I'd like to call the meeting to order and start with a little housekeeping, which is to remind commissioners to keep their audio on mute unless they are speaking. Commissioners other than the chair can mute themselves. Staff will remain muted until needing to speak. As members of the public join the meeting, excuse me, you'll be participating as an attendee. Your microphone and camera will be muted. Only today's panels will be viewed during the meeting. If you're calling in from a telephone and choose to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting. Today's agenda for privacy concerns, the host will be renaming your viewable phone number to resident and the last four digits of your phone number. As a reminder, the city of Santa Rosa is committed to recreating a safe and inclusive environment free from disruption. We will not tolerate any hateful speech or actions under a well-staffed monitor that everyone is participating respectfully or they will be removed. If necessary, we will also immediately end the meeting. Zoom host, can you please explain how public comments will be heard at today's meeting? At each agenda item, the item is presented. The chair will ask for housing authority member comments and then open it up for public comment. The host in Zoom will be lowering all hands until public comment is open for the agenda item. Once the chair has called for public comment, the chair will announce for the public to raise their hand if they wish to speak on the specific agenda item. If you are calling in to listen to the meeting audibly, you can dial star nine to raise your hand. The host will then call on the public who have raised their hands. Public comment will be limited to three minutes and a timer will appear on the screen for the commission and public to see. Once all live public comments have been heard, the meeting host will read email public comments. If you provide a live public comment on an agenda item, but also submitted an email, your email public comment will not be read during the meeting. Additionally, there is one public comment period on today's agenda to speak on non-agenda matters. Item five, this is the time when any person may address the housing authority on matters not listed on this agenda, but which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the housing authority. Thank you very much. Can I ask the clerk for a roll call? Okay, just one moment. Okay, let's go ahead and start with Commissioner Olson, Commissioner Downey, Commissioner Burke. Here. Vice Chair Test. Here. And Chair Owen. Here. Let the record reflect that all commissioners are present with the exception of Commissioner Olson. Thank you. I'd like to move ahead to item three, which is ask for any of the commissioners for statements of abstention. Okay, hearing none. Item four, we had study sessions planned for this meeting. I apologize for the late notice, but unfortunately, because we do not have a quorum and I have a meeting that was planned late at 3.30, and I have to conclude this before that. We're going to postpone the study session items. 4.1, which is the general plan vision statements. 4.2, which is the housing choice voucher program waiting list, and then 4.3, which is the review of the fiscal year 2021-2022, notice of funding availability process and point system. We are in the process of trying to schedule a meeting that would happen before another month, possibly in two to three weeks. So again, I apologize for the late notice that people have tuned in for that portion of the meeting. It is very valuable, but unfortunately, we are still working on trying to have our commissioners added and we don't have a quorum to move on those items. So, go ahead and move on item 5, which is the time for public comments. And we are now taking public comments on item 5, which are non-agenda matters. This is a time when any person may address the housing authority on matters not listed on this agenda, which are within the subject matter jurisdiction of the housing authority. If you should make a comment via Zoom, please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand. And have the host please proceed with the public comment procedures. A countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers. The first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak. Please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so. Your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment. Chair Owen, at this time, I do not see any hands raised and we have not received any email public comments. Thank you very much. Moving on to item 6, which is the approval of minutes. This does not require a vote. We're discussing the minutes of April 26, 2021, and May 10th of 2021. Do any of the commissioners have any comment on these meetings? On the draft minutes for the meetings. Commissioner Berger, it looks like you're muted. Sorry. Commissioner Owen, pressing the wrong space bar. So, Commissioner Owen, I wanted to comment that I was not at the meeting on May 10th, so I'll just. There's no action to take, but if I had to take an action, I wouldn't be taking it on that because it wasn't there. Thank you. Okay. Well, that makes it easy. We will have a smaller unanimous consent on that item then. So, I will just ask if there's any other comments and hearing none. I'll assume that we have unanimous consent. Bar and Commissioner Burke on that one, meaning he was not in attendance. Moving on to item 7, which is staff brief briefings. And I'd like to ask the director to introduce the staff presenter for the staff briefing. Good afternoon. Item 7.1 is a staff briefing on emergency housing vouchers. Rebecca Lane, Housing and Community Services Manager will be providing you with the overview. Good afternoon commissioners. My name is Rebecca Lane. I'm the manager of the housing choice voucher program here at the city of Santa Rosa. And I'm here today to give you some information about a new program that's been recently made available called Emergency Housing Bouchers. The emergency housing vouchers were authorized under the American Rescue Act. And on May 10th, the city of Santa Rosa Housing Authority was notified that we were one of approximately 700 public housing agencies in the country who are selected to receive these emergency housing vouchers. We are slated to receive 131 of these emergency housing vouchers, which are dedicated to specific categories of eligibility for people who are experiencing homelessness. The categories of eligibility are people who are homeless because they or are at risk of homelessness, who are fleeing or attempting to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking or human trafficking, or persons who are recently homeless and for whom providing rental assistance will prevent the family's homelessness or having a high risk of housing instability. So the regulations for this program were developed rather quickly between the time the American Rescue Act was planned and on May 10th when we were notified of the opportunity. And the regulations require that the housing authority partner with the continue of care, the local continue of care is our partner in this program for both the development of policies about how those vouchers will be targeted to those categories and drilling down more specifically on local needs. The continue of care board is responsible for making that policy decision. And then there'll be our referral partners, the housing, the homeless services agencies that participate in the continue of care will be our referral partners for these special vouchers. The regulations require that we do sign a memorandum of understanding with the continue of care, which we are required to do at some point between now and July 31st. And as soon as we have the MOU executed with the continue of care, then we can begin the program. The funds are already starting to come into our bank account. And we anticipate that as soon as that MOU is written, then we can begin accepting referrals. Our next meeting with the continue of care is this week, it's on Wednesday, the 23rd. And at that point we hope to finalize the policy decision about the referral targeting and referral process. And I'm happy to take any questions and I'm certain I'll be back with an update. Thank you, Rebecca. Are there any questions from the commissioners? Hearing none, I will chime in. It looks like Commissioner Downey has his hand up. Commissioner Downey? Thank you, Rebecca. Will these emergency vouchers be calculated on top of our total vouchers that we have received? Or will they be folded in the total number of vouchers that we already have and that we cannot exceed? That's a great question. And this is a totally parallel program. So the administrative funding as well as the voucher funding is on top of our existing allocation and must be tracked separately. I do have a question. Commissioner Burr? Yeah, Rebecca. So on this one, it would be the city of Santa Rosa Housing Authority and the continuum of care. I forget what their exact name is. You just mentioned it. But the group that has county representation, probably other cities, and I think there's more elected people on that board now as it's been reconfigured. So the joint powers agreement I think is what we're going to be entering into. That'll come back before us. It has to be done before the end of July. Is that boilerplate or is there some discussion or any kind of latitude between the two parties and exactly what that says? What would it? Yes. So it's a memorandum of understanding and how to specify that the executive director does have the authority to execute the MOU and that is in part because of the accelerated timelines will of course come back and provide more details as the program develops. And the MOU is signed between the Housing Authority and the Continuum Care Board, which does have local representation from Santa Rosa. Councilmember Tom Schwedhelm serves on the Continuum Care Board as well as other representatives from various organizations in the city of Santa Rosa. And there is a boilerplate. There's a template that HUD provided for the MOU, which the local Continuum Care gets the section of the MOU that we're focusing on is the local policy about how the vouchers will be targeted to what specific populations. And on the Continuum of Care side, is that delegated to whoever is the administrative officer of that organization or does that go before that entire group for review and discussion? Yes, it goes before the entire group so that the next Continuum Care Board meeting is Wednesday the 23rd. So we should know more about the final decision about the language in the MOU by the end of the week. Thanks. Thanks. That gives me a much better understanding. Given that, I just just asked that you mentioned that we would be kept apprised of how this proceeds. I think it's even more important since, you know, we just just to know what we're what Megan is going to be assigning on our behalf. Thank you. And if I could interject to we would be doing that in consultation with the city attorney's office. So we'll not be signing in a vacuum. Any other questions about your test? Yes. So with these emergency housing vouchers and the participation of the Continuum of Care, so would that mean that these housing vouchers would be spread among the city of Santa Rosa as well as other localities