Through the federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program, HUD provides funds to local governments for a range of community development activities that benefit lower-income households. The Orange County Community Services Department is responsible for distributing CDBG funds to the smaller cities in Orange County under the Urban County program. The City Council maintains a Cooperative Agreement with the County of Orange to participate in the annual CDBG and HOME fund Urban County competitive process. The City intends to continue the agreement in order to ensure that local affordable housing opportunities remain.
In addition, the City will participate with non-profit housing authorities to preserve lower-income multi-family housing in the City and/or to convert market-rate multi-family housing into covenanted affordable housing, as opportunities arise. Funding for the program will be provided through the issuance of tax-exempt affordable housing bonds. Such funding will be utilized to preserve low- and very-low-income units. This program helps to address the needs of extremely-low-income households and related problems of overpayment and overcrowding.