07.09.19 Pasco BOCC - Part 3

[Music] thank you now we continue with P 13 P 13 was published in the Tampa Bay Times May 29 2009 teen in June 5th 2019 good afternoon had a role for a proper team planning division the real property team has received a petition to vacate a portion of a flatted drainage easement filed by Daniel and Christine Neville the petitioners have requested the vacation for the purposes of constructing a swimming pool and surrounding deck the petitioners have only requested the footprint necessary to construct the pool in the surrounding deck and the real property team recommends approval it's a public hearing item public hearing I have no one signed up for this item I got a motion in a second all those in favor say aye P 14 P 14 was published in the template times June 12 2009 teen in June 19 2009 Tina the role for a property and planning the real property team has received a position to vacate a planted easement filed by two guys holding corporation the petitioners have requested the vacation for purposes of future development the petitioners own both the property the adjacent parcels to the north and the south the real property planning team recommends approval why is that there what's going on there it's one of the older plaited utility easements there's no utilities located in the easement what kind of move to approve it is a public hearing items most air princey in the one second P 15 was published in the template times June 28 2019 and July 5th 2019 good afternoon Derek Berger real property and Planning Division the real property planning received a petition to petition from Anthony Celeste to vacate a portion of a platted drainage and access easement his house encroaches 1.3 feet into the easement so the petitioner is asking to vacate the footprint of the house too so he's able to sell his house for clear title and the real property Planning Division does recommend approval okay puppeteering I do not have the woman signed up for this item [Music] second okay got a motion in a second all those in favor say aye P 16 was published in the template times May 22nd 2019 it's called public works this is a 2019 PS none ad valorem assessment for the east side of Pasco County should I go through the entire presentation there's the board one presentation on this item there all day P 17 was published in the Thames a time June 26 2009 finance this is a proposed streetlight assessment for a project that was money completed by Community Development it's a public hearing item is the board require a presentation and is there public on negative a list of ways here my name is Judy Geiger three nine zero zero one State Road 575 date city property is located in the community of licoo chief Laura my attention was brought to this because as I read through the agenda add-ons on this thing

there was no mention of a community meeting being held and notice was we have what's called the the ltte steering committee in the kuchi trophy and trophy and the president of that group was not aware of any community meeting in Florida statute number one nine seven point three six three two which is an odd ad valorem assessment which I assume this is it this is it requires a 20 day notice through the newspaper and this was published 626 that's thirteen days ago so that's in violation of that statute also that statute says that it must meal to all the property owners I've seen no verification that that was done also in your comprehensive plan you flew to point three point four deals with rural lighting standards development code at six oh four point five yep it deals with rule the neck northeast passed over a protected area overlay district and in the presentation that was online I didn't see anything regarding it's called dark sky mister key approached that earlier and it's supposed to be the illumination engineering society criteria so I just want to make sure that those are the streetlights that are going up out there also I'm not I've been involved with some of the paving assessments out in the kuchi and if you talk to the people and help them understand and they usually will work with you out there but I don't know that y'all have done that and that's my concern thank you let's see if there's anybody else in the audience everybody else just seeking this out see you know one was public before would you like us to move forward the presentation and give you the details that may address some enhancer mr. Chairman I think look what it's are the questions that here before you go through the presentation sure yes because we need to see if the notice was given an elevator so this actually it's a community development project typically when we do streamline districts that are that are done they're done by petition public petition they go through the communities but by legal I'll defer to the county attorney for comment but we did check with the legal team the board does have the right to establish these districts and assess them this was part of a community development project who kicked off the 2012 that was part of section 108 and sure I can defer to further comment with Community Development they're here as well that established this and back in 2012 this was noticed through through board action there's actually a board memo of CD 12 189 that does does reference that this would establish the streamlined district that would be established through be provided through rec and be done through a tax assessment later on this was completed and then followed legal procedure posted in newspaper and we're here today question I don't know because I don't know whether or not that whether or not adequate notice was provided I would recommend that the board continue this to their rednecks

