Okay, the meeting is now being live stream on YouTube, Terry, I'm going to switch you back to the host and I'm praying that it goes well, okay, hold on. You know what? I wonder if I make you a co-host, do you still have the same authority? I think so. I think so. Okay, so make a co-host. Okay, try sharing your screen and bring up the agenda, please. Okay. Okay, let me bring up the agenda. And we're going to see the screen. Right, you see my agenda? No. See the agenda now? No. Okay, hold on. Okay, he's coming up now. There you go. You're good. All right, so you're good. So when you finish, just remember you want to go ahead and start to record. See if you can start the recording. The zone recording. All right, I'm going to start it now. Okay. You got it.  Okay. Thank you so much. And when you stop it, it automatically go into YouTube. Okay. All right, thanks so much. Thank you. Thank you, Juliet. You're welcome. Bye-bye. Now, Diane, I'm the latest Juliet. I'm going to try my best. I appreciate that. So you have the agenda. Do you have the ground rules as well? I have a hard copy. Oh, you do? Okay, great. And then I noticed there were two different DHA PowerPoints. I don't know if they're planning on using both. I see one Juliet sent one to me. Okay. There's a 31 megabyte one and a three megabyte. That she had sent out earlier in the week. Okay. She sent me this last night. So this is the one that. Okay. And you have the two other ones for later that we're going to present to council. Great. Thank you so much. Welcome. I can't get my headphones to work. So we'll just hope the dog doesn't bark. We'll be right back. Hi, Tiffany. Hi, Tiffany. Hello, everyone. Tiffany. I'm so tired. I'm not as good as Juliet. I'm going to do my best. I know you got it covered. Just give me a little grace. Absolutely. Terry, we think this meeting is going to be shorter than others. So that's good. I just stopped hyperventilating. And not Terry Charlie Reese and. Courtney James said they won't be with us tonight. Okay. Courtney James. And I usually try to track because a lot of times people will come in about five minutes late. And so. It's hard for me. To check back and see, but I tried to note who else has come in. Quick item. Diane, I just. Oh, this was the old one. Never mind. I think we're fine. I was opening the old presentation that had community development on it. So we're fine. Okay. Let me toss that one. And you see, I guess. You saw that work session will be virtual. So that's good. Yes. It's six o'clock. If it's okay, I'll go ahead and get started. Or do you want to wait a few more minutes? We can go ahead and get started. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order the affordable housing implementation committee. Meeting for Thursday, November 4th. It is 6pm. Thank you all for joining us. Terry Porter homes will help us with roll call this evening. Terry, do you want to go ahead? Sure. We will go through the roll call. If I mispronounce the name incorrectly, please. Give me grace. Okay. Stella James. Revan Barnes. And I can't see if. If you could just say present. And I'll know you here. Stella James. Revan Barnes. Laura Betty. Diane. I think I see Laura. I think I see Laura. I think I see Laura. I think I see her. Diane. I think I see Laura. Stella Adams is here. I'm sorry. Here for Diane. I got. Did we hear LeVon Barnes? Okay. Betty. Did I say Laura Betty? Present. Her screen is muted, but I see, I see her. Okay. Lucia. Constantine. That pronounced that correctly. Lucia. Lucia. Excuse me. No. That's Nicole. Here. Tiffany elder. Here. I job is Martin. Rita. Are McDaniel. Here. Thank you. John Parker. Here. Thank you. Dennis. Sanders. Here. Tiffany. Excuse me. Timothy Stallman. Angela D. Dick Lewis. Timothy put a note in the chat that he's here, but he's in a noisy space. So he can't speak up, but he did post in the chat. Thank you, Tiffany. Angela D. That is our roll call. Thank you, Terry. Okay. Next on the agenda is to review the agenda and the ground rules. Don't know if you can pull that up, Terry. So you want the agenda first. Sure. The agenda. Okay. Let me share my screen. Do you see my screen? I cannot. Not yet. Not yet. Okay. Now we have it. Thank you so much. Okay. So we'll briefly review the agenda and ground rules. We will approve minutes for both the revised minutes in September and the October minutes meeting minutes. Then we'll have a presentation from community development staff. And then we'll have a public comment. And then we'll have a meeting with the housing authority staff. And then Tiffany and I will review the proposed presentation to counsel the six month report for this committee. That's coming up on November 18th. We'll have some time for discussion. We'll briefly discuss stipends in person meetings. And the two vacancies on the committee. And then have public comment. Are there any changes to the agenda. Okay. Great. Thanks. Terry, can you pull up the grand rules, please? I can start running through them while you try to get them up, but the grand rules are to show respect for others and opinions. To presume goodwill. To be fully present. We'll have one speaker at a time for these virtual calls. Only the speaker will be unmuted to eliminate background noise. And please all participants remain muted until called upon. Please be brief in your questions or comments when we get to that. And committee members can raise their hand to speak using that. Either your actual hand and we'll try to see you or the raise hand feature at the bottom of your screen. Public. Sorry. Comments in the chat will be reviewed and addressed as feasible between meetings. The public comment line. We've actually struck from. This is a slightly older version. No worry. Please use specific examples and enjoy the process. Thank you so much. So. Next, Tiffany, do you want to do the approval of the minutes please? Sure. So this is for the minutes from our last October 7th meeting. Are there any requests for modifications to the minutes that were sent out? If not, do we have a motion to accept the minutes as. Presented. I move that we accept the minutes as presented. Second. All right. All in favor, please unmute or give a thumbs up and say aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed. Minutes finalized. Thank you. And Tiffany, do you want to do the revised November 1? Ah, yes. Do you want to cover or hold on? I need to pull that up unless you want to cover that. No, just at the last meeting, we had made revisions and approved them with changes, but we were told by the clerk's office that we actually had to approve a written. Amendment. And so those were sent out to you. Sometimes this week by Juliet. So we just want to reaffirm those. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Are those minutes from September 2nd? Yes, revised minutes. And the last thing that changed was the, there was a word self annexation that should be self attestation. And I believe that's now been fixed. And we will now move to. Community developments housing project with you. Actually, we still need to a motion and a second on the motion to approve the modification to the September minutes. Second. Thank you. All in favor. Hi. Hi. Any opposed. All right. Great. Okay. Terry just wanted to note that. LaVon Barnes is present. Thanks. And it is now time for the community development department. And we will now move on to the housing project review. Reginald. Thank you. Thank you very much. Reginald Johnson. Director of department of community development. My purpose today is to just share with you a recap. Update on projects. And presentation was shared with you. Early. I don't know, Terry. Are you able to show that on. Yes, I am working on that now. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. And so I would just say as she's doing that, that. You know, we talked about this. Now it's probably been in April after we first met. And so I just wanted to have the meeting with the co-chairs to thought it would be good to do a recap. Since we won't be meeting for a period of time. And we're doing the presentation to the, you know, we'll be doing a presentation to the council. So what my purpose is, is just to share with you and refresh you on the overall performance measures on forever home Durham. And so if you, what I'll do is just go through, I only have maybe three slides. So this will not take long at all. And so if you go to the first slide, next slide, Terry. This is the slide of the overall performance measures. You've seen this before. We've talked about it. These are the categories that we will be measuring our progress with. And you see it, I'll go down each one of them, but you'll see across the top that it'll, the goal and the number of units or people serve pipeline. Means that there's under in some form of development. I mean, we, we make, you know, maybe negotiating or it's under some type of review as we get ready to move into the next phase, which is under contract. Under contract means that they're an executed contract for this particular project. And then completed, of course, means just as it says, as it's completed. And then you have the total and the remaining, the balance remaining based upon the goal. And then you just go through the rental units created. The goal, if you will recall is 1600 units. And in the pipeline, that means we're having discussions in a different forms of stages in the development process, 482 units. And then under contract, these are units that are actually under contract. 82 and completed 82. The total is 646 and the balance remaining is 944. 