that you know what we call the hot spot times is going to be probably from 10 pm to maybe 4 pm that's when most of the shootings happen you know as I did to study other statistics and I want to have guys there all the time you know and I want to put them in a position where

This is their career now, man.

These guys have brought it to my vision.

They brought it into it.

They sit in this training and it was arduous.

This training wasn't easy, man.

I had a lot of tears in my team.

I've never seen some of these guys who are so-called ex-gangsters.

They shed a lot of tears because a lot of things were touched inside of them.

So this stuff is real for us, man.

This stuff that's going on is something that we dedicate our life to.

You know, as a black man, as a black man coming from a black community in Charlottesville, Virginia, we understand as black men and women, we understand that we helped create this problem.

You know, we created situations of our own lives by the decisions that we made.

And early in our life, we made some bad decisions, man.

But we were only doing what we were taught.

You know, most of us come from single parent households.

OK, I believe, and this is my personal belief, I believe that the woman

is the most powerful entity on the face of the planet Earth.

And I say that because of what she has to endure with raising children.

But in the black community, we have a lot of single mothers, but it's biologically impossible for them to teach a boy how to be a man.

They can nurture them, they can cultivate them, and they can shower them with love, but it's impossible.

And that's why you got the problem.

That's a part of the problem.

And what we're trying to do is, man, we're trying to stop this generational curse where we can get to these boys and get to these men now, get them the help that they need because the buck squad and guns down east, we are not just violence interrupters.

We have different chambers of the program.

We're out there canvassing this week to get these guys inside the program called Common Grounds.

And we have a re-entry program also.

One of my guys just met with Martin Kuma today.

An interview will be on the news tomorrow.

We have a block in the jail where we can work with these guys.

We have a curriculum for every program.

We have a curriculum that is designed by myself through a therapeutic model, and the professionals that I have around me, you know, trained professionals, GE Cash, Recava, and we are trying to saturate the entire community.

You know, it's our job to do that.

You know, as a community, it's our responsibility and obligation to make sure that this problem stops now.

You know, everybody been ignoring this thing now.

Everybody been ignoring it, but now it happened on Emmett Street, so now everybody paying attention.

And that's what needs to be done.

Because one thing I learned about my past, and I'm gonna say this again, it been happened to my community since 1975.

but now you don't touch the other communities and other people.

I don't wanna see nobody have a child get hit by an innocent bullet, man.

I don't wanna see that.

What we need is unity and consolidation and a spirit of love and a spirit of unity, man.

And that's the only way we're gonna make it through this.

But I'm letting you know to the housing authority that we are here and we have a structured program and I can email you everything.

We have,

of everything that can possibly permeate and pervade every iota of this of this community and we're going to do everything we can to make this thing work.

and just like I say, our track record has proven itself.

We're not gonna stop every shooting.

But if you say one life, you did something.

If you did something, man, where you don't have to have a mother, that's the hardest thing.

As the executive director, I'm the guy that gotta go in and talk to these people, man.

And it's hard, it's hard.

I had Donnell Burton, Jamarcus Washington, father, he called me every day and he keep asking me why.

you know but he's it's an inspiration for me and i tell him on my watch it's not gonna happen again you know it's not gonna happen again and i have a dedicated team you know you know i wanna i wanna i wanna i wanna commend those brothers man because they put down they put down their personal lives sometimes they go out 2 33 o'clock in the morning to address these situations and and on our watch nobody has died

And I thank y'all for allowing me to talk.

And if there's any questions that need to be asked, I'm here to answer anything.

I want to be transparent.

But I want to thank Nikaya.

I tip my head to you, Nikaya.

I really appreciate you being an advocate and an ally to us, man.

I'm telling you.

you know no matter what's going on you know I really appreciate you because it was you who first believed in us you know you was out there you saw what you saw the things that we done and it was you who fought for us and then in the process like I say the rest everybody else just came on board because they saw they saw that we were doing a good job and they saw what we what we were doing you know

well it was good and you know and they're just not trying to take over this whole this whole meeting but i want to thank uh the other councils because they have been instrumental also Heather Hill, Lois Snook uh i want to thank joe i want to thank joseph patania i just met cena hill and michael payne that was my first time meeting they came we had uh our graduation was friday you know and they come they come and just watch just watch the graduation

and a lot of tears were shed in that room.

