Thomas MacMillan Photo
T.J. Blount (left), 8, and Ramon Yates, 13, shoot hoops at Farnam Neighborhood House.
With President Obama planning to shrink a pool of social-service grant money, Mayor John DeStefano has released projections of how the city will dole out fewer dollars this year. The upshot: New Haven non-profits like Fair Haven’s Farnam Neighborhood House are prepared for belt-tightening.
Farnam House is one of over two dozen local not-for-profits that receive federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money each year. The money comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); the city allocates it. This year, President Obama’s administration is planning cuts to the grants.
While the feds have not yet released the final numbers, the city Monday submitted its CDBG budget to the Board of Aldermen. The document, which shows how the city plans to dole out the CDBG money it expects to receive from HUD, shows a $600,000 drop in funding.
In the current fiscal year, the city handed out $4.5 million in CDBG money. In the next fiscal year, the city anticipates handing out $3.9 million. Most social service agencies funded by CDBG money will see a 12 percent drop in funding.
The majority of social service agencies that received CDBG funds this year and are down for them next year will see a 12 percent cut. A few, like Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services and Clifford W. Beers Guidance Clinic, will see increases in funding. Click here to see a spreadsheet prepared by the Independent detailing the changes.
The numbers are not etched in stone. They could change when the federal government makes its final decision about how much it will take out of CDBG funding. They could also change during the process of aldermanic approval of the mayor’s CDBG budget. In the coming weeks, a joint Human Services and Community Development Committee will hold public hearings in which CDBG-funded non-profits can plead for a bigger — or at least not smaller — piece of the pie.
It’s an annual process that can be fraught. Local organizations seek to hold onto precious resources, but additional funding in one place necessitates deeper cuts elsewhere.
Also at Monday night’s Board of Aldermen meeting, aldermen voted by unanimous consent to pass a resolution calling on President Obama to maintain CDBG level at its current level of funding. Click here to read their resolution.
“We’re planning for a pretty significant cut in total funding from Washington,” said city spokesman Adam Joseph. “We wish the federal government wasn’t cutting this program.”
The city is trying to apply the money as evenly and fairly as possible, Joseph said.
“We’re trying to keep it pretty much uniform in terms of a reduction” while “maintaining funding to programs that are vital to our residents,” Joseph said.
Farnam Neighborhood House is one of the not-for-profits scheduled to take a 12 percent hit, losing over $6,000 in CDBG money compared to last year’s grant.
“Of course it’s a hardship,” said Liz Gambardella, Farnam’s executive director. “We’ve been dealing with cuts across the board.”
Farnam House offers pre-school and after-school programs as well as summer camps to kids across the city. Gambardella said the organization has only six full-time staffers. She recently hired a part-time grant writer to try to bring in more money, she said.
With CDBG money, Farnam is able to hire staff to stay open on weekends and until 9 p.m. on weekdays, Gambardella said. That means teens have a place to hang out, do their homework, play pool, or shoot hoops.
Gambardella said a $6,000 cut wouldn’t mean she’d have to cut back on hours, but it could mean fewer adults around to work with teens. “It’s fewer people doing more things.”
Joan Jenkins is head of Children In Placement, which stands to lose $3,671 in CDBG money. Her organization trains, assigns, and supervises volunteer advocates for abused and neglected children.
“It means that we’ve got to go out and scramble,” she said. The organization will have to redouble fundraising efforts, to maintain the current level of services, she said. “We’re already limping along.”
Jenkins said she hopes to be able to keep her current staffing levels. Fewer staff would mean fewer volunteers, which would mean fewer kids getting help.
“It’s not like there’s someone to blame,” Jenkins said about the CDBG cuts. “It is what it is. We’ve all just got to make the best of a bad situation.”
So sad when we need these communities to have a place for our children to go and stay off the streets hope all works out. Our young people are suffering that is what brings them into the streets they are bored and get into trouble.