Roll Councilmember Scott Benson.

Scott Benson I Councilmember Letitia Johnson.

Present.

Councilmember Denzel Anton McCampbell.

Present.

Councilmember Renata Miller.

Councilmember Gabriela Santiago Romero.

Ms.

Santiago Romero sent the memo indicating that she would not be present today, which means her absence is excused.

Clerk was on note.

Councilmember Mary Waters.

Present.

Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway.

Council President Pro Temporar Coleman A.

Young the second.

Here.

Council President James Tate.

Here.

Mr.

President, you have a corn present.

Thank you, man.

We have a corn present, which means we're now back in session.

Mr.

President.

Yes.

Yes.

Member Wall.

I'd like to make a motion.

Okay, what's the motion?

Um I want to request a waiver on 25.1.

Discussion.

I just get it out of the way.

You gotta let me finish though.

Uh there's a motion.

There's a request for a waiver on line item.

What's that number again?

25.1.

25.1.

That is the DLBA appointment of Mr.

Glenn.

Uh with discussion, Member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

I was just curious what the line item was, but thank you.

All right.

Thank you.

Any further colleagues?

Say none.

Are there any in opposition?

I'll let you have this one.

Seeing none, a waiver should be attached.

All right.

So I know we were dealing with line item 17.1.

If we can have the representatives come on down to the table and talk to us.

Is there a motion to discuss?

Motion discuss.

There's a motion to discuss line item 17.1.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Uh to the chair.

It's uh great to see you all.

Uh I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Uh we are I wanted to come and talk about the million dollar amendment uh to Wayne Metro to provide direct services through the Detroit Housing Services.

Um so this is a uh provides the direct services for our families who are at risk of homelessness.

So it's a range of services including diversion, security deposit, uh rent payments and utilities uh for families that are at risk.

As we think about our strategies, uh we're pursuing a range of things to try to prevent homelessness and then create more outflow options.

And I know that we asked you to all to consider a program uh that looked at outflow uh just recently for Wayne Metro.

Um so the million dollars in front of us is to provide these direct services.

Um we can't do that with general fund, which is why it's coming uh through ARPA.

Um it was I believe always the um expectation of the city that they would come uh as time went on uh through this period um to ask for amendments with ARPA dollars to continue uh these direct services, which we can only do through ARPA.

Um I want to acknowledge in the short term uh the concerns that you all have raised about Wayne Metro in providing this set of services in particular.

It's something that I take very seriously and have been exploring actually a range of different options uh in the future of how we could provide um direct services in a different way.

I believe in simplification, I believe in looking at all of the range, and I'd be happy to talk about that.

Um that takes a little bit of time, and so the way I look at it is we're sort of down the track.

Um so I uh just wanted to come this evening to say um I believe it's important for this particular million dollars to keep the continuity of services that we have going as long as we can through Wayne Metro, but I also uh take very seriously the concerns uh that you all have raised uh and others about the particular set of services and how they've been delivered and and have already and will continue to actively explore different options going forward.

Okay, and and and just to be clear, there's no amended resolution that you're bringing before us because I know that was what we had discussed.

I just want to make it very clear from the top.

That is correct.

We have uh we wanted to revisit um the original resolution.

Okay, yeah, and I know you all mentioned that delays take place, and the longer we wait, that's a further delay.

That was member Benson's um uh motion to try to make this all happen today to the best of our ability as a body and I think as uh a city as well.

So I just want to make that very clear on the record that uh there was an attempt to try to uh move this forward today uh if what is uh what you bring before us is not get approved.

Uh to the chair, um we have since identified another 900,000 in ARPA uh reallocated funds.

We are scrubbing the contracts every day, every week.

We are we've got contracts that are ending that have surplus, we have contracts that um are forecasted to have um surplus.

So my team is scrubbing for money to reprogram um through this honorable body that we can send to you so that you can use um for existing ARPA projects.

So we have identified another 900,000 that would give each council member an additional uh hundred thousand dollars to um go toward projects that they choose, um and we can um our plan is to submit that through a resolution uh this week.

Okay.

I'm glad uh Dr.

Schaefer, you acknowledge the concerns uh that folks have had about uh Wayne Metro and that so talk to other members of the administration prior to this.

This this was not about a money grab, you know, uh on this body's part.

It was to really ensure that the dollars that are being uh transferred go towards the best you know possible use um available.

Uh I did I thought I saw a hand that went up.

Member Johnson Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um I'd like for someone to first help me to understand the three contracts.

So two of which have already been approved.

