Okay.

Picky Picky Picky.

All right.

I want to call to order this planning and economic development committee meeting of the city council.

C in Jackson for on May the 14th, Thursday, 2026, beginning at 335.

Okay.

The appreciate everybody's attendance here.

We got three councilmen on the dias and and councilman Grizel, President Grisell's on line.

And I think LaShea Brown Thomas says somewhere in the in the house.

So hopefully she'll be here shortly.

The um is an any announcements or comments anybody wants to make beginning the meeting here prior to getting ready up going down the agenda?

I just think um first of all, thanks everyone for for being here.

Hopefully we can push forward towards a lot of work, especially on our blight control and and other issues.

But uh Mr.

Chair, I think we need to uh make sure we introduce, see who's here.

That's a good point.

So I knew in fact I I'd uh coordinated with the um uh mayor's brain trust, Gerald Sibley and Nick Lott to uh try to get the Bloomberg fellows here that I had seen on a on they showed up on a video at the neighborhood association meeting.

Um are they here in the house?

Can you stand up and and tell us uh introduce yourselves?

Uh there's Mr.

Lott coming in the door too, and and tell us uh what your bona fides are and and what your aspirations for the city of Jackson are good afternoon.

I'm Dr.

Francine Sutton, and I'm the civic designer on the City of Jackson's innovation team.

Hello, I'm Paris, Dr.

Paris Smith.

I'm the data analytics manager on the innovation team as well.

So two years ago, the city of Jackson was selected as a Bloomberg City, and we're on a grant funded role until 2027.

So pretty much our priorities are driven by the mayor's priorities, and one of the key initiatives that we were brought in to assist with in the assist the city of Jackson, what building capacity is that was on housing innovation.

And for the past year and a half, we conducted housing research just to understand some of the the challenges that Jackson is facing in terms of blight, vacant housing, and also the housing need across all demographic groups and across all income groups.

And at that last week, we shared some of our research finding at the JN's board meeting, and one of the things that we did since we were here in November and December, we hosted ideation sessions with both city staff and residents, and we were able to present some of our four ideas that we learned from those ideation sessions with community.

And one of the first ideas that we wanted to present to community at that meeting was to streamline the permitting process.

And the second idea is to improve the communication between city staff and residents, and that's with the 311 app.

And then the third idea that uh was the most exciting for everyone was to adopt the block.

So we wanted to have the opportunity to do some micro-level neighborhood beautification efforts, and then the fourth one, which will be one of the longer um hurdles that we hope to get technical support on, is updating the land use and zoning policies.

Okay, do you have a I mean you're going pretty pretty quick?

I I mean I imagine some questions are popping up already.

Uh, but do you have a this laid out any any kind of way?

Uh overview or format or just what your uh goals are.

Um, yes, I do, but I didn't prepare that for this meeting since this was the uh planning and economic development meeting, but I do have a uh I team one pager that I can share with council.

That'd be great.

Thank you.

Yes, yeah.

Yeah.

Um so at the Jan meeting, and you presented this information.

What was the what was the discussion then?

So some of the discussion we we offered was that the city is on the past city council agenda that we're hoping to go after the love your block grant application, so we can offer micro grants to neighborhood associations if we're awarded this opportunity.

So one of the things that we learned from the community is that beautification efforts require funding, and at the micro grant level, that can empower neighborhood associations or nonprofits or even individuals to provide uh to apply for these opportunities to lead community resident-led opportunities for beautification.

Okay, so when um tell me about the grant, is there what is what's our chance of getting it?

When will we know something about it?

Things of that nature.

So right now the grant application is deadline is uh June the first, and it's for 270,000 dollars, 70,000 is for the micro grants, and up to 200,000 is for two fellows to lead that program, and that's through the Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation for Johns Hopkins University.

So we the city has to submit a grant application.

Application to Bloomberg.

Yes.

And and then they had some that will evaluate that and determine whether they're gonna get it.

Yes, during the fall, that's when we will learn a decision for that opportunity.

So are y'all in charge of putting the application together?

Okay.

All right.

Yes, sir.

Who who do you answer to?

Who does it is Nick Lott in charge of y'all?

Who's in charge of y'all?

So um unfortunately, um uh you guys you've poached our innovation team director, director Brown, who's over the planning and development director.

So pretty much re report to the chief of staff, Nick and Miss Yika Hoover.

So we pretty much are okay.

Yeah.

Answer a lot of bosses, but okay.

All right.

So um now uh Miss Brown told me I had a separate meeting with her.

She said that uh, you know, when we had asked for a homeless or an unhoused division, she said that she wanted it called strategic initiative so we could be available there would be availability for more funding and and other things.

So that's the capacity you're working now.

Yes, just to find uh grant opportunities.

Okay, and what about the other uh unhoused issues?

So we've been attending the weekly clutch sessions as well.

Okay, I was there about uh three weeks ago, and I think I was the only one from the city there.

Uh at that time, it was over at the E Center.

Yeah, so we're still in the planning phases for that for that effort.

There'll be a um a fundraising ask for that initiative.

Okay, and this if you don't mind, sir.

Uh this is one of the things I had on my list, and and that is this just this homeless piece.

Now, how is that gonna work and what are your goals there?

Because initially, uh again, when we asked for a homeless division, I foresaw uh us uh having someone that could coordinate with the stew pots and with the police and with with everybody involved with the homeless issues uh and could help with um squatters and policy and so forth.

Is that the capacity that you're gonna be working?

So right now we're still evaluating that.

Um I'm not sure what our limitations are as far as um hiring more staff, but we would require perhaps another coordinator role to support with something at that magnitude.

So um this is Angela on here.

Uh hi, Angela Brown, planning development director.

So at this time, uh, yes, we are in the planning phrase phases through this initiative.

Again, uh Jill uh from Stu Pot is uh major planner and coordinator of this initiative with us as we work to develop a strategy to address the unhoused.

We're also working with the team of care as well as downtown Jackson Partners, our leadership team that's working to put together this uh strategy that we're planning to implement to help address the uh the unhoused.

I think as I mentioned, our previous conversations, our first kind of the initial phase one, I will say to address this is gonna look at um targeting those encampments that we have in the area.

Um I think we have about 50 encampments, so that's gonna be our first strategy.

