San Marcos City Council Approves Reimbursement Program, Seeks To Improve Outreach

Staff Reports

On Tuesday, June 4, the San Marcos City Council approved the creation of a reimbursement program for homeowners that were affected by the 2015 floods.

Substantial Amendment #8 to the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief Action Plan. The amendment reallocates funding to complete several infrastructure projects and create a budget for the Owner-Occupied Housing Reimbursement Activity.

The amendment reallocated $1,000,000 from Rental Rehab to the New Single-Family Owner-Occupied Housing Reimbursement program.

During the public hearings, several residents expressed concerns regarding the program.

Albert Sierra, Program Manager of the San Marcos Housing Authority, said he believed the program was a long time coming; however, he expressed concerns about the program being created four years after the events.

Sierra said residents have lost hope, and he felt the money wouldn’t be expended due to residents not being able to meet the requirements for reimbursement. Sierra asked the council to seek some wavier for residents who might have lost receipts in the last four years.

Stacy Brown, housing and community development manager, said there are alternative proof of repairs for homeowners if they are unable to produce the receipts.

Brown said the submission of receipts or similar proof of repair expenses is required to ensure that no one is receiving reimbursements for the same costs from multiple organizations such as HUD and FEMA.

Several community meetings have been held regarding the amendment and the creation of the reimbursement program. However, attendance has been low.

According to Brown, city staff went door to door to inform residents in the Blanco Gardens neighborhood of the meetings, conducted interviews with local media and took several other measures including publishing public notices of the meetings.

Lisa Marie Coppoletta said she has attended every one of the community meetings on flood recovery since 2015; in the last two meetings, less than eight people attended.

Coppoletta noted that the last meeting was held at the Fish Hatchery, which was not ADA accessible.

Coppoletta said that the timeline for the outreach performed by city staff was interesting and looked really good on the screen but did not appear to particularly effective.

During the discussion, Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Prewitt asked Brown to clarify if there were waivers or alternatives for the type of proof required for residents to qualify for reimbursement.

Brown said the city could also look at homeowner’s bank statements to help determine how much work had been done, how much was spent and whether the resident received reimbursements or aid funding from other sources, such as FEMA.

Brown noted that the city could get records from FEMA, which detailed the damage to each home during the 2015 floods.

Brown said the labor performed to repair damaged homes’ value would be taken into consideration as well as the value of the damage itself.

The amendment to the CDBG-DR Action Plan will be submitted to HUD for review, but the city won’t receive federal approval until July.

In the meantime, the council directed staff to look at improving the city’s outreach on the community meetings and CDBG-DR programs.

In other news, Amendment #8 will address shortfalls in the city’s CDBG-DR infrastructure projects.

According to Brown, the city has a shortfall of $19 million due to unexpected expenses and increased costs.

However, San Marcos is expected to receive $31.9 million in flood mitigation grants and additional disaster relief funding.

All projects utilizing CDBG-DR funding for the 2015 floods must be completed within five years of the funding issuance or the city of San Marcos is required to return all of the funds distributed from HUD.

During the meeting in April, Brown said the city’s projects, Midtown/Aquarena Springs, Blanco Gardens, Uhland Road and Blanco Riverine would have to be completed by 2020.