Economic & Community Development

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)

 

Every year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development disburses millions of dollars from the federal Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) to the State as well as selected cities and counties on an Entitlement basis for community and economic development projects.  In general, CDBG projects must meet one of the following conditions:

• Benefit persons of low-moderate income
• Benefit a neighborhood inhabited primarily by persons of low-moderate income
• Create or retain jobs primarily for persons of low-moderate income
• Eliminate slum/blight in designated neighborhoods and downtowns
• Meet urgent needs that pose a serious threat to public health and welfare

Interested applicants should direct questions about the CDBG program to the appropriate agency in their geographic area:

 

Portland:  www.portlandmaine.gov/planning/commdev.asp

South Portland:  www.southportland.org

Cumberland County Entitlement Jurisdiction:  www.cumberlandcounty.org/CD/index.htm

Cumberland County outside the Entitlement Jurisdiction:  www.meocd.org. 

 

GPCOG is available to provide technical assistance to its member communities, including project development and planning studies for municipalities and regions.  Over the past decade, GPCOG has conducted a variety of planning studies under the auspices of the Community Development Block Grant program:

 

• Feasibility study for an Agriculture Incubator in Cumberland County
• Gray Village Master Plan
• Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing in the City of Portland
• Cumberland County Housing and Homeless Needs Assessment
• Economic Opportunities in the Route 113 Corridor 
• Lakes Region Transit Study
• Route 113 Report 1.17.08 - Economic Opportunities in the Saco River Valley
• Route 113 Executive Summary, January 2008
• Sebago Elderly Needs Assessment, June 2008

 

Economically Distressed Areas

To aid communities in targeting resources to persons of low-moderate income, GPCOG has developed a map of 2000 Census Block Groups that meet the 51% CDBG threshold criteria: i.e., at least 51% of residents live in households which earn no more than 80% of the region's median income. While this data does not automatically qualify projects for CDBG funding, it should serve as a useful tool for targeting improvements, such as water and sewer, to neighborhoods, without undertaking an income survey of households. These 51% designations will be valid until the 2010 Census.  For planning purposes, those Block Groups between 45-50.00% low-moderate income are also included on the map. Because the boundaries for Census Block Groups are often much larger than village or neighborhood boundaries, a town may wish to conduct an income survey to qualify these smaller places for CDBG projects.

Click here for map.

Under Cumberland County’s CDBG program, Census Block Groups in the Entitlement Jurisdiction’s poorest quartile have the same status in terms of eligibility for funding as the 51% Block Groups.  Nonparticipating communities are omitted from calculations.

 

Click here for map.