Community Development Board - Regular Meeting

Good morning, everybody. Today's meeting of the Neighborhood and Affordable Housing Advisory Board is called to order on 03/17/2026. Happy St. Patrick's Day and welcome everyone. Today's meeting will be one of the most interesting and probably the longest of the year.

We will be discussing the twenty twenty six-twenty twenty seven annual action plan process. We have 14 organizations that will deliver presentations for a total of 19 funding applications. Total funding requested for these projects and services is just over $1,280,000 Available funding, unfortunately, is far less than that. So this will be highly competitive process. These presentations are a way for each applicant to explain why their request deserves to be funded.

We'll have a presentation on the city's new three year local housing assistance plan and report on current year sub recipient performance. We have a lot to cover today. Adjudices of today's meeting are on the wall at the entrance to the chambers. Please remember to turn off your cell phones. To ensure a complete record of the board's actions, we ask that each individual wishing to speak clearly state your name and spell your last name for the clerk. I will now ask the board members to introduce themselves and identify the fields they each represent starting from my right.

Good morning. I'm Chrissy Bond and I represent the homeless and low income residents.

Good morning, Frank Cornier and I represent the affordable housing development and building industry.

Good morning, Charissa Doty with Affordable Housing.

I'm Linda Byers, city resident.

Kelly Battsburg, Hope Villages of America.

And I'm Robin Field, the board chair, and I represent the lending industry as it relates to affordable housing. Our first order of business is to approve the minutes of the board's 11/18/2025 meeting. Do I have a motion to approve?

I move approval. Second. All in favor?

Aye. Any opposed? Minutes are approved. Is there anyone here to speak on items not on today's agenda? If so, please step to the podium, state your name and spell your last name for the record. You will have three minutes to speak on a subject that is not on today's agenda. Seeing no one come forward, do we have any e comments? We will move to the next item. The first item on today's agenda is a discussion of the twenty twenty six twenty seven annual action plan process. Dylan Mayhew will present this will lead the discussion.

Good morning, Dylan Mayhew, I'm the housing manager. City of Clearwater's fiscal year 2026 annual action plan for CDBG at home. Our CDBG at home programs are due in August. This is the beginning of the process as far as you're concerned. We've already done is we have put out a notice of funding availability where we ask applicants to provide projects and services that they'd like to be funded, whether CDBG funds and our ship funds and home funds.

And they have submitted those. Today, you'll hear their presentations. After today, the technical review committee, who has already met last Friday once, will meet again this Friday to provide their final scores. Staff will also have their final scores in by middle of next week. At that point, we will put together a budget and return to you all to present that budget next month. Just a quick overview of the schedule. So, again, today is March 17. We are at the NAHB meeting. This is the applicant presentations. TRC on Friday.

Our next NAHAT meeting will be April 14, and you'll hear that draft budget that we put together. In May, we will notice for public comment that budget. After a thirty day period, we will return to you all sometime in June or July to go over the final budget, the final annual action plan, and then to City Council July 16. This has been moved up a little bit from last year. Last year there were some struggles at the end of the process.

So I wanted to put in a little bit of a buffer. So now we have a month buffer, which would be nice in case a hurricane or federal shutdown or something happens. So that is good news. So that's where we're at today. Like I said, you'll be hearing the presenters present today, their applications. And this will be a little bit of a longer meeting, but it's a very important meeting. So I appreciate everyone's patience and you all being here. Thank you.

Thank you. So now we will have the presentations by the applicants for grant funding. This year we have a wide diversity of applicants that we're going to hear about. It's a great day for the board because the city is able to provide assistance to several thousand Clearwater residents in need because of public service partners we're about to hear from. It's great to hear directly from the nonprofit partners about their efforts to make our community better.

I will be calling up each individual organization and I will tell you how much time you have to present. So the first organization is the Housing and Educational Alliance, Housing for Everyone. You will have three minutes to present.

Good morning, madam chair. I'll echo your sentiment. It's a great day. My name is Ria Strecker Gumbs. It's last name is s t r a k e r space g u m b s.

And I am a HUD certified bilingual housing counselor with Housing and Education Alliance. I'm here on behalf of my executive director, Sylvia Alvarez. We've been serving the Tampa Bay community for almost twenty four years. Since our founding in 2002, HAS served over 57,735 individuals and families delivering more than five hundred and twenty five thousand hours of housing education and counseling, and over 12,500 families achieved homeownership. We have dispersed over $163,000,000 in down payment assistance and housing resources across the region.

Today, we are requesting $50,000 through the city of Clearwater Public Services Program to implement the Clearwater Housing Stability and Homeownership Initiative. This initiative will expand access to HUD approved homebuyer education and individualized housing counseling for Clearwater residents who earn over 80% or less of the area median income. Across the region, many working families face growing barriers to homeownership, Rising house prices, increasing insurance costs, higher property taxes, and limited housing inventory have made it increasingly difficult for low to moderate income households to purchase or sustain a home. This program addresses those challenges directly. Through this initiative, Clearwater residents would receive HUD approved first time homebuyer education followed by one on one housing counseling with HUD certified counselors.

Participants will receive individualized housing action plans, credit improvement strategies, mortgage readiness, coaching, and budget and support designed to help them qualify responsibly for homeownership. Equally important, the program also includes post purchase housing counseling and disaster preparedness education, helping buyers and new homeowners to understand property taxes, insurance adjustments, escrow changes, and the financial responsibility of maintaining a home. These services help prevent early mortgage delinquencies and support long term housing stabilities. Our first time home buyer education classes are conducted in English and Spanish by trained bilingual counselors. Through this funding, HE anticipates seven approximately 75 Clearwater households prioritizing families earning less 80% or less.

