Administration reports 26 applications for $8 million affordable‑housing ARPA pool

City administration told council that the ARPA appropriation for affordable housing—originally $8,000,000 under Bill 5 of 02/2023—remains allocated for that purpose but that staff are still completing eligibility and scoring work.

As of the September 5 application deadline, administration reported it had received 26 applications, and committee members would be evaluating submissions the week following the work session. Administration said the evaluation committee includes Doug Hill and Eric Jenkins and that a third member would be invited to complete the panel.

Council members asked for the committee rubric and for access to the scoring sheets. One council member said the turn‑around period from application opening (August 11) to deadline (September 5) was short and asked whether the timeline might be extended. The presenter said committee reviewers would begin scoring immediately and expected the evaluation process to take about a week.

Administration cautioned that program eligibility was intentionally tight and that only a small subset of applicants would meet the criteria to receive awards; one presenter said, "the reality is also that it's a very tight eligibility. There's gonna be very few of those 26 that are gonna be able to hit that. Just very few. And that was on purpose." Council asked how remaining funds would be used if few applicants qualified; administration said no decision had been made and that remaining monies would remain in the grants fund until council and the mayor determined next steps.

Council members requested that administration provide the evaluation rubric, name any final committee member once confirmed, and publish a timeline for awards and any follow-up public reporting on selected projects.