♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Welcome everyone. I want to welcome you and call to order the Lexington Fayette Urban County Council Work Session. Today is October 15, 2024. And the first item on our agenda is public comment for issues on the agenda. And it looks like we have no one signed up today. So there is no docket today. And that moves us to the table of motions for October 8, 2024. Motion approved. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Council Member Gray seconds. Are there any questions or corrections? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. There are no budget amendments today and no budget adjustments. And that takes us to new business. I'll entertain a motion to approve. Second. Council Member Savigny moves and Council Member Gray seconds. And first up is Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. Number N, please, as in Nancy. We received that e-mail from you, but I think just for the general public's knowledge, why don't you go ahead and tell us what's going on with this one, please? Okay. We're at the phase. You all remember we talked during the budget phase about putting the money in for our participation in the regional park. And it's a partnership between Madison and the City of Berea and the City of Richmond and then Scott County and the City of Georgetown. So this would allow us, the three of us will be putting in, essentially counting the state dollars for each county, about $4 million each. So it will be a total of $12 million. This phase will go toward the purchase of the site. It's the Wiles Farm. It's located out around the high school in Scott County. This phase will then, like all development phases, go toward the putting the entire park together, laying out the master plan. This agreement that you've got before you today just sets up the entity that can oversee that, manage it, legally set it up according to the Department for Local Government, and gives everybody equal representation, each county equal representation on the board. Thank you. I just wanted to kind of give an update where we are. And now number J, as in Jello maybe. I don't know what J is. Jan, like my mom's name. Commissioner Barbary. Could you, this is for the collective bargaining. Could you tell, we've got a bunch coming up. Sure. What's the? This is for the next four. Right now we're in the process. We're actually going to meet with both corrections unions on Thursday of this week to try to get those moving along some more. This is for the next four contracts, which is two fire contracts and two police contracts. Right. So where do we stand? How do we stand on everything then? As far as when they expire and stuff? Yeah. So the first one, the next one expires going to be the fire, the lower fire rank contract. And that'll be at the end of this fiscal year. Okay. I just, I know they're, they're coming. And then we're going to have three of them all come up at the same time. The next fiscal year. I'm sorry. The next three will all come up at the same time. The following fiscal year. Right, right. I know they're coming up again. So thank you. Thank you, ma'am. So commissioner Barbary. About this item. Then is it staying on the docket? I know that. Oh, this is just to hire the negotiator to do the contract. Talked yesterday. Some about the software. Oh, no. That's going to be L. I think is going to be the one that is their motion. You're going to do that one. Okay. Very good. All right. Thanks. Thank you. Council member Reynolds. Thank you, mayor. You're one step ahead. At the request of the administration. I would like to move to remove item L under new business items pertaining to software licenses for the materials recovery facility. So moved. Thank you. Council member Ellinger. Seconds. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That passes. Was there anything else? Council member Reynolds. Okay. Thank you, mayor. Commissioner Barbary. This is regarding letter J. I just have a question. So do we seek outside legal assistance because we're trying to have hands-off in this endeavor? Or is it that we're just not capable ourselves in the law department? It's for a lot of different reasons. There's normally a professional negotiator on the other side of the table as well. Part of it is the amount of time. Part of it is the complexity. And part of it is just the value of these contracts. Whether you all realize them or not, some of these contracts are worth hundreds of millions of dollars when you add them up over the course of the entirety of the term. So those are the reasons. We tried to do this, I think, in-house maybe when the first round that we did these, which collective bargaining has been around since maybe 2005. And we had some people in HR, like the HR directors themselves, had some professional negotiating experience. And we tried it in-house for a while. This model seems to have worked pretty well the last few times we've used it. So you're saying we lack the expertise to do this ourselves? It would be, it would, when it's up and running, it would take someone's probably full-time attention to be on top of it. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Council Member Menard is. Thank you, Mayor. I was wanting to call up Chief Walsh for item B as in Boyd. All right. Item B. Chief Walsh. Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Chief. I'm very excited that the project that we have been working on since the spring, and this is part of what I put in committee before going out to summer recess, which is improvements for fire recruitment. We have been in communication with Southside Technical Center because I found out that even though the program had been in place for three years, none of the students that graduate from the EMS program at Southside had actually gone on to apply to our fire academy, and I wanted to know why. And write-alongs were not taking place between Southside students and our fire department, but they were allowed to do write-alongs with fire departments in surrounding counties, and so I had conversations with Chief Walsh as to why that was and to see if we could make a change to that. Those students expressed the fact that they develop relationships with those fire departments, those firefighters become their mentors, and that's why they went on to work for those other fire departments, and the lack of having write-alongs with our fire department greatly impacted their decision to not apply for our fire academy, so this is just a way to use this resource and create this pipeline of recruits, especially when we continue to face such a deficit of firefighters and specifically paramedics. It is. Thank you very much, and we're very excited about getting this program off and running. Thank you very much. Can you just speak to the council about just additional things that you requested just to make sure that you were comfortable with this moving forward? Sure, absolutely. So we have been in talks with Southside. This was something that they had wanted, and I know Commissioner Armstrong had made it a priority, and we appreciate your help as well, kind of helping us navigate this with Southside. We were able to sit down and establish some criteria for the age of the write-alongs, and it's not a tremendous lift for us to allow those individuals to ride, but I do think it will create some really amazing relationships and build some bridges where there haven't been before. Thank you, Chief, and thank you so much for your help and the help from everyone at Southside. Our law department and Fayette County Public Schools. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chief. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Mayor. Kevin, this one's for you. Item O is my item in committee. It's about the tech ecosystem. It's in BFED, and I just wanted you to report kind of where we are and then basically how many responses we got and then kind of the time frame that things will be rolling out. Yeah, I'm trying to remember. I think it was six responses. I have to go back and double-check. I didn't bring that up with me. So the selection was Techconomy, who has actually done this with similar cities. They will take a look at where we are now. They've actually gone ahead and started gathering their data, doing a look back at where we are and trying to size up the reasonable aspirations we can have. We're going to be in town also to meet with our tech community and hold those stakeholder groups. From start to finish, they have told us this product will take six months. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. That's it. Thank you. Is there any other question about new business? All right. All those in favor of approving, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Thank you. There are no communications from the Mayor, either appointments, donations, or procurements. And that brings us to continuing business and presentations. So I'll entertain a motion to approve the council capital projects. So moved. Second. Thank you, Vice Mayor, Council Member Plowman. Second. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Thank you. And at this time, I'll turn the mic over to Council Member Worley for his general government planning committee report. Thank you, Mayor. And I have two report outs, one from September and a partial report out from today. At the September 10, 2024, general government planning meeting, the first item was approval of the August 29 summary, which passed unanimously. The second item was a review and update of parental leave policy. Two recommendations were made. One recommendation for the program was to offer four weeks of paid parental leave for birth, adoption, and foster child placement, bringing foster child placement more in par with the others. The second recommendation is to give flexibility to the human resource director to make exceptions in unique circumstances. A motion was made by Council Member Baxter to approve the proposed update, updated changes, and seconded by Council Member Reynolds. That passed unanimously. So on behalf of the committee, I so move. Second. All right. Seconded by Council Member Baxter. Are there any questions? All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. The next item was a review of short-term rentals in the rural service area and agricultural areas of town. There was a re-presentation from the recommendations made by the Rural Land Management Board for those short-term rental regulations. There was a conversation had, particularly around hosted versus unhosted short-term rentals. No action was taken on that item as it was decided to be postponed until today, which will be a part of my second report out. And then finally, we heard an assessment and historic preservation. We heard about assessment and historic preservation of Lexington's African-American hamlets. Tiffany Brown gave a great presentation about what a steering committee was doing, about the historic and economic overview of hamlets in Lexington, and then particularly that 705 Caden Lane will become a dedicated cultural hub that houses the history and legacy of hamlets in Fayette County. Obviously, Council Member Plowman has been very dedicated to that project for some time. We appreciate her for that. Next, I have the partial sum report out from the October 15, 2024 meeting today. The rural short-term rentals were presented yet again. The item was introduced by Council Member Sheehan and Plowman, and Council Member Plowman made a motion to amend the proposed regulations relating to short-term rentals. Section 313B, with a conditional use permit, unhosted short-term rentals on parcels 10 acres or less, seconded by Baxter. The motion passed without dissent. Next, Council Member Plowman made a motion to amend the proposal relating to short-term rentals. Section 313G5, to change the spacing requirements from one mile to 500 feet for unhosted short-term rentals with a conditional use permit on parcels 10 acres or less. That was seconded by Council Member Reynolds. The motion passed without dissent. Thereon, the entire regulations as amended were moved by Vice Mayor Wu to approve, seconded by Council Member Plowman. That motion passed without dissent, and so on behalf of the committee, I move to put this forward for the entire council to initiate a zoning ordinance text amendment and changes to the code of ordinances related to rural short-term rentals. So moved. Second. Thank you, Council Member Reynolds. Seconds. Please log in if you have questions. Any questions? I have a question, if I might. Council Member Worley, does the change in the ordinance say in the AR zone? All of these items wouldn't necessarily be in the AR zone. I'd have to look at the language itself, but this was related to anything that was outside of the urban services boundary. Okay. So while there are different zones that it may be affected, this was intended to be anything outside the urban services boundary. And once you start getting into acres or parcels 10 acres or less, that will be affected by their zoning as well. Okay. Do you have anything else to add to that? So the AR inside the boundary are not included. Is that correct? That's correct. Because we do have quite a few ARs still. This is only related to properties outside the urban services boundary. All right. Thank you very much. Anything else? All right. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. And then lastly, Mayor, if you all remember what we've always had to do with short-term rentals, because part of the ordinance changes are the zoning ordinance text, which initiate to the Planning Commission and come back to us within 60 days. Parts are code of ordinance changes, which we could do at any time. So all of the code of ordinance changes found in that proposed ordinance, I would move to table until a certain time, that time being the time in which the zoning ordinance text amendment changes come back and be reported out to this work session in this committee. So moved. Second. Okay. Council Member Ellinger seconds the motion to table, and that is not debatable. So all those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Is anyone opposed? All right. That motion passes. Thank you, Mayor. Okay. Thank you very much. Any further questions for Council Member Worley? All right. Next up, I see our Fayette County Clerk, Susan Lamb, is with us to give our 2024 November election plan. I think it's in the works. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much. It is a pleasure and honor to be here with each and every one of you all. And, yes, we are very, very busy. This is something that I don't know if anybody could ever plan for this. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mayor and Council Members, for allowing me to speak and share this information with you all about our upcoming general election and voting options. As the Mayor said, I'm Susan Lamb. I'm proud to be your Fayette County Clerk. And I am representing an amazing group of Deputy County Clerks who are working very hard across the road here to ensure that Fayette County is accessible to all who want to vote and exercise their right to vote. And I hope that everybody will. I'm not shooting for anything high, just 99%, you know, turnout. I also wanted to let you all know that I did share this vote flyer this afternoon. We have just been so busy. I shared it with the Council Members and Mayor. I'll share it with your staff and the Public Information Office as well. And I appreciate your all's leadership and help in getting the information out to the public so everybody knows how to access everything. This is cool. It buzzes when you turn it. So KRS 117076 Subsection 1, it's created early voting, and that was back in April of 2022. Again, some of these things you already know, but I've got to say it for the public. In fact, somebody's already seen the presentation in the work session packet today and called our office and said, you don't have the six days early voting absentee with an excuse. And I was like, well, I'll add it on there. So that's why this wasn't on the original one. There are six days prior to November 5th that you can vote in person absentee with qualifying reasons. That is October 23rd, 4th, and 25th. And October 28th, 29th, and 30th, that is at our office at 162 East Main from 8 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. It's on the second floor. Go to room 202, check in, and they will send you down the hallway where you can exercise your right to vote. Also this time on October 31st, November 1st, and the 2nd, you can vote in person absentee with no excuse. And this is often commonly referred to as our vote centers. We were very fortunate this year that we could continue to team up with our libraries. I tell you, Lexington Public Library is an amazing, awesome, awesome entity. We're so pleased. And we're utilizing their large meeting rooms to facilitate more options for voting on these three days. Last November, we actually were only able to use three of the libraries, but in May and now in November, we're able to use all six libraries. And here's a statistic that's going to be interesting to see what we surpassed this year. In November of 2023, we accommodated 16,712 voters during the three days at four locations. So get ready because we're going to blow the socks off that number. It's going to be crazy. Something else that we have three locations where the entities at these three locations withdrew from being a voting location. So I thought I would take this opportunity to say this in a public forum. Lexington City Church is no longer one of our voting locations, and Morning Point of Lexington is the new voting. 