2010 - 2014 CONSOLIDATED PLAN
DRAFT for Public Comment and Review - October 9, 2009
(This is just the introductory portion of the Consolidated Plan. Download the complete document from the link on the right).
The Consolidated Plan is a five-year strategy and application for funding required by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and Home Investment Partnership (HOME) program funds and the proposed use of these funds. The plan facilitates the City’s coordinated effort to review and create strategies to develop affordable housing and support services needs within the community.
The Consolidated Plan is designed to be a collaborative process whereby a community establishes a unified vision for community development actions. It offers local jurisdictions the opportunity to shape the various housing and community development strategies.
The strategic plan is a specific course of action for revitalization. It is the means to analyze the full local context and the linkages to the larger region. It builds on local assets and coordinates a response to the needs of the community. It integrates economic, physical, environmental, community, and human development in a comprehensive and coordinated fashion so that families and communities can work together and thrive. A strategic plan also sets forth program goals, specific objectives, annual goals, and benchmarks for measuring progress.
The statutes for the formula grant programs set forth three basic goals against which the plan and the jurisdiction’s performance under the plan will be evaluated by HUD. Each jurisdiction’s plan must state how it will pursue these goals for all community development programs, as well as all housing programs. These goals are:
Decent Housing
- Assisting homeless persons obtain affordable housing;
- Assisting persons at risk of becoming homeless;
- Retention of affordable housing stock;
- Increase the availability of affordable permanent housing in standard condition to low-income and moderate-income families, particularly to members of disadvantage minorities without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability;
- Increasing the supply of supportive housing which includes structural features and services to enable persons with special needs (including persons with HIV/AID) to live in dignity and independence; and
- Providing affordable housing that is accessible to job opportunities.
A suitable living environment
- Improving the safety and livability of neighborhoods;
- Increasing access to quality public and private facilities and services reducing the isolation of income groups within areas through spatial deconcentration of housing opportunities for lower income persons and the revitalization of deteriorating neighborhoods;
- Restoring and preserving properties of special historic, architectural, or aesthetic value; and
- Conservation of energy resources.
Expanded economic opportunities
- Job creation and retention;
- Establishment, stabilization and expansion of small businesses (including microbusinesses);
- The provision of public services concerned with employment;
- The provision of jobs to low-income persons living in areas affected by those programs and activities, or jobs resulting from carrying out activities under programs covered by the plan;
- Availability of mortgage financing for low-income persons at reasonable rates using nondiscriminatory lending practices;
- Access to capital and credit for development activities that promote the long-term economic and social viability of the community; and empowerment and self-sufficiency for low-income persons to reduce generational poverty in federally assisted housing and public housing.
This strategy covers the five year period from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2014.
