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Funding One of the significant barriers to affordable housing in Pleasanton and the surrounding region is the high cost of developing and maintaining affordable housing. The City of Pleasanton will apply CDBG, HOME, and City Lower Income Housing Funds toward affordable housing projects and programs in FY 2012. The City has also monitored the availability of specialized grants for housing development. For example, the City received a $300,000 competitive grant in 1997 through the State Developmentally Disabled Services - Rental (DDS-R)program to provide four units within the aforementioned Promenade apartment project for rental by very low income persons with developmental disabilities in cooperation with the Regional Center of the East Bay. The City is currently working with East Bay Innovations to consider applying for funds through the "Money Follows the Person(MFP)"program (funded with federal HOME dollars) to create a demonstration project in Pleasanton to help people with disabilities and elderly people move into their own homes from nursing homes. As noted earlier, the City successfully applied for $450,000 in state HELP funds in FY 2004 to start its Down Payment Assistance program to promote increased home ownership in Pleasanton. A new application for HELP funds was submitted and approved in 2005 to provide $1.5 million in gap financing for the City's Parkview assisted living facility project. The City will also continue to utilize its Lower Income Housing Fund (supported through payment of the Lower Income Housing Fee by developers) to finance activities promoting affordable housing. Land Costs The City does not have ownership of any significant parcels of land at the present time. Therefore, the market cost of land is posing an ongoing constraint to new affordable housing development in which the City has direct involvement. However, the City has worked and will continue to work with individual developers and with the owners of large land holdings to attempt to reserve additional sites for affordable housing development during the five-year Strategic Plan period. As described earlier, the City was recently successful in negotiating a 15 percent set-aside of affordable housing units (31 rental units for low and very low income households; 56 ownership units for low income first-time home buyers) on a 200 acre portion of the 500 acre Bernal property south of the Alameda County Fairgrounds, which will ultimately accommodate a total of 581 new housing units and new commercial development. This agreement also resulted in the dedication of the remaining 318 acres to the City of Pleasanton for "public uses." The acquisition of this land will provide the City with new flexibility and opportunities to consider options for new housing development should future conditions and community needs warrant. The adoption of an Inclusionary Zoning Ordinance in late 2000 has yielded positive results in the form of discussions of possible land dedication in lieu of builders providing affordable housing units. The completion of the updated Housing Element in 2011 is expected to provide additional land ownership opportunities that can be utilized to create new affordable housing. Adler Plan—FY 2012 City of Pleasanton Page 31