Marin City public housing renovation could begin in February

The effort to rehabilitate the Golden Gate Village public housing complex in Marin City is moving forward despite a Trump administration proposal to cut funding for rental assistance programs.

The Marin Housing Authority board voted unanimously Tuesday to enter into a master development agreement with Burbank Housing Development Corp. to oversee the project.

“We’ve never been closer to having this project happen,” said Supervisor Dennis Rodoni, who serves on the board along with the other four supervisors.

In a report to the board, Kimberly Carroll, executive director of the Marin Housing Authority, wrote that the Trump administration has proposed “a historic 44% cut — nearly $26.7 billion” in rental assistance programs at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

She said the cuts would affect housing choice vouchers that support more than 4.4 million households across the country, including 3,200 in Marin. Carroll also said the Trump administration wants to eliminate dedicated federal funding for public housing capital and operating funds.

“This would mean no new federal support to maintain or repair public housing stock,” Carroll wrote, “putting at risk operational funds for our six properties, including five serving older and disabled adults and Golden Gate Village, which serves families, children and seniors.”

However, Mike Andrews, an expert the federal housing department hired to advise the Marin Housing Authority, said there is “a little bit of a silver lining in the budget clouds.” He said the administration appears supportive of the two programs that are vital for completion of the Golden Gate Village renovation.

One is the low-income housing tax credit program, which was initiated by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 under President Ronald Reagan. The program permits tax credits to be issued for the acquisition, rehabilitation or construction of rental housing for lower-income households.

The Marin City project budget anticipates that more than $100 million of about $266 million in project expenses will be covered by revenue from the sale of the tax credits.

The renovation project also depends on the issuance of “tenant protection vouchers.” Andrews said that while the administration is proposing cuts to other types of federal housing vouchers, “that account has seen an uptick.”

There is a competitive process to receive the tax credits from the state, and the Marin Housing Authority submitted its application in April. Andrews said the application scored highly, suggesting it will succeed. The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, which administers federal and state low-income housing tax credit programs, will notify the Marin agency on Aug. 20 if it will receive the credits.