001to see everybody again uh welcome to the February 15th 2024 meeting of the an renters commission the purpose of this commission is to advise the city council on the city administrator matters affecting renters in our city uh our commission is made up of voting members who are appointed by the mayor and approved by city council two non-voting city council Leons two non- voting members representing different landlord perspectives and a non- voting representative from University of Michigan Student Legal Services to speak during any of the public common opportunities you'll be able to speak either through the webinar link or by phone uh depending on your method of access to the meeting for phone access please call 877 853 35247 and enter meeting ID 935 881 941 uh also the instructions will be repeated during the public
002comment session great so we can move on to roll call as always uh please state the city and Township uh or state that you're calling from it's if it's not from an arburn so I am here calling from Ann Arbor commissioner Chen I'm D I'm here in welcome commissioner Kelly I am here in n aror as well nice to see you commissioner dran here and an arbor welcome commissioner Els you're in an arbor howy commissioner Lowe's here an arbor commissioner tibits I am here also in an arbor great commissioner Rosen I'm here in an arbor nice to see you commissioner ratliffe commissioner Thomas commissioner pitz absent commissioner good here Nan arber so nice to see you council member Rino here and an arbor hello council member Harrison here and haror howdy okay so we have
003a lot of people here this is great we do have Quorum um so we can move on to item three approval of our agenda is there a motion to approve the agenda as it's presented today I'll motion okay moveed by Patrick we have a second second okay I heard Jeff oh go ahead Travis okay sorry sorry um I was waiting for you to open it up for discussion but um I I apologize I can't stay for the entire meeting tonight um and so I know that it's not currently broken out but if you wanted um I have the bit of a report of the ordinance that's coming on Monday and so if you wanted me to give that if we could move that up in the agenda maybe to after the first public comment um
004I'm happy to do that okay sounds good do we have a motion to do that make that change I'll motion to do that okay Amendment motion Mak a change to the agenda thank you Patrick do you have a second second second by Jamie okay um any discussion on that don't think so okay uh all those in favor of making the amendment to the agenda say I I I all those supposed say nay okay so the proposed agenda is so amended uh so now we move on to voting uh well I guess we didn't exactly did did you say which part of the agenda you wanted it to be moved up to I figured just after the first public comment was fine yeah perfect okay uh so now we can vote on the amended agenda uh
005so all those in favor of adopting the agenda as amended say I I hi hi hi I'll just post a n okay we have approved our agenda great so now we can move on to item four approval of last meeting's minutes um now let's see this is approval not only of the January minutes but of the December minutes um great so do we have a motion to approve these meeting's minutes so moved thank you Jeff do we have a second second second by Dandan all those in favor of approving our minutes say I hi hi I was post a name okay with that we approve our minutes now we move on to our first general public comment that's item five and I'll pass it off to Kristen all right um public comment can be made
006by phone by calling 877 5247 or 888-788-8086 141 if you are calling in you can press star n to raise your hand to be called on to speak if you are attending through the web link you can use the raise hand feature um can address the renters commission for up to three minutes um if anyone is interested in addressing the renters commission go ahead and raise your hand and the zoom link is a2gov.org renters Commission meeting wa just another minute okay no attendees have indictive thank you [Music] Kristen okay so now we can move on to uh council member rina's report thank you um and sorry again that I have to leave a little bit early I have a conflict tonight um but I just wanted to give everyone an update uh on the ordinance
007work that you guys were working on and I know um commissioner Rosen has been working with our attorneys on drafting as well um and I think we have uh landed on a final version that was submitted today by council member Harrison and myself um and I believe council members Briggs Watson and Cornell have already signed on as co-sponsors um and this is the the first ordinance that we were working on to um clarify and update our early leasing ordinance and right to renew um and so there are a few changes that were added to it um the the biggest I guess thing that happened is we merged the two sections into one if you'll remember this is is um uh hopefully helping to clarify the way that the ordinance is both being read and understood
008but also enforced because previously they were kind of like confusingly referring to time frames and other sections and all over the place it was a little difficult to follow um so it is technically a repeal of um section 8531 um but ultimately that section is being absorbed into section uh 8530 and so um the content remains there but it's kind of merged together and and uh brought into a more cohesive uh law uh the second piece that that's happening is we're really hoping to strengthen some of the language and clarify some of the language in a way that would close up some of those loopholes um in conversations today um we seem a little bit more confident that um the language will will strengthen the city's position and being able to site some of these
009like early bird specials and things like that that um that ultimately some of the landlords were using to try to get around the ordinance and so um feel very strongly that this helps strengthen the city's uh position in terms of enforcement to be able to actually help protect some of the renters where before I think um you know after a year plus here now we we'd identified some some areas that needed to be um strengthened um and then uh there were also another change you will see which I think will hopefully help to cut down on confusion among some of the tenants who were trying to figure out if they actually did have a violation um is you know previously you'll remember there was a lot of reference to counting days backwards from the end
