Good afternoon.

The time is now 2.02 p.m.

on Wednesday, April 1st, 2026, and the City of San Antonio B session is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilmember Corps.

Councilmember McKee Rodriguez.

Councilmember Via Gran.

Councilmember Mungia.

Councilmember Castillo.

Councilmember Galván.

Councilmember Elderete Gavito.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Present.

Councilmember Spears.

Here.

Councilmember White.

Mayor Jones.

Here.

Mayor, we have Quorum.

Great.

Thanks, Madam Clerk.

Today we've got two items on a topic that I know is top of mind for not only many on the council but our entire community, which is affordable housing.

So we have a briefing on the affordable housing funding piece, and then we'll go into a source of income protections for veterans.

And I'll save my comments for the latter topic until right before that presentation.

Okay, Eric, over to you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

So two items today.

The primary item is a post-solicitation on our affordable housing, gap funding, and community land trust.

You'll recall we went through a B session on the pre-solicitation several months ago.

Just as there was a reminder of the 150 million dollars that the voters approved in 2022.

Approximately 129.5 million has been committed to produce or preserve more than 5,000 units over multiple funding rounds.

And so Veronica will walk through the post solicitation.

You'll recall that I think you all had a pretty robust conversation in the pre-solicitation.

So I think uh Veronica will go through those aspects of it as she goes through the presentation.

The second item the mayor just mentioned it, it was a an item that the that the mayor had asked us to bring forward on the source of income protections for uh veterans in San Antonio.

So that'll be the second item.

Uh Mayor, the Veronica has these two presentations together.

That way we'll just go through the whole presentation and then turn it over for you all for comments.

Thank you, Eric.

Good afternoon, Mayor and Council.

Veronica Garcia, I'm the director for the neighborhood and housing services departments.

Uh today's item is a post-solicitation briefing on our annual request for affordable housing projects.

Today's briefing includes nearly $21 million of awards for eight projects, which were selected through a competitive procurement process.

We'll be creating and rehabbing affordable rental housing as well as creating new affordable single family homes to own.

The awards include funding from both our affordable housing bond as well as federal CDBG and home funds.

Our support for these projects ensures the preservation of our existing affordable housing supply as well as the creation of new affordable homes throughout the city.

Together, these projects will help us meet our ship housing goals and ensure the community has quality housing options with meaningful supportive services that help people stay housed.

So the first uh solicitation I will go over was the gap funding, which was made available for creating or preserving rental housing as well as building new homes to own.

We've prioritize family-sized units with deep affordability within the urban core and along the green or silver line or frequent transit lines.

The bond funds and federal funds were made available, creating a streamline application process that's in alignment with our adopted HUD plan, our strategic housing implementation plan, as well as our housing bond parameters.

The RFPs were all released in December of 2025, and a total of approximately 18.8 million dollars has been made available to support these solicitations.

City staff incorporated city council's feedback from the pre-solicitation briefing into the RFP process that was held last November.

This included prioritizing developments that are located near frequent transit and providing an extra priority for developments that are located within a quarter mile of the advanced rapid transit lines, meaning the green or the silver line, a frequent bus service line, meaning it's within every 15 or 30 minutes, and within via link zones.

As requested during the last B session, we also piloted as an exercise a parallel scoring framework to really evaluate the affordability of each proposal.

For this exercise, we prescribe points for the number and overall proportion of units that were set aside for families below 30 percent of the area median income.

For the funding, and a total of 14.7 million was made available for rental housing solicitation, including 10 million from the housing bond and about 4.7 million from federal funds in home and CDBG.

Today we are recommending to award up to 14.4 million dollars for four projects.

In the homeownership category, we only had federal dollars, about 4.2 million dollars available.

We received two proposals and are recommending funding for both of those awards.

So in total, we are seeking to award $18.5 million for six housing development projects.

So the rental housing solicitation, we continue to prioritize deeply affordable units and required that every project that was applying for funding included at least 15% of the units for families earning 30% of the area median income or below.

So in San Antonio, that's a family of three making less than $26,000 a year.

In addition to prioritizing housing near transit, we also prioritize adding housing within the urban core.

Additionally, we did complete displacement impact assessment for all new rental housing projects to better understand the needs of the surrounding community.

And I want to emphasize that all of the recommended projects, none of them will result in any permanent displacement for residents.

The scoring committee is made up of representatives from the city manager's office, neighborhood and housing services, historic preservation, the planning department, the department of compliance opportunity access, as well as development services.

We also partnered with VIA to help evaluate the proposals as relate to transit.

We included members of our citizen housing bond committee as well as the housing commission in an advisory capacity.

The scoring committee looked at our criteria with the most number of points going to how affordable the project was being proposed.

So the more deeply affordable units, the more points the project received.

We also looked at what type of housing was being built, where it was going to be located, and how they were leveraging their city ask.

So we looked at everything from what other types of funding projects were requesting, how much city funding they're requesting, especially in relation to those deeply affordable units.

We also evaluated projects with transit in mind.

Again, priority points the closer you were to frequent transit.

And then we also considered development experience and nonprofit partnerships did receive additional points.

We also were closely looking at each proposal and what services they were providing to residents with a focus on how they were helping them maintain that housing stability.

Lastly, for this funding round, we did not provide any small business or local preference points.

This was waived due to the inclusion of federal dollars.

This is the scoring matrix for our rental rehab.

We did get four projects, and the top scoring project is recommended for an award.

That is 11 West Travis, is a rental rehab project, historic multifamily located in downtown San Antonio along the Silver Line.

The San Antonio Housing Trust Public Facility Corporation acquired this property just this past summer, and we are proposing an award of $4.5 million from the affordable housing bond for the preservation of 63 affordable units, including 13 units that are affordable for families at 30% AMI or below.

This project is including on-site services for the residents who live there.

The housing trust has a pretty extensive relocation plan for the residents.

They will be adding in a second elevator to greatly increase the accessibility for the residents.

In addition, we will be considering up to $1.7 million of forgiving an existing CDBG loan that dates back to 1995.

That loan forgiveness will be an item that comes to council up to the full forgiveness amount as a separate item for this potential award.

Two proposals withdrew from the process.

This scoring matrix shows the four were selected for interviews by the evaluation committee, and one proposal was disqualified after the interview process.

We are recommending the top three proposals for funding awards.

The first recommended project is Judy at Vita, also a San Antonio Housing Trust project.

This one is located in District 4 near Texas AM University.

They are recommended the development will create 68 supportive housing units that are aimed at serving youth experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

This also includes youth transitioning out of foster care.

They are committed to Universal Design Level 4, which is the highest accessibility standard.

And the wraparound services for the youth who will live in the housing includes case management, mental health services, financial literacy, life coaching skills, all provided by SAM Ministries.

And the project does include 14 units at 30% of the area median income.

The second project is the Aurora MLK in Council District 2.

This is located near St.

Philip's College.

It is an NRP development.

We are recommending an award of $1.75 million in a CDBG loan for creation of $288 affordable units, including 44 units deeply affordable for families at 30% AMI or below.

94% of the homes are family size units.

This is located in the urban core, near frequent transit, about a mile from the Silver Line, but it's directly a bus stop on a line that has very frequent service.

The services include youth activities after school, a free pant a food pantry, as well as free transportation to medical appointments, all provided by a nonprofit partner.

That project was also going to apply for 4% low income housing tax credits, and they will find out if that's awarded later this year.

The Heritage Estates at Medina is a third recommended project.

This is also in District 4, located near Port San Antonio.

This project, we are recommending a $2.5 million award from the Affordable Housing Bond for the creation of 86 units for older adults with a focus on serving veterans.

This project was awarded 9% low-income housing tax credits last year.

So the award of housing bond funds helps close the gap, should close this summer and begin construction soon after that.

13 units are for families at 30% of the area median income or below.

This is this is the summary of the rental housing.

So a total of four projects are being recommended, totaling 14.4 million.

In total, we will be creating and preserving 505 rental homes, including 156 deeply affordable units and over 350 family-sized units for the community.

We initially had total funding of just over $2 million, but we were able to identify program savings, making the total amount available of $4.2 million.

We also completed displacement impact assessments for these new housing communities to really understand any vulnerabilities of the surrounding community.

The scoring criteria is the same that we utilize for rental housing with the most points going for affordability.

We also again looked at leveraged funds if any nonprofit partners were working, the development experiences for the teams, and again a focus on project readiness.

The scoring committee included city manager's office, homeless services and strategy department, historic preservation, neighborhood housing services, capital delivery, compliance opportunity access and development services, and again via helped us review the project locations in relation to transit.

Additionally, we had a representative from the housing commission subcommittee in an advisory role.

We received a total of two homeownership proposals for consideration, and both of them are recommended for an award.

We are proposing a recommended award of 4.4 million totaling $4 million from CDBG and home funds to support 47 new homeownership opportunities.

Habitat anticipates selling the homes for about 160,000, and they do offer a 0% interest mortgage to every single home buyer, as well as extensive support pre-purchase as well as post-purchase.

The second proposal recommended is the Casitas Affordable Homes, which is proposed by Arcasas in Council District 5.

This is an innovative missing middle infill project, smaller housing units that fit on smaller lots.

We're recommending 225,000 in federal funds to support four units.

Each home will be two bedrooms, one bathroom, and one lot is large enough to support a second ADU in the back.

And all of the homes that are being sold will be for families earning below 80% of the area median income, which is less than $70,000 a year for a family of three.

