SALEM — Mayor Kimberley Driscoll has announced that the city is developing its annual action plan to outline where funds that the city is anticipating to receive this year will go.
The city is hoping to get a federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and Home Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) funds through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for fiscal year 2023 (FY23), to assist income-eligible households and low- to moderate-income neighborhoods through a variety of programs, services and improvements.
Driscoll invites Salem residents, businesses, organizations, and agencies to participate in the public-input participation process on Jan. 20, during a public hearing at 6 p.m.
“The purpose of this hearing is to give interested persons the opportunity to comment on the housing-, community- and economic-development needs of Salem’s low- to moderate-income residents, and on the types of activities that could be undertaken to meet those needs,” the mayor’s office said in a press release.
The FY23 Action Plan will outline Salem’s housing-, economic- and community-development needs and funding priorities for the period from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023.
The plan will continue to put into action the goals and strategies established in the five-year consolidated plan, which was completed after an extensive public-participation process last year.
“Salem residents, nonprofit agency representatives, and other interested persons are invited to participate in the process for developing the FY23 Action Plan,” said Driscoll. “Your input on the housing-, community-, and economic-development programs and services needed for Salem residents and neighborhoods will help guide the use of Salem’s federal CDBG and HOME dollars.”
For remote participation instructions, visit https://www.salem.com/legal-notices.
During FY21, Salem used $771,698 of CDBG and $138,848 of HOME funds to assist 13 families with first- and last-month’s rent and security deposits, as well as putting nine high-risk homeless individuals into housing with supportive services.
More than 130 businesses were also given assistance with services, including emergency grants to help provide relief from COVID-19 and technical assistance for small businesses, such as marketing, branding, and accounting.
The city also put funding toward completing an artist-row lighting project, developing a housing-needs assessment and planting 19 new trees.
With the CDBG, Salem also funded 41 social-services programs that served more than 11,000 people with services including emergency homelessness prevention, food assistance, support programs for victims of domestic violence, a remote learning after-school program, accessible housing assistance, ESL/ELL classes, career counseling, senior transportation, police-bicycle patrols, citizenship classes, legal services for immigrants, Spanish GED classes, youth after-school and engagement programs, and a college-success savings program.
To assist with the planning of this year’s annual action plan, residents and business owners can provide written comments to the city’s Department of Planning and Community Development (DPCD) or email [email protected] by Jan. 24.
After this hearing, the DPCD will prepare the draft action plan, which will be available for public comment at the end of March.
Copies of the draft plan will be available for viewing on www.salem.com.
