Commission on Persons with Disabilities - Regular Meeting

And then I have to do the Facebook. Are we live? We are live. Yes.

Great. Welcome to the 10/26/2005 special meeting of the Social Service Human Relations Board. It is a Wednesday night. This meeting is being recorded. The chat function has been turned off.

If members of the public would like to comment on items, please digitally raise your hand or email graciamena hayon, gmannahayon@alamutaca.gov. Comments submitted during the meeting before the conclusion of the public time section will be read into the record. Her email address is also on the meeting's agenda. If you are calling in by phone, please email Ms. Benahayon and we as we cannot see you, raise your hand.

You can also dial 9 to raise your hand, and we will call on you. Public comments will be limited to three minutes. The public has two opportunities for public comment. First, under agenda item two, public comments. Comments from the audience may concern matters not on the agenda, but must deal with matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Social Service Human Relations Board.

Second, under each agenda item, there will be an opportunity for public comment on that specific item. Each item follows a format similar to city council meetings. First, after presentation, we will ask if there are any clarifying questions from SHRUB members or staff. Second, we will ask if there are any public comments on this agenda item. And finally, after public comment, we will open the item up to board discussion and a vote if recommended. This meeting is called to order at 07:03PM. And we will do we'll all of roll call voting together. So roll call, Bertie Wolf. Here. Diane Yabishiroomi.

You're muted, Diane.

Here.

Gerald Bryant? Here. Michelle Buckholz? Here. Samantha Green? Here. And Scott Means? Here. Board member Omi is joining virtually. Please briefly state your reason for attending virtually today.

Fatigue? No. It's like too many nights in a row to be at City Hall, so

I asked for for to be excused tonight. Okay. Thank you. And then we also have joining us from housing human services, Simone Falls, division manager, but please be advised this is a limited public forum. Comments from the audience may concern matters either on or not on the agenda, but must deal with matters subject to the jurisdiction of the Social Service and Human Relations Board.

Comments will be limited to three minutes. Comments concerning matters on this evening's agenda will be heard when that item is called. If speakers fail to follow these rules, they will be warned. And if they continue to disregard the rules, their opportunity to speak will end. If speakers disregard the rules oh, sorry. Are there any speakers?

There is no public comment and no hands raised in the Zoom to indicate public comment.

Okay. Well, then we can move to item number three minutes. Three a's review and approval minutes for 09/25/2025.

I I motion to approve.

I'll second.

Motion, and we have a second. We will do roll call. As I said, Bernie Wolf? Yes. Danny you Diana Masheromi?

Yes.

Jill Bryant? Yes. Michelle Buckholz?

Yes.

Samantha Green? Yes. Scott means yes. It's unanimous. Six. Six zero. Okay. Moving right along to item number four. Four days review volunteer of the of of the year award. Winner recommendations.

The Road Round Committee will be awarding the volunteer of the year honor to Alameda residents that have served and uplifted their community through extensive, meaningful volunteer work. The Home created and disseminated a survey throughout the community to accept nominations for this award when closed on 10/10/2025. The Road Home has selected potential finalists for the award, which will be brought before the SHRUG today for discussion. The board will vote to oh, the board will vote to accept these nominations on 12/04/2025 Schrubbe. If approved, these individuals will be honored and recognized by the Schrub.

Sorry. I stumbled a little bit there, but I I didn't wasn't I hadn't read that part. Didn't know we made that decision yet, so that's great.

If I may just add, I we sent this before the discussion about whether you want to vote or not, so you can still decide not to vote if you'd like to.

Oh, okay. Thought it was pretty good afterwards. Okay. We can talk about that later. Okay. Because if if we if we don't reset it, not voting, then we don't have to wait till December 4. So let's go ahead and write to the presentation award nominees by Aggressia and the Roanoke Committee.

Great. So I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen with the list of names that the committee has is recommending for award. So we had folks submit recommendations, nominations, and they completed about four or five questions describing how these folks go above and beyond in their volunteer efforts. There was so many good ones that the committee could not just pick one adult and one youth to recognize and celebrate. So there are three for each category.

As mentioned in the staff report, there were different criteria that they reviewed, and that was the community impact, their commitment and dedication, their leadership and inspiration, and then there were bonus points if this nominee aligned with the social service human relations board purpose and goals. So for the adult category, we have Sister Pat Nagle for the Lifetime Achievement Award. I apologize if I mispronounce names. We have Kate Kasperger for the Social Services Award, Arminda Braca for Human Relations Award. For the Youth category, we have Soliana, Tessfelidesz for the Youth Leadership Award, Sienna Miller for the Youth Services Award, and Tate, which we have a missing last name, but we have their contact information and we'll be reaching out, for the Youth Human Relations Award.

I did want to pass it to the committee to give any comments or other things they want to add.

Well, Sister Pat, she's a wonderful person, she's represented in the community for as long as I've been here, So it makes sense.

Yeah. There are a number of people that nominated her as well. Yeah. Like, getting a lot of, kind of, a few sub language about how amazing Yeah. She is and the amount of service that's been, over the

Oh my gosh. Yeah. She's she's really amazing. And, yeah, it makes sense.

And I just wanna note that a lot of these all these nominees do really fit into our mind, and we really wanted to kind of, like, divide it into like the social services and human relations. So talking about like connections, like

Miss

Graca, who does like a lot of work for Matchstick and a lot of organizational skills and connection in our

in our elder

community. So we're, like, trying to divide it based on that, like, people that are connecting and bringing our community together and those who are serving kind of our overall mission.

Can't recall which one of them, but one of the two youth that starts with the letter s was one of ones that did work for Dignity Village.

Sullyana is on the youth advisory committee. Oh, okay. So it must have been Seliana. Okay. So we might be listening in.

That was that yeah. That's the

first one. Was for ARPD. So she was working with the the young people teaching them to swim. Mhmm. But not as a paid position, but as a volunteer.

Program. So

I think it's gonna be nice about is Sonia gonna be with us tomorrow? Yes. Yeah. She'll be at the showing five as well.

Yeah. There's a lot of It'd be great to be

here. Thank you

for your assistance.

And just for the oh, sorry. For

the No.

I was just

Well, our plan was to have the December meeting, award them, have their invite their nominator to give them the certificate of, like, cupcakes, and we'll do it try to get the city hall or the not Chambers

is booked. I checked today, but I think we can still find a bigger room. So I'm gonna find a bigger room.

But and do, like, a presentation and just Okay. It will be a certificate. I don't have anything. Like, it will be a nice piece of paper, but

I love my handshake.

And then hand and it'll

be framed at the very least. Oh,

cool. My favorite word. Attaboy. There you go. Everybody should get a couple. Alright. Good choices.

Oh, and Kate? Katsberg is also a pediatrician at La Clinica and does this she does a lot of the shower

Shut up and facilities for Yeah.

Like, at Christ Episcopal Church, they have a shower program for the unhoused, and she has they described countless hours of her volunteering.

She's a showerhead program. Which I

That was the cutest. Oh, yeah. Sorry.

I

think as we do this, we should I think this is like, I'm excited about doing this just to continue of it does feel like we're, like, getting our mission.

That'll be your last meeting of the year, so that'll be nice. Yeah. Yeah. That's

terrific. I think it's a great list, and I'm looking forward to meeting them and learning more about their work. Just wondering if there's gonna be any communications to highlight them.

Meaning social media?

To notify them or to

Or no. No. I mean, to the general public.

Yeah. Social media kind of stuff, maybe.

I don't know. Any any sort of, you know, like, if we could feature them somehow and either through social media or whatever venues, but I I think they're, you know, who they are and what they've done for Alameda should be, you know, publicly acknowledged or known.

