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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-03-08; Housing Commission; MinutesMinutes of: HOUSING COMMISSION Time of Meeting: 6:00 P.M. Date of Meeting: March 8, 2007 Place of Meeting: CITY COUNCIL CHAMBERS CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Scarpelli called the Meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Chairperson Scarpelli asked Chairperson Smith to lead in the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL Present: Commissioners: Sondra Boddy Doris Ritchie Edward Scarpelli Bobbie Smith Staff Present: Housing and Redevelopment Director: Debbie Fountain Housing Program Manager: Bobbi Nunn APPROVAL OF MINUTES Minutes of January 11,2007, were approved as written. VOTE: 4-0 AYES: Boddy, Ritchie, Scarpelli, and Smith NOES: None ABSTAIN: 0 NEW BUSINESS Bobbi Nunn, Housing Program Manager, will present the item tonight. This is the Carlsbad Public Housing Agency Plan for fiscal year 2007. We are required to file an annual plan and also a 5-year plan. Our 5-year plan was approved in 2005. This is our annual plan for this coming fiscal year. The reason we have to do this is back in 1998 there was a Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act (QHWRA) that required housing agencies do a 5-year and annual plan and submit it to HUD. The annual plans must be adopted by the Housing and Redevelopment Commission and a copy with required certifications submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The streamlined 5-year plan for fiscal year 2005 through 2009 was adopted by the Housing and Redevelopment Commission on April 12, 2005. Generally speaking, the annual plan is supposed to address the housing needs of families in the community, the financial resources that are available for rental assistance and other types of assistance, the eligibility selection and admissions policies for the Section 8 Rental Assistance Program, rent determination policies, operations and management policies, the grievance procedures, homeownership programs, community service and self-sufficiency programs, and we have to file a civil rights certification and information regarding our annual audit. Since we are a housing agency that administers only the Section 8 Rental Assistance Program, we are required to submit a streamlined version of the plan. It is a template and there is not very much information that goes into the template as you probably saw when you were going through your packets. The only thing the streamlined plan requires us to do is if we have any kind of a "significant change" in our policies, programs, or Plan Components since the last annual plan submission, which was fiscal year 2006, then we need to identify what was that "significant change." We had one "significant change." That was implementation of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). On January 5, 2006, President Bush signed VAWA into law and it became effective upon enactment. The act amends the HUD statutes to support and strengthen efforts to combat domestic violence and other forms of HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 2 of 11 violence against women and children. It prohibits the eviction of residents or removal of assistance in assisted housing if the grounds are based on domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking. Such incidents, actual or threatened, cannot be considered as serious or repeated violations of the lease; therefore, they cannot be considered good cause for termination of rental assistance benefits. In the past, a housing agency could terminate rental assistance for a participant if they were engaged in any kind of violent criminal activity, and domestic violence did fall under that category. This amends the regulations so that if a person certifies they fall in this category of either domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking, than they have to be exempt from any kind of a termination for those incidents. Board Member Boddy asked if Ms. Nunn means if you are a victim of one of those things and not the perpetrator. Ms. Nunn agreed, not the perpetrator, but if you are a victim of the abuse. However, it is very clear that it is actual or a threatened incident. Chairperson Scarpelli asked who makes the determination. Is there some kind of board set up? Ms. Nunn said if a person certifies they fall hi that category as a victim of one of those categories, than we are to take that into consideration. There is no board or anything that makes that determination. When the act originally passed back in 2006, there was no direction from HUD initially. The statutory requirement was to advise owners of this change, which we did. We also brought copies of the pamphlet that was mailed out and that is available in our office. Recently we have received a HUD approved certification form that we are supposed to use for clients. This also impacts owners of private property that are under the Section 8 Rental Assistance Program. We recently gave a workshop in Oceanside where we invited owners to attend and presented a segment on the VAWA Program to advise them of this change and how it may impact them on whether or not they evict a client from their household as a result of one of these situations. At this point, it is by certification only. If they don't file the certification form, they can submit other types of information such as police reports or a statement from some type of official that works with these types of cases. That would be an acceptable format they could use to certify, if they don't use the certification form. If they certify they fall under that situation, than they are exempt from any type of punitive action to either terminate then- assistance or evict them from the household that is being assisted. Ms. Nunn said those are the only major changes we have had in the PHA Plan since last fiscal year when we reviewed the PHA Plan at that