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Housing & Human Services shifts staff costs to grants, highlights lead grant and senior services
Summary
City housing and human services staff presented a FY2026 budget that reduces general fund salary costs by shifting positions to grant funding, detailed home‑repair and lead programs, and described senior transportation and community services operations.
Housing and Human Services staff presented the department’s FY2026 budget and answered council questions about staffing, program delivery and grant funding.
Presenters described total proposed expenditures of $3,366,496 for the division, a $333,355 (12.35 percent) decrease from the FY2025 budget as presented. Department staff said the budget includes a deliberate shift to charge a larger share of certain salaries to grant funds rather than the general fund; that shift reduces 1.3 FTE charged to the general fund and lowers the department’s direct general fund cost by about $61,471 compared with the prior year.
The presentation reviewed program‑level spending. Staff noted roughly $358,000 in program expenses covering nonviolence programming, senior community events and a potential match for unhoused grants should funding be awarded. Contractual services were budgeted at about $710,647 for behavioral health outreach, peer programming and senior programming. The office also identified $174,685 as its share of the rent for the building that houses the department’s offices; presenters said the building lease totals roughly $1.59 million with annual increases of about 3 percent.
Council members asked about operational capacity and vacancies. Staff said several positions had been funded previously by ARPA and other grant sources; the department has moved to shift some of those positions onto the general fund in a phased manner but has also moved staff costs back onto grant funds where appropriate. Presenters said recruitment is underway for a vacant housing officer and a lead inspector vacancy has been filled by internal promotion and will be posted to fill the resulting vacancy.
Program highlights: staff said the city recently received a lead‑remediation grant of $6,000,000 covering the next four years; CDBG home‑repair funding of about $300,000 is available for rehabilitation and home repair programs; and the city receives roughly $1 million in HOME funds for affordable housing development. On senior services, staff said two passenger vehicles are available for senior trips but noted there is currently one driver on staff; the department schedules regular grocery shopping trips and other outings and is exploring part‑time driver options to expand capacity.
Staff also described the ePlayLearn program (an interdepartmental food‑security and educational effort) and advised constituents that the department helps residents navigate services and works with community partners to deliver programming. Council members pressed staff about the sustainability of grant funding and the department said it is monitoring federal and state proposals and seeking diverse revenue sources.
