Pitiful Turnout For Consolidated Plan Workshop

SPARSE TURNOUT FOR WORKSHOP
The second and final community outreach workshop for the City of Costa Mesa Consolidated Plan was held tonight at the Costa Mesa Senior Center and about a dozen souls attended the presentation.  One early arrival left a few minutes into the meeting for another meeting and four people arrived a few minutes late.  We were told by those in charge that it actually doubled the turnout for the first one, but that's the one with almost no notification in advance.  In fact, in response to a question, we were told that this is an excellent turnout for a city our size.  Now, THAT is depressing!  Among the residents who turned out tonight were two former council candidates - Jay Humphrey and Tony Capitelli and Crissy Brooks Nolf, who runs a social service agency in the city that has been a recipient of CDBG funds in the past.

CONSULTANTS
Mike Linares led off the discussion with a very brief overview.  He then handed off the remainder of the very informal meeting to John Oshimo, President of GRC Associates, the consulting organization assisting the city with the preparation of this plan - a critical, esssential requirement to meet the qualifications for Federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funding.  Among the things we learned tonight was that the funding for both Federal Grants Costa Mesa currently receives - the CDBG and HOME - is way down from previous years and is expected to drop another 7% for the 2016/2017 year.  We were told the complete slide show from this presentation will be uploaded to the City web site soon.

SURVEY PARTICIPATION IMPORTANT
The main point the consultants tried to get across was the need for residents to participate in the online survey, which can be found on the City website HERE.  The deadline for participation in the survey was to have been February 17th, but the consultants agreed to keep it open through the end of the month to provide the opportunity for more community participation.

CURRENT SURVEY RESULTS
As of tonight there had been 101 surveys completed.  Here are a few slides showing the results of the concerns of those participating.

As you can see from that final slide, the areas of greatest concern as compiled from those 101 surveys indicate that Anti-Crime Services and Homeless Services hold the top spots.

SCHEDULE
Here is the schedule of events for the completion of the Consolidated Plan:

The consultants will next meet with the Housing & Public Services Ad-Hoc Committee - the remnant of the old 3R committee - to gain their input.  That data, plus the survey data, will be combined with boilerplate information provided by HUD for the completion of the Plan.  The draft Consolidated Plan should be completed in March and be available for public review for a month.  Sometime in April the Plan will be presented to the City Council, who will adopt it and, prior to May 15, 2015, the adopted Consolidated Plan will be submitted to HUD.

PLEASE TAKE TIME TO DO THE SURVEY

I encourage you to follow that link above to the survey and complete it.  It doesn't take long.  Keep in mind, this survey is only for certain qualifying areas within the city, so follow the instructions carefully.  Thanks, in advance, for your participation.  The other nineteen people who took time out of their busy lives to attend the one of the two workshops also thank you.