time. Now I will give you some information about the current funding situation and then some participant statistics and waiting list statistics. Calendar year 2007 proposed funding has been reduced even though we technically received a 1.4% increase in the housing assistance payments. They give us the increase and then they determine what all of the housing agency's needs are in accordance with what the actual approved budget is. As a result, we get a proration of that amount. For this year, even though we were approved to receive $6,166,692, we are only receiving 88.47% of that. That is our end result of what we will be receiving for rental assistance; approximately 5.5 million. This is proposed so things could change. The federal government has approved a continuing resolution for the budget. If something changes as far as the political structure, than we could see some changes in the amount of money we are getting. Administrative funds were approved for $509,463, and of that we are receiving $495,000. That is approximately 97% of what we should be getting. Our final funding for calendar 2006, we received a little over 5.6 million for housing assistance payments and $502,000 for administrative funds. Board Member Ritchie asked how is this money administered to the city? Is it monthly or quarterly? HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 3 of 11 Ms. Nunn said as far as the money we have received, it is on a monthly basis. HUD does an electronic transfer into a bank account we have set up. Chairperson Scarpelli asked Ms. Nunn, where do we bank with this money? Ms. Nunn answered it is Wells Fargo Bank. As far as our current participants that are on the program and the funds we have available to us we anticipate they would assist approximately 650 families. Technically, according to HUD records, we have a base line of 703 units, but because of the funding reductions and because of the amount of payment standard we have to pay in Carlsbad, in order to utilize our funds and people can find affordable housing, it ends up that we are only able to assist about 650 families. The average assistance payment is $665. That actually went down about $20 from last year. I think it was $687 last year. Because we have so many affordable housing developments, a lot of our clients are able to utilize their Section 8 rental assistance within those developments, and therefore, it ends up that we pay less money in housing assistance payments. Our senior population also went down a little bit. It went down to 23%. I think it was 35% last year. Disabled head of households went down to 22%. Our families with children went up. Of our families with children, we have 32% who have earned income. The average family size is two and our average annual income is $14,957. Board Member Boddy said just so she understands, these figures are for people who are not on the Section 8 program. Is that correct? Ms. Nunn answered, no these are our current participants that are receiving assistance. Board Member Boddy commented that would be through the Section 8 Program then. I thought you said it doesn't include people who are receiving rental assistance through Section 8. Did I misunderstand that? Chairperson Scarpelli said he thinks what she was talking about was our costs of the average assistance payment dropped a little bit because many were able to take advantage of our affordable housing developments. I would like to ask a question about that? Do they have any preferential treatment if they are on Section 8 to acquire a unit hi one of the affordable housing complexes? Ms. Nunn answered no, they would have to qualify like any other person. Chairperson Scarpelli said then they don't get any special preference. They put their name in just like anyone else. Ms. Nunn said right, and they get on the waiting list. All of our affordable housing developments have waiting lists. Ms. Nunn continued that our payment standards have actually gone up since last year quite significantly. It was surprising to me that our average housing assistance payment went down. That is the only thing I can figure is that we do have a lot of clients who take advantage of the affordable housing developments. Also to add on to the question of preferential treatment, they do not receive preferential treatment, but in some cases the Section 8 assistance does allow them to qualify for a home or an apartment within the development at a higher rate of income than they would normally if it was based on their income alone. For some of our developments where the rent structure is at 80% of the median income, there is no way our clients could qualify for that because most of them are under 30% of the median income, especially our fixed income households. That does give them a little bit more of an option as far as the units they can rent within the affordable developments. As far as our waiting list statistics, we have 2,471 people on our waiting list. We did do a major purge on our waiting list last year so it did go down a little bit. Before we were at 2,600. Twenty three percent are elderly and twenty two percent are disabled head of households, and the rest fall into a mix where they are families or adults that are living together but do not necessarily meet the requirement of disabled or elderly. Of the 2,471, we do have 51% of our households that meet our residency preference, which means they are claiming they either live or work in HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 4 of 11 Carlsbad. We will always assist residents or people who work in Carlsbad first before we pull people off of our waiting list who are considered non-resident. Chairperson Scarpelli commented we are really falling short by that waiting list, which has already been purged. We still have 2,471 households that we are not able to service. How is that information getting to the federal level or our legislators that the program is not sufficient? How are we