Last year, the retired auto mechanic was struck with the death of his sister and brother within a couple months, setting off bouts of binge drinking that eventually left him homeless.

With little in his pocket and no hope to spare, Davis, 44, hopped a freight train from California and wound up in Salt Lake City, where he got into trouble with the law.

Struggling with health problems and on his own in the cold, Davis looked at the piece of paper the jailers handed him upon release and called the number.

The Road Home answered.

Now, two months later, Davis is recuperating in the facility's medical unit and working with a caseworker he believes will be able to get him into an apartment soon.

"I'm feeling so much better," he said. "I have turned myself around 180 degrees. The program here and the 4th Street Clinic have been so good to me."

Both the Road Home, the city's largest homeless shelter, and the clinic rely on CDBG money from area cities to help them serve their clients.

"It is such a backbone of support for our services," said Michelle Flynn, associate executive director of the Road Home.

Last year, the Road Home received $275,000 in CDBG money — dollars funneled to them from Salt Lake City, Herriman, Midvale and others.

"At times, that is the only money these cities have to provide support for these services," Flynn said. "It all weaves together to provide this countywide support."

Midvale's allocation this fiscal year was $365,000, money Mayor JoAnn Seghini said is vital for a city where nearly half its neighborhoods qualify as low-income or moderate-income and thus get the attention of CDBG projects.

"While it doesn't sound like a lot of money, the fact of the matter is that it is," Seghini said. "It is the difference between people being able to stay in their neighborhoods and their homes and taking pride in those things and being pushed onto some other system for assistance."

Midvale gives some of its CDBG money to programs like the Road Home, the Utah Food Bank and the Boys & Girls Club at South Valley, which serves 200 children on a daily basis, offering tutorial assistance and after-school recreational activities.

But much of Midvale's allocation is directed into aging neighborhoods, where Seghini said the goal is to keep homes, streets and sidewalks nicely maintained. "If it is an eyesore and a slum, people don't work their way up, they just fall further down."

Aside from the proposed cuts, advocates and government officials worry that by shifting the CDBG program under the Department of Commerce, the direction of what dollars remain will also shift.