U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan announced today in a press release that HUD will be investing $95 million to support stronger, economically competitive communities through their Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities. From the release:
This year’s Regional Planning Grant program will encourage grantees to support regional planning efforts that integrate housing, land-use, economic and workforce development, transportation, and infrastructure developments in a manner that empowers regions to consider how all of these factors work together to bring economic competitiveness and revitalization to a community. The program will place a priority on partnerships, including the collaboration of arts and culture, philanthropy, and innovative ideas to the regional planning process. Recognizing that areas are in different stages of sustainability planning.
And:
The Community Challenge Planning Grant program will be competitively awarded to state, local and tribal governments for efforts such as amending or replacing local master plans, zoning and building codes to promote mixed-use development, building more affordable housing, and the rehabilitation of older buildings and structures with the goal of promoting sustainability at the local and neighborhood levels.
This year’s grant program will set aside $3 million for jurisdictions with populations under 50,000, and reward high scoring applicants with Preferred Sustainability Status, which will qualify them for several benefits including access to capacity-building resources and potential points in a number of funding opportunities managed by HUD. Today’s announcement is a follow-up to the pre-NOFA HUD released on June 21, 2011.
HUD’s Regional Planning Grants require a pre-application which is due on August 25th, 2011. Once communities are notified that they have been approved for the final application process, those applications will be due on September 26th, 2011.
The Community Challenge Grant program does not require a pre-application. Final applications are due on September 9th, 2011.
To read the full text of HUD’s funding announcement, visit HUD’s official website or www.grants.gov for the full Community Challenge Grant NOFA or the full Regional Planning Grants NOFA.
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