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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06.17.22-APPROVED_SKHHP-EB-MinutesP a g e | 1 SKHHP Executive Meeting June 17, 2022 MINUTES I. CALL TO ORDER Vice-Chair Dana Ralph called the virtual meeting to order at 1:02 PM. Welcome to SKHHP Advisory Board member and liaison, Andrew Calkins, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at King County Housing Authority. a. ROLL CALL/ESTABLISHMENT OF QUORUM Executive Board members present: Collen Brandt-Schluter, City of Burien, Joseph Cimaomo, City of Covington; Traci Buxton, City of Des Moines; Brian Davis, City of Federal Way; Dana Ralph, City of Kent; Eric Zimmerman, City of Normandy Park; Ryan McIrvin, City of Renton; Sunaree Marshall, King County; Cynthia Delostrinos-Johnson, City of Tukwila Other attendees: Angela San Filippo, SKHHP; McCaela Daffern; King County; Laurel Humphrey, City of Tukwila; Hannah Bahnmiller, City of Renton; Andrew Calkins, SKHHP Advisory Board; Nicole Nordholm, City of Des Moines; Matt Torpey, City of Maple Valley; Dafne Hernandez, City of Covington; Jeff Dixon, City of Auburn; Sarah Bridgeford, City of Federal Way; Shkelqim Kelmendi, Executive Director of Housing Connector II. REVIEW AGENDA/AGENDA MODIFICATIONS No agenda modifications. III. APPROVAL OF MAY 20, 2022 MINUTES Joseph Cimaomo moved to approve the May 20, 2022 minutes as presented; Traci Buxton seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously (9-0). IV. EDUCATIONAL ITEM a. Housing Connector San Filippo introduced Shkelqim Kelmendi from Housing Connector. The mission of Housing Connector is aligned with SKHHP’s mission to support housing stability policies and practices for tenants that are informed by both tenants and landlords. Kelmendi provided a person introduction and family history of immigration to Dallas from Kosov o. With no credit history they had a landlord that took a chance on their family. A couple of decades later Kelmendi, with a background in economics and math, is working in h ousing policy. Focus of Housing Connector is to find opportunities for individuals to access homes in the private sector and reduce barriers to access. This is one piece of addressing the housing and homelessness crisis in an incredibly tight housing market. Housing Connector is focused on connecting housing providers with tenants, every week that a house sits empty landlords lose revenue. This is not only a financial loss but a loss for the community. Housing providers are Housing Connectors primary customers and they offer them support in exchange for elimination of screening criteria that allows families and individuals to access homes. They approach property owners/landlords with a bottom line solution rather than a do good approach. Their focus is to fill the unit, make sure rent is paid, and ensure property is not damaged and properties are kept safe and healthy. P a g e | 2 Housing Connector offers free referrals, 3 month rent guarantee, up to $5,000 risk mitigation, that helps to bring supply to the table. They have strong participation of 100 nonprofits and they allow case manager more time with clients and less time searching for housing. [Councilmember McIrvin joined at 1:17 pm] Housing Connector has relationships with 1,100 property partners representing 58,000 homes, and a 96% success rate. They help to address discriminatory practices by eliminating requirements for credit score, background checks, etc. Last July they launched in Pierce County, working on expansion to Denver and Dallas. They are a non-profit, largest source of funding comes from King County Regional Homelessness Authority and private philanthropy. Question above property managers and whether the landlord signs a contract with them or with individuals/families. Housing Connector has a memorandum of understanding with landlords, but landlord signs a traditional lease with individual which helps that client build rental history. Question about outreach to landlords, and what role they see cities playing i n terms of support. Housing Connector has a multi-pronged approach – whenever a smaller unit lists a unit on Zillow, they automatically get pinged (passive outreach), they also have a strong relationship with WA multifamily housing organization, and targeted outreach to large entities. They have worked with local cities to get the word out to property owners, non-profits in your communities are likely already working with them. City of Seattle requires registration of all landlords and has provided access, other communities may be able to share this type of information. Kent’s rental housing database may be a good way to partner with Housing Connector to share data. V. OLD BUSINESS a. SKHHP Housing Capital Fund Guidelines Ralph introduced continued discussion on the SKHHP Housing Capital Fund Guidelines, with the intention to reach a decision and move forward with the guidelines at today’s meeting. San Filippo reviewed the process and proposed changes since the