By Jordan Sandler, USCM Intern
August 8, 2005

New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg testified before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census on July 25th in support of the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG). Representative Michael Turner (OH), a former mayor of Dayton, chairs the subcommittee. Also present were Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Charles Rangel (NY). The hearing was held in New York City.

Bloomberg praised the effects that CDBG has had on New York City, which spends about $260 million annually in CDBG funds. “This morning here in Harlem, you have seen exactly what I am talking about. Twenty years ago, this proud neighborhood was plagued by the widespread abandonment of housing,” he said. “My predecessors at city hall, Mayors Koch, Dinkins, and Giuliani, used CDBG funds to reverse that trend, here and elsewhere in our city. The result is that today, Harlem, like other New York neighborhoods that were once on the decline, is now experience a heartening revival,” he added.

Funds issued to cities through CDBG, a program of the Department of Housing and Urban Development since 1975, are controlled directly by the city government, a fact Bloomberg said allows cities to directly address their own individual needs while still being held accountable for the ways the funds are spent. For example, Bloomberg testified that Harlem now faces a new challenge, that is, preventing the displacement of longtime residents despite new developments. Bloomberg said that in New York City, the largest share of CDBG funds – about 60 percent – are administered by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development whose function it is to deal with the unique problems that New York faces with respect to housing. “We draw on CDBG funds to plan the reuse of former industrial brownfields in our city for affordable housing development, a key part of our Administration’s ambitious plan to develop and preserve affordable housing for more than 200,000 New Yorkers,” Bloomberg added.

In his testimony, Bloomberg said that in addition to housing, CDBG also helps fund the New York City Department of Small Business Services. The SBS’s mission is to create healthy environments for businesses in revitalized communities. Bloomberg remarked that these businesses “sustain neighborhood life” in communities.

Bloomberg also mentioned several other programs that CDBG funding is used for in New York City, including daycare centers for low income families, renovations of senior centers, and outreach programs to the homeless and mentally ill.

Bloomberg noted that CDBG funds provide an “economic ripple effect” that encourages nonprofit and private lenders to invest as well in housing and community development.

“The CDBG program is, in short, crucial to the people of New York,” Bloomberg said. “So I applaud the action taken by the Senate and House to maintain the CDBG program. But I urge you to increase funding to at least last year’s levels,” he added. Bloomberg then noted that federal law requires that at least 70 percent of CDBG funds be spent on low-income people and that New York exceeds this figure and spends 93 percent of CDBG funds on low-income people.

“Because New York is the nation’s largest city, the one most frequently visited by travelers from overseas, and a symbol to the world of how our nation has bounced back since 9/11, every American has a stake in helping us continue to write such success stories,” Bloomberg concluded.

The hearing took place at the Thurgood Marshall Academy in Harlem. Also testifying were Department of Small Business Services Micro Enterprise Division Director Fred Hooke, Phipps Houses, Chairman of the board Ronay Menschel, JPMorgan Chase Executive Vice-President Mark Willis, Urban Homesteading Assistance Board Executive Director Andrew Reicher, Abyssinian Baptist Church Pastor Calvin Butts, Asian Americans for Equality Executive Director Chris Kui, and New York University Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning Ingrid Gould-Ellen.