April 28, 2021 — Housing Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

[MM:SS] timestamps correspond to the YouTube recording.

[0:07] hey can we let folks into the meeting. Or should I wait I think i'm gonna know what, what do you think James I left looks at a. Woman okay. Admit admit. Right sledding folks into the meeting here when you join please mute yourself just to avoid any background noise initially. My much appreciated. Alright perfect so we're going to start this meeting i'll call this meeting to order we're just going to run through roll call real quickly so let's see I don't see that Danny is here, I don't see that jack is here, but I let's see I see Michael there you are Juliet Hello Terry.

[1:07] mason. and Am I missing anyone I don't think i'm missing anyone. Well, thank you for coming to the Members who are here so glad you're here and Thank you everyone else for joining us we'll get we'll get to the the listening session very quickly here we're just going to run through the agenda real quickly so. First, we have the listening session will have a presentation. by some of our staff at the city public participation, where you will will be able to speak engage with us ask questions largely informal and then we'll move on to you know typical have. agenda items such as the approval of minutes from last meeting that is from Council matters from the board chair elections matters from staff, including we're going to appoint a member of the board to the eviction prevention and rental assistance tenant Advisory Board.

[2:14] Are there any additional agenda items that Members would like to bring forth at this time. No okay perfect great well in that case we can just swiveling to the listening session i'm going to turn it over. Initially, to. staff, but you know recall that this listening session is on the topic of housing, insecurity and we are hosting this listening session in order to. Understand listen to you all share your know your own personal experiences, perhaps that you've experienced in the past year during the pandemic, perhaps you know the challenges you've faced extend far.

[3:08] far beyond the pandemic and whatever those are we want to hear about them again largely informal if you would like to speak for more than three minutes you know I can grant that to you, you know we we just want to hear hear as many stories and. as possible, so we can revisit the topic later after staff gives their initial presentation so i'm just going to turn it over to. Jay slash kristin kesa. Kristen. Oh you're not going to formally introduce DJ. Christian. action. that's right so good evening everybody i'm kristin heiser i'm the Deputy Director of housing and human services with the city of.

[4:01] boulder I get to work with che and corey. And hhs and tonight i'm going to be joined by kesa kwando who is our partner over at the county's housing human services and she's going to be telling us about the great work they've done this past year. And standing up the housing helpline but before we get there i'm going to go ahead and give me a minute to figure out how to share my screen. hold on one second. likes yourselves um let me see I don't want to do that I need to first me to share. Because people in a second. hold on sorry about this. alright. So i'm going to ask Can somebody just let me know if you can see a PowerPoint presentation that has my name in Jesus name at the bottom of it.

[5:13] I see some thumbs up over there okay i'm between different own computer screens alright, so I am here with key so we're going to be talking about the spectrum housing supports that are available across the region, but primarily talking about what is available. to residents of the city of boulder, so we will be talking about just the variety of resources that are available and demonstrating just our ongoing commitment to offer housing options and supports to meet the diverse housing needs of our Community. All right, before we go there, I want to go ahead and just review that housing and human services mission statement. So the city of lawyers, housing and human services we strive for all to thrive.

[6:03] All cooler Community members deserve to thrive, housing and human services provides resources and Community connections so everyone can experience boulder as adjust inclusive and equitable community. We commit to achieving this mission by building relationships with those we serve. Fostering collaborative partnerships addressing systemic and I put ease investing in and implementing effective sustainable and solution based policies and programs. and creating and preserving a diversity of affordable housing options, and the reason I wanted to share this as well, we are housing in human services and we work. All across the spectrum in terms of working with families, working with individuals who are experiencing homelessness working with older adults. All of those have the underpinning of arkadin into making sure housing as a priority in our Community and to the extent that in 2020 housing and human services invested $46 million nearly half of our annual budget to achieve our city's housing goals.

[7:11] Looking at it, more broadly, I just want to revisit the boulder valley conference of plan which, as you know, is defined by the Community and in the latest comprehensive plan, the Community to find. That it aspires to be a complete community with a diverse and integrated population supporting that aspiration, the plan values, a range of available housing opportunities as it helps define and community. The plan the comprehensive plan that actually is asserted by the Community. asserts the social, economic and environmental well being of the Community is enhanced when i'm individuals and families are retained. workforce housing is available and residents with changing or special housing needs are served and that vision and those assertions are really the underpinning of our work that we do every day at the city and across the region with our partners.

[8:03] So tonight we're going to be reviewing the city of regional work to create and preserve diverse housing opportunities and the variety of services and programs committed to facilitate access to housing and keep keeping people house. i'm going to start with talking about the city's affordable housing goals so starting with bricks and mortar. And 2019 the city adopted or actually increased our affordable housing goal from 10% to 15%. And what I call asserts is that by 2035 15% of all residential homes will be serve cured as permanently affordable and currently we're at a point 4% of the goal. Last year alone, in the midst of the pandemic the city's housing investment saw the addition of 270 70 277 personally affordable homes and into our inventory. These homes serve low moderate and middle income households their diverse in their housing design in terms of single family are attached their rental their ownership and, as you see from this heat map, they are intentionally dispersed throughout the city and oftentimes indistinguishable.

[9:14] From the market rate units that they are dispersed amongst and our investments in our work spans the spectrum, from emergency shelter to middle income ownership. Starting with the various housing opportunities, I want to talk about our homeownership program the city has long had a commitment to creating homeownership opportunities for low and moderate income households currently we have. just short of 800 and 799 deed restricted homes for that are permanently affordable in the city of boulder boulder at these homes are available. For purchase to households earning between 80 and 120% of the area median income and similar to what I mentioned last slide it really ranges the home design is everything from detached single family to studio apartments.

[10:11] To help people with lower incomes maintain their housing so it's not just about getting people into creating housing preserving housing. or getting people into housing through homeownership opportunities there's a real challenge for individuals of lower incomes to maintain their housing. Whether it's due to just property taxes or just the expense of maintain your House of just those. Annual repairs and maintenance costs that you have to deal with, and so the city of boulder partners with the city of Milan Milan, who provides financial supports and i'm not going to go through all the details, this kind of highlights that for you. provides financial support for low income eligible Homeowners you have to own your home to make repairs to their homes. supporting them to be able to maintain their home so it's everything from general repair to accessibility, so that might be building a ramp there's a program that's specific to help owners of manufactured housing.

[11:10] As well as emergency repair programs. And that program I will I should give a caveat that this this year we've had to really limit the focus on immediate health and safety applications for people that are applying just because of Kobe restrictions, but moving towards kind of expanding that scope later this year. So also driven by the goal of people, maintaining their homes in response to the economic impacts of coded the region has benefited from federal financial support some protections. Whether its financial supports of stimulus checks and expanded unemployment insurance these federal financial resources. Successfully served as a major component of many people's financial lifelines over the last year, supporting them to be able to remain House as they navigate the impacts of Kobe 19.

[12:06] Other relief measures came in the form of mortgage for barons and suspension of student loan payments, allowing people to use those. Any their limited dollars, maybe to pay for their housing costs, our region benefited greatly through the carers act, and now we are going to be benefiting from the American release plan act that will be having funds come both to the county and the city, so this past year. In terms of the cares Act, the city received about 1.5 million came to well the city received more than that, but hhs specifically was able to receive 1.5 million and federal funds that we then. Pass along to our Community partners to support rental assistance, as well as income supports and the thought behind, that is if somebody is able to pay have. Some income supports that helped them with food or medical costs or transportation costs than they are able to use the dollars that they whether it's something that they've.

[13:04] earned through a paycheck or a stimulus check be able to cover their housing costs while they are receiving supplemental dawdle dollars to help with those other household costs. The city also is received an additional just over a million dollars in CD big funds. Through the carousels so each year we were Sue about 800,000 cpt G funds that we have, which are federal dollars this past year we received an additional million dollars specific to helping. Our Community respond to and recover from the pandemic and then we are standing to receive the American rescue plan act. The city is anticipating to receive about $21 million and those how those funds will be used is currently being explored by an inner department all team. At the city, it is intended to be used not only just for not just for Community supports.

[14:05] With that being a big large priority, but also because of the destabilization of local governments, because of sales tax and other impacts that were experienced through the economic downturn, from the. pandemic will be determining how to best use those dollars, but we anticipate that the city or main and it's kind of into meeting community needs with a large portion of those dollars. One other thing that we've received is in addition to our regular home funds and other federal source the arpa money. also awarded $4.3 million to our region for in home funds so each year we receive about a million dollars, just as our part of our entitlement, this year we received an additional 4.3 million. And that is very specific to helping individuals who are at risk of or experiencing homelessness so we're working with our regional partners to determine how to best use those dollars to respond to that.

[15:04] immediate need in our Community so we'll be working with the homeless solutions boulder county as well as just our internal partners to figure out how to best deploy those dollars. And while the financial supports were key to keeping people house pairing this with Federal and State supported eviction moratorium, has been a game changer so i'm going to talk a bit about what that is look like for us. So we're not looking at eviction rates or eviction filings in boulder county over the last five years, and while we do continue to see non code related evictions. That are being filed, I mean those are usually because there's a public safety concern at least violation. Non payment of rent pre co bed with the eviction moratorium that is very specific to protect individuals who are. Negative impacted by coded we have seen a significant reduction and the filings due to the eviction words were, and that was put in place last year, and continues through June.

