The Quality of Life Committee.

We're joined this afternoon by Vice Chair Mayor Pro Tem.

Councilmember Amy Peck, who is present.

We also have staff from Councilmember Mario Castillo's office, Councilmember Sally Alcorn's office, Councilmember Joaquin Martinez office, and several of my staff members.

Glad to have you with us.

This meeting is being uh held with a with a virtual option as well, so we'll call it a hybrid meeting.

Um we have a number of presentations this afternoon that we will cover online.

We have some staff as well.

Um we have Councilmember Tiffany Thomas's office represented.

And we've just been joined by uh Paul from Councilmember uh Edward Pollard's office as well.

And so we will go ahead and get started with our first presentation, which is a presentation on a municipal setting designation for the address of 3511 West 12th here in Houston, and this will qualify as the public hearing for this MSD as well.

And so I will turn it over to Miss Cassandra Walker so you can tell us about this MSD.

Good morning, Councilmembers.

Can you hear me?

Okay.

Umicipal settings designation application for acreage property located at 3511 West 12th Street.

I'm sorry, Cassandra, can you move over just a little bit so you're closer to the mic to your left or just closer to that mic?

Okay.

Yeah.

Can you hear me now?

That's fine.

Okay.

Um this is a municipal settings designation application public hearing for acreage at 3511 West 12th Street in Houston.

I'm Cassandra Walker, and I am with the regulatory compliance and utility development uh division of Houston Water.

Uh next slide, please.

The agenda today for this municipal designation is what an MSD is, who the MSD impacts, and the steps in the MSD process.

And the specific information on the site is again uh 2023-172 ACP, which is located at 3511 12th Street in Houston, Texas.

At the conclusion, if there are any uh questions or comments, uh the applicant representative is here to address any of those concerns.

Next slide.

Environmental protection in Texas.

The MSD program is led by the state of Texas, and it state of Texas has jurisdiction over environmental protection, and that is led by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

For any environmental complaints or concerns, you can contact TCEQ by phone at 1888-777-3186, or online at WW.tceq dot Texas.gov slash compliance slash complaints.

City of Houston contacts for environmental complaints can be by phone at 311 or online at Houston TX.gov slash 311.

Next slide.

No water wells on the subject property will be used for drinking water purposes, and it is a legally binding way to ensure the public is not exposed to contaminants by drinking water ingestion.

Next slide.

This allows impact of properties to be redeveloped, which benefits the communities in which the MSD is located.

Next slide.

Responsible parties remain liable for any consequences resulting from contaminated groundwater originating at the application site.

Next slide.

Source of contamination has been removed or remediated, and a third party engineer or geologist must certify the application.

Next slide.

We have the pre-applicity.

Then that application is submitted to the city.

City staff review the application, including the health department, the legal division, and other city departments.

We hold the public meeting, which is held virtually online.

We hold a public hearing, which we are holding now, both the public meeting and the public hearing.

We are open to comments from the public or concerned parties, stakeholders.

Then the city council approves or denies the application.

We submit the application.

The applicant submits the application to TCEQ, where it is open for more comments.

The TCEQ either approves or denies, and then the MSD ordinance is filed in the city deed, and then the county deed records.

Next slide.

Why should you support an MSD?

MSDs protect the public from consumption of contaminated groundwater.

They encourage cleanup of contaminated sites and promote development of underutilized properties.

Next slide.

This is a map of previously approved MSD sites in Houston.

Next slide.

Next slide.

It is a commercial property, and it is represented by Darrell Maudlin.

He's the professional geologist at SKA Consulting.

The property is located at 3511 West 12th Street in Houston.

The 5.745 acre property is comprised of two parcels owned by three entities, players 1 Limited, Players 2 Limited, and 3535 West 12th Street LLC.

The property track descriptions are track 1 comprises 5.493 acres of unoccupied commercial land, developed with approximately 5,563 square feet of office building on the southwest portion.

Track 2 comprises 0.2537 acres of land adjacently west of track one.

Tract two is developed with asphalt or concrete paved parking and drive driving areas used by the West adjacent multi-tenant office building.

Next slide.

No municipalities other than the city of Houston have corporate limits within one half mile of the boundary of the designated property.

Public drinking water is currently available to the designated property and properties located within a half mile radius surrounding the designated property by the City of Houston public water supply system.

Next slide.

The PCLE zone is confirmed to be stable and or decreasing.

Next slide.

Next transition.

Houston has shallow contaminated groundwater scattered across the city.

This source eventually seeps through the soil into the shallow groundwater zone and creates a contaminant plume.

And the contaminant plume is that red area that just came across your screen.

Next transition.

Once the source is no longer actively contributing to the contamination plume, either from the source being removed or from the operation ceasing from the property, it begins to retract.

Next transition.

To define the area of the plume, the owner installs a number of sampling wells.

Next transition.

Next transition.

Water wells designated for drinking water are much deeper.

Next transition.

Next transition.

Quarterly sampling events help determine if the groundwater contamination is decreasing or stable.

Now that the owner knows where the contamination is and verifies it is decreasing or stable, the owner can apply to have an MSD restriction placed on the property.

The D restriction prohibits the use of groundwater to ever be used for drinking water.

During the MSD process, the applicant is also required to verify that there is the state regulated public drinking water that is available to the site.

The owner can now comfortably pursue developing the site while ensuring the public that contaminated water will never be used as drinking water.

Next slide.

For the acre commercial property, it can be viewed at Heights Neighborhood Library at 1302 Heights Boulevard in Houston, Texas, and the zip code is 7708.

There is also an electronic copy of this application available online at WW.houston publicworks.org slash municipal hyphen settings hyphen designation.

Next slide.

It's on the 18th floor.

Downtown Houston 7702.

My direct email is on your screen.

Our team email is on your screen.

And my phone number, my direct line is 832-393-7966.

The website is Houston PublicWorks.org slash municipal settings designation.

And you can also take a screenshot of the QR code.

Does anyone have any questions?

Thank you, Cassandra.

Um, let me note first off that we've been joined by Councilmember Mario Castillo, Councilmember Sally Alcorn, and Councilmember Willie Davis, as well as some staff from Councilmember Tarsha Jackson's office.

Just a couple questions, um Cassandra.

Um are you able to tell us what the source of the contamination was?

I am uh Barrell Martin.

Um do you want to do you want to come forward so we can put you on the microphone?

Uh introduce myself.

My name is Sterile Maudlin.

I am the professional geoscientist, um, licensed professional geoscientist and uh representative of the applicant.

Um, can you review your question?

Yes, are we are we are you able to tell us what the source of the contamination was?

Uh this property was used for industrial purposes.

It was a um a fabrication, metal fabrication shop uh that is no longer used for that purpose.

Uh the source we believe was a um uh there was uh oil water separator, a sump uh that uh collected uh certain chemicals during those processes, likely um uh uh metal cleaners.

Um the source uh has since been removed and is no longer a source of the property um is no longer used for an industrial purpose.

All right, and and the cleanups already been conducted or will it be ongoing?

The assessment has been completed.

Um the MSD is part of the cleanup process to um uh to to remove that exposure pathway.

All right.

And um follow-up testing has confirmed according to slide 14 that the zone is stable and or decreasing.

That is correct, yes.

And so do you do you test over a period of time to determine that it's decreasing or stable?

Yes, there's quarterly groundwater monitoring that was done um over a year of quarterly groundwater monitoring in every event.

Um the contaminant of concern is one one dichloroethylene.

Um it is a chlorinated solvent.

And uh every event um that was was performed.

We saw decreases in those concentrations over time.

Okay, thank you for that.

Um I don't see any questions in the queue.

So we appreciate the presentation.

Okay, thank you.

You bet Thank you.

You bet now.

Um, since this is the public hearing for this particular municipal setting designation, is there anyone here, member of the public who would like to come forward and speak on this particular municipal setting designation?

We received uh the names of three folks who want to speak.

Um looks like they're all on prohibited yard parking.

But if there's anyone who hasn't signed up who would like to speak, uh you're welcome to come forward now.

