Housing, Community Development & Public Health Committee - Regular Meeting

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Welcome everyone. There's a sign in sheet by the door when you walked in. If you'd like to if you'd like to sign up, we'll be talking about community development block grants. Then after that, I think there's another sheet for any topic that's on your mind. Welcome everyone.

Please come on in. There's a sign up sheet at the door. We're talking about community development black grants today. If you'd like to speak about it, there's also another sign in sheet that you can bring anything that you'd like to talk about in front of us. So thank you.

Welcome everyone. Little housekeeping before we start. There's a sign in sheet at the door. If you'd like to sign in. We're talking about community development block grants. There's also another sheet that's not labeled community development block grants that you can sign up and talk about anything that's on your mind today.

Thank you.

Hello, everybody. Just a little housekeeping. There's a sign in sheet by the door. If you'd like to talk this evening about community development block grants, please sign in. There's also one that's not labeled.

So, if you have any other items you want to bring to attention, sign that one and we'll make sure you're heard. Thank you. We're gonna begin shortly, but just a little housekeeping. We are on the hunt for more fans. There is a sign in sheet by the door.

When you walk in, if you'd like to come up to the mic and talk about community development block grants or any other thoughts you have for council? The sign in sheets by the door. We'll begin shortly.

You.

Nice to see you. Just a little housekeeping one one last time before we start. There's a sign in sheet by the door.

Brian, can you hear us?

If you'd like to sign in and talk about community development block grants Speak to see if we can hear you. Or anything else on your mind you'd like to bring before council. Sign up sheet is by the door. We're working on a fan situation. We'll begin shortly.

Need you to speak out again, Brian, please. We're having trouble catching your audio. Now we're having a challenge with the hearing information. So can you hear us now? Or can we hear you now?

Brian, can you try it again, please?

We'll begin shortly. There's just a little technical issue.

So I'll I'll just give an overview.

Can you try again? Brian. Brian, can you hear us mic check? I can't hear you still. Have the text on, but I can't hear him. We he's we're not yeah. Thank you.

For what? Okay. That's all.

Brian, could you please maybe read a little blurb somewhere? Yeah. You're right. We're having challenges getting your audio into the chambers, but I'm not sure why. If you could speak a little bit more again.

Sorry.

We're just fixing a technical issue but a little housekeeping. Evan is bringing some ice cold water and some cups. Help yourself. We'll bring more if we need it. There's a sign up sheet by the door when you come in. If you're interested in talking about community development block grants, please sign in. Or if you're interested in bringing any other issue in front of council.

That.

Mary, our eyes behind the curtain is working on one more technical difficulty and as soon as we get that figured out, we'll start promptly. Thank you for your patience.

It's not even registering that you're talking here. Okay. So is it in the invite? There should be a phone number. Can you call in and join the Zoom through the phone audio?

Alright. We just sent you another invite. If you can back out of this one and pick it up from your email, it should have a phone number for you. It's showing you as muted on our side, Brian. It's possible for you to

Can people hear me on the microphone? Are people able to hear me on the phone? Just pressing the phone again. Can you hear my audio through the phone? Are people able to hear me on the

phone at all?

So we're able to hear you on the phone, but it's very, very weak.

Thank you everyone for your patience. It's so good

to

see all the wonderful faces in the crowd. Alright. I call to order the Toledo City Council Housing and Community Development Committee of Thursday, July 10 at 02:23. Clerk, for the purpose of discussing community development block grants. Clerk, please call the roll.

Gaddis. Here. Jones. Here. Driscoll? Hartman? Here. McPherson? Meldon? Williams? Three present? Also present, Councilman George Sorantu?

Thank you. And with that, I'd like to turn the floor over to director Clemens. Good afternoon,

council member Gaddis and the rest of the housing and community development committee. My name is Rosalyn Clemens. I am the director of the Department of Housing and Community Development. I'm joined by Monica Brown, who is our grants manager. We provide oversight over the federal housing and community dollars that the city receives.

I want to give some context to this work and to the challenges that we face with this funding. The CDBG program, the HOME program and the ESG program, the three block grants that we received for housing and community development work that's based on a formula that HUD administers. They're called entitlement grants, and we're we get these grants every year. There's a formula that HUD uses based on population poverty and some other indicators. The funding that we get from these three programs support about 97% of the work that this city does for housing and community development.

We get a very small percentage each year from the city general funds, but for the most part, and community development work is supported by these three block grant programs and the other funding that we raise at the department through competitive grants and proposals to seek funding to supplement these three entitlement grants. This year, we are faced with about an $87,000 reduction in our CDBG grant. And I must say that in President's budget for the twenty twenty six year, HOME and CDBG are zeroed out. If his budget is passed as proposed, there is there will be no funding for these two programs. We don't think that that will be the case because we were involved in a lot of advocacy with our congressional delegation and other CDBG recipients across the country to fight for these funds.

But I want to make it clear that these are tough times and we have to make some tough decisions in who and what we continue to fund. This year was the year that we provide HUD with what is called a five year consolidated plan, which essentially lays out the priorities for the city and how we determine how we will allocate these funds. So part of our process this year involved engaging a consultant, CEW, to do community engagement, to do survey work, to do analysis of existing research and data, conduct needs assessments to establish priorities for the utilization of these funds. What we had hoped to do today is to have the consultant just present an overview of that plan and an overview of the priorities. I think, hopefully, we can we're having some technical difficulties, but hopefully before we leave today, he will come on and provide us with some oversight.

So that's the over the big challenge with these funds, especially with the CDBG funds, is that HUD caps what we could spend for public service at allocation. 15%. We got about, I think, 40 some applicants this year. Most of those applicants are for public service dollars. So the tough decision is who do we fund in that public service cap?

Who do we fund? And in making the decision of who we fund in the public service cap, we look at capacity, we look at past record, we look at what's been left on the table and we look at impact. So that is the context in which we make this the decisions for these funding. We appreciate the partners. We can't be on the ground doing this work.

A lot of them have been in the trenches doing this work and we appreciate the work that they do. There's a lot of hair on this money, I always say. We have the tough job not just making the decision of who to give money to, but we have to monitor them. We've got to make sure the funding is spent correctly. We have timeliness tests that we have to make with HUD.

So within all that sausage making, we have make these decisions and administer these funds. So what I'm going to do is just to have Monica Brown walk you through how we got to this point, our public process that we engage in, some of the criteria that we've used, and then we'll get into how we have allocated and the recommended recipients of the funding for this year.

Good afternoon, everybody. Sorry about all the technical difficulties. Can you hear me okay? So in the process of going through this, we are working on our twenty twenty five-twenty nine consolidated plan as well as our twenty twenty five twenty six one year action plan. And these are required documents that we have to submit to HUD.

The five year plan is done every five years and then a one year plan we have to do annually each year of the five year plan. The one year plan and the consolidated plan talks about what we're going to do in the community. It identifies our priority needs as well as it talks about the activities and what we're going to fund. The annual plan outlines strategic projects and performance measures that we're going to implement and then also it shows what our funding allocations is going to be for the year and then also for the five year period. You all have your PowerPoint so just follow along.

I'm sorry we couldn't bring it up on the screen for you. In here it also provides you with our application process and our timeline. We started this process back in January with the application from the agencies that wanted to apply for funding. They had to submit their application by February 7. It was due at 04:45PM.

We did hold public hearings. The first one was on April 3. The second one was on April 24 and then the third one was on May 1 regarding the consolidated plan as well as the draft action plan. In the month that the applicants was applying, did open up the office where they could come down to the office and talk to us about their application. And we also had an application question session one in the morning for the non homeless service providers and we did one in the afternoon for the homeless service providers.

So we do this process with a citizen review process. We do have a citizen participation plan. That plan is outlined outlined and is uploaded on our city website, but it's a comprehensive strategy for how we engage our residents and then also our planning and implementation of our housing and community development activities. So as a part of this, we did consult with some nonprofit organizations that are involved in housing and community housing, community, and economic development. We did a thirty day comment period that started on Wednesday, April 23, and that ran through Friday, May 23.

So again, I had already talked to you about the different public hearings that we had. We did campaign the public hearings. We had an actual website set up for our twenty twenty five, twenty nine consolidated plan that posted all the meetings and the community meetings that we did as well as it gave a lot of information of what was going on with the process. Our citizen review committee we actually work with two committees. The first committee is for our homeless service providers that's a different set of community work community organizations that work with different like social services, religious, banking, the library.

So we had two committees that we worked with the one side did the homeless service providers and then the other committee focused on the non homeless service providers. And you have a list that was provided to you of each one of those committees and who was on there and some of those representatives are here today to talk about the process if we need to. We also have an internal review committee and that's some of the city staff. Some of that staff does review and score the applications. I myself, I review them, but I don't score them.

And then some other members, that's a part of that, do not review or score the applications. We leave that strictly up to our external citizen review committee and some internal staff. So if you look on page five of your PowerPoint, the non homeless service providers were comprised of a private consultant. We had representative from ProMedica, John Henry Eldich Jr. Foundation, Job and Family Services, the library, TPS, TARTA and then Pathways for Successful Leadership.

And then under the homeless service providers, we had the continuum of care chair. We had a representative from Anne Grady from the Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital, again, job and family services, the library, the Greater Toledo Community Foundation, and a criminal justice coordinating So we try to get a good variety of people that work in the community that knows what's going on to be on a citizen review committee to vet these applications. As far as the application process and timeline, we do host a mandatory orientation meeting and this is required for all of the CDBG and ESG applicants. And at that meeting we provide an overview of the eligible activities. We provide the national objectives from HUD and then the application process and submission requirements.