rate reschedule but that would be in Newport where she does not matter no matter no man it's here it's here it's here our next one is here yeah guys the first of August it's the first meeting in August 4th definitely six but in comment I mean at the same time is my assumption is the people in within that area in the tubes you would like to have streetlights I mean it's yeah yeah it's very what he said you can't you can't talk from the audience um but at the same time I think the people with Erics mmm Commissioner or chairman Oakley probably attest to it it's you know it's something very important in that area I very much so they hidden out something held up for month and a half but that's okay yeah all right sterile motion or second dollars to continue to our six I'd be eighteen p80 was published in the Tampa Bay Times June 22nd 2019 for the record Marcia's burg director the Community Development Department and I'll try to move through this quickly our mission and this is what this is all about is to improve the lives of Pasco citizens through homeless initiatives neighborhood revitalization affordable housing and community partnerships using state and federal funding and today we'll be talking about our federal funding and how we are going to propose using it so the office of community development is considered an entitlement grantee that means that we get a direct allocation of these funds from the Department of Housing and Urban Development we're one of 1200 grantees nationally that get this money and this is comprising of three grant programs the Community Development Block Grant the ESG and home programs and we'll be talking about each one of those the CDBG program was started in 1974 and we are an urban county which means that we take care of the whole county with some participating cities and the goals are to provide safe and decent sanitary housing expand economic opportunities and to provide a suitable living environment so when we're looking at providing projects and recommending projects to you we're making sure that they meet the goals the national objectives and there are eligible activity and we're here today because we are having a public hearing on the second year of our five-year consolidated plan so last year the board approved the five-year plan and one year action plan and this is the second year and we are again looking at the Community Development Block Grant and the next one is the emergency solutions grant which is essentially for people that are homeless or those at risk of homelessness and there are five eligible components for that street outreach emergency shelter rapid rehousing homeless prevention and the homeless management information system so the recipients of ESG funds are required to provide matching funds equal to the amount of the grant that they get and it is required that we collaborate with the continuum of care in the process of making the funding recommendations and

the third program is the home investment partnership program and that is strictly for building or maintaining affordable housing so how we got here today is our project recommendation process so in March of 2019 we sent out a survey which reached a number of residents throughout the county as well as county employees and we got over 250 surveys back we compiled the surveys and what people had said were the most important needs of the county and we had a grant kickoff public meeting that was advertised on April 16th at that meeting we gave technical assistance and explained to our nonprofit providers and partners exactly what the county was looking for and how to fill out an application properly and when the due date was and we established an eight-member review committee Deborah view committee comprised of three community representatives along with five employees from three county branches the review committee reviewed all the applications and discussed their funding of options at two meetings in June and we are going to present those funding recommendations today very quickly this is the needs assessment results and I do want to point out that for general needs the top four were all homeless assistance and overall the number one need they came back for the county was services for substance abuse so this is the kind of money that we're talking about again these are where we're looking at basically all the federal funding 2.7 million in the Community Development Block Grant 2.4 million in Community Development Block Grant disaster recovery the home initiative partnership is a little over a million and then we get another income prior year's income of a million we use ship to match what's needed for home and for ESG it's two hundred fifty six thousand we also included in this program income and program income from last year so I do want to point out that these are our overview of our expenses the program administration is what is being used to fund the Community Development Office we do not get general fund money so this is the money that's used to keep our lights on pay the staff to provide these services for the county residents and included also our money to go into the slum and blight program housing activities we you talked about lacouture today and the lights and the paving we took a section 108 loan several years ago and have been using that to do the work there and we have to pay that out of the grant fund we paid that back every year a little over a million dollars the cdbg-dr we got a loan for 27 million dollars or it was a lot more it was 20 million dollars and we pay back a million of it every year look we're using art Block Grant to pay it back that's what a section 108 is it's a loan against your future entitlement and that was that was the timing town project correct and like we did multiple years yes Hayes roads right there was all dirt roads yes so how many years seven and then we have our City fair share

