Lake County Housing Commission approves letter supporting voluntary transfer to Regional Housing Authority

The Lake County Housing Commission on Feb. 3 approved a letter to the City of Colusa supporting a voluntary transfer of Lake County’s public housing programs to the Regional Housing Authority and authorized the chair to sign the amended document.

Rachel Dillman Parsons, executive director of the Lake County Housing Authority, told commissioners that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had requested that member boards of the regional authority indicate support. Parsons said the county-run housing authority operates Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers (HCV), Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (VASH) and a small remaining load of Emergency Housing Vouchers (EHV), and that the authority is administered by the county social services department.

"LCHC is in good standing with sufficient funding for current operations but lacks the ability to grow," Parsons said while reading the draft. She described the RHA as a larger authority that could combine funding and staff to expand services, pursue project-based vouchers, and support family self-sufficiency programs to reduce homelessness.

Parsons asked the commission to approve a corrected version of the letter and to authorize the chair to sign. She noted a drafting error: the letter should be addressed to the City of Colusa City Council rather than the Colusa County Board of Supervisors, and she asked that a misspelled word and the signature line be fixed before signing.

Supervisor Sabatier moved to approve the letter "as amended," noting a requested capitalization fix; the motion was seconded. The chair called the vote and the motion carried 6–0.

The approved letter, dated 02/03/2026, outlines the mutual benefits the commission says would result from a voluntary transfer to RHA, including greater staffing and combined funding to expand housing services in the region. The commission did not take additional action beyond approving and authorizing the chair to sign the amended letter.

Next steps: the chair will sign the corrected letter and staff will provide the City of Colusa with the commission’s statement of support as requested.