City Council - Regular Meeting

The program is a critical piece to the puzzle of having stability within neighborhoods. Really the program and the partnership that we have with landlords is a vital piece to make sure that our families are able to afford and be fully engaged within the community and really that's our goal is for our families to become self-sufficient. Chandler is

Oh, you're good.

Good evening, and welcome to the study session of June 8. One of our council members is online, Councilmember Harris. And one of our council members is excused, Jennifer Hawkins. With that, I'd like to call this meeting to order. And clerk, please take the roll.

Mayor Hartke?

Here.

Vice Mayor Encinas?

Here.

Councilmember Poston? Here. Councilmember Ellis? Here. Councilmember Orlando? Here. And Councilmember Harris?

Here.

And Councilmember Hawkins is absent and excused. We have a quorum.

Thank you so much. Next on our agenda tonight is scheduled public appearances. I would like to invite Councilmember Ellis to join me up front. I don't know why you walked all the way that way. All right, we only have one scheduled service recognition tonight under scheduled public appearances. I'd like to turn this over to city manager.

Mayor, council, This is probably very appropriate tonight, as tomorrow many of you will be joining us for the opening of Villas on McQueen. Today we have a 10-year service recognition for Amy Jacobson, who is responsible for a lot of the glory that we will see tomorrow. And I would ask that Deputy City Manager Leah Powell please do the introductions and the announcement.

Yes, thank you. I'd like to invite Amy Jacobson to please come forward. So this is her 10-year service recognition and since joining the City of Chandler in 2016 as the Housing and Redevelopment Manager and the Public Housing Authority Director, Amy Jacobson has made a lasting impact on Chandler's affordable housing landscape through a clear vision and dedicated service. Under Amy's guidance, the Housing Authority has maintained its high-performing PHA designation while entering a new era of development. Beginning in 2019, she spearheaded the repositioning of existing public housing, culminating in the 2024 groundbreaking of the 157-unit Villas on McQueen, the city's first new multifamily housing construction in over 50 years. Amy oversees the entire project, every aspect of it, from environmental review and zoning to LIHTC financing, design coordination, and federal regulatory compliance. She also leads real estate acquisitions and new development opportunities that expand affordable housing options for Chandler residents. And through doing all of that, through Villas on McQueen, Amy also had a daughter. So she's our special Villas on McQueen child. And as our city manager said, Villazon McQueen will celebrate its grand opening tomorrow. And this is such a fitting capstone for Amy's 10 years of service. Also joining her tonight is her husband, Russ, and her daughter, Addie. Her son, Will, is not able to be with us as he's just graduated. But here comes Libby. So congratulations, Amy, and thank you so much for all of your hard work.

That's my mama.

That's my mama.

That's my mama.

As mentioned, that's our only scheduled appearance. It was good to have a little more color with that. So thank you. Council, even though we have got quite a few items on the agenda, we had opportunity to look at all these, and only one of the items was called in for further explanation, although we will be voting on these on Thursday. We did have a comment card that will be placed into the record, but again, we're not voting on until Thursday. So with that, the only item called in was item number 34, agreements for operation, open door, non-congregate shelter program accommodations. And let's have a presentation. Council Member Morales, did you have a question or just want a general presentation? Great.

