Wearing a red shirt and a matching red hat, Yolanda Battle, 53, was eager to find out more about the federal dollars the city of Fort Worth was allocated by the U.S. Housing and Urban Development and how she could get “a piece of the pie” for her small business Happy-To-Help Transportation Services.
“There is so much money that’s available, so many needs that need to be met in our communities,” Battle said. “I wanted to see how I can fit in.”
While the deadline to submit a grant has long passed, the city of Fort Worth’s Neighborhood Services Department is hoping to fund a variety of after-school programs, nutrition and transportation programs for older adults, workforce training and housing services as part of its 2022-2023 HUD Annual Action Plan.
If approved, the plan would allocate money from four HUD grants totaling over $13 million to 21 local organizations.
Sharon Burkley, senior planner with the Neighborhood Services Department, said the proposed programs in the plan align with the city’s eight strategic goals approved by City Council in 2018 during their five-year strategic goals plan they set to guide future HUD funding.
“All eight of those goals are the ones that determine how funds are going to be used and all of the funds that we allocate have to fit into one,” Burkley said.
Burkley said this year’s funding is a 1% increase from last year’s total funds. But two out of the four grants funding the plan — the Community Development Block Grant and the Emergency Solutions Grant — have seen a drop in available allocation compared with the previous year, she said.
“As always, one of our concerns is not enough funds for the needs that we have,” Burkley said. “We did have reductions in our funding for our CDBG and our ESG funds, which are both critical areas. So that has an impact. That trickles down from our reduction in funding, trickles down to a reduction in funding that we can allocate to our agents.”
A significant portion of the funds for these projects are most likely to be spent within I-820 because it is the area with a higher concentration of minority residents and low- to moderate-income residents, the plan states. But some funds will be used for programs across the entire city of Fort Worth.
BOX: Fort Worth’s 2022-2023 HUD Goals
- Preserve aging housing stock: preserving and rehabilitating existing housing stock through major and minor repairs, acquisition and rehabilitation, and more.
- Improve accessibility of public and private spaces: improve public facilities such as community centers, parks and older municipal buildings as well as private housing spaces to ensure full access by physically disabled people and elderly.
- Poverty reduction and household stabilization: support programs that encourage self-sufficiency including employment training, job placement programs, and removing barriers to employment.
- Promote affordable housing for renters and owners: support single-family and multifamily housing developments, direct homebuyer assistance, education and counseling, conversion of facilities into housing, and more.
- Children and youth training and mentorship: prepare children and their families for success through education and support programs like reading and literacy, tutoring, mentoring, training and enrichment in low-income neighborhoods.
- Support programming for Aging-in-Place: programming to support seniors aging in their homes in the neighborhood by providing meals, transportation and other services for people 62 and older.
- Targeted Neighborhood Revitalization: improve transportation infrastructure such as streets, sidewalks and lighting, and improve public facilities like parks, etc.
- Homeless services: all types of services and housing for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of homelessness.
Source: City of Fort Worth 2022-2023 HUD Annual Action Plan (draft)
The plan will also provide funds toward two home repair programs, as well as support homeownership for low- to moderate-income individuals. Also on the list are a single-family housing development project in the Polytechnic neighborhood and a multi-family property with permanent supportive housing and rental rehabilitation.
Burkley said about 60% of the total funds will go toward addressing housing and homeless services. This includes both building housing as well as well housing programs like homebuyer assistance or rapid rehousing. The remaining 40% will be split between the remaining goals like youth or employment.
A second public hearing will be at 6 p.m. Aug. 9 when the city council will then vote on it later that evening. Residents also may submit written comments by Aug. 1 at 5 p.m. via mail or email.
The plan’s program should begin Oct. 1, 2022.
For Battle, the work has already begun for her to submit her application for next year. Otherwise, she’s satisfied with the proposed allocation.
“I wanted to know where the money is allocated, which organizations would benefit from it and see the amount of allocation to see where money is spent in the city of Fort Worth,” she said.
“It seems like it was allocated pretty well.”
Sandra Sadek is a Report for America corps member, covering growth for the Fort Worth Report. You can contact her at sandra.sadek@fortworthreport.org or on Twitter at @ssadek19.
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