Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board Meeting   7/22/2024

No, you do.

Oh, I see what you're saying.

Well, that's what I started wearing at the time around the long hair.

Thank you.

Yes, ma'am.

All right, thank you.

Yeah.

Let me pop up.

Did you hear from anybody, Maria?

No.

Laura said she was late.

She's late.

Here you are.

Thank you for your faculty and staff.

Here you go.

What do you think?

No, no, no.

Oh, okay.

Just move that.

That's it, go ahead.

I was going to go ahead.

I was going to go ahead.

So you just want to remedy that?

Good, how are you?

Good.

I left home, I left home about 5, 30, 5, 5, 5, 5, 30, 3.

I walked, I, non-stop, I didn't stop.

I would like, I was like, I was like, I'd be like, I was like walking the, come on, once I get in the tunnel, came up the hill, got on double ground, I was gone.

But once I got on level ground, it was all good after that.

This week's better than last week.

Stoked it out of Chicago.

How was it?

Thank you.

I think you probably saw the email on our last gesture to one

the police chief is willing to talk, like what else can we be asking for?

Yeah, so I think when Kathleen and John get back with me, I'll make it as one of the announcements.

Okay, hey John, one other thing, I have an interesting conversation with Nejua Laban who teaches at Formula, she teaches the community class, she's a med student.

She's really cool.

So she was saying that she would be interested in potentially doing, and I mentioned this to John, teaching exercise classes in our communities.

I wonder if we should also connect her with Nicole Hawker.

She runs Heart and Soul.

Ontario.

Ontario.

It's a long topic.

Cool.

Miss Carrick, do we have to wait for Krista Sanders?

Good evening everyone.

So I hereby call this meeting to order.

Here.

Commissioner Wiggs is starting early.

Can we have a brief moment of silence, please?

Thank you.

We will continue to start our meeting with some general announcements, meeting dates, and or reminders.

I don't have a date, but I do have an announcement.

I see Kathleen isn't in here, but during our

Commissioner Payne and Councilor Payne and my and John's 2221, we had a lengthy discussion about safety concerns in our communities and also the joint meeting we had with city council and some updates about the new police chief.

And so the safety committee is going to partner with the resident services committee to come up with a targeted list of asks for city council in addition to a role that we want to see from the police.

I think we all know that safety is about

things like healthcare and other kinds of services and so we're gonna try to come up with a set of things that we think residents really need and see if we can make send a letter as a commission.

Thank you, Dr. Goldblatt.

I think we all can agree that safety is a very important issue for us.

So I really appreciate you and our colleagues taking the initiative to go that extra route.

I also want to commend Mr.

Sales as well as the rest of staff for working diligently to ensure we have alternative methods and different things in which we've been trying as of late.

to maintain a level of safety within our communities.

So it's really important and appreciated.

Commissioners, any other items in which you all would like to share?

Any other announcements?

I know we have a big one coming up on Saturday, August 3rd, West Haven Day.

in which Mr.

Sales has the opportunity to allow any resident who has a grievance or appreciation, they can dunk him in the dunking booth.

He is the first person.

Correct, Mr.

Sales?

Okay, so he said if you want to get anything off of your chest, that is the place to do so.

So in addition to the dunking booth, we'll have an array of different events taking place at West Haven Community Day.

Starts at 10 a.m., correct?

Mr. Sims?

10 a.m. 10 to 3, right?

Or 10 to 3.

So, yep, for all those who are listening online, we're looking forward to seeing you there.

I'm again, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, colleagues, on daddy duty.

If there's anything else that you all would like to add, any other announcements?

Okay.

Hearing none, we will open up the meeting for public comments.

First, we'll have our initial comments by Mr. Brandon Collins, and then subsequently we'll open it up to anyone who's online and has matters of the public.

Brandon?

Do we have an update from PHAR?

Is Miss Dreyfuss on?

Well, right, but I didn't know.

Miss Giles isn't here, nor online.

Thank you.

Any public comment from anyone on Zoom?

Oh, okay.

You have one?

I read about that survey for 10-year public new transit, public bus transit service, which will happen in 10 years if I have a, that's due on July

31st, and I will try to turn it in.

What I'd like to see happening, like we have not, there hasn't been a, buses haven't been running on Sundays for the past four years due to COVID, which I hope will has happened maybe next, this year or next year, to Willoughby Split Shopping Center.

and yeah, I was sorry to see the Wachovia Bank closed down and I was hoping that there's gonna be a Wachovia new in a different building eventually.

