- We will call the CBG Citizens Advisory Committee to order. It is November 3rd, 2025. And we will begin
- with a roll call vote. And we'll begin, for those that are online, with a key written order. Hi. I just
- got my phone working, so I don't know what I'm doing. You have just acknowledged that you're here. Yes.
- Oh, I'm here. Hi, yeah, I'm here. All right, thank you. Kayla Cox Dexter. I'm here. Michael Denuzo.
- Denuzio, here. Denuzio, my apologies. Michael Burton. I'm Michael Burton. I go by they, them,
- and I'm here. And we have Jennifer Holland. And then we have Randy and Corey that are not yet here.
- But when we do come here, we'll bring them in. For staff, I'd like to... Hannah Killian-Hanson, Director
- of Housing and Neighborhood Development. Matt Swinney, Program Manager for Housing and Construction
- Projects. And Mitch Berg, Chair for now. And I'd like to introduce... Caitlin Cotter, student at IU.
- So with that, we'll move to approval of an agenda. We do have a slight modification to the agenda. Matt,
- do you want to? We do have a revised agenda, so there are actually two posted online for the public
- benefit. Yeah, so we changed the order, still starting with Boys and Girls Club.
- then moving to New Hope for Families, then Summit Hill BHA, then Life Designs, then Middleway House,
- and finishing up with My Sister's Closet. That's great. Thank you. Any questions on the amended agenda?
- OK. Here's an amendment. We have a need to elect a vice chair. And so I would entertain any motion for
- a vice chair.
- I'll do it. All right. So do we have to have a motion? Yes. We'll have to have a motion. I motion that
- the senator be our vice chair. Second. Second and third. We have a motion by Michael, second by Michael,
- or second by Kayla. All right. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye.
- Again say nay motion carries congratulations Jennifer. With that before we get into the applicant
- presentation I'd like to yield to Matt to kind of walk us through the process. So all applicants will
- get five minutes to talk about their project. Please be mindful the five minutes we have most of the people
- going between this and the upstairs social services meeting. We will have a timer present on the large
- screen. And we will have a microphone that we'll keep right here that everybody should sit at for their
- presentation.
- Once you give your presentation, committee members will ask any questions that they have. Once committee
- members are done asking questions, we will ask if there's any public comment. And if there's not any,
- then we will move on to the next presentation. All right, thank you, Matt. With that, let's begin.
- like to introduce yourselves as well before we start with that. Sure. Can I ask that you guys move those
- microphones close to you? Yep. I'm Leslie Absher. I'm the CEO of the Boys and Girls Club. James Kennedy,
- IT and Facility Director for the Boys and Girls Club.
- So today, you read the application, but we are asking for safety improvements for our organizations
- club. We're looking at the Ferguson Cresmont Club access control for our doors so that we have access
- to who gets in and out of our spaces with our kids. We can have a record of that, and we can control
- that as well. That's really important to us, but it is also very expensive. So it is one of the things
- that's been on our list for a while. We do external safety assessments that a national safety assessor
- comes in and looks at this. And this has been a recommendation of ours for a few years.
- had local law enforcement come and do risk assessments on our buildings to see how we can harden those
- facilities and keep our kids safe. And this has been on the list as well. We've got about 200 kids in
- that building every day. So kids ages six to 18 years old. And so there's a lot of kids to keep track
- of. And it really is helpful to know which rooms they're in and when with which adults and when. And
- so this access control will really help us with that. We've had auto locking doors and that that's one
- step in the right direction. But it becomes difficult with keys and things like that. So this
- be quicker access, it'll be safer egress, it'll make a huge improvement for us. So all of our requests
- are safety improvements, that's the first one that you saw. We have some gym floor repairs, parking
- lot repairs, padding in the gym as well, and then fence line access to our external building. We've
- had some people
- so dodging under that fence and coming onto our property, and we need to secure that up so that our
- property stays safe, so that people aren't on the property that we don't want on the property. Boys
- and Girls Club, just so you know, we're an organization in town that's been here 70 years as of next
- year. That Ferguson Crestmont building was built in 2017, and before we were in a little duplex apartment
- in the Housing Authority, who you'll hear from later, and we were thankful to be there for 25 years,
- but we only served about 30 kids in that tiny little building, and so great to have more kids there every day
- school now in the larger building but of course a larger building has more safety challenges to it in
- ways that we need to keep kids safe in that space and is more expensive to maintain so that's the request
- today boys and girls club kids in that club specifically over 90 percent of them are on free and reduced
- lunch about 68 percent of them are coming from single parent households it's our highest need club because
- of the location that it's in it serves the neighborhood kids a lot of times walk to and from the club
- location their bus there after school but they also come in the summer
- on break days we're open you know all day long during the summer from 7 a.m. till 7 at night so just
- a lot of kids coming in and out of that space and the more control we have over that and the more we
- know where kids are the safer they can be.
- As you know, things have gotten a little more dangerous in our world over the last decade, and we built
- that building almost a decade ago now. And so we're continually looking to improve that space to keep
- our kids safe. It's our number one priority. You hear us talk about safety all the time if you're around
- us, and we hired a full-time facilities director to maintain those spaces when we built those new buildings
- as part of our investment in safety and keeping kids safe. So thank you for your consideration of this
- request, and we would love to take any questions that you have.
