1.8.25 Community Development Agency Public Hearing

okay good evening uh thank you for being here this evening uh my name is Michael Dion I'm the executive director of The Fall River Community Development agency um fcda is responsible for the administration of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Planning and Development programs among other programs on behalf of the city of Fall River the agency's mission is to

assist local government to do the following achieve high quality locally responsive programs make communities better places to live and work and improve low and low and moderate income residents fcda has performed this function for 50 years beginning in the 1970s e year fcda receives approximately 10 million in federal and state and private funds which it disperses to community agencies

that provide a vast array of services and activities fcda serves as a Lis on between citizens service providers subrecipients city government and HUD all planning documents and efforts require public hearings and citizens input prior to completion tonight's public hearing is being held to provide residents of Fall River and all interested parties with the opportunity to express their views on the following

areas Housing and Community Development needs the needs of the homeless strategies to affirmatively further fair housing requests for funding and proposed activities including activities related to community housing development organizations non-housing needs and program performance in the city of Fall River the expiring city of Fall River Consolidated plan was developed in the year

2020 that document identified Community Development housing and homeless needs and a schedule of strategies to address them over a 5-year period that time frame will conclude on June 30th 2025 this plan will this plan allowed for the implementation of programming that address the needs of low and moderate income residents of the city of Fall River the city through the Fall River Community Development agency has

embarked on the development of a new 5-year Consolidated plan that will present a series of strategies to address the needs of this population which are identified via the following methods public hearings written testimony stakeholder consultations CommunityWide surveys petitions and formal requests the strategies identified are implemented through annual action plans the first of which is being developed

concurrently with the five-year Consolidated plan the year one annual action plan of the proposed fiveyear Consolidated plan will represent a schedule of activities and projects to be undertaken during the first year of the 5year cycle testimony statements letters requests for funding and petitions submitted at tonight's hearing will be used in development of that action plan for the program year commencing July 1

2025 completed requests for funding must be submitted to the for ofer Community Development agency no later than January 22nd 2025 copies of of the request for funding applications are available at the sign-in table at the office of the far Community Development agency which is at one government center Fall River Mass 6th floor on the uh room uh 633 and on the city of fall Rivers's Municipal website which is

www.all rer ma.gov on the Community Development agency Department page under the form section a summary of the proposed 5-year Consolidated plan the year one annual action plan will be published on February 26th 2025 in the Herold news local newspaper on the city of fall River's Municipal website and on the Fall River government television and local access Channel this summary describes the contents and

purpose of the plans and includes a list of the locations where copies of the entire proposed plan may be examined the full draft plan will be made available for public review at the office of the for Community Development agency the city's clerk's office the main public library and on the city of for Rivers Municipal website if citizens or groups request a copy of the Draft plans the C will provide a number of

free copies to them another public hearing has been scheduled for March 12th 20125 at 5:30 p.m. here in the city council chamber to afford residents the opport Unity to review and comment on the proposed plans residents will have until March 31st 2025 to submit comments All statements received during this period will be considered in the development of the city of for's 5year Consolidated plan and year one annual

action plan a summary of comments and Views received from residents of the community in writing or orally at the public hearings and a summary of any comments or views not accepted shall be included with the final plans residents are also encouraged to view the city of Fall River citizens participation plan which is published on the municip municipal website according to the submission timetable copies of the plan

and perent relative uh information materials will be submitted to the city council by April of 2025 the city council will consider enactment of a resolution authorizing in mayor Paul E Coogan to file the Consolidated plan and year one annual action plan with the US Department of Hud honor about May 7th 2025 year 51 of the for of Community Development block grant program year 34 of the home investment partnership

program and year 39 of the emergency Solutions grant program are scheduled to begin July 1 2025 the city of for anticipates receiving approximately 2,584 th000 for eligible cdbg program activities 1,100,000 for home program activities and 231,000 for the ESG program activities this estimation assumes the city will be level funded for the upcoming program year Federal Regulations require that citizens be

provided with information concerning the amounts of funds that will be made available and the range of activities that may be undertaken this and additional information was furnished in display advertisements in the following locations the for Harold News Local access cable television the city of for municipal website and are contained in the materials provided tonight uh in the

