2016/04/13 Council Agenda Packet

Staff Report for Community Development Block Grant, ' • HOME, and Housing Trust Funds— 2060 The Citizen's Advisory Committee for Housing and Community Development reviewed proposals for the expenditure of the City of Everett's Community Development Block Grant program and other available funding. A Public hearing was held on November 19, 2015 for needs assessment. The Committee then studied each subsequent proposal application and interviewed each proponent. Four meetings and eight hours of interviews took place, concluding on February 24, 2016. An additional meeting and public hearing was held on March 2, 2016 for comments concerning the Committee's recommendation to City Council. The City's 2016 Community Development Block Grant is $768,625 which is an 8% reduction from the $834,904 received for 2015. The Committee recommends: funding public services at the HUD maximum of 15% of the grant, Program Administration at the HUD maximum of 20%, and Non-Public Services at the remaining 65%. A calculation error was made by staff during the Citizens Advisory Committee deliberations whereby the Program Administration funding was not deducted from the CDBG funds available for Non-Public Service proposals. As a result, $738,977.45 was allocated to Non-Public Service Projects instead of $585,253, which is 79%. After consulting with the Committee members each Non-Public Service Project has been adjusted to 79% to the Committee's original recommended allocation. Each affected agency has been made aware of the changes. In addition to CDBG funds, there are Housing Trust 2060, HOME, and CHIP revolving loanrehabilitation funds available for projects. The Committee recommends using $204,357.33 in Housing Trust 2060 funds for funding homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, and the Community Housing Improvement Program. The Committee recommends using $307,365 in 2016 HOME funding for single family home rehabilitation. The Annual Action Plan and the Consolidated Plan were available for public comment for 30 days commencing March 7, 2016 and ending on April 8, 2016. One of the proposed Consolidated Plan amendments moves HOME funding from single family rehabilitation to a Tenant Based Rental Assistance program (TBRA). This is necessary for a variety of reasons, most notably Housing and Urban Development's regulations regarding when HOME funds must be committed. The City stands to lose the funding back to the federal government if not reallocated to another qualifying project or program. Allocating to TBRA is timely in any case because it addresses Streets Initiative priorities by rapidly housing chronically homeless persons. The additional proposed amendment removes the restriction of placing new subsidized rental housing in areas of the City already having 20% of its rental housing subsidized. By removing this restriction, it is expected that new investment will be made in deteriorating non-subsidized housing developments. It is also removing a barrier to building affordable housing in Everett. Each one of the members of the Committee provided a valuable contribution to this recommendation. This group was very dedicated while performing this difficult task. Staff congratulates the Committee for a job well done and thanks them for their time and effort. Participating Committee members were: Gregg Elder, Rick Dorris, David Simpson, Greg Campbell, Peter Sontra, Bruce Overstreet, Graham Anderson, Michelle Jennings, Demba Baldeh, Andrew Nguyen, and Tim Knopf. 7