Section 427.22.1. Purpose.

       22.1(1) The community services block grant program as established by Title VI, Subtitle B, Public Law 97-35, as amended, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981, makes available to the state of Iowa funds to be used:

        a.           To provide a range of services and activities having a measurable and potentially major impact on causes of poverty in the community or those areas of the community where poverty is a particularly acute problem;

        b.           To provide activities designed to assist low-income participants including homeless individuals and families, migrants, and the elderly poor:

       (1)             To secure and retain meaningful employment;

       (2)             To attain an adequate education;

       (3)             To make better use of available income;

       (4)             To obtain and maintain adequate housing and a suitable living environment;

       (5)             To obtain emergency assistance through loans or grants to meet immediate and urgent individual and family needs, including the need for health services, nutritious food, housing, and employment-related assistance;

       (6)             To remove obstacles and solve problems which block the achievement of self-sufficiency;

       (7)             To achieve greater participation in the affairs of the community; and

       (8)             To make more effective use of other programs related to the purposes of this program;

        c.           To provide on an emergency basis for the provision of supplies and services, nutritious foodstuffs, and related services, as may be necessary to counteract conditions of starvation and malnutrition among the poor;

        d.           To coordinate and establish linkages between governmental and other social services programs to ensure the effective delivery of services to low-income individuals; and

        e.           To encourage the use of entities in the private sector of the community in efforts to ameliorate poverty in the community.

       22.1(2) Reserved.