Ready to start our meeting on today for the Housing Affordability Committee, August 19, 2025.

And we certainly want to welcome all of that are present with us.

And we'd like to identify all of the council members and staff attendance to our August meeting.

And we also have our council member Fred Flickinger present with us from District E.

And we also have the council member representative from District H.

And also we have a council member representative from K, District K, and also we have at large Councilmember Junior Ramirez from At Large One, and also ELF staff from Councilmember Thomas Chair Office District L.

So we are ready to begin.

Again, today we are going to hear from the housing and community development for many of the know.

Um Councilman Willie Davis, Vice Chair, and we are happy to have those of you here with us.

We will start off and then those of you who want to speak.

We have a sign-in sheet.

We hope you sign in at the there at the door, and we'll hear from you.

We do have a three-minute limit on the speakers from the uh public, but we certainly want to hear from all the ones that are present.

So with that, um, we are going to um begin uh with uh our public services, uh presented by director Michael Miguel's and assistant director Melanie Barr.

Good morning.

Uh, we're happy to be here this morning.

First up, we're gonna have our public service items uh delivered by assistant director uh Melody Bohr.

Good morning.

Today I'm excited to share with you the projects that will be supported through housing opportunities for persons with AIDS funding, better known as HOPWA.

At the heart of every strong community, safe, stable housing, and today we're talking about how HOPA funding is making that possible for people living with and affected by HIV and AIDS.

Our housing and community development department invited nonprofit organizations with 501c3 status to apply for funding to provide vital services, such as housing case management, financial assistance, supportive programs, and operating support for housing projects, all focused on helping low-income individuals and families living with or affected by HIV or AIDS.

We received 14 applications in total, and I'm pleased to report that every one of them was given an opportunity for funding.

Today, 12 organizations are officially moving forward, while two chose to withdraw.

What you're gonna see today is the first set of those projects, with the others to be presented in the coming months.

Each represents an important step towards strengthening housing stability and support for some of our most vulnerable neighbors.

So we'll begin with item two A.

The department is presenting a subrecipient agreement with a Caring Safe Place Incorporated, providing up to 1,19,313 in HOPWA funds, serving a minimum of 50 low to moderate income households living with AIDS through two programs.

The first program is a 14-unit transitional housing facility for men overcoming substance use and at risk for homelessness.

The second program is a 14-unit permanent housing facility prioritized for individuals with a history of substance use.

Both programs offer supportive services, which include case management, mental health counseling, substance abuse counseling, 12-step programming, and other services that promote housing stability.

The term of the agreement will run from September 1st, 2025, or counter signature date, whichever is first, through August 31st, 2026, with an option to renew at the city's discretion.

A caring safe place has received funding from the city since 1999 and had no findings in the last monitoring review.

Oh, there he is.

Perfect.

Would you like me to pause for questions or would you like me to continue?

Discontinue.

Okay.

Item 2B, the department is presenting a sub-recipient agreement with Brentwood Community Foundation, providing up to 740,343.

And HOPWA funds serving a minimum of 145 low to moderate income households living with HIV or AIDS through two programs.

The first program is an 18-unit transitional housing facility for men at risk of homelessness.

The second is an emergency housing assistance program serving a minimum of 100 households supported with short short-term rent mortgage utility assistance, commonly referred to as strumium.

Both programs offer supportive services, which include case management, mental health counseling, health education, and nutritional education classes, and other services that promote housing stability.

In addition to those served under Brentwood's housing programs, 25 additional clients will be served with supportive services only.

The term of this agreement is from September 1st, 2025 or countersignature date to August 31st, 2026, with an option to renew at the city's discretion.

Brentwood Community Foundation has received funding from the city since 1995 and no findings on their last monitoring review.

Today we have Glenda Hopkins, the Chief Executive Officer, and Sharonda Wright, the program director in the audience.

Good.

Thank you.

Item 2C, the department is presenting a subrecipient agreement with the women's home, providing up to 321,888.41 cents in Hopwa funds, serving a minimum of 70 low to moderate income households living with HIV or AIDS through the Whole Life Collaborative Program.

The Whole Life Collaborative Program enhances the wellness and stability of vulnerable families through a holistic approach by working collectively, offering programs and services at their Maybe Whole Life Service Center.

