I guess there's a lot of the things that you can do is like it's not very important.

Okay, that's a little showing.

Madam Clerk, I believe we have quorum.

Yes, Madam Chair, you do.

All members are in attendance today.

Go ahead and read the um uh public um comment and evacuation.

Upon activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building.

Please use the exits to the left or right front of the council chamber or the east or west there.

We're all outside the rear doors of the chamber.

Do not use elevators or escalators.

After exiting the building, proceed down 9th Street and into the assembly area located in the former public safety building parking lot.

Able persons should assist visually and hearing impaired visitors with exiting the building.

Public speaker guidelines.

Individuals wishing to speak during the public hearings and the public comment period are generally allowed three minutes to speak.

Persons appearing before the committee are not allowed to campaign for public office, promote private business ventures, use language of a personal nature which insults or demeans any person, including comments directed at public officials or staff members that are not related to their official duties or address a question staff members directly.

All questions are to be directed to the committee chair.

Failure to adhere to the guidelines may result in speakers forfeiting any remaining time and further disciplinary action as necessary, which can include barn from attendance at future meetings of the committee for a period of six months.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Is there anyone here for our public comment period?

Public comment is now open.

Is there anyone present who wishes to address this committee regarding items not on today's agenda?

Madam Chair, seeing nine, and no one signed up to speak virtually before the 10 a.m.

deadline.

The public comment period is now closed and back to the committee.

All right, Madam Clark.

Well, committee members, um, we have our first presentation from Allison Sailors, who is our esteemed colleague from uh from our health and human services department.

She's going to join us and give us our annual report.

We usually always hear at the end of the season from our inclement weather uh shelter stakeholders and kind of get some metrics and and outcomes on how that shelter was run this year.

So without further ado, Alison, welcome.

Thank you, Cheryl Lynch, and hello, Council members.

My name is Alison Saylors.

I'm the manager of the Office of Homeless Services.

And like Cheryl said, I'll be giving you an overview of this year's inclement weather shelter.

Brief agenda, um, we'll talk about kind of the data for individuals and families from this past inclement weather season.

We'll go over the budget and the sheltering budget specifically for homeless services from this past fiscal year.

Um, we'll give an update on successes and opportunities uh for the future, and we'll also talk a bit about um we all remember wow winter storms, Fern and Giana and the special efforts that went there to to keep people sheltered and safe.

Just as a refresher, um Inklin Weather Shelter is operated nightly by Salvation Army at 1900 Chamberlain Avenue.

Uh we have actually folks from Inkling Weather Shelter and Surge here in the office or in the room.

So I do want to give them a shout out.

Octavia, Emily, and Matthew are here representing the awesome work that they did this past winter as Inklet Weather Shelter and SERG shelter operators.

So Inclot Weather shelter runs November 15th through April 15th, has a hundred and six beds total, sixty-six men's and 40 women's.

Typical operating hours are five p.m.

to eight a.m.

Um, with an extended hours based on temperature.

Surge operates or is eligible for activation December 1st through March 31st.

And that activation is based on the weather being 40 degrees or below for at least two hours, and inclined weather shelter having reached capacity.

That contract this year was for 60 beds when those typical operating hours are the same as inclement weather shelter, again, with the option to extend based on temperature.

And just noting that on nights when surge is activated, transportation is provided to SERGE from Inklet Weather Shelter via our partners at GRTC.

So this graph here just gives you an overview of the average number of guests at Inklant Weather Shelter and surge shelters each month, as well as the total number of surge activations.

First thing I'll point out is that surge was activated 87 nights this winter.

We initially contracted surge to be open for 30 nights, so we ended up needing it nearly triple the amount of times that we anticipated based on capacity and based on weather.

The other thing I'll point out is in January and February, looking at the average number of guests at Inklant Weather Shelter and Surge, you'll see that they very nearly reach capacity or over capacity.

So again, just want to highlight the dedication of the providers here to keep people safe, especially when the weather got really dangerous and scary there for a little bit.

And then you can also see the average number of total guests spiked in January and February because of that severe weather that we saw those months.

Now we'll talk about families during inclined weather season.

My office provided emergency hotel placements for 47 unhoused or at risk households with minor children.

Key components of this program, we were prevention first.

We're luckily a referral source for the family crisis fund.

So families that came in that were not yet homeless but on the verge of it, we were able to prevent that a lot through the use of those funds to keep people housed, pay off rental arrears, et cetera.

We were very diversion focused, so every family that was placed in a hotel room first had to go through a pretty lengthy assessment process to determine did they have any resources in their own kind of their networks, natural supports that could help deter them away from the shelter system, so that we were only helping people that really had no other option.

And then for folks that were placed in a permanent or folks that were placed into hotels, we made sure to connect them with us, you know, the right rapid rehousing or other housing options through our partners at the GRCOC.

And I'll, you know, we had a lot of partners in this effort.

Um, most of them are listed there below.

I did just want to note, you know, a really great example of the partnership that worked in this program in the last month of Include weather shelter season.

