Everyone, uh, welcome to the Wednesday, May 13th, uh, meeting of the North Miami Planning Commission. Uh, can we have a roll call of the board members, please? >> Okay. Chairman Erenst is excused.
>> Vice Chair McDermade, >> present. >> Commissioner each, >> present. >> Commissioner Seed, um, you might be running a bit late. Commissioner Bob >> present. >> Commissioner Pierre
>> present. >> And Commissioner Besson >> present. >> We have a quorum. >> Okay. Um, Commissioner N. Um, you want to u you want to do the pledge of allegiance? >> Sure.
[clears throat] >> Pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag >> to the United States of the United States of America >> and to the republic for which it stands to stand one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
>> Okay. Are there any amendments to the agenda? >> No, there is not, sir. >> Okay. Um, can we have approval of the minutes of the February 3rd planning commission meeting? >> So moved.
>> Okay. Moved and seconded. All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Uh, just a note that our next planning commission meeting will be June the 2nd, uh, 2026. Um, >> Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Chair, um, for the
record, Debbie Love, Community Planning and Development. Um I do I wish to um find out from you all today for the 4th of July meeting. Cincia has the calendar
there. Um the 4th of July is typically [clears throat] most people are on vacation so we didn't know if you all would like to schedule that for the following week on a Thursday. Mhm.
>> Do you have the day here? >> I'm sorry. >> Um I said that uh we had that under new business. That's why I didn't have my calendar ready. But um okay, hold on one second. June, sorry, July 4th. Okay, so
Okay. July 4th actually falls on a Saturday. The city's going to be closed that Friday. Um July the first Tuesday in July is actually the 7th. So we would
have to have it probably on Thursday the 16th because if we can't do it on the 1st July, I know that there is um another committee that meets on that Thursday. It's always the following week on the Thursday that we can usually get it, but it's entirely up to you guys if
you want to do it. Um, then >> July 16. >> Yeah, it would I I will have to confirm after I've had a chance to uh confer with the person who handles the council chamber, but that's normally when we
would do it, the following Thursday. >> Okay. So, let us know. I know I'm okay on July 16th. Okay. >> Okay. >> And you said the next one is in June >> June 2nd. I'm not being I'd be out of town. >> You'll be out of town June 2nd.
>> Mhm. >> Okay. I'm going to make a note of that. >> June. >> And I assume uh council only has uh one meeting in July and you all typically do um for the month of August you all
typically do not meet. >> Did you wish to keep that for this year as well? I would think so. In unison with the city council, they'll be off that month as well. >> You good with everyone? >> Yes, it's good with everyone to take
August off. >> So, no August, July 16th. Um, at this time for the July meeting. All right. Thank you so much. >> Oh, no, no, no. Continue. Okay. September needs to be discussed because September is how do you call Labor Day
falls on um well actually no it's not really affected. Labor Day falls on the 7th. So the first Tuesday is actually the first so it it shouldn't be a problem. >> What is it? What's the date? >> September 8th. I had not that's why I
didn't raise it because it's just September 8th. >> Okay. So September is fine for September 1st. September 1st, [clears throat] you say? >> Yeah. >> What do you >> It would be that's the first um Tuesday of the month >> and then Labor Day weekend is the following weekend.
>> Okay. So, we have right now we have June 2nd, July 16th, and September 1st. >> There you go. >> Okay. >> Uh yes. Everything at on all the dates at 7 the regular time. >> Okay. We don't have any disclosures or
anything. Uh counselor, right? Correct. >> Yeah. as this is a resolution, right? >> There's only one item, right? The resolution. >> Okay. So, moving on to that item. uh PC17-122, a resolution of the mayor and city
council of the city in North Miami, Florida, approving fiscal year 2026 to 2027 annual action plan under the community development block grant CDBG and home investment partnerships program home programs authorizing the city
manager submit the plan to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is HUD, and to execute all necessary documents. documents providing for an effective date and all other purposes. Uh can we have the staff report please?
