Department of Housing and Urban Development January 18, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal. The study of the Section 5(H) and Section 32 programs will provide the answer to a number of important questions about the homeownership programs. Information will provide a detailed assessment of the homeownership programs, to identify their strengths and weaknesses.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal. The 2007 AHS is a longitudinal study that provides a periodic measure on the quality, availability, and cost of housing for both the nation (AHS-N) and seven select metropolitan areas (AHS-MS). The study also provides information on demographic and other characteristics of the occupants. Federal and local agencies use AHS data to evaluate housing issues.

This notice provides prospective applicants for HUD competitive funding with the opportunity to become familiar with the General Section of HUD's FY2007 SuperNOFA, in advance of publication of the FY2007 SuperNOFA. HUD plans to publish its annual SuperNOFA early in 2007. Early publication of the General Section is one of several steps instituted to improve the funding process for the grantee community. Early publication of the General Section gives prospective applicants additional time to become familiar with and address provisions in the General Section, which constitute part of almost every individual program application. HUD will publish with the SuperNOFA any changes to this General Section made after today's publication. HUD will continue to require that applicants submit their applications electronically via Grants.gov. To submit an application via Grants.gov, new users will be required to complete a five-step registration process, which can take 2 to 4 weeks to complete. The process includes ensuring that information provided by your organization to Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) matches information previously provided by your organization and contained in Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records. If there is a discrepancy in the information, the registration cannot be completed until discrepancy issues are resolved. Applicants that are already registered have to update the information previously provided in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR). During the update process, the CCR will check the D&B information against the IRS records for your organization. If there are discrepancies, the update cannot be completed until the discrepancies are resolved. Please allow adequate time to resolve any registration issues. To submit an application to HUD, the Authorized Organization Representative (AOR) must be able to make a legally binding agreement for the organizational entity. Please see detailed registration instructions in Section IV.B. of this notice. For FY2007, the Continuum of Care applications are the lone SuperNOFA paper applications that HUD will accept without first granting a waiver. Continuum of Care applicants should be aware that HUD intends to have the Continuum of Care applicants applying via Grants.gov no later than FY2008. Therefore, it is in the interest of Continuum of Care applicants to complete the Grants.gov registration process in anticipation of moving to electronic application submission in 2008. Continuum of Care agencies would benefit from becoming familiar with the Grants.gov filing requirements so that they do not limit their ability to apply for funding from federal sources. HUD recommends that all prospective applicants take the time to carefully read the Federal Register notice published on October 31, 2006, entitled ``Notice of Opportunity to Register Early and other Important Information for Electronic Application Submission via Grants.gov'' and register prior to the publication of the Program Sections of the FY2007 SuperNOFA. The early registration notice can be found on HUD's Web site at https://www.hud.gov/offices/[fxsp0]adm/grants/fundsavail.cfm.