down. You Good evening. I would like to call to order the Tuesday, February 10th um HR meeting. And the first item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Are there any edits or changes? Okay. Hearing none, may I have a motion to approve the agenda? Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion approved by Commissioner Wooten and second by Commissioner Hooim. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion passes 6. Uh, next is the introduction of our new city manager. >> Yes. >> So, I'll say uh chair, commissioners, thank you. Uh, we have with us city manager Zach Walker who started in October, I think, to do a quick introduction. Okay. >> Well, thank you. Good evening, U chair, commissioners. I appreciate you all being here. Uh, as Sarah said, my name is Zach Walker. Um, really just wanted to come by and introduce myself. I'm trying to get to all of our boards and commissions to make that personal introduction. So, um, we've had a chance to meet. Certainly don't intend that to be my only visit, but just wanted to do that. Um, want to make sure also before I go anywhere else that I say thank you for the work that you do. Um, you really play a critical role in our city being able to accomplish its mission, its objectives, its goals. Um, volunteering your time to be here, to take time away from your other duties and responsibilities. It means a lot and we're very grateful for the thoughtful work that you put in to to help us here at the city. Um, just a little bit about myself. Um, I came to you from a community called Independence, Missouri. It's in the Kansas City metro. Uh, worked there, uh, 13 years and was with the city of Kansas City before that for about five years. Um, was loving that, but was also at a place where I was ready to see what other options might be out there and wanted to be a little bit selective about that. And I'm very fortunate that I landed in such a cool community like Bloomington. Uh it has been a wonderful experience transitioning here professionally but personally as well for my family and I. Uh so we're honored to be a part of this community. Um I'm very excited to be a part of a very talented city staff. Um and just looking forward to collaborating with all of you and our fellow community members to make uh Bloomington continue to be the special place that it is. Um so I don't know if you want to allow time for any questions. If there's anything I can answer, don't want to take away from your agenda. Certainly. bring it back. >> Sure. If anyone has any questions or comments, otherwise >> you can always come back. >> I can always come back. >> You can always come back. That's true. >> All right. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you all very much. Have a nice meeting. >> All right. Next is our consent items of which there are several. So I am going to read them all just so it's it's clear. Um so consent items January 27th 2026 H board meeting minutes 4.2 Designation of official depositories and investment brokers 4.3 Designation of electronic trans funds transfer 4.4 Appointment of external auditor 4.5 appointment of municipal advisor 4.6 6 approval approve appointment of bond council 4.7 acknowledgement of financial management policies 4.8 approve appointment of general counsel and special counsel 4.9 appointment of official newspaper 4.10 10 2025 year-end HR budget carryover 4.11 2025 CAP certification and finally 4.12 memorandum of understanding bring it home rental assistance pro program to housing set aside would anyone like to pull an item for discussion hearing none I need a motion to approve the consent items >> move to approve >> moved by Commissioner Wooten and second by Commissioner Doelinger. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion passes. 6. Now we're on to organiz organizational business, which is the HA board officer election. Turn it over to commissioner administrator. Sorry, >> I just got quite there for promotion. I see. >> All right. So, I'll do a quick introduction. Um, the election of H board officers is for a chair, vice chair, and secretary. Um, in this process, HA board members will make a nomination for each position. It does need a second to move forward. And then board members will vote for each position by roll call vote. And then we'll do a position at a time. We'll start with chair, vice chair, then secretary. And the elected officers will preside at the next regularly scheduled meeting, which is in two weeks on February 24th, 2026. And just a quick overview of the positions per the bylaws. The chair shall be selected by the commissioners and shall presside at all meetings of the commissioners as required. The chair shall be responsible for certification of official actions of the HR for the vice chair. The vice chair shall be selected by the commissioners and shall presside at all meetings of the commissioners in the absence of the chair and shall perform other such duties as may be assigned by the commissioners. In the case of death, retirement or resignation of the chair, the vice chair shall perform and be vested with all the the duties and powers of the chair until such time that a new chair is chosen by the commissioners and secretary. The secretary shall be selected by the commissioners. The secretary shall be responsible for attesting official actions of the HR. That is just read verbatim from our current bylaws. Okay. And with that, I believe we can go ahead and go through the process. So we can start with chair and we'll start with