Next week, the city of Waynesboro will host the first of two community meetings to discuss how it should allocate funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
Each year, HUD gives out funding to cities and counties in the form of Community Development Block Grants, or CDBG funds, which have to be used to provide quality housing and living environments and expand economic opportunities for people making a low to moderate income.
Waynesboro plans to once again allocate some of its allotment to the Port Republic Road neighborhood, the city's historically Black neighborhood just north of downtown. The city will hold a community meeting to discuss potential uses of the funds at the Rosenwald Community Center on Tuesday, February 28th, at 6 p.m.
LESLIE TATE: What do the citizens say are the housing and community development needs in our low- and moderate-income areas?
Leslie Tate, the city's director of community development, said a neighborhood steering committee developed the Port Republic Road Community Action Plan last year that will guide how they spend the money.
TATE: The goals of that plan do significantly focus on retaining the history and the importance of the history of the Port Republic Road neighborhood, and then taking that history and hoping to kind of expand on it, and continue it to invest in the future.
She's still waiting to hear the exact amount of funds Waynesboro will receive this year, but expects it will be close to last year's allocation of about $188,000 – which went to sidewalk improvements, a homeless shelter, program administration, and signage and landscaping in the Port Republic Road neighborhood.
Elsewhere in our broadcast region, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Staunton, and Winchester all received between $200,000 and $600,000 last year. HUD calculates these amounts based on population size, the extent of poverty, and housing conditions.
