Housing and Planning Committee Meeting Transcript – 05/31/2018 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 5/31/2018 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 5/31/2018 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [10:09:19 AM] >> Casar: Good morning. I'll call this meeting of the housing and planning committee to order. I am Greg Casar and I'm joined by vice chair alter and councilmember Renteria. Councilmember Flannigan is still out of town on city business, and so with the three of us, I'll call us to order in the boards and commissions room at 301 west second street. Today is Thursday, may 31st, and it is 10:09 A.M. The first item of business is to approve the minutes from the last housing and planning committee meeting. Is there a motion to do so? Motion made by councilmember Renteria, seconded by councilmember alter. Those in favor, say aye. That passes unanimously. And our second item is citizen communication so anyone here to speak during that. David king is here to speak. Come on up. >> I don't want to cut in line. >> Casar: I think you are the one. >> Good morning. >> Casar: Good morning. I feel like I haven't seen you in a while. >> We're on codenext time. The time warps. >> Casar: Go ahead. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. , Vice chair and members of the committee, and thank you for your service to our city and our communities. I just wanted to offer some suggestions to help our city. The first is to create an antidisplacement office. I think that's such a priority and big issue for our community that it deserves to have an office all its own, focused on antidisplacement strategies and policies. We need a 1-800 hotline for families or businesses in risk of displacement so they can call. It can be a clearinghouse to say here are the multitude of services and facilities that are available to you, federal, state, and local. There needs to be one place. [10:11:20 AM] We have so many of those programs, where do you start, who do you talk to? Which department do you go to? And we need a swat team, maybe more than one, focused on the areas that are really at risk of being gentrified and experiencing displacement and have recently experienced displacement, so we can go out and contact with these businesses and these families and talk to them directly and tell them what we have, how we can help them. And there needs to be coordination between all these programs, and accountability to see which programs are working or not working. So I think this office could have a lot of things to do, all of these policies, we're trying to do lots of different things, but we need coordination between them and we need to see which ones are working and which ones are not, and we need to track displacement and see how these programs are helping to either mitigate it, minimize it, reduce it, or help the families who have been displaced. And help implement the people's plan and make recommendations to the city regarding policies on antidisplacement. Boston recently established the office of housing stability, focused on displacement. So I think we need to do the same thing here in Austin. And in terms of what's going to happen in our city in central Austin over the next 10-20 years, I'm concerned that the concerned, that our demographer has expressed, explained every five to six years, 50,000 high income families move to central Austin and they're outbidding low and middle income housing for families here, and he says he doesn't see anything that's going to change that trend. Not even codenext is going to change that trend. Central Austin is becoming wider and wealthier, and that trend is going to continue, despite codenext. The econorthwest consultant for codenext said the new housing, most likely, that will be developed under codenext over the next 10-20 years will be targeted to high income families, [10:13:20 AM] and 20 years, from that time forward, that will become affordable because it will become low and aged, then the middle income and low income families who got pushed out can now come back in assuming we don't have another wave of high income families again recreating that same situation. So we need things -- tools now, we need focus on helping the families that are being displaced, and we need tools in codenext. Denver did a rezoning of their city, but they carved out a large part of their city as areas of stability to help push back on redevelopment and displacement. A large part of their city is designated as areas of stability. And certain areas were targeted for redevelopment. And I believe that's why their citywide rezoning went through much smoother than ours because we did not do that up front. And we need to empower neighborhoods that are at risk of displacement. Self-determination, let them have a voice in the changes that are being planned or will be planned for their neighborhood. Let them have a voice. >> Casar: I don't think we have a timer, so if you could -- >> I'm sorry. >> Casar: No, it's okay. >> I'm on my last point here. Thank you for letting me go over. I really appreciate it. I know you all are very busy. My last point is economic development. I think our policy should be focused on middle income jobs and training and trades to help low income families earn more money. We should immediately terminate the contract to ensure that all economic development incentive programs are developed in- house so they are transparent and subject to public information requests, and we last point, we should rescind all economic development incentives and repurpose that tax revenue to low income families and middle income families. That each year for the next 10-20 years, that could free up millions of dollars each year that we badly need for these low and middle income families. Again, thank you, chair, for giving me the additional minute or so. I appreciate it. Thank you. . >> Casar: Thank you for sharing [10:15:23 AM] your thoughts. Okay. Our next item is item number 3, which is discussion and -- well, I'll ask if we want to take up the briefings or the action item -- the action item first? Are all fine with taking up -- >> Renteria: That's fine with me. >> Casar: The next item is discussion and possible action regarding ways to connect low income renters and homeowners with housing programs that serve primarily low income households. So lay out this item, we have a resolution that I'd like for us to recommend to council, which will actually, hopefully, start some coordination, asking the city manager to start putting together a program or some sort of housing list so that all of the nonprofits in the community that are already in touch with people that are being displaced, at risk of displacement, that are in emergency situations, people who need housing, that those people can be connected to affordable units, especially the incentivized affordable units as they come online. And so this item was co-sponsored by me and councilmember Renteria. I wanted to see if y'all had any questions about it or any questions for staff about it or if we would entertain a motion. >> May I spook? >> Casar: Yes, I'll call you up as soon as this item is over if that's okay. Thank you, Gus. >> Renteria: The council does a good job of publishing a booklet for affordable housing, but, you know, we just don't have a way to -- to let the citizens know about this. I have gone by there and picked up numerous booklets and passed it out to people that have asked me for it, but it's very expensive, you know, for that to [10:17:25 AM] happen, so it would be great if we did have an ability and an avenue where people could just directly call one number to get the information about all the units that we have created out there, you know. And also, for people to be able to inquire about some of these affordable units that we have at these apartment complexes, you know, where they're supposed to be offering 10% of their units as either 80 or 60% mfi, and we don't have the ability to track, so that's one of the reasons why I'm supporting this resolution and co-sponsoring it with you, is to have that, to inquire about. And we've had those kinds of discussions in the past and no one has really been able to tell us if these units are still being, you know, offered to the people that we're