Neighborhood Planning Council 2 - North Central

NORTHCENTRAL NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #2 Meeting Minutes—March 12, 2018 SMCDC 47 N. Washington Avenue Battle Creek, MI 1. Call to Order & Welcome: Rev. Joe Hopper called to order the NPC#2 meeting at 7:00 p.m. 2. Attendance: Present Members: Jeffrey Dinkins, Nicholas Virgil, Kitty Hillian, Rev. Joe Hooper, Gerald King, Yvonne Dennis, Bettie Robertson, Ron Sweet, Larz Martin Bey Visitors: Sharlee Coffman-Cook, Robert Sims, Jeff Breedlove, Ofc. Gentry, Kelly Dillman, Chris Lussier, Linnea Mobley, Barbara Travis 3. Correspondence/Announcements: Next Month Meeting, looking forward to Chief Blocker speaking about the events at the different NPCs. On 3/13/2018 at Second Missionary Baptist Church will be an update on Fair Housing Project 5:30-7:30. CDI has been doing work with the Realtors. Yvonne Dennis: Waiting on Hud Guidelines for Homeowner repairs. Can get up to $7500 in grants for permanently disabled. Also there are funds available for 62 years and older totaling $15,000 which can be used for roofs and windows. First time buyers can get $4000 for down payments. On March 17th the Church of Scientology is having an informational gathering (meet and greet) at 5:00 p.m. at McCamly Plaza. Barbara Travis: Started up Employments Hub, New Level Sports and Parkway Manor. Also a site at Community Action. We will encourage people to send individuals for assistance. Our goal is to retain jobs for people – they will also help with daycare problems. Please, if you make an appointment keep it. If a person has felonies, we will sit down with them and try to find suitable positions if possible, we will try to get them in Apprentice Programs. 4). Approval of Meetings: Motion to accept and adopt February 12, 2018 minutes - approved. by Ron Sweet. 5). Guest Presentations: Sharlee Coffman-Cook Communications Director—Fair Housing Center--Southwest Michigan Fair Housing Rights is the equitable right and accessing to housing services - anything dealing with housing renting, selling, buying, financing, advertising, insuring and appraising. Does anyone know what housing discrimination looks like? Some people said yes. The rule that one doesn’t know is that you can’t discriminate based on familial status or service pets. Although we don’t hear about overt discrimination, common sayings are we’ve rented it out, it’s not available, and you need more bedrooms because you have more people than accommodations. Types of Housing Discrimination or Housing that’s covered: Anything you can think of. Apartments, Managements, Landlords, Condominiums, Cooperatives, Real Estate Agents, Lending Institutions, and Subsidized Housing. Title 8 of Civil Rights Amendments covers this. Elliot-Larsen Act—Marital status protected class was added in Michigan and in City of B.C. we have sexual orientation and gender identity. Jeffrey Dinkins says it is difficult to apprehend people in discrimination practices. Cook says familial status doesn’t get reported. If there is no local ordinance then it goes by IOC code - 70 sq. feet for first person, 50 sq feet for second person and two heartbeats per bedroom. How to determine fair housing violation? Based on dwelling, protected class and prohibited behavior which equal Fair Housing Violation. It has to be of the protected class, not just children. Churches, private clubs, and owner-occupied units with less than 2 or 4 units, NOT publicly advertised. Race and color can never be denied. Forms of Discrimination: Denial—outright: we’re not going to rent to you; no calls back; boys and girls cannot share the same room and lost your application. Discriminatory advertising; Accommodations; modifications and steering. Also being charged extra for children is prohibited. Retaliation and penalized for filing a fair housing claim, participating or opposing a violation is an additional penalty. Advertising: From the Shopper: Prohibits discriminatory language: No Children, Ideal for a single adult, nice Christian family home, single professional. Steering: Assigning a particular person to a particular spot in the community; encouraging or discouraging a person—“you love this community” “this street is really quiet” “this street has a ton of crime” –steering them in or out depending on how they see that protected class fitting in the community—eliminating housing choices. Jeffrey Dinkins mentioned the discrimination of Kellogg’s--steering people to go to Kalamazoo. Coffman-Cook says they are actively looking into things like that. Our