Florence is in N.W. Alabama and operates under a Mayor and Council form of government. It has the distinction of being rated by Rand McNally Places as the 14 safest city in the nation. Its pride in its past can be seen in its attention to the historical preservation of its buildings. The City regularly consults with the Alabama Historical Commission to assure that the architectural integrity of its historical properties is maintained. Through the Florence Industrial Park, the City has been able to expand and diversify the industrial base of the area.
The City's One-Year Action Plan is supported by HUD's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program. Under this program, the $535,000.00 is available to carry out the plan's activities, with an additional $53,300.00 in program income.
The City encourages full citizen participation, including making the necessary arrangements to accommodate the language needs of its non-English speaking residents and to accommodate those residents affected by mobility, visual and/or hearing impairments . Nonprofit groups, health and service organizations and business representatives are also encouraged to participate in the development of the Consolidated and Action Plans. The City holds at least two public hearings during each program year on its plan. Notification of these hearings are advertised at least two weeks in advance of the hearings.
The City provides full opportunity to all citizens, public agencies and
other interested parties to review and submit comments on the plan's proposed
activities, including the estimated amount proposed to benefit low income
residents. A summary of the plan is published in a newspaper of general
circulation at least 30 days prior to submission of the plan to HUD and contains
a list of places that the plan is available for review and citizen comment.
The City has experienced a small decrease in population with no significant changes in low income or racial/ethnic populations. Low income residents are concentrated primarily in four census tracts. Of the four tracts, only one is racially concentrated and is an area that is primarily black.
The City will apply for a HUD Section 108 Loan to help stabilize those
neighborhoods plagued by crime and housing problems. The long term hope is to
create a revolving loan fund where funds are available to carry out activities
specifically geared to improving the quality and livability of the City's
troubled neighborhoods. Florence will continue its efforts to further economic
opportunities for all its residents. For example, the City will continue to
support its Entrepreneurial Center, which serves as a business incubator, and
will continue its support of the Commercial Leveraging Loan Program. Through
this program, assistance is provided to the City's downtown urban renewal area
and to low income neighborhoods of West Florence, East Florence and North
Florence.
The City defines extremely low-income renters as having incomes ranging from 0 to 30% of the City's median family income and use two categories to define household cost burden. The first category consists of households paying more than 30% of their income for rent. The second category consists of households paying in excess of 50% of their income for housing. Of the 5,732 City renter households, the group in most need of financial housing assistance is the 68% of 1190 extremely low income households having a 50% cost burden. The next needy group is the 24% of the 561 extremely low income elderly households also paying in excess of 50% of their income for rent. The current number of Section 8 and vouchers assistance is 1,579.
The excessive cost burden also exists for the extremely low income homeowner households. The total number of extremely low income households paying 50% of their income for housing is greater than for any other City income group. Of the 478 extremely low income elderly homeowners, 33% of the elderly have a 50% cost burden and of the 240 "all other" extremely low income homeowners, 64% have a 50% cost burden.
The City states that, because of the lack of rehabilitation assistance for low income homeowners, there is a need to fund the rehabilitation of substandard units that are owned and occupied by low income homeowners. The City defines low income as households with incomes from 51-80% of the City's median income. The City cites its second need as the rehabilitation of rental units for households with incomes that exceed 80% of the median.
The 1990 Census information cites 5,639 as the number of rental units affordable to households below 80% of City's median income and approximately 5,129 as the number of owner units affordable to households below 80% of median income. There are no known housing units established to serve persons with HIV/AIDS due to the low rate of cases reported.
The City has approximately 15,913 year-round housing units with 14,919 units occupied and 994 vacant units. Of the occupied units, 5,911 are renter occupied and 9,008 are owner occupied. Substandard housing is estimated at 1,193 for rental units with 1,074 of them suitable for rehabilitation. There are an estimated 900 substandard owner units with 855 suitable for rehabilitation.
The City has assigned its highest housing priority to the elderly and to other households with very low incomes. This is due to the increasing number of elderly citizens and large number of pre-1959 owner and rental units in the area, indicating the need for corrections to substandard housing. The City plans to use HUD's Section 108 guaranty loan program to address specific housing rehabilitation needs. If its Section 108 plans materialize, the City would be able to rehabilitate 17-20 owner occupied units of which 13-15 would be low income and 4-5 would be very low income units. The 108 rental rehabilitation program would primarily benefit the elderly and very low and other low income persons.
The only identified homeless problem in Florence is victims of domestic violence. Primarily, these people seek shelter at Safeplace, Inc. or the Salvation Army and are then managed through existing programs to provide temporary shelter, transitional housing and permanent housing. Although family violence occurs in all socioeconomic groups, victims seeking shelter usually have low incomes. Approximately 80% of residents of Safeplace, Inc. report incomes of $10,000.00 or less.
The majority of the City's homeless either have a low paying job or no job at all. The Salvation Army men's lodge has a capacity of 30 beds, while Safeplace operates an emergency shelter for victims of domestic violence and has a 12 bed capacity. Safeplace allows residents to stay for 28 days. However, at Safeplace's three transitional houses, with one being a multi-family and 2 single family units, residents can live for up to 24 months while they look for a job or go back to school. City service agencies indicate that occasionally they too have accommodated transient homeless by arranging free one night lodging at a local motel.
Florence Housing Authority operates 664 public housing units. While these units are generally in good physical condition, many are being modernized through a HUD Comprehensive Grant. Forty-three of all the public housing units are accessible to persons with disabilities. The Housing compliance with the America's Disability Act has been completed for public housing units located at Cherry Hill Homes, Carver Homes, Handy Homes, and Magnolia Gardens I and II.