doing that? Ms. Nunn said we do have a lot of industry groups we belong to such as NAHRO, which is the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Organization. We also have a local group that is just Southern California, which is called HAASC, the Housing Authority Association of Southern California. Representatives of HAASC are in Washington DC right now. Through these organizations, we assist with legislative papers. Through the HAASC group there is a legislative paper that went to Washington DC and they have meetings with the different legislators who make the decisions. Chairperson Scarpelli asked do they have our statistics. For example, from our agency, which would be the City of Carlsbad, has this data been presented so they can actually see by looking at numbers like this that we are not meeting "the demand." Ms. Nunn answered, yes they do. Through the HAASC group every year we put together a brochure. It probably is not as specific as what I've given you today, but it does advise them what our baseline is; the 703 units I mentioned earlier and what our average number of households that we are assisting as a result of decreases in funding. They have the bottom line figure. Chairperson Scarpelli asked is she getting any feedback currently as to the attitude in congress as to doing something to improve this. We have been looking at this situation for quite a number of years now. Ms. Nunn said the only thing that will cause any changes would be the change in who is going to be running the show. In the past we have had a lot of cuts. Now that we have more democrats involved, we may see some increases in funds, and I think that is part of the reason they went ahead and just adopted a continuing resolution. They were doing a continuing resolution on a month-to-month basis, and then effective March 1st, they did a continuing resolution, which I mink goes through September. I think right now no one really wants to make any decisions so that was the best thing to do, the continuing resolution for funds. On another note, in our department we did go through a major software change in the system we were using so we are still going through that process. That was a couple of years of research and then implementation to a new program called Visual Homes. We implemented it the first week of January. We are hoping with this new program it will eliminate some of the issues we had with the old software program we were using. Board Member Boddy asked Ms. Nunn if she has any statistics on the average time the people wait on this waiting list. Ms. Nunn answered at one time she could have told her what it would be, but because of the funding, it is very difficult. Before we probably had one of the fastest moving waiting lists. At one point, we actually had some veterans that were coming in after being on the list for about three months because we had received a special pot of funding for persons with disabilities and because our veterans do get extra preference on our waiting list, they were applying and coming up off the waiting list within three to six months. Then for families that met all the requirements that weren't veterans, their wait was about one to two years. Now the last tune we pulled names, we pulled people who had applied through 1993. We advise people to keep us aware of any changes they have so in the event their name does get pulled off the waiting list, we are able to contact them. It is not emergency assistance, and the need is far greater than the funding. HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 5 of 11 Chairperson Scarpelli asked what causes the turnover to leave a slot open. Do they actually come out of the low income level that qualified them for Section 8? What causes that slot to reopen? Ms. Nunn answered there are several factors that are involved. Since we have a fairly large elderly population, a lot of times it is due to someone passing away or not able to maintain independent housing any longer so they go into an assisted living facility or move in with a relative because they need the extra assistance. In our families, either by marriage or by going to school and getting a job in which they feel they can support their household without the assistance, that is part of the transition out of the Section 8 Rental Assistance Program. The third would be by terminating because of people abusing the program. Board Member Boddy asked would increasing the supply of rental units available under the Section 8 Program have any beneficial affect. Ms. Nunn said it always has a beneficial affect just because in such a high rent area, even with the payment standards we currently have, there are still some limitations on being able to locate housing at that amount. Our one-bedrooms are up to $1,092, which is actually a good, fair rent for the area since most of the people renting the one-bedrooms are seniors and in our senior complexes, because of the nature of the complex, their rents are normally lower anyway. According to the San Diego Apartment Association, the one-bedroom average rent was around $1,100 maybe a little more. So the $ 1,092 is a decent payment standard. It is when we get to the larger sized units that we have problems. The two-bedroom is at $1,325 and probably the average two-bedroom in Carlsbad is at least $1,500. It does limit where they locate units, but it is a lot better now than it was last year when we had a lot lower payment standard as a result of federal changes on how they determine the fair market rents. Board Member Smith asked about new units being built and if they go through the Section 8 Program, do they go through the agency that is building it? Ms. Nunn answered no, the Section 8 Program goes through our agency. But if they are a voucher holder and they have the Rental Assistance Program, than they can apply. Anybody can apply that qualifies at the affordable developments, but someone who had a Section 8 voucher that was applying