>> Um Mr. Mr. Vice Chair again for the record Debbie Love of Community Planning and Development. With us today is our director of housing and human services and she has some of her team with her. She will be presenting your singular
item this evening. Take it's all yours Adam. Thank you Debe. Good evening um chairman and board members. Albert Bazil, housing and social services director. Dunia, can I please have the PowerPoint?
Okay. Um this is our yearly item. Um um I apologize. We have to call you to come for a special meeting today. I thank you for making yourself available. But I have no choice. Uh for this item specifically the annual action plan
there is a mandate that we are required to have two public hearing and the planning commission is considered as the first one and we will have the council meeting at the as the second one for the final approval. So
um we're going to go fast. Last year I came in front of you to present the consolidate plan for the next five years. So last year was year 1 of the 5-year consolidated plan. We have 25 to 29.
Year 1 was 2526. Year 2 is 2627. Uh the requirements are the same. Uh what they expect us to reach out to the people. That's what we call citizen participation. uh they expect that you guys to review
um the plan to make sure that what we have in the plan is in compliance with was what with what was said during the 2025 2029 consolidated plan. So uh in summary uh the 2025 coned plan include
the community needs, priorities and goal that was not identified by staff but by stakeholders, community based organization, residents and so forth. And also uh remember the plan cover two programs the community development block
grant and the home investment partnership funding. So the annual plan really um is telling her this is what we intend to do with the funding that we receive from those two grant program and the way we allocate the money is based
on the priorities that were identified during the five-year consolidated plan. Uh as for the an um as for the annual action plan as I explained um every year we have to come back to you. We did the fivey year. We did year one last year.
We're doing year two this year. And we received the funding from HUD early April, I believe. Uh we followed the protocol. We needed to advertise. We needed to do citizen participation to meet with the residents. We needed to
advertise. We did all that. We went through all that. And uh also we distribute the funding based on the priorities and the needs that were identified during the comp plan process. Um and the distribution I like to remind
uh everybody because sometimes I have the question why we put so less in this area not more here. Some of them we have it's open we can make changes but some others are mandate again not not to exceed 15% not to exceed 10% those are
hard requirements and where we can expand or we have a margin to move it must be in compliance with the the needs and priorities that were identified. So I cannot fund uh an
activity that didn't come up as a priority during the consolidated plan process. Uh normally expect us to put the money where we have we identified high priorities. Anything that is medium or low priorities
uh the city will have to find some other funds to match it. Private general funds to match it. uh citizen participation and mention it. Uh how we get the word out. Uh it's it's it's mandatory. It's part of our
process. We need to do public meetings. We did we need to do workshop which we did. Uh we had one meetings in April. I think we have the specific uh date further down in the presentation in this council meeting. Uh the attendance was
okay. Uh we advertise uh using CD um media platform, social media platform, Instagram, Facebook, um the Nomi TV. We even did some radio advertisement uh to advertise the program. We still
doing agency department consultation. It's not only the residents. We need to reach out to the general public uh the stakeholders uh businesses uh community based organization and so forth. Uh once we done here uh there is another
opportunity for the public to commence because we will have this plan after your uh recommendation your revision uh tonight. This plan will be advertised for 30 days for any anybody to make uh to make comments and this one will be
available at our office housing and social services at the library and also on the city website. Uh just a reminder uh last year the pri uh the the needs that came as priorities
again I repeat myself a little bit hard require that we use the money federal funds to apply those funding to high needs low needs must be addressed by other funds private or other way that the city can find to to fund those um
priorities. And last what what was identified during uh the 2025 2029 consolidated plan. Uh of course uh every for the last past 20 years uh housing rehabilitation came first. General
public services came second, homeless uh prevention came third. Uh rental housing number four and then improvement to public facilities. Um you guys you all know that our facilities are kind of old. So, uh, we can use some of the
funding to help, uh, repair or improve those facilities. People are still in the whole I think some people are still not recovered from COVID. We have a lot of demand for rental housing. Homelessness, as I explained last year to you, this is something new for the
city. Uh, we didn't have uh homelessness uh in our thing at all for years. And suddenly, here we are. We are facing homelessness in the city. It's not only when they don't have a house. If they don't if they're sleeping in someone's couch, they're sleeping in their car,