If I have any questions, who's,

Okay.

Thank you so much.

We appreciate your comments.

All right.

I can't, I'm sorry.

I can't see it either.

All right.

Ms. Dreyfus.

Hi.

I'm happy to make a comment for FAR because Latricia Giles is out sick today, unfortunately, but hopefully we'll be back in the office in a couple of days.

Our new coordinator for the Residents for Respectful Research program just started last week.

Her name is Wendy and unfortunately I'm spacing it out on her last name, sorry, but we're really happy to have her on board and we're also in the hiring process for a community organizer who will also coordinate the internship program because Asia Green has moved more into specifically focusing on youth programming.

So if anyone knows of someone who might be interested in applying for the internship coordinator role, we would be happy to hear about that.

And West Haven Community Day is definitely a hot topic right now.

And the sports physicals, free sports physicals will be available I think from 10 to two, if I remember correctly.

So I know that's a really popular event for lots of families.

we're looking forward to seeing you there.

And otherwise PHAR has been working on redevelopment and is happy to see the progress going on at South First Street and also with the parallel track work at the smaller sites.

So I think that's all I have for now.

Where do you see it?

Am I right?

Mayor Walker, good evening.

Yes, ma'am.

Good evening, Mayor Walker.

Good evening.

Quick comment, I planned to attend the meeting last month with Miss Doreen Wells, who spoke in front of you all.

She had originally reached out to me after making a Facebook post about her attempts to figure out where her mother and aunt was on the waiting list.

And she shared her concerns with you all, and as of last Friday,

according to her, she has not received any clear communication about the process.

I was coming last month to talk just about a bigger picture that I have seen from talking to people over the past few months.

A former employee, as I'm sure the board is aware, reached out to me a few months back to talk about

some internal issues they were seeing.

I reached out to Mr.

Sales and Mr. Bellamy about the employee and ended up meeting with the employee who at that point was already leaving for a new job.

One of the things the employee pointed out was, and one of the things that they were recommended for internally was that they were trying to figure out the system

How does this voucher system, computer entered system work is one of the things that they told me I'm not there, so I'm only sharing the information that I received.

If you couple that with this well, not knowing where her family members are on the waiting list, on that Facebook post and other Facebook posts that started after that post, there was one woman on there who said, I've been on the housing list for 27 years.

and I don't know today where I am.

This was part of when we hired something that we want to make sure that people work away from.

I know Mr.

Sales has said that there are letters going out.

Ms. Wells and others have made comments about the inconsistency or the turnover with staff that they've been receiving inconsistent communication.

With the work that CRHA is,

The community should not question where they are on housing lists, if those lists even exist or not, and how long they will come.

I understand that some of the things they may not be able to receive accurate information, but if you are on a five or more year list, people should know that.

and so there definitely appears to be, this employee sent me pictures of what were the filing system which was a very antiquated process and I would understand that you would not be able to tell somebody if that was the system where they were in it and it's something that we need to fix.

I'm coming to the board because in the past I have shared with Mr.

Sales directly but I know there were some,

comments as if I was trying to get a favor or do something for one person.

And I was coming to the meeting with Miss Wells who was gonna share her individual comments, but I was gonna share the system issues that I'm seeing.

I'm a systems person and we want the systems to work well for the community at large.

People who may not know who to reach out to, people who may not know how to contact the board.

Nikaya, you cut out.

That was it.

The last thing we heard you say was systems.

There appears to be some major system issues.

OK.

Thank you, Mayor Walker.

OK.

You don't have to.

I'm just asking.

You grabbed the mic, so I didn't know.

We have a weightless system.

We accept applications through paper, and we accept them online.

The ones that we receive as paper, we have to then take those and enter them in a system.

We have a preference system.

It's spelled out in the ACUP, and it's spelled out in a half of the plan.

Our public housing waitlist is open, and so as folks come in and their preference and their scoring is higher, no matter when they submitted their application, their application is bumped to the top.

And that's the type of system that we have.

We can close that waitlist and it would stop that from happening, but the waitlist has been open, and then our admin, I mean our aid company say we're gonna keep it open because we want folks for homeless to have an opportunity to get housing.

and so that is the way that system works.

