Housing Commission - Regular Meeting

K. It is 05:30PM, and I will call this meeting in. Good evening, everyone. This is the housing commission. October 21, 05:30 on. Yeah. And we are at a forum so we can begin our business. The first order of business was for me to just remind us that there are people out there who don't know that. We can't tell them, but they are. And so we welcome them to our meeting.

This is the second meeting that we've had where we are actually open to the public online. So welcome to everyone. We will first start with excuse me.

Roll call, please. Chair Punningham? Here. Vice chair Narayan?

Here.

Commissioner Joe's? Commissioner Sripathi? Commissioner Jindi? Here.

Thank you. Second item on the agenda is approval of the minutes. Subject is to approve the minutes. Are there any comments on the minute that anyone would like to make at this time? I hear I hear I

have no comments. I Okay. Make a motion to approve it.

Okay. Do I hear a second? Second. Thank you. We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes from the meeting of September 25. Can we take a vote?

Chair Cunningham? Aye. Vice Chair Ryan? Aye. Commissioner Joe? Commissioner Sripathi? Aye. Commissioner Jindi? Aye.

I'm a see. Thank you. That was agenda item one. Good evening. Good evening. The next item on the agenda is a postponements. Do we have any?

None.

And the next is oral communications. Residents of the meeting will go first and Zoom on second. Are does anyone wish to speak at this time for communication? We

have one speaker on Zoom, Sharon. Okay.

And no Zoom no speakers in the hall. Okay. Go ahead and allow that person to speak.

Okay. One moment.

Welcome, San Rao.

Hey, Harry.

To congratulate commissioner Sripati on his appointment and to wish him the best in his new role as housing commissioner. I have known commissioner Sripathi for a long time, and it is a source of pride to us in the Indian American community in Copartino to see, another capable and distinguished member of our community appointed to the housing commission. I hope commissioner Sripathi will work for the interests of residents of Cupertino and make sure that the residents of Cupertino are represented regardless of whether they're riding in and showing up to speak up. And so that will be my comment for today, and I wish commissioner Sripathi all the best. Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you. We have no other hands raised on Zoom, Chair.

Okay. At this time then, I can close the all communications, And we can move on to the consent calendar. Do we have three consent calendar for business? Yeah. Next is old business. Do you have any old business?

No old business.

Okay. So with new business, the agenda item is the fiscal year twenty twenty six, twenty seven housing funding notice of funding availability, which is the NOFA, the most fully unknown, and request for proposals. The recommended action is to receive the informational presentation on the FY 2627 housing funding NOFA. And I will just make a note that because there is no approval required for this agenda item, the vote will be to close the item after hearing the presentation. Questions and comments are welcome.

But that's more for information than anything, but feel free to ask questions after, liaison has Can you make your presentation? No.

I can. Thank you, chair. So tonight, the first item on the agenda is the announcement of the twenty twenty six twenty seven notice of housing program funding availability, also known as the NOFA. So for some background on this side, every single year, we put out a request for proposals for eligible capital housing projects and low income public service programs, to be recipients of the city's funding and other funding that the city acts as a pass through agency for that receive either from HUD or from HCD. The application period for it starts on 11/03/2025, and then it will close in 02/03/2026.

So that's how long the nonprofits will have to apply. This year, there are two funding sources in the NOFA. The first is the below market rate affordable housing fund or BMR AHF funding sources and funding sources collected from building permits. That's purpose is to essentially build, preserve, rehabilitate, acquire low income deed restricted affordable housing. The second is community development block grants or CDBG.

This is a federal funding source. It comes to us from HUD or Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's a federal funding source, meaning we receive it from them through a formula grant. That's what we produce our annual, one year action plans and our five year comp plans for. This one is primarily a public infrastructure grant with a set aside for public services for to low income folks.

Last year, if you guys remember, our NOFA had the public service and capital housing, portions of the NOFA. We award public service grants on a two year basis. This is to kinda remove some of the administrative glut of running the program, especially for nonprofits. It's it's a big ask, right, to ask them to reapply for the same funding every year. So we award the at a two year funding cycle.

Meaning, if you are a public service currently receiving funding from City Cupertino, We will renew your, your contract for next year, but it will be adjusted based on what our allocation is that we get, right, from the federal government. So what is on the NOFA this time is for eligible capital housing projects. Right? Capital housing projects include these categories I have up there, land acquisition, new construction, housing preservation, public building and home rehabilitation, and public infrastructure improvements. The way to think about it is anything involved in construction.

Right? If it's for housing, it's gotta be de restricted low income housing. If it is a, public building or if it's a public infrastructure thing, it's gotta be something that we can visibly or do data demonstrate that it's going to have a benefit for low mod income populations. Right? So a prime example of this is the senior center. Right? Generally speaking, seniors, they're on fixed income. They all pretty much qualify all of them qualify, right, as a low income household. That's a that's an example of public infrastructure improvement that affects local, populations. Another would be any kind of street, curb gutter sidewalk, or lighting program, in a low income neighborhood.

Right? Because we would assume that low income people live on this neighborhood. So if we fix it up there, that is a low income infrastructure improvement. So these are the funding amounts that are announced in this year's NOFA. In the BMR AHS fund, about $1,000,100. This is adjusted for, the amount that we have to budget for their housing enforcement. Right? That's causing discrimination. And then finally, CDBG, community law and block grant, we are expecting this, grant adjusted for how much we have to give to public services and administration, about $280,000 to be available with CDBG. Now I will mention one caveat, right, one asterisk.

This is assuming that the CDBG program continues to receive its annual funding as you all know. Currently, the the funding stream for the federal government is a bit unstable, and there are many things that are to be determined. For example, right now, the federal government is currently shut down. Right? So no one is actually receiving CDBG funds right now. Many things can impact the program. So the CDBG program and its viability in the future, we think will continue to survive, but there's many things that go into that. So we have to just kinda account for that. Alright. So target populations.

