To: Board of Commissioners of the Sonoma County Community Development Commission
Department or Agency Name(s): Sonoma County Community Development Commission
Staff Name and Phone Number: Michelle Whitman, Executive Director; and Martha Cheever, 707-565-7521
Vote Requirement: Majority
Supervisorial District(s): Countywide
Title:
Title
Sonoma County Housing Authority Five Year Plan for Fiscal Years 2025-2030 and Annual Plan for FY 2024-2025
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Recommended Action:
Recommended action
A) Adopt a Resolution of the Sonoma County Housing Authority approving the Sonoma County Public Housing Authority Annual Plan and the Sonoma County Five Year Plan;
B) Authorize the Chair to sign Housing and Urban Development Departmental form, the Public Housing Agency (PHA) Certifications of Compliance with PHA Plan, Civil Rights and Related Laws and Regulations including PHA Plan Elements that Have Changed;
C) Authorize the Executive Director, or her designee, to execute associated documents and submit to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development;
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Executive Summary:
The Sonoma County Housing Authority (SCHA) administers the Housing Choice Voucher Program under contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). This program enables very low-income households to rent from private landlords at fair market rental rates and also provides rental assistance in the form of project-based vouchers, tying assistance to specific units. The Voucher program is the single biggest program operated by the Community Development Commission. Vouchers provide the best avenue to housing stability for low-income households.
Required elements of program administration include a Five-Year Public Housing Agency (PHA) Plan, an Annual PHA Plan, and an Administrative Plan. Each of these documents must be approved by the Housing Authority’s Board of Commissioners. The PHA Five Year Plan lays out the Housing Authority’s goals and strategies for serving the needs of low-income and very low-income families for the upcoming five year period (July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2030), the PHA Annual Plan provides a status update on the Housing Authority’s progress in meeting the goals outlined in the previous Five Year Plan, and the Administrative Plan establishes detailed guidelines for program implementation and operation at a local level.
At this time, the Housing Authority is requesting approval of a resolution authorizing the PHA Five Year Plan and the PHA Annual Plan and directing submission to HUD. No changes to the PHA Administrative Plan are being sought currently.
Discussion:
Section 511 of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998 requires that all housing authorities prepare a Public Housing Agency (PHA) Plan, which includes both a 5-Year Plan and an Annual Plan for each fiscal year. The PHA Five Year Plan lays out the Housing Authority’s goals and strategies for serving the needs of low-income and very low-income families for the upcoming five-year period (July 1, 2025 - June 30, 2030) and the PHA Annual Plan provides an annual status update on the Housing Authority’s progress in meeting the goals outlined in the previous Five Year Plan. Combined, these PHA Plans provide HUD, program participants, and other interested parties information related the Housing Authority’s accomplishments, progress, and strategies for serving the needs of low-income and very low-income families.
The draft PHA Five Year Plan includes the following goals:
• Increase housing choices for assisted tenants
• Expand the supply of assisted housing
• Promotion of self-sufficiency for program participants
• Maintain a High Performer Section Eight Management Assessment Program (SEMAP) score
The 2024-2025 Annual Plan provides an update on the progress the Housing Authority made in accomplishing the goals established in 2020. Key accomplishments achieved by the Housing Authority from 2020-2025 include the following:
• The SCHA Housing Navigation program assisted 223 households (345 persons) who were experiencing homelessness to access permanent housing.
• Since the adoption of its 2020 5-Year Plan, the Housing Authority has received 458 rental assistance vouchers - 141 new Mainstream vouchers, 113 Family Unification Program Vouchers, 153 Emergency Housing Vouchers, 16 new Housing Choice Vouchers, 15 Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing vouchers, and 20 Foster Youth to Independence (FYI) vouchers. These vouchers have been deployed through collaborative efforts with the Sonoma County Homelessness Coalition, the Sonoma County Coordinated Entry System, Sonoma County Human Services Department and several local supportive services providers.
