Kabooie? Here. Jost? Here. Kim? Naker? Pavrodsky? Here. Yang? There are four present and three absent, being in Council member or Commissioners Kim, Yang and Naker. And Kim or Yang and Naker are excused. Item number one did you want to speak? Oh, and Kim is expected shortly. But yes, go ahead. Okay. Kim is expected shortly. Item number one is a resolution. Resolution 20 five-eleven 59, resolution amending the Emergency Rental Assistance Eviction Prevention Program,
ERA, guidelines citywide. All right. So, this item here is a resolution that's just like amending a few guideline changes. As you guys know, I'm really excited about the emergency rental assistance program that, will be coming back to the city hopefully soon here. I'll hand it over to director Newton just to specify the specific changes, and then this is an action that we would we're voting on today. That's correct. Yep. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Commissioners, this is pretty simple. This body recently approved guidelines for this program. In finalizing the guidelines and doing a bit of additional analysis,
We had previously had a, a guideline that said the maximum amount of, assistance to prevent eviction was $2,500 or one month's rent, whichever was less. We've learned more about that now, and often it's two to three months by the time someone's at that point. So we're leaving the maximum, the cap, but just eliminating that language about it being for one month. That that just really wasn't a reasonable language for this program. Simple simple edit. The other thing is the we have gone ahead and updated the, HUD income limits in the guidelines just because time has gone by,
and they were updated in June by HUD. So we went ahead and updated those in the guidelines. So just those two changes, and staff recommends approval of the item. Thank you, Director Newton. Are there any questions on the proposed resolution or the amendments? All right. Seeing none, I'll take a motion from Vice Chair Jones to approve. All those in favor? Aye. All opposed? Five in favor, zero opposed. The resolution is adopted. Item number two is Staff Report SR 20 Five-one39, Commercial Corridor Organization Assistance Program Update. Thank you,
Chair Johnson, commissioners. Senior Project Manager Annie Byrne is here to bring an update on this item. Thank you. Welcome, Annie. Hi, commissioners. Thank you for having me here today. Again, my name is Annie Byrne. I'm a senior project manager in the economic development team. I'm very happy to be here to give you an update on the new commercial portal organization assistance program. As you likely saw, I sent a memo giving an update a couple weeks ago. This is something I'll plan on doing every quarter, but I'm very happy to come here and, yeah, tell you a little bit more and answer any questions you have. So just some quick background. As you recall, this is a new program.
Last year, 1,400,000.0 from the economic development start budget was was allocated, to the 2025 budget. So this is creating new program really with the goal to create a simple and streamlined way to advance economic development projects on quarters across the city. 18 corridors were identified across the city of Saint Paul with a mix of district councils and community based organizations selected to administer the funds and implement the corridor projects. The program officially launched this May. The the guidelines were officially adopted by city council in April,
and we quickly launched it in May with a virtual information session, where all the organizations attended and went over the guidelines, talked about the uses and the process. At that info session, I propose that we continue to meet, having these, like, peer learning opportunities and, again, idea exchanges through these monthly roundtables. There's just a pretty big spectrum of organizations in term of their capacity and expertise, and a lot of them have very similar opportunities and want to do similar activities. So it made sense to create a forum for us to,
collaborate. And that was well received, and so that is happening. We've had two roundtables so far. Our third one is coming up in a couple weeks. It's the the third no. The sorry. The first Thursday of the month. So if you're interested, you're welcome to join. And we're also having just monthly office hours. So, again, just kinda streamline communication and and provide an opportunity for people to connect with one another. The goal is to have every organization under contract by the end of this month. So they submitted all every organization submitted the materials I needed by the deadline of
June 30. Handful are ready to go. Most of them needed a little bit more refining, so just doing that back and forth right now to get everything ready to go. So now I will just give overview. So this is a lot of what I provided in the memo, an overview of what they're doing with the font. So this pie chart just shows the distribution between the different eligible uses. I'll go into each category, in a little bit more detail, but just so you can get a big picture. It's pretty pretty well split between the different activities. Marketing and promotions is is getting the most funding, with just a little over 400,000.
13 organizations are doing some kind of marketing or promotions for their corridor that is tied with the number of organizations doing events. So 13 organizations are also holding events on their corridors. It's followed by beautification efforts, and that's yeah, I'll go into detail what that includes. Nine organizations are doing beautification efforts. Five organizations are doing public art. Six organizations are providing business support through subgrants to local businesses, and four organizations are doing a a plan, creating a plan of some sort to help them in a variety of ways.
So now, yes, I will go into a little bit more detail in each category. So like I said, 13 organizations are investing in marketing and promotions, spending just a little over 400,000. This includes things like quarter branding. Several corridors are engaging the consultant to do a branding and marketing plan. They're creating print and online business directories, using social media to do storytelling, some paid advertising. One of the corridors is gonna be doing billboards. A lot of several corridors will be doing small business spotlights, mostly on social media or their other communication channels.
And several organizations are doing multilingual and just cultural resonant messaging for their quarter, so that was great to see. And several of the corridors are gonna be dealing with construction either now or in the near future, so, again, just an opportunity for them to collaborate on strategies. And one of the corridors is, gonna be doing some marketing specific to the construction that's planned. An overview of the events happening. So 13 organizations are going to be holding events. It's a mix of, supporting existing events and creating new events. So some examples include Small Business Saturday.
A couple organizations are doing this. I know Rondo Exchange is is going to be holding a Small Business Saturday event. The Fort Road Federation is going to be giving subgrants to 16 they're doing 16 subgrants of $1,000 to do micro mini events. Some of these are community events, can be pop ups, just really get some more activation on West Seventh. An organization is doing a national night out event. Rondo Community Land Trust is supporting their Selby Jazz Fest. Randall Days will be supported. A couple organizations are doing a spring fling event or a summer block party.
Again, there's a tie to construction that's happening when the Rice Tree is going to be doing a celebration when the construction is complete. And the Southeast Community Organization will be holding Spookacular, event this fall. It's passport shopping event. If there's any questions, feel free to pause me. Otherwise, I'll just keep going. Beautification efforts. 10 organizations are doing different beautification efforts. Multiple are doing bike rails and flower basket. So, again, this created just a real opportunity to, like, collaborate, then, you know, do some bulk purchasing and, like, share information on who they're using in the process.
