Good morning.

The time is now 10 01 a.m.

on May 26, 2026.

In the meeting of the planning community development committee is now called order.

Madam Clerk, can you please call the roll?

Councilmember Corr.

Councilmember Castillo.

Councilmember Gavin.

Council Member Mesa Gonzalez.

Chair Mungia.

Chair, we have quorum.

Awesome.

The first I mean agenda is approval of the minutes.

Are there any corrections to the minutes?

Can I get a motion?

Can I get a second motion and a second?

All in favor.

Aye.

All opposed.

Motion passes.

Public comment.

We have one person from the public signed up today, Cynthia Cavasus.

She's online.

Oh, she was online.

Okay.

Maybe she mentioned it.

Okay, well, if she's watching, we'll come back to that if she needs to.

Okay, so we will go on to item number two consideration request from Councilmember Terry Castillo on vacant and nuisance property program and policy enhancements.

Is there a presentation?

Good morning, Chair.

Good morning, Council members.

My name is Amin Tomas, Development Services Director.

And I'm here to talk about the vacant and nuisance property program and policy amendments.

So we received the council consideration request in 2025 from District 5.

And the main reason for it is to consider a program and policies to address quality of life issues caused by vacant residential and commercial buildings owned by absentee property owners.

So to start with, we do have obviously the vacant building program, you're aware of it.

It started in 2015 as a pilot program, and then it became permanent, and we did a couple of expansions on the program in 2017 and 2023.

The last one in 2023 was to add a thousand-foot buffer between any public or private school and any licensed daycare.

So with all the programs that they are in, it's very specific to certain areas like the central business uh district, historic landmarks, historic districts, half a mile around the military bases, and as I mentioned, uh the TERS and then the schools, the buffer around the schools.

So with that, uh it doesn't cover the city completely, it covers about 30 to 35 percent citywide.

Uh one big item here we need to make sure we are uh I guess agreeing on.

The vacant building program is only talking about vacant structures, not vacant lots.

And I know we have a lot of vacant lots in the city, so this doesn't cover the vacant lot itself, it covers the structures.

So the the CCR had uh different requests, but they kind of boil down into three categories: property registration and inspections, fine penalties and enforcement, acquisition and receivership.

And I'll go through each one individually.

In regards to registration and inspections, today we have four employees in this program.

Uh they manage over a thousand active cases, and one employee identifies the cases and create the case basically.

And we just added a code enforcement officer as of October 1, this fiscal year.

Thank you for that.

Uh which is gonna help us a lot with again inspections and enforcement.

Today the registration does require the property owner to submit a plan of action to comply with the standard of care, and as I just mentioned, adding the code enforcement officer is adding capacity for increased citations and boost registration.

In regards to fines, uh penalties and enforcement, there is a couple of items here.

Uh, so any time we do uh an abatement, such as cleaning, securing, or even demolition, if it gets to that point, we can place a lien on the property.

The only caveat if it's homestead, we cannot place liens on homestead properties.

One of the requests and the CCR talks about can the city foreclose on a property.

By state law, the county is the only entity that can foreclose on a property, and that's due to delinquency in property taxes.

With that said, we are working and exploring an ILA in our local agreement with the county to see if there is a way we can put it together and have it documented where we can actually direct or or provide the county with some nuisance, vacant properties.

That way, maybe they can work on it and look at if they owe taxes, then maybe take it to foreclosure a little bit sooner.

Um, one of the requests is can we do a sliding scale for registration fee?

There is no legal issues with that.

We can definitely do that.

There's a couple of cities in town that they do some of that, and this slide shows us some of that.

So for example, Dallas, you register for free in the program.

If you do receive two to three citations, then you become we call they call it basic.

So you go and pay the 124 dollars for that.

If you get more than three violations, then they consider it a problem property, and now the fee goes up to 415.

In San Antonio, we have it set to uh single families 400, all others are 900.

Again, legally, there is no issue with the side sliding scale fee increase.

But one of the recommendations that we might have here, but obviously we need direction from you, is instead of doing it for the registration, we keep our fees as is, but we uh make the penalties or the citations on kind of scaling.

So the first one will be lower amount, the second one higher, and so forth.

That way we can keep track of the property.

The citation goes with the property.

Um the fear is we we issue a registration for a property today, then they sell it.

What happens?

Do we go to the higher registration fee or not?

Because now they're gonna say I'm a new owner.

So it's gonna be a little confusing, but with citations, it goes with the property.

The third item is acquisition and receivership.

So obviously, we have the strategic housing implementation plan, the ship plan, and it does have strategies to establish a land banking program that we're gonna work with neighborhood housing services on, and at the same time, neighborhood housing services is working on uh an ILA with us with the county as well, in regards to nuisance and vacant properties.

Now going back to receivership, um, state law two fourteen uh does provide that, and there is no legal issues with it.

We can definitely implement the receivership.

The CCR talked about different types of receiverships.

At least one of them is legal and we can do it.

The other ones are legal, but they don't apply to this specific case.

And if you want more details, I have the city attorney here, uh Savita, she can explain that more.

Now, Dallas is using the receivership program.

The the caveat or the issue they are running into is to find an individual or organization that's willing to put the money up front before they really become owners, right?

Because they're gonna take over ownership of it, but not really legally.

They don't have the deed, they're gonna spend money, fix it, try to do it, but they they normally it's really hard to find again an individual or company that's willing to put the money up front.

So that's one issue that Dallas is having problems with.

So, in summary, again, again, those three kinds of issues.

So, on the registration and inspection, we our recommendation is just to continue with the efforts that we have, fines, penalties, and enforcement.

Again, continue to explore the ILA with the county, and look at the sliding scale registration fee or the penalty fee, if you will.

Acquisition, just keep it going with the neighborhood housing services, continue that effort with the ship program, and then receivership uh program again explore more and figure out which one we're gonna use if if possible.

So, we are here just to again give you overall uh summary of the CCR and what we started working with the county on the ILA, but we want basically feedback from you so we can come up with recommendations and come back to PCDC with those recommendations, and then technically assess uh the impact on the proposed uh program adjustments for the existing operation capacity, and I'm available for any questions you may have.

Thank you.

I mean, appreciate it.

All right, we'll begin council discussion.

Council, thank you, Chair and thank you, Amin and team for the presentation and the continued work uh with um the vacant properties.

Uh the global council consideration request is to ensure that we're meeting the public safety needs with our residents.

Uh and we know that oftentimes the vacant structure turns into a vacant lot, which then serves as a host of so many other uh public safety concerns in our neighborhoods.

So I'm pleased to see um staff's recommendation on continuing to move forward with the interlocal agreement with the county uh in terms of the foreclosures and I've had an opportunity to have conversations with a couple of our county commissioners uh and then a candidate for county judge about the role and impact that having this interlocal agreement in terms of vacant and nuisance properties can serve, right?

When we see a vacant structure that has back taxes, liens, it's a missed opportunity for affordable housing, particularly when we see the trend in which primarily in the urban cores where we're seeing many of these vacant structures.

Again, right, the goal is to ensure that we have an opportunity for that receivership.

I understand the point in the trend in Dallas in which having the upfront money, and we hear that all the time with uh folks interested in bond dollars or any grant with the cities, you know, it requires that the folks cover the costs first and then get reimbursed.

Uh so that is an issue that we continue to hear.

I'm curious what some of the nonprofits that provide support because the trend that we see in district five in particular is because there isn't a clear title, uh back taxes, uh etc.

And I'm curious if whether it's Mexican American Unity Council or whatever the nonprofit may be, if they have recommendations, I understand it costs money, right?

For their services, but what they would see as most impactful and serving like their constituency need, um, alongside with ours, of course.

Um, in terms of the liens for abatement costs, or rather, let me rewind.

In terms of the sliding scale, um, part of that conversation with our team was uh we understand that there are folks who inherit inherit a property, so they're not prepared to cover the cost of the property taxes for that additional property.

Um, so I think what I would envision is a sliding scale in which it takes into account, right?

Is it an LLC?

Is it someone who owns multiple vacant properties, uh, and or is it someone who owns one additional property that that may be vacant and have violations or whatever the case-by-case issue may be, and a scale in which takes that into consideration.

I understand identifying who owns the property can be a huge task, um, but many of our teams met with told me.

Uh, and it's essentially a software and I believe your teams also met with them, but they have the opportunity to pull the data in terms of the LLC ownership, uh, so on and so forth.

