42 U.S.C. § 9806 — Establishment and scope of programs

(a) The Secretary^* may give grants to nonprofit or for-profit community development corporations and to affiliated or supporting agencies and organizations associated with qualifying corporations. The grants may pay all or part of the cost of programs designed to carry out this part’s purposes. Each community economic development program must be large enough, broad enough, and long enough to have an appreciable effect on the area it serves. These programs may include—(1) community business and commercial development, including (A) money and other help, including ownership investment, to start, expand, or locate businesses in or near the served area to provide local residents with jobs and ownership opportunities; and (B) programs for small businesses located in or owned by residents of those areas; (2) community physical development, including industrial parks and housing activities, that improve the environment and create new training, employment, and ownership opportunities for residents of the area; (3) training and public-service employment programs and related services for unemployed or low-income people that support and complement community development programs financed under this part, including activities such as those described in title I of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998; and (4) social-service programs that support and complement community business and commercial development programs financed under this part, including child care, educational services, health services, credit counseling, energy conservation, recreation services, and programs to maintain housing facilities. (b) The Secretary must conduct programs assisted under this part so that, fairly between urban and rural areas, they help eliminate poverty and establish lasting economic and social benefits in those areas.