So that's proving to be quite helpful. ESNDC is using funds to for graffiti removal. A few organizations are doing different community cleanup events, and several are planting trees, flowers, and shrubs. Highland the Highland District Council will be clearing bricks that are in disrepair on their median, so that was good to see too. The business support subgrant. So six organizations are using, funding for subgrants to businesses. ISABBA is using just, well, all of their funding for this. And what they're doing is they're actually contracting with ESNDC, who is operating the newly funded,
business mitigation funds that would receive some state funding. $250,000 of state funding is going to support businesses on arcade that that are impacted by construction. So ESABA decided, you know, that was that's great, but, they can use more. So they're they're using the bulk of their funding to to, fund that through the business mitigation fund. Several several organizations will be doing microgrants to businesses for a variety of purposes, and I believe it was the Mike Groveland District Council is going to be doing grants to businesses specifically for beautification efforts.
Five organizations are using their grant for public art, and this is a mix of murals, art wraps. The the Fort Road Federation, they are doing five grants to local artists. So $10,000 each, for two local artists to do some local public art on the seventh. So that was kind of a nice creative use. Grand is going to be, launching a a new what they they're calling Grand Piano, where they will use funds to support the purchase of a grand piano that will kinda rotate different businesses, be available twenty four seven for people to come play the piano outside of participating
businesses. Lastly, I believe, the development of plans. So four organizations are using funds to help them really decide what they need to do. You know, this is really this is seen as a pilot. The expectation is that, you know, we'll be able to continue this program in the future, so, people were encouraged if they wanted to invest a little bit in creating a plan, for a future that would be, you know, good use of funds. And so Hamline Midway Coalition, they're using the bulk of their funding on this. They're engaging consultants to do a branding, placemaking, and events plan. So this is for the the Hamlin Selling Intersection mostly.
I'm sorry, University Selling Intersection. ESNDC is going to be using just a portion of their funds to help them create a management plan for their uniquely Eastside Festival that will be happening next year. And the Greater Eastside Community Council is creating a marketing plan, and the Southeast Community Organization is going to be doing an evaluation community engagement strategy. So a pretty good mix. And then I just wanna talk a little bit about the storytelling. You know, we really are wanna do a good job of letting people know what's going on, not just the corridors, but the residents.
And so we've, drafted so this is all still pretty much in draft form, but have a logo that we'll be using. This will be part of the signs the sign specifications that these organizations will use. And, yeah, well, you know, they're gonna be putting on their website and really try to create this consistent branding. And then, also, we're billing out the current commercial corridor website. So each corridor will have its own card, these are called. And then you'll click on that, and it'll go specific to the corridor page where you can see what they're planning to do.
And then we'll update it when we have pictures and updates on the progress and just share, you know, really just do the storytelling about how funds are being used to support these corridors. And then quickly, I'll just go over the next step. So like I said, our goal is to get under contract by the end of this month. We're on track to do that. And then this is a pre disbursement program. So right away, people receive 80% of their funds. And then, yeah, just be updating that web page and continue to give you updates. The next every organization will, be submitting a quarterly report to us.
And so then the first one is due September 30. So I'll use that to help inform my next update to you all. So I believe that is all. So, yeah, if there's any questions, happy to take them. Thank you so much. I see Commissioner Provostki's hand. Thanks, Chair Johnson. Yeah, super, super exciting update. I know all of us are very supportive of the program. I want to particularly call out one element you spoke to toward the end, the upfront disbursement. I know many of us, I'm sure, have heard this, but one of the challenges, like with our STAR program, for example, the reimbursement nature of it,
essentially, especially if it's a larger gift, the irony is the larger the gift on the STAR side, actually the more challenged the reimbursement is because essentially you have to somehow come up with the cash and then bring it back. So I understand there's risks with that front disbursement or pre disbursement, but I really appreciate that part of this program. It just helps ensure the progress actually starts up front versus all of the headaches of trying to get things capitalized. And as someone who's had, like, personal experience in the microgrant space, I know how tough and sometimes overburdened,
like, the process and procedure of getting dollars funneled out can be. So the fact that we're already starting to get close to flowing is really exciting just because I know every little bit you don't know which thing can help a corridor get a little more attention and then a little more support and then, you know, more energy. So just fun to see all the different ways corridors decided to use these. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, chair. Thank you, commissioner Brotsky. I I agree. I think that's a real yeah. It's it's unique that we've been able to do this, and people are very appreciative. I think that's just one, you know,
takeaway I have is everybody's really, really thankful and excited about this opportunity. Thank you. And Commissioner Jules Vice Chair Jules. Excuse me. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. I just want to also express my appreciation for this program. In Ward 3, we have Grand Avenue. And, in the McAlester area, there's a lot of construction happening there. And I know that the, the community and the businesses really appreciate, the opportunity with this funding to support the community and the businesses during this this time of major reconstruction. And there's also construction at McAlester.
There's just a lot happening happening in that area. And I think that that really represents, just an example of what this money can really be helpful for when we're making these big investments in our infrastructure. Like, we can still support our businesses at the same time. So thank you so much. Absolutely. Thank you. Yes. I feel I echo the same kind of sentiments of Commissioner Verbaski and Vice Chair Joe simply on the elements of appreciation. I sincerely appreciated the report. I will just say, Ms. Burton, like the ability to review it and just kinda see it in real time was part of the reason why we asked for it to just kinda be in the
presentation mode, because it's really great to just see how it's been able to be spread in different ways across the city, and I think as well, and most importantly, in a direct response to what, the organizations and their communities feel like they most need right now. You know, I will say that on the East Side, with Isaba and Arcade Street right now, with the state being able to contribute for the first time some form of mitigation funding for the construction that's currently happening there, being able to see these resources go towards, assisting businesses with that marketing piece or even just being able to access this new
funding source, is a really unique opportunity. And as we gear up for E7 to have I wouldn't say similar, but have construction as well next year, I'm looking forward to kind of seeing how that works, especially in this capacity, how the marketing goes forward, how the mitigation fund that they have created with state funding, can support those corridors. And then even just seeing on the flip side then, other organizations being able to do kind of like the pieces that people don't often get to do, like the flower planting, the tree planting, the kind of fixing up and investing investments in the city that makes people love
to, like, walk down the sidewalk and see what each corridor has to offer. So for me, it's just really cool to see how folks you know, what other uses that have went beyond, I think, some of the initial guidelines as intended. So it's really cool to see that come to fruition. Commissioner Bowie, did I see your hand? Yes. Thank you. I was just going to pile on to the positivity and appreciation, here. But especially in Ward I with the recent announcement of, Midway closing, I think, is really a great opportunity where resources meet the challenges, for particular areas.
