Budget — HRD / DBA (Housing & Revitalization Department / Detroit Building Authority)

2:00PM Mar 14, 2024

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Morning everyone. And welcome to the expanded Budget and Budget Finance and Audit standing committee. As we our budget hearings, Mr. Clerk, would you please call the roll? Councilmember Scott Benson. Tonight.

Councilmember fragile holds a third present.

Councilmember Leticia Johnson, Councilmember Gabriel Santiago Romero. Councilmember Mary Walters. Councilmember Angela Whitfield Callaway. Mr.

Clerk, we do have a memo indicating member Callaway is absent so it is excused.

The clerk was so no. Councilmember Coleman Young second. Council President Pro Tem James State Council President Mary Sheffield. Mr.

Clerk, we do have a memo from council president indicating that she would not be present so her absence is excused as well.

The clerk also know there is a quorum present.

Thank you. We have a quorum, which means we're now in session. Good morning to HRD. Director Schneider and Team Thank you for being here. The floor is yours.

Thank you and good morning to this honorable body. I going to start a presentation but first of all introduce ourselves at the table. My name is Julie Schneider. I'm the director of the housing and revitalization department. One

second, I know we often get complaints about the low mics and we can turn up director Snyder's mic please. Can you say a couple of words

Good morning.

Still sounds the same. Alright, so we will allow you to continue but to media services we can please turn up that mic and looks like you're doing everything you can as mic is turned in your direction and then this on the floor is yours, man.

Good morning. And thank you for allowing us to be able to present our proposed budget for 2425 My name is Julie Schneider. I am the director of the housing and revitalization department we're in council I am Val Miller hrdf Chief of Staff

Good morning, Jonas Braxton Williams,

a CFO housing revitalization department

Good morning to this honorable body. So I am honored to be able to present the work of the housing and revitalization department. We are together about 240 people strong and our work each day is to soundly and transparently invest funds and deliver services to ensure that housing and neighborhoods are high quality affordable and accessible to and for all Detroiters. I opened with a mission because I want to make sure that to provide an introduction to the department to those of us to those that might be viewing that aren't familiar but also emphasize what drives our work each day. So we are made up of five depart five divisions within the department. Three our programmatic meaning they are delivering programs and services, such as development and investment they they invest in affordable housing, they invest in public facilities, housing stability services, providing seven tenant navigation services, and this division also administers homelessness services as well as a number of other housing stability programs, Home Repair and neighborhood services, where you'll find our home repair teams as well. As our neighborhood opportunity and neighborhood beautification programs. Supporting All of that is our administration and finance team which provides HUD grant compliance, internal financial and administrative management on our departmental programmatic operations team that provide programmatic evaluation and work to make sure that our operational policies are are adhered to and inconsistent. So our our budget this year, like in previous years, is comprised of hud hud funding, which is received through federal allocations made each year based on the congressional budgets and then by formula flows to local jurisdictions such as ours as well as general funding. So for the proposed 2425 budget 28 point 4 million in general fund dollars, were estimating 32.3 In CDBG, 2.8 and ESG 9.1 In our home partnership funding, and 101,000 in HOPWA. The actual grant for HOPWA is larger than that we were we utilize those dollars to provide compliance and oversight functions, but the grant is closer to probably about 2.6 million in estimate for next year, but that is administered through the Health Department. So throughout this presentation, I'm going to go through what our proposed budget is for next year as well as to really understand the work of the department. We administer and we are currently administering a number of one time funds. So that might be the Choice Neighborhoods grant that could be disaster recovery funding, American rescue plan Act funding, home ARP funding which was a separate allocation so that totals about 250 million of all of those various sources of funds. And so again, to make sure that I'm presenting a kind of the breadth of the work of the department, I'll be going through both the proposed and the kind of supplementary funding that we're also managing. So to start wanted to talk about affordable housing. So since 2018, we've been working to implement the the affordable housing strategy that was released then, since that time we've preserved 9600 units created another 1800 66% of which are affordable to households between zero and 50% of the area median income. This is a large part of our work to make sure that we're building the pipeline and then investing in the preservation and development of housing for next year for the 2425 year. We have proposed $12.2 million to support these services, consisting of our home allocation and anticipated program income as well as $3.1 million in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. Supplemental to that our Choice Neighborhood grant the home SRP and ARPA funding that has been dedicated to affordable housing. We anticipate that in 2024 1063 units will start construction within the year. Another thing that people commonly associate with our department and a major part of our business, are home repairs. So wanted to give you a sense of home repair completion in the past year, which was about a doubling of production within the past year led, that doubling was really pushed by renewing Detroit and additional operational efficiencies we've we've achieved in the program 265 were completed by renewed Detroit 245 Senior emergency repairs 108 lead and you see 52 and 0% interest so for the 2425 year, we're proposing $8 million of community development block grant funding split between senior emergency which is also in the budget as the conventional home repair and $4 million and a lead hazard grant match. So we received lead hazard dollars we match those dollars so that we're able to complete emergency repairs in addition to the lead hazard repairs as required by those HUD grant dollars. Along with those dollars, we are currently managing $101 million in additional grant funding balances the driver of the largest share of those dollars is the ARPA renew program, the basement backup protection which was kicking off this spring as we're taking applications now. And the lead hazard funding as well totaling 101 million for just so you have a sense of when those dollars are being deployed. On this chart. You see those dollars next to the potential the expected timelines of when the current dollars excluding the proposed dollars will be drawn and spent it within the last year and a half. We've made major expansions in the housing stability services that the department offers primarily through the launching of Detroit housing services and the housing resource navigation services. That they provide. Within the last year if they've helped to rehouse 700 households or 2000 residents to permanent housing through their their case management services, they launched the Detroit helpline which connects Detroiters to over 15 programs related to housing stability, such as the Detroit tax relief, fun utility assistance, downpayment assistance and others. We've also this division encompasses the housing solutions division, which manages and deploys funds to help Detroiters who are experiencing or at risk of of homelessness. Within the past year we've provided funding to help expand to shelters, or expand shelter services through two shelters, the fox Family Center and the Pope Francis center. The Fox Family Center recently came online and is working to is accepting clients through the cam and the Pope Francis center will open later this year. So within the 2425 budget, we're proposing $10.2 million. This includes the homeless public service ESG allocation, as well as a homeless public service CDBG match. And then as I believe has been mentioned by the mayor, as we're proposing 5 million additional dollars to provide services to persons who are unhoused. We will utilize those dollars to expand shelters but also make sure that comprehensively between this entire allocation we're working to permanently house households as well. So we are making sure that if people want shelter that that that's available, but it's also important that we work on outflow from shelters to make sure that people are permanently housed and in shelter for extended periods of time. So in addition to those dollars, you see we have $25.8 million that we're managing in complementary services. That includes the Detroit Housing Network, tenant navigation services provided by Detroit housing service, the Detroit Housing Service division within HRD. And we have some ARPA funding related to prevention and diversion. And tax foreclosure prevention as well. Lastly, I'll touch on the neighborhood and community development. So this is 22 and 23. They've wanted to focus on the neighborhood beautification grants and the neighborhood Opportunity Fund. So far for the neighborhood beautification. Grants. We've awarded 81 grants, totaling $1.1 million. And I as I was mentioning in my our presentation yesterday, those those grants are being awarded in each district within the city of Detroit. It's really giving an opportunity for smaller neighborhood groups to really bring to life visions that they've had and we're really enjoying being able to help support that and the neighborhood Opportunity Fund. In addition to the regular CDBG dollars that we administer annually. We've also added additional services through through ARPA to really

