In March, Congress enacted the CARES Act to start to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. In part, this Act provided additional funding authority to HUD through Community Development Block Grant dollars (CDBG-CV).  A portion of the CDBG-CV dollars were to be allocated through States for entitlement communities in each State. Through the Federal and State formula process, Davenport is to receive $918,765 in CDBG-CV funds through the State.

States and entitlement communities have been awaiting further federal guidance and authority so that these funds can be used in COVID recovery and resilience activities. HUD released this guidance in August, and the City subsequently received additional guidance from the State. The City is now submitting applications to the State for the use of these dollars and this Public Hearing is required as part of the State process. Any comments will be reviewed and shared with the State as part of the State’s approval.

Funding will be used to assist homeless households with hotel vouchers, to assist rental households displaced due to COVID-19 to secure replacement rental housing, and to assist homeowners in danger of foreclosure due to COVID-19 with mortgage payments. While administrative details are still being vetted with HUD local stakeholder groups for each category, the broad overview of each proposed program is attached.

To help address needs among homeless, rental, and home owners, this Public Hearing seeks comment on three residential recovery programs for each of the above populations.  For the most part, all of the “regular” CDBG rules still apply. For example, households must be at or below 80% of median family income and CDBG-CV can only be spent on expenses yet to be incurred. One of the largest delays for HUD publishing guidance involved the complexities of avoiding the duplication of benefits, which means that CDBG-CV cannot pay for any item or expense that was or will be covered by another funding source (i.e., other Federal, State, or local assistance).