Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 3
Number 3 is a public hearing to receive comments regarding the program year 2011 through 2013 consolidated plan and program year 2010 action plan including the proposed three-year priorities and one-year use of community development block grant funds available to you the u.s.
department of housing and urban development.
I move that the public hearing be open.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
>> good morning, christy moffett, Travis County health and human services.
today we're here to talk about the proposed uses and strategic priorities for the community development block grant funds funded through the u.s.
department of housing and urban development.
we've been going through this process to complete this plan since January of this year and so these are -- today is our first public hearing regarding the proposed uses and we'll have another one next week.
the purpose and intent of cdbg is to improve affordable housing options, improve facilities and services and revitalize neighborhoods and it's intended to benefit low to moderate income people in the unincorporated areas of Travis County.
the consolidated plan is a three-year strategic plan and needs assessment of the unincorporated areas that helps guide our action planning process for the next three years.
this consolidated plan will span from October 2011 through September of 2014.
and it also outlines the finance strategy for about $3.57 million.
in the consolidated plan, we have indicated that the population has grown to over a million for the county with 17% of the county's population living in the unincorporated areas.
in terms of the consolidated plan priorities, as we looked at the needs and also the public comments, we came up with this list of priorities that you have in front of you, which is infrastructure, housing and community services to be considered high priorities, which means that we would likely invest funds in those areas.
and then populations with specialized needs, public facilities and business and jobs as medium priorities.
if additional funds become available, we could invest funding there as well.
for the annual action plan, it is completed annually.
this establishs the use of funds for a year's time period of October of 2011 through September of 2012.
again, it's consistent with research and public comments and it outlines the funding strategy for $790,136.
eligible activities include economic development, public services, redevelopment, planning and housing.
projects that are generally not eligible are acquisition construction or reconstruction of buildings for the general conduct of government, political activities, certain income payments and construction of new housing units.
for program year 2011, we're proposing four projects, the first is lake oak subdivision or substandard roads improving sections of road in that area.
this is the first of a three phase project which includes design.
also homeowner rehabilitation.
this provides funding for homeowners up to $24,999.
it's a forgivable loan over a five-year time period to improve the housing quality.
there's also an f ss social work expansion for $118,500.
this expands social services to the unincorporated areas all throughout the county.
and then finally the administration and planning costs associated with the grant this the amount of $158,000.
additionally there are alternate projects should we find other resources, project savings that is correct kind of thing for home buyer assistance up to $300,000 could be allocated towards that.
we could add additional funding to home rehabilitation up to $200,000, and we also could potentially start looking at another street project called navarro creek drive.
and that is the summary of what we're requesting public comment on today.
>> okay.
this is item number 3, the requirements of h.u.d.
for community development block grant funds.
this is one of many public hearings required by law.
and actually we're looking at projects for fiscal year 2011.
>> yes.
>> and 2011 through 2014.
>> correct.
>> so would anyone like to give testimony during this public hearing?
please come forward.
if you would give us your full name.
we would be happy to get your comments, mr. Jeffries.
>> thank you, judge.
my name is jeffrey richard, president and c.e.o.
of the Austin league 30-year-old nonprofit in central Texas.
I have a power point presentation here briefly.
if there is a time limit that you would like for me to observe, I would be happy to do that.
I can make it short, long or medium.
>> let's focus on the short one.
>> all right.
all right.
>> you'll have more impact that way.
>> very well.
very well.
let me see if I can pull this up.
I will mention in the time that I'm beginning that this community development block grant is more than 30 years old, 35 years old or something like that.
it started in washington under actually president richard nixon, and since that time in both the city and the county particularly that is some of the most flexible funds that local governments can utilize from washington.
and in that sense the -- both the county and other local governments can use that money for whatever -- for almost whatever reason it chooses as long as it has a public purpose and that's what I would like to speak to you about today.
so here we are.
all right.
I mentioned the Austin area urban league.
I want to thank you for this public hearing.
I know it's required by law as is one other, but I would like to share with you what has been done in the community thus for or many decades with this program t-flex I believe funding that it provides and in particular one of the most important needs of our community which I would say is housing, affordable housing, preservation of housing, the preservation of the wealth associated with housing, particularly in our -- for our lower income persons.
so I want to thank you for that.
let me give an overview and a services description.
I will skip the neighbors' testimonials in the interest of time today and talk a little about the cdbg funding outlook for 2012 and how it plays out with regard to if you are interested in that with regard to the federal funding discussion crisis and debate in washington.
the division of urban league is a community where all individuals and powers are empowered to succeed economically and to contribute to their community's success.
success.
the mission of the organization which is 100 years old in the united states and 35 years old in Austin area is assist african-americans and all other underserved Austin area residents in the achievement of societal and economic quality by focusing on education willal improvement, employment readiness, health and wellness and importantly the preservation of affordable housing.
we offer a number of programs as you can see from central office skills and computers to advocacy and ged preparation, but today we focus on emergency home repair.
I mentioned what our history is at the urban league so I will proceed there.
emergency home prepared work has at least 31 years of history successfully within the city limits of Austin, not in Travis County per se with the program here, but it's the same funding stream from h.u.d.
every 12 months the Austin area urban league under contract repairs about 500 homes, not 20 or 30 or 40, but about 500.
and you can see in partnership with the city of Austin back just for example for 2005 we repaired almost 600 homes, exceeded our goals.