Uh my office, homeward, and R RHA worked together to expedite 15 families exiting out of family shelter by using some identified units, public housing units, and an existing partnership between Homeward and RHA.

So we were able to move 15 families into out of shelter and into housing, and then move families that we had placed in hotels into shelter.

So by April 15th, we had nearly all of our families out of the hotel at that point.

Now we'll talk about winter storm response for Fern and Giana.

I'm sure we all remember very well.

The big number here is that the city activated additional 24-7 emergency shelter and warming center capacity for 17 straight days.

We did this with partnership with DSS.

They opened and operated an emergency shelter for seven days, 24-7, and then Department of Neighborhood and Community Services operated two overnight warming centers for 10 days.

Some highlights from that time, Richmond Public Libraries, we know serve a really important function for unhoused folks year-round, but especially during this time, they provided, you know, a life-saving service for people to get inside when it was freezing outside.

Um, and we also worked really closely with the main street library in particular to provide transportation to and from the overnight warming centers from that library.

GRTC and Blue Sky Fund were pivotal in that transportation piece, providing transportation between all the different shelters and the warming centers.

City department coordination, so again, NCS, Office of Emergency Management, and DSS.

We all worked very closely together, especially as the shelter at Southside Community Center was closing, and we were opening up the warming centers to make sure that folks had a way to get in between those different sites and had a clear kind of path that they knew to follow.

All these different community partners were equally involved.

We were in constant communication with the GRCOC, RPD, VCU, Blessing Warriors, all of these entities provided, you know, really pivotal outreach transport and connections to safety for unhoused folks in particular as they were trying to figure out where to go as those storms were approaching.

Feed More and Little Hands provided essential food and baby items for our family IWS participants, so we were able to get them things ahead of the storm so because we didn't know, you know, what that was going to look like if everybody accessed grocery stores or anything ahead of those storms.

And then Awaken Church is a church actually in Chesterfield that opened its doors prior to storm Fern.

Nobody ended up going that first night.

They all came to Richmond, but we were able to utilize them and their generosity for four days to get some folks transitioned out of the South Side Community Center shelter and into their shelter on a voluntary basis.

And then here are the numbers from that time.

So again, I just want to note Surge Shelter and Inclement Weather Shelter in particular for 17 days straight, they were open 24-7 24-7, and they were operating above their capacity pretty much that entire time.

So just some wonderful partners that were really dedicated to this work, you know, in one of the hardest moments this winter.

Let me check my notes.

I just want to make sure I'm not missing anything else I wanted to highlight.

That's it.

And then that graphic there just kind of explains our different criteria for when all of those different types of shelter are activated.

Here is our sheltering budget for this past fiscal year.

Reminder that Salvation Army and Home Again contracts are funded by City of Richmond and Henrico.

And the CARICA CARETAS contract is funded by City of Richmond, Henrico, Hanover, and Chesterfield.

All the numbers up here are just reflective of what City of Richmond has invested.

So you can see we've added some money to the CARETAS contract in order to ensure that surge would remain open and meet that need based on temperature and the increased IWS capacity.

We also opened up the warming centers, which was a completely unanticipated expense.

Most of that money was spent on staffing the warming centers.

We contracted with the staffing agency to ensure we had enough coverage on those overnight shifts since that was all NCS staff working working those centers.

And then we had our family income weather shelter program where we saw a big need in the volume of unhoused and at-risk families that were presenting at the resource center for assistance, and some slower movement through the shelter system due to lack of affordable housing, lack of child care, etc.

And now I'll give an update on some items from a meeting that took place back in March 2025 with Chair Lynch.

So item number one was identified that the city needs to expand shelter capacity during inclined weather shelter for single adults and families of minor children.

So the update there is that we executed the contract with SERGE in August 2025, which added those 60 additional beds, and then we implemented the family inclement weather program this year.

Item number two was to create a roster of volunteers and stakeholders to support IWS activities.

The update there is that, like I like you saw in previous slides, we activated and mobilized a lot of internal and external partners during those extreme winter events to expand our shelter capacity, provide that transportation, and keep communication channels open.

We held partner meetings at the beginning of inclined weather season and throughout winter storms for Ninjiana to make sure that people were getting the information that they needed.

And we're currently in talks with providers to support staffing of warming centers next year.

Next item is to create an OHS organizational chart and add it to the homeless services website.

The update there is that we have an organizational chart.

We have filled three full-time positions, my position, the supervisor of the CRTC, and our lead outreach worker position.

We have two other positions posted currently full-time positions.

And we are working on our website.

It is a work in progress.

And then item number four was to better leverage partnerships to bring in more community partners into the CRTC.

We had some work to do around that.

We needed to define CRTC core services, and we have done that.

That's on the next slide.

We've increased our number of walk-ins as a byproduct of that.

So we had just under a thousand people come in from November 2025 to April 2026.

We strengthened coordination with our onsite providers, so RBHA, we have a clinician and a case manager there full-time, and we've looped them much more into our workflow so that we can utilize those services better and make sure that people are getting connected to everything possible while they're in our site.