010of a lease um that was really kind of difficult and confusing to follow particularly when the the dates and the the the amount of days didn't align and so um this version actually changes that so everything is counting forward it's a you know 210 days into a lease um and so it's still this same amount of time um but it's it's moving it forward and the way that they made sure to address that for those leases that may be longer um because you know I when we were first drafting this there was concern that you know what if a lease goes to 13 months to avoid that or what if somebody has a three-year lease or a 2-year lease and so there's clarifying language in there that for leases that are longer than 12 months
011that date begins with kind of the last 12 months of a lease so all of the time frames are predicated on that last year of a lease um and so this is hopefully going to create a lot more clarity around this um I feel pretty confident from from conversations I've had with staff that the the city feels this strengthens their position in being able to enforce the ordinance um and and crack down a little bit on some of this bad behavior um and so this will show up for first reading on Monday um and then uh two weeks from now assuming that uh there aren't any considerable changes that happen in between um there would be a public hearing and a vote on second reading to to pass it and assuming it passes um it
012would then the the new version would go into effect 10 days later um and I see see Gail is Raising her hand and I'm thrilled with that because I was actually G to ask her if there's anything else she wanted to add because I know she's been working on well I haven't seen the final draft so I wonder if there's if the final copy can be shared with everybody yes it is it is published on legistar now and so I can make share that with Kristen to share around okay yes no I mean I'm hoping some there were there were some things that I was still uncertain about when I uh was talking to to John Riser but so I'll be curious to see what the final what the final draft looks like and and
013hope that it fixes some of the changes one of the questions I had though um that I asked John but I don't think I heard back from so this doesn't change the effective date of the ordinance does it like we're not starting over again correct I mean the the existing yeah that is correct the changes will just going to affect 10 days later the existing ordinance yeah okay thanks Travis um Jordan obviously we'll we'll see it hopefully um yet tonight even maybe but um the big thing with the like emailing time frame was that able to be addressed at all like that they can't solicit them so early on you know that was something that was really important to our small work group so we believe that this language this is where I'm talking a
014little bit about the strengthening of the the ability to enforce is I think there was um the way that the language was written previously referred to there are different legal terms I guess around an offer um and the previous version left a little bit of um wiggle room around what constituted an offer um we believe that moving forward any solicitation for Renewal it is a renewal offer um and so that is where this early bird special piece is specifically and so you know if you're if you're emailing and saying like sign up now and you'll save $500 you're providing an offer um and so they believe that they've clarified the language in a way that strengthens that um and yes I will send that over to Kristen right now so that she can um it
015out to folks but it's on the city council agenda for Monday so that's where it's publicly posted um and sorry since I I am giving an up oh you have another question about that zachari um so all right so since I am giving an update the only other thing that I'll give an update on and I don't know if uh Cynthia wants to chime in at all on this either uh I don't want to just pretend I'm the only uh the council member that could give an update here um the we also received uh we had a work session on Monday um and we Council has recently received a report on economic development opportunities in the city um and a big part of that is around housing Supply um and so it may be of
016interest to folks who um particularly on this body who are interested in additional housing Supply in the city but also um how that correlates to rent and um possibly the addition of additional renters but hopefully also additional Supply helping to um ease some of the burdens on price around the city and so the the report calls for um additional housing um at all rates um so market rate affordable um work force all of those things and so um making sure that that all of those different um types of housing are prioritized moving forward um and so just wanted to add that that that work session happened and there's a lengthy report but for those of you who don't want to read the lengthy report like those of us and Council needed to do um the
017work session might be a nice kind of a bridged version to with about a I think about a 2hour work session I think that's all I've got thank you I actually do have a question in your first part of the report sorry about that uh if 8530 is amended and you said that it would take effect 10 days after or you shortly after his passage how is there a plan to for how we would communicate these changes to landlords and what happens in the event that they've already made Communications that would violate the new version of the law yeah so so I unfortunately I mean the the new version is not law currently um and so it wouldn't wouldn't be in effect until 10 days after um and that's just kind of the rules around
018posing and new ordinances taking effect um but um but then yeah the city the city generally then will um it falls on the kind of the administrator and staff to to inform of the changes and of course we'll need to make updates to our website things like that um I am confident that I mean in reading the language myself I am confident that it is much clearer um and so hopefully it's a lot easier for folks to understand uh when they're reading through and so it might even be something that you know we want to update on our website things like that to make sure we're getting the word out um but particularly I think um you know I will share it with I know some folks who are in some of these you know
019student um and parent Facebook groups and things like that where this is a Hot Topic and even just using our personal networks to make sure that folks are aware that the change has been made um because I think uh ultimately uh once that goes into effect um if folks continue to see this happening uh that's where um we hope that they'll file uh especially if it happens again even if it's happened to them before and they didn't feel like they were there was enforcement before if it happens after the new ordinance uh hopefully there might be new recourse for them to be able to enforce against that circumstance um and so but unfortunately yeah until it goes into effect the current ordinance is still what we're going by thank you of course any other questions
