Title
Staff Report for Resolution Approving the City of San Leandro Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) for the FY 2016-2017 Annual Action Plan
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends that the City Council hold a public hearing and then adopt the resolution approving the FY 2016-2017 CAPER and authorizing the execution of all related documents by the City Manager and submission of the CAPER to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
The CAPER has been available for public comment since September 1, 2017. Upon adoption by the City Council, the CAPER will be combined with the Alameda County HOME Consortium’s reports (for the County and each Consortium member city) and submitted to HUD.
BACKGROUND
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires each jurisdiction that receives Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME funds to prepare a Five-Year Consolidated Plan, an annual Action Plan, and an annual Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER). The CAPER reports on all activities that took place during the fiscal year to assess the City’s overall progress in accomplishing the annual Action Plan and the Five-Year Consolidated Plan objectives. The FY 2016-2017 CAPER reports on the activities and projects described in the FY 2016-2017 Action Plan, the second year of the City’s FY 2015-2019 HUD Consolidated Plan, and conducted during the period of July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017.
ANALYSIS
Similar to the last two fiscal years, this year’s CAPER document was prepared using HUD’s required online format and includes an assessment of the progress toward achieving the five-year goals and objectives, an evaluation of annual performance, and a financial summary. Various HUD reports are included that provide information on the number of people served with each project and by categories such as race and income. Below is a summary of some of the City’s notable activities and outcomes described in the FY 2016-2017 CAPER that highlights the City’s accomplishments in the second completed year of its FY 2015-2019 HUD Consolidated Plan.
Objective: Provide Decent Housing
Priority/Action: Affordable Housing Needs/Preserve existing affordable rental and ownership housing for households at or below 80% Area Median Income.
Housing Rehabilitation Program: In FY 2016-2017, the City experienced a brief hiatus in the Housing Rehabilitation Program provided by Neighborhood Solutions. Neighborhood Solutions provided this service in San Leandro since 2003 and unexpectedly resigned mid-year. City staff released an RFP and secured a new service provider, which began operations in FY 2017-18. The goal of San Leandro’s housing rehabilitation program is to make homes safe and livable for low-income homeowners. The new provider for this service is Rebuilding Together Oakland / East Bay - approved by the City Council in Spring 2017 - to provide this needed service. Given this change in service provider, there were only four housing rehabilitation grants awarded this fiscal year.
There were four housing rehabilitation grants (three minor home repairs and one mobile home repair) provided in FY 2016-2017. All of the housing rehabilitation grants were for extremely low-income (30% AMI) homeowners. A total of two of the grants were for seniors. The Housing Rehabilitation Program provided a wide range of improvements to the four income-eligible homeowners including a mobile home roof repair, the replacement of a non-functioning heating system, repairs to a water damaged bathroom infrastructure including moisture control measures, and water heater replacement. This program assists the City to preserve existing affordable ownership housing for low- and moderate-income households.
Objective: Provide a Suitable Living Environment
Priority/Action: Affordable Housing Needs/Reduce housing discrimination.
Eden Council for Hope and Opportunity Housing (ECHO Housing): In FY 2016-2017, the City continued to contract with ECHO Housing, a regional non-profit fair housing agency, to provide fair housing services in an effort to reduce housing discrimination. ECHO Housing received 23 fair housing inquiries involving 45 clients, in which ECHO Housing provided information, counseling, and/or investigation in fair housing inquiries or allegations of housing discrimination. ECHO Housing also educated people about fair housing laws, rights, and responsibilities through workshops, trainings, and presentations. The City allocates CDBG general administration funds, not public services funds, to ECHO Housing's fair housing services to fulfill the City’s federal mandate to affirmatively further fair housing.
Priority/Action: Community Development Needs -- Public Services/Provide Grants to non-profit social service providers serving San Leandro residents.
Davis Street Family Resource Center: Davis Street’s Family Support Services Program provides “Basic Needs” services, including emergency food and clothing and other family support services such as medical/dental services, employment counseling, and housing assistance, to low-income and working poor individuals and families. For FY 2016-2017, Davis Street served 5,510 total unduplicated persons, of which 4,762 (or 86%) are San Leandro residents, provided 1,770 households with over 23,640 meals, and provided 278 San Leandro residents with crisis intervention and/or short-term community counseling services.
Priority/Action: Community Development Needs-Public Services/Provide Grants to non-profit social services (cont.)
