March 2007

In This Issue

• HUD FY 2007 SuperNOFA
• Private Foundation Funding
• Funding Tip

HUD Releases FY 2007 SuperNOFA

The HUD SuperNOFA (Notice of Funds Available) was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, March 13. Updated information about the SuperNOFA and application materials are available on HUD’s Web site. The following is information about four competitive funding streams that many civil legal aid programs have taken advantage of in the past.

• Fair Housing Initiatives Programs (FHIP)
  Deadline: May 3, 2007
  Webcast Date: March 22, 2007, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
  Contact Person: Denise L. Brooks, (202) 402-7050
  Federal Register, vol. 72, pg. 11506

  Approximately $18 million was awarded in competitive grants in FY 2006; level funding at $18.1 million is available for FY 2007. FHIP grantees provide assistance to individuals who believe they have been victims of housing discrimination. General information about FHIP can be found on HUD’s website.

  Two FHIP initiatives provide competitive grants to eligible organizations:

  1. Private Enforcement Initiative (PEI): $14 million is available to assist private, tax-exempt fair housing enforcement organizations in the investigation and enforcement of alleged violations of the Fair Housing Act and substantially equivalent state and local fair housing laws.
  2. Education and Outreach Initiative (EOI): $4.1 million is available to inform and educate the public about the rights and obligations under federal, state and local fair housing laws.

  For FY 2006, HUD received applications from 268 groups seeking grants, a 7% increase over FY 2005, and chose 102 programs to receive grants, a small decrease from 104 groups awarded grants under FHIP in FY 2005. Click here for the list of FY 2006 FHIP grantees.
  

• Housing Counseling Programs
  Deadline: May 17, 2007
  Webcast Date: March 28, 2007, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  Contact Person: Betsy Cromwell, (202) 402-4465
  Federal Register, vol. 72, pg. 11524

  In FY 2007, approximately $41 million is available for eligible applicants. Approximately $39 million in housing counseling grants were awarded in FY 2006 to 17 national and regional organizations and more than 400 state and local housing counseling agencies.

  HUD funds housing counseling agencies throughout the country to give advice on buying a home, renting, mortgage delinquency and defaults, foreclosures, predatory lending, credit issues and reverse mortgages. Organizations that apply for grants must first be approved by HUD and are subject to biennial performance reviews to maintain their HUD-approved status. Click here for information on how to become a HUD-approved Housing Counseling Agency.

  Click here to find detailed descriptions of the Housing Counseling grants awarded for FY 2006.
  

• Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA)
  Deadline: May 31, 2007
  Webcast Date: April 10, 2007, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
  Contact Person: Benjamin Ayers, (202) 402-4620
  Federal Register, vol. 72, pg. 11661
  

  Approximately $28.5 million for FY 2007 is available under this NOFA for competitive grants (almost 90% of HOPWA funds are distributed through a formula grant process to states and cities). Funds for the renewal of expiring HOPWA competitive grants that have successfully undertaken permanent supportive housing projects will be distributed under a separate, simplified process, described in a separate notice from this NOFA. The funds remaining after those renewal awards are made will be made available to the applicants that are successful under this NOFA.

  In FY 2006, HUD provided nearly $16.5 million to 16 existing projects and nearly $11 million to support 10 new programs. Click here for detailed descriptions of the competitive HOPWA grants awarded for FY 2006. Although none of the projects directly receiving competitive grants have been civil legal aid programs, occasionally a program will provide supportive legal services as a sub-grantee.

  Find more information about HOPWA here.
  

• Continuum of Care Homeless Assistance Programs
  Deadline: June 8, 2007
  Webcast Date: March 27, 2007, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM
  Rebroadcast Date: April 19, 2007, 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
  Federal Register, vol. 72, pg. 11742
  

  The Continuum of Care NOFA continues to be the only program in the SuperNOFA that has retained the paper application process in 2007. Approximately $1.25 billion total is available for funding in FY 2007, at the same level of funding as FY 2006.

  Civil legal aid programs generally have received funding under the Supportive Housing Program (SHP) of this grant. In addition to funding housing that has a supportive environment, SHP funds projects that include supportive services for homeless people not living in supportive housing, that helps them to move to permanent housing. More information about SHP can be found on HUD’s Web site.

• Impact Fund Announces Upcoming Deadlines for Social Justice Litigation Grants Program
  http://www.impactfund.org/
  

  The Impact Fund, a public foundation dedicated to providing representation, technical assistance and funding for complex public interest litigation, provides funding for out-of-pocket expenses in cases with a potential broad impact and a demonstrated financial need.

  Grants are awarded to nonprofit legal firms, private attorneys, and/or small law firms which seek to advance social justice in the areas of civil and human rights, environmental justice, and/or poverty law. The program seeks to provide funding for public-interest litigation that will potentially benefit a large number of people, lead to significant legal reform, or raise public consciousness. The fund is particularly interested in receiving applications that address systemic deprivations of constitutional or statutory rights in the following areas:
  
  

  • Education Access & Equity: The fund is interested in litigation that aims to secure continued and expanded fair access to education at all levels from pre-school through higher education.
  • Environmental Justice: The fund is interested specifically in cases that seek to address the disproportionate impacts of environmental hazards on communities of color or low-income communities.
  • Criminal/Immigration Priority: The fund is interested in litigation that addresses systemic problems in the areas of criminal justice and immigration. As a consequence of the current tough-on-crime, anti-immigration, the rights of non-citizens, juveniles and the criminally accused and prisoners are being severely undermined and even eliminated.
  • Homeland Security: In this post 9/11 era, "homeland security" rationales have been offered for widespread denial of rights, including poverty, access to counsel, right to travel, due process and/or equal protection. The fund is interested in cases raising systemic challenges to the over-zealous or unwarranted deprivation of rights under the guise of the "war on terrorism."
  • Predatory lending and abusive collection activities: The fund has received a cy pres award to promote the protection of consumers from predatory lending and unfair debt collection practices.

  The Impact Fund awards grants four times per year, with the average grant size being $10,000 to $15,000. The maximum grant amount awarded to any single applicant per year is $25,000. All new and/or returning applicants are required to submit a Pre-Application proposal, prior to the submission of a full proposal. Pre-applications should be no more than 2 pages.

  Summer 2007 Deadlines:
  Pre-applications - May 29, 2007
  Applications - June 6th, 2007
  
  Fall 2007 Deadlines:
  Pre-applications - September 4th, 2007
  Applications - September 12th, 2007
  
  Winter 2007 Deadlines:
  Pre-applications - November 24th, 2007
  Applications - November 30th, 2007
  

Funding Tip

The Promise of New Funding for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment to Promote Safety, Permanence and Well-Being for Children

These questions and answers were prepared by an informal coalition of groups, including the American Public Human Services Association, Center for Law and Social Policy, Child Welfare League of America, Children’s Defense Fund, Legal Action Center, National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors, and the Rebecca Project for Human Rights. This group convened to develop this document about funding opportunities under the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006.

Competitive federal grant awards will be made to regional partnerships to provide integrated and collaborative interagency programs and services designed to increase the well-being, safety and permanency outcomes for children who are in out-of-home placement, or at risk of such placement, as a result of a parent’s or caretaker’s methamphetamine or other substance abuse. Arguably, the grants should provide as a wide range of services as possible, including legal services, and take a comprehensive coordinated approach both to the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. Organizations should begin planning and joining regional partnerships so they will be ready to apply for grants under the Act once they are formally announced by the Department of Health and Human Services later in the spring of 2007.

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