020oh go ahead jul um I was just uh maybe need to put it on the agenda for our next meeting to once it passes to see if we need to change the booklet to make sure the language we have in there about um Alo matches with the current version I don't think it will so yeah we we'll certainly have to do some updating because obviously even um the reference to the second section that's kind of being absorbed into um so I think the current early leasing ordinance is absorbing the right to renew ordinance uh so it will all kind of become one um and so even the number will change on some of it so um yeah we'll have to we'll have to update all of our materials okay any other questions or comments okay
021thank you very much again for that report of course thanks everybody and I'll stay as long as I can here and I apologize again I have to leave early thank you we can move now on to item six old business we don't actually have any old business so we can continue on the agenda to item seven start with 7- a uh discussion of attendance and appointments um so let me pull up something here let's see how many do we currently have any vacancies on the um on the commission go ahead Julian um yeah Lucy's position been posted for a little while and I don't know if we've got any interest we also still have that attorney vacancy as well that's right okay this say Travis yeah so I've I have contacted a few attorneys about
022this uh unfortunately I I tried to get some attorneys from um legal services of South Central Michigan but apparently part of their bylaws prohibits them from sitting on boards like this however there has to be more attorneys in in town and around the area so uh I think we need to all double our efforts Gail if you know anybody um that would be a great help Travis I will put her on the spot and throw this out here but there's also the possibility that if Gail were want would want to move into a position where she could be a voting member she could apply for that seat and U ofm could appoint a different representative um but that's just another idea that we could toss out um I have not discussed that with Gail as
023putting you on the spot here in the meeting yeah no I'd consider that I mean I'm not sure who um who they pull in from U of M but there's obviously plenty of people so um either one would be fine with me but you you just want you want more you want another attorney regardless right yeah I I I'll ask around and see um see if I know anybody thank you g um I believe we also have a member who's not attended for a number of months yeah uh and I know I think we reached out to them before I think that I feel that we should move forward with removing them from the commission and maybe one day he'll have more time and be able to participate again but we need to have more
024people active members right now in the commission so what's the process for that Kristen I know this has happened before for removing some you know a member of the commission who hasn't attended typically people resign I'll double check with what the um procedure is I know that um we can report to the mayor and then I think the mayor has a part of the decision in choosing whether or not to remove the person so um I will share this information uh from this meeting with the boards and commissions coordinator in the mayor's office okay thank you Kristen and have has anyone from the commission asked him to resign okay we should probably do that first and maybe give like a week a week or two and then if we don't hear back then we'll go
025forward with the removal through the mayor okay Jeff um I just double checked the bylaws while we were talking and that's that is what it says that uh uh it's three uh regularly scheduled meetings um she notify the mayor who can and we can recommend removal that's all it really says okay thanks Jeff yeah we're definitely we have hit that point okay and then so we would have two vacancies at that point uh there's also my seat which will be vacant in a couple months so uh we need to all try to get people to apply I know I've been asking my friends uh acquaintances to consider applying um and I think that in the past when we've had to appoint people usually we had the chair the vice chair and our city council of
026the aison meet and go through the applications and make recommendations to the mayor we've also invited other people to uh participate in that process in the commission but in the past it's usually just been the chair the vice chair and the two cons so I think that our path forward is to um contact that the commissioner hasn't attended see if he can if he's going to resign if we don't hear back then we have him removed and then uh council members Rina and Harrison do you want to meet as a group sometime soon in the next couple weeks yeah sure we can y yeah yeah we can certainly find time and um take a look at the applications too and see what's coming um and and maybe look back at some of the older ones
027to and see if there are folks we can that if we're interested and want to see if they're still interested definitely do we have like a flyer or something I mean can we can we make something that's like more attractive to share widely maybe would that be advantageous I think it is I think it is prominently featured on the website sorry I didn't raise my hand but I don't I don't know if there's like a graphic or anything like that that was made last time yeah I can't remember either way uh I'm more than happy to make something Jordan I know you've made some things in the past that look great so maybe we can include you on the email thread there okay great as it to do I'll make sure I send an email
028to all of us to schedule that me and welcome rosanita nice to see you hello sorry I'm late no worries uh I don't know if it's necessary but where are you calling from take attendance oh I'm calling in from an Arbor Michigan sorry about that great thanks res okay I'll open it back up is there anything else uh to talk about in regards to this topic okay great well in that case we can move uh down to 7-b which is to discuss planning future commissioner education opportunities um I'll just say that we did schedule Avalon housing um is a nonprofit developer in town for our next meeting so they're going to come and present a little bit about what they do they a very prominent U entity in town so it's really important that we
