PORTLAND – The city will figure out how to dole out nearly $2.1 million in federal grants this evening, even though it still doesn’t know how exactly how much money to expect from Washington.

The city’s annual Community Development Block Grant allocation will provide money for a range of projects, from realigning troublesome intersections to supporting the operations of homeless shelters. But this year’s allocation process has been hampered by changes in funding for the program.

“This was my most difficult year,” said Annette Rogers, who has been on the city’s CDBG Allocation Committee for 10 years. “There are so many good agencies … and unfortunately, there isn’t enough to go around.”

Rogers’ committee began the allocation process by lopping 12.5 percent from the amount of block grant money that Portland received a year ago. But in the process of a series of federal budget extensions and negotiations, some more money was taken from the program, and Portland ended up with a 16 percent reduction.

City officials said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is still nailing down the final numbers on how much funding hundreds of communities will receive and probably won’t have final calculations done before the end of May. But the requirement to have a spending plan ready by May 15 is still in place.

City officials like the CDBG program because it provides a significant amount of money with not as many federal strings.

“It’s made a real difference in the lives of our residents,” said Nicole Clegg, Portland’s spokeswoman. “It’s done a lot to improve the livability of our neighborhoods.”

The grants help pay for livability upgrades such as a residential rehabilitation program, help low-income homeowners fix up and weatherize their houses, and operate Preble Street Resource Center’s shelters. Clegg said those are the types of programs it would probably be difficult for the city to fund because of pressure on Portland’s budget due to the economy.

But even with more than $2 million being allocated, Rogers said more agencies get left out than will actually receive funds.

Many of them may make a last-ditch effort to get funding when the City Council holds a public hearing on CDBG funding today at 5:30 p.m.

Rogers said it’s difficult to turn down so many worthy groups, but she noted that her committee uses a scoring system to rank the requests and make the process less subjective.

Still, “Monday night will not be a fun night,” she said.

Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at:

emurphy@pressherald.com

 

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