Yeah. And then we're on to the library. Yeah. And then we're also talking about in the New Year. So the library has, like, a photo gallery. And they would have, like, if folks are willing to have their pictures and, like, their little bio up there, that we would have them participate in that as well.

Or even in city hall.

Yeah. From lovely paintings down all the way.

I was like, we were kind of disappointed that we don't get to see, like, all of them. Right? Because it's such a cool list of people that are all doing such amazing work. Very hard to choose, folks. But yeah.

So I hope we can get

the post to do something. I feel like the post would, like, like Maybe the

city could do stuff that'll post on social media. Yeah.

I can I'll talk to our communications director. Yeah. Or what if they

can do the little, like, the little bio of each of them that they do on, like, Instagram, how they do The slides. Of little people around the city or whatever. It could be our volunteer award hero. Oh,

we could add we could

ask the, like, you know, the

yeah. The We Are Alameda. Yeah. Like, the

That one. That.

That part.

Okay. Okay. Do

we have any comments from the public

There Do are no hands raised to indicate public comment, and I have not received any other form of public comment.

We can come back to the board. We still have a little discussion to have on what do people think about the need to have a vote.

Also, I think it just helps to solidify that you're all confirming

who you're voting in. Maybe she'll

our our biggest issue we were just considering was the fact that we're trying to do the ceremony on the fourth. I guess, getting the consensus here at least that we do do a vote at least knowing that everyone's going to say yes so it's not an embarrassing situation. No. You don't you don't have to do that? Yeah. Okay. I mean, I think what she's saying is true. If you can have it formally voted on, still do it on the court.

That's We

can't vote now

because it wasn't looking at change. It doesn't.

So the only time it would be a problem is if we got all ready to do the ceremony, and then, like, three of us, we turned rogue and said, no. We don't wanna give it to these people. Gotcha. So if you think that's gonna happen,

then Okay.

Then we have to put hold back and do the ceremony. But I don't really think that's gonna happen.

We could vote never had it before. That fourth would probably be fun because then they can at least see it in actions. There you go. Yeah.

Maybe the the action item would be we the vote would be to formally recognize. Maybe that's the thing. Like, we could use some language to say, like, we formally recognize this on an annual basis. Yeah. Or these are the first inaugural annual

I think it would be true for that. Yeah.

I can't make it all fancy.

You just you can use fancy words. You can say, I would like to proclaim that we're gonna prove this item. Gotcha. But it's not really a proclamation.

You are you are a correct.

Okay. So I think that's ground voting. I think that's good. We're good with that. Alright.

Okay. Now we're moving on to four b. This four b is a recommendation to direct the preparation of a needs statement to confirm the ongoing community needs for the fiscal year 2627 Community Development Block Grant annual action plan to designate the president of the social service human relations board and our board members to review the statement and represent the board at the 12/02/2025 city council public hearing to determine that CDBG public service funds will be prorated for fiscal year 02/2627 based on available funds. And we have a presentation by Andrea Fairley, HHS management analyst.

I will share screen shortly.

Alright.

Andre, you

can take it away.

Alright. So good evening, everyone. Nice to see so many familiar faces. I am Andre Fairley, as you guys all know, a management analyst with the Housing and Human Services division, and I will be presenting on the community development block grant community needs for fiscal year twenty six, twenty seven action plan. With me tonight is Simone Fawz, who is the housing and human services manager, and Gracia Mana Hayon, who is the housing and human services program manager.

Tonight, we will be discussing the housing and community needs for the upcoming fiscal year, and I am happy to answer questions at the end of the presentation. Next slide. Alright. So tonight's goal is, I will go over the community development block grant action plan process so that SHRUB may review and confirm the community needs and direct the preparation of a community needs statement to confirm the community needs for the upcoming fiscal year. In addition, we will be discussing staff's recommendations to fund public service providers for a second straight year.

Please note that this will be dependent on twenty twenty six allocations from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD. Next slide. Alright. What is community development block grant? So this is federal funds provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, also known as HUD.

The CDBG funds are intended to assist low and moderate income persons by developing viable urban communities, which provide decent housing, a suitable living environment, or advancement of economic opportunity. Next slide. HUD required documents. In August 2025, the city submitted a new five year strategic plan, which outlined the housing and community development priority needs that will inform CDBG funding decisions through 2030. To continue receiving CDBG funding, the city must submit an annual action plan to HUD, which details the programs, activities, and resources that will address the housing and community development needs that were identified in the five year strategic plan.

Non housing community development social services continue to be a priority. For the last several years, the Social Service Human Relations Board has provided a refined priority statement that identifies the current and anticipated social service needs in the community. Next slide. Non housing public service priorities identified by Shrub. In 2024, Shrub identified the following priorities for CDBG funded services.

The first priority need being mental health services, and underlined is promotion of healthy relationships, implementation of crisis intervention, and domestic violence awareness. The second priority need was food security and nutrition programs, which details emphasis on serving unhoused, low income, seniors and persons with disabilities and accessibility to healthier food options. The third need was access to housing and emergency shelter, and this entails increasing housing affordability and supply. The fourth priority need was advocacy and coordination, which entails wraparound services to support marginalized and underserved communities. The fifth priority need was age friendly communities, which details inclusion model of engagement integrated with disability and equity initiatives and a livable Alameda for people of all ages.

And the last priority need was social connectedness, which entails community building, diversity, and inclusivity. Next slide. Alright. Stakeholder outreach and community needs assessment. So last year, city staff contacted 39 local service providers and religious institutions to ask questions about the community need.

A total of 15 organizations responded indicating that the need for safety net services for low income individuals and families still exists and should continue to be addressed. Many of the needs that Shrub identified in 2024 are consistent with each organization's goals and objectives. This year, the city did not survey local organizations and providers because staff is in the process of preparing for the next community needs assessment in 2026. The new CNA or community needs assessment will be in alignment with the road home strategic plan, which is central to the city's goals and initiatives to promote social services, make affordable housing more accessible and ultimately end homelessness. Next slide.

Alright. Funding availability. So funding for the next fiscal year is derived from two sources. That is, one, entitlement funds that are allocated by HUD, and two, program income that is generated from CDBG loan repayments. Public service funding is capped at 15% of the fiscal year entitlement allocation plus the program income received in the previous fiscal year.

Program income will continue to be received through June 30. Since program income continues to be received through June 30, staff estimates that how much program income is expected to be received before the end of the fiscal year and the annual action plan will include this estimate. Consequently, all assumptions about program income are based solely on estimates. Those estimates are always revised prior to the submission of the CDBG annual action plan, which will take place in May 2026. Next slide.

Alright. Fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty seven CDBG funding. Given that the federal government has not adopted a federal budget for next fiscal year, HUD may not announce CDBG allocations until late winter, early spring. Because the types of community needs remain unchanged, we are proposing to fund current public service providers for an additional year. When HUD announces awards, each provider will be funded on a pro rata basis.

For fiscal year twenty five twenty six, the city was awarded a CDBG allocation of $1,096,000 and 30 $1,096,362. Based on the interest and loan payoffs received this fiscal year, the city could receive up to $60,000 of program income by 06/30/2026. And as you can see in that middle line, that's the program income that's estimated to be received, and 15% will be 9,000. HUD allows only 15% of entitlement, that top line item, 150,000 plus, previous year's program income to be awarded to public services. Complying with HUD requirements will result in a maximum of approximately 159,000 available for public service providers, and this is just an estimate and a projection.

Unfortunately, CDBG allocate allocations continue to decrease year after year. With that being said, staff will continue to encourage service providers to fundraise and diversify funding sources. Next slide. Alright. Fiscal year 2526 funding allocations.

