CDBG Funds Training Now Available on-demand on OVRDC YouTube Channel
On April 9, 2024, OVRDC hosted an in person and online training called How to Get the Grant: Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) with staff members from the Office of Community Infrastructure, Jared Thomas, Community Development Analyst and Ben Kepple Deputy Chief with the Ohio Department of Development. The training is now available on the OVRDC YouTube channel.
Cities and counties considered U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) non-entitlement communities are eligible to apply for Allocation Program funds biannually. Ohio’s 101 eligible communities are divided between even and odd years of funding, with 51 communities receiving a total of $10,654,000 in State CDBG funds for 2023.
The training session discussed five different State CDBG programs some in greater detail, including information on the
- Allocation Program
- Neighborhood Revitalization Program
- Critical Infrastructure Program
- Residential Public Infrastructure Program
- Flexible Program
- Economic Development Program
Facilitators Jared Thomas and Ben Kepple shared their considerable knowledge about the funding programs and how communities could use them for projects. Click here for a partial list of CDBG projects funded in 2023.
The application portal opens May 15, 2024, and all project requests are due by Jun 12, 2024, at 11:59 p.m.
“In this [training] we are going to focus on the top three State CDBG programs with applications due in June 2024. We will cover general applications tips and share quick resources for everyone,” said Jared Thomas, Community Development Analyst.
Watch the training on demand – presentation slides available here.
Several economic development professionals in attendance asked programmatic questions and received clarification on different topics, including the recent change to eliminate match requirements on some of these programs that had in the past required some matching funds for project applications to be eligible.
Another bit of information the team from Community Development office passed along is the need to reach out to their office to schedule open-project final review by April 26, 2024, if there were open projects still on the books that needed final monitoring or close out. Closing out the old projects allows applicants to avoid the cap on how many open CDBG grants can be current at one time. Closing them out will increase capacity to submit new project applications.
If you are interested in applying for CDBG funding, please contact OVRDC development specialists Kerri Richardson, Eli Cole or Candi Cox and for more information on how to get started, call (740) 947-2853.