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Home My WebLink AboutHousing Commission Board Minutes November 20, 2023 k**Y�•: i f Lansing Housing COMMISSION 419 Cherry St., Lansing, MI 48933 Telephone: (517)487-6550 Fax: (517)487-6977 Minutes of November 20, 2023 Commissioner Henry called the meeting to order at 5:36 p.m. Mr. Fleming called the roll. PRESENT AT ROLL CALL: Commissioners Emma Henry, Loria Hall, Ashlee Barker, Heather Taylor absent and Don Sober absent. STAFF: Christy Kavanaugh Jennifer Burnette Douglas Fleming Kim Shirey Guests: None Commissioner Hall motioned and Commissioner Barker seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the October 25, 2023, commission meeting. The Motion was approved by all members present. Public Comment: limit 3 minutes per person Informational Items: Finance Report October 2023 • Nothing significant to report. Wrapping up our audit with Plante Morane fiscal year end 6-30-23. Still have a single item outstanding. So far, no findings. Pretty happy with that. • We do have additional funds for an additional contribution to the retirement plan. Which we plan on doing. Housing Choice Voucher October 2023 Jennifer Burnette provided a brief overview of the October 2023 HCV Reports • In the month of October, we issued 19 regular HCV vouchers, 4 VASH orientations and 4 vouchers were issued. • We have 11 that are issued out searching or pending inspection with the VASH. We have 5 that are in the application process. • We have 40 regular HCV that are currently out searching for units. We have 62 applicants that are pending documentation or final approval. They are working through TDD/TTY#: 1-800-545-1833 Ext.919 121 "Equal Housing Opportunity" Lansing Housing Commission Board Meeting January 24,2023 Lansing Housing Commission Minutes November 20,2023 Page 1 of 6 k**Y�•: i f Lansing Housing COMMISSION 419 Cherry St., Lansing, MI 48933 Telephone: (517)487-6550 Fax: (517)487-6977 to get them approved and a voucher to them soon. Then we have 9 units that are approved and pending inspection or pending lease up. Asset Management Report October 2023 Public Housing (PH) Scattered Sites — Christy Kavanaugh • Public Housing Scattered Sites had an occupancy rate of 95% at the end of October. There were zero (0) move-in, one (1) move-outs, and zero (0) transfers. • Our collection rate was 84% • Out of the 5 units that are vacant, I anticipate that within the next week two at most we will get them turned and ready to go. • There was a total of 33 open work orders. Action Items: • By-Laws — we have not updated the By-Laws in many years. A lot of Public Housing Authorities have moved to a CEO model once they go through RAD because you are no longer the executive director of public housing because we are not in public housing anymore, we are managing affordable housing. one of the things that I wanted to do with the by-laws was to incorporate CEO/executive director where it said executive director. Another thing that we did was change he/him to they/them, so it was not so sexist. These are additions I wanted to make. I did reach out to a couple of other public housing authorities to see if they had updated their by-laws which they have and asked if they would send there's to us. I looked at theirs and a lot of the wording was very similar. Some had some unique language in there that I thought was appropriate and I am suggesting we adopt it. The board can obviously amend and change any of the wordings. • The first change is in section 3 - purpose of these by-laws The Commission By-Laws have been established to govern the Board of Commissioners of Lansing Housing Commission. The By-Laws are to be in compliance with the Consolidated Annual Contributions Contract between the Lansing Housing Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and Public Act 18 of the State of Michigan. In the event an applicable law or regulation is modified or eliminated, or a new law or regulation is adopted, the revised law or regulation shall, to the extent consistent with TDD/TTY#: 1-800-545-1833 Ext.919 n "Equal Housing Opportunity" Lansing Housing Commission Board Meeting January 24,2023 Lansing Housing Commission Minutes November 20,2023 Page 2 of 6 _V . Qf Lansing Housing COMMISSION 419 Cherry St., Lansing, MI 48933 Telephone: (517)487-6550 Fax: (517)487-6977 this By-Law, automatically supersede this By-Law. Which means we are voting all the applicable laws affect the public housing authority. • The next section we changed the he's to they. • The next section 2 Vacancies — the changes are based on the way we operate now. It says if a vacancy occurs, in the resident commissioner position, the Chief Executive Officer of the Commission shall send written notice of a vacancy on the Board to the president of each resident organization I put if applicable. We don't have any resident organizations. It says it is mandatory and because we don't have any, I put applicable in there. In case we do have one we have to notify them notice. The notice shall be provided tG eaGh resirJori+ which is a little expensive sending a notice out to every resident. We don't have emails so we would have to send in the mail, and it would cost a couple thousand dollars. I struck that language and added to be published on the LHC website, distributed in the LHC community newsletter, and posted in the common areas of all LHC and subsidiaries properties. • Section 8 is the CEO added. • Section 9 —Added the CEO/ Executive Director and the compensation and benefits of the Executive Director/CEO shall be determined by the commission. There is nothing in the by-laws on how that is done. • The annual meeting section 1 the annual meeting shall be the first regular meeting in I struck that and added following the fiscal year end of the commission. • Section 4 notice of meetings — we don't publicize at City Hall we post on our website. • Section 6 is a violation of our open meetings act. Which is part of our by-laws. I struck the entire section out because it is not legal. • Renumber the next