Here, we have shown the CDBG funded service providers as approved by SHRUB last October in 2024. Staff is asking SHRUB to agree to prorate next year's allocations based on the actual award by HUD and program income that is available in 2026. For example, if the available funds increases by 5%, if filled with the number shown above. Conversely, a 5% d decrease in available funds would be passed through as well. Alright.

Next slide. Action plan schedule. Here are highlights related to the community needs public hearing and the subsequent notice of funding availability and request for proposals. The key dates for SHRUB are tonight and, and, again, on November 3 when the needs letter will be finalized and the December 2 city council public hearing where the SHRUB president will present. This year, SHRUB members will not need to review the public service applications since the community priority needs remain the same, and we will fund the second year of the agreement with the existing service providers.

That is if Shrub approves tonight. On 01/15/2026, staff will post a notice of funding availability and request for proposals. We'll solicit public improvement and affordable housing proposals only. Then we anticipate that HUD will announce CDBG funding awards in late winter, early spring. Depending on when HUD announces the allocations for next year, staff will take either a proposed methodology or actual funding amounts to council at the first meeting in May for approval.

Tonight, we will kick off the first step in the schedule by reviewing and confirming the priority needs that Shrub will communicate to city council for consideration in the upcoming fiscal year. Next slide. All right, fiscal year twenty six, twenty seven needs process. In conclusion, there are three steps to complete the needs process. Tonight, step one, SHRUB hears this presentation, review and confirm priority needs, and direct the preparation of a need statement.

Then step two, SHRUB president means and board members prepare the community needs statement. Lastly, step three, the city council will hold a public hearing to receive public comment and adopt a need statement for the upcoming fiscal year. The funding allocation process will be a separate step, which will go to council eventually in May 2026. Next slide. Alright. And that concludes my presentation. I will open it up for questions and, I believe, public comment.

Yeah. Thank you. Do you have questions? Oh, the the board. Board. Yes. The board. Sorry. The board looked that up.

Do we know based upon that current situation with the federal government, what the anticipated time frame will really be. I mean, right now, we don't know when it's gonna end. So are they really looking at next year before we'll be able to get the information, or is it something that they're gonna just try and press forward with extra fast? I guess that's the easiest way to say it. Are they gonna rush through it and try and get it done as soon as it is, or are they gonna make them wait?

I think that's an excellent question, Gerald. We are all in the unknown at the moment. I think it's it's good to say that because we're dealing with uncertain times. And, I I'll speak to it a little bit more when we do our updates from the housing and human service housing and human services division, but, we're we're not sure. We are working on a contingency plan if we were not to receive funding for these, you know, these next few months, while the government is shut down.

But, you know, we we still we're we're working with everything as we go. We're trying to figure it out kinda as we go. And, I think the city of Alameda is fortunate to, to be able to plan for, the worst case scenario and have a contingency plan. And, of course, Simone and Amy are working on the back in the back end to Aggressi as well, and all of us to to make sure that our service providers and all of our CDBG subrecipients are are taken care of.

Will there be any consideration of diverting funds from other parts of the city's, budget to be able to pick up for some of the shortfalls in in overall amounts?

I would say that's definitely a possibility. We we have been discussing using general fund dollars to to fill the the void if if that were the worst case. I'll let Simone speak to that a little bit more, but that that is our that's part of our contingency plan. Yes.

And then I had a question that I think I passed on about so it's more about the progress reports that you provided us with. It was just knowing if any of the programming there's gonna be any changes to allocations. Just do we know because a lot of the programs are using multiple funding sources to fund these programs. Do we know if anyone's, like, not gonna be able to provide those services because they're not getting matching funds, and so they're cutting those programs? Or are there any services that we're currently funding that are duplicated through other services that we are providing? Did you catch that? Yeah.

That's that's a good question as well. I would say that we we're we're working with our providers during these these difficult times. All of the providers we've reached out to thus far to get, their estimates for this current fiscal year that we're in, have said that they would be able to sustain their services until January 2026. So that's good news. However, I don't think it's sustainable.

And as mentioned with the previous question, we are trying to come up with a contingency plan in in case, we we don't receive our c d v CDBG funds. But I would like to preface that by saying that we've already been approved for 2526 funding, and our HUD funding approval agreement has been partially executed, meaning that the city has already done our part to get it signed and everything. We're just waiting to hear back from HUD, which is ultimately impacted by the shutdown at the moment. So, you know, we're we're in a little bit of of limbo, but we do have a contingency plan in case we don't receive the CDBG funding.

Can you talk more to the affordable housing since we're talking about HUD, the affordable housing piece of it? I think that's kind of that that whole linkage between the improvements and things that were discussed. Can you talk a little bit to that?

Yeah. As in

The specific question about

Yeah. How will how will development be impacted or what

Yeah. I mean yeah. How will it be impacted? Again, we know that there are a lot of services that are needed here in Alameda, and that one is one of the more specific ones. And homelessness is a problem that we don't want to see get worse because there's no service providers getting the money they need. So how do I guess do we have anything in the way of goals set up for the public, for the funds, public improvements, or whatever improvements they were hoping to do? I know there were needs over at certain places for

Do you think there's, like, residential rehabilitation Yeah. Or the actual building of the

affordable Residential rehabilitation staffing. A lot of these questions are about the places that we already have. And so I'm just kinda wondering how will this affect things like staffing at places like Dignity Village? How will it affect things like staffing at the various Village of Love's, places that are specifically working with minimal money. I I mean, I don't know that they're not gonna be included in the CDBG grant, but the funding still comes out somewhere. Right?

So for for our shelter programs, they will be minimally impacted impacted because they're primarily funded through general fund and state funds. Yeah. And the state funds are do not come from the federal government. For affordable housing for the federal for federal funds, that I think that's more of an impact impact that housing authority will feel as far as their vouchers and changes to the voucher process. They've already felt that impact with the loss of the emergency housing voucher.

So there could be a negative impact to affordable housing in that way. We don't typically directly fund. HHS doesn't typically directly fund affordable housing. The residential rehab program could be impacted if you lose CDBG. Right now, there's an understanding that the proposal is to decrease home and CDBG funding and increase other funding.

So, potentially, our allocation could be decreased, but there's other federal funds that may be increased, like ESG and COC funding. So it's just a matter of whenever the government opens up again, let's vote it on and decide. And right now, we are expecting to still get our 2025 allocation as Andre stated. We got our agreement. We signed it.

We returned it, then the government shut down. And so they're not able to sign anything until it opens back up. And we would expect that they would sign it as soon as it opens. So we're optimistic at this time that we'll still receive those funds. But for the 2026 year, it's just unknown.

Thank you. I just wanted to get that linkage out of the way there.

And then I also just wanted to speak to the contingency funding that Andre talked about. The contingency funding our contingency plan is intended to just be a temporary gap fill where we would use general funds to pay our providers now and then pay ourselves back once we get the CDBG funds. That is fully the intention of that plan. It is possible that HUD comes back and doesn't sign the agreement, in which case we wouldn't be able to pay ourselves back for a contingency fund. But we haven't decided how much we would fund.

Right now, we're really looking towards the social services grants, which you all know is a smaller amount versus the development grants, which are much larger. We're looking at SEQ and Core and our social services grants as the first priorities because those are actively in process where the other programs have not started yet.

Doesn't Alameda have a reserve of money that they've kind of kept out to make sure that they were ahead.

