HUD Creates Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan formally announced the launch of HUD’s new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities (OSHC) on February 4th. The office will operationalize the Administration’s Sustainable Communities Initiative, which was funded at $150 million in FY10 appropriations, the level requested by the Administration.

Shelley Poticha, who came to HUD in July of 2009, has been named the director of OSHC, which is under the purview of Deputy Secretary Ron Sims.

OSHC will work to coordinate federal housing and transportation investments with local land use decisions in order to improve housing affordability, increase access to housing and employment opportunities, reduce transportation costs, save energy, and reduce pollution. The office will oversee two primary grant programs: a $100 million Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program and a $40 million Community Planning Challenge Grants Program.

As part of the February 4 announcement, OSHC issued an “Advance Notice and Request for Comments,” seeking public feedback regarding how the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program should be structured, in anticipation of the issuance of a Notice of Fund Availability (NOFA) for the funds.

The goal of the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program is to support multi-jurisdictional regional planning efforts that integrate housing, transportation, environmental impact, and economic development decision-making.

HUD is considering three funding categories for the program:

1. Where there are no existing regional plans for sustainable development, grants would support the preparation of such plans. Funds could be used for: “visioning and scenario planning exercises,” data analysis, urban design, outreach efforts to achieve broad consensus on a single “vision/scenario,” and adoption of a plan by all appropriate regional governmental bodies.

2. Where there are regional sustainable development plans, grants would support the preparation of more detailed programs to implement those existing plans. Examples of detailed programs include: inter-jurisdictional affordable and fair housing strategies, corridor transit-oriented development plans, land banking and acquisition strategies, and revenue sharing strategies.

3. Where regions have already implemented meaningful regional sustainable development plans, grants would provide incentives that could result in even greater action. Incentives might include funding for pre-development costs, land acquisition, or capital for infrastructure.
Two levels of funding are being considered. For large metro areas of more than 500,000 people, maximum grants might be $5 million, while for small metro or rural areas with fewer than 500,000 people, maximum grants might be $2 million. At least $25 million is set aside for small metro or rural areas.

A tentative schedule for rolling out these grants begins with regional listening sessions from February 16th to March 1st (locations and dates will be posted at http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/program_offices/sustainable_housing_communities), webcast briefings during the week of March 1st, comments due March 12th, a NOFA published the week of March 12th, applications due by June 5th, and awards announced on August 2nd.

A separate NOFA will be issued for the Community Planning Challenge Grants Program. This program will provide incentives for jurisdictions to make key changes in local zoning and land use ordinances that will encourage sustainable growth.

HUD’s Sustainable Communities Initiative reflects the agency’s involvement in the Administration’s broader conversation about livable communities. In June, the Administration announced the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a cooperative effort among HUD, the Department of Transportation, and the Environmental Protection Agency. The three agencies of the Partnership have six Livability Principles guiding their effort to coordinate federal policies, programs, and resources to build more sustainable communities.

Link to the OSHC webpage at: http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/program_offices/sustainable_housing_communities

The Advance Notice and Request for Comments for the Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program is available at: http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/pdf/2010-2979.pdf

Link to the Partnership for Sustainable Communities website at: www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/partnership

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