Office of Community Services

Allowed Uses of EZ/EC SSBG Grant Funds

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Community Services (OCS), provided grants for each designated Empowerment Zone's and Enterprise Community's revitalization projects. OCS awarded the funds to State agencies that are fiscal intermediaries for the grants. The State agencies convey the funds to the designated localities in keeping with their EZ/EC project strategic plans.

The statute that authorized the EZ/EC SSBG grants stipulates that the designated localities may only use the funds for activities that are:

Directed to achieve any of three broad goals (described below);

Structured to benefit residents of the designated Empowerment Zone or Enterprise Community neighborhoods; and

Included in the Empowerment Zone's or Enterprise Community's strategic plan.

The three goals for the EZ/EC SSBG awards are as follows:

Achieving or maintaining economic self-support to prevent, reduce, or eliminate dependency;

Achieving or maintaining self-sufficiency, including reduction or prevention of dependency;

Preventing or remedying the neglect, abuse, or exploitation of children and adults unable to protect their own interests or preserving, rehabilitating, or reuniting families.

The authorizing statute includes "program options" that the Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities may include in their strategic plans. The program options are as follows:

Community and economic development services focused on disadvantaged adults and youths, including skills training; transportation services; and job, housing, business, and financial management counseling;

Programs that promote home ownership, education, or other routes to economic independence for low-income families, youths, and other individuals;

Efforts to assist in the provision of emergency and transitional shelter for disadvantaged families, youths, and other individuals;

Projects that assist nonprofit organizations and community and junior colleges so they will be able to provide disadvantaged individuals with opportunities for short-term training courses in entrepreneurial skills, self-employment, and other skills that will promote individual self-sufficiency and the interests of the community;

Programs that provide training and employment for disadvantaged adults and youths in construction, rehabilitation, or improvement of affordable housing, public infrastructure, and community facilities;

Programs that support residential or nonresidential drug and alcohol prevention and treatment programs that offer comprehensive services for pregnant women and mothers and their children;

Programs that provide activities outside the school hours, including keeping school buildings open during evening hours and weekends for mentoring and study.

Except in situations where a specific Empowerment Zone or Enterprise Community project is focused on achieving one or more of these program options, the locality is prohibited from using the EZ/EC SSBG grant funds to:

Purchase or improve land or facilities;

Make cash payments to individuals for subsistence or room and board;

Make wage payments to individuals as a social service;

Make cash payments for medical care;

Provide social services to institutionalized people.

The Office of Community Services may waive the prohibition against purchasing or improving land or facilities when a proposed use of EZ/EC SSBG funds does not address a specific program option. Localities should send written waiver requests to:

Margaret Washnitzer
Office of Community Services
Aerospace Building, 5th Floor West
370 L'Enfant Promenade S.W.
Washington, DC 20447