Local officials and representatives from area nonprofit organizations gathered earlier this month to celebrate a milestone year for a federal grant heralded as one that has served the community well: the Community Development Block Grant.
Capping recognition of National Community Development Week, which ran April 1 to April 5, Oak Park held a ceremony at Village Hall April 4 to laud the CDBG program and honor U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, D-Chicago, — whose 7th District includes Oak Park — and others with the village’s CDBG Partnership Award. The Community Development Citizen Advisory Committee of Oak Park sought to bestow the accolades.
Oak Park Village President Vicki Scaman called Davis “a leader and public servant who has always put the people’s interests first” in her remarks at the event.
The CDBG is a federally funded, locally administered program that supports initiatives and services aimed at helping individuals and families identified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as low and moderate income, according to an official description of the now-half-century old program.
Oak Park has been receiving funds through this grant since the program’s start in 1974, according to village spokesman Erik Jacobsen. In the last 20 years alone, the Village has received and administered $38.3 million, according to data from the Oak Park Neighborhood Services Department.
Davis told Pioneer Press that there is a level of intimacy with the CDBG because the grant allows for the federal government to send funds to communities directly.
“A Community Development Block Grant has been instrumental in meeting certain needs that existed in local areas,” he said. “It may be education, it may be infrastructure, it may be social welfare activities, or it may be something else of youth services. It could be whatever the people in the area decided that they wanted to go after some federal money for.”
Other honorees included Romiesha Tucker of Housing Forward, Suzi Schrader from the Infant Welfare Society Children’s Clinic and Diane White of Community Support Services. UCP Seguin of Greater Chicago, Way Back Inn and Y.E.M.B.A. were also recognized.
Scaman and Illinois Senate President Don Harmon — also an Oak Park resident — presented Davis with a plaque.
Jacobsen said that the village applies CDBG funding to capital improvements such as installing or enhancing Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations or fixing alleys, while a large chunk goes to local nonprofit organizations.
He described the application process to receive the funds as a rigorous one.
Diane White, president/CEO of Community Support Services, said that providing respite services without the support of CDBG funding in Oak Park would be very difficult. CSS provides short-term relief for people who are caring for relatives with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“There’s not a lot of support out there, and it’s one of the most requested services in the state of Illinois. The state provides very little respite support, and Oak Park as a township is one of the few townships that offers some of that support,” she said.
White said that CSS also receives financial support from Oak Park Mental Health Commission for services in Oak Park.
“If I didn’t have that funding with CDBG, I wouldn’t be able to provide those services to Oak Park families. It’s a very unique funding; … if you have an intellectual disability, you don’t automatically get [grants]. There’s 16,000 people on the waiting list for funding. So if you live in a community like Oak Park that’s fortunate enough to have CDBG funding, then you can be eligible for that service,” she said.
In program year 2023, Oak Park received more than $1.5 million in federal CDBG funding. Additionally, funds were distributed to 14 local organizations serving low and moderate-income individuals, officials explained. CDBG funding was also instrumental in Oak Park’s lead hazard reduction, water line replacement and rehabilitation loan programs, benefitting residents whose incomes meet HUD guidelines.
Tom Ackerman is a freelancer.