4057 was one, and now that they have backed out, withdrawn, and that's Central Baptist Church. And the other is Southside Church of Christ, and the Olika Temple will be the new location. Cards and notices are going out with that information, but I thought I'd take this opportunity. So on Election Day, we have 135 voting locations, which includes the consolidated locations and individual precinct locations. We still have all 286 precincts. Let me restate that. We have all 286 precincts still available today. As we did in May, we will also have six libraries open on Election Day, which is really exciting. That's 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at any local library. You can go and vote at any of those locations. It was a hit, even though the turnout was really pitiful in May, with a 12.8% turnout. It really was pitiful, but it gave us an opportunity for our election officers to experience on the Election Day what it's going to kind of be like. So polls at your precincts and all libraries, again, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. If you are inside the voting location and you are in line at 6 p.m., you will get to vote. Remember to check your precinct location online at the govote.ky.gov to make sure you go to your correct precinct, unless you want to go to a library, and you don't have to worry. You can just go visit the library and check out a book. Also, this is our new campaign logo, Know Before You Go. This year, we are going to have two constitutional amendments and one referendum, so make sure that you encourage your constituents to read those before they go. Folks, the lines are going to be long. They are going to be long. It is a front and back ballot. It's not a docket. I'm out of that room right now. It is going to be, and there's three questions on the back, so please encourage your constituents to know before they go. You can read them on our website at FayetteCountyClerk.com, and it's under the Elections webpage. Now, last time, I think I spoke on another part of our election process. This time, I thought I would talk a little bit about our absentee ballot process. The voter registration closed on October 7th, but our absentee ballot request portal is still open until October 22nd. It opened on September 21st. Interesting points. Once we receive your request for an absentee ballot, we have four days to prepare your request. We pull the request from the State Board of Elections voter registration system, and we print the labels with barcodes for three different envelopes. We print the ballot specific to your precinct, scan the outer envelope showing what day it is to be mailed. It is being mailed, and then we take it to the United States Postal Service. Now, what's funny is that our office has been processing a thousand absentee ballots pretty much a day. It's been unbelievable. And we still have seven and a half days, folks. We have a lot of absentee ballots. So each ballot is mailed with instructions, and it also includes the cost of postage to return. However, if you are downtown or if you want to drive downtown, you want to pull up right outside our office, you can hop out of the car, and you can put it in the ballot box, which is video surveillance 24-7, and it's very safe and it's free. And we check that ballot box every single day. Party Parity goes down and collects the absentee ballots out of it every day. We cannot start processing absentee ballots until 14 days prior to the November 5th date. And we accept absentee ballots either by mail. We go and check the United States Postal Service mail, and we check our ballot box at 6 p.m. at the end of the election day, the last day to vote. Here's your fun facts. So since the primary, we have had 4,791 new voter registrations to bring our total today for 247,988. Now, while that might seem like a lot of new voter registrations, if you look back at the 2020 presidential election numbers, and we actually had 250,923 that registered voters for that election, which really surprised me. I thought that we would have more now. So, again, absentee ballots can be requested through October 22nd at 1159 p.m. As of today, we have received 10,803 absentee ballot requests. We have issued 10,451, and we received back as of this morning 3,404. Yesterday, we go and we pick our mail up at the post office, and we picked up 951 ballots from the post office yesterday. Might you say that the office was lined until they scanned them in? It took them about two hours. I have the hardest working crew ever over next door. I'm telling you, they are amazing, and they do it with a smile on their face. For comparison, in November of 2023, we had a total for the whole absentee ballot portal, 6,615. I expect that we will far exceed that, if not close to triple it for this election. And like I said, we still have seven and a half days left in that portal. And anything that we receive that is postmarked on that October 22nd, we will still continue to process that as well. It's anything that's postmarked after that day. We're going to have a huge voter turnout. It's going to, and we've been preparing accordingly because we're expecting very long lines. It's, you know, just tell your constituents to expect that. Did I go back one? No, that's right. All right. This is, again, know before you go. We are strongly urging everyone to read the two constitutional amendments and referendum. It will be on every ballot in Fayette County. We have, it's a front and back ballot. It means it's going to take longer to fill out. We have added a privacy booth, luckily, in our libraries. They have lots more tables, so we have privacy screens that we've added to our capacity. So we're hoping to have 30 and 40 privacy screens set up for 30 to 40, you know, voters at a time. And we're trying to think through everything and make sure that we can make things as fluid as possible at all of our locations. And if I could remember who asked me this question, I'd tell them the answer, but I'll just tell you all. Somebody said, why can't we use felt tip pens to fill in the ballots? And I didn't think about this, but they can bleed through. And so the bad part about it is, is that if it bleeds through and you've got a front and back ballot, it could unintentionally cause an overvote and could affect your vote. So we have to stick to the ballpoint pens. Sorry. Mayor and council members, again, I really appreciate you all's opportunity. I know this is something new because my predecessors just, I like telling you all about it. I like talking to the public about it. But share this information. Share the vote flyers, please, with your constituents. Put it in your newsletters. I don't want anybody in this county to ever say that they didn't know where they could go vote. That's on me if that's the case. And I need you all's help. We want to increase our turnout at early voting on October 31st, November 1st, and 2nd, so that that can take some of the pressure off of Election Day. It's going to be very important. You know, again, don't wait to educate yourself until you get to that voting location. Please don't wait. Read those amendments in the referendum and know before you go. And I think I did pretty good. It's three minutes left. And that's not like me normally, so. Thank you so much. I'm sure we'll have some questions for you. First up is Council Member Allenger. Thank you, Mayor. Welcome back. I know you're all busy. I do think the reason is I think you said we have around 248,000. We had 250 the time before. Where is the 2,000? As a growing community, why would we be going down instead of up? I do think that there has been more attention paid to cleaning, making the voter rolls cleaned up. I do believe that has been a part of it. And, you know, I don't know. I mean, I would love to get in people's heads and be able to find out who was. I mean, people move and go to other places, and people forget to register when they come in here. You know, it's come to our county. I mean, that's the other thing. If you're from another county and you haven't switched your registration, I think you still can get a provisional ballot. And so you can still vote in the federal for the presidential election. So if you've forgotten that, don't think that your vote can't still count. It will. Thank you. And you said you can vote at the library the day of the last election day. You can go to your precinct, or you still could go to the library? Absolutely, yes. How do you all avoid that somebody would go vote at the library and then come over to their precinct and then try to vote again? How do we avoid that? Well, we have a pretty good system, sir. And I tell you what, it's the poll pads that we use to check in people. You know, in the past, it was the paper. And that didn't spread across the county. It was just a paper that it was at your voting location. Now we operate off the poll pads, and that spreads to all locations. So if someone goes and tries to go to one of the libraries and they go and vote and then they go to their precinct, it will sync up and it will tell them that they've already voted. So, yeah. I know it did, but I just wanted you to get it out there so if somebody says that somebody can go vote twice and we make sure that that doesn't happen. Thank you. If they ever did, then, you know, the general attorney will be after them. So, that I promise you. Thank you. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Ms. Lamb, for the presentation. I think there's the old saying of, like, council's loss is county clerk's gain. But I don't think of it that way because I think you're still here actively helping the residents of Lexington do their civic duty and stay engaged. And I really, really do appreciate how concise and how simple to understand your presentation was. Do we still right now on our local ballots, is there still a party ticket box that you can check to go? Okay. Absolutely. But if you do that, remember Fayette County has nonpartisan races. Don't leave out our nonpartisan races. So. That's exactly. I was going to go on a soapbox for just a minute. Personally, I think the party ticket box is one of the worst things that you can put on a ballot because I feel like it bypasses your rational thinking and your ability to research your candidates and your issues. And you're just going to kind of do, in my mind, a lazy thing and just check, hey, I'm this party. I'm going to vote for every party. And a lot of people, as you said, I think there are people who go in, check that box, and walk out. And what they miss is all of us and all the local races and all the ballot measures and things like that. And I think everybody, at least in this room, knows that local elections really, really matter because we're the ones kind of doing the nuts and bolts day to day legislating and funding of everything that happens in this city. And I also want to encourage people to vote, people who may not think their vote matters. Especially my district colleagues can attest to you, some of these races are won by double, sometimes single digits. So your vote absolutely does matter. So I appreciate your work very much, and hopefully we'll get a really good turnout this year. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Are there any other questions? If I might, Vice Mayor, I have just a question about absentee voting. Having military members of my family in all parts of the world, do you have any anecdotal or other history now about military members and whether the timing is sometimes off for them to receive a ballot and get a ballot back in or anything like that? I will say, and you know, that's the one statistic that I didn't bring today, and that's on me. Actually, that statistic, I think we have had, I bet you we've probably surpassed 600 federal and military absentee ballots, which is unbelievable. It's like four times as much as I've seen in my short time. That's for Fayette County. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. It's serious. You know, we had someone in there today that was trying to navigate that. And, again, I think, I feel like that, you know, the United States Postal Service, we're really working hard with them across the United States to make sure that they take high priority for our absentee ballots. And they have really, they've increased their, I don't know, their regimen that pays attention to the ballots in whatever form they are. And, of course, the way that we have the federal and military, it's kind of unique how they're sent instructions and then they have to, you know, create their envelope and everything. It's really, it was mind-blowing when I first saw that. But I feel really good about it this year because of the fact that I think that the United States Postal Service and the Postal Inspection Services are heavily involved and have heard our cry from the county clerks and other election jurisdictions that we're, you know, we didn't feel like they were giving us the love that merited for our absentee ballots in whatever form they were coming back. Because we received a bunch back after the May primary. I believe we, it was like 100. And that's not acceptable. And there's nothing you can do. But I think that I feel good about it. And I'm hoping that we're going to continue working collectively to make sure that the Postal Service knows that they have to make this a priority. But I'm anxious to share the numbers after we get through this to see what we receive back. Okay, very good. Yes, ma'am. All right. There's no one else signed up. So thank you so much. It's good to see you again in the council chamber, always. And get some sleep because you've got to run for the next few days, right? Well, my wife said last night that I sat up in the middle of the bed and I was saying that I couldn't sleep. And she said, I said, it's gone, it's gone. I'm able to fall asleep. And she said, what? And I said, pots. And she says, I don't understand. And I said, well, I don't either. So I don't know what pots are relative to absentee ballots. But I'm just grateful for the great team that we have. And you're all support here. I mean, you all are amazing. And I appreciate you all. But just get everybody out to vote. We've got to get that 99%, all right? All right. We appreciate you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have our update on affordable housing needs analysis. And I want to welcome Ed Holmes to the podium. Thank you, Mayor and Council. It's a pleasure to be here. And we're here to talk today about the affordable housing needs analysis project that we're working with Housing and Community Advocacy to come up with some recommendations and do a thorough detailed study on the affordable housing program. And I have with me Adam Clear. He works with the EHI. He's been the demographer and the data man that's going to go into more detail with you. I'm going to give you an overview of some of our findings that we found in the study and then go into more of the data that will hit hard at what everyone in Lexington has been dealing with. Okay. Obviously, Lexington faces a significant challenge at the intersection of economic development, population growth, and housing availability. And this is due, as we're seeing, rising economic prosperity has widened the affordability gap within our community. It's causing many previously moderate income residents to struggle and look elsewhere for housing. So it's been a serious problem. Similar challenges in affordability also in access to housing are being felt in many cities, highlighting the widespread nature of this crisis. The study provides analysis that's intended to inform policy decisions and community initiatives promoting inclusive growth and accessible access to housing. Some of the key findings you'll see in the report, you know, rent surges. Rent has been increasing at an alarming rate. You can see between 2019 and 24 it increased by 47%. Now we're looking at the average rents of about $1,200, $1,250, and in some cases even more than that. The significant increase has been within the past year of almost 9%. The number that everyone looks at is what's that gap? What's that affordability gap? $22,549 is the gap, and that's stressed across all the ranges of incomes. But what we're really looking at in affordable housing is how does this impact and affect everyone? And we'll go into more detail of what that $22,549 actually is. Our goal is to focus on affordability, and what we're doing is looking at how do you target area median income? Lexington's area median income is $62,908. We're focusing on that affordability gap between 80% and less of the area median income. The affordable housing fund, that was the fund that basically, you know, has been used since its inception to, let me go back and give you another number. $4.7 million has been allocated for the city's affordable housing fund. Of that, $1.4 million goes to the Office of Homeless Prevention and Intervention, and $2 million for winterizing and projects within the city. And we'll go to the, you know, the affordable housing fund, as you can see, has helped reduce housing costs and burden for many low and moderate income families across the county. These dots indicate where, so it's been some areas within New Circle Road is where the concentration primarily occurs, but there are some additional projects that were funded outside of New Circle Road within the urban service area. Challenges are securing sufficient funding. That's one of the bigger problems that faces every community. There's not enough money to get that $22,000, 22,000 household funded. Resistance is another development problem. We say we want affordable housing until you realize you want to put it into your neighborhood, and then there's a significant amount of opposition and resistance to it. The rising cost of management and construction, that's driving up the cost to build. And labor materials, those are not restricted to just upper income. If you have to build an