Turlock wants out of lead role in housing program. County taking over would be a setback
The Turlock City Council’s recent vote to remove the city as lead of a housing partnership and hand responsibility to the county does not mean the issue is set in stone, said Angela Freitas, Stanislaus County’s director of planning and community development.
The program, called the HOME Consortium, provides funding for First Time Home Buyer (FTHB) loans and property acquisition for seniors, low income households, transitional housing, domestic violence victims and affordable units for the homeless.
If Turlock moves forward with submitting a notice of intent, essentially resigning as lead, Stanislaus County would need to reapply for the program and qualify in order to continue receiving direct HOME funds.
(Though the acronym appears to make no sense, HOME is the Home Investment Partnerships Program, according to both the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the California Department of Housing and Community Development.)
“These funds are very important to affordable housing, and that’s something that we need,” Freitas said in a phone interview with The Bee. “Not having (Turlock) receive annually as an entitlement jurisdiction puts us in a position of having to compete, with each jurisdiction having to compete at a state level.”
The Turlock council’s decision went against community input and staff recommendation. Several residents called in to the Jan. 25 meeting in support of Turlock as the lead entity and questioned why council members wanted to change the successful program. Community complaints continued Tuesday, Feb. 9, when a small protest took place outside City Hall.
Protest and public comment
About six members of Families de la Raza Unida de Turlock gathered with signs, protesting the decision before heading into the meeting. Public comment typically is heard at the start of City Council meetings, but members chose to push it toward the end of the three-hour meeting.
Community advocate Miguel Donoso said during the meeting that the council failed to get public input, adding that Spanish-language materials and translation weren’t provided to encourage participation among the Latino community.
As a result, he said four families have contacted legal representatives at the California Rural Legal Assistance and plan to sue the city. “I think you are making a lot of violations,” Donoso told council members.
Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak clarified at Tuesday’s meeting that the city still would receive funding as a member city of the program, it just doesn’t have the personnel to continue running it.
Given that Turlock has been running the program for nearly 22 years, said MaryLu Pelyo, organizer for Families de la Raza Unida de Turlock, she just doesn’t believe the city no longer has the capacity. She said the decision makes her feel the City Council is choosing to no longer lead it in order to complicate matters and discourage growth of the low-income and homeless population.
“It’s a total discrimination,” she said in Spanish. “It seems like it’s easier for (Turlock) to eliminate the program than actually do something.”
County doesn’t want change
It’s the county’s preference that Turlock remain the lead entity, however the county is prepared to take over, Freitas said during the Jan. 25 meeting.
“If the county takes over as the lead entity, it will essentially be building a program from the ground up,” she said. “Now is not the best time, from a staffing capacity perspective, to be building a new program.”
Freitas shared that the decision to have Turlock be the lead entity was made because of staffing expertise, and that over the last two decades, Turlock has expanded that expertise and has a stronger staffing capacity to administer the program. Staff also said that keeping Turlock as lead is the only option in which a general fund contribution wouldn’t be required.
The city currently leads the HOME Consortium in partnership with Stanislaus County. The consortium includes Ceres, Hughson, Newman, Oakdale, Patterson, Riverbank, Waterford and the unincorporated areas of the county. Since the program’s inception in 2000, it has received nearly $27 million in grant allocations.
Turlock still would be responsible for current undisbursed HOME funds, previous outstanding projects and long-term responsibilities of the HOME program throughout the periods of affordability for its completed projects, or about 30 years, a Turlock City Council document shows. There are 54 outstanding FTHB loans, said Maria Ramos, Turlock housing and finance specialist.
Before the partnership, each jurisdiction applied for state HOME funds. Though the jurisdictions were successful in securing funds, the application process was competitive and at least once was unsuccessful locally.
As a result, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors and Turlock City Council agreed that securing annual funding would be best under a new method. The city and county formed a participating jurisdiction to provide both areas with entitlement status and a direct annual allocation from HUD.
This eliminated the need to compete for state HOME funds annually. But all that may change at the end of September, when the current three-year agreement ends.
The city doesn’t have the authority to reassign the program, Freitas said. But it can choose to resign and must submit by March 1 a formal intent that it plans to do so.
If Turlock does, county staff will then need to present the item to the Board of Supervisors, which then will have to authorize staff to submit a notice that the county intends to be the lead and to apply for the program.
“At this time, we anticipate taking an item on March 1,” Freitas said. “But Turlock has indicated that they may ask for an extension from HUD.”
