I am uh Houston City Councilmember at large position one and chair of our Quality of Life Committee.

I'm gonna call this meeting to order.

This meeting of the Quality of Life Committee.

We have a couple of uh additional council members present.

Uh at-large Councilmember Willie Davis is here, and district council member Joaquin Martinez is here as well as district council member Mario Castillo.

We have staff from Councilmember Mary Nan Huffman's office.

We have Dee Dee from Mayor Pro Tem Castex Tatum's office and staff as well online from Councilmember Twila Carter's office and Councilmember uh Tarsha Jackson's office.

So on our agenda this afternoon, we have several housing and homelessness-related items that we're gonna get into, a total of about four important items for uh the public's and council's consideration.

We have with us presenting our uh director of housing and community development, uh Mike Nichols, and one of his top assistant staff members, Melody Barr.

So uh Director Nichols, without further ado, I'm gonna turn it over to you and let you proceed.

Thank you so much, and again, thank you for your time today.

What we'd like to do with your permission is to begin with the public services uh ordinances that we'll be bringing to uh council over the next few weeks.

Melody Barr will do that presentation, uh and then we will begin the presentation on 419 emancipation.

I know there's a lot of interest in that, some confusion on it, and we hope to do some of that clarification.

We probably need to continue to do clarification.

There is a uh in the document that you received a week ago.

Um there is information about 419 emancipation, but I'm gonna use that, and I'm also gonna have another presentation that was sent to you that's not been part of this original document, but it is available for the public.

All right, Director.

Uh let me note that our vice chair, uh Mayor Pro Tem Vice Mayor Pro Tem uh Peck has arrived and is present for the meeting as well.

You may continue.

Thank you.

So I'll begin with Melody Barr.

If you'll go through the ordinances uh starting with the homeless transportation piece.

Yes.

Good afternoon.

For item 2A, the department is presenting an ordinance authorizing a second amendment to the subrecipient agreement with Healthcare for the Homeless Houston to provide up to 250,000 in community development block grant or CDBG funds to operate the Project Access Homeless Transportation Program, serving a minimum of 2,000 riders who are experiencing homelessness.

Project Access is Houston's only regularly scheduled no-charge transportation service for individuals seeking housing services.

The 40-passenger all-ability bus travels a 23 agency route Monday through Friday, 52 weeks a year.

The project access bus is free of charge to any homeless person, but every writer must receive tickets.

And tickets are available at several sites, including Healthcare for the Homeless Houston Clinics, both on Caroline and Prairie, the Beacon, Lord of the Streets, Search Homeless Services, and Star Hope Men's Development Center.

Funding for this amendment supports the operations of the Project Access Bus, which leverages service supports to 21 agencies that provide essential services such as health care, meals, shelter, and supportive services.

Funding also supports a community health worker who serves as a resource for riders, collects data, acts as a liaison with other homeless service providers, and serves as the face of the program to promote ridership and improve outreach.

The caseworker is available on the bus several times per week and on site at partner agencies to engage individuals and resources.

This model is a peer-based model found to be highly effective in enhancing engagement for hard-to-reach populations.

This second amendment will extend the term and provide additional funding through November 30th, 2026.

Healthcare for the homeless has received funding from various agreements since 2003.

They have also surpassed our performance goal.

They did have one finding in the last compliance monitoring report due to a late payment submission, which has since been resolved.

Today we have Carly Brown, Chief Executive Officer here with us today.

I think we have her here.

We do.

Yes.

She's here.

She's just arrived, as has uh Councilmember Sally Alcorn, who is present.

Thank you.

I'll move on to item 2B.

Oh.

And I apologize, I forgot to say next slide.

Okay, so we're we're good, we're good.

For uh so for items 2B and 2C, I'm going to be presenting these together.

The Department is presenting before this committee a recommendation for council approval and ordinance that authorizes a contract between the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs, TDHCA, and the City of Houston.

Whereas the City of Houston will accept an award of homeless housing services program funds for both the general set aside and the youth set aside funds.

These ordinances will authorize the housing and community development director to represent the city for the HHSP award and provide signature authority to execute the contract and authorize amendment changes.

The fiscal year 2026 HHSP award amount consists of a general allocation in the amount of 1,266,780, and an additional set aside amount of 405,040 to address youth homelessness for a total award amount of $1,671,820.

For TDHCA, the general set-aside funds must be used by the city on activities eliminating or preventing homelessness.

Specific allowable activities include construction, development or procurement of housing for homeless persons, rehabilitation of structures targeted to serving homeless persons or persons at risk of homelessness, provisions of direct services and case management to homeless persons or persons at risk of homelessness, and other homelessness related activities as approved by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.

Now the youth set-aside funding must be used on activities eliminating or preventing homelessness in youth-headed households.

And youth is defined between 18 and 24 years of age.

Specific allowable activities include essential services, street outreach, and transitional living for persons experiencing homelessness in youth-headed households, provisions of direct service and case management to persons experiencing homelessness in youth-headed households or other homelessness-related activities as approved by TDHCA.

The state provides HHSP funding to the nine largest cities in Texas in support of services to homeless individuals and families.

Those cities currently served through the HHSP fund include Arlington, Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Plano, and San Antonio.

An ordinances allocating the accepted HHSP funds for use by local nonprofit organizations will be presented to council within the coming months.

And that concludes my presentation.

All right.

I see no I'm sorry, go ahead.

But I'd like to just answer questions about this before we get to Fort 19 emancipation.

That makes sense.

This is to extend an agreement that funds a bus.

It's like sort of a Greyhound bus that runs a designated route every day of the year except for two days out of the year, is that right?

I believe it's just Thanksgiving and Christmas that it doesn't run.

All right.

And goes to the same set of uh places, and there are how many stops?

Did you say about 32 stops?

Okay.

From 7 a.m.

to 5 p.m.

Um and it is expected to serve minimum of 2,000.

Correct.

Riders.

Now that is 2,000 individuals or 2,000 trips.

2,000 individuals.

They usually do the last report that I saw, there was about 4,000 trips made last year within the last 12 months, but it's 2,000 individuals.

And 1,500 of those individuals are served by the case manager.

And I believe you said you had a case manager on board to try to match services with uh the riders.

Correct.

Okay.

All right.

We have Councilmember Martinez in the queue.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Melody, for the presentation.

Just a quick question on uh the youth set aside funds.

Uh 2B and 2C together, but um when you're looking at activities, um we in District I specifically we have two aging out of foster uh housing facilities are those dollars able to be utilized for the folks that are needing housing assistance there or uh what type of activities possible.

It's possible.

It would it would depend on what they are trying to do.

Typically in the last couple of years, we have funded Covenant House with this.

Um we do have open um submissions for use, so I think we need we need to look at our REI and get you that information, which is our request for expression of interest to see if we have um open competition right now.

But yes, I mean that's not I mean it depends on what they're doing.

Okay.

So we have the Hay Center that's off of Venice, and then the Sunrise Lobself McKinney.

I could definitely possibly utilize some of these uh resources, but it could be is it best just for us to um you know connect you with them or we'll do that.

Thank you Thank you, Councilmember Martinez.

And um Melody, following up on 2A the uh the transportation, uh can you provide us data on the number of trips the uh the bus makes a I can get you that information.

I only have the number of individuals that were actually served, so I can find out the number of trips.

Okay.

And do you want the number of trips that they make in a year, or do you want the number of trips like ridership, like what number do you want?

Uh both if you have it.

Okay.

All right.

Looking at um, this is a state funded program.

Am I correct on that?

I could also have Carly Brown come up, and I think she might have that information that you are requesting.

Sure.

Or her staff on a bit.

Well, what Carly or her staff are walking up, I want to just say health care for the homeless, which is a uh 501c3, not related to health care for the homeless of Paris Health, two different organizations has been a tremendous partner to us through the whole homeless issues, and we're very indebted to them working closely day to day with us because as you know, a lot of the people experiencing homelessness are walking around still with hospital bands on their arms.

So great, great, great partners.

Go ahead.

Yes, thank thank you all for being here.

Appreciate what you do.

Thank you so much.

My name is Catherine Rogers.

I am the executive vice president at Healthcare for the Homeless Houston.

Um we're really grateful the City of Houston has funded this program for more than 20 years.

And so we're really um grateful for the support, and it has had a significant impact.

Um over the last couple of years, we have noticed some changes in the way that the people that we're serving are accessing community services based on post-pandemic changes in service offerings, um, changes in hours of service offerings.

And so what we've done is we've looked at our program, we've talked to the folks that we're serving, we've talked to the community partners to say how can this route best serve you all in the community because we've noticed the same difference in number of registered riders versus number of rides.

On a given year, we usually, as Melody alluded to, our goal is to register at least two thousand individuals and provide them with 4,000 total rides.

One of the challenges that we've seen is the way that we're able to track ridership because of the population that we're serving.

It's all done in a paper ticket system.

And so we're actually as an organization looking at that very closely so that we can with continued support actually move to a digital methodology to track our data and really see not just number of rides but how our individuals accessing these services and what's the impact beyond just transportation, but they're being linked to housing, health care, food resources, and that's the ultimate goal of the program to lend itself to stability.

And and can you describe that transition for us?

How are you all going to do that?

How we will move to more electronic formats?

Yeah.

We're researching that right now.

We've looked at some opportunities to move to web-based registration.

A lot of it has to do with our community and really building on the work and the momentum that's been um built this year in um coming together and collaborating.