This will not look at squatters or panhandler handlers at this moment, um, because I think some of the major issues are just the people sleeping in parks as well as those who have the encampment sites that we get the most um I think please complain about uh Dr.

Uh Smith.

Okay, um, would you like me to talk about the blight?

Well, just whatever.

Okay, so I run the data portion of the team.

I've been collecting data since I started last year in July.

Um, and when we're talking about uh blight data, what I've seen is Ward 5 has the highest density of blight.

And if we're award.

Yeah.

And if we're gonna eliminate blight, we're number one.

Sorry about that.

Just yeah, and if we're gonna um uh eliminate blight, I think we have to talk funding and talk about more resources because we go after the love your uh grant app love your block application, that's only gonna be 70,000 allocated towards those neighborhoods.

So one of the things that we were discussing is targets in the blight on the main corridors.

So if we are doing demolitions, if we are cutting grass, nobody ever sees it because it's in the neighborhood.

So if we can go on those main corridors and targets it, also put up signs letting them know, hey, we're working in this area, we did this work so we can get credit for the work.

So that's just some of the some of the ideas that I had.

Um right now I'm not I'm not quite sure if uh if you know if we need credit, folks just want to see stuff done.

And uh and uh and I think it's important that we do go into the neighborhoods.

They a lot of those folks have been waiting the longest, you know, for these houses to be torn down and properties to be cleaned up.

Definitely I I definitely agree with you.

So um that's my uh job is to collect the data I've been collecting data on uh the police um data I've been collecting data like I said on the vacancies and the property values um and those are some of the things I came up with so uh you can I oh go ahead afternoon uh deputy director planning and development I think to you uh uh to Paris's point councilman hardly what we want to do is target it and so our targeting starts on the corridors of Terry Road and McDowell Road and then into the neighborhoods there so it looks like there's something going on on the main corridors as well as in the inroads of those communities so it's not just the main corridors but we'll start with a specific area and go forward.

Thank you thank you let me let me um try to provide some context for this this is great I'm glad to hear that y'all have been doing this work I I'll one sort of quick background a question I'm curious what you what subjects you got your doctorates in and where you got your doctorate degrees or your your um academic studies can you probably that uh real quickly yes um I have my degree in computational data enabled science and engineering from Jackson State University okay recent taxi state baby all right and I moved back home to Jackson Mississippi for this role my PhD is from the University of Central Florida in Tex and Technology and my background is in urban planning as well.

Okay so y'all are how many months do you have left on your Bloomberg scholarship Bloomberg fellowship?

Till fall of 27 oh so you got a full year to to to go on your Bloomberg fellowship okay and this Bloomberg after at that point do they send you somewhere else or are you gonna stay in the general vicinity of Jackson if you if if you know so the idea when we pursued the Bloomberg grant it was always for them to be here three years to do innovation in Jackson and then the city would figure out how to bring them on to the city's uh role okay very good well that this is great to have you all I didn't you know I hadn't met y'all before I think it's a great asset for the city and appreciate the work you've done to this point.

Let me try to provide some context um on how that work how we can hopefully monetize the work they've been doing and that is if the first item in the agenda here is discussion on blight and residential and commercial properties.

Way back when we set up when councilman Hartley and I set up the the light task force we are two years ago I guess it was about this time two years ago one of the people we met with we met with Wanda Evers and we had a conference call with her and Shay Williams who's the head of the HUD which is oversees she oversees the state of Alabama and the state of Mississippi and she happens to live here in Jackson and and she's still around and she's you know she had a meeting last week uh over at the state capitol and one of the things she gave us councilman heart and I myself was a city master plan template that if we're gonna apply to HUD for money which I think we should because is is we got to follow the template so we've got these and I've got copies for for you all anybody else that wants to see them and we began in in this early days working on a a draft and I've got the copies of that it's not complete it's won't by any means but but y'all seem like the right people to you could really flesh this out and and bring it to a final document so we can actually apply to HUD and try to get some resources from them.

I think that should be this it's one of my top priorities and I hope that the administration would consider the top priority of them as well because what one of my conclusions and I've got some old maps over here that are there for anyone else to see one of them shows the city of Jackson in the small map with like 1425 you know tax forfeit properties.

The other one has a list of 2,400 tax forfeit properties one of the problems I had I called up the um reached out to the set to to Central Mississippi Planning and Development District last week to see if I getting an updated map and they do not have the updated information from the Secretary of State's office loaded under their GIS system where they create the maps.

So we we need to get updated maps obviously if we're gonna try to tackle this problem but the what the my primary takeaway from that map and all the people I showed it to I showed it to every law enforcement leader in in within you know 50 miles at the city county state and federal level and they were all aghast at how big the problem is it's an industrial scale problem.

But the what the my primary takeaway from that map and all the people I showed it to, I showed it to every law enforcement leader in in within you know 50 miles at the city, county, state, and federal level, and they were all aghast at how big the problem is.

It's an industrial scale problem.

We can't fix it one house at a time, which is the way the city had been trying to go after it by sending a repair crew out to cut the grass or whatever.

It's it needs an industrial scale solution, and that's where a master plan submitted to the uh housing and urban development.

They keep you know, that's their type of solution is an industrial scale solution, which is what we need.

So my my goal is to try to get bring this uh what's currently now a draft and a template to a final master plan, and y'all seem very qualified to help us try to get to that to that point with with the work you've already done and and uh uh continued work in coordination with with the other people in the planning department, whether it's Mr.

Von Anderson or any other uh the others.

Um any comments?

Um first of all, we we're glad to have uh this level of expertise working on this issue.

Thank you.

Um now uh and and with my colleagues again, we've been working through this, but we got to get this down.

I've I just reviewed your little plan here.

Uh I think we need to go into more depth in order for it to be uh suitable for that application.

Uh and what I had envisioned is Mr.

Brunson and Ms.

Graves looking at okay, uh uh and on the street, just taking a neighborhood and say this is how we're going to do it, and then getting with uh public works, because they are part of it too, and saying this is how we're going to work together.

You devise the strategy.

I mean, I've uh just briefly reviewed this, and it looked like it's a lot of overarching uh policy type stuff.

I think we need to get into some to the weeds, and that is let's pick a neighborhood and let's go ahead and develop a plan where where we're looking at okay, uh this is how we're going to do it.

This is how we're going to identify uh how we're going to attack those streets.

And then this is how our public works is going to get integrated into that.

