Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority Work Session   12/12/2024

Oh, and also, was your mail coming to the PO box or to our box in Crescent Halls?

PO box.

Oh, no, we haven't got anything.

Yeah.

Because I know we had to wait.

I think Dottie was checking when she came back.

Let's double check.

Okay.

All right, let's do it.

Hi everyone.

Wes and Laura are not too far behind, but I think we have a quorum so we can get to it.

Apologize.

All right.

Maria's not here to do roll call because she's downstairs.

You can do it?

Okay.

All right.

I will call the meeting to order.

Yes.

Commissioner Washington?

I haven't seen her in a while.

Awesome.

All right, we will do a moment of silence.

Okay, we'll now move forward to the annual plan resolution.

Thank you everyone.

I have a very short presentation I'll just share on the screen.

I just came from the public hearing over at Crescent Halls.

It's good to be here with you tonight.

Tonight I'm doing a presentation on the fiscal year 2025-2026 annual plan.

It would run April 1st, 2025 to March 31st, 2026.

I have a pretty brief agenda.

I'm just going to talk about the process that we followed with this document.

Some of the amendments that are part of the process as we have the public meetings, the response from our resident advisory board and housing authority response.

We have time for questions and comments.

I'll talk about next steps with the document and then there's the resolution for board approval.

So for the, I'm gonna come back to that in just a second.

So our calendar, we started back in May with a meeting with the PHAR board just to talk about the process.

The housing authority, instead of drafting a plan and then beginning public meetings, prefers to have meetings with our resident advisory board before drafting the plan.

So there was a series of monthly meetings

that kicked off in July with the official draft being posted October 28th.

And then we went into the public meeting phase.

All these meetings were hybrid.

They were held in community centers and also via Zoom.

It was posted in the newspaper, on paper, in rent statements, on social media, on Facebook and Instagram.

We were able this year for the first time to also have the document in Arabic and we were able to get several copies out that way as they were requested.

We did not have any requests for other languages, but we have committed next year to try to translate the plan into as many languages as we can when we post it.

We were able to get flyers out in the multiple languages, which I'll go back to in just a second.

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Latricia, as you all have met me before, and I am the executive director of PHAR.

So thank you all for just giving me an opportunity to speak for a few moments about the critical relationship between residents, the Public Housing Association of Residents, and CRHA.

So at the heart of this relationship, it is about the partnership, accountability, and trust.

At PHAR, the Resident Advisory Board, the RAB, is a vital part of our organization made up of PHAR's board members who are residents.

The RAB is where residents come together to share their lived experiences and provide invaluable insights to the challenges and opportunities within their communities, within our communities.

The RAB ensures that residents have a seat at the table when shaping CRHA's annual plan, which is a blueprint for policies, budgets, and programs that directly impact our lives.

This plan isn't just about meeting a HUD requirement for us.

It is about creating a shared vision for the future of our housing.

Of course PHAR, we are a resident led, resident driven organization that exists to empower and amplify the voices of public housing residents Through advocacy, education, and organizing PHAR ensures that residents are equipped to engage meaningfully in decision making and holds the RHA accountable The RAB plays a central role in this work demonstrating how residents can lead the charge for positive change

Our relationship with CRHA is the key to making this vision a reality.

CRHA, of course, manages housing, but it is the residents who experience the day-to-day impacts of the policies.

That's why it is essential for CRHA to engage with residents as true partners.

Transparency, accountability, and responsiveness are the foundations of this trust.

When residents see their voices reflected in action,

it strengthens the partnership, builds confidence in the things that we're working together.

I deeply believe in the power of this partnership to create lasting change for residents.

This means stepping up, getting involved, and using our voices for far in the Rab and beyond.

And of course, I want to just keep saying I am happy for this process and through what we will continue, the Rab has

and we'll continue to shape the ways in which residents can really have the impact and that is what we are really grateful for in this process and I know that sometimes there'll be rubs, there'll be different things that occur because we are truly trying to make impactful, meaningful transformation for community members.

