Stockton City Council will vote to end the city’s local emergency proclamation on Tuesday evening at its first general meeting of the month.
The city declared a local emergency at the beginning of the year following a series of record-breaking storms over the New Year holiday starting in late December that brought widespread flooding and strong winds and caused several deaths across California.
Both San Joaquin County and the state, as well as the federal government, also declared emergencies due to the effects of the destructive weather systems.
“The risks to public safety due to January’s atmospheric river events have subsided,” according to agenda documents for the City Council’s meeting Tuesday. “City staff are working with our regional, state, and federal partners to recover costs for the damage incurred during the storm event.”
Stockton is estimated to have incurred more than $8 million in damages, with city officials anticipating the city will receive “some level of reimbursement” from FEMA’s federal disaster relief process. An estimate in mid January put damages for the county at about $19 million.
A resolution to end the city’s emergency proclamation is on the consent agenda for Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
Below are other issues Stocktonians should watch out for on the Council’s agenda:
Project HomeKey funding from the state
Councilmembers will vote to direct staff to apply for a third round of the state’s Project HomeKey Grant Program funding. An amount not to exceed $35 million, according to agenda documents.
The city will partner with Upholding California, a Fresno-based affordable housing development firm, to apply for the funding that will be used to purchase and redevelop the 124-room Econolodge in French Camp “into a residential apartment building” with up to 85 single and two-bedroom apartments.
“Target populations (who will live in the new housing) are people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness,” city officials say. Data available to the city show that Stockton has nearly 400 residents living unsheltered in the city, including at least 96 children.
Stockton previously set a goal to establish at least 200 new units of homeless housing, as well as to increase the number of how many homeless people in the city transfer to permanent housing, city officials said. Previous Project HomeKey efforts have brought 124 additional housing units to the city.
Therefore, Stockton could reach its “ambitious goal” if it is approved for this new round of funding.
California is anticipated to make more than $735 million of funding available in a final round of HomeKey grants, the city says, including $43 million that will be set aside for projects in the San Joaquin Valley region. More than $3.5 billion has been authorized for the project statewide since 2020.
Included in the agenda item, City Council will vote to approve to provide up to nearly $10 million in matching funds for things such as acquisition of the Econolodge, pre-development rehabilitation and capitalizing operating reserves, which are often used to fund “the beginning of a project to cover potential or projected operating deficits over time.”
The city will use a combination of funding to allocate the money needed to provide the funding match, including from the American Rescue Plan Act and other grants.
Update from the Office of Violence Prevention
Stockton’s Office of Violence Prevention was created to reduce gang and group gun violence within the city through “data-driven partnership programs and strategies.”
City staff will present City Council with program outcomes for 2022 at its meeting Tuesday evening, highlighting “program data, identify client characteristics, client needs, and
services provided.”
Check out a preview of the presentation below.
City councilors to consider millions in funding for their priority projects
Stockton councilors will consider whether to transfer nearly $6 million in funding for more than a dozen of the Council’s priority projects.
Here’s a breakdown of the projects and their possible funding:
- Martin Luther King Rail Underpass enhancements – $350,000
- Souza Park restroom – $375,000
- Swenson Park fencing – $180,000
- Facility improvements at Dignity Alcove – $50,000
- Anti-illegal dumping reward program – $225,000
- Pilot gun buy-back program – $225,000
- Crime Stopper Reward augmentation – $625,500
- I am Ready Youth Pilot Program – $1,000,000
- VanBuskirk building demolition – $300,000
- Silver Lake assessment – $35,000
- Generators (two sites) – $500,000
- Broken Window Program – $250,000
- Civic Auditorium assessment – $300,000
- Request for proposals for youth services – $461,000
- Stockton Sister Cities Association – $15,500
- Bob Hope Theatre back of the house – $275,000
