And so we will go ahead and begin this Quality of Life committee meeting.

My name is Julian Ramirez.

I'm chair of this committee.

Also with us this afternoon, we have our Vice Chair and uh Vice Mayor Pro Tem Amy Peck as well as Councilmember Sally Alcorn in attendance.

And we are represented by staff as well from Councilmember Jackson's office, Councilmember Castillo's office, Councilmember Cayman's office, and online uh council member uh Thomas's office as well.

So we have a uh relatively short agenda today.

And uh director, I see you at the dice, so I'll go ahead and and let you get us started.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chairman.

Thank you for having us today.

Uh today we do have a short uh a short list of ordinances that we'd like to review with you.

We have Jared Briggs here.

Uh he's one of our great staff members who works with Melody Barr.

Um I'll I'll give a shout out to uh Jared because last week Melody was gone for a vacation and we thought we couldn't live.

And Jared and his team did a great job.

So we're glad that that Jared's here.

Um we have two issues that come up.

One is Catholic charities, uh HC and uh Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council.

Barbie Brashier, who is the CEO of the care coordinating council, is here.

And we also have the full team from the Salvation Army.

Um, and again, they do great work, and maybe you'll ask some questions to them.

Jared, can is is that okay?

You want to stand up out either way?

I think I can make it work.

Uh can everyone hear me okay?

Yep, hear you fine.

Thank you.

Okay, I'll go ahead and get started.

Uh again, I'm Jared Briggs.

I'm the division manager with uh public services and economic development.

Uh the first item is item 3A, and the housing and community development department is presenting an ordinance authorizing a second amendment to the agreement between the City of Houston and Catholic charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston Houston.

This amendment provides an additional three hundred thousand dollars of ESG and CDBG funding to continue providing rapid rehousing and homelessness prevention services to households that are currently homeless or at risk of homelessness.

The homelessness prevention services include rental and or utility payment assistance to prevent evictions or termination of services that may lead to an eviction.

Case management services are provided to rapid rehousing households placed into a unit to maintain their housing stability.

Case managers assist households with referrals to services, benefits, and resolution of any landlord tenant issues.

I do want to make a note that there is an error on the cover sheet that's in the packet uh as the goal should be 60 households to be served with this amendment, not 75.

Uh Catholic charities tracks outcomes for both activities and enters data for each household served into the homeless management information system, also known as HMIS.

The agency tracks self-sufficiency outcomes through a scoring matrix at initial intake, program exit, and follow-up.

Over 70 percent of those served increased their score at exit and follow-up, while 78 percent of households increase their income at time of program exit.

Over 90 percent of the homelessness prevention household served exited the program and remained remained permanently housed.

Uh Catholic Charities was initially selected by Childcare Council Inc., uh HCD's former administrator of the city's homeless services program as a service provider.

That agreement expired in March 24, and the city selected Catholic charities to avoid a gap in services and continue operations.

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

As of January 2026, the agency has spent 93% of its funding and served 47 households.

Catholic charities has provided services to the city since 2003, and there were no findings in the agency's most recent compliance monitoring.

Today we have Raina Suazo, program director, and Amber Johnson, program supervisor in the audience.

Thank you all for being here.

Any questions?

Any questions at this point?

Councilmember Alcorn.

About how on the TBRA is how how long is the average, you know, how many months rent did I get or years or whatever.

Well, the homelessness prevention, just to clarify, is different from TBRA in that this is assisting with rental arrears or a utility cutoff.

Okay, it's not TBRA.

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, thanks.

I want to recognize uh Councilmember Willie Davis is present as well as uh staff online from Councilmember uh Martinez office as well.

I've got a question for you.

I know we have tons of eviction cases in our JP courts right now, and um this um is geared towards helping some of those families, I would I would guess or not.

Well, these families maybe are facing an eviction, they've received an eviction notice, or they've received a utility cutoff notice uh that could lead to an eviction because you can't stay in a unit with no water or electricity.

Um not 100% on Catholic charities coordination with the JP courts, but they do refer clients that are in need of assistance to the program.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

You can go ahead and proceed.

All right.

Item 3B.

Uh the Housing and Community Development Department is presenting an ordinance authorizing a second amendment to the agreement between the City of Houston and the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council to provide up to an additional one, one hundred six thousand four hundred seventeen dollars and twenty cents in ESG and C D BG funding to continue the administration of nonprofit domestic I'm sorry, the administration of uh nonprofit domestic violence shelters and service providers previously funded through the city's homeless services program.

