Travis County Commissioners Court
February 17, 2009, 2009
Item 3
Number 3 is a public hearing to receive comments regarding the community needs of the unincorporated areas and project ideas for the development of the community development block grant (cdbg) program year 2009 action plan available from the u.s.
department of housing and urban development.
>> move that the public hearing be opened.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> good morning, christie for fat and mariana salazar with Travis County human services.
we receive community development block grant funds from the housing and urban development.
we -- from 2006 to 2010 with strategic direction.
in that plan we also indicate that annually we will bring forward in each spring an opportunity for citizens on comment on the needs.
we hold five public hearings.
the first here at the Commissioners court and the four additional hearings, one in each precinct.
for the -- for the -- this year we're expecting $833,133, now this amount --
>> repeat that.
>> $833,133.
now, this amount is a -- a planning estimate based on what we received last year.
as the federal government is on continuing resolution until March and so we are not sure of what our actual allocation will be, but we will notify the court as soon as we are aware.
we are going to have a total of five public hearings.
the first today.
we have one tomorrow at the Travis County community center, Pflugerville.
and we have one on Thursday at the west rural community center in oak hill and then next week we have two, one is the t.n.r.
satellite center on johnny morris road on the 26th of February and then also on the same day one at the del valle -- the south rural community center on the 26th as well.
all of those start at 6:30 p.m.
so for the actions for the public comments, what we're requesting people to do is to provide information on -- or identify the cdbg priorities established for the 2006-2010 period needing to be addressed in this year.
letting us know where we need to spend our money this year.
also identify specific project ideas.
we also have -- have up for the opportunity to -- to participate through a citizen participation forum, which is new this year.
if you are not able to attend a public hearing, you are welcome to either call our office at 854-3460 and request a form be mailed to you or go to the cdbg website at www.co.travis-us/cdbg.
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thatisalsoavailableinspanish aswell.
there also is a project proposal form that is available for specific project ideas, again available if spanish as well.
you can get one of those again by calling our office or looking at the website.
and then let's move into how projects are prioritized.
we take interests suggested by the Travis County Commissioners court, suggestions through the public hearings and participation forums and also the project proposals that are submitted to us which we must receive by March 31st of this year.
there we create a list of possible projects -- possible projects identified, we go ahead and look whether or not that's feasible for the h.u.d.
regulation.
and then finally we move those through a scoring matrix of the Commissioners court -- that the Commissioners court approved back in January.
those criteria are meeting the Travis County overarching investment strategies, cdbg priorities established for the 2006-2010 period, it benefits low to moderate income residents.
we have looked at the number of people that would benefit or the project's impact.
we also look at how much funding is going to be leveraged by the project and finally we looked at project feasibility, how quickly we can spend down the money and then through that we come to the court with the recommendation and then the court makes their selections on the projects.
just to give you a little bit of information about cdbg, the purpose is to improve affordable housing options, improve community facilities and services, revitalize neighborhoods.
the money is intended to benefit at least 70%, at least 70% of the funds must benefit low to moderate income persons as identified through h.u.d.
in terms of eligible activities, the cdbg programs can implement a variety of community development activities including but not limited to economic development, public services, redevelopment or what we would call improvement, planning and also housing.
ineligible activities are generally considered acquisition construction or reconstruction of buildings for the general conduct of government, construction of new housing units by general local government, certain income payments and political activities.
for 2006-2010, the court has identified seven priorities for funding.
those are water/sewer improvements, street improvements, owner housing, production of new units, owner housing, rehabilitation of existing units, infrastructure to support affordable housing development, youth services and public services, other.
for the program year '09 as I have said we have an estimated grant of $833,133, of which a maximum of 20% could be spent on administration and planning, 15% could be spend towards public services and at least 65% must be -- must be put on community development activities.
on the next slide, what you see is the cdbg project history for the three previous years.
so in the past we have funded owner housing, production of new units through acquisition and also the support of infrastructure, home repair, water improvements, street improvements, social work services and water and wastewater planning and administration.
in terms of our time line for developing the action plan that's due on August 15th, you will see that we're having the public hearings in February, in April and may we will begin evaluating projects, in June we will bring a list of projects to the Commissioners court for their consideration.
and in June and July, we will have the public comment period based on the projects that have been considered.
and then in August we will come back and request the court approve the final draft of the action plan.
and then with that, the last slide just has our contact information.
>> any questions of staff?
and we are posted to receive comments regarding the community needs.
in this cdbg upcoming proposal.
would anyone like to give comments during this public hearing?
we do have one person.
anybody else?
we have got three more seats available, so if you would like to give comments on item no.
3, please come forward at this time.
give us your name, we would be happy to get your comments.
>> I'm jo kathryn quinn, the director of self sufficiency services at caritas of Austin.
i'm here today to talk to you about housing for low income individuals and families.
i believe that any -- any cdbg funding that the county receives should focus on providing safe, decent and affordable housing for individuals and families making less than $22,000 a year.
i want to distinguish this from temporary sheltered type housing and say that I believe this housing should be permanent.
permanent, stable housing, particularly supportive housing for people with disabilities.
who have a difficult time being stable in housing without significant support services to keep them stable in their housing.
it seems to me that a logical contribution that the county could make with cdbg funds, given the level of funding that's expected, is to provide the social services that are needed for people to be stable in housing.
the city of Austin will receive funds at levels that -- that can be actually -- actually used to provide the housing, the sticks and bricks, and so -- so it just makes sense that with this level of funding that Travis County receives that we provide the support services to -- to partner with that housing to allow families and individuals to stay in the housing that they so desperately need.
homelessness is not a necessary social ill.
it is a symptom of systematic social failure, which we can reverse.
we can make homelessness rare and episodic and a range of housing options is the missing component for our community to realize this goal.
homelessness as we know it on the streets of our major cities has existed only long enough for some of us to remember the time when our streets were not full of people without homes.
and sadly, it has existed long enough for many people in this community to become experts on how to end it.
so we the experts stand ready to work with the -- with Travis County and all interested parties to employ our knowledge to create opportunities for every person to be housed.
and to remain housed.
cdbg funding must prioritize individuals and families making less than $22,000 per year.
thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
what's the federal standard on that -- ms.
moffett?
is there a federal income standard?
