If you want to know how important federal dollars are to the city of Buffalo, just come to the corner of Suffolk Street and Roosevelt Avenue.
"This Suffolk Avenue and it's one of our most traveled streets, right near the 33, and as you can see we have a number of holes and different issues with the road, and a lot of that is based on just the travel," said Rasheed Wyatt, (D) University District councilmember.
Wyatt says it’s HUD Community Development Block Grant dollars, along with state and city funds, that allow these streets to get fixed — and that's not all the money goes to.
"The winters take their toll on the street, and so these dollars that have come in are critically important, not just for sidewalks and streets but also for nonprofit organizations," said Wyatt.
On Friday, Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced HUD has finally delivered close to $14 million in delayed Community Development Block Grant funds to Buffalo. The money was allocated by HUD back in May.
"It's part of our Community Block Grant process and it funds community centers, it funds road improvements, sidewalk improvements that you see across the neighborhoods, anything to do with human services across the area, community centers," said Lovejoy District Councilmember Richard Fontana.
Fontana says funds also help to pay contractors who fix up homes throughout the city.
"Each district gets about 10 homes to be rehabbed, renovations on properties, roofs, furnaces, emergency repairs — those go through those channels. And when money’s frozen like that, we cannot renovate those homes," said Fontana.
Wyatt says fortunately the delay didn't hurt any programs or the delivery of services. Still, he says having the funds could help ensure there won't be any delays in the future.
"When we do have these funds, it really helps to expedite resources to the community directly. And when we don't have them, it really causes a bottleneck and people and services aren't able to, non-profits aren't able to, provide those services," said Wyatt.