That the City Council conduct a duly noticed public hearing to:
A. Receive public comments;

B. Consider and approve the 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan for the City of La Habra Community Development Block Grant Program;

C. Consider and approve the 2025-2029 Orange County Regional Assessment of Fair Housing;

D. Consider and approve the Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Annual Action Plan for the City of La Habra Community Development Block Grant Program; and,

E. Approve and authorize the City Manager to execute the City of La Habra’s annual application and certifications and submit them to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for its Community Development Block Grant Funding Approval/Agreement in the amount of $594,000. Staff will proportionally increase/decrease recommended amounts for administration and public services projects based on the increased/decreased percentage of the final CDBG allocation. 

As an “Entitlement Grantee,” the City of La Habra (City) receives an annual allocation of federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Entitlement Program.  Entitlement Grantees use CDBG funds to develop local programs geared towards low and moderate-income households in such areas as affordable housing, anti-poverty, and infrastructure development.  Traditionally, the City uses its CDBG Entitlement to assist local non-profits, housing programs, infrastructure, and City activities that comply with HUD’s national objectives to provide adequate housing, safe living environments, and the expansion of economic opportunities for low and moderate-income individuals.

In order to receive this funding, HUD requires the City to submit a Consolidated Plan.  The Consolidated Plan is a five-year planning document which identifies a jurisdiction’s overall housing and community development needs and provides a strategy to address those challenges.  The Plan must be prepared and submitted to HUD every five years and the plan must address the community’s needs in the areas of housing, homelessness, public services, infrastructure and facilities, as well as economic development.  The City has prepared the Draft 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan for the five-year period from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2029. 
 
While the Consolidated Plan is a five-year strategic planning document, short-term investment plans are created for the use of yearly CDBG entitlement funds in what are known as one-year Annual Action Plans.   

The Annual Action Plan summarizes the projects that will be undertaken with HUD CDBG resources for the forthcoming program year. It provides an annual work program of proposed activities and relates these back to the five-year priority needs identified in the Consolidated Plan.

HUD has not yet released final allocation figures for Entitlement Grantees. For budgetary planning purposes, and consistent with past practice, the City’s proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2025-2026 Annual Action Plan is based on the previous year's (FY2024-2025) grant allocation of $594,275. The proposed Annual Action Plan does not include the allocation of any carryover of funds from the prior year. It should be noted that, due to changes in Federal spending priorities and funding allocations, the amount of CDBG funding received by the City has steadily declined over the years. To put this in perspective, in FY2002-2003, the City received a funding allocation of $1,005,000. The currently estimated funding for next fiscal year will likely only be approximately 60 percent of what the City received two decades ago.

The Consolidated Plan and the Action Plan includes a participatory process that gives the public an opportunity to provide input on funding priorities. In accordance with La Habra’s Citizen Participation Plan, this public input process is completed through the La Habra Community Services Commission ("Commission"). The Commission has conducted two public meetings for this purpose. On January 18, 2025 the Commission considered presentations from public service providers and City departments that submitted requests for CDBG funding. On February 12, 2025, the Commission made their final recommendations for funding levels for projects within the "Public Services" category; all other areas of funding are not subject to the Commission's recommendation. In addition to the public meetings before the Community Services Commission and this public hearing before the City Council, the draft Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Annual Action Plan was also made available for public review and comment for a 30-day period on March 21, 2025.  At the time of the preparation of this report, staff had not received any public comments.
 
The tables below list the 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan Goals and Fiscal Year 2025-2026 funding recommendations for the CDBG entitlement funding based on last year's (FY 2024-2025) allocation of $594,275. 

        
Table 2: FY 2025-2026 RECOMMENDED ACTION PLAN ALLOCATIONS

Contingent on City Council approval of the recommended actions, and when HUD provides the final amount that the City will receive for FY 2025-2026, staff will increase or decrease the amount of funding for Administration (limited to 20% of the final amount) and Public Services (limited to 15% of the final amount) on a proportional percentage basis to reflect any changes in the allocation for this fiscal year, while making sure that these modifications do not exceed the percentage cap for either area. For example, if the CDBG allocation is higher than expected, the amount of funding for Administration and Public Services will increase accordingly, and the remaining additional funds will be added to Public Facilities & Improvements.  Staff will not process any sub-recipient agreements until the City has received its final allocation from HUD.
 

The draft 2025-2029 Consolidated Plan and Fiscal Year 2025-2026 Annual Action Plan was made available for public review and comment for a 30-day period from March 21, 2025, to April 21, 2025.  There were no comments received during the public review period. The Annual Action Plan is due to HUD by May 15th of each year.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 requires jurisdictions that receive federal funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the Community Development Block Grant, Emergency Solutions Grant, and/or the HOME Investment Partnerships program to prepare an Assessment of Fair Housing to address the impediments to fair housing choice that are within their ability to control or influence.
 

