Posted on Wednesday, 02.22.12
The formula used by U.S. Housing and Urban Development to determine economic development and social-service grants will hurt cities nationwide, but none were hit harder than those in Miami-Dade County.
Teacher Odelay Bermudes plays with 7-month-old Gustavo Castaneda in the
infant/toddlers area of Centro Mater in Miami. Two of Florida's largest
cities, Miami and Hialeah, are among municipalities facing such severe
cuts in federal funding for social services that meals to the elderly
and after school programs for the poor are in grave peril if the funds
aren't restored, officials say.
Interactive map: Biggest grant losers in 2012
Cities and counties across the nation are losing $356 trillion in direct federal funding for social services in fiscal year 2012 from the Community Development Block Grant fund program, known as CDBG.
Cities and counties across the nation are losing $356 trillion in direct federal funding for social services in fiscal year 2012 from the Community Development Block Grant fund program, known as CDBG.
By CHARLES RABIN AND CHRISTINA VEIGA
crabin@MiamiHerald.com
Miami-Dade County and its largest cities — including Hialeah,
Miami Beach, Miami and North Miami — are among the nation’s top losers
in federal funding for social services, meaning meals for the elderly
and afterschool programs for kids face dramatic cutbacks that will hurt
thousands of residents.
Hialeah leads the nation: It will receive $1.8 million less in fiscal year 2012 than it did in 2011 from the Community Development Block Grant fund program, known as CDBG, a major source of direct federal dollars. About half of its CDBG money will be lost.
“Children and seniors will be affected,’’ predicted Mayor Carlos Hernandez, who said his city has no way to fill the gap.
North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre, whose city lost 33 percent of its funding, hasn’t come up with a plan to alleviate the pain. “It affects the most vulnerable of our society,” he said.
Miami-Dade County and the four cities comprise one-sixth of the 30 cities and counties suffering the greatest cuts nationwide, according to numbers recently released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which distributes CDBG funds.
Part of the reason: A funding formula that puts great emphasis on the number of housing units available for an area’s population. That hurt here, because 2010 Census figures suggested that enough new residences were built during the real estate boom to significantly decrease the number of “overcrowded’’ housing units.
But the methodology is flawed, South Florida leaders say, because poor people could not afford to move into the ritzy condos and homes that were built in Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah, North Miami and unincorporated Miami-Dade over the past decade.
“We are being punished because of the housing boom,” said Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado. “But the new homes were not for poor people.’’
The 2010 Census reported 20,866 people in the four cities and unincorporated Miami-Dade lived in overcrowded residences. The 2000 Census reported 248,578 — more than 10 times larger.
The funding cuts stemmed in part from the budget standoff in Washington D.C. last year, when more than $1 billion was slashed from CDBG funding. Nationally, Sunbelt states like California and Florida are seeing the most severe reductions.
The breakdown: Hialeah was slashed to $2 million, a drop of 47 percent. Miami Beach lost 42 percent of its funding, down to $910,000. Miami-Dade government plummeted 35 percent to $10.6 million. Miami dropped 34 percent to $4.9 million. And North Miami was cut 33 percent to $744,000.
Broward County government lost 31 percent, and Coral Springs, Hollywood, Margate and Sunrise also were cut.
Block grants were created in the early ‘70s to help cities deal with insufficient local revenues.
At Miami City Hall Thursday morning, in front of hundreds of elderly people who count on the federal assistance for food and transportation, Mayor Regalado will bemoan his cash-strapped city’s plight during a press conference. The mayor hopes to get the ear of President Barack Obama, who will be across town at the University of Miami talking about the improving U.S. economy while campaigning for reelection.
The president, with an executive order, has the ability to leave Miami’s CBDG funding at 2011 levels. But that would require a Census Bureau finding that the 2010 count was flawed, as the city contends, and that a recount is necessary.
Miami formally challenged the census figures in April, saying the city’s population is closer to 500,000 than 400,000. The city blames the low count on chronically under-reported undocumented immigrants and the inability of census counters to get past security guards in the city’s towering condos.
The city also has sponsors in the U.S. House and Senate pushing sister bills that would increase the percentage of CDBG money that can go toward social service. The formula HUD now uses mandates that cities use 85 percent for economic development, and the remaining 15 percent for social services. The bills would hike the 15 percent to 25 percent, taking the difference from the economic development side.