supposed to be offering to we have no ability to track those. So, you know, and in the past, what has kept us from doing these things is the funding. And we have repeatedly asked the housing department to come back to us and explain -- to have a discussion on how we should be able to implement these type of programs so that people out there that are really in need of homes, especially the ones that are being displaced right now in the inner city, which we're seeing a lot, the ability for them to return. And that's why, one of the main reasons why, you know, I ran on my platform, was to create more affordable units in the inner city so that people that are being displaced can have an ability to move back in here or have a way to stay here. [10:19:26 AM] So that's one of the main reasons why I'm supporting this resolution. >> Casar: Thank you, councilmember, and we're joined now by councilmember kitchen here at the committee. And, yeah, I think that that's -- I think you summarized really well, what we're talking about, item number 3, which is one resolution we can take some action on today. I also have heard from people that have seen the booklets about where the affordable units are, they may call and units are all full, and it's hard to know when a unit becomes available. So I think this kind of structure would, I think, be really thoughtful and useful for us to know when an affordable unit comes up for us to be able to either affirmatively market to or connect people who really need the housing to that unit when it opens up so it doesn't have to do with who has the most access to information or who knows leasing managers, but instead, people that need the housing the most, especially people in protected classes that we can try to affirmatively further for housing by getting them into units that they can hopefully afford. Vice chair alter. >> Alter: Thank you. I think this is a great idea to find ways to better connect people in need with the affordable housing that's available and not make it just based on who has the connections and whatnot. I do have some specific questions, as I wasn't part of the drafting, that I think might lead us to strengthen the resolution. So first of all, I wanted to get a sense of what we mean by incentivized and subsidized. And then ask what you mean by developing the incentivized affordable -- the program for incentivized affordable units before including subsidized. >> Casar: Absolutely. If we can have the staff come up, they probably have those [10:21:28 AM] definitions strongest, but my general intent is that many of our -- you guys can probably categorize this best -- many of our nonprofit partners that manage affordable housing have their own wait list programs that let people know when units come up, but my understanding is, where one of our biggest gaps is, if we're going to tackle this in chunks, my understanding, one of the biggest gaps is things like the affordable bonus programs, we may not have that kind of wait list and resources. But y'all suggested the language this way, so I'll let you all -- >> Yeah. I think our preference would be to start with -- first of all, we agree, we think this is a very promising program and we're looking forward to the opportunity to try to work on this. The biggest need we have right now would be in our incentivized units, not our subsidized units. Our nonprofit partners have very robust systems that bring people into their units and we're looking to try to help with the units that are subsidized where they may not -- or incentivized, rather, where they may not have those kind of systems in place, and possibility fill a gap that's there. >> And Medina, neighborhood housing community development, by incentivessed units, we're talking about the units where we don't provide direct subsidy but rather we provide some sort of additional entitlements through our bonus programs. So as an example, uno, the universal neighborhood overlay, vertical mixed use, or some of our tod developments. So those versus subsidized. I wanted to mention we were really fortunate to have launched within the last two months, month, our affordable housing inventory, which is online and this is an interactive map that shows all of our rental units that have been either directly subsidized or incentivized. [10:23:28 AM] And it has contact information for the apartment complexes. It's not realtime, so people -- while we can direct folks in need of affordable housing to this online resource, it will involve making phone calls and finding out whether or not there is availability in those units. And that's both subsidized and incentivized, but only that we have touched as the city of Austin. >> Casar: Can I -- go ahead. You have -- go ahead and follow up. >> Alter: So where are the smart units and private activity bond units? Where do they fall? >> So the private activity bond units are not in our affordable housing map, but we are working to integrate those into our affordable housing inventory. So if we didn't provide any sort of subsidy, we just happened to issue private activity bonds, we're working to bring those into both our map and our affordable housing inventory. There are about 15 projects -- >> Alter: My concern, though, is that we're talking about incentivized and subsidized, but I don't understand where private activity bonds, which is something that I have in my district -- I don't have a lot of existing incentivized by the density bonus in my district but I have a lot of private activity bonds and S.M.A.R.T. Housing and I'm trying to understand where they fall in this incentivized and subsidized because we'd like to make available those affordable units in high opportunity areas, but I'm trying to understand from this language where those fit. Because I don't think they're -- I don't know that they're technically incentivized or subsidized, but yet we would want to be able to connect the dots for those units as well. . Regardless of what your inventory nap map enables this but -- >> S.M.A.R.T. Housing is included in our inventory map. Private activity bonds are folded in as we speak. >> Alter: But are they subsidized or incentivized? >> They fall within the range of [10:25:29 AM] what we call subsidized and incentivized. >> Alter: But I'm trying to get clarity for this resolution that's trying to put incentivized first, then subsidized and I'm not sure where those fall. >> Tier 1 or tier 2? >> I would call them tier 1 because they are -- subsidized units have a very specific -- we have put dollars into those units, so I am not considering S.M.A.R.T. Housing or if it's just straight S.M.A.R.T. Housing -- we don't have a ton of those projects. Mostly our S.M.A.R.T. Housing comes with some sort of subsidy, but just straight S.M.A.R.T. Housing or straight activity bonds where we didn't layer in any funding, I would call that incentivized. >> And if there needs to be some clarification, I would just suggest adding some language to the resolution to make sure that that's clearly included, or it could be something that's potentially added as it goes to consideration by the council. >> Casar: And, vice chair, if I may, I think my understanding of the reason we broke it out this way was not because of wanting to separate subsidized from incentivized, but it was a shortcut to try to talk about which housing program -- which housing units already have strong wait list programs and trying to separate out that don't so we can focus on ones that don't. And my guess is that for some of these S.M.A.R.T. Housing programs, if you're just doing straight S.M.A.R.T. Housing, they may actually fall into those that don't, because there's not -- so I would be -- feel very comfortable having an understanding about this language or amending it to make it really clear that really the tier 1 versus tier 2 thing, tier 1, let's work on where the biggest opportunities are, where there's the least programming, and then let's see -- let's see about the places where we already feel like we're doing well second. And I don't know in the private activity bonds as much how those projects are doing as far as their wait lists or their tenant [10:27:32 AM] programs compared to. >> So all of the private activity bond projects maintain their own wait lists, but unlike our trash units, density