Community Development Citizens' Committee - Regular Meeting

Meeting of the Community Development Citizens Committee at 06:30PM. Staff, will you please take roll call?

Chair Bly? Chair Bly?

Present.

Vice Chair Hanzo? Present. Committee Member Cox?

Here.

Committee Member Castaneda?

Here.

Thank you. Public comments will be heard on matters not appearing on tonight's agenda. Speakers will be limited to three minutes. I now open the floor for public comments.

Homeless, the veterans, the Cal State Fullerton students, the OCT bus drivers, the seniors, and the low income community. These are just some recommendations I I just wanna share with you. It's, OC municipal codes for emergency shelters, recubative care, medical respite, bridge housing, and low income low barrier navigation center. And all 34 cities has these codes. So, I'm just gonna share with you some of the codes, but all 34 cities have the codes.

One, emergency shelters for homeless mean housing with minimum support services for a homeless person that that's limited to occupancy of six months or less where shelter is provided on a first come, first served basis. That's city of Fullerton. Two, stays at the facility shall be provided on a first come, first served basis. The facility shall be open twenty four hours a day. However, clients shall only be admitted to the facility only between 6PM and 8PM.

Clients must check out the facility by 08:00AM but may remain on the premises to avail themselves of other, services available. Clients must check-in daily and have no guaranteed bed for that next night. That's from the city of Anaheim. Three, length of stay. The length of stay of an individual client shall not exceed, six months within a twelve month, period.

Days of stay need not, be consecutive. That's from the city of Fullerton. Four, maximum length of stay a person a person maximum length of stay at the facility shall not exceed a hundred and eighty days in a three hundred and sixty five days period, and that's from the city of Anaheim. Number five, facility location shall be with it within a half mile radius of an OCTA bus stop as measured from the property line that's from Brenner Park. Number six, a current and secured area shall also be provided for a bicycle parking, commune commision with a with a demonstrated need, but no less than a minimum of eight bicycle parking spaces, and that's from the city of Fullerton's municipal code.

These codes are very important. They are a part of our community, the homeless community, and we need to make sure that our codes are obeyed. We have 15 emergency shelters, which we call navigation centers throughout Orange County now. So all the different funding and different things that come about, the more we follow our codes, the more we won't have to just worry about funding because everything is not just about funding. It's about the operation and the happiness of the people that are participating, that are serving. And that oh, thank you very much for your time.

Thank you, mister Gamble. Are there any more speakers? Are there any speakers calling in?

There's no speakers on Zoom.

If there aren't no more speakers, I am closing the public comment period. And there are no consent calendar items tonight, so we will move forward to regular business. Next, we will hear a presentation from the Fair Housing Foundation, a non profit agency requesting CDBG funds for the 2025 program year to provide fair housing administrative services. Presentations will be limited to five minutes with a five minute question and answer session by the committee.

Hello. I have a presentation. Embra E Melt? Yes. Okay. It's my guide.

No pressure.

Perfect. Okay. So good evening. My name is Stella Vardeja. I am the Executive Director with the Fair Housing Foundation. I have submitted an application for CDBG funding. Next slide. Or do I have a clicker? No. So our mission, we are dedicated to eliminating discrimination in housing and promoting access to housing choices for everyone.

So the program that we submitted the application for was for our Fair Housing Services. And with the Fair Housing Services, we break it down into four components. The first component is Fair Housing Discrimination, Investigation, and Resolution. Have a team dedicated to assisting those that are renting, and those that are looking for housing in regards to any potential discrimination complaints. So if they feel they were denied housing, treated differently, harassed, or denied an accommodation request or modification, our team can investigate and try to resolve it.

The second portion is tenant and landlord counseling. So we have another team of four housing counselors that are on the phone constantly. We get about maybe it can range from 60 to 90 calls per day regarding tenants having questions just regarding their rights. It also includes housing providers, managers, and neutral. We do education over litigation and we just try to assist them regarding any questions rent increases, evictions, terminations while screening for potential discrimination.

The education and outreach activities. So we make sure to bring education to the community. We do booths at community events. We provide fair housing workshops. We do them virtually and in person to adapt to both depending which audience they prefer, you know, the location. We also do presentations to CBOs which are community organizations. We try to do walk in clinics if requested in regards to that. So just education to the community. And then the fourth component is affirmatively furthering fair housing activity. So anything the city needs from us regarding reports, monthly, quarterly, we can provide any stats like that and statistical information.

We have two offices currently, one in Orange County which is in Orange and then we have one in LA County in the City Of Long Beach. Our office is open Monday through Friday eight to five. If they need our assistance they can give us a call, they can make an appointment, we can meet at walk in clinics. Our website has been updated and we also have Insta Chat on our website and then via email. We currently have access to English and Spanish and Vietnamese and ASL in our office with our staff.

And then we have a contract with an agency that gives us over 200 languages in real time. So we call them, we tell them we need a language, they can provide us that language. And then all our services are free to the community. And then this is what our goals and objectives are for fiscal year twenty five-twenty six. Two ten unduplicated clients.