And we've added new partners as well that have a consistent presence.

I won't read this to you, but these are our core services.

So resource navigation, our street outreach team, again, RBHA rapid access, some housing stability and financial assistance support, our on-site community partners, and then targeted case management services.

Now we'll look at what went well this year and what we hope to accomplish next year.

So one of our biggest successes, we had no turn up, no shelter turnaways during winter storm for Ningiana.

We had some redirection from shelters to warming centers, but everybody that needed a warm place to be had a place to be that night or all of those nights for 17 days.

We had just over 20,000 total overnight stays between all of those different sites.

We had improved coordination between all of the partners, Inklint Weather Shelter Surge, Richmond, Henry Go, Security, and GRT, GRTC.

We had weekly meetings to kind of troubleshoot things.

I would say we, you know, we had some transportation issues at first, we had some communication things to work through at first, but we stuck to it, and by the end of that season, our meetings were 15 minutes versus an hour because we had done so much work to streamline everything.

We had a pre-communication with homeless service partners on those emergency shelter and warming center openings and closings.

We heard this from our partners that they felt like they knew it was going on sooner and the information was clearer than it had been in previous years.

We added new communication methods, so you can call through in one and get information on shelter openings.

You can get that information also in Richmond Ready Alerts now, which was not something that was available in the past.

We provided 59 adults and 92 children with emergency hotel placements to prevent unsheltered family homelessness in inclined weather.

We uh had collaboration between, like I said, OHS, RRHA, and GRCT, GRCOC, sorry, so many acronyms.

Uh and then flexible funding and housing navigation enabled 16 surge shelter residents and 43 year-round shelter residents from Caritas to exit shelter into permanent housing.

Looking forward, we have added some language into our contracts to ensure all inclined weather shelter and surge staff receive trauma-informed care training.

We have maintained will maintain strong coordination and communication channels between all the different partners involved in inclined weather shelter.

We'll continue to evaluate our communications protocol for announcing shelter openings to the general public and the unhoused population.

We're gonna add an outreach worker to Inkling Weather Shelter next year to facilitate those service connections and make sure that people are getting place in a permanent housing as much as possible.

We're exploring resources and partnerships for serving older adults in year-round shelters.

We saw a big increase in need and have been seeing that in our shelters to serve folks with some higher needs due to due to aging and disability.

We're going to update the 20 the strategic plan to end homelessness in partnership with Henry Go, Chesterfield, Hanover, and the GRCOC.

And then we're hiring for a new position in my office that will work on a lot of this and work closely with our partners during Infantweather season to help coordinate services.

And I will take any questions.

So do they tend to have like a shortage of spots and do we have to like get in the front of a waiting list to get access to them?

Like how does that work?

How do we get access to those homes via RHA?

This was kind of a special circumstance where they they happen to have some vacant units at a time when we were really looking to move some people quickly.

Um but typically my my office has not had like a special side door into that.

Um the GRCOC does have an agreement with them for families that are in shelter um to get somewhat of an expedited process uh for vacant units.

That's a a huge opportunity for us um community members, the the partnership with RHJ.

We have hundreds of vacant units that are just sitting there, which is egregious because we have families that are transitioning out of our shelters, our shelters and our hotels that go without access to emergency housing, which is a you know HUD entitlement.

So it's been called to question whether or not our HHA is following the regs and the protocols as it relates to emergency housing and placement.

Um the other question I have for you, Allison, is the the number that we budgeted for hotel stays.

I think almost a year ago, we we got on our calculators and determined we're probably in need about 290.

I estimated about 300,000.

So we weren't we were not far off.

Um and so every year we don't really budget for what we need.

Um in this year's budget, did we did we contemplate the number of of uh dollars that we need for emergency hotel?

There is a line item in the budget for sheltering families during inclined weather shelter season, yes.

And how much was that line item?

140.

Hello, council, Amy Popovich, DCA for human services.

Um there's an additional 514,000 for operating cost for shelters as well as part of DNCS's whole budget, and that whole 514,000 is for our collective shelters.

Perfect.

Great.

All right.

Um, as a follow-up, I think it would be helpful um, Whitney, if you're our committee staff, um, if we can if we can get some numbers on number of vacant units from our HHA, and then what their current um emergency um application process looks like and how people access that.

I guess my question though is where was where was those units located?

What did it they all over?

Because I know isn't some of them vacant due to like redevelopment.

So I just want to make sure that we're not mixing vacant uh units with redevelopment that is actually happening.

I just want us to be clear on that.

So, yep.

So they're I understand HHA has a definition of what they consider vacant, so they wouldn't count those units, and they're actually um required to have a certain number of units set aside for emergency placement.

So we just need that number.

Thank you so much, Alison.

We we really appreciate your work.

Um sorry.

We can say that we appreciate both the Allison's um uh work in this and and Amy's and and all of the the stakeholder, Tiffany, and and every um everyone that's worked so diligently this this season.