Okay.

Hearing no one, we'll go ahead and close this portion of the public hearing.

And thank you, Cassandra, for coming coming by and and those of you who who came on this item as well.

Thanks for being here.

And we'll move on to the second agenda item.

Uh number of public service uh contracts.

So I'd ask housing and affordability department representatives to come forward.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for having us, and we'll we will start off with the public service issues.

Ms.

Melody Ball.

All right, Melody, thank you.

Go ahead when you're ready.

For item 3A, the housing and community development department is requesting council approval of an ordinance adopting the 2024 Derecho and Hurricane Barrel Recovery Public Services, Homeless Services Program Guidelines.

These guidelines establish the framework for a program designed to prevent and address homelessness for individuals and families who are directly or indirectly impacted by the 2024 Derecho windstorm and hurricane barrel.

Through this program, the city will provide financial support to selected sub-recipients, including nonprofit organizations and units of local government to deliver critical homeless services.

These services include shelter operations, case management, and other supportive services that help individuals move forward and toward stable housing as part of long term recovery.

As council is aware, the 2024 Giretio and Hurricane Barrel storms had significant and widespread impacts across the city of Houston.

The Director windstorm on May 16, 2024 was one of the most damaging wind events Houston has experienced in nearly 25 years, leaving large portions of the city without electricity and causing extensive property damage.

Hurricane Barrel may landfall on July 8th, 2024, bringing life-threatening flooding and further compounding the challenges faced by many residents.

Together, these two events increase housing instability for many vulnerable residents.

In response, the President of the United States approved major disaster declarations for Texas following both storms.

The proposed program will be funded with approximately 41 million dollars in community development block grant disaster recovery 2024 funds, which are intended to support long-term recovery efforts following federally declared disasters.

The city will administer this program in accordance with the adopted guidelines and all applicable HUD CDBG DR regulations and guidance, ensuring accountability, compliance, and effective delivery of service.

And that's the end of item 3A.

Any questions on that?

Anyone?

Okay, thank you.

Item 3B, the department is requesting approval of an ordinance authorizing a First Amendment to the agreement between the City of Houston and Catholic charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston, Houston.

This amendment provides up to an additional 100,000 in CDBG funding to continue supporting the out-of-school time program for low to moderate income families living with an A-Leaf ISD, independent school district, and the City of Houston.

The program serves school-age youth up to the age of 18 and provide safe, structured after-school programming for working families.

Services are offered two days per week for two hours after school and include homework assistance, academic support, social emotional learning, and community building activities.

The program also includes a three-week summer component focused on language development and social emotional support, along with strong parent engagement.

Catholic charities track students' progress using two performance measures, one promotion rates and two after-school program report cards.

First, um, 100% of the participating students were promoted to the next grade level.

However, please note that this is only reflecting the data from students participating in the program prior to the start of the school year, of the new school year.

And second, the program issues internal after-school report cards based on attendance, participation, and academic performance.

From July through December 2025, students achieved an 85% overall rating in academics, 90% in social emotional learning and enrichment.

Catholic Charities was selected through the May 2024 Notice of Funding Availability, which included a renewal option.

The current agreement will expire March 31st, 2026, and this amendment extends the term through March 31st of 2027.

As of October of 2025, the agency has spent approximately 51% of its funding while serving 31 clients.

Catholic Charities has partnered with the city since 2003 and has no recent monitoring findings.

Today we have Adriana Ademi, Vice President of Refugee Services, and Stephanie Alvarez, education coordinator in the audience.

Great.

I don't see any questions regarding this item, but I am kind of curious.

So this program is offered at the schools immediately after the school day is over.

So it's after it's offered after school, and they have a facility within a church currently.

I see.

Okay.

And I will say that the average age of the students are kinder to fifth grade.

They can serve up to year 18, but who they mostly serve is K through 5.

Okay.

Thank you for that.

And you can go on to the next item.

Okay.

Item 3C.

The housing and community development department is requesting approval of an ordinance authorizing a third amendment to the subrecipient agreement between the City of Houston and Covenant House, Texas.

This amendment provides up to an additional 545,534 in combined emergency solutions grant, homeless housing services program, youth dollars, and community development block grant funds to continue a critical homeless services program for unaccompanied youth and young adults.

I'm sorry, yes, for young adults, not unaccompanied youth.

Including access to meals, clothing, mental health support, and the long-term housing solutions that help our youth exit homelessness and move towards independence.

Covenant House was originally selected by Chowcare Council of Greater Houston when Chowcare Council served as the City of Houston's homeless services administrator.

To prevent any duplication in services, the city selected Covenant House from the existing provider pool to continue operations.

The original agreement term was from April 8th, 2024 through March 31st, 2025.

A First Amendment extended the term through March 31st, 2026, and the second amendment provided additional funding only.

The Third Amendment extended the agreement through March 31st, 2027, ensuring continuity of services for youth experiencing homelessness.

As of November of this past year, Covenant House has served 145 individuals, which was 81% over their initial goal of 80 individuals.

They have utilized approximately 76% of their allocated funding, demonstrating both strong demand and effective program delivery.

Covenant House has partnered with the city since 2009, and there were no findings in their recent annual compliance and monitoring report.

Today we have Felicia Broussard, Chief Development Officer, and Daniel Fain, the Chief Financial Officer here in the audience.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you all for being here.

Thank you, Melody.

I don't see any questions in the queue, but thank you all for being here and for the service y'all provide.

One question though, I did want to mention in the briefing, there was a question that was asked and posed about the exits, and where individuals that are in these program exits.

And so since August of 2025, 41% of the individuals they served have exited to some type of housing, whether it be either subsidized or unsubsidized.

38% of those individuals continued with transitional housing.

Fourteen did end up in emergency shelter.

And um, and then the remaining seven were in other types of locations.

Some non-successful, but I would say the majority were housed.

So I did want to make sure you have that information that you requested.

I appreciate that.

It's always good to see and hear about programs that are working.

I know that's a difficult population to serve.

So thank you for that.

No problem.

All right.

No questions on that.

So do we want to go to the director's report?

Appreciate the time on that.

The main thing I'd like to report on to the committee today is just give you an update on 419 emancipation.

And I think we have some slides.

Yes, sir.

You do?

Okay.

Thank you.

We'll go to the second slide.

One more, thank you.

Um 419 emancipation is, we think a critical piece of the Houston's broader homelessness response.

Uh, and is very much designed to reinforce the clear coordinated pathway to housing.

It is not different than we've really directed before.

It is an additional component.

Um, it complements the city's existing investments in outreach, behavioral health, shelter, and permanent housing by serving as a centralized access point on stabilization connection and transition.

The words that we're using now that haven't got quite gotten into this presentation is triage treatment and transformation.

When folks come into this facility, whether they walk in or whether they're brought in by an outreach person or police, the first thing is they will be assessed.

And that assessment is more than just a housing assessment.

It is an assessment from their psychiatric needs, emotional needs, physical needs, or other.

Um so we like to call this a place of triage treatment and transformation.

Second slide.

Uh the vision again is this partnership with the homeless response system.

Uh, and it establishes what I would say is a unique front door.

Um, as you've heard me speak of before in the mayor also, the weakness we had in the system is we didn't have an adequate front door for people experiencing homelessness who are having to be forced who are forced to sleep in public spaces.

Uh this facility will have 80 rooms with a maximum of four people per room.

Currently, it has 80 rooms with three beds in a room.

Uh the location will be a place that's going to be safe for people, but mainly it's going to be where they can connect to services and lasting housing.

It will many ways function as a citation diversion because right now, if uh HPD or other police arrest somebody for a minor breach of the law, uh their choice is to take them to jail, take them to an emergency room if they have a health issue, or leave them alone.

And this gives them another way of bringing someone to a place of refuge and services again for those persons who have no place other to go.

I'll keep saying that over and over again, we the key is to offer clear exit strategies for everyone, as well as a subacute services such as health care, psychiatric support, and substance use programs.

Next slide.