It starts with the RAB but we want all resident voices to be included and I think

what we've presented is a reflection of the work that we have done over the past few months to make sure that meaningful impact was given from the community and honestly we do want to continue to engage and create more community we want to build that so this is just a starting point so

This, once again, is a reflection of what we've been working on in those residents' voices.

So thank you all.

If I don't say anything else today, happy holidays to you all.

But thank you for reading our comments and working with us to make a better community for all of our residents.

Thank you so much.

Great.

We just got the comments last night, so we're going to be sending them on to the board, and Mr.

Sales has just done a draft shortly before the meeting that he's about to finalize that I'll also share with you.

Did you want to talk at all about this document?

So I'm gonna go over to the section of the executive director response where we broke down each of the sections that were in here.

We had talk about the reduction in overall number of families served, new activities, resident bill of rights, importance of preserving public housing, reduced number of units at Sixth Street,

updated policies, eviction policy, and a wrap up.

And I'm gonna go on.

So we took the document that we got last night and last night we started breaking it all out so we could make sure and respond to everything and Mr.

Sales is going to be finalizing this and sending it to everyone either tonight or tomorrow morning.

I do not believe any changes have been made to this but he wasn't able to sign from the West Haven event.

He didn't have his laptop with him.

But we took everything in the letter we got from PHAR and inserted it into this response document so we made sure we didn't miss anything So section 1, the number of public housing units, voucher and combined number of voucher units have been reduced since the number reported in last year's annual plan

And Mr.

Sales went on to talk about with redevelopment, we've seen a significant increase in housing assistant payments, which has caused the Housing Authority to enter a shortfall with our voucher program.

Due to the shortfall, the Housing Authority has been unable to lease up additional vouchers to serve families on the waitlist.

For section two with new activities, we had a lot of information on there this year of the annual plan around redevelopment efforts.

And in the comments that we got from PHAR, they acknowledged that this is talking about replacement of traditional public housing, which is very difficult.

and Mr.

Sales wanted to talk about that a bit that we're committed to preserving Section 9 which is another name for public housing units.

No, but we currently are below that number.

Our number for fair cost is 376.

So that's why it's, you know, it is noticeable to share there's not 376 units of public housing.

Okay.

The resident bill of rights.

I think some of you were involved back in 2008.

when PHAR worked really hard with Housing Authority to draft the Resident Bill of Rights.

A lot of things that were in that document are worth revisiting because there's regulations that have come into place with the different subsidies we've chosen.

Mr.

Sales' response was the CRHA is committed to removing and reducing barriers for residents to return home after redevelopment.

In most cases, CRHA cannot control additional regulatory rescreening or application processes.

The Housing Authority is committed to working with PHAR to modify the Bill of Rights to ensure it is in line with the work that's actually occurring.

There was a hope when this document was first drafted in 2008 that we could make things as easy as possible for residents with relocation and what wasn't anticipated was a lot of the regulations that are in place with low-income housing tax credits and just the whole transition process for residents.

We've been working really hard to streamline that process and make it as easy as we can but there are regulations that have to be followed.

Number four, the importance of preserving public housing.

It is part of our plan.

It's one of our goals.

Mr.

Sales wanted to note that CRHA is committed to working with PHAR to preserve Section 9 and protect the rights of residents who are residing in these communities.

I know Mr.

Sales, I just wanted to note, is also working with Legal Aid and

Ms. Giles from PHAR on looking at policy, how we can make sure that, you know, the ability to organize and other things that might not be inherent with some of our other programs are part of this.

Mr.

Sales also noted the resident planners made further decisions that reduced the total number of units that were proposed for Phase II of Sixth Street.

Can I ask a quick question?

Sorry, colleagues.

Sure.

Section 8 is our voucher programs.

So it's a subsidy in which we have quite a few voucher programs.