[16:07] So, if you look at these rates i'm going to talk to about 2020 the evictions filed in 2020 was 41% lower than the previous year, so the eviction or editorial has been extremely impactful to keep people House during this very trying time. And on the wall, this was happening i'll be speaking next about the voter approved eviction prevention or rental assistance program that has kind of come as a result of some of this work order to help us continue in this space so. i'm sure you're familiar with your initiative, it was a very successful Community volunteer led initiative last year that. brought to the voters about measure ordinance 8412 it was approved by the voters in November, and what is establishes is a rental licensing tax that will be used, and it will be.

[17:09] assessed against all rental units in the city of boulder. With a rental license and it establishes a rental licensing tax that will be used to operate and fully funded program to provide housing supports, including rental assistance legal representation. As well as Community mediation and the thing that is just really just so impactful and exciting about this is not just the. Community mediation of legal supports and provides but, for the first time ever, our community has a. rental assistance source in perpetuity so until coven happened, and we had all these federal called federal funds coming to us through CD big in CV rf we've never had a steady source of rental assistance. Each year, we would give EPA about 250,000 further keep families housed program which was very specific to families at risk of homelessness but we didn't have a broad.

[18:07] source of rental assistance and now because of this ordinance and because of this program that has been established, we now have an ongoing source of 500. On upwards thousand dollars each year to help us in supporting individuals who are at risk of infection. So the dollars that are raised through the tags are going to the administrative costs of running the program we have hired a coordinator, so this I step back, we this was approved back in November as of January one at the program was up and running, we had a contract in place with. like an essay all of a sudden, I space, but a local nonprofit that provides legal supports to individuals who are at risk of addiction, we focus our Community mediation team or refocus them to expand their abilities to.

[19:02] serve this program we've set up a rental assistance program and now we've hired a coordinator, and we are in the process of recruiting for leads coming. On as well, speaking later, I think, but just as a quick plug we are recruiting it's a it's a tenant committee will be made up of five members of the Community, you have to be a renter and you can own any. Real property, but that committee will help us make sure this program is up and running. In its most efficient and effective way and true to the intentions of the ordinance and members of that committee will be paid. $1,000 a year or so that was for the ordinance was passed that this particular committee will be receiving $1,000 stipend so this. The eviction newer has evolved in see eviction prevention and rental assistance program and it's just been a real opportunity for us to. I was describing it to somebody today that you know it really is evolving into the backbone of the work that the city is doing to support people to maintain their housing so we're able to create and preserve units or providing housing, but this really helps people to be able to stay.

[20:14] Successful renters in their housing situations. And just to go a little bit deeper into the way it works is so say somebody is at risk and fiction, they can call this number that you see on the screen threes are 34413414 you can call. If you will, and we have some I that answers that call or they can leave a message and you'll get a call back. it's it's we are, we have the ability to speak to people and provide bilingual services, they can also fill something out online to kind of talk about their circumstances. And they will be contacted by the coordinator, who will then help them navigate to really kind of provide navigation and. Case management like case management to help an individual figure out where they should access resources that are most appropriate to them, so if there are circumstances is rental assistance is figuring out.

[21:10] Should they tap into the housing helpline at kiesel will be talking about they tapped in the EPA and the rental assistance they have is their circumstance dire and they need rental assistance. Tomorrow, they could might work from a small amount of money that we have held within the city that we can deploy as needed. Or is there an opportunity for us to provide a mediator, or is it are we are we in a situation where legal consultation. is needed, and then, at the same time, so this is all pre eviction chords somebody has received a notice that they are potentially facing eviction they make this call there's this case management that goes up front. If they show up to the courts, we have a coordinator, or two. in person, we have two attorneys available in to mediators that are on site at the courts, they have been since the beginning of the year, and they work with the individual and will do on site legal.

[22:04] You know evaluation they'll provide mediation, they can even provide rental assistance on the spot, to help resolve the situation in the moment. So one of the things that we're really excited to see is that, prior to the eviction prevention rental assistance program which you'll hear us start referring to as Empress is that typically we have really low tenant turnout at court with most 50 most about 50%. would result in default fictions. stitcher to my camera just go to this. Do you guys still see okay I lost my viewing OK. But so getting of January with the EPA staff being available having our nonprofits. legal representation available, as well as our law law mediation services that partner with us, we are 621 21% default evictions this year so.

[23:06] You know just having that that active proactive on reaching out to people making sure that they understand what the processes, making sure that they know the rights. And what resources are available to them we're already seeing significant success and how people are engaging with the system that can be very daunting and confusing and stressful. So, with the eviction prevention services just one more thing just wrap up so here's what it basically looks like somebody calls in here is just our our data to date. Is or finding is that there we have served since January 164 individuals. What you see here is there's the bright the kind of a spectrum of services they might receive they might receive rental assistance they might. be connected with a mediator, they might receive legal representation, they might receive all three it's, whatever their circumstances require to help them resolve the situation.

[24:05] And with that I want to then transfer transition to just the amount of Rentals systems that is flowing in our Community. between all those forces that I talked about earlier coming through the code recovered cvr F funds, the next step will be the American recovery plan act or CD big funds. Even fundraising that Fo has done, there is a lot of rental assistance and is being provided, and can be accessed through the city of boulder either through our older adult services or family services, and now the a plus Program. boulder housing partners has been successfully keeping people house by accessing rental systems to. support their tenants whether it's through the state or through the city, as well as the silicon 80s Jewish family services. left behind work respond central damn Assad EPA and the housing helpline which case we'll talk about in a second but I wasn't able to pull some information about Fo which is just tremendous to see what they've done since coven began back in March 2020.

[25:16] Fo has deployed close to $3 million in rental assistance to Members of the city of boulder community as well as they do serve some communities in the mountains and then they've also. Provided upwards of 170 8000 and utility assistance what they've seen is that they're providing they're serving about 42 households per week and each of those households received on average about 12 1200 dollars. To help them with their housing needs as prepared as fish. operationally provided is 61% or lot next 9% are seniors and 66% our families with children and, in addition to whatever is doing with their financial resources, they also do provide housing supports and since coven they've been able to house.

[26:11] 424 family members that's 123 families that are experiencing are at risk of homelessness. and a source of those funds, which you know it's great we have the federal dollars, we have a State dollars, we have city of boulder funds, but if I was able to raise and private donations $2.4 million it's helping them do this so Fo has just been just a tremendous partner in community. Support through a really challenging time and with that i'm going to turn it over to kesa and i'll just do a quick introduction to that is that last year when we. When the pandemic too cold and we were trying to very quickly figure out how to get resources to people most effectively and efficiently and meeting them where they're at the boulder county housing and human services quickly.

[27:03] rose to the occasion and establish the housing helpline. That has really been kind of the point of contact that we sent most people to because they are just so resourceful and serving our Community, so if you click on back, is here with us for the housing helpline to talk about the work that they're doing. Thanks so much Kristen um it really has been quite an amazing year to get to work with you and work with other folks in the city of boulder and. And i'm really happy to be here today to share a little bit about the housing helpline So yes, as Kristen mentioned the housing helpline has been. In effect, now, for we actually just celebrated its first birthday that was very exciting. And we've been providing rent assistance, using a variety of funds now for about a year. For coven impacted individuals. So this is, I just wanted to give an overview of kind of how folks get connected and what happens with the housing helpline we get just a lot of questions around to that.

[28:07] So mainly folks have two there's two main ways that folks access the housing helpline one is calling, and the other newest way is being able to email the housing helpline. So that information is there, and when folks call they leave a message and our housing helpline staff and returns that call and kind of reviews those colorful bubbles which we'll talk through. And we are potentially moving to live calls but it's managing phone systems remotely is still a fun challenge, so that one is still being worked through but is physical. The other way that folks can come in, is to email the housing helpline and housing helpline at boulder county.org and then our staff will email back and send them a quick woo foo form which goes over these kind of same colorful bubbles.

[29:00] folks can also if they're meeting with an eligibility technician to apply for snap or medicaid or tennis and housing need, as identified at that point. Our eligibility technicians also make direct referrals into our housing complying and then we just have such an amazing partnership with. The mediation program and Karen Armstrong and Jay Allen and diane Evans and they all refer directly into the housing helpline as well, and we we try and prioritize those referrals but especially for folks who are coming into a fiction court just knowing that. That assistance needs to get out. sooner than later. So, whichever way people make it into the housing helpline our staff or the woohoo form kind of goes over their current housing situation, what the need is, we still do have to verify that there's they've been financially impacted by a coven. We do have the income limit of 80% am I, which I think we've only seen a couple households come through that are kind of close to that, but typically folks have have been under 50% Am I.

[30:11] Our staff talks about the documents that are required, we are fortunate enough to be direct recipients of the US Treasury rent assistance funds and those do require a bit more documentation, then we. have previously collected, so we just like to be really clear about what folks are going to need to get to us and then our current application process is mainly through docusign. To either the participant can complete that docusign application on their mobile device or iPad or computer and if there are any digital kind of divide issues. Where that's not going to be a successful way for someone to complete an application or staff can also do that with them over the phone so there's we try and make as many ways in as we can.

