NEW! January 14, 2021!  U.S. Department of Treasury Consultation Notice – January 14, 2021 from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. EST

The Department of the Treasury (Treasury Department) will hold a Tribal Consultation Listening Session on Thursday, January 14, 2021 from 2:30 to 4:00 on Eastern Time to engage tribal leaders wishing to comment on the Emergency Rental Assistance program. Continue reading for log-in details and additional specifics.

NEW! Dear Tribal Leader Letter – U.S. Department of the Treasury Emergency Rental Assistance – IMPORTANT DEADLINE of January 12, 2021 at 11:59 EST

Congress recently appropriated funding to the U.S. Department of the Treasury for a new Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, of which $800 million is available to Indian tribes or their Tribally Designated Housing Entities (TDHEs), as applicable, and the Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL).  Please note that this is not a HUD ONAP program.  The ERA program will provide funding to assist tenants who are unable to pay rent or utilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Funds will be allocated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury using the FY 2020 Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) Formula.

Funding under this program will be provided through direct payments to Indian tribes or their TDHEs, as applicable, and DHHL.  Accordingly, you must provide your payment information and an executed copy of the award terms through a portal on the ERA program website by 11:59 PM EST January 12, 2021.

More information and a link to the portal may be found on the U.S. Department of the Treasury website, here.

For assistance with technical issues with this submission, please email caresITforms@Treasury.gov

If you have any questions, please direct email correspondence to EmergencyRentalAssistance@treasury.gov

NEW! CDC Eviction Moratorium Extended until January 31, 2021

With the enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, signed by the President on December 27, 2020, the CDC Eviction Moratorium has been extended under this Order until January 31, 2021, which will help families continue to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The original Order is available here. Tribes and TDHEs can download additional materials on the CDC Notice and Order, including translated versions of the resident declaration form, from HUD’s website.

NEW! Dear Tribal Leader Letter- Tribal Consultation for Housing Counselor Certification Requirements

In 2010, Section 106 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968 (Section 106) was amended by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd Frank Act) to require, in part, that any homeownership counseling or rental housing counseling required under, or provided in connection with, any HUD program must be provided only by organizations or counselors certified by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) as competent to provide such counseling.

We believe that these statutory changes have implications for certain HUD Native American programs. HUD is committed to the government-to-government relationship between the Federal government and tribes and engaging tribal leaders through consultation on such matters. Accordingly, HUD is conducting tribal consultation to determine how to best implement the Section 106 statutory requirements as applied to the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program and the Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) program, and is soliciting Tribal feedback to determine how best to apply the housing counseling program and certification requirements in Section 106 to these programs. Continue Reading

Consultation dates and webinar links:

• Session 1 on January 26 – https://icfi.webex.com/icfi/onstage/g.php?MTID=ef3c1f8e1f7a519e4dc285a5c85219960
• Session 2 on February 4 – https://icfi.webex.com/icfi/onstage/g.php?MTID=e11fdae9e4286332984587c28ee71d795

Tribal Consultation page: https://www.hudexchange.info/programs/housing-counseling/tribal-consultation/.

NEW! Dear Tribal Leader Letter– Submission of January 10, 2021, CARES Act Quarterly Report Not Required

ONAP continues to work in collaboration with HUD’s CARES Act Compliance Response Team, the Office of Chief Financial Officer and the Office of Chief Information Officer to develop a simple, user-friendly portal so that Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities can fulfill their CARES Act reporting obligations with minimal additional burden.  We anticipated having a portal available for the January 10, 2021 reporting deadline; however, there have been some delays in development.

Accordingly, CARES Act recipients will not be required to submit a quarterly report (Oct. 1st- Dec. 31st) for the January 10, 2021 deadline. We apologize for this delay, and hope to have a portal available well in advance of the April 10, 2021 reporting deadline. Once the portal is available, we will provide training to recipients in advance of April 10th. As a reminder, grantees are still required to submit SF 425’s, Annual Performance Reports, Annual Status and Evaluation Reports, and Audits.  Continue Reading

NEW! HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) Launches New Pilot Program to Help Individuals In Recovery From a Substance Use Disorder Become Stably Housed

On November 25th, CPD published a Federal Register Notice implementing a pilot program called the Recovery Housing Program (RHP).  This is a new $25 million grant program that was authorized under the Support for Patients and Communities (SUPPORT) Act.  The program allocates grant funding to various States to provide stable, transitional housing for individuals in recovery from a substance-use disorder. The funding covers a period of not more than two years or until the individual secures permanent housing, whichever is earlier.

States that receive funding under this new program are authorized to provide assistance in a Tribal community, provided the Tribe consents.  States are also authorized to provide subgrants to Tribes and TDHEs to carry out this program.

If your community is located in a State that received an allocation, please contact that State for additional details. You can find a list of contact information by state here.

For more information on the RHP pilot program, visit: https://bit.ly/3oRqB21

REMINDER! Changes to Section 3

This Dear Tribal Leader letter highlights recent changes to Section 3 as a result of a Final Rule that was published on September 29, 2020.  Beginning on November 30, 2020, the effective date of the Final Rule, Section 3 will no longer apply to Tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities.

Application Deadline – Jan. 29, 2021

Federal Emergency Management Agency-  Notice of Funding Opportunities

• The Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program offers a $20 million set-aside for tribes to apply for funds to assist with pre-disaster mitigation projects, such as infrastructure, and mitigation capacity building.
• The Flood Mitigation Assistance Program is a competitive grant program that provides funding ($160 million available) to states, local communities, federally recognized tribes and territories that can be used for projects that reduce or eliminate the risk of repetitive flood damage to buildings (Tribes must be participants in the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to be eligible to apply for this grant).

The application deadline for both grants is January 29, 2021.