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File Number: 20-468 Substantial Amendment to the FY 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan. In September 2020 HUD awarded the City of San Leandro an additional $711,206 in CDBG-CV Round III CARES Act funds. Round II went directly to State governments. Further, HUD provided guidance that those funds must also be programmed using the FY 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan resulting in the proposed Second Substantial Amendment to this plan. After passage of the CARES Act, HUD issued guidance that allows cities to shorten the public comment period for amending prior 5-Year Consolidated Plans or Annual Action Plans to maximize the expedient use of CDBG and CDBG-CV funds allocated to entitlement jurisdictions. The Second Substantial Amendment to the City of San Leandro’s FY 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan is necessary to allocate HUD resources to address COVID-19 and its related impacts. Additionally, it will identify how the City plans to use available funds by updating its annual goals and objectives and the related projects targeted for funding to address COVID-19. Proposed Amendments to the FY 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan The proposed amendments to the City of San Leandro’s FY 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan are located mainly in the following sections of Attachment B: Summary Amendments to the FY 2019-2020 Annual Action Plan : ·Summary of Citizen Participation ·AP-12 Participation ·AP-15 Expected Resources ·AP-20 Annual Goals and Objectives ·AP-38 Project Summary Proposed CDBG-Funded Added Public Service Activities - FY 2019-2020 Action Plan The main change to the proposed CDBG-funded activities in the FY 2019-2020 Action Plan is staff’s proposed recommendation to add the entire $711,206 CDBG-CV Round III allocation to the Rental Assistance Program (RAP), which the City Council approved in June 2020 under the First Substantial Amendment to the FY2019-2020 Action Plan by allocating the $451,972 in CDBG-CV Round I funding. The City entered into contract with Centro Legal de La Raza, a non-profit, to administer the RAP Program. The RAP was created to assist residential renters impacted economically during the county-wide COVID-19 shelter in place orders, to prevent homelessness of low income renter households, and to help landlords cover their rental operation costs during this period of economic uncertainty. While HUD temporarily streamlined CDBG public noticing and comment requirements to address COVID-19 for this and the next fiscal years, it has not eased cumbersome programmatic administrative requirements for distributing CDBG funds. To efficiently and effectively distribute CDBG-CV Round III funds, staff recommended allocating the entire amount to the RAP based on the following preliminary needs analysis compiled from the applications received during the open application period from September 8 through September 30. The City received just under 250 applications-this is a little over 6 times the number of households that the Round I funds were projected to assist. Over 60% of the households who applied have at least one child under the age of 18 years old. Over 20% of the households who applied have been homeless at least once in their lives. Over half (55%) of the households said that their hardship with paying rent was due to the loss or reduction of their employment wages. Just under one quarter of households had at least one occupant with a disability. Under 10% of households who applied for assistance were seniors over the age of 62 years old. Nearly 60% of the households were having difficulty paying their utility costs, while nearly 40% were having difficulty securing enough food for their family’s needs. One important change to the existing Rental Assistance Program that staff also proposes is an increase from 3 months to 6 months of rent relief/assistance to income eligible renters impacted by COVID-19 given the likely ongoing need that many renters who have applied will face. Staff is also researching the feasibility of using CDBG-CV funds to cover past due utility costs. A summary of the proposed Amendment to FY 2019-2020 CDBG funding allocations by funding Page 2 City of San Leandro Printed on 10/28/2020 18