Albany County? The

city has a reserve of funds. I would say that it could sound like a lot, but when you're talking about government, it really isn't a lot. So they have to be conservative around how they decide to spend that. So if they use the money from the

general fund to pay for the housing element portion, would they be taking out of that reserve to be able to do it to be able to repay back to the general fund? Because I would assume they're not gonna not pay themselves back to the general fund. That's

Yeah. My understanding is that's where it would come from, but I would not prove that on the record. I would have to confirm with the budget office. And, yes, it as long as you get the CDBT funds, we would pay ourselves back.

Okay. Just wanted to make sure because that kind of connection is important. If we're talking about not getting funds for housing in long periods of time, if it goes on for four or five months, that could be a problem going into fiscal year twenty twenty six. I mean,

the current politics, I wonder if HUD is considered a democratic agency.

Well, they can do what they want to at the federal level.

But these problems are local.

So you will still have to figure it out one way or another. So I'm just asking a question.

Measure w. But I've been in meeting with senior advocates about it, and this the county is signaling some some things that are troubling. They release some of measure w to go into homelessness, but they've taken most of it. They wanna hold it until they actually get a budget, which you don't wanna hear because that means they may be considered using to backfill budget shortfalls. Otherwise, they would release the money now. They would have to wait for the budget. Right? Unfollow. So this is voter approved money. This has been a norm, actually.

Oakland has done this too with funds. So, yeah, I don't you know, it's going to be important. We don't really have much of a voice or a say on the federal level, but from local local perspective, we can go to board supervising meetings and be involved in advocacy around making sure these monies go to

the right place. So I don't think it's important, especially given what we're talking about now. And I know I know how the system is working right now, and to take away money would make it a lot worse.

It's already struggling. Yeah. We need we need all that sugarcoat you might be in the system. Okay?

Well, I just I mean, I

think that the TLDR is that we just don't know, right, at the bottom line.

I never I never like to think that just because I don't know, I can't make plans about something. So if we know that there's local funds, I would prefer that we at least think towards what could be done as opposed to waiting for the other shoe to drop because inevitably the other shoe is gonna drop and no matter what it is, it's not gonna be what we expected. So if we should maybe start engaging, counting about that, especially, I would think that would be in our purview. Right. One of the

one of the members of the board of supervisors is you know, represents this area. Right? Because it's with Lina down. Right? Yeah. Yeah. I would

take that that be something we might wanna reach out to Leiden about and have that conversation at least because we don't want this to become something that just disappears because that's how this goes.

Yes. Because especially because I was just thinking when you were talking about how what happens with senior programs during these time periods. Mhmm. They don't they don't get cut. But what happens like, I saw I saw Spectrum was up there. So I think what ends up happening is, like, for example, Spectrum may have to cut back to doing four meals. Right. I mean, one less meal a week to have senior dad. Right? SOS is home delivered meals. They're really good about not having a waiting list even though they have a waiting list because they get extra funding. Right. If that funding goes up, now they have a waiting list. So, again, more people on me. Right. So these warnings don't go away completely, but they get whittled away and become less and less effective.

And and

Again, people suffer. And if we're here to meet

the social services and human relations board, we're supposed to be reporting back to city council about the things that are going on and how we can best benefit, then I would think, yeah, let's just make that introduction. I know Lina's a good person, and she would be happy to have the conversation with us. I don't think she would have a problem with having that conversation. So just a thought.

Andre, is the city gonna make more efforts with these groups to raise funds themselves? We

actually don't help or assist with, fundraising, for the organizations. That's something that we we encourage them to do, as far as leveraging funding. I would say there are certain organizations that have asked for more money, in the past. I'm sure you guys remember, one of the organizations I don't wanna say the the exact name of the organization, but one of them asked for two to three times the amount of funding or requested two to three times the amount of funding that, we could actually give them. And we had to figure out how we can give them a different funding source or figure out a way to fund them in a different way so that way they can fill the the gap for their services.

But, yeah, we we, as a city, we don't actually, help fundraise or, seek other funding sources, avenues of funding for for those organizations. We just encourage them to to, plan for that.

Let's see if there's a we didn't ask for a public comment yet. Right?

Let's just

see if there's any

don't Alrighty. Can you talk about this?

Okay. We have a public comment from a Carol Mazar. Go ahead, Carol.

Good evening, board members. My name is Carol Maher, and I'm at Spectrum Community Services, one of your CDBG, recipients. We provide senior meals and fall prevention exercise classes at Mastic Senior Center, serving older adults in our community every week. Thank you so much for tonight's presentation on the fiscal year twenty six twenty seven funding and for the mention about measure w. I've attended many of those board of supervisors meetings on that measure, and I deeply appreciate your acknowledgment of its importance.

Any help that your board can provide in encouraging the supervisors to allocate those funds quickly to existing programs with proven results would make a tremendous difference in our community. I know that we're all navigating the same uncertainty right now as we await HUD's final approval. While the fiscal year twenty five twenty six CDBG funding has been approved, it's not been executed, and that delay is creating real challenges for organizations like ours. Spectrum continues to serve Alameda seniors and will keep doing so, but this situation isn't sustainable. We're anticipating greater needs as programs like CalFresh and others face cuts or major changes that will affect local residents.

Residents. At the same time, we're seeing reductions across nearly all funding streams, both government and private, making it even harder to fill the gap. And trust me, I explore every possible funding source and opportunity that there is out there. But without stable and predictable public funding, there's only so far we can stretch private donations to keep services running at the level that our seniors need. We truly appreciate the Citi's partnership and all of your efforts to move this process forward.

If there's any way to help bridge the gap, even temporarily, through creative interim funding solutions, the general fund, what some of the other solutions, and and the contingency plan, it would mean so much to community based organizations like ours who are working hard to keep these essential services in place for Alameda residents. So thank you for your leadership, for your advocacy, and for your continued collaboration with those of us out on the front lines.

Thank you. Thank you.

And there is no other public comment.

So I'm gonna take a little she was saying something I've been actually thinking a little bit too. I think one thing that needs to happen, locally is that there there are a lot of smaller organizations. I mean, well, smaller than government because it's, you know, foundations. Kaiser Foundation, East Bay Foundation on Aging, East Bay Community Foundation, all these other foundations. They're all funding. They're all just giving out money. We've already coordinated it with each other. I think there actually should be better grant coordination so it has a greater impact. Okay. Because who knows how many other people give Spectrum some money and what is the expectation of that money.

I'm not saying they aren't doing a great job. I think they are. But it's there's still kind of like, we don't really have a landscape of that from a funder standpoint. How can we do it? Well, one thing would be to encourage funders to get the on the table together and actually plan outside of just their individual boards. You know, get board presidents of all these different boards that get together and say, what is our strategy? What what has been lost that we need to actually, you know, maintain? Yeah. Know. That that

what would that look like for us in doing it? I mean, I'm just trying to flesh this out. It seems like a reasonable prospect.

Oh, yeah. You know, I know that they have I know there's, like, more formal things like that. Like, they have mayors, married, mayors, that sort of thing. Yeah. So I I don't know.

What? I'm not sure.

Joanne, I'm gonna ask Diane to see if

she Diane has heard me talk about this. Diane has heard me talk about this before, that I think there needs to be better coordination among grant funders.

You know, I mean, when I first started, I had in philanthropy over thirty years ago, I mean, I had the same inclination that there needed to be better coordination. And I think efforts have been made in the past. Like, we actually had a East Bay Funders Collaborative where all the foundations that were supporting Oakland as a as a place based strategy, we would convene and meet regularly and talk about what we were learning from the field and then also try to direct, you know, our grants to, you know, tar targeted strategies or targeted entities. But it it kinda just fell apart because every foundation each foundation had a different grant making cycle and also, you know, grant making priorities. And then they were accountable to their boards, and the boards were not necessarily as interested in collaboration.

