Funding Announcement Program Administered by Neighborworks® America
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Housing Stability Counseling Program A federally funded program designed and administered by NeighborWorks® America May 26, 2021 (Updated September 7, 2021) Table of Contents Purpose of Funding ................................................................................................................................. 2 Definitions .............................................................................................................................................. 2 Funding Available ................................................................................................................................... 5 HUD-Approved Agencies/HUD-Certified Counselors ........................................................................... 6 Eligible Applicants .................................................................................................................................. 7 Applicants with Multiple Affiliations ...................................................................................................... 9 Eligible Activities ................................................................................................................................... 10 Application Summary and Scoring........................................................................................................ 18 Funding Time Frame ............................................................................................................................ 21 Disbursement Schedule ......................................................................................................................... 22 Other Program Requirements ............................................................................................................... 24 Post-Award Requirements ..................................................................................................................... 27 Exhibit 1: HSCP Targeting Methodology ........................................................................................... 29 Exhibit 2: HSCP Minimum HUD Approval Standards ....................................................................... 43 Exhibit 3: Draft HSCP Client Level Data Reporting Requirements .................................................... 44 Exhibit 4: HSCP Award Disbursement Requirements ....................................................................... 50 Page 1 of 50 Housing Stability Counseling Program Funding Announcement Program administered by NeighborWorks® America Purpose of Funding On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2) into law, appropriating $100 million to the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation, doing business as NeighborWorks® America (NeighborWorks), to fund the Housing Stability Counseling Program (HSCP). These funds are for housing counseling services, defined as (i) housing counseling provided directly to households facing housing instability, such as eviction, default, foreclosure, loss of income, or homelessness; (ii) education, outreach, training, technology upgrades, and other program related support; and (iii) operational oversight funding for grantees and sub-grantees. With this Funding Announcement, NeighborWorks makes available up to $88.5 million in grant funds. HSCP is intended to support the delivery of housing counseling services by HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Intermediaries, State Housing Finance Agencies, NeighborWorks Organizations, and the housing counseling agencies with whom they subgrant or contract. Grant funds will be awarded to Applicants with demonstrated experience in providing housing counseling services to households facing housing instability. The statutory authority for HSCP mandates that a minimum of 40 percent of funds shall be provided to counseling organizations that target housing counseling services to minority and low- income populations facing housing instability or provide housing counseling services in neighborhoods having high concentrations of minority and low-income populations. The statutory language that governs the program can be found at www.stablecommunities.org. NeighborWorks reserves the right to amend the guidelines set forth in this Funding Announcement. Any questions about HSCP should be directed to [email protected]. The performance period for HSCP is from the date of grant agreement issuance through February 28, 2023. All HSCP funds shall be expended by February 28, 2023. Definitions 1. Affiliate. An “Affiliate” is a Sub-grantee of a HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Intermediary (Intermediary) or State Housing Finance Agency (SHFA) which is incorporated separately from the Intermediary or SHFA. An Affiliate is: (1) duly organized and existing as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, (2) in good standing under the laws of the state of the organization, and (3) authorized to do business in the states where it provides or proposes to provide housing counseling services. For the purposes of this Funding Announcement, Affiliates are identified as “Sub-grantees.” 2. Applicant. ‘‘Applicant’’ refers to an Intermediary, SHFA or NeighborWorks Organization (NWO) with demonstrated experience in providing housing counseling services to households facing housing instability. Page 2 of 50 Housing Stability Counseling Program Funding Announcement Program administered by NeighborWorks® America 3. Branch. A “Branch” or “Branch Office” is an organizational and subordinate unit of an NWO, or a Sub-grantee of an Intermediary or SHFA which is not separately incorporated or organized. For the purposes of this Funding Announcement, Branches are identified as “Sub-grantees.” 4. Contracted Counseling Entity. A “Contracted Counseling Entity” (CCE) is a Housing Counseling Agency that a NWO has contracted with to deliver HSCP-funded housing stability counseling services, and which is accountable to the NWO Grantee for the use of the funds provided. 5. Demonstrated Experience (Revised 6/11/2021). "Demonstrated Experience" refers to an Applicant's successful and recent track record from November 1, 2019 to April 30, 2021 with providing housing stability counseling services for households facing housing instability such as eviction, default, foreclosure, loss of income, or homelessness. To qualify as having demonstrated experience, an Applicant and all sub-grantees or CCEs that will receive funding must have: • Worked successfully with landlords, lenders and/or servicers, and with clients in threat of or facing eviction, foreclosure and/or homelessness; AND • Documented counseling capacity, outreach capacity, past successful performance, and positive outcomes with documented counseling plans and housing stability counseling outcomes (e.g. landlord and rental agreements, loan workouts, loan modification agreements or foreclosure resolution outcomes); AND • Certified that at least one of the following is true for it and each sub-grantee or CCE that will receive HSCP funding: a) Has provided housing stability counseling services with documented action plans to at least 30 people in the past year (If less than 30 served, select this option if the agency can’t certify to option b below). In the narrative section describing past performance in the grant application, the agency can detail their experience serving clients even if it is less than 30. OR b) 75% or more of its service area is in a rural area (if your organization is serving a community that is eligible for USDA Rural Development programs and services as of June 30, 2021, your organization may count that community as rural for the purposes of this application) AND it provided housing stability counseling which included documented action plans to at least 15 people during the past year or 10 people during the most recent quarter. 6. Grantee. ‘‘Grantee’’ refers to the Intermediary, SHFA, or NWO that applies for and receives a direct HSCP grant award. 7. Housing Counseling Agency (HCA). A “Housing Counseling Agency” or “HCA” provides housing stability counseling as a Sub-grantee or CCE of a Grantee. An HCA may have a main office, and one or more branch offices. The HCA is either a HUD-Approved Housing Counseling Agency or meets the minimum standards, as identified by HSCP, to receive HUD approval (See Exhibit 2 for the HSCP minimum HUD approval standards). Page 3 of 50 Housing Stability Counseling Program Funding Announcement Program administered by NeighborWorks® America 8. Housing Counselor (Counselor). A “Housing Counselor” or “Counselor” is a professional who will provide housing stability counseling and is a HUD-certified counselor or actively working towards HUD counselor certification. Applicants will be required to identify all counselors (directly employed by the Grantee, Sub-grantees and/or CCEs) and their HUD counselor certification status. If the counselor is not HUD-certified by the HSCP application due date of June 30, 2021, the Applicant must identify trainings the counselor has or will take towards certification and the date during the HSCP performance period that the HUD certification exam will be taken. Grantees, Sub-grantees and CCEs must maintain an accurate record of each counselor’s HUD certification status throughout the HSCP performance period. Grantees are responsible for updating HSCP throughout the performance period of HUD certification status for counselors working on HSCP. 9. Housing Stability Counseling. “Housing Stability Counseling” for the purpose of this Funding Announcement is housing counseling provided