Again, the main people that's going to be who will be impacted by, positively impacted by 419 are the newly homeless.

Those of us who have spent time during the freeze and see people who come in out of the weather, so many of them I would say are newly homeless.

They haven't spent the months and months in living outside.

They need some kind of diversion, they need some kind of immediate support, and those folks will be given that kind of immediate support for a rapid rapid resolution to a fresh start.

And the second group of those long-term and sheltered, the people who when you pass them day in and day out, and you say, can't we do something for that person who's who's waving in traffic, who I'm worried about hitting, who have been there at night after night after night after night, and we're really very much interested in placing those individuals, getting again getting them assessed and placing them in some kind of long-term uh support services.

Uh the question always people ask me, were they are people willing to accept services?

And what we found is that when they have this easy access entry, um, they do support, they do uh come in and accept services.

Um again, we think we think this is a really great restart.

A lot of people have psychiatric problems uh, refuse to acknowledge that they have psychiatric problems, but we'll quickly acknowledge that they need some physical health issues, doctors, and again, this facility will offer both, and we think you will have this kind of impact.

Next slide.

Uh picture of the facility of 419 emancipation, again, on-site security and monitoring.

Um this is very important for the safety of the individuals.

Uh, this will be a co-ed facility.

We'll not have children, but it will be a co-ed facility, so safety is on the inside is important.

Uh we'll have coordinated operations with law enforcement, again, very key, and we'll have it's really has a design for controlled access, and we're very interested in protecting the neighborhood around this area.

So if it if if the people are laying around outside waiting to get in, this is a failure.

Um we think with the way we have it organized, uh, where people would be waiting toward the back of the facility as they are uh assessed.

Um folks who may not be able to come in immediately because of their belongings or because of their pets, they'll have a safe place to stay in a courtyard-like facility.

Next staff.

Next next slide.

Um where we are.

We will close on the facility on February 9th.

Um, great thanks to the legal department, especially Steve Woods, who's done a terrific job uh helping us in negotiating uh with the sellers.

Um we have some roof work to do uh that the sellers are paying for, as well as a few other things on security, uh, that will take some time.

Uh the next key question is how do you fund this?

How do you fund the operations?

Well, we the way we fund it the purchase is through a program that the city has that will pay back approximately two million dollars per year to the city.

Um but the next question is how do you operate it?

Um we will use what the funding will be from the CDB 24 that Melody spoke about earlier.

Uh the first funding will be approximately 10 million dollars a year for three years.

We're on track to have HUD approve all that funding, and we anticipate coming to City Council, excuse me, anticipate the receipt of funding sometime in early March.

Next slide.

Obviously, the City of Houston can't operate something like this, so we will have an operator selection.

We have been going through a formal NOFA that meets all Federal requirements.

That has been completed.

We have excellent uh applicants who have come in and made application to this program.

We're going through the review and selection process now.

Um, and we hope to be at City Council by March 18th with the selected operator for for U to see.

And again, coming back to quality of life on March 2nd with that selected operator.

Uh once that selected operator is in place, we'll go through the uh very complex work of putting together a contract and a full budget.

Um again, we use the expertise of the contractor to do that.

And our anticipated opening is prior to June of 2026.

A lot of it will depend on waiting for the Federal funds.

Uh the operator has 60 days to get his staff, get their staff together and get the program together once we have the contract in place.

But we're obviously we're trying to speed that up as quick as much as possible.

So any way we can speed it up, we will.

But June of 2026 is our date that we think the latest date that will be in this facility.

Uh next.

Costs will be uh expect between 12 and 14 million dollars a year.

As I said, DR24 will fund 10 million dollars of a year, but again, the disaster recovery money will not fund food, clothing, and several other items.

Uh we have working on potential funding with the uh tours and management districts, the CDBG, uh City of Houston General Fund, State and Federal Mental Health Fing, we think is a great possibility.

Additional federal funding is there, and as soon as we have an operator, we'll begin the philanthropic and corporate donations.

We think there are many, many entities that are very interested in helping us fund this process, this facility and its and its uh services.

Um won't be done through the city, but we certainly will be out there with the mayor and with the operator to uh find additional corporate and philanthropic funds.

I think that's the last slide.

Yes.

Okay.

Questions, comments, concerns.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director, for that.

Uh very exciting.

You mentioned uh the transaction will close February 9th, so just a few days.

Yes, sir.

You also mentioned the seller is taking care of some roof repair, is that right?

Yes.

Well, if the city is actually taking care of the roof repairs, we were able to reduce the price to be able for us to do that.

So it's the best of all worlds that we were able to make sure it's done correctly, and that will be done during the during these 60-day periods.

And is that what you said would take some time?

Uh no, again, what takes the most time is putting together the contract with the operator.

That's the great the biggest the biggest time element.

Uh we think it will be it could take 30 uh 45 days to fix the roof, but again, that will not delay our opening at all.

All right.

And you feel confident you'll you'll get a good operator out of this uh NOFA process.

Application we have at excellent operators.

I feel very uh the NOFA was put together with a great deal of care because we really wanted somebody who had this expertise of helping assess and triage treat and transform people who, especially the hardest to house those with severe mental health issues and severe substance use uh issues.

So the operators who are applying have that expertise.

All right.

And you'll be back here in a month.

Yes, sir.

On the operator and expect council to vote.

Uh a little more than a month, about six weeks.

I hear the people in back in catching their breath.

About six weeks.

Okay.

All right.

Well, uh the slide says quality of life March 2nd, and then the council vote in about six weeks.

That is that is a month up.

We are in February.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

Second of February.

Time flies.

Um last thing I wanted to ask you about, Director, is I know there were concerns by some of the residents about security, and there will be law enforcement present.

Is that correct?

That is correct.

The back building will uh will have uh at this time our beliefs that you you will have the hot team, uh housing homeless outreach team uh stationed there.

Uh we'll have uh individuals from other groups also there.

So it would be very much be a part of that community.

Uh it's my understanding already the community has had some positive impact around the parks uh with this real focus on that.

We realize, we realize, and and and it was and it was uh brought to me in as serious at Tony as can be by the residents that they are counting on us to make sure that this does not hurt their safety, but it helps their safety.

Um I know with the support of HPD, along with my partner, Chief Larry Sauerwhite, uh that will be the case.

But it will take some effort, and we hope that City Council continues to make sure that HPD sees homelessness and solving the problem around homelessness is one of the things that they work on.

That this isn't something that's just put off to the side.

And again, I think with this facility, it gives them a place to bring somebody other than taking them to jail, writing citation, or taking them to uh uh hospital.

Um the other exciting work we're doing is with Metro.

Um again, as you have heard me say before, Metro believes that if they could solve this problem, it will enhance ridership tremendously.

Um lower costs tremendously, and we are partnering with Metro to make sure that their law enforcement and their homeless outreach teams have a place to bring folks who are in need.

Right.

And thank you for that um explanation.

Last question has to do with will the presence of law enforcement, visible law enforcement, you think um uh keep some people away from accessing service there?

How are you gonna how are you gonna handle that?

I I I don't know.

I don't know.

Um I think generally people who come in, um, some will be who will be brought in because they'll have this choice in front of them.

Uh some of them will come in on their own accord.

I think with if we have the kind of facility and the kind of services, I do not think that's going to be a problem.

Um of the things that most concerns me is that we have outstanding food there.

Food is something that keeps people nearby, that keeps people interested in coming.

Um, one of the things that I know many of you here uh concerned about is when people just go out and feed folks experiencing homelessness and they leave trash everywhere, it's a really a problem in the community.

Uh we think if with if with excellent food being part of this, with excellent services, we know it's an excellent facility.

Um I think people will come on and be part of this.

All right, thank you.

No, I'm not as concerned about the about the police.

Okay, good to know.

We have Councilmember Castillo in the queue.

Thank you, Chair.

Director, thank you for the update.

I also appreciate you mentioning the concerns of the residents uh nearby.

A lot of them are are my constituents, and I know you have been very engaged in this, as has Chief Satterwight and the administration.