• The SCHA has continued its successful partnerships with supportive service agencies through Continuum of Care funded grant programs, specialized voucher programs and homeless preferences. These partnerships assist some of the hardest to serve clients, including persons with disabilities, homeless families, senior citizens, victims of domestic violence, former foster youth, and families in the process of reunifying with their children. On average, the SCHA assists approximately 3,200 households each month through its various rental assistance programs.
• In 2024, the Housing Authority provided rental assistance to 895 households who were identified as “homeless at admission” to the rental assistance programs.
• Since July 1, 2020, 337 new Project Based Voucher units have come into service in Sonoma County; 19 of these Project Based Voucher units were new construction that were awarded prior to 2020.
o 22 at Kings Valley Senior Apartments, Cloverdale (2020)
o 11 at Alta Madrone Apartments, Sonoma (2020)
o 8 at Windsor Veterans Village, Windsor - Homeless Dedicated (2021)
o 5 at Don Bennett Senior Apartments, Petaluma (2021)
o 25 at 575 Vallejo Street Senior Apartments, Petaluma (2022)
o 25 at 579 Vallejo Street Senior Apartments, Petaluma (2022)
o 7 at Fisher I Senior Apartments, Petaluma (2022)
o 6 at Fisher II Senior Apartments, Petaluma (2022)
o 11 at Foss Creek Court, Healdsburg (2022)
o 23 at Cherry Creek Village, Cloverdale - Homeless Dedicated (2022)
o 15 at River City Senior Apartments, Petaluma - Homeless Dedicated (2022)
o 10 at Valley Oaks Homes, Petaluma (2022)
o 8 at Petaluma Avenue Homes, Sebastopol (2022)
o 18 at Corona Ranch Homes, Petaluma (2022)
o 8 at Washington Creek Apartments, Petaluma (2022)
o 60 at Studios at Montero, Petaluma - Chronic Homeless Permanent Supportive Housing (2023)
o 3 at Piper Street Apartments, Healdsburg - Homeless Dedicated (2023)
o 8 at The Randall, Healdsburg (2023)
o 9 at Valley Oaks, Petaluma (2023)
o 5 at Village Green II, City of Sonoma - Senior/Disabled (2023)
o 16 at 414 Petaluma, Petaluma - 13 Chronic Homeless Permanent Supportive Housing units and 3 General Housing units (2024)
o 5 at Monte Vina Apartments, Healdsburg - Homeless Dedicated (2024)
o 29 at Elderberry Commons, Sebastopol - Chronic Homeless Permanent Supportive Housing units
• In the upcoming five-year period, 149 newly constructed PBV units are expected to come into service as shown below:
o 8 at Heritage Park, Windsor - Homeless dedicated (anticipated 2026)
o 12 at Petaluma River Place, Chronic Homeless Permanent Supportive Housing units, Petaluma (anticipated 2025)
o 21 at George’s Hideaway, Guerneville- Homeless dedicated (anticipated 2026)
o 30 at Caritas Homes Phase 2, Santa Rosa - Permanent Supportive Housing units (anticipated 2026)
o 14 at Dry Creek Commons, Healdsburg - 6 Permanent Supportive Housing units and 8 general population units (anticipated 2026)
o 33 at Meridian at Corona, Petaluma - Chronic Homeless Permanent Supportive Housing units (anticipated 2026)
o 5 at Redwood Glen Apartments, Windsor - Chronic Homeless Permanent Supportive Housing units (anticipated 2026)
o 18 at Summer Oaks, Sonoma - 2 homeless dedicated units, 16 general population units (anticipated 2026)
o 8 at Downtown River Apartments, Phase 2, Petaluma - general population (anticipated 2025)
• Utilizing a $2.06M American Rescue Plan Act grant awarded by the Board of Supervisors on December 13, 2022, the Housing Authority successfully achieved the following:
o Recruitment of 602 new landlords to the program
o Consolidated housing location services across the County through the implementation of a highly successful web-based housing search tool accessible only by supportive service providers and households with rental assistance.
