[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 86 (Wednesday, May 3, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25742-25744]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-11088]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-4560-C-05]


FY 2000 Super Notice of Funding Availability (SuperNOFA) for 
HUD's Housing, Community Development and Empowerment Programs and 
Section 8 Housing Voucher Assistance; Notice of Clarifications and 
Modifications of the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) and 
Extension of Application Deadline for FHIP Initiatives

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal 
Opportunity, HUD.

ACTION: Super Notice of Funding Availability (SuperNOFA) for HUD grant 
programs; notice of clarifications and modifications for the FHIP 
funding availability announcement.

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SUMMARY: On February 24, 2000, HUD published its Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 
Super Notice of Funding Availability (SuperNOFA) for HUD's Housing, 
Community Development, and Empowerment Programs and Section 8 Housing 
Voucher Assistance. This document makes certain modifications and 
clarifications to the FY 2000 funding availability announcement for the 
FHIP Program.

DATES: Except for the applications submitted under the Fair Housing 
Partnership Components for the Private Enforcement Initiative (EOI) and 
the Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI), the application due date for 
funding under FHIP is extended to June 2, 2000. The application due 
date for applications submitted under the Fair Housing Partnership 
Components of EOI and PEI is extended to June 30, 2000.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: You may contact Lauretta Dixon, 
Director, FHIP-FHAP Support Division, Office of Programs, Office of 
Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Department of Housing and Urban 
Development, 451 Seventh Street, SW, Washington, DC, at (202) 708-0800 
(this is not a toll free number). Persons with speech or hearing 
impairments may call the FHIP-FHAP Division by calling 1-800-290-1671, 
or 1-800-877-8399 (the Federal Information Relay Service TTY). Other 
than the ``800'' number, these numbers are not toll-free. You may also 
call the SuperNOFA Information Center, which you may reach by calling 
1-800-HUD-8929 or the Center's TTY number at 1-800-HUD-2209.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On February 24, 2000 (65 FR 9322), HUD 
published its Fiscal Year (FY) 2000 Super Notice of Funding 
Availability (SuperNOFA) for HUD's Housing, Community Development, and 
Empowerment Programs and Section 8 Housing Voucher Assistance. The FY 
2000 SuperNOFA announced the availability of approximately $2.424 
billion in HUD program funds covering 39 grant categories within 
programs operated and administered by HUD offices and Section 8 housing 
voucher assistance.
    This document makes certain modifications and clarifications to the 
FY 2000 funding availability announcement for the Fair Housing 
Initiatives Program (FHIP). The funding availability announcement for 
FHIP (FHIP NOFA) is found at page 9485 (65 FR 9485) of the February 24, 
2000 SuperNOFA.
    The modifications and clarifications made by this document do the 
following:
    (1) Change the impact of the immigrant and other underserved 
populations provision with respect to the General Components of the 
Private Enforcement (PEI) and Education and Outreach (EOI) Initiatives 
by advising applicants that points will no longer be awarded under 
these two components for applicants that devote a portion of their 
activities and budget to the needs of these underserved populations;
    (2) Revise the provision found in the Program Requirements Section 
(Part IV of the FHIP NOFA) so that an awardee will be required to 
reimburse the United States for FHIP funded enforcement activity when 
it receives compensation in a settlement or conciliation; however, the 
awardee will not be required to reimburse the United States when the 
compensation is awarded in a final judgment;
    (3) Set forth technical and conforming language for errors 
identified in the FHIP NOFA; and
    (4) Extend the application due date for applications submitted 
under the Fair Housing Partnership Components of EOI and PEI to June 
30, 2000. For all other Initiatives/Components, the closing date for 
submitting applications is extended to June 2, 2000.
    The corrections that follow are organized in the order of the above 
description of the four types of changes.
    Accordingly, in the Super Notice of Funding Availability for 
Housing, Community Development, and Empowerment Programs and Section 8 
Housing Voucher Assistance for Fiscal Year 2000, notice document 00-
4123, beginning at 65 FR 9322, in the issue of Friday, February 24, 
2000, the following clarifications and corrections are made to the FHIP 
NOFA, commencing at 9487:

