April 25, 2023 Board Meeting Minutes

THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF SOUTH BEND, INDIANA
REGULAR BOARD MEETING MINUTES
501 Alonzo Watson Drive
South Bend IN 46601
April 25th, 2023 @ 9 a.m.

• CALL TO ORDER:
  Commissioner Luecke called the meeting to order 9:00 a.m.

• ROLL CALL:
  Commissioner Stephen Luecke; Commissioner Calvin; Commissioner Chamblee' Commissioner Daniel; Commissioner McNally.

• HASB STAFF:
  Ms. Lori Wallace, Director of HCV; Mrs. Deborah Mobley, Director of Public Housing. Mr. Andy Delaney, CFO; Ms. Pamela Rogers, Administrative Assistant to Executive Director/Board Secretary

• OTHERS:
  Attorney J. Harris Jr

• PUBLIC COMMENTS:
  None

• OLD BUSINESS:
  Approval of Minutes from the regular Board Meeting on March 28, 2023.
  
  Commissioner McNally moved and Commissioner Chamblee seconded the motion to approve the minutes.

  • Commissioner Calvin AYE
  • Commissioner Chamblee AYE
  • Commissioner Daniel AYE
  • Commissioner McNally AYE
  • Commissioner Luecke AYE
    
    
• NEW BUSINESS:
  None
  
  
• EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT:
  
  
• RESIDENT INITIATIVES:
  Mr. Delaney advised that there were three points to be made spoke on our resident service activities we continue with our afterschool programs at the community centers at LaSalle Landing and Harbor Homes which will continue through the end of the school year. Also, there was a Tuesday Bingo held at 501 Building sponsored by Village Medical and Mr. Dwight Williams. We also hosted Melanie Smith-Guillaume from the League of Women Voters who came to the 501 Building and talked with residents about voters' information and registration.
  
  
• FSS
  Mr. Delaney said that in the month of March 2023 there were 59 participants enrolled in the FSS program, 46 from the HCV program and· 13 from the Public Housing program. There were 27 participants that had an escrow account with a total amount of escrow accounts of $54,109.00.
  
  Commissioner Luecke asked was the decrease of the 3 participants was because of graduation? Mr. Delaney said he didn't know, however Ms. Wallace said she believed it was because 1 was out of jurisdiction and the other two may have graduated.
  
  
• ADMINISTRATION REPORT:
  
  Human Resource Report
  Pamela said in the past board meeting we discussed the reason for the increase in our insurance with HAI and we didn't have the figures for the difference in year 2022 and current 2023. In 2022 the HASB paid $568,294 and in 2023 the HASB paid $617,974. This covered liability and Property insurance. There was a difference of $49,680 increase due to the unbundling of the property addresses by HAL She continued to say that an audit was done for the new employees to make sure those that wanted medical insurance was added within the first 30 days otherwise they would have to wait until January for the open enrollment. We also continue to advertise for open positions for maintenance, HCV case managers and PH Assistant Property Managers.
  
  
• LOW INCOME PUBLIC HOUSING (LIPH):
  Mrs. Mobley opened with 1726 people on the waiting list. And have a total of 198 vacant units, which doesn't include Rabbi Shulman. We do have units ready so we will be leasing up very soon. With work orders we had a total of 284 work orders. And for accounts receivable, we are still getting a lot of emergency rental assistance.

  Commissioner McNalley asked pertaining to the scattered sites vacancy jump, is that because more units need to be rehabbed.
  
  Mrs. Mobley said yes, some did move out and others took section 8 vouchers.

  Commissioner Daniels asked are you target people that are already housed to move into these new units that are ready or are you pulling from the waiting list.

  Mrs. Mobley said we are pulling from the waiting list. We tend to only move those that has an issue with a unit and the best way to solve the problem is to move them, however we are trying to pull from the wait list when we can. We did lease up 5 off the waiting list, we transferred 3 and closed 31 files for no response. We currently have 5 families ready to be leased.

  Mr. Delaney said on the bottom of page 13 is the information for the Capital expenditure Grant, if you have questions, he will try to answer but it is self-explanatory.

• HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM (HCVP):
  Ms. Wallace stated the total number of households served in March 2023 was 2,262. 2055 for HCVP, 81 VASH Veterans, 43 FSS, 10 Emergency housing Vouchers, 12 foster Youth, 8 port in, 28 port out and 44 relocations with 128 wait list vouchers. There were 476 inspections of which 109 initial inspections, 22 initial re-inspections, 220 annual inspections 91 of those were re-inspections, 21 abatement inspections, 2 special inspections and 10 of no show.

  Commissioner Luecke asked if the reinspection are a standard percentage?
  
  Ms. Wallace said it's a little high, the landlord is rushing the rehab and calling for the inspection trying to get their units leased quickly for the annual is probably on par.

  Commissioner Luecke asked for the HCV program we list the FSS independently, if someone was to move out of the program do they Jose their voucher?

