Council presses for a comprehensive accounting of housing funds rolling into FY22

Council members pressed staff for more detail on housing allocations in the proposed CIP and related operating-budget items. Councilwoman Snead said she wanted to understand what the housing improvement fund, the housing improvement grant, redevelopment funding and the model block program will actually purchase and whether those dollars will meaningfully raise home values, Hampton’s major revenue source.

City Manager Mary Bunting told the council that some housing initiatives were placed in the operating budget rather than the capital budget and that unspent housing capital funds from the previous year rolled into the upcoming year. Bunting said Assistant City Manager Brian De Profio is compiling a spreadsheet that will show the different funding pots and rollovers. “Brian De Profio, assistant city manager, is working on putting together a spreadsheet of all the money, out of the different pots of allocation,” Bunting said. Staff agreed to provide that information before the evening public hearing and vote.

Council members asked that the spreadsheet detail how much is rolling over into each project and which funds are available to address housing-stock improvements. The manager said the city had added some housing money to the operating budget to support the model block initiative and that additional resources may be available from housing-authority projects.