hearing at the signing table the format of this public hearing will be allow uh to allow participants the opportunity to express their views on on the city's Housing and Community Development needs the needs of the homeless strategies for affirmative for furthering fair housing program performance and to submit requests for funding and prepared statements will be accepted persons

wishing to speak have been asked to sign a separate signin sheet and will be called to testify each speaker should State his or her name and address and and if appropriate the agency or organization represented so before we begin tonight's proceedings and testimony I would like to acknowledge the following statements or requests for funding that have been received by the for of Community Development agency we

have received a uh um uh letter from uh our Council on Aging requesting funding we've also received uh uh information from People Incorporated the preschool behavioral Focus services and also received our correspondence from the Fall River Community Housing Resource Board which is a chto and a developer of affordable housing in the city of Fall River so we will start our uh um public

hearing off tonight with our first public speaker um which is Megan sturk she is the president and CE CEO of people Incorporated please come down

anywhere you can sit anywhere the mic yes all right let do it good evening everyone I apologize a little under the weather here but meger People Incorporated right over here at for South Main Street in Fall River uh the People Incorporated preschool serves follow children age 2.9 to six on a full day year round schedule a significant portion of the families we serve are experiencing a range of social

socioeconomic stressors including housing instability food insec foster care placement and exposure to adverse childhood experiences these conditions often manifest in young children as disregulated Behavior emotional distress and developmental delays necessitating targeted and specialized interventions to support their growth and wellbeing People Incorporated is requesting 35,000 of fiscal year 26 cdbg funding to

continue the services of full-time Early Childhood behavioral and clinical support Specialists this funding helps us to support full-time Early Childhood behavioral and clinical support Specialists who address the distinct needs of children requiring tailored behavioral and emotional guidance it bolsters bolsters the collaboration with Community Partners including the Department of Children and Families for

public schools family therapists and pediatricians to ensure a Continuum of Care and consistency and the interventions and support provided to children and their families The Specialist responsibilities include designing and implementing individualized Behavior Support plans grounded in evid evidence-based practices to address the specific needs of the children impacted by trauma chronic stress and instability uh

coordinating with external service providers to integrate care strategies and maintain alignment across home schools and clinical settings and engaging parents caregivers Educators and administrators since assuming operation of the preschool program from the city of Fall River in 2014 thank you Mike uh people incorporate has cultivated a program that prioritizes inclusion developmental support and family

engagement a 2022 Community needs assessment highlighted a critical shortfall in early Ed capacity for fall River's youngest Learners while the city is home to approximately 3,500 children Age 3 to 5 based on the 2020 US Census existing programs can only accommodate 2,000 children leaving a gap of 1500 preschool slots to address this urgent need People Incorporated is expanding our capacity in a new facility opening

this fall to serve more than 200 children including infants and todders we remain committed to addressing the increasing behavioral social emotional environmental changes within our community to assist children and their families thank you thank you so much thank you m um next speaker is Grace gin who's representing um CD Recreation she's the executive director greater Fall River Recreation

committee Incorporated I'm sorry that's okay o CD rack I know what a CD comes yes Grace ging executive director of Greater Fall River Recreation located at 45 Rock Street um I have a letter for you Mr Dion happy New Year everyone thank you Happy New Year um greater Fall River Recreation is respectfully requesting continued funding from uh cda's Community Development block grant for the upcoming

fiscal year 517 our agency H is very grateful for the support that we have received uh from CDA which has allowed us to provide affordable programs and free events to the city of Fall River in our greater Fall River Community for 50 years this past year Recreation was able to transform a room in our old in the Old cour Courthouse um which is a brand new uh F and fully furnished Community Kitchen our staff

and in-house organizations have been able to utilize it for educational programming throughout the year uh each year we we we strive to create new programs um and uh we're happy to be able to um offer uh um this uh culinary program to our um Outreach uh students Recreation continues to provide approximately 100 direct service programs and um as well as over 30 special events annually uh each year the