Thank you for the time and the opportunity today. Thank you.

Our next presenter will be the homeless emergency project. You will have five minutes to speak. Thank

you.

That's okay. I didn't have any. I just it's what we did last year.

Good morning. My name is Katharina Geracios Siren. Last name, g e r a k I o s dash s I R E N. And I'm the Executive Vice President of Operations at the Homeless Empowerment Program or AHP. And with me, I have Jeff Ziechec, Z I E C H E C K, who's our Director of Projects and Facilities.

We are here to request funding for two projects. HEP and the City of Clearwater have been amazing partners for the last forty years. We are here to provide comprehensive services to homeless individuals and families and veterans. Our eight acre campus is located in Clearwater in the North Greenwood neighborhood revitalization area. Our first project is the emergency shelter courtyard and dining hall entrance upgrades.

And the purpose is to improve safety, accessibility and daily service access to shelter clients. A substantial portion of our residents are older adults, veterans, and individuals living with disabilities. So safe physical infrastructure is therefore critical to support stability, dignity, and daily functioning. The courtyard is a high use area. It's actually probably the highest traffic area on our campus because it's between the dorms and the kitchen dining facility.

So, during heavy rainfall events, the courtyard experiences substantial standing water due to slowed drainage and these conditions can create significant sleep and fall hazards that can restrict safe movement for our clients. Additionally, sections of the existing concrete and paver surfaces are uneven and sloped due to incremental construction over time. The construction of that courtyard was around 2,007, so it's due for some love and care. Rocks also frequently become displaced creating trip hazards throughout the courtyard. While the dining hall entrance door meet minimum ADA standards, they require manual operation.

So as you can imagine for individuals with limited upper body strength or the use of assistive devices, opening those doors can be difficult and unsafe at times. So installing an automatic operator will enhance accessibility, promote independence and improve safe access to daily meals. The request from the cities for 60,000 HEP will provide a 25% match of $20,000 Our second project is our new dental and wellness clinic access and infrastructure improvements. Right currently, we're providing wraparound services that include dental vision services, healthcare navigation, nursing services, behavioral assistance, and nutrition education programs. All of those as of now are currently provided in different areas of our eight acre campus.

As So you can understand it can be inefficient for both staff and our clients and our partners. So our goal is to relocate all of these surfaces under one roof and we're going to do this in two phases. Phase one is going to cost us $1,300,000 and all of that will be 100% funded by HEP. So we are, we have a current location. We're going to be renovating the interior to make sure that it fits all services.

Phase two is where we're requesting $150,000 from CDBG. So, we're only asking 10% of the entire project that is going to cost 1,450,000.00. This request is for parking lot and site infrastructure improvements. The physical infrastructure was actually is from 1999. And it supports, it will support access to these services and it's deteriorated.

The existing parking lot presents documented safety and accessibility issues including standing water, uneven and damaged pavement surfaces, and an unstable overflow parking area. So the proposed improvements are the complete removal and replacement of the existing parking lot, install proper grading and drainage systems, ADA compliant walking and parking surfaces in order to improve safe access for clients, staff, and volunteers and medical partners. Investing in infrastructure that supports healthcare delivery aligns with a broader goal of reducing homelessness, improving public health outcomes and promoting self sufficiency. And that you have a handout with several pictures and some additional information about the project, but we're here to answer any questions you may have. Thank you again for your consideration of this project.

I'd like to ask,

do you have a target completion date for phase one?

Right now we're working with,

do you want to?

Take second? Sure.

Thank you. We are We have architectural drawings. We're waiting on construction drawings to be complete, and we're looking to start that project in May and be done by the fall. It's about a five month project.

Thanks.

So in the fall, we would start the phase two. Because I know when October rolls around, the city is going to want to get moving with the So that's what we're hoping for, to be ready to go.

I have a question. This second project, this is you're building it from ground up or you already have the property?

We already have the property and it's currently functioning as the workforce development center. Okay. But for the traffic that we need and in order to consolidate the services, we're going to move that to a different location.

Okay.

And then move all of our wellness and dental services in that large building. Okay. It will be a total cut out. So only the exterior walls will remain and everything inside will be from scratch. Okay. Thank you.

Any other questions? Questions?

And just do you have a number of how many people use the dental services this year or in the past fiscal year or year?

I do. Well, in 2025, we provided 8,225 dental procedures. The total value of those services were $1,360,000 And we recently were granted a grant from the Florida Veterans Foundation. So the dental clinic does not see only our clients, but we can see clients from the entire community. So Clearwater residents that are better eligible veterans will have access to these services.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And happy St. Patrick's Day.

The next presentation, excuse me, will come from Metropolitan Ministries, North Greenwood Neighborhood Hope. You will have three minutes.

Good morning. My name is Candice Wyant. I am the director of grant development at Metropolitan Ministries. Last name is spelled w I a n t. And I'm here with Lauren Orendorf.

She is the assistant director of NeighborHope, and her last name is spelled o r e n d e o t o r f. I'm here today on behalf of Metropolitan Ministries to present our request to fund the NeighborHope North Greenwood program. Metropolitan Ministries is a nonprofit that has served families and individuals who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless in Tampa Bay since 1972. With a commitment to alleviating suffering, promoting dignity and instilling self sufficiency, Metro provides emergency shelter, food, housing, education, job training, and wraparound support services. Metro serves more than 100,000 people annually and is recognized for its trauma informed compassion driven approach to care.