based on what it agreed to in the memorandum of understanding? Also great question. Yes. So we have an existing memorandum of understanding between the Sonoma County Housing Authority and the city of Santa Rosa Housing Authority that when we receive special vouchers and this falls into that category, VASH is another example of a special voucher type. We've agreed that we will each administer those special vouchers outside of our jurisdiction if there is crossover. So for example, with the VASH vouchers, we do administer those countywide. This will be the same situation because this is a special voucher type. But it's important to note that the County Housing Authority has also received an allocation of vouchers. So each agency is working on the same program. We're working towards signing the same, you know, the language and the MOUs will be reflective of the community as a whole. And so the opportunity for folks to live outside of the county will remain also with the County Housing Authority. Commissioner Owen, you are muted. Sorry about that. Rebecca, in regard to the continuum of care, can you describe that agency and its makeup, please? Sure. So the continuum of care is our local board of directors that oversees the federal homeless services dollars that come to the county. And so it's made up of elected officials as well as subject matter experts, including persons with lived experience and homelessness, to make those funding decisions as to and policy decisions as to which agencies receive the federal dollars that come to our community for homelessness. And this MOU is going to be in the vouchers go for how long? So the vouchers with the program is currently designed and I say that because there is a lot that is still in development because this is such a quickly moving program. This again was just authorized in March. So it's currently designed to be an active program for three years, which means that we will be receiving referrals for three years. Those families who do receive assistance during those three years can stay on the program for as long as they need it. But as it's written now, we will no longer accept new referrals three years from now. The program will sunset after that period of time. So to the extent and how many vouchers are we looking at total? 131 for the city of Santa Rosa. So there's 131 for the city of Santa Rosa and this voucher program so there's funding for three years? As it's currently written, yes. Okay. From the federal level through HUD? Yes. And what happens to somebody getting on the program in year three? Are all the vouchers set to expire three years from a relatively soon date? It's currently written as 10 years but HUD has implored over and over again for housing authorities not to worry about that that they fully expect that Congress will authorize funding beyond 10 years so that families who were referred within those first three years can remain on the program for as long as they need it. So but new applicants cannot come on the program after three years? Correct. Okay so it has a nutrition component associated with it. Okay. All right. I just want to make sure that the commitment has had the funding sources going forward. Yes, they do. Yes. And I should note as well that administrative expense funding that we have with the program is significant. It's more than the regular voucher program so they're giving us the best opportunity I think we've had in a while to address some of these issues in our community. Okay. One more question. What's the number of units or vouchers the county has been authorized? I believe sorry that is 153. Thank you. Any other questions? I'd like to go ahead and hear no questions like to go ahead and proceed with the above outlined public comment procedures. We are now taking public comments on item number 7.1 emergency vouchers. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand. You will have three minutes to make your comment. The countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers. The first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak. Please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so. Your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment. Chair Owen at this time I see no hands raised and we have not received any email public comment. Okay thank you very much. Rebecca thank you for the presentation. This is good that we're able to provide more help through HUD for the for families in need for vouchers. I'd like to go ahead and move to item 7.2 and Megan if you want to introduce the staff presenter. All right item 7.2 is the Housing Authority's Fiscal Year 2020-2021 Third Quarter Financial Report and unfortunately Kate Goldfein could not join us today so I'll be making this brief presentation for you. Included in your packet is the memo from Administrative Services Officer Goldfein outlining the Housing Authority's budget and expenditures from July 1st 2020 to March 31st 2021. The Housing Authority budget is 88.6 million roughly. This includes and this is important to note the 38.46 million of CDBGDR and as of March 31st 2021 there was a remaining balance of 60 million 60.49 million. When you back out the CDBGDR funds which you may remember you selected projects in January and we are working with the state to commit those funds the remaining balance available is a little over 22 million which is approximately 25% of the Housing Authority's budget. So we are spending well within the budget authority and we are keeping up with the expenditures as expected as the fiscal year progresses. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about the Third Quarter Report. Any questions from the commissioners? Just one if I may. What's the deadline for the actual disbursement of the CDBGDR funds? I may need Nicole Rathbun to jump in and give me the actual date but we are working with projects the five projects and advancing them through with HCD. The first project award should be coming shortly and that is for Linda Tunis which is being presented by Pev and Caulfield Lane Senior Housing and the other two projects which will have notices to proceed in the the near future are Caritas and 3575 Minasino Avenue and both of those have disaster recovery tax credits which have a construction start date of September. Nicole are there any other details? So all of the DR projects must have their funds expended by 2025. We had to identify the projects and send them to HCD in the form of project applications by the end of this year's are for deadline for project identification but since they are reimbursement based grants the deadline for disbursing the funds is 2025. And to this time it sounds like we see no no problems and those those projects that were awarded an allocation going forward is that correct? That's correct we are continuing with project applications to metal to HCD and working with the state on obtaining all of the necessary information for those projects to move forward. Great thank you. Any other questions from commissioners? So hearing none thank you for the update and the report and again the the crux is the CDBGDR funds and and how those are rolling out. If housing assistance I'm looking at the remaining funds category and can we discuss the loan activity of 5.2 that's still remaining and what's the timing on those funds going out? Certainly as you again may remember in May May 10th of 2021 the housing authority awarded funds to two projects the Bennett Valley Apartments located on the site of the former Bennett Valley Senior Center and Mahonia Glenn located at one Calistoga Road. Those commitments occurred in May so they were not reflected in this quarter's report but those funds have been committed. It was the progress on those funds being dispersed. Nicole if you could jump in really quick and give us a quick update. Hi again so those projects are both in the process of being underwritten currently. We have encumbered the funds into the budget so that we don't so that we can carry them into the next year's budget for disbursement next year once the projects submit their draw requests. Thank you. Making the one of the other line items is the 3.4 almost 3.5 million for projects with two and a half remaining. Can you discuss what falls under that category? Yes happily so the project includes the Section 8 family self-sufficiency program and they have a little over 38,000 remaining in their program. The VASH security deposit program which has a little under 10,000 remaining and then we have a fair amount of housing choice voucher CARES Act administrative dollars and these were funds that came to us within the last year specifically for administrative increases or costs associated with implementation of the CARES Act so we are actively spending those down in watching the federal timelines. And then the other noteworthy item is the CalHOME disaster recovery program which has had fairly limited success in terms of applicant eligibility and we have been working with HCD on that program and have been notified that it's a statewide issue on eligible applicants for those funds. Thank you and the CARES Act funds for administrative purposes what's the timeline on when those have to be spent or and if they're not what happens to those funds? I believe it's by the end of December this year 2021 if they're not spent they would be returned ahead we're actively spending those down and our administrative services officer is tracking those to make sure we meet those requirements. Okay thank you. Any other questions from commissioners? So hearing none I'll open it up for public comment. We are now taking public comments on item number 7.2 housing authority fiscal year 2020-21 quarter through three financial reports. If you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand. You will have three minutes to make your comment. A countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers. The first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak. Please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so. Your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment. Commissioner Downey you have your hand raised are you wishing to make a public comment? I'm sorry I was attempting to ask a question before public comments but proceed and I'll ask my questions in a minute. Okay Chair Owen at this time I do not see any hands raised and we have not received any email public comment. Thank you. I'm sorry for not seeing your your hand raised. Commissioner Downey you want to make comment now? Sure the comment I had made it was as you know and as I brought up before we seem to have a lot of unexpected events and I'm wondering in the context of what appears to be a lot of money if we're able to to save any of that to have a little bit more liquidity in the event that something happens I mean something appears to have happened for the past four years three years. So Commissioner Downey in response to your question we have little opportunity to to hold on to some of our funding. The housing authority does establish reserves in its annual budget and we'll be touching on that later in this afternoon's agenda but the majority of these funds do have timelines in which they need to be spent down specifically as they relate to grants that are provided to us by the state and federal government. They do need to be expended within the timelines identified