- All right, that's phenomenal. Any questions from the committee? Maybe I'll ask Kate to see if she has
- any questions first. I don't have any questions. I'll write them in if I do. Sounds good. I just know
- being online sometimes, it's kind of hard to participate. So with that, any questions from the committee
- and president? I'm wondering.
- what the priority is for your asks if you're
- when they're partially funded. Absolutely. Kennedy, do you want to answer? Priority for us is access
- control. Having the police officer visit us and do an on-site assessment of that has proven that that
- needs to be a number one priority. Not only does that give us the ability to keep all doors locked at
- all times with an easier access and no loss of keys. If somebody loses a key when I'm changing out a
- lock or anything like that, I've got to shut it off. It gives us logs that we can see through at all
- times to see if anybody's in there.
- and how long toward the other priorities? So we, after doing the walkthrough with him, the priorities
- for us would be access control, the fence line getting that short up because people can't go under that
- fence right now because of weather erosion this last year. I know you guys experienced with the snow
- wiped out a lot of landscaping and so that would be second priority followed up by the gym padding,
- gym floor, then parking lot. Okay, thank you.
- Does that help address your question? Yeah. So it looks like, as I was reading through that, the gym
- floor repair had to do with settling, right? It is, yes. Do you feel comfortable that settling is complete,
- or is there going to be more of that? I've had several construction managers come in and take a look
- at it. They are happy with the way it's settled now. You can see the crack line of where it came down,
- and they're saying that it won't expand any further past that. OK. Great. Thank you.
- And can you just talk a little bit about the parking lot repairs? It's like a standard resurfacing,
- or are there some other things happening with it? So it started out as it was going to be resurfacing.
- And then we had the parking lot company coming out and look at it. They're the ones who donated the
- work in the beginning. And there's this part where it's starting to sink in the parking lot. And that's
- why, instead of just being like a resealing or something like that, it's deeper than that. All right.
- there any other questions from the committee yeah so you did you did thank you by the way you did a
- very good job explaining the importance of the access control and the fence line that that all that
- all makes makes sense what would be the consequence if we were not able to fund the gym padding or the
- floor or the parking lot we have
- happens all the time, right? We ask for funding, and we get partial funding, and we understand that
- everywhere. So we have other requests out. So we've got other opportunities that we could request funding
- for. Those, again, are not secure or guaranteed. But we would have a few other sources that we would
- go to to request items like that. Thank you, ma'am. I won't give up on it. It's not going anywhere.
- Fair enough. It is a top priority for us. Yeah, of course. We'll get it done. Any other questions?
- There are no further questions. If there's any questions from either the observer or the audience. Or
- any online. Members of the public. Are there any members of the public who would like to comment? Oh,
- that's what I meant. What did I say? OK. Members of the public that wish to comment.
- None. I appreciate your presentation. Thank you. Thank you very much. And then we'll move to New Hope
- for Families. Would you like to give your name? Sure. Hi, my name is Chase Teckenton. I'm the operations
- director at New Hope for Families.
- I've been there for about six years. New Hope's been in the community for about 13 years and in some
- new facilities for just about three. From the start, I'm thanking you guys for your dedication to serving
- our community, managing some complex funds, and reading through my application. So I'm grateful for
- you guys. I want to tell you a little bit about New Hope and then get into some of the details of the
- various things we're asking for. New Hope has two pillar programs.
- First is our family shelter. That's the only shelter where a whole family with kids can be sheltered
- from homelessness together. And families come and sleep at the shelter if they would otherwise sleep
- outside or in their car. It puts them in all kinds of danger, including separation by DCS. We keep families
- together in that way. When families enter shelter, they find childcare, then they find income, and then
- they pair that income with housing that they can afford and move out. They move quickly through the
- crisis of homelessness.
- Of the families who stay, about 80%, 82% exit to a lease in their name. And they do it on average in
- 90 days. You don't have to leave until you have success. A big part of how we're able to have that much
- success is our second pillar program, our Early Learning Center. That's where kids birth to five can
- enroll for $10 a week if they're enrolled in the shelter. And we reserve half to 70% of our enrollment
- for kids who are affected by homelessness, and they're using an income-based voucher to subsidize their
- care there. As you're all aware, housing is really scarce in our community, and so is childcare. So
- when we put those two things together, we help families be stable in the long-term. Just for example,
- there are three families I can think of in my two-year-old's classroom where two years ago, their parents
- were in the shelter. Now their two-year-old children are, one, their parents have been sober and thriving
- in employment for the last two years with their child enrolled, and another,
- A single mom fled her abuser. She's had her child enrolled there for the last two years. She just finished
- her CNA. And all those kids are meeting or exceeding developmental milestones where, by rights, they
- should be going through a lot of trauma and falling behind. So it's a really compelling pair of programs.
- I'm really happy to work there and proud to say we've got a lot of success with it. I think our application
- When I looked back over all the different text fields could use a little clarity. So I want to give
- you two buckets one is security we need some things to
- to sharpen up our security. We have some people with lived experience on our staff and we've gotten
- some feedback from clients that say they'd like to see some more cameras that can see more of the parking
- lot, more areas of the building. So that's one of the things in security. The other is the early learning
- center has shades. All four of the classrooms are on a central hallway. They have big open windows.