954 for rental units preserved. The total is the goal is 800. And then the pipeline is 266 units. And the under contract is 225. Completed is 34 for a total of 525. With a balance remaining of 275. The home ownership opportunities created is gold is 400. And the pipeline is five under contract is one with a total of six and the balance of 394. Under homeless persons in permanent housing, the goal is 1700. We don't use pipelines and contracts for these categories, but completed is 837. Total 837 and the balance remaining 863. And low income households stabilized. The goal is 3000. And we've completed a 1090. Low income households with the balance remaining of 1,910. Those overall performance measures. Next slide. Thank you. And this may be hard for some to see, but we was shared with you. This is the detail on the affordable rental projects. I'm not going to go through each line, but if you have across the chart, you have the name of the project, the developer, the bond funding in the project, the total city funding in the project and the number of units. And then whether the unit type, this is where there's new construction or preservation. And then the project status. This means whether this in the, as we just discussed, whether this is in the pipeline under contract or completed. And so, I'm not going to go through each one of these, but you have these for your records, but I'll just use the first couple of Brian place, which is 272 over to North Duke street. The developer is Casa. The bond funding is $2,198,000. And 200, 200, got tongue tied. 2,198,821 dollars in bond funding. And that's the total city funding. And it's for 16 units in its new construction. 702 and 704 grand street, the developers DCLT. We haven't appropriated any money for that one, but that'll be two units. That's under contract. Now those have not been completed. A lot of the funding that we have here, that's particularly with bond funding. We've not had any expenditures because even though it's under, some are under contract expenditures have not just deterred yet because of where it is in the development. Construction process, but most certainly, you know, as we go into next year, we'll be seeing these numbers in terms of expenditures also, and not just allocations. So next slide. Activities, not included as part of the forever home Durham plan. So they have other work that we do, but it's not part of the forever home Durham, affordable housing plan. And number one among those is a COVID-19 response. This specifically includes the homelessness response programs funded by the federal emergency funds. That was totaling $6.9 million. The emergency rental assistance funded for federal emergency funds, 16.2 million of the COVID-19 response programs with economic and workforce development in the city. And during public schools, we have a partnership with both of those institutions. That's totaled about 1.1 and a half million. And emergency operating assistance for affordable housing developers. This is where we did allocate some funding for some of our affordable housing developers to help them through as part of the COVID response. That's not included. And then we have some affordable housing investments that are funded by the federal emergency funds. This was funded by the federal emergency fund. It was outside of scope for the forever home Durham, but we of course did the nonetheless. One was the funding for the emergency electrical pass at Durham Housing Authority, McDoogle terrace apartments. 1.4 million. And the other is option agreement. And this is the first time that we did something like this option agreement with the scrap exchange for future And so that's just a recap of where we are as we go into the period of time and go into next year and just want to refresh everybody on that. So if there are any questions, I'd be glad to take them. Thank you. Well, I have a comment, kind of like a question, if that's okay. Oh, really? Reginald, I think it was a really good overview. And I think as you present, give the presentation, I hope you a lot, a lot of time because there'll be a lot of questions about all the different topics. But I think it's a great start. I don't want to get into grilling you on stuff because you're going to have to do that before the full council. But I think you did a real good job. Oh, well, thank you. Thank you so very much. And I'll tell you this, to the extent you have detailed questions as we get ready for our presentations, when we come back next year, I can be better prepared for the next meeting and be glad to go to a particular level of detail in any of these projects. Well, I think it's a great overview. Oh, thank you. Any other questions? Yeah. Oh, Stella, please go ahead. Yeah. Um, Reginald, um, as you know, I'm really interested and concerned about the minority women, um, economic, you know, how are we spending that money and keeping that money in, in, um, minority women, um, businesses, um, you have the amount that has been committed. You have the amount that has been a total amount for the city. But again, um, we don't have the spend and what percentage of the spend has been with women and minority owned as well as, um, um, local small businesses. When are we going to get that data? We will have that data as part of the report. When the, uh, uh, firm, you know, UMC NC makes their report next year. We talked about that at the last meeting. Uh, and also in terms of expenditures, remember we, these are committed funds, but I was just saying the actual money hasn't been, uh, for a lot of them hadn't been spent yet. That's the reason we don't have, uh, the expenditure has been committed, but the money has not been spent yet, expended. I'm just concerned that by the time we get a report, um, the projects will be, um, halfway completed and we won't have met any of our goals. And that's my concern that if we wait until next year, that's too far into the process to, um, to make sure that we're meeting our goals. And so I hope that you and your staff are, are letting contractors and developers know that that is a major issue, um, and a major, um, commitment that they need to be making. I'm going to say it every meeting. I know we talked about it last meeting. I'm going to say it every meeting until I get a number. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Stella. We do hope to have them presenting in January when we meet next. Um, Reginald, can you say any more about the, um, I know that Willard Street is the primary number of rental units created and that DCLT and Laurel Oaks are the rental units preserved. Can you say something more about the, um, the numbers for homeless, impermanent housing and also low income housing stabilized, the over 1000 units? Oh, I'll ask Karen Lotto to add a little bit about these. Sure. Um, good evening Karen Lotto, community development. So the homeless, I'm going to start with you. The homeless, um, persons placed in permanent housing, um, as part of our homeless system, so take us back. We as the city of Durham are the, um, administrator for the continuum of care where this, um, which is the homeless system for Durham County. Um, as part of that, we, um, submit to HUD an annual report of all of the outcomes in our system.  Um, so once a year, we have a number, we have that report, HUD takes our data, they, they analyze it, they may, they may clean it up, they did further. We get a final report for our system. And in that it includes data for number of persons who entered, um, emergency shelter and were placed into permanent housing, number of persons who entered rapid rehousing, which is a rental assistance program that were placed into permanent housing and number of households who, um, were placed, um, into permanent supportive housing. The combination of that number is what we report here. Um, so that is persons placed into some form of permanent housing. And we update that number once a year because we're doing our, we're using our system statistics once they are approved by HUD. Um, the second number, household stabilized is a combination of several programs. It is eviction diversion. That's the largest number of people. It is households who, um, receive rental assistance or either a voucher or short-term rental assistance through the HAPA program, the housing opportunities for persons with, um, with HIV AIDS. Um, and it is, uh, people who, um, receive assistance, either a minor repair or a substantial rehab. So it's the combination of all those numbers. And we update that, um, typically on a quarterly basis. Great. Thank you so much. Any other questions for any of the community developments down? Okay. Well, thank you all. Um, in that case, we'll now, uh, move to Durham housing authority, uh, property updates. Anthony, is that you? Yes. So good, good evening, everyone. And thank you again for an opportunity to come before you all. And if you could pull up our presentation. So we're going to cover, uh, two, two primary things. One, uh, to talk about where we are with the, um, emergency rental assistance efforts that we've made over the last several months, and we'll talk about our developments as well. And Anthony Snell, we'll take over the development discussion to give you updates there. Next slide, please. Next. So if you all recall the, uh, the last time we were here, we talked about what our efforts have been over the past several months to try to get as many of our public housing residents to apply for their emergency rental assistance funds that were being administered by the department of social services. Uh, we had about 700 families that were behind in their rent. Um, and we, um, knocked on doors. We, we did emails. We did phone calls and social media, we did everything we could, um, to do outreach to all of those 700 families. Uh, we are still doing so. Uh, you also may recall that, that DSS has paused on the first round of ERAP dollars. So, um, with that pause, the number of families that we were able to submit for, um, for assistance was 357. The total amount we requested was over $650,000. And so far DHA has received, uh, almost 160,000 of what we applied for. So DSS is continuing to process those, uh, requests of the 650, some thousand dollars. Um, and so we are hopeful that all of those funds will in fact be received or the DSS has enough to cover that. Uh, we are also, uh, gearing up now to make a big push for the other roughly 350 or so families that are still outstanding with their rents. Um, and so that's our biggest scare when our biggest challenge as to why we haven't reached, we have not gotten the interest from the other 350 or so families, we're continuing to push that effort. Um, our housing stability specialist team, which was hired in June and put into place. We're now kind of cleaning up some of our, our work that was done prior previously, you know, making notes and what have you and, and trying to push around another strategy is maybe a little different than what we've done thus far, but we're going to continue to do that outreach. I