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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12.09.20 RHAB Minutes1 Rental Housing Advisory Board Meeting Minutes December 9, 2020 Present: Alec Gulan, Lynnsey Erickson, Timothy Ernst, Linda Jevaltas Excused: Donn Lord, Danny Garcia, Agnes Payne, Todd Hutchison, Katrina DeGroot Staff: Allen Davis, Community Development Director Call to Order Mr. Ernst called the meeting to order at 3:30 PM. Citizen Statements No one appeared for citizen statements. Approval of Minutes - October 14, 2020 The minutes of the October 14, 2020 meeting were approved as distributed. (Erickson/Jevaltas) Discussion Regarding Wisconsin Rental Assistance Program (WRAP) with Representative from ADVOCAP Ms. Scheer was unable to attend this meeting of the Rental Housing Advisory Board. Ms. Scheer sent the following e-mail to be shared with the board: Here's the stat's I can provide, as ADVOCAP was unable to pull any reports on the last extract. The state locked us out as of 11/24, but we are expecting wrap up details and I will forward them at a later date. As of 11/18/2020 County # of Households Total spent on rent, security deposit, and mobile home lot fees Calumet 33 $ 51,853 Fond du Lac 315 $ 558,052 Green Lake 27 $ 45,080 Winnebago 576 $ 998,469 Total 951 unduplicated $ 1,653,454 PLUS an additional $94,204 was spent between 11/18 and 11/24 for a total of $1,747,658 spent from mid-June until 11/24. Approximately 213 households received assistance for either more than one month, or rent and security deposit, but close to 1,000 unduplicated households were served, when you add the stats from the last week. 2 We are unsure of any future funding, either State or Federal, or for that matter local. In these political times, there are far more questions than answers, although we do believe there will be some sort of assistance available. We have small amounts of funds to assist with rental payments and eviction prevention. I say small, as we were going through nearly $100,000 a week with WRAP - and we have approximately $300,000 available in other funds. The funding sources, however, are far stricter with their eligibility. Again, I apologize for not making the meeting, but will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Mr. Ernst asked if there were any questions for Ms. Scheer to include in a follow-up e-mail. Ms. Jevaltas replied that her question is with regard to people that are on the waiting list and what need is at this point, is there a tremendous need or are we in pretty good shape. Mr. Davis replied that he will ask Ms. Scheer about a waiting list and the length of the waiting list. Mr. Ernst stated that he would like to know if there are additional housing providers refusing to accept the funds because that was something that Ms. Scheer brought up in the past. Winnebago County Eviction Prevention Task Force Update Ms. Erickson stated that the task force is part of her role at the health department. A smaller group had been meeting prior to COVID for a few years looking at eviction mediation as an issue, but since COVID they have expanded the group and are now focusing on housing stability. They have been meeting regularly since April. The members are herself on behalf of the County Health Department, Winnebago Conflict Resolution Center, the City, Rent Smart, Donn Lord on behalf of the Apartment Association, Legal Action of Wisconsin, the United Way Community Foundation, Lu Scheer on behalf of ADVOCAP, and Forward Services. Throughout the summer they had been focusing on some actions they could take to make sure tenants knew about eviction moratoriums and what resources were available. Once the rental assistance program came out, they did some communications through their partners to make sure that word got out on how to apply for funding. On the Oshkosh area United Way’s website, there is a listing of all of the landlord and tenant resources and also a few information sheets, which are translated in various languages. One information sheet includes reasons to rethink evictions. This is done in conjunction with United Way’s 211 resource, so if anyone calls 211 looking for housing assistance, they have all of the updated resources for the area. Anyone can check out the Oshkosh United Way’s website or call 211. Moving forward with the task force, they’re looking at some kind of long term policy and systems changes. They just hired a facilitator to walk them through an action planning process, so they’ll be compiling all of the eviction data they have access to and that data is publically available through C-CAP. They also look at other indicators of housing instability including the data that Ms. Scheer provides. They’re not sure what those long term solutions are going to be yet, but she would be happy to bring any suggestions RHAB has back to the task force. Mr. Ernst asked if there was a timeline for actions. 