Where County Housing Decisions Get Made

Ugh, the little bit of money that the county does get for housing is determined by CDBG and HOME regulations where HUD requires plans and public input, but I bet you (unless you are a long time housing advocate) have never heard of it. Well, the “public hearing” was last night. I just noticed it yesterday when I was doing the week ahead and then couldn’t find the plan that we were supposed to comment on. Sigh. And based on Supervisor Wegleitner’s comments, I’m sure they are glad I didn’t find it sooner.

MY PROCESS COMMENTS
Why process matters.

When I reviewed the agendas this morning I noted that you have a public hearing in Verona tonight.  I will not be able to make it because I have another meeting downtown at 5:00 tonight.  I was very frustrated that I could not find a copy of the comp plan to comment on.  It was not attached to your agenda, it was not on the CDBG website and there was no information on the commission page .  When I finally found the 210 page document by asking a Supervisor about it, it was far too late to digest and give meaningful comment on the draft.

I am also surprised that as an organization potentially funded by CDBG that there was no outreach to funded or potentially funded organizations to comment on the plan.

SUPERVISOR WEGLEITNER’S SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTS

Dear Mr. Phillips and CDBG Commissioners,

Attached and below is information regarding an Affordable Housing Needs Assessment recently prepared for the County and the Human Serviced Board’s request for $10M in the capital budget for affordable housing initiatives, for your information.

I haven’t had a chance to review, in detail, the entire Consolidated Plan, but I did review the 2015 Action Plan and I hope the comments herein, and the attachments, inform your discussion regarding the entire Con Plan.  I am concerned by the relative small percentage of funds directed to affordable housing for low income renters and persons experiencing homelessness.  You propose to spend almost four (4) times as much on home ownership programs as on potential affordable rental housing development.  This is true despite a historically low rental vacancy rate (2-3% = half of a balanced market of 5-6% ) that makes it very difficult market for low-income families to secure housing.

 I know home ownership programs are valuable, but I do not think they adequately address the most urgent and compelling housing and community development needs in our county.  CDBG and HOME are among the precious few outside funding streams available to Dane County to develop affordable rental housing for low income families and yet rental housing is less than 10% of what the Action Plan funds.  This 10% consists of the $203,143 in HOME funding for a yet-to-be-named Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) for a rental housing project or home ownership project.  The Plan, on p. 173, indicates that in the event HOME Funds get cut, this CHDO  money would be used to offset cuts to other programs, like mortgage reduction.  Thus, this plan contemplates that $0 in CDBG/HOME funding would be allocated for affordable rental housing development, making it the lowest possible priority.  This is simply unacceptable given the huge shortage of affordable rental housing in Dane County.  

 

I urge you to reconsider your Consolidated Plan and the 2015 Action Plan to devote more resources to developing affordable rental housing, prioritizing families at or below 30% CMI, rapid rehousing of the homeless, and increasing rental units of 3 bedrooms or more and one bedroom or less (needs identified in the report).  Prioritizing affordable rental housing creation for these populations would better align our CDBG and HOME funding with HUD priorities to end chronic homelessness through the promotion of rapid rehousing and housing first programs.  Assisting households at or below 30% CMI also targets racial disparities.  As you may know, the Race to Equity report indicates that 75% of African-American kids are poor, whereas only 5% of white kids in Dane County live in poverty.  Prioritizing housing is also supported by the survey data.  87 respondents (47.5%) indicated that housing should be the highest priority. 41 respondents (22.4%) indicated that economic development should be the highest priority. 

I also encourage you to consider looking at HOME funding for tenant based rental assistance for extremely cost-burdened rental households.   This rent assistance could be combined with new development to make LIHTC properties affordable to persons at or below 30% CMI.  As the attached study shows, there are 35,000 cost-burdened rental households in Dane County (paying 30% or more of their income toward rent).  84% of households with income below 30% CMI are cost-burdened.  Eviction prevention and case management services are extremely valuable services, as well, and I urge you to maximize support for those activities.

Thank you for your consideration,

Heidi

Heidi M. Wegleitner

Dane County Supervisor, District 2

AND, UM, YEAH
THey originally planned the public hear for Rosh Hashanah. Massive fail on public comments and input.