by those entities. So perhaps I should be using the term reserve as opposed to savings or something like that. Yeah and I want to say off the top of my head the housing authority reserves are several hundred thousand dollars but I'll need to look through the budget and be able to identify that number for you specifically but again we need to be mindful of the funding sources and the the intent of those funds when we are administering and expending those funds. Thank you. Seeing no more comments from the commissioners and we've done public comments I'd like to go ahead and move on to item eight which is the chairman or commissioner reports. I do not have any reports any commissioners have reports they'd like to make at this time. Seeing none, moving on to item nine which is committee reports. I don't believe we have any committee reports to discuss which moves us along to item 10 which is executive director of communication items and Megan you'd go ahead please. All right first I'd like to give you just a quick update on some of the items that are happening within the department and then we can touch on the written communication item that's included. First the city council will be conducting housing authority commissioner interviews on June 29th. There are approximately 30 candidates we've had a very robust response from tenant interested tenant commissioners so we are very hopeful that we will have a full housing authority commissioner roster in the near future and that would alleviate any quorum issues going forward. Also the director recruitment that is on hold until there is a new city manager so I anticipate that being at least six additional months the city has not begun the selection or the recruitment for a city manager so that will be in probably occurring in 2022 and then finally I just wanted to highlight some staffing changes that we've had within the department recently. Mark Hughes who is the Zoom host will be assuming an acting housing and community services technician role to assist with the emergency housing voucher program that Rebecca Lane discussed earlier in the meeting. The housing trust has also filled its vacancies in program specialist and we have Angela Morgan who's presented to you before. Julie Garrett who has a consent item on today's calendar joined us in May and then we promoted Jennifer Mendoza to housing and community services technician responsible for compliance so very excited to have some additional staff members on board and then finally given the longevity of the vacant director position Nicole Rappen will be serving as the interim trust manager for the duration so I'm excited for Nicole to step up into this role and provide some additional leadership for the organization. Be happy to answer any questions you may have about my oral remarks and then you'll also notice that there is a written item from Nicole it's the pending development pipeline this is provided for communication but if you have any questions she can certainly respond to those. Your commissioners have any questions or comments? Just a simple congratulations that's exciting. I would add to welcome on board for those of you that are new and welcome again to those who have been in the organization for a bit of time and also I just want to say thanks to probably Nicole and Megan but whoever else was involved. I don't recall how long this has been the case but having the addresses on the affordable housing project pipeline is really helpful so thank you. Again welcome to Megan go ahead sorry. As you say certainly as you see any additions or revisions that you would suggest to our written communications please pass those along because we're we're constantly trying to improve these materials for your reference and the public's information. To go along with what Commissioner Berks is welcome to the new people. I haven't been here that long either and it's a good learning curve and it's an exciting place to be and to help in the community in providing housing. To go over the attachment that you have Megan on here so it looks like these projects are this is under construction 188 units are looking to possibly come online by the end of 2021. Yeah so I think the most noteworthy and hopefully we'll be able to highlight it later this summer are the 48 Lantana units which are nearing completion. They should be receiving their final inspections in the next few weeks and Angela Morgan is diligently working with Burbank on the homebire documents so as you may recall this is a project the housing authority initiated in 2007 so it is with extreme excitement that we we watch it come to completion and have 48 new homeowners within Santa Rosa and Nicole can respond to other items that are on the the pipeline. And I do go ahead. Oh I was just going to say we can pull up the the pipeline if needed the attachment to that memo it looks like we have one of the projects that's currently under construction that should start in the first be online in the first quarter 2022 but yes other than that project which is the Orchard Commons formerly Boyd Street we're looking at 188 units online in the next rather end of the year or so. As we look at this the local contribution figures is that represent the amount of funds that the housing authority has provided to these these projects okay so there's 10.3 million and I know this covers many years of time to be able to put this through and then the other project is we've got 24 million dollars that are coming in for funded projects awaiting permits. Kern Village of Engines Village Caritas 3575 Minnesota phase one and Linda Tunis these are all projects Megan maybe you can help me or or Nicole were these CDBGR DR funds? There are some of these projects that have DR funds in them those are notated by an asterisk after the name of the project so there are three projects in the second category down for funded projects that would be Caritas, Mendocino and Linda Tunis and one project or I'm sorry two projects in the next the third category on the first page which is awaiting additional funding or permits and that's the Burbank Avenue Apartments and the Canary Road Square. So those one two three five projects represent the 38 million dollars without having to get a calculator out I think that's what that does right those those five projects represent the total DR award minus a small amount of administrative costs okay thank you very much this is promising it's it's not just projects that we're talking about as projects that are actually in process and either receive funding locally or receive funding and also have nine percent tax credits that have to be used otherwise they're lost and so that's very important that these there's a lot of incentive to have these projects go forward any other questions from the commissioners please please you're on thank you I'm familiar with probably all of the developers with the exception of urban housing uh can you tell me what group that is and where they're from Nicole if you'd like me to jump in so urban housing is a group from I believe they're from Orange County they have two projects that are completed in in service in Santa Rosa and that would be the crossings on at Santa Rosa which is on Jennings in Cleveland and then the other project that was completed within the past few years are the crossings on Aston and that's about 26 kind of town home style units I think those were completed in like 2017 or 18 and then the project that should be on the pipeline is the crossings on Middle Rankin and this is roughly the site of the 711 located on the corner of Highway 12 and Middle Rankin thank you that helps a great deal I I do know that group and I know they've done some well done some good work and seem to be managing properties well as at the same time and then I don't see it on here but the initials for the Mendocino project where the the former side of the journey is in I think it's BR something something uh what what are those initials stand for I think it's it's BRJE if I'm unfortunately I don't have the pipeline up in front of me but I think it's Burbank Related who is their partner on this it's Related Development and then the JEUB journey's end thank you any other questions from commissioners our own chair test does have her hand raised okay thank you with the with the exhibit being shown on screen it's hard for me to see everybody what's your test yes hi thank you um just just a comment actually on the projects that are under construction it strikes me as pretty amazing that the three of the four have happened so quickly while I know I have been on this committee and um I just want to say congratulations to staff to putting these projects forward and making sure that they're moving along swiftly which they appear to be and thank you just realize that one more question if I may Mr. Burr yeah on the staff note let us any sign of this the additional developments coming into the pipeline does it seem to be kind of continuing or is it slacking off a bit do you get any sense of that I I'd say it's continuing we've had fairly high responses for our last couple of NOFAs certainly the DR NOFA where we had 17 applications was a good indication that developers are watching Santa Rosa and the resources available we put projects on the pipeline when we have some kind of investment in them whether it's project based vouchers land or a financial commitment or they've applied several times in the case of the crossings and initiated I believe the crossings has started their environmental document so there's a concerted effort on the part of the developer to to proceed with the project great thanks again can we turn down any comments just a comment that I made in the past as far as tracking inventory versus need um are we getting closer or is there any expectation that will will meet our housing needs in the near future or will this just be a a chronic catch-up scenario I think that we we're making good progress that the housing needs as reflected in the regional housing allocation numbers are are very lofty um in the excessive 4 000 units spread over the income categories so we certainly do the best we can to provide investment and create affordable housing units but I think you know unfortunately we're always going to be chasing those numbers and it would take a significant amount of local resources in order to to get us in a place where we can meet the rena goals and we're not the only community that's that's in that boat yeah and I don't want to sound like a critic I think uh uh Steve Burke and I've been talking for a long time about um what our future looks like so um thank you for the work that that you've done not hearing any more comments from commissioners like to open it up for public comment we are now taking public comments on item number 10.1 pending development pipeline if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star 9 to raise your hand you'll have three minutes to make your comment a countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers the first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment chair Owen at this time I do not see any hands raised and we have not received any email public comment okay thank you very much um we'll move on to item number 11 which are consent items and I've asked uh Megan to read all titles and while we're not required on a consent item to