At the March 13th Housing and Community Development Commission (HCDC) meeting, the issue of language being a potential barrier to CDBG funding was brought forth by Commissioner Bock.  Being a son of immigrants and seeing first hand how difficult living in the United States can be for my parents due to English being their second language, I appreciated Commissioner Bock’s sensitivity to the issue. 

However, specifically to the CDBG application process, how would we be able to address this in a cost effective manner?  Should the CDBG application be produced in multiple languages?  Should applicants be allowed to submit their application in multiple languages? 

The challenges of reviewing dozens of application in different languages would create a logistical nightmare requiring multilingual evaluators, not to mention the overhead to address this one issue.  HUD, the source of CDBG funding, allows for up to 20% administrative overhead.  The Housing Department of San Jose is currently running at 13% allowing for the remaining 7% going directly to client services.  Even 1% additional overhead could potential mean close to $100,000 of service being taken away from our communities.

In addition, when the city of San Jose contracts their services to nonprofit organizations, should it not be the responsibility of the nonprofit organization to have the resource capacity to be able to engage a city staff in English?  I am a strong proponent of language translation and cultural sensitivity/proficiency when the city engages the public directly.  I am also a strong proponent for supporting nonprofit organizations who work on the front line and truly understand the needs of the community and be able to provide the services in the client’s primary language with cultural sensitivity.  If nonprofit organizations are going to be providing these critically necessary services to our communities, shouldn’t their role be to bridge the gap between tax payer dollars and their communities, and a responsibility of being that bridge is English proficiency? 

Every time I see my parents, a part of the day is spent reviewing their mail with them, looking at different insurance plans, helping them navigate this world.  If I wasn’t here to do that for them, I would hope that there was a service provided in the community for them so that they wouldn’t feel and be so lost.  If that service had the same language issues that my parents have, what help would that be?