The Vancouver City Council voted unanimously on Sept. 15 to approve the city's HUD consolidated annual performance and evaluation report (CAPER) and submit it to HUD after a public hearing and staff presentation of last year's federally funded activities and outcomes.

Samantha Whitley, the city's housing programs manager, and Ian Auger of economic prosperity and housing presented the CAPER and summarized how the city used Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME and other federal funds and the results achieved with partner nonprofits.

Staff reported that for the reporting period they presented: CDBG expenditures of $1,750,000; HOME rental assistance of $260,000 administered by nonprofit partners; and HOME-ARP expenditures of about $373,000 for outreach, housing access and legal assistance. Staff reported housing outcomes including nine home rehabilitations, eight first-time homebuyers assisted with down-payment support and rental assistance to dozens of households; staff also reported economic opportunity and neighborhood outcomes, including technical assistance to micro-enterprises and use of the Fourth Plain Commons community space.

Council Member Perez asked for future CAPERs to present outcomes in operational terms rather than only activity counts. Perez suggested reporting items such as reasons for blocked closings in homebuyer programs, average months of rental assistance, homelessness trends tied to HUD-funded exits, multilingual outreach metrics and a public-facing dashboard showing distributions by ZIP code. Samantha Whitley and staff said they would accept public and council input before final submission to HUD and work to include clearer operational metrics in future reports.

Public commenters raised questions and criticisms about local homelessness programs and the use of federal funds. Carmen De Leon and other callers urged changes to homelessness response and expressed skepticism about repeatedly funding certain shelters; De Leon described a proposal she called "merit-based housing," a public comment, and asked about program oversight. Kimberly Elbon and another commenter criticized the city's outreach and raised concerns about immigration and allocation of limited housing resources; those remarks were made as public comment and recorded in the hearing transcript.

After public comment the council voted to approve the CAPER report. The motion to approve was made by Council Member Perez and seconded by Council Member Harless. Roll call votes were recorded as aye by Harless, Perez, Fox, Paulson, Stober, Hansen and Mayor Anne McEnerny-Ogle. Staff will submit the CAPER to HUD and indicated intended follow-up to incorporate council feedback about clearer outcome metrics in future reports.

The CAPER presentation included a note that reporting and timelines to HUD follow federal formatting and public-notice requirements; staff also identified a two-week public review period prior to the hearing and said additional comments would be accepted up to the HUD submission deadline.