should also note that there are, uh, uh, of the roughly 700 families, the total amount is about almost a million dollars. I think I think it's actually gotten over a million since we did a final calculation of that money. There's about 200,000 or so that is not even eligible for the ERAP program. And that's because those were families that were behind in their rent prior to the official designation of the pandemic. So as part of our outreach efforts, we're also reaching out to those families around those funds. Some of the folks that owe prior to the pandemic also owe during the pandemic. So they're getting some relief via what you see here to 357 others that may not be the case. So we're, we're, we're going through all of that. In either case, though, um, again, the most important thing is for our families to, uh, connect with us so that we can work with them on a repaving agreement, whether it is something that we do over time or something we can do as a part of the ERAP program. The most important thing is they must respond to our outreach efforts to them. Um, there is a time coming, uh, and I've said this before where HUD is going to push PHAs to take action on those families that have made no efforts to reach the ERAP dollars. They did put out some guidance, um, last month, instructing housing authorities that they must inform all residents that ERAP dollars are there and they should apply for those. And that if we are going to move to the step of, um, doing, doing eviction filings that we must give 30 days notice, that's two more weeks than what we would normally do. Um, our objective and our goal is not to get to that point at all. Uh, we're going to continue to push very hard to get those families to get into some type of agreement with us, because the other side of this is that HUD is evaluating our ability, uh, to collect rents as something called TARs, tenants accounts receivable. We are scored on those on an annual basis. We have not been scored during the pandemic, but we, uh, are absolutely clear, clear that HUD is, is going to push DHA to get our tenants accounts receivable up to an acceptable level, which is at least 98%. So it is interesting with HUD, because you know, one hand they're saying do everything you can to keep people housed. On the other hand, they're saying you must get your, uh, collection rates up. Uh, and we'll, we'll, we'll do that dance, um, as we continue to work with HUD. Um, and certainly as we continue to work with our residents. Next slide, please. So next up will be Mr. Anthony Snell, and he'll give us an update on where we stand with our downtown and neighborhood plan development. Anthony. I'm going to unmute myself. I apologize. Thank you, Mr. Scott. And good evening to the committee. Um, this evening, I'm going to walk you through, uh, some of the construction progress that we are making, uh, on our respective sites and also share some of the progress that we've made toward our MWBE participation goals. Uh, please keep in mind that this is, uh, we are in the early stages of these projects. We have a lot of work to, to do with respect, and we have a long ways to go to reach, uh, ultimate goals as far as our MWBE participation. We had a great meeting, um, with the leadership, uh, uh, Mr. Johnson's office, uh, Karen, uh, put us together with their consultant that's going to be happening us with the, uh, section three and MWBE participation. We had a robust conversation with them, um, this morning. And so we are looking forward to their assistance as we, uh, continue to move forward and make greater strides in the efforts of our participation on the sites. Although we think we have, uh, thus far made some, uh, great efforts and strides towards meeting our overall goals. Next slide, please. Want to talk about, uh, our, our work at JJ Henderson, um, that includes rehab and the new construction site. As you know, we are rehabbing the existing, uh, building the current JJ Henderson, uh, uh, site. And then we have a new construction, uh, going on at that site as well. Next, next slide. As far as the JJ Henderson rehab, um, we, we, um, we anticipating that this project will be completed. During the fourth quarter of, uh, 2022, uh, Stack A is completed, which is about, about 27 units we are working in, in Stacks B and C, um, the roof work is underway and there is a great deal of site work has taken place, which is actually, uh, to the front of the building. If some of you were there with us when we did the groundbreaking where we held the ceremony for the groundbreaking in front of the building, that is now turned into the new interim residential parking to the front of the building. Uh, a lot of site work has taken place with respect to putting in that parking, which we are hopefully will be complete with that work next week. Once that work is completed, we will move, uh, the contractor that's doing the rehab work, uh, they are going to relocate, uh, their equipment to the front of the building. And then we will start, uh, the construction of the new building, which is going in the rear of the building will start the demolition of the, um, of the parking lot there, uh, for the new location of the new building. Next slide, please. Here is where I want to talk a little bit in detail about what we have done thus far with, uh, MWBE participation. Um, our goal, uh, Walt, uh, our goal on each of our sites is 30%. With this particular project, we are going to be somewhere around about 21%. Um, and that's a 2.5 million of the, of the hard costs for the site. Thus far, we've spent somewhere of 548,000 to date, um, on this project, the MWBE services, um, cover painting. Uh, we have a section three consultant. We have electrical demolition, framing and drywall, project managing, uh, lumber supply, things, uh, purchasing blinds, dumpster rental, appliance purchase, glass entrance and storefronts and cleaning. So those are the disciplines for the services that we have on site that the, that will be participating on the site. Of course, we are always making every effort we can to expand those services as we move along in the project. Um, and we'll do that in close coordination with our developer and the, and the contract in the contractor that's on site. The other part of this is, which I don't have reported here is we have our soft costs also. And so we have, um, MWBE participation there, um, on this project, our legal services was provided by the bank's law firm, um, which is a major portion of our legal costs for the site. And I will have to get that number and I can report that out. But that's, it's not only just on the hard costs that we are pushing for participation, but we're looking for participation across the entire project. Uh, next slide, please. Um, the other part that's going on in the site is the J. J. Henderson, uh, Moorhead, uh, seniors. This is the new construction. Um, we're talking about completion of this project in first quarter of 2023. Um, major aspects of this project that have taken place that we had to tear down the auditorium that was attached to, um, the J. J. Henderson existing structure that has been completed. Uh, the storm water system has been installed, as I mentioned earlier, the site work, um, is underway. The good news about the site work where I mentioned that is underway, um, we are hoping to, uh, complete that next week, which would include the actual paving, uh, for the new, um, access roads for the, to get onto the site and for the new parking on the site. This is a shared activity between, um, uh, J. J. Henderson for the rehab and for the new construction where our contractors are working close together on that coordination. And then I mentioned they will start, uh, the demolition of the real parking lot. And, uh, once that is completed, they will actually start the building foundation work. And they are projecting that to start in early December. Um, from our contractor, we are close to our 30% goal here. Um, our MWBE participation is projected to be, uh, 29%. Right now, we have about 2.4 million of that, uh, of that, uh, number under contract and working to put the contracts in place for the remaining portion of that. The disciplines that we are talking about of the site demo, the earthwork, utilities paving and site concrete, soil testing, masonry, uh, dry walls and painting, landscaping, pavers, site accessories and waterproof and, and caulking. Now, one of the, I mentioned earlier with respect to soft costs and involvement there, we have an additional, uh, about a million dollars in soft cost activities for our MWBE firms, the, um, on the site, uh, very unique, our developer is, uh, is a minority woman's own business, um, our legal firm, the bank's law firm has been involved in this transaction and an architect that's on the site also, um, is a, uh, minority owned business enterprise. So that's an additional $1.2 million with, uh, um, of economic participation to, um, minority, uh, MWBE firms that we have been able to generate on this project. Next slide, please. This is just, uh, the next couple slides will, will show you a progression of some of the work that has taken place on the site. Um, here you see the, the auditorium that was still, when it was standing, we had just started the demolition on, on that. The next slide, please. And you'll see here, it's almost completely gone, where it has been detached from, um, the existing, um, structure. Next slide. And here it's gone. Uh, we were showing the actual, um, site work that has taken place where we have put in the, in the, uh, in the curbs for the new, um, streets that are going in there, the driveway that's actually going into it. The storm water system had been installed. And if you were to go by the, these were taken, um, probably about two weeks ago. And if you will go by the site now, you will see where this portion of the work is, has been prepped and ready for the actual paving. Um, the reason that it was stalled this week, of course, we have weather. And so we are hoping to get started on this on Monday and be completed with, uh, the paving for the new driveway, uh, by the end of, uh, end of next week. Next slide, please. And again, this is the, uh, the curb work. Uh, this is the demolition work. And this is the, actually the minority, business enterprise that's actually