Planning & Development

Consolidated Plan

Each year the City of Duluth receives roughly $3 million in community development funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). To receive these funds, HUD requires the City to create a Consolidated Plan that lays out how the City of Duluth and its partners will use an expected $15 million in HUD funds over the next five years to meet community needs. Through the consolidated planning process, the City uses public feedback and data to assess community needs and plan how to meet those needs. This page includes the full 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan as well as information and reports about the community outreach process and the analysis of fair housing the City conducted to develop the final 5-year plan. 

The goals and objectives in the Consolidated Plan address the need for decent, affordable housing, a suitable living environment, and expanded economic opportunities for all community members. The projects funded through the Community Development Program address these community needs by creating and maintaining affordable housing, providing economic opportunities, offering public services to community members in need, and providing access to quality public facilities. 

The City Planning & Development Division conducts a Community Needs Assessment annually to help the Community Development Committee select annual funding priorities. For the 5-year Consolidated Plan, we conducted a more robust Community Needs Assessment to inform the 5-year funding goal and priorities. 

Summary of the Community Needs Assessment for Fiscal Year 2020 and the 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan

To see recent annual Community Needs Assessments for each fiscal year of funding, click here.

To receive community development funds, HUD requires that the City affirmatively furthers fair housing choice. In short, HUD wants the City to ensure that we don’t spend these funds in ways that increase segregation and concentrations of poverty or reduce people’s ability to live in the neighborhood they want to. In conjunction with each five-year Consolidated Plan, we develop an Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI). The AI lays out the City’s planned actions to affirmatively further fair housing for the next five years. We look at the following federally defined protected classes when we analyze fair housing issues: race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, family status, and national origin. Anything that limits housing availability or choice on the basis of these protected classes is an impediment to fair housing choice.

2020 Analysis of Impediments (AI) to Fair Housing Choice (full document)

The City receives three types of community development funds from HUD: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME), and Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG). CDBG funds support community development projects including affordable housing, public services, public facilities, and economic development. HOME funds support programs that create affordable housing for low-income households. ESG funds support projects that offer basic needs and housing stabilization services to community members experiencing or at risk of experiencing homelessness. Local organizations apply to the Community Development Program requesting these HUD funds for their projects. The Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plans are reporting documents that HUD uses to monitor the City’s use of the funds and progress towards meeting community needs. Click here for more information about Duluth's Community Development Funding Program.