Danbury Housing Partnership
155 Deer Hill Avenue
Danbury, Connecticut 06810
Minutes of July 1, 2010
Present: M. Nolan, C. Sistrunk, D. Valeri, D.
Channing, P. Scalzo, M. Morgado, W. Payton, M. Sangut, S. Dobrotka
Absent: D. Deschenes, S. Zaborowski, D.
Elpern, D. Filgate, E. Lima, M. McLachlan, T. Medve, Hon. Judge Yamin, C. Barrows, W. Shepperd
Guests: David Moulton, Neighborhood Housing
Services of Waterbury
William Rybczyk, New Opportunities
The meeting of the Danbury Housing Partnership was held in
Danbury City Hall, City Council Caucus Room, on July 1, 2010. Chairman Mark Nolan called the meeting
to order at 3:10pm.
A motion to accept the minutes of May 6, 2010 was made by M.
Nolan, seconded by C. Sistrunk, passed unanimously and placed on file.
There was no public comment.
Mr. Nolan reported that the Danbury Housing Partnership
annual report was submitted to the City Council. Copies of the report have been distributed to all committee
members. Anyone who has not
received a copy can request one from the Partnership Chair or Secretary.
Carolyn had assured accuracy of all provided information from each of the
committee’s with the assistance of Paul Schierloh. Mr. Nolan will be submitting the Annual Report at the next
Council meeting scheduled for Wednesday, July 7, 2010.
The letters to all the banks requesting a support and a
donation in the amount of $1500.00 towards the Housing Partnership breakfast
and more importantly, the underwriting for Project Homeless Connect was
recently distributed. The
breakfast is a public relation and initiative to get people to understand what
the Partnership message regarding homelessness and the need to assist the less
fortunate in our community. The
Housing Authority is assisting with many of the upfront costs, but the majority
of the funds obtained from the Partnership breakfast will assist Project
Homeless Connect and the increase number of individuals that they will service on
that particular day.
Mr. Nolan also informed the Partnership members that
requests were made to the Veteran Administration for project based vouchers for
Vet House II. We have secured the
site and are progressing with an application for further funding that will be utilized
in the beginning of 2011.
The guest speaker for this month’s Partnership meeting is
David Moulton from Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury. Mr. Moulton is working in the Danbury
region, which includes areas from Waterbury to the Torrington district,
including Danbury to the Derby area.
Mr. Moulton also indicated that there may be a name change from
Waterbury to Western Connecticut. Within the last year in a half many referrals
from the Danbury area were sent to Neighborhood Housing Services for some type
of assistance.
Neighborhood Housing Services of Waterbury is a 30 year old
Non-Profit housing agency. The
concept of this agency was to originally assist the inner City area of
Waterbury. Since both the
territory and the mission have increased, Neighborhood Services is trying to
help people obtain housing as well as to sustain housing. To this date, over 1370 inquiries have
been made, with the majority of requesting assistance with their home
mortgage. The basic concept of
Neighborhood Housing Service when someone contacts the agency is first a packet
of information will be emailed with a request of all information and documents
to be supplied and returned as soon as possible. The packet of information is reviewed and various options and
scenarios are presented to the client.
Approximately 40% is the known success rate for sustaining mortgages for
clients. Neighborhood Housing Services
also provides first time homebuyers counseling, workshops and follow-up
information for their clients.
Information and brochures were offered to all Partnership
members. Mr. Moulton also
indicated that his agency would like to open an office, on a limited time
basis, in the Danbury area and is requesting assistance in finding available
office space. Recommendation was
made that perhaps Neighborhood Services could share office space with Housing
Development Fund and should contact Joan Carty for further information.
Mr. William Rybczyk from New Opportunities provided an
update on HPRP. January to March information data sheet was provided to all
members of the Partnership. More
information will be supplied at the next Partnership meeting to be held in
September. The data sheet
indicates that for the time period of January through the end of March, a little
under $20,000.00 was allocated for financial assistance that went out for
rental assistance, security deposit, and back utilities. 76 households were assisted during that
quarter. As the program became more known among the communities, more dollars
were allocated for those in need of housing assistance.
DSS security deposit guarantee program was closed after the
fourth week of May. Due to this
closure, many communities contacted New Opportunities for rent security
deposit. New Opportunities is also
stressing that assistance is in the form of prevention side rather than rapid
re-housing (77% to 23%). New
Opportunities was award the Housing First for Families contract for the
Danbury- Torrington region. Housing First for Families is a direct service side
for the homeless. The idea is to
link the homeless to services, such as landlords to take on some risk for
tenants who may not have the best record of tenancy. Again, the contract of Housing First is the ability to
utilize funds on the rapid re-housing component of HPRP. The initial target is to assist 12
families in Danbury, with the region target of 35 families, and the probability
of assisting another 30 families for the entire region of the course of 12
months.
HUD has let DSS know that a date to be in Connecticut to
monitor HPRP will be at the end of July.
Which programs are to be monitored is not known, but DSS has done self
monitoring of some HPRP programs.
Bill will be at the next Housing Partnership meeting on September 2nd
to provide continuous updated information on HPRP.
Denise Valeri reported and updated the Partnership on the
community breakfast which will take place on Thursday, October 7th
at the Amber Room. The details for
the breakfast are still being worked on with the Amber Room management team.
Save the Date information will be sent out and a list of potential recipients
of the Housing Partnership awards is being reviewed by the committee, along
with a potential budget for the breakfast. The guest speaker for the breakfast will be Diane Randall,
the Executive Director of the Partnership for Strong Communities and also a
Board of Directors for the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority.
Ms. Valeri commented on the opening of the local Farmer’s
Market on July 9th on the Kennedy Street green. Donations were made by the Housing
Authority and the Housing Partnership.
The Farmer’s Market will be matching dollar for dollar of WIC checks, senior’s
vouchers, Food Stamps, etc.
Fairfield Foundation has also donated $7,500.00 to assist the
Market. Health screening, food
demonstration, art work will be some of the items offered at the Farmer’s
Market. A draft press release is
in the works to give media attention to this summer event.
Committee reports
were provided to the Partnership members:
- Public Relations, Marketing and
Education Committee, Financial Resources and Fundraising Committee and
Social and Supportive Services Committee reports were already given.
- Housing and Community Development
Committee: Mr. Nolan
indicated that Chairperson Paul Scalzo is gathering information and
accessing available properties within the Danbury community and will place
such information on a map to be provided to the Partnership members. Bob Botelho is finishing the first
phase of a 4 phase development of supportive housing on Osborne and
Cleveland Street. There will
be four 3 bedroom town homes that are being completed that will be
supportive housing for the community. New Neighborhoods, John Kukulka, was a guest speaker
for the Housing Committee.
Mr. Kukulka indicated that he has left New Neighborhoods and our
committee will contact the new director.
Milena reported on the Continuum of Care on the NOFA,
housing stock and also starting to plan for Project Homeless Connect that will
be held on Friday, December 10th at Western Connecticut State
University. A Project Homeless
Connect video is being developed by David Deschenes of United Way and will be
ready for show at the Housing Partnership breakfast.
There was no old or new business to report. The next Danbury Housing Partnership
meeting will be held on Thursday, September 2nd at 3:00pm. A motion to adjourn was made by C.
Sistrunk, seconded by M. Nolan, passed unanimously.