So I think if we could come up with a little bit more detail at the street level.

Yes.

So we have started coming up with a plan.

We have we've mapped out everything.

We actually have an up-to-date map that Maurice created, our GIS manager here.

He's perfectly capable of creating these things.

Yeah, no, no, excuse me.

I'm sorry.

He mentioned 1400, but actually the agreed upon number that uh that the Secretary of State's office is comfortable with, because at one time we were talking about 24 tax forbidden properties, 2400.

Now they said they are comfortable with 1900.

So that's even larger number than that.

So and again, I agree.

Uh Maurice is amazing with the GP uh uh GIS, but it's gonna be a concerted effort.

We gotta get everybody in and all the input, and we have to refresh the data because at one time we had data, uh, but I think things have changed, you know, significantly.

Yes, we'll coordinate that definitely.

Okay.

Okay.

What questions y'all have of us?

Let me just hold on, let me just say this.

Um, so the information that you guys have because applying to HUD is very specific, and we would need to know what the funding pots are and how we qualify for them, whether or not we have the staffing capacity or need to bring someone on board to do so.

So those items that you have, we would definitely want to take a look at them.

Uh Councilman Harley is correct.

It is a coordinated effort with our innovation team with our community housing and community development team, which currently gets our hood funding, as well as a uh Mr.

Brunson and and Miss Sam here, who is a boots on the ground working with our distressed community.

So we'll definitely take a look at it, but we do need to.

Yeah, can you send us that request?

Okay, this is the parameters.

This is what we're doing.

No, I was just talking about your stuff that you wanted us to look at.

Well, here's here's the stuff.

Right.

I got a copy.

I'm just saying, uh, if there's any requirements from your end that we need to feed into HUD, specifically, like you were saying, uh personnel or whatever it's gonna take.

Well, we would specifically need the funding sources, but yes, I'll send that to you because each one of them they're different and they have different requirements.

You need this, this I think the funding source is HUD.

Well, Hood has different pots of money, so they have CBG, they have to work with Ms.

Williams on that.

I I don't I don't know.

We we can we can take what whatever requests you have and present it to Ms.

Williams and get that information.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, okay.

So the okay, did the two doctors have any other questions for us?

Yes, we sent out the love your grant um request, love your block um support requests to your secretaries, I believe.

And so if you can just get those back in so as so we can submit that along with the application that's due at the end of this.

And at this time, I don't have any um additional requests at this time.

Okay, I think one of the things that that um needs to be a part of this application, because I think there is a an amount of uh an area for uh creativity, you know.

In other words, we're they're they're looking, and we we've tried to do some of the background work, and Mr.

Hartley's worked really hard on um ordering equipment.

So the public works department is properly staffed.

Well we need staff the the personnel as well, but we we need to have equipment that we're ready to go put to work out in these different areas.

We're just not gonna sit on the sideline and say, hey, come fix all this stuff.

We've got to be out on the out of the playing field.

And and I think that's what they're looking for is uh initiative on our part that we're anxious to fix this and doing our part, but we need assistance from them.

And so uh I think the clutch program that I don't know much about before you get into clutch is going to be, yeah, that's the uh the unhoused part.

Uh but before we get into that, uh one thing you spared my thought on.

Oh okay.

You then you put the clutch in my mind.

Um it'll come back, but it's just another question for you for you two.

It'll come back.

Go ahead.

So what but the so the feedback loop between the council and work that Mr.

Harley and I and others have done and y'all need to be, we it's not like here we're gonna let you go for six months and come back to us six months from now.

It needs to be, you know, on about you know, every two weeks or so, get together and say this is where we stand.

And this is this is what we need input from the council.

If you want input from the council, and likewise, we need to get input from y'all as as what you've done, where you stand, and other ideas that come up.

Uh the clutch program, my understanding is it it requires funding as well.

Is that correct, Nick?

Do you agree?

Just go ahead and start.

Uh so we explain.

So this I want to give make sure you all have this this um HUD outline.

Okay, yeah.

And we'll we'll continue to stay in touch and working on this program with the goal of getting it um to HUD sometime in the next six months.

Uh that's right.

We got to get we can't we can't dilly dally around it.

I'm I was thinking 60 days.

Well, if if we if it's done in 60 days, so much better.

Well, we I just want to say we just secured a 1.3 million dollar grant with land.

1.5 million.

So we're perfectly capable.

Okay of this.

Yes, yeah, okay.

Yeah.

Outstanding.

So um the code enforcement.

Mr.

Brunson, you got any update?

You want to say anything about code enforcement at this point in time?

Anything on numbers?

How many code enforcement officers you got?

If you do you need more um re resources in any way.

Robert Brunson, manager of code enforcement.

Uh first, I want to talk about what we have done in office in the last two months.

We have taken everyone with a code enforcement title and put it under one uh division that's community improvement uh for zoning, business license, rental registration, and code enforcement itself.

And what that does to give us 12 officers instead of the five or six we have in recent years.

And each one also has a certain part.

We have a north division, central division, the south division.

Each one of those divisions has uh four officers and one supervisor in each one of those divisions.

So it's like a total of 15 people on the team now.

So that's kind of making it a lot easier.

Uh get a call in today, you can be answered with no within the hours, the other days now.

So we're averaging 20 uh inspections a day per officer.

So it's getting us well over a hundred inspections every day.

And we're trying to even increase those numbers because the backlog is you imagine how that how they look when we just had just a few officers.

Uh we do still have some challenges uh that we have here, some of the challenges that we can inspect all day long.

When it comes to cure, we got to have finances for that.

We need uh better laws to hold people accountable for motif into it, you know.

Where's uh well we're going out to people and not properties because the properties can be set aside for three years and they go to the state for forfeit, tax forfeit, but the person could walk away.

Uh we got we have a lot of um businesses that's here with no licenses, so we we've targeted that.

We have zoning uh violations, we have a backlog on all of those different visions for before they came to us.

So we're knocking those down every week.

No, we're taking not just hundreds, so you're talking about thousands of cases that we're taking, you know, uh getting the backlogs out, holding the people accountable.

Uh we try to, we got pretty good judges, I said now because uh the arraignment and the trials are two weeks apart instead of a month or 60 days apart.

So we're we're uh doing better with that.

We're just come out of each one of our administrative hearings is is 125 or above uh cases that go on, no, that's every two weeks, so we actually 250 cases going to court.

