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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 2024 HCDC Packet If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate in this program or event, please contact Brianna Thul at bthul@iowa-city.org or 319-356-5240. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (HCDC) October 21, 2024 Regular Meeting – 6:30 PM Emma J. Harvat Hall 410 E Washington Street (City Hall) AGENDA: 1. Call to Order 2. Welcome New Members The commission will welcome one new member, Daouda Balde. This item provides an opportunity for new and existing commissioners to introduce themselves. 3. Consideration of Meeting Minutes: September 16, 2024 4. Public Comment of Items not on the Agenda Commentators shall address the commission for no more than five minutes. Commissioners shall not engage in discussion with the public concerning said items. 5. Review and Consider Recommendation to City Council on Approval of Substantial Amendment #1 to the City’s FY24 Annual Action Plan The Annual Action Plan outlines proposed activities, project locations, budgets and the scope of activities being funded with federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds for housing, jobs and services for low-moderate income persons. The proposed amendment reallocates $310,000 of HOME funding to The Housing Fellowship to acquire two affordable rental units for households with income below 60% AMI. Funds were previously allocated to two projects that proceeded without federal investment. The proposed amendment also programs $300,000 of unanticipated CDBG program income towards the City’s GreenState and Hills Downpayment Assistance Program. The additional funding would assist up to 12 additional households below 80% AMI with affordable homeownership. A public comment period began October 3, 2024 and will run through November 4, 2024. A public meeting is scheduled for November 4, 2024 where Council will consider formal approval. Following Council approval, the amendment is submitted to HUD for review. 6. Overview of Next Steps for FY26 Legacy Aid to Agencies The Joint Application is due October 15, 2024 at 5pm. Staff will provide commissioners with an overview of next steps in the FY26 Legacy Aid to Agencies process. 7. Staff & Commission Updates This item includes an opportunity for brief updates from staff and commissioners. Commissioners shall not engage in discussion on updates. 8. Adjournment Housing and Community Development Commission Meeting Packet Contents October 21, 2024 Agenda Item #3 • September 16, 2024 Draft HCDC Meeting Minutes Agenda Item #5 • Draft Substantial Amendment #1 - FY24 Annual Action Plan MINUTES PRELIMINARY HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 16, 2024 – 6:30 PM FORMAL MEETING EMMA J. HARVAT HALL, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Maryann Dennis, George Kivarkis, Karol Krotz, Kiran Patel, James Pierce, Kyle Vogel MEMBERS ABSENT: Daouda Balde, Horacio Borgen, Denise Szecsei STAFF PRESENT: Erika Kubly, Brianna Thul OTHERS PRESENT: RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: None. CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Vogel called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. WELCOME NEW MEMBERS: Daouda Balde was not present. CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: AUGUST 19, 2024: Patel moved to approve the minutes of August 19, 2024. Dennis seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the minutes were approved 6-0. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR TOPICS NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. CONSOLIDATED ANNUAL PERFORMANCE & EVALUATION REPORT (CAPER) AND UPDATE ON CITY PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS: Thul stated this is the annual report that they do at the end of every fiscal year, The City's fiscal year starts in July and runs through June and this is for fiscal year 24. This annual report goes to HUD and explains are all the things that the City did with grant funds in the last year. There are a couple different grant opportunities that come through this Commission – the CDBG and the HOME funds tie directly to this CAPER. There are also some local grant funds that come to the commission through the Aid to Agencies program, but those are not as relevant in this report. The focus is really on the federal funds that HUD gives the City. The CAPER is also related to the Consolidated Plan, the five-year plan that they’ve been working on. That is the plan that states what the priorities are and what they want to achieve in that five-year time frame. Finally, there is the Action Plan which includes the specific projects that HCDC recommends funding. The CAPER is the last step in that process and reports if they met the goals, they making progress, etc. The CAPER is due to HUD within 90 days of the end of the City's fiscal year so this typically comes to the Commission in September for review. Thul noted the document is long and it’s in a very specific HUD format so some of the tables aren't the most user friendly. At the end of the report, there is a section called Appendix A where staff has added tables to help explain what is being accomplished. Agenda Item #3 Housing and Community Development Commission September 16, 2024 Page 2 of 5 2 Thul next reviewed the impact of the federally funded activities in FY24. There was the new entrance at the Free Medical Clinic. Before this project, the agency was only able to provide services at their base level because they had an elevator that was not functional, and stairs to access the second floor. They needed an accessible entrance on the second floor as there was no way to provide services up there. They were able to use the CDBG funds at Free Medical Clinic to add an accessible entrance on the second floor which really expanded some of the areas that they could provide services. The City also provided down payment assistance to 12 households in the last fiscal year and over 2000 people were assisted with