About the Program
On September 10, 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded $10 million in grant funding to expand tenant education and outreach opportunities including resources for low-income residents in homes supported by the Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) program.
This funding will support capacity building efforts that enable hundreds of thousands of tenants who live in HUD’s PBRA housing, to more effectively engage with property managers and owners to improve and maintain safe, decent, and affordable housing. Funding can be used for training tenant organizers and technical assistance to tenant organizations, as well as legal services to establish and operate tenant organizations. HUD providing new funding to support tenant organizing efforts, advances the White House Administration’s goals to protect renters, give them a voice, and ensure that all Americans have access to safe, quality and affordable housing, and was a key action from the Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights.
This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) supports HUD’s Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years (FY) 2022-2026 to improve rental assistance and aligns with the overall goals of the Administration. The grant funding provided will support tenant capacity building at eligible existing PBRA properties with the goal of preserving decent, safe, and sanitary housing within the Section 8 program.
The Office of Multifamily Housing Programs will partner with the selected awardee for the TEO NOFO. AIDS Healthcare Foundation (based in Los Angeles) and its co-applicant the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants (based in Boston) will be awarded up to $10 million to implement the TEO program over a 5-year period of performance.
Funds awarded to the tenant advocacy organizations are available through HUD’s TEO Program and will enable the AIDS Healthcare Foundation—in partnership with the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants—to strengthen tenant organizing groups. These organizations will sub-award and subcontract the available funding over the next two years to approximately 30 eligible tenant advocacy organizations on a first come, first served basis, with the goal of building the capacity of tenants as active partners in the preservation of affordable rental housing for low-income residents.
Tenant capacity building is the process of developing and strengthening the skills, abilities, processes, and resources that tenants and tenant organizations need to be active partners in the preservation and improvement of their housing communities. HUD believes that tenant participation is an important element to maintain sustainable projects and communities.
The TEO program will help tenants in their efforts to work productively with property management, hold management accountable for property conditions, improve performance and oversight of these multifamily properties, and advocate to preserve affordable, safe and decent housing.
The TEO program funding can also be used for training, technical assistance, staffing, office supplies, and other operational costs for tenant organizations to preserve housing by protecting against Landlord and Tenant Litigations. The TEO program builds on the successes of previous program models to empower tenants to advocate for their concerns and engage effectively with owners, management agents and property managers of assisted housing properties.
The TEO program builds on the successes of previous program models to empower tenants to advocate for their concerns and engage collaboratively with assisted housing providers.
The TEO program will assist tenants in their efforts to work productively with property management, hold management accountable for property conditions, improve management and oversight of these multifamily properties, and advocate for the preservation of affordability. Tenant participation is an important element to maintain sustainable projects and communities.
Background
Section 514(f)(3) of the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Affordability Act of 1997 (MAHRAA) (42 U.S.C. 1437f note) permits annual PBRA appropriations to be made available for tenant capacity building and other related activities.
Section 534 of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Housing and Urban Development, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2000, amended section 514(f)(3) to extend technical assistance to below market rate properties.
HUD has approached tenant capacity building, as authorized under MAHRAA, in multiple ways over the last three decades, using a variety of technical assistance and grant programs. This NOFO builds on the successes and lessons learned from previous efforts funded through MAHRAA, including the Outreach and Training Assistance Grant (OTAG) and Intermediary Technical Assistance Grant (ITAG) programs, the Tenant Resources Network (TRN) program, the VISTA Affordable Housing Preservation Program (VAHPP), and the RAD Community Engagement Initiative (RAD CEI). The goal of the TEO program, as with previous efforts funded through MAHRAA, is to redesign and build on the capacity of tenants to be active partners in the preservation of affordable rental housing for low-income persons.
Key Changes & Features
The program has been redesigned since the conclusion of the prior grant program funded under Section 514 in 2014 and will implement lessons learned from prior iterations. The intermediary organization will perform many important grants management and reporting functions, allowing tenant organizations to spend more of their time and resources on program activities.
HUD will make one award from the funds available under this NOFO to the selected intermediary organization that will administer sub-awards to eligible sub-recipients, where previously, regional intermediaries were awarded. The intermediary organization is expected to make approximately 30 sub-awards to tenant organizations.
Unlike some previously funded Section 514 activities, most PBRA properties are eligible to be served under the program. Previous iterations of the program generally required that participating tenant organizations only serve properties where the contract would expire within a specific period of time, where the owner had opted out of their PBRA contract, or in other specific circumstances. These restrictions created challenges for tenant organizations, making it difficult for them to access grant resources and work with owners on issues affecting their homes in a timely manner.
The intermediary organization’s grant award will include funds for the administrative costs they will incur when making and managing the sub-awards. The intermediary organization will develop, in collaboration with each sub-recipient, each sub-recipient’s program budget and anticipated use of TEO sub-award funds. The intermediary organization will monitor the sub-recipients’ activities, funds expenditures, and performance reporting.
Sub-Awards:
A sub-award can be approved for a maximum of $300,000. The period of performance for a TEO sub-award is 36 months.
The sub-applicant is an eligible tenant organization or other community-based nonprofit organization. Sub-applicants must have notified the tenants of the properties it proposes to serve in writing of the application and has obtained a formal written endorsement from a majority of the occupied units.
Elements of the sub-award application may include a draft operational plan with a proposed budget of eligible activities. Specific sub-award activities may include: regular meetings, resolving concerns with living conditions, establishing resident committees, formalizing the tenant organization.
Eligible & Reimbursable Costs:
Resident Board Stipend, Resident Outreach Coordinator, Legal Services related to sub-award activities except for evictions or rental assistance hearings, training or technical assistance for tenants, meeting space rent, office supplies, a laptop/tablet and a cellphone with camera including the internet/data plan, translation and interpretation services, refreshments and child or elder care during tenant meetings.
Resident Outreach Coordinators:
Resident Outreach Coordinator must not be an elected or appointed official in the tenant organization but may be a tenant of the property. Resident Outreach Coordinators is not to lead the tenant organization, but rather to help build the capacity of the tenant organization and emerging tenant leaders.
Resident Board Stipends:
$200 per month for elected, appointed and other tenant officials of the organization. Roles such as organizing tenant meetings, conducting surveys, taking meeting minutes and distributing them to the tenant organization’s membership, preparing expense reports, serving in an elected or appointed position as described in the organization’s bylaws, or representing the tenant organization at community meetings may be compensated with a Resident Board Stipend.
AGENCY CONTACT:
TEO@hud.gov
