Town of West Hartford

Application Overview

The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) is a program of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, which provides funds to local communities for the development of activities with the stated goal of providing affordable housing, anti-poverty programs, and infrastructure development. The Town of West Hartford annually solicits proposals from eligible non-profit and other organizations that may serve eligible populations in the Town. Proposed CDBG projects must be consistent with broad national priorities for CDBG and meet Town of West Hartford priority needs as set forth in our Five-Year Consolidated Plan as seen below.

Eligibility for National Objectives

An activity must meet a national objective for compliance with CDBG requirements. If an activity does not meet a national objective, it will not qualify for funding. In West Hartford, all CDBG-funded projects must meet the following national CDBG objective of providing benefits to benefits low-and moderate-income through the following categories:

1. Low Modified Area Benefit (LMA)

• An area benefit activity benefits all residents in a particular area, where at least 51% of the residents are Low- to Moderate-Income (LMI) persons

2. Low Modified Clientele (LMC)

• Activities in this category provide benefits to a specific group of persons rather than everyone in an area. It may benefit particular persons without regard to their residence, or provides a benefit to only particular persons within a specific area. It is the actual number of LMI persons that benefit from the activity

3. Low Mod Housing Activities (LMH) 

• The housing category of LMI benefit national objective qualifies activities that provide or improve permanent residential structures, which, will be occupied by LMI households upon completion.

4. Jobs (LMJ)

• Using CDBG to help create or retain jobs held or made available to low and moderate income persons.

Town of West Hartford High Priority Needs

The Town has established several broad priorities to meet its identified housing and community development needs. The priorities include the following:

• Provide affordable rental housing opportunities for extremely low and very-low income renters by increasing the supply and maintaining the availability of affordable rental housing in the Town of West Hartford.
• Continue to provide support services to the homeless and those at-risk of homeless on a case-by-case basis.
• Support the continuance and/or expansion of existing public service programs, including those that provide services to persons with disabilities, or that offer transportation services and employment training for LMI residents.
• Expand existing efforts to meet the needs of the Town of West Hartford's physically disabled population by supporting projects designed to make current facilities accessible or to provide new ADA compliant facilities/equipment.
• Maintain and improve existing public facilities and encourage the development of upgraded facilities, particularly with regard to parks/recreation facilities and parking facilities that serve low-income populations.
• Encourage the continued maintenance and improvement of the Town of West Hartford's infrastructure, particularly with regard to street and sidewalk improvements, as well as storm drain improvements.
• Enhance and expand other community development efforts, particularly with regard to lead-based paint remediation/education and code enforcement activities.

Click here to review the entire 2020-2024 Five-Year Consolidated Plan. 

Application Notes

• Programs may serve residents of any town; however, Town of West Hartford CDBG funds only serve West Hartford residents.
• Funded sub-recipients will be required to collect and submit client race, ethnicity and income data.
• The Town may require additional documentation and the execution of a grant agreement for approved funding.
• In the Application, please answer all questions, including those not scored. Please write “N/A” (not applicable) for any answer or section that does not apply. Explain in Section 8 why you are not answering any specific questions or sections.

• The Town of West Hartford must receive all completed applications by the deadline with all documents attached.
• This application system utilizes a point system to quantify eligibility:
  • Sections 1-3 and 8-12 are required but NOT scored.
  • Sections 4-7 are required and scored.

General Information

1.4 Organization Contact Information. Please provide contact information for key personnel related to this project. This section is UNSCORED, but required.

Provide name, email and contact telephone of each of the following:

This section is UNSCORED, but required.

2.2 Organization Details

To receive CDBG funds, grantees must show that their project meets a High Priority Need (see online application instructions on the West Hartford website) as established in the Town of West Hartford 2020-2024 Five-Year Consolidated Plan, and must set a specific outcome target for services by the proposed program.

If your goal has multiple proposed outcomes, select ONE.

This section is UNSCORED, but required.

Describe how your program works, your target population, other partner organizations. This section is worth 30 Points. To maximize your score, please answer all questions.

