Hello, my name is Haley Hale, and this is the 2026th Annual Action Plan presentation.

It's 3 o'clock on April 28th, 2026.

The purpose of this meeting is to outline the city's 2026 action plan, which will be submitted to HUD this spring.

Evansville applies for grant funds from the U.S.

Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD for community development block grant, also known as CDBG, Emergency Solutions Grant, also known as ESG, and the Home Investment Partnerships Program, also known as Home, through an annual grant allocation and action plan process.

Our 2026 annual action plan is part of the second program year from the City of Evansville's 2025 through 2029 consolidated plan period.

The time period for the 2026 annual action plan is July 1st, 2026 to June 30th of 2027.

We're currently in the 2025 program year, and we are having this presentation to discuss the upcoming program year of program year 2026.

Again, that's July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2027.

Our action plan is typically due to HUD in May of each year, which is subject to an agreement to be executed between the City of Evansville and HUD to receive their federal funding.

But unfortunately, due to delays receiving our HUD allocation agreements this year, the City of Evansville's process has also experienced a delay.

So HUD has waived our usual deadline to allow for further time to complete the action plan preparations.

And for program year 2026, our action plan is due on June 1st, 2026 rather than mid-May.

The timeline that led us up to where we are currently towards the action plan is that in June of 2025, we published a public notification about our 2026 CDBG and ESG grant proposal training.

Community development staff provides a week-long training to sub-recipients applying for grant funds from the City of Evansville for the 2026 plan year.

It's a mandatory training which gives agencies proper training required to effectively utilize CDBG and ESG funds.

Topics addressed at the presentation include eligible activities, public service and non-public service projects, national objectives, monthly monitoring requirements, and how to complete project applications.

Then in July of 2025, those CDBG and ESG proposal templates are made available, and community development specialists met with any interested agencies to review their proposals for eligibility and to assist them with submitt those proposals.

In August 2025, those proposals were due.

And we also published a notification regarding the availability of home grant proposals for program year 2026.

Those templates were made available in August.

And then in September and October of 2025, our DMD housing administrator met with any interested agencies to complete home training, review the potential project proposals, and otherwise assist in their submission process.

Home proposals were due in October.

They must serve low to moderate income people, must serve to eliminate or reduce slum and blight, or must be for the purpose of addressing an urgent need.

The most common form of proposal and program or project that we receive is to serve low and moderate income people, and that can be done in four different ways.

The project can be of area benefit, meaning it serves a limited geographic region where it's understood that the majority of those served would be low and moderate income people, such as within low and moderate income census tracts in Evansville.

Most commonly we see programs and projects of the limited clientele project type.

This means that any programs that operate with federal funds must be able to show that the majority of those served are LMI people, and they do that by directly obtaining income information and tracking that within their target populations.

There's also low and moderate housing benefit, which are those projects that are specifically for the creation or preservation of affordable housing.

And then lastly, there are job creation and retention type activities, which are more focused on maintaining jobs that are specifically targeted to low and moderate income people.

For slum and blight, which is a less common but somewhat occurring activity objective, as you'll see later on.

Projects can either be done on a spot basis or an area basis.

So again, it can have a very limited scope for a particular property or set of properties, or it can be on a wide-scale geographic area basis, as long as it can be established that the majority of those served are low and moderate income individuals or families.

We currently do not have any urgent need proposals to be considered.

But those are usually in regard to emergencies that may occur in which the city might receive special funds or anything like that.

So continuing on the timeline for this current action plan, once proposals are submitted, we have a three-tier process for allocating city anticipated HUD funds.

The first step is that Citizens Advisory Committee or CAC, which is comprised of five to seven members, is the first step.

These members are appointed by the mayor, and the CAC reviews any public service grant proposals to make recommendations for funding to the mayor.

In the second step, the mayor makes her recommendations to city council based on the feedback she received from CAC.

And in the last step, City Council has the final authority to allocate the C DBG, ESG, and home funds.

City Council will ratify the action plan budget.