Metro's request for City of Clearwater CDBG funding will support the NeighborHOPE program. NeighborHOPE is a mobile case management program, meaning services are offered to the community wherever it's convenient for them. Whether that's in their home or at a community center, food pantry, library, the case managers take their services to the client. This reduces barriers related to transportation and accessibility. The NeighborHope program offers family support services to prevent individuals and families from becoming homeless.

NeighborHope operates in nine communities throughout Tampa Bay, and this request focuses on the North Greenwood neighborhood of the city of Clearwater where there is an acute need for services. Services take place at the United Way Resource Center at North Greenwood, or case managers may provide services in a location convenient to the individual or family being served. Metro's request oh, excuse me. The NeighborHope offers family support services through asset based community development. The program goal is to increase access to opportunity for residents through education and job training resources, improve access to housing and social services through system navigation and case management, and enhance connections among partners working towards equitable economic opportunity through resource sharing and capacity building.

NeighborHope started in Tampa in 2020 and expanded to Pinellas County in 2022. With the city's support, NeighborHope has expanded and continues to service capacity in North Greenwood. We recently partnered with the United Way to hold office hours as a more permanent presence in the community and facilitate a connection with other community partners. The '26, 27 NeighborHope program also includes the addition of a new position called coordinator. The community engagement coordinator connects with organizations, schools, and churches in the community to strengthen referral partnerships. The staffing support provided should I stop now?

Okay. Questions?

So one of the things you had listed was financial assistance. What does that look like? Sure.

I'll let Lauren speak to that.

Financial assistance and with branch utility mortgage.

Okay. And is that exclusively for North Greenwood residents?

It's for any of the Neighborhood ZIP codes. So in North Greenwood, we have 33755.

33755.

You.

Thank you.

The next excuse me. The next presentation will come from Hope Villages of America. You will have five minutes to present.

My name is Belinda. Last name is Becton, b e c t o n, hyphen, McAbee, m c a b e e. I'm Belinda McAbee representing Hope Villages of America, where we provide safety, nourishment, and stability for individuals and family who need to build a vital future. So imagine a mother in Clearwater today. She's a survivor of domestic violence, spent much of last year trying to find stable housing in a market still reeling from the hurricanes.

When in the twenty twenty five point in time count was conducted, she was one of 214 individuals identified as a homeless survivor in our county. For her, it wasn't a choice between just living with an abuser and being on the street. It was between a dangerous home and a community still recovering from displacement. Our emergency domestic violence shelter is the answer to that impossible choice. We serve over 200 domestic survivors annually, providing a forty five day window to safety of safety to stop running and start rebuilding.

So our first proposal is for salary support of the supervisor of case management. Management. If a shelter provides these walls, then the case manager provides a way out. So the case managers help families navigate the different support systems such as legal protection, assisting with school enrollment, job readiness, and also how how how housing searches. The supervisor ensures this work is client centered and highly impactful.

In a post hurricane housing market where units are scarce, expert leadership is the most effective way to prevent a survivor from falling into chronic homelessness. Our second proposal is for critical upgrade physical need, and that's replacing aging windows and exterior doors. The twenty twenty four hurricanes proved that our facility's aging fixtures are no longer just a maintenance headache. They compromise the survivor's safety. So replacing these windows and doors provide reinforced security, which is essential for survivors fleeing high risk situations.

Also, storm resistance to ensure that our facility remains weather tight during the Florida severe weather. And, of course, it's operational savings, lowering utility costs so more funding can go directly into survivors' care. So the bottom line is that these proposals work hand in hand to provide a complete safety net. One strengthens the survivor support system, which would be our advocates, which would be our caseworkers, to guide these survivors to safety, where the other one secures the physical environment, the place where survivors healing begins. So together, they ensure when the survivor in Clearwater makes the decision to leave abuse, they don't find a locked door or a homeless camp.

They find a resilient, supportive pathway to a new life. So I thank you for your time and your service to Clearwater, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Do you know the average stay for your DV victims? How long they stay with y'all?

That's about close to forty, forty five days between that time. It's taken them a little longer to find housing, of course, with everything that's going on.

And is there a limit, or is that just the average?

That's the limit is forty five days. That's the limit. And then of course we review case

by case. Thank

you. Any other questions?

Thank you. Thank you. The next presentation is TEPE CDC Suncoast Housing Connections. You will have five minutes to present.

Hi, I'm Sean McKenna, the homeownership manager for Suncoast Housing Connections.

Executive Director, CEO, whatever you want call me. Last name is spelled P as in Peter, H E E N Y.

Sean, please spell your last name.

M C K E N N A. Sorry, this is my first time. So what we are looking for is assistance that we can provide continuing of the homebuyer education classes for Clearwater residents and for the assistance for housing counseling and foreclosure prevention counseling. As all of you know these things are very vital to the community. Especially now we have seen a great uptake in this last six months of foreclosure cases.

Our numbers have actually increased I would say almost doubled in the last couple of months which is crazy. But the need for assistance through down payment assistance and through just the understanding of process has become so valuable. So we really do need this funding. We're hoping it continues so that we can continue to serve the people in Clearwater.

Our agency has had a very, very long, strong partnership with the city of Clearwater, and we greatly appreciate the ongoing support that we received. Instead of throwing a lot of statistics out at you, I pulled from our reports a story of a one of our very recent foreclosure cases. This gentleman came to us because he had a divorce and he lost his job for a very short period of time. And even though he had regained employment, by that point, his servicer was no longer accepting his mortgage payments. So he came to us and we were not only able to assist him with getting a modification, but during that period of time, as Robin knows, that your homeowners, when they're at risk of foreclosure, their mortgage or puts them in force place insurance, homeowners insurance.