3 Ms. Erickson replied that they will be doing the action planning process January through May of next year. After May, they’ll have their plan set and they’ll be pursuing those solutions. They will likely be doing more input sessions to get more input from renters and landlords to housing providers. Mr. Ernst asked if any board members had questions or suggestions for Ms. Erickson. Mr. Davis asked if the facilitator will be reaching out to more members of the community like RHAB. Ms. Erickson replied affirmatively, stating that will be the recommendation to them, whether it be a facilitator or a task force member doing the outreach. They want to make sure that they have the comprehensive data and input so that they understand what’s going on throughout the county and what actions they can take. Mr. Ernst stated that he is interested in landlord tenant court as a mediation alternative and having a specialized body to handle housing disputes as opposed to brining tenants through the normal small claims system. It is not unreasonable to say the small claims system disadvantages them dramatically, so that is something he is interested in. Ms. Erickson replied that how to expand mediation so that it happens before it gets to the courts has come up a few times. Ms. Jevaltas asked if any data will be gathered through community agencies and if they are getting any data from surveys. Ms. Erickson replied that so far they have done some surveys with housing providers and landlords to see what the impact of COVID has been to determine how many of their tenants have been behind on rent or how many of them have come up with an agreement on rent with their tenant. She thinks they’ll be looking to do more surveys like that with renters themselves. Ms. Jevaltas replied that getting in touch with the University would be a good idea. Ms. Erickson replied affirmatively. Mr. Gulan asked if it was directed toward student housing or if student housing was involved in the study or if it is strictly residential. Ms. Erickson replied that they want to figure out how to engage the student side of things because obviously that can have a big impact on housing stability. She said that if anyone has suggestions on who that might be from the student side, she would be happy to follow up. Mr. Gulan stated that he owns two college rentals near the campus and he’s been curious as to how many people have been affected in that area or if it’s just more residential landlords. Ms. Jevaltas asked for confirmation that RHAB had a student liaison before COVID hit. 4 Mr. Davis replied that he attempted to follow up with her, but there was something regarding the University where she was put in this kind of limbo and he never really heard back about what happened with her. Mr. Ernst stated that OSA is probably a good group to reach out to on campus. Mr. Davis stated that the City doesn’t track evictions, only foreclosures. He asked who tracks them and if there a good way to put a report together to see where these evictions are taking place so he has a better understanding of what’s going on in the City. He’s never really seen a report on something like that, so he’s curious if anything like that exists. Ms. Erickson replied that they have been culling the data from what they have access to publically through C-CAP. They’ve only collected it county-wide. They haven’t had the capacity to do it for Oshkosh only. In 2019, there were 767 evictions filed and as of December 2nd of this year, there have been 594 evictions filed. Mr. Ernst asked where the number falls in terms of the median of other years. Ms. Erickson replied that from 2016 through 2019, the average for the month of November was 54 evictions. For this past November, there were 53 evictions. Despite being under an eviction moratorium, there were the same number of evictions as the past four years. She would say that this year has been slightly less, but that’s with three different moratoriums throughout the year. They will see how 2021 plays out. Mr. Davis asked if there are discussion about extending any kind of eviction moratoria. Ms. Erickson replied that she has not heard anything definitive. Right now they are under the CDC moratorium and tenants need to qualify under certain criteria and sign a declaration form, so it doesn’t cover everyone. She would expect that it would be extended, but there has been nothing definitive yet. Ms. Jevaltas asked if the November evictions had to do with tenant behavior and those kind of things. Ms. Erickson replied affirmatively, and added that it could also be tenants who did not qualify for the criteria. Some of the criteria is income below $90,000, an effort must have been made to find other housing assistance, and that if you would become homeless if you were to become evicted. It could also be tenants who did not fill out a form and turn it into their landlords. Ms. Jevaltas asked if information about how tenants can get forms is available on the United Way website. Ms. Erickson replied affirmatively. There is a form on the housing page of the United Way website called tenant information sheet which has links to the declaration form that a tenant would have to fill out. They’ve been referring folks to call Legal Action of Wisconsin and they can walk the tenant through to make sure that they actually qualify for the moratorium. 