The Section 8 Rental Assistance Program is a federally funded program through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that assists qualifying income families, seniors and disabled persons in the payment of the rent on privately owned rental units.  Under this program, qualified participants pay a percentage of their adjusted income toward the rent and the Housing Authority pays the balance to the owner utilizing federal funds received from HUD. The rental units subsidized under the program are inspected annually to ensure that they are decent, safe, and sanitary and have no building code violations.  The Authority ensures that the total monthly rent is comparable to rents being paid on similar non-subsidized units, and owners are encouraged to improve their properties to make them eligible for an annual rent increase.

In addition, as part of the dissolution of the Garden Grove Redevelopment Agency (Agency) in February 2012, the Housing Authority has taken on the Housing components of the former Agency.  These assets include land purchased with housing set-aside funds.

On June 22, 2021, the Authority and the City Council approved a biennial budget for fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23.  As new revenue sources and expenditure needs have changed, it is necessary to perform a mid-cycle review and amend the second year, FY 2022-23 budget for various funds and programs to better align available resources with program needs.

The Authority’s amended budget for FY 2022-23 totals $47.0 million.  This is an increase of $2.0 million from the adopted biennial budget.  The increase is primarily attributable to the $1.8 million increase in funding for the Housing Choice Voucher Program.

The Authority receives funding for the Section 8 Rental Assistance Program from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  The level of funding is based on annual appropriations approved by Congress.  Revenues generated from rentals and housing agreements will be used to administer affordable housing assets.

It is recommended that the Garden Grove Housing Authority and the City Council adopt the following resolution:

• Resolution of the Garden Grove Housing Authority Amending the Authority’s Adopted Biennial Budget for Fiscal Year 2022-23.