A lot of lives will be changed because of this, man.

We just need your help and we need this to be a partnership.

We can't do it alone.

We got to come to some kind of agreement where we can be there all the time, man.

And if you know anyone, I'm talking to the entire city of Charlottesville and I'm talking to you, Mr.

Sales and everyone that's on his call, we need funding.

We need funding to do this work.

you know it's taking a toll out on my team you know I had two numbers drop off because they can't you know they was losing too much time at work you know it broke my heart you know because they did those two members did three conflict resolutions with people who are high-risk participants and were known as shooters in the neighborhood so uh

You know, we work as a team, you know, we work as a team.

And if you have, I'm going to be quiet now.

Congratulations, Joy.

I love you.

I'm so proud of you.

I am so proud of you all, Donna.

I do have one for you.

Your graduation or training, that's not something someone can see, is that

You know, your training.

Yeah, it was Friday.

I recorded some of it, right?

I was on my link.

But I was just wondering for someone who can't get out to whatever training you're doing or whatever, is that something available?

Or maybe that's something that we can do as far as conflict resolution.

Because I even think that we

OK.

I went through seven hour day training.

OK. My staff, they trained from two to six.

But the management, which was four of us, we had to train from 10 all the way to six with a 30 minute, 45 minute break in between.

But the management, which is myself, Herbert Dickerson, Brian Page, and Dee Smith, we certified to teach this now.

And I want to do this.

I want to be in partnership with people who want to learn this, man, because like I said, we can't do this by ourselves, man.

We can make a dent in this, but we can't do it by ourselves.

But yeah, it's four of us, they can train others now.

And I just want to say one thing really quickly, then I'll open it up for everyone else, but Patel is used to this by now, but he made the statement about the police officers and something possibly happened.

And I just want to clear that up that no one has ever said that they would.

That's something that could be taken out of context.

And so I just want to make sure that when we are having these conversations, it, um,

about no one else being hurt, not making sure that we are headed towards shootings that involve officers in either way.

You didn't, I just wanted to make sure that no one hears it that way.

I just wanted to make sure I cleared it up.

But you know I'm always catching and saying.

And that's it, Joy.

Bullets have no name at all.

And that's key.

When you have guys, first and foremost, who don't love themselves, and my job, like I said, we don't just do conflict resolutions.

Our job is to maintain a caseload of these high-risk individuals, maintain contact with them, and give them the proper services that they need.

and the first thing that I do when I go inside these individuals' lives and the first thing I do is I tell them, I love you, man.

You know, I really love you.

And they look at me like I'm crazy, man.

They say, how can you love me?

And I said, because you me.

and they never had no most of the guys never had nobody tell them that so they know they don't love themselves if you don't love yourself if you have no hope for you then how can you love others or have hope for life for other people so that's that's the that's the distinguished distinguishment that i want to make that's the distinctness that i want to make about this

that our job is to give them hope first stop the violence but also bring them in to get the proper services you know to get the proper services to address the underlying the underlying uh thing that's going on because the fundamental roots the fundamental roots of violence is the influence of one's peers

having a lack of attention or respect for yourself having a low self-worth not loving yourself you know a lot of these guys as a child experience abuse and neglect and now everything is being translated you know psychologically and mentally where they have no value in life but they are worthy of life they are worthy to live you know they have some people who love them

They witnessed a lot of these guys that I talked to, they have been victims of violence as a child, they witnessed violence in their community, in their home, on the media, so they have been desensitized to violence.

And my job and my responsibility is to come in, help them heal, let them know that I love them, that I care, and that there are people who care about them.

There are warriors out on the line that's fighting for their souls.

And we are creating a network that we can save these people, but to save the people so we don't have to bury nobody.

And the network, and I'm gonna tell you something that has been mind blowing to me, man.

This is not a black thing.

What I have noticed when this call went out, black, white, red, brown, everybody answered.

Everybody gets in contact.

Everybody has tried to get in contact with me or has contacted me because it's a human thing, man.

You know, it's a human thing.

