75B - PH - CDBG FY 2015-2016 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CDBG Program FY 2015 -2016 April 7, 2015 Page 2 DISCUSSION The City of Santa Ana ( "City ") receives an annual allocation of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to improve low to moderate - income neighborhoods, eliminate blight and create a more stable economic base. These funds have been used for a diverse range of programs including housing, street improvements, parks and public facilities improvements, social /public services, economic development and code enforcement. The City's CDBG allocation for fiscal year 2015- 2016 is $5,434,375, approximately two percent lower than the current year 2014 -2015. A maximum of fifteen percent of the CDBG allocation may be used for public /social services. Since fiscal year 2009 -2010, the entire public service allocation was utilized to fund city administered programs. Direction was given by City Council to release a portion of the available funds to nonprofit organizations for fiscal year 2015 -2016. Applications were developed to award $340,000 of CDBG funds to experienced nonprofit organizations for the provision of public services for the period of July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2016. The established minimum funding amount per grant was set to $30,000. Marketing efforts to reach nonprofit organizations regarding the availability of funding included a dedicated CDBG webpage, Nixle and Facebook announcements and the mailing of a flyer. In addition, CDBG trainings were conducted to inform nonprofit organizations of the federal and local grant requirements. A total of 106 organizations were represented at the trainings and of those organizations, 37 applications for funds were received, of which 35 met the requirements of the grant. The Community Redevelopment and Housing Commission (CRHC) rated the 35 viable applications and heard presentation from representatives of the nonprofit organizations at a public hearing on January 14, 2015. Staff compiled the ratings from the commissioners and ranked the organizations. At its regular meeting on February 11, 2015, CRHC recommended funding of the top ten organizations. The rating results and recommended funding amounts are summarized in Exhibit 1. The recommended funding amounts for the nonprofit organizations equals $340,000, with the exclusion of the Orange County Fair Housing Council, which will be funded out of program administration, as in previous years, and as allowable by CDBG regulations. City administered public service programs will not receive a CDBG allocation equal to current year 2014 -2015 funding, due to the funds that will be granted to nonprofit organizations, and due to the CDBG HUD allocation decrease for fiscal year 2015 -2016. A General Fund allocation of $358,872 will be set aside for the city administered public service programs to supplement the loss of these funds. Two of the programs will receive General Fund and two others will receive a combination of General Fund and CDBG. The proposed fiscal year 2015 -2016 CDBG program and budget (Exhibit 2) consists of the CRHC's funding recommendations for nonprofit public service programs and staff's funding recommendations for program administration, code enforcement, economic development, capital improvements, city administered public services, and housing programs. If this item is approved, 75B -2