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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10/06/2009, PH 2 - CONSIDERATION OF THE HUMAN RELATION COMMISSION'S RECOMMENDED PRIORITIES FOR THE 2010 COMMUNITY DEVE council ro 6 0 aC)cnda nepmt I..N.m., CITY OF SAN L U IS ' O B 1 S P O FROM: John Mandeville, Community Development Director Prepared By: Michael Codron, Housing Programs Manager SUBJECT: CONSIDERATION OF THE HUMAN RELATION COMMISSION'S RECOMMENDED PRIORITIES FOR THE 2010 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT (CDBG) AND GRANTS-IN-AID (GIA) PROGRAMS. RECOMMENDATION As recommended by the Human Relations Commission, approve Community Development Block Grant and Grants-In-Aid funding priorities for 2010. DISCUSSION Background The City's annual Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) review process provides Council and the public with an opportunity to provide early input in the grant award process. Establishing funding priorities is the first step in the process, which helps to maintain an open, inclusive and fair grant application process. The Human Relations Commission (HRC) is the advisor to the Council on funding priorities and funding recommendations. The four steps in the CDBG review process include: 1. HRC hosts a "Needs. Workshop": The HRC hosts a public hearing to inform the public about upcoming funding amounts and how to apply for grants, to hear community views on grant funding needs, and to recommend funding priorities (held on September 22, 2009), Attachment 1 contains the draft minutes from this hearing. 2. Council priority-setting hearing: Council holds a public hearing to set CDBG funding priorities. This is scheduled for October 6, 2009. 3. CDBG applications hearing: HRC holds a public hearing to review CDBG applications and forwards its funding recommendations to the Council for Program Year 2010 (scheduled for December 2, 2009). 4. CDBG Program hearing: Council holds a public hearing on the Draft One-Year Action Plan, approves the City's 2009 CDBG Program and forwards its recommendations to the Urban County(tentatively scheduled for February 2, 2010). On September 22, 2009, the HRC completed the first step by holding its combined GIA and CDBG community needs hearing. An audience of about 12 persons attended the hearing and eight speakers addressed a wide variety of community needs. A summary of the testimony is contained in the attached draft minutes: n Consideration of the HRC's Recommended Funding Priorities for 2010 Page 2 The testimony provided during the meeting indicated to the Commission and staff that difficult economic conditions were driving an increase in service needs. Every representative from a non- profit who spoke pointed to an increase in demand for services including financial assistance, emergency shelter, transitional housing, child care, food, transportation for medically fragile seniors, and counseling. All of the speakers stated the most basic needs such as food and emergency shelter had increased while funding at the state and local level has significantly decreased. Donations are also lower than normal as so many in the community are experiencing lower income due to job loss, furloughs, or other reductions. The increase in demand along with the decrease in funding for services has strained providers' ability to deliver core services. Some providers reported a reduction in services, while others stated they were reducing paid staff hours and relying more heavily on volunteers, causing service levels to fluctuate. The service providers stressed the importance of the GIA and CDBG programs and encouraged the HRC to continue its support. HRC Recommended CDBG Funding Priorities for 2010 The current 2009 CDBG funding priorities are: 1. Develop and enhance affordable housing for low and very-low income persons. 2. Emergency shelter, homelessness prevention and services. 3. Education concerning and/or removal of architectural barriers for the disabled and elderly. 4. Economic development (to include seismic retrofit, economic stability, low and moderate income jobs). After discussion of the current economy and testimony provided by the public, which included reports of increased needs for homeless services, food and nutritional services, affordable housing, senior services, and social services, the Commission decided to modify funding priorities slightly for 2010 and to clarify the priority related to job creation. The HRC is recommending the following ranked priorities for 2010 CDBG funding: 1. Develop and enhance affordable housing for low and very-low income persons 2. Emergency shelter, homelessness prevention and services. 3. Economic development (to include seismic retrofit, economic stability, and jobs for low and moderate income persons). 4. Education concerning and/or removal of architectural barriers for the disabled and elderly. This re-ordering of priorities also recognizes the significant progress that has already been made within the City to improve access for the elderly and disabled population. The priorities adopted P� —� Consideration of the HRC's Recommended Funding Priorities for 2010 Page 3 by Council set the framework by which the HRC reviews grant applications and recommends funding choices to the Council. Generally, most applications for CDBG funds fit intuitively within one of the listed categories. HRC Recommended GIA Funding Priorities for 2010 The HRC also reviewed GIA funding priorities .and decided to make modifications to the priorities. The current priorities are shown below. The list is bulleted instead of numbered specifically because the HRC does not rank these recommended funding