[[Page 25743]]

    1. The FHIP NOFA is modified in several places regarding the issue 
of immigrant and other underserved populations, as defined in the FHIP 
NOFA. This modification only affects applications submitted under the 
General Components of Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI) and 
Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI). Before this amendment, this 
provision was a rating provision, awarding up to five points to 
applicants that devote a portion of their activities and budget to the 
fair housing needs of these populations. This amendment makes this 
provision a tie-breaking provision. When applicants receive the same 
overall score, the one that describes/lists the outreach the applicant 
will engage in to make these populations aware of its services/
activities will be ranked higher than those that do not. As a result of 
this amendment, applicants under the General Components of PEI and EOI 
need not devote a portion of their activities and budget to address the 
needs of immigrant and other underserved populations, as defined in the 
FHIP NOFA. Several portions of the FHIP NOFA are affected as follows:
    On page 9488, first column, in first paragraph that continues from 
page 9487, remove the sentence beginning with ``Points will be 
awarded'' and ending with ``other underserved populations'' and 
substitute the following language:

    As described in Part V, Application Selection Process, in a tie-
breaking situation, applications submitted under the General 
Components of the Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI) and the 
Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI) which describe/list specific 
examples of the outreach which will be engaged in to advise 
immigrant (especially ethnic minorities that are not English-
speaking) and other underserved populations, as defined in the NOFA, 
of the services offered by the project will be ranked higher than 
applications which do not. Merely asserting you will engage in/
conduct outreach to these populations is not sufficient. However, 
whether you describe/list 1 or 101 specific examples is of no 
consequence since, for the purpose of breaking the tie, all that 
will be considered is whether, ``yes you have'' or ``no you have 
not'' described/listed specific examples of the outreach you will 
engage in to inform these populations of the services offered by the 
project.

    On page 9488, first column, in the first paragraph that continues 
from page 9487, the sentence that begins, ``Applicants under the 
Community Tensions Component'' becomes a new paragraph and to this new 
paragraph the following language is added:

    For those of you applying under the Establishing New 
Organizations Component of FHOI, HUD has identified and targeted for 
funding two groups whose fair housing needs have been underserved. 
They are (1) persons in rural areas, as defined in Section 
IV(A)(16), and (2) immigrants (especially ethnic minorities that are 
not English-speaking). The Department hopes to establish three new 
organizations with two of the awards (or one each) being awarded to 
applicants addressing the needs of these groups.
    On page 9489, first column, under paragraph (2)(b) Eligible 
Activities, remove the second sentence which begins ``Points will be 
awarded'' and all that follows in that paragraph.
    On page 9489, third column, under paragraph (2)(b) Eligible 
Activities, remove the last sentence which begins ``Points will be 
awarded * * * ''.
    On page 9495, second column, paragraph (B)(3) on Tie Breaking, the 
first paragraph becomes the second paragraph and the following becomes 
the first paragraph.

    For applications submitted under the General Components of EOI 
and PEI, only. When there is a tie in the overall score, the 
applicant who describes/lists specific examples of the outreach 
which will be engaged in to advise immigrant (especially ethnic 
minorities that are not English-speaking) and other underserved 
populations, as defined in Section IV(A)(16), of the services 
offered by the project will be ranked higher than applicants that do 
not. Merely asserting you will engage in/conduct outreach to these 
populations is not sufficient. However, whether you describe/list 1 
or 101 specific examples is of no consequence since, for the purpose 
of breaking the tie, all that will be considered is whether, ``yes 
you have'' or ``no you have not'' described/listed specific examples 
of the outreach you will engage in to inform these populations of 
the services offered by the project. If some or all of the 
applicants have described/listed specific examples of outreach to 
these populations and a tie continues to exist, then the 
applications will be ranked in accordance with the next paragraph.

