Street, you have to lock them up and you have to keep them locked up.

Mayor Want the Mayor answer that one.

Um we'll go to the government.

Existing section three to new section eleven.

I believe there's some amendments in here.

Hope it's not a whole it's not too bad today.

Uh a few amendments, seven amendments in here today that we'll read as we get through the uh presentation today.

Uh for those who are watching, those here, yes, it is one day for the time we are here.

We just need to get these dollars out the door.

Um, as you all know, we've had this delay is not a city council delay, nor administration delay.

This is a delay uh because of uh uh everything that's going on in the federal government.

Uh we were late to get these numbers.

Um the department worked, you know, over time, in my opinion, to pull things together to get it to us.

Um, unfortunately, people uh who are watching, you it just doesn't come, and we just throw it on as a process that has to happen.

And as soon as we were able to throw this on, that's why we're here on the Thursday.

And so as soon as I had the green light, once this body received everything it needed to have a proper hearing, uh we brought this uh team together to uh hear the ordinance uh today.

It's which we will do.

It is abbreviated uh agenda so we can focus on the um high level um aspects of uh uh the the ordin that is before us again so we can get these dollars out the door.

I know folks are waiting on these dollars, and we want to make sure that we don't um you know further uh delay waiting to next week.

Would have not wanted to wait to next week if we waited to Tuesday committee day, that would put us back another week.

And so, you know, once we we got through this week, we add it on for today so that way it can be heard and potentially passed on Monday at the finance committee.

All right.

And so I will be quiet there.

I'll let the director, the chief, uh open up with whatever remarks they'd like to uh to share with council.

Thank you.

All right, good morning.

Morning.

Um Chairman Harrison, uh Vice Chair Santana, and members of the development planning at Sistana Nope, we're gonna start over.

We're gonna start over because we're not doing that today.

Uh of the development planning and sustainability committee um and to members of the public.

Um thank you for the opportunity to present the Department of Community Development's 2025-26 HUD entitlement budget.

Our goal today is to receive your approval to expend the nearly 28 million dollars in community development block grant or CDBG funds by the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, and get these much needed dollars out to the community to benefit City of Cleveland residents and neighborhoods.

Before we get into the details, I want to begin with a moment of reflection.

This has been a difficult year and a sobering year for our department for our partners and for Cleveland's broader community development ecosystem.

The vast majority of our funding comes from a single federal source, the community development block grant program through HUD.

For more than 50 years, CDBG has provided the foundation for local investments and housing, neighborhood revitalization, and essential community services.

But over this past year, we have faced prolonged uh federal uncertainties, shutdown threats, and actual shutdown, the longest to date, uh, and continuing uh resolutions and potential cuts that directly affect our operations and more importantly, the residents that we serve.

We spent much of the first half of the year not knowing if or how much funding we would receive.

That uncertainty makes it difficult to hire and retain staff, and it takes a toll on morale.

I want to take a moment to recognize the incredible women and men of the Department of Community Development who continue to show up every single day with professionalism, compassion, and resolve.

This year also brought us deep personal loss.

Late last year we lost Tim Barrett, a stall worth of the storefront renovation program, and a champion for small business corridors across Cleveland.

And this past August, we lost Ellen Baker, a young professional whose light and leadership inspired so many of us.

Their absence is felt deeply.

For program year 2025-26, Cleveland anticipates receiving 19.46 million in CDBG funds, 4.25 million in home funds, 1.76 million in ESG, that's emergency solutions grant, and 2.37 million in HAPWA.

Every dollar is targeted to sustain the programs that matter most.

Home repair and lead hazard mitigation that allow residents to remain safely in their homes.

Investments to the Housing Trust Fund to make affordable housing development viable.

Neighborhood development activities and citywide assistance grants that keep our CDC partner strong, as well as other nonprofits, and public service programs that provide food shelter and essential support for Clevelanders in need.

While our federal resources have remained flat or declined slightly, we have refused to stand still.

Under Mayor Bibbs' leadership, we are pursuing a bold and forward-thinking vision for equitable development and thriving neighborhoods in every corner of the city.

The mayor's passion for innovation and impact is guiding how we modernize city systems, build trust, and deliver results.

Over the past year, we have launched a series of transformative initiatives to make our work more effective and resident centers centered.

My team will talk a little bit more about each of these, but I wanted to give a brief uh highlight of some of our major accomplishments for the year.

Contract modernization and streamlining, and partnership with urban AI.

We are digitizing and templatizing our contract process to make city contracting faster, more transparent, and more predictable for grantees and partners.

We're redesigning home repair with technology, working with the Bloomberg Sustainable Cities I Team.

We are reimagining the homeowner experience, integrating civic design and new technology to make applications simpler, communication clearer, and turnaround times shorter.

Our implementation vendor model.

This year we're scaling up a home repair through a new model that brings in qualified vendors directly to manage and complete repairs.

This approach integrates lead mitigation, third-party risk assessment, with a goal of uh really getting more housing repair done.

That is the best and simplest way to state what we need to do.

It's reshaping how Cleveland delivers critical housing improvements.

The housing development uh and CHIF, so the Cleveland Housing Investment Fund, which to date is a $38 million partnership between the city, LISC Fund Management, and Key Bank as our anchor investor.

We're unlocking new opportunities for affordable and mixed income housing.

Ten projects are already in the pipeline, valued at over $35 million in Cleveland Housing Investment Fund investment.

We've broken ground already on the Walton Apartments in Ward 14, new senior housing that reflects the needs of our aging population, and in Parkside Homes, which will deliver 55 leash lease purchase homes for working families.

These projects are evidence that Cleveland is innovating.

We are blending public resources with private capital, integrating health and housing through our new MOU with the Department of Public Health, and aligning our strategies with national best practices.

We even hosted a fair housing day this year at Metro Health's Opportunity Center to keep our focus on equitable outcomes for every Cleveland resident.

At the same time, the Housing Development Office supported over 275 new residential units this past year, and our asset redevelopment team successfully led RFPs, request for proposals for catalytic sites like McCafferty and Gracemount, continuing to turn vision into action across multiple wards.

So well this year has tested us, and it has.

The Department of Community Development is committed to transparency, accountability, and collaboration as we move forward.

Even in a year marked by challenge, I remain hopeful.

Hopefully because of the strength of our people, the leadership of this administration and this council, and the shared determination across the city to make Cleveland a place where every resident can thrive.

All right.

Thank you, Director.

Thank you for your remarks and open statement.

As you've mentioned, you know, we've we've come a long way.

We've done some great things together, and we look forward to working with uh your department, you know, as we move into 2026.

Uh great team around you.

Um I remember when she first came on with that smile sitting in the back, and I'm like, that's what we need, you know.

Um, you're the other team members who've been here.

Uh, they smile too.

Oh, absolutely.

Yes, they do.

Yes, they do.

You know, but Danette had that infectious smile when she uh walked in that room.

Uh but again, no, you have a great team that's sitting behind you and here at the table who's been who's doing some great work.

Um, we'll jump into the presentation and just for the committee and those who are watching, we'll go to the presentation and uh then we'll we'll follow up with uh questions.

But if there's something that's pressing that you truly need clarification on as we move through the presentation, please uh stop me and we will uh have your question uh answer.

Okay, all right, director.

Thank you.

Um so I I like to spend this opportunity uh to take a little bit of time to just talk about kind of the wide breadth of what community development uh does.

Thank you.

Um and so we uh through all of our funding sources uh we work with sub-recipients and partners, we do programs that are direct to residents and recipients.

Um and we also have other programs that are more administrative in nature.

Um so I just want to ground folks and especially the public who may not be aware of all of the things that community development is involved in in this city.

Um I'll talk a bit about our structure.

Um we uh have the department uh kind of divided by two.

Um and so our first half um is uh under three bureaus, which is program operations bureau, our community programming bureau, and residential improvement bureau.

Um you will hear from uh these fierce women uh beside me who are the senior leadership team of the Department of Community Development.

Um, but I I wanted to again give a broad picture of uh of the work that we do.

Um the other side of the department is Housing Development Bureau, Enterprise Operations Bureau, and our neighborhood revitalization bureau.

And again, you'll hear uh from each of our Bureau chiefs on what they do.

I wanted to briefly talk about some of our current initiatives.

Um we are uh, as I as I mentioned in my opening statement, working through contract modernization and streamlining streamlining.

We're redesigning our home repair process.

Um we are working with an implementation vendor, which Danette will talk about in a little bit.

Uh we are uh we have welcomed two Fuse Fellows.

This is a national program that Aaron Miller Tate will talk about uh in a little bit, as well as our financial empowerment.

Um, and as already mentioned, the Cleveland Housing Investment Fund.

Um want to talk uh briefly about some of our accomplishments this year.

Um we've uh fully transitioned all of our applications uh to power apps.

We have signed an MOU with the Department of Public Health to serve families uh of children with elevated blood blood-led levels.

Um we have hosted our our Fair Housing Day.

Um this is the second year we've done that.

Last year we hosted uh here uh in in the People's House.

Um, but this year we took it out to the communities where we felt like um where it where it needed to be.

Uh we have uh raised additional dollars as you may recall.

Um this council and administration uh put forward 18 million dollars of ARPA last year to cede the Cleveland Housing Investment Fund, of which we are already seeing the fruits of that.

Um, that has already more than doubled initially with that 20 million dollar investment from Key Bank.

Um, and now we we have even uh more investment partners and successful projects.

Um as mentioned earlier, uh, and and uh I know Trudy Andreweski will talk uh more about this later, some of the uh requests for proposals that that we have led.

Um and overall, uh we've supported development of over 275 new residential units through the housing development fund.

I would like to turn it over to Aaron Miller Tate, who's going to talk about some of our national initiatives and trainings that reflect really a new way, I believe, of doing business, gaining support not just from within the city, but from across the nation and helping us to determine what our best practices are.