priorities to allow maximum flexibility when making recommendations in response to the applications received. • Homeless prevention (including mental health, substance abuse, financial stability, job training) and supportive services • Job training • Supportive health services (including mental health services) • Services for seniors and/or people with disabilities • Supportive services for youth; especially targeted to youth at risk After hearing testimony of the need for food and nutrition services for homeless persons, families and children and how this basic need, if left unmet, has significant impacts on other aspects of service provision, the HRC recommended a modification to the second bulleted priority. Since the topic of job training is included in the first bulleted priority, the HRC recommended replacing. the separate"Job training" priority with "Hunger prevention". The revised list for the 2010 GIA grants consideration is shown below: • Homeless prevention (including mental health, substance abuse, fmancial stability, job training) and supportive services • Hunger prevention • Supportive health services (including mental health services) • Services for seniors and/or people with disabilities • Supportive services for youth; especially targeted to youth at risk Next Steps The next step in the CDBG program cycle is for the Council to consider the HRC's recommendations and to affirm or revise the City's CDBG and GIA funding priorities. This step is important because these priorities will guide the HRC's actions when it reviews grant applications. These priorities will also guide Council's final funding decisions when it considers the HRC's CDBG funding recommendations on February 2, 2010. FISCAL IMPACTS Decisions made regarding priorities will affect how CDBG and GIA applications are evaluated and chosen for support. The City of San Luis Obispo receives CDBG funds through the County Ph (;L - 3 j Consideration of the RRC's Recommended Funding Priorities for 2010 Page 4 allotment and, while this does not directly impact the general fund, to the extent that projects can be funded through CDBG, they are not otherwise requesting money from the City's general fund. The City does designate a portion of general fund monies for the GIA program and the priorities expressed by the Council will influence how those grants will be awarded. ALTERNATIVES 1. The Council may modify the proposed funding priorities. 2. The Council may continue consideration of funding priorities. Direction should be given to staff regarding additional information needed to make a decision on priorities. This alternative is not recommended because the deadline to submit a request for 2010 CDBG funds ends on October 19, 2009, and applicants to the program benefit from knowing the City's funding priorities in advance. ATTACHMENT HRC Draft Meeting Minutes from 9-22-09 G:\CD-PLAN\MCODRON\Housing\CDBG\CARs\CDBGCCfundingprioritiesI O.DOC 1 (f Attachment HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION (HRC) MINUTES September 22, 2009 5:00 p.m. Council Chamber 990 Palm Street. CALL TO ORDER: 5:05 p.m. PRESENT: Chairperson: Stephan Lamb, Vice Chair:.Charlene Rosales, Commissioners: Gill Blonsley, Bryan Gingg, Trey Duffy ABSENT: Commissioners: Tom Sant, Dan Pronsolino. STAFF PRESENT: Monica Irons, Director of Human Resources, Kim Murry, Deputy Director of Community Development, and Greg Zocher; Risk and Benefits Manager CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES ACTION: Moved by Commissioners Gingg and Blonsley to approve the minutes of August 5, 2009 as submitted; motion carried 3-0; Chairperson Lamb abstained, Commissioner Rosales not yet present. PUBLIC COMMENT There were no comments for items not on the agenda. BUSINESS ITEMS Item 1. PUBLIC NEEDS WORKSHOP POWERPOINT (ZOCHER/MURRY) Chairperson Lamb introduced the item and turned it over to staff(Zocher and Murry)to provide a brief overview of the GIA and CDBG program purposes, timelines, and historical grant amounts. PH �- 5' Attachment Human Relations Commission Minutes September 22, 2009 Page 2 Chairperson Lamb opened the item to Public Testimony and asked speakers to specifically address how the current economic downturn has impacted services: Gail Stoneburn, Assistance League, Operation School Bell: Stoneburg shared that the Assistance League supplies clothing for children K-6th grade and middle school children. Last year 1100 children were able to receive school clothing. As of September 22, 2009 Operation School Bell has clothed 700 children. The work is done completely by volunteers and they are finding the needs are increasing, but donations are decreasing. Stoneburg thanked the HRC for past support and asked them to continue the support. Carl Hansen, Food Bank Coalition: Hanson has seen an increase in clients especially in the last six months. The Food Bank has been receiving more calls from schools wanting to use the "back pack" program. The Food Bank Coalition also supplies food at no or low cost to other non-profits. In addition to the GIA, the Food Bank plans to submit a CDBG as well this year. They hope to justify the grant under homeless prevention. Their premise is that if those individuals receive health food, they will be more productive, and better equipped to be self-sufficient. Rave Fleming, Community Action Partnership (CAP) Health Services Division: Fleming has seen an increase in the number of people who need health care as well as the basics necessities; food and shelter. The Health Services Division provides a variety of health screening and education services that reduce the impact on our hospitals and doctors' offices and save lives. They