Lodi community groups compete for grant funding
Seven Lodi agencies were up for consideration for the annual Community Development Block Grant at a meeting on Tuesday at Carnegie Forum.
Joseph Wood, manager of Lodi’s Neighborhood Services Division, gave a presentation on the 2017-18 CDBG program and its 2014-18 consolidated plan.
Applications opened in December of 2016 and by Feb. 25, 2017, the city had received seven applications from community organizations requesting a total of $189,400.
Grace & Mercy Charitable Foundation and the One-Eighty Youth Program are requesting money for capital improvements, while the rest requested for their public services.
The Community Partnership for Families requested $50,000 for a youth support program, the Emergency Food Bank requested $5,000 for a mobile farmer’s market, the LOEL Center requested $10,000 for the Meals on Wheels program, San Joaquin Fair Housing requested $18,000 for housing discrimination testing, the Second Harvest Food Bank requested $10,000 for their food assistance program, Grace & Mercy Charitable Foundation requested $10,000 for ADA accessibility improvements and the One-Eighty Youth Program requested $86,400 for security and building improvements.
Wood wants to make sure that these funds will help not only the entire city, but several of their target populations such as low-income households, senior citizens, youths and people with disabilities.
Not every organization will receive their full request due to the public service cap, which is only about $92,011.
Wood emphasized throughout the meeting that they are cutting down their requests so they can meet the cap and avoid overspending.
The Community Partnership for Families’ request of will be cut to $45,093 at the request of Wood and the Neighborhood Services Division.
The Emergency Food Bank will not receive any of their requested $5,000 to fund their mobile farmer’s market. That money will instead go towards the LOEL Center’s Meals on Wheels Program, which will receive $7,500. Second Harvest Food Bank’s request will also be cut to $7,500.
“If we receive additional funding, of course it will go to (the food bank),” said Wood.
The San Joaquin Fair Housing is being removed from the equation entirely. Wood said their request will be funded through other means.
Grace & Mercy Charitable Foundation will receive their full $10,000 request to make improvements for ADA compliant
ramps, while the OneEighty Youth Program will receive $78,900.
“We try to whittle down these requests to where they can still be effective,” Wood said.
Wood stated that in the event that they do not receive all of the estimated grant funding, they are likely to focus their funding on the Youth Support Team Partnership from the Community Partnership for Families.
“The service they provide is working with at-risk youth, actual gang-involved youth and youth that have stepped away from gangs,” said Wood.
Wood believes that this program is essential at this time, because of a recent uptick in gang activity.
The 30-day public review started on April 3 and there will be a public hearing on May 3.
From there, the Final Action Plan will begin its 30-day public review on May 8 and hold its last public hearing on June 7. The plan is scheduled to be presented to the Department of Housing and Urban Development by June 26.