Auburn reports $4.9M spent on community programs in 2025; reporting anomaly inflates 'people served' counts

City staff presented Auburn’s 2025 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report (CAPER) at the March 23 study session, outlining grant spending and program outcomes under the consolidated block grant (CDBG) and related funding.

Manager Davidson summarized expenditures and goals, saying the city made approximately $4.9 million in community investments during 2025 across homelessness response, affordable housing and community‑economic development. Of the reported expenditures, Davidson said about $3.5 million went to homelessness programs (day/night shelter operations, outreach team, utility discounts and veteran services), roughly $822,000 supported affordable housing activities, and about $398,000 was used for community and economic development projects such as sidewalk completion and micro‑enterprise assistance.

Davidson told council that reimbursement timing from HUD and a prior federal funding pause delayed spending; as a result about $480,000 of 2025 HUD funds remained unspent at the time of the report. "We finally got our award in 2025," Davidson said, noting the city reimbursed only administrative expenses earlier in the year because of federal timing uncertainty.

Council members probed the data behind the CAPER. A substantial reporting anomaly centered on HealthPoint, a regional health provider that reports client counts that are not tied to the Auburn funding amounts. Davidson said HealthPoint’s reporting system does not reliably separate Auburn residents or map counts to the dollar value Auburn provided, which creates a large "unknown" category in the demographic slides. Davidson proposed scaling or listing partner results at their stated goals to remove the outlier effect and make per‑person costs more meaningful.

Council members also questioned a gap between HUD projections and actuals in the report: Davidson acknowledged the figures show a large difference (for example, a projected 300 versus a reported figure in the tens of thousands in some slide summaries) and attributed much of the difference to economic pressures in 2025 — benefit disruptions, higher housing and utility costs, and expanded needs at food banks and other service providers.

Davidson said staff will continue pushing regional partners for improved reporting and will provide a clearer expenditure breakdown on request. The CAPER is a report to council and HUD and does not require council approval at this meeting.

What’s next: staff will work with regional partners to improve data alignment, provide requested line‑item breakdowns to council members and refine 2026 projections in next year’s consolidated plan.