Housing facilities board of the city of the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee to order.

We have a quorum and the meeting was advertised.

Is that correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Yeah, we're not showing on the screen.

I'm just trying to make sure you're on.

Yeah, yeah, we are.

Okay.

Okay.

Um we have a pretty full agenda.

Uh first couple things.

Uh approval of the minutes of the October meeting.

Chair would entertain a motion for discussion.

So moved.

Second.

Okay, I have a motion and second.

Thank you.

Any discussions, corrections, thoughts, deletions?

Anything except rotten tomatoes.

Mr.

Knoblett was not here as were the chair and the vice chair, but uh Brian is here to confirm.

Ms.

Smith as well.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um, I approve the minutes as presented.

Okay.

Second.

So we have a motion to accept the minutes presented.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Oppose like sign.

Seeing nothing.

Nothing, nothing.

See nothing else.

Okay.

Do we have any persons who wish to address the board this morning?

You know?

I always enjoy your happy voice.

You don't want to listen to the okay.

All right.

Okay.

Um, we always try to make sure if anybody wants to address the board before we start, we can uh number five.

We have a resolution authorizing the chair or vice chair to execute an agreement with uh enterprise community partners in substance and uh substantially the form attached.

It is a matching grant in the amount of five hundred thousand dollars.

They're gonna provide grants, training, and technical assistance to eight faith-based organizations in order to accrue to increase the affordable housing stock in the city.

That sounds like a lofty worthwhile goal.

Chair would entertain a motion to put this on the floor for discussion.

So moved.

There's a motion, is there a second?

Second.

Is anyone going to speak to this?

Oh, you are?

Okay.

So this is a really exciting initiative.

It's gonna be Enterprise Community Partners first program in the city of Chattanooga.

Enterprise is a national organization.

They have over 80 million dollars worth of housing, and they run really successful technical assistance programs on their country.

This specific initiative, the faith-based development initiative, they have run successful programs in Atlanta and Florida, and we've worked hard to recruit them to Chattanooga because we've seen a lot of interest from our faith community in leveraging their underutilized land for political housing, but it's not a simple path from point A to point B.

It requires a lot of technical assistance to get faith leaders to a position where they can really get the project off the ground.

And so that's what this initiative does.

We are matching grant uh dollars from the McClellan Foundation, community foundation, and the generosity trust.

So it's really a partnership between us and the non-profit community to bring the trust here for supercents.

That's great.

Um, you and I were just commissioning a second ago.

How are you gonna get this?

What's your way of getting into the faith-based community or churches or to uh how are you gonna uh educate them on the opportunities?

And I'm not trying to put you on the spot, but you you always can wiggle out of whatever I ask you, so I thought I'd try you.

Okay, so we put out a press release of the touching press for a last week.

That was kind of first announcement of this initiative between now and January 7th.

Can we have a Clary and Call event or enterprises actually gonna come to Chattanooga?

They're bringing their team, they're hosting an event at the downtown library for any interested faith organizations to come to and learn more about the fixed date.

January 7th, yes, at 12 o'clock.

Um, and so anyone who's interested should absolutely come to that event.

In the meantime, enterprise has an outreach plan to uh proactively recruit these organizations to this.

So would they do I see this is basically on almost training on what they could do to help us?

Is that a good take on what what they're gonna discuss then?

Is that the what the training and and technical assistance is?

Yes, it's a fixed curriculum.

Actually, it's a three-year program that involves some classroom hours, it involves pairing each faith organization with a development consultant, right?

We have 75 hours of free training.

It's completely free to the houses of worship to participate in this program.

Um and they also receive some development grants for upfront expenses like a market study or initial feasibility analysis.

So this is really an initiative, a three-year program and cohort that is specifically tailored to faith organizations and putting them in a position where they can make the go or no go decision on whether their property makes sense for affordable housing development and housing development of any kind for if they want to do affordable homeownership opportunities or if they want to do a low income housing and tax credit development, it's really part of the curriculum for these organizations to identify what the right fit is for their property.

Do it would do they do senior housing as well?

They could, yes.

Because I think it's some of the faith based are looking at those types of things.

Yeah, absolutely.

So enterprise is really knowledgeable about all the different sources of funding out there for affordable housing and all the different approaches.

So that's a big part of the curriculum is understanding what the options are that are available and how to secure the funding you will take to meet the goals of the house policies.

Okay.

I'll be happy to help you with that.

Yeah.

Do you do you have in mind organizations that right away that you think would be qualified for this as well?

The only requirement is that they own land that they would like to utilize for WAPIN or community facilities.

And so any faith organization that owns land should come forward and apply.

So there will be an application process.

