1 Attachment C: Human Relations Commission Review Summary The CDBG federal allocations for FY 2024-25 were not known at the time of the HRC public hearing on February 8, 2024. For budgeting purposes, staff estimated the City’s HUD entitlement grant for FY 2025 as a 0.8% reduction from the entitlement grant amount from previous year FY 2023-2024. Therefore, the total amount considered by the HRC as available for CDBG allocation FY 2024-25 was $1,122,415.01, including the estimated FY 2024-25 entitlement grant ($510,000), estimated program income ($60,000), and estimated unspent funds from prior years ($552,415.01). The estimated total available in CDBG-CV funding for FY 2024-25 is $119,478.74, including unspent funds from the canceled LifeMoves-COVID-19 Testing project ($34,200.50) and unspent CDBG-CV Planning & Administration funds ($85,278.24).
The HRC considered the funding recommendations of the HRC Selection Committee 1 and voted unanimously to recommend Council approval of the draft FY 2024-25 AAP.
The HRC discussed proposed funding allocations based on the program budget, availability of additional resources, HUD spending caps, and the total available CDBG and CDBG-CV funds. Key points of the HRC discussion included:
•A summary of the application selection process, reasons for selection, and agency capacity;
•A summary of HRC Selection Committee deliberations;
•A summary of the HRC Selection Committee’s recommended Contingency Plan and clarification of the desire to support LifeMoves at a level closer to half their requested amount, if feasible;
•Information on the definitions of income levels and income limits, which are influenced by family size, varying by county (Palo Alto uses HUD’s FY 2023 Income Limits Area for Santa Clara County Metropolitan area 2, effective May 15, 2023, with HUD's acronym for low-income limits being LMI);
•Consideration of increasing funding toward homelessness services in future funding years if it could be learned if CDBG funds directly resulted in the reported 25% decrease in homelessness in Palo Alto in 2023 year;
•Clarifications on unspent funds, which are the result of applicants cancelling approved projects, not using all of their available allocation, no longer needing their available allocation, or remaining funds being left due to the lifting of COVID-19 mandates; and •Clarifications on the reduction of funds to CDBG Program Administration resulting from the interplay of the 20% spending cap on this funding category combined with a forthcoming reduction in program income receipts for FY 2024-25. 1 February 8, 2024 Human Relations Commission staff report:
https://cityofpaloalto.primegov.com/Portal/viewer?id=0&type=7&uid=d37a6bbc-0569-4d6b-91db-05b16a3dabc0 2 Source: https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/il/il2023/2023summary.odn 2 The HRC’s recommended contingency plan is as follows:
A. If more funds are received than estimated:
1.Ensure funding caps are met for Public Services and Planning & Administration categories;
2.Increase LifeMoves' FY 2024-25 allocation to $34,960, or as near as feasible;
3.Retain the currently recommended funding for Project Sentinel;
4.If there are surplus funds available, allocate additional funding proportionally to other Public Services applications based on their recommended shares, provided they are not fully funded;
5.Allocate any remaining un-capped funds to the Public Facilities project(s).
B. If less funds are received than estimated:
1.Ensure funding caps are met for Public Services and Planning & Administration categories;
2.Decrease funding across each of the Public Services applications proportionate to the overall decrease in funding;
3.If possible, maintain full funding for both Housing Rehabilitation projects and the Economic Development project; and
4.Decrease un-capped funds from the Public Facilities project(s).