In January of 2026, our CAC heard presentations from the funding applicants.

Each agency was given about two minutes to present proposals, followed by question and answer session with CAC members.

Then in February of 2026, CAC deliberates and makes budgetary recommendations, considering both what was submitted in proposal materials and the agency's presentations.

In April 2026, earlier this month, HUD notified the city of its ESG, CDBG, and home allocation amounts, and the mayor has made recommendations which have been provided to City Council.

Our current next steps to complete the grant allocation process would be that city council members will review those grant proposals and the mayor's recommendations.

Agencies are also given a final opportunity to discuss their programs and answer any questions before council members at a public meeting, which is scheduled for May 18th.

Council will vote to finalize the federal grant budget for the 2026 program year on June 8th, 2026.

It's important to note that this task in the grant process is not complete.

The first reading of the budget would occur on May 11th, 2026, and the final reading and ratification of the action plan again is going to be on June 8th, 2026.

This is past the deadline that HUD is established for the city to submit its action plan.

Again, that deadline was June 1st, 2026.

So the city will be requesting additional time and extension to allow for the grant process to be completed, including a public review period in order to submit the action plan.

The City of Evansville may not submit its annual action plan to HUD until public notification is provided for city residents.

In part, that is the reason that this presentation is happening right now.

The HUD federal funding awards were announced on April 6th of 2026 this year, and as of the date of this presentation, City Council has not fully passed a budget for subrecipient allocations to projects and programs in Evansville.

So it's important to note that in the next few slides as we discuss the proposals and their estimated accomplishments, they are just estimations at this point.

Individual allocation amounts are projected based on what is currently being recommended by the mayor for these programs and activities.

Another thing to note is that the estimated number of clients served is can is written as an unduplicated number, meaning that services to the same person or household will not count more than once in the same month or over the same program year.

Some a lot of programs operate in a manner where the same client or family may return over multiple months to receive the same service for the purposes of this presentation and the information that were later be submitted to HUD.

We are only interested in counting those clients one time.

So that will be the unduplicated number.

The ESG program provides funding to engage homeless individuals and families living on the street, improve the number and quality of emergency shelters for homeless individuals and families, help operate those shelters, provide essential services to shelter residents, rapidly rehouse any homeless individuals and families, and prevent families and individuals from becoming homeless.

ESG funds may be used for five program components.

Those are street outreach, emergency, excuse me, emergency shelter, homeless prevention, rapid rehousing assistance, and homeless management information system, or HMIS.

All recipients must consult with the continuum of care that operates within our jurisdiction to determine how to allocate ESG funds.

So in 2026, the following programs are recommended for funding.

Albion's domestic violence shelter in the amount of 20,000 is estimated to shelter 250 people.

Aurora's coordinated entry at $16,000 is estimated to intake 360 homeless and at-risk individuals and families.

The ECHO's House of Bread and Peace Sheltering the Homeless will receive 16,000 and is projected to serve 168 with shelter.

Evansville Rescue Missions Day Shelter would receive 10,000 and shelter 130.

Ozanam Family Shelter, emergency shelter operations would receive $15,963 and shelter 450.

United Caring Service Day Shelter to receive 21,000 and shelter 150 people.

United Caring Services Ruth House would receive 10,000 and serve 200 with shelter.

And YWCA's residential services would receive 21,000 and shelter 150.

So the total to receive what is collectively known as homeless services, that is shelter and aurora's coordinated entry would be 100 or sorry, 1,858 served, with a total of 129,963 of ESG allocated.

The remainder of the ESG allocation goes toward rapid rehousing, which is an Aurora program.

It will receive $88,470 and provide subsidies to approximately 40 individuals.

Next is the community development block grant fund.

Our CDBG allocation for 2026, including program income that we brought in from prior program years, will be 2,494,321.

Our community development block grant entitlement program provides annual grants on a formula basis to entitled cities and counties that develop urban communities by providing decent housing, suitable living environments, and expanding economic opportunities, principally for low and moderate income people.