Together with 20 collective partners, integrated care is offered to promote housing stability and overall health.

Such services offered include primary health care, mental health counseling, peer support and recovery services, case management and referral services, basic need and other crisis assistance.

The term of this agreement is from September 1st, 2025 or countersignature date to August 31st, 2026, with an option to renew at the city's discretion.

The women's home has received funding from the city since 2000 and had no findings on their last monitoring review.

Today we have Anna Coffey, the Chief Executive Officer here in the audience.

Item 2D, the department is presenting a sub-recipient agreement with Catholic charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston, providing up to 1,537,404 and 85 cents.

We love those exact dollar amounts in HOPWA funds, serving a minimum of 113 low to moderate income households living with HIV or AIDS.

Housing assistance will be provided to 58 households supported with tenant-based rental assistance, which is a long-term rent subsidy, 45 households supported with short-term rent mortgage utility assistance, also known as our emergency assistance program, 10 households utilizing permanent housing placement services, which usually include deposits on utilities or rent to provide housing stability and prevent homelessness, as well as support services.

The supportive services include housing case management and other services that will promote housing stability.

This is on a needs basis.

The term of the agreement is from October 1st, 2025 through August 31st, 2026, with an option to renew at the city's discretion.

Catholic Charities has received funding from the city since 2003 and has no findings on their less monitoring review.

Today we have Raina Suazo, the program director, and Akima Henderson, the supervisor here in the audience.

As I continue, I'll go ahead.

I'll continue.

Item 2E, the department is presenting a second amendment to the sub-recipient agreement with Allies and Hope, providing up to an additional 766, 766, 760 in HOPWA funds for the continued support of 112 low to moderate income households living with HIV and AIDS.

Housing assistance will continue to provide for 28 households supported with tenant-based rental assistance, 84 households with permanent housing, and three different community residences.

All clients are provided support services, which include housing case management, life skills training, substance abuse and mental health counseling, and the like.52 cents in HOPWA funds, serving a minimum of 10 low to moderate income households living with HIV or AIDS through the search Boche Family House of Tiny Treasures.

The department is presenting a sub-recipient agreement with SERC Homeless Services, providing up to 142,713 and 52 cents in HOPA funds, serving a minimum of 10 low-to-moderate income households living with HIV or AIDS through the search Foche Family House of Tiny Treasures.

Searches House of Tiny Treasures is a nationally accredited preschool program that provides developmentally focused early childhood education to children ages two through five years of age who have experienced homelessness.

Nutritional meals, education, intensive art, play and speech therapy, address students' needs, and prepare them to be successful in kindergarten and beyond.

These funds will support 10 households, which includes a minimum of 16 children and 35 family members who are or were formally homeless.

Support services available to family members will include case management, transportation, and counseling, all to reduce barriers and increase household financial stability.

The term of this agreement is October 1st, 2025 through September 30th, 2026, with an option to renew at the city's discretion.

SERGE has received funding from the city since 1996 and had no findings on their last monitoring report.

Today we have Larry Krause, Vice President of Government Grants, and Rylan Flugen's program manager and family services, a family services in the audience.

Welcome.

And I'm sorry if I messed up that last name.

Housing assistance will be provided to 27 households supported with tenant-based rental assistance, 10 households utilizing permanent housing placement services, and 29 households with critical case management, therapeutic and environmental interventions services, which could include outpatient treatment, crisis intervention, psychotherapy, and psychoeduc.

The term of the agreement is from October 1st, 2025 to September 30th, 2026, with an option to renew at the city's discretion.

LOSS has received funding from the city since 2025 and had no findings on their last monitor and review.

Today we have Kimi Palacios, the project director, Jorge Lopez, Administrative Director, and Esmeralda Oregon, the housing support coordinator in the audience.

Good.

And that concludes my presentation.

Open for questions.

Thank you so much.

Let me recognize staff from At Large 4 is present with us and also C and I.

Thank you all for coming.

Very good.

Thank you for your presentation.

It was very informative and certainly one that we know that Houston and the housing is certainly these areas of particular around AIDS is so necessary, needed.

And so we thank our housing for the action that you take in doing that process.

So I want to recognize Councilmember Ramirez in the queue.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you, Melody, for that presentation.

I have a general question.

Do we know how many how many folks in Houston fall into this category of persons with HIV AIDS?

