Good morning.

The time is now 10.04 on February 24th, 2026, and the meeting of the planning and community development committee is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, can you please call roll?

Councilmember Corr.

Councilmember Castillo.

Councilmember Galvan here.

Chair Mungia.

President.

Sir, we have a quorum.

Thank you.

First amendment agenda is approval of the minutes.

Are there any corrections to the minutes?

And if not, can I get a motion and a second to approve the minutes?

Motion to approve.

There's a motion and a second.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Motion passes.

Before we get to public comment, I do want to recognize that we do have a new liaison to the committee.

Justina Tate from the city manager's office.

Good morning.

Thank you.

So she's going to do a rig great job helping us out here today.

We thank uh John for his service.

Um we are going to go on to public comments.

Uh, Madam Clerk, are there any citizens sign up to speak uh for public comment?

We have two individuals signed up to speak.

Thank you.

First individual is Pete Bernal.

Hello.

Okay.

Uh good evening, councilman and committee.

Thank you for having me.

This is the moment time to speak.

Oh I just want to speak on the uh veterans issues.

Um, that's in part item number three.

I just want to let you know that um we haven't been we're trying to get this this policy passed.

I'm reiterating, I'm gonna keep coming, and probably gonna be a pain in the butt sometimes just because I I'm really adamant about pushing this policy or ordinance to help get um the discrimination of vets using the Vash voucher.

It says section eight on there, but it's really a VASH voucher um that helps vets and it's organized by the the VA.

This helps get vets off the streets.

It helps them get into areas where they're not able to get.

It's not about just um having access to the hospitals.

It's it's it's being able to choose where do you live.

I so I want you to understand that these are we are people like most of the people that do use this are grunts.

Most of the people have not officers and nothing, not retirees.

These are people that just can't get the leg off off the street.

In this realm, if you use the vast voucher policy, that would be we would go from anywhere between 200 places to live to over almost uh two or three thousand places to live in the area of San Antonio.

This helps, and then once we can start here, we can expand it, try to get it to a state level, national level.

It's just one of those things where I see us as military USA, and I feel that this is a policy that can help us progress ourselves in being that part of that.

And I spoke to all the council members, we've been visited everybody, everybody's on it, all for it.

I would like to see it go forward sometime soon, so that way it can it it can be seen as one of those things that it's all inclusive.

All inclusive means that everybody jumped in on this to support vets.

It's hard to see with all the stuff that's happening in the papers and stuff like that.

I feel like this is something you all can jump in on and say that you all did it together.

And thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Excuse me, thank you for being I'm sorry I'm short.

Anyway, good morning to everyone, and thank you for allowing me this moment.

I am also with the American GI Forum.

My city is my home, and I know that I have been sending these and been a little bit of a pain to a lot of different people.

Uh we've met with city council, every member on this the city council.

I've met also with the mayor herself, and we're getting ready.

I spoke to Miss Alejandro to resend this again.

Um, this is a policy that needs to be about the veterans removed and standalone from anything else with the about the apartments because it's not just the apartments that we are seeking uh extension.

It also goes to homeowners that are renting their properties.

Uh we would like to see the veterans be able to live anywhere in the city that they choose to as long as they have a voucher and they have the money to pay for it.

The rest of it, um, they're also being scrutinized by their own case workers.

Um, so I don't see why we wouldn't want to do that.

It's honestly uh a kind of like a standalone thing because we are considered military city, so why aren't we supporting them in any place that they can and choose to live?

It's not about just the veteran affairs hospitals or medical centers, it's also about schools, uh, bus routes, uh, shopping, any of those things, and if we can do that and get more of them off the street and into the city and becoming um people that have now gotten our respect, it would be wonderful.

So I'm going to send my information once again to the mayor's office, and hopefully, you guys will support this standing alone as its own issue and support the veterans of this community.

Thank you.

Thank you to the members of the public who spoke today.

Okay, we have uh item number two, which is on this is the consent agenda in district four.

Can I get a motion?

There's a motion in the second.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed.

Motion passes, consent agenda is over with.

Okay, we're gonna move on to item number three.

Madam Clerk, can you please read the caption?

Item number three is a briefing and discussion on increasing housing supply for the following communities.

Veterans seeking to utilize housing vouchers within five miles of a veteran affairs health care facility, people with disabilities, notably the deaf and blind, older adults, and LGTB, LGBTQ plus youth experience homelessness.

Good morning, Chair and Committee members, and Veronica Garcia, I'm the director for the neighborhood and housing services department.

This morning, we uh will be providing a briefing on the special housing supply task force work.

Our goal today is to share the initial recommendations from the task force and hear feedback from you all as we work to finalize this report.

Many, many thanks to the numerous community organizations and stakeholders who helped inform the work.

Um, several are joined this morning, including Salsa, Franklin's or and the apartment association.

Many thanks to our speakers from the American GI Forum, as well as Opportunity Home, among others.

In August of last year, Mayor Jones requested the planning and community development committee to create a task force so that to look at initial recommendations to increase housing supply for four specific populations, including people with disabilities, particularly those who are vision and hearing impaired, older adults, LGBTQ plus unhoused youth, and veterans with housing vouchers.

The task force is staffed by our team at the neighborhood housing services department with support from homeless services and the housing trust.

The tri-chairs of the task force include myself, Pete Alanis, and Mark Carmona, and with the support of the PCDC, we are utilizing members of the housing commission and the rental engagement and assistance to connect to housing or reach initiative that has helped inform the work and help us reach as many stakeholders as possible.

The special housing supply work involves several different approaches to help collect information that form these initial recommendations.

Overall, the task force engaged 35 stakeholder organizations.

We hosted panel discussions focused with each of these groups, and panelists include advocates, professionals who support the groups, as well as people with lived experiences.

We also conducted several site visits and met with service providers and heard directly from individuals of these populations.

We hosted a digital survey for community members and received over 350 responses, mostly from individuals with lived experiences.

We also had an exhibit at our housing in San Antonio event last month, and we conducted research and found case studies highlighting best practices from throughout the country.

While the state's recommendations are based on all of these efforts, the recommendations are not final.

Your feedback is critical to helping ensure the final report reflects the priorities of our community, and we welcome your thoughts.

This morning I'll highlight just a few of the case studies that will be shared in the final report, and these really showcase the work being done nationally to serve the same populations we are seeking to help.

One thing the other cities have in common while they're serving different groups, is that they're not just relying on city funds.

They're looking across several different funding sources, several different partners.

They many have used local housing, local bonds to support the work, but they also utilize maybe donated land or facilities, federal dollars, and state dollars.

So we would uh seek the same outside funding sources.

For veterans utilizing housing vouchers, the Charlie Bush building in Buffalo, New York repurposed a former public school into affordable housing for veterans and their families.

This was accomplished through a partnership between the developer and veterans organizations to make sure that the final product really met those services.

For PA Highland and Albuquerque, New Mexico is an apartment designed for the deaf and blind community.

Design elements include multi-sensory alarms, American sign language, fluent events, sensory play, as well as many other features targeted to the population.

The Appleton in Washington, DC serves older adults and was an adaptive reuse of a former city-owned building that had services on site to really help ensure older adults were supported.

And finally, the Ally Forney Center in New York City is a great example of safe living, specifically for LGBTQ plus youth.

The community features permanent supportive housing with shared common spaces and ongoing rental assistance.

So from our initial findings, we are recommending looking at in total, adding 32 over 3200 homes to help each of these special populations.

This includes 250 homes accessible to veteran voucher holders near the medical center and along transit lines.

Also, an additional 500 homes for people with disabilities, specifically blind and deaf neighbors, adding 2400 new age-restricted homes, and adding 100 supportive homes for LGBTQ plus unhoused youth.

Collectively, these would be developed over the next three to five years.

So to go into some of our initial findings and recommendations, I'll start with the veterans with housing vouchers.

Veterans Affairs Support of Housing or VASH Vouchers is really permanent rental subsidy provided by HUD and veterans affairs.

These vouchers combine rental assistance with VA case management support to help people stay housed.