4.1 Overview & Activity Description (10 Points)

4.2 Program - Specific Questions (10 Points)

4.3 Problem Statement (4 Points)

4.4 Unique Characteristics​ (6 Points)

These questions apply only to staff who will lead, manage and/or implement the program for which you are seeking CDBG funds. This section is worth 20 Points. To maximize your score, please answer all questions and include all attachments as requested.

5.1 Staff Qualifications, Program Lead - Who leads your program’s front-line staff?

If this position is open, simply mark “N/A” in “Name,” “Calendar Years of Work Experience,” “Calendar Years Serving your Organization” and “Calendar Years Serving this Program.”

5.2 Staff Qualification, Front Line Staff - Tell about the qualifications of staff who will interact with your beneficiaries. For example, if your program is an after-school program, describe the qualifications you are looking for when deciding who will be coaching, teaching or educating West Hartford youth. 

5.3 Staff Qualifications, Finance/Administration - Who maintains your program financial information. If this position is open, simply mark “N/A” in “Name,” “Calendar Years of Work Experience,” “Calendar Years Serving your Organization” and “Calendar Years Serving this Program.” Other fields required.

How does your program evaluate its results?

Complete only ONE of the Section 6 questions: 6.1a or 6.1b.

In each case, provide information for all for full credit.

For example, in this question, please fill out each section for 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23. This section is worth 30 Points. To maximize your score, answer all questions.

6.1a Past CDBG-Funded Program Results - If you have received CDBG funds for this program in the last 3 fiscal years, please provide a breakdown of yearly costs, specific outcomes, and a brief description of the assessment tools you used to measure results. 

FY 2020-2021

FY 2021-2022

FY 2022-2023

6.1b Non-CDBG Funded Program Results - If you have NOT received CDBG funding for a new program, identify the most similar program operated by your organization and, for that program, provide the most recent three (3) consecutive years of outcomes.

Provide information on your program budget, a line-by-line breakdown of your CDBG request, as well as your plans for ongoing sustainability. This section is specific to the program for which you are seeking CDBG funds, not your overall organization budget. This section is worth 20 points. To maximize your score, please answer all questions and make sure your narrative sections align with the numbers included in question 7.1 and 7.3 budget tables.

7.1 Program Funding Sources (Overall). Provide a breakdown of all sources of funding required to operate your program (overall, including CDBG and all other sources), for the year in which you are requesting funds. Indicate funds – either requested or already secured. “Total, Funds from all Sources” should equal your overall program budget.

Program Funding Sources (6 Points)

7.2 Other Funding Sources (0 Points)

If you identified Other Grants/Donations and did not have room to list each in the space above OR if your program relies on any program income or any other source of revenue, please use the spaces below to provide additional details on these sources and funding amounts, and if these funds have been secured or requested.

Mark “N/A” if these questions do not apply to your program.

7.3 CDBG Request (Line Item Budget) - Provide a line item breakdown for your CDBG request. List a budget summary to support your program. “Total CDBG Request” should equal the “Funding Amount” you listed in 7.1 on the “CDBG Grant”. (4 Points)

7.4 Budget Narrative - For each of the CDBG Expense Categories described in 7.3 above, (1) please provide an explanation of how the estimated cost was determined, and (2) describe how the CDBG Expense Category enhances or supports your program. (6 Points)

7.5 Other Request and Budget Questions. (4 Points)

Unless otherwise noted, answers to all questions in this application are required. To maximize your score, if there are any fields that you were unable to complete, or which do not apply to your organization or project (including those marked as “N/A”), please use the space below to provide an explanation. Be sure to reference the question number (e.g. “Question 4.1”) and be specific and concise. This section is worth 0 Points.

9.1 Required Documents - The following documents must be included at the time of submission.

9.2 Optional Attachments - To maximize your score, please consider submitting copies of the documents listed in this table

Please use the certification tool below to indicate that your application is complete and correct, and you are authorized to submit the requested information and documentation.

If the application is not complete or if you do not agree to the certification (below), do not complete Section 10.

Otherwise, please complete and submit your application before the submission deadline. Completion of Section 10 is required prior to submission. No application will be accepted without Section 10 fully completed.