Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners met July 16

Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners met July 16.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

I. CALL TO ORDER

A Meeting of the Board of Commissioners (“Board”) of the Houston Housing Authority (“HHA”) was held on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at the Houston Housing Authority Central Office, 2640 Fountain View Drive, Houston, Texas 77057. Called the meeting to order at 3:02p.m.

II. ROLL CALL

Present:

• Joseph “Jody” Proler, Chairman

• Alton Smith, Vice Chairman

• Cynthia Aceves-Lewis, Commissioner*

• Stephanie A.G. Ballard, Commissioner

• Eric G. Carter, Commissioner

• Kristy Kirkendoll

• Kenneth C. Li, Commissioner

• David A. Northern, Sr., Secretary

ABSENCES: *Cynthia Aceves-Lewis

Secretary Northern noted for the record that Commissioner Aceves-Lewis informed the board that she was out of town and unable to attend the meeting.

III. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

A. Board Meeting Minutes – June 25, 2024

Chairman Proler: I wanted to share with the secretary that I reviewed them and they are quite accurate. I'm pleased. Thank you very, very much. Well written and well done and entertain a motion for approval.

On a motion by Commissioner Li and seconded by Commissioner Smith, the Board unanimously approved the June 25, 2024, Meeting Minutes.

IV. INTRODUCTION OF THE INTERPRETERS

V. PRESIDENT’S REPORT

Secretary Northern stated he provides a monthly report to all board members to discuss external events. David, Sir, thank you. As always, I provided a written activity and operations report for the Board of Commissioners.

I want to say it's an exciting day and an exciting week! First, I want to start with one item that is extremely important, not just to the HHA but to the City of Houston, the Third Ward community, and Houston overall.

We applied for a Choice Neighborhood Implementation grant to redevelop Cuney Homes, which is a traditional public housing that's close to 72 years old and has 553 units. We will bring back over 1,100 units, including some home ownership. But commercially, we have a number of small banks and the Bezos Institute that's coming into the community, and that's just the start. This is a $50 million grant. I'm going to say it again: a $50 million grant that the HHA just won, and we were one of six housing authorities across the nation to receive this grant. This $50M is seed money that will bring in close to $400 million over the next eight years. And this is something that's amazing. This is the, the highest honor you can have in terms of redevelopment from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Our team did a lot of hard work, as well as our community partners and the city (we're Co-applicants with the city, and the HHA is the lead applicant of this grant). And our team did an amazing job. Everybody stepped up to the table and made it work. And I'm just so proud to be the head of the organization that's doing that much work to change this community. To all the team members, thank you for all your work and all of the HHA staff.

I have one thing to say. People can say what they want about HHA but the proof is in the pudding. We received $50 million from HUD, and they are the ones who review all of our reports and everything that we do. People that know that you're doing good, we'll give you money to do better. If you're not doing well, then you won’t receive anything. So again, team, keep your heads up because HUD knows you’re doing a great job and a number of community members and elected officials know as well and this grant goes further to prove that the HHA is doing an amazing job.

Chairman, Secretary, would you please see that this letter dated July 16th from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development goes into the minutes of today's meeting? (THE LETTER IS ATTACHED.) Also, would you be kind enough to have the original of this letter, or if we can obtain a copy of its original, would you have it framed and put in the lobby of this building?

Secretary Northern. It was an e-mail copy from HUD.

Chairman. We'll take e-mail.

Commissioner Smith. You know, I agree with you with all these successes that we've had. We ought to be pushing these successes in every corner of Houston to make sure folks are aware. Even if you have to be redundant, because when we do bad, they are redundant about repeating bad things. So, let's take credit for all those good things we're doing with Kennedy Place, Commissioner Ballard, and other folks, and thank you, all the staff, for making us look good even and thank you all the staff for making us look good even when we actually haven't done anything to help.

Secretary Northern. Thank you. It is a team effort. HUD is coming from DC and is planning an event next week to present the $50M check to the HHA and the city for this opportunity. The is not an HHA team. We took the lead, and we're collaborating with the city and numerous community partners who worked on this application.

Secretary Northern. There was an article in the Houston Chronicle that read that HHA has problems, actually many problems, according to a recent audit. Individuals review things, and they make comments related to them. But the Housing Authority looked at that article, and we said no. We wrote our letter to the editor, and the editor printed that article, and they printed it on July 7th, 2024. I have a copy over here and all the board members have it. And it shows what was talked about in our article. Some of the stuff may not be completely accurate. The Housing Authority has problems as well as everybody in the nation. Again, and I don't want to keep saying it, but when I walked into the office in February 2022. I was able to assemble a team. I was able to train and upgrade some of the members who may have already been here so we can work as one united force to continual to move forward. The HHA is doing great work. That is why HUD rewards us with opportunities to do better work. If you want to read it Op-ed, go to the Houston Chronicle on July 7th, 2024.