allow smaller organizations to be competitive for those those grants. We saw an increased list of applicants in the round that we awarded that is in next year's proposed to be a next year's budget, but just to give you a sense of performance from the past and how how important these dollars are to serving residents in the 22 cycle. We served 36,000 nearly nearly 37,000 households through with our community partners administering these programs split between those those various activities that you see. So in next year's proposed budget, we have $5 million. Were between the neighborhood Opportunity Fund Neighborhood Improvement Fund and GT YT. And then additional funding through the neighborhood beautification fund, a neighborhood Opportunity Fund and I want to note that all of those additional dollars are balances and not not the starting amount that we when we started administering those programs. So just want to conclude with a couple of things that aren't that I know are of interest to this council and the public. So downpayment assistance was a program that was very successful in 23. We expect to launch again in in May of this year. Office of Immigrant Affairs and economic inclusion is a division within HRD they are completing a strategic plan that was funded through that this council, I believe, last year and so we're completing that work, accessibility study and fair housing awareness. That work has also kicked off. We're currently doing interviews and focus groups with with with Detroiters with property managers to really understand concerns and needs around that particular service. And lastly, public facilities rehab. So you will not see that in the proposed budget. And the reason being is that we you might recall that we paused that program a couple of years ago to change some some the way that we were administering it to help organizations develop more shovel ready projects. We have 16 Master facilities plans that were that were completed last year. We're putting on a NOFA in the next couple of weeks to make $3 million available that $3 million is coming from both the American rescue plan act as well as previous fiscal year budgets such as this one that haven't been expended. So typically we put about a million dollars a year into that this year will will put out $3 million through a NOFA but did not recommend funding in the in the proposed budget but believe what the $3 million that we have, we'll be able to respond to the to the requests based on those master masters facility plans that have been created through those organizations. So I will conclude my remarks there and take questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Director tonight. We will start with questions and I will start from left to my right. And we'll go with a member vice member Darrow.

Thank you, President Pro Tem. So obviously we have opportunity. First let me say good morning. I'm sorry. We have an opportunity to see you a lot in PD. And just saw yesterday in our discussions. And so I don't have very many questions. We sit submit and have dialogue with you constantly. But just want to talk about the affordable housing development and preservation fund. We're talking about seven about a 73% increase when we talk about these additional funds being allocated to support affordable housing and preservation. What are some of our key focuses just coming up within this next year to expand that with the increase in funding

through the chair to Councilmember Durva I think we're the council has been extremely supportive on affordable housing, investment and the need to support that so I you know, that's it's been so valuable to have that support as we move this work along. So, we have as I mentioned about one 1063 units that we believe are going to start construction this year. There's still additional in order to meet that goal we there's additional finances that are needed to complete those financial stacks and be able to bring those developments to fruition. So the affordable housing development and preservation fund also allows us to support homelessness services. And last year we started an investing in the coordinated assessment model or the cam so that work will continue. Also we as as a as of within the last few months have been making good on the work for HRD to begin compliance requirements for for tax abatements for affordable for the affordable housing component of that network has also supported through the affordable housing development and preservation fund. So the the need for the fun is it as traditionally been supporting affordable housing but now it's also supporting unsheltered individuals as well. Or people who might be at risk of being so and so the 3.1 is an expansion it that from previous years, it's necessary as our portfolio of potential projects has expanded as we've really worked to develop that pipeline with developers and so those additional funds will support that work.

Thank you. You kind of answered where I was going with my second question. I noticed obviously in this budget, there are three new cost centers that we're looking at the Occupy buyback outreach, homeless services and immigration affairs, love to have more specificity on that I won't ask that question today because I know they'll probably still be built out as well. But this my last question is a very general question about our increased budget actually, you know, or obviously when we talk about HRD and we talk about housing. We get funding from the federal government. So we're talking about HUD with our increased budget, what are some just some key components that we plan to work and partner with state departments, whether that be or authorities whether that'd be Mr. Or even HUD to ensure that we are all on the same page and have some somewhat of a similar vision to move housing forward, here in the city of Detroit.

Thank you and through the chair. So we've done a number of things within the last year to really think about not just the kind of traditional ways that we've engaged but also ways that we might engage in in the future for example, the policy team within HRD has been working with with Michiga to understand are there and also with within the the city of Detroit and CPC and the planning department to understand how we might kind of create more development ready or infill ready neighborhoods. Do we have policies and practices that that encourage that or make that more challenging? So that's one of the things that that we've been working on, as well as talking about what are what are ways that we can coordinate to make sure that the pipeline is is moving more quickly that we are coordinated around what our priorities are? We have I believe there's some new programs that the state will be announcing soon that we believe that Detroit will be a strong candidate to receive some of those funds. The governor and in her state of the state address mentioned really investing in housing statewide and we believe our partnerships with Mr will really help us to be competitive in receiving as many of those dollars either either directly or through development partners who are doing the work. And and building the building the housing or preserving the housing as possible for the state.

Thank you. And finally, just a comment, I'll say you know, obviously moving Detroit forward, when we look at long term goals for the city to grow housing instability is one of the biggest issues that obviously that we're facing, I'm facing across the nation. So but I'm glad to hear that we're, you know, even going forward and kind of switching focus when we talk about stabilizing our neighborhoods, you know, and that is, again to create housing, and new housing on top of that, and particularly housing that's affordable. Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you. And now Mr. Clerk, if you can please note that I mentioned this earlier, we've been joined by member Johnson as well as member young clerk also No, member Johnson. The floor is yours.

Thank you, Mr. Chair and good morning. Great to see you. Thank you so much for the presentation. I was listening while I was away. So I'm glad you shared the successes of the downpayment assistance program and looking forward to the next round. I do know that there were a lot of moving parts within that program and that there was a lot of hard work being done behind the scenes in order for the program to be as successful as it was. Can you talk about some of the challenges that people face going through the program to actually get to a point where they were able to close on properties?

Through the Chair yet to Councilmember Johnson, yeah, I'm happy to discuss that. So I think whenever you launch an new program, it does take time and consideration to make sure that you are aligning the program with current current needs. So the downpayment assistance program had been one that we were kind of in development on for some time. And the availability of ARPA helped us to launch it in a in a big way. And so if we had launched that program when interest rates were 2%, that program looks different than it does when you launch it when when they're in the seven 7% range. So we needed to make sure that the program could be used to for for prepaids such as interest rate by downs, principal, Principal buydown downs so that people could who were seeking housing could get the the house that they so desired, and it could be affordable to them and they could get a mortgage. And so that to answer your question the program is is made is meant for people who are purchasing housing with with a mortgage right? And so you need to be eligible and qualified for a mortgage. If you are pre qualified for a mortgage, that process moves more quickly. So we know that some Detroiters and because this is a first time homebuyer program, people may or may not have experience working with mortgage companies and the intricacies of just insurance and understanding the process. So the Detroit Housing Network was was established to really provide a a a kind of Detroit specific curriculum in addition to the the standard HUD housing counseling curriculum to help Detroit errs, repair their credit, take housing counseling to be aware of the requirements of, of owning a home and what that what that means, day to day, year to year. And so to help people be better qualified for the program. You know, one of the things about the program is it does take some time between when you're getting an offer accepted on the home and closing. And part of that is you are working with your lender and bringing those all of those financial documents that have to be put together in order to close on a mortgage as well as getting insurance quotes, making sure that those insurance quotes fall within your monthly budget. And so and then eventually getting too close for those that that weren't able to take advantage of it. Last year, we established an interest page to help people not only signal that they're interested in participating in the program next year, but also get connected to credit repair counseling, other financial counseling to make them be ready to participate in the program in 24.

Thank you for that. And that's what I was just about to mention that folks should certainly start to gear up now to do some outreach, making sure that they are primed and ready to start moving forward because if they have to go through that process, they may end up losing their spot because there is a finite amount of money that's available to provide that assistance. But I also think it's important to make sure people recognize that the assistance was available for not only downpayment but to reduce points, because I think that was some of the criticism of the program. And I think people weren't necessarily aware of how the dollars could be utilized in totality, to provide that assistance for individuals to purchase a home. So I'm excited about the success that the program had and looking forward to the next round and I'm sure we all are and we'll have people at the ready to apply for the program. My next question is relative to CDBG. So given that the city of Detroit must develop its her Consolidated Plan, we talked about that in PDD a number of weeks ago, and it outlines how we utilize CDBG from 2025 through 2029 is I believe, when we will will be focused on it. Can you talk about your plans to ensure a robust engagement that includes and centers low and moderate income residents, non English speaking residents and persons with disabilities to meet HUD's requirements?

