The City of Worcester’s Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) provides a flexible source of funding to develop viable urban communities by providing decent affordable housing, creating suitable living environments and expanding economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income persons.
Donor Name: City of Worcester
State: Massachusetts
City: Worcester
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 01/10/2023
Size of the Grant: $4,000,000.00
Details:
The goal of the CDBG Program is to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing, a suitable living environment and by expanding economic opportunities for low- and moderate-income people and families. Federal regulations require that CDBG funds be used for projects, programs or activities that qualify by meeting one of the following National Objectives:
- Must Benefit Low- and Moderate-Income Persons;
- Must Prevent or Eliminate Slums or Blight;
- Must Meet an Urgent Need.
Funding Information
The total amount of funding available to the City of Worcester for the CDBG Program is estimated at $4,000,000.00 for City Fiscal Year 2024.
Eligible and Ineligible CDBG funded activities, an estimated $20,000 from the City’s total Public Services allocation will be available, if final HUD funding amounts permit, to support impactful organizations and programs that are “new” to CDBG funding. This funding will be capped at a maximum award of up to $10,000 per organization, for up to two (2) organizations that have not been recipients of City of Worcester CDBG Public Service funds in the past 5 program years; organizations may not have received CDBG Public Service funding from between July 1, 2018 to the present to be eligible for this set aside. All applicant organizations “new” to CDBG Public Services funding that apply for $10,000 or less will be evaluated only against other similarly experienced applicants and therefore will be more competitively positioned for a potential funding award.
Eligibility Criteria
CDBG funds are awarded to City departments, other public agencies, public and private non-profit entities and for-profit entities to carry out eligible housing and community development projects within the boundaries of the City of Worcester.
Applicants interested in applying for CDBG funds must:
- Have a program that meets one of the CDBG National Objectives mentioned above and meet all eligible activity criteria;
- Be eligible to participate in HUD and City-funded programs;
- Respond to the needs of the City of Worcester, as outlined in the City’s Five (5) Year Consolidated Plan (2020-2025);
- Have no part of the organization’s or agency’s net earnings;
- Have a functioning accounting system and protocols that are operated in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, or have designated an entity that will maintain such an accounting system; and
- Provide a current budget showing the applicant’s capacity to execute the proposed project and the ability to secure additional funding necessary to operate the proposed project.
Threshold Requirements
All applicants and proposals must meet the following minimum threshold requirements:
- Applicant and its affiliates or subsidiaries are current in all financial obligations with the City of Worcester. The City of Worcester will not fund an organization or agency with outstanding disallowed costs, defaulted loans, tax arrearages, debarment actions or any other legal encumbrances, regardless of the merits of the submitted proposal.
- Applicant organization must certify that it complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), as amended (P.L. 110-325).
- Applicants must have Board of Directors certify that it has a three (3) – month cash flow reserve.
- Applicant must certify that it has a Non-Discrimination Policy and provide copies of that policy.
- Currently CDBG-funded applicants must meet the following additional minimum threshold requirements:
- Agency must be in compliance with all terms of its most recent CDBG contract requirements;
- Agency must not have a serious unresolved HUD or City monitoring findings or audit findings of a material nature regarding any of the agency’s CDBG-funded projects or other federal funded projects.
Due to anticipated reductions in City Fiscal Year 2024 CDBG allocations, applicant organizations may not submit more than 4 applications for CDBG funding to the City of Worcester.
For more information, visit Community Development Block Grants.