So that his homeowner insurance costs had almost tripled. Our counselor continued to work with him after they got the modification to get a better price on his homeowner's insurance. She's continuing to work with him to also make sure he is putting his finances in a place where this will not happen again. And so even though we got the modification in January, we continue to work with him to make sure he is stabilized and secured for the ongoing. That is what our housing counselors do.

That's a difference in having us HUD certified housing counselor that ongoing continuous support. And that's what we're hoping to continue for our clients and the citizens of Clearwater. Any questions?

How long do you do your counselors stay with someone?

As long as they need. I mean, the longest I've worked with somebody is two and a half years. Sometimes it's just three, four times the opposite. Actually,

we've got a great story about somebody he worked with for over two years who came to who was not anywhere near credit ready, who then was able to not only clear up his credit, he became mortgage ready, he assisted him with getting down payment assistance and check our website, you'll see lots of pictures with him and how happy he was, because he was able to go and get a cat for the first time in his life.

He was actually the first person in his family to actually buy a

home as Yeah. I

just want to comment on your application. You mentioned that you'll invest in the professional development of your staff, I think that's awesome.

It's very It's critical. Yeah. It's critical. And that's also one of the advantages of, as Frank knows, being a NeighborWorks agency, having the access to that ongoing training for our staff.

Good job.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next presenter will be WestCare Gulf Coast, Florida, A Turning Point. You will have three minutes to speak.

Good morning. My name is Rhonda Lieberman, last name L I E B E R M A N. I'm the operations director. This is David Hassett, H A S S E T T. He is our program manager for a turning point. We are here requesting $50,000 for a partial salary of both the case manager and LPN at our Turning Point program. And David will tell us what the program is about.

Turning Point is a homework shelter specializing in substance abuse intervention services. The two pivotal moments to provide the clients wraparound services like case management and our nursing management department. The nurse management helps with medication, ongoing maintenance with making sure they're aligned with the provider treatment goals and linkage to anything that might need medical services. The case manager is the backbone of that med management. They provide wraparound services such as bus cards.

We can help individuals try to get into an ALF. We refer individuals for insurance, placement for housing, and we partner with other community agencies like they do with us when we take clients from them for an inebriate receiving services. We're the only individuals that will take an intoxicated client off the street, and a lot of the population we serve from Clearwater are displaced from either the recovery pit catchment, safe harbor, jails. They're reintegrating back in and they just kind of transient up into the Pasco Clearwater area and then they're trying to get back into their Clearwater location that they were in before the displacement. They offer 30 services.

We break it up in phases. First three days is a observation phase, so it allows them to get some food, orientation to our program, and then let them make the decision if they want to continue with our intervention plan. With case management we go over an action plan and we define realistic objective goals that allows the case manager to properly assess and place the client where they want, whether that's treatment, stuff like that. Do you guys have any questions?

I understand if someone comes in and they need medication for detox, that's not provided at a turning point, right?

No, we don't directly provide the detox meds. Now we do partner with community agencies and sometimes a lot of the ones that need the detox are already coming from the ER. So the ER typically will provide them the medication. We have the capability with the nursing department and the setup at Turning Point to handle the narcotics so we can control the administrative record for allowing them to safely take the medication in the observation area which we call phase one and to be lowered out.

So if they need medication they have to go back to the ER and get that

They typically and then come come in with it. If a client comes in typically with presenting like they've never gone through any withdrawals at all and it's their first time they've been there, they've done cold turkey before, but because they're getting older, their body is starting to get more wear and tear. That's where we'll elevate for emergency medical attention, but then they get safely lowered back because typically the ERs will only keep them for four hours, been in a bag them typically and then rapidly assess them out. That's where we also come into play. We take the clients right back. We won't not accept them back. We just want to make sure that they're not going to die in our facility.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you so much.

Excuse me, the next presenter is directions for mental health for team member support and collaboration. You will have three minutes to speak.

Good morning. How are you? My name is Malika Matthew, I'm the Vice President of Finance.

Thank you.

My last name is M A T T H E W. And I'll let Chris pronounce his name so I don't

Chris Johnson, I'm the Facilities Manager.

So directions for mental health, we're doing business now as directions for living. We are a mental health provider. We provide services for clients, about 20,000 clients. I think the flyer should really tell you all of the information in regards to the population that we are serving, but we provide services for anxiety, depression. We also have special programs that are more intensified programs in relation to in lieu of services.

So we want to make sure that people are in well-being so that they are not going to something that's more accelerated for us like into the child abuse system or the gels or anything like that. I'm sorry, I'm a little nervous. So I'm very excited to tell you about the opportunity that we are looking for. On our renovation services we are looking for, we're requesting $161,000 in funding. And we are requesting that for a project for our facilities.

What we find is that our project focuses on renovating and transforming our existing space into a modern multi purpose collaborative environment. The goal is to create a dynamic workspace that supports our team members, our community partners, and ultimately our clients that we serve. At Directions for Living, our CEO as well as our leadership team understands that investing in our facilities is more than just improving a building. I'm creating a comfortable, accessible, and modern workspace that helps strengthen organizational culture, supports our staff well-being, and ultimately increases the impact that we are making on our community. Our mission is simple.

As I said, we are a mental health facility, so we are really people helping people. And because of that mission, it is important that both our team members and our community partners have an environment that allows them to collaborate, recharge and do their best work. Our project overview is focusing on renovating three individual rooms, which you'll see on the flyer. It's a wonderful space, but we want to make it modernized and more, warrant to not only our team members, community partners, and our clients. Within these spaces, we want to redesign them for a modern spaces

and a

collaborative collaboration collaborative. I'm allowing them to serve multi purposes such as staff trainings, team meetings, and community partner collaboration. So we do collaborate with a lot of our community partners doing like mental health first aid trainings with our, I'm sorry, sheriff's department. So if you have any questions, I'll be willing to answer them.