I just wanted to highlight the events, that's taking place. I know as a council, we've been examining how to invest in events and festivals. So it's really, it's exciting that, some of these event organizers and business owners have a diversity of different resources they can tap into from the city to support their initiatives. And also, lastly, the beautification efforts. You know, as someone who gets a lot of complaints about graffiti removal and community cleanups and where we can get more tree canopy.
It's, you know, like, nearly a quarter million dollars going into that across the city, I think, is incredible. So, supporting it, I'm happy to see it. I'm happy to attend, a lot of these events and, and also look at ways that it can leverage state dollars. I think one of the things I'll recommend, too, maybe through the HRA or maybe the policy, committee, is, the state vitality funds, that just was implemented. And I believe the St. Paul Port Authority is, managing those funds for small businesses, alongside the,
Rice Street Corridor and or Council Commissioner Burleigh. Any other comments related to the item? Okay. Commissioner Perbovsky? Thanks, sir. Just a quick one. I don't want to blow past the other really crucial part you mentioned, which is having those monthly roundtables and having that support both from you, but then also that sort of peer support and learning. In my experience, typically, the risk of small micro grants like this are where the nature of them being small and nimble is you're giving them to folks who might not otherwise be resourced. And that means they might not have the sophistication to jump through all these hoops
and find ways of even the fact of multiple people getting bike racks, multiple people getting planters, all those benefits of that sort of not feeling alone and isolated and trying to problem solve brick by brick, solving them as a group and even with staff support is a really big part of that program design that makes me optimistic because there are times where the microgrant space can start to drift into like a cynical, risky space. And this is I feel very happy and confident based on a lot of these details you put in there. Thank you. 1000%. As always, Commissioner Wrofatsky,
we are on the same page, same wavelength here. Well, thank you so much for just being able to come and present in front of us, Ms. Byrne. It was really great to just kind of see it come to fruition. I love the report again just because it was really easy to digest. But I think just being able to show folks, like, this is what happens when you have an ability to, I think, give flexible dollars directly to the districts that you're trying to serve, directly to the communities and neighborhoods, like folks make use of it in different ways that are relevant and beneficial to
them. So just really appreciative of the feedback and the first phase. I'm looking forward to the next quarterly report. As we head into the heart of budget, it will be nice to just take a minute and probably look at it and see like another positive outcome. So appreciative of you and your team and to the whole economic development team as well. Thank you guys for kind of leading with this, taking it. Thank you, Chair Johnson. Thank you, commissioners. Item number three is staff report, SR 20 five-one 140, HRA owned land development updates.
All right. So as you guys have been hearing me say a few different times, we really want to hear from, commissioners related to HRA land that we have in our respective boards that we want to see us do something with or us actually move towards not owning. And I think that comes from just the need for a development to happen all across the city and in all of our neighborhoods. And so I think we all aspire to be like Ward 3, where there are no HRA owned properties there. But for those of us that still have pieces of land that we want to see you know,
vitality, housing opportunities, economic development opportunities, businesses, and neighborhood investment. This is phase one of that, with the actual update on priority HRA owned sites, because we want to also hear what the city is already working on. So I'll hand it over to Director Newton. We'll hopefully hand it over to Denny. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, commissioners. I'll just add this is going to be kind of a two part presentation. We're focusing today on some, pieces of property that we have HUD deadlines in order to get, disposed of and redeveloped. And we want to also tell you about a few projects that we've recently done that you'll be able to see that are on the market,
so maybe you can help find buyers for those. And then in August, Deputy Director McMahon will be bringing another presentation on the policy the sort of strategy on the remainder of the balance of our land and some of you all's priority, property. So I'll turn it over to principal project manager and supervisor, Daniella Lorenz. Awesome. Thanks, Director Newton. Hello, commissioners. Daniella Lorenz, principal project manager. And I have the great fortune of supervising our project managers on the economic development team as well. So as director Newton stated and chair Johnson, this is an update kind of generally,
mostly on our priority, like our critical kind of next three to four month sites that we're looking at. We have lots and lots of sites in the city that we've got plans for, that we'll be talking about kind of ongoingly through the next couple of months. So I wanted to start with some context about what the HRA does own. So currently, we own about 200 parcels of property across six of the seven council wards. There are no, HRA owned properties in Ward 3. But every other ward has a few properties, some more than other. Many of these are pretty small, difficult to develop properties, that might not necessarily be suited for these larger developments or even single family home
developments. But they could be combined, into developable parcels given to, next door neighbors as side lots. There's lots of different ways that we can use HRA owned land. Properties are acquired using a variety of different funding sources. Typically, we do use either HRA general fund, CDBG, or what we'll be talking mostly about today is this neighborhood stabilization program fund. And with that, different funding comes with typically different types of strings or outcomes that we need to see on those properties, which can make, developing, kind of offloading these properties a little bit higher touch than maybe just selling them
to somebody who is interested in, you know, putting a house on it or a commercial building. So in the short term, like I said, the next three to four months, staff is primarily focused on disposing of or selling all remaining NSP or neighborhood stabilization program properties. This is due to those HUD deadlines that we've imposed. NSP is a program that started during the great foreclosure crisis and the great recession in the early 2000s. And this is our opportunity to, work through the remaining. We've got maybe half a dozen, a few more than that, of these properties left that we just need to come up with plans for and
start executing on them. And then for the remaining property, the other, you know, nine hundred and one hundred and ninety four properties that we have, We are working together as SAS on understanding what information might need to be gathered about those and then what we can do before we can actively start advertising those properties. Director Newton said deputy director McMahon will be presenting more of that at the end of So competitive processes that have strict deadlines, very specific things we want in a proposal. And they tend to be pretty staff time intensive. Things that we do good for larger,
kind of, high opportunity properties as we would say. Then we have unsolicited proposals or kind of direct proposals, which means anybody can kind of come up the street and say, hey, I see that you have something for sale at 123 Main Street. I'd like to put something on that. They talk to us. We decide if it's a complete proposal. Then we go through the process of, notifying about those properties. Then we, of course, use a lot of our properties for garden sites. So these are, are either through license agreements that we have with community organizations or other groups to
garden these sites to use them as community gardens. I alluded to side lot sales. We have a specific splinter parcel policy that, is related to very specifically sized parcels in the city that we can go through a process to just sell them to interested neighbors. In some cases, and there'll be more information on this at the August meeting as well, we're looking at parcels that we can transfer to the city. In a lot of cases, parks and public works are works are already maintaining these properties for us, and they might actually want to use them to augment the park system or as
right of way. So it just makes sense to give them over to the city and let them just have them. They're already paying to maintain it. And then, of course, we've got our parking ramps. Those are mostly concentrated in downtown. Those would be long term holds that we have. One thing that I think is important for us all and I don't think we've specifically talked about at HRA meetings. So we did kind of reorganize the economic development team, into a new team structure. So we've got both of our business services team, which is the team Annie who just presented us on, and that's focused on doing small business work, working on community programs, stuff like that. But then we have our development team.