029learn about them for those us who don't know the time um any other opportunities for commissioner education Julia um so I'm not sure if I I thought the like security deposit went really well thank you Gail um but I don't know if there's other parts of the law if people have a particular interest like going over evictions or repairs or something like that we could do um I don't know if uh anyone from the Housing Commission has come and spoken um to us before that might be something also Jordan I will say that when I was on the um there's a small work group that's working with wh and um some other housing providers ERS like SOS um and ozone house I've been going to for about 5 months now um and any landlords that
030are interested Bob if you want to interest are interested or any other landlords that are interested it's been um a good working group but there we were talking about some survey results from last year from a w survey of landlords um and there was a lot of landlord interest in um education series education video for tenants about like how to be a good tenant um and so so I'm wondering if I know we have kind of thrown that around um in the past um so we thought that that was maybe something I just kind of bring back to the group um if there's any interest in kind of working on that I guess either as a commission or if you personally are interested in maybe working on something um just about you know not not
031real heavy maintenance or anything just kind of basic communication things basic leasing things um if you're at all interested in that or if the commission is interested in that let me know I guess thanks Jordan Gale um it might be nice to have someone from Hawk housing um access for Washington County to come and talk and let us know sort of their process and what resources are available for uh for renters who who need them that's a good point that out there I think hawy would be a good guest that's the housing Housing Association of washon County Housing access for washingt County this shelter Association yeah it's housing access for Washington County okay there's also the shelter Association of Washington County suck yeah so for folks who don't know housing uh housing access is going
032to be the like number one main call that you call to um to start getting help either with um you have an eviction that's coming up you on the edge of eviction you are um unhoused all of those people are going to funnel through that and for the call um this past month I was kind of surprised by the number so I'll just say them quickly that um the report was that there were 3,100 calls to Hawk um in January Alone um so that seemed like a pretty pretty big number um and you know comparatively was kind of they go up and down but it was interesting for me to hear that so I think the commission might benefit from that too yeah that is a [Music] stagger okay so so far we have uh
033haulk remind me of the other ones that were mentioned watching a housing Alliance I think thank you was there another organization arber's Housing Commission yeah great on top of that uh wh actually has a training uh housing Advocate advocate K training excuse me hat um that's this month I will send out the information to every member of the commission I think it'd be a really good idea if all of us can as many of us can attend as possible believe it's online Jeff um I'll I'll have more details um when I report on the hhsb meeting but um uh the last meeting had a visit from the Planning Commission with a lot of really good information about um just in general economics in the area you know current situations in terms of taxes and of
034course housing and and plans and things like that so um uh their website but also possibly having um uh their director come out and kind maybe do the same presentation for us could be very informative I got a lot of really good information thanks Jeff and that would probably directly address one of the points on our work plan which is uh to learn more about the tc1 zoning effort the transit Corridor effort among many other things okay great um oh and Rosen need I know we had recently talked about um inviting um the unbs person from um uh which California City it was San oh it was Santa Barbara County they've had an an landlord tenant edsman program since the 1970s that um it has like a 90 some per success rate of uh resolving
035the issues between the landlords and tenants so they don't actually have to go to court or get evicted yeah that'd be great and we may even want to invite um some people from other organizations to that because they probably haven't heard directly from these from officials from Santa barara County on that okay out of so I'm looking at Washington housing Alliance uh ha Housing Commission Planning Commission and the Santa Barbara on buds person of these five options uh are there any that you all prefer to explore or to to prioritize not for our March but for the months after I'm guessing it's going to mostly depend on other on their schedules and when they can send somebody welcome yeah well I can send some emails here and try to get something scheduled future meetings I'll
036just send them out and plan plan in advance and present to to all of you which RS could be which dates great anything else on this topic um ju I know Julia I just want to Echo uh what you said earlier about whether or not there's any particular areas of tenant landlord law that we all want to learn about so is there before we move on is there any particular topic outside of security deposits that you all want to learn more about you know I would say evictions but I think that might be that's probably going to be covered in the wh training so I I think that we should all prioritize going into that if possible okay anything else on this topic before we move on great thank you I think there was a
037I was just looking at the work plan again there was the topic of slowing gentrification but I'm not sure who would be the ideal person I might have to do some research to find out um what policies have been used elsewhere or or maybe if there's researchers in the area that would be able to come speak to that topic that's something I could follow up on a good point all right well we can move on now uh to s- C uh discuss the complaint Complaint Form Outreach that's I believe for 8530 and 8531 which were the city's going to consider amending soon I'm going to pull up the Complaint Form but also just open this up here do anyone have any thoughts about uh how to do this Outreach Julian um I'm I'm kind of
