Lake County hears update on transfer of housing commission; staff says services will continue

Lake County supervisors received an update on a planned transfer of the Lake County Housing Commission into a regional public housing authority on the board’s agenda. Theresa Shoen, a manager in the county’s Social Services Department, told the board the timeline has shifted because of a federal Housing and Urban Development shutdown and outstanding questions among partner counties.

The Social Services presenter said the consolidation had been expected to proceed earlier, with staff previously looking at a December timeline after an earlier July target slipped. "We moved to December and then HUD shut down October 1 and that shutdown has greatly impacted quite a bit that's going on with, that, move to regional," Shoen said. She added: "So we are looking at a July 1 implementation date next year."

Supervisor Sabatini asked whether the delay would interrupt services to current program participants. "This, changes nothing for services through July 1 because nothing was being set up and prepared for that transition to happen in January to the point that we're going to lose on any of the services or or, those receiving services?" Sabatini asked. Shoen replied that existing programs "will continue" and described the handoff as a "warm transition," adding that "there will be no, services will not stop during that transition."

Shoen said the regional agreement requires agreement from multiple counties in the region; she named Yolo, Sutter and Colusa and said there is one additional county that she did not name in the update. Rachel Dillman Parsons of the Social Services Department was acknowledged as present and said she had nothing to add.

There were no public comments. The board thanked staff for the update and moved on to the next agenda item. The county staff indicated the next formal milestone will be steps toward implementation pending resolution of the outstanding questions among partner counties and completion of HUD-related processes, with a tentative implementation goal of July 1 next year.