“It’s just going to give the flexibility to local governments,” said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, who is pushing the bill. “It’s a flawed formula. It just doesn’t make any sense in a logical world.”
HUD Spokesman Jerry Brown said the agency understands how critical the social-service and economic development programs are to South Florida communities.
“We think we did as well as we could,’’ he said. “Unfortunately, that’s what happens during tight budget times.”
Local governments are grappling in different way with the bad news.
Miami-Dade County, which lost $5.7 million, will cut $60,000 from the individual accounts of all 13 commissioners, each of whom was permitted to dole out $200,000 a year in CBDG funds. Commissioners will discuss taking other actions in March.
In Miami Beach, where funding dropped by about $660,000, rehabilitation projects underway on affordable housing units could face delays, said city spokeswoman Nannette Rodriguez.
At the Centro Mater center in Little Havana on Wednesday, it was evident just how the social-service cuts would sting. Every day more than 500 kids attend daycare or an after-school program there. Part of the complex is a converted apartment, where tiny babies take lengthy afternoon naps in new cribs. On Wednesday, 4-year-old Wifredo was celebrating his birthday and eating pizza with about 15 friends, a giant Mickey Mouse balloon tied to his chair.
Administrator Madelyn Rodriguez-Llanes said the cuts likely mean some of the center’s 71 workers will have to leave, and the number of kids receiving services could be whittled.
“If you have kids you have to feed them. We can’t cut meals, that’s not an option,” she said. “It means a direct impact on the population here, less services and employees for our people.”
In Hialeah, the 47-percent cut will drop the city back to funding levels it hasn’t seen since 1977. Frederick Marinelli, the city’s director of grants and human services, said organizations will have to run on leaner budgets while trying to “keep the people-oriented programs intact.” Some of the cuts could come from transportation services, literacy programs, and training and counseling for the handicapped.
Hialeah’s Citrus Health Network, which runs two clinics that provide medical services for about 4,000 uninsured patients, will see its $100,000 subsidy slashed to about $50,000.
“It will just make it a lot more difficult to serve the uninsured,” said Olga Golik, who directs housing and advocacy.
Meanwhile, Ileana Arriola, 62, said she dragged herself to the Allapattah Community Action Center on Tuesday, despite having a cold, because she knew she could get a hot meal.
“I went to the center so I wouldn’t get depressed,” Arriola said Wednesday, as about a dozen folks played dominoes outside. “It’s like they’re taking away our home and our right to live here.’’
Miami Herald staff writers David Smiley, Martha Brannigan and Paradise Ashfar contributed to this report.
Hialeah leads the nation: It will receive $1.8 million less in fiscal year 2012 than it did in 2011 from the Community Development Block Grant fund program, known as CDBG, a major source of direct federal dollars. About half of its CDBG money will be lost.
“Children and seniors will be affected,’’ predicted Mayor Carlos Hernandez, who said his city has no way to fill the gap.
North Miami Mayor Andre Pierre, whose city lost 33 percent of its funding, hasn’t come up with a plan to alleviate the pain. “It affects the most vulnerable of our society,” he said.
Miami-Dade County and the four cities comprise one-sixth of the 30 cities and counties suffering the greatest cuts nationwide, according to numbers recently released by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which distributes CDBG funds.
Part of the reason: A funding formula that puts great emphasis on the number of housing units available for an area’s population. That hurt here, because 2010 Census figures suggested that enough new residences were built during the real estate boom to significantly decrease the number of “overcrowded’’ housing units.
But the methodology is flawed, South Florida leaders say, because poor people could not afford to move into the ritzy condos and homes that were built in Miami, Miami Beach, Hialeah, North Miami and unincorporated Miami-Dade over the past decade.
“We are being punished because of the housing boom,” said Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado. “But the new homes were not for poor people.’’
The 2010 Census reported 20,866 people in the four cities and unincorporated Miami-Dade lived in overcrowded residences. The 2000 Census reported 248,578 — more than 10 times larger.
