The narrower focus has left some deserving organizations out in the cold, said Paul Driscoll, commissioner of neighborhood and business development. Many of those agencies showed up Thursday night for a public meeting to discuss the allotments.
Driscoll listened as representatives from a variety of local groups spoke for or against the funding plan.
Agnes McCray, a board member of Arise Inc., offered Driscoll her “heartfelt thanks” for $60,000 to help Arise build wheelchair ramps at homes.
Oscar Vergara, youth services director at PEACE Inc., criticized the decision not to fund his organization’s Big Brothers Big Sisters program. “I’m just shocked that our program got de-funded,” he said.
Driscoll said city officials made a lot of changes this year to the CDBG program, putting the focus on four areas: housing production, services for people in substandard housing, economic development and services for special needs populations.
Some nonprofit officials, including Sharon Sherman of the Greater Syracuse Tenants Network, applauded the changes as “definitely the right direction.”
But Steven Felder, a 16-year-old student at Central Technical High School, expressed disappointment that the Center for Community Alternatives was denied money. Felder said he participated in a CCA job readiness program after he got in trouble at school, and it helped him.
The Center for Community Alternatives has received CDBG funding since 1995, said Chris Abate, deputy director of the Syracuse office.
The CDBG grants are the biggest portion of $9.4 million in federal housing funds the city expects in May from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The city will continue to take comments on the plan through Feb. 26; the Common Council votes on it Feb. 28.
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