Now this is not just a team that exists on the economic development team, but they're mostly coordinated by me and my project managers. But this is our opportunity to kind of work really collaboratively. Not that we weren't doing this before, but to formalize the structure of working with our planners, project managers from housing, getting our economic development project managers together. To really dig into these economic development problems and these opportunities that come to us particularly on HRA owned land. But we do it for lots of different types of projects. So the goal of this structure would be to facilitate more development on HRA owned land.
I think that's what we're mostly thinking about it for right now. But we're also talking a lot about servings the front door to developers. Lots of times developers come to us and they just they need to know which door to go through to start getting something done in the city. We wanna start being the team that does that, working, both within our department and then across the entire city because lots of departments touch developers as they go through processes. And then, of course, most pressing and relevant to this conversation is the proactive marketing of available atrium properties. So we can start offloading those and getting them back onto the tax rolls,
developed, and and, coming up with community projects. So I did wanna highlight some projects in flight because we do have a number of things kind of going on. So first would be $5.60 Brunson. This is a project, in Ward 2. So this is an NSP project or an NSP property, that we actually originally gave to this developer through the inspiring communities program. So they're at development stage. You very well may be seeing them coming back to the HRA to ask for some assistance to get across the finish line, but their timeline, assuming we can figure out what makes the most sense for them there, is to start construction this fall. And their end use will be a four attached townhomes available to people at 80
AMI or less, income. And Amani, the developer or construction is the developer on this one. Projects in flight nine thirty York. So this is Ward 6 project. Another NSP project came through the inspiring communities program. Nearing completion, I actually think this is entirely complete and they're waiting to list it. So once we get that listing, we can send it out to everybody. And use single family home restricted 80% AMI. And this is a Dayton Bluff, neighborhood housing services project. Same for 729 BRRRR, also a, development or Dayton's Bluff, neighborhood housing
service project. DBNHS. That's what I always call it. Another NSP project, Inspiring Communities. This one is actively for sale, so you can see more of the beautiful photos that they've got of it, at Zillow there, but we pulled a couple of them out now. Another single family home restricted to 80% AMI. That's a requirement of our inspiring communities program and of, most NSP funding. Another recently completed is 695 Cook. This is an outlaw development project. It's a side by side duplex. So the way that they're intending for that to work is the buyer would, buy the whole complex and then has the ability to rent it out on the
other side. But it's recently closed as in they like sold to their end buyer, there, which is really exciting to get that project across the line. And this is we're getting into our land that is currently for sale. So 1059 Maryland Avenue is another NSP property, our neighborhood stabilization property. This is on the East Side, just under, point two acres, so relatively small site. It's currently zoned b two, which makes it best for commercial development. So you can see in next steps, we are intending to rezone the property to t, A T District, which just gives us more opportunities and options for developers to come in with mixed
use projects, all commercial projects, or all housing projects. It just loosens up the zoning to get more stuff done. It was purchased in 2011 with NSP dollars. So again, it's got those strings, attached there. And then potential end uses is that the site needs a housing outcome. Projects can be mixed use in that way. And this would be one that would be actively advertising on our website or as developers come in and they've got interest, they can sit down with us and then we would talk to them about their proposal and what makes the most sense. Next one would be 674 Wells.
So this is a CDBG purchase or community development block grant purchase property. Also on the East side. Pretty small parcel. What you would see here most likely is a single family home, maybe a duplex, given how small it is. The lot next door is actually for sale as well by the private owner, so it's a possibility that whoever bought his that lot might wanna come in and purchase this lot as well to combine it for a larger site at the end of the day. But, again, we're ready to advertise this one for sale. So if you hear of anybody, send them my way.
But this will also show up on our website and we'll be pushing it out through some of our communication channels as well. Now we've got ten forty six Arcade. This is a property that we actually purchased with HRA dollars. So this has got the most flexible potential end uses, I would say, here for this one. Currently Zone T 2 or traditional neighborhood. So it can be used for lots of different, and outcomes. Given the size, you know, multifamily, like a smaller multifamily or a mixed use development, and on a corridor to support quite a bit of density, right on arcade, was something that we would like to see here.
