Kevin Frost, Alderman - Ward 4 | City of Rockford
Kevin Frost, Alderman - Ward 4 | City of Rockford
City of Rockford Community Action Agency Board met July 15.
Here are the minutes provided by the board:
I. CALL TO ORDER
A. Roll Call
| Attendee Name | Organization | Title | Status | Arrived |
| Gina Delrose | City of Rockford | Present | ||
| Dorothy Redd | City of Rockford | Excused | ||
| Jeremiah Griffin | City of Rockford | Excused | ||
| Laura Snyder | City of Rockford | Absent | ||
| Tiana McCall | City of Rockford | Present | ||
| Mary Yoho | City of Rockford | Present | ||
| Markayla Herbert | City of Rockford | Absent | ||
| Mary Cacioppi | City of Rockford | Excused | ||
| Ken Oliver | City of Rockford | Present | ||
| Jaime Salgado | City of Rockford | Alderman | Present | |
| Dawn Granath | City of Rockford | Alderman | Present |
1. Approval of Minutes from the meeting held on May 20th, 2025
| RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS]
MOVER: Tiana McCall, Jaime Salgado AYES: Delrose, McCall, Yoho, Oliver, Salgado, Granath ABSENT: Laura Snyder, Markayla Herbert EXCUSED: Dorothy Redd, Jeremiah Griffin, Mary Cacioppi |
A. CSBG:
1. Increased Demand for Eviction Support: Appointment slots for client assistance have expanded due to increased demand for eviction prevention support. This rise follows the end of the Court-Based Rental Assistance Program (CBRAP) on June 6, 2025.
2. PY25 Homeless Prevention: This program ended on June 30, 2025. All allocated direct client assistance funds were fully exhausted.
3. PY26 Homeless Prevention: We have been awarded $1,110,414 from IDHS for the new program year. These funds will support eligible clients with: Security deposits, Rent and back rent, Utility payments, and Mortgage assistance. The program runs from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2026, or until funds are fully spent.
4. Organizations Standards (The purpose of the organizational standards is to ensure that all agencies have the appropriate organizational capacity, in both critical financial and administrative areas, as well as areas of unique importance to the mission of the Community Action network) which was submitted on July 1, 2025, and is currently under review by our Grants Manager.
5. CSBG Bylaws Compliance: The current CSBG Bylaws are not compliant and do not align with our selected board composition. The Grants Manager has approved a 90-day extension for board vacancies through July 31, 2025. I will submit a request for an additional extension through October 31, 2025, to allow adequate time for revisions and recruitment.
6. 2025 CSBG Modification #1 has been submitted with the following changes: Please note that funds were reallocated between Work Programs.
a. Skills Training (WP # 01.011) - Decrease in direct client assistance from $95,822 to $80,000. Decreased from 27 to 25 persons served. No change for successful outcomes.
b. Training & Counseling Services (WP# 03.011) - Increase indirect client assistance from $0 to $1,500. Funds will be used for weekly session incentives - such as food - as well as graduation ceremony materials. No change for persons served or successful outcomes.
c. Housing Payment Assistance (WP# 04.011) - CSBG Funds used as a match for you in the ESG Rapid Rehousing. Decrease in direct client assistance from $37,500 to $25,000. Due to lower than-expected demand, the cost is not as significant as anticipated. No change for persons served or successful outcomes.
d. Utility Payment Assistance (WP# 04.031) - Decrease in direct client assistance from $30,000 to $6,000. Lower-than-expected demand and residents utilizing LIHEAP and other resources have kept costs lower than anticipated. Decreased from 15 to 6 persons served. No change for successful outcomes.
e. Housing Placement Assistance (WP# 04.041) - Increase in direct client assistance from $120,500 to $130,138. No change for persons served or successful outcomes. The Court-Based Rental Assistance Program (CBRAP) ended on 6/6/25, likely increasing the need for eviction support to prevent homelessness.
f. Housing Maintenance & Improvements - Life-Safety (WP# 04.051) - Increase from 20 to 25 persons served. Increase from 18 to 23 successful outcomes. The maximum assistance benefit per participant has increased from $2,500 to $3,500 to account for the rising costs of parts and labor for life-safety home repairs. No change to Direct Client Assistance.
g. Eligibility Determinations (WP# 07.021) - Increase in maximum assistance benefit per participant from $2,000 to $3,000. Due to the anticipation of rising auto part tariffs impacting service delivery.
