Columbia Housing and Community Development Commission approves fund requests for multiple projects

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Columbia Housing and Community Development Commission met Wednesday night to review funding requests from nonprofit organizations in the area. The commission ultimately decided to fund several projects, totaling up to $540,000.

This comes after the commission heard project proposals from 11 organizations in May regarding requests for funds to build affordable housing throughout the city.

Among the eight projects to receive money include the City of Columbia, Habitat for Humanity, the Columbia Housing Authority and Central Missouri Community Action. Some of the projects the organizations plan to begin include a homeownership assistant program, funding to build new homes and a tenant-based rental assistance program.

The Columbia Housing Authority will receive the most money, sitting at $150,000 in order to build a Providence Walkway. Most members said they wanted to focus on funding projects that would provide the most immediate change for the city.

"They were starting from nothing and I feel like they've also applied for ARPA funds, which hopefully will be soon seen, so I actually had that project at 0 as well just because it wasn't something that was going to be, it wasn't already in process," Housing and Community Development Commissioner Rebecca Shaw said.

The funds will have to be presented to the Columbia City Council in August before they are officially approved.