I do appreciate that.

Um some questions around uh your update.

You mentioned repairs to the roof.

I know there were talks of potentially uh reconfiguring the entrance to the rear of the building.

Has that also uh been explored further?

Yeah, we we I think we're gonna that will come to fruition that doesn't take any reconstruction to do that.

That's very easily done.

So I think that's part of it.

We just I can I can say that that's what I want to do, but I have to make sure that the operator sees that as the right way to do that.

Um and I feel very comfortable with that these operators will will very much want to protect the neighborhood around there.

And the way it's in the way it's configured right now, it really looks like having people come through the back into the back and be able to be able to stay there if they need a few hours before they come in the facility.

I think that's gonna work very well.

Got it on that.

Thank you.

Um on the security portion, you mentioned um 24-hour presence there.

Will there be um a direct line to someone at the facility as well from you know uh people that are nearby is an issue?

Spoken to that, and I I think that's again a big goal that we will have a direct line for neighbors and for major businesses around there.

Uh one of the partners that we um continue to work with again because we want to make sure that their needs are met, especially during times as the dynamo, and we would like to be able to work with their security people.

We've met with them a few times already, and so I think having that tie just like to the neighborhood is important.

I love the idea of that direct number.

And then finally, uh you touched on Metro.

Have y'all had any conversations on traffic mitigation as well?

Um with emancipation and the traffic issues they face now versus after the facility opens.

We have had some.

Again, it was a major issue at the meetings, and it's something we really need to do.

I know one of the things that we're uh we're we've we've worked on since our meeting with the dynamos to put in a crosswalk because it's something that when we wear people across those streets, they really need a safe crosswalk.

And uh again, we've already talked to uh this the folks who put in crosswalks to do that, so that's moving forward.

But yes, it's very much important that we have safe pedestrian movement in that area too.

Again, for folks who are coming to the games, coming to Edo, and for the people who are coming into the facility.

Um we'll be parking some of our employees across the street, we hope.

And so that that's an important part too.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Uh, Councilmember Davis.

Thank you, Brother Chair.

Uh Mike, good to see you.

Great update on the status, really excited and thrilled about this project going forward.

I just have a few um questions.

Um number one, the operator NOFA.

Right.

Notice of funding.

And so that's a that's a formal application process where the department puts together this again a formal application.

Right.

And the operators have to complete it, fill in all the forms.

Uh we have to meet federal uh requirements on that.

Got it.

But transparency for um we have a we have a committee that will evaluate it.

Got it.

And that's it, that we're in the middle of that process currently.

Okay.

And then, of course, the um I'm looking at the the city has initiated structure valuation process, right?

To review the proposals.

That's correct.

That for the roofing was that No, that's for again for the operator.

But operator.

Yes, sir.

Absolutely.

Uh the roofing and other physical thing I will be is done by GSD, and we work closely with them to make sure that we're getting the best possible services on that and getting it done quickly.

Oh, okay.

That roofing issue was that kind of was that something that we discovered after the fact, or was that something in regards to the seller um, you know, with the idea that we had roofing conditions?

We had a value, we had an evaluation, formal evaluation done during that period before we um before before the the earnest money um became solid and had to go to them.

And during that, we found that issue.

Um the the owners were willing to fix it themselves, but it really when we looked at it, we thought it would be more efficient and more effective for the city to do that with city procured contractors.

Okay.

So would they contribute to that?

They did contribute to it.

Or the price was reduced for that.

So we do we don't have to pay for that.

Okay, good deal.

Very good.

It's it's paid for out of the out of the reduction in price.

Okay.

Sounds good.

Last uh thing, okay, so the operation annually is 12 to 14 million according to that's our estimate at this time.

That's an estimated.

I just wanted to to center on that, because that's 10 million is coming from the uh HUD, right?

Right.

And so we go use 12 to 14 million, give or take or more, whichever.

So with that being then the process of where those dollars come in at, we're looking at we we feel comfortable after talking to again uh a number to the mayor, a number of sources that we that money is available.

We we want to make sure that we have a we're not overfunding this, and so that's the reason it has some range in it.

Uh and uh for example, um, we feel very confident about state and federal mental health funding, and we think that those are going to contribute to those programming too.

So I'm I'm confident that the money, the funding will be there.

We'll be back to council to approve that um as we move forward with those sources.

And then when you come back before council, then those people are organizations who are interested in the services area of whatever they can commit, that'll be submitted to that.

That's correct.

I think the way the way I'm looking at this point is we'll come back to council uh again on March 18th.

Got it to get the operator approved, and very much the operator will probably be the one who subcontracts with the variety of of entities.

Um one of the most important ones will be Harris Health, uh, the hospital.

Okay.

And the hope is that they will they will fund that instead of expecting the city to fund that, and that will reduce the the funding a great deal because the the part of the most expensive pieces of the operations besides the staffing is the psychiatric and fiscal health pieces.

Okay, okay.

Well, last point, and I'll be done.

Um you mentioned that, and we all know that we're gonna need help and certainly from money people with the dollars, the those who can give.

I got one particular organization already asking uh about what they can do to raise money for this effort.

So we we pray.

Well, we we we're gonna we're gonna go we're gonna go out and do that.

I think as I've talked to people, and I still, even though we don't have the operator in place, I have met with a dozen potential funders.

Sure.

And they are very interested, sure, and want to play a role with this.

Yeah.

And again, um, this is without the uh without taking, and this is very important for me to say.

This is without taking anything from funding for those organizations that mean so much to the system.

Yeah, and I'm thinking about search, uh Star of Hope, open door mission, salvation army.

We have to have those mission of Yahweh.

We have to have those organizations fully funded too.

We have to make sure we have full funding for the housing.

So this is essentially where do we get people engaged in who really want to solve this specific problem of street homelessness?

Got it.

Got it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Councilmember Alcorn.

Thank you, Chair.

Director, on the behavioral health services grant, the state mental health grants.

I think there was close to 12 billion dollars every biennium or something.

That there is a set subset projects for assistance in transition from homeless homelessness.

So will the city apply directly for those grants, or will that be the operator, or will it be Harris Health?

But probably it will be Harris Health.

Harris Center.

That's they have uh Harris Health, as you know, is a it really does an outstanding job bringing state money into the okay.

So we'll we'll leave kind of the grant getting to them, but they'll bring that to help cover the operating expenditures.

That is exactly how I think it will be done because they clearly have to be a partner no matter who is the operator.

Are those uh are those grants like being sought right now, or is it do we have to wait till we're further down the line?

They're being sought right now currently.

It's a we again we are um very impressed in Houston with the attention to grants, and that's from our department, but not only our department, from Harris Health, from Harris Center, um, from our nonprofits, it is a real focus on those grants.

No nobody's waiting to apply for those grants.

Okay, great, thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Al Corin.

So, Director, I don't see anybody else in the queue.

Uh so thank you for that presentation.

We will move to our final item dealing with community code enforcement prohibited yard parking.

We will hear from our public works department, and thank you for your patience uh in waiting.

Good afternoon.

You can go ahead when you when you're ready.

Good afternoon, committee.

Council members, thank you.

Um my name is uh Christian Ann, it's the assistant director over community code enforcement, and we're here to discuss our enforcement measures with prohibited yard parking.

Next slide.

So the prohibited yard parking ordinance is found within the code of ordinances in Article 10, sections 28 301 through 305.

Next slide.

So some background on the ordinance.

Uh the planning the planning and development created this ordinance under 2000 ordinance number 2009-59.

For the enforcement who enforces the program as of today, Houston Public Works Community Code Enforcement is now your enforcement body of this ordinance previously enforced by Houston Police Department.

And who can participate?

Active homeowners associations and civic groups applied can apply to become part of the program.

Next slide.

So to enroll in this program, there's an application process, which applications are accepted on the first two business days of each month.

These applications are submitted to the planning and development director.

Some common reasons why an application may not be approved.

Tend to be insufficient petition of support, meaning it's lacking 60% of proper uh support from property owners in the area applied for.

