Sedona council directs staff to prepare amended state grant application for rental assistance to serve people experiencing homelessness

After a public hearing and nearly two hours of staff presentations and public comment, the council directed staff to prepare an amended scope-of-work and application to the Arizona Department of Housing (ADO) to reallocate Homeless Shelter and Services Fund (HSSF) monies toward a Sedona Rental Assistance Program.

Staff said the state designated roughly $875,000 for Sedona to address homelessness; the housing department and Catholic Charities proposed a short-to-medium-term rapid-rehousing model that would provide housing search, move-in assistance, security deposits, short-term rental subsidy, supportive case management, and landlord outreach. The proposed contract term is 24 months, and Catholic Charities would hire and operate case-management staff; staff and Catholic Charities committed to monthly reporting, audits and program metrics.

Council and the public probed several program design and oversight issues: how Sedona "nexus" or local-priority would be established in eligibility, whether the ADO would permit residency preferences or would require broader eligibility, the program's audit and oversight mechanisms, the ratio of direct client assistance to administrative costs, selection of Catholic Charities as the contract operator because it is the Local Coalition to End Homelessness (LCEH) representative for Northern Arizona, and how program exits and noncompliance would be handled. Catholic Charities described prior rapid-rehousing experience and reported high exit-to-permanent-housing rates in its other Northern Arizona programs and said it expected more than half the funds to go to direct client assistance with case management and limited administrative overhead.

Public comment was mixed. Housing providers and nonprofit leaders (Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona, Sedona Community Center) supported using the funds for rental assistance and described the large barrier that move-in costs present; other residents opposed using the funds for rental subsidies, arguing the program could attract additional homeless people to Sedona. Several councilors pressed staff to require a clear Sedona nexus for prioritization if the state would allow it; staff and the city attorney said they would seek ADO guidance and return to council with eligibility language and contractual protections.

Final council action: the council voted to authorize staff to prepare an amended application and a proposed scope of work for submission to ADO (motion approved, tally: 5 yes, 1 no, 1 abstain). The motion authorizes staff to seek ADO approval of a rental-assistance approach; if ADO approves the scope and the state awards funds, a city contract with Catholic Charities would return to council for approval. Council members stressed the authorization was a procedural step to pursue state funds and not final program approval.

Why it matters: The reallocation, if approved by ADO and later by council as part of a contract, would bring state-funded rapid-rehousing and short-term rental assistance to Sedona, and would be the city's most direct local program targeted at people who are living in vehicles or otherwise experiencing homelessness. Council requested that staff negotiate program language that clearly prioritizes Sedona residents where ADO policy allows.

Provenance: Housing presentation and Catholic Charities Q&A (01:49:51'03:18:58); public commenters in favor and opposed (02:46:35'03:18:58); motion and roll-call tally (03:18:58).