When we spoke with a lot of the groups and individuals, we found several housing challenges, such as getting approved for a voucher.

There are limited funds for vouchers and limited case managers, so the amount of vouchers to help veterans is very limited.

In addition, veterans express difficulty finding a home that would accept the VASH vouchers and finding a home with the right amenities, supports, and in the right location.

Again, they want to be able to live throughout the city, they want to be located near services, including medical facilities, transit lines, and more.

So practical progress in the next year could look like partnering between the city and organizations really to create more housing for this community.

We would look at how do we work together to market what housing options there are directly to veterans, so making sure that they know of the communities that serve them, communities that accept vouchers, and communities helping identify when they're coming available as soon as possible.

We would look at supporting policies that meet veterans' needs and identifying ways to increase veteran affairs case management capacity.

Again, since case managers are limited, how can we perhaps co-locate veterans with vouchers in one facility so that the case management support needed by the VA doesn't have to go across the city?

It could be much more efficient if located in one place.

That's one example.

We also want to work to educate property managers on the benefits of accepting vouchers specifically for veterans.

And of course, we want to encourage more property managers to accept them.

Then we would look at how we can support design elements as well as home modifications to help make as many homes accessible for veterans as possible.

As we look further out to the longer term, maybe in the next three years, we would look at how we could actually acquire land for future veteran-focused housing communities near transit and/or the medical centers.

We could explore how we work with partners to create these housing community, and of course, working with identifying nonprofit partners and property owners that may be interested in master leasing.

Many veterans who have a housing voucher may have a complicated rental history, and ensuring that we work with the partner to master lease several units and maybe sublease them to veterans can also help remove some challenges.

Many of these individuals are more likely to have fixed income relying on federal programs, finding a home that is accessible and available to them again with those modifications that are needed and specifically for those specific disabilities.

We've also heard that it can be for both the person accessing the housing as well as on the developer side, building new or modifying existing projects can be expensive.

And for the individuals looking to rent, they may be asked to change it once to meet their needs and then change it back to standard features when they're done.

Then we also heard about challenges with just even having the marketing and the leasing materials not always usable for deaf and blind applicants.

So recommendations to consider for the next year would be helping people really access affordable housing, so working with property managers to create materials in Braille or American Sign Language and how we could create both the leasing materials and marketing materials so they're usable.

We would look at how we could look at our own city incentive programs and including more accessibility requirements than maybe we have today.

So maybe in what options there could be for our next round of gap funding.

We could look at better understanding what our existing code is and the challenges for creating these homes and how possible recommended code changes to address those and really streamline the permitting process.

We also could look at developing a list of ADA accessibility features that would be helpful to these communities and making that easily available to property managers and developers.

Finally, we would want to look at how we bring in additional partners who can help fund housing that could be healthcare providers, maybe school districts who may have land or resources that could be contributed to a future project, as well as speaking with private entities who may be interested in helping in this space.

Looking further out over the next three years, we would want to help people with disability find homes that are affordable and accessible by again helping increase the requirements for building housing that is accessible.

Right now, if you use state tax funding, tax credits, the requirement is 2% of units are ADA accessible.

And so we could look at how we can maybe increase that requirement specifically if you're receiving city incentives.

We could look at how we explore other modifications to make homes more accessibility, so exploring future incentive programs for that, and then looking at how we can take units that do have these accessibility features and reduce the time they are vacant.

Again, that ties back to helping ensure that individuals who could utilize these homes know about them as soon as they come online.

And then finally, any changes that we would make to the code or any new marketing materials or leasing materials that we could help co-create, we'd want to make sure that community members and our partners are well aware and have the information easily accessible to distribute.

Next, moving on to the older adults, we find that they also face multiple housing challenges, such as reduced incomes, rising living expenses when they live on fixed incomes, and of course, challenges with transportation.

As people age, older adults typically adjust their living situation.

They may need to age in place and help with modifying their home.

They may choose to share their home with others or even downsize into a smaller home.

Updating homes for accessibility may be costly, especially when living on a fixed income, and finding another home with that's within budget and has these modifications also can be a limit.

So to look at how we add 2400 new age-restricted homes in the next year.

Again, it's all about working with our partners, see how we can create more affordable and accessible housing.

Want to focus on updating our incentive programs again to require more accessibility where it makes sense, looking at how we can help identify vacant properties that could be adapted for these specific housing populations, and looking at how we work and ensure that communities that are created have on-site services focused to serve older adults, maybe food pantries, group exercises, things like that nature.

We also want to look at how we can encourage more density to develop housing along transit lines, address those transportation challenges.

And again, all about the partnerships.

How do we bring in more partners, which could include healthcare providers or advocacy partners like the American Association of Retired Persons or more locally the Alamo Area Council of Governments?

In the next three years, we would look at how we can serve more older adults to look at how they, if they want to downsize where they live.

This could look like exploring incentives for different housing models.

We've started this process with the casitas.

We're exploring how we can help encourage more missing middle type housing, so things like that.

We could look at how we explore a home sharing platform so older adults can either make their home available to share, again, providing supports insight where they live, and then looking at how we can explore down the road future incentives that could be repurposing our existing incentive programs, looking how we can help cover home modifications, but maybe even extending that to rented homes.

Going forward, we want to also look at how we create whole affordable housing really with a focus on serving older adults again, looking at maybe adapting adaptive reuse of our existing properties or partner properties.

Last category uh we looked at was serving LGBTQ plus youth.

They face numerous challenges, including finding affordable options with needed support.

Um, they oftentimes have low wages, could be unstable employment, so it could be difficult to find that housing stability.

Many of them are navigating life without family support and the availability of options that have congregate community style living, get in an affordable place with affirmative settings, that also is um limited in our community.

To really help this population secure and maintain housing, we would look at what policies we can support that would help youth.

We would look at how again we directly market any new affordable homes that serve young adults, maybe working with nonprofits that serve them and help really bridge that gap and connecting as soon as possible.

And we can also look at working with our partners, some of whom have already explored host homes, um, home sharing and other options like that, maybe seeing how um that can continue to work.

And of course, our working within our Casita program, maybe some of those could be affordable options specifically for these populations.

We also could explore um new programs that create housing again, helping nonprofits who may want to pilot a master leasing where they assume the lease and make the lease available to youth, and working with partners who again may want to pilot some of these initiatives.

Uh looking ahead in the next three years, we could help build deeply affordable housing near transit with specifically with a focus on serving youth.

Some of our partners, including our housing trusts, have already started exploring that model.

And then we would want to continue to strengthen our partnerships with the housing authorities and perhaps utilizing uh ongoing rental assistance, such as project-based vouchers to help keep housing affordable with ongoing subsidies specifically for this population.

Um, the PCDC members, you all asked us to look at a fifth category, which was justice involved populations.

So we went ahead and had conversations with the Bear County juvenile probation, big homie street mentoring, as well as all of us or none, and we we learned a lot.

Uh, we also got about four percent of all of our survey respondents um mentioned that they had a justice involvement in some way or form.

We heard that um specifically to help this group, we were looking for congregate homes near transit, ensuring that there are wraparound supports or services either on site or nearby, and of course, looking at what flexible leasing policies could be adopted.

Um, for supportive services, we were asked to focus on re-entry, education, and job training.

We know that we in the city and our partners can do a lot locally, but there are limits to what we have at our local level, so we want to ensure that our recommendations can include legislative actions, so advocacy we can do at both the federal and state level.

Federally, we'd want to advocate for more housing vouchers and case managers, again, increasing that availability and supply, looking for how we can advocate for more funding for affordable housing near transit at the federal level, and looking how we can access specialty voucher programs more locally.

We'd also want to advocate to use existing funding to help foster youth and with vouchers and continue to keep those supports in place or even expand them.

For our state legislative agenda, we want to continue to advocate for investment in deeply affordable housing, which is something we do annually.

But now we would specifically look at how we can increase housing tax credits that are made available or other state funding tools, how we could advocate for the expansion of Medicaid or using Medicaid waivers to help with housing costs, and of course, looking at how we can advocate to increase the required minimums for accessible units in any state incentivized properties.

