Good afternoon, everyone.

Happy New Year.

Welcome to our first quality of life committee meeting of the year.

We're pleased to have another interesting and worthwhile agenda from our housing community development department folks.

My name is Julian Ramirez.

I'm chair of this committee.

And we are joined today by a couple of our council members.

Councilmember Sally Alcorn is here, as is Councilmember Joaquin Martinez.

We also have staff from Councilmember Mario Castillo's office, Councilmember Amy Peck's office, Councilmember Abby Kamen's office, and a lot of help from my own staff in the forum of Leah Wolfthal and Sarah Davidson.

Online, we have uh Councilmember Tiffany Thomas joining us as well.

And staff from Councilmember Martha Castex Tatum's office.

So glad to have everyone.

And without further ado, we'll go ahead and get into our agenda.

We have from the housing department, our director, Mike Nichols, and one of his assistants, Melody Barr.

And so I'll turn it over to you folks to go ahead and get us started.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

We have we do have some interesting topics today and ordinances to discuss and look forward to your comments.

I'll turn this over to Melody Barr, who is in charge of our public services division.

All right, good morning.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Is it on now?

All right, great.

So happy new year once again.

So today I'll be presenting four items.

We'll start with the first item.

Item 2A.

The department is presenting a First Amendment to the sub-recipient agreement with the Coalition for the Homeless of Houston Harris County to provide an additional $1,076,763 in both homeless housing services program, which is HHSP funds, and in TURS Affordable Housing Funds for the continued administration and operation of the Housing Navigation Center.

The coalition through a procured subrecipient manages the operations and administrative and compliance activities for the housing navigation center.

The facility provides bridge beds for 200 clients annually to stage during housing placement process.

And so what bridging means is it's the time from housing assessment to placement into permanent housing.

Funding will support shelter operations such as, but not limited to utilities, food, supplies, security, facility staff, and case management services.

Potential clients must be referred and transported to the location by either a homeless service agency or a first responder to be eligible for entry.

The term of this agreement is from November 4th, 2024 through February 28, 2026.

This amendment will extend the term through June 30th, 2026.

There were no findings in the last monitor and review.

Today we have Josue Rodriguez, Director of Community and Strategy here with us in the audience.

About three.

Almost three years.

That's fine.

You can go ahead and continue.

Thank you.

All right.

Item 2B.

The department is presenting before committee a second amendment to the subrecipient agreement with search homeless services to extend the time of performance to January 31st, 2027, and provide up to an additional 1,111,687 for the administration and the operation of the search engagement center.

This Sunday will provide services for up to 770 homeless individuals and families.

So please note that the citation on today's agenda provided states that we will be serving 700.

So please note that the citation on today's agenda provided states that we will be serving 700, I'm sorry, 700, yes, 700 individuals that will be changed and we revised on the final cover sheet.

The funding for this project consists of three funding streams: $611,687 in community development block grant, $400,000 in homeless housing services program funds, and $100,000 in TERS funding.

Now the services under this agreement include the engagement services, housing case management, navigation, integrated health care, and peer services.

We have Alexis Leving, the president and CEO.

Larry Krauss, the Vice President of Government Grants, Phoebe Wong, the Director of Housing, and Kelly Ward, Director of Engagement and Stabilization Services.

And they're here to answer any questions.

Should you have them?

Moving along, I'm going to go to item 2C.

The department is presenting a second amendment with Capitol IDA Houston to extend and provide up to an additional 250,000 dollars in community development block grant funds for the continued administration and operation of a workforce development program serving 110 low to moderate income participants.

This program includes education training specific to in-demand professions, fields, careers, individualized case management, support groups, transportation, and referrals to other services.

In-demand professions include but are not limited to registered nursing, surgical technician, diagnostic, medical scenography, and chain supply management.

This amendment will extend the term of services until February 28th, 2027.

Capital Idea has received funding since 2012 from the City of Houston.

Capital Idea has surpassed their initial goal of 110 clients serving 125 and has drawn down approximately 85% of their funding.

Today we have Anika Goram, Director of Operations here in the audience.