And we those are probably gonna increase, and we're gonna try to increase the numbers of cases that's going to environmental court to at least 100 every time we have uh environmental uh cases.

All right, Ms.

Harry.

Yeah, if you don't mind.

Um I appreciate you bringing up the number of code officers, but I I do agree with you.

Our problem isn't the number of code officers.

Our problems is we have them running around in circles because folks aren't compliance, is that issue.

So you have mentioned changing laws or changing ordinance.

You just give it to us.

Whatever you see, we can't understand your the world the way you guys see it.

You all the experts.

If you see something that we need to change, please, please, please get it in our hands and we'll take it from there.

Uh as one with the, I guess the highest amount of uh life.

Uh I'm I'm ready.

I'm ready to put together any ordinance or anything we need to do.

But we're gonna need your input.

You know, uh what one thing I got on here is to burn out properties.

That continues to be a problem.

Oh, yes.

How are we gonna handle that?

Do we have anyone from legal here?

We we need to be handling that uh uh in some kind of way.

Uh because now folks are walking away from properties leaving in the neighborhoods.

You are aware of it, I'm aware of it.

Those are the kind of issues that we really need to uh put some teeth into.

I appreciate it.

But one thing I want to know is how is our success rate once we take folks to court?

Once we from beginning to end, what are we looking at for is uh our ability to get stuff done?

Well, because I I don't want to be just running you guys.

And you're in your right, you know.

So but I say we have great success when we make people tangible.

A lot of people hide behind the LLCs.

Uh we're we're going out to register agents now.

Uh if you register to an agent to uh handle these people, um case of problems, uh properties, we're going out to you, and all of a sudden we get a we get an owner.

If you see we have good success with getting apartments uh to court now.

We're getting a lot of success in there.

And what we what we're trying to do now is not to be uh reactive but proactive when it comes to apartments.

If we start getting a lot of calls on apartments, we want to talk to someone in at the CAO level, uh CEO level, and not just the manager, because they'll change the manager out quick.

So that would be trying to do if you if you don't have a maintenance person, you don't have grass cutting, you have a problem there.

That's not even checking the water bill, they're just the basic living, you know.

So we found that out, and we have a few apartments that's come uh that have fire managers and hire new people because of what we're doing.

We still have the same ones that we're still trying to go through uh uh through the next process of the court with Chapel Ridge, um Blossom and apartments like that.

So it's just but it's going pretty good, but some of those are in other courts too, so it kind of hinder what we can do.

Uh so we're we do have good success.

We have a lot of owners resolve cases.

We're doing better with that though when we find the owner.

A lot of times though uh that's fine, what I mean find the owners, not just the address, it's a phone number to call someone.

You know, so we we're doing that.

So that's kind of helping us out.

I know we talked about numbers earlier, but really really we got about 6,500 cases that's that's um ready.

Uh I mean four, what 4500 cases ready to go.

We got 201 commercial properties.

We got um 4,000 342 residential cases.

Can you repeat those comments again, please?

Yeah, what 201 commercial properties.

We got 4,342 residential properties.

And I kind of brought a little list here with you all with all the numbers and per ward, of course, the war five and war three is the highest two that need to help.

But also think it's a good thing to put a uh a cost to that what we would need for that.

No, uh no, we're going out to money, but we got to show what need we we have for that.

So I also have that prepared for you too to give you everybody a copy of this.

So we're trying to uh tech there, but we got to do uh change some laws.

We got to go me personally.

I think we got to go out to people and properties, not just properties, because you can walk away at the end of time, you can house can burn down, you can get 250,000 insurance policy.

If you can walk away, go build somewhere else and leave this house in Jackson like this.

So we got to we got some things to uh be presented to you all for what we feel they will work.

Any other just maybe just uh in the interest of time because we've got a number of things what get to Councilman Parkinson had a question.

Thank you.

Um yeah, so we recently had a meeting with Ward 7 neighborhood leaders on this very topic, and I appreciate everyone who is part of those efforts, and I think some stuff has already come from that, and I think there'll be more likely as it sort of soaks in.

There was a lot of information that was covered.

Um, but one thing I think we learned during that meeting is uh one of the problems beyond the the lack of just money and resources that we have for this is is the lack of bandwidth in doing the inspections and the follow-up inspections and the documentation.

And as we left that meeting, some of the neighborhood leaders of Ward 7 went back and they did some research and they found that there are municipalities around the country that actually thank you so much that actually deputize volunteers and the city trains these volunteers extensively, 20, 25 hours of training.

And um, and there's rules like you can't go into any property that you have a conflict of interest with, and yada yada yada yada yada.

But basically what you do is you get an army of volunteer code enforcement officers.

And they do a lot of the the because a lot of the work is just taking pictures, but to open like uploading it into open gov, doing all of this bureaucratic work that is is a stopgap in the process.

And I have 20 people right now that will go through this process.

Um, and I think we need to look seriously at establishing this program and getting that up and running, because that's a real quick way to add to our capacity, and uh it won't cost us anything except maybe we can throw them a pizza party.

Yeah, you know, I mean it's just gonna it it's just gonna maximize the the efforts that we do.

And I'm sure that there's there's people all over the city who are sick of blight and who want to be part of the solution, and if and we can train them and we can equip them with what they need, and they can do a lot of this work for us.

So I I want us to get real serious about setting up a program like that.

So do you know if it takes some sort of ordinance to in order to enable that, or can we just try it out as a trial basis?

I think we'll need to look into it.

I think we should establish a meeting.

We can we can have a connection.

I'm I'm sure Mr.

Martin would want to.

And we can do it in Ward 7, just see how it goes.

We would love to.

One of the things that was brought up during your meeting um meeting there, Councilman, is uh from our judges, so we need to have them a part of that discussion because this these folks have to be uh I mean, we're looking at stuff going before the court, and the judges are going to want to know maybe that they're all prepared.

So in that discussion.

Well, we can loop them in, but there is precedent for this.

There's municipalities that are doing this right now and are having success with it.

Um, I'm not saying that the volunteers are gonna act as our attorneys and they're gonna be representing us in court, but taking some of these pictures and uploading it to open govern and doing some of this this other typework.

Um, I think there's precedent for that.

And I think the judges expressed interest in new creative solutions.

Um our backlog is ridiculous.

