Housing and Human Welfare Committee - Regular Meeting

Alderman O'Neil.

Present.

Alderman Smith Brown.

Present.

Next on the agenda, I'm making a motion to approve the agenda.

So moved. Second.

All in favor.

Aye. Aye.

Motion passes.

Next on

the agenda is election of chair.

I nominate Daisha Conte as chair of housing and human welfare committee.

I second that.

All in favor.

Aye. Motion passes.

Next on the agenda is the appointment and reappointment. AP ten twenty six appointment Ms. Sharon Elliott for the housing authority. Is Ms. Sharon Elliott here?

Do I have a motion to approve? Favorable motion to approve?

I'll give a favorable recommendation for the reappointment of Ms. Sharon Elliott.

I will second that reappointment.

Okay. All in favor.

In favor. Say aye.

Aye. Motion passes.

Next on the agenda is ID 1826 Bloomsbury Square briefing. Is anyone here from Bloomsbury Square? Thank

you for inviting me here today. I'm Melissa Maddox Evans, executive director CEO of the Housing Authority City of Annapolis.

Welcome.

Thank you.

You're here to talk about Bloom's Race. Go ahead, correct?

Correct. So I just wanted to provide the commission with an update on our redevelopment activities for Bloomsbury Square. The housing authority intends to redevelop the property which is 51 units from the project based housing model to the rather the public housing model to the project based housing model which is under the housing choice voucher program. So we're moving from public housing to the voucher program. HUD allows housing authorities to do that.

And in doing that, we are allowed to pursue different measures to help provide grades to the properties as needed. Because the properties are in relatively good condition, although they are getting older now, we will be pursuing a moderate rehabilitation of the site rather than a substantial rehabilitation. So it will encompass upgrades to the interior of the units, the entire inside of the unit. So for example, countertops, cabinetry, flooring, any of the bathroom items that may need to be upgraded. We will also be upgrading structural issues, windows for example, exterior, any of the brickwork that's there dealing with any erosion issues, tree work for example.

So there'll be a number of things on the sites that we will be addressing and all of what determines what we will be addressing are a number of surveys that we conduct. We conduct environmental surveys, which we're in the process of doing and have already done some. Resident surveys which we've had a number of resident meetings in which we incorporate input from the residents that live there about items that they would like to see upgraded. And we conduct surveys that are required by the state. State officials come to and have already come to tour the site.

They provide recommendations as to what needs to be upgraded. So for example, they have mentioned all of the things I've already mentioned but in addition they provided input about upgrading the playground equipment for example for the children. We receive input from the city, from the county. These are all of the entities that will be providing, assistance in some way, shape, or form of, through our redevelopment process. The county has committed $1,000,000 of funding, home funding, which is great towards this redevelopment effort.

We keep the city informed on a weekly basis about our our upgrades and our progress in our redevelopment. We have partnered with the community housing partners to enter into this redevelopment program. They're a nonprofit entity. They are also assisting us with redeveloping the Robinwood site. And so they last year they applied for tax credits.

We applied for 4% tax credits on this property and we were awarded. So we will be pursuing 4% tax credits with this project as well as a number of sources of funding. So once the redevelopment is finished, the entire site will be like I said on the voucher program. We anticipate it taking at least maybe a couple years to do this type of redevelopment. Our hope is to close on this on the financial aspects of this deal towards the end of this year.

So that is very ambitious plan but is a plan that the state and all the entities the county is on board with and supports. Once we close on the property, the new development partner, they have their own management entity that is part of their firm. They will be managing the day to day aspects of the property. So HACA would no longer be managing doing the property management aspect. We would still be administering the vouchers that are on the site.

So similar to how we are still connected to Obre Court, Annapolis Gardens, Morris H Blum, and Wilborn Estates would be a similar affiliation that we would have for with Bloomsbury Square. And I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have but that's a broad overview of of where we are. Once we do close on the property, about ninety days after that is the earliest we would be able to engage in the actual renovations of the project. And so so we anticipate starting renovations next year, maybe sometime in the spring early as the winter ends. And so this will be a in terms of resident relocation, we are exploring a number of options right now.

Usually at a site there there can be a number of vacancies that you can move residents to while you're renovating units. But at Bloomsbury Square it's a very popular site. And so we have most times zero vacancy or at most maybe one unit that's vacant and being turned and then will ultimate ultimately be leased up. And so residents will be able to temporarily relocate to a number of different options to either another one of our public housing sites temporarily or they can stay with relatives if they like. Or we are also now looking at different extended stay options for residents.

So we hope the actual renovations for any particular unit doesn't take more than maybe six to eight weeks. So it's not a very long time but it is some time that they would be out of their unit. We asked residents about the type of arrangements that they would like or prefer. Most of them wanted to prefer to be relocated off-site while the renovations were were taking place. We were considering an option where we tried to do the majority of the renovations during the day and have a host unit or a host a sort of accommodation for them to go to convert the community center to a space people can stay in during the day and then they can return to their homes you know in the evening.

But most residents said they would not rather do that. They would just rather leave off-site and then come back when the unit is ready which which we understand that too. But we wanted to explain the different options to them and let them know what was available. So as with all of our relocation projects, we the housing authority and developer are obligated to pay for relocation costs and pay for like security deposits or anything else, moving expenses, anything that's involved in the actual move. And we have set stipends that are set by the federal government under the Uniform Relocation Act that specify, let's say, how how the amounts of the stipend for a one bedroom or two bedroom, excuse me, or three bedroom family, for example.