overseeing this, this portion of the, of the site work they're doing the, the curb and gutter work. And they did the installation for the, um, stormwater, insulate, uh, stormwater system. Um, and this is in the front of the building and just, um, if you can see back there towards the trees there, that's where the actual new interim residential lot will go. Um, I think it's about 27 parking spaces to accommodate all of the residents that actually have, um, cars. Next slide. Um, talk a little bit about Liberty Street in 519 East Maine. Um, as you know, we are that this project entails five phases. We are now focused on phases one and two, uh, at that site, though, those phases being what we can, uh, we term is, uh, um, Elizabeth Street and then Commerce Street. Next slide, please. And, and, and originally, uh, the way we had this phase, we had course, um, when we mentioned Commerce, Commerce was in actually two phases, but now Commerce will be built, uh, simultaneously phase two and three. So those are the two, the two phases that we are really concentrated on, although it does say phases one through three here, uh, because that was the way our site was originally planned, and we're going to do that in two phases. Next slide. Um, the Elizabeth Street, um, and there's, there has not been any major changes here between what we reported out last month and where we are, um, currently, um, we are, uh, awaiting, um, the directions from our, uh, financing entities so we can move forward with the actual closing of this transaction, working with our developer. We anticipate that we will close, uh, these, this deal in February of 2022. Um, we do have the commitments from our construction lender. We are our equity investor, the equity investor of being the purchaser of the low income housing tax credits. We have that in place. Um, we are just, um, in a, in a phase right now, we're waiting for the lender to turn us loose and give us the approved their legal counsel so we can proceed with the preparation of the document so we can move towards our actual anticipated closing. So those are, that's where we're just kind of stuck in that period where we're waiting for certain aspects of the transaction to be released so we can, can move forward. Next slide, please. Um, the commerce streets, as I mentioned, um, it previously was in two phases. Um, we're going to do this as one transaction, one bond deal. Um, although we will have, uh, there are two, two pieces to the site. There is a family site and then there is a senior site. And, uh, but we are projecting that we are still going to close, uh, have these deals completed, uh, during the fourth quarter of 2024. Next slide, please. Um, the next major aspect of IDDP in which we reported out, uh, to you last month, we talked about where we are with our new developer, um, RFP process. We did receive responses, uh, the committee that have, that was assigned to evaluate those responses. We have gone through that initial evaluation, uh, of the responses we receive, uh, the sites that are being impacted by, uh, this, uh, development phase or, uh, the DHA office site in the county criminal justice site, four steel heights, and we have, uh, Fayette Place. We received two responses for the DHA office site. We received five responses for four steel heights and Fayette Place, we received four responses. Um, we are planning to start our interview process that week before Thanksgiving. Um, as far as the number of firms we will be interviewing, the way the scoring went for the process of the respondents, we are interviewing two, uh, firms for the DHA office site, four steel heights. We are interviewing four firms and for Fayette Place, we are interviewing three firms. And so, um, once we get through that process, um, hopefully we'll, uh, maybe before the end of the year, probably going into, uh, January, we will make, uh, a selection process and make a recommendation to our board for engagement of our developer for those sites. And then we will go through the continued negotiation process of putting in the development agreements for those sites. Mr. Scott, you may have some other comments on that. Oh, sir, I think you've done fine. Uh, that concludes my, um, presentation. I know there may be some questions regarding the MWBE participation, and I'm sure, uh, we'll get to that later. Thank you both very much. Are there any questions? Hi, I have a question. Oh, Laura, please go ahead and then, Stella, I do see your hand. Go ahead, Laura. Um, well, is that a really a question, is more of a comment I have spoken previously with Mr. Scott. And I, uh, brought, I mentioned to him that there is a great need of sidewalks, uh, walkable sidewalks in the city. And I was wondering if you will ask the firms you're interviewing if there's any way they can implement that?  And I will, uh, as, as we talked about, um, we absolutely will have sidewalks, um, and our developments will be very walkable in general. Um, I, I'm just thinking about the Liberty and Main Street in particular, right? I know we had a long discussion about the sidewalks there, but we make sure that all of our, our properties are walkable internally. Um, and then to the extent that we have, uh, exterior sidewalks to do, we, we always make sure we comply with what the city asked for. Uh, you know, just as we talked about the other, the other week, um, and part of what we can do is, um, questions like that, we, we might come back and kind of specifically show you some of the amenities that are currently planned for those developments as they get further along. For the J.J. Henderson developments, we can show you what the, uh, the site plan looks like, for example, and we can Anthony make a note that let's do that for the next time. And the same thing for the Liberty and Main Street sites, we can show you the proposed walkable areas as well as the other site amenities that are included in, in our developments. I would appreciate. Thank you, Mr. Soth. Thank you. Thank you, Stella. Go ahead, please. Yes, first, I want to commend the housing authority on, um, the methodology in terms of documenting MWBE performance, um, both by percentage and by amount and also commend you for laying out what the, what types of contracts were, um, that, um, on the hard cost side. And I encourage you to just also include the soft cost, um, data in your next report, but, um, to Reginald and Karen, this is what I wanted to see from all the contractors at a minimum. Um, if they're not giving us this kind of information, it's not going to be good enough for me. Thank you for what you have done in terms of, of, of reporting out that data. Again, um, though for the housing authority for Karen and Reginald, for you all to think about, I'm very concerned, very concerned about the ERAP money and the lack of payment. A million dollars is too much money out of the budget of the housing authority. Um, when the funds are available, um, as just been said, HUD has said, doesn't know what the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing, but they're making assumptions about what they're doing. And one of the assumptions that is being made, and I know this because I'm on the national calls, one of the assumptions that's being made is that, um, the ARP and ERAP money are going to be used to pay off the late, the debt of people. And, and that money didn't get put in the, that money didn't get to stay in the budgets, um, when of the proposed budget, um, that hasn't happened with infrastructure. There's a whole, um, thing going on there, but we can't afford to make the mistake here of having funds available through ERAP through ARP that can pay this debt and keep these people in housing. We can't afford to have, um, 374. I'm only going to deal with the families that have participated in the process right now. These families have applied for the funds. The funding is available. We have to make sure that our program is set up in a way that this most vulnerable population has their debt paid through the housing authority so that when that deadline comes, sometime in the middle of next year of pay up or get out that folks are not going on the street because we at the city of Durham didn't plan to pay their debt. And we have to make sure that ERAP 2 covers. I don't care how you have to do it. If you have to say 30%, 40% of income and below are prioritized, but you have to prioritize one people who were left out of the funding from ERAP 2 or ERAP 1. They have to be prioritized to anybody who is at 30% or below has to be prioritized in the ERAP program, whether or not they're facing. We can't just keep going on. These people are emergency paying. They're facing eviction tomorrow. So we have to prioritize them and keep pushing the housing authority residents to the back of the line because of the generosity of the housing authority and not proceeding with evictions. I'm so concerned about that. And I just want that I'm going to put it on the record every month until I see that number going down until I see that the housing authority has been paid and those residents are safe. Thank you, Stella. OK, at this point, we're going to move on to the next thing. There will be some time for further discussion later. Thank you again, Anthony and Anthony. So at this point, we're going to give the committee the opportunity to see what we're planning on presenting to the city council work session on November 18th. There is a report and a PowerPoint that Juliet sent out to you today. They have already been submitted to the city clerk. We may be able to make changes, but the more likely opportunity is to include comments when we present. So Tiffany and I will be making those presentations next week. Sorry, in two weeks. And Tiffany, do you want to go ahead and start? Thank you. Sure, if we can have the slides. Thank you. And in going through this, we're just going to cover what's on the slides as opposed to diving deep into it. You've seen a lot of this information and the goal of the presentation is to get council up to date on what we have been discussing. So next slide, please. Let me make sure you all can see the slide. Can you see the presentation? There you go. Perfect. Okay. Perfect. And next slide. So to set the stage, we're just going to cover what we discussed in a little bit