President Clinton signed into law HR 3579 — the FY 1998 Supplemental Spending Bill — on May 1. The $6.1 billion measure provides $2.9 billion for continuing peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Iraq and $2.6 billion for disaster relief. A total of $130 million of the disaster relief funding will be allocated for community development block grants. Clinton had threatened to veto the measure if funding was not including for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations; however, he approved the measure in order to continue much needed defense funding for Bosnia and Iraq. To offset the spending measure, Congress recaptured $2.3 billion from HUD's Section 8 reserves. Congressional leaders have vowed to replace the Section 8 funding.

SENATE MAKES APPROPRIATIONS ALLOCATIONS

On May 14, the Senate Appropriations Committee made its 302(b) allocations to its 13 subcommittees (on time and within the mandated spending caps from last year's budget agreement), thereby setting the stage for the subcommittees to begin work on their spending bills. The Committee's allocation of $532.8 billion to the 13 subcommittees is almost $6 billion less than requested by President Clinton. The Senate VA, HUD, Independent Agencies Subcommittee received an allocation of $69.9 billion, approximately 7/10 of a percentage point below the President's request of $70.4 billion. The Subcommittee now has to divide the $69.9 billion allocation among the Department of Veterans Affairs, HUD and the Independent Agencies (EPA, NASA, etc.). The House has not passed its FY 1999 budget resolution.

THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO INTRODUCE "THE AMERICAN HOMEOWNERSHIP ACT"

Rep. Rick Lazio (R-NY), along with several other members of the House, plan to introduce "The American Homeownership Act" in the next several days. As a precursor to introduction of the bill, the House held a press conference on May 14 to drum-up support for the bill. Al Eisenberg, Vice Chair of the Arlington County (VA) Board of Supervisors, spoke in support of the bill on behalf of the National Community Development Association, the Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies, the National Association of Counties, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

Some of the provisions contained in the legislation, include:

• reauthorization of the HOME Investment Partnerships Program through FY 2003 at $1.5 billion annually; 
  
  
• the creation of a HOME Loan Guarantee Program which would allow communities to leverage their future HOME allocations (up to five times the current allocation) for affordable housing development; 
  
  
• the use of HOME funds as leverage in connection with the creation of loan pools without imposing the HOME income restrictions on the entire pool; 
  
  
• the permanent authorization of HUD's Home Equity Conversion Mortgages, which allows senior citizens to borrow the equity in their homes to help pay for living and medical expenses or home repairs; 
  
  
• the authorization of $15 million through FY 2003 for grants to States and local governments for regulatory barrier removal strategies; 
  
  
• the creation of uniform standards and codes for construction of manufactured housing around the country; 
  
  
• the authorization of $25 million in homeownership zone grants for FY 1999 and FY 2000; 
  
  
• Finally, the bill overrides a HUD regulation, which caps the local median income at the national median income level. This limit has the effect in high cost areas of preventing programs like CDBG and HOME from serving those up to 80% of are median income.

On April 30, Secretary Cuomo announced the availability of $1.4 billion in two separate SuperNOFAs. These are the two last remaining SuperNOFAs to be announced for FY98. The first SuperNOFA was announced on March 31. The SuperNOFAs are an effort on the part of HUD to streamline more than 40 different competitive programs into three Notices of Funding Availability. The second SuperNOFA makes available $176 million for economic development and community empowerment programs, while the third SuperNOFA makes available $1.2 billion for homeless assistance programs and $88 million in Section 8 vouchers and certificates for people with disabilities. HUD has set-up a SuperNOFA Information Center for applicants to obtain application kits and other information. The Center's number is 1-800-HUD-8929. Interested applicants can also obtain application information at HUD's web site (www.hud.gov).

SENATE REQUESTED HOMELESS STUDY UNDERWAY

The Senate Banking Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, with support from the Senate Budget Committee and VA/HUD Appropriations Subcommittee, has asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to undertake a study of federal homeless programs. Specifically, the Senate has asked GAO to determine the amount of federal homeless funds spent on supportive services. The study stems from the Senate's concern that too much supportive services are now coming from HUD's homeless programs. In essence, the Senate would like to see other federal agencies provides their fair share of supportive services funds. The study is a pre-cursor to the Senate drafting a homeless bill that would consolidate HUD's homeless assistance programs. The House passed its Mc Kinney consolidation bill in March.

ISTEA REAUTHORIZATION TO BE COMPLETED BY WEEK'S END

The $200 billion transportation bill — the largest public works bill in history — may have to "rob Peter" to pay for itself. House and Senate conferees and the Clinton Administration have settled on a plan to off-set extra transportation spending by eliminating disability payments for veterans with smoking-related illnesses contracted outside of their military service. They also considered a plan to raise $4.6 billion by skimming 20 basis points off Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac transactions to help pay for this behemoth bill. Fortunately this plan did not make it in debate.