So so that's what we we go by. So but having said that, I'll be, happy to answer any questions that you may have. Yeah.

Thank you very much. Two questions. You answered one, I think I was gonna ask you fiscal year or calendar year, but calendar year by the 2020 you'll have

We're shooting by the end by November is our goal for closing. Having said that, it's pretty ambitious. So it it may be more towards the beginning of the year. If we don't meet a certain there's a certain cutoff time in November of which we're allowed to close. And so if we don't meet that deadline then it'll be pushed to January or February by the state.

And as far as the residents that are currently there, do they have first options on spaces once everything's rented or does it go into a lottery? How does it work to fill them once they're all renovated?

In terms of the the new unit what they return to?

Correct.

So when we do what we do is individual surveys and and counseling with each resident to find out what the needs are of that particular family. The first programmatic need is to right size the family. Meaning to move them into a unit that correctly reflects their actual household size. Because a lot of times household sizes change during the course of Tennessee. If for whatever reason it's not likely that that is to be achieved, then we we move to ask the resident what is their preference in terms of would they like to return to their actual unit.

It is highly likely that that many residents will be able to return to the unit that they have now just because the site is so small and there's not very many other units to move them to. We also have to consider disability and reasonable accommodation issues. So for example if someone's currently in what's called a five zero four unit or an accessible unit and they don't have a person with disabilities in their family, then they will be most likely required to move to a non five zero four unit so that a person with disabilities can actually move to the unit that they are able to have the accommodation in. So there may be slight changes. So but because the site is so small, it's only 51 units, it's highly likely that the majority of folks will be able to move back to the unit they're in now provided that's where where they want to move.

And so we also take into account vacancies that happen. Sometimes even when we do do the renovations, there are some residents that don't want to return. So if we have vacancies as as that happens, then we match the needs of the family according to the type of unit that it is. And we try to accommodate as best as possible while we're doing this move and in transition. So a number of those of those things are happening while we do the relocation.

Alright. So somebody that's there basically under public housing and now it's being turned into voucher housing, do they automatically have a voucher now?

How does that work? That's a great question. They have a right to participate in the voucher program. That is the right that is automatic when we do a redevelopment program. However, if during the course of this someone no longer qualifies for public housing or the voucher program, they may not have the right to return because they have qualified out of the program in its entirety.

So they have to still meet the income criteria to participate in the program. And those are things that we go over with residents what their options are should that be the case. Once we identify if there are persons that no longer qualify for the program at all, then we explore help them explore other options which may be off-site or at another another housing option, another development. We help them and direct them to the type of housing that they actually do qualify for now. So we still give them that counseling and guidance.

There are some units when we do the conversion that will be identified as a a non subsidized unit. Meaning once we convert to the tax credit program, every single unit, not just the person but the actual unit must qualify and have income restrictions tied to it. And so if for whatever reason the person doesn't, they'd still be allowed to return but they would have to be they would be playing paying closer to a more of a fair market rate for that particular unit. Once they move out that unit is then added to the voucher program and then a person that meets affordability criteria is allowed to move in. And so so they will have housing regardless of their their status, but there there may be some differences.

But it really all depends on if they're income qualified or not.

And is that something you find out in this process?

Correct. So now as we're doing part of getting to the closing is conducting those analyses because all of that is tied into the financing of the project. Because investors finance the units depending on the income criteria of the occupants of the unit, not just of the other characteristics of the site itself. So we have to provide the income qualifying information, to the state, to HUD, to the county, to all of our stakeholders, to the tax credit investors in order for The Us to qualify for the funding. And so, yes, we have to conduct that analysis and we try to determine that pretty early in the process because it could take a number of months working with a family to help them explore what are the next set of options for them during this process.

And so most likely by this definitely by the spring we would start those conversations. In fact we're we're already are we're starting the survey work now with the residents and based on that information following the survey then we conduct counseling sessions with each family. And a caseworker helps them explore the different options available to them.

Thank you.

So thank you Melissa for Through coming out this information that you've shared, also would like to hear if you would be willing to share too. How many have you already completed? Maybe how many surveys you've already completed if you do know that number. As well as how many families may be impacted through this alteration from the voucher to this private public partnership is what it sounds like. So let's be clear about this. This is a private public partnership. And so if you can share that as well as how many HACA properties at this point now that this is transitioning to a private public partnership will be under private public partnerships for the people.

Sure. So there's 51 families at the site. And so that's the number of families that will be impacted by the the transition. Every resident meeting that we have had to date we've surveyed the residents and we've collected their feedback. Part of this process HUD requires you to poll the residents, ask them questions, ask them for feedback, and to present that in writing, to HUD what the actual comments were and to show that we've incorporated the comments into the planning of the project.

And so we've done a number of those. We're doing one now that is online so the one that we're doing now so I would say we've had at least three in person survey information collecting sessions just particular to redevelopment. We're now doing an online one and it's not just online we're also handing out paper versions of the survey which is a much more in-depth survey. And so after we collect that information, we'll then begin the case management which will be more intensive and particular to to certain families. So once in terms of the total number of properties that we have a private public partnership with, so far there's Wilborn Estates, Obre Courts, Annapolis Gardens, Morris H Blum are the properties that have already converted.

