City Council - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. It is now 5 o'clock p.m., and we will call this meeting to order, a special city council meeting to order. Councilmember Brown will lead us into invocation, and Councilmember Bass will lead us into with the pledge of allegiance.

If you would please join me in praying in your own faith. Lord, we come together tonight to discuss some pretty heavy information. We ask you that you guide us, that you touch our hearts and our minds. You give us compassion, empathy, clear thoughts, and help us to make the decision that is best for everybody, including those among us who are the least fortunate. We know that you are here with us tonight. We appreciate your guidance. Please bring us together in a spirit of unity for what is best for the city of Killeen and for all of us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you, Council Member Brown and Council Member Bass. Let the record show that all Council members are present with the exception of Mayor Pro Tem Gonzalez. Council, I need a motion to approve the agenda. Council Member Nashke.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. I make a motion to approve the agenda.

is there a second council member williams i second it okay okay all in favor signify by saying yes those opposed no motion carries six to zero okay thank you council all right we will move on with citizen comments citizens have three minutes with one minute allotted for the city council to respond with a statement or explanation without engaging in dialogue madam city secretary person

Yes, sir. Tonight we have 14 speakers. First speaker is Sherry Vopisalia.

Good evening, ma'am. Good evening, Mr. Mayor. First thing I'd like to do is, Councilman Bass, thank you for your apology to the residents of Killeen. I am here as a private citizen and also the volunteer coordinator for Armor of God Outreach. And I want to tell you what Armor of God is really all about. All the things that Councilman Bass and the Mayor have talked about doing to help people out of homelessness is exactly what this organization is about. The things you may not know about AOG are as follows. AOG knows it can't help everybody. Not everybody wants to be lifted out of homelessness. AOG is aimed at talking and gearing towards the people that really want it. They have many partners already, churches and nonprofits working together, who I'm sure you'll hear from tonight. AOG has come this far with all volunteers. We are not friends in crisis. I handed you some papers. We have logged 1,399 hours of volunteer service, and that includes our homeless friends. This is exactly what you asked for. It's not a place for people to abuse, it's a mission for transition. And AOG is not an overnight shelter. AOG is about helping themselves by opening a thrift store to walk alongside grants and City of Colleen's funding at this time. At this critical time, not forever. AOG does not stop with people getting a place to live. AOG walks alongside our friends that they help afterwards. AOG will help with jobs, housing, counseling, drug counseling, identification issues, GEDs, money management, and more. This is exactly what you wanted. AOG is faith-based, and AOG is a collective of community partners. AOG wants to be the catalyst for change. They don't want to burden the city with this, but it's 103 degrees outside. People die in this weather. People freeze to death in the winter. So I don't take sides of organizations that are not going to do what they say they're going to do. I have higher moral standards and ethics than that. I've sweated alongside these people, including our homeless people, to get this up off the ground. And I really know that the city doesn't need this right now. But we didn't make this crisis happen. We're already working to cure this crisis before it ever started. So I understand you guys are under budget constraints. And believe me, I can say my piece on that. But these are human beings that should never be treated like this. Some are in their 80s. Some are sick. Some are having mental health issues. May I please have another minute? Don't you?

Yes, ma'am, you may.

Thank you. Some are drug addicts, and yes, some are veterans that don't meet the standards to get veteran funding. No funding, no bet at Friends in Crisis. I've advocated with this city for the homeless for the past three years, and I landed at Armor of God. It has the makings of a really wonderful thing. And I really hope that you can commit to helping us bring all these people together and make this work.

Thank you. Thank you, ma'am. Madam City Secretary. We accept you would abstain from clapping, please. Thank you.

Next speaker is Anthony Williams.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. How are you, sir? Before I get started, I'd first like to ask the council for an additional minute on my time.

Wait till we get there.

Okay. Buckle in. Today's message is directed at the elected body of the city of Killeen. As a combat veteran that grew up and cut his teeth here at Fort Hood, raising my family in Killeen and my children attending Killeen ISD to include Ellison High School. I am appalled and dismayed at their comments and actions from this council. Councilman Bass, your comments against the vulnerable citizens you were elected to serve is disgusting and a living example of how politicians continue to fail, not only the veteran community, but also each of your constituents. Mr. Bass, did you do your homework this weekend? Excuse me. Because I did.

Excuse me, sir. City Attorney, settle out.

Comments should be addressed to the chair, to the mayor. OK.

Yes, please.

Yes, Mr. Mayor. Well, Mr. Mayor, your comments as well are becoming under fire. But the comments of this council, I'm going to ask if they did their homework, because I sure did. I presented a scenario to different organizations and churches here in Killeen and Bell County as a combat veteran with 60% rating who had been laid off from his factory job and had exhausted all of his unemployment benefits, been unable to find full-time work, and lost his lease to his house, a situation that could happen to any person sitting in this room today. And here is the results. The National Homeless Veterans Hotline referred me to the local VA services. The local VA services put me on hold for a minimum of 24 hours with no guaranteed bed space. I contacted the Vet Center here locally. The Vet Center had resources for mental health and employment resources, but zero assistance for housing. In fact, they referenced me to Friends in Crisis. I then contacted Rivers of Living Waters Church here in Killeen. I was told at that moment that all funds had been exhausted toward their attending members only. I contacted the Covenant Life Church. They referred me to the Killeen Police Department, Mr. Kyle Moore, who I hear has wonderful resources to help our vulnerable citizens, but unfortunately no beds. I also contacted St. Joseph Catholic Church, who told me they have zero funds to help anybody that's vulnerable. They referred me to another local nonprofit organization, Bring Everyone Into the Zone. So each of the resources that this council has referred, including their own churches, were for no transitional housing or prayers to the vulnerable citizens in Killeen. The reality of the matter is your opinions came from a place of privilege and willing ignorance. Your words and actions prove how unsafe and trustworthy you truly are. Mr. Mayor Solomon, your willingness to impede upon your own citizens' constitutional rights is a disgrace. Mr. Mayor, you proudly boast your veteran title and highlight your various board positions, project your image as compassionate, yet turn your back on your community's most vulnerable. So make it make sense to your voters. May I have one more minute, sir?

No, sir.

Thank you.

Yes, sir, you may.

Appreciate it. So how does removing funding from one of Bell County's only overnight transitional housing organizations create trust in this city's leadership and the systems that you're supposed to be supporting? How does the actions of this council provide supports to all of its citizens? And I ask each and every one of you in your current and previous careers, were you such weak leaders and educators because you lacked empathy? And lastly, I hope your words and actions echo to the polls in November because the community of Killeen deserve better and stronger leaders. Thank you.

Thank you, sir. I'm asking you, please, please constrain your clapping. We understand that you want to clap, but we're going to say the councilman.

Next speaker is Nasira Zachary.

Good evening, ma'am.

Good evening. How y'all doing?

Great.

All right. So I want to start with saying my name is Nasira Zachary. I'm a Killeen resident here for the past 15 years, and I'm also a social worker. I'm here tonight because I support funding Friends in Crisis. The Friends in Crisis Emergency Homeless Shelter is facing closure September 1. That is not months from now. That is next week. What I struggle to understand is how we got here when this city has already acknowledged the need. In 2022, Colleen and Temple commissioned Marburg Consulting to study homelessness in our community. They interviewed people experiencing homelessness, analyzed local data and services, and conducted street-level observations. That work resulted in a final report in December of 2022 and informed the Homeless and Mental Health Strategic Plan adopted by Colleen City Council in February 2023. The findings identified gaps in services and challenges involving mental health, substance use, domestic violence, economic hardship, and our military connected population. Most importantly, the report concluded that the public sector funding would be necessary to fill the gap. The evidence of the need has already been provided. My question is tonight, what are we going to do with it? The city has already taken steps towards a long-term solution, and I recognize that work, but the solution is not operational today. Friends in crisis is. Council Member Bass, I recognize you for apologizing.

Would you adjust it to me, please?

All right.

Thank you.

Mayor Solomon, I recognize that Councilmember Bass apologized, but the city's own commission research tells us that homelessness among our military-connected population is more complicated than a choice. My question for every council member who does not support funding Friends in Crisis is why? Is our concern accountability? What requirement has Friends in Crisis not met? Is it performance? What standard has Friends in Crisis not met? If it is amount requested, what amount would you support? And if it's in the budget, why is maintaining emergency shelter until the city's long-term solution is operational not a priority? Because if Friends in Crisis ends in overnight shelters operation, the people who need those beds do not not disappear. I support they will still be here interacting with law enforcement. Hospitals, workforce programs, mental health services, and other systems throughout this city. I support funding friends in crisis, but I do not support returning to the same crisis every year. Killeen needs a sustainable strategy with accountability, measurable outcomes, and clear transitions to long-term systems the city has already planned. Until then, we need a bridge that exists today, what Killeen is building for tomorrow. So if Friends and Classes is not that bridge, I respectfully ask, Mayor, what is the plan for September 1? Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. Madam City Secretary.

Next speaker is John Smallwood.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. I'm here today to speak to you about the Armor of God ministry in Killeen. I speak to you as an outsider of this organization. Before April, if you had mentioned the Armor of God, I only would have known it in the passage of Ephesians 6. At that time, my son was bouncing between living out of his car and staying in low-end motels across Bell County. Then people associated with the armor of God came into his life. They gave him purpose, dignity, and a true second chance. For that, I'm deeply grateful to every member of their team. Recently in these council chambers, a desire was expressed for a place that does more than offer unhoused individuals a spot to rest and recharge for a single night, a facility that actively helps, supports, and guides people as they rebuild their lives. The armor of God is that place. Ever since my son became involved, I have witnessed lives transformed, I've seen hope restored to those who felt completely hopeless. I've seen love and mercy extended to those who needed it most, regardless of whether anyone else felt they deserved it. Our son tragically passed away following a car accident in late July. On that final day during our conversations with him, we saw the best version of himself we had seen in years. In that short time my son was part of the armor of God, we noticed a major pivot in life. Scripture speaks of putting on the armor of God, the belt of truth, the breastplate, the shield of faith, the helmet, and feet ready for peace. What the armor of God here in Killeen gave our son was no different. Through them he gained self-respect, dignity, mental clarity, and the inner strength needed to face daily stresses, temptations, and discouragements. He stopped worrying about surviving each day. The guilt and shame began to fade, and he started to see a clear path forward. One focused on helping not just himself, but those around him. The armor of God offered him stability and security amid uncertainty. Most importantly, it replaced the temptation of addiction and despair with a stronger, higher direction in life. Whatever decision you make today or in the future, please know this, the armor of God makes a genuine difference in the lives of everyone it touches. I know this firsthand because it made a profound difference in me too. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir, and our condolences, sir.

