§12872 Planning Grants

Summary

The Secretary can give planning grants to help groups create homeownership programs. Each grant normally cannot be more than $200,000, unless the Secretary approves a larger amount for good cause. Grants can pay for things like forming resident management groups, training and technical help, feasibility studies, lead-paint inspections, early architectural and engineering work, tenant and homebuyer counseling, planning for job training or other ways to boost buyers’ self-sufficiency, security plans, and preparing an application for a bigger implementation grant. To get a grant, applicants must apply in the form the Secretary requires and include a request that describes the proposed activities, schedule, staff, and amount; information about the applicant and its qualifications; details about the property and the tenants; a certification from the public official who files the comprehensive housing affordability strategy that the activities fit the approved State or local housing plan (or, during the first 12 months after November 28, 1990, fit another existing plan the Secretary finds appropriate); and a promise to follow the Fair Housing Act, title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 and to affirmatively further fair housing. The Secretary will set selection rules for a national competition that consider applicant ability, tenant interest, program and property suitability, national geographic diversity, and other appropriate factors.