15 - Waiver of Housing Authority PILOT

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No. 15 TO: Mayor, Mayor Pro Tem & City Council FROM: Grayson Path, City Manager SUBJECT: Waiver of Housing Authority PILOT DATE: March 28, 2022 BACKGROUND: On March 7, 1950, the City of Paris and the Housing Authority entered in to an agreement that in essence created the Housing Authority within the City. In short, the Housing Authority agreed to provide the services they do, and the City would fulfill initial roles in the agreement to make them successful. Those initial roles by the City have all been fulfilled, but our continued goal is their success on behalf of our residents who are income -eligible to live in these facilities. A term of the agreement is the Housing Authority would issue a "Payment In Lieu of Taxes" (PILOT) in the place of property tax. This is calculated by formula from HUD. Some years the City receives a payment, some years we do not. Recently, it has amounted to about $4k a year. Again, the purpose is to cut their cost so that they can divert more Federal Funds to assisting residents with low cost living arrangements. The PISD, County and PJC all receive a PILOT through the City proportionate to each entity's tax levies. In August 2021, the City initiated a project to convert Booker T Washington and George Wright to 911 -based addressing. Prior to this, both sites had non -conforming addressing unique and specific to their sites which created conflicts for our first responders. Thankfully, over the years the City was able to develop a means of converting a call location in to something that allowed us to arrive on scene. But, working with the ATCOG who manages our 911 -addressing, we agreed that it was time to make the change and convert both facilities in to a setup that fit within our 911 system. When seconds matter in an emergency, this change allowed for much faster responses. It also had the secondary added benefit of assisting residents with deliveries. Given the large number of residents impacted by this, the Housing Authority and City partnered together to provide a massive education campaign which included multiple letters, door-to-door education, numerous morning and evening public education meetings, assistance with making contacts for address changes, and delaying the official change for several months to give residents