I was going to ask who your community partners were because I didn't see them in the application, but I think you just said.

Yeah, one of them, we have plenty of them, but one of them, the major ones that we do business with is the sheriff's department, helping them with mental first aid training so that they can identify when they're out in the community when someone is having a mental crisis and being able to handle that versus, you know, a different scenario.

Awesome. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank

you. Our next presenter is St. Vincent de Paul of Upper Pinellas County for Community Kitchen of Clearwater.

Good morning. My name is Jerry Gerrand, g e h r a n d. I've been a volunteer at the community kitchen now for forty years. So I guess it goes without saying that I'm pretty certain that it's a good organization that does a lot of good or I still wouldn't be there. And over the years, it's been become more important because, of course, as we all know, the financial crisis that exists today is enlarging and therefore our clients are more at risk.

I'm here today to ask you to consider our request to rebuild our twenty year old roof so that we can continue to be of value to both our clients and to the City Of Clearwater. Last year alone, our over 100 weekly volunteers and three paid staff members provided services to over 2,000 individuals with 29,000 hot, nutritious three course meals. We have a post office. We provide notary services. We provide letters to obtain legal identification.

We provide clothing, furniture, laundry facilities, showers and emergency hygiene items. But perhaps our most important service to the city is our relentless effort to help get people off the streets and back into a productive citizenry. This includes bus passes and proper clothing so they can get to job interviews, help in navigating online job applications, phone calls, job interviews. Since the average city has a yearly cost of $37,000 per homeless individual that it costs cities to serve them, If we could just get 20 people off the street, we're saving the city $500,000 And this is by a national survey that has looked at studies across the country. Combine this with our city partnership and enrolling and reconnecting 165 homeless people to their families back in other parts of the country, our impact is a large net positive to the city and millions of dollars.

With money we are requesting to build our over twenty year roof, we can continue to be of service both to our clients and to the city of Clearwater. I'd like to circle back to the volunteer part of a 100 volunteers, and I I look around the room, and I'm humbled to be with so many volunteers. There's a statement that volunteers are not paid, not because they're worthless, but because they're priceless. And I'm humbled to be with everybody here. Thank you for your consideration.

Any questions?

Well, no questions. Okay.

Thank you very much. Thanks. Next we have Clearwater Neighborhood Housing Services for homebuyer education and down payment assistance. You will have five minutes to speak.

Good morning. Todd Leclaire and Jessica Leclaire, L E C L A I R. Good morning, board members and staff. My name is Todd Leclaire. I'm a HUD certified housing counselor, proud to represent Tampa Bay Neighborhood Housing Services, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping individuals and families achieve housing stability and long term financial success.

Across Pinellas County and here in Clearwater, we work with residents who are making one of the most important financial decisions of their lives, finding and sustaining safe, affordable housing. Through our HUD certified housing counseling programs, we provide services residents prepare for homeownership, avoid foreclosure, improve their financial stability, and access housing resources available in our community. These services include first time homebuyer education, one on one housing counseling, foreclosure prevention support, financial capability, coaching, and assisting connecting residents with available housing programs. Our goal is not just to help someone buy a home. Our goal is to help them succeed as homeowners for the long term.

Research published by US Department of Housing and Urban shows that households who receive homebuyer education had 42% lower odds of foreclosures compared to those homeowners that did not. This means fewer foreclosures, stronger neighborhoods, and more families building equity and stability. But the impact goes beyond statistics. We see in the families who thought homeowners homeownership was out of reach but are now holding the keys to their first home. We see it in residents who avoided foreclosure after a financial hardship and were able to stay in their homes.

And we see it in neighborhoods where stable homeownership helps communities grow and thrive. The support being considered through this contract of 50,000 for 70 families that are under 80 AMI allows us to continue providing these critical services to Clearwater residents, ensuring that families have the knowledge, resources, and guidance needed to make informed housing decisions. Housing counseling and homeowner education prepares families for success, but preparation alone is not always enough. Even when families are financially ready to purchase a home, the biggest barrier many first time homebuyers face today is saving enough for the upfront cost of purchasing a home. That's where down payment assistance becomes essential.

At this time, I'd like to transition to my colleague, Jessica, who will discuss down payment assistance programs and help bridge the gap and expand

the city of Clearwater facilitating the city's DPA program. Down payment assistance plays a huge critical role in first time homeowners to overcome significant barriers to home ownership, especially those upfront costs. People can afford a mortgage payment, but they can't always afford to have the down payment and closing costs to consider being homeowners. Through the down payment assistance program administered by the Tampa Bay neighborhood housing services, qualified home buyers receive financial support that allows them to move from renting to owning. But the program does more than just help families buy homes because every home buyer participating in the program also, as Todd said, receives their counseling and receives their education, which keeps them more sustainable in their homes.

And the combination of education counseling, that's what makes the program successful. The 50,000 in funding being requested today will allow us to continue assisting eligible 80% AMI and below Clearwater residents who are ready for homeownership but need help supporting that bridge. Every home purchased through this program represents more than just transaction represents a family building wealth from home equity. A home getting long term stability and a neighborhood strengthening by sustainable homeownership. We saw this with the four purchases of the homes that we built on the corner Of Howard And MLK just this last year.