In total, these projects will add $51 new homeownership, affordable homeownership opportunities within the community.

We are recommending a total of $4.2 million in federal funding to support the production of these homes.

The other item that we are doing a pre post solicitation briefing on is for the community land trust funding.

Community land trusts are nonprofit organizations which own the land usually on behalf of community and ensure long-term affordability.

Advancing community land trusts is a strategy within our strategic housing implementation plan.

Last fall we released a solicitation, making $1.5 million available from our affordable housing bond.

In exchange for funding, organizations must demonstrate lasting affordability for up to 99 years.

And this solicitation is in alignment and with our CLT designation policy, and anyone recommended for an award will have to go through the city's designation process.

The request for proposals was released in October of 2025.

The scoring committee included internal city staff as well as external stakeholders, including a representative from the housing commission and a representative from the housing bond committee.

The committee evaluated each project on unique scoring criteria that reflects the unique nature of ACLT.

We looked at the governance.

So what is the makeup of the CLT's board?

How are they engaging the community?

How does their mission and model align with long-term affordability for the residents that they are planning to serve?

What is the affordability of the projects that are being recommended?

So who specifically are they targeting?

What services are they offering potential renters or home buyers?

What other funds are they leveraging in addition to housing bond funds?

And what uh what are the locations of homes that are being proposed?

The local preference points and veteran-owned small business preference points all both applied in this funding round.

So we received a total of three proposals for the CLT category, and the scoring committee is recommending the two projects or award for award and ask that we look at ways to fund the top two.

We did identify additional funds in the housing bond from the home ownership rehab bucket, which is funding the current solicitation, and we do have enough to fund the top two.

So the first one recommended for an award is the Silk Rolled Cultural CLT.

This is proposing a total of $1.5 million from the housing bond to support 10 homeownership opportunities.

The Cultural Linguist CLT is looking to serve Council Districts 1, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

So really targeting homeownership in the Northwest, where affordable homeownership opportunities are becoming harder and harder to find.

They requested $681,400.

Again, this would all come from the housing bond.

They have very unique model.

They already have 10 homes or 10 properties, and they will be using bond funds to repair their existing inventory of single-family homes, which will then be rented to families below 30% of the area median income on the historic west side.

These homes are all within half a mile of frequent transit or even the future silver line, and they do offer extensive educational services, including helping renters services on maybe helping them become future home buyers.

So in summary, we are recommending an award of up to 2.2 million dollars from the housing bond to support community land trusts, including 20 affordable single family homes.

So that concludes the post solicitation briefing for gap funding awards.

As mentioned, we do have two items for today, and the second one is looking at a discussion on the veterans source of income protections.

We do have representatives from Opportunity Home as well as the Bear County Housing Authority who both operate voucher programs, so they are available here to help answer any questions you may have.

Source of income protections ensure qualified renters do not get turned away from housing solely on the basis of their source of income, such as a housing choice voucher.

The housing choice voucher program is the largest rental assistance program in the country.

This is funded by HUD, so it's a federal program and it's administered locally by our public housing authorities.

This program helps households with low incomes find decent stable housing on the private market.

This is a voluntary program.

Currently, there is no state or national requirement for landlords to accept vouchers except in certain incentivized properties, which I'll go into.

The voucher helps a family pay no more than 30% of their income towards rent, and then the federal stipend covers the remaining income, which is paid directly to each landlord.

There is also a special voucher specifically for veterans, which is the veterans affairs supportive housing or was referred to as a VASH voucher.

This program serves veterans who have been homeless or at high risk of homelessness and provides them with not just a voucher but also ongoing case management support to really help find housing and stay housed.

The state of Texas is clear on what cities can and cannot do regarding source of income.

The legislation preempts cities from adopting source of income protections that apply to all renters in all properties.

However, it does allow for protections in city incentivized properties or for veterans citywide.

This is important to note that source of income protections do not mandate that renters with a voucher must be accepted.

Instead, it really ensures that the voucher cannot be the reason for a renter being denied housing if they are otherwise qualified.

They still have to meet any kind of leasing criteria such as credit requirements or coverly covering the rent with the voucher, so all other requirements will still apply.

This would simply mandate that the voucher cannot be the reason the veteran is denied the housing.

In San Antonio, we've already taken steps to ensure renters have access to housing regardless of their lawful source of income.

The City Council approved our housing voucher incentive policy, which was an ordinance passed in June of 2021 that ensures the source of income protection for voucher holders if they are looking to live in a city incentivized property.

So, for example, all of the housing communities that I mentioned earlier that are proposed to receive federal awards or city awards dollars, those would be required to accept vouchers under our existing ordinance.

The San Antonio Housing Trust funded properties and other federally funded properties, such as tax credit properties, also cannot deny housing to other qualified renters solely on the basis of their source of income.

Further, our non-discrimination ordinance was updated in 2013, and it does protect renters from discrimination based on their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, familial status, national origin, age, or veteran status.

And I will point out that both age and veteran status are unique for San Antonio.

This discussion has been ongoing since the housing voucher incentive policy was passed in 2021.

We've had discussions on potential source of income protections, what more can be done to help land make it easier for both renters and landlords who want to utilize housing vouchers.

We had a discussion, a briefing at PCDC on this topic back in April of 2024.

At the time, PCDC requested that we have the same discussion with the housing commission.

We then worked very closely with the working group to discuss how we can work closely with landlords and all of our other partners in this space to remove barriers to the voucher program overall.

The REACH working group develop recommendations, which I will go over in the next slide.

Those were all shared with both the housing commission and most recently at PCDC in April of 2025.

So our department's mission is quite simple.

We want to ensure everyone in San Antonio has access to safe, safe, stable, and affordable housing.

As part of our broader work to expand housing access for everyone, we partnered with Close to Home to convene a working group at PCDC's request, where we looked at how we can ensure broader utilization of housing vouchers and trying to address common reasons properties do not participate in the program.

We heard the common concerns such as there are lengthy inspection processes, there are long wait times to receive first payments, issues with how those payments arrive, common concern was that the voucher rent maximums are not always competitive across the city, and overall concerns about the administrative burdens of the voucher program and extra paperwork, especially when compared to just renting on the private market.

The working group included property managers and owners, both of our housing authorities participated, and we had support from veteran advocates as well as staff.

All recommendations were shared again with housing commission as well as PCDC in 2024.

And the working group continues to meet on a quarterly basis.

They've noted that payments have also been issued down from 30 to 60 days to as quick as 17 days.

We are also they are working to test an app that provide better, faster information on what is the status of inspections and where you're at in the processing process.

We also work very closely with the San Antonio Board of Realtors and the National Association of Rental Property Managers were great partners in helping us just ensure that renters have a better understanding of which properties today accept vouchers.

So together now the multiple listing service MLS now indicates if properties accept vouchers, which created a lot more availability and accessibility of which properties making them easier to find.

So instead of now being bundled in one lump sump payments, now you can see if they're tied to individual units, which really helps streamline the accounting on the landlord and property owner side.

Um who is impacted by source of income protections for veterans.

Again, this would be for that very specific class.

In San Antonio, there are approximately 90,005 veterans.

This is according to 2024 census data.

Of those, we estimate approximately 1,140 have Section 8 housing choice vouchers, and about a little over 800 hold the VASH vouchers.

Combined, we have a little over a hundred veterans with either type of voucher who are currently seeking housing.

This could be because they are new to the voucher program, or it could be because they're moving, or it could be because of other reasons.

I'll note again that since VASH has case management, they do have several set-aside units that are specific specifically designated properties that work very closely with our case managers, and they do tend to have faster lease up times than the general housing choice voucher program.

That is why we work so closely with our stakeholders to really try and remove barriers for all voucher holders over the past year and a half.

So as mentioned, we do continue to meet on a quarterly basis with our REACH working group, really focusing on what other barriers are out there and how can we work together to streamline the process and encourage broader acceptance of housing vouchers for all populations.

Today's discussion, we are really trying to seek your feedback on this issue, uh, consideration again of a potential ordinance, or do we continue to have discussions at the planning and community development committee?

Some things to consider uh would be that housing providers again would be prohibited to refusing to lease or rent to a veteran simply because they have a voucher, and we want your feedback on various considerations such as what would be the applicability of this effort and potential enforcement.

Today we do rely on with our housing voucher incentive policy that exists now.

We do rely on complaints which come to our office or go through one one for investigation.

So thank you.

Look forward to your discussion again, looking for feedback from all of you on this topic.

Okay.

Thank you, Veronica.

Clarifying nobody has signed up to speak.

Oh not in the system.

Okay.

If you'd raise your hands if you'd like to speak on this topic, and then we'll I'll call on you.

Just via gone.

Okay.

Um first again, Veronica, thank you.

I'm not sure where you want.

Um behind behind the thing.

Okay, thank you again.

Um really appreciated the information, the pre-brief, and frankly, just how rigorous and how transparent the process is, so everybody understands kind of where they fared, um, as we also try to incentivize folks to really ensure that these are as close to other services that people really need, for example, like public public transit.

Um the veteran um uh source of income protections.

I I think this is as mentioned, this has been a discussion that has been long going on before this body, different iterations, and so um, as I was looking at this slide deck, even in your slide deck in 2024, it's very similar, almost the exact same slide deck.

Um, and so when I when I think about the size of our veteran population here, as well as the progress made in other communities, for example, Fort Worth.

Fort Worth already passed this uh this ordinance, um, and they have classified violations as a class D misdemeanor that come with a $500 uh fee associated with it.

