Council Grapples With Question of How Grant Money Should be Spent

The has $300,000 in federal block grant funds to give out. The question is how should the money best be used: to fix streets, feed hungry children or provide mediation for warring tenants and landlords.

The council considered all three requests at its last meeting Nov. 16, and will make a decision early next month.

Funds from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program are intended to benefit low and moderate-income residents, are often provide cities the opportunity to fund projects that otherwise wouldn't have a chance.

Lemon Grove has received $300,000 to disburse over the next three fiscal years, beginning in 2011.

There are three applicants for the money: The city's Public Works Department, which wishes to use it for a series of ongoing street rehabilitation projects; the San Diego Food Bank, which is asking for $6,500 to provide 25 elementary school children with backpacks full of food each week; and the Center for Social Advocacy's tenant/landlord mediation program.

The tenant/landlord mediation program has been funded in the past with block grant funds from Lemon Grove and other East County cities, as have the street repairs. The Food Bank request is new.

The city has participated in the block grant program for 20 years. For the past six years, instead of giving out grants annually, the council has opted to dole out the money for three years at a time. Paolo Romero, the city's CDBG manager, said the advantage of doing so every three years is that it increases the ability to "maximize buying power today, with tomorrow's money."

The city's staff has recommended the council give the full amount for street repairs. The staff report states that fixing the roads will benefit low and moderate-income residents.

There are eight street rehabilitation projects that could be completed with $300,000, Romero told the council on Nov. 16. They are:

Cypress Avenue (from Mount Vernon Street to Alton Drive)
Bryan Court (from Citronella Street to Orange Place)
Svea Court (from Larwood Road to cul-de-sac)
Burnell Avenue (from Olive Street to Main Street)
Chateau Way (Central Avenue to cul-de-sac)
Church Street (Buena Vista Avenue to Olive Street)
Dayton Drive (Skyline Drive to Englewood Drive)
North Avenue (Vista Avenue to Harris Street)

The second request for money is from the Center for Social Advocacy (formerly known as Heartland Human Relations), which has provided social services for low-income East County residents for 38 years. The center is asking for $34,500 to fund its tenant/landlord mediation program for the next three years, at a cost of $11,500 per year.

The center has received CDBG funding from the city for the past 20 years, and last year provided counseling to 24 Lemon Grove residents.

"Tenant/landlord mediation is very important in regards to prevention of homelessness," said Estela De Los Rios, director of the Center for Social Advocacy.

"We have prevented a lot of homeless children and families," she told the councilmembers. "We get phone calls, we get walk-ins every day." De Los Rios told stories of four families who were about to have their water shut off on a Friday night because the apartment building's owner was facing foreclosure, and another case where a tenant was facing eviction when he refused to pay rent because there was a gas leak in his apartment. In both cases the center was able to find a solution and keep the tenants in their homes, she said.

The third application for block grant money came from the San Diego Food Bank, which did not send a representative to the meeting -- which didn't impress the councilmembers.

The Food Bank is asking for $6,500 for its Food 4 Kids Backpack Program. The program is already underway at San Miguel elementary in Lemon Grove, where needy children are identified by school staff, then discreetly given backpacks full of "child-friendly" food on Fridays to get them through the weekend. The empty backpacks are collected on Mondays to be refilled later in the week. (During the week the children have access to free breakfast and lunch at the school.)

The block grant money would enable the Food Bank to add another 25 children to the program for one school year, according to the application.

During their discussion of the options, several councilmembers appeared to be leaning toward giving all of the money for street repairs. "As much money as we can put on the streets, we should, unless somebody has a compelling reason," said Mayor Mary Sessom, noting the absence of a representative from the Food Bank.

Councilman George Gastil, however, questioned whether a small amount shouldn't be set aside for the other requests. "I feel really strongly about streets, but at the same time $6,500 is really small, and might do more good to those families than it would in terms of pavement," he said.

The council will hear more from the applicants and make a final decision at its