In fact we'll be planning our grand opening for Morris H Blum. It gets a little warmer sometime in in, early spring. We are in the process of, converting Robin Wood, Bloomsbury Square, also Eastport Terrace, Harbor House. So all of our properties will be under some sort of private public partnership structure once we have converted all of our sites. Yes.

Can I just jump in? I just want to clarify, these are all RAD conversions, is that?

The majority are. The only site that is not a RAD conversion but has similar, RAD rights attached to the site is Wilborn Estates. That is technically what's called a section 18, demolition disposition, project. And so we decided to adopt RAD conversion rights onto the site even though it was technically not a RAD conversion. RAD stands for Rental Assistance Demonstration Program which is a program created by Congress and administered by HUD since 2012 which allows housing authorities to convert its public housing portfolio to a private public partnership in order to leverage the funding that is attached to these projects that we could not otherwise do so if it just stayed in the public housing program because leveraging is not allowed once hud has deeds of trust attached to property.

So essentially it releases hud's deed of trust, its lien on our properties to allow us the financial flexibility to capitalize on our property so we can keep them in good repair and in good shape. As we're doing these these renovations, we are providing upgrades to the site and to the property. So that's the ultimate goal is to improve the living conditions of the units for the residents. And as you might have heard, congress is not funding the public housing program as it traditionally has had in prior decades. And and so and with the new budget released today with a projected 14 decrease in the public housing operating budget it is definitely not investing in public housing.

However, in the voucher program, it's a 9% increase in funding. So housing authority industry experts have tracked this funding allocation pattern for for years to determine it's best to move from the traditional public housing model if housing authorities are able to to move towards hopefully a more stable funding model under the voucher program. It also allows residents the opportunity in this process to utilize a voucher on-site meaning the vouchers are tied to the new unit that they're moving back into or to take a tenant based voucher and move off-site and have what's called choice mobility and allow them to move wherever they please that will accept a voucher which sometimes it it is very difficult even if someone is on the voucher wait list to receive a voucher just because one wait lists aren't open very often and two it's very difficult to utilize a voucher once you get one. And even if you are on a wait list, it can take years to to receive a voucher from a housing authority. So because we do the relocation and because of the imposition it puts on the families, HUD allows us to issue to give them the right to request a tenant based voucher through this process and they can receive a voucher much more quickly than if even if they were on our regular voucher wait list.

I got a question. So I know that you are doing Robinwood along with Bloomsbury Square. Is the processes and the surveys and all of those discussions going to be the same processes for Robinwood too? I know it's way bigger and you gotta do a lot more work.

Yes. Yes. But essentially the process is the same of which I described earlier. And we're doing that also now at I got one

more question. With the defunding and funds, how is that going to affect the residents that are already there even with the transition of the new housing development?

In terms of if the programs aren't funded the way they through congress you mean?

Yes.

Or okay that's a really really great question. So what we do is once we receive definitiveness on what, congress is allocating for these programs and what hud is going to distribute, that determines the speed in which we can redevelop in the staging. So and depending on the level of outside funding we can receive from private investment, from local investment, state, county, city investment also determines the pace in which we can redevelop. So let's say if we know that there could be significant concerns for funding on the federal level, then it's up to local partners to step up to bridge whatever gap is necessary to ensure that the redevelopment still happens. As we go through this stage in which we're determining what is going to be in what's called the capital stack, how much funding is being contributed by what entity, this is when those type of conversations are actually occurring.

In every single project that we've had, there's been a funding gap of some sort. Fortunately the state of Maryland is has been very generally supportive of affordable housing programs especially once we're engaged in one. And will and has for us stepped up when there has been a gap. Like for example during COVID we were in the midst of our new town 20 to Wilborn Estates and, redevelopment. And because of lumber costs that resulted in a $3,000,000 gap instantly that was not contemplated because COVID wasn't contemplated when we started redevelopment.

And so the state assisted us with that funding gap that no one could have contemplated in order for us to get that job done. So I'm just using that as an example. But during this process we meet very frequently to discuss all of the variables and changes funding wise, political, anything, environmental, anything that can impact the pace of the overall redevelopment in our ability to complete it.

May I ask a question?

Yes.

Thank you. Thanks so much for being here Director Maddox Evans. Really appreciate all the stuff you're doing to modernize and improve our residents lives. I got one boring question and then mostly I want to focus on the relocation. Outside architecturally is it going to look different after it's rehabbed or more or less the same?

Not likely. Okay. Because we are in a historic Yeah. And there are a number of approvals that we are going to have to obtain, from the city's historic society, from the state historic society with regards to Bloomsbury Square. We don't anticipate that there'll be significant changes to the style of the exterior. So most of what we're doing is integrity and structural related. We we love the style. We think it's very beautiful.

Yeah.

But it is over 20 old and there are things that need to be addressed now. And so in order to ensure longevity.

Gotcha. Thank you. On the other side of things on people moving. So I think the most fundamental concern that I hear from people is this particular site there's been so many kind of false starts and are we gonna get it or are we not gonna get it. There's this whole history behind it I'm sure you're aware of.

And so I think there's a lot of sort of mistrust. This, a lot of times it feels like, to oversimplify it. In some other scenarios it's like we're worried about our house is gonna get taken from us and we're going to put into some kind of public housing community. This is almost like people are worried but we're gonna get our public housing community taken from us and put into some other house. So I guess my most fundamental question is how are you guys working to bridge that trust gap in this particular situation?