After they do that, we give them the deadline and then we do not allow for late or incomplete submissions. We don't consider those. Application review process, again we have our internal review committee. We also have the citizen review committee that does the final reviews of all the applications. We do partake in a interview process with them, so we actually set aside a whole week where we do actual interviews with each of the applicants.

And this allows the citizen review committee an opportunity to ask more questions that maybe when they were looking at the application it wasn't clear to them, so it allows them that opportunity to ask those questions. After the interviews, then we do reconvene again and we discuss and make our funding recommendations. Those recommendations are presented to the director for final approval and review. And then it goes to the mayor for approval and then it comes before you as city council for final approval. The minimum application requirements is- five zero a nonprofits five zero one c three they have to be in operations for at least two years.

We do allow government agencies to apply. Other nonprofits that's been in operations again at least two years. Certified community based development organizations or CBDOs. Homeless service providers, we did open it up for for profits this year who was in operation at least two years. And then those agencies that can demonstrate capacity to implement the proposed activities or projects.

The evaluation criteria, they have to have a financial stability. We do look at the Board of Directors composition and if regularly engaged with the agency. We look at their project budget and the leverage and then also we look at their one to one match. I don't know if you are aware or not, but each agency has to supply us with a one to one match for the amount that they are requesting in either CDBG or ESG funds. We also looked at the activity impact for the community.

We do look at the capacity of the organization and then any past performance. So for this program year, the twenty twenty five-twenty six application for CDBG, we did have 35 applications. The request totaled $4,700,000, a little over that amount. For home, we had one application. That request was $250,000 And then for ESG, we had 10 applications and that request totaled 1,100,000 or close to $1,200,000

So what is the again, what is the funding that we had to work with for these applicants? I'm going give an overview for that. Our 2025 allocation from CDBG is $7,046,960 That represented an $87,638 reduction from last year. We had $728,799 of carryover dollars. This is dollars that unspent contractual services dollars and unspent third party partner dollars.

So we carry we're carrying over that amount for a total resources for allocation of $7,775,759 Our home allocation of $1,965,724 the home partnership Program funds our rental housing development work. It funds our down payment and closing cost assistance work. It funds our CHOTO set aside work and it funds our single family rehab program. As I said, the allocation. We had a significant amount of carryover for home funds, dollars 3,787,820.

Why is that the case? We have a couple of large rental housing projects, one of them being the we have one, rather, large housing project, one of them being the Thurgood Marshall School adaptive reuse that we have committed to. That project, we have been working with them to get them to complete their capital stack with OFAA. We're hoping that they have resolved all of their issues and that they will be able to close on that project. We've committed about $3,000,000 to that project, and we are continuing to hold that with the hope that they will get to the finish line with that project.

They will be bringing 52 units of senior housing to our community, which is desperately needed. I have to go on record by saying that the remainder of the carryover is there because a lot of our nonprofit partners are having difficulty in complying with the project labor agreement requirements. We've had several nonprofits leave money on the table because of this requirement. Our East Toledo Family Center senior housing repair program, which is very critical to our seniors and left money on the table. Preferred properties declined funding.

Have NeighborWorks declined housing funding because of this difficulty. So right now, we the only two non profits in CHOTO's that are that have bitten the bullet and have tried to really come to grips with this PLA requirement is Historic South Initiative and Maumee Valley. And Pathways, these three organizations, I can say based on the allocations that they've received and the cost that these requirements have placed on their projects, you'll see this year that their performance metrics are a lot lower per project than they were in previous years where the PLA was required. We're forging ahead though and we're trying to deal with this, but I want you to note that the large carryover and the decline of funding to comply with this requirement is impacting our performance and the usage of the home dollars. The next entitlement grant program is the ESG program.

We received that provides emergency it's the emergency solutions grants that deals with homelessness issues. And we received $627,043, this year, a $19,386 reduction. I won't go over all of additional non entitlement dollars. You have that in your packet. But we also use these dollars.

We've had we use these dollars to do other programs and fund other needs in the community. You have a pie chart that shows how we are allocating and how we are proposing to allocate each one of these entitlement grants including the carryover. For CDBG, the bulk of the funding based on our priority needs which and Brian in the work to define priority needs for our CON plan, The consistent priority need that has come up for people is affordable housing. Affordable housing including housing repair, housing preservation, housing program services, the bulk of and the major priority need for the city is affordable housing. So with, we are dedicating at this time all of the carryover to affordable housing for a total of $2,300,000 which represents about 40% of the funding available to us, including the annual allocation and carryover dollars.

The next big chunk is 23% for neighborhood parks and community facilities. We have pushed over the last three years and the goal of this administration is to upgrade all of our parks and neighborhood playgrounds in our low and moderate income areas. So we're allocating $1,750,000 to this effort, representing 23% of our funding. The next biggest category is 18% for our planning and administration of these funds. Again, this 18%, 1,400,000.0, supports the administrative oversight of the program.

It supports the staffing of this program. We have a I think this year, we've got an FTE of about 35 full time employees. And out of those full time employees, six are supported by the general fund. The rest of the employees are supported by this 18% program administration and planning money. What do these people do?

Well, these people work to prepare these plans, work to do the application process, provide oversight over, develop the contracts for these fundings, conduct monitoring visits, process reimbursement vouchers, provide technical assistance, do the reporting to HUD, all of the things that are required to provide oversight over these funds and manage these funds and manage the third party partners that receive these funds, that 18% planning and administrative money funds that work. Then is our next highest category is public services at $1,056,247 about 14% of the allocation. But again, I want to stress that it's 14% when we include the carryover, but when we look at what exactly we're allocating to public services out of the allocation, it is 15%. We have $150,000 for economic development, which is a small amount of about 2%. We have capacity building.

We're excited about our Neighborhood's Capacity Building Institute. We just graduated our second cohort and this funding will be to provide the support for that institute for our third cohort. And then we have our neighborhood revitalization public services for $115,000 which the NRSA designation does allow us the flexibility if you are a community based development organization and you're doing public services in a NRSA. It allows us to not count the public service that public service amount towards the public service cap. And we have spent a lot of times encouraging our public service providers to apply for this CBD oil designation because we know that it gives us that flexibility.

So that's how we are proposing to spend the CDBG grant in line with the priorities that we've set and in line with the planning and admin needs to staff the department. I'm going to go into who we we've given you the and I think that's why most people are here. We've given you the allocations and the percentages and the slices of the total pot for CBG. I want to go over the organizations working with our CRC committees, the organizations that we have proposed to fund. We have the Arts Commission, $20,000 Cherry Street Mission, $50,000 Compassion Health of Toledo, a $120,000 Connecting Kids to Meals, $250,000 Grace Community Center, $52,000 Legal Aid of Western Ohio, a 125,000 Martin Luther King, Kitchen for the Poor, 75,000.

Neighborhood Health Association, a $154,006.47. Sophia Contaro, a 145,000. The neighborhood church, 14,800. Toledo grows $50,000 for a total of 1,056,247, which again is 15% of our allocation. Should this council want to make a decision to fund someone else that had a public service project that is not included in that list, we will have to make some decisions of who we're going to cut across the board for this part of funding.

It's impossible for us to take money away from categories below. We'll have to make some decisions for those public service entities. NRSA public service activities, again, because the CBEDO is in a NRSA area, Belief Center, their public service of $115,000 we again have that flexibility to not include it in that cap. Affordable housing, our rooftop program has been very successful. We've done hundreds of roofs today.

We want to continue with that program. We are really emphasizing that program because if your roof goes, the rest of your house goes. And with the cost of construction, we want to make sure we continue that. We're allocating $396,821 to continue that program. We would like to set up what we're calling a housing preservation funds because needs come up, multifamily trouble multifamily properties come up, and we want a fund that has the flexibility during the year where we can deploy some money again in line with the housing preservation needs and the increasing cost for housing preservation in the city.

So we are allocating $300,000 of our annual allocation to that program and all of our carryover of $728,799 for what we're calling a flexible affordable housing preservation fund of 1,028,799 million Historic South Initiative has an excellent project for they're going to be doing a modular house in the Historic South. We're allocating $250,000 for that project. Maumee Valley Habitat for Humanity, we're allocating $450,000 to them to continue their rooftops replacement program. This is in addition to the rooftops program that we administer as a city. I think with Maumee Valley and our and the city's program, we're probably doing about 60 roofs a year, which is which is is significant.

Pathways senior emergency repair for housing, dollars 350,000. Then $100,000 for housing division staff, the staff that administers these programs. So that's the 40% housing monies housing 40% percentage of the allocation and the carryover that we are recommending. Our planning and admin budget of $1,409,392 And again, that 1820%, rather, is 20% of the allocation and then 18% when you add to carryover dollars to that. A $160,000 of that goes to the Fair Housing Center, our partner for their housing services that they provide to the community.

