NCDA Conference CPD Policy Update June 15, 2017

TOPICS Transition notes; FY 2017 and 2018 budgets; Policies and Issues: HOME Program – relief from 24-month commitment requirement; Housing Trust Fund – status; Homeless competition and special funding; AFFH – Submission expectations for “small Entitlement Communities”.

Transition Notes Deputy Secretary and CPD Assistant Secretary nominations; Overall Staffing Outlook; Implementation of Executive Orders. E.O. on 2 for 1 regulations

Budget FY 2017 Full-year Continuing Resolution enacted; Award letters expected shortly; Summer crunch expected due to the late approval. Without Disaster Funds*: 2016 2017 2016 vs Percent Enacted Change CDBG $3,060,000 - 0% SHOP/Capacity Building $55,700 $54,000 (1,700) -3% HOME $950,000 Homeless Assistance $2,250,000 $2,383,000 133,000 6% HOPWA $335,000 $356,000 21,000 TOTAL CPD FUNDING $6,650,700 $6,803,000 154,317 2% *in $000s TA - $24 million S&E – unchanged at about $105 million

Budget – cont. FY 2018 Administration’s proposal recognizes the importance of the special needs programs; Proposal does not fully appreciate the critical roles played by CDBG and HOME. Part of Infrastructure Bill / pays for staffing (lead/homeless) / is a success, not a failure. HOME and Tax Credits

Policy Matters HOME Program: The Fiscal Year 2017 Appropriations Act included a suspension of the 24-month HOME commitment requirement for deadlines occurring in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. As a result of this suspension, HUD will not enforce the 24-month commitment requirement for deadlines occurring this year or in 2018 or 2019;  HUD deobligated approximately $6.6 million from 21 PJs that did not meet the 24-month commitment requirement for deadlines that occurred in 2016.  HUD is working to return deobligated funds to those PJs.  It expects to have all the funds returned to the affected PJs this summer; HUD has already revised the monthly HOME Deadline Compliance Status Report it posts online to remove the commitment deadlines, beginning with the reports posted in May.   (The Deadline Compliance Reports that PJs can generate in IDIS will continue to show the deadlines); The suspension does not apply to Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) set-aside funds.  PJs are required to commit their CHDO set-aside funds within 24 months of the obligation of their grant and that HUD will continue to track and enforce this deadline; The suspension does not apply to the 5-year expenditure deadline for FY 2014 and earlier HOME grants.  HUD eliminated this deadline for FY 2015 and subsequent HOME grants. The Fiscal Year 2017 Consolidated Appropriations Act (Public Law No. 115-31) included a suspension of the 24-month HOME commitment requirement for deadlines occurring in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019.  As a result of this suspension, HUD will not enforce the 24-month commitment requirement for deadlines occurring this year or in 2018 or 2019.  HUD deobligated approximately $6.6 million from 21 PJs that did not meet the 24-month commitment requirement for deadlines that occurred in 2016.  HUD is working to return deobligated funds to those PJs.  It expects to have all the funds returned to the affected PJs this summer. HUD has already revised the monthly HOME Deadline Compliance Status Report it posts online to remove the commitment deadlines, beginning with the reports posted in May showing status as of April 30, 2017.   (The Deadline Compliance Reports that PJs can generate in IDIS will continue to show the deadlines). It is extremely important for PJs to understand that the suspension does not apply to Community Housing Development Organization (CHDO) set-aside funds.  The appropriations law suspended the 24-month commitment deadline established by Section 218(g) of the Cranston-Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act of 1990 (NAHA).  The requirement that 15% of each HOME allocation be committed to housing, owned, developed, or sponsored within 24 months is established at Section 231(b) of NAHA, which was not included in the suspension.  This means that PJs are required to commit their CHDO set-aside funds within 24 months of the obligation of their grant and that HUD will continue to track and enforce this deadline.  In addition, HUD cannot return HOME funds deobligated because a PJ did not commit them to CHDO projects by its 2016 deadline. It is also important to note that the suspension does not apply to the 5-year expenditure deadline for FY 2014 and earlier HOME grants.  HUD eliminated this deadline for FY 2015 and subsequent HOME grants, but the requirement remains in effect and will be tracked and enforced for FY 2014 and earlier grants.  However, HUD will continue to track and enforce the 5-year expenditure deadline for FY 14 and earlier grants. Note that the suspension does not have any effect on other provisions of the recently published HOME interim regulation that implemented the grant-specific commitment requirement.  This means that the provisions that permit PJs to accumulate program income received during a program year and include it in the next year’s action plan, and other provisions of the rule are in effect.  The only change is that HUD will not enforce the 24-month commitment requirement for deadlines occurring in calendar years 2017, 2018, or 2019 and will return funds deobligated for commitment deadlines that occurred in 2016. HUD will issue a CPD Notice with additional guidance on this suspension.  If you have questions, please contact your field office.

Policy Matters – cont. Housing Trust Fund: HUD spent much of the last year reviewing State Allocation Plans for the Housing Trust Fund.  Nearly all State allocation plans have now been approved;    For FY 2016, HUD allocated $173.6 million under the Housing Trust Fund.  Because the 50 States and DC are required to receive a minimum allocation of $3 million, 35 states and the District received the minimum $ 3 million grant; For FY 2017, HUD will be allocating $219.2 million.  With this amount of funding, 27 states and DC will receive the minimum grant amounts.  The larger states such as California, Texas, New York, Illinois will see very significant increases in their 2017 grant amounts. 

Policy Matters– cont. Homeless Assistance: FY2017 CoC Program Competition Registration process is underway. The FY2017 CoC program NOFA will be posted to the HUD Exchange in the coming weeks.   Also in the coming weeks, HUD will release a special ESG allocation of $40 million that will be allocated to communities that lost the most funding in the 2015 and 2016 CoC Program competitions. Although the allocation is a result of the CoC program, Congress selected ESG as the vehicle through which the awards will be made. 100 CoCs

Policy Matters– cont. Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Definition of ‘small Entitlement Communities’ for the purposes of setting submission requirements for the Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) is nearing resolution; The new Administration has not yet determined its policy on AFFH implementation generally. Staff is working on guidance for interfacing the AFH with the ConPlan/Annual Action Plan submissions. Adam presented / no A/S for FHEO