But open to all sorts of proposals and interested to see what the development community might be willing to do this. And I do want to mention priority properties with active interest. So there's seven additional properties that will be coming forward in various ways to this body in the next couple of weeks, where we have gotten proposals on them. They'll be going through that early notification system process outlined in our sales policy that we need to work through. But very exciting housing opportunities, from developers, smaller scale developers, which is something that we really prioritize with a lot of our HRA owned web,
lots as well. So more to come. I wish I could say more. I just can't yet. But once I can, you will be hearing from me. That's what I got. Happy to answer any questions or go back, talk more about projects. Well, thank you, Miss Lawrence. I just as you were going through the presentation slides, you know, just a noticeable comment that several of the properties that are kind of most pressing are in Ward 6. And I think about that and how that relates to the Eastside Real Estate initiative and some of the things that are coming up with their quarter pieces and just letting them know kind of I think it would be really helpful to just let
some of the groups know, especially that are actively right now looking at land and opportunities, that we have a few that potentially could be of interest, especially those that have the potential to be mixed use or commercial and residential. There just has been a lot of conversations on the East Side right now about land acquisition and about supporting businesses locally to be able to actually own the building that they're in. And so I just see a unique opportunity to utilize our timeline and our deadlines as well, just to show the interest,
especially to those groups that meet regularly and are frequently thinking about things, especially the ones on, I think it was Maryland and Arcade, just because they're just kind of fit into the conversations. And then I would be remissed if I also didn't say, like, I think Land Bank Twin Cities is also interested in doing work on the East Side Of St. Paul and just being able to talk with them as well, it might be just good to put those especially the Ward 6 properties and properties on the East Side on the radar just so they know that, that could be a potential option for them.
Commissioner Provotsky? Thanks, Chair Johnson, and really helpful presentation. As you hinted, the wards all have different amounts of HRO land. I actually think maybe Ward 4 also has none. I can't remember one lonely parcel. This question may be entirely too much based on my personal proximity to certain empty lots that aren't HRA loaned but are nonetheless still vacant. Is there a sense in when these go up for market of how much risk you all feel of someone sort of purchasing it but not doing the proposed project immediately or in the long run? I my brain. But there's especially with single family lots,
I find, at least, you know, maybe this is papered prior to us allowing the one to four, one to six. That allows a lot more flexibility for what someone can do. But is that is all part of the the calculation? Or when you all put something out, is it pretty clear that something is either on a clear timeline or pretty firm by the time they talk to you? Yeah. Commissioner, thanks for that question. I think that's always in the back of our mind, because when we sell things, we want them to develop. You know, you'll see this in the land strategy that director McMahon will be presenting. There are probably some lots that were a little bit indifferent about what happens on
them. Mhmm. So a lot of our specificity will come with what kind of funding is on those projects, where they exist in the city, and kind of what's going on around them. Mhmm. But, you know, the tact that we're planning on taking to is getting these, developers under some sort of, like, tentative developer status to give them time to make their project work. It also gives us timelines. Right? We operate better when we've got specific deadlines we need to be. So if they're not meeting our expectations, something's not really working, they ghost us. Right? Then we can say, okay, we're gonna take this property back in a certain amount of time.
So I think that's our best tool to be able to, you know, be very clear what we want what we want with these developers, but also give ourselves the opportunity to say, like, we're also not just gonna wait around forever. So Sure. But, yeah, certainly, that is that's a risk, especially with these are hard to develop lots. That's why we own them. Right? Like, if everybody wanted them, they would have been gone already. Right. But because they're so difficult to develop and and particularly the type of developers that are most interested in developing those lots probably need a little bit higher touch sometimes
too, which we're happy to provide. Those are exactly who we wanna grow, and see do more projects in the city. Right. Yeah. I I really appreciate that. Even just within walking distance, even my current hobbling state of walking distance from my house, I can think of probably 10 like, I could literally lose for you 10 different empty single family size lots that are not city owned, but they are still they are still empty. And to Chair Johnson's point, even in my more residential part of Midway, you know, in my head, I think, oh, wow. What if at minimum we could have a family on each of those lots,
let alone multiple families on each of those lots. And what that would bring is more energy to the aside from them literally having a home, more energy to the neighborhood, more folks to go to our parks and libraries. And so every one of these can feel small and individual, but I think every one is a big win. So I appreciate that. Thank you, Commissioner Provostki. All right. Well, I appreciate you all for just kind of taking the time to bring this forward to us, Ms. Lorenz. I think the ongoing conversations that can happen in each of our wards, we've been kind of asking, continuing to ask about just thinking about those of us that have HRA owned land
in our wards. I think this will be a really helpful conversation because I know as we go through this phase and then also the additional presentation, it's just going to be cool to see which ones we should have on our radar, especially if we don't necessarily maybe have a short list. Maybe some commissioners do. But I know that it'll be really helpful to kind of keep in communication with us all on just what goes out when, what maybe we could promote to community partners, what things we how we can be a helpful partner in this endeavor because we for sure want to be able to capitalize on any interest in properties that we
have. And I would say as we head into maybe 2026, especially for those land properties that might be best owned by the city or for the properties that we think might be too small to be developable but we might need to talk to the neighboring owner. I'd be very interested in just seeing how long that list is and potentially taking some time. And the vast majority of priorities that we have as we head into the New Year, but kind of phasing out what that process could look like to really hone in on those opportunities and just really kind of start to dwindle down those properties, but really focusing on the ones that potentially could be resolved or developed with RFP
or potential intentional solicitation. So I appreciate that. That's a great plug for Melanie's presentation at the August. But we're happy to appreciate that. Thank you so much. Item number four, staff report SR 20 five-one hundred and forty one, update on supportive housing budget allocation. All right. So I put this on the agenda for today in part and basically sent you guys an email too earlier, this week. And we've added the three proposals that we received to this agenda as well. So folks have them.
As you all know, I was elected in May as the vice chair of the Heading Home Ramsey continuum. And basically, for me, I had conversations, especially with the governing board, and the steering committee, about the $880,000 allocation that was done by council to the local through the local affordable housing aid, to originally support a supportive housing RFP. That proposal was brought to Heading Home Ramsey and has had different iterations of communications. But as a result of we I've met with several folks.
A few, who I see in the room here, thank you for taking the time to come today. We had a deep conversation about just what the growing needs were at this time for some of our partners that were in the emergency shelter space, supportive housing space, kind of all around services piece. And they talked about this $880,000 allocation. There was a proposal that was submitted from the steering committee before I became a part of the governing board that was re heard. And then there were a couple additional proposals that came from, providers directly from the committee directly.
