Filing Date:

Varies; contact your local government or regional HUD officer for more information.

Eligibility:

Generally local governments, non‐profit agencies and community development organizations. Contact your local government or HUD regional office to explore the CDBG process in your community.

Description:

The CDBG program works to ensure decent affordable housing, to provide services to the most vulnerable in our communities and to create jobs through the expansion and retention of businesses. A grantee must develop and follow a detailed plan that provides for and encourages citizen participation. CDBG funds may be used for activities such as the acquisition of real property, rehabilitation of non-residential structures and the construction of public facilities and improvements.

The annual CDBG appropriation is allocated between states and local jurisdictions referred to as “entitlement” and “non-entitlement” communities. The former include central cities of Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs); metropolitan cities with populations of at least 50,000; and qualified urban counties with a population of 200,000 or more (excluding the populations of entitlement cities). “Non‐entitlement” communities are generally small cities that are not qualified as “entitlement” communities.

CDBG might be useful for station restoration in a community that is interested in using historic preservation and heritage tourism as an economic development tool, or for a project in which an improved station figures in a larger mixed-use development designed to revitalize an economically distressed neighborhood.

For example, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, used CDBG funds in the restoration of the historic train station in Greensburg, which now houses offices and retail in addition to passenger rail facilities. Approximately $150,000 in CDBG funds went towards making the depot in Kingman, Arizona, accessible to all users. The project included work on the restrooms, parking area and sidewalks. The historic structure now houses a waiting room for Amtrak passengers and a railroad museum.

Financing:

HUD determines the amount of each grant by using a formula comprised of several measures of community need, including the extent of poverty, population, housing overcrowding, age of housing and population growth lag in relationship to other metropolitan areas. Funding is distributed to states, which then redistribute these funds to units of local government.

Over a 1, 2, or 3‐year period, as selected by the grantee, not less than 70 percent of CDBG funds must be used for activities that benefit low‐ and moderate‐income persons.

Additional Information:

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development – Community Development Block Grant Program