Erin.

Thank you, Director.

So we have had several really exciting opportunities over the last year to learn collectively as a group and with folks in the community to examine some of the interconnected issues around housing, around land, and around equity.

And these experiences are really informing our work on a policy level.

First of all, the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund, we have a couple of programs with them.

First is our City Start initiative.

That is our financial empowerment blueprint, and we expect that blueprint to be released in February.

It is an integrated blueprint that really digs into lots of different corners of work in the city and puts out a vision for how to kind of collectively kind of bring that work together and bring it to the residents as tools for individual economic mobility as well as generational wealth building.

We also have our bank on program, which continues to work to connect residents with safe and affordable checking accounts.

We've got lots of data on how important participation in that banking system is, and we're working really hard to connect more folks and decrease our unbanked rates.

Excuse me, the Fuse Fellows, these are both funded by living cities.

The Housing Capital Fellow has the goal of sort of mapping out the available banking lending investment products and then where they sit, where they go in Cleveland neighborhoods.

So how are we getting more resources, more mortgages into underserved neighborhoods, historically excluded neighborhoods.

We've all seen the redlining map, we know where those loans need to go.

We're working really hard to work with our banks to get them there.

Our housing equity fellow will be working on a refresh slash revision of the 10-year housing equity plan.

I'm sure many of you have seen the plan and see the many ways in which it falls short and doesn't really provide the guidance and vision that we need to achieve our housing goals.

So that's gonna be something that we'll be worked on over the next year.

The partnership with Living Cities really brought a tremendous amount of technical assistance and access to funding to our department as we thought through things like housing equity.

We do have coming up on December 2nd, we will be sharing the results of a study that Living Cities helped us to fund using a consultant who's done some really great analysis of tax land assessed value.

Land I'm I never put those words in the right order.

The point is that what we are finding is that our lower value properties are being overassessed and our higher value properties are being underassessed, which means that uh no one is paying the right amount of taxes, and we're leaving tax dollars on the table.

So uh looking at that to figure out how we can use that to inform policy going forward.

An additional piece of that that I'm personally really excited about is how we use that information then to inform all of this other stuff, right?

So it's all kind of connected the financial empowerment of our residents, how much they owe in taxes, how we help them get through this challenging period as their taxes increase, all of that kind of works hand in hand, and and my team is really excited about that.

Um, uh Bureau Chief Trudy Andresky and I are part of a collaborative learning team that uh will be exploring community land trusts and how we use community land trusts as a way of leveraging our vacant land and helping residents get access to equity when maybe traditional homeownership is not the answer.

Um, and so we will be working with some other organizations in the community, the Cuyahoga County Land Bank to kind of think about how we can use that vacant land uh in community land trust to build permanently affordable housing.

So, all of that I think you can see it's all kind of interconnected and really just um trying to pull on these national resources and use that information and expertise to guide our work.

I also like to turn up the microphone.

Thank you.

We use a lot of terms and definitions that people in their everyday language really just don't use.

And so I'd like to just I know everyone here around the table is familiar with these terms, but I do think it's important to kind of describe some of the alphabet soup that is our work.

And these are required to spend any federal dollars.

You have to hit one of the three national objectives, and that could be low to moderate income, which is typically what we are using in the city of Cleveland, but it could also be something like the elimination of slum and blight.

And also there's some emergence uh emergent needs.

Um they all have different requirements.

Um so for example, emergent need uh has four different criteria.

We hardly use that, um, but uh you know, this this past few weeks where we didn't know what was happening with our uh with with SNAP and federal food aid, um, you know, we looked into is is this uh an emergency?

Is this considered an emergency for HUD?

And could we kick in different different dollars?

So that's some of the work that that's why these things uh matter, because even though we don't typically use it, um I have not found evidence that we've used the emergency function uh in the city of Cleveland, um, but we have it and we can use that, um, and that has some different rules and regulations around it.

Um, and and so uh again, just to use this as a moment for a little bit of uh education.

All right, uh so we will get into our budget overview and uh we will talk at the at the highest levels at this point.

So uh there are several different line items that make up uh or categories, I should say, that make up the entitlement budget for our formula allocation.

Um, and just as a note, um Cleveland is the eighth largest entitlement uh of the Department of Housing and Urban Development for CDBG for community development block grant.

Um and we are not the eighth largest city.

And so part of what makes up this formula is the population, like the actual number of people, but also what percentage of the population is in poverty or very low income.

Um we know that we have a city that has a pretty tremendous amount of uh of residents that are um in the very low income category, and that's what makes uh that that's what kicks up Cleveland as one of the higher amounts for this formula grant.

So these categories are community development block grant, which is our largest, broadest category, um, and for this year that is 19,386,114, I know numbers.

Uh for the next category we have, and and that's a slight reduction from from last year.

Um we have our home funds, and that is just over $4 million, um, and that was actually increased slightly this year.

Um we have ESG, which is emergency solutions grant.

Um these are funds that support our our unhoused uh neighbors.

Um for that there was a also a very slight increase, and that is uh 1,08,042 uh thousand dollars and some change.

Uh and then finally um uh our housing housing with housing for housing opportunities for persons with AIDS.

And this is directly to help uh to help house our brothers and sisters that are living uh with HIV aids.

Um and that is slightly down in that quick category this year for an overall slight decrease in uh just over 1.5 percent.

Um in our estimation, we are we we consider this pretty much flat funding from last year, um which quite frankly, where we were at the beginning of the year is is a blessing.

Um so these are the overall funds uh that that we are seeking to get out into the into the community here.

I'd like to turn it over and talk about residential improvement, and so I'm turning it over to our smiley friend, uh also known as Bureau Chief uh Danette Davis, um, who will speak to us about um how she uh has helped to transform what is housing development housing improvement, residential improvement in this city uh where our home repair uh primarily sits.

Jeanette.

Good morning.

Uh the Bureau of Residential Improvement oversees a diverse portfolio of housing repair programs to serve the Cleveland residents each year.

Some of those programs include our senior home uh own homeowner assistance program, also known as SHAP.

There uh this program provides essential home repairs for low-income seniors that are homeowners to help them remain safely in their homes.

We also have our only loan program, uh repair home, also known as RA, which offers affordable loans to families for home improvement uh that address address safety and code violations that has been issued for the homes.

We have a program model block, a strategic investment initiative that rehabilitates the exteriors of homes in targeted areas to remove slum and blight, our healthy homes program, which focuses on addressing healthy and health and safety hazards such as accessibility issues, fall hazards, mole and fire safety.

We have a paint program, which also assists homeowners with exterior paint, labor work to preserve uh property values and sustain uh the structures of the homes.

We also have uh two-led programs that service both the uh city wide as well as a strategically planned area directly.

Lastly, we have a few subgrant programs that includes uh emergency specialized home repairs for furnaces and hot water tanks as well as gutters.

These programs were developed to strengthen housing stability, preserve aging homes, and sustain neighborhood integrity across city wards.

However, in 2024, we fundamentally redefined how the department approaches home repair.

We recognize the residents' needs and the broader service landscape has changed significantly.

The previous structure, which operated through isolated program silos, was no longer sustainable or effective.

At that time, our contractor pool had dropped to just below seven contractors across all programs.

And despite maintaining a year-round open application process for contractors, we cannot increase or retain qualified contractors.

Moreover, after years of accepting applications on a uh year-round basis, we had over 2,000 submissions awaiting service and stagnant production.

Some of these key changes that we needed to make was affecting contractor payments, fragmented technology in our delivery of our service, and insufficient debt data visibility to course correct.

We shifted from a program by program approach to a holistic model, one that evaluates the total condition of the home rather than addressing single repairs.

This transformation required moderate modernization of our infrastructure infrastructure and redefining how we deliver services.

In 2024, community developed launched power apps platform, a centralized digital system for application management, uh compliance tracking and payment processing.

This technology gave staff and partners real-time visibility into every phase of the project delivery.

Upon mitigation uh migration, it became clear that approximately 1,300 of the more than 2,000 applicants in the database had never advanced to service, underscoring the urgent need to reform.

To move this reformation forward, we are actively collaborating with urban AI, which is urban analytics and uh innovation departments, Bloomberg's I team of civic design to enhance the platform design and workflow.

This is a user and human-centered redesign that improves functionality and minimize submission delays.

In 2025, we initiated an application pause to review and verify existing applications for eligibility and completeness, to eliminate inactive and duplicated records, to improve accuracy, transparency, and communication with residents and CD partners, and to align staff and contractor resources with realistic production capacity.

This pause allowed the Bureau to reset its internal systems and to reestablish equitable, efficient in intake to service the pipeline that we need to service residents.

In June of 2025, the department entered into a contract with a dedicated implementation vendor, functioning as a general contractor to expand productivity capacity and to manage construction construction activity.

The city retains responsibility for intake, eligibility determination, compliance oversight, and final reporting, while the implementation vendor oversees construction management and contract operations.

Some key core tasks that the implementation vendor is responsible for managing uh single comprehensive construction contractors with subcontractors, recruitment and sustainability of qualified contracting pools, overseeing the process of contractor payments, developing standardized scopes of works and pricings for uh the jobs to be done, maintaining accountability for timeliness, quality, and compliance uh with the uh hub requirements that we must follow.

The overarching goal is to increase overall unit production and streamline job delivery.

Results to date, we have approximately 15 led contractors in our pool, eight non-led contractors, five risk assessors under a rotating system.

We have given approximately a total of 87 total projects assigned to the implementation vendor, 27, which is under contract and construction right now as we speak.

Direct payment process through the implementation vendor is eliminating any payment delays to our contractors.

Looking forward, the Bureau's work in 2024 through 2025 have led uh laid the groundwork for a long-term transformation.

We now operate from a monitorized system with transparency processes, accountability with partners, and stronger community outcomes.

