Monterey council balks at spending HUD bucks on streets, directs staff to help the homeless.

When the Monterey County Hospitality Association delivered a presentation at the May 5 Monterey City Council meeting, among their recommendations for revitalizing the city was to develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce homelessness.

Shortly after, Monterey Housing and Property Manager Rick Marvin presented staff’s proposal to spend $962,704 from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), funds that had been accumulating since 2010.

The city earns the money from leases on affordable housing and loan paybacks. But HUD informed Monterey officials last August the money must be spent every year, or the city could risk losing future funding. The deadline to spend it this year is June 30.

The proposal allocates about $300,000 to rehabilitate and acquire low-income housing units. The rest of the funds are dedicated to street improvements and parks projects, like grinding asphalt and replacing playground sand with wood chips, in low – and moderate-income neighborhoods.

After hearing the presentation, Councilman Timothy Barrett had pointed questions.

“In the off season, there’s a high percentage of unemployed in our area, and there’s a corresponding spike in homelessness,” Barrett said, referring to the seasonal fluctuations of the tourism economy. “How does grinding asphalt help that population?”

“If it’s looked at specifically like that,” Marvin responded, “it doesn’t.”

A half-dozen members of the public echoed Barrett’s concerns and urged the council to consider an alternative, none of which were included in the staff report. Council voted 5-0 to continue the item to May 19 and directed Marvin to come up with other options.

The HUD money comes through the Community Development Block Grant Program, which carries specific restrictions on how it can be spent. Roughly speaking, the money can be used for buying or improving structures, but not on rental assistance.

Several factors led to the city accumulating the large sum, including the loss in 2010 of the staff member who administered the Block Grant money.

“I don’t want to point fingers or lay blame. It’s my office and it happened under my watch,” Marvin says. “We were challenged with a number of things we were dealing with in that timeframe. I just missed that these funds were accumulating.”

Marvin, Barrett and a handful of stakeholders met May 6 to brainstorm potential projects the city could pursue by the June 30 deadline. Marvin pieced together new alternatives, one of which came from Veterans Transition Center Executive Director Terry Bare.

“We’ve got several unoccupied units that need to be rehabilitated,” Bare says. “If they can rehabilitate a couple of new units, we can get a couple of homeless families off the street.” He estimates fixing one duplex will cost about $225,000.

Block Grant rules say the money must directly benefit Monterey residents, and the Veterans Transition Center is in Marina. Bare, however, notes that Monterey Police refer homeless veterans there.

Marvin says he’ll also propose rehabilitating a Community Human Services building to accommodate a small number of emergency shelter beds.