Local aid groups get fed grant funding

The city has approved disbursement of almost $255,000 in federally-supplied community development block grant (CDBG) funds to three local entities: the Senior Center, Emergency Aid and Lend A Hand.

The vast majority of that amount is slated to go to the Senior Center, with more than $216,000.

Where does the money come from and why does it get split like this? The short answer is federal regulations.

Each year the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development sends a chunk of money to individual counties. The funds are intended to provide funding for facilities and programs that serve people of low and moderate income.

Through a longstanding interlocal agreement with Clark County, each year Boulder City gets 3% of the total that the county receives from the feds. That agreement has been in place since 1985.

How the funding gets doled out is set by HUD. The large majority of the funding — a minimum of 85% — has to go to “sticks and bricks” capital projects, although the percentage can be higher. The leftover 15%, maximum, can go to public service programs.

“In this case, as you can see in the staff report, that is identified for fiscal year 24/25 to go to the Senior Center because they are undertaking several capital improvements including addressing roof and other improvements to the facility. The remaining 15% can go to public service projects and for many, many years, the city has partnered with Emergency Aid and Lend A Hand to disperse those funds to those two agencies,” Community Development Director Michael Mays told the council in a meeting last month.

The history of how CDBG funds have been spent shows some variation in the larger portion that has to be spent on capital improvement but little change in the public service portion. Emergency Aid has been getting funding every year since 1987 when it was still called Boulder City Welfare with Lend A Hand showing up and staying on the list every year starting four years later in 1991.

The capital improvement money has been spent improving historic neighborhoods (‘85-‘89), an energy weatherization program (‘89-‘01), various Americans with Disabilities Act projects including at the Boulder Dam Hotel (‘95-‘01) with the Senior Center seeing its first funding, $7,500 for kitchen equipment, in 1999. From 2001-2011, the Senior Center got the bulk of the capital improvement funding with ADA sidewalk improvement programs and various projects to build retaining walls in the historic downtown area taking the bulk of funding between 2012 and 2020.

Between 2017 and 2024, Lend A Hand got more than $1.3 million in capital funding and this year marks the first time since 2010 that the Senior Center has been the primary recipient of CDBG capital funding.

Based on prior history and, according to a staff report, at their requests, Emergency Aid has received 74% of the available public service funds and Lend A Hand has received the remaining 26%.

Emergency Aid, according to funding history provided by the city, has never received capital improvement funding but the group does get use of the old Department of Water and Power Building, which is city-owned.

Kathleen Morris, the current president of Emergency Aid, thanked the council for the building and other funding.

“Our mission is to provide emergency food and financial assistance to Boulder City residents and stranded travelers in times of need,” she explained. “We operate a client-choice pantry empowering clients to select the items that best suit their needs. The pantry is well stocked with non-perishable staples, fresh produce, and frozen meats. Registered clients can visit once a week.”

She said that emergency financial assistance is available for Boulder City residents who are experiencing temporary crisis and is available for rent and utilities.

“All applicants are carefully vetted,” Morris continued. “You have to be a resident of Boulder City for at least six months and you have to be able to prove that. And you must have a verifiable emergency situation.”

She explained that aid is really meant for emergencies and that applicants must have sufficient income to cover their ongoing expenses.

“So if you come in and and you only have $600 worth of income, but your rent is $1,200, then we can’t help you,” she said. “You have to show that you can pay your expenses going forward because we’re not there to pay rent for months and months and months because we just don’t have the money to do it.”

Morris told the council that there is an annual maximum amount that applicants can receive.

“We also discourage frequent repeated requests for assistance because we do have some people that maybe in the past have used Emergency Aid for rent once a year,” she said. “It’s like their plan, you know, and they they just come in. And so we are discouraging that.”

She reported that the group has 42 consistent volunteers that are there every week and more than 70 volunteers that help with special events. The group has one part-time paid employee who gets paid less than $20,000 a year.

“It is not me. I’m not a paid employee,” Morris said, also reporting that 83% of the funding that Emergency Aid receives goes right back out to clients.

Kevin Abbott, who has been the executive director of Lend A Hand for 16 months, reported a long wait list to get services because of a lack of volunteers.

“What we do is we provide no-cost medical transportation for seniors to Boulder City and surrounding areas like Las Vegas, Henderson, and so forth,” Abbott told the council. “We also provide in-home services for folks that require those services. Little bit of housekeeping, mail prep, things of that nature. We also loan out free durable medical equipment for our seniors and also for any citizen in Boulder City.”