§ Database has 1,555 registered properties
§ Database has 200 units actively available to rent
§ Utilized by 166 supportive service case managers
§ Utilized by 17 housing locators
§ Utilized by 705 recipients of some form of rental assistance
o Paid 86 owner incentive payments to entice landlords to lower credit score requirements, rents, or other barriers for assisted tenants.
o Paid 26 damage claims to landlords to help pay for rent-assisted tenant caused damages beyond normal wear and tear
o Provided assistance to 460 households were housed through any of the Housing Authority programs serving unhoused households, who were referred to the Housing Authority through the Sonoma County Coordinated Entry System or through supportive services providers. Assistance included the following:
§ 190 households furnished
§ 269 households received household goods and groceries
§ 131 households received deposit assistance
§ 63 households received move-in assistance
A public hearing on the 2025-2030 PHA Five Year Plan and the 2024-2025 PHA Annual Plan was held on March 19, 2025 at the Community Development Committee. The Commissioners will be emailed an update on the Committee meeting should any Committee members vote no.
As required by HUD, the proposed PHA Five Year Plan and Annual Plan are consistent with the HUD-required Five-Year Consolidated Plans of the County of Sonoma and the City of Petaluma, the two HUD entitlement jurisdictions in which the Housing Authority operates the Housing Choice Voucher Program.
Strategic Plan:
This item directly supports the County’s Five-year Strategic Plan and is aligned with the following pillar, goal, and objective.
Pillar: Healthy and Safe Communities
Goal: Goal 3: In collaboration with cities, increase affordable housing development near public transportation and easy access to services.
Objective: Objective 2: Identify and leverage grant funding sources for permanent supportive and affordable housing development.
Racial Equity:
Was this item identified as an opportunity to apply the Racial Equity Toolkit?
Yes
The Public Housing Authority 5 Year Plan (PHA 5-Year Plan) sets goals for the upcoming 5 year period. The Outcome of the Racial Equity Analysis should ensure that all goals contribute to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion with in all of the Sonoma County Housing Authority rental assistance plans.
Stakeholder Engagement: The Sonoma County Housing Authority (SCHA) engaged stakeholders through several platforms. Availability of the PHA 5-Year Plan was advertised on the SCHA website, in the Press Democrat, and through email to approximately 10,500 email addresses that are registered for updates to the Housing Authority rental assistance email lists, the Community Development Commission’s Affordable Housing Developers email interest lists, through all media outlets identified in the SCHA Administrative Plan, including Spanish language media outlets, through the Sonoma County Community Development Committee interest list, through the Sonoma County Continuum of Care service provider interest list, and through the Sonoma County Homeless Coalition Board Member email list. The SCHA received no feedback on any of the goals laid out in the PHA 5-Year Plan.
Raising Racial Awareness and Accountability through Evaluation: Over the course of the five years covered by the PHA 5-Year Plan the SCHA will continue to seek avenues to engage stakeholders who have been systemically harmed. Race and ethnicity data will continue to be gathered at each waitlist opening and waitlist lottery to analyze the impact that expanded outreach efforts are yielding.
Prior Board Actions:
04/07/2020: Approval of the Housing Authority’s 5-Year Plan
04/07/2021: Approval of the Housing Authority’s Annual Plan
04/05/2022: Approval of the Housing Authority’s Annual Plan
12/13/2022: Approval of the American Rescue Plan Act Homelessness Allocations
04/04/2023: Approval of the Housing Authority’s Annual Plan and Administrative Plan
03/26/2024: Approval of the Housing Authority Fiscal Year Annual Plan and Administrative Plan Updates
Fiscal Summary
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Narrative Explanation of Fiscal Impacts:
This item is a policy update and has no fiscal impacts
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Narrative Explanation of Staffing Impacts (If Required):
This item has no staffing impacts
Attachments:
1. Resolution approving the Sonoma County Public Housing Authority Five-Year and Annual Plans
2. HUD Form 50077-ST-HCV-HP
3. Sonoma County Housing Authority Annual Plan for Fiscal Year 2024-2025
4. Sonoma County Housing Authority Five Year Plan for Fiscal Years 2025-2030
Related Items “On File” with the Clerk of the Board:
Administrative Plan