Community Development Citizens' Committee - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I am calling to order the 02/25/2025 meeting of the Community Development Citizens Committee at 06:41PM. We'll start with roll call and miss Raglan will handle that.

Committee member Castaneda. Here. Committee member Cox is absent and or delayed. Vice chair Blay or I'm sorry, Hansel.

Present.

Chair Blay.

Present. Okay. I wanna welcome and I wanna welcome Jose Castaneda, our newest member to the committee.

Perfect Across the hall time perfectly. I'm Lucinda Williams. I'm your city clerk. Welcome to our new committee member. You know what you have to do because you've done this a few times before, but you can do it from up there. Don't have to come down. So, yeah. We're not gonna unless you really wanna get your steps in. But so if you'll you know what to do. Raise your right hand and please repeat after me.

I state your name. I. Solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of The United States and the constitution of the state of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of The United States and the constitution of the state of California, that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which I'm about to enter. Congratulations again.

Okay. Public comments will be heard on matters not appearing on tonight's agenda. Speakers will be limited to three minutes. Please come forward if you have something to share.

Good evening, chair and committee members. My name is Curtis Gamble, activist for the homeless, the veterans, the OCT bus drivers, the Cal State Fullerton students, the seniors, and the low income community. I just want to come up and say that I'm looking forward to all the conversations that we're gonna have. I I did conversations we're have about the CD CDBG funding. I am happy to see that we are funding different organizations within the community because we need funding for, you know, for the community.

I also, would like to see different things. Like, one thing that concerns me, it may not have a lot to do with this, but I'm kinda really into the homeless thing, and, I try to help homeless people. So I would like to see homeless people be a part of this more. And I I I say that because I've been living down at the Fullerton Navigation Center for about six months. We have a 150 people there, and they need different things.

And I think that we get around, what, $2,000,000 a year in CDBG funding altogether. And I just think that the that should be a part that, navigation center, should be a part of this. And, also, I look at, just the issue just in general. I'm a former OCTA bus driver, drove twenty years ago for fourteen years. I'm looking at the community, especially the low income community.

They need transportation, which is bus passes. So if we could do different things like that, that's just kinda what I'm, asking. Everything else seems to be okay, but we just need to be more into the community as far as, the navigation center and as far as the low income and homeless people are concerned. I think that this funding that we get, should be spread out even more, on their behalf. So thank you for your time, and I look forward to conversations. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Gamble. Is there anyone on Zoom?

No Zoom speakers. Okay.

If there are no more speakers, I'm going to close the public comment period. And we'll move on to the first item of business, approving the minutes from the 02/11/2025 meeting. So

I wanted to note that on the February 11 meeting minutes, we we need to include that there were two public comments in item five, which discussed CAPERs. So I make a motion to approve the February 11 meeting minutes with these modifications.

And I'll second.

Committee member are you ready to vote?

Call call for roll call vote.

Okay. Committee member Castaneda.

Aye.

Vice chair Hansel. Aye. Chair Blay?

Aye. Staff now will staff will present an update regarding federal funds and city programs.

Good evening, madam chair and committee members. I'm here to just provide an update on everything we've been hearing about HUD, right, and how the Department of Government Efficiency is proposing many cuts. So just to backtrack a couple of weeks ago, as we know, the administration one day freeze on federal spending in January caused significant concern amongst agencies reliant on government funding. While this immediate impact was temporary, I think the effort to reduce the size of Department of Housing Urban Development was definitely highlighted. So fast forward today, as reported in the news, the Department of Government Efficiency is proposing workforce reductions of 50 to 80% within HUD.

And that's in the Office of Community Planning and Development. That's one of the deepest cuts proposed by the federal agencies. These cuts would not affect not only staff at HUD headquarters in Washington DC, but also employees in field offices nationwide. Unfortunately, I have seen firsthand with colleagues and friends in in the Los Angeles office who have lost, their jobs as a result of these cuts. But anticipating staffing reductions, processing, managing, monitoring, preparing, and submitting grants can become significantly slower, potentially delaying some of the funding.

Right? So what does that mean for Fullerton? We are in regular discussions with HUD and our HUD representative to ensure our current funding remains stable. We were asked to continue to draw down funds to reimburse nonprofit organizations and projects promptly. Our field office is lacking a clearance in terms of what to expect next.

Right? And I think we're all in that same that same predicament. So while I cautiously am optimistic that our current funding will remain intact, I think next year funding may take a significant hit. I also believe that the community development block grant is a strong example of private public partnership. Right? And and as a result, I feel very hopeful that we may be spared some of those those cuts. That's just what we're hearing right now. I intend to provide you with continual updates at these meetings if anything new arises. Any questions or anything like that?