nominations for the position position of chair. >> I move to nominate commissioner Jennifer Mueller. >> And does Commissioner Mueller accept the nomination? >> I I accept the nomination. >> Second. Okay. Do we have any more nominations? I remember specific instructions to ask this question multiple times just to make sure. So I'll ask one more time. Any other nominations for the position of chair? In that case, I believe we can do the roll call vote and commissioner Robertson. >> I, >> Commissioner Eay, >> I. >> Commissioner Huim, >> I. >> Commissioner Carter is not present today. Commissioner Dolinger >> I. >> Commissioner Williams >> I. >> Chair Mueller >> I. >> And then I believe do we need an additional motion for this or are we good? We are good. Okay. All right. So then the second position is the vice chair. Do we have any nominations for vice chair? >> I nominate Commissioner Wooten. >> I second. Does Commissioner Wooten accept? >> Yes, I do. >> And I still second. >> Any any other nominations? >> One more time. Any other nominations? Okay, so we have uh Commissioner Wooten nominated for vice chair. And with that, we can close the nominations and move to roll call. >> Commissioner Robertson, >> I. Commissioner Eay. >> I >> Commissioner Huim. >> Hi. >> Commissioner Carter is not present today. Commissioner Dolinger. >> I. >> Commissioner Wooden. >> I. >> Chair Mueller. >> I. >> Okay. Commissioner Wooten is 6. All right. And finally, we have the role of secretary. Um, do we have a nomination for the position of secretary? I nominate Commissioner Dolinger. >> Sec. >> Does Commissioner Dolinger >> I accept? Second. >> Any other nominations? >> And just one last time, any other nominations? Okay, so we have Commissioner Dolinger nominated for secretary. And with that, we can close the nominations and move to the roll call vote. Commissioner Robertson, >> I. >> Commissioner Eay, >> I. Commissioner Huim. >> I. >> Commissioner Carter is now present. Commissioner Huhim. >> I said I. >> Oh, sorry. >> Commissioner Dopinger. >> I. >> Commissioner Wooden. >> I. >> Chair Mueller. >> I. >> And I think we do need a motion. We'll do a motion to appoint um Commissioner Mueller to the role of chair. I feel like maybe you should read the motion. Um, is that something you gave me to Oh, >> well, we'll do a motion to approve Commissioner Mueller as chair, Commissioner Wooten as vice chair, and Commissioner Dolinger as secretary. >> Second. >> All right. Well, it was moved by Commissioner Dolinger and Hooim. It was a tie. And second by Commissioner Robertson. All in favor? I. >> Motion passes. 6. All right. Next. Next. Um, the H board meeting calendar. May we have the staff report? Okay. Uh, chair and commissioners. So, you might be wondering why this item is not on consent. It's because for next year, we're proposing a change. Um, which is instead of two meetings a month, the proposal is to move to a one meeting a month cadence. So currently our meetings are on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. This would put meetings on only the second Tuesday of the month. The one exception to that is in August because elections are on the second Tuesday of August. So we would have that August meeting on the fourth Tuesday of the month. Um the calendar also has a joint meeting on March 10th which is the same date as the as the regularly scheduled HR meeting. It's a large joint meeting. We've got the city council, we've got the planning commission, the port authority, and the HR to discuss um the comp plan, comp planning process and the results of a study related to the opportunity housing ordinance. And so that is the proposal before you tonight >> discussion. >> So our next item is Did you say something that I missed? I'm okay. >> Well, we have to vote to approve. >> Okay. So can I have a motion to discussion >> discussion >> hello is I'll get it together is there any discussion or questions on this item >> can I just have a little bit of background as to why the decision or this >> yeah chair and commissioners um you know I've been here for about a year and a half and over the last year especially we've had a couple of meetings that were cancelled and we were able to consolidate items onto the agenda in one meeting a month. Um, we've also started using a consent agenda which kind of speeds along the process of these meetings. So, I do believe that with the regular monthly cadence, we would be able to get through all of the scheduled and planned H business. Also, we have a lot of um items that are long-term items. A lot of our projects take some time and so we can usually see them coming and plan. So, um, while this would require staff to be a little bit more planful in terms of scheduling around meetings and things like that, I I do believe that we have the opportunity to do that in our work and I think that this is something that's feasible, but of course, this is the board's decision. >> Continue. >> So, given GI Yeah. Okay. So given the nature of of that plan, have we thought about kind of the state of affairs currently and the need to possibly have an additional meeting to take care of issues that may arise? Um I'm also looking at the joint meeting that's held in March. That's fine, but I still like to have our own meeting um to be able to discuss some things relative to discussion that may come out of that joint meeting to better strategize. I'm not opposed to going one meeting per month, but I want at least have the option to have subsequent um meetings that uh