Um one was grant funding to the tune of about 5.4 million dollars for it says for um tenant-based rental assistance.

There was another for CAM hotline for 1.4 million.

And if we can throw in this additional $1 million and help me to understand how these dollars are being utilized all by Wayne Metro through the chair to Councilmember Johnson, I'm happy to uh take the first stab at that.

Um so tenant res tenant-based rental assistance is a set of uh outflow uh strategies that we have for families who are currently in shelter and provides a period of time by which Detroiters uh would have access to units uh paid for partially or in full over a period of time as they get back on their feet.

Uh we think of it as an important strategy because uh we've heard a lot of the current concerns that you have raised about the pressure that's on our shelter system.

Detroit uh went to uh a very low barrier uh set of shelters and it put a lot of pressure on that system.

I think you all have also raised uh important concerns about the quality of the shelters because I think of some of that.

So the tenant-based rental assistance is a particular program for people in shelter to exit shelter and um have subsidized units for a period of time.

Um the CAM is related to our hotline, and so uh uh the city um, and I think you all uh made uh I think a moral commitment to a uh uh having uh access from a phone line uh that people would be able to get access to help, and then also um the CAM to uh meet with people and try to make plans and so that is that sort of set of resources uh there, and then this final thing, this this million dollars is really about a set of prevention um options.

So this is money that's actually allocated by the Detroit housing services.

That's our folks, but the payments are administered by Wayne Metro.

And so that's what um we're really uh looking at here is that we tell Wayne Metro uh who we would like that paid, whether or not it's a a diversion.

So that's one option is that Detroiters that uh call and say I'm in an imminent risk of being homeless.

Uh one of the first options that we look at is do you have someone that you could stay with and could we provide uh some amount of assistance that would make it possible uh for you to stay there rather than to enter shelter.

Um is there another housing option that you have and can we provide uh security deposit?

Uh, can we provide rent again on a very short-term basis or utility assistance?

So this is really for us, it's a program that's really set up for folks before they enter shelter to try to prevent them from entering shelter.

So we're both relieving pressure at the front end uh and the back end.

So you know, I think one of the um concerns uh we we've had concerns about the delays in payments on some of these things.

Uh the CAM and and also the um the housing helpline, I will say um as Wayne Metro as that got up and running, uh, that the wait times were longer than I would like.

The wait times have actually really come down.

So we're looking at the the data every day we just looked at on for Kaman, I think it's about a two and a half minute wait time for folks, which is sort of well below you know the the the industry standard.

So that's a particular concern that I think has been uh we've improved over time uh through Wayne Metro.

Um but uh I would of course like to with any of these programs, a lot of which are actually we're only able to fund with ARPA because of our lending of credit issues.

Uh but as we look for future programs that try to bring the best evidence and bring philanthropy into the mix and look for other options.

I'd look to have a diversified set of options for delivering these payments so that I wouldn't be bringing you many different contracts all to one provider.

In the short term though, for the continuity, I'd rather make a long-term plan on how to make those transitions.

Of course, at some point we are gonna have to discontinue these services because of the ending of ARPA.

Um I would like to continue them as long as possible and be planning for the future and consulting you along the way.

Um, but I'd rather be able to do that in a planful way and continue these services through the current provider that we have, which is Wayne Metro.

And so just for clarification, so the 5.4 million for tenant-based rental assistance is providing is it providing funds to the shelters?

The tenant bait rental assistance is providing funds uh for units uh for Detroiters who are exiting shelter uh so that they can leave shelter and be in units and have a uh some period of time where they're they have a subsidized uh uh unit as they get back on their feet.

And that is different from this one million dollars.

Yeah, and this million dollars is for people who have never entered shelter and are at risk of that.

So you could imagine them being put together, but in terms of like where the populations are coming from, uh you the tenant bait risk rental assistance goes uh only to people who have been in shelter and we're trying to help them exit.

And the one that I'm asking you to consider now is people coming in the front door, trying to keep them from having to enter shelter in the first place.

And do we have any reports, any data on how well Wayne Metro does this, how they work through this process?

We have different evaluations for different pieces of this.

Yeah, and um as I said, I think the housing helpline uh they've shown a ton of improvement over time and uh are delivering that fast.

Um some of the other estimates, like all of the money is going to direct services, it's all things that we're um providing.

Uh like so with this one that we're asking you to look at now, it's it's all uh Detroit housing services that's deciding where the payments go.

And so, really the question is how fast do those payments happen?

Um, and and so we have uh uh some evidence on that too.

