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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10.12.2022 Rental Housing Advisory Board Full AgendaRental Housing Advisory Board Wednesday, October 12, 2022 City Hall Room 406 3:30 PM To Whom It May Concern: area Please note the City of Oshkosh Rental Housing Advisory Board will meet on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 at 3:30pm in City Hall Room 406 to consider the following agenda: I. Call to Order II. Welcome New Member – Lukas Shelton III. Roll Call i. Board Seats IV. Citizen Statements V. Elect Vice Chair VI. Approval of Meeting Minutes – August 10, 2022 VII. Partner Organizations Update i. ADVOCAP Rental Assistance ii. Winnebago County Eviction Prevention Task Force – Eviction Data VIII. Inspections Staff Update i. Social Media ii. Rental Registry Inspection Program IX. Public Information Campaign – Tenant and Landlord Rights i. Brochure Distribution Update ii. Poster X. Discussion item from previous meeting i. Appeal/Petition to County Clerk to Strike Evictions Filed 2020-2022 XI. Other Business XII. Adjournment Rental Housing Advisory Board Minutes 1 Rental Housing Advisory Board Minutes August 10, 2022 Present: Lynnsey Erickson, TJ Hobbs, Donn Lord, Todd Hutchison, Timothy Ernst Excused: Saida Egal, Ally Stribbling Staff: Kelly Nieforth; Community Development Director, John Zarate; Inspection Services Manager I. Call to Order Nieforth called the meeting to order at 3:32 pm. II. Welcome New Members – Saida Egal & Ally Stribbling The newly appointed members were not in attendance. III. Roll Call Roll call was taken and a quorum declared present. Hutchison asked if Lord could be appointed as a regular member instead of an alternate. Nieforth replied that those appointments are approved by the Mayor. IV. Citizen Statements Mr. Lyle Byrie, 1235 Spruce Street, stated he is the Housing Coordinator for World Relief Fox Valley. They assist refugees with finding an initial settlement and eventual resettlement in the area. This is often challenging because refugees will not have the information landlords need like rental histories, credit scores, and social security numbers. Landlords ask tenants to put the utilities in their name right away, but the City of Oshkosh requires a social security number to do so. Often refugees will not yet have a social security number, but they will have a federal alien identification number which is a legal federal ID for non-citizens granted by the State Department. He asked if the City would allow them to use this ID instead so that landlords do not need to wait for a reimbursement from World Relief. He’s currently working on a tenant guidebook and he heard that others at the City and County are doing the same. He would be happy to share what he has. They want to help the tenants and landlords be more successful. Lord asked if Wisconsin Public Service allows this. Byrie replied he hasn’t had a conversation with them yet because it will be a harder hoop to jump through. Rental Housing Advisory Board Minutes 2 Erickson replied she would follow up and find out. Lord replied he’s done this three times now and what he finds amazing is that he hasn’t had one tenant who hasn’t been self-supporting in 90 days even with the language barrier and other challenges they face. Byrie thanked Lord for his support, adding they have more funding than ever before due to the current administration. They now have a full-time housing coordinator and employment coordinator. Ernst thanked Byrie for his comments and for bringing these issues to the board’s attention. He would support making the change and will provide the board’s current brochure to help with the guidebook. He was certified to teach the Rent Smart course through UW-Extension and thinks Lord is still certified to do so. They could help facilitate training if that would be beneficial. Lord replied he thinks that’s a good idea if they can find a way to teach RentSmart to English language learners. Byrie replied they have the resources to make a translator available. Hobbs asked if there is something the board could work out to incentive landlords to rent to refugees. Byrie replied they have a grant which allows them to offer double security deposits. Some landlords automatically request that. His work involves placing tenants in initial housing and he works to ensure they have a safe place to go straight from the airport. They’re able to apply for other programs once they’ve been here a while and obtained a social security number. The initial housing is the challenge. Lord asked if they all have a sponsorship team. Byrie replied affirmatively, adding that single individuals have a team of case managers and families are matched with a good neighbor team of trained individuals from the community who