Leaders in Bloomington are getting more public feedback on what to prioritize when addressing the housing crisis.
The five-year consolidated plan for the City of Bloomington is expiring and public input will add ideas to the next plan. Bloomington gets funding every five years from the Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD] via the Community Development Block Grant [CDBG] Program.
The program grants the city more than $500,000 per year over five years in the current plan. Bloomington and Normal combined are expected to share about $1 million annually through 2029.
“This is a program that's focused on local decisions and local spending, which is a great part of the CDBG program, and it's turning 50 this year, so we're celebrating that,” William Bessler, Bloomington's economic and community development grants manager, said at a community forum on Wednesday.
“And I think everybody coming out tonight to share their thoughts and give their opinions was a great testament to the great work that CDBG has done locally and across the country.”
To give attendees a taste of how spending is decided, as well as to see what the public prioritizes, the meeting featured a segment where they budgeted what they would spend money on. Participants took stickers and placed them alongside things they would fund if they were in charge of an $80 budget, each dot representing five of those dollars.
Funded the most by the several dozen participants were public housing modernization, housing rehabilitation and improvements to streets and sidewalks.
The city is limited in some aspects of the CDBG program. One rule is that no more than 15% of the funding granted each year by HUD can go toward public services. In the soon-to-expire plan, the largest chunk of the money went toward housing rehabilitation. Other focal points were vacant housing demolition, public services and infrastructure improvements.
The forum also asked questions of attendees: What are the housing needs in the community, and what are the greatest needs in your specific neighborhood? Issues raised included younger generations not having good prospects of home ownership, resources for child care and street infrastructure.
“When it rains, it's floods. I mean being a crossing guard, you know, you have to help the children jump over the puddle,” said Mildred Gardner, who works for Stevenson Elementary School. “And the water also produces potholes in my community.”
Many others also noted the sewer system frequently being overwhelmed during heavy rainfall.
Bessler was pleased with the results gathered when getting into the specifics of each neighborhood.
“That's not something that's asked a lot in surveys or in public forums. So it was really intriguing to to learn more about what people are seeing at a neighborhood level,” he said.
The Town of Normal will host a public forum from 5:30-7 p.m. July 11, at the Normal Township office, 304 E. Mulberry St.
The McLean County Regional Planning Commission also hosted an online forum on Wednesday.