It provided a range of clients from a single young father to a woman in her mid fifties now taking care of her four year old grandson. And they are now all four of them are first time home buyers. So that was a very exciting time for us. Last year, we partners our partnership helped 17 new families become new homeowners and that have provided approximately 1,200,000.0 in down payment assistance. We appreciate your partnership and your commitment to expanding housing opportunities to Clear Water City residents thank you for your support.

Thank you.

You. Questions.

You. Our next presenter will be learning independence for tomorrow. You will have three minutes to speak.

Good morning. Hi.

I'm Julie Brecher, b r e c h e r. And with me is Chris Couture, c o u t u r e, manager of our IT. I'm here to ask you for $76,500 of a total $150,000 project to enhance campus safety and security. If you all don't know, Lyft about three years ago took over the former YMCA building. That's a 60,000 square foot building on about seven acres here in Clearwater.

As we continue to improve that facility, after training with the Clearwater Police Department and Pinellas County Sheriff active shooter training, we learned that we need to improve the safety and security of that facility. LIFT serves neurodivergent students. These are students with autism or other developmental differences, and we strive to have a safe and secure environment for them to continue to learn. So, for many of our students, it's essential to have that safe and secure environment. Those predictable surroundings are controlled access and proper supervision for their safety.

But what's more critical is many of our students would not have the self awareness to advocate for their own safety. So where we need to make sure we have the implementation of safety and secure environment because they are not aware of what might be an outside threat. We need to ensure that we have that improvement there as well. So the project we're proposing goes through some layered security approach. So first we'll upgrade and expand our surveillance ensuring that we're able to record and see within the blind spots.

It's a large campus with the gymnasium outside playground areas and also a variety of spaces that we're not able to see clearly at this point. The second would be the strength in the exterior access points. So we inherited the doors. We still have the original doors on the campus. Those are about 60 years old.

So we want to make sure we have badge access and ability not only to keep out outside threat, but we have students that will elope and those we have the threat of them escaping the campus. So we want to make sure interior and exterior, we were just accredited from FCIS and they recommended that we secure some badge access between our academy portion of the building and our transition. Those are the younger students access points to the older students. So we want to make sure those interior improvements are made as well. So we have one additional on the south side of the building is an exterior wall.

We would want to make sure we heighten that wall so we can improve on outdoor space and avoid elopement or outside threats coming into the building. So this will be work be done in twelve months.

Any questions for us? This

is the building that's on that Highland? Yes.

Okay. 1005 Highland.

Thank you. You. All right.

Thank you so much. Thanks for the opportunity.

Our next presentation will be from Prospera Initiatives.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning, members of the board. My name is Sylvia Osain, O S A I N. I represent Prospera, an economic development nonprofit organization established in 1991. Our mission is to help start, sustain and grow small businesses to achieve community prosperity.

We can do that with different services. The journey begins with one on one consulting, when we know the customer, we know the client, we know their needs. And from then, we start providing different services that can include legal assessment, accounting assessment, marketing plans, business plan for operations, for access to capital, branding, procurement readiness when they are ready to start doing business with the governments. To complement this service, we have also an educational program. We provide business seminars in all the business areas to support their growth and to expand their knowledge.

We also help them preparing them to access to CAPL. This is sometimes a long journey. They need to be prepared for that. So we guide them to this process and knowing the different institutions, financial institutions, we can help them to go to the right place to access to capital. We have provided more than 2,000 business consulting in the last five years.

And from that number, more than 400, that's 20%, is for Clearwater citizens. We are able to offer these valuable services at North Coast, all of our services are at North Coast, in great part for the support of the city of Pure Water. Small businesses thrive with community support, so we are requesting the assistance of the city to continue offering these services to help prosper the community. Thank you. Questions?

Any questions? No? Thank you. Thank you. Our next presentation is Gulf Coast Legal Services. You will have three minutes to present.

Good Good morning. I am Gabrielle Holland, Holland H O L L A N D, and I am the grants and resource development manager for Gulf Coast Legal Services. So we're presenting the project of the housing legal services project for 2627 and we are a non profit legal organization that provides civil free legal resources and legal aid in the community, specifically in Clearwater, Florida as well. So we are requesting support in the amount of $50,000 to support our staff, attorneys, and support staff. And we are planning to partner with the long center and the Hispanic Outreach Center to reduce barriers for those who might not be able to come down to our Saint Pete office downtown and they will be available for them twice a month to meet with them in the community as well as over Zoom if clients need that as well.

So the average cost of someone in the community receiving housing, civil legal aid is a thousand $966 And most of our clients receive about $19,509 on average a year. And in Clearwater, Florida, it's a little more for our clients, that's about 28,000. But most of the people we serve, they have families, they have other people to take care of, and you know, so you can keep that in mind. And when they come into our office with an eviction notice, basically they have a letter saying you have three day, a three day notice, and at that point when clients come into the office they think, I have three days to get out, And that's when our attorneys can step in and provide that legal advice and counsel and preserve their housing. So this is the difference between someone thinking they have to leave immediately in preserving their housing, you know, and also fighting for their security deposit returns.

We've done that. We work with section eight matters. They can assist with foreclosures and loan modifications. So our housing unit is, you know, looking to provide these services again this upcoming year with the addition of providing educational activities in the community. So they want to provide two educational activities to educate residents about their rights.

So as I said, they're coming in the office and they think I have three days to get out. We want to let them know about tenants rights and just educate them overall about what that looks like and what that process is. And just in the last fiscal year, they increased by 88% in the number of people there assisting. So we see an increase in the demand just in our housing unit going from around 300 clients to over 570, and that's in across Pinellas County for housing services. But in Clearwater, over half of those clients reside in Clearwater that I just mentioned. So yeah, we're just trying to keep providing that housing legal support and we provide other support, but we do see an increase in demand in our housing unit. So thank you.

