Yorba Linda continues to use Richard Nixon's Community Development Block Grant idea

Appropriately, Richard Nixon's boyhood home of Yorba Linda is one of 1,209 governmental jurisdictions nationwide participating this year in one of the signature ideas of Nixon's presidential administration – the Community Development Block Grant program.

Implemented on a bipartisan basis just months after Nixon left office in 1974, the block grants combined several separate federal programs designed to help low- and moderate-income areas or neighborhoods and income-qualified households.

Block grants “assist communities in providing decent housing and a suitable living environment and in expanding economic opportunities, principally for persons of low and moderate income,” Mary Lewis, the city's block grant coordinator, stated in a recent report to the City Council.

For the fiscal year beginning July 1, the city will receive $242,676 in federal funds, about $20,000 more than last year. Since 2003, the city has received nearly $4.3 million from one of the longest-running programs managed by the Housing and Urban Development Department.

The largest portion, $92,232, will help fund the city's neighborhood improvement program, which provides grants to income-qualified homeowners for general property improvements and repairs to meet local codes, standards and ordinances.

The next largest portion, $65,507, will fund improvements at public facilities that need updating to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which became law in 1990. Anticipated projects involve parking lots at several city parks and other work at city-owned locations.

A maximum 15 percent allocation for public service programs, $36,401, will fund some of the salaries for the part-time staff that administers the senior lunch program weekdays at the Community Center.

The first-come, first served lunches begin at 11:30 a. m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and 11:15 a. m. on Wednesdays for a $3 suggested donation for ages 60 and over and a $5 fee for ages 59 and younger. About 1,200 lunches are served each month.

Administration of the overall grant program is limited to 20 percent of total funding, $48,536, for development, management, coordination and monitoring expenses. The city and county will share this amount equally.

Also recently approved by council members is a contract renewal for a firm hired last year to help the city recruit additional businesses to retail centers throughout the city.

Jones Lang LaSalle Brokerage has been working since March 2018 to seek and attract “highly desired” commercial and restaurant tenants to the city's regional and neighborhood shopping centers. Cost to the city is $5,000 monthly.

The extension was recommended based on “the prior year results” and “to maintain the momentum and solidify certain business dealings” due to a number of transactions still in progress, according to a report to the council from Pam Stoker, the city's economic development manager.