Hurricane Beryl was my first hurricane since living in Texas, and many people were, and still are, without power. But what I'm thankful for is that a number of Houston Housing Authority team members came together to work with Houston Food Bank along with the Gulf Coast Community Service Association. HHA partnered with GCCSA to provide up to $600,000 in utility assistance. The Houston Food Bank provided over $600,000 worth of food to not just our clients, but all city residents. We set up nine different distribution centers throughout some of our traditional public housing sites. One was here at the Houston Housing Authority. Before we distributed the donated food, the HHA cooked hot dogs and hamburgers and gave people hot plates along with some of the private national companies. And we did that while some of our team members were still suffering from the hurricane.

That just exemplifies the part of service above all else. We have some of the most vulnerable clients and we respect our clients that we're part of the city and we're part of making it work. And so, all staff members that helped plan it and staff members that were on the ground working toward making that possible for the citizens that we're serving here in Houston.

Commissioner Ballard. HHA came out not once but twice to serve the community. They had to put their disaster aside to help us, and you don't know how much my community appreciated Houston housing employment, not once but twice.

Secretary Northern. As we mentioned, not only do we help Houston, but we also worked to distribute food services to the Harris County Housing Authority, which didn't have a system in place at this time for that. We're sending food down to Galveston.

Chairman. Do you have an estimate of how many people we touched over the last 10 to 14 days? Corey Franklin. 2,000 families.

Chairman. Would you let the record reflect that?

Chairman. We now move to Public Comments.

VI. PUBLIC COMMENTS

Donna Dixon. You have 3 minutes for public comments. Speakers will only be allowed to speak once. I will inform you when you have one minute to go and again when the three minutes expire. The board will generally not respond to comments or answer any questions. Residents making comments are encouraged to state their name and the property where they reside. Someone from the property management company will contact you regarding your issue.

Speaker: I'm Jennifer with Apartments Concierge and I am the CEO of the organization. So, we work on voucher placements all throughout the city with housing clients. And so, I wanted to report that we have created new partnerships with 13 new apartment buildings across a variety of different tiers within the Houston area. We have placed, in the last month, 27 voucher clients, and we have 27 inspections scheduled on single-family residential homes. Additionally, we have over 9 RFTA packets in the queue waiting for clients. So just wanted to kind of give a report out. We have several properties that we are ready and willing to place. We have a new apartment building on the West side of Houston that has 200 available units for voucher holders available. So, we are excited, and we're working with our clients to place them.

Donna Dixon stated there are no more public comments.

Update regarding Occupancy Rates:

Chairman. At last month's meeting, we discussed the vacancy rate. Corey, could you give us an updated report? If my math is correct, we had 65 vacant units last month, and in this report, it looks like we had 59. So that's we had some absorption last month, 95%. We had some questions regarding reasons for the vacancy and cost estimates or what it was going to take to get the vacant units up and running to be able to occupy.

Corey Franklin. So, the detailed point with the numbers will be e-mailed to you. It is a high level as far as our occupancy last month. We reported that it was 95% occupancy. This month our overall occupancy is 98.1%. One thing you wanted to know was what was the national average and our regional average. On a national level, the current occupancy rate is 94.7%. In our region, which is the Southwest, it is 95%. In Texas alone, it is 95.77%. So, we are doing well. We have a higher than the national average.

Secretary Northern. Corey, what's the HUD goal for housing authorities before we stop receiving the funding for those humans?

Corey Franklin. 96%

Chairman. The next question, we're still below 96% at Oxford and Cuney. What can we do where our biggest vacancy numbers are?

Corey Franklin. We had a leasing fair. We had 27 people show up but that's because of the hurricane. We were going to cancel, but just in case people still wanted to come, there were people here to receive those individuals. However, we are working to have more leasing fairs. also, we're having coordinated trouble asset calls with those properties under the 95% threshold to see what's going on and what we can do to correct that. We have constant contact with the REID department to kind of see what materials are needed and what is the reason why things may not be able to turn quickly enough and find any other bearings that are preventing us from leasing those units,

Chairman, I think we need to continue monitoring this each month. I look forward to your progress. We would like to get them all occupied.

VII. NEW BUSINESS

A. Resolution No. 3793: That the Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners authorizes the President & CEO or authorized representative of the Houston Housing Authority (the “Authority”) to take such actions necessary or convenient approving Lakeside Place PFC’s Issuance, Sale and Delivery of Multifamily Housing Revenue Bonds (Willow Creek Manor), Series 2024; approving the form and substance of and authorizing the execution and delivery of documents and instruments necessary to carry out the financing of such multifamily rental residential development; and containing other provisions relating to the subject, and the execution of all required documents therefor, pursuant to the memorandum from Jay Mason, Director of REID dated July 3, 2024, to David A. Northern, Sr., President & CEO.

PRESENTED BY: Jay Mason, Director of REID

Just to give a little bit of an overview of this property. It is a new development that's going to be constructed. It's a 4% bond, LIHTC deal, new income housing tax credit. It's located at 10601 Cossy Rd. and that's all along 249 on the northwest corner of Houston. So, it's outside of the city of Houston.

