COUNTY OF SAN MATEO

Inter-Departmental Correspondence

Human Services Agency

 

DATE:

February 19, 2003

   

BOARD MEETING DATE:

March 4, 2003

 

TO:

Honorable Board of Supervisors

   

FROM:

Maureen Borland, Director, Human Services Agency

 

Steve Cervantes, Director, Office of Housing

   

SUBJECT:

Presentation on the Office of Housing Activities for 2002

   

Recommendation

Accept the report on Housing accomplishments for 2002.

 

Background

Over the last year our staff has been involved with several housing initiatives and housing programs. This report highlights some of the most recent activities.

 

Discussion

The Office of Housing under the Human Services Agency's mission is to assist very low, low and moderate income residents through housing assistance, financing and community development in order to stabilize and improve their quality of life. We accomplished our mission by providing subsidized housing, loan financing project funding and technical assistance, primarily through partnerships with nonprofit organizations, other public agencies and the private sector. Under our auspices is the Housing Authority, Office of Housing and Community Development and the Center on Homelessness. All of the Office of Housing activities contribute to the County's vision and the Human Services Agency Strategic Plan.

 

Housing Authority Wait List Reopens

The Housing Authority wait list opened on April 2002 and received 10,500 applications. An additional 1,130 families and individuals were housed in 2002. Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers were received by 535 families. Other special programs enabled 400 families to receive subsidies and support services by participation in the Moving to Work Program. There were100 vouchers issued for the family reunification project; 75 people with disabilities were housed; and 20 vouchers were utilized for Foster Youth in Transition.

 

The Housing Authority restructed to be able to take advantage of the softening market. The results were significant increases in families receiving housing assistance. In addition to assisting 1,130 additional families, the Housing Authority received an additional $11,794,523 in rental assistance subsidies for the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

 

Housing and Community Development

Housing and Community Development through its CDBG/HOME funds provides for a wide range of activities. In the past year with this funding, 6 new housing developments were completed. That provided for 379 new affordable housing units, with 37 first time homebuyers and renovations to Jack Farrell Park.

    ·

28 units at Main Street Park II in Half Moon Bay

    ·

160 units at Moon Ridge Farm Labor Housing in Half Moon Bay

    ·

36 units at Redwood Oaks in Redwood City

    ·

65 units at Peninsula Park in East Palo Alto

    ·

74 units of senior housing at San Pedro Commons in unincorporated Colma

    ·

16 units at Willow Garden in South San Francisco

 

Rehabilitation

The Housing Rehabilitation Program supports single family homes, multifamily rentals and nonprofit agencies residential housing programs. We also support home modifications for individuals with disabilities.

    ·

13 single family homes

    ·

7 nonprofit agencies with housing for 156 clients

    ·

35 renters and 80 homeowners have home accommodations for their disabilities

 

Funding can be available to assist in the development or upgrading of public facilities that serve low-income residents. Jack Farrell Park dedication was held in 2002.

 

Center on Homelessness

Homeless programs were awarded $4,000,000 in HUD McKinney funds, which added an additional $500,000 for rental assistance for special needs populations and extended the Safe Harbor Shelter operational hours to create a daytime transitional program. In addition, these funds also serve as operational support for our county transitional and permanent homeless programs.

 

The McKinney Funding Awards helped support the following:

    ·

Elsa Segovia drop-in-center for homeless families and 6 new transitional beds.

    ·

Year round planning for homeless programs

    ·

Homeless funding inventory (Tools for System Planning) and implementing our homeless management information system

 

Projects in the Pipeline

Below are several projects that are ready to begin work or are under way:

    ·

    Mental Health Association's 25 apartments in Belmont will break ground in the Summer of 2003

    ·

    Shelter Network's First Step for Families, new transitional housing apartments will begin construction in Spring 2003

    ·

    Nuggent Square in East Palo Alto, 32 affordable housing units and nonprofit service center will begin Spring 2003

    ·

    Martin Luther King Jr. Park renovations underway with completion date Summer 2003

 

Other Initiatives

    ·

Anti-predatory lending initiative

    ·

Housing and child care policy study underway

 

These new efforts will continue in the coming year.

 

That concludes our presentation. We look forward to sharing our new developments in 2003.

 

Vision Alignment

Goal number 9: Housing exists for people at all income levels and for all generations of families.

 

Fiscal Impact

There is no fiscal impact in receiving the Office of Housing report.