- You can see right through their outdoor classrooms and the shades that they could pull down in an active
- shooter situation are not complete and don't work that well.
- So we would like to replace those so that they could work better in a scenario like that or in a lockdown.
- The other security piece is an interior breezeway door for our shelter building. Right now, there's
- just one big door. And if you get in there, you can get all the way to the stairwell and pretty close
- to a lot of the function. So we wanted an interior breezeway. That's connected to our second bucket, which is
- renovating some parts of our new shelter building to add some more office space and programming space
- because while we do that housing first model, we want to get people into an affordable lease, we don't
- want to do housing only. So we've committed to follow every family who moves into a lease for three
- years. That takes more staff.
- and we're adding a community room and a few more spaces to welcome people back, do surveys with them,
- and just offer more care for people after they've left the shelter. So the things in the shelter renovation
- bucket include, for a little visual aid for us, we need to put flooring down. There's polished concrete
- there now, but we'd like to put in vinyl flooring and carpet tiles there.
- And we would like to enclose some of our spaces with closets so that we can have some multipurpose tables
- and chairs come out and also store some programming supplies for the after school program we like to
- do. We would like to do that breezeway door and we need a curtain wall.
- of four glass panels, like a sliding door. That'll enclose the community room, especially over summer.
- Ten weeks of summer, we do childcare for school-age kids right there on site, and that would protect
- the daytime staff from all that's going on in the community room during the day. So there are a handful
- of things there for the shelter renovation.
- Our HVAC system does not circulate air well enough, especially in the shelter bathrooms. And we need
- some active fans and to renovate that to prevent some of the mold that has come up from there.
- That's my time. All right, thank you. Any questions from the last panel? Committee members.
- Pretty similar kind of questions from a prioritization perspective. Would it be a good assumption that
- the security elements are a higher priority than the administrative? Right now, the security elements
- are a high priority, but I think that the shelter renovation elements and the interior breezeway door
- are the things that are most salient to this grant and least salient to some of our other opportunities
- to get funded. So that would put those things
- first year, especially the HVAC. The HVAC renovation, the shelter renovation pieces, then the shades
- and last, the cameras. And for the HVAC, you know, the building is still relatively new. Yes. It has,
- I'm assuming there are no longer warranties on the HVAC or other issues related to maybe getting some
- resolution from the original installation? The HVAC system is not broken. It just,
- And there isn't a way to get it remedied by the original installer. The design is simply poor.
- I don't mean, it just means it doesn't blow enough air around. It's improperly sized, which can often
- lead to other issues. Yeah. Separately, the showers in these bathrooms that have mold around them are
- in the corner like a baseball diamond, so we could build it more
- efficiently but I think just they open in the middle and water comes out which means that what may have
- been a good design for a bathtub is not a good design for a shower that gets a lot of water on the floor.
- So we think that will that will get us to the root of the problem along with some other remedies we've
- already done to protect against that water spilling out. I am so sorry you went through your priorities
- priority you listed them all but you listed them all really quickly could you give them to me one more
- time? Sure HVAC renovation.
- The broad list of shelter renovation items, the flooring, the curtain wall, the interior breezeway door,
- and those closets that are going in. That whole piece of the project. Then shades for the early learning
- center windows. And last, additional cameras. Thank you very much. Thanks.
- Any other questions from the committee? All right. Hearing any, any from the observer or members of
- the public? All right. Hearing none, I'd like to say thank you, Chase, for presenting. And I'd like
- to welcome Randy, who just came in at 546. So hearing that, we'll move right on to the next group. That's HCDC.
- BHA. You wanted to start off with your name and position? Sure, I'm Rhonda Moore from the Bloomington
- Housing Authority and we're applying through Summit Hill Community Development Corporation, our sister company,
- to do site improvements at the Reverend Butler affordable housing apartments. And we would like to do
- site improvements like we need to, or the playground tot lot was installed about 18 years ago and it's
- somewhat deteriorating and needs a lot of work done to it.
- So I would like to replace it, but I could, that could be if we didn't receive full funding, we could
- do repairs and pressure wash it and paint it possibly. Then we would also like to do some tree trimming.
- I've got all the scope of work listed out in the budget and those can be
- you know, kind of shifted around, do a little more of something, a little less of something else. We'd
- like to do some sidewalk replacements where walks are cracked. They cause trip hazards and we have a
- lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic across the grounds and they don't necessarily stay on the walkways.
- So it's causing, you know, erosion in places and they
- wear it down to the bare ground and we don't want runoff. So I'd like to do, I'm actually working, our
- ACE student from IU is working with a class and I'm helping her develop a plan that they can take off
- with and come up with a landscape plan to try to divert traffic to sidewalks and put ground cover where there's
- You know, all the mud areas. I know you guys usually do a property tour. If you're going to do that,
- then I'd be more than happy to show you some of the areas that I'm talking about. Let's see, what else
- have I got on my list here?
- So there's a couple of areas where we need asphalt replacements done. We had a small parking lot on
- West 11th Street repaved whenever we were doing our substantial renovations of the apartments. And that's
- kind of sinking in next to an ADA ramp. And I'd like to get that milled out and re-poured in there.
