City of Walnut Creek
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The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program supports community development activities to build stronger and more resilient communities. To support community development, activities are identified through an ongoing process. Activities may address needs such as infrastructure, economic development projects, public facilities installation, community centers, housing rehabilitation, public services, homeowner assistance, and more. CDBG is funded by the federal government through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and the City of Walnut Creek is an entitlement community that receives an annual allocation of CDBG funds.
Every five years, the Contra Costa Consortium (Contra Costa Urban County along with four of the largest cities - Antioch, Concord, Pittsburg, and Walnut Creek) identifies pressing needs through a community needs assessment. Walnut Creek then selects activities to fund with CDBG that best meets the needs of the community, and creates a five-year Consolidated Plan (ConPlan). Walnut Creek is in the final year of the current 2020-2025 ConPlan, and the Contra Costa Consortium is beginning to develop the 2025-2030 Consolidated Plan.
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Goal
Develop viable urban communities by supporting low and moderate income persons with:
- Decent housing
- Suitable living environment
- Economic opportunity
Process
For 2025-2030:
- FY 2025-2027 is a 2-year grant cycle
- FY 2027-2030 is a 3-year grant cycle
We issue a notice when new funding is available in the first year of a grant cycle.
The first year of a cycle is an application year, and the remaining years of a cycle are renewal years. If you are performing well and have met the financial reporting requirements, you will get a similar level of funding in the renewal years.
If your agency is interested in participating, get notified when the next funding opportunity is open.
Please note, there is currently an RFP open specifically for Non-Housing Projects. The application period is Wednesday, October 9, 2024 - Thursday, December 5, 2024. Please click the button "Apply for a CDBG grant" for more information.
Criteria
Grant activities need to meet 1 of these objectives:
- Benefit low and moderate income persons (typically, all applications fall under this category)
- Aid in the prevention or elimination of slums and blight: activities that help to prevent or eliminate slums or blighted conditions in a designated area, on a spot basis, or within an urban renewal area. There are restrictions on what specific activities are allowed.
- Urgent need: activities that meet other community development needs having a particular urgency because existing conditions pose a serious threat to the health and welfare of the community and other financial resources are not available to meet such needs. This is very rarely used and only applies in an extreme emergency.
Requirements
A minimum of 70% of CDBG funds (not including administrative costs) must support activities that benefit people with lower incomes.
This can include any of these:
- Serve all residents in a particular area, where at least 51 percent of residents are low or moderate income.
- Those, which benefit a limited clientele, as long as at least 51 percent are low/mod income. Under this category, income and family size must be clearly documented or else the income eligibility requirements must limit the activity to low/mod income persons or be of a nature and location that it can be concluded that primary clients are low/mod income. In addition, certain clientele are presumed by HUD to be low/mod income. They are: senior citizens, severely disabled adults, persons living with AIDS, battered spouses, abused children, the homeless, illiterate adults, or migrant farm workers.
- Housing activities which provide or improve permanent residential structures which will be occupied by low/mod income persons (if structure contains more than one unit, at least 51 percent must be low/mod income occupied).
- Job creation or retention activities that create or retain permanent jobs, at least 51 percent of which will be made available to or held by low-mod income persons.
About CDBG
The Community Development Block Grant program was created by the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. The City of Walnut Creek gets an annual allocation of funds to carry out a wide range of community development activities.
Contra Costa Consortium and Consolidated Plan
To get our annual allocation, we develop a planning document that identifies our needs and goals. This is called a Consolidated Plan.
The Contra Costa Consortium prepares a shared Consolidated Plan. The Consortium developed the Five-Year Consolidated Plan for the 2020-2025 planning period.
Annual Action Plan
Each Consortium member is considered an entitlement jurisdiction under the CDBG program. Each jurisdiction develops an Annual Action Plan. This plan:
- Describes how the City will meet the strategies and objectives of the Consolidated Plan for the upcoming year
- Provides information about the activities that will be funded with federal and local resources to meet the Consortium's priority needs
2025-2030 Consolidated Plan
The Contra Costa Consortium is beginning to develop the 2025-2030 Consolidated Plan for the use of CDBG, HOME Investment Partnerships Act (HOME), and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funds within a 5 year time-frame.
Over the five-year period, $60 million in funding could be spent for a wide variety of uses, including:
- building new affordable rental housing
- providing first-time home-buyer assistance
- rehabilitating existing housing for lower income and senior households
- building new supportive housing for people with special needs
- improving or constructing public facilities, including community centers and parks
- improving infrastructure (streets, sidewalks, etc.) in lower income neighborhoods
- providing employment training and training to small business owners
- providing a wide variety of services for lower income families and individuals, and homeless person, and so much more