Flagstaff staff present draft five-year consolidated plan and recommend CDBG allocations for shelters, parks and accessibility

At a Flagstaff City Council work session on April 14, housing staff and consultant Civitas presented the draft five-year consolidated plan and the 2026 annual action plan funding recommendations tied to the city's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) entitlement of about $681,001.96.

Christine Pavlik, housing and grants administrator for the City of Flagstaff, told the council the annual allocation includes $154,000 in deobligated funds and roughly $46,000 in program income, and that the city must comply with HUD's program caps and timely-expenditure rules. "We recently received our entitlement allocation amount from HUD on April 3. This year, our allocation is a little over $681,000," Pavlik said. She described the program's regulatory limits: a 20% cap on administration, a 15% cap on public services, and the timely-expenditure "1.5 test."

Eric Chatham of Civitas LLC, the consultant leading the consolidated-plan assessment, summarized the data driving the plan: Flagstaff's population grew about 15% in the last decade, households increased nearly 21%, median income rose roughly 37% (to about $68,000), while median home values climbed about 90%. Chatham said those trends contribute to high housing cost burdens, especially for…