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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-06-14; Housing Commission; MinutesMinutes of: HOUSING COMMISSION Time of Meeting: 6:00 P.M. Date of Meeting: June 14, 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 dispensed with the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL Present: Commissioners: Doris Ritchie Edward Scarpelli Bobbie Smith Absent: None Staff Present: Housing and Redevelopment Director: Debbie Fountain Housing Program Manager: Bobbi Nunn APPROVAL OF MINUTES Minutes of April 26, 2007, were approved as written. VOTE: 2-0 AYES: Scarpelli, and Smith NOES: None ABSTAIN: Ritchie (not at April 26, 2007, meeting) ABSENT: None ITEM NOT ON AGENDA Shelley Hayes Caron, lives in Marron Adobe: I am here to again go on the record stating at the last meeting we attended here regarding the draft Housing Element an issue was brought up regarding the Quarry Creek Hanson's Aggregate Property being on the Housing Element. There was a request by Mr. Scarpelli to remove that and take it back to staff. Staff is now going to bring this to the City Council. It has been since 2005 that any workshops were done on this item, and these areas where they are going to be affected by the Housing Element really haven't had an opportunity to address these in a workshop. I would like to bring that forward, the information, and also when SANDAG was doing their Smart Growth Plan, they had a report. On the report they identified that the location of the smart growth areas should not be next to a highway, which this Quarry site is. Also, that some sites should never have been put on in the first place. I want to put it on the record that of the 19 cities that commented on the Smart Growth Plan, the Quarry Creek site got more comments opposing it than the 19 cities total. That is how many people have commented. This is not something the public wants to happen. We are raising the elevation of awareness to the public at our opportunities. Another dramatic occurrence has taken place in March 31st of this year; the 134 acre Sherman property, which comprises half of the Buena Vista Creek valley, was purchased with public money. The wildlife agencies are now in charge, Fish and Game will be in charge, and they will be hiring Center for Public Land Management to do the management of the land. That is greatly in the public interest, and we would like to see something else besides 600 homes. I know there is a willing developer for this project, but right now the zoning only allows 123 homes. So 600 homes would greatly impact this, and it would propose a road through the newly acquired environmental land, which was a key piece required by the conservation plan of the county. It is the only way the animals have to get into the Calavera Preserve so it was critical. They worked on it for 12 years, and it has been accomplished. With the vote of the people for Proposition C, we owe it to the public to preserve something such as this. There is no compromise, HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES JUNE 14, 2007 PAGE 2 of 5 unfortunately, with this because if you build there, you lose what exists. We really would like this removed. We thought it would be in the best interest that it be removed prior to this draft going to Sacramento. I attended Carlsbad High School just this last week before finals, junior class. I spoke to 125 students. Forty-five of those students volunteered to be involved in the preservation of this valley. They weren't coerced. They were shown a four minute video, and through their interest and their compassion they wanted to become involved and they wanted to do clean ups in the creek. I thought that was a remarkable response to just 45 minutes of their time, and I spoke with five classes. As people become aware of this, they don't even know this exists in their own backyard, and it certainly is a treasure. The Iraqui nation says that when we plan, we should plan for the next seven generations. We need to consider that for this site. Debbie Fountain, the Director of Housing and Redevelopment, said for informational purposes, the Housing Element is going to the City Council on Tuesday, June 19, 2007, for their consideration of whether or not to submit the draft to HCD. With only three members as a quorum for the Housing Commission, you need three votes to take any action, whether it is to approve, disapprove, or modify. Anything that is before you with a two to one vote, which is what we have, there is no action by the Housing Commission, which is why the item had to go on to the City Council for their consideration. The public is welcome to attend the meeting with the City Council. The minutes of the Housing Commission, however, have been submitted to the City Council for their review. All of that information has gone forward. NEW BUSINESS Debbie Fountain, Director of Housing and Redevelopment, said the item on the agenda tonight is the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program Administrative Plan. Bobbi Nunn, the Housing Program Manager will be making the presentation tonight on that item. Ms. Nunn said this is the Administrative Plan and it is basically a revised and updated plan. It is revised because there were some revisions that we added, and then updated because we did need to update some items that were in the plan that are now obsolete. Just a little bit of background on the requirements for the Administrative Plan, or why we need to do it, is HUD does require that we adopt an Administrative Plan that establishes local policies for program administration. The policies must be consistent with HUD's requirements and Federal regulations, as well as the local objectives for the City of Carlsbad. Any updates or revisions that are done to the Administrative Plan have to comply with Federal regulations and changes in the PHA policies. Updates and revisions must be adopted by the Housing and Redevelopment Commission. An adopted copy will be submitted to the Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD. The items the Administrative Plan needs to address in accordance with the Federal regulations: • The way we select applicants from our waiting list; • How