B. Homelessness:
1. Landlord Engagement: LL Engagement specialist is continuing to look for units and recruit new landlords. Will be sending out first (quarterly) newsletter this month and has completed a collaborative pamphlet that talks about the various rental programs for the homeless in our community. Angie Walker and Joel Givens attended the IL Home Summit in June in Rosemont, IL where they presented with Lake County, IL staff on Landlord Engagement.
2. Winnebago County Community Mental Health Board (IMPACT) program-Have 7 residents living in TH as of today. Staff is working on securing 1 more unit in a different building. Renewal grant application was approved for 2 more years and just started back up June 1st. All MH positions are currently filled.
3. HUD CoC grants-We have received 3 of our 4 FY2024 contracts from HUD which will keep us funded through 2026. This was supposed to be a 2-year grant but the new administration has just informed us that we will have to reapply again this year and there will be different funding priorities. CoC Specialist position was posted once, and an offer made. Applicant then rescinded her acceptance and now we are waiting for HR to re-post.
4. State grants-ESG, Rapid Rehousing, and Shelter Diversion all ended 6/30 and FY26 started 7/1/25. We have received funding from all three again. 5. Street outreach-continues on Thursday nights.
6. Medical Respite (NICER): Is up and running with 4 beds at the Rescue Mission. We have had 3 participants in the program so far with one referral pending. Grant has just expired but the state anticipates another coming out soon for extended funding.
7. Built for Zero-our coaches from BFZ are planning another on-site visit (possibly July 30-31) to get some of our work groups back together and look at our goals from last year and see what is next for our homelessness work
C. LIHEAP:
1. We have lost 1 temporary employee who was a LIHEAP INTAKE Worker, Libra Martin. At this time, we are not hiring replacements as the training time and end of the grant coming make this not feasible.
2. We received a grant Modification for the 2025 HHS grant of $2.7 Million. This additional funding was awarded to us based on our consistently showing need that outpaces our standard portional allotment. These funds although labeled for 2025 are being held to open the 2026 program year beginning in October of 2025.
3. We initiated a grant Modification for the 2024 HHS grant that moved $265,047 to Client Benefit and away from unspent Program Support and Administration. This has enabled us to help more disconnected households in the last few weeks. We are currently working with only about $180,000 in Client Benefits remaining for the 2025 program year.
4. As of July 1, we have provided benefits to 11,762 households, and we have taken 12,135 applications.
5. We will continue to take applications through August 15, even though we will not be able to provide benefits for that long. The reason is to enroll as many as possible in the Low-Income Discount Rate program for NICOR and eventually for COMED (Jan of 2026).
6. PIPP:
7. PIPP/COMED issues are essentially corrected. The door is open to future calls if necessary.
8. As of July 1, we have 884 households enrolled in PIPP. We continue to neutralize all missed payment interventions because of all the confusion in billings this year.
D. Weatherization:
1. All 51 jobs have been completed and closed! 40 were RHA properties and 11 were our traditional Weatherization single family homes.
2. $962,133 was spent
100% of DOE
82% of HHS
72% of STATE
3. We have begun our “Carryover” period to fully expend our HHS and State funds and have until 9/30/25.
4. PY26 officially started 7/1/25 however the Stat is experiencing some delays with the system and we have been told to standby until further notice.
5. We have a new staff person starting in 2 weeks. He is a fully certified assessor/inspector coming from another agency.
6. We continue to have conversations about the WEX program and should have some workers starting with us at the end of this month.