As a veteran um serving on this body and understanding just how uh significant veteran homelessness is in our community.

I visited Sam Ministry, the the hotel, the the Hilton there, um, and spoke with those folks, and and 25% of those folks are veterans uh that utilize those services.

So, as much as we can possibly do to help people quickly get through this process and then utilize a voucher in an area where they need it.

And I think as I was looking through the slides and frankly thinking about this discussion last night, I I think what's a little bit absent from this discussion is understanding the importance of that housing and its proximity to the health care that veterans require and need, right?

And so, not unlike other challenges that we have in our community, all you have to do is look at a map and see the disparity, right?

So there are 14 VA uh facilities in the city or surrounding area.

I don't include Curville, I don't include Victoria, but it's 14.

There's only one hospital, it's Audi Murphy.

Um, even that that new facility off 151 is not a hospital, that's just a clinic, right?

So 14 facilities, one hospital, and of those remaining 13 clinics, only three of them are south of 90.

Right.

So the same disparities that we see in healthcare writ large, the same disparities that we even see in libraries, right?

That lot that 90 line is certainly also a dividing uh line here when it comes to access to housing that our veterans um their veterans need.

So the to lay flat in case it's also helpful to shape people's um my colleagues' questions on this.

Can you give us a sense of of the number of rental units in our community and the percentage of those that take vouchers we I believe we do have that data from here?

Don't want to go off of memory.

Okay, go ahead, Sarah.

Okay.

Hi, council.

Um there are approximately 760,000 rental units in San Antonio.

Um we don't know what proportion of those accept vouchers, but I can tell you that um as of last month on the multiple listing service, where some rental housing providers will post that they uh have a rental available.

Um about 300 of those advertised that they do accept vouchers, and that's out of 3,000 approximately.

Okay, so a very very small amount.

Um, and the assumption is uh as well that you know, again, when you don't have the the distribution of VA facilities as evenly distributed, allowing for an additional step, which I think is what the state had in mind when they did this, allowing for an additional step that gives people flexibility and agency as to where they take these vouchers, allows for more folks to um utilize these near Audi Murphy or near some of the other clusters where these facilities are.

The vast majority of the VA facilities are again on the north side.

I mean, four of the 13 clinics have north in their name, right?

It can shows you the real concentration of these resources and why protection of this way is is important.

Okay.

Councilwoman Viegran um stepped out.

Okay.

Who else is has anyone else signed up to speak?

Um, um, I'm not sure what the order was.

Okay.

We're not showing you.

Okay.

So we'll go with councilwoman Spears, White, and then Mungia.

Please.

Thanks, Mayor.

That's a lot to cover here.

I want to ask first about the community land trusts.

How is this different from a contract for deed?

I mean, what happens when you pay off your home?

Can you deed this down to family members or so the community land trusts will own the land in perpetuity?

The homeowners buying the structure.

If they uh want to sell it, usually uh they'll have to do so according to the deed with the nonprofit.

That could offer restrictions, they usually do, meaning um the sales price cannot exceed more than 10% of what you bought it.

Those are those are some examples.

Um, and then they will have additional provisions on if you did want to pass it on to a family member.

But but they do own the structure, um, and so they have all the property rights that go with that as well.

Okay.

Um that's in um the homeownership example.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Okay, I have a lot of questions on the VASH.

Here we are.

So in thinking about this, I have the same concerns the mayor does.

This this is um gives me a lot of heartache because I really want to make sure our veterans are taken care of in Military City USA, and um, in our efforts to try to attract um more health care facilities and better health care for our veterans and just in general for the community.

Um, we do need to consider how we serve um our vulnerable veterans, and so I'm interested in finding ways we can incentivize.

Um I don't know if an a punitive approach to landlord willingness will be the most effective, but if there is some ways to incentivize participation, um I'd like to explore those areas and um what's the average timeline right now for landlords to receive reimbursement on a voucher?

Sure, um it was 30 to 60 days prior to the efforts of our working group, and now um with the housing authorities assistance, they've got that down to about up maybe 17 days in some cases.

17 days, so two weeks approximately an average, and that's uh um with the understanding that all completed paperwork has been submitted uh by the potential renter as well as the landlord.

They've passed all inspections.

Okay.

And uh, councilwoman for your other question about incentives, councilwoman um Castillo did submit a CCR that asked us to look at potential incentives for landlords to voluntarily accept landlords.

Um that has gone to governance, and we'll be having that discussion at PCDC in the coming.

That's good to hear.

Um can you tell me a little bit about now a little bit about Valor Hill?

Is are we seeing a benefit into clustering the vouchers into areas?

Uh yes, very much so.

Valor Hill is a great model.

Um they do have space, they targeted veterans to live in the community, they have on-site space for the VA to have office and you know, have those sessions with veterans, deliver those services directly, and um they have another partner that is a nonprofit partner that's on site also providing services.

So it's we've heard nothing but positive things about having that co-location of services.

So instead of a VA case manager having to travel all across the city to multiple properties, they can serve multiple clients all in one location with the space on site to provide those services dedicated.

Okay, so I'll recognize um, I think Ryan Wilson is here from Franklin.

Um they're the they're the ones who actually provide those services.

So if you have any other questions.

Baldwin.

Oh, sorry, so then to on the other side of that, how what's the process and timeline if you want to use a voucher?

If you want to use a voucher, you have to um you know you find a property for veterans, they have case managers.

The VASH vouchers come with case management.

So they have um lots of relationships with properties that already know the program, and there's really fast lease up rates for that for a veteran who does not have uh case managers dedicated.

They have to identify a property on their own.

Um, and if the property does not already in the section eight program, they would first have to go through an inspection process.

Um that can take uh as fast as 24 hours, but it could take longer than that for the inspection.

They'd wait to see if they passed it.

If they did not, they'd have to make those repairs, get it reinspected, um, find out to be passed.

That'd kind of be the process.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, I am very interested in how we can really incentivize this for our veterans.

I'm I feel a lot of anxiety about this because we are military city USA, and we've got to find a solution here.

And um, I want to work closely with you and and any partners that we can to make sure that we remedy this situation, and I echo what the mayor is saying about availability of health care.

So thank you for your presentation.

Thank you.

Veronica, in case it's helpful to anyone else.

Um, I know there's the the CCR that it's making its way in 2024 when this was originally also raised.

It sounded like you will also were also looking at relaunching a program $500 to incentivize folks taking a voucher.

Um, did that not relaunch and how would that be different than what is proposed in the CCR?

Sure.

So that program was actually administered by Opportunity Home San Antonio.

Um they ran out of funding for that program.

They did not identify additional funds to relaunch it.

Um, speak for councilwoman Castillo CCR, but um that could be a potential future item, but it was not the city's, and we do have Stephanie Rodriguez here with Opportunity Home, and um happy to turn her to speak about the program.

Thank you.

Sorry, I was just gonna hi good afternoon.

I was gonna try to tell her.

Um so for the for the incentive, we did do that as a part of our process during uh an initial year.

Now we did have the opportunity to apply for additional administrative fees specifically for our VASH program this year.

Bear County did as well.

We both did apply for those additional administrative fees that would be used towards incentive, and we would pay it out to those landlords if they lease up with a veteran under that VASH program.

We're waiting to see if we've been awarded those additional administrative fees, and if we do, we would be using that as a part of that process.

So you had it just like summarize you had it ran out of money, so this is a different way that potentially fund that.

So we did um for 2024 for our organization, we had it uh Bear County did not at that time.

2025, we did apply, then we had gotten awarded, we did do it for just specifically for VASH.

Um, and we we were doing incentive fees in 2025 until we ran out of that admin uh administrative fee.

Um, and now we've applied again this year in order to get it, and we're hoping that we will get awarded as well.

Thank you for that.

Um, Councilman Via Gunn.

Thank you.

Uh, thank you, Veronica, for the presentation.

I want to start with item number one, the post-solicitation high profile briefing on uh the affordable housing development gap funding.

I'm pleased with the work that you guys have been doing.

Ma uh I do have some questions about the casita.

Uh, when we looked at it, uh, did we look at universal design uh for these um for the casita program?

Sure.

So what are our cases proposing?

We did look at that.

Um, I can have the team check if they are proposing to do what level of universal design.

Okay.

Um, their casitas are small because they are doing infill housing on very small lots.

Yeah, so each one is about 800 square feet.

Um, so they're but they are new construction.

So, what I I would really like to see, and I know we have and and my team's gonna be working on this too, is as we move forward and we look at our um casita program and what we offer at the city that we we look at accommodating for those who may own a front house that is just too expensive to um do ramps on, and if we if we created a casita on the back that was um available or a universal design level, so someone in a wheelchair or could be there.

Um, so I really want to look at that as we move forward, and I think in the next iteration of any housing bond that we need to look at that as especially as we talk about in fell housing.

Um I'm reminded you know, and this is personal experience from my mother's house, from my house of if something caused somebody to be in a wheelchair, which happened with my dad.

We had it, and it was funny, he had veteran, he was a veteran, so we had benefits to able able to get a ramp, able to get something to take him up and downstairs, but that's not always the case.

So I really want to make sure that we're we're thinking about that as we move forward.

Community land trust uh for affordable housing.

I think we need to do more uh research and digging on on PCDC and with the housing trust as we talk about that and where we move forward and in keeping the um affordability about available for homes and for legacy homes and for those that are inherited by people, and we had a lot of conversations in DC regarding that with our uh conversations on in terms of housing, so I think we need to move forward with that.

