REPORT TO HOUSING AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMISSION
SUBJECT
Title
Review of 2024/25 Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER)
Report
BACKGROUND
The Consolidated Annual Performance Evaluation Report (CAPER) is an annual performance report on the housing and community development activities funded by two federal grants received annually by the City: the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and the HOME Investment Partnership Programs grant (HOME). The CAPER describes the accomplishments and status of each of the grant-funded activities identified in the 2024/25 HUD Action Plan and has been prepared in compliance with HUD requirements.
The period covered by the draft CAPER, provided in Attachment 1, is fiscal year (FY) 2024/25, which marks the fifth year of the 2020-2025 Five-Year Consolidated Plan . The CAPER is required by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the federal agency which administers these grants. It must be submitted to HUD within 90-days of the end of each Fiscal Year to maintain the City’s ongoing eligibility for these grants.
EXISTING POLICY
2020-2025 HUD Consolidated Plan:
Goal A Assist in the creation, improvement, and preservation of affordable housing for lower-income and special needs households.
Goal B Alleviation of Homelessness
Goal C Support provision of essential human services, particularly for special needs populations.
Goal D Expanding Economic Opportunities
ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW
This matter is not a project within the meaning of CEQA, because the creation of government funding mechanisms or other government fiscal activities, such as annual grant reporting, do not involve commitments to any specific project which may result in a potentially significant physical impact on the environment (CEQA Guideline15378(b)(4)).
DISCUSSION
Eligible Uses of the Grants
The CDBG and HOME grants may only be used for activities that will primarily benefit the City's lower-income residents and neighborhoods. CDBG funds may be used for housing and community development activities, such as housing rehabilitation, public services, public improvements and facilities, economic development, and certain other narrowly defined community development activities. HOME grants may only be used for the creation and preservation of housing affordable to lower-income residents, specifically: new construction, acquisition, and/or rehabilitation of deed-restricted affordable rental housing, tenant-based rental assistance (TBRA), or down-payment assistance programs. Both grants allow a limited amount of the funds to be used for program administration by the City. The draft CAPER confirms that the City has complied with these spending limitations during the past fiscal year.
Grant Reporting Requirements
The HOME and CDBG grants are subject to federal regulations that impose reporting requirements and expenditure time limits on all grantee jurisdictions. The primary reporting requirements are the following:
• Five-Year Consolidated Plan ("ConPlan"). The ConPlan is a five-year strategic plan that identifies the housing and community development needs of lower-income residents and neighborhoods of the City, based on community input. The ConPlan also prioritizes these needs, identifies funding available to the City to address them (primarily the CDBG and HOME grants), and establishes annual goals and objectives to meet the identified needs using the grant funds.
• Annual Action Plans. The Action Plan is essentially a one-year budget and grant application describing the proposed uses of the City's CDBG and HOME funds during the coming fiscal year. HUD must approve each Action Plan on or before July 1 of each year so the City can begin using the grant funds. Each Action Plan is appended into the ConPlan after approval by HUD.
• Annual Performance Report ("CAPER"). The CAPER describes each grantee jurisdiction's progress in implementing its most recent Action Plan. It includes a summary of the City's grant expenditures and the accomplishments of the grant-funded activities, many of which are implemented by non-profit agencies or "sub-recipients".
The City must prepare and submit the CAPER to HUD within ninety days of the end of each program year. The CAPER allows both local and federal stakeholders to see how grantees around the country are using HUD funds, and how well the grant-funded activities are performing.
The above plans and reports must be shared in draft form with the community to give local stakeholders an opportunity to comment and request changes before the plans and reports are submitted to HUD. The City publishes notices in the Sunnyvale Sun and on its website, and holds public hearings before the Housing and Human Services Commission (and City Council, in the case of the ConPlan and Action Plans) before each draft plan is finalized and sent to HUD.
Draft 2024/25 CAPER
The draft CAPER describes the progress made toward achieving the housing and community development goals and objectives identified in the ConPlan and FY 2024/25 Annual Action Plan. The CAPER was prepared using accomplishment data reported by the City's sub-recipients, borrowers, and sub-grantees. In general, the City's funded activities were successfully implemented during the past fiscal year, and many lower-income households benefited from the programs and projects funded by the grants. These activities helped many residents obtain jobs, housing, and human services addressing basic needs.
Summary of Program Performance
Among the funded programs, almost all met or exceeded their performance goals, outlined below. HUD funded programs assisted 613 households (573 CDBG, 40 HOME). These programs fell within the strategic objectives of the Con Plan, including homelessness, affordable housing, expanding economic opportunities, and community development efforts.
Project Sentinal was the only agency that fell short of its annual performance goal of serving 31 individuals at risk of losing their housing. The agency attributed this shortfall to other funding impacts.
