Community Development Block Grants
Community Development Block Grant funds allocated
to the County, Large City, Small City, and Quality of Life Funds will be distributed
through a competitive process. The aim of the competitive process is to compare all
applications in the same funding category to each other within the framework of criteria
set up to judge the merits of community development activities. This entails assigning
points based on how well an application addresses each rating criteria. To insure that the
competitive process is fair and even handed, all applications must be submitted by a
specific cut-off date and no changes may be made in an application after its submission to
the State. The State may request clarification of the proposal that in now way affects the
substance of the application.
Types of Grants
Two types of grants are available under the Small City and
Large City Funds: Single Purpose and Comprehensive. Under the County Fund only Single
Purpose grants are available. There will be no division of the Large City and Small City
Funds between Single Purpose and Comprehensive programs. Instead, both Single Purpose and
Comprehensive applications will compete for total funds available in the particular
category. Applicable grant ceilings for Single Purpose and Comprehensive programs are
listed under the Grant Ceilings section.
Single Purpose Grants
Single purpose grants are designed for communities to
address and resolve a specific community development need. A program will consist of one
primary activity and incidental activities if appropriate. The Program should address an
essential community need(s) falling in one of the following areas and should be developed
through assessment of the applicant's housing and community development needs-.
1. Housing.
2. Deficiencies in public facilities that affect the
public health and safety.
Applications for the Quality of life Fund are
fundamentally Single Purpose applications but will have a lower grant ceiling for all
applicants, and will be rated by evaluating criteria more appropriate to those types of
activities. These will he addressed in more detail in a section of the Action Plan devoted
to Quality of life grants.
Comprehensive Grants
Comprehensive grants are designed for communities to
address a substantial portion of the identified community development needs of a defined
concentrated area. A comprehensive grant should involve two or more activities related to
each other that will be carried out in a coordinated manner. The program may include
activities in the area of housing, public facilities, and commercial development related
to downtown and/or neighborhood redevelopment. The program must be developed through
assessment of the applicant's housing and community development needs.
Criteria for Rating Single Purpose
and Comprehensive Applications
All counties, large cities, and small cities will compete
for funds from a respective category, i.e. County Fund, Large City Fund, and Small City
Fund. Under the Small City and Large City jurisdictional categories, single purpose
applications will be rated against other single purpose applications and comprehensive
applications will be rated against other comprehensive program applications. All
applications will be rated for a maximum score of 3O5 points and applications with
relatively high scores will qualify for site visits, although all Comprehensive
applications will receive site visits. The primary purpose of site visits will be to
verify information provided in the applications. Applications will be funded in order of
decreasing score until funds in a given category are exhausted.
