HUD has developed a sample national Housing Trust Fund (HTF) Allocation Plan form, called Housing Trust Fund Allocation Plan Guide 2016. States may use the sample form to submit their HTF Allocation Plans or use another format as long as all elements required by the interim HTF rule are included. The sample form covers all of the required elements.
Because the HTF Allocation Plan is part of the Consolidated Plan (ConPlan), states are required to submit their HTF Allocation Plan as a component of their annual Action Plan and/or long-term ConPlan using HUD’s eCon Planning Suite. However, for 2016 the eCon Planning Suite does not yet contain all of the data fields needed to accommodate the HTF Allocation Plan. The sample form as well as Notice CPD-16-07 (see Memo, 5/2) notes that some of the HTF Allocation Plan requirements will be completed in the eCon Planning Suite in IDIS, the management information system used by HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD). Portions of an HTF Allocation Plan not submitted with the eCon Planning Suite will be submitted using a Word document or PDF file. The 2016 HTF Allocation Plan must be submitted by August 16 to the local HUD CPD Field Office and to HUD Headquarters.
If a state has already conducted its ConPlan public participation and included the HTF in any public participation performed for the other HUD formula grant programs (such as HOME and CDBG), that state does not need to conduct additional public participation for the HTF. If a state has not yet conducted public participation or did not include the HTF in the public participation it performed for other HUD formula grant programs, the state must conduct additional public participation to include the HTF as part of its ConPlan.
The HTF authorizing statute requires states to give priority in awarding HTF money to applicants based on six factors:
1.Geographic diversity;
2.Ability to obligate HTF funds and undertake HTF eligible activities in a timely manner;
3.The extent to which rental units will be affordable, particularly to extremely low income households, which HUD’s interim defines as the extent to which federal, state, or local project-based rental assistance is used;
4.The length of time rental units will remain affordable (a minimum of 30 years);
5.The merits of the proposed project in meeting the priority housing needs in the state’s ConPlan; and
6.The extent to which the applicant will make use of non-federal funding sources.
The sample form asks states to describe all of these criteria and to indicate their relative importance. The sample form is the first indication in HUD guidance that relative importance should be given to each of the six priority factors. NLIHC’s Model HTF Allocation Plan proposes a 100-point system, with 40 points assigned to rent affordability and 25 points assigned to the merit of the project (see Memo, 5/2).
HUD’s sample form indicates which IDIS screens to complete or amend for the HTF Allocation Plan and adds a series of questions for which a state can check a box and add text in order to address HTF elements not yet activated in IDIS.
The Housing Trust Fund Allocation Plan Guide 2016 is at http://bit.ly/1XAIEs1