Housing department outlines $44 million disaster‑recovery award, climate and planning grants and strategic reserve approach

Spokane County’s Housing and Community Development staff briefed commissioners Oct. 20 on a multi‑fund budget that includes a recently announced disaster recovery award, ongoing climate resilience planning funds and a strategy for maintaining a strategic reserve to respond quickly to urgent housing needs.

Why it matters: The department manages a mix of state and federal awards plus locally generated housing funds. Staff said the ability to program available local funds quickly — rather than waiting for multi‑step RFP cycles — preserves the county’s ability to respond to time‑sensitive acquisition, rehab or emergency needs that will not wait for a protracted funding round.

Major grants and timing Staff said the department has a $44 million federal disaster‑recovery award tied to the 2023 fires. The presentation allocated about $4.4 million (roughly 10%) to planning and administration and left roughly $39.7 million for contracting activities; staff said the grant carries a six‑year expenditure window. The department expects the first contracts from that award to be executed early in 2026 and said the first procurement round (for a service navigator and other services such as debris and remediation contracting) is open through mid‑November.

In addition, staff described a State Department of Commerce periodic‑update appropriation (a two‑year package totaling $700,000 split across fiscal years) for the county’s comprehensive plan update and an $800,000 legislative appropriation for climate resiliency planning; staff said Commerce agreed that elements of an environmental impact statement can be paid from the climate grant scope, increasing the grant’s planning flexibility.

Funds, capacity and strategic reserve Staff walked through fund structures (commonly referred to in the presentation as fund 123, HOME ARP in fund 131 and CDBG/federal funds in fund 151) and asked commissioners to permit budget capacity that reflects both prior balances and anticipated 2026 receipts so the department can encumber subrecipient contracts in Workday without frequent mid‑year budget amendments.

Staff said the department maintains a strategic reserve in locally held funds (document recording fees, a sales‑and‑use tax rebate and other local revenue) to respond quickly to urgent housing needs; staff described a conservative floor and ceiling approach for homelessness and affordable‑housing pools and noted that unobligated federal contract balances are typically reprogrammed to new RFP rounds.

Performance note Staff said the consolidated homeless grant (CHG) award for the prior biennium totaled roughly $11.1 million; the department reported spending about $10.9 million of that amount (leaving roughly $191,000 unspent at the close of the period) and said it continues to tighten financial controls with Workday and improved grant accounting.

What commissioners asked and next steps Commissioners asked whether staffing costs could be charged to the new state and federal awards and sought written confirmation of the Commerce extension rules for the periodic‑update money; staff said they have written confirmations on file and will forward contract documentation to the county executive’s office. Commissioners urged the department to program staff time to grants where appropriate and said they preferred using grant reimbursements rather than drawing general fund for planned staffing costs if allowed under grant terms.

Ending note Housing staff requested that commissioners approve budget capacity that reflects the department’s ability to obligate funds in Workday and said they will return with more granular RFP recommendations for 2026 once the department finishes its current procurement rounds.