One, speaking to kind of emergency prevention, which was submitted by Neighbourhood House that was a piece about their, their both their rental assistance and their kind of deposit assistance piece that they have in their programs to help prevent individuals from catering to evictions or catering into the cycle. And then there was another proposal that was submitted by several different emergency shelter providers because LAHA has multiple uses. And so the question that I kind of wanted to be able to talk with you all about and why I thought it was important to bring to this meeting
is because tomorrow the governing board will meet. And I thought it was beneficial to really pose the question to this body and have an open discussion about the council's intent. And then if we were amenable to some of the different proposals, if we had a chance to review the proposals, had questions about them, both I see several emergency shelter providers that are here that could speak to or even just answer questions surrounding the proposal that was supporting the operation costs for several, different shelters in our area. And then I also see Mary Jo in the audience from Resy County,
and she would also be able to talk about the Move Up Minnesota program. And then if there are any questions about the Neighborhood House piece, I just want to share, like, several of these organizations work to get some of these proposals drafted with half of the time, of what you would probably expect. And so the main reasons why that really happened was because there was a question of, is this the best direction for these funds? And I think that that really stems from where I'm asking you all because we made the change. Council made the change last year as a recommendation on the part of the budget process to basically put this $880,000
towards supportive housing RFP. That's what we had given the instruction, and that was what was adopted in the 2025 budget. That is what has been communicated as the intent. But I wanted to temp check with us all about that because I think that will help guide where the next where my next question is. So I hope folks have had a chance to review my memo that was sent to you all. But I wanted to pose that question and see if any commissioners had immediate feedback about that question. Would is this body open to the $880,000 staying to supportive housing? Or are they amenable to potential recommendations from the steering committee on small alternative proposals?
Commissioner Buie. Thank you, chair Johnson. I just have a clarification question. So are you asking particularly around, like, the RFP? Because it sounds like the RFP has already been issued. People have submitted their proposals. And we are now and is this in the review and making a decision on who granted the proposal, or are we Yeah. So designing our An RFP has not been put out. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. So that clarification. So, basically, what what happened with the supportive housing RFP money, so that it has not been spent, has not been allocated.
But, the governing board, including the deputy mayor, and several other, community members Heading Home Ramsey brought it to Heading Home Ramsey and said, this is what we're thinking. How do we want to best utilize it? Through those conversations, essentially, what came up about that is, hey, if we're going to put $880,000 towards something, it may not just be supportive housing right now. We might need to consider supporting emergency shelters. We may want to think about reinvesting in additional prevention things, prevention services, because that was pretty much how the discussion has transformed over time. And so the proposals you have in front of you,
one of them was submitted from the governing board because they were looking at our original intent, a supportive housing RFP. And that was the Move Up Minnesota program, proposal that was submitted by staff and the Heading Home Ramsey team. And this was as a response to what the council kind of communicated was the intents and the budget that reiterated that purpose. And this was proposed as the potential solution to that as a use of funds. As that conversation went along and as time progressed, you had two additional proposals that were brought up as actually,
these may be more of the prominent needs at this time if we were going to make best use of the $180,000 that was allocated. And all three of these proposals are eligible between LAHA, but it's really just a matter of and I think these conversations are also having, and I will say, within the mayor's office as well. But here in this body, we want to make sure that I want to make sure that I echo back to the governing board what I hear here today about, again, just how do folks feel do people feel strongly that, say, dollars 180,000
have to stay in supportive housing? Chair, I have a quick question, just a matter of procedure. Are you just looking for comments? Yes. Yep. I'm looking for comments today. I'm looking for general feedback today. I'm looking for thoughts on the proposals that were submitted, because this is on the agenda for tomorrow at the governing board meeting. And I also included, just for the community's, standpoint, included the results from some of the the initial pro like, the initial, group of folks that dedicated their time to talking about this very thing and heading home Ramsey. And for recap, we had
about 20, let's see, quick math, like 27 or so people in attendance, but maybe like 30. But the proposal that came out of that group as the most urgent at this time was the emergency shelter proposal, which was not the supportive housing RFP fees that we had designed. But that was the recommendation that came out of the small group of people that met. The second one that had the second highest number in support was the submission from Neighborhood House and the prevention methods and the Minnesota Move Up Program that actually was the supportive housing intent,
piece that was echoed. Although it had three, three votes of the group, it still was worthwhile to bring to this group because we would be essentially recommending something that was not what the council originally intended. And I just want to make sure that that is not originally intended. And I just want to make sure that that is not going to raise any red flags. Commissioner Prabodzke. Yeah. Thanks, sir Johnson. Appreciate the sort of unique situation here. I think part of your letter included or at least I may be paraphrasing with the phrase that all of these are good options in the sense that all of these are things we would want to be funding.
You know, if we could be funding all of them at this level, we would. I I think my comfort level with the the shelter option is is fairly high. You know, many of these we've seen present to us, and we now need more resources to say nothing to take away from the other options. But, particularly, I found the amount of support from the group, at least in the summary you provided, to match my comfort level too. You know, a lot of these facilities are either in in my ward or near my ward, but many are in your wards. And I I just find the work that they do to be so critical.
So I I definitely don't have a discomfort with the shifts to that proposal. I think that would I would have no discomfort with that being where the group went. Thank you, Commissioner Prodowski. And that feedback is helpful. And I you know, I want to just encourage everybody, like, weigh in. While folks are kind of still digesting, I'll share, although Commissioner Yang was not able to be here today, she did send all the answers to her questions in advance for me to also share with us. And I just want to reiterate, I think, yes, like, one of the things I heard in feedback when people who were talking,
and just presenting was, like, you know, I wanted to make sure that folks know they weren't, like, competing against each other, because I truly felt like these proposals were really great. But I think one of the beauty of one of the unique things that happened, really, was, like, each proposal basically went from multiple conversations, multiple data points, and direct experience, you know, that kind of catered to all three submissions. And so there really wasn't a bad option or a bad direction to go. I, council member Yang just kinda shared that she sees that need kind of that go throughout, like, all of these areas. It was her preference to stick to the original,
intent, and I think that was in part because she was just sharing that, like, she's struggling with the she would love to support multiple different, efforts and potentially dividing them up when we had a clear objective seemed a little bit incogncive for her. And so I just wanted to share that with us all because I'm adding all perspectives to it for the conversation. Yeah, Commissioner Kim. Yeah. I, had a chance to say this to you directly, I think, during our check-in. I am also supportive of an alternative for LaHA resources to go towards emergency shelter beds and operations.