As I mentioned, any kind of projects that we will be trying to address like with SNOFA, we would want it to primarily benefit low and moderate income persons and households. And in addition to that, things that can get special consideration is if they address any of the special needs housing that was identified in our housing elements, right, as we are contractually obliged to do in our commitments in the housing element. So any kind of project that specifically addresses, you know, formerly homeless persons, seniors, people with disabilities, transition to a, special needs households, not mentioned also as educator housing. Right? These are all special needs populations that was identified in our housing element.

So these would get special consideration if there are any projects applying for our funding. The process to apply, ask people to go into this website, citydataservices.net, and I will walk them through how to submit an application. There will be three public hearings, related to the the awarding of this funding. First in March, there will be a housing commission, kind of recommendation. Right?

And that's the one where all the different applicants typically come and they make a presentation to the council to the commission, and the council will make a decision on how much they wish to award to each different applicant. Then there's a draft that is made in April. That one, we also create the, the annual plan for CDBG. Right? That's where we draft the annual plan.

And then finally, all things have to get approved by the city council. So that will be the third public hearing that gets done for this process. So for all of our new applicants who might be online or returning applicants who need a quick refresher, this is what the Citi Data Services website looks like. When you log in, that's the first web page. If you already work with the Citi, you have a login and a username. If you are new, I will tell you what your username and password will be. C u p twenty twenty six. That's your username, and your password is the same thing. CUP2026. So that's how you can submit your application on the website.

Now this is what the application looks like. You put in just your the basics of your organization. Right? Name, address, who's your director, location, and their pre project description. This is how we can vet that this is this is a eligible program for our funding sources. Right? And if it's not eligible, then that's where we do the first round of vetting. We just say you you don't apply. You don't we can't apply for the funding. Right?

On the next page, we ask that you provide an estimate on, you know, who is the target population you expect to serve in the in, you know, one year of operations. Specifically, we can the breakdown by, like, what level of low income rate. There's extremely very low and low, moderate, and above moderate, so that we can see if, you know, what level of affordability you're targeting as well as if there's any special needs populations. Right? Like we said, there's new consumers and stuff like that.

So, of course, any kind of funding through CDBG specifically, it's gotta help us further our goals that are identified in our five year consolidated plan. And so we ask that you mark on the application which are the goals that your program would help us meet. This helps us determine eligibility, but also helps us understand that you are familiar, right, with HYPE requirements and that you will be able to work with the federal government as well. At the last page is the most poor page. Right?

That is the budget. So that is when you put in your total ask as well as how you plan to spend that money throughout. So, this NOFA was, posted in the public newspaper on October 10. We are also announcing it with this meeting and with this presentation on October 23. As I mentioned, important dates, NOFA opens on November 3.

It'll be posted to the website for anyone who wants a copy of it, and you can also send it out through email. The NOFA will close on February 3, so all applications in by then, please. And then the housing commission will reconvene to make decisions on this in March. With that, actually, let's open it up to the commission for any clarifying questions.

Do we have any clarifying questions? Raise your hand if you have them. Commissioner Sheehy?

Are the nonprofits, especially the ones who have received funds in the past, will get a direct notification about the application period?

Yes. We we send out an email blast.

And any other nonprofits in the community?

Yes. So we try to update it, try to do our own research to see if there's any new nonprofits that popped up that also could be, you know, a good recipients for this, and we try to reach out to them as well.

Oh, it's easy to lose this important notification if it's just published on the line or via this meeting only.

And that's also why we posted in the newspaper as well to try to get just the big and sweet. Yeah.

Oh, the I have a question. Can you answer? So this is basically just organization that is gonna propose a project for, federal income, profit income. Mhmm. And it's not necessarily for nonprofit organizations. Right? It is open for for profit organizations or

not? That's a great question. So for the CDBG funding by def by regulation rate, they'd have to be a nonprofit registered, like, not for profit organization. And then for the BMR funding, we it is only for deed restricted low income housing. Generally speaking, you're not gonna see a for profit organization undertaking that kind of venture. Yeah. So, really, by by design, these these are really only gonna be nonprofits. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, follow-up to that. So so there are nonprofits who So so what they're proposing will also be based on the same things that they're already involved. And for example, something was working with the senior citizens.

Mhmm.

So they're gonna be proposing similar kind of thing. Yes. Right? Yeah. I mean, we've been talking about homelessness Mhmm. From Cupertino. So at least from the past, we moved on the funding last year. Like, we did this in February. Right? I don't recall any organization proposing a project to address homelessness or how to uplift homeless people. Do you

remember it? Because it was all, like,

you know, senior citizens, new income, housing, and so I I mean, again, I don't recall any particular We had two.

One is called Maitri. They are a Right. Technically, it's a transitional house. So, you know, when people have to leave their homes because they're afraid of violence in their homes, that is actually a form of homelessness. Right? That's and so that that is that is one program. The other is the West Valley Community Services Haven to Home program. They do housing case management for people that are unstably housed. So there's a there's there's an assistance portion, and then they also try to, like, connect them into, like, say, like, vouchers or to, you know, various different, temporary shelters or or job programs. Those would be our two kinda, like, homelessness, assist programs. But you're right that we don't actually have a shelter, like, a general shelter. I mean,

we talked about this in the last meeting. Like, there's no shelter in Coperty now. Yes. So if there's something that can, for example, change to can the city of the state, to one of these organizations, can you propose, you know, something to that effect?

Right. So that that helps homeless people in Cupertino. So we actually are in the progress right now. Us ISA, us as in Cupertino, Campbell, Los Gatos, Saratoga, and Monte Sereno, the five West Valley cities, we've been undertaking this joint study to see what is the feasibility of us combined putting together our kinda, like, our land and monetary resources to do a West Valley shelter Mhmm. And or any kind of transitional housing support of housing program that could help actually shelter the homeless. Yeah. Right? Yes. That has been underway, and I think the first half, it is completely done, which was kinda like the the needs analysis. The second half, which is the the feasibility study

Mhmm.