That is those that are 80% of the area median income or lower.

Eligibility for participation is based on population data provided by the U.S.

Census Bureau and Metropolitan Area delineations that are published by the Office of Management and Budget.

CDBG is divided into two further categories for consideration, that is public service activities and non-public service activities.

Beginning with the public service CDBG allocations anticipated.

These are divided up into various subcategories for organizational purposes.

We'll start with child care services, which are those programs that generally serve ages 13 and under.

Two applications were received Boys and Girls Club, Fulton Square, and Boys and Girls Club service to girls.

Fulton Square is projected to receive $15,000 and serve 220.

While service to girls will receive 14,000 and serve 345.

This puts the total for child care services at $29,000 and 665 children and families to be served.

The next category is crisis intervention.

These are programs which serves specific populations that are considered high need or at risk.

So this includes ARC's Safe Haven Crisis Child Care program, which is projected to receive 32,000 and serve $1,020 at-risk children.

This is typically children in foster care or involved with Department of Child Services.

So they are presumed to be low and moderate income regardless of their income level.

Aurora Inc.

Street Outreach Team is projected to receive $13,000 and serve $180 homeless and at risk individuals.

And St.

Vincent DePaul's crisis intervention is projected to receive $15,000 and serve $1,248 who are also at risk of homelessness.

Again, homeless and at risk homeless individuals are considered a presumed LMI category, and not much information is needed to confirm their income status.

They are presumed to be LMI.

So in the category of crisis intervention, that's a total of $60,000 of CDBG allocated with $2,448 to be served.

The next category is senior services, which are programs that serve those primarily ages 65 and older.

And programs which will be funded include SWERCA Meals on Wheels at $10,000 to serve $1,236 seniors.

And the Voices Ombudsman program, which is projected to receive $13,000 and serve 768 seniors.

The total for senior services then would be $23,000 and $2,04 seniors to be served.

The next category is food and nutrition.

These are things like leaning programs, food banks, and such that the primary focus is to distribute food.

We have CAPES Emergency Needs Pantry to receive $10,000 and serve $1,020 households.

Feed Evansville's Community Kitchen would receive $20,000 and serve approximately 4,000 households.

Tri-State Food Bank's Ending Hunger Program will receive $23,261 and serve $4,400 households.

Tri-State Food Bank's Mobile Pantry would receive $10,000 and serve an estimated 300 households.

So in the topic of food and nutrition, that's a total of $63,261 allocated and $9,720 to be served.

The next category is youth services.

These are programs which generally serve ages 13 to 19.

We have Dreams Center, Evansville.

Their promised Jacobsville program is scheduled to receive 10,000 and serve about 180 students.

UMYH's high school equivalency for at-risk youth will receive 15,000 and would serve 65 at-risk youth.

UMYH's truancy intervention for out-risk youth would receive 10,000 and serve 85.

YWCA Live Wires is to receive 30,000 and serve approximately 150 students.

So under youth services, the total would be $65,000 of CDBGA allocated with approximately 480 youth or students to be served.

The next two categories only have one submission each.

Health services, Vanderburg Health Department led testing for children under age seven is scheduled to receive 10,000 and serve approximately 780.

And under services for people with disabilities, the Evansville Association for the Blinds Low Vision program is scheduled to receive 10,000 and serve around 465 disabled individuals.

And then we have a other services category, which captures any programs that have combined functions.

For example, Meals on Wheels Meal Delivery to the Homebound serves both the senior and disabled populations and is a meal service.

Projected to serve around 350 people with $20,000 allocated.

Tri-State Food Bank Backpack Program is also another meal service and serves a wider range of children and youth from 5 to 17.

They're projected to serve 4,000 students with $20,000 allocated.

And YMCA's Center Point Energy program will receive $24,000 to serve ages 5 through 18 with various programs, and they're projected to serve $550.

So that is a total of $64,000 for other services with $4,900 to be served.

We're moving on to non-public service activities, starting with youth services.