section. • Added next section 7 Attendance — Members of the Commission are expected to attend the meetings of the Commission. Members of the Commission shall be allowed three (3) excused absences per annum. Commissioners shall notify either the President or the Executive Director/CEO if unable to attend a regularly scheduled meeting. If a commissioner exceeds three (3) excused absences from regularly scheduled meetings, the Commission may recommend to the mayor that the Commissioner be relieved of their duties and a new Commissioner appointed by the mayor. It's not mandatory, it's up to this bind if they want to do or not to do that if someone has an attendance issue but the commissioners have that option one way or another. This was in both of the by-laws that were requested so I recommend that we add this to the by-laws as well. Commissioner attendance at training conferences will be discussed at the next meeting. TDD/TTY#: 1-800-545-1833 Ext.919 121 "Equal Housing Opportunity" Lansing Housing Commission Board Meeting January 24,2023 Lansing Housing Commission Minutes November 20,2023 Page 3 of 6 k**Y�•: i f Lansing Housing COMMISSION 419 Cherry St., Lansing, MI 48933 Telephone: (517)487-6550 Fax: (517)487-6977 • Section 2 Time Limits — Individuals will have three minutes to address the board. DesigRated spokespeFSORS fOr grOUPS or organizatiORS will have five MiRutes to address the board. Additional time may be requested by any speaker and will be granted only with the permission of the President, subject to the consent of the Board. I recommend taking out this sentence to make it so someone can't say they are with a group or organization just to get more time. • The next section just adds CEO where Executive Director is. • The amendments section — these by-laws may be amended only with the approval of three (3) members by majority vote of the board. This was put in there because this is how we operate. Three is the majority. The way it reads now a majority could mean 2 people can vote to change. Commissioner Henry motioned and Commissioner Hall seconded a motion to approve these changes to the By-Laws as presented. The Motion was approved by all members present. Discussion Items: • In the packet is the board schedule for 2024. We will probably not have a December board meeting. I don't see a need for one. Other Items: None Deputy Director Comments: • Our waiting list for housing choice voucher opened on November 17 and goes through Wednesday November 22 at 11:59 PM as of 4:45 pm this afternoon we had 2311 people apply. 60 of those people have come into the office and have been assisted to apply. • This is a new feature we started to do the last time we opened the waiting list. There are some folks that don't have access to a computer. The application process is done all online. • The waiting list for our RAD sites also opened — Waverly, Hildebrandt, and Capital City Apartments. They take their applications in person. TDD/TTY#: 1-800-545-1833 Ext.919 n "Equal Housing Opportunity" Lansing Housing Commission Board Meeting January 24,2023 Lansing Housing Commission Minutes November 20,2023 Page 4 of 6 :: : Z i f Lansing Housing COMMISSION 419 Cherry St., Lansing, MI 48933 Telephone: (517)487-6550 Fax: (517)487-6977 • We have an employee that speaks 7 different languages for those who need help understanding the process. Most of the applicants that need help of are middle east decent and those are the languages he is fluent in. Executive Directors Comments: • The holiday party is on December 14th and will be at Ellison Brewing Company. You are invited to come with your spouses. • The clothing options are due to Karen soon so they can get ordered. The clothing will come with our logo. • We had a Thanksgiving party today. There is left over food in the fridge for you. • We did have training to help with communication between everyone in the office. • We had another activity at a corn maze to promote teamwork. • Vic and I went to see Don and he is doing well. Not sure when he will be moved back to Capital City. Development Activities: • We got our 4% tax credit for the property across the road. • CATA wants to come down here as well. We want to have a center that can help with their immediately and then can follow up with them to get the services they need. And they are talking about putting a daycare in there as well. • Baryames might sell to us as well so we would own the entire block where we would have 100 plus units of affordable housing and market rate housing and retail space as well provide the other services. • We have had 6 tax credit deals within the last five years. • Credit to CCA, Sam and Katrina for working through all our issues with all the tax credit deals that we have gone through. • We have serious issues with the City Council, mainly with Adam Hussain. He sat on the dais and does not want to approve anything that has to do with Lansing Housing Commission. I have invited him to several meetings with him and he wouldn't show up. He can't give any examples of any of his issues with Lansing Housing Commission. I have invited him again to meet with my staff next week. I want him to explain all his comments when he was talking about our organization. • 1 am asking for a 5% Pilot for both tax credit projects we have. • CCA has been an amazing partner. TDD/TTY#: 1-800-545-1833 Ext.919 n "Equal Housing Opportunity" Lansing Housing Commission Board Meeting January 24,2023 Lansing Housing Commission Minutes November 20,2023 Page 5 of 6 k**Y�•: i f Lansing Housing COMMISSION 419 Cherry St., Lansing, MI 48933 Telephone: (517)487-6550 Fax: (517)487-6977 Other Activities: • We finally got our occupancy for the other side of our building. President's Comments: Other Business: Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 6:29 p.m. Date Emma Henry Board Chair Date Doug Fleming, Acting Secretary TDD/TTY#: 1-800-545-1833 Ext.919 n "Equal Housing Opportunity" Lansing Housing Commission Board Meeting January 24,2023 Lansing Housing Commission Minutes November 20,2023 Page 6 of 6