- So it's kind of a hodgepodge of items, but my number one priority would be to get the trip hazards,
- the trees trimmed so that we don't have any falling limbs, and then playgrounds, you know, whatever we can
- do with the funding on the playground would be great. Replace border and add the engineered wood fiber.
- Our maintenance calls it mulch, but I tell them it's ADA compliant wood fiber. Yeah. So add more of
- that. That pretty much sums up what we'd like to do. Questions? Given the fact it's in the Reverend
- Butler Park, is that part of parks?
- Responsibility or is this just something we're needing to do in order to accent out with the park itself?
- It's not actually Parks and Rec because we own the property. It's a taut lot. Yeah. So we own that property.
- And so it's not really parks responsibility because it's not city property.
- the BHA's park in order to take care of the residents and the children within that residence. Right,
- right. Thank you. I had the same question. Michael, I apologize. I'm new to these committees. Can you
- talk a little bit about Summit Hill and how you service the community? So Summit Hill Community Development
- Corporation is a nonprofit that was put together
- to help obtain grants and loans to help us do a major renovation of the Cresmont, Reverend Butler, and
- Walnut Woods communities. And those three apartment complexes were previously public housing, but we've
- converted to what's called the Housing and Urban Development Rental Assistance Demonstration, RAD.
- They're subsidized with vouchers through HUD, and they're all low income, affordable housing. Yeah.
- Thank you. They've switched from public housing to voucher. Yes. Is this a project based on vouchers? Yes. Yes.
- There's project based and another kind of voucher that's kind of right out of my realm, but they all.
- It's called housing choice vouchers. Yes, yes. Do you have project based that are for a particular area
- and then the housing choice, it's up to the voucher holder to choose where they can go. Thanks.
- You've done a substantial renovation up there at this present moment. Yes. So of multiple millions of
- dollars. Yes. In-house, what we would consider our public housing. Right now. Yeah. It's not a voucher
- system. Yes. You're still unable to provide everything you need. Unfortunately, it only goes so far.
- Yeah. Now, to ask the question again about the sinking asphalt, given the fact that that was part of
- the overall large thing.
- Can we ask the contractors? It sank on our time with your installation. It is out of warranty. OK. Yeah.
- According to the application, the beneficiaries here total around 56. Is that right? I'm sorry? The
- beneficiaries from this total around 56 people. Is that right? Yes, there are 56 apartments there. Let's see.
- 28 or 30 of them are two-story townhouse apartments, and that's typically where the family units are
- with the children. There are around 40 to 50 children that live in there at one time. Of course, people
- move in and out, and so it fluctuates, but yeah. Do you have a sense of those apartments? How many of
- those are single unit or single person dwellings? Are there any, or are they all family units?
- 56 apartments in Reverend Butler. Let's see. I think 30 of them are one story. So those are primarily
- elderly, disabled, single people. And yeah, the rest of them are family units. And then they're right
- across 12th Street from the Crestmont complex, which has
- I'm really bad at numbers, you guys. Sorry. I think it's got 206 or 208 apartments. And most of those,
- I think all but 56 or 60, are family units. So the majority of those are. OK. So the better fish raiser
- listed as 56. But that's not 56 people. That's 56 units that could have many more people. Right.
- Right, up to two per bedroom. Yeah. Are there any other questions? All right. Any public comments from
- members of the community online or in person? Seeing none, please move on.
- Thank you for your consideration, and thank you for last year's funding. We put in bike parking and
- covered parking and pods, and they're really being used, and we really appreciate it. The residents
- appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Robert. Thanks. So our next group is Middleweight Health, and then
- we'll conclude with my sister's closet after that. You skipped life designs. Oh, did I?
- Oh, you're right. Okay, then we have life designs coming up. That might as well. That's reassuring.
- Okay. Do you want to give an introduction? Okay, thank you. I am the Director of Housing Development
- and Facilities for Life Designs DSI. We merged with DSI three years ago, but we are
- We are a partnership with DSI, still retaining some of our Life Designs identity. Life Designs DSI has
- been serving people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities primarily for almost 50 years, the
- two organizations together. I want to say I really appreciate the opportunity to present tonight, appreciate
- your consideration and our prior funding as well.
- We are hoping to do a flooring rehabilitation throughout a rather large home that will be used as supported
- living. A little bit different than a group home when you look at the funding for it, but not to get
- lost in the weeds. We are hoping to support three to six clients who will live there with cognitive
- and physical disabilities.
- We want to renovate the flooring throughout the house. It's very old. Some of it was installed when
- the house was built. I believe that was around 1971. It's cracking. It's raised in some areas.
- We're concerned that it's a trip hazard and we would like to replace the flooring with waterproof flooring.
- If you've worked with people with disabilities, you know there are accidents and waterproof flooring
- is just a practical material. So I was thinking.
- it will provide a safer, more secure environment where the clients can live and receive services. They
- are special needs, and that does address a need identified in the consolidated plan. Again, grateful
- for the opportunity to present. It's kind of short and sweet, but that's something we would like to
- be able to do. Thank you. Just for the record, your name was? Oh, I'm sorry, Cindy Fleetwood.
- Any questions from the committee? So your total here, I'm sorry. Your total comes in at $19,420 with
- your 10% contingency fee and architect's fee. Was this a single source quote, or did you get quotes
- from the committee? We usually do a single source quote, but then we have to bid out if we receive the
- grant. So we'll get multiple quotes then.