public services funding. That includes the portion of the Legacy Aid to Agencies funding that comes through the CDBG 15%. The rest of the Aid to Agencies funding comes from local sources. The 2000 beneficiaries would be only looking at the federal portion of that. 23 owner occupied units and one renter occupied unit were rehabbed in the last fiscal year. A couple units were rehabbed and sold through the City’s South District Program. That is a program where the City acquires duplex units, uses local funds to rehab them, and then uses federal HOME funds to provide down payment assistance to income eligible buyers. Thul also noted about 50% of the beneficiaries receiving down payment assistance through the various programs in FY24 were BIPOC households (Black, Indigenous, and people of color). One of the goals of the down payment assistance programs is targeted towards trying to close the racial homeowner gap in Iowa City. Other highlights from FY24 included positive community engagement in the consolidated planning process. The City also passed the CDBG timeliness test with HUD in May which is always a big stressor if there are projects behind schedule. Commissioners are aware that staff occasionally bring things to the Commission for review when there are projects that trigger the Unsuccessful and Delayed Projects Policy. Meeting this test is a big deal, especially now with ARPA funds, CDBG-CV, and HOME-ARP. There are a lot of cities that are struggling with timely spending. It's really important that they stay on track with projects to remain in compliance. HUD has the ability to reduce the next grant allocation by the amount that hasn’t been spent. Iowa City was also awarded $3.75 million in PRO Housing funds in FY24. Kubly added that there were only 20 cities in the country that were awarded and Iowa City was one of those top 20 and received $3.75 million. Thul noted that’s generated some interest in some of the other work the City is doing related to affordable housing and Kubly has been busy giving presentations to different groups nationally. Thul continued that the City received HUD approval of the HOME-ARP Allocation Plan which was a very long process that Sam Turnbull was able to navigate successfully. Part of that funding will be allocated towards the DVIP shelter construction project that is underway. The City also secured new community development software and started the implementation process, the original software is from the 1990s and will be very helpful once fully implemented. Thul noted that there were also challenges during FY24. Staff capacity continues to be a challenge with administering of all new and existing programs while also managing other projects like the consolidated planning process for City Steps 2030, the five-year plan and things like the Aid to Agencies process. In There was a subcommittee to review the Aid to Agencies process that formed in January 2023 and went until April 2024 to recommend changes to the application and process. Following the subcommittee, staff worked with the other joint funding entities including United Way, Johnson County, and other participating cities to get that application altered through United Way. That was a long process to get where they are today. Dennis asked about the PRO Housing grant that the City received, does that include admin funds for the City. Kubly confirmed it does, they can use 10% for that and are looking at adding hopefully a couple positions. Related to that, Thul noted they are looking at increasing costs across the board. Construction, labor, the cost of insurance - all those things add up and make it challenging to have projects that pencil out. It takes a deeper federal subsidy to offset costs. Thul continued with an update on City Steps 2030. Staff have been very busy working with a consultant, M & L from Pennsylvania, to get feedback from the community. They did a series of meetings, three public meetings and seven or eight stakeholder sessions that brought in nonprofit leaders, people that Housing and Community Development Commission September 16, 2024 Page 3 of 5 3 work in economic development, housing providers, and all different sorts of perspectives to talk about housing and community development needs in Iowa City. Staff is still working through this process but have gotten some really great participation so far. Outside of these meetings, they've also been one-on- one interviews, the housing survey, and working towards a shelter survey of shelter residents to get their perspective on these issues. Kubly added the timeline for the Consolidated Plan is they expect to have a draft by the end of the year, ahead of the CDBG and HOME allocation cycle. Kubly presented highlights from FY24 using local funding. $640,000 was expended through the Aid to Agencies programs, 21 Legacy agencies and four Emerging - that's in addition to the CDBG public services. Iowa City has a locally funded general rehab and improvement program, called GRIP, which is an owner occupied rehab program that helped six households and the City gets about $200,000 each year for that. The City spent $70,000 on security deposit assistance and partnered with CommUnity with that and helped 74 households this year. $36,000 was expended through the Healthy Homes program, and that went to improve indoor air for 40 households. Every year the City invests about $700,000 in affordable housing funds to be administered through the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County, and one of those projects that they funded was transitional housing for youth with UAY and the Housing Fellowship. Staff also wanted to highlight the ARPA projects, the City received $18 million in ARPA funds and are doing a housing stability pilot project with Shelter House. Seven households enrolled in risk mitigation and 129 records have been expunged at the expungement clinics. The City funded CommUnity’s mobile crisis outreach and they have an average of 26-minute response time and have responded to about 1500 