Sneak Preview: HUD Updates Universal Notice for CDBG-DR Program
(The following is excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released on updated version of its Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Universal Notice: Waivers and Alternative Requirements (known as the Universal Notice), which describes the procedures, timelines, waivers and alternative requirements for HUD allocations of CDBG-DR funding after a qualifying presidential disaster declaration.
The Universal Notice, which became applicable on Jan. 13, describes the grant award process, pre-award certification submission procedures, criteria for action plan approval and eligible disaster recovery activities to streamline post-disaster processes for CDBG-DR grantees. “By publishing the Universal Notice, HUD intends to provide grantees and the public with increased transparency, consistency and more timely access to CDBG-DR funds, helping to minimize program delays and accelerate recovery,” the agency states in the notice. HUD published the first Universal Notice in January 2024.
Because some of the requirements in the Universal Notice are not appropriate or applicable to Indian tribes, HUD will publish an addendum to the Universal Notice later this year to establish requirements that will apply when tribes receive a CDBG-DR grant from HUD.
Following the appropriation of CDBG-DR funds for qualifying disasters, HUD will publish an allocation announcement notice (AAN) in the Federal Register that incorporates, via cross-reference, the waivers and alternative requirements provided in the Universal Notice, as appropriate, along with any other new requirements imposed by the specific appropriation. The Universal Notice generally has no legal effect on a CDBG-DR grant until Congress appropriates funds and authorizes HUD to waive or specify alternative requirements for the assistance, along with when HUD publishes and effectuates the AAN that incorporates appropriate provisions of the Universal Notice.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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