A CDBG set-aside of $100 million for the Regional Connections Initiative, a new program in HUD's FY 1999 budget — if funded— has been targeted to the Joint Center for Sustainable Communities. As described in HUD's budget briefing materials, this program will make funds available to states and localities to cooperate regionally to develop strategic plans that address key regional issues facing the nation's metropolitan areas and rural communities. It will encourage regional strategies that emphasize coordinated metropolitan economic growth and regional solutions for a wide range of environmental and social equity issues.

Regional Connections will enable communities to address one or more of the following topics: regional economic development strategies that tap the "competitive advantage" or location efficiency of the inner city; sustainable growth management or compact development strategies; regional job training/access to work initiatives; regional affordable housing strategies or other regional concerns.

HUD has already established an Advisory Board of mayors, county executives, distinguished urban planners, economists, and regional experts to develop the competition. If this program is funded, HUD will enter into a contract with the Joint Center for Sustainable Communities to manage and administer the awards process and the program.

FY 1998 BUDGET SURPLUS EXPECTED TO REACH $50 BILLION

Estimates from the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget put the anticipated budgetary surplus for FY 1998 at $50 billion, which is considerably higher than the previously anticipated $9-20 billion, and it could go higher. Due to a thriving economy, low unemployment, low interest rates and the stock market (Dow Jones Industrial Index) pushing over the 9000 mark, more tax revenue is being taken in than is being spent. If this trend continues, and it is expected that it will, the budget debate for FY 1999 will get hotter. Fifty billion in surplus revenue is nice, but when it is compared to the overall federal debt of $5 trillion, it is a drop in the bucket. Still, $50 billion will add spice to the tax cut debate and how Congress plans to pay for its mammoth transportation bill.

BUDGET SURPLUS MAY IMPACT ISTEA

As reported in the March 27^th issue of the Washington Report, both houses of Congress passed transportation bills. ISTEA ($214 billion) in the Senate and BESTEA ($218) in the House. The remaining work to finalize the bill will be completed during conference. The House of Representatives passed a $218 billion bill that includes many targeted projects that are not contained in the Senate version. The Senate was more conservative in its bill of $214 billion that targeted few projects and included a 0.08 blood alcohol level for legal intoxication. The question remains in the minds of many is how will this bill, whatever it finally looks like, be paid for? Whether the bill is $214 billion or $218 billion, it represents 42 percent more that is allowed in the balanced budget agreement. At present, it does not appear if members of Congress are sure where the additional funding will come from for greatly needed spending on America's roads and transit systems.

With a projected $50 billion budgetary surplus for FY 1998 there is no doubt that some of these funds will be targeted to transportation spending, even though the Senate has passed a resolution to hold these funds until an agreement can be reached to shore-up the Social Security System. It could be a very interesting budget season this election year.

AUDITORS FIND $2.6 BILLION MORE IN HUD SECTION 8 RESERVES

The General Accounting Office has apparently found another $2.6 billion in HUD Section 8 reserves. This money is in addition to the $691 million in excess reserves in other programs that was discovered earlier this year, and, suspect there might be $685 million more reserve funds available in other program areas.

Discoveries of this nature make it difficult for HUD to pursue additional budget authority for new or existing programs. The President, through HUD's budget, has requested $1.8 billion more for FY 1999 than for FY 1998, for new initiatives and increases to existing programs, such as the Community Empowerment Fund ($400 million) and an increases to CDBG of $51 million and $50 million for the HOME program. HUD has also chosen to request a funding cut of over $300 million in such Congressionally popular programs as the Section 811 and 202 — programs for the elderly and the disabled.

It is also important to consider that the House of Representatives has already rescinded $2.2 billion in what it determines as "unneeded" Section 8 Reserves to offset costs for their version of the FY 1998 Supplemental/Disaster Appropriations bill. The Senate has not requested any offsets for their Supplemental/Disaster bill. This may change when Congress returns and learns about these funds. It will be difficult for HUD to show a need for new money with the "discovery" of an additional $3 billion in reserve funds.

Why Doesn't HUD Know About these Funds? HUD does know about these reserves because they are statutory, required by law. This is especially true within the Section 8 program. Congress wanted to ensure that in cases of economic down turns, when tenants could not afford to pay their rents, HUD would be able to ensure that landlords would not be adversely affected and prevent tenants from being displaced. Due to good economic times and the increase in the number of Section 8 units, the reserve fund has grown. If those funds are not expended, they continue to grow with each fiscal year. The number of units and their reserves are tied to the fiscal year, so that the calculation of the amount needed can be determined. The process of determining just how many units there are, at any given time, and how much of a reserve fund is needed is not exact. There is a time lag involved in the process of renting units and in removing units when they are no longer in the Section 8 system. Consequently, the exact amount in the reserve fund may forever be in question, as well as the amount "required" by statute.

