The Frederick City Council met on April 14, 2026, to approve minutes from previous meetings and receive a presentation from Angie Lawler, Executive Director of the Housing Authority of the City of Frederick (HACF), on the authority's development programs, including the redevelopment of Lucas Village into the Mosaic community.
Pledge allegiance to the flag of the question. Well, great. First, uh, we need to approve minutes for February the 10th, February the 24th, and March the 24th. Is there a motion so moved? Is there a second? Seconded. Moved by Councilmember Shackelford, second by Councilmember Ample Ranny. All in favor, raise your hand. And welcome to Angie Lawler from the Housing Authority of the City of Frederick, who's going to share with us information about the HACF. So please come on up to the table and tell us more. Great. Can you hear me okay? And bring it. Bring it up to your lips, and that way it'll be audible. Perfect. Thank you. Excellent. That sounds good. Oh, it's weird. Um thank you for inviting me. I'm Angie Lawler. I'm the executive director of the housing authority of the City of Frederick. I am happy to come and share some things about the housing authority and about our development program with you today. Um I'm gonna start by talking about the housing authority in general. One of the questions I was asked to um answer was kind of how the housing authority and the city are related, how we interact with each other. Uh the housing authority is an independent public housing authority. It's established under Maryland law, and we report directly to HUD. Um we're where we are subject to federal laws, state laws, and HUD provides oversight for our agency. Um, voucher programs that are funded by HUD. We also have a family services department, which is funded by about a dozen different grants from local grantors to the state to the city to the county. Um some grants even come from HUD, and that department is dedicated to serving the tenants who are receiving housing subsidy of some sort. We also have an active development department. We are one of the largest local nonprofit developers in Frederick, and I'll tell you more about that as the presentation goes on. Um our purpose is up there to provide safe, stable, and affordable housing. Our goal is to serve the people that live in that housing. We are more than just buildings and bricks and mourner. We we see our agency as very people oriented and service-oriented. Um we have some folks who live in our communities who will probably live there forever. There's a reason that they're there. And we have some folks who are there just temporarily. It's a stepping stone. They need a place and with a little extra help and support, they move through the housing continuum and out of the HUD subsidized housing into the affordable housing that we develop, and from there they move into market rate. So that's one of the reasons we became developers is we saw a very big gap between the lowest income that we serve and market rate. It was just too big of a leap for folks to make, and that's where affordable housing lands in that gap. I wouldn't say it closes the gap, but it's a it's a tool that we have access to. It's the one that we're using and trying to participate in to do what we can to keep the continuum moving. Um since 2021, we've completed two new affordable housing developments, and we have two more that are beginning construction this year. One became began construction last month, and the other will begin this fall. In total, more than 500 new affordable housing units have come into Frederick through our development program since 2021. Um these are some pictures of some of our developments.