Neighborhood Association Organizing and Grants in SLP
- Sarah Steffen
- Nov 19
- 5 min read
Hi all!
I have been interested in starting a Neighborhood Association in Triangle since I learned about the program while campaigning for City Council. I have been in touch with the city's Community Engagement Coordinator about the process, and I wanted to share what I have learned here. Here is the process to organize a neighborhood in SLP.
To move things forward, the first step is to organize your neighborhood. I’ve attached the Neighborhood Revitalization Program training guide, which outlines the process in detail.
Â
In summary, to be recognized as an official neighborhood association by the City, you’ll need to complete the annual registration process and demonstrate the following:
At least three elected officers who are residents of the neighborhood (e.g., chair/president, co-chair, treasurer).
A clear method for transferring leadership.
Written bylaws approved by the membership, reviewed annually.
An annual neighborhood meeting.
Â
Once you’ve identified the information above, please fill out the neighborhood registration form. This will make your neighborhood eligible for grant funding.
Â
Once approved, you’ll be able to apply for neighborhood events and projects throughout the year.
Program Background
The Neighborhood Program has become a source of tension for the SLP City Council, as well as for residents, since the program rules changed in February 2025 as a result of findings in a fiscal year 2023 audit. Currently, the City Council is considering a possible path forward that provides neighborhood groups with more flexibility in how they spend city grant funds.
SLP City Council Study Session 11/17/25
In a special study session meeting on November 17, 2025, the City Council considered a proposed study session topic: neighborhood grant funds (agenda here, see pages 105-222). The discussion was heated. On one side, Council Member Margaret Rog felt great urgency for giving the program new life, as neighborhood attrition is one the rise. She is advocating for relaxing regulations around spending city money for food at social neighborhood events. On the other side, Mayor Nadia Mohamed was concerned about keeping our neighborhood program fiscally compliant. She argued that the rules are clear, and that social neighborhood events do not qualify for food purchases with city money. The Council agreed to take up the topic in Q1 of 2026.
I can see the value of both arguments, but for me, the issue of spending flexibility for social events is not the biggest problem facing the current neighborhood program. There is a good list of activities that neighborhoods can currently use the funds for, which I have inserted below. We may not have adequately communicated to Neighborhood groups that the activities below still qualify for spending on food. We should proactively share this list with Neighborhood leaders. It would also be helpful to share ideas and recourses for the types of events that currently qualify for food purchases.
Staff, with review from the city’s attorney, found the following activities eligible through public purpose analysis. Food can be purchased for these events:
• A neighborhood’s annual meeting
• National Night Out (NNO) events
• Community cleanups and beautification
• History/equity events
• Health and wellness events/activities
• An annual neighborhood-wide event – with connection to the city/government
• Communication and outreach materials
Neighborhood Spending 2023-2025
Even greater than this communication challenge to currently organized neighborhood groups is the challenge of getting new neighborhoods organized. Here is a list of the neighborhoods and the amounts that they requested, were awarded, and spent in 2023-2025.
Figure 1: Neighborhoods that Applied for Grants in 2023-2025, Annotated on Median Household Income Map, 2022.
As you can see in Table 1 and Figure 1, not every neighborhood in SLP has applied for funds in the last three years. My biggest question is, what is the city doing to reach out to neighborhoods that are not currently organized? How is the city supporting these newly formed groups? Could the city offer sample bylaws for new organizations, for example?
Funding Distribution
Another change that took effect in 2025 is the three tiered funding model. Here is the description from the SLP website.
Funding for the program will be distributed based on a needs-based formula that considers three key factors: population, residents' median income, and the median property value within each neighborhood. Using this data, neighborhoods will be evaluated and assigned to one of three tiers, determined by their overall score.
Once neighborhoods have completed their annual registration, they will be notified of their assigned tier and corresponding available funding:
Tier 1 (high needs) – $1,900
Tier 2 (moderate needs) – $1,400
Tier 3 (low needs) – $1,000
I have mapped the neighborhoods who applied for funding in 2025 with their corresponding assigned Tier. As you can see, none of the neighborhoods who have applied for funding in 2025 so far are in Tier 1, the group with the highest needs. We should be asking ourselves, why are these neighborhoods not applying?
Figure 2: Neighborhoods that applied for grants in 2025 and their assigned Tier of Need, Annotated on Median Household Income Map, 2022.
The distribution of neighborhoods that have applied for and been granted neighborhood funds so far this year (as of November 17, 2025) is also uneven across the four wards.
Number of awards in Ward 1: 4
Number of awards in Ward 2: 7
Number of awards in Ward 3: 1
Number of awards in Ward 4: 0
Social Capital
As I have been thinking about organizing my neighborhood, I have been unsure of how to proceed with many of the required activities, from finding two others to lead the group with me, to drafting bylaws and crafting a clear method for transferring leadership.
One of the goals of the Neighborhood Revitalization Program is to create opportunities for neighborhood connections, i.e. social capital. The difficulty here is that neighborhoods with more social capital are more likely to be the ones to organize Neighborhood groups in the first place.
Another limitation of this program is that neighborhood residents are required to pay for expenses upfront and will be reimbursed by the city if they follow the grant guidelines for purchases. Reimbursements must be submitted by one of the neighborhood's elected officials. This means that elected officials need to have enough financial capital among themselves to pay for neighborhood activities upfront. I don't have a great alternative idea for this standard process, but it is something to consider when trying to get new neighborhoods organized.
TLDR
There is work to do to make the Neighborhood Association program is SLP more accessible to more people. Offering flexibility in funding for food at social events is one idea for how to improve the program, but in my opinion is not the most critical place to start. I would start with re-evaluating the supports that the city offers to new neighborhoods who want to get organized (ex. offering sample bylaws), and reconsidering how the city is reaching out to unorganized neighborhoods.
I would also offer more support for current neighborhoods groups to host approved activities (ex. providing resources for hosting history/equity events). Since the program is currently not using even a quarter of the funds allocated for it (see below), perhaps some of these funds could be used to improve the structure of the program. It would also be wonderful to see the city conduct a program evaluation for the neighborhood program.
Lastly, while our specific approaches may differ, I would like to thank Ward 1’s Council Member, Margaret Rog, for her tireless support of the neighborhood program. I will be interested to see what the City Council does to improve the Neighborhood Association program in the new year. Stay tuned!
Yours in service,
Sarah
P.S. if you are in Triangle and are interested in a Neighborhood Association, please reach out!