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ADOPT A MOTION TO ACCEPT AND APPROVE THE NOTICE OF FUNDING AVAILABILITY (NOFA) PROCESSES TO BE USED BY THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT TO ISSUE AWARDS OF STATE AND FEDERAL GRANT FUNDING TO ELIGIBLE APPLICANTS
recommended action
RECOMMENDATION
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a motion to:
1. Accept and approve the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) processes to be used in determining competitive funding awards related to State and Federal funding grants administered by the Economic Development Department; and
2. Authorize the City Manager, or designee, to take appropriate and necessary actions to carry out the purpose and intent of this motion.
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Summary
The City receives federal grants from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), such as those under the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program, Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG) Program, and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. In addition to federal grants, the City receives state grants such as Homeless Housing, Assistance and Prevention (HHAP), Homekey, Prohousing Incentive Program (PIP), and Permanent Local Housing Allocation (PLHA). All programs mentioned are administered by the Economic Development Department and are designed to support affordable housing and/or community service-related programming delivered by local/regional partners.
This report details the processes that will be used in determining competitive funding awards for eligible projects and services.
DISCUSSION
Background
The City Council has expressed interest in reviewing the NOFA processes as recommendations for 2024 allocations were brought forward for consideration. To this end, staff has held two study sessions with Council to review the NOFA processes. On March 17, 2025, a study session was held to inform Council of the current NOFA processes used for allocation recommendations and provide an explanation on the purpose of this competitive process (Attachment A - 3/17/2025 Presentation). The March 2025 study session was informational in nature and intended to aid the Council in upcoming allocation recommendations from the previous 2024 NOFA; therefore, no Council action taken. While the remaining 2024 allocation recommendations were brought before Council during the first half of 2025, staff reviewed the previous process in light of questions and comments received from Council. On October 6, 2025, another Council study session was held to discuss the NOFA process to discuss areas in need of clarity and potential change (Attachment B - 10/6/2025 Presentation).
Present Situation
Staff used the comments and direction provided by Council during the study sessions to draft the NOFA processes that will be used to analyze and recommend funding awards made in future competitive NOFA rounds. There are two competitive NOFA processes recommended for approval: one used for affordable housing application proposals; and, the other for community service program application proposals, which are centered in helping support homelessness and community and/or business services.
The intent is to issue each type of NOFA annually as funding is available. Should changes in competitive awards be necessary outside of the annual NOFA review process, the outcomes of the annual NOFAs will be used to satisfy competitive process requirements.
The following two NOFA processes are consistent, with some variations, as needed, based on differences in proponents (housing developers vs community service organizations) and project types. The differences include: a mandatory information workshop, online office hours session(s) during the application period, and the inclusion of the Community Development Committee (CDC) presentation and scoring; all included in the Community Services NOFA. It is important to note that an optional information workshop will also be held for the affordable housing NOFA where attendance will be encouraged, but not required for application. The reasoning behind this is that the expected level of proficiency and technical expertise (which will be assessed during the project evaluation process) differs for affordable housing proposers.
Note: The 2025 Housing NOFA was released on October 30, 2025 in an effort to meet the commitment of issuing in October. The process below is referenced in the released Housing NOFA document. Should actions be taken by Council that amend the process below, an addendum with such amendments will be issued to the existing NOFA. The Community Services NOFA will be issued at a later date in 2025 and will include the process as approved by Council.
Housing NOFA Process
NOFA Release
City Press Release, City Website, Social Media, Email Distribution, CoC.
Question Window
Approximately 2 weeks following NOFA release any/all questions due for submittal.
Question Response
All questions received will be responded to in writing within 5 business days of the questions deadline (all questions to be responded to at once). Response to all questions will be posted to the City website listed in the NOFA document as an addendum. All proposers will be required to acknowledge receipt/review of all addendums during their proposal submittal process.
Proposal Due Date
Submittals must be received through the specified online portal that will record submittal timing. Due dates will be not less than 45 calendar days following the release of the NOFA.
Requirement Review
All proposals received within the required time will be reviewed by staff for general requirements. This includes confirmation that all submitted documents have been included. There are no scores included in this stage, rather it is a pass/fail to move forward to the technical scoring review stage.
