Your post is heart breakingly honest even though one may not know the details of the ‘red tape’ you know when something doesn’t quite smell right.

I took interest in the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) monies available through HUD. I’ve been selling REO (bank owned) foreclosures for over seven years but the past two years have left neighborhoods DEVASTATED! Neighborhoods in some areas look like the aftermath of a pandemic. You have to see it to respect it.

I went to a couple of NSP meetings, separate for the City and the County, and kind of walked away with some paranoid thoughts of wastefulness, misappropriation and lack of support for the recipients. I was feeling exactly what you described above in paragraph 1…
allowing the feds to more or less wash their hands of the process and say, “we’ve allocated the money with lightening speed and it’s not our fault if the states are too dumb to spend it quickly.”

It truly is very unfortunate that there appears to be little sincere interest in rebuilding. Food Banks, Neighborhoods, Seniors, Children, Families, Schools, Universities, Municipalities, Hospitals, Small Businesses, Non-Profits…may not be able to hang on for the trickling down.

Muddling through the confusion is exactly what keeps us in business, no?

The more breathless “where’s the stimulus money” articles, the more breathless calls of “can you help find the stimulus money?” some will field.