Travis County Commssioners Court
November 12, 2002
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Travis County Housing Finance Corporation
good afternoon. Let’s call to order the Travis County housing finance corporation.
Item 1. Consider results of compliance audit of the lakeview apartment, and take appropriate action. Let's show director Margaret Moore absent for the entirety of this meeting. Good afternoon.
>> good afternoon, I’m harvey Davis, the manager of the corporation. If you will recall, we met on this item on August 20th. This is a ongoing process in the compliance audit of the lakeview apartments. It has 504 units. And on the August 20th meeting the board approved sending a 60 day cure letter because the owner was not in compliance with the low income or the eligible tenant requirements. And on August the 30th, I went out and did a follow-up audit of the complex and so I’m here to present what I found out during that audit. In my opinion, they have regained compliance of the low income requirements, the 20% of the units had to be leased to what's called low income tenants. But they have not yet regained compliance on the eligible tenant requirements. They have asked for an extension until November 15th to regain that compliance. And I do support their request because when I went out there, I could see that they have made significant progress with their compliance and I understand that -- that in the case of these eligible tenants, that are having to go back to existing tenants and, you know, that's -- that's kind of a long process. And in addition, they have -- they have resolved some other issues in the audit. They were to -- to conclude a report to the Texas department of housing, kind of a census report, they have done that. And they were also -- also to add -- have an addendum to their lease in which the tenant understands that they have to -- and agrees to complete these income certifications on an annual basis and they have complied with those requests. So -- so they have asked for this extension until November 15th. In the board approves it, we will go out and look at some more files and make sure that they are in compliance with the eligible tenant requirements and report back to the board.
>> could we give a little additional time and reschedule this to November 26th? That's -- I guess is that better?
>> yeah. That -- yeah. That gives me time to -- to go out there. I mean, I will go out there sometime next week and I will need to write a report and put that on the agenda, all of that stuff.
>> is that fine? Okay. And after -- after that action is taken, assuming everything goes well, they will be in full compliance with the regulatory requirements.
>> yes, sir.
>> okay.
>> that's your motion, if that's your motion I would second that.
>> that is the motion, that we -- we schedule this item on November 26th to give the apartment managers and mr. Davis an opportunity to certify full compliance and report back to the board on November 26th.
>> seconded by commission director Sonleitner. Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> thank you. 2. Consider results of compliance audit of $4,400,000 multi-family housing revenue bonds, series 1994a (bent oaks apartments project), and take appropriate action.
>> we did initial nate a compliance audio -- initiate a compliance audit of the bent oaks apartments, 146 units. They were in compliance. In this case we were looking that they were in compliance with the low income tenants, which is 20% of the units had to be leased to low income tenants and another 70% of the units to eligible tenants. In addition 5% of the units had to be leased to elderly tenants. They were in compliance with the low income and elderly tenant requirements. They were not in compliance with the eligible tenant requirements. They were -- they were a group of files that they had not obtained the proper documentation, the income certification on those files. The -- the management told us that they had a miscommunication with the manager during that certain time segment. And so -- so I am requesting board approval to send them an appropriate letter giving them 60 days to regain compliance. A copy of the letter is in the backup that I’m asking the board to approve. I would again go back and review the files and report back to the board.
>> 60 days from today's date?
>> yes.
>> where is the original of this letter?
>> sir?
>> where is the original? I have a copy of the letter.
>> well, the --
>> is this the original snoob this would be the original, yes.
>> okay. The board approves it, then you would sign it and send it on.
>> move to authorize the county judge and president of the corporation to sign the draft letter, notifying the apartment complex of non-compliance.
>> second.
>> and that we authorize mr. Davis to send this letter immediately, it will be 60 days from the date of later or 60 days from the date of the receipt.
>> 60 days from the date of the letter. I will fax it to them and they have been notified, of course, of the results and my recommendation.
>> okay. Seconded by director Gomez, any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 3. Review program plan of tenant supportive services to be provided to the residents of the lakeview apartments, and take appropriate action.
>> this item is an item that the board reviewed on September the 10th. At that time the board approved giving agape 60 days to come up with a plan, an approved -- perhaps improved plan for their social service plan at lakeview apartments. And if it's okay with you, judge, I would like to have laura winfield, the executive director of agape, come and present her plan to the board.
>> okay.
