HomeMy WebLinkAboutTRC Transcript - October 3, 2024[00:00:00] [00:00:07]
[MUSIC] It is now 7:09 pm. This is Iowa City, and this is the Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Iowa City. We'll call the meeting to order right now and before we proceed, we would
want a reading that we usually do on land acknowledgment from Commissioner Wangui.
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And we have a roll call?
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I do roll call.
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I can note it in the notes and everybody, you can see who's present from the video and from the
Zoom, so make things easier tonight for folks.
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Thank you.
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Land acknowledgment. We meet today in the community of Iowa City, which now occupies the
homelands of Native American nations to whom we owe [00:01:00] our commitment and dedication.
The area of Iowa City was within the homelands of the Iowa, Ms. Quake, and Suk and because history
is complex, and time goes far back beyond memory, we also acknowledge the ancient connections of
many other indigenous peoples here. The history of broken treaties and forced removal that
dispossessed indigenous peoples of their homelands was and is an act of colonization and genocide
that we cannot erase. We implore the city, the Iowa City community to commit to understanding and
addressing these injustices as we work toward equity, restoration, and repairations.
[00:01:47]
Thank you. We'll now go to agenda Number 3, which is public comment. So if there's any person out
there online or in presence, this should be a five-minute maximum [00:02:00] for each speaker. Yes.
Please state your name and where you're coming from.
[00:02:09]
Hi, Annie Tucker. I live at 91 Prairie Hill Lane, Iowa City. And I didn't come prepared to speak, but I
want to check-in. At your last meeting, I was out of town, and I was one of the things I was doing was
meeting with my closest age cousin. And he lives in the Bay area. And he told me about the truth and
reconciliation processes that are going on in California. So I just want to share the parts that I came
away, knowing- knowing that I can't tell you everything that they're doing and how they're doing it.
This is what I thought I heard him say. He actually was invited to go to they have different truth and
reconciliation commissions for different communities. So there's an indigenous commission.
[00:03:00] There's an African-American Commission. They're meeting with folks separately with those
communities. One of the things, and you can read and find out far more than I than I'm bringing. The
African-American group, there was something within the commission where they had academics and
activists and maybe community members. It would be worth just seeing interesting that they had
selections like that. Um, and they are working on reparation proposals for the state for African-
Americans. And they're they just continue to work out what that could look like, and who would
qualify and all that. So that's interesting. I think I was real interested to hear what else is happening in
different parts of the country. The part with the indigenous commission. [00:04:00] The commissioner
um, is a native woman, and she had a meeting where there were 40 people in a talking circle. And
she said something like, you're going to be given an opportunity to speak, but if there's something
you don't want to have be public, come to me afterwards or at another time and tell me because this
will be recorded. So I know that the tension between privacy but also being heard. Uh, we're
concerned about that here, too, and so that was her language for it. So I just wanted to offer those
images of just a little bit of what's going on in California. Thanks a lot.
[00:04:40]
Thank you very much for, uh, that wealth of information and engagement. We will uh, seek more
information from you to help us improve what we are working on in here. Thank you. We now go to
Agenda Number 4, which is approval of the minutes from September meeting, [00:05:00] September
5th, 2024. And, uh, if there is any objection, I would want us to vote on whether to approve or not, but
if there is any objection, let's see that. Anybody who objects to approval of the minutes, please state.
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Does somebody want to move?
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I move to approve.
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Second.
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Seconded.
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It's been properly moved and seconded to approve the meeting minutes from September 19th. All
those in favor say aye.
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Aye.
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All though opposed.
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Aye.
[00:05:40]
Aye.
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Anyone opposed? Anyone choosing not to vote? Motion carries.
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All right. We- now- is there any public comment from the [00:06:00] previous agenda? That was on,
I'm sorry here. I think we'll move ahead. We don't need the public comments now. I think we're done
with that, but if there is anybody person, uh, at any time, please chip in. We go to Agenda number 5.
Any motion to move on to Agenda Number 5?
[00:06:27]
That's fine. Group presenters can come forward.
[00:06:31]
You are welcome to come.
[00:06:35]
Just a little bit. Will I be able to control slides from here?
[00:06:39]
Yes, you will. Just keep it muted because it's running the- um, the microphone through my unit. So
just don't unmute it. And after um, Jamie's done presenting, then, I'll take it off of the view that
everybody's seeing right now.
[00:06:57]
Great. Thank you. Well, hello. [00:07:00] Good evening. Um, I am Jamie Gade, and I'm with Johnson
County Public Health, and I'm going to introduce Haley Wilson here, and she's also with Johnson
County Public Health. Uh, you'll hear from her at the end about current initiatives right now that we're
doing. Um, so I- I'll just say I was excited to get Amos's invitation to speak today. We do collect a lot of
um, data, and we do a lot of community outreach to get that data as representative as possible. So
I'm excited to present housing data specific today for your commission. Um, but this is our team. So
it's a team of five. I'm- really- I'm just trying to put faces to names here, but you might see these folks
out in the community in future iterations of surveys or um, community engagement work. I'll just
quickly overview our framework. So, um, we use and actually why we do this process [00:08:00] too.
So by Iowa Code, we are required to do health assessment of our community. Um, but we're also
really interested as a health department to see how our community is doing, so we can have strategic
initiatives so that we can fill those gaps and those barriers too that folks are seeing. So um, we do use
this mobilizing for action through planning and partnerships framework. This was developed in 2001
by CDC and then National Association of County and City Health officials. And so there are three
phases. Um, right now, I'll go through the- the second phase in the community status assessment is
really what I'm presenting on today. Um, right now, we are in Phase 3, continuously improving the
community, and we have four health priorities. One is healthcare access, and then we have mental
health, and we have housing and food security. So this- the values got a little funky, but this- is-
[00:09:00] we do have a core committee that have folks and community partners that work with us
on this initiative, and in 20- 2021, we developed our vision mission and values. And I won't read them
all to you. You can look at the slides later. Um, we do have a website, too, if anyone's interested in
looking at assessments or other data, it's healthyjoco.com. So I'll get into it here with our community
status assessment. Um, we measured a lot of different metrics on this one, like health status, health
care access, food security, and housing, and housing is really what I'll go into depth today on. So this
was in 2022, and we had about 725 respondents on this one. So I'll do a very general overview before
um, diving into those metrics broken up by race and ethnicity. And so, um, overall, we saw in our
sample about 63% [00:10:00] of respondents own a home, and then about 33% rent their home, and
then 4% had another living arrangement. So we compared this to census information of the owner
occupied housing rate, and it was pretty similar to what the census had. So we felt it was a good
sample. Our median monthly gross rent, and our sample was a little bit lower than what the census
had. Uh, and that just could be due to how respondents have put in their uh, monthly rent costs. If
they shared it with someone else, they might have just put their own costs down for that. Um, but in
our sample, we saw the monthly um, median housing costs for home owners was about $1,200. Um,
and then in our sample, about 58% of renters spend 30% or more of their income on housing. And
um, this is compared to about 13% of homeowners that spend 30% or more of their income on
housing. Um, spending 30% or [00:11:00] more of income on housing is threshold for housing cost
burden, and then 50% is extreme housing cost burden. Um, let's see. So I do want to say that while
data is insightful, disaggregated by race and ethnicity, or broken up by race and ethnicity. It's
important to also note that there is intersectionality is important too. So there's more than an identity
for a person other than their race, so like gender, sexual orientation, income education background.
So unfortunately, in our sample, we were unable to um, also look at those demographic
characteristics on top of race and ethnicity to get a more um, smaller sample to see. More insightful, I
guess, um, metrics, but I will go into the next slides breaking it down for what we do have. So um, on
renting [00:12:00] versus owning, it is a very personal choice. We understand and there are many
reasons why someone may choose to rent versus own. And we just asked folks in our survey if they
own or rent and not the reasons why. Um, but the data does suggest racial disparities in home
ownership and housing quality. And so while we only asked respondents, whether they rent or own,
the results do show that about 23% of non-Hispanic Black or African-American respondents and 21%
of Hispanic or Latino respondents own their homes compared to about 75% of white non-Hispanic
respondents. Um, we also see housing quality varies by race and ethnicity, about 17% of Black
respondents report fair housing quality with no reports of poor housing, and then about 5% of non-
Hispanic White respondents reported their housing as fair um, and no reported as poor. [00:13:00]
Hispanic and Latino respondents had the highest rate of dissatisfaction with their- reporting of their
quality of housing with about 34% reporting as fair to poor. So as I mentioned, previously, breaking it
up is by one identity is insightful, but it doesn't always show the whole pictures. And I think I always
go back to the groundwater approach when I think about the why, and- and you're probably familiar
with the groundwater approach um, with the racial equity institute inspired by Kamara Jones. So the
metaphors based on three truths, which I thought would be great to read. So racial inequity looks the
same across systems. Socioeconomic difference does not explain the racial inequity, and inequities
are caused by systems regardless of culture or behavior. And oftentimes, you know, we hear some
folks say uh, that behavior piece, it could just change, but we really see these inequities [00:14:00]
across the system regardless of that behavior. So therefore, we have a groundwater issue with the
groundwater being the systems, institutions, and outcomes influenced by racism and the nature of
racism as it exists in the United States. So back to our data. Generally, property owners are paying a
little bit more on housing per month based on median costs compared to renters in our data. There is
a disproportionate effect on uh, Hispanic and Latino or non-Hispanic Black respondents being unable
to pay their housing or utility bills at least once in the past 24 months at the time of this survey, um,
compared to about 10% of non-Hispanic White respondents. Um, another disproportionate effect is
seen on Hispanic and Latino respondents and non-Hispanic Black African-American respondents
currently facing serious financial problems, paying rent or mortgage, compared to non-Hispanic White
[00:15:00] respondents. Um, and then we asked about rent in the past two years and whether or not it
increased, and if so, how much did it increase or if it stayed the same. So overall, non-Hispanic Black
respondents were seeing a larger rent increases compared to both non-Hispanic White and Hispanic
and Latino respondents. And this is all self-reported information, too. I also disaggregated by a couple
other things. So by income, about 31% of respondents making less than $40,000 a year had their rent
increase 50-$200 per month, and then 4% said it increased more than $200 a month. Um, and about
45% of college students saw their rent costs increase from $50-200 per month, 27% said it increased
more than $200 per month.
[00:15:55]
So we also asked about moving. Um, we asked about this, because, [00:16:00] you know, moving is
expensive, too, and you have to pay a new, um, oh, gosh, when you move, deposit. Sorry. I don't
know why I was blanking. [LAUGHTER] A new deposit, and there are other costs associated with
moving. Um, and so we asked folks if they moved within Johnson County in the past 24 months. And
the data reveals that there are disparities in some relocation patterns across, uh, racial groups in the
past 24 months. So non-Hispanic black respondents re-applied, um, or said that they were more likely
to have moved about 42%. Um, and then about 35% of Hispanic and Latino respondents said that
they had moved in the past 24 months compared to about 22% of white respondents. Um, non-
Hispanic Black respondents also experienced higher rates of multiple moves with about, uh, just under
half moving two or more times. [00:17:00] And so there are key reasons, uh, why folks moved. So the
majority for all groups included just life changes. Um, so that could mean a lot of things. So it was
about half for every, um, racial and ethnic group. They said that. And then, um, we saw more not
Hispanic Black respondents, about 27% move due to unaffordable rent compared to about 50, sorry,
17% of Hispanic and Latino respondents and about 8% of white respondents. Ah, and then White
respondents were more likely to have purchased a new home, about 30%, um, compared to about 7%
of non-Hispanic Black and 4% of Hispanic and Latino respondents. So my last slide on data, thank you
for, um, listening. [LAUGHTER] This is a lot of numbers I'm throwing at you. So um, we talked about
eviction and [00:18:00] about 2% of respondents experienced eviction in Johnson County on our
sample. And so even though this seems like a really small number, eviction is an incredibly difficult
and stressful time for anyone who does experience it. Um, about 86% had no permanent home after
eviction, and about 58% said it took more than a month for them to find permanent housing. Seventy-
five percent lived in, um, either an emergency shelter, their car, or with friends and family until they
could find a more permanent housing solution, and 83% said their new housing costs more compared
to their previous, um, home. So in open responses regarding eviction, some people shared that they
not only lost their homes but also their furniture and clothing. Several mentioned that no lawyers or
law firms would take their cases. Uh, one individual recalled being a child at the time of eviction,
which occurred over 10 years ago, [00:19:00] but it still has an impact on them today. Um, about
another person did report receiving rental recovery assistance, um, yet their landlord was still
demanding payment for an amount that was already covered. Um, so as I mentioned earlier, you
know, actually, I don't think I mentioned it earlier. Um, I- we are looking to reassess this survey
actually next year, if possible to see if anything changed. So we're hoping to get a larger sample too
and see if there are any more changes, and of course, we could always present that back to this
group, too. So um, enough with the data, I am going to leave it over to Haley to talk about current
initiatives of our, um, housing priority.
