Saint Louis County Housing Resources Commission
Meeting Minutes – October 21, 2014
The meeting of the Saint Louis County Housing Resources Commission was called to order at 4:06 p.m. by Ellen O’Brien, at E. M. Harris Construction, 2600 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE: No Executive Committee meeting on this date.
COMMISSIONERS IN ATTENDANCE: Ellen O'Brien;
Mike Harris; Susan Rollins,
Kathy Schweitzer
DHS STAFF IN ATTENDANCE: Tom Fee;
Randee Fendelman, Onnie Green; Andrea Holak
Roll Call: Onnie Green
MINUTES:
Motion was made to accept the minutes from the meeting of August 15, 2014.
COMMITTEE REPORTS TO CHAIR
PROGRAM
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David Kessel of Employment Connection was introduced to the Commissioners.
New Staff
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Tom Fee introduced new Homeless Services Program Manager Andrea Holak to the Commissioners and stated that management of the program is improving as we build capacity.
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Pierre Hampton from Salvation Army has been hired and will start on November 10th.
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Two additional staff will be hired by year end.
Current Contract Status
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Andrea Holak started with the fact that a couple of the agencies in the Rapid Re-housing program are requesting for extensions. She stated that there has been a time lapse between the start of the contract and the fact that these agencies have done no billing because of problems with start up.
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Andrea Holak recently followed up with Catholic Charities about the fact that their billing is at zero. They stated they have five participants in their program and will be billing soon.
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Andrea Holak stated that ROW is in the same situation. They have three participants and one that is pending.
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David Kessel stated that Employment Connection’s Rapid Re-housing program is another example of problems with start up. EC’s program began in July and would need an extension as well.
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It was stated that an extension should not be a problem but that the agencies would need to put in formal requests.
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A concern was raised that even though the contracts are ending soon, Rapid Re-housing program has the ability to house participants for one year. Twelve month period follows the participant, not the contract.
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Kathy Schweitzer stated that her organization has grant projects that last for 18 months but their agencies must put in a formal request for an extension.
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Tom Fee stated that the participants of agencies to whom we are already committed should be the priority.
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Randee Fendelman stated that an agency request for an extension should be sent to us no later than 30 days prior to ending of contract.
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Request for Proposals (RFPs) are out and are due back to DHS by Monday, November 3, 2014.
FINANCE
YTD Revenue and Expense Reports for September 2014 were submitted.
YTD Expense Report (expenses through September 30, 2014) (75% of Year)
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September went up slightly – last three months have been down.
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Rapid Re-housing – still at 0% billing.
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It was stated that some of the agencies are doing really well so they will probably run out of funds.
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It was suggested that any leftover funds be given to others with need if there would be enough time to spend it.
YTD Revenue through 09/30/14 is $374,304 ($172,261 revenue decrease to date)
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710,768 - 2012 Revenue obligated for 2014
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137,506 - Additional obligated for 2014
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374,304 - 2014 Revenue to date
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629,421- Reserve Balance
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454,421- Excess over minimum reserve
Seven Year Comparison of Revenues and Reserve Utilization
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Randee Fendelman provided a Seven Year Comparison as requested at the last meeting.
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Randee Fendelman directed the Committee’s attention to the fact that revenue is still going down and that at the current level of program funding there is danger of using up all of the reserve funds.
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Ellen O’Brien stated that September was good for everyone but that probably won’t last.
Funding Target for Proposals
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After listening to Randee Fendelman’s report that at the current level of funding we could well use all of the reserve a motion was decided upon.
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Motion was made to change the funding target.
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MADE BY: Kathy Schweitzer
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SECONDED BY: Susan Rollins
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VOTE: Motion Approved
OTHER BUSINESS
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Tour of Salvation Army’s new 58 unit apartment complex was very impressive.
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David Kessel of Employment Connection thanked the Commissioners for allowing him to attend a meeting.
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Susan Rollins asked David Kessel how many of his customers were veterans then went on to state that she has VASH vouchers available and asked him to contact her at a later date about them. Susan added that the vouchers are good in both the City and County.
Meeting adjourned at 5:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Onnie D. Green, Department of Human Services