we issue or deny vouchers to program participants or future participants; • Denial or termination of rental assistance benefits; • If we have any targeted vouchers, what the special provisions are, and at this time this is not applicable to us. At one time we did have the Mainstream Program, which were vouchers specifically for person with disabilities. We still have those vouchers in that funding, but the requirements to issue those vouchers strictly to persons with disabilities has now passed; • Occupancy policies; how we determine how many people are going to live in a unit and how we set our occupancy standards; • Encouraging areas outside of poverty; this doesn't really apply to the City of Carlsbad since according to the statistics, we do not have any areas of poverty; • Assistance to be provided to applicants and participants claiming illegal discrimination; • Tenant screening; what efforts we make as a Housing Agency to screen tenants; • Information that we will provide to prospective owners; • The Public Housing Agency Subsidy Standards; • The length of time a family may be absent from an assisted unit; HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES JUNE 14, 2007 PAGE 3 of 5 • Eligibility in the case of a family dissolution; if we have a family that is on the Rental Assistance Program and they split households, how we determine who gets to keep the voucher or what the requirements are as far as maintaining the voucher; • Formal review procedures so if someone has a concern about a decision that is made on their behalf, they do have a right to request an informal review or an administrative hearing so that it outlines what our procedures are for that; the informal hearing procedures, which are when we are going to initiate termination of benefits from the Rental Assistance Program, the process; • Setting and revising the payment standards, which are reviewed on an annual basis in accordance with the fair market rents, which are published on October 1st' • Method for determining rent reasonableness; to make sure the rents we are paying on units under Section 8 are reasonable with market rents; • Policies on the use of special housing types; right now, we haven't had any changes on that; we just have the same housing type, which we will allow; a mobile home owner that is renting a space pad is entitled to receive rental assistance to help them pay for the space pad. We also adopted where we would allow shared housing for persons who requested because of a disability where they could rent a room or two rooms if necessary in a home and still receive rental assistance; • Policies on payment of monies owed by a family to a PHA; if we overpaid on behalf of a family, what our policy is as far as them having to pay back the Housing Agency; • Interim reexamination of income and household composition; if a client reports that they have any changes in their income or in their household composition, how we handle that; • Minimum rent; at this time, we have adopted a zero minimum rent criteria. At one time we did an interim criteria where we had a $50 minimum rent, but because of the additional administrative burden that is required when we do adopt a minimum rent, it was found the savings for the minimum rent, since we have so few of them, it was best to keep it at zero; • Family moves; how we determine when we will allow a family to move from one unit to another; • Administrative fee reserves; how we maintain our administrative fee reserves, and those are in accordance with what our Finance Department requires; • The guidelines and standards for housing quality standards and the HQS inspections; those are basically already regulated other than identifying that we also do it within the city code, there are no other changes to that. We did have a significant regulatory change, which I apologize if this is redundant since this is what we did cover during the submission of the Annual PHA Plan. We did have to include the implementation of the Violence Against Women's Act or VAWA. That bill was signed on January 5, 2006, and it became effective upon enactment. The statute just supports and strengthens efforts to combat domestic violence and other types of violence against women and children. The VOWA prevents the eviction of residents who if there has been activity within a household that is as a result of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking, then they cannot be terminated or evicted from their unit based on that if they claim they are a victim of violence against women. They have to file a certification that states so. It does also include incidents that are actual or threatened. In the past, that type of activity could be considered good cause for termination of benefits so with the change in the regulation, this can no longer be considered good cause. The Administrative Plan, as far as updating it, removes the obsolete language that was hi the old plan regarding the certificate program, which is now an obsolete program. For those of you who have been around for a while, you may remember the OFMT program, it was pretty short lived, but it was the Over Fair Market Tenancy Program, which allowed clients to rent in a unit that was over what the certificate program allowed, but yet if we didn't have a voucher to issue, that was our way of doing that. Both of those programs are now obsolete since the Housing Choice Voucher Program has now folded those two programs under the umbrella of the Housing Choice Voucher. Any policies in reference to those two programs have been removed from the plan. HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES JUNE 14, 2007 PAGE 4 of 5 The revisions are one we have actually discussed in the past because these are actions we have taken in order to conserve our rental assistance funds when we were faced with reduction in funding and the fact that reductions looked like they were going to continue. One was the elimination of allowing an additional bedroom to accommodate medical equipment. We did find we were having situations where we were having a lot of requests for this type of accommodation and what would happen is then we would allow someone who would normally be a one- bedroom subsidy that they