would be paramount to us clearing out our plan for the year and giving us the flexibility to carry out the plan for the year. Not looking at having more work for you. I'm looking at basically working smarter. So, >> yeah, chair and commissioners, I'll note for the joint meeting, um we're planning that to begin at 6:30 and to have an H meeting with we only have one or two items currently planned for March. So, we would have the H meeting as regularly scheduled at 6 p.m. and then have a short break and then uh move to the 6:30 meeting or if the H meeting does need to take longer, I'm sure we can just start the um the joint meeting after the H business concludes. We also do have provision in the bylaws to hold emergency or special meetings. So, if something were to come up that would require more immediate action, then we could um call a meeting to order if needed. >> Okay. Any other questions, comments? I'm glad you brought up the emergency meeting part because that was going to be my question. So, all right. So, uh with no further discussion, can I have a motion to approve the 2026 H calendar? >> So moved. >> Moved by Commissioner Robertson. >> Second. >> And second by Commissioner Hooim. All in favor? >> I. Motion passes. 6. So the next item of business is the 2026 H work plan. May we have the staff report? >> Yes. I'll give it a second for my presentation to pull up here. Okay, chair and commissioners, uh, it is our annual meeting, so we'll go through a couple of highlights of the year and then talk about we did have a work plan discussion on the or work session discussion on the proposed plan. So, not a lot of huge changes from there. So, things you should all be familiar with, but we'll um go over the 2026 work plan one more time for your approval. Okay. Um so first up we have some H program accomplishments. H we do a lot of uh standing program work. So a lot of day-to-day activities um not all projects but implementing a lot of large programs that are funded through federal funding sources namely the section 8 or housing choice voucher program. So you can see here a couple of stats. Um tenant based vouchers we have 406 vouchers that are managed through our HR in Bloomington. 101 that have ported out or moved to another city that we still administer. Um the veterans voucher is three h three three households and FYI our foster youth voucher we have eight households in those programs. Portability has grown a lot over the past few years. So we also have 1190 voucher holders that have moved from another housing authority into Bloomington. Um and this is a lot of work that our team over here does every day. Thank you all for your It's a lot of work to manage the paperwork and go through the moving process and the verifications and our team does a really great job with that. Um projectbased vouchers, we have a smaller number. We are looking to do more projectbased vouchers, not federally funded but state funded this year with the new bring a home program. Currently we have 38 households receiving projectbased vouchers. A number of those are the HA owned homes. So in total we're administering over 700 vouchers. I think it's around 750. um annually through this program. And a couple other highlights, accomplishments to call out. Um this is our housing stability and home ownership team. So we have rental homes for future home buyers. This is uh the other half of the H own owned homes that aren't federally federally funded vouchers are this rental homes for future home buyer program. We've had seven people move out of that program. is a 5-year term and so after 5 years uh they move out of the program and so this year we had three households purchase a home which is really great and exciting and good success. Um and then four households that may purchase at a later date later date. We also do journey to home ownership which are essentially um housing workshops to talk about you know getting ready for preparing yourself for home ownership. Um there's a couple of different workshops included in this overarching program and we've had 517 program registrants over the last year. Um 78 of those participants were went on to purchase a home. So uh one of the uh buckets under this category is called home stretch workshops which is usually taken it's a eight hour course and it's basically training to to own your own home. So there are a number of folks who participate in that program and then move on to a purchase. Um yes, these homestretch workshops are the next bullet here. Um 30 attendees over the last year. 13 have completed consulting with a financial coach. We have a couple of uh organizations that do the financial coaching for us and two of those participants uh purchased homes. And a couple other highlights. Uh in July of 2024, the H moved to having a permanently open weight list. We are one of very few actually of only two HAs that have a permanently open weight list. And so as part of that process, we do a byianual update where we send out a notice to people who are signed up and they um complete a short form saying that they want to stay on the wait list. And so we do that twice a year. We have about a 60% response rate. So we get that the weight list sometimes gets up to around 7,000 people. And then yes, it's a yes, it's quite an extensive weight list. And after this process, we'll usually have around 5,000 who remain. Another key accomplishment this year, we were awarded a bring it home grant from Minnesota housing. This is the state funded rental assistance program. We