demographics in our service uh area continually change as our City's population grows steadily Recreation uh remained has remained committed to providing opportunities such as the highet education program a very popular sailing program and the USDA summer lunch program uh this past summer we provided over 75,000 meals to youth ages 18 years and younger throughout the uh entire summer uh this is only one of the many

powerful examples showing the immense need for the for this program to support our City's youth uh another very popular program that we offer at Recreation is our outreach program um that continues uh to grow every year um this past year we serviced 220 at risk youth um and the main focus of that is uh Community gang violence and gun violence prevention um we also um one of our newer uh Outreach

programs is are safe spaces at wreck which is uh essential services to the lgbtq youth um providing them uh a safe non-judgmental and nurturing environment at um at our facility uh continue we continue to recognize the great demand for affordable programming cdbg funding has ensured that citizens of all abilities and income levels have access to recreational cultural educational and wellness opportunities

um in our our past fiscal year we served 1586 participants approximately 87% met Huds income guidelines for lowincome families uh we are also able to provide scholarships and discounts to eligible families given the opportunity to participate in the programs that they may not otherwise be able to afford on behalf of recreation board of directors um we are eager to continue providing an

inclusive and culturally welcoming center for the entire Community once again I would like to thank the Community Development agency under your great leadership Mr Dion and our mayor Paul Coogan for recognizing the vital role our agency plays in the well-being of Fall River residents thanks Grace appreciate it appreciate it and happy New Year yes um next speaker is Stephanie manine

who's representing the YMCA um I won't give her a title because I don't know it and I think it's changed so thank you Mike thank you hi everyone Stephanie manini senior executive director for the YMCA South Coast overseeing forer and Swansea thank you so much for the opportunity to apply for the Community Development block grant once again um uh follow YMCA 199 North Main Street excuse me uh YMCA South

Coast is seeking funding from the community Dev development block grant for the Fall River ym st's educational achievement Center program within our child care center our after school program uh which has grown immensely over the past few years uh the Fall River y has been serving the greater Fall River area since 1857 we are committed to strengthening our community Through Youth Development healthy living

and social responsibility it is that commitment to our community that gave us the initiative to complete the 11 million revitalization project that is now almost 10 years ago um of which $5 million was dedicated to child care programming including the EAC so the EAC was piled with our Afterschool Child Care Program to promote growth and development for All Fall River residents the goal is to address the academic

disparities among underprivileged students in their peers by providing quality of school Time pro programming for Fall River elementary and early middle school youth in addition to that YMCA offers variety of programming in the area of Health and Wellness cancer survivor programs and um and food insecurity program since the pandemic uh prior to 2020 the EAC was providing after school enrichment program to an

average of 150 students um throughout the school year and 75 to 100 during the summer learning loss program all children enrolled receive a free YMCA family membership which is the equivalent of uh $900 annually membership includes a variety of traditional programming including Aquatics group exercise Youth Sports and More um the goal of our education achievement Center within our in our

after school program is to provide programming that focuses on enrichment and steam projects Steam and stem projects to support our children that may require extra assistance we have serviced hundreds of children between ages 5 and 12 throughout the program's lifespan we have the potential to enroll up to 169 during the school year year and upwards of of 160 during the summer months 160 170 we do anticipate meeting

this goal uh we're respectfully requesting $25,000 to support the continuation of the Fall River wise EAC programming within our child care center um and I just want to thank you for your time and M hugan as well um and that letter is for you awesome thank you so much thank you for coming now thank you aome our next speaker is representing stepping stone her name is Rosa Medeiros and again um I think

it's director of homeless uh or coordinator of homeless services or hello um yep Rosa Medeiros the director of homeless services and peer Services as well at stepping stone and um my office is located at the Shel the first steping shelter at 13 before dery street so Mike please let this letter serve as the remarks for my public um for tonight and Huds emergency solution uh funds are vital to bridge

our homeless population from homelessness to self-sufficiency that's the ultimate goal our agency's commitment to the homeless population is strong and our goal is to have an impact in this community breaking the cycle of homelessness and increasing the selfworth of this needy population result resulting in healthy proud members to this city however this past year the numbers of homeless individuals Calling daily

for shelter have tripled um the economy has hit this community hard and we are seeing more young adults firsttime homeless individuals coming to US veterans and Elders are in need of shelter and um in addition to that this year in particular there's a whole slew of different individuals coming indiv idual who cannot afford their rent so poverty is causing a lot of new homeless and I don't know that we'll ever find

the solution to that um however um in 2023 the first St been began operating um the shelter Services here in Far River we opened with eight male beds um that first year we identified that we needed female beds as well and we added six female shelters at that time we collaborated with the Salvation Army to provide the winter overflow at their gym when that was no longer available the Community Stepping Stone and First