of detail back in our May meeting. You'll notice on this slide that we've updated the information to end of September. A couple of things for everyone here to note is that the average sales price at the end of September has continued to increase. We are now at $397,000 for the average sales price in September in Durham. Prices year over year have gone up almost 25%. And we still have about three weeks of inventory in Durham. All of that meaning our market is very stressed at present. Next slide, please. And the prior slide was sales. This slide speaks specifically to rentals. WRAL's Tech Wire recently submitted information showing that rent syndrome for one bedroom units has increased 39% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which wasn't that long ago. Two bedroom units have increased. I believe it was 22% to the 1420. Now, this is a broad average across the cities, but that lets you know the numbers that folks who are looking for housing are having to compete with. Next slide. After this, we plan to share with them the goals of the Forever Home Program. All of you have seen this information before. As far as number of units, as far as moving the homeless population into housing, creating affordable home ownership opportunities, et cetera. So we plan to share that information with the council as well. Next slide. So when our committee was put together, these were the duties and responsibilities that we were tasked with. And we think it's very important for them to understand what we are tasked with and specifically what we are not tasked with. So we will be reminding everyone that we advise on the administration of the Affordable Housing Investment Plan. We're here to provide and guarantee transparency and accountability for the expenditures of the bond funds that were issued. We're here to review expenditures with a focus on housing construction, job training, and the inclusion of minority and women contractors to provide feedback and guidance on the city's communications to the public to provide a briefing to council every six months, which this first meeting will be on the 18th. And specifically and for clarity because I know that there is sometimes some confusion. Our committee does not make any funding or allocation decisions. And to get our committee started, we have two chairs and 14 members who were sworn in. Our first meeting was on April 1st followed by six additional meetings leading up to this one. Our meetings are streamed on YouTube and all of our agendas and minutes and presentations are accessible via the Forever Home Durham website. So for full transparency, that is the best place to go for additional information. And these this is a summer of the presentations that we've received so far, hearing from community development and DHA at each meeting. We have seen the communications plan from Moss and Ross in French West Vaughn. We have covered the MWD contractor introduction to United to UMC and see who will be overseeing that piece of the puzzle. The Committee on Healthcare and Homeless and Housing spoke with us and we did see a snapshot of the housing market. And okay, there you go, Diane. Yep. Thanks, Tiffany. Okay, so just continuing along, we were doing highlights. This is the slide that you just saw presented by the Community Development Department, but we'll review that with council. Next slide, please. In terms of DHA highlights, we noted that we had discussion about the maintenance and repair record system. We've heard about the downtown and neighborhood plan, the shared prosperity program, the fresh start program assisting DHA families behind on the rent, and of course, the RFP issues. RFP is issued. Excuse me. Next slide, please. Other highlights, obviously, we want to note are that the website has rolled out is continually continuing to be updated. And of course, the award of the MWBE contract. Next slide, please. In terms of concerns, this is a list of what we think we've heard and we expect that you might have some additions here, but we did note DHA repairs and resident concerns, rising construction prices, supply chain delays, cost overruns, slow production timelines, rising home prices and rents, gentrification, evictions, and the implementation and current pause of the ERAP program. Next slide, please. We just have, I wanted to remind you all, we just have 10 minutes to present to council, so we were trying to do a fairly high level overview of our first six months. So in terms of what we're looking forward to, we have noted the DHA RFP awards, hopefully in January, as already noted, the another update on the MWBE contracting from UMCNC. We expect or hope to hear from relocated DHA residents. We've heard that from several of you that that was an interest. We look forward to robust financial reporting, the dollars that go along with the units that are being produced. And then we also expect continued public communication efforts around the forever home Durham activities. So additional information on the website and community engagement. Next slide, please. And that is it. So at this point, we welcome comment from you all. There are a couple of comments in the chat. We can get there as well. But are there any comments from committee members? Anything you think we've missed or you want to see highlighted? LaVonne, please go ahead. First of all, I want to thank the committee chairs for doing such a great job of putting together these presentations. And I know that you will represent the rest of the body well when you speak to council. Like I put in the chat, jobs, jobs, jobs. I think that was one of our major concerns of the beginning was to make sure that before the housing is okay and doing all this is great. But if the residents don't have opportunities for employment, that they can sustain that housing is pointless to do this. So I would definitely stress that. And I wanted to echo what Miss Stella said about, you know, her concerns. I think that really needs to be a focal point of conversation. Thank you. Thanks, LaVonne. Anybody else? Okay. There are two comments in the chat. Oh, sorry, Lucia, go ahead. I have a question about whether the goal has changed given the presentation last month about the rehab project that was receiving additional bond money? Perhaps Karen or Reginald can comment that was on Ross Road and the council did approve the overrun. And so I don't know if you're thinking in terms of the dollar impact of that. No, I'm just wondering on one of your slides, it said 800 units or something like that was being built. And my understanding was because the bond outlay had increased at the number of units that would ultimately result was going to be lower. I saw Reginald come on to I'll let him answer that. Thank you. So basically, if you recall, this is a five to six year plan. And we're just in the infancy. And so the question is you're asking because of the cost increase, do we need to adjust the goals now? I would suggest not. We still have a ways to go. And because of the way the bond works and the financing that we're getting, there might be some other ways to make up as we go along. It's a little bit early to tell right now, because we're in the beginning. And I would suggest that we not adjust the goals just yet now. Okay, so it's still as possible to meet the goal. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anybody else comment? Reginald, did you? Well, no, I was going to say and my point was with my presentation, if we kept having projects like we just talked about, the answer would be no. And that was the important point of the presentation. And that we can't sustain those types of hits. And I think this Adam said it very quick, very, you know, that's not sustainable. And it's not. And so that was the point that I was making with the presentation that we shared. Thank you. Rita, do you want to ask your question regarding building materials? Yeah, I'm it seems like the cost of materials is going higher. And I'm wondering when the bond was proposed several years ago, we weren't having this issue. So how is that going to affect the cost of buildings and the projects going on as we're seeing? So I would start with one response, and then I would probably defer to the housing authority, because they have ongoing projects right now. But if you remember the portion of the bond that we, the city has is for gap financing. And so we have contributions that we have to invest to make up the difference. And we talked about this at the beginning and several meetings that we fund gaps, but the overall responsibility of the project and the project cost, like, for example, in the case of the housing authorities with the housing authority, or with developer that is developing the project, and we provide gap financing. And so, but obviously, if the project is more expensive, your gap might become larger, you know, but the reality is we only have a fixed amount of resources. And so that leaves it to the developer of the project to be able to make up those differences. That's what I would offer. And I'm sure Mr. Scott has some additional information to add from his perspective. Sure. Thank you, Reginal. One of the challenges with any development project is your prices going up. And obviously we dealt with some extraordinary costs increases. The city's funding is but a small part of our overall development stack, if you will. So if you keep in mind with all of the downtown development projects that we have, the contributions from the city only are about 15 percent. So the other 85 percent of what it's going to take to get these deals done involve a variety of things. Traditional bank financing being one, low income housing tax credits, both the 4 percent version and the 9 percent version is another big one. And as we speak, there is ongoing discussions with the state and the federal government in terms of how they can help address this issue because this is obviously not unique to just the city of Durham or to DHA. These are national issues. And so there are efforts being made to try to increase the available resources that would normally go to fund this type of work. The other thing that we're cautiously optimistic about is we know that in the infrastructure bills, there is some increased funding for housing authorities, specifically for this