executed that contract in December. And so you all have had a number of option, a number of items for discussion before you and we're excited to be moving forward with that program. H owned properties. Uh we've been putting a lot of attention into maintenance for H owned properties. As I think Commissioner Eay say, what is it? A pound of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. >> Yeah. >> Yes. So, we've been putting a lot of work into the HR owned properties. You know, our mission is to create um state Oh, oh gosh, I just blanked on the mission, but we want people to have dignified housing. And so, a big part of that is taking care of our HR owned properties. And then home ownership pathways. We have a number of program that encourage home ownership. The rental homes for future home buyers program that I mentioned. Um there's also a program through our vouchers that allows people to put that subsidy towards rent instead of towards uh sorry towards a mortgage instead of towards rent. So we have a number of people in that program as well. Okay. And then um switching over to our residential development and services team. Um we do a number of different loan programs through that team. The home rehab loans are the larger loans and so we have worked on 32 loans over the course of the year. These are largely federally funded. There is some subsidy also provided by the HR uh levy but most of this is federal funding either through our annual allocation or through program income where the loans recycle. And you can see here we actually received loan repayments from 34 different loans almost a million dollars this year. So this year the loan repayments were very high. And so we have we have a wait list and we're getting down to the business of going through that weight list, processing those loans. We also have the help program or housing and environmental loans. And so we've had 12 loans over the course of the year. Um a total of about $42,000. Uh these are smaller loans, less than $10,000 in me meant for the case of emergencies. So we've been able to provide uh various emergency funding for to to help people stay in their homes. And then we had a contract with a brush with Kindness who did uh 10 projects. Um we've we had it was about $70,000 over the course of three three years and this year we had the 10 projects and with the average loan amount of 4,800. So they're a good referral partner for some of those smaller projects. New development. Uh this is something I know the board uh is very interested in the effect of the opportunity housing ordinance. And so you can see here um some of the units that have been developed under that ordinance. There's quite a few actually. Could we move the um the so we can see the total at the bottom? Yeah, perfect. So um this bottom line is our 2030 goal by which is set by the Met Council and then the line above is what has been approved or is under construction in the city of Bloomington. So you can see we are well on the way to our 2030 goal here in 2036. So that that ordinance has been very effective. Okay, I won't spend too long on these. These are maps of new development projects. We have the Knox and then um some projects that are currently still in the pipeline or under construction. The Roslin is actually opening next month and then a couple other projects spread around the city. Okay. And I'll move us to some strategic accomplishments. So H has core work areas that are programmatic that things that we oversee on a day-to-day ba basis and then we have some longer strategic projects. And so I've called out a few highlights of things we accomplished here in 2025. We've got the Heights housing improvement area. That was a big project. um very thoughtful and creative financing structure. Um call out again to the staff who worked on this program and that has been in motion for a long time and so we're able to see uh construction start on that project. Bloomington affordable home ownership which is our program to develop single family homes. We've got we got an additional grant um this was um largely funded by the $3.2 $.2 million grant that we received from Minnesota Housing, but we've gotten other supplemental grant to help us with some of the costs associated with that project. Um, we're moving forward with the St. Mark's prop property acquisition and we have multiple sites that are already under development. Eight lots for a total of 10 or actually I think it's 11 homes. Uh, local affordable housing aid, LAA, we approved the both the HA and the city council approved the framework for spending. The H is designated as the administrator of those funds and um so has half of them go to affordable home ownership pro projects, the other half goes to development, redevelopment, multif family projects. So that framework was approved and we're starting to move forward to bring some projects to the HR for spending down those dollars. Um we've done some capital improvement planning along with that goal of um supporting HA owned homes. Um, we joined the or we added the HR to the the city's capital improvement planning process. And so we're planning for some long-term improvements there. And then the single family projects at 9030 Park A. These are the two single family homes each with an attached ADU. Very exciting project that I know has been underway for a long time at the H. It's a it's a partnership with both Habitat for Humanity and Homes Within Reach. And it's been great to see um see these houses being built. So, that's