And um as I've said, like we are looking at a range of different options, including the possibility that if we had a future iteration of this program, we could as a city actually deliver it ourselves.

But that's something that requires uh consultation with law and otherwise.

So I'd be happy to like go back and the the hotline is the ones that I I know off the top of my head, I'd be happy to go back and um share evaluation on the timeliness of payments, you know, is a is another um set of evidence that I do believe we have.

Okay, that that's very important because we're talking about preventing homelessness, right?

For this one million dollars.

Um, so it would be extremely helpful to know how well Wayne Metro is doing in providing payments to avoid homelessness.

Yeah, um I have had some concerns brought to me about payments, not necessarily about this, but other programs that Wayne Metro facilitates on behalf of the city of Detroit.

Um, and so that was the reason that I raised the question.

I have raised the question over the last couple of years though, about Wayne Metro's capacity, and we continue to ask them to do more and more and more.

Um all of it, a lot of it seems to um correlate.

So it it almost looks like we're funding them.

We're continuing to give funding to them to do the same thing, quite honestly, just a different facet of it, right?

But recognizing that some concerns came to me as it relates to getting funding out around the neighborhood beautification uh program and those grant dollars.

That was the reason that I raised the concern this time, but I've always had concerns about their capacity because we continue to ask them to do more and more.

Um and quite honestly, I don't believe they were an organization that was equipped to run a hotline until we gave them the funding to run the hotline.

Uh and so they are growing as an organization because we're we're continuing to provide resources for them to be able to do so.

Um I'm not really certain as to why we rely so heavily on Wayne Metro because I think there are other partners that are able to do the work, and I think perhaps able to do the work um more efficiently and more effectively.

I uh I I want I want to both acknowledge that I'm here asking you to consider this amendment to send more money to Wayne Metro and say very clearly that I'm interested in exploring a range of options, including um you know, future programs that the city might administer itself.

Again, I don't know yet if we have the authority to have.

Um of course, in the programs that I've designed, uh they've relied a lot more on unconditional cash transfers that can be delivered uh much more simply, such as Rx Kids.

Um I also uh have hear your concerns, and it's something that I've actively been looking at.

And so it's really just a matter of time of when you know changes uh would happen.

Um I I believe it was always uh the intention that um as the scrubbing of ARPA dollars happened here at the end that we would uh put um more money into different things that we were already doing to continue those services as long as possible.

Um and so that's where we are today is uh we currently the um Detroit housing services team has a caseload of about 900 Detroiters uh that we're trying to serve right now.

And so uh it's really a question of how long um can we push forward, can we meet all the needs of the of the 900 that we have?

Um, can we meet uh the needs of um uh some uh you know uh matter of uh Detroiters uh over a period with diversion payments, security deposits, rents and utilities in the current structure while we explore uh future structures.

But um as I am here uh in this role, uh we're gonna really focus on the mayor's uh goals of increasing um outflow from shelters.

So we want we um are actually uh exploring and putting into place a number of different options that don't rely on Wayne Metro.

I think because of the structure of the things, uh uh you've seen the one that did um and uh already um but we'll be looking at um many different options and and I think just generally to your I think very important point, council member, having all of our eggs in sort of one agency basket, I think is isn't is not an optimal situation.

Um but I believe in sort of a um a planful sort of change of direction over time.

Thank you.

Um I appreciate the area of focus.

Knowing everything that's happening within um the unhoused community.

I still wonder if there's another entity that can do this work, um, especially seeing where federal dollars are um no longer able to be utilized um and just looking at the organizations, the entities that are doing work in this space, um, and just wondering if any of them might be able to provide this assistance and support to the unhoused community.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Colleagues, any further in terms of discussion of Proto.

Um you know what you said earlier.

Uh you said earlier.

What yeah, man, no, yeah, I forgot.

Oh, yeah, it is okay.

It's all good.

No, is it's late.

I forgot where I was at.

I was I listened in and I saw my man here.

I was like, nah, let me ask him a question real quick.

No, I couldn't help myself.

No, I could you shouldn't have in shaver.

I couldn't help myself.

Um I just want to add good to see you, sir.

I was like a little inside joke here.

Uh I just wanted to ask you really quickly.

Do you know how much or do we have um it advanced me of how much uh ARPA investment is per household?

Uh that's a great question.

So uh here's what I know that um over the course of this program uh we've been able to serve about 6,000 households, and I believe the average amount has been about uh $2,000 per family.

Okay.

Excellent.

