The Greensboro City is holding both a work session and a special meeting on Tuesday, May 23, and the agendas for both meetings have been recently revised.

The work session scheduled for Tuesday, May 23 was originally one of the three budget work sessions the City Council planned to hold before approving the $749 million fiscal year 2023-2024 budget on Tuesday, June 20.

The public hearing on the budget is scheduled for Tuesday, June 6 at 5:30 p.m. in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber

The City Council has also scheduled a budget work session for Thursday, May 25 and one after the public hearing on Thursday, June 15.

The schedule for the May 23 work session was revised following the May 16 City Council meeting to include a discussion of the plans presented by Housing and Neighborhood Development Director Michelle Kennedy to turn the Regency Inn into permanent supportive housing for homeless people.

The May 23 meeting was also rescheduled to begin at 1 p.m. rather than 2 p.m..

This is the second attempt by Housing and Neighborhood Development to have the Regency Inn renovated at a cost to the city of about $3 million to become a permanent supportive housing facility. The first attempt was with Partnership Homes in 2021.  The City Council approved a no-interest loan of $3 million to Partnership Homes for the renovation, which was estimated to cost $13.1 million. When the $3 million loan was approved, the source of the additional $10 million was unclear and in fact it never materialized.

At the May 16 meeting, councilmembers complained about only receiving the information about the proposed contract with Step Up on Second Inc. shortly before the meeting.

Councilmember Zack Matheny questioned why there was no request for proposal (RFP) or bid process for the Regency Inn proposal, unlike other city projects. It appears to be similar to the Pallet Shelter project by Housing and Neighborhood Development where councilmembers questioned why the source for the temporary shelters was not put out for bid.

The approval of Step Up as the provider of permanent supportive housing was also added to the agenda for the special City Council meeting beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 23 in the Katie Dorsett Council Chamber.  The meeting was originally set aside for the proposed ordinance on short term rentals and proponents and opponents of the proposed ordinance were told that short term rentals would be the only item on the agenda for that meeting.

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