Next slide.

So participation.

So currently the prohibited yard parking has approved 221 applications to date.

The program is intended to protect neighborhood property values, prevent damage of the city of Houston's underground infrastructures, and stop the degradation of the aesthetic appearance of single family residential areas.

And so you can see the graphical representation on the right.

Next slide.

So prohibited yard parking, a little bit more about the requirements of the ordinance.

So parking of vehicles or equipment on any surface that is not an approved surface in the front or side yard areas of an approved single family residential lot.

Section 28-303 defines our the offense provisions, which is it is presumed that a registered owner of the vehicle or equipment is the person who parked, caused, suffered, or permitted the vehicle to be parked in violation of this article.

Section 28305 is our penalty provisions.

Any person who violates any provision of this article shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not to exceed 1550 dollars.

Each day a violation of this article shall constitute a separate offense.

So strategy with our enforcement evaluation plan.

So as soon as public works was given the green light to move forward with standing up enforcement, we we went to work internally with our workflows and processes.

So as of January 12th of this year, 311 went active in receiving complaints for prohibited yard parking and successfully routing them to HPW community code enforcement.

Looking at violation volume, compliance.

So reporting prohibited yard parking in neighborhoods.

Next slide.

So this graphic kind of gives you an idea of how the workflow will looks within our system.

So a constituent would report a complaint of 311.

The complaints are reallocated based off of the prohibited yard parking program.

You'll see that first orange box on the top.

If the case is closed, the case would be closed if the complaint address is not enrolled in the program.

So we have 311 call takers who are actually reviewing GIS databases at 311 and validating if that reported location is within with within a registered approved prohibited yard parking area.

If the answer is no, that it's not, there's no enforcement mechanism for community code enforcement.

So the case would then be shut down at that point.

If the case, if if the reported address is within a approved prohibited yard parking area, then we would continue to assign that case through it would move into our 311 system, assign a community code enforcement inspector.

We would make contact and we have some uh door hangers and some different literature that we would plan to uh provide to the property owners as a means of education.

Uh once notification has been established, we determine that the vehicle is indeed parked in the yard or side yard of an approved area.

Uh ideally we would hope for immediate compliance where the vehicle could be removed if we were able to make contact with the violator or the owner of the vehicle.

If not, a it would be documented in our system as a non-compliance, and we would follow up in 48 hours.

If the vehicle is still uh parked in the yard after 48 hours on our checkback inspection, we would issue citations, and that cycle would repeat itself 48 hours until the vehicle has been removed.

Next slide.

So some important information for property owners, residents, and businesses.

Um, check with your homeowners' associations, your civic clubs, uh the groups uh within the areas of where you reside, make sure that the the location that you're reporting is an approved prohibited yard parking area.

Uh we have another uh another slide here.

You'll actually see a graphical representation of the city of Houston in the coverage area as well.

Next slide.

So some examples of our notifications.

The the notification on the left is just a standard shell copy or a shell of what you would see a violation notice that would be mailed out to a citizen for any type of a nuisance or code enforcement violation through Houston Public Works.

And on the right hand side is what I refer to as a red door hanger.

So this is our our means to educate the the citizens with prohibited yard parking.

Being that it's new to Houston or new to Houston Public Works, our first approach was to educate the citizens that this is a pro an approved prohibited yard parking area.

In the event that we're unable to make contact, we would leave a door hanger with some specific information on the name of the inspector, phone numbers, contact information for our office, so we can explain why we were out there to uh address this situation.

Next slide.

This is a mock-up of a uh of citations.

So the event in the event that the uh individual was not able to or resisted to remove their vehicle, citations would be issued at the tune of 150 dollars per day, and this is an example of a traditional citation that our staff uh issues.

Next slide.

So, how to report a violation uh as you heard me mention earlier through 311.

That is our main reporting avenue.

Uh as of today, 311 is only receiving complaints of prohibited yard parking from phone calls only.

The portal is not live, meaning that the customers cannot access the 311 portal through their phone or web browser and navigate to uh specifically put in a complaint of prohibited yard parking.

Uh we are planning to have that of that functionality available within 311 in the second quarter of 26.

Um, there's there's more involved uh at a higher level within the IT world that would require um some expertise outside of my uh my knowledge regarding the GIS data uh ability to validate that information within the system and actually uh successfully route a uh violation to our uh to our team for enforcement.

Um but as of today, right now 311 is receiving these calls uh via phone call only.

Next slide.

So a little bit about our team.

Next slide.

So within community code enforcement, we have a group or a specialized team within our operation known as our junk motor vehicle team.

It's consisted of four field inspectors, and in addition to their their course of their normal course of business on uh responding to and addressing junk motor vehicle complaints.

We have tasked the enforcement of prohibited yard parking to that team.

Uh we were trying to match like for like, and I was thinking that uh vehicles uh they're they're already dealing dealing with vehicles, and so we we've added this on to that group as well.

Um this rep this graphical representation you see on the right hand side of your screen is that's real time.

That that is uh showing you an actual as of today, the area shaded in blue or areas within the city of Houston that are approved for prohibited yard parking enforcement.

The the few areas that you'll see indicated shaded in red were areas that are not approved, or were applications were denied.

Out of 1.2 million parcels of land within the city of Houston, out of that 1.2 million, 18,500 parcels are registered for prohibited yard parking.

So a fraction of the city is actually currently approved for prohibited yard parking out of that 221 application that I that I spoke of earlier on in the presentation.

Next slide.

Some risks and hazard mitigation.

So first and foremost, uh it's always the safety that I'm concerned with with our staff.

Uh code enforcement is a dangerous job.

We are out on people's private property routinely, telling them to cut their grass, to pick up trash, debris.

Um there is several instances where we've had inspectors uh been threatened, had guns pulled on them.

Um it's unfortunate, but it's reality.

Uh these are civilian inspectors that are performing this function dealing with a vehicle, and someone's uh when you when you're approaching someone with a vehicle violation, there is a perhaps an escal escalated level of uh response from the citizens in some fact because that's their means and method of transportation.

That's how they get around.

Who are you to tell me where I can park my vehicle?

Um so that's why we are first out to educate the the folks.

Uh so that it's it's known that these citizens can become agitated, there's pull potential escalation of violence, and then of course, we're always worried about loose animals, dog bites, things of that nature.

Mitigation, we have educated our inspectors on de-escalation tactics and strategies, how to talk to people, reading the situ or reading their areas, assessing the environment when they pull up to observe their surroundings to make sure that the area is safe for them to actually get out of their vehicle and maybe approach the situation if indeed they actually do see a vehicle parked in someone's front or side yard.

Any safety concerns, we would ask the the inspectors they know to leave the site immediately and immediately call a uh supervisor, and if if it warrants that they would call 911.

And we have our uh contact for the differential response team, which is Sergeant Matthew Simon, who oversees citywide DRT, who we have been in contact with, and he's very well aware that as we are taking on this enforcement realm the responsibility that in the need that we need law enforcement assistance, we would certainly rely on HPD DRT for further help.

Next slide.

And this is uh just our contact information.

You'll see towards the bottom half of the slide.

Uh, assistant chief David Allmer will serve as the uh he's the my main point of contact, if you will, that overseeing the junk motor vehicle team within community code enforcement and additionally prohibited yard parking.

Next slide.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you, Director.

We have a couple council members in the queue.

We'll go to Vice Mayor Pro Tempek.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much for the presentation.

I'm excited about this change.

Um, you know, HPD always did a great job with this, but of course they didn't always have the time to go out there and you know issue these citations.

So I think this is gonna be really great.

Um just want to make sure I understand it.

So um the inspector is dealing with the junk motor vehicles, they're also going to deal with the parking in the yard.

So if someone calls through on one and it, you know, they say someone's parking in the yard turns out to be an inoperable vehicle, it's the same person that could deal with both.

Correct.

What about if it's an inoperable vehicle on the street?

Is that still going to be the junk motor vehicle team, or is that going to be um parking management?

So if it if it's in if it's not on private property, if it's in the street, that's gonna be the park Houston or HPD.