allocations these three cities are part of our urban County agreement because they decided to opt out and so they are no longer taking entitlement funds from the county they are seeking them on their own as a small city and do we know what these cities do with these funds yes they have to they have to meet a national objective to an eligible activity and they work with us to ensure that they're doing that correctly they might build a sidewalk or do renovations things like that I'm just curious can you back up one slide oh now you're asking me to do something yeah what the Tennessee Leo do with that money on that I do not know off the top of my head I'd have to get back to you with that sometimes they we're being asked to approve something so I think we this is not actually it isn't this is just their funding amount not their project they're losing money you are but you're doing that in August this is just a public hearing so I could have that information for you in August be half a board every year I know what they're going up and I'd like to know what but the board every year provides a sub-recipient agreement signs a sub-recipient agreement with all these cities about what their projects are so that we won't get that till August as what you're saying you probably won't even have that agreement till August but I'd be happy to report in August what they've used the money for in the past so this is just to show you that on the positive side we did a lot of outreach this year and and made sure that a lot of our agencies knew that we were doing this process that they could come in for technical assistance and that with a new group of people in the community development office we really wanted to reach out and engage some new sub recipients and so we found that our percentage of asking for money was considerably higher than the money that we had to give out and as you see for our development projects it was a 44% over for public services 50% over and for ESG 38% over and let me just explain with this slide being up here so you see that at for CDBG we get 2.7 million dollars 20 percent of that goes again to fund our office and our office activities or administrative things after that 15 percent and only 15 percent can be used for public services that it would be considered Social Services Human Services activities then the remainder can go to the development project so that's important to keep in mind in case you want to switch one thing to another because they can't usually switch so here is the key is the recommendations for funding and let's start with public services so they're grouped in service categories so the first one is Senior Services and I want to make note that for Pasco County Housing Authority and cares both were fully funded and these are new services being offered to our seniors in the county the next area was around employment training and also they were not fully funded but they they were funded to the ability that we could the eligibility

and one was for connections job development and the second one Vincent Academy was the operations and you'll see under development that we're also the committee is recommending funding the structure of visit Academy they just had the groundbreaking recently the last couple of a couple of weeks ago so this is to hire staff to continue to do the work of the building that they're getting ready to build the third category is for services with persons with special needs passcode kids first is a trauma-informed practice for children and this is a new project for the Community Development Department not a new program but a new project to us and lighthouse for the visually impaired this is an outreach program that they are starting from their new building our last two groups are on services for the homeless and substance abuse again I want to make note that that was considered the highest need among our survey rece responses so metropolitan ministries volunteer way excuse me we are recommending funding two of the three applications that they put in Gulf Coast and West Care is what cares a adult drug court and a new in new information to share with you is that Gulf Coast has actually has rejected the grant they we were not able to fund them completely they asked for a hundred and seventy thousand dollars and we did not have full confidence that this project could go forward completely in that way so we offered to do one part of it and they they did not want to proceed and so and then lastly good Sam we do some work with them on free medical supplies and prescriptions so in addition to this because we have some extra money the next rated project on our list let me go back is officer friendly which we originally were not going to fund but now we are going to recommend funding them with 450 thousand four hundred and twenty-five dollars it is the combination of the Gulf Coast money and still unallocated money that we have so that would have been the next one in line that's me the - it's 35 and yes 58 yes 58 so the next category of projects that were recommending for funding our development projects and basically these are things that either go vertical or you put a hammer now to it and these are several of these are pretty big ass and several of these are things that you've heard about before so the Coalition for the homeless you have heard this project come to you before and it is the family rehousing Center the Family Shelter off of youth Lane and it the recommendation is to fund that project for 700,000 it has come to you before the amount that the board has funded was for an engineering study so now they know how much the project is going to cost it's coming in at a little over 1.2 million and their ask was a little over 800,000 and the committee is recommending seven hundred thousand fake care behavioral health is doing transition housing and support center and it's quite a big project they're only asking for a

certain portion of it and we're funding there so in the seven hundred the previous in previous action plans the board has awarded other funding for them so we have money from 2017 or 2018 that has already been awarded to them I don't think it's exactly five hundred thousand I think it's I don't I think it I think that I think it's another three or four hundred thousand vinson house East Pasco wood comes to homeless mental health and substance what sup housing the housing authority so and you tell me alternate steps to recovery so which one of fake care if it's a house using family alternative stuff to recovery is any specific I don't think any of them are but they'll serve they'll serve anybody in the county they're located though on West and again these are these are applicants that put applications in I my question was which one of those is in each passcode was there any he's passcode organizations that service the homes population that applied for any grace I don't believe so no now step says this this particular house that steps is as the veterans house and that is located in New Port Richey even family alternatives is located in New Port Richey so that's a an air conditioning repair and Vincent houses again the funding to go vertical they have gotten significant funding from the state this is adding to that Sunday well there's no no East Pasco organizations apply for anything not a miss list okay habitat yes and then cares came in to update their sprinkler system lastly for home development projects the Pasco County Housing Authority came in with an ask of a million dollars for their 77 units off of Massachusetts Avenue that they're building for veterans and in addition to that we would put money aside for housing activities and that are administered within our department what's the CH the chodo it's a it's a term used for HUD a community housing development organization those are those are the activities that we administer in within our department so when you recommend somebody to come to us for a roof repair or downpayment assistance those are some of the things that we do from there so that how do you how did you arrive at that member we took the money that was available and we got one application so that application came off the top and that was what was left over is this money that rolls over yes and so and that's why there's so much there so I gosh I'd like to find a way to put the money to use rather than keep it in the bank when we have such a need so well that's one of the reasons why we did so much outreach this year with and that's and that's why we had such an increase in the number of agencies and asks was because there is a there is a great need and we want to make sure the money gets out on the street but that's a really big number to help someone with a busted window or whatever so is can any of this go to Habitat because we'd like this habitat eligible to help fix up that

