Flood payback program approved

Though approval from federal officials won’t come until next month, the San Marcos City Council OK'd the creation of a program to reimburse qualified homeowners in the Blanco Gardens neighborhood who spent their own money to repair their homes. Homeowners could be eligible even if they do not have the receipts from the work they had done.

During a public hearing and discussion of Substantial Amendment No. 8 to the city’s Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Relief Action Plan Tuesday night, alternate means of finding out how much property owners spent came up.

“I endorse this amendment for reimbursements to the residents,” said Albert Sierra of the Housing Authority. “It’s a long time coming. … I can imagine what the residents had to go through.”

However, Sierra expressed doubts that all of the $1 million set aside to reimburse homeowners would be spent because of a requirement for receipts.

“I would ask you to seek some form of waiver so these folks don’t have to come up with receipts they might have lost because repairs have been done,” he said.

Ruben Garza, head of the Southside Community Center, voiced similar concerns and a frustration that the reimbursement program was not included in the action plan to begin with.

“These people don’t have their receipts anymore,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be expended, and that concerns me. … They have lost hope and they don’t believe they’re going to be reimbursed.”

‘Nobody was invited’

The city had held several public meetings regarding the amendment and the creation of the reimbursement program; Stacy Brown, housing and community development manager, outlined the outreach efforts to let people know about the meetings. Brown said city staff went door to door, conducted interviews with news media, published notices of the meetings and took other measures. However, turnout at the meetings was very low — the city said last week that nine people attended the last two meetings, but resident Lisa Marie Coppoletta said there were only seven people. Coppoletta also said the meeting held at the Old Fish Hatchery was not ADA accessible.

“It’s very interesting the timeline they enumerate with all the outreach, but it doesn’t seem that it’s been effective,” Coppoletta said, adding that Blanco Gardens residents have lost hope and likely don’t still have their receipts from four years ago. 

Blanco Gardens resident Ruah Gleason called the public meetings “basically unpublicized,” and at a previous city meeting Blanco Gardens resident Sarah Lee Underwood Myers said that “nobody was invited” to the meetings on the reimbursement program. Gleason said that there are Facebook pages, city commissioners, the Council of Neighborhood Associations, school board trustees and others who would be happy to spread the word to make sure people know about the reimbursement funds. 

“I, too, have been contacted many times about the — I’m not going to say the lack of outreach, but the way the outreach has been handled,” resident Roland Saucedo told council Tuesday night. 

‘Do it in red where they can see it’

Mayor Pro Tem Lisa Prewitt asked Brown if the city could get some kind of waiver on the type of proof that residents eligible for reimbursement must show. Brown said that the city will have to look at their bank statements to make sure they did not receive funds from other sources, and that homes will be inspected to determine how much work was done and how much was spent.

“There is a way to do it without receipts,” Brown said, adding that there are FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) records about the damage that happened to each house. Brown also noted that even if the homeowners did the work themselves, there is value to that labor that would be taken into consideration. 

Prewitt asked Brown if the city could move forward with the reimbursement program after council approval.

“A lot of people probably aren’t even going to these meetings, thinking, ‘Why would I go? I don’t have receipts,’” Prewitt said, asking Brown to include “no receipts needed” on further outreach materials.

“And not buried down deep into the middle of the third paragraph,” Mayor Jane Hughson said. 

“Do it in red where they can see it,” council member Saul Gonzales said.

Hughson asked Brown where the door-to-door outreach took place.

“Blanco Gardens,” Brown said. 

“Do you leave a door hanger?” Hughson asked.

Brown said the city did not have enough time to get door hangers made before the meetings.

“If we know when we’re going to have something, why do we not have enough time ahead of time to get the notices out?” Hughson asked. “And if we can’t get the notices out, why don’t we postpone?”

Hughson said if there is a meeting scheduled at the Activity Center with 100 chairs set up and fewer than a dozen people show up, “Clearly something’s not working.”

Council member Ed Mihalkanin suggested what he said might be an old-fashioned method of outreach: sending out mailers about meetings. 

“We have a post office,” he said. 

Brown said that once the city hears whether the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved the amendment creating the reimbursement program, the city will improve its outreach. 

“We will increase it. We will increase our media outreach when we know it’s approved,” she said.

Other portions of Substantial Amendment No. 8 involve reallocating funds among infrastructure projects, including shifting $2.3 million from the Clarewood/Barbara Drive project to Blanco Gardens and $3 million from planning activity funds to work in Blanco Gardens and on Uhland Road. The city is facing a shortfall of $19 million on the infrastructure projects but is expecting to receive up to $31.9 million in the form of a flood mitigation grant and more disaster relief funding.