San Bernardino County Receives Millions For Housing

Every year San Bernardino County receives millions from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) through a Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) for the purpose of community development. The program, authorized under the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, directsits activities toward revitalizing neighborhoods, economic development
and providing improved community facilities and services.
HUD allows “entitlement
communities” to develop their own programs
and funding priorities.
Each year San Bernardino County is required to develop and submit a consolidated plan and an action plan as to how they are planning
to use the funds. San Bernardino County is eligible under the qualification of being a qualified urban county with populations of at least 200,000 and entitled
to receive annual grants and is considered an entitlement community.
According to HUD’s website, the CDBG funds may be used for acquisition
of real property, relocation
and demolition, rehabilitation of residential
and non-residential structures, construction
of public facilities and improvements, such as water and sewer facilities,
street, neighborhood
centers, conversion of school buildings for eligible purposes, public services within certain limits, activities relating to energy conservation and renewable energy resources and provision of assistance to profit-motivated businesses to carry out economic development
and job creation/
retention activities.
Additionally, HUD determines the amount of each entitlement grant by a formula which uses several objective measures
of community needs, including the extent
of poverty, population,
housing overcrowding,
age of housing and population growth lag in relationship to other metropolitan areas.
There were twelve cooperating cities within San Bernardino County who have agreements with the county for fiscal
years 2009-2010 and 2011-2012 to participate in the program including:
Adelanto, Barstow, Big Bear Lake, Colton, Grand Terrace, Highland,
Loma Linda, Montclair,
Needles, Twentynine
Palms, Yucaipa and Yucca Valley.
During fiscal year 2009-2010, the county received $7,152,066 in a HUD-CDBG grant. Additionally, the county received $4,083,757 for the HUD- Home Investment
Partnership Program
(HOME) grant and $325,940 in the HUD- Emergency Shelter Grant (ESG) grant totaling
$11,561,763.
Out of the 2009-2010 CDBG funds, $939,724 was allocated to the senior housing rehabilitation programs of a majority of the participating
cities and all of the county districts. Newberry Springs Park received $10,000 for new picnic tables. The Phelan
Community Center was converted to a senior
center for a cost of $30,000. The Mentone Senior Center rehabilitated
and expanded its kitchen with $250,000 of CDBG funding. In Cedar Glen $79,501 of CDBG funds was used for demotion and clearance
instead of for the Mountain Communities
Boys and Girls Club Modular Units for After School Programs project.
The City of Montclair
received $596,252 of CDBG funds for street and sidewalk improvements
along Mission
Boulevard. Muscoy received $303,500 in CDBG funds for construction
of a skate park. Kessler Park in Bloomington
received $160,000 of CDBG funds for restrooms,
walkways and horse arena improvements.
The City of Barstow
received $5,000 in CDBG funds, which was allocated for the Lutheran
Social Services-Education Program for parents of children and youth who are at-risk of school failure. The fire stations in Adelanto and Wonder Valley received two water tenders for a cost of $32,500. In Yermo,
the Norman Smith Park received $125,000 in CDBG funds, $50,000 in ARRA funds to build a skate park and picnic area.
For fiscal year 2009-2010, the Emergency Shelter Grant program received $325,940 in funds while the amount allocated to the HOME Program for that year was $4,083,757. On September 22, 2009, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors accepted
$2,141,886 from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 Community
Development Block Grant-R (CDBG-R).
The ESG program is to assist in providing
funding to eliminate
homelessness. The HOME program serves individuals and households
earning 80 percent or less of the area median
income established by HUD and is used by the county to provide programs
to increase housing
affordability and the rate of home ownership in the county.
The ARRA grant is for the purpose of the program is to fund projects
that create or sustain jobs, generate maximum economic benefits and promote energy efficiency
and conservation. HUD strongly urged the use of these funds for hard development costs associated with infrastructure
activities that provide basic services to residents or activities that promote energy efficiency
and conservation through rehabilitation or retrofitting of existing
buildings that will create or sustain jobs in the near term and generate
maximum economic benefits in the long term.
When Cedar Glen resident Hugh Campbell sent a Freedom of Information
Act Request to the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development asking for documents that related to the use of CDBG funds in the community of Cedar
Glen, HUD responded
with a copy of the 2005-2010 Consolidated Plan and the 2009-2010 Action Plan as being responsive
to his request.
Campbell was seeking
the funding source for the water improvements
being done by San Bernardino County Special Districts in the Cedar Glen area in particular
the drilling of a well and installation of fire hydrants off of Coulter
Drive where very few homes are located and where there is no electricity
on the boundary of the San Bernardino National Forest.
When asked at a public
meeting as to why the water improvements were starting in an area where few residents actually
lived, San Bernardino
County Special Districts Department Division Manager of Engineering
James Oravets explained, “We had to spend money to benefit this area” and further explained that the money
had to be spent in a low-income area. When asked how