WASHINGTON — Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan yesterday announced the distribution of $360 million of a total $1 billion in stimulus funding for community development block grants to state and local governments.
The CDBGs are intended to benefit low- to moderate-income families by creating and rehabilitating affordable housing units as well as generating economic activity in struggling neighborhoods.
Chicago will receive the most funding of the $360 million: $22.5 million or nearly four times the amount that will be given to the second-highest recipient. Cleveland will receive $6.4 million. Other top recipients include Baltimore at $6.2 million, San Francisco at $5.7 million, Boston at $5.4 million, and Pittsburgh at $4.5 million.
Communities receiving stimulus-funded CDBGs were chosen based on their ability to award contracts to bidders within 120 days of the grant. The funding will “create jobs and help to revitalize the nation’s hardest hit neighborhoods,” Donovan said.
Funds provided annually through the CDBG program — not through the stimulus package — are distributed using statutory formulas based on poverty levels, population, growth lag, residential overcrowding, and the age of the area’s housing. The grants are often used in conjunction with bonds.
