Norwich - The city community development office is circulating a detailed survey about city services, amenities, physical conditions and biggest needs in preparation for writing a new five-year plan to decide how annual federal Community Development Block Grants should be spent.

The U.S. Department of Housing, which oversees the CDBG program, requires the five-year plan update to cover the period from 2015 to 2019.

The community development office needs input from residents, community and social service agencies, faith-based organizations, housing, development and redevelopment agencies as well as private industry, community development supervisor Gary Evans said.

The survey is available at several city offices and also online at the city website, www.norwichct.org, on the community development page under city departments. Hard copies are available at the community development office at 23 Union St.; Norwich Public Utilities customer service center, 173 N. Main St.; Otis Library, 261 Main St. and the Norwich Housing Authority, 10 Westwood Park.

Evans said the survey will be translated into Haitian Creole, Spanish and Chinese by early next week, and a separate notice will be published to alert residents of its availability. If there are any questions, please contact the Office of Community Development.

Responses are due by midnight April 17.

The survey begins with general questions about respondents, including the geographical area where they live - Taftville, downtown, Greeneville and other areas - and work, whether they own or rent housing and a range of household income.

The survey then asks respondents to rank the city's priorities and needs for community services, conditions of streets and sidewalks, job training programs, child care and recreational opportunities.

More personal questions follow, asking whether respondents have either experienced or witnessed discrimination in housing on the basis of race, disabilities or age, and also asks what barriers they have encountered when trying to find housing or jobs.

"Do you know of any instances where realtors, bankers/lenders, insurance companies, apartment complexes, and/or individual landlords have refused to work with or provide services to someone because of their ?" The question is followed by a list of factors, such as race, religion, disability, family status, gender or sexual orientation.

The 20-question survey concludes with questions on whether the respondent has personally experienced discrimination and whether the person has reported the incident to authorities.

c.bessette@theday.com

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