Portfolio Category: Policy and Planning

The HUD Consolidated Plan establishes goals and funding priorities that address the greatest needs of the City’s low-income residents utilizing CDBG and HOME funds. Our team led citizen consultation sessions with affected populations in a variety of locations to ascertain their input on greatest needs. In addition, a significant portion of the Consolidated Plan involves analysis of quantitative data to complete a Needs Assessment and Market Analysis. This process results in a Strategic Plan with specific quantifiable goals and objectives for the next 5 years. Concurrent with the Consolidated Plan, we also completed the City’s Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice. The Analysis of Impediments involves: an analysis of data that describes the local conditions for fair housing choice, including the availability of affordable, accessible housing in a range of unit sizes; a comprehensive review of the jurisdiction’s laws, regulations, and administrative policies, procedures, and practices; and an assessment of how those laws, regulations, and administrative policies, procedures, and practices affect the location, availability, and accessibility of housing.

In order to prepare for an application to the No Place Like Home (NPLH) program, the County hired Housing Tools to prepare its NPLH-required Plan to End Homelessness. Our team facilitated a series of meetings with the County’s Homelessness Taskforce, community members, and stakeholders with a lived experience of homelessness. The meetings focused on the community’s existing resources, needs/gaps in services, and strategic planning sessions to develop specific goals and actions within a 10-year timeframe. The result was a written Plan which will now function as a blueprint for the community in addressing homelessness.

Housing Tools managed all aspects of the Housing Element process and wrote the Housing Element document pursuant to State Housing Element law. This effort included all public outreach and engagement, analyzing progress on the previous Housing Element and General Plan, conducting the Housing Needs Assessment, Resource Inventory, Constraints Analysis, and development of Goals/Policies/Actions. Our firm is currently under contract to complete the City of Chico’s 2022-2030 Housing Element Update.