Housing, Community Development & Public Health Committee - Regular Meeting

Are you signing? Oh, It's up here.

I need to.

Oh. Oh. Just feet. I was like, no. Keep up the good fight. Pardon

me.

Oh, are all good.

Hi, beautiful. This is like all my

friends in my

This is all my friends.

Because yeah. Because we are we are a warming center again.

I know. And I would love oh.

Mic's hot. I'd love

to talk to you about that.

Gotta get some dye. Always wearing those in my gray. The hair? The outfit? The Oh.

Your email's akunz@tlchb. Right?

Mhmm. Mhmm.

Thank you.

Do you wanna give them your phone number?

You don't have that memorized?

Nope. Terrible. I assume it's 419

Yeah. 705-6485.

I'll never forget it.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone. It's so nice to see you. Just a couple of announcements. There is a sign up sheet if you'd like to speak. We are limiting the time to three minutes because there's so many of you, which fills my heart because these are topics that are really important to our committee. There is a sign up sheet. We are going to start with lead, and then we will move to homelessness. What we're hoping to hear is what you're seeing, what's forecasted. I know we've had a lot of ugly cuts, And how the city of Toledo and how council can help. I think that we really wanna focus on solutions.

So with that, just there's a sign up sheet I call to order the Toledo City Council meeting of housing and community development of Thursday, 12/18/2025 at 2PM. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss lead safety and winter homelessness. Clerk, please call the roll.

Gaddis? Here. Jones? Here. Driscoll, McPherson? Meldon? Williams?

Here.

Three present. Thank you. And like I said, we're gonna start with LET, and we have the housing the Department of Housing and Community Development. If you guys would take a moment to introduce yourself and then we look forward to your update.

Yes, thank you, Madam Councilwoman. My name is Rosalyn Clemens. I am the director of the Department of Housing and Community Development. I'm joined by Monica Smith, who's our lead manager, and Candace Buckley, who is the current CEO of the Lead Resource Center. What we would like to do today is to just provide an overview of our work with executing the lead ordinance.

December 31 is the deadline for compliance in the first phase of the lead ordinance enforcement of those census tracts in the city that are at most risk. We want to give the council today an overview of our work with lead poisoning prevention, an overview of the progress that we're making in lead poisoning preventions and the certification of our rentals under the lead ordinance. We hope today to, we know that there are lots of issues and challenges in the city of Toledo that we are trying to meet with limited resources, but we hope today to continue to raise the issue of how important lead poisoning prevention is in this city, how it impacts our children that are under six and just to provide again a broad perspective on the dangers of lead poisoning and the future of Toledo. Monica Smith will lead off with a presentation on statistics of just where we are.

Thank you, good afternoon counsel. Thank you so much for having me. I am going to provide you with an update as it relates to Toledo Lead Safe progress reports. So today's presentation will be a clear overview of the city's Lead Safe program and where we are currently. I'll start with why lead matters.

After that, we'll talk about some of the consequences of lead exposure and how those impacts extend beyond health to education and long term outcomes. I'll then provide an overview of lead safe of the lead safe ordinance, including its purpose and who is required to comply. From there, I'll walk through how the program is being rolled out, including the phase compliance, education, and outreach efforts, and the application process. We'll review key metrics in phase one progress to date so that you can see both the scale of the program and the progress being made. I'll also discuss the phase in timeline, internal workflow, and enforcement workflow.

Finally, I'll cover the role of grant funding, the community impact of those investments, and what's next as the program continues to move forward. So before we get into the lead safe program, I want to ground this discussion in why lead safety matters. Because at the end of the day, this is ultimately about children's health and long term outcomes. So in Lucas County, there are currently 31,500 children under the age of six. In the city of Toledo, there are approximately 18,419 children under the age of six.

A significant portion of those children live in housing built prior to 1978, which is the year lead based paint was banned for residential use. Each year, we continue to see children in Lucas County identified with elevated blood lead levels. Currently, three thousand five hundred children in Lucas County have documented elevated blood lead levels and in 2024 alone, three hundred and forty three children were tested in the city of Toledo and confirmed to have elevated blood lead levels. These are not abstract numbers. These represent real children with increased risk of learning difficulties, behavioral challenges, and long term health impacts.

We also know that housing conditions play a huge role in this. In the city of Toledo, there are currently 121 placard properties, a 121, which indicates properties that have formerly been identified as having poisoned a child. Across the state of Ohio, there are approximately 1,080 properties that are placard, showing that this is not just a City Of Toledo issue, it's a statewide issue. But this disproportionately impacts older urban housing stock like Toledo has. What these numbers tell us about lead exposure is that it is very much a real issue.

It still exists. The lead program exists to move us from reacting to lead exposure after child is harmed to preventing exposure before it happens by addressing the housing conditions that put children at risk in the first place. Lead exposure is especially dangerous because it often has no immediate symptoms. So oftentimes parents don't see that something is going on with their child, but the impacts can be permanent, particularly for young children. So from a health and development standpoint, lead exposure can interfere with brain development, affecting how children learn, how they focus, how they regulate their behavior, even low lead levels of exposure have been linked to IQ reduction, learning disabilities, and attention problems.

From a behavioral perspective, children with elevated lead levels are more likely to experience impulsivity, difficulty concentrating, and behavioral challenges, which can affect classroom performance and social development. These are also long term consequences. Research shows that children lead exposed is associated with lower educational attainment, reduced lifetime earnings, and increased involvement with the juvenile justice system. These impacts don't end with childhood. They follow individuals into adulthood.

Importantly, lead exposure is entirely preventable, 100% preventable. The primary source deteriorated lead based paint and lead contaminated dust in older housing. This means the issue has nothing to do with parenting. It has nothing to do with behavior. It's a housing condition problem.

That's why lead safety in is a housing policy issue, a public health issue, and an equity issue. Preventing lead exposure before it occurs is far more effective and far less costly than responding after a child has already been harmed. This slide will go over a high level overview of the lead ordinance. So first, the purpose of the ordinance. The primary goal of the ordinance is to ensure safe and healthy housing for all, especially families with young children.

We know that housing conditions are the main driver of lead exposure, so this ordinance focuses on addressing hazards at the source. The ordinance is designed to reduce exposure to lead based pain hazards in residential units built prior to 1978. The older properties present the highest risk. Most importantly, this ordinance represents a shift in how Toledo approaches lead. Instead of responding after a child has already been poisoned, the ordinance moves the city toward prevention, identifying and addressing hazards before the exposure occurs.

Secondly, who must comply? So the ordinance applies to residential rental properties with one to four units built prior to 1978. This includes the majority of Toledo's older housing stock. It also applies to family childcare homes that operate in pre-nineteen seventy eight structures because these settings serve young children who are especially vulnerable to lead exposure. By focusing on these property types, the ordinance targets the highest risk in environments while creating a consistent citywide standard for lead safety.

The program rollout. So this slide will explain how the program is being rolled out in a way that is phased, supported, and predictable for property owners. So the first phase compliance. Rental properties are grouped by census track with staggered compliance dates. This allows the city to manage workload and it gives property owner time to plan.

Second, you have education and outreach. We are focused heavily on education. Outreach includes direct mail to property owners, resources available on the Toledo LedSafe website, trainings, and one on one technical assistance to help owners understand the requirements and navigate the process. Third, we have workforce readiness. So we coordinate closely with the local lead inspectors to ensure there is an available work face workforce to perform the lead clearances.

Ongoing communications help inspectors stay aligned with program requirements and timelines. Fourth, a clear and standardized process. The program uses an online application with uniform clearance requirements. This creates consistency for all property owners, inspectors, as well as the staff. And then finally, enforcement as the last step.

Enforcement occurs after education, outreach, and opportunities to comply have been provided. So this slide will provide a snapshot of where the program stands today, citywide. So there are approximately 36,900 rental properties that must comply with the lead ordinance. This reflects the scale of the program and the size of the housing stock we are working through. To date, there are 4,728 lead safe certificates that have been issued citywide.

That puts the current compliance rate at 12.8%. It's important to note that this program is still early in its early phases. It's a multi year approach. We expect this rate to increase significantly as we get closer to those deadline dates. In terms of the outreach, the city has out a total of 7,599 reminder letters to property owners.

These mailings are a key part of the education first approach, ensuring that owners are well informed before enforcement begins. Finally, there are currently 53 local lead inspectors participating in the program. Maintaining a qualified inspection workforce is critical to program capacity and turnaround times, and we continue to coordinate closely with the inspectors to support compliance. Taken together, these metrics show both the scale of the challenge and the process being made as the program continues to roll out. Next, we have phase one progress to date.

