Amador County - The Board of Supervisors held a special meeting Tuesday to consider taking advantage of $400,000 in grant money for housing and homeless prevention made available through the State Department of Housing and Community Development. Beetle Barbour, Housing Resource Director for the Amador-Tuolumne Community Action Agency, referred to locals her agency encounters and said “people out there are scared and really afraid they are going to lose their housing.” Consultant Terry Cox, who has written over 100 Community Development Block Grants for local housing in the past, was also on hand to answer questions for the Supervisors. Barbour said that of the $400,000 ATCAA could possibly receive, $30,000 will go towards administrative costs and the rest - $370,000 – will go towards housing stabilization and homeless prevention programs. Barbour also outlined the development of an Amador faith-based community housing committee that would provide temporary housing to families or individuals in need by providing extra rooms or cots in their parishes. Board Chairman Ted Novelli said “my hat is off to all the churches that are coming forward to help in dealing with this issue.” County Counsel Martha Shaver expressed concern over “the perfidy of the state” and whether it would ask for money back once it was spent “because (the county) just doesn’t have it either.” Barbour said the guidelines as to how the money is spent are fairly vague and the state is not overly concerned with where the money goes or how fast it is spent, as long as it is used for this specific cause. Shaver told Cox that she was also concerned there is no specification as to how much the consultant can bill in the contract. Cox said her services will be based on an hourly rate which she can provide. The Supervisors approved 4-0 a motion to approve action to pursue the grant with a specific provision to spell out line items for cost services. Applications for the grant are due July 15th, and Barbour said she is hoping to know whether they were accepted by September. Barbour said her agency is also looking to include with the application a “video diary” detailing the hardships of local low-income families. Story by Alex Lane. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.