Economic development, we'll be doing a small grant this year for NRSA businesses with the economic development department, dollars 100,000. Women of Toledo, technical assistance program of $50,000 for a total of $150,000 For neighborhood parks and community centers, we just closed on a $2,000,000 Section 108 loan to upgrade the Chats de Blocchi Center and Belief Center and do some work to the East Toledo Family Center. We're programming $200,000 of debt service to that Section 108 for those programs. And allocating $1,000,000 again for parks and playground upgrades in low and moderate income areas. Dollars 2 and 50,000 for the Mayor Senior Center repair, roof repair, and then $300,000 for the Lutheran Social Services building expansion for a total of $1,750,000 or 25% of our allocation.

Code enforcement, we continue to fund the Lucas County Health District rodent control program and then of course the $150,000 for the neighborhood capacity building institute. So those are the organizations and the initiatives that we are funding with our total CDBG allocation and carryover. For the home funds, home admin, we have $196,000 which is about 4% of the home allocation plus the carryover. Our CHOTO set aside is about 14%. And you can see again for CHOTO set aside, we're carrying over quite a bit again because of this issue of leaving funding on the table, grappling with the PLA issue.

Homeowner rehabilitation, we're carrying over funding as well. That is about 24% of the allocation. And then rental housing development, as I said, we're carrying over a significant amount of funding for some projects that we have committed to. And finally, our down payment and closing cost assistance. So the pie chart again shows you how we're allocating these funds in the buckets that we are doing that we are planning on spending them on.

And the final entitlement block grant program is ESG, dollars 627,043. Beach House, 150,000. Cherry Street Mission, 26,225 thousand dollars Family House, 75,500. St. Paul's Community Center, 125,000.

United Way of Greater Toledo, $48,005.39. We're giving some of the administration of those dollars to the Homelessness Board, dollars 47,028. And then $155,251 again to the homelessness bores to operate the HMIS and support that program. So I'm going to stop there because I know a lot of people have questions how we got there, how we made the decisions, and stop and open it up to questions at this time.

Thank you very much. And I just wanna take a minute to recognize councilwoman McPherson Williams and council member. Thank you for joining us. And I wanna take a moment to thank the citizen review committee for volunteering your time and all the hard work you put into that. If anyone on council has any questions?

Alright. Councilwoman Williams.

I don't have any questions at this time. I just wanted to make sure that

we

just hear the folks that are here that need to speak, and then maybe we can allot for questions after that from us. Is that okay?

Sure. Okay. Thanks. Councilman Sratu.

Thank you, madam chair. Do the site committee I'm sorry. The citizens review committee, do they make site visits, physical site visits to the various applicants?

They have the option to do site visits. Really a time constraint when we're doing the interviews and they're reviewing the applications. Some of them have taken it upon themselves to do it afterwards, but not during the review process. We have to remember that this is the citizen review committee members have regular full time jobs and they're already volunteering their time to review and score. You're talking anywhere from about 35 to 40 applications. So for them to try incorporate the site visits is a little hard. So that's why we bring the agencies in for them to do the interviews and to talk about their agency, provide any additional information that is needed or requested at that time.

And when you bring them in, are the committee members there?

Yes.

Okay.

All the committee members are there. The agencies can bring whoever they would like to to do the presentations. We've had it in the past where they brought brought clients in or they do they do PowerPoints or they may do a video. So they have the opportunity to present their a their agency at that interview.

Excellent. Because, again, it's it's one thing to look at papers and evaluate numbers and statements that are being made, but it's another thing to hear from the leadership of those agencies as well as clients. So I'm glad to hear that. Thank you. Thank you, madam chair.

Regarding site visits, visits, I also wanna just just point out that the the the program monitors visits every single third party partners on a monthly basis. Every single third party partners. I I know they complain that it's over kill, but every month, a member of our staff is at those agencies providing monitoring. So they're familiar with the site. They're familiar with what they're with with with what they're doing.

Very good. Thank you.

Thank you. Just a quick reminder that there is a sign up sheet next to the door when you came in. If you'd like to sign up to talk about community development block grants or anything else you'd like to bring before council. And there is water because I know it is warm in here. Help yourself too, class. Did you wanna continue or did you wanna have

No. I think what we I think I'd like to take questions at this time and and hear from some of the community members.

Okay. Great. That's what I was thinking too. Evan, when you get a minute, could you go get the sign in sheet, please? Thank you.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Yes. Thank you for thus far this part of the report but I do while we're waiting for that, just a couple of questions on some updates. Your roofing program that we're doing, I won't say your roof, but the roofing program. I know it's been effective, but can you give us, like, how many or

a range of I know this year, we've and and I've got to get you those numbers. I know this year, we've brought we've done at least 30 roofs, and there are more in our pipeline. So I can get you the I by referral, I can get you the exact number of of what we've done since the program started. And I can tell you we're about out of applications now, so we're thinking about how we're going to develop the next pipeline, whether we're going to do another lottery or whether we're going to have some sort of targeted engagement and go door to door in some of our NARSA area. So I can I can tell you exactly how many we've done and how many remain in the pipeline by referral?

Okay. I appreciate that. And also, that was the next part of it because I've had people ask me about how do they get into that the roofing. We'll see. And we had, at one time, the application process timeline was closed.

Our it's all that's the second phase of looking at how we're gonna do it again for those that are still in need of roofs. Yeah. Appreciate that. And then I'm I'm going ahead because I'm looking where you allocating money for, the homelessness board. And, you know, last year or this winter, we had some cold weather severe cold weather, and and you and I and many others are trying to make places for those persons.

Are we is that a part of allocation that we would then look at how we can facilitate in the event of those severe cold weather?

Yeah. We we we're looking at Saint Paul again for a winter crisis. And one of the things we did, we used some housing stability funds from our ERA allocation. We stood up. I think there were three winter crisis centers that we're planning to do the same thing this year. We did get some support, I think, from Mercy Hospital. So we're thinking ahead, and we're going have at least three winter crisis centers on the coldest day of the year that we're working gonna work in partnership with the homelessness boards to set up.

Okay. Thank you. That's what I'm wanting us to be proactive in looking at that and having that set up because thank you, doctor Clemens. We were scrambling trying to find those places, and I think Frederick Douglass Center was one that opened and allowed, you know, for that. But if we can have that set up so that in the event that that happens, everybody is on board and we know how to move from there. So thank you for your work on that during that bad weather time. I don't have any other questions right now because this is kind of a lot to digest right now, but thank you for your work.

Thank you. And I just wanna take a minute to recognize councilman Driscoll. Welcome. With that, clerk, do you wanna go through the list? Alright.

The first speaker on our list is Joe Baldares. You'd come forward.

Thank you so much. My name is Joe Waldares, and I'm with the Sofia Confederate Art and Cultural Center. We're located at the Old South Ann. And we just had a big improvement on Broadway. It's finally completed. So he can now go both ways. I manage the community garden. We call it BUG, which is for our Broadway Urban Garden green space. And we have over 60 raised beds. Ours are four by 20, so we can grow a lot of produce.

And we grow pesticide free produce that we give away to there's a food pantry. I believe it's operated by Immaculate Conception. It's only half a block from us, so it's really close. And so everything that we grow, we average close to 3,000 pounds a year of fresh produce that we give 100% free to the community outreach center. And we deliver it on Tuesdays, Wednesdays when they open their doors, and people with food security issues come and get fresh produce.

We are their only providers of fresh produce. Everything they get is either frozen, canned, or boxed. And sometimes when they do get some produce, it's old, it's moldy. But ours is fresh. These people when they're taking produce home don't realize that that piece of produce was on the vine less than twenty four hours ago. And sometimes we even harvest that day. So it's been on the vine four hours. But this is what we do. We thought it was we didn't think we know there's a need. We're in an area that's considered a food desert.

We have one grocery store with limited produce. We have a lot of carry outs that sell what I call the three basic things in their eyes is beer, cigarettes, and cell phones. And some of them don't even sell bread and milk and eggs. But we've been there doing this work for the community for eight years. And I started the program with just a few gardens.

And then when our location is the old Jones Junior High School on Broadway between Wabridge and Crittenden. And when they tore down the school, they buried the brick, the steel, on the grounds. And I used to make jokes about it because they said that the ground was so bad, the weeds weren't even growing. And so we built raised beds. We brought in fresh saw. We purchased it with the help of Toledo Grows. And so we have now have grown tremendously. We started with a few beds. Now we're up to 60. And we continue to improve our system.

We put in an underground watering system that was donated to us by a friendly guy. And he paid for all the equipment, the tubing, the lines. And so we are now able to water in the old days, I used to actually take 55 gallon barrels and hand water them. But now we are getting modern, you might say. And so it's very important that we receive funding, like I said, because we're the only ones that are doing this in the area.

We've given produce to the food pantries. We've given produce to Mosaic. We've given produce to the senior center there on South by the fire station. I can't think of the name of it. I think it's Oragonsalis. But this is what we do. And now I have an assistant that helps me. And so we're there pretty I'm there sometimes seven days a week. It's really hard sometimes I go there and just turn the watering system just to make sure that gets water. So I always look forward to the rain weather forecast.

I pay close attention to that because it's very important that we keep our plants healthy. And this year we're doing very, very, very well. Like I said, we're averaging probably close to 3,000 pounds of produce and what we grow is tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, different kinds of peppers, different kinds of green lettuces. And what I've learned from there is I grow the basics because the people of poverty are people that are suffering food security. I don't grow crazy fancy stuff because honestly they don't know what it is.

Don't grow herbs because they don't understand what herbs is. I've learned that for some of them it's ketchup, mustard, mayo, salt, and pepper. But we are trying to teach them what you can do with some of the produce. Because sometimes we take produce and they'll ask me, well, how do I cook this? How would I use it?