So so, you know, they they kind of wanted to kinda maintain their independence as, you know, as a foundation. So that was our experience with East Bay Funders. And then we also try to organize a homeless task force, which has waxed and waned, where people would would throw in their money. Each foundation would throw in, you know, a a sum of money into a pot, and then the the collaborative will then decide, you know, you know, what they would fund or who they would fund. So there would be at least, you know, some strategic direction as to where the resources were going.

And and that also failed because, you know, the homeless issue was beyond what philanthropy could muster. So I'm just saying, great idea, but it's it's been tried before. It's not succeeded. But that's not to say that it you know, you shouldn't try again.

Yes. It's something I appreciate your comments. And sometimes, you know, it takes, you know, generational change. I remember when I was trying to make changes with the senior centers in Oakland, and it really couldn't manifest itself until the older boomer staff left, and I brought in millennials. And suddenly, everything I wanted to do became reality. I'm not saying that's like a magic trick for everything, but sometimes that does happen. Right. Maybe enough time has passed where it's a different generation of people who are willing to think that way.

I think I think a good thing to keep in mind is, you know, philanthropy has its limits and not not only in terms of how they are structured and how they operate and how they make their decisions, but also in terms of their resources. So, you know, if you're talking about deep rooted change, it's philanthropy is, you know, just one piece of it.

Yeah. I know. I get what you're saying. It's just it seems like the paradigms have changed so much because what we were doing in the past, you look at the record, like, East Bay Foundation on Aging, there were, you know, smaller grants that were helping bolster up existing services and programs. But now the basic program behind it is falling apart, And so that really won't do that work anymore. So, yeah, I think it's it's more conversation on this, definitely. Okay.

I have

a quick question about the process. So is there anything that we need to do tonight to prepare for the letter? You're taking a vote. Okay. Upon the existing needs as stated and the existing Should I

speak a Yeah. Speak a question. Do I need to make a move on? Right.

So we continue the existing needs letter to or what are we voting on?

I don't mind putting forward motion to direct the preparation. I'm saying this all on top of my head too, but it's not writing. To direct the preparation of a need statement to confirm the ongoing needs for the fiscal year 02/2627 CDBG action plan and present to city council on 12/02/2025.

Based on the previous year's letter.

Based on your previous letter. That's my question. Do you wanna second that? I second. Here we have a second. Alright. Bernie Wolf? Yes. Dianne Mosheromi? Yes. Joe O'Brien? Yes. Michelle Buckholz?

Yes.

Samantha Green?

Yes.

Scott Means, yes. Sneading Animus. Alright. We're going to move on now to a nonvoting item. Thank you, Andre. Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. That was

a great presentation.

You're welcome.

She's sneaky. No. That's okay. It's time

to back.

Time to segue.

The this is for four c work work work group, of course. This slide is for board discussion only. There's no staff presentation, so it will go directly to public comments. Are there any public comments on

this agenda item?

There no

public comment.

Great. Alright. Do you wanna just we do in order, I guess, do I do the road home people experiencing homelessness first? We just heard a report.

Do we have a date for the Boynton time count? Yes. January.

We anticipate bright and early.

Are experiencing sheltered and unsheltered homelessness in the city of Alameda, it gets combined to go together with county data that's then submitted to HUD. It's a requirement of federal funding allocations.

Okay. So that's okay. We seek and we seek part of it of these volunteers that will go out into the community and take survey and get demographic and observed data. It's a visual account as well

as a follow-up survey of demographic information as well as experience of services and needs.

And you said it was the twenty second?

Twenty second. Twenty second. On Thursday. It's a Thursday. Tuesday. Okay.

Did we have plenty of people last time? I I was there. Or was there a was there a shortage at all?

My understanding is that 90 something folks signed up and around 80 something showed up. It's a good amount. Our goal is to recruit a 100 volunteers this year. And we will we have our reports.

I didn't go as much into detail. It's gonna

be on the same day as the social services and human relations board.

Oh, yes. We did discuss it.

So you all are gonna vote on a calendar of meetings in the December meeting, and that one will not be on the same day. Okay. So I'm gonna propose a different day for that one. It's fair. That's the same. Gonna be fair. By a 4AM to Mhmm. 8PM day. Mhmm.

Yeah. K.

Thank you. Just

And, Simone, is the wish we have

a wish list as well. Right? That's what I was trying

to know if I should wait until we do that before. So we have a wish list. We are trying to put together kits for folks to take outside and pass out to people when we do the calendar survey. And so we have an Amazon wish list. I don't know if it's on the website. If so we'll have it added to our website, and we can share that out. So you can just click the QR code or click the link and put in an order, it'll come to our office, and then we'll put the kits together.

Will you need volunteers to put the kits together?

Oh, and just a reminder, it's November 5. Wednesday, November 5 is when the HR friendly event's gonna happen at at the library input session. It's gonna happen in the library. 09:30 tomorrow. I just I've sent a lot of I'm gonna send one last blast out on next Monday or Tuesday. It's a week late, I think.

We're gonna fly paper flyer as well.

Great. Thank you. And then

we had the presentation to

What? I'm sorry.

Sorry. We had the presentation to PTA presidents that was completed by the Rotunda folks as well.

And we did mention the point in time came

up. Yeah.

I stress to people it was a very safe experience.

Yeah. We're still using the same

Okay.

Alameda together against Tate.

We've got an exciting action packed week here. United Against Hate Week kicked off this Sunday, Monday. We were fortunate to be able to be in City Council chambers while the mayor read the proclamation. Thank you for a proclamation that brought home all the points of our original resolution, and I was very happy to hear her read them. And I think it was to our advantage to at least hear those words out there.

I spoke with the chief of police police afterwards, and he actually said, yeah. I had this conversation with him at one point recently, and he said, you know, this is what you guys are looking for, and you, you know, you got something right there. So these are the types of actions that we really need to continue to do, we need to continue to push forward on this united against hate front. I think hate is a powerful, powerful weapon that's used way too often in this day and age by people who are simply trying to divide us. And it's the easiest way to keep control is to divide people with hate.

To quote a fictional character where, you know, when you talk about where the hate comes from, right, it usually starts like the fictional character said, it starts with fear, fear turns to anger, and then anger turns to hate, and then that hate turns to suffering. Say, thanks, Yoda.

Oh, was like, who said that? That

was a fictional character named Yoda. So he wasn't wrong. The sentiment is still right. And so when you see people afraid, which you hear a lot of people talk about these days, same people are angry, when you see them angry out there, you know that the hate is coming next. And so this is a problem that I will need to have a lot of, even though people don't always want to admit it.

So I'm kind of glad that tomorrow we'll have our presentation of the documentary Bias, which is a really good documentary about unconscious and implicit biases that everyone has and we don't really acknowledge them because we don't know about them. And so this is an opportunity for people to see what those biases look like. And the film is really well done. They touch on a lot of subjects that have to do with the type of work that people have to do even in our in our work. And so I encourage everybody to come out and check it out.

It's free. It's right here in council chambers. If you know somebody, tell them to come out. Worth worth our time. This is a national movement and it's been going on for years now. And this is our third year in on the United Catholic Program and I think if we can continue this movement over the next few years as part of the board, the better it will get. I think we'll get

more and more about it.

And that's my half of it. Diane?

Yeah. So

the film starts at six. The food will be served between 05:30 and 06:00. Yeah.

