St. Augustine Beach City Manager MAX ROYLE once actually told SAB Commissioners there were no low-income people in SAB. Sad.
St. Johns County Commission to consider application for HUD grant; 4 projects identified
Posted: July 30, 2016 - 10:49pm | Updated: July 31, 2016 - 8:25am
By JAKE MARTIN
jake.martin@staugustine.com
St. Johns County commissioners on Tuesday will consider the county’s application for nearly $800,000 in initial funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through its Community Development Block Grant Entitlement program.
HUD determined last year that St. Johns County meets the population requirement to qualify for urban county status, which opened the door for the CDBG funding. The program provides annual grants on a formula basis to entitled cities and counties to develop viable urban communities, principally for low- and moderate-income residents.
Shawna Novak, director of Health and Human Services, told The Record on Friday the difference between this funding and other HUD money received in the past through the Small Cities CDBG program is that it is non-competitive rather than doled out on a project-by-project basis.
“This is an entitlement,” she said. “Once we get through this process, then we’re good. We can expect these funds to come in annually for as long as the federal government decides this is a program they want to fund.”
Pending approval by commissioners, the county will proceed with submitting the 2016-2020 Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan for the upcoming fiscal year through HUD. The deadline for submission is Aug. 16, after which HUD has 45 days to review the plans and approve or disapprove them. If approved by HUD and accepted by the commission, the funding would be available starting Oct. 1.
The estimated initial funding allocation for St. Johns County is $799,754, with an estimated $3,199,016 to be made available over the subsequent four years of the five-year Consolidated Plan. The county would also have to leverage CDBG funds with other state, federal, and local funds to complete projects as outlined in the plans.
The county currently funds homeless prevention and rapid re-housing activities through its Social Services Division. The Social Services Division also receives and matches Emergency Solution Grant (ESG), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Challenge grant funds to aid in the prevention of homelessness. Meanwhile, the Housing and Community Development Division receives State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) funds to produce and preserve affordable homeownership and multi-family housing for low to moderate income persons.
The Annual Action Plan identifies four projects to be funded by CDBG funding, all of which must be completed within the first program year, no later than Sept. 30, 2017.
“We’re working on a timeline,” Novak said. “It was very important that proposed projects were going to be ready to go because next year we would have to furnish an evaluation of our performance on the previous year’s activities. Timeliness is essential.”
A home repair and rehabilitation project to benefit about 13 homes scattered throughout the county and St. Augustine Beach will receive an estimated $208,000. According to the Annual Action Plan, this project will assist low-income households, particularly those of residents who are elderly, disabled and/or veterans.
West Augustine drainage improvements stand to receive about $300,402 in CDBG funding. According to the plan, this project includes replacement of failing drainage infrastructure that will benefit about 350 households of which 90 percent are occupied by low- to moderate-income residents. The location description places this project between Francis Street and North Volusia Street.
Meanwhile, education assistance and after-school programs in West Augustine would be funded to the tune of about $40,740. According to the plan, school tutoring, homework assistance and mentoring would be made available to about 30 eligible school-aged children in three different site. Funding would cover the salaries of three tutors, four hours per day, supplies, and administrative costs.
A housing rehabilitation project in St. Augustine would receive $90,661 toward the conversion of five homeless housing structures on Chapin Street to permanent affordable housing for homeless families with children. According to the plan, these houses were built in 1925 and need renovation and refurbishment to bring them up to code.
“We’re still evaluating some of these proposed projects,” Novak said, adding some projects might be carried out by outside agencies or completed in-house.
“One of the next steps, assuming the board approves, will be developing a process to determine how those sites are selected and who the providers actually completing these projects are going to be,” she said.
The four projects on the list were narrowed down from five goals identified by the county in its application. Affordable rental housing was taken off the list, at least for the initial year, because there were no projects submitted fitting that category.
Numbers speak volumes
The short-term and long-term challenges are many, as indicated in numerous data sets provided over the course of 195 pages of backup documents attached to the agenda item, including both the Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan. Much of the information included in the documents was provided by HUD and largely came from the U.S. Census Bureau and American Community Surveys, but that a lot of the data only goes up to 2012.
Still, Novak said the data — combined with feedback from residents and community agencies — helped staff narrow their focus. She said public input was garnered through surveys, several community meetings across the county, and applications for program funding received from various local agencies serving low- and moderate-income residents.
Major categories of priority needs identified in the Consolidated Plan include affordable housing, homelessness, housing and home repairs for people with special needs, public services, public facilities and improvement activities, as well as economic development. All of this is against a backdrop of sustained population growth in the county over the past decade.
“St. Johns County residents pay more for home ownership and rentals than other parts of the state,” Novak said. “Our housing stock is relatively new, so it’s important that we’re able to rehabilitate our existing affordable stock.”
As described in the Consolidated Plan, the lack of affordable housing units contributes to the most prevalent housing problem faced by county residents — housing cost burden. Census information indicates about 34 percent of renters and 18 percent of homeowners are cost burdened, meaning they pay more than 30 percent of income on housing costs. Meanwhile, 82 percent of renters that represent the very low- to low-income population are severely housing cost burdened, meaning they pay more than 50 percent of income on housing costs.
Of the estimated 82,815 total units located within the county’s jurisdiction, only about 2.5 percent are affordable to families at or below the average median income, per federal and state definitions of affordability.
“The cost of housing is increasing at a rate that the median income rates in this county aren’t able to meet,” Novak said.
According to 2008-2012 American Community Survey data, the county’s median home value increased by nearly 62 percent while median contract value of rent increased by about 44 percent since 2000. Over the same stretch, the median income only increased by 28 percent.
“When examining the population growth, rise in home value, lack of median income keeping pace with rise of home values, consideration should be given to the creation of affordable rental units,” the Consolidated Plan said. “The data continues to reflect a serious need for affordable housing. Consideration should be given to developing relationships with builders and lenders that are interested in building affordable housing for individuals and families with low to moderate income.”
Where there is lack of affordable housing, there is also homelessness.
The county’s 2016 Point-In-Time count indicated 1,064 people were homeless on Jan. 28, with 809 of those individuals unsheltered and 255 sheltered. While homeless persons are scattered throughout the County, the majority of homeless are located in or near the city of St. Augustine.
Other data sets looked at housing conditions, employment and economic development, public housing as well as facilities and services for homeless and special needs populations.
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