Opinions to Spend $500,000 Wanted

The public will have an opportunity next week to advise the city on how to spend about $500,000 in federal funding it expects to receive this year--if Washington comes through.

The Community Development Block Grant money last year went toward improving public facilities and social services and administrative costs.

But federal officials cannot guarantee the city will receive its annual allotment because of continued haggling over the federal budget.

“It’s too hard to tell right now with the political climate in Washington,” said an official with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administers the funds.

In the meantime, Craig Bluell, the city’s principal planner and block grant manager, said the city will study how to spend the money anyway.

Federal regulation requires cities to spend at least 70% of their grant money to benefit those with low- to moderate-income.

For the 14 years the city has participated in the program, about 44% has been allocated to land acquisition to assist developers with the housing construction, Bluell said.

An additional 39% has been used for public facility improvements, and 9% was allocated to administration and fair housing.

Over the past year, improving wheelchair accessibility at public facilities has been the priority, Bluell said.

The main recipients for social services money, which has accounted for about 8% of the grant money, has gone to homeless shelters that serve Newport Beach residents.

Those venues include the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter in Costa Mesa, the YWCA shelter for women in Santa Ana and the YMCA Center for Family Counseling in Irvine.

“If the programs are to continue at the level they provide now, funds would have to be made up somehow, like private donations,” Bluell said, “or we will have to go without these services.”