Community Services Block Grant (CSBG)
The Community Services Block Grant funds community action agencies and other eligible entities to reduce poverty in their communities. The Office of Community Services in HHS's Administration for Children and Families awards it to states, and each state passes at least 90 percent of its allocation to eligible entities (42 U.S.C. 9907). The CSBG Act sets income eligibility at 125 percent of the poverty line, and recent appropriations laws have let states raise it as high as 200 percent.
Your state CSBG office sets much of what you deal with day to day, including the state plan, the monitoring schedule and how funds flow. When Congress funds the government through continuing resolutions, CSBG money often arrives in partial releases, so cash planning matters. CSBG is Assistance Listing 93.569 and is covered in the Compliance Supplement.
This page collects every item from The Drawdown about CSBG, including OCS program instructions and information memoranda, newest first.
Week of November 16, 2026
For your finance office: ACF wants to delete outdated and duplicate sections of 45 CFR part 96, the block grant rules that cover CSBG, LIHEAP and SSBG. For CSBG it removes the regulation's audit section because the CSBG Act already requires the audit, so your single audit stays the same. Comments close Nov 30.
For your finance office: OCS released $150.5 million in partial first-quarter CSBG funds on Oct 22 under the stopgap spending law that runs through Dec 11. Expect your state's pass-through to come in pieces, and plan cash around the gap. You can still use the income limit of up to 200 percent of poverty where your state allows it.
For your finance office: OCS confirmed CSBG can pay for gas cards, mileage reimbursement, fuel for agency vehicles that carry clients, and emergency heating fuel. Each cost has to tie to a need your needs assessment or plan identifies and meet the 2 CFR 200 cost principles. If fuel isn't in your plan, ask your state CSBG office about updating it before you charge it.