Community Development
Contact Us
Salinas, California 93901
(831) 758-7334
(831) 758-7234
(800) 806-4474 (TDD users)
* Hablamos Español
Housing Division
The Housing Division of the Community Development Department focuses upon two main areas: (a) developing and retaining affordable housing and (b) the administration of several federal grants provided to the City by the US Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD). The City encourages affordable housing by regulation and through financial support and technical assistance. ousing Division staff oversees the City’s inclusionary housing program and assist the Current Planning Division with the implementation of zoning regulations pertaining to residential density bonuses and second dwelling units. The Housing Division reviews and comments upon applications submitted to the State of California for low-income housing tax credits, and otherwise provide assistance to developers of affordable housing. Finally, the Division is called upon to monitor how well affordable housing projects continue to serve the community over time.
There are three HUD grants for which the City applies to HUD each year, pursuant to Congressional allocations of funds:
Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program provides funds for community development projects and for some limited housing activities. The 2009-10 allocation is $2.4 million; programs funded include capital improvement projects (such as new streetlights), public services, land acquisition for housing development, and housing accessibility grants.
HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program provides funds that must be used for housing activities. In recent years the City has received around $900,000 annually, typically used to provide housing rehab loans, down payment assistance loans and gap financing to housing developers.
Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) Program is the most recent, and the smallest annual program. In FY2009-10 the City will receive $108,000 in ESG funding. These funds are typically passed through to non-profit housing and service providers to be used to assist the homeless or those at risk of homelessness.
From time to time other grants targeting housing and community development become available. In the past these have included Economic Development Initiative grants (from HUD) and State programs such as HCD’s “BEGIN” program. Currently the Division is overseeing federal stimulus funds programs administered by HUD and made available through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - more below. All these governmental grants require the preparation & submittal of applications, the oversight of the use of the funds, and long-term monitoring and reporting.