affordable house, it's going to affect them as well. Ensuring long-term sustainability in affordable projects, we have to come up with some recommendations that will be long-term that can create some solutions to this. The significance of the fund is vital for Lexington's affordable housing needs, and it's been a critical component of this. Some data on the affordable housing fund itself, since its inception, they've invested $47 million into affordable housing in this community. That's including $17 million from the ARPA funds that were allocated to affordable housing a few years back. The city allocated $48 million, with $4.8 million in 2025. When you break that down into a number of units, 1,750 were new construction, 1,754 were preservation units, and an average investment cost of $13,000, $13,500 actually. Targeted were 33 units that were designated for home ownership, and home ownership still remains a challenge as we address this. Rental breakdowns of what they were funded, you can see that there, one, two, three, four bedrooms. They have funded special populations, elderly with 1,000 units, and supportive housing, 315, 14 units for survivors of intimate partner violence. You can see some of the housing costs. Homeowners are averaging $1,200 a month on an average. Renters are paying on an average of $1,000. The cost burden, renters, those earning 80% or less, are spending over, 54% are spending over 30% of their income on housing. And that's pretty significant when you're trying to keep it at a cost about 30% of your income. 28% are extremely cost burdened, and that's saying more than 50% of your money is going that way. Homeowners, 21%. Unemployment trends have spiked since COVID, and now they've returned back to pre-pandemic levels, and that also has an impact on housing. So it's more than just the number or the gap, but it's all those things that go into it. Within the study, we address several of those issues. And to gain some insight into what some of the concerns were, we conducted a survey. And the survey was designed together of just what the local perceptions were on affordable housing. We did that. We worked with some of the council members who participated in the surveys with us from February 5th to June 20th. And we also surveyed the homeless population with about a 27% response rate. Some of the key things that came out of the surveys was over half the respondents actually struggled with affordable housing costs, being able to afford their housing units. Maintenance was another critical issue that we saw in this. And high costs are driving current and former residents to more affordable surrounding communities. So we've looked at the migration in and out of Lexington for work, and where are you living? And we're seeing people working in Lexington, but living outside of the community. The lack of housing variety was another one with a perceived shortage of housing options. And difficult in affording housing and maintenance costs. We measured that, your housing costs. And over half said, yes, they have a difficult time in affording and maintaining their houses. Some of the demographics, I'm going to let Adam go into detail on that, and then I'll wrap it up with some of what our key findings and recommendations are. Welcome. We've got about six minutes left out of your 15. All right. Thank you for the introduction. I'll try and rush through here, just hit the highlights. The chart on this is loosely related to the text. I just wanted to call it the chart specifically, which has a breakdown by household income and race. And really, it was intended to indicate that there is a racial component to the disparity in availability of affordable housing. So in addition to that, we also saw that household income predictably increased with home ownership and decreased with renter-occupied households. That's not necessarily indicative of their ability to afford housing, but it is a consideration when we get to the aspect of housing affordability and housing cost burden. The housing cost trends, as Ed pointed out, have been going up significantly in recent years. And there was a significant spike. There's a chart here in just a minute that will show a significant spike in the COVID period, but it doesn't actually relax back to the same increasing trend in cost that we saw pre-COVID. It continues to be elevated, that rate of increase. The map that Ed showed earlier kind of hinted at the fact that a lot of the naturally occurring affordable housing, which are units that are unsubsidized but offer housing at affordable rates, tend to occur on the north side of Lexington in those inner, inside New Circle Road, north side neighborhoods. Here we go. This is a chart I was exactly talking about. As you can see, the market asking rent per unit has been increasing steadily since 2010, but there is a marked increase in rate after COVID, even after it's sort of stabilized and then continued to increase. These are somewhat projected as well based on aggregate data. The median sale price is the chart on the right there for just a reference for home ownership for sale housing costs. As Ed mentioned, our focus was households at 80% and below of area median income. So we highlighted that data here to show you that of the 22,000 plus units that are required, of which there's a deficit here in Lexington, 17,000 of them, which is 75%, are in that 80% and below sort of bracket. So there's a significant need as you go further down. So I'm sorry, I lost my place a little bit here. As you can see, while owners typically spend a little bit more, renters may spend less. However, when we compare it with the household income for these households based on their tenure, we see that renters are more house cost burden, as we'll see. So the blue bar in this chart indicates the total number of households. Purple is owner-occupied and renter-occupied. There is a significant burden for renter-occupied households. Owner-occupied households are worthy of attention, but the vast majority of the housing cost-burdened households are renter households. It is also worth noting here that this is a disparity that has happened simply because average wages in Lexington are going up, but not necessarily across the board. So some people are being left behind by a successful economy here in the city. The hourly wage requirement to afford a modest two-bedroom household rent here in Lexington would be $23 an hour, which is significantly higher than the average pay at the moment. This is really what Ed was referencing earlier, where paying our way out of this situation would be exceptionally difficult. We projected three different scenarios here, where the standard rate that we were paying for to subsidize affordable housing, that $13,000 that Ed mentioned, would be placed across the board over the next 10 years to either close the housing gap entirely, all of those units that are needed, to just maintain the gap as it currently exists, as there are projected new gaps, deficits coming in the coming years, and to close the gap by a small amount. As you can see, it is almost $300 million to close the gap over the next 10 years, which was higher than projected in the previous study in 2014. The problem is increasing, and paying our way out of it is not really an option. We'll need some of those policy interventions that Ed had mentioned. As you can see here, this kind of highlights the fact that it is somewhat more of a rental household problem. The total housing gap is on the left. The renting household gap, broken down by income, area median income percentage, is on the right. We are losing time here. You are almost out of time. I'll ask you about how much time do you need to finish. Five minutes? Five minutes will be good, yeah. We'll keep going at our break-neck pace. Well, could I have a motion to extend them by five minutes? I move. All right. Let's see, Council Member Plowman and Council Member LaGree, all those in favor, say aye. Aye. All right, good. You've got five minutes. Thank you very much. Further highlighting this, but also putting it in a regional context, we wanted to point out that this is not a Lexington problem. It's not something specifically inherently wrong with Lexington. This is something that communities around the nation and around the state are struggling with. You'll see on here that the rental gaps in other communities in the state are commensurately high, or sometimes more so. As you can see in Jefferson County, they have a rental gap of 18,000 and a half units. It is a problem of national scale. And finally here, we wanted to kind of break down, sort of show you a breakdown of how this gap was estimated. I would have gone into more detail, but I want to leave some time for Ed. He's got some more policy-focused slides coming up. And if there are any questions, I'm happy to answer them about this slide. All right, thank you. OK, I'll speed through my