The HUD Regional Assessment of Fair Housing aims to identify barriers to fair housing and promote inclusive communities within the region. By joining forces with neighboring jurisdictions, the City can collectively assess its current housing landscape, identify areas for improvement, and develop strategies to foster equitable access to housing opportunities for all residents. The City of La Habra joined all the surrounding jurisdictions in Orange County and decided on a collaborative, regional approach to prepare and complete a Regional Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH).  This assessment will determine current impediments to fair housing choice in the private and affordable housing sectors and identify appropriate strategies or remedies to address these impediments for each participating jurisdiction over the next five years from 2025-2029.
 

To identify fair housing issues, HUD recommends that jurisdictions gather and analyze data. For this AFH, the jurisdictions analyzed data on the following topics:

To develop the AFH, information was also gathered from residents, housing professionals, and service providers. Incorporating information from these sources is important for ensuring that the AFH reflects community needs and knowledge that may not be discernible from other data sources. The community participation process for this AFH involved Stakeholder Consultation and Community Meetings.  A total of six community meetings were held in March 2025 to gather public input on the fair housing issues impacting residents of Orange County, and the factors that create, contribute to, perpetuate, or increase the severity of those issues. These meetings included two virtual meetings and four in-person meetings held at the dates, times, and locations listed below:

In-person community meetings:
March 5, 2025, from 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. at Santa Ana City Council Chamber,
22 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701

March 5, 2025, from 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at Santa Ana City Council Chamber,
22 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, CA 92701

March 6, 2025, from 10:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. at La Habra City Hall, Festival Room,
110 East La Habra Boulevard, La Habra, CA 90631
Orange County 4 25-29 Regional AFH

March 6, 2025, from 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at Costa Mesa City Hall, Community Room,
77 Fair Drive, Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Virtual community meetings:
March 7, 2025, at 6:00 p.m., via Microsoft Teams

March 13, 2025, at 1:00 p.m., via Microsoft Teams

Attached is a copy of the draft Regional Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) for City Council review and approval.  Each city is taking the draft AFH to their respective City Councils for review and approval during the months of April and May 2025.

The City of La Habra’s anticipated CDBG entitlement funding amount for FY 2025-2026 is estimated to be a total of $594,000. If City Council approves the recommended actions, and when HUD provides the final amount that the City will receive for FY 2025-2026, staff will increase or decrease the amount of funding for Administration (limited to 20% of the final amount) and Public Services (limited to 15% of the final amount) on a proportional percentage basis, as described in this report. The approval of the Annual Action Plan will have no adverse impact on the City's General Fund.

LU. 2.3 Places to Work
LU. 2.5 Places Supporting the Quality of Life
LU. 17.1 Adequate Community-Supporting Uses
ED. 2.1 Business Attraction
ED. 2.2 One-Stop Business Assistance
ED. 2.3 Business Attraction-Retention
ED.7.1 Adult Health & Lifestyle Enrichment Programs
ED. 7.5 New Homebuyer Counseling
ED. 7.8 Resident Nutrition
H. 2.1 Maintain Residential Character
H. 2.3 Supportive Public Facilities
H.2.8 Rehabilitation & Home Improvement Program
H.3.2 Assistance to Prevent Housing Discrimination
H.3.5 Special Needs of the Homeless

CITY GOALS AND OBJECTIVES:

Goal 2: Management of Public Revenues and Fiscal Assets
Objective B: Regularly review and evaluate programs, services and professional agreements to assess effectiveness and identify opportunities for greater efficiencies and cost containment.
Objective C: Identify and pursue funding opportunities for City capital improvement projects, including City buildings, facilities, infrastructure, and recreational outlets, as well as non-City projects that could be of value to the community, such as local school districts.
Objective G: Pursue grant funding where and when possible to supplement and/or replace direct City funding.
Objective H: Conduct periodic monitoring and submittal of grant reports and requests for reimbursements for capital infrastructure projects. 

Goal 3: Maintenance and Improvement of City Infrastructure
Objective B: Maintain and upgrade City buildings, facilities, and parks.
Objective E: Maintain streets, alleys, sidewalks, and curb ramps citywide

Goal 5: Development Activity and Business Assistance
Objective A: Identify blighted properties within the community and prepare targeted strategies to address the challenge
Objective C: Work closely with commercial and residential property-owners to improve and maintain the appearance of their properties
Objective H: Monitor funding opportunities to develop permanent supportive housing in the community, either at a single site or multiple locations