So this slide focuses specifically on phase one of the ordinance and the progress made to date. Phase one includes 6,538 rental properties all located within those first that first group of census tracts identified for compliance. To date, 1,516 lead safe certificates have been issued for phase one. Currently, I have 68 applications waiting to be processed. We have mailed approximately 4,400 reminder letters to individuals in the phase one group.

As of today, that compliance rate for phase one is 23.2 and this rate reflects steady progress and is expected to increase as we approach that December 31 deadline. Overall, the numbers show meaningful progress in phase one. I think one of the things we have to remember is for a few years there we were battling the lawsuit and so for a lot of property owners they were starting, stopping, starting, stopping. I think that once this December 31 date approaches, we send out letters once again for that phase one group to let them know that we are moving forward with enforcement. I think that that'll be the catalyst for people to say, okay, I do need to get my lead safe certificate.

Applying for a lead safe certificate. So this slide will just walk you through what it is that a property owner must do to apply for their lead safe certificate. So the very first step that's not listed on this slide is the owner must register their property with the Lucas County auditor's office. Totally free they can do that online or they can walk into the office or they can do that by mail. Second, the owner will hire a local lead inspector.

The lead inspectors are listed on Toledo Lead Safe website. Third, the owner will prepare the property for inspection. So more often than not, basic painting updates and cleaning will help a rental owner pass their inspection. Fourth, the property must pass a visual inspection and a dust wipe clearance. The average cost of a dust wipe clearance exam is approximately $400. I've seen them as low as $2.50. I've seen them go up to $5.50. And then finally, the owner will apply for their certificate. And so when they apply for their lead safe certificate, they do that on the Toledo lead safe website. There's a $25 fee plus processing, so that total comes to $26.06.

So overall the process is designed to be clear and consistent. Next, you'll see a slide of the internal workflow. So this slide shows what will happen once the compliance date passes. So after this December 31 date passes, we will then start to work this chart. And so on that very first green square, you see where the reminder letter was sent out at least six months prior to that deadline compliance date.

And so this time around, the reminder letter was sent in May for this December 31 individuals. And so they receive that advanced notice well before the deadline. After the compliance date, staff will then conduct a compliance check to see if that owner is compliant. And so come that first week in January, staff will go in, we'll run a report, we'll double check to see, okay, has anyone else become compliant since this deadline date? If that answer is no, then that person will receive a notice of violation.

If that answer is yes, then the process will stop right there for that person that did comply. So property owners are given an additional forty five days to come into compliance after they receive a notice of violation letter. Staff will again conduct a follow-up compliance check if the property is compliant. Once again, the process will stop there. If not, staff will verify that the service was good, meaning they did receive that notification.

If the service was good, an affidavit will be filed with the Toledo Municipal Court and they will be referred to housing court. If the service was not good, a notice will be posted on the property. Thirty days after that notice is posted on the property, staff will again check for compliance. If the property is compliant, the process will stop there. If the property is not compliant, that's when that that particular property owner will receive an affidavit and will it will be filed with the Toledo Municipal Court.

And so only after multiple attempts and verification of service and additional opportunities comply does the process move forward to the next step which is an affidavit for housing court. Here you will see a picture of the phase in timeline along with all of the dates. So the phase in timeline ends on 06/30/2029, so every six months there's a different phase. Those phase in timelines, the way we figured those out was we actually used data that we got from the Toledo Lucas County Health Department, and so the first areas that are required to comply in December had the highest number of elevated blood lead levels in those areas. Next we're gonna take a couple minutes just to highlight how grant funding was has directly translated into real measurable impact in the community.

And so in 2020 the 2023, we were awarded a grant through the Ohio Department of Health. With that grant, one of the things we did is we created the lead stabilization grant. This was the first grant of its kind for the city of Toledo. With that particular grant, the maximum amount was $15,000 This was a reimbursable grant and so one of the things we wanted to flush through was how do we ensure that this is equitable so that anyone could apply. For most people you don't have $15,000 in savings to spend and if you did you would probably have already you know had some repairs property.

And so what we decided to do with that is we actually partnered with Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union and what they did was offered short term low cost loans so that people who did not have that $15,000 could still apply for this loan. With that particular program we awarded 29 awards. I think the average cost was about $12,000 That particular grant covered things such as deteriorated and or leaky roofs. You could have gotten replacement windows, some people did vinyl siding, some people did paint stabilization, and so there were several different projects that were covered with that. The second funding source combines combines HUD as well as Ohio Department of Development funding, and these grants supported larger scale lead hazard control work.

So through this funding, 219 units were complete over the course of a five year time frame. So that went from 2021 to this year. 61 of those units, about 30% were properties with formal Toledo Lucas County Health Department led orders on them. And so again, what that means is that a child tested positive for those particular properties. Across these units, the work focused on addressing lead based hazards, reducing the likelihood of ongoing exposure, and preventing future cases of childhood lead poisoning.

Together, these grants demonstrate how strategic funding paired with strong local partnerships allows the city to protect children, improve housing conditions, and respond to both preventative needs and enforcement driven cases. One of the things I failed to mention is that with the first grant I spoke about the lead stabilization grant, that grant opened, we had to close that window, the application window in two weeks and the reason we closed it is because we received almost 200 applications in a really, really short time frame. Really, really short time frame. And so for us that just let us know that there's definitely a need for some grant funding out there so people can do this work to their properties. Next, these are some of the supports and so these are some of the things that we were able to do with some of the Ohio Department of Health funds also.

And so what we did is we worked with the communications department and we launched a marketing campaign. One of the things we recognize is that because we had not started enforcement yet, there were a lot of people who weren't sure that we would be enforcing and so we know we needed to get out there and educate people on okay where are we with this ordinance and how are we moving forward. And so in working with the communications department, there were more than 20 billboards throughout the city. We have radio ads on approximately eight radio stations. We did digital ads, social media ads, as well as print ads.

With the print ads they were in the Blade, they were in the Truth, De La Luiz, Laprenza, the City Paper, as well as Parent Magazine. We also did a large ad at Franklin Park Mall. When walking down their main corridor there is actually a Build A Bear store there and so right on the side of that wall we did a huge graphic about lead ordinance. I got a lot of calls about that and people were asking questions which is what we wanted it to do. We wanted it to kind of stir up that conversation and people to say, hey is this still happening?

We also did some table decals at the mall in the food court and so that we got calls about as well. This grant also covered the administrative cost for the Toledo Lucas County Health Department for the work that they did on the lead ordinance prior to moving it in house. We covered the cost of lead safe training so we were able to send approximately 149 people through some lead safe trainings at no cost to them. And those trainings range anywhere from $500 to $895 per person. We also covered the cost of testing for that and with the testing it averages about $500 also.

And then lastly, we cover the cost of lead cleaning supplies that were provided to more than a thousand families over the years '24 and '25. With those cleaning kits they received a lead safe cleaning instruction booklet that we created because we wanted to make sure that people knew how to properly lead safe clean. The kits were valued at approximately $100 and they were very well received and much needed. One of the things I can say is that we would not be able to do this work had it not been for our partners and we do have quite a few partners in this work and so on this slide you'll just see a list of different agency names who we work with pretty regularly. The Lucas County auditor's office, they're responsible for the rental registry and so they have been very gracious in sharing that data with us when we requested the city's co compliance department in regards to enforcement alignment.

The Toledo Lucas County Health Department, we do a lot of work with them as well as Toledo Lead Poisoning Prevention Coalition, the Toledo Lead Resource Center which we'll speak

to a little

more. The local lead inspectors, we definitely could not make this ordinance work had we not had the local inspectors. Property owners and property managers, we do receive quite a few calls from them and I can say the majority of them are just really eager to know what they need to do and they're ready to do it. And then lastly, Lucas Metropolitan Housing, they've been really great. Their executive director has been really great with making sure that they're providing safe housing as well.

Next we'll talk about some of the challenges that we have seen. And so in this this slide we'll outline the key challenges we are actively managing as we implement the let's say program citywide. So the first thing is going to be the construction and material costs have increased approximately 40% over the past two years. And so the number of properties we were able to assist three years ago has definitely decreased as it relates to now. And so that that's a really big hit for us.

