The Hemet City Council voted in favor of adopting the budget
with one major component eliminated; the housing technician/department. The budget without the housing department puts the city at a $350,000 deficit in the General Fund. It was confirmed by City Manager Meyerhoff that this version of the budget does eliminate the housing programs and the Housing Technician/Specialist. Raver suggested an amended motion to adopted
the budget that included the housing technician position. That motion failed 2-3 (In favor: Raver &
Wright; Against: Krupa, Milne and Youssef). Another motion was made to adopt the budget as is; eliminating the
housing department and technician position. That motion
passed 3-2-1 (In Favor: Krupa, Milne, and Youssef; Against: Wright; Abstention:
Raver).
Prior to the economic downturn, our housing department had 3
½ employees. After the downturn, it was
reduced to one person, the housing technician.
Seniors, lower income home owners and
our city utilize and benefit from the programs that fall under this
department. The idea in eliminating the
role, per the discussion during the council meeting, is that these duties will now
shift to other departments. There are
time and cost issues associated with this decision. It costs time and money to go through the
training that our housing technician went through to do the job properly and
keep the department and programs functioning.
This will now cost the city time and money for the employees to go through
training. A good portion of this department is funded by grants. I reached out and spoke with someone from the
Riverside County Division for the state.
If the awarded funds are not utilized, then the state will encumber the
funds for the state programs. Also, if
the city were to contact the state and let them know that they do not have
anyone to manage the programs, then the state will encumber the funds. The housing department deals with both state
and federal programs.
Housing Choice Vouchers (previously called Section 8), is a federal program through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The federal funds for the vouchers are administered through your local housing agency, and in our case, the County of Riverside. This does not go through the City of Hemet. However, if you look at the minutes (link below) or were present at the last council meeting, you will see that there is discussion with the county to take that program to the city level.
Housing Choice Vouchers (previously called Section 8), is a federal program through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The federal funds for the vouchers are administered through your local housing agency, and in our case, the County of Riverside. This does not go through the City of Hemet. However, if you look at the minutes (link below) or were present at the last council meeting, you will see that there is discussion with the county to take that program to the city level.
Below, I have a few of the day-to-day tasks and programs that
your Housing Technician maintained.
The Housing Technician is in and out of the office due to
property inspections and environmental reporting. The Senior Home Repair program falls under
this department. In order for seniors to
qualify for this program a good deal of documentation is required: 6 months of
bank statements, information on the home, social, etc. There is a two-year wait list to get work
done. The morning I inquired, there had
already been five calls that day regarding the repair program. In order for people to be added to the wait
list, the current list needs to go down.
As of right now, the list is closed.
CalHome is a program that assists owner-occupied, low income
households. As of right now, there is no
funding being awarded for this program. The
Riverside County representative for the state said that Hemet must be using the
awards for the 2014 year. If someone was
previously approved but not funded, and it has been longer than 6 months since
their income has been verified, then they must be re-qualified.
The housing department also takes dilapidated homes and/or
multi-units and rehabs them. Once the
rehabbed properties have all been rented out, the housing specialist checks on
all of the units, then reports it to HUD.
This requires interior and exterior inspections.
The housing technician also steps in and assists residents
that come into city hall if no one else is available at that time. Not only is the Housing Technician and Housing Department eliminated
by this vote, there are code officers that are also affected by this elimination. There are a multitude of links below for Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) and California Department of Housing Community Development.
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