Skip to main content

User account menu

  • Log in
  • Rss
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Shopping cart 0
Cart

Search

Search
Home HubCitySPOKES
  • Post
    • Leaderboard
    • Post Dashboard
    • Payment Settings
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • FAQ
    • Monthly Website Statistics
    • Our Staff
    • Privacy Policy
    • Rack Locations
    • Submit News
  • Most Read
    • Most Read This Week
    • Most Read This Month
    • Most Read This Year
    • Most Read All Time
  • Most Recent
  • More News
    • Cartoons
    • Documents
    • Videos
    • Crime
    • Education
      • Hattiesburg Schools
      • Lamar County Schools
      • Petal Schools
      • Southern Miss
      • William Carey
    • Features
    • Politics
    • Public Notices
    • Hattiesburg
    • Lamar County
    • Petal
    • Health
  • Sports
    • High School
      • Forrest County AHS
      • Hattiesburg Tigers
      • Lamar Christian Lions
      • Lumberton Panthers
      • North Forrest
      • Oak Grove Warriors
      • PCS Bobcats
      • Petal Panthers
      • Purvis Tornadoes
      • Sacred Heart
      • Sumrall Bobcats
    • College/Universities
      • Jones College Bobcats
      • PRCC Wildcats
      • Southern Miss
      • William Carey
  • E-Editions
    • Newspaper E-Edition
    • Magazine E-Edition
    • Special Section E-Editions
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Comments
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Polls
    • Submit a Letter to the Editor
    • Benny Hornsby
    • Elijah Jones
    • Robert St. John
    • Clark Hicks
    • Rick Cleveland
    • Wes Brooks
    • Joshua Wilson
    • Jamie Massengale
  • Advertising
    • Ad Rates
    • Ad Staff
  • Calendar
  • Obituaries
    • Submit an Obituary
  • Social
    • Anniversaries/Birthdays
    • Engagements/Weddings
    • Schools
    • Submit an Anniversary
    • Submit a Birth
    • Submit an Engagement
    • Submit School News
    • Submit a Wedding
  • Subscribe
  • Signature
    • Happenings
    • Lifestyle
      • Cuisine
      • Fashion
      • Festival South
      • Film
      • Music
    • Neighbors
      • Meet Your Neighbor
      • Signature Q&A
  • State

Domain menu for HubCitySPOKES (main)

  • Post
    • Leaderboard
    • Post Dashboard
    • Payment Settings
  • Home
    • Contact Us
    • FAQ
    • Monthly Website Statistics
    • Our Staff
    • Privacy Policy
    • Rack Locations
    • Submit News
  • Most Read
  • Most Recent
  • More News
    • Cartoons
    • Documents
    • Videos
    • Crime
    • Education
      • Hattiesburg Schools
      • Lamar County Schools
      • Petal Schools
      • Southern Miss
      • William Carey
    • Features
    • Politics
    • Public Notices
    • Hattiesburg
    • Lamar County
    • Petal
    • Health
  • Sports
    • High School
      • Forrest County AHS
      • Hattiesburg Tigers
      • Lamar Christian Lions
      • Lumberton Panthers
      • North Forrest
      • Oak Grove Warriors
      • PCS Bobcats
      • Petal Panthers
      • Purvis Tornadoes
      • Sacred Heart
      • Sumrall Bobcats
    • College/Universities
      • Jones College Bobcats
      • PRCC Wildcats
      • Southern Miss
      • William Carey
  • E-Editions
    • Newspaper E-Edition
    • Magazine E-Edition
    • Special Section E-Editions
  • Opinion
    • Columns
    • Comments
    • Editorials
    • Letters
    • Polls
    • Submit a Letter to the Editor
    • Benny Hornsby
    • Elijah Jones
    • Robert St. John
    • Clark Hicks
    • Rick Cleveland
    • Wes Brooks
    • Joshua Wilson
    • Jamie Massengale
  • Advertising
  • Calendar
  • Obituaries
  • Social
  • Subscribe
  • Signature
    • Happenings
    • Lifestyle
      • Cuisine
      • Fashion
      • Festival South
      • Film
      • Music
    • Neighbors
      • Meet Your Neighbor
      • Signature Q&A
  • State

City to hold public hearing on program and housing funds

By Haskel Burns , READ MORE > 968 Reads
On Wed, 12/04/2019 - 04:17 PM

The City of Hattiesburg will host two public hearings to give residents the chance to learn about and voice their opinions on the city’s upcoming 2020 Action Plan for Housing and Community Development Block Grant programs, as well as amendments to previous Action Plans.

