The Community Development Block Grant Commission unanimously approved its One Year Action Plan Thursday, granting the group $817,092 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to be used to aid the city’s homeless problem.
As a condition to receive Department of Housing and Urban Development Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program funds, the commission had to approve its Neighborhood Development Consolidated One Year Plan, which will now go to the City Council for final approval.
“We’ve got all sorts of nonprofits out there that are screaming to build homes for people with mental disease, people who need accessible housing — maybe they’re in a chair or something — for people who need a home because they’re homeless,” said Charles Sanders, chair of the Community Development Block Grant Commission.
Sanders said the commission has an ironclad operating budget, so the only way it can be expanded is with a nod of approval from the City Council.
The stimulus money will be put to use in the community and spent quickly for fast results, according to Sanders.
“Dane County has about 5,000 nonprofits, and damn if all 5,000 don’t come during what we call a Summer Process and ask us for money, and we don’t have it. But now we’re getting more, so we’re very happy about that, and we have to spend it quickly,” Sanders said.
The money from the stimulus falls under the category of an Emergency Shelter Grant, Community Development Director for the City of Madison Bill Clingan said.
However, these grants are not new to the commission. According to Clingan, the commission goes to the state and applies for somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 in grant money each year. The stimulus money adds extra money to the grant that will go straight to the city.
“Why this is desirable is when it comes to emergency shelters, there is a lot more need in Madison than there are dollars,” Clingan said. “With the downturn of the economy, there is a fear that folks out of work and folks under hard times are going to need this benefit.”
Clingan added there is no doubt the city will get the money from HUD, after which the commission will decide who gets the money through Request for Proposals. The money will be awarded to people that provide a proposal that is “on target and responds appropriately.”
“These are folks who are at risk of becoming homeless, so they’re providers in Madison who have been providing that service, but an RFP is wide open; anybody can apply,” Clingan said.
Ald. Tim Bruer, District 14, said the resources the city is getting from the Recovery Act will promote small business that can provide a “spark plug” to bring people back to work.
He added the city has done a “tremendous job” of strengthening nonprofits, but the private sectors will continue to employ people in the community who are struggling “on meltdown.”
“The principle objective of the Obama recovery initiatives is to put people back to work — particularly in the trades of development shelter industry that are unemployed,” Bruer said. “Commercial growth in the city is all but set down and fairly stalled.”
