Oh, yeah. Yeah. So he doesn't find the wall? Yes. Well, I started many years ago because I was didn't have anything to do. It was a long time ago. I got plenty to do now. Glad I took it up when I did. We're gonna go ahead and get everyone, the meeting started to honor everyone's, time. John, who would be here, we can, you know, he'll he'll join us when he comes. So I'm gonna bring August 6, Charlottesville City special meeting will come to order. This is a joint meeting with, the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
All counselors, are here except for vice mayor Pinkston who gave us prior notice of his absence. And with the chair, I forgot which one of y'all did the chair. Well, Wes was the chair. Was the chair, but he just his service just ended as the under the vice chair. So I guess Yeah. I'm the acting chair. I'm Yeah. Yeah. No, no, that's fine. And so you I don't really show if you just wanna bring your, your committee I mean, your, commission to order. Yes. So I will, bring the CRHA chain to order.
We have two new commissioners who I actually haven't met, I believe. Maybe you guys got them in the last few. And so, we have everyone we are expecting. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, Gillette is on the Zoom. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. And then I don't know if least is Trying to do you know she's not She's not joining. So we have everyone that we were expecting. Sorry. I Great. Fully prepared. No. No. That's fine. I know. I just kinda threw it on you. So but now I'm gonna turn it over, to Sam, to do, welcomes and introductions.
So I was just say really quickly that, welcome. Thank you all for being here. We, did this last year. I worked with John and and Wes at that time to make this an an annual thing to to give the housing authority an opportunity, to to meet with council, present information as well to just kinda help direct the efforts of what has become a very significant relationship, especially from a deep financial perspective, but to ensure that council
hears directly from the body that is doing the work for some of our most vulnerable population in the city while we focus on trying to retain, opportunities for as many people as possible. I think that's really what I believe the commitment has indicated over the years. So part of what we're gonna do this evening is mister Friess, deputy of operations, has been working with his housing team and with John specifically. I don't know others. He'll be able to explain a little bit more about the background of what they've done. He's gonna walk you through, an update of what the recent efforts have been to
just check-in on the relationship, make sure that we identify things that we're all working on together, and give, the council an opportunity to ask any questions as well as if you all have questions, that you would like to ask council about the relationship as well. And, James, before you be begin, I just, I just want to thank the authority and, for your work on the on the board and those who are here and also, virtual. I like to do it publicly as much as I can because you all could be at home, maybe relaxing, maybe doing some yard work, but you're we appreciate your
dedication and service to the city. Thank you all so much. So thank you. Alright. Sorry about that. I tried to get in front of y'all, but I pushed the lights on. Well, If I bring this one up there, I can't. Okay. So we can't do it. Okay. Okay. Good. All right. Good evening. Sam said, my name is James Friess. I'm the deputy city manager for operations. And you all have a report in your packet. I'm I'm not gonna present for a long time. I'm certainly not going to read every aspect of that, but I thought I'd hit
some of the high points, of what's in there. First off, no secret to anybody in this room that affordable housing is one of our top priorities here in the city. It's a place where we're investing a great deal of our time, attention, and resources. And to that end, CRHA is our arguably our most important partner in that work. Not even arguably, is our most important partner in that work. CRHA controls more than 400 units. They, administer our, the SISRAP program, Charlottesville, supplemental rental assistance program, key element of our
affordable housing, our ability to provide affordable housing to our residents. And then, at the end of the day, right now we are investing, more than $38,000,000 in redevelopment projects, on CRHA properties to expand our housing supply, upgrade and improve those properties, and ultimately make, for better opportunities for our residents and our community. So essential partners in this work, but it's also, well recognized that there have been
stumbling points in our in our relationship really on both sides. And so in recognition of that and recognition of the really the importance of this partnership. We worked with, John, sales executive director of CRHA to develop this report and identify those places where we had issues needed to be addressed and then develop this, plan of action, the things we're going to address. So the report is broken down into three parts.
The first part is looking at how we, move forward on the development projects. Second one is focused in particular on the rental assistance program, SISRAP. And then the third one is looking at our general coordination and communication. So I'm going to, as I said, I'm going to hit some of the highlights and then John and I will both be available to answer any questions you all might have after you've read the report. So first off, just right off the bat, in, in, in looking at redevelopment projects, one of the things we've identified is that we really need together to have done
a better to do a better job of identifying that redevelopment process, both on CRHA's side and on the city side, and be clear about what our expectations are in terms of hitting the various milestones as those projects go forward. So it's really about from the moment we've identified a project, identifying a calendar of milestones and what we need to do to hit each and every one of those, really a key element of this. And then relatedly, making sure that we are effectively sharing information between the two bodies
as we go along because we all know, like any development project, these are complex projects. There's a lot of different funding streams coming together. There's a lot of different interests involved. And so things are gonna change over time. We need to have systems of communication, of effective communication in place so that we are responding in a timely, manner to the needs of both parties, as we go through the project each project. Relationship works relationship works today.
So council of your most recent meeting, y'all approved an extension of the current agreement, carrying the current funding through till December. We're gonna be using that time, to construct the next version of this agreement and addressing some of the key issues that have come up. Like it's pretty clear actually at this point that the administrative portion of it, the, the money that's within that project for administration by CRHA is actually inadequate to the funding that CRHA actually needs to administer the program.
We also need to more clearly define what the rules of the road are for that program. What the what the expected tenure or time line of participation is for residents, and, and, clearly defining, the how, how an individual can get onto the waiting list and, and kind of how that whole system works, included with that is going to be, looking at staffing levels, technology. And as I said, the funding.
So, that program has been in place and it went out of my head. How long we've had Sysrep? John, how long have we had Sysrep? Since 2017. Since 2017. So we're we're we're coming up, we guess we're a couple years shy of the ten year anniversary of that. And it's a, it's a good time for us to revisit the parameters of that program and then come back to, the board and the council on, proposed changes to how that system works. And then lastly, if just looking at the general coordination and communication, we are broadly
across, all the different places where CRHA and the city, interacts. We're looking at, developing a a general compliance calendar, that aligns with with both of our with both entities needs and identifies kinda key dates for things like one of the requirements that we have, the jointly owned portfolio, that portfolio of housing of housing units that are owned by both CRHA and the city has reporting requirements, but we've never really clearly established a reporting timeline and what our expectations are in terms of
what we would like and what council would like to receive in terms of those reports. So defining those, making that actually an easier thing to, to, produce for, for the city. So that we are fully transparent for our community as to what those units are and how they're contributing towards our affordable housing goals. And, and then fundamentally just fostering opportunities for relationship building between the stabs of the two entities. Again, we recognize CRHA is is a valuable and essential partner for our affordable housing
goals here in the city. And therefore, we need to make sure that our staffs, broadly across the city side and CRHA side have good, professional solid working relationships. And that means that they're interacting and they're communicating on a regular basis, and have that have the ability to do so. So in short, John, I think at this point, give you an opportunity to to to share some of the things that have already been addressed as we've been working on this report together over the last several months.
And your thoughts as well. Yes. I don't know if you have to come up here. If you want to do it from there. Oh, I can do it from there. That's fine too. And so we started working on this report. I think we had the first copy maybe a couple of months ago or three months ago. Like, three months ago. Yeah. But I will say a lot of the stuff that's in the report are items that we identified before. And so there were already, like, little things already being worked on. So, the House of Authority, when I got there, like, 30 something employees. And so it was not nearly as large as it needed to be in order
to do the work that we're currently doing, plus the work that the community has identified that we need to do in order to grab more housing to the community. We've grown that capacity over time. And so I think we added our first redevelopment positions, last year. It's like the in the middle of 2024. And so the city had already provided some funding for those positions. But when I got to the housing authority, we were spending the soft cost money for construction, which is the staff possessions faster than we were, doing some of the
other requirements such as sustainability plan. And so it was required it was requested that we speed that process up and slow down on our spending on the soft cost money because there were some requirements as part of getting that soft cost money that we've completed sustainability plan and that the council approved that. So that got started in 2021, took a couple of years to complete. And so it was completed in 2023. And so in 2024, we started building back, on that staffing level that was needed
in redevelopment. We also, at the same time, on underwent a sustainable not sustainable. A strategic planning effort, which also identified some growth areas, that we needed to focus on while going through the, interviews with our stakeholders. I think some council members were a part of that, interview process as well. And so we knew some things needed to happen. Around the same time, we also had, the redevelopment agreement expire, and we didn't know about them until we actually submitted a we were getting ready to go to closing.