I don't know if you really understand that, but it starts in my community.

It starts in the African American community.

you know, low risk disenfranchised, you know, we've been a result of the intention of modicode and system modicode destruction for a long time and we're going to stop it.

You know, my job has been a black man with some sense, a black man who loved my community, a black man who love to see a community here.

It's my responsibility because I created the problem and I was doing what I was taught

You know, I'm a product of my environment and it's my responsibility and obligation as well as those 19 members is on my team to do the same thing.

I have a lot of questions, Mr. Gilmore, but maybe I'd like to have a one-on-one dialogue with you after this.

Absolutely.

Maybe not appropriate for this meeting, but I'm very interested in the work you're doing.

I'm very interested and I'm thankful for the work you're doing.

And, but I do think that there's some things I'd like to, some other aspects maybe I'd like to bring to the table to you to think about.

And I'll just add, I've been having this conversation since I've been on council about where the millions of dollars go per year that we give to nonprofits who say that they are doing the work.

It has taken a lot of years for people to start processing, forming nonprofits.

But now I think we actually have the ability, this is the third nonprofit that is spinning out of this call and to allocate those monies to individuals who can maybe actually get some of the work done.

But also looking at, from a city perspective, something that I've been pushing for the past,

The entire time I've been there too is trying to monitor the effectiveness of the organizations that we are allocating money to so that we can measure those outcomes and the progress and make sure that we are allocating money to.

So I'm hopeful that some of that will start.

This is definitely already starting a conversation about who continues to get resources.

So that's,

You know, that's something to think about, but also I had a conversation, I've been having these conversations too, and I told Joy that once she was better, that, you know, I wanted to talk about, and in the sales report, it's also talking about the section three component of this, the jobs aspect and what that means if we have community members that can help bring some of these individuals in,

in this way now, how that program could possibly look and that it could provide some stability in long-term training and if we can get people that stay with us the entire course of redeveloping all that.

So I've thrown that out there to Mr. Gilmore too as something to process.

You know, I'm hoping that that's something that we can make work as it's not just about sustaining the organizations that are doing this work, it's also about making sure that community members have the skills and training so that they could themselves, part of our first discussion was about

How, you know, the money that people may earn out in the world and how do you, when you're asking people to give that world up, what are you replacing?

What are you replacing it with?

And people just don't know how, you know, what those options look like, cause we haven't created them and, you know, been able to direct them towards it.

As it relates to CRHA jobs and things like that, you know, how this relates to when you're talking about working with folks, I mean, sometimes it's about having a job.

So I want to know how this particular program working with jobs, you know, you mentioned some of

lack of self-worth and things like that and I work with an organization talking about homophobia and I know that some of that is rampant throughout the African-American community as well and some of that relates to some of hate and hate self-hate so I'm very interested in working with you on

in this aspect.

And that's what I was wanting to talk to you about.

But also, how does this work with our new security system?

And then what does this

What you said is you're working with our police department.

And so how does that all intertwine?

The police, our social services, I mean, for region 10 and mental health, are they involved with some of the help with the mental health aspects of this?

I mean, I have so many questions.

Okay.

Can I answer one of your questions?

Sure.

Okay.

We don't work with the police directly because we would lose our credibility with these people.

Our job is in the field.

So we try to get it where the police never gets to the neighborhood to handle a situation.

When it comes to the violence, once the police is involved, then we drop the ball or we wouldn't dare to stop it.

Our job is to have it where the police never come because we stopped it.

And as far as one thing we learned in training, one of the primary aspects of us keeping our credibility is not to have a relationship directly with the police because we will lose all credibility.

And then no one will call us in our community.

No one will reach out to us.

So we can't do that.

Those are two separate entities.

You know, we working to stop whatever was the violence, but we are two separate entities and we just can't have that just for the sake of doing our work.

That's one of the things that Marcus McAllister is in the training and all.

And like I said, Miss Green, we can have a dialogue about this one-on-one and I can break it down.

But this is what I advise everyone to do.

If you are interested,

on Langford Avenue, Pastor Edwards, Mount African, African Mount Zion Church on the corner of Langford and First.