The one that

we really are looking for, that is nearing completion as well. Right. And when it is done, I think it would be appropriate, right, to bring to the housing commission to discuss, like, what what should be our follow-up items to to try to see if we can meet into these numbers. Yeah. Yeah. So Good. To be to be determined. Yeah. Yeah. Keep pushing that. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes. Thank

you. Do we have any thoughts? Any jokes we have for a comment? So this funding is only for organizations to

figure out what they want to do. Right? For actually, like, helping them buy a little more, paying them rent the home first.

Mhmm.

Is that how it works?

That's when there there are, like, five different levels of, like, I would say, like, like, our, like, exiting service types of people from homelessness. Right? And then that depends on what we call our acuity, which is, the level of, independence they still kinda retain. Right? People at the highest sorry, at the lowest level acuity, so those would be people who are generally speaking, they still have a job. Right? Still pretty stable in their life, not addicted to drugs or having kinda mental health issues. What they really need is just a little bit of rental assistance, right, to get them by. And so that's that kind of service they would be couple couple months rental assistance. People are a little bit lower on the ladder.

They get something called rapid rehousing. It's a longer term. They can maybe, like, up to ten months. Right? And then there's a little bit of job training, a little bit of, like, you know, maybe some education training, help them stay safely housed. Get me find them a new crew field. Right? And a little bit of support services. Next up a little below that would be the emergency shelter. Right? They they're they're not quite ready to be on their own yet. Right? They need wraparound services. And then below that, there's transition housing. Right?

And for that one, they stay in longer term. There's longer support services. There's more, like, counseling involved. Then the lowest level, these are people who have been basically on the streets for years and years and years, likely not going to hold a job or maybe they have heavy disabilities. Right? They're not gonna be able to really find that independence. That for them, the only real solution for them is permanent supportive housing. Right? That's that's basically an affordable housing unit that you can stay on as long as as long as you can pay the rent. And there's, like, a long term, like, function of case management support services to help. Yeah. So long term. Sorry. That that was a long answer. Right?

But basically, that that's how you get people out of homelessness. Right? Yeah.

But the but the assistance that we give these organizations Yeah. Are they to just generate reports? Are they to help people actually?

So the two organizations I mentioned, the Haven to Home program through West Valley Community Services, that one would qualify as, like, the homeless prevention and sort of rapid housing, but not yet. Right? It's almost there. But it's really more homeless prevention. And then the Myetri domestic violence shelter, that one is akin to, like, a transitional housing program. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. I have a question that I would like to bring up at this time. Although you well, it looked like you wanted to ask one. Would you like to go ahead? I can wait. Okay. No. Alright. Please please go ahead.

Nikki, in one of the slides, I believe you say those funds are allocated for the low or moderate income persons or households. However, I noticed on the applications for those nonprofits, they list options whether they serve extremely low or, you know, very low. So if certain organization just serves only this population, does it mean that this qualify from getting the funds since since, like, the funds are allocated only for not extremely low? Is that kind of am I missing anything here?

So there are some organizations, right, who wanna serve people regardless of income level. And so if they do that, right, we would ask them to mark that, right, on the thing where where it says, like, extremely low low very low low mod and then above mod. And then what we would be looking for, right, because we want our funds to be going towards directed towards the low income populations, is that, like, they're they have enough, like, say, other funding to, like that they could direct their services to the of our people so we can make sure that our program is just going to a lot of people. Yeah. That's something that we would be kinda, like, judging, right, as as part of their application.

Yeah. Thank you. Oh, commissioner Joe's.

Historically, how have we utilized these funds that we maximize the funding that we've received? And if we haven't, then what opportunity do we have to commissioner Jindal's question about, you know, really getting the the word out that this is open and that these are the timelines for decision and so allocation deadlines.

So last year in the NOFA, we we announced the BMR funding, CDBG funding, local h HSG, like, funding for services as well as state funding for PLHA, and we awarded all of it out. Yeah. All of it out. I think it was, like, 4,000,000 in the BMR fund through two different affordable housing projects, 1,000,000 in the PLAHA program, 300,000 through the CDPG. Yeah. So we we did That

was a great meeting. I was actually gonna ask that.

That's gonna be my question. Like, last year, there was, like, a lot more money. True. Right?

There are many more shortages as well.

So this type of, like, two

well, and so so this is the thing earlier. Two sets of funding Yeah. Are two year grants so that we can have to go through it twice. Some of that money is missing. Yeah. I mean, not missing. It's not showing

It's just already accounted. Yeah.

It's already

It's gonna be over this accounting. Right.

So these two charges Yeah. That's right. The the BMR and the Yeah.

So this this time, what's up for grabs, anything that goes to any kind of affordable housing development as well as any kind of public infrastructure. Yeah. All the public services, they're years ago. Right? They're they're the funds are spoken for. Yeah. Yeah.

So I did have a question. It was a little different. That's why I wanted to say, you know, so we can talk about that. But particularly when we're you were talking about the funding from federal government is. So one of the things I've been thinking is that we should request funding from the city for, CDG funds if they are not received.

For instance, if they don't come in I mean, we we did a lot of funding last year. But hasn't yet been received. And now with the government shutdown, we don't know when it's gonna be received. I, of course, don't know what the status of any of the nonprofit is right now, if they're, like, stuck and can't work or if they can still keep up some things. So that is specifically something that I would like to have the housing commission ask of the city that they provide funding to replace that, which is not being provided.

And not just for last year, which we know is that, but this coming year. We really have no idea, right, what the federal government is. So that's and I'm not sure that

I'll have

to put that request in. Do I need to put it in to you? Or I think all have to agree to put it in? I think

what would be best is for an official recommendation come from the housing commission on that. Okay. So, I mean, we for our next special meeting, right, we'd roll up one item on the agenda. So we can add it to the to the December agenda.

Oh, okay.

