The Las Cruces City Council will meet via video conference at 1 p.m. Monday, March 22, 2021 for a Work Session.
City Council will be updated on the 2021 to 2025 Consolidated Plan. The City of Las Cruces, as an entitlement community for the Community Development Block Grant program and a participating jurisdiction for the HOME program from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), must develop and adopt a five-year plan that identifies the community development and affordable housing needs that the City will attempt to address during the plan period.
The plan is known as the Consolidated Plan (Con Plan) and has been developed in accordance with HUD regulations that also require City Council’s approval. The proposed plan is for HUD program years 2021 to 2025, which corresponds with the City’s 2022 to 2026 fiscal years.
The Consolidated Plan also includes a required Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice and 2021 Action Plan. The drafts of the Con Plan, Analysis of Impediments, and Action Plan were developed between September 2020 and March 2021.
The plans are currently available for public comment and review until April 15, 2021. These plans must be submitted to HUD no later than May 14, 2021.
The Con Plan has identified the following goals:
- Low-to-moderate-income residents will have access to safe, decent, and affordable housing.
- Improve access to current programs for health and safety, information, transportation, and recreation services.
- Enhance the overall economic well-being of all residents through education and training, employment opportunities, and business development.
- Enhance the quality and use of the physical infrastructure in Las Cruces.
- Prevent and reduce homelessness.
The Analysis of Impediments has identified the following impediments to Fair Housing Choices:
- Lack of knowledge about fair housing roles and responsibilities of consumers and providers.
- Discrimination by property owners and managers, against persons with disabilities and/or housing voucher programs limits these groups from equal access to housing.
- The increasing cost and scarcity of both rental and for-sale housing disproportionately impact low-income households as quantified in the Con Plan and the housing concerns section of the analysis of impediments.
- Loan denial rates remain relatively high for some racial/ethnic groups.
At Monday’s Work Session, the Council will also review the development of the City’s 2022 fiscal year budget. The City’s Public Works Department and Budget Office have developed a list and fact sheet of Council priorities based on meetings conducted in late 2020. The work session will include a discussion of the 2022 fiscal year budget, specifically: Council priorities, the City’s current general fund budget and its Capital Improvement Program.
Another Work Session topic will focus on proposed changes to City government’s Procurement Code. In 2019, portions of the code were identified for revision or new inclusion. The intention of the revisions is to provide clarity, make the Procurement Code more user friendly, clear up multiple cross-references between sections, and to realign and consolidate sections.
The purpose of the Work Session is to inform City Council of the proposed changes to the Procurement Code and to provide guidance to City staff prior to bringing an ordinance forward for consideration at a future Council meeting.
Additionally, the Council will receive its first quarterly update from the Alliance for Regional Military Support. The alliance is a nonprofit 501 (c)6 organization whose mission is to support the three military installations in the region: White Sands Missile Range, Holloman Air Force Base, and Fort Bliss.
The focus areas are to grow the missions of each installation and to retain, attract and recruit defense-related industries to the region.. The City entered into an agreement with ARMS in late 2020 to perform promotion and advocacy services.
The agenda for Monday’s City Council Work Session is available online by clicking here.
The Work Session will be televised live on CLC-TV, Comcast Cable channel 20. The Work Session will also be available online at clctv.com and at YouTube.com/clctv20..
Prior to the Work Session, City Council will conduct a closed meeting via video conference at 10:30 a.m. Monday. The closed meeting will be conducted to allow the Council to discuss threatened litigation.