While crafting a plan to improve the city, one city department wants people to know their voices can make a difference.

The Auburn Planning and Economic Development Office has planned a series of open houses to allow people to create a wish list of programs to address issues they see in the community and state their concerns about the city. The planners will consider the comments while drafting the 2008-2009 Community Development Block Grant Action Plan.

“We're looking for people's input on what's going on and what a program can do to address the needs,” said Jennifer Haines, the office's director.

The action plan is shaped around public participation, she added.

The four main priorities are related to housing, homeless, community development and nonhomeless special needs.

The department's employees will weigh residents' thoughts and ideas while they allocate amounts of money to different categories, as well as consider amending or adding programs.

Haines pointed to a change in the city's sidewalk assistance program as an example of how input can make a different.

The former program provided help to homeowners who lived in neighborhoods where more than half the residents were lower income. After accepting feedback, the planning office changed it to be on an individual basis, allowing people to submit their income levels and receive assistance for their sidewalks without living in a lower income neighborhood or street.

“We'll see if we can use current programs and/or if we need to take a fresh look at programs,” Haines said.

The job of prioritizing funding is made more difficult by the fact that planners don't know how much money they have to allocate.

Last year, the city received $1.1 million, and Haines predicts they will hear in December an estimate of how much funding the city will receive.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has classified Auburn as an entitlement community, meaning it receives CDBG funding from HUD on a consistent, non-competitive basis annually.

As an entitlement community, Auburn is guaranteed to receive these federal dollars each year, but the amount changes based on the federal budget and the number of entitlement communities.

Congress engaged in earlier discussions about changing the formula, which likely would decrease Auburn's annual cut. Haines said she hasn't heard a peep about the potential change since the change in Congress in January.

“I'm hoping we stay steady,” she said, which has been the case for the past few years.

The planning department will complete the action plan and ask for Auburn City Council's authorization to submit the plan to HUD in February.

“We'll accept public comment all the way through,” she said.

Staff writer Jessica Soule can be reached at 253-5311, ext. 267 or jessica.soule@lee.net