[31:03] But that's the general housing helpline overview. And perfect great typing. So. This is a graph of I was a little hard to read, but mainly it's just the kind of volume, to look at this is the inquiries that our. Housing helpline has received over the last year just that kind of number I think it's by week, so you can see that her husband certainly. An increase over the last year and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere right now folks are definitely still in need of assistance there's a lot more colors at the beginning of it because, at the very beginning of coven we were really trying to stretch our funds as much as we could. We were using our local human services safety net to assist we were sending people to the area agency on aging and F and our Center and.

[32:04] just trying to find the best places folks could go to spread our limited resources as as much as we could. But moving into. The last month or so we have been able to refer even more people in for emergency assistance just again, thanks to the US Treasury funds has really increased our ability to. provide assistance and and really ultimately opened up eligibility criteria, in some ways, so we've been very excited about that. um so there have been I think that that eight 3800 calls was as of last week we just hit over 4000 this week so that's really exciting we get about 7578 calls a week. And about 36% are Spanish speakers so.

[33:01] We feel like we are definitely hitting a lot of different parts of our Community. As far as spending so far this year we've spent about half or we've spent two 1.3 million. In rent assistance dollars. Just about. Two or a third of that has been attributed to the US Treasury dollars and and because we are able to provide a little bit more assistance with that. Households the 103 households we've helped with the US Treasury dollars. it's been about 5000 ish dollars per household because we're able to help with most of the rears and then forward three months, up to three months, so we can really. help people feel secure in their housing for a little bit longer and then not have to call back the housing hotline and go through the process all over again so it's been. really exciting that we've been able to extend assistance, a little bit more, and hopefully keep some keep some more folks house.

[34:08] So I think that's all the data that I have on that. Okay well thanks Keith I would add some key the county has just been a tremendous partner and she's mentioned the US Treasury dollars. So the county did come I think it's like a little over $10 million if the county receives specific to housing supports that that the county be administering carry through the housing helpline does that sound correct so an additional. yeah. The county also has that source of funding to so yeah. yeah we're very fortunate to receive that money. yeah so that's been great The other thing I just wanted to hit the point on, so you know we recognize that not everybody in our Community is comfortable accessing. Services of any kind, through the county or through the city or even effort and so we've been very intentional as past year and that we have set up funding sources with the.

[35:08] Workers left behind fund, as well as central valley amistad so we're trying. To be very thoughtful about meeting people where they're at and where they're most comfortable so we've been working with a variety of agencies out boulder as well. To to reach people where they're most comfortable going for help, the thing that has been really interesting is. We we've tapped into people that have never had to go through this before it's kind of a new world for a lot of the people that we are seeing come through. Our door doors and making these calls and it's and it's and it's a pretty traumatic and we're humbling I don't even know what to call it for a lot of people and so there's a lot of I don't want there's a lot of compassion that the. Are I don't even know it's calm our program coordinators and case managers and glitter answering the calls are having to offer to people as they're navigating.

[36:03] A very difficult time so that we've been spending a lot of time really supporting our team Members to make sure that they are. prepared and able to be most effective in those really tough circumstances. So one more slide and then we'll open it up to questions so The other thing so we've talked about that we provide housing. We provide rental systems we provide the resources to help people stay in housing another source of housing support that we provide that is really important. is to our community relations and our Community mediation resolution Center we are able to help people help protect people, so if somebody. feels that their human rights are being violated, we have a team that is there to help somebody navigate that to assess the situation to investigate the situation if somebody feels that they are being.

[37:01] There are five fair housing rights are being violated or they're not being rented to for whatever because they're in a protected class, and so we actually have a team and hhs said, that is. part of what they do is really help people protect their their rights when it comes to housing options and then we've talked about the Community mediation team, but it goes beyond just infection prevention. They before all this, it was a little bit of fiction prevention it's also just you know kind of that 10 tenant landlord conflict that might occur or neighbor to neighbor conflict that makes. can make a housing situation extremely stressful, to the point where somebody isn't comfortable or feeling safe in their home, and so we have. Community mediators on staff that will work provide be a neutral mediator to help people navigate those situations or if it if it comes to it, to help them navigate to. an elegant like exit strategy and try to figure out, you know where that person might land next, and so this is just another piece of the variety of supports that we provide.

[38:06] and similar supports like this are provided from the city of online as well, so that is what we have to share tonight and happy to answer any questions. about what is currently available and also you know we are really committed to evolving and improving our work and doing. What is most effective and helpful to our Community, to ensure that they have safe and stable housing and so just really invite the conversation tonight to help inform our word moving forward. And with that I will be quiet and some questions. Thank you so much, both of you. For the presentation, I want to go up to the board and to the public. If anyone has questions, please feel free to raise your hand there's a raise your hand function if you.

[39:01] Let me see if you. See under reactions on the bottom. yeah there you go. reactions there's the option to raise hand. yeah. cool Michael yeah go ahead. Okay hi Michael chasing new the board two questions, one is just a clarification you throw a lot of great numbers out there i'm wondering. Of those, what are specific to Kobe support like you mentioned the Canyon receiving end million dollars last year from. federal sources and second question a little more general I mean we've all evolved our di in July plans in the last year, how has boulders housing policy evolving in relation to that very big issue there's a couple of questions. Well i'm actually gonna I can take a pass of the first one i'm going to ask Jay who's our health, housing policy program can help me answer the second one, but so when it comes to the dollars, that I mentioned what I can speak to you right now is that we received.

[40:17] When it comes specific to the city of boulder housing and human services and what was made available to us to support the housing that comes in, to about 3.5 million that we had available to us to do the variety of things that we described. But that also doesn't take into account for the arpa funds that 21 million that's coming to the city that we have not defined the use of those dollars yet so there's more to come. And then, so all of that has been in response to the pandemic prior to this, the city's housing dollars was limited to. Our Federal funds, the CD big dollars and the home fault dollars, which are about 2 million a year and then also our affordable housing fund and our chat dollars, which comes in and it varies between.

[41:07] Nine to 15 million a year, and those were all very specifically used to create and preserve housing opportunities and that's why the newer initiative that is now the eviction prevention rental assistance is such a. Profound game changer for us in the rental systems because, once the money from the Kobe relief dollars and the pandemic response dollars. is gone, we now have this steady source in perpetuity of rental assistance moving forward so that's kind of a convoluted answer I could you know write it all up and submit to you so it's a little bit clearer, but a lot of the dollars, that I threw it she were very specific to the pandemic. And then, can you restate her second question about housing policy, however, we have all our housing policy. How has that evolved and respond to various di initiatives diversity equity inclusion in the last year.

[42:07] But it hasn't evolved. What is what is D, I am I. Diversity equity inclusion its efforts. You know, create greater social justice, greater diversity. Of course that's populations that have been overlooked previously or prejudiced against. Right really appreciate that comment on that question um so the city is very committed to. Our racial equity work across the board, whether its internal or external. We have actually I think it'd be great to bring a presentation to you that one of our TEAM members and Jay has recently worked on looking at. folders history developments and housing history and how that has defined our diversity or lack there of diversity and one of the things that.

[43:08] We can say is that the bar investment and affordable housing has contributed to the diversity of our community as as while while limited so we see that a lot of our work and our investments and. Making sure that diverse populations can limit boulder has supported that but we got a long ways to go and we recognize that and we are committed to that work. But I think it'd be really interesting for the had to hear this recent presentation, because it's a really great conversation starter. will not hurt so it's very informing to the conversation, and I think it'd be really helpful to kind of help us as we're navigating how we adjust some of our policies but Jay anything to add to that. yeah I mean Michael it's a great question.

[44:02] and Christians right I think next month i'll be suggesting that have spend at least half the meeting talking about that issue specifically within the context of the history that you're going to hear from clay fox so. I would say let's let's talk about it more than decide that all right. Maya. yeah yeah wasn't sure Jay was done but yeah ginger ginger let's go ahead yeah Thank you Michael for your question, go ahead ginger. Alright guys i'm too lazy to pull out my camera. you're so good. Go ahead. Well, I guess, my question is partly been answered, but I came up from Colorado springs and. And the difference in homelessness is, and I was in Denver for a year too, so i've seen kind of all parts I was wondering how you as leaders in boulder have you see boulders homeless population compared to Denver, or even the country.

[45:15] Thanks ginger great question. Thanks Charlotte. that's a tough question to answer because I don't know if i'm the right person or can really assess. Besides anecdotally and my own personal experience so being in Denver or being in other parts of the country, I can tell you that our our city or just last night, there was a very long discussion with City Council at a study session about some of the work that we're doing to. just address some of the challenges. In our community in. serving our individuals who are experiencing homelessness or are at risk of homelessness and kind of just some of the.

[46:01] Other other Community needs in our communities so trying to find the balance there. On mark on may 25 there is going to be a presentation to city council, it is going to be next Tuesday, but I think I just saw that got changed to me 25th. That current firm harbor our director and vicki at nerd who is our homelessness program coordinator will be doing their annual update on our homelessness initiatives and work. And so I think that would be a really great conversation for you to tune in on when they go to city council, because I think they would be better position to answer anything really specific to homelessness so I can also say like while I presented it that our work is it. works to address the spectrum of housing needs really the information I was providing tonight is more specific to individuals who are housed. versus and maintaining housing versus are, and it should those are really working to support individuals who are at risk of or are experiencing homelessness.

