TOPPENISH —Toppenish City Council agreed at its regular meeting May 11 to join with four other valley communities to participate in a consortium with a primary objective of stimulating creation of affordable housing through the use of federal money from the department of Housing and Urban Development.
Union Gap, Wapato, Mabton, and Grandview are the other communities that have indicated an interest in the program.
Marjorie Dahlstrom from Yakima County told Council members the necessary intergovernmental agreement must be signed and sent to the county by April 22.
Council members agreed to direct City Manager Bill Murphy to move forward with the agreement.
Dahlstrom said Toppenish would be eligible for about $200,000 annually from the program.
The city would be required to match 25 percent of any amount that was used for projects, but that match can be in the form of donated services, donated material, cash, and other forms.
Any match that exceeds the 25 percent figure for a given project can be carried forward into succeeding years to be applied to subsequent projects, Dahlstrom said.
She said the program can be self-administered by the city, administered by means of a contract with the Yakima Valley Conference of Governments, or thorough other means.
Toppenish is not required to use funds for which it is eligible.
The HOME consortium program is the largest federal block grant to state and local governments to create affordable housing for low-income households.
Each year, it allocates about $2 billion nationwide to states and hundreds of localities.