have also seen an increase in clients who have lost their jobs and thus have lost health insurance coverage so they tum to the Health Services Division for diagnostic screening such as mammograms, blood pressure, etc. Dee Torres, Homeless Services Director(CAP): Homeless Services has served over 3,000 unduplicated clients between the Prado Day Center and Maxine Lewis Homeless Shelter. They provide core services such as meals and mail pick up, case management, hold skills classes including anger management; and provide on site medical services. Homeless Services experienced a 15% increase in services from 2007 to 2008 and are expecting the same increase from 2008 and 2009. The day shelter experienced a significant increase in the number of breakfasts served in 2009 as well as an increase in the number of disabled individuals accessing the shelter. Bernadette Bernardi, Literacy Council: Bernardi began by thanking the HRC for past funding. She expressed understanding of other basic needs such as food and shelter, but also suggested the Literacy is a basic need that must be addressed in order to lead self sufficiency. The Literacy Council,sees clients who have graduated from high schools in our County, as well as immigrants to our County who do not have basic literacy skills. The Literacy Council helps those clients gain the basic literacy skills so they can obtain jobs. They set individual leaming goals with clients so they rely on P90� _ b Attachment Human Relations Commission Minutes September 22, 2009 Page 3 volunteers to work one on one with clients or in small groups. State funding has been reduced significantly. Jason Reed, Deputy Director of Women's Shelter Program of SLO County: The Women's Shelter provides emergency shelter to domestic violence victims, as well as counseling, legal assistance, and education to victims of domestic violence. The Women's Shelter has seen a significant increase in the need for emergency shelter because there are fewer options available to their clients. The increase in unemployment means fewer jobs that might sustain an alternative living environment for their clients. The State eliminated a grant that provided $209,000 or roughly 11% of the Women's Shelter budget. In tum, the Women's Shelter responded by reducing staff, reducing counseling hours, etc. David Kilburn, AIDS Support.Network and Project Hepatitis C: Kilburn expressed appreciation for prior grants. He stated the Hepatitis C program was started about nine years ago and Hepatitis C is four times more prevalent than AIDS. Their clients tend to have multiple needs, such as assistance with Hepatitis C, housing, mental health, substance abuse, etc. Project Hepatitis C provides benefits counseling for their participants. Edie Kahn, Director of AIDS Support Network and Hepatitis C Project: Kahn stated a "safety net" County wide is being unraveled because the local agencies work with each other and all are experiencing budget reductions that make it difficult to keep up with the demand for services. She is seeing their clients affected by reductions in other programs. The State cut two thirds of their budget for AIDS programs; prevention, early intervention, early outreach programs, and testing. With limited ways to test and no funded prevention programs, Kahn feels our community becomes very vulnerable. AIDS Support Network partners with.County Public Health to provide case management for the most fragile of AIDS clients, but the County program has been reduced as well. The AIDS Support Network currently provides case management for about 168 clients. Chairperson Lamb closed public comment. Item 2. CURRENT CDBG & GIA FUNDING PRIORITIES (LAMB) Chairperson Lamb asked the commissioners to consider the GIA priorities. Commissioner Blonsley suggested eliminating job training as a priority, suggesting it may not be the highest priority at this time due to the lack of job openings in the area. Other commissioners expressed support of this modification. Attachment , Human Relations Commission Minutes September 22, 2009 Page 4 . Commissioner Duffy raised the issue of food because so much public testimony had surrounded this basic need. Discussion ensued. ACTION: Moved by Commissioners Duffy/Rosales to replace "job training" GIA priority with "hunger prevention"; Motion carried 5:0, Pronsolino and Sant absent. Chairperson Lamb asked the Commissioners to consider the CDBG priorities. Commissioner Gincig suggested reversing the order of priority 4 (economic development) and 3 (accessibility). Commissioner Blonsley suggests eliminating 3 (accessibility) because the City has made so much progress in this area. Commissioner Rosales states she is uncomfortable with moving access for the disabled and elderly to a lower priority. Discussion ensues. ACTION: Moved by Commissioners Gingg/Duffy to reverse the order of ranked CDBG priorities 3 and 4 and change the wording slightly in new priority 2 to read Economic Development(to include seismic retrofit, economic stability, and jobs for low and moderate income persons). Motion carried 4:1, Rosales opposed, Pronsolino and Sant absent. Item 3. CGBG & GIA 2010 TIMELINE (ZOCHER/MURRY) Zocher briefly highlighted the timelines and verified that Commissioners are available to hold a CDBG workshop on November 18, 2009. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS None There being no further business to come before the HRC, Chairperson Lamb adjourned the HRC meeting at 6:20 p.m. to the next regular meeting of the HRC to be held on Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 5:00 p.m. in the Council Hearing Room. Respectfully Submitted, Greg Zocher, Risk & Benefits Manager PHS-