Housing Department

CITY HALL — The Housing Authority on Tuesday is expected to appropriate more than $5 million in federal stimulus money for unemployment workforce training, homeless shelter and other programs, setting off a rush to spend it all under tight deadlines. “We definitely have to move quickly,” said Don Nakamoto, labor market specialist for the Verdugo Workforce Investment Board. “It’s a challenge because we want to also spend the money wisely.” Cities are rapidly creating programs to retrain or assist laid-off workers, in addition to helping families that are struggling to keep a roof over their heads at a time when studies show that more than 90% of industries are laying off workers, he said.

CITY HALL — It’s been 25 years since Madalyn Blake was appointed head of the city’s Community Development & Housing Department, and on May 30, she will leave it larger, more robust and comprehensive than anyone in the early 1980s could have imagined it would be. In the more than two decades since she came on to lead a small department established to administer federal grants and housing vouchers, Blake now is in charge of...

CITY HALL — The city’s Housing Authority plans to vote tonight on a new five-year plan that would broaden criminal background searches on all adult residents in the city’s Section 8 rental voucher program. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has required the city’s housing agency to conduct background checks on all adult residents enrolling in the rental subsidy program for several years, said Cindy Williams, the department’s administrative analyst.

CITY HALL — A youth-oriented nonprofit has withdrawn its federal block grant application, citing burdensome reporting requirements, two weeks before a city commission was to consider it and 19 other funding requests. HASK Armenian American Community Center also returned the $5,000 in federal block grants allotted to it last year, despite a recommendation from the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee to not fund its $37,100 request. “It’s very, very unusual that a nonprofit cancels their funding application,” said Jess Duran, assistant director of the Community Development and Housing Department.

GLENDALE — It was only 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, and Daniel Gutierrez had already scrounged up $5 worth of recyclable material from street trash cans — enough to buy his pack of cigarettes. With the smell of alcohol on his breath, Gutierrez said he had been homeless for about 15 years, but couldn’t recall for sure. He uses the county emergency shelter during the winter months, and stays on the street for the rest of the year. “I buy my cigarettes. That’s what I do,” he said as he held a plastic bag half-full with his spoils on Harvard Street near Carr Park.

SOUTH GLENDALE — Financing for a 30-unit affordable housing project on Garfield Avenue was finalized this week, adding to the 140 low-income rental units that were already planned for completion next year in south Glendale. The City Council and Housing Authority voted unanimously Tuesday to authorize $4.21 million in city subsidies for the 30-unit Gardens on Garfield rental complex in south Glendale, where two other major affordable housing projects are already planned for next year.

GLENDALE — The fear of home foreclosure has become a reality in Glendale, where for-sale signs have gone up and residents have moved out throughout the city. With more than 500 home foreclosures in Glendale already this year, the city has decided to host a free housing fair today to answer residents’ questions about home loans, reverse mortgages, foreclosure and the rental market, Councilman Bob Yousefian said. For Patrick Masihi, president of the Pelanconi Estates Homeowners Assn.

GLENDALE — More than 2,000 applications have been submitted by people wanting to live in Metro Loma Apartments, a low-income housing project that will have monthly rents of less than $1,000. Metro Loma at 328 Mira Loma Ave. will have one one-bedroom, 29 two-bedroom and 13 three-bedroom units. The city’s Housing Authority is mainly looking for large, lower-income families to live in the complex. The application filing period, which started July 17, will conclude Aug. 15. Applicants are expected to outnumber living spaces, said Sona Mooradian, Housing Authority administrative analyst.

SOUTHWEST GLENDALE ? The nonprofit service provider for the Edison Pacific Community Health Clinic has decided to leave the project just two years into its agreement with the city after it failed to meet predetermined service levels, city officials said. Alhambra-based Northeast Community Clinic was approved to operate the community health clinic, which shares building space with Edison Pacific Elementary School at 437 S. Pacific Ave., in 2004, and started servicing lower-income families in 2006.

Asthma rates have increased significantly in Glendale over the past three years, city health officials were told Thursday. The rate of those 20 years old and younger who were diagnosed with asthma jumped by about 40%, and adults age 25 to 64 saw their diagnosis rate jump 105%, according to a report to the Glendale Healthier Community Coalition. Health officials did not know whether the increase was due to better reporting and diagnostic testing, or if it was related to environmental factors.