units, they're in the business of affordable housing, that is their core business purpose, versus our straight-up incentivized units where they're in the business of renting units, and primarily market rate units. So they may not be as experienced in outreach to people in protected classes, people with low in connection. >> So in that respect, they might fall -- even though our involvement with them might be more like the incentivized units, their level of expertise with how they handle filling their units might fall more in line with the subsidized. >> Alter: Yes. But we just had to pass a resolution to make sure that they were -- >> Casar: That's right. >> Alter: -- Doing certain things so I don't know that's always the case that they're acting as -- in the way that we're envisioning. Visioning we'd like folks to be acting. Where are we capturing units voluntarily committed to providing units in a case outside of a density program? >> My recollection is, we are working with law on that particular issue because we have a couple of projects where developers, that very situation occurred, and we are unsure as to what type of oversight we can legally provide. If we are not a party to that restrictive covenant. >> Alter: Okay. >> So that is an ongoing discussion with law. >> Alter: So I'd like to -- I'm not sure if this is for staff or chair Casar, but I'd like to see [10:29:36 AM] us, before this goes to council, and perhaps we can find a way to vote on it and sort of say let's establish a tier 1 and a tier 2 and provide some clarity for what falls under tier 1 and tier 2, and maybe that's something staff can help develop in a new iteration, so that we can have clarity. Because I think for folks who were not the ones writing this, some of the explanation that you provided about trying to target properties where we don't already have similar kinds of matching programs out there in the community, that that's part of what this resolution is about. I think I would add clarity to it, but I don't have that language here today and we don't meet again so I don't want to hold it up for that, so I'm not sure what the most appropriate way might be. But I am concerned that we have -- >> Casar: I share your concern, and so I would be happy to either move this forward as it is and commit to you that -- I'm sure we can -- since I think our intents is identical, come up with amendment language between here and the council meeting that would achieve that, or we could add a sentence that says -- that changes -- that says that the council's intent is to focus first on those affordable units, be they incentivized, voluntary, or subsidized where there is not -- there are not yet wait lists first, or whatever it is, you know. But I think -- but if we want to massage that language, if we want to massage that language with staff and with legal between now and the council meeting, we could. I'm sure we could sort it out. >> Alter: I think it might not be add to add a placeholder for now if we have to actually forward what's passed today, and then [10:31:38 AM] take that next up in terms of he he of editing to get that. There may be other nuances, but in reading this, I did not walk away understanding that, and then there are these other -- these other cases. Another concern that I have is that this is also a problem with some market affordable units, some of which may have the affordable housing units with the private utility bonds, but if we look at market affordable, particularly in high opportunity areas, that that might be another level to target for this kind of matching program because what's happening now, and we can have different opinions about whether it's good or bad, but right now the college students are taking those spots and other people who may be in need are not even made aware of the opportunity to apply for those units, and there might be a role for the government in helping to facilitate that connection between the people who need housing and those who don't for the market affordable. Obviously, we couldn't necessarily compel anybody to contribute to that, but we might be able to provide a forum for that or we might be able to do some kind of recognition thing for participating that they might in some way find beneficial. I'm not sure what that looks like, but I don't have a lot of incentivized units in my district. But we do have market affordable units in high opportunity areas that the same mismatch is happening. And so as we're exploring this I would like to add that as an area. Again, I don't have it kind of all worked out, how we would do [10:33:38 AM] that, and have not had an opportunity to talk to staff about what the opportunities or challenges might be with that. >> And that also kind of overlaps with the idea that the Austin city up group is working on with trying to create a database of just apartment homes that are affordable, and so that might be something where that might be a place where that can either overlap or overlay. I would also want to -- that's one that, since we haven't spent some time talking to law about it, I would want to be cautious about trying to put that in there without vetting that through law to make sure that we're -- that the direction we're getting is within the appropriate parameters for what we can do as a municipality. But I think it's -- I think there's definitely potential. I would -- my preference would be to work on the ones that we're kind of ascribing as tier 1 first, and to get that process established so that it's easier to roll out moving forward. >> Casar: And as a placeholder, to clarify the private activity bonds and the S.M.A.R.T. Housing questions, one option would be to just have this -- instead of saying subsidized units, to say units receiving direct city funding. So before we roll in those direct city funding units, let's look at the other -- >> Other stuff. >> Casar: Other units, since pbs and S.M.A.R.T. Housing aren't direct city funding. And then between now and when we have the council meeting, if there are other things that may not fit so clearly into those buckets, we can't come up with language, if that makes sense. >> >> Alter: That's fine. I did have another question under the final be it resolved. It says displacement due to government action, how the [10:35:38 AM] program can assist those experiencing emergency situations such as due to government action. Can you explain what you mean? >> Casar: For example on 51st street where the code department had us vacate apartment units because of a negligent landlord, and we had to make sure those people didn't wind up to the street. That's one example, you know, if an apartment complex has to get shut down because it's dangerous, that we try to figure out where people can go. >> Alter: Okay. Thank you. >> Casar: Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Just a quick question. Excuse me. So -- and this may not be appropriate for this resolution. By the way, I think this is really -- really good steps so thank y'all for bringing this. Just curious about if there might be an opportunity at some point in the future, if not through this kind of resolution, but basically through the work that you all do, to work toward some kind of centralized wait list. I always hate to see the fragmentation across the different groups because then people have to end up on more than one wait list, and it creates more -- it creates a lot of work for that individual. So I think this is -- this may be a first step before you could even attempt to do that. But I would really encourage you guys -- and you can -- maybe that's already happening, but I would -- I would want to encourage some kind of centralized wait list through the community. >> It is something that we have discussed internally and with council offices. >> Kitchen: Okay. >> One of the concerns or the potential road blocks is, we work with a lot of nonprofit groups who do specific outreach, whether it's a neighborhood-based community development corporation, or somebody serving people specifically experiencing homelessness, or specifically seniors. And so how we would manage that [10:37:40 AM] is something that we need to think through very intentionally, how we would manage that and have the resources to manage it appropriately. >> Kitchen: Yeah. I understand that. I would encourage -- I'm not talking about necessarily instead of each group's own wait list, but, you know, that's what -- you know, that becomes the road block for all of our social services. And we waste a whole lot of resources with the fragmentation that occurs. So it might be the kind of thing that might be a next step for Austin city, after they work on the database, because it's quite possible to put the kind of database in place that allows -- that allows the capture of the individual data elements. >> Uh-huh. >> Kitchen: So that you could have a centralized database, or you could at least have -- you could at least have the ability for an individual's name to go on a list once. >> Uh-huh. >> Kitchen: And people can go -- there are -- I won't spend a lot of time with this, but there are already existing centralized eligibility determination software in town, and has been there for a long time, for things like health care services. >> Yeah. >> Kitchen: And there was an effort years ago to create a centralized database -- a centralized eligibility and database for social services. So anyway, I just -- >> Yeah. >> Kitchen: Y'all are well aware of it. I just bring it to your attention as something to do in the future. >> Even just working across our partners to create a universal application or something along those lines -- >> Kitchen: Yeah. >> -- I think would be a tremendous benefit. >> Kitchen: Okay. The second thing I would point out, I think this is -- the bullet list you have under the last be it further resolved is included -- I think -- I'm reading it to be not exclusive, but just some ideas. But you might want to put -- and maybe -- I might be wrong about this. When I think of domestic violence, I don't think of [10:39:41 AM] trafficking. And I may be wrong, it may be that domestic violence includes trafficking, but I'm not sure what the current terms are that are being used. So I would check that. And just respectfully suggest that perhaps the authors might want to say domestic violence and trafficking, or I may be wrong and the term domestic violence includes trafficking. >> Casar: No, I think that would be good -- I think that would be good to add there, just at least for clarity. And so I would want to see a motion to move it with that -- with that addition. I think that would be helpful. To your comments, I actually -- we actually started down running this resolution to try to see how much of the universal wait list could be created, but I think it is sort of a step-by-step issue, and so -- but I think getting to a place where we could have a centralized wait list where you could filter for senior apartments or filter for -- that's, I think, a good goal to get to -- >> The ideal. >> Casar: The path. >> And this is one that I know even in advance of having this resolution before us would be a component of some kind of I.T. System that the housing department is desperately in need of and is one of the things I'm in the process of putting forward as a budget proposal request thing. >> Casar: And councilmember alter, I am thinking about the language I offered you. I still think that some of our colleagues, in reading the resolution once it's posted, may still not have clarity as to why some, as opposed to others. Signed some other possible language to say the council collects the manager to develop the program for affordable units that do not have a wait list program, such as incentivized affordable units before including units that do have a wait list program, just so then people understand why -- why we're doing what we're doing, more than trying to figure out -- >> Alter: Sure. >> Casar: -- That distinction. Would that make sense to everybody? [10:41:41 AM] Would that be more clear? Okay. So is there a motion to adopt this with the change that strikes the subsidized units versus incentivized units section and changes it to say what I just read, the council directs the manager to develop the program for affordable units that do not have a wait list program, such as incentivized units before including units that do have a wait list program, to include that change, and add the words "And trafficking" after domestic violence. Is there a motion to do that? Councilmember Renteria moves it. I'll second it all in favor, say aye? >> [Off mic] >> Casar: We're covering Jimmy for now. >> Alter: I'm going to vote for it. I still would like to see something for the market affordable units in the high opportunity areas, you know, in terms of this universal wait list or whatever, but -- and since I don't have the language for it right now, I'll just think about it and have my staff talk with housing to see what would be the appropriate way forward with this, either when this comes to council or as a separate item on that. I did want to just follow up on your comment about the I.T. System and give you an opportunity to briefly mention what your budget asked for and how they were focused. You mentioned the I.T. System. >> We're looking at -- so as you know, the housing has been prioritized by the city council through the budget process, and the -- as you also know, the indicator with the number of units was one of the highlighted indicators. And our ability to move the needle on that particular indicator is one that is very [10:43:45 AM] cost-intensive, because it's an expensive endeavor. So rather than trying to focus on dollars that would get us a small number of units, our requests are focusing around funding the housing trust fund at the full amount that has been set forth by ordinance or by resolution, looking at potentially taking this as an opportunity to remove some of the employees that have currently been funded in the housing trust fund through various budget actions of the long past to free up more of those dollars to be spent directly on services out of the housing trust fund, and things that would help us be more efficient and effective in our operational activities, such as an I.T. System, such as some technical assistance contracts, looking at -- I would greatly like to bring in -- we've been doing a lot of work over the last handful of months on our internal procedures and policies and internal controls, and once we get to a little bit of a more complete point on that I would love to have the opportunity to bring in an outside consultant to just help make sure that everything that we're doing is very tightly aligned with our regulatory bodies. And then also, looking at making sure and looking toward adequate funding, that we have adequate funding to support the studies necessary for some of the policy initiatives and things along that nature. I think that captures a lot of the big items. We're including some of the smaller -- we were including write-ups about some of the smaller programs. I call them smaller programs, they aren't necessarily small, but they are impactful associated with some of the resolutions that have been passed by council that have come forward as items from council, those are also part [10:45:47 AM] of implementation of the strategic housing blueprint. And councilmember Casar if you can send us that information so we make sure it gets captured appropriately. >> Casar: Sorry for hurrying to the vote and if you do bring an amendment to handle the market rate units, be interested in seeing what it is we can do there too. So I'll recall that vote. So those in favor say aye. >> Aye. >> Casar: Passes unanimously 3-0 with councilmember Flannigan out on city business. Next item is briefing on -- oh, no, I was going to call up Mr. Peña, but he's gone. >> He's walking in the door right now. >> Casar: I remembered you. Almost forgot. >> [Inaudible] >> Casar: Thank you, Mr. Peña, you have three minutes. >> Thank you. Chair, members, Gus peña, president of veterans for progress. We were -- reminding me -- right there. Gus peña, veterans for progress. Founder, co-founder, close to 10,500 strong. Mr. Casar, you know me very well. When you were running for office, where did you go to see me? I was in a motel. We were homeless, right? What I'm saying and following up is this. We need more affordable units, but we need a clear-cut definition what is affordable. What is affordable for people at 1500, 1800, it's scary out there right now the rents. And they