Congresswoman Asks HUD Secretary to Address Community Grant Issue

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U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R—Camas) has formally asked the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development to work with her to find an alternative solution to a survey that rendered several Lewis County towns ineligible to apply for a critical source of funding.

Data that had been taken from a sample of information from the American Community Survey between 2006 and 2010 determined, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, that Pe Ell, Toledo and Vader are ineligible to apply for one source of funds through the Community Development Block Grant program. Mayors of those towns brought up their concerns in October’s mayors’ meeting with county commissioners, and commissioner Edna Fund brought up the issue to Herrera Beutler’s staff members.

HUD had transitioned from using data from the 2000 U.S. Census to the data from the survey, which several local officials say is inaccurate when representing their communities’ economic snapshots.

In a letter sent Tuesday, Herrera Beutler asked HUD Secretary Julian Castro to address the survey method, which she said is flawed.

“I have strong concerns that this data is producing inaccurate results,” Herrera Beutler wrote. “Multiple cities in Southwest Washington who previously qualified lost eligibility because according to the new LMI data they are suddenly too wealthy to qualify, including three communities — Pe Ell, Toledo and Vader — that are located in a county with the second-highest unemployment rate in Washington state.”

Herrera Beutler specifically cited the city of Vader as an example, noting that survey showed the town’s low and moderate income population, or LMI, dropped from 55.8 to 34 percent; however, an independent income survey the city had conducted showed the median household income in the community was $28,000.



LMI is calculated using a formula that, at its core, sets a baseline of 80 percent of a given area’s median income. If their LMI data indicates fewer than 51 percent of people meet the criteria for low and moderate income, they’re ineligible for some sources of CDBG funding.

Mayors of Pe Ell, Toledo and Vader brought up their concerns to Lewis County commissioners in the October monthly mayors’ meeting at the county courthouse, hoping to seek a fix to the issue. Fund notified the Congresswoman’s staff, and at the November mayors’ meeting District Director Ryan Hart told those present that a solution was being sought in Washington, D.C.

At that meeting, Pe Ell Mayor Lonnie Willey announced the town had been notified they will receive $800,000 in funding toward a street project.

Herrera Beutler, who serves on a Congressional committee that determines the budget for HUD, also invited Secretary Castro to visit Pe Ell, Toledo, and Vader, among other towns, to “see firsthand the discrepancy in the data being used to represent these communities.”