MA0601-CS060228r
February 28, 2006
DALLAS COUNTY
COMMISSIONERS COURT ADMINISTRATION
Community Development Block Grant
TO Commissioners Court
THROUGH Rick Loessberg, Director of Planning & Development
FROM Kim D Nobles, Community Development Administrator
SUBJECT FY2006 CDBG/HOME Allocation Process
BACKGROUND
Dallas County has participated in the CDBG program since 1988. Under this program, the County
receives federal funding which can be used to undertake a wide variety of code, capital improvement,
housing, and social service activities in the County's unincorporated area and in fourteen of its
smaller cities. By virtue of participating in the CDBG program, the County also receives
HOME /ADDI funding (which can only be used for such housing- related activities as rehabilitation,
new construction, and upfront cost assistance).
HUD has recently informed staff that the County will be receiving $1,959,616 m FY2006 CDBG
assistance and $636,463 in FY2006 HOME/ADDI assistance; collectively, these amounts are about
$498,000 lower than what the County received for FY2005 because of reductions in the federal
appropriations and because Rowlett now has a population of over 50,000 and now directly receives
funding on its own.
IMPACT ON OPERATIONS
Under the County's CDBG program, HOME /CDBG funds are first allocated for the program's
administrative expenses and for consortium -wide projects like the Home Loan Counseling Center;
these allocations cover the County's cost of operating the CDBG program and typically account for
about one -third of the program's total funding. The remaming funds are then allocated to each
participating city and to the County's unincorporated area using a formula that takes into account
each entity's low /moderate income population and total population. Each entity then determines
how it wishes to utilize this funding, and depending upon the entity's preference, these projects are
principally implemented by the County, the entity, or some combination of the two
Dallas County Administration Building Telephone (214) 653 -6368
41 1 Elm Street, 3`d Floor, Room 310 Dallas, Texas 75202 -3301 Telecopier (214) 653 -6517
E -Mail Address KNobles @dallascounty org
Page 2 of 4
The County typically only reviews proposed projects to ensure that they are eligible under HUD's
regulations. However, because of the adverse impact that a large number of small projects can have
on the program's ability to meet HUD's annual spending requirements, staff has been allowed in the
past to require cities to revise their proposed list of projects (if necessary) so that larger projects
would be undertaken. To further emphasize and clarify the importance of having larger projects,
staff would also like to continue to require that all projects other than code enforcement have
budgets of at least $30,000 and to be able to strongly encourage cities that already have partially -
funded CDBG projects to either finish funding these projects or to continue allocating funding to
them before they begin funding new activities.
HUD regulations also require the Countv to establish annual program objectives for the CDBG
program. For the past several years, the County has required that CDBG projects meet at least one
of the six objectives listed below, and for the County's FY2006 funding, staff would propose that
these objectives continue to be utilized.
• Promote low /moderate income homeownership,
• Eliminate community - threatening conditions;
• Provide for ADA- accessibility;
• Improve the local economies of communities with limited tax bases, limited growth,
and /or high unemployment;
• Improve /maintain existing low /moderate income neighborhoods; and
• Provide for orderly growth.
IMPACT ON FINANCE
A total of $2,596,079 is available from the County's FY2006 CDBGMOME awards. It is proposed
that $923,842 of this total amount be allocated in the following manner
General Administration
Housing Replacement Admin
CDBG Project Engineer
CHDO Activities
Home Loan Counseling Center
Indirect Costs
CDBG Construction Inspector
TOTAL
$160,000
$140,000
$104,000
$ 93,449*
$293,942
$ 72,451
60,000
$923,842
* This allocation is required under federal law and is equivalent to 15% of the
County's total HOME award, this $93,449 must be provided to special housing non-
profits (CHDOs -- community housing development organizations) for use in
acquiring, rehabilitating, or producing affordable housing
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In reviewing these proposed allocations, please note that this $923,842 total is about $75,200 lower
than last year's figure with the HLCC budget having been reduced by about $60,000 pursuant to the
lower level of CDBG funding that the County will be receiving and the 15% statutory cap that is
placed on funding activities like the Counseling Center with CDBG funds.