only give you, plaza Saldana Salvia divinorum -- saltillo, that has to change. [10:47:47 AM] It's not good process for taxpayers and people that are homeless, single women and children that are homeless. We need housing we had during Bruce Todd's administration. I hear horror stories about the voucher for veterans. Supposed to give enough money to take care of the rent, but guess what, it doesn't take care of the rent, it doesn't take care of the first and last month's rent and deposit. I think David made a good suggestion, I've been staying that, and tight displays in office. We're losing families here. You all don't see it. Renteria don't see it, not in the street like I am. It is bad out there. I don't care what facial expression you make, sir, but the issue is this, and I'm not attacking you, when it's true it's not an attack. I roam around looking for veterans and single homeless. We need more -- I can tell you a one bedroom $700 at the most, maybe less, for two bedroom maybe 850, no more than 900. Maybe I'm crazy. It wouldn't occur. But this town has been known to be the capital city, you know, the attention of the world and here we are, we have a big homeless problem. I've been bringing these issues up for the last 27 years, even before Bruce Todd was mayor. When are we going to cut down on homelessness? You want to know where the homeless camps are, I'll take you. I cry and I rely on the lord. We need just units, not just talk. We're through enough with talk. A lot of veterans are in the street near the V.A. Clinic where we they are going to put the municipal court temporarily. I thank you for all the hard [10:49:48 AM] work you do. I ain't got no tears anymore. I see horror stories. I give them the last money I have to put them in a motel. [Buzzer sounding] Thank you very much for your time and, please, please, he can rebutt whatever I'm saying but I'm going. >> Renteria: You know, I work -- I have a friend that I grew up with, a veteran, martin Cantu. He was homeless for five years. I tried over years and years and we've [inaudible] Got his health care and we work very hard to try to get him into services. And we know that after two years in the street, most homeless people do not want to be helped. They are out there, you know, and it took us five years to finally convince him that there was services out there for him. But by choice, and you cannot force someone to take an opportunity to get housing. But he finally did. He finally got to that point where he was just too old to be out there in the street. And, you know, those are the kind of people that I have worked with, you know. I have gone and reached out to a lot of military veterans, you know, and -- >> [Inaudible] >> Renteria: Anyway, so, those are the kind of situations that we face all the time out there in the street. I have a friend that has a demon on his back. He cannot -- the drugs and alcohol. We have helped him get into about five different programs to try to help him out, and it's sad, you know, it's very sad. And he's still out there. [10:51:48 AM] You can go down there by Rebecca Bain, that part, you will see him hanging out on the benches. And I just dropped off my lunch the other day to one that was sitting out there right there by the west 35 bridge. Walk down there and look at these people, they are out there, but, you know, I do all my recycling cans, I leave it out there for one homeless gentleman. You know, there's a lot of people out there that, you know, even though I told them there's opportunities out there, the community village out there, they do not want to go out there, you know. And they are not the majority of them out there, but there's -- they are out there and they like their lifestyle the way they are doing. I would never live that way, I could never do it. But, you know, they have reasons which I don't know why, but, you know, there are people out there that you can walk right now over there to east Austin and you'll see them out there. I got one that we call him D.C., and he's a Cuban refugee from Cuba that came in and he's -- you know, I talk to him every other day, I ride my bike down there. He's a very nice, fine gentleman, you know, but he just does not want the services. He likes his freedom out there and I don't know why. I try to inquire about that, but, you know, as long as he's happy and there's an opportunity to help him and he knows that it's there, then I can't criticize him for not taking advantage of it, you know. So I've -- in my neighborhood where I lived at, you know, there's a lot of displacement going on, you know, and some of these [10:53:48 AM] kids that I grew up with that now are older seniors, you know, they don't -- they don't want to leave the neighborhood, but there's nothing there for them. The units that we're providing these people are not in the innercity, you know, they are further out. And they just don't want to leave, you know. And I don't blame them. I don't want to leave either. It's a beautiful part of town. We're the last part of town that has -- you know, we actually have a canopy of trees. It's beautiful, you know, it's -- all the services are there. You really don't need to go too far. You can walk to or bicycle to. Those are the kind of programs that -- and I wish that I could help a lot more, you no he, but those things do happen. I realize there are military homeless out there. There are programs and anyone that, you know, needs that help, we provide that kind of help to them. >> Casar: Thank you for sharing, councilmember, and happy birthday to you. You thought I forgot. Thanks for sharing that which brings us to the last couple of items on the agenda. We've got a briefing on the rental housing development assistance scoring and then after that a briefing on our draft fiscal 18-19 action plan. >> Thank you -- [no mic on]. >> Casar: Your mic is on, but I don't know if it's working. [10:55:49 AM] It's on? All right. >> Is this better? >> Casar: I don't know if it's coming through the speakers and I don't think the folks doing the captioning can hear so try the other one. Sorry about that. >> Is this better? >> Casar: Scoot it closer to you. >> Renteria: It's recording. >> Casar: We can hear her. >> Let me try this -- magic. Okay. I'm going to start over, Mandy, I'm here to give an update on the rental housing development assistance program, scoring criteria and guidelines. I want to start with a little background about the program. You know neighborhood housing community development administers a program to provide gap financing for bows nonprofit and for-profit partners to create affordable housing units. Rhda is are rental housing program and acquisition and development is our program to enable developers to create affordable ownership opportunities. The applications are accepted on a [inaudible] Basis and subject to funding availability. Applicants submit one application and funding is from a variety of sources including federal funding, C dbg and home funding or federal funding as well as local like the general obligation bonds, housing trust fund and developer fee in lieu that we receive as a department. Applications are scored, and this was backup in your materials. We have both the existing rental housing development application and the and application. They are scored based on a variety of factors including assignment with Austin strategic housing blueprint, alignment with the annual action plan, developer capacity, so background on the developer, financial feasibility of the project, the project proposal as well as the project location. Applications have to meet a [10:57:51 AM] threshold so for rhda it's 150 points out of possible 240 points but meeting threshold does not guarantee funding particularly with limited funding resources. The last update at the bottom of the scoring criteria and the program guidelines, the last update was in 2015, so about three years old. But this is going to be the first comprehensive update to our scoring criteria in years. Honestly, probably since the 2010 to 2012 is where we received a variety of council directives, perhaps around permanent supportive housing where we added in different priorities rather than a taking a step back and looking comprehensively as what we are prioritizing as a community. I think the