Pearland opens public hearing on $541,571 HUD CDBG allocation and flags homelessness as possible priority

Pearland City Council opened the first of two public hearings April 27 to begin planning the city's FY2027 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) action plan, with staff saying Pearland's entitlement allocation will be $541,571.

Joel, the city's presenter on the CDBG program, told council that CDBG is a flexible federal program that can fund housing, infrastructure, public services and nonprofit capacity-building. He said HUD's national objectives limit funds to activities that remove slum and blight, address urgent needs such as disaster response, or principally benefit low- and moderate-income (LMI) households; Joel said Pearland's recalculated LMI share is 42.5 percent and that HUD's 2025 income limits allow a family of four to earn up to $92,900 and still be eligible for some CDBG-supported services.

Council members asked how the allocation could be used.

"We can use it for roads and sidewalks if the project falls inside an eligible block group," Council Member Shavaria said. Joel confirmed sidewalks have been funded in past years and that road-related work can qualify under infrastructure projects if the target-area math supports eligibility.

Several council members raised homelessness as a potential priority. "Is there any way to leverage these CDBG funds to help with people who have been living in cars or using library facilities to get out of the heat?" Council Member Carbone asked. Joel said the program permits social-service investments within statutory limits and that the city could consider a modest allocation, but stressed the need to design an eligible activity that HUD would approve and to consider how to deliver services through subrecipients.

Joel also reviewed statutory budget limits: up to 15 percent of the allocation may pay for social services (about $81,235 on a $541,571 allocation) and program administration is capped (he cited roughly $108,000 based on the allocation). He noted that Pearland cannot spend CDBG funds outside city limits and that some block groups overlap non-jurisdictional areas, requiring adjustments to target-area math.

Councilmembers asked for follow-up data: requests included a three-year breakdown of administrative versus program spending, past target-area maps for trend comparison, and whether hospitals could share data to better identify needs among people released from care and later appearing in local homeless counts. Joel said staff would provide the requested information and bring a proposed spending plan to the next public hearing.

The public hearing was opened for testimony but no members of the public spoke on the record during the hearing segment. The council will hold the second CDBG public hearing later in the planning process, at which time staff expects to present recommended project proposals and allocations for FY2027.