Um but other than that, I truly believe that if we get uh our housing stock available for at all sorts of levels that we will see other things aligned.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

Uh on item briefing two.

I think we're talking a lot about a lot of things here, and so I want to um I want to first um I want to address the fact that our veterans have served, they've served bravely, and we do need to take care of them when we come when they come home.

Oh, you can sit down now, Veronica, because this is gonna go on.

Um but what I hear us talking about is homelessness, health care, um, which we have in is mental health and the suicide rate among veterans, and then we get to what uh Veronica and the rest of the team are responsible for and what we're discussing right now, which is housing and the voucher system.

So, does the city need to take a long hard look at how we take care of our veterans and uh what we do about the 90,000 plus veterans that are in San Antonio and figuring out who where they are and who they are, because that's that's Korea, that's Vietnam, that's um that's the Afghanistan, Iraq.

That that's a lot of wars, and that's why we're called Military City USA, not because of the bases, but I think because of the people.

Uh so I do want to see why our homeless veterans are there and why they can't get the help.

The health care, um I have two veterans that sit on my staff, and they can go on and on about the what they need from the VA, and it's a lot, and the missed appointments, the last minute minute appointments.

So that is something that we probably should look at at our federal legislation as we go up and we talk conversations there.

The mental health, the suicide rate.

I have been people have talked to me about that a lot, and I have lots of groups that are are working that so even if we put them at home in homes or in apartments, we're still thinking about the fact that we lose so many veterans to suicide daily and what what are we what we're gonna do there.

Now, when it comes to the housing, and I see this, and I was on PCDC when this first came through, uh, is that we have 40 searching for housing uh with Vosh VASH vouchers.

I have 87 that are searching for housing with the housing choice vouchers.

What I need is who these people are and what districts they are in, because within district three, we work with uh Operation Triage, we work with housing to get these veterans into their housing.

So I think part of it is us as council members need to look at what we're doing to help them get into that.

So I that is what I need.

I need the names, and that's what I said a year ago when this came up before.

I said, who are these individuals, what districts are they in, how can we help them?

Because if they have a family home that they could live in, I have a group that's ready to rebuild their home.

I did not get a response from from the group, the groups that are that are saying, hey, we're working with these veterans.

So those groups that are working with veterans that have the 40 that have the 87, please let us know what districts they are in because before I do an income vote on that, this needs to go back to PCDC, and I think each council member needs to kind of put out there what we are doing in our district for housing.

Because what I don't want is to is to carve out something specific for veterans, and then make it more difficult for other groups that use VASH vouchers also, and that's what I'm hearing.

Is that of these 40 that are searching for housing with the VASH vouchers?

Why are they still searching for housing?

That's what I need to know.

What districts are they in?

Do they need to be near the hospital?

Because if that's it, let we we can we can alleviate that.

I need true real numbers of who is getting rejected because of because people are discriminating and saying I'm not taking vouchers.

Because my my concern is because I have lots, I've got single moms that are gonna use vouchers.

I've got I've got people working, you know, very part-time jobs with the school district that are gonna use vouchers, and what I don't want is people us just carving it out for a specific group.

If what we need to do is go wider on how we protect people that use vouchers for a source of income, if we do have a problem where some of our apartments, multifamily and some of our housing renters are not taking Vash vouchers.

So that is why, yes, I hear I hear you, I hear what we're saying here.

There's a lot of issues we have to do with veterans, but I need more specifics, and this is why I think it needs to go back to PCDC.

You need to work with Richard and his group and get the exact where these people are, what districts they are, why these 40 are not in housing, and of the 87 that need housing choice.

Can I get them in some of these these uh nonprofits that are building for veterans?

So that's all I have to say there.

Again, thank you for the work.

I think if we if we solve our housing issue, we're going to solve quite a few issues for the city of San Antonio.

Thank you.

No, thank you.

Um, a point of clarification, it's only veterans that can use the the Vash vouchers.

Um I know there's a group here that has been really working hard on this issue for many, many years.

Uh, they're the ones that actually drafted uh the resolution, uh, which again mirrors what is done in Fort Worth.

So I'm gonna ask American GI Forum if there's a representative that would like to come up and provide some information from your own perspective uh about why certainly what the councilwoman just described in terms of additional fidelity.

I think that's helpful.

But um, if you'd like to speak as to why the um protections on source of income are are important, even absent that information, given the great need in our community, would welcome hearing that.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

Um my name is Peter Brown, the Bear County commander for the American GI Forum.

I just want to, it's kind of alarming that what y'all are saying is because most of the people that are not gonna report the report this to y'all is because they're grunts.

They're the people that are not, they're gonna.

If you give me somewhere to live, I lived in a barracks.

I lived in the dirt.

We're grunts, we're not gonna complain about it.

We're only gonna we're we're just gonna hide from it and just say everything's okay and all fine.

We're gonna adapt and overcome.

This way you're probably not gonna see the names, and if you do get the names, is because they were they had enough confidence to come up and say, Hey, I have a problem.

But this is where it becomes the line of saying there is people out there that are discriminating because I have a couple in that are on my form, and it's hard to find they live outside of San Antonio because they can't find nothing in San Antonio, and this is where it becomes so simple for ordinance to help go from the 300, the just the 300 apartment complexes to multiple over 3,000 complexes, or going from like three houses to maybe 15 houses.

That's all it is, just an ordinance to help get us into the get those people off the streets, get them a hand up.

We're not we're not gonna come to y'all in realms of a whole group because that's that we are we are we're very prideful.

We're very prideful.

Everybody knows anybody is that's a vet, they're very prideful, they stand on their their two feet, and they're not gonna try to back down as much.

But when we get put in the dirt, we're just gonna stand there and be where our piece of dirt is at.

And all we're asking is for this ordinance to help.

I'm begging, I'll beg on my knees that to get this ordinance passed.

Because it's just something that's so simple that Dallas Fort Worth did, it could be something that's so simple that we're military city USA, y'all could pass it.

So just look at this as a person that is a grunt who's a sergeant, who's the one of the lower enlisted, that's not gonna come to y'all.

But I have the confidence knowing that I have a traumatic injury, stuttering problems.

It's hard to come up here and say that I have these problems and then speak to y'all.

But someone has to do, if not me, then who?

But that's why I'm here.

If y'all their numbers have been provided, I know there's people out there that, and maybe it'd be small numbers in certain areas, but it's still one or two people.

The barrier that you put in front of it, you could take away that barrier.

And you could take away that one barrier that may, if he doesn't have a house or he doesn't have a place to live, he's not gonna show up at the VH himself.

Please just think about that.

There's just one barrier that you're helping get vets off the streets.

Thank you.

Cynthia, would you like to say something?

Yes, I would.

We have provided those numbers in various moments to each and every one of you.

I know that if I didn't meet with you, that uh the commander met with you all, and someone else from the group has met.

So the numbers have been provided uh many times over, and if we need to, we'll do it again.

The numbers don't lie.

Um the truth is we still have too many veterans out on the street, uh, and they're not accepted in certain areas.

They're limited right now to basically three areas in the community.

While we would love to see uh Section 8 voucher accepted anywhere else, councilwoman, I understand that one.

But in this regard, we're looking at veterans, they gave their lives for us.

They suffered injuries, uh, PTSD, physical and otherwise, and they deserve that kind of a little bit of treatment better than I'm just gonna say better than some of the rest of us, because I was not I'm not a veteran, but I recognize the fact that they've given of themselves for all of us.

I think that if we can at least do that for them, allow them to find a place to live where it's comfortable for them, and they are accessing the bus lines, the school districts, etc.

shopping, whatever they need to do aside, even from um the hospital itself.

If there's a clinic, great.

If we can get them there and they're on those lines where they have transportation, where they have a way to live like the rest of us do, um, I think that's not a lot to ask for.

I think you need to de dig deep and think about and consider the things that have been given up for us and consider that this would be a positive move for the city of San Antonio.

Uh, we love to tout that we're military USA, so let's actually live it.

Thank you.

Thank you for for providing that that perspective.

As somebody uh, I mean, again, I get my own care at Audi Murphy.

And if you're 10 minutes, 15 minutes late, they will cancel your appointment, and you won't get another appointment for 30 days, 60 days.

And so this idea of housing close to where the VA clinic is and what they where they get their health care is so important.

I got in my car and drove away, but some folks then have to get back on the bus, wait an hour, et cetera, et cetera, which is very challenging and unfortunately leads to exactly to the circumstance that my brother in arms mentioned, which is people get very desperate and take desperate actions, and it's needless.

And this is something that we can do to help ourselves help our community and help our veterans.

Um Councilman White.

Thanks, Mayor.

Umica, thanks for thanks for the presentation.

Uh starting with with the uh the first presentation.

I definitely support a healthy housing market.

Um, but again, want to stress that we need both market rate uh and afford affordable housing.

Uh a thriving city requires a full spectrum of housing and market rate development is what as we know is what drives economic growth and in our tax base here in the city.

Uh while affordable housing, of course, ensures that working families, uh seniors, and and our most vulnerable um aren't left behind.

But but but we cannot have um one without the other.

Uh and and I'm committed to to supporting both.

Uh I want to take a minute here as well uh to talk about TOD briefly.

And um I joined council members core uh in Castillo and that TOD uh CCR that we filed a couple of years ago to uh create transit oriented development around our uh ART corridors.

And I was really honest at the time, and I still today have concerns about whether uh this investment that we're making in these via rapid transit lines is actually um a smart investment.