Hello, Mayor Council. Today we are asking that City Council approve our amendment to the agreements with our Redwood Motel as well as our Metrozona Hotel to continue providing non-congregate shelter through Operation Open Door for the upcoming fiscal year. So tonight I would like to share the impact of our Operation Open Door program and why this program continues to be one of Chandler's most important tools for preventing unsheltered homelessness in our city. This program continues to provide emergency non-congregate shelter rooms, offering case management and housing stability services, to hundreds of Chandler residents each year serving families with children and vulnerable individuals experiencing unsheltered homelessness. Last fiscal year, I'm proud to report that we provided 22,684 safe bed nights. Every one of those bed nights represent a night where a child, a senior, a veteran, or otherwise vulnerable adult did not experience homelessness in the streets of Chandler. The program continues to produce strong outcomes. As you can see here, in fiscal year 24-25, we had a 96% positive exit rate from Operation Open Door. They all left to a positive destination. We did serve a total of 182 households, including 353 unique individuals. Last year, last fiscal year, we served 38% of our clients through Operation Open Door were children under the age of 17. And this fiscal year so far, that number has already increased to 43%. So that means nearly half of everyone who sheltered through this program is 17 years and younger. The current wait list right now for emergency family shelter is 14 to 16 weeks of waiting. So as you can imagine, if you were experiencing homelessness with your child at any time right now in Maricopa County, you would make a phone call. They would add you to the emergency shelter wait list. And at that time, you would have to call once a week, leave a message, not even speak to someone. and then hope that, you know, a call comes for you. And then within 16, you know, 14 to 16 weeks, you would then receive a call and then could go to shelter. So that period in between though, you're still sleeping either outside or in your vehicle or even on a park bench. Last fiscal year, 18% of the clients that we served were 55 and older. Our seniors on a fixed income are having a really hard time meeting the demands of high cost of living, not only in Chandler, but across Maricopa County. And our program is designed to serve clients up to 90 days, but I'm proud to report as of last fiscal year, we were at 80 days average length of stay. Stories like these remind us that it's not a simple shelter program. This is where lives are stabilized and dignity is restored. And before we conclude our presentation, I did want to just share a success story with you. Of all the pictures we showed, they all have a success story. But for this beautiful family, they had only experienced, this was their very first time experiencing homelessness. lived in Chandler all their lives. They worked in Chandler and they never had experienced anything like it before. Unfortunately, the father was laid off from his job that he had been with for 10 plus years and was unable to find another employment at that time. They eventually became evicted. They had three children. At the time, they were six, 10, and 16. So the kids were not going to school. They were sleeping in their car and they had no idea what they were going to do. But the navigation team found them. We immediately got them into our shelter program. We started working with them on intense case management, wraparound services. We helped them with budgeting. We helped them with employment services. Missy was able to actually get promoted at a job that she was at. Following that, the husband did receive new employment, and we were able to refer them to another program we worked closely with, Save the Family, with a rapid rehousing voucher where they then were housed in an apartment here in Chandler and offered an additional nine months of wraparound services to stabilize. And I'm really proud to tell you that they're still doing well. The 16-year-old at the time is now 18 years old, and she's got a job and working on looking for her first placement into college. So this family is now successfully off the streets and doing really great. This program is very, very important to me, and it's very much my passion, and I'm just so grateful to present it to you, and I'm happy to take any questions that you have at this time.

Thank you, Misty. Council Member Rales.

Thank you, Mayor. Misty, one of the major reasons why I wanted you to come here and talk about the success of this program is because when we started this program, we had quite a few stir up with it. There's a lot of people who didn't think that we needed to put the money into this area because, and they were still complaining about homelessness. They were still complaining about encampment. But when we looked into how can we be very creative in a way to make sure that we keep people off the street, this was the main part. My question today, you talk about a little bit about not only that this is a shelter where people can stay, but also it's a wraparound service. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because I don't believe in giving people fishes. I believe in teaching them how to fish because we do that very well here in Chandler. And so it's important for people to realize what we do through this program with the wraparound service for those that we help.

Absolutely. Through the mayor, Councilmember Ellis, thank you so much for your question, and that is such a great point. It's really easy, you know, to put somebody in an apartment and tell them to have a nice day. However, the City of Chandler has given us the opportunity to provide direct housing stability services, not only through the navigation team, but through our amazing housing stability team as well. So when someone comes into our program, the first thing that we do is an individualized case plan based off of what that family needs. And then from there, what we're doing is connecting them to a natural support system that they're otherwise lacking. So we're teaching them how to apply for state benefits, how to gain employment, how to do interviews, how to get their kids enrolled in enrichment programs during the summer because now it's summertime, right? And then we work on budgets. We work on saving money. And we're working on all these things all at once while they're in the program. And then once they leave our program, we're also following them up to 90 days and providing the stabilization services like a moving kit. So as you can imagine, if somebody moves into an apartment, after experiencing homelessness, they may walk into an apartment with just a backpack. And as you know, you need things like, you know, a shower curtain and toilet paper and laundry soap. And these folks don't have that. So the city actually offers an amazing moving kit program so that people can have these essential items moving in. We follow up with the furniture to get them to make their housing their house, you know. and then we connect them to the resources in their area so we're connecting them to the local you know grocery store and introducing them to their neighbors and building their community for them that way when we do step back after that 90-day period they know who to call and they know what to do so our program is is successful again we have a 96 positive exit rate and that is Absolutely huge in Maricopa County.

Absolutely, because it's not every program that has that part of it with the wraparound service. That's why we see the revolving doors of those that are entering these programs and then finding themselves on the street again because they don't have that support system. Lastly, if I may ask, are you really working with the businesses in the city also to support and then also with the non-profits?

Through the mayor, council member Ellis, yes, we are working with the nonprofits as well as businesses here. I know we've gotten several clients hired at Jersey Mike's over here. So we work really closely with all the local businesses as well as our nonprofit like Ascend and the Boys and Girls Club and things like that. So we are connecting them to all those resources simultaneously in our program.

Thank you so much. Appreciate everything that you and your team do. Really, really appreciate it. Thank you.

Additional questions from council? All right. Thank you, Misty.

Thank you.

Council, again, that was the only item called in. So we will be voting on all of these items on Thursday, as well as a vote on the budget and presentation related to that as well. So with this, I'd like to adjourn this meeting.