July 26, 2022 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
July 26th, 2022 @ 9 a.m.

• CALL TO ORDER:
  Commissioner Calvin called the meeting to order 9:00 a.m.
  
  
• ROLL CALL:
  Commissioner Virginia Calvin, Commissioner Stephen Luecke, Commissioner Roland Chamblee; Commissioner Steve Camilleri; Commissioner Judd McNally (all via zoom)
  
  
• HASB STAFF:
  Dr. Catherine Lamberg, Executive Director; Andy Delaney, CFO; Ms. Lori Wallace, Director of HCV; Mrs. Deborah Mobley, Director of Public Housing; Ms. Pamela Rogers, Administrative Assistant to Executive Director/Board Secretary
  
  
• OTHERS:
  None
  
  
• PUBLIC COMMENTS:
  Commissioner Calvin stated that we will postpone any vote until next month in order to follow the guidelines for the city.
  
  Dr Lamberg stated this will be an abbreviated meeting and we have no resolutions to bring before the board. She checked with the Attorney and conferred that because we are doing a zoom and to make sure we comply and that's why we will table any votes and we will raise that for the next board meeting where we will vote on the June and July minutes. And we will be back in person the next meeting. We had a surge of Covid among the staff and wanted to take precautionary measures and do all we can to clean and disinfect the office.
  
  
• RESIDENT INITIATIVE:
  Dr Lamberg said this is the last week that we are partnership with the South Bend School corporation for the summer meals program. We had great participation at two of our sites (Harbor Homes and Edison) with the children and the summer meals. We now find them in the morning waiting on the doors to open. Along with the summer meals we have coupled this with programing from both Take Ten and Gentlemen and Scholars. They come to our community center for a meal, and we keep them engaged with various type of programing. Unfortunately, this is the last week for meals, and we will continue the programming until school starts around august ll th, 2022.
  
  Commissioner Chamblee asked about how long are the kids involved in the programming
  
  Dr. Lambers said the day starts at 9:00 am through the course of the day a snack and the summer meal and it ends about 2 pm (Monday through Thursday at Harbor homes and Edison) and then on Friday morning Gentleman and Scholars are at Edison from 9 to 11 am.
  
  
• FSS PROGRAM:
  Hud is coming out with new guidance for the program, and therefore putting on hold, effective July 1, they cannot add any new enrollments, so the report you see is the increase in program participants from June and unfortunately next month you won't see any new reports because we are waiting on HUD as they revamp the program. Last month we enrolled 5 additional Sectional 8 participants and 3 additional Public Housing participants in reaching all of the goals.
  
  
• LOW-INCOME PUBLIC HOUSING (LIPH):
  Dr. Lamberg stated the wit list for May 2022 was 1323 and for June it was 1243, we have been actively pulling people from the wait list for the variously vacancies to fill. Rent collection is still at 100% and we are working on our Vacated Accounts. And we have gone from 8 days to 7 days for unit turnaround time. We have a total of 338 of which 34 are in the hands of contractors. Some of those units are being turned by maintenance (3). The number of work orders has gone up a bit from 243 to 246. TARS is still over 100%. We are still working with our residents and offering repayment agreement and they are making payment in order to avoid eviction for nonpayment. We are close to closing out our 2019 capital funds. We will be drawing on the 2021 capital funding. The 2021 shortfall funding continue to work at the South Bend Avenue site.
  
  
• HOUSING CHOICER VOUCHER PROGRAM (HCVP):
  Ms. Wallace stated for June we served 2074 households. Wait list decreased to 3,270 down from 3699 for the previous month. 152 vouchers on the street looking. Completed 32 new move in and 4 new ports in along with 16 ends of participation (EOP). We completed 232 annual inspection and 146 re-inspections along with 72 abatements and 6 emergency special inspections.
  
  
• FINANCE:
  Mr. Delaney stated there is not anything new going on at 3-month left in the year. And things are trending in correct direction. In dealing with the Amps, they are basically the same as it has been over the past few months. Rental income is a bit higher because more tenants are working, and other income is based on two insurance check we received. Administrative salaries had to change to compare to salaries. Payroll expenses are budgeted per AMP but the actual payroll expense goes through COCC. Maintenance fees are more expensive but that is because more work is being done in the units. We have higher utilities charges because for the vacant units the Housing Authority pays the utilities. We drew down money in February and March to cover additional expenses. Audit expenses are higher because we are paying for the Audit from last year.
  
  Commissioner Luecke asked when rental income is up because our tenants are earning more money is that additional money to us or is there a corresponding drop in the federal subsidy.
  
  Mr. Delaney said that it was additional dollars to us.
  
  Dr. Lamberg said as an update to our development activities, Rabbi Shulman redevelopment, we are working on a couple of grants (the Ready grant and the CDBG Grant through the city) we are proposing a one 4 story elevator building of 100 units of elderly housing. 90 one bedrooms and 10 two bedrooms and it will be a mix of tax credits and private base vouchers.
  
  Commissioner McNally didn't have any questions
  
  Commissioner Camilleri said he wanted to ad appreciation and gratitude to the team and good health to all.
  
  Commissioner Chamblee no comment or question
  
  Commissioner Luecke want to thank Catherine for her extraordinary work with the development team. Those projects are very complex to put together and at one point it looked like we were not going to move forward but wanted to thank Catherine and her team for finding the path
  
  Commissioner Calvin said she wanted to see the demolition start, that she was looking forward to it. She wanted to commend the staff for keeping the rent at 100% or more
  
  Next meeting will be Tuesday August 23rd, 2022