City to fund Edward King House renovations, residential lead abatement through state grants

Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that CCHC does not operate the Edward King House.

NEWPORT — The city may receive over half a million in federal grants to fund certain community services in the near future now that the City Council voted to send its annual Community Development Block Grant application to the state for approval.

The Rhode Island Office of Housing and Community Development is in charge of administering federally funded Community Development Block Grants to municipalities via a competitive application process. These grants are designed to fund community resources for low-to-moderate income residents and the city of Newport has participated each year for the past 44 years.

This year’s application is requesting the use of these grants to fund updates to Edward King House Senior Center’s electrical infrastructure and light fixtures, operations support for the McKinney Cooperative Shelter, operations support for the East Bay Community Action Program’s dental program and support for Church Community Housing Corporation's residential lead abatement program. The nonprofits organizations will act as subrecipients of the grant, should the city’s application be approved for funding.

City Council approved the application at its Wednesday meeting in a 6-1 vote, with Councilor Kate Leonard opposed.

The first public hearing for this year’s application was conducted at the Feb. 2 Planning Board meeting, where CCH representative Rain Daughtery gave an overview of the programs which applied for funding and the application process overall. CCHC has worked as the city’s CDBG application administrator for the past seven years. Daughtery explained the organization reached out to nonprofits that applied for grants in the past to compile the list of proposals.

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Although no members of the public spoke on the item at the second public hearing during the Wednesday City Council meeting, a few members of the council had their questions addressed by Director of Public Services William Riccio and CCHC representative Christian Belden.

Leonard’s opposing vote came after she made a motion to vote on each funding item on the application individually, which was dropped without a second. She said she supported the dental program, lead abatement program and the Edward King House renovations, but couldn’t get behind the use of grant money to fund operations for McKinney Shelter, as she had been told homeless people living in Providence and other cities around Rhode Island were coming to Newport to become clients at McKinney Shelter, and she wanted to ensure these funds are used for Newport residents.

In response, Belden said the shelter is unable to track where its clients had been prior to the shelter, as homeless clients lack a residence to point to as their location of origin. Leonard also raised concerns over whether CCHC adding CCHC-led programs on the application counts as a conflict of interest. In addition to the lead abatement program CCHC runs in partnership with the city, it has had past ties to Washington Square Services Corporation, which operates the McKinney Shelter.

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Belden said adding these programs to the application is not a conflict of interest since the funds don’t directly benefit CCHC, rather they go to the specific projects on the application.

Both Leonard and Councilor Jamie Bova also had questions over the specific renovations planned for Edward King House’s electricity and lighting, Leonard wanting to know whether the light fixtures would still align with the building’s agreement to stay close to historical accuracy and Bova wanting to know the projecting cost-savings in updating the electrical system. Belden and Riccio said the project doesn’t have that level of detail yet because the group hasn’t secured funding for it.

Councilor Angela McCalla, Councilor Lynn Underwood Ceglie and Bova expressed support for all four items on the application following Leonard’s questions. McCalla especially argued for the importance of funding the lead abatement housing before the group was called to vote.

This article originally appeared on Newport Daily News: City Council approves grant application for community services