mobile crisis calls. Another big project is inclusive economic development. The City gave a big grant to Dream Center and they broke ground on the rehab of their facility on Southgate. The City funded a total of six inclusive economic development programs. Neighborhood Centers got capital improvement funds through ARPA and are purchasing two buildings in the Towncrest neighborhood to expand their work in the community. Just today, the City closed on three townhome units that will be owned and managed by the Iowa City Housing Authority to provide affordable rental units. They also partnered with the University of Iowa Labor Center in FY24 for a pre-apprenticeship program which helped 28 individuals. Finally, there is the Child Care Wage Enhancement Program which increased wages at six childcare centers by $2 an hour. Krotz asked for more information regarding the Shelter House and the expungement of records. Kubly explained they partnered with Iowa Legal Aid to get people's records cleared so that it doesn't affect their job searches and ability to rent. Thul stated the next step in this process is to bring the CAPER to HCDC for review and any comments before submitting to HUD. HUD has 45 days to review following the submission. Dennis asked about administering all of these programs mentioned - how many staff at the City works on these? Kubly gave a staffing overview. For grant administration it is Kubly, Thul and Sam Turnbull the City’s Grants Specialist. There is a part time staff who does down payment assistance and two and a half staff that do the owner-occupied rehab programs like the South District program. Then all the property management goes through the Housing Authority, but there is not a lot of staff for that either. Vogel had a few questions, first on page 39 there's one of the properties that says the rental inspection was in 2022 and it wasn't due again till 2026 and there's some mention that these two properties aren't on the same schedule. He noted that's a really long period, four years, and just wanted to make sure that was not a typo. Kubly noted that they are typically an annual or two-year schedule. Thul will review and correct before submitting. Vogel noted there's a section that talks about number of people assisted but then that table doesn't actually have the number of people assisted it has activities listed. Thul explained this report is related to Section 3. The goal of Section 3 is basically to provide job opportunities to people that are low to moderate income. It's race and gender neutral and they track labor hours and report the Housing and Community Development Commission September 16, 2024 Page 4 of 5 4 activities and labor hours in the CAPER rather than the individual people assisted. If it is an activity that is completed in the fiscal year it would be reported in the associated CAPER. Vogel asked if Appendix B, which is really long and lists all the properties and the inspections. Are all of those City owned properties? Thul explained these are all the federally assisted units that are not owned by the City. The City doesn’t often do any home rental projects directly and most often work with subrecipients or nonprofit housing providers on projects. HUD asks for this information to make sure the City is getting there for inspections and that things are meeting housing standards to make sure the units are safe. Vogel noted this report is nice and it is a way to see the tangible results of decisions this Commission has made in the past. Thul stated the next step would be for the Commission to vote to approve the CAPER and then they’ll submit it to HUD. Krotz moved to approve the CAPER report with the typo corrected. Pierce second the motion, a vote was taken and it passed 6-0. STAFF & COMMISSION UPDATES: Thul noted an update to the Legacy Aid to Agencies process. As mentioned earlier, they went through the subcommittee process and then through the review with the joint funders. The application offically opened September 9th after HCDC reviewed the updated application at the last meeting. The application window is September 9 through 5pm on October 15. After 5pm on October 15, Thul will be sharing those applications with the Commission. There's usually about 20 applications to review and staff can share the information in print or electronically depending on your preference, just let her know. She also wanted to share that United Way is hosting three training sessions for applicants which is positive. Iowa City will participate in the first one with the other joint funders and then United Way is also doing some technical training on like how to fill complete the budget section and the technical parts of the software they use to help applicants. Krotz asked how that information regarding the training sessions will be conveyed to the applicants. Thul stated each of the joint funders has different criteria and applicants. United Way for example will do a press release. For Iowa City, it's only certain agencies with Legacy status that are eligible to apply so staff directly communicate that information to the agencies that are eligible and it is also posted on the website. The training sessions will be hosted on Zoom and United Way plans to record the session in case anybody can't attend. Pierce asked about applicants in the past that felt like they didn’t know how to fill out the application. Thul responded that there are really two parts to that. The first is extra training on the application changes which will be helpful and the second is that staff are making sure they are very transparent with applicants about the scoring criteria that was approved by the HCDC. The scoring criteria has been posted online and directly sent to the applicants. Vogel asked if anybody from the City attended the Iowa Housing Conference the first week in September. Kubly replied that they did have two staff in their division attend and heard it was positive. Thul added that she heard permanent supportive housing was a focal point. ADJOURNMENT: Patel moved to adjourn, Dennis seconded the motion and a vote was taken and the motion passed 6-0. Housing and Community Development Commission September 16, 2024 Page 5 of 5 5 Housing and Community Development Commission Attendance Record 2023-2024 •Resigned from Commission Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Vacant Name Terms Exp. 7/20 9/21 10/19 11/16 3/21 4/18 5/16 6/13 8/19 9/16 Balde, Daouda 6/30/27 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- O/E O/E Dennis, Maryann 6/30/25 X O/E X X X X X X X X Kivarkis, George 6/30/27 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- X X Krotz, Karol 6/30/27 X X X X O/E O/E X X O/E X Vogel, Kyle 6/30/26 X X O/E X X X O/E O/E X X Patel, Kiran 6/30/26 X X O/E X O/E O/E X X X X Pierce, James 6/30/26 X X X X O/E X X X O/E X Szecsei, Denise 6/30/25 -- -- -- X X X X O/E X O/E Borgen, Horacio 6/30/25 -- -- -- -- O/E O/E X X X O/E FY24 Annual Action Plan Substantial Amendment #1 October 3, 2024 A. Reprogramming HOME Funds In FY24, the City awarded $110,000 (HOME) to United Action for Youth (UAY) to acquire and/or rehab at least one rental unit in Iowa City to be utilized as transitional housing. Due to the complexity of the applicable regulations at the units identified and the required timeframe, UAY formed a partnership with The Housing Fellowship to acquire a property with non-federal resources. The same year, $200,000 (HOME) was awarded to The Housing Fellowship for a rental construction activity on Ronalds Street. Due to the project’s location in a historic district, the State Historic Preservation Office review process took longer than anticipated. This project included a partnership with the Iowa City School District and provided the opportunity for students to learn various trades. To meet the deadlines of the school year, The Housing Fellowship ultimately identified other funding sources and the project was completed with non- federal resources. In order to proceed with the original intent of expanding affordable rental housing in Iowa City, staff propose shifting the funding for both of the previously described projects to The Housing Fellowship to acquire two additional rental units with $310,000 of HOME funding. According to the City’s Citizen Participation Plan, a substantial amendment is required to change the use of federal funds from one eligible activity to another. B. Programming Unanticipated CDBG Program Income The City recently received an unanticipated loan repayment of CDBG funds that will be recorded as program income. Both program income and regular entitlement grant funds are subject to spending deadlines established by HUD. Staff propose allocating additional funding to the City’s ongoing Greenstate and Hills Downpayment Assistance Partnership Program. Reprogramming the funding in a timely manner towards an activity that will proceed on schedule is critical to meet spending deadlines established by HUD. Failure to meet spending deadlines may result in noncompliance with HUD and a reduction in annual grant funds. The City was awarded FY22 and FY24 funds for the Greenstate and Hills Downpayment Assistance Partnership Program totaling about $430,000. To date, about 70% of the funding has been expended to assist 14 income eligible homebuyers. The City also collaborated with Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity on six of the units sold through this program. An additional $300,000 allocated to this program will assist up to 12 additional income eligible homebuyers. According to the City’s Citizen Participation Plan, a substantial amendment is required to carry out a project using funds from any program covered by City Steps not previously described in the AAP (including program income, reimbursements, repayment, recaptures, or reallocations from HUD). Agenda Item # C. Public Comment and Approval Process The public comment period of 30 days is scheduled to begin October 3, 2024 through November 4, 2024. The Housing and Community Development Commission will review the amendment at their October 21, 2024 meeting and consider a recommendation to City Council. The City Council will consider this recommendation on November 4, 2024. If approved, the amendment will be submitted the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Jurisdiction: City of Iowa City, Iowa Contact Person Jurisdiction Web Address: http://www.icgov.org/actionplan Erika Kubly 410 E. Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 319.356.5121 Erika-Kubly@Iowa-City.org Proposed Amendment The proposed amendments include the following:  Update Appendix B of the FY24 Annual Action Plan to be consistent with this amendment.  Update other text and appendices as needed to be consistent with this amendment. Proposed Amendments to Appendix B Project Planned activities CDBG Award HOME Award Persons / Households / Facilities Assisted Aid to Agencies - Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County 64,000$ NA 2,460 Aid to Agencies - DVIP 60,000$ NA 1,002 Public Facility Activities Shelter House - Shelter Improvements 120,000$ NA 950 Neighborhood and Area Benefits Neighborhood Improvement Program (Curb Ramps) 150,000$ NA 300 Homeowner/Rental Housing Rehabilitation Comprehensive Rehabilitation $ 285,000 90,000$ 22 The Housing Fellowship - Rental New Construction -$ 200,000$ 1 Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity - Downpayment Assistance -$ 80,000$ 2 City of Iowa City, GreenState, & Hills - Downpayment Assistance 300,000$ 300,000$ 24 The Housing Fellowship - Rental Acquisition -310,000$ 2 United Action for Youth - Acquisition and Rehab of Transitional Housing -$ 110,000$ 1 Community Housing Development Organization Operations -$ 25,000$ NA Community Housing Development Organization Reserve Activities The Housing Fellowship - Rental Rehab NA 78,000$ 1 Economic Development Economic Development Program 50,000$ NA 2 CDBG Administration 160,000$ NA NA HOME Administration NA 59,000$ NA Public Service Activities Other Housing Activities Administration & Planning