This is just one of the toughest um and most tragic things that we have to deal with in our own backyard.

So um we really appreciate the work that you've done to get us to get us that that much closer um to taking better care of people.

So it appreciates you.

Thank you.

All right.

Well, I think we have I he's hiding behind the chair in my line of vision, but I think the superintendent is here.

If we have Mr.

Cameras, there he is, he pops up.

All right.

Welcome.

Welcome, Mr.

Camers.

How are you doing?

Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Council Members Jones and Breton.

It's a pleasure to be here as always.

I would like to recognize our school board chair, Mrs.

Shavonda Fernandez, from the amazing 9th district.

You said it earlier, you know.

I wanted to begin by just thanking the council for the increased investment in Richmond Public Schools next year, increase of about $8 million over our prior year budget, and we are very, very grateful for that.

I also want to express on behalf of the organization that of course we are disappointed that we did not receive the full amount that was requested, and that of course is going to cause some cuts, including the elimination of the Richmond Virtual Academy, and we are going to have to find an additional $800,000 of cuts, which we are working on.

I also want to remind the public that we are tightening our own belts.

We are continuing to move forward with the layoffs of 46 central office employees, the furlough of many central office employees for a brief period of time, and other reductions throughout the organization.

So we are grateful for the increases, but also want to be absolutely clear that we take every dollar extremely seriously, and we'll continue to tighten our belts as we continue to advocate for more.

And we are projected to be up another 204 students, so just shy of one percent increase for next year.

So we'll see uh when students show up in the fall, but I do think it is noteworthy that we are seeing stable enrollment, in fact, slight increases at a time where nationally public school enrollment is declining rather significantly.

There was a recent article, I believe, about this in the New York Times, and so this is an area where we are thankfully bucking the trend in a positive direction.

I do want to note at the same time that as Richmond changes, RPS is changing.

And so we are seeing a small reduction in the number of black students and economically disadvantaged students, and also an increase in the number of our Latino students, and that is I think a reflection of demographic changes in the city, and also quite frankly, the increased cost of living in this city and the impact that that is having on folks who have lived here for many, many years.

And so we want to continue to work with the city on all the things that I know you are passionate about.

Affordable housing is a strategy for enrollment in RPS, and I think we need to continue to support one another in efforts such as that.

I also want to remind the public that we are enrolling for preschool as we speak.

We offer VPI and head start and early head start, and we have a number of enrollment sessions coming up, and you can get all the information about that on our website, RVA Schools.net.

We are extremely excited to welcome all three-year-olds and four-year-olds for school next year and have lots of folks ready and willing to help families with the enrollment process.

Switching gears to our older students, I did want to note that the new Richmond High School for the Arts is nearing its completion, which is extremely exciting.

At least the building anyway, once that's done, then the old building will be taken down, and that's where all of the athletic fields and amenities will be built.

We are going to be moving into the new building at the end of September, the third week of September.

Just given the construction timeline, that is when we will be primed to make the move.

And so we are working with the community there to make that as smooth as possible.

And we are looking forward once we are open to welcome council members to come and visit and see the beautiful facility that will be serving the young people there.

And then finally, we are just a couple weeks away from graduations.

We are absolutely thrilled.

On May 22nd, at the main library auditorium, we have the Richmond Virtual Academy graduation.

And then on May 26th at the Siegel Center, we have Thomas Jefferson and Huguenot High School on the 27th, also at the Siegel Center.

John Marshall and Armstrong, and on the 28th, also at the Siegel Center, Richmond High School of the Arts and Richmond Success Academy.

And then at the VCU Singleton Center on May 29th, we have open Richmond Community and Franklin Military Academy.

We of course would welcome your attendance, and we'd be happy to, of course, recognize you for your leadership at those graduation ceremonies.

If you are interested in attending, please just let me know, and we will make the necessary accommodations.

With that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Superintendent Cameras.

Juan, can you send a list over?

Get someone to send the list over to all the time.

Absolutely, Councilmember.

So that we can check into that.

I just had a quick question when you mentioned decrease in black students.

We have been seeing a notable increase in uh fights, and we also heard like part of the virtual, there's a lot of bullying and all that.

Are you um is there a plan or anything in process that is looking at what could potentially be causing the decrease in students attending school and looking at it from that perspective?

Yes, so I think we have two different things to look at.

One is things that are going on in school that maybe are impacting attendance, and you mentioned bullying, there are other factors as well that yes, we are looking into.

There's also the bigger picture that affects whether kids are enrolled in RPS, and the numbers I was sharing are about enrollment.

Um, I know this is something that the chair has uh spoken passionately about, both in terms of what is the impact of, for example, new construction, particularly in the south side, but also what is the impact of rising housing costs on uh Richmonders who live here now, and is that having an impact ultimately on our school age population?

I think our hypothesis, yes, it is.

As rents go up, as housing prices go up, it becomes more challenging for families who have lived here to stay here.