    On page 9495, second column, the first paragraph of paragraph 
(B)(3), which is now the second paragraph as provided above, is amended 
by inserting the following phrase at the start of the new second 
paragraph--For All Initiatives/Components.
    On page 9497, under ``Rating Factor 3: Soundness of Approach,'' the 
following changes are made:
    First column: Remove the last paragraph which begins ``Points will 
be awarded'' and ends at the top of the middle column on this same 
page.
    Middle column: remove the first two lines of the italicized 
paragraph which begins, ``For all Components,'' through the words ``PEI 
and EOI'' and capitalize the word ``Your'' and retain the remainder of 
the italicized paragraph.
    Middle column, remove all of the second italicized language which 
begins ``For the General Components of PEI and EOI'' through all of the 
italicized language that is found in the third column, preceding the 
paragraph designated as paragraph ``(2)'' in the third column.
    2. HUD's FY 1999 FHIP NOFA was amended to require awardees who 
received FHIP funding to reimburse the United States when they have 
received compensation for FHIP-funded activities. That requirement is 
also in the FY 2000 NOFA. The purpose of this change is to modify that 
provision so that the requirement applies to compensation received from 
a conciliation or settlement, but not from a final judgment in 
litigation. The provision is amended as follows:
    On page 9494, first column, in the paragraph designated as 
``(7)(b)'' insert before the word ``When'' which begins the first 
sentence, the following phrase--``In a conciliation, or settlement''.
    On page 9494, first column, in the paragraph designated as 
``(7)(b)'' at the end of paragraph (7)(b), insert the following as the 
last sentence of the paragraph:

    This reimbursement requirement does not apply to compensation 
received after a judgment in state or Federal court.

    3. The following are technical and conforming language changes:
    On page 9491, middle column, in the paragraph designated as 
``(2)(b)'' in the second line, after the phrase ``immigrant groups'' 
remove the phrase ``that are non-English-speaking'' and insert the 
following in its place: ``(especially ethnic minorities who are not 
English-speaking).''
    On page 9494, third column, under Part V, Section (F), remove the 
word ``Initiatives'' from the title of Section F and insert 
``Components''.
    On page 9495, middle column, the paragraph designated as ``(3)'' is 
redesignated as paragraph ``(C).''
    On page 9495, third column, the paragraph designated as ``(C)'' on 
``Selections'' is redesignated as paragraph ``(D).''
    On Page 9496, first column, the paragraph designated as ``(D)'' on 
``Priority for Shifting Remaining Funds'' is redesignated as paragraph 
``(E).''
    On page 9496, middle column, the paragraph designated as ``(E)'' on 
``Factors for Award'' is redesignated as paragraph ``(E)''.
    On page 9508, which contains the ``Cover Page FY 2000 FHIP 
Application,'' the last sentence of the paragraph in the middle of the 
page is removed and the following is inserted:


[[Page 25744]]


    Failure to submit your preference at the time of application 
will be treated as a technical deficiency, which may be corrected as 
noted in Section V of the General Section of the SuperNOFA.

    4. The due date for applications submitted under the Fair Housing 
Partnership Components of the Education and Outreach and Private 
Enforcement Initiatives is extended to June 30, 2000. For all other 
Initiatives/Components, the application due date is extended to June 2, 
2000.
    On page 9487, first column, under ``Program Overview'' and 
following the heading ``Application Deadline,'' the date ``May 16, 
2000'' is removed, and the following is inserted:
    Application Deadline. For all Initiatives/Components, except the 
Fair Housing Partnership Components of the Education and Outreach 
Initiative (EOI) and the Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI), June 2, 
2000. For the EOI and PEI Fair Housing Partnership Components, June 30, 
2000.
    On page 9487, first column, in Section I, under the heading 
``Application Due Date'' the first paragraph is revised to read as 
follows:
    For all Initiatives/Components, except the Fair Housing Partnership 
Components of the Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI) and the 
Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI), you must submit completed 
applications to HUD Headquarters, at the address shown below, on or 
before 12:00 midnight, Eastern time, on June 2, 2000. For applications 
submitted under the EOI and PEI Fair Housing Partnership Components, 
you must submit completed applications to HUD Headquarters, at the 
address shown below, on or before 12:00 midnight, Eastern time, on June 
30, 2000.

    Dated: April 27, 2000.
Eva M. Plaza,
Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity.
[FR Doc. 00-11088 Filed 5-1-00; 11:22 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-28-P