As federal officials hail a coming infrastructure decade, tens of thousands of mostly smaller, rural communities may miss out because they lack capacity to compete for the funds. That’s according to data from Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research firm focused on community development and land management that developed a rural capacity index to analyze which and how many communities may have a hard time snagging infrastructure funding. “It’s hard to advocate for resources, it’s hard to navigate complicated grant applications and meet compliance requirements, all of that is very difficult for smaller communities, so it’s logical that the communities that are winning the awards tend to be higher capacity, affluent, urban areas,” said Patty Hernandez, co-founder and executive director of Headwaters. Large sections of the country have communities that need investments in staffing, resources and expertise to adequately compete, the firm found.
Source: The Bond Buyer
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