would get a two-bedroom in order to accommodate this. We did discontinue allowing that with the philosophy that a living room could also be considered a living area and that could be used for housing any medical equipment. As well as we had a lot of situations where we had families that were requesting to accommodate a disability where they would request bedrooms, and we eliminated that policy too that as long as they had a living area available, we don't really advise how they do their sleeping arrangements, but if they had the room available, that was their choice on how they had their sleeping arrangements done, but we aren't going to authorize funding to support a second bedroom for someone to have their own room. We also strengthened our policies on when a voucher size would be increased. In the past when funding was replenished as we used it, we had a lot more liberal approach to allowing larger bedroom sizes for the voucher program. Again, because of the funding constraints, that was something we had to look at. So basically unless a family situation changes to the point where they are hi violation of the Housing Quality Standards, that their family composition exceeds two people per sleeping room and a living room again can be considered a sleeping room, that we would not consider increasing the bedroom size. The situation was being taken advantage of, where we would have somebody move someone in and then they would get a larger bedroom size, and then when they moved out, that bedroom size does not decrease until their next annual certification. So we were finding that was being used as a means to get larger sized units they would normally not be entitled to. So we did strengthen that policy on when we would allow a larger sized voucher for a family when their household composition changes. We also did strengthen our policy on the restrictions on live-in aide additions. That is one situation where we will allow an additional bedroom if the family provides certification from a medical professional that they do need 24- hour medical care or a live-in aide in order for them to utilize the Section 8 Program and live independently, then we will authorize an additional bedroom for that live-in aide. At this point, that is the only time the Housing Agency will allow an extra bedroom for the live-in attendant. Other than just generally strengthening the language within the Administrative Plan and making sure the Administrative Plan language was consistent with the actual procedures that we were doing within the office, there really have not been any changes to it other than what we had already discussed in the past. Commissioner Smith asked, why did I receive 15 chapters? Ms. Nunn said the entire Administrative Plan and with the revisions and the change in language, it will need to have your approval to go to the Housing and Redevelopment Commission, then their approval and adoption in order to submit it to HUD. Commissioner Smith said it was very informative. I really appreciate it. Chairperson Scarpelli said we will entertain a motion to move this on to City Council. Commissioner Smith made a motion to accept the revisions of the Section 8 Program to be taken to the Housing and Redevelopment Commission. Commissioner Ritchie seconded the motion. VOTE: 3-0 AYES: Ritchie, Scarpelli and Smith NOES: None ABSTAIN: None HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES JUNE 14, 2007 PAGE 5 of 5 Ms. Nunn said this will be going to City Council on July 10, 2007. DIRECTOR'S REPORT Ms. Fountain did not have any announcements or business for the Housing Commission tonight. The Housing Element will be going to the City Council next week. If you are interested, you can watch it on the television, you can watch streaming video on your computer, or you can come attend yourself and watch what happens with that item. Also, I wanted to mention that we are still moving forward on the Habitat for Humanity project, and if you are interested in volunteering to help out with construction of that project, you can contact my office and they can give you the volunteer coordinator name of Habitat that you can sign up with. I know the Rotary has already been involved with that and has probably already contacted them, but if you know of anybody else, they can contact our office. They can also contact the Habitat for Humanity office in San Diego directly and they will get them to the volunteer coordinator. I am not sure exactly when they will start construction. They are still working on their building permits. They have been talking about towards the end of summer, the first part of September. The Bluffs project that is over off of Harrison and Chinquapin is moving forward. That is the one that has ten condominium units for very low income households. They have been selling those units and about six have been sold. Those are very near to completion. I think they were scheduling a June 15 date. I know they are having a barbeque for some of their new residents tomorrow. They have a very nice project. I have toured some of the units. I think eventually they will probably have another grand opening. Maybe their ribbon cutting is actually tomorrow. Commissioner Smith asked, what time tomorrow? Ms. Fountain answered, I think it is 11:30 a.m. Chairperson Scarpelli asked, what is the actual address? Ms. Fountain said she doesn't know. It is on the corner of Harrison and Chinquapin. It overlooks the lagoon where the sports area is. It is a brand new development. If you call our office, we can get you the address. Chairperson Scarpelli asked, is that John Simmons project? Ms. Fountain answered, yes. CHAIRPERSON'S REPORT Chairperson Scarpelli said, our Rotary Carlsbad Club has committed and budgeted for assistance to the Habitat for Humanity's project on Roosevelt Street, and we are still working with the other Rotary Club in Carlsbad, the High Noon Rotary Club. We have spoken with the incoming president as of July 1 and they are interested in pursuing some kind of a joint effort. I have accepted the responsibility to drive that forward. ADJOURNMENT By proper motion, the meeting of June 14, 2007, was adjourned at 6:31 p.m. :tfully 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.