038curious it sounded like there was one ticket issued um and if there's been any others I've heard from a couple people who filled out the Complaint Form that the response they got was just that the city was going to talk to the landlord and tell him to stop doing it I think that's a question for John Riser who unfortunately not here right now he what I know is there's been this basically what you said there was at least one ticket issued um I don't think the court date has come yet uh I think was postponed but from what I know the city is only issuing one ticket like per landlord basically uh so the idea is that they don't want to issue too many tickets because the landlord will have a chance to correct the
039behavior in the future that's my understanding Jamie yeah just wondering um if you or maybe Gail could speak to um like what does that process look like you mentioned like a court hearing got delayed um like does the landlord have a chance to like dispute the ticket or I guess what just I'm wondering like where the court hearing fits in with that process very good question yeah the only thing my understanding is that the original the the court date on the ticket was postponed to or adjourned to allow the landlord to take some C you know corrective action and I you know it's up to the city at that point I believe um to decide what to do from there so I I you know again that's probably that's another good question for John Riser
040I don't know how they're intending to proceed I understand that the corrective action that was suggested has been taken by the landlord and I don't I don't know where where that leaves the city um at this point so if I hear anything else I can let you guys know or if you next time if John riser's here he can update us as well je um kind of the same vein um the court date was that um because it was being challenged do we know or because um it was more like a let's see where we are let's see what we can fix and possibly assess a fine or not or you know was it a challenge or was it just part of the process um I mean they could always they could always give an
041adjournment my understanding was it was it was done with to give them an to give the landlord an opportunity to try to come up with some suggestive correction you know something to do um to try to fix the problem um you know it's a little late but uh nonetheless that that was done and so um you know it it's within the it's within the city's City's discretion to postpone things to give them you know and to try to sort of negotiate some sort of resolution with them so I don't I don't know can't speak for the city I don't know what they'll do moving forward so oh go ahead Jordan I um actually want us to go back the there's some changes in the I'm texting with Travis right now but there's actually um I'd
042like to go back to the ordinance amendment I think the timeline is actually off in a way that we didn't think and I just want to talk about that so whenever it's a appropriate to come back to that would be great okay um let's discuss that after Outreach of the complaint I think that does sound important okay so I think we have to ask where this is we're kind of in a tricky situation I'd say because we're trying to get the word out about a law that's about to change so any education we do now might not only be unnecessary but might actually confuse people once the law does change just kind of some of my thoughts here Gil I think Prett people are pretty well confused as it is um and at this point
043I I mean I can't tell you the number of students that are coming in our door you know or are calling us or reaching out I mean I I assume for the I I no longer follow the parent Facebook page but Jordan I'm sure you're seeing plenty of um comments about this so I I mean I would push for postponing any sort of Outreach until or or education piece until we we have know what's going to happen with the proposed amendments and where that leaves us I mean at this point at least for most of the students that have their leases that in August they're sort of done with that proc I mean it's it's sort of done sort of ongoing you know that that the landlords are um dealing with the renewals so I
044I think we should I think we should wait rather than confuse the situation anymore just my two cents Jordan I think that's fine um I mean if we're by the time this gets through has the second reading and is effective in 10 like we have some built-in time right before before education efforts about all of the things so I mean I think that's that's fine um yeah I I get what you're saying Gil like we're you know within the next month all of the summer late summer start leases start getting signed um and so that makes sense to me Jamie yeah I would just say I agree with that especially since the new change if it's made won't be retroactive I think that could be really confusing for people um who would think that maybe
045the new change could apply to their current situation not like what's going forward so I think that makes a lot of sense okay great I think if we know people who are dealing with a situation it's a fear violation and I do uh I'm still going to encourage them to to file a complaint but I generally agree is there anyone who isn't sure about that approach or who disagrees with holding off on on Outreach okay Jeff um I was going to just add um I think that's the that's exactly what needs to happen especially with uh um you know being able to provide people with a more concrete date uh in terms of training as to when you know these kinds of things take effect but also um to continue to encourage because I mean
046even though the the law may be changing there is still a an in ordinance on the books it obviously has been enforced so um as you said just continue to encourage people if if they feel like there's a violation to move within the existing framework until it really is replaced because it does exist and um at least in one case it's apparently doing its its job thanks Jeff okay I think now would be a good time for us to discuss uh your concern Jordan kind yeah sorry I should have looked at this when Travis was on um essentially what they've done is that the the landlord can't make the offer until it was previously due to be signed basically essentially so now it's putting like unless I'm not mathing right feel free to double check
047me um 210 and then 240 so 240 from the start of the current lease is basically going to mean that we can't sign for like we couldn't start even showing it to new people for a late August lease until late April and like honestly students have already gone home um so we've actually bumped the timeline back in a way that that makes it not workable for landlords I think um I would prefer to see us do I think if we're going to get I I like the 30 days to accept that's what we've been doing on our own with our students um I think that it would really that it it makes the most sense to say the the contact can't go out until 180 days and that the the re the successive renewal um
