Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs announced the second round of Community Development Block Grants for 2024 opened for applications on Thursday, Sept. 19.

The following programs will be accepting applications.

• Public Facilities Program
• Blight Clearance Program
• Stormwater Improvements
• Main Street Revitalization
• Wastewater/Drinking Water

Proposal submissions will be collected via the electronic Grants Management System. Instructions on how to submit proposals can be found at in.gov/ocra/cdbg. Several 2024 Action Plan changes will take effect starting this round. These changes include:

• Relaunching of the Main Street Revitalization Program
• Increasing maximum grant requests to $750,000 for the Public Facilities, Wastewater Drinking Water and Stormwater Improvements Programs
• Updating WDW user rate benchmarks
• State grant funds are now eligible sources of match for CDBG projects

The changes listed above are now incorporated in the 2024 Round 2 Application Instructions document. A pre-recorded webinar reviewing these changes and other recent policy updates impacting this round is also available here.

2024 Round 2 proposals are due on Friday, Oct. 18, by 11:59 p.m. ET and must be submitted here. Communities are encouraged to submit their applications prior to 4 p.m. on Oct. 18, as technical assistance will not be available after that time.

2024 Round 2 applications are due on Friday, Dec. 20, by 11:59 p.m. ET and must be submitted here. Applicants are encouraged to submit their applications prior to 4 p.m. on Dec. 20, as technical assistance will not be available after that time.

Funding for all CDBG programs comes from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and is administered by OCRA. The State of Indiana distributes CDBG funds to rural communities to assist units of local government with various community projects like improving infrastructure, downtown revitalization, public facilities improvements and economic development.

For further information on these programs, contact the assigned OCRA regional community liaison.