and determine a reasonable rent amount with the with the landlord participants are very low income persons with adjusted gross income that does not exceed fifty percent of the area median income set by hud annually and in this case for example a single person household would not earn any more than twenty six thousand five hundred per year participants contribute thirty percent of whatever their income is toward rent and home funds make up the difference with payments going directly to the landlord the housing authority is participating in a collaborative pilot project with other providers constituents within the city of santa barbara in an effort to bring about the much needed housing first model to the south coast the additional fifty thousand dollars requested today will provide rental assistance for up to two more years to an additional five tb ra participants those experiencing chronic homelessness with a need for intensive wraparound services the actual number of assisted persons will depend upon the individuals income the rent amount and the term of the assistance although home tb are a grant funds may not be utilized for case management these services are provided to ra clients by the housing authority through their supportive services program the housing authority recognizes the important connection between case management services and successful sustainable housing placements in regard to the requested expansion of the geographic area we all recognize that santa barbara has one of the most expensive housing markets in the country the median rent for studios is approximately one thousand one sixty per month and a one bedroom apartment is currently renting for one thousand five hundred dollars a month high rents exacerbate efforts to move homeless people back into housing and to retain housing for residents who are at risk of becoming homeless expanding the geographic area for this project will allow housing units to be located throughout the south coast area of santa barbara county and as from gaviota to the ventura county line this would facilitate participants leasing more affordable units and sustaining their housing after assistance has ended there are sufficient existing appropriations in the home fund to cover the proposed grant increase in accordance with hud regulations the city must commit forty seven thousand nine hundred and thirty dollars before the end of the city's fiscal year  committing the funds requested here will satisfy this commitment deadline and address critical housing needs so we ask that you consider and recommend that council approve allocating fifty thousand dollars in home funds to increase the two thousand and twelve tbr a grant agreement between the city and the housing authority expanding the expanding the geographic area covered by the agreement extending the agreement term two years to expire in tw seventeen and authorize the community development director to execute documents said to to approval by the city attorney office this concludes my presentation i'm happy to answer any questions and we do have rob pearson from the authority here who is our expert witness thank you you have questions well just to clarify these are the federal grant funds that we are just giving authority to increase the amount by fifty thousand dollars that's the only difference than the previous decision about this program okay so the geographic area is different this time and i understand  established funding source typically it's used to fund affordable housing this is a newer program that recognizes the need for more affordable rentals we receive an entitlement annually similar to the cdbg program and we're under strict regulations as to how to use those funds and they give strict guidelines and timelines for use of the funds and so how much years by almost fifty percent last year i believe our allocation was around four hundred seventy five thousand something like that and so it was upon a time it was a million once upon a time it was yes well over a million okay do all the other cities to the city of cara maria do that and the city of goleta do that does the county do that the county through their consortium receives a home entitlement that they then farm out to various other cities they don't they don't run a program as and the housing knows that the city that then runs a program or does it does it get subbed out to the housing authority authority yes rob stierson speaking for the housing authority the city of santa barbara is an entitlement jurisdiction for home funding i don't i don't believe carpinteria are goleta are but i think they participate through a consortium if you get enough jurisdiction small jurisdictions together you can apply and they do that through the county but the home funding was established the congress to provide additional federal funding for rental housing specifically that is affordable to low income persons in the older days when we got a million dollars we would apply to the city for some of our new construction projects to help us cover the cost the development cost but as the money's gotten smaller and smaller four hundred thousand dollars make it c a unit and a half in today's market to build from the ground up so one of the eligible uses is to create a look alike section eight program and since we're expending all of our section eight funds this is a good way of providing rental housing even though it's a subsidy that gets paid to a private landlord on behalf of our client but it's an eligible use so in working with city staff we said there's this unmet need how can we get because we have our waiting list for section eight how can we get rental assistance subsidies to homeless people in particular so we're able to use home funds to carve out a specific program whereas in section eight we're kind of obligated to serve everybody who's eligible we cannot just focus on homeless so this is a good way of dealing with that population in meeting their housing needs not making them wait for years on our section eight waiting list but to try to deal with homelessness head on through a specific program okay so just to finish this so this is really the way to implement a housing f strategy at a very small level but a significant targeted population exactly okay i mean the numbers i see that you know a homeless person on the street can easily cost your local government thirty to sixty thousand dollars a year depending on how many trips to the emergency room and the like whereas if you can get them housed in a program like this you're probably spending about ten thousand dollars a year with reference services which we're connecting with other service providers like path point and alcohol drug and mental health services to make sure once we cover the housing piece that they're at the table to deliver wraparound services even though they may be enough for private unit with a private landlord