Five percent of all family units and eight percent of all elderly units have been made accessible to persons with disabilities. Even so, there are still people on the Housing Authority's waiting list for units accessible to persons with disabilities. The Housing Authority currently manages 1,579 Section 8 vouchers and certificates. For the few reported cases of families who are homeless or threatened with homelessness and who receive referrals from the Salvation Army and Safeplace, they are given Federal Preference and are housed immediately. This preference is also extended to those City residents who are identified by the Florence Police Department as either being involuntarily displaced in substandard housing or whose cost burden exceeds 50%.
The only known barrier to affordable housing is that provision in the revised local ordinance preventing the development of multi-family living units in existing residential zones. The revised ordinance only allows the development of such units in residential-business zones.
The City certified that it will affirmatively further fair housing and aggressively comply with Anti-Discrimination requirements. In this regard, the City has allocated $4,475 to remove barriers to make park facilities accessible to persons with disabilities.
Although the City cites no major environmental concerns in this area, it estimates that there may be approximately 47 low/moderate income household units affected by possible lead based paint hazards. This assumption is based on an Alabama Department of Public Health calculation. However, the State Department has not identified any problem directly relating to lead-based paints used in the Florence area. The Department did have a few cases of confirmed unacceptable levels of lead in children's blood, but these cases were not linked to lead-based paint. At least one of the reported cases was attributable to the storing of old car batteries on the property.
The City lists its high priority needs as public facilities, infrastructure
improvements and public services. In meeting these priorities, the City has
estimated the need for $650,000.00 for improvement of youth centers, parks and
recreational facilities, $650,000.00 for flood drain and street improvements,
$250,000.00 for substance abuse services, and $1 million for emergency and
transitional shelters. Further, the City places a high priority on meeting the
housing needs of its elderly and of its low income households with incomes
starting at 31% to 80% of the City's median income.
The City's highest priorities are infrastructure and public facility improvements and the provision of substance abuse services and housing assistance to low/moderate income households. Priority funding to the City homeless is primarily in the form of emergency and transitional housing.
The City establishes its rental housing priority needs by income and gives its highest priority to small households with incomes from 31 to 80% of the City's median income and with 30% and 50% costs burdens. The other high priority group is the elderly with incomes of 0 to 30% of the City's median income, but priority is restricted to only those elderly with rent burdens in excess of 50%.
Owners fare better than renters under the City's housing priorities. A high housing priority is to correct physical defects of owner occupied units for all the three income groups from 0-30%, to 31-50% to 51-80%. Of all the housing needs among the various low and moderate income group, the City places overcrowding as a low priority for the 0-30% income group and a medium priority for the 31% to 50% and 51% to 80% income groups.
The City places the improvement of its youth centers, parks and recreation facilities, and its flood drains and streets as high priorities. It also includes substance abuse services as a top priority. Improvements to Senior Centers, neighborhood facilities, solid waste disposal systems, flood drains and sewers are categorized as a medium priority. Also, included in this medium priority group are youth, transportation services, employment training, crime awareness, commercial industrial infrastructure and other economic development needs. Examples of those activities receiving the lowest priority are senior and handicapped services, fair housing and tenant counseling, child care and health services, sidewalk improvements, parking facilities and water improvements.
The City states that it will establish those support services that can be connected with existing housing programs, such as the Florence Housing Authority's Family Self- Sufficiency Program, which focuses on homeownership and tenant responsibility in housing projects. The City will also continue its financial and other support of existing networks of social service providers.
The City uses its $588,300.00 of Community Development Block Grant and program income in support of its action plan. In addition, the City's Consolidated Plan will use other resources in support of its activities. Such resources include Section 108 loan guarantees, Section 8 vouchers and certificates, the HUD Comprehensive Grant for Public Housing, the Victims of Crime Assistance Grant, the State's General Fund, United Way and donations from churches and individuals, particularly in support of the homeless programs.
In developing its plan, the City has consulted with the Florence Housing
Authority, the Alabama Department of Public Health, Riverbend Center for Mental
Health, Safeplace, Inc., the Salvation Army, Shoals Habitat for Humanity, the
Community Action Agency, other service agencies and local departments. Through
the City's Community Development Program, the City Council and the Florence
Housing Authority have formulated a partnership to promote the Family
Self-Sufficiency Program. Other examples of coordination efforts among the
plan's various players, including the City Council, the Housing Authority and
the Northwest Alabama Council of Local Governments, is the establishment of a
program for low cost transportation to and from the City's commercial areas.
The Action Plan is supported with funds from the City's Community Development Block Grant Program and with program income. These funds will be expended on a host of housing and community development activities, including the following examples:
Geographically, funds will be distributed to citywide public housing developments. Public works and housing rehabilitation funds have been allocated to those areas identified as having the greatest need for improvements. These areas are all in low-moderate income census tracts located in the east and west areas of the City.
The City of Florence and the Florence Housing Authority are the lead agencies in the development of the plan.
The City estimates its housing goals as benefitting 37 households through the repayment of Section 108 loan guarantees, which were used for housing rehabilitation loans and through emergency rehabilitation grants provided to extremely low-income homeowners.
MAP 2 depicts points of interest and low-moderate income areas.
MAP 3 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and minority concentration levels.
MAP 4 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, and unemployment levels.
MAP 5 depicts points of interest, low-moderate income areas, unemployment levels, and proposed HUD funded projects.
MAP 6 depicts Neighborhood Segments and streets with proposed HUD funded projects; in addition, a table provides information about the project(s).
Mary Allison
Assistant Community Development Coordinator
City of Florence
PH: (205) 760-6467.
