Federal regulations allow for up to 15% of the City's annual Community Development Block Grant to be allocated to fund local public services. The City of College Station City Council continues to support the allocation of the maximum allowable funds.
The City of College Station and the City of Bryan work in a joint process to allocate these funds to our local agencies. The Joint Relief Funding Review Committee is made up of three Council appointed volunteers from each city. The six member committee is tasked with reviewing applications from eligible programs, making site visits to the agencies, ranking the applications and finally recommending funding allocations to each City Council.
The Joint Relief Funding Review process begins in the Spring with a pre-application workshop where any agency in the community that is interested in applying for CDBG funds is required to attend and learn more about the process. Applications are received by City staff and reviewed for eligibility. The process then takes approximately nine weeks with the committee meeting on a weekly basis in public meetings to discuss the applications and ending with two public hearings where the programs are ranked, and the committee formally adopts the funding recommendations to be made to each City Council. The committee is asked to fund no more than twelve agencies each year but can choose to fund less or more depending on the applications.
The deadline for receipt of completed applications was in March. If your organization is interested in applying for the following year, please call the Community Development office at (979) 764-3778.
Once adopted by each City Council, the recommendations are included in each City's Annual Action Plan, which is a report done to notify the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) how the City proposes to spend its grant dollars in the coming year. After approval from HUD, the funds are made available to the agencies beginning October 1st. Funding is on an annual basis, and the allocated funds must be used no later than September 30th of the fiscal year. Funded agencies are required to report to each city on a quarterly basis to ensure that they are providing the services and serving the number of clients that they proposed in their application. The city staff monitors the reports and the agencies' files to ensure the accuracy of information.
Agencies applying must have or be in the process of receiving 501(c)(3) tax status from the Internal Revenue Service. Requests must be in the form of program specific operating funds which will serve primarily low income persons (at least 51%) residing in College Station and Bryan. Agencies accepting funds agree to comply with Federal Regulations 24 CFR 570 and 2 CFR Part 200.
The following agencies are being funded with Community Development Grant funds during the 2018-2019 grant year:
Project Unity
Family Promise of B/CS
MHMR Authority of Brazos Valley
Brazos Valley Rehabilitation Center (Easter Seals East Texas)
Brazos Maternal & Child Health Clinic
For more information regarding public services agency funding with CDBG or information regarding the Joint Relief Funding Review process, please contact the Community Development office at (979) 764-3778.