Community Development Block Grant: Small Cities
"The Key to Connecticut's Community Development Future"

Connecticut's Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program, also known as the Small Cities Program, provides funding and technical support for projects that achieve local community and economic development objectives. The Small Cities Program principally benefits low-and moderate-income persons. This program is only available to Connecticut towns and cities with populations of less than 50,000.

Funding for the Connecticut CDBG program is provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under the guidelines of Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974, as amended. Eligible Activities must meet one of the following CDBG program National Objectives: benefiting low and moderate-income persons, eliminating slum and blight or addressing an urgent need.

The primary focus of the CDBG program is to benefit low-and moderate-income persons. The Connecticut CDBG program receives and distributes over thirteen million dollars each year. Since the state took over the administration of the CDBG program in 1982, over $325,700,000 has been invested in Connecticut communities.  Communities participate in a competitive application process annually for CDBG funds to implement their proposed community and economic development projects.  

BE AWARE OF SOCIAL MEDIA SCAMS. Programs have seen various scams in which websites and other social media sites are used to induce the public to send money in order to receive various HUD benefits, grants, or contracts. They sometimes falsely advertise as being government representatives or agents of HUD to promote their scheme further.

2023 Small Cities Application

2023 Small Cities CDBG Application Materials 
2023 Small Cities CDBG Application Workshop PowerPoints 
2023 Small Cities CDBG Application Workshop Presentation

CDBG Grant Management Manual

The CDBG Grant Management Manual provides program guidance to prospective applicants and grant awardees. The manual sets forth DOH's expectations from the grantees in managing the program funded by the CDBG funds.

CDBG Small Cities Grant Management Manual  CDBG Important Information

DOH Small Cities Bulletins 
DOH Debarment List
Small Cities Fact Sheet 
2020-21 Action Plan  
2020-2024 ConPlan

CDBG Past Presentations 

CDBG Past Applications

2022 Small Cities Application
 2021 Small Cities Application 
2020 Small Cities Application

Additional Resources

Eligible Applicants
Eligible Activities
National Objectives
Section 108
DOH Survey Methodology
HUD Rent and Income Limits
Pre-Project Checklist for Lead Abatement
Pre-Project Checklist for Lead Safe Practices
Model Lead Abatement Plan
Model Lead Hazard Remediation Plan
Model Lead Management Plan

Environmental Review Resources

This link will bring you to the official website for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD's) Office of Environment and Energy. The Office of Environment and Energy (OEE) manages the environmental review process for HUD.

An environmental review is the process of reviewing a project and its potential environmental impacts to determine whether it meets federal, state, and local environmental standards. The environmental review process is required for all HUD-assisted projects to ensure that the proposed project does not negatively impact the surrounding environment and that the property site itself will not have an adverse environmental or health effect on end users. Not every project is subject to a full environmental review (i.e., every project's environmental impact must be examined, but the extent of this examination varies), but every project must be in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and other related Federal and state environmental laws.

HUD's Office of Community Planning and Development offers a series of webinars to explain and explore how to conduct an environmental review. The purpose is to improve projects by making the environmental review requirements easier to understand and comply with. Here are two links for a basic orientation to HUD's Part 58 regulations on environmental review responsibilities of Responsible Entities and for an overview of the tiered review process and how Responsible Entities may use tiering to improve their environmental review procedures. HUD also demonstrated how tiered reviews are created in HEROS using a single-family rehab program as a case study.

These webinars are intended for an audience with no knowledge or a limited understanding of how to perform environmental reviews in the context of HUD-assisted projects.

HEROS Tiered Environmental Review Webinar

Environmental Review Webinar: Basics of a Part 58 Environmental Review for HUD-Assisted Projects 

To access related training materials & learn about getting credit via HUD Exchange Learn, visit HUD Exchange Trainings.

Additional Environmental Review Website Resources