Housing and Planning Committee Meeting Transcript – 11/17/2020 Title: City of Austin Channel: 6 - COAUS Recorded On: 11/17/2020 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 11/17/2020 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== Please note that the following transcript is for reference purposes and does not constitute the official record of actions taken during the meeting. For the official record of actions of the meeting, please refer to the Approved Minutes. [10:03:24 AM] >> I'm Greg Casar, chair of the housing and planning committee. I'm here with vice-chair Ellis and members kitchen, Renteria and Madison. It is 10:03 A.M. We're meeting virtually and we will get started here for the November 17th meeting. The item on the climate equity plan, item number 4, I don't think we're going to take that up today. I think that's pending for further discussion. Is that right, councilmember Ellis? I know you had requested that in part. >> Ellis: That is true. We are not taking it up today, if that's all right. >> Casar: We'll get started to approve the minutes from the last meeting, item number 1, and the last two meeting, the July meeting and the September meeting we're taking up today. I'd like to approve that by acclamation. Is there any objection to passing number one? With that, hearing no objections, we'll pass item [10:04:26 AM] number 1 and move on to number 2, which is approving our committee meeting schedule. You should all have in backup. We can go through that same process. Is there any objection to approving the schedule as posted? Hearing none we'll approve that by acclamation. Because we have some good presentations to go over today and I'm looking forward to those and hopefully get us out with some spare time because I no that everyone is busy. So we will then take up item number 3, which is our staff report, public input and discussion on the rental housing sense program and ownership assistance program. So I'll let the staff take that away. I think we should also be mentioning in all of our meetings that are televised to the public that they should certainly be wearing their masks and social distancing and washing hands. We continue to see cases go up so at every opportunity we'll mention that. So please, please follow [10:05:26 AM] those guidelines set up by Dr. Escott. I'll hand it over to you, director truelove. >> Thank you. I appreciate you reminding everyone about the guidelines that we should be following. This presentation is going to come from Jamie may and Mandy de mayo. Are they over? I see them in the list. So I'm going to turn it over to Jamie and he's going to go through some potential updates that we're looking to for our rental housing assistance program and our housing developmental assistance program. >> Good morning, I'm Jamie may, the community manager over the housing development assistance program. Today we're going to be talking about our housing development assistance twin programs, the rental housing development assistance program and the ownership housing development assistance program. Every year we take a look at our guidelines to make sure that we are deploying this program and the funds that [10:06:26 AM] have been allocated in a responsible and efficient manner. So this is the third year that we've addressed our guidelines and tried to make improvements. So we want to start the presentation? There we go. All right. As I mentioned, Jamie may with housing and planning department and this is the housing development assistance annual review and update. I don't know if I -- okay. So just to go over what we are going to be talking about today, just a quick review of the programs, then a quick review of the successes from fiscal year 2020. And then jumping in to the changes and the amendments that we're looking to make for fiscal year 2021. So the program review as I mentioned, housing development assistance, is really two sister programs. The first is rental housing [10:07:31 AM] development assistance. And if I slip up and call this rhda, that's what that is referring to, rental housing development assistance. And we also have its sister, which is the ownership housing development assistance or ohda. In the rental housing development assistance program that's where we provide gap financing for rental adopts, think about apartment complexes. These are units that are affordable below 50% of the median family income. And this -- we've designed our process so that it aligns with and implements the strategic housing blueprint. The funding sources that we use in order to generate these units include home where we deploy our childhood dough or our community housing development development organization funds. Chdo. Those are funds specifically for community housing development organizations. In Austin we have four [10:08:32 AM] certified chdos. That's are blackland, blackland, Guadalupe and aha, which is accessible housing Austin. We also have our housing trust fund which council allocates annually. We have geographically restricted funds such as the university neighborhood overlay districts or the homestead preservation reinvestment zone and those are funds that are as it says geographically restricted so a development has to be within the boundaries of that district in order to utilize those funds. And then finally we have the 2018 general obligation bonds. We are in the fourth year of deploying those and this year the allocation for rental housing assistance is 20 million. And the sister program is the ownership housing development assistance that provides gap financing for ownership developments such as condos or single-family detached units or townhouses. [10:09:32 AM] These funds are targeted to units that are affordable below 80% of the median family income. It also aligns with the strategic housing blueprint. And we use the exact same funding sources. So these two programs run concurrently and compete against each other for the available funds. I will note that the general obligation bonds dedicated to the ownership housing development assistance is around five million this year, and we'll see what we did in fiscal year '20 then. So in this -- in the most recent fiscal year we'll tell you what council awarded just a brief overview of that. The units that were generated by those Edwards and then the units that have been the least or that have come online in this fiscal year. These are generated from awards that were made in [10:10:34 AM] fy19, '18, '17, going further back. So in fiscal year 90-20 council -- 19-20 council awarded 12rhda, rental housing development assistance and 12 ownership housing development assistance. The total was around $25.7 million. And five and a half million dollars was awarded to the ownership housing development program. Now, this equates to around a 14.8 leverage ratio for our total investment. And that means that for every one dollar that the city invested in a development, the developer went out and found around six and a half dollars from a different source. And I credit this to the determination of our developers to utilize our funds well and to the tenacity of our staff, both [10:11:36 AM] Ellis Morgan and deep vason on how to push our developers to be better with the use of funds. So with that roughly $31 million, 1557 total units were developed or will be developed. Of that 1500, 814 of them are rental housing development assistance units. That means that they are targeted to households earning less than 50 percent of the median family income. Of that 814, 125 of those audience will be dedicated to the continuum of care for -- to assist those who are experiencing homelessness. Of the 1557 units, 289 of them will be ownership units dedicated to households earning less than 80% of the median family income. Those are long-term affordability to assist with long-term placement of [10:12:39 AM] households. Now, of that 1557, 354 are not income restricted. There's another 99 units that are income restricted and monitored by Texas department of housing and community affairs, but they are at 60% and 80% of the median family income so they would not qualify as rhda or rental housing development assistance units. We include all of these numbers so that you know that we're not just -- we're not just counting the units that we invest in, but all of the units that come around with this development. And finally, of those units that were invested in in previous fiscal years, we have seen 272 rental housing development units leased in the last year. 50 of those units are dedicated to the continuum of care at terrace at oak [10:13:39 AM] springs, which if you haven't been there, you should. It's a beautiful facility and it's a model that we should be pursuing. The -- of those sold units, we sold 20 ownership housing development assistance units. Those were primarily in the Guadalupe neighborhood gndc, Guadalupe neighborhood development corporation area, in the Guadalupe Saldana neighborhood. We