Human Services Advisory Council

MINUTES Human Services Advisory Council City of Falls Church PURPOSE OF MEETING: To advise City Council on human services delivery to Falls Church citizens. DATE OF MEETING: April 21, 2022 PLACE OF MEETING: Virtual MEETING CALLED TO ORDER BY Alisa Macht at 6:31 p.m. THOSE PRESENT: HSAC Members: Staff: Dana Lewis Kayleen Mark Alisa Macht Alicia Garcia Brian Bowden City Council Liaison Nicole Newman (chair) Marybeth Connelly Anne Norloff Guests Debra Z. Roth Paul Bosen Phil Duncan Martha Cooper APPROVAL of MINUTES: The minutes from the March 17, 2022 meeting were approved. NEW BUSINESS: • Dana discussed the rehab for Virginia Village and the plan to request additional funds for the project. $70,000 is from ARPA (federal COVID assistance) and Dana said the difference was $30,000 and that she is still going through budget process and there is no guarantee for the additional funding. • Grantees – ARPA funds have to be used for low to moderate incomes so these funds will be used for the projects that fit this. The plan is to make everyone whole on what they asked for. Dana said funds that were allocated elsewhere and approved are being transferred to this. Commissioner Connelly shared she is optimistic and budget voting is in two weeks. Dana asked for a motion from the Commission to show support for each grantee to receive the full amount requested. Debra motioned that all the grantees who made the request to be fully approved for additional funds, Alisa second and Brian also agreed. • Paul Bosen, from Welcoming Falls Church, gave an update on providing rent to refugees in the City. Catholic Charities (CCDA) will have a fund and staff to cut checks for supplemental rent support to landlords for this program. Welcoming Falls Church will identify landlords and talk to them about waiving security deposits etc. The initial goal is to help five families for 6-12 months with the $50,000 funding. Over time if this works perhaps they may help another five families. Funds will be coming in from private sources as well. Lots of people are asking what they can do to help so they are hopefully this will kick off to be something sustainable.  Alisa asked about the sustainability of the program and how will the families become self- sufficient. Paul said the program encourages self-sufficiency and it is designed for a 12 to18-month continuation but not to pay the full rent for the families. The idea is that the children will get into the schools, families will get support in the community and after the 12 to 18-month term, they will be further along to self-sufficiency. Alisa also mentioned that what we think is affordable may not be for the refugees and she is happy to hear about private funding to help with sustainability of the program. OLD BUSINESS: • Equity and inclusion workshop: Debra Roth Debra said the feedback from the workshop was encouraging. People enjoyed connecting, felt stimulated and inspired by the group and they appreciated the panel but felt it went off into a tangent and a bit of attacking City Hall. She said the main take away is that people would like to continue something like this. She thinks a continuation it is a good idea but it is a large resource pool and it took months and lots of paperwork in terms of details. She said the task force on equity that is made up of City staff will review using a consultant. The facilitator of the workshop had great ideas on doing something different, for example a presentation on the history of the confederate memorabilia of Virginia. Marybeth said the school staff that it was very valuable and it was very useful to them. Dana said the City has an Equity group and they hired, along with HR, a consulting firm that will come in to do focus groups with employees on different topics. STAFF REPORT: • Alicia Garcia – gave an overview on the Amazon projects and the Homeownership program with our non-profit partner, the NHP Foundation, to sell affordable homes to families with low and moderate incomes. She is currently working with them to finalize a developer agreement. The Virginia Village Strike Fund Acquisition project is coming along with Wesley Housing, the non-profit partner. They are looking at financing using VA Housing and need to submit and close by June 30. Currently we are doing a phase 1 environmental assessment of the property to look for anything harmful to the residents and the environment. The 310 S. Maple building needs deep renovations. She is working with the procurement team to release funds for emergency contracts to rapidly get the RFQ. Alisa asked when will people move back to Virginia Village. Once the work is completed, we will bring them back. Alicia stated they anticipate the work taking 120 days but that’s being optimistic. Brian asked about the City’s plan to buy all the properties. Alicia said the City is buying but transferring over to Wesley and the objective is to redevelop and maintain affordability. • Kayleen Mark – discussed managing the ADU Program and wait-list. She explained the current priority status on the waitlist and that there is a total of 123 persons. There are 8 people on the priority 1 list, 60 people on the priority 2 list and 55 people on the priority 3 list. She is currently developing the homeownership waitlist and there are currently 16 people on the waitlist. She discussed the current available ADUs at Founder’s Row and Verso which is a 55+ community. She is working to get those filled. She is also working on outreach within the city and reached out to the schools to reach employees in the school system. OTHER: • The next meeting date is May 19. The group is not sure when to meet in person again. There will be an update in July. Debra said if we want to meet in person we can, but it won’t be recorded and we will just have to take minutes. • Dana introduced Martha Cooper, from at the Aging Commission, who shared they are looking into a variety of issues and services provided in the area for seniors. There was a housing discussion recently that mostly looked at Fairfax County but provided issues that relate to Falls Church City as well. • Marybeth brought up the tax abatement and deferral for seniors. City Council is putting more money into that program to help more people. Meeting adjourned at 7:36 p.m. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This document will be made available in an alternate format upon request. Call 703-248-5005 (TTY 711).