type of development work that we're talking about. So, you know, there are possibilities down the road that might be able to help mitigate how we are going to address these rising costs. Nothing is in concrete at this point, but there is a little bit of optimism that as we approach these deals and we get to these larger costs and these larger gaps, that there's also a national response to these larger gaps that exist as well. Because again, every development deal is dealing with the exact same problem. And when it comes to the affordable housing that's dealing with these development deals, they are well aware of the kinds of, you know, obscene cost increases that we're having to try to absorb. So that's the best answer we can give you now, but every project, we're going to have to have that same discussion and figure out how we can help deal with these cost increases, which by the way, I don't believe are necessarily going to be over. I'm hoping they slow down, but I don't think that those cost increases are necessarily going to stop. Thank you for that. There was another note in the chat regarding the 39% versus 20% number. So we'll definitely take a look at that. Well, thank you all. At this point, we will move to the discussion section, but there are a couple of sort of announcements and things we need to cover before we go to just open conversation. So one is I wanted to remind you all of an email sent on October 26. I guess that's last Tuesday or we could go Tuesday from Juliette forwarding from the city clerk about stipends that are available to members of boards and commissions of the city. You have to apply for those funds, and it's a rate of $50 per meeting that you attend, and they will make payment twice a year. So if you have any trouble finding that email, let us know. We can resend it, but it did have instructions on how to contact the city clerk. If that is something that interests you. I don't know if there's any comments or I'll just keep moving. Great. See, LeVon, your hand is still raised. I don't know if that's, I assume that's from an earlier point. That's from an earlier. Sorry. No, no worries. Thanks. Okay. The next thing we also got a request from the city clerk to have a conversation about our meetings. The city council is going back to in person meetings next or in two weeks on November 15th. They will allow a hybrid situation for their own meetings. But they have asked that all boards and commissions decide whether they want to stay virtual or go in person beginning in January. I wanted to let you know that Tiffany and I have discussed this and we both prefer to stay virtual for a variety of reasons. But especially the fact that we are a large group in the city does not have a space that would be adequate for social distancing. So our preference is to stay virtual, but we would like to hear from you and if we have to we can take a vote. So are there any comments about that Stella, please go ahead. Well, I would strongly support you and Tiffany's decision to stay virtual. But it's not just about social distancing, which you know, I do need that to happen. But it's also about access for a larger public participation while this this allows people to participate who have access to YouTube and and to Facebook and other social media outlets where our program is listed. It allows folks to participate in chat. It gives a broader range of people the opportunity to participate as we move further into the spring or the summer. Maybe we will, you know, maybe we will have meetings where we go on site and you know, maybe that is something we'll do in the future. But I think that this is the most democratic method of participation that a committee of the council could have. And so I would strongly urge us to stay virtual. Love on. Thank you, Stella. Sorry, I was muted when I said thank you the first time. Love on your hands raised. Did you want to comment? Yeah, once again, Miss Della speaks for us all. It's so hard to follow her up. But yeah, I would encourage the chairs to stick with the current game plan and for us to be able to revisit as we get closer to those summer months as a possibility for us to be able to meet in person and because hopefully that we all be vaccinated and, you know, we will be on the back. But yes, I encourage our to stay the course and stay virtual. Great, thank you. Anybody else want to share their thoughts on this? John, please. I just concur this online for now is certainly meeting my needs. And hey, how about how about the Bull City? We're going to have a we're going to end this COVID virus. But you know, we're getting our kids four to eleven vaccinated a week from Saturday at a clinics at Hillside and at Riverside. So good for us. Let's all work together and hopefully we can get all back together person to person sometime sometime soon. Great, thank you. Anybody else? OK, hearing none. Oh, the next thing I wanted to mention was that we have two vacancies on our committee. Nicole Furness has moved out of state, so has needed to resign from the committee. And Tammy Farrell has notified us that she was to resign from the committee. So the clerk has advertised these two openings. Nicole's slot was finance and Tammy slot was a Durham Housing Authority resident. So please spread the word. We want to get back to full capacity and so do let us know if you have any suggestions or feel free to forward the announcement from the clerk. And if you need anything, please let us know. At this point, we have a few minutes more for discussion. Is there anything else the committee would like to discuss at this point? Hearing none at this point, we can take public comment. I noticed that we had four people that were not committee members that had joined us don't know if they want to share any comment at this point or had any questions. Have they are they in the room? I don't know. I know that they can participate in chat. So I guess the first thing I would say is if anyone wants to speak, please make a note in the chat and we'll figure out if we can let you in if you're not already accessible at this point. I don't see anything at this point. Is there anything else that the committee would like to discuss? If not, I will turn it over to Tiffany for wrap up again. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm a cool, my bad. Based on your new presentation, Tiffany, I'm extending another invitation to come to the CAC meeting to talk about an update. Absolutely. Thank you. Would love to. Any other final questions? All right. Well, our we do not have a December meeting on schedule. Our next meeting will be on January 6th. So mark your calendar's information will come out prior to that meeting. And we will be sure to send a follow up update after the presentation to council. But again, want to thank everyone, DHA staff, city staff for your help this evening and also everyone on the committee and we will see you in January. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Take care, everyone. Happy holidays, everyone. Thank you, Terry. Yeah. Thanks, Terry. You're welcome.


Bingo, I'm Jay Fidel, 3 O'Clock Rock here on Think Tech. We're doing Community Matters this afternoon. And we have Roger Jelenick, and he is the founder and progenitor and chief manager. You'll tell us the exact title in a minute of the Hawaii Book and Music Festival Coming Soon. That's what we're calling this discussion, the Hawaii Book and Music Festival Coming Soon. And don't forget, the end is in Ampersand. Take that home to be on the final exam. OK, Roger, welcome. OK, first of all, I'm not the founder. I don't mind being corrected. It's OK. Back in 2004, there were two groups trying to find a festival, one for-profit, one nonprofit, going for the same sponsors. Both of them asked me to program their festival, unbeknownst to each other. The nonprofit won one. Good, good choice. And so I joined the board, and I programmed it pro bono, which meant 24-7 for six months. I know how that works. So I said, no thanks next time. So I tried to find someone to run it, and they were too expensive. So I said, OK, I'll do it for half that. And so I've been running it ever since. So they came for you. They solicited you. Why did they come to you? What did you have to offer them, Roger? I have been Hawaii's only literary agent for the past, since I arrived in 1992, because it's a crazy place to be a literary agent. It really is. But let me ask you exactly, so people know, because not everybody knows, what Keske say a literary agent? A literary agent is either approached or looks for properties to sell to publishers on behalf of authors. Manuscripts. And negotiates the contracts and monitors the publishing. So if I'm writing in my back room, and I have my life work, hopefully it's not too biographical, autobiographical. I know people have done that. It doesn't go very popular. And I like what I've done. I think it's valuable. I call you up, and I say, Roger, would you represent me? And I'll say no, because there's no market. I actually make a living, try to make a living doing that. So I can't afford to take on projects that don't sell. So I can sometimes do editing jobs for people, or I will do a professional reading. But I don't take on projects that I know are not going to sell in the main market. The books you find in bonds are noble. That's my judgment that depends on that. Well, but I am a home of lost causes, I can assure you. I'm sure. Part of the business. Yes. But if I wrote a good book now. And I like it, and my wife likes it, my little puppy dog likes it, and we think that it's really terrific. I don't pay any attention to whether you like it or not. I have to like it. I have to do more than like it. I have to do a lot of research as to whether there are books like it out there, what they've sold. There's a huge amount of information out there available that used to be, who do you know, how do you find out that way. Now you can, there's just endless amounts of information. So you can zero in on what the possibilities are quite rapidly. Yeah. Well, if you know what you're doing. If you know what you're doing, if you've been around doing it. So I'll give you a minute or two. Tell me what you're looking for in a book that you will represent. In nonfiction, it has to be a new subject or a new treatment of a subject or somebody who has extraordinary credentials or great celebrity. It has to be, have some kind of commercial appeal. Though university presses are beginning to take a much larger role. So we sell to university presses. Fiction, it's a voice. Is it an original voice? Am I carried away by it? Do I forget I'm reading? That's kind of judgment. But it's very capricious. No. And I'm not in New York. So I don't have editors who have authors who don't deliver books on time, run out, have a budget problem and come to me and say, I'll publish that if you give me something that will fill that hole. My goshable. So it's a little more difficult. When the Marri writers conference was going here, I used to run the publishing program in the conference. And that was my network. I was going for a long time. About 15 years. Being here, being a literary agent here, it must be very different than being a literary agent in New York City. Very different. Yes. What's the difference? The difference is you don't see that community on a daily basis. If I was in New York, I'd be having lunch every day with a group of editors. I would specialize in a way I cannot specialize here.  