048would have to be accepted by two by not 240 but 210 um because I'm really worried about that timeline if we can't even start showing units people are already out of town um in April and so we didn't we didn't really talk about that as part of our work group that makes it very unworkable for me as landlord I don't know about Bob um or Gail's thought on that but I mean we are already getting hundreds of emails a day by this point and we hold people off But continuing to do it when students can't even go look at apartments because they're already out of town was something we had talked about heavily with the first iteration yeah I understand your concerns there uh Julia so I I kind of like the cling better but
049I'm not a landlord um and it another way to get around it is September first is like the worst time for a new lease to start like I don't get it um and I I think that's a way to get around it you could start August 1 or you could go to May 15th or you could go I hear you and let me let me explain I guess our perspective on that so we we do our group leases on May leases that's pretty rare but we find that um you know groups kind of want to be around for the summer um the other students that are grad students and things their programs often don't start so our smaller units that are more geared toward grad students all start mid to late August I don't think
050many people actually start a lease on September 1 anymore because mostly the school semester starts before then so I hear what you're saying and and that yes we can start them earlier but when the summer session of classes goes until like have to check the date first or second week of August people need to be living there so I mean the timing just is it is tricky and it's thoughtful in our our process in a way that I hear what you're saying that we could start we could just start signing them for earlier but that doesn't that doesn't eliminate the problem of people need to live in them either like having a half summer lease doesn't really work because either someone isn't here and they want to sublease for the summer or they are here
051and they're doing classes and they're working and they want to be here for the summer so August one is or say July July 30 July 15 isn't really a timeline that works for students it either eliminates the possibility of subleasing all summer if they don't renew which screws them out of like four months of rent that they could be getting do you get what I'm saying with the the kind of with so many of our Stu our renters being students it I don't I don't think that forcing landlords to make a change that basically eliminates the possibility of Summer sub leasing for students is healthy for them if that makes sense yeah you know I guess back in the day it it used to be May so you you know it it it makes sense
052to have the break around um semesters thank you Julia thank you Jordan Cynthia I just um wanted to say that we we can there was some discussion around 180 days um and we can we can look at amending it to you know 180 and then would be the 210 with the with the additional 30-day period yeah I I love that I mean I think that kind of accounts for both scenarios it gives them the 30 days and and honestly the other part too is for May leases even Julia that um an extra 30 days would start us leasing like essentially over the holidays are at the beginning of the semester which kind of is tricky too so I think for both timelines for May and fall I would I would appreciate that um being looked
053at so thank you okay yeah I I understand your concern Jordan and I also share it um I think that students need to have some time at least a decent amount of time to be able to to uh if that's what they want to do um and a lot of people do leave and yeah so I think that that the dates probably should be reconsidered and I think probably some more Outreach needs to be done to students student tenants since this is predominantly a problem that affects uh student tenants not only yeah I wonder if it would make sense for our our smallish um group on this to try to meet now that we have the updated version to try to meet again and go over and just see if there's any other things that
054we um have any con I mean if we could meet with it be be before the city council meeting yeah I second that I think it's a good idea I can send that an email okay I'm I'm just I'm just seeing cuz I had sent some suggestions and I'm just seeing now what's what what changes are made in what weren't so I've got to look compared to what my notes were from before as well yeah I I think we should take a look at the stamp like very commonly used start dates for leases and just with a date calculator figure out okay here's where we land is and then you know asked Jordan asked Bob yeah yeah so if we could do something Friday tomorrow or Monday that would be great okay I'll that's not
055thanks any other discussion on the proposed amendment great so Jeff sorry I do have a quick question and there might not be a quick answer but kind of tying into that do we have any kind of ideas to the percentage of our the city's leases are um student I mean I know we can use age and some basic demographics there but um just in general how many of our our you know what percentage is in fact student leases that would likely fall into to that that August April kind of time frame I'm unaware of any hard data on that yeah as best as I could figure out taking the amount of UFM students and like you know dividing stuff out how many were in dorms that kind of thing the number I came up with
056was slightly less than half of the renters um our students but what landlords do for students spills out into the rest of the community I mean every lease I've had um is a September 1 lease and I the landlord was never willing and I don't live somewhere where any undergrad would ever live you know they're just not willing to consider any other date though it's it's a lousy date for me to move because there's so many students going crazy in town I'd rather move any other week um but nobody's been willing to budge on it thanks Julia that's about what I was figuring to in my head okay anything else on 7-c before we move on okay thank you everyone for the disc discusss um I'm looking forward to meeting as a group to discuss
