Agenda Item Name:
Title
Recommended County Community Redevelopment Grants for the Gainesville Metropolitan Area
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Presenter:
Edgar Campa-Palafox and Sean McLendon
Description:
This agenda item brings back the ranked applications with a recommendation to award of two grants that best meet the Board’s criteria to promotes community redevelopment via economic development services in the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
Recommended Action:
Recommended Action
Approve a $50,000 award to Working Food and a $50,000 award to Rebuilding Together North Central Florida from the County’s Community Redevelopment Grant for the Gainesville Metropolitan Area. Authorize the County Manager to sign agreements with non-profits after the Board’s award.
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Prior Board Motions:
At the Board’s May 12 consent agenda, the Board approved the finalized grant criteria and application. Directed staff to solicit and bring back ranked applications to the earliest possible County Commission meeting for review and award. Authorized the County Manager to sign agreements with non-profits after the Board’s award.
At the Board’s February 11, regular meeting Commissioner Cornell moved to direct staff to return with finalized criteria for community redevelopment grants within the Gainesville Metropolitan Area and create a final application process for professional services grants for FY20 and develop a list of infrastructure projects for FY21. The motion carried 4-0 with Commissioner Chestnut absent. 2nd Wheeler
Fiscal Consideration:
Fiscal Consideration
Account 001.17.1770.552.46.00 budget $100,000
The resources for these efforts would be funded from a portion of financial contributions committed by the County to the Gainesville Community Revitalization Area agreement (GCRA). In 2020 the first year, the increment available for economic development projects will be $100,000 growing by $100,000 per year over ten years per Section 3 of the GCRA agreement. Alachua County's total commitment to the GCRA starting in 2020 is $4,191,460 with an increment draw down of $100,000 annually for 10 years to reach equity between the City and County's commitment. At year ten of the agreement, the City and County will contribute an equal amount of $3,325,657 per year.
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Background:
If approved by the Board, the recommended action will award two $50,000 grants for professional services effecting employment opportunities, food systems and the built environment, and residential energy efficiency for low-income and elderly populations in Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
For FY20, the two best ranked applications also take into consideration how their proposal will address COVID-19 impacts in the community.
Next fiscal year’s ranking of applications will move to the Board’s Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) for review and ranking.
Overview
Grant applications from Working Food, Rebuilding Together North Central Florida, and the Neighborhood Housing & Development Corporation (NHDC) were received prior to the 5 PM May 27, deadline.
All three were qualified applicants meeting the non-profit organizations with 501c3 status requirements.
The total requested from all applicants combined was $150,000.
Up to 105 points were awarded per applications by the Office of Resilience, Climate Change, and Sustainability based on the applicant’s responses to the key performance indicators in the grant. Scores were averaged together from the evaluation team into final score. Staff is recommending that the Working Food and Rebuilding Together applications be fully funded because of their high scores meeting key performance indicators and grant criteria. Staff is not recommending funding for NHDC because of its poor performance at meeting the grant criteria. The final scoring matrix is provided as an attachment for Board review.
Summary of Applications
Working Food Proposal (Final Average Score 101 points)
Support Local Farms, Pilot Youth Culinary Career Program, Expand Local Food Entrepreneurs
Total Funding Request: $50,000
Summary of Major Outcomes:
• Identify economic opportunities for North Central Florida small and mid-sized farm operators to increase the volume, diversity, and seasonal availability of specialty crops sold to food service and possible storage for crisis response.
• Pilot a culturally competent youth culinary program that provides cooking, nutrition, and food safety skills while also connecting students to the heritage of their food and future career opportunities.
• Create a Strategic Plan and curriculum outline for a culinary training program that would provide cooking, nutrition, food safety, job and entrepreneurial skills related to the food industry.
• Expanded use of local food with incubating entrepreneurs at Working Food.
Executive Summary of the Grant Request: In order to assist with the county’s comprehensive planning Objective 1.7, to maximize local resource & energy-efficient food production and processing within the County’s local foodshed, Seed to Plate aims to increase education and demand for local food, develop a plan for needed culinary skills training, and accelerate food system innovation in Alachua County to address healthy food access and local food systems development. It will focus on two synergistic planning projects that will provide guidance for how we can stimulate local food industries and protect public health by improving food access. Further, it will expand opportunities for education on cooking, food safety, and nutrition, including life and jobs-related skills training, to increase better eating habits, workforce participation, and better employment opportunities in our food system. In order to achieve these goals, Seed to Plate will:
- Research possibilities for aggregation and processing for regional farmers in order to expand food security, connecting farms to food service, and provide guidance to building local food infrastructure and food systems-related jobs in Alachua County.
- Develop a strategic plan for collaborating with area educational institutions and community organizations on a culinary training program that would provide job skills and entrepreneurial skills development to ensure a skilled workforce and business development as our local food system expands.
