TO: Napa County Housing Commission
FROM: Jennifer Palmer, Director of Housing and Homeless Services
REPORT BY: Alex Carrasco, Staff Service Analyst II
SUBJECT: Farmworker Housing Needs Assessment
RECOMMENDATION
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Director of Housing and Homeless Services requests discussion of a Farmworker Housing Needs Assessment and establishment of an ad hoc committee to develop a Scope of Work for a related Request for Proposal.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Director of Housing and Homeless Services requests discussion of a Farmworker Housing Needs Assessment and creation of an ad hoc committee to provide input and direction on a Scope of Work for a Request for Proposal. The Assessment will be used for baseline information to guide farmworker housing planning in the County.
PROCEDURAL REQUIREMENTS
1. Staff Reports.
2. Public comments.
3. Motion, second, discussion and vote on the item.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION: The proposed action is not a project as defined by 14 California Code of Regulations 15378 (State CEQA Guidelines) and therefore CEQA is not applicable.
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION
On August 9, 2022, the Napa County Board of Supervisors established an ad-hoc committee to evaluate the former Carneros Elementary School site, now for sale, as a potential location for a fourth Farmworker Center run by the Housing Authority. This committee and exploration came out of a series of public comments made by several industry group representatives including the Vintners, Farm Bureau, Grapegrowers, Farmworker/Cinco de Mayo Committee and others, asking the County to evaluate the site.
Initial inquiries with the school district regarding available seismic and land reports shed light on the status of the faultline and gas line running through and adjacent the property lines. The reports indicate the existing buildings on the site are largely unusable or would require such extensive retrofitting as to make them cost-prohibitive to use, given their proximity to known fault line/ruptures.
To continue evaluation of the site for possible acquisition, the County needs to conduct a Phase 1 Environmental assessment and have an appraisal for the property use as a Farmworker Center (the school district appraisal was for vineyard use). To have the necessary time to conduct these assessments and establish reasonable estimates for construction and operating costs, the County sought an exclusive negotiating agreement with the school district - effectively to ensure the work could be completed without risk of the property separately being sold to another interested party.
The school district declined to establish that agreement and no further County staff time is devoted to the evaluation of the site at this time.
In order to inform future discussion and planning about what farmworker housing needs are at this time, including for whom, in what kinds of settings, and what housing unit configurations are best suited to the identified needs, staff are recommending a Farmworker Housing Needs Assessment (“Assessment”) be conducted. Contracting for an Assessment will require a Scope of Work (SOW) to be included in a Request for Proposal (RFP). The County conducted an Assessment in FY 11/12 which was released in 2013. A Grand Jury report in 2018 recommended a new Assessment be conducted. The establishment of the Housing & Homeless Services Department within the County (merging homeless programs, County Affordable Housing and Housing Authority Funds into a single Department) in July of 2019, followed by the pandemic, both delayed the timing of planning for a new Assessment.
Director of Housing and Homeless Services requests discussion of a Farmworker Housing Needs Assessment and creation of an ad hoc committee to provide input and direction on a Scope of Work for a Request for Proposal.