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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-09-26; Housing Commission; MinutesMinutes of: Time of Meeting: Date of Meeting: Place of Meeting: CALL TO ORDER HOUSING COMMISSION SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION 6:00 P.M. SEPTEMBER 26, 2019 COUNCIL CHAMBERS Debbie Fountain, Director of Community & Economic Development, ca lled the Meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Debbie Fountain led with the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL Present: Commissioners: Shirley Cole Absent: Past Members: Staff Present: Marissa Cortes-Torres Joy Evans John Nguyen-Cleary Kristy Randall None Alan Newman Shaunee Williams Community & Economic Director: Debbie Fountain APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of March 7, 2019, were approved as written. ITEM NOT ON AGENDA There were no comments on non-agenda items. NEW BUSINESS Debbie Fountain brought the meeting to order. She asked the Housing Commission members to introduce themselves and tell everyone a little about themselves. Housing Commission member Shirley Cole has lived in Carlsbad for 39 years, is a home owner and has two daughters. She has worked as the Director of North County Lifeline, and she is now ready to give back to the community. SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 2 of 12 Commissioner Marissa Cortes-Torres said she has three children, has lived in Carlsbad for eleven years. She is currently on the Section 8 Housing Program. She did graduate from the self-sufficiency program. She went to Santa Ana College doing legal work and now works for Allstate. She was a home owner, but lost her home due to taking care of a sick child. Commissioner John Nguyen-Cleary is married and they have two young boys. They are new residents of Carlsbad. He has an interest in housing; he had relatives who were homeless. He previously was on a commission where he served as the Chair in Fremont. He has worked with BIA and their zoning housing ordinance updates. Commissioner Joy Evans was in hospitality for 45 years before retiring from Four Seasons. She has been on this commission for three or four years. Commissioner Kristy Randall said she has served on this commission for two years. She is a licensed clinical social worker for North County Lifetime. She has lived in Mystic Point since 2016. Previous Commissioner Shawnee Williams has lived in Carlsbad since 2009. She has been involved with CDBG. She now spends time at home with her three grown children. Previous Chairperson Alan Newman became involved in Carlsbad after attending the Citizen's Academy, which he recommends highly. He has been a home builder for 30 years. Ms. Fountain said she would like to discuss a work plan for the Housing Commission and would welcome input from the past Commissioners. One suggestion was to have the CDBG block grant come to the Housing Commission, but the City Council did not feel it was something they wanted the Housing Commission to work on. My thought for tonight is to brainstorm. If you go to Page 2 of the Housing Commission ordinance, the functions are listed. Originally the Housing Commission comprised of nine members and they reviewed all affordable housing issues. The role of the Housing Commission is advisory. The Housing Commission was established to review affordable housing objectives on off-site projects. The Housing Commission also reviews all financial requests and other housing issues. If a project has credits that are too small, they would not come to the Housing Commission. Housing credits are when a project needs to purchase credits. We do an annual report at a staff level. Another project the City Council requested is on the Homeless Response Plan where the Housing Commission served in an advisory role. Ms. Fountain continued that the individuals on the Housing Commission should hear concerns from the community and bring them to this commission. The Housing Commission does not always meet every month. We can sometimes have an educational component if we do not have anything on the agenda. The City Council has asked the commissions to look at their ordinances and if they want to make any suggestions for changes, then it would go back to the City Council where they would make the decision. We do not have to decide all this tonight, but we can use this time brain storming. Once you were appointed to the Housing Commission, what was it you were excited about? I was hoping you can discuss this as a group. We will take all of the information you give us and go back and revise the ordinance and bring it back to you before it goes to City Council. I do not know tonight if the City Council will approve your recommendations. Staff does not direct you, we just bring your ideas back to the City Council. The SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 3 of 12 City Council appreciates all of the work the boards and commissions do. Because we do not always have something to meet about, we can have an educational workshop if you would like. All Housing Commission meetings must meet in the Council Chambers. We will be having more regular Housing Commission meetings because of the Housing Element. Ms. Fountain introduced the Housing Commission to the staff present at the meeting. Allen Edwards is our