very exciting. We also launched a request for proposals for some of our federal funding, community development block grant, public service dollars, and we made several awards um to nonprofit organizations doing the work of supporting housing in the city. And then finally, um actually upcoming on the March 10th agenda is this Nexus study analysis of the housing market, which is done by a consultant, and that was a big potty of work that was done in 2025. All right. So, this calls out um some of the ongoing core work. So, our federally funded programs um we have a partnership with the schools and the county where we communicate about different homelessness programming questions and and issues um and sharing a lot of resources there. Home buyer education. So, these are the home buyer workshops. Um some of our standing programs and maintaining our properties. And then in the residential development and services side, we have a number of ongoing community partnerships with uh nonprofit organizations. We've also got these redevelopment projects that we're talking about. Um not all of them fall under the umbrella of the affordable home ownership program. So we have some development continuing even outside of that programming. um support and coordination of the opportunity housing ordinance and then continuing to explore uh property acquisition for use for uh affordable home ownership development. And we also do if there are questions or anything about the tenant notification ordinance, those come through the H uh 2026 work plan. Okay, so we've got some ongoing strategic priorities here. Uh these are again split into the two major team areas of the HR. A lot of these we've talked about, but we have the state rental assistance program. That's the 2.6 million from Minnesota housing for bringing it home. Um we're supporting Habitat for Humanity and their down payment assistance program. Um we've done review of a lot of our programmatic manuals over the course of the last year, including uh the rental homes for future home buyers and capital improvement planning. I'm I'm seeing that there's a lot of repetition here, so hopefully y'all can bear with me. We're almost done. Um, and then residential development and services. We have the Bloomington Affordable Home Ownership Program. That's a large body of work, a lot of work into developing those homes. A lot of work in maintaining and reporting on the grants. Uh, American Rescue Plan Act. This was the carryover item. We still have some funds remaining. They are under contract and expected to be spent this year. And then local affordable housing aid policy implementation. And um in the space of naturally occurring affordable housing, we have looking into a 4D program. The items that were added this year um we've got more continued attention to down payment assistance um and continuing to look at opportunities to fund down payment assistance partnerships, continuing uh in capital improvement planning, and also looking at our model for providing home buyer counseling. So, right now we have a model where we've partnered with a couple independent organizations and we're looking at potentially doing uh an umbrella contract to work with more organizations and give folks uh more of a choice about where they would like to get their counseling. And then residential development services, we've got looking at the um cost-effective loan issuance, basically improving efficiency for our current process. Um we have the home fair. This is a home fair year, April 25th. I'm going to repeat it a lot. Uh and then Noah properties naturally occurring affordable housing and the city-owned land disposition policy that the planning team is doing to look at underutilized land in the city and consider how we can um put the best use on those sites. And then kind of one overarching priority is to coordinate communications and community outreach. And I have an exciting announcement on this in my announcement section. So that'll be fun. A little teaser for you. And that is it. That is what I have for some 2025 accomplishments and some goals for 2026. And happy to answer questions. We have uh plenty of staff here who can hop in and answer questions as well. >> Questions? Commissioner Eay? >> Um this is more so a comment as opposed to a question, but I just wanted to thank everybody on the board. Um Sarah and all the staff that are doing the work behind the scenes. Um, I think sometimes daytoday we don't see necessarily how everything plays out, but when we sit here and we see the summary of everything, I get really proud. And as someone that grew up in Bloomington when I was younger in low-income housing, uh, it means a lot to see this. And I just want you guys to know your your effort isn't unnoticed. >> Yes, Commissioner Wen. >> I'm not going to rain on a parade. Um effort is great. My question has to do with how much of this is oversight versus direct involvement in in regards to staff staff over overseeing most of these activities or there's some staff directly involved with some of these. >> Um I would say both. So there's both staff doing uh work on the ground and like really into the details of the programs and also doing a lot of making sure that we're maintaining compliance. Um and in the case of some of our work is contracted out. So there's a lot of contract management and oversight of those types of programs. >> And that's actually the question I wanted to get to is in the contract management piece, how directly involved are we? um the rental