Through the Chair to Councilmember Johnson sorry So, we, with starting with a disaster recovery planning work that we did, we did make some changes to how we were how we were doing that, that engagement. So for starters, we made sure that we were producing documents and in in the city's official languages, so that from at least people are able to people all Detroiters are able to view those documents and take them in their themselves. Specifically the the engagement documents, not the not the entire not the entire plan, the engagement documents that describe what we were proposing to do with the dollars how many dollars that were who who would be eligible for those particular dollars. We learned some things about how to do engagement in multiple languages in real time, and we'll be utilizing those lessons learned to make sure that that that happens more more seamlessly, probably will look to do specific sessions in different languages rather than trying to run concurrent sessions that that proved approved challenging. So I think the last big lesson learned there is to allow that space and that time to have that different those different opportunities for engagement. One of the things that I I see is that these rules and regulations are complicated, they're dense, they are books long, and I've been in this field for a number of years and and I I need to stay on top of things. I need to read those books and they're they they're not they're not quick reads. So I think that first and foremost, we need to make sure that we're communicating really in plain and clear language, what the possibilities are what you can use HUD funding for what is a national objective mean and how does that guide the work? I think we just really have to try to to engage in some basic basic information and basic education about how CDBG works in order to get, I think, more thoughtful and robust engagement with people. So in the past, we've prior to the pandemic have done some had done some in person sessions where we had had planning sessions where people put like, their ideas on sticky notes and we kind of grouped and had really, I think robust discussion so we'll look to do in person engagement. Now the last time we did a plan was in 2020, which was not not a doing in person engagement was not an option not available as an opportunity for us then. So we'll do in person engagement as well. Look to do sessions in in different languages so that more more Detroiters are able to engage and so it's going to take us longer to do this engagement process than we have done before. But I think it's really important to do so in order to really get thoughtful feedback that I think is was what that planning process deserves. All right, thank

you and I'm not sure if you can follow that into some of the master plan discussions so that residents don't feel fatigued with being asked similar questions or, you know, the same things potentially as we go through a lot of these engagement processes.

That's a great idea. Thank you. All right. Thank

you, Mr. Chair. I do have two items, one that I'd like to put into the closing resolution. So on Tuesday, we talked about and learned about some potential dollars from the sale llantas FCA NEC. So I'd like to put into closing session the $2.7 million in home repair funds from the FCA still Lantis project.

All right. There's a motion colleagues for Executive Session. Any objections? say none that action shall be taken member Johnson. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And I'd also like to put make a motion to put into the executive session a community land trust fund. So during the transformational most recent transformation of brownfield discussion that we had, there were some dollars that were provided to support the creation of a community land trust. And director Schneider I would love to engage with you and all of this. But as a result of those conversations that were had, I'd like to make a motion to add to the Executive Session. The creation of a Community Land Trust Fund and to add $1,250,000 to the fund.

Colleagues, there is a motion to place the request for the development of a Community Land Trust Fund and allocation of funds to go towards it and Mr. Johnson. Any objections? See, none that action shall be taken. It goes into the executive session. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Member Santiago Romero. Thank

you, Mr. President. Good morning to you to our director. Good to see you. Similarly to my colleague member Johnson. My questions are around the downpayment assistance program and the CDBG basement backup protection program. When it comes to the downpayment assistance program, are there any thoughts around how to sustain that once this pot of money has run through

through the chair to Councilmember Santiago Romero? So, yes, it's I mean, the we're thrilled with the success of the program. As I mentioned yesterday, it it not only it, it went above and beyond our expectations in terms of how quickly people were accessing the funds. And so it was really, really great to see such a success in the program. So it's certainly something we would like to consider. So we are launching this year with some additional ARPA funds are looking to to raise money from private philanthropic sources as well. And in the long term, it can be funded with community development block grant dollars, of course, our funding is, is is limited and we have other priorities so I don't know that it will be funded at the at the level that we've been able to fund it through ARPA and the one time grants but I but it is a program that we would like to to consider and of course, we will, that program will be available and kind of size based on what the market needs are. That includes the amount of the downpayment assistance. What it can be what it can be used for, etc. But I I believe it's a program that I would absolutely like to consider in the future.

There was a chair wonderful, happy to hear and happy to think through how we can make sure to provide the funds needed to sustain the program. The other question I have is regarding basement backup protection, there was one rounds that was successful that had less stringent eligibility and qualifications because it was not CDBG funding this rounds were using funds through CDBG. It has limited the access for for for residents. wondering are we also considering another basement backup protection program not utilizing CDBG to allow more residents access to that service or those resources

through the chair, that's, that's a great question. The original basement backup protection wasn't wasn't funded out of HRD. I can certainly bring that that question back and provide an answer a follow up answer on that particular question through the Chair.

Thank you Director. Mr. Chair, I would like to add to the Executive Session, a conversation around adequate funding for shelters. Specifically regarding new arrivals. He does a great job of supporting new arrivals and immigrants and refugees and just want to be able to allow me more discussion during this budget process to ensure that we have enough resources and if not have a discussion during an executive session. So my motion is to include funding for shelter beds for new arrivals to Executive Session.

Like there's a motion for members Santiago Romero on the floor. Any objections? Seeing none, we should place that item into executive session.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Director.

Thank you, member Young. Thank you.

Chairwoman Schneider team. Always good to see you guys. Um My first question is involving what are we doing to be able to build housing at 30% Ami or extreme low income? Let me let me let me preface this first. I think part of the problem of why we are here is because one we have the THC which from my understanding is primarily we make the appointments the mayor does was primarily ran by the federal government, where you have 80,000 people on a waiting list. Okay. So about 12% of the population in the city of Detroit. You also have this so about 22% of the housing is not being used that they have 22% of the housing vouchers that are available are not being used. Part of that is because they are woefully understaffed, or they have 12 people to process all these claims. So I think there's a extreme amount of burden upon HRD to be able to provide housing, because the people who would traditionally would be building housing, for whatever reason, are not able or have not been able to build the housing that's needed. So I just want to know, what are we doing within the powers that you have and within that environment, to be able to build more housing, and I'm not talking about just with the 50% I'm talking about within the 30% and the reason why that's important is because for 2000 to 2016. Detroit has lost not 20% of their earning income. And the problem that we have in the city of Detroit is not so much the cost of affordable housing as it is the fact that people don't make a whole and have lower incomes here. The average median income was for households i 37,000. Average medium income per individuals i 22,000. So we have to really go out of our way to be able to build housing that's affordable. So I just want to know in that environment with those pressures. What are you doing to make sure that we build the really extreme low income housing, and how was it How was the market responding to that? Are you struggling to find people who want to do that?

For the chair to Councilmember young, so I believe that it's important that we are creating housing opportunities for persons of all incomes, especially persons in households have extremely low, low incomes. And so there's a few things that that we do to proactively encourage and invest in the development of housing for that is affordable for persons or households at 30% or less of the area median income. To start, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund requires that 70% of the dollars be utilized to serve households add up to 30% of the area median income and so in the 2425 proposed budget, you see an increase in the request of funds for that particular that allow and facilitate that particular use and purpose. As well as I know that there has been contributions made towards that fund and some of the CBO conversations and those dollars I'll get used to help develop that housing, the remaining 30% can be has to be used for households at no more than 50% of AMI. So so that really that fund really targets households. At at lower area median income affordability ranges. Another thing that we do is actively work to develop supportive housing and supportive housing can only serve households up to 30% of the area median income. It's an important tool for people who are at risk or who have might have experienced homelessness at some point in their in their life. It it provides in addition to the housing and services, there's also vouchers that Misha supports. So the Michigan State Housing Development Authority has an allocation of vouchers and they they prioritize supportive housing with those vouchers. So therefore, it's important for us to develop as much supportive housing in the city of Detroit to take advantage of one of the limited sources of vouchers that are available in the city and state. So we're actually currently adding a staff person whose job it will be to just cultivate and curate Supportive Housing deals and work with developers work with communities and community engagement prior to as we're identifying sites and and paths to funding so that we're able to to increase the level of housing developments serving that those particular extremely low income populations in the city. Next we have a bonus within our Notice of Funding Availability to encourage developers who are are proposing projects to include those extremely low income units. And then lastly, you did mention the DHCP but we do work with the DHCP in a couple of ways. They are working they have an allocation of vouchers that can be project based those vouchers are helped to serve those extremely low income residents. And they're important to be able to secure long term housing tax credit funding competitively. And be able to offer those extremely low income units within a particular development.