  Ms. Wallace said they do not lose their voucher; they get to keep it. And for the HCV Highlights, the 2021-2022 Audit. Wallace successfully completed HCV-PBV certification thorough NAHRO. File Vision Electronic case management Tiffany murphy and Lori system training completed by all HCV Staff and the 2023 waitlist opened and closed without issues.

  Commissioner Luecke asked if we had any report on the Audit that we wanted to share?
  
  Mr. Delaney said we are waiting for the final results; we think there may be one finding but are not sure.

  Commissioner Luecke said the auditors were very complimentary of the staff and the conditions of the records. A couple of years ago we had over 30 odd comments and last year we had down to 16 and this year maybe one that wasn't resolved. But it's not from lack of working on it.
  
  Mr. Delaney said we will probably have one.

  Commissioner Luecke said good progress and we know it was a Jot of catch-up work to do to make it happen. Thank you.

• FINANCIAL REPORT:
  Mr. Delaney said the only thing different about the report, to give you a comparison between last year and this year for the year-to-date expenses and revenues.
  Commissioner McNally said he found it to be very helpful.
  
  Mr. Delaney went over each amp and pointed out some of the information for each amp started with AMP 1. We haven't had any major insurance claims this year, so it is outside of the budget. Office expenses were 84% higher than budget because of its improvement, training, and equipment. There was a shift from amps 3-4 to amps 1-2 for this year. AMP 2, operating subsidy is 14% higher than the budget because subsidy is still in 2022 and that is a calendar year, and the budget is at a fiscal year, and it will catch up. AMP 3, for electric, lower usage which means lower cost because of lower units being occupied. Rental income is 15% higher than the budget. Legal expenses are higher because of eviction and court fee that wasn't accounted for. Employee benefits coincided with employees. AMP 4, fraud income is lower, office expenses are higher than budget again because of equipment, training, and scanners. Fraud income is higher than budget. Under HCV hap, fraud income is higher. Subsidies are 15% higher than budget. Grant PSS is pretty stable. Employee benefits coincide with lower personnel in the COCC.
  Commissioner Luecke asked what would be the other residence service in the COCC, what would that cover?

  Mr. Delaney said that was from Gentleman and Scholars

  Attorney Harris stated that if the Board wanted reports from his office, he would be glad to provide information pertaining to the court evictions and what they are about. The attorney's office is reactive because it is something that you can't project.

  Commissioner Luecke asked has there been any difficulties or unexpected things.
  Attorney Harris stated that this Housing Authority is unique in terms of evections because a lot of residents make use of the students over at Notre Dame Legal Service Center, so some are a little more pretentious because of the free legal system vs other housing authorities. Some are savvy with the grievance process and the courts are a little more lenient for the tenant and it can be challenging sometimes.

  Commissioner McNally asked when you say you can provide a report, what does that entail? Attorney Harris said they could Jet you know how many evictions per AMP or see correlation of increase in amount and number of eviction or the nature of the eviction.

  Commissioner Daniel asked, would you have to budget for evictions, do you set aside money for that?

  Attorney Harris said the Housing Authority is more familiar with the units and tenants than we are, we just react so we don't really know the number of cases we will be dealing with.
  
  Mr. Delaney said our budget is based on the previous year, but it can vary.

  Mrs. Mobley said it is getting higher because the tenants are being more active in getting lawyers involved, so if they get a lawyer, then we get our lawyers involved. We do not want our staff going up against a lawyer.

  Commission Luecke said he wanted to note that they received a QAD report about resolving 5 corrective active plans issued that had been outstanding and been successfully resolved at this point. Again, I want to commend the staff for getting it all done. We appreciate getting those things done and moving on to other things.

• DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES:
  Mr. Delaney said that the HASB received the support of the City of South Bend and the redevelopment commission who allocated funding to cover the cost of the demolition of the Monroe Circle Development We are partnering with the City of South Bend as a Co-Applicant for the CNI Grant Application. We are currently looking at Grant writers for this process.

  Commissioner Luecke said he was very pleased with the very positive relationship with the City. They looked to find a different set of funds that they could use for the demolition cost and that freed up some community development block grant dollars that hopefully will be able to reappropriate by the city for us to use toward housing unit turns.

  Again, a nice partnership on their part looking for resources that they have that we do not have access to and also providing a grant writer for the choice neighborhood application that will allow us to work together on that and bring the resources that we need to be able to redevelop the Monroe circle, Rabbi Shulman properties. Regrettably it all takes time, and we would like to see some of that action now, but I believe we are moving in the right direction.

  Attorney Harris wanted to note that it will probably be in the newspaper, but the 2nd week of June the Tonya Robinson trial is scheduled for federal court. We do have some staff members that are subpoenaed for that trial.

  It will be a challenge to drag it up again, but important to get it resolved for the Housing Authority and the community as well.
  
  Moved and second to adjourn the meeting... The next meeting is May 23rd, 2023.