New London can't fund nonprofits' grant applications
Apr. 6—NEW LONDON — Non-profit groups that provide services here need more support than the city can provide them with through Community Development Block Grants.
The grants are given to the city by the state with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to benefit the low to moderate income population. The funds go to public services, facility improvements, housing preservation and more.
While the city this year received $862,028 to allocate, 39 organizations applied for more than $1.4 million in assistance.
Some non-profits are on the verge of cutting back on services due to a lack of funding and rising operational costs. One of them is Whalers Helping Whalers, a nonprofit that started during the COVID-19 pandemic to feed and help city residents.
Thomas "Chef Tomm" Johnson, the culinary program manager at New London High School, founded the organization. Johnson said Wednesday if he cannot get more funding soon, he will have to dramatically cut the group's services.
Whalers Helping Whalers requested $44,071 in CDBG funding to purchase a new walk-in freezer but is set to receive just $1,888.
Even though the pandemic has come to a close, Johnson said seniors and families are facing SNAP benefit reductions and inflation costs. He said seniors often live on a fixed income, forcing them to choose between food or medication.
Whalers Helping Whalers provides meals to the community every Saturday and has on-site food pantries and hot meal deliveries to seniors at Mohican Apartments and Huntington Towers. It has also handed out large numbers of jackets, boots, baby diapers and other essentials as well as held holiday meals and events.
"Who is going to take care of these people if I fail?" Johnson said.
Johnson said the organization has so far run on grants and donations from several organizations and gets most of its food from regional food banks. But he said Whalers Helping Whalers is low on funds to pay its four part-time employees and continue its initiatives.
Johnson said the city has contributed little. He said the organization received $33,400 in ARPA funds with strict spending guidelines.
How the grants are made
Tom Bombria, the city's community and economic development project coordinator, said the city no longer gets $1 million or more in CBDG grants. He said most years the city has given public services a little more than the HUD-recommended limit, or 15% of the allocation.
Recommended allocations to public services this year amount to $108,884, or about 13% of the budget. Most of the organizations are receiving grants between $1,000 to $11,000.
"Non-profits here are doing great work, but there is not enough money using this grant to support them," Bombria said. He added the grant program was never intended as a full funding source for non-profits but rather as a supplement.
A majority of the CBDG grants are going to the city's Office of Development and Planning for programs and salaries.
The Housing Conservation Program, providing financial assistance to eligible low to moderate-income homeowners to fix code violations, is to receive $342,125. The Neighborhood Enhancement Program, likely to receive $215,050, funds work done by the city's neighborhood coordinator and blight inspector.
Bombria's salary as well as an accounting technician's salary is covered by the recommended $178,883 allocation.
The office sought additional funding for the Harvest Festival and Neighbors Helping Neighbors Clean Up Day, but funds were placed elsewhere due to greater need, Bombria said.
Grant applications first go through his office to see if the proposals are eligible for funding, Bombria said. The applications then make their way through the Citizens Advisory Committee, the mayor, public hearings, the City Council's Public Welfare Committee and the City Council.
At an April 3 public hearing that followed the City Council's preliminary recommendations, many non-profit leaders thanked council members for their allotment or ask for more funding.
Cuts to meals on wheels
Eugene Theroux, director of nutritional services for the Thames Valley Council for Community Action, oversees the senior nutrition and meals on wheels programs in the city. A recording of the meeting shows Theroux said TVCCA would not be able to maintain services to seniors in the city with its recommended $7,820 grant.
Theroux said seniors receive a hot meal and wellness check four days a week and lunch at the senior center five days a week. With the reduced funding, Theroux said TVCCA will have no choice but to lay off all staff with the exception of a driver and to reduce services to one hot meal a week. Lunch would be discontinued.
Theroux said labor, food and delivery costs have increased exponentially. The organization requested $39,619 in funds.
Johnson shared an image of about 40 people who receive services from Whalers Helping Whalers and were in attendance at the public hearing holding signs that read "If Whalers closed my kids will get hungry" and "I am a senior and if Whalers closed no one will deliver food."
Whalers Helping Whalers has set up a GoFundMe for donations.
The City Council is scheduled to approve the grant funds at its April 17 meeting.