Questions? Okay.

Thank you very Our next presenter is Intercultural Advocacy Institute. You will have five minutes to speak.

Hello. Thank you for having us here today. My name is Mika Julian, last name J U L I A N. I am the Director of Advocacy and Support Services at the Intercultural Advocacy Institute Hispanic Outreach Center. The Hispanic Outreach Center is a multi service bilingual center offering wraparound services, including victim advocacy, family advocacy and support, youth support groups, other youth programs and educational classes and clinics.

Since the center opened in 2001, we have continued to grow and expand as the need for services has only continued to increase. The Hispanic Outreach Center seeks funding for an ongoing support of our victim advocacy and support service program. The funding would offset internal funds that currently cover the overage of salary, fringe materials and supplies. For years, the victim advocacy and support service program has bridged the gap for culturally competent advocacy and support services for victims of crimes within the community. We seek to lessen the financial impact of this project on the center, expand our outreach, offer new programming components, and enhance current community partnerships.

These funds would provide support to an essential program for our community. Our victim advocacy program provides individual victim advocacy, court and law enforcement accompaniment, referral and information, crisis intervention, services, support services, and domestic violence support groups. The difference between our program and others is that we provide these services for victims of all types of crime. We see a range of victimization types from wage theft, domestic violence theft, human trafficking, and we approach each case with a trauma informed and empowerment based advocacy and approach. This proposal for $25,000 will provide salary support, fringe benefits, and operating costs for the continuation of the programming.

And these funds will allow the Hispanic Outreach Center to reach more victims of crime within our community, providing the support and advocacy these individuals and families desperately need. So moving on to our second request, we've also requested in public facilities and improvements $55,000 for a flooring project. The center recently relocated to the CPD substation. Our partnership with the city and CPD has allowed us to utilize space and ensure our commitment to the community. While the new location offers the necessary space to support the ICAI's programs, it previously housed a dental clinic, and the existing infrastructure is not conducive to our services delivery model.

The purpose of this grant would request is to fund the removal of outdated dental clinic fixtures, including cabinetry, sinks, and equipment, and to replace the existing worn out flooring throughout the building. The center seeks funding for renovations that are essential to creating a safe, functional, and welcoming environment that supports the service delivery and needs of our clients and staff. The existing flooring throughout the center has significantly deteriorated due to age, high foot traffic, and years of the building being utilized by a dental clinic. The current surfaces are primarily vinyl composite tile and low grade carpet. Both have stains from equipment, are cracking and fading.

Additionally, multiple offices have cabinets and plumbing in them from the dental clinic and these not only take up space within the offices and prevent us from being able to have our programs, host our programs in there. But without a flooring update, we are limited in options to removing them. The proposed project will cover the entire 3,398 square foot facility. The building includes 12 offices, one conference room, three bathrooms, a kitchen, and a lobby area. The project will follow the outline proposed timeline within our application and would create needed a needed update into the building at large. So thank you for your consideration and your time. And if you have any questions.

So the building is owned by the city, by the Clearwater Police, is that right?

Yes, it is. So right now we're on one the building is kind of split in half, so one side is still the you being used by the CPD and then the other side is used for ours. However, the this project would cover the entire building, including the CPD.

You have a long term lease, I guess, with them?

Yes, yes, we do.

Are you part of the Hispanic community, like the Hispanic center or are you a separate you mentioned them a lot.

Yeah, so we are the Hispanic Outreach Center. It's just our, so our name is Intercultural Advocacy Institute doing business as a Hispanic Outreach Center. So we're known in the community by HOC, the Hispanic Outreach more so than Intercultural Advocacy Institute, yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. And our next presenter is Upwards Care. You will have three minutes to speak. Is there anyone here from Upwards Care?

Okay.

Well, that was going to be our last presenter. So are there any final questions or comments from the board from any of the presentations? I want to thank all of the organizations that came today and hopefully we will be speaking with many of you in the near future. Item 4.3, performance of the sub recipients of the City of Clearwater's Community Development Programs.

Dylan May, I'm the housing manager. So I'm here to give you an update on our current year's performance for our funds. And due to the government shutdown last year, our agreements were pushed back to January 23, which is a pretty significant delay. And due to that we weren't able to execute agreements until I believe it was early February. So, our services have just started to send invoicing in and our facilities projects.

We're just now getting around to the contractor bids. So, things are moving, but a little bit slower pace this year due to that shutdown. But we do have some things to report. So, for public services, I'll go through each individual recipient and what they've received so far and what they're going to be funded in total. WestCare Gulf Coast Florida, which is a turning point, they're funded actually, I'll make this easy.

All of these received an equal amount of funding at twenty three thousand one hundred forty seven. So, out of that, WestCare has been dispersed December Hope Villages of America, which is for their senior wellness pantry, they've been dispersed $10,851.04 Hispanic Outreach Center, their victim advocacy and support service program, They haven't been dispersed any funds yet. We're still waiting on initial draws to be submitted. Gulf Coast Legal Services, same boat there. We're still waiting on initial draws.

Metropolitan Ministries, we've dispersed $13,288.48 and we care We Care, we're still waiting on there's a new not a new law, but there's a law that now is applicable to our services, specifically the ones that are for profit. So We Care is a for profit service company that provides service to small at home childcare programs. And they will need to obtain access to the SAVE program and verify immigration status. So, they're still working through that initial process with the federal government to get access to that program. Same thing with Prospera, though I believe they do have access.