- What I refer to as transitional housing in order to assist these intellectual individuals in need of
- help. Do you have people that live with them? They don't live with them. We provide 24-hour staffing,
- but the staff work in shifts. So there are no staff living there. So the physical improvements basically
- will make it better for the residents as a whole. But they're self-sufficient in regards to their health.
- It's for the residents, yes. And they're existing living there right now? No, they're not living there
- right now. We had somebody renting there, ResCare rented there. But they moved out. They found their
- own housing. And we want to put it to good use for our own clients. OK, thank you. OK. How many classes
- like design support in total?
- I think across, I mean, across the state, Life Design's DSI probably supports thousands. Any other questions?
- No further questions? Any from the public or online?
- Um, thank you. Okay. Thank you again. And no middle way houses online. All right. You mean go ahead.
- Yes. Good evening. Thank you for your flexibility. I live in Indianapolis and grateful to not drive
- home in the dark this evening. Um, my name is Chloe. I am the grants manager at middle way house.
- For those of you who might not be familiar, we are a non-profit, local to our community, serving survivors
- of domestic violence, sexual violence, and human trafficking, as well as their dependent children. We
- operate various different programs that support survivors, including emergency shelter, 24-7 crisis
- line, and legal advocacy. All of those services are offered in our new names building, which is located
- on South Washington Street.
- A lack of access to safe and affordable housing is a significant barrier to survivors of violence in
- our community and is also a critical factor in achieving long-term safety. In 2024, our emergency shelter
- house 125 adults and 103 children. We work with adults on achieving safe, secure housing upon their
- exit to work on other self-identified goals and reaching self-sufficiency.
- We are seeking funding through CDBG physical improvements to support the installation of a new fire
- panel within our newest building. We're the only program of its kind serving survivors of domestic violence,
- sexual violence, or human trafficking. Domestic violence survivors are a priority need population in
- our city's consolidated plan.
- As housing needs to change in our community, we remain a prominent figure for that emergency shelter
- and ensuring resources and housing are available to those who have a critical need to leave their current
- housing situation. Our program also aligns with the anti-poverty strategy as we work with survivors
- on their goals that are related to employment, education, receiving essentials, and we do that through
- case management.
- The current fire panel in our building is outdated. Though it still works, it will stop communicating
- with newer fire alarms. What that means is if we need to replace fire alarms in our individual units
- in a emergency shelter or throughout that building, we have to source older fire alarms, which can be
- more expensive, harder to find. Because if we were to install newer systems, they wouldn't communicate
- with our panels. So we would have kind of a disparity in the functioning of that.
- We don't want to fail a fire inspection. If we were, that might put survivors in our community at risk
- of losing their physical, their physical housing, jeopardizing their physical and mental safety. And
- so we're hoping to be proactive in installing new fire systems to prevent that from occurring and to
- maintain a safe and modern environment for our survivors. So CDBG physical improvements can help us
- in that task.
- I thank you for your consideration, and I'm open to any questions. Any questions? Yeah, when you install
- the new fire panel, will the older alarms need to be upgraded? We do plan on, with the installation
- of a new panel, installing new alarms in our emergency shelter units as well.
- The older pieces in the rest of our building, I believe, can still communicate, but the alarms we'd
- like to install in the system in our individual rooms, I think, are gentler alarms. They might not be
- so ear piercing, and they will also include a strobing light element. Okay, and that's included in the
- $11,334 cost? Yes, it is.
- On your fire inspections, this has been noted in regards to something. I will have to go through our
- old fire inspections. Our facilities manager had reached out to Horson, who was our servicer for the
- fire system, and who also is responsible for our inspections. And they had suggested the replacement,
- so I'm assuming it was pinpointed at some point. And I can provide any documentation of our most recent
- inspections.
- I just don't look at those in my day-to-day work. It's just part of a life safety situation that you
- have to deal with with residents. Because if this functionality stopped, you would have to unoccupy
- the facility. Right. Correct. Thank you. All right. Any further questions? Any questions from the public
- or online? If there are none, thank you so much. Thank you.
- My name is Sandy Keller. I'm the executive director and founder of my sister's closet and Before I begin
- I want to say that we have been wanting to be at this table saying that we are going to have physical
- improvement needs or
- for a very long time. We are over 27 years old. We've been looking for a building, and I am so incredibly
- grateful that you have allowed us to be here tonight. My sister's closet is
- asking for $190,000 to be able to help us with the renovation of a building that we just acquired. It
- is on the corner of West Second and Patterson. It is a vacant building right now, and it is 4,800 square
- feet. We have an urgent need because our lease is ending at our current location in June of 2026. We
- are seeking funds from the community and from various other
- fundraising endeavors so that we can move in before our lease ends. We are very, very cognizant of the
- fact that we might have an interruption of client services, and that's why this is such an urgent need.
