Community Development Corporation Funding

At a glance

Built from an automatic speech-to-text transcript of the October 22, 2026 hearing; no minutes are posted.

What: How Cleveland funds its community development corporations (CDCs) with CDBG, and complaints about delays, performance and the limits on what CDCs can be paid for.
Where it stands: Discussed at the October 22 hearing. The department plans to fully fund CDCs for 2026 and 2027 as non-competitive subrecipients with an application, and says CDBG is the wrong fund for the work CDCs actually do.

Members said CDC contracts and payments arrive far too slowly, starving small organizations, and that CDC performance varies by ward; some wards have no CDC coverage.
Staff said CDBG funds CDC staffing, not the outcomes members care about, and promised clearer expectations, technical assistance, and a running request for proposals for home repair on top of baseline CDC support.
Several members linked the question to the general-fund swap legislation, which they said would free CDC funding from federal rules.

2026-10-22 - Development, Planning and Sustainability Committee - Members and staff discussed contract delays, CDC performance, and the plan to fully fund CDCs for 2026 and 2027.