And and the reason why I'm asking that is because this is a ri these are really good programs, and I really think that we should be measuring this one because the ARPA funds, but secondly, because like you said ARPA funds are gonna run out.

And I think we should really have these good measures because I have ideas in terms of guaranteeing income and uh baby bonds and um and um renters tax credits and things of that nature.

And I think that we may run out of the funds from ARPA, but we might be able to have those metrics available to apply those to that.

So when I'll talk to my constituents, I could be able to talk to them about what's going on and how this is um affecting them.

But I wanted to ask you about in terms of actual um from a poverty standpoint.

I wanted to ask you one.

Do we have an income inequality standpoint?

One, do we have a measurement of how much this is going to potentially reduce poverty?

The healthy target is like less than 10%.

We're like about like 34% now.

Do we know how much this funding will reduce that number and get close to that target?

Um so that's a uh great question, uh, council member.

The first thing that I will say uh is that we do have a number of active evaluation uh partners.

Uh you know, won't surprise you to hear that I'm very interested in these questions too.

Um before I was here, um the uh agency under now interim director, Chelsea Neblet, um has uh had a partnership with the Harvard Kennedy School uh that's looking at things, including our housing helpline.

So the the uh Detroit is now quite unusual in our um uh low barrier access, both to have people having a resource that they can call at any time, and also the low barrier shelters.

Um Mayor Sheffield uh has uh charged us to really focus on outflow housing to reduce pressure on those shelters and create better options for people.

Um and then this prevention part.

So um I don't know I can't quantify what kind of impact it's gonna have on uh the poverty rate itself, but uh I'd love to think about that some more.

Uh what I can say is that um there are evaluations out there that suggest uh $2,000 investment in someone who's at risk of homelessness can stay the that can keep that spell from happening.

And uh so we throw around like cost effective a lot.

Um but this is a case where there is a um a really solid amount of money that uh by investing these two thousand dollars in people at the start, uh we can keep them from falling into a spell of homelessness, which then has all of these other ripple effects.

So we sort of stabilize them at the start.

Um and then uh and so that will absolutely have a poverty reducing impact.

And it's it's something to me um that you know, I think we're gonna want to figure out how to continue.

Uh and so I'm ex I'm exploring a range of options on that.

You know, one thing my team knows uh is that I um like to have a particular focus of figuring out how to bring non-Detroit money into Detroit.

Uh and so uh we're looking at um, you know, uh one of the ways that Mona and I figured out how to uh fund ARGS kids was through the TANF money at the state.

Um I think there might be a play there actually for for this kind of money in the future, but that all has to be considered, right?

These are all uh somewhat longer term uh solutions uh that I have to work on with the team.

Um can we make the payments uh faster and uh have a tighter ship?

I I think absolutely, and that's something that uh we want to work on and part of why we're looking at these different options.

But uh the evidence would absolutely suggest that we save ourselves money by preventing homelessness at the start by keeping any somebody from entering into shelter, all of the um unstability for kids, right?

Now uh there's a trauma in losing your home.

Uh and then sleep patterns.

We actually know, you know, by having to enter into a shelter, we're not sleeping as well.

Um it's gonna be correlated with our chronic absenteeism rate, like all of these sort of ripple effects of someone entering in.

If we can surgically get to them sooner, uh we can keep all of that from happening and save ourselves money.

Um council member Johnson is very right to say like we have to be able to intervene uh quickly, and that's something that we really want to tighten up.

Uh but in the meantime, I'd like to keep the services that we have, even as we work to make them better.

And this is the option that I have right now.

No, I think that's actually that's an excellent answer.

I also just want to ask you, can you tell me what the impact that this money has had in terms of services, the impact that the money is had from and I understand there's more money coming, but because of um certain leadership in the Republican Party has been blocked from us being able to receive that money.

I also just want to ask you can you tell me what the impact that this money has had in terms of services the impact that the money is had from and I understand there's more money coming but because of um certain leadership in the Republican party has been blocked from us being able to receive that money but you just tell us what the impact of the money has and what do you mean by the word stabilize we're we will I don't want to I do want us to stay with what we have in front of us.

I'll say it to you writing very good right I'll say it to you right don't worry about it it's fine I'll pick it up what you're putting down we don't have to do it I'll say it to you right now okay again very good questions don't worry about it.

I understand land this particular plane so uh just getting more details about the 900 thousand dollars uh what is that when do you believe that we would get that um document comes before as a resolution with that information on it to the chair we are um working on a resolution uh to submit this Friday for um committee next week okay and then in terms of timelines right so um whatever comes from this particular body in terms of what we determine those dollars to go towards ARPA related what is that timeline look like to ensure that we meet the deadline and we're not taking this money and putting it somewhere else as well again this is all about staying on track with what is in front of us right now.