So I think there'd be value in exploring what that looks like, and it could help us identify who owns multiple properties and who may just be that person who inherited a property and doesn't have the resources to um pay the taxes.

Um lastly, I know I believe it's Terrent County.

Uh they've worked with um, they they have established identify uh who has a homestead exemption, but it's a vacant structure, right?

And I think uh especially in a time where we're pinching pennies, there would be value in partnering with the county with that interlocal agreement to see how many vacant structures may have a homestead exemption, right?

So that's revenue that's not being collected when it's vacant.

Um, so something worth exploring as well.

Um I'm supportive of the work that y'all been doing in terms of the interlocal agreement and really eager to see that move along.

Um part of your presentation that oftentimes I've had conversations with folks in the historic community or the preservation community rather, is uh understanding how this vacant buildings program isn't citywide, right?

So to our constituents, they hear a vacant buildings program and they think it applies to all vacant structures throughout the city.

Uh, and I always emphasize it's limited to specific areas, historic districts, whatever the case may be.

Um, so I think there is value in expanding the program uh beyond the downtown district, beyond historic districts, because that's the expectation that my constituency has is that it's tackling the needs of all vacant structures.

But those are my comments for now.

Thank you.

Councilman McCord.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Councilman Castillo, for bringing this really important CCR forward.

This is something that her and I always talk about because I feel like a lot of our neighborhoods are really facing this important issue.

Um, so I think there's more that can be done, and I would push us to think beyond what has been recommended here, which to me similar feels a little bit like let's keep doing exactly what we're doing, except work with an ILA.

So I um cut I affirm what Councilman Castillo said about expanding the program to the whole city, a vacant property is a vacant property, regardless of whether it's you know, it's because the reason why it started off the way it did was because it started off in OHP, but we realized that wasn't the right fit because there was a lot of communication back and forth with code.

So I'm glad that DSD has this now, but I do think it needs to be a citywide program that everybody can actually understand.

The other thing that I think is really important.

Last summer we tried getting a list of all of our vacant properties and creating like a Google Maps listing of district one, just so people could see what what was happening with the vacant property because the process does take so long for it to go through.

If it is going to be through BSB, that process takes like multiple years, and we would get calls all the time, like there's nothing happening, you're not doing anything about this property.

And so I think even just providing better information to the community, where if we could create, um, I know we looked at the dashboard that DSD and code officers use, but if we could visualize where all of those um properties are so that residents can better understand what is actually happening if there was a violation submitted, that way there's more clear transparency and communication versus having to call our office and us having to call DSD and then try to get that information.

Um so I think that is uh important task that we should try to consider.

Um, because when you do live, like when I was block walking even last year, when you do live next to a vacant property, it can be the worst thing, and it it just feels like we're not doing anything that we don't care about those streets.

Um I uh Councilwoman Mungia or Council Councilmember Mungia and Councilman Castillo brought us um this partnership with uh or uh technology resource called Telemi, and they um I know they've briefed you all on it before, and basically it's it's an incredibly cool source where they overlay multiple sources of data to show you where they're vacant land, what the possible zoning for it is, if they're for example in transit or if they're in the TOD lane, they can overlay that.

Um, some of our other cities, Dallas actually uses it.

You can decide as uh a council and city what to make public.

So some of that can be made public, some of that can be used for a developer tool to show you know what is possible on a specific piece of land, what the neighborhood regulations are.

It's really powerful.

You can also even overlay um uh ACS data, you can overlay police crime data.

It's like multiple things that they can put onto this tool, and I really and they the quote the price they quoted me for our a city of our size, they do it per individual resident, was about 200,000 a year, which to me for uh information like that is incredible.

Like we don't right now have any way of telling me where all the vacant lots are in district one, and so I think we should I've spoken to some folks about it, and I feel like there is enough support to at least figure out how to make that a part of the budget this year, and um, and I know it might have to be an RFP, but it it just seems to me to be um must-have for our to be able to better understand where our community is.

Um I just have a couple of questions on the the to the escalating fine structure, I think that's actually a really good idea.

I like the idea of starting with zero at voluntary because maybe we get more people registered into the program and then escalating from there.

I also think it's important that we to what Councilman Castillo was saying, we had had a resident that took bought a house that had citations on it that had no idea.

And so I think it's important that when um there when there is a new owner that we're willing to work with them to say, like, hey, we understand you didn't know what was happening, we're not gonna hold you to something that your the previous owner was doing.

And so I think that's and actually this wasn't even for um a vacant home, it was just for uh it was for permits that hadn't been inspected.

And so I just think it's uh to we have to be a little bit more sensitive when we do have ownership change and determine like is this an individual who's buying this home to live in it and now is like stuck with all these fines.

So I just think having a little bit more flexibility when we're dealing with these kind of cases is important, but I I do think an escalated fee structure, especially for properties that are consistently getting citations.

So we've done it for proactive, and I think it um, you know, for uh making sure that okay, if it's been two months, they haven't completed the overgrown grass or they're not boarded up or whatever it is, that they get another higher fee fee on that.

And then the last thing, if this is just as a follow-up on if you could for the fines and penalties, can you give us like a list of all of the things that you could be, you could get a fine or um fee for by different type?

Like obviously no um abatement costs can be a lien on, but what are all the different things that you would get a lien or citation for when it comes to baking properties, just so that my team who gets the calls has a res has a understanding of what they could tell the resident.

These are the things that would be all eligible.

Um, and then lastly, I don't fully like we've looked at receivership in my office too.

Maybe we have Chief Ryan was really interested in this, but I'm just a curious if I could get like uh one more line, because I did hear that part of that description of like what does that look like?

So um in the CCR, Councilman Castillo recommended using housing bond dollars to acquire the property, and so are we saying that we have this property that we're being willing to give to someone who's willing to just put the renovation in it?

What is the I guess I don't fully understand the details of um that program and why it wasn't successful.

I understand why it wasn't settled in Dallas, but they just said that like I don't understand the construct, I guess.

So you wanna explain?

Because Savita did talk to Dallas folks about the specific.

Okay, councilwoman, is your request specific to receiverships?

Yes, and what that process is.

Yeah, I'm just curious about the construct of what that looks like.

Uh receiverships, uh the one that's uh applicable.

Uh, there are several steps required.

So if there is a property that's considered a nuisance, uh there are um three requirements.

The first one is that there has to be some kind of history associated with the property.

Uh two, that uh the property has to be heard by the building standards board.

And three, after the building standards board, uh petition is filed, it's a joint chapter 54, chapter 214, to ask the court to appoint a receiver.

But uh before we get to court to appoint a receiver, we need to have an individual or an organization identified who would be willing to be appointed as receiver.

And uh we've been trying for, I don't know, Kathy'll remember since 2007-2008, uh, to give receivers for historic structures.

No one has been willing to step up to serve the city cannot be the receiver.

So that is uh the big step before we can go into court and uh file in district court.

Uh first we would have to show the building standards board found it to be a public nuisance in need of abatement.

We would submit that evidence and then uh request the court to appoint an identified receiver.

And uh specifically, it could be an individual or an organization, but they must have demonstrated history of rehabbing properties.

Why is it easy to use?

Now the new owner of the property.

Yeah, let me I'll be a little more basic.

That's okay, Savita.

So I think that they're they're a temporary step, right?

They're not the intended destination of the property, right?

So they the owner can't take care of the business.

We go through the process of Vita described, right?

And we find a receiver who will temporarily act in good faith to make the repairs necessary, but not to be the owner for it to transition to an ultimate owner, or perhaps back to the original owner is the idea, right?

And so they don't intend to own or profit from it, they're just an independent body that helps.

It's often done in in bankruptcies or other uh avenues.

This is a different vein, right?

Uh, around um a nuisance property, but it happens in bankruptcy where um you know someone will help rehab what's going on, then the property is you know marketed and sold, and the bankruptcy gets resolved because the the asset has been sort of rehabbed and helped.

The person who, like in that example, right?

When that asset is sold, the financial institution gets repaid for their their work and essentially probably more because they captured it at a much lower price.

So I'm trying to have the receiver to add to uh what John said, uh, after the property has been rehabbed, uh uh, and the property is sold.

Only at that point can the receiver submit all the monies expended, plus a 10% receiver fee.

At that point, uh the judge will order the sale of the property and then determine what gets paid first.

Uh, first, all court costs are to be paid, and then second, uh the receiver gets uh reimbursed for uh all the costs expended.