Do you think it would be helpful?

Like I don't know if it's, I don't like this.

Yeah, it's in the admin plan for HCV and it's in the ACUP for public housing.

We don't score them.

It's in the system that's automatic.

And so it's the boxes that the applicants check.

So if they do it themselves online, then it's completely up to them.

And if they do it in a paper application, it's the box that they check on a paper application.

And then that's what's getting translated into our ERD system.

But does it say it on the application?

Yes, on the application it says local preference and then it says the points for it.

Okay.

It just doesn't seem like my perception is that people do not understand.

are not understanding like they think that they get on the wait list and then they should get off the wait list and get a place to live.

I mean it's kind of like there was someone at the safety committee who's like who had applied for a transfer and thought that instantly turned into a transfer and so I'm just wondering if there's a way for us to provide more transparency.

We can figure out what we can do on our end to provide that initial transparency.

Our waitlists are all fairly long.

The public housing waitlist is over 2,000 families.

The HCV waitlist is

1,700 families.

And so it takes a long time to go through that list.

And with the public housing census open, families can continue applying, unlike the HCD wait list, which is closed.

And so the families that are on there will get service, but it takes time to get through that list.

The public housing, when it's rolling, and so as folks continue to apply and their points are higher, then they move to the top.

Even if you applied 15 years ago,

That doesn't matter.

I think it may be- So theoretically, though, you could- I'm sorry, what?

No.

it would only come out better if your preference changed so like if you weren't homeless at first but then you became homeless but then at that point you should just come in and change that in the system and then you don't lose that spot of when you apply your points just bump up based upon that score as long as

Your housing composition doesn't change.

You still aren't local to Charlottesville and you're not homeless, then you don't.

You will move positions.

And so we do have some families, unfortunately, every member of their household will apply.

And so right now we have one that eight families have the same address.

I think it may behoove us, since we have a new communications outreach person, right?

We've bought that person, right Mr.

Sales?

Linda?

Lynn.

Excuse me, I'm sorry Lynn.

Nice to meet you Lynn.

Lynn and Mr.

Sales respectively.

I think it may behoove us to put together an infographic of sorts

that explains that we can put out on social media as well as disseminate through our channels.

That explains not only the wait list process but the different kinds of vouchers and then in addition to the different kinds of vouchers, like when we or how a person goes through the process because to Commissioner Wicks's point, persons just don't know.

And while we may have, you know, communicated and talked about it, I think that we have to take

just different approaches so that could be one and then I would love to hear from Mr.

Sales as well as the rest of the board or the commissioners.

We may want to have a wait list town hall of sorts in which we invite the community and we go over, again, the different kinds of vouchers, as well as this is how this process works.

And if we do it once and we can bring folks in and we explain it, even if we put it online and allow persons to watch it,

If it's recorded, people can also go back and watch, and when you couple that with the social media posts, I think it just allows for the information to be disseminated in different ways.

So I like the idea of a town hall, but one thing, and I don't know if Mayor Walker is still on, and I don't want to misconstrue it, but part of what her comments seem to be indicating was that there's a discrepancy between what people are told they're going to receive in terms of updates on the wait list and then what they say that they actually receive, and so that seems to be one of the system pieces that's missing, that people go on the wait list

they'll be on for years and they don't get any updates and they don't know what's going on and so I'm wondering if that's something we can also review making sure just seeing like what are the just a review of all those communications

and making sure that, I realize that there are various, there's a variety of restrictions but making sure that those are being communicated in ways that people are receiving them so that when people are in the system they know where in the system they are and they have some understanding of what's going on so I do think that's right, like what it means to be on the waiting list needs to be explained but I think also

It sounds like people who perhaps do understand what's on the waiting list still might go years and say, I haven't heard anything for years.

What's going on?

So we currently do, we do a yearly full and send out letters to ask folks if they still want to go on the list.

We use the mail system.

And so it's not the best.

We're working to improve that with our software system by using some of the email functions that are available in that.

But that software also allows folks to see where they are on the wait list.

But not a lot of our folks take advantage of that.

And so we're working on ways to roll that out and get folks to use it more.

So this does seem to Professor Bellamy and Chair Bellamy's point that if we had a town hall, I think it would be good to review the policies, but perhaps also to solicit some feedback from people about what's the best way to reach you.

How could we do communication if paper mail isn't working, which makes sense if people are moving.