We wanna push that forward. And then and then we can get an official recommendation of the housing commission of, like if they wanna make a request to the city council

Okay.

For additional funding, basically, as as replacement funding, right, to sort Right. Keep these programs running if Keep programs going. Yeah. If the CDBG funding is at risk. Although, I think we would probably ask the chair to join us for that city council meeting because this would become a housing commission request, when we eventually do go to the the city council.

When you say you would ask the chair to come?

To come with us to the city council.

Oh, come to city council. I'll be here.

It's not We're talking in favor.

Oh, okay. To city council.

Okay. Yeah.

It's just you're you're you're saying just to allocate their budget to

Right. They're they're

portions of it for

Right. This kind of fund. As a replacement fund. And just for for those of you who may not be aware, starting now, like, November and December is when the budget is being formed. And so this is a really good time if we wanna ask the funding to be asking for it because at this time then, they're making decisions all through all the city, all its programs. And maybe there is some funding that can be made available. Right now, we don't know. But on Earth, has to go ahead and put it in and say bye. And then the city then has they've got the holes in it. It's got the whole Right. Right. But, anyway, it starts now, and so this is a good good time to put it in.

The new the new the ballot, it's for the special election. Right? The state is asking

Right.

To increase sales tax, I believe, to cover for the lost federal funding,

specifically for Medicare. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I I can listen to that.

Was it that for the state? I think that was a state It state level.

Yeah. It's a state level. It's measure a. Measure a? Yeah.

So is this something that the city can do to

We we need to call

late for them.

Yeah. I mean I mean, so yeah. So I think the county's overall budget is, like, $8,000,000,000. And when they did the math of, like, all the Medicare cuts that they were expecting, they were expected to lose, like, 1,000,000,000 in total, which was it's it's it's huge. Right? So they that's why they put on the measuring ballot. And it is specifically to try to, like, they they list it. It's for for medical services. Right? And so that that's their way of trying to make up the difference. I mean, if you guys would wanna propose a a a ballot measure for for a sales tax, I mean, anything's possible. Right? That that but that's to come out as an official recommendation guys. Yeah.

But Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Okay. Good. Yeah. Do we have any more questions or comments that we would like to have before we close this

Before we close, we would also allow the public to comment.

Oh, yes. Yeah. Do we have any people in the hall that would love to have a comment? Seeing none, do we have any online?

Yeah. No hands raised on the same chair.

Okay. Thank you. Then we will close comments from the public. And so I think we can just vote. Do I hear a motion to accept the report?

I I don't Pass the motion.

Pass motion? Do I hear a second? I think commissioner Joe's on a second to do the motion. So can we take a vote, please?

Eric Cunningham? Aye. Vice chair Narayan? Aye. Commissioner Joe's? Aye. Commissioner Shripathi? Aye. Commissioner Jindi? Aye. The motion carries unanimously.

The office item is closed. And we move on to agenda item three. Agenda item three is request for proposal for consultant for the city's below market rate housing program administration. And, again, the recommended action is to receive the informational presentation, and we don't need a role to play as approving it, but we do want to receive it. And we'll use the same process as we just did for agenda item. Our liaison, Nikki Gu, will make a presentation at this moment.

Thank you, madam chair. So our next item is the below market rate administration request for proposals. So very similar to the last one, this is an announcement of an RFP. So we are requesting proposals from eligible consultants to administer the City Of Cupertino's below affordable housing program. The application for this period also starts on 11/03/2025.

We did that just to be consistent, but it will close in 12/03/2025. We'll explain why in a moment. So the scope of work for low market rate administration is listed on the screen here. There's three general that we are looking for. We want the consultant to be first in all three, and we will be scoring their ability to be able to do these, right, these two tasks. So the first is general administration services. That means managing the lottery and the wait list of applicants. That means utilizing city guidelines and procedures, including our specific city priority pointless. Right? And then also public and city council whenever we need to make amendments to the program.

The second is the BMR purchase program. These are for homes, for for ownership in the BMR program. Being able to coordinate the closing documents of any resales and a marketing of the units with realtors for the buy and resale of homes. And then also for the BMR rental program, being able to recertify tenants for placement. Let's understand, you know, income verification, and then being able to monitor the units, right, to make sure that they're being kept up to go.

Also mentioned is that they should be able act on behalf of the city or with the city when coordinating with developers and property owners, right, when we need to do enforcement, right, of any of these regulations. Something, particular to note is that we have expiring rental units within our program that we are expecting to see leave the BMR program essentially throughout the next coming years, and that will change, right, the proposal. Right? We will have a different portfolio throughout the different years, and so costs should reflect this change, and workload should reflect this. Something unique to the city of Cupertino is that we have an expedited application for renters that are living in any of these expiring units in order to reapply with the highest, priority.

This is something that was enacted by the city council in June 15. And so being able to take that into account, right, being able to be available to help these tenants you know, guide these tenants through the reapplication process to make sure that they are not displaced from the program. So in the evaluation process, there are a total of a 100 points that they can get. Four categories, 30 points in the first three, ten points in the last. The first is firm and project team qualifications.

That is their ability to do that entire scope of work that I mentioned earlier. Right? So that entire first slide, that is category one. There that and the places where they can get extra points is if they have experience, particularly the area, especially in Silicon Valley. Right? Southern Bay Area, San Clemente County. The next category is pricing and costs. This is pretty self explanatory. If you have an economical, very efficient sort of cost effective proposal, you score higher than someone that charges a lot of money to do the same thing. The third category is work plan approach.

This is us grading their ability to make use of effective procedures to make sure that is timely, but also clean, efficient, easy to use. Right? You utilizing new technologies, not outdated systems, being able to coordinate between a lot of different government organizations. Right? And then finally, the last category is called California Bay Area integration.