they are identify as homeless. And all the general public services, it's always come back. But like I said, this one we are limited. We are only authorized to set aside uh 25% or 15% of the allocation to public services under
CDBG. And finally the big winners as always is the rehab people who cannot uh who have they have the home but they cannot sustain they cannot maintain those house and they're falling in disrespect in disrepair. So this year this is what uh we receive from home. Uh
as you notice it's becoming less and less every year. Uh the first thing that you uh you can notice is the budget for CDBG and home hasn't got any increase for the last past two or three years. In the
meantime, we have communities that are becoming entitlement. So I think for instance for CDBG once you reach 50,000 uh um citizen residents you are entitled to receive some funding. So if we got
more CD and less money is being allocated to CDBG of course the where they get the money they just cut um from some other entitlement. So this year we are receiving 754,000 for under CDBG 280,000 plus on home and that's what we
have to serve the public for the year to come. So here with here with uh on the screen you have the distribution proposed for CDBG. We are entitled to 20% admin. Uh you got not to exceed 50%
15% on the public services. Uh we have the im emergency elderly. Um there is no limit. We just have to distribute that uh based on what we have. So I just uh you just show you just saw earlier that
the housing rehabilitation came uh as the number one priority. uh on the screen you see uh the bulk of the money goes toward um housing rehabilitation. We have a portion set aside for elderly. We have
another portion set aside for public facilities and economic development. We don't have anything because they still have funding from prior years that they are still uh dispersing. uh under home uh we are entitled to 10
not to exceed 10% of uh program administration. There is a mandate not to exceed 15% that should go toward home community housing development organization to build affordable housing. Uh home firsttime home buyer we haven't put
anything because we still have money set aside that we haven't spent. uh rehabilitation we only put 90,000 and then the bulk uh the bulk of the money will go toward uh rental assistance as it shows I think that was number three
or number four priority where there is a greater need in the community. Um, so what we intend to do this year, we intend to rehabilitate 10 homes on the CDBG, two on the home. Uh, we we we
hope to assist 10 elderly homeowners. 25 household will receive rental assistance. 160 resident will be served through public services. Approximately 200 resident will benefit from public facility improvements.
So what's the next step for us? Uh we have our citizen input workshop that h that was held back on April on April 16. We are having the planning commission today as our first public hearing. The plan will be made available to the
public from May 13 to June 18. We are scheduled to go to council on June the 23rd for final approval and we hope to submit to HUD uh by August 1st but really the deadline is August 15 but you don't want to submit on the 15 and the
system is not working and we ended up not receiving any money for the year. This conclude my presentation I'm available if you have any question. >> Okay, I'm going to open it up. Any uh comments, Commissioner Each?
>> No, I think that's uh as always right on the money. I just wanted to ask you one question. Do you remember uh years ago we were going to start our own housing authority and I'm I'm looking here and I'm seeing that uh I guess it's the county and Miami Beach have a housing authority. Oh, Hia, I'm sorry. Halia. Is
any chance of us ever starting? Is that based on population? >> Um I can tell you right now we have three housing authority. Miami date highly in Miami Beach. The city tried the city tried actually if you go on Sun Beach you will find North of North Miami
Housing Authority but for some reason we never get the approval. I think it's a combination of a lot of things population. It's a lot of things going on but we did try but he never went anywhere. Yeah, I remember we we we we put it together and it just appeared was wondering if it was
based on [clears throat] population but >> I don't have the information for you the the real data what be what's behind what were the reason but I did know I did understand when I came on board that they stopped us uh we couldn't we couldn't move the process
>> know you're a long time [laughter] thank you >> you're welcome >> commissioner Pierre anything from you >> um no questions thank you for the presentation >> thank Thank you, >> Commissioner Bob. >> Thank you for the presentation. No comments from me. >> Thank you,
>> Commissioner Besson. >> Um, are we going to talk a little bit more about the homeless situation? >> Yes, we we should on. >> Yes, we should. And I I think the best person that can talk about it, that would be my assistant because he came
from that world. But as I explained earlier, this is something new to us and it encompasses more than just putting aside 120,000 to help with rental assistance. It's a whole other world for the city. Right now, if you read the
plan, anywhere where we refer to homelessness, we said we will refer those people to the homeless trust. We will refer those people because we never face that. This is something new to us that we need to start taking into consideration and come up with a plan.