Austin strategic housing blueprint gives us the opportunity to look at our funding through that lens. Recent awardees that you may be familiar with, they include nonprofit developers, national nonprotest developers, private for- profit developers, as an example dma development, that's a 174 unit senior housing development, awarded $2 million in general obligation bonds. Housing first oak springs, we just talked about homeless veterans and people experiencing homelessness. That was $3.8 million in general obligation bonds. That is also under construction and that's a 50-unit housing development. The works at pleasant valley also under construction. That was $1.8 million and that was both local and federal funds, G.O. Bonds and home funds and that's 29 units for primarily existing foster care or youth experiencing homelessness. Govalle village, that is 97 units, family housing. It hasn't broken ground yet. We're hoping it will break ground this fall, [10:59:52 AM] $2.8 million G.O. Bonds and cdbg so federal dollars. Applications can be found on our website. All of the scoring criteria is on our website. Under housing application center. So recognizing that we recently passed within the last year the Austin strategic housing blueprint and we've had a variety of different council priorities expressed, we decided to take a comprehensive look at the rhda application and the A.N.D. Application. And the first thing we did was we kicked off a stakeholder meeting and that was in January of this year. We had over 50 attendees and representatives, it was great representation. We had a two-hour meeting, representatives from tenant organizations, echo representing folks experiencing homelessness, Austin housing coalition, a coalition of nonprofit housing developers, reentry round table which is looking at folks with barriers to affordable housing including criminal history. Folks representing disabilities rights as well as commission on seniors. So we took all of that input as well as additional ongoing input from some one on one stakeholder meetings and we have reviewed and categorized into different areas that stakeholders are interested in seeing prioritized through our rental housing investment. We have ongoing one on one meetings with various stakeholders including the Austin housing coalition and disability rights groups and the commission on seniors, so those are three that come to mind specifically. And this summer we're going to be drafting potential revisions to the scoring criteria. We are going to present that draft for review to the public and have another stakeholder meeting, a large stakeholder meeting in late summer 2018. The idea is to launch the revised program guidelines and scoring criteria by October 1st, which is the beginning of our fiscal [11:01:54 AM] year. Keeping in mind that we -- our general obligation bonds are all committed at this point, so really while we're accepting applications on an ongoing basis, the only funding available will be federal funding which would be available starting October 1st. And then local funding through the housing trust fund and any developer incentive fees that we may have. I am happy to answer any questions. I just wanted to give you an idea of the background as well as the time line, and again, we're hoping to launch some draft changes this summer with the idea that final revised guidelines and scoring criteria will be available in the new fiscal year. >> Casar: Colleagues, any questions? >> Alter: So this would be administrative rule so this wouldn't come to council; is that correct? >> It would not come to council. >> Alter: Is it possible when you have the drafts you can circulate them to us so we can provide our feedback? >> Absolutely. I believe you have another meeting scheduled in -- it's late September, so we will certainly present the final at that point, but we would like to present you with a draft before then so you can be part and your offices can be part of the stakeholder meeting. As I recall from the January meeting, we had a couple of different council offices represented there as well. >> Alter: Thank you. >> Renteria: Do you know if -- are we getting the same funding that we did last year? >> Surprisingly we're getting a little more. >> Renteria: Wow. >> In cdbg and home. That was announced. It's a slight bump. >> Casar: And so to reiterate the time line is in the new fiscal year you'll have the rules posted for review and then there's a review process of a certain number of days or you just -- >> We'll draft the new rules and scoring criteria based on the input we've received [11:03:55 AM] thus far. We'll do that this summer in anticipation of having everything finalized by October 1st. So the new rules will be ready to go and the scoring criteria on October 1st. >> Casar: And your stakeholder process is largely wrapped up, now you are going into the drafting? >> Our stakeholder process is ongoing. We've had one large stakeholder meeting in January. We anticipated a series of stakeholder meetings. Because of some staffing changes we currently have a new program manager that's overseeing the rhda program, and he's in the audience, James may. This is his third day of work so this is going to be one of his large tasks over the summer is meeting with all of the stakeholder groups to kind of wrap up and have a better understanding of what their particular issues are and look comprehensively as how we can meld all these priorities. >> Casar: It's an important job. If we get significant funding have the -- is important to welcome to the team. >> Absolutely. And this will direct where all of our investment really goes. >> Casar: Okay. Any further questions? Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Casar: Our last item is discussion regarding the draft fiscal year 18-19 action plan. >> Jonathan Tomko. I'm going to be providing the action plan and during the presentation covering steps to align the 2019-2024 consolidated plan with our Austin strategic housing blueprint which was adopted by council last year. The blueprint identifies a ten-year community goals of [11:05:55 AM] 135,000 housing units over the next ten years with 60,000 at 80% mfi and below and 75,000 at 80% mfi and above. There's key strategies identified in the plan for meeting goals and managing these goals in the blueprint. The strategies fit in five community identified value areas which are listed here and these were identified through the stakeholder engagement process that developed the blueprint. We also have numerical goals and targets. These are aggressive community goals and the strategies and funding sources that could help realize the 60,000 units identified here income restricted in the next ten years. There are also departmental goals that are listed here. These are goals for nhcd itself. These fit into four categories, housing for all, family friendly housing, linking housing with transportation and home repair. It's really important to -- that we align our resources to reach these goals because, again, these are aggressive goals and we have to look within the organization because business as usual is not going to get us to reach these goals. In developing an implementation plan for the blueprint, we're working with a consultant team to develop an a las of existing and historical conditions which was adopted in the resolution that adopted the blueprint. The two resolutions as well as developing an implementation plan, an inner departmental action team has been convened and is coordinating, you know, on the implementation steps and where there would be coordination to reach the steps in the proposed plan. One item in getting to evaluating our work as a department with implementing [11:07:56 AM] the blueprint that we want to call attention to is this quote on page 26 of the plan which identifies a need to focus federal resources in housing investments. So as was discussed previously, the city of Austin receives four federal formula grants from the U.S. Department of housing and urban development each year. An annual action plan is developed that identifies where those resources would be directed. There's a stakeholder and community engagement process associated with developing each of those action plans. We are coming on the -- this action plan this year is