Oh, okay. So just from what I'm hearing, there's a lot of concern for this year's funding, but next year's funding as well. I think the implementation of this year's funding is gonna be critical, with the drawdown of the workforce, but, I don't wanna get ahead of myself. It just it may be almost certain that with a drawn down workforce and with cuts to the budget during the you know, as we go through the budget process, we won't be able to expect funding for CDBG grants and partnerships next fiscal year?

Yeah. I let's hope not that's not the case. Right? And in terms of current funding, that's not gonna be touched. I think we're fine there.

It was allocated already.

Yes. It's been allocated. In terms of '25, '26, again, we're hopeful, but there may be some cuts. And the reason why they're thinking that way is because if you're reducing the workforce 50 to 80%, like who's going to do that work, right? And that's and then that funding, whether it's slowed or it's just not coming at all, like there's gonna be definitely some ripples as a result of those cuts. Right? So that's what we're hearing now. And we have great dialogue with our HUD representative and they're continuing to provide us, you know, updates as as they go along.

Have we notified any or any or all of the applicants that there may be a delay in receiving the CDBG funds for this Currently

any applicants that are receiving CDBG funds haven't experienced any delay. We've been proactive in that. I just want to make that clear. And we're to continue to follow that suit. So anything in the future, think for all of you, continue to be optimistic. I feel very optimistic that it won't get cut. And if it does, maybe not that much. And it may be certain programs. But certainly, I'm looking forward to, you know, continuing the partnerships. And I think that's gonna be definitely relayed through our dialogue and what they're what they're sharing with us as well.

And, Daniel, can I ask you, is the city of Fullerton using the PR firm to lobby and advocate for our city to get all of our appropriated money from the last congress and then also lobbied for the city of Fullerton to get twenty twenty five twenty six money or apply, you know, apply for money through HUD if there is any, but also the PR firm to lobby along with the all cities organization? Is there any movement on that?

Yeah. Madam Vice Chair, I would need to get back to you on that. I know certainly, you know, collectively as an organization, I think those those conversations has happened. I don't know to at what level. But certainly that's the intent that, you know, our team and this group will continue to, you know, preach. Right?

I I would appreciate that. And I guess I don't know how to put this maybe on a future agenda for this committee to maybe write a letter formally if that would help, whether it's the cabinet secretary of HUD or a letter towards the White House, whatever kind of, advocacy measures we can take, I would be happy to do that. So somehow maybe we can discuss and put it on a future agenda. Thank you for the update.

Of course. My pleasure. Now to some lighter news. I'd like to promote a couple of projects that either the city is sponsoring or the city's involved in. So one of them is a Fullerton Fair Housing Workshop that's scheduled for March 6.

Fair Housing Workshop or or Fair Housing Fullerton Fair Housing Foundation, excuse me, you know, provides outreach outreach and support to landlords and tenants and provides them a knowledge of their rights and remedies. It's very important that folks attend this whether you're on the renting or you're managing property or you're a landlord. It's very important to get this support for this workshop. So again, that's March 6 from 02:30 to 04:30 at the Fullerton Library. And then I think we have another announcement.

Yes. That's Orange County Regional Assessment of Fair Housing public hearing and there's six dates there and the public hearing is mandated by HUD and it's aims to identify barriers to fair housing and promotes inclusive communities and equity equity be equitable communities. Excuse me. So these public hearings will provide feedback and and and from the public. So that again is scheduled March 5 through March 13 at different locations throughout Orange County.

And then we have another announcement. Yeah. This is this is something that the city of Fullerton, mainly the housing team, has really worked many months on. And so just to give you context, as as you're aware, tenant based rental assistance is aimed for seniors and veterans at mobile home parks currently. We want to expand that over to the entire community.

And so we're really excited about this pilot program will target households whose incomes levels does not exceed 30% of the area median income and who are paying more than 30% of their monthly income. These these we anticipate assisting maybe 10 to 12 families in this initiative. So we're really excited about it. There'll be more information as as the weeks and hopefully the month comes. The backdrop behind all this is funding, right?

We have secured funding for that first year in this one. And we really want to, you know, showcase this initiative to HUD and to the community in hopes that we get funded again for this particular initiative. It's very exciting for a lot of families and for those 10 families here in Fullerton and we're excited to promote and to really provide a difference in people's lives. So and then Daniel, can

ask you? Uh-huh. I know last month we spoke about Home ARPA. Is this tenant based rental assistance program from Home ARPA?

It's not Home ARPA. It's Home Funds without the American Rescue Plan for the ARPA. Yeah. So we those are two separate, you know, funding sources, but this one would be used for home funds.

Because I remember two years ago this committee was talking about how to spend home money. Mhmm. And we were saying seniors. And I know there was discussion about domestic violence, families experiencing domestic violence. The flyer you're showing us, would that include victims of domestic violence?

Yeah. It it's really income based. So it's that 30% I mentioned. So, yeah, it's it checks all those boxes. Now the ARP funds are for certain populations. Right? And we're still in the process of working through those funds to determine what project we're going to utilize those in. Yeah. Great question. Thank you.