Yeah that's a good question. And those are similar concerns for every single project we have.

Maybe it's not as great as I think

it is. Single one and they're they're understandable. The history of Bloomsbury Square has been interesting because it this is the second time that it has undergone a major redevelopment. The first time was because the state wanted to acquire the property for its parking facility, for its workers. So it initiated the move per se and it significantly funded that move in order to achieve that.

So this this is the second time that a major upgrade is happening. However this time the site is not being moved. The first time was actually more traumatic and more significant because the actual location moved. Now we're just renovating the the interior and the exterior. So what we're trying to help residents understand that we have heard all of your complaints about conditions of the unit.

In order to actually renovate the unit to the extent that you want us to renovate the unit, you can't live there Mhmm. For a time. We will have ceilings open, floors exposed, plumbing, electrical. There's no way for you to physically live in the space. That is the only reason why you have to temporarily relocate because we're actually trying to do what you have been requesting all of these years and that's why we try to help them be as involved in the planning of the process as possible so they can feel that it's their renovation, not something that's happening to them, but actually something that they have been requesting and yes that comes with a significant inconvenience of being out of your unit for a number of weeks or for several months, you know while you're doing so.

We we get that part and all the all the trouble that comes with those type of moves. We try to help them understand what their rights are during this process. We share with them what the federal regulations are about them having the right to return. What that that legally we cannot we have to ensure that they have the right to return, that it's a legal requirement. It's not something that the housing authority thinks is nice to do or we do think it's nice to do, but that's not the reason why we're do.

We are legally required to, as long as you're in good standing and you're you're doing all you need to do as a resident, you know you're not currently violating the lease or subject to eviction or you know not paying your rent or you're you're doing your part as a resident, then yes you have a right under our lease and program requirements to return. That's what the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program is. It's different than in years back there was a program called HOPE six in which there was which is sort of the predecessor of the RAD program. And in that program there were additional criteria that a resident had to meet or that a project had to meet and only a certain number of persons could come back. And that's historically though HOPE six did not happen here in Annapolis, and so it happened in major cities, you know other cities.

So but because of the lessons learned in hope six, HUD made changes to the regulations under the RAD program and made the resident rights stronger through this. So for example, under RAD program residents still even after the property is converted, they still have a right to a grievance which you don't have a right to a grievance in a regular landlord tenant relationship in the private market. But at a RAD property you do. You have a right to a tenant council to create one. You don't have a right to that necessarily in the private market, but at a RAD property you do.

So there are a number of things that are very similar and embedded in the public housing program and in the voucher program that are still available to tenants after conversion. And so we try to help them understand those rights. And the more vocal they are, and honestly the more involved they are, the more the fears are addressed. Yeah, that's So that really so we encourage residents if you're concerned about anything please come to the tenant meetings and voice your concerns as we're rolling this information out because that's where we can hear what the concerns are and to not presume that we know what all the concerns are as we're going through this process.

Can I just piggyback on this for a second though? It kind of goes back to my question or your discussion earlier about as they're going through the process if they find that they're no longer eligible, income eligible or whatnot, where in the process do we are they finding that out? Because the biggest concern I'm is hearing from that I'm going through all of this and I'm, you know, being a part of this and I'm gonna get to move back into this beautiful new unit that's completely renovated. And oh by the way, at the very last minute they pulled out from under me and I'm no longer eligible. That's what I hear over and over again.

So we have already spoken with residents that we consider to be that we have concerns that are not compliant with our programs. We we try to reach out to those residents very early when we're starting this process, meaning we're two or three years out way before we get to the closing. So that, for example, by the time we got to the Wilborn closing, there was only one resident that didn't meet the income criteria. And I think it was pretty much the same at, Blum, maybe one.

Because you moved them out prior to that? Or?

No. No. Not necessarily that we're informed that, okay, you no longer qualify for the program. You're gonna have to let's talk about what other housing arrangements would work for you or or or whatever. I'm saying that to say the amount of work that we do and the amount of outreach and counseling that we do during this process is significant.

So the any resident that has any concern about their standing in our program or their own compliance issues, we encourage them to reach out to the management team right away. We also we call each resident that we have any kind of concern about one on one. But there may be things that we don't know about that a resident is concerned about. So we ask them to call us also and to the worst thing a resident can do is not address a concern that they may have. That that's that's not going to be helpful to to them.

Now we have worked with pretty much every single issue under the sun that we have come across with regards to resident issues. And so because it's our goal for everybody to return and to not lose anyone. And so so we do that. But at every single meeting, we have a list and we, you know, have our management team and it's like, please talk to us right now. Let's set up a a time so that you can talk with whomever you need to talk to to answer questions.

And sometimes residents have concerns of things that are not of concern. Like it's not they may think something is significant but it's really not, you know, to their tenancy. And then we help them understand like, no, that's not

going to

disqualify you from the from the program. So sometimes there's just misunderstandings or misconceptions that need to be cleared up. One thing we do ask residents to do is to report every person you intend to be on your lease when we do this transition because the only persons that are eligible for a voucher for that household are the persons that are listed on the lease. So if you have someone that's been living with you, it's time to get them on your lease now. If there have you have someone whose, income's not being captured, it's time to capture that income now.