Uh just one difference uh from like the bankruptcy proceedings.

Uh a receiver, if at the end of the day uh can become a purchaser under 214.

If the property does uh does get sold, there's not enough money to uh pay for all the costs associated.

Uh the receiver has a uh priority lien on the property for additional monies to uh be able to be reimbursed when the property is eventually sold.

Uh the owner of the property has first rights of refusal uh if there's a sale.

And how is the market price determined at the point of sale?

At uh it would uh that something that uh an expert would be on and uh on the stand or an appraiser to determine the value of the property, and that is presented to the court, and ultimately the court will determine what uh fair market value is.

So, I mean, I'm gonna be over-simplic here, but it's a limbo step, if that makes sense.

You know, the the property is in limbo win and research receivership, right?

And so there's lots of technicalities and sort of you know complexities to that step.

So I think that's what we're working on.

Uh understood.

I just expect a little bit more um, like, for example, there's always got to be a benefit to someone who's gonna want to step in and help, right?

So to in the CCR, it's it is like could we use housing bond dollars to incentivize the 10%, right?

So maybe now it's not if one we're not looking at just because historic is way more challenging than anything else, right?

So um doing uh like you can't redo windows, and sorry, we've talked about this plenty of times, but historic is way more challenging.

So if we're expanding the program to the whole city, and you're just thinking about think about the person like the person that flipped my house, right?

If you could tell that person, hey, you we're gonna flip this house and we're gonna give you uh 20% of the cost that you do as a supplement from housing bond dollars.

They flip that house for 80k, um or how much in rehab costs to make it like livable, and then they're getting an extra their benefit of doing that work is the 20k that actually is probably depending upon the market right now, what they would have made if they were flipping the house in the first place because the market has changed anyway.

Sorry, Councilmember Chair.

I know so that's that's a lot of good information.

I think also using the housing bond dollars to keep the house affordable, right?

I don't think your house is gonna be in the 120, you know, area, so a lot more due diligence to come back with and uh provide some greater detail on that.

Yeah.

Uh councilman go on.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you.

I mean, for the presentation, Savita, for the uh the clarifications there, and John too.

Um, really excited about this uh refresh and relook at this program in ways that we can enhance it.

Thank you, Councilman Castillo for the C CCR.

I know there's a couple folks in here who had that conversation uh with the county frequently uh about land banks as well, and so excited to see it kind of slowly get in there in some form.

And so excited to see primarily prioritizing that ILA because I think that'll resolve a lot of these issues about um, you know, where where we're going with these things, right?

It's one thing to make sure that we're securing uh the property as much as possible.

That's always good and necessary.

Another thing to get this uh property into more productive use, right?

Not only for um that person who's uh dealing with this issue, but also for the larger community, right?

Residents are not only looking for a secured empty building, they're looking for a building that's gonna be uh stable, uh looking for hopefully a lot to one day to be stable as well, uh and not uh a dumping ground that's continuously had to go back to or uh rotating place of people moving through it, uh but something that they can know who the person is.

Um and so excited to see what ways we can get to that.

Um I think the best way to do that is prioritizing that ILA.

And I know staff was working on that, of course.

The county's another partner that we have to bring along with us a little bit too.

Um, and I I guess if I can ask, I don't know if there's been uh work on that on that since, and if there has been, what's the what has that been like?

What's the kind of progress on that been?

Yeah, we just recently started talking to the county.

Uh the good news is they have some staff changes uh recently, and they are more open to the discussion.

We tried to do this like four or five years ago, and they were not open to any conversation.

At least now they are open.

We just had the meeting a couple of weeks ago.

So we don't have anything solid yet.

It's just we are starting that conversation.

That's great.

Uh eager to see how that all of course pans out.

And I'm interested to see too.

I don't know, uh this doesn't have to be the biggest part.

I think the biggest priority is to still be the getting the ILA, but uh interested in seeing, you know, what the cost analysis, I don't know if the analysis is the right word for it, but the cost benefit almost for doing this kind of work for both the city and the county perspective on a property tax revenue and B public safety too.

Um, right, that this investment in addressing these vacant lots, or sorry, vacant buildings, um, and hopefully are uh becoming more productive use.

What's the kind of return that we'll see there for the larger community benefit of it all?

I don't know if that would maybe encourage folks uh to take it a bit more seriously.

Um but it's a potential, you know, we're making sure that these places are no longer whatever dilapidated or viewed in that way, uh, and these neighborhoods get more investment in some form, all those things that in that nature.

We're interested in seeing how that can kind of helpfully encourage folks along or push folks along.

I know in the past we did some contracting.

Well, I don't remember which department it was, uh, with uh Center for Community Progress to kind of advise us on some things around this.

I don't know if it was DSD or NHSD or a different department that talked about this kind of work.

Um was there any findings from that that would be helpful?

It's neighborhood housing services.

Okay, yeah.

You want to talk about this?

I guess largely on the question, was there any findings from that that would be helpful for this kind of uh refresh and this relook at this?

I think what that report um kind of highlighted was basically many of the things were outlined in the CCR, so several strategies and how we can bring them together.

So that's the feedback that we've incorporated in our discussions with the county and SAISD on RILA, how we can utilize that process that exists at the state level specifically for affordable housing to turn some of those um tax-delinquent properties into affordable housing.

So that's that's kind of really what it what it highlighted that process, and then also trying to be strategic.

So if you go on the county's website of Taxwork Close Properties, there's a lot of properties out there.

Not necessarily, you know, all of them are good for affordable housing for various reasons.

So, how do we kind of prioritize?

Um, not only because they may not be good for affordable housing, but we have limited resources.

So, you know, what is the most beneficial for all parties involved if we want to kind of pursue that strategy?

Got it.

Thank you.

Um I mean, I think again, that's the biggest focus here.

I of course support of Council Member Castillo's CCR in totality, and of course, the specifics on making the sliding scale and the kind of uh tiered structures here that to make sure that folks are able to come into not only compliance but hopefully into pathways that lead to uh more productive use, whether it's refurbishing the home or whatever it may be.

Um I think that'd be of course that's the best strategy here.

With uh with the move from uh the vacant building program into DSD, are we looking for the registration fees?

Are they going into the enterprise fund now or what's the kind of process?

No, the the vacant building program moved to DSD but moved into the code enforcement, which is uh general funds, so no change in funding.

Got it, that's great.

Yes, I think it's one of the big things too is by making sure that uh this program is able to uh continue to encourage the that better pathway um versus kind of seeking, not that I think this is done this way, but do citations to get money back into the program to keep it sustainable um i think the ultimate goal here is right not just to penalize but to actually get us to a better spot here um i think those are all my oh um i guess i was gonna ask two on the vacant lots uh i know we're only looking at vacant buildings do you see um any kind of long runway here about getting to vacant lots as well within this and if so what would that look like is it capacity I'm sure it is uh is it capacity I'm sorry of course double the funding but there are also are there other kind of uh barriers to get us to get to vacant lots as well one one day in the future um that's uh that's a tough question to answer um I don't think I have enough information to answer your question right now I'm sure if we can uh expand it to that then definitely we're gonna need more resources for sure uh but I yeah I don't have an exact answer right this second okay no worries and hopefully that's I think the goal with that right is hopefully within the ILA and other kind of work that we're doing here that that can be cut to perspective too so it's not just buildings that we don't have to come back around um but that we're looking at the full scope here as much as possible um those are all my comments thank you councilwoman Messi Gonzalez thank you thank you for the presentation uh do you have a breakdown of those thousand um where is it the thousand active cases I guess of where they're located in the city what districts I don't I don't have it with or can you provide one yes we can we can provide it to inside 410 okay yeah if you can just provide that um we've got um in district eight does a valor road uh right by Clark High School in Lock El Selma has a number of vacant properties uh coming up so every time I see a four lease sign I get nervous uh because they've they really stayed that way for I mean over two years now and it's um some issues are coming up there so just curious where this is uh I'm supportive of the uh sliding scale I think that's uh just based on the other cities and how they're uh doing it I think that's a good move I think um you know any vacant property that we can return to productive use whether it's affordable housing or a small business um it's a potential property tax revenue for us and so I think looking at it in that sense is uh important to me and um I'm interested in the receivership Dallas uses tool in what way like what's what are the larger nonprofits that are um I guess volunteering or thinking that receivership makes sense for them do you know are you familiar with any nonprofits in Dallas?

