Evansville releases draft 2025–2029 consolidated plan and 2025 action plan; 30-day public comment open

Haley Hale, community development coordinator for the Department of Metropolitan Development, presented the City of Evansville’s draft 2025–2029 consolidated plan and the city’s 2025 action plan and opened a 30-day public comment period on the documents.

“The consolidated plan is essentially the plan that the city puts out for use of the city's CDBG, ESG, and HOME funds over the next five years,” Hale said, summarizing the documents’ purpose.

The consolidated plan sets priorities and measurable goals for federally funded housing and community-development activity and informs the allocation of three HUD formula grants: the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) and HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME). The city said the 2020–2024 plan period ends June 30, 2025, and the draft consolidated plan and the 2025 action plan will be submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) on July 12, 2025. Public comments are being accepted through July 5, 2025.

Hale described data sources that informed the plan: an assessment of fair housing (AFH), a community needs assessment, a housing needs assessment (HNA) and the Commission on Homelessness’s strategic plan, Destination Home. The city noted that a recent executive order ended the federal requirement to include a detailed AFH report but that Evansville is still required to certify that it is affirmatively…