So if your recert has been a recertification has been delayed or if you've not completed it yet, you need to complete that now because the subsidy that we determine for your unit is based on your recertification. So if you haven't been providing current information, now's the time to get current as we're determining the amount of subsidies that are being attached to each unit. So it's actually a great opportunity to clean up a lot of issues that might be outstanding for a particular family and household. So we're not just physically moving people, we're programmatically, ensuring compliance on the housing authority.

Do you happen to have thanks again,

folks.

Do you happen to have I know you mentioned 14% decrease in the budget, 9% increase for the vouchers. What is your scope of understanding around this? What concerns do you have, your team has, our team as we're facing these budget cuts? As well as what asks do you have of us as city, the persons or government if you will as we transition to that too?

Yeah. Well great. I appreciate you asking. As as with federally funded programs there's always elements of uncertainty. Those elements have been heightened in recent months.

One of the most challenging aspects we have with regards to particularly our properties that may not be moving towards a financial closing in the next year or two is support with regards to the capital needs of these properties until we can get to the point of significant renovation. Because the needs are still significant and will remain significant until we can do a wholesale renovation. And so through periodically we will present either funding requests or requests for some sort of support to the the city and other entities to assist us as we're going through the renovation and redevelopment process because this process takes several years to do, and people have housing needs right now. So the most significant thing I think a a local municipality can do is embrace the fact that the federal government is not as stable as in prior years with regards to supporting public housing and to have considerations of that as they're doing their budget, they're doing, you know, the needs even not just the housing needs, the physical housing needs, but programmatic needs associated with housing. So rental assistance programs, for example, other social programs that could assist persons to be more stable, in their housing situations, workforce programs.

So because for Us housing is what we do, but in the scope of the economic and socio socioeconomic spectrum it is sort of the end of the spectrum. There are so many things that need to be working properly on the local level for persons to be able to have stable housing. And I think oftentimes housing is looked at, you know, if we just redevelop the units everything will be fine. And that's not the case. So we have to make sure that there are programs in place to support the people that are in the housing for the overall housing program to be successful.

I know that's very vague but we will definitely be coming before you more in the future with more specific asks as we go through this process but from from our standpoint as housing providers, it would be helpful if local leaders understood housing as just infrastructure that needs to be supported as it does you know our waste you know storm water management or environmental issues and it's just housing is just one of the things that need to be supported and so so that would be something that I would ask for the commission to consider.

Sorry,

I'm back. Thanks for your answer before I think people are worried to what Alderman O'Neill was saying. But maybe what I'm hearing is part of our role is to tell them why they don't need to be worried and really amplifying that message rather than making sure we feed into those fears.

Or if they are worried they can contact us.

Sure. Yeah.

And find out what

they're doing too. Mhmm. Hopefully the remaining questions I have are hopefully fairly straightforward. You mentioned it's gonna take six to eight weeks roughly for redoing each unit. That's how long people are gonna be out. About how many you think you're gonna how many people will be in that situation at any given time?

Or how

many units, I should ask will be in that situation?

We're trying to do a building at a time. And depending on so I would say maybe 10 families or Gotcha. Around that numbers.

Sure. Like some more? Have one other thing. Oh just, and this is probably something that feels a little unique but isn't actually. A lot of folks there have physical disabilities. As you're thinking about relocation, how are you guys considering that? Especially if you're mentioning like extended states. Is that in response to that? How are you thinking about that?

So once we conduct the interviews with the individual families and find out what their accommodation needs are, we then determine the type of temporary housing that would be suitable. So we would have to assist them with the type of accommodations that will meet their physical or any other type of challenge. So we have to take that into consideration.

Thanks so much for having this. Chairman McAntee, that was all my questions.

Thank you. I just have one more question, and it's a little bit going to put you on the spot, I'm sorry for it. But one of the things that I keep hearing about is people being able to contact HACA offices, and the amount of time that offices are open and available. I've had several residents say that they've made appointments, only to go and take off work to go and find out that nobody was there, actually there during the appointment time. Can you talk a little bit about the office hours and the availability of your personnel for people to come and ask questions such

as that? Is this just generally for sites or is it for Bloomsbury Square or?

It's a little bit of both, some Harbor House, some Blueberry Square. Yeah. There we've invited other property managers as well. Know that on Obery Court it's been a pretty major issue.

Yeah. So the Bloomsbury Square office is open twice a week. It has been for quite some time. It is best that residents do set an appointment if they have some important you know matters to discuss. We'll make sure that if there are if there's an emergency a manager might be have have to be called away for a moment, but they usually return or place signage on the door to indicate the return.

But I will make sure the management staff, you know, does a better job in making folks aware as to the office availability. We have had to do a, reduce walk ins at Eastport Terrace and Harbor House for the time being since we started the Y Head Start program, at the Eastport Community Center. There have been a few instances of some inappropriate conduct, I would say, that has resulted in there being some threats issued to staff and to some of the workers at the Y Head Start program by some individuals. So we have moved the appointments for Eastport Terrace and Harbor House to the main office. So if they would like to meet with their manager, they just contact the manager and they set an appointment.