meeting. Last month the Board was provided a final draft and an opportunity to provide feedback. In light of the extended discussion at the last meeting and additional opportunity to provide feedback in between meetings, review will focus on the proposed changes. The proposed changes include calling out directly the communication happening throughout the process with jurisdictional staff and the Executive Board – this includes staff involvement in pre- funding application meetings and as part the initial staff review of applications. There is a proposed change to include a statement of support from the jurisdiction where a project is located with the final funding approval showing they are committed to funding as well as demonstrating support. Jurisdictions that are not contributing funding to the project through SKHHP’s Housing Capital Fund would be asked for a letter of support prior to making a final funding decision. The proposed change to shift from a list of priority populations to a broad statement to prioritize populations that have been disproportionately impacted by housing costs and a question for applications to identify the populations they are planning to serve with their project. San Filippo provided a broad overview of the other funding priorities recommended by the Advisory Board. Discussion and questions to clarify the jurisdictional letter of support. Consideration to ask applicants how they are affirmatively marketing housing to populations that are disproportionately impacted. Appreciation for the work that went into the proposed changes. Cynthia Delostrinos-Johnson made a motion to approve the 2022 SKHHP Housing Capital Fund Guidelines, Colleen Brandt-Schluter seconded the motion. All in favor, motion passed (9-0). P a g e | 3 b. 2023 SKHHP Work Plan and Budget San Filippo reviewed the discussion from the last meeting that revolved around process and organization. This meeting will focus more on the actual goals and work plan items, staff are in the process of reaching out to partner jurisdictions before the work plan and budget are brought before the Executive Board for approval in August and final adoption by partner jurisdictions in the fall and winter. San Filippo reviewed each of the five goals and corresponding work plan items. Each goal has work plan items that are identified as critical, important, or desirable. Critical items are those necessary to carry out SKHHP’s ILA or to fully execute work plan items that began in previous years. Important items are those that are a priority but not absolutely necessary, and may need to be delayed based on staff capacity or other emerging needs. Desirable items would be nice to be able to get to during 2023 but are not as high on the priority list. Discussion about the amount of work and need to build staff capacity. SKHHP’s mission includes housing and homelessness and work plan is primarily focused on housing, Federal Way would like to look into how we can address homelessness as well. Normandy Park’s constituency is also interested in how to address homelessness and work towards regional solutions. San Filippo responded that the Advisory Board has significant expertise and experience in direct service provision and will likely have insight into how SKHHP might address homelessness as part of our overall body of work. San Filippo reviewed the proposed 2023 budget and referenced previous conversations and the adopted 2022 budget that started implementing incremental increases to annual member contributions while spending down cost savings from first two years of formation with t he goal of reaching a balanced budget over the next few years. San Filippo reviewed the proposed increases and the unique situation of specific member jurisdictions, these include Federal Way that moved into a different population tier, Maple Valley that joined SKHHP partway through 2022, and King County that contributes a flat rate of $75,000 per year. San Filippo reviewed SKHHP’s expenses that include two full-time staff positions, compensation for the SKHHP Advisory Board for which a structure will be brought to the Executive Board next month, and professional services that will assist with the contractual documents related to allocations from the SKHHP Housing Capital Fund. Question about the leadership and performance evaluations for SKHHP staff. SKHHP staff are included in the City of Auburn system for evaluations, salaries, benefits, etc. Discussion ensued on compensation for advisory board members. The compensation structure has not been decided upon, the Executive Board will be going through a discussion and decision-making process to establish compensation for advisory board members next month. VI. PSRC VISION 2050 AWARD PRESENTATION Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) Executive Director, Josh Brown, presented the SKHHP Executive Board with a Vision 2050 Award – “Working Together” for the South King County Subregional Housing Framework. VII. ADJOURN Ralph adjourned the meeting at 2:56 pm.