I mean, it's just ridiculous.

Just to put it in context, there's over 800 in Ward 7 alone.

What that means is if we have no other new properties, and we take one property every single day, uh weekdays, weekends, Christmas, everyone's birthday, whatever.

If we do one a day, our administration will be done by the time we just handle the backlog in Ward 7 alone.

And that's assuming we get no new properties.

We need we don't need to tinker around the edges.

We heard at that meeting we spent an hour and a half going step by step by step.

And it's crazy.

And so we can't just tinker with can we tighten it up here or there?

We should do that.

We need radical new solutions to get caught up on our backlog and then make sure that moving forward we get some things straight.

Well, I'd like to ask you for to set up a trial of that uh process working with the planning department.

Yes, sir.

Uh and and listing your your volunteers.

That's great.

I've got a one guy in Ward 1 that's took a took up picking up litter, lock ward, and he's become famous.

Yeah, he's great.

For just doing it on his own initiative.

So I'm all for trial and error if we can do that.

That's that sounds great.

I appreciate that.

Yep.

Now one of the other things I wanted to get to here.

Um we first of all the next line, and uh, and that's because this is limited time, is is um ordinance updates to address burned out properties.

That's a really issue, it's a serious issue that that impacts the whole city.

Um is anybody know where that stands?

Do we have any uh research or anything on on what that would look like?

Uh and there's no one from legal here.

We just need to.

No, there's Mr.

Williamson's on.

Oh, Mr.

Williamson.

Yeah, Mr.

Williamson, are you can you hear us?

He's on mute.

I mean, it's his microphone thing shows shows on mute.

Yeah, if we can have the legal, we need a legal determination and and start researching that.

That is a big problem.

I mean, we would though what I would do would suggest that legal department, whoever works with the planning department on the legal side, reach out to other cities and then and find out, you know, let's don't reinvent the wheel, let's find somebody who's got a model to uh regulation regarding burned out properties when they leave, and that and then this case, so many of the properties aren't worth anything, so they just leave and go to go either move to another house in Jackson or move Lou move out of Jackson and there's this burned out hump there that that stays there for years.

I I did I've got some in in Ward One that are like that, they've been there for um multiple years, and and there's nobody in charge.

I mean, so we gotta, I don't know whether you do it through the fire department or through uh planning or whatever, but we need to come up with a solution there and and uh start with some, you know, I'd start with a regulation that's that some other city is written and and see what we can make it work there.

It sounds like that's under the purview of planning um in the same vein as Mr.

Parkinson's suggestion for the um code enforcement team.

We'll have to look at what surrounding municipalities are doing, what surrounding states are doing, and then trying to implement an ordinance that falls in line with the laws of the state of Mississippi, working with our um planning attorney carry Johnson.

So we'll definitely take a look at both of those things and try to do that.

Probably 50 or 100 of the properties that are tax forfeited are burned out properties.

They're they're already on the map there.

So but anyway, thank you.

I appreciate that.

So let's move to the next one here.

Uh the um, because I want to find out more about this.

I talked with some citizens this morning about it.

Um the clutch program, and uh and it's my understanding that um Miss Brister has a role in that.

Are you involved with the clutch program, Miss Brister?

Can you can you uh and and and Mr.

Anderson, whatever, can can we get a sort of overview just on this and find out uh how much money needs to be raised in order to implement something along the lines of the clutch program.

He answered your question.

Did you have a question?

I assume everybody here on the council knows who Miss Bristeter is and her role.

Okay, Mr.

Anderson.

Yes, the uh clutch program is an initiative that we're trying to work with downtown Jackson Partners, StewPot, Mississippi Continuum of Care, and several other uh organizations to deal with unhoused individuals and also deal with encampments.

Um there is a component where it entails us raising money.

I think it's about 20,000 that we're looking for the initial pilot program for that.

So that's the first leg of it, and that entails identifying encampments and how we handle those and going in and making contact, first contact with them and addressing some of those issues initially and make sure we have a uh authentic proof of concept that works that does it in a way that's holistic but also resolves the issue so it doesn't happen again because what happens oftentimes with um encampments is you'll remove it, but individuals come back.

Some of it happens because some of our community partners provide um tents for them.

Sometimes it happens because they're providing some additional services, and so they congregate in those certain areas, and so what we want to do is dissipate that and put them in way and homes and then um locations where they'll find the kind of wraparound services that they deserve.

Um that's why we're bringing together partners like Mississippi Continual Care and uh several others.

So I guess my question is um maybe uh if Mr.

Tavison wants to, you know, interject here too.

Uh I've heard about the need to fundraise.

So is is the are we in a do we have to wait until we raise money before we really get into this?

How are how I've got encampments up in Ward One and are terrorizing businesses and all kinds of issues?

It's really hard to keep commercial properties filled within it when you've got these people wandering around that care all the ladies that work in the business.

So you get they end up trying to move into Richland or some other what's the timeline between raising the money, how much we have to raise and and implementing the clutch program.

Hello, I don't know.

Can you all hear me?

This is Angela.

So we have to raise about three million dollars for the clutch program, is what we'll be fundraising for.

We're looking to do a pilot this summer with the official start, and our target date is October 1, is a start date, but we try to do a proof of concept target uh pilot that'll cost uh I think as Bob mentioned a little under $50,000 to get that started.

So that will take place this summer, but we still have to raise three million dollars to uh of a 10 million dollar initiative.

So who's the three million dollars go to so that's the fund the entire program?

So um this is a two-year pilot that we're looking to fund.

Uh we have three million within the city.

Uh we're looking to partner with uh one of our partners again uh that's gonna match us additional three million.

And so from our um private sector, philanthropy sector, we're looking to raise an additional uh three million dollars.

And this will be support three uh three prongs with initiative.

One is to get people into housing, so that's the rental assistance, the other is to do um rapid uh rehousing or rapid response that looks at whether we put someone in a hotel, quick shelter, bus ticket, whatever they need to keep them from going to a long-term homelessness situation, and then the last uh phase of that will fund supportive services, and so it'll fund our provider community within the within Jackson and our surrounding communities.

What what's the timeline?

What kind of timeline are we looking at implementation?

Oh, uh, we're currently in, we currently have uh going through the phase of reallocating our hood um ARP dollars to support this initiative.

Um, so we hope to have that done by June.

Uh, we're gonna start planning with the consultant group.