Next speaker, John Hahn.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Yes, ma'am. I wish I didn't have to go after that, but... About a year and a half ago, under the year initiative, I came to pray over this council. I was a recent addition to Encounter City Church as the outreach pastor. And I prayed over this council that day, and then I sat back there and watched the council meeting for the first time in many years. And it was brought up about our homeless situation in Central Texas, in Killeen, Texas, where Through that process, I remember very clearly that Ms. Nash King, which was mayor then, and Ramon were asking for solutions. Why are we here every year? We want solutions. Well, through that, I started looking for solutions. I immediately looked for buildings. I took Sergeant Moore, Ms. McNair, a couple council people, and Mr. Cagle to look at Skyline Baptist Church. I was so excited about this church that it could be this wonderful outreach. It could be this wonderful thing. We didn't get the building. A little let down. It wouldn't have worked for zoning anyway. Then we're blessed with 61 North Gilmer Street. Want to turn that into a shelter. Go have a meeting with Ms. Meschner. And it just doesn't work for the clean uses. It's B5, all the bureautic stuff. It's not going to work. So we shift to a day shelter. Mr. Moore, Sergeant Moore is always asking for a... West Bell County Feed My Sheep. So I go start talking to Feed My Sheep. I start talking to people about what they do and things like that. So we're trying to bring a West Bell County Feed My Sheep because they do it right. They're here today. They're here to support us today because of the relationships that we're starting to try to build. We're so thankful to get to do this. We're so thankful to give you an option. We're so thankful to get you to consider us. But we haven't asked for anything. I've not asked you for a dollar. Haven't went to anybody up there and asked for a dollar. Y'all earmarked $200,000 the other day, which I appreciate. I appreciate the trust. But I didn't ask you for it. Would it help? Would it make things faster? Would it make things grow faster? Yes. Who would not want that? But I didn't ask. I'm not coming here asking for a dollar. I'm asking if you want a new path forward, if you want to open a new shelter and try something different that we haven't done for the last 10 years, I'm willing. I'm here. But it's going to take partnerships with the city of Killeen. It's going to take partnerships with our community partners. It's going to take partners with our friends in the East Bell County. It's going to take partnership with my buddy in Copper's Cove. Can I have a minute, please? Yes, you can. So thanks for the consideration. On the last page of what we are and who we are as Armor of God, There's a why in the road, and as I prayed around this place this morning, as I prayed, we're at a why in the road. We can still do the same thing over and over again, or we can make a change and work together to come together as the community that came together last night, as the community that came together on May 7th. We can work together to fix this thing, or we can keep doing the same thing over and over again. Thank you for your listening. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you for thinking of me. I appreciate you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for what you do.

Next speaker is Brian Hawkins.

Good evening, Mayor, Council, City Manager.

Good evening, sir.

My name is Brian Hawkins. I'm the executive director of the Cope House. I've held that position for the last 12 years, and I spent that time building an extremely successful faith-based, milestone-guided, long-term program that helps people move from homelessness to home ownership or permanent housing. Five years ago, I started to answer the call from this council for a long-term program. Ken Cates and I stood at this podium and presented to you the Homeless to House program, which included a property on Atkinson Street, tiny homes there in conjunction with working with the existing shelter at that time. And we have spent the last, I've spent the last five years trying to figure out how we can help you accomplish your goal. I spent the last six months working with JT, John Hahn. I believe that he has more desire to help the people in your community than most people that you will meet. But heart only takes you so far. At some point, you have to have operational understanding. You have to have programming understanding. You have to have some of these things, which is why I believe he started talking with me. We started talking with Jeff from Feed My Sheep. We're trying to build you a comprehensive, long-term program that is going to start to eliminate your homeless process or your homeless problem. We have a motto that we say we are not a crash pad, we're a launch pad. And I think the time for providing a place that you stay homeless in and you just get really good at managing your homelessness, I think it's over for y'all. I think you want to see something that is going beyond managing homelessness and moving people into permanent housing. And if that's the case, I think you have an opportunity to do that. And I think you have a group of people that are willing to destroy their own silos for the purposes of coming together to do that. I know that I am, and I've been trying to do it for the last five years. And I'm still trying to do it. I stand here tonight because my desire to help you and to help Bell County in general and to help all of the people who night after night go to bed with homelessness and hopelessness, many of them, will have the opportunity to see a light at the end of the tunnel. But it is not an easy task, and it does not come by accident. It comes by dedicated programming. It comes by discipline. It comes by milestones. It comes by accountability. It comes by holding people's feet to the fire to do better for themselves so that we are literally giving them a hand up and not a handout. I know that's a cliche everybody's heard for years, but it is 100% the truth. I've watched it happen over and over again. I've watched people fail and have to leave our program and come back and succeed. May I have one more minute?

Yes, you may.

Okay. I've watched them leave our program over a rule violation and come back when they have their second opportunity and get their head on straight and do something different and do something better. We've watched people leave our program and move into permanent housing. We've watched them find successful careers. We've watched three of them start their own successful businesses and now contribute to the Cove House financially so that we can help the next person that was in the shoes they were in two or three years ago. That's the mindset, that's the heart, that's the program, and that's the knowledge that I hope you'll let us bring to what you're doing and give this group an opportunity. I truly believe that you are at a crossroads. JT called it a Y. I call it a crossroads. You can call it whatever you want to. You have to make a decision. If you want to continue to do what you've been doing because your back's against the wall tonight, or you're going to have the courage to make a decision that is going to change the future of Killeen for the future and make a dedicated and purposeful decision to do that. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for what you do. Madam City Secretary.

Next speaker is Jamie Carroll.

Good evening, ma'am.

Good evening.

So as I sit here, I'm getting a little more concerned about all this, because what I'm kind of hearing from everybody almost sounds like it's been pre-decided by everybody in this whole town that we're going to cut a group out that serves a very vital role. We can't just go from not having any overnight shelters to these long-term programs that magically solve everything. Awesome. I want them here. I want the faith-based groups, but it kind of sounds like we're running over a group that has Has it established might not be perfect, but it is filling a very vital role and when I think about The requirements necessary for long term working with people that are homeless, drug addicted, whatever, social workers, vitally important. How many of these people are either staffing social workers, have a social work background, or anything like that? And here's why it's so important. Even our police department is kind of lost. I had to call for a welfare check on a homeless individual the other day. And they didn't think I knew what I was talking about. I was witnessing a man in the throes of psychosis write a manifesto in 103 degree weather. And they asked if I knew what I was talking about. I said, when's the last time you saw a gentleman out here writing a manifesto in 103 degree heat? and that's okay, they're okay. That's not the kind of person that is ready to make a long-term commitment or follow strict rules and guidances for long-term placements and transition into buying a home, starting a business. That is a long road up. When I worked for DFPS, I started and I ended that job with still having never gotten some of my clients signed up with a social worker for federal or state benefits because it can be that long. So when we talk about transition, it's not six months. Some of these are going to take years. And so when we're like, oh, they're not following the rules. Oh, they're not behaving. Oh, you know, kick them out. Oh, they can come back if they're going to behave. Some of these people don't know what time it is, what day it is. Maybe they don't know their name because they're in the throw of a psychotic episode. It's just not something that just, oh, boom, magic. If these groups are so good... Why are they, it sounds like they're here asking for money. If they really want to come together, why are they throwing friends in crisis under the bus? Why aren't they stepping up and helping them? Why aren't they offering them counseling on, hey, let's stir up this budget. Let's get this a little bit more clear. Let's get some more clarity for you guys. Why is it we're better than them and give it to us? If you really want to work together, and we're saying it's a faith-based solution, why aren't they working with Friends in Crisis? Because they're willing to let people just get tossed out on the street come September 1st, because none of them are ready to house these guys overnight. That's not okay. And really, this is over $300,000? Time is up.

All right, thank you. You can ask for another minute, ma'am. No, I'm good. You're good. Okay, thank you. City Secretary?

Next speaker is Larry Garner.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening, Mayor, council members. Thank you for what you do. I appreciate that. For the last 30 years, I've worked with the poor and the homeless here in Texas. And I moved to Killeen about 27 months ago. And then I started a ministry, Feeding God's Sheep, a 501c3. And what I do is help the homeless get involved in churches, share the gospel, get them clothes, get them food, try to help them get off the street, get jobs, do counseling. And so I've had an extensive background working with the homeless and working with the poor the last 30 years. No one in my organization is on salary, gets a penny, it's all through donations from the general public. I came to know J.T. Hahn this last year through another friend and found out we had very similar ministries. We do a lot of the same things except he's on a lot bigger scale than I am. JT has a tender heart. I have met few people in my life that have such a tender heart for the poor and the homeless. I have met few people in my life. Well, I can't think of anyone that's been more blessed by God than JT has. He's one of these guys, if someone calls him at 2 in the morning needing help and he can't get there, he'll call me and I'll help him if he can't. But I know he will. His ministries, I've become a part of that also. On Armor of God, I'm going to be doing counseling down there, Bible studies, also bringing in food and clothing and just a whole variety of services. Doing the same thing if he goes through with his plan for an overnight shelter. I can think of no one that has greater vision than JT has, a greater heart, greater intelligence that knows so many people that are willing to step up and help him. Many of the nonprofits here in Killeen have come alongside JT to help him because they've seen what he can do. I would strongly encourage the council to support his vision. I certainly do. I've encouraged many others to do the same. I would like to leave you with one Bible verse. Proverbs, I'm a pastor, what can I say? Proverbs 19, 17. Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord and God will repay you. Only verse in the entire Bible you can give God a loan. And God will pay you back for that. So thank you for what you do. Thank you for your heart. I pray for you all the time. And God will give you wisdom. A couple more minutes.

Yes, you may.

I pray that God will give each and every one of you wisdom. I know you have tender hearts. I've watched your facial expressions as people have come up and talked and seen the smile and see the nods. And so even though I don't personally know you guys, I'm a pretty good judge of character. So thank you for what you do. Thank you for letting me speak. God bless you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you for what you do, sir.

Next speaker is Andrew Price.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. In my opinion, I urge the council at this time, based upon the emergency situation, to not fund Friends in Crisis. They must have other means in order to stem the gap to keep it open, to keep the shelter on Sprott Street open. If you fund it, they'll keep coming back. It'll get larger. Their requests will get larger. And in my opinion, we will have a larger homeless problem in this city. I was from a farm family in southwest Washington near Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon now, you look down I-84 and you see tent after tent after tent. And it's more of a lifestyle over there to be homeless, to take handouts and not take a hand up. And in my opinion, yeah, everybody's got problems. I've had problems, almost ruined my army career twice, once for bankruptcy and once for alcoholism. But I had a captain poke me in the chest and say, you better fix yourself or I'm going to throw you out, period. And thank God that he did that. I'm sorry, in the end, I feel it's a personal responsibility. You got to better yourself. So let me tell you my story. My mother was a great woman. In the 70s, my mother and father had a dairy business in Southwest Washington. But the economy, the inflation in the late 70s, and a bad marriage, and an even worse divorce led to ruin. My mom kept the farm and us five kids. But my father changed the divorce decree, and now the banks were foreclosing. My father was asking, demanding money, and he had a court order. She was out of options. And we got degraded, which means as a dairy business, you cannot produce milk until you fix the situation. And in the state of Washington, they are brutal. She was completely out of options. She went to the county homeless shelter or saw a social worker. And they said, you're a farmer. You can't come here. You have land. It's all taken by the bank. All I have is my pickup truck. Well, sell your pickup truck and move to the homeless shelter. She knew what that would mean. My father would get us kids or have a really good chance of getting them. And so she fought. She almost shot a banker who was trying to take the cows.

