Minutes Housing Commission 8 28 07MINUTES OF HOUSING COMMISSION MEETING
DATE: 28 August 2007
TIME: 4:00 pm
PLACE: Housing and Community Development Department
1805 Central Avenue, Dubuque, IA 52001
Commissioner Kapler called the meeting to order at 4:05 pm following staff assurance of compliance with
Iowa Open Meeting Law.
Commissioners Present: Dorothy Culberston Dave Kapler Angela Mozena
John Plein Bill Helling Dorothy Schwendinger, OSF
Char Eddy Linda Frommelt Judie Root
Commissioners Absent: Jim Holz Char Eddy
Staff Present: David Harris Janet Walker Tami Ernster
Angela Daniel .
Judie Root was welcomed as a new Commissioner.
David expressed his appreciation for Dave Kapler, Char Eddy and Sr. Dorothy Schwendinger for agreeing
to remain on the Commission.
Review and Certification of Minutes of 26 June 2007 Commission Meeting
Commissioner Plein moved to approve the 26 June 2007 Housing Commission meeting minutes.
Commissioner Helling seconded. Roll call. Commissioner Mozena abstained. All others present in favor.
Motion passed.
Correspondence/Public Input
David received a thank you note from a woman who was the first recipient of our assistance at the
Manasseh House.
Commissioner Mozena requested that the mission and goals of the Commission be reviewed occasionally,
so that Commissioners are reminded as to why they are here.
Old Business
HUD Voucher Program Funding FY2007
The budget for the current fiscal year was received in August. The current fiscal year began January 1,
2007. There were small increases in housing assistance. Administrative fees were increased by $22,000
and housing assistance was increased by $29,000.
HUD Voucher Reform Act
The FY08 Bill is in Congress. Information was provided in the packet from a website. The information
compared the existing program with the proposed changes. Some of these proposals include:
• Increasing the asset limit to $100,000. This will not affect our program as we do not have any
wealthy clients.
• Changing the reexamination period. Reviews are currently performed every 12 months. The
proposal is to review after the first year and then a different review period can be chosen.
• Changes in the definition of what income is determined as.
• Deductions -increases for elderly, disabled and persons with dependents.
• Performing inspections every two years instead of one.
• Portability -require the receiving PHA to absorb the voucher. This would relieve the pressure of
losing vouchers to other PHAs.
These are all current proposals currently under discussion. There will be changes to this list.
New Business
Resignation of Rachel Savage
The copy of the resignation letter was included in the packet.
Section 8 Fiscal Year 2007 Close Out Report
This is a work in progress. There are new regulations on how to file the report. There will be an update at
the next meeting.
SEMAP Report for 2007
The information is based on an audit performed by Janet. This information is electronically submitted to
HUD. All of the appropriate materials were in the files and Janet was able to affirmatively answer all of the
questions. HUD then takes the leasing data and adds scoring data. We were at 95% last year which was
"standard." We are at 96% this year. We did not make the "high performer" occupancy requirements for
2006, but we will make the numbers in 2007.
Request for Appeal from Katie McCann
When it was time for Ms. McCann to provide her annual verification information, she did not follow through
as she was receiving a small amount of assistance. She felt that should would be able to absorb this
amount on her own. When Ms. McCann took on afull-credit college load, she cut back on her hours and
has now found that she cannot afford to make her payments. Currently, she is being held from reapplying
until 2008. She is requesting a hearing to allow an earlier application. Had she terminated instead, there
would have been no penalty. She did not feel it would matter at the time. Commissioner Helling moved to
approve Ms. McCann's request for appeal. Commissioner Schwendinger seconded. Roll call.
Commissioners Kapler, Frommelt, Helling and Schwendinger voted to approve. Commissioners
Culbertson, Plein, Root, and Mozena voted to deny. Motion failed.
As Ms. McCann had not received written notice of the meeting until Monday, it was decided to allow Ms.
McCann an opportunity to attend the next meeting to allow her to state her case.
Information Sharing
Federal Building Open House
The Federal Building Open House is scheduled for September 17th. All Commissioners are invited to
attend. David will forward details as soon as they are available.
Iowa League of Cities Conference
This conference will be held 26-28 September, 2007. All Commissioners are invited and encouraged to
attend as this conference will be held in Dubuque. Costs will be covered with our training budget. There
will be a panel presentation on the Washington Neighborhood Revitalize program. There will also be a 3
hour bus tour of the Washington Neighborhood.
Adjournment
There being no further business to come before the Commission, the meeting was adjourned at 5:05 pm.
Minutes taken by:
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Tami Ernster
Lead Paint Assistant
Respectfully submitted by:
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D vid Harris
Department Director