This directly impacts the cost of lead hazard control and remediation work for property owners and the program supporting them. Secondly, while we have secured important funding sources available resources remain limited compared to the scale of need particularly in the city with a large number of nineteen seventy eight rental properties and so one of the things you want to keep in mind is approximately 80% of the properties in Toledo were built before 1978. Next, we are also facing limited contractor and workforce capacity, demand for qualified lead safe contractors, risk assessors, and clearance technicians continue to grow as compliance deadlines approach. And in addition, again Toledo's older housing stock, it presents complex remediation challenges, and so many times properties required layered repairs to go beyond the basic stabilization increasing both the time and the cost. Next, we're gonna start talk about the startup investment that we made for the Toledo led resource center.

And so the city of Toledo support supported the launch and the stand up of the Toledo led resource center. We actually have Candice here, the executive director who's gonna speak to the resource center more. One of the things we did is we used $250,000 of general funds as well as $150,000 out of the Ohio Department of Health lead safe grant. And the purpose of that startup funding is to establish a centralized lead safe housing resource to build capacity to support property owners and residents to expand education, training, and technical assistance, and support the implementation of the lead safe ordinance. One of the things that Candice and I had an opportunity to do not long ago was visit the Med Resource Center in Cleveland.

And so I will say we often look to Cleveland for advice to kind of learn what their wins are, what their challenges are because what we don't want to do is reinvent the wheel. And so with Cleveland, they have managed to raise more than $100,000,000 $100,000,000 for lead. Their resource center, tons of resources there. They offer different grant opportunities for property owners. They offer workforce training and development.

They're they're really really moving the needle in Cleveland and so our hope is that we're able to do that same thing here. And so here you just see a slide with some of what Cleveland has in place currently. And so one of the things they do is they have set up different teams. They have an environmental health watch team, a hotline team, an outreach team, relocation team, education team, and then workforce development. And so the things that their teams do, you'll see the list on the right hand side of the page.

So they help community members navigate to the appropriate resources and teams to directly address lead safe measures and mitigation. They disseminate really important information to community members on lead safe activities and engagement in the city. They educate community members on the effects and the importance of understanding lead from various perspective. They integrate community rental property owners and tenants in the process interaction with associated funding, they remediate community homes exposed to lead in compliance with lead safe certification policy. And lastly, we have our what's next slide.

And so as I stated earlier, our first phase in deadline date is coming up on December 31 and so prior to that date we are continuing with outreach and technical assistance ahead of that date. The ongoing application process, one of the things we were able to do with some of the Ohio Department of Health funds is use some of that money to create a lead safe portal in our city work system. So I have been working with the ICT department as well as the Timmins Group to build that out. I am hoping that we're able to launch that the first quarter in twenty twenty six. We're going to continue to review and process applications as they are submitted.

We're still target doing targeting outreach and so we're focused on the remaining non responsive phase one properties currently. We've also begun to reach out to the individuals in phase two just so that they're aware come June 30 your property needs to be lead safe certified. So we actually sent them reminder letters approximately a month ago. And then program monitoring and reporting, so we're going to continue to track compliance, handle the workload, outcomes, and report to counsel. And with that, that's all I have. And we'll take any questions you may have.

Thank you. I'm really excited about this. This is your hard work shows everyone's hard work into this. This is gonna be transformational as an educator seeing what lead does to our kids is so hard. And I'm grateful for all the work you guys are putting into this because we're gonna change lives with this. And it's very thought out and I think it's approachable. I think if I was a landlord, I would feel like this wasn't just pushed upon me like so many things. I really feel like we're, as a city, reaching out that olive branch, right? And and and welcoming them to change things for the better. With that, I'll see any questions on council?

You're welcome. Thank you. Okay. Alright. Thank you. I know that we have a stakeholder who would like to talk. So, the junction coalition did want to speak about this if they'd like to comment. And then after that, we can hear on any citizens who would like to speak about lead. Welcome.

Good afternoon, counsel. My name is Archie Beasley. I am the program manager for the four one nine Get the Lead Out program in a partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I have something that I'd like to share with counsel, if the clerk would be so kind to to share these documents. This is in regards to yes, please.

H two Ohio standard standard grant agreement. This agreement that the city has is for lead line replacement in the Junction neighborhood in the tune of $500,000 for learning centers and day cares, within the Junction community. We were named in this grant, the Junction Coalition was, but the funds have been disseminated, I think, but we have not been informed. So we want to begin by stating that lead line replacement is urgent, necessary, and welcomed, particularly in day cares, centers where children are most vulnerable. The Junction Coalition and the Junction Neighborhood, an established resident rooted organization, were not informed of the funding award nor engaged in any communication or outreach strategy tied to it.

In the papers that I gave you on page 10, you can see that we are named in the document. This neighborhood has a long history of environmental exposure, infrastructure neglect, and justified mistrust rooted in exclusion from decision making processes that are directly affecting our residents' health. Replacing lead lines without resident awareness or engagement under undermines public trust even when the underlying investment is positive. The junction coalition represents an existing trusted communication trend channel with families, caregivers, and residents, yet was not utilized to inform or engage the community. Effective public health interventions require technical implementation and social infrastructure.

One without the other, limits impact and uptake. Residents deserve to know when the funds were awarded, which facilities are included, what timelines exist, how disruptions will be managed, what follow-up testing and transparency will occur. The lack of notification raises concerns about equity and process, only outcomes, missed opportunities for cultural competent outreach, reduced confidence in future infrastructure and health initiatives. We're not here to oppose the work. We're happy that the work is gonna be taking place in our neighborhood.

We're here to strengthen it by insisting on resident censored centered implementation. We respectfully ask a briefing about this grant, clear communication plan for families and residents, formal inclusion on with community partners and outreach and education efforts, a commitment that future infrastructure investments injunction include early and meaningful communication engagement, not retroactive noticing. Toledo has the opportunity to model how public health infrastructure investment and community trust can move together rather than in parallel. We ask counsel to ensure that no investment meant to protect children proceeds without the informed involvement of the communities involved. And each one of you council members, have received an invitation to Junction's work in this regard on Saturday, December 20, 9AM to 2PM.

We are gonna be doing a lead screening and toy giveaway for the children of Toledo and the surrounding areas. We look forward to having you down. My name is Archie Beasley, I'm from The Junction Coalition where we get work done.

Thank you, mister Beasley. We'll make sure we get those answers, and I look forward to attending your event. With that, I don't see any more. Is anyone in the audience who would like to speak on lead, specifically lead? Okay. And we're going to set the clock at three minutes.

Absolutely. I'll be quick. I'm George Thomas, CEO and General Counsel for the Fair Housing Center. I just whenever a leg comes up, I try to always emphasize a couple of really important points. This issue continues to be very, very important to the Fair Housing Center. This is a barrier to fair housing choice that has been identified in the city of Toledo's analysis of impediments to fair housing choice. It's something that we have to make progress on as a community. So I'm very glad to see these kind of presentations to be a partner with the city on these issues. A couple of points I want to emphasize those numbers on those first slides, those are accurate numbers. Those are good solid numbers.

They're also only the tip of the iceberg. I think it's really important for people to understand because so many children are not screened when they should be at 18 and 24. So when local research has really gone into the schools, built trust, built relationships, and then really tried to conduct some more extensive testing, we found that in many of the schools, the lead poisoning rates are actually closer to seventy percent of the population in some of those schools. So it's really important for us to understand that this problem is even bigger, I think, than we know or than we realize. I also just mentioned too that the Fair Housing Center continues to be a partner in this.

We're actually the fiscal agent for the Lead Resource Center. We're very, very happy to serve in that role because of the importance of this issue. And my big takeaway too is the big question I think is can we sustain this support moving forward? Because it's really I think important for counsel to understand there's no one else who's going to solve this issue. No one else is going to work on this issue except for us. The federal government is not going to come and help figure out lead poisoning in Toledo. The state of Ohio is not going to come and figure out lead poisoning. Not their health department. No one. Only the city determines its housing code and passes these kinds of laws.

Only non nonprofit resources in our community can partner with the city then to and and build leadership to to to resolve those issues. So having council aware of the importance of this and continue to partner with other nonprofits and the government is the only way that we're truly going to solve this issue. So thanks for your support and work on this. And thank you to Director Clemens and Monica for their leadership.

Thank you. I just want to take a moment to recognize Councilwoman McPherson, Morris and Councilman Driscoll.

Councilwoman, I would like to introduce Candice Buckley and she's, I know she's prepared a PowerPoint. She we Monica Smith mentioned the vision to create a nonprofit that would help it be our boots on the ground in lead poisoning prevention. And she's told you about the Cleveland model. So we feel that we're at a great place today because we have been successful in seeding that organization and working with George Thomas at the Fair Housing Center that is now serving as the fiscal agent for the organization. But having a nonprofit in place with what we believe is exemplary leadership to help us with this on the ground work is just ground If you look at what we can raise in grant funds and what we have raised in grant funds, but when you compare it to what we could possibly raise from philanthropy, it's incomparable.