These services include emergency shelter for individuals and families that are fleeing domestic violence, rapid rehousing for families experiencing homelessness, assistance with short-term rent and utility payments to prevent eviction or termination of services, data reporting uh and system management, and this is comparable to HMIS and maintenance, and assistance in obtaining other services and benefits.

As the administrator, uh HCDVCC manages funding, program performance, data collection, and the reporting for the four subrecipient agencies.

Those are Houston Area Women's Center, Fort Bend Women's Center, the bridge over troubled waters, and Bay Area Turning Point.

In partnership with these victim services providers, uh HCDBCC will serve a minimum of 200 additional households who are homeless or at risk of homelessness and are survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and/or human trafficking.

Through January 2026, the agency and subrecipients have served 647 households in shelter with 456 or 70 percent exiting to permanent or transitional housing.

Administrative services include processing reimbursement requests, monitoring providers for performance, and compliance with city, state, and federal regulations, and providing technical assistance and training.

HC DBCC was selected after the department's agreement with the former administrator of the homeless services program ended in March 2024.

To avoid a gap in services, HCD selected the DV Council to operate as the administrator for the existing victim services providers previously selected by Childcare Council.

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

As of January 2026, the agency has spent approximately 87% of the funding allocated to them and served a total of 687 households, exceeding their original goal by 35 percent.

Uh ACDBCC has received funding from the city since 2022, and there were no findings during their most recent monitoring.

Sorry?

You can proceed.

I don't see any questions in the queue.

Continuing on, item 3C.

The Housing and Community Development Department is presenting an ordinance authorizing the Fifth Amendment to the agreement between the City of Houston and the Salvation Army of Houston.

Oh, can I please go back to the previous item?

I missed and did not recognize that we have Barbie Bruce Barbie Brashier in the audience, executive director of HCDBCC.

Thank you for being here, Barbie.

All right.

3C.

Uh so we're presenting an ordinance authorizing Fifth Amendment uh to the agreement with the City of Houston and the Salvation Army, providing up to an additional $325,000 in ESG and CDBG funds to continue operations of a homelessness prevention program serving households at risk of homelessness, a diversion program serving households about to enter the homeless response system, and an emergency shelter for those who are experiencing homelessness.

The Salvation Army will provide services to a minimum of 57 additional households.

Homelessness prevention offers rental and or utility payment assistance to prevent evictions or termination of services that may lead to an eviction.

Through December 2025, 35 households were served, and 100 percent remained housed and did not return for additional assistance.

Shelter operations at the Jones family residence have assisted 238 homeless families by providing safe, clean, temporary housing, food, essential services, and case management, with 57 percent or 136 of those exiting to housing.

The Salvation Army was selected as part of the COVID community housing program, phase two, also known as CHIP 2.0, through a joint request for expression of interest released in March 2022.

The current agreement will expire on April 30th, 2026.

And this amendment extends the term through April 30th of 2027.

As of December 2025, the agency has spent approximately 84% of its funding and served 1,685 households cumulatively cumulatively through their diversion, shelter, and homelessness prevention programs, exceeding their overall goal by 9%.

The agency has partnered with the city since 2012, and there were no findings in their most recent monitoring.

Today we have Captain Jeremy Walker, Area Commander, Robert Stutz, Chief Operating Officer, Wesley Martin, Business Manager, and Kenneth Eekins, Director of Navigation Services in the audience.

Thank you all for being here.

These are three great organizations.

Are you done?

Yes, I'm done.

These are three terrific organizations.

And when we think about our significant needs in this community in the whole area of people entering into homelessness and people who are actually homeless, uh domestic violence, these three organizations really stand out.

What you're seeing today is some making sure that we're gonna spend every dollar we get in ESG or CDBG, and one of the things I'm very indebted to these organizations is they can take some funding with shorter deadlines and be able to use those fundings very well.

Um when you look at these numbers, they're relatively small.

Um there are a couple of reasons because they're the end of other funding streams.

Um but also each of these organizations have significant philanthropic fundraising.

And we are lucky that we again are able to um blend the city's money with this philanthropic money with the work that they do.

So we are again indebted to their expertise in dealing with people in need, uh, their success rate, and their excellent ability to use this money wisely.

Thank you for pointing that out, uh Director, and I totally agree.

Uh and I'm glad y'all are here uh to it to to get some recognition.

Um you all do a lot of good.

Uh this is a huge, huge issue in Houston.

Uh, but we do what we can, and we couldn't do it without service providers like you all.

So thank you all for what you do.

The the uh the I wish I could think of a better way to say what's great about these organizations and some others, but I always say they're the and organizations.

If you ask them something, they'll say yes and it's just what these three organizations particularly do.

