Today, NDC President Robert Davenport kicked off Day Two at NDC Academy 2011, introducing an exceptional line up of speakers for the Plenary Session and urging Academy’s 330 registrants to contact their legislators in support of restoring funding to the HUD Community Development Block Grant program, which took a massive cut in FY2011 of $1 billion.
Because of the cut, local and state agencies and their non-profit partners will have to lay-off staff; services will be reduced or eliminated; infrastructure projects (and the jobs they create) will not go forward; other job-creating economic development projects will be canceled; and affordable housing will be curtailed. The economic lives of low- and moderate-income families served by the program will be severely diminished because of huge reductions in program benefits at the community level.
The time to act is now! Please contact your legislators letting them know how important it is to keep CDBG. Here’s a sample letter for your convenience: letter for lobbying for CDBG.