I explain you can do this and this and this with it. So it's very important that we continue to do what we're doing, especially now with what's the current administration and they're cutting back food stamps. And I've talked to other agencies. They're not getting the food like they used to. And so it's getting very, very difficult.

And we've learned that the hunger is creating it's just growing. It's going in the wrong direction. And we're learning that people that both people are working, both father and mother are working, they're still having a hard time making ends meet. None of the prices ever go down. They never go down.

Like I said, we put in all that work and all that effort and all that time and all that, and we give it away 100% free. So it's very important that we continue to do this because who's going to do it? It's a hot, sweaty job. And so you have to realize somebody's got to be doing this. And they just had the story in the blade the other day about the church in Oregon is going to start growing a garden because they were saying that they too when they visit the food pantries, there's a lack of fresh produce or any kind of produce.

So we're doing this because we have to. I think we have to address food security issues. There's a lot of little mom and pa food pantries. When they get stuff, they give it away. Then they're closed because they didn't get anything. But we continue to be vigilant of our produce, our property, our land, our soil. And we try to make it better every year. Try to Okay, what can we grow this year and how can we grow it even more? And so this year we put up a little vertical system. It's got 40 pots.

So we can grow four times four. We can grow 160 plants in there. So we're growing lettuces and things like that in there. So we really need your help. We really need your support because we're the only ones in the area doing this. And we're trying to help people with food security issues. It's sad when and you know it's true when kids can't concentrate in school because they're hungry. It's very distressing to see that. And we never turn anybody away that comes to the garden and say, hey, can I have this? Can I have that?

And I said, not a problem. And we make sure they get a good healthy bag worth of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, whatever they want. We try to make sure that they can take something home. And you tell them if you're hungry again, come back next week and we'll see what we can do with you. So please, please help us. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. It's really important, especially now. Councilwoman Williams.

King, I have a question. Just one question for you, if you if you will. You guys are working with USDA as well. Right?

We're just starting to

Okay.

We just we just got

our our farm number. Right.

But to tell you the truth, we've been trying to contact that person

Uh-huh.

And we're not getting anywhere. Yeah. Good luck. I don't know if been rough. With with what's going on with the administration if they did away with that office, but we're just not connecting.

But you got your number.

But we

have our number.

So and you're one of how many in the city of Toledo that has that number?

I that I don't know. I can't tell you that.

Okay.

I you know.

I think it's 3. Yeah. I know. Because I over there telling me. Okay. I just wanted to make sure. Thank you for what you We appreciate what you do and I appreciate the committee for recommending to provide you with funding this year. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Thanks.

Thank you so much. Our next speaker is William Farnzell.

Good afternoon. Thank you. Thank you, councilman Gaddis. Thank you to the rest of the city council members here today. My name is William Farnesyl. I'm chief executive officer of NeighborWorks Toledo region, neighborhood housing service of Toledo. You know, on my way into work this morning, I heard on Ohio public radio an announcement that there was a there was going to be new plant built in Columbus, $900,000,000. And they're going to build military drones for sale to the Department of Defense. They're gonna create 4,000 jobs, and that plan is gonna be inside the city of Columbus. Sounds like a great home run.

Sounds like a great economic development impact in that community. There's a lot of things happening in Columbus. It's the center of the state. There's a lot of things happening there. We don't get those kinds of home runs very often here in Toledo. I don't recall the last one other than Amazon. But what NeighborWorks Toledo does in operating the financial wellness center is we have to work economic development with individual households. We are a public service public service funding recipient, but we're an economic development activity because we teach people to fish. We don't feed them. We're not a feeding program, and I wouldn't begin to try to match what Joe does.

But we teach people how to gain stability for their household. We help them get benefits through the Ohio benefits program. We help them with tax returns. We filed over 700 tax returns. This past tax season, we brought close to $1,000,000 in tax returns through families in Toledo this past year.

On average, we are assisting families to go into job search and our average job improvement yields $14,000 household for those who obtain new employment. For people that we help with their credit score to help them better, they have on average a 50 to 60 increase in their credit score. We help people reduce debt. We on average have helped people reduce their debt, their household debt by a thousand dollars. Doesn't sound like a lot, but if you're at the lower end of the spectrum, everything helps.

That's the importance of the financial wellness center. That's what we do on a day in day out basis. I'm asking city council to take a look at the budget that's been presented by the department. The department makes a very compelling statement. It's very well thought out. There's process or citizens review. There's you know, they have to they have to make choices. They present the list to the mayor. The mayor blesses it, brings it down, and gives it to you. Alright?

But I'm asking you to go past the Hobson's Choice. The Hobson's Choice is this. Every time, well, we can't give you money. If you're not funded, we can't give you money because if we do, we have to take it away from somebody else. A Hobson's Choice because it puts it on you because you don't wanna disappoint anybody, but at the same time, you wanna make sure the citizens of Toledo are well served.

The Hobson's choice that I'm gonna give you now is that we were informed by the department of housing and community development that NeighborWorks, the financial wellness center that has been in business since 2017 meeting every goal, every threshold, every year not to receive funding this year. Now that's a shock because we've met every goal. As a matter of fact, neighborhood housing services of Toledo has been a grantee every year with the city to lead with block grant money since 1982. And every year we have met our goals. We've been timely with our applications, timely with our reports.

We've met every we've met every threshold put in front of us. But yet this year, we're recommended for zero funding. Now I'm so I'm gonna ask you to take on that Hobson's Choice head on, and I'm gonna ask you to take a look at the budget presented for public service and find some way to draw some resources together so that people so that citizens of Toledo can get help from the financial wellness center so they can gain greater economic stability. We're gonna have to do it family by family until Toledo can start getting home runs and getting their $900,000,000 drone plant inside the city limits producing 4,000 jobs. Yes.

It's a shame that we have families at the level where they need to go to food banks and and take donated vegetables and and kind of scrape by. It's it's it's terrible. But until we can change that economic pattern here, there's not much we can do to help them other than work with them one by one. That's what we do. Now, if you think that's important work, then I ask you to consider scraping together some money, making some choices, working with that budget, and putting together something so that the financial wellness center can help more people.

Now one criticism that I heard that was told, we have low production. You only had 92 units of counseling this year. That's that's lower than virtually anybody else that we support. Yes. We are under contract for 92 units because that was the amount of money given us under contract.

But I just mentioned that we completed over 700 tax returns. We had over 700 counseling contacts. Alright? So 92 is the number that we sell you, but clearly, we do way more than that. Last year, when we're doing when we're involved in homeowner occupied rehab through weatherization, I think our contract obligation was 60 or 70 homes completed and we delivered 62.

And for every year that we've been under contract with the city of Toledo, we deliver precisely what we contract with. But it doesn't mean that's the only thing we do. And it doesn't mean that's the only production that we have. We do way more. We have a lot of funding partners. Citi being one of them. Another criticism was, So gee whiz, you just reduced your staff. How do you possibly have the capacity? Yes, we increased our staff in order to take on the Toledo Lucas County emergency rental program, rental relief program, ERAP. We staffed up to 12.

And when that program came to an end, we tried to carry all 12 members, all 12 coaches couldn't. We had to lay some people off. We now have a staff, we have a core staff of five. And in order to prevent further layoffs, I, as CEO, cut my own salary by 23%. I, as CEO, cut my hours at work by another 20% so that I can narrow my financial footprint was another criticism. Well, too much overhead. Top heavy. Yes. Top heavy. I've been at this since 1981.

I'm going to get some pay increases over time. Yes, my rate of pay might be a little higher than everybody else on staff, but it's because you've got longevity here. You've forty five years. All right? Not just a flash in the pan, but forty five years. So I've seen a lot of things come and go. And I've seen councils change the budget, make some adjustments, and put some money where there can be a different kind of assistance to the people. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to make comments. And I ask your support in providing some funding for the financial wellness center near work's Toledo region. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Williams. Thank you so much. They're unaware. Stay up here, Bill.

So I want I just want to clarify for my colleagues that the CDBG dollars that were asked in this budget were for the Financial Wellness Center. Right?

Right.

Okay. Okay. The question that I have that I'll ask in public is, last year, there were some dollars left on the table that you returned, and then this year, some were were returned. Can you talk to that? Yes.

I said at the the agenda review, I wanted to make sure we have a clear view. I know we have been discussing behind the scenes, but I wanna bring this public because this is something and I have a report that was a list report you sent to list Yes. On on what what you've done over this reporting period. But I wanna know the number that was left on the table for the twenty four year and the number that's gonna be left for the twenty five year. And if director Clemens has it, that's fine. But if you have it, I'll I'll ask you that. And as to why was why weren't those funding dollars used?

Yes. So accounting is not my end of the business, so I'm going to guess and Director Clemens can correct. We left approximately $24,000 maybe $25,000 on the table from the forty ninth year contract because that was the one before. This current one is the fiftieth year contract. And in conversation with Director Clemens, she says that we're going to leave about 40,000 on the table.

Now, we've not submitted our June invoice yet. And we really don't know where we're at accounting wise because we've not been paid for March, April or May. So, it will depend upon what we receive. We invoice every month. We don't always get what we invoice.

I can't totally explain that. I'm sure that the administration can explain that. So what happens is the block grant application process is announced in January. You submit a full application with all the attachments in February. You come before the review committee in March, and typically there's allocations conversation that happens in May in preparation of a contract period that begins July 1.

