TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Infrastructure

Both the Downtown Revitalization & Main Street programs under TxCDBG offer opportunities for non-entitlement municipalities (localities with less than 50,000 residents or counties with fewer than 200,000 persons) to improve their cultural and historical centers of commerce. The grant provides funding for infrastructure improvements that address the conditions of aging public or commercial structures and infrastructure that hold community significance.

TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Capacity Building | Needs Assessment | Strategy Development

The Planning & Capacity Building Fund from TxCDBG is a competitive program for local public facility, planning, and housing activities. Award money can be used to develop needs assessments, develop strategies, or implement local planning projects. Activities and projects include but are not limited to: mapping, land use planning, housing, economic development, tourism, business districts, and capital improvements. The flexibility built into this grant allows a lot of room for creative placemaking practices to be integrated in the planning process.

TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
Infrastructure

The Community Development fund is the largest funding opportunity offered by TDA using TxCDBG. It is available to non-entitlement municipalities and counties in the 24 state planning region for public facilities and infrastructure improvements. However, citizen participation, hearings and access to information is a large part of TxCDBG compliance. As it stands, satisfying these requirements is highly administrative, as the majority of funded projects are not conventional community-building opportunities.

TEXAS HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Health | Mental Health | Community Health

Awards for the Community Mental Health Grant Program fund community mental health groups to improve the quality of life for people with mental illness. The program is designed to support these groups and help them collaboratively build their capacities to provide more robust continuity of care in treatment and transition services. In these instances, creative placemaking can be used as a way to build community support networks for people with mental illness.

STATE-WIDE PROGRAM
Economic Development

Type B EDCs, although they include all uses for Type A EDCs, have additional community cultivation opportunities. They allow for public uses, such as parks, sports facilities, and affordable housing. These projects have an open window for the use of arts-based community engagement activities. Funds dedicated to planning and professional services and administrative expenditures would include community outreach and involvement.