assistance piece. How directly involved are we in the housing m maintenance piece? How directly involved are we? >> Yes, we are directly involved in all of those things. So, in the property maintenance, we actually moved to bring property maintenance in house and so that has been very successful. We've uh our one of our staff, Valentina, who is here does that work and has uh really helped improve accessibility of services. In a lot of cases, a mix of both. So, while while we do a lot of work to manage the properties, we also do have like an emergency maintenance technician who is contracted and we're very involved in managing those contracts. We review them to make sure that um when we get invoices that they're compliant with the contracts. We monitor the spending. Um we um we yeah, we review their outcomes and their goals and make sure that the payments are in alignment with the outcomes that we want from the contract. So, in a lot of cases, it's it it's a pretty healthy mix of both. And there's a reason for me asking the question. The state shut down um HSS this past year. Um and a lot of agencies involved with HSS effectively work with some of our clients and our perspective home our perspective um residents. And so I wanted to make sure we're finding a way to fill the void there and not having a a loss with that that shutdown. So that's why I'm asking the question. >> Thank you, Commissioner Hooing. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, one question, um, and then I have a comment, but the question is, do you know when the 9030 properties are actually going to be housed, like when people are actually going to be moving in? >> Yeah, chair commercial, I I believe the goal was this spring, but I I do need to double check with Habitat or Homes Within Reach and see what their timeline is. Yeah. >> And then my comment is I just like to echo what uh Commissioner Eay said. Um, I want to thank the staff. Um, I know there's a lot of hard work and a many hours that get put into this. We see little bits and pieces and I know I take pride in the little bits and pieces that we get to take um, part in, but I hope you know that and have pride in what you're doing because it means a lot to our community. Um, and you are valued and we do appreciate you. So, thank you. Other comments or questions? I just want to say that with the Heights project, I probably drive by that minimum four times a week just on my way to places. And it's wonderful to see the work happening on there, seeing the bulldozers there and and they're working on it. And so much work was done by Kenny and I just want to give him a shout out. All the other staff you're fabulous as well. So thank you. Okay. So now can I have a motion to approve the 2026 H work plan? >> Move to approve. >> Moved by Commissioner Wooten. >> Second. >> And second by Commissioner Dolinger. All in favor? I I motion passes 6. >> So now discussion items, the HR administrator updates. >> I think we missed a >> Did I miss something? >> Oh dear, I'm so sorry. Um, professional service agreements for rental assistance. May we have the staff report? >> All right, chair and commissioners, just one more presentation. Um, so this is the local affordable housing aid emergency rental assistance. Okay. Uh, quick background on this. Um, so we we've seen a dramatic a pretty dramatic increase in calls for emergency rental assistance in December and January. Um, a lot of organizations that do provide emergency assistance or who provide referrals to emergency assistance are reporting a pretty drastic increase in calls. And so, uh, the city council on January 26th approved a $350,000 up to $350,000 in LA dollars to go to emergency rental assistance. The reason for the council approval even though the HR is the administrator is because uh the grant is a city council grant and this was outside of the framework that was approved by the HR and by the city council. So it needed to be approved by the city council which the city council did and then designated the HR as the administrator. Um so in that motion it included an initial 50,000 to go to VEP volunteers enlisted to assist people which I always I think people just know them as VEP. I'm not sure, but it's volunteers enlisted to assist people um in order to make funds quickly available. And so we worked to uh move forward with countering with them immediately so we could have funds available. And then with the remaining dollars, uh we issued a call for letters of interest instead of doing a full RFP process um which takes longer and is more extensive in the materials that are required to submit. We did this kind of process. So, we're really looking at uh nonprofits that have distributed rental assistance in the past 3 years and have the capacity to be able to utilize and report on public funds. It was a short period of time um only open from February 2nd to February 8th, so just about a week. Um and uh we received a total of five different submissions. So, the process was to submit their uh rental assistance framework. This was for programs that had administered rental assistance in the last three years. In order to have uh uh a program that has demonstrated success in this space already, they needed to include a list of the public funds that they had received in the last three years. So, we could look at their ability to manage um state or local dollars and then also their timeline and estimated service capacity. Um there were of course some barriers to apply. um some of the guidance with the