City Council reviews 2025 consolidated plan, debates funding priorities

Norwalk City Council discusses the 2025 Consolidated Plan during their meeting on March 4. (Photo by Vince Medina)

NORWALK — The Norwalk City Council reviewed the 2025 Consolidated Plan and Fiscal Year 2025-26 Annual Action Plan, which determine how the city will allocate federal housing and community development funds during their meeting on Tuesday.

Norwalk receives annual funding from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program and HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME), which are administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). These funds are utilized to support programs including affordable housing, public infrastructure, social services and job training.

According to the presentation from Alex Hamilton, Interim Director of Community Development, Norwalk receives approximately $1 million annually in CDBG funds and $250,000 in HOME funds. To continue receiving funding, the city must submit a five-year Consolidated Plan and an Annual Action Plan, outlining how the money will be used.

“You as City Council can modify or cancel funding to activities, but you cannot add activities without the 30 day public review period, and we’re going to kick that off shortly,” said Hamilton. “The public review period begins March 25 and runs through April 25, 2025.”

The council proposed continuing investment in public facility improvements, housing assistance, homelessness prevention and economic development programs.

However, council member Rick Ramirez expressed concern with the Emergency Assistance Program, which provides financial aid to residents in crisis. Although the program received $75,000 in funding, it had only served nine people in the past year.

“If there’s any residual funding in there and you’re adding $75,000 on top of that, but we’re only servicing nine, are we actually providing a service,” said Ramirez. “If we have residuals and we’re maxed out the $75,000 then maybe we could allocate it to some other sub programs so that we can make sure that they’re maximized funding for each program.”

Council member Margarita Rios stressed the need for specific data on the program, requesting a breakdown of how many Norwalk residents benefit from funded programs.

“Being that is such a small number of nine, and I’m hoping that all of those were Norwalk residents benefited from the services,” said Rios. “And I think that although we can’t necessarily predict what the future is going to look like, I think that by this point, we should have some good data on what exactly those services look like, what the cost was and ultimately benefit, so that we do use our money wisely.”

City staff assured the council that data on program effectiveness would be provided before finalizing the plan.

The public review period will run from March 25 to April 25, 2025, allowing residents to provide input on the proposed allocations. A final public hearing is scheduled for May 6 before the plan is submitted to HUD by May 15.