And when we looked through the application, the grant agreement showed that it expired. And so we knew we needed to have more CRHA management on those grants because how they typically work, we would sign them. We don't we weren't managing as much of the redevelopment process because we have a development partner. And when we added that that development partner, that was part of their capacity, which was managing the redevelopment projects. That is still the case, but now we have more of our staff involved. And so, like, they meet monthly to go over any upcoming pay apps that are
coming out. And that person also is doing the, redevelopment report to make sure that they're caught up on any pending, grant payments that are coming through. And so, we noticed that these were some, there were some weaknesses, some flaws on our end when it came to staffing, having the right size staff because you had me and Kathleen that was over redevelopment, and we were the point people for redevelopment. We also have the other duties of the housing authority.
And so we didn't have a dedicated redevelopment department. We now have that and have a team that's just focused on redevelopment. And so those issues, have went away. Like we're on time on our grant, reports. It's constant communication going on, in their building. They're gonna continue to build that relationship. So, John, the I'm sorry. The redevelopment staff that you have now, is that to, like, to apply for grants or or those are actually kind of in the nuts and bolts of this building
is gonna go there, this, you know They're they're in the nuts and bolts on what actually happened, what's happening happening on the site. And so we still use our development partner, to apply for grants, bring in private money, find additional federal funding. So our team is just focused on the actual project, make sure residents understand what's going on, they're engaged and involved, and then focusing on the technical side. Mhmm. But, I mean, using that example, which is really a fantastic one, you know, talking about having a calendar and understanding the milestones, and and making sure that we're kind
of working that program, working that calendar together. You imagine a scenario where where the the grand agreement had had had been, had that John was referring to had gone, void or whatever the black for lack of a word had gone void because they'd missed a milestone. But it I don't see that as something that CRHA owns entirely. Like, that's also on the city to be communicating and tracking that stuff. And and that expired and several months had gone by without they've they discovered it
when they applied for and were looking to to secure additional funding. None of that is how it's supposed to work. It's it really given the scale of the partnership that we have with CRHA, these should all be kind of joint efforts, and we should be working, together towards getting these, projects off the ground. Perfect. And I'll just add the assist rep. It has some challenges. I think it's we've known it has some challenges because, you have a program, where there are no time limits. And so you have folks who have been in the program since inception, and without
adding additional funds, to that program, you're only serving the same individuals. So when folks do need assistance, they're only getting on the wait list. And just the other challenge, the original agreement did not open it up to every organization or partnership the city has that focuses on affordable housing. It was a very select few organizations that were highlighted and picked to serve in this program. And so you have as the city has grown, it's reaching these it's departments that
also connect to housing. You now have more organizations and departments that would like to refer folks to the Sysrep program that's city funded, but they're not even mentioned in an agreement to actually complete that referral. And so, that's that's a challenge. And oftentimes, it it's a city department. They're like, hey. It's our money. Like, we're part of the city department that funded it. Why can't we refer folks? But it's all about what we have in our program requirement of how we serve families. And so, that's where we have some work to figure out how do we continue
serving the same folks, or how do we bring on new folks and then cycle off some old folks, but putting programs in place, so we're not dropping folks aren't following between the cracks off the off the exit ramp. Yeah. So I had a quick follow-up. I took some notes there. You mentioned the strategic plan, and we probably got a copy of it Mhmm. Way back, but I I don't recall. What what are some of the key findings of that? And and is it something that you all use that you use now to kinda
guide your growth in direction now? Yeah. So in the the strategic plan, it identified three three key areas. And one of the areas was growth. But then identifying what is the right amount of growth, when is the right amount of growth and then planning that out. And then also the amount of services. So we're in or we're we are in an area where, service is just as important as the actual housing that you're providing. Because oftentimes our housing is the housing of last resort.
Folks have no other options when they leave our housing. And so we need to make sure when folks come in that they're they are successful. And so make sure that they have the right services to address whatever barriers they have in place. And so I can provide you with a copy of it. But it addressed it was along the lines of, service, improving, like, our mission Mhmm. And, capacity building. Who who did it? Sparkmill. Good. You know, I believe, Mayor Snook may have been interviewed at the time.
Time. I may have been interviewed back. Okay. Yeah. But I can get you a copy of this. Mister Sales, I'm I'm sorry. If I can confess some ignorance here, I'm puzzled by what strikes me as three things that that that may be somewhat contradictory. One is we've always heard that there is extra money available in the CCRAP bin that we raid for various other purposes from time to time. And yet, we've got a waiting list, which says to me and we know that
there's a strong demand for rental assistance. We've got strong demand, and we've got, a waiting list. Why do we have unallocated unspent money? So, when the first when the program was originally created, I think it was created in the middle of a budget year. It was it received a full allocation of as if the program started with the full allocation of tenants being leased out in units. It took a while for the actual housing authority to lease up the number of
families that would actually eat up the allocation that the city provided. I think by the time I got there in 2020, we had just hit the mark to where, what you all were allocating actually, met what we needed for the year. And so those few years of previous account balances built up a huge reserve, to where I think it was, like, 3 or $400,000 in a couple years, which got you that large reserve. That is no longer the case. And at the time that we requested to use those funds, there was no CRA
assist rep waitlist. We started gaining that waitlist after we opened up who we received referrals from. And so that was within the last year. But before that, we did not have a waitlist. We were actually calling folks to refer folks over to us. It was also during the time where, Premier Circle was being utilized, to house folks. And so we were getting a lot less referrals, for Sysrep. I mean, I guess I'm I'm just sort of puzzled by why we are why
we have a wait list when we've got a reserve. Well, it just seems like a a contradiction in terms. Well, we don't have a new reserve. The the reserve was like one time funds. Uh-huh. And as you all don't allocate, permanent expenses to one time funds, it will be the same way for this program. We could do a mass lease up of, let's say, 15 additional people, but without you creating that permanent allocation of additional funds every year to meet that need, we would eventually run out and those folks would then be unhoused, because we would not
be able to afford to continue housing them. So that reserve was only built up from old funds. Once we fully leased up, which we have, you're not creating a new reserve. I think right now in our current, housing assistance payment per year, if we just do our last month times 12 is $830,000 It's actually more than what we should be spending if we want to receive our full 10% allocation happening. So how much is the reserve currently? What's left over that I think is being earmarked potentially? So I think $200,000.02
38, I wanna say. But that was just allocated to extend the current contract all the way to December. I'm I guess, I'm I'm just trying to figure out it's it seems wrong that we should have both a reserve and people on in need on a wait list. Mhmm. And maybe the answer is we don't immediately deplete the entire reserve with one year's worth, but maybe we say, okay. Let's take 30% of the people. You know, let let let's spend 30% of that reserve this year, 30% of it
next year. We just shouldn't be having a reserve at a time when we've got a need. Yeah. But let me let me just add a little bit more, from the from the budgeting side, from the city's perspective to how, CRHA was managing the program. Going back to what mister Sales said about the start up of the program, we allocate the tranche of money within the budget for the whole year. They did not use all of the money in the first year based on the timing of when we made the funds available for them to begin to use.
So it generated a surplus year one. Mhmm. It also generated a surplus in a future year because we did not fill up all the slots when we gave the new was it always 900,000? It was $7.50. Right. So we were at a lower amount previously. So we're at 750,000. So when the next 750,000 came, the point of what the management of the program at that point, you put in as many people as you could based on where the referrals were coming. And if we just did not get enough people, then it was going to trigger
more money going into the surplus. That's because the way the program was designed, it's a hard start and stop every fiscal year, and it was creating a surplus. I'm sharing what I've now learned because I didn't understand this earlier. What also happened was we increased the amount of money that we gave as the program was building up the momentum. People were coming. They were signing up. We were leasing up all the units. But we had still some money left over at the end of the year. Part of the conflict, and I know John and I talked about this when I
first arrived here arrived here about we have this rental assistance program. We're creating a dependency on the city for paying that subsidy. My question was, and I think he remembers me asking the question, how long did we commit to paying that? And his answer was, I don't know. You wanna tell me now? Because we never made that determination. Each year was a new amendment to an existing agreement. What began to be the issue that he and I started to work on was that I was of the mindset we should not have a surplus sitting and we didn't have a wait list at that time.
We just had a surplus building. So the point that was brought forward as he brought forward opportunities to acquire properties to pervert, preserve what was naturally affordable, naturally occurring affordable housing was to use that money in the same area of helping the lowest income individuals in the city be able to stay so that we could spend that. It was the future where we made the decision to begin a wait list. He had I think what I also gave back as an answer was we're not
there yet because we're trying to get through the sustainability plan, figure out your redevelopment program and and the schedule for all those things. And eventually, we would get there. I think where we are today is, and again, what I have learned as to where we stand today, the program going forward, as it's currently constructed, will not produce a surplus. The 900,000 that we would have granted July 1 would be expended by June year, for the most part. Very little left, if there's anything.