actually provide the presentation but provide a basic overview of what each one of these items is. All right consent calendar item 11.1 is a resolution Benavali apartment's modification to prior funding commitment to allow funds to be used for street development and or construction related costs and the recommendation is to modify the conditional commitment of the loan funds that was provided in May 2021 to allow free bird development company to utilize the costs for pre-development and construction related costs. Item 11.2 is a resolution second amendment to professional services agreement with disability legal service disability services and legal center to increase the funding for the housing accessibility modification grant program by twenty thousand dollars and the recommendation for this particular item is to approve a resolution amending the existing contract with DSLC to provide them an additional twenty thousand dollars to allow the program to continue operating and provide grants to low income renters who need modifications to their units. Are there any questions from the commissioners on 11.1? Just a comment chair Owens I abstained from the actions at the last meeting because this project was one of a number that were in the same category involving some other work that I'm doing and I explained that before the meeting. If I had to vote I would just abstain on that one item but I don't think I need to since I don't have to vote but if Jeff Burke has any other suggestions on that I'll follow that thank you. I did want to make one comment that I wanted to abstain pertaining to the DSLC. I did not see that before and I do apologize. So I'm not sure whether there are conflicts or not but if we have a member who abstains these items cannot you cannot take action on them today because you will not have a quorum. You will not have sufficient folks to vote on these so I don't know if you want to take a recess and we can discuss the conflicts offline or you want to make it I don't know what the timeframes are on these if there's issues if we bring them back next month. This is the first I've heard of them so I'm sorry I just I need more information. I do believe there is time sensitivity with the 11.1 the Bennett Valley Apartments. They would like the clarification to whether or not they can use the previously awarded funds for pre-development prior to submittal of their tax credit application. 11.2 the DSLC item could be delayed until a meeting in July although it may prevent modification grants from being administered but I think we do have some funds remaining in the contract so we should be fine on delaying on 11.2. One option would be that there would be separate votes and I would abstain from 11.1 for the same reasons that I abstained from the whole process last time that I announced before the meeting so. Commissioner Burke so this was an item so this is a Megan is this a modification to the item that the commission had taken before and Commissioner Burke had abstained on. Yes so this is modifying the award to Bennett Valley Apartments. Commissioner Burke I believe you abstained from the May meeting because of your involvement specifically with the vigil light apartments. This is not related to vigil light apartments so I don't know if that provides any clarity to the the item before us today. It does for me. Commissioner Burke if you still have concerns but I'm understanding from from what Interim Director Bassinger has just said I don't believe you have a conflict and you can take action on this item. Okay that would be just fine you know I mean I it's it's it's one that I don't mind abstaining but if I don't need to then we can proceed. I'd like to echo the same sentiment Jeff Burke if that's possible to reverse my abstentions and not disrupt the quorum. So with respect to Commissioner Burke I'm not seeing a conflict. Commissioner Downey I'm not sure are you saying you don't believe you have a conflict or are you saying you still think you do would you like to discuss it? I would I would I was proposing to remove myself from 11.2 but not disrupt the quorum so that everything else can move ahead. Okay well it's true that we need your ability to vote but I certainly don't want to do it if there's some conflicts so I'm not sure what that conflict is. Do you do you believe that you have a conflict? Yes I'm just trying to be transparent and identify that I am associated with that organization. I didn't get that before I'm sorry. If I may it seems to me that we would have the ability three members voting on one item with the fourth one abstaining from each item should be able to move the items forward correct? Well unfortunately no because you still have to have a majority of the seven to take action at which you would not have but if I'm understanding correctly the item that Commissioner Downey wants to recuse himself is does not have the same time sensitivity that the other one does and could be brought back next month. That is correct then that would be my recommendation. Okay do we need a motion to continue or just how? No you I don't believe so I think we just need a motion on 11.1 unless somebody wants to pull it off the calendar and to have further discussion on it. If we can for some reason my screen has frozen so which makes it a little more difficult to chair so can we take a short break as I reconnect in and might need some help from Steve Brown to do that? So we're going to recess for five minutes then? Yes it will be less than that as soon as I can come right back on. Should we sign off the rest of us? No you do not need to. Please stay on. I'll have a recess slide up in just a moment. That seems to have worked. All right Mark are you able to? I'm sorry Megan what was that? I believe we have a quorum again and we're ready to continue with the meeting. So if I may through the chair it sounds like you will not be able to take action on 11.2 but you can take action on 11.1 if somebody wants to make a motion. Alternatively if there needs to be further discussion and Commissioner would like that to be pulled off the consent calendar for further discussion that's the other option. Well as I'm hearing that we can go ahead with Jeff Burke's recommendation to request a motion for 11.1 and then we can table 11.2 until our next meeting. Is that correct? That is correct. Thank you. So we'll go ahead and we'll seek in a motion on 11.1. Vice chair test your hand is raised. I make a motion to move forward with item 11, 11.1 resolution benefitally apartments modification to prior funding commitment to allow funds to be used for pre-development and or construction related costs and not include the consent for 11.2 which will be heard at another time. Thank you. Vice chair test is there a second? So it sounds like we have a first and a second and so we need to vote on Jeff Burke. I'm looking, do we need to open this up for public comment? Okay so I was just going to recommend this. Sorry so let's go ahead and open up before 11 for public comment before we go for a vote. We are now taking public comments on item 11, the consent calendar. If you wish to make a comment via Zoom please raise your hand. If you're dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand. You'll have three minutes to make your comment. The countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers. The first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak. Please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so. Your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment. Chair Owen at this time I do not see any hands raised and we have not received any email public comment on either item 11.1 or 11.2. Thank you Mark. So we will go ahead and go for a vote for 11.1. We'll go ahead and do the roll call vote. We'll go ahead and start with Commissioner Burke. Commissioner Downey, Commissioner Olsen, this is not in attendance. Vice Chair Test, Chair Owen. Aye. Okay that motion passes with four ayes with Commissioner Olsen being absent. Thank you very much. We'll go on to reporting items please and Megan if you'd introduce the staff presenter. All right item 12.1 is a report request to realign project based voucher allocation for 3575 Mendocino Avenue across two project phases. Rebecca Lane, Housing and Community Services Manager presenting. Thank you Megan and good afternoon again commissioners. This is Rebecca Lane, Manager of the Housing Choice Voucher Program and I'm here to present tonight in regarding 3575 Mendocino Avenue. Next slide please. So you'll recall that on January 25th, 2021 the Housing Authority agreed to award an allocation of 30 project based vouchers for phase one of 3575 Mendocino Avenue which is an affordable senior development within a master plan for the 13.3 acre site where the journey and mobile home park stood before it was destroyed in the October 2017 Tubbs Fire. Since the time of the project based voucher award in January, the project financing has changed and the developers requesting that we realign the project based voucher award across two phases of the project rather than one. Next slide please. So in April 2021 the project solicited proposals for lenders and investors that's after they received the project based voucher award allocation. The investor responses for the tax credit equity were higher than they anticipated which resulted in additional equity in the project and the project also reduced construction costs across all phases through nine efficiencies. So what the project team is specifically requesting in this case is to transfer 13 of the project based vouchers from phase one to support the second phase of the project. Next slide please. And we did review the updated information that was provided to us by the project that's also included in your packet and our recommendation is that we approve this request so it is recommended by the Housing Community Services Department that the housing authority by resolution approve a realignment of the January 25th 2021 allocation of project based vouchers awarded to 3575 Mendocino Avenue from 30 vouchers for 3575 Mendocino Avenue phase one to 17 vouchers for 3575 Mendocino Avenue phase one and 13 vouchers for 3575 Mendocino Avenue phase two. Sorry that part was left off the slide but that is a request to move those 13 vouchers to phase two and I'm happy to take any questions and I believe we also have attendee in the Zoom audience. We do have Nick Wilder from the project. Thank you. Any questions from commissioners? Just really good. I did promote Nick Wilder to the panelists so he can answer any questions. Thank you. Commissioner Burke. John I've got a competing phone call coming in so I can't mute it. So just can you explain so there's a benefit to the project of 1.8 we have other funds in this project through not through project based is there is is there an issue where they need less because of the 1.8 additional funding coming in for tax credit equity. I'm going to defer that to Nick. Thank you. Of course no problem. Thank you Mr. Burke. Yes so the project this is actually a very good thing that happened to phase one of the project. We had additional funds come in from our equity investor. The price per credit was significantly higher than we had underwritten and so phase one was able to be able to pass 13 vouchers on to phase two and still be feasible. And then this helps