Soledad council unanimously approves CDBG allocations, HOME application, police lieutenant reclassification and city contracts

SOLEDAD, Calif. — At a public meeting on April 2, 2025 at Hartnell College, the Soledad City Council approved a set of measures aimed at directing program income into local business, housing and facilities projects, reinstating an internal police command classification, and upgrading city facilities and infrastructure.

The most significant action was approval of two resolutions to allocate Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program income. Tensia Vargas, the housing and community development staff member who presented the item, said the allocations will prevent the funds from being returned to the state. "To avoid returning the funds to the state, the city must allocate them to eligible projects," Vargas said. The council voted to: amend an existing business assistance loan grant to add $100,000; set aside $100,000 for public-facility improvements intended for the Soledad Community Center, including HVAC work; and allocate $300,000 to establish a first-time homebuyer assistance program funded from CDBG program income. Both related resolutions carried unanimously.

Why it matters: The city said the program income comes from loan repayments and must be spent on eligible projects or returned to the state. Staff said the $300,000 earmarked for homebuyer assistance is intended to restart a program the city has not run in more than a decade and is intended as a modest, initial offering that can be paired with other funding.

HOME application and guidelines Beatrice Soudier, the city's economic development director, described a separate application to the state HOME Investment Partnerships program for a jurisdictional…