Child Abuse Listening, Interviewing, and Coordination Center (CALICO): CALICO's San Leandro Child Abuse Intervention Project provides family support services to improve mental health outcomes for San Leandro toddlers, children, adolescents, and adults living with developmental disabilities who have suffered physical or sexual abuse or neglect, and for the caregivers of those victims. During FY 2016-2017, CALICO served 39 households (of which 38 were San Leandro households) comprised of 67 total persons. Additionally, a CALICO Family Resource Specialist provided on-site crisis intervention, information and referrals to 37 unduplicated caregivers of children who were victims of trauma.
SOS/Meals on Wheels: SOS/Meals on Wheels Program serves senior citizens who are 60 years of age and older and unable to buy or prepare food for themselves. This meal delivery service provides delivery of warm, nutritious, and balanced meals that are one-third of the recommended daily dietary allowance. A secondary result of this service comes from the food delivery staff who report perceived problems of illness or safety, a critical safety net for homebound senior citizens. In FY 2016-2017, a total of 161 homebound seniors were served by this program.
Spectrum Community Services: Spectrum Community Service's Senior Meal Program serves fresh nutritious meals to seniors at the San Leandro Senior Center and Fargo Senior Apartments. The meals provided are compliant with the Title III(c) regulations and provide a minimum of one-third of the dietary reference intakes. Meals are provided five days per week. In FY 2016-2017, Spectrum provided 5,629 meals to 1,081 senior citizens who are residents of San Leandro.
Table 1 - Table of assistance to racial and ethnic populations by source of funds
Racial and Ethnic composition of families assisted:
CDBG
White 3,561
Black or African American 876
Asian 967
American Indian or American Native 29
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander 127
Total 5,560
Hispanic 2,467
Not Hispanic 3,093
Resources and Investments:
Source Funds*
CDBG $556,892
*Actual Amount Expended in Program Year 2016 as of June 30, 2017.
Narrative
The City also appropriated local General Funds to the following programs in FY 2016-2017. These programs assist the City in addressing the affordable housing, homelessness, and community development needs of the City, as identified in the City's current HUD-approved FY 2015-2019 Five-Year Consolidated Plan.
§ $11,000 to Davis Street Family Resource Center to provide affordable housing services to City residents.
§ $25,000 to ECHO Housing to provide San Leandrans with rental housing counseling, which includes resolving tenant-landlord issues, and assisting in the administration of the City's Rent Review Program.
§ $35,000 to Bay Area Homebuyer Agency (BAHBA) to administer and monitor the City's First-Time Homebuyer Program.
§ $150,000 (City Community Investment Program) to non-profit agencies providing social support services to San Leandrans.
Objective: Affordable Housing
HOME Investment Partnership (HOME) Program
The City of San Leandro participates in the Alameda County HOME Consortium, which is made up of Alameda County cities (including unincorporated cities), excluding Berkeley and Oakland. The City of San Leandro receives HOME funds via a formula allocation through the Alameda County HOME Consortium. A portion of those funds are used for HOME administrative overhead for City staff and remainder are primarily intended for affordable housing projects. Since the City’s annual allocation is not typically large enough to be used for a HOME eligible housing program, Alameda County HOME Consortium cities pool their funds so that they can be used on a competitive and/or rotating basis among member cities. In FY 2016-2017, the City of San Leandro spent a total of $262,708 in HOME Consortium funds. Of those funds $5,947 were expended on City staff administration and $256,761 for the Marea Alta Phase 2 (aka San Leandro Senior Housing). This is a portion of a $1 million total loan approved by the City Council of San Leandro in 2016 to BRIDGE Housing for this affordable rental housing development. The remaining loan amount of $743,239 from former City Redevelopment Agency Housing Set-Aside Fund loan repayments were also expended in FY 2016-2017 and the project is currently under construction. Marea Alta Phase 2 will construct 85 new affordable senior rental housing units for very low-income seniors. The 85 units will comprise 77 one-bedrooms and the remainder two bedroom units including one manager’s unit. San Leandro Senior is estimated to complete construction in Summer 2018.
San Leandro Senior is the second phase of the Marea Alta Transit Oriented Development and mixed-use project. Marea Alta Phase I had its grand opening in May of 2017. Phase I has 115 multi-family affordable rental units with a bike room, 5,000 square feet of ground floor program space for a proposed childcare center, landscaped courtyard, a children’s play area, a multi-purpose community room with kitchen and adjacent patio, laundry room on each floor, and a community garden. Phase I is a five-story building including underground parking garage with 400 parking stalls, including BART parking.
Objective: Create Suitable Living Environment
Priority/Action: Homeless Needs/Maintain, improve, and expand the capacity of housing, shelter, and services for homeless individuals and families including integrated healthcare, employment services, and other services; Maintain and expand activities designed to prevent those currently housed from becoming homeless.
