Palm Beach County reviews $9.3 million HUD action plan as Pahokee city manager details response to displaced residents

At a Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners workshop, staff reviewed the draft 2026–27 HUD annual action plan and recommended allocations for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership (HOME) and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) funding ahead of a July 7 final board action and an Aug. 15 federal submission deadline. The county’s preliminary totals are roughly $6,500,000 for CDBG (about $68,000 lower than the prior year), $2,200,000 for HOME (down about $53,000) and $580,000 for ESG (about a 2% increase), for a combined allocation of approximately $9,315,000.

The plan lays out distribution rules and program priorities. Staff said CDBG program rules allow up to 15% for public services and 12% for economic development, with 17% allocated for participating municipalities and about 30% for county capital projects. The presentation identified Legal Aid and Vida Nova among the top scorers in this year’s competitive public-services selection, and listed other recommended recipients including Adopt-A-Family, Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, Florence Fuller Child Development Center and The Lord’s Place.

"HUD recently provided us with the final allocation of numbers," Jonathan Brown, deputy county administrator, told the board, saying the department received the updated figures after the agenda packet was prepared. He noted federal allocation formulas can cause modest year-to-year shifts.

Commissioners pressed staff on administrative costs and procurement. Several members said the county should reduce administration charges where possible. "Our cost should be less than 20% ... 10% is about the number we should be at, not 20," Commissioner Marino said, urging staff to pare back overhead so more funds flow to programmatic uses. Staff replied that HUD allows up to 20% for administration and that unused administrative dollars are often rolled into programmatic activities in later years; they also explained how CDBG admin can be used to document and bill staff time for eligible activities.

Board members also questioned the use of longstanding technical-assistance vendors, including Inclusify (formerly the Black Business Investment Corp.) and the TED Center. "Can we compete?" Commissioner Flores asked; Housing & Economic Development staff said yes, and that the department can run an RFP for those services in future cycles but that a competitive process started now would not yield recommendations before the July submission deadline and would require an amendment to the action plan later if the board directed a change.

The workshop also included a local-government update after staff and the mayor noted a recent code-enforcement incident in Pahokee. Brenda Bryant, the newly appointed city manager of Pahokee, addressed the board about the property at 169 Adams Place (the Parker Building) and the displacement of 40 families. Bryant said the city is finalizing a comprehensive timeline of past actions, strengthening internal systems, coordinating across code enforcement, building, planning and zoning, and updating ordinances to give the special magistrate more authority to act quickly on unsafe structures. "The city of Pahokee is treating this matter with the highest level of urgency," Bryant said, and added that the city is "preparing to pursue all available legal remedies against the property owner to the extent permitted by law." Mayor Baxter confirmed, "just confirming that all 40 families have been rehomed."

Staff told the board they will present a final draft of the annual action plan on July 7 and that the county must submit the plan to HUD by Aug. 15. The department said it will return with a detailed breakdown of competitive NOFO awards and how county-requested capital projects are proposed to be funded, and that amendments during the fiscal year remain a typical mechanism to allocate surplus funds.