So, after gathering feedback from you all today, we want to incorporate that to work towards the future completion of the report, which we hope to release as early as next month.

The recommended final actions will include actions related to policy, land use and zoning, building and site design, as well as new and non-traditional funding sources.

This work will also be coordinated with the ship refresh, which is that work has started, and we hope to incorporate any recommendations into the council adopted ship, as well as special supply housing goals.

Our ship already has special goals for older adults, and maybe we can extend that to all four of these categories and hoping that happens as early as August of later this year.

So thank you again.

Look forward to your feedback so we can continue our work in this space.

Thank you, Veronica.

That was an amazing presentation.

And uh yes, let's give it up to this thing.

And so when we were given this charge, I had to come up with who was going to chair this task force outside of this committee.

And I couldn't think of any uh better than these three folks.

Uh Veronica, who of course was is with our housing department, Mark Carmona, uh and Pete Elanese from the housing trust.

I mean, these these folks are the best in the business, and we're very fortunate to have them working at the city and city adjacent with Pete.

Um, and they know so much and have been working on so many things already.

So I think this is a great turnout.

And as I see a lot of folks here today who are stakeholders who have been engaged in this process is really fantastic.

And I think some of these groups have certainly felt, you know, uh missing from the housing conversation.

And so I think this is a good step forward.

So today uh for our committee, we are giving feedback, and we would hope that this would be released um next month, uh, maybe at our PCDC meeting and have a nice rollout.

It would be um we can get to work on it pretty quickly.

And I think the American GI Forum has already told us about a couple of things that we can do right off the bat with this, and ultimately it would be embedded into SHIP uh and to recalibrate our goals for the mid uh midpoint in that tenure plan.

So with that, we will look for some feedback today from our committee members.

Is anybody have any feedback?

Councilman Government.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Veronica, for the presentation and for all the stakeholders who are here and have been part of this process.

Um I had a couple of different questions.

Well, one of the things I wanted to say uh first and foremost, though, um, because I'm grateful this is gonna be part of the ship update.

I think that's really helpful to make sure that we're moving along on not only those goals, but adopting updating based on the kind of uh the situation that we're going into given our economy uh and given the need for increased housing and our growth in our city.

Um something I really appreciate about this work in particular is the fact that you know it recognizes that uh in the original ship, there's a lot of focus on just building more housing wherever we can.

I think that's still very important, obviously, but also looking in to some of these micro markets that are sometimes left out of the conversation when you just build housing without a kind of focus or a thought process about um about what it can look like and who it can serve um and how to really get to that deeper affordability or those specific kind of needs there.

Um, this is where I think we should step in as a city and try to find ways to really uh support in those roles.

So I really appreciate this conversation.

I think it always leads back to the same or similar points about at least for me, uh always about making sure that we have a some form of revolving uh housing development fund um that's pretty robust that we can really move quickly uh along with the market so that we can really deliver on this work, right?

When we look at purchasing vacant land as mentioned in the slides, or we look at uh different incentives, making sure that those incentives um are as robust as possible is gonna be really needed to make sure that we can actually uh get this work going.

Um, just all that to say, I I'm really excited about that.

And I think we'll still just I'm excited for the housing bond to come around next round.

That's something that we're still gonna talk about.

Um, but I'll do that there.

One of the things I wanted to ask though, um related to specifically the veterans one.

Um I know I mentioned uh focusing in around the medical center, uh, but I wanted to ask in the conversations uh within the stakeholder group.

Was there any conversation about the VA clinic over off 151?

Yes, we heard from numerous stakeholders that specifically being located near the VA, um and again the medical center in general would be preferred.

Got it.

Okay, that's helpful.

And and transit again, I think is the American GI forum.

Not always just medical centers, but really just having that access to transit is really helpful.

Right, got it.

Okay, that's helpful.

Um, of course, I think it's important that we look at ways to make it easier for property owners to accept vouchers.

I know that's an ongoing conversation related not only to VASH but overall, right?

Uh so I think that's always something that we're gonna be looking into, and I'm appreciative of the work done so far on that.

I also wanted to ask this is a little bit it's maybe a little bit more to home towards homeownership.

Um but uh the Gell Explorer, maybe not only within this stakeholder group, but in general within NHSD's work, um the Texas Home Living Program with Medicaid and how that kind of relates to uh increasing accessibility within the home and/or well accessibility for seniors in particular, but also for anybody with disabilities.

Has that been something that y'all have looked into before?

I'll let Sarah, I know she's been working a lot with this particular group, so I'll let her chime in on that.

Thank you for your question, Councilman.

Uh yes, Texas Home Living is a program that we're familiar with.

Um, and one of the recommendations uh that you see in the legislative actions is Medicaid expansion.

Right.

Um so excuse me.

But were they to do that, then that would mean that people could qualify for Medicaid based on income alone, not just their age or their disability status.

And that could make programs like Texas Home Living accessible for folks or allow doctors to effectively write like a prescription for rent and allow Medicaid to be uh billed for I see.

And but did y'all look into specifically the kind of repair programs and any of the waivers that are available to folks who have physical disabilities versus just intellectual.

We did not look into those specifics.

I don't know how widespread it is either.

But it's something I'm uh I think I'll try to figure out what we can get information from ACOG.

I believe it goes through them as the pass through for the funding.

And so something we can talk about offline a bit more, but I think it relates to some of this work here while it's about building more housing units.

I think also if there's ways that we can have folks who already have a home, fingers crossed, right, are able to stay in place as well as they age as uh if they already have a disability of someone who's born disability are able to stay in that home as much as possible.

But anyhow.

Thank you.

Um try to see if there's anything else I wanted to mention.

I think those are all things I feel comfortable with the uh recommendations listed out in slides eight and nine and ten.

Oh, sorry, seven through ten.

Um stop there.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilman Gavon.

I just want to also acknowledge one of our um housing trust board members is here, Jane is here.

Uh and she actually I'm reminded looking at her that um she has been working on something too that I I don't know if I saw it in here, Veronica.

If you can did y'all talk about universal design ordinances and kind of is that in here?

We do.

It's probably worded a little more generally in the slides, but looking at uh what um requirements we could make with ensuring that homes are accessible.

Um, but in our final report, we'll be sure to clarify we are speaking specifically to universal design.

We heard from a lot of stakeholders about even better defining what is universal design.

Pete and the housing trust have done a lot of work on creating definitions, creating um new standards for that, and so we could look at possibly adopting those for our city incentives that we award as well.

Sure, and we can just copy and paste it.

Copy and working out.

Um but no, I think we should be very clear and intentional about that because there's a lot of folks that have been working on that.

Uh and so I think that'll be very valuable to add to it, and in addition to what we might expect to change in the UDC process because that will also come to this committee.

So Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, thank you, Veronica, for the presentation, as well as to the tri-chairs and all the participants of uh this initiative.

Grateful to see that we continue to build upon the strategic housing implementation plan and much of this work and recommendations complement uh much of the work that's being done with the San Antonio Housing Trust.

So thank you, Pete, for your leadership there.

Um I did want to build upon the point of the chair in terms of the universal design ordinance.

I think that's something that uh I would hope that this committee could consider in adopting uh in addition to adding to this document.

Uh, I know again, as the chair mentioned, it's something that Jane and many community members have been working on, and of course, uh just copy paste from the San Antonio Housing Trust.

Uh, you know, we know that developers are willing to work and accommodate those requirements, and it hasn't created any issues in terms of development.

So I'm uh eager for us to visit and adopt that ordinance.

Uh, in terms of the recommendations, many of the recommendations highlight the importance of uh increasing access to vouchers and working with uh landlords to accept those vouchers.

And I think that uh complements the council consideration request that my team and I drafted and submitted, uh, went to governance in October, which essentially works to formalize the voucher process uh and explore how we can incentivize landlords, whether it's a single family home or a multifamily unit uh to accept vouchers, which would of course then help uh our veterans find access to housing and so many other individuals that are in need of housing.

So grateful for the apartment association for their collaboration on that CCR, um, but eager to see for us to to visit that conversation on how we could formalize that process.