USPS will forward for now.

It's hardly anything, like three months, I think.

And then that's it.

A lot of things can end up getting kind of shuffled around.

And I want to be clear, I don't want in any way for this to seem as if it's a slight to staff because I know staff is, and I know you guys aren't saying that, I'm just reiterating I know staff works diligently in terms of ensuring they try to get communications out.

Yeah, no, I mean, I think this is a real challenge, especially when you think about people changing cell phone numbers, maybe not having a stable email address.

Thank you.

With that being said, are there any other comments from the public?

Okay.

Motion has been moved and seconded.

Ms. Carey, would you like to call a vote, please?

All right, motion passes.

Next up, we have our housing director update.

Can we take this on this item?

Oh, yeah.

He has to remove this housing director update and move to the HCD program update for tonight, I have to say.

No, you got it.

So far we have a total of 683 vouchers leased up for a total of half of $680,000 and a utility subsidy of $78,000.

We have 1,700 families on our HCD wait list.

There are other wait lists that are out there, but those aren't controlled by us, and that's the crossings, which they have 1,200 families on their wait lists.

We do have some special programs that we're currently leasing up.

The Fostering Youth Initiative, which is a voucher, a special fund voucher that we're partnering with the city on.

We currently have 13 leases, we have 12 additional that we're looking to lease up.

and then we have one VASH voucher which is a veteran voucher that we're also looking to lease out.

The remainder of our vouchers are on freeze.

We're currently in a shortfall for the voucher program of I think roughly $800,000.

That number dropped significantly today so we're still using the previous number until we can confirm

that it is a change.

But that has stopped us from leasing up any additional vouchers.

Our per unit cost per voucher increased from roughly $750 last year to now we're paying $950 per voucher.

And so you times that by 683 vouchers.

and that gets you into a shortfall.

And so we've applied for additional funding from HUD to cover the shortfall, but it will not allow us to lease up additional vouchers.

So pull families from our wait list.

We're still able to serve the families that are currently housed and we're still able to serve the families that are being housed in the special vouchers through FYI and BASH.

We currently have two vouchers on the street and we completed a total of 34 inspections last month.

We completed 56 annual recertifications and we have two recertifications that are currently past due.

That's all I have for that report.

on one of our properties.

His name is Zamir Faulkner.

He lives in West Haven.

He has been serving as the camp counselor for the last two weeks for our coding academy week or two.

He's done a phenomenal job and just want to make sure we gave him and highlighted him, showed him some love.

Zamir is

19 years old and he was attending Old Dominion University and transferred to Patrick Henry.

He's looking to go back to Old Dominion.

He's also a basketball star.

He has made two game-winning shots in the tonsil league and is on track to be an all-star.

So, Zamir, I promised you I would say something about you at the housing authority meeting.

You probably aren't listening, but I have five witnesses that I did shout you out.

Let's give them a round of applause.

Can I ask just one thing about the HCV thing?

The portable vouchers, they've got 24, I see.

Sometimes that's the case and sometimes they're saying, hey, I want to move to New York.

Like I had one coming today that said I'm moving to Yonkers.

Sorry, we probably shouldn't laugh at that.

Thank you for that report, Mr.

Sales.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay, I guess I will now.

So a couple updates.

We are in the last week of testing our procure pay system.

That is going to be like our full paperless invoicing system making sure that's flowing for everybody that has to approve things and all that right now so with any luck that'll go live next week.

Once that becomes live and about a two to three week time frame after that for build out our vendor cafe system that we talked about will then come online as well so we can make ACH payments

Landlords, or you know any other trade vendors.

So looking forward to that.

We'll make everybody's life a little easier.

Other than that, the packet you have is a fiscal quarter one P&L.

Thank you, sir.

Nothing too crazy.

Thank you, Dr. Copeland.

She is a trip.

Is there any other comments?

Commissioners, we're going to cut off Dr. Copeland's microphone for the rest of the evening.

Next up, we have the Executive Director update.

Yes.

All right.

So I wanted to start off by giving a follow up to the meeting last month.

So I'm working with the city to amend the CISRAP agreement, which will improve the referral process from outside agencies to CRHA for the CISRAP program.

We also met with Ang Khan and her team from the Rapid Rehousing Team.

Last week or maybe two weeks ago to start collaborating a little bit more about our response and then how we work together on both the housing program and the HCP department.

