Council considers off‑cycle Vibrant Communities Fund allocations for homelessness, eviction prevention and veterans memorial

City Manager Sam Sanders told the City Council on March 20 that staff had identified roughly $1 million in flexible funds that could be repurposed or added to the existing Vibrant Communities Fund (VCF) and other council‑directed pots. The funds come from a mix of an increase to the strategic initiatives fund, reallocated CIP balances and a reduced ACRJ (regional jail) financing amount.

Two off‑cycle requests were flagged as urgent in staff materials: a $250,000 gap to cover lost BRAC (Blue Ridge Area Coalition for the Homeless) grant funds that would otherwise leave a six‑month service interruption, and a Piedmont Housing Alliance (PHA) eviction‑prevention request that included $62,000 for staff salaries and a separate $50,000 request for direct cash assistance. Sanders told the council the staff recommendation was to treat BRAC’s need as an emergency and that PHA’s staff‑salary component was higher priority than the cash‑assistance portion.

Public speakers asked the council to reconsider funding cuts and to restore programs. Several nonprofit leaders and advocates appeared during the public‑comment period:

- Daniela Pretzer (identified in the transcript as executive director) asked the council to reconsider funding for community mediation training that had been cut from the Vibrant Communities Fund; the Mediation Center said 17 community residents had started training and the program faces curtailment without additional dollars. Brian Nagel, on the Mediation Center board, also urged extending the training funding. - Speakers associated with Bridgeline (an organization serving people with brain injuries) described residential and day programs and urged restoration of previously cut funding. Cliff Selcher and a second speaker who identified as Daniela (roles noted in the transcript) described personal benefit from the organization's services and asked councilors to restore funding. - Representatives of Meals on Wheels and other nonprofits described sharply rising demand and appealed for budget support for core services. - Speakers from the People’s Coalition opposed the proposed jail expansion and argued funds should be redirected to housing and community supports instead.

Council discussion focused on triage and priorities rather than final allocations. Sanders outlined a proposed increase to the strategic initiatives fund (also described as council‑directed funding) from about $360,000 to $500,000 by reallocating $140,000 and other identified balances. He said an off‑cycle request process will allow staff to accept and hold proposals for consideration. "You have a standing strategic initiatives fund today. That fund has roughly $360,000 in it right now. I have recommended within the budget an increase of a hundred and 40,000, therefore making it 500,000," Sanders said.

Councilors gave preliminary indications of support for several items, including BRAC and the Piedmont Housing Alliance staff salaries; some councilors also expressed interest in a seed contribution to the Dogwood Veterans Memorial and modest increases for specific arts and social‑service agencies. Sanders said staff had discovered a spreadsheet error in the VCF recommendations for Bridgeline and proposed adding $37,040 to correct that award; the corrected Bridgeline total would be about $56,000 and Sanders said that correction did not need to come from the $1 million discretionary pool because it was a staff computing error.

Ending: Council did not make final allocations at the March 20 meeting; members asked staff to return a revised running tally and funding table before the budget deadlines so councilors could make final decisions during upcoming sessions.