So working with community partners to move to that web-based registration format.

And looking at um leveraging the expertise of Houston Metro as well.

We were really grateful for Director Mike Nichols and Melody Barr to connect us to Houston Metro and their leadership there.

And so what we're doing is looking at leveraging the knowledge and expertise that they have in in our community and in transportation and um adding that component to our operations.

All right.

And did you mention 4,000 rides?

Yes.

Okay.

And um, if we're looking at 2,000 riders, do we do we know what that comes out to per ride?

The average cost.

Well, going based off of our contract goals, average cost per rider is about $113 a year.

A year?

Yes.

Okay.

All right.

See no other questions.

I'd like to add one other comment about we are very excited and positive about the collaboration between this program at Healthcare for the Homeless and Metro.

As you know, Metro, when they look at their issues that they uh their riders have, often it has to do with people who have mental health or substance issues or experiencing homelessness, riding the their buses and trains for long periods of time, and we really think this collaboration will make a big impact on Metro and on our programming once we get this coordinated between the two entities.

So much of what we do is linking entities in the city, and it's always a surprise to me when you do it.

It seems like why didn't we do that years ago?

But the reality is this is going to be a good, great collaboration for Metro and for health care for the homeless.

And I'm glad you made that linkage uh director question.

How how do you all get the word out to the population that you uh want to serve?

That the service is available.

Excuse me.

Um primarily through the community health worker that this program funds.

Um they ride the bus, they visit our partner agencies.

We have uh five or six community partners currently who serve as ticketing sites, so we work with them to register individuals, get the word out, and really try to incorporate that as part of their registration and eligibility process.

And again, the uh interim CEO of Metro said he would be glad to help us publicize that on bus stops and other areas too.

So, again, really important collaboration.

Okay.

I would like to see that happen.

All right.

Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you, Catherine.

Any other questions about the public services items?

Um I just wanted to follow up on to B and C.

Um, these are these are state funded programs, is that right?

Are are they new or have we done something very similar in the we probably have them for about 10 to 12 years?

They were originally a one-time grant.

And about, I guess about 12 years ago, and I could be wrong, it could be 10.

About I'm gonna go with 12, about 12 years ago.

Um the original I believe SERC was one of the the providers that that went out along with some of the other Houston um homeless agencies, they really rallied and lobbied the state to continue to put this funding as part of their budget.

And so the first year was HHSP funds, the second year, which it comes from the general allocation, the second year was um um HTF, I think, or HTC funds.

It was a different State F and then the third year they were able to get it into the actual general fund.

So it is now a standing part of their general fund allocation.

All right.

Okay, thank you for that.

So why don't we move to um the last item, which is gonna be uh number three, public facilities.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I would like to start.

Uh pages 13 through 22 are in a format that many of you have seen before for any public facility.

And once I saw that, I really wanted to give greater explanation.

So I have a follow-up presentation with more detail that I'd like to go through with your permission.

That's fine.

Um I'll just go quickly through the normal the presentation that you have seen any time you see a public facility.

This is an ordinance that will allow the city to purchase 419 Hope Partners LSC for the landing improvements at 419 emancipation.

Uh the city will finance the purchase of the property through the reimbursement of equipment and projects fund, which is Fund 1850.

This fund does require reimbursement, and the plan is to reimburse make the reimbursement over 10 years through various TURS funds as they are identified.

This is a very important point, and I'll go through more detail.

The property will be utilized to provide temporary to utilize to provide temporary services and shelter for homeless persons as the program determines the individual's path for it, uh such as drug rehabilitation, mental health services, or job training are going to be very important to this.

Next slide, please.

The next slide is again a typical uh slide that you may see through uh public facilities with an underwriter internally, uh uh what the project name is, the address, the eligible activities, uh is there do we have to meet a national objective, which we do not?

Uh the owners and developers and who the contact people are for those owners uh at 419 Hope Partners.

Next slide.

Uh the property consists of two buildings.

One is 38,751 square feet with a full service commercial kitchen, laundry facilities, medical offices, gathering area.

This is interesting.

Um we're trying to get the exact right room number, room count.

It's either 75 or 80.

Uh the appraisal says 75, so we'll go with that at this time.

They have built-in bathrooms, which is a sink shower, uh toilet, and the rooms could house up to four individuals each.

Currently, there are three beds in each room.

The second building is about 15,500 square feet, is currently configured for school rooms with multiple classrooms, bathroom areas, administrative areas, and libraries.

Uh we expect to use this facility for services, um, particularly uh substance issues and psychiatric services as we move forward.

The remaining land is parking, paved common areas and walkway and landscaping.

Next slide.

One more.

Next slide there.

Um purchase price is sixteen million dollars.

And the we talked about the funding being 1850.

We'll spend about $50,000 on additional items uh in such as closing and environmentals that are in place right now.

Currently, the environmentals are ongoing.

We've had a first uh phase one environmental that was fine.

We have a phase two going on now.

The expectation is that that will be closed, that will be done before the end of the year.

Uh currently we have a contract that allows us to have this flexibility in case something comes up.

Um building one is is the detailed here, um, and again, just in in more detail.

Next slide.

Building two, same thing with more detail.

Again, interior finishes consist of combination of stained concrete, wood vinyl, ceramic flooring, concrete block.

It's a really solid building as an elevator and stairs connecting on building two.

Next slide.

Um the property received a total of three million dollars in renovations in 2019 and 2023, respectively.

That's three million together.

Renovations included substantial surveillance equipment, monitoring throughout the building, exterior drainage upgrades, as well as uh HVAC in building one and adding a new HVAC chiller in 2023.

The property was most recently used by nonprofit to house migrant children.

The nonprofits terminated their lease in August 31st of 2025 when their operations were funding was terminated by the federal government.

Um the abandoned contents will be itemized and possibly included as part of the purchase and sale agreement.

Um for those of you who may have been there or go there, that does not include the 30 or 40 automobiles that are also sitting on the property.

They do will continue to belong to the nonprofit.

Next slide.

Next slide, please.

All right.

Uh here's a map.

Uh as you can see, it is um it's it's in a commercial area.

There's an office building about a hundred yards away.

There is a uh condominium or rental project, um, more like 250 yards away, and we feel like this is a appropriate facility and place.

I don't think there'll be more one more appropriate in the city.

Uh of course, anybody who lives in that area may have some concerns, and one of the things we'd like to do is respond to those concerns beginning today.

Uh my partner, Chief Satterwhite is here who will come up and sit with me and we'll talk about how do we allay those concerns.

Next slide.

Again, this is the elevation.

Next slide.

Again, more photos.

Uh next slide.

All right.

What I'd like to do now, and I Eli, if we can do it, can we go to my presentation that is 419 emancipation?

This presentation is an iterative process because every time I do it, it requires a little more understanding.

And again, once you we've been working on this for a long time, I think I get it, and then people ask me questions, so you'll see this continue.

Chief Satterwhite, you want to come sit with me as we go through this.

Melanie, thank you.

Let me interrupt for just a second.

First of all, we have Councilmember Tiffany Thomas, Direct Chair of our housing committee here present as well.

And let me ask you, Director, um, has this been shared with us previously or we've seen this today?

Um I apologize, we will do that this afternoon.

Um, I apologize.

You can start.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um, again, I'm thankful to have my partner, Chief Larry Sideway, who's really been a wonderful partner as we walk through these complicated issues.

And I think once you see this presentation, you'll understand how important his role is.

Um, with us today are a number of other people who, Mr.

Chairman, I hope you will recognize uh they have been part of this process too, and we'll continue to be it for it to be successful.

Uh, Kina Pace, who represents the Harris Centers here.

She and the CEO Wayne Young could not be more supportive and be a solution-oriented partners.

Um, you met health care from the homeless, they have been involved in this, seen this facility, giving us great feedback and uh help.

And I'll talk about other people as we go through this.

Next slide, please.

So I next slide, please.

Okay.

Uh the vision is that the city of Houston, in partnership with our homeless response system, and I will say aspirationally, Harris County seeks to establish the first front door under the N-Street Homelessness Action Plan, equipped with 150 to 225 beds for people experiencing homelessness who are now sleeping in public spaces.

Um I very much okay this morning I spent time with my counterpart at Harris County.

I believe long run they will be very interested in this facility, so this is aspirational.

Kelly Young, who is with the Coalition for the Homeless, and of course, is our partner in this, and we'll give more detail about the role that the coalition will play.

The purpose of the super hub will be where safety meets connection to lasting housing solutions.

That's a quick phrase to say it, but again, we really want folks who are sleeping on the street to be safe.

We want them connected, and we have to have them with a lasting housing solution, otherwise it's not successful.

Centrally located, functioning as a uh diversion alternative, um, a place of refuge with no other places for people with no other places to go.

We're offering critical services such as health care, psychiatric support, and substance use programs.

Next slide, please.

I think it's important to distinguish between this super hub and a shelter.

Uh last week or the week before, we had a spectacular meeting with the shelter providers in Houston, the major shelter providers, uh the CEO of Star of Hope, Salvation Army, uh, Open Door Mission, Houston Area Women's Center, uh, Harmony House, along with the CEO of the Beacon.

And we met with my team and Chief Satter White to talk about this, and again, this is why it's an iterative process because we learn so much every after we talk to the experts who have been in shelter.

So when we see a shelter, what we think of is primarily a place to sleep.

It has limited services beyond immediate shelter.

It often comes with program requirement requirements, which we support.

Um mission is committed to sobriety, so it has a program requirement.