We have programs

that are traditional where someone gets leased up, they get a voucher, they need to find a place to rent in the community that fits within the parameters of that voucher they received.

We also have vouchers for individuals that are aging out of foster care, veterans, which is the VASH program, family reunification.

But a new thing with housing authority is project-based vouchers.

That's where they are specifically assigned to the unit.

but that is Section 8 which is a different subsidy than Section 9 which is the public housing subsidy and I think Mr.

That is correct.

Let me see.

Sure.

And I know we had talked at one point about having a meeting just around the voucher program, and we could probably, you know, look for 2025 to have something for that.

Because it is a growing program.

was around updated policies.

So we are anticipating some public and Indian housing notices, they're called PIH notices to be coming out soon with 2025 and we also are aware of the HOPMA updates that we're gonna be needing to follow.

So we are anticipating some policy changes that will need to be made and working closely with our partners at PHAR

A big thing we'll be looking at is where we have areas of discernment with these policies, but there will also be new housing and urban development regulations.

And some may be impacted by the new administration.

Mr.

Can I just briefly

I don't know if Dr. Goldblatt can see.

Can you see?

Oh, fine.

Yeah, but I wanted to

I think it would be fair to say Dr. Ovett has been one of the fiercest performers for ensuring that we do everything which we can prior to getting into the picture.

I'm just trying to get Mr.

Sales' signature to finalize it.

He was at West Haven.

We're having a holiday celebration with the planners there.

He was greeting everyone at the door, but he's working on that shortly.

So, you know, just like was stated here, the Housing Authority is going to look at and analyze the provisions of our previous eviction process.

We're planning to talk about this in January and we're also going to be looking at any new federal guidance we're getting on that.

We were grateful for PHAR's comments in this last section.

I know PHAR's just recently got their first executive director and

decades and it's been great for us to have that partnership.

We have so much to work on this year and seeing all the new interns come in with PHAR is going to just

make all this work be a lot more exciting.

I was able to do one of the public meetings with all the PHAR interns and it was by PHAR my favorite meeting.

We went through every single page of the plan and I hope to have more engaged audiences like that next year.

So I have a couple questions and I'm happy to jump in.

Others might have questions too.

I was pleased to hear that the plan was translated into Arabic but it did make me wonder, I was just wondering a little bit about like what's the reading level of the plan and like thinking about that but also thinking about how that seems like a translation challenge like other people translating, able to translate a document at a reading level that the residents living in public housing who speak that language

I don't know if you have answers about that.

What I did with a couple of requests is I asked our translator to go to some homes and he sat down and explained the document.

But we do know we have a lot of not just English learners but individuals

that were given the opportunity to learn how to read maybe where they were living before, especially a lot of women that we talk to every day who are really eager for us to try to find safe spaces for them to do that.

And I think I would love the opportunity to talk about ideas to make this document more approachable.

I think there's a lot of room for that.

We're also working on language cards where someone can go in and point

at their language, and we're trying to find a symbol that is approvable and acceptable for signing and just something that I need help reading.

Yeah, it would be great maybe at a future work session if we could think a little bit about some of the translation issues that have been coming up and to see if there's partnerships that we could have, especially for people who are eager to learn to read.

I understand it might be difficult to help people to learn to read in their native language, but I wonder if we could have people who are willing to help them learn to read in English, because I think that would be big.

I have a few others, but I don't know if people care if I run through the questions I had.

So if we could have a future work session about this I think that would be great.

So then the other question I had is I'm just wondering a little bit about enforcement.

So I'm looking forward to seeing the document with the CRHA comments and being able to look back and forth.

I'm wondering for next year's annual plan if we could like have a document where we compare, we can say like here are the FAR comments from last year, here was the CRHA response, and here is how this has been reflected in next year's annual plan.

because what I don't, I think like under Ms. Giles, PHAR has a really strong leader and I want to make sure those residents voices don't, they don't just come to a meeting, but they're like, this is meaningfully changing how things are happening.