Come at Thursday at 6 p.m. We have an open meeting every Thursday at 6 p.m. where you can see what's really going on behind the scenes as far as getting these guys mental health, substance abuse.

We're connected with all agencies.

I call it the octopus.

We touching all aspects of this.

And Miss Green, thank you for bringing up the homophobia thing because that's something, you know, a lot of people are scared and they fear being who they are.

You understand what I'm saying?

Go ahead.

That's my nephew.

That's my firstborn nephew.

DeShawn Smith is my firstborn nephew.

And so this is where I'm going to talk to you because I would think that you might not now call her your niece.

And so that's what I want to have.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Green, for bringing.

I call them D-Day.

I always call them D-Day.

And I think I can help with that because Lisa, what became the very public conversation about SAGE?

When Sage was still here, there was a different conversation going on amongst that decision that people are seeing was final by the date that Sage disappeared.

You talk to Sage family and that wasn't the case.

So that's probably why y'all are having two different using genders differences because that experience was different based on the time that it happened.

And I think I've had to,

Well, let me tell you my first-hand experience with that so that you understand where I come from is that just some community conversations with the LGBTQ community and SAGE and the pronouns SAGE was using with the LGBTQ community and specifically

Firsthand knowledge from that conversation.

No, I'm not saying, I know where you're coming from too.

I'm just also wanting to say, one of the managers is Sage Dad.

And so that conversation can be a very open and public conversation, but I just have had community members in the past,

that the family was not there because this is something like that Sage has said clearly to everyone, this is my life, right?

Right, right.

And that's my, that is my exact point to this conversation.

I mean, just because as we work through this and I hear what you're saying, Mr. Gilmore, and it's, like I said, what I'm hearing is wonderful, but I do think that particular component of this conversation is so important because community members, you know,

I didn't know, Sage, personally.

It was just a one-time meeting through an event, but through that meeting and through that information.

But this is part of my dialogue with you that I want to have is that is such an important component of this conversation.

And even

with a community member, I had a conversation at West Haven about a young son and being bullied.

Yeah, I agree with you, Ms. Green, because my nephew, I call him Day-Day.

I got all my nephews and nieces, I give them nicknames when they're born.

And Day-Day, as you call it, everyone call him Sage, I call him Day-Day.

His name is Day-Day.

And one of the things that I was afflicted with, especially when I was in the street, that he was assaulted all the time.

and I had to, I used to, he's my first nephew, first niece, you know, and I had to defend him a lot, defend her, excuse me.

I just see Dede, I just keep seeing Dede and I went through a lot because of that, but I was the biggest ally, you know, I was the biggest ally.

It hurts me to talk about it now.

You know, that's my younger brother's son and daughter.

You know, it just hurts me, man.

Not that, but I'm muted.

Am I muted?

Not only that, but there are also some international rescue families that there are violence against also in our neighborhood.

I know about it because I have a way of communicating with folks.

Yeah, no one's left out.

I don't think we did it.

I went to a house.

I got a call on 6th Street and myself and Brian Page went down on 6th Street and it was, excuse me, I'm sorry, West Haven.

It was an individual who was from Syria.

We couldn't communicate.

Well, someone had called me because they were being picked on and it looked like it was about to go to violence, but I had no way to communicate with them.

And I was trying to communicate with them.

But like I said, this has no color.

This has no color barrier.

This has no nationality barrier.

That is something we have to really truly figure out because a language barrier is a big problem in our community.

Yeah, it is.

But again, how I talk to the Burmese families, all three of them, is through my phone.

Whatever they type to me comes in English, and whatever I type to them comes in their language.

That's how we communicate.

But I do know that there is a lot of violence that is

That happens to them a lot from the kids and some of the grownups who hang around where they were living.

But anyway, I just want to make sure that we put that in it.

And on South 4th Street also, you know, there were kids who were messing.

You're muted, Joy.

Muted.

and on South First Street, I'm gonna move that cursor, and on South First Street, there was almost the same issue.

Yeah.

I just want to say one thing with regard to that, and that is a problem with Mission Creek.

I think you have a well-defined approach and goal.

When you start trying to get too big or to solve too many, go in too many different areas, you can lose focus of what it is you're trying to do.

Others can raise strong black men.