057the um these amendments okay we can move down to item eight reports uh are there any Commissioners who would like to give a a report if so just raise your hand Jeff uh yes I have a report as the hhsa Lea um from their last meeting uh which was just last Thursday actually um as I kind of mentioned before um one second I to P my notes up here um in this particular one there were there two large the two largest kind of topics of the meeting were um a kind of a review of the city's uh con uh comprehensive plan that the Planning Commission is putting together um and it it covered huge amounts of information um I don't want to go to the whole thing but um I have like two pages of
058notes that I took cuz it really was quite fascinating in terms of um you know how much of the city is is residential how much is commercial how much is uh single family dwellings how much is still available for development you know just the densities all sorts of different pieces of information um which is possibly pertinent to what we do and that's why I brought it up earlier too um uh just kind of as a um some of the highlights um the the comprehensive plan is being worked on currently and the idea is for um the final plan to to be rolled out towards the end of this year with an adoption for early 2025 that's kind of the time frame they're working on um and they have a website which I'd be happy to
059share with everybody that that goes through a lot of this information um uh one of the more interesting um uh things that I saw was that um of the the jobs in the city there's app approximately 94,000 jobs um a lot of 76,000 of those commute into the city um which I think is and only 17,000 live here so I think that that kind of touches on what we do and the fact that you know obviously housing in in ant Arbor is is a big concern um and um in terms of the uh the jobs themselves 37% are tied to U ofm and arber apparently is like the most dependent area in the country on a single anchor employer so I found that very interesting too um the other big topic of discussion was um
060uh the affordable housing that the city does manage um uh my understanding is there's only 33 units currently mostly in the um single person Studio kind of uh uh style um very few if any family units uh so there's kind of a a a chunk of the population that that might be needing those services that might not have access simply because um they're just they're just not available um and they mostly occur in um three different locations uh there is some look at um expansion um and possibly even creating some family units um but that was uh the other big topic of uh conversation for that one so that's kind of the the the gist of it like I said I will share out the link to the uh the comprehensive plan website that has
061a lot of that information there too oh Jeff do they recommend to do the service to because they have the website they seems like they wanted to people to do a lot of surveys whoever lives in anab or who has ever visited anab they wanted to do the service as many people as possible maybe we could share this website to everybody here and everybody here could help us to do the surveys too if [Music] possible yeah on the website the very first the very first thing that pops up is links to you know take our survey so um they they really are looking for information in terms of their plan um the tc1 was brought up as well and I know we talked about that today so um it's it's a pretty there's a lot
062of information out there and so um probably easy to get lost in it for hours Doom scrolling through all of it so um I I said I'll send the link out if anybody wants to take a look thank you Jeff Jordan can we use our mailing list to email out the survey is that a or like is everyone on our mailing list already getting the survey I don't think I is everybody the website yeah the website yeah if need it we could have shared this website I do have the website and yeah I'm wondering I'm wondering if we can use our renters commission mailing list to do Outreach for the survey Kristen may have that answer thanks dandon I appreciate it definitely um but the renters commission subscriptions um other departments don't have access to
063it the same way so um people wouldn't have received it unless they already subscrib to planning updates uh so Jeff you mentioned did you see that I think I I didn't fully understand that there were only 33 affordable units that are managed by the city that's the number I I overheard um there there weren't many it sounded like um and they're looking to expand and these are ones that are administered through um the city's uh the fund and uh commission Council M Harrison please tell me if I'm wrong um uh the city's fund and you know like just recently in the news there was that uh that article about um uh the development that that made the donation to the fund rather than do affordable housing um uh so that was my understanding was that
064particular um uh directly managed by the city not necessarily subsidized in other developments kind of thing yes that sounds about right correct yes thank you Bob yeah I'm just curious does that include the agencies like Avalon or anybody uh any of those organizations who are providing housing 33 seems awful low yeah that that's what caught my attention too and why I wrote it down and and like I believe that is specifically administered by the city um versus other organizations that that provide services like that gotcha thank you Jordan do you still have a question yeah I mean I was just gonna say I mean to my knowledge the Housing Commission manages 18 separate properties so I don't I don't know I don't know maybe it's a Nuance of funding but I mean there are I
065don't know yes the 33 sounds very weird I I don't think that's correct but um that they have 18 properties under the Housing Commission at least according to last meeting that I went to I will uh do some more digging and figure out where my where my number has gone wrong thank you um just as a kind of a followup the pro the three properties of they mentioned were um anber City Club uh beakman on Broadway and the standard which is the newest one um and they mentioned how beatman on Broadway um has a third phase coming those were the three kind of properties that that actually came up in that that discussion Jeff Anita well even though like there may be say 18 properties I know that um like in the neighbor where I