It is supposed to arrive at 05:00. Okay. So the time between five and six. The food will be outside. Yes. Just the issue with the food is that we don't eat in the chambers. Right. So it's people like, people eat before they're moving. Right. There may be some folks that decide to hang out and eat burritos and cupcakes. Yep. And we'll

be having a panel discussion afterwards with several people from the city of Alameda. Folks that have things to say and have been doing good works. So it'll be a good time for discussion. We'll be hosting it. I'll be hosting it with one of the youth advocates as well. So it'll be a nice group of people and we'll ask some good questions and then we'll open it up to the people who are in the audience and hopefully we'll get a lot of people in the audience. That's really the goal here. I mean, we've got a lot of advertisement in, so I I think we'll get a good group of people in here.

I've seen it in a bunch of different places.

That's right. The banner

is over on City Hall West. Right?

Yeah. I'm here. Yeah.

I didn't see it here. I'm gonna have to come up. Okay. I'm gonna have to look at it after you get here in the shower. Okay. I'm definitely gonna

come up.

So yeah. And, Yeah. Diane?

I just like to commend the staff, you know, for working with us on this effort. And, I mean, to be honest, I don't think we could have moved this far forward without, you know, your support. So we really, really wanna thank you. You know, we we've been working on this for, don't know, how many years, and it just gave me goosebumps to hear the mayor read, you know, the commendation. So, yeah, I I'm really, really happy and pleased that at least she verbalized kind of what we've been trying to do and and and articulate through the resolution, but we didn't get to the resolution.

But this is, you know, I I think a victory for us in in so many ways. And the fact that we're now visible with the banners is great, and then hosting the city hall convening is it's the beginning of a conversation that we should continue to have. It's not gonna end tomorrow night. So, you know, these are issues that have been with us since the start of man.

We are not gonna

risk just solve racism with the movie and cupcakes.

It's a it's a heavy lift.

Yeah. Yeah.

And then You I can start.

Think we we

should also thank our fellow colleagues on this board who have, you know, just provided support, you know, just you know, I mean, it's just been wonderful to, you know, just we know you have our backs on this issue and and that you understand, and it's not something that we have to debate, you know, as much. It it's always good to have discord and and discussion. That's that's who we are as human beings, and it's that's the way we learn. So, yeah, but we've just been very fortunate. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank Thank

Well, it was your leadership and vision, Gerald and Diane. I

just wanna add something to your your audience against hate, just this information. You know, I've been I've been trying to track down what happened, you know, with the Cravco concerts and all of a sudden, actually, that's not a whole story. But I did actually get to talk to Jeff Campra. And during our conversation, he said, well, you know the thing I he's still doing events. He he was one of you guys who used to do those events. He said the event I really would like to do here in Alameda is a Juneteenth event. Oh, really? So I Beautiful. I'm sorry.

I I Is the guy that does the Alameda Post and walk with his dog, Jack Cameron?

I don't know if he if he does I don't know if he's not, but I know he runs, like, the beer brews and barbecues and does those events and stuff. So he definitely knows how to do these events. I mean, he's he would love to I I actually talked to him about that. Right? Mhmm. Gerald and so if you wanna just have a conversation with him.

I like conversations. Conversations go a long way.

Okay. I will I will get you in contact with them. Yeah. Have a conversation. So just just an idea right now.

You know?

Well, I

was just gonna say there is a Juneteenth event that happens annually in Alameda, but it's at it's at South Shore, and it's pretty small. So you might just wanna combine powers or reach out to them as well.

Yeah. It's through the business association or something like that.

I don't know. But it's, like, local vendors and food and things like that. Yeah. Small businesses.

I'm not

sure if it's through the chamber, but that's where I'm not sure if that's what you mean. But that's Yeah.

Yeah. That's where it's hosted,

and it is every year.

Yeah. I was familiar with that one. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that's just an interesting idea. It might be able to fold into what you're, you know, your group doing and stuff.

So I like it. I like it a lot.

And then last but not least, the domestic violence for a group.

So I met twice with the mayor on Zoom. First time with Sarah Henry and Catherine Schwartz. And second time, Liz Zarela of Building Future's joined and discussed the video that the mayor has in mind.

I don't think they know

about the video of Bernie. Do you wanna describe it?

Yeah. I heard about it last yesterday.

Yeah. So the the mayor wants to have a video on domestic violence awareness.

Yeah.

And it was her concern was that we're at about a year's anniversary of this horrible event when a man killed his kids and wife. And then October is also domestic violence awareness month. But so her vision was to push forward a video or maybe two videos. It kind of depends. They have it done by the end of the month, and that's obviously not going to happen.

So she's now working with Sarah and the videographer, which is the last I heard of it. And we're now contemplating that there would be a video or videos maybe by the end of this year or early next year. So I don't know if you've had more discussions with Sarah.

I think you

know more than I do.

Gretchen did a yeoman or a yeoman's work putting out a survey with the information that came back. But somehow, I'm not sure it got has it yet gotten integrated. I'm gonna make sure that it it does.

And then we have our stuff

in there.

Paper art?

There was some really good stuff in there.

There's really good stuff there. Yeah. And then we're planning our upcoming task force meeting, which is now at four times a year meeting of the main providers of domestic violence services, the Alameda Police Department, the Fire Department, the DA's office, and then all these wonderful people that are doing good work. So that's coming up. That's really my report.

I gotta say, when I heard the mayor mention the video and she mentioned you prominently in that yesterday, I was like, wow. Bernie never told me anything about it. I didn't hear anything about it.

It's been really fast. I think we learned about it, like, two weeks ago.

I have to say, Jim, good job. Good job.

And so It'll also help us the only purpose of this. Sure.

Thank you.

You can step down. Well, this brings us to item five, staff communications.

Okay. Great. I am Christina Marna Ayon, and I am going to give a report out on staff communications. So we our team is growing. As you all have heard, we are bringing our outreach we have brought our outreach team in house. So we have hired a program specialist. His name is Raul Sinal the third. So he will be overseeing a team of engagement specialists. We have how many started? Oh, wait.

No. I'm sorry. I have their names. Jasmine Forsberg, Julian Lillard, and then we also have she's not officially an outreach specialist, but our former intern, Scarlett Wagner, is working as, like, an assistant to the engagement team part time. Oh, and Annie Flores. Yes. But she's she's been on the team. So we have a team. There potentially may be another engagement specialist added, and that's we're very excited and thrilled about it.

And that's are they doing outreach seven days a week still?

So they are doing outreach six days a week, Monday through Saturday, and the hours covered are 7AM to 6PM.

K. Okay.

Two days at the library,

and one of which is a Saturday. Oh, and what housing supply do we have? What what? Does the I mean, I'm just basically I didn't hear the question. Sorry. What's housing supply? Like, where do we how do we if we meet in Alameda, someone's unhoused, do we have a good supply? Yes.

I wanted to give an update about how to report, and I can answer that question too. So the homeless hotline will retire at the 2025, so we will no longer use that phone number. We've already initiated our see quick fix, which is what residents are used to using for other reporting matters. So they're I believe it's called homeless engagement is our category. So if you go to see, click fix Alameda and click on homeless engagement.

You can put your report in there for whatever the case may be. If you see some a tent or somebody who looks like they may be putting out their car, you can put the information there. You can give as much little information as possible. The more information, of course, the more helpful so we can locate the person. And pictures are a little tricky.

I don't want you getting into people's faces, taking pictures of them, making them uncomfortable. But sometimes photos of the area could be helpful so we know where exactly or a pinpoint on the map, which CCLIFFix allows you to do. It's very helpful. For housing well, also for CCLIFFix, it's not just if you see somebody, but if you see debris that look like looks like it may belong to somebody and it's not just trash, then that can come to us, and we'll investigate. If you meet somebody who is at risk for becoming homeless, maybe they got a three day quit quit it notice or some other type of challenge, you can report that and see quick fix also.

