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HomeMy WebLinkAbout5.19.25 HCDC PacketIf you will need disability-related accommodations to participate in this program or event, please contact Brianna Thul at bthul@iowa-city.org or 319-356-5240. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. Next Meeting: June 16, 2025 HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (HCDC) May 19, 2025 Regular Meeting – 6:30 PM Emma J. Harvat Hall 410 E Washington Street (City Hall) AGENDA: 1. Call to Order 2. Consideration of Meeting Minutes: April 21, 2025 3. Public Comment of Items not on the Agenda Commentators shall address the commission for no more than five minutes. Commissioners shall not engage in discussion with the public concerning said items. 4. Shelter House Presentation Shelter House staff will give an overview of services provided for people experiencing homelessness as well as street outreach efforts. 5. Staff & Commission Updates This item includes an opportunity for brief updates from staff and Commissioners. Commissioners shall not engage in discussion on updates. 6. Adjournment MINUTES DRAFT HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION APRIL 21, 2025 – 6:30 PM FORMAL MEETING EMMA J. HARVAT HALL, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Horacio Borgen (via zoom), Maryann Dennis, Amos Kiche, George Kivarkis, Kyle Vogel MEMBERS ABSENT: Daouda Balde, Karol Krotz STAFF PRESENT: Sue Dulek, Erika Kubly, Brianna Thul OTHERS PRESENT: None RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: By a vote of 5-0 the Commission recommends that City Council approve the proposed change to the by- laws to change from a nine-person Commission to a seven-person Commission. By a vote of 5-0 the Commission recommends that a staggered 2-2-3 appointment schedule for the Commission beginning in 2025. By a vote of 5-0 the Commission recommends that City Council discharge Daouda Balde from the HCDC. CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Vogel called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: MARCH 24, 2025: Dennis moved to approve the minutes of March 24, 2025. Kiche seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the minutes were approved 5-0. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR TOPICS NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. CONSIDER A RECOMMENDATION TO AMEND THE HCDC BY-LAWS: Vogel explained that at the last meeting the Commission discussed the reasoning for changing the membership and stated tonight was another prime example where they could not get the number of members present needed to have a quorum. Luckily, Borgen was able to join by Zoom. Also, currently there are only seven active members and there's two vacancies. Dulek provided an overview of the memo in the packet and noted the Commission doesn’t have to make a recommendation as to the how they move to a seven member group, but they can provide their input for City Council. She also suggests that they consider staggering the membership. Currently there are three members with terms that will end in 2025, one member’s term that will end in 2026, as well as the two vacancies right now would be for terms expiring in 2026. Dulek noted that Commissioner Kiche’s term has already been renewed to the end of 2028 so if the Commission wants just two terms to expire in 2028, they would have only one open vacancy to start this summer because Commissioner Kiche is Agenda Item #2 Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2025 Page 2 of 5 2 already appointed to serve through 2028. The Commission also plans to discuss potential discharge of a current Commissioner on the next item and that would change the number of available vacancies. Vogel stated regarding the recommendations he really likes the 2/2/3 and maybe it would make sense to put Kiche in one of those first sections as the one that would end in 2028 since he's already been appointed. Vogel will serve through 2026 and would probably offer to serve again unless Council decided otherwise. Then the three that end in 2027 are Kivarkis, Krotz and Balde. He likes the idea of three appointments ending in 2028. Dennis asked if they have to fill one year terms and two year terms, could the applicant specify what they are interested in? Dulek confirmed they could and that Council could also consider appointing for the one year term plus a full next term. She noted Council is aware of the conversation regarding going from nine members to seven and that's why they haven't made appointments. Kivarkis asked how long it would take to transition to seven members. Dulek explained that the next steps would be a Rules Committee meeting and then perhaps at the second meeting in May, Council can decide whether they agree to go to a seven person Commission. Kivarkis moved to recommend that City Council approve the proposed change to the by-laws to change from a nine-person Commission to a seven-person Commission. Motion seconded by Kiche and passed with a vote of 5-0. Kivarkis moved to recommend a staggered 2-2-3 appointment schedule for the Commission beginning in 2025. Motion seconded by Kiche and passed with a vote of 5-0. CONSIDER A RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL TO DISCHARGE COMMISSIONER: Vogel stated that Daouda Balde was appointed to the Commission. Last October, he did come to one meeting, but since then they've been unable to communicate with him. He noted City staff has reached out via mail and phone. Vogel is asking that the Commission make the recommendation to Council to discharge Balde from his position so that they have a slot open for a new interested party to serve. Kiche noted looking at the attendance report in the agenda packet, it shows Balde only attended one out of the four meetings and two of the absences are marked OE, which means they are excused. Looking at the by-laws of the Commission, Section E states three consecutive, unexplained absences of a member from regular meetings will result in a recommendation to the City Council from the Commission to discharge said member and appoint a new member. At this moment, it appears that the Commissioner, who is not here, has not missed three consecutive meetings. Thul explained that all absences in the minutes have been recorded as excused because there is not an established criteria for what is considered excused and what isn’t. This year staff have moved towards what other board and commission do by using “present” and “absent” in the minutes instead. Thul continued that staff have not had any communication with this Commissioner explaining the absences. They’ve tried phone calls, emails, and mail. Staff sent a letter in January about the general importance of attending Commission meetings. Additionally, prior to this meeting, staff sent a letter via mail and email letting him know that this item would be on the agenda. They also sent a copy of the packet. Vogel noted one more important piece of clarification is that only the dates of meetings they were actually able to hold are shown on the attendance list. There were meetings the Commission had to cancel because of lack of quorum as well and he did not respond to those meeting invites either. So there has been more than three unexplained absences. Thul stated that there are people that have missed meetings that have reached out to say that they couldn’t attend. Those are treated differently than unexplained absences. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2025 Page 3 of 5 3 Kiche noted it is important to have all that information in the public record so all can see the issue. Thul can see how it would be helpful to show the meetings that were cancelled due to lack of quorum in the attendance sheet as well for transparency. She has seen other boards and commissions do that in the minutes. Kiche supports this. It is important to note situations where they have those long duration vacancies because it puts the Commission in a very bad situation. Vogel agreed that they should note who was present even if the meeting is cancelled so Council can see who is making the effort to show up. Dennis agreed and stated she researched other City boards and commissions and found that the HCDC is one of the largest with nine members. She continued that the Commission has missed two meetings that are really important to the community. Borgen agrees with the smaller commission and added that participating is one of the best things they can give to the Commission. Dulek stated next steps is Balde will get a letter if the Commission votes to remove him. It will go on the City Council agenda, and he will have the opportunity to come to City Council and explain if he wants to resist it. The resolution will clarify what meetings he did not attend and that it was without explanation. Commissioners thanked Dulek. Dennis moved to recommend that City Council discharge Daouda Balde from the HCDC. Motion seconded by Kivarkis and passed with a vote of 5-0. STAFF & COMMISSION UPDATES: Thul noted this week is National Community Development Week and pointed out two flyers in the packet that highlight the impact of the federal Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnership Program funds. The flyers include some of the local projects that have come through recommendations from the Commission. Thul continued that the National Community Development Association released a CDBG impact report today that was sent to all congressional offices to showcase the importance of the CDBG program and to call for a funding increase. DVIP’s new shelter was featured in the report. April is also Fair Housing Month and there's a press release in the packet that has some educational opportunities and general information about housing discrimination. Kubly noted tomorrow the Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition is hosting a bus tour for people to showcase affordable housing projects. One is at the Peninsula on 1310 Foster Rd, which is a rental housing partnership with The Housing Fellowship that the Housing Authority owns and manages. They will also be driving by the North Summit property that they intend to develop. Vogel noted that the previous chair, Kaleb Beining, attended the bus tour and had a positive experience. Kubly agreed and encouraged commissioners to attend in future years if they are interested. Vogel stated something he would like to discuss is the issue with low barrier temporary housing, like the homeless camps around town. There's nothing in the housing code that really addresses it. He acknowledged it puts the housing inspectors in a tight spot when they're trying to tread the line of “everybody needs to follow the rules,” but at the same time, trying to be considerate and understanding of people that are in situations of need. Dennis noted it’s happening all over the country, and the City should not adopt what other communities have done, such as fines and or incarceration. That is taking a step backwards. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2025 Page 4 of 5 4 Vogel agrees and thinks they need to go the other way and have protections in place in the housing code that would protect low barrier housing to be established because right now there are no rules. Dennis stated it might help to have the staff person from the shelter come in and really talk about what they're doing to go out and try and connect with folks. It can take a long time, especially when somebody has significant mental illness, to get them to even respond and not want to flee. Kivarkis thinks it's almost impossible to find a general solution for an individual problem. To understand and connect to these people, to help them if they are willing to receive help is a good idea but it’s a very complex situation. Kiche stated regarding the situation of homelessness, he was on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and they were looking for some data on homelessness across the state, but for some reason they didn't get anything. They did not show up even to give a presentation on the situation. He noted the City did a survey during the planning process this year, but he hasn’t looked at that report yet. They need to look at that report and really dig deep on the situation of collecting data. They will need a lot of information to help the City Council make decisions. Vogel asked staff to put something together from Shelter House for a future agenda. It would be good to know what kind of access they have to facilities. Thul stated they will add an that to a future agenda. Normally at the May meeting they would have the Annual Action Plan on the agenda, but it may be June before the Commission sees that because of the delays with the federal budget. Kiche stated he was looking at the reports they got. The people who receive the CDBG grants always send a report on whom they are serving and things like that. He is interested in how people served are showing progress because they could be serving the same persons every cycle. If they’re just interested in the counts to justify things, that is easy, but he also wants to see the issue of efficiency and how well are people graduating from some of the programs. They might also want to see waiting lists of those who want services but can't get them because there are fewer capacities. Dennis noted a lot of that information will come through with the applications that they receive. Thul stated that the agencies also submit narrative data that may speak to that. With 20 agencies, staff try not to overwhelm the Commission with pages and pages of narrative, but if they're interested in reading that information staff can definitely provide that as well. ADJOURNMENT: Dennis moved to adjourn, Kivarkis seconded the motion and a vote was taken and the motion passed 5- 0. Housing and Community Development Commission April 21, 2025 Page 5 of 5 5 Housing and Community Development Commission Attendance Record 2023-2025 Key: P = Present A = Absent * = Resigned -- = Vacant Name Terms Exp. 10/19 11/16 3/21 4/18 5/16 6/13 8/19 9/16 10/21 3/24 4/21 Balde, Daouda 6/30/27 -- -- -- -- -- -- A A P A A Borgen, Horacio 6/30/25 -- -- A A P P P A A P P Dennis, Maryann 6/30/25 P P P P P P P P P P P Kiche, Amos 6/30/25 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- P P Kivarkis, George 6/30/27 -- -- -- -- -- -- P P A P P Krotz, Karol 6/30/27 P P A A P P A P P A A Patel, Kiran 6/30/26 A P A A P P P P P * * Pierce, James 6/30/26 P P A P P P A P A * * Szecsei, Denise 6/30/25 -- P P P P A P A P * * Vogel, Kyle 6/30/26 A P P P A A P P P P P