And so, again, the work that you all are doing to increase the affordability of living in Richmond is directly tied, I think, quite frankly, to our enrollment, particularly of young people who already live here in the city of Richmond.

Um, with all the growth in the city, I get a lot of questions from residents about the ability of the city's services and infrastructure to to keep up with the projected growth.

Um, does RPS have uh you know a plan for the expectations of growth of our population of our student population over the next five or 10 or 15 years?

Um, I think you know, people sometimes worry, oh, we're building all these apartments.

Will the schools be overcrowded?

And this might be a complicated question, so I can take a follow-up answer if that's what it takes, but I'd love to be able to explain to people how RPS is planning for all that growth.

Again, this is a very passionate subject for the chair.

Um, and if she would like to come up and speak to it, I would love for her to do so.

I will say that we are working with the city to develop a way to predict when there's a new development, how many school age children it might produce, so that we can plan accordingly.

But with that said, I'll turn it over to the chair.

Good afternoon, Chair Lynch.

Um, Councilmember Burton and Councilwoman uh Jones, as he is shared.

This is an area that I'm extremely passionate about, particularly in the 8th and 9th district, where we've seen a huge amount of development year over year, sometimes even month over month, as um councilwoman Jones could attest to.

And we are already overpopulated in the 9th district.

The numbers uh and the recent presentation show that in the 9th district, we have about 4,000 students plus, whereas if you equate it to the amount that are in some of the other districts, they range around 1,200, some two, I'm sorry, 12, yeah, 1,200 or like 2,000 or so.

So it's a huge astronomical difference.

One of the things that I have requested, and so I'm so glad that you brought up the question is how can we um better partner and have that conversation and communication as these developments are coming forward.

How can we um reimagine how to expect what that amount will be in terms of units?

I know in the 9th district, we've had over about, I want to say about 1400 or so units.

Um, the information that we received, we've worked very closely to um communicate to one another what that looks like and anticipate the impact, but I think there's a bigger opportunity to really uh have a proactive approach to how we determine these types of things.

And so we really don't have the answers and are looking you know and interested in having those conversations with you all um because as uh superintendent cameras share affordable housing is something that uh I know that you all have a huge appetite for and are really interested in uh promoting on the same token.

Once we have that affordable housing, it will bring more beautiful families into our areas and cause an even more extra by expert um amount of increase in the eighth and ninth districts.

So that was a long one answer to say we are more than happy to continue in the conversation and look for something more systematic approach and how we anticipate the units that will be built, the number of families that will be there, and how many children will be in RPS?

Will you state your name and title for the record, please?

I'm so sorry.

My name is Shavanda Fernandez, Chair of Richmond Public Schools and 9th District School Board Representative.

Thank you, Ms.

Morris.

Well, thank you so much.

And I think to that end, um, during our next, is it our next meeting or are we doing that later in August when you all come back with the facilities master plan?

Because that kind of spells out what the some of the growth in the buildings.

I'm not sure of the exact date, but it has to go to the school board for consideration before I bring it uh to this body.

So once we are able to get that scheduled, then I'll I'll let the clerk know.

All right, coming soon to a theater near you so we can look at that.

Thank you all so much.

We really appreciate you all.

Thanks for coming.

Thank you.

Alright, um, with that, the illustrious, the amazing DCAO Popovich.

Please join us.

Welcome.

Uh good afternoon, Chair Lynch, Councilwoman Jones, Councilman Breton, um, Amy Popovich, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Human Services, here to do my regular updates.

Uh okay, I've got three of them for you.

Um, one just on the heels of yes, our RPS partners.

Um, just mentioning that our Office of children Families are partnering with them in preschool enrollment.

So we've got enrollment locations at libraries, at community centers.

Um our teams are doing outreach, promoting that enrollment because we really believe in early child care, um excuse me, in early childhood education.

Uh, second is um this is older adult month.

So I'm sure you all know we're doing a joint recognition with city council and mayor's office on older adult month.

We've got two exciting events happening tomorrow, one of them in the 9th district.

It is the Art of Memory at Southside Community Center, which I'll be excited to come and join.

Also the Central Virginia Older Adult Luncheon in partnership with the Span Center.

And then we also have an Elder Abuse Awareness Day in June.

All of these events are on our website, and we're really excited to promote them through our Office of Aging and Disability Services.

And then the last one, you know, you all just heard about the inclement weather shelter system presentation today.

We have launched our greater, wait, ready, Greater Richmond Partnership to address homelessness, also known as GRUPA.

Just kidding, it's not.

But the excitement here is that it's our Greater Richmond.

So we are partnering with Henrico and Chesterfield and Hanover and the Greater Richmond Continuum of Care.

So at the end of this, we will have one collective plan together, focusing on older adults, focusing on families, focusing on individuals, and kind of our partnership system and how we can really move forward together.

So we'll get plenty of community impact input through community meetings, and we'll have a community survey that we'll actually put out publicly.

So anyone who wants to respond and give input who's had is been impacted or um who communicates, interacts with those who are unhoused, would love your input.

