For the first time since 2018, the city of Fort Worth did not receive a $300,000 grant from the state that annually funds one of its veterans assistance programs.
The loss means that Fort Worth鈥檚 program, which provides home modifications to veterans living in Fort Worth, does not have existing funding for the upcoming year. City leaders are working on plans to fill the gap.
Brian Brown, interim assistant director of the city鈥檚 neighborhood services department, said City Council is expected to vote in August on whether to reallocate $300,000 from the city鈥檚 Community Development Block Grant to fund the program. The is used to benefit low- and moderate-income residents of Fort Worth.
鈥淲e鈥檙e going to be able to use (that) to continue the program on for this next year, so that there won鈥檛 be loss of service to our veteran clients,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淲e鈥檒l be able to apply for the grant again, and we have no reason to think that we wouldn鈥檛 be able to receive that grant again.鈥�
Healthy Homes for Heroes, which the city launched in 2018, provides safety and accessibility modifications to veterans鈥� homes. Since its inception, the program has been funded by an annual $300,000 grant from the Texas Veterans Commission.
鈥淭he reason that we lost that grant is because we have to meet timeliness requirements on our expenditure of the grant funds,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淭his past year, we experienced a couple of delays that caused us to not meet those timeliness requirements.鈥�
Elaine Zavala, director of the Fund for Veterans鈥� Assistance at the commission, said in a statement that the commission awarded Fort Worth a $300,000 Housing for Texas Heroes grant to operate from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.
In order to be considered for a grant renewal, 2023-24 grantees were expected to meet 60% of annual performance and funding expenditures by the end of February and have no unresolved compliance findings, according to the grant application. Zavala said the commission chose not to renew Fort Worth鈥檚 grant for the 2024-25 period because the city did not meet either of those criteria.
鈥淭he city of Fort Worth is encouraged to apply again when our next application cycle opens fall 2024,鈥� Zavala said.
Brown said the city wasn鈥檛 able to meet timeliness requirements because of how long it takes to spend the Healthy Homes for Heroes funds. Throughout the home modification process, construction must be routinely inspected by a certified inspector. The city鈥檚 only inspector for the program left the position, Brown said, and it took until October 2023 to get a new hire onboarded.
鈥淭hat put us behind the eight ball right away because the program started July 1,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淪o, we were about three months behind.鈥�
As the program continued, city staff discovered a 鈥渃lerical error鈥� that led to some of the grant metrics being recorded incorrectly, he said. To correct those errors, the city had to file an amendment with the Texas Veterans Commission that took several weeks to be reviewed and approved.
鈥淭hose two things just kind of came together and made for a bad situation,鈥� Brown said.
Despite missing the deadline and the opportunity for renewal, the city was able to finish out the program by June 30 and use the entire $300,000 for the 2023-24 year, Brown said.
He added that the city does intend to reapply for the program. In the meantime, he encouraged those interested in the Healthy Homes for Heroes program to get in touch with the city for applications. They can do so by calling 817-392-8255 or emailing Joaquin Castillo, the city鈥檚 , at joaquin.castillo@fortworthtexas.gov.
Cecilia Lenzen is a government accountability reporter for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at cecilia.lenzen@fortworthreport.org or .
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