Um I I really do.

Uh but what I said back then remains true today.

Uh, if we're gonna do it, and and obviously the commitment has already been made to do it, uh, we need to make sure that we give uh these these ART lines uh the best chance to actually be successful.

Uh these projects that we talked about today, I guess are all gonna be up and down that green line, right?

Within within a or at least many of them within a half mile or a quarter mile.

Uh along the silver line.

Sorry, yes, the silver line.

Yeah, yeah.

So you know, every single one of the gap funding and CLT projects before us today.

Um being that that is that that is the case, um, I'm proud that that that's what we're doing because we have to make sure that this investment in these lines, both the green and the silver, uh, have the best possible um chance to work.

Uh I certainly think there's a bigger conversation to be had here about what the city's role in housing really should be moving forward.

Uh but the dollars that we're talking about today are are bond dollars, right?

That have already been approved by the voters.

Yes, as well as um some federal home and C D BG dollars.

Okay.

So again, thank you uh for for the presentation.

Um I will ask uh just one question on this.

Uh is are there any plans for additional uh market rate developments up and down uh these these two lines?

Sure.

So we are we do have housing bond dollars set aside for strategic land acquisition.

We're working with the housing trust where we'd be acquiring land, um the housing belt must have affordability because we're using affordable housing bonds, um, but they could be mixed income and include some market rate units as well.

And uh we continue to work with any developers who are proposing housing communities along the green or silver line to see um what how we can partner together.

Sometimes they just need technical assistance to make the project work.

Sure, and and and Mayor, we we talked about this a couple of years ago, but if you look around the country, the areas where uh this transit or oriented development has actually worked, um, are areas where there is mixed um housing uh up and down these lines.

So uh I would encourage us as we move forward uh to remember that that we're gonna have to have a mix of both affordable and market rate housing to make these these TOD projects successful.

Um to the uh the veterans and and the vouchers making sure that every single veteran in our community um has a place to live is um extremely important.

I mean it goes without saying that that I know is a top priority um for this city council, and we need to do everything that we can uh to make sure that that is a reality.

My understanding of you know these voucher programs though are that there are there's been problems with them, right?

We have inspection process failures, uh we've had payment delays and reliability issues.

Um there's a significant administrative burden a lot of times with this, and um what is being proposed really is is requiring private property owners to participate in a federal subsidy program regardless of their experience, you know, with that program's administration, at least that that's the way that I see it.

Um I want us to have a program in place that is uh you know, I want this to be effective for the veterans.

I mean, everything that that was said earlier, uh I completely agree with.

And I think that councilwoman uh castillo and her CCR really aims to fix a lot of the issues uh that that we've seen um with this program and and how it's administered.

And um again, I I want it to work, but I think as we sit here today, um we're not quite yet in a position to move it forward.

And I agree with uh councilwoman via grand.

I thought I thought that was a very um balanced statement that she made, and and I think that sending it back to the committee.

Uh who's chair of that?

You, Edward?

Uh uh Councilman Mungee, I think sending it back to your committee uh to look at it again and refine it is probably the prudent way to uh to move forward here.

Um let me ask you this, Veronica.

These folks that are getting turned away, right?

A lot of them there's reasons that maybe haven't been discussed today uh as to why they're being turned away.

Is that right?

Sure.

It um if an ordinance was passed, it would only protect the voucher as the reason for being turned away.

Other reasons uh veteran may not be able to be housed, could be they don't meet the other leasing criteria for the property.

Maybe there's a background check, credit rating, um previous eviction, we've seen that as well.

Yeah.

So look, again, we must support our veterans.

It's our responsibility to support them for their you know commitment that they've shown to our community, to our country.

We need to do it.

I want to do it.

I think we will do it.

Um but I do think in order to get it right, we should just take a little bit more time here.

We should let councilwoman Castillo's C CR run through the process a bit.

We should let uh councilman Munghea's committee take a look at this um one more time, come back to us and then get it done.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um Veronica, the councilman um phrased this as a essential, and I want to put words in your mouth, but what I heard is that you're it's making it sound like we're forcing people to do this uh to take the vouchers and and we're not.

Um if you want to read that that sign that sentence again so that Veronica can clearly articulate what is actually happening because no one is forcing somebody to take it.

You're just saying that can't them utilizing a voucher can't be the only reason somebody is denied.

No one's forcing anybody to do anything.

Veronica, if I've misspoken, please correct me.

Sure.

So if um if a landlord wanted to deny someone, for example, they said, I have a voucher, can I pay my rent that way?

The landlord said, Oh no, I don't participate in the voucher program.

Um they would that could not be the reason for turning them away.

So they would um they would be required.

We they get a phone call from us if we got a complaint and we would provide some training and let them know that that would be a new requirement if this were passed.

Yeah, just a different way of saying it, I think.

So I mean, but to the point, right?

There's clearly going to have to be an education component to this.

Um, because no one's forcing anybody to do anything, just being very clear about those things that are allowed to be considered when saying no to somebody.

Okay.

Um, Councilman Mungheo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Veronica, for a really good presentation today.

Um, I just do want to highlight a couple things from the first presentation.

Uh Judy Advita is a great D4 project.

We've been working on that for many years at the housing trust.

So I'm glad to see they're being awarded some funds.

The uh 11 West Travis, which is in D1, I won't steal her thunder, but that's been a great project that's been moving, and I know the tenants union there has been very active in that, which is something we love to see.

We want to make sure people there don't get displaced uh in a really prime downtown property.

Uh obviously habitat's been doing great things in D4 with their rancho correlada.

I'm glad to see the first phase of this being funded.

I think they're the only folks that are really doing uh single family homes at this income level in the city, which is really great.

So I'm glad they're continuing to invest in D4.

And the heritage estates at Medina, which is great to focus on veterans, uh, which is I think is a really good tie to the next topic.

And so I know I want to give uh Peter and Cynthia a shout out.

I've I've been meeting with them for a long time now, and I I know they're uh been meeting with everybody here, and they have a great program there, and a great idea.

I do think this as a standalone there has to be some other additional component to this ordinance to make it more effective.

So it doesn't matter if that vast voucher was one veteran needing housing, that's important, right?

If there's even one person that has a voucher that can't find housing, that's a real problem in San Antonio, right?

If you get to the all the way to the treble to get a voucher, which we know was a really hard process and hard process to keep a voucher, you should have a housing unit here in San Antonio, uh, a good one.

So I like the what we we recently saw, Councilman Castillo, CCR, that's a good carrot approach to get more people to join the voucher program to accept these vouchers.

Um I think there's opportunities to look at um lease changes with uh deals that we're a part of, right?

With housing trust or with any of these bond funding programs, because like you said earlier, if there are you know just as impacted folks that are applying, and that's a reason why they're being turned down, then we need to say if we can change our own leases to say if you're a veteran and you have these types of issues in your background, that doesn't matter to us.

You're still going to be accepted.

That's a real structural way to make sure that people can get into housing with a barrier that is not being alleviated in the private market.

So I think that's something we need to look at.

Um so I think we should pass this with something else, and I think to Councilman White's point, there are people who are confused about what this means, right?

I there are people that called right and said, Does this mean that as I as a private renter who rents a second home out now are gonna have to take a voucher?

And I think we need to make sure that people understand what the actual rules will be with that requirement.

So I think we should we can take a look at other committee.

I think what happened the last time was that it was a much broader approach to the problem, which was not enough people taking vouchers, so we can kind of incentivize that part, uh, which is not quite what the American JF Former Bear County was looking for, right?

This is more what their request is.

So I think we should take it back to the committee uh as early as next month with councilwoman Castillo CCR.

That way it could be a coupled approach, right?

We have an ordinance, which is great, but we also have an actual program now to incentivize people to take this, and perhaps we can identify policies to change for the upcoming bond cycle or for housing trusts, right, to allow people that have other issues with it, that's background thing or whatever that is to ensure that they have the housing that they can get.

So I think it's uh there's a larger approach to get to the solution and which includes this ordinance.

I just think we need a little bit of time to add those other components to it coupled with this to pass together, make sure folks like Sable Apartment Association are aware of what the actual requirements will be with this and see if their partners can add to this also, make sure that these 40 veterans are looking for a home, have a place to live.

Uh so that would just be my input that we could talk about as early as next month uh and make sure that Peter and Cynthia are at the table and and don't lose sight of the we still need the ordinance to pass, but also adding some really good things to to couple that.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the uh both the presentations.

Um, I guess I'll start off with the um housing solicitation, the post uh post solicitation uh briefing.

Um I think if I were to well, I guess one.

Can we go to slide 15?

The first thing I would think.

So I'm going to go through my questions and thoughts as a district two constituent.

And one, I've seen a number of um this list, these solicitations have happened over and over again, and money keeps getting reallocated or projects fall through, and we have to reissue solicitations.

Do we have any indication that these projects will succeed, or is there a likelihood and what role does that play and how much we recommend their funding?

Sure.

It's um very highly considered in the last two, maybe three scoring rounds because we had some earlier ones fall off.

So we wanted to know not just did they apply for tax credits, but what's the likelihood of them receiving it?

Heritage Estates already has their nine percent award, so that's the gap funding they need.

Um, Aurora and Judy at Vita, Aurora's a four percent, so very likely to be funded.

The um West Travis is uh in the special set aside category because it's a rehab, and Judy at Vita is the top scoring um applicant.

So high likeness of award for the three projects that don't yet have their gap funding identified, and the awards are based on how much each developer specifically requested.