mess of leisurely it that's a whole nother discussion because of whether that is considered new port richey or the county what's the county the county right now right now so this money is good till October 1st so that could be another conversation so we can be an organization so we could we could well can we touch on that cuz I have I like yeah we bring it up because the the project to go and bring septic to sewer in that area which they have like six houses right now that are able to connect is about 1.5 million dollars maybe 1.2 million dollars 300 that's impact fees that the city wants to charge if we don't have to give up that land I would rather see us finish that project before we turn that over to the city we haven't did okay no one said we had to turn it out frankly and frankly with what we're doing out there you know they're they're still a blighted community they don't have funds to take care of pay up their CRA never might taking on this project we've got the resources to get it done and we've got I think a lot of good and good things going on to be done and if you've got that one point almost six million dollars you can actually put that infrastructure in place which could really help that project go as well as help that whole neighborhood right off the bat I think they need to do something on that feet big time oh so is that a vote by the City Council of New Port Richey correct to waive that fee [Music] just like just like your impact fees the city won't be able to waive it they would have to come up with that funds from someplace yeah but they're paying themselves I know but they're still they're paying the money themselves there and there is another option if I could the other option is we have capacity in our planet I think that we could actually use to put it into the county system instead of their system as far as utilities go which mr. mr. that's what has a question of cities obviously work with him on this so what was the number again for the impact fees they want to charge over 300 grand I'm sorry over $300,000 I asked the city manager and once at one of the councilmen if they would go in it put a motion to go waive these fees never happen never never do don't do it so we talked about everybody doing their part for that area and I know it's been a big concern I would suggest maybe of us sending a letter on behalf of this Commission asking them to participate I'll second that motion we can do that no it's just we got drowned get a letter guys I mean we're working you can give your assistant or you draft a letter get it give it to the chair or all decide to give it that was well I have one more the ESG project recommendations there were five emergency shelter applications that came in who were all funded at least partially with their requests to operate their emergency shelters and then the Coalition for the homeless came in for a request to help operate the Family Services shelter that they will be

renovating and opening in addition the Coalition for the homeless also requested funding for operating the homeless management information system HMIS is the database management system that is used to to document and assist with serving those persons that are experiencing homelessness so they don't have to retell their story over and over again andreat rama ties but the information comes in once and then agencies are able to assist knowing the full story of the person that is there so those are all the problems that be real quick if I could just go back real quick so the homeless management information system for any organization homeless organization that helps those in need are we requiring them to use this system if we're going to fund them yes okay so I'm thinking about it because right now they're not using because it's important there's so many different everybody's on their own little silo trying to trying to hide what they're doing for whatever reason they all need to be on the same page it's gonna help our funding it's gonna help it's it's only a positive I just want to make sure because I understand they're still I'm not a prophet I may not be using the system I want to make sure that we are before we give them any funding we are making ensuring that they are using the system so Kathy Pierce assistant county administrator Donna Anderson is here to answer that but I just want to add one more thing we supply this 81,000 so that not-for-profits do not have to pay for that license that's the big key so yes [Music] and how are we ensuring that they are going so and and I also want to put a caveat that if for some of our providers here are domestic violence shelters and they do not have to I'm sorry I didn't really mean these providers I just I just wanted to make that good evening Donny Anderson eight four one eight at quarry drive new port richey good afternoon good evening the HMIS system actually is the HUD department lead agency we're required to use that and anyone that we provide funds to or require to use it as well so we have a sub-recipient agreement much like the county does with anyone they provide funding to and part of that is that they provided also in our continuum of care which is anywhere from 50 to 80 organizations to participate with us if they're doing any type of work with the homeless or those that are risk they to have to use the HMIS system I guess my thing is and how are we holding them accountable to make sure they're using it because I know there's some that are not using it now that's true what's they're doing great things I mean they are doing the other things out there but we need to all be on the same page because it's only gonna benefit our community it benefits everyone okay so let me ask my question is that a purchase or lease this is a the license agreement it's an annual basis we pay on a monthly basis and this covers our instance of it as well as the licenses for let's say metropolitan ministries