And the goal was to as we continue to do this work as government to see the lead resource center, get it on its way and to help us with the private sector to elevate this problem. So I'd like for Candace to sort of talk about her vision and where she is. And we're just thrilled to have her accept the position and come on board to help with this.

Thank you, Roz, and thank you counsel for allowing me this time today. So I want to do a brief introduction regarding the LEAD Resource Center. One of the biggest steps that we needed to one that needed to be made was of course identifying the executive director to carry out the duties to establish the organization and later you hear about a lot of that progress. But the Toledo Lead Resource Center is actually established now. We're here to address the growing need for service navigation, increased lead poisoning testing in children six and under, workforce development, resource connections, advocacy, and one of the things that I have found to be most important throughout the community is the community education piece.

It's a significant part of the work that we're doing, especially as it relates to the testing, service net, it feeds into everything. So I want to talk about the first part of the introduction which is me coming on that first ninety days and a lot of the work that got done to stand up the organization. I'll start with everything from the simple things that a nonprofit needs to go through from adopting the bylaws to establishing the board to identifying board members that could support the work to ensuring the board, to ensuring the organization, all those things were done within the first ninety days. The organization was branded, We are a part of the Toledo Led Safe website, so our website is up and running so now we can be accessible through the web for community members and as well as landlords and here lately contractors. So I'm really excited about what got done in the ninety days.

One of the most critical pieces that got accomplished was establishing the board which was no small feat. We initially had a group of leaders that had been meeting and with all good intention and we needed to go through the process of formally getting this board up and running. And so you'll hear more about the board itself and board members later in the presentation but it's one of the things that I'm most proud of because it is my direct support. Being in the nonprofit sector for almost twenty years and being able to look to your right and look to your left in front of you and in back of you and know that your board has your back is amazing position to be in in this day and time. And so you'll hear more about our board members shortly.

So I wanna talk about our mission. Our mission is to prevent lead poisoning by fostering healthy housing and empowering the community through education, resources, and support to ensure a lead safe future. Our long term vision is a lead safe community where every home is safe, healthy, and affordable. So I wanna take some time and talk about our strategic goals because we did a lot in the first ninety days and now we're coming up on six months. But I wanted to speak to where are we growing, where are we headed, and a little bit about how we're gonna get there.

I think in this space, no one is surprised that when it comes to the nonprofit sector, takes hard work, a lot of relationships, a lot of handshaking, a lot of grant writing, and all of that is highlighted through the power of relationship. One of our strategic goals is diversifying funding and in order to do that, it takes all of those things. Our objective is to ensure no funding source is seized 30% of our operating budget. Why 30%? Because we plan on being around for a very long time to support this community.

And 30%, I think we could pull together when times get tough and figure things out. But 50%, 80%, we've seen far too often in this community where nonprofits do not stand. Our second strategic goal is to strengthen our organizational capacity. In the beginning stages, right now I am the staff of one, and so we were just sharing in a conversation earlier about switching hats, There's times where I've been out in the community and I have my hat on and I'm manning a resource table and I'm handing out over 500 resource books. There's other times where I'm sitting down with fellow CEOs and I'm casting casting vision.

Vision. There's other times where I'm talking to other communities and I'm learning about the work that is happening in their communities. But the reality of the organization is over time we will need to increase our capacity. So the objective is to build a sustainable and high performing team. And when I say sustainable and high performing, I don't look for the resource center to have this mass amount of staff.

I look for the resource center to have, oh you're, perfect timing. I look for the resource center though to have, you're just supporting my statement right now. I look for the resource center to have a very high quality assessable team for the city of Toledo, for the residents. And I have designed a staffing model to where we can get the work done with anywhere between six to 10 staff over time. Starting out, we wanna at least get to about four.

Objective three is expand community education and outreach. I said that multiple times before and I will continue to say that. There is a fracture in our understanding of the significant issue here in our community when it comes to lead poisoning from pediatricians, I was just on the call earlier with a practitioner that had no clue that lead poisoning was still an issue in our community. And so we led into a twenty six minute call, which was supposed to be a sixteen minute call, and I asked her not to bill me beyond that. But we talked about lead, and that led to her asking me how do I do more, how do I get involved, because I'm sure if I don't know about it, there's other folks that don't know about it that works in my field.

I say absolutely, I've talked to a couple of them. So there's a significant need for that community education and outreach. So the objective is to increase lead testing in Toledo region and develop lead poisoning prevention education programming specifically for households, schools, health professionals, day care providers, and landlords. One of the steps that I have taken to make sure that we get quality education materials is I have joined the Led Safe Ohio Committee, and we had our first committee meeting this month and it was very progressive. And so they, with open arms, have offered us up three different translations of lead resource materials, so those have actively been going out into the community.

Our strategic goal number four, of course, is advocacy. Establish Toledo Lead Resource Center as the regionally organization for lead poisoning prevention advocacy. This is one I wanna tell you something really cool that I'm working on is establishing a lead safe family advisory council for our community. And so I am in the very beginning stages of that and working with Gloria Smith who is also a board member at Toledo Lucas County Health Department. So I spoke about my board briefly, but they're a group of individuals that I'm very proud of.

This is a tough time when it comes to where do you, when you have that limited bandwidth and you wanna do something for the greater good, where do you spend your time at? This list of individuals which I'll read through, said yes to the resource center. Many of them said yes to me reaching out, not really knowing the depth of where we were going, because again we were building it, but wanted to be a part of something that would improve the lives of members of our community. Many of the members are you're my neighbors. So the Toledo Resource Center Board of Directors, our board president is miss Juanita Green.

She is the church administrator for First Church of God and was formerly the director of the Department of Neighborhoods here at the city of Toledo. We have doctor Heather Baker who is our vice president and one of the executive directors for Toledo Public Schools. Doctor. Marilyn Woods is our treasurer. She used to be over the nursing program for the University of Toledo and is a recent retiree.

We also have Monica Smith, who is our secretary, who is the lead manager here at the city of Toledo. Doctor Anwar Ali from Rx Solutions, Anthony Weaver from Lead Paint Detectives, Erin McPartland from Habitat for Humanity, Devon Overhand from United Way Worldwide, Keith Smith from Lucas Metropolitan Housing, Gloria Smith from Lucas County Health Department, and Cassandra Anderson from Lucas County Health Department. The effects of not addressing lead poisoning is before us. I mean, common effects on children, developmental delays, learning and behavior problems, lower IQ, common effects on adults, high blood pressure, kidney damage, reproductive issues, mental health challenges, and common effects on pregnant moms, increased risk for misc carriage, caused the baby to be born too early or too small, hurts the baby brains, kidneys, and nervous system, and caused the child to have learning or behavior problems. So knowing all of this and the causes of lead poisoning, the reason why the Toledo Lead Resource Center exists in our community, I wanna extend an invitation on ways that you all can support, One of which would be an annual budget allocation.

Another could be grant funding opportunities, making sure that the resource center is well aware of any opportunities for grant funding to apply for through the city of Toledo. Resource connections, championing the lead poisoning issue in our community with county, state, and federal government which is one of the really high level things just as networking and in different rooms when the opportunity to present itself, always remember our need here in Toledo, Ohio when it comes to lead poisoning. Helping raise awareness and one of the things I would like each council member, this is an ongoing invitation, to attend at least one Toledo led resource center event per year. Are there any questions?

First, thank you, and thank you for the asks. That really helps clarify how we can support you on such an important issue. I see councilwoman McPherson has her light on.

Thank you, council member Gaddis. My question is not for you, ma'am, but thank you for your presentation. My question is concerning the presentation that mister Beasley brought forth about the $500,000 the grant re grant award. That's my question and concern. And so by referral, I would like this to go to our law department.

We need to understand why, where has this grant fund money gone to. If it was to be directed to the junction coalition, what happened? Why did not why didn't they see any of these grant funds? Because looking at the documentation that is here and the award of $500,000, and it is signed by our mayor on 08/25/2025. Also by our president is listed, former president of council, Carrie Hartman.

This is a concern. And that we haven't heard about this prior to mister Beasley presenting this to me. One, I feel like I'm being blindsided of something that we approved counsel of receiving the grant money and then it not being distributed appropriately. That is a concern. So that is where I'm at.

