ASHLAND HOUSING COMMISSION

MINUTES

July 22, 2010

CALL TO ORDER

Chair Steve Hauck called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m. at the Community Development and Engineering Services Building located at 51 Winburn Way, Ashland, OR  97520.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

The minutes of the June 25, 2010 meeting were approved as presented.

PUBLIC FORUM

No one was present to speak

Chair Hauck announced that he is resigning from both the Housing Commission and the Transportation Commission effective immediately.  His health has taken a turn for the worse and he will be moving out of the City into more affordable housing due to health care costs. 

The Commissioners will greatly miss him and wished him well.

REPORTS AND UPDATES                             

Liaison Reports

Council – Navickas reported that the Council is continuing to work on the Croman Mill project.  The last Council meeting was taken up with classification of offenses.  Previously the City had no classification for offenses; it was left up to the judge’s discretion.  The Council established classifications to include four tiers. Initially staff proposed that the camping ban would be a class two offense which would be a $360.00 fine but council agreed to reduce that to a class four offense with only a $90.00 fine.

Parks –Hauck reported that the Parks Commission is moving forward with the purchase of the Clay Street property using their share of the meals tax money.

School Board – The Board is preparing for the upcoming November measures and discussing how the past measures will affect their budget. The School Board is mainly dealing with budget issues at this time.

Planning – No report

SOU- No report

Staff – Reid reported that Project Homeless Connect was held on the 25^th of June and went quite smoothly.  Last year they served around 400 people and this year the total was 547, a nice increase.  Had a great volunteer turn out raising over $9,000 in donations.

Reid received a letter from HUD stating that they accepted the City’s Consolidated Plan and approved it along with the 2010 Annual Action Plan for the use of CDBG funds. 

The CDBG Recovery Act Program (CDBG-R), in which the City is completing energy efficiency upgrades to homes occupied by low income residents, currently has 16 participants underway.  Four of the participants needed further repairs outside of the scope of the program and requiring more than the $3,000 per household grant amount.  The City has been able to partner with the Housing Authority to utilize City of Ashland Housing Rehabilitation funds administered by that agency, as well as with Access, Inc’s weatherization program to leverage funds to complete need repairs and stretch the CDBG-R dollars. 

HOMELESS SHELTER PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION

Commissioner Pons gave a power point presentation regarding Homeless Shelters.  Pons explained that there are homeless people, houseless people and nomadic people.  They each have different needs. She proposed the question “Who is Ashland willing to support?”  Pons would like to see some kind of hostel style shelter focused on transportation, communication and facilitation of employment.   

The Commissioners discussed Pons presentation.  Reid announced that on Wednesday August 11, 2010 the Hope House, a Salvation Army transitional shelter, is having an open house for their shelter expansion that has been thirteen years in the making.  This is an example of how long the process can take. A Council goal is to evaluate the homeless population and their housing needs.  Reid met with City Police Chief, Terry Holderness who is from Fontana California.  Mr. Holderness stated that Fontana had a very successful homeless reduction program.  The program received support from all the service providers within the community.  They agreed to tie their services to various programs to create accountability and responsibility of the participants. 

Navickas encouraged the commissioners to find a way to address these needs without placing further financial stress on the City’s budgetary resources.  Research other municipalities and find what other resources they have found.  It would be good information to give to the Council. 

HOMELESS LIAISON REVISITED

Frost reminded the Commissioners that homelessness is a huge area of concern and is under the Housing Commission’s purview. The original idea was to create a non voting position for someone who could come to the meetings and report on what is going on in the homeless community.  It was decided to form a sub committee to discuss the liaison position.  Hauck appointed Waters, Frost and Pons to the Ad Hoc subcommittee. 

COUNCIL GOAL REVIEW

Reid said it’s important to keep in mind that the Council sets goals and the council will be more likely to facilitate the completion of the housing commission’s goals if they are related to, or help support the council’s goals. A current Council goal is to conduct a comprehensive study of Ashland’s homeless population, but city staff has not received further direction to move forward with that assessment at this time.  The Commissioners’ agreed that this is the starting point to dealing with homeless issues and solutions need to take the results of an assessment into account.  What is Ashland’s population and what are their needs.

Navickas encouraged the Commissioners to do as much outreach and education to the Council to help make them more aware of these needed services. 

ANNUAL GOAL SETTING

The annual goal setting meeting will be at the regular October meeting.

AUGUST 26TH, 2010 MEETING AGENDA ITEMS

CDBG

Potentially moving the regular meeting time and date in the Fall

Elect a new Chair and Vice Chair

Brandon Goldman will do a presentation of the Land Use Ordinance and how it pertains to affordable housing.

The City Council meeting where the HAJC will ask for fees waiver will be on August 17, 2010

UPCOMING EVENTS AND MEETINS

Next Housing Commission Regular Meeting

4:30-6:30 PM Thursday August 26, 2010 Community Development Building

ADJOURNMENT - The meeting was adjourned at 6:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by Carolyn Schwendener