one of our largest users probably has 25 licenses I'm throwing that out but all the way down we have several organizations here from the east side Cathy Hunt from restored hope and I think so it's 81 thousand dollars a year to use the probe yes oh my god software licensing yes it's all licensing and software nice to record people's stories yeah so tell me more because I'm smelling ripoff here so I just want to say too that every because of the because of the security every user has their own license so it's not that Community Development it gets one license and then 19 people could use it every user has I don't care and also there are only I want to say 3 to 4 software's that are eligible even to be considered a homeless management information system so as had added more and more requirements to the system more and more software companies had to bow out so it's it's probably not a very competitive market I'll be bringing this up it's it's a it's a database that we use to manage anyone who's at risk of homelessness or is homeless yeah and we maintain one of the things that HUD other things that HUD requires us to maintain is called that's that's a file with some kind of security on it right oh yeah I'm sorry that's that's that's a that's a file on someone's laptop I don't understand these 1000 yes so mr. chairman Hey yeah well no I'm gonna I know it's unfortunate but I do get it just from my prior work history of what it cost a licensed software it's very expensive and you have a number of users the more users you have the more you're going to pay to that's one of care and coalition and stay Florida uses this yeah we're all linked so so many rings so if somebody from an accent to cross the counter you can and you can refer that need you can now I this is premature this is this is premature to say but we have put forward to HUD in application to combine our efforts with another organization so that we could reduce our expenses but this is several years off and we haven't been granted yet we don't know that we will be but we are looking at an alternative to reduce our costs there okay so let me ask you a question is the fee a sliding fee based on the amount of files that are in it I believe it's a license fee per user I don't think the the amount of data except for the instance there's probably a fee that we pay and then there's a fee per license and and it's this is very common I in my experience in technology companies you been there - yeah [Laughter] wait do you hear this one initially initially we paid over two million dollars for a cellar I know we're paying a million and a half for the cell upgrade for here yes ma'am but but then you have your the individually says are twenty four twenty five hundred dollars II yeah preferred for each one each one hundred people you're paying a hundred times twenty five dollars right that's just the software business that's I know I will add there are there are some coalition's and COCs the charge they're

not-for-profits a license fee we elect not to do that because these are smaller organizations that we need them to do this in order to provide all the reporting that we do through HUD it's done through this software it's a direct download it's just part of the system yeah I also wanted to add was thank you so obviously you know we're stored hope what's the tops of Samaritan and then vice versa they all give you access all this information together so they can help you know obviously you help these individuals so they're all gonna have to be licensed that's just occasionally it's the bottom line it's just the way it is nothing they can do about it I know it's costly but they all have to be in a little same since the night and I I'm gonna make an assumption I think that's probably why most them are here today to support being a part of that right you can't all be get out your heads okay all right I also just want to say that that that HMIS and our work with H bias impacts bringing in other funding into the county because HUD requires it so it's it's an investment of 81 thousand dollars here to bring in just shy of a million dollars of continuum of care money money from other sources so this is just a public hearing yeah and we will be back again in August with presenting the the projects and the 2019 action plan for your motion to approve first person signed up is Suzanne tell dome followed by Mary to Sylvia and Don Anderson I'm dr. Suzanne green-tailed own I live at 87 51 cream Soros Drive in New Port Richey the Pasco County citizens survey results upon which these funding decisions were based are invalid this survey is a biased research design because it is a convenient sampling through a government website the results are not valid and do not represent the thoughts of the constituents of Pasco County just a survey writing 101 and this is not a sophisticated interpretation restated there is no validity to the results due to the faulty study design only those really looking for it completed the survey it does not represent your constituents thoughts there is no research data presented here that can provide evidence or direction for funding decisions just because the commissioners have not had this method I mean have utilized this method before it does not make it acceptable now before you were not aware that these results were false now you are plus there was no exclusion of those people who will directly personally receive funding or payments from these government funds therefore biased results there is no exclusion for governmental employees that will be supervising or deciding these results therefore biased results with regard to the proposed allocations to the coalition projects this is stealing money from the homeless when we take a million dollars and throw it away on to buildings to give Pascoe duplicate services already available it is a travesty stop enabling stealing of funds from the homeless give the money directly to organizations like

