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FUNDING AVAILABILITY FOR THE LEAD OUTREACH GRANT PROGRAM
PROGRAM OVERVIEW
Purpose of the Program. The purpose of this lead outreach grant program is to:
(A) Increase enrollment of low-income housing units for treatment via the HUD lead hazard control grant program or another lead hazard treatment program;
(B) Develop and distribute outreach and educational materials in order to raise public awareness of childhood lead poisoning, its prevention and proper lead hazard identification and control methods among at-risk communities and at-risk populations of children and workers in the housing maintenance or rehabilitation fields; and
(C) Encourage occupants to identify potential lead-based paint hazards and report them to property owners and managers, and public health and/or housing officials as appropriate.
Available Funds. Approximately $2,200,000, including approximately $480,000 in FY 2003 funds, and approximately $1,720,000 in previous-year recaptured funds.
Eligible Applicants. States, Tribes and units of general local government are eligible. Partnerships are encouraged, although the application must be made by a single entity.
Application Deadline. June 10, 2003.
Match. None required
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
If you are interested in applying for funding under this program, please carefully read the General Section of this SuperNOFA and the following additional information.
I. Application Due Date and Technical Assistance
(A) Application Due Date. Completed applications (one original and four copies) must be submitted and received by HUD on or before 12 midnight on June 10, 2003, at the address shown below.
(B) Application Submission Procedures. HUD has implemented security procedures that impact application submission. Please review the requirements for mailing and receipt of applications in the General Section of this SuperNOFA to ensure that your application is timely filed. No hand deliveries will be accepted.
(C) Application Submission. See the General Section of this Super Notice of Funding Availability (SuperNOFA) for specific procedures concerning the form of application submission and requirements for receipt (e.g., mailed applications, express mail or overnight delivery). Please note that the requirements for submission have been revised this year. Be advised that there is no Application Kit for this year’s Lead Outreach Grant Program. This program NOFA clearly describes the requirements for completing a successful application and all forms and certifications needed to complete a successful application are included in the General Section and Lead Outreach Grant Program sections of this SuperNOFA.
(D) Addresses. You, the applicant, must submit one original and four copies of your complete application to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Homes and Lead Hazard Control, ATTN: Lead Outreach Grant Program, 451 Seventh Street, SW, Room P3206, Washington, DC 20410 on or before the application due date.
(E) For Further Information and Technical Assistance: You may contact Rachel M. Riley, Training Manager, Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control, at the address above; telephone (202) 755-1785, extension 107 (this is not a toll-free number). If you are a hearing- or speech-impaired person, you may reach the above telephone numbers via TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.
(F) Satellite Broadcast. HUD will hold an information broadcast via satellite for potential applicants to learn more about the program and the preparation of the application. For more information about the date and time of the broadcast, you should consult the HUD web site at http://www.hud.gov/.
II. Authority, Funding Amounts and Amount of Funds Allocated.
(A) Authority. The authority for this program is Section 1011(e)(8) & (g)(1) of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 (Title X of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992), and Division K of the Consolidated Appropriations Resolution of 2003, Public Law 108-7, signed February 20, 2003.
(B) Funding Available and Eligibility. Approximately $2,200,000, including approximately $480,000 in Fiscal Year 2003 funds from the lead technical assistance set aside under the lead hazard reduction appropriation, and approximately $1,720,000 in previous-year recaptured funds, will be available for the Lead Outreach Program. Grants will be awarded on a competitive basis following evaluation of all proposals according to the Rating Factors described in Section V of this program section. Between five and 11 States, Tribes or units of general local government could receive grant awards ranging between approximately $200,000 and approximately $500,000. A minimum score of 75 is required for award consideration. The amounts included in this program are subject to change based on funds availability.
III. Eligible Applicants and Activities.
(A) Background.
Lead toxicity in children has been well established, yet childhood lead poisoning is the primary childhood environmental health problem in the United States today. The February 2000, report of the President’s Task Force on Environmental Health Risks and Safety Risks to Children, titled “Eliminating Childhood Lead Poisoning: A Federal Strategy Targeting Lead Paint Hazards,” sets forth what action needs to be taken to prevent such poisoning. In addition to eliminating lead hazards in housing occupied by low-income families with children, the Federal government’s public education and outreach activities must measurably increase the public’s awareness of lead hazards and how to address them.