066grew up there's like three it's one property but three buildings but there aren't that many units in there it's one of the few um an arbor properties from like the 70s or 80s that was meant for uh families so you it may be like six units at most but it's three buildings you know so and there's like I think one or two more that the city owns that are left in the area where it's just very few units within um multi level buildings thanks Cynthia it's um yes that's correct and it's actually it's 19 buildings built well not buildings 19 locations and 56 within those 19 locations there's 56 units but that does not include like what rosan is talking about so that may constitute the 33 all like all the other just separate um
067you know few units here few units units there okay thank you yeah I think that's more of a number more in the range of what I was imagining more 500 side but you go ahead Jeff um I I just pulled up the the weight list website too and I'll include that when I uh send out for the comprehensive plan site to um uh so you all can see what I'm I'm seeing from them too but is it is the the only ones listed on the weight list site are those three properties that I mentioned too so I'm sure there other resources and maybe they are through the city um in fact I'm sure there are but um like I said those were the three that kind of popped up I think this highlights the need
068to have a guest in the housing commission for they can answer some these questions okay well thank you Jeff for the report any other questions for Jeff before I move on okay other reports from Commissioners um so I have reports which is just that if you're interested in getting involved with housing advocacy on the state level and that are uh towards our um State Legislature please let me know there's a coalition called the rent is toam high Coalition I know they're looking for people to help out um and as far as I understand they're focused currently on advocating for more investment in public housing social housing specifically actually mixed income social housing so exciting project so if anyone's ever interested uh please let me know beyond that I saw that the an arbor tenants unions
069uh social media is now active and I know they've been meeting uh so if you're interested in joining that I understand there's going to be a some public meeting soon so you can go probably follow them on social media be a good way to follow what's going on okay can move on to uh report council member Harrison do you have a report to give beyond what council member Travis CC M said no no further report um beyond that what we discussed earlier thank you very much okay uh wonderful we can move on to uh item nine second general public comment public comment can be made by phone by calling 877 5247 or 888 78899 and entering meeting ID 935 941 once you call in you can press star9 to raise your hand um you can
070also join using the zoom link which is A2 go.org renters commission meeting and if you're joining with the zoom link you can use the rais hand feature there are any um attendees who would like to address the renters commission go ahead and raise your hand here we do have more hello um I'd like to Echo some of the comments that have been made about um the change from the 150 Day from the end date to correct me if I'm wrong is it now 210 from the start date okay so this whole year um people have been telling students uh student renters that you know 150 days from the lease end date is this date so let's just for example say this date is March a lot of you know as Jordan has pointed out a
071lot of renters have reached out and have repeatedly been told that date um with this proposed change of moving it 210 days from the lease start date that for for the company I work for will change that date so I think it's a little unfair to have been telling student renters this entire year don't worry wait until March 15th we're going to be able to help you on March 15th just wait until March 15th and now Midway through this cycle we're going to have to tell them just kidding the city council has just extended the date and you know further pushing off all of these extremely eager incoming renters and transferring renters that just want to be able to secure housing I think that would be a total disservice to those people just doing this
072in the middle of the year just my thoughts thank you there are any other attendees who would like to address the renters commission go ahead and raise your hand all right no other um hands are raised thank you Chris and and uh I'll make sure that we add that in the discussion topic for that work meaning on yellow right because I do think it's a obviously a valid concern okay we can move on to item 10 communication uh so okay so I see Kristen you removed two of the communications so then there's only one on there was that on purpose um tell me which one had the error I'll put the other it was number three regarding uh rior okay yeah that was that one the other we can begin with the first one uh
073which was an email from JY Family Services I've heard nothing but good things about JFS and and I'm really excited that they sh are there any comments or questions about this email might be nice to have him come as a speaker good point oh I that do list anyone else um I suppose Julia and I we can we should talk about who would set up a meeting to to discuss with them make sense Julia great okay we can move on to the second email thread that was forwarded to us um this was no this is regarding the toilet issue and the heating issue anyone have any thoughts about this email forur was folded to us so my understanding here is there was an issue with the toilet and the heating and then the C inspectors
074got involved is you know how this ended up I got think lost anything else any thoughts about this one it seems to be an an ongoing complaint that the tenant has filed with the city the city um rental housing department so not sure what role we would play in this at this point is I noticed the last I think the most recent date was the fifth is there any update or way of knowing if this has been closed out beyond what we see here I can check with rental house saying and I can report back probably a good idea just to check seems like they have a handle on it of course it was their job but always good to be aware of what kind of complaints are being submitted I appreciate that they that
075you're going to do that question okay any other discussion or questions on that email red okay I think we're skipping the third one for now because of the redaction issued but maybe we could have that on our next agenda R properly okay so let's move on to item adjournment do we have a motion to adjourn no motion move by Patrick we have a second I'll second second by Vita thank you all those in favor of joury say I I all post say name great so with that we are Jour thank you everybody thank you thank you good night take care good night everyone