Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)

The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) is HUD's flagship community development program — and one of the longest-running federal grants, established in 1974. Each year, Congress appropriates roughly $3.3 billion, which HUD distributes by formula to entitlement cities, urban counties, and states to spend on locally-prioritized projects that benefit low- and moderate-income people.

CDBG money funds an enormously broad set of activities:

• Affordable housing — rehabilitation, homebuyer assistance, accessibility modifications, lead remediation
• Public infrastructure — water/sewer, sidewalks, streets, parks, neighborhood facilities
• Public services — homeless services, fair housing, youth programs, senior services, job training (capped at 15% of allocation)
• Economic development — façade improvement, microenterprise assistance, job creation loans
• Acquisition, demolition, and clearance of blighted property
• Planning and administration

The CDBG family also includes:

• CDBG-DR (Disaster Recovery) — special supplemental appropriations after major presidential disaster declarations
• CDBG-MIT (Mitigation) — funds to reduce risk before the next disaster
• State CDBG — non-entitlement areas (small towns and rural counties) compete for funds through their state government
• Section 108 Loan Guarantee — leveraged borrowing against future CDBG allocations

1. Find your jurisdiction's CDBG process. Search "[your city or county] CDBG application" or contact the local Community Development department. For non-entitlement areas, contact your State CDBG office (usually housed in the state Department of Commerce or Housing).
2. Review the Consolidated Plan / Annual Action Plan. This document lists the jurisdiction's CDBG priorities for the current year. If your project doesn't match an established priority, you'll have a hard time getting funded.
3. Confirm the National Objective. Most subrecipient projects qualify under the LMI (low- and moderate-income) benefit objective. You'll need to document how the activity benefits LMI people.
4. Prepare a project proposal with: project description, eligible activity citation, target beneficiaries and LMI documentation, budget, timeline, evidence of organizational capacity, environmental review readiness.
5. Submit by the local deadline. Entitlement cities typically open their annual application cycle in late winter or early spring.
6. If awarded, you sign a Subrecipient Agreement with the city/county, and the activity must follow CDBG cross-cutting requirements (Davis-Bacon, environmental review under NEPA, fair housing, procurement standards, etc.).

For CDBG-DR, watch for HUD Federal Register notices after major disasters and contact the affected state's disaster recovery office.