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The San Marcos City Council on April 7 weighed in on the allocation of $740,000 in Community Development Block Grant funding to be put toward public service programs and projects.
Selected programs benefit citizens with low and moderate incomes or aim to “eliminate slums or blight,” according to previous Community Impact reporting.
The overview
City staff presented recommendations to council for the amount of CDBG funding each should receive during the meeting.
No more than 15% of the grant, or $111,000, can be spent on public services, and no more than 20%, or $148,000, can be spent on staff administering the grant. The remaining grant funds may be spent on projects.
For a program or project to be eligible for CDBG funds, it must meet specific requirements outlined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. A city staff committee reviewed and scored grant applications on the following criteria:
City staff made the following recommendations for CDBG funding allocation to public services at the meeting:
Business and Community Lenders proposed using grant funding to set up a new program providing rent assistance, said Carol Griffith, city housing and community development manager.
Staff recommended funding existing programs, as supporting the creation of a new project would have required allocating a majority of the grant’s public services portion to the organization.
“They're setting up an entire program,” Griffith said. “If we just handed them a little bit [of funding], they wouldn't be able to do what they really wanted to do.”
The City Council suggested a potential increase in funding for Housing, Outreach, Mitigation and Emergency Center at the meeting.
The recommended allocations will support Austin Habitat for Humanity’s housing repair program, energy efficiency improvements in the city’s older housing stock made by Combined Community Action and Mission Able’s work, providing targeted critical repairs to homes, Griffith said.
“Affordable housing is one of the city's top priorities for CDBG funding,” Griffith said. “The review committee considered that spreading funding among multiple applicants would get the funding into the community faster.”
Staff also recommended a CDBG funding allocation to purchase markers and lighting for the Dunbar History Walk project.
Looking forward
City staff will publish a draft action plan for the funding allocations May 5, after which the community will have 30 days to comment and provide feedback. City Council will then consider a final grant allocation July 7.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced San Marcos would receive $774,000 in CDBG funding. The draft action plan will include a proposal for how the additional $34,000 may be allocated to the applicants.