compliance officer with expertise in the Affordable Housing sale product and refinancing. Bobbi Nunn is the Housing Program Manager for the Section 8 Program. Dave de Cordova is from Planning. He will be here on October 10th, your next Housing Commission meeting7 Mr. de Cordova said they need to nominate so~eone to sit on the Housing Element Advisory Committee. This will provide a liaison between the Housi~g Commission and the Advisory Board. On October 10th we are bringing a request among your group to serve on the Housing Element Advisory Committee. As part of our presentation, we will give you some background information about the Housing Element. The main purpose of the meeting is to orient you to that and ask for a volunteer. That nomination will go to the City Council where they will vote for someone from all the commissions. We are looking at a nine-·member committee. Commissioner Evans asked what the Housing Element is. Ms. Fountain said we will be giving you a lot more information on that. The Housing Element is part of the city's General Plan that sets up all the policies and programs for housing and building housing within the community. It begins with an assessment of what your housing needs are within your community. It is a policy document of housing provided within the community; special needs groups like homeless, veterans, farm workers, all of those groups so it is a comprehensive assessment of what all of the needs are. This is a great time for new members to be on the commission because you will be on the ground floor of developing the Housing Element. We will provide you with a lot more information and history. We will be kicking that off and starting the Advisory Committee on October 10th• The state actually has to approve the Housing Element. Ms. Fountain said Patti Crescenti takes the minutes at the Housing Commission and is your administrative support. Alan Newman said there are two basic issues, the homeless issue and before that is affordable housing, which is almost an impossible task. You can accomplish it when you are building, but there isn't any building left. There isn't any space anymore in Carlsbad that will take any project that will accommodate more than twenty houses. The homeless issue is a much more interesting subject, and Carlsbad is doing a good job with it. Commissioner Cortes-Torres commented that when she came to Escondido in 1993 she was sleeping in her car with her three kids. Mr. Newman said one of the most fascinating things he learned is that 60% of the homeless do not want to be homeless. Often they are working, but they are unable to come up with a deposit or the first month's rent. That is something society should be able to accomplish. Commissioner Cortes-Torres added that she had a job, but she came from a domestic violence situation. SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 4 of 12 Ms. Fountain asked Mr. Newman if he had any advice for the commissioners. Mr. Newman said you need to want to help. Commissioner Cortes-Torres added there are organizations that do help. Commissioner Evans said we can talk about that at a later time. Ms. Fountain said the biggest thing on the horizon is to try and figure out how to better serve the homeless and what type of programs to get involved in. It is good to have people who have experienced it. The City Council feels people who have a background in social services or other positions will add credibility to your ideas. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary asked Ms. Fountain about the scope of the ordinance; was there any time you served on the commission that you felt constrained because it wasn't within the scope or other things? Mr. Newman answered no. Ms. Shaunee Williams said she would like to add CDBG to the scope of the Housing Commission that Debbie mentioned the council said no to. Ms. Fountain said they weren't quite ready yet. Maybe you can explain to the commissioners why you thought that was a good idea to do that because you had experience on the CDBG committee. Ms. Williams said the CDBG committee meets in the winter and early spring and they decide how to disperse funds to the different charities that apply for the grant. I was on that committee for four years before I joined the Housing Commission. It seemed to me that once I got to the Housing Commission that the Housing Commission could take over that committee, and it would give us something else to do and to be more involved, but the City Council shut it down. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary added for background, the CDBG is the Community Development Block Grant Program from the federal government and a portion of funds is available for social services and a portion of funds are available for physical development such as rehabbing affordable housing or building new acquisition. Ms. Fountain said Ms. Williams' idea of the Housing Commission reviewing CDBG was a natural connection. Also, on this committee we have two representatives from the low-income program, which was not always necessarily true on the CDBG Committee so it had a natural connection. Ms. Williams said correct. Did the City Council say why they didn't want it? Ms. Fountain said it isn't so much they didn't want the Housing Commission to do it. They are trying to create as many opportunities