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HOUSING FUND BOARD
Special Meeting — Friday, January 3, 2025 at 2:30 p.m.
Commissioners' Chambers, Jefferson County Courthouse
1820 Jefferson Street, Port Townsend, WA 98368 (Hybrid)
Housing Fund Board Members: (* indicates present at the meeting)
Greg Brotherton—Chair * Viki Sonntag *
Amy Howard—Vice Chair * Audrey Morford *
Neil Nelson *
CALL TO ORDER: Chair Greg Brotherton called the Joint Jefferson County/City of Port Townsend
Housing Fund Board (HFB)to order. Member Julia Cochrane attended the meeting while awaiting her
reappointment. As newly elected Jefferson County Commissioner Heather Dudley-Nollette was
awaiting appointment to serve on the HFB, and Jefferson County Commissioner/Chair Heidi Eisenhour
showed interest in attending today's meeting, a Special Joint Board of County Commissioners' meeting
was properly noticed, and called to order at the appointed time.
PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD: Chair Brotherton called for public comments, and two comments
were received.
DISCUSSION re: Consolidated Homeless Grant; Lead Grantee Entity: Finance Manager Judy
Shepherd and Grants Manager Amanda Christofferson provided a presentation on"Homeless Response
System and how it relates to the Consolidated Homeless Grant,"which covered:
• What is the Consolidated Homeless Grant(CHG)?
• How do the Document Recording surcharge and 1590 funds interact with CHG?
• How are the CHG funds being used here in Jefferson County?
• What are Jefferson county's goals for CHG?
• Should Jefferson County be the lead grantee for CHG?
Up until now,the County has always declined to be the lead grantee for CHG, and Olycap has been our
lead grantee. There are a lot of administrative requirements of a CHG lead in accordance with guidelines
that Washington State Department of Commerce produces, in order to support best practices all across
the homeless response systems.
Administrative requirements of a CHG lead grantee:
• Strive to improve housing outcomes as measured by statewide performance targets
• Provide low barrier housing project
• Operate and maintain Coordinated Entry process in order to provide critical accurate data to the
state for reporting
• Training; assure staff attend required trainings
• Reporting: Submit 5-year Homeless Housing Plan, Annual County Expenditure Report, Point in
Time Count, HEN Essential Needs report
• Monitor subgrantees
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Housing Fund Board— Special Meeting Minutes of January 3, 2025
Eligible activities reviewed:
• Temporary Housing interventions
o Emergency shelter
o Transitional housing
o Permanent housing interventions
o Rapid re-housing
o Permanent supporting housing
o Street outreach
• Homeless (eviction)prevention
• Housing and essential needs
Grants Manager Christofferson reviewed affordable housing and homeless housing funds received,
funds OlyCAP has received, and CHG spending by type/program. Finance Manager Shepherd stated
that Washington State Department of Commerce notified Jefferson County that the County could elect
to be the lead grantee for the 2026-2027 two-year fiscal period, and the deadline for a decision is
January 20, 2025. The County is paying for the emergency homeless shelter, and could maybe use the
lead designation to recoup some of those costs.
HFB members discussed the advantages/disadvantages of OlyCAP remaining the CHG lead, and what
are the advantages/disadvantages of the County becoming the lead CHG.
OlyCAP Executive Director Holly Morgan and Housing Manager Viola Ware were present to answer
questions regarding loss of funds, if they were not to be the lead CHG. They answered additional
questions posed by the HFB members and Commissioners present.
After discussion,the HFB did not make a recommendation, but many members in attendance agreed
with keeping OlyCAP as lead CHG, but requested more data from them in the future.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Member Morford moved to approve the Meeting Minutes of August 28,
2024, September 11, 2024, October 23, 2024 and Special Meeting of November 8, 2024. Vice-Chair
Howard seconded the motion. The motion carried.
REVIEW re: 5-Year Plan: Member Sonntag stated that we are in the 5th year of our 5-Year Plan to
End Homelessness. She reviewed the annual report on the progress,which covered current conditions,
performance against plan goals, looking ahead, system performance measures, and homeless and
affordable housing inventory. HFB members reviewed the 2024 annual report and made edits to the
document.
Vice Chair Howard left the remainder of the meeting at 3:53 p.m.
After discussion and edits, Chair Brotherton proposed a motion to approve the 2024 plan, as updated
here,with the addition of the data at the bottom of page 8 to be included, when received. Member
Morford moved to approve the 5-Year Plan 2024 annual report with the changes, yet to be updated on
page 8. Member Nelson seconded the motion. Chair Brotherton opened the floor to allow for public
comment on the motion, and one comment was provided by Commissioner Dudley-Nollette. Chair
Brotherton called for a vote on the motion. The motion carried.
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Housing Fund Board— Special Meeting Minutes of January 3, 2025
COMMITTEE UPDATES: Not discussed.
NEXT STEPS: Next regular meeting will be held on January 22, 2024.
NOTICE OF ADJOURNMENT: Chair Brotherton adjourned the meeting at 4:23 p.m. until the next
regular meeting or special meeting as properly noticed.
Respectfully submitted by:
7/44,1
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Carolyn Galla�6iay, Clerk of th Board Date
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