So your time is up.

May I have another minute?

Yes, you may.

Thank you. And she fought. And eventually it got better. She got protection. But the point that I'm trying to make is if it wasn't for her, instead of taking the easy route, take the hard route, I would not be standing here today. My father would have probably killed me because he suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. There are ways besides the city funding this shelter for it to stay open or for the people that need the services to get better. But in the end, it's up to them. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, sir. City Secretary.

Next speaker is Rader Sonnier.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. I think it was two weeks ago I was standing here and I was talking about the very same thing. I'll jump right into it. If this was to be voted as a no, this would bring a catastrophic event. Now, We're back here because of this. I will be firm, but I will not raise my voice. Look around. This is the catastrophic event that has happened whenever no was in the majority, to shut down Friends in Crisis. Friends in Crisis is vital because now they are no longer taking women with children. They are no longer taking specific veterans. There was a comment that was said, and I will direct everything to you as you've asked.

Thank you, sir.

It doesn't matter if you apologize. While it is accepted, the pen here is not mightier than a sword, and the actions speak very much louder than words. I can tell you from asking people At Friends in Crisis, the veterans specifically, would they speak to someone here about the lifestyle that they have? Every one of them responded with no. It's not because they don't have respect, but it's because even if you say sorry, the comment was still made. It's, I need to point out, it's not a lifestyle. We did not choose this. If a veteran is out here on homelessness because of their life the way it played out, they did not choose this. I did not choose this. And I said it last time, we can't demand that something happen or we can't demand that people step up if we do not meet them halfway. And again, look what has happened because of this. Friends in Crisis is closing down and throwing people to the street with almost no explanation. How do you go from saying you want to meet with people On the street that are veterans, how do you say that you want to meet with them when you talked about that's the lifestyle that they chose? Again, we did not choose this. Whenever I say that something happens, I'm not one to say that I know everything, but I knew this was going to happen. And Armor of God has also been a very inspirational point for me, along with Friends in Crisis. Do these things have issues? Can they be corrected? Yes, absolutely. But that means that other people have to step up and help make the change for this. Because if we don't help them step up, we can't meet them halfway. I'd like to request another minute.

Yes, you may.

What I'd like to say is we've all tried our very best to say yes, Friends in Crisis needs to stay open. The thing about it is that people are struggling already enough on their own. We've had the elderly who are being told to leave and come back at a specific time, who are going through heat strokes and having to be sent to hospitals. Mr. JT, along with Armor of God, and along with Friends in Crisis, have done more for me here in the past week than anyone else has. And I, please forgive, I mean no disrespect when I say this, but The council has some nerve to ask to meet with the veterans, the same people that they just scrutinized and marginalized. One of the people here, they were here last week and they were told to leave. While I don't share the same verbal passion as he does, I share the same logic. There was no right for that to be said. Along with that, again, just because you apologize, you have to now earn the respect of the people that you just marginalized. Your time is up, sir.

Sir? Your time is up. Thank you so much.

Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. Madam City Secretary.

Next speaker is Dr. Sue Nisi Croft.

Good evening, ma'am.

Good evening, Mayor, Council Members, and the City Manager Cagle. Today this Council is deciding whether to grant a $60,000 cash bailout to families in crisis to finish out the remaining days of a 10-year agreement. But let's look at the actual timeline and the lack of transparency surrounding this request. Our taxpayers backed a note worth over $700,000 and $60,000 under the absolute condition that this facility operate as a functional homeless shelter. Yet the city signed over the formal deed of ownership early on July 1st, 2026. This council handed over a massive municipal asset before the operational service window was actually closed October the 1st, 2026. And what did families in crisis do the moment they secured that deed? They did not even wait until their service. contract ended. They announced they are locking the doors on September 1st, which is next week, claiming they don't have the discretionary funds to survive the next 30 days. They used the Killeen's taxpayers to secure a free and clear building, and now they are holding a September 1st cliff over our heads to extract a $60,000 ransom. To make matters worse, they expect this cash injection while completely refusing to show this council where the money is going. When asked for basic verifiable data on nightly occupancy figures, the paperwork vanishes. When asked how much it costs to run his services, the director doesn't know. But he knows he wants $60,000 of our money. Council members have rightly raised alarms that this money could be going to line executive salaries up to $100,000 instead of keeping the lights on for our vulnerable citizens. This is a broken performance agreement, and Colleen is getting stepped on. Fortunately, this council has already shown a better path forward by earmarking $200,000 to the Armor of God research on Gilmore Street. I encourage this council to take three immediate steps. Deny the $60,000 request completely. completely, do not reward the organization that took our building and cut off our clients early and refuse to provide transparent data. Direct the city attorney to review the July 1st deed transfer for conditional use violation. If that deed was May I have an additional minute? Sure. Yes, you may. If that deed was processed under the contract that the service would remain whole through October the 1st, they are in structural breach. Note city council minutes when requested documentation of receipts of acceptance. Redirect our focus and our resources to support the armor of God. Transition so we can build a sustainable, transparent, 24-7 overnight release center with a partner we can trust. Hold the contractor accountable. If he does not hold our homeless, our most vulnerable homeless citizens, he is in breach of his contract. The contract was supposed to end October the 1st. Not when he received his money. There were two. One, 120 days at $6,000 a month. for 120 months. The other one began that physical year for 120 months ending October the 1st, 2026. The 494 thanks you.

Thank you. Madam City Secretary.

Next speaker is Graham Lacaze.

Good evening, sir.

Thank you for having me, Mr. Mayor and city council members. I thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to speak with you. I'm not originally from here. I was planted here by God. I'm an Army veteran. I love my country. Three years ago, I was homeless, suffering with mental illness caused from a traumatic brain injury that I suffered while I was in Germany. Excuse me just a second.

It's okay.

So I was living in a tent in Houston. I was suffering with addiction, PTSD, a lot of mental conditions. I never would go to get no help until finally I finally got some help. I agreed to go to the domicilian temple. From that moment right there, my life has turned around. I believe God has blessed me with this, and so I started accepting the help that was out there for me. And so this is my path. The domiciliary, when I got through the domiciliary, I went through, and it explained so much to me about the mental conditions that I've been suffering with. I still suffer today, but now what I'm doing today is keeping me active in the community. It's really helping me walk through this, and it's keeping me connected with you. So when I left the domiciliary, the Salvation Army, I went to the veteran side right there. Okay, so this is the process I went through. Then from the Salvation Army, Families in Crisis got me an apartment right here in Killeen. And so I'm still living in the same apartment. Coming into Killeen, I've got connected with people in the community here. And by being connected with these people in the community and the people here, BITS, it started out with bringing everybody in the zone. Now I'm a facilitator with them. The mental health first aid training that they provided for me has kept me together. And I thank them so much because I wouldn't be where I'm at right now without the support. Now, I got connected with the armor of God. And I'm telling you something, it's amazing that I get to do this. I thank God that I get to do this. But I'm telling y'all something, I'm willing to work in this community. I volunteer all my time for this. This is what I do. I'm connected. I'm on the board with armor of God now. I've met you before at our cast night. I know some of the people in here. And I'm telling you, this is something that we have to do for the community. We recognize it's a community problem. The community can solve it by coming together. And we want to partner with everybody in here. We're not trying to push anybody out, and I'm not pointing fingers at anybody. I'm just telling you that it can be done if we just work through the process together. You know, it's amazing what I get to see every day, and it breaks my heart to see some of the people suffering the way they do on the streets. I've been part of Encounter City Church. We go Thursday to the Second Street Park and it's touched my heart. I'm now, believe it or not, I'm now going to school at CTC for LCDC for if I can help people with addictions and stuff like that, share some of the things that I've been through now with them, you know, so I don't get to go to the park on Thursdays anymore with my church and I love that. I've been doing that for the last year and it's let me meet the people on the streets and hear their needs and what they're suffering from and then be a a vessel through the armor of God to provide. May I have one more minute, please? Thank you. Yes, you may. Being connected with the armor of God and Encounter City Church, and I thank you all very much for meeting every one of you all, and I'm blessed by God that I get to do this. But when we can provide any kind of help to the people that are struggling and in need and crisis and things like that, I get such a blessing. And it's kept me together. I'm not saying I'm perfect. I'm by no means. But I'm willing to work with everybody in this community and partner with the different people from the different areas of the cities and stuff like that. I'm willing to go out and just volunteer my time completely. That's what I do now. This is what I do every single day. And I love it. You know what I mean? And I'm giving back because the community that I once ran from, now I'm a part of. I've been planted here. And I thank you all for everything that you're doing. and I just pray that you give the armor of God a chance to come see what we're doing. I invite everybody to see it in person because talking about it's one thing, but if you can see what we're doing, it's another thing. And when we partner with people like Sergeant Moore, that man's in the trenches. I mean, I'm telling you something, and it means something to me to see the people getting together like that and actually fulfilling the need. I love you all. Thank you very much, and God bless you.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. Thank you.

Next speaker is Cecil Brooks. Beg your pardon, Cecil Bowles.

Good evening, sir.

No problem. Good evening and welcome. I'd just like to start out by saying that I do not envy your position in this. I pray that God gives you wisdom and discernment to make the wise decisions. I'm a board member and vice president of Armor of God, and I'm also a pastor here in this area. I'm the outreach pastor at Manor Church, and it's my privilege to serve there. I'm an Army veteran. I'm an entire DoD civilian, and God placed me and my family in this community many, many years ago, and the church is our family. And so wonderful, about six months ago, a lady from my church said, you've got to meet this guy that's doing a lot for the homeless in the community. Because we have served the homeless for over 25 years through Fay Temple Church and now Manna Church here in Killeen. And we have served those in need, and we love people. We believe that we are called to love God, love one another, and love the world. And we take that as a mandate. That is what we are to do. And so this lady invites me to come to breakfast, and then I go in and go to meet this new guy that's doing stuff for the homeless. And I realize it's J.T. Hahn, and I've known him for about 30 years already. And I didn't know you were doing this, J.T., and he said, I didn't know you were a pastor. And so we talked, and God immediately brought our hearts together, and Man of Church has gotten on board and partnered with Armor of God to do what we are doing here in this community today. And not only Amanda Church, but many churches around Killeen, Central Texas are partnering. Many nonprofits are already partnering with us in what we are doing. And we are making a difference in this community already. You've heard countless people, and there could be many more. We could fill up this room with people who have already been touched by what we are doing. We're not here to talk down about anybody, what they have done. We appreciate all the things that have been done previously. but we do think it's time to do something different. And we do not believe it's your responsibility, city council, the homelessness and the people to take care of that. We believe it's the church's responsibility. And so that's why we want to partner the churches and the organizations in this area together. It's not about armor of God, but it is about God's people coming together and doing what he's called us to do. In Psalm 119, verse 59, it says, I considered my ways and I turned my feet into your path. And so I hope that we'd all do that. We would consider our ways and our thoughts and our decisions and the effect that they have, and we would turn our feet into his path. And we would ask him, most of you are believers. I've heard at different times some of your testimonies. I hope that you would pray through this, and God will lead you in what it is to do in this. And God is indeed leading, armor of God. And we are doing our best. We believe God is leading us to help eradicate homelessness in this area. It does not have to be this way. if 10% of our churches would come together in this community, and it not be about them or about their building or about their brand, but it would be about serving God's people, we could change this community. Thank you very much for listening to me. I appreciate it. Y'all have a good evening. Again, we'll be praying for you. Thank you so much.

