§9921 Discretionary Authority of Secretary

Summary

The Secretary must use funds reserved under section 9903(b)(3) to make grants, loans, guarantees, contracts, or cooperative arrangements with States, public agencies, private nonprofit organizations, and with for-profit groups when allowed. The money supports three goals: community economic development, rural community development, and neighborhood innovation. For community economic development, the Secretary must give competitive grants to community development corporations for technical and financial help that creates jobs and business chances for low-income people. The Secretary must consult other federal officials, and those community groups must be run by local residents and business or civic leaders and focus on low-income housing or community projects. The Secretary must consider geographic balance among States and between rural and urban areas, and may reserve up to 1 percent each fiscal year to fund technical help and evaluations (using nonprofits or for-profits where allowed). For rural development, the Secretary must fund nonprofits to help with home repairs, plan and build low-income rural rental housing, and fund regional nonprofits to train small rural communities on community facility needs. For neighborhood innovation, the Secretary must fund neighborhood nonprofits to test new ways to solve special local problems or help low-income people not well served by other programs. All funded activities must be evaluated. Money for evaluation must be a set percent of the assistance or given as a separate evaluation grant. Each year the Secretary must send a report that summarizes the evaluations and lists all assisted activities to the Chairperson of the Committee on Education and the Workforce of the House and the Chairperson of the Committee on Labor and Human Resources of the Senate.