This is just us testing them of their knowledge of California housing law. Right? There's a lot of changes that come through the state as well as through, you know, our county government stuff, And that affects how administration should be run. How well aware they are of these things will make it efficient for us to not have to constantly have to revise the program if their program is already aligned, right, with the state's, prerogatives and with the county's prerogatives. How well are they using the resources that already exist, right, in the Bay Area?

What were the broader, push? What are the broader initiatives that are going on? How well key keyed in are they are to these things? So for funding sources, this will be unique to this next, funding cycle for the BMR admin program. It will be through the city's general fund.

Right? This is through the the direction of the city council. The last time we went to the city council on April 15, The city council voted to increase BMR funding to the May Avenue project, if we remember, and directed staff to instead use a commensurate portion of general fund for BMR program administration going forward. So the funding source will be the general fund for this RFP. Now depending on the cost proposals we receive and the amount available funding that we have, we may consider multiyear contracts.

Right? If someone comes in with a cost effective proposal, then perhaps we can consider them for maybe three or four years, right, of BMR administration. If it is not, right, then at most, we can only offer you a few years. So for this process, we are accepting email applications to be sent to that email address on the screen, housing@cupertino.gov. You can also do it to my own if if you have that.

Akivi@cupertino.gov. Now for this one, there's also an interview process, right, where city staff will be meeting and convening with prospective app applicants for the VMware program to kind of get a better sense of their specific program delivery, right, for that third category. So that is why we have it closed in December 3 so that throughout the winter, we can meet with them and discuss with them to get a clear cut winner. And similar to the others, we will be bringing this, of course, as a decision officially to be finalized by the housing commission and then awarded, right, by city council as all things have to go through the city council. So similar to the last RFP, this will also be posted to the Cupertino's housing website for people who want more questions.

We'll we can also email them the RFP if they have any questions. Cupertino.gov@housing. It'll be posted on November 3, no latest, maybe earlier. Other than that, more questions can be emailed to myself. If you'd like to open this item now to clarifying questions from the commission.

Okay. Let me go ahead and start. Or commissioner Jones would do I was just pointing. Oh. Oh, were pointing. Oh. Okay. Sorry. I I thought My share. I have

you. So do we currently have an administrator to do this?

We do. Currently, it's they're they're called Rise Housing. They can be found on our website.

So k. So we do this RFP every year? No. We awarded them for

a four year contract last time. Okay. And there's a set to run out in, 06/30/2026. So starting 07/01/2026, we will need to have a new one in place for continuity of service. Okay. Yeah. Sorry.

Okay. I'd I'd like to ask a question. What is the value of the contract for for a year?

So the value of the contract really depends on the cost proposal they submit. Right? Hopefully, it's something cost effective and low. I mean, the the whole amount that we have budgeted, right, at least from what the council has set aside supposedly from their action, would be 1,000,000 for the multiyear.

Oh. Right? Okay.

So we are hoping it's it's a lot less than that, right, per year.

For a year, 250,000?

It's gonna we're we're we're not gonna guide them on their answer to that. We hope they give us the most cost efficient. We

know what happened last year. Sure. The year before that.

Yeah.

In previous years, it was about 250,000

Okay.

Per year. Yeah. So it depends on the contract. So last year was a four year contract. So every year, the four year is a little bit different amount. This is probably the highest of the four year contract. That's how we negotiate last time. So first year was extremely low, and it kinda accumulates towards the end. So Nikki's right. You can look at the average about $2.50. This year, we're a little higher than about 300.

I'm just kidding in general. You know? I mean, some of the contracts are a $100,000 a year. You know? So I was just cheering.

I think

it depend it all depends on how we negotiate and what kind of services that we really what did they provide, what they put on the table.

Thank you very much. Just one second. Okay. I got another question, and I'll come back to. Yeah. Thanks

for giving us some background why we're going through this process. Apparently, the existing vendor contract, it is is expiring. Correct?

Yes.

So

Have we made any changes as far as the criteria of selecting the prospects? Any different from the previous applications? Maybe something that better can can match our reality that has changed.

Yes. So the new requirement of being able to manage, you know, the the expedited waitlist, right, that's that's a new thing that just started this year for for tenants in the expiring units. That would be a new new priority. And, also, the new category we added of being able to be keyed in, right, to California housing law and these kind of, like, emerging sort of, initiatives right in the Bay Area. Just because we want we we want an administrator that can be, like, our partner. Right? And these things help us stay stay aligned, you know, with with California Housing Law and these these things rather than having to bring them up to speed too. Right?

Yeah. Did you have a follow on question? I knew you asked a question last time. Do you wanna just

I say what that was? I was I was wondering. You mentioned here that once you receive the application, it's going to be the interview process that is managed by the city staff. I was wondering if it would be appropriate that commissioners also participate in that process. Simply, maybe they hear and they get a good vibe or they analyze or maybe just give you kind of a secondhand of opinion and help you help altogether to see if you make the best choice.

So we we are involving the commission in the process. That's going to be after we've basically selected an apparent winner for you guys to basically make that final call, right, if you believe that it is let me let me pull that up really quick. We're bringing it back to the housing commission in I can't find it. But we're bringing it to housing commission in March, same with the other form. Proper stamp it with a recommendation to select or not select, right, the apparent winner and recommend it to the city council.

Did we get, like, shortlist of or?

I think we would basically narrow it down to the winner and then maybe, like, have, like, our our like, a runner-up or something mentioned, something like that. Yep. Just because there's there's a there's a lot to consider, and it would yeah.

I have a question. I wanted to ask because I I thought you were bringing up commissioners. Last time we were talking about during the watering process, if there was a way to make that more water from the bearing.

Yes.

Yes. I thought I had talked to you earlier, and we might have teach something about that.

Right. I think that was commissioner Jindi's request. Right. So we we we've we've checked, and we found that I think there is a way that we can possibly post a reporting of the lottery process just so as long as we make sure that all names and addresses are not shown so it's truly, like, anonymous, and there's no kind of infringements on privacy, that that we yes. We should be able to post a recording for and we can even start it during this year. Right? The recording of the the lottery selection for the BMR waitlist.