We like that.

And it's not designed as a triage point for everybody on system entry.

Again, these are great programs, they're very important.

We have to have them in our system.

Um, we want them well funded by philanthropy and when we can by government.

The super hub is different.

It's more than a place of sleep, it operates as a triage point.

It tries to connect people to the right intervention.

It must have health care and psychiatric support.

And as I said, health care for the homeless, Harris Health, Hair Center, the sobering center, or have to be front and center at this facility.

Substance use programs are going to be very important to this, and we'll go through the reason why.

No program requirements except pets and partners.

And the reason this is so important, and we'll go through it is it's the only place that we in the city that will be like this.

Next slide is who the super hub would serve and how.

The inflow would be those who are newly homeless.

Those who are homeless with severe mental illness issues, indoor substance use issues.

People with complicating factors, disabilities, pets, partners, walk-ups.

Right now, you cannot walk up to any center in the city and walk in and say, I need a bed.

Outreach teams can drop these off, and law enforcement teams can use can use a facility for drop-off.

There will be services will be a triage for the most effective intervention.

And everybody is different.

Every person experiences homelessness is different.

And those of you who have family members who experience homelessness, you know this.

It is not a one-size fits all, and all the propaganda in the world can go through.

It is not a one-size-up fits all.

A front door, it is a front door to the homeless response system.

It serves basic needs, sleep, meals, safety, and that's going to be very important.

The quality of meals we serve there is going to be absolutely essential.

It's going to be tailored for the most acute needs, those people with the most difficult needs.

When we met with the folks who do great shelter work here, they're just a lot of people they can't help.

And they can't even bring to them.

And it's and it's difficult.

And again, we'll have multiple service providers there on site who can help these individuals get to the right person.

The outflow, rapid resolution diversion, but the coalition for the homeless.

We have funds in the homeless response system and housing for diversion.

And let me clarify when I call diversion is those quick things that can help somebody get to their hometown, can get a pair of boots for work, can get a motel, can get a place to stay short term, can get to a job, can get provided a way to get to a to their family.

That's what I call diversion.

We have a lot of folks who are experiencing homelessness for the first time who can use this diversion and stay out of the long-term system.

We have to have that connected to permanent housing.

Everybody we see, we want to see what their outgo is.

If they don't have diversion, if they don't, once they go into psychiatric substance issues, we want them to be connected to permanent housing.

We need to have this connection to Harris Center facilities for those people who have severe psychiatric issues who need emergency care to go to the Dunn Center to go to Harris County Psychiatric Center.

We need that.

For those people who can go to Harris Center 6160 South Loop facility who need 30, 60, 90 days, we want that.

They'll be looking at these folks, trying to get them to the right places.

And doing it in a way where you're not picking up a phone and saying, Do you have room?

Their people would be connected to their locations.

And then transition to other shelters once stabilized.

Again, we have terrific shelters here.

We have a terrific women's shelters at Hawke and at Salvation Army with great program.

We have great program at Open Door Mission and at Salvation Army.

Once these people get stabilized, they're going to be a better fit for these other centers.

So they're not coming into a bed, out of a bed, into a bed, out of a bed, and then have nowhere to go.

Again, the super hubs connect people from street to safety and services and ultimately the housing.

Let's take a little deeper dive.

And this was very this page is new and it's very important to me.

This summer, the Coalition for the Homeless and our and its partners conducted a housing surge downtown in Midtown, engaging 305 people experiencing homelessness.

Over 200, that's a new one.

It says 163, but today we got 203, thank you.

203 accepted help connected to a housing solution or a pathway off the streets.

Yet 40% left the area or refuse services.

That's an aha moment for me.

I'm a believing, I'm a believer that housing works.

I really do.

I think it's the answer, it's the least expensive answer.

But for a lot of people, a significant number of people, they need some other intervention before housing, and that's what this is to do.

How do we get those folks that other intervention?

So, what do we know about the people who accepted services?

Many were newly homeless with an obvious pathway back to housing, and that's Chief Sadder White and I saw that during the freezes where we saw a lot of people who were there just for five or six days between jobs, between experiences, they were going to be okay.

And then we saw a lot of people who just weren't going to be okay.

What do we know about the people who refuse services?

Many require a higher level of care than the homeless response system alone can provide.

They have to have more care than just very importantly, housing and wraparound services.

They need something more.

Is a two-year program.

I mean, these are long-term programs.

So we're trying to find out what is that high higher level of care and how do we get them there?

And these are often individuals with severe mental health and or substance use disorder.

They are our hardest to serve.

So as you get questions from your constituents, which you will, they can't have it both ways.

They can't have the hardest to serve, not living on the street, and us not have a facility like this.

Why can't they go to existing shelters?

Um, first is an insufficient capacity for walkups.

Many require referrals, law enforcement outreach drop-offs.

Our navigation center requires a referral and only more recently has moved to law enforcement drip-offs.

That neighborhood with a child care center next door cannot have walk-ups.

Limited bed for single adult males.

Again, many of our facilities rightfully so prior to families or survivors of domestic abuse.

I have so many conversations with people and say, why didn't the city do more for uh women with children?

We've done a huge amount.

16 million went to Houstonary Women's Center.

Again, our philanthropic organizations really focus on that.

So rightly so, where we're left with is this people who have severe problems, many of them uh adult males.

We have few low barrier beds.

Many require program enrollment to access.

We have restricted intake hours.

When you look at the cost of running this facility, you may go, oh my gosh, that's a lot.

But if we want a 24-hour facility where people can come in 24 hours a day, it's going to have that cost.

We need those professionals there 24 hours a day.

We spent a lot of time in that meeting with our shelter providers think talking about how do you encourage professionals to work that night shift.

And we will spend a lot of time talking about that, but I know one of the things is dollars.

The existing shelters are not designed for people who have severe mental health issues or severe substance issues.

Most shelters just lack the resources for severe mental health and substance.

Again, this facility with the help of the Harris Center, Harris Health, Healthcare for the Homeless, Harris Health Psychiatric will have that area.

I know this is also concerned about well, this is just one hub.

What about the rest of the city?

And as we get the counties buy in, what about the rest of the county?

And our idea has always been from the very beginning to have four additional hubs, but they won't be super hubs.

And the big distinction will be they'll have some services, they'll have a lot of connections, but they will not have beds.

And because that when you see this, this is a high cost area.

Again, what makes this hub super is the ability to provide overnight emergency beds, a critical gap in our system.

Next slide.

Let's talk about the ecosystem.

And again, we're trying to design a system that meets so many different human needs.

The Navigation Center, which you funded over the last couple of years, terrific facility, 80 to 100 beds, provides short-term stabilization, rapid housing connection.

This do not is not designed as a 24-hour shelter.

It has limited capacity for complex behavioral health and medical needs, and it does not allow walk-ins in only a few law enforcement drop offs.

Again, it's across it's in the middle of the neighborhood across the street from a child care center.

Very different.

I do want to stop here and say we need to continue to fund this facility.

Last year you funded it through general funds.

We need to fight for making sure we get those funds.

This is an important facility.

Without a big cost, um the cost for this facility is about $35,000 per person per year.

Again, when you look at the super hub, it's moving up to $50,000 per person per year.

This is a this is a lower cost.

Not as good as it giving people housing, which we had during COVID.

We could put people in housing with rapid service wraparound services at $25,000 a year, but we still have to have this because we don't aren't housing ready across our system.

The Houston Recovery Center, which is also funded through general funds, provides short-term overnight shelters.

Um if you haven't been there, it is essentially two big rooms, one for men, one for women, with uh areas on the floor for beds and like mattress mattresses of some sort.

It is really for short term.

Nobody's gonna stay there very long.

Um the food is essentially um vending machine food, it's just it's just it's not to keep people there long term.

It is to provide immediate tree services, especially for people who are inebriated.

And this it's important in our city to continue to fund when people are inebriated, they don't need to go down to jail to be booked.

They can have a place like this.

Or if they're sleeping on the street downtown and don't want to go very far and don't want to make a permanent change, this is a place for them.

6160 South Loop, owned by the Harris Center.

Um, it functions as a facility for individuals who need mental health services.

It welcomes law enforcement drop-offs and it may plays a major role at re-entry into individuals.

People leaving both Harris County jail and the TDCJ who need mental health care can be can be brought there.

They can get the services they need.

It is not a jail, they can leave too, but generally they have a terrific programming, and people who have this mental health issues can move forward.

Um, over the next month, you will be invited to a grand opening of 28 apartments that was funded partially by the city, the county, and the state for people who are leaving uh 6160 and haven't wanna move to that next step of supportive living.

Um we're very excited about that, and hopefully you'll come to that grand opening.

Um, the super hub uh again functions at the triage point for the hardest to serve, provides 24 hour sheltering, seven days a week.

It's a center for walk-ins and law enforcement drop-offs and outreach, and it's a centralized pathway to others who have shelter.

I'd like to take just a minute before we tie it to the ramp up plan.

Chief, you've had many conversations about this issue about walk-ins.

Right.

I know these council people are going to have that same kind of conversation with their constituents.

All right, yeah, thank you, Director.

And so a lot of the um the business owners already we've had conversations with, and this was one of the questions that they ask.

Um and it and we'll accept walk-ins.

Um by design, it's taking you know a lot of drop-offs.

We nonprofits, not just law enforcement or other first responders, but other nonprofits.

There's a lot of different groups that are working in this space and engaging with members of the public on the streets and trying to work with them and offer them a better place.

