Chapel Hill Town Council considers community development grants, weighs impact

The Chapel Hill Town Council recently held its second public forum on the 2025-26 Community Development Block Grant Annual Action Plan. 

The grants are provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Town of Chapel Hill generally gets about $420,000 each cycle, Emily Holt, Chapel Hill’s Affordable Housing Manager, said. 

Holt said this year’s final grant amount has yet to be finalized by HUD. 

“[CDBG]’s stated goal is to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing, suitable living environments and expanding economic opportunities for low and moderate-income people,” Holt said. 

The Town of Chapel Hill began receiving CDBGs in 1975, Holt said. Grant money is distributed between Town programs and community partners. Over the last few years, the distribution has been heavier on community partners, which have received more than half of the funding, Holt said.  She said the Town also maintains up to 20 percent of the grant funding for administration of the grant funds. 

Community organizations can apply to get grant money from the Town of Chapel Hill in order to help fund affordable housing and community development programs. The Town then uses a certain set of criteria to evaluate how money should be distributed. Some of these factors are past performance, level of affordability and project feasibility, Holt said.

One of the community organizations applying for grant money is the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service. 

“IFC's mission is to confront the causes and respond to the effects of poverty in our community,” IFC’s Development and Communications Manager Stephani Kilpatrick said. “So we address the root causes of poverty through system change, through voting programs, public policy advocacy and leadership development, and at the same time, we provide direct services to people who are experiencing poverty in our community, so food access, shelter, housing, emergency financial assistance.”

Most of IFC’s funding comes from private sources, Kilpatrick said. Grant money that IFC receives goes toward keeping a case manager for HomeStart, a program to support currently homeless women and families. 

“Keeping a case manager here in both shelters, it's very important because, sometimes the case manager can not only just help them with resources, but also help them navigate how to go from one step to the next step,” HomeStart Case Manager Linda Ellison said.

Ellison said many people who find themselves at HomeStart and similar programs do not have the experience needed to navigate the system, from young people who have never lived alone to old people who are not confident using phones or the internet. 

IFC is just one of the organizations hoping to receive CDBG money. Other groups include EMPOWERment Inc., a group that manages affordable rental properties and homes in Orange County, Habitat for Humanity and Transplanting Traditions Community Farm, which works on economic development. 

The Town Council is set to approve grant disbursements of the funding plan at the May 21 meeting, but dates may shift depending on HUD’s announcement of next year’s grant amount.

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