It just I mean, even with the Listening House here earlier today, but also just recognizing, as we talked about in our check-in that the growing need in our ward for when the Hart team is out and they're they, yes, are in really strong partnership with folks that can provide housing and beds so that when someone says, yes, they have something that they can go to and recognizing there's just a limited number of beds in the city at any given time. So my personal investment is that we grow that supply so that even if folks
were to enter emergency services and heaven forbid go back out and reestablish in an encampment, they've worked through the process and can start building trust to that process to know what resources are available and just even if they might have fits and starts, they're still on the continuum. And the other thing that I want to note for one of the proposals is that it works in tandem with the coordinated entry and the continuum of care, and those things were massive wins for our homelessness response in the region. So those for those reasons, I'd be very supportive of shifting the law dollars towards more emergency shelter personally.
Thank you, Commissioner Kim. George Newton, did you have a thought? It seemed like you had a thought. I don't understand. I'm just I'm thinking out loud. I'm just making sure that I'm following if there was a budget allocation that needs to be, like, redirected. Like, I wanna I'm I'm just trying to make sure that we're not stepping on, like, should there be an action or or anything like that. I'm I'm not trying to step on you. I just wanna make sure that we that we follow whatever process we have to follow. Yeah. And and I will say that I think so, one, this still has to come back to the governing board tomorrow as well for Heading
Home Ramsey. And I feel strongly that that process kind of loop should be closed in the sense of we had a subcommittee well, not a subcommittee. It was, like, unofficial. It was like we had a group we had several of us that dedicated additional time to talk about this particular item. And then, so tomorrow will be the full, like, the full governing board that'll be in attendance, and that'll be expected throughout the time to give an update, which at that time I plan to do. As far as some of the logistical pieces, there might be an action by whether the HRA has to do it or the council has to do it. I think it would be city council, but I don't wanna jump ahead of that.
But I that's why I'm just sharing. Like, I kind of wanted to bring it here because it's what worked with our agenda to get it in front of us with the time we had, especially with, council president Naker being out today. Yeah. And so that was, like, the you know, it was brought here. It's housing related, bringing it through. But I think from the, like, what will we need to do piece, I think both myself and Deputy Mayor Trencher, who are we represent the city on the Right. Steering committee, we basically have to we had to check with our group, check with our piece. You're just taking a temperature check.
Yes. And if there if, in fact, a proposal comes back, that's a little bit different direction from the budget And then you would have to bring that. Right. I just didn't want that to be a surprise to us. And then, you know, we make a lot of efforts, and we get you know, I will say that I think that, again, all these will be supported and Yeah. But the headed home residency team because, folks, this is the work that they do. Yeah. And at the same time, it was overwhelmingly in support of the emergency shelter response subgroup. And so I think that hearing it in front of the governing board, getting the feedback from them of,
like, if that's a comfortable pivot, If that's the direction that their recommendation is, that's the recommendation I'd be bringing back to this group to proceed with. But I didn't want that to come as just completely as if they could surprise. For us. Understood. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Just in case there was a need to, you know, pivot. But, yes, Vice Chair Jones. Thank you, Chair Johnson. I appreciate, like, you explaining this whole process and what this looks like, and I appreciate your role, role in this and and pulling all this together for us. I I think, you know, I too am am open to, like, alternatives for, for this funding that,
you know, might be different from our from our previous kind of budget allocation. And, there's you know, reading through these, there's just so many different needs, and those needs continue to evolve. And we're really, facing a lot of challenges. And so I trust kind of what the board's work and all the experts on this and what they choose to recommend. Thank you. I appreciate that, Vice Chair. And, yeah, I think the conversation so far has been really fruitful. And honestly, I've been learning a lot just from how folks are responding right now to the direct, federal hoopla. Mhmm. Commissioner Bowie.
Thank you. And like, council member Jones, our vice chair Jones had mentioned, I do appreciate just, like, getting you in the details and the process and just, you know, we're all just catching along. Mhmm. I did get a chance to, receive these items. I did not know the proper context in terms of what you wanted from me. But now that you have mentioned, you know, how it's tied to heading on Ramsey and we have a decision, A decision's, gonna be made tomorrow. Particularly from, like, ward one, I think what's really important is, you know, the impact and how many families we're able to serve.
I think, is it makes sense, for those who are the stakeholders at the table to want to, pivot or shift in such a way to support emergency shelter because that is kind of the immediate need, that many of our, communities are facing. I do have a question just to also just, you know, have a a a wider range of understanding of the context. For the LAHA, because I from my, understanding, this was for, like, development. So it's the 800 understanding that it's really small amount for, like,
development. That's not gonna be able to accomplish a project. But was the LAHA dollars for development, capital improvement? Or because when you say, like, supportive housing, was this to build supportive housing or subsidized supportive housing? Yeah. I mean, I think that's a great question. I've done some and I will just say, like, like, I think the piece of that, though, that was missing is what was captured in the budget language from this year. And, admittedly, it was quite vague. And so in the piece of just, like, what what line item we have right now, it truly says supportive housing,
RFP, and services. That's pretty much what we have. And I was able to check that and verify that with our OFS team. So just to put in our pieces, I I think that there was a few things for context if you might, like, remember. Former council president Nacquer also served on the Heating Home Ramsey team, and at the time, we also learned of the clog. And so, just it's like what Ramsey County's, staff has referred to as if you go back to the move up Minnesota, proposal. It's like you flip the page over. It's on page two. This piece, page two and three, kind of there's a graph.
And then if you go to the to to the actual, like, actuals and functional zero and what we have, basically, the actuals explains where the clog lies. And so I might be very simplistic of just as you see the stick figure images, the low like, you see where the lower amounts start to trail off, and that's because there's less resources and also just, like, a, a less amount of people with a longer amount of time transferring from each step to each step. So we have a lot of people that are getting stuck in that coordinated entry piece,
not actually moving to supportive referrals, not moving to supportive housing, and then not exiting the program permanently to actual private housing opportunities. And so this supportive housing investment, I think, stemmed from how do we invest in that piece, knowing that there was a need along the continuum. And so right now, that was that kind of actual, obviously, in 2023 and then the data being found in 2024, I don't think it took into account at the time some of the federal cuts
that we're experiencing right now and some of the growing numbers that we're seeing, which I think has posed this question of, is now the right time to to do that? And the answer is yes. But and then there is a direction recommendation shift to potentially, support some of our emergency shelter providers at this time. So it's like I don't know. It's the I guess, the piece of development. The answer is, could have been, not really. Looking at the LAHA pieces and what's eligible uses, they also share, supportive housing serve and I think in supportive housing and services is a eligible use under LAHA state statute.
