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By Maggie Thurber | Special to Ohio Watchdog
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $70 million in grants to help communities and nonprofit organizations “improve their use of federal funds.”
Or as CNSNews reports, they’re going to give out more grant money to tell people how to spend grant money.
CNSNews.com asked a HUD official, “If I’m reading this correctly, this is a grant to teach people how to spend money they already have?”
“Absolutely,” responded HUD spokesman Brian Sullivan.
He said the $70 million is being spent to “amplify” the already-existing community development block grants handed out by HUD. In fiscal year 2012, those block grants totaled around $3 billion.
HUD awarded 15 grants, including to entities with offices or projects in Ohio:
- Ohio Capital Corporation for Housing, a Columbus nonprofit originally created by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency in 1989, received $750,000. OCCH provides training and technical assistance for Community Housing Development Organizations.
- Enterprise Community Partners, which lists work in Cleveland and Columbus on its website, received $8.5 million.
- ICF Incorporated, LLC, which has an office in Dayton, received just under $11.2 million.
- Technical Assistance Collaborative, which lists work for the state of Ohio, received $2.75 million.
“These funds complement the eCon Planning Suite, new 21st century tools with new data and technology that HUD launched last week to help communities ensure that scarce federal dollars are targeted to where they are needed most and can achieve the biggest impact,” said HUD Assistant Secretary Mercedes Mãrquez. “The grants we award today will go a long way toward ensuring federally funded community development, affordable housing and homeless assistance work to make the greatest possible impact.”