Okay, and I just wanted to ask you, I asked I asked a follow up questions about that but I'll but I'll submit it to you, right, and there's a lot that I have questions about but I just want to ask you the reason why I set up the way I said earlier was because I think that as much as we want to make sure that we have affordable housing which I support, having affordable housing and having people that that accept vouchers in certain areas. I know that it's only limited in the region, things like 1200 places that only accept section eight vouchers in the read. I know it's a very small number. And so the reason and I think it's like 22% of them are not being used because of financial issues within HUD from my understanding. So with 22% of the housing that D HC hasn't not been used, and it 22% of the vouchers that are not being used. And DHD mentioned about 25% of the affordable housing that exists in Detroit. I think it's important for me to ask you, has there been a conversation about using technologies such as 3d printing, to be able to make up that difference? I don't know. I'm gonna put an executive session on I've done 3d printing again, but I don't know if it's best to do it where the city does that where it's extremely limited. Where we only build it for, you know, extremely low income, maybe $80,000 A year housing so that it's limited in that way because I'm not saying the city should be in the housing business at the same time. We have to have places for people to be able to go and this type of technology use where it's more cost effective in volume in bulk. Now, I have to be 100% transparent part of the issues of why we've had problems with citizens robotics was because the building codes weren't didn't allow them to build the walls necessary. So they had to use different materials other than the additive manufacturing materials that were more affordable. So but that's a state issue, but I was talking about for now. Do you think this has that been a discussion at all, either using 3d printing or contracting that service out to icon or to other places around the country that have built affordable housing, in Texas, in Mexico in other such places to address this issue and deal with this 9% gap that we're dealing with? It turns up houses it turns that people who need houses and houses that are available, not available?

The chair to Councilmember young, I know this is something that that has been on your on your mind and certainly is one that I certainly believe that new building technologies that can help reduce the cost of construction are important to the future of housing production in Detroit and then in the country. So I think we would be in a position to to assist in the the funding or pre development of the development should such a development be proposed. That is typically where we sit on on other developments is providing pre development services, but also add that there there is additional work being done by other manufacturers even in this area to not do necessarily 3d printing but to do some prefab construction where they're building in a particular site and able to transport a portion of that unit to to a site and deliver it. That work is actually the 7850 East Jefferson development that recently closed that will start construction a little bit later this year. We'll be utilizing that that technology. And so I would I would say that it's important that we were able to support the various types of new building technologies that are coming online, including 3d printing, you are correct that bulk is really important. The large development in Austin, which is probably one of probably the largest we've seen in this country is about 100 units. It's foreign it's it's three four bedrooms, that their larger units. Austin's a different market, the cost of land, it's very much more expensive than than it is here. So I think if that development is successful, it I think it can lead to that industry industry really I think growing as we haven't seen that type of mass mass development anywhere anywhere else in the United States. So as we see success there, I think that that will lead to other development. I think it's certainly something that we would we would support because our goal is to to create and create more housing and preserve and improve the housing that we that we have. So it's certainly something that I think we would be willing to willing to support. We are not a charity is not in the business of manufacturing our housing. But it's certainly something that we want to encourage and support as tools within Detroit. And let

me say that I understand I'm like doing like a gigantic leap outside of what you know, your expertise is and I'm not trying to make you commit to do something over your skis. I'm just saying, I think the problems that we're having is we're living in a 21st century and we're kind of trying to solve things, you know, in the 20th century 19th century way. And I just don't think it's working. And I don't think it's available. And I think we're gonna have to expand our horizons a little bit. And you're right about it. You have to and that's what I want to be careful. I wanted to do it in terms of really constrained you know, 30% Ami and I want to build a large project so you can reach that economy scale. So you can have those affordability is I think it's about 45% less cost for this than it would be to traditionally build a home. So I think those things are good. So I just want to say thank you. I appreciate that preacher just for look forward to talk to you about in the future, wherever it lands. Mr. President, I would probably approach him I would like to move to put 3d printing into Executive Session.

There is a motion to place 3d printing in Executive Session. Any objections? say none that action shall be taken. I know that Mr. Corley. I can see it in your face right now. Just want to know a little bit more about what the 3d printing is. So I'm sure you have more conversation as we move forward. I

can't wait. I know this went down in flames. The first time I had we did this but I'm a glutton for punishment. So I look forward to doing this again. I have more information, the things that you said Mr. Gore, you said President Pro Tem and it really weighed on my mind I kind of don't watch Netflix and stood by my fireplace where I do my thinking. It really had thought about this out so I look we're having this conversation with future. Thank you.

Thank you so much. All right. We'll go out there's a motion I think I think I'm moving Okay, doesn't it we already we already moved. We moved in number wars. Oh,

well, thank you. This is you know, I gotta tell you this. This housing issue has been something that that we've dealt with since since I came here. Whether our team waters is dealing with it, whether we're working on it with some of our colleagues as it relates to the call center, which I understand is doing very well. downpayment assistance, home repairs. There, the needs are many I do know that the needs are many, and we will continue to work to pursue those things to help people here in this city. So So my colleague said a number of things that I wanted to say they kind of got into my head. But I want to talk about the vouchers just just a little bit more. Since we're always calling on David Bowser, you know, we need a voucher for this. We need a voucher for that and so forth. So tell me, how many vouchers do we receive per year? How many of those vouchers how many emergency vouchers do we receive? And how many of those vouchers are used for private development, say 60 to 80% or above for the

through the chair to Councilmember waters. So the housing revitalization department I as you're aware we we don't we don't administer vouchers so I can speak to what exists in in the city through the Housing Commission, but I can't speak specifically to you know, some of the some of the elements of how they administer program as it's not, not something that I have purview over but I can't say that it's if it's about it's about 6000. vouchers are administered through the the Detroit Housing Commission, the Detroit Housing Commission like several other housing conditions, in the area are considered like regional regional authorities, meaning that if I get a voucher through the Detroit Housing Commission, if I get a voucher through the Ferndale Housing Commission, I can use that within a multi County, multi County area. So those vouchers in Detroit other places are administered through a waitlist one voucher becomes available. The next person household who's eligible on the on the waitlist would be eligible to receive that voucher and find your system.

So so when we contact you know, departments and we say that this person we need we're trying to find this person housing, they need a voucher, you know, site voucher or whatever it might be. You don't have those on hand you then reach out to to the Housing Commission in order to obtain such vouchers

through the chair to Councilmember water, so with the American rescue plan Act, there were some emergency vouchers that were allocated to housing authorities. They it was a unique situation where that I can't recall another time while I've been at the city, which is about nine years now, where there's been an allocation of emergency vouchers. So yes, we work with the Housing Commission and Mr. Bowser has joined us at the table who can discuss what that process looks like on a day to day basis.

Turn your mic on

to the chair we have an agreement with Detroit Housing Commission, where we receive 40 vouchers per fiscal year for residents who are referred through different agencies to to HRD for housing placement.

Okay, if I may just a follow up. How many how many? How often do you have to reach out for emergency vouchers? Or people here in the city, how many do you think we

typically use all 40 of those every fiscal year So beyond that, we pretty much considered that our capacity and we use every single one of those every fiscal year.

