Mount Clemens hears CDBG requests from warming center and child‑advocacy center

The Mount Clemens City Commission opened a public hearing on the city’s expected $64,834 allocation in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds for fiscal year 2019 and heard requests from local service providers on how the money should be spent.

Mark Henderson, representing the Macomb County Warming Center and the Ray of Hope warming network, described the program’s rotating church‑based shelters and asked the commission for $3,000 to buy client transportation, work boots and safety equipment. Henderson said the program rotates across 19 churches in Macomb County, including four in Mount Clemens, and provided operational figures: so far this season the program has sheltered about 290 people, delivered roughly 2,252 shelter nights and provided about 4,500 meals. “We give enough bus tickets to get people to their first paycheck,” Henderson said, describing how the funds would support immediate needs that help clients obtain employment and housing stability.

Dory Vasus Nolan, executive director of the Macomb County Child Advocacy Center (Carehouse), requested $6,000 to support forensic interviews and follow‑up services for approximately 10 Mount Clemens children and families. Nolan outlined the center’s multidisciplinary work with law enforcement, the prosecutor’s office and medical providers, and said Carehouse serves more than 700 children yearly from Macomb County. She said the center has conducted about 7,000 forensic interviews historically and reported that 242 of those children were Mount Clemens residents during its multi‑year tally.

City staff framed the hearing as a solicitation of resident and nonprofit input; the notice and a county list of pre‑approved nonprofit applicants were attached to the agenda and published in the Macomb Daily. After public comment the commission moved to close the hearing; a roll call recorded unanimous support. The transcript includes no subsequent vote or award of CDBG dollars during this meeting.

Next steps: the hearing closed without recorded allocations; the commission or staff will need to follow up if and when the commission schedules a decision on how to distribute the FY2019 CDBG funds.