Committee discusses pledging up to $1 million to acquire temporary supportive housing downtown

Committee members discussed a proposal to reserve up to $1 million from the affordable housing fund to partner with service providers to acquire property or buildings for temporary emergency supportive housing focused on people sleeping downtown.

As the speaker described the funding option, they said the plan would be "a pledge a pledge of up to a million dollars for the purposes of partnering with um one or more of the service providers to acquire uh property {slash} building to provide temporary emergency supportive housing," and noted that the precise delivery mechanism — whether grant to a public partner (for example the housing authority) or a competitive process — would be decided later and would be outlined in an administrator recommendation. Staff told the committee the funds would be fenced for that purpose and that more detail would come back in writing in a manager's memo.

Members asked that written MOUs or memoranda show the roles of service providers and that the manager's office include specifics about how the money would be spent, with several members stressing they needed the coordination commitments in writing before final approval of funding.