1.5.2022 Community Development Agency Public Hearing

uh this is public here this is the first public hearing on needs and performance requests for the year three annual action plan for the year uh 2022-2023 today is january 5th 2022 uh 6 pm tonight's public hearing is being held to provide residents of fall river and all interested parties the opportunity to express their views on the following housing and community development needs the needs of the homeless the

development of proposed activities including activities related to community housing development organizations and various program performance in the city of fall river the city of fall river a consolidated plan was approved by the u.s department of housing and urban development on june 10 2020 that document identified community development housing and homeless needs and a schedule of strategies to address

them over a five-year period a time frame that will come to a conclusion on june thirtieth two thousand twenty five we are developing an annual action plan that will present a schedule of activities and projects to be undertaken during this the third year of that five-year cycle that are designed to meet and address the needs and conformance with established strategies testimony statements letters requests

for funding and petitions submitted at tonight's hearing will be used in development of that annual action plan for the program year commencing july 1 2022.

completed requests for funding must be submitted to the far of a community development agency no later than january 26 2022 that's january 26 2022.

copies of the request for funding forms are available at the sign-in table at the office of the fall river community development agency one government center on the sixth floor and on the city of fall river municipal website which is www dot river a summary of the proposed annual action plan is to be published on february 25th 2022 in the herald news and ozil now it will also be made available for

public review at the office of the fall river community development agency another public hearing has been scheduled for march 9th 2022 at 6 pm here in the city council chambers to afford residents the opportunity to review and comment on the proposed year three annual action plan residents will have until march 28 2022 to submit additional comments all statements received during this

review period will be considered in development of the city of fall river's year three annual action plan according to the submission timetable copies of the plan and pertinent related informational materials will be submitted to the city council by april the city council will consider enactment of a resolution authorizing mayor paul coogan to file to file the year three annual action plan

with the u.s department of housing and urban development honor about may 4th 2022 year 48 of the fall river community development block grant program year 31 of the home program and year 36 of the emergency solutions grant program are scheduled to begin july 1 2022.

the city of fall river anticipates receiving approximately 2 million nine hundred and thirty eight thousand for eligible cd cdbg program activities one million fifty three thousand for home program activities and around two hundred and fifty thousand for esg program activities this estimation assumes the city will be level funded for the upcoming program year federal regulations require that

citizens be provided information concerning the amounts of funds that will be available and the range of activities that may be undertaken this and additional information was furnished in display advertisements in the following locations the four of the herald news and oceanelle cable tv and the city of fall river municipal website the format of this public hearing will be will be to allow participants the

opportunity to express their views of the city's housing community development needs and the needs of the homeless in our program performances and to submit requests for funding prepared statements will be accepted persons wishing to speak have been asked to sign a separate speaker sheet and will be called to testify each speaker should state his or her name and address and if appropriate the

agency or organization that they represent before we begin the proceedings and testimony i'd like to acknowledge the following statements that have been received by the far river community development agency there are letters of support that were received for the fall river community housing resource board and requests for funding for people incorporated for the people in quarter preschool the jobs for fall

river are incorporated for economic development and we also received a letter from uh community development recreation greater fall river recreation so tonight we have a couple speakers i'd like to ask bill perkins from people incorporated to come down

good evening mr dion uh bill perkins uh 11al green street berkeley mass uh also with uh people incorporated and i'm here you know first off to thank you and the cda uh staff and and services for the partnership that we've enjoyed over the last uh several years uh when we began to take over the the uh operation of the the preschool formerly operated by the city the partnership that we've had has allowed us uh to

enhance services uh that are not funded under the uh uh department of early education and care funding um last couple of years we've been able to use that funding to support incoming income eligible children and families with a licensed social worker and that's that's been essential to the success of many of those children and families as we you know help them with referrals in the community as well

our application intends to um continue that service into fiscal year 2023 and again we are uh very grateful for our past partnership and look forward to a continued relationship thank you thanks bill appreciate it uh rui from catholic social services rooney you want to come down say a few words

yeah you could take the mask off if you want good evening everyone good evening i have a prepare statement uh but first ruby rosa i work for catholic social services at fall river do you want my personal address or no business address okay 1600 bay street uh in fall river like i said i have a prepared statement if you don't mind i can just read it off so dear mr dion catholic social services

the fall river is submitting this request to continue to administer the hud's emergency solutions grant awarded through the fall river community development agency for fiscal year 2023 over the years css has worked collaboratively with frcda to ensure the proper execution of this contract in terms of both financial and regulatory compliance esg funds are targeted specifically for

households living at the extremely low income level below 30 percent of the area median income according to the latest census data 19.7 percent of population in fall river lives below the poverty line a number that is higher than national average which is 12.3 percent these households are the most vulnerable to becoming homeless due to the fiscally fragile situations that they already find themselves in

the ongoing economic challenges brought on by the pandemic continues to put pressure on their cost of living more recently concerns about the overall increase in inflation have exacerbated the disparate impact already faced by the city's low and moderate income residents the esg assistance at least aims to alleviate the housing burden for this cohort for fiscal year 2022 which is the

current award period the coordinated entry system has received an average of eight calls per day from far river residents seeking financial assistance the call volume has been steadily increasing since the eviction moratorium finally expired at the end of september 2021 the southeast housing court is beginning to clear its backlog of cases in the first six months of the current

grant period css has been able to assist 16 households with esg financial assistance we work around collaboratively with other providers in the area including far river housing authority southeast housing court the tennessee preservation program and first step in to ensure eligible households in need of esc services are identified referred and assessed for eligibility as quickly as possible

as an entitlement cities fall river aims to develop a viable urban community by providing decent housing and by expanding economic opportunities principally for its low and moderate income residents over the years catholic social services has been honored to partner with frcda in carrying out this mutual mission we hope to continue to this relationship and welcome the opportunity to continue

to receive esg homeless prevention and rapid rehousing funding and under this year's rff thank you thank you rowan thank you thank you for attending thank you do you have anybody else that would like to speak um on any programs or anything no well um that concludes our public hearing for this evening again there's some important dates to remember that our rff is request for funding must be submitted to

the community development agency no later than january 26 of uh 2022 and then on february 25th of 2002 a summary of the proposed action plan uh will be published in the herald news and ozil now so please remember those two dates are very important and uh one other last date is a public hearing another public hearing will be held on march 9th of 2022 where residents will be afforded the

opportunity to review and comment on the proposed year 3 annual plan so keep those dates available if any questions arise you can please contact the floor of a community development agency um our phone number is 508-679-0131 you can also see us on the web at www.fallriverma.org and that concludes the public hearing for this evening thank you

you