I do not have that number.

I can get it for you.

We do get reports annually from the Ryan White Planning Council that does a comprehensive review.

There's also an um an Epi Data Report that the health department does, so I can get that information to you.

Yeah, I think that might be helpful for for council members to have an idea how many folks fall into this category, how many we serve and how many we serve or how many are living with HIV?

I'm sorry.

Well we'll both.

Okay.

And how that number has fluctuated over time.

So I can tell you that the number of people that are served is um through our HOPWA programs is about 1,400.

And so we are putting together our KEPER, which is our consolidated annual performance and evaluation report.

Um it is it is almost ready.

I believe we're gonna have it completely done by middle of September, and that will give us an entire snapshot of all the data that we've collected over the last year.

Um so we can definitely present that at the next housing committee to go over that, but it's about 1400 individuals that are touched with these HOPWA dollars.

Great, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, thank you so much.

I want to recognize uh council member Flickager.

Thank you, Chair.

And uh thank you for the presentation.

Um we see fairly regularly these programs come through for the housing for AIDS, HIV.

Is there any other federal grants for any other diseases like cancer or diabetes or anything?

I haven't seen anything else come through except for the AIDS.

Right.

So under HUD, no.

There um, so this is a HUD program that was established back in the uh late 90s.

Um I do believe that there are other programs that are um disease specific, but those don't come through the housing department.

I believe the health department has some of those um particular awards.

Um CDC has some grants that that target um um different types of diseases, and we can we can ask the health department to see if they have anything.

Yeah, just curious, like I said, I've never seen anything uh other, and just wondering about these other communities also.

Yes, thank you.

Yeah, let me let me I I wanted to address the issue concerning uh the question on the number of people, which um I'm sure that number changes um monthly, weekly, you know, periodically.

So is that data prior to was there ever requirement by the city to have data that identified how many people was there an acquirement from HUD that uh in numbers?

So this grant is a formula grant.

HUD calculates all the data, and then based on the data for the region, because it's not just the city of Houston that's impacted by this grant, it's actually the region, and we just happen to be the lead entity to administer this grant on behalf of the region.

But it's based on the data that they have that they they run it through their formula and produce a uh an allocation amount to us and tell us that allocation amount annually.

Yeah, okay, yeah, and I just kind of thought that, but I just wanted to know because I I'm sure if it had been hooked, I mean, housing would have already had those numbers uh to reflect whatever that number is.

You know, right.

So it's it's it's done based on the CDC numbers and incident numbers.

And an incident is when somebody goes from HIV to AIDS, and that that's a defining incident.

Um there is what they call modernization, HOPA modernization act, and that is the new formula change.

So I can also provide that information.

So if you'd like, maybe we can do a HOPWA presentation, um, like a quick one next month to talk a little bit about the formula, about our region, our EMSA is a nine county region, so we don't just provide funding for the citizens of Houston, but we go as far as Galveston, and we should be presenting over the next you know 30 to 60 days um a new agreement for um access care, which is out of Galveston.

Okay.

Um but yes, I can I can do that.

I can get that information to you.

Good, good.

So note it, and we'll get it to uh uh councilmember Ramirez and others.

Would you would you like a presentation of that?

I think it might be, I think it may be probably favorable to have a presentation at the committee.

And then I can also present our um if our final report isn't done, we will have enough information to present a report of what of who we served last year.

Good, good.

Well, we'll pass that on to the chair we in in the next committee meeting.

Thank you.

All right, thank you, Melly.

And now, is there any questions?

There may be any questions that need to be before we move on.

So there is none, so we'll go to public facilities.

Yes, so for agenda item three for public facilities, we'll be joined by Deputy Assistant Director Ryan Bibbs to do the presentation.

Good morning.

Vice Chair, good morning member, chief of staff.

This next item number three is in regards to Edgewood Park and Detention Bison LOA.

The Housing Community Development Department is requesting approval of a letter of agreement in LOA between Houston Public Works and the Housing Community Development Department.

This LOA will be for the use of three million four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, four hundred and seventy-one dollars, and community development block grant disaster recovery funding, CDBG DR 15.

This funding will be for flood for flooding for flood mitigation improvements at the Edgewood multi-use park and detention basin project located in the South Park community.

Next slide.