Metropolitan ministry and the Habitat for Humanity that can actually help the homeless stop enabling other organizations to steal from the homeless to build bricks and mortar what concerns me the most is that the representatives from the Coalition have misrepresented information to the commissioners it's wrong information commissioners voted to place the homeless programs on youth lane numbers of homeless needs of the community budgets needed for innovation non-sustainable operation budgets results from locating the center hepatitis 8 outbreaks is there no consequence to misleading commissioners also leading others to a decision then turning around and asking for almost a million dollars to do what they said they had covered for they're not from the non-for-profit segment of coalition and private funding when you voted to move this forward the Coalition said there would be no tenant encampments while waiting for the center there have been - there are lines now of homeless waiting on the corners for the site commissioners promised this wouldn't happen based upon input from the coalition presenting information to commissioners at formal meetings should have consequences the program should not move forward with its personnel leading these programs and the program funding should be rescinded based on the new information available if expenditures of this sizeable were to be placed in Pasco it should be in East Pasco where they have no resources with the new information coming down the suggested allocations to the correlation and it's too violent on me I'm correctly I think this is a so I wanted to answer her on the survey is this not part of our survey that we hired that company to do a random sample to the whole community I mean dr. Bellis handles us know so what what surveys what's the difference this was a survey that we generated directly out of our department thank you for Sunwest particularly there before we're just trying to get it going and mr. don't be a wasting your need to state your name in it oh I'm sorry it's married to flay this and I live at 80 508 Berkley Drive Hudson Florida become woods East and my plight is the homeless and we must take care of the homeless that's up to us as good citizens wherever they are not just touching but New Port Richey and all around the USA people have been hurting for several years and I believe there's a place where we could put the people in a shelter because the police are putting up signs saying no trespassing and then they're arresting people and taking them to jail now because you're poor doesn't mean if you don't have a home and you're sleeping in the woods and you get arrested that's horrible and my grandson is going he's going to be a police well really he wants to go to FBI but he's enrolled in the police academy and my granddaughter also is her fiancé is placement so I'm not against the police they're only doing their job so I'm thinking how on

earth could Julie feeds 5200 people at the three crosses over on 19 every day and she doesn't get she don't get a salary she does it out of the goodness of her heart her and her husband and I say shame that I don't do more to help Thunder with no no you're going to get on a minute but if I think the boys club and Girls Club mr. Anderson would be available that they could go to a shelter then they can get a shower every day they can get dressed up and go find a job and I know it would work and I'll add one more thing the drug dealers need to go away forever and lock them up forget the little guy who's using the drug it's the dealers we want to get rid of them I moved here 50 years ago I never had to lock a door and live down on the river never even thought about locking the door and it could be that way again but it's up to every one of you you'll need to make this County or you'll break it and I know because I thought what you can do thank you all right Don Anderson Donny Anderson and I did swear in earlier I'm only here to answer your questions if you have any concerning any of the funds directed to the coalition prepared to give you whatever you need bro quick did you hire a new employee this the shave guy back there yeah I don't recognize him I'm afraid he's gone missing little questions for that no just thank you for everything you're doing I think I will say this you know I sit on this this committee at Mako National Association of counties called see ewd community economic development and workforce and I picked it or I got selected for it because of my work with workforce development and economic development and I knew nothing about the community part of it which is what all you ladies are working in but I'm getting my eyes opened and I'm getting an education and I think I gave it to you our last conference I think it was a legislative conference in Washington I picked up a piece that nako did on homelessness and a study from Los Angeles so I want all the commissioners to read it but it is shocking what's going on in this country shocking and in Los Angeles the the homeless numbers like doubled in a year or two and and so we need to do we need to have some we need to do more and I want to let you know that a dance skills we started our new class yesterday we have four residents from metropolitan streets wonderful so we are getting them job skills and I think I don't know if you know but the last one that we had Niki from metropolitan industries we trained her there for three months and then she did her internship for three months at true and then they hired her at $45,000 a year so well and with what we did today this morning we're gonna help these folks get a job get a career going and not be a burden on the system and I feel this heavy responsibility and I'm really glad that you're here our new lady and it's a big bite to take out of our budget this $1,000,000 but we need to do it and so thank you for all that you do thank you for attending anyone else this

