Santa Barbara City Council members unanimously approved the priorities for the upcoming Human Services and Community Development Block Grant funding cycle Tuesday.
Santa Barbara City Council approved the funding priorities and process for Fiscal Year 2023’s Human Services and Community Development Block Grant funding cycle.
The council’s unanimous decision earmarked $726,150 from the city’s general fund for the grants. This amount is level with pre-pandemic allotments.
The City Council’s decision didn’t take much discussion — apart from the best way to spread the word about the grant opportunity.
Otherwise, the criteria (which wasn’t up for discussion) and priorities, which staff recommended to preserve, remained the same.
Human Services funds prioritize, firstly: programs that serve people’s essential needs of food, shelter and medical care. A second priority are proposals that prevent violence or promote residents to function at higher levels.
The priorities for CDBG funds are homeless assistance, public facilities/infrastructure and economic development.
Approval from council allows staff to start the application process.
More details will be released to local media organizations soon and published on the city’s website, santabarbaraca.gov.
The first deadline is a mandatory online workshop at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 18.
email: ahanshaw@newspress.com