Breaking it down, it would be 16 individuals through fair housing inquiries, 194 clients through landlord and tenant counseling, and then we would be doing two booths. And these are just minimums. If we're asked to attend additional, we don't have a problem with that. These are just our minimal what we're going to do. For agency contact, new agency contacts, so making sure my team is reaching out to new agencies, attend at least eight meetings, community presentations too, distribute at least 5,000 pieces of literature, and then conduct four fair housing workshops, two in virtual and then two in person in the community.

FHF takes great pride in upholding the principles and the values of the Fair Housing Act. Thank you so much. And if you have any questions, you have two minutes to spare.

I have a basic question. I know the school districts are helping families make sure their children don't end up in foster care if a parent gets deported. As far as families with, you know, the ICE raids and things like that, Have you heard an uptick or had families reach out to you with concerns like that if the parents are deported and that would the children be displaced from their home? Have you noticed any

So we wouldn't have no. We don't get that many calls just for the main thing is we get tenants that are being displaced from their housing. It's either either that or housing providers having questions with different rules or regulations because things be changing all the time in regards to, like, rent increases and things like that. We do investigate discrimination complaints based on national origin. Right now for the current fiscal year hold on I do have stats for this fiscal year the majority which is common is usually disability.

Either accommodations or modifications for the disabled is usually our number one, and then it's followed by no. It's it's mental disability number one, then physical disability, and then it's a tie with familial status, gender identity, race, and source of income.

Thank you.

No? Okay. Hi. Good evening. Thank you for your wonderful presentation. I see the Fair Housing Foundation's, event flyers pop up on the WhatsApp groups in Fullerton and Buena Park and so on.

So That's great.

Kudos on all the outreach that you do. And I'm familiar having used your services in the past too, I know that the Fullerton is gonna get a lot of value from what you provide. And just a shout out to Gary on your team.

Oh, thank you.

Love you guys.

Yes. Oh, thank you so much. I will let him know.

Yeah. Any

other questions? We're good.

Thank you, Ms. Cornea. Not a problem. Thank you so much.

On to item number two. Next, we will hear three presentations from city departments requesting CDBG funds for the 2025 program year. Again, presentations will be limited to five minutes with five minute question and answer sessions by the committee. First, we will hear from Public Works engineering division at Pacific Luise Wanda, Walnut Area Street Improvements.

Good evening, committee. I am David Grantham. I am the city's civil engineer city engineer and civil engineer. Okay. So I've done these presentations over a few years. The last couple have been more ADA parks related, but we're back to street improvements. So our application is going to be for the Pacific, Louise, Wanda, Walnut Area street improvements. Obviously with a lot of our streets we have poor conditions. You can see on the photo there we have poor conditions. Eleven and twenty eight is the rating out of 100, so actually very poor.

Next slide please. We're going to be doing the typical pavement rehabilitation. But on the slide you can see where the location of the project is. But I picked this because it's more of a standalone project. It's bounded by Pacific Drive Elementary, to the East, the Creek and Hunt Library to the North, development to the West. And then there is Valencia Drive and residential to the South. But Valencia Drive, Brookhurst, and the residential to the South were all somewhat recently rehabilitated the pavement. So this kind of finishes this neighborhood so to speak. Plus Pacific Drive Elementary a couple of years ago went through a major rehabilitation. Hunt Library has gone through a major rehabilitation.

They put up with a lot of work in the area recently. So it's been on my kind of my highlight area wanting to address for quite a while. But I think this is a good area to do. Next slide, please. So some photos of the area. This is aerial of a recent aerial of the area kind of looking east. The park is at the top there. So all of these streets will be addressed. Next slide. So obviously pavement will be taken care of but also any damages to the curb and gutter especially damages to sidewalk to maintain ADA accessibility and very particularly curb ramps.

You'll notice on the left side the alley approach there. There isn't the ability for disabled to easily cross the alley there, so we'll address that. So all curb returns will get up to date curb ramps to facilitate accessibility. Next slide. Also we'll update the entrance to the Park parking lot, which is the left slide there. We'll make that a little more user friendly, probably round out the curve there, probably raise it up so the sidewalk is is more level as you go across and have the car slow down and go through a driveway approach rather than more of a roadway entrance the way it is right now. Also hold on. Go ahead. One more. So the photo on the right is actually of the alley.

Typically, our approach is not to do any work on alleys. However, this is a relatively short alley, Again, in a standalone neighborhood, I think it makes a lot of sense while we're there, the economics of scale, etcetera, etcetera to address the alley as well. So I really want to do the entire paving for the entire neighborhood. With that, will take any questions.

David, how are you?

I'm good. How are you?

It's been a while since I've seen you.

Yes.

We talked to you, I don't know, a couple weeks ago on the phone.

Yes.

On that picture on the alley, we don't need to put it up. It's fine. I think we all know what alleys look like. Is it the city's policy just alleys are they're low down on the, on the priority scale when you triage the streets?

Wouldn't say

it's a policy.

Yeah. Wouldn't say it's a policy. It's more of a guideline at this point, and it's really based on our available budget, which is very, very limited. So our approach at this time is to of is to focus on our streets rather than our alleys. So most of the time, we are not focusing on the alleys when we're doing a rather larger neighborhood. We're not doing the alleys, but we every once in a while, it makes sense to do it. We'll go ahead and do it.

