2016/04/13 Council Agenda Packet

2015-2019 Consolidated Plan Amendments • The City of Everett is a member of the Snohomish County Urban County Consortium for HOME funds. The City of Everett, the City of Marysville, and Snohomish County collaborated in the development of a joint 2015-2019 Consolidated Plan which was adopted in May 2015. The plan, in part, identifies priority housing needs in our community for low-income and homeless persons, including persons with special needs, and establishes five- year goals to guide the investment of HOME funds over the five-year period to help meet these needs. Pursuant to an interlocal agreement, 21% of the Consortium's HOME funds are set-aside each year for affordable housing activities that benefit residents of the City of Everett and the City of Everett's Urban Growth Area. The projects are selected through the City of Everett's project selection process and undergo both city-wide and county-wide citizen participation requirements. Snohomish County has final approval of the project awards, which are included in the Annual Action Plan for these funds each year, or as amendments to these plans. Projects selected must be consistent with the 2015-2019 Consolidated Plan goals. AMENDMENT NO. 1: ANNUAL ACTION PLAN The City of Everett is proposing a substantial amendment to the 2011 and 2015 Snohomish County Annual Action Plans to reallocate $403,306.10 currently designated for the CHIP program and $177,423 currently designed for the Everett Rental Housing Project in Everett HOME set-aside funds for a total of$580,729.10. The recommended reallocation is the existing Everett YWCA Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Program (TBRA). Pursuant to guidance from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the balance of pre-2015 funds must be committed to a project by July.2016 or reallocated to another qualifying affordable housing activity that can commit the funds by that date. If that commitment date is not met, the City is in jeopardy of losing use of the funds. HUD regulations also require program income to be spent prior to using any new HOME funds. The City of Everett CHIP program is a long-standing program in the community that consistently receives applications for assistance and makes loans under the program. Since CHIP has received significantly higher than usual program income from loan repayments over the past few years, only $15,379.90 of the $418,686 2011 HOME award has been needed. The City estimates that the program will have enough program income to cover the costs of the program through June 30, 2016, therefore will not meet the commitment date. The purpose of reallocating a portion of the Everett Rental Housing Project funds is also the 2016 fund commitment requirement. The proposal is tosupplement the existing Everett YWCA TBRA Program to provide additional rental assistance to high system utilizers who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. Planned activities include assistance with rent, security deposits, utility deposits, and other eligible costs. A non-substantial amendment to the 2015 Annual Action Plan was approved in January 2016 which reallocated $50,000 in Everett HOME-set aside funds from the Everett Rental Housing Project to the Everett YWCA Tenant-Based Rental Assistance Program for this purpose. That funding is providing up to five households with nine months each of assistance. The additional funding is anticipated to allow the program to expand by providing 20 households with assistance for up to two years and nine months. The TBRA program is a qualifying program and is related to the intent of the Everett Rental Housing Project of implementing the Streets Initiative Housing First goals. Specifically, the amendments would: o Amend the 2011 Snohomish County Annual Action Plan to reduce the City of Everett Community Housing Improvement Program (CHIP) award of$418,686 in Everett HOME set-aside funds by $403,306.10 to $15,379.90. o Amend the 2015 Snohomish County Annual Action Plan to reduce the Everett Rental Housing Project $469,960 in Everett HOME set-aside funds by $177,423 to $292,537. A public Hearing was held on March 2, 2016 and the Committee recommended the City Council adopt the amendment to the Everett portion of the 2015-201f5Snohomish County Consolidated Plan.