[This is the second post in a new blog series on the FY2011 State and Federal budgets.]

On February 1, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary  Donovan released his Fiscal Year 2011 budget proposal, following President Obama’s administration-wide budget proposal.

Many programs in the HUD budget are slated to receive a funding increase in preparation for the President’s proposed three-year freeze on discretionary spending. Along with funding increases, the budget focuses on innovation and improvement; this presents both opportunities and challenges to CED practitioners in Michigan.

Points of interest and further resources below.

• Proposed $2.05 billion for McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Grants. This is a $190 million increase from the FY 2010 budget, but falls short of the estimated $2.4 billion needed to fully implement the Homeless Emergency Assistance Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act. The National Alliance to End Homelessness is sponsoring a letter-writing campaign for full funding.
• Proposed full funding for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) at $4.38 billion. This includes and $150 million for Catalytic Investment Competition Grants to implement economic development activities in targeted distressed communities.
• Funding for Sec. 202 and Sec. 811 housing (for the elderly and people with disabilities, respectively) is scheduled to be cut severely as HUD redesigns and modernizes these programs. This poses a problem for many CEDAM members who rely on these programs to build scattered-site supportive housing.
• The HOME program is also facing a cut, from $1.82 to $1.65 billion.
• Housing Counseling and Combating Mortgage Fraud programs are scheduled to receive the same funding as last year.
• Proposed funding increase funding for evaluation, research, and policy development within HUD.
• Proposed $350 million for Transforming Rental Assistance, a multi-year initiative to regionalize the Housing Choice Voucher program and convert Public Housing to project based vouchers.

For more information, please refer to these resources:

• Official HUD press release, webcasts, articles, and the full HUD budget [4.3MB PDF] from the HUD website
• Reports, analyses, and links from the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC)
• National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH) webinar recording and materials
• Housing and community development budget chart and budget summary from the Enterprise Foundation

Have more resources? Share them in the comments!