agree to assist the family for a minimum of six months. Hobbs asked how the board can help their organization. Byrie replied he wanted to introduce himself for now and determine if the City will accept an alternative form of federal ID for water utilities. Lord asked if it’s difficult to find places due to the lack of affordable housing. Byrie replied it’s challenging in Oshkosh, but there are more opportunities in Oshkosh than in Appleton. They often don’t have a choice but to work with landlords who don’t have the best reputations, but they’re always looking for landlords with integrity who believe in their mission of helping underprivileged people regardless of where they’re from or how they look. Rental Housing Advisory Board Minutes 3 V. Approval Meeting Minutes – June 8, 2022 The minutes of the June 8, 2022 meeting were approved as written. (Lord, Hutchison) VI. Partner Organizations Update ADVOCAP Rental Assistance Scheer stated she has worked with refugees and agrees with Lord that they have all been fantastic. She knows that UW-Extension has offered virtual Rent Smart courses that could be more easily translated. ADVOCAP works with the homeless population who competes for the same housing as refugees. She can confirm that Appleton has a serious affordable housing problem. They have a property management company that has purchased 600 units in the last 18 months with a 30% non-renewal rate and 30% or more increases in rent. Their intent is to own 20,000 units in Wisconsin by 2023 and they are not interested in working with their WERA or homeless programs. She doubts they would be interested in working with refugees. Over 30% non-renewal is putting people on the streets. Lord replied he gets inquiries about four to five times a month from property management companies. Smaller landlords are very vulnerable to that. Scheer replied many smaller landlords have reduced their housing inventory and they’re selling to larger companies who aren’t willing to provide any flexibility with tenants. She understands the business end of it, but an unintended consequence is the squeeze it’s putting on their most vulnerable populations. On the last Wednesday of January and the last Wednesday of July, they literally go out and look for homeless people in places not meant for habitation. They have never found more than ten in the three counties they serve, but this year they found 37. They’re becoming a very visible part of the population. They continue to have an increase in the number of WERA requests. Since the last update, ADVOCAP has spent $2,300,000 on assistance and more than 60% was for people who had received assistance previously. Every week they’re finding people who have hit their 18-month maximum. They can pay fair market rent which includes utilities, but those costs are increasing. Lord stated Oshkosh has traditionally had the lowest rent out of the 12 metro areas of Wisconsin. He asked if fair market rent was sufficient in Oshkosh. Scheer replied she’s not suggesting there’s not units, she’s suggesting they won’t rent to them. The new living wage is around $20.50 - $22.50 per hour now and people simply aren’t making that. They have some good employers in the area, but not everyone has transportation or can work mandatory overtime hours. She doesn’t know how to incentivize landlords or the larger property management companies to take a risk on these people. Scheer asked Lord how many applications he receives when he has an opening. Lord replied 40 and that’s the problem because there’s no incentive to take a risk on someone. Scheer replied landlords have been asking for double security deposits and first and last month rents upfront. Landlords won’t sign a lease until the check is in their hand, but ADVOCAP can’t cut a check until a lease is signed. They’ve found a way around that using Foundation funds, but the larger Rental Housing Advisory Board Minutes 4 landlords just aren’t interested. In the last six weeks they have spent more on security deposits than they ever have. It is very, very concerning where people are going to be housed because the homeless population is increasing every day and the new shelter is not a long term solution. They have a number of landlords who are saying they no longer want to participate in the WERA program because there’s a delay in receiving payment if they’re waiting for information from the tenant. Hobbs asked what Scheer imagines the dollar amount would need to be to in order to incentivize landlords to work with them. They asked if the board could come up with a proposal they could bring to Council or the State to apply for additional funds or change the rules. The lack of units is unprecedented and there are increased suicides due to hopelessness. They asked if Scheer had any ideas that the board could