Uh as mentioned and laid out in the presentation with the justice involved component, uh TDC does provide uh funding to help with um whether it's uh halfway houses, transitional housing, uh whatever the case may be.

And I had an opportunity to visit uh halfway house in District Three and the organization which had a uh interesting makeup in terms of the board, right?

You had a correctional officer, uh you had a face-based faith-based organizer, uh, and essentially they walked me through the model and how intentional they were with every room within that home.

Uh, and then also the structure in terms of how the bunks were set up, right?

Uh, to help folks who have been institutionalized uh re-enter.

Um, having this space is really important.

And unfortunately, right, uh what I learned from the re-entry center uh with the Bear County is what we often forget is the majority of people that are incarcerated will be released at one point.

Uh and that re-entry is key because many individuals don't have an address to put in terms of where they may potentially parole out to.

Uh, so oftentimes they it keeps them in the system until um a halfway house uh unit is available.

Um so I think it helps us in terms of recidivism, it helps us in terms of ensuring that more folks are brought off of the street, uh so on and so forth.

So grateful that the committee was supportive of including the justice involved population.

Uh, it's very much needed here in San Antonio Bear County and beyond.

Um again, grateful for the support of Thrive Youth in participating in this initiative.

Again, I think it complements the work that the housing trust uh uh did in terms of um foster youth uh and seeing what those gaps and barriers were, allowing youth to participate and give input.

Uh so pleased to see that that's uh been included, and there are recommendations.

Uh, what I'm most excited about in the presentation, and as you laid out, Veronica, is the legislative agenda.

And I think there's a lot of opportunity for this committee to play a role in terms of advocating.

Uh, and then also I know we have a great the city has a great um legislative team, um, but I think it's like a one-to punch, right?

Like having uh folks on city staff go advocate and also us working with um the state delegation to move some of these bills along and or to file them.

So just really eager for us to get to that point.

Uh I really appreciated the examples that uh you provided in terms of case studies, particularly around the school.

Uh, this is something that I'm hearing more and more from my constituents.

Um it was a mixed bag in terms of input of what they'd like to see with the schools.

At first, there was hesitancy uh in terms of housing at uh vacated schools, uh, but now we're hearing more of an appetite from community members, and I think that model that was specific towards veterans uh is something that I'm hopeful that we could uh replicate uh here.

Um but of course it all comes down to funding, and that's why I'm eager for council to have a conversation about a second housing bond so that way we can materialize the vision and the recommendations uh within this document.

So just wanted to thank the team for this uh special supply um briefing.

Uh there's a lot of work to get done, so just eager for us to have money to invest in these initiatives and the ordinances to govern that structure.

Those are my comments.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Council.

Yes, here um just want to for anyone who's kind of tuning in and hearing about this um with the council's approval and thank you, thank you again for your um your support of that.

We did set aside nine million dollars from the current housing bond to purchase land, and uh, we're working with Pete and the housing trust team.

Um, so uh while we would love another housing bond, we do have funds set aside in the current one that may help us identify land that could later be turned into housing for any of these categories.

Thank you, Veronica.

Luckily, Pete has a great board to work with uh councilwoman court.

Thanks.

Thanks, Veronica, for the presentation.

Um quick real quick on I on slide six, how did you guys come up with these goals?

Like is this what's possible, what we think the need is, how much what would be most cost effective.

Sure.

So um in the final report, we'll have lots of demographic information, um, but we looked at each category and identified like how many veterans are in the city, how many of those identified as cost burden that we know of, how many have a housing voucher, and then really looking at what some of the constraints in our community are, such as um for the veterans specific population.

Uh we know that there are limited vouch veterans that have vouchers, so there's limited vash vouchers, there's limited case management.

So looking at in some cases, what is that gap and is it realistic for us to meet that gap with our existing funding and partners?

Um, and in other cases, so the veterans and older adults are really kind of based on that work.

What is the gap for people with disabilities and the LGBTQ plus unhoused youth?

We were also really limited what our partners can do, specifically for the youth.

There's only so many groups that serve that youth.

Um, there's very lots of support that's needed.

So we tried to come up with a goal that um understood the need, but in not all cases were we able to meet it again, we're constrained by some of our resources.

So I guess this is um I've been thinking a lot about just like goals in general for our housing and for the ship refresh.

I'd like for us to look at our AMI goals again and revisit them because those were based on data from while back before all of the increase in costs that we see today.

And so I just want to make sure that we have a really strong clear methodology for how we're setting goals and not just saying like this is how much we can do because the higher like we say, for example, our LGBTQ plus and house and house use has the most need, and not to say that any one of these categories isn't important, but we um the more you put dollars into some place, and the more you say this is where we want to focus, the more we will see results, I believe.

And so I just want to make sure that the way that we're goal setting is um and it sounds I believe it was very calculated.

But if we can share that, and and you said you had in the report, so if you can send that over, yes, and then if we can do that for all of our AMIs through the ship refresh, I think that will be really good and make sure we're really clear on it.

I asked once like, do we know how many folks are actually on um waiting lists or even how many people in our community are 30% AMI that are having a hard time getting housing, and we don't really have a good source for getting that data.

So if we could explore how we could actually gain that data to get better understanding of the true need versus extra, I know some of it will always be extrapolation, but um, I just wanted to get better on setting really good uh high targets in the areas that need it most.

Um and then we at last time we had this briefing, we had talked about extending the survey.

Did we get initial uh more respondents from that survey?

Yes, initially um at our last briefing we were around 200.

We extended it for another month, had a big push at our housing in San Antonio events, and we had um over 350 responses.

Awesome.

That's great.

And we'll have a full breakdown of the results in the in the final report.

Okay, I'll look forward to seeing that.

Um, and then for the um update for the ship refresh, is the plan for it to come to PCDC first or just go straight to council for B session?

We would come to PCDC first.

Okay.

Okay.

And um the last thing I'll say is I um we when last time we talked about this, and I know I think you guys did a really good job on the special housing task force, and I also want to thank Pete and Jane for being here.

And um, but I wanted to talk about just the dashboard overall that we've kind of been mentioning.

Uh I think uh ahead of the housing bond, it'll be really important for us to be able to show how much progress that we've made because people are willing to invest in something when we've made progress on it.

And so, do we have any updates on how um like I know we we have see we can like the housing trust has their own website and opportunity home has their own.

Do we have any update on like a consolidated source for showing what housing has been um invested in, what the sources of funding were, how many of that was housing bond, etc.

Sure.

So we haven't added funding sources to the website yet.

We do have online is our ship dashboard, so it does show how many units we've preserved, we've created.

Um, it doesn't identify by which entity, it's more about this is housing and focused on the ship goals, which are AMI level focused and either home ownership or rental.

So we do have that and and a map as well, it's interactive.

Um, but uh we have not added funding sources yet.

Uh but we can look at what that would take to do that.

Yeah, and I thought we also talked about like um like does it include all of the PFC deals and Litex and everything.

It's all of our partners.

Um, any time that the city, and we don't necessarily have to award funding, but once we're alerted of the project, and that could be we issued a resolution of support and we heard that it moved forward.

And um, and it includes future ones too.

Yes, things that are in the pipeline that are not yet built.

Okay.

Um, yeah, if there's a way to add like what funding went to what and to see like how the dollars were spent, I think that would be also helpful.

I'm trying and and I'll go back and look because I've seen the dashboard a bunch of times and I see the numbers, but I haven't seen the map.

So um I'll make sure I go back and check.

And it you could start it by council district too.

That's awesome.

I love it.

I'm messing around with it right now.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

I do want to echo that.

I was thinking about that too, right?

It's kind of the what our goal is versus the need in the community, just to let folks know that it's still a large gap to do.

Um and the with the $9 million that we shifted to the trust, is that basically the end of the 22 bond?

Well, we'll be coming back um April.

We'll we'll have a briefing on the final bond awards recommended from our gap funding.

So we had about 10 million left in bond funds specifically for the for the housing projects, and that was competitive, and we're going through that process now.

