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Discussion on relaunching the Neighborhood Pillars program

1:26:49

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Council Member Sanchez inquires about the status of relaunching the Neighborhood Pillars program, which provides low-interest loans and tax exemptions to non-profits for acquiring and rehabilitating buildings. Acting Commissioner Tigani responds about the program's priority and progress.

Sanchez highlights the delay in relaunching the program despite previous commitments
Tigani explains ongoing discussions within the agency and with stakeholders
Commitment to relaunch the program by the end of the fiscal year is discussed

Pierina Sanchez

1:26:49

So I want to turn next to neighborhood pillars.

1:26:52

Yaya is super into this by the way.

1:26:56

Neighborhood pillars, as folks know, is the program that provides low interest loans and tax exemptions to non profits and mission driven organizations to acquire and rehabilitate buildings across the city using low interest loans and tax exemptions.

1:27:12

So in the administration's own housing plan from 2022, housing our neighbors, there was a commitment to revamp this critical preservation program, but that plan was not, has not reflected reality.

1:27:24

After the administration refused to include any new funding for pillars in fiscal twenty year, excuse me, fiscal year twenty three and fiscal year twenty four, the council finally secured 30,000,000 across fiscal years twenty five and '26 in the last budget negotiation.

1:27:39

It has been nine months since adoption and HPD has still not relaunched this program or updated the term sheet.

1:27:46

Why is that and can you commit to relaunch neighborhood pillars before the end of this fiscal year?

Ahmed Tigani

1:27:52

So I can say that relaunching pillars has continued to be a priority for us.

1:27:58

There are a number of things that we continue to have conversations on both inside the agency and with stakeholders in our community.

1:28:05

The non profits and basically the preservation partners we ultimately work with on this term sheet and effectuate in real life to make projects move.

1:28:16

So the commitment to doing is there.

1:28:18

And in fact, we are at a point where we are very close ready to go.

1:28:23

We understand that Council Finance had raised some questions so we have a meeting with them next week to talk about it.

1:28:28

We didn't want to take the next step without having that conversation first.

1:28:32

And we are excited to be able to move on that and other term sheets as well.

Pierina Sanchez

1:28:37

So can you commit to relaunching by the end of the year?

Ahmed Tigani

1:28:40

The chair, the most responsible thing I could do is commit to making sure that we talk to council finance, but our intention is to make this the year that the term sheet gets published.

1:28:50

We want these we want this term sheet out there, we want to start doing the work.

Pierina Sanchez

1:28:54

My understanding is and not to again beat a dead horse, but that we've been reaching out and we've been asking and we haven't heard back.

1:29:00

So when when is your meeting with Council Finance?

Ahmed Tigani

1:29:02

My friendly amendment to that is as the person who has been reached out to, always communicating back that we are working on this and that we are continuing to go through those questions.

1:29:12

Again there were some actually some good feedback through City of Yes and the community conversations City of Yes that has been part of our conversation internal.

1:29:21

And the next step will be to meet with council finance to be able to talk through where we've landed and make sure we get this term sheet out as fast as possible.

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Council member Sanchez introduces session and acknowledges colleagues

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Budget and staffing details for the Neighborhood Pillars program