Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Board Meeting   11/25/2024

Always construction everywhere.

Everything's with your person.

Are you gonna have a colonoscopy as part of this coming year?

No, I don't like it.

Do you try to turn this specimen in to your doctor?

No.

Do you want to go outside and talk about this in case they're going to start the meeting?

Okay.

That was a very nice, I shouldn't have asked.

It's not quite six, so.

Everyone at home needs the proper one, but the people that were asking.

Yeah, I sent Brandon the link from the city site to register.

of commissioners in the room before we begin the meeting.

with Nick Horvath.

Ms. Carey, have you heard from any other commissioners?

I'll be here, so he'll be five minutes late.

I didn't know about him.

Okay.

So we just need one more person to get here.

Welcome.

How are you?

How are you?

Miss Carey, do you want to do a roll call of the three of us?

Commissioner Hicks?

Here.

Commissioner Payne?

Here.

Sorry did anybody else have any updates?

Thank you.

Can we add at some point a discussion of evictions to the agenda?

An additional, so

Is that allowed?

No, right.

Yeah, okay.

but you could make a motion just to add it to the end of the agenda.

Yes, I'm now an expert on parliamentary procedures.

Okay.

Oh, sorry.

Do you wanna be in charge now?

No, no, no, no, I was just saying that you just second.

Okay, I'll second.

and all those in favor?

All those in favor?

Aye.

Okay, updates from conditioners.

Oh wait, the PHAR comment.

Oh sorry, sorry, yes, PHAR comment, sorry.

The Chair wouldn't have missed that.

Other thing is just continue to work and advance relationships and community partnerships to continue to make us strong and that is a little bit of all I have so thank y'all.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so now we'll, okay, do you have a comment?

Where are we?

Thank you.

Any public comments on the Zoom?

I just saw the email saying they didn't have it.

Yeah, TerAna's the one right now under TC Nichols.

And Brandon has it?

Okay, any updates from commissioners?

So just a heads up, budget season is about to begin.

And much love to the whole team.

Okay, we will move to approval of the board minutes from October 28th.

Aye.

Okay, next we will move to the housing director update.

Miss Banks?

If there were any other specific questions regarding the report, I'd be more than happy to answer those.

What is the timeline then for those?

Is that right?

I guess, how long until they have to move out?

Okay, thank you.

What are they going to be hearing tomorrow?

So we can't say it's going to be X amount of days, but we can give them an idea.

Okay, so I heard you say three days, so it could be as short as three days, is that right?

then they will put us on the schedule and then they have to have time to serve the writ to the family so all of these things add time but unfortunately I can't give you a set amount of time because it's dependent on their schedule.

There is notice and communications with CRHA staff long before the court date.

Then looking at the packet, is the total amount of unpaid back rent, is that number a little over $80,000 or a little over $300,000?

It's currently maybe a little bit more than this because a new month is posted, but it's around $250,000.

Yeah, $232,000.

Yeah, it's a little higher now from the time we did this report, but yes.

Okay, so $232,000 of unpaid back rent.

Yes.

Which I'm assuming happens over a period of years at this point?

Definitely.

Thank you.

Are there any additional questions on the housing director's update?

How much discretion we have about thinking about the calendar and when we bring forward these evictions?

However, as mentioned previously, we haven't filed in months because we've been trying to give families time to pay.

Yeah, I mean, that's that.

Like working with Pathways and the other organizations that have rent relief funds available.

Okay, HCV Program Manager update.

Thank you, Ms. Nichols.

We should end this shortfall cycle in March and at that time we'll project out to see what the shortfall looks like for next year but as of last week we're projecting about a $300,000 shortfall for next year and so that will cap the program at its current size and our focus will be on keeping those families housed and assisted.

What does that mean?

So our fiscal year ends at the end of March.

Okay.

And so we'll be meeting continue to meet after March to see where we fall on that and that if we actually need additional funding like we did this year.

Okay.

We don't anticipate pulling anything this upcoming year from the wait list.

Is that HUD's fair market rents not matching what HUD will pay per voucher?

This year HUD had its largest amount of agencies run into shortfall because of that exact issue.

Is the fair market rent or is the fair market rent not?

and then you run into where you have a million dollar short.

Correct.

What they can't take into account is when landlords change their rents and when folks income will increase or decrease and that's a big factor in portability.

Thank you.

But I'm wondering, is that at all a pressure valve to try to relieve some of this pressure?

So not even landlords saying, hey, I don't accept vouchers, but landlords saying, hey, this is the criteria you have to meet in order to be eligible for my housing, or hey, this is the rent and it's so high it's beyond the payment standard.

