How Community Development Block Grant Funds Support Madison Homeowners
posted
For 50 years, the City of Madison has used federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, federal HOME program funds, and City levy dollars to put more than $200 million into the community to address critical housing needs, improve economic development efforts, and create and maintain community spaces.
The City’s CDBG unit within the Community Development Division helps allocate those funds through a variety of contracts and programs that have benefited residents of all backgrounds across Madison. As we celebrate National Community Development Week, here's a closer look at some of those programs and what they've been able to do for the people of Madison.
Home Rehabilitation Loans
One of the first programs the City of Madison created after receiving its first CDBG funds in 1975, the Housing Rehabilitation Services Program was developed after City leaders recognized a pressing need to provide financial and technical assistance to low- and moderate-income property owners to repair deteriorating homes in Madison's older neighborhoods. Since then, the program has helped more than 2,200 homeowners with those repairs, maintaining and improving more than 3,400 homes across the City.
The program can help facilitate basic maintenance needs, like furnaces, water heaters, and roofs, but it has also been used to fund dramatic exterior transformations, like in the recent rehabilitation of a home on Wingra Drive. The property had been abandoned by a previous owner when it was bought by a young couple, who used the home rehabilitation program to remove the deteriorating and water-damaged roof and add a second story.
On Mayer Avenue, an elderly woman living alone was able to use the program to make necessary repairs after receiving a notice from the Building Inspection Division.
Supporting Our Community Centers
From the time it first received CDBG funds in 1975, the City of Madison has been using a portion of that money to help local non-profits and other community-based organizations acquire, improve, or build facilities that have become valuable hubs for residents.
The Community Facilities Loan Program supports organizations with low-cost financing, leaseholder improvement loans, and acquisition support. In 2022, the City began supplementing the CDBG funds that supported the program with City levy dollars to further facilitate the financing of these projects by offering 0% long-term deferred loans or forgivable loans for qualifying projects.
Recent investments include $400,000 to help build the Bayview Foundation’s Bayview Community Center, $100,000 to support the Allied Wellness Center’s new space in The Derby, $400,000 to help the River Food Pantry acquire a new facility, $300,000 to the Urban League of Greater Madison for commercial kitchen improvements to support a microenterprise development, and $100,000 to the CEOs of Tomorrow to build out a space in the new Black Business Hub on S. Park St.
Additionally, CDBG funds have also supported the acquisition or rehabilitation of key community hubs like the Goodman Community Center, the Warner Park Community Recreation Center, the Meadowood Neighborhood Center, Centro Hispano, Access Community Health Centers, the Omega School, the Head Start Center, and Reach Dane.
These investments have helped Madison’s non-profits grow roots in the communities they serve, expand services, and become long-term pillars of support in our neighborhoods. The City’s ongoing commitment to these capital investments ensures we will see inclusive, community-driven growth for generations to come.
