Yolo County Housing outlines Choice Neighborhood planning, Tupelo affordable housing and $28M ASEC application

Ian Evans, executive director for Yolo County Housing, updated the Yolo County Housing Authority on July 16 on the agency’s Choice Neighborhood planning effort for the Yolanda/Donnelly public housing site and a related affordable-housing project called Tupelo.

The update described progress on community engagement, funding applications and early-action project planning, including a $500,000 Choice Neighborhood Planning grant, an AHSC (Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities) application for about $28 million for the Tupelo site, and a Woodland City Council contribution of $1.5 million to support Tupelo.

Evans said Yolo County Housing was one of 13 national awardees of the HUD Choice Neighborhood Planning Grant, which provided $500,000 to support resident-centered planning for the Yolanda/Donnelly target housing and the surrounding neighborhood. He told commissioners the agency recruited consultants UDA and CVR to help run workshops and that the resident survey (100 questions) reached roughly 80% completion, above HUD’s 65% target. “The resident survey will give us all sorts of information about the folks that are currently living in what HUD refers to as the target housing sites,” Evans said.

Why it matters: the Choice Neighborhood planning grant is the preliminary step toward a larger HUD implementation grant that has funded past projects with tens of millions of dollars. The planning work is intended to produce a transformation plan that could be used in a later application to replace public housing units, add additional affordable housing, and fund neighborhood improvements.

Key details from the presentation - Target housing: the Choice Neighborhood target sites are Yolanda Village and Donnelly Circle (referred to in the presentation as Yolanda/Donnelly). The agency owns adjacent parcels including a former Tafoyos market corner and a vacant soccer field that are being considered as first-build sites. - Survey and outreach: Evans reported 92 early survey responses earlier in the process and said the survey completion rate has since reached about 80%; materials and outreach are provided in English and Spanish because 62% of respondents primarily speak Spanish at home. - Consultants and partners: the planning team includes consultants UDA and CVR; partners identified include the City of Woodland, Yolo County Office of Education, Woodland Joint Unified School District, Yolo Transportation District (YOLO TD), Dignity Health, Sutter and local nonprofit partners. Evans said the project has accrued 18 letters of support. - Early-action requirement: HUD requires spending a portion of the planning grant on an “early action activity”; Evans described examples such as public art, gathering spaces or a mobile farmers market and said residents will help choose an early action during August engagement. - Tupelo and AHSC application: Yolo County Housing submitted a roughly $28 million application to the state AHSC program in May in partnership with the City of Woodland and Yolo Transportation District. If funded, Evans said about half of the request (roughly $14 million) would go directly to housing and the remainder would finance infrastructure improvements including about 2,000 linear feet of sidewalk, ADA bus stop connections, improvements to bus shelters, 2 miles of Class 2 bike lanes and partial funding toward 12 electric buses the transit district plans to purchase. The application also included five EV charging stations and related transit service enhancements. - Transit commitments contingent on AHSC funding: Yolo Transportation District committed to provide free annual bus passes for the Tupelo project’s 72 units for a 15-year compliance period if the AHSC award is successful. Evans said that commitment is contingent on AHSC funding. - Local funding: Evans announced the Woodland City Council awarded $1.5 million to Yolo County Housing and partners to support the Tupelo project; he thanked the council for the contribution. - Timeline and next engagement: staff plan multiple engagement events during the first week of August, including targeted meetings with schools, workforce partners and city departments and a resident open house paired with National Night Out on Tuesday, Aug. 5. The week’s activities will culminate in a community presentation on Thursday, Aug. 7.

Discussion and unanswered items Commissioners thanked Woodland for the city contribution and asked clarifying questions about resident tenure, long-term stability goals and the contingency of transit commitments. Evans said projects funded through Choice Neighborhood implementation often include workforce and education components intended to improve resident outcomes over multi-year grant cycles. He reiterated that the Yolo TD bus-pass commitment and some transportation investments are contingent on AHSC funding.

What staff said would happen next Evans said internal work on unit mix and site design is underway and that August engagement will use block-based models and live illustration so residents can help shape final design choices before a transformation plan is drafted for HUD.

Ending Evans closed by thanking staff and consultants and said he would return with updates after the August engagement and when the AHSC award status is known in November or December.