- Deliver education programs for at-risk youth in culinary arts, science, and culture in order to inspire a new generation of eaters attuned to local food and inspired for careers in the food system.
Some of the key gaps in our local food system include the infrastructure to aggregate, process and distribute local food, as well as the workforce to serve this industry as it develops. This project will explore the intersection of supply and demand in our existing food system to provide foundational knowledge that will help plan for safe, affordable access to local food by identifying potential value-added products useful for food service and storable for long-term and crisis response needs. During Covid-19, it became clear that our local food system is critical to our food security. Not only do we need to ensure local markets for fresh products growing in farm fields, but we also need to explore how we can process and store these products to make them more accessible and convenient during good times and available when a crisis occurs. By identifying the needs of food service and local retail that match with production capabilities of our local farms, we can plan for investment that will make sense for both economic development and disaster-mitigation. This data will also provide options for targeted infrastructure investment as development of a Food Hub in East Gainesville is taking shape through the GCRA plan. Finally, during this process we can identify and support opportunities for our incubating clients at Working Food to integrate local food products into their operations.
Several years of working with aspiring entrepreneurs, food service professionals, restaurateurs, and farmers has highlighted the extreme need for robust training programs that can support low-income and under-employed people to gain the skills they need to pursue careers or business ideas in the food industry. While there is no lack of demand for our incubation services, the lack of baseline skills in the aspiring entrepreneurs, and a lack of coordinated resources to facilitate their success in our community has made our incubation program struggle. This project would develop a strategic plan and curriculum outline to provide culinary training, nutrition education, food-related job skills and entrepreneurial training to address this need. Targeted for under-served and vulnerable community members in Gainesville, and built in collaboration with stakeholders such as Santa Fe College, UF Entrepreneurship Program, Eastside High School, Greater Duval Neighborhood Asso., CareerSource, and other stakeholders,
Finally, this project will build educated eaters, cultural identity, and community understanding of local food, nutrition and food safety with youth. By working with multicultural chefs that can provide fun, age-appropriate activities and education on cooking skills, cultural food identity, nutrition, and food safety, we will build a strong foundation of food literacy with the next generation of citizens and leaders. This effort would dovetail directly into the culinary training program and research portion of the project, as it would build an educated consumer base for local food, inspire cultural connection to local food, and highlight food systems career focuses for youth.
Rebuilding Together North Central Florida (Final Average Score 88 points)
Emergency Home Repair, Utility Use and Cost Reduction Home Tune-Ups
Total Funding Request: $50,000
Summary of Major Outcomes:
Goals
1) Ensure vulnerable individuals can shelter in place safely, minimizing spread of COVID-19 and reducing strain on local hospitals and social systems in the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
2) Aid the most impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, including seniors and minorities, to maintain financial security.
3) Improve the physical, psychological, and financial health of vulnerable communities including minorities, families, seniors, and disabled households living in poverty.
4) Expand access to affordable, adequate housing in the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
5) Preserve and promote economic equity through homeownership in the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
6) Increase conservation of energy and water in the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
7) Reduce risk of homelessness of low-income homeowners in the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
8) Reduce or prevent the development and spread of slum and blight in the Gainesville Metropolitan Area via rehabilitation of existing residential properties.
9) Mitigate absenteeism of impoverished and minority communities due to health and financial instabilities caused by substandard living environments, thereby increasing educational attainment and economic equity.
10) Support apprenticeship and employment opportunities for vocational trades in vulnerable populations by utilizing minority- and woman-owned subcontractors.
Objectives
1) Complete a minimum of 10 Emergency Repairs at income-limited homeowner-occupied residences within the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
2) Reduce the conditions that endanger the health of residents and/or contribute to structural deterioration at homes served by the Emergency Repair Program.
3) Increase the safety and independence of elderly and/or disabled residents served by the Emergency Repair Program via provision of needed accessibility modifications.
4) Supply a minimum of 15 DIY Tune-Up kits to income-limited residences within the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
5) Reduce utility costs for at least 60% of households served by the DIY Tune-Up program.
6) Increase subcontracted labor utilized by 20%.
7) Support local minority- and woman-owned businesses via utilization of subcontracted services.
Indicators
1) Number of households that received repairs via the Emergency Repair Program.
2) Number of time-sensitive major housing concerns hazardous to health/safety and/or structural stability addressed through the Emergency Repair Program.
3) Number of accessibility modifications provided by the Emergency Repair Program.
4) Number of low- to moderate-income individuals assisted through the Emergency Repair or DIY Tune-Up Programs.
5) Number of DIY Tune-Up kits provided.
6) Average reduction in utility costs at households receiving a DIY Tune-Up kit.
7) Number of households with reduction in utility costs after receiving a DIY Tune-Up kit.
8) Dollars spent on subcontracted work.
9) Number of local minority- and woman-owned businesses engaged.
