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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-03-15 - Minutes - ArchiveMINUTES OF THE MARCH 15, 2005 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 , March 15, 2005, in the City Administration Building, Room 111, Fayetteville, AR. Robin Ross, Chairperson called the meeting to order at approximately 8:00 a.m. Commissioners Present: Janet Richardson, Robin Ross, Betty Turner Richard Royal and Deborah Olsen Commissioners Absent: None Others Present: Fredia Sawin, Laura Higgins (Fay. Housing Auth.) Old Business A. Update on Future Plans for Upgrade of Public Housing Playground Equipment - Ms. Richardson advised she had passed out her report on the state of the current playground equipment and did not have more to add that wasn't said at last month's regular meeting. Ms. Richardson stated that Ms. Sawin had proposed a possible plan to take care of replacing or refurbishing the playground equipment. Ms. Sawin included this proposal in her packet mailed to the commissioners and reviewed over it with them. Mr. Royal suggested the only change to the proposal be to do one curb cut at Lewis Plaza and one curb cut at Willow Heights instead of doing two at one site. Mr. Royal stated he would be happy to coordinate the curb cuts with Chuck Rutherford from the City of Fayetteville and help decide the best location at Willow Heights and Lewis Plaza. Ms. Richardson motion to approve the proposal with the one change recommended by Mr. Royal, seconded Ms. Turner and carried unanimously. B. Update and Further Discussion on Policy to Allow a Police Officer to Live in Public Housing for Security Purposes -Ms. Sawin advised she had discovered that unlike the Springdale Police Department, Fayetteville does not allow police officers to take their vehicles home. Ms. Sawin was concerned that this would not give the sense of security that they were looking for and asked the board if they still desired to continue on with the process. Dr. Ross stated she felt that even though the police car would not be visible that their presence alone would provide security. Mr. Royal was concerned about the number of hours they patrol the sites and felt maybe they could do more. The board agreed to keep the number of hours negotiable. Mr. Royal suggested proceeding by feeling out the Fayetteville Police Department and seeing if there may be someone willing to do this. The • • • • remainder of the board agreed, so Ms. Sawin will check with the Police Department and start the paperwork with HUD. C. Further Discussion on Diversity Training for the Housing Authority Staff -Ms. Sawin advised she mailed out information to the other area Housing Authorites and Springdale and N. W. Regional from Harrison has agreed to come on board for the diversity training so hopefully expenses can be split three ways. Ms. Sawin suggested the training be conducted on a third Wednesday of the month which is the normal day for the Housing Authorities to get together and possibly doing it at the Jones Center in Springdale, Arkansas. Dr. Ross will take care of making the arrangements and get back to Ms. Sawin and the board with a date and time. D. Other "Old Business" touched on was an update on the Shriner Circus tickets. Mr. Royal will check into whether or not he can get some tickets for free and get back with Ms. Sawin in a couple of days with his report. Dr. Ross reminded Ms. Sawin to add an item from the Management Needs Assessment for next month's regular meeting. Dr. Ross requested that the minutes be mailed out as soon as possible. Dr. Ross updated the board that there will be future discussion on the application process and making sure that denial for criminal activity is clearly defined. Dr. Ross also requested a copy of the federal guidelines on criminal activity be distributed to each board member. New Business A. Approval of Minutes of Previous Regular Meeting -Minutes of the previous meeting were amended to correct the spelling of "ask" to "asked" under New Business, Item L Ms. Turner then motioned to accept with this correction, seconded by Ms. Richardson and carried unanimously. B. Approval of February 2005 Financial Statements -Ms. Sawin reviewed some of the expenses from the financial statements, questions were asked by the board then Ms. Richardson motioned to accept, seconded by Mr. Royal and carried unanimously. C. Approval of Resolution #728 -Amending the Definition of "Family" for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program -Prior to a vote being taken on this amendment it was decided by the board to open the floor for comment from the audience even though the original 30 day comment period had ended. Statements from the audience were taken for approximately 15 minutes and the majority of the comments were not in favor of changing the definition of "family". Dr. Ross thanked the audience for their participation. Ms. Richardson and Dr. Ross made statements in response to the input of the audience. Mr. Royal then motioned to accept Resolution #728, seconded by Ms. Olsen and carried unanimously. D. Approval of Resolution #729 Amending the Definition of "Family" for the Public Housing Program- Ms. Turner moved to accept Resolution #729, seconded by Mr. Royal and carried unanimously. E. Executive Directors Report -Ms. Sawin reviewed over her written report. Ms. Sawin announced that the Housing Authority received their PHAS score for Public Housing which was up from 76 to 80 points. Section 8 Rental Assistance SEMAP score was 100. Ms. Sawin advised that two employees received their training for UPCS training for REAC inspections, Jan Simco went to training in Dallas, Texas for Homeownership and Kyra McCown went to test in Little Rock and received her "Public Housing Manager" certificate. Ms. Sawin reminded the board that the Housing Authority is reapplying for the FSS Coordinator grant when the NOFA comes out hopefully within the next couple of months. Ms. Sawin included a "congratulation letter" from Senator Blanche Lincoln on receiving the Continuum Grant for 10 additional vouchers. Also, included in the board's packet was an outline of possible flexibility with the voucher program. Dr. Ross added that due to what has come to light on the