|
Funding Source |
Program |
Agency |
Budget |
Actual |
Performance Goal |
Actual |
|
CDBG |
Family and Individual Counseling |
Bill Wilson Center |
25,000.00 |
25,000.00 |
29 |
58 |
|
|
Court Appointed Special Advocates |
Child Advocates of Silicon Valley |
25,000.00 |
24,999.55 |
12 |
12 |
|
|
Senior Nutrition Program |
Sunnyvale United Methodist Church |
35,203.00 |
35,203.00 |
50 |
51 |
|
|
Year-Round Food Program |
Sunnyvale Community Services (SCS) |
48,000.00 |
48,000.00 |
273 |
273 |
|
|
Domestic Violence Supportive Services |
YWCA Silicon Valley |
25,000.00 |
23,758.43 |
46 |
68 |
|
|
Fair Housing |
Project Sentinel |
25,000.00 |
25,000.00 |
31 |
20 |
|
|
WorkFirst Sunnyvale |
SCS & Downtown Streets Team |
511,811.00 |
418,230.34 |
60 |
69 |
|
|
Carroll Inn Energy Efficiency Rehab |
Carroll St Inn |
490,000.00 |
490,000.00 |
121 |
121 |
|
|
Minor Rehab Grants Program - HIP |
City of Sunnyvale |
250,000.00 |
197,526.34 |
20 |
20 |
|
|
Major Rehab Loan Program |
City of Sunnyvale |
136,452.00 |
44,894.52 |
2 |
2 |
|
HOME |
Tenant-Based Rental Assistance |
Sunnyvale Community Services (SCS) |
1,000,000.00 |
707,170.00 |
40 |
40 |
Program Expenditures
Most of the programs funded through CDBG and HOME expended their full funding allocations in the 24-25 cycle. A few programs listed below faced some challenges worth noting.
CDBG
- WorkFirst Sunnyvale - The Workfirst program provides job skills training and targeted employment case management to people experiencing homelessness and assists the program participants with securing employment while offering volunteer opportunities to beautify the City. The program spent about 82% of their budget and reported this was due to staff turnover throughout the year and some ongoing staff vacancies within the Downtown Streets Team agency.
- Home Improvement Programs (Rehab) -The Minor Rehab Grants Program provides small grants of up to $15,000 for minor home repairs. The budget increased significantly this year to $250,000 due to prior year demand for the program. Staff capacity mostly kept the budget from being entirely spent.
- The Major Rehab Loan Program provides loans of up to $40,000 to low-income households in need of major home repairs such as new roofing. This program is not as widely used as the Minor Rehab Grant Program, though it met its goal of providing 2 loans, it fell a bit short of expending the full allocation due to the homeowner applicants needing smaller loans.
- Carroll St Inn Rehab Loan - While this project will not be closed out in the CAPER in 24-25, all $490,000 in funding was fully expended this program year. The existing affordable housing development on Carroll St that includes 121 single-room occupancy units, made substantial progress updating their HVAC system to be more energy efficient and replacing an aging system. The project included over $2M in upgrades, of which the City funded over 20%. The project is estimated to be completed in October 2025 and will be included in next year’s CAPER.
HOME
- Tenant-Based Rental Assistance (TBRA) - The TBRA program spent approximately 71% of their HOME funds this year. The program went through some changes, implementing utility allowances and strengthening the application process, towards the end of the program year causing a drop in new participants. The program is expected to gear up again this FY to full capacity; Sunnyvale Community Services continues to work closely with the City to ensure success of the program.
-
Comments provided by the Commission and/or members of the public during or prior to the hearing will be addressed in the final CAPER. Written comments received during the comment period, which runs from September 9 to September 24, will be included with the CAPER upon submittal to HUD.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no cost or fiscal impact related to approving this report, however timely submission of the CAPER allows the City to remain in good standing as a CDBG and HOME grantee and continue receiving both grants.
PUBLIC CONTACT
Public contact was made by posting of the Human Services Commission agenda on the City's official-notice bulletin board at City Hall and on the City’s website.
Notice of a public hearing, including a 15-day public comment and review period, was published in a legal advertisement in the Sunnyvale Sun newspaper on September 12, 2025. A copy of that notice is included in the CAPER. The draft CAPER was made available for public review on the City Housing website for the 15-day review period - and the public was notified that they could reach out to the Housing Division to request a hard-copy or electronic version of the CAPER.
ALTERNATIVES
1. Approve the draft CAPER as presented in Attachment 1 of the staff report.
2. Approve the draft CAPER with modifications
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Alternative 1: Approve the draft CAPER as presented in Attachment 1 of the staff report.
JUSTIFICATION FOR RECOMMENDATION
The CAPER is required to be submitted to HUD each year by September 28, 2025 in order for the City to receive its annual funding award. Staff will address public comments in the final version of the CAPER.
Levine Act
LEVINE ACT
The Levine Act (Gov. Code Section 84308) prohibits city officials from participating in certain decisions regarding licenses, permits, and other entitlements for use if the official has received a campaign contribution of more than $500 from a party, participant, or agent of a party or participant in the previous 12 months. The Levine Act is intended to prevent financial influence on decisions that affect specific, identifiable persons or participants. For more information see the Fair Political Practices Commission website: www.fppc.ca.gov/learn/pay-to-play-limits-and-prohibitions.html
An “X” in the checklist below indicates that the action being considered falls under a Levine Act category or exemption:
SUBJECT TO THE LEVINE ACT
___ Land development entitlements
___ Other permit, license, or entitlement for use
___ Contract or franchise
EXEMPT FROM THE LEVINE ACT
___ Competitively bid contract*
___ Labor or personal employment contract
___ Contract under $50,000 or non-fiscal
___ Contract between public agencies
_X_ General policy and legislative actions
* "Competitively bid" means a contract that must be awarded to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder.
Staff
Prepared by: Matthew Hazel, Housing Programs Analyst
Reviewed by: Amanda Sztoltz, Housing Officer
Approved by: Trudi Ryan, Director, Community Development
ATTACHMENTS
1. Draft 2024/25 CAPER
2. Supplemental 2024/25 CAPER Goals and Accomplishments
3. Link to 2020-2025 ConPlan and most recent Action Plans and CAPERs
https://www.sunnyvale.ca.gov/homes-streets-and-property/housing