2006-07-17 - Laserfiche WebLink

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6 Ms. Leslie Beauregard, Budget Manager, said that transit was one of the biggest losers in the State budget. In addition, JAUNT lost $27,000 which, unless funded by the City, will cause a loss of Sunday service. She said the County has funded its share of this shortfall. She said United Way Child Care funds were cut dramatically and will impact an estimated ten families in the City. Ms. Hamilton asked for an explanation of mandated versus non-mandated service. Mr. Robert Cox, Director of Social Services, said that families fall into several categories. He said that families enrolled in TANF are subject to the Welfare to Work law and receive legally mandated child care. He said there is no legal requirement to serve other families who earn less than the poverty level, but are not enrolled in TANF. He said the average child care cost per child is $300 per month which can be more than half of a family’s gross income and most could not pay this amount. On motion by Mr. Taliaferro, seconded by Mr. Lynch, the $49,850 appropriation for additional funding for JAUNT Sunday service and Department of Social Services Child Care Program was offered and carried over to the next meeting for consideration. Mr. Lynch said he would like to discuss using the urban allocation for transit. REPORT : CHARLOTTESVILLE REDEVELOPMENT AND HOUSING AUTHORITY Mr. Noah Schwartz, Executive Director of the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, explained that CRHA is a quasi-government organization governed by a seven member Board which includes two current public housing residents. He said the annual budget is just over $5.6 million and has 23 staff. He said that there are currently 1781 low-income residents served through two housing assistance program. The agency also operates a city funded Down Payment Assistance Program and a First Time Homebuyers Program. CRHA’s two primary programs are Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program that subsidizes 275 families, and the public housing program that has 376 public housing units. He said CRHA has had a number of challenges over the past year, including its designation as a “troubled” housing authority, position vacancies, customer service, financial operations and budgeting, security, and capital needs. He listed the following recent accomplishments: staff has improved dramatically; expertise has improved greatly; customer service has improved, the agency adopted a balanced budget for FY 07; a number of projects have been undertaken to improve security; and capital project needs have begun to be addressed. He said one of CRHA’s biggest challenges is a lack of sufficient funding to operate the public housing program. Another issue is the HUD mandated accounting/management conversion to “Asset Management.” He said CRHA is also in the process of master planning. Mr. Taliaferro commended Mr. Schwartz for the emphasis on customer service for its residents. He asked how the Authority can get off of troubled status. Mr. Schwartz said he hopes the Authority will come off of troubled status this fall after a review by HUD. Responding to a question from Mr. Lynch, Mr. Schwartz said that last year’s deficit was almost $300,000 and this amount was made up out of reserve funding for programming. He said new revenue streams are needed as well as a new business model. Ms. Hamilton said that redevelopment will eventually create some funds, but this cannot be done until the Authority is off of troubled status. Mr. Norris commended Mr. Schwartz for his work “righting the ship.” He said it is unrealistic to do all that needs doing with the agency chronically in the hole financially. He said Council is going to have to come to the table and provide funds that could be used as a match.