And the department is presenting a first amendment to the sub-recipient agreement with Northwest Assistance Ministries, providing a budget change.

This budget change will reduce $83,912.15 cents in home investment partnership program, American Rescue Plan, also commonly referred to him as home ARP, which has been allocated for the administration costs and provide funding.

So we're going to increase funding in $83,912.15 cents from the N-Street Homeless Fund, which is fund 2012 for the administration costs to continue operating a program that will serve approximately 65 households annually who are at risk for or experiencing homelessness.

This funding is for the homelessness diversion services for persons and households experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Services will include diversion case management, including wraparound services specific to client need.

The term of this agreement is from September 9, 2025 to August 31st, 2026.

NAM has received funding from the city of Houston since 2020.

There were no findings or concerns in their most recent compliance monitoring review for other funded projects.

So essentially we are reducing the admin portion under Home ARP and then adding the home the fund 2012.

This is because under Home ERP administration costs are not allowable.

Today we have Marcillius Summer, the director of housing here in the audience.

So should any constituent of any anyone, any Houstonian, any person trying to access services be unable to access services or have a complaint?

We do have a phone number that they can reach out to, which is 832-394-6200 extension two, or they can email HCDD complaints appeal at Houston TX.gov.

And as well, they can come up to 2100 Travis Street on the ninth floor to make an in-person complaint or inquiry.

But I just I just wanted to acknowledge that.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you for that, uh Melody.

In regards to what you just said uh regarding complaints, is that information also on your housing and community development works website?

It absolutely is, yes.

Okay, all right, thank you for that.

Um so let me ask you, and and I noticed that you did you did send us uh reporting template.

Um which we appreciate.

Will you be sharing data to go along with that?

The data that is uh input into the uh template.

Um we can if you if you'd like to request if there's like a like if like annually, quarterly or however, you know, when requested, we can send that to you.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

Um we appreciate representatives from our service providers being here.

We we appreciate everything that you guys do to try to help us address homelessness in the city continues to be a very serious problem, and we can't we can't deal with it without your help, and so we sincerely appreciate everything that you all do in that regard.

Um so I've got a question about capital idea.

Um and that is when will the next cohort be starting uh in regards to that?

Right.

Okay, I'd like to call Anika Goram to um to come to the podium.

Hi, thank you for being here.

Make sure to introduce yourself.

And by way of introduction, can you just explain uh what you all do, what this what this service relates to?

Sure.

Um my name is Anika Gorham.

I'm the director of operations at Capital Idea Houston.

We're a nonprofit workforce intermediary who has been doing good work here in the Houston area since 2010.

We provide under and unemployed adults with full educational sponsorships to train and earn credentials for a high growth, high demand career, lots in health care, also in specialty traits.

And so all of this is done with no loans or paybacks required, and every person is paired with a navigator that provides support from enrollment to employment.

Um then in terms of when our next cohorts are starting, we are an intermediary.

So we work with training providers across the Greater Houston metropolitan area, including Houston City College, Lone Star College, San Jacino College, but we also work with small businesses to provide specialized uh vocational trainings that are accredited, like Texas Technical Trade, Industrial Welding Academy.

So we enroll folks at a cadence throughout the year, depending on when specific training programs are starting and that align with the that the that time frame.

And just additional background, where do you get your clients for the most part?

So we have a really robust multi-pronged um enrollment and recruitment process.

Um we partner with our training institution um partners like Houston City College.

We have a very successful referral pipeline specifically at Coleman College for the Health Sciences, but we work with West Loop, um, and we're housed, we have a big suite out at the HCC Southeast Campus, which is at 45 and Woodridge.

Also with our other training providers, we we partner to offer our services out in the community.

We work with the metropolitan organization, and so they're ensuring that we're targeting folks in the community that aren't connected to higher education or a training institution but want to make a better lives for themselves.

And so there are pastors talking about us on the pulpits, there we're in the bulletins when we're we start a recruiting and we hold information sessions at these locations.

We've historically also partnered with the workforce solutions so that we're able to reach folks who are looking for upward mobility in their employment.

Um and then we have some upskilling mobility services programs where we work with employers.