as possible for people to get involved. They didn't want to do away with one committee that created an opportunity for people to serve. The way it is structured right now there are four resident representatives from each of the districts. Then there are three from the boards and commissions. SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 5 of 12 Ms. Williams asked who would be heading that up now that Courtney is gone? Ms. Fountain said we have a new employee appointed to that role, Nancy Melander. She will run the CDBG program. We recently changed the position from a Management Analyst position to a new Program Manager position that does all grants that are under Community & Economic Development plus oversees our community education programs like City Stuff and our Student Leadership Academy. She will also help coordinate our Citizen's Academy. Commissioner Randall said she has been on the Housing Commission for a couple of years and looking at these ordinances, none have come across. I have seen the beginning and development of the Homeless Response Plan and that has been a learning experience. I look forward to the Housing Element coming up and having us able to really engage and advise with recommendations and discussing it. As far as ideas for the future, I defer to people who have more experience. Commissioner Evans asked when is the smoke stack coming down? I think it should be easier for information to be made available. People have to come into the office to look through books and it is not getting out to the community. I am involved in shared housing, a program that matches people who have a room they want to rent out with a person needing to rent a room. It is a great program, but no one seems to know about it. Also, does anyone know about the Community Resource Center in Encinitas that people who live in Carlsbad can go to Monday through Friday to get free food? Ms. Fountain said that is good feedback. As part of our Homeless Response Plan, we could have a resource fair. If we want to brain storm in a meeting, that could be something we can add to our list. Commissioner Evans suggested that before our meetings we should come into the office to find out what is going on or maybe there could be a newsletter. Commissioner Cole said twenty years ago they started 211, but it is difficult to keep up on updating it. It requires a lot of research. I agree if there was one place people could call to get answers, that would be great. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary noticed on the city website and the information on the Housing Commission is it works on affordable housing and the homeless issue. The ordinance does not use the word homeless anywhere in it. Ms. Fountain said it is one of those special assignments. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary said he thought that was an obvious update. That should be officially under this commission if that is the City Council's intention. The establishment of Affordable Housing Programs, I think is officially broad to cover a lot of things. If a person not familiar with the commission, they may not realize it includes the homeless issue. Ms. Fountain said that definitely needs to be included. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary said in general a lot of these issues are regional issues and require regional approaches. Maybe a function of the commission is to somehow at least be aware or engaged regionally. SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 6 of 12 Ms. Fountain said currently there is a subcommittee of the City Council, Council Member Schumacher and Mayor Hall, who are meeting with elected officials in north county to talk about a North County Regional Action Plan for Homelessness: Once that plan is created, there may be more information as to how we connect into that through the Housing Commission. That may also help them know the Housing Commission is interested. Commissioner Cortes-Torres said she agreed with Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary and Commissioner Evans about the homelessness issue. There are resources but they need to be connected. I understand we have a shelter, La Posada, but a lot of people do not know about it and it is far away, not close to buses. When I worked at Legal Aid, I felt it was a circle and it is hard to connect the resources. Maybe even a newsletter people could read. Ms. Fountain asked if anyone attended the Town Hall meeting on homeless. We got a lot of good information from there about what people think the city needs to do. We are waiting for the council to do the subcommittee work. At some point, that would be good to bring back to the Housing Commission to go through their comments. We created on the city website an actual homeless page with all the comments. One thing we heard quite a bit is people wanted more data or statistics on how we are being successful getting them into services. The City Manager wants that information updated quarterly. It is always a challenge to update information as soon as you have it listed. Because homelessness is such a big issue in the county, there is a lot of different groups like the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. One of the intents we had recommending the Housing Commission to be the Advisory Board is that we can bring in