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HUD Asks NSP1 Grantees for Information on Areas of Greatest Need

CALLING ALL NSP1 GRANTEES:

HUD ASKS FOR AN ELECTRONIC VERSION OF YOUR AREAS OF GREATEST NEED!

HUD asks ALL NSP1 grantees for an electronic version of your areas of greatest need! The Office of Block Grant Assistance is expanding its NSP mapping support for grantees in order to achieve two goals:

  1. Enable HUD to track any amendments to boundaries of grantees' areas of greatest need and to have clear and up-to-date information about the boundaries of designated areas in order to evaluate the impact of the NSP program on those areas affected by foreclosed and abandoned properties and for other purposes.
  2. Provide NSP grantees with property specific information in their designated areas, such as FHA real estate owned (REO) property listings and other resources as well.

NSP1 grantees submitted substantial amendments with written descriptions of their areas of greatest need in terms of census tracts, zip codes, neighborhood boundaries, etc. This variation in the types of boundaries used by NSP1 grantees has created significant mapping challenges that have limited HUD's ability to provide resources to grantees and evaluate the impacts of the NSP1 program. Therefore, HUD asks each NSP1 grantee to submit an electronic version of the boundaries of its areas of greatest need. Note: to evaluate the NSP program HUD requests boundary files from all grantees regardless of obligation status or whether it anticipates buying FHA properties.

There are three forms of submission offered by HUD:

  1. Use the NSP Mapping Tool on huduser.org. This tool allows grantees to submit areas based on census tracks. Click Here to use this tool.
  2. Use Google Earth to draw your area of greatest need and email the file to HUD. Click Here to see HUD's short video tutorial.
  3. Use your existing GIS software and email shapefiles to HUD. Click Here (Word, 23 KB) to see the requirements.

Many grantees will already have these types of electronic files available. To facilitate this mapping process, HUD is accepting a wide variety of boundary file submissions.

Submissions and/or questions can be sent to the email address NSPmapping@hud.gov

The submission deadline is Wednesday, May 12th, 2010. These submissions are to be the best-fit representations of the areas of greatest need described in the approved NSP1 substantial amendment and, if applicable, any subsequent amendments to the grantee's action plan.

Please Note: An action plan amendment for a boundary change must meet amendment requirements in accordance with 24 CFR 91.505 in order to use NSP1 funds outside of the original HUD approved areas of greatest need.