TWENTY NEW EMPOWERMENT ZONES PROPOSED IN FY 1999 BUDGET

President Clinton has proposed the creation of 20 new Empowerment Zones, with 15 urban zones and 5 rural zones. No new Enterprise Communities have been proposed. The President has also proposed funding in the amount of $1.7 billion over the next ten years. This money is proposed in the Health and Human Services budget under Title XX programs. It is expected that a minimum of $100 million will be drawn down in each of the 10 ten years to address needs and implement activities within these new zones. According to Republican staffers, this new round of EZ funding has an excellent chance for Congressional approval. The Empowerment Zone program and its concept is well liked by many Republican Congressman, because of its strong links to welfare reform initiatives.

PUBLIC HOUSING REFORM IS MOVING ONCE AGAIN

Public housing reform legislation has started and stopped on numerous occasions over the last couple of years and it appears that the recently stalled legislation is now moving forward again.

Apparently, Rep. Lazio (R-NY) and Senator Mack (R-FL) have worked out most of their differences in regards to public housing reform, including income targeting provisions and the reconfiguration of the House proposed home rule block grant option. Lazio has agreed to accept the Senate's income targeting for public housing, which requires that at least 40% of new residents entering public housing in any year have incomes at or below 30% of the area median; 75% of residents have incomes below 60% of the area median and the remaining 25% to have incomes below 80% of the median. The House version currently requires that 35% of all new residents have incomes below 30% of median, and the remaining residents have incomes up to 80% of area median. Lazio has also agreed to limit his home rule block grant option only to communities deemed "troubled." Originally, the home rule block grant provision would have allowed all local governments (who chose to do so) to receive public housing and Section 8 funds as a formula grant.

The repeal of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 is still an issue. The House is in favor of repeal of the Act, the Senate is not. According to Senate staff, hopes are high that compromise can be reached on all outstanding issues. Senator Mack plans to float the compromises reached with the House by several senior members on the banking committee, including Senators D'Amato, Kerry, and Sarbanes. If all compromises are reached, Senate staff believe that it is possible for a bill to be conferenced by the August recess.

WILL WE SEE CONSOLIDATION OF HUD'S MCKINNEY ACT HOMELESS PROGRAMS THIS YEAR?

With the passage of H.R. 217, the Homeless Housing Consolidation Act, on March 3, the Senate has yet to follow the same path. In fact, legislation to consolidate HUD's homeless assistance programs has not been introduced in the Senate. However, with movement on a public housing reform bill, Senate staff have indicated that they may try to roll some provisions into the legislation (public housing reform) to consolidate HUD's McKinney Act programs or streamline HUD's existing homeless programs in some fashion.

Senate staff have also indicated their strong desire to have the U.S. General Accounting Office conduct a study on a variety of issues relating to homelessness, including the lack of coordination among federal agencies which administer homeless programs and the lack of other federal homeless funding for supportive services to assist the homeless. Senate staff are gravely concerned with the amount of funding currently being used through HUD's homeless assistance programs to fund supportive services (more that 50% of total funding). So, if there is no movement on public housing reform legislation this year, the Senate will wait for the GAO study to be completed before drafting a homeless reauthorization bill. In that case, a bill would likely not be introduced by the Senate until next year.

H.R. 3206 WOULD AMEND THE FAIR HOUSING ACT

H.R. 3206, the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1998, has passed the House Judiciary Constitution Subcommittee and awaits approval by the House Judiciary Committee. Current fair housing law and differing federal court decisions in fair housing cases have pre-empted local authority in the siting of group homes. Group home operators can, under current law, site residential facilities without consulting local officials or applying for a variance. According to the National League of Cities, localities cannot control the number of residents, the location and the density of these homes in residential neighborhoods, or ensure the safety of group home residents and their neighbors. Also according to the National League of Cities, this has led to concentrations of these facilities — often in low- and moderate-income minority communities. If approved by the House of Representatives, the legislation would amend the existing Fair Housing Act to allow more local government control over the siting of group homes. The Senate has not introduced a companion bill and many Washington pundits speculate that this bill will go nowhere this year.

HUD NOTICES

NATIONAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WEEK 1998: A ROUSING SUCCESS!!!

This year's National Community Development Week celebration was a rousing success, with more than 400 communities, states and countless non-profit entities taking part in National CD Week activities. HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo officially proclaimed April 6-12 as National CD Week, and ensured that upper level HUD Headquarters staff participated in events all across the country. Many cities conducted week long celebrations, and others, single-day activities that acknowledged the great works that the CDBG program accomplishes everyday. Elected officials, city employees, non-profit service providers, the general public, members of the news media and CDBG beneficiaries took part in the celebrations.