also sold a few at the cedar point area developed by habitat for humanity. Now why you're really here. The fiscal year 2021 update and review. First we'll talk about the annual review of the guidelines and then just mention some of the housekeeping issues and then dig into the real programmatic changes that we want to brief you on. So just some housekeeping issues. [10:14:41 AM] In our guidelines we mentioned project. We refer to all of our developments as projects. That has a stigma that -- that word has a stigma associated with it so we've just changed it all where we say project to development. Similarly nhcd, neighborhood housing and community development no longer exists. It is now housing department so anywhere that says nhcd has been changed to hdc. So we have improved the clarity of the language so we know what the rules are so the developers know what the rules are and so that there isn't any confusion at time of execution or time of the contract. And I bring all of this up so that when you're looking at the red line version of the changes to the document there's a lot of red line and a lot of it has to do with just changing this nomenclature and the [10:15:43 AM] language. The programmatic changes we're looking at it be categorized into six broad areas. First we have implemented some new prerequisites for the application. We have differentiated the loan typologies. We have added some terms to our loan packages. We're going to address the continuum of care units in a little different way. We are readopting the lease addendum and implementing the tenant selection policies that council instructed in June with the fair chance housing resolution. So the first section, application prerequisites, smart housing certification must be submitted prior to application. We've had some developers kind of lag on that so now we're going to be a little bit harder. Also with affordability unlocked, if you are going to utilize that program, we would like you to take advantage of it before you apply for funds. [10:16:43 AM] The purpose behind that is because with affordability unlocked your development can change dramatically so we want to know what you're going to be building and how many units we can expect. Similarly with zoning. We've had some applicants bring forward a request for funding and say that they have applied for zoning, which is still possible, however, we are not going to make a recommendation to the ahfc board of directors until zoning has been approved by city council. So it might be at the same meeting or might be at a subsequent meeting but we are not going to put you in a position to have to respond to something that hasn't been approved for zoning. And with our lihtc developments most of our rental housing assistance program dollars go to low income housing tax credit properties which is funded by the Texas department of housing and community affairs. In order to apply for those funds you need to have a resolution of no objection [10:17:45 AM] and we want to give you that resolution to no objection before you apply for our dollars. Similarly, if you are using ahfc or Austin housing finance corporation dollars through the rental housing development assistance program, we will be your issuer of your private activity bonds. This is pretty much a hard and fast rule. There might be some situations where we can waive that, however, we want to be the issuer of your private activity bonds. And then finally if you are considering pursuing a partnership with ahfc or Austin housing finance corporation, those conversations need to be started prior to submitting for application of funds and they need to be well along the way. In the beginning of next year of 2021, we will be issuing an rfq or request for qualifications, so that anyone who is interested in pursuing a partnership with Austin housing finance corporation can be vetted before an application for [10:18:46 AM] funding is received. Now, as far as the loan typologies, when you are applying for funds, currently we accept an application to -- for funds without really asking at what stage are you in the development? So a loan will be issued for land for the applicant. The problems and challenges with this is that the loan is not necessarily tied to construction finance. This has -- can carry a significant risk of delay and once our funds are utilized and the developer has the land, there's less incentive to maintain communication with the developer for the pro developer to maintain communication with our staff to ensure the monitoring of construction process. However, we know that these funds are needed. They are flexible and often they are necessary in order to take down the land. [10:19:49 AM] And this acquisition does represent a major portion of the awards that we issue. So we know that it is necessary. What we would like to change is when we issue an acquisition loan, ahfc will retain control, so if a developer brings a plot of land that is undeveloped, ahfc may acquire it and hold it or it may issue a loan coupled with an option to purchase agreement. That way if the development does not move forward ahfc has control over the land and can then either issue an rfp or develop it itself. This purchase agreement and a right to develop does carry a construction financing shot clock. Now, again, partnerships must be considered prior to applying for acquisition funds. So if you are thinking about [10:20:49 AM] partnership and you are looking to acquire these funds, then this conversation has a step process. The second type of fund that we -- the second type of loan that we issue are predevelopment loans. When an applicant applies for predevelopment they must submit a full proposal and that makes them compete with other applications that are much further along in the process and have much more information. A predevelopment loan is extremely early in the process. And because of of that it carries increased risk. A predevelopment may ultimately not result in any development, however, again, these funds are flexible and our smaller developers in particular need this type of assistance just to get things off the ground and moving. So our proposal is to limit [10:21:50 AM] the amount of funds available for predevelopment. These would be smaller loans and they would be repayable. So predevelopment loans would be capped at $300,000, that way they can move quickly. We are allowed to administratively approve loans less than $300,000 without taking the request to the board of directors. Any predevelopment loan would mature at the close of construction financing or three years from the date of the loan, whichever comes first. And predevelopment loans may be repaid or wrapped into a construction financing if ahfc is part of the construction capital stack as they say. This eliminates some of the risk on our end. We still have the right and ability to forgive any predevelopment loan that comes in, but the policy would be that these would be repaid at construction financing. [10:22:51 AM] And speaking of construction financing, that is where we prefer to issue our funds. That is the safest place to make a loan. It's also the easiest place to monitor and follow the pace of construction. Typically we are willing to subordinate to any primary loans and under our current policy all loans carry identical terms. Every loan that we issue is a deferred forgivable loan. What we have seen is that's not necessarily equitable. So we propose to vary our terms by the loan and by the awardee. Terms will be negotiated during the application process. Our financial analysts currently negotiate with applicants to determine the amount of are funds being requested and the number of units being provided, so this is one more tool for our financial analysts to use to ensure that the funds [10:23:51 AM] are being used in the most effective manner possible. Ahfc will always reserve the right to forgive the loan in whole or in part, but now we may start applying interest and we may instead of having everything deferred forgivable, maybe we'll only defer the principal and the interest is payable or perhaps it's going to be an amortized loan. In any respect, all of our construction financing will carry a loan shot clock. That way once we issue the award we know that the developer will get to the closing table and begin construction quickly. If they miss that shot clock, ahfc reserves the right to deobligate the award, so that we can use those funds for a development that is moving quickly. And in all of our construction financing, Austin housing finance corporation will reserve a right of first refusal. [10:24:58 AM] Now, that's all of our loans and that's a lot to digest. The next section is continuum of care units. And I know that this is an extremely important issue. The challenge that we have today is that continuum of care units are a scoring item on an application. They may qualify for increased subsidies, however we don't require any minimum number