The other challenge is that rents are going up, so we're having to make those adjustments as well. Well. So we're actually going to be able to help fewer people at some point if they continue to go up the way that they are without making a change to how much is being allocated, which is the conflict that I think we are recognizing. So there was a window of time, to your point, not disagreeing that there was a window of time where the conflict of having a surplus and a wait list existed. But I think we had expended most of the surplus before that wait list started. The reason for not really working the wait list was we were already on a
trajectory to make sure that we were gonna spend the allocation without adding new people. And that was then gonna cause a conflict of how do we help all of them that we've allowed in because the allocation as it is currently standing today is not enough if we go beyond how many people? Right now, I think, like, 67. 67, which has been the number we've been hovering around. So 67 people use up $900,000 With the admin that we Yeah. With the 10% admin. Is that 67 households, just to clarify?
Yeah. And and I'll I'll also just share that part of the the struggle. And I think part of what allowed me to then say to James that we needed to dig into Sysrep specifically is we have heard about a concern that exists at the Kindle website for preserving the affordability for the people who had to relocate for the construction to occur, being able to come back. We have people who have come back to those units, but they've come back to units that they probably can't afford. So there was a request that we consider looking at expanding the sister app program
to fill that gap because it is the same concept of what we're doing with the 67 households. But in order to do that, we would have to add money to the pool. So that in itself would take away the ability to work a wait list as well if we were to prioritize that. What I indicated as a priority for me was, I think we need to get to the bottom of the SISRAP program first before we could figure out, do we work the wait list? Do we go to Kendallwood? Do we go beyond that? Because I would imagine we'll probably find other situations very similar.
So if we got 67 families, dollars 900,000, 10% per admin. That's about $12,000 per family by my quick metal man. Is that about right? A thousand dollars a month? I think the, numbers from last night was about 900 some 9 or some dollars per month per, family we provide assistance to. K. And there is not presently any limit on how long they can be on on the program? That's correct. It was designed to mirror the HCD program, which currently has no time limits.
Is the thousand or 900 or whatever it is, is that amount fixed in any way? No. It goes up and it goes down depending on the individual's or the family's income. And so if the family gains a job, then their rent portion will go up. If the family Family loses a job, their their rent portion would go down. CRHAs would go up. Have we had any situations of people who were on the program who things worked out and they got off the program? Yes. But it's not very many.
Thank you. Can you tell me a little more about the, agreement not allowing for more possible referral organizations? Yes. So the, original program and I wasn't here for it. But it was designed to assist families come off the HCV wait list and get into housing until they were pulled from the HCV wait list and also assist families that were in self sufficiency programs so that as their income grows, they can then fall off the program.
And then it had a homeless category as well, well, but it did not include all of the homeless organizations, that provide housing or assist that individuals find housing. And so that's part of the problem. That is the problem. And, yeah. Yeah. That's I'll say that it seems like to me, you know, I wasn't here either. But from a conceptual standpoint, the the rationale behind it was just managing the volume because the need is greater than the resources available.
So it was probably in that vein of just being able to manage it and not be overwhelmed by every referral coming in from every source. Because at some point, it's just adding to the wait list. Yeah. It's coming in from every source. Because at some point, it's just adding to the wait list. Yeah. It's just it's actually just moving a wait list from here to there and replicating who's on the wait list. That is exactly what what it does. I've been doing this two levels that are on every wait list. Yeah. But the plan over the next year is to examine these questions and figure out what it will look like going forward. Yeah.
I think what what we're doing in, for our side of this equation, because this this fits within your affordable wait list. We have this evidence of a concern at Kendallwood, a project that we are deeply invested in, all the many phases of it where there's a gap. And just the ability to make sure that we are reaching that lower AMI level that is a part of the the mix. This frames the question for you is how I'm looking at it as, do we
prioritize that? If so, to what degree? How much more might we be able to add? That's really what we're hoping to get to. But before we go there, because my friend here has told me that he may not see this as the right program for them to continue to manage because the admin needs to be addressed. We need to work through that. If we get to that point where it still makes sense for it to sit here, then we might have other program changes to recommend. So that's really the conversation between the staffs is to be able to bring you a recommendation, a full recommendation, I would say, as an update to the program.
There. Yes. Okay. So far? Okay, perfect. Alright. Next slide. Alright. So, for this last part, I wanna take some time to give an update on where we are both with our redevelopment projects and then, an update with city housing, and then a couple, a few requests at the end. And so we currently have two major public housing redevelopment projects in the way. So firstly phase 2 and then Sixth Street phase 1. Residents are currently working, as a resident planner group, to get ready to submit a tax credit application in March 2026.
We are also simultaneously doing a parallel track redevelopment effort at our scatter site, which is our Mickey, Madison, Riverside and the public housing houses. We've completed now the HVAC expansion project at at Madison And Riverside. We're about 90% completed at Mickey. We're as, I think we're predicting or estimating a, power switch over of next week. And so those units will have central air for the first time since they were built. And the city has contributed to that project $150,000 And so we really appreciate that
that project, grew, substantially, over the last few years while we were talking about it, just because we had, some electrical upgrades that needed to occur in order to, do the HVAC project. And so that project nearly doubled. And so for the Riverside Pro No, Madison project, we actually did it in house and saw some, some really large savings. And so that's gonna be something we look to duplicate in more of our projects for capital fund. Next slide. Alright. So South First Street Phase 2 is the construction of 113 homes with a mixture
of apartments and townhouses ranging from one to five bedrooms. The construction includes community center, dedicated access control storage for residents, solar, a dedicated property management office, and a new resident service office. All units will have dedicated high speed Internet and that's thanks to a partnership that you guys, sign off on, I think maybe five years ago. We are also anticipating that receiving the first phase of those units in the 2026. I think right now it's looking like April 2026. And those will be a lot of the larger families that we originally moved off-site
couple years ago, getting to come back home. All the units will be fully subsidized by vouchers. So families, we'll be able to assist families at 30% AMI and lower it on every unit with them only paying 30% of their income towards the rent. Next Next slide. Okay. And this is a rendering of, of the phase two exhibit. As you see exhibit a or delivery a is estimated in April 2026. And those are mainly four and five bedroom townhouses, as well as the community center.
Thanks a lot. Next, you're gonna see, these are just some drone shots of the construction area, and this was probably about two months ago. Next slide. These first two were booked a couple months ago. Next slide. And so these are drone shots from a day ago. Next slide. And so in this photo, you can see a couple of townhouses being built. And behind that trailer is actually where the community center is gonna be located. And I want to thank all the community members that have been working with us, in this community, because I know this project has impacted you guys, because that street
has been closed now for I think a couple of weeks. Next slide. So the second project that is currently under construction is Sixth Street Phase 1. And it's the development of a 47 unit apartment building at the corner of Montreal and Sixth Street. The building will be a mixture of one and three bedroom apartments. All 47 units are fully subsidized. Six, seven will be subsidized through the public housing program. And 41 will be subsidized through the voucher program. So all units will be able to assist families at 30% AMI and lower. The development includes a medical clinic, which UVA is renting, a dedicated food hub, which
residents will be receiving fresh produce, a business center, a teen lounge, a fitness center, community room, solar, a property manager's office and resident service office. And again, all the units will have high speed Internet for free. Thanks to the partnership with the city. Next. So these are some renderings of the Building A, which is phase one. Next slide. Next aerial view. Next slide. Next slide. This is a quick video that may play or may not. And this is of the If it's played, the commissioners have seen it.
But, can you try to press play? It's of the demolition going on at Sixth Street. It's, this building is now completely gone. Never mind. You can't get it work. It's okay. John, what's the schedule on Sixth Street? Sixth Street is scheduled as an eighteen month project. I should have a delivery date. But they just got under contract or just got started less than a month ago. Alright. And that's what the site looks like now. There's no building there. They I will say they started a little bit earlier than their contract. We've emptied out this building, and then we ran across, when they were, moving, I
think the sewer or making a sewer connection, they ran across a secondary power line that was laying on top of the sewer. And so that caused a few week delay because Dominion, wanted to come out and relocate the wire. Instead of, instead of letting us use a third party to do it, Dominion controls that. And so they came out and relocated the wire, but it took them a few weeks. And so that know there was a wire down there. Miss utility didn't catch it. It wasn't catching caught in any of the drawings, which is literally laying laying on
top of the sewer line. It's part of the side of this. Yeah. I was surprised it's never thought. Yes. And so, they are now complete with that, power line relocation. We've already cut off power and restore power. And so now they're gonna get back to work on actually relocating at sewer line. Alright. Next slide. Alright. So West Haven master planning. On March 13, for Us Haven residents came to consensus on a master plan. The planners are now working with the development team to come to consensus on overall design of the townhouses and apartment buildings.