We would need their information to be able to contact them. Otherwise, you can just give them our information, and they can decide to contact us themselves. And then for housing from the street, primarily, we're focused on getting people indoors. So we have our shelter programs. We have the winter warming shelter opens in December.

It will be five months this year, so it will be December 1 through April 30. Then we have the day center, which it's almost full. I heard today they're getting about 15 people a night, and there is 17 available beds. But it's still available first first serve. We have emergency supportive housing that has 12 single adult beds, and then we have two family homes with one family per home.

So those are the And and are those all filled? Or The houses are filled. And so but those are more intensive. So they have more intensive case management. It's more of a program so that people get move into permanent housing from those programs, and then, the space becomes vacant for someone who's coming off the street.

There is the possibility for people to become housed off the street. We do have case engagement specialists working with those some of those folks, and we partner with Building Futures for that too. And Building Futures right now does the county assessment, which is how a lot of people get housed is through the coordinated entry system and the county manages that. And so that's how people typically get matched. We also work closely with the housing authority.

They had some new developments that came up, and we had some pro people move for programs into those units. So we do have a nice flow of system here in Alameda where people can get housed if they are connected to services and are willing to go through the steps of going through the county system, getting their documentation, doing those processes.

Mean, I'm I'm sure this is way past gone, but the see click fix to homelessness just

Feels like narcing.

It just really lands like Narcing. That people are homeless are the same thing as, like, a pothole. Just really I

just it feels Like you're narcing on your neighbors?

Not even narcing. It's just that the dehumanizing of, like, what you do of, like, how you report a pothole is the same way we're reporting someone who's down. You know? I was wondering.

Is that is it visible to other people? So, like, if there is a pothole, everybody can see

what other people have reported,

or there's reports available to the public in that same way?

I only have to clarify. I'm not sure. Because it seems like maybe that is also

concerning that we're putting people's identities at risk and Yeah. Trust relationships seems. Right? We have that with a point in time count, right, where we do pre counts, and then people start to get out to you. Right? Because people know where they are. So I'm wondering if we would have that same experience. Yeah. Thought about that when

And just fix. I just thought, like, which to me is I'm sure this is not your choice.

It's my choice. Oh, to use this in Yes. It's my choice. The hotline, it has not been heavily utilized by the community. It was heavily utilized by staff. Mhmm. And it costs us money to use that. That CPFLEX is already in the infrastructure. And I'm not sure about the I didn't know that there was an option where people maybe see, so I'll have to check on that. Yeah.

Because it's But it's not a I don't see it as a comparison of reporting. I mean, you're you're either calling and reporting on the phone or I mean, you're reporting it either way. Yeah. And it's our purpose and goal to then go support folks. Yeah. We're not going looking at it as a pothole to cover up or fill in. Yeah. We're looking at it as a way for us to understand where people are so that we can locate them and give them services instead of community calling with police Yeah. And criminalizing.

Yeah. That's a that's a that's a really good perspective.

And I will say people would call homeless hotline with language of, like, please fix and take care of this. It wasn't always well meaning people trying to help folks. I think it'll be it was similar. And the way that it worked was we weren't getting direct phone calls, we were getting emails from the phone calls. So we were still getting them as like virtual requests. And then from those virtual requests, the outreach team was dispatched. Okay. And also, it's not the only way to reach us. We still have our phone number that you can call our main desk. Our administrative specialist is going to be trained on how to take those calls and to confirm which engagement specialists are on shift and how to, I guess, I keep saying dispatch, but assign or forward that call.

And then there's the office hours today so we can the library.

Because we're not if folks I I definitely if we go out into the community and we're doing, like, the PTA presentations or the home presentations, we wouldn't suggest that people go on to see click fix. Right? Or, like, suggesting it's still to call the offices or call 211 as, like if they're in need of services. The question. So if folks are in need of services, right, so if we're doing outreach in a community and trying to normalize that people may need assistance, Before, we've had, like, a homeless hotline as, like, one of the numbers that they

could call. For them to ask for assistance for themselves? Yeah. I don't think the I mean, I don't know. Maybe that's what was shared before, but the homeless hotline, in my experience, was not used for that. Okay. But they couldn't call our office number. Okay. So our office number has been connected with Brad, which does completely different work. And we are splitting that so that number is solely for HHS, and Brett will have their separate number.

So if people call us, then we'll know, you know, it's for services. And, typically, it'll be for services, and then we can connect them to one of our specialists and assign them to a specialist who can give them their cell phone number to direct them.

But that also assumes everyone has phones.

It what?

It assumes everyone has phones. Right? A lot of this phone contingent.

I I just Well, that was always the case.

Yeah. I just wanted to I went to see click fix, and if you go to parking enforcement, you can see a picture of the car that they want to have done. Now there's construction. They didn't have a picture of the construction. But

I mean, it's something we'll flag to IT. I feel like there has to be a way to privatize it.

I I was gonna say privacy, you know, PII being what it is. Yeah. I find it concerning. Like I said, if you haven't had somebody walk up and you take a picture of you while you're walking down the street, then you don't have a call. But I have, and I found it really offensive and slightly worrying. So I would I would just say, is there a way to just do your reporting without taking the picture or at least not including them on a public facing website? That would be a lot safer too.

Yeah. I mean, but on the flip side, like, someone who does this, like, it's really hard to, like

They can take the picture, but you don't have

to put the photo in

there. I'm not saying that Yeah. It's fine. It's gonna be PII, then it should stay within that boundary Yeah. Yeah. And not go out to the public because then you're gonna have

And it's not gonna be our preference to have the photos go out to the public. Okay. We're gonna have to just speak about it internally and figure it out with IT.

Okay. I'm sure they'll figure it out. You guys Hopefully. You guys are awesome. I have no question about that. Y'all are awesome. It's just these are the things that

No. It's helpful to hear They get it. People's thoughts and perspectives. Yeah.

Yeah. We also wouldn't want people interfering with the work. Right? So it's like there's multiple reasons

why we wouldn't want that out so easy to hear that. You wouldn't

want somebody going over and setting a fire on somebody even because they saw a picture. That kind of stupid stuff.

It just I guess, especially with the recent Supreme Court hearing, it's just this, like, I for me, that visceral, like, see click fix of, like,

People were already reporting I know. I know. Campus.

I know. I'm sure. I'm sure it's happening.

It just feels It's so yucky. I hear

it. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that's that's why we're having these conversations here so that we can say we are not gonna do that here. I prefer we I can't change the world.

I can change the slow the name change to IT.

Okay. Yeah. You can report directly to us, but I I mean, I would rather people perform on see, like, fix Yeah. Than to call APD or try to approach themselves.

Yeah. Yeah.

No. I agree. I don't No.

I mean, it it makes sense.

It, like, makes sense. It just, like

It's really not that I mean, in Oakland, it's 311, which was Yep. Yeah. 211. No. It's just the name of the platform. Yeah. And I can't change that. No.

No. I know. I just don't human beings, like, for me, I've used it in, like, there's trash on it. Like like, I'm like, oh, there's a couch. People use it

to record in cameras and people still. And it wasn't helpful because it wasn't coming to us.

Yeah. If you wanna call and say I've got a dead raccoon, it's fine. Take a picture of the dead raccoon. But I think if you Yeah. Just people should not be

Two one one dead call still, but 211 was never routed to us. It was different from the hotline. So the hotline is Monday through Friday, nine to five. So if you call outside of those hours, it would just be straight 211, and we didn't get that information. So you would I don't know what they would tell you. Maybe you'd go to a Saint Vincent or something. I'm not sure, but it was not connected to our services, and we never heard or or got those reports. Who's doing 211 for us again? Yeah. Mhmm. So they do it for the whole county. So, you know

Yeah. And just like that whole dance of, like, oh, this person has some referral stuff. I don't know. Like, what can you know, the coordinated entry and what they scored

to add. Is everyone good to

Yeah, yeah. Great.

