HCD presents $5.6M operating budget and outlines path to scale housing production to ~500 units

Ashley Cash, director of Housing & Community Development, presented the FY27 operating budget (operating-only) totaling $5,600,000 and noted it excludes the federal budget, which will be presented separately. She said HCD will operate with 61 funded positions (down from 70 primarily due to vacancies) and 13 grant-funded positions that do not hit the general fund.

Cash outlined major programmatic areas: down payment assistance (up to $25,000 per first-time buyer; FY26 produced 86 awards), home repair and rehab (66 projects at roughly $22,000 per unit in FY26), neighborhood partnership grants (about $223,000 across 18 grants in FY26), and homelessness supports ($3,000,000 across various programs with $283,000 in ESG so far). She said the division currently has about 161 units under construction and that recent and upcoming federal funding will allow a step-up in production.

When asked about the mayor's 10,000-unit target, Cash said the city's baseline output is about 500 units a year with the right mix of federal funding, HOME dollars and other sources. She identified specific funding shifts intended to raise production: $2,000,000 additional HOME funds, $4,000,000 in reallocated CDBG to infill/new construction and a sewer-fee revenue stream expected to raise approximately $1.5M'$3M for the affordable housing trust fund in early years. "That should produce an additional 266 units above what we generally do," she said, describing a combined-year boost.

Councilwoman Green and others pressed for transparency on large projects' ongoing costs, asking staff to itemize debt service related to Liberty Park and other projects. Cash said Liberty Park has received approximately $114,000,000 in allocations since 2017 and that debt service payments were being made (roughly $1.8M already with about $3.6M to be paid by the end of June), and CFO Walter Person agreed to provide an itemized debt-service breakdown for council review.

Cash said HCD will return in June with a comprehensive plan describing annual targets, funding sources and monitoring approaches, and that the division's compliance department monitors projects for spending and outcomes.