SOUTH PITTSBURG, Tenn. — The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant is one of the most sought-after funding sources in the state.
Nearly every eligible county and municipality applies for up to $500,000 each year to make significant community upgrades.
For the past two years, South Pittsburg has applied for the grant to transform the vacant National Guard armory building into an emergency shelter facility.
“We did not get the grant either year,” Mayor Jane Dawkins said. “They judge those grants on a point system that’s based on established need and so on.”
When a city adviser on the grant said recently that South Pittsburg’s point score on the armory building renovation project was “probably not going to make it this year either,” city leaders decided to change their strategy.