Does that need to be does

that answer your question, Pete?

No. So that that's already included, right, during during the lottery? That's yeah. That that is included. Yeah.

Yes. So recording means that after the fact, not kind of like people participating via Zoom or even in person. And, of course, we've got to make sure so no private information is being shared. I think it will be just numbers displayed.

Yes.

And people who know the number will know. Yeah. Whatever they learned. So this is my recommendation to begin with. So make it very open to the public when it happens.

Yes.

Again, we have to make sure so no privacy concern had been breached.

Yes.

So is that different from what you said? You said a recording. We didn't read it in real life, but we've got people that watch

this in real time. So we we do it.

But you want I thought I We

do it over Zoom. Yeah. We we do it over Zoom. Basically, like, they they they kinda show us, like, that they're doing, like, a randomization of, like, the lottery process, and city staff is present to to confirm that. I I would have to check, actually, with the city attorney's office on on letting on letting people in real time.

I I will say sorry, Nick. Prior prior direction from the city attorney's office was just out of abundance consideration for privacy protection for these type of topics to avoid any sort of live participation, which is why this is not have never been advertised and then invite the public to join because it's that's sometimes very difficult to control the crowd and and and the environments, and and really wanna be able to do that in a secure and safe, setting. Yeah. So we can certainly record it and post it just for transparency, reasons, but, open it to the public. That's not something that's advisable for the the majorities.

My my concern. Right? That that me to pause into my head is that, like, if we allow people to attend, people might start wondering, like, if attending, they were allowed to influence to survive for themselves. So I I'm worried of that as well. So yeah. I I don't know. I I think probably for privacy and both making sure that there's no concerns in that regard, probably just posting the recording afterwards is the direction we would go in. Yeah.

Commissioner Gillis, you have a question

or comment?

I have a a question. So, currently, we have a vendor or a consultant. Do I use it? Yeah. We're proceeding to to vote on an RFP for a new consultant. Have we considered getting someone internal so that they have longevity within the this community really can support our needs on an ongoing basis as opposed to relying on a consultant?

So running a BMR program is pretty is pretty daunting. Right? It's it's it's a it's a very big ask, and it it requires a team, really. So it it would require probably the hiring and onboarding of a couple of staff at least. Yeah.

Cost effective wise, most small cities at least tend to do the consultant because one consultant can service many cities. Right? So they're allowed to be able to hire that many staff and service all these services that might not have the largest portfolio. Onboarding internal staff to run BMR administration tends to be something more of, the city of San Jose, city of Mountain View kind of thing because they've got the manpower to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Question.

Yeah. So Rice was a program administrator. They were almost the developer of a unit, wasn't it? Like, that isn't one of those

It's a great question.

With the conflict of interest?

No. No. No. Two organizations with extremely similar names. It's yeah. Yeah. One is called RISE Housing, and the other is called VRISE. And I see. Yeah. The VRISE is who's developing VELCO.

Okay.

Yeah. Thank you for clarifying. No problem. No problem.

So there is a conflict of interest. Right? The administrator cannot bid on for the fund.

Right. Right. So so administrators cannot be developers. Yeah. Luckily, is not the case. Just two organizations that both like the name Rise. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Because Yeah. Then I don't need that. Are there any other quest comments?

I I have one one extra for a minute. Can we add in the RFP for them to I mean, you have, like, evaluation criteria being, like, four items, 30 points, so thirty, thirty, and 10 points. Yeah. Can we add references? For example, can we ask them to provide references of, like, if they work for other cities? Right? Yes. Yes. So is that is there a category, and can we get Absolutely. Evaluation?

Yeah. That that's actually that first category, program experience. Yeah. Yeah. They get bonus points that they've done work for similar cities, especially similar cities in a similar area of

the Bay Area. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

So yeah. It's Okay. Yeah. If they can demonstrate that, they they get bonus points. Yeah. Yeah.

You have a first first follow-up question.

So just point. Mhmm. Good point. It sounds like they're not required to provide references. Just simply they'll just list them the work they've done for other cities. They could have done the work that shows experience, but the quality, it's probably comes by people who

We can we can add an agenda asking them to provide that.

Also to look at it, it's kinda like when you ask for when you recruit for staff. Right? People send in their resume. Certain level, we wanna see their output, how they craft their materials and their applications, where they think it's important, how they persuade the city to provide them with that point so they'd be caught qualified and considered. So there's there's a balance between how much you wanna kinda outline that ahead of time to kinda help them submit what they what they think the city might want versus them coming up with with a package that they think will best describe their their their their firm or what they do. So that's which is why it was not included specifically in r in RRP.

In other words, it's part of the test. Right? A BMR's administrator that's worth their salt is gonna provide references so that they can kinda bolster their package. Yeah. Yes. I'm

not sure. You probably know who's prior to the rise who manage our BMR. Hello Housing. Same.

Yeah.

Mhmm. K. So if I'm not mistaken, people who created RISE were formally stopped at work under public housing. So I wonder if we need to consider seeing looking at that fact. If we want same people here that I've just mentioned now and they simply change a name, they come up with a new organization, how's that going to fight out decision making?

It would definitely I mean, we're making sure that we're we're grading people on their merit. Right? So, even if they were the same people that changed their name first of all, just because we're doing an RFP does not mean we are unsatisfied with their service. Right? We're doing this because this is in the interest of fairness for competitive funding. And, so with that that that said, if if, you know, rights were to change their name, right, it would still be graded on the same four categories objectively that we previously mentioned as well as any other applicant. Right? So that's how we're taking that into account. Whether they call themselves this or that

or whatever. Yeah. Or even if they keep their name.

Well, if they

they're welcome to submit as well to be considered.

Absolutely. Yeah. So they should have the same

Absolutely. Same. Okay.

Yeah. For these basic requirement. Right? Like, how long have you been in business and what was

your previous name or whatever.