No, thank you, sir. Thank you so much for your comments.

Next speaker is Michael Boyd.

Good evening, sir.

Good evening. Thank you for having me. And I want to say I appreciate all the testimonies that have been given from those coming to speak on this issue. I don't come to be critical of the council or hostile, but come of an understanding posture. I sat in your position for four years, and I get it. I do believe each of you do care. At the end of the day, people don't really know, but council members have probably just a little bit more information than everyone else has to make that 30,000-foot view decision. So rest assured that they're going to be making a decision on behalf of the city. That's what I believe. That was the position I took. But I'm here because I serve on the advisory board for Salvation Army of Bell County. And we have been working to work to reestablish services here on this side of the county since it's gone dark over the years, understanding the need. To get to the point, I watched the council meeting, the previous one, and I watched Mr. Hahn at the end make the passionate plea to the council members to get involved however you could. And I sat there and said, man, this guy is speaking with a lot of passion. Well, the next meeting, we just so happened to have an advisory meeting, and he was invited to be in the meeting. And I walked in, and he was sitting there. And I intentionally sat down to listen to his story and his testimony to kind of understand his passion. And I tell you what, I was very much impressed. This is someone who's used personal resources. This is someone who has a heart for this community. This is someone who wants to see the community work together, not caring about the brand and who's the front, who's the face, but making sure that we can move in a direction that's effective. And so I'm here to advocate for the council to consider a new direction. to put funds towards the Armor of God Ministry to push this homeless issue in a position of being solved over time. One thing I do want to harp on is that there are a lot of these organizations that are trying and determined to work together. When you're off council, you get to really understand and see that there's passion behind our constituents besides just coming here every day, all day. And they're working to put those silos aside so that we can address the homeless issue. But at the end of the day, again, you guys have that decision to make. I trust you'll make the best decision. And the final thing I want to say with the time I've got is I'm sorry that you're being – trolled or mocked for painting the overpasses. At the end of the day, the council knows how to chew gum and walk at the same time. The newspaper doesn't do that too well. But thank you for your service, and we appreciate you.

Thank you, sir. Madam City Secretary.

Last speaker is Anka Negu.

Good evening, ma'am.

Thank you. I'd like to say that Colleen Daly-Harold, in fact, does a good job most of the time. Sometimes they make mistakes, so please don't talk trash about them, especially in public. Addressing homelessness is a lot more than just providing housing. There's mental health assistance programs that are necessary, assistance with addictions. More often than not, homeless people have both mental health problems and addictions. When I heard Councilman Bass's comments, I'm not here to say right or wrong. I'm just talking from my own experience. I thought immediately of Steve and Ember, Steve Cox, the homeless veteran who lived under a bridge with his dog, Ember. Of course, his dog was euthanized by the Shelter when he had a heatstroke I offered him a cabin to stay at my property and I found out that in the past before I knew about him Steve I'm sorry Kyle Moore found him a place to live and Steve stayed there for a while and then he chose to leave Let me say this again homeless veteran had a home a place to live in and he chose to leave and and be in the street. So when Councilman Bass said what he did, that's the first thing I thought. Yeah, I'm not judging Steve. He's a good person with mental health issues and with addictions. Hard worker, great, but he needs mental health help and addictions. And in fact, there are two KPD officers who stayed at my Airbnb when Steve was there. And it turned out that there were some of the officers who arrested him when he was out in the street drunk. He was extremely grateful for them, to see them. It's obvious how much he loved those officers. and they were very happy to see him getting a second chance. Unfortunately, Steve again messed up his situation. He had a place to stay. I found him a job. He was making money, and he messed it up. He later admitted to me that with the money he bought some drugs, and it just messed up his mind, and he ended up in jail for good reason, and I can only do so much. But the bottom line is, They are good people. They need support. And if you can support them any way you can, I encourage it. Again, housing itself is not enough. They need mental assistance, mental health assistance and addiction assistance. Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am. I just want to say I don't believe the. It was mentioned about Colleen Daly-Hurl. It was mentioned about media, but not the name. I just want to make that statement there. Madam City Secretary?

We have no one else signed up to speak, Your Honor.

Could you call that name again, ma'am? There's nobody. There's nobody.

There's no one left.

Yes, sir. Okay. There's nobody. All right. Okay. So we'll move on. There's nobody else. I want to say before we move on, I'm going to ask the council, would you have any comments? I want to say before we... I see you, Council Member Nash-King. I just want to say, you know... Obviously, you care. You care. You care. You're here tonight. And I just want to say that we care as well. I heard some comments towards, and it's okay. I can take comments. I'm going to let you know that we do care. What I do besides mayor is help take care of the homeless, help take care of those that are in need. Right here in the Killeen, I see... organizations that are out there. That's why we had the faith-based organization night last night. Over 240 people attended that meeting because we care enough, myself and this council, care enough to try to find solutions for our residents. We live here as well. we do care we care about the homeless we care about the unhoused that is dear to my heart i just want you to know that um i work with besides what i do with mayor anytime the city calls me the homeless outreach called me calls the christian house of prayer we are there i'm not bragging i just want to let you know that this council cares We really care. Let's just get that, you know, sometimes if you don't know and you just see from what you hear, you can paint a picture. But at the end of the day, we are here. This council is here. The staff is here. Because we really, really care about this city. And yes, we have situations. We just got to learn how to navigate. We have to find out, yes, we don't have all the answers to every problem. We just have to try to figure it out, what we can do next. So thank you for being patient with us. Thank you for... Bring in your comments. We want to hear the comments because we want to do better as well. We are not perfect, but we want to do better. So thank you for being here tonight. It was so important to voice your opinion. And thank you for being nice that you didn't clap a lot as well. Thank you. So with that said, Council Member Nashkeem.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Council, when I requested us to have this special meeting to look for funding for France in crisis, I thought they would still be open, but they decided to close. So to me, tonight is really about where do we go to meet the needs of individuals that they have until September 1st, and they have to have a place to stay. It's more than having services in the daytime, but you got to have a place for someone to stay at night. That's one thing. The second thing is our budget. We earmarked money for $200,000 for Arm of God, and I think everyone that came up and had the opportunity to speak, it was very emotional to me because I've been there, done it. That couldn't have been two minutes. That's impossible.

We're right now in response to citizen comments.

Can I have one minute? Just one minute.

Because we responded to citizen comments.

And what I just want to say, with that being said, before we go into a lot of detail, can we get the presentation from staff?

Yes, we're going to move to that. I just wanted to, if you had any response to the comments.

Yes, sir. It's just a budget, and we need something for transition and also for somewhere for our unsheltered population to sleep.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Kendricks.

What I want to say, everybody talked some good things about working together. I know FIC has said they was going to close at the end of the month. But I mentioned something to JT, and I think it's a viable option. But we have to be willing to see who's able to, or we said put the egos to the side, like kinda how we used to do it as football coaches. I think with what JC and his supporting cast has said, they are willing to step in. How about this? Let's work together. If you're getting ready to close Families in Crisis, how about you let these volunteers come in and right now work with you at that shelter to having an overlap until the next program, as we say, may come on board when we're looking for change. How about we try doing that? I think that is a viable solution

right now to where no one is out on the streets just think about that i see a lot of head nodding i think that is a viable solution thank you council member again council we are just responding to the comments and then we're going to get into discussion items uh council member uh kimball

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you to everyone that had comments this evening. And I did not get the name of the speaker. But in reference to, I heard a quote saying that we are going to shut down friends in crisis. I would say to that speaker and to the audience, we are not shutting down friends in crisis. What we're doing is that some business decisions were being made that we found out about last week, and now we have to come up with a solution. So don't think that we didn't give money and then, in fact, they have to shut down. Our decisions were based, at least mine were, on the information that was presented. I look forward to some spirited discussion to how we can close the gap, but we didn't decide not to give money and then thus close. forensic crisis closed, we received some information and subsequent information that they're going to close no matter what. And now here we are trying to figure that out. I just want to clear that up for the audience. Mr. Mayor, thank you.

Council Member Brown.

I heard multiple times speakers comment about the care and concern from the council and how important it is to take care of our unhoused. I just want to assure everybody that we all recognize that need, which is why we are here today. Today is not a regular meeting. Specifically, we all agreed unanimously that today was a day we were going to come in to address this and nothing else. because it is that important to us. So I want to make sure everybody understands that we are not taking any of this lightly, nor have we since the budget was presented and the request was made back in June. I think that It's very easy to try to say we have solutions, but the solutions are much more complicated than anybody can imagine. We have a lot of people. I know personally, I thank FIC for 10 years of service to our community. They've gone a different direction, and now it's time for us to move on. I think I might have a plan that we can talk about after the presentation, but we do understand how important this is, and we thank you for coming out tonight.

Council Member Williams.

I'm so thankful for everyone's comments. Everybody came up. I heard your heart, and I thank you for coming on tonight. We all feel the same way, even the council members, not just you guys, but we all feel the same way about our own house, and I'm so grateful for the unity, but I feel the same way as one of the council members who feel as well that we all can unify. We can talk that great about unity and how can we come together and everybody coming together. Why can't we all come together and support each other? Isn't that what it's all about? Why we all got to be the number one star In the game, right? Why we all got to make the touchdown? Why we all want to do? Why can't we unify and come together? My heart is coming. Now, last week we did. We heard totally different from last week that they were closing. And this week we're hearing totally different. So please know that the same compassion that you all want us to give to you, please return it back to us because we feel the same compassion. Thank you.

May I approach him?

Thank you. One of the constituents asked a question about how we got here. And there's a long list. I'm sure it will be covered in our presentation. So hopefully you'll be here for that. But I just want to let people know that how we got here was for a couple of years, the council has been asking for clear and concise information so that we can be good stewards of our tax dollars and good stewards to the people that we know that we need to serve. So we're coming. I cannot speak for the council. I'm coming from that place. My decision was not a no. It was let's figure out how we can make this work to make sure we're being efficient with the dollars and that the people are being served. There was a failure to provide a transition plan. My hope is that today we can come together as a collective after hearing what our staff has to say as a council and work with our community partners to find a transition plan now that we're here. Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem. All right. We'll move on to discussion items. Madam City Secretary.

Discussion items. Number 1, DS-26-077, discuss and consider potential funding for homeless services for the remainder of fiscal year 2026 and for fiscal year 2027. Okay.

Good evening, Mr. Cagle.

