Allan H. Kittleman, County Executive

January 28, 2016

George Howard Building

3430 Courthouse Drive

Ellicott City, MD 20143

Dear Mr. Kittleman,

On behalf of the Association of Community Services, it is my privilege to take this opportunity to submit comments on the proposed County government reorganization as it has the potential to affect our 100-plus nonprofit organizations and the 100,000-plus county residents they serve. We wish you to know that we are supportive of the opportunities that the reorganization offers in terms of increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of public and private delivery of services to our community’s most vulnerable populations.

We look to a more autonomous Howard County Housing Commission as a step toward accelerating the availability of affordable housing for families, particularly for those with household incomes of less than $50,000. We also are hopeful that the anticipated synergies of bringing together the statutory housing programs with current Department of Citizen Services’ (DCS) human and social service programs will result in development of a broad strategic county-wide housing policy serving very low to moderate income households.

We are cautiously optimistic that elimination of the Department of Housing and Community Development and shifting Office of Transportation responsibilities back to the Department of Planning and Zoning (DPZ) will not have the unintended consequences of increased bureaucracy, decreased transparency or a lack of government and community focus on these two essential elements of ensuring low income, senior, disabled and other special population households self-sufficiency in our high cost of housing, car centric county. Future staffing should address the loss of institutional memory and expertise that will occur with these two reorganizational moves.

Re-organization cannot in and of itself achieve the stated goals of “reducing homelessness and fostering self-sufficiency” and ensuring that low income and special populations “receive comprehensive, sustainable support.” When a resident enters the DCS “No Wrong Door,” there must be sufficient resources to respond to his or her needs. Our further comments, therefore, address specific areas of programmatic focus and related fiscal considerations that we believe critical to ensuring that the goals of creating the Office of Housing and Community Partnerships are successfully achieved.

As DCS manages the absorption of DHCD programs and staff, it will be critical that the associated program funding, in addition to personnel support, also convey to DCS for the Community Development Block Grant, HOME, Community Legacy, Rental Assistance and Housing Repair programs.

Community Service Partnership grants enable nonprofit organizations to deliver services as determined by government priorities. To keep pace with inflation will require a 0.5 percent increase over the $6.4 million FY 2016 funding; however, to make even deeper inroads into resolving economic, health, personal safety and other social challenges faced by county residents will require a greater CSP investment in human service programs. As in the past we shall appreciate your willingness to devote new resources to individual nonprofit requests for CSP funding to respond to infrastructure and operating costs, to support new or expanded programs and/or to respond to unique opportunities to make significant inroads into resolving a specific community priority.

The Coordinated System of Homeless Services helped over 400 county residents in the past year, yet calls for assistance continue at a rate of over 75 a month and close to 200 individuals and families await CSHS housing, financial and/or case management assistance. As the data indicate, achieving the County’s goal to end homelessness will require a more significant funding investment.

There are over 6500 Howard County households with incomes $50,000 that are at risk of losing their housing because they are paying rents they cannot afford. The MIHU Fee-in-Lieu funds that have begun and will continue to accumulate can be a substantive contribution to ensuring the housing stability of many of these at-risk families, as intended by Council Bill 35-2013. We ask that the FY 2017 budget begins a commitment of access to these funds by “other county entities,” such as nonprofits working with low income and special populations toward accessible and affordable housing through the legislation-required “rental housing subsidies, the purchase and rehabilitation of existing properties for sale or rent to low or moderate income households, emergency eviction support, or other housing opportunities for low and moderate income households.”

On behalf of your nonprofit partners, we look forward to working with the Administration, the County Council and DCS and DPZ leadership to assist in a smooth organizational transition of programs, personnel and funding. We also look forward to our ongoing discussions as these changes unfold.

Respectfully,

Joan Driessen

Executive Director

Cc:Tom Meachum, Chair, ACS Board of Directors

Calvin Ball, Chairman, County Council

Tom Carbo, Director, Department of Housing and Community Development

Phyllis Madachy, Director, Department of Citizen Services

VladisLazdins, Director, Department of Planning and Zoning