come back with respect so I lived homeless for the next 15 years at the age of 28 I'm sleeping in parts behind churches and dumpster Corral's anywhere I could while fighting to provide for my wife and my child while they were bouncing from couch to couch just so they had a roof over their head having to rely on the kindness of strangers will show you a lot about people sometimes the ones that help the most are the ones who least expect I'm happy to report now I've learned respect I never went back to my father but I have learned that there are people out there that look for the best in others and I respect that thanks to organizations like the Samaritan Project and their refusal to give up on me even when I gave up on myself thanks to private individuals who gave me and my family a place to stay and a job I'm not almost anyone I respect those who show kindness to others when they're struggling I hope to be something to those that need it and if my story can reach people I hope it does slowly one day at a time I'm learning to respect myself and that's a result you can't quantify with numbers you can't measure on a scale organizations like the Coalition need more funding they need more options for families like mine I can only think of all the good that may come from it thank you yeah very nice good job good evening good evening commissioners Roxanne Giessen himer 3 6:05 to coleus Avenue suffer Hills I'm the executive director of the Samaritan project a low barrier homelessness outreach and Prevention Center located in Zephyrhills we serve homeless and at-risk citizens of Pasco County we focus in East Pasco but will help all across the line wait we don't believe in imaginary borders like that we are an active member of the continuum of care we use HMIS and we work in partnership with the Coalition for the homeless of Pasco County and collaborate with many social services organizations in the area our organization stands in full support of the coalition's requests I would like to focus on the proposed family housing center as a solution for families with children who are desperately secret seeking a clean safe and supportive environment in which to re-establish stability as this is a large ask and historically has been met with aggressive opposition we are thankful to the individuals businesses and churches who help us to look out for those who need it most but it shouldn't surprise you to know that securing financial support for homeless initiatives is very difficult in monitoring our fund and monitoring fundraising trends on Facebook which are indicative of societal attitudes towards charitable causes I found that animal welfare and extracurricular activities are exponentially more successful than those that are aimed to serve families and individuals who lack even their most basic needs I in no way intend to

diminish the importance or the value of such causes but I do believe that this suggests that our collective priorities can be grossly misaligned with our responsibility to protect and maintain all of our citizens abilities to obtain a quality of life that supports simple human dignity if we were in the business of working with cute puppies or even cuter sports kids we might not have to fight so hard for the basic needs of those that we serve but homelessness isn't cute so every week we meet new families who have nowhere to escape the heat or cold nowhere to bathe nowhere to cook meals or store groceries let alone insulin antibiotics or meal replacements nowhere to put their children to sleep safely while also facing limited access to food clean water restrooms transportation hygiene products health services childcare and affordable housing opportunities I believe I can confidently assume that these things nearly every person in this room has access to and much much more not many people here know firsthand what it's like to rise above their circumstances and put their life back together piece by piece amidst the struggle I do and I have and I will tell you it's very very hard to build your life anew without a foundation to anchor it to this facility would provide that kind of foundation thank you thank you thank you hi my name is Julie called 1 3 1 2 9 Sherman Drive in Hudson I wasn't planning on coming up here today so I really don't have anything written but we my husband and I do operate a community resource center on us 19 we serve the homeless and those at-risk we've been there for over 10 years it's called acts abundant commodities to share everything is free for those in need we are right in the center of the major homeless area on us 19 especially where everybody's being trespassed out of the woods and being pushed out which I understand that one thing I did would like to request which we had several years ago on our property around two and a half acres and when our business is closed we do have you know trouble with people staying on the property after hours because of vandalism and fights and things like that but what we had was very convenient we had a port-a-potty on the property so that the people would have a place to go the bathroom as they're passing through or we are located next to a waterway so the porta potti had been there for a long time a few years and then I know that that is a permit use item and at the time we didn't know that and we just hired it and had it on there so it had to be removed but I was asking again recently if we could get an exemption and have another porta potti put on the property it does help us you see in the neighboring businesses there's they have nowhere to go the bathroom it's it's at our front door when we walk in in the morning the neighboring shed company business she finds it in her sheds that she's trying to sell it is a problem and then I'm all for the

