City Leaders Finalize List for Block Grants

The City Council has approved its final list of organizations to receive more than $1 million in federal Community Development Block Grants.

The list, which includes 24 area nonprofit organizations and a handful of city-sponsored programs, will now be forwarded to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for approval.

Final word from the federal government is expected within the next month.

“I’m really pleased,” said Councilwoman Barbara Williamson of the choices. “These are some great organizations.”

Monday’s approval came after several months of review by city staff and the council.

The council gave tentative approval last month to a preliminary list of organizations and after a public hearing added several more organizations.

All cities with a population of 50,000 or more are eligible to receive block grant funds from the federal government.

Simi Valley received $804,000 this year, which was added to $206,000 in grant money that was not used last year.

Council and staff members who reviewed the initial requests for funding based their decisions on criteria that included the benefit of each to the community, the amount of matching funds committed to the project, cost-benefit ratios, whether the project had received funding in the past and, if so, whether it met its goals.