Officials at City Hall in Newton will soon begin a consolidated planning process with a series of hearings slated next year to solicit public opinion on how to spend federal grants, which could be used for affordable housing.

As state resources for affordable housing dwindle, some housing advocates are pushing to have towns and cities set aside more federal dollars for housing for the neediest families.

The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless started holding workshops this month to help train community leaders so they can convince cities and towns to direct more of the federal funding they receive to housing for people earning 30 percent or less than the area median income. In the Boston area, that translates to about $24,250 for a family of four.

The effort comes at a time when elected officials and business leaders have paid increasing attention to creating housing that’s affordable to residents earning more moderate incomes like teachers, nurses and firefighters.

Housing advocates say while there is a need for housing that is affordable to a range of incomes, there is a severe shortage of housing for people who are earning the equivalent of the minimum wage or lower in the Bay State. Those individuals are often referred to as “very low-income” or “extremely low-income” and are either at risk of becoming homeless or are already living in shelters.

But setting aside funds for housing for that population will be a tough sell to some communities that are struggling with tight budgets and could use the money on a variety of projects, including neighborhood improvements like sidewalk repairs or park clean-ups, acknowledge some. It also doesn’t help that developing low-income housing requires deeper subsidies, which are scarce, and that many communities haven’t been quick to embrace rental housing for low-income people.

“Affordable housing has a very broad definition. It can be affordable to a wide range of income levels, and there [are] housing needs at many income levels in the state,” said Mary Doyle, director of policy and program development at the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership. “I think that we also need to remember that there are people who are working at the different restaurants or cleaning rooms in hotels. There’s a whole variety of working people with different income levels who don’t come anywhere close to $60,000 to $80,000 a year and so [it’s] really important that we look to make sure that the affordable housing is really addressing the needs of the range of income levels.”

Just last week, the Commission for Homeless Services Coordination – established by Gov. Mitt Romney last winter – released a study that highlighted the need to increase affordable housing for people with very low incomes as a way to prevent and eliminate homelessness. The state spends more than $250 million a year on the homeless through various state agencies. In response to the study, the governor issued an executive order to create a permanent Interagency Council on Homelessness and Housing to focus more on homelessness prevention and moving homeless people from shelters to transitional housing.

‘Such a Challenge’

But even before the study was released, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless was urging community leaders to utilize federal money for low-income housing. During the last fiscal year, the federal government allocated more than $188 million in four block grants to Massachusetts. A big chunk of that money went to about 35 so-called entitlement communities, including Boston, Cambridge, Worcester and Springfield.

Communities receiving funding are required to develop five-year plans – called consolidated plans – to show how they will use the money. The federal funds can be used for a variety of projects and programs, not just housing.

Many communities in the Bay State receiving this federal aid are poised to come up with new five-year plans. In the face of state budget cutbacks, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless decided to get more community leaders who are concerned about housing involved in that planning process.

“Right now, with the fiscal crisis being so great, it’s difficult to make any legislative inroads toward ending homelessness,” said Diane Yentel, housing policy coordinator for the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless.

Besides having people focus on the creation of new low-income housing and programs that help them keep their housing, the sessions also train people to “be watchdogs in their community” to keep an eye out for any plans to demolish public housing, according to Yentel. The Massachusetts Law Reform Institute is helping with the training sessions.

Amy Copperman, an attorney with the institute, said that some people who have participated are well aware of the politics involved when city officials are deciding how to spend federal grants.

“There’s no question that these are hard decisions. If we had more money they wouldn’t be so hard,” said Copperman.

Advocates argue there is a critical shortage of housing for people who fit that low-income category. “There’s a huge need because the majority of households on the waiting listing for public and subsidized housing earn less than 30 percent of the area median income,” said Aaron Gornstein, executive director for the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association, a group that has advocated for housing for extremely low-income people.

But Gornstein said it’s tough to get such housing built because of community resistance to multifamily housing and because a significant amount of subsidies are needed to make the low-income housing projects economically feasible.

Not only are public subsidies needed to help defray the cost of building the housing, but resources – namely project-based Section 8 rental assistance vouchers – are needed after the housing has been built. The vouchers allow the property owners to charge below-market-rate rents, but since the federal government has stopped issuing vouchers in the Bay State, that presents another challenge.

“It’s hard enough to get housing sited for moderate-income [households],” said Gornstein. “There’s an additional barrier to housing for very low-income housing.”

Some cities, like Newton, have shown a commitment to housing. Newton dedicates most of its federal funds, including Community Development Block Grants, for housing that is affordable to people earning between 50 to 80 percent of the area median income, according to Stephen Gartrell, the city’s associate director for housing and community development.

But the city has a Housing Rehabilitation Program that assists people who are more likely earning less than 50 percent of the area median income, he said. The city received more than $4.5 million during the last fiscal year in Community Development Block Grants, HOME grants, and Emergency Shelter Grants.

In Newton, where home prices are high and land is scarce, it can be more fiscally challenging to build low-income housing, said Gartrell, especially when resources are tight.

“It’s such a challenge for [housing] developers to find any source of funding,” said Gartrell.

The city will soon go through its consolidated planning process and will have a series of hearings late next year to solicit public opinion on how to spend the federal grants.

Some efforts to have more state funds allocated specifically for low-income housing have been successful, however. Last year, state legislators approved a change in the federal low-income tax credit program that the state administers that requires developers participating in the program to set aside 10 percent of housing units for people earning 30 percent or less of the area median income.

In addition, CHAPA has continually pushed for funds to be allocated from the state’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund for housing for this targeted population, said Gornstein.

Some housing supporters have also been successful in convincing communities to dedicate federal money for low-income housing. In Arlington, for example, a group of residents were able to get the town to redirect Community Development Block Grant money from a park project to housing about three years ago.

The group, called the Housing Corporation of Arlington, used federal funds to make a hefty down payment on a neglected two-family home, and now rents the units for $950 a month to tenants with Section 8 rental vouchers.

Now, the group owns and manages eight two-family homes and is currently negotiating to purchase two more properties.

“I’d love to see every town do this,” said Jan Blodgett, an Arlington resident and board member of Housing Corporation of Arlington. “None of us believed we could. We were terrified at the beginning.”