7. We had our state programmatic monitoring visit last month and all went well. No findings!
1. Community Servives Programmatic Report
| RESULT: DISCUSSED |
A. We still have several positions available:
1. 5-Family Support Specialists - 49 weeks- Interviewing
2. 1-Family Support Specialist - 37 weeks
3. 1-Bilingual Family Support Specialist-37 weeks
4. 3-PACE Teachers
5. 6-Head Start Teacher- Interviewing
6. 2-Early Head Start Home Visitor Teacher-Posted
7. 2-Head Start Site Coordinator-Interviewing
8. 1-Maintanince Technician
a. Vacancies will be filled and some eliminated pending Change in Scope approval
B. Currently we have posted - EHS Home Visitor, Head Start Teacher, Family Support Specialist, Site Coordinator
C. Received notification of new Program Specialist and Grants Specialist D. As of end of May 2025, we are at 41% of enrollment, 291 of 714 slots are filled in both Head Start and Early Head Start.
E. As of the end of June 2025 we are at 41% of enrollment, 290 of 714 slots are filled in both Head Start and Early Head Start.
F. FA1 (Focus Area 1) Monitoring Visit completed
1. 3 Area of Concern
2. Area of Noncompliance
G. Planning Call with DLH is set for July 29 @ 1:30pm
H. Change of Scope re-submitted April 17, 2025
I. We are need of Policy Council Reps. If you someone that would be interested please let me know and we will reach out to invite them to a meeting.
J. As of February, we currently have 9 representatives
K. Fall school year to begin August 18
L. Staff to return July 28.
M. Opening 3 Full Day Classrooms for 3-5 at PACE in the fall
N. Classes to start August 25, 2025
O. Ending partnership with the YMCA CLC
P. Working on opening 2 more full day classrooms
Q. Looking for locations
R. Need Staff
S. HS Self-Assessment Completed on June 13, 2025 -Report and Work Plan is pending
1. Head Start Programmatic Report
| RESULT: DISCUSSED |
A. Fiscal Updates
1. Health and Human Services Award Dashboard.
2. Office of Head Start awarded balance of Head Start contract on 6/18/25 B. Monitoring/Auditing
1. City-wide audit report, the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report or ACFR, was submitted on 6/30/25. It is available on the City’s website, on the Accounting page. Single Augit work is continuing remotely; that report is due 9/30/25.
2. Head Start FA1 review report presented no fiscal findings.
1. Fiscal Report
| RESULT: DISCUSSED |
A. The Executive Director iterated the department is flat funded. Work will continue as normal.
B. Changes have been made to the Federal Register. HHS has changed their interpretation of what is considered a Federal public benefit. Previously, Head Start and programs from the CSBG (Community Services Block Grant) have been exempted from being categorized as this.
1. Under the new guidelines from the Federal level, only “qualified aliens” would qualify for such services.
2. Qualified aliens may include: asylum seekers, people who are facing delays in deportation, etc. who also meet the federal criteria for these designations.
3. We are awaiting more guidance in the next week.
C. Staff mentioned the bylaws have been out of compliance. Board seats need to be filled. Our State association is doing an initiative to review many agencies’ bylaws. Our bylaws will be submitted for their review. Once the board members have been seated, we can make modifications then.
D. On August 1, we are having an all-staff retreat, board members will be invited.
VII. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS
VIII. GUEST REPORT/ PRESENTATIONS
A. Tiana McCall discussed changes at DCEO. Their fiscal year has ended and they are in a period of recalibrating in regards to the budget.
1. Tiana went on to mention she will no longer be at DCEO as of
August 1 but she will continue to be apart of the CAA Board.
B. Gina Delrose had an update from Belvidere. Their City Council voted to reject the 1% grocery tax.
IX. NEW BUSINESS
A. The Executive Director brought up the vacancy of CAA Board President. For the time being, Jeremiah Griffin will serve as the interim board President until a new one is elected. Any board members interested in that can reach out to staff to ask questions.
B. A special board meeting will need to be called to vote on the Community Action Plan. Staff will work on sending out a poll to determine what’s the best time to hold that.
X. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was closed at 1:25 PM
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