[00:19:49]
Um, so as Jamie mentioned, uh, housing is one of our four priorities. So I'm just going to briefly go
over our three goals, um, and some of the objectives [00:20:00] that we have for those goals. So
they're not final yet, and we've got about 14 committee members, um, that are committed to
finalizing these by the end of October. Um, goal 1 is to provide consistent public messaging and
support from Johnson County Public Health for ongoing housing, initiatives, programs, and work
groups. Um, and that would include understanding and assessing current community housing
program, initiatives programs, and work groups, um, with the deadline of December of 2025. Um, it
would also include assessing community members in Johnson County who are housed by June 2025
and providing health impact reports to, um, a health and all policies approach on housing topic areas
by December 2027. Goal number 2 would be to empower community members with information and
advocacy on housing as health care. Um, and the objectives include [00:21:00] creating and
promoting, uh, neighborhood education programs by December 2026, um, coordinating and
supporting active education and awareness programs by December 2026, um, assessing for gaps and
the community participation in education resource and navigation by June 2026. And the final goal,
reducing additional financial barriers for renters, um, and the objectives for this one includes
proposing and advocating for the local system and policy changes by June 2028 and establishing
relationships with local landlords and promoting equitable and ethical treatment of tenants and
potential tenants by June 2026. We are happy to take any questions that commissioners may have.
[00:21:55]
Thank you very much for that good presentation, and, [00:22:00] er, I'll now open it, eh, for
discussions, comments from fellow commissioners. Any questions that-
[00:22:08]
Yeah. Yes.
[00:22:09]
-the commissioners may have.
[00:22:13]
Thank you.
[00:22:13]
Yeah.
[00:22:24]
Yes. Commissioner Lubna's hand is up.
[00:22:26]
All right. I have a question, uh, about this survey. When was survey and, you know, like, is that
everybody know about it or just a specific area, or guess I want to know more about it.
[00:22:46]
Yeah, that's a great question and I'm happy to answer that. So the survey was, um, from I believe
September to November of 2022. Um, the ways we got the survey out was through [00:23:00] many
different ways. We would go. Um, we actually had four sites where we were on site with tablets, um,
every week, and we would have actually a strike for students with the College of Public Health
involved in that, too. Um, so we would get folks right away to just take that survey on-site. Um, we
also promoted online. We did a little bit on social media, but we know that's not really our target
audience, either. Um, so we tried to do a lot with just speaking with partners about the survey that it's
out, um, a lot of word of mouth. Um, also, in addition to those other four sites, we went off on to other
sites too. Um, we did have a dashboard available, um, with those sites, those four sites so that they
could see the information coming in. So it's very specific to their, uh, clients who they serve so they
could, um, align their programs a little bit better with that knowledge. Um, but we were also able to
see a dashboard, [00:24:00] and, um, we were able to see certain demographics coming in that
maybe we were missing. And so we did some extra outreach. We actually did extend the survey. Um,
we were supposed to end in October. We decided to keep it going through November, um, so that we
could get more respondents and more, um, just more of a valid sample. And so, um, you know, 725
was a little bit less than we wanted, and we do have more ideas in the future of, um, how we- how we
would kind of get that number up so we can get more, um, data that's really representative of our
community. But with the 725, um, we did feel like it was- was a good sample. We just of course,
always want to improve on how that is disseminated, and all of the folks taking it. So it was available
in, um, Spanish, French, Swahili, Arabic, um, English, and, um, I believe that- that [00:25:00] those
are the languages it was in. If I'm correct. Yes. Um, so yeah, that's a little bit about the survey.
[00:25:13]
Thank you. Any other question from the Commission?
[00:25:23]
Yes. I have another question. Is that during the COVID time?
[00:25:28]
So during COVID times, is that what the question was? Um, it was after COVID. So we do have some
data before COVID, um, but it was a little while ago. Um, so the last large health assessment was in
2015. Um, there were some efforts in 2019, and that was before my time with the Health Department.
But, um, the questions asked didn't necessarily align with the past data, either, so it was hard to see
trends. Um, so [00:26:00] post COVID, well, during COVID, um, in 2022, we, um, decided on a- on a
new just kind of starting fresh with that data, um, which is why we're really excited to get some more,
um, information this year and asking some of the same questions so we could see more of how that,
um, trend is going, and if anything changed or, um, got better or got worse.
[00:26:31]
Thank you.
[00:26:32]
Yeah, thank you for your question.
[00:26:35]
You're welcome.
[00:26:39]
Thank you for your presentation. Uh, yeah, um, it's something I didn't even know that gets done,
especially putting health and housing together. [00:27:00] But then again, it's obvious because it's an
area that does affect people's health. And- and does also- and to help even look at the inequity that is
causing this. So thank you for that, uh, because it's useful for- on my end, for those who advocate,
they have information to, uh, yeah, they have the data, the information to help and show me that-
that evidence. Thank you.
[00:27:48]
Yeah. Thank you. I'll also add that we absolutely want to work with communities too. So if there is
another, you know, question [00:28:00] that you would like to be asked in future surveys, we would
be open to adding that question too. Um, we love when our data is used by the community. If we can
get grants and extra resources in our community to address these- these issues, um, then- then that's
wonderful. That's exactly what we want this information used for.
[00:28:22]
How do I see mental health there, uh, in the health and housing? And how do I see, uh, immigrants
and refugees in our county, uh, yeah?
[00:28:41]
Yeah. So one thing, um, and I believe Amos, you actually asked about this once when we presented,
um, but we did not ask that, you know, immigrant or refugee status on the- the survey. So we were
not able to disaggregate to see, um, the disparities there. [00:29:00] Um, we kind of- we're wondering
if we, you know, should ask because we are government, too. Um, but of course, if we did ask it on
future iterations, it would not be a required question, and no demographic questions were required in
our survey, either. Um, so folks could just- could skip those if they felt more comfortable doing that.
Um, but yeah, if you wanted to see more information, we do have some data on mental health, and so
that's really part of our community status assessment as well. Um, that's online, but we're also happy
to do specialized reports too for folks. If they, um, see a metric that they want disaggregated or
broken up by a certain factor, then we can definitely do that too.
[00:29:51]
Thank you. Any other questions from the Commission?
[00:29:58]
Yeah. This is, uh, Laura, Vice Chair. [00:30:00] Um, it will be interesting when you guys redo this, um,
in January. You could- if you did this back in 2022 and just knowing especially with housing and costs
that have gone up, it'll be interesting how that your new results are going to show up next year.
[00:30:22]
Yeah, thank you. I echo that as well. Um, we're excited to- to see the, excited maybe isn't the word,
but we're really interested to see what that change will look like.
[00:30:34]
Thank you. Any other question or discussion?
[00:30:47]
I'm just hoping we have a copy of your presentation. You leave one behind. Oh, it's already with us.
[00:30:53]
No. It's- I got it, um, today and it will be archived with the packet, and I can just send it out to all
commissioners, too, but [00:31:00] it will be archived with your packet as a late handout.
[00:31:03]
Yeah. Thank you.
[00:31:04]
Yeah, thank you.
[00:31:06]
Okay. So I have a couple of questions.
[00:31:08]
If any has a question, but can you come to one of the microphones to ask it so that it's on the
recording?
[00:31:20]
Well, it's great to have this information. Thank you. Um, questions that came up for me was, um, does
your work include research on systemic or policy solutions? So for example, um, when I think of rent
increases, I remember that when I was a kid in the town near Santa Monica, California, they actually
had rent control for a while, you know, so I wonder what other communities are doing regarding these
same issues. And if there are policies or practices. Oh. Cool. I'll step aside.
[00:31:56]
So, uh, that's actually one of the points of discussion [00:32:00] when we're talking about the different
goals that we have for housing. Um, so right now, since we're kind of jumping into housing, as public
health people pretty new, um, the learning curve is quite steep, but one of the main things that we
are able to do is to present data and advocate for these different policies. And then after time, that
can grow into something more. But we're trying to build a strong foundation and a strong presence in
like the housing sector, as of now, just like with what Jamie spoke about. But that is definitely on our
brain, and definitely on everyone's brain when they're talking about housing because policy is a thing
that changes the- the main system that's hurting a lot of folks. So cool.
[00:32:48]
Cool. Great. Thank you. Um, I'd love to just say a couple of other areas that I was wondering about
policy or change. When you said, um, [00:33:00] a number of people have fair or poor housing. Then
what I wondered was, what's the relationship between the existence of that and the fact that our city
has housing inspectors?
[00:33:14]
How does that- how does that fly? How does that allow to continue? If we, you know, what would it
look like if our inspectors were looking at things at a particular frequency? Is that a factor? Um, do-
do- is what they inspect for include things that would be interpreted as fair or poor? So can that be
part of something that, um, is a requirement for landlords, right? So- so that came up in my head and
then the thing about home-ownership is like, who can afford to get down payment? Who benefits from
a need for down payment? I mean, if you've got someone who's paid a comparable rent regularly,
[00:34:00] why can't they step into home-ownership and continue paying that without having had to
try to save thousand- tens of thousands of dollars to get in the game? You know, and- and if you're a
homeowner, you know that what happens is you've got that equity, and then someone who has that
equity can use it for different things, like down payment on something, right, like education. So I'm
just- um, those were just some questions that came up for me, and also, I know that you're really
aware of the Affordable Housing coalition. So anyway, thanks for your good work, and thanks for
letting me ask those questions.
[00:34:40]
Thank you. Uh, I have a couple of questions unless there's a question from the Commission. I'm still
looking. Okay. So my- my first question is on the question of mobility, and [00:35:00] you mentioned
that usually is a question and sometimes choice, but we also know that it, like you said, is through
eviction and other difficulties of staying where you were, issues of affordability. And I saw the data on
eviction, and I was wondering, I don't know if I ask you that in our earlier meeting before, but on, uh, if
there were disparities on eviction rates by race, anything like that? All that was not there.
[00:35:27]
So unfortunately, it was so statistically, with the sample we got with that 2%, it's just so small that we
were not able to disaggregate it further. Um, I think it was about 15 or 20 respondents. So uh, we
typically do not report on counts less than 607, um, just for statistical errors and, you know, animo-
anonymity. And so it's hard to really see [00:36:00] that overall within this data. Um, but certainly,
you know, there are other datasets potentially, um, that might have more of that information, but,
um, yeah. So unfortunately, we're not able to see that.
[00:36:15]
Okay. Uh, the other question is on, um, also still on choice on- of either renting or buying. Of course,
you gave us the disparities. We could see they're wide- very- very wide between the blacks and the
whites and the Hispanics. Very wide. And you believe those are statistically significantly different.
