Federal cuts to decrease funding to Chapel Hill nonprofits

Chapel Hill nonprofit organizations are losing thousands of dollars in funding due to cuts in the federal Community Development Block Grant Program — and this year's grant is the lowest in recent years.

The federal government’s Department of Housing and Urban Development has again decreased Chapel Hill’s Community Development Block Grant, money allocated by Congress to promote better living environments for low- and moderate-income residents.

This year's proposal will be presented Monday to the Chapel Hill Town Council. At the meeting, organizations that want to make changes to the proposal can plead their cases to the council.

The Town of Chapel Hill received a $529,660 grant for the 2011-2012 year   but saw a decrease of more than $100,000 the following year. The grant for 2014-2015 totals only $403,505 .

Megan Wooley, the housing and neighborhood services planner for the town of Chapel Hill , said the decreases began during the recent economic recession.

“When the recession hit, the government had less money to allocate to these types of grants,” she said.  “Whether the trend continues or not depends on the economy and how Congress chooses to prioritize.”

The town is often able to allocate money at a slightly higher level than the grant block due to program income and residual funds. These funds often include a large sum to the town itself so that it can renovate public housing, enforce coding and revitalize neighborhoods.

Other funds go to local nonprofit groups, various public service activities and administration costs.

The decrease in available funds has forced the Chapel Hill Town Council to make tough cuts to some of these programs.

Wooley said the town has attempted to scale back allocations rather than cut certain programs entirely.

The Community Home Trust, one of the organizations that receives money from the grant, has seen its funding decrease from more than $200,000 in 2011-2012 to just $29,000 in the 2014-2015 proposed plan

Robert Dowling, the executive director for Community Home Trust , said the organization only requested $50,000 for this year.

“There is more requests than money,” he said.  “With this, there is just fewer homes that we can make affordable.”

He said that affordable housing subsidies are particularly important in an expensive housing market like Chapel Hill.

While the Community Home Trust funds have decreased in allocations, other organizations have failed to receive any grant funds due to the high volume of requests.

“The two main criteria we use to evaluate fund requests are how the organization will help us to achieve our outlined goals and the responsibility that the organization has shown with these type of funds in the past,” said Wooley.

Orange County Habitat for Humanity, which did not request grant money last year, will receive two large allocations for a lot purchase and exterior housing rehabilitation program under this year’s recommendation.

“We will use the CDBG funds to purchase a lot in the Northside neighborhood on which we will build a Habitat home,” said the Orange County Habitat for Humanity employee Susan Levy.  “We will also use funds for our ‘A Brush with Kindness’ exterior repair program.”