Norwich – A plan to end the winter homeless overnight center and use the money to find permanent housing for the city’s homeless is among the 11 grant proposals recommended for funding through the city’s federal community development block grant.

The City Council will hold a public hearing at the start of Monday’s 7:30 p.m. meeting on the Community Development Advisory Committee’s recommendations for spending the $678,785 federal CDBG grant expected in the coming federal fiscal year.

The committee received 17 grant requests totaling $1.1 million for the grant funding. The City Council will vote on the grant requests at a June meeting.

Norwich Human Services through the Community Care Team has received annual funding to run the winter homeless hospitality center at the Buckingham Memorial building on Main Street. But this year, the team requested the same $30,000 grant to fund housing services for the city’s chronic homeless population instead.

“We feel that the time has come to revert back to utilizing existing shelter beds in the area and to focus our efforts on diverting people from needing to use shelter and rapidly re-housing those who do require shelter,” the grant application said.

The committee recommended awarding $30,000 to a new Norwich program offered by the nonprofit group Our Piece of the Pie, which would use the funding for its Pathways to Success program in which teenagers learn job skills and are matched with potential employers.