turn into something to move forward with. Scheer replied they’re starting to make appointments and take gift baskets to the landlords who do work with them to try and figure out why they’re willing to do so. Their plan is to use that information when talking with landlords who haven’t been willing to work with them. The amount of damage done to units has also increased. They have to hire cleaning companies and tenants leave a lot of things behind because of transportation issues. Hobbs asked if there was a way for WERA or the City to cover the cost when units are damaged. Scheer replied HUD allows them to use up to two months of security deposit towards cleaning. That usually won’t make a dent, so they match it with some amount of Foundation dollars. They’re concerned with the number of people hitting the 18-month maximum. The City did provide ADVOCAP with CDBG-CV funds which they are now starting to use for utilities. Lord stated most naturally occurring affordable housing is provided by mom and pop landlords. He asked if Scheer had any ideas on how they might preserve that. Scheer replied she wishes she had an answer. She doesn’t blame anyone for selling their properties, but this has been the unintended consequence. Some of the bigger mom and pops sold around 50% of their housing this year and that changes a community. RHAB thanked Scheer for her time. Winnebago County Eviction Prevention Task Force – Eviction Data Erickson shared updated data through August 2nd. There were 362 evictions filed in Winnebago County this year. Typically the highest number of evictions occur in summer. Lord asked if the number of evictions is somewhere on track between 2020 and 2021. Erickson replied affirmatively. VII. Inspections Staff Update Rental Housing Advisory Board Minutes 5 Social Media Zarate stated they haven’t posted anything new. They continue to post for Rent Smart and board agendas. They can contact staff with any suggestions for new posts. Lord stated he is trying to spread awareness of the AquaHawk program which notifies you if your water is going over. It has been helpful for him and he thinks that would be a good thing to post. Rental Registry Inspection Program/Improved Communication Nieforth stated they’re still not receiving as many responses as they’d like. Staff sent out 91 letters in mid-July and received two responses. The responses have been in the single digits since they started again after COVID and they’ve sent out around 500+ letters. From a staff perspective, they have been looking at other ways to get the information out instead of sending letters. It takes a lot of staff time and it’s very tedious, so they want to look for other options. Lord replied a really good e-mail list would improve communication, but staff would need to explain the benefit of providing that information for things like notices and notifications. He suggested having one page on the website to register for notifications from different departments. Nieforth replied she agrees there could be a more coordinated effort with departments to gather that information and have it available. Lord asked if the number of complaints has remained consistent. Zarate replied affirmatively. Hutchison asked if they have staff who go out and look for violations. Zarate replied they have proactive inspections for all properties. Staff concentrate on gateways like Jackson Street, Oregon Street, 9th Avenue, Ohio Street, Witzel Avenue, and South Park Avenue. There are some obvious violations they notice while they’re out responding to complaints. The majority of violations are complaint based and there are more ways for people to send in complaints now. VIII. Public Information Campaign – Tenant and Landlord Rights Distribution Locations Ernst suggested distributing brochures to the following locations: City Hall, the library, the courthouse, Goodwill, St. Vincent’s, Habitat for Humanity, local grocery stores, the Conflict Resolution Center, ADVOCAP, YMCA, the co-op, World Relief, rental offices of landlords in town, and various UW-Oshkosh locations. Lord replied laundromats would be a good location if they have permission from the owners. Nieforth replied staff have a lot of service agency contacts through the CDBG program that could be added. Rental Housing Advisory Board Minutes 6 Ernst asked when they can get them out and when they are being printed. Nieforth stated they could have them printed at City Hall and ready for distribution if people want to pick them up. Staff will compile all of the locations and send out a sign-up sheet. Ernst asked staff to print 250-300 brochures. Hobbs stated it’s something the City probably has a budget for and can pay staff to do. Nieforth replied the City can help with the printing, but she can’t promise staff can go out to every spot and