During the week of April 1–7, counties, cities and states throughout the country will commemorate the 22nd anniversary of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) — a program with unparalleled success in revitalizing distressed neighborhoods. One hundred and thirty-eight urban counties receive funds directly, and hundreds of smaller counties participate in state-administered programs.
During CDBG Week, county officials are highlighting projects that address critical community development needs — infrastructure improvements, housing, homeless shelters, daycare for children, hot meals and health screening for elderly persons, and loans to businesses, to name a few.
According to recent reports by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), urban counties expended 37 percent of CDBG funds on public works projects, 29 percent for housing-related activities and approximately eight percent for economic development activities.
Predictable of funding is critical in order for communities to plan for and implement long-term comprehensive strategies. Following consecutive annual increases in funding and overwhelming bipartisan congressional support, CDBG has been funded at $4.6 billion since FY95.
However, the program’s current funding is through a continuing resolution, because the Veterans Affairs-HUD FY96 appropriations bill is one of five funding bills that has not been enacted. The absence of a year long appropriation for CDBG has caused disruption in program administration.
Counties, which have been encouraged to draw down funds more rapidly, do not have large reserves to commit to new projects. Communities which use part of their grants for human services have had to scale back operations and potentially stop accepting applications for assistance.
Major housing and other activities have been frozen in some cases out of fear that funds may not be available to complete the projects. These delays mean that some grantees cannot take full advantage of the construction season this year
Some in Congress and the Administration are considering ways to reorganize HUD. However, it is unlikely that legislation affecting CDBG will be enacted this year even though authorization bills to revamp the department and CDBG could be introduced this spring.
Local government officials are not alone in proclaiming the stunning success of the CDBG Program. A two-year study of the program by the Urban Institute concludes that CDBG has brought “important contribution(s) to community development, including demonstrated successes in achieving local neighborhood stabilization and revitalization objectives.”
The Urban Institute believes that in virtually every jurisdiction, neighborhoods would have been affected detrimentally had CDBG not been implemented. The institute states that “the CDBG Program works most effectively when communities practiced concentrated investments; linked housing, economic development and social service spending; and invited citizen participation in neighborhood planning efforts.”
Counties concur in that assessment. For example, elected officials for Montgomery County, Ohio and the cities of Dayton and Kettering will testify on the importance of the program during CDBG Week and will couple this commemoration with a proclamation announcing April as “Fair Housing Month.”
Counties throughout the country have scheduled similar events highlighting CDBG, and projects like those described below that are funded with this critical resource will be showcased.
The National Association for County Community and Economic Development, NACoís professional affiliate, bestowed on Multnomah County its award of excellence for Unlimited Choices, Inc.ís Adapt-a-Home Program.
The county and Unlimited Choices, Inc., a local nonprofit, began the program in response to the severe shortage of accessible, affordable housing for persons with disabilities. Adapt-a-Home offers grants to disabled persons of up to $2,000 to be used to make houses or rental units accessible under the terms of the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988. CDBG was the initial funding source and is now leveraging state government and private sector resources.
Adapt-a-Home allows the nonprofit to modify housing according to a person’s specific accessibility needs while ensuring that all structural changes are made in collaboration with the homeowners and rental property owners. Rental property owners even sign a release waiving their right under the Fair Housing Act to require the tenant to return the rental unit to its former status, thereby ensuring that the rental unit will remain available for persons with disabilities. Adapt-a-Home staff assists property owners find new disabled tenants when a unit becomes available.
Forty-one units were made accessible in 1994. Approximately 25 percent of the participants were able to make the transition from adult foster homes or other institutions into their own housing unit.
A special rehabilitation program operated by Cincinnati Housing Partners, a nonprofit developer, has been a big success in the Lincoln Heights community. Under the program, abandoned deteriorated houses are purchased by the nonprofit developer, then rehabilitated using a crew supplied by the County’s Department of Human Services under its work experience program. The rehabilitated houses are then sold to low-income families.
The program thereby creates a triple-winner situation. First, abandoned homes are acquired and rehabilitated, thus removing a blighting influence from the community. Second, human service clients receive work experience and learn construction skills that can lead to regular employment.
Third, a low-income family becomes homeowners which benefits both the family and the community as an abandoned building is returned to the tax rolls. CDBG funds are used to purchase the abandoned buildings and provide some operating support for the nonprofit developer.
The Consolidated Plan that Kern County developed as a prerequisite for receipt of CDBG funds has been used by Arvin, one of the cities cooperating in the countyís CDBG program, as a framework for a comprehensive program to revitalize the cityís economy.
The plan has been used to complete a community based visioning process, establish design guidelines for new commercial development, remove architectural barriers, initiate main street face improvements and landscape improvements, construct a new county branch library, and initiate the application to create a redevelopment project area pursuant to state law which will generate fiscal capacity for the city to continue the revitalization process.
The city probably would not have conceived of this strategic planning process in the absence of the county’s CDBG Consolidated Plan.