No staffing changes are associated with any of these various administrative /service - delivery budgets.
Detailed line -item budgets for the Counseling Center, the CDBG Engineer, Housing Replacement
Administration, CDBG Construction Inspector and General Administration will be developed and
presented to the Court for review later this summer with Health and Human Services anticipating
submitting a request during the County's normal budget process to use County funds to offset the
$60,000 reduction in CDBG funding for the Counseling Center
It is also proposed that the $543,018 in HOME /ADDI funding that is available after the required
$93,445 has been set -aside for CHDOs be allocated in the following manner
Housing Replacement $379,548
Up -Front Cost Assistance $163,470
Total $543,018
It is also proposed that an additional $150,000 in FY04 and FY05 administration carryover be
allocated to the Housing Replacement budget so that this activity will be able to approach its current
funding level (final FY04 and FY05 carryover amounts should be available in June and November
2006 respectively) The Housing Replacement fundmg will be available to build replacement
housing in any of the CDBG program's fourteen cities, and the Up -Front Cost Assistance Program
(UPCAP) funding will provide first -time homebuyers with closing cost or down- payment assistance
After setting aside funding for the aforementioned administrative expenses and consortium -wide
programs, a tot -1 of $1,129,223 is available from the CDBG funds for the County's unincorporated
area and for th- participating CDBG cities, this amount is about $337,400 less than what was
available last year.
Using the County's CDBG allocation formula, the proposed FY2006 CDBG allocation awards are
as follows
Sachse
$ 45,733
Wilmer
$
90,620
Cockrell Hill
$102,194
Hutchins
$
88,644
Glenn Heights
$ 65,495
Lancaster
$
97,678
Cedar Hill
$ 86,950
Seagoville
$
82,998
Coppell
$ 59,284
University Park
$
Duncanville
$ 90,902
Unincorporated Area
$
84,694
Balch Springs
$102,195
Farmers Branch
$
83,280
Combine
$ 48,556
*University Park has again returned its award so that it can be redistributed among the
other participating entities
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In reviewing these amounts, please note that they are generally about $5,000- $33,000 smaller than
what most cities received last year Please also note that the unincorporated area allocation, along
with $15,306 from FY04 admu istration carryover, will be reallocated back to Cockrell Hill's water
project to cover existing funding that was transferred from this project to the Wagon Wheel Street
project so that the Wagon Wheel project could be completed by July 31, 2006
PROJECT SCHEDULE
Application materials will be provided to each city by March 15, 2006, and the cities will then be
given until 4 p.m on May 26 to notify the County of how they wish to utilize this funding (such
a schedule is similar to what has been traditionally provided) If no notification is received by May
26, it will be assumed that the entity is not interested in utilizing its award. So that no city
inadvertently lets its award revert back to the program, staff will contact each city about two weeks
before May 26 to remind them of the upconung deadline To help encourage public input, the
County will hold a public hearing in April and in June, and the participating cities will be required
to conduct at least one public hearing before submitting their project proposals to the County
Once staff has had the opportunity to review the eligibility of the requested projects, the Court will
be briefed on the proposed activities Final decisions regarding projects that will be using FY2006
funding have to be made and submitted to HUD no later than August 15 Once approved by HUD,
and other compliance items are completed these projects can then begin operation as soon as October
1, 2006
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the proposed FY2006 CDBG objectives, allocations, and project review
process be approved.
Recommended by•
J Allen Clemson, Administrator
cc CDBG cities
CDBG staff
Ryan Brown, Budget Officer
Romca Watkins, Sr. Budget & Policy Analyst
Virginia Porter, Auditor
Don Holzwarth, Public Works Director
Jamie Fitchko, Director, HLCC