The new improvements will mitigate the risk of flooding in this area.

The new improvements will include depressing existing areas, depressing as we're referring to the process of construction uh of a detention pond, also known as a detention bison.

This area will which will be depressed will include the existing soccer field, baseball field, basketball court, playground area, the trail and other green spaces.

Next slide.

The new amenities will include an upgraded football field, walking trails, benches, pedestrian lighting, and trees.

The multi-use detention bison will be designed to have water flow into the existing storm water along the South Bank Street to minimize street flooding and property damage.

There will also be underground storm water detention storage for the upgraded parking lot.

Next slide.

This area has flooded in the past.

The improvement to the park is with the intention of protecting the homes, streets, right-a-ways, as well as improving the community amenities.

Next slide.

The total project budget for this is $4,611,000.

The Housing Community Development Department is funding $3.4 million.

Houston Public Works is funding 1.1 million dollars.

Houston Public Works will oversee and manage the bidding process, selection of the contractors, design, and construction.

The project is currently in the design phase.

We anticipate construction to last from February 2026 through September 2026.

This next slide shows the existing uh layout of the property.

Next slide.

Here are renderings of the property with its new layout.

As you can see there at the top of the screen, there you have arrows moving over to the to the left that shows the water once the detention is complete.

So the detention will is built to hold water for a certain amount of time, and after a certain amount of time, the water will decipher over to the left of our screen there to South Bank Street, where the rest of the uh wastewater will flow.

Good.

Next slide.

And here are just more renderings of the new new project.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I'm sure that they will absolutely be excited about these renderings, of course.

Edwards Park has been one of the subject matters for a long time about the upgrading to that center.

They started this year with those questions, so I'm sure uh when they get this good news, they'll be excited to see those changes that need to be uh done.

Uh I recognize uh council member Ramirez.

Thank you, Chair.

And um appreciate the presentation.

Yes, uh I second that.

I've been to Edgewood Park and I met with the residents out there, and uh they have been crying out for upgrades to this park for a long, long time.

So they'll be happy to see this.

Um kind of curious as to the timetable when when might the project be completed.

So we're looking to have this completed by September of next year.

Okay.

Now uh currently there is uh a detention area.

Um what what will happen uh to that if you know?

Um they're they're working on the designs now, so the current detention area there, they're gonna make it a little bit deeper so it can hold more volume of water, and also they're gonna put in some underground piping to where it'll flow more easily and quicker to the side street south bank that will be able to um remove water from the detention and it goes into the rest of the the wastewater display.

All right.

And who do you know who over is overseeing design and will determine you know whether there's a football field, baseball field, that sort of thing, etc.

Uh from Houston Public Works, I do have a contact as who we are working with uh Masorio uh Molar.

I can get you his name.

Okay from peace and parking the residents out there have said that uh the football field gets a lot a lot a lot of use, a lot more use.

Lot more use.

Leads it practice and play out there.

So yeah, it's gonna be a great project.

All so the all the fields, and uh I'm sure you've seen different communities where all the play area will be um lowered.

You can still play on it, but the water will accumulate and over time it'll just it'll it'll run off, but it'll still be able to be used after the water has has ran off over time.

Great.

Much needed project.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Very good.

Any questions?

Uh President Anyone All right.

Okay.

We're good.

Thank you so much.

Now we want to uh thank you, Ryan.

It was certainly the other at this point we want to uh welcome are there directors' comments concerning this particular yes.

So while Ron's sitting here, there's something I want to note.

Uh the multifamily team, which is also under Ryan's purview will be releasing a notice of funding availability the first week of September for C D BG funded multifamily rehab.

Um so I just want to make everybody at the committee aware to be looking for that uh notice coming out.

We'll make sure we're sharing it across all of our social sites on our website and everything else.

Uh the goal here is to preserve existing multifamily units and upgrade where necessary.

It's going to be approximately 11 to 12 million dollars that's going to be made available, but we'll be pushing out more information about that here over the next couple weeks.

Okay.

Very good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh as we transition into the next couple of items, we're going to bring Melody back up.

She's got two more uh items that we added kind of the last minute.

Uh Houston SRO housing and then Houston help.

Okay.

Yeah, so we have these two additional projects that unfortunately did not make the agenda due to timing.

