Sneak Preview: ACF Offers Two Options for Preparing LIHEAP Applications
(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Federal Grants Compliance Expert article.) States, territories and tribal entities applying later this year for federal fiscal year (FY) 2023 Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds can follow one of two options when preparing their applications under flexibilities offered in a recently released Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF) guidance.
Applicants for FY 2023 allocations must submit a LIHEAP plan (i.e., application) to ACF’s Office of Community Services (OCS) by Sept. 1 for the Oct. 1, 2022, to Sept. 30, 2023, grant performance period. ACF has developed a model LIHEAP plan to assist applicants in developing and submitting their own LIHEAP plans, and OCS will review each applicant’s LIHEAP plan prior to providing funding. Applicants/recipients will create/access their LIHEAP plan via ACF’s Online Data Collection (OLDC) web-based system within Grant Solutions.
As various jurisdictions nationwide move through phases of their respective COVID-19 pandemic reopening plans and implement LIHEAP activities funded through the American Rescue Plan Act (Pub. L. 117-2) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117-58), ACF explains that it is aware that entities “face unique local challenges in gathering information required” to submit a complete FY 2023 LIHEAP plan to OCS. Therefore, it is allowing applicants seeking FY 2023 LIHEAP funding to apply using one of two options.
Under the first option, applicants must submit a new FY 2023 LIHEAP plan in OLDC. A tribe or tribal organization seeking to administer its own program in FY 2023, but is not a current direct ACF-funded LIHEAP grantee in FY 2022, must submit a new FY 2023 plan. If the applicant is a current LIHEAP recipient that submitted a revised FY 2021 plan for administration of the program in FY 2022, that entity must choose this option and submit a new FY 2023 LIHEAP plan.
The second option is only available to existing FY 2022 LIHEAP grant recipients that submitted a new plan for FY 2022. These recipients may revise and submit their FY 2022 LIHEAP plan to cover FY 2023, if the recipient also attaches a letter addressed to the OCS Director, Dr. Lanikque Howard, M.D. and signed by the grantee’s authorizing/certifying official.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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