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~ . e HARRIS COUNTY COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AGENCY 3100 TImmons Lane, Suite 330, Houston, Texas 77027. 626.5651 JON LINDSAY, Counly Judge WALTER l. JONES, Director June 19, 1990 The Honorable Norman Malone Mayor of La Porte 604 West Fairmont Parkway P. O. Box 1115 La Porte, Texas 77571 Dear Mayor Malone: Harris County is one of five Texas counties with sufficient population to qualify as an "urban county" and therefore receive a direct entitlement grant of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the past fifteen years, Harris County has received approximately 71 million dollars which have been used to build community centers, parks, streets, water, sewer and drainage improvements, and rehabilitate homes, within Harris County cooperative cities and umncorporated areas. A small percenta~e of funds also has been used for public services such as counseling, emergency shelter, medical transportation, and child care. Also, a CDBG- funded economic development corporation has made low interest loans to businesses agreeing to create jobs for low or moderate income persons. Attached for your information is a Fact Sheet describing the activities of the Harris County Community Development Agency which is responsible for planning and implementing CDBG activities. The amount of the entitlement grant received from HUD is based on the populatio~ age of housing and the percentage of low and moderate income persons living in the urban county service area. The service area is defined as all unincorporated areas of Harris County and those cities within the county which sign cooperation agreements (co-op cities). Your city is again requested to enter into a cooperation agreement with the County to undertake or assist in the undertaking of community development and housing assistance activities within your city for the next three fiscal years, 1991, 1992, and 1993. Signing this agreement would enable your city to request grant funds from Harris County for CDBG eligible projects, permit low or moderate income city residents to request low interest or deferred payment housing rehabilitation loans, and appropriate businesses to request low interest loans. Although CDBG funds are intended to directly benefit primarily areas of slum and blight and low and moderate income neighborhoods, they indirectly benefit Harris County and the surrounding area as a whole. Perhaps your city does not have areas in which a majority of the residents are of low and moderate Income (currently defined as a family of four earning less than $32,800) and would therefore be unlikely to qualify for an area project. However, individual low or moderate income families might still qualify for low interest housing rehabilitation loans, grants, or other direct benefit activities. Although there is no guarantee