Full Transcript

City of Harrisburg Annual Action Plan 2025

12:47703 summary words · ~4 min readEnglishBy The City of Harrisburg - WHBG20Transcribed Jun 15, 2026

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Summary

Harrisburg's 2025 Annual Action Plan shifts federal HUD funding (CDBG, HOME, and ESG) away from scattered minor grants toward large-scale public infrastructure, housing, and blight removal projects to maximize municipal impact.

This hearing reveals how Harrisburg plans to allocate over $2.4 million in federal funding to address critical issues like ADA compliance, affordable housing development, street repairs, and homelessness mitigation.

Section summaries

Introduction & Consolidated Plan Overview

watch

Lori from the Harrisburg Department of Economic Development and Building and Housing introduces the public hearing alongside Christian Spencer, a HUD consultant from Civotas. She explains how the five-year Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan govern CDBG, HOME, and ESG funds through HUD's IDIS online system.

Provides the structural framework and rules governing federal grant compliance.

2025 HUD Program Funding Allocations

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The presentation details the expected 2025 grant allocations, including $1,821,820 for CDBG, $479,627.19 for HOME, and $163,869 for ESG. It explains program income sources, such as homeowners repaying early-sale home loans.

Highlights the exact funding amounts available to the city for community development.

Strategic Pivot to Municipal Infrastructure

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Lori discusses why the city is shifting focus to larger public infrastructure projects instead of spreading resources thin across minor programs. This policy pivot is driven by the federal funding climate and low public interest during the 2023-2024 cycle.

Explains the major policy shift in how funds will be distributed in Harrisburg.

Priority Needs & Homelessness Services

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This section outlines priority needs, including public facilities (streets, sewers, ADA improvements, cameras), demolition of blighted properties, affordable rental housing, and ESG-funded services managed by the Capital Area Coalition on Homelessness.

Lays out the core public projects that will receive prioritization.

Plan Goals & Target Metrics

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The speaker lists explicit goals for the 2025 action plan: assisting 5,000 low-income residents via infrastructure, helping 20,000 via public facilities, rehabilitating 30 owner-occupied homes, and providing emergency shelter for 500 individuals.

Establishes key performance metrics to measure the plan's future success.

Detailed CDBG and HOME Budget Line Items

optional

A deep dive into specific administrative and housing development allocations, including the 15% CHDO set-aside ($40,444) and the CDBG section 108 loan repayment ($225,000) intended to clear city debt by late 2026.

Highly granular budget data that might only interest budget analysts or developers.

Public Comment Period & Draft Access

watch

Lori provides the dates for the public comment period (June 27 to July 28, 2025), lists the municipal center address, and explains how to download the draft plan and submit written feedback before the August 15 HUD deadline.

Contains crucial instructions on how citizens can formally influence the plan.

Informal Discussion on Public Engagement

optional

Since no members of the public attended the hearing, Lori and consultant Christian Spencer discuss the chronic challenge of low public turnout. They reflect on past off-site outreach efforts that also failed to draw citizens, emphasizing that the plan is already live on the web.

Provides color on local administrative challenges but contains no official policy or budget data.

Key points

Strategic Pivot to High-Impact Infrastructure Projects — The mayor decided to redirect 2025 federal grant funds to focus on fewer, larger-scale municipal infrastructure projects (such as streets, sewers, water, security cameras, and ADA compliance) rather than spreading small amounts of funding across numerous minor programs.
Allocation of Federal CDBG, HOME, and ESG Funds — Harrisburg outlines specific funding distributions: CDBG receives $1,821,820 (prioritizing $511,456 for infrastructure and $500,000 for housing), HOME receives $479,627.19 for affordable housing development, and ESG receives $163,869 to target homelessness.
Focused Homelessness Mitigation Metrics — With $163,869 in ESG funds managed by the Capital Area Coalition on Homelessness (CACH), the city has targeted assisting 500 individuals experiencing homelessness with shelter and providing 15 individuals with prevention services.
The Chronic Challenge of Public Attendance — Despite moving public hearings to accessible locations and offering parking or refreshments in previous years, city staff noted a persistent lack of civic attendance, meaning the 30-day online feedback window is the primary mode of community participation.

“Given the current climate in DC, it's becoming a national trend to focus on a few larger projects that will have a greater impact on our city than sprinkling resources over a lot of smaller projects.” — Lori

“our last funding cycle did not generate a lot of interest for 2023 24 funding.” — Lori

AI-generated from the transcript. May contain errors.

