City Of Portland: Recommendations For FY23 CDBG Allocations

Press release from the City of Portland:

March 15, 2022

Social Services“As in past years, the City received a wide variety of competitive social service applications, said Interim City Manager Danielle West.  “Due to the significant needs identified, in addition to the annual CDBG allocation for social services, I am also recommending that CDBG Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) funding set-aside for day space and ESG CARES Act funding set-aside for street outreach be re-programmed to fund some of the remaining CDBG applications.”

“This year, the CDBG Program included a set-aside for new applicants with the requirement that to qualify, the applicant must not have received CDBG funding in the past and their application must receive a minimum score of 75. After carefully reviewing the materials, I agree with the Allocation Committee’s recommendation that only fully funded “new” applicants receive funding with the residual set-aside returning to the general allocation. Consequently, my recommendation includes reallocating the $37,965 that would have been awarded to Children’s Museum & Theater After School Clubhouse Program and using the Cotton Street proceeds and CDBG CARES Act funding in order to fully fund the Preble Street Florence House Women’s Shelter Program and the Portland Child Care Voucher Program. In addition, I recommend that $71,000 in CDBG CARES Act funds be used to fund the Preble Street Emergency Food Program. Lastly, I also recommend that the Amistad Mobile Day Space Housing Project be fully funded using the CDBG CARES Act and ESG CARES Act allocations.”

Development Activities“Funds in this category are used to improve and invest in the physical infrastructure and the economic development of our City. This year, we received 7 applications in this category requesting $600,872 in funding. While we have not received the final CDBG allocation amount from the federal government, we are estimating that $910,187 will be available in this category. Therefore, my recommendation is that all development activity applications be fully funded with one adjustment. I recommend utilizing a combination of the annual $90,000 in Downtown TIF funding plus CDBG funding to fund the Department of Public Works East Oxford Street Landscape and Accessibility Improvement Project. This will mean that we will have an estimated $399,315 in unallocated CDBG Development Activity funding. As a result, at a later date, staff will bring forward recommendations for the use of these unallocated funds.”

This press release was produced by the City of Portland. The views expressed here are the author’s own.