Yes, sir, mayor and council. We prepared a report for you tonight. We did it with city staff. And we did work with friends in crisis, let them look at the presentation to make sure we were getting everything correct and we weren't going to have any disagreement in here tonight. I think over the past few weeks, a whole lot has been said, a lot of finger pointing, a lot of people wanting to make one side or the other the villain. And I don't think there's a villain there. The one thing I do know is there's a tremendous amount of misinformation. And so what we're going to try to do tonight is clear that up. At the end, we did provide some options with Friends in Crisis. There may be other options, but our main objective tonight is to try to get everybody on the same page factually, how we got here, where we've been, going back a number of years. And so Ms. McNair has done a great job putting that together, and we'll hear that, and then we'll do our best to answer any questions you may have.

Good evening, ma'am.

Ms. McNair. Good evening. How are you? So I will be referring to Families in Crisis, which is the parent company or organization, as FIC throughout this presentation. When I am speaking on the Friends in Crisis shelter, I will be using the term friends. So we can differentiate between the two. So FIC houses, supports, and empowers people experiencing family violence, sexual violence, and homelessness. Established in 1980, the organization began offering sheltering services to battered women and children in 1981. In 2013, the city of Killeen initiated contact with FIC to discuss a funding opportunity to expand its programming to include a homeless shelter, which is the Friends in Crisis Shelter, also known as Friends. FIC added homeless sheltering to its organizational mission and submitted updated articles of incorporation to the state. So the initiative with the Friends building, 412 East Sprott, FIC actually has owned that building since 1998. They rented it for 12 years to a church to provide them a space for services. The city invested the following into the renovation, $250,000 in general fund and $510,000 in block grant. Other sources, including FIC, taking out a loan itself and donations from places like Meadows Foundation, Colleen Reutery, Lions Club, and others. The total renovation was over a million dollars. This table shows the funding that the City of Colleen has provided to FIC since 2017. And as you can see, we have one award from our general fund, the rest coming from block grant. The other column represents the ARPA, the one-time award that the city received back during the pandemic. Since 2017, the city has provided $346,000 in local dollars and $523,000 in federal support for a total of $870,000. Uses of city funds, since I have been with the city and I'm sure Previously, it should have been this way, especially when it came to federal funds, since that's what the city mostly funded. Friends in Crisis submits documents and requests reimbursements for their money, and the uses of the funding is as follows. Salary and wages and benefits for shelter employees, utilities, food, repair, maintenance, and based on the 2025 award, friends spend approximately 85% of the funds on salary, wages, payroll taxes, and employee benefits. Hourly rates started at $20 an hour. One individual, the shelter manager, made $39 an hour. So this table shows all of the funding that FIC for their Friends program have received. As you can see, most of the sourcing is federal money. Emergency solution grants, that's the first row through HUD. Temporary emergency relief funds through FEMA. Contract beds with the VA. City CDBG, City ARPA, General Fund, Bell County donations. And each year is totaled at the bottom. So funding that FIC requested for the Friends Program is listed here, and it shows that they requested approximately $808,000, and they have been awarded, to date, $155,000. The VA money, that $130,000, is specifically for contract beds for veterans. The CDBG is partial salary for a caseworker. Since January 2026, FIC, the main organization, has been monitored and audited by the following. City of Killeen, Criminal Justice Division, Victims of Crime Act, and that was in July. The Office of the Attorney General, and that was for all of the OAG grants. Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Petillo, Brown and Hill. HUD Housing Counseling Agency completed recertification for 2026-2028. And I do believe that Friends in Crisis is the only HUD-certified housing counseling agency that Colleen has. And they also received their CARF, or Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, in August. And that's a three-year accreditation, their highest designation. And they've received it every three years since 2014. So here are their numbers served. It's easy to see that they had a reduction from 22 to 23, but then this went up pretty significantly in 24 and 25. 26 numbers won't be available until after the year concludes. So how did FIC sustain the France program without the city? Early in the program, the organization had more reserves available. Other federal and state grants were available. France was the recipient of an estate grant in 2020 for $39,000, received an anonymous donation in 2020 also for $20,000. It lost one of its annual fundraisers due to COVID-19 and the passing of the facilitator. And with the availability of ARPA funds, more people were able to obtain housing, which meant less reliance on shelter and or shorter stays. So what happened? Decreases in federal funding and the absence of ARPA greatly reduced federal grant opportunities. Increase in the need for sheltering and or need for extended sheltering. Increase in the costs for goods and services, including utilities. And then in March 2026, the FIC board voted to reduce operations if an award from the city was not successful. So here's a timeline of events from June 2nd, which is when the council received presentations from community partners, through August. So June 2nd, FIC came to request $350,000, which at that time was going to be funding money for the Friends Program. Staff met with FIC to discuss the next steps. absent a city award, including a plan for a wind down of the friends program. Again, on July six staff met with FIC and armor of God to consider partnering opportunities. Um, August 18th is when the city first learned that FIC would close on September 1st due to an expedited wind down and housing of willing participate participants. On August 19th, the city was informed by FIC that the friends program was ending and no funding would change the course of action. Then on August 25th, which I may have my date wrong because today is the 25th, that was yesterday, August 24th, excuse me, city staff met with FIC leadership to obtain more information regarding the closure, future services, and possibility of continuing the Friends Program. So what will FIC offer? FIC will still provide sheltering to victims of domestic violence and sexual violence. Veterans will continue to be provided shelter funded through a separate contract with the VA. And I should note that that should be eligible veterans because even with that grant, there are stipulations of the type of veterans and who they can support. FIC will continue to provide housing services and placement for eligible persons based on the funding source. And the SPROT site will be repurposed for housing and homelessness services for any eligible person and sheltering for eligible veterans. So housing assistance provided by FIC, FIC in 2025 provided housing assistance to 673 persons in 280 households, low-income family violence survivors and their children, low-income veterans and their families, 421 persons, 175 households, shelter unhoused, 51 persons from the Friends Program, unsheltered and homelessness prevention. Assistance total $2.1 million in rents paid to local landlords. FIC worked with 134 landlords in 2026 so far. What would FIC need to keep Friends? FIC leadership explained to staff that without full budget funding and a multi-year agreement, a minimum of two years, the Friends program will continue to face looming closure. Further, it was expressed that a forward commitment of funding will offer continuity in services and stability for guests. A full budget multi-year commitment will also support delivery of services through employee retention. So the city options are not limited to what we see on this slide. There was some really thought provoking commentary that I'm sure you all will consider, but here's what we have. to present to you tonight. Number one, fund the Friends Program short-term at $29,000 a month, and that is through their fiscal year. That will be September 1 through December 31 of this year. Partial funding will support operations until the FIC fiscal year. Until the end of the FIC fiscal year, delaying closure until after the holidays. Fund Friends program at $29,000 a month for two years, serving approximately 475 unduplicated persons per year. Fund full budget deficit with forward commitment through fiscal year 28. Or do not fund the Friends program at all. And then support another capable and ready community partner to operate a 24-hour, 7-day shelter. And that concludes this presentation.

Okay. Thank you, Ms. McNair. City Manager, did you? Okay. Thank you. Okay. Council, we'll open it up for comments. Council Member Nashke?

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Good evening, Mrs. McNair. Ms. McNair, good evening. My question, one of your slides, I think it stated that family in crisis, FIC, will not support friends unless the city of Killeen support. Or did I hear that wrong?

This slide, that in March 2026, FIC4 voted to reduce operations if an award from the city was not successful.

So this is my concern. Just, I guess last week they were closing, so the city met with them. So the people that's currently staying there, are they aware that Friends wants to stay open if we will fund them with our three options that we have one was what? 29,000 something from now until December which to me that makes sense because that's a transition until we have something put in place and And if we're going to invest in another homeless shelter, it has to be 24-7, seven days a week.

Yes.

It has to because that does not resolve our problem. It's not a problem, our concerns. I'm not taking friends in crisis over arm of God. I don't try to pin organizations together because I do believe God has a purpose for both of them. When they're seizing up, I don't know, but I think working together collectively for the good of the people. And I think that is where we're at. So if I had a recommendation, it would be, because there's some concerns from council, would be to ensure that by September 1st that we do have a place for our unsheltered population. And between September until December, we can work something out. either they stay there or the council make a decision to move forward because I can't really plan for what's going to happen. Can I have one more minute, please? Thank you. I can't plan for the future, but I know next week something has to happen in order to take care of our own shelter. And once I feel that they have a place to stay and they're taken care of, then we can move forward with a sustainable plan, bringing all the community organizations together that want to contribute, and let's work together. Thank you.

Council Member Brown.

I feel like I'm on a roller coaster right now, to be honest with everybody. I'm going to tell you that over the past week, I have talked to a lot of people. I have thought, I have prayed. There has been a lot of energy put into this. And as of 5 p.m. today, or 6.25 when the presentation started, this entire council was under the impression FIC was closing. No questions asked on September 1. What I would hate to do is continue to try to draw this out, and every month we go into the same situation. And I respect everything that FIC has done. Again, I personally thank them for 10 years of committed service. I know that this has been a very confusing couple of months for their administration as well as the citizens and the council. There's been a lot to consider. But with all that, we do have another option that is in the process. Will not be available until October. In theory, by October 1, or October 6, rather, the council will be making the consideration so that that can be open and functioning as a 24-hour facility, if I understand properly. So with that said, and because I only have a few seconds left, I'm going to make a motion based on my idea. I'd just appreciate a second for discussion at least. And that is to take $100,000, which would be the difference between what we set aside for Armor of God, what we had discussed spending for Friends in Crisis. And we allocate that money to the community engagement unit. allowing our homeless outreach team to utilize that starting September 1 and until those funds are expired or until Armor of God or another facility is open and operational for the purposes of emergency sheltering. So that would be my motion.

There's a motion on the floor. Is there a second? Okay, Council Member Bass second. Open for discussion. Council Member Williams.

For the armor of God, is it okay that we call him back up now? Could I call him up for the armor of God? Or do I just go ahead on? Could I speak to him in the honor of God?

You may. Yes. Ms. McNair, you can speak.

Yes.

Yes, how you doing there, JT?

Good, ma'am. How are you doing?

I'm doing well. I have a question to ask you. And I hear, and that's an elephant in the room. First, please establish to me, what's the difference between, again, a shelter, emergency shelter, and a transition center?

Well, a transition center, you're getting people where you can get them from unhoused into a home fairly fast. Emergency center, they're coming to you in crisis. They're coming to you needing something, and it takes time to get documentation. It takes time to get them back healthy enough to go into a transitional house. So you're really loving on them. for the first, in my opinion, 60 to 90 days, and then it could go into 180 days, because there's just a lot of trauma out there. There's a lot of things that happen. So in my experience, which is not near as much as other people in this room, all I do is like to love people. So it's just, we have to catch them where they're at. We have to see where they're at. We have to address what's the hindrance, and we have to remove the hindrance and move them into a stability and into a better place. And sometimes that's 30 days. Sometimes that's 180 days. But if you can't make a big change in 180 days, you're probably not fishing with the right bait.

And your zoning, I was reading in here that it was formerly operated as a B3 zone youth shelter, right? Yes, ma'am. And now you're requesting for it to be an R3A residential. So you haven't done the ordinance nor the zone changing?