We are just going to mention them today, and then I will go ahead and um provide you with cover sheets for those items.

The first is the sub-recipient agreement with Houston SRO housing corporation providing up to 307,977 in Hopwell funds for the continued operation of a permanent housing community residence with supportive services to a minimum of 33 households living with AIDS.

This agreement will begin on October 1st, 2025 through September 30th of 2026.

And Houston SRO has received funding since 1999.

Today we have Orion Penson, the chief operating officer, and Jeffrey Ball, who is the manager of Houston SRO.

The second is a subrecipient agreement with Houston Help Incorporated, providing up to 413,091 in Hopwell funds for the continued operation of a permanent housing community residence with supportive services to a minimum of 50 household households living with AIDS.

This is a family residence.

Houston SRO has received funding since 1999.

And today we have Beatrice Bradford, the community director of Houston Health.

And that concludes good.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Okay.

For the next couple slides, we'll have Tamika Jones, our deputy director and CFO, come join us uh to talk about DR17 and status.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I would like to provide the committee with an update of our Harvey contract.

Um we do have a couple of items that have moved into our closeout phase.

And so I am happy to report on this slide.

What we are showing is we had do have an executed copy of the GLO's contract, which is amendment four.

Uh we have our homeowner assistance program, which is um on the fourth row labeled as HOPE.

Um I am pleased to report that the GLO as of late last week has approved the final payment request for that item.

So we are moving into a now closeout complete.

That is has been one of the most difficult programs.

So our team is back at 2100 Travis celebrating right now with that payment request.

I think it's just over seven and a half million dollars for that last payment request being approved.

So we are certainly celebrating the approval of that item.

Um and so we are now moving into just some of the final close-out items uh for that program.

We are anticipating requesting some extensions for our economic development program as well as multifamily uh and buyout just to complete construction uh for economic development is really just um doing some close out closeout items with the GLO, so you can see those items noted there.

But we did want to provide the committee just with an update of where those um proposed contract end dates would be.

And the next slide, please just shows you a representation of where we are just in terms of our reimbursement status with each of those programs.

And now with the executed amendment four document, you can see that we have added the program Home Buyers 2.0, which is a program that we have kicked off here at the end of June, beginning of July, which provides the down payment assistance for up to 125,000 for the eligible home buyers.

So you will see we will begin tracking progress with that.

Good.

Good.

And then I was hoping that Chair would be here so that I can provide a non-documented surprise update that we will get begin reporting progress on, which is just a quick snapshot of where we stand with our HBAP 2.0 program.

So as of this morning, we have 12 applicants that have been approved by the GLO.

So this is the approval we have submitted.

There are files.

Beautiful.

And GLO has already approved the appropri they have approved the eligibility of the applicant.

Beautiful.

Beautiful.

And they are actually reviewing another three applicants.

So we have those 15 or so that we are working with.

And then we have a strong pipeline, I am told of up to 272 additional applicants that we are working with to get approval with GLO.

So we have a very strong pipeline, which indicates a very successful program to fully utilize that 19.8 million dollars of funding.

Good.

Thank you.

Yep.

Great.

And then I would like to give the committee another update while it is not DR 17.

It is our DR21.

And so what we'll do is make sure that during this time we are reporting a progress of where we stand with our funding sources.

Typically, I have taken this time to just brief the committee on you know where we stand with our funding sources.

So going forward, since we did just kick off these programs, I'll take this time just to refresh the committee and bring an update of where we stand with those.

So with our DR21, our single family program, we have a pipeline of 215 homeowners that we are working with to complete applications.

And we are actively working with 45 of them between the reimbursement pathway and then also with the rehab recon pathway.

So we won't actually know with pat which pathway they go on until after the eligibility is completed, and then the damage assessments are completed.

So out of the full um full pipeline of 215 that we have so far, we are actively working with 45.

45.

45.

And that is with our DR21.

And remember, that's about 40 million dollars of funding.

Right.

Is that what from the it was that was that from the GIL from last year?

That was the winter storm money.

Right.

That was the winter storm money.

Okay, got it.

And that concludes my presentation.

All right.

Thank you for your presentation.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Okay, thank you.

See that not in the queue?

Good.

Thank you.

So to piggyback on what DJ was just talking about on the next slide, will be some additional information on that winter storm DR21 available home repair program.