I I believe that's all we have. Yeah. Okay. That's that's my update session.

Thank you, Mr. Valdez. Now we'll move on to item number three. Now we'll hear from presentations from six nonprofit agencies requesting CDBG funds for 2025 program year. Presentations will be limited to five minutes with a five minute question and answer session by the committee. We will start with the Boys and Girls Club of Fullerton.

How's everyone doing tonight? Well, I'll kinda give you a little background. For those of you who don't know, Boys and Girls of Fullerton, we've been in the community for over seventy years. We now have five sites spread out through Fullerton. We have Commonwealth Elementary, Valencia Park, and Maple is our newest addition, which is at Maple Elementary.

Also have our Richmond Teen Center and, of course, our main facility, which is directly across the street. So CDBG, directly impacts four of those five sites, in various different ways. And some of the things that we've been doing more recently is trying to add, different, programs for our kids, different opportunities, which is obviously a big part of our mission and what we do. Some of the things that, we've implemented especially over at our teen center is a workforce readiness program and we started that last year by having different professionals come speak to our teens about different career paths. It ranges anywhere from education to manual labor jobs.

It could be something from film and editing. It kinda ranges all over the place. We do really wanna just open the eyes of our members on different opportunities. We realized for some of them that maybe college isn't always the path, but we wanna make sure that they they know there's different ways they can go. So, we've been able to, start that program, which has been very successful. And with that, we actually started it a couple years ago. We have a podcast program at our teen center as well, which is really fun. The teens actually got to interview senator Newman last year, which was which was really cool. We take the time to come out, and the kids got to ask him about his whole story and everything. They also partner with a couple of local boys and girls clubs and have, like, a podcast that actually is on Spotify.

And they have episodes about once a month, they'll bring up different various topics. And, it's a lot of fun. So if you ever get a chance, definitely check that out. Also, early literacy is something that we've been trying to, tackle over the last several years. We, originally started, early literacy program at our Commonwealth Elementary site, just actually before the pandemic, but it really came into use, post pandemic.

As many know, there's a big drop off with, the kids' progress with education. So we've carried that on with a a different program, early literacy, comprehension. So we have volunteers that come in once a week at one of our sites, again, helping these kids try to get back to grade level with reading, and hopefully beyond that as well. Some of the other, highlights that, you know, CDBG helps fund is, our character and leadership programs. We have a key, it's called Keystone.

It's our leadership program. So our teens, they'll essentially, like a student council, we'll head up different projects for not only our club members but also the community. They'll find ways to be involved and kinda give back to the community as well. We are still serving the same amount that is listed there on our application. The goal is to hit, you know, 250 members through this program, and that is obviously always the goal to reach as many members as possible within the community.

Let me see what else some other things I would like to highlight. I think that's that's about it as far as essentially what we've been kind of progressing towards beyond what we already do on a day to day basis. Of course, we do still transport kids to and from school every day. The main focus of that is transporting our team members free from the local high schools and also the junior highs to come to our teen center. So, four out of our five sites are, non fee based.

So that, obviously gives a lot of opportunity, and CDBG directly impacts that. So thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Oh, did did you? Oh, great. That's awesome. Yeah. I've been there for twenty two years. In May, it'll be twenty two years. So a long time. So

Congratulations.

Thank you. Thank you.

Nope. No questions.

No questions? Okay. Thank you, everyone. Have a nice night.

Thank you. Now we'll hear from a representative from CARE Housing Service, Fullerton City Light Social Services.

Good evening, everyone. My name is Jennifer Lowell. I'm the Director of Social Services with CARE Housing, and this is Kay Jay Lee, she is our on-site social service coordinator at Fullerton City

Lights. Hello.

Okay, next. Since 2011, Care Housing Social Services has been providing an array of social services for the Fullerton City Lights residents, most of whom are disabled with a history of mental illness, drug and alcohol problems. We are here to support their independent living, prevent future homelessness, also significantly reduce the usage of the city's emergency resources. Next. We do a lot at this at Fulton City Lights.

I'm going let KJ elaborate on some of the wonderful things that she does. KJ?

Okay. Since we got a few minutes I'm going to just summarize. We have a really large number of people, participants each month with various different kind of programs we provide like every Monday we have a coffee break time, you know, which will enhance social gathering as well as Wednesdays and Fridays we have a food donation. Enormous amount of food being donated by Vons and Albertsons and they get their extra food. And also we have a monthly, some form of a large social event.

It could be birthday event celebration. We recently had a Valentine's celebration. We have a cookout and we have a different kind of July 4, you know, all the holiday events we have. And we're talking about the entire monthly participant. Actually it's reaching up to like 300 total.