The years ahead will focus on maintaining production momentum, refining workflows, and ensuring that every program, whether led, healthy homes, or senior repair, advances our shared mission.

Safety, healthy homes, and sustainable homes for every Cleveland resident.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bureau Chief.

Um, just as a note, uh, we are not where we want to be because we are not closed out on those homes, but we are certainly headed in the right direction, and we are much closer than we have been in probably a generation to actually accomplishing our goals of getting as many uh of our residents the desperately needed home repair.

Um we are so confident and uh that in this pathway um that we have also convinced HUD to give us an additional year on each of our competitive three grants.

These are the grants that had been struggling and were at risk of uh needing to send money back because of uh the progress that we had not made.

Um, but given uh given our new process, our new partnerships, um the just vast amount of the evidence of work that we have done that the net has led us through.

Um they are confident enough in us to give us more time to get these dollars out.

So all three of our competitive grants have now received additional time so that we can spend that money, and we're certainly headed in the right direction.

Sure, thank you, Director.

Can you for the folks who are watching?

Can you tell everyone what the three competitive grants are?

Yes, Danette.

Thank you.

Chief press it again.

Gotta mean it.

Uh we have uh two led grants, uh uh high impact neighborhood grant.

We have a citywide led grant, and we have the healthy homes production grant.

So you have two led grants, two led two led grants and one healthy homes grant.

One healthy uh home grant.

And the two led grants are those neighborhoods specific or are they uh citywide?

So the lead grant is citywide.

Um most recently part of the expanding the initial grant for the high impact neighborhood was focused on specifically the Glenville neighborhood.

We have expanded that to cover more of the east side.

Uh we went into seven wards instead of uh census tracts due to the population decrease in those areas.

Gotcha.

What are the seven wards?

Um are expanding that high impact granting.

I believe it's most of the east side, it's most of the east side.

It is wards four, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

The remaining wards will be taken care of through our cityweight citywide grant, uh, which serves the remaining of the city.

Okay, just so that we're clear for the folks.

You got two leg grants, one citywide, and one was initially specifically for Glenville, but you've expanded it to cover East Side Wards.

Correct.

And the other one is the one is a healthy home initiative uh grant.

Correct.

And what is the healthy home initiative grant?

The healthy home initiative.

I know what it is, but just for the folks in Washington.

It focuses on healthy uh aspects of your home.

Is there uh what hazards do you have?

Is there a mold?

Uh is there uh fire safety, trip hazards, uh things like that.

That is the focus of that grant.

That grant is not a home repair grant, it's a more of a maintenance grant.

All right, sounds good.

Uh for the committee, since we that was a lot of information we received, and we want to, you know, uh while it's on our mind, uh, we can take questions from the committee uh regarding the chapter three residential improvement uh that Bureau Chief uh Davis uh has shared with us.

Yes, Councilman.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Through through the chair on this point, when did HUD agree to the one year extension?

Um HUD uh through the chair and HUD it was when it was when the grants ended.

So so just as one grant ended um right before it ended, we we got approval.

So I believe at the end of May we received approval um in September.

September we and then just maybe a week ago.

Yes.

And so through the chair were those extensions agreed to the those dates.

Was it one year from May, one year from September, one year from November, or was it one year from program and add a year to the program?

Um through the chair, those are both the same thing.

They were okay, they were timing the same way.

Yes.

Okay.

That's all thank you, Chair.

You sure?

Because you don't know.

But that was only on that point.

Okay, that wasn't on that point.

That was my only question on that point.

All right.

Well, you can continue if you have questions, just general line of questions.

I I will hold my question.

Okay.

Councilwoman uh House Jones.

Um so I had an initial question when we were talking about the national work that was going on specifically as it relates to uh the department doing the work.

Uh as you indicated, there had been overvaluing of low value homes and undervaluing of higher value homes.

Uh so based on this work, what is the process and what is the estimated time to correct that?

Like I said, I I have been sharing just the frustration specifically of what's going on in the Huff neighborhood.

Um so what is our timeline to really working to address this?

Uh because financial institutions are getting it wrong.

Um, I feel like who is it adjusted?

What are they called to be able to do the assessment of the land?

What are they called?

Appraisers.

Appraisers, appraisers, yes.

I mean, it's just it's not working specifically in Huff.

Um so what is our timeline to try to correct this?

Um thank you.

Uh Councilwoman through the chair.

I I think that there is a lot of work that needs to be done, and we've sort of just received this data.

Um, the hope is that these consultants will help us conceptualize what policy might look like.

Like how do we use this now that we know this information, what do we need to do to change the information?

And so the valuation happens at the county level, not at the city level, but we are working in partnership with the county to kind of process this data and understand it.

Um part of what will happen when this data gets presented is that we're gonna discuss it in the context of appraisal bias.

Um, and obviously, yes, I see your face.

Um, yeah, for sure.

And so um putting those two things together.

We have some bank partners that are working on this issue that are trying to figure out how to train appraisers and how to like build the appraisal workforce so that it's more diverse and has more um sort of broader knowledge and understanding of the community within um within the appraisal system.

I don't I don't have an answer for you on timeline.

Um I think part of what I would really look forward to is the opportunity to work with council to figure out what this means for legislation.

How do we get this moving in a way that now we have all this information?

We need to figure out what to do to fix this problem, and we can't do it without you.

So I would very much look forward to those conversations.

Through the chair, we're hoping to bring in uh the the group that did the study is called Urban Three.

And so we are uh looking at dates now by the end of the year.

I think we're looking somewhere in the December 2nd where we're gonna have some kind of I don't I don't want to call it a round table.

We're we're still working out those details, but we are going to host a summit where they're able to present this information and we're able to ask these questions about what then can be done about this.

Okay, so to the chair to the team here, thank you for that.

Um so I so even without the data, I will say it's like someone like myself has been speakingly saying I knew this was the case.

What even without the TADA?

I knew it, I have been expressing it in various different ways.

And I just I'll just say just to summarize is I will I would like to work on this with you.

I believe we don't have the luxury to wait years to put forth legislation.

We need to put forth legislation next year at some point, start somewhere, right?

Because it is intolerable, people are just losing out with generational opportunities because of what is happening because of the real bias that is happening.

Um, and so I'll leave that there.

But thank you for that.

But we do need to set some expectations.

I think for ourselves, we need to set a deadline, a timeline of something where we are going to put forth legislation.

Um regarding uh the work with community land trusts.

Have you worked with any uh community land trusts within the city, or have these just been conversations with in City Hall?

And of course, I'm lifting up the community land trust.

What does that look like?

We're actually missing a meeting right now with the Huff Community Land Trust to be here.

Okay, okay, all right, cool.

And then on the home repair side, um, through the chair to the team, what is our goal for because we're in the it's in the 2025-2026 programmatic year.

Have do we have we set up some goals of how many based on the allocation of resources that we have, how many do we want to get accomplished through the chair?

Through the chair, uh to you, councilwoman uh House Jones.

Uh yes, we uh plan on doing uh approximately a hundred houses uh with the funding.

And so I think this is really important.

Um this is why we really have to communicate to people, right?

So if we've talked about, and this was a hundred home repair app, and then we talked about there were two thousand applications just in the waiting, right?

This is a thing of why I just really feel like community members are so frustrated because people look at the city of Cleveland as I'm gonna be able to get my home fix.

I'm gonna have to be, I'm gonna get a grant to get my home fix.

If there are 2,000, I mean, even right now, there's so this is the question.

Based on that reality, our goal is to get 100 done within this programmatic year.

Will we be even even opening up applications when we still have 2,000 in the backlog?

We are still through the chair, we are still going through that process.

Um Danette alluded to needing to have this pause, um, needing to uh stop what has historically been done, which is a rolling application.

Um, I remember sitting in you know at this committee um and uh uh council member Joe Jones was saying, why do we have a rolling application system?

Um and the reality was um at that time I wasn't sure why we did, it just was historically what had been done in the department.

Um as we look to review our processes, we said we have got to stop.

We are oversubscribed, we know that we are oversubscribed, and we are not um uh managing expectations for our residents who believe that once they submit an application at any level of doneness uh that that they will get help.

Um, and that is just not the reality uh because we don't have uh enough resources at at uh a reasonable time in a in a year or two.

Um, but we also need to do some of these other things that we talked about, like having a good data system.

When you don't have everything in one place, it's hard to uh categorize and make sure that we know the status at any given time.

So that's the really hard work.

Um and and that's why we've uh we've asked for a reprieve and some some pause while we get that together.

Um so we are figuring out the best way to communicate that uh with residents.

Um and you know, it will probably look like a waiting list, but we're still working on it.

We want to make sure that we have clean data before we start making database decisions.

We don't want to use junk data to make decisions.

Okay.

So the chair to the director and team.

I'm just gonna put under I just think if we're talking about it is probably statistically likely that if we had 2,000 applications in any form or fashion from however many how how how how many years back do those applications go?

2020.

Uh th through 2020, so the past five years through so statistically speaking, I just think we just need to have make real decisions, and like statistically speaking, there are a hundred, there are definitely a hundred applications that uh meet uh the criteria in here, right?

Probably like a thousand.

So if we know this, and I'm talking statistically, not the data, is statistically speaking.

Why to even put an illusion out there that we are going to take more applications so that you can be 1,001?

Like this that just don't make no sense to me.

To me.

So I'm trying to figure out at what point are we gonna have the decision that we're not taking any more applications at this time because we just need to get it in order.

And at what point then, where do we feel like we're planning out to say this is when we think we'll be ready and capable and have real resources to open up the home repair application?

W when is that decision going to be made?

Um through the chair.

Uh that decision is going to be made very soon, as soon as we are fully assessing that data and have an online system where we can see everything.

We really need to have good information to make those decisions.

We also don't want to leave folks in a lurch.

There are other programs, whether they're directly through us or through some of our partners.

So we are working hard to make sure that we are not saying, sorry, better luck next time.

