COUNCIL AGENDA:10/17/23
ITEM: 3.5
Memorandum
TO: CITY COUNCIL FROM: Mayor Matt Mahan
Vice Mayor Rosemary Kamei
Councilmember Pam Foley
SUBJECT: Housing Department’s
Performance Measures
Audit Report.
DATE: October 13, 2023
APPROVED:
RECOMMENDATION
1. Accept the staff recommendation to accept the audit report.
2. Direct the Housing Department to report on the draft performance metrics at the Community and Economic Development (CED) committee before final recommendations are brought before the full council or implemented administratively through the FY 24-25 budget process.
a. Audit Recommendation #1 – report to CED by March 2024. b. Audit Recommendation #2 and #3 – report to CED in the second quarter of 2024. c. Direct the City Manager, as part of the FY 2024-2025 budget process, to revisit and propose possible updates to the Housing Department’s mission, core services, programs, performance measures, and activity and workload highlights.
DISCUSSION
With over 105 staff and a budget of $352.6 million the Housing Department plays a unique role in touching the lives of so many residents, property owners, and stakeholders. The Housing Department implements programs and policies addressing homelessness, facilitating state and federal funding for community programs, investing in affordable housing and infrastructure, protecting tenants, and working with property owners.
The challenge to having such a broad set of functions is that we can lose focus on our key priority areas, which are addressing the unsheltered homelessness crisis, confronting our acute housing shortage, and making equitable community investments.
The City Manager has identified modernizing performance metrics and focus areas that align with how we are allocating resources on everything from reducing unsheltered homelessness facilitating housing production, to successfully providing services to residents.
By bringing back the proposed metrics to the CED Committee, councilmembers can provide feedback along the way to ensure oversight of the goals, metrics, and outcomes that the Housing Department will be focused on. Additionally, by asking the city manager to align the Housing Department’s mission around those metrics, we can ensure shared purpose on goals and outcomes.