Okay.

So that remains the same.

So it's just if when it's on private property.

Okay.

Um and then when it comes to citations, um that was kind of always the problem, I think in the past was writing the citation to an actual person versus just putting it on the vehicle versus mailing the citation or a notice.

So it sounds like now we're going to mail notices and then the citation itself, is that going to be just placed on the the car?

Is that going to be mailed?

Does that have to actually be given to an individual?

How is that going to work?

So in a in a perfect world, uh it's much more beneficial for us to actually hand the a citation to the violator.

Um that way we can usually we can get their signature to say that they understand that they have been issued that citation.

If not, our our next method will be to mail the citation to the address of the owner of record of the vehicle.

Okay.

So it's the person who owns the vehicle, not necessarily the house that they're parked at.

The way the ordinance, the the language of the ordinance gives us the guidance to say that it is presumed as the the owner of the vehicle is the one who is responsible for it.

So, you know, it could be John Smith owns the vehicle, but his son was driving it that day and parked the car.

Well, unfortunately, John's gonna get that that citation if I if I mail it to him.

Um as I said earlier, we've in the few weeks that we've been live with our enforcement, we've been very successful with owner compliance, voluntary compliance.

Uh we actually haven't even had to write a citation to date.

Uh folks are moving their vehicles.

Uh now I think as this thing catches on and and word of mouth gets out that HPW is now enforcing this, and there's actually an enforcement mechanism behind rather than just an empty complaint.

I expect the numbers to increase.

Um I think it's of value to note that this is a this is a new operation within our enforcement team and we will modify, tweak, we'll make it better as we learn a little bit more about volume and intake and how the responsiveness we're getting from folks that are actually violating.

Great.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you, Councilmember Peck.

And Councilmember Alcorn.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh how many complaints since we went live in January?

21.

21.

Okay.

And you thank the four.

I mean, I know it's never enough.

Thanks to public works for taking it on.

I know this has been a hot potato nobody wanted to enforce, but looks like it's you.

Um obviously not enough to cover all the junk motor vehicles and this, but if if the volume stays around that, we can handle it.

Certainly, I I would say that because I don't know how big the problem is.

Right, yeah.

The more complaints, the more I've heard a lot of complaints now.

The problem is is that if you're not in a PYP approved area and there's cars parking in the yard, then you can do some resources up there.

I get that.

And um what is the time frame between the notification like the warning, you know, here's be educated about it, and when the citation happens.

48 hours.

48 hours.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember.

Um Director, I've got just a few questions.

And if we can start with slide number six.

So you did you did quote um a portion of the ordinance?

Yes, that dealing with presumption.

Um means, of course, that you you don't need an eyewitness to say I saw so-and-so park the car in the yard.

Um, the fact that uh someone says I saw the yard parked there.

I'm sorry, the car parked there at some point in time can get you can get you there as far as proof.

Um that can be overcome, of course, if the defendant comes in and says, wasn't me who who parked the car there.

But um As I look at the the language in the ordinance that comes before that, uh, and that's gonna be 28-303 subsection B offense, it says it shall be an offense for any person to park or to cause, suffer or permit the parking of a vehicle.

So in order to hold someone responsible, you don't have to prove they parked it if they permitted it or suffered it to be parked uh on the property.

Um they can be held liable.

Certainly.

All all of this suggests to me that we could use we could uh make more effective use of simply mailing the citation to to a residence.

And and I think uh we spoke about that a little bit.

Um it would have to be certified mail, which comes with a cost.

Right.

But there's also a cost to sending a person to the door, right?

And trying to make contact with someone at the residence who lives there.

So I believe there are other municipalities that do that, mail the citation, taking a picture and whatnot.

So I hope you all will consider making making use of that and making use of that part of the ordinance that is very broad and uh does not seem to require an actual witness to the car being parked there.

So following up on Councilmember Alcoin's corn's um point, you this effort is underway, and I think you said there have been 21 uh complaints that have been resolved, either by the vehicle being either by contacting an individual at the residence or where uh the vehicle is not there when you have gone out subsequently.

Is that right?

That's correct.

We've had 21 complaints that we received through 311, and as of today, 19 have been resolved as either owner compliance or non existent upon arrival of the inspector.

Have you had any incidents where um the person at the residence was irate or threatened violence or anything to this point?

No, sir.

Okay, well that's great.

Glad to hear that.

Yes.

Um of the 19 that were resolved.

Do you know how many of those uh instances involved actual contact with a person at the residence who agreed, okay, I'll won't park it there or I'll move it or whatever.

I d I didn't specifically go through every single case.

Uh okay.

No, no problem.

Um on slide number nine, let's see.

This is where you lay out the various steps required.

And one of which is cases assigned to an inspector for review and research, then the next step is contact is made.

Um do you know how how much time there is between those particular steps right now?

From the initial assignment to making contact.

Right.

So in a perfect world, uh I would hope within 24 hours our inspector once receiving the assignment is able to make the site visit.

Uh of course that's going to be dependent on the workflow that that we have coming in from the various junk motor vehicle cases.

Um I will say that being mindful of where we're where we're putting this responsibility of the junk motor vehicle team, they are more laser focused on dealing with vehicle complaints.

Junk motor vehicles are high volume.

Um of course, as public words has taken this on from Department of Neighborhoods, we've seen how big that problem is.

Um so I would hope that within one to two days of receiving this complaint that our inspectors are making contact and getting out on site.

Okay.

Um in regards to the 311 uh system being used to lodge these complaints.

Um would is it going to be possible for residents in the neighborhood, you know, who who don't like folks parking in their yards to be able to submit photographs when they make their complaints so that you can have that evidence available as well.

So certainly once the portal goes live where the actual where the citizen has the full functionality of using the automated system traditionally or in normal 311 where someone is reporting through the portal today, they can upload photographs, images, things of that nature, which is great for the inspectors to use.

Being that it's only open right now to a citizen calling into 311 and speaking to an actual live person at 311, I'm sure that there's the capability that that's constituent can share that information with the person at 311 who could actually then attach that information to our case.

Yeah, I think that has the potential to make these cases stronger when they get to court is to have that that additional evidence.

And then the last thing I wanted to uh address is when we have received complaints about prohibited yard parking, it's not usually just one, it's about a number of houses in a neighborhood where this is going on.

So I hope that when you send someone out on a specific complaint at a residence, those those uh enforcement personnel are also looking at other residences in the neighborhood to see if there are violators and and addressing those at that point.

Yes, absolutely.

Um the intent is to be proactive once we are uh receiving a complaint and not just laser focused on on one specific address is to have the team identify in the in a PYP area if they're in that zone enforcing compliance.

If we have other neighborhoods or other neighbors that are violating, then we will address those while we're there.

Great.

All right.

I don't see anyone else in the queue.

So thank you for the presentation, and we will move to the public hearing or public comment phase of this agenda.

Thank you.

So we have three folks who have signed up.

The first one on the list is Ann Collum.

Anne Collum.

Two minutes are correct.

Good afternoon.

Thanks for coming down.

Good afternoon.

You can go ahead and get started.

Yeah.

I kind of wish I could have we could have spoke before he did.

Anyway, uh, I'm Ann Collin.

I'm I've lived in historic Glenford Valley over 50 years.

I've served on the Glenbrook Valley Civic Club for over 20 years.

I just retired this year.

I'm tired.

I'd like to speak to the harm that has been done to the neighborhoods with the removal of HBD's enforcement of the prohibited yard parking ordinance.

The change was made with no notice to the neighborhoods, to those of us that were participating.

We were told by the our sergeant of the DRT in the Southeast that they no longer enforced it.

We called 311 to re to this is before the January thing.

This is last year where they cut us off to report it to 311 and they would transfer us to HPD.

HPD said no, they don't enforce it or they didn't know anything about it, and they transfer us back.

I had one resident call just really frustrated because she had called 311 to report a vehicle on the yard, and the 311 intake person argued with her that no pol the HPD enforced it.