I think councilwoman that's the challenge that we're hearing for Dallas is that they have that they have the ability to use the tool receivership but their their challenge is finding folks to oh yeah the tool because it's be the receiver if that makes sense yeah the tool's there because it's in the code correct okay oh okay so that the challenge is the tool that the nonprofit or the for profit that would be the receiver is what where the roadblock is okay so then the um where was it here on slide or on the CCR it says where is that the housing bond funds to acquire is that where the city and the county become the receiver to a line I think we would have to incentivize a third party is the idea in the CCR.

We cannot be the receiver of the property it's because it's a legal action that will have to happen like the the courts will place the property into receivership like it's a it's a a technicality that happens right and so um we as the person pursuing the fact that it's a negligent property we can't be the receiver of the property in in the midst of those legal actions.

If I'm oversimplifying y'all can correct me so just to clarify there's two different things the receivership is exactly what John just talked about uh so the city cannot be the receiver for any property now when the county puts a property on the steps I guess for auction we as the city can purchase that property.

So that's where the acquisition comes in versus the receivership.

Got it.

Okay.

Um thank you so much.

And um, supportive of moving this forward.

I appreciate all the uh work that we're doing here on just um, you know, uh more.

I think you said uh looking at the options available to us.

So thank you for that.

And uh that's it.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Castillo.

Thank you.

Just wanted to circle back to uh reinforce the point that Dr.

Corps raised, and I was thinking it, but she said it uh in terms of I appreciate the example of the work of OHP trying to find um someone to take ownership of the property.

Uh I have a staff member who has uh owns a historic home and rehabbing the windows was out of reach without a loan, right?

So I think the importance of going out beyond a historic structure is really important because it is more affordable in terms of rehabilitation.

Uh, and then in terms of uh what it could look like and uh what we had envisioned, right?

I think there's two opportunities, right?

One in which it could potentially go to uh a community land trust like that Esperanza that is rehabbing homes, and or with Merced or Mexican American Unity Council.

So then you have uh a taxable property, right?

And I think uh the opportunity here with this conversation is that we have an opportunity to generate uh revenue with these properties that are currently delinquent in property taxes, take ownership, and then you now have the taxable value.

Um, but just wanted to emphasize uh those those two points about who could potentially play the role where their mission is housing affordability, not necessarily profit.

Um, and and I think using the housing bonds one to acquire and facilitate the interlocal agreement, but also then to potentially rehab the homes with Merced and or Mock.

Thank you.

Anybody else for a second round?

Councilman McCourt.

And I just wanted to provide clarity on the um example that I gave.

And if you take away the land cost of a vacant structure, a vacant structure probably um has very little low uh taxable value, right?

What is the a taxable value for a vacant structure?

Like, give me an example.

I was just I just asked my staff, give me an example of one.

Um, the phrase value is impacted by it being vacant.

Yes.

I mean, I think the condition of the property is what's what's assessed, right?

Not necessarily inhabited or not.

Right.

So I guess I'm just saying, like, if there is if there was a little bit more diligence that we could do around what the sale markets, the sale price would be listed as if there's any room for us to say um within the receive receivership model, if there is a way to keep that sale price low, because when you're purchasing, because you're to your point around 120% AMI, that could be you could still keep a rehab property within that if the vacant structure and the land cost was already so low that the total amount, right?

You're looking at a median home of 150, you could still keep it within that with the rehab costs, but it just depends upon what the sale price would be listed as and how the appraisal the at the very end it goes to market, and so if there was a way we could do more diligence around looking at that process to see what um uh what happens at that way, I think that'd be great.

And then to Councilwoman Castillo's point, she just mentioned even the lien.

Like if at the end of the day we have a yeah, we had one property that Ian worked with us to get an ILA on, and that's a vacant lot.

But if there's a vacant structure that someone can actually take over, if there is a way to get like loan funding.

I mean, I know it's going to be very difficult, but it all comes back to what that market value is at the end of the process.

And so um, I just think we could continue to, I think we should continue to do more diligence on what this looks like, and at least even try to get some feedback from rehab folks like Councilman Castillo mentioned and even just the general development community, see if there'd be any appetite.

Thanks, Sherry.

Anybody else agree with?

Yeah, um, yeah, I think I agree with a lot of what's been said today.

I also would like uh maybe a strategy approach to properties that are residential versus commercial, also.

Uh because I that came up in my town hall when I had um one in the Marbot community was they said, you know, a restaurant leaves and the building just all of a sudden falls off, right?

And then the grass is grown, the windows are boarded, there's graffiti, people break in and camp out there.

There's an old taco cabana right near our area on Military 90 that's been sitting there like that for for years now uh right off the highway, looks totally blighted, doesn't help the cause, right?

So I think there's ways to redevelop the residential aspect.

Um, obviously that's kind of an infill, right?

One by one type situation, which we still need to get a better grasp on at the city, and then there's also the commercial end of it that uh so you know council castilla brought this up a while back too.

But can we increase fees for like specifically residential?

I mean, sorry, commercial vacant properties, um, they have to be abated over time.

This data piece that we're all talking about, the the folks that we met with I think could be a really good tool, right?

Because I just think that we lose track of properties that are under annual notice.

Um, so I mean a lot of these properties really could be hit four times a year, right?

If we knew to check that every so often and get more fees from that because these people are letting their property sit, not putting any money into landscaping or anything while the rest of us are having to deal with that.

So I welcome you coming back with a strategy for both those things.

Um, I think it would be very helpful.

Um, yeah, we we will definitely look into all that.

Um, today our fee for registration for commercial is higher than residential, it's 900 versus 400 for residential.

Um, keep in mind that any violation they have, regardless if it's vacant structure or not, uh, we still have the code enforcement team that can address that, like provide notices, and then if they don't comply, then there's citations and we could abate it and then again put liens on it.

If it's commercial, normally the lien will stick versus residential if it has the homestead.

So we have some of those tools, but we will uh dig into it more and figure out if we can enhance it or improve it.

Thank you, sir.

Appreciate it.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Best of luck, I mean all righty.

We're gonna move on to item number three, a council consideration request to update procedures related to the naming of city facilities.

Thank you very much.

Good morning.

I'm Jamie Nieto, Assistant City Clerk.

I'm here today to present on updating the process for naming of city facilities.

The CCR was submitted by former council member Adriana Rocha Garcia on February 13, 2025.

The CCR requests increasing notifications, public input, meetings, committee compass composition, restrictions on honoring individuals, and consideration of other names.

On April 16, 2025, the CCR was presented to the governance committee and assigned to the planning and community development committee for further review.

I'm going to start by walking through the current naming process according to the city code.

A naming request can come from the city from city staff, council member or community representative.

Once that request is submitted, the city clerk will notify the committee by email.

From there, a committee is formed to review the requests.

The committee is made up of three members, the department head responsible for the facility, the council member representing the district where the facility is located, and a community representative.

Under the proposed updates, the city clerks would still receive the renaming requests for from the city staff or council member or community representative.

However, the process for forming the review committee would change.

The city clerk would now be responsible for forming an odd numbered committee.

This committee would include a member of the San Antonio Parks Foundation.

Another change is that the committee members cannot be related to the requesting council member.

Should the naming request originate from a council member.

That hearing must take place no later than 90 days from the date of receipt.

This hearing provides the opportunity for the public to offer comments on the proposed name.

For public notification, notices are mailed to all residents who live within a 200 feet radius of the facility.

In addition to mailing notices, the city also issues citywide public service announcements, bulletins, and press releases to ensure broad awareness.

Once the public hearing and notification steps are complete, the committee reviews the proposal and ultimately approves or rejects the submitted name.

Now I'll walk through the process the proposed changes to the public hearing and notification process.

The proposal would increase the number of public hearings from one to two when the mail-out notice notice responses show 50% or more opposition to the requested name change.

The current process does not indicate that the public hearing needs to be held near the facility.

Increase mailing notices to all residents from 200 foot radius to 500 foot radius of the facility.

Additionally, registered neighborhood associations and community groups within two miles of the facility would be notified.

Another change allows the community to suggest alternative names beyond the one submitted.

Staff recommendations or staff recommends expand public notification to property owners within 500 feet of the facility from 200 feet.

Require two public meetings rather than one.

If opposition to name change is greater than 50%, the public meeting to be held at the nearest possible location, accessible to the public from the facility in question.

Naming committee composed of odd number of representatives.

Recommend relevant city board, not an outside board, be part of the formed committee.