So that's my update from that last meeting.

For staffing, we're currently hiring for a director of property management and a HTV program manager.

Our current HTV program manager is part-time, and so she'll be leaving us eventually, and so we're working to hire a full-time program manager.

We also received the Jobs Plus grant, which is $1.6 million.

And so we have three positions, well, three and a half positions that we'll be looking to fill for that.

We're looking to hire some residents from the community for those positions.

And so they are posted on Indeed.

We also have two maintenance technicians positions open, one property manager and one assistant property manager position.

Can I just ask one question about the grants?

I think we talked about this in our 2221, but Sentara, there's something going on with Sentara.

I know that we've been trying to partner looking at healthy communities and stuff like that.

We are currently in conversation with UVA School of Nursing and we're looking at all the options but we're hoping we can continue that relationship because at one point UVA School of Nursing had a relationship at Crescent Halls.

For procurement update, the SOP contract has been awarded and we're estimating a 60 to 90 day turnaround and that's when the actual product will come back to the board for final approval.

We're currently reviewing security bidders.

It's been awarded estimated turnaround 60 to 90 days.

Thank you.

Safety concerns.

We do have a meeting scheduled with the city manager and the FAR AD for August the 1st.

We will provide the information that was previously developed from the safety committee a couple years ago and so he'll have that information going in.

We did request that the police chief and deputy city manager Ashley Marshall attend, but I don't know if they will be able to attend.

I had a meeting with Bridge Street residents, a couple of Bridge Street residents a week ago and so I told them about what we're doing to address some of the safety issues that we have at South First Street.

They were happy with that.

They did ask to have conversations in the future just to be a good neighbor and so I did commit to that.

We do have

A total of five pending evictions based upon safety concerns.

All five of them involve shootings.

and so we are doing some things around safety and having some meetings because we do understand that is a big concern.

We do have residents at every site asking for us to do more and so we are looking to see what more we can do with our resources and with the partnerships from the city.

For redevelopment, Preston Halls is 99% complete.

We have two minor issues that are being addressed to complete the VHDA final inspection.

South First Street phase two demolition has started.

They're about 40% complete and they're estimated to be complete by the end of August.

Sixth Street, Phase One, we have one family left for relocation.

That project is now back in HUD's hand for final approval.

We did an amendment to bring back six public housing units back to the site.

We previously were removing all the public housing and only bringing back vouchers.

After talking with residents and stakeholders, we made a decision to amend the plan to bring back public housing units at Sixth Street, Phase One.

and the loan officer agreed to reduce the interest rate to make that happen.

So it wasn't possible at first, but VHA worked with us on that.

We're estimating a fall slash winter demo.

Parallel track, the appliances start tomorrow at Madison Avenue.

They're estimated to be completed by closed business on Wednesday at Madison Avenue and

and it is Riverside and then Mickey and then the homes.

So by the end of August, all the residents in Amfort should have new appliances.

And porch lights at West Haven have been completed as of today.

The site lights at West Haven have all been ordered and will be here at the end of September.

The wall packs for Riverside, Madison and Mickey will be completed during electrical upgrade when we do the HVAC.

and I already gave the update with resident services, the $1.6 million for the Jobs Plus, but they also received a grant for around $250,000 for the Ross grant.

So the resident service department has been really successful with grants this last year.

This is an old agenda item, but in reaching out through the city's contact for dominion, did that help?

Not really, but with the work that we're doing,

with the switchover, we actually now have a point person that has to work with us all the way through.

And so that is helping us fix that problem.

But it's progress.

I'll tell somebody to help us.

One of the things, I want to thank staff for following up on that referral process update.

meeting on rapid rehousing and of course on safety.

I think that for the record we spoke, we passed that along as advocacy during that joint meeting and it seems like it opened up an opportunity for the director and staff to speak with the city and kind of keep it rolling as we talk.

Okay.

Anything else, colleagues?

Thank you, Mr.

Sales.

That concludes the executive director update.

Are there any other public comments?

Okay.

Hearing none, I'd like to thank the team for a very efficient meeting.

We will entertain a motion for adjournment.

I'll second the motion.

Motion has been moved and seconded.

We would like to call a voice vote, Ms. Carey.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed?

None concludes our meeting.

I have to put the door on it.

Oh, wow.

This is the very first Keep It Sexy.