Technical Review
All proposals meeting the NOFA general requirements will be thoroughly reviewed for content and scored according to the categories listed and described in the NOFA document. City staff with subject knowledge and/or training will be responsible for scoring at this level. Staff responsible for the Requirement Review cannot be involved in the Technical Review and scoring as no person may be involved in more than one level in the reviewing process.
Scoring Tabulation
All proposals will be scored independently by not less than three reviewers, who will be required to sign conflict of interest statements, prior to review. A matrix of the scores from each rater will be listed and an average of the scores for each proposal will be calculated. This matrix will be listed in the order of the highest to lowest average score and will be included with Council allocation recommendations.
Council Notification
Council will receive the completed scoring matrix not less than two weeks prior to the Council date on which the allocation recommendations will be brought forward. Thereafter, Council may request a time to review any/all proposals received with a 24-hour notice to staff, prior to the Council meeting.
Community Support Services NOFA Process
NOFA Release
City Press Release, City Website, Social Media, Email Distribution, CoC.
Mandatory NOFA Participation Meeting
All potential proposing entities must be represented on this online NOFA workshop as staff walks all participants through the NOFA guidelines and application. Upon completion of the workshop, the application will be released to the organizations that attended the workshop.
Online Office Hours/ Question Period
Not less than one Office Hour session will be held where City staff are online to answer any questions potential applicants may have. Questions from Office Hour(s) as well as those submitted in writing within the allotted time, will receive written response within five business days of the closing of the question period. Response to all questions will be posted to the City website listed in the NOFA document as an addendum. All proposers will be required to acknowledge receipt/review of all addendums during their proposal submittal process.
Proposal Due Date
Submittals must be received through the specified online portal that will record submittal timing. Due dates will be not less than 30 calendar days following the release of the NOFA.
Requirement Review
All proposals received within the required time will be reviewed by staff for general requirements. This includes confirmation that all submitted documents have been provided. For applications that are determined to be missing documentation and/or clarification is needed, a five-business day window will be provided to applicants to address such matters. The only scores included at this stage are the organizational capacity assessment scoring, which consists of staff examining the contents of the organization’s proprietary documentation, entering information into an organizational capacity assessment tool, which then generates an organizational capacity score. If the assessment yields a “high risk” score, the application is dismissed. Besides the organizational capacity assessment determining risk, the Requirement Review is a pass/fail evaluation to move forward to the technical scoring review stage.
Technical Review
All proposals meeting the NOFA general requirements will be thoroughly reviewed for content and scored according to the categories listed and described in the NOFA document. City staff with subject knowledge and/or training will be responsible for scoring at this level. Staff responsible for the Requirement Review cannot be involved in the Technical Review and scoring as no person may be involved in more than one level in the reviewing process.
Scoring Tabulation
All proposals will be scored independently by not less than three reviewers, who will be required to sign conflict of interest statements, prior to review. A matrix of the scores from each rater will be listed and an average of the scores for each proposal will be calculated.
CDC Presentations
The Community Development Committee (CDC) will receive an executive summary of each proposal that scored a minimum of 70% during the Technical review. Those entities will move forward to CDC presentations, where the CDC will score the proposed projects/services, independently. Once scores are finalized by all members of the CDC, their average score will be added to the Technical Review scores and shared with the CDC as the ranking that will move forward to Council for recommended allocations. The Technical review will account for 80% of the final score, with the CDC scores adding the remaining 20% of the scoring weight. The combined matrix (staff Technical Scores and CDC scores) will be listed in the order of the highest to lowest average score and will be included in the staff report with Council allocation recommendations.
Funding Tabulation
The combined averages of the Technical Review score and the CDC Presentation score will be added together to make up the total application score.
Funding allocation recommendations will be made based on the ranking outcome, funding requested, maximum allocation limits, and available funding.
Council Notification
Council will receive the completed scoring matrix not less than two weeks prior to the Council date on which the allocation recommendations will be brought forward. Thereafter, Council may request a time to review any/all proposals received with a 24-hour notice to staff, prior to the Council meeting.
At the conclusion of the NOFA and application award process program staff will offer one-on-one technical assistance to applicants whose proposals were not awarded funding. Staff will share information about their application deficiencies and general insight as to how they may potentially improve their application in future competitive NOFA rounds.
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
There is no financial impact to the City's General Fund as a result of this action. Approval of the recommended motion is administrative in confirming staff process.
Attachment A - March 2025 Special Council Meeting Presentation
Attachment B - October 2025 Council Study Session Presentation