City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: MAY 6, 2015
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: MARK B. JINKS, CITY MANAGER /s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Consideration of the City's Draft FY 2016-2020 Five-Year Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development and Associated Documents Necessary to Enable HUD FY 2016 Funding.
BODY
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ISSUE: Consideration of the City's Draft FY 2016-2020 Five-Year Consolidated Plan for
Housing and Community Development and Draft One Year Action Plan, including an Application for FY 2016 Federal Funds
RECOMMENDATION: That the City Council:
1. Adopt the Draft FY 2016-2020 Five-Year Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development, which includes the Draft One-Year Action Plan containing the City's application for City Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 funding for $742,789 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and $357, 258 in HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program funds: and
2. Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents to facilitate submission of the Plans to HUD by May 15.
DISSCUSSION: The City of Alexandria's Draft Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development has been prepared in accordance with regulations set forth by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These regulations require that participants in certain HUD programs including, but not limited to, the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) programs, develop and submit a five-year strategic plan for housing and community development. A Draft Citizen Summary of the Plan is provided as Attachment 1.
The Draft Consolidated Plan is a comprehensive five-year planning document that examines the City's overall needs for affordable housing, shelters/services for the homeless, housing for persons with special needs, and community and economic development. The Plan defines the City's strategy for addressing these needs for City FY 2016-2020, and includes a One-Year Action Plan with specific objectives to be undertaken or accomplished during City FY 2016. A draft budget of planned expenditures to meet identified objectives is included (Attachment 2). The Draft Plan is consistent with ongoing program activities as well as core services included in the City Manager's Proposed FY 2016 Budget. The Draft Plan was introduced to City Council at the April 14th Legislative Session, followed by a public hearing before City Council on April 18.
BACKGROUND: The Office of Housing prepared the information included in the Draft Consolidated Plan in consultation with the Department of Community and Human Services, the City Finance Department, the Planning Department, Department of Code Administration, the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and other agencies and nonprofit organizations that provide a range of services for the benefit of very low, low, and moderate income persons. HUD provided the underlying data from sources such as the American Community Survey, Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy, and Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Data. These data may vary slightly from information the City tracks.
For the first time, in 2015, submission of the Consolidated Plan and Action Plan will be fully online as part of HUD's efforts to better monitor and track local use of federal funds to meet various national objectives. A number of plans adopted by City Council (e.g., Housing Master Plan, ARHA Strategic Plan, The Alexandria of Our Future: A Livable Community for All Ages (The Strategic Plan on Aging), and The Child and Youth Master Plan) since the last Five-Year Consolidated Plan submission, provide an excellent roadmap of the activities, services and resources the City will be dedicating for various objectives of interest to HUD.
The Draft Consolidated Plan, One-Year Action Plan contains the City's applications for $742,789 in CDBG funds and $357,258 in HOME Program funds. In consultation with various service providers, the majority of HOME funds ($319,845) are proposed for the use of the Housing Opportunities Fund program to support the development of affordable sales and rental housing, and the majority of CDBG funds ($458,141) are proposed for the use of the Home Rehabilitation Loan Program which provides no-interest, deferred payment loans to low-and moderate-income homeowners for home rehabilitation activities that help them maintain and remain affordably in their homes. CDBG funds are also proposed for the use of the Rental Accessibility Modification Program ($57,500) to provide accessibility modifications to privately owned rental properties for disabled renter households with incomes at or below HUD's moderate-income limits; for Transitional Assistance Program ($50,000) to provide security deposits and rental assistance to households experiencing or at-risk of homelessness; for the City's Winter Shelter program ($20,000) to provide seasonal shelter for persons experiencing homelessness; and for Fair Housing Testing, ($21,306), a federally-mandated program to determine the presence of discriminatory practices in the local housing market.
As required by HUD, the City provided a 30 day period to receive public comments on the Draft Plan, which began April 1 and ended May 1. A summary of comments submitted to the Office of Housing (one set of comments to date) as well as staff responses are attached (Attachment 3). These comments, as appropriate, will be incorporated in the Plan before submission to HUD. Outreach to solicit comments is extensive. In addition to notices in the local and national media, the Plan is also released, by email and U.S. mail, to approximately 238 interested parties. The Plan is also posted on the City's website and hard copies are provided upon request. An early public hearing to obtain citizen input for the purpose of the development of the Draft Consolidated Plan was held on September 25, 2014. Two additional public hearings for the purpose of obtaining comments of the draft plan were held during the spring of 2015: one as part of the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee's April 6th meeting, and another before City Council on April 18.
In response to a discussion by City Council of the potential uses of CDBG funds, Housing staff has prepared a memorandum for Council's information regarding comment and potential eligible uses for CDBG funds (Attachment 4). If Council wishes to discuss potentially changing the uses of CDBG funds, Council could have this scheduled as a Fall 2015 Retreat item for discussion that could then lead to FY 2017 budget guidance on this topic.
FISCAL IMPACT: Upon its approval of the Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development, it is anticipated that HUD will appropriate a total of $1,100,047 in new federal funding to the City for FY 2016, including $742,789 in CDBG funds and $357,258 in HOME Program funds.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1: Citizens Summary of the Draft FY 2016-2020 Five-Year Consolidated Plan and Draft FY 2016 Action Plan
Attachment 2: Proposed CDBG and HOME Budget Expenditures
Attachment 3: Summary of public comments received and staff responses
Attachment 4: Staff memorandum regarding eligible uses of CDBG funds and process of amending Plan
STAFF:
Emily Baker, Acting Deputy Director, City Manager's Office
Helen McIlvaine, Acting Director, Office of Housing
Eric Keeler, Program Administration Division Chief, Office of Housing
Lucinda Metcalf, Housing Analyst, Office of Housing