But what's the cost on that alley? I mean, just ballpark.

This one, I I don't know exactly. My intention is to just do a grind and overlay of the alley itself instead of rebuilding the entire it's in relative compared to a lot of the loans, it's in decent shape. So the cost here will be relatively minimal in the big scheme of things.

In the alleys in the city, do you find that there's any that are basically owned by the residents but easements to the city? Or is it pretty much city owns all the alleys? And how do you deal with that? And what is this one?

So street alleys are considered part of our street system. So street systems can dictate what either we have an easement granted by the property owners for street right away or it was dedicated for street right away when a larger development came through. Either way, the city streets are not owned by anybody, essentially. They are dedicated for the use of the public, and the city is put in charge of maintaining that and controlling it. And part of that is the the taxes you pay go towards doing all of that work. So an easement, dedication, the bottom line is it's it's really it's been dedicated for the use of the public, and we maintain it.

Okay. Just I know there's a difference between it. I just wanted to see where we fell on some of these that are actually privately owned and not not owned by really the city. And the city just has an access easement, not so much a responsibility for maintaining.

So, typically, any alley, we maintain. We will have right away through alleys that are privately owned, but there's very minimal of those. And they're usually in apartment complex or something like that. And we just have an easement for our utilities.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I wanna know. Thank you.

Hi, David. Hello. So I remember about two years ago, I think, was the last time we did a street project or so.

Yes.

And you were describing this nice rubber rubberized asphalt. Yes. And so is this project you're proposing going to use rubberized?

It is very possible. So when we do a thinner grind and overlay, I have used the rubberized asphalt, and it's worked out really well. It helps with reflective cracking, which, you know, any cracks coming up from the side. If we do a thicker, pavement section, I probably won't use it just because economics of scale. It'd be better to use the more conventional, and it makes more sense when you're doing a thicker thicker section. So it just depends on what we end up doing.

Okay. So there's flexibility. I wanna know if it was a good investment or not. And then I was gonna ask you, are any funds coming from other sources? Let's say we don't hear back from HUD and there's a delay. Do you hear any talk about county helping or the state or transportation or infrastructure money that the city can use for this project or any other street project?

So for this project, we're definitely gonna have to supplement it with local funds. I've already planned for that as part of the budget. As far as any other agencies stepping in and providing additional funds, that is highly unlikely. We get our typical funds from the gas tax and M2 funds from the 0 point dollars sales tax through the county. As far there's competitive grants that you can go off to, but typically a project of this scale on this nature is not going to be competitive.

Typically they're looking for something that makes an improvement rather than a maintenance. This is maintenance project. An improvement project will be something like the complete streets project that we got $5,000,000 or so for where we're providing bike lanes. We're providing landscaping. We're providing sidewalks that don't exist right now. This type of maintenance project would be very, very difficult to find outside funding sources for.

Okay. I'm learning a lot. And since I have you in front of me, I know in 2025 2425, the committee allocated 355,000 for Union Park improvements. Is it true that those are going to start this summer?

Right. So I'll I'll I was tipped off on this. So let me let me go through the status of our project so far. So in twenty three, twenty four, two projects were awarded, Valencia Park, a park project and a street project, Sudan And Santa Fe. So Valencia is under construction right now. It should finish in the next month or so. Sudan And Santa Fe will go this summer. And the reason it's been delayed so much is because I I combined it with a water project, and the water project was significantly delayed. So the water project is starting construction in the next couple of weeks. They are prioritizing these two streets to get done first so we can get in during the summertime to finish the street work.

I that was a good decision at the time. However, I've decided not not to combine these type of projects with with, other utility work because for this reason, we can get delayed. So the project times I'm requesting for next year is completely standalone, is not subject to any other work that's being done. So we can move into this project very quickly and get it done next year and and not have the possibility of delays. The UP Park, Union Pacific Park is in design right now and the intent is to build it in late summer, early fall.

So the opening will be timed to be at the same time as the UP Trail, which is going out to bid this week. So we're catching up.

Okay. Perfect. Thank you.

Hey, David. Hello. It's been so long.

It has. It's been a while.

Good to see you again.

Good to see you.

I have a question similar to what Doug was asking or committee member Cox. Is this like a slurry seal type of project? This is a full rehash? Yeah.

I mean, my my intention is slurry seal won't work on this. The pavement conditions are far too worse. Okay. So we'll either do a thick overlay, which is four to five inches, take off the existing, put four or five inches of AC back. Or if we can get away with it with in a lot of the the the older areas, this is somewhat of an older area, the the subgrade conditions are very good, so you don't wanna disturb them. And we may just only take a couple of two inches off the top, get the wearing course down, it's broken down, put a new one down, it'll last a long time.

Okay. And because it's the $350,000 ask from the CDBG program. So is it mostly gonna be, like, a 70% general fund amount?

So I the way I've budgeted it right now, I'm assuming it's going to be a three to four inch grind and overlay. Total project cost is assumed to be about $700,000, so it's gonna be a $50.50.

Oh, wow. Okay. That's pretty good.

Yeah.

I I know that council is asking a lot for

Yeah. Crossing.