We have Advanced Youth Build, which is a youth training program or youth employment program, and that is going to receive $50,000 and serve roughly 30.

Carver's After School Youth Program is scheduled to receive $45,000 and serve $45.

Memorial CDC's Fit for the Future program will receive $35,000 and serve $25.

Memorial CDC's Garden Market Program would receive $125,000 to serve $40.

Memorial CDC's Youth Development Program to receive $100,000 and serve $45.

Memorial CDC's Youth Employment Program would receive $200,000 and serve $45.

And United Methodist Youth Homes Life Skills for At-Risk Youth would receive $25,000 and serve $75.

So the total of youth non-public service allocations would be $580,000 and serve approximately $350 youth.

The next category is senior services, which has one application, Carver Senior Services.

The total would be $52,000 allocated and roughly $80 served.

Non-public service child care services include Carver AM Childcare at $67,000 to serve $115 children.

Carver PM Childcare at $73,000 would serve $35 children.

ECHO's Family Enrichment Center would receive $31,349 and serve 60 children.

This program is also a presumed benefit for homeless individuals, as the children typically served by the program are from formerly homeless families that are housed at places like Lucas Place that are permanent supportive housing.

Memorial CDC Child Care Ministries would receive $90,000 and serve approximately $55.

That is a total of $261,349 towards child care services with $325 to be served.

Next category is employment programs.

Evansville Association for the Blind Disabled Workers Program would receive $80,000 and serve approximately 55 disabled workers.

Memorial CDC Civic Journalism Program would receive $17,000 and serve approximately $36.

That is a total of $97,000 for employment employment programs that will serve $91 approximately people.

And in the other category, we have a family services coordinator case management type activity by Memorial CDC, which would serve 25 families and utilize about $15,000.

The next category, which is quite a large category of allocations in non-public service CDBG are our housing services.

We have ECHO Lucas Place Supportive Housing, we'll receive $50,000 and House $100.

CAPES Owner-Occupied Home Repair and Windows Program would receive $40,000 to do one whole home repair approximately.

Hope's Down Payment Assistance Program would provide 15 down payment assistance subsidies using $153,000 in CDBG.

Hope's housing counseling program would counsel $336 individuals or families with $40,000 of CDBG.

Memorial CDC's emergency home repair would receive $400,000 to complete approximately 15 home repairs estimated.

And Vanderberg Health Departments led remediation program will receive $15,000 and remediate approximately eight homes of lead.

That is a total of $698,000 towards housing type services.

The next category is neighborhood services.

These types of projects are funded as identified, and so their accomplishments will vary.

They're not currently identified at this time.

So those three categories are DMD's NRSA program to receive $150,000.

Currently, and those are the Jacobsville NRSA and the Center City NRSA.

So any targeted NRSA type activities within those areas could receive funding from this allocation line.

DMD's focused neighborhood development line receives $48,211.

And the public facilities and neighborhood park improvements line will receive $100,000.

Activities in this line are going to be typically more infrastructural, could include things like sidewalk repairs or improvements to public parks and things of that nature.

That is a total of $298,211 under neighborhood related services.

The next category is an in under admin and planning.

These type of activities do not directly serve low-and-moderate income people.

So they do not have projected accomplishments.

They are just funds that are necessary to administer C D BG ESG and home in the community.

This includes Aurora's Housing Vouchers Administration for $12,000.

ECO's Collective Action Network, also known as CAN and formerly known as the Promise Zone for $40,000.

The Human Relations Commission Fair Housing Outreach of $3,500.

DMD admin towards the Bowen Market Study and other professional consultants that receives $25,000.

And DMD admin of various smaller degrees would be $35,500 for a total admin of $116,000.

Then there are two miscellaneous activities.

It is DMD's disposition budget of $2,500 and the Building Commission code enforcement allocation of $50,000 for a total of $52,500 in those miscellaneous slum and flight related activities.

And then the final category of funds is the home allocation we will receive of $5,700, or sorry, $578,478.