Director, you can proceed to your uh comments if you if you have additional.

Sure, that's sure.

Um I'd like to talk a little bit about homelessness in general.

Um couple of things.

Um I think maybe the most important is just an update on 419 emancipation.

Uh currently the city and um our department are using subcontractors, contractors to do some extra work there to make sure it's a hundred percent ready for the operator to come in as soon as the that is chosen and the dollars are there.

So we've had to do a few roof repairs and a few painting and uh and some cleaning, and it's gonna again it's gonna be a hundred percent ready.

The no foe for the operator has been uh has been out.

We've done the evaluations.

We're in a quiet period this time to make sure that they're not gonna be appeals.

Uh and then, Mr.

Chairman, we would like the opportunity to bring that recommendation once it's vetted by the mayor and his staff to the Quality of Life Committee so that we can get it in front of council as soon as possible.

Um I don't have a date for that, so I appreciate your patience in for me being able to call you and call your staff and say, can we have a specially called quality of life committee meeting?

We had wished we were doing it here, but we ran out of days, and so it'd just be in the next very few weeks.

Um we're here at your disposal uh director, so just let us know.

We'll we're happy to do a special call for for that purpose.

Do it in person or teams, but I just want uh but I'm doing I apologize.

Uh, the second thing is um a clarification.

Uh there was an NPR report uh about that said that the City of Houston was had fell short in our fundraising efforts.

Uh there's just some confusion in that.

And the best I can say is that the best way I can explain it, and is it's complex, is that we had been working on a very complex housing funding program for philanthropy that would focus on the actual housing and services uh that is led in that in that program and that fundraising is a joint city-county effort, but it's led by the coalition for the homeless.

And that is ongoing.

In fact, I'm missing a committee meeting right now on this.

We feel very optimistic about the efforts in uh fundraising from this side, which is the housing side, as well as the fundraising that's necessary to make sure 419 can have all of the services necessary, even those that are not available under uh with funding from DR24, TURS, or the city.

There are certain things that we still need fundraising, so we feel very good about fundraising on both of those.

Uh so the idea of it's falling short, I I don't think that's a uh accurate portrayal.

Um the uh coalition that had raised six million dollars, and there's more coming.

Uh again, the philanthropy wants to make sure that there's a good plan in place.

And this is particularly for to ha have people who are housed, it's the exit efforts from 419 and other and other entities.

Um so look forward to getting good news about how that's going.

Um our team, and I want to say who the team is because I like that.

Um myself, Larry Sadowhite, um, Kelly Young, Wayne Young, um were all at Metro for their board meeting and made a presentation on Metro on the success that we've had with the funds that they sent to the city to be expended on homelessness, and um we very much hope that there's um available funds next in this year, this upcoming year.

But it was a very successful presentation.

Yeah, I think we all realize it's an ongoing thing.

Um on this point, I think Councilmember Alcorn has some questions.

Thanks, Director.

And yeah, I saw the article too.

So you're saying fundraising from private sources is really twofold.

There's the housing piece, which is like, I'm assuming paying for housing after people leave.

That's right.

And that's what the coalition is leading that effort to gather those funds.

The funds we used to use ARPA money for and all that.

That's exactly.

And to and to match their 70 million dollars in continuous care funding.

Got it.

Same same thing.

Um, the the group is uh what I call that group is system funders.

Right.

Okay.

Who are really interested in how do you leverage government money and built keep the system going.

The other funders who are more interested in helping individuals, and I think they will be the groups that are will be supporting 419 along with corporations.

Okay, and then it's a different interest.

And and then our efforts are concentrated on 419 and for like operations money, and that you said there were certain things that DR-24 and the other TURS funding and whatever can't pay for.

Like give me some examples.

Uh food.

Okay.

Which is a big deal.

Uh pet care.

Okay.

Anything to do with pets, clothing, uh, those are the three main issues.

Okay.

Um I think one of the most important part is my um, I think all of our interests at 419 is having a place that the people want to stay around at, which means you need to make sure there are snacks and other things that are not going to be able to do that.

So all those kind of things, plus, I'm assuming to supplement OM.

Uh i uh uh yes, but I feel again, we feel pretty comfortable about having adequate funding uh for uh operations and management and the NOFO um uh said that we were going to use 10 million dollars a year for um um from the DR24 funding and up to $4 million a year of other funding that we will have bring in.

So we think it still is about a $14 million a year operation and maintenance project.

So the private fundraising goals for just 419, what is your goal?

I do not have a goal.

Okay.

The uh and and and even the I don't have an access point.

The reason is is that the operator who we choose um will either must be a government organization or 501c3, and the fundraising will be done through that entity.

