Jonathan Mallahan, Community & Neighborhood Services Director, No Phone Number Available
Friday, February 6, 2015 at 9:47 a.m.
The City's Community Housing and Human Services (CHHS) Department and Office of Neighborhood Services are working with several Neighborhood Councils to identify new projects and sidewalk locations for 2015 Community Development Block Grant funding after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development updated its 2014 Low/Moderate Income Summary Data.
Each year, HUD provides Low/Moderate Income Summary Data to communities to support the Community Development Block Grant National Objective of providing benefit to low- and moderate-income persons on an area basis. In previous years, this data was based on the Decennial Census, but in 2014, HUD changed its methodology and now bases the tabulations upon the American Community Survey. As a result, several neighborhood projects and sidewalk locations identified for 2015 funding by Neighborhood Councils are no longer eligible for funding under the CDBG program.
Staff from the City's CHHS Department has created new maps for the Neighborhood Councils to use in identifying new projects and staff from the Office of Neighborhood Services is reaching out to affected neighborhoods to provide additional guidance and support. In addition, City staff is also looking into other funding possibilities to support the original projects identified by Neighborhood Councils.
In keeping with past practices, HUD has advised the City that the data will be slightly revised each year for changes, but annual changes are not anticipated to be as significant as the changes seen this year as HUD transitioned to the new data source. Special tabulations of the data will be received by HUD every five years, so those may be years of more significant changes.
The City's consolidated plan is due to HUD later this spring and the CDBG grant is expected to be awarded sometime in July. For questions regarding the CDBG program, contact George Dahl, Program Professional, in the City's CHHS Department at gdahl@spokanecity.org.