may qualify easier than someone else income wise. There are still other requirements they have when they are screening tenants. Chairperson Scarpelli commented that one of his concerns has been that we are reaching build out and once we reach build out, we won't have the advantage of the inclusionary housing of 15%. So to be able to create more affordable housing units in the city, are we doing any forward planning as to how we are going to deal with it once we can't use that resource? Ms. Nunn said she would defer that question to Ms. Debbie Fountain, Housing and Redevelopment Director. Ms. Fountain said we are constantly looking at new opportunities. We do know that as the land availability reduces, it does make it harder to be able to build. We are looking at some options of doing acquisitions and rehabilitations in acquiring some existing apartment units, doing significant rehabilitation and then restricting the rent. We are looking at different infill sites, but it is just smaller amounts of housing you can build in any given time. We are still looking at all those opportunities, but it is just that land is very expensive in Carlsbad so it is hard to find one that makes some sense. When you apply to other programs, they look at your construction costs and your land costs, and if we can't compete well, we have problems getting projects approved. It's not that we are not looking, it is just getting harder to find those deals. Chairperson Scarpelli asked if we are working on anything specific at this time. Ms. Fountain said at this time we are still working with inclusionary housing developers and we are trying to get that done because that does take a lot of our time in working with those developers. As we have other opportunities that present themselves, we will follow up. We have had some affordable housing developers that have come in looking HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 6 of 11 for those types of projects. We would rather it be in the private development world rather than us doing that. We do have a few organizations that are looking at opportunities. Chairperson Scarpelli commented that he knows that the City Council would prefer it being private developers who come into develop the affordable housing. However, does it sound realistic in the future that that will be the case where the city itself will have to get into a position of ownership and management of the project? Ms. Fountain said you actually have public housing development as one of your items of discussion so we might want to talk about it and what the Housing Commission's ideas are under that. We could talk a little bit about the philosophy if you want to go ahead and take some action on the annual plan, then we can go on to those items. Board Member Ritchie moved to approve the Resolution 2007-002 of the Housing Commission of the City of Carlsbad, California, recommending approval of the Carlsbad Streamlined Annual Public Housing Agency Plan for fiscal year 2007 and authorization to submit to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Board Member Smith seconded the motion. VOTE: 4-0 AYES: Boddy, Ritchie, Scarpelli, and Smith NOES: None ABSTAIN: None Item two is Housing Restricted to Seniors. Ms. Fountain said the next two items, the Housing Restricted to Seniors and Public Housing Development were actually put on the agenda because the Housing Commission wanted to talk about them at our last meeting in January. We just had a financial assistance request so I didn't put these items on there but you had asked they come back and for the commission to have more discussion on them. At the time you were having the discussion, we didn't have it on the agenda so we couldn't really take action on any direction you wanted to provide. Generally, if we are going to get into new programs, we would ask for your recommendation and that would have to go to the City Council and the City Council would then say yes that is something we want to research further before staff would go a long ways down that road towards implementing a new type of program. In terms of housing restricted to seniors, if I remember what the discussion was, we only have a few rental projects that are senior only. Only one of them actually has restricted rents in it. I think we have five senior-only projects and then we have a mobile home park that is senior-only. To qualify as a senior-only project in Carlsbad, the project site has to be at least 35 units. That is a state law. So we would have to find a site that is large enough to accommodate at least 35 units. We do have some developers that are trying to come up with some senior-only projects. There is one on Harding Street right now where we have an application in where the Harding Guest Home that was a convalescent type of home for seniors. They are trying to build a senior-only condominium project there so it would actually be a for-sale project similar to a project we had proposed on Jefferson and Laguna. It was a 51 unit project and it went up to the City Council with a recommendation from staff and the Planning Commission for approval and then the Council ended up denying it because of some controversy within the residential community around it. They had concerns about traffic and concerns about the density on the site. The direction from the Council at the time was, we like the project but we just want it in a different location. That architect that worked on that project took that to heart and went to try and find another location and felt this site on Harding and Chestnut is appropriate. Chairperson Scarpelli asked if it is where the senior housing guest homes currently are. Ms. Fountain said yes it is where the Harding Guest Home is located. HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 7 of 11 Chairperson Scarpelli asked if they will level that and put a high rise there. Ms. Fountain answered yes. That is what they are proposing. They have an