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Date: 3/21/2023
NORTHAMPTON — The city of Northampton will have a little more than $630,000 of Community Block Development Grant (CDBG) money for the 2023-2024 program year.
On or around July 1, 2023, the city will receive exactly $630,060 in CDBG funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Additionally, funds of approximately $7,000 from previous years are also available, bringing the total amount of CDBG funds available for the program year up to $643,411.
On March 15, the Office of Planning & Sustainability conducted a meeting to present an overview of the CDBG Annual Action Plan for the upcoming program year. It was the second of two public meetings over the past five months where the CDBG action plan was discussed in some capacity.
According to Keith Benoit, the community development planner for the city, the money must aid low to moderate-income families, while the program itself plans to address priorities identified in Northampton’s five-year plan.
The plan explains how $126,000 of the $643,411 will address planning and administration costs in the city, while $94,500 will go toward public services. That leaves just short of $410,000 for other projects throughout the city, according to Benoit.
According to the plan, around $100,000 of these funds will be used for housing while $266,560 will go toward the city’s future Community Resilience Hub. The city is currently in the process of executing a purchase of the First Baptist Church for the hub, which is located between Forbes Library and downtown Northampton.
“We have a lot less public facilities and housing projects this year,” said Benoit. “We’re funneling more money into the Community Resilience Hub.”
Meanwhile, the $94,500 for public service projects will be awarded to seven different organizations throughout the city addressing community resource access, literacy, employment readiness, legal aid to prevent homelessness, youth mentoring, food access and shelters for the homeless.
The Center for Human Development, Community Action Pioneer Valley, and the Literacy Project are among the several hopeful that they will receive awards for their respective projects they are currently pursuing.
According to Benoit, these are preliminary awardees, as nothing is final until the city sends out its final action plan to HUD.
The next steps include submitting the final action plan to HUD by May. The hope is to have a response from HUD by June or July so the city can send out a notice of who was awarded money.
Benoit said that people may ask questions or submit comments regarding the draft plan by emailing kbenoit@northamptonma.gov, or by calling 587-1288. People have until April 18 to submit comments.
Readers can learn more about the Resilience Hub project by reading about Reminder Publishing’s prior coverage: http://archives.thereminder.com/localnews/northampton/northampton-city-council-officially-advances-money/