Palm Bay approves HUD action plan for FY 2025-26 after debate over funding for aging services

Palm Bay City Council approved the city's FY 2025-26 action plan for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Program funds on June 16 after a split vote and a narrowly defeated amendment to reallocate funding to a local aging services nonprofit.

The action plan is the city's application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for program-year funding covering Oct. 1, 2025 through Sept. 30, 2026. Denise Carter, the city's grants manager, told council the plan identifies the projects the city will carry out with CDBG and HOME dollars and that HUD warned the city to meet the plan deadline or risk losing CDBG funding.

Carter stressed HUD monitoring expectations and documentation requirements for subrecipients. She said Catholic Charities, a proposed subrecipient for emergency housing assistance, passed a June 18 monitoring visit with no findings and that the agency records identifications and inputs assisted persons into the Homeless Management Information System, a requirement for HUD-funded housing assistance.

A council amendment proposed reallocating $35,000 from Catholic Charities to Aging Matters in Brevard County. Tom Camden, president and CEO of Aging Matters, and other supporters argued the smaller organization serves seniors with home-delivery meals and housing-rehabilitation needs that are time-sensitive; Camden told council his agency has waiting lists and had a recent veto that reduced county funding.

Councilman Langdon moved the reallocation; the motion failed on a 3-2 voice/roll-call sequence. The council then voted to approve the action plan as presented. In a roll call the board recorded Deputy Mayor Jaffe, Councilman Johnson and Mayor Medina voting to adopt the action plan and Councilman Hammer and Councilman Langevin voting no; the measure passed 3-2.

What was at stake: Denise Carter reminded council that HUD published CPD Notice 25-02 and that failure to file the action plan on schedule (the city's deadline cited in the agenda materials) could result in automatic loss of CDBG funds. Carter also described a pending question about using some remaining Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds for public-services grants and said staff would issue a future request for proposals if that becomes possible.

Subrecipient oversight: Catholic Charities representatives attended the meeting and described their intake procedures in response to council questions about serving undocumented persons. Gary Tester, president of Catholic Charities of Central Florida, said the agency must verify legal status for most housing grants and that they operate a separate food program that is available without immigration-status questions. Tester said, "We provide a variety of ministries or services to people in need... we have a process we follow to make sure that people who are making a request... qualify for that request."

Funding details and corrections: Staff noted one correction raised at the meeting: an item listed as "three apartments" in an earlier packet was clarified to be owner-occupied housing rehabilitation for seniors with the same award amount ($169,423) for Community of Hope; staff said the legislative memo reflected the correct text and the separate list had not been updated.

Outcome and next steps: The council adopted the action plan by a 3-2 vote; staff will submit the plan to HUD and proceed with subrecipient contracting and any required monitoring. Staff also said they would pursue other internal options (a future RFP using transferred Neighborhood Stabilization funds) to provide additional opportunities for organizations to compete for CDBG/HOME subawards.