OCEANSIDE — Oceanside residents and groups have until May 3 to decide which community development and improvement projects are funded with federal dollars.
The City Council received a report on March 27 outlining the anticipated 2024-2025 Housing and Urban Development program budget for the Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnership programs.
The city receives these funds from the federal government to finance programs and services that enhance the quality of life in Oceanside’s low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
To receive the funds, the city must adopt a five-year plan for the program that outlines specific goals to prioritize for financing. The current plan expires in June 2025, making the next fiscal year the last year to develop a new five-year plan.
City staff has created a draft 2024-2025 Action Plan based on numbers from this year’s current plan, anticipating approximately $2.14 million in CDBG funds and approximately $974,000 in HOME funds to be available next year.
City Management Analyst Cecilia Barandiaran noted the city expects HUD to cut its funding for Oceanside by about 10%, which will affect all or most of the programs funded through the program.
The HOME program funds are reserved to help the city preserve and increase its supply of decent, safe and sanitary affordable homes for low-income households at 80% or below the area median income. These activities include new construction, acquisition, rehabilitation, first-time home buyer assistance, tenant-based rental assistance and program administration.
Staff recommends using $88,406 for administration and planning activities, $97,012 for housing development, and an additional $178,647 to assist its tenant-based rental assistance program through Interfaith Community Services. Together with this year’s spending and the additional funds for next year, the two-year rental assistance program will have approximately $1.3 million to support its clients.
Of the CDBG funds, staff recommends allocating $278,337 to cover staff hours for managing the program and housing program development to promote fair housing practices and $208,753 for public service activities.
Approximately $92,000 in unexpended funds will roll over from prior years, and nearly $748,000 in unallocated funds are still available.
After public services and administration activities are funded, the remaining funds may be used for eligible capital improvement projects, public facility improvements, and other housing and community development-related activities.
The staff has recommended using part of those funds to continue repaying a loan for the construction of Fire Station 7. By 2028–2029, the remaining balance on these payments, which started in 2008, will be $1.07 million. The next payment of $257,546 is due next fiscal year.
Councilmember Eric Joyce and Mayor Esther Sanchez suggested shifting away from using CDBG funds to pay off the loan and potentially replacing it with Measure X funds next year.
“This would have been the perfect project for Measure X,” Sanchez said, who said the public safety sales tax measure didn’t exist in 2008 when the city decided to use CDBG funds to pay for Fire Station 7.
Joyce said that shifting that cost to another funding source would open up more CDBG funds, which are more limited to specific sets of programs compared to other funding sources like Measure X, to help benefit communities like Libby Lake, Tri-City, Crown Heights and Eastside.
Assistant City Manager Michael Gossman said the city manager’s office can return with information about alternative funding sources that are available to either continue repaying the loan or to pay off the loan earlier.
Gossman noted that the Measure X funds have already been allocated for Fiscal Year 2023-2024, and staff would need to go to the Measure X Oversight Committee and undergo a council budget workshop first to determine if the Fire Station 7 loan repayment could be incorporated into the Measure X 2024-2025 budget.
Some residents spoke in favor of allocating additional HUD funding to Operation HOPE, a North County-based homeless shelter for single women and families with children. Although the shelter is located in Vista, approximately 19% of the shelter’s clients are from Oceanside.
The shelter also operates a food pantry for anyone from North County communities to access. The shelter is a transitional step for some clients exiting the Oceanside Navigation Center homeless shelter.
Adrianna Furtado, an Oceanside resident and director of resource development for Operation HOPE, noted that the shelter doesn’t receive much federal or state funding due to its status as a high-barrier shelter, meaning it has more restrictions for people to enter than a low-barrier shelter would.
“Homelessness doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all solution; all models need funding,” Furtado said.
The public has until May 3 to provide input on where they want to see CDBG and HOME funds go. Comments can be submitted to Barandiaran via email at [email protected] or mailed to the Draft Annual Action Plan, attn. Barandiarian, at 300 N. Coast Hwy, Oceanside, CA 92054.