number one calls is on disability: Helping with reasonable modifications and accommodations. More than half of landlords say I do not accept pets. Landlords have to accept service pets. You do not have to tell the Landlord about a service pet before applying. Disability refers to major life function: seeing, walking, talking, and taking care of one’s self--totally different than the ADA (American Disabilities Act). The modifications changes to physical structure of a building: grab bars, wheelchair ramps, -ride of doorways, lowering light of switches—if federal doesn’t pay for this then the tenant must pay. The Landlord can request Escrow to return the accommodations to the original condition. We try to encourage Landlords to keep it accessible. Accommodations are changes to the rules policy and procedures: no pet policy for companion animal or reserved parking spot. They will advocate Nicholas Virgil asked, what is the difference between emotional and companion. If PTSD then emotional support. Companion animal has to be tied to the disability, e.g.) Autism. The animals don’t need to be trained or certified. Different than the ADA. However, there should be some type of documentation that the animal is used for a purpose tied to the disability. There is always someone who takes advantage of the system. Jeffrey Dinkins asked about additional fees for animals or children. Coffman-Cook says this is a fair-housing violation. Chris Lussier stated since local ordinances on animals and city of Battle Creek only allows three, e.g.) but five dogs are needed for support then what is the fair housing rule? Coffman-Cook needs to research this question. Lussier asks too, If the city requires dog’s licensing within city boundaries---someone saying someone needs to observe local laws regarding animals, does that create a fair housing situation? CC never heard this question and has to do research. She says you must keep the shots and vaccinations up however on animals. How long have the animal and protected class enactments been in effect? She says they are trying to continue to get protected classes, for example, many people at share center don’t have the monies to rent. This is legitimate business reason to deny an individual. So if an individual makes $750 there are not many places than accommodate these people. Need more affordable housing. If you are to call the center---Scott, our case manager, does the intake questions---so he can determine what resource and person you need to speak to. If it is a fair-housing violation, we then send out secret shoppers (protected and non-protected class) to ascertain the discrimination. Our testing coordinator decides if and how we move forward with referral to Michigan Department of Civil Rights or HUD or move forward with litigation depending on the nature of the situation and the choice of individual. Coffman-Cook puts on conferences and events and tries to get the information out for more public awareness. She has passed out a booklet of the information she has shared as a speaker. Annual Fair Housing Conference, Friday, May 4, 2018, 8:30-2:00 p.m. will have two workshops, Tim Wise is the speaker on Housing Segregation across the Country, free to attend and breakfast and lunch free. It will be held at the Fetzer Center at WMU. 6) Committee Reports: Police Department: (2/1/2018- 2/20/18) OFC. Gentry. Chad Francisco will be removed from NPC2 because he cannot be Byrne Grant Officer. Contact Sargeant Rabbit for more information. Foot Patrols 83; Robbery 1; Traffic Stops 47; 1 hit and run; 1 child abuse complaint; and 1 retail fraud on Roosevelt; Assaults 11; Burglary 2; Larceny 11; Damage to Property 3; Drug Offense 5; Obstruct Justice 15. Kitty Hillian expressed a concerned at intersections and the flashing yellow and red lights are confusing and 6:00 a.m. there is a lot of traffic. Jeffrey Dinkins says expressed a concern about flashing lights on Michigan and Jordan, however, stop signs have been put in place. Ms. Dinkins says there seems to be more flashing lights in NPC2 than other areas of the city. Ofc. Gentry says that he will ask DPW about that. Community Liaison Officer: Kelly Dillman She gave a special thank you to the people who attended her first NPC training seminar. She stated that we are now going to next level. She says we have done enough communication; now it’s time for action. Neighborhood Services: Chris Lussier: Passed out several reports. On 3/5/2018 a quarterly Neighborhood Planning Council Leadership Meeting. We had DPW to give a presentation. DPW