3A Public Hearing 2007 0917 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Most of the notable accomplishments with CDBG and HOME funds are mentioned above in earlier sections of this document. However, other accomplishments include ECHO Housing meeting and exceeding all of its fair housing goals. ECHO Housing also exceeded 53% of its goals for tenant/landlord counseling services. Additionally, Project Literacy served 238 persons with special needs, exceeding their goal by 59%. Project Literacy also recruited and trained 155 new tutors and provided the community with 19,232 tutor service hours. Staff and volunteers represent a diverse community - e.g., Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Tagalog. Project Literacy offers ethnically and culturally diverse instructional resources for adult literacy students. Outreach services are provided in Spanish. Project Literacy provides parent literacy workshops and free children's book distributions at the main library and at community agencies which serve parents and their children, ages 0-4 years. Family Literacy clientele include teen mothers, low- income childcare providers and early education providers, CalWORKs single parents, and low- literacy parents. Project Literacy's computer lab helps improve each student's quality oflife, too. Renovation work for the 68-unit Casa Verde for affordable apartments began in FY2006-07. This project will add 67 new affordable rental units (which does not include one unit reserved for the on-site manager). Construction and lease-up completion are expected by Spring 2008. permanent rental housing. Mission Bell Apartments also will help fulfill another Consolidated Plan's priority: to increase available service-enriched housing for people with special needs. Allied Housing has set aside at least four units for youth exiting from foster care. Seven former foster care clients are tenants now. Two non-profit agencies, Tri-City Homeless Coalition and Fred Finch Youth Center provide supportive services for these and other eligible tenants at Mission Bell Apartments. Eighteen (18) new affordable rental or ownership housing units were created through a condominium conversion (Willows Townhomes) under the City's Inclusionary and Density Bonus Ordinances. There are three for-sale projects that will likely enter into lnclusionary Housing Agreements with the City in FY2007-08. There were two loans approved for downpayment/closing cost assistance under the City's First- Time Homebuyer Program (FTHB). City staff is continuing to find ways to expand marketing opportunities for the program. The free, quarterly FTHB education seminars sponsored by the City have been successful in educating prospective homebuyers. The City also contracted in FY2006-07 with Bay Area Homebuyer Agency to provide customized individual homebuyer counseling that includes credit counseling and referral to alternative funding sources such as the Workforce Initiative Subsidy for Homeownership (WISH) matching funds program. The City has a policy of completing CDBG-funded projects in a timely manner to assure that the grant money is spent. Staff worked assiduously on this goal and successfully succeeded in timely CDBG grant expenditures. 4) Funds Used for National Objectives All of the CDBG funds were used for activities benefiting very low-, low- and moderate-income persons. Most of the funds were used for two ofHUD's national objectives: provide a suitable living environment and decent housing. The City also used Redevelopment funds to preserve and improve housing stock through its Housing Rehabilitation Program. The City's Office of Business Development primarily creates projects for economic opportunity using Final Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report: FY2006-2007 City of San Leandro Page 26