Recap: April 16 Community Meeting
Sandy Hostetter, the Vice President of Asset Development with Lift Orlando, opened the meeting at 6:02 PM, explaining that she is here as a partner with City of Orlando and Orlando Housing Authority. This is the first community meeting and the first of many opportunities to get together so we can develop an amazing plan. The most important partner in this is the residents in the community. We can’t do anything without the community.
Sandy Hostetter introduced Bakari Burns City of Orlando Commissioner District 6. He described that he sees three parts to this: the people, process and the plan, and emphasized the importance of ensuring any discussion that we have must involve the people. The people must be involved. The process must be transparent so that everyone is aware of what's happening and the plan must reflect the desires of the people who will be impacted. He encouraged the group to come back and stay involved. He also discussed the need for accountability and that we hold our leaders accountable, our developing partners and hold each other accountable. He encouraged everyone to call their neighbors, cousins and friends and encourage them to come to the meetings and be involved in the process.
Sandy Hostetter encouraged everyone to fill out the contact card and mark specific areas of interest.
Vivian Bryant from Orlando Housing Authority (OHA) welcomed the group. She explained that OHA just had a grand opening in Sanford where they have been able to implement their Choice Neighborhoods Plan. OHA has been managing the Sanford housing authority for 13 years and demolished all of the housing and rebuilt it. This process will be similar, and we start out asking the residents what they want, how they feel about their neighborhood and what they'd like to see, and then the working groups start planning. There may be things the community wants that just aren’t possible when we work with the architect and the designers to complete the plan. We also must take the plan to the City of Orlando, and they adopt that plan and after the city adopts the plan and includes in their plans going forward, then we go for federal funds when we submit it to HUD. Ms. Bryant also acknowledged the OHA staff and residents who were present. This process helps improve the neighborhood but also the housing stock by providing housing that is quality and affordable. And the priority is to make sure the households that we serve are able to take advantage of the change. After the plan is complete, we can apply for a 50 million dollar grant to implement the plan. We have to work hard, and think big. We want a plan that absolutely transforms the neighborhood.
Sandy Hostetter reviewed The Choice program requirements and what we are expected to do. It is a three part plan, Housing, People and Neighborhood. Replace the units 1:1, and introduce a range of housing affordability and create mixed income housing not on the same site. In this case we have 314 units and must add 315 to be competitive for the 50 million.
There were 8,000 applicants for 200 units when Pendana opened. Housing cost is outrageous right now and there are 17 units for every 100 families that need affordable housing in the area.
The People plan will support residents at the sites through education, health, employment and income and housing stability. Just replacing housing doesn’t transform a community. These are the types of things that transform communities.
The Neighborhood plan addresses the surrounding community. And can be things like old transformers, public safety, loss of power, updated services will all go into the plan.
We have two years to create this plan. We need your input. Take the survey. Lorna Doone is no longer serving the residents who live there and it needs to come down. Lake Mann Homes is a family property.
Sandy Hostetter reviewed the Choice Grant Governance, explaining that we have a nationwide consultant called EJP who works on these applications and their expertise was a big part of the reason that we won the Planning grant. She explained that she was shocked that we won on the first try because that is pretty rare. The Strategic Advisory Group (SAG) is comprised of residents, community members, and business leaders. In order to win 50 million we have to show that we can raise about 150 million, which we can do. We will talk about the surveys in a little, and getting a 20% response rate from the whole footprint. Working groups have not yet been formed. We know we’ll also have to create groups to address certain issues, and participants are encouraged to fill out the card on the table to indicate areas of interest.
Resident Jonathan Blount requested a list of SAG members as well as a budget breakdown.
Sandy Hostetter explained that EJP receives the bulk of the money because they create the plan and there’s $100,000 for early action activities. The total planning cost is 1.8 million. OHA contributed $250,000, Lift and City of Orlando also contributed $250,000. Jonathan Blount indicated that he doesn’t understand if we need community input for the plan why the community won’t be compensated. And why, if HUD is giving money for the plan, why the money won’t be distributed to the community.
Vivian Bryant explained that the residents in the community will benefit by the neighborhood being improved and that when the Sanford plan happened they never gave checks to residents. Timothy Ayers explained that what this is about is soliciting input for a plan and then applying for a 50 million.