We are saying here's a partner that may be able to help you in this process.

It's also important for us to get good information because right now I can't tell you exactly how much money I need to fulfill everybody who's eligible or you know, who could be eligible for our programs.

I can't tell you that right now.

That's part of the information that we need to do this analysis on so that I can come to funders, I can come to council, and I can say we need X amount of millions of dollars, we can do this many a year.

Um, this is how we're gonna get through this.

I cannot tell you that right now.

Right.

And then so the last question through the chair to the director and team.

When do we anticipate being able to have this analysis of data?

What is the expected date for that?

Through the chair by the end of the year.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Thank you, councilwoman.

Um I think you would be a great fit to work with the department on that uh uh legislation that uh Bureau of Chief Miller Tate uh spoke about.

Uh so I guess I'll ask you to to kind of work with uh her and figure out what the information we have, how do we turn it to you know legislation that you know can be helpful our residents?

All right, thank you.

Uh any other questions for um uh Chief Davis?

Okay.

Yes.

I mean, you want to us ask questions based on the presentation that already happened.

Yes, okay, thank you, Chair, to the chair to the director and to the staff, thank you for being here today.

Thank you for your remarks.

Um really quick.

I'm not sure if I missed this, but what was the allocation for previous year compared to now?

Did we lose funding?

Uh through the chair, yes.

We did lose funding slightly.

Um overall, we are down by uh 1.52 percent.

So in some categories we raised up in some we went down.

So yes, there was a slight difference.

Uh we consider in a 20 million dollar pot, we consider that nearly flat funding.

Okay.

Um my next question.

Uh you talked about us being eighth recipient in the study of Cleveland because of poverty.

I'm curious to know.

I mean, just reviewing this budget.

I'm sorry I can't see this one because the older you get, you know, the more blind you are.

Um do you feel directed to the chair that this is a budget that is going to help residents get out of this poverty eventually?

I feel like we've been receiving funding every year.

Every time we're knocking on doors, we're, you know, we're talking to residents that really are just not you know making ends meet.

And there's so much need um in these households.

So I'm curious to know.

I know you put this budget together, your department.

Is it something that reflects um helping residents get out of poverty?

Through the chair, it is certainly helping residents.

28 million dollars is nothing to you know, nothing to balk at.

Um but our level of need far exceeds 28 million dollars when we look at home repair, housing, um, any number and any single uh one of our our areas, um, our bureaus could use 28 million dollars to help to make that difference, and we have a dozen areas.

Um no, this is not uh this is not a poverty solution, um, but this does help tremendously.

And what we have to do is we have to be more innovative, we have to grow the pie.

Uh we cannot rely on a singular source of community development block grant um because if next year they decide that that program is no more, what happens with all of the the good work um that that has been going on?

What happens to home repair?

What happens to um you know being able to fund some of these studies?

So we need to work more on uh what Aaron was talking about with these national organizations to try to attract additional dollars, um whether that's uh in actual grant dollars or whether that is um in technical assistance.

Um, but we are going to need additional dollars.

We need to grow that that uh that pie.

There is just no um there's no way around that.

We do not solve poverty on 28 million dollars in the city of Cleveland.

And I'm just I guess curious, just the way it's allocated with the 28 million.

Are we doing the best that we can with that 28 million and and the allocations for the right category to help residents get out of poverty?

Um through the chair, um given the the dollars that we have, we are doing our best with these categories.

Um I actually thank you for this point.

I wanted to note that um the way that we have done the budget over the past few years is uh we take the overall amount, the overall dollars that nearly 28 million, and we look at um the percentage per line item, and we basically copy that percentage from year to year.

The only difference this year is is uh like the storefront renovation program that is now out of the Department of Economic Development, and so that's gonna get funded in a different way.

So those dollars have been reallocated where we believe we need them the most, which is home repair, because of this conversation that we we uh have have just been having um over these last two questions.

Got it, thank you.

Um, and then my last question through the chair is contractors.

I know I get approached constantly.

Contractors want to get hired by the city of Cleveland, they reach out to us.

What is the challenge?

Why can't we find um good contractors from the city of Cleveland?

Um through the chair, there are uh like any issue, there are many challenges.

There's a workforce issue, there's an aging workforce issue, right?

Um our our plumbers uh and HVAC folks uh, you know, their their knees aren't so good anymore.

Um they they have aged and and so it's it's really tough.

Those skills um are just folks aren't going to trade school right now at the level that we need for the level of of repair that we need.

So in part it's that.

Um the other part is working with federal dollars and public dollars, I'll say in general, even general fund.

Um, there are certain requirements and restrictions that we have on those dollars that are not easy.

It is much easier to work uh in the private in the private market where it's just homeowner to uh to that contractor.

Um, and it's also probably the the level of work that we need.

Um when we are going in for some of these uh home repairs, which we think is maybe a home repair, it ends up being a home rehab.

We may need three or four different trades.

Um, and and that further complicates um the deferred maintenance uh is is bad.

Our aging housing stock is bad.

It's kind of a perfect storm of need and not really having uh having the the expertise in the community.

What happens is you have um maybe 10 qualified speaking in very general terms now.

If we have 10 qualified contractors, how many of them are gonna want to do the additional work to work in the city of Cleveland, right?

Um to deal with some of our process.

So what we've done to help this is we said, okay, what are the issues?

We know that the these mom and pop contractors need to have some technical assistance.

Let's get them some technical assistance.

Um the implementation vendor is helping to do that.

We know that they need to be paid.

Um they they often don't have a line of credit that is strong enough to do a full project, wait for a reimbursement.

Um so with our implementation vendor, the implementation vendor actually gives them an advance of a certain percent.

Um then when they get to a certain level of completion, they get more dollars, and when they fully complete out the job, they they get the the balance of that.

It's a completely different system.

So through that, uh we've been we've been able to increase tremendously.

Um I have come to this table and said that there was a low of two, two contractors, and now we have dozens of contractors.

Um, and uh in some of the reporting that I got earlier this year, there was about a hundred in the pipeline of folks that were interested.

So we've really turned the tide on that, but um our ability to actually do these home repairs to get hammer and nails is is strained by all of those many uh those many things.

Danette, is there anything quick to add on that?

Thanks.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director.

Thank you, Chair.

All right, thank you.

We'll continue with the presentation.

All right, um, so I will take uh I I know I don't look like Tony Bango, it is because I am not Tony Bango.

Um we wish him luck.

Uh he uh recently uh left our team and he is uh working with a partner organization, IFF, which is a great organization, and we thank him for the work that he has done to really transform this area.

Um so this year uh there's 3.6 million dollars.

Um, 2.8 million of those dollars are uh allowed to go to a non-Choto and 600,000 has to go to a Choto, of which I believe there are two within the city.

Um I believe Famicos uh is a CHO as well as CHN.

Um so those dollars uh according to this funding source need to go to um to one of those organizations where the rest of it can go uh elsewhere to projects.

The director for folks who are listening, can you explain what CHOTO is?

I certainly can because Danette is gonna look it up.

Um, community housing development organization.

Thank you.

We will add that uh chairman to our list of uh definitions.

Uh sometimes the alphabet soup gets me too.

Um so with with these funds, uh our mission is to create and preserve quality equitable housing across all of Cleveland's neighborhoods.

Um and we do that by administering these funds as well as local housing funds.

Um we uh this um bureau also manages our tax abatement program.

Um we support both affordable and market rate housing through these programs.

Um and uh our our goal is to just help get new housing, right?

Every time we are getting a new housing unit in place, we are impacting a family.

Um and so we talk in terms of units, but it is important for us to realize that for every one unit that is you know, for every one new unit, that's at least 30 years, hopefully a hundred years of a safe place for uh for families to be raised in.

Um and these new homes also come uh lead-free, um, which is which is a big deal uh for the city of Cleveland.

Um our goal is to help uh spark the market and for projects that would otherwise not be able to be completed, um, these dollars help to inject uh you know it inject a little bit of hope into our communities by getting these projects actually completed to completion.

Um some of the amazing things that have happened through this um this bureau is the Cleveland Housing Investment Fund, of which I know many of you know about, and some of you uh have already seen some projects come through in your neighborhood.

I was in your neighborhood last week as we broke ground for Walton Senior.

Um we also have have done other um other housing uh on uh primarily the east side or on solely on the east side in our Wood Hill homes.

So this was the choice neighborhood grant.

So Woodhill Homes phase one and two, as well as Garrett Square Senior Apartments and Blanket Mills project, which I actually just got to go visit because I visited Councilwoman Santana's local CDC that is now housed in the in the ground floor of that beautiful space.

And so overall that that means over 275 new units through this work for the Housing Trust Fund has has come through, as well as countless dollars in savings through our tax abatement program, which is again one of the most most generous tax abatement programs in the country.

Through the chair, I believe we do.

I want to get you uh the most accurate figure that I can, but um, but again, these dollars to your point and and to my earlier point about growing the pie, these dollars go in, and it's usually not uh a major part, right?

Because you can't do a whole lot with 3.6 million.

Um but that means it leverages all of these other dollars, whether that's philanthropic, um, you know, other federal dollars, other other programs.

So it does help and uh we we know that this is one of the best returns on investment.

Yeah, thank you.

All right.

Anybody else?

All right, we keep rolling.

All right, I would like to turn it over to Erin Miller Tate, um, who's going to talk about her bureau, which is community programming.

Um thank you, Director.

And just for context, um my bureau is sort of administratively funded out of the community development block grant, so I don't have like specific numbers of buildings and things like that that I have to report as accomplishments.

However, I like to think we've accomplished quite a bit uh in the last little while.

Um as far as the middle neighborhoods uh program goes, we are uh finally able uh to get our our ducks in a row to hire a program manager.

So we will be um on we're currently onboarding uh someone who will play that role as senior specialist.

They will be developing and promoting programs to strategically support home ownership and home value stabilization in the middle neighborhoods.