[00:36:40]
Um, I do- I do believe that, um, from the- I could give you- I don't have it with me right now, but I
certainly could give you those percentages and then the confidence interval too with 95% confidence
if you're wanting to see kind of deviations and what that looks like too. But, um, in [00:37:00] all of
this, we had a good sample, so we were able to see those disparities, um, pretty clearly.
[00:37:07]
Yes. I'm asking that because sometimes those differences are just too small and somebody can say,
well, those are due to errors.
[00:37:15]
Right.
[00:37:16]
But if you can confirm to the Commission that these are statistically significantly different across
racial groups.
[00:37:23]
Sure.
[00:37:24]
That's a nice, uh, information.
[00:37:28]
Sure.
[00:37:28]
Um, also, on the question of, I don't know if you had questions on barriers- barriers to home-
ownership. Did- did you have any question of that nature?
[00:37:42]
We really didn't. Um, and I think that's something we could definitely ask in the future. Because
housing is a priority of arts, we were interested in getting more information on housing. So if we could
add, you know, in the future iteration, more of a question on those barriers, specifically, that would be
very [00:38:00] insightful. And we could come present that back to you, hopefully, at the end of the
year.
[00:38:05]
Yes. Okay. Another question. While discrimination is a barrier in itself, did you make an attempt to- to
solicit- not to solicit, to get an experience of the communities you're working with on their experiences
with the discrimination, both in renting, public housing, vouchers, all different types of housing that
we have in the community?
[00:38:30]
Yeah. Did we see- get any, uh, feedback from?
[00:38:33]
Did you make an attempt to- to get some information regarding experiences with discrimination? We
know landlords sometimes do.
[00:38:42]
Yes, um.
[00:38:43]
Yeah. From evidence.
[00:38:45]
Yes.
[00:38:45]
So we wanted probably to see, how about in our community here? Could we also look for some
disparities here? We know it is there, but can you confirm to us statistically?
[00:38:55]
Right. And the data. Um, unfortunately, with more like this [00:39:00] quantitative data, with the
percentages, we- we do not have that information, um, like you probably also have. We do have
those, like, anecdotal stories and, you know, information, the qualitative stories from people who have
experienced that. Um, but it is hard to put into, you know, a certain percentage of the community
experiencing that. Um, potentially, we could look at metrics in the future to ask those questions, um,
in a future iteration of our survey. But, um potentially, there might be even other- other surveys or
other, um, efforts in the community that have asked those questions as well. So potentially, maybe
you'll hear later about that.
[00:39:47]
Um, also as a side note.
[00:39:49]
Yes.
[00:39:50]
Iowa legal aid, I think it is a great resource for numbers on those specific numbers. Like, for
discrimination. Um, they do an excellent job of [00:40:00] discrimination testing. Um, and I'm not sure
when their next report comes out, but they would be an excellent place to look for that data.
[00:40:10]
Okay. And I want you to stay there, and this is an policy question. Iowa City- the City of Iowa City does
surveys like you've just mentioned, a lot of them on housing choice affordability and things. We still
see some gaps, just like in your survey too, you know, nothing can be perfect. There's always
improvement. So I was wondering when you'll be embarking on policy Map 3, the third part. Will you
be collaborating with the City of Iowa City Housing or Commission, this Iowa City development
Housing and Development Commission? So how close do you work with them? Because they might
have some issues that can also inform you when you're doing your surveys, that [00:41:00] really
helps. So I'm wondering, have you- do you collaborate with them? Or are you thinking of that?
[00:41:06]
So we've got 14 members on the Housing Committee so far, um, and they're all from a variety of
different sectors, be it government, um, city, county, any of those, um, and a variety of different
organizations, too. So uh, a lot of collaboration and big discussions happening in one room, um, which
has been really great to kind of see those silos get broken down. So we're definitely trying to include
as many housing sectors as we can because there's such a variety of housing issues that we have in
Johnson County. Um, so we've got folks who are interested in rural housing for elderly folks. We've got
people who are concerned about, um, immigration or refugees coming in and finding proper housing.
And we also have people who are concerned, just about, like, prices of housing in general. And of
course, the student population, [00:42:00] but, um, I feel pretty confident that we've got good
representation for a lot of the communities that need representation for the housing community, um,
including folks who are like unsheltered physically as well.
[00:42:15]
Yes. Thank you very much for that, and um, can't remember, if I saw that on the question of
homelessness. I think you mentioned something about that. And I know this is a question that should
address to the guys who deal with homelessness, the shelter guys. And one- one group is here, that's
gonna probably talk about that. But in your data, can you remind the Commission one more time
disparities on homelessness? If you can- if that was there.
[00:42:55]
As far as our data, um, we asked, you [00:43:00] know, whether or not folks own or rent, and then
there was another option for something like I have another arrangement. Um, so that wasn't defined,
unfortunately. It was about 4% that said another arrangement. Um, but there was also, you know, in
the eviction information to- of, you know, where folks went after they were evicted, and it was like
80%- 86% said that they had no, um, permanent housing solution at that time. Um, so that's really- I
would say those are the main areas on our survey that we have potential information about that, but,
um, you know, there- there might be potential for more of a survey conducted in the future.
[00:43:48]
Yes.
[00:43:48]
To see really what that- that looks like right now.
[00:43:51]
Cause, I would be interested in knowing once evicted as somebody with a Bipocar minority. How
[00:44:00] long does it take them and compare to other persons?
[00:44:02]
Sure.
[00:44:03]
Because the duration- homeless, anybody can be homeless one or two days, whatever, but- but if it is
severe, you know, you get into other problems. So- so that is something that when you're doing more
analytics and other things, you can help us with in the future, or help the Commission or the city or
whoever can use that information.
[00:44:24]
I think that's been one of the best things about doing the chip preparation stuff is kind of realizing
where the gaps were like in the survey or like, we could ask this question or, like, we're missing
information for like this portion of people. Um, so we're excited to, uh, conduct the next chat soon,
and um, very much so looking forward to filling in some of those gaps.
[00:44:50]
Thank you. Any comment from the public?
[00:44:56]
And Luna's hand seems to be up. I don't know whether it's from the previous time.
[00:45:00] [00:45:01]
Yeah. This is Merritt. Yeah. Guess I have a question for you about people that when they get, uh,
evictions. Uh, some firms like social worker from the housing, from the shelter, they put them on the
waiting list. How long it takes that for these people to find a house?
[00:45:24]
How long it takes? Um, I- I don't have the date time for how long it takes to find shelter, but I know
that there is a very long wait list. Um, I'm sure some folks in the audience have a better answer for
that, but, um, for shelters that are approved by the state, I think the waiting list is excruciatingly long
for people.
[00:45:54]
Okay. Thank you.
[00:45:56]
I'll pick back on that and what Commissioner [00:46:00] Kiche was talking about- about
homelessness. I'm curious whether, uh, because you said somebody is evicted or whatever reason,
they are homeless, did any of the people, the surveys, did they see, they lived on the street and
maybe name? Yeah. Did the survey allow for that? And did people actually do admit that they are
actually on a street or under a bridge because, uh, from my work, I do- I do get people who- who are-
who really are out on the street. Did- were you getting such from your survey or was it set up in a way
that somebody was able to have that put down?
[00:46:52]
I believe yes. Um, you know, we- we tried to get the survey out in as many locations as possible and
did use [00:47:00] a lot of libraries, food pantries. Um, I- I do, also, yes, it is a concern, too. You know,
all of this is self reported information. Um, and so us also being the government, too, is- is another
thing we- we think about is, um, we would never use results to find one person. Um, that's never our-
what we're looking at when we're analyzing data.
[00:47:27]
No- no- no. I'm not saying a person, I'm just saying a participant. Yeah.
[00:47:30]
If they actually answered that way.
[00:47:32]
Yeah.
[00:47:33]
Yeah. So that- that's an unknown. Um, you know, we would hope that they- they would answer
correctly so that we could have that information, but, yeah.
[00:47:43]
Um, that's actually kind of something that we've been working on with the housing committee to do,
like, a one pager for the community about different housing terms to use to properly address different
forms of being homeless or unsheltered or whatever it might be. So someone who's experiencing
[00:48:00] unsheltered homelessness is going to have a very different experience than someone
who's experiencing living in their car or living with their sister or living with their mom. Um, still all
under the umbrella of being homeless and still all things that need to be addressed. Um, but we're as
JCPH kind of narrowing down those definitions to make sure that we can get more accurate data on all
of those different things because they are different, and they affect different demographics. So um,
we're excited to continue to educate ourselves and also the public on the different definitions of all
the ways that homelessness can encompass a community.
[00:48:47]
Thank you very much. That is very interesting. I think that question has come a lot in other
discussions and the definition, the concepts, and it usually really helps when that information
[00:49:00] is given to the communities around here, and we wish the government- the two
governments, that Iowa City and the Johnson County will really benefit from what you've done, and-
but I really appreciate your acceptance to participate in this is not always very easy to come and
others don't have that time. But we- the Commission really appreciates your coming, unless there's
any other question from the public or from the Commission.
[00:49:34]
And then also commenting on homelessness, that rabbit hole, because sometimes capturing like the
one individual being homeless, but then that one individual could also be, uh, a unit of, it could be a
parent with children, or it could be [00:50:00] a group of siblings, or it could be an expecting mother.
So yeah, just some of those things that, that information coming out does help with, uh, making
solutions.
[00:50:17]
Yeah.
[00:50:18]
Absolutely.
[00:50:19]
Yeah. So you can always bring these issues to your consocient. They are the guys you collaborate with
and some of the concerns that we have. These- these are not our personal concerns. These are things
that we collect from the community. Commissioner Luna interacts a lot with the community. She has a
lot of questions. She just gave you a very little of them. I also do a little. But in the future.
[00:50:44]
Bring them all.
[00:50:44]
Yeah. We will- we will work with you. So we really appreciate, and uh, I'll move on to the next agenda,
which is a presentation.
[00:50:52]
Thank you.
[00:50:53]
Yeah. A presentation from the Iowa City Catholic worker- workers on housing [00:51:00] and funding.
[00:51:53]
Commissioner Kiche, are we going to invite public comments at this point or later on Number
[00:52:00] 6?
[00:52:03]
Later.
[00:52:04]
Okay.
[00:52:18]
Thank you.
[00:52:22]
Hello. Can you hear me, okay?
[00:52:24]
Yeah.
[00:52:24]
Yes.
[00:52:25]
So just to start out, thank you so much for the invitation to be here, really exciting. My name is Emily.
I'm from the Iowa City Catholic Worker.
[00:52:32]
[FOREIGN].