Yeah, but we do because we are waiting right now how many people you think are on the waiting list right now for vouchers.

So if I could add so the Detroit Housing Commission is is currently running a waiting list system where it's not closed, it's open. So there there are a large number of people I don't know the exact number. But it's a large number of people in the past they've run a closed waiting. We've kind of closed it where they have an open period they have in the past they had like got a limit of like they say they had 6000 people on the waiting list. They closed the waiting list. They worked through that waiting list when it was open when it was when they had worked through that waiting list. They opened it again. So now it's it's quite it's quite large. I can't speak to the the exact number as of today, but I know it's pretty significant.

Wow, I just want to further say that. It it it really just kind of bothers me the fact that we can't get people you know and housing fast enough. We can't edit and it's not not your fault, because I did reach out to DC to say you know, what is it that we can do to help you move that list along so that people can be placed in housing? And I said do we need to find some volunteers? What do we need to do to make that happen so that we can get people placed? So of course they didn't really have any answers for me. They said legally, we can't live out the people come over here and do anything. So and that was kind of their response. Okay, so I guess that's it for vouchers. I'll just keep bugging you, David. It's okay. Mr. Bowser. All right. So then my next question says that says I have to. I want to ask you because I want to be able to shift what we're doing for senior citizens in housing. And because it's gonna look different if we want to be able to make sure that retirees when they retire from their job, they live here. Many of them live, you know, over and say university district, Parma Willis, and whatever, you know, and different but they live in large homes around the city and they don't want to maintain those home for whatever reason. Some of it has to do with maybe from a financial perspective. Some of it could be the fact they've you know, they've aged a bit more and just don't have the energy to maintain things But whatever the reason is, we are losing them to both Macomb and Oakland County. They are retiring somewhere else. And so I want to see a different look when it comes to housing. I want to see something say similar to heart for village for example. Seniors do not want to live in those high rises anymore like that. It's not even safe for them. When the elevators break. Crime written and because there's so many of them in there. Um, there are all kinds of things that have an air conditioner, they are high up and they suffocate. There are so many things I want us to take a different approach when it comes to housing for our aging population. And I believe that we can do that if they can do it in other counties, and other states. We can do it here too. And I think that we should focus on those kinds of things. And so are there any plans to take a different approach when it comes to housing for an aging population?

Through the Chair to Councilmember waters, so there are there are, I believe, two projects that are in very early stages that that would be of lower high lower density than you might see in a downtown area. And so we certainly want to support those those developments. I think that what you're one of the points you're you're highlighting is that those developments would still be at a 30 affordable and they will be regulated. Right. But some of those developments that we're seeing in surrounding counties surrounding municipalities, aren't are not they are their market right but they are size for a senior population. We haven't seen a ton of interest from developers in that particular space. But I think that if I I can look at the demographics of the city of Detroit. And I see and I know that our population is aging and it's important that that they have places to be in a city that meets meets their needs. And it's certainly something that we can look at as to how to encourage and attract that that type of activity in the city of Detroit.

And so and so I'm glad you said that because with that, Mr. President, I'd like to add that to through the Executive Session. You know, just we need a study of some sort to, so that we can look at how we redirect some of our resources to that type of housing for for aging population. Guess I said a mouthful. Does that make

sense to study for resource just for Mr. Connolly's edification study for resources for

what? Housing for aging population, different types of housing, Miss Mr. Coralie? You know, and I'm not talking high rises because that I think that's hurting us big time. So but but housing similar to say Hartford Village and some other places that are saying Macomb County and whatever Yes.

Or at least there is a motion to place this item into Executive Session. Any objections? say none that action shall be taken. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President.

Thank you, member Benson.

Thank you. We don't know thank you all for being here. I just wanted to start out with a kudos and a great story from HR D and how effective your team is. And so most recently, we had a home that blew up in the third district in the Osborn neighborhood, and the home next door had three small children who were injured as a direct result of that exposure and had to be sent to the hospital. The damage caused by that explosion left the home uninhabitable immediately and their family had to move. And so they did find a hotel room in Macomb County away from their family away from the school for the children. And we were able to get in touch with that family of five, who also in one room, three children in one twin bed and the wife and her husband and in another twin bed, and you weren't able to get them housed in more suitable housing quickly, and I appreciate that. And that's just a sign of how effective our Community Health Core can be and your ability to bring to bear small amounts of money and those type of connections quickly, and how that can have such a great and tremendous impact on a family after such a catastrophic incident and incident where the children have to go to the hospital, really got burns, glass injuries, and then they're able to find housing, a level of comfort from the city of Detroit where people didn't think that we could do something like that and we do it and we have those resources for our residents where most other municipalities don't have that because we wanted to say thank you and in my test of this was I was getting a phone call from the mother daily, hourly, until we finally were able to get you all connected. And I told her if you're having problems, call me we'll make sure it happens. And once I didn't get any more phone calls, I knew what happened. And so I haven't heard back from them since so I'm going to go on a limb and say that they are pleased with the services of the city of Detroit. And I just want to extend my thank you and make sure the public knows about how impactful and effective your services are outside of what we consider to be traditional housing and revitalization. Services. Your ability to provide emergency housing services is is fantastic and very impressive. I just wanted to really give you kudos for that. Um, but I do want to talk about our middle class families as well. And what your office is doing to attract middle class families, be a housing back to the city of Detroit and support our existing middle class families and those who are moving from low income stature to a middle class stature and what we can do to keep them here. So one of the issues that the wealth generation task force came up with is the efficient transfer of wealth what some may call tangled title on what we landed on was the asset protection program. We have hired a new director. We're focused as a city on providing estate planning services for what Detroit future city calls Ayers property, where are we with our program? How are we how can we support that program? And when it was it will go live so we can get our families getting the help they need to help ensure that they can maintain those heirs properties. Thank you just to find the IRS province people understand what we're talking about please,

sir through the chair to Councilmember Benton, so as the Detroit future city report lays out, an heir property is where a property me is being likely occupied by someone likely a child of the the people who have have passed whose name is the official names on the on the title. Sometimes where where there are multiple siblings. There is not not clear ownership for when when there are situations where there is a single sibling or single heir. That title hasn't been transferred and that because there were not legal documents in place such as a will that that clarified how that property transfer would would take place after the the owners death. So we and we know that there is the Detroit future city report laid out there are 5500 likely households that are living in properties where they are not the the owner on the deed. And why that is a is a concern is one there are there are programs that people are eligible that they might be eligible for but because they are not the the owner of record, they are not eligible to receive those those programs. For example, the Detroit tax relief relief fund hope exemption and so that potentially creates a point of housing instability for for that household. It also certainly affects the the transfer transfer of wealth as people don't own that property, they are not able to refinance or or or sell that property should should that be what they want to do because they don't have legal title to it. So it's certainly a concern for households and it is an addressable concern as well. So we HRD has been working with with you and your office to establish with that program have had been going through a procurement process which is wrapping up. likely we'll bring that contract to council, I believe, I believe this month is when you should see it for for voting action and then we would expect to launch that program in April. It's what the what the goal is okay and that will allow a state planning that will that contract will be to provide estate planning services for for Detroiters. Right,

and that issue impacts everyone throughout the city throughout the city of Detroit. So I hope that that information we made available to my colleagues, they can push that program or their constituents because what we've seen in Jacksonville, Florida that about $67,000 of wealth equity has been released back to those families who go through that process and clear the title. And so that's a huge impact and look at the number of 67,000 times 5500 We're talking a nine digit number hundreds of millions of dollars of equity that can be brought back into the city of Detroit. That's a huge program. Something else that's really near and dear to my heart when it comes to middle class in the access and support from the city is a

