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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2002-04-24 - Minutes - Archive• • • MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS The Housing Authority of the City of Fayetteville, Arkansas met in Regular Session at 8:00 a.m., Wednesday April 24th, 2002 in the office of the Authority #1 North School Ave., Fayetteville, Arkansas. Janet Richardson, Chairperson, called the meeting to order. Commissioners Present: Richardson, Clinehens, Garton, Childress Commissioners Absent: Watson Others Present: Bromo Wilson, Fredia Sawin & Laura Higgins (with the Fayetteville Hous. Auth.) Carol Hart, Charlie Harwell & Hugh Higgenbotham (with Lifestyles) The Minutes of the March 20th, 2002 Regular Meeting were approved by motion, seconded, and carried unanimously. The March Financial Statement was approved by motion, seconded, and carried unanimously. Ms. Janet Richardson introduced the boards invited guest from Lifestyles. Ms. Carol Hart, Executive Director of Lifestyles and two of their board members, Mr. Charlie Harwell and Dr. Hugh. Higgenbotham. Ms. Carol Hart started her presentation by saying that Lifestyles currently has a great working relationship with the Fayetteville Housing Authority which has numerous of their clients assisted on the Section 8 Rental Assistance program. However, the Fayetteville Housing Authority's policies do not fit the needs of some of their clients who want to be able to live together for companionship, financial, safety and overall security. They also have skill issues that compliment each other when living together. The current Housing policy limits a family to be ✓ elated by blood, marriage or adoption which takes away the choice for disabled tenants to live with other disabled tenants for the reasons mentioned above. HUD leaves the family definition up to the discretion of the local Housing Authority. She explained that she has found two Housing Authorities in Arkansas that currently allow for two persons to live together without being related and they are Benton County and Little Rock, both have Section 8 Housing. The vast majority of Housing Authorities across the country have changed their policy to non -related households. HUD does permit reasonable accommodations and they support the local Housing Authority working with other non profit o rganizations. Lifestyles currently has a tenant based housing program with 17 participants. This housing was received through a TEBRA Grant and will end this November. The basic operation o f this program allows us to track their income and expenses separately. • Page 2 It has been surveyed that disabled people are the poorest in the nation. Also, SSI recipients spend 72% of their income on Housing cost in the Springdale area, this doesn't leave enough for other needs. Over 3.5 million Americans are disabled, and less than 500,000 are living in housing programs. Lifestyles clients need to be offered the choice to live in a community. There is more need for affordable housing in the Washington County area. The waiting list to receive a voucher is one year. This community has grown and the number of vouchers needs to be increased. Public Housing continues to have openings, however the need for bus routes, transportation and safety are big issues. We believe that its time to change. Ms. Fredia Sawin explained that Public Housing is available, e specially here at the Hillcrest Towers complex. Transportation is readily available through the red University Bus, two city trolleys, ozark transit and the Adult Center which offers t ransportation to and from shopping areas. There is also night watchmen on duty. The turn over rate in Public Housing is constant. The public housing waiting list is much lower than our Section 8 Rental Assistance Program. Ms. Laura Higgins noted that our Section 8 Rental Assistance Program currently has 402 Vouchers in service. There is word of Grandview opting out of their vouchers and this could mean more vouchers for the Fayetteville Housing Authority in the near future. • Ms. Janet Richardson stated that there ought to be a way to open up our programs to these people. Mr. Wilson explained that the local HUD office has approved our current policy. He also conveyed that the reasonable accommodation refers to the unit of which a disabled person w ill be residing. We cannot change our policy to fit one group of people, we are bound by fair housing to treat everyone alike. • Ms. Janet Richardson asked Mr. Wilson, when did we as a board approve this policy and who are we to determine what a family is? Mr. Wilson answered that the policy which determines what a family is, by the definition related by blood, marriage or adoption was approved by the board over thirty years ago when the Housing Authority was first started. Ms. Richardson continued that our current board members were not here thirty years ago and times are changing and the Housing Authority policy may need to change to fit the needs of these changing times. Ms. Sawin brought up the fact that adopting this policy would open up our programs to boyfriends and girlfriends which could change frequently and the lease would need to be updated more often. Our programs allow only one Head of Household and only one person would receive the disabled deduction of $400 per year. We cannot separate the incomes and expenses. We figure the incomes and expenses together to determine the total tenant payment (TTP). The alternative could actually be more expensive for each tenant because they would not get the full benefits of Page 3 the disabled deduction of $400 per year and they may not be able to claim as much medical expenses due to the higher income level. Ms. Higgins noted that Little Rock handles a lot of different programs. We would need to employ more staff to administer more, vouchers and run additional programs. We also cannot be sure that they have both Section 8 and Public Housing programs. We know for a fact that Benton County does not have a Public Housing program. Mr. Charlie Harwell mentioned that any help that could be given to this matter would be greatly appreciated We need to think outside of the box and see what the Housing Authority policy could be limiting when you think of denying those in need. Mr. Charles Clinehens and Mr. Gary Garton discussed that we may be comparing apples to apples between Benton County and Fayetteville. We need to do a little bit more research before we change any part of the policy and what ever we do, we need to run it by our attorney. Mr. Garton made a motion to table this discussion until we investigate and compare with other Housing Authorities as to their policies and programs which they administer. We will also talk with our attorney on the legal issue. This motion was seconded and carried unanimously. Dr. Hugh Higgenbotham stated that Lifestyles represents a family and we need to think about making this program available to serve the disabled. Lifestyles is an amazing program. Their clients need the right of a choice. Ms. Richardson thanked the Lifestyles representatives for their presentation. We will research this and contact our attorney and get back to you. Under other business, Mr. Wilson updated the board as to the current status of the capital grant funds for the Windows at Lewis Plaza. We will be coming back to the board in June, 2002 with a bid. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. ATTEST: SECRETAR THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS HAIRPERSON