Ms. Bryant explained that we have 2 years to create an actionable idea to create a wow plan and then apply for the 50 million. We think we’ve got a good chance to win it. Coming up with a good idea. Even if we don’t win, the city will adopt the plan created so we will still work towards implementing it.
A Resident asked a question about How the focus area was created and who was instrumental in determining the boundaries
Sandy Hostetter explained that when we started, we wanted to do Lake Mann Homes, Lorna Doone Apartments and Murchison Terrace. The focus has to be on the public housing and then you choose your community around it and when we met with the consultant, we learned it was too many units and we wouldn’t have won the grant. So we did Lake Mann and Lorna Doone and decided to apply with an application that would win. Ms. Bryant explained that the Lake Mann Homes residents know that they have tried three times to obtain grants to rebuild Lake Mann Homes and weren’t funded. OHA hasn't stopped trying, it took three tries to be able to build in Sanford.
There was a question from a resident if this grant is part of the 355 billion from Biden. Ms. Bryant responded that it is not - and it’s a HUD choice neighborhoods grant.
Resident Lawanna Gelzer questioned the map boundaries that were drawn and explained that if we could have expanded the boundaries of people at the table it could increase our ability to win the $50 million grant. She believes she should be reaching out to partners outside of the boundaries.
Sandy Hostetter explained that we do have partners from outside the boundaries and some of them are on the Strategic Advisory Group.
Andres Florez, Lift Orlando’s Data Manager described the Flourishing Neighborhood Index. There are two components, parcel mapping and a community survey. The parcel mapping will give us lots of data to use for the application for the 50 million and the community survey is a comprehensive survey that covers a variety of topics in 45 minutes. The community survey is currently underway and our goal is 600 surveys which will represent 20% of the community.
Resident Antoinette Giles mentioned that HUD’s website covers the types of items the grant funding can be used for and that everyone can visit that site for more information.
Sandy Hostetter covered the grant timeline (see Timeline Slide). She also mentioned that there will be a trip to Tampa on May 6th. We have also partnered with the University of Central Florida who conducted the resident survey with the residents at Lake Mann Homes and Lorna Doone Apartments..
School Board Member and resident Vicki Felder stated that it’s important to her that the community is not renamed. During segregation when they had black people living off Bumby and they moved people of color to the west. Washington Shores has real historical value and a lot of times with gentrification, that all goes away. I’m hoping it doesn’t become the West Lakes community. We are proud of Washington shores. She is in favor of renovation and new activity but doesn't want the name changed.
Sandy Hostetter thanked her for her passionate comments about the important legacy of all the communities represented in the room. She stressed that all our residents are proud of their communities, exactly the same as what Ms. Felder said and that we need to preserve and honor all of those communities. Our work here is to simply name the Choice effort and our coming together for the good of the broader community.
Resident Jonathan Blount stated that we was part of the first plan for Parramore in 1995. And mentioned the Creative Village project, he said that black people don’t own anything and black people aren’t representative. He stated that he is looking for economic justice. Black people don’t own anything in Lift Orlando. He wants to be a part of the Pendana project and own it. So that the children’s children have a leg to stand on.
Sandy Hostetter stated that we would like to offer home ownership.
Jonathan Blount said that those are the crumbs from the table. He stated that OHA owns all of the housing.
Vivian Bryant explained that OHA doesn’t own the land, HUD owns the land. Unless they do a partnership, HUD has a declaration of trust. She explained that public housing residents pay 30% of their income in rent and that’s not enough to even maintain the housing The only additional funding they get comes from Congress. OHA can’t raise the rent to cover operating costs so they do the best they can with the funding they have. They have to operate within the bounds we have. She encouraged everyone to vote for someone who will give us the funds we need. She also said that the 50 million can have some economic development in it. Mr. Blount requested that they’re a part of ownership and stated that we always give input and our time and don’t own any of it.
Sandy Hostetter encouraged Mr. Blount to stay involved and help us figure out a way we may make that happen. She also pointed out that part of pur plan will most certainly contain some sort of retail/small business effort for locally owned business leaders already operating within this community. And all of our work to develop and redevelop homes within this footprint should raise the values of all real estate and the net worth of the resident homeowners simultaneously.
Sandy Hostetter closed by encouraging the residents to take the surveys, volunteer and attend our community engagement activities and participate in our work groups. The meeting ended at 7:25 pm.