The first step is really to attend that clarity and call event so that folks can learn more.

And enterprise will be working with interested parties too to prepare their application because we really want people to be competitive and successful.

So there are eight spots.

This is the first co-hore for kind of piloting the initiative.

Have they done anything else in Tennessee?

Um, this I believe they're in Nashville, but they haven't done this program in Tennessee yet.

So we're really excited to bring them through.

Okay.

Is the the definition of a faith-based organization or how is that based on like how the land they own is zoned, or is it their tax status or I think it's tax status?

Yeah, religious organization.

Yeah, yeah.

Yep.

Okay.

And they have to be selected as a member of the face faith-based cohort participant here in order to be one of the eight, correct?

Correct.

So enterprise has their um kind of application process, and the clarion calls are the first step to kind of learn about that process and get some assistance and putting together a good application.

So they're so they're really gonna they're gonna select eight that they'll work with, is it yes?

Okay, yeah, and those eight will receive um development grants and the technical assistance for every three years.

It's a problem.

Okay.

How did you come up with the uh the number and the amount?

The number, so um, it was really scaled to the size of our community.

So in Atlanta, their cohorts are around 12 houses of worship.

They find that somewhere between eight and fifteen is the street's model to make sure that um houses of worship can learn from each other as they go through this process, and that they have enough one-on-one time with enterprise staff, so that was really scaled to the size of our community.

Yeah, Chair.

Um, thank you, Hanukkah.

This has been informative.

I mean, it's a 27-page resolution.

Um, I have a three-part question regarding the the funding and financing of it.

So you mentioned some of the community uh partners that the city will match.

Will that be 500 and 500, or are those partners uh putting forward 500,000 each?

So the McLellan Foundation has made a really generous grant, and it's kind of their first grant in the affordable housing space.

We're super excited to be working with them and partnering on this initiative that it matched with 500,000 dollars.

It's really substantial.

And then the community foundation and generosity trust have made initial uh grants of smaller amounts, less than 100,000 dollars, but they plan to continue to come back in the next few years with their funding cycles to additional.

Wonderful.

And um, you you shared about that January 7th event.

Is that the when is the application deadline?

The deadline is not yet been set, but it'll be open for about between four and six weeks, and it opens up at about January 7th event.

So as worship have time now to kind of learn about the program, hear about it.

This meeting is kind of a launch into the public, so we're really excited to be announcing it through this.

Well will the eight be chosen before that meeting?

No.

Oh, so it's the eighth is like an information okay.

Information, yeah.

So anybody interested to come, they should learn more about the program.

It's a chance to interface directly with the staff who will be leading the workshops.

Uh, and then from that meeting, there will be a 46-week application window.

So folks have plenty of time to learn about the program, get their materials together, and put together a really strong application.

We can help to open this up to as many organizations as we can.

Okay.

And one final thing disbursement of funds, will that be just based on the need, or will it be a uniform allotment?

In terms of the city's grants?

Yes.

Yeah, so we are doing it.

Um we have it scheduled in two chunks, and that really is as enterprises incurring the costs for the program.

So the big kind of cost bumps are those development grants, which are reimbursable grants.

So the organization commissions their market study and then is reimbursed for the costs of that, for example.

Um so it'll be about 5050 from this year and next year for us to allocate those ones.

Understood, thank you.

Mr.

Chairman, um, in terms of training, you you mentioned you can in reference the FBDI curriculum.

That's that's uh that's something that you guys will are instrumental in in teaching them.

We'll be tapping into say real estate uh commission or for community here as well.

Or yeah, so Enterprise Community Partners is kind of our partner running this program.

We are giving them a grant to launch the program alongside these other partners.

So they are really in charge, they've designed the curriculum, they have this product, they have it kind of these cohorts running across the country.

Uh, but they really understand that in order for these initiatives to be successful, you need to bring in that local knowledge.

And so, as part of those workshops, they have a Rolodex of what I would call kind of your professional affordable housing developers, those who can leverage Litech credits if that's the direction that uh House of Worship wants to go.

But if they're looking to do more infill single family home development, uh connections with local builders and developers may be more fruitful.

So that it's part of the curriculum to really understand what it means to select the right part and what the options are.

Okay, okay, good, thank you.

Any other questions?

I just wanted to make sure you all knew you had $500,000 that was transferred by the city to you by resolution number uh 32637, and that uh $500,000 would not be expended all at one time here.

It's at least broken up into two new calendar years, apparently beginning uh quarter four uh half of it, and then the next half in quarter uh four of 2026.

So just be aware that will give you time to hopefully have more money in your account since y'all are a separate corporation from the city of Chattanooga.