[00:52:41]
Good evening. My name is Munesca Compoz and I'm from the organization Escucha Mi Voz. We were
also going to be joined by another person, Ruby, but she's not feeling well, so I'm going to be doing
the majority of the talking and then Munesca. Is going to be presenting a part of the presentation as
well. And really, I'm just going to touch [00:53:00] on a lot of different things. So just because of time,
I'm not going to have a lot of time to go in depth in a lot of these things that I'm presenting, but um,
you know, we could talk a lot about this issue. So hopefully this will just give you a little bit more
knowledge. So we're going to talk about fair and just housing for immigrant- essential immigrant
workers. So this is just the definition of segregation and I'm not going to go into it. But what I want to
demonstrate is some maps of Iowa City. And what this is showing you is really Iowa City, historically of
racially restricted neighborhoods. And it's- the covenants have created segregated neighbors. Um, so
you can see the areas of the green on the map. So we see south of Highway 6, west of Mormon Trek,
near Coralville Hive, are multifamily and the only [00:54:00] majority black African and African
American neighborhoods. So just give you a minute to look at that. And then we're going to move to
the next map where you're going to focus on these dark purple areas. And this is where you can see
mobile home parks around the industrial neighborhoods near the airport east of South Boulevard. And
they're nearly one third Hispanic or Latino. So people of color are segregated to these areas on the
margins or fringes of the city in part because of single family zoning. So that was, kind of, a lot to take
in, but next I'm going to, kind of, switch gears and what I'm going to talk about is our survey that we
did. It's called Salud, Techo, and y Trabajo. And that means health, housing, and work. And this was a
collaboration between [00:55:00] the University of Iowa College of Nursing, where I work as my day
job. Johnson County Public Health. So we worked closely with them as well, and Eschua Mi Vivos. And
what we did is we surveyed 481 immigrant workers in these area. I was also called a whole worker
health survey. We asked a lot of different questions. We're gonna- I'm just gonna focus on a couple of
the questions that we asked that focus more around housing. So just to give you a little idea of the
demographics of the immigrant workers. So the majority of the 481 immigrant workers who
completing our housing and health survey, they live in those same neighborhoods that I showed you
just previously. And survey respondents included 200 Black African refugees and 281 Hispanic Latino
immigrants. [00:56:00] And we did these surveys face to face and over the phone. Um, and because
Escucha Mi Voz and Catholic Workers, I would describe a trusted organization among some of these
groups of people, we were able to gather a lot of important information. So we did ask about just, you
know, where they work, the occupations. And so this just gives you a little- a little view of that. So, we
also know from the survey that the majority did not have health insurance, do not have paid sick
leave. They make- make less than $20 an hour, and they pay over $800 a month in housing. So meat
packing plant is up there, workers 25.6%. Then you can see other essential worker roles here. Again,
we asked a lot of questions. I'm just hitting some of the highlights. Um, of 50% [00:57:00] of the
Latino respondents stated that they actually lived in double up or triple up conditions, and we
consider that homelessness. So this is, um, image that I put together and it's- it's pretty accurate, but
things are always changing. And when we did this survey, when we asked people, one of the
questions that we asked was their legal status. So we were able to find out, you know, were people
here undocumented? Were they were they a permanent resident? Were they in the asylum process?
Were they presented at the border? And so that- that helped us understand because it's really
important when we're helping, trying to help somebody to understand this part, because depending
on their legal status, they are able to get different benefits. One example, [00:58:00] recently, and
this is not a criticism, Johnson County redid their policy for General Assistance Fund and they no
longer can include people who are undocumented. You have to have legal status in this here in order
to get the assistance including rent. And that happened because of the COVID emergency went away.
So that's one example. I'm not going to be sending somebody who's undocumented to Johnson
County to get assistance because they're not going to qualify. And this is just like a little graph that
tells you, depending on legal status, what might they qualify for. Um, you can see, they've you permit
residency or even if you present it on the border. Now, this is- the stars meaning this is iffy because
depending on policy at the time, for example, it can take six months to get your work visa. You even
need a lawyer to do that, for example. Now, recently, the federal government [00:59:00] has changed
that a little bit, where you can apply right away for a work permit, but you do have to have $520 to do
that. Anyway, so you can see some of the gaps, and this helps us. This really helps us design
programs that can meet everyone's needs if we have an understanding. So next, I'm going to talk a
little bit about the Catholic Worker house. What we like to describe as a right-sized, permanent
supportive housing for immigrants and refugees. We've been around for about eight years. In 2018 is
when we started housing immigrants and refugees and that's what we've done since. So between the
two houses of hospitality, we have anywhere between, like, 30-35 families, immigrant workers and
children. It just depends on how many kids really people have. So we've never tracked. [01:00:00] I
was a Catholic Worker and Eschua Mi Vivos, were sister organizations. We never tracked what we did.
We just did it. But we decided we would try to start because it's really hard to really capture what you
do when you're providing hospitality. But we thought, hey, why don't we start a little bit, right? So in
March of 2024, so seven months ago, we decided to track what we could, because, you know, it's hard
to track everything. And so since March, we've provided, although it's been more, because we can't
track everything, 803 services. And these are our supportive services for people in our house, but
also for people in the community that reach out to us. We do a lot of transportation. Not around town.
We like to teach people how to use the bus, especially if it's free, but we take people to Omaha for
their court dates. We go to Cedar Rapids for immigration check-ins. Chicago is also big for passports.
[01:01:00] We provide housing, school, childcare, ELL, medical activities, community, education, and
et cetera. So we've tracked about 116 services a month from what we can track. And this breaks it
down just a little further and I'm not going to go into detail, but we do help people connect with an
immigration lawyer. We connect them with bonds if they need that. We do a lot of services around
OWI, so immigrants who get OWI and helping them work through that. You can see our transportation,
one thing, lots of activities for kids. And then one thing we also do that I like to point out, obviously,
you know, teaching people how to use all the great resources in our community, but we do- we do
have a micro loan program for folks who need a small micro loan, maybe to put down a deposit for a
lawyer or get a car, things like that. [01:02:00] So I could talk for a long time about the Catholic
Worker and the services we do, but we want to switch now to the pro housing funding that the city
has and some of our recommendations.
[01:02:11]
[FOREIGN].
[01:02:30]
So I'm going to talk a little bit about the six million Pro Housing fund.
[01:02:33]
[FOREIGN].
[01:02:44]
This is to promote fair housing by addressing and removing barriers that perpetuate segregation.
[01:02:51]
[FOREIGN].
[01:03:00] [01:03:06]
So priority was given to applicants who demonstrated commitment and progress toward overcoming
local barriers to affordable housing and who have an acute demand for affordable housing.
[01:03:19]
Iowa city [FOREIGN].
[01:03:26]
So I'm not sure how much you know about the pro housing. You probably have heard of this and know
about this, but Iowa City was one of the 20 cities nationwide to win the grant.
[01:03:35]
[FOREIGN].
[01:03:43]
The award was for $3.7 million for affordable housing solutions.
[01:03:48]
[FOREIGN].
[01:03:55]
And the city and the application pledged an additional 52%, so two [01:04:00] million more, and we do
hope that they keep their pledge.
[01:04:03]
[FOREIGN] Iowa City.
[01:04:13]
So what is Iowa City's plan?
[01:04:15]
[FOREIGN].
[01:04:23]
So in their plan or in their budget, they have $500,000 for more studies.
[01:04:29]
[FOREIGN].
[01:04:34]
But what are the recommendations that Escucha Mi Voz is giving?
[01:04:38]
[FOREIGN].
[01:04:47]
We feel that we don't need more studies. We need to end exclusionary zoning in our city and rezone
high density for multifamily.
[01:04:56]
[FOREIGN].
[01:05:00] [01:05:03]
In the city's plan, they would like an affordable housing pilot project.
[01:05:07]
[FOREIGN] Escucha Mi Voz
[01:05:11]
Escucha Mi Voz recommends.
[01:05:13]
[FOREIGN].
[01:05:24]
We recommend a new affordable housing project that advance racial equity by including previously
excluded immigrant workers in the decisions and outcomes.
[01:05:34]
[FOREIGN].
[01:05:40]
The city is also recommending incentives for accessory dwelling units. Although this is a tiny bit old. I
think they may have taken that out.
[01:05:49]
[FOREIGN].
[01:05:52]
What does Escucha Mi Voz recommend?
[01:05:54]
[FOREIGN].
[01:06:00] [01:06:02]
These incentives, this part of the fund would really just go to single family homeowners. There's no
guarantee it would benefit immigrant workers.
[01:06:16]
Thank you. Do you want it back?
[01:06:21]
It would be good if you-
[01:06:22]
Yeah, that's fine.
[01:06:22]
But you can keep going.
[01:06:24]
I see, yes, you.
[01:06:25]
Great. Oh, it's tiny guys. No, you're fine. We can keep going, but I think you might want to see that
recommendation.
[01:06:34]
But you know what?
[01:06:35]
[FOREIGN].
[01:06:41]
So the last thing is the city is recommending is expanding rent and utility assistance.
[01:06:48]
[FOREIGN].
[01:06:51]
And what we would recommend.
[01:06:53]
[FOREIGN].
[01:07:00] [01:07:01]
Too many immigrant workers are excluded from existing rent and utility assistance program. So for
racial equity, new types of programs must be made.
[01:07:11]
[FOREIGN] Pro Housing.
[01:07:23]
So how do we want the pro housing fund to be spent?
[01:07:26]
[FOREIGN].
[01:07:34]
We would like them to invest the six million directly into permanent supportive housing and deeply
affordable housing for immigrant workers.
[01:07:52]
[FOREIGN].
[01:07:56]
Arizona City for high-density housing to end segregation [01:08:00] and allow ethnic minorities and
excluded workers to live in the heart of the city, not just south of the highway and in trailer parks.
[FOREIGN] Eliminate unfair and unjust housing barriers that prevent immigrant workers from equally
accessing aid and assistance. [FOREIGN] And better enforcement of existing laws to protect tenants
from predatory landlords.
[01:08:36]
Do you want to just leave it off, Stephanie or.
[01:08:44]
For some reason.
[01:08:46]
Oh, that's okay. Oh, no problem.
[01:08:49]
No.
[01:08:50]
So I'll just read these recommendations, although you also have our packet. There are several that I'm
going to - I'm going to say, but these are recommendations [01:09:00] for the consolidation plan for
the city. The first one is to add a Skuce Mi vos, Iowa, to the list of legacy Aid to agency organizations.
Then number 21 is re rezone the City of Iowa City for high density, multifamily development with a
real plan to overcome the opposition of certain neighborhood associations that are standing in the
way of fair and just housing for all. Include in all future city planning documents the definition of
disabled, permanent supportive housing services and eligible populations already contained in the
new T family Hous - Housing Code. Number 4, we need to update the city's definition of homelessness.
The US Department of Education and the Iowa City Schools. They do a really great job of this. Their
definition is different. They include individuals, children and families living in doubled or tripled up
occupancy. And so this is- [01:10:00] gives them the ability to serve a lot more people. And we would
recommend Iowa City update their definition as well, so that those folks are not excluded. Um, next is,
presume single immigrant workers and immigrant families with children are low to moderate income
and accept self-certifications for all housing
[01:10:21]
assistance requirements. Number 6, consider
[01:10:28]
all mobile home Park residents living and unincorporated Iowa City to be city residents for the purpose
of accessing housing resources and all other services. Better yet. Just incorporate the unincorporated
areas and use the land to build more housing. Next is allocate a percentage of federal housing funds
each year for non-voucher-based permanent supportive
[01:10:55]
housing developments for ethnic minorities who have
[01:10:57]
been left out of previous homelessness [01:11:00] prevention and affordable housing initiatives.
Number 8, allocate a percentage of federal housing funds each year to ethnic minority populations
who make up the majority of the residents living in those areas from our Census Bureau tracks that I
described in the beginning of the presentation. Number 9, negotiate a 20% developer donation on all
new affordable housing development projects. And finally, work with member organizations with a
demonstrated base of support in directly impacted communities to create housing projects and
programs outside of the voucher system. And that is all from our presentation.
[01:11:42]
Thank you very much.
[01:11:43]
Thank you.
[01:11:44]
That's a good lesson and off.
[01:11:46]
Yeah, all right. And I can also send you a copy of our salute teco and Travajo survey if you want to
look at it.
[01:11:53]
Yes, we really like to have a good dive at that detailed information. You've talked a lot of things, good
recommendations [01:12:00] that are good. So I just want to say that I really appreciate you coming,
and it's a good example to our community of how small communities, minorities can effort with a lot
of page passion, engage into issues that affect our communities, housing, very -very important. And
we really appreciate that effort and how you go into the communities, get information and how brave
you guys are to just walk to different places - different places to get this information. This is a - this is
information that's usually very - very hard. And if the city doesn't have this information, they can't
come up with very good policies and it's usually very hard and they prefer to have very good good
information. I think they appreciate your work. We also do, just open the discussion for commissioners
to respond.