Um our financial empowerment work also supports a staff person who will be um project managing and implementing the recommendations that come out of that financial empowerment blueprint that I was discussing earlier.

Um I'd like to sort of point to something that Councilwoman Santana said.

Um, thinking about the problem of poverty, it is not ours to fix alone.

Um, and really the goal of that financial empowerment blueprint was to really reach into all of the corners of the city's work and think about um how we can leverage that to improve our our residence economic mobility.

So we're working with Greater Cleveland Works, we're working with our prevention intervention and opportunity team.

How can we get youth more engaged in their own financial empowerment and their financial stability in the long term?

So this is kind of a whole team effort.

Um that like I said will be released in February 2026.

Um that role is a little bit different than it has been in the past.

It had been previously paired with our bank relations manager.

The two tasks have kind of separated where I am temporarily taking on more of the bank relations work, and the financial empowerment manager is really doing more engagement with the community, so getting them out into the um neighborhoods to assess needs and and uh help connect them to banking resources and financial resources.

Um also we have in my uh bureau the offices of fair housing and consumer affairs.

We are in the process of modernizing these two offices.

Um we're working on developing uh CRM systems so that they can better manage their cases, they can better collect evidence in claims of discrimination or bad business practices, and then we're also working with the law department to enforce these laws.

So we have not up until now really had an effective system of enforcing our fair housing or consumer protection code.

And then lastly is our community engagement team.

These are two teams.

Uh one team is funded by general fund dollars, but the funds that uh come from the CDBG work uh for our residential residential regional engagement specialists, those are the folks that are stationed here at City Hall.

And while a lot of uh those teams' work has historically focused on our home repair applications and helping support land bank applications during this time when both of those application processes are paused, we're really taking the opportunity to work strategically and think about how we can better measure our impact and do work that um really gets all of our bureaus and all of our departments' work out into the community.

And partners as well.

And partners, yes, for sure.

Um next, uh, would like to uh introduce Trudy Andreski, who after four years, I finally know your name, your last name and can say it on a microphone.

Uh and Trudy is our Bureau Chief for Neighborhood Revitalization, and she is going to talk about the two areas of her uh of her bureau.

Thank you, Director, and good morning, everyone.

Um, similar to Erin's comment, I just wanted to preface this by saying our two offices and neighborhood revitalization don't directly contract out or expend federal funds, but so much of our work is directly aligned with it.

For example, through asset redevelopment, a lot of the projects that we help facilitate will apply for home funds.

And then similarly with land bank, um we partner, for example, with public works for a CDBG contract to help maintain a lot of those properties.

So there's a lot of alignment, obviously, but um I similarly don't have direct accomplishments related to these federal funding sources.

Um, with the asset redevelopment office, this is our third year in operation.

We administer proactive public and transparent redevelopment opportunities for our city-owned land.

Currently, I support a team of one full-time staff member and one Cleveland Public Service Fellow.

Um, as the director mentioned earlier, our team sadly got smaller this summer, but we have endured and we're planning to re-staff up come 2026.

We're a solid, smart, and really energetic team that I'm really proud to work with.

Um, we've been through thick and thin together this fall, but we're glad to be dedicated to this work.

So thank you for your support.

Um, we're currently managing redevelopment opportunities that span seven different sites.

Those total approximately 25 acres of surplus real estate across multiple wards.

We project manage all of those projects.

So one example is we've entered into or renewed MOUs and site access agreements with five development teams this year.

That includes three minority business enterprises who will either own or co-own their developments.

Um these projects are proposing to bring approximately 360 units of affordable and mixed income housing to Cleveland that totals approximately 117 million dollars of proposed investment to Cleveland neighborhoods.

We've also engaged over with over 170 development firms and approximately 250 individual contacts through our developer feedback forms, our developer distribution lists.

Um through our marketing press releases and web page, we've attracted a lot of new interest from firms who are either emerging and growing their capacity in the development field or established and looking to enter the Cleveland market for the first time.

We also strongly strongly value our direct partnerships with neighborhood-based external agencies.

This year alone, we've worked directly with entities like the Harvard Community Services Center, Slavic Village Development, Ohio City Incorporated, the Cleveland Restoration Society, and several neighborhood-based social service agencies on our redevelopment opportunities, and that could include anything from conceptualizing an opportunity from the onset to supporting community engagement and so on.

And then taking a quick moment to celebrate, uh, in June and October, we were able to be part of two ribbon cuttings for projects that were initiated through the asset redevelopment office.

Hawthorne is an adaptive reuse of a former elementary school that had been closed over 10 years ago.

We put that out through our 2022-ish school sites RFQ, and that opened in June.

I'm gonna we got to one of the best parks in Cleveland.

Come on through, come all through.

Um, we are currently strategizing our 2026 redevelopment opportunities.

Um, we're aligning those priority sites with um the Ohio Housing Finance Agency's 2026-2027 QAP to make sure that we can take advantage of some of the competitive funding sources that would be available to these projects, and then also ensuring we're aligning with other broader citywide initiatives and goals.

So please do reach out to us as a resource and partner on some of the larger scale city owned vacant land sites in your ward if you're interested in collaborating the next couple of months would be a great time to do that.

And I will similarly be reaching out to many of you on those projects as well.

The land bank office consists of a powerhouse of three women who this year alone have processed as of last Friday, over 1,175 applications.

I am honored to work with them.

They have all been at the city for many, many years and are just again, I would consider them powerhouses.

We know that there's so much opportunity for improving the way that the land bank program functions and its ability to meet our broader city goals of supporting existing residents, increasing housing supply, and supporting nature-based solutions that can help us further our city's climate climate resiliency efforts.

A few quick highlights on this past year.

As a next step, we we've worked hard on application improvements that will help streamline and simplify that process for 2026.

This will include launching a new Salesforce-based application and processing system.

If you've spoken with a new land bank applicant in the past three months, too, I my hope is that you'll be pleased with the findings.

We've dramatically increased our communication efforts via updated FAQs, more proactive email outreach on status updates, as well as phone response times.

So we now have an accountability system in place where individuals who call are receiving a callback from our team within 48 hours, and that's typically significantly less.

A quick aside as partners uh for you all at the table, that given the legislated timelines for council review periods of land bank applications, by the end of next week, you'll have every application that you can expect to review in this calendar year.

Um so thanks in advance for your attention to those to help us you know get them across the finish line.

Um and then I also wanted to share that thanks to Cleveland City Council.

Um, this is kind of a pivot of energy.

We uh our land bank was established via ordinance 2076-76 passed October 25th, 1976.

So therefore next year, next year we'll be celebrating our 50th anniversary of the City Land Bank, and um I'm really looking forward to taking that opportunity to celebrate.

Um in addition to the new application and Salesforce launch that will occur early next year.

We're planning a series of initiatives, posts, communications to help us celebrate and share the improvements that we're working very hard to make, but also acknowledge um a lot of the accomplishments over the past 50 years.

So we're really looking forward to that.

Um so with that, thank you.

I have the opportunity to interact with many of you on a regular basis through this work, and I look forward to continuing and expanding our partnerships.

Um, I'd be happy to answer any questions or requests you might have of me regarding either office.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh great work as always, always responsive, you know, uh, and really try to find ways to address issues that council members have.

So only only one person in this building that has been around as long as his uh you know came in one year after this land bank was established, you know, he's been here ever since.

So I'm sure he can appreciate it.

Uh I'm sure he'll be a part of this anniversary.

Um no, just kidding, but um any questions from the committee uh regarding thank you, Trudy, and I will tell you um that the process has been cleaner, smoother this year.

Um, so thank you to you and your staff.

I'm curious to know.

Um a thousand vacant lots were approved.

How many vacant lots do we have today overall?

And then how much revenue is this bacon?

Sure.

Um council through the chair to councilwoman Santana.

Um we've processed over 1,175 applications, about 30% of those are approved.

And so that's a big component of this transition too.

So I just want to clarify that before shifting to your other question.

Um huge limitation of our current system is that um a lot of these applications are closed out because we're not receiving site plans.

But in this new application um uh process, we will get that information up front.

So we've been working really hard to improve our follow-up and communication with applicants to ensure they're not closed out for a silly reason like that.

Um, but that's just some clarity on the application approval rates.

Um how many uh parcels are in our inventory?

Um, I think the last record I have is August, but I can look that up literally when I go back to my desk.

It was um just over 18,400 parcels.

Okay.

Um, and then as far as revenue, um, as of uh October 28th, I think is the last date that we recorded deeds with the county, and we were around 460,000 in revenue this year.

Um, one thing that I do want to point out is that we do not have access to those revenue funds.

It would help us immensely in being able to support applicants who are in need of um support with lot split surveys, um, any of our attempts to proactively you know provide trees, for example, to residents who are getting a side yard.

Um, having access to those funds instead of them going back into the general fund would be immensely helpful to us, and I think would really amplify the impact that we're able to make.

So I just wanted to point that out as something that I'd love to talk with you all more about um in the coming months.

Thank you for that, because we do get a request like could you help with a fence, right?

Um so thank you for sharing that.

We definitely could talk about that.

I think it's a great plan.

Thank you, Trudy.

Thank you.

Um councilwoman.

Umsh.

Uh when you all send those lots that are whatever we're gonna receive for the year to approved.

Can you send all each council member any outstanding lots or applications that you have not received response?

Sure.

As a as a final last and final call, you know, for input.

Thank you, Chair.

Yes, we can do that, and I'll aim to do that Friday of next week.

Um that'll be kind of the deadline when that 45-day period will no longer be in 2025.

So that's the date that's kind of our trigger um before ward boundaries change, and that you know, just complicates the way things have been processed.

And so, yes, we will send out that list to every council member um by next Friday.

Okay, thank you.

All right, Councilman Harris.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, I just wanted to clarify one thing.

