CDBGs Finally Make it to Mississippi -- Sort of . . .

Last night after dinner, someone yelled for me to bring the camera so that we could document a momentous occasion: the Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) had finally come to Mississippi. Unfortunately, the CDBGs came in the form of a T-shirt.

What? Allow me to explain.

It's been roughly a year and a half since Hurricane Katrina hit the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. Since then, the federal government has allocated $5.4 billion of federal housing aid to Mississippi in the form of a Community Development Block Grant that is specifically designed to help towns and cities rebuild in the aftermath of a disaster such as Katrina.

Local grassroots organization like Turkey Creek Community Initiatives have yet to see a dime of that grant money. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find evidence of the CDBG anywhere in the entire state of Mississippi, except for this lovely gentleman's t-shirt. So, after months of waiting, the closest that Derrick Evans (pictured far right), executive director of TCCI, had come to the CDBG is this tongue and cheek picture.

A very real part of the tragedy that has unfolded in the months since the hurricane is the lack of federal support for the rebuilding effort. The bottom line is, without the vast amounts of money and time graciously extended by willing volunteers and small grass roots groups and nonprofits like TCCI, there would be virtually no rebuilding going on in Mississippi. Thousands of people have poured their heart, soul, and hard-earned money into the Gulf Coast in an effort to make up for the glaring lack of federal support.

At this point in time, we've reached a critical juncture of federal funding for the Mississippi Gulf Coast. After a great subcommittee field hearing chaired by Rep. Maxine Waters on March 2 in North Gulfport, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) were prepared to introduce an amendment to H.R. 1227 (Katrina Housing Recovery Act of 2007) that would have provided state grants to Gulf Coast nonprofit organizations for affordable housing.

Last Thursday, however, Rep. Green withdrew the amendment after learning that the committee’s chairman, Barney Frank (D-Mass.), does not normally support the idea of the federal government directing states on how to spend the CDBG funds.

So the questions is, do we think that the money should be allocated to groups such as TCCI who have proven track records in the rebuilding effort and know the nuances of the community or do we leave in the hands of the ineffective federal government recovery process? I think the choice is clear. And with that, I encourage everyone to contact your representatives to encourage them to support the Cleaver amendment and, if you live in Massachusetts, get on the phone to Barney Frank's office and demand that he allow the amendment to be attached. The fate of entire communities rest on it.