And she said no, but so finally she just hung up.

So there's been no communication with the neighborhoods that you know are part of it.

The ordin I believe the ordinance was passed in 2009.

Uh at the District I community meeting and in Grando Park, I asked the presenter from City Legal why neighborhoods had to opt in rather than it being a citywide ordinance.

And he told us that the city was concerned about being sued.

And then they would transfer us to HPD.

And it was not uncommon for HPD to send us right back to 311.

So once we were told we could report to our Southeast DRT team, there was a huge improvement.

What are we supposed to do now?

More and more yards are being parked on, junking up our beautiful historic neighborhood.

It's a monkey see monkey do ripple effect invading our neighborhood.

I asked that one DRT go back to enforcing the ordinance and then share when changes are made and something like this.

Please share with the neighborhoods.

Let us know what's happening.

Because we're we all assumed, which of course you know what that does, uh, that DRT was still enforcing it to keep us safe, and then they can't do it.

So we're caught in limbo.

We have cars all over the yards in the neighborhood, and we're not the only neighborhood.

And yet, and this gentleman going on with the public works handling it.

I'm sorry, that's not gonna work.

You know, have you been into the neighborhood?

I'm sorry.

Have you, you know, nobody's talking, right hand's not talking to the left hand.

We're living with it.

And it's easy to see and to say all of this stuff, but 311 is not the answer.

Uh because time and again we report things and nothing happens.

It by the time it travels down the line of 311 from the report to the do something about it.

Well, a lot of times the public the problem has disappeared, even though that's what we want.

The person that committed the offense, they're gonna do it again because ah, I got away with it.

So we need help, but the main thing is communicate with the neighborhoods.

If there's if they don't have an HOA or a civic club, there's somebody in that neighborhood that does a reporting.

Because I know some neighborhoods unfortunately have lost their civic clubs, but ours is very strong.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, ma'am.

Let me just say, and we also have a council member in the queue.

Um yes, we we have been aware of the gap there that has existed for for several months at least, where it was uns unclear which department of the administration was going to be in enforcing this.

And I know a number of council members brought this to the administration's attention.

Uh I do want to point out council does not control the day-to-day activities of either department.

I know.

But we we it is our duty to pass along uh complaints when we receive them.

So thank you for for speaking out and being here.

I hope this new system will result in some um better enforcement.

It it sounds like it will.

Uh, but please keep watching and letting us know what you see.

We'll tell we'll we'll test it up, probably.

Yes, all right.

And we have Councilmember Al Korn who would like to speak to you as well.

Great to see you, Ann.

And um, yeah, we share your frustration.

I mean, Rudy, that was months and months ago when we sat down with HPD and and public works, and everybody was like, we don't want to do it.

I mean, we got the safety concerns of uh so HPD really had the one up on as far as like having to go to people's houses and get threatened with a gun, you know.

But so that's all anyway.

It sounds like they landed on HPW enforcing it.

Sounds like they're trying out this new system.

It sounds it doesn't sound like 311's gonna blow you off anymore.

I mean, if they're well trained, 311 is gonna know what to do, they're gonna call.

And I like Councilmember Ramirez's question about like don't just go to the one house, look all the way up and down the street and put those red tags everywhere.

I'm less concerned with go making sure you talk to somebody.

I mean, that's great, I guess, when you're trying to do a citation, but just get the warnings out there and then mail, you know, just be super because we don't we're obviously not gonna have the manpower to to go back every day.

I want to I want to find every day.

So if we can mail the the thing every day.

But thanks for coming.

Yeah, your main neighborhood has really been besieged by this and and we need to get a handle on it.

If we have the ordinance, we have to do our best to enforce it.

So you know, I hope just call 311 like crazy.

And I'll be back.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up is Gina Sylvester.

Gina Sylvester.

Good afternoon.

Thank you for your time.

Uh after listening to the gentleman with public works, I think he had some good points.

She certainly had some great points as well.

And uh, Ms.

Alcorn, thank you for your comments because I think uh you had some great points as well.

But uh I had a lot of comments and I'm totally confused now about this whole situation.

Um don't understand why this has been moved from HPD to public works.

I'm concerned about the safety of the employees of public works.

I don't think that 311 uh is doing as good a job as they could be doing.

Um I'm gonna ignore all of this, although I will say uh police officers are otherwise known as enforcement officers.

That's why they have that job, and we have DRT officers that are supposed to do this job.

Parking in the yards is uh just drives by neighborhood, which is Robindale, and I've been president over there for five years and been on the board for seven.

I'm not on the board this year, I've rolled off, but I can tell you it's just a constant problem, but it's not the only problem.

Parking in the yards is not the only parking issue that the city has.

And I will just tell you in looking at this, there is uh the overnight parking of commercial vehicles uh in a uh nearby uh or in or near a residential area is also a city ordinance that we have that it's not being enforced.

Um with the city has owns the easement between the city streets and the sidewalk, and there are many neighborhoods where the cars park two, and I'm sure you've seen this two wheels or two tires on the street and two tires on the easement.

We have a city ordinance against that.

I asked a policeman one time, could they cite this car that was doing this on a regular basis?

And he said no, because there's not a problem with it.

Well, there actually is, and it's in our um in our ordinances.

And then, of course, the leaving the cars for over or vehicles for over 24 hours on a city street uh, period, and that's a real problem.

We're not talking about people that come home from work in the afternoon and park on the street and leave the next day.

We're talking about people who have four or five, six, seven cars, and m multiple cars are just left on the street for weeks or months at a time and nothing is done about it.

How do you decide?

If you're going to split this up between public works and DRT, how do you side with all of those ordinances that are not being enforced?

Who's going to enforce what?

And how is it that my understanding, and I could be completely wrong, is that the police chief had just said we're not going to enforce this.

Well, how does a an enforcement officer who leads the department decide unilaterally that they're just not going to enforce something that is a law.

My time is up.

I want to thank you for your time.

Do you have any questions?

Yeah, no, thank you for your comments.

And uh I'm not obligated uh or authorized to speak for the police chief.

However, um I I believe their their uh issue was their officers are so backed up with more serious violations, in other words, felonies and class A and B misdemeanors.

This this violation is is considered a class C, so it's the lowest type of criminal offense.

Isn't that what DRT officers are supposed to be doing, though, is be in the neighborhoods and enforce?

That that at that time was part of their uh job description.

But uh the police chief has the discretion to uh give them whatever duties uh he believes are are appropriate and and efficient.

So uh again that that was their concern is that the officers' time was was better uh devoted to more serious crimes.

So I understand.

Can I make one more comment before you kick me out the door?

If that's the case, and they're gonna be mailing these citations.

Well well that that could be part of it.

Right.

All right, but but what he laid out was it starts with a call to 311 or an online complaint when they get that set up.

Right.

And then a code enforcement officer goes out and tries to engage someone at the residence, and if necessary, uh something can be can be mailed.

Right.

My point being, and it's um not on point exactly, but related.

If that's the case with what they're doing with parking in yards, and maybe some of these other parking uh offenses, then why I would like for you to consider having solid waste do the same thing when it comes to people putting heavy trash out at the wrong time.

These drivers drive those streets every single day.

They could just as easily send out a citation because we I mean we've got multiple situations that are going on in our neighborhoods, and these neighborhoods are failing, and they don't feel like they have any recourse.

I mean, being on a being on a board of a of a D of a uh uh neighborhood uh HOA, I can tell you that we are a lot of these neighborhoods are very frustrated because they feel like they don't have any recourse and we don't have enough money in our budgets to take take everybody to court about these issues that could be resolved a lot easier with the city's health.

Yes, thank you for that.

You are you are completely right.

And uh one thing we can follow up with is what exactly is the full scope of our community code enforcement officers.

I'll I'll bet it's not just uh prohibited yard parking, but might extend to some of those other violations you are talking about.

So we have Councilmember Alcorn in the queue would like to say something to you.

Thanks for coming.

Good to see you.

And we know we worked on that.