NCDA TO KICK OFF THE 1999 NATIONAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WEEK CAMPAIGN IN MIAMI

At this year's Annual Conference in Miami, the membership will decide on the 1999 CD Week Poster and campaign which will celebrate 25 years of the CDBG program. It is our intent to start our year-long campaign to highlight the great accomplishments of the CDBG program with a year-long celebration culminating in the biggest National Community Development Week ever. We hope to raise $100,000 (mostly from banks and other for-profit sources) to finance this effort, which will include poster development, press kits for communities, the CD Week Guidebook, and year-round T-shirt, buttons, and hat sales. We hope to get national press attention during CD week with a celebration on the steps of the U.S. Capitol during CD Week.

As a prelude to this year-long effort, we invite NCDA's members to participate in the poster design competition. If you, or someone you know would like to submit a design for the 13^th annual celebration of National Community Development Week and the 25^th anniversary of the CDBG program campaign, please provide an 8" X 10" color rendering of your concept for the poster to Chandra Western, not later than May 25, 1998. This deadline is hard and fast, as staff will be leaving Washington for Miami on June 2, 1998. For more information on the poster design competition, please contact Chandra Western at NCDA.

MORE NCDA TECHNOLOGY NEWS

The new and improved NCDA homepage is all but complete. Webmaster Jim Welfley and company are at the point of identifying all of NCDA's members and assigning temporary passwords. NCDA staff will be sending each member the information they will need to successfully navigate the new and improved NCDA homepage. The new and improved homepage will provide more services and links to other sites. It will allow members to communicate more effectively with each other and NCDA staff. We are still investigating how we can provide members with membership discounts if they use the internet to receive NCDA mailings and publications. It will greatly reduce the amount of time it takes for members to receive information and, allow them to make the information available to their entire staff. The Peer Assistance Line (PAL) is already linked to the homepage as are members' e-mail addresses. It will be a wonderful system and hopefully encourage more members to make use of the internet. The possibilities are endless.

• The NCDA Washington Report is now available on the internet! Just point your browser to http://www.ncdaonline.org

 
• NCDA's e-mail address is michael@ncdaonline.org — DO WE HAVE YOURS???

In order to encourage and extend opportunities to the membership to bring issues of interest or concern to the agenda of the Board of Directors of NCDA, the following proposal is presented:

The president of the organization shall issue a "Call for Agenda Items" no less than 45 days prior to any regularly scheduled meeting of the Board of Directors. This call for agenda items may be included in the regular informational mailings to the NCDA membership and should include a listing of NCDA board members in each region. Items must be received at the NCDA office at least two weeks prior to the scheduled meeting to be referred to the president for inclusion on the agenda.

Members wishing to place an item on the agenda must find a Board member who is willing to act as a sponsor of the agenda item. The Board member shall submit the item to the NCDA office. As an alternative, any item signed by three active members and sent to the NCDA office will also be placed on the agenda. Either the member proposing the item or the Board member sponsoring the item should be prepared to present the item at the Board meeting. The prior submission of a brief written position statement is encouraged.

Proposed agenda items should be of general interest to the membership. They should not be of limited or strictly local interest.

The Board of Directors is encouraged to discuss proposed items and/or refer them to the appropriate committee. The president of the Board will make the final decision as to which items to include on the agenda. Should he/she decide that any items are not appropriate for inclusion, he/she will provide the Board with a list of those items and a brief reason why they were not included.

NCDA WELCOMES VICKI WATSON

Vicki Watson, formerly with the Council of State Community Development Agencies, has joined the National Community Development Association as Legislative Counsel. Vicki will pick up where Jim Welfley left off and be primarily responsible for covering a variety of housing and homelessness issues, including the HOME program, public housing, multifamily portfolio re-engineering, welfare reform, lead-based paint, and the National Homeownership Partnership. Vicki will also be NCDA's designated Project Director for its portion of the National Affordable Housing Training Institute (NAHTI) contract with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She will become the editor of HOMEWORKS and contribute to the Washington Report.

Prior to her four-year stint at the Council of State Community Development Agencies, Vicki worked for eight years at the local government level with the Fairfax County Department of Housing and Community Development in Fairfax, Virginia. Vicki worked with the county's first-time homebuyer programs, home improvement loan program, and assisted in the financing of multifamily housing projects. Please feel free to call Vicki with any housing or homelessness questions. Her direct line is at 202-887-5532. We are delighted to have Vicki with us!

Posting Job Announcements

NCDA staff is ever willing to include position vacancies of member communities in the NCDA Washington Report. To better assist members as well as staff, we ask member communities to e-mail position vacancies to Karen Means, michael@ncdaonline.org, whenever possible. If you are not set up for e-mail, please fax them to Karen. An electronic copy makes it easier to post the position on NCDAonline.
 