The meetings, which will be held concurrently at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 9 in council chambers at Hattiesburg City Hall, will allow citizens to give their input on how CDBG and HOME Investment Partnership Program funds should be spent in the city in the upcoming plan.

“Every five years, we have what’s called a Consolidated Plan that we submit to (the Department of Housing and Urban Development), and as a component of that, every year we have an annual Action Plan that gets a little more specific as to how the money will be spent,” said Andrew Ellard, director of the city’s Urban Development Department. “Both the Consolidated Plan process and the Action Plan process involve a lot of public input opportunities.

“So this public hearing is one of those one such opportunities, where we can hear back from residents on how they feel those funds should be spent – what types of projects they feel like are needed in their communities.”

The portion of the meeting regarding the 2020 Action Plan will deal with approximately $847,000 in funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which the city plans to receive in January or soon thereafter. Those funds will be used to meet the primary objectives of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1974 by providing access to affordable, decent, safe and sanitary housing – and expanding economic opportunities – for persons of low and moderate income.

Of the upcoming funds from HUD, Hattiesburg officials expect to receive a CDBG entitlement grant of approximately $562,000 which the city proposes to use for CDBG administration, commercial rehabilitation/façade improvement, microenterprise assistance and housing programs. The city also expects to receive a HOME entitlement grant of $285,000, which is proposed for HOME administration, Community Housing Development Organization set-aside, down payment assistance, and housing rehabilitation.

“It can vary, and of course we are bound to what is deemed eligible according to HUD, as it’s their funding source,” Ellard said. “Housing, for many, many years, has been the priority project in Hattiesburg. We’ve done a lot of rehabilitation projects for homeowners that have conditions in their home that they need help addressing. “We’ve also done emergency repair situations in homeowner-occupied houses, and offered down payment assistance awards to eligible households. We also do affordable housing development, and there’s different ways that can happen – there’s been construction of new homes over the years, there’s been rehabilitation and rentals as affordable units.”

The part of the meeting regarding the 2016, 2017 and 2018 Action Plan amendments is related to funds allocated each year to administrative purposes. Officials will determine whether to redirect any remaining CDBG funds from previous Action Plans toward housing programs, rather than administrative uses.

“Each year, we have a certain amount of money that is allocated to administrative purposes,” Ellard said. “While it’s limited to how much we can spend, if we don’t spend it, then what we like to do is amend that so that those funds are swept over to project uses, rather than just being lost.

“So the purpose of the amendment is to shift some of those administrative funds over to housing-related projects. Also, in one of the amendments, we are exploring the possibility of a public facility-type project, which did not exist in the 2018 Action Plan.”

The public hearings also serve as an opportunity for urban development officials to educate attendees on what is eligible under the programs.

“It’s one thing for people to say ‘this is what I’d like to see in my community,’ but we can kind of help guide that conversation and tell them what types of activities that are actually eligible,” Ellard said. “Things that we can do with the grant funds are sometimes limited to geography – specifically, maybe census tracts where income is known to be lower than other areas.

“So we can help guide those conversations a little bit better in that public hearing format than we can just from other random comments that we might receive in writing.”

‹ PreviousNext ›

LOCAL SPORTS NEWS:

Oak Grove bounces back from first loss of season, wins Battle for the ‘Burg 89-68

Oak Grove had one goal in mind as it faced off against its rival Hattiesburg in the classic Battle… READ MORE

155 - Guest Sumrall Soccer Coach Todd Siders
Nick Ammirati Named Southern Miss Baseball Assistant Coach
Sports Column: Drew Brees leaves an unforgettable Saints legacy. The story started in Jackson.
Sacred Heart girls soccer team's season ends due to COVID-19
Sacred Heart falls short to Our Lady of Academy in 3-2 loss

 