0% interest loan. And we don't talk about that a lot. I don't see a lot of marketing around that. It's something I really do not want to see go away. I know that there are always challenges around who's going to fund it who's going to help write those costs down, but the ability to get money. So essentially, it's free money, because there's no cost to it. You get a loan and you pay it back, which actually means you're paying back less than you got because of inflation. And so that's huge. How was that program going? What are we doing to continue it? And how are we leveraging that to support our middle class and in our, in all of our families here in the city of Detroit

through the chair to Councilmember Benton so that program is run by the Local Initiative Support corporation or Liske. And we currently have funding for that program, I believe for the next next two years based on the current rate. So it's a really important program as current interest rates. For a home home repair mortgage are higher than then a Home Loan Mortgage. So no more mortgages, I think are in the six 6% range. Currently, a home repair mortgage are going to be several points higher than that this is a 0% Interest Program. So it's absolutely not something that's available on on the market place for a couple of reasons. One of which is lower value. dollar value loans, which is $25,000 are also going to be more costly and require quite a bit of closing costs to be brought to the table. This This doesn't include that though. I believe it's a really important and valuable program to help people make make repairs on their home that are that are needed to maintain the quality of the homes. I think in one of our previous conversations we talked about relaunching a marketing campaign is we have a new private funders, so the program works where we provide some funding and then we have philanthropic money that matches our funding. And so we're able to make our money go go twice as far and that's really important to make sure that that that program continues to be active as that that private interests and philanthropic interests in that program. So we have a new partner and we'll I think we talked about making sure that as we bring on that that new partner, we're really increasing the visibility and marketing around that program. So that more people people know about it, they're interested in participating in it. And so we'll be certainly making good to to move that work. Forward as that new partners product line.

Thank you. I'm hoping that we can also look to avail that opportunity to our elected officials as well. While we may not be low income, we are also not rich. And so any type of support that we can also get to invest in our homes would also be very much appreciated. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Benson, and I've got to just few of them. I just want to first say thank you for the work that you have done specifically the challenge that we had with Miss Washington. I know we still have not closed the loop on on her and her situation but you walked into a situation that was not yours you inherited and we did the best we could and hopefully we can still keep that ball rolling a little bit. I don't know if you've been made aware but she has been in and out of the hospital and our family has been a little challenging to help close the loop. So I just wanted to publicly similar to the number Benson, thank you for the work that may go unseen. And you do that throughout the city of Detroit. So again, thank you HRD director Schneider for your assistance with that. Wanted to talk just briefly going to the budget I'm looking at page

30 B 36 Dash six and it talks about a fixed charges fixed charges and the adopted shows of 23 fixed charges of 4.8 million. And then it goes up for the proposed budget against B 36 Dash six and then it goes up 354,000 for the proposed and then it goes down about $50,000 And then it goes back up about 282,000 Then it goes down 200. I mean again, these are forecasts but just trying to understand the roller coaster of these fixed costs.

Mr. Chair, are you referring to the fixed charges or other expenses?

fixed charges?

You said it's page 3336 Dash six B

36 Dash six Yes sir.

I think I'm going to need to get you a response and riding on that. There's a couple moving parts driving that. Okay.

Just curious to see again the the roller coaster and it's pretty big and small at the same time, especially when we look at 4 million and $5 million understood Okay. The other question I have is I know that in to last year, November of 23. City Council approved 100% arpa funding a contract to provide home repair services for low income Detroit residents. This was $6.6 million. You may have discussed and I apologize if I missed that. But can you talk to us about I know it's still early the status of that contract. What are the the gains that we may have seen?

To the chair I believe you're talking about the accessibility repair program. I believe that was the contract was for $6.6 million and was approved just prior to the winter recess. So since that time, we've been working closely with the contractor ch n two as well as Detroit disability power to put the parameters around the program. We've never, at least I don't believe we've ever provided an accessibility repair program. So we needed to spend some time identifying eligibility, the type of repairs that that we would be able to make for accessibility for that program, providing a range of services that meet the needs of people with different abilities. And so that work is is is wrapping up and we are preparing to launch that program and in April. At that time, we'll be looking to get identify eligible participants or residents and then beginning those repairs. Likely late spring, early summer

standard. These are ARPA dollars, how and of course they gotta get encumbered and seems like it's already here. How many how far do you think this will stretch for us? The 6.6

scuze me seven lotto numbers and balancing in my head so sometimes

excuse me think I know the answer. I just want to be sure that I'm not miss remembering a different program. So through the chair, we believe that the $6.6 million we'll be able to provide us between about 150 and 200 repairs

and the timeframe again,

the timeframe is this year and 2025 will be complete with the program that

is being built now. That will be rolled out you believe sometime in April?

Yes it it'll be rolled out we're just kind of finishing the the last of the program parameters and then it'll be rolled out in April. Yes.

Okay. Well, I thank you for that and look forward to the information regarding fixed cost. Sounds like Cabot? Mr.

Chair. Apologies. I do actually have an answer to your question about fixed charges. I realized too late that that charge is the payment that HRD makes out of its CDBG allocation to its section 108 loans. And we into we have been engaging in an aggressive campaign to pay off or Duffy's, a lot of those loans. So the spike you see in 26 is an increase on one of those 108 loans where we intend to accelerate the payoff of the loan, start clearing our section 108 balance sheet with HUD. So a lot of this is just the it's just debt service essentially and the movements of the debt service as we move through a more let's call it proactive defeasance and and payment structure. Slide

through the chair. So our section 108 loans we have an amortization schedule. And so as as Mr. Johnson said it is it varies year to year. And so it's based on not only the the interest that we have to pay but also the the loan debt so we utilize that amortization schedule to develop the payment schedule and that is why you see the fluctuation as well as some loans are now fully to fees. So those start to come off of our our our books, but then there are others where payments might begin on a particular part of a loan, as it had been scheduled and Rebecca LeBeau has joined who's Ken has a lot more technical expertise on each individual loan. Should you wish to have that information?

No, I appreciate you joining us. I want to get us back on track for the next committee and we'll ask additional questions offline. Thank you so much for joining us though. And also HR Dean and the entire team. Thank you for joining us today and we will conclude the budget hearing for HR D. Thank you so much. Member Johnson.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to add an Emergency Response Program to Executive Session.

There's a motion for to add a Emergency Response Program in HR D. And I know you'll follow that up with memos to help clarify from Mr. Corbyn. Any objections colleagues? say none that action shall be taken. Thank you. Can

I Can I just say something really? Quickly? Yeah. You know, you and remember Benson talked about, you know, thank them and I want to thank them too, because I've got to tell you we call on you guys a lot after hours. You know, you respond all the time you take the calls, we say we need this person placed an emergency basis and and you make those things happen. So I don't take that lightly. We don't and so we do appreciate that. Both you Director Snyder and Mr. Bowser. Thank you all so much.

Absolutely. Thank you. This now concludes our hearing for HRD and we will now begin our hearing once you remove once we increase those seats for Detroit. Building Authority.

Right Good morning to all in the Detroit building authorities. Morning. budget session budget hearing rather. Thank you, Mr. Director.

