Columbus will use Community Development Block Grant funding to help local organizations provide COVID-related aid.
The Columbus Board of Works has approved an amendment to the community development’s action plan. Assistant director for community development Robin Hilber said that the amendment shows, in general terms, how the city intends to use recent CDBG allocations from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, as well as other existing funds.
“The city usually receives an annual Community Development Block Grant allocation in February or March each year,” she said. “This year, due to COVID-19, we received an additional allocation in April of $183,761 through the CARES Act funding which was to be used to address COVID-related concerns for the most vulnerable within our community. We previously took that to the Board of Works for the rental assistance program that we offered.”
Hilber said that in September, the city was notified that it was receiving an additional allocation of $218,351 through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to “address COVID-19 impact … on low and moderate income residents.”
The city is required to show that it’s using those funds to help individuals affected by COVID or to help programs that “alleviate any detriment to the community as a result of COVID,” she said.
The city intends to award some funds to Foundation For Youth. FFY executive director Chuck Kime said that funds would help provide new scholarships for the foundation’s eLearning support program.
City officials also plan to provide funds to the Lincoln-Central Neighborhood Family Center and to Love Chapel. Hilber said that the funds for Love Chapel would be to address “food insecurity.”
“December tends to be a good month for them with donations, but once we get into the winter, there are some real concerns about next January, February,” she said. “They may start to fall short. So we want to make sure that those who are most vulnerable in our community are able to have food on the table.”
Hilber said that the city also intends to use funds for “subsistence assistance and other assistance that will prevent and respond to COVID.” She added that there might be another allocation in the future, since the pandemic has lasted longer than expected.