The West Haven neighborhood is built on a neighborhood scale that doubles the amount of affordable housing opportunities in townhouses and apartments. And more than four times and there's more than four times the amount of usable outdoor community space. Key features include a connection to West Main Street, centralized outdoor community space and a promenade connecting the site. Next slide. And this is a, that master plan that residents approved. And so it includes a mixed use building that's at the corner of Tenth And
Run Street, that we are envisioning as a potential SRO building to assist individuals, that are currently homeless. We also have a mixed use I mean, I'm sorry. We have a senior apartment building and a mixed family apartment building on a set as well as, as well as townhouses. Next slide. Parallel track. So parallel track, is what CRJ calls major renovation work that is occurring amongst the scattered site public housing portfolio. In 2024, after we expanded our redevelopment team, we were able to complete several projects,
including appliance replacement, exterior door replacement, including our aware, security door installation, porch light installation, and we started the HVAC work. Work. CRJ was able to save roughly $350,000 by completing these projects in house using our own manpower. We were able to come up with that number based upon getting quotes from outside companies, to do that same work. Thus far, we have 100% of the HVAC installation at Madison Avenue. We've begun this project a about a month ago and finished eight months sooner than the contractor that provided us with a quote to complete the work.
We also completed the completed that project before they completed Mickey in Riverside because Riverside was just finalized and they started that over a year ago. And we were able to see a big savings of over $200,000 by doing that project in house alone. Next slide. The savings from completing these projects in house, will allow CRJ to tackle more projects at a much faster rate than we anticipated two years ago. We were also awarded an additional $1,500,000 last year from the federal government. This was a competitive award for capital funds.
I think we were one of 20 housing authorities in the country that received this. And we applied to, continue the work that residents had already planned. So kitchen upgrades, bathroom upgrades, and overall upgrades inside of the interiors. So the residents are working with our team to make those final selections. And we anticipate starting that work towards the end of this year. Next slide. So this is the, one of the HVAC units that we have out. It's a carrier. Next slide. And so this is the parallel track plan that we developed. And so as you can see in 2024, we have $2,300,000 in there in funding.
That's an additional 1,500,000.0 from the federal government. Every year we receive capital funds. Every year, the senators put out a, like, notice that they help public housing agencies get millions of dollars. It's something that we are supposed to get. It's in the contract and we get it. We never know how much or how little. And so that's the only surprise. And so as you can see in these years, we are averaging about $800,000 a year in construction money that's actually happening on the sites. But in that 2024, we have 2,300,000.0
and all of that is still 1.5 because it's only going to projects. Next slide. And so these are some of the suctions that have already been made. So you have cabinets, you have, paint colors, countertops and flooring. We had to go back to the drawing board on the shower surrounds because, when we ordered one to install, it did not have the best feel, and just felt really cheap, poor quality. And so we are going back to the drawing board on the shower surrounds, but the other selections have already been made. Thanks a lot.
Alright. City housing portfolio. Hold on. Do we have any questions first before I roll through this? Yes. Just small question about the, the shower surround and that sort of thing. Is that something you have to do like, a bidding process for? Can you just go buy one? So we can go buy one. But if we're gonna buy 70, we need to do a formal bid process or formal quote process where we're getting multiple quotes. And so the process that we followed so far is, our team, we go find
different items. So if it's, the countertop, we found a countertop that's gonna be easy for us to maintain and replace when needed. And it's going to be durable. And so we first went through and took out, Hey, we're, we're not going to build this product. We're not going to add this product because it's going to be a maintenance nightmare. And then from that point, we handed those selections to residents. Residents then make a selection. We then go to the open market and find that that product. And, I will say a lot of what we're dealing with now is only material
cost because of the man Done in house. So we're only looking at material, and so we've been really competitive. We've gained a lot of relationships because now we're a big buyer in building material. Mhmm. Great. Okay. Thank you. I had a a question. When you first got here, you talked about, you know, you kinda saw the staff and it was it needed to be larger for the work that you had to do. And you beefed up your staff with and then you talked about that you're able to do a lot of this in house to save a lot of money.
Some of that additional staff you talked about was is a result of of this. So, HUD allows you to do something called force account labor is when you have staff that's dedicated to doing work solely on a project. And so we get capital funds, and this is the first time, I believe, that the housing authority has done it here. Other housing authorities do it all across the country Mhmm. Where they have staff members that solely work on those type of projects. And so we built a team that only does special projects.
And so, every every couple weeks there, a calendar is made of what projects they're gonna be working on. And then we they are then paid by that either by that project or, in this case, is paid by capital fund to enforce account labor. Okay. City housing portfolio. So the city housing portfolio began with the purchase of 1016 And 1020 Coleman Street using unspent SISRAP funds. And these were the funds we were talking about earlier that were built based upon not fully leasing up. The the portfolio significantly grew with acquisition of the Dogwood portfolio, from Water Properties in
2023. The Dogwood portfolio is approximately 80 units of scatter site housing units. The units range in age, but are primarily over 60 years old. The CRG anticipates submitting a tax credit application to repay the city and do a complete extensive renovation of all units in your downward portfolio. Thanks a lot. But that will not cover all of the units in city housing. And so, we've started to get, innovative with how we tackle some of those challenges
without requesting additional funds and CRHA taking on the project. And so, CRJ is interested in exploring land lease proposals for 1016 And 1020 Coleman Street. We currently have four affordable units on the site. They're two bedroom, one bath. They range in rent from I believe, 600 to 1,300. CRJ is interested in finding a private developer to develop additional housing units behind the NOA units that are currently on the site. The completed development would bring added tax revenue to the, Charlottesville coffers while also developing
additional affordable housing units. Current studies show 50% of the units will be affordable at 60% AMI without any additional funding from the city. CRJ would retain ownership in the land and would receive their improvements on the land at no cost at the end of the land lease. And so what we would be asking, from the city is letting us submit our post RFP, to hear back from developers to see if they would be interested in tackling a project of this scale.
There will be a requirement that the units, are affordable. 50% of the units are affordable at 60% AMI and lower. And the four units are currently there will continue to be affordable at 30% AMI, which is where they are now currently. In the proposals or building build plan that we've developed, the, you have the ability to build 40 units on the two parcels, 40 additional units on the two parcels. And so, it will be a great benefit to the city, as well as bringing
the additional tax revenue from the new development units behind the property. Again, the way the property is currently structured, CRHA and the city would continue having ownership in the land because we currently are joint owners. The land would not change ownership. The only thing that would change ownership is, the developer having a right to build on the property. Next. Any questions on that? I mean, I guess you haven't done it yet, so it's an unknown. I mean, how likely do you think it is you could find a private developer
who would get the financing to do that? I think I think we can, because we will be removing the cost of the land from from, any, any acquisition that a typical developer would need to do. And so I think we could, and that we've looked at this with a couple of different, options, not only this property, but other other properties that are within a portfolio, that include tear down potential and, like historic properties where we would keep and
then work with the current, well, oh, soon to be news honing, because that allowed us to, to maximize density on those sites. So I do think we will find a developer. I think it's a couple of local that would jump at this opportunity. And we have not done this in this scale, but this is exactly the type of project we're doing with all of our public housing redevelopment. CRJ keeps ownership of the land, and then we provide a land lease to the developer to build.
And that is the owner of the actual property until CRJ takes back the lease hold. How long are, is the least? So, or are they? We've looked at a 30 and a 40 and you can structure it different depending on what you require as a lease payment. So if you require less of a lease payment, those funds that developers pay you back faster and they can exit out the situation sooner. Or if you require a lease payment, then that situation typically is a little bit longer, but we've penciled them out at thirty, forty years.
Okay. Thanks. Any other questions? All right. Next slide. The other property there that I would love to have some discussion about is 801 Harris. It is, industrial zone property. And it's two units that has a stream that runs right behind it. That's about 15 to 20 feet off of the rear of the building. It is the only house on that block is next door to a funeral home and then auto repair shop on the other side. And so it is, in my opinion, not the best, multifamily property in the best
area where you would like family house, family housing. And so, this is another opportunity where we could either do a disposition, a straight disposition, or look at a land lease opportunity to see if there is a developer that will be interested in developing it and keeping it housing, but also getting some affordable housing units out of the deal. And so this is another one where, I think we should have that conversation because, that stream is continually, getting closer and closer to the back of the house.