All of that will wrap up at about the middle of July, and we'll come back in September to present that.

But wanted to make sure everyone were aware that we are updating our 2020 to 2030 plan, which I think will really launch us into the next couple of years.

So thank you.

Any questions?

We might want to stick around because I think the next paper might be yours.

So without further ado, Madam Clerk, can you read our paper?

I think it's ordinance 2026 or 98 individual.

Item one ordinance 2026-098 to authorize the CAO on behalf of the City of Richmond to execute a sixth amendment to lease between the city as Lisi and South subsidiary limited partnership as less or for the purpose of enabling the city to continue using 52,411 square feet of the property located at 4100 Hall Street Road for the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services and other city functions.

That paper is before the committee.

Is there anyone here to speak for public comment to this paper?

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak in opposition to this paper?

Is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of this paper?

Madam Chair, seeing on the public comment is closed and back to the committee.

Would the patron or members of the administration like to speak to this paper?

Yes.

Hello, Councilman Lynch.

Council members, Amy Popovich, DCAO for human services.

I'm gonna really remember my name today.

This is the yes, Southside Plaza Lease.

We're very excited about this.

The city has maintained a few key points here.

Cities maintain a lease since 1997 for the property located at 4100 Hull Street, known as South Side Community Services Center.

Whereas previously it housed several DSS employees.

What we're doing is transitioning that under the umbrella of the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services.

We will still continue to have social services support there on a daily basis, but we'll also have other community services as well.

This ordinance will allow a 15-year lease extension with an option to extend it for five additional years, and the right of first offer to purchase the building, should it come for sale.

Cities negotiated a reduced rent for the extended term of 399,075 a year, resulting in the reduction of what used to be, well, the reduction total in the previous rent is 164,000.

So shout out to Chris Nizamus, who's in the audience, who uh from our real estate department who helped negotiate that rate.

This amendment reflects the lesser providing the second floor of space at no additional charge.

Let's see.

So there's other costs that have been um changed as well, and we can sublease the second floor uh to other uh community organizations as well.

That's the summary.

Uh just one, I'm gonna bring it back to committee members.

Just one point of clarity.

Does the um TIA include the repairs that are mentioned in the latter part of that paragraph?

So the HVAC units repair to the elevator, or is that in addition to?

Yeah.

Uh Chris can come up to speak to some of that, but we are getting a total of uh a tenant improvement allowance of 576,000.

But Chris, do you mind summarize summarizing what that includes?

Good afternoon.

My name is Chris Nazamis.

I'm with our city's real estate strategies department, part of economic development.

I've been working with uh Amy and her team for uh a while on this.

As far as the uh tenant improvement allowances go, they are giving us over three draw period, 576,000 and change.

Um that money is used at our discretion to do building improvement that we feel that we need.

Anything in addition to that, they are also providing us with full replacement of the HVAC units, which um I think there's three of them.

I might maybe four.

Um, they're gonna replace all of them with brand new units.

In addition, we are going to be getting them to uh upgrade and um not not necessarily upgrade but repair the elevator to make sure it's functioning and do everything that needs to be done, as well as doing the roof work and the uh fenestration with the windows and doors, the seal that so um we got an uh I think it was a pretty good package from the TI allowance that I mentioned, in addition to what the landlord is going to be providing over and uh over and above that.

So it seems to be a pretty aggressive uh and the other thing, it wasn't really part of the deal.

They just recently, within the last uh maybe five or six months, went through and painted the entire facility and shopping center.

So it was that oh kind of a green TO, not TO, but uh kind of uh Irish green, but now it's a little bit of a gray.

So, it looks nice.

So we're getting a lot of improvements to the buildings.

Yeah, that's a great deal.

Yeah.

So it's an addition to hear that we get our 566,000, then all those approving.

Great, great negotiating.

That's great.

It's good stuff.

You do great work.

I think as uh Amy mentioned, we are getting the um the second floor at the I uh the way we approach them is that we didn't need that at first, because with DSS vacating, we were able to put all of our city functions in the first floor.

Um I worked through it with them and we ended up getting the second floor for for basically no pri uh for free.

And uh so we are working together to try to look at subletting that space to other agencies that would complement the city groups that are in there.

So um I think overall it's a good package.

It's a great package.

I want you and my real estate team.

Thank you.

Um can I get your name once more for the record, please?

Can I get your name once more for the record?

Is your name for the record, please?

I'm sorry.

Can I get your name for the record, please?

Oh, the name yeah, it's Chris Nazamis.

Thank you.

Yeah, I guess just just this is more of a comment than a question.

But um, you know, we'll probably want to buy that building.

Um, we're doing a lot.

So are we setting aside Bunny somewhere to make sure we're make that make that a reality?

It's uh this was another unique thing.

Traditionally, um subsidiaries, the owner, have a pretty strong policy not to sell any of their holdings.

Um, we did get them to consider, you know, we've been there for 30 years, we plan on being there another 15 uh plus.

So we do have, we were able to negotiate the right of uh first offer.

