$29 MILLION AVAILABLE FOR Mississippi Delta Communities!
The Community Infrastructure Fund will provide funding for community-based and regional projects in the Delta Regional Authority service area that address basic public infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, and flood control.
Program priorities
- Encourage stakeholders to make programmatic and policy-related changes to prioritize equity and cultural context
- Investments in economically distressed communities and in support of inclusive, sustainable rural communities with access to services; funding; and programs that enable career stability, such as healthcare, housing, education, and food security
- Collaboration among states, economic development districts, institutions of higher education, the private sector, philanthropic organizations, and region residents
- Collaborative, innovative, and evidence-based practices to rapidly reinvest taxpayer dollars in communities
- Use data to inform decisions regarding grants and investments and track outcomes from those initiatives; facilitate thought leadership and data-sharing in order to promote transparency while monitoring emerging challenges and ongoing progress
- Address the challenges and needs today and for the future
- The use of resilient construction methods and materials to protect against natural disasters
- Clean energy demonstration projects that support weatherization and other energy efficiency improvements to reduce energy costs, and which include clean energy manufacturing and workforce development
- Increasing historically underserved community access to affordable, healthy food
Funding Overview
$29.5 million will be available through this program.
The minimum funding amount is $500,000. The maximum funding amount is $2,000,000.
Funding up to 90% of eligible costs.
Eligible Applicants
Eligible applicants within the Delta Regional Authority service area include:
- Counties/parishes, cities, or other political subdivisions of a state, including a special purpose district of a state or local government engaged in economic or community development activities or a consortium of political subdivisions
- Public or private nonprofit organizations or associations
- Regional development organizations
- Economic development organizations
- Workforce investment boards
- Unions/labor organizations
- Community-based organizations
- Faith-based organizations
- Public Institutions of higher education or a consortium of institutions of higher education
- Minority-serving institutions
- Trade/technical schools
- Historically Black Colleges and Universities
- Federally recognized tribes
Eligible Activities
Basic Public Infrastructure
Projects located in distressed counties/parishes and isolated areas of distress; these projects are defined as follows: basic public infrastructure shall mean water and wastewater facilities, electric and gas utilities, broadband delivery and solid waste landfills, all of which are fundamental services necessary to sustain and promote growth and/or attract business(es), which have a useful life of 20 years or more.
Transportation Infrastructure
Projects to facilitate economic development activities in the region; these projects are defined as follows: transportation infrastructure shall mean basic physical structures needed to support and/or create a transportation system, which shall include local roadways, bridges, rail, port facilities, airports and other
structures deemed central to an overall transportation system.
Flood Control
Projects that address local or regional flooding concerns negatively impacting local economies within the DRA region.
Health improvements – Projects that address existing health concerns for industry and/or residents as they may relate to water and sewer infrastructure deficiencies.
Basic residential infrastructure – Basic public infrastructure projects for communities in distressed counties/parishes or isolated areas designated distressed in non-distressed counties/parishes may be considered, provided they meet the program requirements set out in other applicable eligibility guidelines.
Phased projects – Applications for early phases of a larger project where projected outcomes will not be realized until a much later time, possibly after other funds are awarded in subsequent cycles, may be considered eligible with proper assurances from relevant project partners. DRA’s involvement in early-phase projects shall not constitute a commitment on DRA’s part for future funding.
