Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
Communities Unlimited, Inc. (CU) received new funding support in the amount of $1,156,250 to continue our Rural Community Development Technical Assistance and Training (RCD-TAT) to assist rural, low-income communities to meet drinking water and wastewater needs. CU is a private non-profit 501(c)3 Multi-State Regional Organization that serves the seven-state southern region of the United States. CU has been assisting rural communities to plan, develop, construct, and operate community water and wastewater utilities since 1976. CU is a current OCS-RCD grantee organization, Grant #90-EF-0076. The water and wastewater needs of rural low-income communities within our seven-state service area of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas are significant and continue to present challenges to public and environmental health that directly impede economic development and community vitality across the region. Rural households and that are not served by community drinking water and wastewater facilities need intensive RCDTAT to help plan, finance, and develop adequate infrastructure. Additionally, many rural low-income communities that do have this infrastructure still need assistance and training to increase their capacity to operate these systems to ensure the delivery of safe drinking water and the treatment and discharge of clean wastewater that meets the ever-increasing state and federal environmental regulations. And finally, these existing systems continue to need extensive RCDTAT to facilitate the planning and development of critical infrastructure upgrades to address widespread systemic infrastructure aging and deterioration. All of these challenges facing rural community water and wastewater systems that are three to four times the costs per household of urban areas are exacerbated by the widespread poverty in the rural South. In fact, of the 384 CDFI designated Persistent Poverty Counties in the United States, CU's service area includes 175 of these counties (45.6%) where more than 20% of the population has lived in poverty for 30-years or more. This project proposes to achieve seven major outcomes that supports the RCD's Program Goal of enhancing the overall health of small, low-income, rural communities and the wellbeing of their residents through training and technical assistance in support of the development and/or maintenance of water and wastewater systems. The program's outcomes will be achieved through measurable and quantifiable objectives and outputs. The Objectives of this project are as follows: target RCD-TAT to at least 160 low-income communities where the poverty rate is at least 20% and less than 2,500 population; provide training to 450 local officials, water operators, and other staff; leverage $40 million for water and wastewater construction projects; and provide $3 million through our CDFI loan program for water and wastewater projects.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