>> it's low to moderate income.
moderate mcfor a family of four is $59,600 and so I think what we're talking about is a very low income.
>> do we have the authority to modify the 56,000?
>> we do not.
but we can -- we can actually fund a project that -- at any level that we want to within there.
so the land acquisition project, the court approved targeting those funds at people -- at -- to people at 25 to 50% of median family mcand then with the -- income and then with the home project the court chose 50% of median family income or less.
at any point in time you can target, as long as you don't exceed the moderate income levels.
>> it's a -- it's a feeling.
>> it's a ceiling.
>> it's a ceiling.
you can target --
>> yeah.
you can say that you only want to target people who were very low income to receive social services or -- or whatever you would like to in terms of
>> [indiscernible] design.
>> okay.
thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> judge, Commissioners, good morning, gus pena.
i appreciate ms.
quinn's statements and comments coming in from caritas as we call it in the hispanic communities.
one of the things, too, the things that were left out of the equation, out of the presentation is number one, self sufficiency.
how do people become homeless?
well, you don't just become homeless because you want to become homeless.
what we are seeing now with this, with the recession, even before the recession, we are seeing people losing their jobs, we are talking about the outer lying areas in Travis County instead of the city, I understand the parameters.
but also you have a lot of people out there in the county that are losing their jobs and -- and we talk about affordable housing but -- but as I mentioned to h.u.d.
and the v.a.
and persons for the homeless veterans and their families, let's clearly define affordable housing -- affordability.
nobody has come up with a clear cut definition of affordability.
how many times have I been coming over here, city council, school board talking about affordable housing, not just for individuals, but also for homeless families.
you lose a job, you are ill, and jobs are just -- not there anymore, jobs that provide a high skilled -- water high wage enough to -- rather high wage enough to afford to purchase.
one of the things that we in the community have mentioned, I know that you have listened to me the last two or three years, in order to become self sufficient you have to enter a program, for example, transitional housing.
when you mention that people think oh, man these people, these people, not me, people have alcohol and substance abuse problems.
that's not true, folks.
every time I go everywhere, he want people to know that -- I want people to know this is not the issue.
you have families that are loving and caring, not any kind of -- of abuse problems.
they just need a -- a home or an apartment to get into transition into self sufficiency, it's very difficult here in the city of Austin because our city leaders, I have talked to the city council and the mayor and the city manager, endlessly and boundlessly many times about affordability and the definition lack thereof, people have to be able to get wrap around services mentioned by ms.
quinn.
not only that, how are we going to gain self sufficiency, if -- people please forgive me for saying this again, you have to have an income.
people on the streets because they don't have an income.
they are homeless.
now they need programs to become self sufficient, this will happen in Travis County, also, we know the parameters again.
i want to emphasize that again.
but also this is a good program but as ms.
quinn says, look at the cdbg funding and analyze the needs out there, analyze how we're going to help people get back on their feet, also.
it's very important.
especially in our precinct Commissioner Davis, poverty is anywhere, not just prevalent in precinct 1 and 4.
i appreciate your aggressiveness, judge, I appreciate your leadership, but there's a big need out there for help.
we need to redefine mfi.
i have talked to h.u.d.
about that, also, anyway, that's all that I have to say, nobody asked me to say anything in regards to their part of town, their part of the county.
but remember this, the mfi, self sufficiency, wrap around social services, analyze and review if they are really doing their jobs or if the wages are going up to the directors.
a lot of people have concerns about that.
>> thank you, gus.
>> good morning, I'm
>> [indiscernible] mclean, I work for Travis County health and human services and veterans services in our family support services division.
i'm the case management coordinator.
i also serve as the project 4 cdbg program manager.
which means that we have a social worker who is devoted to serving clients in the unincorporated areas of precinct 1 and 4.
and I just wanted to give you -- she was unable to be here today, she has the flu, sent her apologies, but we wanted to give you information about who she's been serving, what she's been seeing in those unincorporated areas.
this is the social work services expansion project.
and in the first quarter of the fiscal year, she served 74 individuals in those unincorporated areas of the eastern part of our county.
and what we're seeing is that -- is that there's a little bit of a difference in the clients that she's serving versus the clients that we are seeing coming into our community centers seeing the other social workers in the clients that she's serving have more extensive needs, they have needs for affordable and safe housing and income and some of the other things that you have heard people testify to.
but what we wanted to -- to let you be aware of was that these needs appear to be more intensive and take longer treatment planning to address.
and so we wanted to give you a little bit of feedback about what she has seen.
thank you that thank you very much.
>> anybody else -- to give comments during this public hearing?
okay.
there will be other opportunities as indicated earlier, I move that the public hearing be closed.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 2:10 PM