And so ideally it's designed for that, but we do know that there will be walk-ins too.

Uh and there is concern about you know the area as as is reasonable for everybody, every group that or every place this might occur, which my our assurances is there will be significant security, law enforcement, everything else.

The idea is not to be just in the area, but when you're on site, you're on site.

And when you're not on site, you're you're probably in route to medical services or something of that nature as you're as you're on your path towards getting off the streets permanently and pursuing a better life.

So I I think that's that is our as our assurance to the general public that uh this is uh this is a facility that's that's helping people and and not bringing the area down.

We've done a lot of work in that area already, as some of you have already witnessed, and really reduced a lot of the the uh the uh presence of of people street and suffering from street homelessness right now, and uh the uh obviously the goal is to maintain that success and increase upon it.

Most importantly, to get all of these people who are living on the streets off to a better life where we can improve theirs, they can pursue a better life, and everybody else is less impacted.

So it is a win-win for everybody.

So, yes.

That is the operational design and plan.

Thank you, Chief.

Um next slide is uh we're gonna begin talking about money.

My favorite subject, as y'all know, is talking about how do you fund things.

First of all, I want a clarification.

This hub is aligned with the homeless ramp up plan that we announced last year.

Um the hubs have always been a part of the ramp up plan.

This super hub was an opportunity when we saw uh this many beds ready to go.

That was a great opportunity, and we jumped on it.

And the more I've looked at it, the more important it is to our entire system.

Um, but I just want to keep saying the super hub success is tied to a well-funded homeless response system with clear housing strategies.

So, as you remember that system, we talked about a 70 million dollar a year plan.

That was really the housing plan.

Um, it's an aspirational plan.

It came from a six significant amount of city money, hopefully, and I still have aspirations for county money, and I have aspirations for um philanthropic money from four major corporations, four major philanthropy foundations that have already given six million dollars to the coalition for the homeless.

And my understanding is we are still looking at that total of sixty million dollars over three years from them.

Um that plan is underway, we're using it right now.

Um currently the city is already committed.

This is 33 million, Melody.

Is that the right number for now?

$33 million to that housing plan, which means it's been given to rapid rehousing, it's been given to people who do outreach, it's for wraparound services and other items.

This is significant amount of city money.

Recently, the county committed eight million dollars to that plan, um, and we hope it will be much more.

Um this will take this will take courage from all of you from the administrations and both the city and the county to move this forward because if we open this facility and don't have a great housing plan attached to it, it is problematic.

We're optimistic with the federal government that we will continue to get our approximately 70 million dollars a year we get for the plan, and we will continue to fight for that and are optimistic about that, and we'll just have to see where that goes.

I can't speak to the federal government.

Um I'm a believer that somehow we should make this a local program where we are responsible on the local level for homelessness, and we solve it on a local level funding.

Again, the rapid re uh rapid ramp up funding expands rapid rehousing capacity and moves individuals out of shelter into permanent housing.

So that's a little different than this program.

The next time you see this, you'll see another program, which is essentially the addition of the 419 hub and the housing program.

Let's talk about operations.

Um the city is not going to operate this facility.

And uh, if our lawyers were here, they'd tell you why.

Um, we're gonna have a nonprofit service provider or providers plural under a lease or operating agreements from the city who will be the operator.

Uh desired expertise is proven success in case management and housing individuals, especially individuals with severe mental health, mental and physical health needs and substance use disorders who are experiencing homelessness.

We have a number of entities in Houston that have this expertise.

And if it makes you feel comfortable, if I don't want to be held the missing one, uh like the Hair Center who's represented here, like the Beacon, like Salvation Army, Starve Hope, um Open Door Mission, a number of great entities who can do this job, or a group of them, and that's what will be interesting to put together.

Let's talk about cost.

Always makes me nervous to talk about costs.

The budgets we've seen are between 10 and 14 million dollars a year.

Um I'm saying it is probably at a million dollars a month, which is probably right.

Um what is that?

Why is that high?

24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Significant psychiatric uh um uh support, not we're talking about professionals, significant physical health support.

Um so the we we these are the folks who need the most.

I think that's the right number as the months go on.

We'll get a better number as we begin focusing on who that operator is and what kind of needs they need.

Do not as I said, do not forget there's still a three and a half million dollar annual contribution we need to make to keep the navigation center open.

And we need to do all this without hurting the fundraisers for our traditional shelters.

So it's a it's a big ask all the way through.

Again, the 14 million does not include permanent housing cost.

That's rental subsidies, wraparound services, long-term health care support.

That's outside.

Next page I think you've seen is just the building specifications.

I welcome the uh folks in this room to come by.

Uh Chief Sadderwhite and I can arrange it with the owners.

I think you'll be very impressed with the readiness of this facility.

This is a very important point on the next slide, the background of the site, because you're going to get questions about this from your constituents.

The property historically was used as an industrial and warehouse space since the 1890s.

In 1977, it was purchased by Star of Hope and operated as a as a men's shelter at that time.

The Star of Hope operated a shelter and facility to serve homeless women and children there from 2004 to 2017 until they built their beautiful facility out on Reed Road.

At that time, it was purchased by the current owners.

They then leased it to a nonprofit, excuse me, between this time, this didn't get in here.

Between that time, it was leased, I think to the city of Houston or to FEMA following Harvey, and many of you may have worked there dealing with people who were unhoused during Harvey.

And after that, a nonprofit funded by the federal government leased this property and operated shelter for migrant children from 2018 until August of 2025.

There are very minimal interior renovations needed, very few, almost no external renovations required for the super hub.

Purchase prices I said $16,000 and $25,000 to $50,000 in closing costs.

Give me uh negative on the first appraisal.

I told the um uh uh the folks who were doing the appraiser there was nobody interested except the city of Houston.

Then obviously we got a low appraisal, and then in the middle of these negotiations, I found that the Department of Homeland Security was interested in this facility again to buy, and so we did have a second bidder that changes those appraisals.

Um the due diligence feasibility is 120 days, so it's sometime before New Year's.

The phase one environmental is completed, and the phase two is underway.

Uh the seller would like to close the sale by the end of December for their taxes purposes.

We'll be going to city council right now.

We're scheduled for October 15th.

Obviously, uh the role you play in the mayor plays will determine that date, but that seems like a good day.

Next slide is on financing.

One more slide.

Uh again, fund 1850 will be used for buying this facility.

It's a temporary loan of 16 million.

Um the appraisal and environmental cost and the down payment will be funded through the city of Houston's HCD.

Um, and then the City of Houston Housing Department will repay fund 1850 using tours increment funding or other local funding sources as they become available.

Uh, we are hoping that we there will be other funding sources available because we don't want to use um tours money to repay that.

We just need it done now is the issue.

Next slide.

Operations funding, again, total between 10 and 14 million.

Year one and two will be disaster 24, as you remember, you approved funding under disaster 24 for uh total of 31 million, 40, excuse me, 41 million dollars, of which 37 million can be used for operations like this.

Um we cannot use any federal money for food, clothing, special needs, um, pet needs, medical or mental health support.

So we will be looking for additional funding through to make up for that.

Again, could it could be corporate funding, could be additional city funding.

We'll be working uh for it for that.

So after year one and two, what is the potential funding come from?

Again, tours and management districts.

Um I will keep saying homelessness is a major issue if you want positive economic development.

So I will keep arguing that, and I think it'll we're allowed, should be allowed to use those funds.

Future CDBG funding.

I want to work closely with Harris County, they should be interested in this.

And again, those of you who have overlapping constituents with the with the commissioners need to be talking about, they should be engaged in this.

Chief and I will be out talking to philanthropic and corporate donors.

They're interested in this, they're very interested in this.

Um haven't seen the dollars come in because at this point without a place to put those dollars, um, and that would be the operator would get the operations dollars.

It's really can't get to the bottom line of can you fund these projects.

And then we are very interested in new state funding.

Uh Josh Sanders and I uh will continue to fight for this.

There was a huge appetite in the last session for funding facilities just like this.

Um I think pressure you need on your legislators are the same, which is if people don't want to move forward with the homelessness problem.

If they want to move forward, people living on the street and feel badly about that.

If they want to move forward with reducing health care cost, then fund this facility and fund the housing that comes afterwards.

Um the next page is uh private and corporate donors.

This is just our argument for why they should be doing this.

Um I think it's a great program for private and corporate donors.

And the last page is a timeline.

Uh this did keep changing.

Uh again, we're here at the Quality of Life and Housing Committee presentation.

October 15th, we hope to go to City Council for a vote.

Um this is the wrong document.

We'll be looking for funding for the Navigation Center before December 31st.

Oh, you have the right document.

That's great.

Before December 31st, um uh we hope to select an operator by the end of November with success there.

Um the City Council will vote to provide funds for the selected operator, hopefully through December 24th, so we can begin the excuse me, before December in December for DR 24, so we can begin to discuss how to when do we open the facility?

And our hope I hope is the first quarter of 2026.

That will depend on how fast we get approval from HUD on DR 24 and a number of other items to make sure we're ready to go.

Again, the decision on October 15th is does the city, does the City Council give um HD HCD and the city permission to buy this facility?

Uh assuming that we don't have any environmental issues or any other issues that come up between now and the end of our 120-day period.

Thank you for the time.

I'm ready to answer questions or get some of our partners too, since you have heard me enough with my scratchy voice.

Thank you, Director.

Appreciate that.

