Benton Harbor City Commissioners are looking at how to administer Community Development Block Grant funds. A lengthy discussion was held during a Monday meeting in which the commission considered a proposal to address deficiencies found by HUD in how the federal grants are managed. Among the proposals was the addition of staff to help run the program. Mayor Marcus Muhammad said that would cost something, but those CDBG funds are in the hundreds of thousands per year.
“I do think that we have to put our heads together to find a way to make it work to salvage the money because we have senior citizens who are waiting for home repairs, we have monies to be allocated for homelessness,” Muhammad said.
A resolution to approve an operational plan and budget for the Community Development Block Grant Department says HUD in 2018 rated Benton Harbor as high-risk for the funding because of insufficient staffing and performance. Muhammad said the city should make a commitment to fix that. Commissioners will work with the community development director to settle on a dollar amount and other steps required to reformulate the CDBG Department.
