Council keeps $30,000 minimum for this round, tables housing allocation decisions and reallocates several CDBG items

Salt Lake City council members spent the largest continuous portion of their March 25 work session reviewing staff recommendations for fiscal year 2025–26 allocations of Community Development Block Grant and related federal funding.

Housing Stability Director Tony Milner and community development staff laid out program proposals, funding requests and administrative contingencies for CDBG, ESG, HOME and other federal programs. Staff said HUD had signaled timely grant awards for the coming year and that an increase to a $50,000 minimum award was administratively possible for future application cycles, but councilors expressed concern about disrupting current applicants who budgeted at the existing $30,000 threshold.

After discussion, councilors conducted a straw poll and unanimously agreed to keep $30,000 as the minimum award for the current round and move to $50,000 for future rounds with a caveat to preserve flexibility if federal funding were significantly reduced. Council members also recorded consensus in favor of using contingencies proposed by the Housing Stability office that let staff adjust award amounts within a final HUD allocation rather than requiring repeated council briefings.

Staff descri…