So that'll come to council with recommendations in April, and then the nine million set aside for strategic land acquisition will come for final council approval before the land is purchased.

So uh the housing trust peat and team are working on that now.

And then we will also in April be bringing the recommendations.

We also have a competitive solicitation for community land trust.

That was about two million dollars of bond funds.

So all that lots to come in April.

Yeah, so maybe May June, I'm thinking we do our recap of the 22 bond.

I want to get ahead of our colleagues on the bond too, make sure that we have this wrapped up nicely and have all the data to show folks why we are going to press for a second round of this funding.

And then to council McCor's point, I think it's so true, right?

You know, we may go for a bond, and then we know that's gonna be spent over five years, so kind of looking at what the need is now, but also what will the need be in five years and and see if there's any other funding coming up, right?

So in case we have a high need for um housing for you know seniors, and then we know like in two years something big is gonna come online that we kind of know that I think is gonna be helpful for for the future.

So great.

Well, I think this should come back to our committee at the end of March for final approval.

I think that'll be nice.

Uh I hope that everybody here would get a second briefing ahead of that date, just to be certain.

Uh, was there any other comments or questions?

Councilman Government and Councilman Court.

Just really quick of two quick things.

Uh, want to definitely echo what my colleagues said, but in particular, the mention by the council record about the kind of subsidy needs.

I mean, I think it's always coming back to funding.

Um, but I'm thinking about right versus trying to just lay out as much as possible.

Um, particularly, I think like for LGBTQU that there's less resources for those individuals or for other folks that were looking at maybe don't have access to specific vouchers or other kind of specific organizations that support them.

How can we make sure that that subsidies are deep enough to where that they can afford to deliver there?

And that funding designation, you know, maybe if it's a little bit less units overall is able to serve that group at a much higher capacity if it's you know as much 30% uh AMI as possible housing or 50% versus majority 80, and then it's always kind of the conversation there.

But I think it's always something to keep in mind.

Uh so I want to just mention that.

And then also uh I think I said slides seven through ten for the recommendations.

I also meant to say 11 to 12.

Uh so presentation overall supportive of okay.

So let me make sure I made that clear.

Thank you.

Thank you, council.

We were all wondering, you know, what we're doing.

Uh council McCourt.

Um just is it's the story map that says affordable housing development and preservation.

That's the map that you're talking about.

Yeah, this is not really a uh effective.

What I'm trying to say is like the this is a great start.

Sorry, let me um this is a great start.

But what I was trying to set show is that like you should be able to select uh so right now what it doesn't actually change the numbers as you change the filters, and you can actually select specific filters to see like okay, um, how much has the housing trust actually built over and where have they built and where are their properties, and then have those show like number of units, where they're located, and so it is just the it it pinpoints the map where it's occurring, but it's not giving you the I think the information that you would need to make an accurate determination of whether or not the housing bond has been effective, whether or not the housing trust where they're where they're um uh developing.

So it's a great start, but I think there needs to be additional uh uh not just filters on the map, but like uh when you're on the left side, you're able to select, okay.

I want to see all of the all of the projects that are uh for veterans and select to see how much where they've gone and what are those projects.

I want to see all the projects that are 30% AMI, and so that you can immediately see where all the 30% AMI units have been built, like that level of where you select something and then you can see the data.

Does that make a little bit more sense?

Yes, I okay.

Thanks so much.

And we can yeah, and and if maybe I can write out what I'm saying a little bit better too, and so that it's not so jumbled.

Thanks, thanks, Chair.

Yeah, well, maybe councilman can be the chair of a subcommittee on data.

So that I mean we can talk about that too, just to kind of formalize that and make sure it's like being delivered in the right way.

Um so I think that could be very useful.

All right, Veronica, thank you so much for your time, appreciate it.

Alrighty, folks.

That was item number three.

So we will move on to item number four.

Madam Clerk, can you please read the caption?

Item number four is a briefing on the tax increment financing TIFF program policy.

Good morning, Chair, committee members, Ian Benavides, deputy director for the city's neighborhood and housing services department.

I'm gonna provide an update to the previous meeting we had at PCDC to look at updating some language in the TIFF policy around displacement.

So, as background, the city's TAC increment finance policy was approved and adopted by city council on December 15th, 2022.

Um, some key updates at that time were to um remove lengthy and disjointed language references, streamline our process um and align our program with other city plans and policies.

Um during city council B session on January 14th, City Council requested a review of the displacement language within the TURS policy.

And on January 27th at PCDC, the planning community development committee provided feedback on the existing displacement language and requested some updates for future projects to better comply and meet with displacement impact assessment and ship policy goals.

So I'm going to go over some of the changes in the language.

Currently, displacement is identified in two locations throughout the policy.

The current policy language is on the left and the proposed language is on the right.

Currently, in the displacement uh section of the policy, it says that a tourist or tax increment finance funded project should not cause direct residential displacement.

Direct residential displacement as defined by the city includes any occupied and habitable household or households located on the proposed project site that will require permanent displacement.

Really, we're looking to include three additional changes in this section.

One is to include future phases of the development.

Two is to um include a look back period for projects that may have caused displacement better than applying for funding.

And then three is to clarify that the deplacement impact assessment will also be required.

And I'll go more into that in the next section outlining exactly what that displacement impact assessment will include.

But the changes to this section will state that a tourist or TIFF funded project shall not cause direct residential displacement.

Direct residential displacement as defined by the city includes permanent displacement of any occupied or habitable households located on the proposed project site or within any future phases of the project to include property contiguous to the project site controlled by the developer.

Two, um, with the look back period, proposed projects will be subject to review of direct residual displacement that has occurred for the prior two years from the application date.

And then three proposed projects will also be subject to displacement impact assessment.

So those three changes are being proposed in that section.

The next section within the policy really speaks to the displacement impact assessment.

I think this committee is very familiar with it as a tool that we currently use specifically for projects that are seeking city incentives on our gap funding and RFP side.

Currently, the project uh the language within displacement impact assessment says that housing projects will need to complete the city's adopted displacement impact assessment to provide data on the vulnerability of the neighborhood and the surrounding area to potential increased property values.

We're looking to make three changes to this section.

One is to include all projects, not just housing projects.

Two is to identify an area and also to tie back to the phases of development, and three is to include language that speaks to the mitigation based on the findings of that displacement impact assessment.

So the proposed language reads that all construction projects will need to complete the city's adopted displacement impact assessment to provide data on the vulnerability of the neighborhood and the surrounding area to potential increased property values.

The surrounding area will include a minimum of one quarter mile from the boundaries of the project site and all phases that are part of that project.

For projects who score a meant a medium or high risk on the displacement impact assessment, the project must include a plan on efforts to mitigate the efforts of potential displacement.

So those are really the two sections that speak to displacement within the policy, and those are the changes that we're proposing.

Um if approved by PCDC to move forward, our next steps would be to brief the TURS boards, including council members who sit on those city initiated TURS boards.

Um, do additional stakeholder outreach to our housing commission, our development process task force, um, and some of our developer stakeholder groups, and then um propose the adopted uh proposed the change language for city council adoption in March.

So that I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, Ian.

I appreciate you and your team's hard work on this and a very short turnaround.

I appreciate that.

Uh and I was one of those folks on B session that was very disappointed with the presentation.

Um, and it goes back to the fact that the stadium, the baseball stadium was listed as not causing displacement uh right after we talked about a displacement fund for people at the Soapworks.

So I don't see how that can be reconciled, but you know, we're not here to relitigate a past vote or a past project, but I sought clarity um from that.

And while I disagreed with that, and I think it breaks the spirit of the rule.

Uh I was informed that it didn't meet the letter of the law.

But that's why we're here today is to change the policy and to make it happen.

So Ian, can you come back up here?

And based on slide three, you know.

The biggest example, obviously the baseball serum.

Can you enlighten me on how it would change that policy would change that project based on the previous language and what we're proposing today?

Right.

So currently um the interpretation of the policy for that particular project, the baseball stadium is the project that's receiving the tourist financing, not the housing which had the development, I mean the displacement.

