Covington will host a public hearing next Tuesday, June 11, at the meeting of the Board of Commissioners. Residents will be able to share their thoughts on how the city should spend federal money to help people find housing and other public programs.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Covington City Hall on Pike Street and is open to the public.
Specifically, the hearing will focus on two federal programs: the Community Development Block Grant, or CDBG, and the HOME Investment Partnerships Program. The programs operate on five-year consolidated plans; the current plan will end in 2025. As a result, the city is legally required to solicit public feedback before it set about instituting the new plan. The city has, in fact, already held open forums on the program.
The CDBG program is the more flexible of the two programs and has been used in the past to fund economic development initiatives, infrastructure repairs, crime prevention programs as well as literacy initiatives.
The HOME program is more narrowly focused on housing and has been used to fund rental assistance programs, home repair programs, housing nonprofits and, most notably, the local HOME Consortium, which provides forgivable loans to qualifying home buyers. Covington, Independence, Erlanger, Florence, Ludlow, Newport, Bellevue and Dayton are member cities in the consortium.
Read the summary for the action plan in its current state and view the city’s federal grants webpage at the links below.
