Consolidated Plan Now Available for Review

Debra Rhinehart, Senior Planner, Seattle Human Services Department

The City of Seattle's draft 2009-2012 Consolidated Plan is now available for public comment online.

Participants at the senior program at El Centro de la Raza (Photo: Anthony Harris)

Public comment will be open through September 19, 2008 and will be received in any of the following ways:

• E-mail us at: blockgrants@seattle.gov
• By phone, call us at: 206-615-1717
• Write to us, in care of:
  Debra Rhinehart
  CDBG Senior Planner, HIBGA
  Seattle Human Services Department
  PO Box 34215
  Seattle WA 98124-4215

A public hearing is scheduled for September 17, 2008 in City Council Chambers at 9:30 a.m.

What does the Consolidated Plan do?

The Consolidated Plan is an agreement with the federal Housing and Urban Development agency (HUD) that authorizes the City and its community partners to administer approximately $21 million through four federal grants. The grants covered in this 2009-2012 Consolidated Plan are:

• Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
• HOME Investment Partnership
• Emergency Shelter Grant Program (ESGP)
• Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)

What do those four federal grants do for Seattle communities?

During 2007, Consolidated Plan funds:

• Preserved or produced 417 units of affordable rental housing
• Helped 61 families purchase their first homes
• Moved 972 homeless households into transitional or permanent housing
• Averted housing loss (evictions) for 784 households
• Provided $8.8 million in CDBG-secured loans to 3 community and economic development projects
• Helped develop 21,500 square feet of commercial or community space for businesses and neighborhoods
• Provided $2.5 million in loans to four businesses in the Rainier Valley to promote community revitalization

How will the City spend the $21 million over the next four years?

The 2009-2012 Consolidated Plan reflects ongoing commitments to support the regional Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness and to complete the adopted Southeast Seattle Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Area plan. The Consolidated Plan identifies the current use of federal CDBG, ESG, HOME and HOPWA funding in four primary areas:

• Public services targeted to homeless families and individuals guided by the Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness
• Building, acquiring and/or rehabilitating low-income housing through private non-profit and public housing developers
• Encouraging economic development through neighborhood revitalization investments and small business loans, in particular in the Rainier Valley NRSA
• Loans for community non-profits whose work benefits low and moderate income Seattle households.

Click here to see a full list of the 2009-2012 Consolidated Plan strategies and goals.

How did the City come up with the strategies to prioritize in the Plan?

The City of Seattle is fortunate to draw on a wealth of internally- and externally-developed plans to guide the creation of strategies and funding priorities to meet community needs. Integration of priorities identified from these community based plans into this Consolidated Plan offers the advantages of avoiding redundant planning processes, enhancing coordination and leveraging of funds among the multiple federal, state and local resources used by the City and its partners to create the housing and service network, and honoring the staff expertise and stakeholder and consumer feedback embedded in these established plans.

In fact, the 2009-2012 Consolidated Plan integrates much of the needs assessment data and priorities identified in the 2008 Area Agency on Aging Plan. Look for this information in Section 2: the Community and Demographic Profile as well as in Section 3: the Needs Assessment for Special Populations.

How could the Consolidated Plan affect my interests?

The 2009-2012 Consolidated Plan talks about the needs of homeless, very low income households and up to moderate income households. The Housing Market section lays out what we know about the cost burden on renters and homeowners in Seattle and what we think may happen over the next four years that will affect availability of affordable housing in the region. Public housing issues are also included in the proposed strategies. The Four-Year Strategies Matrix gives you an overall picture of the types of programs and who may benefit from the City's allocation of federal, state and local funds. The federal funds allocated through these programs are leveraged with over $68 million in other City general and private resources and additional Housing Levy monies. In all, the actions taken through the Consolidated Plan can have wide-ranging impacts on Seattle residents and communities. 

Let us know what you think!

Debra J. Rhinehart
Senior Planner
Community Development Block Grant Administration City of Seattle—Human Services Department
(206) 684-0574
(206) 621-5002 FAX
Debra.Rhinehart@seattle.gov

Physical address:
Seattle Municipal Tower
700 5th Ave (5th & Columbia), 60th Floor
Main reception for all of the department's offices is located on the 58th Floor

Mailing address:
Seattle Human Services Department
700 5th Ave., Suite 5800
PO Box 34215
Seattle WA  98124-4215