While city officials received a courtesy call last week that their application for a community development block grant had been denied, they were still awaiting more information this week on the rating of their application to see if there is any room for improvement during next year’s application cycle.
William Avera, the development services director for the city, said the federal grant that is administered through the state is highly competitive. This year, the state officials awarded $42.8 million in funding to 54 communities in California.
The state’s department of Housing and Community Development received 96 applications from jurisdictions.
Avera said he did not want to speculate too much on why the city’s application was denied this year before the notes come back. He did say the state includes strict guidelines on what populations need to be impacted by the projects in the application. The applications are rated on a point system based on how well they meet the grant criteria of targeting low-income individuals or foster economic development that results in the creation or retention of jobs. The city’s application included requests to fund the Community Food Bank, the Youth Alliance, Jovenes de Antano and for housing down-payment assistance. The total application requested $1.2 million.
Mary Anne Hughes, the executive director of the Community Food Bank, said the lack of funding will hit the food bank in its ability to staff the nonprofit and deliver goods to the far reaches of the county. While their project application had requested $250,000, she said the impact for her agency would be a loss of $110,000. In the past, the Food Bank was included in the county’s CDBG grant application for that amount of funding each year.
Hughes said the food bank can still meet the food needs of residents, but without an increase in food or monetary donations this year it may be hard for them to keep their staffing levels and to cover the cost of fuel to deliver food to senior citizens in Hollister, San Juan and as far south as Panoche Valley.
The food bank is bracing for the loss of the funding, though Hughes said they have already cut their staff back to four employees.
While the numbers of families and individuals seeking help from the food bank has leveled off, Hughes said the numbers of working families who need the weekly bags is still high. The food bank has changed its distribution hours to meet the needs of families working during the week. She said they have added a full-day distribution on Saturday to meet the needs of this new demographic.
Hughes said she was interested to see the state’s rating of the CDBG application and any notes so they can look at ways to improve the application in the future. Avera said city officials would review any notes received and that they would likely try to apply for funding again next year.
For now, Hughes is focused on filling the gap left by the lack of CDBG funding and on new projects under way for the food bank. This year, the food bank will participate in the 12 Days of Giving donation drive sponsored by the United Way and the Community Foundation for San Benito County. Several nonprofits have been meeting to plan an extended, joint holiday drive that they hope will increase donations to all the agencies. Some of the other nonprofits to benefit include Emmaus House and Homeless Coalition of San Benito County.
Hughes said she is also excited for the Food Bank to increase its presence in San Juan Bautista. The agency received grant funding (not related to the CDBG funding) to open up what Hughes referred to as a store in San Juan.
The storefront will serve as a food pantry for those in San Juan who can’t make the trek to Hollister once a week to pick up their bags of food. Initially the store will be open limited hours, but Hughes said she is hopeful they will be able to expand the hours. She said the goal is to make the San Juan pantry sustainable once the initial grant funding is gone.