of units when a developer provides continuum of care. We do require them to secure a memorandum of understanding with echo wherein echo identifies the tenant, coordinates the services and identifies the subsidy, however this is a low threshold for participation and honestly very low incentive. So our proposal would be to address all three legs of the continuum of care stool. So a developer who wishes to participate in the program must provide no less than 15 units. We've worked with echo to identify a magic number of [10:26:00 AM] units that would be supportable. This is right around in that area of 15 units. The developer must secure the memorandum of understanding with echo, confirming that these are housing first units. Echo and the developer must also identify appropriate service providers and execute a service agreement with the service provider and provide dedicated space for that provider. This could include on-site living quarters, but at a minimum we need a space for the service provider to operate and provide the service. And then finally, the subsidy that the coc units may be part of the local housing voucher program that ahfc has created with our housing trust fund. This is not guaranteed. This is only now by providing those 15 units and executing your service [10:27:00 AM] agreement, you may qualify for that local housing option. The next to last issue is the lease addendum. We are -- we have consolidated all of our tenant protections in 2019. We had a lease addendum and then we had tenant protections in our guidelines. We collapsed them all into one document and that collapse caused a little bit of concern over clarity. We met with advocates from tenant organizations and housing providers and we have revised the lease addendum. It is with the law department now and once that is approved we will be appending that not only to all loans, but it will also be appended to the rhda guidelines. That way all developers know exactly what lease addendum they need to sign and how they need to be enforced. [10:28:00 AM] And then lastly, the tenant selection policy. In June of -- June 11th, council issued a resolution that was locally called fair chance housing. In September after doing some research, we held a stakeholder engagement meeting and councilmember harper-madison was there. Shortly after that stakeholder meeting we initiated a stakeholder dialogue with several developers and representatives from the reentry round table. Currently we have a speak-up Austin page which is soliciting public comment not only on the tenant selection policy, but on the entire rhda or rental development assistance guideline changes. That has been open for about a week now. We've seen about 55 unique users log into the speak-up Austin page. So we expect that to be a [10:29:02 AM] significant source of public comment. The tenant selection policy just like the lease addendum, will be appended to the rhda guidelines. Again, so that developers know exactly what they are getting into and how they need to comply before they apply. >> Now the tenant selection policy has a couple of parts. First, and this is current policy. Look back periods begin from the date of conviction. Not from the date of incarceration, but from the date of conviction. Or from the date of arrest. Screening only applies to offenses listed on the screening guide. So an individual must be convicted of an offense listed on the screening guide. And applicants denied shall be automatically afforded an opportunity for individualized review. Currently applicants who are denied have to voluntarily request an individualized review. Now we are requiring it to [10:30:04 AM] be automatic. Now we are not the only organization or the only entity dealing with these challenges. Tdhca has issued some changes to their qualified allocation plan or qap which regulates the awarding of the low income housing tax credits. They've changed the definition regarding permanent supportive housing and we are closely following that to ensure we are not in conflict and to ensure that the highest standards are met. Now, I will note that the screening guide that you're about to see sets a maximum look-back period for offenses. Property owners have every right to set lower look-back periods for any listed offense should they show choose. And this is the table of [10:31:09 AM] offenses and proposed look-back periods. Just to give you a brief overview of where this came from, we took the reentry round table screening guide, took the screening guide from -- or the screening policy from several private developers and from the housing authority. Reviewed them and then looked at the Texas penal code to ensure that we are actually talking about offenses that are in the state of Texas. We then looked at classifications for some of these. We know that a misdemeanor -- a misdemeanor does not necessarily -- or should not necessarily carry the same penalty as a felony, particularly not a first degree felony. And in some situations, a first degree or a misdemeanor does not exist. There is no such thing as a misdemeanor murder. So we've provided the classification by which [10:32:10 AM] these offenses actually apply. And then for all three different types of developments that we see, family developments which also include senior developments, those can have a more significant look-back period. Murder and manslaughter and kidnapping are life-time look back periods for all of these -- for a family type development. That does not mean a lifetime ban, that merely means that offense would show up on your criminal background screen and then the applicant would be afforded an automatic individualized review. Now if you are in a single room occupancy development, then those look-back periods are much shorter. Five years for murder and manslaughter, one year for assault versus three years for a family development. Now the justification here is that these are single [10:33:12 AM] room occupants. This is -- this is developments that normally carry supportive housing. So we wants to ensure that we're not leaving people on the streets. And anywhere where you have a continuum of care development, then there shall be no look-back period from any listed events. And again that is to ensure that all of our coc units or continuum of care units are housing first. Now the next steps, again, are speak-up Austin page is open now. We are collecting comments. We will continue to collect all of those comments and digest them into our guidelines. We will have a annual meeting on December 9th where we will go into more detail on our guidelines and incorporate those public comments. [10:34:12 AM] This meeting will be recorded so the developers who are not available to attend can view it later. And then once we solidify our guidelines, they will go into effect January 1st, 2021. And they will be applicable for the next application date, which is February 5th, 2021. And I would be happy to answer any questions about anything I mentioned. I know that was a lot, but I'm happy to talk. >> Casar: Thank you, Jamie. Scam harper-madison first and then council member kitchen. >> I'm going to adjust my volume. When jam was talking it sounded like a horror movie. So there was this statice sound. So I turned it down so I didn't scare myself. No, it's not your fault. I'm sure it's something on [10:35:14 AM] my end. With the speak-up Austin website, that's exciting. I'm curious about a couple of things you said there. You said 55 or 56 unique users -- can you tell me what that means? >> Individuals -- I believe it would be counted by their internet service provider, so like the number that is tagged to your home computer, I belie that's how they count that. I can check to make sure exactly what that is referring to. >> That would be helpful. And to curiosity, how are people finding out about speak-up Austin? >> So we issued an e-mail blast to our list serve to everyone who attended the September meeting, and this is a press release going on to our website the provide that link. >> How can we help to spread that information? Is there a toolkit, a press [10:36:15 AM] packet, something with class collateral where we can help spread that information? >> I can get you in contact with our community public information officer and see how you can help. >> That would be great, thank you. And if we could share that with all my colleagues, I'm certain all of us have constituents who would appreciate having access to that. >> Council member harper-madison, this is Mandy Demayo. We'll get you and awful your colleagues the press release for this to make sure that we spread the word far and wide. This is obviously a really important item for us. And we want as much input as possible. So as you know we initiated the stakeholder process back in September, but we're really excited to get more input from abroader section of constituents. And so we'll get you that information as soon as possible. >> I appreciate it. And just to be clear, I was talking specifically about an info graphic or just a quick little graphic design that says what it is and [10:37:15 AM] where to go. Stuff that we can share on an Instagram or Twitter. You really can't share a press release on Instagram. So I was thinking something more along the lines of a shareable, easy to digest, this is what it is. Something with colors and something that will catch people's attention. You know what I mean. >> Absolutely. >> We'll get something created. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. Oh, and then there was one -- I'm sorry I didn't catch the slide number, but the subsequent slide you talked about how -- what was being proposed to make some changes to the -- you called it continuum of care housing. On the slide prior to, you talked about how there was very little in the way of incentive. I still didn't catch how we intend to incentivize. >> So the current policy is [10:38:15 AM] just tell us how many units you want to bring and we'll accept those. By providing 15 units or a minimum number of units, we can then look at how our debt financing is utilized. So maybe the subsidy per unit goes up a little bit more. We provide more funds on the front end. And then having access to that local housing voucher, that guaranteed voucher, it's a very attractive piece that developers want to see. >> And Jamie, I if I can boiled this, this is Mandy, regarding the local housing voucher we're super excited to launch this program this fiscal year. You all approved, as you know, in our housing trust fund $3.6 million for this local operating subsidy. You'll be receiving kind of a preview memo. My guess is next week in anticipation of the December 3rd ahfc board [10:39:19 AM] meeting where you will be considering our first recipient of our local housing voucher operating subsidy. And that's espero at Rutland. So stay tuned for more information on that. But this is also a tool that we hope to deploy for very strategic housing that offers really important housing first units, continuum of care units, and a significant chunk of them. So not just a sprinkling, a couple of units here or there. We're talking about at least 15 units that provides that economies of scale so that we can have on-site case management to really support those residents to ensure that they are successful and that the overall development is successful. >> Thank you. I appreciate that clarification. And speaking of -- I looked into the backup and I didn't see it and I kind of scanned through my e-mail real quick. Did you send us this presentation? >> Yes. [10:40:20 AM] It went out I believe yesterday afternoon. And it should be in backup as well. I think it would have come from Jonathan thompko. >> And it went to your assistants and Laura has a copy and I can send it to you right now. >> Thank you. >> Casar: Couch kitchen. >> Kitchen: Yeah, Rosie, if you could send that to me also. I think it helps to send it to us also. >> We'll make sure that happens in the future. I'm not sure if this is the normal practice to send it to your -- to the folks no your office, but we'll make sure it goes to you and I'll send it to all of you right now. >> Thanks. Okay, disblich a few , I have a few questionsto follow up on the continuum of care. Thank you, council member harper-madison. That's an area I'm real you [10:41:21 AM] interested in as I know you are also. One of my questions related to it is -- I thought that was a good approach in terms of setting a minimum amount of 15 and then tying that to the voucher. But I had a couple of questions about that. Does that mean that they will get the voucher money if they do a minimum of 15? Or tell me what's the determining factor there about whether or not they'll have access to the housing money? >> So right before you jump in Jamie, we're getting some interference because we have multiple folks off mute. Can everyone can mute themselves except for the person talking, I think that would help. Thank you. >> No, it is not guaranteed and it is not automatic. As we continue to build out that local housing voucher program, we expect it to be [10:42:21 AM] competitive. So how that competition works is still to be determined. However, we know that when a developer signs an mou with echo, they do bring a voucher. So this just gives the local housing voucher gives a little more incentive on our end to say not only do you have a commitment from echo to provide a voucher, but you know that it's coming from us. And it carries a full faith and credit of the city of Austin. >> I'm sorry, I didn't quite follow. So the minimum of 15 is required -- what do they get with a minimum of 15? In other words, to get what do they have to commit to 15? >> Council member kitchen, one thing we do when we talk about low threshold, low incentive is we have a couple of different resources that are available to us as a department. We do have funding in our housing trust fund, as I [10:43:23 AM] mentioned for the local housing voucher, but we also have funding for what we call coc subsidies or continuum of care subsidy. So when we do have applicants who are agreeing to go above and beyond and provide a minimum number of units, we can actually enhance the award that we are providing them through the rental housing development assistance. . >> Kitchen: I understand that. And I think that's all really very good. I guess I'm backing up a little bit and asking a threshold question. If I want to access these various funding streams, do I have to do any coc? At all? Or do I only have to do coc if I want to access the subsidies? >> So we are not requiring in our ahda program, we're not requiring that folks do continuum of care. That is not a threshold [10:44:24 AM] requirement. You could still apply for funding through the rhda program and not incorporate any coc units. In the [indiscernible] Contemplated that and we dabbled in requiring or incentivizing people to include a handful of units, and what we have found is that it has not been well aligned with some of our development partners. It hasn't been integrated appropriately within the developments, and it ultimately has not proven successful. We want to find a way to set up everyone, including the tenevens for success, hence the idea of providing this option for you agreed to do a minimum of 15 units coc and we will provide additional funding and the possibility of an operating subsidy, which we have limited resources for the operating subsidy, but we want to make sure we are putting those coc units into developments that are set up to support residents with -- [10:45:26 AM] who are experiencing chronic homelessness. >> Kitchen: Okay. And this may be a longer conversation, so I have a couple of concerns. So one concern is why would a developer even care to do coc at all? If they already have an intention and an interest in doing coc, then I can see this as being very helpful, but I'm not sure it gets them over into that category. The second concern -- and we can talk about this more off line -- but the second concern I have is that there are some -- there are people who are homeless who don't need the level of services that you're talking about. We do know that there is a good number of them and a lot of them do need that -- what I would call those wrap around kind of services, but there are some that don't. And so I am concerned a bit -- I mean there are some that what they need is rent, you know, to get back on their feet because they've [10:46:26 AM] got a job and they can't do first and last rent and stuff like that. So I'm a little concerned about -- this may have no impact at all. I don't know. But I'm a little concerned about whether this approach will have any impact the availability of those kinds of coc units. That's all tied up with how echo does their screening and their -- you know, just blanking on the word right now -- the coordinated assessment. How they do the coordinated assessment which continues to be an issue from my perspective because I think the problems that we have is we do a coordinated assessment and we focus our resources on the people with greater needs, which is important, but then we have no resource for those that are not -- that don't have. I'll follow up on this because we passed a resolution last year that in that resolution it dedicated [10:47:26 AM] some level of funding for folks that were not on the top end of the coordinated assessment in recognition of those folks that all they needed was assistance to get into a unit. And they don't need services. So I would just ask you to think about that. I'll circle back around on that and have another conversation with you on that. So I'll just ask one more question on a different topic. And then chair I have another question. You can circle back around to me after that. This question is how do the number of -- how are we relating all this to our goals? In other words, maybe that's a different presentation, but I'm wanting to