Low-income housing money is untouched

More than $25,000 from HUD grant in city coffers

By Oakley Brooks

More than $25,000 set aside for low-income housing programs has languished unspent in the city's coffers since 1997, despite calls from citizens and teachers for some sort of housing assistance for teachers and city employees this year.

The city has also spent nearly a year grappling with the lack of affordable housing in Saratoga in coming up with a housing plan to meet state approval.

The city council first publicly discussed the undesignated grant money--$25,365 from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD)--at a March 20 meeting, and several council members wondered how the money had been overlooked.

"It's awfully hard to sign on to the housing element plan when we have no use for low-income housing funds already in the budget," Vice Mayor Evan Baker said.

Councilmembers reluctantly handed the state sites of potential high-density, low- and moderate-income housing, as part of the housing element recently submitted to the state's housing office.

Paule Reeve, a city analyst who oversaw the HUD community grant program for several years until 2001, said she believes the funds in question had been set aside for a start-up home administered by a county senior housing program called Project Match. The project sets up rent-subsidized homes and currently operates a five-bedroom home on Blauer Drive. But Reeve said a drive to start a second home fell through in the late 1990s when Project Match couldn't afford a piece of land in Saratoga.

The city's contribution toward that second home went unspent, Reeves said.

Project Match did receive $28,200 toward its Blauer Drive home, as part of the recent allocation of HUD grants approved March 20.

But the '97 funds will likely be diverted toward curb improvements for disabled access in the upcoming Gateway revitalization, because city officials fear that the funds will be lost if they aren't used this year.

In January, the city received a letter from the county--which distributes HUD grant money--saying that grants would be lost if they weren't used quickly.

"It's kind of a 'use it or lose it' situation," said City Assistant Planner Lata Vasudevan, who now oversees Saratoga's HUD grants.

City Manager Dave Anderson, who administered similar grants in other cities in California before coming to Saratoga, said that HUD typically requires money to be spent rapidly.

"There's a general acknowledgment that old money, past a couple of years, is bad and you need to reprogram it," said Anderson.

But Lisa Liu, who co-chairs the Saratoga Teacher Housing Initiative, said she's disappointed that city officials didn't recognize sooner that housing money was available. Liu said it could have been put toward the county Housing Trust fund, which Saratoga contributed $25,000 to this year. Or, Liu said, the money could have been used to set up a rent subsidy program, which she and initiative members advocated for throughout the past year.

"We expressed our concerns to the city council several times this year," Liu said. "I'm surprised, if they've known about [the unspent money]."

Although the council apparently did not know about the unspent housing money, Vice Mayor Baker said March 20 that he wanted the city to look into a rent/mortgage subsidy fund, like the one Los Gatos provides for top officials in city government.

First, however, the city must find funds to support such a program.

The rest of the $175,046 in HUD grants given to Saratoga were allocated to other programs March 20.

The senior council received $35,793 for its adult day care services, the Hakone Foundation garnered $50,000 for handicapped access improvements to its garden (as part of its lease agreement with the city), and the county claimed another $20,000 for the administration of a housing rehabilitation program. The remaining funds went to the Gateway curb project and grants program administration.

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