By Eugene T. Lowe
June 28, 2010

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Deputy Secretary Ron Sims addressed mayors and the Conference of Mayors Business Council at the Business Council Plenary Breakfast on June 12. The Deputy Secretary said that HUD was "no longer a housing agency. It is a development agency." Sims praised HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan as "being nothing less than spectacular." He added that the Secretary "has created an environment in which risks can be taken."

"Over the next several weeks and months," Sims said, mayors will be asked to become involved in a new partnership that "involves more than one agency." The goal of a new partnership will be achieved through sustainability grants. These grants will revolve around metropolitan wide approaches and will be reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), HUD and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). The staff of the three agencies will review the grant applications.

As the Deputy Secretary noted in his speech in Oklahoma City, USDOT and HUD announced June 21 that they would combine DOT TIGER II and HUD Sustainable Community Challenge Grant Investments. A press release by the two agencies said that $75 million in funding — $35 million in TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) II Planning Grants and $40 million in HUD Sustainable Community Challenge Grants for localized planning activities that ultimately lead to projects that integrate transportation, housing and economic development would be implemented in concert.

The new program builds on the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an innovative new interagency collaboration, launched by President Obama in June 2009, between USDOT, HUD, and EPA. The partnership is designed to remove the traditional federal government silos that exist between departments and strategically target the agencies- transportation, land use, environmental, housing and community development resources to provide communities the resources they need to build more livable, sustainable communities.

HUD's Sustainable Communities funding will target urban and community planning projects that foster reform and reduce barriers to achieving affordable, economically vital and sustainable communities. Such efforts may include amending or replacing local master plans, zoning codes, and building codes either on a jurisdiction-wide basis or in a specific neighborhood or sector to promote mixed-use development, affordable housing and the re-use of older buildings for new purposes with the goal of promoting sustainability at the local level.

These activities, when done in conjunction with transportation projects, can greatly increase the efficiency and effectiveness of local transportation, and provide access to it, while encouraging mixed-use or transit-oriented development. The program will encourage and reward areas that are planning more innovative projects that coordinate housing, economic development and transportation investments. Pre-applications for the grants are due 30 days from the publication of the Notice of Funding Availability in the Federal Register. Full applications are due on August 23.