And then we have individual social services over 50 individual client services. And then we proposed last fiscal year about 102 unduplicated individual services and we reached over 100%. So we are very pleased with the individual services that we provide. And then on top of it, since pandemic, when we had the lockdown in 2020, I provided 20 fourseven emergency services. So everybody got my cell phone number if anything happens in their unit even though they are locked in their own cave hall basically, they can reach me 20 So I can call 911 for them and then we can coordinate the emergency service.

Okay. Next. Oh, by the way, I just want to share with you our residents low income with a lot of, you know, like a housing programs and also, obviously, they are all on medical and they are terrified right now. And we really, really need really strong support together to survive this through. If we pass through this pandemic, I'm sure we can pass through this difficulty as well. Okay, next.

With the inflation and reduced funding for food, Fullerton City Light Social Service found the solution by forming a community support network. KJ is very good at networking. I'm gonna let her explain.

Well, we have several churches, nonprofit organizations, or individual group like real estate agencies group, whatnot. They've been providing us with a lot of in kind donations, food, clothing, essential items. And I kind of went over like estimated amount of donations. It was over $10,000 last year. Okay. Next.

We get a lot of testimonials from the community but we wanted to highlight this one from Jay Williams, Executive Director of OC United. And he wrote, I truly believe that our cities need more places like Fullerton City Lights that provide a safe, dignified place for these dear neighbors to live and thrive in. KJ is the glue that keeps this site healthy and residents thriving.

I guess they want me to put this. It's kind of embarrassing. But major funding is is about my salary. So I guess well, amen.

Alright. Oh my goodness. Well, we ran out of time. I don't but you have the do you want me to go over the figures? Okay.

Wrap it up.

Wrap it up?

Okay. So but you want to say, you

know Okay. Well, just thank you so much. You can see the two pages are the current budget and anticipated sources of project funding and our operational costs. There is an itemized list so you can look at the figures. And last but not least, on behalf of our residents, we are very grateful for your unwavering support. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Lowell and Ms. Jaylee.

Thank you.

So I do have a question.

Oh, I'm sorry.

No. No. You're good. So we had a we had a concerned citizen that lives in your building. My question is, do you allow ring camera bells or has that issue the ring camera for security, are residents allowed to use those for their apartment?

We used to we had we had we recently had this management change. The previous management allowed that but now they have new management. They have a different set of house rules and one of which was they don't want to have a ring.

So is it in the tenant's lease where it says they're not allowed to have any surveillance cameras?

I think it's a it's a management department. I'm I'm different. It's like social service. However, I I've been hearing about this concern, but also it it created some problems as well. It's not like they had the ring service and then they was very good with that. But also their neighbors have paranoia about different things and then it just didn't I don't know what their reasoning is, but I have a feeling that they got a lot of complaint went with it as well. So I don't know where where this gonna go with it, but we are right now in the transition period and various other things that is different than the previous management style.

Okay. So you're going through a transition, you know, as long as it's clear to the tenants what the expectations are and what is or not allowed, as long as the tenants feel like they're getting accurate information and have a process to appeal. Like, you know, whatever the issue is, you guys are in charge of all that. But I just thought I'd get clarification, in case the public is watching. They've heard your response. Thank you.

Well, I certainly relate that to management. Thank you. Thank you.

Just just very quickly. Mhmm. So the budget is very lean and I'm wondering that's for the entire organization?

The entire organization I believe in the application says a 195,000 And the the proposed budget is 140.

Or $1.49.

$1.49.

So Well, do a lot

we're a service.

We're a small operation.

Yeah. You do a lot with a a very limited set

of funds. Only one. One and only.

I really I really admire that. It's very laudable that I'm lobbyist. Stretch every dollar. So I think I can if, you know

She works very hard.

Yeah. Pending the committee's recommend recommendations, I can definitely say that this is definitely effective and efficient use of our CDBG funds.

Thank you. Thank you. And I just want you to know, I'm not the only one doing it. I have a team of resident volunteers helping me. I cannot do without them. Okay. Shout out to our volunteers.

Shout out to them and very commendable. Teamwork. Yeah. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you very much.

Thank you Ms. Lowell and Ms. Jaylee. Now we will hear from community senior serve meals on wheels OC with home delivered meals program.

Good evening, members of the board. My name is Alejandro Lopez. I'm the VP of social services.

I am Christa Shurban. I am the director of social services of Meals on Wheels Orange County. I'll start us off with a brief organizational, overview and then talk about our lunch cafe. Great. So Meals on Wheels Orange County, you may have seen the logo, you may have heard the name.

Our mission is to nourish the wellness, purpose, and dignity of older adults and their families in our community, and we are celebrating over fifty seven years of service. Our programs support the needs of isolated low income older adults with the overall goal of providing the opportunity to eat out, socialize around a meal, meet people, and join in activities that the community offers, as well as combating the biggest threats to their health and well-being. In addition to, obviously, the the food insecurity and the malnutrition, right, the the meals, the food, it's that social isolation. It's the loss of independence, the lack of support and lack of resources. Both our lunch cafe program and our home delivered meals program, tackle these, in different ways.