We have to do a contract with them, hopefully by June and July.

Uh, we're gonna start some initial phasing with uh some initial providers that are willing to do a quick pilot for us this summer.

And again, we're looking to do all of our fundraising, have a test case that we can share some initial outcomes with a start date of 10.1 is probably the quickest we'll be able to address all of these encampments.

October the first.

Yeah.

So what how does Jackson downtown partners interface with this with this situation?

Uh first of all, thank you, Angela.

I was gonna refer to her on that, but um so we discovered this group at I did at a downtown association meeting in Cleveland, Ohio.

Um, clutch consulting group, Mandy Simple was the keynote speaker, and um her presentation was about the impact of the unhoused on downtown, on downtowns.

So obviously I went to it.

Um, and uh I was really amazed, impressed with their data.

They have a lot of data that shows that rapid rehousing of individuals is successful, they have a program that works.

Uh Clutch, uh Mandy Simple was a city of Houston employee, and she was named the special liaison to the mayor of Houston and was asked to solve the homelessness problem in downtown Houston.

So that's where she developed this model.

Um it worked.

Houston is considered one of the gold standards of of learning and and uh mitigating unhoused population and its impact on a city.

And so because of that, and because she was so successful, they formed a consulting group, and now they're working with other cities.

And so when I saw her speak in Cleveland, Ohio, we were looking at the Cleveland results where they had just done a three-year intervention.

Um we looked at the results in Dallas, Texas.

They're working in New Orleans now, they've worked in Atlanta, they've worked with a number of cities across the United States, and the data is very impressive.

They take a 12-month approach, so they rehouse individuals for 12 months and provide rent and utilities and all the wraparound services to make them successful in that new independent living.

Um, and they work on the 13th month.

Like, what's the long-term solution going to be for this individual?

And despite how good that might sound, uh, the data is even better in Dallas, Texas, where they did this, for instance, 70% of the people that were rehoused were still successfully rehoused a year after the implementation.

So 30% is still a challenge and requires a lot of resources, 25 to 30% for successful transition off the streets into housing.

But 70% is a number that's very exciting to me.

It's a number that can make a real difference in Jackson.

And again, they've got these results from cities all over the country.

I kind of feel like it's a gift to Jackson that we're in line to get these services because when I go to other downtown meetings, they are the keynote speaker.

And there is a line of people trying to talk to them and get their services.

So I think this is a real exciting opportunity for Jackson.

I think they have a real concern and affinity for us and for our work.

We've worked very hard to develop relationship with them.

Angela has been very involved.

And I just I just think it's exciting.

And for downtown, um, it's a critical issue to sustain our business community, attract new business, and the residential community that we have here, and we want our residential community to grow because that is another way we can revitalize downtown.

So it's very important.

Yeah, there's three different elements of this clutch program.

Three different elements.

Yes, I'm sorry.

Can you um yeah, and I think Angela may have touched on it, but um part of it is dealing with the chronically homeless and clutch did some research working with local community partners to determine what that number is.

Um, and and that is a group that requires greater resources to resolve, but it is part of this 10 million dollar plan.

Um then there's a group of people who are coming in and out, somewhat of a pipeline that are coming into our city that are newly homeless.

That is also part of this plan.

That's kind of the rapid resolution part that Angela talked about that might be reuniting them with family or providing temporary housing so that they can move on to something more permanent.

So that is also part of the plan.

I'm not sure, Vaughn.

What's the third part?

Um building encampments.

Well, encampments, yeah, is dealing with with chronically homeless for sure, like closing encampments is is what they do.

And it does require the participation of law enforcement because when they close an encampment, we have they have to keep it closed.

And um law enforcement has to help support that.

But what they've discovered in other cities in America is law enforcement loves this program because we've given them a tool they didn't have before.

We're giving an option for people to move into independent housing, and law enforcement feels you know better about the situation when they tell someone they can't be in a certain place because they know that person's been offered independent housing repeatedly for a period of time.

So it just gives law enforcement a tool that they don't have now.

Councilman Parker.

Yeah, I'll just add a few more.

I I can talk for a very long time about this program because it's one that I very much support, but but just a few points that I would add.

Like when they say rapid rehousing, and when they say like why uh law enforcement agents tend to like it, um, you know, it's not hey, uh, go fill out this paper work in 90 days, we'll meet with you, we'll figure out our next steps.

Literally, police officers can have keys to apartments with them, and they can go into an encampment and say, right now, I can take you, we will go right now to a place for you to stay.

And so that's what we mean when we say rapid rehousing.

Um, I also the one of the big reasons I like this is because I think, besides the fact that we have data that it works, that's a big important thing, is even as a framework, you know, we have for years and years and years had a false dichotomy.

Um, some people have wanted to just criminalize homelessness and um be incredibly harsh with unhoused individuals.

And I think that not only is that sort of heartless, but it's also ineffective.

I mean, you can I mean you can't, you can't decriminalize, you can't just make that and have homelessness go away because you issue a lot of citations.

But on the other hand, I think there are some people who um, and it comes from a good heart, it comes from wanting to help people say, well, let's just unhouse people just do whatever they want.

Like just, you know, go go forth and you know, don't touch them at all.

And and I think this is kind of like shaking both of those things, and it's a new, fresh approach where it's saying first and foremost, we're gonna help you.

We're gonna come with you with compassion, and we have a solution, a real solution.

And so you go into an encampment, for example, and you can say, all right, people that are here, we're gonna take you to apartments right now.

And so we're gonna help you.

We're gonna give you an actual relief.

But then what we're gonna do is then we're gonna say, but now we're closing this encampment, and you cannot come back here.

And you can be more strict and you can be more firm because you have provided an outlet.

And I want us to be cautious about overstating, right?

I don't think we can cut a $10 million check and be never ever have a homelessness problem again in Jackson.

There are cases that are are gonna be tricky, there are gonna be bumps, there's gonna be things like this, but right now we have no comprehensive plan.

Like right now, we have no results, and we have we have nothing.

So if this can get us 70% of the way, where we are both doing right by the people who are unhoused, but also protecting our businesses, protecting our parts, protecting our our um just people coming and going.

If we could do both of those things to a 70% level, I I think that's a real win.

Okay, Mr.

Hartle.

Yeah, I just just want to comment.

Um, and what do we do?

