By Martin Greenlee, Federal Grants Specialist / For some of you April and May is Action Plan, Budget, and HUD CDBG Timeliness season.  Awarding funds and budgeting your HUD CPD Entitlement can be time consuming and stressful, especially if you are trying to spend your prior years entitlement so your CDBG funds do not succumb to being returned to HUD.  Timeliness spending of your CDBG Entitlement is important not only for keeping the funds moving in your community but at the national level as well.  As most of you are aware, HUD Entitlement funding continues to become threatened to extinction at the Federal Budget level. One way for HUD to defend these all important and viable funding programs is through timeliness spending.  If you haven't received a call from your HUD Representative, you are probably in the clear or you are on their list to call very soon.  In the meantime run the the PR56 report in IDIS to confirm you are under 1.5 times your annual grant amount. 

 

In light of this busy season, we are all exploring creative ways to sustain our excellence during a time of declining resources and sufficient time to complete required tasks. Here at ZoomGrants, we know and understand that you are being asked to do more with less financial support from HUD. Consider making the following process improvements to increase efficiency, elevate quality, and improve timeliness of your HUD Entitlement Programs. 

• Analyze current internal procedures/processes/functions of your program(s) that are time intensive
• Improve/streamline requirements for subrecipients/subgrantees
• Consider industry best practices or technology to make them more efficient? 
• Identify wasteful practices that could possibly be reduced, restructured, or eliminated

• Administrative cost savings
• Increased transparency
• Streamlined RFP process allowing only eligible and/or shovel ready projects
• Online application review, contracting, invoicing, and reporting processes
• Enhanced project delivery, timely spending 
• Improved sustainability (paperless and staff longevity) 
• Positive feedback from community and upper level management

Note: Under the provisions of 24 CFR 570.902 of the CDBG regulations, a grantee is considered to be timely, if 60 days prior to the end of the grantee's program year, the balance in its line-of-credit does not exceed 1.5 times the annual grant. 

 

Want help reaching your potential and improving your HUD CPD Programs, please contact Martin Greenlee Customer Relations Manager, ZoomGrants 866-323-5404 x4 or Martin.Greenlee@ZoomGrants.com