Well, when you apply in January and you meet with the Citizens Review Committee in February, a lot of things can change. And what happened to us this year was we had to lay people off because we didn't have the money to carry them. And any time you make a change in your budget, any time you make a change in your full time equivalent, any time you make a change in the pay rate, any time you make a change in the cost of benefits, that triggers the need to make a budget adjustment or a budget modification. And so you go through the process and if your budget modification is greater than 10%, you have to have it by a board action, you have to have the board president sign off, you have to submit it, and then it goes into a thirty to maybe forty five, maybe sixty day review process. All that time that passes by, you're either trying to draw money down at your old rate because you're not approved for the new rate.

By the time you're approved for the new rate, that time has already passed. Anytime you have a change in your budget, you're going to lose traction. You're going to lose ground. You try to make it up with a year end budget adjustment, but that year end budget adjustment may take thirty five, forty days to approve. And then you don't know what your rates are going to be.

So it's a budgeting game that we are constantly changing. Here's another difficulty, too. See, we pay every two weeks, but the system I'm sorry, we have 26 pay periods, so we pay every two weeks. The city system is really set up for paying twice a month. That way you don't lose any traction for crossover months, two crossover months during the year. So every time there's a change in what you do with pay or personnel, you lose ground.

There's a match too, right?

There is a match. Now the department has has you commit that you're gonna have dollar for dollar match. If you only have dollar for dollar match, you are not going to make it. You really need about a dollar 50 to a dollar 75 on the dollar. Why? Because when you submit an invoice, you may not get paid for ninety days. That's where we're at right now.

Okay. And what what will it look like? Because the city is not the only funding source for your financial opportunity center or financial wellness. What does it look like if this council decides to go with the recommendations of the housing and community development? What will happen to?

We will instantly lose one coach and we may have to put a second coach. Of our five, we're going to lose one coach and then we're probably going have to put another coach on part time, half time. And we're already at three locations. We're at the Mercy Family Care Center on Frank Clarkcroft and

Franklin Bancroft.

Thank you. Easy for We you to have

a coach stationed at the JFS Center at 3737 Sylvania Avenue. We have a coach stationed at 2268 Ashland. And then we have our home base at 704 2nd Street. So we're spread pretty thin. And we hold homebuyer education twice a month.

So we're spread pretty thin. If we do not get funding this year from the city for a twelve months, we're definitely going to have to lay off. And then we'll have to work to find ways to backfill that. We've been a partner with the city for a long time and I'm not saying this to mean that everything is forever. Nothing is forever. We know that. But we have a proven track record. Forty five years should say something.

But we're still partnering with other ways, correct? Like we still have other partnerships, right? This is for the Financial wellness center? I just want to make sure that everyone knows so we aren't confused.

Well, we partner for the home buyer fair. We do that every year. This past June was the second where we were the headliner with the homebuyer education. I think we trained 50 people for homebuyer education during that event. Now you've caught me because I'll think of it later but that's the only thing I can think of right now.

Okay. Do you have the numbers, Director Clemens? Know you were pulling stuff And then I'm done, Chair.

I want to say we certainly appreciate the work that NeighborWorks does and we appreciate the long term partnership. But one of the things we have tried to do is to really look at the performance of these organizations and to look at the what they're doing in terms of leaving money on the table. We looked at the performance metrics of other FOCs in the city Pathways, Hospital Council, Lucas Housing Services, Lutheran Social Services. And we can get you that data in terms of a referral. Mr.

Farnesyl talked about tax returns number. Well, there are comparable numbers for the other FLCs that are operating under smaller budgets. We looked at the trend of what's left on the table. Last year, it was 20 about what, dollars 32,000. This year, we're tracking to leave $43,000 on the table.

When you look at the 24 or so nonprofits that we have and we provide oversight with, who tends to leave the largest amount on the table? Who do we tend to have issues with in terms of reimbursements and reconciliation? So all of those things come into play when we make these tough decisions. And I don't want to get into the weeds any further here. But this is these are tough times for this city.

And I want to say the last under my tenure the last five years, we've made some tough decisions. We've streamlined how we're spending our funding and we're looking at performance. We're looking at performance. We're looking at what you leave on the table. We're comparing you with practices and other metrics. And that's all that I'm going to say. Should this council want to find some funding and make some reallocations, reallocations, we'll be happy to work with you to do that. But we've got some tough decisions. I wish we could fund everybody. We've got some tough decisions to make and particularly when you're leaving money on the table.

You talk about our process, our reimbursement process, our budget adjustment process. It's not easy because we have to comply with HUD. Everyone else does. For the most part people get it. You know people comply. The ones that there are some a few of them including NeighborWorks I'll go on record that we see a trend of leaving funding on the table. So that's the we want the fiscal discipline of our nonprofits because these are hard dollars and we want to make sure that we are using them in an impactful and efficient manner.

Thank you.

So I'll close with that and we can provide anything data to support the reconciliation problems that we have with the leaving money on the table and we can work with counsel for some readjustment if you so if you so desire.

Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Farnesyl.

Thank

you.

Our next speaker is Veronica Martinez.

Thank you. My name is Veronica Martinez. I'm a managing attorney with Legal Aid of Western Ohio. I have been with Legal Aid of Western Ohio for the last twenty years, and I am here to ask that the council accept the recommendation of the citizen review committee for a $125,000. We have asked for a 125,000 to provide legal services to a 190 low income- moderate income city of Toledo residents with a housing crisis- in past years- we are going to continue to provide eviction defense.

Annually, there are roughly 6,000 evictions in the city of Toledo. It is trending upward as it is nationally due to the increased high cost of rents post pandemic and the lack of rental assistance now that those COVID dollars have dried up. Folks are finding difficulty in finding new housing housing because of those increased rents. So trying to keep them in the housing that they have is even more important at this time. The when possible, we work with landlords to do payment plans to get both sides caught up.

And if not, we are looking to delay the eviction so that that household can have time to move and make it a plan to move so that they are hopefully not homeless. And then we also set up that move so that the tenants are eligible for eviction record ceiling. The city of Toledo is is one of the few jurisdictions in Toledo that allows for eviction record ceiling. And as we know, future landlords check your eviction record in the Toledo Municipal Court docket. And the more that you have, the less likely, again, that folks will find housing in the future.

We also address conditions issues and utility and water shutoffs. We always engage in pre litigation negotiation with the landlord. And if that is unsuccessful, we will file an action in the Toledo Municipal Court. We recently had a win where a landlord was the story was actually featured on the news. The landlord rented the property without water service and was unable to get water service.

Thousands and thousands dollars of repairs were needed. And so we filed suit and were able to get redress for that tenant. We represent folks in terminations of section eight vouchers at LMH administrative hearings or in their denials of applications for subsidized housing with LMH. We also do homeownership issues with these dollars. And

a lot

of times lately, that has been for our low to mod residents, has been mobile home homeownership. So if they own their mobile home but are behind on their lot rent, they can face eviction and lose their investment, possibly their largest investment in that mobile home property. And so we address those issues. We also address land contracts or rent to own issues and have recently filed several quiet title actions in Lucas County. I'm pleased to actually have those deeds put in our clients names- when needed we will file objections and appeals to the sixth district court of appeals- and as I mentioned- we assist with eviction record sealing and regularly run clinics for eviction record sealing.

This past year that we just completed, we are on track to expand the entire award of $75,000 We had contracted to assist 135 households. We are assisting 171. So when I say that we will assist a 190, that's kind of like our low level, we typically exceed those numbers. And for the dollars that we have asked for with the match at a 190 households, that would be roughly $1,300 per household to have their housing stabilized and secure. So we are asking that the council, as I indicated, accept that recommendation.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is David Johnson.

First of all, I'm David Johnson with and Whitney Alumni Association. I wasn't sure about this meeting and if we should even come.

Sir, will you raise your mic, please?

So far as the meeting, I wasn't clear on the context of the meeting. But we're here for Malcolm and Whitney Alumni Association who also is in partnership with Johnson Produce Company. And we have made application for the grant for a greenhouse project an extension for people in the inner city to have access to quality produce in the city. People probably would be more aware of Johnson Produce Company. But the Macom and Whitney Alumni Association is a nonprofit which they work on job training, skilled trades.

And for the greenhouse, we have acquired a property of which Johnson Produce is also going to be building a new produce market in the city. The greenhouse is gonna also have a pavilion which would include learning space. As I was saying, I wasn't quite clear on this meeting, but if anyone have any questions, we'll be happy to answer those questions.

Councilwoman Williams?

Where's the new Johnson produce? Because, you know

We have acquired a property at 2911 Nebraska Avenue.

Okay. Alright. Thank you.

Councilwoman Fairston.

Thank you. So you did apply. Is that what you're saying?

Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. We did apply, and I there was some question about the audit or review, which we've obtained. And I guess it was somewhat, late compared to what what they what they did. They asked us to provide a a review. And at that time, it was in the middle of tax season, and we were put on a waiting list. But we have acquired it, and they have we've submitted, and they received it.

And you've acquired property at 2911 Nebraska?

That is correct.

And you are the the owner right there at Pulaski in Nebraska? The market

Oh, yes, ma'am.

At Pulaski in Nebraska?

Am I? Yeah. Yes.