Okay, and we think that's a much more effective way.

And because Salvation Army and Catholic charities are here, as all we talk about all this fundraising, we have to do it in a way that doesn't hurt the existing entities that do so much for people experiencing homelessness and have much easier way to deal with them.

Um and 419 is is really going to be a great place for them because those entities are gonna have an opportunity to pick and choose the individuals who with whom they will be most successful.

And the selections going on now for the operator?

We are at the very end of it.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

And on that, Director, uh, I had heard earlier uh how many had applied, but can you confirm how many how many you had two entities who applied, and um if I have to turn around, I can't know if I can mention who they are.

I don't know the system.

Um I will I will say the team we work with keeps me on my toes to make sure there's tremendous transparency and tremendous fairness.

I I will tell you that the HCD is does a great job to make sure that when these are funds are available, we can all tie back to fairness, and there's not one person, including me that can put our finger on the scale.

Okay, thank you for that.

Did you want to continue?

That's really what I have.

Um, and again, if you would like to ask any questions from our visitors here from Salvation Army, uh Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Committee, or um or uh Catholic charities, I'd be happy to bring them up.

Okay.

Um I don't see any questions in the queue, so I think we're okay.

These people are a lot smarter than me.

We were here.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you, Director.

Appreciate the presentations.

And uh at this point, we can go ahead and go to the public comment portion of the meeting.

Is Margot Fendrich here?

Margot Fendridge.

All right.

Uh Dominic, uh, why don't you come up?

How are you this afternoon?

Uh great.

Um you can go ahead.

Um you hear me?

Okay.

Okay.

Um, of course, I did my 96 to the red line and walked over here.

However, there's a new sign up.

The county just put up a new sign at Blue Lee Park.

So there that movement is coming.

I thought and I thought this was the appropriate committee theme to rejoice with that.

Uh my question is with you're giving money to Galveston Houston or Status.

Now I'm Catholic, so uh I'm not trying to be anti-church here, but I think when we give money to an organization to help us, which I don't mind, but I think the organization that we help help, we have to make sure that not only they're spending our money correctly, but any money that they are given are spent correctly so that okay, suppose they get money from somewhere else, and if they're not doing it right, you know, that could be blowback on us.

So I think you know, we have to be very, very, very careful about uh about uh stuff like that.

Uh one other thing, this sounds sounds mean, but I was involved with the with hand radio communications during the superdome to Astrodome evacuation into the cream event.

And my thing is I hate to say this, but maybe we're gonna have to look at something.

Uh we had almost 50,000 people on the surface of the Astro Dome.

It was the last major event in that stadium so far.

And my question is until we get something a little bit more permanent, maybe we need to look at the possibility, not 50,000 people in a build building, but maybe have cots with reasonable space with a you know or uh you know a little thing where they can store the people storage stuff.

Males in one place, females in another.

I think that we got plenty of buildings that are not being used that maybe could be temporarily converted.

The GRB during the Houston Marathon actually has a mash hospital in it.

Memorial Herman usually has a puts the emergency room in the GRB.

So if anybody gets you know has problems on the course and says overloading the hospitals, they bring them to GRB, stabilize them and then send them out.

So I think there's various other ways.

The links to that to wait and sign in for the for uh coming tomorrow.

I can't get in.

So who's I talk to you?

You guys.

Well we'll make sure that's working properly.

Okay, I'll be here here in the morning.

And and anybody who wants to talk can always join in at the end.

Also, lastly, uh with I think another group that needs to be a part of this is Metro.

Metro needs to have a representative here both from the police department and from operations, you know, security, and then the people who are homeless, they don't have a car, they gotta get around.

They don't have to be here physically.

I mean, we do have Zoom, but I think Metro needs to be an intimate part of having the solving this problem.

And with that, with the new fare system, I tried something today.

If you don't have my uh P card or the new card, and you don't have change, you can tap with your credit card, and it works.

I think that's another thing.

I know uh councilman Aaron wants the uh school district to talk.

But I think once a year, or maybe twice a year, I think Metro should come in here and tell the telehorse what's going on.

I think so y'all would know when the consistents ask y'all, y'all have some idea what's going on.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dominic.

Uh, I'm time is up.

I'll talk to y'all later.

Thank you.

Thanks for being here.

All right.

Um does anybody else who would like to speak uh want to come forward?

Um you don't have to, but if you didn't get to sign up, here's your chance.

Okay.

All right.

All right.

With that, uh, we will go ahead and adjourn the meeting until our next meeting, uh, which should be next month, unless there's a special called meeting.

But thank you all for being here.