The REID staff has done an assessment of this Property. It provides 214 units. That's 100% of the units at 60% AMI. When we did an analysis of the public benefit, comparing the tax abatement related to the public benefit, there are rental concessions that the property will give. This means that the rent discount rate is at least 60% or more below AMI. In addition to the cash flow to the Housing Authority, we see total public benefit of 100.12%. Which is higher than the 90% that the housing authority typically uses to award these developments.

Chairman. Jay, do you have the scorecard, the full scorecard near you or access to it?

John Mason. Let's talk a little bit about the scorecard. The Housing Authority engaged a consultant to assist us with developing the scorecard. We typically look at many attributes, but because of the property's inherent location within the Houston area, we typically find that most developments don't hit the 100% mark.

So, in terms of location, we see the score of 10, a depth of affordability being at the 60% AMI, it received a score of 10, and these are all out of a maximum of 10. Some of the schools were at 8. That elementary was at 8. The middle school was at 4/6. Just from how they financially structured the development, we gave a maximum score of 10. Operations, we did not get any information on how they were planning to operate. But I do know that as we were having conversations with the developer, that was sort of coordinating a little bit further, but at the time, we gave it a score of 0. And that is the reasonable developer, just how they structured a score of 10. In terms of affordability, we are at 15 years initially, with another 30 years because it's a tax credit. We gave them a score of five. There are others like you in the floodplain. Just a presentational foldability, such as school four. Again, because this is a new development deal, we didn't score them for preservation, and that's one of the reasons that there was a reduction in the overall score that development received.

Chairman. Any questions?

Secretary Northern/Jay Mason. This is a 4% LIHTC deal which stands for Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

Chairman. Publicly, I want to thank our law firm, Coats Rose. Last week a number of us participated in a lengthy. Seminar, and I think we walked out of there much better educated than we walked in. So, with that, I'll entertain a motion for approval of this, of this resolution #3793.

On motion by Commissioner Smith and seconded by Commissioner Li. The Board unanimously approved Resolution No. 3793.

Resolution 3794 was mistakenly presented in the Public Session.

Jay Mason. Just a little bit of background on this resolution. The Housing Authority recently applied for a Choice Neighborhood planning grant. This is for the redevelopment of Irvinton Village. The goal behind the acquisition of this parcel is to allow the residents to stay in this community which is called the Northside Community. Part of the Choice Neighborhood Grants, if awarded…

Chairman. I'm going to interrupt you. There's been an error in the resolution, and so we're going to discuss this in executive session since it's a real estate transaction. We will come back after the executive session.

VIII. EXECUTIVE SESSION

Chairman Proler suspended the Public Session on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at 3:28 p.m. to convene into Executive Session to discuss personnel, legal and real estate issues in accordance with Sections 551.074, 551.071, and 551.072, respectively, of the Texas Government Code.

Chairman Proler reconvened the Public Session at 4:53 p.m.

ROLL CALL: Quorum was declared.

IX. NEW BUSINESS continued…

B. Resolution No. 3794: That the Houston Housing Authority (HHA) Board of Commissioners authorizes the President & CEO or designee, to execute any and all documents or take any other action that is necessary or desirable to facilitate the acquisition of certain real property located at or about 800 Burnett Street, Houston, Texas, (the “Hardy Yards”) as an amount not to exceed $18,500,000 as the aggregate purchase price; and cause HHA to execute any such further documentation as necessary or desirable to allow the consummation of the transactions described herein, for the development of safe, sanitary, and affordable housing for public use and for public purpose, pursuant to the memorandum from Jay Mason dated July 2, 2024, to David A. Northern, Sr., President & CEO.

Chairman. After convening from Executive Session, I would like to ask for a motion to TABLE this resolution. On motion by Commissioner Smith and seconded by Commissioner Li. The Board TABLED Resolution No. 3793.

C. Resolution No. 3795: That the Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners authorizes the President & CEO or an authorized representative of the Houston Housing Authority (the “Authority”) to take such actions necessary or convenient to facilitate the development of Independence Heights II (the “Project”) and a land exchange with Yale Street Baptist Church, pursuant to the memorandum from Jay Mason, Director of REID, dated July 3, 2024, to David A. Northern, Sr., President & CEO.

On motion by Commissioner Li and seconded by Commissioner Ballard. The Board approved Resolution No. 3795.

D. Resolution No. 3796: That the Houston Housing Authority Board of Commissioners authorizes the President & CEO or an authorized representative of the Houston Housing Authority (the “Authority”) to take such actions necessary or convenient to take such actions necessary or convenient to facilitate the acquisition and development of Willow Creek Manor (the “Project”), to be located in Houston, Harris County, Texas 77070, pursuant to the memorandum from Jay Mason, Director of REID, dated July 3, 2024, to David A. Northern, Sr., President & CEO.

On motion by Commissioner Ballard and seconded by Commissioner Li. The Board approved Resolution No. 3796.

X. ADJOURNMENT

Chairman Proler this concludes the items on today’s agenda and asked for a motion to adjourn. On motion by Commissioner Smith and seconded by Commissioner Ballard.

Chairman Proler declared the meeting adjourned at 4:56 p.m.

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