What does it do for you? You create relationships. It's like other businesses. It's about relationships. I can be as logical as I want. But if I don't have a relationship with an editor, it's going to be really difficult to sell. Right. He has to trust you. Yes. He has to trust your judgment. Because it's a fear-based industry.  Oh, nice. Yes. I know. One has been on a retreat for a long time. It's right now, I think, in a pretty healthy state because the competition from other media is phenomenal. So the level of writing now is extraordinary. And you have to be there. I get people who write thrillers about some apocalyptic scenario. And I ask the author, have you watched TV lately? Have you seen a thriller on TV lately? In half an hour, they deliver on the most extraordinary adventure and climax. Can you do that in your book? The answer usually is no. It takes a very special talent. Yes. But you've got to compete with that. Yes, absolutely. What about online books? Amazon is so easy. It's a matter of just the technology of getting the book in front of you. I was in Portugal. I was in Portugal last year. And I saw something on Portuguese TV that I wanted to read that. And I took out my cell phone and bingo! I had the book in like one second I had the book. That's different. Here's the problem. Amazon has a superb service called Create Space. A lot of writers here use it. But yes, they produce a fairly decent looking book. Then what? How do you get anyone to find you? Because the thing about Amazon is that every page looks as professional as the last one. Every book looks as appealing as the next one. But if nobody knows, J. Fidel has written a book. Told about promotion. There is no way. That's what you promote. I don't know. That's a question that changes all the time. And the major publishers, even with successful writers, are now making the authors do most of the promotion. I tell my clients, you will know more about how to publish your book than the publisher will. And it's hard work. It's hard work. It's very hard work. Well, let's go back to the Book and Music Festival. So it started out with you and Books, and trying to bring Books that had some connection to Hawaii, an author perhaps? Well, when I started out, Hawaii had the most vigorous regional publishing scene in the country because of our isolation and because of the tourist industry. And that got knocked for a total loop by the big recession and by the digital revolution in publishing. So now, and we lost 17 border stores in one day in 2011. So there's no place to expose Books. So the festival has taken on a really serious important role in giving exposure to authors that they don't get anywhere else. Yeah.  It's not Amazon. It's not the same. No, it's not. No. To take the book off the shelf, to look at it, flip the pages, it was like, you could spend your whole afternoon doing that. Until the beginning, you realize that a book is an extremely efficient way of delivering a story. You could reread, you could go back and forth, you could end up with it. And so for a while, independent bookstores were losing ground, in fact, a lot of them just went bankrupt. They're coming back. Not only that, but the younger demographic, which you would assume doesn't read that much, are actually crowding into bookstores again, into the independent bookstore. It's not the big reason for that. I think there's an overdosed on digital, I think, but a great thought. I'm waiting for that. It's a good thing. Yeah. And as I said, it's a really efficient way of delivering a story, a very pleasurable way. So how do you play that out at the Book and Music Festival? We program books that have been published in the last year. So I have a kind of like a really made program in a sense. We have, we specialize particularly in Hawaiian culture. We've done that from the beginning. And it just happens that with the immersion programs in schools, you now have a steady stream of kids who go through school, through UH, and some of them become scholars and actually get to publish their MAs and PhDs, not only at UH Press, but a handful of other houses. So they produce books, and their professional books are not that readable for you and me, but I surround them with panels with people who are articulate. And the panel helps. Yeah. And then there's something else has happened, which is the rediscovery of Hawaiian language newspapers and other Hawaiian language sources, which has completely transformed Hawaiian studies and the perception of the culture. Yeah. Oh, this sounds better and better. So it's on May 6th and 7th, and it's in that big grassy area behind City Hall there. Civic grounds. Civic grounds. And there's parking in the city parking lot. Yeah. It's admission is free. The parking is free. The parking is right there. Yeah. And you have a huge, let me, let me reach over, you have a huge, let me just flash this. We have 12 sides. 12 venues. One side. One side. One side. But, I mean, there's an enormous number of panels and books and authors and music. Yeah. An enormous. We have 12 venues. Last year we only had seven. You know, it's a bit, because we've got a much better funding this year. The venue is a place where you can sit and listen or watch. Yes. Yes. You know, it's specifically themed or there's some obvious connection between what's being done. Just some examples. Okay. Well, I was just talking about the Hawaiian culture one. That's actually become one of our most popular venues. We do other venues that are simply authors presenting new books, whether it's fiction or nonfiction. We have some themed pavilions. We have a new one, a food and cookbook pavilion, that the Pilly group, Chef Yamaguchi, has put together. Mm-hmm. The old ice skating star. Yeah. You know, this is the chef. Oh, okay. Okay. That Yamaguchi. Okay. Yes. And that's really interesting because we haven't gone the food and wine festival upscale route. We've gone really what people actually eat at home and what a lot of these new restaurants farm to tableware. So do you have food there? Yeah. Cooking there. Yes. We have food there and demos. Even demos for kids. And tasting. And tasting, yes. Oh, that's terrific. So that's brand new. That's going to work very well. This is one that's supported by AARP. They came to us saying, we'd love to do something. And I noticed that their CEO has a new book called Disrupt Aging. So I said casually, why don't you invite the CEO here and they said, oh, good idea. They did. And now they're terrified because they have to perform extraordinarily well. But that's joking apart. We put together seven panels, including one with you and me in it. Yes, I'm looking for, we're the one on aging, yeah? Disruptive aging, is it? We're the one on how we change careers at a later time and do something else, productive. Let me tell you, it's not so easy. And we have another one on wellness that's supported by HMSA, which is seven hot-button issues. So for instance, we have a terrific panel on mindful healing with a South Korean monk, Hyman Sumen, whose last book sold 3 million copies in South Korea. And he's together with an extraordinary doctor who was trained at Harvard, is now Mass Gen, who has a very strange power, which is synesthesia. He feels his patient's pain, literally. And he's written a memoir of what it was like to grow up with this. Oh, and be able to hear him talk about that. For instance, in his introduction, he describes the first time as a resident that he had to attend a dying patient. And he actually felt he was dying.  So interesting and relevant to the death with dignity that was just failed in the house. Let's take a short break, Roger Jelenick, and he is not the founder, but a very early contributor and still active 24 by 7 for the Hawaii Book and Music Festival, coming soon on May 6th and 7th behind City Hall. We'll be right back. We'll talk some more about how this works, why you should go down there, who's going down there, and what you will learn and how your life will change by going down there. We'll be right back. I'm Carol Mon Lee, and I want to welcome you to our newest series called Education Matters, where we will explore education-related topics that touch everyone, not just formal programs in K-12 and higher education, but also broader issues and information that affect our community. Aloha. This is Kaley Akeena with the Weekly Ehana Kako. Next work together program on the Think Tech Hawaii Broadcast Network Mondays at 2 o'clock PM. Movers and shakers and great ideas. Join us. We'll see you then. Aloha. Hi. I'm Cheryl Crozier-Garcia. I'm the host of Working Together on Think Tech Hawaii. It's a program where we discuss the impact of change on workers, employers, and the economy. So join us every other Tuesday from 4 o'clock to 4.30, we're live in the studio on Working Together in Think Tech Hawaii. Take care. See you soon. Bye. We're back. We're live with Roger Gellner. He is putting on the Hawaii Book and Music Festival coming on May 6th and 7th behind City Hall with 12 venues, right? 12 venues. 12 venues. There's 100,000 people coming around. 140 separate events. 