And so I'm wondering if we could try to build some of that into next year's process so we can really see like, here's how these things changed as we're getting, you know, as we're seeing the updates to the plan.

Okay, cool.

And then I'm wondering just how, like you said that the meetings were really well,

and then the last question, I'm just wondering about, I'm thinking about fair cloth and I guess I'm asking, this is like, I realize the answer is yes, but I'm wondering really, so like we can have up to 376 units, we have 326.

There are some scenarios where we could look at placing them different places, like possibly like say, I'm just gonna give an example, say we had a dogwood unit in really good shape that didn't need a lot of upkeep

a subsidy could be attached.

But I think we're also going to have to really pay attention to what's going to be happening, you know, with subsidies this coming year.

Cool.

Okay.

So then my last question is thinking about what's going to be happening this year and, you know, the next four years or hopefully not longer, but you never know.

I'm just wondering,

What it would look like to try to attach locally as many of the protections in Section 9 to Section 8 vouchers?

Is HUD going to be on to this strategy and put the kibosh on it?

I will say that Mr.

The biggest thing is that we are trying to make a solution that would be comparable for all residents in CRHA.

That is a big issue and it is a big concern because we are trying to make sure we're preserving public housing and making sure that that is an affordable option that will always stand.

So the next steps, when I'm finished here, I'm hoping to see the board work on a resolution for the plan and approve it.

We have several documents that will be going to Dr. Bellamy and Mr.

Sales to be signed for certifications of the plan.

This year, for the first time in a long time, HUD has a portal for submitting the annual plan.

It doesn't actually ask for everything that we did in it, so we're also going to email a copy that is more comprehensive.

We had a whole planning process that they don't really ask for any of that.

They just ask for RAB comments and the hearing.

So we just wanted to give them the whole document.

So we had a few things that were kind of last minute just due to just different things that were happening.

The city manager, Sam Sanders, was out of the office and we were really grateful to the deputy city manager, James Freas, who agreed to sign our document after it was reviewed by city staff to make sure it was consistent with the regional plan or the consolidated plan.

This one looks a little different this year.

It was generated by the HUD portal.

It's one of the forms that's required for that.

Our attorney, who I believe is with us, Delphine was really wonderful.

At the last minute, she helped us take one more look at our resolution because we are submitting it differently this year and she just made a few little amendments to that and that is the document here.

Delphine, did you want to say anything about that?

No, I think we're all good.

You covered it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you so much.

And then I'm going to just stop sharing here for a second.

A document that will be inserted into it.

I already did it with the amendment that I made this past month where I started inserting minutes from meetings we had as well as we had translated flyers and I realized they hadn't been attached to the plan so I attached them in November in different languages.

Everything from the hearing tonight and this meeting will be added as well as the RAB comments and Mr.

I'll second.

Can we get a call?

All in favor?

Aye.

Aye.

Yes.

All opposed?

All right, thank you, everyone.

Do you want to take over?

Okay.

I will now open it up for final comments.

No?

Okay.

Any public comments?

All right.

That covers our agenda for this evening.

Are there any other comments from the board?

and I'm about to sing that one song.

I don't know.

Cool.

and then actually we're talking like

4-H team leader meeting from 6 to 7 p.m.

Perfect.

She won't need any pizza, I guess she'll eat pizza there.

Yeah, we've got the, it's not like it occurred to you at school, like before, so he's probably like, if he's even still awake when she gets there, he could be pretty tired.

But Alec could come to sleep and then he'll just like be in the synagogue and he'll go out.

I don't think that we're gonna be able to make it to be out very late.

Can't we get one boy a hug?

There you go.

Yeah, she was like, I want a job, and she got her second job at Shiloh Day.

And I, oh, it's really good.

I, my stomach hurts.

I've done the time here, but it is so like dry.