Marin supervisors have set aside $2.3 million in federal and state grant money to help pay for affordable housing, community facilities and services for low-income households.

Over $1.1 million of the grant money was allocated to a large affordable housing project proposed by Habitat for Humanity in Novato.

The project calls for the construction of 23 buildings, each of which will contain one to six homes, on a 13.6-acre building site at 8161 Redwood Blvd. adjacent to the Days Inn Hotel.

Sixty of the homes would be priced to be affordable to households earning no more than 80% of the area median income for Marin County. Based on 2024 income levels and current mortgage rates, that would put sales prices of the homes at between approximately $467,063 and $689,554 for the low-income homes. Another 20 homes will be priced to be affordable to moderate-income households earning between 80% and 120% of area median income.

The supervisors also approved an additional $38,795 in federal grant money for a Habitat for Humanity rehabilitation loan program.

“That is to help low-income homeowners throughout the county stay in their homes by providing loans to address needed repairs,” Leelee Thomas, deputy director of the Marin County Community Development Agency, told supervisors at a meeting June 10.In April, supervisors awarded Habitat’s housing project $5.24 million from the county’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and prior to that the county had committed more than $760,000 to the project.

In April, Maureen Sedonaen, chief executive officer of Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, said the nonprofit had secured more than $22 million in permanent and temporary financing for the project, which is estimated to cost $84 million. Sedonaen said the project’s estimated cost had shot up 40% since 2019.

The supervisors also approved a $190,750 allocation to Eden Housing for an affordable housing project proposed adjacent to San Quentin. Eden plans to build 115 apartments that will be reserved for people earning between 30% and 60% of area median income.

In addition to the state and federal money, the supervisors approved an allocation of $190,705 to the Eden project from the county’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

Other renovation projects also received sizable awards. Ecumentical Association for Housing received a $194,665 allocation to assist in renovation of existing housing units in San Rafael, and Canal Alliance was awarded $134,353 to help renovate its existing affordable housing units in San Rafael’s Canal neighborhood.

Over $400,000 of the total amount allocated went to five capital projects. Homeward Bound of Marin received over $190,000 to make repairs to its New Beginnings homeless shelter, an 80-bed dormitory-style facility built on a decommissioned military base in Novato. Ritter Center was awarded over $121,000 to aid in the building of a new office building in San Rafael.

Two Valleys Community Land Trust was given over $48,000 for the renovation of a common space at Forest Knolls Mobile Home Park. North Marin Community Services was allocated $33,946 to replace the siding on its building. North Bay Children’s Center received $24,502 for outdoor classrooms.

A total allocation of about $228,000 went to 10 different organizations providing services. The largest grants went to Fair Housing Advocates of Northern California, which received $48,500, and Legal Aid of Marin, which received $67,877.

About $1.5 million of the federal money came from HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program while $694,506 came from HUD’s Home Investment Partnerships Program. The remaining $476,762 came from the state’s Permanent Local Housing Allocation program.

Thomas said 33 applications were submitted for grants totaling over $7 million in requests, but only 20 totaling $2.3 million were funded.

All of the applications were evaluated by a priority setting committee that consists of representatives from Marin’s cities and towns as well as seven community members representing “protected classes.” Members of the San Rafael and Novato city councils also weighed in on the block grant applications.

“That feels like a little bit of double counting,” said Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters, referring to the fact that San Rafael and Novato each get to have two representatives involved in the process. “I would just ask for a look at that.”

Thomas said the county was anticipating receiving $66,000 more than it did from HUD. She said HUD notified the county in May that the grants were being trimmed.

“We may face more significant changes next year,” said Thomas, who said that both the block grant and home programs are “proposed to be completely eliminated.”

The county actually received a total of over $2.68 million from HUD and the state for the three programs, but over $300,000 was spent on administration. The county paid Mosaic Consulting Group $66,000 to help it prepare its five-year consolidated plan outlining priorities for how the federal funds should be spent.