So our two most um our two active and really successful pro partnerships are with Harris Health and Aon, and we offer apprenticeships through both of those programs.

We also do our own social media and and outreach and marketing.

We attend various events.

We attended the red white and you event that the city hosted back at the end of last year.

So we're really out there to ensure that folks know about our services in in all parts of the community in all kinds of ways.

Well, thank you for that, and thank you for your service.

Um I noticed on the slide that talks about uh the most recent client goal, which was met 113 percent of the client goal.

Can can you tell us how you measure that success?

Sure.

So as y'all know, when you get government funding, you have to be very careful about making sure that folks are eligible for services, and so every person that uh applies to our program has a robust process.

We work with uh we have a database where folks are able to submit their documentation.

So we are tracking through new org our client database applicants as well as folks who have self-selected through our application process.

And those service that 113% goal is specifically for residents of the city of Houston who fall into that 061 GCIS code.

We do serve folks across the metro area as well.

All right.

And if so, if someone calls today asking for help, are they able to enroll in a program that that is open right now?

Or how's that work?

Yeah, when when if someone were so we just got back from furlough.

Um and so if someone were to call today, um, they would fall into the next application cycle, right?

Because if folks are applying to do community college, we're they're gonna start when the semester starts.

It is a self-select application process.

So once folks begin to submit their applic, you know, show an interest and submit an application.

It is up to them to submit all of the required documents and follow through with the application process so that we can enroll them.

Okay, gotcha.

All right, thank you for that.

I appreciate your being.

All right.

Thanks, yep.

We do have a council member in the queue, so we'll go to Councilmember Al Corn.

Thank you, Chair, and thanks for being here.

Uh back in 2012, Roxanne, you're a member.

We s we we met with TMO and learned first about about uh when I worked for Costello and learned about Capital Idea and really impressed with j it's not just uh the getting people trained up, it's also taking care of like transportation and child care and all the things that are barriers to people really seeking upward mobility.

So we we actually got general fund money in a budget amendment.

It was crazy crazy back to the city.

We ran the table and got that first money to Capital Idea.

So glad to see you're still going as far as um I get the success rate like your clients are meet all the needs, but what about success rate of people getting the jobs and staying in the jobs?

Yeah, that's a great question.

And so we do track placement, right?

Our ultimate goal is employment, and so um we have an 89% placement rate of our graduates within three to six months of graduation, and we actually keep them in our ecosystem for two years.

And so from that mark, that date that they secure employment and demonstrate it to us with either a check stub or an offer letter.

We are tracking them every six months for two years, and at that point we consider them to have reached financial self-sufficiency and exit our program, and our graduates at that two-year mark have a 96% retention rate in their career fields.

Okay, that's great.

I also have a couple questions on the coalition and the navigation center chair, if if that if that's okay.

Absolutely.

Go ahead.

Um come on up since you came all the way here, it's good to put you in the hot seat for a little bit.

No, uh just uh just give it give me a quick update on on the navigation center, how many clients are there, what's kind of your average occupancy?

Yeah, is it how long are people there?

Just some of those stats.

Absolutely, and correct me if I'm wrong, but our current occupancy is at 88 clients at the moment.

Uh we need to get back to you on the average stay.

I don't have those numbers off the top of my head, but we are currently at 88 uh clients at the navigation center center right now.

What's the what's the design of it?

30 days, 60 days?

I mean, what I know everybody's different, it depends on the vouchers and whatever comes your way, but yes, I think uh originally it was 30 days.

I think as we have evolved over time and um we felt the crunch on the the reduction of available housing at the end of that interaction, sure it has become longer.

Sure.

Uh typically maybe 90 days would probably be the norm at this time.

And so actually the average currently is um 53 days.

How many?

53.

53 days.

Okay.

So a little bit lower than what you thought, but higher than what we thought.

And so we're trying, we were targeting under 90 days.

So they're still above their target.

Yeah.

Um, I think our goal was always like always said was 30 days, like 10 days and 80 days, pretty typical, or I mean, or have you been what's the max?

So is that max is 100?

And so we so we try to keep it anywhere between 85 to 90 percent full so that we have availability for law enforcement drop-offs.

