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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-04-08 HCHA Approved Minutes Meeting of the HAWAI‘I COUNTY HOUSING AGENCY Hilo, Hawai`i April 8, 2020 Agency Members Present Absent and Excused Karen Eoff, Chair (by video from Kona) Valerie T. Poindexter, Vice-Chair (by video from Kona) Aaron Chung Susan “Sue” L. K. Lee Loy Ashley Lehualani Kierkiewicz Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder Maile Medeiros David (by video from Kona) Rebecca Villegas (by video from Kona) Herbert M. “Tim” Richards III, DVM (by video from Waimea) Staff Members Present Duane Hosaka Amy Bautista Desiree Moore Kori Koike Smith Corporation Counsel Members of the Public Nancy Cook Lauer Eoff: Are we ready? Councilmembers? Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Ready. Eoff: Ready. Okay. Good morning everybody and you may have to help me out I can’t see Hilo at this time so but can you see us? Kanealii-Kleinfelder: Yes we can. th Eoff: Okay. I’d like to call the Housing Agency meeting to order. Today is April 8. Its nine…ten after nine and we are meeting both in the Hilo chambers and the Kona chambers today, maybe you can help me out with the attendance here in Kona I have Councilmembers, Val…I’m sorry…Housing Agency members HCHA meeting April 8, 2020 Valerie Poindexter, Rebecca Villegas, Maile David, myself Karen Eoff and in Hilo can you let me know whose present please? Kanealii-Kleinfelder: We have Sue Lee Loy, Ashley Kierkiewicz, Aaron Chung and myself. Eoff: Okay, and so Mr. Richards is?... Richards: In Waimea. Eoff: Okay. Mr. Richards is in Waimea. So everybody’s here. Thank you very much. And I believe we have Duane Hosaka there in Hilo and who else Mr. Chung or somebody? Hosaka: I have my staff Amy Bautista will be taking minutes and I have Desiree Moore and Kori Smith outside if I need assistance to help answer some questions. Eoff: Okay. Thank you very much. And I believe you’d like to just give us a short overview and presentation of why we’re meeting today? And you can go ahead with that. Hosaka: Okay so, we have this public housing authority annual plan which is, we come out with it every five years. Basically its, there’s no changes to the plan but this year were trying to put in this, I guess, where the families can get some preferences to move up on the list. And under the preferences we have several categories. So each, if the family wanted to get a preference, they can only choose one so… Eoff: Can I interrupt you just for a minute? Hosaka: Sure. Eoff: Because maybe I should take care of the minutes…approval of the minutes, I forgot to go by the order on the agenda. Okay. So may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the April 9, 2019 Housing Agency meeting please? ??: So moved. David: Second. Eoff: Moved by Mrs. Villegas or Mrs. Poindexter and second by Mrs. David. Any comments on the minutes? Hearing none all in favor please say aye. Page 2 of 5 HCHA meeting April 8, 2020 Ai Eoff: Any opposed? Okay, that would be nine ayes. And may I have a motion for the minutes of November 15, 2019. Poindexter: So moved. David: Second. Eoff: Moved by Mrs. Poindexter and second by Mrs. David. Any discussion? Okay all in favor say aye. Ai Eoff: Any opposed? That’s nine ayes. And now will go to the new business and I’m not exactly sure if we need a motion before hand but what were going to do after we hear this presentation is approve, will have to take a vote to approve the Housing Agency plan for the voucher program and just to be safe I’m just going to ask for a motion at this time to approve the plan. Inaudible. Eoff: Moved by Mrs. Poindexter second by Mrs. David. And now you can go ahead with the presentation. Hosaka: Okay, as I was saying, so our PHA plan is a five year plan and the major change that we have this year is we trying to do some preference for the families. So under this preferences, we have a VAWA which is it Violence Against Womens Act so under this if the client were to try to get this preference they would have 5 points which is the highest lever were offering. Other then that we have families with minor children, formerly homeless, involuntary displaced, been disabled and elderly. So its all ranked. Depending on which preference they choose or which preference they can qualify for they’ll be on…move up the list or depending on yeah…the preference. That was about the major change we had. I don’t know if you guys have questions for me. I know staff went out to the Councilmembers to try to explain in more detail what the plan is and if you guys had other questions that we could explain. Eoff: Yes. Thank you very much for that. We, some of us, I think, did have a meeting with you folks and I’m not sure if everybody did so are there any questions form Kona before I ask for the Hilo? No. In Kona we don’t have any questions for you but in Hilo does anybody want to ask a question? Kierkiewicz: Chair. Page 3 of 5 HCHA meeting April 8, 2020 Eoff: Go ahead. Kierkiewicz: Can you hear me okay? Eoff: Yes. Kierkiewicz: Sorry. Speaking through a mask. Eoff: Mrs. Kierkiewicz. Kierkiewicz: I don’t have a question but I just, I do want to state for the record that I was able to meet with Alisa, Desiree and Kori from Housing and I just want to Mahalo you Duane for your leadership . We really have a functioning Housing office now and I think its your demeanor and your willingness to engage and collaborate and support and empower staff that I have seen a lot of positive of changes coming from the office so thank you for that. And thank you to your staff for making these changes about local preference so that more of these housing vouchers can stay on this island. So thank you. Chair I yield. Eoff: Thank you Mrs. Kierkiewicz. Anyone else in Hilo would like to comment or ask a question? Mr. Richards in Waimea? I can see Hilo now too so very good. Richards: Thank you Chair no just again thanks to Duane for getting together and discussing this, no questions, covered it quite well. Eoff: Okay. Thank you. Then I’ll go ahead and we’ll take a vote to approve the public housing agency plan for the housing choice voucher section eight program for the County of Hawai‘i. All in favor please say aye. Any opposed? Okay we have nine ayes, motion carries. May I have a motion to adjourn? Hosaka: Chair can I just give a comment, not PHA plan related but just Office of Housing related? Eoff: Sure. Go ahead. Hosaka: So I guess since early March we’ve been getting many clients come in because of adjustments…adjustments made, you know because of their income levels or their work…their work salaries being adjusted, so I checked with the numbers, we have about 100 adjustments being made that’s to their rental subsidies. So about 100 a week. What’s going to happen is, if for example, a client were to get $800 a month in rental assistance that might move up to maybe $850 or some kind of adjustment. So just to let you know that people of Page 4 of 5 HCHA meeting April 8, 2020 Hawai‘i island is suffering and we’re…we are working hard to try to make all these adjustments and get them…or keep the housing that they have right now. And another thing under the CDBG there’s this CARES Act that I guess the President signed $5,000,000,000 in Community Development Block Grant Coronavirus CDBG funds. Our island will receive 60% of our normal CDBG funds which comes out to $1,543,000. This fund when we talked to the local HUD staff they want it to be spent within three months, so were working very hard to figure out how were going to spend it and how its going to go out into the community. So I believe were doing a B-52 and trying to have Council, if possible, today, cause we have to you know get it on our books at least then we can start spending it down. That’s all I have. Eoff: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for alerting us to that and as Mrs. Kierkiewicz said I’m…were all really happy that your there and working so hard right now when we really need housing. And I thank you for your presentation and look forward to working with you and hopefully we can have another housing agency meeting soon then. Hosaka: Yeah. Thank you. Eoff: Okay. And now may I have a motion to adjourn? Inaudible. Eoff: Moved by Mrs. Poindexter. Second by Mrs. Villegas. All in favor say aye. Aye. Eoff: Okay that’s nine ayes and meetings adjourned. Thank you very much Councilmembers…I mean Housing Agency Members. Meeting adjourned at 9:15 a.m. Page 5 of 5