Recommend that no committee member be related to proposed name change.

Request or propose council member.

Staff is not recommending for the committee to suggest other names besides the one that was submitted.

This concludes my presentation at this time.

Staff request that the committee input on the proposed CCR requests and staff recommendations.

Thank you, Jamie, for the presentation.

Appreciate it.

But you know, there was a controversial park renaming process in another district, and a lot of community members voiced their concern.

And so what this is just trying to do is uh increase the city's threshold or participation for minimum standard.

So you can have more than three meetings, two meetings, you can do that as a council office.

You can have your own meeting.

This is just stating that if a council member is very hands-off, this is the minimum process.

So when you get a park change or facility name, you know, that notification wasn't going to the neighbor association in the area as an FYI.

As we know, people wanted to submit a different name, perhaps, and that's not being recognized.

You have to start that process all over again.

Uh 200 feet from a facility is quite a short distance if you think about what that it could be.

Um, and so I think the other thing too, which you know, I don't think anybody on this council is guilty of, but some people in the past have named facilities after their own relatives, uh, and there are some senior centers um that bear, you know, people's family names, which is one thing, right?

This is stating that you know, councilwoman Castillo couldn't name a facility after her father, but if her father was very active and somebody else wanted to name after father, they could still do that.

So that's a window of opportunity, and so it's just kind of you know expanding the opportunity a little bit.

So I think it's non-controversial.

I think it's pretty safe options to add into the ordinance, but I certainly welcome any feedback and thoughts from my colleagues about this.

Council and court.

Thanks, Chair.

I just have a quick question.

Um, what if someone presents another option?

What happens?

So I'm gonna answer that.

Debbie Rockassitter, city clerk for the record.

Um, the current processes to go through only reproving the name that was submitted, and it would need a new process of a new notice if someone else recommends a different name.

That's what staff is recommending so that there would be more notice, but that's not what the CCR requested.

The CCR requested that if during the course of the public meetings, a different name came up, that the committee could just select a different name and recommend that to council.

So it really is up to the council to make that decision.

But let's say, for example, three names came up.

Would we then do the same process for three names?

That would be the city clerk's recommendation so that there would be more notice for those new names.

So just to clarify, I'm certainly open to whatever on this point, but it's a right now the one name is an up or down vote.

So it's either yes or no.

But if 50 people came and said, hey, there's this other guy that or this other woman that we know in our community that should really benefit from this or whatever, you'd have to restart the whole process again.

So there could be a way where you could say if a certain number of folks say this is the person that we want, or this is what we want to name it after.

Not necessarily a person, just you know, rosebud or you know, Texas Laurel, that that would be considered then, but the the current process would be to restart everything after each time a new name is submitted.

So, yeah, I just think for the sake of like efficiency and so that you know you could go down a rabbit hole if one person recogn recommends one name and another person recommends another, you might be in this process for like a very long time for one facility.

So I do think there might need to be like a threshold of, yeah, and I don't know what that threshold is, but and oh like we should come up with the threshold of let's say, and do they have to fill out like a survey form or something that's just like yes, I support no, I don't know.

So it's my understanding that departments um when they provide the notice, right?

People come to the public hearing and they provide their feedback there.

But it's not like zoning where you like submit the no, I don't know if there's that that big of a process, like that process where you could say like along with the notification, there's a card that says yes in favor.

That if a mail out notice responses indicate 50% or more greater, that would automatically trigger.

So we're adding that.

That's a proposal.

Oh, sorry, okay.

So we are adding that, so like maybe in that if there is a like an other category that we calculate, okay.

If you like you have another name, and so you're able to get an understanding, and maybe if it's more than like 25% of the respondents say we want it to be this name, then it goes through the process versus just a single person suggesting a different name.

And and um, and I'm only saying that because usually like I've only done this one for one facility in district one, and it came to me from someone in the community outside, and it wasn't like you know, usually it's cut the I can't speak for future councils, but at least from what I've seen, usually it comes from communities.

So, anyways, maybe just saying, like, if there's more than 25% of the people around that area, um that want a different name, then it can go through the process too.

Thanks, Chair.

Councilman Castile.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Jamie, for the presentation.

Um similar to Dr.

Core, the name changes that we've had for facilities were initiated by community and just like large coalitions of community uh to say this individual is responsible for a petition that resulted in the netatorium, for example.

Uh, and then on our end, we typically vent and research to see if we could find anything in the like old archives in terms of if there's anything we should be concerned about, uh, that may surface at the community meeting.

Um, my my question is would this apply only to facilities, or would it also apply, for example, to pavilions and or library rooms?

It would apply to city facilities, including the rooms, including the pavilions.

So we see this mostly happening in parks, but the reason we did not recommend parks to be on the board because it does happen in senior centers and other facilities.

So it would be the relevant board to that.

The staff recommends the relevant board rather than just parks always.

Okay, and then I may have missed it in terms of the community allowed to suggest other names besides the one submitted.

Uh, would that be if it reaches the the indication of 50% or more in opposition to the requested name change?

And or how would that component be opened up?

Would it be at the community meeting saying we're open to other recommendations?

Uh or or like what would trigger the suggestion for other names?

We'd need to look back at the CCR because that was the recommendation of the CCR.

Staff did not recommend uh opening that back up without a new process.

So we could be open to whatever the council or the committee recommends if it's a certain threshold like Councilwoman Core suggests.

Okay, and then sorry, can you remind me of Dr.

Corey's suggestion on that?

I can try and summary 25% uh coalition around a certain name.

So like a one off wouldn't necessarily have uh the ability to move forward unless um 25% of the feedback indicated a different name so then the different name would be presented if I'm accurately describing what you what you said.

Yeah.

So you mail out all the cards um and there's another I'm I'm making this up but you know um and if 25% of those cards come back with another name then we have another candidate for the naming.

And would it be like there has to be like X amount of cards for a specific name because like what if it's like the Durangle right and we're like a menu of like wild recommendations.

I'm aware of those like how would we identify like okay um we open it up right we're now allowing for an additional name to be submitted and there's like 20 names submitted is it based off of what percentage of those 20 gets the second meeting I'm I'm just trying to the the CCR mentions the other the other opportunity we're trying to solicit some feedback so open to your suggestions here.

I I think that's where we're at.

I I I'm in the position in which once it's gotten to a community meeting and a letter's been submitted to the clerk there's been due diligence in terms of like the the recommended name I do believe that if we get surveys back with 50% that indicate they're not uh comfortable with that name change uh I I think like the conversation dies uh I think because then you're opening up a can of worms of uh essentially what I've seen uh with not facility name changes but you have coalitions competing coalitions competing for the name of a facility so I think it's opening up a a can of uh worms uh uh by allowing for other names to be suggested other than the one submitted yeah yeah so I just if I could summarize I I think I hear you saying that um we could send out the feedback forms support or not support perhaps leave the other off and if if we get to the point where we don't have 50% support the sponsoring council member could hear that feedback and and know that maybe there should be a new process or if they want to press on they know that there's significant opposition.

But to delete the others right here you're saying yeah right those are my comments thank you.

Councilman goes thank you chair and uh thank you Jamie for the presentation.

Yeah I mean I generally supportive of all the recommendations I think on the point that we're talking about right now I I guess my only thought would be that if there's if the board wants to recommend that they go through the process again um is that allowable for any new names during the process of like during the community meeting at the board that says you know why I hear different names coming around I don't hear because it's on this one but I'm hearing maybe some group kind of building up here can we send it back out for a second notice on that one or do we need someone to external to do that?

Yes that's what we're proposing.

Okay sorry I just want to make sure I understand the point.

Then wait I just want to be clear so you're saying if the panel that's in the room like I've done this before with the councilwoman so I have some experience right so if the panel in the room hears significant feedback in the room and they decide to not move forward.

Right they say okay no to this one.

No to this one we think you should start over.

I think that's that's what you're saying.

Yes versus like the council having to do it again or the community representative to do it again but no I think you would have to do it again.

I don't think you can change midstream in the middle of the meeting to the new name.

I think that that's not the way the process is now and I don't think that's what's being described.

I think you'd have to start over okay got it by start over I mean like a new name we'd send it on the card.

Yeah yeah yeah okay just wanted to make sure I was understanding then that's what I'm supportive of yeah I recall this uh some of the things with this one um I was not on council um but I was at the meetings uh there were a lot uh but I do think you know this would be really helpful just to give people the opportunity to kind of speak their mind on these things and be able to take better feedback on it ultimately it comes down to you know what counselor was looking forward to do there um but hopefully this encourages folks to take community and put it into consideration here um we had a great uh renaming of our uh council office um community room, that went really well.