We have a full list of our services here. We have our lunch cafe meals, home delivered meals. We provide case management services, in home services that includes, personal care, chore services, homemaking. We do home safety checks. We have a friendly visitor program, adult day health care centers, and care coordination.

So we do a lot more than just meals at Meals on Wheels Orange County. So I wanna share a little bit about the lunch cafes. Our lunch cafe meals program supports the nutritional needs of older adults by serving a voluntary contribution based hot nutritious lunches at the Fullerton Community Center just right across the street. It operates Monday through Friday, so we offer meals, hot meals, five days a week at 11AM. The meals are planned and certified by our registered dietitian to meet federal daily nutrition guidelines for older adults. I'll

say

the seniors at the center across the street, the lunch program is their home. They are in there before the door is open. They have their tables that they sit out with their friends every single day, and, it really is a place for their community. And the impact of the program, is really astonishing. We conduct very thorough surveys every year.

And, just this last year, our responses show that ninety per 7% of our lunch cafe meal program participants, agree or strongly agree that the meals provide the nutrition they need to be healthy. Ninety three percent say that they feel less lonely because of the program. Ninety nine percent say that they enjoy socializing with their friends at the community center. As you see, the highest level possible, they love socializing with their friends at the center. And ninety eight percent, say that they would recommend this program to others.

Okay. So I'll just chime in with that. So just wanted to, the the slide that you have presented here is what we used to do. We used to have, we still have very good collaboration with, Mills and Wheels in Fullerton, but that service model has changed. So this was the previous model, as you can see what was being provided. We can go to the next one. And this is our new model. So so we are currently, providing our, all the HCM services for them. We provide in home friendly visitors. We do the, onboarding, quarterly assessments, and all the case management now.

Next slide, please. Okay. So our home delivered meals program, again, is three meals, five days per week. So it allows, our volunteers and our staff members to go out there and, visit and visit each participant out there every day to check-in on them. All meals are certified by the registered dietitian. All and, of course, the one great thing that we do have is that we have five menu options that they're able to choose from. So now the the wonderful thing is where is that we're able to appease either lactose free. We can do vegetarian. We can do Asian, and then also Hispanic and or multicultural. And again, we're serving older adults, those that are homebound, limited support, limited access, living alone.

Next slide. So in addition, every single one of our HCM participants does get case management services, which also add is an added, benefit with that that allows them to check-in and do home visits, be able to give them other ideas, walk around, their homes, and be able to give them home, in home support services. Next slide. And again, we have another very strong year with feedback. So the great thing about that is that, most of our percentages are saying that it keeps them strong, keeps them independent, and they want to recommend it to more people.

Next slide. And these are feedbacks from our case management. Next slide. And some quotes, of course, the the best thing about them is is being able to socialize, being able to go out there, talk to people, interact, you know, get people out

of the

home. I know we're quite a short, but I know we're running on two programs. I wanna

Yeah. You can go ahead.

Yeah. Alright. Thank you. So, again, the the the great part about that is that the that our lunch cafe program out in Fullerton has been growing, and, we've been reaching, I think, an average number of about 50 participants out there as well, and it keeps on growing. Great parties out there, and, of course, the great food that goes out there. So home delivered meals is another big help. Very good feedback, and the best part is that we're able to keep in touch with them. Next slide. So of course, the the the funding that we get from CDBG is for, to offset the raw food costs to serve the Fullerton older adults with that as well. So for fiscal 2223, we went we went above and above and beyond our goal.

Same thing for quarter twenty four, twenty five, we have surpassed we have surpassed our goals. And, of course, we always love the support, and thank you so much for having us in here. And we're open to any questions you may have.

Oh, sure. So, again, just thank you for all the work that you do. I have a personal story that I'll leave to the other to another meeting. But I'm curious if you have the title three funding that would kick in if the CDBG funds are not awarded from, the city of Fort Worth. And, you know, as we know, there's some shaky and uncertainty, with the CDBG overall. But with the title nine funds that would kick in should the city of Fullerton not provide the funds, come from the same source or same pool. Does that make sense? Or are you Yeah. Replaces it.

So so of course for for us funding comes of course through donations. We use state funding, title three funds, and then of course CDBG to help kind of supplement with that. So, so for us CDBG funds is a very good addition to help support with the cost of food, that's why we've been, having that. We we we know that sometimes, there's been a reduction in the amount of CDBG, and those are the things that we adjust. If we know that it it's an uncertain time, you know, and, we've had discussions with other cities with that as well that you've kind of presented as well. And and, you know, as we're coming, you know, we're still planning on supporting and providing our meals out to our seniors. And, of course, with time, you know, we'll we'll see what kind of embellishes with with funding.