So we really need to make a decision on what we're gonna do with that property. The building, the property is currently vacant. We've relocated the family solid units that we have, in anticipation of doing something with the property. You have any, you don't want to have any conversations about this property? K. We'll come back then. Alright. Next slide. So I do. Do have you have you had any offers or anything on it? You know, just people Yes. So we've gotten offers. We have not listed it for sale, and so all the offers have just come coming. And so, the property will easily sell.
I don't think we will have an issue selling the property at all. The question is what is the best use of the future of that project If it is housing and if it is going to be housing, we should look to keep it in. Maybe we put this out as RFP. But if we agree that it's not housing is not the best fit for that property, then a disposition would would be the best fit. Seems to be increasingly commercial right there. Yes. I'm not so sure about. It's a train track behind the home.
Not trying to say I don't love it, but I've lived behind a train for train track and nothing but businesses. Yes. But one of those businesses is photos. I mean, yes. There's a fabulous proximity to photos and the market. But it I mean, it's just randomly there in the middle of Mhmm. The real is the main problem the topography of the site in terms of redeveloping it for it to make any sense cost wise? Yeah. I think that has a lot to do with it.
Plus the the lot itself is, and so when you're looking at building there, you're not gonna get as many units and your cost is gonna be really high. And so what you have to rent those units for will also be really high to recoup any of those funds. When we looked at the property next door did a stream restoration. I'm going to assume it wasn't a tune of a couple $100,000 they broke up a lot of sidewalk broken, brought in a lot of big sewer, sewer lines, to
restore a stream, that would be very costly, for this site and to keep these units. And if we did not keep these units, just the complexity of that site, having to build on top of that stream, on that site would be the next challenge. And I have talked to a developer who said they can build on the stream. Was one of the private developers, but it's not something that we've we've done. So is your recommendation to sell it? Yes. But I could also support RFP to see if a developer is interested in it
as well. Would would this be a scenario that we would consider a land lease? Yes. If we did a RFP, that would be a land lease. Yep. Thanks a lot. Okay. Can you go back one more? Okay. So this was supposed to be a beautiful table that showed every grant that we had open, and it is not showing. Mhmm. But, it was beautiful. Yeah. Take your word for it. Where we may get us right though. Let's see.
Okay. Alright. So this is the closed grants. There's another beautiful slot that has all the open grants in. So we currently have, a lot of federal money that we've received for different resident service program. We have a Ross program that is for public housing residents at all of our sites. We have an FSS program, which is a family self sufficiency program, and that's for anyone in the voucher program or public housing. And we also just last year received the Jobs Plus grant, which was a very competitive grant. We were one of 13, Kathleen 13 housing authorities in the country that were awarded
that grant. It's a, a multi year grant that will allow us to give deep attention and a lot of attention to West Haven residents to help them, with self sufficiency and mobility. And so we've hired, two success coaches, a admin, a case manager, and a program manager, with, at least three of those individuals being residents, of West Haven. And so, we have done a much better job within the last three or four
years on applying and receiving grants, for resident services, as well as additional funding for, construction projects. And so, one of the grants that you can't see on here, so in the last slide, was a grant from Virginia housing, for public housing agencies. They matched our capital fund for one year and we put all those funds into South First Street, because South First Street, is, is about two years behind the original, construction date.
It saw some drastic construction increases that doubled the costs. And so we spent, probably about a year and some change, trying to find different contractors, making some value engineering decisions. And what we ended up doing was splitting the project into three different contractors. So we're managing three different contracts to get the price where we needed it to even close. And that's after you all doubled your commitment to the South First Street community. And so thank you for that. Bama works is a grant that, CACF has played a large role in the housing
authority, both resident service and operational. And so we're really, appreciative of that. They made an investment on our our language access. And so, this year they supported the interpretation services as well as tools, physical tools and technology to make sure that we're in a way to engage with our folks. Next slide. Next slide. Alright. Closing the tech divide. So we've, as I mentioned earlier, our staff has grown. We now have a tech, it person.
When it gets to that, I was 30. We did not have IT person. Everyone was trying to figure out how to get on the computer and do everything yourself. We have like Rico, we had a Rico contract. And so it was a, third party contract that was not as helpful. So we added a IT specialist and now we've been rolling out different initiatives. So we've completed a computer lab at South First Street, which now has nine computers. We've done a computer lab at West Haven, which has five computers. We've done a computer lab at, work with the Jaws Plus participants to get computers
as well. They can now, come and lease, or borrow or rent. And so we're looking to recycle more of our devices and make them available for folks in the community. We created step by step guides for performing basic computer tasks, bringing you from emailing to creation creation to document creation, establish or working on partnerships and relationships with AARP T Mobile team computers for kids, open source recycling, grow some code to provide resources, training and equipment for our residents, leading a personal effort to collect donated laptops, to
re reimage with open source software, to provide program participants. And this is something that we really ran into a lot during COVID, with trying to still work with residents, residents making the final decision and leading the efforts in redevelopment, but not being able to meet in person. And so we learned that this is a huge need across all of our sites, and we've been working to tackle that as funding allows. Next slide. We can skip this one as well.
I will say we're working on a partnership with T Mobile to expand internet access at Mickey Madison in Riverside, because those are the sites that will not see a complete tear down. Alright. Language access. Next slide. So this is a new initiative as of last year. CRJ currently has 49 families in this public housing program where English is not spoken in the home. We believe this number is will continue to increase based upon the number of families in our wait list. We do not know the magnitude of this problem in the HD HCE program.
It's not something that's tracked on a federal application. And so we're working to identify that information and we're tracking it now. So in 2024, CRJ developed a a language access plan, hired a language access coordinator and a part time, translator. CRJ is working to translate all documents to ensure community members have access to information that we draft, and our translators now have the ability to communicate with 60% of our non English speaking families. Next slide. And so this slide breaks down the number of families based upon, the language.
So we have nine Arabic families, 12 Pashto families, eight Daria families, two Farsi, three Burmese, one Lingala, two Somali, two Spahili, three Kureni, and one French. That number these numbers will change. We're gathering this data more and more now, and so we're getting new information, and learning of new languages as well. Next slide. Next slide. And so, like I said, we started this in 2024, and, we did just 36
documents in 2024 and only did interpretations in six meetings. Next slide. But thus far, just in 02/2005, we've translated two zero five documents in all of our languages. In all of our redevelopment meetings, their interpretations forgot to fill up that column. And so that information isn't on there, but I'll get that information added and send it back out. Next slide. Before you go on, the one that was three slides back, I would like to get that because there's a few languages in here.
I'm not sure if I Can you go back one more slide? Heard of, but, this that's right. This this one. We've all had to look look at the least Yeah. At least one to figure out. Yeah. There's not well known. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So a couple of these are, think like 1% languages where it's only, it's less than 1% of the population that speak their language. Kureani is one where Kureani is not, not a written language, is only a spoken language. And so that written language is Burmese. And so we translate our documents of Burmese for those families.
But there's a lot I need to learn still from this, this list. But we are we are working to do more and do better, because every family deserves to know what they're signing, and how to be successful in your community. And so we are taking a big swing at making sure that we do that, and this is not something that the federal government supports with money. These are things that we have identified things that we should do and need to do. Alright.
Can you advance a few thoughts? One more. Alright, so this is the good part. This is where I asked you guys for money. So, surprise. So, the reports that you got identified some challenges that we have, and identified things that we've done to, alleviate those challenges, and move past them. And so this is the next step in continuing that. And then, also, we've had a conversation over the last few years on, like, how do we support the housing authority?
What does that relationship look like? And so I can tell you what our our needs are. And so we have identified, all of us in this room, identified public housing as something that needs to be around, and our residents need that benefit in the community. In order to keep it around, we need to fund it. We have to take care of it. Public housing got to its current position because lack of funding and the ability to take care of the housing. It's not like you have housing authorities that just don't want to do it. But they're lacking the money and resources to actually do it.
And so we've identified that, Hey, capital fund funding is actually needed. And so we're requesting a thousand dollars per public housing unit per year, just on hard cost construction. So those are capital dollars that we can use for our CFP budget. And so you all have contributed to that. Like you did $187,000 for the HVAC installation, and that allowed us to move that project forward a year. We've had to wait a whole year over a $187,000 if it wasn't for you guys stepping up and doing that.