The uh the land bank, there was supposed to be a director four years ago, and it was sort of floating around, and then there was one and then the other, blah, blah, blah.

Is there a director for the land bank right now, or is that just part of your duties through the chair?

Um, through the chair too, Councilman Harsh.

Um tenured staff Lyndale Hinton is currently the interim manager um of the land bank.

Got it.

Okay, thank you.

All right, see no further questions, we'll continue.

So our our final bureau uh is the Bureau of Enterprise Operations, and this is really the backbone operations of our department.

Um I like to uh talk about government as having a front of the house and a back of the house.

This largely represents the back of the house, helps to support all of the programming uh that you that you see.

Um, this includes our accounting office, our budget office, as well as our strategic data and analytics and IT support.

Um it is a centralized administration, uh administrative network uh for the department and for our partners.

Um and uh, you know, some of the the data analysis, uh, whenever we need to do uh do some updating on applications and uh really process improvement that often happens uh in partnership um with both the program area as well as our enterprise operations.

Um at last count a few years ago, um our accounting uh was over fifty for the entire city of Cleveland, over 51% of the transactions are community development.

So that is an old statistic that I thought was really interesting, um, just to really uh hone in on the the volume that we do um every year.

So we are doing a lot of transactions because we have uh we have hundreds of partners, quite frankly, uh in contracts.

Um our accounting office uh coordinates the certification of our contracts, manages our loan portfolio, and processes all payments uh and reimbursement requests.

Um I I have heard that that I have heard from partners that this process has gotten much better um over the years, and um we will continue to improve um both in in terms of our uh customer service um as a team as well as the the IT that helps to support us.

Um our budget office uh does what it it says it does, which is uh helping to develop and monitor the department's um uh operating and capital budgets.

28 million dollars is is a significant amount uh of money.

So um it it includes those dollars as well as uh uh you know some of the the dollars that we get from the general fund, um, as well as additional dollars from other grants, whether that's from living cities uh you know through Fuse or whether it's some of our competitive grants that we've been able to to get this manages um uh these folks manage um our budget office.

Our budget uh office has grown by I believe two additional people this year.

Um and uh and uh we are uh currently um uh seeking a budget manager.

Um so that is a live uh online application.

So I will just take a moment to say if you have anybody who is strong and passionate, uh uh strong with numbers and budgets and and is passionate about the work and uh wants to be a part of this uh all of these great things that we've talked about today, please send them my way.

Um and then finally our strategic data and analytics and IT support.

Um these are all of the calculations for things like Slum and Blight, um really helping to keep us in compliance, other statistics that we need, understanding uh, you know, the the the low to moderate income folks where there are concentrations um of uh you know of of need or um and any any really data requests that we have um we work in partnership with our main IT uh as well as urban AI and then any kind of just regular daily support that we need um happens uh through this area.

So um this team uh is also the team that uh is doing our um uh every everything that needs to come through in terms of contracting and payment um comes through these folks.

Um and uh what what we what we don't have on here that I need to mention is that um a large portion of of what we do is also uh grant making.

Um we are one of the largest grant makers uh within the city.

Um and the majority of these dollars uh that we have go to outside organizations, and we have a host of grant managers that that are working on some of our new programs that's called the emerging um emerging programs office, and then we also have legacy programs uh like our CDC programs that uh that that these are a group of folks that help to project manage um and um are working closely to ensure um we are compliant, we get the right paperwork, um, and that we're getting money out the door.

Um and that does it for our presentation.

Happy to to take any additional questions, Chairman.

All right, sounds good, thank you.

Uh how many staff members is currently uh in the department overall.

Uh through the chair.

We just added two.

I want to say that we're at 84, um, but I can I can we're somewhere between 81 and 84.

We have like just hired uh a few folks.

Um we've had I don't know, probably 10 or so folks get hired in the past couple of months.

So that and also we have folks that that exit, so that number usually hovers in the low 80s.

I think we're somewhere around 84 with the majority of them funded through uh community development block grant.

Gotcha.

And the general administration allocation of four million dollars.

Uh that's based on the the number we were at last year.

We just you kept it the same, or or did you reduce the general administration uh allocation?

Through the chair, it's the same percentage.

Same percentage.

It's the same percentage, and we are um uh in our in our admin, we are capped.

Um so the the Department of Community Development uh community development block grant.

Um there is an administrative cap um that we have, and so that that number is largely capped for us.

Okay.

All right, sounds good.

Um, so yes about 84.

And can you uh normally we get the listing uh shows the the previous years uh staffing levels and by year that kind of showed us where we were versus where we are now.

Can you make sure we get that over to uh Mr.

Titron uh as well?

Um I know that the um well I'll say the question for uh for last.

All right, any other questions uh for the director based on what the last few slides that we've heard?

Anything?

Okay.

Well, before we get to CDC, I'm I'm gonna pivot.

I'm gonna we're not gonna do CDC activity grants at the moment.

Let's do special population allocations first, ESG and uh uh HAPWA uh funding.

We can uh we can go into uh to that discussion.

You can start whichever one you want, director.

Okay.

Um can you share what page your page?

Yeah.

Uh I'm not looking at I'm looking at the uh um uh uh pull out from the um 2.2.

I'm assuming.

Well I'm looking at 2.2 that looks at the allocation, the 1.8 for ESG and the HAPWA.

Yes.

And who are the recipients for those?

Um ESG um and and you'll you'll have to forgive me.

We are down a team member uh this morning.

Um uh joy uh the bureau chief joy Anderson.

Um so I I am pinch hitting for her, so I will do my my best to to answer some of these questions.

But the emergency solutions grant um uh I I believe goes to our partners.

Um I wanna say like Eden.

Um do you have any any other insight on on some of these programs?

These are directly to help fund it's uh it's emergency housing.

Yeah, so these are um these are uh probably these are pretty narrow um funds that we can use pretty narrowly to support um our unhoused population.

And so we have some programs we're also um we put a lot of dollars into the um the counties continuum of care uh that that uh that is really the lead on our uh on our on our unhoused um services okay so that's for sure or is that just we just can't no that's that's yeah that's yeah we put a lot of money into the into the continuum of care okay um and the same individuals who received uh the ESG um support from last year that'll so that that's going to stay the same.

I know last year, like Luther Metropolitan, West Side Catholic, and all these uh um uh uh Eden and some others received uh yeah through the chair.

I I also believe in um if we if we can uh get if my staff I know is listening, um if I can get David to check for me, um I I believe that there is an RFP that's actually active and we're receiving um applications for uh for this program.

Uh but there's a narrow group of of applicants that uh is even eligible to to receive these funds that do this work.

Absolutely.

So I I guess this committee would we'll just go off uh what's in your present what's in the uh the budget book.

And if we have other questions, we can reach out since uh your person who's not here who has the um for sure answers.

Um is the other special population uh that we fund uh as well.

And um that this year is 2.38.

So we had a reduction, a slight reduction by almost six thousand dollars.

Um I know the last year we're able to serve almost six hundred people.

Uh we're estimating this year serving about 400 people.

Is that correct?

What you have here?

Through the chair, yes.

Okay.

And that is uh also done through uh what public health, I believe, in the past.

Uh through the chair, yes.

That is uh that is managed uh through an MOU that we have memorandum of understanding that we have with um with the health department.

Okay.

Is there any reason why the health department didn't join you all today to talk about uh their part participation and you know what they've been able to do?

Um chief.

We we did not we we did not ask them.

I don't think that they were a part of of last year's conversation.

I'm sure that um if if we would have given them a heads up, they would have been happy to to be here to talk about it.

Well, I would so my questions is because if our other person who handles this wasn't available, maybe have an the part who actually you know we have the MOU with to get the dollars out, could have came in their place to have you know to have discussions about the work they're doing and and how they intend to do it.

But all right.

We'll uh if anything come up.

Any uh questions from the committee regarding Hop or ESG?

Sure.

All right.

All right.

All right, we'll move on.

We'll we'll go to our last category, uh citywide assistant grants and CDC activity grants.

Any commons that you want to add and and thoughts.

I'm sorry.

Citywide uh grants.

A note on the CDC activity grants.

You see that they're um five seven five eight.

You have to get it, get it on your uh tablet.

The larger uh book is on your tablets.

We'll give you time.

I'm sorry, go ahead, Director.

Um the CDC activity grants, just uh just a note that um these are uh grants that uh we we typically use CDBG dollars, but given um our sort of emergency situation, um not knowing uh when the funding was gonna come, um the general fund actually kicked in uh around two million dollars uh to to help support.

So um instead of that being CDBG this year, um those dollars were were general fund and those have already been allocated out to the the CDCs um so that we could give at least the departmental um allocation that we typically um give each year that we we gave the the same amount that we did last year, but we did it in general fund dollars, and so we've already worked with all of our CDCs um our partners to get those dollars out.

Got him and just for the committee, this the two million dollars is not um what do we normally give?

Two million, what is it two million we give normally?

Uh something like yeah, something like that.

That is not budgeted in this uh CBG grant proposal because we use general fund dollars uh this year to support the CDCs versus using this dollars.

So for some who may not see it here, that is the reason why it's not uh why it's not here.

All right.

I just wanted the director to talk about it so that way you know if anyone who's listening, council members or in the public wondering and they're looking at the budget, wonder why it's not here and why we we show a zero dollar amount uh in the light item that we have on the budget.

Okay.

All right.

Uh the uh um citywide assistance grants.

Uh would you like to uh discuss those um our citywide assistance grants uh go out out, they're not place-based, so they um are are able to serve folks all throughout the the city.

Um some of our recipients uh from year to year are groups like um senior transportation, which which gets uh a pretty healthy allocation each year, they're helping all of our residents um and and other organizations that that go across.

We've got uh CHN housing partners, we have the community housing solutions CHS uh furnace program, we have a tool loan program that we fund through this.

Um CHS also does housing counseling.

