Title
Approval of Reprogramming Community Development Block Grant Funds (B)
This item requests for the City Commission to approve the reprogramming of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from the GRACE One Stop Homeless Assistance Center to the City’s Homeowner Rehabilitation Program to enable timely use of the CDBG funds.
Explanation
This item supports City Commission Strategic Initiative 6.2: Ensure the quality and broad distribution of affordable housing throughout the City.
Over the past several years, the City Commission has approved CDBG funding in the amount of $660,308 for the GRACE One Stop Homeless Assistance Center (GRACE). Attached for reference is a report outlining the CDBG funding currently approved for the GRACE project (Attachment A). Due to ongoing obstacles such as pending lawsuits, possible relocation of the project to the proposed GCI site and other unforeseen circumstances, the GRACE project has experienced extended delays resulting in the CDBG funding allocated not being expended in a timely manner.
Each year the City Commission approves an allocation of federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through a One Year Action plan. HUD requires for the City to expend a specified amount of CDBG funds each program year. As such, on an annual basis HUD conducts a timeliness test to confirm that the City is expending CDBG funds in accordance with federal regulations. The City is considered to be timely, if 60 days prior to the end of its fiscal year (July 31), the balance of the CDBG funds does not exceed 1.5 times the annual CDBG grant. Over the past years, the City has generally met the required expenditure threshold. However, in FY12, the City’s ratio exceeded the 1.5 expenditure standard due to the large amount of CDBG funds being held for the GRACE project.
As a result, staff is currently working on a plan with HUD to ensure that the City’s CDBG expenditure threshold is met for FY13. The ...
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