Hamilton County leaders turned a Sunday at HighGrain Brewing in Springfield Township into a policy roadshow on April 7, using the brewery’s Brentwood taproom as the backdrop for a Community Development Showcase that walked residents through roughly $5 million in federal HUD money headed to neighborhoods outside Cincinnati’s borders. Commissioners Stephanie Summerow Dumas, Alicia Reece and Denise Driehaus pitched the cash as fuel for affordable housing, small-business façade improvements and mobile social services. The choice of venue was not accidental: the taproom itself is one of the projects, a redeveloped former bowling alley that now doubles as a community hub.
The money comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and totals about $5 million for the current program year, split among the Community Development Block Grant, the HOME program and the Emergency Solutions Grant. Hamilton County’s annual HUD action plan lists roughly $3.38 million for CDBG, about $1.35 million for HOME and roughly $299,000 for ESG, figures the county uses to build its menu of projects and awards, according to Hamilton County. County staff note that these federal dollars flow to participating local governments across the county, not to the City of Cincinnati itself.
Commissioners Lay Out Priorities
At the showcase, Commission President Stephanie Summerow Dumas walked the crowd through how those funds get prioritized and underscored the county’s role as a kind of traffic cop for federal money heading to communities beyond the urban core, as reported by CityBeat. Dumas described the HUD grants as critical tools for municipal governments, nonprofits and housing developers that want to build or rehab projects but do not have the horsepower to chase larger, highly competitive federal pots on their own.
Funding On The Ground
Organizers pointed to a few concrete examples of how that plays out. The Brentwood taproom of HighGrain Brewing, housed in the old Brentwood Bowl building, was highlighted by county officials as a reuse project that tapped CDBG support. The county’s 513Relief bus was held up as another case: a mobile unit that rolls into neighborhoods offering health screenings and help signing up for benefits. The brewery’s site details the Brentwood location and its events, while the 513Relief pages spell out the bus’s schedule and services. “This is what it looks like when we leverage federal dollars for real impact,” Commissioner Denise Driehaus told attendees, according to CityBeat.
Who Gets The Money
The county’s action plan spells out that CDBG, HOME and ESG dollars are administered across 43 participating jurisdictions, meaning the bulk of HUD funding is aimed at suburbs and smaller cities instead of the City of Cincinnati. The document also calls out countywide efforts, including a pilot façade-improvement program and contracts with nonprofits that provide services to low- and moderate-income residents around the region, according to Hamilton County.
What’s Next
Over the coming weeks, the Community Development Advisory Committee is set to tighten up its list of recommended projects, followed by public hearings before a final Annual Action Plan returns to the commissioners for a vote. Advisory talks have included proposed HOME awards for developers and nonprofit builders, details that surfaced in recent coverage of CDAC recommendations, as summarized by Citizen Portal. County staff say the whole process is structured to connect smaller, locally driven projects with federal funding streams that are otherwise tough to crack through big competitive grant programs.
