Human Services Advisory Council

MINUTES Human Services Advisory Council & Housing Commission Joint Meeting City of Falls Church PURPOSE OF MEETING: To advise the City Council on human services delivery to Falls Church residents. DATE OF MEETING: September 19, 2024 PLACE OF MEETING: In Person (Dogwood Room) w/ Virtual Option MEETING CALLED TO ORDER BY Brian Bowden at 7:04pm. THOSE PRESENT: HSAC Members: Student Representatives: Brian Bowden Mikayla Edmunds Jeff Person Sennen Gaur Debra Z Roth CSB Representative: Staff: Ripal Patel Commission on Aging Representatives: Brenden Woodley Kayleen Mark Housing Commission Members: Dana Jones Meredith Anderson Jordan Hicks City Council Representative: Sara Ferrara Letty Hardi Robert Kravinsky 1. Opening remarks a. Introduction of commissioners and purpose. Brian Bowden mentioned that HSAC’s purpose was to provide advocacy on human services related matters. Meredith Anderson mentioned the Housing Commission’s purpose to maintain awareness of housing needs and policy initiatives and advise council on affordability and establishing housing goals. 2. City of Falls Church overview of programs: a. VA Village – Brenden Woodley: neighborhood here in the city of Falls Church. This is an area that the city has a lot of attention on and started purchasing units there. There is a total of twenty quads. The city has possession of five with the EDA. About two and a half years ago, we applied for Amazon grant funds and was awarded $3.75 for acquisition strike funds to work with Wesley housing to purchase more units with the long-term goal for redevelopment. Hoping to close with Wesley in the next few months and currently speaking with lending partners. b. Affordable Homeownership Program (AHP) – Brenden Woodley: program where we work with NHP to purchase homes using the Amazon grant funds and we find qualified households to sell to at a lower price based on AMI. We started project in early 2023 and we sold about five of those properties and we have two in stock. As we sell properties we can go out and purchase more for the project. c. Community Service Fund grants/contracts – Brian Bowden: we have the privilege at HSAC to give out grants every year to community nonprofits that serve city residents. As an advisory board we consider and hand out $90,000 in grants every year – legal aid, transportation for older adults, dental. Interjurisdictional contracts – lots of people who live in the city don’t realize that we contract out with Fairfax County for services including court and juvenile justice court services. Depending on service, we contract out to different jurisdictions for services. Cindy mentioned we have a variety of things that we do rely on county partnerships. 3. Council strategic priorities – Cindy Mester a. There are five categories: Preserve existing housing, expand and build new affordable housing, allow for more diverse housing types including townhomes and ADs, and strengthen opportunities for people at different life stages from first time homebuyers to down sizers. Looking at opportunities for life stages from first time buyer to elderly. 4. 2025 General assembly preview and priorities – Senator Saddam Azlan Salim: a. Accessible Dwelling Units in Virginia & City Update: i. Carried several bills and one was housing specifically the Accessible Dwelling Unit bill that will allow the state to determine certain regulations allowing an individual or homeowner to build an AD and allow the state to determine if they can get the permit or not. Spoke to different localities and they voiced concerns, and they made adjustments along the way and will go into effect 2025. ii. Localities have the chance to come up with their policy for ADs and what that looks like. The biggest battle was detached vs attached. They have put  in a lot of restrictions and requirements for this including parking and sewage. Left to localities to determine what the requirement is for the permit. iii. Housing Commission is looking now at Accessible Dwelling Units policies across the commonwealth. A subcommittee on ADs and looking at state policy and comprehensive plan for localities. No draft on what that looks like as yet. Another meeting coming up to discuss the recommendations. Other cities have reached out and asked if they can carve them out and the answer was if it is not going to work for everyone, it has to work for all of the commonwealth. It is left up to the commission to say if it is feasible on the state level. He is waiting on commission to tell him what to do. iv. Lots of calls from different localities to continue on this. If they say we surveyed 150 towns and localities and we find that 85% has AD policy, he will be happy with the numbers. AD won’t solve low-income housing issues but will free up the inventory as people can now live with their parents instead of an apartment. v. Exploring couple bills for renter’s credit as there are a lot of folks that are working for local firms and driving out an hour