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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. • 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. MARCH 21, 2000 - MEETING WITH THE YAKIMA HOUSING AUTHORITY 305 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 2 30 6 MARCH 21, 2000 - MEETING WITH THE YAKIMA HOUSING AUTHORITY 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 3 MARCH 21, 2000 - MEETING WITH THE YAKIMA HOUSING AUTHORITY 307 • 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 / 1 ma O / O PICIL MEM:ER -L DAT / CO CIL MEMi R DATE ATTEST: 4L City Clerk Mary Place, Mayor Minutes prepared by Marketa George Oliver. An audio of this meeting is available in the City Clerk's Office 4