[47:11] Thanks Kristen ginger here, let me see ginger did that answer your question, or do you have. Any follow ups follow up, I just want to. Know um no, I think I will tune into that as well, but so you're saying that program what you've been presenting here is. not really it's not geared for homelessness it's not good for people who are homeless period like I couldn't go to neighbor Bob well he's met he is our neighbor but he's totally homeless, I can go to him and say you know call call this and you know they'll help you out okay. um. that there are other access points that I would say, would be more appropriate for somebody that is at risk of are experiencing homelessness and we could put.

[48:05] That information i'm not I don't have it readily available to you know projected tonight. But. We kind of have a different. path that has different sorts of resources and and that's because we're trying to separate it. Part of it has to do with the funding sources and what they're intended to do, and so. A lot of the funding that we talked about tonight is very specific to keeping people housed rental assistance for people that are in housing and maintaining housing, a lot of the resources, I go to support our individuals who are experiencing homelessness or. You know transitional housing might be an option it's a different source of funding than what we're speaking to tonight so it's. it's it's very combo you know it's all about housing and we all are committed to housing, being a very critical issue in our Community it's just it's a little bit of a different approach, but happy to talk to you or anybody else about how to best get.

[49:10] Well, no, no. Years into the rights um. No that totally explains it, but so it sounds to me is more prevention prevention keep people from being homeless period right. Correct okay got it okay. Thanks ginger and thanks Kristen um I I got noticed that David. If you're listening, you had a question, do you still have a question that you wanted to ask. If so, you can just raise your hand or. me. David adamson yes, I am did. You did you have a question. I have so many, but I i'll talk a little bit later, but I have one quick question for kristin if I could please.

[50:03] yeah please. hey i'm kristin, thank you for all your work and for everyone service so appreciate you all. Could you talk a little bit about the middle income housing strategy, how many middle income units, we have added. You know, there was a big priority, starting in 2017 so how many especially deed restricted middle income housing units, the number one priority in the boulder valley comprehensive plan how many have been added, and since I know that it's very few. You know why is that. And i'm also just interested in why you sold the cohousing co op unit over pollard so I just love it if you could talk about those two things.

[51:01] Thank you. So I will. So we share the commitment to middle income housing the quick answer as to why we haven't moved more quickly and achieving that that specific goal is really comes down to resourcing. And when it comes to being able to create and preserve. Lower and moderate income housing opportunities there are so many subsidies and so many resources out there that it's really. it's just it's much easier to access funding in order to achieve those outcomes so we're able to step into a. situation with a partner, where we can bring 1,000,002 million dollars to a deal and then they're able to leverage. Eight 912 $15 million of need to create that affordable housing option through low income housing tax credits private activity bonds. So the way that the market is structured right now really goes to support those lower income housing options, so that middle income housing option it's it's a it's a really tough nut to crack.

[52:09] And we are committed to figuring that out, and so I will say, the first step in the right direction is we are actually expanding our team right now we are hiring. An additional person to give us the capacity that we need and house to really dive very deeply into that and so we're currently hiring to bring somebody on so our homeownership team. can expand our work in that area and help us really because that's really where the middle income spaces for us is around ownership. The market takes care of middle income rental we you know there, there is there isn't really a need for us to play a role in that. But when it comes to middle income ownership, there is a need, there is an opportunity for government to partner and be in that conversation, and in that. opportunity, and so it really is kind of building up our internal costumes and then to figure out kind of the financial resourcing of that on any day it's it's challenging without those federal subsidies available to us and Jay you speak to the other, the third part of the question.

[53:16] Was the third part, David. Just what What, though, why did we sell the pot at pollard there was a in it, I mean I kind of know the answer, but that there was a part of the one of the units are at pollard was reserved for cohousing and call and co op and it would seem to be progressing wealth financially but. Maybe you could just say the city sold it because we ran out of money or. Why why, why was that so. I would say, there were lots of requests and demands and hopes for that site, it was sort of everything but, including the kitchen sink. And at some point we had to focus our efforts and our resources, and that was on what we end up with has to do with what the market is willing to provide at the time.

[54:12] But in terms of the middle income, I would say stay tuned I think there's some interesting stuff that that's going to we're going to discuss with have, and also with planning board. Planning board who wants to talk about middle income as part of their retreat and what are the tools that might be available to them. So I think that's an interesting conversation we're also looking at bringing potentially a speaker Internet a national speaker to talk about middle income housing later this spring or summer and we're trying to figure out how to involve have them out as well mm hmm. I would just add really quickly to middle income, especially ownership is a priority of our county Commissioners, and so I think there is going to be even more a of a regional conversation as to how to meet that need.

[55:01] So it goes beyond just the city of boulder where there's you know limitations that we're all aware of of many looking at this more regionally so that that might be another venue to express that types of support is for the county to help us kind of solve for that mm hmm. David, you have a follow up question. Yes, I I do, and I thank you so much for that I wanted to follow up on the good work we did in the Bowling alley comprehensive plan with Jay and and others to to create that neighborhood infill pilot and. We this is we with so i'm i'm the Executive Director of goose creek Community land trust and we've been working to create this three block cohousing community on North street. And then have been active and doing similar kind of mostly appreciation restricted mostly for sale, mostly car share.

[56:02] units, you know at Alpine balsam as well, and so are the pilot was was you know how can we put more people in the city without cars in a beautiful way with in the same scale that the existing housing is. So that there's no blocking of of mountain views and there's no added cars, and you know we feel just would be you know, a net win for everyone and that's the framework trying to. suggest is that you know, adding in housing for the people that desperately needed, along all the spectrums enriches everyone's like you know i'm impoverished by not having a more diverse Community my Community my kids are impoverished, you know we all i'm. David Is this a question, or do you want us to. So Romans for this, the. Okay, I was just taking that but. My question was we we presented to counsel and we went through the midterm update a way to do this kind of housing, without a subsidy and then had a full discussion with staff, the planning board and Council.

[57:18] And they determined instead of selling since the beginning, they determined that oh this can't be done in the midterm update this is too important. Anyway, i'm just working for your advice, here we are trying to provide the housing, the city needs without a subsidy. And you know i've talked to you about it i've talked with her about I talked to many staff folks about it, and you know the the feeling was well we just don't have the resources for that so i'm just wondering if we can work with arpa funds. To do this pilot and I want to ask everyone to look particularly at the strong suburbs podcast within the strong towns, Dr Samuel Hughes proposal for the UK.

[58:08] Where they let every street every neighborhood gets to determine how they are going to add the housing, the city needs it's such an exciting idea that I think helps solve the problem we have in this town where we're people are against and people are for us, so my question is. What do you advise us housing advocate to see that housing is good for everyone, through our city, we need to work together, people who are concerned about housing have good reasons. You know they're worried about congestion we're worried about pollution they're worried about crime, except people have good reasons, but we still need housing so. let's figure out how to how much housing, do we need because right now there's no middle income, housing, we have a huge influx of providing luxury housing for out of town people.

[59:00] that's mostly what planning staff does, I mean I mean a lot of my planning stuff does is just permit more luxury townhomes so what's your advice. In the in the housing community that want to see housing is good for everyone, see everyone has a piece of the truth about this. You know folks are worried have good reasons for that my neighbors we I understand people's concerns and our ideas that have that city would be better for all of us if we go to a more compact, and you know much less car dominated city so. What is your advice to us to. To move forward on that pilot idea that in the Bowling alley comprehensive plan. Ahead Kristen we need the answers. Thank you, sorry for the long way to do. It. You know I think we are all trying. we're all on the same team trying to figure this out and I, and I wish there were quick answers and there were quick solutions for us to these, these are super hard situations that we're trying to solve, and I know that's not a satisfactory answer in any way David but.

[60:11] I think it's just we just keep doing what we're doing and more of it and look for those opportunities, you mentioned are I don't know those dollars we're still trying to get direction from. The the US Department of treasury how those dollars, can be used, but you know looking for those opportunities you're thinking creatively and that's. helpful to us as we're thinking about this, but we just we've got to keep plugging away at it and as Jay said, you know, there is definitely an uptick in the conversation. it's the first time that i've heard our county Commissioners talking about it and they're talking about it a lot. About middle income about ownership, and so I just I think there is a little bit of a change in the the the chatter, and so I think we just got to keep kind of plugging away at it. I just just want to add just to complete you know the way we're doing it it's just simply not working Christian you know it's not I mean every piece of land in our town is becoming a luxury home, so I.

[61:09] Like okay i'm just gonna 10 seconds i'm done. 10 seconds I know. What let's just use open spaces, our example we didn't compromise an open space we said let's get this open space we can do the same thing for middle income, housing, but we have to say we're going to do that and we're not just going to sell luxury townhouse Thank you. and David I want you to speak more, but I want you to speak when. When we open it i'm sorry I didn't I didn't format. you're fine you're fine you're so fine, I want to hear more about look we're just going through questions, but so I don't want to hold individuals up more I know there are people who want to speak. I just have a really quick question for Kristen i'm sorry, everyone will move on in one second but um you know Kristen you talked a lot about how there is. A lack of funding for the different programs right for middle income, housing, for you know you know resources is an issue have you.