Fingers crossed. Oh, gosh. Yeah. So council is asking for the streets to be fixed with the CDBG funds. I think they mentioned two two council meetings ago or so. So is this what we're able to share with them that this that we are fixing streets with CDBG funds?

Yeah. So

goes through?

So the we have internal discussions. You know, obviously, city the council's priority is to try and do as much on the streets as we can. So internal discussions was to try and use this year's money on our streets. Okay.

Okay. Yeah. That's it for me. Thank you.

Chair, just one more thing. Deb, when you and I spoke, mainly for the public, I mean, we've gone over this years back. We've talked about it before, but I think it was like $10,000,000 a year you'd need for twenty five years to really be able to get our streets. That's $250,000,000 when people don't realize how bad our streets are. And, you know, they're not just, you know, down by 91. They're all over the city and

they're Right.

They're everywhere. Some are in just grind. Others are complete takedown, rebuild the base, and those are the most expensive. And some of us live on those streets. We know we're low on the totem pole, but, hey, it is what it is. One thing I did notice was that gasoline tax on diesel alone, it's 58¢ a gallon in Fullerton that is a Fullerton tax on diesel, but yet it's much cheaper on gasoline. And so there's more gasoline cars. Maybe they should up that and bring down the diesel because that raises the cost of goods. What do I know? I just sit on a committee.

Anyway, thank you for all you do and it is not a good fun time going to tell people their streets can't be done. No. I've seen the predicament you're in, so I appreciate the hard work. Absolutely. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr. Grundson.

Okay. Thank you.

Next, we will hear from Community and Economic Development Housing Administration.

Committee members, I'm Linda Cordova, housing consultant. I'll be talking about the request for housing administration tonight. We are requesting a total of $261,416 with the $20,000 on top of that from fair housing that will meet the 20% cap of 281,416, allowed by HUD. The administration department manages the CDBG program, home funds, any other funding that comes through from the federal government, CDBG CV funds, and the home ARP funds. The the staff provides oversight to the citizens committee.

They do the citizen participation process. They manage, like I said, all the activities. They do monitoring of all of the nonprofits that are approved as well as city departments receiving any CDBG or HOME funds. And they follow through with all of the required reports and documentation that we have to submit to HUD and we'll be going over that in more detail later on tonight. Some of the documents and we're going to be talking about these in our public meeting.

It's the five year consolidated plan, the one year action plan, the year end CAPER or consolidated plan annual performance and evaluation report, and the amendment if needed to a five year or one year plan as well as a five year required analysis of impediments to fair housing choice. This gives you a breakdown of the administration budget. 209,000 for benefits, about 50,000 for 52,000 for supplies, and 20,000 for fair housing. Staff is looking to expand. Dan has two positions that have been approved in the budget.

He has been going through that process with HR. So that would bring in, a full time inspector as well as an analyst. And that is easy. Very easy presentation. Any questions?

So Linda, I know the the city community and economic development department is financed with federal monies. You just mentioned that there's gonna be two positions that the council approved. Are we still is the city still gonna go forward with those with with the uncertainty about HUD?

Yes. At this point, we are going through HR. We're hoping that by the time we get to the hiring stage that we'll have an answer from HUD. But in the meantime, we will continue to follow through.

And then my another question I had is if if for some reason HUD cuts us 50% or 70 or 30%, does city hall or the city manager plan to do work furlough for city hall employees?

We don't know what the city has in

No one's talked about

that yet.

Okay. Okay. I just I'm concerned of the stability of your department, and that's why I ask. And so, hopefully, if the city manager and the PR firm, which is Townsend, and the city of Fullerton is part of this all cities, if those networks can lobby and advocate for the state to compensate HUD, if HUD drops, the city of Fullerton still has disabled seniors that need housing help. So money has to come from somewhere, if it's the reserves or if it's the state. So I'm I'm just hoping our advocacy is kick kicking in and not waiting until bad news comes kind of thing. So that's where I'm at. But thank you for your answers.

Thank you.

I just to vice chair Hansel's questions, and maybe not maybe not maybe they're they're not questions. Definitely, I believe the department and the housing division in particular should be up for know, it should be funded, period. So hopefully, internally, we'll work that out and we'll all advocate and lobby our own council member appointee appointors. So general fund, reserve fund, I'm sure that we'll we'll make sure that our staff are paid because this is important work. And then there's no changes from the from the housing administration application from one year to the next.

Right? It's usually just the same duties, same

responsibilities. Basically the same. The thing that changes the most, I guess, would be the funding sources because over the last few years since COVID, we had two new one time grants, which was the home ARP and the CDBG CV.

Yeah. So, unless we're going through another round of COVID, I I think we'll be okay. I think, our staff will be funded and this is a priority department at least for me. So all right. Thank you. Thank

you, Ms. Cordova. Our third presentation will be Community and Economic Development Home ImprovementRehabilitation Program.

Good evening, committee members. My name is Nomi Verhelst. I'm project manager one for the housing division. I'll be presenting the home rehabilitation and home improvement program. We offer loans and grants for for our low to moderate income households.

Our loans are for residential loans and mobile home loans. They max out at the 80% income level, which residential loans max out at 65,000, mobile home loans at 15,000. We also offer forgivable loans for these residents must meet the 50% income guidelines, and we cover roofs up to 20,000, exterior paint up to 6,500. ADA compliance up to 6,000. Residential code items 5,000.

