HomeMy WebLinkAbout03/21/2000 Adjourned Meeting 2 304
CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON
MARCH 21, 2000
ADJOURNED MEETING
LUNCHEON MEETING WITH THE YAKIMA HOUSING AUTHORITY
The City Council met in session on this date at 11:30 a.m., in '
the Fir Room, at the Convention Center, 10 North 8th Street,
Yakima, Washington. Mayor Mary Place, presiding, Council Members
John Puccinelli, Clarence Barnett, Lynn Buchanan, Henry
Beauchamp, and Bernard Sims were present. Council Member Larry
Mattson was absent and excused. Dick Zais, City Manager; Glenn
Rice, Assistant City Manager; Marketa George Oliver,
Administrative Assistant to the City Manager; Bill Cook, Director
of Community & Economic Development; Bill Cobabe, Manager of the
Office of Neighborhood Development Services and Tim Jensen,
Accountant were present. Others present included: Brian
Johnson, Yakima Housing Authority Board Member; Steve Foster,
Yakima Housing Authority Board Member; Alice Sells, Executive
Director of the Yakima Housing Authority; Troy Emmons; Ronda
Hutton, Housing 'Manager of the Yakima Housing Authority; Ted
Layton, the Maintenance Supervisor for the Yakima Housing
Authority and Lynne Kittelspn.
Mayor Place called the meeting to order at 11:35 a.m.
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Alice Sells, Executive Director of the Yakima Housing Authority,
made a presentation. She gave some background of the Housing
Authority, its accomplishments and challenges over the past ten
years. She distributed a short summary of the current activities
of the Housing Authority. The Housing Authority Board meetings
are the fourth Wednesday of each month at 9:30 a.m. at 810 North
6th Avenue. Ms. Sells asked the Council for clarification as to
why Troy Emmons was released from his position on the Housing
Authority Board before a successor was appointed, when it clearly
stated in RCW 35.82.040 that a member would hold his /her position
until the successor was appointed. Mayor Place said that Mr. Rice
would look into the matter and get back to Ms. Sells with an
answer to her question.
Ms. Sells said in 1993, Nueva Primavera was just a plan in their
minds, as was Mariposa in 1995 and Glen Acres in 1996. These
projects were all completed in 1999. The City has backed the
bonds in the Nueva Primavera project and Ms. Sells indicated that
she put a financial summary in her report which outlined how they
would be paying the $14,600 bond payments each month. The
Authority has all but 13 units rented.
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There have been several changes in the Housing Authority in the
last six years, including personnel and the purchase of a new
computer system in 1999. The agency is rated annually from the
Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The HUD
rating in 1995 was "Standard ". The rating then went to "High"
for 1996 and 1997 and was "Standard" for 1998. The Yakima
Housing Authority has never been considered a trouble agency in
HUD's rating structure.
The Housing Authority is seeking input from the City Council on
how they can improve and better serve the needs of area
residents. The Board is currently short one commissioner and the
Authority seeks the Council's immediate attention to appointing
one and making the Board complete again.
Council Member Beauchamp asked a question about job training and
about any kind of transitional plan the Authority may have to
move people out of public housing into the private sector.
Ms. Sells said HUD has been encouraging Housing Authorities to do
that and in .their Farm Workers program, approximately 70% of
their clients move on to the private sector. The Yakima Housing
Authority has programs to promote self - sufficiency. For example,
the Authority helps families set up an escrow account to help
them save the money to purchase homes. Bill Cobabe talked about
the Home Buyer's Education Program provided through the Office of
Neighborhood Development Services. He also spoke about the need
to help people acquire maintenance and homeowner skills to become
self - sufficient. Council Member Sims asked about contracting
with the private sector for training. Ms. Sells said that there
is no grant money to pay a private organization to conduct
training.
Ms. Sells talked about the Comprehensive Improvement Grant that
the Housing Authority must apply for each year. These grants are
used to rehabilitate low- income housing that the Authority
manages. Council Member Puccinelli asked what percentage of
Section 8.vouchers is currently being used. This week's count is
at 520 and the Authority can have 573.