In keeping with the mandate of section 1011(g)(1) of Title X for HUD "develop the capacity of eligible applicants ... to carry out activities under" lead hazard control grant programs, the Department has conducted outreach and public education initiatives through the Lead Hazard Control Grant program, the National Lead Information Center, and other education and outreach initiatives.
Lead Hazard Control Grants are awarded competitively to eligible States, tribes, or units of local government to perform lead hazard reduction in low-income privately owned pre-1978 housing. Lead outreach activities contribute to building the capacity of jurisdictions to submit successful applications for lead hazard control grants, because they have the effect of inducing local businesses to enter into the lead hazard control field before jurisdictions apply for the grants and, thus, increase jurisdictions' ability to demonstrate their capacity to meet the grant's requirements. These inducements can be expressed by the market directly, and/or through the efforts of the jurisdictions.
HUD's lead awareness supplement to the Current Population Survey has determined that only a fraction of citizens are well-educated about how lead-based paint hazards threaten young children and are more common in older housing. One consequence of this low level of awareness is that few housing construction and maintenance business owners are aware of the extent of lead-based paint hazards. One result is that few areas have an adequate supply of businesses that work in the lead hazard control field, or an adequate supply of workers trained to perform interim controls or lead hazard abatement for more than their HUD-assisted pre-1978 housing, as required by the Lead Safe Housing Rule.
Lead outreach activities have the effect of encouraging residents of older low-income housing to prompt their state, tribal or local governments to control lead-based paint hazards. In turn, these governments are induced to consider obtaining funding under the HUD Lead Hazard Control Grant Program, or perform lead hazard reduction in conjunction with other housing, health or environmental activities. In practice, this can be done only if housing owners and occupants are aware of and apply for enrollment in lead hazard treatment programs. Potential applicant agencies are, thereby, induced to promote lead hazard control activities locally, by working with private-sector stakeholders (e.g., grassroots organizations, including faith-based and community-based non-profit organizations, community colleges, etc.). As described above, HUD's outreach efforts contribute to the timely performance of successful lead hazard control work and associated capacity building.
Outcomes of this outreach program include:
(1) Identifying and maximizing opportunities to raise visibility of and publicize the lead issue among the general public, and invigorating the efforts in both the public and private sectors to take action to eradicate childhood lead poisoning, especially by increasing the number of low-income housing units that are enrolled in lead hazard treatment programs.
(2) Increasing lead awareness in communities identified as being at greatest risk of lead poisoning (e.g., those with many low-income and minority families), with special interest in target audiences within those communities, such as parents, pregnant women, health care providers, multi-family and single family housing owners, corporations, educational institutions such as community colleges, schools, non-profit organizations, and historic preservation, renovation, remodeling, weatherization and maintenance firms and personnel, major banks, lenders and insurance companies, housing inspectors, real estate professionals and appraisers, homebuyers and low-income minority families.
(3) Increasing the base of support for this important outreach activity through the creation of partnerships between public and private entities, especially grassroots organizations, including faith-based and community-based non-profit organizations and community colleges.
(4) Implementing strategies to directly contact and speak to the general public, especially high-risk populations, or media strategies for using print, radio and/or television, as applicable, to increase public awareness of childhood lead poisoning and ways to prevent it.
(5) Disseminating existing tools and, as needed, new tools to inform parents and caregivers about lead-related hazards and enabling them to take prompt corrective action, especially enrolling their housing in lead hazard treatment programs.
(B) Eligible Applicants.
(1) States, Tribes, and units of general local government are eligible. Partnerships are encouraged, although the application must be made by a single entity. Non-profit organizations, such as groups of parents of lead poisoned children, and grassroots organizations, including faith-based and community-based non-profit organizations, and colleges and universities, can be sub-grantees or sub-contractors.
