HomeMy WebLinkAboutIR 24-1819INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 24-1819
To the Mayor and Members of the City Council
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) rA " SUBJECT: PRIORITY REPAIR PROGRAM
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April 2, 2024
Page 1 of 2
The purpose of this Informal Report is to provide data about the performance, demand, and capacity of the City's
Priority Repair Program (PRP), which is managed by the Neighborhood Services Department. PRP administers
home repairs to low-income single-family homeowners using funding from both Community Development Block
Grants (CDBG) and, since October 2023, the City's General Fund. The program has operated for more than sixteen
years and has served over 3,200 households in Fort Worth since it was established. Over the last three years, funding
for this program has dramatically increased.
Figure 1: PRP Funding Sources
Funding Source
FY 2022
FY 2023
FY 2024
Community Develo ment Block Grant
$1,100,000.00
$2,278,261.63
$2,100,000.00
City General Fund
-
-
$2,000,000.00
Total Funding
$1,100,000.00
$2,278,261.63
$4,100,000.00
PRP has generally served between 200 and 300 households each year, depending upon funding availability and
program policies.
In 2023, the City Council approved an increase in total funding per household from a maximum of $5,000 per year to
a maximum of $25,000 over a two-year period. As a result, the expenditures per unit have increased and we project
that the average per -unit expenditure will exceed $9,600 during the current fiscal year.
Figure 2: PRP Funding and Unit Count Completion
Fiscal Year
Funding Amount
Units Completed
Average Spent per Unit
FY 2022
$1,100,000.00
299
$3,769
FY 2023
$2,278,261.63
306
$7,445
FY 2024
$4,100,000.00
133 ear -to -date; 325 projected
$9,600 prqjected
The change to the maximum expenditure per unit was a substantial and largely beneficial change to the program:
• The program is now able to make more substantial improvements in multiple systems in each household
served. Prior to the increase in maximum spending, for example, it was increasingly difficult to repair whole
roofs or replace whole HVAC units for under $5,000
• Households can be served once, and contractors can make most of the eligible repairs at one time instead of
returning each year to make subsequent repairs
However, the program changes have created some downsides, including:
• Substantially longer wait times between application and first inspection, resulting in having over 300
qualified households in the queue awaiting a first inspection.
• Significantly more coordination required due to multiple trades that must be scheduled in a specific order at
each house, e.g., full bathroom repair requires electrician, plumber, and general contractor.
• Initial and final inspections require significantly more time because Rehab Techs are performing whole house
inspections and estimating for multiple repairs throughout the house instead of just focusing on one repair
worth less than $5,000.
City staff will be recommending modifications to the existing PRP policy in the next few months to help staff
overcome some of the downside challenges including:
ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER
FORT WORTH, TEXAS
INFORMAL REPORT TO CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS No. 24-1819
To the Mayor and Members of the City Council
r rn SUBJECT: PRIORITY REPAIR PROGRAM
April 2, 2024
Page 2 of 2
Creating an "emergency repair'' definition and allowing for certain emergency repairs to be addressed
immediately, particularly HVAC repairs during the months leading up to cold weather and emergencies
involving water and sewer leaks.
Creating a prioritization rubric which establishes a point system to determine which applicants will be served
first. The prioritization would give priority to the most vulnerable homeowners: senior citizens, severely
disabled, children in the home under the age of six, lowest incomes, and no prior PRP services.
To ensure that all new funding was going toward production of home repairs and meeting new unit goals,
Neighborhood Services Department did not opt to hire more staff with the new funding. However, due to the
overwhelming number of new applications within the last six months, the department will seek to hire two additional
inspectors along with exploring increasing the number of contractors. Having additional Rehab Techs would
increase the speed of the program by allowing for more initial and final inspections to occur and more points of
contact with the contractors, which would result in more applicants getting served in a shorter period.
We have also implemented several program management changes to allow for faster service to applicants including
requiring Rehab Techs to use tablets for inspections (avoiding time re-entering data), implementing an applicant
priority system to test our proposed methodology, and using administrative assistants to review contractor invoices
and compare to work orders.
Figure 3: PRP Home Repair Contractors by Number of Units Completed FY 2023-2024 to Date
Contractor
# Units To Date, FY 2024
Camelot Roofing
30
Glenn's Air Conditioning
10
GTOI
78
HVAC Service Pro
29
TOTAL
147*
*Note: 14 units were served by two or more contractors
A new Invitation to Bid (ITB) will be released within the next few weeks for contractors to serve the City's home
repair programs. The Home Improvement and Repair Division issues a new ITB in collaboration with the Purchasing
Division every four to five years to ensure pricing is competitive and that new contractors have opportunities to join
the program. We are hopeful that the new ITB will result in additional contractors in many different trades becoming
vendors for the City's home repair programs, which will assist us in working through the backlog of applicants.
Neighborhood Services is committed to communicating with applicants who are part of the long PRP queue through
both emails and letters to applicants, explaining the wait times and requesting patience. We plan to update our
website, produce explanatory videos about wait times, and amend our Neighborly application portal to ensure
applicants are aware of the long queue.
If you have any questions, please contact Victor Turner, Neighborhood Services Director, at ext. 8187.
David Cooke
City Manager
ISSUED BY THE CITY MANAGER
FORT WORTH, TEXAS