Mayor Place asked if there was anything the Housing Authority
could do to require people to be part of an educational program,
parenting program or job training, etc. Ms. Sells responded that
they could not require tenants to undertake those activities.
Council Member Sims talked about the City's grant writer
position. He said if there was grant money available to the
Housing Authority and we were not availing ourselves of it, that
was a real shame. He asked Mr. Zais if there was a. way we could
use the City grants writer to help the Housing Authority.
Council Member Beauchamp commented that the Federal Register is
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published weekly and is on the Internet. It provides a good deal
of information about available grants and is a quick way to
monitor what is available. Mr. Zais said that the Housing
Authority is a public agency that the City created. He said Mike
Morales, the City's grant writer, is available to the City and
agencies working with the City and offered to provide assistance.
Mayor Place talked about the anti - graffiti efforts and asked what
the Yakima Housing Authority policy was towards removing
graffiti. The Post Office has offered to clean their mailboxes.
Mr. Layton, the Authority Maintenance Supervisor, commented that
if he sees the graffiti, it is removed within a day or two.
Graffiti washes off of the siding that they put on their units.
Council Member Sims said the Council has been meeting with
landlords and from the landlords' point of view, the Yakima
Housing Authority is taking business away from them. Mr. Foster
said that he is a landlord and has never had problems renting his
properties and does not think the Housing Authority is in
competition with other rentals. Mr. Foster pointed out that the
landlords are probably experiencing the same impact on their
rentals as the Authority because interest rates are so low that
people are buying homes instead of renting. He thinks as rates
rise, the rental market will again be used more.
There was a discussion about senior housing and the need for
increased senior housing. Mr. Layton said from a maintenance
standpoint, senior housing was also a good investment because
they take care of the units. Council Member Puccinelli said
there was a lot of senior housing around Yakima that was not
being filled, such as Sun Towers and Chestnut Manor. He has some
concerns about using government money to expand a program that
may not need to be expanded and he did not want to use government
money to compete with the private sector. The private sector was
building a great deal of senior housing and it was not
necessarily a need that should be addressed by the Housing
Authority. Ms. Sells said any builder, including the Housing
Authority, should conduct a needs assessment and if the need is
not there they will not push for senior housing. Council Member
Sims said he also found the voucher system to be a positive
contribution to the community. Mr. Puccinelli said the voucher
system is a win -win for the citizen who needs help and for the
landlord who is trying to make a living and maintain his
property.
Mr. Beauchamp expressed concern about people who could not obtain
housing because they could not pass a credit check. Ms. Sells
said that in checking credit, they automatically eliminate any
medical bills. Then, they look at whether or not the person has
$3,000 or less in outstanding bills. If the people have more
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MARCH 21, 2000 - MEETING WITH THE YAKIMA HOUSING AUTHORITY
307
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than $3,000 but have made arrangements and efforts to pay those
bills, they will accept them. If the people have run up bills
and made no effort to pay the bills, the Housing Authority will
refer them to a credit counselor.
Council Member Puccinelli said he was under the impression that
there was a housing shortage in the area and then Nueva Primavera
was opened and it was not filled. It was necessary to take out
television ads, etc. to get people interested. Mr. Puccinelli
said it lends credence to the private sector's position that
there is too much government housing. Ms. Sells said they used
television ads.because they found TV ads were more successful and
cost effective than newspaper or radio. Also, Primavera is not a
government subsidy program. The different units are rented at
different prices, based on how much a family makes and what kind
of unit it is. The prices range from $440 to $760 per month.
Mr. Puccinelli said that there were properties in the paper
'renting for less.
The Council then discussed convening the subcommittee to appoint
a new Board member to the Yakima Housing Authority Board.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:00 p.m.
READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY: CR
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/ O PICIL MEM:ER -L DAT
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CO CIL MEMi R DATE
ATTEST:
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City Clerk Mary Place, Mayor
Minutes prepared by Marketa George Oliver. An audio of this meeting is
available in the City Clerk's Office
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