So the money's passing through us to go to back to um enterprise community partners.

Is that yes?

Okay, okay.

Okay.

I'm surprised you knew what a Rolodex was.

I've got a question.

Do we know what sort of reporting as far uh data results will will be available as this goes forward?

How many affordable houses, how many units have been created, all of those things so we can kind of see the value.

Um to your point, and you would know us better not, yeah.

We do an annual report on what we do, and I guess this would dovetail into that annual housing report, would it not?

Yeah, and the metrics for success of the program are written into the scope of work, I believe they're towards the end.

So things like the number of hours provided, training sessions delivered.

It's important to kind of to understand that this is uh investing in a pipeline.

So to get underutilized land leverage for affordable housing development is a long process.

It requires having the right partners, it requires getting the land development ready, and that's not going to happen overnight.

And so uh, especially in the context we're in now where land prices are quite high, building costs are high.

Uh, it can be hard to get those affordable deals to pencil.

At the same time, we've been doing a lot of work at the state level to bring Chattanooga into a more competitive position for LITEC, but those developers need land, and so we really see this as investing in a pipeline for affordable housing development, but we don't have specific expectations of the houses of worship or the types of housing they will build for I think it's but I think that not knowing which ones we're gonna pick and how much land and all that, yeah.

There's a lot of questions.

Typically, some of those do have land, which I think is the ingenious part of it because a lot of times they have extra land around their facilities, so it's an it's a natural match for for some.

And I should say this initiative is really coming from uh requests we've heard over and over from the community to be able to help on affordable housing issue.

And so we've recognized that getting them to a position that can help requires dedicated technical assistance, and so that's what the city's investing in here.

That's why I asked about the senior house because a lot of the churches would like to help their senior members by having the availability and sometimes this this could be a for the larger church that has the ability to put it together in the land, it can be a win-win.

I spoke to uh church here locally, and um because their membership is basically dwindling, and they have a lot of the older members there, they're looking into maybe taking their parking lot and using it to or something like this for additional housing, you know, because the membership, there's no need for the big church and the parking lot would be used as an additional housing or something.

I just heard that a couple months ago.

She has more sources than you want to hear about.

But I would say that to the extent your networks include churches that are interested, please help us in spreading the word we really want to do as wide of a call as we can.

Okay, all right.

Thank you.

Anyone else have a questions?

No.

Resolution authorizing us to execute agreement with enterprise community partners.

Uh please say aye.

Aye, aye.

Opposed like signed.

Okay, seeing none, uh resolution passes.

Okay.

Our next one is another resolution authorizing chair or vice chair to execute an agreement with legal aid of East Tennessee, and substantially the form attached to administer the eviction prevention program that would help individuals and families at risk of homelessness to maintain existing housing.

Uh for amount up to $500,000.

Do you want the short straw?

Hey everyone.

Um Megan Powell, the director of housing policy for those of you who don't know me.

So this contract is um funding to continue an ongoing eviction prevention initiative that's funded by legal aid of S.

So this funds um lawyers and paralegals who work with families who might be at risk of addiction.

They provide access to counsel for tenants, um, and they can help them work through challenges that they have with their landlords and not represent them at eviction on these case.

Um it's a program that's been going on for the last several years to send funding that's uh it's been very successful, and so we are excited to have new funding available to do that.

Excuse me, sir.

Can you talk a little bit longer?

I want to make sure the recorder gets it to you.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

So again, this is funding.

One slide down here.

I think we would right here.

I'm sorry.

Um, this is funding for an ongoing eviction prevention initiative that's being done by legal aid, which provides access to council um to tenants that are faithful eviction.

So then the grant really goes to the um legal aid of East Tennessee, and they do this on behalf of the city, right?

That's correct.

Okay, have we worked on this anything like this before?

Yeah, so this is an ongoing program.

Um we have been funding this for that, I believe since 2021 or 2022.

Okay, okay.

In the same amount, yes, I think we typically do 500,000.

Has that run through us before?

I don't remember seeing it.

Um I think in the past we may we had some ARPA dollars that we were using to fund this.

Um when COVID hit, we had, of course, an eviction crisis, and so one of the things that the city invested in with the American Rescue Plan Act dollars was eviction prevention, and so I think that might have been a direct allocation this year because this is where our affordable housing funds is located.

Okay, passed it through y'all.

Okay.

Questions?

Yes, I see you're in in section four reporting.

I appreciate the fact that you guys are gonna do monthly reports, quarter reports, financial reports, narrative reports, and annual reports, as well as additional reports as needed.

So I appreciate the level of reports.

You get to read them, Mr.

Vice Chairman.

And there's an audit clause too.

