Federal support for CDCs: Some of the history and issues of community control 1

Abstract

This paper introduces the history and reasoning that stood behind the program in the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO), for the Community development corporations (CDCs) in low-income areas. The CDC program at OEO was created in 1967–1968 from the authority provided originally by the Special Impact Program amendment to the Basic OEO legislation. Targetting the area, rather than the individual poor people in that area, required a re-thinking of what might be done. First, the problem of the poverty area is too complicated for service programs, even a whole array of service programs, and so a multi-purpose, comprehensive, and coordinated development program including services at each community level is necessary. Second, a very important part of that comprehensive development attack has to include economic and business development. Finally, to make a comprehensive "special impact," limited funds ought to be concentrated in a few projects instead of being spread all around to every area that needed attention. Each neighborhood would have the chance to create its own projects, but after being given a basic investment budget to work with, each specific investment from that budget would have to be approved by OEO. The history of the OEO/CDC program is, in fact, a history of a continuous struggle to maintain the integrity of the design, of the program, and of the funds.