Overview:
City Council has passed two years-long resolutions that aim to help alleviate Fresno's affordable housing crisis.
The Fresno City Council approved two resolutions to assist the city’s unhoused residents and first-time buyers during the meeting on Jan. 18.
Homelessness Encampments
During the Jan. 18 hearing, the Fresno City Council unanimously approved an application submission from the Planning and Development Department to the California Interagency Council On Homelessness to help “provide support and services to unsheltered individuals within the Downtown and Highway 41 encampment area.”
Fresno’s Planning and Development Department plans to submit for the third round of funding from CAL ICH’s Encampment Resolution Funding Program for an amount not exceeding $11 million. The city plans to use the funds to help people living in a homeless encampment that they say borders Barstow Avenue to the north, Highway 41 to the east, Shields Avenue to the south and Blackstone Avenue to the west.
Phil Skei, assistant director for Fresno Planning and Development, addressed questions and concerns by Councilmember Miguel Arias during the hearing. Skei also noted that the city has used ERF funds before.
“You applied for this exact same grant in the last two rounds, where we were able to provide additional and focused outreach…[and] mental health services,” Skei said. “[It] has been a significant…resource for us as a city to be able to evolve our homeless outreach model.”
“The application is going to allow us to serve what we estimate to be somewhere around 400 people,” Skei added.
The city will use the funds toward services like “30 Emergency Shelter beds to serve individuals in the Highway 41 encampment area and 65 Emergency Shelter beds to serve individuals in either encampment area. The City will also fund 100 Room and Board vouchers to assist with transitioning individuals out of Emergency Shelters and into permanent housing,” according to the resolution’s executive summary.
Skei also said during his comments that the 30 emergency shelter beds will be in the Hope Pointe shelter, and that the funds will help “provide funding for the Village of Hope shelter all the way through the term or the duration of [the] grant cycle if awarded, which would be June 30, 2026.”
The city will have until June 24 or until CAL ICH runs out of funds to apply for the funds.
Although the city’s documents say that the application will seek funds not exceeding $10 million, City Clerk Todd Stermer announced at the top of Thursday’s council meeting a correction for the amount to read $11 million.
Heritage Estates
Also on Jan. 18, the City Council approved a permanent local housing project in southwest Fresno.
The Heritage Estates homeownership development project will provide 33 single-family home units in Fresno’s third district on 146 E. Florence Ave., according to a tentative map submitted to the city last March.
The approval comes with a $3 million loan from the Permanent Local Housing Allocation program to the Fresno Housing Authority for the development of the Heritage Estates project, and an authorization of up to $1.4 million in accumulated CalHome Program Income for first-time homebuyer mortgage assistance.
The total cost of the project is “estimated at $11.55 million, and the projected construction completion date is September 2026,” according to the resolution’s executive summary. Construction is expected to begin in April.
Tyrone Roderick Williams, CEO of the Fresno Housing Authority, spoke during public comment on the item to endorse the city’s plan to approve the item. Williams also added that he thinks fondly of the years-long partnership between the Housing Authority and the city of Fresno.
“Our partnership with the city regarding expanding housing options has been quite productive and mutually beneficial. Heritage Estates marks an expansion of our commitment to providing affordable housing,” Williams said.
About 25 of the 33 units will be set aside as “PLHA-assisted [units] and preserved as very low- and low-income housing to those earning 50% to 80% of area median income (AMI).”
The California Department of Housing and Community Development identifies people who make between 50-to-80% of an area’s AMI as “Very Low Income” and “Lower Income,” respectively. 50-to-80% of the AMI for the Heritage Estates area is between $39,700 and $63,520, according to data from Fannie Mae.
