City Hall doesn’t want to give two housing builders any new block-grant money. Two aldermen want to know why.
The two aldermen — the Hill’s Jackie James and Fair Haven’s Joseph Rodriguez — raised their objections Thursday night as the public got its first look at the proposed list for dividing federal block-grant money this coming year.
The $5,452,674 list was submitted by the DeStefano administration to a joint meeting of the Board of Aldermen’s Community Development and Human Services Committee.
It included 90 not-for-profits and city government agencies among whom the administration proposes dividing this year’s allotment of Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which come from the federal government. The process of dividing up the money is always competitive, and often controversial.
Fifteen agencies that applied failed to make the cut, according to Elizabeth Smith, the City Hall point person who presented the proposal Thursday night to the aldermen, who will now review it in a series of hearings before voting on it.
Aldermen Rodriguez and James questioned why two longtime housing builders in town, Hill Development Corporation and NeighborhoodWorks New Horizons (formerly Mutual Housing), were left off the list.
Hill Development was one of four agencies that had essential paperwork missing from their applications, according to Smith. The other three are Montessori, Service of God Outreach Ministry and Casa Otonal. They face a Friday deadline to submit the required paperwork or lose funding.
Smith said New HavenWorks New Horizon asked for money for new construction, an ineligible CDBG use.
Rodriguez, who represents Fair Haven, said there may have been a simple misunderstanding.
“To my understanding, it’s not new construction,” he said. “What happened was they mixed rehab and new construction, so technically it’s an error in marking the application. And what is being requested is actually for rehabbing, not new construction.”
James said she believed the committee should clarify why these groups were left off the list.
“When you have two organizations that deal with low-income housing in our community and neither one of them got funded,” she said, “that’s kind of concerning.”
Newhallville Alderman Charles Blango, who chairs the Human Services Committee, said agencies should know the rules of the game when they apply for money.
“The point of the process is that if you’ve been a part of the process for years, then you’re supposed to know the process,” he said. “Now, if there’s a check box error ‚that’s why we as a committee can look at it and make an executive decision.”
The Community Development and Human Services committees will re-convene Feb. 5, when it will seek input from the public on the block grant list.
Jackie James, who represents the Hill, also questioned the amount of the mayor’s proposed funding for a city program devoted to lead and asbestos abatement. She said the $219,463 allocated to the project seemed excessive.
“It’s my understanding that we already have $3 million in that program that we’re not even using,” she said.