So is that legal with the Fair Housing Act that you can have criteria to rent a unit?

Hey, I have a certain criminal history that you have to meet, I have a certain credit score you have to meet, they can do that.

and they could set a rent that's just so high a voucher couldn't be paired with it, right?

That's all I had, I'm sorry.

Finance Update.

Any questions?

Thank you.

Thank you.

One unit is vacant but it is ready and so we're working on leasing up that unit.

Safety concerns.

But Delphine, you have your hand up?

I think it was just a misunderstanding in the way it was presented and perhaps it confused legal aid, but this is absolutely the traditional standard LIHTC structure.

And that's all I have.

Sales or comments?

I'm just wondering, as we're about to get a new administration, I realize there's going to be losses, and I just don't know how much you're thinking about as we think about things like a strategic plan about how best we can protect our residents when it's unclear what's going to happen, but it doesn't seem like it's going to be very good.

Is going to be a continuous thing.

Has there been any conversations with City Council or even like the people in the General Assembly to think a little bit about what could happen more locally?

And so we have been having those conversations.

So we know it'll be huge but we just don't know exactly what it will be at this point.

I guess we have to wait and see how they unveil their agenda as session opens up in about a month and a half from now we shall see

Before we move to public comments, was there anything else you wanted to touch on related to evictions?

It would be helpful if we could get as part of our reporting a sense of like have that has like if there's a checkbox of like we've gone through every step with all of these people so that we know that there aren't people falling through the cracks and so I don't know how to what this would look like in terms of like preserving privacy but if there could be some transparency for the board when we think about the steps to to divert from evictions that we could see that and we could see like okay this is how this is moving forward I don't know if other people have thoughts about this

We can do that.

I think that's where we're trying to get.

We want to be able to see how we've exhausted all of our options in regards to.

We need some tea.

How we've exhausted all of our options in terms of preserving families, their vouchers, and staying here, right?

and so thinking too about ways that we're educating families about like all of the public subsidies that might be available for them so that people are really availing them and I think this goes for all of our residents making sure especially in a moment where things I think are gonna get like the scarcity model is about to be on some steroids to make sure that any available public funds are being tapped as if we can find them.

If the eviction is gonna go through, what are the next steps for the family?

to try to make sure that people know all the monies that they are claiming because people with deep pockets are claiming all the money that is available to them and I think that this is a time to really try to drain whatever is available for people who really need it.

You know, there's only so much, you know, for a lot of families that could probably cover one, maybe two months of back rent, but you know, certainly not, you know, six months plus.

And we received several checks monthly from Pathways,

There's not unspent money left.

But yeah, I mean, I think the reporting will help just so we can see, but they put in a lot of effort.

You don't want anyone to be unhoused, but there's also, you can't help someone that doesn't want to be helped.

There's a level of accountability, I think, that shared accountability that we take onus of and the residents have to take onus of as well.

There's a wait list of over 2,000 individuals as well.

But it's complicated to say the least.

And then with the housing choice voucher, if your income changed.

$25 in the voucher program.

But six months.

Or you make a plan and then you pay one month and then don't pay anymore.

I think Miss Banks might have a comment.

So I just wanted to make that clear as well.

And so I think when we talk about eviction, I'd like to keep that in the forefront of this conversation.

So maybe at a future meeting we can talk about the actual eviction process that we use and then the steps and then maybe from there we can drill down into the data points that the board is interested in and us presenting going forward on a monthly basis.

You know if we work on that outside but you know to really get on that you see a number of AR like you know quarter million dollars and you know there's reasons beyond that other than you know people not getting the adequate help and you know making an effort.

I would actually like propose I think there's enough thoughts and you know concerns especially with the changes in the administration and challenges we think that we're gonna have that like maybe we just dedicate a whole future working session just just to talk about addictions.

What's the minimum monthly payment in terms of payment plans, you know, if they engage with CRHA?

But we really focus on what the family can afford to pay.

Is zero an option?

No.

So I just wanted to make that distinction.

But it is based on the family's income and not just regardless of their income, you have to pay X dollars each month.

Zero can't be the payment.

Right.

But I think that we've got a few follow-ups and I think probably won't be ready for the next working session but beginning of January maybe we can.

Yeah, we're gonna shoot for January to do evictions.

I will open it up again for public comments.

Thank you.

Okay, if there's nothing else, I would move, or I would look for a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Do we have a second?

Second.

Aye.

There's yours?

No.