Got you.

Okay.

Well, that's good news.

I guess that goes into the second question that I would think of district two constituents.

Um, a few times prior, I've you know, I've seen the briefings happen and no district two projects are recommended.

Look at this, I see why that's 288 units, that's more than all other units combined, uh, even including some of the um rehab and whatnot and the other ones.

Um, and so I'd say that's good news.

I would then wonder why is the funding amount lower for the 288 units despite creating more affordability than all of the other units combined.

And my understanding based off of what you just said is that they probably only asked for a small amount of money.

That's exactly right.

And that's um that happens if you look at the size of that project, it's much larger, so there's oftentimes a lot of scale in creating a larger, more dense project.

Um, this one is layering the four percent tax credit, so that helps fund it as well.

Um, so it's just really based on how much funding that they've requested.

Awesome.

I appreciate that answer.

Uh, would you mind going to slide nine for me?

I then am thinking about the calls that I've gotten to my office, and I think of Wheatley uh Wheatley this senior living complex, and I believe that's what that is, the second place to uh project.

And I worry that well, and I guess are there other opportunities for improvements?

Because we had a lot of calls about that complex, and I worry that you know, if I was looking at this, I'd say, oh, there was an opportunity, 4.5 million dollars.

Why can't it be split between those top two projects?

You know, can you walk me through what were the considerations with Wheelie?

Sure.

So uh when we went to pre-solicitation briefing, we noted that there would be up to five million available for rehab projects.

And the top award for 11 West Travis requested nearly all of that.

I think the reward is 4.5 million.

Um so the remainder does go to rental production because uh the next half million would not be enough to fully fund Wheatley Senior.

Um so we looked at it that way of kind of what we had done in the pre-solicitation briefing.

Uh Wheatley Senior also the committee feedback was they did not submit a needs assessment for the property, so that made it a little um difficult.

And you can see the scoring reflects that to really understand the funding requested.

Would that be enough to fully rehab the needs of that particular housing community?

Um, and some of the requests for that funding were focused a little bit more on uh recapitalization of debt, paying down um insurance costs.

Um, and again, without that needs assessment submitted, uh, there were some questions about kind of would that be enough?

So I would hope that any leadership with Wheatley is watching this right now, and you're hearing that in order to be competitive in the future, you will need to do a needs assessment.

Because I find that quite disappointing.

I'll move to the next item.

Thank you a ton on this one.

With regards to the source of income protection, I'm a little bit confused on, I mean, I guess I'm not confused on the disagreement here, but what I'm understanding is right now we have protections in place for all voucher holders in city incentivized housing trust funded and federally funded properties.

That is a protection that exists.

What this uh item requests would be protections for all properties within city limits for veterans as a protected class.

And so if you go to slide nine on that presentation on the other side, of the next next other presentation.

So if I'm looking at this, I'm seeing proposed applicability start with large properties exempting the smaller portfolios.

So the concern that if I'm, you know, uh if I have a one unit that I'm renting or I have three to five units, we probably wouldn't incorporate those.

We probably wouldn't even incorporate I don't want to guess a number right now, but none of the small portfolios.

We would start with large properties, and I think that makes sense.

I don't know, and the conflict that I'm hearing right now seems to be between carrots and sticks.

We can do both, and if we were to adopt something like this, it doesn't stop us from still moving forward with the the um the councilman CCR, and I think we very much should do that.

I just don't know.

I just why wouldn't we want to roll this out as quickly as possible?

And I'm confused there because we can still do the care, it's nothing stops us.

That still happens at the timeline that it's happening.

All we're discussing right now is delaying this piece.

And so I am of the opinion that we should move forward with this, we should as quickly as possible adopt a policy uh with this exact proposed uh this proposed protection and continue to move forward with the CCR as it's as it's scheduled.

So that's my thoughts, that's my feedback.

Would love some clarity from my colleagues if they're opposed, because I'm just not there.

So thank you.

Uh Councilman McKee Rodriguez, uh, as you've laid it out is exactly how I see it as well.

This does not um uh this can move separately.

Um, and I think you know, based on how many years uh the veteran groups have been asking for this and the immediacy of the impact.

I think it um it does not need to uh to wait for for anything else, frankly.

Councilman um Gabito.

Thank you, Veronica, for the presentations.

I'm gonna start off with the um affordable housing one first.

Um definitely appreciate the rental production and rehab projects and that they're diverse mix, appealing to families, veterans, young adults, and foster youth.

Um I did have a quick question.

How long are the repayment terms on the loan and what happens to that money when it is repaid to us?

Hi, Councilwoman Ian Benavides, deputy director.

Um the payment terms kind of vary by project.

Um, it also depends where we are in the list of other um loans that the project may have.

Um sometimes there's a lot, sometimes there's a few, so it depends on that order.

Um, it can take anywhere from 10 to 25 years to get repaid back fully.

Um when we do recover those funds, we take those in as program income, and they're usually reallocated to affordable housing programs.

Okay, perfect.

That's exactly what I was checking.

If you know, we kind of keep it in the pot uh for more of this.

Perfect.

Um I'm grateful to the housing trust for ensuring that 11 West Travis remains apartments remain affordable.

Um, we I've spoken often about making sure that we need to keep our housing up to par.

So I'm definitely supportive of this investment.

The Judy at Vita project sounds super exciting.

Uh many of the people experiencing homelessness in our community were once vulnerable youth.

You know, District 7 is proud to have the through project um being district seven.

And so we talk a lot and all the time.

And I know uh councilwoman uh Caveo Haverta is here, and her and I have spoken about it at length about our caring for our foster youth, right?

You know, um, and we I often um when I'm talking to residents about homeless, you know, sometimes people are angry about our homeless situation and that kind of stuff, but you know, when you take a step back and talk about the path a foster care kid has taken, you know, and they're just focusing on surviving, you know, and then when they quote unquote graduate from the foster care system at 18, you know, then they have to learn how to get a job, get an ID, and all that kind of stuff.

They're not focused on thriving.

And so um oftentimes many of them do end up on uh homeless or or vulnerable youth.

And so that's why it's so important that we as a community wrap our arms around them and take care of them so that way we can prevent a homeless trajectory from them going forward.

So I think stuff like um projects like Judy At Vida and you know, also too.

I think it's close to college, right?

So it's yeah, it's right next to a college too.

So I think that all of that that is extremely helpful.

So I just want to give y'all kudos uh for for that approach.

I think it's it's exactly what we need to see more of.

Um that also applies to the Aurora MLK near St.

Philip's College as well.

So kudos on that.

Um I think she just walked out, but I did want to give a shout out to Councilwoman Core on pushing the middle uh the missing middle projects too.

Uh the community land trust RFP, it's exciting to see this come to life.

I know that we've been working with Nadia, I'm not sure if she's here today, but I know the Silk Road C CLT um nearly encompasses all of District 7.

So we're we're really excited to activate these fake spaces and spur in fill development.

So kudos all around on that first presentation.

Uh the second one, the second um item, you know, I I definitely agree with the sentiment of my colleagues.

We absolutely need to ensure that our veterans are protected.

I do have um uh councilwoman Castillo, CCR.

Um and I I I share the sentiment of several of my colleagues, and let's make sure we do this right.

You know, I think that Councilwoman Castillo's CCR is uh thoughtful, and and I I'm curious why it is coming up right now in B session.

I remember discussing this in the last administration, and so I'm not sure why it didn't go to PCDC before.

I I don't know.

I hope I'm not stepping in in an amp pile.

But I do think that if it goes to committee in PCDC, let's hash it out and make sure that we have a thoughtful approach, and then um come up with a workable solution.

As Councilman White said, let's let's get it right.

So those are all my comments on that.

Thanks.

Councilman Castillo.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Veronica, for the presentation.

As always, grateful for the leadership of the NHS NHSD team with the facilitating the disbursement of the 2022 housing bond dollars.

I think this shows us the opportunity, the impact that can be made with the 2027 housing bond, hopefully higher than 150 million.

Uh but in addition to that, I believe it also demonstrates the role and impact of the San Antonio Housing Trust.

Uh, as mentioned in the presentation, um, the housing trust provides additional uh tenant protections as well as increases the accessibility within each unit if it goes through the San Antonio Housing Trust.

So for example, um uh NHSG and the Tri Chairs came up with several solutions in terms of how to address needs with uh veterans, individuals with disabilities and folks in the LGBTQ plus community, much of that work and the recommendations is work that the San Antonio Housing Trust has adopted.

And I think it highlights the value of continuing to partner with the housing trust and or house future bond dollars with the housing trust because greater impact meeting the needs uh that are being proposed, and the housing trust is doing that.

So appreciate uh Pete Alanis and of course my colleagues who serve on the San Antonio Housing Trust for uh stretching those dollars uh and making great impact.

Uh, in terms of the projects, uh grateful to see, of course, the community land trust uh with the Silk Road and the Esperanza Community Land Trust within District 5, and this is something that's going to continue to come up as we enter budget conversations is a concern with vacant lots and structures.

I believe the community land trust is a model of how to address those nuisance properties and lots and address public safety while also housing individuals.

So very impactful um projects that we see uh right in front of us.

And in addition to that, of course, uh wanted to commend Dr.

Sick Core and of course the housing trust for the West Travis property, um, and grateful to see that this is a project that has been identified to be supported with the 2022 housing bond dollars.

Uh, in addition to that, I echo my colleagues' sentiment in terms of having the conversation at PCDC coupled with the council consideration requests.