As CJ said, it's approximately 40 million dollars.

It's available for reimbursement for people that had expenses immediately after the storm, and then also uh rehab or re potentially reconstruction based on damage that was occurred that occurred.

And then on the next slide is information about what we call HBAP 2.0, which was the down payment assistance program that TJ just reported on.

As she said, we've had a lot of interest in that program, and we've been happy that uh GLO has been a great partner with us in getting these applications reviewed and getting them turned around to us in time and uh hope to be reporting on some closings very soon related to the program.

Good.

Uh next slide.

Uh we uh talked about this, I think in June, but just a reminder we opened Rosemary's Place located in Midtown.

It's uh geared towards uh people and families coming out of homelessness, and so that was a great event for our staff to be able to attend and cut the ribbon on that.

Um the next slide, uh just some uh items of community engagement that we've done uh over the last couple of months, including a homelessness round table that Mike was a part of, um, looking at some technical assistance training, the realtors and lending workshop.

This is where we've really been talking about this HBAP 2.0 and our other programs that are available so that their clients are aware of what the city can assist them with.

Um and then uh just different informational tours that we've been a part of.

And then quickly some updates on some of the current projects that we've had because it's been a couple of months since we've touched on these.

Uh the Rushmore is a per uh right now sitting at about 31 percent complete.

We're gonna have 85 restricted units for families at 30 to 60 percent AMI, and we have uh three million dollars in home funds attached to this project.

We're looking at November of next year before we hit completion.

Next up is New Hope Housing Avenue C in District I.

It's 60 percent complete with a total of 120 restricted units.

Um we have homeless and housing bonds in this one of about three million dollars, and we're doing that in conjunction with new hope housing.

We're looking at April of next year for completion on that.

Okay.

Uh next we have OST Lofts, and the good thing we get to report here is the ribbon cutting on this development is coming up on Tuesday, September 9th at 10 a.m.

Um this one just serves a reminder, it does include an academy that provides early childhood education.

It's something that um uh DWR has been including in many of their developments lately, and uh they've had a lot of success in other neighborhoods, so this is an exciting addition to the neighborhood as well beyond the affordable units that are going to be available.

Um we had DR 17 funding in this deal and a total of 109 restricted units.

Yeah.

Uh then we have an update on summit at Renaissance Park.

This one is nearly complete.

I think we're already working with them on the ribbon cutting, so more information to come on this one.

Um so this was a total of 325 units with 166 of them geared for families to 30 to 60 percent AMI.

Uh we've put 14.9 million dollars in DR 17 funding into this.

Um so as I said, we should be getting a ribbon cutting on the calendar very soon, likely in September.

Okay, thank you.

The Hay Center.

So we're gonna be doing a ribbon cutting for the Hay Center this Friday at 10 o'clock.

Uh this uh development is geared towards youth and young adults that are aging out of foster care.

We've done this in conjunction with Harris County as well, who's funded into this.

Uh we put five million dollars in DR 17 funds in this, and that's a total of 40 restricted units, and also includes uh a lot of uh wraparound services that are available to the people living in the units.

Okay.

And then the last project that's uh we want to point out here is uh Richmond Senior.

It's 100 percent complete.

125 units that are available with 100 of them restricted to uh seniors, 30 to 80 percent AMI, and uh we put 15 and a half million of DR 17 funding into it.

Okay, very good.

Um so I mentioned earlier that we're of course we're gonna have that NOFA come out.

We also like to share um a lot of the different things that HCD is doing in the community, information on our projects and programs that are available.

So here's some ways to connect with our team to uh looking at Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, um, where we share a lot of this information so everybody in the public can stay up to date.

Then of course, we always have our off uh community hours every Wednesday from one o'clock to four o'clock.

So bring your questions that you may have, anybody in the community may have to uh get the get responses from our staff directly.

And so there's some information on the next slide about that.

And that completes our presentation for today.

Very good, very good.

Thank you so much for that presentation.

Excellent job.

Um are there any questions?

No.

Okay.

So now we do we have anyone else to join this.

No, no.

These are the two public speakers.

Okay, these are public speakers.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

We have some couple public speakers who have signed up.

Uh we have a three-minute time limit on the public speakers.

And who do we have?

Um I don't know what her name is.

Donna.

Is that Donna come up?

Help me with the writing there.