But as of now, this is my second or third year that we have this situation. We continue the referral. It's getting better because we brought the people who work in the in the in the field who knows how the system work. But we still working on a referral system. The only
really help I have when it come to homelessness is the rental assistant. help them to get into her home. And I don't even have the support for uh I think back in when President Biden came on board, there was we got some money on
the home ARP that would allow that allow us to subsidize the rent, but this funding is gone. So now I can only help you to move into the unit, but I cannot subsidize the rent. And I have to tell you, Enough Miami is not cheap.
>> Yeah. >> No. North Miami is not cheap. So this is something really new to us and not too long I think yesterday uh I think Gio sent an email with resources where we can send the people. This is something really that we are in really unknown
territory. We are trying to understand how it works and I have to tell you we you have a very complex uh population the resources available sometimes they don't want to use them. Um, as an example, uh, we got a fire. You told the people, "Do you want to go to a
shelter?" They don't want to go to a shelter. We don't city of Miami don't have units available to put them. So, this is a brand new system. This is something really we're going to have to take from the ground to top to educate the people to explain how to use the
resources, how the resources function. But I have to tell you, really, we are in unknown territory. We are learning right now. >> Yeah. Commissioner Besson >> is >> I I can tell you that recently I was asked to help some people. Uh the
husband was suffering from stage four cancer >> with his wife and two children. They were living out of a car. Okay. Um we tried to help him as much as we can. The re as as Miss Bazil said the
resources are very limited. um not only in helping temporarily but um in help in sustaining that help. That's the real problem is sustaining the help. Um I wound up like everybody
else went uh at the homeless trust. >> Mhm. >> Because that was the only resource that was really available and I called everybody I could in town to see what we could do to help these people. And it was a complex problem because you had
the husband was in stage four cancer. >> He couldn't even get to treatments. >> Y >> okay. Uh they're living out of a car. They they would get a weekend once in a while with a relative, but the relatives all were people who were living crowded
as it was. So getting four more people into a household was really not an option except on on rare occasion. Um, that may be an extreme case, but my experience was the resources are so limited and when you only have one
funnel to work through, um, it it makes it even harder because they only have so much resources. So, you know, definitely it's a problem that's growing here in our own city and we definitely need to figure out a way
um, you know, to try and, you know, help people as much as we can. But but you're absolutely correct. It's a growing problem. >> Not an easy one to solve. >> It's more than we think because usually we identify homeless when we saw the people in the street. But it's more than
that. Like you said, you have houses with one bedroom with eight people living in there. You have people sleeping on other people's couch. You have people I was on the phone yesterday morning with a family of three sleeping in their car. It's been 2 months. Okay,
I can help you get into a home, but can you sustain? No landlord is going to bring you if you cannot sustain the rent. So, I don't even think it's enough Miami problem. It's really Let let me speak for Miami. That is a county
problem. It's not only enough Miami, but for us, it's new because we didn't have that before. >> We didn't have that many cases before. >> So, we're working on Any other comments?
>> Can you make a motion that we approve? Go ahead and make the motion. >> Is that your motion? >> Oh, okay. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Okay, we have a motion, a second. Any further discussion?
>> None being said, all in favor say I. >> I. >> Both. Okay. All in favor? Motion passes. >> Thank you. Um, any old business to go before us, Debbie? Guess not. Uh, new business. >> No, sir.
>> Okay. So, I'm hearing none. A motion to adjurnn. Okay. Do I have a second to that? Don't get too excited. [laughter] Okay. All right. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you, everybody.
>> Thank you everyone. Have a good night.