Policy Statement 30, Recommendation B
Facilitate coordination and collaboration among the various areas of government and private entities to develop and manage affordable housing.
Like corrections administrators or personnel, public or assisted housing providers often find themselves at the nexus of many other systems (such as workforce development, substance abuse treatment, family services, mental and physical health care, and entitlement systems) that involve the same individuals. Each system is invested in the placement of their clients into housing, and the outcomes for those clients. In addition, the housing "system" itself is comprised in any given jurisdiction of very disparate entities with distinct processes and roles, even if their overall goals overlap substantially. Finally, because of the cost of developing affordable housing, a variety of different funding streams must generally be leveraged to support any particular project.
For these reasons, mutual understanding and cooperation among agency heads and program administrators is critical to the advancement of housing solutions. Policymakers should seek to formalize relationships between organizations (for example, through memoranda of understanding) and to identify common goals to maximize the impact of resources available in their jurisdictions.
Recognizing the value of coordinating efforts to support housing, HUD requires that any jurisdiction applying for funds from Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), McKinney Act (homelessness) and HOME (affordable housing development) programs submit a Consolidated Plan as part of their application process. [1] The Consolidated Plan is intended to sort out overlapping and inefficiently used funds, and must thoroughly describe what affordable housing and supportive services are planned for the community and how both local and federal housing resources will be mobilized. An Action Plan details the implementation of the Consolidated Plan from year to year.
Communities that receive funds for homelessness programs under the McKinney Act must also form consortia in order to coordinate sources and uses of scarce federal dollars. And the single state housing credit agency that coordinates each state's allocation of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program credits must, under IRS rules, adopt a Qualified Allocation Plan (QAP) which sets forth the criteria and preferences by which credit will be allocated to projects. [2]