So we would certainly look forward to receiving those and thank you for that consideration.

Yeah.

Megan, maybe you can help, and I'm needing Jeffrey Gallery on this one too, because it's referencing resolution number 36, 32637, which is the same resolution number we just mentioned for the other one.

Is it a different resolution?

I just want to make sure the money came to the city.

I think it's the same order.

Yeah.

So it's only 500,000, but we're spending 500,000 twice.

Yes, it's two separate grants.

That's what I got from Richard of the case.

Yeah.

So is the council resolution to the board?

A million.

For yes, that would be the case then.

Okay.

Yes.

As long as it's for that, I'm just trying to make it.

So we're getting a million dollars versus 500.

That's what I want to make sure.

A million dollars are coming to y'all, and then we're splitting it up.

But it's but it was a few separate resolutions.

Okay.

One one to the it initiative here that's going for legal aid and the legal aid or the interpretation.

Okay.

I mean, I'm sorry.

One forgot exactly what it's does right legal.

Okay.

Yeah.

But from the city to the HEP board.

Just wanted to make sure it's not 500 times two.

Okay.

500 for each one.

Okay.

Good.

Same resolution.

So what is what is our responsibility as far as dispersing the money and follow-up.

If you have reporting and the annual reporting uh requires them to report to y'all here in connection with this because this is this this body that the money is coming from.

Uh and you determine that there is a problem in the records.

Uh you can ask for better records in connection with that.

You know, there is a requirement for indemnification.

There's also a termination requirement in each contract on there that allows you to either terminate for cause or for convenience.

Have we had to um be I'm gonna use the fiduciary words, probably not correct?

Prior, I don't think we've ever had to do that, have we?

To my knowledge, not to my knowledge, no sir.

Okay, so far.

Phil, I would also say we have the so the reporting is gonna come to us as the city, so we'll be managing the process on your staff and reporting to the board, yes, yes.

Okay, okay, okay.

You do just upstairs.

Okay, all right.

Any other questions?

Yes, yes, sir.

Um chair, I have a question regarding the legal aid of East Tennessee.

Is are they appointing local attorneys to represent um these evictions?

Yeah, so this is run out of their legal aid of East Tennessee.

Um runs out of all of East Tennessee, but they have an office here in Chattanooga over at the Standing Justice Center, and so they have local attorneys who work on this project.

Okay, that's correct.

Good to know.

And um I may have overlooked it, but what are the what's the eligibility of a tenant who has been who has had eviction notice filed against them?

What is their um I guess their response or how do they qualify for legal aid?

So right now, if you have an eviction filed against you, um, there is an income requirement, I believe it's 80% of the area meeting income or below.

And so you can call legal aid, um, they'll connect you with an attorney, they'll talk to you about the case, and then I mentioned it's access to counsel in court.

So there's eviction court every Thursday, and so if you're represented by a legal aid attorney, um, they'll provide you counsel during that period.

I will say it's incredibly helpful to have an attorney present.

Um, typically a landlord will have one, their attorney, but oftentimes tenants don't have that opportunity to be represented in court, and so um having that connection is really important, and then we also have um the legal aid attorneys are present at court every Thursday, and so sometimes they're able to talk to people today.

They're able to do a lot of negotiations with landlords um kind of as that arises, and so that's been a really really helpful um resource for them.

Just to answer your question, there is the their scope of work that begins on page nine of this particular contract to answer your question.

It talks about client characteristics about the income levels served and household type and geographic distribution, just for example, some of the um items that they're going to be reported as part of their metrics.

The good thing about metrics in there is each council district will have geographic distribution as well, so we know throughout the city who is uh having issues with uh uh problems in uh keeping people in and out of their houses there, so it'll be good in that regard.

Yeah, and I will say you mentioned the reporting, and that is one of the things we're really working on right now.

Um, is using this as an opportunity, not just to provide counsel in the moment to but to gain a better understanding of the eviction prevention process, um, who is being impacted, where that's happening that's gonna allow us to intervene and think through policy that can support that overall.

Okay, okay.

Anyone else have a question?

Okay, if not, I assume you're ready to vote.

All in favor.

Excuse me, I'm sorry, because there were no uh motion and second.

I thought we had one.

Do we not have a we had it for the first one for the first one?

Okay, so entertain a motion or this resolution, have a motion and a second, second.

Um in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Alex and oppose seeing none, resolution passes.

Okay.

Um the next is a resolution authorizing the chair or vice chair to execute a slope easement agreement by between C and E, who is the grantee, and creator group LLC as the grantor, and the HEB board in the City of Chattanooga were property owned by the HEB and leased to C and E at the corner of South Lowery Street and East 19th Street.