to get home. The discussion is on where is the funding coming from. A renter has no incentive to stay in the area. In order for the city to grow we need more folks to come into the city. Renter’s credit will be helpful for this for the transition process, for ages 22-27 who don’t have luxury of purchasing a home or paying $4000 for a studio apartment. vi. Discussion of developers wanting to build but to get permit it is taking longer than anticipated so has to be added on to final cost. There is a confusion of affordable housing and low income. ADs can add more inventory but won’t solve affordability issues. Waiting on Housing Commission to recommend if to move forward or make significant changes. vii. Cindy mentioned she has shared with the senator that the city is working on AD ordinances and proposing updates. Council will adopt in February 2025. More public hearings and community work to be done on that. Cindy mentioned tenants’ rights are important in the city. A lot of it is around property maintenance and being able to address mold and rats and what inspections and building codes can do. viii. Letty Hardi mentioned half of housing stock is single family and we should focus on renters in the city. Senator Salim responded once the report comes out, it will be shared with Cindy to share the recommendations. Legislative priorities will be sent out as well. There is a twenty-bill limit and will keep some spots for cities he represents. b. Independent living certification and ombudsman: i. Loophole in the states independent living space, they are regulated but they provide minimum service for medical or food. If someone falls, they  don’t report to anyone. Lots of spaces opening up in the commonwealth. The senator’s bill was to have a hotline or organization to handle the volume of calls. Tried adding that to existing one but they came back and said they don’t have capability to handle another sort of services. ii. Senate finance couldn’t find funding to fund the program for the next couple years. A lot of stuff working on now is to clean up bills and tweak some bills to make it more efficient. Focus on technology and autonomous vehicles, some states have vehicles where an individual is not needed, and law enforcement is not aware what to do. iii. Working with DMV where someone bringing in a conceal and carry like in a bar, a law to have concealed to carry on license. iv. Working on digital mobile ID to be used and accepted at airports. Working with Samsung and Apple to have ID in your wallets. As a result of this, when you go to a bar they have to accept your ID on your phone. DMV is working on an ID reader that police can use to scan ID instead of taking the phone. 5. Affordable Living Policy (ALP) – Brenden Woodley: a. The city has an ALP update done every five years. The policy dictates our affordable housing policy and number of affordable dwelling units negotiated. The metrics to track updates such as our annual affordable report sets expectations for the next five years and issuing policy directives. b. We started the process earlier this year with members from both Housing Commission and HSAC with the public. We developed a set of recommendations and in process of taking those recommendations and drafting into a policy. Will be sent to the public and boards and commissions for comment. c. We were able to secure a grant for drafting of policy. We hired subject matter experts through the grant we received from VA housing. The ALP is a product of the Housing and Human Services (HHS) department. We recently found out the policy will be added to the comprehensive plan. d. Cindy mentioned that it ties nicely as we are going to tie it into the comprehensive plan and things that use to be standalone it gives more continuity to push forward. 6. Affordable Dwelling Units/State Code possible changes – Cindy Mester: a. We want to change the state code reference that the city falls under for affordable dwelling units. Council will take to legislative committee on October 8th and adopted by November 25th. Looking at getting into code section 15.2-2304 for a more flexibility. We’re in 2305 which is more restricted in ratio of density of units. 7. Q&A/Open Dialog – Brian Bowden & Meredith Anderson: a. HSAC: i. The city has received concerns from residents on aging in place, but cost is an issue and a challenge. We have discussed grants for aging needs such as chair lifts, added tax breaks etc. Do you have any ideas from other jurisdictions?  