I think that there's some breakdown in regard to some African American men and how they respect women, African American women.

But overall, I think African American women have done an excellent job raising their kids.

No, I didn't say that ma'am.

I never said that.

I want to rectify that.

I never said that.

This is my personal beliefs.

is that she can't teach a boy how to be a man.

She could raise a strong Black man, but there are things that only another man could teach a man.

And I can only tell you that from experience, you know, in my own life.

She could be nurturing and cultivating, and she could raise a strong Black man.

But that's the exception, not the rule, you know.

So I think what, so we can maybe move on if there are no other questions, but I think what I hope that we all understand that is happening is just that the understanding that there's a lot of healing that needs to take place within the black community, within the lower income community and that

What people are saying is that whatever is needed, they will figure out.

And there are a lot of points that people are bringing up and will bring up.

And I think to maybe

Some of what Lisa is thinking about is just the level of maybe expertise in some of the areas that may be needed.

I'm thinking oftentimes of how much easier it is to get like even the Home to Hope team trained as like peer support versus it takes a little bit more to be recognized as like a substance abuse clinician or whatever.

But having worked in the substance

The field as an outpatient substance abuse counselor here, there's a lot that even with all that formalized training that we could not do within the community.

And so I think it's just going to have to be some open mindedness and flexibility around

you know, around all of that.

But, you know, all the points that have been brought up and Lisa your concerns, I understand and they are very valid.

I just wanted to make sure that, cause I've had this conversation about, you know, Sage before and I think the place where we are today

that a lot of Sage family had not had the opportunity to have that experience by 2012 that a lot of people have had in this discussions today and that the care and love and concern and I think if Dean was ever on a call or if you meet with Dean Ampetale, he will tell you about the growth that he went through about Sage, you know, and so

and we'll be honest with you about that part.

So I hear what you're saying and I think if you, when you have those conversations, you'll hear that too but also at the same time that there were some conversations that just hadn't happened by 2012.

I just wanna say, you know, I just wanna say thanks because

It's needed the same way Home to Hope was needed on re-entry.

And I just, you know, when things come to fruition, I always have to share with you all that these are the things that Holly was fighting for before she even came off of council.

It was exactly what Patel is doing now because she had a conference

A re-entry conference where she brought in a speaker who was I can't even remember his name right now my mind is a little foggy but she brought him in to talk and he was saying the same exact things that Patel is talking about right now or Mr. Gilmore is talking about right now

But he ended up committing suicide only because it was a thing for him of he was still, even though he was successful, he was still struggling.

And so

You know, like the Home to Hope program, I will say to Nikuyah, this is exactly what Holly was talking about.

And I'm saying the same thing to you.

This is exactly what she was talking about.

And then the last thing I will say is that

Part of what you know because yeah I my kids had their dads in their life but they still made choices right I was still a single parent but they still had their dad in their life but the love this the love in the street sometimes is much stronger than the love that you have at home for your children because they want to fit in

But on the women's side of it, the women's side of it, what I learned from working in the West Haven Nursing Clinic, and that's why Holly Motto was meeting people where they are, is because a lot of times what's going on

You got to take the lens off to see what the root cause is.

And the first thing we always see, I see it, I have to apply to me, is that we don't love ourselves first.

We love others.

And that's one of the things that's missing where we're not educating our women and men to love themselves first before they start loving other things or other people.

So I just want to say thanks, Patel.

Whatever we can do to be a part of what you all are trying to do, because I ain't going out there at two o'clock in the morning.

I ain't doing it.

Is the floor still?

I just thank you so much for letting us know more about what you're doing and how you're organizing and please

whatever we can do to help.

And it really struck me when you said, you know, you come in and say, I love you with school being online.

I gotta tell you these Charlottesville city school teachers are amazing.

And my fourth grader, every single morning she gets on there and she says hello to every single student and says, I love you.

And they, you know, talk about what's going on.

And that's just been really cool to see.

Cause I've, you know, usually we're not in the classroom.

So,

So anyway, that really struck a chord with me because I've watched her interact with people and I've been pretty amazed.

You're welcome.

I think there's an attendee, I think it's, oh, she's flashing her hand up.