Um so this language would clarify that the housing and the ballpark are contiguous on by the same developer and part of a multi-phase project.

So that would be something that we would take that approach from staff side.

Thank you.

And I think that's really important because that other phase of it, and I know it's not your department, right?

But the other phase of it was a requirement of that project.

So we the council asked for development around there as a condition of approving that project.

So I that's why I think this is wholly within the policy and not out of bounds for that uh decision.

Um but yeah, that's the language to propose and I welcome staff uh council feedback on that.

So we'll go with council McCourt.

Thanks, Chair.

I'm seeing a different language of proposed language.

Can someone help me understand why this is what's proposed language instead of the quarter mile boundary?

So I think you might be looking at the next slide.

Sorry.

There's two slides for proposed language.

So displacement is referenced twice within the policy.

Um I think this is really speaking to direct displacement.

The indirect displacement is really what the displacement impact tool looks at.

So you know, it's not an exact science, but what the displacement impact assessment looks at is the vulnerability within the area.

And so this is helping define what is that area that we're going to um evaluate for potential displacement and those risk factors.

So the um indirect displacement is for what well explain that to me again uh a little bit between so the first slide that defines what displacement actually includes and then DIAs that we are what we're adding is the quarter mile to all projects.

Correct.

So this first language really speaks to this first section, I'm sorry, speaks to displacement direct residential residential displacement.

So occupied households that are being no longer occupied due to displacement.

So that's really what this speaks to.

It references on here that you will also need to do displacement impact assessment.

So it's possible that a project maybe doesn't have any residential displacement.

However, we will still conduct a displacement impact assessment to look at the vulnerabilities within the neighborhood.

Got it.

And then the displacement impact, the DIA will be a quarter mile of the whole area.

So in this case, so it's like to double down on that.

Would it be a quarter mile of phase one, phase two, phase three?

So that would be the actual site, and then it would be a quarter mile radius around that.

Correct.

Okay, great.

I love clear definitions.

Thank you, Chair, for bringing this forward.

I support it.

And sorry, real last quick thing.

How did you guys determine a quarter mile?

So we worked with our policy team.

Um that's typically what they look at currently for the displacement impact assessment.

Um I mean, there could be situations where we may need to expand that, but typically that gives us a good idea of what the surrounding neighborhoods are and those that would be most impacted by the development.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

Thanks, Joe.

And councilwoman.

Councilwoman Castile.

Thank you, Chair.

Thinking, I just wanted to thank the councilman for identifying this gap within uh the TIFF policy and bringing it to PCDC for us to adopt.

I'm supportive of staff's recommendation and look forward to supporting this.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Councilman Golden.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, uh Ian, for the presentation and for the work on the back end as well.

One quick question, I guess I had on slide three.

Um, what was it the the language on the prior two years and the application date?

Could you uh clarify what uh what that's for, I guess?

What was the thought process for that one?

So when we were evaluating the language, we kind of looked at a couple different scenarios.

Um if somebody, let's say, owned a piece of property and um needed to move tenants out or displace tenants prior to applying to the city.

Um, you know, our review would say, well, there's nobody there now.

However, there was somebody recently there who was displaced.

So we try to take a reasonable time period to look back and say um at the time of the application you didn't displace anybody, but you very recently displaced somebody in order to be able to apply.

So likely related to the project.

Correct.

Got it.

Okay.

That's helpful.

Thank you.

Um do you have does NHS D have the displacement impact analysis from previous projects, not only for TURS, but for any other projects on hand, whether it's well, not on hand today, but uh whether 2022 bonds or anything else that we can review?

We do, and we share those all with the scoring committee when we review those projects, so we have all of those on file.

Okay, great.

Um for the funding application for the TURS, and there's uh there's one up online.

Is that the most up-to-date application or is there a different application?

I apologize, I didn't hear what you said.

For the the funding application for the TURS.

Is that the most up to date application listed online?

Or yes, that should be the most up-to-date one, yes.

Okay, got it.

I think something that I would like to see, and this is a little bit outside the scope, I think, of this particular focus, but with within TURS overall, uh, or TIFFs, I guess is just trying to something I really appreciate about uh Washington, DC's uh tours policy is looking at the kind of uh what's it called?

At the beginning of the process, they'd look at uh what would this parcel look like?

Um, what would be the impact here?

What could the possible um development look like here with or without this application, this applied project.

Um that way there's a comparison for city council or for the their city to review and say, okay, well, if they redo it this way, we could get this much tax revenue and/or this much development and this much economic um success, quote unquote.

Um but also if we didn't do it this way, we did it in a different way, or we didn't do anything at all, would it be different?

What would the outcome be?

So I think there's something to that except would be interesting to see if we could do a kind of I don't know if it's a fiscal analysis of the right word for it.

Um but I would be interested in exploring that um to this committee or just in general what staff thinks about something like that in the future.

Yeah, we could definitely explore that.

Absolutely, we'll look into that.

And then you actually brought up a great point.

Um, if this policy is approved at council, we'll be updating our application to probably change some other questions on that application and reflect the new policy.

Got it.

Thank you.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you, Chair.

Oh, yes, and I'm supportive of moving forward with this.

Awesome.

Thank you all very much, Ian.

I think that's a good consensus.

So hopefully we will see you at council on March 19th.

Thank you very much.

Okay, we will move on to item number four.

Madam Clerk, can you please read the caption?

Excuse me, item number five.

Item number five is council consideration request by Councilmember Adriana Rocha Garcia, District 4, and Councilmember Terry Castillo, District 5 on establishing a process for city assistance after home fire.

Good morning, committee members and chair.

My name is Justina Tate, I'm the interim assistant city manager for the City of San Antonio.

Today's presentation will provide an overview of the council consideration request related to the process to assist residents after a home fire.

Now to provide some background, this CCR was issued in February of 2025 by council members Rocha Garcia and Castillo.

The CCR requested that the city develop a process for city assistance after a residential fire.

These include notifying separate departments to offer resources and prevent unnecessary enforcement actions against the home, notify local profits or notify local nonprofits, and reach out to respective city council members and their office so that council office may attempt to reach out to the family.

This CCR was heard by the governance committee and referred to planning and community development.

So I first wanted to provide an overview of the relocation of the relocation assistance that is currently provided to an individual or family experiencing a home fire.

This slide illustrates the process that is followed to provide this assistance.

Overall, when the San Antonio Fire Department responds to a fire, they work with the homeowner to find a place to stay.

Commonly in a single family fire, as you can see, uh there are a couple options.

So commonly, the individual or the family will find a place to stay with either the family members or friends.

If that's not an option, SA the San Antonio Fire Department Incident Commander will contact the Red Cross for accommodations.

So this serves as a screen between the Red Cross and the general public just calling directly for assistance.

In a way, this vets the residents as a bona fide fire victim that is needing assistance.

In case of a multi-family fire, the individual or the family could reach out to a friend or family for a place to stay.

If that's not an option, the San Antonio Fire Department will work with the property manager to either find accommodations within the complex in an area that has not been damaged, or within the complex if there's multiple buildings, or also look at sister properties that may be available for accommodations.

Additionally, the fire department will work with with uh also coordinate with Red Cross for accommodations and assistance.

So, in summary, in either instant, either a single family or multifamily fire, the fire department will work with individuals or the family to identify housing accommodations.

Whoops.

This next slide illustrates the internal notification process for single or multifamily fires.

So once the fire is contained, based on the significance of a fire, the SAA San Antonio Fire Department incident commander will report the incident to the fire chief through the chain of command.

Additionally, fire department personnel will evaluate the scene to determine if the structure is stable.

If the structure is not stable, the fire department will contact a DSD who has two on-call inspectors that will go to the incident to the scene of the incident to inspect the structure for possible demolition.

If the inspector determines that a demolition is needed, they will work with the resident or the property manager to demolish the building within 96 hours.

If the structure is stable, as as the fire department evaluates the structure, DSD will review the incident as part of their weekly fire list.

In cases of a fire, an inspector will contact the owner to visit the structure and ensure the property is secure.