understand how we're tracking the additional units to our goals? Like one of the earlier slides listed the additional units, but it didn't give me that in the context of the targets and the goals that we set. So is that something we can see in a different briefing [10:48:27 AM] or how do we understand that? >> Your timing is perfect, council member kitchen, because we have been working on our blueprint scorecard as a department, and we will be -- should be ready. I don't want to hard and fast commit, but we should be ready at the February planning committee. I know we're planning ongoing to the community development commission in January to provide the blueprint scorecard. And that is of course by city council district. It's looking at the different goals that were set in the strategic housing blueprint and where we are year by year in meeting those goals. We've been working closely with housing works on developing that and been in some of the meetings where we have been looking at various drafts of ways to communicate that information. So I'm going to say early 2021. [10:49:28 AM] >> Casar: Council member kitchen, I'll come right back to you. Are there any other questions? I'll mention my couple of points and then hand it back to you, council member. As it relates to that February meeting, I think that's real exciting. Looking forward to that. I hope that we tell as complete of the story as we can rather than just a report card. Because from that first slide, I think it was something like 300 units are going up this year because those are the things funded by years past; but we're actually funding close to like 1500 units in that same year because we've so increased our priority on affordable housing with our bond and with other things and now especially with the 300 million additional displacement dollars coming through the city. So I hope that we can -- what I expect is that come January or February, we will [10:50:28 AM] still be far short of the tens of thousands of low income units that we need. And we should show that and be clear about that. I think we also should have some sort of line graph that shows that we're headed towards our goal three or four times faster than before, which is good, but maybe it will show we need to go four or five or ten times faster if we ever want to get there. So hopefully my sense is that the story is we're still far short of the goal, but we're at least moving in the right direction a lot faster than we were just a few years ago. But I don't know by how much. It will be useful to see that all put together. Thank you to you all. On the coc unit question -- couch, did you have something on that point? >> No, I just wanted to ask that question when you get done, you can just recognize me. >> Casar: Okay, that sounds good. Council member kitchen, if you don't mind, I'll kick it [10:51:30 AM] to council member Renteria and then back to you. So on the continuum of care units, I think I see everyone's point here. It's been something we've all been struggling with. Something I've been thinking about maybe the staff could come back with is one way of addressing this is, you know, you have every applicant sprinkle just a few units throughout, but then you might lose some of the efficiencies on some of the services you need. Another option might be instead of requiring it of every single development, or of not requiring it on anyone, is us actually requiring the staff in every round or every two rounds to come back with some of the folks that have agreed to the 15 unit minimum and the services. Where instead of us necessarily putting it in the process, us putting it back on our staff to work with the developers to make sure that every couple of rounds you're bringing us back some people HOV agreed. And I think kind of by practice that's how it's [10:52:31 AM] worked in the first two years, but it might be something we can formalize. If you're bring be back five projects instead of pushing hard to sprinkle four or five units amongst the five, we might get to an even better outcome if you bring back three of those where one of them has agreed to 30 eunt its and two have agreed to 15 and you can really concentrate the services in the ones you need and spread the vouchers and the rapid rehousing to some of the folks in the middle of the list as council member kitchen has said. So maybe a way of thinking about it is to formalize the expectations of what we want in the round rather than necessarily trying to squeeze in services maybe on a development that isn't the right one for it. So maybe y'all can think of a way to formalize -- I think we're trying to get to the same goal we want of coc units and we want to get there. But maybe it doesn't have to be so binary as to it's required on all of them or not required on any of them. There might somebody other place we can get to. And then the very lasthing [10:53:33 AM] I'll raise is I have some concern about the change on zoning requirements. Because while it makes sense that maybe we don't want to put a bunch of dollars into a project where there isn't the zoning yet, you might create the opposite problem for the department where someone comes for zoning and says I don't know whether I'm getting the money or not yet, I don't know whether this is going to be a informable or not yet but we want to be zoned. So it seems to me the best way to land it is just have the zoning vote happen at the same time as the funding vote. Rather than really pushing people to come to us for zoning and say that they are an affordable housing development, but then it not actually being clear whether they are a priority or not for the city. I'll Jo raise that -- I know you're trying to solve one problem, but I worry you created another one if you really strictly say get your zoning done before we can [10:54:34 AM] lock it in. And I heard in the presentation that it might be a little bit more -- you're doing something more nuanced than that, but I don't think its on E a good message to say you have to get your zoning and we'll talk to you later. So that's my last point there. Council member Renteria. >> Renteria: On the scorecard, are you going to be showing all the constructions in each district? What kind of resources are you using? And like the [indiscernible] We have here in east Austin. Is it going show the amount of money we still have and where it's being directed to? >> So, council member, the scorecard is specifically related to the strategic housing blueprint goals. So the number of units that we have funded or produced each year that meet those certain criteria. Whether it's proximity to imagine Austin centers and [10:55:35 AM] corridors or high frequent transit, those goals, but we can certainly come back to you with where we are in different funding sources. As Jamie mentioned or our rhda and ohda, we pull from a variety of different sources, including that homestead preservation district funding, the tirz that you mentioned. We currently have about $3.4 million in that tirz. And anticipate, depending on demand and need, we anticipate beginning to deploy that this fiscal year. >> Renteria: Great. Because we have recognized some of the properties that -- some of these organizations that have land are just waiting for resources to develop. >> Absolutely. >> Renteria: And some of these groups are really great. >> Absolutely. >> Renteria: All right, thank you. >> Casar: Council member kitchen. >> Kitchen: Yeah, I had a [10:56:38 AM] question I guess about the zoning, the relationship with zoning. And I hear what council member Casar is saying. It seems to make sense to me. My other sort of deeper question relating -- related to zoning is -- and I mentioned this before, but we don't really -- when we go through the zoning process, we don't have the benefit of any kind of -- we don't have the benefit of an assessment or the expertise from you all in terms of whether what we're looking at makes sense from an affordable housing perspective. In other words, we're -- I would love to have access to internal expertise by internal I mean someone who is working for the city of Austin. Expertise about whether or not arrangement or actually [10:57:38 AM] it's a deal that's presented to us around zoning is something that makes the most sense or really is the best. We struggle with that all the time as council members and I don't think that that can be fixed entirely by some kind of assessment, but it could be helpful. You know, we do things like we have tia's, traffic impact assessments. We have other kinds of assessments. At least give us some guidance or best practices of what can be done. And we don't have that kind of -- we don't have the benefit of that kind of analysis presented to us doing zoning cases that relate to affordable housing. So you know one piece of that is understanding like council member Casar talked about, the relationship between available funding that we have, but the other aspect of it is just -- is [10:58:40 AM] that really the best deal that we can get looking at, you know, a whole range of things that one needs to look at? And everybody on the council has varying perspectives and varying levels of experience and expertise themselves, and it would just help all of us I think to have access to that kind of information. So I don't know exactly how that might be done, and it's just something I've been interested in for awhile and I think could give us some more -- perhaps give us some more certainty, perhaps give us some more consistency, perhaps produce a better result across all of our cases where we struggle with whether or not we're getting sufficient affordability in the housing. So just a request for you all to think about that. >> Mr. Chair, if I might just address that briefly, I [10:59:41 AM] think that's actually a really interesting point. And it's something that I have been thinking about over the last couple months as we have moved towards the housing and planning department merger. And that is something that is very much on our minds and, you're right in that I don't have a good solution for it yet, but it is something that I think we can work towards and discuss amongst the housing and planning staff about how we can present an affordable housing analysis on things that contain affordable housing. Right? Or something along those lines. So let us do some thinking on that and get back to you. >> Casar: I want to emphasize agreement on that point. It's something we've been talking about on and off for the last six years and there were a couple of big cases where I think some objective data was brought forward, but we had to bring in -- had to pay the consultants who are good folks, but aren't in-house, and [11:00:44 AM] having -- that economist expertise on HPD staff I think could be really useful because we clearly have that expertise and you can see from this presentation how it's become more and more helpful to have our staff negotiate those deals when we're providing funding, but I think when it's funding entitlements or entitlements without funding, there is a similar analysis that can be done. And again council can agree or disagree or decide to be more risk averse, or pushier because we do that all the time already with the professional advice we get. But it comes up so often that I do think it is something that is glaringly missing for us to have someone that is seen as the expert in the city giving us their analysis and then we can apply value judgment. >> I agree. Thank you. >> Casar: Vice chair Ellis. >> Ellis: I see couch kitchen has her hand up, too. >> Kitchen: I can wait. I had a different subject. So go ahead. [11:01:44 AM] >> Ellis: I'm loving the conversation around providing materials for us. I have a newsletter coming out Friday I would love to clue the speak up Austin information. So please make sure that I or my staff have some of that. Hopefully we did do it by Friday so we can include that. And make sure the residents have a chance to see that and provide their input, too. And I am also loving the conversation around how to blend zoning and financing through ahfc. I know that we have had cases where sometimes we're also measuring not just the affordability, but if the zoning stays the same, I've always kind of grappled with how are we monitoring that information, do we have trustworthy information of understanding if we don't do that zoning, then what are we going to see on a specific property? So I would love for that to be part of the conversation as you're thinking about the play between the financing and the zoning and how those work together. And I've also been [11:02:46 AM] interested in the application of staff recommendations for the vmu zoning. So we just had one where there was a discussion of adding the V or not and so I would like to know more about that especially as it applies to affordability unlocked and how we can best use all of the tools that we have available to us. So I've been really curious about that and I think the merging and creating the housing and planning department is a really cool opportunity to really be weighing a lot of these different conversations and analyses moving forward. So I love to hear that y'all are thinking about that and would love to either help work through that over the income couple of weeks while we're on break to really see how we can best enforce these tools and assessments. >> Yeah, that recent case that I think I know which one you're talking about, and that's what sparked this most recently in my mind as well. So I'm looking forward to [11:03:46 AM] get something staff together to really start digging into this, probably likely after Thanksgiving. >> That sounds great. >> Casar: Council member kitchen, did you have one last point? >> Kitchen: I'm curious whether the housing assessment -- or not housing assessment, I'm sorry -- the scorecard and that information that we'll be looking at in the spring, I believe we have goals also related to housing for homeless individuals. And so I would be thinking that would be on those goals, right? >> Yes that, is one of the housing goals that will be articulated on the scorecard. >> Kitchen: Okay, thank you. >> Casar: Okay, we'll head now to the last item, it should be quick, but it's great news. I know y'all have been working on this a long time. >> Yes, I think while tza'ar ba'alei chayim stern is -- cach stern [11:04:48 AM] Zach sternis going to be brought in, he is going to be unveiling our affordable housing online search tool and we're excited about the possibilities of this tool and give Zach his -- >> Casar: I see him. >> I see Zach. I'm going to turn it over to Zach. Thank you, Zach. >> Y'all can hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Am I controlling the presentation or [indiscernible]. >> You will be able to share your own presentation and should be able to do that by pressing the bottom button and then going to your screen or whatever program you're using. [11:05:55 AM] >> Everyone can see my screen? It's affordable housing online search tool. >> I cannot, can anybody else? >> Sorry, hold on. >> Not yet. >> Looks like it's starting. There we go. >> On okay. [Indiscernible]. >> Everyone sees the screen. It should say affordable housing online search tool. >> Yes, I can see it now. >> Great, fantastic. All right, good morning members of the committee. Thank you for having me today. My name is Zach stern and I'm with the strategic beta group within the housing and planning department. And today I'm going to be [11:06:56 AM] providing presentation and a demonstration of the affordable housing online search tool or host. So the affordable housing online search tool was developed in response to resolution no. 2018-0628-080. Which directed the city manager to propose a program to connect low income households with new housing with available [indiscernible] Units. With priority given to units in buildings that don't have wait list programs such as incentivized affordable housing units before including units that have a wait list. Priority consideration should little be given to buildings with multiple affordable units before buildings with fewer affordable units. The resolution also directed the city manager to develop a program that requires or [11:07:57 AM] incentivizes landlords of affordable units to provide notice to the city when affordable unit becomes available for rent or lease and Lisa fordable units to tenants participating in these programs and then eventually expanding the program to include units that were not subsidized by the city. And also [indiscernible] Multiple rate affordable units. And finally the resolution called on a city manager to make this dataset available on the city of Austin open data portal. So the key attributes of this tool in response to that resolution, the tool includes all income restricted properties within Austin regardless of funding source. Those include city-subsidized and incentivized units in [11:08:57 AM] addition to units from the housing authority of the city of Austin, housing authority of travels county, those receiving tax credits through tdha and includes all those units for which information could be [inaudible]. The tool itself is a map-based online interface that allows users that navigate to a part of Austin which they are looking for affordable housing. It provides for customized search results based upon household size and mead January familiar -- median family income and returns those properties to which the user qualifies based upon those inputs. So if a user puts in household income and household size that places them in that 30 to 60% median family income category, it will return those properties in addition to properties that are one median family level above. So if they are putting in at [11:09:58 AM] 60% and it will show those and it may show 80% [inaudible]. Properties that are returned through the search include important data points. Most