Building Futures with Women and Children (BFWC) - San Leandro Shelter: The City funded Building Futures with City General Funds to provide supportive services to homeless families at its emergency shelter, known as the San Leandro Shelter. In FY 2016-2017, BFWC provided emergency shelter and supportive services, which included 10,848 bednights, of which 1,695 bednights were directly supported by the City of San Leandro. There were 32,543 meals for 117 homeless women (73) and children (44) in crisis. All 117 women received access to health care and group sessions which help to advance essential skills, such as employment strategies, money management, housing strategies, parenting skills, and other basic life skills. Out of these 117 women and children served, 84 where sheltered of which 40% exited to safe and stable permanent housing.
Davis Street Family Resource Center (DSFRC): The CDBG funded DSFRC with CDBG public services funds to provide supportive services to homeless persons. DSFRC provided an array of basic services to 113 homeless persons. Homeless persons received various services, including three days’ worth of groceries up to twice a month, emergency clothing, and household items. DSFRC Family Advocates/Intake Specialists also provided these clients with information and referral to DSFRC's other programs that include free acute medical and dental care, childcare, employment counseling, housing assistance, and case management services.
Rental Housing Counseling: Using City General Funds, the City contracted with ECHO Housing for Rental Housing Counseling services to help keep people in their housing. Information and referral services were provided to 129 landlords and tenants. (Note that this data reflects only through the third quarter; fourth quarter data was not available at the time that this report was published.) In FY 2016-2017, ECHO Housing handled 49 cases related to eviction and succeeded in preventing 8 households from being evicted. Staff also assisted with 12 landlord-tenant inquiries related to repairs, 13 cases regarding security deposits, 19 instances involving rent increases, 2 occurrences of unlawful entry by the landlord, and 4 cases involving retaliation by the landlord. There were also 46 miscellaneous inquiries (e.g. information on rental contracts and unlawful detainers, providing general information on tenant and landlord rights with referrals to attorneys, Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), Eviction Defense, small claims court, and mediation services). ECHO Housing staff assisted 7 households with conciliation/mediation services including successfully conciliating 19 rent increases cases and the aforementioned 8 eviction cases that were successfully conciliated as well. Lastly, ECHO staff referred 14 households to attorneys or small claims court.
Additionally, the City provided City General Funds to ECHO Housing to assist staff in administering the City's Rent Review Program, which provides a non-binding arbitration board review of eligible rent increase cases in San Leandro. ECHO Housing and City staff addressed a total of 132 inquiries (83 tenant and 49 landlord) relating to the City's policies on rent increases and its Rent Review Program. There were 41 renters who applied for Rent Review Board hearings.
Of these 41 hearing requests:
• 13, or 32% of cases were ineligible for a rent review hearing;
• 5, or 12% of cases required landlords to properly re-notice their tenants as required by the ordinance;
• 3, or 7% of cases were scheduled for a hearing after June 30, 2017;
• 10, or 24% of cases were settled prior to a scheduled hearing; and
• 13, or 32% of cases were heard by the Rent Review Board. Of the 13 cases heard by the Rent Review Board:
§ 12, or 92% of, cases were settled mutually settled.
Current Agency Policies
Current Council Policy is defined by the FY 2015-2019 Consolidated Plan, which included the FY 2016-2017 Annual Action Plan, adopted by Resolution No. 2016-046 on May 2, 2016. This FY 2016-2017 CAPER covers the second year of the FY 2015-2019 Consolidated Plan cycle.
Previous Actions
The Action Plan containing the programs and activities carried out during FY 2016-2017 was approved, by the City Council on May 2, 2016.
Applicable General Plan Policies
The Housing Element of the General Plan addresses increasing the supply of affordable ownership and rental housing in San Leandro in Goal 53 - Affordable Housing Development of the Housing Element of the General Plan. Additionally, Goals 47 to 51 of the General Plan address the provision of community services and facilities in coordination with non-profit and other social services providers. Such services range from library and childcare services to youth and senior services.
Environmental Review
No environmental review is required for this annual report.
Summary of Public Outreach Efforts
A notice of the public hearing was published in The Daily Review on August 25, 2017. The CAPER was available at City Hall, the Main Library, and on the City's website for public comment from September 1st through September 15th, 2017. Letters were sent on August 24, 2017, to the City’s “CDBG’s Mailing List” which includes CDBG service providers, homeowner associations, and community-based organizations.
Fiscal Impacts
None
ATTACHMENT
Attachment to Resolution
• Draft FY 2016-2017 CAPER
PREPARED BY: Maryann Sargent, Senior Housing Specialist, Community Development Department