What's the question? You are the owner of the market at Pulaski And Nebraska. Don't be nervous, man. You don't don't it ain't that deep.

No. No. I'm just trying to answer your question. I'm trying to understand what you're asking me.

You are mister Johnson?

Yes, ma'am. David Johnson.

Thank you.

Okay.

Your market is fantastic.

Well, thank you, ma'am.

And you said you want to do a greenhouse and then you wanna have learning space?

Yes. It'll be a pavilion connected to that. We actually have some rendering if you guys wanna see or if you we probably don't have time for that now. But

No. Just just wanna be clear in what you're seeking. And what was your ask?

We we we had asked $250,000 for the project. We're gonna put an at least that much in addition to to that project.

And would you still remain on Nebraska and Pulaski?

There has been a question. It's not very far from the new location, probably less definitely less than a mile, probably about three quarters of a mile. So the question is, do we continue both? You know, that's that's that'll be a discussion to be had.

Funding. Is this the only funding that you are seeking or have you sought out other funding for this project also?

Not for this portion of it, but yes, we're seeking other funding. Listen, we as we normally do over at Johnson Produce, we plan to move forward with the project one way or the other. So we seek the funding if we can get it. And if we can't get it, we seek other places, but we do have funds that we can contribute.

Okay. Thank you, mister Johnson.

Okay. Any other questions?

Yes. And if you could answer, I know you're going there. Thank you. Thank you.

So with Macomber Whitney Alumni Association, they did apply last year through the regular process. We did not approve them. There was a lot of issues with the application. We did have a one on one meeting with them. When we did the application for this year, it was after the fact that we allowed him to submit a proposal just to see what he was offering.

Part of the reason why we were not able to work with them is because he did not have an audit for the Macomber Whitney Association, and that's one of our requirements is an audit or financial review of that agency. So we were not able to proceed with anything because at the time that we submitted legislation, we did not have a complete packet application packet for them.

However, we have we have received the audit and submitted it to their organization. We did get information late so far as the application process. However, we work with it, and we got the information that they requested in. They did come out after we were denied last year. They did a walk through, a review, and they design they decided that they would like to fund this project for this year.

No. We said we would seek proposal to see if we could fund it or not.

Okay. Thank you, mister Johnson. To this, is there a a class or some assistance in when we have people that want to apply but don't necessarily understand the process and the request and all of the paperwork

Yes.

So that we don't have issues like this. Yeah.

One one of the things that we have started, it's what we call a concept meeting. We invite organizations to come and meet with us and talk to us about their ideas. What's your concept? What is it that I will need to submit? Out of that concept meeting, we give them guidance on what is required for the application. What do you need? You need an application. You need a board. You need your board minutes. You need financial reporting.

We need to see what the strength of your organization is. We need to see what your match is. We need to see the work plan for the activity that you are proposing. So the first time they applied, there were issues. Think they wanted to do a banquet center and a greenhouse.

There was some ambiguity in terms of the proposed activities. But I wanted to I'm a proponent of urban ag and I wanted to see what they were actually doing. So I did go out with my team and we looked at their urban garden, we looked at their farm. And what I offered was to have them send in a proposal this year that clearly documented and focused the activity from the banquet hall to the urban garden, focus the activity, provide financials, provide evidence of site control and that we would indeed consider funding the greenhouse. And I believe that we were waiting for that prior to making the recommendations and up until the time that we presented the ordinance, it hadn't come in yet.

So that's basically where we are. In addition to the concept meetings, we do have meetings for our new applicants as well as mandatory meetings for all of the applicants. Staff is available at any time to provide technical assistance. I personally met with their team and talked, you know, talked through what would be the requirements are. So we one of the things I'm stressing with the staff is not just about monitoring, it's also about mentoring and getting the applicants up to the standard where we can accept an application.

We recommend some of them to come to the Capacity Building Institute so that their future applications can be better. So we this is an organization that we I think we've coached and we want to fund. It's just a matter of not getting the information by the time we we put the recommendations together.

I I would

Thank you. Hold hold up. Thank you, doctor Clements. Thank you also because I'm I'm with doctor Williams I mean, councilwoman Williams. Okay.

Speak it. When we talk about in open dialogue so that everybody understands that these decisions are are based upon the process and that we're following the process and that there is preparation in assisting persons that want to apply for these fundings. And that's why I'm asking those questions because Because I want everybody to hear that there is a process and that you do put it out where they can come to the library. I I've seen it where you've said that in in the meeting places and where you can be coached. I am disappointed that and and mister Johnson applying for two years in a row and and and not getting to that not getting through the process because of late documents that you will not give up, but that you will then try and apply again.

No. We we gave up every document they re that they requested. As a matter of fact, they had a couple concept meetings. We've been to every single meeting that they requested us to come. Everyone.

You, sir. Because I would like to see this this I'm I'm with doctor Clemens. I would like to see this this growing agriculture to grow, especially in the neighborhood that it's in. That's my neighborhood right around the corner. And it is desperately needed. Absolutely. You are doing a blessing and feeding many right there at Pulaski and Nebraska and have been for many years.

Yes, ma'am.

So so I say that to say deadlines are important. And we can't and we're not being mean, but deadlines are important. They're set there for a reason. And sometimes you may not have the necessary documents at that time, but you know this is coming. This is something that has been done for many, many years.

So preparedness is another act that we must act upon. Starting now, you gotta start getting your documents and your things in order so that you can apply and be ready and on time. Because if doctor Clemens and her department says, oh, we're gonna let this person bring in late documents and it it gets out, then our whole system is in trouble. And we have deadlines because of the process that everybody has to go through, and we have to adhere to that. And so I'm I'm saying this publicly so everybody can understand how it is and what we do and why we do what we do on a every year basis.

Okay? And I want mister Johnson in that marketplace to grow on Nebraska. And if there are some other ways that we can assist, I'm gonna have some further conversations with, Councilwoman Williams and and and, director Clemens that we can assist in this in other areas, areas, in in other other ways?

Yeah. You know, this is what this is the reason why we stood we have stood up the capacity building institute. Time and time again, we see organizations with good ideas. Imagine if we award $250,000 to an organization. We haven't seen their books. We don't know what their revenue is. We don't know what their budget is. We don't know how they're spending their money. We don't know if their accounting practices are correct. We it jeopardizes the entire The program.

The entire funding for the city. So this is an example of a a great idea of an organization that means simply needs help with capacity. And that's the I recommend that they go become a member of the third capacity building cohort to help with budgeting and developing your books. But again, this is this is an example. We see this time and time again. We must do the hard work to build up these organizations that are that are in the community and actually doing good work so that we don't jeopardize our funding when we when we are when we are monitored and when we have to defend how we how we award these dollars.

So I thank you for that, and I would would offer the opportunity to sit down later with mister Johnson and councilwoman Williams because this is her district. And and and and and doctor Clemens to see where else we can assist and teach to grow because we want this to grow. We have to have this to grow because it's important to that community. So thank you, mister Johnson.

Thank you.

Thank you. That was I would recommend the capacity cohort. I'm a fan of it. It's really done some wonders for people in my district. Councilwoman doctor Jones.

First, I just wanna echo just the importance of that capacity building mainly because, when it comes to farmers, you all are just focused on growing. So like the administrative side, the sometimes the business side, the assistance is needed, the deadlines, you know, having somebody else to take care of all of that administrative side, that is what what needs to happen. So as far as just preparing for that deadline, I would say even the marketing of getting prepared for the next capacity institute, that will help out for those who, you know, are out there, you know, and and not necessarily within the HR kind of capacity, the office kind of kind of capacity. So that's just some of the conversations that I've been hearing from a lot of growers and aside from those who have, like, nonprofits attached to them. These are more the for profit and and market aspects.

But I would ask mister Johnson, what is the minimum amount that you would need to get this project

The whole time. All the way. And I agree with them in theory, but they have received what they requested, and we were in the communication with the office the whole time. So it's not like we somehow forgot.

Oh, no. That wasn't implied.

Was just saying. Okay. It definitely wasn't We implied. Was just did due diligence to fulfill their requirements. Okay. And so we welcome the opportunity to talk with whomever and come to some type of resolution.

Well, are some things in the works regarding urban ag, but as package in in the different components of those gaps that are happening, whether systemic or financial. So there will be follow-up with that, but that's why I asked, what is the minimum amount that you would need for a project like this so we would have an idea?

Well, as I stated before, we are going to also put money to the project that will lessen the load of what will be needed because we're talking about you guys should see the project a complex, not just we're talking about a new market, we're talking about a large greenhouse, we're talking about education facilities in a place that's close to the University of Toledo. We have University of Michigan students that have been assisting us with the project. They're design students. We've been working with Bowling Green and the University of Toledo. We just think that the city should be a part of this growth so that when it happens, it'll be a project that we share rather than when we we we'll be doing it with you rather than despite of you.

Well, we can definitely get together to talk more about that just to see what is needed. Like I said, it's part of a larger

Yes, ma'am. That we we welcome that.

And then as far as with Director Clemens, what is do you have like the percentage or number of applicants that have came in late or anything of that nature?

In the system that we use which is Zoom grants, they have to submit the application through there. To know that number, wouldn't I can go back and look at the system maybe by referral and see how many have not submitted. Their application is not very many that hadn't submitted their application. But I can look in the Zoom grant system and see which ones were started and where they were at in the process.

Yeah. I'm I was just curious and to see how that

I would say maybe three or four at the lowest. It's not a lot. Okay.