importantly, doongt information for property managers and the property itself. It will include affordability information showing how many units are available attic median family income levels. It will show available amenities, such as presence of washer and dryer hook-ups within an apartment, fans, ac, pools, whether dogs are allowed. Whether playground is on site, any information that the development can make available to us, we can put in there. It also includes nearby schools, nearby aisd schools and then it will mention any restrictions that are placed upon a unit, whether those restrictions are based upon [11:10:58 AM] a history of broken leases, or any criminal history as well. Currently, the tool does not include realtime vacancy information. That is pretty difficult to incorporate on an ongoing basis. The data entry for this is going to be done on an ongoing basis, and it occurs within the affordable housing online [indiscernible] Auction tx.gov. And if a user wants to search that open data portal it is called the comprehensive affordable housing [inaudible]. So affordable housing online search tool developed in partnership with several different groups, the housing and planning [11:11:58 AM] department will retain primary responsibility and ownership of the host. It will feature a web page at Austin, tx.gov/housing dedicated to providing user information on host. We have an instructional video on how to use it as well as a link to actual site. In addition to a form that property managers or interested members of the public can use to inform us about updating any particular as tributtes within the host. And it will also have resources for renters to direct them to other particular resources as well as a median family income table so people can see what [indiscernible]. The communication and technology management department built the actual host site and maintain that website in addition to the [11:12:58 AM] database on the back end that contains all the data. And they are responsible for making any changes to the user interface [indiscernible]. The housing authority of the city of Austin or haca also supports host by inputting and verifying property information on those properties developed, managed or controlled by the housing authority or any of its subsidiaries, including the [inaudible]. We have a third party which will be under contract to continually update the information with accompanies host with a focus -- accompanies with a focus on inputting [indiscernible]. It will include low income housing tax credit properties and any of those programs in section 211, 208, things that we don't necessarily touch as a department. They'll be looking for that data to input into the host as well as verifying and [11:14:00 AM] updating existing property information that we [indiscernible]. Sometimes developments are sold. Property management companies change and we want to make sure that data is up to date so a third party can continually go and [indiscernible]. I mentioned the housing and planning department is going to be providing all relevant information for renters looking for housing to host on our [indiscernible] Within the department's website. At Austin tx.gov/housing. We have currently an instructional video up there in English and Spanish and how to use [inaudible]. And then we have that form on that site that will feed directly to HPD staff so we can immediately update the host. Once we get information from [11:15:02 AM] outside parties, we can verify that information and [indiscernible]. So I'm going to jump to the tool right now and give you a quick demonstration about the actual site. Are y'all seeing the website or the presentation? >> Casar: It's changing over right now I think. >> There is always a bit of a lag. >> Still looks like the presentation. >> It went back to the presentation. [11:16:04 AM] >> You may have to re-share the screen to -- like in the share section. You might have to specifically pick whatever your browser is or just the [indiscernible]. >> Yeah it local housings like it's come up for you. >> Okay, so this is the site here. It is available in both English and Spanish, to [11:17:04 AM] toggle to Spanish, you just click [indiscernible]. Are also in Spanish. When you do the search, all the criteria that it returns will also be in Spanish. Here you'll just go and enter your income and for demonstration's sake I'll put an income that puts me at about 60% median family income [indiscernible]. The number of people you have in the household. Accept the terms and conditions and it then finds the property [inaudible]. The green properties are those that meet your income and household composition exactly. So all the green ones here are showing properties that have units available at 60% of median family income. And these yellow properties are showing those that have units available at one median family income level [11:18:06 AM] higher. There you can click on a property, show housing details. And it will give you the name of the property, the address, contact information, affordability information. This here is a good example, Aldridge 51, it has units at multiple mfi level. 80, 60, 50, 30%. The acceptance criteria -- so it shows here broken lease history is accepted in 134 cases. Eviction history accepted in some cases, criminal history accepted in some cases. So we populate these fields if the development can provide us with that information. For amenities, pets are allowed, a ceiling fan, washer/dryer hook-ups, [11:19:07 AM] off-street parking and a nearby school. [Indiscernible] And Reagan high now [indiscernible]. Search again and just click top -- another feature -- we clear the search down here. If I wanted to perform this in Spanish, I'll do that real quick. We'll see all the information [inaudible]. And time bely, if you just want to -- finally if you just want to search for all the properties that are [inaudible]. Click this down here [11:20:09 AM] [indiscernible] All affordable housing properties in Austin. And it will bring back the full universe of properties -- [inaudible]. (No audio) >> And again it will provide the same information here. This unit here, [indiscernible] All units targeted to people experiencing homelessness at spring terrace. We have - - another property down at the [inaudible]. (No audio) [11:21:12 AM] >> It is a little slow. Here is another property, the western trail only serves those with physical disabilities. You can search based on that. And that is pretty much it. As we roll this out, we'll be collecting feedback from users and property managers to see how people are interacting with this tool. And we work to continually update the background information that populates this. As well as working on the interface as people give us in on what [indiscernible]. At this point, that's pretty much the full demonstration. If anyone wants me to zoom in on any properties, I can [11:22:13 AM] do that and I'm also here to take questions now if anyone has any. >> Casar: Thank you, Mr. Stern. Unshare your screen and we'll bring it back if we need to. It's easier to see everyone. Council member Ellis. >> Ellis: Thank you, and I apologize if there is background noise. I think someone is pressure washing outside the window. Just out of curiosity, is there a spot that tells them after they plug in their income what mfi they are just in case they may not know that number or how that number is determined? >> Within the tool itself it's not going to let you know that. On the city's web page where we have the link to this website, we have that information available. So people can find it out that way. It's based on income and household size. [11:23:14 AM] [Indiscernible]. >> Ellis: That's good to moment and also is there any ability to show other regional partners? Just in case like in district 8 maybe there is a wait list for the communities in my district, but there might be one that is in Travis county that might be there and I know that that may be information that's hard to gather. I'm just curious if there is a regional approach to this for dricts that are less centrally located? >> Right now this just includes data for properties -- mostly within the city of Austin. There are a few [indiscernible] That fall within -- right now we're just focusing mostly within the bounds of the city of Austin. But I think as we start building this out, we can start looking at a more regional approach to gather more information and including that. There is nothing within the tool itself that stops us from putting in properties that [11:24:15 AM] go beyond the footprint of the city of Austin. >> Ellis: And that makes sense to me. As it continues to be perfected, there may be some spot on a nag may kind of be able to direct people to the outskirts to give people potential options. Just a thought to consider. >> Thank you. >> Casar: Any other questions? Council member kitchen. >> Kitchen: I just want to say thank you. I really appreciate this tool. It's ex silting. I know -- it's exciting. I know y'all have been working on it for awhile. It's really nice to see. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Casar: I appreciate this being put out there. Again, and before you close out, remind everybody of the url. For me, I'm most interested [11:25:15 AM] in the next steps from here because when we pass this resolution and I think several of you here were cosponsors on that, the goal is -- I think we had heard a few issues in the community. And actually, Zach, I think I am getting feedback on your computer. >> I'll mute myself. >> Casar: Thank you. We had identified a few issues in the community. One was some concerned sometimes whether some folks that might be above the income restriction for getting into some of the units and I think what the department worked on was to increase the auditing and enforcement, which I think was a really important step. I appreciate that. And I think that generally the reports we've gotten back is that people are -- on the lower income scale that are making it into these units that people are generally meeting that requirement and we're increasing the audits of that. The next challenge that I think you're helping us face [11:26:16 AM] here is are there -- is it people that have more access to information, more social connections, people maybe with more social power, even if they are lower income that are getting into the units. Because people that have less access to technology or know less about this who might need the units just as badly or even more might not always have access. And I think putting this openly and out there in the public helps with that because now you've broken down a barrier and people can look it up on their own phone or computer. But I think the next step of what we wrote into the resolution -- and director truelove or whoever can speak to this if you like. The next step was how do we make sure that people that are in our nonprofit programs or who come to the housing authority for help, that have been stuck on the wait list for years or their public school identifies them as somebody who really needs housing or a family violence shelter identifies them as somebody who needs to move out of shelter and [11:27:16 AM] into housing. One, how do we get those people plugged into the tool so they are first ones getting a unit? Or, two, how do we go to the next step where we're building out a list and some city level of wait list so we're moving those people directly in. So I'm interested from the department about what the next steps are. This was a necessary step. Catalog it. Publish it, perfect. Now I think the next step is are we going to work with some of those providers and nonprofits to have them calling through the list to get their people in or are we going to develop that priority list for the nonwait list properties and getting those folks plugged in. Because again the goal is how do we make sure that information is not a barrier to getting the people in most needed to the units? Whoever should talk that question on. >> That's always our goal and desire. Having the structured wait list is something that I [11:28:17 AM] know was a concept that was in the resolution. It's just been harder to find a path to in actuality given all of the different parties involved and the need for the data to be more realtime than what we're finding that we're able to do. So we focused initially on this to get a good viable search tool and just keeping it updated and maintained is practically a full-time job. But we are working to partner with folks to help make sure that our data does stay up to date. But that next question about wait list is one that we'll continue to think on and see how if there is anything that we can do to help with that knowing that so many of our partners do maintain their own information and their own wait lists and have their own policies on that. It's just a tougher nut to crack. >> Casar: Right. And for the ones without the wait list I think is where we [11:29:18 AM] focus first. I would love if at a meeting soon y'all could give us at least your ideas on best leads, on what we do next, whether that's in the land development code revision, we build in an incentive or who they have to call when a unit opens up or to give this website over -- not just have somebody contracted to keep the data clean, but a set of partners to keep calling through those numbers and finding out when there is a vacancy and connecting them, whatever those options are, I know none of them is going to be the panacea, but I think we just have to pick which strategy or two is the best and try it. So I think at a future meeting if y'all can come and tell us here is the five things we looked into and we think these two are best, that would be great. Anyone else? >> We can certainly do. That. >> Chair, I just way -- I [11:30:19 AM] want to say thank you for that. I just used it on my iPad and it came up real quickly and and unfortunately a lot of these units are either under construction or don't have an opening. So it just shows that how much demand there is out there. But I really want to thank you for that. I think this is going to be a wonderful tool for local nonprofit groups and housing advocates to be able to use and identify some of these units that are available so that they can get the people out there that really needs it. So once again, thanks. >> Casar: Great. So everybody can take out affordable >>speaker 1: Can checkout >> Everyone can checkout atx affordable housing, right. >> Anybody else. [11:31:19 AM] >> Councilmember, I wanted to thank Zack for all the work he's done to get this to the point he's at. It is a list started by previous folks in our department, since Zack came on during the pandemic, he's been able to take this and bring it to the point we're able to release it and have it go into operation now. I want to commend him on that. >> Thank you, Zack, you are working hard. We have 17 tabs open on your browser. I'm only at a dozen this morning so far. Thank you for everything you are doing. >> I want to give a quick thank you to ctm that works closely with me in the business and get to the finish line. >> Thank you, ctm. >> I think our last item if we wanted to discuss any future items. I think we sort of did that throughout the meeting. But circling back on the questions on coc and zoning and the next steps with this database. [11:32:19 AM] Y'all reach out to me if there is anything else you want on the agenda coming into the new year. Anything else that we missed today? We're getting out of here half an hour early. Which is the goal. Councilmember Ellis and councilmember kitchen. I spoke too soon. >> I want to make sure the blueprint scorecard, it may be covered under one of the things you said. >> I missed it. >> Councilmember kitchen? >> I have a question about the climate equity plan. I know there is a housing connection there. So if there is an appropriate time to bring it up before council. >> We were going to bring it up today. Mobility, housing, all of these places intersect in the plan. We want to make sure the dais has adequate notice of when it is taken up. [11:33:20 AM] Thank you. Councilmember? >> I want to announce that -- not announce, but remind everybody that Thursday is our mobility committee meeting. Some of you participate in that normally, it is a great one if you are interested in coming on the agenda items is update on project connect and aspects of project connect as the chair mentioned earlier. Related to housing. And housing support. So we'll be covering that aspect as well as transportation aspects. Basically next steps in project connect. You may be interested in participating. Please participate if you can. >> Thanks for bringing that up. Because at first, we were going to have project connect on this committee and on mobility. To talk about the three hundred million in antidisplacement funding here. [11:34:20 AM] In stead of making councilmembers go to two separate committees we decided to put it on mobility and bring it up then. I will be on that. That is a great note to end on, because you, you know, we had lots of fanfare here at committee, committee meeting right after the $250 million housing bond passed a couple years ago. We should probably have a little moment of smiling and similar fanfare for three hundred, now that 250 clearly isn't enough, three hundred million in antidisplacement funding passing. Thank you to the staff working hard on it. Thanks for the dais for unanimously coming around that. And to the voter, especially for doing something really extraordinary and needed, you know, nowhere else in the country that we found to pass a transit plan with such a significant housing component to it. Clearly this committee will [11:35:21 AM] have some of that work to do next year. Thanks to everyone. Ok. Just one hand up. Or is that good-bye? Good-bye y'all, see Ya'. >> Thank you all. [Concluded]