Marty Walsh: “Mr. Chairman, it has come to my attention that HUD recently issued a notice of funding availability, NOFA, for the…”

“Mr. Chairman, it has come to my attention that HUD recently issued a notice of funding availability, NOFA, for the Resident Opportunities and Self-sufficiency program. This program contains a component for service coordinator grants. For those of you not familiar with service coordinators, they help elderly and disabled residents in public housing get the unique services they require. The program is cost effective and the residents of public housing love the program, as do the housing authorities. Because of its success, Congress has agreed in the last funding cycle to provide sufficient funds to renew all existing service coordinator programs. Unfortunately, the recent NOFA contains several troubling provisions that seem to defy congressional intent and jeopardize the ability of many public housing authorities to obtain renewal of their service coordinator funding. Specifically, one provision provides public housing authorities to have to spend 75 percent of their award by August, even though the PHAs only received notice of the grant in April.”