Okay, we get a lot of folks off the street initially, but the but we keep getting drop-offs.

So, how uh how many folks are we looking at uh perhaps being able to help?

And how and I I think we need to address it with the police department because we did at ordinance talking about drop-offs.

So I need to know how that's going, and that's a question for Chief Bratney.

Uh, but we need to also catch folks that are dropping off because eventually we're gonna run out of space, eventually.

And I'm I agree, this is a great, great look.

We gotta be innovative, we gotta move ahead.

But eventually, we have to look at the supply side too.

How do we curtail that number that's actually in our system?

Okay, uh, and Angela, you may want to talk specifically about the clutch plan, but the clutch plan does it does have um that drop off population as part of the plan.

Okay, that is part of it.

Um and in fairness, theirs is a you know, three-year intervention.

Uh there is need for long-term solutions, but I do think this will at least teach us.

I mean, that's my my view, not necessarily shared by everybody, but I think it will help teach us and and help teach our resources that are already here, our community resources, about how we pivot from kind of a a sheltering feeding mindset to housing mindset, and they're going to help teach us how to do that.

And and again, using some of those resources to deal with the the rapid uh resolution type folks that are being dropped off because not all of them will become chronically homeless, but they will if we don't have resources for those folks who are getting dropped off to move to the next place they need to be in their life, their you know, getting a job, going back to family.

I mean, that is part of their plan is how you deal with both sets of people.

So and Angela, you may want to say more about that.

Follow up question.

So on the uh when you want to take them to the say, okay, we're gonna here we're gonna take you from this encampment, we're gonna take you to an apartment with the key.

We're so how how do we come up with the apartments?

Is that a what's you know what's the length of time to come up with marketing?

So we'll have someone that's gone out to negotiate with landlords to identify apartments, and again, they look at purchasing and market rates, so it's throughout the city and not one aggregated area to house all of the unhoused.

So they'll be throughout the city looking at rental properties, and we'll hire someone to do that.

Um, that's built into the budget that we have.

Um, and then it's for a year.

Again, I think um Liz might have mentioned this.

It's a year program that we pay for the rental assistance and house the individual.

It's trying to redirect uh people who want to donate and give that now we're actually giving like welcome kits and supporting individuals that are in the rental properties uh for the year and really working with them through case management services, supportive services and trainings to get them to the 13th month.

So that is the idea of the program.

Um, some of the numbers, I think you all probably have a one page that reflects this.

We have about 1600 individuals coming, 16, 1700 individuals coming into our system.

This program is looking to address about 1,400 individuals.

Again, it's not everything.

Um, and and also I want to say it's not gonna be the final solution, but I think some of the the things that it will help for us is a systems change approach where we're really restructuring the way our providers are thinking about how they provide housing and support for our unhoused populations, is Liz has mentioned.

And so as we think further down the line of new people coming in, additional drop-offs.

I think just with a system restructure and some of the training that we'll get uh will give us other tools to be able to approach kind of future individuals that may interest system.

Okay.

One of the questions, you got any other questions, Mr.

Harley.

Uh just uh just the one thing partner in my mind, and that is again administration of this clutch program that's going to be under strategic initiatives.

And okay.

And it is.

And Miss Brown, we'll talk about it later.

We've had some conversations because you know, we need to provide uh this holistic approach.

We need to have someone that's not only knows about this program but can coordinate with other departments and services and outside nonprofits and the whole world of the of the homeless picture.

So I'm hoping that uh uh again, I I my rather was that we had a uh division to do this, but we need to have those people in places that can do the whole gamut of things related to the homeless population.

Uh I'll I'll add to the we've got an encampment that really um really bugs me over on it's on White Oak Creek, right behind where the cracker barrel was and the boot barn and between Virginia College and all the three of those places are shuttered now.

And the encampment was one of the reasons that wrecked the value because they had squatters that were staying at the encampment, and they break into the Virginia College and tear all the copper out before you knew it.

The building was was, you know, um the one owners and lenders walked away from it.

So it's uh we have to have a some kind of um plan to address the encampments because they there's a lot of pathologies that come from the encampments that undermine our our uh business environment, undermine our our communities quality of life, and and so it's something we've got to approach and you know we've got to start somewhere.

The the um I mean obviously there's a lot of loose ends into how you fund it and and uh have the housing available, and then some of them are gonna some of the people are mentally uh ill and need some kind of special social services to deal with that.

So um I appreciate all the efforts that uh put together this, and it's it's also gotta be an educational process to teach, you know, to uh inform the citizens about this and why it's you know a good way to go, but I appreciate everything all the efforts made so far.

Anything else?

Okay.

The number five discussion point, thanks, Ms.

Brister, for being here.

Um, and thanks, Ms.

Brown.

The um libraries within the city of Jackson.

How many have we got left now?

I mean, I'm you know, we've dwindling the fewer now than there were when I came on the council, that's for sure.

Who wants to talk about the libraries?

We're gonna get a librarian here or something.

Hello, everyone.

I'm Jean Williams.

I'm the executive director, and I'm coming up on one year in this position.

Is that right?

Okay, I apologize.

I know.

Which organization?

Jackson Hines Library System.

Okay, thank you.

So you're the you took Patty Fur's place or somebody there was an interim director, Floyd Council.

Okay.

So you're Miss Williams, you're the director.

So how many libraries we got functioning right now?

We have five in the city of Jackson, and then we have seven in the county rural areas.

Okay, and I know we got a board that oversees that.

And are any board members here?

Okay.

Okay, good deal.

Um what's what's the plan for the the get to get Jackson back to seven libraries, or is there a plan?

So right now, I'm doing a pretty deep study into the financial history of the library system.

I pulled audits from about 25 years, and initially what I found is that there were many years in the 2010s where uh spending was 300,000 over what our income was.

So I think there have been structural issues with funding versus the footprint of the library system.

So right now we're we're with our 12 libraries.

We are gonna hit a fiscal problem in 2027 with just the branches we currently have because our purchasing power has gone down.

Our pering has been either stagnant or declining.

Our state grants have declined significantly, and then federal funding coming through the Mississippi Library Commission is down to less than $10,000 a year.

So we're we're up against quite a bit of financial pressure.

Um the way that I look at it, um we have quantity right now of libraries, but we can't reinvest to do more than the bare minimum with the the libraries that we currently have.

Okay.

Um any questions?

Mr.

