In early October HUD annouced $3.92 billion in community allocations for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP). Foundations that are involved with their communities efforts to end homelessness are encouraged to pass the following information on to local developers and homeless service organizations.
According to HUD, their community based allocations for the NSP are worth taking advantage of:
"Because most communities' special needs housing resources are tied up in renewals of existing projects, NSP offers an unparalleled opportunity to fund new projects. For NSP grantees, funding special needs housing projects that provide permanent supportive housing will help them meet the 25/50 targeting requirement. There are many possible models that communities could use. For example, an NSP grantee could acquire and rehabilitate a single-family or multi- family home and 'dispose' the property to a nonprofit. Alternately, vacant property could be redeveloped into permanent supportive housing units for persons with special needs."
25% of the funding must be used to house persons at or below 50% of the area median income (AMI). Projects are encouraged to include individuals and families who are homeless, those living with HIV/AIDS and low income veterans. Community plans (submitted in the form of an amendment to the local Community Development Block Grant Action Plan) are due to HUD on December 1 - therefore it is important to get involved quickly.
HUD will provide additional information via the NSP website as it becomes available.