Ah, got it.

Okay.

And and so we get the city gives coalition the money, and then you contract with Harmony House.

So that's just kind of you're kind of a pass-through for the money.

Correct, yes.

You don't have any direct, I mean uh you manage the contract, obviously with Harmony House, but do you have any other direct services there at the Navigation Center, the coalition?

Not from the coalition, but we do provide support to Harmony House.

So for example, one of the things that we are very instrumental with with Harmony House is the community engagement aspect of the navigation center.

So we uh work with them to manage the Fifth War Advisory Council.

So they're the group of community advisors that we provide updates and we engage, and we also create opportunities for them to connect with Harmony House, to connect with the clients and connect with the community so that it's not just a random building in the community, but rather the community is aware of what it is and how they can uh connect with the facility so that they it's also helping the community.

And what's going on with that?

There was like a field out there, remember Mike and there was gonna be a good thing.

I think the parks department has been engaged to to help with that, but things have been a little bit slow.

Money's tight.

Well, the budget across the city is tight.

Um I did want to add though with the coalition that yes, they are a pass through essentially, and it looks like that on paper.

However, they're extremely engaged with the operation side of it.

So though they're not providing the case management or they're not providing those direct services, those indirect services and making sure that the the count is correct and that um how long stayers are there and are they on the housing wait list to make sure that they're engaged with the proper navigation person or with the proper mental health provider.

So they do stuff that's indirect versus the direct piece of the thank you.

Thank you for what you do.

Appreciate it.

That's all I have.

And so let me ask you as well, since since we've got you here.

Um client is in navigation center for 90 days, let's say.

What happens at at that point?

Do they continue to stay there as long as they need to, or yeah, well, this is all uh per basis uh per person.

Um typically, of course, our end goal is to make sure that we're connecting them with a housing solution at the end of that engagement.

Of course, if they need additional time, we will provide that opportunity for them.

But at the end of the day, our our main goal is to have the housing solution, which could be a place to live, but it could be other uh services such as mental health services or um well it it it also depends, right?

Because the money follows the client, meaning that those services are uniquely individualized to that client.

And so at 90, really at the entry of navigation center, the case managers already are working on an exit plan.

What is your exit plan?

Let's talk about a 30-day, a 60-day exit plan.

So when you're past 60 days, what's that next step?

And sometimes it is just waiting because we know that there is a unit available for them, but the voucher isn't ready yet.

And so in that case, somebody can stay much longer than 90 days if they needed to.

And other cases, if they're not working the program or they're not, they're just not really interested in doing this, then we're gonna go and try to help them find another solution.

It could be another shelter.

It could be um that we reunite them with family members.

Um that that's a positive um outcome.

And then sometimes unfortunately, clients leave.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Um I don't see anybody else in the queue, so appreciate that presentation.

The opportunity to ask questions.

I thank you.

You bet thank you, Melody.

So we'll go now to our uh director comment, period, and director Nichols will we'll hear from you now.

Thank you very much, Mr.

Chairman.

Again, happy new year.

Happy New Year.

Um one of the things you got a chance to hear today, there are two things that I want to make sure there's some understanding on.

One was on the uh complex financial maneuvers with capital idea moving money around.

And one every one of the things that's so important to know is federal money is difficult to use and particularly difficult and limited in the administrative dollars.

And so your nonprofits often have to come up with the administrative dollars on them by themselves, or we have to find either local funds, which are general Turner's funding, or some other funding, like the 2012 fund to leverage those federal funds.

And that's a big part of what our staff does is try to make that leverage work.

So that's one thing.

The second thing is we talked about the navigation center.

Again, it's been I think a success.

And we knew from the very beginning that success was limited by the number of amount of housing available, because that's the success that's needed.

Um it is a good program and it will continue to be a good program as we get four uh 419 emancipation online.

One of the changes will be most definitely is that the most of the law enforcement drop-offs will be at 419, not at the Navigation Center.

And there will be some way we have to work through what should be at the Navigation Center and what should be at 419.

The Navigation Center has many, has few services available, truly for people who are housing ready waiting for their housing.

