Council holds public hearing on CDBG/HOME consolidated plan and 2025 proposed allocations; committee prioritizes housing and homelessness services

Sandy City staff presented the 2025–2029 consolidated plan and the program-year 2025 annual action plan for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME funds at a public hearing April 22. Jake Warner, long-range planning manager, told the council the city expects a reduced CDBG allocation and must submit a consolidated plan and annual action plan to HUD by a May deadline even though the actual award amount had not been published.

Warner said Sandy’s estimated 2025 CDBG allocation used for planning is $325,000 (last year’s award was about $322,000). He explained HUD rules about national objectives (primarily serving low- and moderate-income residents), eligible activities and federal compliance requirements. He said the CDBG citizen-advisory committee has recommended refocusing the five-year plan toward housing-related activities and essential services.

The committee recommended a proposed 2025 distribution including: administration ($61,002 estimate), public services (several nonprofit programs with partial funding), and housing projects. Notable recommended allocations in the draft plan included funding for the MVP program run by The Road Home (recommended $25,000), emergency and accessibility home repair via Habitat for Humanity (committee-recommended $142,145 of $150,000 requested), and support for SIS Community Design Center’s home repair work. The committee also recommended reprogramming $20,000 originally earmarked for Main Street Park toward housing because the city and parks staff anticipate a later, larger phase for that park project.

Several applicants spoke during the hearing in support of funding. Bailey Delos of MVP described the medically vulnerable program’s staffing, intake and housing navigation services and gave a client success story of a formerly homeless elderly person who obtained housing with MVP support. Jason Wheeler of SIS Community Design Center said his group’s emergency-repair and accessibility retrofit work preserves naturally occurring affordable housing and prevents displacement; Kate Nielsen of Habitat for Humanity described last year’s repairs and said Habitat had helped 19 Sandy households during the previous program year and 1,100 households overall through the program. An online commenter, Steve Van Maren, praised the committee’s work.

Councilmembers praised the committee’s deliberations and asked staff and the committee to consider whether economic development-linked goals (for example, supporting childcare providers through technical assistance) might produce broader job-retention or job-creation benefits even if the immediate HUD metrics for a CDBG economic-development application would count only the jobs created or retained by the daycare providers themselves. Jake Warner said the committee weighed competing priorities and scored projects within HUD constraints; he said the council could propose amendments before adopting the annual plan next week. Warner explained contingency language for award variability: if the actual HUD allocation is lower than estimated, public-service funding would be cut proportionally but the committee would prevent awards under $5,000 by removing lower-scored activities and reallocating funds. Administration cannot exceed 20% of the final award.

Outcome: council held the public hearing; the item is scheduled for a council vote in the next meeting (staff asked councilmembers to submit any proposed changes in writing before that meeting because HUD deadlines may require timely submission).