In 1974, seven previously separate categorical grants were combined in the newly authorized Community Development Block Grant Program and placed under the administration of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. One component of this program became known as the Small Cities Program. It involved discretionary, non-entitlement funds that are awarded on a competitive basis to municipalities of fewer than 50,000 people. The 1981 reauthorization included a provision allowing the states to administer the Small Cities Program. Beginning with the 1983 funding cycle, the New Hampshire Office of State Planning undertook this responsibility. The question that this dissertation set out to answer was whether this devolution has, as envisioned by its advocates, allowed for a more flexible, efficient and wide-spread disbursement of these funds. The focus has been on the effects on the program as administered at the local level. The evaluation was done in four steps: (1) Data on each grant application and award in New Hampshire from 1975 to 1990 was gathered and analyzed. (2) Changes in the program's major design features under both HUD and OSP were summarized. (3) People who had participated in the program under both administrations were interviewed. (4) Conclusions were reached based on an analysis of all available data. It was found that after the devolution: (1) A greater number and percentage of applications were funded. (2) The average size of municipalities receiving funds decreased significantly. (3) The types of activities funded changed, with a greater proportion of the money going toward economic development and public facilities projects rather than housing rehabilitation. These findings, and the other data obtained, led to the following conclusions: (1) The devolution accomplished its major goal. (2) Human resource capacity-building on the state and local level is vital. (3) New Hampshire's program design succeeded because it was flexible, utilized a straight-forward scoring system and had clear objectives.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-7283 |
| Date | 01 January 1992 |
| Creators | Shankle, Dean E. |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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