0:03

for the Department of Economic

0:05

Development and Building and Housing.

0:09

And with us this evening is Christian

0:11

Spencer. He is one of our HUD

0:13

consultants with Civotas. We're here

0:16

this evening to discuss the 2025 annual

0:19

action plan. This is our public hearing

0:22

that is required by HUD. It is June 26,

0:26

2025.

0:30

The consolidated plan and action annual

0:33

action plan

0:35

CDBG home and ESG is administered

0:39

through the consolidated plan referenced

0:42

as con plan and managed through HUD's

0:45

integrated dispersement and information

0:47

system called IDIS

0:50

online.

0:52

The con plan and annual action plans

0:55

helps grantees determine activities and

0:58

organizations to fund in the coming

1:01

years. The con plan is five years in

1:05

length and describes community needs,

1:08

resources, priorities, and proposed

1:10

activities to be undertaken under

1:13

certain HUD programs.

1:16

The annual action plan. The annual

1:18

action plan, which we refer to as AAP,

1:23

is submitted to HUD every year during

1:25

the five-year con plan cycle. The AAP

1:30

describes the specific plan uses for HUD

1:33

programs as well as certain other

1:35

program requirements.

1:41

The 2025 action plan funds

1:44

funding for community development block

1:47

grant. The HUD 2025 allocation

1:51

we anticipate will be 1,86,820.

1:58

Program income $15,000.

2:01

And related to that program income um is

2:06

uh payments uh from homeowners who have

2:10

sold their homes prior to the required

2:13

five-year timeline or they had previous

2:17

loans with the city or and are repaying

2:20

those home uh those um payments back to

2:23

us. So the total would be1,821,820.

2:31

Home funding $469,627.19.

2:39

And the income would be $10,000 again.

2:43

Again, that's payback on loans, which

2:46

would give us a total of $479,627.19.

2:53

ESG. ESG for your for clarification are

2:57

the dollars that we use to help serve

3:00

our unhoused population in the city of

3:03

Harrisburg. We anticipate $163,869.

3:09

There will be no program income, giving

3:12

us the total of $163,869.

3:19

Given the current climate in DC, it's

3:22

becoming a national trend to focus on a

3:25

few larger projects that will have a

3:28

greater impact on our city than

3:31

sprinkling resources over a lot of

3:33

smaller projects. In addition, our last

3:36

funding cycle did not generate a lot of

3:39

interest for 2023 24

3:43

funding.

3:48

So it has been the decision of the mayor

3:51

that we will focus on infrastructure

3:53

projects for the 2025

3:57

funding

3:59

priority needs. Number one, public

4:02

facilities and infrastructure to improve

4:04

and expand public infrastructure

4:08

s such as streets, sidewalks, water,

4:10

sewer, ADA improvements, lighting and

4:14

security cameras

4:16

and improve access to public facilities.

4:20

Two, public services.

4:22

Three, removal of slum and blight

4:26

demolition

4:28

and blight removal. affordable

4:31

housing development, rental housing

4:33

development, home ownership, housing

4:36

development, owner occupied housing

4:39

rehab, such as our HRP

4:42

home rehab program,

4:45

homeless and housing services, reduce

4:48

homelessness.

4:49

Again, that's our ESG funds and that's

4:54

that's managed by an organization we

4:57

call CAT. That's Capitol Area Coalition

5:00

on Homelessness

5:02

Section 108 loan repayment.

5:06

And that is a debt that the uh city um

5:11

carries and we hope to have that paid

5:13

off in late um 2026.

5:19

The 2025 annual action plan goals to

5:23

improve and expand public

5:25

infrastructure.

5:27

5,000 low to moderate income persons

5:29

assisted. Improve access to public

5:32

facilities. 20,000 low moderate income

5:35

persons assisted. Demolition and blight

5:38

removal. Buildings demolished. Rental

5:42

housing development. Rental units

5:45

constructed. Home ownership housing

5:47

development. Two homeowner housing units

5:50

construct constructed, I'm sorry. And

5:54

owner occupied housing rehab. 30

5:56

homeowner units rehabilitated.

5:59

Reduce homelessness. 500 persons

6:01

experiencing homelessness provided with

6:04

shelter. 15 persons at risk of

6:07

homelessness provided prevention

6:09

services.

6:11

and section 108 loan repayment

6:16

is an NA

6:19

2025 action plan projects and funding.

6:23

And so we'll go down the uh budget

6:25

again. Community development block grant

6:28

administration $361,364.

