In the past 18 years, $22 million in Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) have helped fund the rehab of 320 homes belonging to income-qualified Islanders, according to Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) data. Since 2011, daycare for approximately 470 Island children has been subsidized by CDBG funding.
Now, the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), which administers the CDBG program, under the guidance of undersecretary Chrystal Kornegay, is proposing changes that could drastically reduce funding for these two programs, and possibly eliminate one of them.
The issue came to the fore In late August, when the DHCD posted the “One-Year Action Plan FY 2017 Preliminary Proposed Changes” on its website. The intent of the plan, according to the agency, is to “simplify the application process and increase access to the program among eligible communities.”
There are 10 proposed changes to CDBG criteria, two that could hit the Vineyard particularly hard — that communities can no longer apply for funding in consecutive years, and that communities can only apply for one activity. The latter could present towns with the dilemma of choosing between affordable housing or daycare. Both programs also create jobs.
The MVC estimates the housing-rehab work funded by CDBG funding creates about 100 tradesmen jobs. The Resource Inc.,TRI, allocates the CDGB funds to Islanders who are too stretched by their mortgage and property taxes to make needed improvements, and who don’t qualify for a bank loan or refinancing. TRI offers qualified applicants a 15-year, no-interest, forgivable loan worth up to $35,000, for moderate restoration projects.
Childcare subsidies sustain jobs for childcare providers while freeing up parents to join the rest of the workforce. There are currently 64 children in subsidized childcare on the Island. Childcare can easily cost over $1,000 a month on the Vineyard.
“These are pretty mammoth changes,” Alice Boyd of Bailey Boyd Associates told The Times. Ms. Boyd has a long history of obtaining and administering grants on Martha’s Vineyard.
“Usually DHCD publishes a one-year action plan, and oftentimes they propose changes within the CDBG requirements, but not of this scope. It seems to be a more urban-driven agenda, and rural communities are being excluded,” Christine Flynn, MVC economic development and affordable housing planner, said. “Grant funds for housing-related programs have been significantly reduced over the years. They’re highly competitive grants. We’ve been fortunate to receive those funds year after year after year, largely to the credit of Alice Boyd.”
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a think tank that analyzes the impact of federal and state government budget policies, since 2001, the CDBG funding from the federal government via the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has declined by 49 percent when adjusted for inflation.
In a Sept. 2 letter to Mark Southard, community development manager at DHCD, MVC chairman James Vercruysse wrote, “Alternating the CDBG programs every other year will render these two highly successful programs unsustainable, and will have a significant detrimental impact to our Island residents.… With cutbacks in state and federal programs, the Vineyard towns are working with diminishing resources, just as the need for affordable housing and health and human services is growing.”
Ms. Boyd said that while the proposed changes are a call to action for Vineyarders and public officials, they were not a cause for panic. Funding for TRI and childcare subsidies is locked in until the end of 2017. Oak Bluffs just received a grant of $782,495, which it will share with Tisbury,” she said. “The distribution usually comes up very close to 50-50 between Tisbury and Oak Bluffs. The Edgartown grant, which, will be shared with West Tisbury and, for the first time, Gosnold, totals $805,714.”
Ms. Boyd said she has attended recent DHCD public-information sessions in Worcester and Boston, and she’s been encouraged by the receptiveness
DHCD representatives have shown.
“DHCD is terrific about listening to the input people provide, and really giving it some thought,” she said.
As an example, Ms. Boyd said, a proposed change in CDBG protocol to eliminate bonus points for regional applications, which has fostered regional cooperation, even on the Vineyard, has since been tabled. “You get two extra points if you submit regionally, so that incentive is still there, which is terrific,” she said.
Ms. Boyd said she is hopeful the unsavory decision between affordable housing and childcare can be avoided.
“We’ve asked them to consider one project packet, which tends to be housing, but also let us apply for one social service packet, which would cover childcare,” she said.
If that decision has to be made, housing will trump child care. “Virtually none of us would be applying for social services if we had to give up affordable housing,” she said.
Ms. Boyd said the “playground of the rich and famous” image of the Vineyard has been a liability when vying for state funds. “I get criticized by my peers in other parts of the state, who say it’s very unfair that the Vineyard is getting the funds compared with their communities,” she said. “That’s just a lack of understanding the Islands and the Cape have to deal with. There was an article in the Washington Post two years ago about the long lines at the food pantry, which I’ve submitted with grant applications.”
After her recent visit to the Vineyard, Ms. Kornegay told The Times that her tour with affordable housing stakeholders showed her a very different side of the Island from the one she’d seen as a vacationer in Oak Bluffs.
“Chrystal is terrific,” Ms. Boyd said. “I’m really glad she got to see the Vineyard from that perspective. A lot of people don’t get it until they see it.”
The office of Ms. Kornegay declined to comment.
State representative Tim Madden said he, along with state representative Sarah Peake of Provincetown, is working on a draft letter addressing the proposed changes, and will then lobby colleagues on Beacon Hill for their support. He and Ms. Peake will also take letters from town housing officials directly to Ms. Kornegay. “We’re encouraging people who would be negatively affected by these proposals to reach out with letters,” he told The Times.
Those who wish to weigh in on the new CDBG criteria can write Mark Southard, Community Development Manager, DHCD, at mark.southard@state.ma.us, or at 100 Cambridge Street, Suite 300, Boston, MA 02114. Comment period ends on Sept. 22.