And then in that case, I wanted to offer or suggest that, Meals on Wheels Orange County also seeks a partnership with Calathema. I'm sure that many of your members and those recipients are CalAthma members. And for, you know, for an earlier question that was posed about the Medi Cal and Medicaid funding cuts or just, you know, the talk of that. Right? It's it's very scary.

CalAthma offers a couple of their own programs through their excess reserve funds that I feel might be within your alignment. There's a $7,000 mobility, EDA improvement program that is given directly to vendors that build or construct the wheelchair ramps into homes and other things that I'm sure could be benefited from more partners.

Yeah. Thank you for the information. Yeah. We we definitely have started that conversation with CalOptima and, you know, part of our ADHD. So that's, you know, that's that's a separate component. So we do collaborate with them on the medically tailored meals. So so that converse so so that relationship has been building, of course, you know, just to help help, a wider portion of our seniors.

Yes. Alright. Thank you.

I just wanted to make a comment for anyone watching. We have two applications from Community Serve, which is also known as Meals on Wheels OC. One application is requesting 25,000 from for the home delivery meals program to service about 35 residents. The other application from community serve senior serve is the lunch cafe meals program for 25,000 to serve about 281 seniors. So I just wanted to clarify that. That's why you're getting more time because you have the two applications. Thank you.

Yes. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Thank you both. Next, we'll hear from Heart Community Homes, Monkey Business Cafe Workforce Development Program.

Hello. How are doing? My name is Roy Reed, and I'm the farm supervisor here at heart at Monkey Business Cafe. That's good. My name is Roy Reed, farm supervisor here at Monkey Business Cafe.

First off, I would like to say thank you for the many years of support that you got, that you've given us. Yeah. Our mission is to heal, educate, and empower at risk youth to become healthy, productive, and self sufficient adults within the community. NOC, about 2,000 foster youth are receiving emancipation services at any one time, preparing for exit, foster care. A lot of the realities for many of the foster youth are homeless homeless home homelessness, hunger and unemployment, substance abuse, incarceration, and anxiety and depression.

A lot of the outcomes with the emancipated foster youth are, like I stated, homeless homelessness. Thirty seven percent has not finished school, high school. Twenty percent twenty seven percent of males and ten percent of females have been incarcerated. Thirty three percent were receiving some form of public assistance. Forty five percent were involved in outerwear locker.

Monkey Business Cafe. We offer paid trainings, and work experience through our, workforce development program, which includes customer service, cooking, food prep, ServSafe certifications, catering, farm to table, harvesting, and also mentoring. 20 to 40 at risk youth and young adults employed each year. They work fifteen to forty hours per week. They earn paychecks.

They gain work experience. It increases confidence and installs pride. We have a catering. We have a food truck, and we do catering throughout Orange County. And so, we've lately been trying to boost up our business, so it's slowly but surely coming.

Farm to table activities. We collab with Cal State Fullerton's Arboretum and the UACA program on campus, and we basically grow food and create different recipes and just the whole farm to table experience. We're also continuously working on our product line. Last time I was here, we was we had a problem with bees. So we do have honey this year and, also seasonings.

Our transitional housing is right here on the corner of Lemon And Wilshire. And, we have four two bed two two bedroom units that house up to, eight foster youth from ages 18 to 21. So this is new. We've received a $4,000,000 grant from Optima that allows us to rebuild this apartment building and offer more housing for this population, expanding to ages 18 to 24. Our request to the city of Fullerton during the twelve month period, we aim to employ and train 40 young adults and help prepare them for greater independence and stability.

This includes 15 who are Fullerton residents. The CDBG funds will help provide employment for 15 Fullerton residents. Thank you.

Roy, was it? Yes. Thank you, Roy. Great presentation. I think, so many people have, dined over at Monkey Business Cafe.

So with the project that's coming on, I've seen so many, efforts to get funding from different sources that I'm really happy to see that you're all asking from the city of Fullerton to be included as part of that array of funders for the new housing, for the transitional housing. And, you know, I'm just very happy overall with the results that Hart Community Homes plus the Monkey Business Cafe have been doing. So seeing you all partner is a it's a really good sign for Fullerton's future. Thank you. Thank you.

And my my question is, are your wages I know as of January 2020, they were supposed to go up to 16 an hour. Are your employees receiving that pay?

Yes. They're receiving $16.50.

That's good news. And then I had a question. The what kind of training? Are they getting trained in business skills, or are these funds just to complete the other half of their paycheck?

The trainings, are basically you have the front of the house which is, learning management in the front which is I'm serving, hosting, the back of the house which would be lying, cook, moving up to a prep, and hopefully a cook. And also the trainings with myself, which is at the Fullerton Arboretum, is learning the whole farm to table method. So learning how to grow and basically turn that into a meal. So that comes with cooking classes every other Thursday as well.

So they're learning cooking classes. Are they learning any type of management skills? Or let's say they wanted to have a business like Monkey Cafe or restaurant, or is it just the basics?