So Yeah. Yeah. That was my one question is just making sure that the because there are very specific eligible uses of LAHA. So I'm sure you've already run this trap, but just making sure that what's being proposed when it does come back is law eligible. Yeah. Yep. And that's where, I think that to me, I think I have enough, especially from I guess, is there anything else that people want to get clarified? I just I think I'm Yeah. Commissioner Kim. Sorry. I think I'll let comments then. Are you and just I think the lack of breaks today. I'm trying to,
like, rub some brains cells together. Are you then suggesting you're not suggesting then that the one that it sounds like we're leaning towards would not be an eligible expense for LAHA and that we would have to change something or that it is an eligible expense for LAHA? Chair, commissioner, I'm just suggesting that we want to verify that it is. If it's a pivot away from supportive housing to shelter, for example, it has to be supplementing, not supplanting, and there's specific language around that. And there's just we just I'm just flagging that has specific uses and rules.
And and so all I'm flagging is that whatever it ends up being, you know, allocated for is is, in fact, an eligible use. Just make sure that we run this through the details. We're definitely aligned in that. And I think, I will share that looking at, looking I get the thumbs up from from our Ramsey County team as well. But, when you're looking at the this proposal, I just want to reiterate that this proposal came at a time with a tight deadline that was given to folks to present, but was submitted by providers that would be impacted by this as well. And so we also went through kind of,
like, a full through of, like, what LAHA was and where the eligible uses were. But at the same time, a 100%, yes. I think whatever direction was going forward with, would be going forward with, the governing board, but it's even after this piece, would have to be eligible within LAHA funding. But, that piece was initially vetted just in some of our consideration. And I think some of the things that are here don't pose any red flags to me at this time. But I would just share, like, that would be a part of the review process. Because my assumption is that this this proposal will turn into a full fledged,
like, implementation plan and pieces that, you know, basically, we will get our magic staff team and musicians to do the things that they usually do, which is to find a way to execute this proposal. Mhmm. Yeah. That sounds fantastic. Yeah. Much more of a flag and a curiosity around it more than anything because, you know, later today at 03:30, we're gonna have our legislative, update. And so, like, should there be any issues or if law, how the state law is sort of the the thing that we run up against, there's an opportunity for us to figure out how we address that in the next loaded session because I think the need is there.
It doesn't change it wouldn't change my comfort level and actually I think would make me that much more determined to ensure that we're investing in new emergency shelter options. So it's just a name. If there are any issues, consider me a partner and just looking forward to seeing the recommendation. But my risk level for a pivot is very low and looking forward to seeing the fully implemented design. So yes, thank you for reading this board. I appreciate it. Of course. I guess, yes, commissioner Boats. Yeah. Go ahead. Had a lot of clarity. I do wanna highlight something that I think was worth mentioning,
for tomorrow, something that I and, again, I haven't had a chance to read thoroughly, so this is is not a a recommendation, but I just want to point out, what I do appreciate with the proposal, given by Neighborhood House. It shows a allocation percentage, particularly of different budget categories of, like, administration, supportive services, and direct assistance. Mhmm. What we what I have heard particularly when it, when we are making decisions, particularly over funding goals, a lot of my constituents have, had mentioned that they you know,
there a lot of organizations get funding for capacity and administrative needs. And, the people who really need those services and need those fundings, like, direct services or direct assistance, you know, aren't really always, like, receiving those dollars. Right? So we really wanna make sure that I really wanna make sure that, there's a impact where people are, you know, receiving these funds to stay sustainable to whether it is, for housing or, you know, whatever type of use, discretionary type of use. Mhmm.
That majority of that, funding goes directly to the that they serve. So Yeah. And I believe that is represented in other areas. I see some proposals. Some of the funding is to sustain staff, which I totally understand because, like, the frontline workers, like, are doing the the jobs, and we wanna make sure, people are sustained. So I just wanted to highlight that. Thank you. And, Commissioner Burley, I appreciate the points and just kind of the the code message back. I I hear you when you just talk a little bit more about, like, yep. They're going to need to have some specifics a little bit further around,
like, where we get these these resources, what they do they actually go towards? Because, again, we'll need to have that piece of just what's eligible and what's not. And so having that breakdown, I think, will be helpful so we can see the direct impact services of people being served by the dollars given. So I, I appreciate that piece and definitely will echo that, especially just because I think what I anticipate probably happening is we'll give the update, and then there will most likely be, like, a couple more meetings after that, with some of the groups that, presented this proposal and,
the deputy mayor, myself, and, probably members of Ramsey Ramsey County's team as well to figure out just what that actually means for next steps as far as, like, actual actualizing this budget item, like, this budget line item that hasn't moved this year. So I appreciate that. That kinda gives me at least some answers to that. I really wanted to check-in with you guys, and I do appreciate you guys doing that with me in, like, this in this setting and this forum. It's like an honorary, like, org meeting that came to HRA, but I really appreciate you guys for doing that with me and doing that exercise with me. I just didn't wanna get ahead a little and wanted to make sure that if
I was speaking tomorrow or giving an update that I was at least echoing the sentiment of my colleagues. And so just appreciate you guys doing that exercise with me, and the direction being given. There doesn't I don't think there needs to be an action at this time, Director Newton, but what I will say is that, like, whether it's here or at the council, we will most likely have another update from this, but probably be more extensive on directions because there's a couple of steps that need to happen beforehand. But I just wanted to make sure this wasn't a no starter before we have folks decide to go in a direction that and then get here and potentially not have the support.
But sounds like we might. So appreciate that. I don't see anything else on the agenda. And I'm fine with giving this some time back because today's been busy, and I still have to eat. So I'm gonna go do that. This meeting is adjourned.