Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Work Session   6/13/2024

And it was no, you know, there's no telling where they were gonna fall.

She's been in the hospital, but she's doing better.

I'm glad she's doing better.

I am in here.

We don't have a quorum.

and I like to be efficient.

Do we know if there's people who won't make it?

And I have not spoken to Laura or Wes in probably a couple weeks actually.

We can wait.

Some of these glasses.

Sometimes I have like candy bars in them.

Well now that Laura's here, I feel like we gotta get it going.

Yep, I'm fine, just talking.

Can you please do a roll call, Carrie?

Commissioner Payne?

Here.

Commissioner Hicks?

Here.

We have a quorum.

All right, we'll start with a moment of silence.

It's something in here that costs me to do today because every time I come in here, I've been sitting outside, no problems, soon as I come in this room.

Okay, first up on the agenda today is the presentation on the eviction diversion program.

Housing and the Resident Services Department, a full program that not only touches on eviction diversion for non-payment of rent, but also for other lease violation offenses.

Okay, thank you.

We're not that serious.

So I take every opportunity to keep people housed.

Can you talk about the process?

For us, it takes me like 15 to 21 because I want to give people the opportunity to pay because some people that we have gotten judgment and possession or have paid, and we allow them to stay.

I think it can be a very hopeless feeling situation so you being their advocate is wonderful and admirable and I'm sure very rewarding and very frustrating at times so I appreciate you, appreciate the work.

We don't want to throw families possessions out and so our goal is to work with families to get them to get their belongings but it causes other trickle down effects when it comes to ability to lease up units, occupancy rate, collection rate because you're not collecting funds on that unit and so we try to be super mindful of that but ultimately we err on the side of the residents ensuring that they are protected.

You said it's around 50 families today?

But at the height of this, roughly half of our residents were delinquent two months or more.

who created that situation and blew things up?

I mean, if you look at HUD audits, it dates back decades to where the housing authority hasn't always collected the rent that they were owed.

What was that at the height?

We were at $113,000 at the beginning of this year.

Is that the primary problem that's ending up leading to eviction or is it something else?

I don't think they believe it's going to happen.

Do you start working with families who are like a month behind or do you wait until they're two months behind to start working with them?

If they're two months behind it's a 30-day notice.

Is there a meeting associated with either of those notices?

It's always been the opportunity because I've sent notices out that I'm on different sites at different times and we'll meet with people.

And so on those notices we include Claudette's, even though Claudette's not the property manager, we include her contact information because she's the eviction diversion when it comes to collections.

Like what is the five-day and then the third?

It says five but it's really 14.

Okay.

HUD authorizes a 14-day notice for public housing.

Why is it five for one month and 30 for two?

Five days is to encourage you to pay your rent.

I see.

And so if they don't move out when they get that at the end of that 30 day period, then we proceed with the court action.

I'm just wondering, I'm thinking about families who might say, like, we have this unexpected medical expense, or my car broke down, like, what does that look like for them to feel like they can come in to say, I've got this additional expense?

There's agencies that will call for residents, and when you said surgery, it's been several, they had surgeries, and I try to refer them to agencies who can help them.

And then we also had a response to your question, but I don't know what it is and I'm sorry.

Okay, and then my last question for right now is can you say a little bit about like has any of this influenced when you think about when residents move in any kind of materials that they receive to help them to understand what all these programs are?

between a first and a fifth.

How many have gone through the whole thing?

Just the ones that we've processed.

It's only been five.

It's been five where we actually had the sheriff come out.

And are you talking evictions for knocking the rent?

I guess I was thinking, so yeah, maybe both you could say, so non-payment of rent is the five?

And I believe we have two or three pending evictions for other offenses and they're typically violence.

Is this a downtick?

And last year, we worked with Pathways, and I don't know the dollar amount, but I'm sure it's well over $100,000 that we've received the Pathway funding.

Is that an increase or is that?

And so, yes, there would definitely be an increase in the evictions for other offenses that outside of nonpayment of rent.

And that's writing off debt without evictions which is a no-no.

I know we're going to be meeting with the city.

The residents are complaining about the noise, the trash, the excessive individuals blocking the sidewalks, the smoking, the fights at 2, 3 o'clock in the morning.

But I think from the city manager, my impression has been there's a lot of willingness to work on being creative and doing what we can on our end.

Or are we predominantly seeing it in South First Street?

I think Kendall Wood is experiencing the same thing, Greenstone is experiencing the same thing.

Do you know, I don't want to put you on the spot, but in general in the city is there an uptick right now in violence generally?

I think certainly compared to the previous months I think there's been an uptick in reported shootings or shots fired calls how that compares to this time like one or two years ago I don't I just can't remember what that number is but it's I know for a fact it's up compared to like the the previous like four or five months which is always the case it always increases pretty substantially in the summer months

But if it's over $100,000, then I'll be bringing it back to the board in June, I mean July.

Hey, boy, when he bring it back to us, we gotta have it.

That's what Washington has said.

That is a must.

And would that security be doing patrols or just sitting in the entryway?

So they're going to have to walk the floors, but they also have a vestibule area outside of the main entry door, checking IDs, and they'll also have access to the cameras from that area.

And it primarily worked by if they saw a violent crime going on or criminal activity, they would then call CPD to come to the site?

just to make sure there's coverage because a lot happens as soon as the folks see our cars leave the parking lot it becomes a totally different property.

So the security would be there from 8 p.m. until when?

Well, one week every two months except two people will be working two weeks a month on call but they'll be compensated for that time as well and they'll only be dealing with emergencies so like a shooting or a stabbing or a big war leak they are not the first responders they are to respond after the police have responded I don't want them to respond like police officers but I need them to be there to assist families where needed

Yeah, thank you.

That includes the other offenses.

Okay, next up, Resolution 1476, Creation of Entity for West Haven Redevelopment.

But we're asking tonight for you to authorize us to move forward to asking the city to put it on its agenda for a future meeting to move forward with creating an entity for West Haven.

So, but with that change, I think this looks good.

You got a motion?

And then, sorry, just to summarize, basically is this to help facilitate your application for low-income housing tax credits?

So when they do taxes on it, it's a little bit easier.

Correct.

That's all I had.

1476 with the amendment of the typo that was suggested.

I second.

Commissioner Payne?

Yes.

Motion passed.

We're supposed to have a safety meeting next Wednesday, but it is Juneteenth, and I wanted to see if we were still having that.

That's what I thought.

Okay, just confirming.

of June.

Yeah, I guess it'll be July 3rd if we stay on every other week.

Would it be July 3rd?

Yes, July 3rd.

Okay.

Can you do that one?

Yeah, I should be able to.

Where are we doing the safety meetings now that we were at South First Street?

You come in person at South First Street or join through Zoom.

If there are no comments, that concludes our agenda for this evening.

and you'll hear more about some of the funds we've received recently at the board meeting that's coming up.

And could we, we didn't get a chance to do it, but Commissioner Hicks, could you just say a little bit about yourself since you're new to the board?

I just want to say I'm happy to be here, also happy for the experience and I was happy, I was given the opportunity

Second?

Second.

All opposed?

Alright, thank you friends.