The other item is a CFP project manager. We've identified the next five years as being really important to complete a lot of projects in Mickey Madison at Riverside. And so we need a dedicated person that's moving those projects forward. And we're not talking about a door project, but we're talking about a complete bathroom gut, a complete kitchen gut, put gutting the inside of the units, moving families for a couple weeks to actually do that work. And the last item is resident services. So this is not something that the federal government funds, but they want you to
do it. They want you to have residents involved. They want you to provide services and move families up. But they want you to find the money to do it. The city has been a big partner, the last few years of helping us with that. And so what I'm requesting is $500 per public housing unit, for resident services. And it's along with the funds that you already provide now. It's almost like a dollar, like maybe a few dollars off, which you all currently provide us for resident services. But this would be a way to have in writing, so we don't have to
come every year and try to try to fight and scrap for scrap for these dollars because they're needed. Public housing John, I'm sorry, sir. A few slides back, you mentioned, I guess, the a grant that you got, and you have three workers, and some of them are residents. And you and that is to help them move up the economic ladder. Mhmm. What is So that grant is only for West Haven. The individuals cannot work outside of West Haven is a jobs plus grant that's specific to West Haven only.
And so, this is more for Mickey, Mass and Riverside where they think they are ending with a negative balance this year. Just because our average public housing rent is like two forty dollars a month and our average, federal assistance for those same units. I think it's another 300. On average, we get about 500 something dollars per month per unit, to provide everything, including taking care of all the utilities.
And it just is not enough. I think it covers one maintenance employee, one property manager, and absolutely nothing else. West Haven counsels out because we do a transfer every year of about a quarter million dollars and capital funds operating. It's probably gathered those three are cumulative. You're looking for $2,000 per Yes. And we're doing some of that now. You're already doing some of it now. And really the project manager, could easily be caught in the recommendation that's in the,
the joint report to provide the $260,000 in redevelopment soft cost funds. And so if that money is provided, you could scrap that piece. Because then after those funds run out, we'll be pulling a developer fee that will cover the redevelopment staff salary issues that we're So how many public housing units? 274 is what I based in number one. So if we did all of that, that's $550,000 a year. Year. The only one that I would say what I would request to be consistent are
the $1,000 in capital fund because our hard cost to take care of the actual units, which we need to maintain. And then the resident services funding, like I said, the CFP project manager, it's caught in the, if you reallocate those, funds, those those expired funds, frozen funds, then we would have enough to cover that position, without requesting new money. And then the future money from the developer fee from the South First Street and Sixth Street will cover.
Are these things these three as consistent with other housing authorities that you're aware of or something a little bit special here in Charlottesville? I would say this is special here in Charlottesville. Other housing authorities have done other things to bring in money. So, some have, like someone recently, not saying this is a good thing, but they started acquiring properties, with the benefit of the properties and becoming tax exempt.
And then those land owners just paid the housing authority, a lease fee on getting their house, getting your property back. That's some things other housing authorities have done. Other housing authorities have done taxes and bond sales, which we recently did one a couple of years ago. They've done more private market and, market rate housing, which we have not. And so other housing authorities have done other things and some have just got out of public housing altogether.
That's what a majority of them are doing, but that's not what our city council access to do. You all's housing plan actually doubled down on ensuring that public housing is protected and it's here in fifty years. And then, obviously, as the redevelopment projects are finished, there's gonna be a significant addition of, units built with low income housing tax credits that will provide, you know, a larger steady stream of income outside of the public housing program.
Are these numbers factoring in the increased financial sustainability you're expecting from the income from LIHTC units, or is this kind of conditions right now? So this is taking those things into account. So as we, move projects to the tax credit portfolio, they are self sufficient. They're sustainable. They produce great incomes. They can afford a resident service coordinator. They can afford oftentimes security. But our public housing communities will never be able to afford those types of amenities
and services. And so this is taking into account that, hey, we're gonna have at least one, portfolio that will not change. It will not be redeveloped, to add additional units to bring in additional funding. And so this is what's needed in order to maintain those units. We're adding HVAC, which has a maintenance cost every year. But I don't think anyone in this room can say, hey. We don't wanna do HVAC because it is gonna have a HVAC maintenance cost.
We would say, hey. Let's figure out what the cost is and let's spread it and budget it so we know what it is and we're ready for it. And so that's what we're talking about doing. Because as we get these amenities, they're gonna have a higher cost, and we're gonna have to be able to maintain those those items that we haven't had to maintain previously. And, I guess, kinda to distill it down, I mean, in the past several years historically, for these kind of funding needs, you've gone through competitive applications to the city,
and you've ended up historically getting funding, if my memory is correct, around, like, dollars 350,000. Sometimes it wasn't initially awarded and ended up being awarded by the end of the budget cycle. So, in essence, this request would be to take moving CRHA out of those competitive applications and guaranteeing funding on this, you know, basis and moving if we were to take the past several years as a baseline, taking that number from roughly $350,000 to
$500,000 annually on the part of the city? Yes. And I, I would say we probably are averaging between at $3.50 to 500 already because like last year we received some HVAC money, roof replacement money and resident service money. I think it was around a half a million dollars. Like you said here, it's saying, Hey, these funds are earmarked and dedicated to, to these efforts. And like the public housing is going to be a converse. If we don't have the conversation now, it's going to be a conversation that we have in ten to fifteen years because we've let our housing slip back to where
we can't maintain it because we've made cuts and had to make hard decisions or we don't replace or upgrade, because we didn't have the right amount of funds to do. And you said you do feel confident that outside the public housing units for these new low income housing tax credit units that they will be self sufficient to be able to do routine maintenance to not fall into that level of disrepair? Yes. They, they, they have a reserve account that we pay into every month. They have a big reserve that they build up.
And we were able to expand, like, the amount of service they're getting. So both of the tax credit properties now have security. That alone is something that we had to get rid of at all our public housing sites because we couldn't afford it. Like, those properties move into that, that program, the LASIK program program with project based voucher units, instead of just public housing units, we're receiving five to eight times the amount of public housing rent we were receiving, now in the voucher program. So like, let's say, on average, our public housing rents are $2.40.
We get another 300, and and, federal money a month. And so let's say it's $500 Let's say it's a one bedroom. Well, one bedroom voucher is $1,800 So you're talking 500 compared to 1,800. Well, let's look at a 5 bedroom, five bedroom voucher saying that's like 2,800, 500, 2,800. Like that 500, it doesn't change no matter what bedroom size. The voucher rent changes based on bedroom size. And so, we're receiving a lot more income on those those units, and so they
can afford to to maintain themselves. Yes. So since we're talking about replacing things like appliances and, and all of that, I I'm thinking back to, conversations we had earlier this year about the decarbonization project and study and move to do that. And one of the pushbacks we heard was the relative of, well, the cost of having to retrofit a house or like to turn off the gas and get new appliances for, electrical use instead of gas.
Is that something that we're doing as the need arises in these retro fittings is switching off gas to electric? So Crescent oils has, almost done a complete switch. The only thing that's on gas, not in Crescent oils are our grill. And I think the boiler, the boilers on gas as well. South First Street has completely and swapped, swapped over to electric. And we're doing the switch at Mickey, Madison and Riverside. And so. So in those scattered projects, we're making those switches.
And so, I was on the meeting and I was watching and I was thinking, man, I wish we could get some funds for that effort because we're going to do that. We're going to be switching over. So we've already did the electrical upgrade. As we replace HVAC, I mean, high water tanks, we're going from gas to electric, high water tanks. HUD has not funded it as a, as an initiative yet. But we have undertaken that work because our gas cost is substantial. Our utilities are like double what we've received.
Utilities for and for the scattered sites, in this company are projected about $260,000. I'm sorry. So, yeah, for the scattered sites, projected for this year just in utilities is just shot $260,000. The funding provided for HUD for the year is 261,000. So just to kinda give a little light on that. So there's not much of a gap, and so we're looking at ways to bring net cost down, and also look at ways to to add solar.
