421 N. COUNTY FARM ROAD

WHEATON, IL 60187

DU PAGE COUNTY

Home Advisory Group

Final Summary

www.dupagecounty.gov

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

11:00 AM

Room 3500B

CALL TO ORDER

Chair LaPlante called the meeting to order at 11:14 am.

ROLL CALL

Staff Present: Mary Keating, Community Services Director (Remote); Julie Hamlin, Community

Development Manager; Momina Baig, Housing and Community Development Planner; Chloe

Harrington, Housing and Community Development Planner (Remote); Amish Kadakia, Senior

Accountant (Remote); Ashley Miller, Senior Housing and Community Development Planner,

and Thomas Schwertman, Housing and Community Development Planner.

Assistant State’s Attorney - Katherine Fahy.

Bastian, Barfuss, Chassee, Crandall, Gustin, LaPlante, Yoo, and

Bricks

PRESENT

Childress, Heniff, Krajewski, Schwarze, and Todorovic

ABSENT

PUBLIC COMMENT

There was no Public Comment.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

4.A.

23-3341

Home Advisory Group Minutes - Regular Meeting - Tuesday, October 3, 2023

There were no corrections or comments.

On a Voice Vote, all Ayes, the Minutes were approved.

At this point, Mary Keating congratulated Julie Hamlin, current Community

Development Manager, as being promoted to the Community Development

Administrator position, which had been vacant save Dave McDermott left in the Spring.

Hamlin has been with the County since 2014. She started as a Planner and has moved up

from there to Sr. Planner, then Manager and now Administrator. She is incredibly

knowledgeable (on County and Department of Housing and Urban Development

requirements).

LaPlante also congratulated Hamlin and was excited to begin working with her.

Home Advisory Group Minutes -October 3. 2023.pdf

Attachments:

ACCEPTED

Lynn LaPlante

Patty Gustin

RESULT:

MOVER:

SECONDER:

COMMITTEE VOTE REQUIRED

5.A.

23-3445

Recommendation for Approval of the 2nd Revision to the Occupancy Rights under the

Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) Policy clarifying the Rights of Tenants utilizing

HOME Investment Partnerships Act (HOME) and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG)

funding.

As a little background, Hamlin noted that the Federal programs with the County require

cross cutting requirements and the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) regulations

were one of those. In 2022, VAWA was reauthorized and most of the amendments took

affect in October of 2022. The U.S. Housing and Urban Development has asked that

entities, such as DuPage County and covered housing providers, make sure that their

policies are updated to incorporate the changes.

Highlights to the changes include expanding the definition of domestic violence,

economic abuse, and technological abuse. There was also an additional definition of

prohibition on retaliation for those who are domestic violence victims, as well as adding

the rights to report crime in emergencies, if one is experiencing violence under the

Violence Against Women Act.

HUD requested that the County's policies be updated. However, HUD will still be

providing guidance on how the County is to meet the different requirements under this

reauthorization. The County has taken upon itself to update this policy to incorporate the

new definitions, and this will also be included in the Continuum of Care's 2024

Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) Program Plan, so that covered housing providers are

aware of the changes as well.

Keating added, in order to know the Act is being followed, when the Department is

monitoring HOME (HOME Investment Partnerships Act) and ESG funded projects, Staff

reviews the leases and makes sure that the lease has all the required language and

required notifications under VAWA. Any person that is living in a unit being assisted

through these funds, has to be notified of their rights under VAWA.

There were no other questions.

On a Roll Call Vote, all Ayes. The motion passed.

1-VAWA Policy Update #2-HAG Memo.pdf

Attachments:

2-Violence Against Women (VAWA)-Policy, 2nd Revision Draft

Track Changes JH v2.pdf

3-Violence Against Women (VAWA)-Policy, 2nd Revision

DRAFT JH Clean v2.pdf

4-HUD 5380 English Exp 06.30.2017.pdf

5-HUD 5380 Spanish Ext 06.30.2017.pdf

6-HUD 5381 Exp 06.30.2017.pdf

7-HUD 5382 English Exp 06.30.2017.pdf

8-HUD 5382 Spanish Exp 06.30.2017.pdf

9-HUD 5383 English Exp 06.30.2017.pdf

10-HUD 5383 Spanish Exp 06.30.2017.pdf

APPROVED

Lynn LaPlante

Patty Gustin

RESULT:

MOVER:

SECONDER:

AYES:

Bastian, Barfuss, Chassee, Crandall, Gustin, LaPlante, Yoo, and

Bricks

Childress, Heniff, Krajewski, Schwarze, and Todorovic

ABSENT:

OTHER BUSINESS

Keating made this Committee aware of the Human Services Committee's passage of three

Memorandums of Understanding with various municipalities relating to Community Project

Funding. For the last few years, members of Congress have had the ability to basically nominate

projects in their communities to receive direct allocations of Federal funding.

There were seven projects in DuPage County that were approved. It was believed that they were

either all Congressman Foster or Congressman Casten's. Congress is using the CDBG

(Community Development Block Grant) platform to accomplish these projects. This includes

the requirements for CDBG, one of which is the need for projects to undergo the environmental

review process. Depending on the complexity of the project, the Environmental Review can be

either something relatively simple or it can be extremely complex, and take an enormous amount

of staff time.

After the seven projects were announced, HUD approached the County and asked the County to

take on the responsibility of completing those environmental reviews for all seven projects. The

County has the expertise but not the capacity to take on all seven. So, through a series of

conversations with HUD, the County decided to take on three of the seven.

The County has entered into Memorandums of Understanding with the Village of Addison, the

City of Wheaton, and the Wood Dale Park District. What will happen is any time that Staff

spends on those projects, the County will be reimbursed for that person's time. Particularly, the

County anticipates the need for overtime costs, as the additional workload will be absorbed

without any additional staff.

There were four projects the County did not agree to take on. Two were in the City of

Naperville. With the City of Naperville being its own CDBG entitlement community, it was felt

that Naperville would have the capacity to take on any Naperville-affiliated projects.

One project was for a nonprofit, which the County felt the learning curve for that organization

would be so great, it would be better for HUD to take it on. Then there was one, from an

environmental perspective, the County had some concerns with the complexity of it and felt the

County could not take it on. That project was sponsored by a municipality and it was felt that

they should take the responsibility of learning the process and doing the work themselves. The

County Board will be approving the Memorandums of Understanding.

For the Municipal Committee members that may be applying for the Community Project Funds,

the County requested that the County be made aware of the projects. The County is willing to

provide input into whether there might be some environmental issues and potentially provide

guidance during the development of the project that might make the process a little smoother.

The County was unaware of the seven projects until after they had been approved.

Keating asked if there were any questions. Gustin said, as a former municipal person, would the

County provide the HOME Advisory Group members the list of the current known projects.

Keating said an email will be sent and Hamlin said she would provide the link to the

Congressional website. Keating reiterated that the County is providing the Environmental

Reviews for the Village of Addison, the City of Wheaton, in relationship to their public library,

and the Wood Dale Park District. A list of all seven will be provided.

LaPlante emphasized that this would be a fantastic opportunity for some guidance that would

make the application process smoother from start to end. It would create a higher probability of

success all around. If the municipal members would have questions, please take advantage of the

technical guidance offered.

There were no other questions or comments.

(Member Yoo left just prior to adjournment to attend the Technology Committee.)

ADJOURNMENT

The Motion was made to adjourn the meeting.

On a Voice Vote, the meeting was adjourned at 11:25 am.

NEXT MEETING DATE - DECEMBER 5, 2023