|
Content provided by the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance
10.433 Rural Housing Preservation Grants FEDERAL AGENCY: RURAL HOUSING SERVICE (RHS), DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AUTHORIZATION: Housing Act of 1949, as amended, Section 533, Public Law 98-181, 42 U.S.C. 1480.
To assist very low- and low-income rural residents individual homeowners, rental property owners (single/multi-unit) or by providing the consumer cooperative housing projects (co-ops) the necessary assistance to repair or rehabilitate their dwellings. These objectives will be accomplished through the establishment of repair/rehabilitation, projects run by eligible applicants. This program is intended to make use of and leverage any other available housing programs which provide resources to very low and low-income rural residents to bring their dwellings up to development standards. TYPES OF ASSISTANCE:
USES AND USE RESTRICTIONS: Organizations may use less than 20 percent of the Housing Preservation Grant funds for program administration purposes, such as to hire the personnel to carry out a project of housing rehabilitation to meet the needs of very low and low- income persons in rural areas; to pay necessary and reasonable office and administrative expenses; and to pay reasonable fees for training of organization personnel. Eighty percent or more of funds must be used for loans, grants or other assistance on individual homes, homeowners, rental properties or co-ops to pay any part of the cost for repair or rehabilitation of structures; funds may not be used to hire personnel to perform construction or to pay any debts, expenses or costs other than previously outlined and approved in the project application. ELIGIBILITY
REQUIREMENTS: Applicant Eligibility: Must be a State or political subdivision, public nonprofit corporation, Indian tribal corporations, authorized to receive and administer housing preservation grants, private nonprofit corporation, or a consortium of such eligible entities. Applicants must provide assistance under this program to persons residing in open country and communities with a population of 10,000 that are rural in character and places with a population of up to 25,000 under certain conditions. Applicants in towns with population of 10,000 to 25,000 should check with local Rural Development office to determine if the Agency can serve them. Assistance is authorized for eligible applicants in the United States, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and the territories and possessions of the United States.
Pre-application Coordination: The standard application forms as furnished by the Federal agency and required by 7 CFR parts 3015 or 3016 must be used for this program. Preapplications on SF 424.1 "Application for Federal Assistance (for non-construction)," must be submitted to Rural Development. Applicants are encouraged to consult with the Rural Development District or State office prior to submission of a Preapplication and to receive assistance in the preparation of their preapplication. An environmental impact assessment is required for this program. This program is eligible for coverage under E.O. 12372, "Intergovernmental Review of Federal Programs." An applicant should consult the office or official designated as the single point of contact in his or her State for more information on the process the State requires to be followed in applying for assistance, if the State has selected the program for review. ASSISTANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Formula and Matching Requirements: See 7 CFR 1940-L, "Methodology and Formulas for Allocation of Loan and Grant Funds." This program has a statutory formula consisting of the following factors and weights: State's percentage of national rural population, 33 1/3 percent; State's percentage of national number of rural occupied substandard units, 33 1/3 percent; and State's percentage of national rural families with incomes below the poverty level, 33 1/3 percent. Data source for each factor is based on the latest census data available. The percentage for each factor is multiplied by the weight assigned and summed to arrive at a State factor. The State factor is multiplied by the total amount available for allocation nationally, minus the national office reserve (approximately 5 percent). This program has no cost-sharing arrangement or matching requirements although priorities under the project selection criteria include extent of leveraging of funds to complement the housing preservation grant. POST ASSISTANCE REQUIREMENTS: Reports: Quarterly financial and project performance reports are to be made to the Rural Development office receiving the grant. FINANCIAL INFORMATION: Account Identification: 12-2070-0-1-604.
Collectively, the purpose is to provide assistance to approximately 5,000 homeowners for the rehabilitation of their homes. For fiscal year 2001, preapplications were funded to assist 1,414 units. REGULATIONS, GUIDELINES, AND LITERATURE: 7 CFR 1944-N, Section 1944.651 through 1944.700, RD Instruction 1944-N. Regulations are available from Rural Development State offices. INFORMATION CONTACTS: Regional or Local Office: See Regional Agency Offices. Consult your local telephone directory under U.S. Department of Agriculture for Rural Development county or district office numbers or visit the website http://www.rd.usda.gov/contact-us/state-offices for a State Office listing. EXAMPLES OF FUNDED PROJECTS: Funded projects generally provide financial assistance to very low-income persons for bringing their dwellings up to local code standards through an HPG grant combined with other Federal funding, such as HUD's community development block grants or HHS's weatherization program. Other variations funded includes using HPG funds to establish a revolving loan fund that provides homeowners a long term, interest subsidized loan; "lending homeowners the money and "forgiving" 20 percent per year until the loan becomes a grant after five years; using the grantee's own employees to perform the rehabilitation work to reduce the costs; and, in a few instances, leveraging State resources for repair loans or grants. In most cases, grantees that are currently active in home repair and rehabilitation were selected and were able to leverage their existing programs with the new HPG funds. CRITERIA FOR SELECTING PROPOSALS: Projects must provide a feasible repair rehabilitation program and serve areas with a concentration of substandard housing and very low and low-income persons. In addition, the following criteria will be considered in the selection of grant recipients. Each preapplication and its accompanying statement of activities will be evaluated on: (1) The percentage of very low-income persons assisted; (2) the percentage of use of HPG funds to total cost of housing preservation; (3) the applicant's administrative capacity and experience in (i) housing rehabilitation or weatherization, (ii) assisting very low and low-income persons attain housing assistance and (iii) prior programs no outstanding audits findings; (4) the proposed program will be undertaken in non-Metropolitan Statistical Areas identified by RHS as having populations below 10,000 or in remote parts of other rural areas, (i.e., rural areas contained in Metropolitan Statistical Areas with less than 5,000 population); (5) the program will minimize the use of grant funds for administrative purposes, i.e., less than 20 percent of grant funds; (6) the program will alleviate overcrowding in rural residences inhabited by very low and low-income families; and (7) if an existing grantee has met the objectives of its current grant.
|
| ||
State Money
|
Federal Money
|
Private Money
|
Low Cost Colleges
|
|