There's no numbers assigned to that.

We don't have a purchase price determined, it will be based on market value at that time, appraised value or whatnot.

So we were able to get that, which is uncharacteristic of what saw usually does.

And to take it one step further, we were able not only for the building, if the city's ever in the position to acquire the entire shopping center, the city Hall of the of the South or another extension of it.

Not that we would do that.

That one I know is gonna be up in the 30 to 30 to 40 million range.

So it's a little bit aggressive for that.

But the building itself, we don't have a price yet.

Good to know.

I know Sharon's been that's a long time dream of hers with that whole area.

So great work though.

Great great great way to get us in there and get a strong hold in that real estate market.

Um thank you uh community members.

What's your pleasure?

Uh I moved uh move to forward to council for approval.

And I second Madam Clerk, all the roll.

The committee is voting on a motion to forward item one ordinance 2026-098 to council with the recommendation to approve.

Mr.

Brenton, Vice Chair Jones, Chair Lynch, that motion has been approved.

Madam Clerk, let's move on to the second paper.

If you can read that in role for us, item two, ordinance 2026-11 to authorize the CAO on behalf of the city to execute an agreement between the Virginia Department of Health and the City for the purpose of funding public health services provided by the Richmond City Health Department.

That paper is before the committee.

Committee members, questions.

Is anyone from the administration going to speak to it?

There we go.

Welcome, Tom.

Good afternoon, Chair Lynch, Vice Vice Chair Jones, Councilman Breton, Dominic Barrett, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the DCAO for Human Services.

Um, as mentioned, this ordinance authorizes signing of the local government agreement.

Um, the LGA details the services provided by Richmond City Health District and authorizes us to provide annual funding to the health district.

Um this is for FY 26, so these are dollars that have already been appropriated in the uh current FY26 um budget.

So this is a um formality, but the document does lay out um the services that the health district uh will be providing.

Every local government across the state um enters into this agreement um with the VDH.

We have our partners from the health district here.

Should you all have any questions for them?

Thank you.

Um, I do have a couple of questions for the health department.

Good afternoon, I'm Deanna Krautner, the Chief Operations Officer for the Health Department.

Welcome, thank you so much.

The last time when you all were here, you did a presentation and you talked a lot about the work that you were doing.

And I had a lot of questions then, but I kind of just honed in on WIC because I got so excited.

But given the amount of funding and this new um paperwork that we have before us, I wanted to just clear up a couple of things as we move forward.

Um, one was um, in your annual report, you had like a lot of indicators and not outcomes.

How do we get that information in real time?

Because I think a four million dollar investment is huge, and I'm not negating the work of VDH, but I do think as the city and as our community is looking at us with the funding that we're providing to organizations, it's really helpful for us to really understand in real time what those outcomes are and how we see it affecting um our community.

I have a couple, so I'll just run them all down if that will help.

Yeah, also your gun violence prevention.

You mentioned safe driving, and with all of the gun violence that's happening within our communities, um, would like to really know what the strategy and plan is to address that.

Um, I had other concerns.

I think I asked uh the last meeting um about the Southwood Center in particular, but I'd also like to know what is VDH's plan with our community centers because we have invested a lot into them, and it was my understanding that we would be working in partnership, and so I know that South Side Community Center is part of not community centers, what's the difference?

South Side Community Center and South Side what?

Plaza.

Okay.

I know that there will be work, I believe, happening out of there, but I'm really more interested in the direct services within the community.

So I'll pause right there because I do have like three more questions.

Great.

Okay.

So pausing first on the the first um the first ones, I'll I'll talk a little bit about the community health improvement plan.

Because when we met with you last time, that wasn't finalized yet, and that was just published out today.

So we can get that over to you.

So one of the areas in the community health improvement plan addresses safety and violence prevention.

And I apologize because I can't speak to all of the things that I know fall under that for the work, but we do have that document that talks a little bit more about the planned work in those areas.

I'm just not prepared to talk about it right now, but we can get you that.

Okay.

And then I apologize, I forget the first question that was around funding.

I think it was around funding.

Yeah, outcomes.

Oh, the outcomes, thanks.

Um, so I I think we can continue to work on the um the outcomes piece.

Are the measures that we've been asked for from the city have changed a little bit over the years.

The health department is currently in the process of creating its own like performance snapshop, or we're tracking things regularly that we're we're happy to share.

Um, but I don't know if there's a new approach that we want to take uh where we're getting you information more regularly than this once a year request that we get.

I'm happy to share that more regularly.

Okay, so and then for your the community health workers, um, how are you utilizing like how are they being utilized specifically?

Like I said, because I know the Southwood location was a very important location.

And I would like to know on our end how how are how are we?

I know at the last meeting we talked about Southside.

Um I'm as you know, I'm very uh biased, but um I would like to know what is the plan for that in terms of the community centers.

Yeah, and we're still talking through that right now with um with Amy and and we have a meeting tomorrow to talk about that.

So we're still in conversations about what that those community centers will look like.