- My sister's closet provides workforce attire to women who are going on interviews, and also if they
- get a job and they succeed, you know,
- clothing and accessories and hygiene products to help them fit into the job. But what a lot of people
- don't realize is the training services, the interview skill services that we provide them with, the
- way that we provide mentors and advocates to help them build resumes, to talk about themselves, just
- like a Kelly School of Business core project where you would have those incredible life skills to be
- able to help you make you stand out
- compared to your peers, because we are able to do this and work with these women over and over and over
- again so that the way that they present themselves on paper and the way they present themselves in person
- and the way that they are able to talk about their skill sets and transfer them over into new jobs,
- our clients are able to get hired. If there are 20 women in the room for the same job or 20 applicants,
- our client gets hired every single time.
- 85% of the women that we serve report that they have been able to find better employment within six
- weeks of services. Better employment to us means that we want you to try to be in a job that's $10 more
- an hour than what you were getting before with benefits. Majority of the women that we serve are single women.
- They are parents. They are grandparents. They are often homeless. 74%, 76% are reporting that they would
- like to get their kids out of foster care and out of somebody else's hands. So many of them are situation
- where they are leaving situations of domestic violence. There are substance issues. There are incarceration issues.
- all the different things that happen to people that we hope don't happen to people in our community.
- The difference with these women is their incredible tenacity and their insistence that they are going
- to have their kids look at them in a different way so that they can say that they are moving their kids
- forward so that their kids see a parent who is working. Our clients want to be able to take care of
- their own needs and become
- further and further closer to self-sufficiency, and that is what our big goal. We have multiple programs
- that we provide like financial wellness, but what we mostly are serving are women that are in the zero
- to 30% AMI category.
- We, this funding would supply us with the needs to be able to get the basics done to renovate this large
- building that is basically two very, very big garage bays that are uninsulated. And with a small office
- in the middle, we want to be able to transfer over our boutique that is our self-funding arm of the
- organization. Without that self-funding arm, we are not as
- funded organization and that is our primary goal to be that.
- We are going to move the boutique, the racks, the clothing, and the employees over if we are able to
- do this by the end of our lease. If we are not able to do that, then likely our services will go by
- the wayside if they do not give us a few more months on our lease to raise some more funds. So that
- is our biggest objective. We fulfill many of the things on the consolidated plan and the national objectives.
- and I would be so excited to answer any questions about our clients or about our project. Let's open
- that up for questions. You briefly mentioned in the application that you're obviously on a very aggressive
- timeline. You mentioned that if funding is not secured on that timeline that you might be able to work
- out a rental agreement to continue
- where you are. I'm just curious to hear a little bit more about that given the way that this funding
- rolls out. We are not guaranteed that we will be able to do that. Right now the county has been extremely
- generous in forgiving our rent so that we can make our mortgage payments to the new building. If we
- you know, need some flexibility, they have let us know that they might be open to that, and we would
- discuss that as we get closer to it. In the meantime, we have our very first capital campaign, which
- is extremely sexy to say, and we are raising money with a building or foundation for women. And so we
- have a gala scheduled, we have other events scheduled in partnership with collaborations with other
- nonprofits that we work with. We are going to be able to work with people so that they can figure out
- a way to serve. We just recently received a consideration from our architect for a part of his services,
- and we got matching funds just last night from 100 women who care to help with that. We are just hearing
- from several people that are stepping up there saying they want to help. My understanding is that
- My sister's closet has been looking for a space for a while. Is that true? Yes. Yes. At least since
- 2016. Since 2016. So this isn't you waited until the last moment. Uh-oh, the lease expires, right? You've
- been spending a lot of time looking for this space, right? There's a lot of check marks involved in
- this decision. Really, it's got to be on the bus line. It's got to be accessible, ADA accessible to
- many of our clients that are coming in with disabilities. It's got to be accessible to the women who are
- Funding us with their purchases and with their donations. It's got to be able to you know Be able to
- have enough space. It's got to be safe We recently got a grant for security systems from the Sophia
- Travis grant for the building But there are just lots of things that we need to make sure it would be
- able to have but the biggest thing is parking spaces and it has
- 30 parking spaces, which is really, really wonderful. So everything about it, it's on a corner. It's
- very visible. We believe the traffic coming into this building will be at least three times more than
- what it is right now at our current location. And because of that, we believe that we will be able to
- serve a whole lot more clients coming in with vouchers as a result. And because we are being stressed
- right now at our current location with the numbers coming in already, this will be able to help us do that.
- have a plan to add on to this building so that it will meet the needs of the space that we already have.
- But the new part of the extension will be organized in such a way that it gives the clients much more
- dignity. They will have their own entrance. We will have a place for children so that our volunteer
- grandmas can work with those kids while the moms are working on their cells. There'll be a changing
- area. There'll be a place for women to be able to nurse. There'll be a private bathroom
- clients to get ready for jobs if they are coming from a place where they aren't housed we will be making
- sure through our spot-in-a-box programming that they walk out feeling like they look presentable and
- that again they have high confidence.
- Can you talk a little bit more about, it seems like you and your folks working with you have done quite
- the hustle on collecting multiple sources of funding. Can you talk a little bit more about some of the
- other funding sources that are going to be part of this? We have a gala scheduled on Friday the 13th
- at the Old Woolery Mill. We are hoping to invite all kinds of people to that. We have another event,
- which will be a dinner theater event.