I believe that we need to hear from our law department on this, and I I don't know if you have any awareness of this, doctor Clemens.

We do not. The Department of Housing and Community Development provides oversight over the federal dollars that come to us from HUD that address lead remediation work housing preservation, not lead line replacement. So I suspect this came through the water department and we will be happy to help shepherd this request to get an understanding of the plans for that grant and get it, you know, get it back to counsel.

Thank you. Because what we don't want okay. Well, I'm gonna say what I don't want is something like this to be happening, especially in the Junction Coalition. I'm I'm sorry. I live over there.

And this is talking about lead. And when you look at the map, number one area is our area in the presentation before. First is our area with our kids. And if there was some funding awards granted to help in this lead removal situation in our area, I wanna see that it happens for our kids. That is my priority, first of all.

And second of all, if this was granted to the city of Toledo and it was to be directed, then we also have to make sure that when we receive grant money, that the grant money is then directed to wherever it was supposed to be. That's the transparency of counsel, and that is where we should be holding one another accountable on that. So thank you. And that's my referral. Thank you.

Thank you. I think that's a great point. Counsel president Williams?

Yes. And I apologize. I am in the wrong seat. I'm just so used to sitting here. Just to to piggyback off of that, we did vote on and give give some clarity and there is an area that I am confused about.

I knew about this grant, I just know didn't know about this letter that used data from Junction. I did not I knew about the grant because first of all, I own child care center. And if there are child care centers with lead lines in there, I do want our water department to go and fix it. So this grant, the $500,000 was to be used for the replacement of lead lines throughout the city to replace lead lines for child care centers. There's an application online that child care centers can actually apply for this grant.

My confusion comes from the actual application of it, And one thing that we do have a habit of is going to where good data is and Junction has good data. And I do I do take issue with this that portion that's highlighted 15, confirm 15 less service line for child care centers in Junction neighborhood. That means that they should have been priority in nation to had to fill out an application at all. So that's where my concern is and I'll also fill out a referral because I know we did get awarded this grant and our water d department is going to do lay a lie replacements for child care centers that apply for that grant funding, but if we're gonna say that we're going to we're applying for Junction neighborhoods to get lead line replacement, they shouldn't have to fill out an application, they should just go get it doing because we said we was gonna do it. So I will send a referral to our Water D department and legal to see if those 15 have been identified in Junction and if they're going to be replaced.

That'll be the referral that I send and I definitely appreciate what the junction coalition is doing, and I will be there tomorrow, to do this. And, thank you from councilwoman McPherson sending that referral as well. This is important because if those 15 lead service line child care centers in Junction Neighborhood are supposed to be replaced, we got to replace them without application. So thank you so much. I appreciate you. Happy New Year and Merry Christmas,

I gotta leave. Thank you. Councilman Driscoll.

Thank you, chair. Thank you for your presentation, miss Buckley. Certainly echo everything my colleagues have said about that grant. I I do wanna shift gears a little bit here. You ever see the lead resource center acting in terms of distributing grants or finding financing for landlords trying to come into compliance with the lead law? You know, I look. I I am included in this, but nobody weeps for landlords. I get it. But I do think if we wanna get people into compliance, we we do have to maybe think about both the carrot and the stick a little bit here. I've talked about this before, and I know that there are a lot of, like, mom and pop operations in the Old West End.

For example, people in a duplex is it's they can be very challenging in historic districts to abide by the historic standards and still come into compliance. It might be something we need to work on in the coming year, but I'm just curious what you how you feel about that because I you know, for some of these businesses well, businesses. Some of these landlords, some of these homes, it's gonna take a lot for them to come into compliance. And if they don't, they might just choose to take the house offline, then we lose the housing units. So that that's that's my concern. Does that make sense? And where do you see this headed in that direction?

Thank you for that question. Councilman Driscoll, I absolutely see us serving as a fiduciary agent for the community, a community fund that landlords could leverage in order to make the necessary remediation improvements by certified workers. The other part of that is the resource center building, helping build up the workforce through the certified, EPA certified programs, the RRP and then the risk assessor, lead inspector. So it's two fold, making sure we have enough workforce to do the work, making sure that they can get paid, making sure that there's some source of funds in the community for that. But absolutely, we would love to to do that.

Even just training the workforce, I think, will help dramatically reduce cost because there's really only a few certified inspectors in the area. So there's there's a lack of supplies. I I agree with you. I I think that's a great initiative.

Thank you.

And I just wanna add to that, council, member Driscoll. That was really one of the significant reasons we wanted to seed this nonprofit, to help with the funding of this work. I think your point that there are many small landlords that want to comply, but the cash flow simply doesn't warrant it. So one of the things we've tried to do in addition to the resource center is to provide a carrot, if you will. Monica Smith talked about the remediation grants that we gave out.

And I just want to emphasize indeed all of the remediation funding that we use is utilized primarily by landlords that are trying to bring their properties into compliance. And all of the funding we use for this purpose are grants that we write and raise. It's not funded by the city. It comes from federal and state grants that we raise. So I think this issue of private sector, how we can supplement that work and this issue of how do we fund this work?

How do we fund this work? I mentioned that this work is now costing us 40% more. The limited grant funds that we have is now costing us 40% more because of the construction requirements and restrictions that we have to go through. So it means whereas maybe last grant round we could do 60 homes where children with lead was poisoned, now we have to do 30 homes because the wage costs and the construction costs have gone up. We need some relief on the construction costs.

We need some help with the construction costs, Particularly if there is a child that has been identified in that home. You know, if it's just a landlord or owner that wants to get the house up to speed. If you have a young child that we know has been poisoned in that home, that the health department has identified, we ought to be able to go in, get that house rehab, get it made safe without any restrictions, just with the notion that it is a danger and it's a priority, We need to be made forward with that. So I think we need we are appealing to counsel for some relief that can help us to expand the limited grant dollars that we have and to continue to support staffing. The general fund supports Monica Smith's position.

It will be supporting the new rehab projects officer that will be looking at and doing quality control of the lead assessments of these homes and the clerks that are helping with the certification. But we need some help with the rehab. We need some help with the rehab and some relief for the cause. When I talk about lead, I know we talk about lead poisoning, I always like to close by this. CDC put something out some years ago.

Think about a teaspoon of sugar and think about one gram of that teaspoon of sugar, one gram of salt in that teaspoon, one grain of sugar in that teaspoon, that's what it takes to poison a child. So imagine the age of our homes and the dust and the lead particles that are larger than one grain of sugar. That's what we're dealing with, here in the city. It's an emergency, it's a crisis and, we appreciate coming before you today to talk about it, but we need your help with the dangerous work that needs to be addressed in the city. So we thank you today.

Thank you. Thank Is there anyone else from the audience who would like to speak about lead? Okay. Well, thank you again. We're going to shift topics to homelessness.

We're going to have some communities partners speak briefly and then we'll turn it over to our residents. You know this is such a large spectrum from first time to chronic homeless and all the variant gradients in between. So we're kind of really focused on getting a good snapshot of what's happening. We know there's been federal cuts. We know that's impacting our neighbors.

So really what's happening, what's forecasted to happen, and then what solutions or support do you need from council? That's really what we're here for today. So with that, I'll turn it over to Julie Embry and then we'll have, because she has a time crunch, if Katie Hunt Thomas is here if you want to be on the ready after that. So Julie, the floor is yours.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today, and for recent audiences we've had with many of you individually. First I wanna start off by conveying sincere appreciation for recent approval of funds for the warming centers. It has been a very sudden and difficult season already, with many nights needing provided. I can tell you we've had over nearly 460 sign ins on warming centers to date so far, and we anticipate another four day straight stint again this weekend. So for not the funding that you provided, that would be really difficult to provide.

So I want to say thank you to you and our partners in the community with the leadership that was provided by Department of Neighborhoods to ask for those funds and working closely with United Way to make sure that there are rides and accessibility. But I'm also here today to talk about some of the various needs and to paint a picture of sort of a perfect storm occurring in the unsheltered community. Housing barriers take on many faces impacting multiple sectors of our community, and I know you're well versed on this, and we also have many partners we've asked to please come ensure that their lens is represented today with comments. So I will try to keep mine somewhat brief. But without those partnerships or those folks here in the audience, we wouldn't be as strong as we are today, which is much stronger than we've been in the past.

There's a growing issue in the world of being unsheltered. At any time, have about 1,200 folks that are unsheltered in shelters, encampments, vehicles, and abandoned houses, or just outdoors. The number continues to rise. First time homelessness has increased by more than 50%. This indicates that households are being pushed into crisis for the first time.