And mobile homes, roofs, ADA compliance and code items up to 10,000. We also offer, lead based paint hazards which is for, up to 80% of the income levels. There is no maximum. There is also the block improvement grant that goes along with the special code enforcement. And this is for 50% of the income levels as well.

It is forget it's a forgivable loan at the time of signing. And relocation grants as well for 80% of our income levels households. And this is when fumigation or there's a health and safety concern, and the homeowners cannot reside in their home. These are the income limits, right now for 2024, from very low to moderate, and the income levels are dependent on household size. In twenty twenty three-twenty four fiscal year we did four deferred loans.

Two emergency repairs, one mobile home loan, three relocation grants, nine forgivable loans, and four lead hazard reduction grants for a total of 21 projects equaling out to 200 94,255. In 2024, 2025 fiscal year through February 28. We have expended 397,774. And as of right now we are up. We have obligated 103,852 for a total expenditure for this fiscal year of 501,626.

These are some of the projects that we have completed. This was a roof replacement and exterior paint along with a lead grant. And so the garage door had the lead along the framing. So we went ahead and we replaced it with a new garage door. The household, if you can see, towards the bottom of the bathroom, you could literally see the bottom of the house.

So we went ahead and we replaced it with the new shower. We did a roof replacement. This is one of our tenant based rental assistance clients. He failed his housing inspection. And in order for us to be able to continue assistance, we went ahead and we assisted with the sanitation of his carpet.

So we went ahead and we removed the carpet and we replaced it with new flooring. This was a deferred loan. You can see we went ahead and we provided a new driveway, new windows to be energy efficient, and a patio as well. This one was also a residential home loan, with a new AC system and,

furnace.

This was a complete rewire. There was illegal wiring. After the rains, the the ceiling caved in. So we went ahead and we replaced it along with flooring. A we did a bathroom remodel for ADA compliance. This was also a code item. There was an illegal structure on the home, and, we went ahead and we removed it, and we upgraded the windows on this home. This is our proposed budget. For salaries and benefits, 153,795. Supplies, 10,000.

Lozen grants, 350,000. And we have a revolving account of 150,000 for a total of 663,795. The new project cost is $350,000 with admin cost of $163,007.95 and a carryover funds from our revolving loan of 150,000 for a total of 663,795. Thank you.

This is my favorite program. Let's go. That's it.

So I have a question. The 150,000 that's from previous years, that's not that could be spent, right, as we go for for any of these loans or refurbishing?

Correct. So the 150,000 that we have in the revolving account Mhmm. Those can be used for loans.

Okay.

And so the way that works is there's approximately 150,000 at the end of the year. But as loans get paid back, that money goes into that revolving account, and then we can continue providing other loans.

Okay. Okay. Now I remember that you probably did explain that, but it's good to have clarification. And then on question eight, it asks how would this be modified? So without HUD, do you foresee the county or state providing housing funds for seniors? I think that's what my concern is for the seniors that are getting help with the roof or seniors who are getting temporary rental assistance. Is there gonna be enough money to cover the next fiscal year, or are we gonna be impacted if HUD screws with our numbers?

We would be impacted if HUD doesn't provide funding to us because this is, a 100% HUD funded through CDBG.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. For years, remodeled homes. I turned about four homes a month back during the bankruptcy days and large portfolios for a large bank. And you're at 23% in admin costs. So, I mean, 350,000 I mean, it's a lot of admin costs for that program.

Mean, there there would come a point. I can get it there. There's there's only so many projects you can do. Obviously, I would expect this number to be smaller economies of scale if you're doing more projects, but this is a lot. So are these folks working on this full time or is this incrementally they use a little time, the same person does some time item and then they've got another one we just heard about. They'll also work on that one. So when you're hiring people, they're not just working on this alone 20 fourseven. There are just so many FTEs given to this and then that's Correct.

Now, Emmy's position, for example, she does rehab, she does tenant based rental assistance, she does administrative support, she's at the front counter, she's working with all of our residents that come in. So she does a variety of

So this program is gonna put into admin salaries a $153,795, and they're gonna be also be doing other things. That person just isn't at that counter, just isn't handling, like this is the front door, they walk in and it's this department, rehab. No, no, it's this department handles multiple items for housing.

Correct. And she will also be using home funds for the housing rehab program. There should be some additional fund.

153,000. And how many people does that pay?

That's going to pay two.

Two people. And these two people work on other items as Well,

it'll be the inspector as well as Noemi. The inspector will do not only rehab, but all of our affordable housing But would be

paid under any other program?

There they will have home oh, no, housing funds. And no, I mean, also has maybe like 10% of her salary comes out of home funds because home funds, we only have a very small amount. So let's split as much as we can.

Thank

you. Thank you, Noemi. That was our final presentation. Moving on to Item three. Staff is in the process of developing the five year consolidated plan, the one year action plan, and the five year analysis of impediments to fair housing.

