The Community and Economic Development Committee met 01/24/2024. They took up two action items, one was a request to approve preliminary 2024-2025 Program Year Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) allocations. The other was a request to approve the reallocation of 2023-2024 program year funds in the amount of $28,981.24 from Boys and Girls Club to Leaven and the Building For Kids.
The CDBG Advisory Board had recommended that the 2024-2025 dollars be allocated as follows:
- Habitat for Humanity – $132,000
- Rebuilding Together – $67,000
- Pillars – $56,000
- Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC) – $14,725
- Salvation Army – $30,625
Additionally, the Boys and Girls Club had not been able to utilize the full amount of 2023-2024 dollars it had been awarded and had to remit $28,981.24 back to the city to be reallocated. The CDBG Advisory Board recommended that that be allocated as follows:
- LEAVEN – $15,000
- Building For Kids – $13,981.24
- BABES – $0
The Community and Economic Development Committee voted 5-0 to approve both of those recommendations.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
There was a brief discussion regarding the fact that most grant recipients were not awarded the full amount request. The city only had an estimated $300,350 of 2024-2025 grant funds to allocate but had received requests totaling $517,625. City staff based their recommendations to fully fund or not fully fund a specific request on the historic award amounts granted to the requesting entity. For example, they only awarded $14,725 to WWBIC which was small compared to the other awards, but it was in line with previous grant awards WWBIC had received.
Additionally, staff took into consideration what the grant funds were going to be used for and whether a project or program could move forward with a partial award. For example, Habitat For Humanity’s house building and rehabbing projects possessed a degree of scalability. A partial award meant that they might not be able to fund as many house projects as they wanted, but they would still be able to fund some. However, if a grant was going to be used to pay to hire a new staffing position, then a partial award might not be beneficial; likewise, the CDBG Advisory Board had felt it advisable to fund the Salvation Army’s full grant request because it covered the cost of an alley and parking lot pavement project which was not the sort of project that could be downsized to fit with a smaller dollar amount.
The committee also briefly discussed why B.A.B.E.S. was not awarded any money. This was discussed in a little more detail during the CDBG Advisory Board meeting and I have included a transcript of that discussion below.
Basically, the Boys and Girls Club had been awarded something around $40,000 in 2023-2024 CDBG funds. They used this money to fund a staff position; however, that staff member quit and they were not able to fill the position, so they had to return the unused portion of their grant money back to the city. There was only $28,981.24 left which was an odd amount.
The general guideline was that a grant recipient should be awarded a minimum of $10,000. There was no way to divide $28,000 among the three grant applicants and maintain that $10,000 award limit, so one of them had to be awarded nothing. They chose to award B.A.B.E.S. nothing because they wanted to use the funds to pay for a staff position to provide respite/drop-in child care, but the program they were currently running only had a 40% utilization rate. Additionally, drop in child care was available elsewhere in the city, notably at the YMCA which offers that service on a sliding fee scale depending on income. Finally, between B.A.B.E.S, LEAVEN, and the Building For Kids, B.A.B.E.S had the least experience utilizing federal grant dollars and staff thought the other two organizations were more equipped to take the funds and spend it according to federal guidelines.
The Community and Economic Development Committee voted unanimously to approve both the 2024-2025 preliminary allocation recommendation by the CDBG Advisory Board as well as the reallocation recommendation for the 2023-2024 funds.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1144062&GUID=DCEC4E55-C16F-46F3-94F8-50BF47DDFB4B
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