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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHousing Catalyst - Minutes - 08/26/1976• THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS M E M O R A N D U M DATE: August 31, 1976 TO: Thee Fort Collins Housing Authority FROM: Mary Ann Kennaugh, Secretary RE: Minutes of the August 26, 1976 Special Meeting I. Called to Order by Chairman Sanchez at 4:30 p.m, in the Community Building, 1715 W. Mountain Avenue. II. Present Were: - -- Members: Staff: Guests: Pete Sanchez John McGraw Jean Grove Mary Klopfenstein Mary Ann Kennaugh Phyllis Grieb Al Kruchten III. Mary Klopfenstein moved approval of the August 12, 1976 minutes, Al Kruchten seconded, and motion passed 3 - 0. IV. The following were points of discussion regarding the proposed Virginia Neal Blue credit counseling training program: -John McGraw gave a brief summary of the history of the credit counseling program. -Al Kruchten asked why the Ft. Collins Housing Authority should pay Virginia Neal Blue for the credit counseling service rather than seek its provision else- where. His question was addressed as follows: Virginia Neal Blue is cur- rently the only agency available in the Ft. Collins area with the available talent and experience to provide the service. Virginia Neal Blue has no conflict of interest, i.e., some of the banks and other businesses contacted have indi- cated that they are hesitant to provide such a service because their own clients would be hesitant to divulge required information out of fear that the bank or business might not agree wtih the consumer's personal priorities and expect more payment than the consumer might feel is reasonable, etc. Virginia Neal Blue considered this rationale applicable to the Housing Authority as well, and therefore, offers it as an additional reason for contracting with Virginia Neal Blue for the service. _ Fort Collins Housing Authority "Minutes of the Augus�, 1976 Special Meeting • Page Two Virginia Neal Blue has made contacts with local banks and other businesses to develop support for the service. In addition, Virginia Neal Blue has made contact with the Denver Credit Counseling Program which currently has service contracts with several of the major department stores in Denver who have branches in Fort Collins. It is hoped that affiliation with the Denver program may help in obtaining funding locally, which would insure the longevity of the program. The Housing Authority Board was apprized of options such as the staff per- forming the consumer access functions and then referring clients to qualified volunteers to assist them. The Board rejected such options on the basis that the conflict of interest for the staff might negate any favorable response from the tenants, that the staff does not have appropriate training, expertise, or experience, and that volunteer services are not reliable. The Housing Authority Board expressed three cautions: 1. That the services must be oriented to long-term self help rather than dependence or the Housing Authority would not be interested; 2. That Virginia Neal Blue should not try to make the service all things to all people, i.e., avoid involvement in advocacy situations which may have their origins in 'financial affairs 'but require legal or other specialized expertise outside the area of credit counseling; 3. That Virginia Neal Blue's prior orientation seems to be toward English speaking women. The authority in Housing Authority tenant homes, generally speaking, is vested in the principal wage earner male heads of households. Therefore, emphasis should be placed on developing functional methods of reaching male heads of households. Based on the above considerations, Al Kruchten moved approval of Housing Authority funding of $2,500.00 for�he training program, Mary Klopfenstein seconded, and motion passed 3 - 0. _ - Phyllis Grieb invited everyone to attend the Virginia Neal Blue Center open house to be held on September 21, 1976 from 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Chairman Sanchez recognized a consensus to postpone discussion of personnel matters until all Housing Authority members were present. V. Meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m. ' • 0 THE CITY OF FORT COLLINS M E M O R A N D U M DATE: August 30, 1976 TO: Ft. Collins Housing Authority Incoming ommunications File FROM: John D. McCraw, Executive Director, RE: . Tele/Com with Betty Tunnel, HUD Housing Production Director, 8/25/76 Betty indicated that reimbursement to PHA's for Section 8 Existing Rent Subsidy -- Program administration would be 8�% of the gross rents or $15.00, which ever _ is the higher. She said she was sure this would be the case on any future unit appropriations and would check to confirm this to be the ease, on the 50 units of Section 8 which we now have and call back. Betty said that the preliminary financing amount authorized is not to be re- turned to HUD and no percentage will be transferred to any subsequent fiscal year after the 1st. She said that Region VIII should be receiving authorization for subsidy funding for 2100 units under the Section 8 Existing Rent Program on or about December 1, 1976 and that if our current project authorization is complete and our appli- cation is in we should have a good chance of receiving program funding for an additional 50 units. She said that HUD would not designate the number of units per unit size to be rented in Fort Collins. She also said that each additional project including our next 50 units would be eligible for preliminary admini- strative funds in an amount at least equivalent to that authorized for our first 50 units. Betty indicated that Dick McCoy, a Fort Collins Developer, had expressed an interest in developing 100 units of family housing under Section 8 New Construction in Fort Collins and that she had referred him to me.