But like most of them, they come from community, right?

Folks who are looking uh to showcase somebody or to highlight somebody in the community who's done a lot of good work, including uh like Martin Chevina who had passed from the district sixth office, uh, there was a resounding support on that one, and so always encourage uh listening to the community on these things.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilman, did you have anything to add, Mr.

Gonzalez?

No, we should have, but I yeah, I just want to make sure we close the loop on the proposed change.

I don't know if it's worth just you know, the committee on the current one, it's committee approves or rejects a submitted name.

So if we move that to the proposed one as kind of just closing the loop on that name, still adding the extra steps with the one to two hearings, 50%, uh before because it doesn't seem to like close anywhere, or maybe I'm maybe just like the it stays open, right?

Does that make sense?

I think the intent is to close it, but I hear you on that.

I think that's that's the one piece that is um highly contentious and emotional, right?

And that was the feedback we got from the district six renaming was people said, Well, you have 15 of us are coming here, and we're all suggesting calling it veterans park, and we're no one's listening to us because you can't consider that.

So there's a way to add a you know, add names or suggestions, but close the loop on on what's being submitted, and then restarting the process.

That's all.

Thank you.

Yeah, I think it's just greater notification and access to meetings is what is the main goal of that, which people had concerns about.

Uh and then, of course, not allowing council members to name it after their relatives.

Sorry, guys.

I think that's a really fair thing to do.

Uh, but any other discussion, uh councilman court.

I just want to reiterate, I want to change my support to what Councilman Castillo said.

So just make it very clear on the record.

Okay.

Because I nodded my head, but I'm like, that doesn't go on the record.

So, well, and maybe John can summarize what Councilman Castillo said.

Yeah, sure.

I can give it a shot.

You guys can correct me.

No problem.

Oh no, you don't name it too.

Okay, we're good.

We can play back the tape.

Um, okay, guys, that's some good feedback.

So uh maybe we can schedule a follow-up meeting with some of the feedback and make sure the committee is good with it to pass it on well.

What did you hear today, Debbie?

So we heard let me pull my slides back out.

Uh we heard that essentially uh we're gonna expand public notification to property owners within 500 feet from the 200 feet.

If there is more than 50% opposition to the name change, once we get that feedback from those, we don't even need to have a public meeting, we can just stop the process then.

That's what I heard.

If we continue the process, there's a meeting of the naming committee that's an odd number of representatives, and the relevant city board is represented on that uh panel, and that um if during the course of the meeting there is not support for the the change, the panel should vote vote down theoretically, they should take consideration of the feedback.

But if there's another name suggested, that name would then start over in a new process of notification and go back through.

But it would have to be more than 25%.

Right.

Well, I think it would be good to have that.

You don't want to just have a one-off person in the meeting say, hey, I want to name it after myself.

Yeah, might be good to if in the committee meeting in the public meeting.

Um, you know, if there's significant feedback, you might leave that flexibility up to the board, right?

Versus having to count the 25% in the room.

I think that could be difficult.

Yeah, significant feedback.

And then the board could take a recommendation back to go back through the process.

That could be something that the board takes action on.

Instead of this name.

We're gonna recommend going back through the process with a different name.

We'll see how that feedback looks.

Because it could be different, the community could react differently with a different name.

Awesome.

Great, thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

All right, we will move on to item number four.

Yeah, let's do it we'll do it.

Good morning, Chair and Councilmembers.

I'm Mark Armuna, Chief Housing Officer and Director of the Homeless Services and Strategy Department.

The chair requested that we provide a presentation that gives an overview of our community's homeless response system, which is made up of complementary services to assist people in regaining stable housing.

So today, I'll overview the types of programs and interventions that make up the system, then talk about the major partner agencies that provide those services, which we categorize around the focus areas of our shelter and housing framework that I presented a couple of weeks ago to council.

And finally, we'll look at some system-wide outcomes of those programs and talk about how we coordinate within the homeless response system.

This slide should look familiar from our shelter and housing framework.

The systems made up of three focus areas preventing homelessness, guiding people off the streets, and keeping people in housing.

This aligns with our department mission to keep homelessness rare, brief, and non-reoccurring.

We know that many people may access multiple programs.

For example, someone who's lost their housing may be engaged through street outreach, then go to a day center, then an emergency shelter before being housed through a rapid rehousing program.

Because of that fluid and interconnected nature of the system, it makes cross-partner coordination all the more important.

Within the prevention focus area that last year helped over 5,000 households, we have 13 major partner agencies, including our colleagues at NHSD.

You can see the nine agencies that provide short-term rental assistance, including the five funded by the city.

Two agencies close to home and Haven for Hope provide diversion and rapid exit assistance, which supports things like first months rent.

And then finally, the two public housing authorities support over 11,000 households with vouchers that provide ongoing financial support to keep people housed.

Within our engagement on the street, we have eight agencies that provide a front door to the homeless response system, including the direct services provided by our department.

Seven agencies provide street outreach, including HSSD, and three others that we fund.

HSSD is the lead coordinator of encampment abatements, which we do in partnership with other departments and governmental agencies.

We do coordinate street outreach services from nonprofits around our abatement engagement work.

And those are usually like Captain for Hope and Sam Ministries.

Finally, day centers.

Catholic worker house serves older adults on the town twin village campus, and the city funds the Corazon Day Center to serve nearly 300 people daily.

Emergency shelter provides a critical component of the response system.

There are 13 agencies that contributed to the annual housing inventory count conducted by Close to Home last year.

This is an inventory of all shelter beds in our community on a given night.

You can see that five of those shelter services are funded by the city.

In the final focus area, the framework keeping people housed.

There are 12 agencies that provide rapid rehousing, transitional housing, or voucher support to people exiting homelessness.

The city funds four agencies through federal grants.

That's HOPWA, ESG, and Home ARP for this kind of service, which provides important support to those who need it.

The two housing authorities partner with agencies to administer vouchers that are designated to the homeless response system.

Lastly, there are seven agencies that provide permanent supportive housing, including three agencies funded by the city's hopper grant.

I want to spend some time talking about some of the outcomes of these programs, and these are numbers from the FY25 HMIS system for each of the intervention areas, along with the source of the data.

So, in terms of short-term rental assistance, 85% of the applicants did not enter homelessness.

There was a DHS study from 2022 to 2024 that analyzed both NHSD and HMIS data.

Fifteen percent of those households seeking rental assistance will still end up experiencing homelessness in the next couple of years.

Is what the the data analysis showed.

On the diversion and rapid exit, you can see that 54% assisted were assisted with first month's rent and 46% assisted with other moving costs.

Close to home, this came from the close to home internal data for the diversion program and the Haven for Hope shallow subsidy program that they provide.

The housing vouchers assisted 11,000 households with stable affordable housing, street outreach.

There was 2,805 unsheltered individuals sheltered or housed that came from the HMIS date as well, and then we provided 1,440 site abatements in FY25.

Oh I'm sorry, the day center also provided over 54,000 hot meals at CODESON in FY25 as well.

From the emergency shelter side, you can see that of just over 5,200 people that were in shelter in FY25, 2,312 exited to a higher level of housing situation.

That's probably going to be either transitional housing or rapid rehousing, which is about 44% of people that are in shelter.

In interim housing, you saw that 71% of people exited depositive housing destinations.

More often than not, that's going to be permanent supportive housing.

But in some cases, that could be medical or assisted living.

With housing vouchers being utilized, we see that 94% of people stayed housed, and in permanent supportive housing, the data is pretty clear that 96% of people stay housed as well.

On a partner coordination side, we host the homeless huddle, which are biweekly calls with city funding agency CEOs.

I always consider this to be like a problem-solving group, agile decision-making group, that meets every two weeks.

We have a meeting this Friday.

But there's a lot of issues.

We've dealt with inclement weather and how to increase and improve in those areas.

There's been a number of different issues.

I think this started just after COVID.

And I will tell you from my experience working at Haven for Hope and the level of coordination and work that was going on in the community to now, it's been a huge huge difference, and I think huddles like this make a big big difference.

Funder coordination, there's a monthly meeting of major funding agencies for longer-term planning and short-term problem solving that's hosted by close to home.

