Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, June 29, 2010,
Item 2
Number 2 is a public hearing to receive comments regarding the program year 2010 action plan including the proposed usage of community development block grant funds available through the united states department of housing and urban development. Move that the public hearing be opened.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Good morning.
>> good morning, christie moffat, travis county health and human services. Travis county receives community development block grant funds from the u.s. Department of housing and urban development of and for the development of the annual action plan, it's about an eight-month process. Here's a slide of the overview of the process. We began with a series of public hearings, went through an ovallation of project ideas, the commissioners court approved projects in june and now we are in the middle of a 30 day public comment period and this is the first of two public hearings held at commissioners court. The purpose and intent of cdbg is to improve affordable housing options, improve community facilities and services and revitalize neighborhoods. At least 70% of the cdbg funds must benefit low to moderate income residents in the unincorporated areas of the county. In terms of eligible activities, this list is not exclusive -- not everything that can be done, but traditionally you can do economic development, public services, redevelopment or what we call improvements, planning and housing activities. And ineligible activities are acquisition, construction or reconstruction of buildings for the general conduct of government, political activities, certain income payments and construction of new housing units by general local government. In 2006, the commissioners court approved seven priorities that covered a five year time period.
>> [reading graphic] for the program year 2010, we are anticipating to receive $942,749. 20% may be used for administration and planning, 15% may be used for public services and at least 65% must be used for community development activities. For program year 2010 we recommended four different projects. The first was the construction of lava lane. This is phase 3, the final phase of a three-year project. In the amount of $400,000. Then we also -- pardon me -- we also recommended home buyer assistance in the amount of $285,000. This is for down payment assistance and gap financing. Additionally, we requested the funding of $69,295 for public services. This continues the project that's been ongoing since 2007 and it's the expansion of social work services in the unincorporated areas of precincts 1 and 4. Then finally, we are requesting $188,454 for cdbg administration and planning. That pays for some staff as well as some operating costs. Additionally, this year, we are also providing a -- a new kind of thing that we are using to help us -- i'm sorry, i stumbled over that. We are proposing the use of at projects in case any project is slow, we have cost savings, so that we cannot have to go through a substantial amendment process. So if anything slows, we are able to pick one of these three projects by action of commissioners court. And that is home buyer assistance with an additional allocation of up to $300,000. Owner occupied home rehabilitation, of to $200,000, street improvements for navarro creek drive, that would be the design phase of up to say thousand dollars. Right now the -- the citizens -- $125,000. Right now the citizens participation plan is going through a public comment period to allow this strategy to be used. After the public comment period, public comments will be reviewed and considered in the final preparation of the document. The commissioners court will approve the final draft for submission to h.u.d. In early august. Final versions of the documents will be available to the public by august 15th of 2010 and h.u.d. Will provide a decision on the submission no later than september 30th of 2010. That's it.
>> questions from the court? Now, this matter is posted for a public hearing. So if you would like to give comments on item no. 2, please come forward at this time. Mr. Snyder.
>> talking about block grants, stuff like that there, housing. I've been fighting this stuff for 30 years trying to get services out there. We find dead animals like you see on my shirt. They put a depension pond out there, supposed to be dry. Dug it down through the water table. We can't flush our toilets when it rain, stuff like that. Health risk. I guess they are waiting for kids to die out there. That there comes from the environmental office there. He did tests out there, they have to pump out septic tanks, to put it in the ground they have to pump the water out to set it in there. It's a health risk. You go out there now, it smells like sewer running down the streets. When it rains it does like that. We have got about 400 lots that could be built on out there. If we only had services, to get services out there. We do have city water. That's it, judge, we do have city water. With you we have got -- but we have
>> [indiscernible] water for the first 10 years. I can't understand why we are getting so discriminated against. Mostly hispanic. Only about 10 miles up the road there. 8 or 9 miles. I have done this for so many years this. Is back in '96, we didn't have detention ponds, 7 or 800 unit apartment house right next door to us, building 400 homes on the other side. Every time i come up here, i hear about affordable housing, affordable housing, well, you build a house for somebody, and if they can't make payments on it and everything, then they have got to pay $3,000 a year taxes on it, in austin here that's about what the taxes run between 3 and $4,000, you are going to be out of options.
>> mr. Snyder, your recommendation is that we consider north ridge acres and the wastewater issue for some cdbg funds?
>> sure.
>> okay. And anything else?
>> put trailers out there.
>> anything else related to this item?
>> well, i keep building housing, talking about affordable housing everything, they can put trailers out there. They are the cheapest thing to live in. Buy a $10,000 lot, buy a two or -- four or five thousand dollars trailer, somebody that's theirs, pay maybe 3 or $400 in taxes. Right now i pay
>> [indiscernible] every year for texas'. You build affordable housing for somebody, they try to get it in there. If they can't pay 2 or $300 a month in taxes on that house, what does the house do? Who does it go back to? Back to the state, the city, auction it off for back taxes. This affordable housing thing talking about you have to earn 30,000, $40,000 to get into a house and everything. Well, they have got 30 or $40,000, almost any lender will take -- they put
>> [indiscernible] down they can get a house for nothing down now because there's so many foreclosures out there. You can go up to the courthouse steps, i used to do it years ago, you can buy it for 10 or $15,000, but you can't get anything more affordable than a trailer, in the city of austin you can't put trailers. You get outside of the city, you can do anything that you want to out there. You can put a trailer house out there, somebody will have something, they will earn a living out of their property, take it out there, work on cars, lawn mowers, bicycles, like i did when i came up. They have something to be proud of. But living in a cesspool like we are living, you are talking about affordable housing, there's no such thing as affordable housing anymore. The city of austin, there ain't no affordable housing.
>> thank you very much.
>> got to get outside of the city so they can have affordable.
>> thank you so much.
>> colonial neighborhood like this here is a big deal. There's money out there to do it, i know it. Thank you.
>> thank you, anybody else to give comments during this public hearing?
>> move that the public hearing be closed.
>> second.
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. By the way, commissioner gomez will miss today's meeting.
>> thank you, ms. Moffat.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, June 29, 2010 2:35 PM