So let me ask you about um ramp-up costs, looking at slide number nine and the first bullet point you describe it as three years, 168 million dollars.

Um months ago, we had talked about the overall cost of the planned uh estimated to be 70 million a year.

Are we talking about the same thing here or it's exactly the same?

Um, it's two years ago.

Okay.

So 268 is the first year was a slower ramp up, which we're in today for that.

But again, I would guess this will change.

This will change as we know when the philanthropic funds will be eligible.

Okay.

Let me let me ask you about uh the purchase price, 16 million is it anticipated?

Because you said four more super hubs are envisioned throughout the city.

Is it is it anticipated that each one will cost about sixteen million?

Not at all.

My my vision of a super hub, and we can ask again Kelly what her vision is.

Mine is more of a storefront where people can be brought and then triage there and then placed in a number of other facilities, whether it's the other shelters, whether it's a Houston Recovery Center or any of these other facilities.

It's more of a storefront.

This is this is unique because you now call it a super hub.

If you can think of a better name, Mr.

Chairman, I'd love that.

Um because it has beds in it, and that's the reason the cost is so high.

Uh the other ones will be much more uh uh a place for people to come in.

I don't think there'll be 24 hours a day, um, but we have not designed those other hubs.

All right.

Excuse me, Chief.

You may have thought more about distinguishing between the the other hub models will will be resource centers for people to go and and determine where they might go from there to get help regardless of what depending on what their needs are.

This specific super hub, like Director Nichols was stating, and is going to be probably a central place where a lot of uh coordination activity occurs.

The for those of you who have already toured it, and for those of you who haven't that wish to do so, uh we have a large area up front that is administrative, and we envision an emergency call center in that area, meaning that we could have representatives and plan to have representatives of our nonprofits of other resources so that have visibility across the city, across the county on all of our nonprofits, any of our facilities, residential, even some in medical institutions and uh so that we have that real-time information on available bets.

Not everybody that walks through the door at 419 emancipation would stay there.

Some of them are already ready for elevation to one of the current programs that are being run by our nonprofits because they can already meet that threshold in terms of their rules and and where they need to be and to uh to be a candidate for their program.

Some will need to go to the hospital, some will need that transport to back home to wherever that may be, because that's what they're looking at in terms of diversion.

So this one location will coordinate resources across the city, across the county, maybe even across the state, and we'll have people up there to do that.

There's a lot, there's several models that have just emerged.

Los Angeles just opened up a large one of similar design.

So think of this one location as answering lots of needs.

All of you, when you have problems within your districts or individuals that need help, you can call the center and and we can start the process of getting those individuals to kind of help from that location.

So that's the value of this that we don't have right now is a place where you can call, because often many of you call, hey, who do we go to?

Well, now you're gonna have a place to call, resources and everything at your fingertips uh to resolve a lot of the problems that we are seeing in the city and truly help people.

Thank you for that.

So I'm glad you got it on this screen here, because I've got a question about bullet point five.

Phase one ESA was completed.

And it recommended phase two ESA, which is currently underway.

Do you know why phase two was recommended?

Um like much of that area was used for commercial and industrial, and there's some uh cleaning fluids that were found, very common in that area.

Um I think in general it's been taken care of.

Uh this this area is very um uh is covered with cement, and there are very few areas that aren't.

Um so we're very positive about the environmentalists, don't see any future problems.

All right.

And you mentioned two appraisals.

Are you able to share with us what those those appraisals were, those two?

Um sure I don't just don't know.

You think yes?

Okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Well, can you can you just uh tell us what they were?

Oh, one was 10 million, one was 20 million.

1020, okay.

But again, I I will both say that you can you could look at the 10 million and say, Mike, that's your problem, because I told them I wanted I wanted you to say this, there's only one buyer that was an error.

All right.

We have some council members in the queue.

We'll go to council member Alcorn.

Thank you, Chair.

And I was gonna ask about the appraisals too.

Uh don't we usually get three when we buy?

I mean, isn't that our policy?

I don't know.

Okay.

So I'm looking at at um we ask this.

Ryan, do you know?

54,276 square feet total if you do both buildings.

So that's I'm not in the real estate business, but that's by my math, 294 dollars a square foot.

So is that I mean, what uh i is that in the ball?

I mean, what are the ranges of downtown kind of I mean it it's a it's a unique facility.

I have toured this facility in the past.

Councilwoman, this is in the as uh and as y'all know that real estate has been a sideline, not my main area.

Um I think if you had to buy that piece of property raw, that land raw, you'd probably spend about 10 million dollars.

Because that's what the appraisal showed.

It showed basically the the building being worthless.

Um then you take that again and say for six million dollars, this is a pretty good buy for that location.

It's not it it uh I I'm not it's not a steal.

Right.

When I began beating up the owners saying, you know, um I think you will lower the price, they talked about their shell holders and then said, oh, but we'll make a major donation, and we'll be looking for that major donation.

Great.

And on the on the operating funds.

So the first couple of years you are using the barrel and and Derecho funds.

But are do we have those?

I mean, will we have those by 26?

Is it a reimbursement thing?

I mean, are we gonna have money at that time from the Feds to use from on day one?

It it is reimbursement, like all the funding.

It's a reimbursement.

But once we have it and they have approved it, we can begin using it, and we're pretty good about getting those dollars back to the money.

And we use what we use what money and get reimbursed.

As we as we do it.

Like general fund money or HUD money or I mean.

And we can get uh the um we can get Melissa Dubrowski to come answer this.

My understanding is that once you have the commitment for the HUD money, then you can use the our borrowed funds because that's just like having the money.

Okay.

So we would borrow, we would borrow those funds.

And and same on the acquis uh equipment acquisition funds.

Those are usually used to buy capital assets.

Um those are in the CIP.

That's true.

Um is this $16 million that we'll be initially using, and that's usually backed with commercial paper.

Is that was that dedicated to something else?

Is there leeway in the CIP?

My understanding is there is leeway in this fund because it is not dedicated to anything else.

Okay.

And so thus we can use it for this purpose, even though it is not part of the CIP, and it's not because this particular fund is not dedicated.

It is for purposes of when you have an opportunistic buy.

And the TURS funding that is going to reimburse it from the affordable housing portion from the petition TERS.

Is that is that the fund?

That is the plan that we have.

There's still discussion on that, but that is the plan that we have.

And you have that that those funds would be over time.

So about $2 million a year, that's for 10 years is about what it costs with.

Two million a year from the TURS is over 10 years.

You have to pay back the 1850 with interest.

And and well, the housing chair will be no more about the total funds and the in those TURS TURS accounts.

But yeah, my question is really I it I mean, this sounds, you know, very necessary.

Um it's a there's a lot, and I'm glad to hear there's a lot of interest from the philanthropic and foundation.

Uh it's just it's hard when there's a lot of I mean, we have to do something, but there's a lot of we hope we get this, we hope we get that, you know, we hope the Federal funding is here.

I mean, it's a big money commitment for years and years to come.

Yeah.

So um I appreciate your presentation.

Um let me make one note here.

Um, unlike the um navigation center that was built with and bought with C C D B G funds, it requires a five-year term of activity.

Because this was not, this does not require that term.

Were were any other locations uh explored?

Uh yes.

Uh a few other locations were explored.

Um time and time again, this one came in with the least amount of community problems uh with the fastest use, that it is ready to be used today, that it doesn't, we don't have to build any.

Right.

And on that point, is this is the $16 million include any I know I know you said it's gonna need very minimal modifications.

Chief, you talked about a call center and things.

I mean, there are going to be some modifications that are gonna have to be made.

I mean, is the $16 million does it encompass what whatever modifications will be needed?

No, that's only the that's what it is.

That's just to buy it.

Now we think we think there is a full security system in there.

Um there is everything ready for a telephone system.

Um there's a brand new HVAC.

We think we are in pretty good shape for that.

Now, yes, you'll have to have a telephone system for that, but we feel confident that either we'll have to raise some money or we'll have that will be part of the that will be part of the operating expenses.

Okay.

Okay, thank you.

I'll have more questions, but I really appreciate that.

And again, I appreciate your questions as chair of the budget committee.

This is a big item, and we have to look at it in terms of the whole city.

You can't just look at it.

But so the extent we can get state, philanthropic, other grant funds, but I mean, if to rely on the general fund for any of this, I mean you know what we're up against in the general fund.

And it's it's it's it just gives me pause to think that that that's uh that that we would rely on that because it's just not there.

Thank you, Councilmember Alcorn.

We'll go to Councilmember Thomas.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman, for getting this on the agenda.

I have one question and then one statement.

Um for the 2409.

Do we do environmental auto 2409?

Are we and if or are we going to reimburse the 500,000 out of that?

Is that reimbursable?

Yeah, yes, it's reimbursed.

We will we will reimburse it out of the 1850.

Ah, okay.

Yes, so clear.

Okay, so just one statement.

I can you go back to slide eight.

I just want to highlight the importance of talking about the whole ecosystem.

And this initiative, because I I believe a lot of the work sometimes gets lost.

You know, we're adding another component to the continuum.

And so uh my only request, Mr.

Chairman, um, is that this initiative won the Department and Chief Satter White, y'all have expressed how this is anchored in compassion, and I just want to keep that centered to this work because we're talking about a particular population, but we have to anchor it and like in real consistent communications, because we're adding a new component, and for me, my I would love for any uh uh news outlet to stop or everyday Houstonian and ask them what the City of Houston is doing around this, and for them to be able to articulate that.

