Res 2021-064/approving Substantial Amendment No. 10 to the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Action Plan

Home Browse Search

"sleeds Assess IIIOfiieIIIff"U;;; HUD requires that the Needs Assessment evaluate the three core aspects of recovery — housing (interim and permanent, owner, rental, single-family and multi -family, affordable and market rate), infrastructure, and the economy (e.g., estimated job losses or tax revenue loss due to the disaster). By understanding where its critical needs lie, the City will be able to more effectively allocate the funds as needed and described further on in this Action Plan. The City recognizes that there is still data missing from these calculations and therefore cautions that this is an estimate of need, not a statement of fact. Information regarding NFIP payout amounts, FEMA Public Assistance payment amounts, unidentified disaster impacted projects, and more will be continually coming in and will need to be reviewed and incorporated into future revisions of this Needs Assessment and Action Plan. Finally, the City also wants to note that the current allocation is $25,080,000, which is not anticipated to be enough to cover the needs outlined below. Therefore, the City will need to seek additional ways to leverage these funds and extend the use of this very limited resource. A. Housing a) Baseline Information and Data The City, home to Texas State University (enrollment approximately 39,979) and a frequent tourist destination, has a very young demographic. Data from the American Community Survey (ACS) Data 2010 — 2014 shows that over 42.4% of the population falls in the 18-24 age cohort, with another 24.3% of the population in the 25-44 bracket, while only 6.7% are older than age 65. This young population, and the transient nature of students, lends the housing environment in the City to heavily lean towards rental housing rather than home ownership. As of 2014, there were 18,782 occupied housing units within the City, with 72.8% of all housing units being rentals and only 27.2% of the housing units being owner occupied (ACS Data 2010 — 2014). Based on the total occupied households from all income brackets including both renter and owner -occupied units: Less than 1% live in substandard housing without complete plumbing and/or complete kitchens. • 1.3% are considered to be "severely overcrowded" with more than 1.51 persons per room. • 2.3% are considered to be "overcrowded" with 1.01 to 1.5 persons per room. • 36.6% of homeowners (1,121 households) expend over 30% of their monthly income on housing costs. • 75.1% of renters (9,660 households) expend over 30% of their monthly income on rent. HUD considers any family that expends more than 30% of their monthly income on housing to have a housing cost burden. This is just one of the serious housing problems that HUD looks for in a community. Others include the presence of a disability in the household, substandard or unsafe housing and overcrowding. Of all of these, the primary statistically significant serious problem in the City is the existence of a high cost burden on families, especially for those who rent. Additionally, 33% of housing units are more than 35 years old - this imparts maintenance costs that can be prohibitive for low income households. There are 5,630 non -family households in The City that have a cost burden that exceeds 30% of their monthly income and 3,925 non -family households with a cost burden exceeding 50% of their monthly income. The majority of these are renters. By contrast, there are only 30 non -family households who live in overcrowded (more than 1/per room) conditions. The 2010-14 ACS indicates that 32.8% of the Last Updated 3/03/20 Page 13 of 63