5 Approve Tenant Bill of Rights Mr. Ernst stated that he updated the draft with what he thought was agreed upon in October. He took the minutes and tried to generate the list as best he could. There are places where it says add contact information because he wasn’t sure what the appropriate way to include that would be in terms of the legalese or even what type of information we want to put in there. He said that if its phone number and website, then that’s fine. Ms. Jevaltas stated that on section D, Freedom from Discrimination, where it says tenants are protected from unfair treatment from housing providers on the basis of race, religion, biological sex, gender, political affiliation, etc., she thinks that all of that needs to be spelled out, like disability and those kind of things rather than etc. Mr. Ernst asked if there were any other classifications that should be added. Mr. Gulan replied that the fair housing requirements are race, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, and disability. Mr. Davis stated that he will add the City’s contact information for item 4 and check to see what he needs to add for Legal Action. Mr. Ernst stated that the revisions required are the addition of familial status and disability to section 1 subsection D and the addition of specific contact information to section 4 subsection A-D. Motion by Jevaltas to postpone Approve Tenant Bill of Rights until February 10, 2021 Rental Housing Advisory Board meeting. Seconded by Erickson. There was no discussion on the motion. Motion passed 4-0. Approve 2021 Strategic Plan and Action Plan Mr. Ernst summarized the changes to the Strategic Plan. Mr. Davis stated that report to Council on a monthly basis should be changed to bi-monthly basis under Advise. Ms. Erickson asked if there was any training available for landlords on how to prepare for an inspection or what they can expect for the inspection. Mr. Ernst replied that there is not a training, but he knows the inspectors have gone to Apartment 6 Association meetings to share the information and the information is also publically available. He said that Inspection Preparation: provide resources to landlords to prepare to pass inspection can be added to the Strategic Plan under Training Programs. Mr. Ernst stated that monitor and update online resources and communications should be revised to produce, monitor, and update online resources and communications because RHAB is responsible for creating those communications. Mr. Ernst summarized the changes to the Action Plan and stated that the revisions to the Strategic Plan should also be reflected in the Action Plan. Motion by Jevaltas to postpone Approve 2021 Strategic Plan and Action Plan until February 10, 2021 Rental Housing Advisory Board meeting. Seconded by Erickson. There was no discussion on the motion. Motion passed 4-0. Affordable Housing Study Update Mr. Davis stated the City received three statements of qualifications from firms. They are looking for firms with experience with college residential housing, affordable housing that is also accessible, and both lower and upper income housing. The Planning Services Manager is leading the study and he was doing the background checks and checking the details on their scopes of services and he will have a recommendation by the end of the week to enter into a contract. It will be brought to Council in early January with the goal of completing the study by spring of 2021. Other Business Ms. Jevaltas provided an update to the board regarding online engagement. In regard to the website, it is completely different from last year. Everything looked pretty good, but one of the resources listed under tenant resources is a program in Madison. It might be a little confusing for people because they’re going to see it’s for Madison and think it will not be able to help them. That may need to be a little different. Mr. Ernst replied that the TRC is not operating outside of Madison anymore. Ms. Jevaltas replied that maybe there could be a footnote indicating there are state resources on there as well. The RHAB brochure is only included under Residential Rental Inspection Program, but it should also be included under Rental Complaints and Inspections because it has a lot of good information especially if someone has a complaint. Mr. Ernst asked everyone to review the City website and Facebook page and bring suggestions for 7 things like layout and resources to the next meeting. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 4:17 PM. (Erickson/Jevaltas)