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BACKGROUND In addition to the City Grant program, the City is a direct recipient of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from the Department of Housing and Community Development (HUD). Historically, that annual allocation is approximately $275,000. This funding is used to support projects and /or services that benefit low income Pleasanton residents. The amount of annual funding is determined by HUD based on a population -based formula. In the past, the program has been supplemented annually by the City's Lower Income Housing Fund (LIHF) and the federal HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME), to address shortfalls in CDBG funding. The CDBG program is administered by the Housing Division, and funding recommendations are made annually by the Human Services and Housing commissions. This grant process is conducted from December through April. Like most grant programs, the City Grant program generally receives more requests than available funding. As a result of this situation, and in an effort to coordinate both grant programs, the Council's Annual Work Plan included a priority to review and, if necessary, enhance the City's grant programs and process. Attachment 1 outlines the current grant programs and approved funding allocations. As part of the CDBG approval process, the City Council authorized the formation of a Working Group in April 2008 comprised of two councilmembers, two representatives from the Housing and Human Services commissions and one representative each from the Civic Arts and Youth commissions, a total of eight members (see Attachment 2 for the Working Group roster). After spending early meetings reviewing the current grant process and policies, the Working Group focused its attention on the following three areas: Explore the potential for implementing an annual formula adjustment to the total amount of funding allocated to the City Grant program, using rollovers to assure that unused funds remain in the program; Review the current outreach process; Analyze options for integrating and streamlining the City Grant and CDBG processes. In addition to the policies noted above, the Working Group agreed that it is necessary to conduct a community human services needs analysis to better assess current and future needs, and the amount of grant funding to address these needs. At this time, however, the Working Group determined that the highest priority was to move forward with the three policy changes recommending that the City Council consider including a needs analysis as part of its Annual Work Plan (to be considered in early 2010). If that project is included, staff would prepare an agenda report outlining the scope, anticipated cost and process to be used for the study (including opportunities for regional collaboration). Page 2 of 5