In either case, when the inspector meets with a homeowner, they will notify either housing, human services, or homeless if they find that additional assistance may be needed.

So since the CCR was filed, there have been several enhancements that have been made to residence assistance.

First, uh in December, City Council updated the fee waiver policy to include eligibility for residents seeking to real rebuild or repair after a fire.

So they are now eligible in uh meeting certain eligibility requirements for city fee waivers.

Additionally, the team has developed a fire, a house fire checklist so that residents can you that can be provided to residents.

And on this house fire checklist, it does provide immediate resources.

In summary, today we wanted to provide an overview of our current process, the changes that have been made since the CCR was issued, and seek additional feedback from the planning and community development committee.

Thank you so much.

And um Chief Frosto is here as well as Amin and Veronica to answer any questions.

Thank you, Justina.

You could have had that from here.

You don't have to get up there next time.

Um so yeah, thank you all for working on this.

I got to work on this CCR a year ago with Councilman Castillo's office.

And for us, the the catalyst for this was a home fire in District 4 where a family was displaced.

And uh it was actually Telemundo that reached out to our office and said, hey, we have this family that is displaced.

Can you offer resources?

And we were able to do a lot for them, thankfully, through Johanny and our office's work.

Uh but we realized that we didn't really see a process in case that happened.

And I do want to recognize um Dr.

Daniel Martinez, who's here in the back today with American Red Cross.

He's our uh go-to person here, and so we thank you for being here and listening to this.

Um, but we'll go ahead and start some discussion uh and we'll go with Councilman Castillo first.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Justina, for the presentation, as well as to our first responders and NHSD.

Uh, as the councilman highlighted, this uh CCR was the result of a trend that uh Johanny and Rachel Tucker team had identified in terms of constituents who have experienced a home fire but aren't necessarily tied to connected rather to resources to rehab their home beyond uh Red Cross providing that initial assistance.

Uh we uh I'm I'm grateful to see that there has been action taken in terms of update to the city fee waivers to include residents repairing uh their home after experiencing a fire and of course the fire checklist for residents.

Um, what I would like support from my colleagues on is how we can create an internal policy in terms of uh putting a lien on properties.

For example, Mr.

Garcia just recently experienced a fire earlier uh last year, rather, and it started with a vacant structure and it spread to his property.

Uh the city then went out and abated the property, and he has I believe it's an $8,000 fee.

Uh he did apply for a waiver, however, that request was denied.

Uh he does intend to rebuild, he does not have homeowners' insurance, and um what I would hope that we could consider to explore is how we can help individuals who want to rebuild on their property, rebuild uh without placing uh a lien uh on their property for not being able to cover the cost of the demolition, the city initiated demolition.

Um, so that's something that I'm hopeful that we could build upon with this policy.

Um, in District 5 in particular, right?

We have seen with the updated FEMA floodplain maps that more properties are going to be incorporated, which means more expense and more barriers in terms of rebuilding within that floodplain.

Um there's another example in which it was in a floodplain, grateful for Mark Carmona and Rachel Tuck in our team, they braided um a project together that took over a year plus to get a homeowner back on Avadas Street.

Um but because it was within a flood uh zone, uh there's just more barriers in terms of permitting and then the cost associated with that.

Um so the goal here of course is how we can uh come up with an internal policy for when there is a fee place for abatement that we can I know we technically can't waive it because it would be considered gifting, is my understanding, but some type of policy where we're not applying uh the lien for constituents who are experienced a fire and intend to rebuild.

Uh so I'm hopefully I can have support for my colleagues on that.

Um those are my comments.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilman Castillo.

So I would support that looking us look us looking into that as well.

I think that's important.

Um as well as I don't know that it's a formal process now to notify our council offices, so that can be our generic email uh or something.

But I know Chief Frausto's here and she does a good job of uh contacting the council member when something happens in our district, but I do would like some sort of follow-up with contact information to our offices about the the affected family if it's available.

Uh so we'll continue on with comments, Councilwoman Corps.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Councilman, for bringing this forward.

I think this is really important.

We had a fire similarly in district one, and we were all trying to hustle to get the person support um because she was an elderly resident who just didn't know how to where to go or what to do.

And the one of the challenging parts about the uh housing afterwards is that it runs out after a certain amount of time, and so um I know it can't be indefinite, but figuring out how do we provide a little bit longer term support for shelter afterwards would be great if there are no option one for f family or friends that they could stay with.

Um I love the housing um fire house fire checklist.

How are we gonna distribute that to that?

Is it like do we take it to that person once it's happened, or what's the plan for we work with the fire department um to notify us?

Um in some cases they couldn't also help distribute, um, but once they notify us of the fire, we can actually make a site visit to the family and make sure they get it as well.

Okay, yeah, I think just formalizing that would be great so we can make sure that they they receive it, and then also maybe sharing it with the neighbors around because sometimes if you're in a a state of uh like uh uh urgent or like uh panic where you may not be able to receive this information or the sheep might get lost.

If you the a lot the at least in our situation, a lot of the neighbors were really, really supportive and helpful.

So maybe they could receive it too, so that they can be like, okay, this is how I can help you.

And then is there a reason why we didn't put the DMV number on there?

Or some of the others, like for titles, deeds, and um for rec for the records department.

Um we can uh we'll look at that.

And so if you have any feedback, we can't okay, great.

I um I just think some of the like obviously insurance, your the insurance policy is gonna be different for each person, but for uh the DMV and for um the titles and deeds, the records department.

I think we should be able we should add their numbers um onto that as well.

Okay, and also maybe um I don't know if any of these agencies, if we could just check with these agencies to see if they have like a specific line or a specific email address.

Sometimes they prefer like contact via the email, that would be good contact to have as well.

Okay, yep, we can check in and we'll also plan to update it with the uh note that you are now eligible for the fee waivers as well.

Oh, that's great.

Yes, okay, awesome.

And I agree with what councilwoman was saying on the liens component.

That's really tricky for folks, and I understand the the reason we do it, but what's the amount?

Just so I can remember for like a demolition lien.

It's not it's not a uh revenue, huge revenue generator, I'm assuming.

Yeah, I'm gonna invite a mean with the DSD.

The average for demolition is actually based on the square foot, but our average throughout the year is about seven thousand dollars for a single family dwelling unit.

And so for us, it's it's not and what percentage of your of DSD's budget is those liens like small percentage, probably, right?

Yeah, I don't have the information with me right now, but uh if it's a homestead, we cannot put lien on the property as well.

So even if we do the demo, we cannot put lien on the property.

Oh, interesting.

I don't think I realized that.

Okay, all right, thanks, Amin.

Yes, ma'am.

All right, thank you so much, Chair.

Councilman Gilvone.

I'm sorry, Chair, if I want to just very quickly also add to that.

When DSD um demolishes properties or takes any code enforcement action, that money we do not consider that revenue generating, that money goes back into reimbursement of the city's costs that are associated with that action.

So it doesn't add to the coffers of the department or the city in any way.

Thank you.

Thank you for that clarification.

Uh Councilman Gilball.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, thank you, Justina, for the presentation.

Um, and of course, thank you to Council Castillo and Council for my counselor, Roger Garcia and her wonderful team who's also now elected um for working on this particular uh CCR.

Um we had a fire in District 6 uh after immediately after New Year's, um, there was an accident that took place with fireworks happening.

Um, and I'm very grateful for the Red Cross, we're able to really jump into support with the family, and of course, with the fire department as well, um, for all the support there for the resident they were able they had some family they're able to stay with, and so it was able they're able to work out those pieces.

But um, you know, I I think it it's something that people are always and to the point of council record's point about the neighbors being sort of involved.

There's a neighbor that called me and said, I don't know what there is, but can it be something to help out?

And so that I think that point really uh sticks with me about working with some of the neighbors nearby too about helping the family kind of plan, right?

Or the individual plan, um, whether it's with the checklist or just letting the number resources available, I think that's really crucial.

But all I have to say, I think this particular uh looking at this policy and this process is really key.

What resources we have um is really essential and needed for our community.