And since our main office is on the same site as Eastport Terrace and Harbor House, and they can have the appointment at our main office. And we are doing that for the for the time being. And so it is not likely that someone will be able to walk up to the Eastport Community Center and just go in because we're running a school there and or the Y is rather but they can make an appointment and information about that is on the door if they'd like to set up an appointment. And they can always, our main office is always open and there's always someone there answering the phone, at the front desk. So if anyone has any problem contacting a local management office, they can always call our main office and submit their question or request to meet with somebody or file their complaint or or get a message to whomever and our because our line is always being manned And they can always walk in to our main office that is open most every day except to the public, except, Fridays.

We're still open. We're not open to the public on Fridays. So Monday through Thursday, they can also walk in and say I'd like to set an appointment with whomever in the front desk person will will connect them to do so.

Thank you, Melissa.

All right. Well, thank you very much.

Okay. Next on the agenda is ID 29.26, affordable housing.

Thank you. I'm not Terri Bond. I'm sitting in for her. She couldn't make it. My name is Patrick Sheridan. My name is Patrick Sheridan. I'm one of the other six members of the affordable housing and community equity development commission which is one of the longest commission names I've seen. But I just wanted to let you know a little bit about what our commission does which serves at the pleasure of your committee and also some of the things we've been working on and things we see coming up. Just a little bit of background on it. I mentioned, there's six of us on the committee.

We're all Annapolis residents. All of us have backgrounds in housing policy, housing development, resident services, government affordable housing programs, both state and federal, and also in community development programs. Generally we're appointed by the council and the mayor but recommendation from the housing and human welfare committee. So again we serve it your pleasure quite frankly. What we've done or what we've seen as far as our purpose goes has been to assist your committee in reviewing and providing comment on proposed legislation.

We also provide comments on some of the proposed awards for city received HUD CDBG funding. And we also work on researching and keeping abreast of affordable housing and community development trends. Also then aiding and developing legislation that furthers affordable housing and community development goals and in particular also helping implement the Neapolis comprehensive plan that has been just within the last year finalized. What we can do is of course provide assistance to you and the committee on current proposal legislation that does come before the council and the committee such as accessory dwelling units, ADUs or even short term rentals, something along that line. We've also had a suggestion that might be helpful that we could assist in developing an educational reach out program or campaign about affordable housing that we could use with the public to help explain the benefits of achieving higher density or slightly higher density housing and also providing examples of places where that has happened before.

And one of the things that your committee may want to consider too is revisiting it was workforce housing legislation that happened probably about two or three years ago. It was bill forty-twenty two and what it did would provide incentives to build housing that would be affordable to those with incomes between 60100% of median income. It did make it as far as a first reading. There were comments both from public and city staff that we were working on incorporating but the legislation was subsequently tabled for the projected release of the comprehensive plan to make sure that it did meet what some of the goals of the plan were. It is something we see some benefit there.

It tracks pretty closely with a lot of other types of programs such as ADUs and that, but what we were contemplating would be more along the lines of infill type housing that would be duplexes, triplexes, something along those lines rather than large scale multi family housing. But those are just some examples of some of the things that we generally look at. We work closely with the city staff on making sure we are keeping abreast of what's going on and also providing suggestions. We're open to anything else the committee would like to have us work on. If you have any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Hey, welcome. Thank you so much for your volunteerism serving on this. And to the other members who are not here, thank you all as well. Did you have any thoughts or feedback thus far from your meetings? Have you already met prior to this to discuss some of the things you wanna bring to our attention thus far as well as aside from the go ahead with that question that way I can just come back.

I think the workforce housing legislation was something we thought would be good to bring up but also whether there were ways that we could assist with reviewing the ADU proposals that had been proposed. I know we've also looked at the county's programs. A lot of them track very closely of course with what the city's been doing. It's been a situation where we've been able to look at some of those programs and make suggestions as to how it could be used here in Annapolis. And again we've worked with the county also in providing them with some suggestions.

We're not matched perfectly either with each other but we did see some big benefits there. And one thing I should also mention too though, another role I also have is I'm vice chairman of the housing authorities board of commissioners. I'm sort of the liaison between this committee and the housing authority also.

Okay. The other piece to that was going to be do you all have any thoughts or plans surrounding a vision to bring more equity into the housing developments here in the city or just in general for housing equity? Do you all have maybe a layout of what you'd like to see over the next two to three, four years? I know your terms are not too extensive, but they're pretty decent amount of time of terms. So do you have that at all aside from the reports that you provide to us on an annual basis?

Well, I think in that regard we are more reacting to what your committee proposals, what we have seen in the comprehensive plan to try to make sure that we can help you meet those goals in doing that.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

We will update you on those things.

Next on the agenda is ID 2226 Woodside Gardens update.

Good evening. Hello.

Welcome. Thank you.

My name is Kenneth Hart. I'm the senior regional for Fairstead. And one of the communities in my region is Woodside Gardens. And I'll let you introduce yourself. Sure.

Good afternoon everyone. My name is Diane Ripson. I'm the regional for Woodside Gardens. I just came aboard about maybe two weeks ago. Thanks

for coming.

So

we had a meeting with you guys I think about two, three months ago. There was a list of things that residents brought to our attention. And I'm happy to say that for the most part, are all done with the exception of one item. We got on them right away. Took care of what needed to be taken care of.

Kept the resident informed of the progress. And there's just one item that's an underground dig that we chose to put into this year's budget that will be taken care of this year. But other than that, everything else is taken care of. We continue our partnership with the Annapolis Police Department and our security team on-site to maintain the property, the grounds. And we've hired full time dedicated recertification specialists to handle the research so that one person is handling all the recertifications at the community as opposed to multiple people.