navigation center also there needs to be a place I don't know where it needs to be I was at a meeting and not too long ago and they were a school board meeting and they talked about closing the Hudson Elementary School and somebody said use that for a homeless shelter or you know a basic training type of a place which it's already it's an institution so it's already zoned that way so it could possibly be another idea of where to put the navigation Center but I thank you for your time and have a blessed day 75 40 Wimpole Drive new port richey I was an inmate I was homeless in the city of New Port Richey I've actually recovering at it the leader at celebrate recovery and I was going into Land O'Lakes jail for over a year and a half speaking to 3035 women twice a month out of that I realized what we're missing in this county is transitional living there is nowhere for us to go once we get caught up in the system there's usually nobody left their family our family and support is gone so we end up coming out of jail and then we're back on the street and we go back to our dope deal or we go back to the person and then we're caught up in sex trafficking human trafficking all of this is going on in the county so I actually have coordinated myself as well across the United States a jobs for felon Network I just came back from a three-week trip I was hitting 19 different states speaking about my story in my testimony and how I got out of the system I have said this before in other meetings the system it did hold me accountable it did make me change my life but I now I had to go outside of the county to get help the girls that are coming out of the jail that I mentor to they have suffered sexual trauma domestic violence but there's nowhere for them to get help here and as you see I think these funds that they put up here as ridiculous amounts I think it should be 3 million it should be more and the fact that a million seems a lot to some people is almost disgusting because you're talking about human lives and when we come out of jail and we don't think there's opportunity or resources for us what do you think we're going to do we we go right back to that life and then we Road we OD and we die so into that sense you have treatment centers and you do have these other facilities around but unless you're on their prescription drugs they're mad they're not gonna get funding so they're gonna keep us on medication which I went through that as well so my thing is transitional living is a must I've been out I've been going around creating awareness trying to find private fund private lenders private investors because I can't get help from the city or the county I'm super passionate about this because I'm mentoring these girls myself I'm putting in their car I'm getting books from churches I'm going and meeting with them I'm training them to get them jobs I don't get paid for this I run my own business it's out of my time and we should be giving three times the money of these ladies are asking this this

city and county needs to step it up other counties are doing a lot more for their citizens and I feel like Pasco is kind of behind the times but I feel like you guys see the problem and maybe we can change this going for it thank you you should give your information to Kathy and Kathy you know that young man that's working for that company I can't that I introduce you to he's the older brother of my kids friends from River Ridge I'm talking his name who works for that company that will put that helps people go into that you know get drug free and they pay for it remember you need to give your information to cap good evening my name is tarek Stubbs I'm executive director for the housing authority for Pasco County I just want to say thank you for your time your service it's very very nice that you do that because I know what it entails so thank you very much thank you to your Community Development for sharing the funds with us because it's so any questions you might have for me see that with parole board second motion in a second when once those in favor say aye I want discussion if I could and I've made my sentence early I want to I want to say I think Don Anderson is a fine man the great attentions I'll just say the shelter the old boys club team 15 Center I just don't think is the right location we're seeing effects of people laundering around creating more of an activity just the way dr. tal Doan says it is going to create a problem you've gotten metropolitan ministries doing a phenomenal job you've got the ropes into doing a great job taking singles and by the way they've got this singles building that we built that can hold 20 males and 20 females if we spent 400 grand and built him another building they could take all the mills and put them together which would be a better environment build another one over to the side for the third of the money you're talking about doing over there if you sold that building to the people that only development around it you could probably make enough money to give another couple of buildings for metropolitan ministries down where they're at when you look at who can raise money it goes a lot to the confidence of what they've seen and what they've done metropolises has got a great reputation as so does Habitat for Humanity I think we should put more focus to those so I don't need to weight set up but if I could mr. chairman I mean this this this is her first meeting [Laughter] yeah before we dream is chairman I wanted to bring up as far as storm water timber Oaks and I want to say from our staff our team this whole board supporting that whole stormwater is that was out there has gone through it's fun that it's closed up right now I don't think we need to keep that at base in a special concern anymore 133 million gallons of storage for storm water in 93 those people are safe the lake out there looks great that was going to be apartments looks fantastic now so if staff would

bring something back and advise us so what their thoughts are with it proper engineering and thoughts to bring that night okay well well I know we're looking into that I got a meeting I think several public works to talk through that process thank you [Music]