[62:05] Has the department compiled a report showing the dearth of funds and what's needed to support these different programs and presented that to Council and said hey we need. This much for this depart for this program middle income housing program we need this much, for you know homelessness strategies, etc. Is that a report like is there is there are there are some numbers that you know you're giving to counsel to work with. Like. Allocation yeah no I appreciate that I think that's a and there's a lot of versions of that out there, so I would say when it comes to. You know I one of the things i'll start by saying with rental systems, right now, which is a very important part of our spectrum of supports. Work we're kind of overflowing and rental assistance with all the federal funds that are coming to us, but those are very specifically.

[63:06] Very specific in our US so we can't take those dollars and then go build a unit that's that's not how they're designed, so we have millions and millions of dollars coming at us, which is great. But you know it's very specific as to who can use it and how it can be used so we're we're really pretty well set for that. When it comes to those dollars into talking about as to what it needs to meet our community needs in terms of new housing opportunities. That has really that conversation has happened at the regional level, so with the boulder county regional housing partnership we have actually applied the math to that and we know that we need an additional $40 million a year. In order for us to meet our affordable housing goals across the region and a conversation that we started last year. We were looking at doing was the potential for a ballot measure, there was attraction towards us going to the valid for a.

[64:02] sales tax property tax increase and then the pandemic kids, so we are kind of read resurrecting that conversation as to what that would look like, but. There is there is math out there that tells us how much we need in order to achieve these goals, it is a bird's to $40 million a year regionally. Okay, thank you and Danny I see you have a question go ahead. Oh yeah Am I on. Can you hear me. Okay, so Chris I just, just to clarify what you're saying to you know just for a lot of the concert I just heard, I mean a lot of the money that's come in, is. Not very discretionary in terms of what the city can do with it right, and then the other part, is it's also very finite in terms of you know it's in response to. The pandemic and it's not something that's going to become a source of revenues moving forward so Those are the things that you're wrestling with with that right.

[65:02] And, and the other thing I do I just you know i'm from my first year on on have you know we spent a lot of time talking about all the efforts that we're going into trying to address. A middle income, housing and financial challenges, you know that that you know entailed those efforts that are tailored those efforts but. Then the pandemic hit, but you know, I think that there are certainly a lot of different approaches that the city's been taking all that stuff so I just want to make that point clear because I heard a lot of things and. You know nothing's easy and certainly it always comes down to money and budget but. I think, from my perspective, i've seen the city really try to take that on as well as take on all these other aspects, you know we we just had comments regarding what funds are available for concerns with homelessness right, and then we have middle income, housing, then we have.

[66:01] A you know rental assistance and eviction relief and all these things. You know, are pretty demanding, and so I, I think the city's done a good job of trying to address these you can always do better and we're trying to, but I just want to make that point. Thank you, thanks Danny if, are there any additional questions before we. move to open common. Okay. Okay, great sorry okay great seeing none i'd love to to move on to open comment and let let folks speak, you know, remember that. You know what you're going to share will will definitely impact, you know where the board places emphasis with regards to research and. You know, inform recommendations that we may make to counsel so we're very excited to hear what you have to say, and you know, there are questions from the board after folks speak, you know i'd love for folks to come come with questions so i'm.

[67:09] You know i'm happy to call on people, based on who entered the waiting room first but I figured I just the easiest if if if you know how to raise your hand does everyone know how to raise i'm nervous that people don't know how to raise their hand that's my concern. I see a thumbs up i'm. Jay, how do you suggest, I do this in a. Well, ask people to raise their hands and then. I would say, ask anyone else who would like to speak. Just Yet if you can. If you want to try to raise your hand that'd be great if not i'm I know that you're you're all here to speak so there's Rebecca um, let me just messaged her real quick um she she was in need of closed caption.

[68:06] I just messaged Rebecca so let me see i'm going to ask her to unmute. Oh. There, she is hang on Rebecca once was, just like hang on one one second Jay do you want to go through rules before I open it up i'm sorry I totally menton mess that up um i'm just going to i'm going to mute you quickly jake and. SMILEY face. Thanks everyone for your patience guy J. So i'll go over this very quickly, I think everybody is fairly familiar with the city's rules, but we do have some rules, just because in this virtual environment trying to strike a balance between meaningful and transparent engagement, as well as online security so.

[69:03] There are a couple of rules about you know try not to be disrupt full and interfering with the meeting. ID we've all been very respectful so far I don't think that's gonna be a problem, we will limit time for speaking three minutes, but I am just going to keep it very informal. And then, once you reach three minutes I might just raise my hand just to let folks know that you running a little bit long. And then we do ask you that you register by your real name and any sort of pseudonym and then. Also, do not turn on your video please just audio so only city officials employees and invited speakers and be able to share video. And charlotte's going to enforce all these rules and the chat function typically we only allow that for technical questions. But if you are more comfortable asking questions via chat and it sounds like Charlotte you're already doing that, please feel free and then same thing with screen sharing so that's limited as well to just staff so that's it those are the roles.

[70:12] Great thanks Jay. going to stop sharing your screen. yeah I don't do that, so there it is okay great. Okay, there we go i'm going to ask Rebecca to unmute herself again and then, if folks want to speak, please just raise your hand, so I can keep track of you know, the list of speakers. You can also just messaged me if you'd like to speak and I can call on you directly that's fine too so Jamie you want to pull up the timer Rebecca I have unmuted you. In future meetings we are going to work on getting closed captions just to make sure the meeting is accessible to everyone.

[71:02] che. Okay. Okay um. Please. Oh wait. Oh okay um I um I just got a last minute invitation to be here so i'm not really quite fair. How this goes, I was told that we were the type of course housing and security and also lived experience with affordable housing so i'm not sure. About that about what topic i'm supposed to be responding to but um but I will just plug ahead anyway, my name is Rebecca her I have lived in boulder. For 40 years since 1973 I moved here from growing up in Denver I moved here to go to university of Colorado and i've lived here, ever since i'm of those 48 years about three years I lived here.

[72:15] Not as a renter so for about 45 years I have been a renter in boulder and that's because I never got to a place where I had enough money to. buy into the housing market um so I lived and worked in boulder I was made, I have a daughter we've got divorced and i've lived here my whole life I worked in book publishing. On my income went up as I continued to work, but it never went up as as quickly as my housing costs went up um I. And I just kept thinking that you know the older you get the more money you earn and that I would be able to maybe buy a house later never happened um I also didn't foresee that my industry would collapse in the late 90s.

[73:09] Where the book publishing jobs just went away in the course of about five years so that experience that I had. In publishing are now required that I move somewhere else if I wanted to make the big bucks in that field, so I decided to live in boulder instead of. Living somewhere else, and making a good living and being financially. Sustainable, so I stayed here I changed jobs, the new field that got into disability services was not lucrative at all. um and in 2005 I applied for social security disability i'm deaf I got my first hearing aids at age 21 my hearing is progressively. be kind and so now i'm at the level that's called death, I cannot understand human speech without visual information.

[74:03] So that means I cannot talk on it well, I can talk on the telephone, but I killer here on the telephone so. Life changes, a whole lot when you can't talk on the telephone. The telephone and, by the way, thank you very much for putting in the housing helper and putting an email address, along with the telephone. number that is just wonderful i'm very happy to see that you did that okay so um. I ended up boy, and I didn't plan it I came to boulder middle class and I ended up for my income now is under 16,000 a year I receive subsidized housing section eight housing thrice about for. And that is the only reason that I am allowed to stay in boulder I love this town like nobody's business. I want to grow old and die here, I never want to live anywhere else, but for the last 20 years people told me that I have to move away from boulder because I can't afford to live here anymore and i'm stubborn and i'm not leaving.

[75:09] um but i've had to accept more and more of my income going towards housing and the older I got then when I finally have subsidized housing for the first time in my life and border i'm paying one third of my income for it. I didn't realize it at the time, but now I can look back on my life and see the cumulative effect of living in in housing, that is not affordable. Every year, you lose ground in your case don't realize it because you keep thinking it'll get better. you'll get a raise and my rent would increase almost every year, and if it increased by $100 or more, I would have to move i've lived in 24 places and 48 years living in boulder. Because I had to move so often, when the rent went up and I always thought I would get ahead and I never did.

[76:04] And now being offered and being poor is completely humiliating my passion didn't prevent this my hard work didn't prevent this, and I feel when I go to housing. meetings on affordable housing for projects like the are playing ball, something I see people there who are Homeowners. don't find some level don't believe I should be living in boulder anymore, and I feel that that shame and I feel that stigma because I found to accumulate money. And it was housing that cause this to happen, I don't think young people and middle aged people realize the erosion of earning power that happens in this town. my daughter moved away from boulder she cannot afford to move back here, that means she can take care of me as I grow older.

[77:00] My fans can afford to live here I miss the diversity in boulder that we used to have when people could afford the housing here. As a senior I live in a basement apartment that is an insulated it's really cold in the winter, when the wind blows my curtains move inside my apartment I have. windows and only one of them is energy efficient and the other three leaky I cannot get my apartment weather is by the. weatherization program because it's already been weatherized at some point in the past, so my heating bills are outrageous when the winner. um, I would like to move out of this basement apartment, I would like to live above ground my vouchers for 1200. A month and it's almost impossible to find a one bedroom apartment for that and bother so i'm stuck here waiting for the next slide i'm and suffering through cold winters.