maintain them. The committee will need to help with that part. Hutchison asked about approval for the poster. Ernst replied it still needs to be made and approved. He tried some poster design early on, but didn’t have much success. Hobbs stated the City’s willingness to pay someone to make a poster should be there. They asked why it isn’t there and who they would need to talk to get it made because it’s important and none of the board members are graphic designers. Nieforth replied boards and commissions don’t have budgets for things like this, so they would need to see what the cost would be. She asked if there was a poster already out there that already had a lot of the information. She will check internally to see if anyone might be able to assist. They could potentially look to see if any UW-Oshkosh students could assist for the community engagement portion of their programs. Ernst replied he would look into finding a student worker for the poster. Hobbs asked if it could be posted to social media. Zarate replied affirmatively. Hobbs asked when they can pick up the brochures. Nieforth replied staff will let them know. IX. Housing Study Recommendations Zoning Discussion Nieforth stated staff are currently working on implementation of the housing study. The Plan Commission had a workshop last week and they discussed a lot of recommendations that they will be bringing to Council. She shared the following recommendations from the workshop: allowing accessory dwelling units (ADUs) as a by right use in all low density residential units, reducing parking for multi-family residential parking standards, reducing minimum lot widths in certain Rental Housing Advisory Board Minutes 7 districts from 40-60 feet to 30 feet to allow for smaller houses that are more affordable, allowing duplexes and townhomes to be permitted in a lot of districts where they’re currently not permitted, and removing the minimum dwelling size from the zoning ordinance to open up the door for other types of housing. RHAB expressed support for the recommendations. Nieforth stated she will let RHAB know when the recommendations go to Council for approval. X. Vehicle Residency Discussion Nieforth stated she talked with Officer Kate Mann, who confirmed that they do not issue tickets for people parked in city lots. Private property is beyond their control, but they do allow folks to be on city lots and will often offer assistance to people living in their vehicles. Lord asked if there are restrictions for park and rides. Nieforth replied she’s not sure because those are owned by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. XI. Other Business Ernst stated he thinks it would be beneficial to make an appeal or petition to the County Clerk to strike evictions from records between 2020 to 2022 due to the pandemic and also knowing that evictions during this time period were due to the tenant’s inability to pay. They also know that even when funding is available, some landlords just won’t take it so the tenants are forced out anyway. The number of judgements doesn’t matter because the eviction filing stays on the record and that’s what matters. He knows other municipalities in the U.S. are attempting a similar idea in order to help people who have been unfairly evicted and now have to deal with that on their record. He will be getting something out before the next meeting that they can discuss. XII. Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:01 PM. (Hutchison/Erickson) Winnebago County Eviction Data – October 2022 (updated 9/29/22) Number of Evictions Filed in Winnebago County 2019 2020 2021 2022 Average (2016- 2022) January 61 68 47 53 47 February 51 70 33 70 50 March 56 40 33 53 42 April 56 4 35 40 33 May 58 35 61 42 50 June 56 84 58 53 60 July 69 65 45 51 54 August 86 78 30 58 57 September 62 47 47 41 49 October 64 42 61 52 November 82 53 63 56 December 66 51 59 50 Total 767 637 572 461 Number of evictions filed monthly in Winnebago County in 2020-2022 535 462 601 767 637 572 461 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 Number of evictions filed each year in Winnebago County Ja n u a r y Fe b r u a r y Ma r c h Ap r i l Ma y Ju n e Ju l y Au g u s t Se p t e m b e r Oc t o b e r No v e m b e r De c e m b e r 2021 0 20 40 60 80 100 Ja n u a r y Fe b r u a r y Ma r c h Ap r i l Ma y Ju n e Ju l y Au g u s t Se p t e m b e r Oc t o b e r No v e m b e r De c e m b e r 2020 Ja n u a r y Fe b r u a r y Ma r c h Ap r i l Ma y Ju n e Ju l y Au g u s t Se p t e m b e r Oc t o b e r No v e m b e r De c e m b e r 2022 Make Oshkosh a place toTHRIVETHRIVE *Tenant Rights *Healthy Homes *Responsible Communication *Improve Housing Stock *Voice Issues *Empower Others Brought to you by City of Oshkosh Rental Housing Advisory Board Scan the QR code to learn ways you can THRIVE