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:
Project Grants. Place Cursor Here for Definition
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.
Beneficiary
Eligibility: Very low and low-income rural
individuals and families who are homeowners and need resources
to bring their housing up to code standards, rental property owners,
or co-ops.
Credentials/Documentation:
Applicants must have the financial, legal, administrative, and
operational capacity to carry out the objectives of the program
by having experience in rural housing rehabilitation. Costs will
be determined in accordance with OMB Circular No. A-87 for State
and local governments.
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.
Application
Procedure: In FY 01, the section 533 program
will be awarded through a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA)
announced in the Federal Register December 6, 2000. The NOFA application
period is 90 days from the date of the announcement. The NOFA
deadline is March 26, 2001.
Award
Procedure: Award is made by the Rural Development
State Director.
Deadlines:
Dates governing the acceptance, review, and selection of project
preapplication will be published annually in the Federal Register.
Applicants may also contact the Rural Development State Office
for deadlines.
Range
of Approval/Disapproval Time: Notice of action
taken on preapplications will be generally within 90 days of final
date of acceptance of preapplication.
Appeals:
Applicants may request reconsideration on the basis of pertinent
facts concerning their application within 30 days of notification
of action taken on the preapplication or application.
Renewals:
Applicants may apply for an additional HPG grant when they have
achieved or nearly achieved the goals established for the previous
or existing grant. The grantee must file a preapplication for
the current fiscal year which will be processed and compared under
the project selection criteria to others submitted at that time.
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.
Length
and Time Phasing of Assistance: Grants are
made for a 12 to 24 month period.
POST
ASSISTANCE REQUIREMENTS:
Reports:
Quarterly financial and project performance reports are to be made
to the Rural Development office receiving the grant.
Audits:
Periodic audits should be made as part of the recipient's system
of financial management and internal control to meet terms and
conditions of grants and other agreements. In accordance with
the provisions of 7 CFR Part 3052, "Audits of States, Local Governments,
and Nonprofit Organizations," which implement OMB Circular A-133
(Revised, June 24, 1997), "Audits of States, Local Governments,
and Non-Profit Organizations," nonfederal entities that receive
financial assistance of $300,000 or more in Federal awards will
have a single or a program- specific audit conducted for that
year. Nonfederal entities that expend less than $300,000 a year
in Federal awards are exempt from Federal audit requirements for
that year, except as noted in 7 CFR 3052.
Records:
Grantees shall maintain adequate records and accounts to assure
that grant funds are used for authorized purposes.
FINANCIAL
INFORMATION:
Account
Identification: 12-2070-0-1-604.
Obligations:
(Grants) FY 01 $5,465,000; FY 02 est $8,000,000; and FY 03 est
$8,000,000.
Range
and Average of Financial Assistance:
For fiscal year 2001, approximately 114 grants were obligated
providing assistance for 1,414 units.
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: Contact the appropriate Rural
Development State office listed in Appendix IV of the Catalog or
on the internet at http://www.rurdev.usda.gov/recd_map.html.
Headquarters
Office: Multiple Family Housing Processing
Division, Rural Housing Service, Department of Agriculture, Washington
DC 20250. Telephone: (202) 720-1660. Use the same number for FTS.
Web
Site Address: http://www.rurdev.usda.gov
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.