The CCR that I proposed called coined rather coach COSA vouches uh was born out of a conversation uh that the San Antonio Board of Railators had and co-created with the San Antonio Apartment Association.

There's barriers in terms of payment.

And then sometimes, and I know this these issues have been addressed.

There were some issues in which organization was approving an applicant, however, they didn't really qualify.

So then the landlord was responsible for reimbursing the federal government.

So the coach of COSA vouches CCR will help address some of those issues by potentially upfronting those costs associated with accepting vouchers.

And again, grateful for Martin and Ryan of Sabre and the Department Association for co-authoring the CCR.

And I believe it was someone from the military committee of Sabre who was a small veteran and a mom and pop or a multifamily landlord, and she shared it's not that we don't want to accept vouchers, it's just this is the example that I ran into, and I was out thousands of dollars because someone was accepted in the program that shouldn't have, and then they had to front those costs.

So we want to be sure that folks are receiving payment uh for their rent, and of course, folks aren't being pushed out because of a hiccup within paperwork.

Uh, further, I think important what's important about coming up with the fund is potentially, right?

If there's a concern from landlords, whether it's a large multifamily or a small mom and pop, that they're going to get a call from the city of San Antonio for not by not following the ordinance, rather, is that folks may convert their short-term rentals into Airbnbs, right?

And now you're moving that entire unit uh off of the market.

And I want to ensure that uh as we have this conversation, we avoid that because we need more uh long-term rentals that are gonna accept that VASH vouchers and um how section eight and section eighteen vouchers and not be short-term rentals in terms of Airbnbs.

And I think that's something that we may potentially experience uh if we don't work towards uh working with our partners to incentivize uh and addressing that need.

Uh, further, the council consideration requests did cite the opportunity home model as a model uh for us to learn from.

Uh, but what we also learned in that data is that there were vouchers that were unused, meaning that there's landlords not accepting uh vouchers.

So, how can we get them to participate within the program?

Uh but those are all my comments.

Thank you.

Councilman Galvan.

Thank you, Marion.

Thank you, Veronica, for the presentations.

Um on item one, just want to say thank you again to NHSD and to the housing trust for the incredible work you all do every day to deliver on our housing bond and continue to do great work to deliver housing uh forward for all of our folks here in San Antonio.

Uh also want to thank uh folks in the CLTs as well.

Um very grateful to be able to work with you all previously as a staff member as well as a council member.

Uh I think I saw Renee here somewhere uh with Esperanza uh CLT as well as Nadia with uh Cultural Ingos CLT.

And so just really exciting stuff going on there.

Thank you again for the presentation on that one.

No questions there.

Uh on the source of income uh conversation.

Uh I'm supportive of the ordinance overall moving forward with it.

Uh I feel comfortable with it going to PCDC as council members have shared.

Um the question I had with it was wanted to know how many units would it be affected if implemented um and do we have that broken down by the kind of larger complexes versus this the smaller ones?

I know the smaller ones won't be affected, but we can uh try and quickly sort the the data that way, large versus small, or we can follow up as well.

That works.

Thank you.

That's helpful.

Um just wondering about that just to understand the amount of units that would be impacted and what would be available.

Um, and of course, I think to everyone's comments or a lot of folks' comments here, um, talking about ways that we can get smaller portfolios also on board in the future is really crucial as well.

Uh, I think it's obviously the entire conversation here with the entire voucher program here locally, but also across the nation, there's always some of those hiccups there to get folks on board with it.

Um, and I'm very grateful to see uh the work that has been done through REACH, of course, um, and then of course with Council Recastio's uh CCR getting to that better spot where we can get folks to plug into the program as much as possible and prevent any kind of these hiccups from going on.

Um the other question I had on it was um might be for opportunity home more so um but what coordination does opportunity home or um even the Vash case managers what do they have what coordination do they have with um DHS here locally with us uh or ACOL, granted nonprofit partners uh to help provide wrap around support.

And I ask that just because um I think as we're looking at models to um provide housing and encourage people to connect to the voucher program across the city, making sure that there's those wraparound services available that may be on site for a place that specifically provides uh housing for veterans.

So that's that's my context of my thoughts.

But yeah, come on off.

Okay, so for our organization, we do normally try to work directly with our VA partner.

Um, and we do try to see if there's other resources.

I don't know if we normally contact DHS.

I think the VA normally does contact the V the DHS group.

We contact others like Center for Healthcare Services or SAIL for other services that might be available if the VA case manager might not be able to as well.

But we also try to work with the family's other resources, though.

If they are like the veteran says they would like us to contact their family rather than an agency, we try to work that way to offer uh an alternative because the VA will give them more case management that's more to their health care plan and what they need for their services.

Got it.

I just wanted to know about that just uh to see if opportunity was providing that kind of connection, whether it's through family or et cetera.

Um again, I think it's critical as we're looking at the kind of scattered model, right, to make sure that veterans have access to housing across the entire city as they're utilizing the voucher programs, making sure that there's still that wraparound support there, not only of course, for them and uh their personal needs, but also to make sure that uh wherever they're at is not uh isolated from those services.

So normally for the VASH program, it is specific that the designated service provider is the VA, um, but the and the VA normally is the one who would say, well, we're gonna work with this group, and because it's mandated under the program rules.

We we do try to reach out for other resources as well, but usually the VA will say, no, we're we're gonna work with this group or we're gonna work with this group, mainly because they have more of that case management experience while we have more of the contract experience.

Understood.

Well, thank you so much.

That's helpful.

Um I think those are all of my components there.

Again, I think uh this is a very much needed uh ordinance to go through.

I uh I think it's a great compliment to the special supply housing task force recommendations we talked about earlier this week in PCDC as well.

Um, ways that we can provide that direct um housing for veterans and uh other special populations in our city that definitely need uh specific kind of different housing that could be helpful for their for their needs.

So I think there's all my comments there.

Thank you, Mary.

Yeah, I I wanna pick up on a point that you just made though, um ensuring that veterans are not isolated from the services that they need.

That's exactly the intent of the ordinance, right?

So maybe because in certain areas, once those there's only this handful of folks that take the vouchers, and so once those are all filled up near Audi, then you gotta live much, much further away.

So the intent of the ordinance is exactly to address what you just described.

Yeah.

Okay.

Councilwoman Mesa Gonzalez.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you for the presentations.

Uh just quickly, uh I don't have any questions on item one, but just wanted to uh support you know this strategic approach that we're doing to expand our affordable housing uh opportunities.

Um I think uh the gap funding, investing in the community land trust models are all important.

Uh District 8 is um home now to one of the CLTs uh with Cultural Linguists, so I'm I see them on the audience and doing a lot of work uh especially on the um homeownership side of things, right?

You know, the folks that uh we want anyone everyone housed, but the folks that can really get into that home ownership, I think is so important for generational wealth and how they're building families.

So um the more that we can invest in that, um, I'm fully supportive.

So no questions there.

Um item two, um, just heard from other council members.

So supporting moving this to PCDC.

Um District 8, we are home to Valor Hill, which is a housing trust uh property uh that is uh uh affordable housing complex that's veteran focused and has support services in there.

I think that's a model that um I re I would recommend any of my colleagues to take a tour of Valor Hill.

Um it's just such a great example.

They do accept VASH, as far as I know, um, and I'm sure have openings, and so want to make sure that we fill not just build those complexes but fill them, right?

That's what we really need to do.

Um, and so I know uh housing trust is here.

Um I don't think we have anything to talk about with Valor Hill, but it's just uh a great model that I again recommend my colleagues go check out and see how we can uh bring those to your district, especially because district eight is also home to the VA hospital.

We're looking at expanding that because those services are needed.

So do we have uh denial rate as far as our VASH voucher holders?

Do you know what that denial rate is by chance?

Hi, councilwoman, thank you so much.

Um, just annotating interim assistant city manager.

We don't have the denial rate, but what we can tell you is that 90% of vouch vouch voucher holders find housing within 90 days of receiving that um within receiving that voucher.

Okay, that's helpful.

And uh you know, other cities, I think we mentioned Fort Worth are considered a city with a high voucher denial rate in general.

Are are we one of those cities as well?

I guess you or guys, I guess where do we fall as far as voucher denial rate?

Does anybody know that?

We're at 88%.

I'll let's see.

Thank you.

Yeah, so our our voucher.

Our voucher approval rate or so they call HUD calls it a success rate.

considered a city with a high voucher denial rate in general are are we one of those cities as well I guess do you or guys I guess where do we fall as far as voucher denial rate does anybody know that we just looked it up we're at 88% oh let's see thank you yeah so our our voucher our our voucher approval rate or so they call HUD calls it a success rate okay yeah um and so I know for our organization it's about 68% for an hour a regular voucher so if a regular voucher holder gets a um e should a voucher it's normally 68% will then find a unit then lease up and the if they're not leased up it could be multiple reasons right like it might be their credit it could be lease history multiple different things but for the Vash side it is that higher 90% rate uh for success rate and it's usually is that case management that's a part of it for averaging of other cities it really it depends on each cities and also their payment standards related to the market so that it it's a harder question in the sense of if the market accepts a voucher rather than how much the vouchers are for that area.

Okay.

So it we are about average for other cities okay in the sense of what we are based on our payment standard in reference to the market if that makes sense.