140 events at 12, over two days. And you can eat there. Yes. You can park there too. You can sleep there. It's something I want to emphasize your mind there is what it is. Some people go to sleep under the trees. Okay. You know, I participated, you must remember, I participated in an energy panel. That's right. It was a very pleasant experience to be walking around there and talking to people there. So who's coming? Well, we have a major venue is the Mission Memorial Auditorium. It holds 350. It's air-conditioned. That's the inside auditorium. Interesting people don't like going indoors unless there's something very special there. Because everything is happening outdoors. And festival means outdoors in Hawaii. So we take great care to have pretty special things going on there. So we kick off with Patrick McCullochane and Connie Hale. Connie Hale has written a book about him. He's the Bay Area avant-garde kumahula who comes here every two years to do a couple of performances at the Hawaii Theater. And this time there's a book about him. So he'll do talk story and demo with his dancers in the Mission Auditorium. That's at 10 o'clock. So much variety, diversity, and all kinds from left to right. I mean, you have grown and diversified this program so that there's something for everybody. This leads to an interesting question, if not a challenge. How do I pick where I want to go? There are so many things to see, which is 140, is it? How do I pick where I want to go? Because I want to spend time with the good ones. I want to immerse myself in the good ones. How do I get to the good ones? Well, remember, they're not all J Fiddles with a mass curiosity about everything. So that solves part of the problem. So if you're interested in Hawaiian culture, you're likely to go to the Hawaiian culture. If you're interested in music or hula, you're going to go to that. If you're interested in literature, you're going to go to those. But there are people who are torn because it's all 12 venues competing at the same time, which I tell the presenters, you're competing with 12 other venues, so make it a good show. We insist that every presentation, they go by the hour, that 15 to 20 minutes has to be dedicated to Q&A. So we make it as interactive as possible. That's very good. It wakes people up. You can get to our website, Hawaii Book and Music Festival, not Ampersand, A&D. Oh, OK. Ampersand is a hard to put. They're by www.ampersand.com, and you will see the hour by hour of what's available, as well as bios of all the presenters, as well as a map, as well as a schedule. Oh, the map is good. You have a downloadable schedule as well. So I can do research and figure out where I want to go, and I can make my choices in advance. Here's a piece from the website now. So I figure out where I want to go. I spend the time. Should I wait the whole panel out, or should I move along, say, in the middle of it? It's entirely up to you. We don't chain you to the chair. But we find, in practice, very few people move around once they've made a decision. They don't move around much. Good question, Roger. Should I prepare for this? I mean, this is a mind expander, right? I'm there to learn things I would never have known. I'm there to meet people, hear people talk about things I haven't heard before. Do I have to prepare? Should I prepare? Should I study? It depends on your personality, really.  No, I study at Barnes & Noble. There you are. So that's one answer. If you want to get the most out of a novel, let's say, Callie Hart Hemings has a novel. And she'll do a reading, and she'll talk story about why she wrote this particular book. It's nice to meet her. It was a very interesting book. And you can read her, and they all do signings afterwards at Barnes & Noble, all that local publisher. But you probably get more out of it if you read the book ahead of time. A lot of people come and have read the book. They get it signed after they've read the book. So there are books for sale. When an author is likely, you permit this. The author would bring the book, and I would ask for an autograph and get one. Yes. All the presenters who have new books have a place to sell the books, either Barnes & Noble or their local publisher. Or if they're independent publishers, if they've self-published, there's a venue for that as well. What about kids? Is this something for kids? Huge amount. Almost 25, 30% of the program is for kids. What grade were they aged? From toddlers to you and me. What are they there for? The cakey stage has 28, they go by half an hour. They have 28 entertainers, music, where Mr. Steve was a national host for PBS Kids, who is a Pied Piper. He performs six times. He comes from Connecticut every year. And people line up for him. And Jeff Geer, our friend Jeff Geer, he can entertain. This year we have a whole venue dedicated to professional storytellers. Not necessarily for kids, it's for adults actually, maybe adults only. But these are professional storytellers. And I've put in three plays into that venue as well. One comes from UH, it's a Japanese kyojin, it's a satire called Derailed, you wonder what that's about. And then there's another play from the actors group, which is about Muslim issues. Muslim in America is called Disgraced. And then there's an improv Hawaii play, which is an improv long form play. We don't know what that's about. We won't know until you get there. This is a real festival. Yes.  You know, if I go on the sixth, you think it'll draw me in to stay on the seventh? I mean, did I plan two days here? It's really interesting. We do an onsite survey and more and more people stay longer and more and more people go both days. There's one wonderful venue that we've had right from the beginning, which is the Bank of Hawaii provides a book swap. You can bring five gently used books and exchange them for five new ones. And they buy a lot of new books for it. No cost. Even Steven. Even Steven. No cost. And there's even a cookbook swap. Three local cookbooks for three local cookbooks. That's very, that's what a bargain that is. And then friends of the library are there selling books very cheaply. State library has become a major partner for us now. They have a big presence there this year. They need to get out too. But it strikes me that despite all the cultural stuff and the panel stuff and the music stuff and the food stuff, you're really after trying to make people understand about the written word and books and literacy and expanding your mind. That would be the core, wouldn't it? Yes, but it's very Hawaii-focused. And that's a double-edged sword because it can become provincial. It's the result of the fact that New York publishers do not send authors here. The standard model for a book festival is big-time authors promoting their books sent by publishers free to the festival, whether it's in Texas or Portland or New York or wherever. They don't do that here. No market. Small market. Too expensive. Or the airfare. Too expensive. And also they're no bookstores now to show the books to sell books. But you are bringing them here anyway. Somehow. How do you get them to come? We pay them. Good of you. But we need that. We need to have them here. We need to have their fresh thinking. We need to touch them and see them. That's what I said. It's a double-edged sword. I'm trying to increase the number of authors we bring in every year. So for instance, this year we have a guy who's written the best book on U.S.-China history, the history of the U.S. and China. We have Joanne Jenkins. We've already mentioned. She's the one with AARP. She's the national CEO of AARP. We have three wonderful novelists who have gotten rave reviews across the country just for fun and for interest. We have this doctor I mentioned, the one with the synaesthesia and other things, you know. I want to meet him. Let's see who else. Let me feel my pain. I'll ask him. What is my pain today? He'll tell me. Because I'm mind-reading. Body-reading. He will. So I guess, you know, what comes to me is this. ThinkTech should be there. We want to be there. I hope you'll let us come with cameras and direct us to, you know, good panels would be mostly interested in panels, but also authors. We actually have a videographer and also a still photographer. If you'd like to be our videographer, I'd be delighted to work with you. We'll talk. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, we consider this right in the channel for us. This is the kind of thing we want to bring to people. They don't get a big chance to do it. This is only once a year you do this festival. And we'd like to have it on film so that they can see it maybe at other times, but on YouTube and pieces. So there's a lot of pieces. We even have a grant for a videographer and we'll contribute that to ThinkTech. You know, he's on tape now. We're getting this, we're documenting what he used to say, but I also, you know, I also want to go there and talk to the people. I want to, you know, help you expose it. I think it's very important. It's a perfect location. My earlier experience. You'll get a lot of people there who will be good for your show down the line. Yeah. That was my next point. I'd like to get some of them down if they're here. Will they be here for a while? I mean, will we have trouble bringing them in? For the ones who are coming from the mainland, we'll only be here three days for the most part. The monk, I told you about, he's here for nine days. So you might have him. We'll have somebody. But he's phenomenal. Yeah. I'd like to do that with you. Very articulate. But let me think through who else. But you really, you really want to get them on the site. We'll find a room for you to work in so there's no ambient sound. Yeah, that's important to us. So Roger, we have one minute left and that's camera one over there. Can you tell the people of Oahu and for that matter the state of Hawaii why they should, you know, come down on May 6th and 7th? It's more fun than any other festival. It takes a literary agent to put things so succinctly. Roger's been wonderful talking to you. I really enjoy. I enjoy whatever we speak, but I certainly enjoy today. Great. Thank you so much. Roger Jelenik, the operator, the manager of Hawaii Book and Music Festival, coming soon, May 6th and 7th, behind City Hall. Be there, okay?