Yeah, Miss Kachina Kucher has her hand up.

Can we let her speak because we're going to move to

Public comment next anyway.

And I think she's been waiting to talk.

If anybody would like to address the commission at this time, please click your raise hand icon.

You have three minutes and we do have Katrina Cooper up and Miss Cooper you are on with the commission.

Hi, yes, Miss Gilmore.

I really like, Mr. Gilmore, I really like what you had to offer tonight.

Yes, is it past the Edwards Church every Thursday at 6 p.m.?

Okay, and then I wanted to also say, though, I feel where you're coming from.

It is hard.

All depends on where you're raised and the environment and the mindset that your child is in, because I do have a son.

And I want to give thanks to you, and I will be reaching out to you.

If anybody else has, would like to address the council, or I'm sorry, the commission at this time, please raise your hand.

Next up, we have Brandon Collins.

Good evening again, CRHA.

I'm Brandon Collins from PHAR, Public Housing Association residents.

PHAR is the resident council and resident advisory board for public housing in Charlottesville.

I forgot to give our phone number earlier.

It's 434-984-3255.

and you can find us online www.pharseville.org.

I just wanted to say thanks to Mr. Gilmore and his organization and his dedication and really looking forward to doing what we can to support the effort.

I think the love of the community was stressed over and over and that is key to success for sure.

and also appreciate the city of Charlottesville providing some funding for that effort.

I know CRHA doesn't necessarily have a whole lot of funding, but it sounds like since this is going to be and already has shown to be a benefit to the community, perhaps there's ways to partner with CRHA on funding for this effort.

and you know I would encourage that as well as offering every opportunity to Mr. Gilmore and his organization to participate in the Resident Services Committee and Safety Committee obviously could be very important.

as well as connecting with the Section 3 program which was discussed and I very much appreciate y'all allowing in this space and please continue to allow them to do the work without stipulations and without a whole lot of demands on them.

I wanted to just quickly talk about redevelopment committee.

I don't think there's any real official PHAR designated spot.

I think originally we were all just seated as just regular people, though I think there is kind of a need to do that.

And the MOUs also relate to this.

So you've got CRHA having a subcommittee, but it's also referenced in the MOU as a decision-making.

He's for certain decisions.

The main piece of all that is there's got to be a quorum when decisions are made, particularly like if more RFPs go out, those types of things.

So it's super, super important that a quorum is attained at those redevelopment committee meetings.

And we look forward to having everybody's participation in that.

And glad you addressed that tonight.

I'm just gonna leave it at that.

Next up, we have ED.

ED are on with the commission.

Hi, it's Emily Dreyfus.

I was taking a shortcut when I registered.

I'm a community organizer with Legal Aid Justice Center, and I'll follow Brandon's lead and give my organization's phone number.

It's 434-977-0553.

And I just basically want to say thank you so much.

Really, really impressed by the information Mr. Gilmore relayed.

And I am so grateful for you and the guys that you're working with and for the mayor's leadership on this.

It sounds like exactly what we needed in the community.

And it's just such an important service that you all are providing.

and I love that it's home grown and you all are figuring out how to make it work for the community that you grew up in and the people that you know.

If anybody else would like to address commission at this time, please click the raise hand icon.

Excuse me.

I don't know how to raise my hand.

Do I do this?

What I want to do is I want to give my hotline number out to everyone, to the community, and to everyone here, which is also my personal number that I dispatch out.

The calls come to me, and I dispatch them out.

And this is the hotline number.

It's 434-284-6768.

The number is 434-284-6768.

Well, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any other comments before we adjourn for this evening?

I know it's

It's been a couple hours, so I know we're all passionate and would love to talk about this more, but to try to bring this to a close this evening.

Thank you all.

This is wonderful.

Oh, thank you.

It's okay.

My dog is afraid of Zoom.

He actually looks just like yours.

He's a new puppy and he's like a scarf.

Thank you all so very much.

This was a wonderful conversation.

I'm so excited to hear what Mr. Gilmore is doing.

And I look forward to seeing you guys again.

I'll second.

I'll take this one.

Commissioner Green?

Yes.

Yes.

Meeting adjourned.

Thank you all very much.

and Mr.