SHELBURNE — Having made progress toward its affordable housing goals, Shelburne may see smaller Community Development Block Grant awards in the future.

Linda Overing of Breezeway Farm Consulting, which manages the town’s CDBG grant, told the Selectboard this week that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has said the pool of federal funding that has been used to support the program is set to diminish in future years, thus making the grant application process more competitive. She said it will be difficult and unlikely for the town to maintain the same level of funding as its demographics have changed and the town has made progress toward its housing goals.

“Shelburne’s demographics have really changed a lot since I started working with the town 20 years ago. The rankings that HUD uses to determine whether the town is needy, based on income, at that point in 2000, the town came in as having very high needs,” Overing said. “That is no longer what the census is recording for you, so it’s simply going to get much more difficult over the years to continue to get the kind of funding we were able to.”

Overing said HUD is prioritizing fully engineered projects in communities that have higher percentages of low-income households, but in recent years, the median household income in Shelburne has increased.

“The statistics aren’t in Shelburne’s favor,” she said.

According to the town’s 2023 Open Space and Recreation Plan, the median household income for Shelburne was estimated to be $72,236 in 2020, higher than the county average but still lower than the state average. The town has a poverty rate of 10.8%, on par with the county average.

Overing said to continue getting funding, the town would need to invest some of its own money to engineer projects so they are “shovel-ready” and more likely to gain HUD support. If the Selectboard feels it is necessary, the town could consider declaring an area of town with older homes in need of sprucing up as a “Slum and Blight” district, which could make the area eligible for additional pools of funding.

Overing added that the town will need to have additional planning discussions with the person who takes over the CDBG work from her, as she plans to retire at the end of the grant cycle.

Selectboard members thanked Overing for her years of service to Shelburne and said they will consider her recommendations.

“You are partially responsible for all the sprucing up of Shelburne that makes us less competitive,” Selectboard member Andrew Baker said.

CDBG hearing

During Monday’s meeting, the Selectboard also held its annual hearing on the CDBG funding, discussing how the money has been spent.

The town received $1.35 million during the fiscal year 2022/2023 grant cycle. Overing said the town primarily used its CDBG funds to continue renovations at Highland Village. The town had previously used CDBG funds to start renovating the bathrooms, and hoped to do the kitchens as well, but due to bids coming in higher than expected, could only complete the bathrooms. With this most recent grant cycle, the town is hoping to finish the renovations.

“Back in 2016, the town of Shelburne had some leftover money from one of its projects, and that was used to hire an engineer that worked with Highland Village and its residents to come up with a plan for upgrading both the bathrooms and kitchens,” Overing recounted. “We ended up only doing the bathroom project at the time.”

During the public hearing, the Selectboard also heard from Frances Hall, Community Action Pioneer Valley’s director of community services, about the West County Food Pantry at Cowell Gymnasium on Maple Street, which has received a portion of Shelburne’s CDBG funds.

Hall said since the beginning of the grant cycle in October 2023, the food pantry has served 137 Shelburne residents, providing an average of 24 meals per person.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.