- the Country Club and that is scheduled April 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th. That is in cooperation with
- the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra. We're still working out the details with that. It will be on similar
- to what the Cardinal stage production was that we partnered with called Love Loss and What I Wore and
- we will have some of our incredible VIP women up on stage reading a Maya Angelou quote. We are going
- We have several grants on our wall. We have a grant wall that's gotten pretty big recently and it's
- got several different objectives and reaching out to the United Way for matching funds and for the Lilly
- Foundation and for several of our other local foundations and family funds. Can you talk a little bit
- about your support for trans women as part of my sister's closet?
- We have a number of women that have come in over the years from our trans community and we are able
- to help them in multiple ways. They get the same care and the same type of
- really hands-on love that all the other women come in to our organization, meaning that if they do not
- have clothing on the floor, we have other clothing in the back room specifically to meet their skeleton,
- you know, because their needs are different. Some shoes have been put away that are definitely larger,
- but we try to help them with hygiene, with makeup, with the interview skills training,
- confidence building. We recently had one of our trans clients that we enrolled in the Excel Center and
- we were with this person for quite a while because they did not have any typing skills at all getting
- them through the process where they were being
- logged on to the Excel system for the very first time. But we've had some wonderful experiences and
- they keep coming back and they keep supporting us after they get employed and telling us about all their
- success. Just like these other women, we have a unique situation that happens at my sister's closet
- because you have a team that is working with you when you start. And this one's getting you undergarments
- because most women do not own undergarments, underwear, bras when they come in.
- This one is doing that. Another person is getting you shoes. Another person is working with you on a
- resume. Another person is doing an intake to find out what your other needs are so that this isn't the
- only place you stop at if you don't have ID, if you don't have food, if you don't have a safe place
- for your children to sleep. It's a whole team that comes out to help you with the things that we are
- trying to get you to do. And trans women get that same team.
- When you meet with job success, these women walk into my sister's closet and they do something very
- extraordinary. They see these women who are shopping, they see these women who are volunteering, women
- who are staffed that maybe they haven't even met in their other appointments. And they walk in and they
- raise their arms up in the air and they say, I just got a job. And women come in from everywhere they
- are at. And they surround these women and they pat them on the back and they shake their hands and they
- want to know every detail about this new job they just secured.
- and it's this network that just keeps on empowering them and feeding them and reinforcing the fact that
- they're not alone and we try to help them stay in touch with us with this network over and over and
- over again so that they move away from the negative networks and we become their team so that they keep
- on succeeding. So it looks like from the AMI numbers that you provided
- So you have about 420 folks, all of them under AMI level of 50 percent, with 320 of those under the
- level of 30 percent, is that correct? Yeah, most of them are zero to 30 percent. Yeah. Yeah, occasionally
- when we come in at risk circumstances, they may actually have access to
- Cars they they may have jobs somewhere else, but they're fleeing a situation of domestic violence They
- we have had women come in from storm situations recently someone who came in from some flooding in in
- Maine We've had women come in from all kinds of different situations like the storms in South Carolina
- and Florida and the fires and you know the West Coast things happen to all of us you could get sick and
- Your life is good, but then something unexpected happens to one of your parents and a family member,
- and you are leaving your other job, and now you are helping them. So it's not everybody who is in a
- homeless situation or in a desperate situation of multi-generational poverty, but it is all women coming
- to us for the same reasons, because they need the support. Maybe not all in the same way, but whatever
- it is that they need, we make sure that they get it.
- amount of funding that you would need in order to avoid a gap in client services? Well, we believe that
- we are going to try to raise the entire $285,000 with gifts and kind and fundraisers and grants like
- yours. If we have to do it
- A little bit at a time, we have talked about possibly opening up just part of the building at a time
- and trying to figure it out so that we absolutely don't have to completely close off the services. But
- we're trying to approach that one step at a time. Yes. All right. Any other questions from those from
- the commission? Hearing none, we'll open it to the public and those online.
- None. Thank you. All right. And thank you again for letting me be here today. So excited. Thank you.
- Thank you very much. Before we move to general discussion, I think just because it says end public hearing,
- I'll entertain a motion to end the public hearing. So moved. Second. You have a first, second by Randy.
- All those in favor?
- Aye. Aye. As of guest, the motion is passed. The hearing is closed at 6.26 PM. And I will yield to Matt
- for initiating what's the next step. If anybody has any questions about the rest of the process or anything
- that we've done so far, feel free to ask. We can discuss and answer any questions that you might have.
- So maybe just a quick question here is for those since we're on television, even though they thought
- maybe what's the next step so that people are aware? So the next thing is you guys are going to do the
- very hard part of the whole thing is figure out what your allocations are going to be based
- on our guesstimation of funds. I will say it is a little bit better this year. We don't have quite.
- The huge ass that we usually do, we usually have more than double what our estimated amount is. So that'll
- be a little bit better, but it'll still be some very hard decisions. So you guys will make your allocations
- and turn them into me. And then our next meeting will be to go over the allocations and finalize them.
- So. I'm sorry, Michael. Go ahead. So the idea that I was going with is we were kind of targeting 500,000.
