A portion of a state grant would help North Adams fund repairs to Beacon Street, shown near the intersection of Tremont Street.

NORTH ADAMS — The city is seeking $950,000 in grant funding to get rid of its worst blighted properties, improve roadways and sidewalks on a couple streets, fund various social services programs and help pay its community development salaries.

During a public hearing on Wednesday, Director of Community Development Marya Kozik gave a presentation about the choice of projects the city seeks through the Community Development Block Grant program. The 18-month grant period starts in July and extends into fiscal 2028.

The federally funded, annual program has paid for previous city improvements; in 2025, the city landed $950,000 to resurface roads around Prospect Street and build a second parking lot at the Mary Spitzer Senior Center.

Here's a list of the projects the city seeks to fund through this round:

As part of its Street Improvement Project, the city is requesting $500,000 for roadway resurfacing on Lincoln and Sperry streets, which will include sidewalk replacement, curb cuts, improving ADA accessibility and possible stormwater management.

“We have done a number of streets in a particular low-income area,” Kozik said. “We can’t do 10 a year; we usually work on two or three. But, slowly, over the years, we have built up to improve the conditions of the neighborhood, hopefully elevating the status of living for everyone.”

That designation was made because that is the location of a hub of low-income housing, in the adjacent area is St Joseph's Court and senior housing and it was based on an ADA study that looked at where the worst streets are, said Kozik.

Another $280,000 would be used to demolish vacant abandoned, dormant, dilapidated or unsafe buildings to eradicate slum and blight “on a spot basis.”

While some nearby communities, like Adams, are designating entire swaths as blighted to be eligible for certain funding, Kozik said that is not what is happening through this program.

“They do not all have to be in the same area, but we will look at areas within the city where this will be an improvement — particularly to health and safety, that is paramount,” said Kozik.

Decisions about which properties those will be will come from a review of the city’s distressed properties list, and “taking the worst ones off of that list,” she said.

The city is requesting $40,000 for programs run by locally contracted service providers. Earlier in the winter, Kozik said the city put out a request for proposal to providers and those were reviewed by the Health and Human Services Commission. It suggested splitting the money between four groups.

It would fund a free string music education program for students from “underresourced communities "by Kids for Harmony Youth Development program by 18 Degrees; emergency assistance for seniors and families with children under 5 that is operated by Berkshire Community Action Council; The REACH Initiative by Berkshire County Head Start, which aims to improve kindergarten readiness of children in preschool programs by incorporating case management services; and the monthly Meals Ministry program at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish that serves meals to seniors and people with disabilities.

The last component would allocate $132,000 for salaries and planning within the Office of Community Development. The fund will partially pay the salaries of the director, the project coordinator and the fiscal compliance officer.

There are two primary Massachusetts CDBG funding programs, the Community Development Fund and the Mini-Entitlement Program. North Adams has consistently been a mini-entitlement community since at least 2020, according to the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities. Entitlement communities generally have a population of 50,000 or more and receive this funding directly from HUD.

Under the CDBG program, North Adams is a mini-entitlement community, which means it is noncompetitive and is awarded $950,000 each cycle directly through the Department of Housing and Urban Development to address low-income needs.