2008 about 500 homes.
we've been recognized by your partner the neighborhood housing community development program of the city of Austin through the Austin housing and finance corporation, all again through department of housing and urban development.
you can also see that the funding and the contract under this program we're speaking about, community development block grants, has been significant for this one program.
averaging close to a million dollars for those 500 homes.
this is simply a letter from one of our -- our partners, elizabeth spencer who was at the time acting director of the city of Austin's housing program, gave the following comments that the program operates within its budget, reports results accurately and in a timely fashion, uses licensed and insured contractors which is very important for family members and homeowners who are very interested in making sure they have want advertise and has impeccable client files and operated by experienced and capable staff.
we do this to preserve the existing housing staff.
people say in terms of sustainability that you want to use green building Texas and leed certification, but I'm here to suggest the most important green building tech knee is repair a house that already exists to keep it from falling into disrepair so you won't have to use more and more resources to build a new one.
to improve the quality of life for low-income homeowners and I would simply say that we obviously provide emergency and critical home repairs and we do this for the health and safety for those families.
most of us do know that the greatest source of wealth transfer as an economist is not in the stock market, it's really in the value of the home that a family can bequeath to the next generation.
and if that housing stock can live and last and be sustainable and be livable, then you have an excellent chance of passing on not just a place to tayshaun prince but true wealth to the next generation.
and we think that's a very important point for sustainability for families in this region.
right now the urban league uses cdbg funds to provide plumbing services, roofing, electrical services, air conditioning, which is pretty important these days, and heating services for low-income homeowners, and we do that for free to those homeowners because there's a contract that exists between the urban league and in this case the city of Austin.
I've already said that this comes from the department of h.u.d.
through the city of Austin, but I would ask you to consider in your deliberations home repair services in addition to all the other great work you are doing, building roads, making sure that there's infrastructure there, but I would suggest also that housing is a large portion of the infrastructure for a livable city.
in addition to that, I mentioned the emergency home repair program.
I will lastly mention there is another feature of community development block grants that we use today in this region called abr, architectural barrier removal program.
that is for persons who are disabled and need ramps and other -- slides and rails.
they use cdbg money for those purposes and as I said to you this is among the most flexible funding you will ever be presented by federal government because it allows local government to decide how to use that money.
lastly I'll say, be open for questions if you have any.
lastly, washington has been in the throes about what to do with this program.
this will some that would take funding to zero.
recently three to four months ago is cut it in half.
the word the street is it's likely to slate about a 16% cut for the next -- the fiscal year starting in October, and we don't know exactly how large it would be going forward.
I look forward to talking about that further.
the whole program for the nation is about $4 billion.
the whole program.
and each -- depending upon the size of a county or city, you are allotted a certain amount based upon your population.
at least that's what I recall from my days there.
I will stop there, but to say this is a very important program and you have a great deal of discretion as to how you choose to allocate it and we would urge you to consider home repair for the outlying jurisdictions just like the city of Austin uses that money for disabled persons and architectural barrier removal and for the emergency services we talked about just a moment ago, plumbing, electrical, roof it's, air conditioning and heating.
thank you very much, county judge and Commissioners.
>> let me say this to you.
I want to applaud you and the urban league for what you do.
I have directed persons personally to -- to acquire the services that you just alluded to, roofs, air conditioning repair, a whole lot of things you are able to provide those citizens in Travis County so again I want to applaud you and I look forward to working closely with you on a lot of those concerns.
again, thank you for the services and for what the urban league does.
just recently you mentioned houses and homes and stuff like that, but just recently we used cdbg funds for this concern to acquire some land whereby we were able to construct new homes, brand new homes for persons that are low to moderate income.
and, of course, these persons are -- will enjoy the homes that are being constructed there.
so again, working through cdbg and we have done a lot in relationship with the Austin habitat for humanity and a lot of good relationship and collaboration that's going to have to take place for us to make sure that we hit the bullseye and thanks to you that we hit the bullseye a lot more often.
I appreciate those comments.
>> thank you, Commissioner Davis.
I would say that many times people look at our name and our history and they think we only serve african-americans, but that's not true.
we have an historical basis there because in 1910 african-americans were the largest minority in the united states.
that no longer is the case and no longer will it ever be, but we serve anyone who is disadvantaged and that has a lot of definitions particularly economic.
so I've left this slide on your screen that shows you that about one in three are african-american, about four in ten are of hispanic descent and one in five are anglo.
because I've often used the story can a person be digs advantaged and anglo and the answer is yes, particularly with women that may have started a family early on and the fellow got the red vert I convertible and left and she may have less life experience and education so we help in that regard.
the idea that we serve only one race is just not true.
>> thank you, mr. Richards.
>> thank you.
>> would anyone else like to give comments during item number 3?
please come forward, dr. Kim.
anybody else, please come forward.
anybody else?
last call.
public hearing hearing item number 3.
>> is your housing program includes apartment housing program too?
>> at this time there isn't anything related to rental housing, no.
>> no, then do you have the kind of department or program -- apartment program?
>> not at this time, no.
we don't have anything in rental housing.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
this is not posted for action today simply to receive comments during the public hearing.
I move the public hearing be closed.
>> second.
>> all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
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.
