CDBG funds enable neighborhood improvement projects in low- and moderate-income areas.
Is there a nonprofit that’s doing good in your neighborhood?
That’s one of the questions that city administrators will pose at a pair of upcoming public meetings in February and March, as Harrisburg begins to chart its priorities for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money over the next five years.
CDBG funds are allocated annually to organizations that help build community and stabilize neighborhoods in low- and moderate-income areas. The city received $1.9 million last year and expects the same this year, according to city communications director Joyce Davis.
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which disburses CDBG money, requires each municipality receiving grants to have a “consolidated plan” describing its development priorities and goals.
Harrisburg’s current three-year plan is set to expire in September. Roy Christ, Harrisburg’s director of Building and Housing, said that development projects started during Mayor Eric Papenfuse’s first term require a new plan with a longer duration.
“We planted a lot of seeds in these past few years,” Christ said. “We want to drive our roots deeper, because the projects we’re doing now are going to come to fruition in the next five years.”
In past years, CDBG funds have supported organizations such as the Heinz-Menaker Senior Center, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Harrisburg, the Latino Hispanic American Community Center and MidPenn Legal Services.
City departments can also apply for grants. Last year, the Harrisburg Police Bureau received $90,000, which paid for a community policing van and helped launch the police cadet program.
For this planning cycle, Christ said Harrisburg hopes to target projects in “tipping point” neighborhoods.
“These are neighborhoods that need a bit of help to bounce back and become self-sustaining,” he said.
City residents can contribute input at public meetings or through a forthcoming online survey. The meetings will be held on Feb. 20 at the Latino Hispanic American Community Center and March 5 at Jackson-Lick Tower, both at 5:30 p.m.
Christ and Jackie Parker, director of Community and Economic Development, hope that public input will help the department determine which neighborhoods need investment in the next half-decade and which nonprofit groups can help them achieve those goals. The city’s five-year plan won’t dictate which groups will get funding in the future, but it will outline broad development strategies that will guide the city’s allocations.
CDBG funds vary year to year, which can complicate this type of planning exercise, Christ said. Local agencies expect that HUD cutbacks will continue under the Trump administration, which makes the process of allocating money more labored.
Harrisburg also has a significant limitation on its funding—almost a third of it goes straight into debt service. The city is still paying for the crimes of local developer David Dodd, who embezzled federal money while constructing the Capitol View Commerce Center at Cameron and Herr streets.
Harrisburg and Dauphin County awarded Dodd $860,000 in HUD funds to construct the building, which was abandoned halfway through the project and finally completed by another developer in 2015. Both parties also guaranteed loans for Dodd’s $28 million project, bringing the city’s liability alone up to $5 million.
As a result, Harrisburg has diverted as much as $600,000 of its annual CDBG funding to debt service in the years since Dodd’s conviction.
Limited funds have made CDBG allocations an annual point of contention between City Council and the mayor’s office. Nonprofit leaders who apply for grants don’t think that any long-term planning effort will change that.
“It’s the nature of the beast,” said Les Ford, director of the Heinz-Menaker center.
Ford has applied for HUD funding almost every year since he began leading the center in 2012. He said he’ll do so reluctantly this year, despite the shrinking pot of money and the cumbersome application process.
While Ford is ambivalent that a new five-year plan will streamline Harrisburg’s CDBG allocation process, he does hope that it will at least help the city communicate its development goals clearly to applicants.