[78:00] On the location is perfect in central boulder I would love to find affordable housing in central border I would love to live in Alpine balsam. project, but it looks like that's moving on from the idea of affordable senior housing, I went to every meeting I click to request that. I also wish that my voucher would allow me to have roommates, I would like to live with other people it's isolating growing old alone. I would love to be able to have the golden girls model of older people, sharing housing together, I would love to live with other older people helping each other out. i'm 65 I can help out other people that are older than me later on i'll be older and i'm appreciate having a 65 year old living with me. I would love to be able to share housing, but i'm not allowed to do that, it would be cheaper I could get better quality of housing, I could probably not live in the basement.

[79:00] um but that's not an option, I know it's a federal issue with the vouchers, but gosh that would solve a lot of problems in this town if we could divvy up some of these larger houses among low income seniors. So um I guess that's probably about enough for now. I have exceeded the time i'm pretty sure. you're good. Thank you for the opportunity to speak, I do appreciate it. i'm not yeah Rebecca we i'm going to message her and let her know that we have closed captioning now everyone at the bottom of your screen if you see that. corey. hey look at that okay. You see, that yeah great great. want to make sure. That we figured out. Thank you. yeah thanks corey so great so great well, thank Thank you. Thank you well.

[80:00] And if anyone has crept you know any board members of questions now great if you know can always always ask questions later as well. Right um. let's see if there any other folks who would like to speak if we're able to raise your hands, that would be so great, I can also just calling you, but I don't want to spook you. By calling on you um. let's see I saw let's see. Charlotte yeah. Can I make a suggestion, maybe because I know, sometimes when i'm on meetings on my phone I can't raise my hand that feature is not. available or I don't know how to access it so maybe i'm calling a person's name and i'm meeting them for a second and just saying, would you like to speak or not, and then. That way we don't you know we can just check in with people instead of.

[81:00] A live chat missing somebody because they can't reason I like that yeah that's good i'm someone who came into the waiting room shortly at you know near the beginning was Nicole so i'm going to unmute you Nicole and see if you'd like to. speak. i'm just listening and learning. Thank you. Okay, of course, Okay, no worries let's see let's see gail gail i'm going to unmute you see if you would like to speak. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: Sure, I don't have a lot to say i'm Gil Smith, I like Rebecca am a member of the participant Advisory Council EPA. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: just been advisory council is people who use a services, I use their food bank in particular. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: And so, then we do monthly meetings with the upper management in Africa with the CEO of Africa and we give them our points of view, so I was asked to join this meeting.

[82:07] Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: And I guess give you guys my point of view I don't think there's going to take three minutes I lived in boulder for. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: 10 years as of next month I love it i've lived both coasts in the US and in between i've lived San Francisco i've lived nolan's I grew up right outside Washington DC. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: And there's no place i'd rather live in the United States in boulder. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: And I can't afford to live here because I am living in poverty, so I live in poverty, housing, where, if you don't make any money you don't pay any rent and I love that I don't love, where I live, like my housing, in particular, but I do love being able to live in boulder. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: um I guess I, I have a question for the housing Advisory Board, which is a. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: di question, which is our and do all of you.

[83:00] Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: To all of you identify as Caucasian I did a whole bunch of research before this and I found out that boaters 79.8% white 7.38% Hispanic. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: And that's a big deal a lot of fs people as you saw from the slides at the beginning um people who use of I am Caucasian for the record. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: But I know that a lot of fs participants are Hispanic so it would be like Nice, I think, for them to know that one that the housing Advisory Board has a Hispanic Member. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: and Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: I think i'll just also express my real surprise that I knew about that we were working for affordable housing, I had no idea that. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: What was considered affordable housing in boulder included everything from homeless shelters to middle income housing so identify with David in that way, I was really surprised that. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: Poverty like homeless shelters are included, like they just lump that in so you can have, like all the money going to homeless shelters and then like 2% of that could be for affordable housing.

[84:08] Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: So I found that very surprising, I do hope that raises and i'm interested to know where that number came from where did that goal of 15% can come from So those are my two questions, so the have one is anyone not identify as Caucasian. Gail Smith, EFAA's Participant Advisory Council representative: And to where does the 15% number can't come from those are my questions, thank you. Thanks gail um. I guess i'll open it up to the board um I. I am very Caucasian. yep. um. What other board members, you can just unmute yourself. Thanks.

[85:00] JEREMY the answer the second question. Are you still on the first one. um. yeah yeah Jay that's fine. Good. There the the 15% goal started. By city council, the original goal was. Was 10% back in 2000 and it was interesting to talk to one of the Council members, and it was just kind of a finger in the air, it seemed like a good number. to strive for there wasn't a whole lot of science behind it, but it made sense that they recognize that. You know a lot of people that were providing important services in the Community that were important part of the Community weren't able to live in boulder and weren't able to participate. as full members of the Community, and so there was a desire that we wanted to impact that so they came up with the 10% goal and then about three years ago. We were getting close we're 8.4% so we're getting close to that 10%, and so we raised it to 15 and the discussion was we wanted something aspirational you know something that.

[86:09] That was hopeful, yet we also wanted something that was bit realistic that we knew that we could accomplish at some point in the future and we landed a 15 and maybe we'll revisit that again in another three or five years. better than the history. Thanks Jay and I definitely you know he'd the comments about diversity represented on these boards and i'm hoping that something that you know. When future appointments are made that's you know placed you know there's emphasis placed on that you know, there should be greater diversity and positions of power. So I I keep those comments, but I think this is mostly white board so. um.

[87:00] yeah, are there any questions for gail or comments. cool. Well, you see, I want to see other other people. want to speak i'm. i'm i'm gonna unmute pierce and and see they'd like to speak see if I can do this. Thank you. Yes, i'm here. hi welcome thanks for coming. Thank you for having me a boulder resident and voter here. yeah I just want to voice my complete and under unconditional support for universal housing. And a an abolition, to the camping ban in favor of bedrooms are for people.

[88:01] just making housing as accessible as possible and having absolutely no restrictions on it, including people being able to camp where they were they are able to safely and and physically without any restrictions on that and the idea that I work with boulder safe I distribute. Food and supplies to on has people and the idea that the day one of the days that we had to we were scheduled to distribute such food and supplies. The encampment was cleared. To make room for a. vigil for on house people who passed that year that that really pissed me off, and not to mention all the unhealthy people, so, in addition to the ethnic and racial diversity. I also want to voice that I want to see an in house person on this board, I want to see representation that stretches across class, as well as race and I want, I want to end it in that way, so that we can get everyone shelter, which is one of the.

[89:15] basic human rights, as declared by the United Nations and the idea that boulders not doing everything it can to provide that I considered to be a violation of human rights. And the idea that the bedrooms for people did in fact pass was voted in by the public, but then was blocked by the Council that. That very much pissed me off i'm really tired of the love light and private property mentality that boulder has and I, I just want it to be known that I am one person, at least, who is in full support of unconditional the free shelter for all with a ban on camping bands and all of that.

[90:12] Thank you. You still have more time, if you want to keep speaking you don't have to. I mean i'm always take a soapbox that's. Just yeah for Communism abolish the police define the police. Stop all. Of this nonsense of. Right wing bullshit is what I have to say. Thanks pierce. appreciate you coming and i'm just letting some folks in here. Great awesome.

[91:02] um. Okay awesome i'm sorry why I was just letting some folks and are there any questions for for peers from other members of the board. I will say that. Because there are going to be some vacant seats on hab. After this meeting actually Jay do you know if Council is going to do, like a mid year appointment of. Have a member or two. it's possible but it's likely won't happen for several months if there are multiple vacancies, then they would they might do a special appointment, but it's also possible they may just wait till next spring okay. Okay. um okay thanks.

[92:00] um. I would just add, I mean the city has identified increasing diversity on our boards and commissions as as a priority. yeah and we are discussing and trying to figure out ways the challenges, not necessarily selecting the challenges, the people who applies, so we don't just don't get a lot of diversity in the. Application for console to choose from. that's the challenge mm hmm. yeah yeah I know that um. it's been this has been a discussion of you know, compensation has been it's been you know circling circulating with regards to city council, and I know that if individuals had more incentive to. You know volunteer their time that would definitely increase diversity, you know. You know what this means for hours a month, plus there's you know additional research that can be you know investment that can be put in, not everyone has that time, so I definitely recognize that that's a limitation sounds good yeah mate mason.

[93:08] yeah Jay I hear you and I absolutely agree with what you're saying to Charlotte However, the last three four years i've sat through all of the Board interviews, as well as read their. applications, and I can tell you that we had quite a few individuals of color that applied that were also students that were literally. i'm not chosen and to me when I see that i'm challenged by these boards when i'm seeing perfectly good candidates who are either connected to see you or for some for some other reason. Which is only held within Council are not being chosen that's that's a that's a bit of a pill to swallow, one of the reasons why i'm on this board was because of the mandate of having a renter and as a renter we had a position to fill which.