So whatever is decided by this body today um whether it's uh uh approving uh the DHS and the 2.7 for council uh realignment um we once we get approval um we can begin making the adjustments to the appropriations um I believe Mr.

Corley is going to submit a resolution for all of council's projects that they plan to fund and when that is done um we will go ahead and bring those contracts back to this body for approval how how how quickly again if we're talking today we this is approved uh we look at next week by next week we have that resolution together contracts seem to take forever and it's not in our wheelhouse we will expedite these we will expedite these contracts um if we have an option to do walk ons to act to to go ahead and expedite this that might be an option that would allow us to save some time so that we can start fit spending faster okay all right colleagues um member McCampbell thank you Mr.

Chair I'll keep it quick I I do want to state for the record definitely understand uh um the need for funds especially for the on the prevention side because I think I agree that that goes a long way I still am stuck on the aspect of um you know we have improved a lot of money for Wayne Metro in a short amount of time um and I and I'll echo some of the things that member Johnson brought up and also the acknowledgement of some of the issues that we heard with Wayne Metro and being in the nonprofit space or coming from nonprofit space myself if there's an organization that's already facing issues or facing some things that could be a little smoother and they then continue to get an influx of money um especially have to approve like to spend in the four to six month time I've I've seen cases where those issues are are they become much deeper.

So that's why uh I'm just here you know as we as I talked about what I would have liked to have seen um and we don't have that in front of us but that's why I wanted to see council decide on the the entire pot of money because as indicated at the table some money there's folks that indicated that they were still going to dedicate money to Wayne Metro I just for me the one million dollars is a large amount of money especially with some of the issues that folks have shared with us.

So I just wanted to stay there for the record.

All right thank you.

And if if there is another organization has been mentioned that could do those certain services that Wayne Metro does how soon would a contract be available to transfer to to provide that hypothetically speaking a million dollars towards this new entity to the chair I I would like to reiterate that because these are ARPA dollars we can not send them to another uh contractor it has to be an existing ARPA contract that we can add funding to so if we identified another um vendor in that space that could take the dollars it would be a a contractor that we would already have to have an ARPA contract with and we don't have one at at the moment okay all right colleagues Mr Corley thank you Mr President um if council approves this resolution uh we would like for council to submit to us where you would like your portion to go to and we can have a resolution for you to vote on next Tuesday but we would like to hear from you by Thursday of course Friday is the holidays Juneteenth so if we can hear from you by this Thursday we can put together a resolution for your vote um well allocation of the 2.7 you know next next Tuesday thank you Mr.

Of course, Friday is the holiday, Juneteenth.

So if we can hear from you by this Thursday, we can put together a resolution for your vote.

Um allocation of the 2.7, you know, next next Tuesday.

Thank you, Mr.

Corley.

And I would say that um if again it's if it's accepted by this body, the 900,000 as well, should be tied into that so that we don't skip a beat.

Um so I would say anticipate that full amount.

Uh, again, if that is what the will of the body today, uh, as opposed to just the um initial allocation.

Let's let's put it all in and figure out what that looks like so we can keep it moving.

All right, is there a motion for line item 17.1, colleagues?

Motion to approve there's a motion to approve line item 17.1.

Are there any objections?

Objection, McCamp.

Objection, member Johnson.

Discussion.

No, we in the middle of the vote.

We'll vote, that's right.

Three A's, two nays.

That motion passes.

I didn't call it yet.

You already would check.

No, I'll move forward.

Okay.

Repeat the uh the the vote count, madam clerk.

Read the two.

Three three A's, two nays.

Okay.

All right.

That action shall be taken.

So we're looking forward to those dollars coming our way.

Um the information uh and the resolution rather coming our way so we can uh fully transfer and reprogram those those dollars.

All right, colleagues, any further?

Uh member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, earlier today there was an item referred to uh PED that should have been referred to PHS.

It was line item 27.24, which is um a memo from member Benson relative to Stevens elementary school, I believe the demolition of it.

All right, college, there's a motion to motion to send line item 27.24 to PHS instead of PED.

Colleagues, there's a motion to send line item 27.24 to PHS.

It is currently referred to PED, but we're looking to send it to PHS.

Are there any objections?

See none, that action shall be taken.

I see no further business to come before this body.

This meeting shall now stand adjourned.