Residents and Fourth Ward advocates press council during consolidated-plan hearing for CDBG funding and markers

City staff presented the draft 2026–2030 consolidated plan and the 2025–26 annual action plan and opened a public hearing where several speakers asked the council to prioritize Fourth Ward preservation and to add funding for fair-housing work and deeply affordable housing.

Nicholas Dula of Housing and Neighborhoods summarized the federal programs the city uses in the consolidated plan: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships, and the Emergency Solutions Grant. He told the council the five-year consolidated-plan draft projects approximately $28.7 million in CDBG resources over five years (including one Section 108 loan allocation), roughly $7 million in HOME funding and about $1.2 million in ESG funding for the period. Dula said the city also planned to supplement federal dollars with local funding from the designated affordable-housing fund and recently authorized bond proceeds.

During the public-comment portion, Fourth Ward advocates urged the council to include neighborhood-specific investments in the consolidated plan and to use CDBG funds for signage and historic recognition. Octavia Rainey, speaking for the Fourth Ward Historical Association, said the group will ask for $300,000 in CDBG funding to “get started” on a seven-year plan of place-making and preservation; she emphasized the neighborhood’s displacement history and requested that the city prioritize the request when the consolidated plan and associated actions are finalized.

Valerie Smith, a Fourth Ward resident, described the neighborhood’s cultural history and said it should be commemorated: “We want to hold on to those memories,” she said, calling for a memorialization that recognizes churches, businesses and family life that she said helped shape the city.

Other speakers focused on housing elsewhere in the plan. Dakiya Davis, who said she grew up in Fourth Ward, asked the council to designate the neighborhood as a historic district, install signage and support the neighborhood’s annual reunion and programs. Jonathan Kramer raised a separate issue about neighborhood parking near NC State and asked transportation staff to follow up about permit eligibility for multi-unit buildings on Garden Place.

On process, Dula said staff hosted 38 outreach events and received about 584 survey responses and 533 in-person or event participants during the planning period. He said staff had published the draft plan for 30 days of public comment and would return to council with a final plan for adoption.

Speakers also urged the council to fund fair-housing work and to target resources for people at the deepest levels of need (0–30% of area median income), points staff said would be part of program prioritization during final plan adoption.

The public hearing was closed after nine registered speakers; staff said they would return with a final, council-adoptable plan at a later meeting.