[94:14] mandated and force the hand of individuals who were looking at people, but I know even on the year that I applied, I was the only renter, and so they have nobody else to choose from. And, thankfully, the years that followed, there were qualified candidates and qualified candidates of color, but I would say that there was a political um motivation for other things so yeah hopefully we've got a lot of work to do in those areas for sure yeah. um let's see I see some new folks join the meeting so let's see um see, let me just go through here i'm not sure if I asked beverly if beverly wanted to speak, so let me just.

[95:02] unmute beverly. not sure. i'm just here to also learn and just listen. Of course, of course, thanks. for coming. And let's see Chelsea i'm going to ask me see if you want it to speak i'm going to turn your video off because you know that's just you're so fine it's just a thing we don't have public the public channel video. and You want to see. Sure i'd be happy to um hi i'm Chelsea cast Solano, I am a co lead of bedrooms are for people. And we are running a ballot initiative to make it legal for more than three unrelated people to live together.

[96:03] um and we have about a month left to collect signatures to earn our spot on the ballot and and we have just under 500 signatures to go so it's really exciting we've been getting a lot of support. and getting out into the Community and i'm just seeing how people from different age group classes races just support the type of change that we're trying to make i'm at and. I really just thankful for all the work that you all, are doing here on have I know this is a thankless job but it's really important and so just here to. Listen in and yeah there's any questions happy to answer but. just wanted to be here, so thank you.

[97:03] Thanks for coming Chelsea. it's great to see so much energy around. This housing issue in boulder. So it's really. really good how, how is the online petitioning system working. Is it m. O E it so no the online petitions to some um it's working well for us now and that well is sort of a relative word. Luckily, we have some great skill sets on our team, people who are very good at coding and developing software we've essentially had to develop. A lot of software and coding around the city system in order to get it to work for people. um so what we've developed as of now makes it makes it work better, but it is it, there are barriers for people to be able to participate in the democratic process as of right now, it would have been.

[98:09] It would have been a lot more of a the choice that the City Council made to not allow both in person and digital signatures happening simultaneously essentially was. It made it harder for people to participate so think of your your grandmother who can just barely figure out how to text you. And, and you know this system requires a pretty serious not serious, but a level of digital literacy that. really should not be required for participating in the democratic process, so we are missing out on people, but we, you know Luckily, we have enough supporters who are willing to go through the steps and who are able to go through the steps. So yeah yeah thanks.

[99:00] Are there any questions for Chelsea. I just i'm sorry somebody from is displaying their email I don't know that's chair. quo that's Jay. Thanks Kristen yeah that was Jay sorry I couldn't read it i'm. Great i'm. Thank you again Chelsea for coming. And I want to share a few. messages that we got digitally from individuals who are unable to join the meeting, but I want to see you David wanted to speak because I know he had some you know quite quite a bit to say when he was asking questions so. David i'm gonna unmute you and see if you want to continue or. Oh Thank you so much. For mason knows I always want to continue but i'm going to. Try to do this in a different way and I hope.

[100:00] You have spent this last year, reflecting a little bit on you know i've been so sad about our beautiful town which its. Diversity is the heart of our town, I was born here and it's the heart of our. economy and the beauty of the town and I mostly bike around, and I see so many lovely people all the time and. There was a time when people who really insisted on living in the boulder could buy in boulder could buy a house. But now it's impossible, you know if you I sent you all the the graph has shown before but there's a complete collapse of middle. middle income for sale, housing, I mean there there's just a few condos at any one time, and this is exactly what boulder housing partners predicted back in 2014 I really hope everyone will read the 2014 strategic report, and you know they just said what's going to happen, and it has.

[101:00] and You know the solution is really pretty easy and that's the good news to share there isn't easy solution we showed how to do it with open space, you know we we make craziness for ourselves, and because we have these beautiful goals and things that we say, but we have. A market in land and markets allocate scarce goods and resources to the highest bidder that's what they do and like a marine and 111 say you know markets, make a good servant a bad master and a worst religion. So with open space we didn't say let's let the let's let the deer and the mountain lions and the and the future generations and. You know lets them let's let them buy the land know we we got together and said, this is an important part of the Commons and important legacy for us all and.

[102:04] So, the same is true about housing so much our main suggestion is to take most. You know a good part of the housing units out of the speculative market will never make any progress i'm I love Kristen hi there I love the staff of the city of boulder. But we can't keep doing more of what we're doing, because what we're doing is simply not working it's a broken housing system and we only get luxury housing as. A result so i've made some suggestions about how to move forward number one I really hope we can just put on the city dashboard what's really happening happening with affordable housing in general, not just for less than 60 60% so actually say what's happening. And that would that would be great because then we have a real narrative of the collapse of the ability to have a diverse population, you know not just racially. By class unless you have diverse affordable housing you won't have any racial diversity so.

[103:06] We say you're gay people by raising class in this town it's getting worse and worse and worse, so at least say how it really is so that was number one and I. I share some other things in that in that PowerPoint but I really hope that you will come up with that recommendation put on the dashboard. what's really going on with affordable housing adding some more rental units that's a beautiful thing that's awesome. But meanwhile 85% of the housing is ever more super unaffordable, what kind of town is that I mean that's. Okay, so i'm just hoping, I know my times out but um the other two main things I just hope you all can recommend i'm my ask. To you all, is that you, we have a new planning director let's look at the cost of not acting there's a great thing and urban planning and scenario plan or you look at well what if we keep doing what we're doing what will happen. And then i'm hoping you'll look at this idea and i'd love board input, allowing us to meet our middle meet our housing needs in the town everywhere, and with this pilot idea there's no lack of we don't need more money we showed we don't need more funds.

[104:17] We don't need more funds, and if we allow the zoning flexibility, so we can't use the arguments Oh, we just don't have the money we showed it Alpine balsam. that the high end, you have high end housing it subsidizes the low end and modest sized middle income units, especially car shared pay for themselves, you can make a profit on that, for you know. That that mixed income model and then most of it has to be not market rate. market, we need we don't need any more market rate housing market rate housing ensures will always have affordable housing problems. So Community land trust or the city own the land, the appreciation is moderated you share it with Homeowners and so.

[105:05] Most of the housing certainly 99% of all the housing we build now should be appreciation moderated let's put a limit on luxury and it's nothing wrong with wealthy people luxury it's all good but we've met our goal for that. done check it off, unless we have enough luxury housing Thank you so instead of being so concerned about growth. let's have a different kind of growth non car dependent housing units that um you know. You know let's all go to a phobia info bond in Germany beautiful the show how to do it let's all go there, we can go on a boat, we can have a lot of drinks, or whatever along the way we'll go to hope on in Germany. And just see that you can have a be everyone loves that place and we can do the same thing in boulder everyone will love it so some Lastly, just to finish, thank you for the flexibility, the side the housing, that we need.

[106:04] let's decide how everyone can contribute to it, everyone will benefit let's get everyone involved, but on that goal, just like we did with open space we didn't we didn't save a little bit of open space we saved a third of the county and we can do the same thing the housing. Without a big subsidy, even if we have a zoning flexibility so i'd love some input on that are some questions. And my goal is to build a movement for that that's, the only way we're going to get change tomorrow at 1233 oversight CAFE we're starting that process we're building our first co op first for sale co op at 715 or street. So we're talking about how we're doing that and then how can we expand that idea of modest sized car free housing for everyone and how do we build a coalition to move in that direction and beautiful thing we did with open space with housing, thank you. love it. love it we got you don't worry we love it.

[107:03] Thank you. Thank you so much. I love I love the the breadth of what we've heard this evening, but I. I just wanted to share a few emails that the board received i'm sure you've all read the emails, but they were there actually just to that we received from individuals couldn't attend and one was from an elderly individual who was really hoping to. get more you know see more housing built in boulder for elderly individuals specifically was mentioned duplexes and multi you know multi family. Housing that's something they wanted to see you know good well designed housing for the aging population boulder um and then another email that we received.

[108:03] had to do with the quality of construction in in the apartments and housing here, and I believe it was specifically with regards to affordable housing. And you know issues of you know, sound transmission, you know just. Challenges around quality construction and that's something I experienced here, I live in a boulder housing partners are complex and they're actually going to do renovations on it in the coming years and sound. insulation is definitely an issue it's very drafty in here, so I um you know that's something that you know. i'm hoping that there's more funding for the upkeep of these spaces, you know the wear and tear on them, you know does affect the livability and I know Christian you did mention that you know upkeep of the spaces is is a priority, so that's good.

[109:01] Charlotte If I could just add we we saw that email come through and we actually forwarded it toward Community mediation team. Okay, has been in contact with that individual before and as reaching out to them, to see how we might be able to help them navigate that specific situation so. Great. Thank you very, very helpful that's awesome. um I don't see any additional individuals and why have been called on, and so are there any questions and i'll open up to the board, is there any questions or just comments from from the board. I know it may take some time to just meditate on you know we heard and. You know, part of the processing of the information will come to fruition in like some sort of report that we put together so we'll talk, we can talk about that later in the meeting but.

