Council adopts CDBG annual action plan after amendment adds funding for immigrant and domestic-violence services

The Portland City Council approved the city’s fiscal-year Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) annual action plan after adopting an amendment that moved funds to two community organizations serving immigrant families and survivors of domestic violence.

Councilor Fornier presented the amendment to add $117,182.83 for Presente Maine and $49,251.37 for Through These Doors, and to reallocate the Portland Fire Department’s medical mobile outreach allocation to other community organizations. City staff and allocation-committee members said the process was competitive: CDBG requests exceeded available funds by roughly $1.8 million.

City Manager Daniel West and members of the CDBG allocations committee described the shortfall in social-services requests: they received about $1.8 million in social-service proposals and recommended roughly $613,000 in funding. The allocation committee’s vice chair summarized the competitive scoring process and noted that the committee recommended full or partial funding for the highest-ranked projects across planning, development and social-service categories.

Several nonprofit representatives urged the council to restore or add funding. Victoria Morales, executive director of Quality Housing Coalition, stressed the value of the Foster Youth to Independence program and asked the council to consider full funding to maintain vouchers and navigation supports for youth aging out of foster care.

Tracy Moore of Catholic Charities and the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project asked the council to consider funding immigration legal services; she said the agencies are Department of Justice–recognized legal providers for Greater Portland and that work-permit renewals are taking as long as 10 months. Rebecca Hobbs of Through These Doors outlined the charity’s domestic-violence advocacy services and said the requested funding would expand housing stabilization and diversion services and a new jail partnership to support incarcerated survivors.

In floor debate councilors acknowledged the difficulty of selecting among worthy projects. Some members objected to a last-minute amendment from the dais, arguing the allocations committee’s citizen-driven process should be respected and that applicants lacked notice about the proposed changes. Other councilors defended the amendment as a targeted fix that preserved the allocation committee’s general recommendations while adding funds to critical services.

Councilors approved the amendment by roll call and then passed the amended action plan. Staff and committee members said the allocation process included a new-applicant set-aside for social services (applicants that had not previously received CDBG funding), which requires a minimum score to access set-aside funds. The committee said demand for CDBG far outstrips available funds and that many worthy applications received no or partial funding.

Why it matters: The CDBG annual action plan establishes how federal community-development funds will be spent locally for housing, public services, and neighborhood projects. The council’s amendment directed additional funding toward immigrant-facing services and domestic-violence advocacy during an acute moment of need.

What the meeting did and did not decide: The council adopted the FY26 CDBG annual action plan with the amendment. The allocation committee and staff said they will continue to pursue additional funding sources and that organizations not funded in full may seek other grants or city assistance.

Ending: Councilors and staff reiterated that limited federal resources require difficult choices and encouraged applicants to work with staff on other funding opportunities.