Here are the projects Middletown wants to fund with development grants

Middletown City Council is expected to approve the annual action plan for using Community Development Block Grant funding for the 2019 program year at its meeting Tuesday.

City officials said Middletown has received the annual federal CDBG funding since 1975 and uses its annual action plan as part of its implementation of the five-year Consolidated Plan. The consolidated plan develops the city’s revitalization strategies based on statistical data for each census tract, according to a staff report prepared by Susan Cohen, administrative services director.

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The annual action plan also outlines the housing, community and economic development needs, priorities, strategies the city is planning to assist lower and moderate-income households.

She said the goal of the five-year plan is to stabilize and protect “at-risk” neighborhoods, use code enforcement for neighborhood compliance, assist with street paving in some target neighborhoods, and continue demolition, rehabilitation and redevelopment of neighborhoods consistent with the city’s master plan. The program year runs from May 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020.

According to its proposed 2019 action plan for its CDBG funding, the city is planning to:

• Use $100,000 to demolish four structures in these neighborhoods

• Use $465,000 to improve six targeted lower to moderate income areas through street repairs and resurfacing impacting more than 5,500 households

• Use $50,000 for emergency home repairs for 30 low-income homeowners in partnership with People Working Cooperatively

• Use $17,500 to support residential rehab in partnership with SELF (Supports to Encourage Low-income Families) who organizes work camps to provide in-kind labor

• Provide $5,000 for fair housing services through Housing Opportunities Made Equal to serve 15 households

• Allow Legal Aid of Greater Cincinnati to continue to providing legal representation for up to 15 lower to moderate income households

• Provide $60,000 to support the Robert “Sonny” Hill Jr. Community Center operated by Community Building Institute to serve more than 300 low-income residents through its programming.

• Use $145,000 to cover the city’s general planning and administration expenses

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