I'm in the process of all of that. It was a shelter before. It was a youth services shelter. Because it's been sitting since 2021, they did a major overhaul in 2020 for this long-term lease with this youth services. They lost their grant funding. and they closed it down after they did this big renovation, and it's been sitting since then. I've already started the process of getting it rezoned, which it goes to PNZ on the 14th, and then we try to push it up. Hopefully we get the push up to October the 6th. It could go as far as October the 20th. So that's already been in motion. I've also had meetings with the city officials and the fire, not the chief, but the... whoever does the fire stuff, they've come and looked at the fire suppression system and they've come and looked at the overall condition of the building. There was some emergency lights that we fixed today. There's got a few other things that we're working on getting it to be able to pass a CFO whenever we get past the zoning. We did ask, we fought the zoning a little bit through some help from members of the council, but they said this is the best path forward is to get it rezoned into the R3A. Yes.

And then my last would be, you formally stated that you guys in doing the care, that you all would help train. You say you would employment, job training, financial literacy, rehabilitation, recovery, behavioral, health referral, transportation, family restoration, everything. This is what you guys are planning. I didn't hear from the slide of FIC that they were doing any of these things, which I would think that would be great for them, that would help them to be effective in society, is to train them up and give them jobs and things that you requested here in the paper.

Ma'am, you have a lot of big dreamers in here today. I've been to a lot of these, and this hasn't been that many people. There's a lot of big dreamers in there, and they want to bring their dreams to help our unhoused find housing. They want to bring opportunities to teach them to do jobs. You've seen on the comments, you've got tons of people that are non-profits that are like, why ain't you helping me? Why ain't you helping me? They're here. We're here. We saw that last night at Mayor's bringing everybody there. We saw them on May 7th at Vision Night. People are here to serve, but it's got to come in unity for that service. I sit with people and pray over this on a weekly basis, and we pray for jobs. We pray for ways to bring things here. This young lady right here, she can teach them to be CNAs. Like, there's hearts to do those things, but you have to come together to do it. You can't just talk about it. You've got to be about it. Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that.

Thank you, J.T.

Yes, ma'am.

Anybody else?

Good. Council Member Kendricks.

Good afternoon, JT. I mentioned this just a little earlier, and I don't like those I got you moments, but I'm going to ask you, if we had to cross over how I was explaining earlier until you could get your zoning and everything, would you be willing to try to work to make that happen?

Yes, 100%. I've got a plan. It takes time. It takes us sitting down and putting the plan forward. I've got a lot bigger plan than this right here. This isn't about an unhoused situation. This is about a unity situation. This is not about unhoused people right now. This is about bringing our city together. And I have a plan to help. I have a plan to go even past this. This is just a start. The start was the thrift store. This is just a jump in the last minute when we've known about it since June thing. Like we've been working behind the scenes since June, but we don't know which way to go, kind of like Ms. Brown feels. I feel the same way. It's like go, stop, go, stop. And there's not enough money in my pockets just to do that, and it's not my problem. It's our problem. And it's really not a problem, it's a gift to give back and to serve. If we look at it as a service and a gift, it's a lot different than having to do it or it's a problem. Because these people aren't problems, they're people. So we need everybody to come along and make it happen. And it kills me to ask for any help, but I can't do it alone. I'll be honest with you, after talking with my board today, they're like, JT, you're doing everything in faith. You're stepping out in so much faith to do this. You're putting the money out in faith that it's going to come back. You're putting your family's life in the faith that it's going to be provided for. And I don't know that, you know, why am I doing that? I don't even know. It's a calling that I've gotten. I really don't know. But I know that God's called me to do it. Now, whether we have the money to do it on October the 6th, I don't know. Because we're trying to get a thrift store that we've been building for a year, trying to get that so we can support this. But this is where we're at. I do have a plan. There's roughly 26 people that are unhoused right now that are in the shelter. They've been doing a great job of getting them into apartments. We've been going to each of these apartments over the last week and giving them furniture. Sergeant Moore delivered furniture yesterday for us. We are getting food, taking them to the food bank to get food so they have food in their apartments. But there are a lot of people in apartments over the last month and a half. And Friends in Crisis has done that, and they've done a great job doing that, so I applaud them. But where are we at now? We're at a crossroads. The crossroads is we keep doing what we've been doing or we suck it up for six months, suck it up for a month, whatever. Y'all decide whether we can fund it for a year, whether we can not fund it for a year. I don't even know what the whole number is at this point. I have a good idea, but I went under contract on this building. I'm going to buy this building whether you fund us or not, whether I open it up. In October 6th or 2027, I don't know because it just depends what we can raise money for and that's going to. That's going to depend on the city that's going to depend on our country that's going to depend on our County that's going to depend on our citizens. That's going to depend on whoever wants to get involved to help us get it done and where we can do it with excellence. Because my board they won't let us go do it unless we're going to do with excellence. They told me that today. We can go out there and we can wing it, or we can go out there and do it with excellence, and we choose excellence.

And like I said... That is what I want to see. I want to see it come together, and I want to see it where we're working together. And we have to put those, whether it be a slight differences, to the side. Now, the same questions that I just asked you when I get my second time, or if I do get a second time to speak, I will be asking if I see the same questions.

Do I have any more time?

Can I get the FIC up here?

Yes, sir.

Good afternoon. The same question I just had for JT, and we're trying to find an overall solution for all of this. Would FIC be willing to work together with this, doing this little phase part of this, because you said you was closing, but would you be willing to work with them So we don't have a gap in services.

Are you referring to your idea regarding using volunteers?

Yes, ma'am.

I'm not sure we can do that with the VA contract, could we?

We're not talking about the VA portion of this.

We're just speaking on... Are we talking about the options on the slides?

Sir, the same thing I just asked earlier, and I asked JT the same question. I'm asking, are y'all willing to make this hill work?

Are we willing to try to make this thing work?

Yes, sir.

Yes.

Exactly how I explained it.

What do you mean? Can you repeat how you explained it?

Do I have enough time here?

The way I explained it was there may be an overlap. you already have the building. And if they have the volunteers with the exception of the VA piece of that, would you be willing to work with them if they had the volunteers? They got a room full of volunteers here that say they are willing to step in and we not skip a beat. That's what I'm asking. Are y'all willing to do your part so we don't skip a beat?

That would have to be a board response. You're saying? Because we still have an obligation to continue the VA contract.

I got you, ma'am. You have an obligation to continue the VA contract, which is 10 beds. Am I correct?

It's 12.

It's 12. Okay, 12 beds, but you have a total of 78 beds, right? Correct. So we still have room in there where this other piece can take place. So are you willing to make this happen? It's a yes or a no.

They wouldn't be able to guarantee to have these volunteers.

It's a 24-hour operation.

From the people that I've just seen in here, I think they are ready. I think they are ready. I'm done there.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you.

Thank you. Council member Nash King.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council. Can I ask Chief Lopez a question, Mayor Solomon?

Yes, you may.

Thank you. It's just a quick question. With the proposed motion that's on the floor, how would the homeless outreach program, how would they house with $100,000, how would they house our homeless shelter, I mean our on-shelter residents? And how would that work?

Okay, I appreciate Councilmember Brown's confidence in the police department and CEU, but I have to respectfully disagree with allowing the police department to run a homeless shelter. I agree we have homeless outreach efforts, and I 100% support that. We do that every day, but the homeless shelter operation should not be one of our functions. And I say that for several reasons. It's outside the KPD's core mission. Shelter's fundamentally a housing operation. It requires case management, intake. We don't have that expertise inside the police department. Secondly, it creates conflicting roles for police officers. Here, one second we're a provider, but the next second we're an enforcer. And that creates a lot of confusion for our homeless population, for anybody actually. It could discourage people from using the shelter. A lot of our homeless populations, they may have warrants. They have substance abuse, they have other issues, and basically they don't trust the police sometimes. So I think it's going to discourage some homeless people from coming forward seeking those services. We could inherit a lot of operational liability. You need insurance to run a shelter. And at the end of the day, we don't have the expertise. We want to support a homeless population, and we do that through outreach program. And we will continue to work with our community partners to provide those services. But I believe that KPD running a homeless operation is not a good thing for the police department or our homeless population.

Yes, sir. Thank you. Mr. Mayor, how much more time do I have?

1.30.

Okay, thank you. Real quick. So thank you for that, Chief Lopez. So here are our options. We have $29,000 after hearing from Chief Lopez that it would take for Friends in Crisis to function monthly. And then we have the Armor of God that have some things in the works. But they need October. We're not even knowing how that's going to work out until October, November time frame. So I give a give and take November. My recommendation, even though we have that motion on the floor, that if the majority of the council want to go with Armor of God, we still have to focus on September 1st is next week. They have to be sheltered. They have to have a place to stay. So if that's your way you want to go, that's farm of friends in crisis until Armor of God is up and running. And then if Armor of God is not up and running by the time Whatever contract we come up with friends in crisis, then we still going roundabout in circles, have to start all over again with a solution. So right now, I know we forecast some future, but right now, what are we going to do for them next week? And that is 29,000, and then we get all the non-profits together, as Councilman Kendrick stated, and we come up, like Mr. Hahn said, with a solution if that's where we want to go. But we got to do something tonight for our unsheltered residents for next week. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and Council.

Yes, ma'am. Council Member Kimball.

Thank you. I tried to speak before the motion, and now we have a motion on the floor. I guess I'm speaking on the motion. Is that what we're doing now? We're discussing on the motion. Yes, sir. Can someone please repeat the motion? Because we're all over the place right now, and we have to get back to people offering.

City Attorney, could you repeat the motion, please?

Yes, and please correct me if I misstate. But the motion I have is to allocate $100,000 to the Community Engagement Unit for purposes of emergency shelter.

Thank you. I'm going to speak against that motion.

He has the floor.

That's not the motion. Okay. Please clarify.

Okay. Clarify the motion.

Thank you. So the motion was not to give the money to CEU to run a shelter. It was for the purpose of getting emergency shelter ring. Meaning being able to take that money and pay for hotel rooms for the time difference between when we are in between actual shelter services. It is not anything that. that our CEU is not able to do currently on a more limited basis because of funding, it is much more limited. It's something that our community volunteers do through the HOT team is donate money for hotels. So, Chief, it was not to actually operate shelter services.

So could you repeat your question?

Even under that model, it would be difficult for CU to implement that program, because officers encounter people on the streets 24 hours a day, and his team is only, what, six people? Six people and every night, every day we encounter people on the streets where we have to make a decision to try to find them housing. A lot of the times it's heartbreaking because we don't have any other options. If the person is mentally fit, they're not a danger to themselves, they haven't committed a crime, They're in crisis, we either take them to the hospital or they commit a crime and take them to the jail. It's very difficult to have patrol officers try to call somebody on CEU to find some housing for somebody overnight. It takes hours, I will need more staff, and it will be very difficult to implement some type of trying to find hotels overnight for our homeless population.

Thank you, Chief. For clear purposes, the request was to repeat your motion, please.

So to allocate $100,000 to the community engagement unit to use for emergency sheltering of homeless individuals either until that money is expended or until another shelter is open and operating.

Okay, thank you. Now, City Attorney, do you have that clarity?

I believe so, yes.