They do have access and they'll be submitting draws shortly. For our public facilities projects, like I said, all of these are now out to bid and we're performing the pre bid meetings. Currently, I think we did two or three last week, and we have two or three this week. So, for St. Vincent de Paul, we're doing their community kitchen.

We've dispersed $12.50 dollars inspection costs. It's again for that pre bid meeting. The Mattie Williams Neighborhood Family Center, we've dispersed $2,500 Again, all inspection fees at this time. Directions for mental health, we've disbursed $12.50 dollars in inspection fees. And Hope Villages of America, $12.50 in inspection or $2,500 in inspection fees.

Now, with that being said, a lot of our twenty four, twenty five fiscal year projects are also still ongoing, though they're getting close to finishing. So for HEP or homeless emergency project, their family transition program renovation project, we've disbursed $36,709 of the $14,500. The remaining amount to be distributed will be for the side and the deck demolition, new window installation, new door installation, siding install, new deck and stairs, completion of crawl space membrane and ventilation, and then final building inspections. For HEP's kitchen and dining renovation, this one's actually pretty much completed. We funded of the $89,433 we've disbursed $88,433.

They've had the ribbon cutting already. The the remaining $500 is for a final building inspection. Let's see here. For St. Vincent de Paul's emergency noncongregate shelter, of the $100,000 to be funded, we've disbursed $62,587 I'm sorry, hold on

a second.

I skipped ahead. Ignore that last piece. For Lyft, we're doing a playground over at Lyft. We are going to fund $110,330. We've disbursed $73,245 dollars. I believe everything is there. It's being assembled at this point. The playground, all the pieces and everything are there. The infrastructure has been installed. So that remaining amount will be their final draw on any inspection expenses.

And then finally, Willow Carson's Health and Wellness Center. This is their clinic rehabilitation. Of the $112,250, we've disbursed $62,325. Upon the acceptance of the billing permits, initial HVAC and flooring material deposits and completion of the HVAC system and ductwork, The remaining funds, which is around $50,000 will be the completion of the floor, new bathroom, new bathroom, like the fixtures in there, new bathroom partitions, new cabinets and countertops, and then fencing and final inspection. And then for our CDBG CV funds, they're still kind of hanging in there.

There's only a few dollars left in that account. But for St. Vincent de Paul, of our $100,000 in funding, dollars 62,587 has been disbursed. And the agreement has been amended to extend another year that will expire in September. POCs is completed.

That's complete funded. And then Home Tebras with the Clerra Housing Authority, this is for rental deposit payments of the $321,400 to be funded. We've disbursed $150,726.68 And that expiration date is September 2027. With that, I'd be happy to address any questions.

I just want to clarify to you all the Saint Vincent de Paul CV money is to support Clearwater Police Street Outreach. When they encounter people on the streets, especially families behind buildings and stuff, we put them in emergency hotel stays while they get positioned for housing and get into the pipeline for emergency housing. So that was a partnership with the city to support the police work.

Thank you. At this time, I'll ask the board members if there are any other topics previously discussed by the board that the board would like the staff to present an update on at a future meeting.

Okay.

The Director's Report. Mr. Bayou.

A couple of updates. So 1718 North Betty is a project that we have with homeless empowerment program. You all approved a recommendation to counsel to approve the funding of 1,391,000.000 in home ARP funds. That was approved by council last week. So we are moving forward with the closing package on that.

We're hoping for early to late May, sometime in May closing for that project with our funding. Pinellas County is actually taking their penny dollars or I'm sorry, also home ARP dollars to their board next week, I believe. $14.54 MLK, that's partnership between the city, Tampa Bay Neighborhood Housing Services and Habitat for Humanity. 24 owner occupied townhomes to be developed new construction. We have extended that to the June.

Essentially all of the contingencies at this point have completed. We're waiting on some final funding approvals. And then we plan to close that project sometime in May or early June. So a couple of big projects going through this year I'm excited about. Another really exciting news. So our department has been without an official director for a long time. That's no longer the case. We have Christopher Edwards here. He's our new director. Comes to us from New Smyrna Beach. Did you wanna

say anything?

Bless you.

Bless you.

Thank you, Dylan, and greetings to everyone. It is a pleasure to be here in the city of Clearwater. I've been in local government now. This October will be twenty years, and a native Floridian, a rare, rare individual indeed. But it's it's a great, amazing department in economic development and housing.

Extend my complete gratitude to city manager and assistant city manager for allowing me the opportunity to come and be a part of this great team, this great community. We have amazing leadership, certainly our elected officials and you all as our advisory board. We are fortunate to have a lot of great assets from the beach all the way here into inland area, and we are got a great vision in store for us from a strategic standpoint with economic development and affordable housing and community development. Dylan and his team are amazing. Audrey on the economic development side and her team are amazing.

So we're just excited about the opportunities that are before Clearwater. And I'm here to answer any questions if you have any of me. But just wanted to say hello and thank you so much for this tremendous opportunity. Thank

you. Welcome. Welcome.

And then finally, it's been three years since we updated our affordable housing inventory list that is required by state statute. The Live Local Act actually changed our timeline a bit. But it is due. So you'll be seeing an update to that inventory list coming to you. We'll be asking for your recommendation of that list to council. Hoping May, it's due in July. So certainly by June you'll see it, I'm hoping by May you'll have a final copy. And with that, that's all I have.

Any questions?

Great job.

Thank you.

Do any board members have any final words before we adjourn? This concludes our business for the day. Our next NAHAD meeting is scheduled for 04/14/2026. Thank you everyone. The meeting is adjourned.