To: Contra Costa County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners
From: Joseph Villarreal, Executive Director
Report Title: PUBLIC HOUSING AGENCY HEARING AND RESOLUTION FOR CERTIFICATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH THE PHA ANNUAL PLAN AND RELATED REGULATIONS INCLUDING REQUIRED CIVIL RIGHTS CERTIFICATIONS APPROVING HACCC’S ANNUAL PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 2026
☐Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
OPEN the public hearing for the Housing Authority's (HACCC) Annual Plan for fiscal year 2026, RECEIVE testimony, and CLOSE the public hearing.
ADOPT Resolution No. 5273 titled the "PHA Certifications of Compliance with the PHA Annual Plan and Related Regulations including Required Civil Rights Certifications approving HACCC’s Annual Plan for fiscal year 2026, including revisions to the Admissions and Continued Occupancy Plan and the Housing Choice Voucher Administrative Plan.
BACKGROUND:
Any local, regional or state agency that receives funds to operate a federal public housing or housing choice voucher (Section 8) program must submit a Public Housing Agency (PHA) Plan. The PHA Plan is a template that outlines public housing agency policies, programs, operations, and strategies for meeting local housing needs and goals.
The Annual Plan provides details about the PHA’s current programs, and the resident population served, as well as the PHA’s strategy for addressing the housing needs of currently assisted families and the larger community. The Annual Plan also serves as the PHA’s yearly request for grants to support improvements to public housing buildings (through the Capital Fund Program).
As required by HUD, HACCC staff provided public notice of this hearing in the East, West, and Contra Costa Times on October 7th, 2025. Staff met virtually with the agency’s Resident Advisory Board (RAB) on four different occasions to discuss the proposed Plan: September 25th, October 2nd, October 9th, and October 16th, 2025. The RAB approved the proposed changes to the Annual Plan at their October 16th, 2025, meeting.
The following sections provide a synopsis of the major changes proposed by staff to the Annual Plan, its elements and to HACCC’s policies. The specific proposed policies, with changes highlighted, are attached.
Public Housing
The proposed changes to HACCC's Public Housing Admissions and Continued Occupancy Plan are as follows:
• Clarified our reasonable accommodation procedure to include that the person seeking the accommodation must have an appropriately licensed and knowledgeable professional verify that the requestor meets the definition of having a disability, that the requested accommodation is medically necessary, and that the requestor would be unable to fully enjoy those program benefits without the requested accommodation.
• Added a section (2-II.F. Reasonable Accommodation Reassessment) allowing HACCC to conduct periodic reevaluations of previously approved accommodations, clarifying certain situations in which reasonable accommodations would be withdrawn, and clarifying that reassessments will be initiated based on generalized criteria as opposed to individual referrals.
• Added Exhibit 3-3: Live-In Aide Agreement, clarifying the roles, responsibilities, and limitations of a program participants’ live-in aide.
• Clarified that HACCC will notify the family of a determination regarding an exception to occupancy standards within 15 calendar days of receiving the family’s request or within 15 calendar days after receipt of verification by a knowledgeable professional if the request is based on disability-related reasons.
• Clarified the definition of a “family”, and that each family must identify the individuals to be included in the family at the time of application and notify HACCC if the family’s composition changes. Added a specific list of circumstances in which additions may be made to a family’s composition.
• Added language allowing HACCC to require that pets, service animals, and support animals are kept up to date on vaccinations.
Capital Fund
The Capital Fund program provides PHAs with annual funding from HUD for public housing development, financing and modernization as well as for management improvements and security costs. Capital fund dollars cannot be used for luxury improvements, direct social services, costs funded by other HUD programs, or any other ineligible activities as determined by HUD on a case-by-case basis. PHAs must report annually on how they plan to use their capital funds.
The proposed PHA Plan shows ongoing and planned capital fund activity. The following projects are among the proposed for HACCC’s Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2025 & 2026 capital fund grants:
|
$199,000.00 |
Fire-Damaged Unit Repair/Modernization, Bayo Vista |
|
$90,000.00 |
Floor-Damaged Repair /Modernization Project, Bridgemont Development |
|
$103,000.00 |
Unti Repair/Modernization Project, Vista del Camino |
|
$90,000.00 |
Back-up Generator Replacement Project, KIDD Manor |
|
$63,000.00 |
Physical Needs Assessment |
|
$15,000.00 |
Office Improvement - Asset Management Satellite Office, Martinez, CA |
|
$408,750.00 |
Repair and conversion of the electrical infrastructure at the Alhambra Terrace |
|
$560,000.00 |
Alhambra Terrace Modernization Project Phase 1B |
|
$210,000.00 |
Security window and door covers for vacant units at Las Deltas |
|
$170,100.00 |
Boiler Replacement Project, Kidd Manor |
|
$125,000.00 |
Elevator modernization at Elder Winds |
|
$37,500.00 |
Roof refurbishing at Kidd Manor |
|
$200,000.00 |
Computer Upgrades |
|
$68,750.00 |
Installation of bath exhaust fans at the Vista del Camino development. |
|
$62,500.00 |
Concrete flatwork repairs at various developments. |
|
$35,000.00 |
Replace refrigerators, ranges, and other dwelling equipment. |
|
$33,750.00 |
Roof repairs at various developments |
|
$100,000.00 |
Lead and Asbestos Abatement, various developments |
Housing Choice Voucher
Proposed changes to the Section 8 Administrative Plan are as follows:
In addition to numerous grammatical changes, edits were made to the standard HUD language in the plan that introduces the subject matter. These are not policy changes but regulatory edits from the Code of Federal Regulations. The following substantial changes were made to the Housing Choice Voucher Program Administrative Plan as it pertains to HACCC Policy:
• Clarified our reasonable accommodation procedure to include that the person seeking the accommodation must have an appropriately licensed and knowledgeable professional verify that the requestor meets the definition of having a disability, that the requested accommodation is medically necessary, and that the requestor would be unable to fully enjoy those program benefits without the requested accommodation.
• Added a section (2-II.F. Reasonable Accommodation Reassessment) allowing HACCC to conduct periodic reevaluations of previously approved accommodations, clarifying certain situations in which reasonable accommodations would be withdrawn, and clarifying that reassessments will be initiated based on generalized criteria as opposed to individual referrals.
• Added Exhibit 3-3: Live-In Aide Agreement, clarifying the roles, responsibilities, and limitations of a program participants’ live-in aide.
• Added a preference to the list of existing preferences to facilitate the transfer of Emergency Housing Voucher participants to the Housing Choice Voucher Program when the program runs out of funding or sunsets.
• Clarified the definition of a “family”, and that each family must identify the individuals to be included in the family at the time of application and notify HACCC if the family’s composition changes. Added a specific list of circumstances in which additions may be made to a family’s composition.
A complete copy of the proposed PHA Annual Plan, Administrative Plan and ACOP are available for review on the HACCC’s website: www.contracostahousing.org.
FISCAL IMPACT:
No direct financial impact.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Should the Board of Commissioners elect not to approve the FY2026 PHA Annual Plan, HACCC will be out of compliance with HUD requirements and may not receive any funding via HUD’s Capital Fund program until the PHA Annual Plan has been submitted to, and approved by, HUD. HUD may also impose additional sanctions beyond the withholding of Capital Fund moneys.