Clearwater NAHAB Meeting: FY2026/2027 Action Plan Approved July 7, 2026
Clearwater Neighborhood and Affordable Housing Advisory Board Meeting – July 7, 2026
The Neighborhood and Affordable Housing Advisory Board (NAHAB) met on Tuesday, July 7, 2026, at 9:00 AM in the Main Library Council Chambers. The board unanimously approved the minutes from the May 12, 2026 meeting and recommended City Council adoption of the FY2026/2027 Annual Action Plan. The meeting lasted approximately 45 minutes.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes (ID#26-07682): The board approved the May 12, 2026 meeting minutes. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kevin R.T. Laughlin: A resident (spelled L-A-U-G-H-L-I-N) informed the board about conditions at The Hamptons apartment building, which he believed was in the board's purview. He reported that residents had been without air conditioning for two weeks, with air conditioning restored only that morning. He expressed concern about the dire conditions residents faced.
Discussion Items
- FY2026/2027 Annual Action Plan (AAP) – ID#26-07404: Housing Manager Dylan Mayo presented the AAP, which is the second action plan of the 2025/2026–2029/2030 Consolidated Plan. The presentation covered:
- Anticipated Federal Entitlement Funding:
- Community Development Block Grant (CDBG): $912,662
- HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME): $360,339.74
- State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP): $825,856
- Administrative Budgets: Costs broken down per funding source caps for staff and consultants.
- CDBG Public Facilities & Infrastructure: Projects include HEP's emergency shelter courtyard drainage and kitchen door replacements, St. Vincent DePaul community kitchen upgrades, Directions for Living collaborative space improvements, Hope Villages of America window replacements (136 windows), and security fencing at LIFT.
- CDBG Public Services (up to 15% of allocation): Funding for Turning Points (Westcare), Metropolitan Ministry's Neighbor Hope program, Intercultural Advocacy Institute's victim advocacy, and a case manager for Hope Villages of America.
- Economic Development: $20,000 for Prospera to assist low-income businesses, and a Commercial Facade Improvement Program (up to $60,000 per grant) available in low- and moderate-income areas.
- Affordable Housing Development: HOME funds are the largest source for housing projects; SHIP dollars used as local match. Homeownership counseling (Sun Coast, Housing Education & Alliance, Tampa Bay Neighborhood Housing Services) and down payment assistance of $650,000 budgeted (expecting 10–15 households, with up to $75,000 per household). Tenant-based rental assistance of $285,599 in partnership with Clearwater Housing Authority.
- Slum & Blight Removal: A reserved budget for purchasing and demolishing abandoned or deteriorated properties.
- Public Involvement: A 30-day comment period (May 27–June 27, 2026) yielded one positive public comment, which was included in the plan.
- Anticipated Federal Entitlement Funding:
Key Outcomes
- Motion to Recommend City Council Approval (ID#26-07404): The board voted unanimously to recommend City Council adoption of the FY2026/2027 Annual Action Plan. The motion passed with all members in favor; no opposition.
- Response to Public Comment: Staff acknowledged the concern about The Hamptons (owned by Clearwater Housing Authority) and stated that crews were working to fix the chiller, portable ACs had been provided, and food/beverages were distributed.
- Next Board Meeting: Scheduled for August 20, 2026.
Meeting Transcript
Okay. Good morning, everybody. Today's meeting of the neighborhood affordable housing advisory board is called to order on July seventh, twenty twenty sixth. Welcome everyone. The agendas of today's meeting are on the wall at the entrance to the chamber. And I'm gonna give uh him a minute to come up here. To hobble up here. Please remember to turn off your cell phones to ensure a complete record of the board's actions. We ask that each individual wishing to speak, clearly state your name and spell your last name for the clerk. I will ask the board members to introduce themselves, identify the fields they each represent starting to my right. Christine Bond, affordable housing. Kelly Batskard, Home Villages of America. Linda Buyers. Excuse me, resident. And I am Robin Field, the board chair, and I represent uh lending for affordable housing. The first order of business is to approve approve the minutes of the board's May 12th, 2026 meeting. May I have a motion to approve item 2.1? Move approval. Second. Second. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Minutes are approved. Is there anyone here to speak on items not on today's agenda? If so, please step to the podium and state your name and spell your last name for the record. You will have three minutes to speak on a subject that is not on today's agenda. Seeing no one come forward, do we have any e-comments? We will move to the next item. Item 4.1. To recommend city council approve the adoption of the City of Clearwater's fiscal year 2026-27 annual action plan, which is the second action plan of 20 of the 2025-26 through 2029-2030 consolidated plan to implement the goals and objectives set forth in the consolidated plan and authorize the appropriate officials to enter into agreements with HUD and organizations approved for funding together with authorization to execute administrative adjustments to same as needed. Mr. Dylan Mayu will present this item. Good morning. My name is Dylan Mayo. I'm the housing manager. So yeah, today we'll go over the 2026-2027 annual action plan. But first I wanted to go over just a brief overview of both strategic plans that have to do with federal funding. That plan establishes our priorities and goals for the next five years. And then every single year, including that last year, we put together an annual action plan. So where the con plan is a high level, you know, here's what we our goals are for the next five years. The AAP starts to magnify down and looks at you know the funding that we assume we're going to be allocated and then uh how we're going to utilize those funds. Um this next slide here will go over, you know, not a lot of significant significant changes have occurred from last year's AAP to this year's AAP as far as programming is concerned. However, obviously budgeting for different services or activities have changed. And this item specifically is for your recommendation to council for this plan going forward. And then I added a couple of photos because you know I don't think we do this enough, but um these are some of the projects that we did last year. Um actually these might be the 23-24 projects, but uh we did a a uh playground for lift. We did uh we resited and we did some rehab to an HEP uh apartment complex, and um that's HEP's community kitchen um completely redone from you know ceiling to the to the floor. So some actual tangible uh things that were done there. Uh one thing I like to go over, so we do ask for public comments.
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