Because oftentimes it is a huge gap around what we are actually doing and then how it's communicated.

And because this is a very targeted group, um, just to make sure that council can work in partnership with the department to communicate these efforts out, resources being available.

I mean, you name it, so we can champion what is happening, not separate of that.

I do want to, you know, reiterate the directors uh perspective around permanent support of housing, that's where we cut our teeth.

That's what keeps us not just on the the national stage, but it works.

Housing first model works.

So while we address, because we know that the poor will always be amongst us, while we address this group, um, we also have to continue to move forward that we move them through all of these, this entire continuum to get them one day ideally, right?

Um permanently stabilized.

And so if uh Mr.

Chairman, if you have another presentation prior to the 15th or after the 15th agenda, but just to keep the the ecosystem before us, um, so we can articulate the distinction between the super hub, the navigation center, because they are different.

Um and I think we'll get more public support around that work if we keep that in front of them.

But thank you for the presentation.

Very helpful.

And Chair Thomas, I just want to say to you, thank you for your continued pressure on me in many ways, all good.

Um, to say to make sure that we do have the correct narrative and story on this.

This is complex.

And you're gonna each of you are gonna have count uh constituents who are gonna want to talk about this, because uh uh uh other than education and safety, you have this this gets right up there with your constituents.

So I would like to make sure we have that.

If it requires another meeting, we'll have another meeting.

Again, this is an iterative process as we continue to describe how this fits into the whole system.

I do think we need a page, and we're working on that right now with the coalition about how do you show this continuum financially together, the housing plus this, and what is the real cost.

Thank you, Councilmember Thomas.

We'll go to Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Chair.

And uh both my colleagues have spoken to two things that I definitely wanted to speak to you.

And I think um if I can just kind of pick it back a bit off of uh Councilmember Thomas.

Um we understand that there is different programs that are that we're uh working through.

One of them, the 6160, that's in District I, it's off of 610 and long.

Um, and the additional beds, it's important to make sure that there is a bridge going into ultimately uh permanent housing.

Um so that conversation we definitely need to have more and more.

Um I I think of uh this super hub as a location where, as I've done uh point in time count to uh in the past, there's a couple, um, but there is not a place for a couple to go to and a couple with the dog possibly or an animal um and uh or a pet.

And so um what this super hub um can be as far as a bridge to possibly you know the navigation center or a bridge to 6160, you know, one of the one of the beds that they have at the apartments.

Um that that full conversation needs to be had.

point in time counts uh in the past there's a couple um but there's not a place for a couple to go to and a couple with a dog possibly or an animal um and uh or a pet and so um what this super hub um can be as far as a bridge to possibly you know the navigation center or a bridge to 6160 you know one of the one of the beds that they have at the apartments um that that full conversation needs to be had um so this location is is in district I but I I'm sensitive to the point that it's also uh neighboring not just east downtown residents but also second ward and so the the conversations of walk in walk out public safety um making sure that that you know we are being cognizant of the residential although I think the closest residential would be a couple hundred feet and it's uh loft um more so residential would be city gas or an east downtown where we have more um condos maybe about half a mile or a little bit more um I think um my question is uh when we start looking at the point in time count for that immediate area uh knowing that there's already individuals that are unhoused in that immediate area do you have a certain number of of of what that might be right now right now right around the dynamo state I I don't have the number it's dramatically reduced since we started our initiative in that area in May end of May when we started uh we reduced it probably about 70 percent 80 percent and um but we still have you know um a lot of presence of street homelessness out there um it's exacerbated on weekends because we have a lot of uh different groups some faith some other that come in and do a lot of charitable feeding and it really does draw the crowd back in every time along and you see the you know the result of that is is a lot of times a lot of debris and you know that that occurs behind and around that we're working through that issue too because we need collaboration that this does not work without collaboration from everybody uh to to truly find success and the best way to take care of our most vulnerable on the streets.

I don't have that number I could probably get that Kelly may have that Kelly Young may be in the room and have that.

It does have the exact number so but we'll we'll work on getting that for you sir.

Yeah the intent is to make sure that that number goes down as they are brought in uh to a place and wrapped around with services and care so they actually to reduce that number not to see it increase.

So historically we've always been used to downtown east downtown midtown and then some parts of near north side that has uh the majority of unhoused folks I think my colleagues are on this horseshoe um have have shared and expressed that it's actually have gone past 610 I have neighborhoods in the hobby area where we've started seeing more along the bayou um of course the the green line into Magnolia Park and we we've had conversations about what's happening there.

As as you're working to to bring in folks into this super hub um how are you gonna phase phase in this support is it going to be first come first serve uh because we do have challenges just in that immediate east end second ward east wood and to Magnolia Park.

Yes sir I think I think it's gonna be all of the above uh there will be some that will seek it pretty quickly there will be nonprofits that are out there working in this space uh that are engaging and they'll be referring people there.

There'll be law enforcement that will be engaging whether it's uh an encampment that they're decommissioning or something of that nature um what whatever that may be I I think there will be people that come from the immediate area and some from a further out and and in terms of of a flow and displacement and all those things we're doing everything we can when we go to work an area um we we we want to have the beds to offer this will give us more beds to offer and uh to ensure that we're you know doing everything we can to not move them but to lift them off the streets and into the right kinds of care.

Yeah and I want to say thank you to the director I was out there today I did a site visit um saw the space um it looks like it's something that can work um but I still have you know questions and concerns um I think on the financial side I appreciate uh my colleague Councilman Alcorn raising those those kind of red flags especially if it's coming from the general fund and one thing that um as a staffer and then as a council member recognizing that um unhoused programming is not something that normally comes from our property tax or sales tax that usually is in the general fund.

And I know you've shared a couple of different ways um I've shared this with a few folks and I think it's important that we start having these conversations if there's a local entity that should be helping do the heavy lifting is the Harris County Hospital District.

And to continue to dig into the tourist dollars is not is not really the route to go and only because we know that we had deferred maintenance for decades historically, whether it's with infrastructure underneath the ground, sidewalks, um if it's some of these uh public public uh facilities like fire stations, uh police stations, uh ultimately a TERF should be utilized to address those types of CIP projects.

Um because we the TERS can't do it all either.

Our general fund can't do it all, the tourists can't do it all.

And so, you know, when you when you speak to reaching out to our our colleagues at the county, I think it's important to look at something that's sustainable, more long term.

And if it is the Harris County Hospital District taking the lead and then working with the hospitals as well, what does it look like to have a respite program leaving the hospitals uh shared with you earlier?

My wife's a social worker.

And the turnover to make sure folks are in and out out of beds, it's it's something that these hospitals are are pushing towards, but the care it doesn't stop once they're out of the hospital.

They ultimately come back into um uh HPD coming out, HFD coming out, and then the cycle continues.

And so if we're really looking at uh a a better solution, then we really need to make sure that um Harris County is at the table.

Yes.

I would like to respond to both things you said.

Let me go back to the first piece.

225 beds, 240 beds will not solve the problem unless there's exits.

And we talked about exits to housing, but also exit to our partners who are looking for the best candidates for their program.

And that's one of the things they'll be able to see in one place.

Who's the best candidate for open door mission?

Who's the best candidate for Houston Area Women's Center?

Um, who's the best candidate for Starf Hope's women's shelter?

I mean, those are things that will will work.

But it will take a lot of those, because this is just uh this is a small piece of the total.

But if it works, there'll be lots of movement there.

Uh the second thing is about funding.

I hear what you're saying about tourist funding, I hear what you're saying about general funding.

Um I am I think this is still the right thing to do because it puts us in a position to get state funding where it should be.

It puts us in a position to get more health care funding where it should be, and that's why I'm so grateful to our partners at Harris Center, because they are experts in that.

Um but along the way, we having this facility should be make it easier and better to get this other funding.

But I hear you loud and clear.

I do think it's also important that and uh I forget the study, Mike, maybe you can correct me, but the last study conducted, the average cost of a person, this goes to what you're speaking for living on our streets, is about a hundred thousand dollars a year to the taxpayer right here.

So, and what that means is that that that continual cycle that you described uh with so many people on our streets right now that have been in and out of our emergency rooms, in and out of the jails, in and out of of other facilities so much and require so much.

There's a huge cost to that.

And this is about humans, and we're trying to save humans.

But I understand we have to be cognizant of the cost.

Getting them off the streets and getting them on to a better life, uh, first of all, saves everybody, but also saves tax money.

So it's a better long-term solution than just leaving them on the streets.

Yeah.

Thank you, Councilmember Martinez.

We'll go to Councilmember Davis.

Thank you, uh, Brother Chair.

Thank you, gentlemen, for the presentation.

Um just had a couple of uh, I guess more statements than questions, but this subject matter we all know is a heavy lift for the city.

We all know that it was going to take dollars, a lot of them.

And the sort and of course the buy-in from other entities.

So the sixteen million um cost for the facility, but chair, was that decision made kind of based upon the ability that this facility had previously for it its ability to house 225 to 40, because you did speak of other entities that were in there prior to, correct?

Correct.

Right.

So did you take that?

I'm assuming, I don't want to just make it all assumption, but to make the decision to bring that to council, was that one of your major very much so that too and two parts of that.

One is that one time they had over 240 people there, and let me just end, was not a problem to the neighborhood.

So you didn't hear a word about that being a problem to the neighborhood.

So this is a different facility, but I would say yes, we looked at that and we said if you're going to choose a facility, this is the again quickest to get into lease cost that we think we can do it.