state dollars around service and delivery costs is a little unclear which was challenging for some organizations and of course it was a a pretty quick turnaround. Um but we did get a good number of applications from organizations that are doing work on the ground and with that uh this brings us to the staff recommendation and so we reviewed their applications and this is our um recommended up to funding amount. So, uh, you can see these are the five organizations that applied. All of them are, uh, nonprofit organizations. All of them have been issuing rental assistance. Um, Oasis, you can see this is Oasis for Youth and, uh, so their estimated service numbers are up there. Um, Oasis for Youth does have a current contract for American Rescue Plan funds for the same thing. So, we are recommending additional dollars to them, but it wouldn't be until after they've expended their ARP funds, which I believe they're clo fairly close. Um, probably in the next maybe three or so months, I think we'd expect that. Um, second is a local organization based in Bloomington, Community Resource, and they have experience with uh rent help and um some of the emergency assistance that was available during COVID. Um, and then VEP, of course, we're recommending this does include that initial 50,000 allocation. So, VEP is has a very well-known program and has gotten a lot of calls for requests. Also is very experienced with distributing federal funds. So, we're recommending that go up to 125,000. And then both of these organizations are connected to a church um in Bloomington and are smaller organizations. And so, we're recommending an up to a smaller amount for those. The total recommended distribution here is up to 215,000 which does leave us with some of the remaining 350,000 and we would still need to devise a plan um in order to distribute those dollars but conceivably they could be available in more like April um if we're continuing to see an increase in requests for rental assistance. Next steps this action item would allow H staff to begin negotiating contract contracts. It was a letter of interest. So there is still some working out of the program and things like that to do with these organizations. Um public funds can be can be tough. So um we'll be working through and making sure we have really clear expectations in terms of reporting and things like that. Um and so this action once we're able to get through the negotiation contract uh negotiation process, this action would also allow us to execute a contract once both we and the organization feel confident in the program. And with that, that brings me to the recommended motion and happy to answer any questions that you may have. >> Okay, Commissioner Eay. >> Yeah, I had a question. So, with this like recent surge in emergency rental assistance demand, how are we measuring uh whether these dollars are preventing like this happening again as opposed to just temporarily preventing eviction because we could end up in the same position a year later. Yeah, chair and commissioners, that's a good and tough question. Um, I do think that, you know, we're recommending up to 215 now and the purpose behind that is to allow some funds to be remaining for future use. I also there are a lot of other programs from the H that are available from financial counseling to some of the various programs that we went through to try to position people for um being in a better situation in the future. So, I think it's a combination of all of those things. I think is a combination of continuing to look for funding sources. LAA uh the local affordable housing aid remains a source. If we wanted to continue to dedicate dollars for rental assistance, we could look at using some of that funding on a more ongoing basis. So, not a perfect answer to your question. It's a good question and these are some of the strategies that we're looking at. Commissioner Wooten. Uh the question actually is a phenomenal question to answer and a couple of things I experienced in the past with this situation is landlords will take those funds bring the rents up to speed at date and they still will evict the the um the um clients and so I don't know how we protect against that but that is a major concern I have that along with the fact that I'm surprised we don't have a moratorium on eviction right now given the state of affairs I mean there are people who are afraid to even go to work, you know, and that's that's real. I mean, that's that's a real occurrence happening every day. So, we don't we don't have the funds to work our way out of this deal. So, we have to figure out how truly can we maintain sustainability for for housing for folks. I'm not sure that's an answer we have today, but I definitely want to put on the table for people to think about because $350,000 is a drop in the bucket. And I do mean a drop. Thank you. Other comments or questions, Commissioner Hulim. >> Thank you, Chair. Um I I just want to say that I I agree with what everyone's saying and we were in a it's a very tough position to be in. Um I do get concerned too with a moratorum because we've seen what happens with our affordable housing um units that we have right now and what we're having to do by you know granting grace there. And so it's just a tough situation no matter where we look. And I think I want to I want to first say that we're lucky to at least have some funding available versus having none. So there's the hope of that. Um you have to take your wins when you can get them. I've This is a This