[01:13:00] [01:13:05]
No. Sorry.
[01:13:07]
Do we want the public to go first in responding?
[01:13:12]
I would prefer that the commission responds first and the public towards the end, yes.
[01:13:19]
No, you. They have. Okay. First is to Lubna's hands up.
[01:13:36]
Yes.
[01:13:36]
Yes. Go ahead.
[01:13:37]
Yeah. This is, you know, is a big public and it's in real life. Discussion now, I think, is not going to be
end soon. Are we able to meet with you? So we can discuss all this?
[01:13:56]
Oh, yes, course. We can bring more people to who are part of the [01:14:00] work as well. So it wasn't
just me and Naneska.
[01:14:05]
Okay. Yeah, I have a lot of questions, but the time is not going to be enough.
[01:14:14]
Yeah. In that way, I'll give you time to look over everything a little bit more because I really just
touched on the highlights.
[01:14:21]
That on the website? Yeah.
[01:14:25]
The Sue Trabajo survey might be, but I'll e mail it out too and double check if it's on our website.
[01:14:34]
Okay. Thank you.
[01:14:38]
You're welcome.
[01:14:42]
Again, thank you, Emily. I had the privilege of attending one of your presentations in the community.
And it is a presentation that touches me personally because, uh, it happened [01:15:00] to be in my
church, St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Iowa City. And then it's A V and the presentation of all that.
Uh, for me, I end up with a feeling of sadness. But also hope, because it's personal because I'm part of
that group that a lot of times, uh, it was exciting to actually see a bar of written Black African because
a lot of times desegregating even that data for purposes of solutions becomes difficult. But then
again, as we had in our earlier solution, in earlier presentation, government and wedding and all that,
but [01:16:00] at the same time, that ends up being a barrier. To - to the solutions. So it is exciting to
see the desegregation and actually putting in a figure of 250 that responded to the surveys, uh, but at
the same time, sad, because it is what you're talking about and the issues that are there and
homelessness. They are very real to me because many a time I - I get people who are completely. It's
winter and somebody has a child or children and they are in my office and they don't have anywhere
to go. That's always a very difficult moment because I can't take them home. [01:17:00] They can't
sleep in the office. But thank you to Catholic Walker House and other safe places, er, and all the other
people that partners that we partner with. Uh, in my hands, I've never had to leave somebody on the
street. Yeah. Even if people still work together. But with your presentation, you keep on you've been
in existence since 2018. That was one of my most exciting moments, just adding that. But trying to
bring it back to our government to - to continue helping this particular population because, er,
somebody did say that our [01:18:00] greatness lies in the weakest of us. And any of us who are from
the Iowa City Johnson County communities can be that particular time at any moment. Somebody any
of us can end up being homeless for. Life does happen. Yeah. And the other exciting but also sad
thing for you, I got that again when you presented the - I do know that there is segregation - the
segregation in housing in Johnson County in Iowa City, I do know that. I personally, I have been a
victim of that. So but when, um, and I'm also aware of those neighborhoods where there will be
mainly people who look like me. [01:19:00] But seeing you put it out there on a map, it's good. It
makes it - Data is powerful. It makes it real, but at the same time, makes me sad, but at the same
time, it's a useful tools and especially with a platform like the TRC to keep the very real struggle of
housing and homelessness going especially for our and I don't even know even marginalize all. They
just doesn't seem to exist. But thank you for bringing them and actually putting them somewhere on
something that I can hold and show. Uh, I'm known to keep going. I can go on for the next 24 hours.
But I'll just say thank you again. And I look [01:20:00] forward to Lubna suggestion on having more
time where we - can we continue discussions arising from your presentation. And thank you again.
[01:20:15]
Yes.
[01:20:15]
Yeah, thank you for sharing. Just really quick. Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts. I could
listen to you for 24 hours, I think. One thing that wasn't here tonight that was at St. Pat's that night
were stories, people who are affected and want change. So, you know, we didn't have time for that,
but that was something that was missing tonight.
[01:20:37]
Yeah, especially beneficiaries of the work that you do.
[01:20:48]
Okay. Thank you very much Commissioner. Any other questions from the Commission? Okay, I have a
question. [01:21:00] Before I ask those questions, I wanted to reiterate that I also attended your
presentation at the church that day. And it was very moving. I experienced the six people. I think
there were six or seven that were presenting on their experiences in the community, their struggles
with housing and how you help them. So in addition to doing a good work in terms of surveys, other
things, we also applaud what the organization is doing, especially to those six persons. And you said
there were very many. Like you will give us these numbers. There are very, very many. You just
picked a few. Some of people are never willing to come to the gathering like that to talk because of
fear and other things and language issues and other things. But you're also doing a good job because
you're always ready there to interpret for whoever is willing to do. So that's another important
service, connecting the communities [01:22:00] that have difficulty with communication and
understanding. Okay, I'll come to questions now. Uh, and do you have a clue on the nature of funding
of your organization?
[01:22:11]
Say that again.
[01:22:12]
Funding. Resources.
[01:22:15]
How much funding?
[01:22:17]
I don't - I don't just want a proportion like where is your major source of funding coming from?
[01:22:22]
Our major source of funding?
[01:22:23]
Yes.
[01:22:24]
Most of our funding and I guess I feel really proud of our funding. And I know I'm standing up here,
but it's just not me. The Catholic worker isn't me. I'm just the one up here, so but it comes from
individual donors. This is actually the very first year ever that we'll accept government funding. We
organize individuals, we organize churches to support the Iowa City Catholic worker. And then Escucha
Mivos does a lot of grants and things like that.
[01:23:00]
So much of it excuse me, is from private sources. Yeah, but there's hope that the two governments
here locally will listen and help, especially with the - the grant that they were given by the federal
government, the 6 million grantee. Okay. That's very positive. I have a question also on the
population, the demographics and some of the persons you experience or you - you come across. Are
they sometimes mixed family households where you find like two persons, two children are actually
American citizens?
[01:23:39]
Absolutely. All the time.
[01:23:41]
But the parents might not be, for some reason, a different category of legal status, yes.
[01:23:46]
Yes.
[01:23:47]
Yeah. Do you see any issues about access to resources, education, transportation, immunization,
things that
[01:23:57]
such kind of families,
[01:23:59]
or those American [01:24:00] citizens might be experienced because of the status of their parents?
[01:24:04]
Right. They're affected because of the status of their parents. So, for example, in the state of Iowa,
you can't get a driver's license if you don't have a Social Security number. So even though they may
have three children that were born here, the parents are still affected. You know, they can't get a
driver's license. They couldn't apply for rental assistance right now through Johnson County, things
like that. Does that answer your question?
[01:24:27]
Yes, very much. So - so you're attesting to the idea that it is possible that some of the regulations are
actually harming American citizens that probably have rights to some resources like other Americans.
[01:24:39]
Absolutely and most recently, the - the state law that is being appealed in the courts right now where
basically, police could act as an immigration official and ask for people for documentation. So that
would affect American citizens if [01:25:00] their parents were arrested and deported.
[01:25:05]
Thank you.
[01:25:05]
Yeah.
[01:25:07]
Any other question, otherwise, I'll er, check on -
[01:25:11]
Uh, one more thing is -
[01:25:12]
Yes.
[01:25:13]
We-we do have a proposal, a specific proposal for the money that I didn't share tonight, but maybe in
our next discussion uh, we can share that with you.
[01:25:22]
Yes -
[01:25:22]
We met with this.
[01:25:24]
You want to hear a lot more at a different level? Yes. Yeah.
[01:25:27]
And Emily, back to housing and status.
[01:25:30]
Yeah.
[01:25:31]
I - some of the people end up being their home - yeah, their children or some members of the family.
Some, the children are American citizens, but the parents are not.
[01:25:47]
Correct.
[01:25:47]
So the - it-it becomes very difficult for them even to rent.
[01:25:52]
Absolutely.
[01:25:53]
Or even have a home.
[01:25:55]
Absolutely and -
[01:25:57]
Yeah.
[01:25:57]
And a lot of assistance you need to prove that you have [01:26:00] a lease in your name. You have a
light bill in your name, and those things aren't possible with- for folks who don't have a Social Security
number. Um, so they even avoid applying at all. Does that make sense?
[01:26:13]
Yes. Yeah, we do hear-hear that. Commissioner Wangui, you are worried about the public?
[01:26:23]
What do you mean? Yeah - yeah.
[01:26:29]
Any person online? Any - if there is no any other discussion on that topic, er, I propose that we move
to the next er, agenda.
[01:26:42]
Yeah.
[01:26:42]
Thank you very much and we will be engaged.
[01:26:49]
Thank you, Emily.
[01:26:55]
Thank you.
[01:26:56]
Thank you. The next agenda is on actions for [01:27:00] Phases 3 and 4 of our commission. And then
the first one is about meet and great events. So I just want to give- give it to - they're all the
commissioners to discuss what these events might look like, the attendance, and other things and
what we expect. But I have a couple of events in here. Yeah. Meet and great, we're going to have two
of them I think from the last meeting. One was in Iowa City Public Library on Saturday, October fifth,
the other one is going to be on Sunday, October 20th, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM. So we have two meet and
great events that are on schedule.
[01:27:44]
I wonder whether this is uh, good uh, - is part of the agenda to report on the two events that took
place, ah, between this meeting and last meeting, or [01:28:00] it will have to go on another agenda.
The meet and great with Nissa, African family services and at the African festival. I don't know
whether that needs to be - can be part of this agenda.
[01:28:21]
I think the- the Nissa one can. I don't - I think the -
[01:28:26]
What did you say?
[01:28:27]
I think the Nissa one can. I think the celebration is not - wasn't really a meeting greet.
[01:28:33]
Okay.
[01:28:34]
So to speak, but the Nissa one from what I saw and the emails was so.
[01:28:38]
Okay.
[01:28:38]
Yeah.
[01:28:40]
Thank you for clarification, Stefanie.
[01:28:43]
Thank you very much for that. And, er, uh, earlier on I was thinking I would talk about that and
announcements of Commissioners, but I think it is uh, a germane issue, so very important to what we
have on part A. So on September [01:29:00] 20, and Commissioner Chad, Dillard, Wangui and me
almost met five persons from the Nissa organization. This is an NGO based in Des Moine and also in
Iowa City. It does a lot of work on issues of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.
And there are other things, services that they provide regarding housing, accommodating, and people
who have been evicted, counseling and a range of resources. Very very important. That's what I heard
from the group. And then another important thing I heard from the group is that they are mainly
funded by the state. The Iowa state and a few other I think, one other source of funding. I can't
[01:30:00] remember the name, but er, Commissioner Wangui will provide.
[01:30:03]
Bawa.
[01:30:04]
Bawa yes. Will help us with that. So- so that's the second important thing. The other thing that I
learned from the meet is that the organization is been providing a lot of services, but at the moment,
they are going through a lot of financial trouble. They want to do much more to the communities,
especially in the area of violence among youth, among immigrant and refugee communities. But the
capacity they have is very - very limited, restricted to what they've been doing before, but they're
seeing an emergence of a different type of problem among these younger communities that they
believe based on the expertise, and learning, and experiences that if there were programs [01:31:00]
that catered towards these communities that are sometimes difficult to reach by the regular services
offered by the government to the youth, then they would er, help these young persons er, change
their lives, and a lot of violence, including shootings, gun violence, sometimes very bad. And er, so
what I got from them is asking and ask. They believe the local governments. Just like the local
governments do help other organizations around here can also start to help smaller organizations like
Nissa with resources that could help their communities. So that's an important thing that I- I learned,
and they believe is part of er, equity. In the er, Iowa community resources, public resources are
shared that they also, if they can apply, that be er, given access to such resources to help different
communities [01:32:00] that they are helping. So I think those are the three things that I got, but
commissioners - the other two commissioners can add. Anything that they think I've missed.
