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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuman Services and Housing Funding Board - MINUTES - 04/30/2024 Human Services & Housing Funding Board SPECIAL MEETING April 30, 2024 at 5:30 PM 222 Laporte Ave, Fort Collins – Colorado River Room Additional viewing option via Zoom 4/30 /2024 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER • At 5:42 PM the meeting was called to order by Pat Hastings. 2. ROLL CALL • Board Members Present o Pat Hastings, Chair o Olga Duvall, Vice Chair o Erma Woodfin o Lori Kempter o Michaela Ruppert o Mike Kulisheck o Mike Nielsen • Board Members Excused o Christine Koepnick • Staff Members Present o Adam Molzer, Staff Liaison, Social Sustainability – City of Fort Collins o Beth Rosen, Social Sustainability – City of Fort Collins o Sue Beck-Ferkiss, Social Sustainability – City of Fort Collins o Megan Gallagher, Social Sustainability – City of Fort Collins o Tamra Leavenworth, Social Sustainability – City of Fort Collins • Community Members in Attendance o Kim Iwanski, CARE Housing o Tatiana Zentner, CARE Housing o Alex Statham-Lardner, Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity o Mara Johnson, Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity o Kristin Fritz, Housing Catalyst o Linda Wright, Loveland Housing Authority o Nathan Szanton, The Szanton Company Due to the duration and extent of the housing preliminary grant review, the summary of the meeting reflected in the minutes below may not include all details of the HSHF-Board’s discussion. For further information, details and insight, and audio recording, resources are available by contacting the HSHF-Board staff liaison. 3. AGENDA REVIEW Adam Molzer reviewed the agenda. The Board accepted the agenda without modification. Human Services & Housing Funding Board SPECIAL BOARD MEETING 4/30 /2024 – MINUTES Page 2 4. COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION Guests from the public introduced themselves. No additional public comments. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – March 27, 2024 Special Meeting & April 3, 2024 Regular Meeting Erma Woodfin motioned to approve the March 27, 2024 meeting minutes as presented. Michaela Ruppert seconded. Approved 7-0. Olga Duvall motioned to approve the April 3, 2024 meeting minutes as presented. Michaela Ruppert seconded. Approved 7-0. 6. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS None. 7. STAFF REPORTS Adam Molzer informed the Board that next week’s meeting on Wednesday, May 8, would be held in-person at the Foothills Activity Center. 8. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. 9. NEW BUSINESS a. Deliberations to Formulate Funding Recommendations – CDBG Public Services (renewal funding) • Beth Rosen provided a brief overview of the CDBG Public Service funds to the Board, explaining that since these awards were originally allocated in FY22, FY24 is the second and final year the Board must consider and vote on renewal funding. CDBG Public Service funds are distributed to organizations that provide emergency sheltering and services or provide housing stabilization services. The funds are distributed in percentages (of the eligible CDBG funding total for Public Service) over a multi-year period. • Beth Rosen gave an overview of each organization’s funding request, what the funds will be used for, how many clients will be served, and the organization’s progress over the last year. Several board members followed up with clarifying questions for Beth. • Olga Duvall motioned to approve the 2024 CDBG Public Service funding recommendations at the percentages presented. Erma Woodfin seconded. Approved 6-0-1. Lori Kempter abstained. • The CDBG Public Service funds will be renewed for FY24 as follows: o Catholic Charities – Samaritan House Fort Collins Shelter – Funding TBD (31% of available funding) o Crossroads Safehouse – Domestic Violence Emergency Shelter Advocacy – Funding TBD (26% of available funding) o Family Housing Network of Fort Collins, Inc. – Family Housing Network Shelter Program – Funding TBD (11% of available funding) o Neighbor to Neighbor, Inc. – N2N Housing Solutions – Direct Rental Assistance – Funding TBD (32% of available funding) Human Services & Housing Funding Board SPECIAL BOARD MEETING 4/30 /2024 – MINUTES Page 3 b. Deliberations to Formulate Project Ranked Order for Funding – Affordable Housing • The Affordable Housing Board’s rankings of the housing proposals were presented. • A total of 8 proposals were submitted, requesting $4.8 million total for housing projects and programs. Adam Molzer explained that the Board would first vote to support funding for each project, then rank each project in order of priority. • Beth Rosen provided an overview of the funding considerations and reviewed the Housing Strategic Plan goals, encouraging Board members to consider