And, that seems to be going well with our residents too. And, of course, we have a very great and productive resident service program that put in some really great programs this past fall and and winter for residents and continue to do so going forward. It's my update. If you have any questions, I'm more than happy to to answer them.

My first question is, I'm having a hard time hearing you. Could you move them up a little

bit? Sure. Is that better?

Thank you. Better?

Okay. My

next question is, the three of us brand new to this committee. Okay. Well, one of us has served on the council in the past. You give us a little overview of your property? How many units? Do you have empty units, are you, do you, can you give us those kind of

details? Sure. I joined Fairstead in April. My information may not be as concrete. We we have whereas tax credit tax credit section eight combined unit community. We have 130 units on the property. One bedroom, two bedrooms, and three bedroom apartments. We currently have about nine vacant units that we're trying to fill. We have applications on all units. We're just working through the process of getting them qualified to move in onto the property.

So, you wanted to know occupancy, vacancy. What was the other thing you wanted to know?

That was it.

Thank That was it? Okay.

130 units. Nine vacant. Thank you.

I wanted to know what is the prep I know you guys don't deal with them on like a regular basis because y'all are regional, but I get a lot of questions and concerns from Woodside. So I was asking about what is the protocol when a resident puts in like maintenance stuff that is like unresolved for a long time that's like should be emergency situations? And how are you guys addressing the communication between the residents and your property manager when you had, I think, at least two town halls where I was present and the residents came there with a lot of questions and concerns as far as the disconnect between the property managers and them and none of the things were being addressed. So,

we have a senior property manager on-site. Shanay Whitfield is her name. We also have an admin assistant at the front door to field those questions. Take the work orders and process them through our system. Emergency work orders should be dealt with immediately if they're emergency.

Flooding, toilet stoppage, things of those natures. Other things are put into a queue to be dealt with as time allows. Communication between the office and the residents, from my point of view, has gotten better. It's not perfect, but it's gotten better. We I invite residents to talk to the admin, the manager.

If they don't get any satisfaction there, you know, there's me, there's the regional that they can also come to. I keep business cards at the property so that they can reach out to me should they need to. Haven't gotten very many complaints in the past couple of months since our last meeting. So, it's my understanding that things are going well. The communication is going well. I have gotten, actually Friday I got one email from a resident about a situation that we're working on. But, other than that, I haven't gotten many more. I haven't received many more complaints like that. We understood or I understood that there were issues with prior management. And so we're trying to work through those.

Can't undo those situations and those problems. We can take them on today and try our best to resolve them. Which is always my goal. My goal is to take the situation, stop it from going any higher, and resolve that issue as best I can at my level.

I also have gotten a lot of calls about like balances owed. Yeah. Them not knowing where the balance is coming from.

And,

they have reached out to find out from the property manager, and it was no clarity there. So a lot of people are calling me, like, in crisis mode, basically saying I got a letter, and it's saying that I owe $10,000 or $12,000 and just recently I didn't have this so I'm trying to figure out why I'm going through this. And then they go to the property manager and she's either not addressing it or maybe not to their liking or what they're thinking. What is like, what type of things are they putting in place so that they can properly assist the residents that are having these issues or if they really are those issues?

So, the thing that's in place is that one person that we have to do your recertifications. Typically, when a resident comes in to recertify, that's when their rent is adjusted based on their current income, right? The goal, in the perfect world, they should do that annually and timely. It's when they don't do it, when they're April 1 move in and they don't complete their research until July 1, then there's a retroactive adjustment that goes there. Or, longer they wait, the longer the adjustment period going back to.

When we put in our system what their income is, you know, HUD is gonna send us back a discrepancy. If we say it was as of this date, and HUD says no, our record shows as of this date, We need to investigate it. Verify when they did start work or when they switched jobs. And, at that point, we have to make that adjustment on their rent. And reported back to HUD that it was corrected.

So, that's where a lot of the discrepancies are coming from. The late research, the non research, and the mis reporting of income or under reporting of income. And, when you look at a ledger in August '25, it's talking about a rent adjustment from September '24. It's kind of convoluted and kind of difficult to understand, let alone explain it to the point. And, we run into the fact that prior management didn't do adjustments timely or correctly.

And in that instance, or the resident will say, I've supplied you that information when you asked for it. So, in that instance, when they say they supplied us the information, we then will go back and say, okay, give us the information again. So that we can go back to that period and make the correct adjustments. And that's where the break comes. They don't want to.

They refuse to. You know, we have to do something at that point because he's telling us they made $25,000 that year and they're saying, no, I only made $12,000 that year. So, we have to make that adjustment retroactively. In some cases, when they can demonstrate that the error was on our behalf, then we'll eat those charges going backwards to make the alleges right. But, you know, when they're reluctant to provide us with the information or to prove to us that this did happen or didn't happen, then we have to go with what HUD is reporting back to us as an error in income.

Alright. Well, welcome. As you mentioned, you just joined in April.

Last

year. Obviously, it's been the new year. So it's almost about a year

or so. Almost year.