In order to receive more community input on the plans, staff will present information regarding all three plans and upcoming and or ongoing projectsactivities. After the presentation, the topic will open up for public comments and then go back to the committee for committee recommendations. In the sake of time, we ask that if you agree with the speaker, you do not repeat everything they said but that you say you agree with the previous speaker. No action will be necessary tonight.

Linda Cordova again, housing consultant. We will be going over the five year requirements by HUD as well as the one year annual action plan. In order to receive funding, the city must provide a five year plan. 2025 will be our new plan. It also falls in line with the five year analysis of impediments for fair housing.

Next slide please. Thank you. HUD created the CON plan to serve as a comprehensive planning document talking about all of the issues that Fullerton has regarding housing, regarding programs for lower income families. It identifies the goals of HUD and the needs of the community and resources that are available. It will provide decent housing, suitable living environment, and expand economic opportunities.

There are four sections to the consolidated plan. By the time we finish reviewing everything, you will have a housing needs assessment, a housing market analysis, the actual five year strategic plan as to how we will address those issues, and the one year action plan which this committee has a huge, say in because your, recommendations, that's where CDBG goes, are in that one year plan. The con plan will include current housing supplies, demand for affordable housing, and a demand for community development. So that's where we get our public services from. There will be, show benefit to low and moderate income residents, aid in the prevention and elimination of slum blight, or they can meet other urgent needs with CDBG funds.

So, usually, it goes under low mod income residents, the funding that you have with CDBG. Code enforcement, actually, our special code enforcement person follows an falls under aid in the elimination of slum and blight. And then the other urgent needs would be, say, we had a disaster, and we would then be able to stop our funding going to the nonprofits or housing and then say we're going to meet that need. There are many resources that we use for the development of the con plan. We use the most recent census information.

Sometimes we'll say 2020, but it's really old. I mean, it's like 2020. It's like but then you'll look and they'll update a little bit, and it will say 2024 update. So if we can find more updated information, we'll definitely use that. The most recent point in time homeless survey was last year 2024.

Next.

And during the last five year plan, which is the current one, it was based on all available resources. We had over 400 surveys when we did that five year plan. We took the surveys. We took the resources. We took public comment.

These were the topics that were of high priority at the time. I think that you're gonna find it's gonna be very similar this time, but these were affordable housing, neighborhood revitalization, all are very important to the community. The following priorities, were met through through the plan. Thank you. General public services and youth programs.

All of these are public services. We also did nonpublic services. Next slide, please. Which is the administration that you heard about tonight, capital improvements. Economic development is an eligible activity. However, we do not have any applications for economic development normally. But I think this year you do have oh, this year you do have one upwards. Yeah. Like I said, there were 77 surveys submitted. We have a little survey sheet, a summary.

There's some up at the front desk over by Noemi if the public would like a copy. The survey results are currently being calculated. So what you have in front of you is kind of rough data. We haven't really had time to go through and check it for accuracy, before it's used for the con plan. We will make sure that all of that information is accurate.

But for the sake of meeting tonight, we kind of put together what we could so that we have some information for the committee to look at. Next slide, please. These are the top 15 categories, and I know they're a little hard for you to see, but, the categories include streets, mental health, and elderly services, and housing as the top three with the job, life skills, support services, and parks and rec at the bottom of those 15 items. These are the top five categories. Streets was 24%.

Mental health, 20%. Elderly, which again is housing and services, so they're the two orange pieces of pie, come up to 37.5%. And housing affordable housing is 18%. This chart shows you the analysis of where people feel priorities are as far as street infrastructure. 69% saying it's high with no one saying there is no need in this category.

The next slide is emergency rental assistance. 64% are medium and high. Only 13% said there's no need. And next slide. Domestic violence is 63% medium and high with fourteen percent of the participants saying no need.

Services to homeless programs is 64% medium high, 12% saying there's no need for assistance. Home improvement programs, 60% medium and high, 15% saying no need. And fair housing needs is 68% medium high, 16% saying no need. The last category here graph that we have is emergency rental assistance 64% saying medium high, 13 saying no. Like I said, all charts and graphs will be reviewed for accuracy and will become part of the consolidated plan.

Currently and upcoming programs, these are the types of projects that we will look at. And this is where you were asking about staff doing other things. These are some of the things staff is looking at all the time. So we have a brand new project, 55 units Point Common. It is 100% affordable, and that is going up across the street from Basquiat.

Over there is the tenant based rental assistance program. Currently, it's for mobile home residents. We are expanding that to do residential. It will be limited because of the funding, but we were going to do at least a pilot program for a year and see how it goes. Project HomeKey, which is using home ARP funds, excuse me, will provide permanent housing for very low and vulnerable populations.

And the cold weather shelter, which is using county funds currently to provide emergency shelter during extreme cold temperatures for homeless. Next slide, please. Thanks. The one year annual action plan process is, like I said, very much part of this committee's priority. You review all of the applications.

You hear presentations and request clarification from applicants. You will make be making funding recommendations to the city council, and you will be aware of any additional funding and programs and projects to be implemented or expanded. The analysis of impediments, like I said, this is the five year plan. Dan has been working with 19 cities altogether in collaboration of other professionals to put this plan together. It's going to assess the goal of eliminating housing discrimination and promoting as access to current and future residents, and it will become part of the five year plan.