final four minutes. How do you close this gap? And how do you come up with some policies that can actually move it forward? The Affordable Housing Fund has done an excellent job, given the amount of funds they've had to work with. And they've leveraged that in a variety of ways. They've been creative in what they've been able to do. In order to increase the housing supply, you get the zoning tax amendment. That's before you increase housing supply through density bonuses. That was one of the recommendations, I think, that's coming out of that. ADUs, you've all heard and discussed that in detail. Diverse housing types. If we can create and expand zoning for multifamily and do some creative public-private partnerships, as you see what's being done with the Transylvania proposed housing project, where the banks actually partnered with some local nonprofits, lower development costs, and the consideration of possibly inclusionary zoning would be something that could, from a public policy standpoint, move that forward. Things that you've done in Lexington, the housing fund, housing stabilization program, home dollars, community development block grants, there's a variety of local dollars that have gone into this. The Housing Authority uses their voucher programs in Section 8 to address the rental piece. Kentucky Housing Corporation, they've got the tax credit program that's been leveraged quite well with the Affordable Housing Fund, the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and some bond financing. And they have some small programs. So there are some local, state, and federal programs that Lexington is taking advantage of. And we have to continue to try and leverage those dollars. Other federal programs, you see the host of them there, from HUD to veterans, new market tax credits, inclusionary zoning, density bonuses, land banks. Organizations like Habitat, Habitat for Humanity, Urban League, Community Land Trust, which maintains permanent affordability, those are some. And some strategies for best practices. Public housing in Section 8, that's one that's been pretty successful. The Affordable Housing Fund has supported townhouses development, single family and multifamily. They do a variety of ownership programs, specialized housing projects. And then, like I said, being creative in how you leverage your dollars can hopefully at least close the gap. It won't completely eliminate it. But the cost of rising demand for affordable housing and rising costs, they never quite come together. What we've seen were some best practices with other types of trust funds, dedicated revenue sources, land trusts, how do you scale and replicate what's been done in other communities. And what I call is innovative design incentives. Prioritize and incent those projects through some type of expedited permitting processes would help significantly. And some of the key takeaways, diversified funding streams, public-private partnerships, and innovative funding. Thank you. 29 seconds. All right, thank you so much. We do have, I'm sure we'll have some questions if you can take questions. Do I have any questions, council members? Vice Mayor Wu? Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Mr. Holmes, for your presentation. A lot of really good data and a lot of stuff to absorb. One of the stats I saw earlier was about student housing. One of the things that we hear a lot, particularly from UK, but I'm sure other universities as well, there's a lot of bragging about increasing enrollment. Are you seeing any movement in terms of these university partners actually building any housing to keep up with it? And if not, is it essentially becoming our problem? Is that lack of housing shifting the burden onto us? We talked to the University of Kentucky and their housing officials over there. And they're not really planning on building any student universities. They're at pretty much capacity on their student housing. And what you're seeing are private developers building student housing off campus. So it's becoming, it's being addressed by off-campus housing. And our estimate was there are about 10,000 students. Was it 10,000 that are considered income burden? And we didn't even factor them into the 22,000. But it's a problem that's there. And students are playing a, and they're taking some of the other affordable housing units away from. Yeah, I just wonder if they're looking at it kind of the way we're looking at it. Because so much of affordable housing just can't really be done by the market by itself without either regulatory changes, or incentives, or gap funding, things like that. I just wonder if UK, such a big, what do you want to say, a consumer of housing, isn't proactively addressing that in that way. If they're just waiting around for private developers to hopefully develop student housing, do you have any sense talking to them that they have any plan of working with developers? I think they are working with developers in some of their programs of off-campus housing. They're not doing that significant amount of on-campus housing. What they are building or committing to is completely filled. So from our discussions with them, they have been discussing with other off-campus developers. You see some significant off-campus student housing projects going on. So I wouldn't say UK's totally divorced from working with them. So I just don't know how closely they are. But they have had some discussions with off-campus housing developers. Well, I appreciate you having those conversations with them. Because I think it's going to take all of our partners in this entire city. I don't think anybody can be siloed off and say this is not our problem. It becomes all of our problem. Earlier, too, you listed a lot of resources, programs, and different funds, grants, things like that from the state, federal levels. Are there any particular funds or programs that we haven't been leveraging that you're looking to explore, or programs that we aren't taking advantage of fully? Is there money out there still to be had for this work? I think your low-income tax credit has been pretty successful, and Lexington's been good at taking advantage of that. We're still trying to figure out the role that opportunity zones play in the community. And that could possibly be a way of leveraging some sources of funds that haven't been done in the past. And my last question, and this might be a question better for Rick McQuadey, who's not here, but in terms of the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, there's money and there's capacity, right? So does the work of the trust fund have the capacity to take on more funding if more funding was available? Or are they just keeping up with the current funding level right now? I think they have the capacity if they had the funding. It's not for a lack of projects that they don't have before them. They have more projects than they do funding. So they have the capacity if the funding was available. Great. Thank you for all this really great information. It's a huge concern for, I would say, all of council. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Council Member Gray. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for your presentation and the study. It's just a point of information. I know my residents will be very upset if I didn't clarify this. In the packet of the Affordable Housing Needs Analysis Report that was sent by Tiffany Mastin to the council members to us earlier today, on page four, number 13, I need to clarify that 40516 is not the east end. It is actually in the sixth district, which is the northeast, which is the Bryan Station area, which includes the rural part. So that area, just my residents, I know if they look at this and I don't say anything, I will have issues. That just needs to be clarified and updated. