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National Rollout of HUD Funds Includes Millions for Tampa Bay

Date Posted: 05/17/2022
Category:

Henry Queen - Reporter, Tampa Bay Business Journal | May 17, 2022

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's fiscal 2022 formula grant programs will dole out billions across the country - and millions into the Tampa Bay region.
The Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnerships and the Housing Trust Fund represent the largest formula grants. Recipients here include:

  • Hillsborough County: $10.98 million (total across all formula grants)
  • City of Tampa: $10.09 million
  • Polk County: $5.86 million
  • Pasco County: $4.54 million
  • Pinellas County: $4.06 million
  • St. Petersburg: $2.88 million

The Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnerships and the Housing Trust Fund grant recipients 

The Community Development Block Grant, HOME Investment Partnerships and the Housing Trust Fund grant recipients, all information as listed below.

Hillsborough - $10,980,000
City of Tampa - $10,090,000
Polk County - $5,860,000
Pasco County - $4,540,000
Pinellas County - $4,060,000
St. Petersburg - $2,880,000

As Tampa Bay's housing affordability crisis shows no signs of slowing down, underserved communities rely on the latest round of federal funds to be used efficiently.

About 50% of families are rent burdened in the five-county area, according to United Way Suncoast. That means they spend over 30% of their income on rent. In Hillsborough County - the largest beneficiary of funds announced Tuesday - the average rent clocks in at over $1,700, according to United Way.

The amount of money from HUD and its formulas to determine it are especially important now.

In 2020, the city of Memphis called into question the method for determining allocations from the Community Development Block Grant. The city's leaders claimed it was being cheated out of millions of dollars, according to sister publication Memphis Business Journal.

Any municipality's CDBG grant is determined by taking the larger figure from the following formulas:

  • Formula A: Population size (weighted at 25%), the amount of people in poverty (weighted at 50%) and the amount of overcrowded housing units (weighted at 25%).
  • Formula B: Population growth lag since 1960 (weighted at 20%), amount of people in poverty (weighted at 30%), and the number of pre-1940 housing units (weighted at 50%).

That last part - the number of pre-1940 housing units - may tip the scales in some instances. For example, Pittsburgh will receive about $10 million more in CDBG funds than the city of Tampa in fiscal 2022 despite a roughly equal poverty rate and a smaller population, according to the 2020 Census.

Louisville, Kentucky, will receive about $8 million more than Tampa despite having a lower poverty rate and just 2,000 more residents. Memphis city leaders also mentioned Louisville in 2020 as an unfair beneficiary of the CDBG grant.

But Tampa will be receiving financial assistance in other ways, too. The Tampa Housing Authority will receive $1.315 million from a separate $3.2 billion investment, also announced by HUD on Tuesday. The Pinellas County Housing Authority will receive almost $1 million.