- as the like what we would probably have because it looks like our ask total from everybody if we if
- we funded everything is yes it's 40 million right right so yeah whatever I whatever the final number
- was that I put on the allocation sheets that I sent you was five something I think it was 505 okay something
- like that yeah so the idea is we need to turn in our suggested allocations before the next meeting and
- then at that next meeting we'll talk about that as a group yeah yeah the
- The calendar that I sent you guys has their due noon of the day of the meeting. Yeah. You want it back
- in our spreadsheets that you sent us? Yeah. So if you guys send it back in the spreadsheets, then I'll
- take everybody's spreadsheets and put them onto one large one that will average everything out so you
- guys can kind of see where you guys fell all together.
- Yeah, then we'll kind of go through line by line and try to get it nailed down. Or you guys will.
- I just help. Wherever you need it. For those of us that are comfortable working with Google Sheets,
- I sent out a link that has a calculator. So we have all the different components. That was really nice.
- Yes or no, you can talk. I just had an unrelated question. I come from Minnesota, and I'm hearing every
- day what happens in Minnesota.
- work in Indiana, but in Minnesota, of all your insurance premiums, a certain amount goes into DOLA,
- or Department of Labor and Industry, and Minnesota has a state-peak grant that runs through OSHA.
- And as a city minister, I've been very successful in getting OSHA grants to put electric key card access
- for my city house. And I don't know if Indiana has any similar program, but if they do or something
- like that, that would be worth your share to our groups as well, because I do know that
- We know when you put in new systems, there's always things that come up. Oh, we didn't realize that
- the computer now doesn't talk to the new system. So we need to upgrade and purchase a new computer,
- or there's key pops and ongoing meetings. And so something that maybe to see if your staff could look
- to see if Indiana has a similar program. Well, OK, so any other further questions from the committee?
- Yeah, I do have, maybe I should have asked when my sister's closet was here. And without wanting to
- get too far into the weeds, if we granted them, if this goes all the way and we granted them something,
- your calendar said that money isn't going to get cleared until June, which is when they need to be there
- and not factoring in a government shutdown.
- spend money in May and then get it reimbursed with a grant that was just released in June? It doesn't
- smell. There's a lot of very intricate timeline pieces to that. I know. So if everything would fall
- into place, even before we get our money and before we even have agreements in place,
- there would be a possibility for them to get reimbursement starting June 1st, which is the start of
- our program year. But that would mean that they would have to have all the environmental review stuff
- done and completed and approved by HUD before that. And if that happens, then we would be able to reimburse
- back to then. But we would still be tied to we can't actually give them money until we have the grant
- in our possession.
- Now, I have- In the best possible scenario, the reimbursement would be somewhat delayed, or? Right.
- I mean, we typically don't give money until September or later. So I have talked with them about that
- situation. And basically, all this other fundraising that they're doing, they would try to front end that.
- and do whatever they could to maintain themselves until they got that. And basically, I just tried to
- explain to them that they have to maintain kind of a standalone project that they haven't started. Because
- if they started before that, that's a choice-limiting action, which
- then negates their eligibility. So we've been in talks about it, and we're going to continue to be in
- talks about it so that they can maintain their eligibility and plan for a project to use the money for.
- Because they're going to have plenty to do. Obviously, their biggest initial need is getting in there
- in a timely manner. That's probably not going to be what this is going to be used for, but it may be
- for the development of their add-on for the extra services.
- separated out as a different project or something? Yeah. So the way that I view this, taking from what
- you had said earlier in the previous meeting, anything that we're looking at, we should assume we're
- making the yes, no, the incremental decisions on these. But these are all serviceable agencies within
- the window. They will ostensibly meet the criteria. They may be shuffled around a little bit.
- We're not looking at it from a feasibility, from a timing perspective. We're looking at it from the
- feasibility of the information they've provided. Is that correct? Yeah. So I basically vet the applications
- before they get to you guys. So if I see situations like this, then I reach out to them and talk to
- them and make sure that they understand you're not going to get this money by the end of the year. Because
- we've had people come in with that assumption.
- So you have to plan out, you have to be able for this project to wait. And I make sure that they understand
- that. So we try to make sure that there's no surprises and people are all on the same page. And say
- for my sister's closet, those folks have been coming to CDBG for physical improvements for decades.
- Yeah. I mean, they were here when I worked there in the 90s. Yeah, most of the people.
- have a very good understanding of how this works. I mean, you get change over in personnel, and you
- have to kind of start over. But they usually have some institutional knowledge of this is a good opportunity
- for funding, but it's not going to be immediate. No. And it's a great avenue to demonstrate local support
- for other grants and things like that, too. So of course, they're going to be back. Yes. All right.
- Any other questions from the board?
- I'm not from the commission, but I do have a question. So for anyone who's not aware, I'm an IU student,
- and I'm just interested in this process. And Matt was kind enough to let me join. Mitch asked,
- so thank you. I have access to the review portal, but I'm guessing those won't be taken into consideration.
- You're not going to be a voting member. That's what I assumed. But you're welcome to.
- go through the entire process, do the scoring, and participate in discussions. But yeah, you're on it.
- You're auditing the committee. Just a little clarified, how about that? Yeah. All right. Well, having
- appreciated your interest. Thank you very much. If there's here no further questions, I would entertain
- a motion to adjourn with the next meeting being? This is the 13th, I believe. Next Thursday. Next Thursday.
- I so motion. I second. All right we got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All
- those against say nay. Motion to adjourn has been approved at 6 36 p.m. Thank you.