ii. Senator Salim responded– there is a specific budget line carried last year that is the super wealth tax that brought funding in billions allocated to certain grants and programs. Property values have gone up significantly so there is room for localities that if the state can give a revolving door plan for funding where cities and localities survive from real estate taxes. There is room to work with state where they will foot the bill. Someone can show their income and the tax for their property will be based on their income, but someone has to find the money to cover the bill. iii. Looking at what can be done on the revenue side that can be used for these programs. Many people are moving out of the area as they can’t afford to stay. Tax bills are high and social security payments don’t allow them to afford the bill. iv. Debrah Roth – rentals are becoming higher including those designed for older people and that there should be incentives. v. Senator Salim responded– if someone is renting, they won’t stay forever. If we build some units, it can be a transition for those who are out of college and then you get incomed out and find alternative housing methods. There is a recent article that VA is losing population due to housing. vi. Jeff Person mentioned that with Medicare works one can only make $7500 a year but if you need the development disability waiver which pays for personal care, one can only make $36,000 a year. This limits someone; s ability to live independently and financially. vii. Senator Salim responded – DD waivers amendments where we actually increase the number of waivers and looking again to increase the income levels. How do we reduce and how do we adjust to work with inflation? There is a subcommittee working on VA income tax and corporate tax. There has not been a change since 1984. Looking into updating the tax bracket and with that adjustment, they will try to put in DD waivers and social services that the commonwealth provides that can solve some issues. There needs to be some type of plus and minus analysis to not have a strict amount for eligibility. Looking into updating that system. Adjustment with inflation will solve some of the issues. viii. Jeff mentioned people with disabilities should be able to work. b. Housing Commission: i. Robert Kravinsky – appreciates distinction made with affordable housing programs and the affordability of housing around the region. For ADs, it was mentioned an advantage for kids coming out of college and age in place folks can gave a place to live, but Housing Commission has been thinking about the benefit for middle income families, teachers with families who need a place to rent and workforce units. The Senate bill allows 1500sq ft and the current proposal for city is 1000 sq ft which seems small for a family and excludes a lot of middle-income families and  teachers with families. Can you speak on the logic of 1500 sq ft, and the pros and cons of going lower? ii. Senator Salim responded– The AD bill was not specific city or town but all of the commonwealth. The original bill was a percentage but had complaints. He wanted to avoid a mansion having a mansion in the backyard and looked at missing middle in Arlington. 1500 sq ft was the compromise they can work with. Some people had a garage that is detached that’s larger. 1500sq ft was the middle number. People can build the same size home and call it an AD. This resulted in the Airbnb clause where it cannot be short term rentals and have a minimum stay. It protects the aesthetic of community and not have big houses in the back yard. iii. Some lots in Fairfax County sat on two lots. Instead of creating 2 homes, the second home is an AD. It prevents the wealthy from taking advantage of that. iv. Parking lot component is if you take a spot for parking lot and used as part of the 1500sq ft, you had to find a replacement for that, and it could not be the street. Downside to it is we are limiting what can and cannot be built. Same with the $250 permit fee, localities asked to have the highest it can be at $1250, which priced out lower incomes from building ADs. v. Meredith – dealing with mold and property maintenance issues, as Housing Commission we struggled with in past when we get notified from residents that there are issues in building, because of how Falls Church fits within Fairfax and how some of the inspections are done, there is not much Falls Church can do. We come across a lot of limitations on what we have control on and what we can leverage as a small city that rely on Fairfax County. vi. Cindy mentioned this is tied to building code and can only do so much. We are part of Fairfax health department and health department code has some limitations. vii. Senator Salim– do localities need more rights when it comes to inspections? Funding that Fairfax County receives for inspections, the city may need additional power when it comes to renters. City has grown, the county is serving more folks, and it is an overall issue. Not just in housing, but permits, education certificates, school system. How do we give the city some of those abilities to go in and inspect certain things, but mold and water testing are not on the list, and can we include them? Working on cleaning up bills to better serve the cities and make it more efficient. Happy to work with Cindy on a cleanup bill. 8. Adjourn at 8:05pm. 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. 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