6:35

Community Development Block Grant,

6:36

public facilities and infrastructure,

6:39

$511,456.

6:43

Community Development Block Grant

6:45

Housing Programs, 500,000.

6:48

Community Development Block Grant

6:50

Emergency Demolition, $224,000.

6:54

Home I'm sorry, CDBG section 108 loan

6:58

payments 225,000.

7:02

Home administration $46,962.

7:07

Home CHTO set aside 15%. Now that CHTO

7:12

15% is not for developers to use for

7:15

their own uh administration. Uh it's for

7:18

things like project development fee fees

7:22

that developers would need need to um uh

7:26

complete their projects. Home nonchoto

7:29

housing development

7:31

$362,221.19.

7:36

And let me go back to the home choto,

7:38

which the set aside is $40,444.

7:43

ESG 2025 for the unhoused, that's

7:48

$163,869.

7:59

Citizen participation

8:01

public comment review period. The city

8:04

will hold a public comment review period

8:06

from June 27th, 2025 to July 28th, 2025

8:12

to give the public an opportunity to

8:14

review and make comments on the draft

8:16

action plan.

8:18

The city is currently holding a public

8:20

hearing today to review and discuss the

8:23

proposed action plan. And today's date

8:26

again is June 26, 2025. and we started

8:30

this meeting as advertised at 5:30 p.m.

8:34

The public hearing is being held here in

8:37

the city council chambers on the first

8:39

floor of the MLK Junior City Government

8:42

Center located at 10 North Second

8:45

Street, Sweet 305 Harrisburg,

8:48

Pennsylvania 17101.

8:51

Next steps. The draft 2025 action plan

8:55

can be downloaded and reviewed from the

8:57

city's Department of Economic

9:00

Development, Building and Housing

9:02

website at htttps

9:07

colon back slashbackharrisburga.gov

9:13

back slashservices

9:16

back slb buildingousing back slash it's

9:20

a little difficult to pronounce

9:21

index.php.

9:25

Written comments can be sent to the

9:27

department of building and housing

9:29

office or email to department of

9:31

building and housing at harrisburgpa.gov

9:35

gov. HUD submission 2025 action plan

9:39

will be sent by August 15, 2025.

9:45

We're open for questions in the

9:47

audience. We have anyone here?

10:00

Any questions,

10:02

comments?

10:07

I'm sorry, sir. What was you did?

10:13

Thank you.

10:16

[Music]

10:18

So, Christian,

10:20

are you there?

10:24

I think so. Um, Lori, I I didn't expect

10:27

you to to deliver the whole thing, but

10:29

uh um I was ready to take over as

10:32

needed. So, great job. Uh no comments,

10:35

though. And so I think we'll wait for

10:38

any further comments potentially from

10:39

the 30-day comment review.

10:43

Um, now since we don't have anyone here

10:45

yet and this is to go to 6:30, we have

10:48

to stay here for until 6:30. Correct.

10:53

No.

10:56

My lawyer who has my back in case I go

10:58

to jail said no.

11:01

I

11:02

I that I think that's the standard for

11:04

most. Yeah,

11:06

it is the standard. And actually, we

11:08

really thought the last last year when

11:10

we did it and we held it off site and we

11:12

held it off site to give people, you

11:14

know, the benefit of good parking and

11:17

and and we had, you know, refreshments

11:19

and so forth. And we didn't get any the

11:22

Well, the mayor and and her assistant

11:24

Deb, they were there and uh and that's

11:27

about it. And staff

11:33

Okay.

11:35

All right. And and so the you know

11:38

tonight we don't have snacks, but it

11:39

wouldn't matter. The mayor was begging

11:41

for snacks, but

11:43

we don't have snacks. But um we um had

11:47

it here thinking perhaps we get more.

11:52

We got a lot of jokesters in here, too.

11:55

Yeah. Good. Good.

11:59

Yes, I I did site the email. You want me

12:02

to do it again?

12:04

Okay. Yeah, we a and people can come in

12:07

to our office and review the document.

12:10

Um and it'll be available to them. So,

12:14

and it's actually um the plan is already

12:18

on our web page that it was put on

12:20

yesterday. So, it's already there and I

12:23

checked it, made sure it's there and so

12:25

forth. So, um, we're a day early in

12:28

getting that, um, on our web page, so

12:32

we're good to go.

12:36

I thank you, Christian, for filling in.

12:39

Thank you. Well, yeah, certainly. And,

12:42

um, glad it went smoothly. And you two

12:44

have and everyone

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