>> good afternoon, I’m laura wingfield, executive director of agape foundation and agape area housing. Last time we were -- I was in front of you, we were talking about the complexities of forming a social service plan and the balance that we have to strike between the requirements in the regulatory agreement and the services that we can actually expect participation with from our residents. And we -- after a very, very detailed door to door person to person survey of about a quarter of the property, I believe that we have achieved that balance. I believe you all have copies of the attendant supportive services plan overview. I will just run down the list of services that we have found that are meaningful to the residents that we are able to provide on the property or provide referrals -- provide referrals to and that we think that are going to -- to be successful on this property. First, let me say that about 128 units have been surveyed. We've had a 32% response rate. Not including vacancies. If you take out the vacant units, it's in the 40 for our response rate, but we've had about a third of our residents actually respond to our service coordinator, gloria salazar, we've had a total of 41 responses come in. Out of those, we've had 23 persons express an interest in e.s.l. Classes, english as a second language, over half of the responses, as far as citizenship classes and immigration legal services referrals, about a third of the responses have indicated a need or a desire for those services, we had -- we had about 10 family planning requests, which we have -- we have kind of push d that into a health screening service because we can get the mobile van to come out and do health screenings on the property about every quarter, they will also provide family planning services as well as a whole range of services. We are going to be providing computer facilities and high speed internet access on the property. There's a computer lab in the community building, the office building of the property. We are also going to be providing anger management classes. There was a need expressed for stress management. We have found a seminar that will certify our service coordinator in anger management, which kind of saves into stress management, abuse prevention. It's often anger management is a court ordered class in -- in any number of different kinds of situations and we believe that that will be a pretty useful service to have onsite. Almost all of the surveys that we got back expressed an interest or a need in career development, adult basic education, continuing ed or g.e.d. Classes. We had 36 responses express an interest in those, so those referrals and coordination will be available. We are going to be providing -- continue to provide case management services for the residents. That's necessary for assisting residences, residents, documenting the services and agencies that they referred to and actually referring on to those services and agencies. And then, as always, we will be hosting social events and activities. Those are kind of the glue that pull the whole property together and help us stay in touch with the residents and provide a sense of rapport and community. We will combine the social events and activities with educational, informational and service oriented presentations. I also had attached some of the forms that we will be using, those include a copy of the resident survey, in english and in spanish; tdhca has a tenant services provided form that we have the onsite service coordinator completely weekly and then faxing to us which indicates what action has been taken on the property, what the participation was. We have sign-in sheets which just document who was there. That way we can get a count on how many participants we had. There's also a social services needs assessment form, which is used as an intake form for case management and referrals, that's always kept confidential. Then we are also going to start using an exit survey to help us judge the satisfaction or happiness that the residents have with the various programs, services and events that we are providing just to get an idea if these services are working or not. I've attached a copy of the budget for social services on the property. It's -- it's $40,740 per year, as the economy in the -- in the apartment submarket improves and our occupancy goes up, we expect to be able to -- to increase that budget. But right now that's what we are able to provide. That's what we are able to budget towards the program. And it's -- it's working out for us so far. Hopefully we will be able to increase that and provide even more services and programs for the residents. One of the -- one of the things that we are pretty excited about is the english as a second language program. There are two -- two agencies in Austin that provide literacy -- that provide literacy programs and one of those literacy Austin is going to start providing services on site. The e.s.l. Classes onsite in January. So we were -- we were happy to be able to get that and provide it onsite. The citizenship classes are also provided free. I mean, these services are free. The citizenship classes are provided for free from the same agencies that do the -- do the e.s.l. Classes and they -- they won't do it onsite, but we can refer people to those -- to those classes and help them coordinate their transportation. If a group of them want to go together, you know, help them coordinate with each other getting to the classes. There's also a number of agencies we can refer the residents to if they have any kind of legal needs regarding immigration or citizenship. And then another program that's pretty exciting that we are going to refer our residents to is the new immigrants project, which is a program by the Austin public library. There's a -- there's a number of resources, you know, I mean, you can read the list. There's just a huge number of resources that the library provide that's we will be referring people to as well. Health screens will be provided by the -- where's the name of it? Austin health connection, which is a mobile van that comes on to the property. We have set up with them to come quarterly. They provide help screenings, just a whole list of them. Basically. Bloop, diabetes -- bloop, diabetes, immunizations, h.i.v. Or other sexually transmitted diseases, they can also provide services like family planning, the w.i.c. Program, environmental health. We will do those upon resident demand or if there's a need for that. But quarterly we will have health screenings and people can come participate in that. We will combine that with a social atmosphere to help draw people to the mobile health van to have refreshments or some kind of social activity around that to make it a little more appealing. We are going to be providing free onsite high speed internet access and computers on site in the computer lab. Those -- that sfs will tie into career development, e.s.l., Citizenship, adult basic education, computers are necessary to -- to actually do those programs.
>> a quick question there. It says here about maintaining the computer lab open during office hours. Is that lab not open during the evening hours when a lot of folks might -- might be -- more -- fit into their schedule in terms of having access to the computer lab?
>> at this point it's not, but we will make it available. We will have it open as the -- as the need becomes more, you know, as we have people needing that to happen. We will make it available.