Right? That's that's really how you package Yeah. Your submission. Right?

It works.

I have one question. Somehow, like, when I was reading the scope of services, it seems pretty open ended, meaning it doesn't specifically tell them, hey. You're gonna manage 10 different projects.

Yes.

You know? It because we have the BMR funding is about $1,100,000 Yeah. That's available for funding. So how many people are gonna be submitting this? Right? So it's not very specific. So multiple people applying for this, responding to the RFP, you know, that's, kind of a do they give, like, what, hourly basis kind of a rate, or how does it work? Do they give, like, a lump sum, or do they say, hey. If it's only two projects, then so much. It's just like I I was just thinking if I were gonna apply Yeah. As an appreciated. Right? It's kind of very open ended. Yes. So how do you So make sure you get well

The way it's it's it's done is it's based on the size of the portfolio. So we are expecting applicants to do a little bit of research on, like, how how big our portfolio is. We actually tell them at the front, but also knowing that it's gonna change. Right? Some units might expire, and then also some units might get built.

Right? And so, like, they're then being able to demonstrate their knowledge of our housing stock is going to weigh in, right, in doing, who who we think is qualified. And that's how it's done. That that's how the pricing is done. So you would you would assume for a certain number of homes in the portfolio, that's how many resells you have to do for certain amount amount of apartments, and then how many rental recertifications they have do, how many monitoring you have to do. Right? And so you can you can you have to do these things at least once a year. Right? Monitoring, you have to do a certain number of we solve a certain number of certifications every year. So you can make a guess of how many of these things you have to do per year.

You can make your cost per item, and that's how you can formulate your yearly proposal. And then for anything not explicitly mentioned, then you could submit an hourly rate, right, for for your optional tasks. Right? We have we have an associate, a senior, and a principal, and anytime they put them on some kinda optional task, this is how much they would charge.

Yeah. Have any questions? Not

really, but I do have clarification. Again, the in the previous subject, you had mentioned that there's quarter million allocated for BMR. Right? This proposal for the next year.

Yeah. Yeah. For for this current running

year. Right?

Yeah. It's about $33.03 300,000 right now.

And that's, again, only for administration, not for not as rental or

That's just for administration. That's right. Yeah.

Is there a way to cut it down? I mean, it seems like we're just using too much money for

Well, that's that's why we would do an RFP. Right? That's Right. So we get a cost cost effective competitive proposal. Yeah.

Yeah. Yes. One of

the reasons I made a comment about internal source of resource versus a consultant is also look at jobs. Right? And do we have an obligation to increase number of jobs that we're creating for the local residents by using this as a leverage. Right? And so that that that was my thought.

Yeah.

Especially in the economy that we're finding ourselves in.

Yeah.

Is that an opportunity for us to have greater benefit and impact in our own

That is a good question. Using the BMR program specifically, no. But if it was, like, a greater sort of city goal maybe to, like, use city funds to stimulate the economy or to create more jobs. Right? I think that would be something for the EDC committee. Right? Just like that's something they wanna do as a direction. But, yeah, that I don't know, actually. I don't know. That's a great question. Yeah.

Okay. Hearing no have we gone to a public already? Then I suggest that at this time we go to the public comments. Do you have any general folks that would like to make a comment at this time? Hearing none at the moment, do we have any public line that would like to comment?

We have no hands raised on Zoom chair.

Okay. Thank you. Motion is closed. And I think at this time that we would be able to take a vote on receiving this report. Do I hear a motion?

Commissioner Joe says a motion, and do I hear a second? He's a second. And commissioner has seconded the motion that we receive the report. Can we hold the vote, please?

Chair Kanahia? Aye. Vice chair Narayan? Aye. Commissioner Jones? Commissioner Shripathi? Hi. Commissioner Jiggy? Hi. Motion carries unanimously.

Okay. Item is closed. And so now we can go on to the next agenda items, but staff information reports would be next. And now let me see who else's staff report first. Do you have a report, miss Eden?

Just one. Just wanted you guys to who has been the housing coordinator who started with the city this week. He'll be joining us for this meeting as well as upcoming housing commission meetings in support of this commission alongside myself.

And I, as the housing chair, who have been here for six years, say, welcome aboard. It is time for there to be more staff in the housing division, and I certainly appreciate you being here. So welcome.

So much to learn, and you are in good hands.

Oh, yeah. K. So on that, then I'll are there any other commission reports of places that you've been that are of importance to us as a commission? I'm hearing one. I will only say that there wasn't a a mayor's meeting this month, held every other month.

But I will remind you that on Wednesday next is the commissioner's dinner. It's October 29, 05:00 at Queen's Center, and we will have our own commissioner's appreciation dinner, but the crest award nominate announcements. So it'll be a very fun evening, and we'll get to not only see each other in more informal sessions, but we'll get to meet commissioner Sharf and all the other commissioners at that meeting as well and see the. So that's that's my only. And then lastly, before we before we adjourn, we do have future agenda setting.

And just as a reminder, it's not a discussion of the agenda items, but it is a it is a discussion of what agenda items we might have. And so what happened in September, our last meeting, we did find out that the anti displacement survey would be heard in December. September, we heard it be heard. The anti displacement survey, which was something we wanna be able to be in December. And the request for additional funding then to replace the headphones can be heard of that as well.

One thing that I had thought in in those terms was that the funding for Project Sentinel should be increased. I think that comes out of our VMR funds as well. They handle market rate as well as below market rate renters. And so all renters need to be aware of these tenant protections. And I recall who was a previous commissioner for us, she actually was priced out of her home and apartment.

And she she was paying full rent, but the way they did it, it just kept going up. She eventually she would do Mountain View. So an important thing would be to see if we couldn't get more renters aware of the tenant services that are available to people that are finding they're getting priced out of their apartments. So, anyway, that's that's combined. Sometimes, you know, it just adds a little bit. But then in March, you had mentioned that changing the housing commission charter to add permanently that there be a renter on the housing commission based on what you've assessed with that? I

think that would be and I think the topic will officially just be called, like, amendments to the charter, a thousand commission charter, add special representative seats. Okay. And a renter seat could be considered. Right? Okay.

