Okay.

I called order, the um Housing Health and Education Committee.

I apologize.

I do have um pneumonia, and am so if my voice goes completely, or I have a bad coughing fit, Councilmember Shallford will take over.

Um we have heard nothing from Councilmember McCain, so hopefully he'll show up at at some point in time.

Um we will start with a pledge of allegiance.

Um approval of the minutes for February twentieth.

So moved.

I'll second that in favor.

Thank you.

Okay, we're just gonna move straight into the continued discussion of the proposed housing work plan.

I do want to say a quick thank you to leadership and staff for your hard work on this.

Um, I I realize that we ask questions, and then we come the next time and we get answers, and that's just brilliant.

I love it.

So um, I'm gonna give this to um President Nash and Off we go.

I can we do have an updated work plan attached to the backup.

Um, nothing lot of a lot of requests are out at the moment, so we'll certainly keep those uh updates coming as those requests are answered, hopefully uh very soon.

With respect to specific work items on the agenda today, we have two considerations before the committee.

One is with respect to tenant protections.

One of the items in our work plan is to consider increasing tenant protections.

And so essentially committee, we are looking for the next steps forward into what those tenant protections should look like and what they can be.

I mean, the president is doing uh with respect to our federal workforce and our contractors who work in the city of Frederick specifically and call the city of Frederick home.

So one of the things that I know is on all of our minds is how do we take action now to ensure that we keep people in their homes and that we ensure that people know their rights with respect to their tenancy.

So this the proposal that you have in front of you is a relatively simple one.

It just proposes creating a website uh that is specific to the city of Frederick.

And of course, we would share all this information with the county and anyone else who, you know, obviously this could be uh a joint website, you know, but we just wanted to put this in front of you uh with respect to what could be on this website.

Um Madam Chair, for the purposes of today, this was really just to put it in front of you, start thinking about it.

We don't need to take action today on this.

We can come back and revisit this and sort of start to um get specifics on paper.

Uh, but I also need to, with your permission, send this to the communications department for their input.

We do have someone on staff who specifically works on website, so obviously, you know, would want their input as well.

But um just wanted to get this in front of you early so that you know if you had any specific input or any follow-up items uh that we would of course take those into consideration as we move forward.

Thank you, President Nash.

Um I I've got maybe I'm missing something in in the past couple of days that's certainly possible.

Um in my backup, I have the um brainstorm tenant protections, the committee brainstorm tenant protections, and then I have like just this list of um the the website and what the website will entail.

That's all that that is the whole backup on this, correct?

Okay, thank you.

Yep, you got it.

Um I have just uh I personally have a couple of questions.

I'm gonna let my colleague go first and then okay, thank you.

Um so I I see the lease requirements and the tenant protection, which is absolutely important.

But as we've noted, we part of the reason we're looking at this is because of what we see coming down from higher levels of government.

And I think that it is just as important to protect the um landlords who are um the idea is not to say, okay, well, this renter can stay in this property for free for three months because you know, because that helps nobody.

It just doesn't.

Um we want to protect the renter as well as the owner of the property so that they can continue to move forward in the ways that that they're meant.

And the way I read this, I don't see that noted here that that we're talking about protecting the unit as well as the person who's living in the unit.

Does that make sense?

I think that's a really good observation.

I will say that the attorney general's information, which is where we would get all of this information from and just sort of make sure it's readily available, does do a really nice job of that balance of making sure.

So uh I will send that document.

Um it's it's just readily available on the attorney general's website, but prel brilliant, yes, you're totally right that we need to make sure that we inform both the landlord and the and the tenant.

Okay, thank you.

Um and are doing so in this is where it gets to policy, right?

Um, in my opinion, our policy should be again to provide possibly to provide funding to provide support for um instances where you know something catastrophic happens, such as an immediate loss of job or you know, something that um they say most of us are what two paychecks away from being homeless.

One paycheck.

Um so you know, I I want to ensure that we're talking about what could be coming down the pike, but also what we have now.

People now who need protected who are not um you know, with the federal workforce or and you know, we're not talking just about the federal workforce.

We're talking about protections for tenants and um property owners in the city, and we have those funding mechanisms through the rental housing program in my mind.

Council member.

Oh no, that was I wasn't gonna steal that, but I know we've had this extensive discussion, particularly from our last committee hearing meeting in regards to how we would use that segment of money in terms of how we would formulate that in terms of a percentages.