Uh-huh. I'm so so I'm I'm a I'm sure you've already heard or seen the history of the issues that we face here in Annapolis, particularly in our public housing communities. And I'm not certain if they gave you a packet, a pamphlet, a a book, or whatever that may have been about the issues that our residents, particularly at this property, have faced. But I will bring up the mold infestation and the pest infestation aside from just crime, pollution, track those types of things. Mhmm. Do you all have plan to address that long term? What is your vision here in the city of Annapolis for us in providing the best housing possible for those residents?

So, Fairstead's policy is to provide the best possible housing, the best housing for all of our residents. When we are made aware of a problem, we jump on it as quickly as we can. Something as big as mold, we try to jump on as quickly as we know about it. Often, we're not informed about it until we encounter it via an inspection or some other occurrence happening in the unit. But, once we determine that there is mold, we determine the source and remediate it and make whatever repairs necessary so it doesn't occur further.

Pest control. We have a regular rotating pest control program at Woodside. Every two weeks, we get so many units treated plus any big issues that or reported issues that are not on our regular rotation cycle. So, we try to tackle pest control that way. A lot of our pest control issues are household, what's the word I want, housekeeping related.

So, we're going to loop in our resident services people to kind of work with that resident to improve their housekeeping as well. The two go hand in hand. But, we try. And, if it's a really bad issue, for example, a bed bug issue, we don't use our regular pest control company for that. We get an expert in to treat the bed bugs. They come in. They inspect that unit. The two units are joining it above and below as well. So that we don't see that they spread. If they do spread, then we repeat up and down and left and right as well too.

To try to take care of the issue with bed bugs as quickly as possible. In security, we have a great reputation and relationship with the Annapolis Police Department. We have our own security on property. And, they work in conjunction with the police department if they need additional assistance on-site. We actually have a meeting every week with both security and Annapolis PD to discuss any current issues or problem areas that we as management would like them to pay attention to on the site.

Alright. Just so that the people are aware, you said Fair said they're new to this? No, no, no.

Just Come on.

Because I'm not saying

that at all.

I wanna make sure you were talking about just yourself and not Yeah.

Just me. I'm I've been here since April. So I'm not that new, but I'm new.

Okay.

New to Fairstead, not new to the business.

Okay. Yeah. Hopefully not. He needs some experience around here. Right. So when it go comes to a concern that I heard from residents, they said that they're not allowed to sit outside of their property on the the the steps, if you will. Mhmm. Is that true? Is or is that not true? Because that's a little concerning that families are not allowed or able, if this is true, to enjoy their space.

So they may not be allowed to sit on the steps because it impedes people from coming and going. Often, when I visit and I walk a building or go to a unit to look at something, I'm climbing over someone. So, we don't let them sit on the steps. But, benches outside, yes, they can they can sit. We have playgrounds and areas for them to sit that they're more than welcome to sit on.

Are you referring to the steps outside of the property?

The steps to get into the building?

Yes. To get into the building.

Into the building. Yes.

Okay. I will say that if someone is in the way, I think saying excuse me or hey, Matt. Goodbye without making a family feel that they're not allowed to in a an not welcoming way would be great, especially since that was brought to our attention. I do wanna just make sure that they feel still that they can enjoy their space.

So absolutely. We have a playground. We have a garden, basketball courts. We have a community room they can come into with a little kitchenette that's stocked with cold water and beverages. We have a computer lab, an after school program with the classroom. We have a lot of amenities that residents can participate in. And, we do that so that they're not sitting on the steps impeding the entry and exit of the building.

One last question. Do you guys have anything in place for when you do get the EIV reports from HUD about concerning resident and they have all the paperwork to say that it wasn't them and it was definitely the property manager's fault. Do you all have anything in place to like make that less like the problem from continuing? Because if you have 15 here and it continues to be 15 every time versus putting something in place that it can reduce it to like maybe 10 from the 15.

I think that's part of our dedicated compliance person on-site. You're dealing with one person. Everybody's dealing with the same person, giving their information to the same person, which should go into their file so they can be entered into the system to assure that, you know, I didn't give it to her. I can't come in and say, I gave it to Diana three weeks ago. And, you know, where is it? Where did she put it? So, it's going to one person. It makes it into their file. And we can enter it in the system that way. We also give them copies of what they give us so that they have it.

And, we can stamp and initial that we received it on a specific date. So, they know that we have it as well too. So, that should minimize, if not eliminate any miscommunications or misguided paperwork.

Okay. Thank you. Are there any more questions? Are questions again?

Are those rules listed anywhere in maybe a tenant rights or any agreement so that residents know that they are this is just one example, that they're not quote unquote allowed to sit on those steps?

I believe it is in our house rules.

Okay. So they're in the house rules. Yes. Then that's something that we will direct them to. Yes. I mean, I take it that's information

Part of their lease.

At the the office.

The house rules are part of their lease agreement.

Okay. So look in their lease and you'll see you're not allowed. Okay. Yes. Thank you.

Yes, sir.

Can we get y'all information? Sure. Please.

I have some business cards. We

can get a card, dude. They'll raise the card. Sure. And thank you both, know, if I may madam chair. Thank you both for joining us today and being a part of what we're bringing here for our residents in Annapolis.

Absolutely. Thank you for

having us. Absolutely.

My card has a New York number, 212 number, but I am local. The company's headquartered in New York. So if you call me, I'll I'll answer with that.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

Have a good night. Thank

you again.

Seeing that we have no further business I'll take a motion to adjourn it. So moved.

Seconded.

All in favor?

Aye. Blessings.