FOR THE COUNCIL MEETING OF APRIL 2, 2024
COUNCIL AGENDA REPORT
TO: City Council
FROM: Interim City Manager Alex Posada
BY: Director of Community Development Chuen Wu
SUBJECT: PROCLAMATION – “NATIONAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WEEK”
Present a Proclamation to recognize April 1st through 5th, 2024, as “National Community Development Week” to celebrate and showcase the programs and projects which are funded by federal grant programs like Community Development Block Grants and HOME Investment Partnership.
BACKGROUND:
2024 marks the 50 th anniversary of the Community Development Block Grants ( CDBG) Program. Since then, CDBG has provided the City of Santa Maria with an important source of funding to address a variety of needs, primarily for low- to moderate-income residents. This includes assisting those experiencing homelessness, at -risk youth, seniors, individuals with special needs, public improvements, and affordable housing.
For 34 years, since 1990, the HOME Investment Partnership (HOME) program has helped communities provide access to affordable housing for low -income households.
The City has participated in the HOME program, as part of a consortium with the County of Santa Barbara since the consortium’s inception in 1995. HOME also funds the City’s successful Tenant -Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) Program, which provides up to $2,500 in rental deposit assistance to qualifying households.
DISCUSSION:
The City receives an average of $1.4 million annually in CDBG funds. These funds help dozens of non-profit agencies offer a variety of programs including senior, legal, youth, substance abuse, homelessness, mental health, health, and domestic violence services.
Non-profit agencies have also been assisted with Capital funding to make improvements to their public facilities, provide minor home repairs to residents in Santa Maria, and revitalize existing neighborhoods.
In HOME funding, the City receives an average of $300,000 annually and throughout the years has contributed to local affordable housing projects. It also funds the TBRA program. The TBRA program has been around since 2010, successfully providing 2 security d eposit assistance to extremely low - and very low-income families in Santa Maria. There is no other program of its kind in the City.
CDBG and HOME are administered nationally by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These programs are needed more than ever to help the City’s most vulnerable residents and improve the overall condition of the City’s neighborhoods.
Every dollar of CDBG and HOME funding leverages more than four dollars in other funding, bringing additional vital resources to communities.