There is a health clinic there that's been used by both the community and by the residents at 419 uh at the Navigation Center, as well as a services by Harris Center for mental health and uh sobering issues.

So again, it's a good program.

It's not not going to have the it will never have the wide variety of services that will be available at 419.

And again, it doesn't take the kind of complex cases that will be at 419.

Other issues are again, we're we're moving forward with the uh purchase of 419.

We're ending our feasibility period.

Hopefully everything will go well, and we'll close on that building sometime in January.

Uh we do have the NOFA outstanding for an operator and look forward to having that for you sometime in early February.

Again, the funding for that is coming from DR 24, um, and we're looking forward to having that funding approved by HUD.

Everything seems to be going good at this time.

All right.

Thank you for that update.

Let me ask you about a couple of other uh things going on.

Uh the comprehensive housing plan.

Can you tell us what the what the status of that is, how that's going?

Yeah, uh one is it's we we have worked closely.

We have for our first draft from the from the uh consultant.

Um we are looking at that draft.

The team in the county and the city are looking at that draft, making suggestions and changes.

They will be back in town doing some interviews, including with the uh uh chairman of the housing committee uh at the end of January, January 25th and 26th.

And so we're moving forward on that.

Of interest, and you've seen in the paper recently, um, there's a lot of interest in affordability of housing.

Some of the articles that came out were fascinating to me, complex articles uh needed more analysis than we got from the paper.

One was that the neighborhoods that had uh lower cost housing had the greatest increase in pricing.

Um thinking through that sounds like that's interesting.

But again, River Oaks, a 10 percent increase in pricing in the Brooks could be could be 200,000, but 40 percent or 100 percent pricing in Cedar Gas could be 40,000.

So it is interesting on that, and every neighborhood is different based on the kind of building that is going on.

The need for affordable housing continues to be there, both in multifamily and in single family, and it's something we will continue to work on.

Um it is difficult with the way the Federal Government is being run right now, but we'll continue to talk to them and find ways to continue to bring affordable housing into Houston.

Well, thank you for mentioning that.

I did I did see the article, I did read it.

And uh yes, I think it was speaking to increase in valuation in in certain zip codes, um, which is tied, of course, to what HCAD does in their appraisal process.

But one thing that interested me from that article was um the fact that um or at least the the claim was made that in those neighborhoods, fewer people take advantage of the homestead exemption.

And and there is there is something for us to work on there, I think.

Um let me ask you as well as the.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

I just want to say I had the same reaction.

I was wondering, is there something we can do in our presentations?

As you know, we have uh two um presentations, public presentations a year, and I certainly think that ought to be one that can we can work on.

Uh again, most of us who would uh who would do some kind of check, either make sure we get the homestead exemption, or if you have to file a uh uh a request for reduction, we may use an outside firm.

It doesn't cost us anything up front to do that, so we just have to think about how to get that information to our lower income residents.

Uh totally agree with you.

Education is a big a big piece of that.

I will ask you about uh the emancipation uh purchase and and how how that's going.

Excuse me.

Uh 419 emancipation.

exemption or if you have to file a uh uh a a request for a reduction we may use an outside firm doesn't cost us anything up front to do that so we just have to think about how to get that information to our lower income residents uh totally agree with you education is a big a big piece of that I'll ask you about uh the emancipation uh purchase and and how how that's going to excuse me uh 419 emancipation I would say the again we're in our feasibility study we have been negotiating with the owners to make sure that the building we receive has the correct repairs that as agreed upon so we're in the middle of that I see no problems going to the closing again sometime in January for the purchase okay thank you for that director um I don't see anybody else in the queue so I think you're off the hook always glad to be here appreciate you all right the next item on our agenda is uh presentation from our health department oh I'm told that was canceled so it looks like uh we are down to public comment so if any uh member of the public who is here would like to comment you are welcome to come forward.

I don't think we had anybody sign up but um we'll we'll take your comments nonetheless.

Is there anyone here from the public who would like to speak okay hearing no one we'll go ahead and adjourn the meeting and we'll see you uh at our next Quality of Life Committee meeting next month.

Thank you for being here.