phase two which is about to apply for its disaster credit application in which it's highly competitive for and fully entitled to begin construction. These 13 vouchers will help phase two become fill the gap become feasible leverage state funding and begin construction very quickly following the first phase. So this was cost efficiencies and additional equity proceeds that are enabling us to request this transfer in its second phase. I guess my question is are there fewer dollars needed from sources like this the city of Santa Rosa Housing Authority? Just the vouchers so with the movement of 13 vouchers from phase one to phase two the project has a balanced budget that was that covered the total gap. If that understood the 13 vouchers equates to the cost efficiencies that were gained. And I'll just reiterate that the total number the net number of project-based vouchers for allocated to the project doesn't change under this resolution it's just a redistribution. I'm not sure if I if I quite understand the relationship between the project-based vouchers and the other funds that were allocated to this development. I can so project-based vouchers allow additional income to the property and that income increases the amount of private debt from a bank that a project can support. In this case those 13 vouchers equates to roughly 1.8 million dollars in debt. So those vouchers though they're a unit subsidy do equal a really a gap source even though they're a project-based voucher and so that additional proceeds from the equity means that we need a little bit less permanent debt. Those vouchers provide 1.8 million dollars in permanent debt and so that can be transferred to the second phase here. Okay so what I'm hearing is there's no windfall that is has occurred because of this savings which is a good thing that would affect a lesser need for our funds to make the project balanced out and be feasible. There is that formula did not occur and there was no windfall that is of benefit to the project. Justin that it is allowing the movement of 13 project-based vouchers from the first phase to a second phase. So that excess funds but those funds from the equity allow for the transfers of these vouchers and those vouchers could be considered housing authority funds in the in the fact that they help leverage private debt which comes in another source. Commissioner Burke if I may try and interject I think to answer your question directly it will not change the approximately 11.9 million of CDBGDR that was committed to phase one of the project but I believe that phase two when we conducted the parallel solicitation for project-based vouchers had also applied for vouchers and we did not proceed with an award to them at that point in time because one we had reached our project-based voucher cap and two the project was not positioned to proceed as quickly as the other projects so this allows phase two to proceed shortly behind phase one and then the local commitment would be the 13 vouchers that are the subject of today's request. Thank you Megan appreciate that and thanks Nick. No problem and I'll add really quickly to that the project does have a pending CDBGDR application at present which if the 13 vouchers are able to move forward it does allow that amount for that application to remain constant whereas if the vouchers transferred weren't allowed to happen there would still be a remaining gap but with the 13 vouchers moved over and a potential CDBGDR application that would enable the project to be fully financed and move forward pending the TCAC disaster credit application that is due on the 1st of July. Are there any other questions? Commissioner Downey does have his hand raised. Commissioner Downey. Journey's End has been on the table since its destruction unfortunately in 2017 I was just curious as to what types of units are you intending on putting on that property? Yes I can speak to that so Journey's End will be the redevelopment on the affordable component which is what we're speaking to here the whole property has been entitled for several hundred units a portion of which will be market rate and a portion of which will be affordable senior housing so the phases that we're referring to here is three five seven five Mendocino phase one phase two phase three are three components of a 162 unit 100 affordable senior development the first phase is 94 units the second phase is 38 units the first phase is fully financed pending permits to begin construction early this fall the second phase is where we're trying to transfer and be awarded this several different funding here to move forward shortly after phase one begins construction so it's all affordable senior housing that we're referring to here but there's also a separate market rate component to be built on the same site by a to be named market rate developer that is separate from this project but they were entitled as one larger project so it sounds like you're going to construct a a building and not replace modular or mobile homes of other modular mobile homes is that correct Nick if I can if I can interject yes Commissioner Downey this site is not going to be reconstructed as a mobile home park the city took actions in December of 2020 to rezone the property from a mobile home park to a transit village and there was a mobile home park closure process that occurred over the course of the 2019-2020 with the state and so it's going to be you stick and podium constructed housing not a mobile home park when it is reconstructed thank you Megan thank you Nick any questions Vice Chair test yes just Nick could you give us a brief description aside from the units that would be different in each phase what determines those those different phases is it based on availability of funds is it based on construction costs can you give us a little bit of a description on those sure the three phases are actually three distinct buildings they're all adjacent to each other but there's a 94 unit building that's phase one a 38 unit building that's phase two in a 30 unit building which will be phase three the way that generally tax credit financing works is that if you get a too big you reach a cap so you can't essentially be awarded you keep building more units but you don't get any additional subsidy for those units so that sort of forces to divide into multiple phases to stay under those limits which allows to be fully financed with the least amount of sort of gap financing needed from the housing authority or from the the city of Santa Rosa and so that's why it's in three distinct phases and it's also in in three buildings as well due to the nature of the design of the site as well so will they be under construction at the same time pending our t-cac application it's likely that phase two will begin construction while phase one is under construction yes thank you any other questions from commissioners nick if i may is in just having an understanding of what's going on in the tax credit market was the 1.8 million dollars in additional equity as is phrased in the presentation is that because the tax credits traded at a higher rate than anticipated there wasn't a discount or the discount was less that's correct our our our equity offers were higher than previously entering that's that's very good news so congratulations on that the the other aspect is reduced construction costs which is not something we're seeing in today's environments where did that happen was it across the board was it soft cost what did you see reductions construction costs yeah and i will say the the vast majority of our ability to do this is was the the equity offer but on the construction costs when we were underwriting the project and when our general contractor was underwriting the project we were already in a very rapidly escalating climate and we didn't exactly know when we were going to be able to begin construction so we were able to sort of hold in costs due to the fact that we were able to complete design very quickly and go out to bid and and hold off escalation mainly due to the fact uh that it wasn't that we're going to begin construction in a few months rather than a year from now or six months from now um so we were able to rein in on what we were holding in our budget for for escalation well hopefully the uh recent drop in lumber costs that helped that that process out because that's been very difficult for projects to to incur those added costs so i don't have any other questions any commissioners have any questions um hearing none we'll open up for public comment we are now taking public comment on item number 12.1 request to realign project based voucher allocation for 3575 Mendocino Avenue across two project phases if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you are dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand you will have three minutes to make your comment the countdown timer will appear for the convenience speaker and viewers the first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment chair owen at this time i do not see any hands raised and we have not received any email public comment thank you um like uh going through the comment uh comments from commissioners and not having any public comment we'll move on to seeking a motion for approval i'll make a motion um chairman owen uh resolution of the housing authority of the city of san rosa approving the realignment of the january 25th 2021 allocation of project based vouchers awarded to 3575 mendocino avenue from 30 vouchers to um vouchers for 3575 mendocino avenue phase one to 17 vouchers for 3575 mendocino avenue phase one and 13 vouchers for 3575 mendocino avenue phase two and wave the reading of the text thank you commissioner berg is there a second i'll second that motion thank you guys chair tested like go ahead and ask the clerk for a vote please okay uh we will go ahead and do a roll call vote and we will start with commissioner olson who is absent uh then commissioner downey hi oh yes i'm sorry okay commissioner berg hi nice chair test hi and chair owen hi okay let the director show that that motion passes with four eyes with commissioner olson being absent thank you very much i'd like to go ahead and move to item 12.2 and meghan if you could introduce the staff presenter all right item 12.2 is a report this school year 2021 2022 housing authority budget adoption i will be presenting this on behalf of kate goldvine who is unable to make today's meeting next slide please so the mission of the housing authority is to ensure adequate decent safe and sanitary housing for qualified people within santa rosa consistent with federal state and local law next slide please as you may recall from the several budget study sessions we've had between january and today the proposed 21 22 budget is approximately 44.5 million dollars and the proposed expenditures are about 44.1 million dollars and this results in an overall increase of 2 and this is spread amongst administration of the department the housing choice voucher rental assistance program commonly known as section eight and the housing trust next slide please so changes that have occurred since our last study session the HUD has notified the housing choice voucher program that there is an additional 117 118 dollars in administrative allowance and these are the funds that HUD provides us for the administration