how each project relates to these goals when making their decisions. • Pat Hastings motioned to support funding for HO-1 CARE Housing. Olga Duvall seconded. Approved 7-0. • Pat Hastings motioned to support funding for HO-2 City of Fort Collins Forestry Division. Lori Kempter seconded. Approved 5-2. Opposed by Olga Duvall and Mike Kulisheck. • Opposing Board members explained that they did not think affordable housing funds were the appropriate funding source for HO-2 City of Fort Collins Forestry Division. • Olga Duvall motioned to support funding for HO-3 Habitat for Humanity. Lori Kempter seconded. Approved 7-0. • Olga Duvall motioned to support funding for HO-4 Housing Catalyst Remington Parking Lot. Lori Kempter seconded. Approved 4-3. Opposed by Michaela Ruppert, Erma Woodfin, and Pat Hastings. • Opposing Board members expressed concern that HO-4 Housing Catalyst Remington Parking Lot anticipates needing to return to the Competitive Process in 2025 and that they need more time to refine their funding request. • Olga Duvall motioned to support funding for HO-5 Housing Catalyst Village on Eastbrook. Mike Nielsen seconded. Approved 7-0. • Olga Duvall motioned to approve funding for HO-6 L’Arche Fort Collins. Seconded by Mike Kulisheck. The motion fails 4-3. Opposed by Mike Nielsen, Lori Kempter, Michaela Ruppert, and Erma Woodfin. • The Board engaged in discussion about HO-6 L’Arche Fort Collins – expressing concern about the small number of people served in relation to the cost of the project and the unintended consequences of the caretakers’ housing and occupation being interconnected. Board members also discussed that this project would move forward regardless of funding from the Competitive Process, since the funding request serves to fully eliminate project debt. • Mike Nielsen motioned to support funding for HO-7 Loveland Housing Development. Erma Woodfin seconded. Approved 7-0. • Erma Woodfin motioned to not support funding for HO-8 The Szanton Company. Lori Kempter seconded. Approved 7-0. • The Board engaged in discussion about HO-8 The Szanton Company – expressing that the project seems too early in the process to support funding at this time. It was also unclear if they were targeting Human Services & Housing Funding Board SPECIAL BOARD MEETING 4/30 /2024 – MINUTES Page 4 households earning no more than 80% Area Median Income. The Board encourages the applicant to return next year if appropriate based on the final details of the project. • Board members asked Beth Rosen what would happen if a project ranked in such a way that it would only receive partial funding. Beth explained that the project would get a conditional commitment for the balance of the funds remaining, with the expectation that they would take the partial funding to secure tax credits and other required funding and return to the Competitive Process later to fill their remaining funding gap. • Erma Woodfin motioned to recommend allocating funding to all supported projects in rank order until the funds are exhausted. If a project later withdraws their proposal, funding would be made available to the next eligible prioritized project. Mike Nielsen seconded. Mike Kulisheck proposed a friendly amendment to move HO-2 City of Fort Collins Forestry Division to Priority #5 and HO-4 Housing Catalyst Remington Parking Lot to Priority #6. Erma Woodfin and Mike Nielsen accepted the friendly amendment. The final priority ranking list was presented as follows: Priority #1 – HO-5: Housing Catalyst – Village on Eastbrook Priority #2 – HO-7: Loveland Housing Development – Larimer Home Improvement Program Priority #3 – HO-3: Fort Collins Habitat for Humanity – Harmony Cottages Priority #4 – HO-1: CARE Housing – Greenbriar-Windtrail Rehab Priority #5 – HO-2: City of Fort Collins Forestry Division – Tree Removal Assistance Program Priority #6 – HO-4: Housing Catalyst – Remington Parking Lot Motion to pass the FY24 prioritization as presented passed 7-0. Housing projects are ranked in priority order. If a project receives funding through the City from another source and/or withdraws their proposal, the funding recommendation will be withdrawn, and funds will be made available to the next eligible, prioritized project. 10. OTHER BUSINESS • Adam Molzer shared that he went through the process of standardizing the Board’s scoring of the Human Service grant proposals. He presented the results to the Board to see if they would like to use the standardized scores or raw scores for tomorrow’s deliberations. The Board decided they would like to use the raw scores. 11. NEXT MEETINGS Wednesday, May 1, 2024 | 4:00pm | Location: 222 Laporte Avenue – Colorado River Room • Funding Deliberation Special Meeting – Human Services 13. ADJOURNMENT Pat Hastings adjourned meeting at 8:15 PM. Minutes were finalized and approved by the Human Services & Housing Funding Board on May 8, 2024.