Executive Summary of the Grant Request: Rebuilding Together North Central Florida (RTNCF) has been addressing substandard housing in Alachua County for over a decade through needed home repairs and accessibility modifications at no cost to underserved/low-income families. We bring together hundreds of volunteers every year to ensure our neighbors can be healthy, safe, and independent in their homes and communities for years to come.
During the COVID-19 crisis, RTNCF is taking precautions to ensure the wellbeing of our staff, neighbors, volunteers, and partners while remaining aware of and responding to our community’s needs.
To this end RTNCF is launching an Emergency Repair Program designed to address urgent repairs before costly secondary effects set in. For example, RTNCF could repair a roof leak before water damage and mold become problematic. We intend to do targeted repairs that focus on keeping our neighbors safe and healthy in their homes, e.g. accessibility modifications, roofing, plumbing, and electrical repairs. To minimize risk to the homeowners and our volunteers, we will utilize subcontractors to perform the repairs in an efficient manner.
Additionally, our subsidiary organization, The Community Weatherization Coalition (CWC), is poised to continue offering its successful resource saving and cost reducing Energy Tune-Up Program, which has helped over 1,200 families save hundreds of dollars each year on their utility bills since 2008, with reduced risk via new DIY Tune-Ups. This program will provide low-to-moderate income clients with all the information and tools needed to reduce their utility usage without sacrificing quality of life via small changes, e.g. energy-efficient lights, water saving shower heads, and insulation for water heaters and A/C units.
Over 40 percent of all households within the Gainesville Core Based Statistical Area have at least one problem with their housing, such as high monthly cost burden, overcrowding, or deficiencies in the spaces and systems used for food and water1. Among Black and Hispanic households, this number is nearly 55%1. While Black citizens use 10% less electricity per person than our county average, they pay nearly 40% more of their income on energy1. Only 28% of Black 3rd Graders are proficient readers, compared to 74% of White 3rd Graders1. Safe and stable housing would reduce the number of minority children that never graduate high school, never able to be equal competitors in our economy.
RTNCF is requesting $50,000 to jumpstart our Emergency Repair Program as well as the CWC’s DIY Tune-Up program. We will leverage our proven skills along with $10,000 of our own budget, $20,000 received from CAPP, and hopefully $20,000 from Lowe’s. We will use this funding to provide a minimum 10 owner-occupied households with emergency repairs and 15 households with DIY Tune-Ups.
As we are all spending more time at home than ever, maintaining affordable living and low-income homeownership is imperative as homeownership is often less costly than renting, provides a stronger foundation to climb out of the grasps of poverty, and helps equity to remain in communities. Through funding the Emergency Home Repair Program and DIY Tune-Up Program we can help families avoid the deciding between paying a bill, seeing a doctor, or having a roof over their head and focus on what is important; their wellbeing and maintaining their livelihoods.
Neighborhood Housing Development Corporation (Final Average Score 24 points)
Build Two New Homes
Total Funding Request: $50,000
Summary of Major Outcomes: In FY 2019, NHDC provided services to close over 500 families and help to facilitate a $10,000,000 investment in our local community. NHDC was awarded Low Income Housing Tax Credit (9%) to construct a 62 unit, senior housing complex on NW 55th Blvd (adjacent to the Senior Center). Construction timeline for this project is commencing late fall of this year and concluding January 2022.
Executive Summary of the Grant Request: Our goal is to preserve neighborhoods, promote neighborhood stability, and provide quality, affordable housing options for low to moderate income households. NHDC request these funds in an effort to reduce blight and create new affordable housing options for our clients. The organization will purchase blight, dilapidated structures to demolish and build 2 new homes. Once demolition is complete, NHDC will prepare site(s) for new homes. NHDC will work with local contractors to design and build a new home to be marketed to low and moderate income families.
Grant History
As part of the Board’s Special Budget Meeting on June 4, 2019, Manager Lieberman proposed the creation of an Economic Development Grant Fund. The purpose of the fund would be to capture those programs that do not fall within traditional Community Agency Partnership Program (CAPP) services and spur economic development in areas of need.
This effort aligns to the County Commission’s desire to “promote the economic prosperity of all citizens, address economic equity, and diversify the tax base”, per Goal 1 of the Economic Element in the Comprehensive Plan. The Economic Element further elaborates on the Board’s policies relating to achieving greater prosperity for all including but not limited to the promotion of job training, local food, business incubation, nature-based tourism and recycling businesses while addressing historic equity issues. Concurrent with this goal, the City of Gainesville and Alachua County in 2019 ratified the Gainesville Community Revitalization Area agreement (GCRA) <https://alachuacofl.civicclerk.com/Web/GenFile.aspx?ad=20342> which seeks to catalyze redevelopment and remove the effects of slum and blight for low and moderate income residents including the elderly.
Based on both commitments, the Board approved a grant criteria and process that promotes community redevelopment via economic development service projects in the Gainesville Metropolitan Area.
The resources for these efforts would be funded from a portion of the funds committed by the County to the GCRA agreement.