of the project based of the i'm sorry housing choice vouchers this does not include any funding associated with the emergency housing voucher so i just want to clarify that that will be incorporated into our budget after the beginning of the fiscal year because we have just received notification revenue has increased by 117 in your federal grants and then our expenditures have increased accordingly we've put approximately $50,000 into temporary salaries and this is to accommodate some of the acting starting positions and we'll backfill those positions with temporary employees as we stabilize the organization and a little over $67,000 for services and supplies for the housing choice voucher program next slide please we also received an additional $21,764 of our cdbg funds so HUD provided us with notification on May i think 13th two days before the action plan was due that they had recalculated all the cdbg awards nationwide and an additional 21,000 was coming to santa rosa so again you'll see a slight increase in federal grants and the way that this is incorporated into our budget is about 4,300 in additional administrative funds and then 17,412 will be going into our loan products and then 40,000 was moved from loan product into chateau operating expenses next slide please so the recommendation is that the housing by the housing and community services department is that the housing authority by resolution adopt the proposed budget for fiscal year 21-22 i'd be happy to answer any questions and then one additional piece of information i want to provide is in response to commissioner danny's question from earlier in the meeting incorporated into the housing trust budget is a reserve amount of 371 thousand dollars and this is to address any unforeseen occurrences that have happened during the fiscal year and this is something that the housing authority enacted within the past i think seven years or so so i'd be happy to answer any questions any questions from commissioners just to comment given the fact we've been through this before i think we probably have a pretty good idea of the budget and i think it's just it all looks good and it's expertly presented i just want to give you know kind of a shout out to staff for doing a very good professional job thank you thank you very much administrative officer gold fine does a fantastic job in preparing and presenting this information so we're very lucky to have her any other comments or questions from commissioners hearing none i will uh echo what commissioner berks did that you know we go through this process throughout the year the quarterly updates are very important so that when we get to this point um it's everybody's pretty much well acquainted with what's going on the increases on funding and expenditures are two percent nominal the major difference being the 38 million dollars in cdb gdr funds that aren't seeing but that's not part of what we're looking at right now otherwise the budget is is staying well within and as we've discussed in the past it's basically primarily all funded through HUD through the federal government there's transfers in from real property transfer taxes and that's gone up uh slightly from the year price so that's definitely good to see that we're getting more of those funds um and i'd like to go ahead and open up for public comment we are now taking public comment on item number 12.2 fiscal year 21-22 budget hearing if you wish to make a comment via zoom please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone please dial star nine to raise your hand you'll have three minutes to comment a countdown timer will appear for the convenience of the speaker and viewers the first speaker will be acknowledged and invited to speak please make sure to unmute yourself when you are invited to do so your microphone will be muted at the end of that countdown or at the conclusion of your comment chair owen at this time i do not see any hands raised and we have not received any email public comment thank you um i know this is every year we look at the budget um and we are moving through this rather quickly no public comment but again to echo what uh commissioner berks said we look at this throughout the year um staff does an excellent job in presenting this throughout the years and we get at this point the discussion isn't long because we we look at on a progressive basis throughout the year and that's very very important in terms of everybody having an understanding of how the process works and the funding availability um i will go ahead and seek a motion we have a motion to approve the resolution i make a motion to approve the resolution of the housing authority of the city of santa rosa approving the housing authority budget for fiscal year 21-22 i will second i will second that thank you uh vice chair testing commissioner downey um like to open up for a vote okay we will go ahead and do a roll call vote on on the second um i'll start with uh commissioner olson who is not present uh commissioner downey commissioner berk hi vice chair test hi and chair elin hi yeah let's record show that that motion passes with four uh four eyes with uh commissioner olson absent thank you very much um that concludes our meeting for day thank you uh staff for all your hard work and megan your team again does a wonderful job in putting this all together we appreciate it very much um and uh i appreciate everyone's uh understanding and having to move the um study sessions to another meeting which i understand we'll be having in in two to three weeks and we're working on getting that scheduled so um thank you very much and i'd like to go ahead and move to adjourn the meeting thank you everybody yeah thank you thank you


Section 1 of A Little Freckled Person, a book of child verse. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Sweet Home and Little Peanut, A Little Freckled Person, a book of child verse by Mary Carolyn Davies. A Little Freckled Person. They think I'm just a little girl at study, work or play. A little freckled person who has never much to say. They do not know a princess oft in golden gown am I, with cheeks like apple petals soft and eyes like sea or sky. They only see my tumbled braids, they do not know I wear, a crown with turquoise and barrels upon my coiled up hair. They do not know adventures dire, beset me, land and sea, that page and courtier night and squire before me bend the knee, that haughty ships with silken sails upon my bidding go, all these and other happy things, they cannot, cannot know. They only see a little girl at study, work or play. A little freckled person who has never much to say. The selfish sea. The sea is very, very wide. It takes up all the room outside, and when I stand beside the sea, it comes right up and pushes me. The rabbit. A rabbit works its ears and tries to watch you with its rabbit eyes. Its saucy little tail it flounces, and when it hits the ground it bounces. The uncritical kitten. If I am selfish when I play, my kitten likes me anyway. Next door people. The next door people have a bird. The yellowest you ever heard. It hops and chirps and sings and sings. Aren't next door people pleasant things? Probation. Mother says, If you're thoughtful and polite, go to bed at eight each night, always hasten to do chores, and give up chairs for visitors. Weed the garden, carry wood, and be very still and good. Mother says, If you're faithful in your task, never beg, but only ask, fold your napkin, say your prayers, put no gum upon the chairs, keep your bureau doors quite neat. Walk through pools, but on sidewalk, till the mud is gone, and say thank you often, and sit erect and walk at stand, and wash well behind your ears. Always wait until it clears to wear your best clothes, and not fail to hang your coat upon its nail. You will find the people where you live like to have you there. Our house has a pleasant yard, and I am trying very hard. Perhaps you never know in this great world what wonders there may be. Perhaps there's buried treasure out beneath our cherry tree. Freed Stars. The stars are like us children here, not any older grown, and night the little Freed Stars stay together in the milky way. The brave ones stand alone. The Stars. The stars are lighted candles upon a Christmas tree. The branches that they hang upon we cannot ever see. On Christmas Eve the angels stand about it after tea, and if an angel's very good, he gets a present as he should. As you would be done by. Of course I believe in fairies. Of course I know they're true. Just think if you were a fairy, and no one believed in you. End of section one. Section two of A Little Freckled Person. A Book of Childbursts by Mary Carolyn Davies. This Libber Vox recording is in the public domain, recording by Sweet Home and Little Peanut. Drawing.  The fishing pole. A fishing pole's a curious thing. It's made of just a stick and string. A boy at one end, and a wish, and on the other end, a fish. Sympathy. Little fishing boat, a blur, on the ocean blue.  I have a birthday. Look at me as you dart and dip. Grow, and maybe soon you'll be a white sailed ship. The forest school. The little forest did merely stand in studious rows on either hand. On winter days, about like these, all learning to be Christmas trees. White cherry. The moon's a white cherry for sale in the sky, and each one admires it, but no one will buy. Oh cherry that lies on the shop window shelf. When I have a penny, I'll buy you myself. The independent kite. A kite is very nice to own.  Practicing.  Why? I'm the minister, and all the guests besides. Fairyland Secret Service. A snowflake is a letter, a fairy in the sky, is sending to the fairies here, and when they've read its message clear, lest anyone should spy, they purse their little lips and blow, to melt the telltale note of snow. Oh let us see if we can snatch, and read a fairyland dispatch. A book. A book's a magic sort of thing. That makes you sailor chief or king. When I'm old and own a shelf, I think I'll have a book myself. The lonesome sea. The sea is so lonely. Now winter is here. I wish we could only go down to the pier, and say to him kindly, don't think, Mr. Sea, we've forgotten you quite, for we haven't, not we. Last summer we scurried all sudden, I know, from the beach. Don't be worried, we hated to go. I should like to go clear to the end of the pier, for he's lonesome, and tell him, we're coming next year. The mountains. The mountains do not stir or show emotion when spring comes, I know, but though they are restrained by pride, I think that they are glad inside. End of section two. Section three of A Little Freckled Person. A book of child verse by Mary Carolyn Davies. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Little Peanut and Sweet Home. When Dolly is afraid. When lights are standing in the street, and on the sidewalk all the feet are quiet, and it's growing late, and our brown clock is striking eight. I pack the animals and arc, and push them deep into the dark, and in a quiet row I lay my cups and saucers till the day. But who could ever say goodnight, and leave her doll in such a plight? I couldn't let her stay without a friend, and hear the dark about. So she and I go straight upstairs, she shuts her eyes while we say prayers, and then we lie and count up sheep, until we both are fast asleep. It's not because I dread at all the darkness that I keep my doll, but just because I think that she would be so frightened without me. Tree children. The little trees that to the breeze make quaint and timorous courtesies. I like to come and play with these. Each grown-up pine that stands in line is but a stranger, great and fine. The little trees are friends of mine. The cockatoo.  