So it's right now, it's the basics, but we have we have on also, the cooking class, we have a nutrient analysis. So it teaches them the whole costing and basically that side of the meals as well. So not too much of a management, but how to manage your meals, the costing of it.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister Reed. Next, we were supposed to hear from High Hopes Counseling and Power and Recharger Battery. The agency withdrew their application because they do not have nonprofit status at this time. They will reapply next year. So we'll move on to our to the last, to the last one, Mercy House Living Centers, Bridges at Kramer Place.

Good evening. My name is Kamen Beaman, and I'm Mercy House's grant writer. Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight in support of our application for Bridges at Kramer Place. Bridges at Kramer Place offers 200 beds of year round shelter to literally homeless adults living on the streets of Orange County's North service planning area, including those on the streets of Fullerton. Bridges clients have twenty four hour access to shelter and ongoing supportive services.

To minimize negative effects on surrounding communities, we permit entry into the program through established referral partners, including the Fullerton Police Department. We operate the program as a housing focused shelter, and every resident at Bridges is connected to a housing navigator who works with them to create a housing and employment plan. Housing navigators work with clients weekly to check-in on progress towards their plans. And upon entering the program, every resident is also connected to the Orange County coordinated entry system to gain access to housing opportunities throughout the community. Since the inception of the program in 2017, we have helped 346 shelter guests exit to permanent housing and another 60 to temporary housing as a result of these housing navigation services.

Outside of the housing navigation and supportive services offered by Mercy House, Bridges is also host to approximately 30 county and nonprofit agencies who provide regular in kind services at the shelter. Services include connections to medical and behavioral health treatment, drug and alcohol treatment, employment skills and job coaching, benefits acquisition, veteran services, legal support, housing, and some other services. One significant partner that we have been able to bring to the shelter is SOS, Share Ourselves Orange County, who operates on-site medical clinics. SOS is on-site twice a week to provide an array of medical behavioral health and substance abuse services to shelter guests. The twenty twenty four Orange County homeless pick count, point in time count found as many as 7,322 homeless people in Orange County.

44% of those homeless are located in the North Service Planning Area, and 434 were counted in the city of Fullerton. Two zero eight were unsheltered. 226 were sheltered. The county saw a 5% increase in homelessness from 2022 to 2024. In comparing to 2022 to twenty twenty four's pick count, the N SPA, the North Service Planning Area, saw a 33% increase in homeless population.

Now more than ever, programs like Bridges at Kramer Place are critical to addressing homelessness as more people on the streets look to emergency shelters as a trusted, system of support on their path back to housing stability. Our request is for $15,000 in the cost of security guards at the shelter. This service is provided through a third party vendor. Bids are established for the vendor as required by CDBG funding. Security guards provide coverage inside and outside the shelter during designated times to ensure safety of the shelter grounds, guests, staff, and volunteers alike.

Security guards work closely with staff safety coordinators, those are Mercy Huff staff, who are charged with checking guests for contraband prior to entering the shelter and helping to deescalate conflicts. The role role of the shelter security guards is to reduce the need for law enforcement response at the shelter and provide twenty four seven safety coverage. In closing, I would like to say thank you for, the city's investment over the years into this program, and I hope that we can continue to help the city meet its consolidated plan, goals for addressing homelessness. Thank you so much.

Oh my gosh. You're just expecting me to speak now. You've had some But I do have some points.

You've had some great comments.

You know what? I'm looking

forward to it.

So so my understanding is that Mercy has taken over from PATH for Bridges at Kramer. Right? Or this is a separate

It might be a separate.

Or that Salvation Army has taken over from PATH. Just kidding. So I am way too deeply involved

in all

of that. You're good. You're okay.

I I feel the same way. You do you look at the the forest through the trees kind of thing?

You know? Exactly. Exactly. And so now that we have Orange County Health Care Agency leading on the behavioral health it's a behavioral health services act, plan, that the county will adopt next year. I'm wondering if if you yourself or if the organization is heavily involved in any of those, BHSA behavioral health sir service act planning efforts because the the nexus between housing and homelessness and behavioral health services is becoming more intertwined than ever before.

And now it's, you know, know, according to new law now, we have to plan for it carefully. So I'm wondering if you know of any of these efforts because I feel that even though we're talking about CDBG funds for security guards, this, you know, I I can see it. I can see the broader picture. I can see the big picture, you know, magnifying glass kind of analysis here. So if you could speak to that a

little bit. Absolutely. I, myself, have a limited experience with that, but I do know that it is in the works. And I do know that it is a big, big portion of what we as a shelter service provider take into account for not only bridges, but also other shelters that we operate.

Mhmm.

