City of Alexandria, Virginia
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MEMORANDUM
DATE: MAY 7, 2014
TO: THE HONORABLE MAYOR AND MEMBERS OF CITY COUNCIL
FROM: RASHAD M. YOUNG, CITY MANAGER/s/
DOCKET TITLE:
TITLE
Consideration of the Draft Fiscal Year 2015 Action Plan for Housing and Community Development.
BODY
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ISSUE: Receipt by Council and Consideration of the City's Draft FY 2015 Action Plan for Housing and Community Development.
RECOMMENDATION: That the City Council:
1. Set for public hearing on April 12 the Draft FY 2015 Action Plan for Housing and Community Development, which includes the City's application for Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2014 funding of $722,919 in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) monies and $388,225 in Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) monies;
2. Docket the Draft FY 2015 Action Plan for Housing and Community Development for final Council approval on May 13, 2014;
3. Authorize the City Manager to make adjustments as needed to the FY 2015 Action Plan and grant application based on the approved FY 2015 Budget after it is adopted by City Council and any changes in grant figures received from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and
4. Authorize the City Manager to execute all necessary documents.
DISCUSSION: The City's Draft FY 2015 Action 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 one-year update to their Five-Year Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development. The City's current Consolidated Plan, which defines the City's strategy for addressing housing and community development needs from FY 2011 through 2015, was approved by Council on May 11, 2010.
A Citizen Summary of the Draft Action Plan (Attachment 1) describes activities proposed to be undertaken to address the City's priorities for affordable housing, homeless services, and community development, along with proposed funding levels for FY 2015, the fifth year of the current five-year Consolidated Plan period. The Draft Citizen Summary provides an estimate of the federal, state, local, and private resources that are expected in the City's FY 2015 Proposed Budget to be available, and which may be expended, during FY 2015, as well as the number of persons and/or households to be assisted with these funds. These items are discussed in detail in the Draft FY 2015 Action Plan. The Draft FY 2015 Action Plan also contains the City's applications for $722,919 in CDBG funds and $388,225 in HOME Program funds. Since the release of the proposed budget, HUD has released the City's final grant numbers. In comparison to the Proposed FY 2015 Budget, which assumed no change from the final FY 2014 grant allocation levels, HOME increased by $22,328, all of which has been allocated to the Housing Opportunities Fund for rental development. CDBG decreased by $11,452, which has reduced the Home Rehabilitation Loan Program loan funds by this amount.
Activities to be supported with CDBG Program funds have been developed to meet the national objective of benefiting low- and moderate-income persons. Activities to be supported with HOME Program funds have been developed to be consistent with the HOME Program objective of expanding the supply of decent, safe, sanitary and affordable housing. CDBG Program activities will continue the City's ongoing efforts to provide housing rehabilitation assistance to income-eligible homeowners; transitional housing aid and winter emergency shelter to homeless families, as well as to identify and eliminate illegal housing discrimination and otherwise address the housing needs of its low- and moderate-income residents. HOME Program activities will also continue the City's efforts to provide affordable housing opportunities for low- and moderate-income residents. In addition to CDBG- and HOME-funded activities, the Draft FY 2015 Action Plan describes other affordable housing and community development activities to be undertaken by the City during this period, including the development and preservation of affordable housing.
In developing the City's FY 2015 Proposed Budget for the Office of Housing, emphasis was placed on allocating funds for affordable rental housing development. This resulted in the reallocation of $800,000 in Housing Trust Fund carryover funds previously budgeted in the Flexible Homeownership Assistance Program to affordable multifamily rental housing development. In FY 2015, it is projected that the City will be able to fund with new and carryover funds an estimated 92 units of rental development citywide along with 66 units within the Beauregard Plan. The other Office of Housing program activity levels were kept at similar levels to FY 2014.
The Draft Citizen Summary was distributed to interested parties via email and mailed on March 28, 2014. This document is a concise summary of the objectives and outcomes in the FY 2015 Draft Action Plan. Both the Draft Citizen Summary and the Draft FY 2015 Action Plan are posted on the City's website at alexandriava.gov/Housing, and hard copies are being distributed upon request and are available at City of Alexandria libraries.
During the City Council public hearing on April 12, Alexa Mavroidis, a representative of Endependence Center of Northern Virginia, spoke to encourage the City to develop a program funded through CDBG or HOME to assist people who are currently living in nursing home facilities to transition back into the community. She also encouraged the City to offer bonus points to developers who ask for CDBG funding if they agree to make 10% of their units Type A/fully accessible. The City of Alexandria currently has two CDBG funded programs to assist with accessibility modifications. The Rental Accessibility Modification Program (RAMP) is available to low income disabled renter households living in privately owned rental properties to help make accessibility modifications to their units. The Home Rehabilitation Loan Program (HRLP) provides funds to owner occupied houses for improvements, which can include accessibility improvements. The recently approved Housing Master Plan includes a tool to establish policies to encourage the production of more units that are built or rehabilitated to meet the housing needs of frail elderly and special needs populations, both in multi-family and single family projects. The concept of offering of bonus points to encourage accessible units will be taken into consideration during the establishment of these policies and in supporting future funding requests. No other comments were received during the 30-day comment period or during the public hearing regarding the Draft FY 2015 Action Plan.
The final FY 2015 Action Plan reflects these comments and the City's responses and will be submitted to HUD by May 15.
FISCAL IMPACT: Upon HUD approval of the Action Plan, HUD will appropriate an estimated total of $1,111,144 in federal funding to the City for FY 2015, including $722,919 in CDBG funds and $388,225 in HOME Program funds.
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment 1. Draft FY 2015 Citizen Summary of the Draft Action Plan for Housing and
Community Development
Attachment 2. Tables B and C (CDBG and HOME)
STAFF:
Mildrilyn Stephens Davis, Director, Office of Housing
Eric Keeler, Division Chief for Program Administration, Office of Housing
Lucinda Metcalf, Housing Analyst, Office of Housing