Our home investment partnership program provides formula grants to states and localities in partnership with local nonprofit groups to fund a wide range of activities such as building, buying, or rehabilitating affordable housing for rent or homeownership, andor providing direct rental assistance to low-income people.

The home program is the largest federal block grant program that's used for affordable housing.

It provides funding to state and local governments for rental and home buyer housing development, home buyer down payment assistance, homeowner rehabilitation assistance, and tenant-based rental assistance.

Our home grant in 2026 includes $15,000 set aside for CHOTO operating.

CHOTA operating is divided evenly among the city's CHOTOs of Cape Hope and Memorial CDC.

So each will receive $5,000 to carry out some administrative community housing development organization activities.

Then there the largest category which will receive an allocation is the home buyer andor rental projects line.

This will receive $4,800, sorry, $486,478.42 cents.

Home projects are only funded at the time that they become shovel ready, which means that they are fully underwritten and ready to be to begin construction.

So we have a list of potential home project proposals that were submitted, but none of these will receive a specific allocation at this time.

Allocations will only be received when those projects have been proven to be ready, and then a separate finance ordinance is filed with City Council to further allocate home from there.

The next category is Aurora's tenant-based rental assistance program, which will receive 72,000 in home.

And the final category is DMD's home admin in the amount of $5,000.

And again, that totals the complete home allocation amount of $578,478 and 42 cents.

So some things to consider about these fundings, just as a recap.

For emergency solutions grant or ESG, the total of homeless services activities may not exceed a set amount of 129,963, but there is no cap associated with funding for rapid rehousing activities.

So as you'll see in this action plan, the city has maximized the amount that can be going towards homeless services, which is coordinated entry and shelters at 129,963, and then whatever remains after that goes towards rapid rehousing, which is done by Aurora.

For CDBG, the total of administration and planning activities cannot exceed 20% of the total allocation amount, and the total of any public service projects may not exceed 15% of the total grant amount.

So the amount for public services that is allocated is around $350,000 or so in order to remain within that regulatory threshold.

For home, they also have regulatory limitations.

Up to 5% of the home allocation has to be reserved for CHOTO operating expenses and are allocated to the CODOS that will have ongoing total reserve projects.

A total reserve project, in essence, is just an affordable housing type project that is carried out by a CHOTO, which is a community housing development organization with the city.

The home allocation for DMD's administrative activities cannot exceed 10% of its total allocation.

Housing development projects only receive an allocation once a project's determined to be shovel ready.

While potential home buyer rental projects are identified, funding is held in that general project account until the project's pre-development stage is complete.

A current draft of the 2026 action plan and a copy of this presentation will be found on the city website.

You can find that at Evansville.in.gov.

You'll go to View City Departments and specifically select Department of Metropolitan Development or DMD.

Go to the community development sub tab and then the topics of interest federal programs tab.

The hyperlink directly to that page is provided in this presentation, which is linked to this video.

Currently the action plan is not on the website, but it will be by the end of today in order to allow for 30 days of public comment.

So comments may be provided at this meeting, but they can also be provided outside of the meeting by contacting me.

I am again Haley Hale, DMD's community development coordinator.

My email is H Hale at Evansville.gov.

My phone number to reach me by at the office is 812 436 7808.

And the mailing address in general for Department of Metropolitan Development is Civic Center Complex Room 306 at 1 Northwest Martin Luther King Jr.

Boulevard in Evansville, Indiana, 47708.

Comments can be accepted for 30 days from today, meaning that on May 28th at 4.30, we will close the window for comments.

So if you do have comments, these are acceptable by email, phone call, visit to the office, any such way.

So please feel free to reach out and contact us should you have any questions or feedback, any suggestions about how our ESG, CDBG, and HUD funds may be utilized in the 2026 program year.

That concludes the presentation about the 2026 action plan.

Again, should you um have any questions, please contact Department of Metropolitan Development as the lead um as the lead department within the city for carrying out the action plan.

Thank you very much.