guest speakers to come and discuss what is being done. This way the Housing Commission. will be better informed, and you can share that information out as well. Commissioner Cole agreed. Commissioner Cortes-Torres commented that a long time ago there was a program called PACT (not sure if it is the name). This program assisted the homeless. She asked if we had that in Carlsbad. Ms. Fountain said she is unsure what program she is talking about. In this city we do have sober living homes. Commissioner Cortes-Torres asked if they get together once a month. Ms. Fountain asked Ms. Nunn if she was aware of that. Ms. Nunn said there used to be a North County meeting of all the different service organizations/non- profits that met on a quarterly basis and discussed their programs. It was an agency meeting, but the County of San Diego used to host that, then the person who organized that retired so they have not had them for a few years. Ms. Fountain said we can investigate that and see if there is an area there that would benefit. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary asked if there ever was a time they had advocacy concerns about affordable housing or social services that relate to housing or on behalf of your clients you felt there was not an avenue with the city to address those? Or did anybody ever say that is not within our scope? SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 7 of 12 Commissioner Cole said it did depend on many factors. Many times, our organization did apply to the City of Carlsbad and all the other cities for their CDBG funds specifically for homeless issues or affordable housing issues. There was an avenue sometimes depending on if it gets a lot of press and they are into it for a while but then it dies down. Mr. Newman had to leave. Ms. Williams also had to leave. Commissioner Cole liked the idea of getting information, so she feels she has a background with some good ideas. Being in the city and seeing a lot of growth and development, there is curiosity about why different buildings are built. · Ms. Fountain said there have been several built in various locations in Carlsbad. Commissioner Cortes-Torres asked about other buildings. Ms. Fountain said the one at Chestnut and Harding was not affordable housing. It is market rate housing. There are several that have been similar on Harding. Harding also includes some of our affordable housing developments. Solutions for Change is one of them for graduates of their homeless academy. We also have one near Jefferson School that is working on funding as well as the veterans project. Tavarua is also on Harding, an affordable housing senior project. Our affordable housing projects do not look affordable. The city has a great interactive map on the website that shows where the affordable housing complexes are. We are trying to think of creative opportunities to partner with other organizations. Because there is little land left, we will have to look at infill or acquisition projects. We can then rent restrict them. We are even thinking about tiny homes or villages of tiny homes. We now have second dwelling units; granny flats are encouraged by the state. We have several hundred second dwelling units, but they are not all used for affordable housing. Because we have run out of opportunities for large developments, we will have smaller developments. Shipping containers or modular homes are the latest thing, but we may have ordinances that would make that difficult. That is where educational forums will be helpful, and they could do a presentation on tiny homes or other ideas. Commissioner Cole said her work at the Visitor Center, we usually asked where people are staying and Airbnb is mentioned many times. That housing could be homes. In some neighborhoods in San Diego it is a problem, and I hate to see it happen in Carlsbad. If we look at things that are not a problem yet, we should still look at them for other ideas. Ms. Fountain said that may be another area the Housing Commission wants to get into. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary agreed that does not fit within the current functions. Commissioner Cole said it could impact the housing stock because people using these as second homes will not be available for the community. Commissioner Cortes-Torres said we need to educate the homeowners that not everyone who lives in affordable homes are bad people. SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 8 of 12 Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary said it sounds like Commissioner Cole is advocating for something beyond education. Commissioner Cole if it is already in place, do we want to get on board or not. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary said it also makes sense because the Housing Element used to be a document that was required, but the state is now interested in looking at enforcement if the city is not making enough progress. There is also legislation that is already within our list of functions, we wouldn't be doing our jobs if we were not doing legislative advocacy. Commissioner Cortes-Torres asked Ms. Fountain what functions she thinks would be good for the Housing Commission. Ms. Fountain said the educational forums, and the forums for public comment. With the focus being on Affordable Housing, anything that touches that would be a good opportunity for the Housing Commission. Or if you hear of an issue within the community that is starting to be a buzz, then maybe they can come forward as an educational opportunity. You will hear about the homeless the most in the community. Commissioner Evans brought about the shared housing program she is working with. We have a contract with ElderHelp to do shared housing. We began as a pilot program and those programs are always slow to get into place. You usually have more seekers than you do providers, but it is an opportunity if a senior had a large home and did not want to downsize, they can rent a room or two. In a management meeting we learned about the percentage of people who indicate they are lonely has increased dramatically in the U.S. The shared housing program could help with that. Another thing important in Carlsbad is the city has a Growth Management Plan which limits the amount of housing units that can be built. Once you hit that cap, you cannot build any more housing according to the initiative in Carlsbad. That will increase the rent and prices because of the cap on inventory. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary commented that it will also set up a state lawsuit. Ms. Fountain agreed that it will probably do that. In our next Housing Element when we get our numbers, we must be able to meet our number. When you have a sounding board like the Housing Commission, how do you connect that to the council. That will be an educational opportunity. Commissioner Cole asked if that had anything to do with Ms. Fountain's retirement? Commissioner Cortes-Torres said that is already happening. Ms. Fountain commented when you have high demand and low inventory, the rents increase. We have very low vacancy rates in Carlsbad, so people can charge what people will pay. Our number compared to past elements is about 1,000 units less. More of them will have to be produced in the low and very low categories. You will have to have higher density. This community likes low density, but it may not be possible. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary added that the flow of the conversation has served as the orientation tonight. I wanted to come back to the agenda. Do we need to close out the discussion of the ordinance? Is that the same as the work plan? SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 9 of 12 Ms. Fountain said the work plan is going to be an annual plan. Once we decide what you think you want to work on from the ordinance standpoint, then the work plan would be an annual plan. If you decide educational forums Is what you want to do, you can say you plan to hold four educational forums on these topics for the year. Then that will go to the City Council and they will say yes or no. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary said it sounds like we do an ordinance recommendation first and this is an iterative process. Ms. Fountain answered yes. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary asked if the next step is your office will draft proposed changes to the ordinance and then at our next meeting we will take a formal vote to bring to the council. Ms. Fountain said right and you will have an opportunity to make revisions. Right now there is no timeline as to when you need to have it complete. We could do the ordinance this year and start your work plan in January of next year. We will close out on that. The general orientation is telling you a little about the programs that we have. Your role is an advisory role. The Housing Commission doesn't have anything it votes on. Everything is a recommendation to the City Council. Carlsbad is one of the few cities that has a mandatory housing ordinance. Every residential development is supposed to include 15% of its development to affordable housing. They can choose if it is rental or ownership or accessory dwelling units. Ms. Fountain continued to explain more about the ordinance on inclusionary housing. Mr. de Cordova said we will be bringing this to you in October as well. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary asked if it will come to our commission? Ms. Fountain said right. That will be a key policy you will be involved in. For many years, Carlsbad did not see apartment buildings being built. When we took that out as a requirement, it started to change as the market changed and luxury apartments became more popular. Now that we have the right to do this, we want to add it back in. Commissioner Cortes-Torres asked if there are a certain amount of years. I know Marbella is ten years. Ms. Fountain said our requirement if it is inclusionary affordable for rent, they must be available for 55 years. If they are ownership, it is 30 years. It will be important for the City Council to get your feedback. Also, if there are other changes to those ordinances you think are necessary, you can make recommendations. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary asked if there is a timeline we must abide by? Ms. Fountain said there is not a specific deadline you would have to approve it by. The longer it goes, you may lose some in the meantime. SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 10 of 12 Mr. de Cordova said our goal is to get it to council before the end of the year. I foresee a two-step process. We will present to you a limited amendment to adding back our ability to add inclusionary housing to our rental stock. With more rental product coming on board, we want to have that in place. It will be up to the City Council if they want a broader look at the inclusionary ordinance. I don't expect we will broaden the scope of this initial ordinance. Ms. Fountain said you can request this to get done now so we don't lose anymore opportunities. The council may have other ideas also. The other ordinance is the density bonus ordinance, which is a state requirement so when they change we need to change our ordinance. That is more administrative. The inclusionary housing ordinance is our local law. Commissioner Cortes-Torres asked how that worked on the property on Laguna and State, with six affordable housing. Were those 80%? Ms. Fountain said yes, they were all 80%. Most all our ownership products are 80%. Commissioner Evans had to leave. Ms. Fountain asked Commissioner Evans if she had any interest in being a Chair or Vice-Chair? Commissioner Evans said no because she is computer free. Ms. Fountain said that is a general overview of a basic policy as to how we build affordable housing. That was the reason the Housing Commission was originally established, to advocate for affordable housing. Your roll seen by the council is as advocates. Commissioner Cortes-Torres commented that one of those is to make sure the property management is following through. Ms. Fountain said that is where you can be the most help for the City Council, to be the eyes and the ears of the council and bringing that back to the commission. There will be many ways they will want the Housing Commission to be involved in the future discussions in policies and programs, the start will be the Housing Element and the North County Regional Action Plan. What concerns or questions do you have about your role? Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary commented that it sounds like we are going to have a full agenda for the next meeting. Within the next two to three months we should have a continued orientation with a list of all programs administered by the city. We discussed CDBG and shared housing tonight, but there is probably a lot that we are already doing. Ms. Fountain said we can do that. I will put together a package of information to you and send that out so you can go over the information at your leisure. Our inclusionary ordinance and our current Housing Element. There is a lot of great information on our city website. Commissioner Cortes-Torres added that the city has a lot of brochures in the office. Ms. Fountain said we will put together a resource manual that has all of our programs. SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION MINUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 11 of 12 Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary asked where we are with the current Housing Element cycle as well as presenting what is coming with the action plan. Mr. de Cordova said it will be more of the latter. We spend a little bit of time orienting you all to the plan, the Housing Element, how that all fits in. I do not anticipate we would spend much time reporting on past accomplishments. We can talk a little about regional housing needs for this current period. Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary said it would be helpful to show where the challenges are. We have done moderately well especially in comparison to other cities, but not as well with very low and extremely low income. Our percentage achievement with the RHNA goals is in the single digits. To discuss that would be healthy. Mr. de Cordova said we will be sure to discuss the challenges going forward. Ms. Fountain said we can add annual report on our Housing Element programs and you could pick that as one of your resources. We can put one of the RHNA documents in your resources. The final business item is to select a Chair and Vice-Chair for leading these ~eetings in the future. You can self-nominate or nominate another member. I will let you decide. Commissioners Nguyen-Cleary, Cortes-Torres and Cole nominated Commissioner Randall to be the Chair. Commissioner Randall accepted. Commissioner Cortes-Torres nominated Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary as Vice-Chair. Ms. Fountain led a vote for Commissioner Randall to be Chair YES-4 NO-0 ABSENT-1 Ms. Fountain led a vote for Commissioner Nguyen-Cleary to be Vice-Chair YES-4 NO-0 ABSENT-1 Commissioner Cortes-Torres asked Ms. Fountain where she is going. Ms. Fountain answered she is officially retiring from government work. I might do some other work for a non-profit for the Corporation for Supportive Housing. They have a contract with the County of San Diego to house homeless. I will officially be retired from government work. We will get information to you as soon as decisions are being made for programs I am overseeing. SPECIAL HOUSING COMMISSION M INUTES September 26, 2019 PAGE 12 of 12 Chairperson Randall adjourned the Special Housing Commission Meeting at 8:00 p.m. Respectfully submitted, /~.--1(1~ David de Cordova (for Deborah Fountain, Community & Economic Development Director) Principal Planner PATRICIA CRESCENTI, Minutes Clerk MINUTES ARE ALSO RECORDED AND KEPT ON FILE UNTIL THE WRITTEN MINUTES ARE APPROVED.