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Policy Portal

Issue #219
March 18, 2008

Detroit City Council Rescinds CDBG Board Residency Requirement for One Year

The Detroit City Council today indicated their intention to rescind the new board residency requirement for one year for recipients of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding.

The recently announced CDBG requirement would require that all Detroit nonprofits applying for Community Development Block Grant funding have at least 51% of their board members residing within the City of Detroit in order to qualify. The Detroit City Council today indicated that they will act next week to officially delay this new requirement for CDBG applicants for one year. It may be necessary for nonprofits who applied for CDBG funding this year to resubmit their proposals.

MNA urged its Detroit membership yesterday to contact their City Council members, requesting reconsideration of the board residency requirement. MNA also urged Detroit nonprofits to attend today's Public Hearing on the issue.

The MNA Southeast Michigan Regional Public Policy Council sent a letter to the Detroit City Council members early this morning, urging their reconsideration of this requirement. The letter stated that there are many factors that contribute to selecting board members, and board member residency should not be the controlling factor in determining who gets block grant funds. Nonprofits should not be ineligible for government funding because they have a certain percentage of board members located outside of a specific geographic area.  Instead they should be judged by such factors as the need for their service, the track record of the agency applying, and the quality of the service to be provided.

The Appeals Hearing scheduled for tomorrow has been canceled in light of the results from today's Public Hearing.