So we are talking to an individual about doing so along those roofs because we replaced roofs a few years ago on all of those sites. And so And there's solar already built into some of those upcoming projects. Solar's already built into South First Street, Preston Halls, South First Street Phase 1, phase two, Preston Halls, and Sixth Street. And, Sixth Street and South First Street phase two will offset e b chargers, and e b ready on all the other buildings. Thanks. Mister Sales, I'm not sure where else you're going with all of this, but let
me, since we've been talking about money from the city and your shortfalls in other other respects, one of the things that we've talked about a number of times over the last, certainly, six years that I've been on council is the question of whether there's any way for CRHA to use as part of the redevelopment effort. For example, at at the West Haven site, which is probably the one place that that maybe have may have some commercial potential given its location. Any way to say, we're gonna allocate a certain, you know, a block of building
or whatever there for some some money making purpose Mhmm. That would allow us to to cut into some of this deficit. So that those are some of the things we're looking at doing. The only problem is when you do a specific on the site, those funds are specific to that site. So we can't intermingle funds from Crescent Halls or South First Street to the other properties. If we could, we would not have this problem, because we could let, overage at Crescent Halls or South First Street make up for, a deficit at Ant 4 or
West Haven. We can't currently do that. We won't be able to do that when we redevelop the sites either, because all those funds stay with that project because they have actual owners and partners that own those developments. Once CRHA owns it outright, we will have that ability, but we currently don't have that ability. Those funds belong to that development. We are looking Are you looking for as long as the LIHTC period is in effect? Correct. We are looking at, opportunities like the downtown building, which I won't touch on too
much, because we're currently in the works with some things there. And like the Dogwood portfolio will be opportunities where we could bring in additional money to offset, but it could not be like a tax credit deal. And housing authority continuously to sustainability? Right. And that does that, Like we're able to make those investments in staff. So we've almost doubled in staff in five years. Oh, see, the city was a big part of that. And the biggest part of that was allowing us to buy the Dogwood site because
that brought in over $150,000 a year just in the central office. So you're talking about at least two staff positions. So that, that Bringing in 150,000 net as a result. Yeah. And that's just for the, management fee that we're getting. That's not even talking about the actual revenue that's produced, for the portfolio. That's just what the central office charges as a fee to management. Well, I I don't know, what, you know, the overall kind of financial plan is
and whether this fits into the sustainability plan or any of the other documents that that you you may be generated. But I would be interested to know if there is a plan, you know, a five year plan, ten year plan, whatever, to do something that would get us out of the range where the city is phoning up half a million dollars a year? I I think as long as we are saying that we want public housing, we're
going to always have to figure out how to make it work. Whether it's the city supporting CRHA's efforts to diversify its income streams, to always have enough to cover any shortfalls of public housing, or if it's the city saying, Hey, this is our commitment every year to ensure public housing is here. HUD will continue to reduce the funding in the public housing program that will not stop. Think this year alone, we saw over a $100,000 reduction in operating money that had nothing to do with who's sitting in the white house.
That's just naturally what happened. And so if that continues to be the case, public housing will need the assistance. That's why a lot of housing authorities are going away from public housing, but that is not what the city has said they wanted. It's what is in the housing plan that we're going to protect public housing. So it's still around. And so if that is public housing. So it's still around. And so if that is the case and what we want, we have to be able to take care of it. So what is the commitment to maintain public housing costing annually?
I think, I think we can show you what we are what we have for funding. And, there is no, like, extra grease or public housing budget. I'm not asking for that reason. I'm just curious what, you know, anytime you make a commitment, you ought to know what it's costing you. Yeah. And I think what we're saying is going to cost you is a thousand dollars per public housing unit If you just want to look at the capital funds for maintaining those units. And what we're looking at is when we're installing these systems, looking at the useful
life and then projecting what the cost is to actually replace it. And so when we did our sustainability plan, we actually did a, a study for our useful life for all building systems. And so we know that that's the number we're going to fall at. The only question we don't know is what will be the federal number every year, that capital fund number from the federal government will continue to drop as we take off public housing units. And we bring back new public housing units with a new construction date that will
drive down the capital fund dollars from the federal government because their factors to determine how much you receive is number of units, the construction date of those units and what's needed in those units to determine how much you should receive. And so our number will continue to drop once West Haven is removed. That number is going to significantly drop because that's our oldest site with the most units. And so overall it's going to have the highest cost to maintain, when we get down to where it's just Mickey Madison and Riverside, I can't project how much is
going to we're gonna receive, but it will be significantly lower than what we're currently receiving because your units at South First Street are two years old. And so their capital allocation is gonna be really low. Crescent Halls, we were lucky enough to keep the same construction date because the building didn't change. So on paper, it says those units are 40 something years old, even though they're freshly renovated. But all the other sites will have brand new units with new construction dates. And so the capital money for those units will be really, really low.
And it will punish Mickey Madison in Riverside because they those sites got a complete renovation while Mickey Madison in Riverside was waiting to get pennies, described together to actually get a full site renovation. Yes. You said that other localities are moving away from public housing. What are what are they doing instead? They're going to the voucher program or to market rate housing. Make sure both. Got it. What about, economic development? What about opportunities for economic development? So we are And I know other, authorities do more of that.
You know, some bigger cities. I know that. Yeah. So we are looking at ways to do that on some of our sites. So we have, like, at, Sixth Street, we have, two economic opportunities. We have a clinic that UVA is gonna be running, at market rate. And then we also have a, a food space that will probably not generate a lot of income because it should be seen as an amenity or benefit to residents to get fresh produce. And so the rent on that space will be really low. But we are looking at, adding commercial opportunities to other sites.
So like West Haven has some commercial space, at it, at it's location on Tenth Street as well. But that really is in the hands of the residents to determine, like, what their needs are and wants are on on these sites. Thank you. But I I guess one of the balancing acts would be if there's an economic development opportunity that generates income for for the whole for all of CRHA versus the
residents' desires perhaps not to have that and to have more housing or more other other amenities that that may cost rather than generate income. Mhmm. I'm just wondering how how that tension gets addressed in the in the planning process. Yeah. So we haven't ran across that issue yet. Hopefully, we don't because we work well together. And so we have these open conversations. Plus I think when we look at a lot of these communities, so like West Haven, yes, it's by far the largest site has most opportunities, but where do you
put a commercial, a commercial space there? There? One that requires deliveries. So where do you, how do you get a delivery truck on a page street or on a property drive? And so we've had those conversations because yes, we're down at grocery store and that's like one of the number one items our residents have asked for is grocery store. But how do we make that work on our side? And so those are conversations that we're having, but we have to be practical, because we can build something, but if it does not work, it will not be, it'll
be empty. And there are housing developers that have done that same exact thing they build because they will come. But also if you build something that they don't need, it will sit empty, just like it does in Richmond and several of the housing sites where they have commercial on the ground floor and housing above. So I guess just on the just on the capital side, you know, it's $250,000 a year with project manager resident services that takes it to 500,000, at least going
back to 2018, 2019. It's roughly in line with what the city has been providing. But this request would be to take this out of the competitive process, guarantee it as a contractual agency, basically. So I guess one of the questions is, you know, if it was to transition out of the competitive process to something that's contractual or fundamental agency, however you I forget the exact what the exact wording would be. What would I mean, you've laid out the request, I guess, from a city staff perspective. What would be some of the terms or expectations you would look forward to if
we were to move in that direction? I think some work, you know, outlined in the memo. But I would say that, there's a few things, that we would need to do. Ultimately, it would be council's decision and discretion to designate C R H a fundamental agency at a higher amount. You've already made the decision to designate them a fundamental agency. So the question would be, are you committed to going that high? That would be the first thing, because that is then working it into the budget as a guaranteed amount, not a competitive amount.
There's still questions that I would have to balance in working with the team to put the budget together each year. When we put the budget together, we make the determination on what the allocation is that is available for outside agencies and nonprofit organizations outside agencies. That's roughly 2,300,000.0 is what we've done for the past couple of years. One question I would pose to you is, would you be, amenable to reducing that number to $2,000,000 taking the 3,000,000 off and putting it there? Because that would be one of the trade offs.
And then that 2,000,000 is v c f. And that would be what's available for v c f. Or do you do something different? The problem with doing it out of v c f specifically is that that is not what we're using V c f for today because we've shifted all housing programs to, calf and hops. So there's there's some reconciling of what we've been doing up to this point to how to then accommodate this request unless you just simply make it an increase to what you are outlying at this moment. I think the other part of what I would have to wrangle with with the
team, of course, is how do we make all the things fit into the budget, which you know what that budget, which you know what that process is for me as the biggest and most complicated part of my job. We're gonna have to go through the bigger conversation, which is what your retreat is shaping up to be, focused on the big ticket items, which are much, much larger items. And it simply would be a matter of where do you go with what decisions you have available to make. If it as a matter of do we have enough revenue to cover it? That's one thing. If it's we don't have enough revenue to cover all the things, what do you
do about that? When it comes to the actual agreement itself, we have, shifted in a big way, to further invest in higher compliance across our relationships with all organizations in a governmental as well as fundamental agencies and our competitive agencies. So what we would be looking for is what CRH is already now accustomed to and what we just I think you're working with Taylor right now to finalize your agreement. We work into that agreement what the conditions are from a performance standard, for that
year. This would be no different in that regard. It's just a higher amount of money. So we would just basically work to identify what the deliverables deliverables would be and expect to receive reports on those. And then we release the funds on a quarterly basis. Because I guess I mean, at least for the past several years, it seems like how it's worked is, you know, CRJ has received some amount of funding for for these kind of needs, initially, when the budget cycle starts. Many of the requests were denied and then or not denied, but they weren't awarded
funding through that process. And then Four full amounts at times. Right. And then the budget's just amended to get there anyway, and that's happened for many years in a row at this point. And I guess the question is is is that an indication that the city council's intent is to always fund it at that level, and that's why we end up amending it anyway and just kind of standardizing it. I don't know. That's that's some viewing. I mean, I guess on the question of, like, the performance agreements and expectations, like, some of what James was mentioning and then the staff report are about improving compliance
with timelines, timeliness of communications. Just what it what might it look to, like, operationalize that in terms of, like, specific changes in terms of, like, the structure of how CRHA is talking with the city. Sure. I guess that's a question for both staff and CRHA. I think I think that's the work. There there's more work to be done in that space. We're all open to the idea that we wanna be able to issue an agreement that says in exchange for these funds on this schedule, these things will get done over the course of the year. I think you all have made it clear that that's what you would like to
see. Those of us, myself, Ashley and others who have worked in the nonprofit sector and in this public space of using public dollars are accustomed to that. So we're just trying to make sure that we're setting that standard across all relationships that we have. We haven't always done that here. We have had intergovernmental relationships and fundamental relationships where we get a request and we just baked it into the budget. I have said, I don't think we're gonna be doing that. So we gotta ask more questions, make sure that we're getting the things, that you have identified that you wanna be able to get done when it comes to measuring
needle movement. That's the way you do it when you're funding different works. I think what we would just simply do as it relates to you determining, through your action of designating a fundamental at a higher level. We would accommodate that request if that was your choice, and then we would make sure that the agreement reflected what it was that we wanted to standardize. As one component of the relationship, I know I can't even remember staff, which, if any, staff were around when this was a process, but there was, like, the PMT process, which was grant funded and ended up ending a few years ago.
