A new round of Community Development Block Grant funding will allow nonprofits to apply, and there will be the same level as last year’s funding for them.
That recommendation was made after discussion Monday night at the Unified Government Administration and Human Services Committee meeting.
While there is a total amount of funding of about $580,000 in the 2016-2017 CDBG budget available, the maximum available for public services will be about $275,000, according to UG officials. Other uses for the funds include public facilities and improvement, rehabilitation and acquisition of existing housing and economic development activities.
The services currently funded for public service activities include $20,000 for Livable Neighborhoods, $148,000 for the Willa Gill Center, $52,575 for the Wyandotte Homeless Services Coalition and $50,000 for the Doing Real Work program, according to Wilba Miller of the community development department.
The balance of the funding could be available to other agencies that qualify and apply.
According to UG staff, there will be a three-week window to apply for the funds. One more week was added to the application process today. The funds become available in the first quarter of 2017.
Miller explained that there are many rules that apply to this federal funding, and that the UG will hold a workshop to explain the rules to agencies that are interested. Timelines of projects are important, said Melissa Mundt, assistant UG administrator.
According to Mundt, today the UG received a denial of use of funds from Habitat for Humanity on an earlier CDBG project. The UG had allocated $250,000, but the agency is not able to execute the work on the timeline that was required, she said. UG staff said the CDBG grants are reimbursement grants, and the funding cannot be advanced to do the projects.
Mundt said the staff will ask the UG Commission to approve the reallocation of those dollars to sidewalks projects, because that is the only thing they can move quickly enough. The item may come up at a future UG meeting.
A community forum on the grant application process is planned for 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, April 7, on the fifth floor of City Hall, with agencies applying for grants from April 8 through April 29 at noon.