Won't you come and talk to me? Tell me all about the places where the children have black faces, armlets, anklets, copper rings, where the cannibals are kings. Has a hungry crocodile ever met you with a smile? Have you taken many a trip in a rakish pirate ship? Cockatoo, cockatoo. How I'd like to talk to you, but as you can guess I'd be gladder if you'd talk to me. High cost of living. Among the angels it's a shame to tell it. Prices are so dear. They use the blown-out candle flame to mend their ragged stars this year. Need. I like the kitten of my friends. I like its claws caught in my lace. I like the way each small ear ends.  I feel its heartbeat in my hand and then I somehow understand so many things I didn't know. I'm kinder, and my voice is low, and I close doors more softly too, and do the things I'm told to do instead of wishing they were done. But mother says we mean to have one. I want a kitten all my own, to play with when I'm left alone and when the family's gone away to shop and work and call and play. Tennis and other things. It's also queer and lonely in the hall and in the parlor too, and in the sitting room where words have been but are not now. The chairs and I wait through the hours till by and by are only playmates, little fears. There's room in all our lives, I think, for one small kitten, black as ink, with two white spots behind its ears. Sky color. Blue skies are very apt to fade. Dark colors wear the best, it's true. But who would choose a useful shade? I want mine, blue. Left out. If shoemaker's children are left with feet bare, I've wondered and wondered, I don't think it's fair. If maybe at Christmas there aren't any toys left over for Santa Claus' own girls and boys. The white birch. A white birch grows in the deepest wood. If you are good and the stars are right, who knows? You may see some night the nymphs stand under the sea-green heave of its bows in a row. But if you wander, they will fade and go. You must just believe. The playmate. Last year I played with the country, this year with the sea. Now the queer old city stops and plays with me, stops in its counting of pennies, and never, never fails to know the time I'm going to bed, and tells me fairy tales. Thanksgiving. The turkey is a mournful bird from all that I have ever heard. If he could live this day to see how very thankful he would be. The nest. That tree has a nest, and if I lie, quite still, and if I have luck, I may see two heads or three stretched out, hark, hark! Wings sound, and a dark shadow comes flying through bows. They are trying to reach the food that the large bird brings, unfinished wings. Are such curious things, they are almost old enough to fly. The three, if they knew, as I do, and you, that nests are cozier than the sky. And the section three. Section four of A Little Freckled Person, a book of child verse by Mary Carolyn Davies. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Little Peanut and Sweet Home. The orange. The sky is a greedy child who holds one yellow orange in her hand. It is the sun. She holds it primly, then hid from sight, all in the darkness. He eats it at night. I almost got to Fairyland one day. I almost got to Fairyland one day. I walked out straight along the sun path, so, and there were little hummings in the world. And moving things went through the grass and all. The air was just as glad as if there were a party somewhere at a fairy's house. I knew they had a party, and I knew that they had kept a seat for me, if I could only find the right turn in the road. I was so near to Fairyland, so near, that I could almost hear the fairy gates swing open for me, waiting just for me. I was so near to Fairyland, and then, just then, I heard my mother calling me. Come in to supper, dear! I heard her call, and so I never got to Fairyland. I know that there are fairies, though, because I almost got to Fairyland one day. Untrained Trains A train should never jump the tracks. Such rude behavior shows a lack of poise. It's really a disgrace. A train should know its proper place. Handicapped I run as fast as I can go when trains run past our place. They're bigger, far than I, and so they always win the race. A Sunset Life seems so sweet, I don't know why. Perhaps it's just because the sky put on tonight to make me glad. A dress I didn't know she had. Two Ships Tall ships, tall ships sailing out to sea. Have you in your dreaming hearts any room for me? For a little singing maid who would sail with you out to where the ocean miles are blue, blue, blue. Tall ships, tall ships loosening from shore, steering all by starcraft and sailing evermore. Take a little wishful maid with you as you go. I would feel the ocean tempests blow, blow, blow. Tall ships, tall ships, sea I stretch my hands, pray you take me with you to far and foreign lands. Ships and eager little maid prays that she may be sailing as you sail, forever free, free, free. Sea Butterflies The sea is like a garden green, the spray like daisies white, and one full rose alone is seen, the great red sun at night. A fluttering in their loveliness, the ships against the skies are just, as anyone can guess, the gardens butterflies. Buds The buds have come to town, demure and brown their coats, and under sea, how can such fragile, fairy colors be? The buds have come to us, all tremulous. We're quite as glad as they.  The Flower Cart The flower carts coming down the street with tulips red and tulip sweet, and from the wagon color spills of hyacinths and daffodils, and purple rhododendrons grow beside the roses in a row. Oh, let us hasten down to spend, before the flower cart rounds the bend. Oh, let us bring our pennies and hold all of spring within our hands. Eavesdroppers The stars lean down and listen at fairy story time. They twinkle and they glisten to hear each happy rhyme.  The stars lean down to hear us, they know it's not polite, but then they cease to fear us about this time of night. They creep and edge up near us, although it isn't right. Eavesdroppers, but we love them. We leave a little space and never crowd or shove them because, in any case, that stretch of blue above them is such a lonely place. Singing Secrets Bird up in the pine tree top, tossing down to me broken songs to where I sit underneath the tree. Bird up in the pine tree top, what is it you hear that you try to say again in your singing clear? What is it you see up there in the green and blue? Does the world look very strange, strange and fair to you? Do you see some happy thing that you try to show in the eager chirps you toss gaily down below?  I am very sure. I can understand no word, but oh, try once more. Bird up in the pine tree top, sing again to me. Maybe I can hear it now. Maybe I can see. End of Section Four Section Five of A Little Freckled Person A Book of Child Verse by Mary Carolyn Davies This Leap of Ox recording is in the public domain, recording by Little Peanut and Sweet Home. The Day Before April No little brown bird go away. I have no time to dream today. I must do certain things you see. I know not why, but it must be. Here I must study foolish books and not guess how the lilac looks. Hush, little bird, and do not sing. I have no time to play with spring. The Corn The Corns like soldiers in a row will stop and cheer them, let's. The tassels are their waving flags. The Leeds, their bayonets. They march to meet King Frost, their foe. The fight will soon begin. King Frost will conquer them, I know, but oh, if they could win.  If a star were so bold, would the moon mother old let it stay in the sky? Try, star, try. Dryad Dryad hidden in this tree, break your bonds and talk to me. No one's watching, only peep. From your cave, the town's asleep. No one knows I stand here so. Come, for they will never know. Tell me what you think of here, when the moon is sharp and clear, when the clouds are over you, when the ground is wet with dew. Dryad, are you happy, say? Do you like to live this way? I will keep your secrets well. I will never, never tell. Dryad hidden in our tree. Come, oh, come and talk to me. The Duel Once a blotter met a blot, in a still secluded spot. Here's the blotter, brave to see. But the blot? Oh, where is he? The littlest cloud. A littlest cloud in all the blue. Don't go so fast, for, see, I'm just about the size of you. Come down and play with me. But, oh, if that's the only way to come in raindrops, why? I'll stay here by myself and play. I wouldn't have you cry.  With pots and kettles waiting, all her kinfolk, by to scorn her, longed perhaps to meet a prince, handsome, young and wise. Maybe sleeping beauty on her couch within the castle, while her golden hair crept down to touch her silent feet. Dreamed about a rider, with a scarlet cap and tassel, who would hack away the hedge and cry, Awaken, sweet! While I'm washing dishes or scraping out the skillet, or when I'm sprinkling or folding up the clothes. Sometimes I too dream, it seems foolish like to tell it. But their princes came at last and, ah, who knows? Our Cher, babies of Alaska, babies of Japan, babies born to beets or silk or fez or fur or fan. None of all the babies that are toddling anywhere is half so sweet a baby as the baby that's our Cher.   If there is a family of Santa Claus's in the sky or where their home may be. If I were Santa's oldest son. I only hope that he has one. And my papa should say to me. What Christmas present son would be the very thing you'd like to see within your stalking Christmas day? I wouldn't stop to think, would you? But say, I want to drive the sleigh. And then, when Christmas we could come and nearly dawn on Christmas day, I'd load the sleigh with doll and drum, and find where the reindeer were tied, and hitch them quickly up, and I'd shout very loudly, clear the way. And crack the whip and drive the sleigh down from the pole and past the claying of loud icicles in a row. Blown by the wind to where the gang lives in our street, and then I'd shout, while frightened heads of boys stuck out. From open windows in surprise with tousled hair and sleepy eyes, I'd shout out loudly so that they could hear each single word I'd say. Hey dash or dancer, faster prancer, run as hard now as you can, sir. Stop your bulking when I'm talking. We must fill each Christmas stalking in a hundred million places. Dash or dancer, mind your paces, don't you dare to break the traces. Then I'd shake the reins and shout, to milkman that might be about, clear the way for Santa's sleigh because I'm driving it today. The party dress. All year long the timid maple has been dressed in prim and sober, little plain utilitarian gowns of quiet tints of green, but spring is gone and summer's past. And now that it's October, the modest little maple tree is costumed like a queen. Just look now through our window and I'm sure that you'll agree that her party dress is pretty as a party dress can be. The clock that autumn winds. School is like a clock that stops in vacation time. Tick-tock, tick-tock, a sing-song rhyme. Every school day is a minute. This clock has long minutes in it. In vacation time it stops. Not a sound at all, not a tick, not a talk. Hanging on the wall, waits the clock until fall finds it, stands upon a chair, and winds it. End of Section 5 Section 6 of A Little Freckled Person, a book of child verse by Mary Carolyn Davies. The sleeper-box recording is in the public domain. Recording by Little Peanut and Sweet Home. Conversation In proper sentences of purr and monosyllables of muse, when I have told my news to her, my kitten tells me, kitten news. The homesick star. The candle stood beside my bed and dropped a little tear. I sat up, shivering, and said, I know you're lonesome here. You'd rather have the sky than me. You've been too kind by far.  