The Brunswick Finance Fee mentioned utilizing American Rescue Plan Act {dollars} for rental help with a view to maintain individuals from shedding their properties or being evicted.
“This specific merchandise is one thing that got here up due to (Coastal Georgia Space) Neighborhood Motion (Authority) is coping with loads of residents on the cusp of eviction,” Metropolis Supervisor Regina McDuffie informed the committee at a Monday assembly.
“After our homelessness summit, we talked about prevention being a side of addressing the issue.”
She was very involved after analyzing town’s property tax gross sales. Many on the public sale block had been behind by just a few thousand {dollars}. McDuffie advisable tapping $250,000 of town’s ARPA funding to kickstart this system.
Town finance committee makes suggestions to the Brunswick Metropolis Fee. It doesn’t make remaining choices on monetary issues.
Underneath the proposal, town would contract with the Coastal Georgia Space Neighborhood Motion Authority to pick individuals to offer help. The CGACAA already vets individuals for rental help from the state Division of Neighborhood Affairs, McDuffie added, so town’s ARPA funding would successfully complement this system.
The motion authority’s vetting course of is thorough and safe, McDuffie stated, and entails far more than merely handing individuals cash and trusting them to make use of it for hire.
She noticed the transfer as a “first preliminary motion” and a optimistic step towards assuaging homelessness.
Town of St. Marys has an identical initiative within the works, McDuffie stated.
Mayor Professional Tem Felicia Harris, a member of the committee, stated she preferred the concept and wished to evaluate a contract with the motion authority earlier than taking it to the Metropolis Fee for implementation.
In different enterprise, town heard a presentation from metropolis IT Administrator William Bilancio concerning a 311 quantity for residents to name to lodge complaints, make requests and provides suggestions.
An organization referred to as CiviPlus supplied quotes for 2 ranges of service. Bilancio stated the fundamental “request” service features a cellphone quantity and app that residents can use to interact with the service. In accordance with metropolis paperwork, the “checklist value” is $27,761.
CiviPlus would provide a half-off deal of $9,750 for the primary yr if town engages the service earlier than the tip of the yr. In any other case, it could provide a year-one low cost value of $19,500. After the primary yr, the service would price $20,475.
The “professional” model contains an e-mail deal with for residents to make use of and a cellphone quantity to ship textual content messages. The primary yr would price $12,250 if town signed on earlier than the tip of the yr or $25,500 in any other case. The second yr would price $25,725.
Bilancio advisable going with the fundamental model. He didn’t see e-mail or textual content being as continuously used.
The service entails CiviPlus taking “constituent requests,” and routing them to the proper departments within the metropolis. As an example, if a citizen calls in a pothole the corporate would route it towards town’s Public Works Division.
“’Turning potholes into reward,’ that’s their phrase. I truly prefer it,” Bilancio stated.
Bilancio stated residents would most definitely use the service for infrastructure and animal management points.
The finance committee tabled the dialogue as a result of it wished extra data on the billing cycle and potential metropolis legal responsibility. Harris additionally wished town’s authorized counsel to evaluate the contract earlier than presenting it to town fee.
Harris stated she was fearful it’d flip right into a funnel for complaints and nothing else.
The finance committee additionally heard monetary experiences from the month of November.