Um we still have uh representations from our CHWs in that area, they're actually servicing out of our WIC clinic, which is right there in that same plaza that they just spoke of.

So that's where they're providing services in the South Side because we no longer have that location in the apartments.

Okay, so it sounds like a lot of um the work that you are doing is changing.

Is this part is this part of the like community health improvement plan?

Is this part of those?

The community health worker, yeah.

Uh no, that's really not part of the plan.

I mean it would there will be some touch points with the community health improvement plan and our community health work.

Um the work is not changing, the work is still out in the resource centers.

Um it's just in that south side area.

Uh, one of our locations closed down and it moved over to providing the service currently in our work center, and the conversations still can uh continue with the city to determine where those services will be held at, which community centers and and what days.

Um did that answer your question.

Not really, but uh, well, I was gonna reiterate that um the value that I also see in getting um having our metrics include outcomes as much as possible as well.

Um, so we can understand, you know, when I see a metric and I see a number and to understand is that is that number good, right?

So benchmarks and outcomes are great metrics that I you know would also echo the importance of getting in our reporting, um, there's been there's been some discussion.

I think this is a good point.

Um, just to get the outcomes report um earlier before we vote on this, and and maybe that that's something we can track in our kind of regular cadence of, you know, we have some kind of regular standing um agenda items from year to year.

Um, so my my colleague or our vice chair would like to have that report sooner, I think.

Is this is what I'm hearing, um, which which is great.

Um, you would like to make that motion.

Absolutely, I you can put that motion on the table and see which one of our colleagues.

Now, I I will say before we let me I guess have some um questions.

We're we're we are um obligated.

The the state, I believe I I know enough about that.

It's been a long time since I looked at the formulas for VDA for local department of health funding, but I'm pretty certain we are obligated by the state to pay a minimum amount of funding.

It's kind of like our CSB, how we fund CSVs, correct?

Um, I'm not sure about the CSB's part, but you are required to match the general fund that's given to the health department, and right now your match rate is about um, I think it's 33.6 percent that you have to match to whatever the general um revenue is given us to at the state.

And they do match that formula a couple years ago, correct?

Yeah, because it used to be up at 41%, and it has incrementally come down uh to the 33.

And then of course you've got the hundred percent local funding that you give us above that.

Yeah, and and we and we how much in addition um do we give you compared to other localities?

Where do you think we fall in our funding?

Um, sorry, I don't have the budget numbers in front of me because I didn't prepare for the budget, but um so the amounts I'm um I just don't know those off the top of my head.

I can tell you like Henrico matches 45% to what this the state provides us, and you're matching 33%, but you're also giving a lot more um 100% funding on top of that.

Okay, um is that helpful?

Is that it?

Yeah, that's helpful.

So I what I what I recommend then, Madam Chair is that um we move for I move to forward the council, but if it's possible that we can get the follow-up action items that we requested by the next EHS meeting, because I know this is I know that this is already funding that has been allocated, but we would like to really see that information as we move forward.

So if you can get that to us by the next EHS meeting, that'd be great.

Okay, and so just to be clear, is the the outcome data that you're looking for?

Correct, and then the information within the community health improvement plan, but then also the information on the gun balance.

Okay, um, and then again, like I said, the outcome the the more outcomes versus indicators, we would really love to see that.

So if you can get that to DCO Popovich before the next EHS meeting.

So I move that we uh forward to council for approval.

And I second.

Madam Clerk, Colorado.

Thank you.

The committee is voting on the motion to forward item two ordinance 2026-11 to council with a recommendation to approve.

Mr.

Bretson, aye, vice chair Jones, Chair Lynch, aye.

That motion has been approved.

All right.

Uh Madam Clerk, we'll do approval of the minutes.

The minutes to be approved are for April 9th, 2026 for the education and human services standing committee meeting held at 2 p.m.

If there are no amendments or corrections or corrections, then the mini minutes will stand approved as presented.

Those minutes have been approved.

Thank you.

All right.

And now we've got our staff report from Ms.

Brown.

Yep, hello.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Madam Clerk.

So as a brief recap of today's meeting, the committee heard a presentation from the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services regarding the inclement weather shelter review from those presentations and additional discussion items.

I recorded the following key action items.

Councilmember Lynch, you requested data from RRHA on the number of vacant units and info regarding the current emergency application process.

Additionally, you requested RPS to include expected growth in the facilities master plan when they return to the committee.

And the Virginia Department of Health will share their recently published community health improvement plan and outcome data with the committee ahead of the next meeting.

Looking ahead, the next education and human services committee meeting will be held on June 11th at the same time and location.

At this time, the anticipated agenda item includes an update from the Department of Justice Services and Office of Gun Balance Prevention.

That concludes my report.

Alright, committee members.

And with that, we had a rocket docket today.

I love that.

And thank you all for all of your hard work and for joining us and especially to our staff.

Who's worked so hard to make this committee fruitful and productive.

We really appreciate it.

The clerk's office.

We always appreciate you.

All right.

With that, meeting stands sure.