 FEDERAL REGISTER NOTICES

Notice of Federal Property Suitable as Facilities to Assist the Homeless. [Docket No. FR-4341-N-02] Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. March 20, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 54; Page 13680). This notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for possible use to assist the homeless.

Final Rule. Publication of Technical Amendments to HUD's Regulations Governing Environmental Review Procedures for Entitles Assuming HUD Environmental Review Responsibilities, 24 CFR Part 58 [Docket No. FR-4138-F-01.] Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Secretary. March 30, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 60). On April 30, 1996 (61 FR 19120), HUD published a final rule streamlining and updating 24 CFR part 58 in its entirety. Part 58 provides instructions and guidance to recipients of HUD assistance and other responsible entities for conducting environmental reviews in accordance with: the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA); the NEPA implementing regulations of the Council on Environmental Quality; and other NEPA related Federal laws and authorities. This final rule makes several technical and clarifying amendments to the April 30, 1996 final rule.

Super Notice of Funding Availability (SuperNOFA) for Housing and Community Development Programs. [Docket No. FR-4340-N-01] Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Secretary. March 31, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 61; Page 15489-15538). This Super NOFA of Funding Availability announces the availability of approximately $1.2 billion in HUD programs covering over 40 HUD programs in Community Planning and Development (CPD), Public and Indian Housing (PIH), Policy, Development and Research (PD&R), Office of Lead Hazard Control, and Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO). The general section of this SuperNOFA contains the procedures and requirements applicable for all programs. The applications for funding for these programs have been consolidated into six packages. The program section of this SuperNOFA contains a description of the specific programs for which funding is made available and the additional procedures and requirement for each.

Notice of Funding Availability for FY 1197 Public and Indian Housing Tenant Opportunities program Announcement of Funding Awards [Docket No. FR-4196-N-07.] Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing. April 8, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 671; Page 17204-17208). In accordance with section 102 (a) (4) (c) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989, this announcement notifies the public of funding decisions made by the Department in a competition for funding under the Combined Notices of Funding Availability for FY 1997 for the Public and Indian Housing Economic Development and Supportive Services. For a list of the award recipients, please contact NCDA staff.

Notice of Designation of Empowerment Zones [Docket No. FR-4281-N-03]. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. April 15, 1998 (Volume 63, Number 72). This notice publishes the names of two additional Empowerment Zones designated by HUD in accordance with authority granted in the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, under the existing selection criteria. These two zones are located in Cleveland, Ohio and Los Angeles, California.
 

12:00 - 5:00 p.m.
Registration and Information

1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
CDBG Nuts and Bolts

1:00 - 5:00 p.m.
HOME Refresher Course

6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
NCDA Board of Directors Meeting

6:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Hospitality Suite

Thursday, June 4

8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Registration and Information

8:30 - 9:00 a.m.
New Members Orientation

9:00 - 11:00 a.m.
Welcoming Brunch - General Session

• Nominations Committee Committee Report: Bob Broughton
• 1999 CD Week Poster Development and Report on 1998 CD Week Strategy. We will discuss celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the CDBG Program.

12:30 - 1:30 p.m.
State Whips/Membership Committee Meeting

1:30 -3:00 p.m. 
Committee Meetings

• Community Development Committee
• Economic Development Committee
• Professional and Program Development Committee
• Housing Committee, HOME and Homelessness
• Technology Committee

Friday, June 5

8:30 a.m. -  5:00 p.m. 
Registration and Information

9:00 - 10:00 a.m. 
Opening General Session : HUD Briefings

10:00 a.m. - 1:00 a.m. 
City Projects Bus Tour

1:30 - 3:00 p.m. 
Concurrent Sessions

• Broadening the Community Development Political Base: Getting to Know Your State Counterparts and the Smaller Communities. We are closer than we think.
  
  
• Software Demonstration. Application Oriented Designs will provide a demonstration of a software package designed specifically for entitlement communities to assist them with grant administration for HUD programs, that is compatible with the IDIS
  
  
• Getting the Financial Community Involved in your Community's Development Efforts.

3:00 - 4:30 p.m. 
Topical Roundtable Discussions

5:30 - 9:00 p.m. 
Special Conference Event

Saturday, June 6

8:30 - 10:30 
Closing Breakfast

10:30 - 1:00 p.m. 
Professional Development Session: Becoming a More Effective Manager

6:00 - 10:00 p.m. 
After Conference Event

To request a room reservation within the NCDA block, please ask for the NCDA Annual Conference, so that you receive the special conference rate of $110 per night. Conference participants have until May 13, 1998 to reserve a room at the guaranteed rate of $110 per night. After that date NCDA cannot guarantee that you will be guaranteed a room, or a room at the conference rate.

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