"We hope to give local communities the tools to tackle local challenges from the ground up," Martinez adds.

More than $7 million in Community Development Block Grants will assist communities to stimulate economic development, rehabilitate housing, improve infrastructure, provide job training, finance revolving loan funds and finance other loca1ly determined projects.The funding includes $6.5 million for Oakland County, $1.6 million for Port Huron, $1 million for Redford Township, $668,000 for Clinton Township and $240,000 for Michigan State University.

Martinez toured St. Anne's Cooperative Apartments and the Ser Casa Academy in southwest Detroit. Both are part of a focus on new construction by the Bagley Housing Association (BRA), a faith-based nonprofit organization that builds housing for low and moderate-income families in the Hubbard-Richard communities of southwest Detroit. The BHA is partially funded with CDBG money.