By David Ball

david.ball@panews.com

Michael “Shane” Sinegal, Jefferson County Precinct 3 commissioner, brought up a hypothetical but very possible situation. What will happen with federal funding if Port Arthur’s population drops below 50,000 residents in the next Census of 2020? Would they still be eligible to receive Community Development Block Grants?

Sinegal made the point when he spoke at the Press Club of Southeast Texas monthly meeting on Nov. 16 in Beaumont.

Sinegal estimates he will lose from 3,000 to 4,000 residents in Precinct 3 who have moved away. He also estimated Port Arthur’s current population is at 52,000.

He added that if the city of Port Arthur’s population plunges under 50,000, they wouldn’t be able to receive federal funds.

Twenty-three hundred residents left via the Jack Brooks Regional Airport. Some have nothing to come back to.

The U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department’s website explains how a municipality’s population determines what kinds of CDBGs they will receive.

“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 1,209 general units of local government and states,” it read.

 

About the Program

The CDBG program works to ensure decent affordable housing, to provide services to the most vulnerable in communities and to create jobs through the expansion and retention of businesses.

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.

 

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.

The Texas Department of Agriculture, likewise, addresses rural CDBGs for communities under 50,000.

 

Funding Source

Every year, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development provides federal Community Development Block Grant funds directly to states, which, in turn, provide the funds to small, rural cities with populations less than 50,000, and to counties that have a non-metropolitan population under 200,000 and are not eligible for direct funding from HUD.

These small communities are called “non-entitlement” areas because they must apply for CDBG dollars through the Texas CDBG program. Larger cities, such as Dallas, Houston and others, receive CDBG monies directly from HUD, and are called “entitlement” areas.

CDBG Objectives

The primary objective of the Community Development Block Grant program is to develop viable communities by providing decent housing and suitable living environments, and expanding economic opportunities principally for persons of low- to moderate-income.