§4143 Grants for Building Resident Capacity and Funding Predevelopment Costs

Summary

Makes money available as direct grants to resident groups, resident councils, and community-based nonprofit housing developers to help buy specific low-income housing projects and pay related pre-buy costs. Thirty percent of the money must go to resident capacity grants. The rest goes to predevelopment grants. Resident capacity grants cannot be more than $30,000 per project. Predevelopment grants cannot be more than $200,000 per project, not counting fees the Secretary pays intermediaries for running the program. Resident capacity grants pay for things like outreach, forming a resident group, holding elections, training, leadership development, and legal or technical help. They apply to eligible low-income buildings where the owner has filed a required notice of intent under federal preservation rules. Predevelopment grants help organize a buying entity and pay for third-party costs (training, legal, appraisals, environmental reviews, architect or engineer work, fees, and staff overhead). Those grants are only for projects where the owner filed an initial notice to transfer to a qualified buyer or filed a notice and agreed to sell to a resident or nonprofit. Payments are made in phases based on performance milestones set by the Secretary and intermediaries. Applications are accepted monthly and decided at least quarterly by intermediaries. If an application is denied, the applicant can appeal to the Secretary and must get a binding decision within 30 days.