Council committee forwards CDBG/HOME rollover and HUD action-plan revisions to legislative agenda

Tammy Harvey Bethea, Bureau of Housing Services, told the York City Council committee on March 26 that the city is proposing a budget amendment to carry unspent CDBG and HOME funds from 2024 into the FY2025 budget and to revise prior years' HUD annual action plans so federal records match local reallocations.

Harvey Bethea said the first two columns on the proposed amendment were estimates made when the FY2025 budget was prepared, and the latter two columns reflect the actual dollars rolling from 2024 into 2025. "The numbers that you see on the final two columns are the true numbers that's rolling over from 2024," she said. She explained that a recurring item is a roughly $600,000 high-risk loan fund from prior rehabilitation loans; repayments have been collected into fund 32 and are now being recycled back into program administration and expenses.

On the HUD action-plan revision, Harvey Bethea and council members clarified that the city is not receiving new federal funds but is reallocating previously awarded grant dollars among subrecipients and projects. "The totals for each of these years, you're saying the totals aren't changing, that it's just within line items," a council member said; Harvey Bethea confirmed that the total allocation for each grant year is unchanged and that the changes reflect reallocation between line items and subrecipients.

Council members asked whether any single subrecipient faced major shifts; staff said reallocations were generally modest and are part of routine close-out and housekeeping to keep funds in compliance with HUD. Committee members also discussed a Section 108 loan, which staff said is an earlier federal instrument that the city used for a streets project (South George) and which the city is repaying out of federal program funds; one loan remains with approximately three payments left.

The committee voted to place the budget amendment (CDBG/HOME rollover) on the April 1 legislative agenda and to place the resolution revising the 2020'2024 annual action plan on the April 15 legislative agenda so HUD notifications and citizen-participation requirements can be completed.

Why this matters: federal CDBG and HOME awards are subject to HUD citizen-participation rules and to accurate federal reporting; reallocating leftover dollars requires formal local action and HUD notification to avoid grant findings or loss of funds.