Good afternoon and welcome back to our regularly scheduled program.

This is the Health and Human Services meeting for the CIP.

I am joined by my committee members, Council members Ludke and Friedson.

And we have quite a few items on the agenda today.

We will be reviewing the six-year CIP budget for FY27 to 32 and the capital budget for 27.

We have three CIP items to review, plus a short review of project closeouts and potential future CIP projects to my colleagues.

We are going to discuss each item individually, pause for comments and questions, and then vote for approval on each item.

And then we will let our analysts, Ms.

Nicole Rodriguez and Mancy Gazalia, provide a brief overview of the CIP for HHS, and then we will proceed to each item.

Thank you.

Thank you and good afternoon.

The county executive has recommended three FY27 to 32 CIP projects with funding changes for today's review.

These include the affordable living quarters, the diversion center, and the non-congregate shelter space.

In addition, there are three projects which are pending closeout, those being the Avery Road Treatment Center, the Emergency Homeless Shelter, and Neville Street.

Also detailed in the report is an update on the information requested by the HHS chair and information about potential future CIP projects.

While no new projects have been proposed for the FY27 to 32 CIP, the executive has recommended a six-year total of 74.2 million for the Department of Health and Human Services, which is a 2.4 million reduction from the amended 25 to 30 CIP.

Starting first with the ongoing projects, the affordable living quarters, which you'll find on page two of the packet, and the PDF for this project can be found on circle page two.

On March 3rd, the council approved supplemental appropriation number 26-39 in the amount of $7.2 million, with the source being federal aid.

The executive recommends a total project cost of $7.3 million and a six-year total of $6.9 million.

The expenditure and funding schedule is unchanged from what the council approved on March 3rd.

The affordable living quarters would provide 18 affordable furnished and private units for one or two-person households, and construction of the project is expected to be completed in FY29.

The council first approved the project in FY23 to 28 CIP, but the project status was converted to pending closeout.

This was due to a site not being selected and also market affordability constraints.

Because of this, in FY25, the council approved a reallocation of 150,000 from federal aid funds for a new non-congregate shelter space.

However, in FY26, the county finalized a site for the affordable living quarters, and the FY27 to 32 PDF now reflects the full award amount, the supplemental appropriation and capital budget amendment for the FY27 to 32 CIP period.

Council staff would also like to note the request for additional information regarding the remediation of buildings on the site, the health and wellness of residents, and consideration of the lived experiences of those experiencing homelessness.

As the project moves forward, council staff will continue to track updates for the council.

As of now, the executive branch has provided the following information, which is detailed more deeply in the packet.

With regards to the staffing model, DHHS noted that the model is based on the personal living quarters model of progress place.

With regards to the provider, DHHS will procure a local nonprofit partner.

And for the referral process, tenant referrals will be generated through the county's coordinated entry system.

And from DGS, council staff received a memorandum which starts on circle page 19 that covers previously discussed health concerns.

The health concerns discussed have been remediated, and executive branch staff is available to answer further questions regarding this.

In terms of this project, uh council staff recommends concurring with the county executive's recommendation.

Thank you.

I know that uh during the last session we had a few weeks ago, um, council member Friedsen raised um some concerns about the uh location and wanted to make sure that all of those issues were uh remediated and we are sure that that's facility is suitable for you know people to live there, breathe freely.

All of the issues have been addressed and remediated, and we're ready to go forward.

Whomever?

You want me to talk about that?

Please.

Okay, David Dice, Director of the Department of General Services.

We attempted to provide the council with the exhaustive list of uh test results that we had done back in 2019-2020 when this issue first arose.

Um DEP has gone and uh and uh uh repaired the problem that was the initial cause of the discomfort and uh concerns of the site and the flares.

We had also at the same time gone in and done significant work to the building, uh windows, walls to both uh eliminate vibration and to and any potential air infiltration, and to ensure that that work was successful.

We uh over a period of a couple years did sound vibration and air quality monitoring that the results of which you have in the uh package.

Robust packet that that uh is attached to this.

Umecdotally, the uh uh buildings adjacent to this particular location uh that were former offices for uh the then shelter operator uh housed uh with uh fire and rescue personnel who have reported no issues uh being at that very same site.

So we're confident that the the flares have been addressed and that the buildings associated across the parking lot and driveway from that those flares are sound and secure.

Okay.

And is there a plan in place for ongoing maintenance and evaluation to ensure that it contain it continues to be a suitable place for residential?

Certainly.

We we uh obviously as far as ongoing maintenance, we maintain all the county's properties.

If it was the request of HHS or council that uh we do periodic uh sound and really more anything else is the air quality monitoring, we're happy to do so.

We have contracts uh uh in place to do that when air, whenever and wherever a site uh has concerns, we'll go out and set up monitoring to do that, and we certainly could.

Yes, uh, probably not on the uh extensive basis that we did in 19 and 20, that can get pretty pricey, but certainly going back a couple times a year and doing samples and reporting on those.

We'd be more than happy to do that.

Yes, that would be helpful.

Even annually, it would be helpful to just be sure that we're sure.

Thank you, Director Dice.

Without objection.