It it does use community participation. They are they have been holding meetings, having community meetings, and there will also be a thirty day public comment period for this document. So the everything, the five year plan, the one year plan, the AI, all of them will have a thirty day public comment period. We will notify you of those dates as they become closer. Currently, we do not have dates for the five the five year plan or the one year plan.

As you know, we have not heard from HUD. They have not released the allocations for the coming year. So we are going to cancel Monday's meeting, until we get those allocations in. At that point, we will set up a new meeting for the committee, and then you will make your recommendation. Then we'll set up a council meeting.

And in the meantime, between your meeting and while we're going to council, we will have our thirty day public comment. Usually, the federal guideline is to get it get the projects in by May 15. Obviously, this year, have told us hold off on that, but their deadline is August 15. So we are hoping that we get those numbers soon because it's still gonna be a process. In the meantime, we'll be getting the five year background put together, go through all the resources.

And it's open for discussion. Dan is more than happy to answer questions you may have. Yeah. She's gonna

So in surveys, I always love surveys because

I you know what? I think we're chair Ablai was gonna open it up to the public first, and then we'll bring it back to the committee. And I'm sorry I just did your little speech but you can open it up.

I'm now opening up the public comments.

More about some of the projects for the homeless. As as, like, I would like to know what would be the statistics for the cold weather shelter, how much of the funding was actually used for that? Was that a successful program, the cold weather shelter? How many people actually used that during the rain or the cold? And I'm more I'm interested in hearing a little bit more about project HomeKey, which I guess is gonna be a new something new.

And how would that how would that operate? Would they be people coming out of the the shelters like the navigation center? Would that be like a stepping stone into permanent housing, or what exactly is involved in that? And that's all. Thank you.

Thank you, mister Johnston.

Good evening, chair and committee members. My name is Curtis Campbell, activist for the homeless, the veterans, the Cal State Fullerton students, the OCT bus drivers, and the low income community. I just like to say, you know, I enjoyed listening to you guys, and I like what you're doing for the community. At the at the same time, I just was wondering, a little bit about the, homeless community. I want to know, like and, again, sometimes it's not always about money, but just support and just knowledge.

One of one of the things that I I think is on my mind mostly is, you know, besides housing is, transportation. And I just think that we get $2,000,000 a year in c CDBG funding. And I just think that some of this money could be used to this funding could be used to assist the homeless with the how transportation because housing without transportation is terrible. It's bad. And I think mostly all you guys up there, you have both housing and transportation.

What I noticed by staying at the navigation center with a 150 people there, most of them don't have thirty day bus passes. And I think that this what we're doing, this funding and everything could assist for twenty four hour, seven days a week, 365 days a year type of transportation, you know, which is a might pass twelve twelve times 12 times 12 times a year. That's not asking for too much. So I just wanted to kinda share that. Everything else is really, really good. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Gamble.

We have one Zoom speaker.

Okay. We have one Zoom speaker. Thank you.

Good evening, everyone. Maureen Milton, independent advocate for the disabled, handicapped, little people, and the mobily challenged. My I got in late tonight, so it this may have been covered earlier. But what happens under the current climate if we don't get the funding? What is there anything left over from previous funding that can be used, or how is that going to be handled? That's my major question for the moment, and I thank you so very much. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed because, everyone that presented has, been, really worthy. So I thank you so very much. Bye.

Thank you, miss Milton. Are there any more speakers on Zoom or

There is no more speakers.

Thank you, miss Naomi. I'm closing the public comments. It is time for any discussions from the committee on the five year plan?

Start off. So back where we were here. I love surveys. Did a lot of them from master's degree and all this crazy stuff. And so of the questions I have, are they five point Likert scale survey questions, seven point, or are they just questions and where were they derived from? Was there an organization that provided the questions for the survey?

My speaker is not on. I'm sorry. We actually used the survey from a few years ago, getting ideas from HUD, from other cities, what are they looking at, where are they putting their CDBG dollars, what are some of the issues that staff has seen in Fullerton, and put those things onto the survey. And it was four, right? Four points.

So one of my other things is with surveys, you know, if they're just open to the public, anybody, everyone takes the survey. But if it's geographically only Fullerton, how do you exclude those folks who don't live in Fullerton that aren't from Fullerton?

We actually did not. If there's an agency working in Fullerton and they live outside of Fullerton, it was on the website. It was available. We had actual paper copies here at City Hall.

So you see what I'm getting is is the information you're getting is supposed to help us determine what's best for Fullerton so other people from outside can actually say what they think is best for Fullerton rather than Fullerton. So moving forward I'd say we need to have stuff go out to all the homes in the water bill and something in there, hey, and maybe a unique code so they get in and that way and you can even for the folks that are homeless, we have the what was it, the point in time measurements. We know the percentage of that of that community or or that cohort. And so we can program that into kind of a survey results. There's things you can do because you'll get people who have a certain vision of what they want to see.

And they'll just as we used to say back in the day, bum rush the ballot box or the question box. And if you're not savvy enough or you don't have built into the systems how to filter that, then you get what you get and then we make decisions based on what other people think from outside our city what we need. And I have a problem with that. I think Fullertonians, it's great to hear from them and I think folks from outside the city, they have their own cities they can do this with which is going on in every city right now. So that's just one of my concerns.