application in and I talked to the architect this morning and there are some issues with it meeting its parking requirements and meeting some of the other standards, and he thinks he has worked all of that and wants to move the project forward. Chairperson Scarpelli said that project would be on the east side of Harding Street, just north of Tamarack. What about displacement of the people who live there? Those folks who I believe are there need assistance in their living. Ms. Fountain said staff actually shared that with the Guest Home operator saying we thought that might be a community concern. His response to us was they have actually been slowly moving people out of that center into other facilities so they think by the time this happens, they probably won't have very many actually living there. But they are aware that is something they would most likely need to find other opportunities. Chairperson Scarpelli said I would think that we would want to condition anything along those lines. For whoever is left, they are not left to their own devices but that we assist them. Ms. Fountain commented that staff has already shared that concern with them. I think that is what they are trying to do. As beds become available, they are not filling them. It is a fairly small facility. Board Member Ritchie asked how many units is this. Ms. Fountain said the proposed project is about 56 units or close to that number. They originally started out with 70 something, but they couldn't park it so it changed to the mid-50's. That is one opportunity. We have had other developers looking at senior-only projects. It is a little hard to finance something that is going to end up being affordable to seniors so that is what they have struggled with. They have to get the higher densities on the site. We have another project that is being looked at right now, which is going to be called the Bridges at Poinsettia, and it is near Cassia Heights. It doesn't have a formal application in yet, but we have been talking to the developers there. They are looking at that one as being a fairly large senior development. It is an interesting product we haven't seen yet in Carlsbad. At La Costa Glenn, you buy in to the community, but you don't really have a real estate interest in your unit you live in but you have all the services and you can move from independent living up to skilled nursing facilities. This product type that is being proposed now would actually have a real estate interest in the property that you purchase but it is also very service enriched so it is fairly expensive to live in. They are proposing that as a 100% senior-only community. We are still working with them to see if it will work well in Carlsbad. Chairperson Scarpelli asked if we are looking at it from the prospective of subsidizing it. Ms. Fountain said she doesn't know if we can actually do that because of how expensive it is going to be. I don't know any subsidy we would provide would get it so it was affordable to the groups we would like to see it affordable to. But we haven't closed that door yet. We are still trying to figure out what exactly the product is going to be. Chairperson Scarpelli said he would suspect there would be at least 15% of the inclusionary housing that would be affordable. Ms. Fountain said yes we will still address the 15% and figure that out. They think there is a new demand for this type of industry. We'll see if we think it will work. They want a fairly significant density increase for the project. Chairperson Scarpelli asked when we say senior, are we talking 55 or older? HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 8 of 11 Ms. Fountain said generally it is 62. The law does allow dropping to 55. The senior age restrictions are a little bit of an odd animal. Generally it is considered 62, but you have the ability to go to 55. Chairperson Scarpelli asked Ms. Fountain to refresh his memory. I know for a while back there were some advocacy groups that were concerned about discrimination by discriminating against those that are less than the senior age. Did that get anywhere? Or is there any state law? Ms. Fountain asked if he means that it is a senior-only project and that discriminates against others. Chairperson Scarpelli answered yes, there were some advocacy groups that were challenging that on the grounds of discrimination. Ms. Fountain said the state changed some of its laws related to this which we then incorporated into our ordinances. We are allowed to have age restricted projects, but it has to meet very specific criteria. Before it was a little more nebulous as to what kind of requirements they had to meet. It is a little bit more specific but we still have the right to age restrict units. Ms. Fountain continued that we haven't had a lot of projects that have been proposed for seniors only. The Senior Commission is still very interested in seeing more senior-only housing produced in Carlsbad. It seems to be more around the ownership product rather than the rental product. That is the product that is a little bit more difficult to do. We have some developers coming in that say their units are more affordable because they are only $500,000 to purchase instead of $ 1,000,000, which is all in how you define affordable. We are still struggling with that. We are trying to find infill sites where senior housing seems to make some sense where it is near the services and transportation. On Harding it makes a lot of sense because it is near the Senior Center and it is within walking distance of the Village. In some parts of the city it doesn't make as much sense because you are further away from services. We have heard from the Senior Commission they would like to see a project like this. I am happy to take any suggestions the Commission has on that as well as any ideas. Board Member Boddy asked if the city has ever done a survey or any type of polling of residents to determine interest in senior housing. Ms. Fountain