Fiscal Year 2011-2012 Adopted Budget - County of Sonoma

RECOMMENDED BUDGET
Core Services Maintained
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION
Kathleen Kane, Executive Director
During FY 11-12, the Sonoma County Community Development Commission will continue to provide a range of core services through
our three agencies, as follows:
Community Development:
• Finance development of new rental and ownership housing units that are affordable and restricted for sale or rent to lower-income
households.
• Finance preservation of affordable rental housing complexes that are at risk of conversion to market rates as current subsidy contracts
expire.
• Provide low-interest loans to rehabilitate residential properties occupied by lower-income households to address health and safety
deficits and to provide access modifications for people with disabilities.
• Use grant funding to complete hazard mitigation measures for residential properties, including installation of Earthquake Resistance
Bracing Systems on mobile homes and elevation of flood-prone structures primarily in the lower Russian River area.
• Prioritize federal funds for non-profit and public agencies to provide: homeless shelters and services; fair housing information and
mediation; ADA retrofits for public facilities including parks, community centers, libraries, and other public buildings; new or
expanded public improvements, such as water and sewer lines, sidewalks, and street lighting in lower-income neighborhoods; microenterprise
and other economic development programs; and other community development projects benefiting principally low-income
county residents.
Housing Authority:
• Provide $2 million per month in rental assistance payments to enable very low-income households to rent privately-owned homes
scattered throughout the county through the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV), Shelter Plus Care, and HOME Tenant Based Assistance
Programs.
• Promote self-sufficiency to 40 HCV participants annually through the Family Self-Sufficiency Program, with a goal of enabling them
to transition off of all public assistance within 5 years.
Redevelopment Agency:
• Undertake planning, marketing, business counseling, and other non-capital redevelopment activities to reverse deteriorating physical
conditions, reduce blight, and revitalize the local economy in the Roseland, Russian River, and Sonoma Valley Springs
redevelopment project areas.
• Partner with the private business sector by using public redevelopment funds to complete land acquisition and consolidation,
environmental clean-up, and infrastructure improvements that lay the foundation and provide the pre-conditions that are necessary for
private enterprises to be interested in, and capable of, investing their financial resources in these project areas.
• Provide direct financial assistance through low-interest loans and grants to rehabilitate and expand the affordable housing stock,
public facilities, public infrastructure, and commercial properties in the three redevelopment project areas.
Services Eliminated or Reduced
• Convert Russell Avenue Homeless Shelter to longer-term Transitional Housing – Since FY 03-04, the CDC has used an annual
contribution of County General Funds to contract with Catholic Charities for operation of a 30-bed emergency homeless shelter
located on county-owned property on Russell Avenue in Santa Rosa. The General Fund contribution is no longer sustainable and will
be reduced for FY 11-12. In light of this reduction, the facility will be converted from an emergency shelter (90-day stay) to
transitional housing (18-24 month stay) for homeless families. The service impact is the loss of 30 emergency homeless shelter beds,
mitigated by the addition of three units of transitional housing targeting large families.
• Discontinue Mobile Home Space Rent Assistance Program (MSRAP) – MSRAP, funded from interest earned on CDC’s HUDprogram
reserves, began in 1996 because Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) funds could not effectively help mobile home owners with
space rent. Reduced interest earnings can no longer sustain MSRAP. CDC will begin using HOME Tenant Based Assistance funds for
existing MSRAP participants by 7/1/11, and will discontinue MSRAP through attrition. CDC will redirect 525 households on the
MSRAP wait list, and all new applicants, to HCV, which now allows for space rent assistance.
County of Sonoma
FY 2011-2012 Adopted Budget
148
Development Services