playground equipment that there may be more of a threat for possible legal issues. Dr. Ross asked if the board felt that this needed to be discussed with the Housing Authority attorney and the board agreed. Dr. Ross will handle calling the attorney and reporting back to Ms. Sawin. There being no further business, meeting was adjourned for board training from the Little Rock HUD office (Jesse Westover and John Munday). THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS Chairperson ATTEST: XeCta porIA/wo Secretary • • • FAYETTEVILLE HOUSING AUTHORITY #1 North School Ave. Fayetteville, AR 72701-5928 PH: (479)521-3850 FAX: (479)442-6771 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S REPORT March 9, 2005 1. Things of importance that should be mentioned for this months Accounting Summary Report is as follows: a. The annual amount for the Public Housing Payment In Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) was paid to the City of Fayetteville. b. Barkers Construction was paid $2,250 for their procured backhoe services to clean out debris from a large ditch in Willow Heights This ditch is located at the bottom of a hill on the back side of Willow Heights and if the clean out isn't done at least every two years, flooding will occur in our apartments c. Section 8 expenses included the purchasing of the new vehicle. A 2005 Chevrolet equinox procured at $19,820.00. 2. Public Housing has 6 vacancies, 3 at Lewis Plaza, 3 at Willow Heights, 0 at Hillcrest Towers and 0 at Morgan Manor. The Section 8 Program is filled. The Section 8 Program is now based on a dollar amount When the money is spent, the program is full. At this present time, we are servicing 432 vouchers with the amount of money we receive from HUD. 3. The Fayetteville Housing Authority has received its PHAS and SEMAP scores for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2004. a. The PHAS score for Public Housing was up 4 points from the 2003 fiscal year 76 to 80. We hope to keep improving on this score. b. The SEMAP score for the Section 8 program was 100 points which is not a change from the 2003 fiscal year. But we are proud of it anyway. • PAGE 2 4. Four of our Housing Authority employees have attended training sessions since last month's Board meeting. Kyra McCown (Public Housing Director) attended Public Housing Manager training and certification in Little Rock. Jan Simco (Housing Specialist) attended Section 8 Homeownership training in Dallas TX Mikeal Atwell and Lynn Smith (Maintenance Staff) attended the UPCS Inspection training and certification in Oklahoma City OK. 5. Please find enclosed with this Board Packet the following items: a. An RFP for the Playground Equipment and a proposal as to how I think we need to solve our dilemma. b. The final public comments received for the proposed "Family" Definition change. c. The confirmation letter from HUD about our Shelter Plus Care Grant, and a congratulations letter from Senator Blanche Lincoln. d. A copy of HUD Notice 2005-9 explaining the flexibility given to Housing Authorities with regards to the latest funding cuts and ways to deter some of the cost. RESOLUTION NO. 728 RESOLUTION AMENDING THE DEFINITION OF "FAMILY" FOR THE SECTION 8 HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER PROGRAM WHEREAS, that the Department of 1 -lousing and Urban Development regulatory guidelines state that the Housing Authority set their own definition of "family" for the purposes of qualification for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program and WHEREAS, the current definition of family has been reviewed by the Board of Commissioners with a 30 day public comment period and to be more inclusive the following amendment is made to the Administration Policy under Chapter 2, Section B. "Family Composition": The applicant must qualify as a Family. A Family niay be a single person or a group of persons regularly living together. The remainder of the family definition as outlined under "Family Composition" will remain the same. BE IT RESOLVED by the Commissioners of the Housing Authority of Fayetteville, Arkansas that the above revision be adopted into the Section 8 Voucher Administrative Plan effective March 15, 2005. PASSED AND APPROVED THIS /544— DAY OF inax, S THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS YOrizi 7 rVvJ CHAIRPERSON ATTEST: • • • RESOLUTION NO. 729 RESOLUTION AMENDING THE DEFINITION OF "FAMILY" FOR THE PUBLIC HOUSING PROGRAM WHEREAS, that the Department of 1 -lousing and Urban Development regulatory guidelines state that the Housing Authority set their own definition of "family" for the purposes of qualification for the Public Housing Program and WHEREAS, the current definition of family has been reviewed by the Board of Commissioners with a 30 day public comment period and to be more inclusive the following amendment is made to the Occupancy Policy under Section IV, Chapter 26, "Family Definition": The applicant must qualify as a Family. A Family may be a single person or a group of persons regularly living together. A "family" includes a family with or without a child or children. A group of persons consisting of two or more elderly persons or disabled persons living together, or one or more elderly or disabled persons living with one or more live-in aides is a family. The PHA determines if any other group of persons qualifies as a "family". A single person family may be: An elderly person A displaced person A person with a disability Individuals may not be considered disabled for eligibility purposes solely on the basis of any drug or alcohol dependence. Any other single person A child who is temporarily away from the home because of placement in foster care is considered a member of the family. This provision only pertains to the foster child's temporary absence from the home, and is not intended to artificially enlarge the space available for other family members. BE IT RESOLVED by the Commissioners of the Housing Authority of Fayetteville, Arkansas that the above revision be adopted into the Public Housing Occupancy Policy effective March 15, 2005. J • • • PASSED AND APPROVED THIS /5f DAY OF �IGfitC� . THE HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF FAYETTEVILLE, ARKANSAS C AION ATTEST: SECRETARY