San Marcos Council Approves Funding Allocation For Eviction Program

Terra Rivers | Managing Editor

On Tuesday, the San Marcos City Council approved an amendment to the 2019 Community Development Block Grant Action Plan.

The amendments will add the awarded CDBG – Coronavirus Response Round Three allocation of $567,825 and approving projects for the use of the funds.

Of those funds, $454,260 will be dedicated to the program, and the remaining $113,565 will cover the administration of the grant and program.

Carol Griffith, Community Initiatives Program Administrator, said the amendment was made to the 2019 plan at the request of HUD because of when the CARES Act funding started.

“HUD has asked us to make each amendment to that 2019 action plan so that they are all stored and tracked in the same year,” Griffith said.

The notice of funding available responses will be due December 11. The council is slated to award the contract on January 5 with application review and payments to begin in February and March of 2021.

Griffith said the grant funding will focus on helping residents pay mortgages or rent but is available to be used for utilities as well.

“I think it will be on a case by case basis,” Griffith said. “We’ll look at a person’s situation, and we’ll have a certain amount of money that we can afford to give in each case.”

In March 2020, City Council approved Resolution 2020-54R amending the 2019 CDBG Action Plan to reallocate $67,142.00 from the Unsafe Structures Program to the amount allocated for the Southside Community Center Rehab Program.

Another amendment was made in June 2020 to allocate $425,261 and approve projects for the use of $319,731 of those funds.

On August 4, 2020, City Council approved Resolution 2020-163R to award $105,530 to Hays County to increase or improve COVID-19 testing in the City of San Marcos.