said staff hasn't done any formal surveying. The Senior Commission seems to feel they have heard that from the senior community, and they have given me different documents that show where their opinion comes from. Our office specifically hasn't done that type of surveying and the city hasn't done that either. There are several members of the Senior Commission that feel strongly that demand is within the community. How large that demand is, it is hard to estimate. I know when we had the Jefferson Street project proposed, we had a number of seniors show up saying they would love to live in that project, it seemed like a large number of them were from outside of the city. Chairperson Scarpelli asked how affordability is determined. I would guess it would have to be something significantly under the median priced home in the area. Board Member Boddy said by that measure, $500,000 might be considered affordable because the median is about $750,000 in Carlsbad. Chairperson Scarpelli said then maybe for smaller units, but significantly under the median I think was the key phrase. The other point is to charge the senior group with the responsibility to go out and find the property because I know when we were looking for housing for the migrant workers, it took an independent group working with the city, but primarily the independent group to go out there and find the appropriate piece of property that made La Posada happen. I think other than telling us they need it, maybe if we send them back out there some of them highly professional and individuals with a lot of experience, have them go out there and seek out those properties. HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 9 of 11 Board Member Boddy said something that could be taken into consideration, when it is time to talk more specifically about plans for the Cannon Road gateway area. I know it has been zoned open space, but should there ever be an opportunity to put housing in that area, then maybe the City could identify a portion of it as a priority for seniors, especially if there are going to be other facilities and amenities built in that area. Chairperson Scarpelli said that is a good point. I have seen this happen very successfully on the east coast, especially the northeast, and that is where we get other communities like church communities involved in senior housing. The only one I know of that I think worked out very successfully here was the Greek Orthodox Church in Cardiff. I know when they built that church, they also built condominium housing for senior members of their community. Again, an outreach program to some of these groups with somehow us assisting them and making it come to fruition would be good. Board Member Boddy said she would like to commend Ms. Fountain and the staff on the work they are doing in this area already. I feel very confident that you are doing what you can in this area, and I am also encouraged by what you told us about the private market and the developers who are actually stepping forward to create this type of housing opportunity without any real intervention from the City. It indicates to me there is a market demand that private developers are responding to, and I think it is great you are encouraging that and working with them. I really think that is the best way for it to happen. Ms. Fountain told the Commissioners, if you have any additional thoughts on the public housing development area with the City getting involved in developing housing, please give us your thoughts. We have a quasi public housing development with Tyler Court in that the Redevelopment Agency owns that, and then we have a management company that manages it for us. We contract out for that project. Our intent has always been though to get that back in private hands and not for the City to stay involved in that. One day that will happen. We are still working through the negotiations on that, but we haven't, as a policy, taken it to the position where the City would actually own and operate housing. There are a number of reasons why. We have gone down that way and some of it is related to liability and owning and operating housing, which is a big part of it. The other is a political arena that when the City owns and operates property, it seems like small issues normally handled by a management company all of a sudden become a City Council item. We saw that early on with the Tyler Court, although that has calmed down. It was immediate issues that people weren't happy with were going right to the City Council in the public arena for us to try and address. So we have stayed away from that. It doesn't mean it is totally out of the realm of possibility that we would do that type of deal again where we would buy something and own and manage it. We are just not really staffed to do that right now. It is pretty labor intensive, although the contract system seems to be working okay. It may come to some point if we start doing acquisitions and rehabilitations that we need to do that for a period of time and then hand it over like we are going to do at Tyler Court. Staff is happy to take your suggestions if you think that is an arena we should get into. We could go back to the Housing and Redevelopment Commission and share that with them and see if they are willing to get into that business. Chairperson Scarpelli commented that he feels for many years now, the leadership in the City have really been opposed to ownership for the reasons that you have stated. It is understandable because if you look at cities that have attempted to do this, they failed miserably. The first one that comes to my mind is Cabrini in Chicago. I think sometimes we take those examples and use them in places where they are really not appropriate. For example, I don't see us building in this City a Cabrini Towers or the housing projects that took place in the 50's and 60's and the Bronx and Harlem and places like that in New York City that became