Because there might be others that have been considered a certain time

as well. You guys wanted to suggest others. Right?

Oh, I see.

Yeah. Or staff

Okay. Okay. Fair enough.

Yeah. Fair

enough. It's it's our commissioner, he did suggest that one specifically, and it is but I do recognize that it is one of many Yeah. Ways to do them slice and dice our population. Yeah. So probably do want to discuss it. Okay. And then lastly, but not leastly, we received an email from vice chair Narayan on October 14 talking about the the various homelessness issues going on. And she was asking questions about what might go on to the future agendas. And so Nikki and I didn't discuss those.

I I think for your request, what we can definitely do is definitely tie it into a lot of the agenda items that we have coming up because I think I think they are very important, and they definitely fit into some of the things we wanna talk about. Yeah. So stuff relating to bit count, stuff relating to expanding services for homelessness. Right? I think that would probably fit pretty well in with the well, first of all, we're gonna bring that back anyways. Right? Yeah. When feasibility is done. So that's definitely when it will come up. Then also, I think you asked about preservation of units.

Mhmm. We we discussed it previously for the last 80 displacement policy. We can bring it up again, or at least do a refresher. So in December, we can talk about that again there as well. I'm sure to accommodate that.

As for the development related questions, you definitely don't wanna step on the purview or anyone's toes of, say, the city council or the planning commission. And so, typically, the housing commission has has a recommendation body to the city council. What you can do is maybe you can attend, like, a planning commission meeting. Right? Like, similar here or or the housing commit or city council meeting and make comment as you could say, I am a housing commissioner, but today, making comment on behalf of myself, kinda like some letter to the chair, Samrao does. Yeah. So you can weigh in on those issues there. Because we know that those will be agenda items, at least for those two bodies. So that's that's how you can probably Right. Participate.

I'll also add that in in the Munich code, when it talks about the housing commission duties and the responsibility, we identify as a housing commission as recommendation body to the to the planning commission Mhmm. And the city council.

Right. Right. Yeah. Right.

There's a So you can make recommendation to Yeah. To yeah.

I guess I was just wanting to add to for the benefit of everyone here is that I know I had mentioned to you about the housing element. Yeah. The housing element is something that was approved in 09/04/2024. It's a plan for the next eight years for how the city plans to build market rate as well as below market rate housing. So within that document, there are a number of planning strategies and goals.

Excuse me. And so the strategies each have goals and we set them, and the goals have what they're gonna do and what a plan time is. And I was looking into it behalf of some of the questions that you have asked. And, excuse me, for instance, this the small emergency shelter, that's the cross oh, that's what Nikki said. But finding city owned or underused land for prefab and modular housing, there is five dot one dot six, which approves talks about the prefab or modular housing.

So I think if if each of us becomes more familiar with the housing element, what the goals are that are currently there, you'd get some better ideas about how to assist on in in that. Because the city's gonna be working on those things. That's what happened. It's all about itself. I don't know. I'm just Yeah. Yeah. No. No. No.

Recommend to you. Yeah. Because, for instance, one of our goals is the BMR AHF fund, and that's something that we have, and that's been worked on quite a bit from what Nikki has told us before about the kind of funding that is in there. So I I'm just I was real pleased when I talked to Nikki to find out the kinds of things that supported

So what is so there's yeah. So I think that I really appreciate that. For the housing element, maybe there's a way for the housing commission to take those and try to aggressively push that, you know, to say, okay.

It's there. Let's see. Three option. Right.

Absolutely. We see them worse. Absolutely. Now let's see some action.

Well and that's what the goals have. They have actions established. So that's Yeah. Absolutely.

You're actually kind of right on the pulse of it because when in in the purview of the housing commission, it's it's to weigh in on an action of policies and strategies in the housing element. So that's kind of what I've been using as a tool, right, to bring things like anti displacement. Right.

Right. Yeah.

And then homelessness policy, wasn't really considered as much before by the city. Now to the housing commission. Right? Now that we have the housing on that kind of explicitly laying it out. Yeah. Yeah.

I think that the housing commission I mean, the housing commission. Excuse me. The housing element has made a a big difference in the focus of how the work is done in the city. And I think it's gonna be some of the changes coming. Nothing ever happens Steps as people as advocates would like, but it nevertheless is a plan or something that people can look to and see what's in their work. Do have a comment?

Yeah. I do. As one of the newer commissioners, what's the best way to get up to speed with the projects and up to your point to housing element? How do we get up to speed so that we understand and level set so that we can really, you know, be informed to be better engaged and be valuable to this commission?

The hard way is to read the the whole thing, but and it's very, very long. So you can you can do that, and that's the most comprehensive way. The the faster way is if you zoom in onto just the, like, the the strategy plan area where they break it down, there's, like, 60 strategies in in five different categories. And it basically it's it looks like a work plan. Right? It lays out what staff needs to do by what year, and what how many people we should serve by by each category. So that would be that would be my recommendation.

Thank you. That's available on the on the city side, the housing element.

Yeah. Oh, yes. Course. Yeah. Be online.

Think it's right. Yeah.

Oh, there's a good I I remember I tried to read it for a pink. I was looking for the

Yes. Their position. Yes.

I was trying to read that. Yeah.

It's a pretty big one. Yeah.

He focused on the status of the falls. Yeah. And there are there are also attachments that tell you You can get you know? Yeah. In calling your format.

So okay. So this

actually, we're we are discussing it, and it's great all great stuff, but we're not supposed to discuss it too much because we're gonna have different items that are made up. So I think if this is the last and here's the agenda item. Right? I'm gonna send it to. I know I put it all in tabs. You think it would be. It has a. Oh, what comes next is. At 06:40PM this evening, I