But it was regular meetings with CRHA staff for city staff. Was that That was part of that. A structure that would be worth reviving? I think so One of the the things that we Ashley said no. No. I'm just So we were meeting, and we were still having meetings. Like, this report didn't come from, like, CRHA and the city going a separate quarter saying, hey, I won't talk to you until it's time for money again.
Like, there are, like, meetings that happen every month. It's just that information wasn't getting back to the appropriate parties. And then, so it's finding the right chain of communication, chain of command, lines of communication, clear lines of communication, and the individuals that are responsible for that and making sure that, hey, that's actually happening. Because we've been engaged for like eight years now. So it's not like, that hasn't been happening. We're having those meetings. In fact, I think we met more than the PMT team met each month.
And we were still having that issue. So it was making sure that the right information is coming back to the appropriate parties. The city is huge. There's multiple different departments that are intertwined in all the work we're doing. And so we have to make sure that one person is coming back and spreading it to all the parties that have, investment interest in the work that we're doing and to make sure that we're all on the same page. And I think we've now figured that out, and we're working towards towards that solution to make sure that everyone knows Yeah.
And I'll just add, there's been a reset. The the request that I made to James was that I needed him to plug in. I even talked to John about I need you to be available in in some of those conversations just because I can't be everywhere that I might even wanna be. I think that has led to what is a substantive report here that's identifying not only things that still need to be worked on, but things that John's already worked on and his team has as well. I think we're we're past that particular moment, I would say. That felt even forced, if I had to be honest.
I don't I don't feel as though we're at a place where it's strained and that is needed. I think we just have work to do, and and we're recognizing that. And and that's part of why I prioritize it the way that I have for mister Friess. So it's just part of Saturdays and Friday's discussion, things like this? It it'll it's not specifically a discussion point, but it's it's just the higher topic of Yeah. Of of housing and other things. So this is one of the surprises Sam doesn't like. He didn't know this was coming. I don't think he knows that I know him well enough to expect that he was gonna make an ask.
So, yes, I'll say that. Oh, good. That was my last slide. Okay. Sorry. Well, you mentioned CRHA staff has, you know, substantially expanded, and there's been a lot of improvements. I know you've acknowledged we hear from the community there are issues that pop up in terms of people who are on the wait list or trying to access CRHA and, you know, unable to get on the phone or people who reach out to city council with maintenance issues, and people reach out to CRHA board with maintenance issues.
Where do you feel right now, CRHA, is that in terms of your staff level compared to what you feel like you would need to accomplish everything that residents in the community expect CRHA to do? Yeah. I think we are right there, and Robert Harvey's on here as maintenance facilities gentlemen. So he would probably say we could grow. But I think, honestly, we were right there where we need to be when when it comes to size. We're now putting things in place to improve efficiency and service itself. So, like we now have I plants that are deployed to the maintenance technician.
So when they go to a home, they have the work order. They can take a before photo or after photo, collect a signature from the tenant saying, hey. I signed off on it. Now we have a work order clerk that's calling back those residents saying, hey. How was your experience with that technician? Was your issue addressed? And then we also have a maintenance supervisor that's randomly going out and looking at these work orders to make sure they were actually addressed appropriately. But these are all processes that have to had to be built. Like we're working through these processes and then improving them because they're not always gonna
be perfect and we're not always gonna get it right the first time. And so, we are building these processes. We've built a team. We have a very, stable team. Our maintenance department is almost half of the agency. It's 30 employees in the maintenance department. That's almost the number of employees we had altogether in 2020. We had 33, we have 30 employees just in maintenance. We're asking maintenance to do a lot more. They treat every unit every month. They are turning units, they lead special projects, work orders, they're doing our grounds. So we're asking them to do a lot, but it's, it's almost half of our
entire agency. And so, I think we are at the right size now and it's actually putting the processes in place and making sure they're working, to provide a better service to residents. If we've improved, opportunities for residents to engage with us, we had text gov now. And so residents can text communication with us. We can also send out reminders, send out notices. We can send out emergency notices. Residents can send information on us and request information on us. They can put in maintenance tickets.
We're also working on expanding rent cafe, which is the yarding. That's where a tenant can do a rent recertification. They can pay their rent, do a work order, get documents, transfer documents to us to do our recertification or annuals. And so we are looking at how technology can improve our service and efficiency. And so we're rolling those out. They always take time because we have to first learn it on our end and then teach residents and our stakeholders how to use it. But we have been working on that the last year, focusing on different I know
we've already had a long meeting, and we there's still big issues that I don't think we'll get into tonight, like resident safety and, and for from, you know, the board as well. So I'll just end myself by saying, I mean, I do think however it looks like, I do think it's important for the city to figure out how to provide a predictable permanent stream of funding for public housing and resident services because that is a commitment our community is made, city council is made. I think it's the desire of, you know, the residents in CRJ properties themselves.
This is part of the process of self determination that it was outlined as an important goal And, you know, seeing what's happening in the federal government and comparing us to other localities like Richmond and seeing what's unfolding with their public housing over a series of years, I think we're seeing that we've made good choices in the past, and we've already made significant investments. And a lot of the and a lot of that funding we've already ended up doing just through amendments in our budget cycles. But I do think it's an important commitment to try to figure out how to make more predictable, for CRHA because that need is gonna be there.
And maybe we start out not commitment and CRHA is able to identify different sites they can purchase for, you know, mixed income developments or, you know, business development that can ease that burden. But, certainly, for right now, we know that that need is gonna continue to exist. Yes. So it's getting closer to eight. I want to, give your board an opportunity to ask us questions or comment if you would like. I'm just I'll give you the questions. I think councilor Payne's done a good job of, you know, voicing some of the
things that we we discussed. I'll just echo that the need's not going away. Anything, you know, the need for affordable housing is only getting worse, at least, you know, in the near term. And, so I think, you know, anything that can improve the predictability is only going to make it easier for us to manage. Like, we are aware that we need to figure out and help mister Sales find ways to to make it sustainable and and to create income streams. But there's there's a finite amount of space in our little town and, you know,
this is something that we really need to make sure that we care for. And earmarking the fence, I think, make one one less thing to be worried about. The team has done a really great job of finding grants and finding ways to find money Yeah. At least during my tenure on the board. So, you know, and I and I think they'll continue to do so. I don't think this is gonna be like, oh, okay. Now we're in the clear. Yeah. Because I think, you know, if anything, the fund funding for public housing is fun. Any other anyone else else?
No. Well said by Bridget and Michael, kinda hitting all the points. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah. We all said. Good. Thanks, Keith. Any other comments by counsel for John, thank you so much. I know this is, a lot of information and, you know, we're formalizing a lot of the relationships and things that have we've done in the past. And thank you, Sam, for your work on on that. It'll make it a lot easier.
So, any other questions or comments? It's not about that scenario. So, may I get a motion to adjourn? So move. All in favor? Second. Second. All in favor, please say yes. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yeah. Our next meeting is next Friday. Right? Our next meeting is next Thursday. Here we go. Do we have the motion? Or I don't think I have it. Do we have the motion? Remind me probably. Go ahead and motion. I think chairs could be just a chair. Yeah. Just a chair. Yeah. Bye. Thanks, guys.