Yeah no that's helpful thank you um those were all my questions um thank you and just again thank you to uh the reach committee that worked on this we just had this conversation in PCDC so this special supply task force so we've all kind of had our hands on this at some point but I look forward to the ordinance that comes out of PCDC with while including uh councilwoman Castillo's CCR so um that's all my questions thank you the um just thanks for sharing the stat in terms of how quickly people are placed once they use the VASH voucher um that doesn't necessarily reflect where that veteran maybe ultimately wanted to live right and that proximity to an actual VA clinic which is again the intent of of the ordinance okay um councilwoman core thank you thank you mayor sorry councilwoman I will um not interrupt your comments next time councilman Messagonz um thank you so much Veronica for this presentation and thank you for the briefing last week with Ian um I want to echo some of my council colleagues' comments around the housing bond being really showing a lot of success in terms of how much housing we have been able to put into the market and to Councilman Castillo's point I hope that we can use what we have learned from this housing bond to even ramp up more on the second one to be more strategic and make sure that everything that we have seen from our first housing bond we learn from and so that being said I think some of the comments that have already been made show us some lessons that we've had from this first housing bond and so I'm really excited for you guys to take all of what we've learned through all of the solicitations and synthesize that and be able to share that back with us.

I think one of the things that I've asked for that would be really helpful is an a list of all of the awards that we've made out of the housing bond the unit breakdown the number of units similar to what we see in some of the charts for the entire bond and then how much gap funding we're providing in comparison to total project cost so the percentage of gap funding we I know we can't um item for item say okay a 30% AMI unit should cost should be awarded this much but I think it would be helpful for us to better understand.

I also have now come to learn that it is a challenge of what is coming to you and how much money you have so a lot of times if projects are not coming our way we cannot incentivize more projects and so I think we have to be a little bit more strategic with all of our partners and thinking about how do we create a market in which we are showing the opportunity so we get more investment.

And oftentimes I think when we hear and talk to folks the increasing cost of construction how difficult it is to get federal funding right now for our housing programs and how volatile the federal market is right now it's really difficult to show people the opportunity so I think we have to think about all of the dollars we've given in this first housing bond and really showcase that to show okay if you are thinking about investing in affordable housing in San Antonio go build five go bring us five more projects and we'll figure out a way to fund it so that's just my overall thinking about us being on this potential last solicitation of the housing bond of how we can really make sure we learn from it.

On that vein right to Councilmember McKee Rodriggers's point I actually brought this up in our conversation and I am so proud of 11 West Travis I finally got the name right and um I like always forget the the street address but I'm so proud of that project because that truly it was an opportunity for that building to have gone to the market and potentially completely rehabbed to be full rate full market rate housing and yet that project is so expensive.

And how many do we make sure that we still address the East Side Wheatley Heights project that we could provide a little bit of extra help to?

So uh that's just my way of saying like we've got to think strategically about the value of some of these projects and make sure that we are doubling down on the ones that we know are going to be game changers for our community, but not necessarily not being um you know frivolous with oh, and it's hard.

Five of us sit on the housing trust board, right?

I'm the vice president.

I have a fiduciary duty to that, and yet at the same time, we also have one to the whole city.

So we have to make sure we are defending our funding in a um a competitive marketplace because we don't want to also be seen as the one that unfavorably gives dollars to our own entity because it's not going to create any more investment, and we need that.

We want more people coming and our own projects growing at the same time.

Um, but that being said, the last thing I'll say on 11 West Travis is that um we have found an amazing partner in a property management group locally that I didn't actually realize was for profit until yesterday because of the way in which they behave.

And we were having this really robust conversation at PCDC with the Opportunity Home RAD programs, and we talk about who we partner with and how important that work is.

And so we have uh Ryan here, who Veronica mentioned from Franklin Development.

They are managing Valor Hill, which actually has 30 spaces that are open right now to accept veterans.

We have uh 11 West Travis, and literally he was able to tell me yesterday every single member of that apartment complex and what they've been doing in the lobby to engage them and how they have been able to support them, which last fall I was getting calls on a Friday saying that the elevator was broken, and we need you immediately to provide food because there's nothing happening there.

And so it just goes to show you that when you have a really good property management partner that truly cares about our residents, that it sometimes it doesn't necessarily mean the organizational structure, it's the people.

And so I just want to thank you guys for the work that you do and um hope that we continue to get to partner together on a lot more.

And um on Valor Hill, I also wanted to shout out on Pete's team.

That proper that property really was the brainchild of Tom Roth, who was on his team, and um I I don't think he's in the audience today, but it's he's watching, I'm sure, and his that project came together from an idea which has really been critical for our veterans and in terms of how they're able to access.

Just I was told that some someone from 11 West Travis did get moved over to Valor Hill, and they're loving it, and that's gonna be their permanent home because of the accessibility and environment that it creates.

Okay, so um the last thing uh that's I think that's the last thing I'll say on the housing bond, except for another shout out.

I know Nadia from Cultural is here.

And when Councilman Castillo put the CLT policy forward, I think four years ago, maybe, and that I just it shows how like a process can evolve.

So she had this idea for a policy that she put forward, and then the housing trust provided funding.

We didn't have anybody who is a local nonprofit that was like, yes, we're gonna be able to go go out and do this community land trust.

And quite frankly, when I first heard Cultural Lingo, I was like, really?

They want to they want to be the entity that does this, don't they provide like language supports for folks?

And so um, so the the housing trust invested into them, and now over several years of years of strategic planning of development of the Silk Road Corridor opening, now we see them actually being able to get funding to be able to go out and build these homes.

So I am really excited to see.

I hope you get all 10 of those projects done next year, and you can come back to us and show us where they're all located, and hopefully they're all in district one, but um, wherever they're located, we're really excited for the work that you're doing and love seeing that come full circle.

Um, as far as the the last thing I'll say on the um the source of income work, I I you know I'm a nerd and I mentioned I didn't mean to overstep or say, but the our usage is amongst the highest in the state of Texas.

Um Dallas and Fort Worth's was in the high 60s, and like was mentioned, it's because their costs of rentals are so high and folks aren't getting the repayment for what they need, and so it it kind of creates a market that doesn't allow for folks to accept it.

Um, so that is one challenge for sure.

I do think it's important that our veterans find housing and make sure that they find housing in a stable place.

I am supportive of Councilman Castillo CCR and would like to see this come to PCDC so we can have a discussion about it.

Again, this is super important, and it and I think we have to figure out exactly who are the folks that are not accepting them and why.

And if we could do a focus group with those folks, do a focus group with the folks that are the grunts, as as he said, and and try to see if they would be willing to talk to our staff and can better understand what is the barrier.

Can we get you guys in Valor Hill tomorrow?

So we we'd love to better understand what who and what is saying no because I'm pretty sure a veteran's not going to want to live in my casita but maybe you know and so what where do they want to live and what is that barrier that is not being overcome.

So I'm fully supportive of it going to PCDC in combination with Councilwoman Castillo CCO CCR as well.

That's all I have thanks Mayor.

Great.

It doesn't look like anyone signed up for the second round is anyone signed up for the second round no one else uh like to provide comments on this no okay great thanks again uh Veronica and team uh for both presentations um really appreciate uh the work and again the explanation for how those um uh properties were uh were graded and determined to be frankly the best fit for what we're looking for so thanks um um on the on the second one the veteran um source of income protection one of the things the first things I did in my first 30 days um is go to Audi Murphy and I saw and I see uh Juan was with me and uh took a couple of folks um from my team there and I mean again I get my own care at Audi Murphy but I wanted to go and engage with folks as the mayor right um and I was surprised to find uh in sitting down with Dr.

Flynn that I was the first mayor the first sitting mayor to ever visit the VA in military city USA um and I think uh and that I think illuminates some of the uh um maybe I'll just say uh blind sides blind spots we have when it comes to just how important one those facilities are but also the real practical challenges people have with accessing that very important care of which housing is a key part so I um I know I've talked to some of you about visiting the VA if you haven't already and I'm glad to go again um and meet with Dr.

Flynn and and highlight some of those challenges uh for you all so you see it first first hand I think some of the challenges that have been identified here um at the end of the day none of those are the fault of the veteran they're not the fact that it takes long to do certain things that's not the veteran's fault all this this ordinance does is that give them more agency in terms of where they have an option to live right we've already heard the stats in terms of entirely too few places take vouchers and once those are all filled up near Audi or near some of those other clinics then yeah they might find a place but it might not be exactly where they want to live and as somebody who has frankly taking the oath support and defend the constitution if we can help folks get into housing that meets their needs and ensures their medical needs are best cared for as soon as possible it's not clear why we would in any way delay that I'm very proud of the special housing supply uh task force I you know as a reminder tasked uh PCDC to work on that because again there are the veterans are just one of a handful of communities that have traditionally had very hard time accessing affordable health care those with disabilities LGBTQ youth and seniors as well so um it sounds like the sentiment is that this goes to uh to PCDC I think the grunts have been very clear in terms of what they want they've actually put it on paper it's the ordinance that they drafted and sent to us um it has been cleared by legal so um I do um you know again respecting the sentiment of the of the council though and ensuring everybody is is comfortable with the way forward um fine for for the to move to PCDC um it should not um uh would welcome though understanding any delays and if there's delays in coupling it with something um then and again as mentioned these those these things don't have to be coupled one can move forward and help people immediately help veterans immediately which is what they are asking for what they have been begging for for two years okay um on that note I'm also hosting this this evening a veteran social from 6 6 30 to 8 uh um all are welcome at the VFW post 76 okay um thanks again to those that presented um eric did you have any final comments you'd like to share okay thanks so much the time is now 3 52 this meeting is adjourned