our fifth in a five-year consolidated planning process which means that next year for our fiscal year 2019-2024 consolidated plan we would be working to align that consolidated plan in the next five years of investments of federal resources with the blueprint. So as identified in this strategy, focusing on leveraging our federal funds to achieve the goals identified in the blueprint. This includes continuing to leverage federal dollars through all available funding sources and targeting current and future federal assistance for housing needs. So in doing that, we conducted an evaluation of our current contracts, and this table on these last two slides shows current neighborhood housing and community development as well as Austin housing finance corporation contracts and provides an assessment of whether support meeting the department's goals set in the Austin strategic housing blueprint. As you can see, some contracts are aligned in helping reach department numerical goals in the plan and some are helpful in helping reach Austin's strategic housing blueprint community values as well. And some are not. So I think that's an important distinction and something that needs to be evaluated as we head into this next consolidated planning cycle. [11:09:58 AM] >> So as Jonathan said, we're -- our next five-year consolidated plan is due to the federal government in August of next year. So we're already thinking about what that -- what that process is going to look like and we'll be contacting each of your offices individually to get feedback from you on how best to engage with your community and make sure that we're helping to hear voices from all of the districts within the city of Austin. Please look for that I would guess later this summer. >> Casar: Great. Any questions? [Inaudible] >> Alter: Thank you, I appreciate this update and I think it's as we're going through this process right now of evaluating our plan for 2018-2019, I think it's really important to keep in mind that we're about to embark on this five-year planning process and to engage in a robust conversation with the community over our goals and what our opportunities are with this funding and to evaluate whether it's time to be looking at new investments or reinvesting more in areas that have been particularly effective and in line with our goals. So I just want to confirm, so basically this chart that you put together, which I appreciate, current contracts, is one snapshot to see whether current funding alliance with the strategic housing blueprint. >> Correct. >> Alter: They -- the way that the funding is set up currently, we can't really move it around for next year because of our five-year plan included these things in it and so we have minimal flexibility. Is that correct? >> Yes. Based on how the consolidated plan was constructed when it was turned in to hud four and a half years ago, we don't [11:12:00 AM] have a lot of flexibility in how we're going to expend our dollars. That is something that we recently have sent staff to training and we're realizing some lessons that we're learning from what we've done in the past that we would like to make sure how we construct our plan moving forward would allow flexibility - - because what's important in year one of the five-year plan may not be a critical piece. Our goal is not only make sure our consolidated plan reflects the voice of the community and what the policies are of the city council, but that it's also written in a way that allows us to grow as a department and city to address needs that might not be on the the forefront now but could come through four or five years from now. >> Alter: So I'd like to see our committee have a role in that process. And I can speak about what that might look like as we're thinking about that five-year plan and as that's being developed as a step along the way to council. >> Absolutely. >> Alter: Makes sense for us to be engaged. One of the things that I'm noticing on this is that many of the items that don't relate to strategic housing blueprint, I'm trying to understand which of those you administer but don't have anything to do with housing. >> These are all of the contracts that we administer. >> Alter: Okay. >> And you'll see the funding source, the ones that would be affected, which is the fourth column there, the ones that would be affected through our consolidated planning process are those funded either with community development block grands or cdbg as you are reading the chart, or with the home investment partnership, so just the home category our funding source on the chart that you see. >> Alter: Okay, soiree [11:14:00 AM] currently doing stuff related to, like, business investment out of the housing department. >> Yes. >> Alter: Instead of economic development. >> And, you know, there are -- I don't want anyone to think that because we're noting contracts as being not -- not implementing the strategic housing blueprint that that somehow is us casting judgment on the quality of the providers of these services or of the services -- or of the contractors. They are all good, really good services, excellent providers, and whether we choose as an organization or community to continue to fund these with cdbg dollars is something that will come through the process. I would also want us to consider if we are going to continue to fund some of these that really don't move the needle on the strategic housing plan, that we consider shifting the responsibility for the contracts to a department that is more aligned with that particular type of service. We have limited resources in the housing department and we really need to focus on what is going to help us with the strategic housing blueprint. That's my perspective. So there's -- you know, the community development block grants are broad and allow for funding of a number of different initiatives, and it doesn't all have to be housing related. At the end of the day I just want to make sure they are being managed in the most effective way possible and we're getting the most for our dollars. And we're not set up necessarily to scope and evaluate some of these contracts that -- as effectively as another department would be. >> Alter: I appreciate the direction that you are going, Mr. Love, and if you can let us know if there are other ways we can be supportive of this five-year planning process beyond our committee engaging and how our engagement would be most productive in that process, I would appreciate that. >> We're actually meeting [11:16:01 AM] internally next week to start to lay out the framework of our process to get our son consolidated plan. >> Alter: Will you also be looking at how we're structuring the contracts? One of the things we're seeing is our effectiveness in our contracts in knowing what the outcomes are now that we're moving to more of an outcome based approach through our strategic plan is not always where it needs to be to get us to that goal, would that be also part of the process with the development of the five-year plan? >> I would like it to be for any contracts that result out of -- out of our work in the housing department. We are -- most of the work that's coming out of -- or most of the contracts that are resulting from our federal funds are -- have traditionally been a subrecipient. We haven't gone through a competitive process for that. We've been able to just directly name a subrecipient and that's perfectly allowable in the realm of conference cdbg and a lot of these contracts have been funded 16, 17 years or longer so we're aware of wanting to make sure that we're, you know, being transparent about our process. We do have limited dollars and we want to make sure that we're being as effective with those dollars as we can be. And so I'd like to make sure that we're considering equity and effectiveness and, you know, a more robust process in how we assign dollars in the future when we get to a point that we're able to compete even these dollars. >> Alter: Thank you. Again, I appreciate the direction and the goal of being as effective as possible with our dollars. [11:18:01 AM] Thank you. >> Casar: Councilmember kitchen. >> Kitchen: Just a couple of questions. On the -- going back to the implementation plan. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Kitchen: So can you give us -- I'm trying to remember when that will be, when that will come back to council. >> It should be coming back, I would say, mid summer, July or August. We're working with the consultant to take each of those 60 priorities that were named in the strategic housing blueprint and to vet them and work on potential implementation steps. We have a committee, it's been convened that has representation across the city to go over those. We've waited until we're at a point in our analysis to have a good conversation about those, and so those for the first and third week of June, I believe, to be able to inform the final report that's going to go to council. And as of right now, I think we're looking at issuing the document to council. It will be -- it will not be a small document because I believe each of these write-ups is two, three, four pages each. So we'll clearly work on summarizing and drawing some, you know, executive summary type conclusions on it. And then we can make a decision if council is interested in us making a presentation, you guys have a lot on your plate during the summer and we recognize that, and so we're going to focus on getting the actual hard copy of the report issued and then take our queues from council on how you want to discuss it. >> Kitchen: From my perspective, you know, I sponsored that resolution on the implementation plan. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Kitchen: So do you think that, you know, we had a fair number -- I don't have it in front of me, but we had a fair number of items that we wanted included in the implementation plan. Are you finding that all of those will be doable to bring back to us? >> Jonathan says yes. >> Kitchen: Okay. And one of those, if I'm [11:20:02 AM] remembering correctly, and I don't have it all in front of me, but I know we were wanting to look at something in the nature of a time line and action steps like you might see in an implementation plan. >> They are going to be working on a short strategies for one section and longer term. And I think some of the focus is where the most coordination is needed on things that will give us the greatest return in moving the needle towards the blueprint goals. >> Kitchen: I think it would be helpful for the council to have a presentation -- I'm not talking about necessarily in August, but a presentation that focuses on the -- the proposed implementation plan. >> Uh-huh. >> Kitchen: So that we can understand what might could be done in short term, what might be longer term, and particularly like to understand that in the context of the budget conversation. So we can understand and make sure that we're being supportive in carrying out that -- carrying out this plan in our budget documents. So I'm not sure what that means. That sounds like an August briefing. The information to you in time for budget discussions. >> Kitchen: Right. >> But as far as a briefing, it would -- since there's no meetings in July, it would have to be August. >> Kitchen: Right. >> And those are hard dates to come by with the volume of -- of your agenda. So perhaps -- I mean, it could even be a housing committee meeting with full council invited like we've done previously on discussions about codenext. Might be a possibility just to give you a little more flexibility on getting it on an agenda. >> Kitchen: I'm not certain what the committee wants to do, but I do think it's important -- it's important for us to understand the implementation plan. >> Absolutely. >> Kitchen: And also very important for us to see it in line with our budget. But it would be helpful for us to understand what that [11:22:03 AM] is. >> And when I was talking about my budget proposal requests that we're putting forward, I just -- I want to be clear when you see what comes eventually, not sure how that process is going to work entirely myself, we're trying to make sure we're leaving enough flexibility to account for things that might come through on the blueprint and with the anti-displacement and gentrification task force. Because they are also going to be making recommendations in the same time frame that is after we've already proposed our budget or submitted our budget proposal requests. >> Kitchen: Okay, uh-huh. >> And one other thing that I didn't mention when I was talking about kind of the broad overview of what we're proposing, we're also looking at the potential of trying to take some of our positions that have traditionally been funded out of community development block grant administration, like we have a certain amount of our entitlement funds that we can use and it funds right now -- I believe we have 18 ftes that are funded through either cdbg or home that we would like to start a pro process of shifting those to what we would say harder money rather than soft money to free up more of our grant funding to be used for the purposes of the grant rather than administration. So it's clearly not something we can do in one budget year, especially not when we're asking to move the ftes out of the housing trust fund, but it's kind of a direction I think it would be beneficial. It helps stabilize those positions if we were to ever see a shortfall in federal funding. We know that it's -- I would say under fire from the current administration. And so that's something that we can start to do slowly over time to help, you know, ensure that there's more of those dollars available to go to direct services. >> Kitchen: Okay, well, I would just think given all those, you know, needs in [11:24:04 AM] terms of time line, the bottom line is I think it's important for the council whether that's this committee or the full council or whatever, for the council to have a briefing on that implementation time line so that we have a clear understanding and we can make it very visible to the public on what the -- you know, what the time line and action steps are for the blueprint. Whenever that needs to happen, if that's after the budget or whenever given the time frames. >> Thank you. >> Casar: Thank you. Any questions? >> Alter: Really quick just to follow up on councilmember kitchen, maybe Mr. Casar and I can talk about whether an August meeting makes for sense than September. I'll be in India for the city for our regularly scheduled one, you can obviously meet without me, but it sounded like with the forms that we were just looking at and the applications that that timing also might require something earlier than end of September, and maybe we can see -- we can think about a time to have the implementation plan in that earlier. >> Staff would make ourselves available. >> Casar: I'll have my staff circle with committee staff and councilmember kitchen's staff and councilmember Flannigan being absent, I want to make sure we include everything off line if we end upsetting an August date. Go ahead. >> Kitchen: On the -- on the analysis of the current contracts. >> Yes. >> Kitchen: So does this -- maybe this information is available somewhere else, which would be fine. I would just like to these it's apparent why they wouldn't be connected to the numeric goal in the blueprint, but there's a few that it's not clear to me. So I don't know if there is another document or if I just should ask the question off line, but I'm -- there's [11:26:04 AM] just a few of these I would have thought would have helped with the goal in the housing blueprint. >> We can perhaps talk off line. This is what we have presented at this point or what we have prepared at this point, and that's been based on conversations that we've had with staff. So if there's anything that - - information we can provide or questions we can answer, we're happy to do that. >> Kitchen: Just to flag it, the rent availability pilot program would appear to me to be supportive of our goals of housing homeless individuals, and that's the main one that jumps out to me. So we can talk off line. >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> Casar: Anything else? Okay. Thank you very much. I think that gets us to the end of our agenda unless there is -- I don't know if we have -- we sometimes have an item for future items, but we can also talk about that off line as we try to schedule the next meeting. Thank you all very much and without objection I will adjourn the meeting. Thank you.