dens of inequity in crime because it was just too much of a concentration of people in too small of an area. I think the city should remain open minded to at least being the catalyst in getting it off the ground, getting it started, getting it running, getting the management team in place, etc. and then spinning it off to private ownership. So it could act as a catalyst in looking at a five-year plan, for example, of a piece of property. The City has the borrowing power, but it has the ability to take some real positive initiative action in this area. There are a lot of organizations out there that are looking for income-producing properties, and I think you would have to bring in some of your top notch real estate people in this area and they could find you many good customers. I don't know what you are doing on Tyler when you say you are looking for a buyer for Tyler now. Is that what you said? HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 10 of 11 Ms. Fountain said we have been negotiating with the management company that currently manages for us, which does a lot of senior housing complexes. They are a non-profit organization. We are actually in negotiations with them to purchase it. We had gone through an RFP process looking for developers and we wanted someone who had expertise in a senior housing project because it is a different type of management that is needed there. If that doesn't work out and we are not able to reach an agreement, we will then go out again and look for another developer. Chairperson Scarpelli said right, there are a lot of public organizations that know how to deal with senior complexes. There are plenty of nursing homes that are run by strictly commercial corporations. Board Member Smith said regarding the management you spoke about such as with Tyler Court, I always felt if there was an on-site manager, somebody that was there to run it and screen the tenants, then it would be successful. Where I live, we just love our managers. If you need anything, it is there. We are like family. Chairperson Scarpelli commented that he thinks what Ms. Fountain was saying is they have that under control now. Ms. Fountain agreed that having a good manager makes it run a lot better. Actually on most of our affordable housing projects, we have the authority if we don't think a property is being well managed, even if we don't own it, we actually have the authority to require the removal of that management company and replacement of a new company. That really is key to having a successful project. Tyler Court has gone through some on-site managers and we've had different issues, but I think they have someone now that most of the residents seem to like. Chairperson Scarpelli commented that he sometimes watches the City Council meetings and find them enjoyable. He saw the one with the lady who came in from Villa Loma who was the manager and was saving all the wrong things about the parking. Ms. Fountain said she had words with top management after that meeting. Chairperson Scarpelli said I would imagine. Board Member Boddy said she was curious. She went on the internet to do some research on public housing, but one of the things I read is that the Section 8 Program was really designed to replace public housing. Is that your sense? Ms. Fountain said yes, Ms. Nunn can explain that more. That has been the understanding to give people assistance to go out into the private market rather than having the government provide public housing. Board Member Boddy said she doesn't know all the ins and outs and all the philosophies, but I have no problem with exploring opportunities to be a catalyst. There is certainly no harm in that, but I wouldn't want to do anything to detract from the efforts and the effectiveness of our current programs. Chairperson Scarpelli said all of that would have to be weighed. Board Member Boddy continued that balancing the resources we have and understanding we are well funded as a City but we certainly have our challenges and other priorities. I'd like to see us to keep focused on Section 8 and try to improve that as much as we can. Board Member Ritchie said to the Chairperson we never want to compare our housing, which is primarily work force housing, with Cabrini Green in Chicago, which was strictly welfare housing. It was not based on any kind of income or required employment. It was strictly welfare, and that was the problem. When you have work force housing, I think people are apt to take a little bit more pride in their housing arrangements. HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES MARCH 8, 2007 PAGE 11 of 11 Chairperson Scarpelli said that his comment so it isn't taken out of context is that he believes it is this perception that has held us back in looking at cities or municipalities in becoming the actual owners of property. When thinking about it, most of the time, these are the examples given as to why cities and so on should not be involved and other municipalities should not be involved. Certainly what we do with our affordable housing projects such as Villa Loma sets a great example of what can be done and be done right. DIRECTOR'S REPORT The Director wanted to share the Habitat for Humanity project is moving forward and will be going to Council hopefully within the next few weeks to get that project finally approved and moving towards construction. We are hoping to be able to start construction this summer on that project. We will keep you posted on that in case you want to volunteer to help build houses, you will get that opportunity. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT The Chairperson has no report to make. ADJOURNMENT By proper motion, the meeting of March 8, 2007, was adjourned at 7:05 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Debbie Fountain Housing and Redevelopment Director PATRICIA CRESCENTI Minutes Clerk MINUTES ARE ALSO TAPED AND KEPT ON FILE UNTIL THE WRITTEN MINUTES ARE APPROVED.