LA MESA TO APPLY FOR GRANT TO AID HOMELESS

City looking into $1M in funds to bring more services to population

La Mesa is vying for a grant that will allow the city to build affordable housing and provide more services to the homeless population.

The City Council last week unanimously approved a grant application to be sent to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for its Permanent Local Housing Allocation program. The program is offering nearly $200 million for local governments throughout the state to provide services and housing to those in need.

La Mesa could request as much as $1.1 million to be given out over a five-year period. The city could qualify for nearly $189,000 in the first year of the program, according to city staff, which said it needed to apply before July 27 in order to be eligible.

The state’s housing/community development department will start issuing award letters between August and October and the city would need to sign an agreement

within 90 days after receiving the letter.

For the city to be eligible, it will be submitting a plan to the PLHA explaining how it will use the money to help homeless individuals and how it will work within the parameters of the city’s housing element of its General Plan.

The city will also be relying on help from the La Mesa Citizens Task Force on Homelessness, which formed one year ago and provides recommendations to the City Council on how La Mesa can help those who are homeless.

The group, including member Bonnie Baranoff, is working on recommendations for how the funding should be used if granted by the state, and will present them to the City Council at a later date.

“If awarded, these funds will be a huge help in paying for forthcoming programs that the Citizens Task Force on the Homeless recommends and that city council approves,” she wrote in an email of support.

La Mesa’s plan for addressing homelessness will include PLHA funding to be used to hire a contracted service provider that can help with rapid re-housing, rental assistance, support and case management, and mental health outreach services for the homeless.

Lyn Dedmon, senior analyst in the City Manager’s Office, said grant monies would also be used toward finding permanent supportive housing; operating/capital costs for emergency shelters; the construction, rehabilitation and preservation of transitional housing; and development and acquisition of different types of housing that is affordable to those from the extremely low-income to moderate-income households.

karen.pearlman @sduniontribune.com