Community Development Block Grant
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The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) was enacted in 1974 by president Gerald Ford through the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974 and took effect in January 1975. It had bipartisan support. The liberal leaning legislators liked that it required that local governments try to extinguish poverty and "urban blight." Conservative leaning legislators appreciated the grant because it placed a lot of control in the hands of private investors while simultaneously reducing the role of the government. Cities automatically qualified for the grant if they met the requirements, but were required to submit allocation reports (who and where the money was spent) and quarterly reports to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD did not keep good records, southern cities in particular spent grant money in affluent neighborhoods. CDBG funds were distributed in such a way as to generate a bias against older (declining) frostbelt cities, cities that were losing population to the sunbelt. This problem was rectified after a bitter dispute in 1978. Compare to Urban Development Action Grants (UDAG).