Alright. And I'm into just to see since the capacity building has been established, has that gone down or that number has changed? So just to kind of get the problem.

We only had maybe one or two agencies from the capacity building that applied the second cohort that just ended. We'll see Okay. In January how many of those will apply.

Mhmm.

Okay. So I will know those numbers come January once those applicants do submit an application.

Okay. Alright. Okay. Yeah. I will do the referral. But, yeah, I was just curious. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, and, councilwoman McPherson and I agree. Get get in the cohort for this January. Just just get in the cohort. Get involved. Get, you know, get ahead of it.

We we work. Yeah.

But thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you. Good day. We'll talk.

Our next speaker is Noah Woods.

Hello. Thank you for having me. My name is Noah Woods. I'm a staff attorney at the Fair Housing Center. I just wanted to start out by thanking Roz Clemens and Monica Brown for their dedication to improving Toledo's neighborhoods and for administering the often difficult CDBG program that provides vital funding to so many necessary community projects and programs.

The CDBG funding that was awarded will allow the Fair Housing Center to continue the work that we have done in Toledo for fifty years now. We ensure that all residents have equal access to housing regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability. Our work allows more people to have access to safe and healthy housing, good jobs, and quality schools. Housing is one of the most important determinants for individuals' outcomes in life. When discrimination does occur in our community, the Fair Housing Center is here to investigate and eliminate those barriers to housing choice, whether that be through education, negotiation, or enforcement and legal action when necessary.

We do always try to start with education as we understand that a lot of times there's people who want to comply with the law if maybe they don't understand. And then if there's people who know the law and don't want to comply, that's where we can bring enforcement actions. We also provide education to tenants, homebuyers, realtors, and other housing providers to help proactively prevent discrimination and get that education out there so that people know how to comply with the law and what they need to do to comply. The Fair Housing Center late twenty twenty two started our housing conditions program and neighborhood reinvestment program to provide much needed assistance to tenants who have condition or repair issues that have gone unaddressed by landlords. This program addresses the critical issue of housing conditions and blight that affect our city, issues that have been identified in the city's consolidated plan, and the analysis of impediments to fair housing choice for many past years.

We are very thankful for the ARPA and the ERA funding that we have received for this program. As these funding sources are coming to an end, we have applied for CDBG funding for our neighborhood reinvestment program as well. And we would greatly appreciate additional funding support that would allow the Fair Housing Center to maintain and expand this valuable program. The success and value of this program has allowed us to receive funding from other sources, such as the Ohio Access to Justice Justice Foundation, the largest funder of civil legal aid in the state of Ohio. And this is the program that I directly work in with my co counsel, Christina Rodriguez.

And since late twenty twenty two, we have recovered over $130,000 for tenants through rent abatement and rent escrow actions. That's money that we can use those low income tenants more often than not can use to access the funds needed to move into safer, healthier housing. But it simultaneously also encourages responsible property ownership and management because that rent abatement is not awarded unless there are clear signs of a statutory breach of the duties that those landlords and property managers should owe. So not only are we helping tenants recover money that they are rightfully owed back through rent abatement, but we're also helping encourage property management and property owners to do the right thing and follow the law, maintain properties, and invest in those properties. Our neighborhood reinvestment program is the only program of its nature in the city of Toledo.

Tenants can contact the Fair Housing Center and receive direct and specific legal advice through brief consultation advice sessions. We also offer a wide range of support with landlord tenant issues. While we primarily do focus on condition issues, we get a lot of calls about a variety of issues, including water billing problems, issues related to just simple lease questions. A lot of people contact us. Hey, I'm about to move into this property.

There's some things about this lease that seems strange. We can help offer a legal brief advice consultation, review that lease with them, help them understand their rights. And then we are also the only program that provides direct advocacy to tenants prior to legal action being taken. Often, we receive a lot of calls from tenants who are having condition issues and desire to with withhold their rent because the repairs aren't being made. In Ohio, you're not able to withhold rent that risk eviction.

So we assist tenants with proactively addressing landlord tenant disputes as a means of upstream eviction prevention so that we can hopefully intervene, maybe negotiate a resolution with the landlord before any kind of adverse action would be taken against the tenant to help stabilize that housing. Often, that looks like contacting landlords, explaining to them their legal obligations and what they should do to come in compliance with the law so that the tenant doesn't need to escrow their rent. We are also the only program that provides direct legal representation for tenants to assert their rights in the rent escrow. And we help a lot of tenants through the Ohio Civil Rights Commission with filing fair housing related charges. We are very grateful to the work of Director Clemens and Ms.

Brown. And we hope that the City Council will approve funding for both our fair housing program and our neighborhood reinvestment program. These programs work in tandem, and they are directly aligned with the consolidated plan and fill a gap in critical service needs for our city. Thank you. And if anyone has any questions, I'm happy to take them.

Next

we have Tracy Britt.

Good afternoon, everybody. I stand before you and I know many of you already, and I wear several different hats. I come before you now as a board member. I sit on the advisory board for NeighborWorks and so that's the capacity that I'm speaking in today. I am not the CEO and I am not somebody that can sit there and tell you about their budgets, but what I can tell you is about their people and the work that they do.

It wasn't lost on me the comment that was made earlier that if council should decide to fund organizations that didn't make that list, it takes away from the ones that are on that list. And that is a crummy position to be in. I believe that everybody here is intelligent and generous and kind and thoughtful and good stewards and they want the best bang for the buck because the buck isn't just the city's, it's everybody's. And it's important and it is imperative that we are good stewards of that money. I get it.

What I do want to say that I also understand from the intersection of of working with other nonprofit organizations that it is a cardinal sin to leave federal grant money on the table because when you leave it on the table, it gets taken away. I get it. I don't think that any organization does that on purpose, and I think that they understand that if they do that, they do so in peril. What I would like to say is that if you have the ability, if there is room, let's not take NeighborWorks from x amount to zero. I I think that it has been made clear to them the things that that need to be corrected.

But I would also say that I think that the corrections are are happening. And let's not go from x to zero. Let's go x to somewhere in the middle and let them let them stand in the proving ground and show you that your money is not wrongly placed. Thank you.

Thank you so much. That's all the public commentary we have. Did you wanna continue, director Clemens with the consolidation plan? Do

we have technical I think it have we fixed the technical difficulties

Yeah. With the

with the remote?

We'll double check that. So, yes, as long as we use mister Hall uses his loud voice, I think we'll be able to hear him.

Brian Brian Hall is our our consultant that we recruited, and he is going to provide a remote overview of the twenty twenty five-twenty twenty nine consolidated plan. Brian has served in numerous positions as Housing and Community Director in the State of Rhode Island administering federal entitlement dollars, branched off on his own and started his own firm, and we were glad to have him to provide this service. Brian and his team have provided a summary of the Con Plan, and hopefully we can hear him this afternoon. Thank you, Brian, for coming.

Can everyone hear me?

Can you can you hear him on? Talk up.

Can you hear can people hear me?

Yes.

Okay. I I can project loud as I speak loud.

Okay. It's not it's not picking up on this.

Is my is my phone my is it louder on my end? Brian?

Can I can hear you fine?

Okay. You're you're good. Good to go.

Okay. I'm I'm sharing my screen. Can you just let me know if people can see the presentation?

Yes.

Okay. I I know we're past time. I wanted to go through this quickly just to give the council and and members of the public who are present, an awareness of of all the work that went into the development of the consolidated plan and really helping the city understand what the needs are in the community. So I know I don't have a lot of time, so I'll go through this fairly quickly. Quick agenda for me was a really high level overview of what a consolidated plan is, the elements of the plan, and a pretty comprehensive discussion about the priority needs, the the efforts made to to understand what the needs are in community, the community meetings, the online survey results, all the consultations that we had, and some of the public data that we compiled for that.

And quickly, consolidated plan is a strategic planning framework that is used by the federal government that is required by the federal government because the city of Toledo is a recipient of the entitlement grants that were spoken of already. It's it's a guiding document that really helps the city understand how to out funds year over year over the five year planning period. And this period for this consolidated plan is from 07/01/2025 to 06/30/2020 broken down into six elements. Executive summary is exactly what it sounds. It's just a overview.

The process really discusses the steps and really talks about all of the consultation meetings and community engagement that really led to the information contained in the plan. The needs assessment describes what all of the housing, homelessness, and community development needs are. In the city, market analysis focuses on what are the current conditions of the housing market and the economic conditions of the city to really help inform what the strategic plan is. Those are the goals, the priorities, and the resources that are being deployed to really help address those community needs. And the action plan is the first is the one year plan for the five year strategy.

Every year, a new annual action plan gets developed, and, the city staff are the ones that focus on developing those annually. When we compiled the information related to priority needs, we went through a phased approach. We did lots of information and literature review of previous planning studies and documents, the comprehensive plan, the neighborhood master plans. We compiled all that information, and then we did a a pretty rigorous research and analysis of all the public publicly available data to really help develop the fact base of our understanding of the needs in the community. And then we went and did a significant amount of community engagement.

We spoke with, almost 50 different community agencies, city staff, city, sorry, county and state agencies, neighborhood based organizations, housing developers, the housing authority, the homeless service providers, a lot of different entity. We also hosted a number of public hearings, public meetings, focus groups, roundtable discussions, and we deployed an online survey. That survey had 590 responses. And all of that really led us to understand what the needs are. Our community meetings, we had, at LaGrange Library, Belize Center, Mott Library, East Toledo Family Center.