When it comes to some of the homeless stuff, I think the county is really, I know Mr. Ramble back there, Curtis is our advocate who likes to come up and talk about them and God love them for it, but the county really does have the resources more so than us. And many of the things what he talks about is kind of outside the purview of the scope of this committee. We're only given that which we have in the left and right parameters where the money is slotted as staff has had applications and where they think that should be going. The survey does those are the things that concern me about surveys. Are the Yeah. Satisfaction

it's just surveys a small part of what

we use because, like I said, we go through all the other resources and get the data, the census data and all, and kind of look at all of it.

Okay. Well, I'd I'd like to see the nitty gritty on that sometimes. Thank you very much. Uh-huh.

Just a question for clarification. Daniel, the points common, the home funds is being used for 55 units. Has that already started or is that a proposal?

Yeah. I'm Dan Valdez, the housing manager. Dan? Yes. The Pointe Comet is actually a 65 unit building that right now is due to finish construction in January 2020 We'll be working with the developer in the next few months to discuss, the approach in terms of the waiting list and and the application process, and that's gonna be run by the developer, Meta Housing.

So it's gonna be the developer that gets its residents, not your department?

No. The developer will be in charge of building.

Okay. Awesome. And then the question about the project HomeKey for permanent housing that's funded through HOME ARPA. Is that did you say a pilot program?

No. Project RoomKey right now is a concept. Okay?

A concept. Yeah.

Right now the county is working with the developer and we're included in those discussions to convert a hotel, a motel here, a Willow Tree motel on Harbor And Hill to permanent supportive housing. And that is through state and county funds. We would, if partnered with them, and that's the intent, would provide American Rescue Plan funds for that development.

That's a big maybe if home ARPA Well would be

used. It's a no. It can be used.

It can be.

Most definitely. And we wanna be a partner in that. Right? Because when you look at Fullerton as a whole, Fullerton's a very proactive has a very proactive homeless approach, right? If you take a look at all the interventions that we've done in the city through the homeless liaison officers, the Hope Center.

We have on staff a community outreach specialist. We have the navigational center in addition to the other shelters outside of Fullerton that composes the north planning SPA agreements we have with other cities. This really completes the continuum of care that we often talk about and provides that housing navigation for those who are homeless, right? And it's not a housing navigation because that term's often used in homelessness, housing navigation. Oftentimes it's a housing navigation to nowhere. But this time it's a housing navigation to this project and we're really excited if we could be a partner in that.

Okay. Well, you for the clarification and update. That's it.

So Vice Chair Hanzo got to my question a little bit. The developer for the home ARP funds for the Project Room Quay, you know, supposed proposal is Meta Housing. Correct?

I know. This one is will be National Corp.

No. Thank god. I wanted to say, like, if it was Jamboree, then just they would get the axe. They they're they should not be allowed. I lived right next to a Jamboree permanent supportive housing project in Buena Park, and it was trauma on a daily basis.

So the fact that it's national core and I can stand by their reputability and have and say 100% confidence that that's what we could include in the consolidated plan is just makes me so much more at ease. And I don't mind, you know, I I people's or companies reputations are earned in that way. So I'm wondering if any of the CDBG funds or anything that we include in the consolidated plan with regards to long term operational costs of the of permanent supportive housing or project room key proposals, if we're allowed to put that in the plan or use any of the funds towards that if that's even eligible?

Yeah. That's a great question. I I think it is eligible to use a portion of the ARP funds for supportive services. Right? Or it could capital costs of the actual project. Those are things that we would definitely confer not only with leadership here in the city, but with this committee and with the city council.

Okay. That's that's good to hear because it's always capital costs always capital costs and they're always coming back. So we can include that the operational or long term operational costs for on-site services are being considered as just just if the if the if that's an eligible use. Yeah. That would be really important to include just because having had personal experience and also just knowing that that becomes a longer term issue amongst the community and residents for, you know, kind of these concentrated projects that I think that'll lend to a lot more credibility and confidence in, like, how we're approaching the problem overall.

So national core.

You know, I think I think you're on to something because I think what you're saying is those supportive services, the operator of that project is very is the glue really to maintaining that project, right, and creating that efficacy and efficiency that's needed in that type of setting. Yeah, that's definitely a priority.

And I and I think it'll show that we're listening to those 77 survey respondents with mental health being one of the higher components of their responses. And, you know, just hopefully that it all gels and it all makes sense. But thank you. Thank you for all your work.

Thank you everyone. It is time for committee communications. Do any of the committee members have anything they may wanna share at this time? There are no comments to be made. The next scheduled meeting of the CDCC will be canceled at this time as HUD has not released the twenty twenty five-twenty twenty six CDBG allocations.

Therefore, the 03/31/2025 CDCC recommendation meeting will be cancelled and the May item will not be heard on May 6. Once HUD releases the final allocations, a new meeting of the CDCC will be scheduled and a city council date will be announced. If there is nothing else, I will adjourn the meeting at 07:40PM. Alright. Good job, team.

Sent you here? Was it a a polycyte?

Just sent I gotta tell you. I gotta tell you.