[110:01] If there are there any additional questions or even comments from the public, something that came up after you spoke, maybe you want to share something else happy to open it up again if there's something something else can raise your hand or. Okay. Well, in that case Thank you everyone for coming I know and then number of individuals have already left, thank you, you know for speaking, thank you to Kristen. For for coming, and you know sharing a presentation with us. I believe that we all thoroughly enjoyed it and, and will you know, this is what we do, this is what we do best, and this will translate into a lot of really meaningful work, so thank you for coming. On us a quick thanks to kesa Kwan back from the county because without them we wouldn't be able to get the resources out that were able to with our housing helpline so just really appreciate them being.

[111:10] That entry point for us so just appreciate kesa. Thank you all happy to revisit in the future and just have a great evening and just reach out if you need anything Thank you so much. Thank you have a good night. Thanks girl to. And and and individuals can feel free to stay for the public can stay or or leave whatever you'd like we're just going to proceed with our meeting. just getting to the agenda. Okay. Okay, great. Okay, so I we can move to the approval of the Minutes from our last meeting and those were attached to the agenda, are there any. Are there any changes at this point, I believe it was sent out and you could have all offered suggestions or changes, no okay well i'm going to afford a motion to approve the Minutes from.

[112:14] march 31. And Danny second doing it great Thank you all in favor proving the Minutes from March 31. Right passes unanimously. And then. Perfect we can move forward to matters from board. And first will be the Chair elections. Jay I might turn it over to you to you to remind us how this process works. it's been on here is.

[113:03] I have someone to nominate but is, I just want to make sure that we're doing this right. There isn't really a right way or wrong way, I mean, I would just suggest that you open it up that there's enough to be formal nomination just say it, who is interested. Okay. kind of how we've done it in the past. Okay well i'm. Are Is there anyone interested, I know I have someone who's interested but. I know michaels interested sorry Michael cats out of the bag um but Is there anyone else who's interested in chair, or vice chair. Well then, i'm just going to nominate Michael to be the Chair after this meeting um it's been a pleasure.

[114:02] Michael is incredibly experience you know, has worked at the intersection of housing and land use has time to be the Chair has time to invest in. The much needed work behind being chair um you know when I first took on chair I originally thought that I was going to be able to invest so much more time and. You know I regret that I haven't been able to invest as much time, and so I want this role to be given to someone who can invest more time, and you know give it a little more tlc. So, Michael you know if you're interested I i'd love for you to just speak on that and I think you'd be brilliant so. I humbly submit that I am interested that we put a lot of passion into it and I have had a lot of experience with housing issues know if you've read my application so I don't want to belabor that but.

[115:06] Definitely, the organization I work for housing affordable housing mixed income housing housing initiatives to the homeless, all the above middle income workforce. have been big issues, so I feel like i've got pretty good grounding and at least what works or what can work to obviously a big challenge. And I would look forward to serving in that role. I guess that's the end of my campaign speech, thank you for the nomination. course i'm. still need a vice chair. Do we vote on each one individually or no. reason to do it together, I don't think he. Okay, and. I would suggest it may be great if somebody who has not been a chair, or vice chair.

[116:00] If they would be willing to step up. I just want to say that I second Michael for chair. Third, Michael. Is anyone volunteering to be Vice chair. Daddy. Was that so that only if. Michael like if you get assassinated or something that after. yeah i'm here to be Vice chair. Unless you're always off the grid and like can't be communicated with. wow okay. Okay, only extra responsibility Danny is that you fill in for Michael when he's not there Okay, but there's also the chairs meeting, which happens two weeks before each meeting where you you basically finalize the agenda so it's usually like 30 minutes.

[117:11] no problem at all okay. I love it I love the energy so good um well I love this then let's vote on it and then i'll I will put forward emotion to nominate Michael as chair and Danny as vice chair. Second, second in great all in favor. passes unanimously congratulations so exciting oh my gosh pass the baton. you're not doing anything I feel really excited about that. Right anticlimactic and. it's fine it's a shotgun marriage anybody. exactly right. I love this for you, I love this for both of you this is so good i'm yay.

[118:05] So great well i'm Michael i'm just going to finish off this meeting is doing doing my thing and then you can take the reins of you know next meeting Okay, not this meeting fine it's okay. Sure cool. or not I actually don't really care I don't know I don't know, I said that you wanted to take over. You actually committee. I do. Okay. With the during the meeting beforehand and everything else, but this is years to complete. Though yeah. Okay well i'm. i'm The next item is committee and project liaison reports, is there any anything. To report. tonight.

[119:01] No. I think the only active Community we've got going on right now is the one on tiny houses and was jack out and i'm not sure if human Terry had met or if there's anything new. But definitely part of the meeting when we send out the week before asking people to update us about where they're at on their committees or if they have anything to report that would have been put on the agenda. yeah. so next time. There will be a riveting report. um no problem, we can move on to matters from staff um. And yeah i'm going to turn it over to shea. and To talk about this. We need another volunteer, so this is not to be on the committee but you're just going to be helping to select the Members of this new committee, just to be clear about that, so I don't anticipate it being more than one maybe two meetings at the most.

[120:06] So it's just reviewing applications and then getting together with staff, as well as I believe there's going to be someone from the newer group also helping to select. So any questions about what that involves there's a bit of a description there's a link in the agenda. And i'd say i'm danny's off the hook, since he volunteered to be Vice chair, as well as Michael. A simple question either five there are five spots for the board or for the committee that chooses the individuals on the board. The new committee the tenant Advisory Committee as a five person committee. to select I think is like is four or five.

[121:03] Back at once. I know mason don't you want to do this. What Jay winner, the winner the meetings. They have election meetings. We will we will set them up at your convenience. And how long do you anticipate each meeting running I mean i've never been through a process like that, before, so I have no idea. um I would say maximum of four hour commitment. per meeting or in total Okay, I would volunteer to do that Thank you Julia yeah that's kind of in my wheelhouse and some I have an exit I remember recruiter. Well, and that's going to be. The future 10 advisory committee members will get $1,000 stipend every year, so. I think this it's not going to be that difficult to recruit.

[122:05] Any anything else. Great. Thank you very much to it, so one other thing i'm and I mentioned this earlier, so we have upcoming agendas that we need to think about. So if you have ideas for agenda items, please let Michael myself know now I haven't talked to Michael about this, but my suggestion for the next meeting is that we devote half of it to talking about a brief history of racing class and housing in boulder. And they're a very, very powerful presentation that's done by clay phone in our community relations group talking about the history and I think you guys will really appreciate it. that's one thing I would suggest. But right now I don't have much further remainder of the agenda so keep that in mind.

[123:01] I think that you should. Talk about the listening session like putting together that report. That right up you know after the listening session, I think it was in 2019 the tiny homes one, there was a report that was put together and that was so so helpful so great so eventually. It was duty. A lot of that so someone is going to have to volunteer. Great. Well, you can do that, next time, if you want um yeah. I think that's a great agenda item a really look forward to that and I think it's very. Possible given you know some of the discussion that we have here today, and some of the questions that were. posed from the public and. So yeah I mean i'm very supportive of that I think that'd be great and a lot as much time as we need for that as well.

[124:03] Right related to that topic that Jay mentioned the history of housing, I assume that's going to deal with housing equality. In boulder largely there's some really good. summaries of that short film short podcast we actually use for discussion group we did last month with you ally i'd be happy to forward you links to that, I mean. This is stuff that takes you know 30 minutes to get through it and gives you a lot of information, a thick book like color of law. happy to send it out. i'm great. i'm. Great, are there any other things that needed to come up any other. topics. This point else you want to hear from stuff.

[125:06] mason put a thumbs up. you read about them housed. Study session the update next Tuesday. The memo is out on that as well. As we heard about last night Council the discussion about encampments. mason. Yes, and for anybody who did our City Council meeting last night, even though city council was hit with what one Council Member said. a plethora of a whirlwind of emails. City Council voted to increase. The police department's budget by six officers and three more vehicles to enforce sweeps in boulder at the tune of $1.5 million which that money could have been invested in social programs as well, so it's something to consider when we have the meeting coming up.

[126:19] And the hardships that. Our on house are facing, as well as the fact that we have. it's clear the direction that Council is headed in which is not investing in our public infrastructure and services. needed to actually help service unhappiest but to criminalize them and continue to cause harm so. it's I think it's something important for all of us to be aware of, especially since we are the housing Advisory Board and as we go into future just discussions I don't think it's next week I think they pushed it out to may 26 grade or yeah.

[127:05] I just saw that. yeah so. Just something for all of us to consider as a Community, as we criminalize the poor in the House. What if any position we'd like to take. as individuals, not necessarily as the housing Advisory Board. Before. Thanks mason. Well, said. There any. Anything else. Well it's been fun. i'm sure that you will all. take the reins of this board and ride off into the sunset and do good things i'll be watching from the east coast.

[128:06] don't make me come back here oh. My best to carry on your legacy Charlotte. you'll do brilliantly. Thank you for your service Charlotte. yeah shall I just was really nice work with you to having never got to have a meeting but uh. did a great job and appreciate it, and good luck with. Thank you know. that's beautiful, thank you very much, you did great. Thanks it's been fun. meeting you all. And Charlotte good luck. Thanks all right, well, I will close out this meeting can motion to adjourn. Second. Great all in favor of churning the meeting. All right, good night everyone. bye. bye. bye.