Many of them have no idea how to manage systems, maneuver, all they can do is focus on basic survival. Our shelter system is overwhelmed. Our shelters have been at 99% capacity since January 1. No summer relief as as we are used to having. Lengths of stay in our emergency shelters this last year have doubled the year previous.

And this is not because people are unwilling to move forward, but it's because there's nowhere for them to move to. When shelter exits stall, the entire system backs up forcing more people to remain unsheltered. We currently have 57 individuals and a 150 families on wait lists. These aren't new numbers, but I will remind you the average family size is 2.5 per family. These consequences are severe and measurable.

Despite being the fifth largest city, we're often number one in the state for children in public schools that are homeless. That means more children are trying to learn while they're living in cars, shelters, or unstable doubled up situation. And that carries a long term impact in addition to many who might be suffering or at hand with lead issues, which we just heard about as well. That's additional economic consequence for our city. At the same time, our coordinated access system, we utilize in our community to gain access to services if you're unsheltered, is through two one one.

That's our front door to housing in crisis response, and it is severely under resourced, leaving people difficulty to access help sometimes when they need it the most. This is twofold, one they are under resourced, but two there resources are to provide. So we need a twofold approach in that one area. The cost of the gaps in this system are clear. We've already had two deaths this year due to weather exposure.

This is unheard of in recent years in our community, and it's because our shelters were full. And I really feel that we may have been able to prevent the deaths of Richard and Rinda if we add more resources. The crisis is on the brink of accelerating dramatically, which is the focus of why I'm here to speak with you today. HUD has reversed course on a continuum of care funding renewal process for the second year in a row, placing approximately 80,000,000 in federal housing funding at risk statewide and impacting nearly 10,000 Ohioans. This includes veterans, families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities.

What you need to know about this on a local level that is significant, this impacts 12 projects, which puts 3,000,000 at risk in our community that is providing stable housing, impacting 750 people, thirty percent of whom are children who may be in immediate jeopardy. These changes go from a 90% threshold to a 30% in being able to protect the funding that comes to this community, which is a significant policy shift. Some of the legal challenges that have been faced in court with this NOFO, for an example of some of the ridiculous measures that we are being asked to comply with. If you were contract compliant in the prior funding cycle, due to this NOFOs information, you could be determined ineligible right at threshold and not even have your community applications reviewed. This is of significant concern.

There are other significant concerns related to the timeline. What is typically a four to six month process has provided with less than two. And currently the NOFO is on hold, so we face even more uncertainty as to how or what we will do, and what services need to look like. If these services are lost, people will not simply disappear from the system, they become unsheltered. Encampments will grow.

And more importantly, our emergency rooms, first responders, law enforcement, and sanitation services will absorb the cost at far greater expense than the stable housing requires in the first place. This is not a cost savings, it's a cost shift. We're at risk of losing years of public and private investment. Housing developments that are currently in progress may stall or collapse which will undermine property values, private financing and endanger low income housing tax credit compliance. That's damage that could take years to repair and this community has worked staunchly hard over the past few years to really ramp up opportunities from missed opportunities previously.

So to see those efforts go away would be tragic. Housing providers across of Ohio have mobilized, we've been engaging HUD and Congress, but the timeline is dangerously compressed. Funding delays remain likely and uncertain and the communication is often cryptic and we're unable to proceed only in speculation. What I need you to know is this is on top of a cumulative amount of over $750,000 that's already been lost in this community in cumulative losses across other grant funding sources to these providers including ESG, CDBG, United Way, State Ohio Department of Development and other miscellaneous funds. Our partners cannot absorb more.

Excuse me. And collectively these cuts have reduced system capacity already. It's had to reduce staffing and constrained our ability to be able to address the rising demand. Our staff have been working tirelessly to help other elected officials, national, state and local coalitions understand the impacts of what this means. Our partnerships with the corporations for supportive housing and the coalition on housing and homelessness nationally, and also working with the national alliance to end homelessness in multiple advocacy cohorts.

And so instead of just trying to survive and make sure that we can try to secure and maintain as much money as possible, we're also contingency planning and we're also having to move into a significant side of advocacy that we don't have time for right now. It's cold, We should be serving our citizens and our partners should be out there when it's their prime time to raise money for all the funds that have been lost. So city council definitely has a role to play in in this and federal decisions are looking

to shape up. We've seen word just this morning.

In It appears as if an an appropriation will be moved forward in the senate. And we are hoping what that appropriation might include is just to acknowledge that the second year funding be granted and awarded. The first program that will be impacted locally is in two weeks. We have an impact on citizens, we have an impact on jobs, and an impact on landlords who are losing business as well and are hit hard. Within the first thirty days, our $750,000 in grants, now that's over the course of a year, but those are the first three that will be hit out of our typical 4.4 renewal demand.

The rest start to catastrophically fall in April. Without information and understanding of what we're looking at, our community faces very difficult decisions whether to continue programming that they don't have funding for and they may not reimbursed for or to just stop programs altogether. So we're asking that you please reach out particularly on the Republican side of things to help them understand the catastrophic domino effect of what these decisions will make. Most importantly, if you can use your influence to help educate and have our federal officials understand particularly any reach out to Marcy Capter and David Joyce. Our specifics that were identified today in relation to the appropriations legislation that's going to go through, again to specifically ask that they honor the second year.

Beyond that we ask you to continue to prioritize investments in affordable housing and development. We know this is hard with restricted funding, but we feel that you've done a great job and we hope that you'll continue. Recognizing housing stability as a critical public infrastructure and not a discretionary service, you've done this through action in the past and we just ask that you continue as a primary effort in Toledo. Because again, the data is clear, the risk is real, and the human cost has already been felt in our community with the deaths of Richard and Rinda. If there's anything we can do to further inform our ask, again, we try to make it simple today in your effort to reach out.

It could have an impact of $4,400,000 totally in our community. And we've asked many of our partners and community entities in different lenses to please come today and share with you from their lens and from their role in the community what such a cut and how devastating that will be, just to make sure that you hear the impact. And their voices are probably much more important than mine. So with that,

I will leave, but if

you have any follow-up questions, questions, I I could take those really quickly or you can contact me at a later date.

Thank you so much for setting a sobering picture of what we have. Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you. Thank you for coming and sharing and yes, we are into some very trying times, but I want to say thank you for your work and for your commitment to helping our homelessness. We realize that, the increase of the homelessness population here in the city of Toledo is is growing rapid. And, couple of council meetings ago, I think I asked the question, how can you help? Posing that question to the citizens of Toledo because whereas, yes, the funding is is being decreased immensely and we still have to deal with it.

But I say to the citizens of Toledo that we are a brother and sister's keeper. So they're on a smaller scale, whatever you can do, whether it's a blanket or a cup of coffee, riding around at nighttime with some hot cocoa, it helps. It lets them know that there are others that do care. So it's not just upon city council and state legislation and the mayor, but it's upon each and every one of us, especially now because our winter came early and we don't want we don't want to find another person in a home or on the street due to the cold weather or due to the circumstances. I am again going to ask our churches to really seek and ask the question and ask your congregation, will you open up your church to be a warming center during the cold days?

The community centers have have stepped up and some of them have opened their doors to be warming centers. We are all going to have to pitch in and do this until the funding situation changes. And the reality is it may not change. The funding may not change. So we're going to have to buckle up and help and reach out and do some things that we haven't done before.

I just received my box of I ordered a 100 insulated blankets to pass out because they're waterproof and they'll hold the body temperature. It's a small thing, but it very well may get somebody through a cold night. And that's what we've got to think about. If each one of us reach one of them, we'll save a life. Whether it's with some hand warmers, some toe warmers, it will get somebody through a cold night.

And when we're dealing with helplessness and hopelessness, we've gotta share some love and some positivity. So I'm employing each and every citizen of the city of Toledo, whatever you can do, please do something. Five of us get together, we can help 10. If 10 of us get together, we can help 20. And that's what it's going to take. It's going to take us all working together. So thank you and keep up the good fight, you know I got you.

Thank you, I appreciate that. And just so you know, postcards we talked about are at the printer, they're on the way.

Thank you for that. And the postcards are we know where the warning centers are because we can go on our computer and we can see it. Homeless people don't have computer. They don't even have a phone, a lot of them. So what our conversation was, can we make postcards so that we can pass them out so they'll know where the warming centers are and the hours and that kind and and y'all can help with that when we get them printed.