Um supportive of what Council Record Castillo and Catholic McGee are pushing forward about um the work related to the liens and exploring that.

Uh communication council offices makes sense as well.

Thank you to Chief Rosto for always uh giving me that text as soon as possible.

It's really helpful for my team to reach out, but I do agree.

I think if we can get Chief of Staff or somebody as well, that way we're always still moving.

Um I was gonna there's one thing I wanted to ask about.

Oh, uh I don't remember, I feel like I had an answer for this, but I want to verify.

I don't know, Chief Rosso, if you know this, um do we have uh uh a map about or do we see any reoccurring uh areas of town that see the most fires?

Is there any data on that?

The most house fires should say good morning.

Yes, we certainly do have that data.

We've been working with the ICSO office and um trying to work through all the specifics so that we can provide a dashboard that's available online.

Um but I don't know the number offhand or which district that is.

I can certainly get that for you.

Okay, no problem.

I guess I was wondering within that analysis if uh we can look at any um similarities in the structures themselves, right?

Whatever it is, I think that'd be valuable to understand a bit more that we can always be proactive with either our home repair program or other similar programs, which is something I think this committee is always very focused on.

Um but in it in general, I think it's just helpful for us to kind of look at how can we be um how can we look at much prevention as possible, uh make sure people hopefully don't have to go through this process.

Um but you know, when it happens, I'm grateful this process exists.

So thank you, Chief.

Uh those are all my comments.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilman.

Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you, Chair.

I mean, can you help me understand the homestead component?

Uh for example, Mr.

Garcia, who I cited, we just checked his BCAT and he does have like the homestead exemption on BCAD.

Is that what you all are looking at in terms of uh whether or not you apply a lien in the case that they do not pay the demolition costs I will try to answer it, but I think legal might maybe are uh more um willing to to answer that question.

But in general, uh the law doesn't allow any entity to put a lien on a property that is homestead.

So, for example, if Mr.

Garcia can't come up with the $8,000 to pay for the demolition, the city cannot place a lien on his property for not paying the $8,000.

That is correct.

I mean, we can still continue to invoice it, but we cannot put a mechanic or a lien on that property.

Now, um, and again, that's for the main structure on the property.

If there is accessory structure or a shed, then that is a little different.

Interesting.

And then also in terms of the request for a waiver, uh, my understanding that there has to be a procedural or legal issue.

Can you give me an example of a procedural issue uh in terms of waiving uh the abatement fee?

Um I need to look into that.

I I don't understand your question.

My question is um my understanding is that the there can be a waiver uh in terms of the abatement fee if there is a procedural and or legal fee.

My question is what is an example of a procedural um uh issue.

So correct.

Uh so if if anybody appeals the fees that we assess, uh it does go to the legal department to the city attorney's office to review it.

If we missed the process or we didn't do the right notification, if we didn't follow the due process 100% correctly, they do potentially waive it or or work uh settlement with the owner.

Okay, thank you.

I mean, I appreciate you walking me through that.

Yes, my uh those are all my questions.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Councilwoman.

Um, and actually, if it's okay with you all, I'd like to give uh opportunity to for uh Dr.

Martinez to come up and just talk a little bit about um the process with home fires and the and how he works with the C of San Antonio.

If you have any feedback for us also, sir, I would appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Thank you to our city council members present and uh to Chief Frausto.

Uh uh just a couple of quick thoughts.

Number one, from a Red Cross perspective, I want to make that distinction.

San Antonio actually has the highest rate of home fire response for any city in the state of Texas.

And so when we look at that, sir, like to your previous question as to why people always ask why.

We average when we look at the aggregate number, including multifamily fires, eight responses per day.

And the reasons, the the top reasons why we see home fires is why I don't cook as a cooking accidents, right?

That's that's why I prefer to eat out.

But when you look at all the subsequent reasons impacting homes and why San Antonio has such high rates, there is a large correlate with socioeconomic status and home fires, right?

Especially during winter time when we see an uptick in individuals utilizing things like space heaters and ovens to heat homes, things along those lines.

So because of our demographics in the community, what we focus on are the prevention side.

So we provide free smoke detectors, free home fire education, free resources, things like that.

We partner very well with the uh fire department, the city, and other entities to identify those specific target areas where we're seeing uptick.

Uh our data, of course, is always behind.

So when we look at last fiscal year, the top three zip codes all overlap district seven, with the top being I want to say 78228, um, because we are having our second year of a nationally recognized pilot program within that district at the Joe Ward Community Center where we're focused on building resiliency, right?

So if we know that home fires impact low SES populations, then not only are they vulnerable to home fires, but there's a lot of other vulnerabilities that um these residents experience.

So we've created a coalition of nonprofits, elected officials, corporations, and individuals who want to help build resiliency within San Antonio.

We're every about six to eight months going from specific area to area and delivering free resources under the four pillars of health, housing, hunger, and education.

Right.

So we have donors like USAA, Valero, and others who want to partner to provide this, and now what I'm working on is working with the city, working with the fire department to identify the areas so that we can direct our resources and efforts to building more resiliency within those areas.

So that's kind of a quick high-level overview.

I appreciate that opportunity.

Are there any questions or anything that I could uh address at this time?

Thank you.

I do have a question.

Um so for every home fire, you you do get contacted by the fire department?

So not for every home fire, but for the majority.

So that's one of the things that uh Chief Rosto and I met up with uh met about uh about six-ish months ago.

We can only respond if we're invited out.

We can be invited out by the fire department, by the client themselves, or by an elected official.

Um, but we can't we won't just show up.

So as long as someone invites us out, we will be there to provide support.

Support could look a little different depending on the needs of the client.

Our mission is to provide immediate relief, but immediate in some cases can last up to three months, right?

So immediate emergency relief.

Uh but to the point with the vulnerable population, the majority of residents that we uh serve.

Unfortunately, a home fire is the difference between being homeless or having really no resources at all, right?

As a next step.

So we try and provide as much as we can.

We never just drop a client.

We'll always do a handoff, whether that's with another with the city, another nonprofit, or someone else.

But once they are in our care, we will never just drop and leave.

So we always try to make sure that they have a handoff to someone who can continue providing services and support.

But overall, the fire department typically always does a phenomenal job about reaching out to us, partnering with us, or allowing us to partner with them rather in the response.

Great.

Thank you, Bruce.

Does anybody have any questions or councilman Castillo?

Thank you, Chair.

Just wanted to uh support your request to expand uh the assistance in terms of uh what the uh relationship looks like with Red Cross and the city in terms of uh connecting residents.

Um but those are uh my only comments in terms of Red Cross, and I just didn't want to circle back to one piece.

Um I was just gonna call I mean after I was like we're here.

Um I I I think I guess right if there's uh a fee being issued to an individual that has a homestead, can we explore just not applying uh an abatement fee?

For example, if I'm gonna go back to the $8,000 fee for Mr.

Garcia, right?

Uh, if he has a homestead exemption and essentially if he fails to pay it, there will not be a lien placed on his property, and there's already hardship that the family's experiencing.

I'm just using this as an example.

Um why apply an 8,000 fee?

And I guess my ask is if we could explore uh for occupied structures that experience a fire that we do not apply the abatement fee to add to the hardship of the of the resident.

Um so that's something, I guess to clean that up.

But I think that's the the intent of my comment.

So I mean, we we we have to uh at least invoice them.

Uh it is codified in the code that we need to uh submit that invoice to the owner or the property owner.

The reason for that is again we are not using our resources, we are physically paying a contractor, a third-party contractor.

We are spending money on it, and it's public money, so we have to invoice for it, attempt to collect if we can't collect it.

Okay, I appreciate that.

Yes, ma'am.

Any other comments or questions?

Okay.

Well, I think there was some good feedback today.

Uh meaning your job's not over yet.

We still gotta we'll probably do another check-in on that, but we appreciate the answers, and we will continue to work on this.

Did you have anything yet?

No, thank no, I'm good.

Thank you.

Alrighty, folks.

Well, that was also just for briefing.

So um the time is now 1129, and the meeting of the PCBC committee is now adjourned.

Thank you.