Other issues relating to the bill include the .08 blood alcohol level — which the House succeeded in getting removed — the $900 million that Virginia Senator Warner was successful in retaining, and the scaling back of House "pork" projects by $1.6 billion, which allowed for $7.7 billion in targeted projects. The Senate's "pork" projects came in at the modest figure of $2 billion.

The passage of this bill will ensure that our nation's transportation spending increases by 40 percent over the next six years, with annual highway spending up from $20 billion to $28 billion and transit up from $4.5 billion to $5.5 billion. Also of note is that the funding — taxes from states going into the highway trust fund — will be segregated and used solely for transportation from now on.

There are still some contentious issues remaining to be resolved. One particular issue concerns the amount of funds each state receives from the amount of taxes it provides to the federal government. This bill insures that each state will receive a minimum of 91 percent of its share of taxes going into the transportation trust fund. There are some conferees who still have problems with the amount of funding provided for transit. Given all the issues that have already been resolved, there is no doubt that this bill will reach the President's desk before the Memorial Day recess.

GAO TO REVIEW HUD MANAGEMENT REFORMS

On May 7^th HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo told the Senate Housing Subcommittee that progress on HUD's 2020 Management reforms warrants removal of the Department's high-risk status. According to the General Accounting Office and the HUD inspector general, it will take years before HUD can be considered healthy. In 1994, HUD became the only department to be designated a high-risk agency by the GAO because of weak management controls, inadequate information systems, ineffective organization, and a staff that lacked the proper skills. According to Judy England-Joseph of GAO, "...The Secretary's asking to get off the high-risk list indicates he does not understand the seriousness of the situation at the department." She also indicated that before the department can get off the high-risk list, it must address several issues, including, adequate staffing, reduction of the number of troubled PHAs and multifamily projects, and improvement in procurement and contacting policies. According to HUD's inspector general Susan Gaffney, "...HUD cannot be fixed in one, two, or even five years. What is wonderful about Secretary Cuomo is that he has recognized the problems and tried to get them fixed, the problem is that it takes some time to do this."

Cuomo also told the subcommittee that if HUD was to meet its staffing goals of 7,500 persons by the year 2002, Congress would have to approve major consolidation of HUD programs. The current level of staffing — at approximately 9,000— is necessary to effectively administer all of HUD's programs.

THE COMMERCIAL REVITALIZATION TAX CREDIT BILL: HR 465

Once again public interest groups dedicated to advocating for community and economic development programs are attempting to get a Commercial Revitalization Tax Credit (CRTC) Bill passed. The most likely vehicle (piece of legislation) for a bill of the nature to get passed this year is to attach it as an amendment to another bill — most likely a tax bill. The Republican leadership is putting together a tax-cut bill — what it will look like and how much of a cut it will contain is anybody's guess — for passage before of the end of the 105^th Congress.

HR 465 was proposed by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) and Representative Phil English (R-PA) to provide a tax credit for business construction, expansion, or rehabilitation in specially designated distressed communities. It is designed to promote economic development, job creation and physical improvement. Qualifying businesses have a choice of credit — 20 percent of the qualified expenditures, which may be taken all at once or carried forward or backward against income, or a straight-line 5 percent per year credit for 10 years. There is a maximum of $10 million of creditable expenses per project. The credits would be allocated by formula to states in the same manner as the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. The proposed legislation provided for a total of $1.5 billion credited over a five-year period.

This program would work very well with CDBG and HOME as well as the welfare-to-work initiatives and the EZEC program. HR 465 would not impinge on the LIHTC program nor would restrict the use of any other federal economic development program. If members have any questions about this proposed program, please contact Chandra Western at NCDA.

HUD NOTICES

CPD Notice 98-6: This notice provides procedures for determining whether PJs have met the requirements for committing and expending funds in accordance with the HOME program. This notice updates CPD notice 97-07.

CPD Notice 98-05: This notice provides guidance for counties wishing to qualify or requalify as urban counties for CDBG as well as for existing urban counties that wish to include previously non-participating communities. This notice updates CPD notice 97-06.

HUD SETS JUNE 6-13 AS NATIONAL HOMEOWNERSHIP WEEK; NCDA ENCOURAGES ITS MEMBERS TO SPONSOR HOMEOWNERSHIP ACTIVITIES

HUD hopes to achieve a record homeownership rate of 67.5 percent by the year 2000. The current rate is 65.7 percent. Homeownership Week marks the anniversary of the National Partners in Homeownership, a national effort launched by President Clinton a few years ago to assist the Administration in reaching this record goal.

Homeownership Week marks a time when local communities celebrate and involve themselves in activities centered around encouraging homeownership. HUD will be sending out Home-ownership Week Planning Guides to all of its grantees within the next week. HUD's Event Planning Guide provides ideas, planning tips and media tools, as well as general information for planning an event. We are asking members to sponsor an event or series of events during Homeownership Week, to promote and highlight community efforts to expand homeownership opportunities throughout the country. If you are planning to conduct an activity for National Homeownership Week, please complete the attached registration form. We want to ensure that NCDA members' celebration activities can be added to HUD's list of national Homeownership Week events. Accompanying this mailing is HUD's Event Planning Guide to assist you in your National Homeownership Week activities.