We uh do work with Cleveland Restoration Society, um we are funding ESOP as well as uh housing research and advocacy uh and fair housing, the legal aid society, um so all of these kind of large partners, uh the Northeast Ohio Hispanic Center for Economic Development, Senior Transportation, and Spanish American Committee.

Um they run programs that are available for folks citywide, and that's the biggest difference between this funding pot um that goes to more social service um agencies versus our other our other pot um chairman, which goes uh to uh more micro like local based organizations.

Um and so that is uh that's that pot of funding.

Gotcha.

Uh thank you and director is is is there a camp uh cap on each grant that the organization organization can receive, or uh is just based on what they apply for in their accomplishments from from past years.

Um there is a process.

So again, for stability this year, we we mirrored the the same uh dollar amount.

We didn't want to given all of the instability this year, we we said whatever you did last year, if you can do that this year, we want you to go ahead and do that this year.

Okay.

Um so we have a a bit of a reduced process um just so that we can get as much stability.

Sure.

Um, but typically what happens is uh there is a request for proposals.

Um we we select and we uh we we select and then we um allocate based on those applications and what those organizations say that they can do.

Um one of the criteria as you mentioned uh is uh what they did last year with with the money that they that they had.

Okay.

Thank you.

Uh councilman Hart.

Uh I thought you had a question.

Okay.

Any question for the committee?

Councilwoman House Jones, did you uh find your place yet?

So I missed like two things.

Um there was um through the chair to the team here.

I and maybe other people saw this email.

It was like some property owner that has sent an email to us about not getting payment for six months or something because they were um uh they were housing, you know, some individuals and they were saying it was due to city council not passing legislation, but then I'm like, we didn't get the legislation until the end of the month.

And I I wanted to go through this, but because many times what happens is people always say, well, the administration said council didn't do something, and I'm like, we didn't even have the legislation.

And like I said, I just cannot find an email because this new system, this email system is is a it's a challenge.

So that was that.

But I did um regarding the ESG, and I'm sorry because I was trying to find it and I missed it.

Um regarding our uh the investment to our uh homeless how does that work and it does it go to our shelters, is it going to home for every neighbor?

And you probably talked about it, but I really apologize for missing that part of the copy.

You know, I'll go ahead, councilwoman.

Um so uh on six-one, um, we talk about the emergency solutions grant um and and it talks about uh how uh you know it talks about the program how it's emergency shelter grant, um, and uh we partnered uh this past year with um Eden, um which and and I can and that's I believe the the email that that you're uh referencing.

Um Journey Center for Safety and Healing, Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry, Lutheran Metropolitan, Lutheran Metro at another location, the Savash the Salvation Army for their work at Zelma George Center, West Side Catholic Center, uh for Mariah House, and uh the the City of Cleveland Department of Aging for their homeless intervention.

So that is on 6-1 and that uh describes the emergency solutions uh grant uh and and our partners.

Um I will speak to the the the payment the payment piece um so um given that our program yeah I and I believe really uh through the chair council uh chairman Harrison really described the process earlier.

There was a delay um and and so that's that that's what caused it.

So what what he was talking about at the top of uh is really the the explanation.

But another complicating factor is that these programs have been going on since the middle of the summer.

Um our our program year goes from the middle of the summer um to the middle of the next year's summer, which is different than all of our other programs, which is why um our our our timing is uh is important here because folks are often working um ahead of time without having the ability to have contracts, um, and we do need these dollars to be able to expend um uh to to get them out.

So that is why we are we're here today to get these dollars moving out um to get to these organizations.

Yeah, so I did hear the number so through the through the uh chair to the director.

It was this indicating, and like I said, I because I do want to respond to him, I want to find out who he was talking to and who indicated such things is we just need to be clear communicators, right?

Because clearly there was a disconnect.

And in some form or fashion where the person was indicating that we were stalling on the legislation, and that's the reason why they didn't get their money, which is not the case at all.

We you know, we're doing what we need to do.

So I just am raising up the the fact that as we are talking to partners and we just need to be very clear communicators with people.

So Eden got information from somewhere to tell these folks that it is city council who's holding us up.

Yeah.

Well uh for the sake of just continue to move things on.

I um I uh you know I'll leave it where it is in terms of whether it was our burden about whether this is uh whether you know we we've we've had some some you know things have taken a while to uh to you know to happen.

And again, we're here now, and uh you know, we're moving forward, uh councilwoman, you're right.

You know, just clear communication about really what is taking place over uh over the last few months and and primarily has been just you know from the federal level down, you know, that is primarily the issue that we've uh had in again having city processes and you you I mean you have to have dil you have to do your due diligence on on things uh from the administration and council side.

And you know, as soon as we were able to to bring it to council in here, we immediately brought it and added on the committee on the Thursday, which is not the day we meet, so that way it can be heard and passed uh this next Monday uh coming up.

And so uh absolutely councilwoman, yeah.

We I'll get some of those emails and I'm like so.

This is the thing where not not at all.

Exactly, and is basically um indicating that they've been you know providing this money, you know, housing and they haven't got paid for six months, and they've reached out, whatever the case may be, but it indicates Eden.

So our community partners need to be very clear um when they are talking about people's, you know, advocates and not people need to do advocacy, but in the email is basically indicating that we have delay for six months, and that is not accurate.

And so it would be really helpful for administration partners to clearly articulate that this change and delay happen because of the federal government, the federal government, the federal government that is led and directed by Republicans that's coming from me.

I'm staying this Stephanie House Jones.

So uh Stephanie House Jones.

Um so while people have all this energy, a people need to be registered to vote and vote, and getting real partners who wants to actually censor our community members and that, and again, I know people are frustrated, but we work, we are doing what we can when we get resources because we cannot give resources that we don't have.

That's right.

So thank you for all y'all do though.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, councilwoman.

Uh, right on point, you know, um, I agree with you.

You know, we we can only move as fast as as we can when we get it to us, right?

You know, uh the federal government telling us where allocation is until we actually receive that notification, actually can apply for the dollars, right?

There's a whole you don't say, okay, you got 19 million, okay, they dropped in the in the city's bank account.

It does not work like that, right?

And um instead of some of our partners articulating and sharing that because some of them are actually facing similar situations with money that they get directly from from other sources, um, did not happen.

And we'll have we'll we'll we'll communicate, we'll collaborate with the administration and have a discussion with our city, uh community partners about giving correct information and not misinformation.

Yeah, uh, you know, so that way we all can continue to work together in the most harmonious way.

That's right, that's right.

Okay.

Chairman, and as I mentioned in my remarks, this has been an incredibly frustrating year for for both um us at the department level, but also within the industry.

There's a lot of unknowns, and a lot of folks are grasping at straws and and really trying to do the good work.

And what happens when there's not a lot of information to give.

Uh sometimes people come up with information and they try to get you know whatever they can, and and I don't I don't fault them for that.

Um I do want to thank council for um uh allowing us to do the uh the ex the um accept um and uh apply and accept um that we did earlier uh in the summertime, which is really the beginning part of this of this process.

Um, but we were not having this conversation as we had in previous years in February or in March or in May uh or June, like we did last year, because we did not know uh until well into May um what what funds were going to be allocated and given the nature of uh even things that had been allocated, um at that time a lot of things had been being taken back, things that were committed, things that were already contracted out.

Um and so we needed to be very clear that those dollars were going to be available for us before uh before we could spend money, and that puts us in a really frustrating place.

We told our partners um that if the money doesn't come, we cannot give the money back to you.

And so we did uh preach to them to be cautious this year until they were able to get a contract um and not maybe rely that those dollars were gonna come uh either at all or in the same amounts.

Um this has been an incredibly difficult year.

Titran himself has communicated he's been very uh active and communicating with administration this body our um our external partners uh as well including uh a couple of individuals have emailed us and I've asked him to uh to give further clarification and and just you know chat with them in detail about where we are but we're here now and we're making it happen councilman harsh yeah thank you Mr.

Chair I I'll add to what you and uh councilwoman house Jones are saying uh you know what you mall it rolls downhill and at the top of the hill is the federal government and below them is the state government and below that is the county government and at the bottom of the hill is your municipal government and we look at it all up there happening and uh to the to the director's point it's interesting that the federal government waited until the last day legally allowable to approve CDBG funding for this year and had they waited one more day they would not have had the legal recourse to even approve it so it's curious and it should be asked by people if they were planning to fund it why wait until the last day to announce the decision except for knowing that stuff rolls downhill and this will just lead to a cascade of problems for all of us in our cities it reminds me of the current situation going on with SNAP benefits which have absolutely nothing to do with the federal government being shut down they are entirely divorced subjects from each other and the decision not to release SNAP funds is purely political it is purely intentional.

It has nothing to do with the other subject and it just makes us wonder whether or not the people that have been elected to run this country truly care about all of us.

So I'll get off my soapbox and ask a question.

I do want to make sure uh through the chair to the director that I understand where the HUD extensions align in the budget.