You brought up the commercial vehicles on the on the streets, and we worked on that ordinance a couple years ago, strengthen the fines, but I do see that there's confusion, because that's another one that either parking management does or HPD does, and and you know, whoever can get there, and sometimes it's nobody.

Uh so I do I think Chair, it it's it might be good idea to kind of lump a lot of these parking situations, you know, the somebody, you know, half on the street and half on the thing, the commercial vehicles that stay, the the I I think it, you know, uh a good thing to have some kind of chart or some kind of like this is what you do in this situation that we can give to constituents, and these are the entities that enforce it.

So everybody knows kind of what's going on, because it feels a little disjointed, uh, who's enforcing what, and and people aren't aware of the rules, and I think we could probably just put out some kind of thing.

You know, that's how parking publication that says these neighborhoods.

And another thing I wanted to ask Chris, it do are we notifying every does every parking in the yard, HOA, have they gotten notice that this is the new deal?

Okay, can can we do that?

We could do that.

Because it's yeah, I mean there's 200 and some, but you know, I mean, if you need help, we can like email every HOA president or whatever just to let them know what's going on.

Well, I also think one of the things that he mentioned was education.

I think that this communication is so key in something like this because I think that the city could do some sort of public service and I just think as an alliance member when I went when I go to super neighborhoods and stuff, it'd be good to have something like these are the parking no-nos.

These are the part if you're in a park park in the yard thing, these are the rules.

It it's some commercial truck, that's citywide, is in your neighborhood.

This is who you call.

Just to give a real so everybody kind of knows the communication, as you said, Ann, it's just not been great.

So we'll we need to step up our game there.

I can I can work with parking management.

That's a great idea.

Maybe we can get something put together.

No, those are those are great points, council member, and uh you know, they're doing something now, which is good.

That's that's that's uh a big positive.

So can we get the word out now?

Uh that needs to be a big part of it.

Thank you so much for your time.

You bet you have a great day.

Next we have Susan McClellan.

Yeah.

Okay.

Are you Susan?

I'm Susan.

Okay, and what's your name, sir?

Uh, Ron McLean.

Ron President of Overbrook.

Okay.

And I would like to, if if you don't mind, I know I'm not on the list.

Um, I wanted to invite each member of this committee to join me and uh going on a tour of Overbrook.

As of today, we have over 250 violations of parking in the yard.

It can be anything from forklifts, uh front loaders, box trucks, flatbeds, flatbeds, et cetera.

When this gentleman says there's 200, I mean there's 21 complaints, you are definitely invited.

You will see an amazing, this is what your problem is.

I know y'all are trying to grab a hold of this problem, but until you personally see it, you don't know this is way beyond, and I do have passion in my voice because we met with a couple of uh city council members back in June.

We actually had a spreadsheet, and we made it so simple from the first house to the last house of each individual street in the neighborhood.

I will admit that the director of 311 actually came out and spent an entire morning going over, but we only covered 35 percent because you ran out of time.

That's how vast this is.

And I will also say something.

But this is a survival out in the streets.

Our community, Overbrook is 765 home and home sites.

I had a gentleman that is involved with the real estate industry.

And he looked at, he went down each street, and he said, Ron.

I'm gonna mark off core curb appeal.

Everybody that has tried to sell a house knows what poor curb appeal is.

You can deduct 25 percent of the value of your house because of poor curb appeal.

Now, put this in perspective.

When the chief of police says in private meetings, he would love to see this ordinance die a quick death, he means it.

But I will also give him 28 million, almost 20 28.4 million reasons.

That is the lost revenue of those 765 homes, if you quit cut it down a quarter.

Now the city has city taxes on those homes at 0.519 per 100.

You know what?

The amount of money that the city is going to lose 14 million dollars in one neighborhood.

So the next time you see the chief of police and council lady pick, I would wish you would be the first one to address it.

What's frustrating is Overbrook is no more than one point five miles from Southeast Command.

That's what irritates us because we have been reporting these over and over and over again.

I do.

And I know okay.

Okay.

Anyway.

Thank you.

Go ahead.

I'll give my better half here.

All right, thank you.

We have Councilmember Peck in the in the queue.

Thank you, Chair.

And thank you both for your comments.

Um I appreciate you coming down today.

And I know that a number of us here have complained about you know wanting HPD to continue enforcing parking in the yard.

And I think that's why we're here today is um knowing that you know HBD historically has done that, and I know in District A, we get so many complaints about parking in the yard that our DRT officers, especially in the Northwest Division, were spending almost all their time just on this alone, and of course they have a bunch of other things to do as well.

So that's why I think we're shifting to um people who can actually have the time to do this enforcement.

So I'm very optimistic that you know, before when HPD was just doing it in between other assignments, now we're having people who are dedicated just you know to vehicles in our jump junk motor vehicles and um parking in the yard.

So okay, hopefully we'll see a good shift in.

Let me ask you one thing.

From a police standpoint, and this would be my last comment, then then I'll get my better half here.

From a police standpoint, it is a it's cause.

You know, the officer comes out, sees a vehicle, it's a cause.

The first thing he should be doing is running the plate.

A few years back, there was a vehicle that was parked on the yard.

We had an officer that was basically traffic violations, you know, on a collector street that we were having problems with.

He pulled over that same vehicle.

You know when he ran the plates, what he found out, it was wanted for a counterfeiting operation.

Yeah, no, you your point is well taken, and and I I'm almost 100% sure every every HPD officer out on a call involving a car is gonna run the registration on that car.

That's that's something they do.

So ma'am, did you you have some comments?

Well, one of the things that you know you come with complaints, and I have a number because I put together a spreadsheet in June and met with several of the council people.

Okay, it's like I went back, I entered a bunch of them into 311, they got discarded.

So we've been in limbo for almost a year.

My problem is if we knew this was coming and this transition, why did it take us over seven months before community enforcement even came up with a program?

Then he opens it up and he doesn't tell the 221 of us that have opted in, because believe me, I would have flooded him the first day.

And in fact, when I go home, I'm gonna sit there and flood him again, and he's got four inspectors that are gonna handle over 200 costs just in my neighborhood alone.

Um this isn't putting manpower where it needs to be.

So, because I have complaints, I also have suggestions.

Okay.

Number one, why can't we have drone footage that sweeps these streets, takes photographs, A runs the plates, B issues the citations.

Why can't we toughen the ordinance to say if you don't remove it in 48 hours and we're back, it gets towed, and you get fined.

So toughen these things up.

You want to be a world-class city, correct?

To get the World Cup and all the other things, you gotta address the aesthetics of what's happening.

And this the other thing is the values that are being lost by these self-serving individuals, they're picking the pockets of their neighborhood.

The people that live next door to them, they pick their pockets.

When you lose property value.

So somehow that has to come across.

And you know, it's low hanging fruit.

You can generate your revenues, you can start cleaning up your city by hitting these targets.

I know these officers think that's not sexy, and that's not, you know, we're not out there chasing the bad guys.

But those bad guys are hiding behind those cars.

I can guarantee it.

I'd like to see you all use some more technology.

And I'm sorry that 311 had we have to do it verbally, because that means that I can't download all the photographs that I've taken, and I have close to 300 of them that have been stored.

I can't send them a spreadsheet that says, here's the addresses, here's the violations, go for it.

So I I mean, this is just you know, this is just like a little band-aid on the problem.

All right, thank you.

Thank you for that, uh, and appreciate your comments on technology, the ability to lodge complaints online and upload photos and such.

Um they indicated that's coming.

Okay, so is it gonna be another year?

I'm anxious to see that as well.

Hopefully, it won't take that long.

I don't anticipate it'll take that long.

And love your idea about drones, and I'm sure they're listening, so we'll we'll see what they think about that.

Yeah, all right.

Thank you all.

Okay, okay.

All right, those those are all the speakers we had signed up to speak.

So if anyone else is here and would like to speak, I want to give you the opportunity, even if you haven't signed up.

All right, hearing none, uh, we will go ahead and call this meeting adjourned until uh early March when uh quality of life committee meeting will uh convene again.

Thank you all for being here.