Baptist Church worked together and Prov and began to provide winter overflow just at First Baptist that was no longer enough and then we looked together towards the faith-based organization and started um hopping from church to church so that we can accommodate the need the need just seems to continue growing and growing and um after that um we decided you know what we need more shelter beds

as well so we went from the Salvation Army to First Baptist to shelter beds uh to um to the uh beds over at um the a bunch of churches to thinking we need to expand and we then um relocated our shelter from North Main Street to 134 dery where we relocated our 20 beds in the hopes to to get to 50 but the goal was to have those additional 30 beds to

cover all that winter overflow the first winter as you know we filled them and we had carts all over the waiting area and soon realized the need was yet not met so then of course came the Tomato Center and the Tomato Center came to our rescue this year um we're able to every year you seem to just keep adapting to the need and this year we have the 50 beds

for the winter the 30 overflow and we've also been able to access some funding for some um motels in the severest uh weather and emergency situations so basically um I just I as you can see all the efforts our community has made in the past 26 years that we've worked side by side with CDA um in this city are just never enough to keep up with the factors that cause homelessness especially poverty today I

respect Phil just request um level funding of the 54,000 to continue our mission in changing lives um we have expanded and expanded without asking for increases because we know the sources here are valuable to this community I look forward to working closely with you and hope to and hope um that you support the first step uh that your support for the first step Shel uh step in shelter

continues together we have made a great difference in this community and I hope that we can continue to do that thank you thanks Rosa thank you so much we have made a difference definitely thank you uh our next speaker I know his title it's Jeffrey bacon it's the for River fire chief for representing the for River fire

department thank you Mike you're welcome my name is Jeffrey b as you said I am the chief of the the for fire department and I just want to um uh just say the impact that funds through CDA have had on the fire department and in return on the citizens of Fall River the safety of the citizens of this city is in direct correlation to the funds that we've received through your organization Through The Years uh

when people see fire trucks new fire trucks on the road that represents safe firefighters but it also represents funds that we would not have to be able to run a safe number of firefighters and pay for the salaries and benefits of firefighters that would have to go to apparatus so your funds have have helped us in so many ways and um and one of the things that I would like to put in for

this year I'm going to ask for about $100,000 um to uh to help us purchase new equipment tools and Technology to keep firefighters safe and to make their job more efficient when I look at my budget uh I have roughly a million dollars annually that I have at my that do not go to personnel and benefit costs that I have to use to pay for fuel for the trucks to pay for repairs to pay to

heat the stations and to pay for tools and appliances for the firefighters and largely we use outdated equipment um that that maybe it's 20 to 25 years old but with the advances in technology even in the Last 5 Years between lithium ion batteries and uh and computer systems there is technology out there that will make every firefighter's job safer and more efficient which is a huge benefit

to the citizens of Fall River so I hope uh I thank you for what you've done for uh the Fall River fire department what you and I hope that we can continue to work together to ensure the safety of the citizens of the city definitely thank you thank you so much um I really appreciate you coming down um is that it for speakers for this evening do we have anybody else that

would wish to speak I take it no so um I want to close the public hearing at this time I want to thank you for all uh for everyone for coming out and I just want to remind everyone um that the RFS are requests for funding are due um in my office no later than uh January 22nd 2025 um you could get those uh um you can get it tonight at at the signing

table and also you can get it um from my office and you can also get it from the uh uh Municipal website so uh if you have a need for that please reach out to me um again they're due January 22nd 2025 and with that I will close the public heing and thank you for all attending have a good night