We had three different virtual community agency round tables. We had a virtual public meeting. Monica was hosting third party partner meetings. All of this really informed what we understood for the priority needs. This, this slide really represents the information that was gained specifically from the community meetings.

And, you know, you'll there were very key priorities that key themes that came up repeatedly. Affordable housing, you know, programs for youth and and teens, home repair program, economic development, jobs, workforce development, crime, public safety. These were some of the key themes that came out of community meetings. And and in every single one of the community meetings, affordable housing was the top. You know, youth programming was one of the top ones.

Home repair program, again, one of the top community needs. This really aligned with a lot of the information that we gathered through our online survey as well. These are broken down into a number of different themes that people were able to select from, and then they would identify whether or not these things had a high need, a medium need, no need, low need, and some and then we sort of scaled them. So some of the top ones for housing, homeowner housing repair program, the first time homebuyer assistance, home ownership in communities of color, supportive housing for individuals with disabilities, demolition, supportive housing for the homeless. Again, these are key themes that repeatedly we were seeing in our consultations and our community meetings as well.

Public service needs were really focused on crime prevention. Again, more after school programs, mental health services, childcare programs for seniors, adult education, workforce training, financial literacy, domestic violence services. These are key themes that were coming out in the public meetings as well through consultations and, again, reinforced through the online survey results. And for infrastructure, the key themes were street and sidewalk, road improvements, neighborhood blight, sewer system frame, flood drainage, environmental contamination. Some of these themes were also highlighted in the community meetings, and in consultation.

When we looked at all of that together, I'm gonna I'll highlight this really quickly. When so in some of the public data, we were looking at what is called the comprehensive housing affordability strategy. This is certain types of data that looks at housing problems. And in every type of analysis that we're doing, housing cost burden and severe housing cost burden are the most substantial housing problems in the city of Toledo, you know, outpacing by varying levels, any other housing problem. But this, again, highlights the affordability concern that we kept hearing about in community meetings, the online survey, and consultations as well.

When we break it down by different income levels, the cost burden for lower income, extremely low income, very low income renters is the most significant housing problem from the public data. And then even some of the how homeowners are experiencing housing cost problems as well. And unsurprisingly, the higher your income, the less cost burdened you are. That that fits in every community that we work in. But, again, it just highlights, again, this this pretty profound need for support for individuals that are low lower income in the city.

When we take all of that and we pull all of that information together, we we take all of these sources of information collection. We prioritize the needs in the community and and created six buckets of of key needs, affordable housing, homelessness, public services of a myriad of different types, the infrastructure improvements, the facility improvements, and economic development. These, again, go back to how the allocations were developed for the first year action plan, and much of that aligns with all of the the research that we we were doing leading up to those allocations. So it so it makes a lot of sense why the budget looks the way it looks. When we compartmentalize and disaggregate some of the needs within these specific program areas, these are where the, where it can get a little bit more sophisticated in the different type of activities within these larger project type.

So within affordable housing, it is really focused on, you know, affordable rental and homeownership options everywhere throughout the city, down payment assistance programs, construction of new housing for sale and for rent, the demolition and clearance of blighted property, and then supportive housing for seniors, individuals with disabilities, special needs populations, and the homeowner housing repair. You know, this is including the rooftop program and the other, home repair program that Roz is thinking about. Homelessness, super you know, the city has seen growth in homelessness over the past several years of 33%. There were about 3,400, homeless individuals during the calendar year 2024. And some of these homelessness risks are hitting populations that have never experienced homelessness previously, and this ties back to the escalation of rent in the city and their lack of support for rental assistance that disappeared when all the COVID related money dried up.

Homelessness is directly tied to cost burden. So the more individuals that are cost burdened in their rental or homeownership properties, the more likely homelessness will increase. Public service bills, again, we talked about a lot of these. Plan prevention, affordable child care, office group programs, mental health support, health care support. These are some of the priority public service needs throughout the community.

Infrastructure improvements, the aging infrastructure in, you know, the Midwest, the Northeast, in many communities. You you have damaged roads, sidewalks, sewers, pet pigeons. You have sewer and and drainage problems. And you also some of the community conversations revolved around accessibility improvements for persons with mobility challenges, Public facilities, there's been a a lot of talk about the healthy food options, additional farmers, you know, urban agriculture. That was called out in several of the community meetings.

Improvements for public buildings and schools, neighborhood community centers, senior centers, these are the public facility improvement needs that were coming up. And the economic development needs really focused on retention and expansion of the existing business community in in Toledo, attraction of new businesses, and then really training up and scaling the the local residents for with workforce development and training programs and focusing on higher wage and living wage jobs so people can move out of poverty in the community, and improvements to commercial spaces and sign ups for small businesses for for new business spaces. And those, as other individuals that really were interested in paid apprenticeship programs as well. So with that, I know that was incredibly rushed, but I wanted to kind of, you know, frame that out a little bit more and tie that back to the broader conversation about the first year annual allocation. So thank you.

Thank

you. I think that the consolidated plan sounds just like what all my residents keep asking for, so I think it's spot on. I really appreciate the fact that you looked over neighborhood plans. Sometimes I feel like our neighborhood plans get lost in the shuffle, so I really appreciate that. Doctor Jones?

Thank you, chair. I just had a a kind of like a follow-up or next step questions with these priorities. Has, like, low hanging fruit been identified for these different sections per se? So in in reference to like workforce development, I know that we have just hired a workforce development specialist. Has like those type of conversations started or are they or is that the next step?

I think what we try to do with the allocations, if you look at the first year of the consolidated plan process or framework, if you look at the budget, we've tried to align the percentages with those affordable housing, neighborhoods, community centers. So the goal is as we review applications and as we make as we develop initiatives as from an administrative perspective, we're aligning them with those priorities that have been identified. Mainly affordable housing as I said. We talk about I think the biggest allocations are affordable housing in neighborhood and community facilities. So to your point, we try to align those earmarks or those line items to those priorities.

Again, the other thing again that we I keep going back to this. The majority of our applications tend to be for certain things. You understand what I'm saying? And so we push for certain things that we make decisions on as administration that we would spend. But if you look at the spectrum of applications, they tend to be pocketed and focused on public services as opposed to the other things. So that's the challenge. You know, that's the challenge that we are constantly facing. I think everybody who applied for housing,

who wanted to bite the bullet despite the PLA, everyone who applied for housing got what they asked for. No reductions. Everyone who applied for community work, community facilities, hard dollars, I think we funded those people. So again, we we try to make funding decisions that that align with the priorities. Okay.

And and I'm not even doubting that whatsoever. It's just that affordable housing and homelessness is such huge complex social issues. So what can we do to, you know, do that low hanging fruit, but how does that feed into other priorities and and issues that we wanna take care of? Kinda like get a early start on it being proactive, proactive and how can we start thinking like that. Because the breakdown of this, this is wonderful, but they're still, like, really large to chew right now.

So what can we do in order to and what can we identify existing resources, resources, existing partners that may be doing this work and how can we layer that on. That's we're just trying to do a different type of thinking inspired by today's Vistula program as well.

Thank you for attending that. That's if you look at one of the items, the housing preservation fund

Mhmm.

It doesn't come from any particular applicant. It's a part that we want there in case in case a senior comes up and says, my my my my sewer busted. In case somebody comes up and say, you know, I've got this problem with the house or we have a problem with Ashland Manor where maybe somebody is trying to buy it and needs some funding. So we haven't done this before but that's why we've stood up this line item of this affordable housing preservation fund that gives us flexibility during the year to address a need that may not have existed at this time, but again, that aligns with the with the priority.

And I'm glad that this fund is available because we also have to start thinking about alternative funding ways and revenue streams. So I I see this as a very big step. I'm, you know, just looking at this report. I'm definitely gonna digest this a little bit more and just see where where things can be put, what's already in existence, how can we enhance that, what else is needed, of course comparable cities, but this is a great report. Thank you for this. Thank you, madam chair.

Can I also mention that one of the things that I've incorporated in our third party partner mandatory trainings is that I'm having the agencies do presentations? And so that allows them to be able to I told them they need to start collaborating more because of the looming funding cuts and things like that. So that's one of the things and it has brought more of awareness of what some of the other agencies are doing in the community. And so like with example, the last one we had, we had Compassion Health talk about the services that they provide to pregnant women. And so Family House connected with them with some of the women that are in the shelter to get those free services through Compassion Health.

So that's one of the key things that we're going to keep going forward with is having them do those presentations to do that more of a collaboration within those agencies too.

Well, you and thank you mister Hall for your presentation and for staying with us through all the technical difficulties. With that, is there anything else that should come before counsel?

No. We Yes. We we did ask for SEP on this. What I would like to do is to get with the chair and co chair of my committee as quickly as possible so that we can finalize any changes that may be desired and make sure we're ready. Because we've got to the deadline for submitting this plan to HUD is August 16, and, it has to be submitted online.

Sometimes there are technical difficulties. So we want by the August 10, we wanna be we wanna have an approved ordinance, and want to be ready to to submit this thing. So I think what I'll do is you maybe we can set up a working meeting with with the committee chair and co chair, and and let's get the schedule finalized and figure out what we want to do.

Sounds like a plan. Thank you. Okay. Okay. And with that, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.