Okay, now back to Council Member Kimball.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thanks for clearing all this up. So I guess we're still speaking on the motion where there's no vote. Thanks for the clarification. Chief, thanks for the explanation. You pretty much said I was going to say it because that's not what we, you and I have done. And that's I don't think that's not our. That's not what we do. So thank you for clearing that up. That's all I have to say. When we get back to the discussion, because we seem to be all over the place. We had a motion. We should have been speaking on the motion. Then we could get back to the discussion. So I just hope we can stay on point so we can- So I have some clarity because it's an important issue and we're voting on some very important things and we have to make a decision on what we're going to do between now and the end of the year. And if we keep giving many speeches, we'll never get there. So I just hope that we can stay on task. We had a motion. We should have been speaking on the motion. People want to speak before the motion when they get a chance to do that because we have certain rules that this council agreed to abide by in our governing standards. So we have to do that also. So I hope that we can stay on track so we can get this resolved tonight. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Kimball. Council, if we could speak to the motion. Council Member Brown.

No, I was just going to clarify the motion, which I did already. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Williams.

I'm good. I'm just going with the motion.

Council Member Bass.

Thank you, Mayor. I seconded the motion because I thought it was worth exploring. But if Chief Lopez says this is not a good idea, I withdraw my second. Thank you.

Council Member Betz has withdrawn his motion. City Attorney, would you say something?

The second is withdrawn and so you still have a motion on the floor and you would need a new second for it.

Is there a second? There is no second. The motion fails. Okay, Council Member Nash.

Mr. Mayor, my question is, is this open before I speak? Is this an open discussion on this item? Are we limited to two times?

Well, you can make a motion to suspend. Thank you.

I would like to make a motion to suspend the two times that a council member can speak.

Is there a second? Please address the, so I can recognize, please. Council Member Brown?

I'll second.

Is there any discussion? No discussion. All in favor?

I'm sorry.

Right here.

Can we get some clarification on that? I think last time when you suspended the rules, there was question on whether there was still limits at all on number or time. So if we're just suspending the rules and there's no limits, then we've got that direction. But last time we thought that was the case, and then you were concerned about the timing.

Yes, sir. What I was trying to say that we still, to extend it, each council member can speak four times instead of two, but only for two minutes each time.

Right. Well, it's not four times.

Yes, sir. No disrespect, sir. Our governor's standards and expectations says that we can only speak twice and we can only speak for two minutes. And I'm requesting from the council, Mr. Mayor, to add two more times to speak for two minutes, sir.

Session motion, ma'am? Yes, sir. Okay, would you make that a motion?

Councilwoman Brown, I have to resend for me to do it. Is that clear?

I think we're just clarifying what the motion was. Okay, yes, ma'am. So we still have a motion.

Okay, thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you, City Attorney. Thank you, Council. Yes, sir.

Okay, so it has been motioned and seconded. All in favor signify by saying yes. All those opposed, no. The motion carries six to no with Council Member Kimball opposing.

Now can I speak, Mr. Mayor? Yes. Thank you. Mr. Mayor and Council, I'd like to make a motion. And my motion, Ms. Tiffany, before I make this motion, with Mr. Hahn, I'm assuming you talked to him too? You know about the process that he's going through right now?

Yes.

Okay. Could it be safe to say to give him some wiggle room that we can do the $29,000 for friends in crisis until December to ensure that he has everything in place? Yes.

That's always been my goal is if this city wanted to move away from the current shelter provider, that it would give itself the opportunity to actually build a bridge to get there versus stopping something here. and starting it here and then there's just this space of uh no services being provided at all which is additionally why i initiated the meeting with armor of god and families in crisis to just start conversation to get These two organizations comfortable with being with each other. It's not a relationship that anyone could force. It would have to truly be developed through trust and then develop organically. And that was just... last month that I had the first meeting and both sides were supposed to go back to their boards to engage their boards about what they would permit them to do next to develop a partnership that was then going to, I was going to come to this council and say, here's what we have as far as the start of an ecosystem, but things changed. um, have not progressed that way. Here we are. Um, I do want to note that the 29,000 that's in that first option for the friends program is 29,000 per month. So that is $116,000 for the remainder of this calendar year. The sex second option would be $696,000 for two years. Their option approximately 1.4 do not front is $696,000. $0 and then the support another capable and ready community partner. Right now I have a question mark on the cost of that, but I did just want to note that it was not $29,000 for the remainder of the year, but $29,000 per month through December. Correct.

Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Mr. Cagle, can I ask our seating manager a question? Yes, you may, Council Member. Thank you. Mr. Cagle, thank you. Ms. McNair, they may have a question for you. But for $116,000 from September to December or $29,000 for the month of September alone, What is your recommendation for the transition and our situation that we currently are in to stay with friends, just a recommendation, stay with friends in crisis, put a transition plan together? What would be your recommendation, sir?

Well, when this first started, we felt like we identified about it. $350,000 in savings that we felt like comfortable that would be available by the end of the year. And you allocated $200,000 of that. So anything that builds a bridge would be good. I don't know how long that transition period is actually going to be. I don't think there's anybody here tonight that can actually tell us that with any certainty. Sure, it'd be my recommendation to do one or the other to keep some sort of emergency shelter open. To my knowledge, the only one that's ready to do that right now is Friends in Crisis. And I understand we were told absolutely not. Now we're told that they can stay open to the end of their fiscal year with our assistance. We verified that with them.

Thank you, sir. Thank you, Mr. Cagle. With that being said, and that was a good point with Arm of God, that we don't know how long that transition would be for them to get fully established for a 24-7 shelter. So my motion would be for the council that we fund Friends in Crisis for the first recommendation, which is $29,000 a month for three months, which will come up to $116,000 for those three months until the armor of God is restored. From four months. Yes, I'm sorry. Correction. Thank you, Councilman Kendrick. For four months until Armor of God has made that transition. Can I finish my motion, Mr. Mayor? Yes, ma'am.

You may.

Taking on the consideration that the council voted the earmark 200,000 for Armor of God. So that would be my motion. to fund the Friends program short term at $29,000 a month from September the 1st until December 31st.

There's been a motion on the floor by Council Member Nash-Kings. Is there a second? Council Member Brown?

Second for discussion.

Open for discussion.

Ms. McNair? Yes.

Council Member.

Yeah, okay. Ms. McNair, so I want to get some tidying up real quick. If FIC closes, whether it's September or December, what happens to CDBG funds that go to their caseworker?

We would likely, we could enter into the agreement because they would still be open at least the first three months of our fiscal year. And then after that, any money that would remain, we could reprogram for the next program year.

Okay. And then, Mayor, may I ask Mr. Hall a few questions?

You may.

Mr. Hall, would you come up here please?

Mr. Hall, Ms. Armour. Mr. JT. Suzanne Armour.

Mr. Hall, Mr. Hall.

They do sound very much alike. Okay, so how many individuals would be able to be housed or sheltered rather at $29,000 a month? 40 per month. 40. That's in addition to the veteran beds?

That includes the veteran beds.

Okay. And that's 12 veteran beds? Yes. Okay.

It's typically about 8 to 10, but yeah, up to 12.

And then if we did this $29,000 per month, would we be guaranteed that that would keep the shelter open as long as we are funding that $29,000 a month at least through the end of your fiscal year?

I would say yes. Yes.

Okay. And your fiscal year ends December 31st. December 31st. Correct. Okay. Thank you. May I ask Mr. Hun a couple questions now?

Yes.

Thank you.

With your time, you have 51. Yes, ma'am. You may.

All right. Mr. Huynh, the same question for you. At this point, presumably, how many beds would you have?

There's 43 in the current place, in the current 1002 Medical Drive. There's 43 with the option of getting it up close to 50. And then if we needed to go into a crisis situation, adding cots and stuff like that for any emergency, we can get up to 100.

Okay. And I forgot to ask if I friends this question, but should we require a warming center during the time that you're operating? Would you be willing to do the warming center under whatever funding you get from the city?

Yeah, that's our whole goal is to create a warming center. Because of the way it's set up with the backyard and things like that, our goal is not just have to have Green Avenue Park. We appreciate it. That's where we go and serve our unhoused. I think it's a great addition to what we've done in our city. But our goal is to keep them at the location, let them work there, find jobs there, and then be – a big area for them to stay cool and then go out in the backyard and hang out under the trees and stuff like that.

Thank you. I believe in the background I saw Ms. Armour kind of giving me a nod that they would be able to do a warming center while operating under that cost if we need to. Was that a yes? Okay. So just for the record, she's telling me yes to that question. And then, Mr. Hahn, I know you haven't specifically asked for any questions or for any money. And really, I don't think tonight we should be deciding on what we're going to fund you. We have the money set aside. But when you come back, would you be able to bring us a budget?

Sure. I've worked on a budget. I've worked on kind of with what... how we would want to be set up to do this with excellence. My heart says to open up tomorrow. My board's heart says, hey, hold up, hold up. So they're giving me wise counsel, which a board's supposed to give me. But we want to do it with excellence. The building's set up. The building doesn't need a lot of capital improvements. We purchased the building for $700,000. We've got to put $100,000 down. They're carrying the note at 7% on a seven-year balloon. That's what we've done. We're going to do it whether we get money or not. It's how fast we're going to be ready to go and do it with excellence. We, you know, there's limited money when we're investing our money into this building and we're investing our money into the Gilmore Street. We've got limited money. So for me to ask you for money, it's not in me to do that because I believe that we can do it as a community. For me to raise $285,000 that I think our budget will be, it's going to take me some time. We're hoping that the thrift store will step in there and just start rocking and rolling in September. But there's some things out there that's still up in the air. We're ready. We're willing. Our hearts are there. And I know and I appreciate Ms. Nash. for her concern, but we're having faith in the city, we're having faith in our community partners, and we're living by faith. And I know that sometimes when you've been so reliant on government and you've been so reliant on guaranteed funds, it's easier just to say, let's just do the guaranteed funds. We've got a plan for a succession plan for the 26 people that are there. I've talked with different people that are in this realm to try to come up with that, too. I mean, I've got a whole plan for that. I don't know that this is the time or this is not the time, but I have a plan to try to help in the transition as well.

Thank you. And all that to say we are out of time to make a decision and make sure that we don't have people out on the street for a month or more, probably for more. So for that reason, I will support this to make sure they're taken care of during that gap time. Thank you.

Council Member Kimball.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just for the record, can I get the repeat Ms. Naskink's motion, please?

Yes. City Attorney, would you repeat that, please? Yes.

The motion on the floor is to fund FIC option one. You see on the screen right now, $29,000 a month from September through December, four months.

Thank you. It's a great thing, and I like it. There was another part to that motion, right? It was something about Armor Guard at the end of that too, right?

The rest of what was stated with the motion was just taking into account that $200,000 was already earmarked. So I don't think that added to the directive of the motion, but just acknowledging.

So the motion is to fund them $29,000 to the end of the year, period.

Yes. And I'm getting the yes from the person who made the motion.

There was nothing about armor guard in that motion. Do I have a motion? We're talking different things here.

She has a forward. Do you mind hearing me clarify? Yes. Yes.