They also have the Alliance to House Everyone, which is a monthly meeting of 70 plus agencies to share information and foster collaboration, and then the close-to-home governance system is a set of committees charged with developing procedures for certain system functions.

An example of that is street outreach, some future planning.

As we look ahead to how the system best serves residents going forward, I want to acknowledge several ongoing initiatives and plans.

Again, I'll just remind folks that the outcomes they're looking to achieve align well with the shelter and housing framework.

There's the five-year HUD consolidated plan, how the city allocates and directs our federal funds as it relates to homelessness, the affordable housing bond development, ongoing conversations around the use of the city bond dollars to support not just housing but elements of the homeless response system as well, the close-to-home community five-year plan, which will coordinate with all of the agent the alliance agencies, and then the L any of the elements in the successful housing supply task force recommendations that make sense in the work that we're doing with homelessness.

Thank you, and I'm happy to take any questions.

Thank you, Mark.

Appreciate the information.

This is some of the most important work that we'll be doing this year and upcoming years, and it's a huge priority for our residents as well.

So thank you for being here.

Councilman Mesic Gonzalez.

Thank you.

We've heard it from residents every year during our budget survey that this is a priority for their safety and for the community's safety, right?

And making sure that residents get the help they need and are productive in our society, right?

One thing I support all of the work that's being done here, and thank you to the nonprofit partners here.

I appreciate you uh breaking that down just to see, you know, you see some of the same nonprofits in every category, and so uh appreciate that the work that they're doing.

Um a lot of them are located in district eight headquartered there.

I was gonna ask, and I hope my uh colleagues will support me on this, to include uh in the homeless huddle.

If we can include, if not already, some medical center folks, whether it's UH, uh UT Health, Methodist, uh, some of those residents end up in the hospital at some point, and there's some services I think that uh UH could be very helpful with.

Um, and so making sure they're part of that homeless huddle, I think is important.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Thank you.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilman.

And I would add to that, Mark.

I don't know, you know, obviously, time and capacity is difficult too, but I think having something monthly for um council staff, um, or even the chief of staff meeting that happens every so often for your team would be important.

Uh, because for example, you know, we talked at the budget meeting about the um low beer shelter that will be uh unfortunately going offline.

I know, Councilman Corps, that was news to you, right?

We want to make sure that we're all kind of stay on top of the same information about what's going on, as well as statistics about the population, also the rental assistance.

You know, where we are every month in that timeline is gonna be really important because as you noted, you know, 15% of those people seeking rental assistance, or sorry, short-term assistance, which I wouldn't imagine includes rental assistance, end up homeless.

You know, that's a staggering amount of folks.

I think just seeking the short-term assistance end up that way.

So I'll continue to open up for discussion.

Anybody else, Councilman Government?

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Mike, for the presentation.

Um, definitely supportive of both requests from Councilmember Mogia and uh Councilman's uh Meso Gonzalez.

Um I know Krista's healthcare in District 6 takes a lot of folks into it during emergency visits.

And there's some residents who have called and asked about you know, how can I gotta follow up on some of the stuff too?

But uh, how can our health care uh providers uh buy ways to connect with VIA or anybody else to make sure that folks who are experiencing homelessness or experiencing significant strife don't just get left out once they're you know better?

Uh frankly out in the cold, right?

Is there someone they connect with?

And I know I think Chris has some partners already uh with Having for Hope in particular to kind of try to connect, but there's a gap there.

How can we make sure that folks are set up for success as much as possible versus kind of um frankly left out in the open uh to go okay?

Well, you're better now, but back into the community go hopefully figure out your life.

Um, and so just wondering how we can better streamline some of those services through the actual health care um the healthcare providers.

On a similar note, I was wondering uh do you know if the close to home system where this kind of larger uh homeless system talks with the the jail and the university health, etc.

for healthcare services on folks who are uh experiencing incarceration who are going through the incarceration system about where they're at.

So are we you looking for information on folks that are homeless and incarcerated?

Yeah, or I guess my my question is stemming from does close to home or this kind of like larger system of like integrated coordinators uh or agencies, do they does that include the jail as well to kind of hear about folks who are entering the system and exiting who are still homeless?

Are there any kind of intervention services?

I know there's the re-entry stuff as well, and of course, you know, your health is already there, but I guess I'm wondering if there's any kind of overlap on the yeah, I do know years ago um Haven started a program, um, a jail for lack of a better word, jail diversion program.

So people that are homeless in jail, getting them back onto the Haven campus.

That program has existed for a few years now, and I think has been successful.

Um, what you're asking is contemplated in the shelter and housing framework.

Okay.

So that system, um, and this is where one of the the departments that we are gonna work with internally at the city is the integrated community safety office, ICSO, and um Maria Vargas has already begun to do some work with this.

Uh we did a product demonstration the other day of some people that at least with the data that they had on identifying somebody who was for lack of a better word, maybe a high utilizer.

Sure.

Um, and then did that match up with the homeless response system, and that person actually did end up counseling in HMIS.

And so we're starting to see some linkage now, so we want to better understand.

We have a meeting.

Um, I think it's this week, Kathy Lacey and I, who's the administrator.

Is it this week, Kathy?

Yep.

Um, with um the follow-up that uh councilwoman Castillo gave us uh with um Ida Negron uh with the re-entry office because we want to see what opportunities may exist uh specifically once somebody re-enters back into community.

Um are they are they uh houseless?

And if so, what can we do to kind of because I think that's a real opportunity there?

Um and you could wrap it on somebody exiting into permanent housing or even as a prevention strategy, right?

Moving forward.

So, yes, I think that a long way to say yes to your question.

I think that's an important system that we have to engage with.

So we're trying to do it on the data side, we're trying to do it in building relationships like the re-entry center that the councilwoman gave us the lead on, um, and then partners in the community.

That's great.

Well, I appreciate the long answer because I think it's helpful to understand the full scope here.

Um I want to of course shout out to Castro Castillo for the trip that we took.

Uh when was it last week?

Uh just every week goes by faster that we took recently uh to Harris County looking at the diversion center, and that was I think one of the most fruitful points for myself to take away was the kind of data coordination there that you can kind of easily identify, not necessarily fully, right, but uh folks are experiencing the incarceration system who could potentially be moving to the diversion, as well as folks who are, you know, it's not fully one for one there, but there are folks who are uh experiencing homelessness who end up in the incarceration system due to different issues there, and so uh that was a really inspiring thing to see how the data coordination was able to help to the same point that you're talking about, right?

Flag, okay, can this person be prevented from going into or also supported of getting out of the incarceration system to then go into better supportive services?

So I think that's of course gonna be a crucial part of this larger complex issue of not only homelessness but also um frankly justice.

And so just wanted to I was thinking about that, and I've been thinking about that, so and if I could add something, councilman.

I I do think um the the first meeting at the diversion center that the councilwoman led along with uh Commissioner Rodriguez was instructive for me in the terms of I think starting out and councilwoman if I'm misstating anything, please correct me.

It seems like it's maybe lower level offenses that we're looking at initially as we get started, which I think could fit some of the profile of the folks that we're serving, and so ways to be able to divert those folks from actually going into jail, but we would have to have a system of care to for them to be able to go into, but I think that's the kind of system alignment that we're looking for in the sheltered housing framework.

Got it.

Well, thank you so much.

Those are all my questions.

Uh I was gonna just say also thank you for sharing this data.

This is really uh insightful and to kind of tie it to your point.

Uh what time uh the data who it's from is really helpful to kind of figure out okay.

Here are some of the folks who are reporting out.

Here's some of the work that we do to kind of make this all stay coordinated together versus the kind of sometimes external look of, you know, how are all these things plugging together and they they are.

So thank you for that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Councilwoman McCourt.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, thank you for this follow-up presentation, Mark.

The one thing that I'd like a little bit more um detail on is like I like how you take in slide three based on our feedback and um spread out exactly um how oh maybe yeah, so spread out which agencies are on each in the following slides.

Okay, I'd like to see what because one of the big conversations that this came up with was there was a dollar amount assigned to each of those, and so what are the dollar amounts that each of those is in investing into, for example, diversion and rapid exit?

How much is close to home and haven't for hope inputting into that, and then what is if any the city um funding that goes to it?

So we can see not only the people that are doing the work but the amount of resources that are going into that space.

So council councilwoman, if I could so like on diversion or rapid exit, like we fund close to home 400,000 dollars to do that diversion piece listing that, and then whatever haven for hope puts into that bucket as well.

Exactly.