[01:32:18]
I just want to remind my fellow commissioners that Nissa serves statewide. And, uh, but already that
had been stated by Commissioner Amos. But it's one of the organizations in the state that, uh, that
came about to fulfill a ration equity need in the area of sex violences. And that is even the reason why
I suggested that the TRC [01:33:00] do a meet and great with the organization. And adding to what
our director shared about the challenge of what to do about - about African youth, not just uh, in
mainly where the African population is mainly found in Davenport, Cedar Rapids area, Iowa city, and
Johnson County, and Des Moine area mostly the heavier population. And one of the challenges is, uh,
interaction with the police. Cases such as the ones that were shared by our fact of the fact finding
team that er, er, scientifically looked [01:34:00] at the information in our city. So that challenges the
organization on what to do, especially because on January 4, 2021, some African youth died in Des
Moine in a police chase after uh, a phone call was made that they were driving a stolen car. So youth
that ranged between 12 and 17. Uh, when the police started chasing, they were driving at 100 miles
an hour. So out of all that, because families were devastated. Ah, and- and some of - some of the
impacted youth are impacted by domestic violence. They're children [01:35:00] of the survivors and
victims that the organization serves. So the organization has been racking its head on what to do,
especially because, ah, with the youth them coming from a population that is unequally impacted by
police interaction, negative police interactions. And not just in Des Moine, but even here in Iowa City.
In one of our truth telling sessions, we had one of the - a mother of an African youth sharing her truth.
So that's one of the things that they took some time sharing that with the commissioners [01:36:00]
on that challenge and how they would go about it. I'll stop there. I don't know whether Commissioner
Dillard has something to add.
[01:36:17]
I think you both covered it beautifully.
[01:36:25]
Okay. Thank you very much. Any public comment? Okay. I'll move to the second er, part, part B of the
agenda which is final report.
[01:36:38]
I'm sorry, Commissioner Kiche to take you back. So are we done with the meet and great the future
ones, especially the one on Saturday?
[01:36:50]
If there is any additional information that can be discussed, we can continue doing that. [01:37:00]
But I think this was rearranged earlier on in the last probably two meetings behind the place, the
time, and other things and preparations have been made. So but if there are other questions about
the meet and great events and that ah, commissioners are free to discuss.
[01:37:21]
I was just going to add that um, there are flyers which were available for folks that came in person. So
- but Amos will take them to the event this Saturday and distribute them um, to the folks who come to
the first one. There have been, um, refreshments, um, some snacks ordered for the event. For those
of you who are attending, um, it's getting delivered at 10:45. If you arrive before Amos, you will need
to go to the information desk at the library [01:38:00] and check out the- the key for meeting room B,
and then just return it after the event. Um, there will be, ah, mobile crisis counselors there. Um,
there's been um, news releases. It's been on uh, social media. There's also a sign up genius for
community members to RSVP on so.
[01:38:24]
Thank you, Stefanie for uh, such a nice update.
[01:38:28]
Any other question on the meet an great before we could move to the final report?
[01:38:36]
I think my - my question is more to chastity. What's the outline of activities at the two meet and
great? And uh, who's facilitating the meet and greats?
[01:38:56]
Uh, thank you, Commissioner Gathua. If you all remember, I will not be there this weekend [01:39:00]
and the commissioners who agreed to be there on this weekend are the ones that will be facilitating.
We discussed that this meet and greet would simply be way to introduce ourselves and to discuss
further, uh, what our activities have been, what we're hoping to, and to get and just to hear from the
public in their own experiences. So it really is up to whoever is going to be there this weekend to
make sure that that happens. I hope I answered your question.
[01:39:37]
Uh, when you talk about experiences of the attendees.
[01:39:49]
I'm sorry.
[01:39:51]
When you talk of experiences of the attendees, so um,.
[01:39:58]
Um, I don't think I'm understanding [01:40:00] the word experiences, and then I don't know what
you're saying after that.
[01:40:03]
No, that is the - I'm asking general ratio inequity experiences.
[01:40:13]
Yes. Anything that has to do with our mission as a commission.
[01:40:23]
Thank you for clarity.
[01:40:29]
Yes, and on that day, we expect to see Commissioner Tassinary, Gathua, Kiche and Mohamed. Those
are the ones who at the moment suggested they would be willing to come. And on the October 20th,
we'll see Commissioner Dillard, Commissioner Gathua, Commissioner Kiche, and Commissioner
Mohamed. But other Commissioners are still welcome to- to join.
[01:40:59]
Actually, um, [01:41:00] if you listed four people for this stay, so that's the limit. Um, if another
commissioner comes, then one other commissioner will have to leave the room. Just remember that
our forum is four.
[01:41:13]
Okay. It's five.
[01:41:14]
It's five so we can have no more than four people.
[01:41:19]
Thanks for the Clarification Commissioner.
[01:41:30]
Any other question on- on meat and grit events? Given that there's no any other question on that
area, we will move to Part B, which is final report. This is the report to the Iowa City Council. So I open
the floor for discussions on this.
[01:41:59]
I believe [01:42:00] Ms. Commissioner Dillard. Stephanie, you forwarded an email- you forwarded an
email to us listing how detailed the final report needed to be, is that correct?
[01:42:14]
Yes.
[01:42:16]
Could you just reiterate or explain what you said in the emails to all of us, please once more?
[01:42:21]
Well, basically- and I spoke with Jeff about this the day after your past meeting. But you have the final
report from the facilitators, which would document your progress at least through March of 2024. So if
you wanted to include what- the work that you've done since that time, you would really only be
looking at May through December of 2024. And that the recommendations, [01:43:00] you know, it
seems like from listening to the meetings that you're thinking that you need to, you know, write a
report, that's like 100, 200 plus pages. And really, you know, you just need to write what your
recommendations are for the city council based upon, you know, the work that you've done here for
the last several years. So you know, something that's concise that lets the community know and lets
the city council know. As a result of all the work that you've done, you know, what you're suggesting
or recommending, And [OVERLAPPING].
[01:43:41]
Thank you, Stephanie.
[01:43:42]
Yeah. And you- after today, there's only five meetings, and that's assuming you meet twice in
November and twice in December, and I'm not sure how the meeting dates fall in terms of breaks and
holidays and celebrations that people may have in the month of November and December. [01:44:00]
So you know, I guess, in my opinion, the most efficient use of your time is to- is to meet somehow
outside of meetings. You know, of course, be mindful of the quorum, and you don't have to meet in
person. You know, you can call each other, you can email, you can be on Zoom, but, you know, really
trying to capture between members what you feel these recommendations should be, and you may
not know all of them at this point in time, and I realize that. But, you know, I think meeting time
should be spent kind of getting consensus on you know, what different groups have suggested versus
trying to come up with them in a meeting. I just think that's- it's doable, but it might be more efficient
to- to try to meet. Because there's nine commissioners, [01:45:00] you can meet in groups of three
and just trying to coordinate a list amongst one another.
[01:45:09]
Yes.
[01:45:10]
Thank you, Stephanie. I appreciate that.
[01:45:15]
Yeah, I just wanted to add to that we as commissioners need to meet in that order- in that format
suggested by the staff in order to come out with an outline a roadmap of what the report will look like,
even though we've got some advice from the city. I think we as commissioner also need to come with
our own way in which we want to do it, what we think is sufficient based on what we have gathered
our experience in here. And we will- we need to discuss that either in small groups, but I think that
discussion requires an outline. So I'm really really [01:46:00] looking forward to coming up with an
outline on what we've done from the time the commission was set up and the experiences, the history
a little bit. We do not want a situation where our recommendations are filed somewhere and only
looked at, and but we want it to be part of history. At the moment, we have a lot of commissions
going on around the US. Most of them are in the West Coast, like one of members of the public
indicated, some are in the Northeast, and ours in here in the Midwest here. There are very few in the
South, based on some figures that I've seen. So somebody is looking at what we're doing and they
might not even be here, they're very far, and they might want to learn something or just see what we
are engaged in. So- [01:47:00] so I think if Commissioners- if the Commissioner agrees, we will map
out how best we can do that to satisfy the mandate and satisfy our abilities and the resources we
have. So I don't know whether it is right now that we decide on the next meeting, whether to come up
with an outline in a full commission meeting or we do this in groups. And that's a question I presenting
to the commission for discussion.
[01:47:41]
Chastity's hand is up.
[01:47:42]
Yes, go ahead Chastity, yes.
[01:47:45]
Thank you. Commissioner Dillard, I really agree with just the idea of us finding a way to meet offline to
discuss our views on what recommendation [01:48:00] should be, whether that if some
commissioners would like to send out their recommendations for all of us to read or commissioners
get together in groups to meet and discuss things. I don't know if we really need to create an outline,
but it would be good to understand what the viewpoints are before we that have into a big discussion
in the next- in our last few meetings. So um, I think over the rest of this month, coming together, I
have a phone call Zoom in person to discuss what we think needs to happen next. I think it would be a
great idea. I'll try to reach out to people see who wants to get together, but I also really love
everyone's help in reaching out to each other as low. Ah, having conversations with other
commissioners is going to be important. [01:49:00] That's my viewpoint. Thank you.
[01:49:07]
And if anybody has questions or need assistance on, you know, getting to this point, don't hesitate to
reach out.
[01:49:19]
I also have a question on the third mandate of our chatter, which is reconciliation. While in our
discussion deliberations, we have had some forms of reconciliation, interacting with other
communities or hearing from them on their concerns and empathy for what we are working on. I
believe we have not engaged very well on the issue of reconciliation. And even though we have very-
just a few meetings to go, I was thinking depending on what the commission thinks that we [01:50:00]
make an attempt to reach different groups so that we make a headline, showcase that this is really a
day for hearing or trying make an attempt to reconcile in a way from different communities that are
engaged here in Iowa City. And I have a- I've had some questions from fellows that are non minority,
non bipo people. They are willing to- to join if there is an effort of that nature. They- they tend to
come from the faith community. And they- they have a lot of experiences with their members, which
are usually mixed, and they want to- they might. Yeah. I know one of them has been asking me,
"Commissioner Kiche, you talked about being in a commission. When am I coming to- to discuss with
you or talk with you?" [01:51:00] So this is a question I'm raising to the commission to try to include
all our communities. The local groups action groups, Black Lives Matters, NSCP, NCP, and other
members who have been participating in the online. They are members that occasionally see are
always the listening. It's an opportunity to invite them so that they can also talk. So- and that's a
question that to me is very dear as part of the charter that probably, if we do not address, the
recommendations will be incomplete because we also need to see how did we make an effort that
helped in some way. So I would want a discussion around that, if possible.
[01:51:59]
Commissioner [01:52:00] Dillard has a [OVERLAPPING]
[01:52:01]
Go ahead- go ahead. Sorry.
[01:52:06]
Ms. Dillard, again, I guess I'm trying to understand what you're wanting to do. So you're saying
Commissioner Kiche that you don't believe that our efforts towards specifically reconciliation have
been enough? And you believe for us to ah, better those efforts, we need to meet more with people in
the community to discuss what they want reconciliation to look like or to perform reconciliation efforts
between certain groups?
[01:52:44]
I would say yes, and not just to meet, we need to organize something that[OVERLAPPING]
[01:52:51]
Wait- wait. That was two different question. Yes to what? Because I had two different things. Yes to?
[01:52:58]
We have been meeting and [01:53:00] we have been hearing from them. We are continuing to meet
them in the next two events. This is still a meet and grit. We have had some cases here. And I believe
there are others that we have not met, but very, very important that we listen to them towards the
end of what we are working on, and I think to me it's not sufficient.