HUD RELEASES COMPLETENESS CHECKLIST FOR ANNUAL PLANS

HUD will be using the following checklist to review your Action Plan submissions for completeness. Please note that the requirements are not fully described. You should refer to the regulatory citations for a full description. COMPLETENESS CHECKLIST FOR ANNUAL PLAN

A. Incorporated into Community 2020 Software

_____1. Standard Form 424

_____2. Resources

a. Federal resources - description of federal resources expected to be available

b. Other resources - resources form private and non-federal sources. Plan must explain how federal funds will leverage these resources. 



_____3. Activities to be undertaken

_____4. Homeless and other special needs activities

_____5. Description of activities to be carried out

_____6. Description of "urgent needs" activities

_____7. Certifications

_____ 1 Geographic distribution. Description of geographic areas, including areas of minority concentration, in which assistance will be provided, giving rationale for priorities for allocation. [º91.220(d)]

_____2. Homeless and other special needs activities: Activities to address emergency shelter and transitional housing needs of homeless persons, to prevent low-income persons with children (especially those with incomes below 30% of median) from becoming homeless, to help homeless persons make the transition to permanent housing, and to address special needs of persons who are not homeless [º91.220(e)]

_____3. Other actions

(a) General: Actions grantee plans to take to address obstacles to meeting underserved needs, affordable housing, remove barriers to affordable housing, lead-based paint hazards, reduce number of poverty level families, develop institutional structure, enhance coordination between public and private housing and social service agencies, foster public housing improvements and resident initiatives. [º91.220(f)(1)]

(b) Public Housing: Reference to revisions prepared for Comprehensive Grant Program. If public housing agency is "troubled", or performing poorly, city's plan to assist public housing agency. [º91.220(f)(2)] 



_____4. Float-funded activities - Grantee must specify the full amount of program income expected to be generated by any float-funded activities and the month(s) and year(s) that it will be generated. Each float-funded activity must be individually listed and described. The grantee must clearly show a commitment to either:


(a) amend or delete activities in an amount equal to any default or failure of the float-funded activity to produce income. In this case, the grantee must include a description of what process will be used to select activities to be amended or deleted and how citizens will be involved in that process;

(b) obtain an irrevocable line of credit from a commercial lender for the full amount of the float-funded activity and describe the lender and terms of such line of credit in the action plan. The line of credit must be unconditionally available to the grantee within 30 days of the date that the float-funded activity fails to generate projected program income;

(c) transfer general local government funds in the full amount of any shortfall to the CDBG program within 3 days of the float-funded activity's failure to generate program income; or


(d) a method which HUD must approve to ensure that funds are available to meet any shortfall within 30 days. [º91.220(g)(1)(ii)(D) and º570.301(b)]



_____5. For any "urgent needs" activity, a certification that the activity is designed to meet community development needs having a particular urgency. [º91.220(g)(1)(iii)]

_____6. For activities for which the grantee has not yet decided on a specific location [rehabilitation loan programs, for example], the description shall identify who may apply for assistance, process grantee expects to use to select recipients - including selection criteria - and how much and under what terms the assistance will be provided. In the case of a public facility or improvement, how the grantee expects to determine its location. [º570.301(a)]

_____7. HOME :


(a) A PJ must describe forms of investment that are not described in [º92.205(b)]

(b) If the pj intends to use HOME funds for homebuyers, the guidelines for resale or recapture must be described. [º91.220(g)(2)]

IDIS UPDATE

NCDA NOTES

PAUL POULOS, NCDA Past President

As reported in the April 29^th issue of the Washington Report, former NCDA President Paul Poulos of Fall River, Massachusetts, passed away recently. For all of you who new Paul, appreciated his humor, and respected his commitment to community development we have attached the eulogy given by a member of his staff, Tom McClosky. Hopefully, this will help ease the pain of losing a dear friend.

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.

NCDA TECHNOLOGY NEWS

The overhaul of the NCDA Website is complete. NCDA members have received their new "zip code-based" password. This password will be temporary and will require member communities to select new individualized passwords. By June 16, if members have not logged on to the systems with their new passwords, they will not have access to the system. On June 30, 1998, if members have not forwarded to NCDA a commitment form to pay dues, an expected date of payment of dues, or have paid dues, your permanent passwords will be deleted from the system and you will no longer have access until dues are paid.

NCDA staff will be sending each member the information they will need to successfully navigate the new and improved NCDA website (NCDAonline). NCDAonline will provide more services and links to other sites and 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 linked to NCDAonline, as are members' e-mail addresses. Members can e-mail directly from NCDAonline. It is a wonderful system and hopefully encourage more members to make use of the internet. The possibilities are endless.

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.

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. 

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