If you have some and pass them out, put them at your churches, put them at the community centers so that they will know where they can go when it's cold outside, so they'll know the hours. I'm gonna reach out again to my community centers. Y'all got heat on all the time. Open up those community centers, and if nothing else, let them stay in there and be warm through the night. That's how we help.

That's how we save our community until we can reach and do bigger things. Sitting on the bus when it's warm can bring somebody through the night. That's how we've got to look at it for now because the dollars aren't there. Preaching to the choir, that's it for me. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Morris.

Thank you very much. Thank you for giving us, your impact of what you're seeing. I'm always up for a good fight and if we don't tell our story then shame on us. And so from getting the shelter directors together, many many years ago, from developing the homelessness management information system, I've worked on all of that for many many years in my previous position. And I can tell you that you know what seems to be insurmountable many times, you just never know and if we don't tell our story then shame on us.

So what I would like to do, and I don't know if anyone else has already, come up with this, but I'd like to do a resolution from city council that we can send to our state elected officials and our federal officials, and reminding them of the story. We think that they're listening in the in the news, they they they might know about Richard and Rinda, they don't know and they don't probably care too much. I'm not saying that about the elected officials but people aren't monitoring what's going on in in Toledo. Okay? If anything, the cities are not first on their mind.

So what I would like to see us do and I'm happy to sponsor it, I'm happy to co sponsor it if if others, would like to join, But I'd like to work with you Julie try and make sure that we have a good story to tell really that talks about the impact. I mean, you're talking about 1,200 people who are unsheltered and there is nowhere else to go. And so, what I'd like to see, I know we have a lot of individuals and organizations here, if you would like to be a part of that where you lend your name to this resolution, please contact Julie, contact myself you know, or our clerk. I would love to see, I would love to see us all come together and really make sure that the impact is really outlined and very loud because it's really hard to answer a dork that doesn't go unknot. Okay?

So, thank you so much for being here. I know you have a time constraint, know there's a lot of people that probably wanna talk, but thank you very much. This is really why I came here today. I am not on this committee. I'm I'm a day off today and I came here because to me this is important. Thank you.

If I can quickly light a little more fire for you. In one ways that this NOFO has been weaponized is you had come to us earlier this year to create a local ordinance that would not allow homelessness to be criminalized.

That

conversation shifted more to service provision and and outreach, which was something we needed to do and great. And we said we can get this done later in the year. If we had that on the books today, that is yet another reason why they could choose not to this services in our city. We know it's not right. But we will do what we need to do for our citizens. So I just wanna make sure that you know that dynamic in this piece and how much the appreciation we have for everyone here. We know that we feel your support in many ways. We just hope that we can continue that conversation. Thank you.

Thank you. Councilwoman Doctor. Jones.

Thank you, chair, and thank you just for your work for really everybody's work within this sector. Really considering just what's happening nationally and what my colleague has said it may never change and so we have to get creative about how we lean on each other and just the solutions that we can come up with. I did have a question regarding I know that you said they were newer first time unhoused people as well and most of them are families, I'm just with younger children. So has there been conversation with TPS or other school districts regarding just those families who are experiencing homelessness, the first time homelessness because then my concern would be how is this affecting school as far as their homework, the education, the graduation rates and has there been any discussion as far as maybe having tutors within those centers or tutors within shelters to help children, especially the families only shelters as well.

I appreciate your concerns and yes those are all pieces being discussed in our continuum of care. Heather Baker, the McKinney Vento representative for TPS is part of that and are part of our youth subcommittee as far as planning. I can't say we've gotten that far in our discussions. I can say we have amazing family shelters who work very closely with the schools and we really appreciate the school's efforts there to make sure that children, regardless of being in a shelter, can go to their home schools. So that there's some kind of continuity and some kind of consistency

for

them in what is a very scary unknown time. And so we are working towards those, but the tutor component, I'm not sure. I know Jen Jacobs is here today and probably would be happy to speak to that.

And

we need to do more,

I guess is what I'm saying in that area. We're working together, we're talking but that is an area we should be having a focus on as well.

Yeah. I'm really glad that that is being prioritized considering just the situation. So I really implore like tutors or even using social media because I know some TikTok teachers that actually host classes. So that's what I'm talking about about getting creative when it comes into these sort of crisis situations. But I would love to hear more just about what has been happening with that. And again, thank you so much. Thank you chair.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Just to follow-up on, councilwoman Morris's, our chief of staff, Lucy, is going to have a sign up sheet back in the back. So if you have to leave and you want your name on the resolution, just sign sign your name and we can transfer signatures. That's easy. So if you have to leave or whatever, just make sure that on that tab tablet back there that you put your full name. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Your work is not seen. You know, don't I know it's sometimes you feel like, you know, are they listening or, you know, do they really understand? Yes. So don't get weary in your well doing.

Takes a community.

Yes, does. Yes, takes a village. And thank you and be encouraged. And we're here for you. Thank you.

Thank you. Alright. The Ability Center, Katie Hunt Thomas, are you And we're gonna set the clock. I'm sorry if that's a little pressure. I just want to make sure we hear from everybody. It's so nice to hear so many people passionate about this.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I wanted to say that while the Ability Center doesn't receive continuum of care funding, we are also very concerned about the impact of potential cuts because of what a large issue homelessness is in the community. So as a center for independent living, we actually partnered with 12 other centers for independent living in Ohio and did send a letter, a sign on letter to HUD and our federal delegation asking them to fund continuum of care. And we hope that the full funding comes in next year. I'm the disability rights attorney and director of advocacy for the Ability Center.

I'm here to highlight the need for funding for accessible homeless shelters and permanent supportive housing in Toledo. Almost fifty percent of people experiencing homelessness live with some type of disability. It's a rate 2.5 times higher than that of the general US population. The Ability Center has a housing navigator who helps people with disabilities find housing. Many of the people who engage our housing navigator are living in their cars, shelters, or with loved ones while they struggle to find accessible, affordable housing.

Some have been routed in institutions like nursing homes because they cannot find accessible emergency shelter. Many are on wait lists for accessible apartments, Section eight vouchers, or affordable housing. Some cannot live independently without support services on-site. There's a significant need for homelessness services and housing that is accessible and affordable to people with disabilities. Many individuals with disabilities exist in a perpetual process of cycling through different systems.

Because of the shortage of accessible housing and difficulties accessing home and community based services, it's hard to find housing. The scant accessible housing that exists is often too expensive or is already taken. Many people with disabilities may also lose their housing while recovering in nursing homes and end up homeless when they are discharged or are stuck living in a nursing home long term even though it's unnecessary because they have nowhere else to go. Once a person with a disability is homeless, emergency shelters are often not accessible. Different emergency shelters have differing levels of accessibility and some are not accessible at all.

So a shelter system that's already packed and overwhelmed is often especially inaccessible to those with disabilities. This issue is larger than just the homelessness system, obviously, but there are lots of steps we can take within our homelessness system to make the system better. I think the suggestion of a resolution from the city supporting continuum of care funding for next year would definitely be one thing we can do. But we also have to support investment in the homelessness system and in housing. Supporting investment in permanent supportive housing is important.

A lot of permanent supportive housing is actually newer and designed for people with disabilities. While it's a temporary solution, it is solution that does help people with disabilities exit homelessness. Fact that services are also provided on-site and permanent supportive housing is a necessary step in reducing homelessness for folks with disabilities. Second, emergency shelters that are not accessible need help. They need funding to become accessible with ramps or creating no steps, accessible bathrooms, and also training for staff in the needs of people with disabilities, how to integrate that within the greater homelessness system and within shelters.

And then I would encourage that any planning for our homelessness response system includes local disability agencies that provide services to people disabilities and people with disabilities themselves. A lot of local agencies who serve people with disabilities but might not directly be involved in the homelessness system would have a lot of good input and also potentially resources that they could provide to help when folks with disabilities are homeless. So as we get together to discuss homelessness in Toledo today, we should ensure that access to housing is available to all including residents with disabilities. That means increasing accessible affordable housing in our area, helping emergency shelters become accessible, supporting permanent supportive housing and doing all we can to ensure that funding is not cut at a federal level. Thank you for having us.

I hope that we're able to work together especially to make sure that federal funding is not cut for our homelessness system.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Next we have the Department of Neighborhoods to talk about Code Blue. Thank you.