121

Sign Up for Notifications of Local Breaking News

Start E-mail NotificationsStop E-mail NotificationsStart Mobile NotificationsStop Mobile Notifications

Most Read News Article

  • Week
  • Month
  • Year
  • All Time

Lady Bobcats clinch region championship despite youth-filled roster

SUMRALL – For most teams, losing six seniors that made a second-round playoff appearance would make… READ MORE

Sumrall wins 5th straight region title in 7-1 win over North Pike
Hattiesburg blows out Pearl River Central 78-36
Lady Tigers use big third quarter to defeat Pearl River Central 50-27
Hardy's second half performance helps Golden Eagles sweep MTSU
Sacred Heart falls short to Our Lady of Academy in 3-2 loss

PineBeltSPORTS 2020 All-Area Football Team

Against all odds, the 2020 football season is finally in the books. The season saw its fair share… READ MORE

PineBeltSPORTS Area Football Coaches of the Year
Area Football Player of the Year: PCS’s Marquis Crosby rewrote history books and shattered records
PODCAST: 152 - Announcing The 2020 All-Area Football Team
Southern Miss women’s basketball coach Joye Lee-McNelis diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer
DiFATTA: ‘The rut’ has finally arrived for deer hunting

2020 Best of the Pine Belt voting underway

Voting is now underway in FestivalSouth's 2020 Best of the Pine Belt competition, presented… READ MORE

Winston County Legals 062420
Political Cartoon: Jan. 23
Bedford Care: 22 residents, five employees currently sick with COVID-19
PODCAST: 125 - Jason Munz Interview
ABADIE: I'm all in for Korean baseball; it's better than nothing

2020 Best of the Pine Belt voting underway

Voting is now underway in FestivalSouth's 2020 Best of the Pine Belt competition, presented… READ MORE

Winston County Legals 062420
Political Cartoon: Jan. 23
Bedford Care: 22 residents, five employees currently sick with COVID-19
PODCAST: 125 - Jason Munz Interview
ABADIE: I'm all in for Korean baseball; it's better than nothing

PETAL NEWS

Home Care Job Opportunities Abound in the Pine Belt Area

With the nation’s unemployment rate at its highest in nearly half a century, job opportunities in… READ MORE

NEWS FROM HATTIESBURG:

Artists wanted to decorate city utility boxes around Hattiesburg

Given the economic hardship endured by many artists during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, officials… READ MORE

City approves new, business-friendly draft of food truck ordinance
Home Care Job Opportunities Abound in the Pine Belt Area
Officials break ground on upcoming splash pad at Dewitt Sullivan Park
Library of Hattiesburg, Petal and Forrest County receives ‘Anti Racism Reading Shelf’
Arts center to host suncatcher workshop Saturday

OPINION:

Political Cartoon for January 14

Days gone by and days to come
My Dorito Master
‘Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive’
My Country, Right or Wrong
SADDLEBAG PREACHER

LOCAL CRIME NEWS:

Man to serve 40 years for murder of Emalee Walters of Eatonville

On Aug. 14, 2019, investigators with the Forrest County Sheriff’s Office were made aware of a… READ MORE

Hattiesburg Police Department Reports: January 8-10, 2021
Man arrested in Richton for Petal murder
Columbia man arrested with $80K worth of meth
Chicago woman for aggravated assault, firearm
Purvis man arrested for attempted rape on Longleaf Trace

 

lts

Copyright 2020 • HubCitySPOKES: A Publishing Company

525 N. Main St. • Hattiesburg, MS 39401 • 601.268.2331

Emmerich Newspapers proudly serve the following Mississippi communities:
Click on the city name to visit its website.

ACKERMAN • CARROLLTON • CHARLESTON • CLARKSDALE • COLUMBIA • EUPORA • FOREST • GREENVILLE • GREENWOOD • GRENADA • HATTIESBURG • JACKSON • KOSCIUSKO • INDIANOLA • LOUISVILLE • MAGEE • MENDENHALL • McCOMB • NEWTON • PETAL • QUITMAN • SENATOBIA • WINONA • YAZOO CITY

As well as: DUMAS, Ark. • TALLULAH, La • FRANKLINTON, La.

For more information on how to extend your advertising message to these communities, click here.