With a new year comes new challenges and goals. As most of you know, Governments, now more than ever, face pressure and have been tasked with accelerating their technological journey by Treasury and HUD.  Leveraging new technology has many well-known benefits for state and local governments – it can increase efficiency, improve compliance and security, and reduce costs. These tools can help organizations quickly migrate workloads, create consistent infrastructure, and scale services with no downtime.

In this episode, Dr. Adrienne Holloway, Ph.D., the former Executive Director for the Community Services Department of Harris County Texas, shares best practices and insight on how to successfully administer Treasury and HUD programs…and why technology is so critical in carrying that out.

Our guest speaker in Episode 7 is Darwin Wade, Area Redevelopment Manager (Housing & Neighborhood Revitalization) for the City of Dallas, Texas.  In this episode, Mr. Wade shares best practices and innovative approaches on how the city uses its program dollars to maximize community impact during, and as we emerge from, the pandemic.

The City of Dallas is making a huge impact in its community through the Home Repair, Homebuyer Assistance (DHAP), Land Bank, Land Bank/Land Transfer, Asset Management, New Development, and Single-Family Income Verification programs.  They have been our 'Neighbor' since 2019, and have leveraged Neighborly Software’s platform to distribute $45,784,551 in program allocations to date.

Discussion Topics:

*Industry trends and key insights for HOME – ARP allocations

*Strategies and best practices for administering program funding

*Program pitfalls and how to navigate them

*Emerging trends amongst governments now that we are slowly coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic

To learn more about the City of Dallas's program initiatives, visit Welcome to the City of Dallas, Texas (dallascityhall.com)

In this episode, our guest speaker, Josh Shumaker, the Director of Advocacy and Federal Programs for the Council of State Community Development Agencies (COSCDA), shares some key insights on how states advocate for Community Development, Affordable Housing & Disaster Recovery -MIT programs at the State Level.

COSCDA represents the role of states as the premier voice of authority to Congress and federal agencies.  It facilitates critical leadership in the development of funding; legislative and regulatory strategies, and implementation and programmatic issues related to housing, economic, community development, and disaster recovery programs with federal policymakers.

Discussion Topics/Questions:

*COSCDA’s current advocacy and legislative initiatives

*COSCDA’s efforts to promote streamlined administration of Federal Compliance Standards

*Disaster Recovery & MIT program funding for Hurricane Ian

*CDBG and HOME programs – regulatory recommendations to HUD

*The potential for both statutory and regulatory changes to the HOME program

*Best practices for distributing Affordable Housing & Disaster Recovery -MIT program funds

*Key insights on the finalization of the FY22 Budget and what that looks like for State Community Development Agencies

To learn more about COSCDA, please visit COSCDA | Council of State Community Development Agencies