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The news of the appointment of Rosalyn Clemens as the new
Director of the Department of Neighborhoods for the City of
Toledo is a welcome arrival, bringing renewed hope and fresh
opportunities to a community more attuned to messages of
loss.
The former Senior Manager for Redevelopment and
Revitalization at the Redevelopment Authority of Prince
George’s County Maryland brings a distinguished 20-year
track record of utilizing strong partnerships to execute
impactful projects which build wealth in underserved
communities.
Clemens recently announced a multimillion-dollar CDBG and
ESG funding opportunity for nonprofits, churches and small
businesses. I spoke with the newly-appointed Director
concerning the grant’s specifics and her philosophy towards
working with community stakeholders.
Perryman: Congratulations
on the appointment. Did you take the position formerly held
by Amy Odum?
Clemens: Yes, I was
initially hired as the Commissioner of Housing in October
and was asked to transition into her position as Director of
Neighborhoods, actually about 2-1/2 weeks ago.
Perryman: Welcome to Toledo
then.
Clemens: It’s been a
rollercoaster since I got here, lots of things to do, lots
of needs, but I’m happy to serve because I think Toledo has
great potential, but it’s just that we’ve got a lot of work
to do here. So, I’m here, and I’m hoping to work with you
guys as partners to make some changes happen here.
Perryman: What is your
philosophy on faith-based partnerships?
Clemens: I am asked the
question repeatedly of what is the collaborative role of the
black churches in Toledo, what you guys are doing, and how
we can help you become receptive to working together. I
think the black churches are a powerful tool and a pillar in
our community, so determining how the Department of
Neighborhoods can help is something that I am very
interested in and become engaged.
Perryman: What kind of
faith partnerships have you worked with in the past?
Clemens: One of the
things that the black churches have done in Prince George’s
County is a collective empowerment group where they come
together as a body for financial empowerment and financial
leverage with their resources. They came together
negotiating, backing transactions, negotiating loans for
their membership. They are using the force and negotiation
tools they’ve managed to put in place based on the
collective economic power of their membership and of their
deposits. Are similar efforts here in the City of Toledo?
Perryman: There is one
thing that I’ve been pushing with the mayor is a diversity
study that identifies where spending is going or not going.
The study will support our case that black businesses and
other black institutions are not getting their fair share.
Clemens: I see. Are you
talking about construction contracts?
Perryman: I’m talking about
everything from construction to purchasing goods and
services to social services as well.
Clemens: That’s a
reasonable effort. I think anecdotally, without having the
data, it’s probably the case that there are disparity and
structural inequities. I think I can say anecdotally from
what I’ve seen I would say that black institutions are not
getting their fair share. Now, the question is why? And,
what do we need to make sure this is in their minds and
where are the weaknesses in the supply or food chain? Where
are the gaps or defects? So I think the issue for us as
black people is I’m sure we have to document the extent of
the inequity, but fixing or directing those things that
drive the inequalities is the hard work that we need to do.
Nobody’s going to do that for us because we have to push for
these things to happen.
Perryman: Exactly, and that
has been my focus. Let’s talk about the CDBG funding project
you have announced.
Clemens: Okay, the COVID
dollars, we pushed to get the application process up and
running. It is an all-electronic application. Any nonprofit
can apply, you have to have your 501c3 though, but we’ve
waived the requirement that you have to have been employed
for three years. Faith-based groups are also eligible, and
any group that has groups that are serving small businesses
to help them become more stable and resilient after the
pandemic can also apply. The process is very streamlined.
Either you apply for retro pay at shelters or facilities for
isolation. You can use the money for testing services, buy
office supplies, personal protective equipment, or
prevention. If you have a food kitchen and you’re giving
out food, providing housing stability, direct financial
assistance to help people from becoming evicted. So,
there’s an array of things to respond to the human needs
that have come up as a result of COVID, so we want as many
people to apply because this funding has a minimum request
of $10,000 and I think the maximum offer is $500,000. If
you’ve got a small proposal under $10,000, and we think it
is an exceptional need, we will also look at it.
