City of Lawrence
Planning and Development Services Department
TO: David L. Corliss, City Manager
FROM: Margene K. Swarts, Assistant Director, Development Services
CC: Scott McCullough, Director, Planning and Development Services
DATE: April 27, 2011
RE: Substantial Amendment to the 2008-2012 Consolidated Plan
U.S. Department of Housing And Urban Development (HUD) staff monitors grantees on a regular basis, both on-site and in-house. In addition to monitoring, local HUD staff performs annual reviews of the programs they oversee. The City sends in both the Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER) and the Annual Action Plan on a yearly basis to the local HUD office. Consolidated Plans are done in five-year increments, and the current plan in effect for the City is the 2008-2012 Consolidated Plan. After reviewing the 2009 CAPER and comparing aspects of it to the goals set out in the five year Consolidated Plan, HUD staff notified the City by letter with approval of the CAPER but noted a concern regarding how the City was meeting the goals and objectives that they had listed in the 2008-2012 Consolidated Plan.
Subsequently, City staff visited with HUD staff for clarification of the concern and after several discussions, it became clear that the document being used by the City and the document being reviewed by HUD staff was not the same document. Locally, one Consolidated Plan was approved and posted on the City website. That document is what the City of Lawrence had been utilizing for the 2008-2012 program years, and is the document that the City was using for their goals and objectives for that same time span. Through staff research, it was determined that when the 2008-2012 Consolidated Plan was submitted to the HUD office, City staff inadvertently sent a draft document that was not completely updated and edited. The document that was emailed to HUD and the one that was actually approved locally were basically the same with the exception of formatting issues, which resulted in the two documents having differing page numbers, and the final update of the Accomplishments Goals table (Specific Housing Objectives [91.25(b)]. The document in use by the City had been locally approved and posted on www.lawrenceks.org. However, when it became clear that the document differed from the one sent to HUD, HUD staff requested the City do a Substantial Amendment to the 2008-2012 Consolidated Plan and submit a revised, updated document containing Accomplishment Goals for the five year period of 2008-2012. As noted below, the table includes Rental Housing Subsidies, Construction of Housing, Direct Homeownership Assistance, Rehab/Single Family Residential, and Energy Efficiency Improvements.
This amendment could be easily accomplished as City staff is in the process of completing the Annual Plan process for 2011.
Action Requested: Approve a Substantial Amendment to the 2008-2012 Consolidated Plan – Adjustment of proposed Specific Housing Objectives (91.25(b)) – Accomplishment Goals for the period, August 1, 2008 – July 31, 2012.
|
Activity |
Accomplishment Unit |
|
Goal |
|
Rental Housing Subsidies |
04-Households |
250 |
|
|
Construction of Housing |
10-Housing Units |
15 |
|
|
Direct Homeownership Assistance |
04-Households |
20 |
|
|
Rehab, Single Family Residential |
10-Housing Units |
70 |
|
|
Energy Efficiency Improvements |
10-Housing Units |
300 |
|