SALISBURY — The Salisbury City Council heard an update on how the city has utilized its Community Development Block Grant funding to increase access to affordable housing and support programs that assist low- and moderate-income families. As part of the report, the city council also received a report on the Community Development Corporation’s recent efforts.

The update on the CDBG funding was given by Planning and Neighborhoods Director Hannah Jacobson, who said that the city is required to present a report, titled a Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report, and hold a public hearing as a part of the grant process. The report outlined the goals that were set when the city received the funding and the progress that has been made in fulfilling those goals. The funding received during the most recent program year, which ran July of 2023 to June of 2024, was approximately $330,000. 

The first goal that Jacobson spoke about was to increase the supply of decent, affordable housing in the city by three units, which Jacobson said the city exceeded by completing the rehabilitation of four owner-occupied housing units.

The city also exceeded its next goal of providing down payment assistance by assisting three households instead of the anticipated two, she said.

The third goal of completing a greenway trail connector from the Jersey City neighborhood to Memorial Park Cemetery was not completed, Jacobson said, because city staff was waiting on a study on multimodal transportation options in the West Innes Street corridor to be completed and hoped to tie the greenway into it.

The grant funding that was given to local public service agencies impacted approximately 600 people, according to the report. Agencies that received funding including Family Crisis Council, Rowan Helping Ministries, the Conflict Resolution Center of Cabarrus County and the Community Care Clinic, among others.

For the final goal, the staff worked to further fair housing in Salisbury by translating brochures on issues such as tenants’ rights and rental tips into Spanish, attending several community events and handing out information on tenants’ rights, joining a monthly meeting of property manager to discuss fair housing issues and speaking at a Rowan County Association of Realtors meeting about minimum housing regulations.

Chanaka Yatawara, the executive director of the Salisbury Community Development Corporation, also provided an update on the meeting about the work that the organization has been doing. He also revealed that for the past few years, the non-profit has been receiving annual $100,000 donations from an anonymous man, which has been used to help members of the community, including disabled veterans.

Some of the anonymous donor’s funding was utilized to assist a veteran who used a wheelchair and was unable to enter his shower because of a disability. The organization widened the entrance to the man’s bathroom to make it more accessible and built a new roll-in shower for the man, who had been forced to take sponge baths because he could not get in his shower, said Yatawara.

He also spoke about the organization’s down payment assistance program. The first person to buy a home through the program did so in 1999, he said, and recently the organization assisted her daughter through the same program. Currently, the organization is building two new homes on North Shaver Street.

“I think it’s not just roofs and carports and heat and air and accessible bathrooms. What these programs have allowed is for people not just to live with comfort, but dignity in their own homes,” said Mayor Pro Tem Tamara Sheffield.

In other news from the city council meeting:

• The council approved the utilization of funding donated by the Julian Robertson Family Foundation to turn the fountain at Robertson Eastern-Gateway Park into a planter. The usage would be temporary while staff explore their options with the fountain, which is currently inoperable and is being vandalized often, said Landscape Architect Stephen Brown.
• The council approved issuing a $9,937 stormwater grant to the Miracle Church of God and a $3,750 stormwater grant to Gwinnett Holdings. Miracle Church of God requested the funding to clear and reconstruct a stream on the rear of its property that is currently causing the church basement to flood often. Gwinnett Holdings requested the funding to replace an underground stormwater culvert built along a house on Monroe Street, as the building is currently suffering sinkholes and significant damage from water.
• The council heard about the meeting times of nearby municipal and county governments. The information was provided because several city council members have expressed interest in moving one of the two monthly meetings to an earlier time. No action was taken, as Mayor Karen Alexander said that the members could take time to think about what they wanted to do.
• Jacobson said that the intersection of Lee and Kerr streets and the 200 block of East Kerr Street will be closed on both Saturday and Sunday for the Paint the Pavement event, where several local artists will paint five crosswalks in the area with their own designs.