nothin Plan OK’d To Distribute $5M In Urban Aid | New Haven Independent

Plan OK’d To Distribute $5M In Urban Aid

Markeshia Ricks Photo

Frank Douglass at Monday night’s meeting.

Local social service and neighborhood improvement agencies will see some of their funding restored thanks to an unexpected boost in federal aid.

That boost came as the Board of Alders voted unanimously Monday night during its regular bimonthly meeting at City Hall in support of the 2018 – 2019 consolidated action plan of how it will dole out grant money from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Dwight Alder Frank Douglass, who chairs the board’s Community Development Committee, told his colleagues that block grant money — which helps to pay for public improvements to housing, anti-blight work, and even the city’s asthma program — has only continued to decline over the last 40 years.

But this year Congress passed $3.3 billion in block grant increases alone in the latest federal budget. Alders plan to pass New Haven’s share along to local agencies. Click here to see the city’s consolidated action plan approved Monday night to spread out the roughly $5 million in total it anticipates this year. (A delegation of alders went to Washington, D.C. last year to lobby Connecticut’s federal lawmakers and press them to push for the funding.)

The money goes to both city government agencies and local nonprofits. This year’s distribution includes, among many uses, $163,886 for city efforts to combat lead poisoning, $50,000 for Habitat for Humanity, $25,000 to work on boosting neighborhood commercial corridors, $50,000 for Beulah Land Development Corporation to build affordable housing, $25,000 for the Spanish American Merchants Association, $25,000 for the Greater New Haven Business and Professional Association, $90,000 for anti-blight work, $500,000 for the city to acquire and improve derelict properties, $29,682 for blue police call lamps,

The pool of funds come from federal housing monies such as Community Development Block Grants, Home Investment Partnership, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS, and Emergency Solutions Grants. They allow the city to direct dollars toward its goals for neighborhood stability, quality of life, and economic development,” he said.

Douglass said with the increases the city can restore funding to the Family Justice Center, New Haven READS, Clifford Beers Clinic, and the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center, just to name a few. It also will be able to restore city accounts for housing code enforcement and anti-blight efforts.

We boosted the sidewalks account by $111,000,” he said. These programs focus on affordable housing, better public facilities, and new streets and sidewalks. It helps the youth and elderly, the homeless and jobless.”

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