2026 CDBG Funding Priorities Public Hearing – July 21, 2025
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2026 CDBG Funding Priorities Public Hearing – July 21, 2025
Note: The transcript of the hearing indicates the meeting took place on July 18th, while the provided metadata states July 21, 2025. This summary uses the provided date.
The Community Development Administration (CDA) held a public hearing to present and gather input on funding priorities for the 2026 program year of the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) entitlement program, a HUD-funded initiative. The hearing, held in a hybrid format at 1520 Market Street, Suite 2000, St. Louis, and via Zoom, featured presentations by Rashonda Alexander, Chief Compliance Officer, and Tom, Public Information Officer. The session outlined CDA's role, the CDBG program, citizen participation processes, and high-priority funding areas for FY26.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Bob Slay of Jean Slay's Boys and Girls Club, a current CDBG sub-recipient, offered to collaborate with prospective applicants on reporting requirements and other questions.
- Online attendees submitted questions via chat and Q&A, including inquiries about:
- Whether a nonprofit can submit applications for more than one project (answered yes).
- Whether free legal services for small businesses and nonprofits fit within CDA's funding priorities (answered yes, as a CDBG-eligible activity).
- How tornado recovery funds would be categorized (depends on application; categories include low-moderate income, slum/blight, urgent need).
- The amount of funding available for 2026 (to be disclosed in the RFP on August 1).
- Reporting requirements for grantees (not specified in RFP; some training will cover best practices).
- Availability of videos for first-time applicants (no step-by-step video, but past training slides and upcoming webinar are available).
- Types of previously funded projects (referenced impact report and news announcements for examples).
Discussion Items
- CDA Overview: CDA administers federal, state, and local funds, founded in 1974. Operational divisions include fiscal, compliance, and construction/housing.
- CDBG Program: Three national objectives: benefit low/moderate-income persons, elimination of slum/blight, and urgent need. Eligible activities include public services, economic development, public improvements/facilities, and housing.
- FY26 High Priorities:
- Economic development (small businesses, job creation, microenterprise assistance, historic preservation, property rehabilitation).
- Youth (early education, after-school programs, recreational activities for low/moderate-income families).
- Tornado recovery (temporary shelter, home repairs, mental health/legal services, case management).
- Other priorities: planning, homelessness outreach, emergency shelter, public facilities, and administration capacity building.
- Public Services Cap: 19% of HUD funding is allocated to public services; CDA is seeking HUD designation of additional Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy Areas (NRSAs) to remove this cap. Four proposed NRSAs: Martin Luther King Boulevard Corridor, North NRSA (Penrose, O'Fallon, College Hill), and Southeast NRSA.
- Citizen Participation Process: Timeline posted July 3; first public hearing July 18 (per transcript); second hearing and best practices webinar scheduled for August 15; RFP release August 1; application deadline September 5 at 4:00 PM via Salesforce grants management portal.
- New Grants Management System: Transitioning to Salesforce-based portal; improvements ongoing.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes or decisions were taken; the hearing was informational and part of the required public participation process.
- Next steps: RFP published August 1, 2025; best practices webinar August 15; applications due September 5, 2025. All materials and updates will be posted on CDA's website and newsletter.
- Priorities established through planning process will guide FY26 CDBG funding allocations.
Meeting Transcript
Welcome to CDA's public hearing for our 2026 program year for uh C priorities. So I'll public information officer here at CDA. And today my best in charge of our audio visual. Okay and presenting we have our uh chief compliance officer or director of compliance, Rashonda Alexander. Okay. Welcome to our 2026 program year funding priority announcement for the community development block grant, which is a HUD funded entitlement program. Today is July 18th, and it's our first public hearing. So let's tell you just a little bit about CDA. We'll do the next slide. CDA serves as the clearinghouse of a variety of federal funds. Specifically, what we're talking about today is a HUD funded program. We administer state and local funds as well. We were founded in 1974 by to administer housing and uh community development funds by a consolidation of the planning commission and then the Office of Business Development Beautification and Model Cities Corporation. Can you guys hear me okay out here? Okay, great. Thanks. All right. And basically, we have three tenants uh to empower, develop, and transform the city of St. Louis through Economic Justice Action Plan. Next slide. We have three operational divisions, our fiscal compliance and construction team. Our fiscal team is a group of accountants and fiscal directors who report and submit pay requests to our controller's office and financial reports to the Treasury and to HUD. We have our compliance division of grant administrators who draft outputs, criteria, and reporting forms for CDA and our partners. And we have our construction and housing team of analysts and engineers who manage our housing production and home repair programs as well as public improvement and other miscellaneous construction activities. Next slide, please. One of our team members made this beautiful flowchart. In essence, when people ask now more than ever, what is CDA? Initially, I just say we fund your funders for the most part. So you will see in this funding chart, CDA is in the middle, and we fund partners like SLDC or Covenant House, the Regional Arts Commission, and others listed on this slide, but it's by way of federal funding, which is on top of this flowchart. HUD is a focus today because we are administering through this public hearing for the fiscal year of 26 CDBG Community Development Block Grant Funds. Next slide, please. Not only with CDBG funds, but also with state and local fiscal recovery funds. And this is a list of some of the work that we did compiled over the year. I won't belabor you with going through all of these, but you can find it on CDA's website, which Tom will tell you about at the end of this PowerPoint and also if you're here and then want to take a moment to grab the QR code to get the CDA 2020 through 24 impact report. You can find this and more information in the detailed report. Next slide. Today we're going to go over the CDBG entitlement program. We're going to talk about citizen participation, which this is a part of that process with public hearing. We're going to tell you about the priorities for the fiscal year 26. And then if you have any comments or questions. We posted the timeline at the beginning of July on the 3rd. Today is the 18th. You can find this timeline on CDA's website. And essentially the most important aspect of this is probably the RFP. And the RFP will be published on August the 1st. You can find that on the website as well. And a link will be in the CDA newsletter. If you haven't signed up for it, please do because that's a way to get all information CDA related to funding and other announcements. The opportunity to be included in the action plan process prior to us funding. We will be administering community development block grant funds for this cycle.
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