Thank you, thank you. Good morning honorable body once again, Tyrone clip and I am the director of the city of Detroit Detroit building authority. Thank you for this opportunity to present our 2024 25 budget will hold you too long. We're pretty straightforward about what we do and how we do it. Again, as you know, I'm joined by my deputy director, Miss Donna rice. I'm joined by our DBA real estate manager Miss Jill Bryant and we are joined by the esteemed everyone knows Mr. Rogers short. Mr. Roger short is our finance DBA was corrected in October of 30th 1973. In accordance with the public act number 31 of the building public acts of Michigan. The building authorities function as provided under laws to provide is to acquire furnish, equip, own, improve, operate and maintain city facilities including parking lots, and structures among other things. Also the DBA provides commercial real estate services for the city of Detroit through the housing and revitalization department. The dva assist the department and carrying out their capital improvement programs. Currently, the funds for capital projects come from city's general funds, grant funds or federal funds and are provided by the relevant department after city council approval. So typically City Council approves that funding. We then follow the rules and regulations as outlined by the Office of contracting and procurement and we procure the necessary services to create those major capital projects DDA projects are presented to the following five member board commissioners for approval we have five members on our board. appointed by the mayor I came very appointed by city council, Mr. Christopher Jackson, joint appointments city council and the mayor Judge Edward Thomas. Appointed by city council Maggie DeSantis and appointed by the mayor, Mr. Clarence gales. I would like to thank dishonourable body for giving us the opportunity to come before you this afternoon to share with you DBAs project services and budget. So with that, any questions or concerns we love to hear from dishonourable body and talk about the projects we have going on as you know, in Mr. Jarrell halls district we have major 100 million dollar plus federally funded FTA new Coolidge Bus Maintenance and Operations that's a multi year project. Miss Donna rice is leading the charge on that so that'll be done in 2026. And also, we are completing the State Fair transit center. We plan on turning that over to our clients, hopefully end of this month first of next month. And they will set up your operations hopefully no later than May once we transition to get the operation set up. Make sure everything is working properly. The park over the State Fair won't be completed until this early summer, July, August. And obviously we have the real estate services as led by Mr. Joe Bryant that oftentimes we coordinate work very well with city council members attend the outreaches the public, we kind of show them how to be successful in applying for commercial projects as they try to be entrepreneurs throughout the city. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. We'll start with Q and A and we'll start tomorrow, right this time in member Benson. The floor is yours, sir. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And thank you all for being here. It's always a pleasure to work with your team whenever I have questions. About property, sales and what's on the market and how a community member can contact you guys are always very responsive. Always want to thank you for that is kind of describe any challenges you all are having with policies or procedures or anything of that nature. We your work for you all seem to been doing this for a number of years. So you seem to have it down. And if I'm not mistaken, the projects that we typically see that come out of your office come in at or even sometimes under budget. So one thing that we're seeing that's not being supported that help that you can use from the City Council.

Thank you for the question through the chair. No, we are working very well with the department's we're working very well with the Office of contracting and procurement. The Office of the Chief Financial Officer to make sure the funds are in place so we can keep projects moving forward so that you know that everything is a process. Unfortunately, we've been here long enough time so we can work well within that process to make sure it's done in a proper manner. You know, it's the consistency of education when it comes to purchasing property to let them know the application processes online. We do a lot of outreach Miss Brian is out there with the various departments with the various council members. So any questions or issues you have concerning that please send them that way we can resolve them. You know, oftentimes, people will see a property and they'll say, Well, I'm gonna give you it's empty. We're gonna give you X on it will counter that and kind of goes off the rails. There's like, why you? Why is it so high and stuff like that we try to be fair and reasonable when it comes to that. And we try to understand to what they're going to do there too if it's gonna be supported. So when it does come to city council, we think it's a really good idea. The department thinks it's a brilliant idea and this entrepreneur can have an opportunity in the city of Detroit.

right within this anything else going on with the State Fair, I believe we're going to be making a request to name that after one of our fallen bus drivers soon indicated this summer, we should see the transit center up and

running, correct? That's correct. I think there is going to be a naming ceremony that's in the works. Hopefully soon. You'll see that I think it's very important to DDOT the family. We're excited about it. We're just working with the department and the administration and make sure it happens in a timely manner. Okay, thank you.

Thank you member Benson member waters.

Thank you so much. I'm happy to hear that you do outreach that was going to be one of my my questions and so that's real good. Do you prioritize the sale of properties say to residents or minority businesses?

That's pretty micro me. Can you hear me? Oh, that turn it on. Thank you through the Chair. Thank you so much, Councilmember waters. What we do is we don't on the application, have a question if the person is a city resident. However, when we are reviewing applications with the different city departments, we do look at the application that's listed. And most times people list their place of business as their address on the application or they list their residents. So when they do that and we are reviewing their application, we will look at that and see you know, because they do have an adjacent business or because they live in the area that is taken into consideration. I would like to add to as well for the 2023 sales we had 63% of the sales were Detroit. Addresses I'll say on the applications. So I can't say they were Detroit residents, but they did have a Detroit presence. So on the application ahead of Detroit address.

Okay, well, that's good. I like that. Um, so let me just ask you then, how many commercial properties would you say you have in your inventory right now?

We have approximately about 4900 4900. Those are

occupied, I mean, not occupied. Structures and empty. Right parcels.

So it's mostly commercial. Thank you. It's mostly commercial property or vacant land.

And so you're letting people know that, sir, that these properties are available,

right? Absolutely correct. Correct. We do have a, I'm sorry.

I'd like to have a list of myself so I can share them with people in the

community. We do. We do have a city website. The city does have a real estate website. And on that website, we have the list of the properties that the city is currently marketing. And then we have a development map that includes all of the public property that is available. And so you know, if we didn't list because, like, if you look at a block that has 20 laps on it for say, those slots are not contiguous, that the city owns. So when somebody looks at that list, that's not going to be very helpful for them. But if you can see it on a map, you can that I think that's much more helpful for the citizens.

All right, that's so Mr. Chairman, thank you. So the mat would be very helpful. Because when I go to community meetings and things like that I want to be able to share with people, a lot of times people are intimidated by website I don't know why but sometimes they are. But but if you are, if I'm able to say to them, I need you to go here. If you're looking for properties, go to this website, give them something in their hand. I believe that that helps. A great deal.

And you know, we do have handouts, because when we attend the office, say the seminars that council puts on OCP and different city agencies. We do have a one pager that we pass out, so I can go back to the office. I can share it with City Council.

Thank you, I would appreciate that. All right. Thank you so much, Mr. President.

Thank you. Member waters. Do you have the website that you can share just because this is a public show or anything? Yeah.

Yes, the website is Detroit mi.gov/properties And that's plural ies. So that's Detroit. mi.gov/properties. And that's properties, plural, IES.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Member Young.

Thank you, Mr. President. Pretty clear to everybody else. Mr. Short all good to see you guys. I just want to ask you, really quickly. Are the eight FTE that you have? Is that going to be enough to oversee and manage the five to five times the projects as reflected in the proposed budget? Between Zoeva

through the Chair? Yes. It's not uncommon of. So it's project delivery and how we deliver projects on most of our projects, because we're doing large scale capital projects or cm based or CM at risk or design build. So that provides us an opportunity to correctly and safely insanely manage those types of projects.

Okay. And then secondly, I just wanted to ask you, how many abandoned buildings do you have in your portfolio? And what do you plan on doing to dispose them or we build them with the disposition process or the restructure?

So through the chair? That's a very good question. So most of the properties in our structures unless there's a squatter that we don't know about. We do go out annually, if not every six months and check our properties, believe it or not, if even if it's a drive by just to make sure that they're still secured. If there's blight if they've been tagged, we coordinate with other departments and see who has the resources. We go back to our client which is human housing revitalization department to see if we have to put money towards it to re secure it, or to remove the Blight or to make sure that it's not overweighted it can be landscaped or clean and cut up. So we do do that for sure. But most of our properties, are there abandoned properties,

but you don't demolish right? We do not that will be there'll be construction and demolition crews here. That's correct. Was there ever a time where you did because I remember you talked about that a time where you did demolish but I bet that is correct. But you don't do it anymore.

I do not do that anymore.

Thank you. Thank you. I'm done.

Thank you. Remember Santiago Romero.

Thank you, Mr. Chair through you to the DBA a lot of the questions that I had have already been asked around outreach, how we're marketing, how we're reaching residents and their properties themselves. I guess just one follow up that I am interested in hearing is what is the state's of these properties are they you mentioned that they are at least secured. But are they are we providing properties that need a ton of investment in there? What are the states of the property? Usually you would say

yes to the chair. Yes, our product, our properties are rustic because the what I like to say okay, so when applicants come in, we're very forthright on that, you know, they'll say we want to be in this location and we'll say these are the properties we have. You need to put your eyes on them. You need to understand what level of investment you need to make.

Thank you. That's fair. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, member Johnson.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for being here. I did hear you talk about your relationship with the Office of contract and in procurement. Can you talk about your bidding process?

