Emergency Justification Memo

Ms. Courtney E. Mallon

OMB Desk Officer

Office of Management and Budget

New Executive Office Building

Washington, DC 20503

Dear Ms. Mallon:

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is seeking an emergency review of the Housing Counseling Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO)

(OMB Control Number 2502-0621) for the Housing Counseling Program. The Notices of Paperwork Submission (copies enclosed), proposed for immediate Federal Register publication, explains the burden of the collection requirements and invites public comment on them. This is a revised information collection.

In compliance with the requirements of 5 CFR 1320.13, this letter requests emergency processing within 7 days from the date of publication. HUD has historically been required to obligate housing counseling grants within 180 days of Congress’s enactment of appropriation act; and due to unforeseen administrative delays, this emergency review is needed to fulfill Congress’s intent for the Housing Counseling Program to expeditiously provide housing counseling grant funds to support delivery of housing counseling services. This emergency review is necessary because the use of normal clearance procedures is reasonably likely to prevent or disrupt the collection of information that is needed to ensure proper collection of data in response to our FY 2022 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) that is currently progressing through departmental clearance.

The collection is primarily being revised due to changes to the FY2023 HUD NOFO Template, which added additional narrative requirements to the 9906-L and 9906-P forms. This change only took effect in the NOFO template after October 1, 2022 and required revision to the forms that were not previously anticipated. An emergency PRA is needed for this package to be able to maintain the necessary timeline to release the NOFO for publication, application review, scoring, and award announcement before FY22 funds expire. Other changes include moving standard forms from OMB 2502-0261 to OMB 2502-0621 to contain all necessary documents for the NOFO within one collection, and other minor updates.

 

The emergency review is also necessary so that HUD-participating agencies may continue to provide housing counseling services to families facing financial hardship including those seeking assistance in preventing rental eviction or mortgage default as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and assistance.

S incerely,

for

David L. Berenbaum

Deputy Assistant Secretary

Office of Housing Counseling

Enclosures

Internal HUD Distribution:
Identification Lines:
2502-0621 Housing Counseling NOFO Emergency Letter xxx
Correspondence Code	Originator HCP		Concurrence HCP	Concurrence HC	Concurrence HC		Concurrence	Concurrence
Name	A. McCarthy RLM for		MCKEE RLM for	LAMBERT Brenda Morsell Lambert	dc CARMON
Date	12/9/22		12/9/22	12-9-2022	12-9-2022

Official Record Copy U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development form HUD-713.1 (02/03)

Previous edition is obsolete.

www.hud.gov espanol.hud.gov