[01:53:25]
Okay. I guess I'm curious what efforts do you think we haven't done to try to meet these- the people
that you're trying to say or you want us to meet more with?
[01:53:43]
We can invite the other groups officially and engage as a group, maybe two commissioners or three
engaging a set of groups of people, and we see what is their view about reconciliation? [01:54:00]
How do they want us to go over that? And are they willing to come to the table for all of us to discuss?
That part, I believe we've not done a good job, according to my evaluation.
[01:54:18]
Okay. Um, I mean, I guess I'm asking questions because I would disagree and say we've done an
amazing job trying to engage with people in the community over the last almost four years, and we've
done the best we can ah, with the tools and resources that we do have. Ah, of course, there's always
efforts that can be done- we can do more of, but I would hesitate to say that we haven't tried in many
ways to reach uh, many different groups in this community.
[01:54:56]
Ah, Commissioner Mohammed's hand is up.
[01:54:59]
Yes. Commissioner Mohammed. [01:55:00] Go ahead.
[01:55:02]
I want to say something about what Commissioner Dillard said. You know, I have been here in Iowa 13
years since 2011. I have no idea about TRC. I never hear about it. And I hear like last two years or less
about TRC. And I was wondering, you know, like what TRC? And given Sandes with NWACP, he
suggested for me to apply. I applied two years ago, but my location did not, you know, accept until
here. And got to my attention, one of the TRC Commission, she was from Sudan. [01:56:00] And I
stopped teaching on like the TRC website, and I checked that she's from Sudan. And I noticed I know
her mom. And I was surprised. She never involved with Sudanese at all. Never. And as I asked people
in the community, "Do you know TRC?" They said, "No." Some people until now they don't know what
the TRC. Some people they knew now after I became a commission, when we had that meeting with
Commissioner Amos and the issues about- about the job and this stuff, you know, I have to explain to
these people what the TRC. Some people they understand, some people they don't know. Thank you.
[01:57:00] [01:57:02]
I have a question for Commissioner Kiche. The- the group that would want to do something, what
specifically would they want to happen?
[01:57:21]
Okay. This is what I'm thinking. Ah, we cannot decide for them what they want. We just have to meet
with them and listen to them, what they want us to put in the report. I cannot say I want them to do
A, B, or C, because I don't know. Every group out there have their own issues. We just saw the
housing group here giving us a lot of ideas and pointers on what they think the city can help them
with. This is if we can reach other groups like this, or we can just have access to any of two or
[01:58:00] three through somebody who can easily talk to them or their leaders, that could help. But I
cannot say that I want them to tell me about this or this, or this.
[01:58:12]
Invite them here?
[01:58:14]
Wherever we can agree with. It doesn't have to be here. This could be an event somewhere else.
Remember, in our budget, we have an allocation because that's something we were thinking about,
the final event or something like that. It is in our budget. So the budget was there to guide us on what
we were thinking planning. And I was thinking it would be something that would look like- something
like that.
[01:58:42]
Commissioner Dillard has her hand up.
[01:58:44]
Yes, go ahead.
[01:58:47]
So I think I- I hear what, um, everyone's saying. Of course, we can always do more. I hear what
Commissioner Mohamed is saying. Some people, lots of people don't know what the TRC is, but I think
it's [01:59:00] wonderful that Commissioner Mohamed, you did know who we were two years ago, uh,
which means that we did do our job in some way. I think one of the recommendations I would put out
there, um, that our commissioner can put out there is that there needs to be more resources to- to
spread the word. There needs to be people that can use- do this as a full time job and get out there.
The problem is that we are a volunteer commission who have full lives during the daytime, that can't
dedicate the amount of time that a true- uh, truth and reconciliation commission needs to be able to
be successful. So again, I'm going to say we did everything we could do to put our name out there,
um, with the little resources that we did have. And, uh, I think that if we do want to do another event,
let's see how this Saturday and the October 20th event goes, uh, because what you're talking
[02:00:00] about is getting people and- to come see us and to get people to fill the seats. And that's
one of the challenges that we do have sometimes. So, um, I don't want us to get ahead of ourselves
when, as Stefanie said, we have five more meetings. And till the December 31st when our commission
is ending. And I- I- I believe it's true, as years have shown that around the holidays, most of us are not
going to be as available. So how many- how much time do we have and how much effort is everyone
willing to put towards what you're talking about? I want people to think about that, um, before we get
ahead of ourselves. And- and yeah, let's discuss that part. Thank you.
[02:00:49]
Commissioner Lubna, go ahead.
[02:00:51]
Yeah, I guess I want to say something to Commissioner Dillard. Uh, for TRC, that I was wondering
because one of the memb- the commission [02:01:00] was from Sudan. That's what I was wondering,
you know, first time when I saw her name, I thought she's from Somalia. But I did dig on Google and I
asked people, I found she's from Sudan. What's surprised me, she never in four years or whatever,
she's not involved in the community, not zero is a minor. I asked the people, you know, about how
they- they said we don't know how. And no one is about RT. Is less than zero. That what why I was
wondering how she is from Sudan TRT and people they don't know how they don't know what the TRP.
She's not involved in a single thing for the Sudanese community issues. That's why- why I'm
wondering, you know, about that. Thank you.
[02:02:00] [02:02:04]
Chastity, go ahead.
[02:02:07]
I don't have it raised anymore. Sorry.
[02:02:10]
You hand is still up. To Commissioner Kiche again, can this particular group attend the Meet and
Greets? Can they- what they have to say? Can it be said that- on the October 5th but that one is very
soon? It's like the day after tomorrow, on 20th, can they be part of that? If they're invited? I think that
is possible.
[02:02:40]
So you would be able to send them the flyer that is already available?
[02:02:50]
The ones that I know of, I will be, but it's all our responsibility. Every commissioner, I believe, has
some networks [02:03:00] that are important for an event like this that they can extend to and seek
and find out if it is possible that an event of this nature can include such important groups and
organizations. We cannot force them to join, but since it is an already pre-planned place and time, it's
just their willingness now, but it is, I don't know whether there will be adequate resources on this day,
but that's a different question.
[02:03:27]
So what are you thinking of in terms of resources?
[02:03:34]
I'm thinking of room, maybe refreshments.
[02:03:42]
The shelter?
[02:03:44]
In the shelter house at the city park. Yeah. You know, it's a different environment. It's not a building.
Yeah. So some people might be having problems with an open area. What if the weather is really
bad?
[02:03:54]
I haven't been to shelter 12, but I don't [02:04:00] know whether it's open. Or it's the one that's
walled in. I mean, that can be confirmed.
[02:04:14]
So if as the commission we want make this other Meet and Greet to include other issues, then we can
outreach much more.
[02:04:27]
What do you mean other issues? We have a charge.
[02:04:30]
Yeah, we have a charge. But you see, we are calling it event Meet and Greet and I'm also talking
about reconciliation, so is reconciliation going to be included part of that or not?
[02:04:42]
It- it is part of our work. If this particular group you're talking about, if they can bring that there.
[02:04:57]
If it's okay. This is Commissioner Dillard?
[02:04:59]
Go [02:05:00] ahead. Yes.
[02:05:03]
Are you saying that we would need to adjust the- the wording because I guess alongside, I think with
Commissioner Gathua, I feel like if anyone- everyone is welcome to these Meet and Greets and
they're welcome to discuss anything that has to do with our commission. So, uh, I don't know how it
would be different because reconciliation is a part of our work. Um, I'm sorry if I'm misunderstanding
what you- you're trying to get at. Could you help me understand?
[02:05:34]
I think words have meeting. The Meet and Greet is a concept that is recent. Actually I didn't know it
until I came in here because I've not been engaged on- on a lot of those events. Reconciliation is a
word that I've known for a while. And I think if we're talking about reconciliation, somebody has a
better idea. Meet and Greet is very open. When it's reconciliation, I think they know what they're
coming to. They're coming with the issues with the combinations they want. Meet and Greet probably
[02:06:00] includes that too, but I think the words have power.
[02:06:11]
So you're just- so you're just saying that because it's not specific enough. Is that what you're saying?
[02:06:21]
No. What I'm saying is that I did not envision the Meet and Greet events to probably encompass or
include to some good extent reconciliation.
[02:06:40]
Maybe I'm understanding you wrong, uh, Commissioner Kiche, but when I look at the invite again
where we have, this is greater- this is a great opportunity to learn more about the commission and
how you can support their effort- efforts, because that's where you started [02:07:00] that this group
would really want to support with a part of reconciliation, even after we've made recommendations
and when we make recommendations, they have some ideas. So that is why I'm asking, can they
attend? In the interest of time, like we said, we only have November, December, and we are done.
Can they attend that? What they have to offer? Can it be offered at that place?
[02:07:32]
They can be offered. But remember, we have a restriction on the number of commissioners. In a real
reconciliation, one all the commissioners if possible, it should be there is a proper public meeting. This
one, only 45. But it is designed to achieve certain elements that a reconciliation meeting probably
would have achieved much more and with a full open meeting, public meeting [02:08:00] of all
commission. I see that is a very significant difference.
[02:08:05]
So are you suggesting something like the truth telling where all commissioners were something like
that?
[02:08:16]
I believe that would help better.
[02:08:22]
Commissioner Kiche, this is Commissioner Dillard again. I guess- I guess- I guess I'm a little confused
because I thought we all agreed that we wanted to try these meet and greets to give people an
opportunity to feel safe and not be out in the open or in a public setting. I would think that people that
want to talk more about reconciliation would still want the same thing. We made it a public meeting
with all of us, that would eliminate that safety. Um, so I guess, um, yeah that's my thoughts.
[02:09:00] [02:09:11]
So this event would have the title of reconciliation?
[02:09:24]
I think that's a di- separate question.
[02:09:27]
I'm still trying to understand. And then, uh, so is it ideas being offered or is it a meeting of Iowa City
Community members? And I'm trying to understand, is it, like, would it be like a circle?
[02:09:54]
It- it doesn't have to look like a circle. It could take some element of that, but [02:10:00] it's just an
event a gathering or total gathering. I don't know the right way to- to- to call it because I do not want
to go in a reconciliation meeting where some commissioners cannot attend. Yet, that is the charge
that they were given to conduct. Unless it's done in sequences, in one time four commissioners hear
the issues of reconciliation with other communities, and as a different group and then another group
of commissioners do that. That is also possible.
[02:10:31]
So who would be gathering the- this particular group and the nine commissioners or- and the
community or just the commissioners on this?
[02:10:43]
For example- for example, in one of these days, there will only be four commissioners because it's not
a public meeting.
[02:10:54]
No, I'm still on the- that other group that has something to offer on reconciliation. The [02:11:00]
meet and greets, I think those ones are sort of if they're not able to do this. So would it be an event
just for commissioners, nine commissioners and this group or commissioners, this group, and then
Iowa City community members?
[02:11:16]
I think it's an event where all the commissioners unless there's a good reason for them not to show up
are present listening, and taking all the voices, and in an event there are all different communities.
Non-BIPOC are also invited. That's why the world reconciliation is there.
[02:11:39]
So what would be happening?
[02:11:42]
Which means we make an attempt to reach these other non-BIPOC communities. The BIPOC groups
and see if there's a day where we can gather somewhere. All of us, the commission, with all the Iowa
City committee- community. [02:12:00] To talk something about reconciliation. I don't know how the
nature of that will look like. I've never been an event, but I- we cannot design that for them, but we
can guid- provide guidelines on probably what the panel looks like. Maybe we invite some presenters
to talk on the issue of race and healing, social justice, equity issues, and see also what they think
about that topic. That is what I would think reconciliation would look like. I will refer to the, I don't
have the chart right now, but I think the charter probably describes different types of reconciliation
that we can look into at a separate time. And if we agree that a reconciliation meeting is- is different
from a Meet and Greet one. Although Meet and Greet can also provide reconciliation, but not fully.