And it is definitely intertwined and continued to be, from here on out. I I don't I don't foresee that ever becoming something that isn't linked together. I think behavioral health, mental health, all of that kind of is often a barrier to job retention and stability when it comes to what is located on service or as a supportive service on-site. I know it fluctuates from here and there. It kind of matters what's going on at the federal level as as mister Valdez talked about, and then also what we are able to kind of, work with other supportive services, local nonprofits to kind of target a specific need where where necessary.

And which, which city the police department, responds to, emergency calls on-site for

It depends where oh, oh, at Bridges? Yeah. At Bridges. I'm pretty sure Fullerton. I I could double check for you. I'll get you a a definite answer to that.

Okay. Just, I just gotta take a couple notes here.

Sure. Absolutely.

Thank you so much. Yeah.

Thank you. And congratulations on swearing in again, I think.

So I have a a question, but this might be for Linda for staff. Are CDG funds funds allowed to go to a third party, like a security firm, security guards? Is that allowed?

Yes. They do need to get three bids on that service, and then you can use CDBG funds

for staff.

Okay. I was just, because I noticed on question 22, it's not under overhead or support. So that was gonna be my question.

I get

You clarified that it's under other asking for 15,000 for security guards. So as long as it's competitive, I guess, if you offer three bids. Okay. That's all that I have. Thank you for your presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, mister Beaman.

Thank you so much. Have a great night, guys. Alright.

And that was our final presentation for the night. It is time for committee communications. Do any of the committee members have anything they may wanna share at this time?

Okay. So staff communication. I wanted to the the my I had a question for staff. The results for the consolidation plan community needs survey that's due March 15, are those results that get compiled, like, for the May or June meeting? Is that when that happens? And the will this committee get the results?

Yes. Actually, at the next, no. In two meetings, this committee will have a public meeting where we will talk about the consolidated plan, and we will bring those results to you. And then they go into the consolidated plan itself, and that is presented to counsel.

Okay. Thank you for clarifying that. I was curious when that was gonna happen. And then, as far as activities, I am just wanted to make a comment a statement that I am glad to hear the update, that, Daniel, you provided. As far as HUD, I know there was a crazy viral foot massage video today from HUD staff, and so I'm really grateful to have federal employees pushing back and unionizing and using their power because I want them to use their voice.

It is unethical, in my view, to illegally fire federal workers. My mother works for the US census. She goes to hard to reach households to get census data. And for her to receive an email that tells her she has to reply and give information or an email that says, if if you wanna have a package you know, it's very demoralizing for any worker, whether you're union or not union, whether you're government, private, or nonprofit, to be treated this way. So I personally object.

I don't speak for the committee, but for myself, I object to public servants being treated this way. And I know the city hall employees must be nervous as well because we do have staff that are also funded with federal dollars. So I encourage residents and citizens and noncitizens to contact your legislators in congress and push back. Thank you.

Are there any more comments to be made?

Yes. So so good evening, everyone. I just wanted to, just point out a couple of, good things, good news. The changes from last year and the previous year fiscal year's awards and requests from CDBG applicants. The changes are so profoundly good that I just had to acknowledge staff's work in bringing these recommendations to us in the way that they have been and in the funding allocations that have been presented.

It's really noticeable because as we get to later presentations, and I'm sure when we get to a vote on the recommendation or not recommendation, we're gonna see a lot of talent. Some returning applicants. Right? Some maybe maybe jaded or not. But we're gonna see a lot of new services that I feel have been desperately needed and called to attention for, by residents and community members since way back when I was really getting involved in, like, 2014 and and whatnot.

So, kudos. I wanted to commend city staff, and the housing division for bringing forward some of these really incredible recommendations and some of the presentations that we heard tonight really, already start to reflect that. Second, for, you know, for the purposes of our committee, just having visited HUD and, you know, just absorbing all the brutalist architectures. You definitely gotta see the brutalist film. It's definite a seven Golden Globe winner over here.

For what it's worth, this the staff over at HUD are incredibly intelligent, incredibly resilient, and I hope that they are supported in every which way that they can be because the work that they do is so critical and it was already critical and necessary during the previous administration. So I can only imagine how much more it would be necessary to have them staffed. Saying that, I also wanted to point out that is a, you know, is a Chinese character a Chinese phrase for crisis within an opportunity. And so one of the things that keeps me resilient, and I hope that is keeping HUD and all the CDBG distributing employees resilient, is that within every crisis, there's an opportunity. And I think this is when we can really gear our advocacy, gear our local efforts to be aligned with the needs that so many communities across the nation also need, but maybe not have a voice for.

And so I just wanna put that out there as a a voice of pros positive reinforcement, and thank you so much.

Alright. Thank you, committee member committee member Hanzo and committee member Castaneda. I closed I'm now closing the public hearing. And the next meeting of the CDCC will be 03/11/2025 at 06:30PM here in the council chambers when we will continue to hear CDBG request presentations and review the city applications. If there is nothing else, I will now adjourn the meeting.

If there is nothing else, I will now adjourn the meeting at 07:46PM. Thank you everyone.