So the LED high impact the lead citywide and the healthy homes over I'm looking at this page here are these the three columns of the prior year balances the citywide assistance grants the competitive led grants is that those funds right here that we got the extra year on yeah through the chair and did Danette will will uh we'll more further answer um but those are competit competitive grants that are outside of the traditional CDBG um a formula funded process so those are outside of of this group of funds those are they are HUD I know it's it's a different part of HUD so they're not reflected on this balance sheet they are not reflected but to keep things similar to last year I believe in our overall item we did uh we did include um some of those dollars just so that would they be over on one of these I will I will get you the uh I'll get you the exact line item but I'll have Janette to you got you covered it that that um because they're on a competitive grant that we won they are separate so it's separate funding source overarching funding source is still good but it's a separate grant uh for those three grants okay thank you but on on the um yeah on your plan it says CDBG um it says competitive led grants so what you're saying is the prior year balance 11 million dollars are still sitting there that hasn't been spent is not a part of the 19 million dollars that uh we received so in order to be awarded the grant we had to submit match dollars so that's what you see here that there are match dollars that are attached to the grants so they put in some money and we matched the dollars for the uh lead grants uh the hin grant it was 1.4 million total we had to match five years ago that we're we're still spending down for citywide it was 800 K that we're still spending down and for H HP there was no match required so this 11 million here represents what only on this sheet here on the competitive list on a competitive list that's that's what we have not spent that can't is that a part of the 19 million well previous C D BG allocation or is that what one of the that's the standard that's the competitive those are the standalone those are the city standalone competitive grants okay yes gotcha and and we um what what happened is when we we probably should not have included it in previous years but it looked like there was uh 30 million dollars missing so we wanted to account for 11 million of those that weren't on there from last year to this year um that that's where that that came from so those are standalone those are standalone grants that should not be included but because they were included last year we wanted to make sure that you saw um that they were accounted for okay council uh no that was all my that was my only question Mr.

Um that that's where that that came from.

So those are standalone, those are standalone grants that should not be included, but because they were included last year, we wanted to make sure that you saw um that they were accounted for.

Okay.

Councilman.

Uh no, that was all my that was my only question, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

All right, you got it.

Uh thank you.

Um, so maybe next time let's put maybe like a some sort of footnote there and some sort of uh notation so that way we know it's it's yes as HUD, it's our CDBG, it's a CD allocation, however, it is not a part of our general CDB allocation that we get every year, which this year is 19 million dollars.

All right.

Yes, sir.

Uh any other questions regarding the uh the uh citywides and the CDC activity grants um special populations okay.

We're gonna move into our uh last and final piece, which is our NDA funding.

Director uh through the chair, so our NDA funding um is uh it is identical in percentage of of the total from last year.

Um that represents about 38 percent of the total um uh of the total uh amount, um which again is the same as last year.

Um that gets uh divided um and and and you all may be able to explain it better, um, but it gets divided amongst the council members.

Um it can only be used for eligible activities, um so it has to be C D BG eligible activities, um, but these are um these are funds that uh are often awarded to community development um corporations but also other local organizations and and other eligible funds.

Um it could be uh I believe like repaving there there are other other uh ways that these funds can be used, and that is at the discretion of uh of the council members as so long as that it the restrictions on that are of course due to the source of funds, which is it has to be C D BG eligible, it has to meet a national objective.

Um in addition to that, there is a cap, um, I believe it is 75,000 uh for public services, which is the the most flexible version of that pot, and that is because overall um there is a cap on uh on administrative and public services.

All right, thank you.

And just for the council members, there's a slight reduction from 7.6 last year to 7.4.

That's because the overall C D BG budget was uh reduced, but the percentage was kept the same uh as we did across the other uh categories um uh related to uh C D B G.

Uh and in the any questions from the committee.

Um before we go there, just timing.

I know the CDC's uh we we we're most of our signing PIFs now and and getting them to the department.

Uh but we're coming up on this city uh annual city shutdown.

Uh to the chief, really, what is the discussion between with your other your counterparts and the other uh areas that will partly be responsible helping to get the money out, such as finance, law, and others that we can get these dollars out the doors to the CDCs before the shutdown happened, and they don't have to uh be concerned that they won't get a check, you know, for the work they've been doing until February.

Yes.

Uh thank you, uh Mr.

Chairman.

So uh I I think this has been well articulated here.

I think that we are all dealing with the challenging situation that was started from the very top of the federal government that is delayed funds were conversations that would normally happen in February now happening in October.

Uh and so, yes, uh there is the traditional city hall shutdown on November 7th is the last day to encumber funds.

Uh we have spoken uh at great length uh with uh CFO Barrett uh and let them know the critical nature of these funds.

And so I think that uh and have spoken quite a bit with Director Hernandez too, whose team is ready to start uh as those PIFs come in, uh begin the contracting process, and at the same time the finance department is ready to begin uh getting those out the door.

So we are working very hard to make this a reality.

Got it.

And so we what we're hearing is that there's a commitment uh within the administration across several departments uh to not be uh tied to this strict deadline that we've always had for years because of the the challenges that we face from the top down, uh that we're gonna do everything you all can, you know, council does their part sign the PIF and then you all gonna make sure they get a contract and get those monies out to uh to these organizations, correct?

Yes, sir.

Uh uh, you know, I have had the experience uh as one of those organizations on the outside, and I know how challenging it is to work on a reimbursement basis, and that's not just our CDC partners, right?

It's it's partner organizations like Eden that are doing phenomenal work of housing those in the most need, uh, and we know that we have an obligation to help those folks there.

It is not our fault uh on either side of this building of the delays that have been expected.

Um, but it is important that we now um you know work to move things as quickly as possible to help those people that are doing great work outside of this building.

Got it.

Thank you, Chief.

Uh any question with the committee regarding the CDC funding?

Yes.

Yeah, I just want to ask have we done an analysis of why do we have this November 7th deadline?

Um, you know, it's above me.

We got the second and command of council right here, so maybe we'll uh we'll lean on her.

No, I'm saying I'm like even administration too.

Does uh do other cities operate this way?

I don't know.

Chief, do we know anybody?

No, I'm I'm being real serious because like again, this we we just I feel like as council members we need to have a very clear indication.

What is the problem?

Because I'm going into this as like I don't know anybody else who operates this way.

And the investments that we have made to modernize City Hall, there's an expectation that this is will be modernized as well.

So I just need to I'm just so uh through the chairman to councilwoman House Jones.

What I will say, uh and I have worked with one city for the entirety of my time here.

This is a 2.1 billion dollar year corporation, right?

And uh I am not gonna speak for CFO Barrett, but what I will tell you is that I've had conversations with him, and it's a line of questioning that he has brought up, right?

What is the appropriate amount of time that one needs to close out the books, right, to restart things?

Um but again, that is a conversation that is ongoing.

I will not speak for the CFR.

Yeah, and okay, and even as a corporation, do you know businesses that do this?

I've never heard of such a thing.

So I just we need to get this question answered in in short order before we leave on you know winter break and understand with the investments, because it was real dollars that we have put into modernizing City Hall and technology and all of these things, and there should be an expectation after two to three years that we should have some updated um deliverables as far as being much more efficient and effective with getting dollars out the door.

So thanks.

Thanks, Councilwoman.

Um definitely something when I came from county, the county council.

I just I didn't under I didn't understand why we had this shutdown.

I still don't understand why.

Uh but yes, I I think you know, the finance chair, council president Griffin, our vice chair of finance, councilwoman Santando sitting here, uh, and other all members of council, we will support our leadership and and ask them to really dig into in working with the administration to figure out this annual shutdown.

And someone coming from the state, you know, I I came from the state.

The state is significantly larger than the city of Cleveland.

Yes.

And this was never an issue with the state.

Thanks, Councilwoman.

Thanks.

All right.

Uh any other questions from the committee regarding the presentation today, CDC activity and um housing trust, residence repair, time of allocation, anything?

Any questions from the city?

I mean, not the city.

Well, we all are the city.

Any questions from the committee?

Nothing.

All right.

Well, listen, thank you all for your time today.

We wanted to have a very abbreviated session this morning to really talk through some of the uh high points of the work that you all are doing.

Uh answer any questions that the committee may have.

Uh any any council members who are watching, get your questions and thoughts to Mr.

Uh Titran.

He will get that over to the administration that we we can have this teed up for finance on Monday uh with pass uh passage, hopefully on Monday night, so that way you all can continue to do the work you need to do to get these funds out the funding out the door.

Uh once it was given to council, uh we have done our due diligence, worked back and forth closely with administration to get us to a point where you're we are today.

Uh uh I can tell you that you have a chief and you have a mayor, you have uh uh his team and then others, the department who truly really cares about the people of the city and will never you know intentionally stall um these programs from hitting the streets.

That's absurd, right?

Ridiculous.

And so um doing everything we can possibly uh to support the residents who are who need it the most uh here in the city of Cleveland.

So thank you all for your uh for your um for your time today.

Thank you for your partnership and collaboration over the years, and we'll continue to uh put our best foot forward as we move into 2026.

All right.

Thank you so much.

All right.

All right.

Uh we do have amendments.

My amendment, second chair, chair.

Yes, I guess the members that I need you to read.

Uh you need me to read stuff?

Yes, sir.

Now come on now.

What do you do?

You might have Mr.

Chair, I would like to read in front of the class.

Yes, sir.

Uh Mr.

Chair, I'd like to enter uh the following amendments.

Yes, sir.

Um first in the first whereas claw line two after community insert development.

Uh two, section three at new section three entitled 2025 programs at the end between ordinance and the period insert with the entities listed, comma as described in file number 1225-2025-A.

Number three, in section three at new section four as C D B G funding in the first column as systematic poverty, youth violence, poverty, and accessibility among elderly other public servants, strike systematic and insert systemic.

And also in the first column at neighborhood development grants, insert activities after development.

Number four.

In section three at new section six in the second paragraph following division B line one, insert C before that.

Number five, in section three at new section eight at Division B line two, strike fourteen SF050 and insert fourteen SF051.

Okay.

Number six, in section three at new section eight at Division C line two, strike fifteen SF 374 and insert 15 SF four seventy-one.

Lastly, number seven in section three at new section eight at Division D line two, strike 15 SF 375 and insert 15 SF 470.

Okay.

Mr.

Chair, with no further ado.

Thank you, uh, Councilman Harris for the motion in the amendments.

Is there a second?

I second.

All right, we have a motion and second.

Uh any discussion?

Simple discussion.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

I have it.

Thank you so much again.

Appreciate your time this morning, you all.

Uh, you know, we we we finally come together and get got this work uh completed so we can help those who are needed the most in our community.

Or this number 1225-2025 as amended stands approved.

All right, thank you.

Uh DPS adjourned.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sign the sign.