Hartley, you got a question?

Your last uh I think uh I'm not sure if there was a question uh from our last meeting.

We were talking about the uh Margaret uh Walker uh library over there.

I don't know.

Was there any anything that we need to do?

So I know that there have been issues with HVAC and other issues like that and other other structural issues at every branch facilities, okay.

So uh you know the um uh ward one has one library.

I used to have two, but the Tisdale Library it was uh was leveled, and and and also the door wealthy library is level and become green space.

Okay, so you've got uh the Willie Morris Libraries is in ward one.

What about the status of the other libraries, the other four libraries in Jackson?

So we're currently working with the uh Redeemer Church who has the Chastain Middle School.

We're working with them.

Um I believe uh your legal department is working out a lease for some space on that campus.

Uh that could be the most short-term reopening of a library.

Uh Udore Wealthy, we're also working with uh the planning department has secured the HUD grant for the 3.75 million to go toward that facility, and then we're working with partners to work out potentially co-locating because I there may be it may be more advantageous to share space with other partners.

Um so that right now we're waiting, we're hoping by June we'll know more about our partner uh as to whether we can co-locate and begin plans for that space.

Um we did ask the city last year to assess the Richard Wright facility to see if it can be saved.

If it can't be saved, then we need to be engaged with the city to make those decisions.

We the board can't make them on their own because the library doesn't own facilities.

Um with regard to that, the opening of Tisdale will strain our budget to the tune of 400,000 dollars more than the income we receive from all of our funding sources.

So we two years ago we set up a foundation or endowment for the library.

1.5 million it's with the community foundation.

It is.

So you haven't spent that money, so it's still there available to draw generate interest or whatever.

Right.

We we will have access to four percent of the interest over what the community foundation requires be reinvested.

So over time that will build into funds that we could use to maintain buildings.

Um what about is it the Richard Wright or the Medgar Evers Library?

Which four issues with the struct those structures.

So the Meggar Evers Library, it does have some structural issues, but the the critical issue right now is the HVAC system is down, so we're having to close pretty much every afternoon.

Um Johnson Controls has let me know that they're mobilizing, but it'll be another four to six weeks before they can get that HVAC system up and running.

So right now we're directing people to the Hamer Library, which is on Abermurle in the afternoons after the library has to close due to the heat.

We also have some flooring and some other projects we want to do in Medgar Ever's library, but you can't lay floor without conditioned air.

Yeah, okay.

Any other questions?

Miss Ron Thomas.

Thank you.

Um, can you give me an update or uh what's gonna happen with the building or McDowell with that library is right next to the school?

So that is not our building.

That would be up to the city as to what happens to that building.

Um there's a lot of love and nostalgia for that building.

People grew up going to that building.

Um, whether it can be saved would be an assessment would have to be done at the city level.

Um in the interim, our bookmobile service will start to run in June, and our focus is going to be in South Jackson.

Um we have already taken the bookmobile to do programs at Key Elementary, and it was a big hit.

Any other question?

No.

Um, just one thing.

I will be sending an email uh email to you, Mr.

Tewison and uh Miss Brown, uh Director Brown, basically uh just asking you to deep dive into some of the ordinances and stuff that this committee could provide.

Uh, you know, there are there are a lot of things out there, and I I I I think that and I agree with uh Mr.

Brunson, we need to tighten up on the enforcement side and on on the ordinance side.

So I'll be sending something that hopefully a trickle down to the folks there that come up with some solutions from uh from a uh ordinance-wise, from a legislative wise, what can we do to lower these numbers?

So I'll be sending that out.

Uh also I'll be checking with uh Chief Bratney on the drop-offs uh over at the uh bus and train station, and uh I'll start already researching some of the maybe some of the what our other cities are doing regarding burnout structures as well.

So, as I've listened to this meeting so far, one of the things that has struck me is how our libraries serve the cross section of everything that's been talked about here.

So, with your code enforcement volunteers, libraries could be the host sites for that training.

Um when it comes to economic development and homeless services, libraries can be the touch point where you you get those services to people.

I've been lucky enough to witness myself unhoused individuals getting worse workforce training, getting resume help, finding a job, and pulling themselves up into a better situation.

So libraries feed all of the economic development in communities, they anchor communities.

So we are part of the economic development and progress of Jackson.

And thank you for volunteering and filling those positions.

I know there's some still some openings there.

I think one in my ward, uh, but thank you for for volunteering your service there.

I mean, libraries can be a great asset.

I mean, and it's you know, it was discouraging to see the Dora Welt library fall into disrepair and then be closed, and then you know, um thing drug out for months, if not you know years, um, and no service available for the downtown area, and you know, um I wish we could solve the you know, come up with a great building to have a great library.

Um thanks for being here today.

Thank you.

Uh any other issues.

Do you have any questions?

I'm gonna bring up now.

No other questions.

Okay, well, I appreciate everybody's uh participation, all the folks that are here and uh Miss Brown coming in remotely and Miss Brister being here as well to talk about the clutch program.

Uh it's you know, I hope we can pull this off and do the raise the money.

I'm not sure what if did they have any particular what's our focus on raising three million dollars?

That's not easy to raise three million dollars.

No, um I bank doesn't have three million dollars.

Mr.

Any comments on that well, I will add it'll be a challenge.

Excuse me, Miss Brown.

Oh, yeah, I'm gonna say I I will add it'll be a challenge.

We do have some business owners that are interested in supporting.

Um, and I've received many calls of people who are interested in supporting and helping us fundraise, and so we're just working right now to uh get the talking points out and identify a fiscal agent that they can give their donations to.

Um, and so once we get that sorted out, we're gonna hit the ground running.

Uh but I think there's a lot of interest in just particularly business owners who want to see this issue addressed and are willing to help support us in this endeavor.

Right.

I mean, the it's a it's a a real nagging problem that has haunted Jackson for a number of years.

We've lost a lot of really uh great businesses that were downtown law firms and other because the ladies in the business that were the secretaries and other executives within there were nervous just walking to get to where they're where the their car was parked in the evenings and also in the mornings because they're people were wandering around and they feel felt um unsafe and threatened by that, and just that one little 15-minute walk to get to your car can make a difference in a business relocating to a place that doesn't have that issue.

I'd I'd like to hear more about that.

Well thank you so much.

Appreciate it.

It's meetings adjourn.