City Housing Committee members discuss Development Department grants. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

There are no worries this year over the city’s Community Development Block Grant and HOME funding allocations from the federal government.

There are multiple grants and funding items, including funding for CDBG and HOME, that are in the works at the Department of Development. Deputy development director Kasie Foulk recently updated the City Council’s Housing Committee at their latest meeting on where a few of those stand.

Beginning with the Healthy Homes Protection Grant, Foulk said that grant was officially closed out on the day of the meeting as the contract with their project manager for that has ended. The department’s lead protection program was set to kick off the day after the meeting, specifically all of the administrative items.

The big item reported on by Foulk though, was the DOD receiving the award letter for the CDBG and HOME funding from the state.

“We will be receiving $1,113,722 for CDBG and $27,910.82 for HOME,” Foulk said.

Councilman Brent Sheldon, R-Ward 1, asked if this was an increase at all, and Foulk said it was about standard. She noted project wise there are very strict requirements for what can be used for CDBG and HOME funding.

The Development Department also has an additional $300,000 in Vacant Rental Program Funds that Foulk said will not be opened to the public as they have enough existing applications to fill the original allocation. With the receipt of the CDBG and HOME award letter, work for the DOD continues on the Annual Action Plan, with the next public meeting for that being a teams meeting on May 12 at 12 p.m. A Microsoft Teams link will be posted on Facebook that week and sent out to whoever needs it. A previous meeting was held the week before the meeting at the Prendergast Library.

Foulk also reminded everyone to fill out the community survey for the Annual Action Plan if not done already.

“Please complete your survey, the data that we collect with our public meeting or public hearing and the survey is how we determine the programs that we fund using our CDBG and our HOME,” Foulk said.