Following the money: Breaking down Waynesboro’s history of CDBG allocations

Akhil Ganesh, Staunton News Leader
·7 min read

WAYNESBORO — Last week, residents of the Port Republic Road neighborhood in Waynesboro gathered for a community needs meeting for the allocation of Community Development Block Grant funding to the neighborhood. When they heard the total estimated allocation for the 2023 cycle, community members wondered what exactly could be fixed with that amount of money in the area. In total, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is projected to send $172,162 for the CDBG program.

That allocation of money isn’t just for the Port Republic Road neighborhood, but for every part of the city that has been designated a low- or moderate-income area by United States Census block tracts. On top of splitting that money up across Waynesboro, the city also can take up to 20 percent of the funding to put towards administrative fees and 15 percent for public services.

With all of that math swirling in the minds of residents, the natural question came of where the city has spent their CDBG funding since becoming an entitlement community in 2013. Some members of city council have also expressed dissatisfaction with the CDBG program’s current operation.

“I’m going to be the last one to defend the way we run the CDBG program. I am not a fan of the way we do it,” said council member Terry Short at the council’s retreat in February.

During the community needs meeting, director of community development Leslie Tate said there was a spreadsheet that laid out the funds that had been allocated by the city. The News Leader obtained the data from the city, and here’s how it breaks down. It’s important to note that the data provided by the city includes allocations between the years 2014-2020, so the most recent cycles of CDBG funding are not included.

Community Development Block Grant funding allocations

  • Administration: $255,901 - 27.3%

  • Port Republic Road neighborhood: $208,346 - 22.2%

  • Downtown Business District: $193,832 - 20.6%

  • Basic City: $145,802 - 15.5%

  • Other low- to moderate-income (LMI) areas: $134,838 - 14.4%

Administration

As mentioned above, the city can use up to 20% of CDBG funds to handle administrative costs. A large portion of those fees are used on consultants who help the city stay within the meticulous guidelines of the program. The city has spent at least $35,000 of their CDBG funding in each program year to put towards administration, with an average of $36,557 per year.

Something that stands out as curious is that even though the city can only use 20 percent in each year on these administrative costs, the city’s total funding allocation from CDBG for administration comes out to 27.3 percent of all funds received between 2014 and 2020. While that’s understandable with year-to-year fluctuations in the allocation amounts, administrative costs represent the single highest allocation of CDBG funds over that time period.

This was something that seemed to stand out to council member Kenny Lee at Waynesboro’s city council retreat last month. Lee wanted to see if the city could pull some of those funds back into the city to use on the community, but the idea was resisted by city manager Mike Hamp. Hamp pointed out the amount of regulation that surrounds CDBG funds, and that those administrative costs were necessary for the city to stay within the guidelines of the program.

“To me, that’s a lot. That’s cutting into what, as you all know, to what that little bit we’re getting,” Lee said at the public needs meeting about the administrative costs, adding, “Can we absorb that as a city so that we’re not paying that admin fee? It gives us a little bit more to work with, and that’s something they’re going to look at and see if we can absorb that.”

But Lee also admitted that the regulations could make it tough.

“The red tape that’s involved is a lot, and you don’t want to mess up that red tape because then you lose the funding,” Lee said.

Port Republic Road neighborhood

The Port Republic Road neighborhood has received the highest allocations of funding between 2014 and 2020 in regards to money spent on actual projects. That $208,346 was allocated for 11 projects that include:

  • Housing rehabilitation on Fairview

  • Water system upgrades/improvements

  • Alley paving

  • Port Republic neighborhood infrastructure

  • Crouse House historic preservation

  • Residential demolition

  • Fairview Cemetery improvements

  • Port Republic gateway and history projects

  • Elkton Street clean-up

A data point that stands out in regards to the Port Republic Road neighborhood is the timeframe at which these projects were allocated funding. Seven of the 11 projects tabbed for the Port Republic Road neighborhood were allocated funding in 2015 and 2016, with the remaining projects receiving funding in 2018. The neighborhood received an average of $18,940 per project.

As far as individual funding amounts, the largest items were the Fairview Cemetery improvements which came out to just over $51,000 and the housing rehabilitation on Fairview, which comes in at just under $49,000.

Downtown Business District

The second-highest allocation of funds for actual projects from the CDBG program goes to the downtown business district. Most of those funds were used for streetscape and facade improvements in the area, including:

  • Arch Avenue

  • Glen Alley

  • Individual façades

  • Overall downtown streetscape improvements

  • City lots adjacent to Wayne Theater and on Market Avenue

“The reason that we did that was to promote economic growth in a downtown retail environment, not in support directly, but indirectly, for low-moderate income areas,” said Short at the council retreat, “The only reason why we do the downtown and we get away with it is because the census defines the low-moderate income area as a downtown in which hardly anybody lives in.”

The city has invested CDBG funds in nine projects for the downtown business district in every year other than 2017 and 2020. That amounts to an average of $21,536 per project.

Basic City

While Basic City has received a solid chunk of CDBG funding, most of that funding came through four projects in the first three years of the program. Outside of that, the city allocated almost $53,000 for a sidewalk/pedestrian refuge project in 2020.

Of the four projects that came early on in the program's history, three were for housing rehabilitation projects on North Bayard Avenue and North Bath Avenue. The sole remaining project was in 2014 for the Basic Park boat launch.

On average, the city invested $24,300 per project in Basic City.

Other LMI areas

This category is a catch-all for projects that did not fall under the other categories, but are in designated low- to moderate-income areas by census tract. The city classified eight of their CDBG projects as falling in this category, averaging about $16,854 per project.

Those projects include:

  • Exit 94 demolition for Nature's Crossing Technology Center

  • Housing rehabilitation on Glencoe Avenue, Fir Street, and Wine Avenue

  • Stormwater improvements on Sumac Avenue

  • Homeless assistance

What can CDBG funding be used for?

Waynesboro is classified as a CDBG Entitlement Community, which then allocates annual funding on a formula based on a variety of things including population, number of people in poverty, and overcrowded housing conditions. The goal of the program is to develop communities by providing a suitable living environment, decent housing, and expanding economic opportunities for residents in qualified areas.

The activities Waynesboro chooses to undertake must fit inside one of three national objectives:

  • Benefit low- and moderate-income persons

  • Aid in the prevention and elimination of slums and blight

  • Meet needs having a particular urgency, like disaster relief

Qualifying activities that the funds could be used for include construction and improvements of public facilities, energy conservation and renewable energy resources, relocation and demolition, rehabilitation of structures, or providing assistance to businesses for economic development and job creation and retention activities.

Funds can't be used to build new housing, purchase equipment, or for operations and maintenance.

Last week's public needs meeting was the first step of putting together the city's 2023 Annual Action Plan. There will be another needs meeting in March or April, and a draft version of the plan will be available for review and public comment in June.

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—Akhil Ganesh is the Government Reporter at The News Leader. You can contact him at aganesh@newsleader.com and follow him on Twitter @akhildoesthings.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Following the money: Breaking down Waynesboro’s history of CDBG allocations