Stevenson, Garrett
Subject:FW: EDTech meeting 5/17/22: Agenda item #1 - Budget Workshop - Housing Department
From: Ferne Hayes < >
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2022 9:45 PM
To: Stevenson, Garrett <[email protected]>; Hampton, Tyron <[email protected]>; Madison, Steve <[email protected]>; Wilson, Andy <[email protected]>; Rivas, Jose <[email protected]>
Subject: EDTech meeting 5/17/22: Agenda item #1 - Budget Workshop - Housing Department CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you know the content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button. Learn more....
Dear
Members of the Economic Development & Technology Committee, I write to strongly
urge you to substantially increase General Fund appropriations for the Housing Department's FY2023 Budget. According to the Housing Department's mission statement, its core values include "decent, safe, affordable housing as an equal right for all Pasadena
residents." But it is impossible to meet that core value because the Department is severely underfunded.
According
to the FY2023 Operating Budget, 89.89% of the Housing Department's entire budget is from federal programs/grants. Funding from our General Fund is only
$1.625 million,
barely over
4% of the
Housing Department's entire budget. Contrast this with the Police Department's FY2023 Budget:
$89.4
million from the General Fund (nearly $5 million MORE than in the adopted FY2022 budget), which is 92%
of its entire budget.
The
fact that the Housing Department must rely on grants from outside the City is unacceptable. Grants are time limited, competitive and uncertain. In fact, the Housing Department's FY2023 budget is over $1.3 million LOWER than last year due to the end ofpandemic-related
grants.
General
1 Fund appropriations, however, are certain, not restricted to specific uses, and allow departments to plan their programs knowing what funding is available.
As
of the 2020 Homeless Count there were 527 Pasadenans experiencing homelessness, with nearly 300 unsheltered. While permanent housing is the solution to end homelessness, according to our Housing Department staff, it can take over one year for a person living on the street to obtain permanent housing. Interim housing, housing between the street and permanent housing, provides personal safety, security of belongings, efficient case management, meals, toilets, health and mental health support, and other services.
In
FY2022, interim housing received ZERO General Fund dollars. IVIoreover, despite our hundreds of unsheltered residents, the Housing Department made available only 2% of its entire adopted FY2022 budget for interim housing. It is unclear how little the Housing
Department proposes to spend on interim housing in FY2023. While the Department will be receiving $3 million of American Rescue Plan Act ("ARPA") federal funds this year, those are designated for "Affordable Housing projects." Significantly, the Department
admits
it does not have sufficient funding for interim housing (shelter): "Although Pasadena continues to receive one- time increases in funding from the State, a reliable source of ongoing funding is needed to support high priority needs such as . ., increasing
shelter capacity." (FY2023 Housing Department Budget, p. 6.) The
substantial hole in Pasadena's programs for persons experiencing homelessness is the lack of interim housing. People need individual, locked sleeping quarters and effective case management services to begin to stabilize. While our City provides brief stays
in motel rooms for a fraction of our unsheltered residents (using federal and state funding when available),
that program is expensive, ineffective and inefficient. Once a motel night is over, the money is used up, the room is gone, and the person is back on the street.
Tiny
home shelter villages and re-purposed motels are being established in many Southern California cities and are successfully transitioning unhoused residents to permanent housing. They are cost-effective and provide efficient case management services since
case managers are on site. Further, as people move on, the space and services are ready for another to use.
Our
renters in Pasadena also need more assistance. With the eviction moratorium ending, there will be increased requests for help and for legal assistance. Significantly, 62% ofPasadenans are renters and many pay over half oftheir income on rent. Providing
financial and legal assistance for renters can prevent homelessness.
Finally,
our City needs a revenue-generating Rental Registry to allow the tracking of code violations, illegal notices, rent increases and evictions. This will help to ensure that inspections required every four years are performed.
A Rental Registry
could track bad actors and assist in levying fines to landlords in violation of local and state laws around rent increases; reasons for eviction; and code violations that negatively impact safe and healthy housing.
A
2 Rental Registry would generate revenue by charging landlords a fee for each unit rented. The city could prohibit the pass-through of those costs to tenants and use the funds for additional housing support and homeless prevention like legal counsel to tenants
facing eviction and a rental assistance fund.
For
all of these reasons, I urge the ED Tech Committee to recommend (and the City Council to approve) increasing the FY2023 Housing Department budget to provide much more General Fund funding for programs, and appropriating ARPA funding sufficient to do the following:
•
Fully fund upfront
costs for a tiny home shelter village/repurposed motel to provide for 75-100 people and the funding necessary to cover ongoing operations.
Provide sufficient
funding to meet the need for rental assistance.
Establish a revenue-generating
Rental Registry to allow the tracking of code violations, illegal notices, rent increases and evictions and to ensure that the inspections required every four years are performed.
Thank
you for your time and consideration of this letter.
Sincerely,
Ferne
Hayes
District
7 resident for 50 years
3