Blocked Grants The Loss Of Community Development Block Grants Would Hamper Efforts By Citizens To Improve Their Neighborhoods

The effects of federal community development grants can be seen everywhere on Spokane’s North Side.

In the Nevada-Lidgerwood neighborhood, children cross paved streets and walk on sidewalks to play on swings in Friendship Park - all built with the help of the federal grants.

In West Central, people walk on safer, cleaner streets to homes built with community development funds.

In Hillyard, children and parents take classes at the Northeast Community Center, built and maintained by the grants.

Community development funds have helped bring North Side neighborhoods into the 20th century Roads have been paved, sidewalks and parks built, community centers constructed, the Garland business district revived.

“They have given us the money to build up our own neighborhood,” said longtime Nevada-Lidgerwood steering committee member Mel West. But as Congress tries to balance the federal budget and trim spending on social programs, those funds may be slowly drying up.

Community development grants, which come in the form of block grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to local governments, are intended to improve housing, infrastructure and social programs in low-income areas.

The city, informed through a lobbying network, believes some cut is inevitable, according to Community and Urban Development director Mike Adolphae.

The possible cuts put at risk funding for neighborhood steering committees - the bodies that have become the heart of grass-roots revitalization efforts on the North Side.

Adolphae said the community development board which oversees the federal grant program would try to “cushion” any possible blow to the steering committees by absorbing cuts in larger programs.

But the community development office has asked the North Side neighborhood committees - in the process of budgeting for the year - to conservatively count on a 15 percent cut.

That means the committees are getting a stern lesson in government budgeting, where demands are always larger than resources. In the past, most committees have had enough money to meet every request. Not so now.

The shrunken budgets would likely hit social service programs - like Garfield Elementary’s Express program for latch-key kids - the most.

Express programs, which offer after-school licensed child care at neighborhood schools, have requested funds from five neighborhood steering committees. All have more demands than funds.

The community development funds allow the Express program to give scholarships, cutting the $45 per week bill to $33.75, said Express coordinator Linda Waddell.

“It helps us because we can service more students,” said Waddell.

But steering committees have little choice. The Emerson-Garfield neighborhood has about $15,703 in requests from groups such as Express, the Girl Scouts and the neighborhood COP shop, and only $11,925 in its reduced 1996 public service budget.

“I think this is the first year that is going to hit the steering committee hard,” said Tommie Irving, the committee’s part-time staff person.

In Nevada-Lidgerwood, the committee is short about $2,600 from its public service budget. One solution being considered is an across-the-board, 15 percent reduction. A meeting will be held Nov. 8 to discuss various programs and the funding situation.

“It should be an interesting meeting,” said steering committee president Nancy Humphrey. “I just hope the politicians take a good hard look at the programs they are cutting.”

Unlike others on the North Side, the West Central committee has had to turn down requests “as long as I can remember,” said Harriet Krueger, a committee member for 10 years.

Krueger said the committee first meets requests from groups that directly serve the West Central neighborhood. Others, like Project Joy, which serves all of the North Side, often have their requests trimmed.

“Like always, we hopefully will give everyone a fair shake and come in under budget,” said Krueger.

Other North Side committees are more accustomed to having a surplus than a deficit after hearing requests from groups.

The Nevada-Lidgerwood COPS station, for example, was funded in part from a surplus, Humphrey said. The committee has paid $82,000 out the committee’s capital budget for land at the intersection of Addison and Wellesley.

Humphrey knows the committee is not likely to have a surplus again in the future.

“We’ve got to learn to tighten our belt,” she said.

The likely cuts discourage Mel West, who has been a part of the steering committee for 18 years. He says it would be a shame to reduce funding now, when neighborhoods are becoming increasingly organized and energetic.

“That would be terrible if community development money was cut. We have a lot of way to go,” said West.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: NEXT STEERING COMMITTEE MEETINGS Chief Garry Park *- Today, 7 p.m., Stevens Elementary School, 1815 E. Sinto Hillyard *- Thursday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m., Northeast Community Center, 4001 N. Cook West Central - Wednesday, Nov. 8, 7 p.m., West Central Community Center, 1603 N. Belt Nevada-Lidgerwood - Wednesday, Nov. 8, 7 p.m., Garry Middle School, 725 E. Joseph North Hill - Thursday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m., Willard Elementary School, 500 W. Longfellow Emerson-Garfield * - Wednesday, Nov. 15, 7 p.m., Corbin Community Center, 827 W. Cleveland * indicates a budgeting session