>> okay.
>> it might be something that you monitor carefully, because folks that are working during the day, it's like we hop on the internet when we get home.
>> right.
>> thanks.
>> we also are looking at anger management classes. Which as I said before, are often court-ordered classes stemming out of domestic disturbances or, you know, any number of situations. Our onsite service coordinator is being certified to teach anger management. That's something that -- that we see actually maybe providing a small income stream for the property because we are going to try to get listed with the court so that we can accept referrals from the court so that people off-site can come and attend classes at the property as well. We are investigating that. Right now we are going to be providing it free for our residents and then investigating it seeing what we can do to get referrals from the courts. There are some really good adult basic education and g.e.d. Classes available in the city. Again, this is something that we can't get onsite as of yet. If we had a huge number of referrals to agencies, I guess it's possible that we could work out something where it was offered onsite. But right now what we will be doing is offering referrals, helping people coordinate their schedules and transportation and if a group wants to go together, help them coordinate that. We are also going to be assisting with g.e.d. Or basic education courses in our computer lab with -- you know any number of internet resources and software resources. Then we are also going to be assisting people with their interview skills, their resumes, you know, I guess just -- how to go about the job application process and make a good appearance with a prospective employer. Case management will be an ongoing service available to the residents and that's necessary to help monitor, you know, where people are being referred and those -- those files are kept confidential at all times. And then the aforementioned social events and activities, we are going to provide at least one a month. The way we are looking at it now, every other month social activity would also be tied into some kind of informational or educational presentation by say the Austin police department or the library or an agency that is able to provide a service that would be useful to the residents, they could come out and talk about their -- their service and the residents could either, you know, I foresee, you know, the -- the police department coming out and doing the finger printing of children, you know, say the easter egg hunt, you know, any kind of an event where there is a lot of children. That -- we don't want to make it educational, informative 24/7. We want there to be just pure fun where people don't feel any pressure to participate or have a lecture or be talked to, but do include that in about half of the events. Do you all have any questions about -- about what we are doing --
>> recollection yaiksnal room -- recreational room where you are planning to have the social activities?
>> we have a gym and we also have a workout room, but so far the recreational or the social events have been held outdoors. It's been cookouts. We have a great response to having pool parties, cookouts, you know, the halloween party was held outdoors.
>> uh-huh. Nawbls mr. Davis being able to come out in person and observe some of the activities.
>> yes, sir, absolutely.
>> okay.
>> comments, questions?
>> I think it's really good.
>> I think it's moving in the right direction. And give it a chance to -- to see if this is -- if this works, I think that you have done a lot of good works and it reflects in the document.
>> thank you.
>> good efforts.
>> move approval of the plan.
>> second.
>> we will request that mr. Davis be advised when they are up so we can come out and observe some of them. Not necessarily all of them, because I understand a lot of them will be offsite programs.
>> we will be tracking those, so we will have records of those.
>> I would think it would make sense for me to go out to one or two of their monthly events that you are planning.
>> makes sense to us, too.
>> okay.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you very much.
>> thank you. 4. Consider resolution authorizing amended and restated trust indenture and amendment to loan agreement relating to multifamily housing revenue bonds (westchester woods apartments) series 2002a and series 2002b; authorizing the execution of documents and instruments relating thereto; and containing other provisions relating to the subject, and take appropriate action.
>> [inaudible - no mic]
>> just real briefly, this was a transaction that was approved and closed in January of this year. The -- the bond holder has I guess -- their whole program of owning this type of multi-family housing revenue bond has changed and they have requested this change to the series a bonds. Currently all 15 million are called current interest bonds which pays on a monthly basis to the bond holder. They are wanting to restructure so that a little over a million of that 15 million is converted toward what are called capital appreciation bonds, then the remainder will stay as it is. This will also need to be signed off on by the borrower, apartment owner, it requires the issuer's consents, also. We are not issuing any additional debt. Same debt. It's just a different type of debt. That -- that the bond holder requested. By the way, it will match the program, the town vista apartments that we closed the first of October, same structure, converting the westchester woods transaction to that structure.
>> > what does that mean to you? Anything?
>> nothing. No, sir.
>> any reason not to approve --
>> really, the loan payments come in to us, but we never -- they go to the trustee, the trustee makes the bond holder payments. Really it doesn't affect the corporation on a practical basis at all. Technical, then by the way, the attorneys's office -- attorney general's office will have to approve this, also. [inaudible] ready to make that as soon as you all approve it.
>> we would normally approve it before the a.g.?
>> yes. They have to see signed resolutions and so forth for them to give their approval.
>> move approval.
>> second? Any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> move we adjourn.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. , also.
Last Modified: Wednesday, April 2, 2003 10:25 AM