The other costs were very high.

Remember y'all have heard me talk about Haven for Hope, that was a hundred million dollars.

That's a bigger facility, but it was a hundred million dollars.

Um so we felt like this was the best alternative for us to begin solving this problem.

Right.

Well, to do to do something rather than doing nothing is always a big challenge.

I mean, you know, let's face it, we have a problem in the city as most cities do, but we can be comfortable and proud of the fact that we've been the city that has done better than other cities nationally, and that's something that Houstonians and the other colleagues, everybody uh ought to be proud of.

But we know it is going to be an ask uh when it comes to dollars.

Now, the other thing I wanted to bring up, you mentioned that it's 28 uh was it uh the apartments, uh 28 apartments as part of the ecosystem process.

Uh can I ask about that?

Come up, please, Kenny.

Okay.

Um Keenapace of the Harris Center is one of our I can't tell you how much we uh y'all heard me talk about Wayne Young, who for whom she works is a uh should be a hero.

We have to give us city, we give out city awards, he and Keena should get that.

So uh Keno, if you'll speak about 20 and hopefully you'll invite everybody to the grand opening.

Absolutely.

We would love for you all to attend.

It's next Monday.

Um and the city and um was a huge, huge sponsor.

But I think the apartments that you're mentioning will be the ribbon cutting next Monday that will house 26 individuals, um independent units, they're beautiful.

Um, and it's really part of the 6160 campus.

Um individuals that have proven and they've gone through treatment and recovery and success, and it's their natural next step.

Lots of um program participants, and we haven't housed our first person yet, but we have many people that we think would be very successful for this program.

There's a very heavy employment component, which is hugely successful in our independent living program.

Over 50 percent have gotten um part-time or employment that sets people up for success.

So we think it's a great for this um conversation, it was probably more of a hey, please come see us, come see the apartments um Monday would be a great model to replicate and then to have all of those rich supports and services on site and campus from an integrated care standpoint.

Um there's people that need a light touch and minimal services, and then we have people that will need full wrap around supports, primary care, um, higher levels of care, which I think that the larger facility would be able to provide that.

This is the apartments.

Well, thank you so much, Brother Chair.

I want to pass it back.

But I let me just add Harris Short to remember we talked about this, Harris Center steps forward on homelessness, but they serve 90,000 people a year.

90,000 people a year.

I mean, this is a this this is the best cigarette we ever had in Houston.

Right, right.

With that, that that thank you so much for that.

Thank you.

Thank you guys for the comments, too.

And uh may I add, as I said to this process, and the one other thing that I do want to uh indicate is that I've always advocated that more people giving, because this type of problem that we have with homeless is a is a a citywide, uh whether you are um non-for-profits, businesses and all, and the more we can get more people to participate, philanthropists who can give their dollars to it.

Uh I've already been contacted by one, uh and I've mentioned part of it to Brother Saddle White of an individual who wanted to host a large event to give to this process, and I think more of us around the horseshoe uh as colleagues who have great relationship and connect with people could help to get more people to give to that.

I think that's a part that we could do uh more than anything, because it's this is a big ask, no doubt about it, but it's also a big challenge, even bigger challenge, because you can't really put a limited dollar to what this does and how the kind of effect it can have on our city.

But to do nothing, uh it certainly would not benefit us at all.

So thank you for the work and uh a lot of work that you guys have done and putting this together.

Thanks, God bless you.

Thank you.

A few more questions.

Um what what is our current estimate on the number of homeless we have in the downtown and midtown areas?

I could answer that, but I think I will defer to the question.

Uh smaller by time uh to house that was more.

So there's about 11, but that doesn't have the people who did our coming in the homeless data and like so uh just to to restate uh currently we estimate about 11 homeless downtown and midtown.

And they come down there's probably more than that, and we know yeah.

300 probably have and it will fluctuate day to day, in other words, depending on the the feeding.

All right.

Um can you tell us a little bit about how what the security setup and staffing will look like, Director Satter White?

Yes, sir.

So um obviously we're gonna have to have significant, you know, resources to ensure the safety of everybody there.

This is a challenging population, and so it will require more than is normal, certainly more than what is at the Navigation Center or some of the others.

Uh the actual numbers, I'm reluctant to give out those uh because we're still kind of working through that.

But just imagine that we would have we will need and we'll have presence at intake, presence on the floor, presence um in the areas outside the facility.

Uh this is uh a very compact area, uh, but there are still potential blind spots.

So everywhere where that exists, uh then we're gonna have to have the confidence of both camera and also um human security resources on site.

And do you anticipate peace officer security or something?

I see a combination, yes, sir.

There'll be a combination of life uh safety officers, uh probably not law enforcement, but certainly trained security, uh coupled with law enforcement, again, coupled with technology, uh cameras being the most prominent, but other types of technology also.

The overall goal being is to ensure everybody's safety, um, you know, because things can break out, fights can break out, things like that happen that happen every day on our streets, uh, could happen there.

So we want to ensure against that as much as possible and uh ensure that the the atmosphere is that of you're safe here, you don't have to worry uh here.

Uh the idea here is to make you better, get you better.

All right.

And um Director Saddler Satterite, while we've got you, when we passed the civility ordinance uh a while ago, uh it it uh part of the part of the plan was to receive a report back after a period of time.

When when can we expect to hear back on how that's going?

So we can put together a report for you as as soon as the next few weeks and and make delivery on that.

I think there was a six-month written in the contract in the uh the the ordinance change, but certainly uh sooner than not I made a commitment to get you that sooner, and I I will get that for you uh on um you know the numbers, the num, you know, there there's both uh as I mentioned earlier, 60 percent or so that are taking our help.

Well, that's that's nonprofit and law enforcement going out and engaging, which is a wonderful thing.

203, 204 people off the street that were on the streets before this initiative is is is a great thing.

So that's our big win.

Um but we know also there are those that are a little bit harder, more resistant, and we're still working with them, and you'll need to know things like number of citations issued, number of arrests.

Those have gone up.

Uh there's no doubt about that, because we're dealing with a population now that it's a little bit more resistant.

But again, it is not while we don't want to write tickets, and we certainly don't want to make arrests, and a lot of the arrests are for other offenses, not for uh violation of ordinance, but for possession of narcotics or warrants or things like that of that nature.

Every time we do have somebody, we we before uh the either the homeless court or our municipal courts under Judge Santos, we're offering them help.

This is another chance to say, hey, let's let's leave this life.

Let's here's some help.

Here's some places to go, here's some resources.

So while it's not what we want to do, it does give us another chance to work with this individual.

Uh and you have to hold accountability, or we will never solve this problem.

All right, thank you, Director.

So we have staff from Councilmember Castillo's office in the queue.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, one question, Councilmember had to step out, but he left this question.

So we talked about the onsite security that will be provided just now.

But council member was wondering if security will be increased for the surrounding neighborhoods.

That is the plan.

The plan and and an assurance to uh everybody who are who are going to be neighbors to this facility, uh obviously they're you know, they want to know that we're gonna have extra security and extra law enforcement presence, and certainly uh would be working with both um the Houston Police Department and Harris County Precinct 6 who have overlapping jurisdictions for that area to to assist in having some additional directed patrols.

Well what we want to avoid again is the instance where we just have people loitering in different places, you know, and and not uh using the facilities except for a step-in, step out.

This is intended to lift people off the streets and to a better place, so that that is not something we can have.

Thank you.

I see no other questions in the queue director and director, so I think we will go to public comment.

We do have a few people signed up to speak.

But thank you for that.

So we'll start with uh Chrissy or Christia Lines, if you are here.

How about Scott Singleton?

Come forward, sir.

There you go.

Great.

Uh go ahead.

Chairman Reminis, thank you.

And uh counsel, thank you for having me.

Uh appreciate the opportunity to speak.

I had something very concise and exactly three minutes, and I'm not going to use that.

So I'm Scott Singleton.

I am a resident at Settagas Park in the second ward, less than half a mile from uh the facility, which I'm gonna call the baby jail, because that's what we know it as in the neighborhood.

Um from its very unfortunate uh time period as uh functioning as that, or almost functioning as that.

Um so I was kind of moved by a couple of things in uh the presentation here that uh you know the facility has been operating there for decades since the 1950s, as Star of Hope had the women and children's shelter there and uh the uh the idea that it wasn't a problem for the neighborhood, I think is kind of the other side of the coin for what it's being proposed as, uh at least from the agenda item.

Um the place is surrounded by concertina wire, um, which gives it a pretty imposing view, but that was actually for the safety of the people who were actually in the shelter to keep the uh people formerly in their lives outside of it and to uh at because it was literally a woman's shelter protecting these people from uh domestic violence.

If I were, you know, and I have spoken with a few of my neighbors, uh their idea about the concertina wire is leave it up, but keep everybody inside the concertina wire, because the idea that there's gonna be 24-7 drop-off and pickup of uh people who can come and go freely out of this facility really is very scary to the neighbors.

And I would imagine that it's also going to be or theoretically could be problematic for uh the soccer stadium uh for the uh sports bar that's right across the street from it.

It's very busy during Astros games and soccer games.

And uh there's a lot of pedestrian activity that goes through there, and any increase in panhandling in that neighborhood is going to have a really negative impact for the area because people just aren't gonna want to come there.

It's gonna be a I think an impediment uh depending on how these security issues work out because they're very complicated.

It's very complicated to try to on the one hand have compassion for people, but on the other hand, make it so that uh the population at large feels comfortable in the neighborhood.