doing a policy change—the way that they handle request for traffic calming devices—not street lights, stop lights or stop signs. They are probably speed humps in our neighborhood. If someone requests traffic calming device they must come to their NPC council and make that request. Then the NPC should forward that information to the DPW. 7) Beautiful Battle Creek Awards: None 8) Membership:  9) Engagement Committee: Prentice Thompson thought it was good to get a letter of support for Chad Francisco. It was asked that he write a letter of support and then let the council approve it. Some NPC2 people was concerned that the Secretary wasn’t showing up enough and whether he attended February Meeting. (For the record I attended Feb mtg. and I had a bad lung infection for March mtg). Jeffrey Dinkins suggested that after letter written, that it be brought before the NPC2 council. Kelly Dillman asks the purpose of the letter and Virgil Nicholas said that if he wants to write a letter then let him do it. Pastor Hooper read the text Prentice Thompson sent regarding (1) the letter of support from NPC2 for Chad Francisco. And (2) a letter Denso regarding their drug testing policy. Jeffrey Dinkins said if a letter to be written should state: we are going to miss Francisco being here, he has been a part of NPC2 for many years and appreciate everything that he has done in the community, and we wish him well---something to that affect. Dinkins doesn’t see anything wrong with that type of letter and still glad that he is still part of the community. Bettie Robertson says it is too bad that policemen and government officials don’t have a life of their own, because we are all human and we make human mistakes and so therefore, he was off duty, even policeman, should have a private life, and if they make mistake, he should not be held against them concerning their job. Nicholas Virgil endorses a letter of support for Chad Francisco. Rev. Hooper stated that Francisco was a valuable part of NPC2 community, especially at Claude Evans Park, and too supports the letter. Dinkins said that he was very supportive for all of our events: Juneteenth, Family Day….etc. and that Francisco gained a lot of respect over the years, even for the criminal. Dinkins motion that we do a letter of support for Ofc. Francisco from the planning council. Unanimously approved! Robert Sims Jr. a representative of Battle Creek Public Schools. Superintendent Kim Parker-Devauld did not give him anything specifically to bring to the committee today so he did not want to speak out of turn without her permission. It’s a privilege to be here and am a teacher at Dudley Elementary. school. Marc15, 2018 Family Literacy Night—math and reading activities from 5:30-7:30 and provide free books to the children. 10) Elected Officials: None 11) Old Business: Bettie Robertson last month I spoke on the agenda coming from the inspections department and not stating for NPC2 and the same thang happened this month. She would like to know how many agendas are being sent out or mailed to the people? Rev. Hooper says it is to all the members and says he contact the City Office regarding this matter. There was only one returned. How many members are there, Robertson asks again? Rev. Hooper says 21 members. Chris says he could find info out. She wants to know can the envelope be marked differently because the envelope is from the Inspection Department because it turns Ms. Robertson’s stomach and should not be labelled as such. 12) New Business/Public Comment: Kitty Hillian regarding the historical museum---who restores the statues around the city C.W. Post----looking like green hornet- and Sojourner Truth. Why can’t the Sojourner Truth look polished? It looks a hot mess. It’s terrible. It’s a shame Sojourner looking like this with tourist taking pictures. And even when cleaned a year and half ago, it wasn’t a good job then, Hillian says. It’s terrible! Dillman gave instruction on how to find appropriate people to be held responsible. Stating everything has a process and somebody has to do the leg work to find the who’s and what’s of the issue at hand which is before the council. Nicholas Virgil found phone number re: Sojourner Statute 269- 962-2240. 13) Members: Nicholas Virgil thanked Mrs. Dillman for the training seminar and re-announced that the NPC2 Facebook page is up and available. Rev. Hooper thanked everyone for coming. Some lady took a picture of the attendance sheet. 14) Meeting was Adjourned at 8:45. 15) The next meeting will be April 9, 2018. JH/pjt