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HomeNewsArchivesSenate Hears Requests for Community Development Block Grant Funds

Senate Hears Requests for Community Development Block Grant Funds

Aug. 14, 2008 — The V.I. Housing Authority got high marks from senators for its handling of the Community Development Block Grant program Wednesday, as the Senate heard from the directors of St. Croix after-school programs, learning centers, emergency shelters and other hopeful recipients of federal CDBG funds.
The CDBG program is supervised nationally by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which distributes CDBG funds to the states and territories. With HUD approval, local governments select projects and recipients from among qualified local nonprofit organizations. In past years the program was administered through the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, but in March the V.I. Housing Finance Authority took it over, as determined by legislation passed in November 2007. The CDBG money is spread about an array of non-profit organizations and projects.
From 55 applications territory-wide, the Housing Finance Authority's CDBG staff selected 22 projects to receive a total of $1.8 million in grant funds. The funds are split equally between the district of St. Croix and the district of St. Thomas and St. John. The Senate will vote to approve or disapprove the slate of projects. Wednesday's hearing, held in Frederiksted, looked at 12 St. Croix proposals.
"I do like that this selection is not in a vacuum," Sen. James Weber III told Janine Hector, the authority's director of federal programs. "You have provided us with the reasons for your choices."
At the close of the hearing, Weber made his praise more explicit.
"I am extremely proud of the job done by the Housing Finance Authority for the last five months," he said.
A similar hearing will be held Friday evening on St. Thomas to address that district's CDBG projects.
This year's projects on St. Croix are:
— $16,288 to Holy Ghost Deliverance Ministries for its after-school program at Barren Spot. The program provides homework assistance, tutoring, computer skills and violin lessons, primarily for low and moderate income;
— $17,500 to the Upward Bound program at the University of the Virgin Islands to provide computer programs, SAT prep classes, homework and test-taking assistance;
— $11,500 to Frederiksted Baptist Church for its Bridges after-school and mentoring program;
— $19,000 to the V.I. Resource Center for the Disabled for computer training for disabled youth. The program will be at Ricardo Richards Elementary and will serve about 30 at-risk children;
— $10,000 to Frederiksted Baptist Church for the Eagle's Nest Men's Temporary Housing Facilities, providing counseling and temporary housing for men struggling with alcohol or substance abuse;
— $20,000 to Helping Children Work to continue to conduct an after-school computer and tutorial program in Estate Grove Place, serving about 40 area youth;
— $122,000 to the Women's Coalition of St. Croix to partially pay for construction of a new building in Christiansted, expanding the Women's Coalition's counseling operations, serving victims of domestic violence;
— $50,000 to the St. Croix Foundation to complete renovations on 22-23 Market Street, Christiansted, opening up 1,100 square feet of commercial space to encourage the economic development of the downtown area;
— $128,000 also to the St. Croix Foundation, for its Scrape, Paint, Rejuvenate program, to be used for minor rehabilitation and painting of up to 36 Christiansted properties;
— $7,500 to Ten Thousand Helpers of St. Croix to install a fence around its newly acquired men's shelter in Christiansted;
-$194,548 to Helping Children Work, to help pay to build a new center for its after-school and tutorial program in Estate Grove Place;
— $128,000 to the V.I. Economic Development Authority Enterprise Zone Commission for its Scrape, Paint and Rejuvenate program, mirroring the St. Croix Foundation's program, but working on houses in Frederiksted;
— $362,123 to administer the CDBG program itself.
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