Community Development Block Grant
(CDBG)
The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
program is a flexible program that provides communities with
resources to address a wide range of unique community development
needs. Beginning in 1974, the CDBG program is one of the longest
continuously run programs at HUD. The CDBG program provides annual
grants on a formula basis to 1209 general units of local government
and States.
Program Areas
Entitlement Communities
The CDBG entitlement program allocates annual grants to larger
cities and urban counties to develop viable communities by
providing decent housing, a suitable living environment, and
opportunities to expand economic opportunities, principally for
low- and moderate-income persons. |
State Administered CDBG
Also known as the Small Cities CDBG program, States award grants to
smaller units of general local government that carry out community
development activities. Annually, each State develops funding
priorities and criteria for selecting projects. |
Section 108 Loan Guarantee Program
CDBG entitlement communities are eligible to apply for assistance
through the section 108 loan guarantee program. CDBG
non-entitlement communities may also apply, provided their State
agrees to pledge the CDBG funds necessary to secure the loan.
Applicants may receive a loan guarantee directly or designate
another public entity, such as an industrial development authority,
to carry out their Section 108 assisted project. |
HUD Administered Small Cities
The HUD Honolulu Office directly administers the CDBG program for
non-entitlement communities in the State of Hawaii. |
Insular Areas
The Insular Areas CDBG program provides grants to four designated
insular areas: American Samoa; Guam; Northern Mariana Islands; and
the Virgin Islands. |
Disaster Recovery Assistance
HUD provides flexible grants to help cities, counties, and States
recover from Presidentially declared disasters, especially in
low-income areas, subject to availability of supplemental
appropriations. |
Neighborhood Stabilization Program
HUD provides grants to communities hardest hit by foreclosures and
delinquencies to purchase, rehabilitate or redevelop homes and
stabilize neighborhoods. |
Colonias
Texas, Arizona, California, and New Mexico set aside up to 10
percent of their State CDBG funds for improving living conditions
for colonias residents. |
Renewal Communities/ Empowerment Zones/ Enterprise Communities
(RC/EZ/EC)
This is a program that uses an innovative approach to
revitalization, bringing communities together through public and
private partnerships to attract the investment necessary for
sustainable economic and community development. |
|
Brownfields Economic Development Initiative (BEDI).
BEDI is a competitive grant program used to spur the return of
brownfields to productive economic reuse. BEDI grants must be used
in conjunction with a new Section 108 guaranteed loan. Both Section
108 loan proceeds and BEDI grant funds are initially made available
by HUD to public entities approved for assistance. |
About the Program
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. CDBG is an important tool for helping
local governments tackle serious challenges facing their
communities. The CDBG program has made a difference in the lives of
millions of people and their communities across the Nation.
The annual CDBG appropriation is allocated
between States and local jurisdictions called "non-entitlement" and
"entitlement" communities respectively. Entitlement communities are
comprised of 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). States
distribute CDBG funds to non-entitlement localities not qualified
as entitlement communities.
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.
Citizen Participation
A grantee must develop and follow a detailed
plan that provides for and encourages citizen participation. This
integral process emphasizes participation by persons of low or
moderate income, particularly residents of predominantly low- and
moderate-income neighborhoods, slum or blighted areas, and areas in
which the grantee proposes to use CDBG funds. The plan must provide
citizens with the following: reasonable and timely access to local
meetings; an opportunity to review proposed activities and program
performance; provide for timely written answers to written
complaints and grievances; and identify how the needs of
non-English speaking residents will be met in the case of public
hearings where a significant number of non-English speaking
residents can be reasonably expected to participate.
Eligible Activities
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. In
addition, each activity must meet one of the following national
objectives for the program: benefit low- and moderate-income
persons, prevention or elimination of slums or blight, or address
community development needs having a particular urgency because
existing conditions pose a serious and immediate threat to the
health or welfare of the community for which other funding is not
available.
(Information provided by US Office of Housing
and Urban Development (HUD) -
http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/program_offices/comm_planning/communitydevelopment/programs)