The funding cuts stemmed in part from the budget standoff in Washington D.C. last year, when more than $1 billion was slashed from CDBG funding. Nationally, Sunbelt states like California and Florida are seeing the most severe reductions.
The breakdown: Hialeah was slashed to $2 million, a drop of 47 percent. Miami Beach lost 42 percent of its funding, down to $910,000. Miami-Dade government plummeted 35 percent to $10.6 million. Miami dropped 34 percent to $4.9 million. And North Miami was cut 33 percent to $744,000.
Broward County government lost 31 percent, and Coral Springs, Hollywood, Margate and Sunrise also were cut.
Block grants were created in the early ‘70s to help cities deal with insufficient local revenues.
At Miami City Hall Thursday morning, in front of hundreds of elderly people who count on the federal assistance for food and transportation, Mayor Regalado will bemoan his cash-strapped city’s plight during a press conference. The mayor hopes to get the ear of President Barack Obama, who will be across town at the University of Miami talking about the improving U.S. economy while campaigning for reelection.
The president, with an executive order, has the ability to leave Miami’s CBDG funding at 2011 levels. But that would require a Census Bureau finding that the 2010 count was flawed, as the city contends, and that a recount is necessary.
Miami formally challenged the census figures in April, saying the city’s population is closer to 500,000 than 400,000. The city blames the low count on chronically under-reported undocumented immigrants and the inability of census counters to get past security guards in the city’s towering condos.
The city also has sponsors in the U.S. House and Senate pushing sister bills that would increase the percentage of CDBG money that can go toward social service. The formula HUD now uses mandates that cities use 85 percent for economic development, and the remaining 15 percent for social services. The bills would hike the 15 percent to 25 percent, taking the difference from the economic development side.
“It’s just going to give the flexibility to local governments,” said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami Republican, who is pushing the bill. “It’s a flawed formula. It just doesn’t make any sense in a logical world.”
HUD Spokesman Jerry Brown said the agency understands how critical the social-service and economic development programs are to South Florida communities.
“We think we did as well as we could,’’ he said. “Unfortunately, that’s what happens during tight budget times.”
Local governments are grappling in different way with the bad news.
Miami-Dade County, which lost $5.7 million, will cut $60,000 from the individual accounts of all 13 commissioners, each of whom was permitted to dole out $200,000 a year in CBDG funds. Commissioners will discuss taking other actions in March.
In Miami Beach, where funding dropped by about $660,000, rehabilitation projects underway on affordable housing units could face delays, said city spokeswoman Nannette Rodriguez.
At the Centro Mater center in Little Havana on Wednesday, it was evident just how the social-service cuts would sting. Every day more than 500 kids attend daycare or an after-school program there. Part of the complex is a converted apartment, where tiny babies take lengthy afternoon naps in new cribs. On Wednesday, 4-year-old Wifredo was celebrating his birthday and eating pizza with about 15 friends, a giant Mickey Mouse balloon tied to his chair.
Administrator Madelyn Rodriguez-Llanes said the cuts likely mean some of the center’s 71 workers will have to leave, and the number of kids receiving services could be whittled.
“If you have kids you have to feed them. We can’t cut meals, that’s not an option,” she said. “It means a direct impact on the population here, less services and employees for our people.”
In Hialeah, the 47-percent cut will drop the city back to funding levels it hasn’t seen since 1977. Frederick Marinelli, the city’s director of grants and human services, said organizations will have to run on leaner budgets while trying to “keep the people-oriented programs intact.” Some of the cuts could come from transportation services, literacy programs, and training and counseling for the handicapped.
Hialeah’s Citrus Health Network, which runs two clinics that provide medical services for about 4,000 uninsured patients, will see its $100,000 subsidy slashed to about $50,000.
“It will just make it a lot more difficult to serve the uninsured,” said Olga Golik, who directs housing and advocacy.
Meanwhile, Ileana Arriola, 62, said she dragged herself to the Allapattah Community Action Center on Tuesday, despite having a cold, because she knew she could get a hot meal.
“I went to the center so I wouldn’t get depressed,” Arriola said Wednesday, as about a dozen folks played dominoes outside. “It’s like they’re taking away our home and our right to live here.’’
Miami Herald staff writers David Smiley, Martha Brannigan and Paradise Ashfar contributed to this report.
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