Got it.

Exactly.

And then um, and you know, even if you wanted to extend it out so that's on like one slide, the last slide being the outcomes of that.

Yes, I think that would be really helpful.

Um the one other um thought that I had was around system outcomes in the two slides there, having the numbers and the percentages helps because sometimes there's just percentages listed and sometimes there's numbers.

So I'm not sure.

I guess for like street outreach, we don't really have a total number that you could say like how many um uh like like street 2800 first, for example, 2800 one is this for all of the street outreach, or is this just COSA street outreach?

No, this is well that no, I think this was all this was all system-wide street outreach of people that we were able to get off the street into some form of shelter or housing.

So I'd like for this to be split up so that we could see like the um delegate like the other agencies that are providing street outreach and then the COSA street outreach.

Right.

And then I don't know if it's possible, but to be able to see like the number of touches of that they had.

I know it would only be if we could have them in HMIS, but so for example, if it was 2800 unsheltered individuals and 4,000 of them were had profiles in HMIS.

Like, so that's how many what what percentage, if that makes sense, like to see what what our um housing rate is for that.

Got it, and I'm also curious to see like how those agencies are performing differently, right?

Um, street outreach is one where I think is very similar, where like the the work is similar for regardless of what agency it's just about building the right capacity.

So I'm curious to see what that number looks like for um Corazon street outreach program or for their nursing program or for COSAS program.

Can I make a comment?

Sure.

So I I think you make a good point, and I think what we're learning on student outreach to your last point is that it's evolved, and so uh just keep in mind that when we talk about system-wide um street outreach, that like for example, Corazon is specifically focused on harm reduction, so they're not necessarily that capacity is not necessarily available for general outreach.

So I think maybe we'll try to do if we can if the data exists to try to break some of that out so we know what interventions are working with the type and depth of outreach work.

That's perfect.

Right, um, and however that detailed works out too, I think is would be helpful.

Um, and then for transitional, the other thing that I was thinking about was like, I don't actually know where all of my transitional housing spaces are in district one.

I don't know if my colleagues do, but I I wonder if we could get um a better I sometimes I hear about it from my uh neighbors, but um would love to at least see where some of those housing, like if we could just get a map of like these are all the spaces I know where all the um cam sites are and we're all of say ministry sites are, but I don't know the smaller ones, so it'd be interesting if we could get a by-district map of where folks are going.

Um, real quick I'll just add maybe for safety reasons that's an email to directly to us instead of a committee report out, just so we're aware we are knowing where that is.

That's a great point, yeah.

And it could be in a confidential memo, so just for our staff, not for um community-wide.

Thank you.

Uh, and then the last thing uh the same question that I had around the slide 10 was on the emergency shelter.

So in the emergency shelter, I understand that there's a bunch of emergency shelters that are providing that support, right?

Like Boysville, CHCHCS.

So I just wanted to see what the total number of it the this is the outcome for how many people are.

So these are all the organizations doing um, sorry.

Yeah, this these are all the agencies doing emergency shelter work, and I understand the total outcome of that is 2300 individuals exiting, but how many are they still serving?

Because that's important to know what the total amount of people that they're and maybe that's like I don't know if that's an annual or whatever the right metric is for that um and then the last thing on just uh alignment and support I've seen how helpful the um community group that is that meets every two weeks I've heard stories from folks about you know one agency not being able to provide X support so they're able to discuss in those meetings how we can really provide wraparound services so I just want to echo the importance of that and I like um the chair's idea about doing share outs to our chiefs' meetings because it's truly a I mean those from what I understand they don't necessarily go the full hour but they have a actually I like it as an idea for some of our other departments too like that's a great way to get all of our um offices aligned on work and so I think we should do that actually for other things too where the the important work that's happening gets reported out to them because then it can be shared to us pretty effectively so I really like that idea.

Thanks Chair and and I just would remind the committee that in addition to this idea that Kathy Lacey and her team are working on a coordinated newsletter by council district that that hopefully gives you more detailed information that you can share with your constituents business owners etc.

Thank you Mark that's great thank you lacey for that too that's fantastic.

Councilwoman Castillo thank you chair and thank you Mark and team for the presentation I I would emphasize right I think there is a lot of value in meeting like for example Christine on our team is who facilitates uh code cases andor concerns with homelessness in our district so I think there'd be value in one uh her learning what's moving uh within your team and department but also what she's seeing on the ground uh because oftentimes there are some presentations in which my staff's like that's not the process or you know that's not typically um as easy as it's presented to you know so I think there's a value in hearing from the folks on my team that are doing the cases having the conversations with constituents um in terms of and this isn't just limited to your team and department right I think there's uh lots of instances in which my staff's telling me that there's uh missed opportunity or opportunities for us to improve processes uh and also those are the folks that um see on the first end when um the relocation funds are out and they're saying like hey Terry like what are you gonna do at the next meeting to ensure that our constituents have access to these funds um but in addition to that I think in terms of uh the the work and initiatives that you're leading I think what's important is in terms of what we should be accelerating uh for example whether it's for permanent supportive housing or emergency or emergency shelter if there's zoning and or UDC changes that we could potentially initiate outside of cycle I think there's lots of value.

For example um with uh some of the um emergencies emergency shelter providers I've had a conversation uh with a couple on this list with the 13 agencies and they're running into zoning concerns right so how can we accelerate that uh in terms of of getting them what they need to continue their services um but also I want to encourage uh council members to also facilitate field trips in our community so as we have conversations and we're expanding and investing in permanent supportive housing transitional housing um so that way our constituents are aware of like what's available um our district five team took residents out to town to one village and what they shared is we didn't know this is existed right and when I asked well would you want this in your neighborhood and they're like well if it looks like this um so I think there's value in like bringing constituents out to the field to see the work that's being done um so that way they know um what opportunity there is and then of course like how are we meeting the needs and how are we also moving community along uh in this conversation in terms of services um lastly I think there would also be value uh in knowing the caseload per out COSA outreach worker right I think that can inform our budget conversations uh because I think about the amount of cost Christine on my team receives uh in need of encampments homeless individuals whatever the case may be and uh I I can't imagine all the district cases going to one individual so I think having understanding like what that volume looks like is there support that we need to be advocating as council, uh, to provide to our outreach workers.

Councilman, I I just ask, and the minimum is 30, but the normal caseloads around, I mean 15.

The minimum is 15, but the normal is around 30.

Okay.

And then I I guess I'm also curious in terms of like the average.

Um, like, is that uh manageable?

Is there a need for more support for our outreach workers in terms of facilitating that case load?

We can check and we can get that back to you.

Great.

Thanks.

Those are my comments.

Thank you, Mark.

Thank you, Chair.

Any other second round of questions, Collins?

Um, yeah, I think uh I know a few years ago we did do a field trip with some like council staff uh to go to some of these places.

I definitely think that's worthy of doing it again.

And the intent was actually to have this at Haven for Hope, but we will have a future PCDC meeting scheduled there, just to give that context there.

Have some of our partners maybe talk to us about the work that they're doing and the need.

Uh and again, affordable housing, homelessness, the top two budget priority survey results for the whole city.

So we'll be seeing a lot of mark here.

Uh and thank you all because I think y'all are already shifting things in a new direction of the department.

You came to our uh HOA leaders meeting and it was very well received, right?

People understood a lot more after the conversation.

Um, and so for folks who think it's too much money being spent, I always ask them, well, how much is enough?

You know, if 25 million dollars is too much, then what's the right price to get folks housed?

So um keep doing the good work and we'll keep seeing you back here.

Thank you, Chair.

If I can one final comment, um, I know that Lisk San Antonio is gonna try to coordinate in this room if possible for council staffs, chiefs of staff and their staff.

Um, similar to what we did with the housing bond.

Uh, we want to do it with the topics around transitional housing and rapid rehousing.

So we've done this earlier already with permanent supportive housing through LISC.

I think it made a big difference in people's understanding of what that was.

But now these terms of transitional happen and rapid rehousing are kind of emerging in conversations around whether it's a bond conversation and other areas.

We think it's an opportunity to educate, and we'd like to start with council staff uh just to be able to the councilwoman's point just to be able to have a dialogue to present education information, but have questions going back and forth, which is what we've done before, so look for that coming.

Absolutely awesome, thank you.

Well, I think that's it.

For did you have anything to talk about already?

Well, the time is now 11 34, and the meeting of the PCDC committee is now called to an end.

Thank you.