Housing Commission

MINUTES HOUSING COMMISSION City of Falls Church PURPOSE OF MEETING: The five-member Commission is appointed by the City Council for three-year terms. The Housing Commission maintains awareness of housing needs and opportunities, including affordable housing; proposes housing policy initiatives and changes; investigates fair housing complaints and conciliates these complaints; mediates conflicts relating to the Virginia Residential Landlord & Tenant Act and offers reconciliatory services in conflicts relating to other housing laws. DATE OF MEETING: August 18, 2020 PLACE OF MEETING: Virtual MEETING CALLED TO ORDER BY: Chair Jordan Hicks at _____6:36____ pm THOSE PRESENT: Commission Members Staff Jordan Hicks, Vice Chair ___X__ Dana Lewis _X_ Joshua Shokoor __ X____ Peter Davis _____x_ __ Planning Commission Liaison FCHC Liaison Thom Vaccaro____ Student Liaison Council Liaison Letty Hardi _ __X___ Guest: Phil Duncan- Resident Ripal Patel Minutes from the July 14, 2020 were ____Approved_______ Proceedings: Meeting called to order by Chair Hicks at ____6:36___ pm OLD BUSINESS Tenant sub-committee Planning Continuation Commissioner Pete Davis led the group in a discussion about setting up an email address to make it relatively easy for tenants or landlords to contact with requests. Staff Lewis shared that she spoke with City IT staff and that can be done where inquiries will go directly to HHS staff. Davis and the group decided they would develop a list of questions and answers that will be featured. Recruitment of Housing Commission Member Update– Chair Jordin Hicks pointed out that we have had some visitors and the hope is that they will apply soon. New Business COVID Update- Staff Lewis shared an overview of outreach and assistance the City is providing for vulnerable populations in the City. HHS continues to use City Cares act funds before our CDBG funds as they must be spent by Dec 31st.  CURRENT - City HHS has been providing COVID related rental assistance. The program currently provides amounts of up to $1,000 per City resident for per month of assistance. Assistance that has been provided as of August 7: Rent payments- $107,800 total  May - $2,800, June - $22,657, July - $45,6750, August - $40,805  42 unduplicated clients and 107 rental checks provided to landlords  REMINDER – Because of ongoing need and supplemental insurance ending, the program will continue longer than the original planned three months of assistance. Without this program 40 City residents would have not been able to pay rent and may have ended up homeless. Housing Preservation Study/Accessory Dwelling Zoning Rewrite Update – Staff Lewis shared that the first draft of this report should be coming within the next two weeks. Once staff and the City manager have had a chance to review then the report will be shared with Council and the Commission. After this discussion Davis brought up some thoughts about affordable housing that he would like the commission to take action on including: Preserve Existing Affordable Units – Discussion on some additional ways to preserve units? We need to be aggressive on this and develop a plan to advocate. We should think about where we want stand alone or inclusionary affordable housing. Continue to advocate for ADUs into perpetuity. Pushing for More Aggressive Developer Set Asides – the group discussed the possibility and reality of asking for more than 6%. There may be council support for this. Explore a Falls Church Residential Infill Project – How might the partnership with Fairfax County Housing authority help us to achieve our goal of increasing affordable housing. The group advocated for a joint meeting where this may be discussed with planning. They also would like an overview of the Housing Implementation plan to the Commission. Launch a new major affordable housing development – the group talked about the benefits of a stand-alone project or inclusionary zoning. There were many comments however the group decided it would be best to review the forthcoming Housing Preservation Plan the City has used its VHDA grant contracted funds for as this may have some of the guidance and ideas we are looking for. Adjourned –____8:30_____ pm