is not a sprint. This is a marathon. Um we're going to be in this for a while. No matter what happens, no matter what changes or what doesn't change, this is this is not we're going to be navigating this for a while. Um so I think we all have to just start I I say this that I feel that we have a staff that's been very creative in the past and I know that they're thinking and they're trying to find whatever they can. Um and we just keep you know keep positive in the fact that we do at least have this and I think with that LAA funds we do have some opportunities. I think this is exactly I mean we couldn't have thank goodness we have it because if it was any you know any other situation we and not have it we'd be in a way different boat so we at least have something. So I think you know I'm obviously supportive of you know these LAA funds whatever we have if if needed this is really the need right now right um >> yes >> and I think we have to look at the fact that I think this isn't just going to be rental assistance we have to start looking at the mortgage mortgage assistance as well because we do have homeowners that um that are also struggling um and so I think we need to keep that open as well and not necessarily and I guess that would be a question with VEP is do they als Also, does this al also offer like a mortgage assistance? Is or is it just rental? I guess that would lead me into that question. And otherwise, I just say that thank you for doing what you're doing. Thanks for being creative and doing this without, you know, just do just you know what I mean? You you needed to go and you needed to be proactive with this. And I I thank the staff for being very proactive in this and helping our community as we needed it. So, thank you, >> chair and commissioners. Thank you. And and I can just respond to the mortgage assistance question. I don't believe VEP does mortgage assistance. Also, I I I'm not sure that mortgage assistance is an eligible use of the LAA dollars. So, it is something we're looking into. What are our options there? Um, >> okay. All right. So, now I need a motion approving selection and authorizing entering into professional services agreements for emergency rental assistance. >> So moved. Moved by Commissioner Hooim, >> second >> and second by Commissioner Dolinger. All in favor? >> I >> I motion passes. 6. >> Right now, we're on to administrator updates. I'm I'm getting winded. I don't usually talk this much at meetings. I have a couple of exciting announcements actually. Um so first uh Minnesota housing announced awards for their community stabilization funds and this came up during the AON discussion and their request for deferral. They had applied for I believe it was 18 or $20 million in community stabilization funds and they were awarded 16.7 million. So slightly less than they requested um but definitely a good uh a a good step towards their overall project. So, we'll be continuing to meet with them and discuss their larger uh rehab and refinance project. Um, and then the Rosalyn uh we had that waiting list open for almost a month. We received 194 applications for eight spots. Um, that is a uh 128 units total at the Roslin, 100% affordable for seniors. There will be a grand opening on March 24th, so keep an eye on your inboxes for an invite to that. Um, next I have we talked about the joint meeting already starting at 6:30 with a H meeting with H business starting at 6. And then finally the teaser um about the communications and you know outreach um NARO, the National Association for Housing and Redevelopment Officials. Um they do a kids count contest annually for um children who are aged kindergarten to grade 12. um living in affordable or community development projects to do a poster about what home means to me. And so we will be joining in this campaign this year. Um so stay tuned. We'll be getting out some communications hopefully either this week or next week to encourage Bloomington residents to submit a design. Um it's you know the result of this is the winners top 12 I believe get their posters put into a calendar that's made um and then the the winner winner like grand winner I believe theirs goes on the cover and they get a trip to DC. So it is a fun campaign so I think it'll be fun for us to participate in and promote. So keep an eye out for more ways to participate there and spread the word. >> And that's it. That's all I have for announcements. Okay. So, um, now we are moving into the closed portion of the meeting pursuant to Minnesota statute section 13D.03 subdivision 3D. This portion of the meeting will be closed for a security briefing. Um, I will entertain a motion to close this portion of the meeting. >> So, move. >> Moved by Commissioner Wooten. >> Second. Second by Commissioner Hooim. All in favor? >> Motion passes. 6. >> Give it a minute. Hey, hey, hey. Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hallebert. Hey, hey, hey. Jack. Dang. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Hey, Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Here I am. Hey. Heat. Heat. Hey. Hey. Heat. Hey. Hey. Nal. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, Heat. Hey, Hey, hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. So we have reached the end of our agenda. So, may I have a motion to adjourn the Tuesday, February 10th, 2026 H board meeting? >> Move to adjourn. >> Moved by Commissioner Wooten, >> second >> and second by Commissioner Hooim. Everyone in favor. >> I motion passes 6. Thank you everyone.