(2) As an applicant, you must meet all of the threshold requirements of the General Section of this SuperNOFA (Section V(B)) as well as any specific threshold requirements for applicants under the Lead Outreach Grant Program. Applications will not be rated or ranked if they do not meet the threshold requirements of the General Section of this SuperNOFA.
(3) All awardees are expected to commence activity immediately upon completion of budget and work plan negotiations, and execution of the grant agreement.
(C) Eligible Activities.
Eligible activities to be funded under this program include, but are not limited to, developing and conducting education and outreach campaigns in high-risk communities to:
- Increase lead awareness.
- Encourage owners and low-income occupants to enroll their housing units in programs conducting lead hazard treatment activities.
- Encourage owners and low-income occupants to identify potential lead-based paint hazards and report them to property owners and managers, and public health and/or housing officials as appropriate.
HUD is interested in promoting approaches that are cost-effective and efficient and that result in the reduction of lead poisoning for the maximum number of children, and, in particular, low-income children. Section II of the General Section of this SuperNOFA presents HUD’s FY 2003 Policy Priorities.
Outreach can take various forms, depending on the intended audience(s). Activities may include publicizing and/or conducting events, developing and distributing publications in, for example, stores, schools, churches, community centers, or other neighborhood locations, making presentations, or forging partnerships to cost-effectively disseminate information to populations identified as being at-risk. Regardless of the form of outreach you choose to implement, all eligible activities must identify at-risk populations (or areas), propose an outreach program to meet those populations’ information needs, and evaluate the program’s effectiveness.
(1) Eligible activities may include:
(a) Establishing partnerships with non-profit organizations and associations, such as grassroots organizations, including faith-based, parent, and community-based non-profit organizations, or corporations, retailers, construction organizations, and unions or for the purpose of coordinating or conducting joint activities;
(b) Preparing publications, graphics, public service announcements, posters and entries for newspapers and magazines with local and/or regional distribution. These activities could include training local residents and businesses on identifying potential lead-based paint hazards, and lead-safe maintenance and renovation practices, etc.;
(c) Making materials available in alternative formats for persons with disabilities (e.g., Braille, audio, large type), and in languages other than English that are common in the community, whenever possible. Applicants are encouraged to utilize minority media in an effort to achieve diversity in outreach and educational efforts. Applications that include development and distribution of media products in languages other than English must include a discussion of the applicant’s (or subcontractor’s) expertise in those languages and in meeting the informational needs of non-English-speaking, underserved populations.
(d) Preparing quarterly progress reports and an overall final grant report, detailing activities (e.g., the number of low-income housing units enrolled in lead hazard treatment programs as a result of activities performed under this grant, number and type of materials produced, activities conducted, evaluation of the various outreach and educational methods used, findings, and recommended future actions at the conclusion of grant activities).
(2) Support Elements.
(a) Your administrative costs. There is a 10 percent maximum for administrative costs. Specific information about administrative costs is included in Appendix D of this program section of this NOFA.
(b) Program planning and management costs of sub-grantees and other sub-recipients.
(D) Ineligible Activities.
(1) Purchase of real property.
(2) Purchase or lease of equipment having a per-unit cost in excess of $5,000, unless prior written approval is obtained from HUD.
(3) Hazard abatement, hazard reduction, rehabilitation, remodeling, repair, or other construction work.
IV. Requirements and Procedures Applicable to the Lead Outreach Grant Program.
In addition to program requirements listed in the General Section of this SuperNOFA, you, the applicant, must comply with the following requirements:
(A) Budgeting.
(1) Matching Contribution. You are not required to provide a matching contribution in the Lead Outreach Program.
(2) Administrative Costs. There is a 10 percent maximum for administrative costs. Additional information about allowable administrative costs is provided in Appendix D of this program section of this NOFA.
(B) Period of Performance. The period of performance cannot exceed 24 months from the date of the award, except that HUD reserves the right to approve no cost time extensions for a total period not to exceed 12 months.
(C) Environmental Review. In accordance with 24 CFR 50.19(b)(2) and (b)(3) of the HUD regulations, activities assisted under this program are categorically excluded from the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321) and are not subject to environmental review under the related laws and authorities.