Yeah, good afternoon. Council members, thank you for allowing me to speak once again about Cold Blue. It's unfortunate that we have to do something such as cold blue but what is fortunate is that we have a commitment from many partners to be a part of it we have a commitment from you city council members to make this happen. As Julie had indicated earlier you know, we've had approximately six days of cold blue. We will also have the next four nights of cold blue, meaning warming centers will be open, and we are at about 400 and something people who had to stay there, who have been coming in to receive some place where they can just sit there and be warm.

And it's unfortunate that what we're in that state And what I would like to say is while we were able to pull this together this season, we need to look at next season. We need to look at 2627 winter. And also, unfortunately, this happened pretty early. This usually happens kinda January or February. We don't see these type of temperatures for this duration at this time of the year.

We don't see snow at this time of the year. So this kind of caught all of us a little bit off guard. And to councilwoman sir Sandra McPherson's point about those blankets, there were a 100 of those type of sleeping bag blankets dropped off. There were a 100 pair of wool socks dropped off and also a 100 pair of gloves dropped off from the community to, you know, to be dispersed so that people wouldn't have to, you know, be as cold as they are. So I encourage city council to continue with the funding for that.

I encourage you to look at funding for next year. Hopefully, there was 80,000 given for the '85 I mean, the 2526 winter. Hopefully, we do not use it all because if we continue to have the weather that we have today, I may unfortunately I'm just gonna be very honest. I may unfortunately be coming in front of you again saying we have more cold weather coming and we may we need to make sure we do not have these families, we do not have these individuals out there in the cold. And what's great about Toledo, and let me say this, We've talked about the two individuals who very unfortunately, aren't with us anymore.

But we can even also talk about last winter when there was a family up in Detroit. If you remember, a woman and her children one of her children died in a car. They were in a parking garage at a casino. Very unfortunate there. But in Toledo, we were actually being very proactive myself, Julian Brewer with the homelessness board, Sandra with two one one, had been coming together and working on this and we had already set our code blue in place before that happened in Detroit.

So we try to be very proactive here and I appreciate the conversations that you have. I appreciate allowing us to come before you to talk about the many issues related to homelessness, the many issues related to not having adequate place that is warm and safe. Appreciate, you listening to accessibility that Katie Hunt Thomas talked about. You'll be hearing actually more about that with Katie and I about that as we have a accessibility study that's actually being done right now that should be concluding in early April and so and we will be bringing that to city council with the results of that. Once again thank you so much for all that is being done on that and if there I welcome any questions that you may have.

You. Councilwoman McPherson.

I have a question. I know last year when we did the emergency shelter warming stations And some of the centers that we used, they supplied to persons, but I think Doctor. Clemens said we paid for the service or paid them an hourly rate or whatever.

Yes. That's correct.

Are we able to do that this year?

Yes, ma'am. We are doing that this year. And so there's there's twofold to that or threefold. Actually, there's some money set aside and the code blue or just just was passed for transportation so that those individuals can call or it could be a friend of them call calling on their behalf saying, I need a ride to a warming center. I need a ride to a shelter. They contact 211. There's a cost for that, but under code blue, is picking up that cost. So we do have money set aside in there in that 80,000. Additionally, there's some money in there. Very it was very small, let me be honest, a stipend to the entity that's providing the overnight warming shelter.

Because think about this, they're opening up their doors. There's electricity. People are using the hand soap when they're in the restrooms. They're using the toilet paper and things of that nature. So it's a small stipend for them and for the volunteers who stay the twelve hours because it's from 8PM to 8AM, they do also receive a stipend and that is all being conducted through the Toledo Lucas County homelessness board. And they actually help find some of those volunteers.

Okay. That's what I needed to know. And then just for the record, if a center or a church or facility wanted to open up to be a warming station, who do they contact?

They should contact Julie Embree with the Toledo Lucas County Homelessness Board.

All right, thank you.

Yep, thank you so much.

Thank you again for all your hard work.

Thank you.

Okay. Next we have George Thomas with Fair Housing.

Thank you. George Thomas with the Fair Housing Center. Again, you get to hear from me twice today. Both issues are very important to the Fair Housing Center. For this issue, we just wanted to emphasize two things I think would be really important to add to the conversation.

So one is, counsel should know, everyone should know that when they when HUD released that NOFO, this notice of funding opportunity, that there had been these huge changes that could have really devastating consequences for our community. Contained in that were a series of assumptions. One of the assumptions that they make was that people on permanent supportive housing really could just integrate into the community. We don't really need that service anymore, and that people are just trying to game the system, that people are lazy in some way, that we don't really need this service anymore. Those are the kind of assumptions about a class of people that is direct that that is a fair housing issue is my point.

Those are the way that they release that, the assumptions that they're making, we should we should recognize what that is. It's a false assumption about people. And it's particularly false, I think, in our area too. Like those numbers that Julie was giving, the reality of our situation is many people are in shelters for a long term, for a very long period of time. And that's because they can't find other housing to transition to. The reason why there's homelessness across the country, the reason why there's homelessness here is because people can't afford to pay rent. That's the reality of what's going on. That's why there's so much homelessness. Sadly, NOFO has these awful, dark assumptions in it. We should call that out for what they are.

The second thing I wanted to emphasize was we actually have in Ohio a senator, a federal senator who serves on the banking and housing committee. So think that's important to highlight that senator Bernie Marino is on the housing committee. So that's a committee that directly oversees HUD. So if you do pass a resolution, I would suggest perhaps an additional resolution more specifically directed there just in his role as part of that committee. That should be something that we take advantage of if we have someone on that committee that oversees HUD as part of our comments. Would encourage everyone actually to also call his office as comments since that's under his purview. Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much. Rachel Gagan with the Tree Street Mission, please.

Afternoon, counsel. I'm Ann Ebert, CEO of the Cherry Street Mission. So thank you so much for giving us some time to talk today. First of all, want to say the answer to homelessness is housing. Straight up.

So this is not a plea for more permanent shelter beds, but until we have more apartments or housing or lead safe homes, we will need temporary shelter in the winter for the foreseeable future. I want to just give you some perspective just from Cherry Street's viewpoint. So we have 82% of the single men and women shelter beds in our county. So we have a large chunk of the population. In 2021, we served eleven twenty five unique individuals at Cherry Street throughout that year.

To give you an example of this year, now we still have a couple of days left in the year, this is extrapolated, but right now in 2025, we are going to serve 2,325 individuals. That is over a 100% increase in people that we are serving in only four years. That is something that's capacity that our system cannot continue to maintain in that kind of growth rate. Other industries love growth. We don't love growth at all.

And so we would love to share with you just the individuals, the type of individuals that we are serving. In the total United States, homelessness census is about 30% individuals in that twenty five to forty year range and then about 20% on the other end of the spectrum, the 55 to 71% range, my age, my people, my age group. In Cherry Street, we have over 31% of people in that age range. Senior citizens growing in experiencing homelessness is growing faster than we can maintain. I said the other day when I walked into our cafe, which we serve three meals a day, three sixty five days a year, I said, oh my goodness, it looks like a nursing home in here because we have so many scooters, walkers, wheelchairs, canes, individuals who are just in great need for services.

Individuals coming to stay with us, to give you an example of what's going on in November, we served three ninety six individuals throughout the month. Some of those people were with us for all thirty days of the month, some people were with us for a day, but almost 400 individuals. Of the people who are new to us, so coming in for the first time, 85% of those who are new to us were first time homeless. So for people who were coming to Cherry Street for the first time had never been homeless before in their lives. And think about that, if we are experiencing 31% of the people coming to Cherry Street are 55 and older and 85 of those are new to homelessness, it's been a long time in their lives that they've been stable and housed.

So something has changed in our society. And we, like Councilman McPherson said, we have to choose what we are going to do to attack this situation with strategy and with care, like you said, one person at a time helping one person at a time. But the strategy is what we're called out to do in our industry, both with our city government, our county government, federal funding, all of those things have to come together to really make a dent in those thousands of people that need serving. Today, just to bring up the final thought around winter crisis, We have in our community at least 130 beds or openings, I should say, for people experiencing unsheltered homelessness that do not have a place in one of our family shelters or at Cherry Street. We've added in 40 additional beds at Cherry Street, 45 additional at St.

Paul's Community Centers, about 45 individuals are using St. Paul's Church. And so those are individuals, when I'm talking about the increase in our homelessness, using beds and that kind of thing at Cherry Street, those are people who are not being served in the normal shelter system. And so it shows you just the volume of people who are needing to get housed. And so I guess my call out to you today is that we would commit as a community to continue to get at the same table. There's nothing that that the city council can do without the shelter system who's represented out here. There's nothing Cherry Street can do without the city council.