Perryman: Who will make the
final decisions on who and what gets funded?
Clemens: The decision will
be made by my staff and my team on the merits of the
proposals. We do have a public process that is required by
HUD, so certainly watch out for that when the public hearing
will be scheduled. Because of the pandemic, it’ll be a
virtual public hearing where we’ll set up so people can call
in with their comments, etc., and then the city council will
have to approve the recommendations.
Perryman: What are you
hoping to achieve with this initiative?
Clemens: I hope to get
help to the folks who are out here providing services to the
community during this pandemic. Whether it is additional
staffing that they need because they’re not getting many
volunteers to do their work, if they have had to buy
personal protective equipment for their staff to do the
services that they usually deliver to the community, I hope
we can get them some help. If you are a shelter needing to
isolate folks and possibly rent additional space or isolate
some of your population; If you are seeing families that
are potentially displaced because they can’t pay their rent
and need to provide direct financial assistance to prevent
homelessness; If you are a church and opened up your doors
to folks that are doing those things, I’m hoping that you
can get some of this funding.
Perryman: Usually, CDBG
only reimburses for expenses already spent, is that the same
policy here?
Clemens: Yes,
unfortunately, however, folks can submit for reimbursement
for expenses that have already been incurred as a result of
the pandemic -
Perryman: - Which is still
a burden for many…
Clemens: Yes, I
understand. And that’s something that I would like to work
with the city to address. It is a challenge for certain
nonprofits to front the money, and that’s one of the
discussions I want to have with some of our banking partners
to provide cash for these opportunities and receive CRA
(Community Reinvestment Act) credits.
Perryman: Historically, the
Department of Neighborhoods can often take 90 days or longer
to reimburse for expenses. For that reason, many excellent
nonprofit organizations choose to forego the CDBG process.
Clemens: One of my
priorities has been to make sure that we can turn our
financial requests for reimbursement or turn our financing
projects around in a more timely manner. I can assure you
that under my watch, we’re not going to take 90 days to
process a request for reimbursement. It’s just not going to
happen because I’m working internally to make sure that
we’re more efficient. The other thing is that we are going
to make sure that once the council approves the CDBG awards
that we get those contracts out as quickly as possible. So,
we know that we have a lot to do, but I think we’ve got
commitment and staffing in place now to make the process
more efficient than it has been.
Perryman: What records and
other requirements are necessary to apply?
Clemens: Of course you’d
have to do a work plan, you’d have to do a budget for what
you’re asking for, a staffing budget, supplies budget, all
of those things. You then, have to document expenditures and
have receipts and invoices for what you’re trying to
reimburse. And with staffing, you have to have payroll
records.
Perryman: How about
monitoring?
Clemens: We will,
obviously, come out to monitor the impact of your proposal,
how many people you have served. If it’s personal
protective equipment, how many of them, how many people. If
its shelter operation, what’s the impact, how many people
you isolated, what was the cost of the isolation facility,
what was the cost of retrofitting the isolation facility?
If it’s for testing, how many people did you test and what
was the outcome? And, because the national objective is to
address COVID-19, an urgent need, we will be working with
HUD to give us more detail of the monitoring requirements.
Perryman: Please elaborate
on the funding priority listed to provide outreach to
vulnerable populations?
Clemens: I am very
concerned about the disproportionate impact that the
pandemic is having on the African American community. So, I
would like to see proposals that address this need and help
to minimize this pandemic on the African American
community.
Perryman: Finally, the
pandemic has also affected houses of worship, many who, like
individuals and small businesses, face massive expenses
trying to remain viable. Are church operational expenses an
eligible use of the funds?
Clemens: Well, I think if
I’m not mistaken, I think nonprofits could also apply for
the EDLs, the small business assistance fund. I would say
that utility expenses would not be an eligible use for CDBG,
but I will certainly research it. I think churches have
employees and staff, and I believe it would be an allowable
use and suitable program for the Enterprise Development Loan
program.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
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