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Mayor. And thanks so much for this report. There was a lot of screens with quite a bit of data. Did you guys take into account the, we have a fair number of seniors living in single family homes. And I don't know if you looked at the demographics of age in homes and ages coming into Lexington to see if some of the problem will resolve itself over time, basically, where seniors are moving out of their homes or exiting life and someone's coming in to buy that place. And then the other concept is their incomes are extremely limited. And then the impacts of the fact that their biggest asset, they're never really going to cash out of. And they're paying a higher tax. I mean, basically, they're paying more taxes on an asset that they've owned for a long time. And you didn't mention any sort of policy-based thing that we might be able to be more supportive of seniors staying in their homes. So we didn't examine anything from the aspect of age-based migration or cohort survival. But what we can say is that the vast majority of seniors either live in a home they own outright, and most of what they're struggling with is housing cost maintenance, or they're living in senior housing specifically. So a lot of times, those situations won't necessarily resolve themselves. When someone passes away, either the house is inherited or it's sold and the cost is passed on to the next purchaser, the increased cost, the accrual. Or if it's senior-based housing, they're vacating that housing and another senior will take their place. And I'm just not sure if the senior house will trickle down to another affordable individual. Especially if it's an air-based property that airs, then they're probably going to sell the house, get the highest amount of money that they can. You just trailed off there, so just the last sentence. I said, if it's an air property, it will probably go to the airs and they will probably sell that property or they could move into it and try and get the highest value that they can for that property. Yeah, and I guess what I'm wondering is, is there a, you would think the data would be, you would, there should be data that would tell you there should be data that basically says, hey, in the last 10 years, we had, you know, this is where the population was and this is how it migrated out of single-family housing or out of the housing market. So, in some sort of predictive analysis of what we have right now at what, in the age groups in single-family houses. Do you know what I mean? I don't think we did it by age. Okay. That's all my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Quite honestly, I think it's important. We know 25% of our population's over 55 and it's the fastest growing demographic here. So, yeah. Council Member Baxter. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you all for your presentation. Council Member Legree and I were just flipping through this whole report very fast, trying to, no, we just wish we'd gotten a little bit sooner because it's got a lot of really great information. So, my question to you is, in doing the survey, and I know you and I have had this conversation about the perception of affordable housing, just the public perception of what that word means and whether it's big A or little a and all the things. So, when you were going through the survey, did you, did you come across any communities or any information that led you to believe that one, the perception of affordability has changed over time for Lexington, or two, ways other communities have addressed that issue? Because if we're looking at our, the Urban Growth Management Zoda and density bonuses and things like that and trying to figure out how we add density in areas where the community gives pushback, would any of that come up in any of your research or survey results? The perception of affordability, still, the vast majority of the public here feels that it's low-income, very project-based type housing. And when you look at affordable, what the cost of affordable housing, to build a unit is, you're in the 250, 280. Something about it is affordable. Thousand dollars, and that's an affordable house. So, there still is a disconnect to what the public perceives as affordable and what it actually costs to build an affordable house. Yeah, I think that that's an ongoing issue that a lot of us fight with. And I know as we get, as we have zone change hearings that come up and we're talking about different types of housing stock, some districts fight harder than others against different types of housing stock. So, I guess I'm just, I'm trying to figure out a way that we approach it as a kind of holistic approach, you know, if we're trying to increase density and essentially eradicate our. You know, for so long, we've been trained through zoning, you know, 10, 12,000 square foot lots or an average size lot that people aspire to live in. And that's where increased density, you're gonna see lot sizes much smaller, you know, three, four, $5,000, 5,000 square foot lot. So, we've gotta educate the public in smaller is better and also much more affordable. Sure, okay, well, that's all I have. Thank you, thank you, Mayor. Thank you, any other questions, council members? Council Member Legree. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Holmes, I just wanna say thank you all for this report. I know that we have a lot of different kind of bits of information that we can use to inform policy practices. And like when I look at your list of best practices for affordable housing trust funds, you know, you have seven different items listed here. Are there, you know, items on this list that you think are more immediately actionable for us? And we've already dedicated a higher level of consistent funding to our affordable housing trust fund. You talked about kind of more zoning-oriented practices and smaller is better. Is there anything else that you think that would be helpful for us to provide immediate attention to that's really accessible for us as a governing body? I think being able to work with, you know, you've got maybe two, three non-profit development organizations in town. Trying to craft projects and programs that can work closely with them, you know, like Habitat, Urban League, Housing Authorities have been using the affordable housing trust fund significantly for some of their houses. So trying to craft non-profit builders so the profit motive might not be as great as you would see in a poor profit builder because it's still gonna be difficult to get for-profit builders to build affordable housing. So trying to get your non-profits viable so they can go in and build some affordable housing, I think, in the community land trust model. I think that's still a viable one that will work. Well, thank you. And I'm looking forward to spending more time with the report. I think this is really helpful guidance and information for us. Thank you, Mayor. That's it. Thank you. Are there other questions, Councilman? Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Mayor. And thank you for a presentation. I used to say this a lot, and then I finally got corrected. We keep wanting to say trust fund, but it's really not a trust fund. Charlie, can you give us the difference on that? Because I think there is a significant difference on saying that. And I said it for a long time till I was finally brought to the correct. You saw the light. I did see the light. It's funny you should mention that, Councilmember Ellinger, because we were just sitting back there correcting ourselves amongst the staff, saying, oh, it's not a trust fund. Trust fund would be if you had a dedicated funding source. If you had, it was tied to a specific tax or a specific revenue stream, and it was held separately from the city budget in its own separate trust fund. We fund it through the budget process, which is fine, and we have that dedicated ordinance that sets the dollar amount. It serves the same function, essentially, but just doesn't meet that legal definition of a trust fund. Sure, and that's why I never, I always said, and then finally I got, I've gotten to where I don't say it anymore, but there is a difference, and thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gray. Thank you, Mayor. Sorry, I just noticed something else. In the analysis, Councilmember Shayla Lynch's name is spelled repeatedly incorrect. If the analysis could be updated as well, that would be great for us. Thank you. Is there anything else, Councilmembers? All right, we thank you so much for your work and the presentation, both of you. Thanks a lot. All right, that brings us to council reports. Councilmember LaGre. I'm very excited. I never log in first. Everybody, I'm really excited to share that the second round of the Lex Grow Trees grant funding is now open for applications just in time for Tree Week. As you all know, this program is funded by our government. It's all about making Lexington's tree population healthier and stronger, and so we're encouraging non-profits, neighborhood associations, and businesses to apply for funding to support tree planting and maintenance projects across the city, and you all saw the impact with organizations that were funded in your districts, and so in round one and in round two, we're asking you to put out this information because we're really focusing on equity, and these grants will help address tree canopy disparities in neighborhoods that need tree canopy the most. The deadline for applications is going to be November 27th, and we're really hoping to see a wide range of projects that will reflect the diverse needs of our community. So for anyone who's interested, there are going to be two virtual information sessions on October 28th, and you can find all the details, including the application process at lexgrowtrees.com, that's L-E-X-G-R-O-W-T-R-E-E-S.com, and you'll see a press release about this soon. Thank you to all of my colleagues and the staff members who have been involved with making this process happen. We're really, really proud about heading into round two. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Gray. Excuse me, Council Member Lynch. I'm the other one. Just a few announcements regarding some things happening in the second district this week. I just want to remind my neighbors that on tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the STEAM Academy, our district two district-wide meeting will be taking place. I invite everyone to come out. We have a great list of speakers. I would like to remind everyone that on Thursday is National Domestic Violence Awareness Day. The month is October, but on Thursday, don't forget to wear your purple in honor of the awareness of the month. This happening this weekend in the district, to kind of echo Council Member LaGrie, one of the three-week events happening in the second district is learning how to be a tree evangelist. It is happening from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at 125 Long Branch Lane, so I invite all of my neighbors and everyone in the city to come out for that. Just want to remind all of my Garden Meadows neighborhood folks that the neighborhood picnic is this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. right in the Garden Meadows neighborhood. And then also this weekend is the Madison Station yard sale that will be going on Saturday and Sunday, so everyone is invited to come out and shop in the second district. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you, Council Member Gray. Thank you, Mayor. First of all, residents of the sixth district, it's that time again. It's time for our fall district-wide meeting. Yes, it will be happening at the Bryan Station High School in the cafeteria on Monday, October 21st, starting at 6 p.m. What will be happening during that meeting, you ask? Well, it will be the following. We will have Roger Mulvaney of Traffic Management who will be there to answer all your questions regarding traffic and ways to get drivers to slow down a little bit. We will also have Christian Adair who represents the sixth district on the Parks Advisory Committee there to speak with us about the parks referendum that will be on the ballot. And we will have Director Jeff Heron there to speak with the residents of the sixth district about the winter plan regarding the motels that we talked about during the last work session. Next. Last week, we kicked off Lexington Tree Week right across the street from the sixth district in the 12th district at Mary Todd Park. Next, next, I have to say next. And these right here are some pictures from that event. Please stay tuned for all the activities that are taking place around the city of Lexington. Unfortunately, we don't have any activities happening in our district, but I'm hopeful that next year we will have something happening in the sixth district. And last, and that's me digging up, that was me. I did that by myself, not at all. Last week, I had an opportunity to speak to the students at my former middle school, which is Bryan Station Middle School, the Bearcats. Speaking with the students about what it means to be successful and how we can begin being a leader no matter what age we are, even without a title, it is possible to lead. I'm here to support all the students at Fayette County Public Schools, but especially those that are in the sixth district. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Reynolds. Thank you, Mayor. And I regret not getting my photos in in time, but I do wanna thank you for your proclamation on Saturday for the Meadow Fest. Meadowthorpe was celebrating their 75th anniversary as a neighborhood, and the mayor did a wonderful proclamation. I was able to contribute by planting a tree for Tree Week, and there were a ton of people there. It was a lot of fun, a beautiful day, and the Meadowthorpe Neighborhood Association had planned out all of these great things, including vendors from the neighborhood and an aerial picture of everybody making a 75 in the lawn. So it was really exciting. Also, we had the Lane Annual Picnic and the Gardenside Annual Picnic this weekend, and I really enjoyed visiting with everybody. I'm gonna go quickly through a bunch of announcements. I think October is a very busy month, and so I wanted, I know Council Member Lynch mentioned domestic violence, so this Thursday from 5.30 to 7.30 p.m., the Fayette County Sheriff's Office is inviting you to join them for Survivors' Tribute for domestic violence. So that's at Courthouse Plaza. I hope that you will stop by for that. Then also wanted to mention Townley Park is having their Cider and Sips and Pumpkin Dips from 5.00 to 7.30 at Townley Park Clubhouse. And then going on to Saturday, we have our Urban County Council Expo Series, which you've all heard about by now, from 9.00 to 11.30. It is in the 11th District at Marksbury Family Branch, so I hope everyone will join us for that. I will be there the whole time. And then the Fall Festival in Valley Park is still happening even though there's construction there, so that will be from 1.00 to 4.00 p.m., and that includes costume contests. And then the Diwali Celebration is happening at 3050 North Cleveland Road, and that is going to be a big Indian celebration with cultural programming and food and different things highlighting the Indian community. So I hope that you will stop by that. And then we have the Spiegel Hill Halloween Festival from 6.00 to 8.00 in Spiegel Hill Park. And then the Salsa Showdown of the Bluegrass at the Clarion Hotel Conference Center if you want to see some dance. So lots of fun activities. Thank you. Thank you. Council Members Figney. Thank you, Mayor. Just to follow on on Saturday right after that Transportation Expo from noon to 2.00, we're going to have a district cleanup on Southland Drive. Teresa Rakes, who previously was honored by this chamber for her work on garbage collection and picking up areas that are unsightly, is working in my district, and I took on the challenge of working with her. So we're going to meet in the parking lot on Southland near south of Wrigley, and we're just going to walk up and down Southland, and we're going to pick everything up that we see that shouldn't be there. So come join us if you'd like to. We'd love to have you. And last, our Parks and Recreation team is hosting their final Freaky Friday Flicks at Moondance. They'll be showing the musical fantasy Corpse Bride, which sounds intriguing. Bring your appetites, blankets, chairs, and your best Halloween costume. The fun starts at Moondance at 6.30 on Friday. That's it, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other council reports? All right, that brings us to public comment. We have one person signed up, and the way this works is when I call your name, you'll come to the podium and restate your name and your council district, and you'll have three minutes. And so I'll call Laura Slaughter to the podium. Welcome. Thank you all very much. My name is Laura Slaughter. I think my council, or district is third. I wasn't sure. I'm actually here kind of representing Gleaning's Housing. We are a non-profit, local affordable housing development organization. We are actually totally volunteer. And I really want to just say to you, we need to think about affordable housing very differently. It's a huge issue. In the information that you got, there's 8,000 rental units that are, 30% of the AMI are below. This is the very poor, and there is absolutely no way our low-income housing tax credit, our affordable housing trust, our affordable housing fund monies are going to provide housing for this demographic. Our housing market can't. So it's some way we have to start thinking of housing as infrastructure. I went to a training once, and a gentleman said, please remember, the house is where your job goes at night. And especially for our service industry workers, the daycare workers, our nurses' aides, these are the individuals, they are actually working at 50% of the AMI or below, many of them. So they are the ones who are really needing rental assistance. And unless we do something differently, they're going to be paying too much of their income. We just opened up a triplex. We charge 30% of the household income. I have three units. And in five days, I had over 30 applications. We shut it down because we were getting too many. And not a lot of people know about us. So that's just telling the need. We just need, I hope we can work together as a community to really start looking at the very, very out-of-the-box thoughts to build more affordable housing. Home ownership too, but rentals as well. Thank you very much. Thank you, and again, congratulations on that first affordable housing, yes, that you did last week. All right, council members, that brings us to a motion to adjourn. All right, all those in favor, say aye. All right, we are adjourned. Thank you all for being here. ♪♪