Community Investments & Compliance

Program Budget Overview

HHS utilizes local and federal housing and community development funding to create and preserve affordable housing and facilitate capital improvements that support programs for people in need. Staff provide financial resources, technical assistance, compliance monitoring to housing partners and community-serving agencies. To assist with budget flexibility and realign with the annual budget cycle, a total of $15,520,000 million in appropriation, which was previously included within revised budget appropriations as a mid-year adjustment, is now included in the 2023 Budget. Prior practice included submitting this appropriation as a mid-year adjustment; in 2023, this adjustment is included in the annual budget submittal. This funding is primarily aligned with community funding and grants supporting efforts in reducing homelessness and increasing housing stability.

Human Services Investments manages community grant programs including the Human Services Fund, supporting a wide range of nonprofit services; the Health Equity Fund furthering health promotion, wellness programs, and chronic disease prevention to address health equity; and the Substance Education and Awareness Fund for programs aimed at reducing substance use and abuse among youth and other community members. These investment efforts are strengthened through robust Compliance, which provides financial stewardship and ensures that programs and services are effectively and efficiently serving the needs of the community’s most vulnerable residents.

In 2023, $200,000 in one-time budget enhancements to the Human Services Fund will provide community funding to support nonprofit partners who, in return, provide basic needs assistance and preventative services to our low-income community members and others experiencing disparities. While this represents a relatively small increase to the department's total grantmaking budget, this enhancement will help fund strategic investments that make a difference in nonprofit organizations’ ability to accomplish shared goals.

In addition, $111,183 in funding will add 1.0 new FTE for a Housing Program Manager to join the Compliance Team. The Housing Program Manager will provide project management, compliance and monitoring support to work specifically on City of Boulder investments. This position will address increased affordable housing inventory, workload, and capacity constraint through project management, providing training and technical assistance, and conducting on-site Housing Quality Standard inspections, monitoring, maintaining file systems, and communicating with owners, property managers and non-profit partners. In 2020 and 2021, 494 homes were added to the inventory, representing twice as many homes added on yearly average. Since January 2020, the City has added 604 homes to the affordable housing portfolio. Additional compliance staff is necessary in order to keep up with the growing inventory.