This is gonna do something with drainage because it's a slope.

It's a slope easement in this property on here.

C and E.

Uh, as we know, we've got a uh I guess a pilot for this particular property that is not going with them, and the portion of the lot needs to have an easement to keep the water off of that property here during the construction.

I I see a gentleman standing up behind you, so yeah.

I'm I'm I'm Jake Toner.

I've pushed development for C and I've been in front of you a bunch of times.

Um the only reason uh your signature is required is because you legally owned the property on as a pilot.

The slope easement is to uh to bank against uh a driveway entrance that was was built uh uh a little bit above grade, and so the the two uh ways to solve the problem were to are to go in and rip it out and put a footing underneath it, or just to backfill it with dirt.

So it just keeps it from the the driveway or washing away.

Washing out, and so in order to do that on somebody else's property, you've got to get an easement from them.

Okay, so they are granting an easement and it encumbers their property to C and E and the HEB board, so there are no obligations to C and E.

We're just giving them the opportunity the the permission to do it.

No, no, we're not they are giving us the permission, so they're giving us the easement on their land, okay, but it has to be signed by all parties.

Okay, so it's encumbering the adjacent property at no cost to C and E or to the to the board.

Okay.

Um but we get the right to make sure the slope is there in perpetuity.

Okay.

All right.

Jake, the only question I have is there's a value on the oath, a value of zero dollars.

Is that something we can just is that something that the chair is gonna have to sign, or is that something C and E will sign?

I I think uh I don't know the answer.

I think because you're the feasible owner, right?

Right.

But there has been no exchange of money for this.

It was just we've got this issue that popped up there in construction.

How do you solve it?

Right two ways.

This is a less expensive.

The contractor used to have ownership in that land during construction.

We thought we would get it done while they still owned it.

Right.

He transitioned out of that ownership structure, but he went and got his previous partners to grant us the easement, and there is no exchange of fine for the so is C and E paying for this.

Uh C and E paid only CD's illegal bills.

There is no payment from C and E for the easement.

For the exchange for the easement itself, no.

No, who's gonna pay for the work to be done?

The work's already done.

Oh this is this is just a piece of paper that says um this is forgiveness of what they've already done.

This is it's a piece of paper that says you can't move this dirt if you want to knock down these houses and put another building.

You can't move this dirt without coming and granting us and saying we need your permission to move this.

Here's what we're gonna do, and then we would talk through if you move that dirt, it wouldn't happen to me.

Maybe 20 years from now, part of that driveway might wash out.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, I'm just trying to make sure do you need Hicks to sign that the oath of value, or is that gonna be something that C and E will see?

That's what I wondered.

We've got both grantees, so either one.

I'm gonna step out of my legal, I'm gonna take my legal hat off.

I don't know the answer to that one.

All right.

Oh I mean, I think I'm gonna find out some caution for signed it just so it's not rejected at reporting.

I I think that's why yeah.

In fact, I I didn't even understand.

I I think that's why yeah in fact I I didn't even understand two separate oaths of value but I think that if I think in order to get it properly recorded and not rejected okay because it lists the grantee collectively as both parties I think it should be so we need to add one more sheet yes you do okay so I'll email Dave Elliott right now and ask him to add one more and email that to Mr Knoblow that work that'll work okay okay okay uh quick question the way I read this is that it is not a shared access that it's it's the entire tract is being granted over is that correct the the the easement the easement is a slope easement not an access okay it's adjacent to the access drive I follow any other questions we'll get two grantee oaths of uh value signed okay I'll send that email all right no problem okay thanks so we're gonna vote right of motion okay I thought your first mouthing was vote she's trying to keep me straight and there about me looking stupid okay um we need a motion on this resolution so chair would entertain a motion so move second second further discussion all in favor of the motion please say aye aye oppose like signed okay seeing none resolution passes um we have a notice of non-payment regarding C and E and contractor LLP construction is that an update uh there is an update because of the last sheet you got on your table on here shows that ERG empower rental group has been paid so C and E got them resolved in that regard uh at the time we put this on the agenda it had not done so but it came in over the weekend so we don't need that then do not need to um we're just giving it to you for your notice on here because y'all are the property owners at this point and we don't want any lawsuits against you.

Thank you yes sir anything else to come before the board today okay board thank you for your presence and and um expertise and you all thank you very much for being here you sure don't want to say something okay you happy maybe okay so move to adjourn second all in favor of adjourning please say aye aye oppose like signed okay thank you all do we have um anything for the December meeting nothing okay all right if we if we don't have um um issues that we pass okay so we'll keep you updated thank you all thank you get your attention