New Haven committee hears nonprofit funding requests as city prepares 2025 HUD consolidated-plan submission

The Joint Community Development, Health and Human Services Committee of the New Haven Board of Alders heard presentations Tuesday from more than two dozen local nonprofits seeking Community Development Block Grant and related funding as the city prepares its 2025 Consolidated Plan, including HOPWA and Emergency Solutions Grants to submit to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The presentations covered requests for food-security operations, homelessness services, youth programs, workforce development, childcare supports and neighborhood-based projects — all programs that committee members said would inform the city’s consolidated submission and later funding allocations.

Presenters included established sponsors of social services and newer community-based groups. Continuum Care described two residential step-down facilities, including one on 979 Quinnipiac Avenue that the presenter said serves about 79 adults at a time and occupies roughly 2,860 square feet while clients stabilize for “two weeks to a month or two.” Workforce Alliance’s director, Anne Henderson, asked for funds to expand a career-pathways program focused on creative-economy jobs and said the request would support paid internships and one-on-one mentoring. Another presenter asked the committee to consider roughly $450,000 for a neighborhood housing-and-support continuum and an additional $75,000 for economic development programming.

Food providers described sharp demand. Jack Gillette of Loaves and Fishes said the volunteer-run program has been open “every Saturday, every single Saturday, but 2 that had snow on,” and that the group’s in-kind value per distribution is about $70. Members of the Sanctuary Kitchen/Residence Kitchen and other pantry operators described increasing meal volumes; one presenter said their program served more than 86,000 meals last year, a 23% increase over the prior year.

United Way of Greater New Haven’s Kelly Fitzgerald requested city support for SNAP outreach and community-health-worker positions to connect pantry visitors with federal benefits and other services, saying, “we're really committed to providing additional support to families that are going to pantries.” Gather (a community farm and youth program) requested two grants — about $36,700 for youth environmental and skills programming and $20,000 for farm infrastructure and production expansion.

Committee members asked presenters clarifying questions about program scale, budgets and outcome tracking. For example, one committee member asked about the projected cost of the ophthalmology equipment for a health-center project; the presenter said the full cost exceeds the $20,000 requested and that the plan was to start small in the first academic year. Members also asked how many participants career-readiness cohorts would serve; Workforce Alliance replied that a typical cohort would include about 20–25 students and that the program is intended to remain free for public-school participants.

Public comment on the funding proposals was closed by voice vote during the meeting; the committee did not record final grant awards or detailed allocation decisions at the session. Committee members thanked presenters and said allocations would be decided in a later budget or grant-review process tied to the city’s consolidated-plan submission to HUD.

The meeting began with the stated agenda item of preparing the 2025 Consolidated Plan, HOPWA and ESG submissions to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and concluded with committee discussion and follow-up questions for presenters. No formal awards were announced at the April 29 meeting.