[02:13:00] [02:13:03]
So just I- I have it in front of me. So let's see. Um, the TRC, I mean, it gives several ways. It says,
create a replicable model that provides a structure for enabling these conversations, make available
opportunities for a broad cross section of the community to learn about discrimination and racial
injustice, identify and recommend to the city, counsel, institutional and policy reforms, new social
practices, expectations, protocols, habits, rituals, conversations, and celebrations that will move Iowa
City toward a shared experience of race and difference, justice and equity and community and
harmony. I'm- I'm literally skipping over some stuff, but, you know, it does it have a specific, it gives a
few specific examples of how you can do reconciliation, but then it kind of gives, you know, more, um,
suggestions that I guess are more, [02:14:00] um, more in the spirit of identifying and recommending
to the city council. So- so I- I guess I read it as it could be done one or two ways.
[02:14:19]
On that, I want to add reconciliation. It's- it can be- it can stand on its own, and sometimes it has as
we've been working in the commission. But then it also runs through the work of the TRC all the way
from the very beginning, and even in its purpose, it is to that's the end game, and even after we are
done, the work of reconciliation is all the three pieces of it is not done. So it can stand alone, like, um,
hearing Amos [02:15:00] wanting. And it has stood alone sometimes, for example, when we were
doing the various circles, but at the same time, it also runs through all the three pieces and through
the process up to where we are today. And- uh, and I guess, some of that I'm repeating what, uh,
Stefanie just read and how I've been understanding and also from also the other TRCs that are going
on in the country and have gone on in the world and task forces on ratio injustice. And Lubna your
hand- hand was up or was it Chastity?
[02:15:51]
I just put it down, but I'm just going to say yeah, I- I think that's where, um, my confusion came
because I also saw the reconciliation part [02:16:00] of our charge as, um, the recommendations. Uh,
and then what would happen after our commission's, um, time has ended would be the reconciliation
part afterwards. So that's- that's the part. Yeah. So I think I understand now.
[02:16:20]
But I'm still kind of hearing Commissioner Kiche wanting a standalone reconciliation with this, uh,
event with this particular group, and with,uh, uh, more than four commissioners, which makes it uh,
totally a meeting when everyone is there.
[02:16:49]
Um, if I can make a suggestion since it is getting late, we can definitely talk about how that can look
and maybe,uh, present that at our next meeting if it's even [02:17:00] possible. Again, um, time is
ticking. So, um, we can talk and see what is possible and,um, see if we can you know, get the ball
rolling um, if everyone's in agreement, but I don't think we're going to be able to make any decisions
tonight.
[02:17:21]
I'm assuming we are on Seven B. Are we there? On the agenda?
[02:17:27]
Yes, we are on B. Yeah. So yeah, like Commissioner Church suggested, we can postpone that issue to
another time. Um, if there's no objection, we'll move to presentation to City Council which-
[02:17:45]
Before we do that, I just wanted to say because on the final report, we said we shall work on that, uh,
uh, between our last meeting and this meeting. [02:18:00] I- I did look at what uh, Commissioner Lou
has. And also, having looked at the other TRCs that have gone on and are going on in the country and
outside the country and task forces, uh, um, uh, our report. I'm not thinking of 200 pages, but
probably between 20 pages and 50 pages, or at least looking at that and to sort of capture and
summarize uh, what we have been doing and context, and then putting those recommendations. And
uh, during our last meeting, it was suggested whether people could bring in- could suggest somebody,
uh, [02:19:00] um, and since funds are available. Somebody to do- to for us to have somebody who
could do the report for us. That's what I was ruminating on and uh, and thinking about for as we move
forward with this.
[02:19:31]
So if I understand you well, Commissioner, you was talking about the final report in the form of
preparation and writing, and who is going to do that. And, uh, I believe based on my engagement with
you, we talked to somebody. And it is a good time to if you could mention that issue that we found
somebody that can help us- excuse me with the report writing, [02:20:00] somebody that we believe
unless we have other persons already online. I know earlier on we have had a discussion on some
persons from the university also helping. But I don't have full information about how ready they are
and their willingness at the moment. So it's a good time to discuss that. Um, can we engage this
person get interviewed maybe with the staff on whether the person is appropriate and can start
helping us.
[02:20:38]
On a report that follows the template of other TRC because we are a TRC.
[02:20:49]
So Commissioner, when we can you talk about the person that we had, uh, engagement with?
[02:21:00]
In the interest of time, do we say as we had- do we continue as we had decided to- to wait for the
next meeting?
[02:21:17]
What is the opinion of the Commission members on the report writing?
[02:21:25]
I think that we can talk about this next time and in between,um, our meeting.
[02:21:32]
Okay. The next agenda, if that is not possible right now is also about presentation to city council, and
that's very much related to the report? You won't present if you don't have the report. So if we
suspend, er, the discussion on that on agenda part- Agenda 7 Part B, then that means we are also
suspending discussion on presentation to city council [02:22:00] unless somebody commissioner has
a different view. Um, what is entail on the agenda of presentation to city council? Is this the question
of the date and the time?
[02:22:15]
We can discuss that next time.
[02:22:17]
Okay.
[02:22:18]
What- Um, you're saying the date and the time to present to city council?
[02:22:22]
Because it's apart-
[02:22:24]
I mean, I followed up with the city manager and the commission even though the ending is the end of
December 31st, 2024, even though the commission technically expires at that time, you can present
the report to city council or present do your presentation to city council after that time. In terms of the
date and time, that would be something that would be determined by the city council, not- not the
TRC.
[02:22:54]
Thank you, stuff.
[02:22:55]
Yeah.
[02:22:55]
Yeah. Okay.
[02:22:58]
So they will let [02:23:00] us know when they expect the report.
[02:23:06]
Well, I think, you know, once you have decided that you have a presentation, then I think at that time,
you know, that you would alert the counsel that you would like to get on a work session agenda.
[02:23:24]
So what I'm hearing, fellow commissioners is for us as I guess as we discuss our final report. Thinking
I mean, thinking about the time, it would take us to estimate the time. It would take us to get done
with a final report. That's what I'm hearing.
[02:23:44]
Well, I thought at the last meeting, it was decided that the report would be done by that December
31st, 2024 date, and that the only thing that you were asking to carry over after that point would be
the presentation to City Council. That was my understanding [02:24:00] after the last meeting.
[02:24:03]
That is what we said.
[02:24:04]
So I'm hearing, we have 2.5 months to do the report. In addition to the meet and grits. And maybe an
event that Commissioner Kiche is talking about.
[02:24:29]
Cor- correct. As things stand today, that would be correct.
[02:24:33]
Yeah. And because of that, that's why I was suggesting we get somebody whose work is writing up
reports to lead us in, er, if it is possible. But then yeah, we said we talked about that during our next
meeting.
[02:24:55]
Yes, I mean we will talk about that as part of the final report discussions, [02:25:00] yes. Okay. Er, if
there is no objection, uh, we'll move to part D, which is documentary. Um, if we have some
information about the update on this, then the Commission would like to hear that.
[02:25:40]
No updates. We can move on.
[02:25:42]
Okay. Any other issue regarding actions for phases 3 and 4 that we have not discussed, that is
pertinent to Agenda Number 7. Anybody from the public? Yes. Go ahead.
[02:26:00] [02:26:01]
Nothing. Sorry.
[02:26:03]
Any person from the public would want to address the questions of meat and grit? That's the only
thing that we have probably talked much about today. The other three other components will discuss
next week. Um, not next week next time. If there is nobody from the public, er, I'll call for
announcements of Commissioners. Agenda Number 8. Announcements from commissioners. I'll start
by, er, indicating that I attended and I tabled an event last Saturday. I was City Pd Mall. I that was an
African [02:27:00] festival of arts and culture. And it was a very good event. A lot of people were
there. The mayor was there. I saw other council members were also there. They spent a lot of time
uh, at the festival, and that was very-very positive to me as a commission member, they were buying
food, they were buying clothes, wearing all kinds of African clothes, and that was very interesting. And
it was table between me and Commissioner Wangui were both there in the event, and I don't know if
Commissioner Wangui might want to add.
[02:27:35]
It was exciting people having their names on our contact list. How many people did we get 19? No. It's
announcement, so yeah.
[02:27:46]
Yeah, we had six volunteers. And 13 males who are bipo Those are people we contact. We had
contacts with. Then we had 23 females. So it was like a total of 36 total [02:28:00] contacts that we
had on- on our table. There were three persons from non bip community. And so of all our events, this
is the one where we have had the highest contact as yet. But we can have more in the next few
events coming in the mets and greets if possible. Yeah.
[02:28:23]
And it was exciting to just hear people getting excited about, knowing about the existence of TRC and
being excited about our swag, uh, and the information that we had, the people took it and T shirts
and- and what we had on the table. It was great interacting with the community.
[02:28:55]
Another- another if Commissioner you done. [02:29:00] Another event that I attended was a webinar
with the University of Duke. They have a center for a- let me see, is a center for human rights,
gender, and social justice. And they are working on a project where they're doing a study on all the
TRC commissions around the continent, not around in the US. And they showed to me that most of
the events of this nature happening in the West Coast part of, er, Middle North, The map showed that
there were not- not much maybe none in the South, and that's something that really worried them
where the- but so far, they are engaged with the administrators, commissioners who were engaged in,
er, commissions like ours in here. And they're doing a study that for which I was part of the focus
group, in which they're looking [02:30:00] at reparations, and how best, er, to conduct reparations
once they come up recommendations. We-they are having difficulty, coming with the theory, very
much much of the center is much led by economists, but there are other persons too. So it was very
interesting that they're still having trouble on the best way. A lot of disagreement on the
methodology, how to do reparations. But the center has just been inaugurated not too long ago by the
University of Duke. And they have a full fledged professor. Working on- on issues of race in
reparations and uh, related issues. And uh, that was a very interesting webinar. They were saying that
those who have not filled in the survey, I think the survey was sent to other commissioners too. They
would want to hear from your view so that issues of race relations, social injustices, reparations,
[02:31:00] and so on are done in the right format in which they are well studied academically.
Universities should have, er, tenured professors work in those areas, not just departments. They
should- they were thinking that a scholarly serious scholarly work, should be recommended and done
by universities in which professors and students and other scholars interact and train people in the
field on how best to talk about these issues so that they are not pushed aside by politics. That was a
very positive thing that I learned from the focus group. Any other announcement from the
commission? If there is no any other announcement, I would entertain announcements from stuff.
[02:31:56]
Um, I would just say if folks have agenda items [02:32:00] if the chair, um, consents or approves, if
you could send them to Chassity and me so that it's clear what goes on the agenda and what doesn't
or how it's phrased and stuff. That would be helpful. But Chassity, are you okay with that or
Commissioner Dillard.
[02:32:23]
Yeah, thank you.
[02:32:24]
Okay. And then um, gosh. So I- I guess. So the two of you and I know we're not going to get into a
discussion, but if- if you have met with somebody who you thought could write a report for the TRC, if
you could send that information to me or what you have so that I can disseminate it to the entire
commission so that your meeting- your next meeting, you know, to make the most efficient use of
time, so- so that people have the information that they can look through um, and [02:33:00] think
about and come up with questions, and also you know, because you would have to move pretty quick
on that. Um, so whatever information you have, that would be helpful to get to me so I can get it out
to everybody. So everybody has the same information. But that's all I have. So thank you.
[02:33:19]
Thank you very much, Stuff. Um, er, we have any motion for we're going for adjournment, any motion
to adjourn the meeting?
[02:33:30]
I move.
[02:33:33]
Second.
[02:33:34]
The meeting is adjourned. Thank you.