Pearland City Council during its July 25 regular meeting was briefed on how the city is planning to use its $478,854 Community Development Block Grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Pearland has received annual funding from the HUD each fiscal year dating back to 2006 through the grant program, said Joel Hardy, Pearland grants special projects administrator.
The city qualifies for the program because it has a population over 50,000, Hardy said. HUD funding is based on a formula that factors in Pearland’s population, poverty population and overcrowded housing population, Hardy said.
Funding must be used for projects that help remove blight, such as vacant and abandoned properties that have negative impacts on communities; meet local urgent needs, such as those caused by natural disasters; or also to serve low- to moderate-income households, Hardy said.
The city of Pearland is expecting to divide up its $478,854 grant funding by designating $259,366 to nonprofit facility improvements, $26,828 for mental health services, $20,000 for rental assistance, $25,000 for child care services, $79,179 for home repair program and $68,481 for program administration, Hardy said during his presentation.
City Council is expected to vote on the plan’s adoption at its Aug. 8 meeting.
To help in deciding how the city should split the grant funding, city staff looked at Pearland’s demographics. During the presentation to City Council, Hardy said Pearland has a 3.5% poverty rate, which is below the state’s 13.4%. Additionally, the city has a 3.4% unemployment rate, and the annual median household income in Pearland is $102,764.
Hardy said the city also is conducting a 36-question survey, which will close Aug. 8, to gauge what residents feel the city’s biggest areas of need are. The survey is available in English and in Spanish.
As of July 25, the city had only seen roughly 150 residents take the survey, but Hardy said that is a drastic increase from input it has been able to get in previous years.
Some results of the survey include 78%, or roughly 109 people, believed there is a moderate to high need for more mental health services in Pearland. Some 77%, or 108 residents, said there is a moderate to high need for services for seniors, such as Meals on Wheels, transportation and day programs.
Additionally, 80% of those surveyed said there is a moderate to high need for increased parks and recreation facilities in Pearland. When it comes to housing, 49% of the residents surveyed said there is a low need to build new affordable residential units for low-income populations in the city, while 63% said there is a low need for public housing units in the city.
“This ties directly into our demographic-economic housing conditions,” Hardy said. “Our economy does not warrant nor do our homeless conditions warrant that we invest in that regard.”
Additional survey results can be found on Pearland agenda documents. Pearland also has $268,015 in unused grant funding from previous years dating back to 2016, which the city can use for eligible projects, Hardy said.