And I think that that's obviously going to be the big issue for for how to move forward with that facility.

Um but having, you know, as the agenda item said, you know, temporary housing for homeless men is uh totally different mission than the uh mission for women and children, which was there for so long.

Uh I've been there since 2004.

And at that time, the kids from that facility went to school at Rusk Elementary right across the park from me.

So it was, you know, it was part of the neighborhood.

But I I know that there is a lot of concern in the neighborhood about what's going to happen with whatever this new mission is.

I'm also kind of uh, and it was mentioned here a few minutes ago, uh putting any kind of weight of funding this on the tours just sounds to me like you know squeezing blood from a turnip because the TERS is all ready, so you know overstretched.

Okay.

Thank you for that, sir.

Appreciate you sharing that with us.

Next we'll have Dominic Mazok.

Okay, I'm the council chamber.

Okay.

I was going to talk about the the agreement, the transportation conversation on uh that was brought up earlier about that the transit vehicle that this one group is going to be using.

I think uh they they with metro going to putting a new fare system.

I I'm glad that to talk to the metro because I was gonna bring that up myself, but that they preempted my comment.

That's great.

But my thing is maybe with the new fare system that Metro has not only did they have this vehicle to get people around, but maybe Metro could provide uh or work with Metro, maybe uh Metro service would be a better opportunity for them.

And maybe instead of them using that bus, maybe there could be some funding somewhere, particularly now with the replacement of the Q cart coming.

They have a Q cart where they can they can ride the bus for free or for a reduced fare, so that those who have transportation issues at Metro cannot solve.

They can use that vehicle.

So I'm I'm glad this is happening, and I wanted to go uh go even further.

Uh there is one facility I'm seeing it, I'm kind of glad it's happening.

I think there is a facility for the homeless being placed near the uh Burnett Casa de Amiga Transit Center, and again people who who are homeless don't have transportation.

That's kind of like both sides of both sides of the same issue.

Uh I don't want these places being like the uh place for the women that's on East Parker Road that is like a quarter of a mile away from Kenton Drive.

That's a long walk for for a woman to have to use a bus.

You know, I think I I think with all of this needs to have metro involved.

And also talked to uh director Andrew Ponch when I went down to the basement a couple of minutes ago, and he and I talked to him.

I mentioned this before.

Because of the homes issue being a transportation issue as well.

I think there needs to be a somebody from Metro, it could be Ponch, it could be Tom Jason, it could be Keith T and somebody from Metro, and it could be over the internet.

But Metro is so integral to this homeless situation that they need to have a seat at least in the car in in the uh gallery.

So if there is a metro question, they can answer it, or they can bring it to the board or the proper people.

With that, I have no other comments.

I'm sending it back to you, Gilan.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dominic.

We'll go to Bobby Orr.

And Bobby, I know you had a presentation.

Did you uh did everybody get a copy?

Did everybody get a copy of it?

All right.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

And only we have three minutes.

I'm here about the emancipation property.

Um that is the wrong location for this city.

Um it's uh near the soccer stadium, it's near the expansion of the George Brown.

It's near the expansion of the George Brown South.

Um, and it's in a pedestrian friendly area.

It is undermining a two billion dollar investment that we're gonna make in this city.

Uh the timing's wrong.

The World Cup's coming up.

We're gonna have 500,000 visitors over 40 days down there.

It's not a place we want a shelter.

The National Republican Party is coming.

And then when all that's over, the shelter will still be there.

Um we showcasing homelessness, Houston's homelessness to the world.

Uh it's the wrong price.

We they got one buyer for a piece of property that's been sitting there for sale that had a $10 million appraisal on it.

Um nobody wanted to buy the property.

Uh, and we're paying for a piece of property that is uh no private investor.

That's what I do.

I'm a commercial real estate developer and investor.

Um so in renovations, that's $90,000 per bed.

They're paying $60,000 per bed.

Uh Mr.

Um Nichols called it a super hub.

If it's a super hub, why aren't we serving the needs of all the homeless, not just 250 of them, at 60,000 at a per bed at a capital cost, and 90,000 at a bed in a renovation cost, and $50,000 per person per year in an operating cost.

Um it's the wrong scale.

Uh the recent count said we have 3,000 homeless.

You all seem to be folks fixated on the homeless population in downtown Houston.

I live in Tanglewood.

They're homeless people are there.

1960 is overrun with homeless people.

Okay, this is a housing first solution to a people first problem.

And it's business as usual, and all we're gonna do is spend an obscene amount of money on a piece of property to serve 250 homeless people, not to mention the ones that are gonna be hanging outside of there who are trying to get in.

Uh it it is just a another failed housing first approach to homelessness in the city.

We have an opportunity, Houston, because of the public private partnerships.

I can tell you, as a philanthropist, as a donor, um the the private sector is tired of giving all these groups money to deal with homelessness and not seeing a solution, okay?

Mr.

Nichols talks about this will be an intake place, and then the money will go out to these groups.

These groups are broken.

The federal government is going to quit giving money for housing first, okay?

That party is over.

Um, we need to uh we need to number one postpone this vote or kill this deal.

Um I can I can just I can go on and on relative to all the holes in this project, but um we're committed to changing people's lives, not getting them off the streets.

Um we think the uh uh Haven for Hope model in San Antonio at 20,000 per person per year is an ideal model.

It's a people first model.

Nobody's turned away, nobody is turned away.

They can live in their shelter for the rest of their lives.

Some people have lived there for 10 years.

Uh, but we don't need to be buying real estate at top dollar.

We can buy office buildings, vacant office buildings all over the city for $20 a foot.

This is costing $170 a foot.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Bobby.

And we've got your presentation.

So thank you.

We'll go to Don Hooper next.

Good afternoon.

Afternoon.

There you go.

Um Hooper, 20-year resident, downtown Houston.

I just want to talk about security.

And I and I get what you guys are trying to do, but um Julian probably knows.

Larry probably knows.

You guys remember Lucky Ward?

anybody?

Lucky Ward was a serial murderer, serial killer, who was homeless.

And he wandered downtown Houston, I think for five or six years before he was finally caught.

And he murdered eight people, homeless people.

Last one he threw down the Co Cathedral stairwell.

And we need to be careful.

How many murderers are going to be housed in this facility?

And where are they coming from?

Are they Houston residents?

Are people dropping them off from very dangerous criminals from all over the state here in Houston?

Why should why are the Houston taxpayers paying for all this?

And again, I've lived in downtown Houston for 20 years and I've seen my fair share of crime.

Murderers, my wife worked with Julian at the DA's office.

And I implore you to have all kinds of checks and systems here.

If somebody's wanting to know who's in this facility, it's not hiding them.

We need to know.

If you're housing murderers, rapists, sex offenders, and they commit a crime locally and they're being housed there, we need accountability.

We need to get them out of there.

And we they don't need to be there probably to begin with, but I I didn't hear the first part of the presentation.

I don't know if those questions were answered, but those are questions from somebody that lives very close to this facility.

And I don't want to move.

I have businesses here and uh my wife has a business here.

But I implore you to be very, very careful who is going into this facility.

And you can check.

You you know you can run background checks.

Heck, I can get somebody to run a background check on any anybody going in there in the criminal history.

Anybody going into this facility, and then we know who's there.

Crime occurs around downtown Houston.

We can, you know, start with the basis for the knowledge who's in what facility, and especially if you guys are trying to control it.

Now, again, I understand what you're trying to do here, but let's make sure that there are systems in place to make sure that everybody's safe, including the residents of this facility.

Nobody needs to be murdered by somebody else just because they're homeless.

And it happens a lot.

You would be surprised how often it happens.

And um, I'm not how many capital murder defendants do we have room in our streets right now?

1500.

1,500.

That's a lot.

That didn't used to be that way.

So we've got 1,500 murderers running around Harris County.

Fifteen hundred.

They used to be in jail.

So we have to be very, very careful who we're putting in these facilities and do thorough background checks.

Thank you very much for hearing.

All right.

Thank you, Don.

So those are all the folks we have listed uh to speak.

However, if you are here and haven't signed up and would like to speak, we'll give you the opportunity at this point.

Uh is anyone here?

Okay.

Come forward.

Marion.

Hi, um.

So I'll pass this out.

I've got one for everybody.

Um, this was just recently on uh social media, but this is actually where hospitals are dropping people off if they're released under bridges, basically.

This was close to the star of hope.

Um, right there.

And this would be an opportunity to have someone, you know, that's being released from the hospital that is homeless to maybe have a place to go in to be stabilized.

I understand not anybody wanting this in their neighborhood, right?

Because it's kind of like the Greyhound situation that we're all familiar with.

But something has to be done.

Where and how, I don't know.

You guys are the ones that have to figure that out.

But Councilmember Davis is right with there are philanthropists in the city that are wanting to donate and to make something happen.

And if we together as a city can figure out how to do something, we can.

We don't have to necessarily dig into the TURS money, which by the way, they have lots of money.

So when someone said the TURS don't have the money, they're the ones who have it.

But anyway, we can do this together, guys.

We really can if we all put you know, we just can, so we need to.

Thanks.

All right, thank you, Marion.

Is there anyone else here who would like to speak who hadn't signed up yet?

All right.

Seeing no one, uh I'm going to go ahead and uh adjourn this meeting since uh we have come to the end of the agenda.

But we appreciate everyone being here and look forward to further discussion on these items.

Thank you.