I'll send you home again for I was homesick once and no, and when you're safely in the sky and I am here below. Then don't forget me, candle, please, but twinkle very plain, on dark, dark nights about like these, above my window-pane. Then, though I am afraid at night that thieves might be about, I screwed my eyes up very tight and blew the candle out. The lonesomest fairy. There's a dewdrop shining bright on the grass by the sun undried. It's a tear that fell in the night when the lonesomest fairy cried. The present. The sky is like a Christmas tree. The burning stars its candles be. The moon's a bulky gift and odd. Mark to the world with love from God. Grief. Forget it soon? It's because I know that I'll forget I'm crying so. The Saturdays party in Fairyland. All the Saturdays met one day, each was very polite, they say. They shook each other by the hand and had a party in Fairyland. They wouldn't let any Monday in, and not one Tuesday at all could win, her way past the supercilious crowd, and Wednesdays why they weren't allowed. Thursdays could only stand in the street and look through the door at the things to eat, and the Fridays and Sundays pretended they didn't like parties anyway. But the Saturdays had the greatest fun. They played hopscotch and run sheep run, and frog in the meadow and pull away in everything else they wanted to play. They used the throne for musical chairs, as if the Fairy Queen's house were theirs. In rooms enchanted they ran and hid, and whatever they wished they could do they did. And after they played and played and played, they had pink straws in their lemonade, and the cookies and tarts were like a dream, and all the Saturdays had ice cream. I had my doubts when I heard, and you have yours, but strange things happen on foreign shores, and they say that the best fat ever planned was the Saturdays party in Fairyland. The sorrows of a seamstress. I'm learning to sew, and basting, and hemming, and all that, but I wish that the eye were bigger or the thread not quite so fat. My mother's garden is the sea. My mother's garden is the sea, if it is viewed aright. The sweet, elissum borders are the ocean's breakers white. The butterflies and hummingbirds are seagulls flying oar, and in our gravel garden path I pace, a foreign shore. The gymnastic clock. The little clock is friends with me. It talks as plain as plain can be, and says, each morning as it rises, now don't forget your exercises, both hands above your head, you know, then lower them very slowly so, oh, don't get tired and stop that way. I exercise like this all day, right in its face, then I say, poo, I wouldn't boast of it like you, but I can swing my arms round too, and so the clock then looks at me, and I look back, and I and he, each single morning when we rise, just exercise and exercise. Snowflakes. The fairies called snowflakes all dressed up in white, they went to the dance, and were dancing all night, and now they lie tired, wear sleep, chance to overtake them, step lightly, speak softly, take care not to wake them. Pirate song.  With a crew to take my orders, and scour the ocean's borders, I tramp along the quarter-deck, my ship upon the tide. A pirate, a pirate, I want to be a pirate. A sailing off to Tartary to India and Spain, I'd show them I was master, as we scutted fast and faster. We pirates bowled a search for gold across the Spanish main.  A pirate, a pirate, I want to be a pirate, to sail the seas for treasure and to keep it in our hold, to fear no foe nor nation, what a splendid occupation, to be a dowdy pirate in the daring days of old. A pirate, a pirate, but if I were a pirate, I couldn't have a pair of skates, a football or a sled. So when I think it over, though I'd like to be a rover, I'd rather be in our house, and be myself instead. End of section six. Section seven of A Little Freckled Person, a book of child verse by Mary Carolyn Davies. This labor box recording is in the public domain, recording by Little Peanut and Sweet Home. Our playhouse is so near to Fairyland. Our playhouse is so near to Fairyland I think the fairies come and peep to see how children play. So sometimes when there's something in the grass that sounds like fairies' footsteps very faint not far away, we sit quite still, all on the playhouse wall. But though we wait and wait for them to speak, they never do. Our playhouse is so near to Fairyland they'll come someday and start to play with us, I think. Don't you? New leaves. It doesn't do you any good to hide. Trees. Everybody knows you're there inside. Besides, although you think your head complete, we see your feet. Beach birds. Beach birds, beach birds, flying into me from the wide blue palaces of your home, the sea. What have you to tell about islands green and fair? Stories of the ships that tramp the trail to everywhere. Have you seen a sailor lad dreaming at the wheel? Have you seen the great shark's flash, white beneath a keel? Have you seen the savages dancing in a ring?  Beach birds, beach birds, flying into me in some far blue palace hall of your home, the sea. Will you tell the listening birds how, in a curious land, once you saw a little maid playing in the sand? The sky song. The sky stands up to sing before us, each stars a word, the moons, the chorus. A spring thought. The new birds tweet and buds come sweet and puffy clouds are in the sky. The world is full of little girls, but very few as nice as I. The zoo. We were walking in the zoo and all the animals looked at us, the bear and the hippopotamus, and quite a few lions and wolves and a yak and a new. And we were glad someone had made cages around them so that we could walk there and not be afraid, but could just pretend that they were free and could eat us both. If they wanted to. Six in June. The leaves are born, the organ man has gotten new quick tune. It's rained, the kitten's gone to sleep, and I'll be six in June. Cloud magic. Beneath the comfortable sky all afternoon I love to lie and think about the books I've read and all the things I dream in bed when I am not quite sleeping yet the things that day makes me forget. The white clouds looked like ships one day and then like lamkins straight away and as I look I understand just where it is that's fairyland is only lying down you know the clouds make pictures for me so when I stand up to see them why there's nothing there but clouds and sky. Ambition. A lonely little desert isle that was not comforted by all the oceans mile on mile, sighed wistfully and said it's hard sometimes to be content I wish I were a continent. Tree birthdays. Look look at me today is my birthday tree. See let me stand up so beside you how you grow. I'm tall but oh I'll never be as tall as you I know. Tree when's your birthday please why don't you speak I seem so small and you're so tall perhaps you have a birthday every week. In autumn I am sorry trees your leaves have gone and left you but don't cry don't shiver so you're luckier than I when summer's gone and falls here stern and cool I have to go to school. Don't tremble trees you shouldn't mind I wish that I were you you don't have fractions no nor maps to do and no one tries to make trees keep a rule I have to go to school. End of section seven. Section eight of A Little Freckled Person. A Book of Child Verse by Mary Carolyn Davies. The sleeper fox recording is in the public domain. Recording by Little Peanut and Sweet Home. Star cast. A star looked down upon the sea and to a lighthouse trim said he I wonder what you are. The lighthouse twinkled instantly why you are the aristocracy and I'm a working star. A news boy it must be hard to stand and stand but think of pennies in your hand. A playground. All the day from dawn till dark nations play within this park. East and west are in that swing feet that crowd and hands that cling. Europe leans to catch a ball in the shadow of that wall Asia sings and hugs it all. All the day from dawn till dark nations play within this park. Moons. Mountain moons are large and white mountain moons are round. I have seen the moons at night growing from the ground and I like the seaside moons in the sea blue sky. But in town the moons are also very far and high. The discovery. It often rains in our town and you know it always happens when we've planned to go. On walks or hikes or somewhere out to play it's curious how it seems arranged that way. We used to use those rainy days to pout and stand there at the window looking out and wishing things about the weather. Oh I never knew a wish to change it though. But now the gladdest secret. We don't need our dad to tell us stories we can read. We found that fairyland is everywhere. You open up a book and why you're there. Gardening is heaps of fun. Gardening is heaps of fun. We are partners with the sun for we help him make things grow with our spade and rake and hoe. First we spade the ground then rake it ready for the seeds we make it. Then in furrows carefully plant them as they ought to be. Soon above the ground we spy tiny green things push and pry little plants that from their night wake and climb to find the light. They are thirsty so we give water first that they may live. Then the weeds we vanquish so each we shoot may thrive and grow. Busy raindrops light and air haste to come our work to share for to them too everyone. Gardening is heaps of fun. Fairy town a lullaby. In fairy town in fairy town where fairy folks go up and down. Where fairy children we and gay frisk and romp in fairy play every day's a holiday. And every night is sweeter still for when behind the fairy hill the tiny fairy sun goes down. It's sleepy time in fairy town. Sleepy time in fairy town sleep sleep sleep while the stars of fairy town safe watch keep. All the fairy babies so off to dream and softly go sleep sleep sleep. In fairy town in fairy town each baby in a moonlight gown lies and dreams the live long night. Fairy babies are so white white and pink and we and bright petals of a rose a curl make a fairy baby girl. Autumn leaves all deer and brown make the boys of fairy town. Sleepy time in fairy town sleep sleep sleep while the stars of fairy town safe watch keep. Like the fairy babies go off to dream line softly so sleep sleep sleep. Straight hair I wish my hair would curl there isn't any other little girl with hair as straight as mine. I try to twine it round my finger so but oh it just won't grow that way no matter how I twist and whirl and coax it. If tonight I wish upon a star that it would curl oh then tomorrow do you think it might? Bedtime it's eight o'clock now kitten see good night sweet dreams of mice and me. End of section eight. End of A Little Freckled Person a book of child verse by Mary Carolyn Davies.