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Monday, August 28, 2006

Social services cuts contemplated

That plan by the Grand Forks City Council to divert $200,000 from social services to property tax relief is back for discussion tonight.

Looks like the City Beat led you all astray by a few hundred grands. I thought grants to nonprofits were a lot higher than they would really be, about $1.2 million. But that's not true. (Why didn't anybody correct me? Dang it!)

The total allocation of federal Community Development Block Grants is $1.2 million but nonprofits were only going to get $487,000. That was the plan recommended by the Citizens Advisory Committee, which advises the council on CDBG allocations. The council's proposed $200,000 cut represents 41 percent of that funding.

Here's how the $1.5 million CDBG will really be allocated (note that it's only $1.2 million after administration costs are taken out):

Suggested allocationCitizens Advisory CommitteeCity Council
Administration$306,000$306,000
Social services (nonprofits)$200,000$150,000
Rent assistance$250,000$250,000
Housing rehab$500,000$500,000
Infrastructure (nonprofits)$287,000$137,000
Streets and sewers$0$200,000

Since I'm such a fiend when it comes to data, I decided to do a quick comparison of needs in Grand Forks compared to other cities in North Dakota.

Percent of families below poverty line

CityAll familiesFamilies with female head of household, no husband
1) Grand Forks9.333.8
2) Minot8.833.5
3) Fargo6.623.1
4) Bismarck5.727.0

Hey, we're No. 1! But we knew that, didn't we?

Ooh, I got an idea! Wouldn't it be cool to compare social service funding per impoverished resident? Yeah, way cool.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tu,
Just a thought, but do you think that a lot of those under the poverty line are those that are living in on-campus apartments and going back to school using several federal grants and loans to finance themselves rather than income right now? I would think that would be a pretty significant number in GF. (much more statistically significant than in Fargo due to their larger population numbers all around) Well, I tried thinking for once...let me know if you think this might be part of the explanation. Maybe there is someone that could give more insight.

8:20 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ben is probably on to something there...but why are CDBG funds being used to fund local govt. (administration)? Shouldn't that be the responsibility of the large GF administrative staff already funded by local tax dollars so that more money can go to the Community?

9:25 AM  
Blogger Tu-Uyen said...

I'm not sure about Ben's suggestion, though it's a good point. I think that grants and loans do count as income. There is a suspicious spike with the higher number of 18-24 that's under the poverty line but not significantly higher than in other cities and you'd kind of expect that with the way UND dominates this town's demographics.

Also, by admin, I think the city means admin of CDBG and its programs. There are, for example, loans that have to be collected.

11:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think that a lot of the people living in the student apartments and married student housing are over the 24 year old mark anyway. Also, loans are not considered income, as they are basically an assumption of debt. (that would be like if you got a house loan, you would have to claim the loan amount as income, which is certainly not the case) I am less sure about grants, though.

8:55 PM  

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