TUCSON MAYOR AND COUNCIL AWARD $4.3 MILLION IN GRANTS TO COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT HUMAN SERVICES AND HOUSING
Tucson Mayor Regina Romero and the City Council unanimously approved $4.3 million in funding for programs that provide affordable housing and crucial social services to vulnerable residents through its P-CHIP grantmaking program. These funds were awarded in two phases. Yesterday, $2.2 million in grants were awarded to support a variety of human services activities identified in the City’s People, Communities, and Homes Investment Plan (P-CHIP), and last month, $2.1 million was awarded to support affordable housing development projects.
The $2.2 million allocation approved by Mayor and Council will help to address the unprecedented challenges of homelessness, food insecurity, community safety, and rising rents faced by Tucsonans. This includes nearly $300,000 in federal Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Emergency Solutions Grant funding to support five projects for people experiencing homelessness and people fleeing domestic violence. Another $505,000 in HUD Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds will support six projects serving low- and moderate-income Tucsonans, while another $1.4 million from City of Tucson general funds will assist 18 P-CHIP priority community projects.
“The City of Tucson is supporting our local nonprofit partners using P-CHIP funding to provide critical services to our most vulnerable residents,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. “Every dollar invested through P-CHIP will fund projects that bring the greatest impact to the people who need it most: our seniors, our families in crisis, and our neighbors in need of stable housing. As our community partners are being targeted for funding reductions, I am glad to see the City of Tucson act in ways that are innovative to address needs like housing, food insecurity, and crisis support.”
Of the $2.2 million, a total of 29 human services projects are to be administered by 20 community organizations.
The $2.1 million in HOME Investment Partnership funding, another HUD program, will provide gap financing for four affordable housing development projects.
The P-CHIP funding application process was extremely competitive this year, HCD received a total of 83 grant applications for human services P-CHIP funding and eight grant applications for affordable housing gap financing. Applications passed through a three-stage review and scores were derived from the Equity & Impact Analysis and Community Review processes. Applications were competitively scored by community review panels made up of City staff, Pima County staff, philanthropic partners, and other community stakeholders with subject matter expertise.
Last November, Mayor and Council adopted the updated P-CHIP, which serves as the City of HCD’s 5-year Strategic Plan as well as the framework for P-CHIP grantmaking. HCD administers this biennial funding competition through which HUD and City General Fund dollars allocated for community grantmaking are distributed to non-profit organizations and City departments.
HCD Director Ann Chanecka said the P-CHIP allocation process resulted in the funding of a range of projects, including shelter, case management, and services to help solve homelessness and prevent eviction, workforce readiness and educational support services, financial education, food access, and a variety of services and programs to reduce poverty and ensure dignity for all.
“We’re pleased with the projects selected and approved by the Mayor and Council. Unfortunately, because of the lack of additional monies, we could not fund more projects which would have augmented delivery of vital services to our community,” Chanecka said.
To fund more agencies and programs, partial reductions were applied to human services projects requesting more than $60,000 in HCD recommendations. The funding recommendations were discussed during the Mayor and Council study session on April 8.
The list of P-CHIP human services funding recommendations as well as the P-CHIP HOME funding recommendations are available in Mayor and Council meeting materials online.
|