I'm sorry, my handwriting is terrible.

Even with good handwriting, nobody can pronounce the last name.

Okay.

Um let's see here.

Sure.

Hi.

My name is Donna Rick.

Is that on?

Y'all hear me?

My name is Donna Rickenbacker.

And I'm not here on any of the agenda items, to tell you the truth.

I'm here.

Well, I actually am now, but I'm primarily here to say thank you.

Um the allocation or the additional monies made available through the disaster funding towards housing.

I very, very much want to um say thank you first to uh council member Thomas and Plummer for their focus and their amendments, and then ultimately the successful um reallocation and and all of the uh council members that voted in favor of it.

So thank you, thank you, thank you very much for that.

Um and then I'm I'm the developer of OST Lofts.

And yes, like Derek explained, it does have a standalone pre-kindergarten program that will be operated by the Tejano Center, who's also my uh developer uh co-partner.

Um I hope you all will come to that opening.

We're 100 percent occupied as soon as those units came online.

Um we we move them very, very quickly.

We have generators that operate the um the buildings and the elevators and the pre-K school.

So we've got three generators at this property.

I hope you all will come and see what we've done and and hopefully agree that we um use the funding made available through the City of Houston and this and the GLO wisely.

Look forward to seeing you.

And the and the good, very good.

Uh you said the river cutters win.

It's Tuesday, September the 9th at 10 a.m.

Okay.

And you all should have invitations by now.

And if you don't, that's a problem.

Good, did you work on the Warning Ford Bend or district care area?

Yes.

Edison Lofts, yes, sir, that's mine.

Okay, I thought I remembered you from that.

Very good.

You can't get rid of me.

No, I can't.

No, we can't.

All right.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

All right.

All right.

Brother Doug.

Come on down.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I came today uh to address the uh all of the housing with people with AIDS, several different organizations, and the thought that occurred to me is how do they decide which organization gets what?

Uh and uh it sounds like some of my questions will be answered if we can at the next meeting have a report that they were talking about uh as to what organ you know it seems to me like if you have one organization that's doing a lot better than one of the others, then more money should be allocated to that organization.

And I don't know whether you have a process to be able to do that or not.

If you don't, I think you should.

Uh and um one of the questions, another question that came to mind in with all of the cutbacks that are happening at the federal level, will the funding for these programs uh be continued?

Uh uh obviously they're going they're in place right now where we wouldn't be talking about what we're talking about today, but that's a question that comes to mind.

And uh I'm very much looking forward to hopefully Tiffany will agree to include their report at next month's meeting, and I'm very much interested in looking at the evaluation of all of the different providers uh for this these programs.

So that and that was it.

Uh knowing that's coming through next month, hopefully means that I have fewer questions than I would have had otherwise.

So but anyway, I appreciate it.

So primarily your concern is the data is that the number of um the information about the number of people that are in the facility or these programs, uh some of them uh the programs have been funded, maybe not this particular program, but the organization sponsoring it, uh, has received money from the city for 30 years.

And uh the particular programs, housing people with aids, is it the same people year after year after year that get these funds, or are there new people do the older people you know move out and are new people allowed to to uh take part in the program?

But yeah, the data.

I was at a meeting uh recent, not recently, several months ago here, and I think it had to do uh with uh helping people, jobless people find jobs.

And uh I said, you know, will you be able to come back in a couple of years and tell me the status of the people that you provided services to the person that uh was doing the presentation said no, the Federal Government doesn't repl uh require us to do that, and therefore we're not doing it.

Well, if the city is giving money to these organizations, the city should require a report on how successful the program has been, and that's what I'm working on or would like to see.

Okay.

Very good.

Thanks.

So noted.

Thank you, Doug.

Yeah, always for you.

See you next month.

See you next month.

All right.

Are there any other speakers that we don't want to overlook anyone?

Are there any other speakers there?

Yes, none.

All right, very good.

Very well.

Well, before we join, let me just put in mind as the absence of that chair to remind everyone that our next housing and affordability committee will meet on September 16th at 10 a.m.

Uh, the district elf office will be sending out additional information.

And um, and let me just say on behalf uh uh chair and the absence, uh thank all of you for being here today and all of those organizational representatives who was present.

If there's nothing else and no other comments uh or questions, this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you so much.