So the reason. I stated Armour God because Mr. Cagle said that they had taken $350,000 for Friends in Crisis. And then once that $200,000, that motion was made to take from that money, then we just sit it there. It's not being used. It's earmarked for next, the budget year. But my motion was based on right now.

between now and the end of the year?

In December, yes, sir.

Okay. I can support that. Yes, sir. What I can't support is earmarking any additional funds for a single organization because we're going to just find ourselves back into where we're at right now. The only thing that we got was this document that was handed to us about an hour ago, and I just can't work off of that. So if we're going to fund them between now and the end end of the year, I'm 100% behind that. What I will get behind is any organization that comes up after the end of the year with a plan that we all can get behind, that makes sense so we don't find ourselves in the same situation that we are with friends, that we have a plan, we have commitment, and we have promises to move forward with training, with education, with drug rehab, with counseling, the things that we all talked about that we want. That's the plan I'll get behind come January 1. And I hope it's armor to God, because I've just heard some awesome things. I've never met JT in my life before. The support that he has filling his room because you would think it's an election night as much people in his room it is tonight. So I'm willing to get behind any organization that can fulfill the things that we have talked about, the ones we talked about last night at the mayor's coalition. That's what I want to go forward come January 1. Yes, I will support this motion between now and December 31st. And I hope that if it's Armor God or any other organization out there that wants to Talk long-term, seriousness, homelessness, housing, shelter, counseling. Those are the things I'm looking for from January 1. So I'll be supporting your motion, ma'am. Thank you.

Councilman McKendricks.

No, no, no. Hey, I like everything everybody said. So with that being said, Mayor, I agree with you. Councilwoman Nash's motion and just echoing what Councilmember Kimball said, that this is what we're here for. We want to find a solution, a long-term solution, and I just think the city needs to get ready for change. Sometimes change is good. So that's the way I'm looking at it, and I'm good, Mayor.

Councilmember Williams.

Yes, I agree with Councilwoman Nash-King's motion as well, but with funding the families in crisis of $29,000, you said, per month, and $100,000 per year. And with the earmarking for the Armor of God, could we get it, when we earmark the Armor of God, could we get it verified project? as everybody was talking about now, in order for that $200,000? Could we get a verified project and your verified zone and ordinance? Because you still don't have all of those things. And then establish conditions. Could we get all of those first before we even release any funding to Armor of God? And that's what I think. But I'm totally in agreement with the motion that's on the floor. I'm totally in agreement with that. I agree with Councilman Kimball as well.

Mayor Booth, Tim Gonzalez.

Thank you. I appreciate the work that you've done, Ms. McNair, to bring this back to a center. Because like some of the other council members have said, I was extremely confused when Friends in Crisis, we were planning for fiscal year 27. Then they said that they were going to have to close sooner than that. and we went from October planning to all of a sudden we need it right now. So that's kind of what's put us in this situation. So I understand that you've brought it back to the center, and I appreciate the work that you've done here. Now, if the city dollars are being provided, then we should definitely be investing our dollars in outcomes, not simply operations. And so when I say that, to say what I mean is that we definitely need a homeless transition plan with a reinforced framework. And I think that we also need to understand exactly what is expected of them in this time that they're going to be providing services. I just want to ensure that there's funding, I believe, already available. It's been said that they've got funding for veterans. So the dollars that we're providing out of that $29,000 will not cover the veterans because they've got a separate funding pool for that. Is that correct?

That is correct. I asked them specifically about their veteran money or non-veteran money. I was told that the veteran money is what they use strictly for veterans. They don't use non-veteran money for veterans because there is enough to cover the beds that they have now.

Okay, and so do we know what, I think the questions were asked about the beds per month, and there's 12 veteran beds and 40 others, but do we know how many families are remaining? Because I understand that they were working with the community to place folks in housing. How many are actually remaining right now?

And that changes for them day to day? 23 families remain. 23 individuals. Individuals, I'm sorry.

And have they provided you a transition plan since they've now determined or been able to determine the dollar amount that they need to operate or what they're willing to accept at this point from us? Did they provide you a transition plan?

No, this conversation just occurred yesterday morning in preparation for this meeting this evening. So no transition plan has been created. And we really did, for me anyway, wanted to hear back from the council on what your prerogative would be as a body.

Okay. So then my recommendation, I'd like to make an amendment to the motion keeping all of the terms, which I can agree with on the monthly, but that there be a framework for a transition plan from this period of December. But we received this prior to. So maybe within the next month or so, within the next 30 days, so that we were not scrambling at the end of this transition back at square one trying to figure it out. I would like to see an actual transition plan from the folks that are

taking care of the people that they say they're taking care of thank you that's my amendment to the motion there's been an amendment to the motion and and may approach him to um to clarify that you're saying you want to Would you clear that? Sure.

Yes, sir. I'm just requesting a transition plan from Friends in Crisis within 30 days of receiving the funds. So I'm in agreement with the motion. I just want a transition plan from Friends in Crisis for the end of December.

Okay. Is there a second to the amendment? Council Member Bass, I'm looking here.

No, I was going to speak on the original motion.

Okay. Council Member Kendricks.

I second.

Council Member, okay, it's been seconded by Council Member Kendricks. Okay, we open for discussion in reference to the amendment. Is there any discussion? Council Member Bass?

Wait, no, I don't want to. Okay. We have four times, okay. Okay. May I ask Councilwoman Nash-King, does she support this amendment?

Yes, sir. I do support the amendment, but if we don't have anywhere for them to go at the end of December, then we're coming back again to discussing this. But I do think there should be a transition plan if there's a place to go.

Thank you. Okay. Is there any other discussion? You're welcome. Council Member Brown?

So rather than putting a contingency on the funding on Friends in Crisis bringing back a transition plan to us, because by putting that contingency in place, if they fail to do it, then that would mean we wouldn't be able to fund them because then they weren't meeting the terms of that. Also, I think that maybe it's not FIC's job to give us a transition plan into a more permanent solution. That's an in-house thing with our other partners. May I ask for clarification on that?

You may. May I approach him?

So thank you. I'm not asking for them to solve this mess that's kind of been created at this point. I'm asking to please, before we end this term, on December 31st, we need to know to... Councilmember Nash-King's point, we need to know what's going to happen next. So if we get word or if you have an understanding that we are not going to be able to move forward with this or any other organization, to Mr. Kimball's point, that might come forward, we still have to have a plan. We have to have a plan, but these organizations also should be providing a transition plan for the constituents that they serve. I mean, they're the ones taking care of these people, so we don't end up in The situation that we're in now, we need to know what their plan is. So in the event they are done with funding on December 31st, how do they plan on transitioning those people out of that situation or over into a new one?

Okay, and to that point, what I was going to request or recommend is that we figure out the funding for September at a minimum. September through December looks like the way we're going right now. And then October 20th, we come back and discuss the funding starting January 1 and moving forward, which would give FIC, it would give AOG, it would also give To Councilman Kimball's point, if there are other organizations who want to step into this realm, who want to step forward and see how they can interact and help, it gives them time to come into that too. So rather than amending an amendment, if that would be amenable to you to say that we come back with a longer term discussion, That way they can come back with their plans. The staff has time to work on a plan and communicate with them. Doing it in a week, I don't think it's going to work. I said 30 days, but- Okay.

Or a month rather, even at that- Okay, are you asking her? Okay, City Manager, Mr. Cagle?

I was just gonna say, I think the transition plan is December 31st, they're closed. And I don't know how they plan beyond that, so.

So here, can I answer or respond?

Yes, you may respond.

So Mr. Cagle, I do understand, but my question, what I'm trying to eliminate is if We got word from Friends in Crisis that they were gonna open, they weren't gonna close. We heard rumors from people that actually reside there that say they're gonna close sooner than we were even expecting. So I don't trust at this point that we are gonna have consistency with regards to the situation. So all I wanna make sure is that whatever we are planning to do, We are doing so efficiently that we're making sure that if for some reason this plan does not work and come December 31st, what is our plan? We do need to schedule. That's a whole separate conversation about a meeting for ourselves to come up with a plan. But when families and crisis transitions, do they just turn everyone over on December 31st and they just go? Is that how that works? Does everybody understand that? If that's the case, then it is what it is. Can you clarify that for me?

No, I believe I understand what you're wanting. So is it that on December 31st they close and it's done? A 90-day exit strategy plan, transition plan, the number of how many people they are serving and over the next 90 days, whether their plan is to exit them out of the shelter and to permanent or temporary or something like that. That's all I'm asking. I believe I understand what you're asking for. That is correct. That's all I'm asking. Yes, ma'am. And it's not to ask them at this point to provide anything after December 31st. That's correct. What do you do with them on December 31st so you can track where they went or how they exited the facility? Yes, ma'am. Okay.

That's it. Okay. Council Member Bass. I don't see. Continue. I don't. I don't. Okay, Council Member Brown, you have 20 seconds.

Thank you. I will keep it to that. So my concern is if we pass this motion, it still obligates them to something within 30 days in order to get the 60 and 90 day funding, if I'm understanding correctly. And maybe the city attorney would be best to answer that since it's about a motion.

I was interpreting the motion as an additional requirement, a performance measure, but that it wouldn't be contingent upon the money. Is that, but certainly council can tell me how they want us to write the performance measures.

Okay, and I just wanted to make sure of that so we don't end up where we're giving them an instruction that they have to do and then taking that away from them. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Brown. Okay, further discussion, Mayor Pro Tem? Oh, okay. Council Member Nash-King? Okay, call for the vote of the amendment, okay? Correct. Okay, all in favor signify by- Second. Thank you. It was second by Council Member Kendricks. All in favor of call for the vote?

Excuse me, the city secretary, mayor, the city secretary was trying to get your attention.

Yes, ma'am. Yes, city secretary.

Elaine.

There's a call for the vote made by Councilmember Nash King, and I believe that the mayor said the second was Councilmember Kendrick.

That is correct.

So we're voting on call for the vote.

All in favor signify by saying yes. All opposed no. Call for the vote. Okay. Motion passed seven to zero. Okay. Okay, so now we vote on the amendment. All in favor of the amendment signify by saying yes. All opposed no. The amendment motion pass 7-0. Okay, to amend your motion.

Right, and so now council will vote on the original motion as amended. So the motion is option one to fund the Friends in Crisis program, $29,000 a month, September through December for four months, and for them to provide a transition plan within 30 days of receiving the funds.

Okay, all in favor signify by yes, all opposed no. Motion pass 7-0. OK. Uh, is there anything? That's it, OK. OK, I think that we have it. That's it. And Council Member Kendricks. You have to, okay. Discussion. Okay, any discussion? Okay. Trying to see here, Council Member Brown.

Before we adjourn, I just wanted to, and I can't make the motion right now unless someone withdraws their second in their motion. But before we actually leave here, I think it's important that we have a follow-up date set because January will be here before we know it. So I wanted to have us officially set a date to come back and continue this discussion to determine what happens starting in January.

We cannot do that.

No, I can't make that motion unless they withdraw their motions to adjourn.

Okay. Council Member... Nope. Okay. Is there any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye.

Okay.

All opposed?

All opposed? Okay. Motion fails.

Motion carries.

Motion carries.