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Consultant tells Beaumont housing is top need as HUD consolidated plan proceeds
Summary
Grow America presented a draft 2025–2029 HUD consolidated plan and FY2025 annual action plan to Beaumont City Council, saying housing — including affordable and accessible units — is the community's top urgent need and that CDBG and HOME funding is essentially level-funded this year.
A consultant hired to prepare Beaumont’s HUD consolidated plan told City Council that housing shortages, including a lack of accessible units for people with disabilities, were identified as the city’s most urgent need and will drive priority funding choices for the next five years.
Patricia Santa Cruz, technical advisory services director with Grow America, said the draft 2025–2029 consolidated plan recommends three overarching priorities: provide decent, safe, affordable housing; create suitable living environments; and provide public services for low- and moderate-income households. She told council that the plan and an FY2025 annual action plan tie HUD Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding to those priorities.
Santa Cruz said Beaumont is an entitlement community and that the city receives roughly $1.38 million a year in CDBG funds and about $535,000 a year in HOME funds; those amounts have been essentially level-funded recently. She said the HUD allocations announced May 13 showed a slight year-over-year decrease of about 2.7 percent overall from FY2024 to FY2025, and that the city’s draft annual action plan budget was based on the FY2024 allocations and may be adjusted slightly now that HUD has announced 2025 figures.
Grow America officials described outreach and analysis behind the draft plan. The engagement included stakeholder meetings with nonprofit and housing providers, two public hearings (the first held April 8), and a community survey that drew 132 responses with more than 300 open-ended comments. The survey and stakeholder input prioritized home repair, affordable housing, homeless services and Section 8 voucher support; infrastructure, public services and economic development followed.
Santa Cruz said the consolidated-plan process sets five-year goals and the one-year annual action plan (with a proposed budget) that must be published for a minimum 30-day public comment period. She said HUD requires a final plan to be submitted by Aug. 16 to avoid losing federal funding for the program year. The city’s next step is for council to consider the final FY2025 action plan for adoption at a future meeting; Santa Cruz noted that HUD announced allocations later than usual this year, which adjusted the city’s schedule.
Council members asked how HUD constrains use of funds; Santa Cruz said CDBG has statutory "guardrails" including a 15 percent cap on public services and other national-objective rules (for example, demolition and slum/blight activities can qualify differently). She said HOME funds are specifically for housing activities. Santa Cruz also said the Beaumont Housing Authority has about 3,000 people on its waiting list for vouchers or public housing, a figure she cited as evidence of need.
No council action was taken at the presentation; the second required public hearing on the FY2025 annual action plan was held as part of the meeting’s public hearings, and the council will formally consider the final plan and any adjustments before the HUD submission deadline.
