Thomas MacMillan File Photos
Aldermen Elicker and Rodriguez.
Two aldermen have come up with a plan so that non-profits who’ve shown they’re doing good work wouldn’t have to sit through several-hours-long hearings in order to give five-minute pleas for money.
They currently do participate in that rite during the annual process of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) dispersal. The city gets the social-service dollars from the federal government every year, then holds a series of interminable public hearings in which non-profit agencies get just a few minutes to make their pitch for a piece of the pie.
It’s a “lengthy” and “burdensome” process that Aldermen Justin Elicker and Sergio Rodriguez are trying to streamline, according to a letter they sent to Board President Jorge Perez. Click here to read it.
On Monday night they officially submitted a streamlining resolution at a full Board of Aldermen meeting. The matter is now headed to committee, where it will receive a public hearing.
The proposed order would created the “Non-Profit and Community Organization Application Relief Clause.” Essentially, it would allow aldermen to grant “emeritus” status to non-profit agencies that have received CDBG funding for more than two years. “Emeritus” status would mean that a non-profit would have to show up at hearings only every other year, rather than every year.
“The lengthy application process and hearings for Consolidated Planning funding are a significant burden on many of the good non-profit and community organizations in New Haven,” the letter states. “Many non-profit and community organizations such as Columbus House, Community Mediation, Cornell Scott Hill Health Corporation, Fair Haven Community Health Center, Integrated Refugees and Immigrant Services, JUNTA, Mary Wade Home, New Haven Pop Warner, N.H. Ecology Project, New Haven Reads, City Seed and others receive funding year after year and continue to do high-quality and consistent work in our community.”
Such organizations are doing good things for the city, and they should focus on that, not on sitting through CDBG hearings, Elicker said. Emeritus organizations would still have to fill out all the applications and paperwork, he said.
Elicker said he’s already received several emails in support of the proposal from non-profit agencies.