So that was all helpful information. Some of it has already been covered. So you all may be aware that through the inclusionary housing ordinance in Alameda, our division manages below market rate ownership and rental compliance, essentially. So anytime a new building goes up, there has to be a certain number of low income affordable housing added. In the future, there may be a fee depending on what the new inclusionary housing ordinance will include.

But as an update for our program for ownership, there have been three homes that have been closed on. So three new homeowners and two in the process. Yay. You all heard about the various events, the film screening, the proclamation, the age friendly listening session, lots going on. Simone mentioned how the Witcher Warming Shelter so that's actually gonna go to council November 18 with the extra month proposed.

Case management services added. Don't mention.

The request for proposals for the day center operator was released, for the yes. For the was released, and it is due on October 31 by 5PM. And separately, the day center capital work invitation to bid was released. So that's for the relocation and the renovations essentially of the new day center. The due date and bid opening for that will be November 5 at 2PM. As you all heard, the community development block grant cut award is on hold due to the federal government shutdown, and I was gonna pass it to Andre. You all asked a few questions. I'm not sure if there was anything left that you wanted to update related to the shutdown.

Yeah. Just a few a few points of emphasis. For those of you who are not aware, which I'm sure you guys all are aware, we're on day 22 of the government shutdown with no end in sight due to the political gridlock between the house and the senate. This has affected most, if not all, of HUD programs for fiscal year 2526. But jurisdictions that have funding available from previous fiscal years can draw funding for carry forward projects, which we have been able to do, which is a a good thing.

The systems and applications we use to report and draw HUD CDBG funds are still active, which allows us to continue our work in some capacity from the housing side. We are hopeful that congress will eventually come to an agreement and pass the bill to fund those essential services and and programs at the federal level. And as mentioned earlier, the city does have a contingency plan to potentially fill the void if our providers are unable to sustain services and wanted to end on a high note, because I don't wanna be doom and gloom. There is a an bill that has been introduced to congress by, a senator, I believe, or a representative named, Sam Liccardo. He's a Democrat who is from Mountain View, and this bill is called the UNLOCK Act.

So it provides more flexibility to use CDBG for new construction and affordable housing projects. I'd also like to mention that our state is very strong as far as our economy. We're the fifth or fourth largest economy in the entire world. So I see that. With that, there's a lot of funding opportunities still for, you know, cities and jurisdictions throughout the state to apply for.

One being pro housing incentive program fund funding, which, they just announced that round four funding, applications have been released, and I'm sure you guys have probably heard of permanent local housing allocation. And then we have HomeKey Plus funding, which are all essential to affordable housing development and, addressing the the unmet needs of homelessness, veterans, and also seniors, who are our most vulnerable population. So just wanted to, throw it out there. There is optimism, and and I think that there is still a lot of good work to do. So, yeah, I'll I'll leave it at that.

Thanks, Andre. And he did bring to my attention that you need to vote on one more item for four b, so we need to go back to four b.

Okay.

Do you wanna state what they need to approve, Andre?

Yes. If you guys can approve continuing to fund our existing social service providers for a second consecutive year So that on a pro rata basis, when HUD announces the twenty twenty six board allocations, that'll be appreciated.

Yeah. Open for promotion to prove that the CDBG is prorated distribution for a second year. Did I get everything there?

Yes. Social service providers. Yes.

For social service providers. Do I have a second?

I'll second.

You have a second. Alright. We will vote then. Bernie Wolf. Yes. Diane. Yes. Cheryl Bryant. Yes. Michelle. Yes. Samantha Green. Yes. Scott Means. Yes. Unanimous. Thank you. Alright.

That concludes do you have another

that concludes staff at OutSense.

Now we're in board communications, not agenda. And as promised, Diane, you're first.

Oh, okay. Thank you. I've been getting texts regarding the National Guard landing at Alameda, whatever, in Alameda. And so I think folks are are trying to identify if there's any entities that are organizing folks, you know, that they they would like to know so that we can put put it out there.

I got a text message from a friend who was saying that there was an organizing meeting going on actually at 06:00 earlier this evening. Yeah.

Yes. There was a training.

Yeah.

Okay. But then so at 7AM, I think people are being asked to go to the Coast Guard Station for a peaceful demonstration at 7AM in the morning. And that there's gonna be a rally in San Francisco at 6PM, I guess, is what I've heard. Oh, 5PM. Sorry. 5PM rally at San Francisco Embarcadero Plaza tomorrow. So I just wanted to share that.

We're supposed to be coming over to watch a movie.

Diane, do you have any other announcements you'd like to share?

Food starts at at five.

Yes. I have submitted my resignation to Scott. And, yeah, so I think, I'm

a new

grandmother, and my son and daughter-in-law, you know, their their maternity paternity leave is gonna be ending. So, I will need to step in as a caregiver, And I'm hoping I could lift that baby because she's getting bigger and bigger by the day.

Get stronger as they get bigger. Oh

god. So,

at any rate, I'm moving on to a new adventure. And I just as of January, so December 31, I guess, would be the end of my my my term. So I just wanna, again, thank thanks everybody for being such wonderful coconspirators in making Alameda better. I hope, you know, we were able to do a little something. So yeah. And I appreciate your carrying the work forward.

You will be missed. You will.

I will miss you all, and I'm sure, hopefully, we'll see each other on the street and wherever we go.

Is the baby local?

She's in Oakland.

I don't know.

So not too far.

So you will be at the December meeting, though?

Yeah. Yeah.

I think yeah. I will. That'll that'll be the the end. Okay. Well,

we you sent an email about Yeah. We have

The mayor nominated a new board member at last night's city council meeting, and it will be voted on in November.

Oh, great. Can we sneak another person in so it won't take a full year? Hopefully.

Yeah.

They had a resume. Right? We that

was We

really Yeah. I forwarded you all

the resume. I looked at

the resume. But it's not a it's unfortunate it's not an item we can discuss because it's not an agenda item. So but but, you know, you can look at it. And and, of course, this thing will be approving on November. If you have any comments about this person, I encourage you to show up to the council meeting on November 4.

I had one, two can't see the picture.

Yes. And there will be another person that that she's interviewed for. A lot of times, these I don't know how it works now, Anita, but I I know they didn't like looking at people unless someone actually left until after they left. So she might even wanna look at other people till after December or so or after January, the second position.

Thank you, Jason.

Just be realistic about expectations in

time to time.

Gotcha. I got one. Okay.

There will be reparation listening sessions for Alameda County Reparations Commission listening session going on in East Oakland Youth Development Center, Saturday the twenty fifth from twelve to two. There's a flyer I'm happy to send around to everybody, but I think, again, it's important that people have these kind of listening sessions to understand what the nature of reparations are and how they actually work and the way the processes are done. And the ones that they had here in Alameda were very enlightening. There are several ecumenical programs out there that are working for reparations, and it was very interesting to see the things that they were doing and how they were doing it. So I simply say, come listen, see what people have to say, and, hopefully, you'll be as enlightened as I was about it.

So Alright. That was mine.

Great. Thank you. Anyone else? Anything? Well, then we can adjourn the meeting at, well, say, 08:38PM. Okay. Well, it's, like, ten seconds before.

You. Bye. Thank you.

Bye, guys. See you.