Yes, through the chair. Our bidding process mirrors the bidding process for the city of Detroit we follow all rules and regulations. We require all level of clearances and documentation also that the OCP requires typically our projects again, we're doing OCP does numerous procurement, right? Typically for us, we're doing capital procurement, right? So we've got this lane that we're very good at and we try to stay in that lane when it comes to how we procure contractors, architects, engineers specialty consultants for capital. We put our stuff on mitten. OCP uses that too, which is the Michigan intern, inter government tool trade network. So that's really a statewide situation that goes out. State Fair transit center and it's the Donna's project. We had 10 responses to that project cooledge, which is $100 million project there was substantial responses to that. We'd like to see that level of participation and competitiveness when we're doing these large scale projects, too. That helps us and helps us determine the market of what's going on there. Obviously construction is very expensive these days. It's it's ridiculous from what I've seen in the past 20 plus years, but the competition is it's helpful to make sure we were getting the best price.

I appreciate that and just a quick follow up along those lines. So can you articulate now, what percentage of your contracts our sole source contracts?

Through the Chair we really don't have a lot if it is it'd be minimal plus percentage. No, I'll give you an example. working with DDOT on repairing the tensile

structure canopy at Rosa Parks. That is a very specialized industry. I think there's only a handful of entities that could even do that. But we're still driving and looking for the competition on it, even if it's two. That's the those are the type of challenges that we all have when it comes to stuff like that. All right. Thank you. And so I know or at least some of my constituents are talking about a forthcoming project relative to the sea walls in District Four. I know that has not come before us yet. But we've had some conversation. We've walked through the community as well can you speak to seawalls in general it particularly in the Jefferson Chalmers community, and provide some insight on why we are focused on the city see walls and not the seawall as a whole recognizing that if there is an area for water to impede the community, it is going to come into the community if one seawall is not at a inappropriate height to prevent the water from coming into the neighborhood. That's, that's 30 chair that's very accurate. Councilwoman. So the city has a responsibility to make sure that our IRC walls in the Lower East Side are proper and working at the proper height. Obviously, we need to do that level investment. Homeowners or private homeowners have a responsibility to do their own seawalls. I cannot go on someone's private property and do that. So we want to show that we are doing the level of investment necessary to prevent the water kind of overlapping water. This is what we're talking about overlapping water because the canal or river coming in to that neighborhood. So that's very important. To do that. You know, we want to show that there is a solution. This is part of the solution. But we want to continue that conversation too with the Lori's side in that community. Ultimately, the ultimate goal is to get them out of the floodplain. So the sea walls is part of it. Raising elevations along the river is part of it. But the continued conversation working with the US Army Corps of Engineer, it's all another component that has to be done to make sure and also through the chair. Hopefully that funding agreement. A little bit over two and a half million dollars will come next week. So I am anxious to get started on doing those. All right. Thank you. And I look forward to having those continued conversations with you to ensure that we have a continual line of of preventing water from coming over into the neighborhood and just helping however we can to ensure that the residential properties are able to build up their sea wall as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you member Johnson member durable. Thank you, Mr. President. Good afternoon that are all close to it. Still good. Morning. to you all. Thank you for mentioning the Coolidge terminal. Obviously huge project for district seven but just for the city of Detroit having the ability to maintain and fix our buses. We all know about the fire that happened there years ago. And so I think it just brings new life to that area and it was happy to stand with you when we announced that. My question is more budgetary in nature. Obviously, when we look at the recommendation for DBA revenue is $0. And just want to talk about the you know, just for transparency for the public. Where is that change reflected is in a different cost center or appropriation but the $0 DBA revenue for the recommendation as Senator Can we touch on that? Good morning through the chair, costume Doohan, what is going on is that with working with the CFOs office, they decided that they will, that they will provide the funding for our set staff salaries, and we will no longer have to provide a specific revenue target. So they're picking up that cost on behalf of DBA and it's been a long conversation and I'm very happy and we all are very pleased on this side of the transaction that that said decision was made. Thank you and just a follow up that helps to be more sustainable, obviously administrative way for you guys as well. I think when you talk about authorities prior to being I came from a thorough and authority for with Mr. A lot of folks think that government funding directly goes particularly into authorities. But when you talk about staffing, you talked about FTEs and you talk about different costs that are that come from authorities. Sustainability is always the question I will use will we be able to sustain that and sometimes that is based off of who's running the administration at the time, right? And what their desire is so good to hear that. Just wanted to put that out there for transparency. Obviously we've had questions about that. But other than that, please keep doing some of the great work that you're doing. had an opportunity to reach out obviously to the DBA to ask about particular properties. You guys are always responsive, and then particularly for people to the website, which I have found to be very helpful so folks can search for those properties and know where they are. So again, thank you for all you do. Thank you, Mr. President. And also through the chair adding a little bit about the real estate. There's a real estate amendment, I think that will be forthcoming to this honorable body to keep the services going. And I thank you as well don't have any questions at this time you do great work. We have no issues and concerns then sounds like you're looking for any additional funding outside of what's being proposed at this point. So I'll see. I'll probably say different but that's because I just want to build more. Alright, well, let us know. That will in my line of questioning before we wrap up member Johnson Thank you, Mr. Chair, just wanted to briefly share that the website that was provided. The link to the property listings is not correct. It's it's taking you to an unreachable site. So if we can just look at that and shares that you put in dash or forward slash No I did get to the cities page. When you click on the listings where it takes you to a link it does not generate a an actual website. A page it says is not reachable. Thank you for letting us know through the chair. And if you will, please let us know once that has been taken care of because I had someone texted me saying it's not working. I'll make sure they're aware. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Chair. That's the real life fact check. likes it. All right. Number waters. Thank you. I am so glad that member Johnson brought that up because the staff just text me and says you know you're gonna have to request it from them. So we were saying that we were going to just email you and ask you for a list of those properties because we couldn't could not access it. So it's you know, so there it is. Will be requesting it ourselves as well. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yeah, I think the website by the crash right now because we're all checking. Everybody's checking right now. It's not worth paying attention. This is here. That's why we asked the question. All right, but we'll get that information out. We'll get it clarified as well. And again, thank you all for your participation today. Any final words? Oh, thank you. We look forward to continuing our success and working with this honorable body in the city of Detroit. All right, thank you so much. And this shall conclude our hearing today for the building to Detroit building authority. And this will also conclude that motion was released because it's not just released them first. Thank you so much. Appreciate you.

Are I remember waters? Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. President. I'd like to add the senior accessibility fund to Executive Session.

Mr. Corley, and colleagues, you indicated you wanted to add the senior accessibility program. Yes. And this is within HR D. Yeah. Correct. To the Executive Session. Yes. And you follow up with additional details as to what particular portion of that Yeah. All right. Any objections colleagues? See none that action shall be taken. And this now takes us to the end of our hearings for the morning, and we will re convene at 2pm so there are no objections. We shall recess until the 2pm. budget hearings are at the call of the chair. Well, we'll say too late to call him it's here because I won't be here because I have to actually go so for those who don't know I did submit a memo. I will not be president for the afternoon sessions because I will be joining folks over in Schoolcraft Improvement Association as we battle it out with these concrete crushing location over there. It has literally polluted the the neighborhood and the lungs of the people who live in that neighborhood. So I think member draw you will take over the chair at that moment. All right. Was there no, Mr. Chair? Dr. Powers? Yes.

I just I just heard two different ways to recess and since it's noticed for two o'clock, it would be more proper for you to recess until two o'clock at which time if Mr. Young is not finished the meeting should be called and recessed until whatever your decisions are at that point.

Thank you Dr. Powers. Member young.

You say you not gonna be here for the planning Economic Development Committee. today. Are you already doing the remainder of the same faculty here for two o'clock? Correct. So all because his budget that's why he's okay. He's here. Okay.

All right, we show recess this meeting until 2pm For the next budget hearing, there no objections. That action shall be taken. Sweden's