Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing: Assessment Tool for States and Insular Area-Information Collection: Solicitation of Comment First 30-Day Notice Under Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995

This notice solicits public comment for a period of 30 days, consistent with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (PRA), on the State and Insular Area Assessment Tool. This Assessment Tool will be used by States, including for joint or regional collaborations where the State is the lead entity and they are joined by local governments and PHAs. The Assessment Tool issued for public comment under this Notice includes a streamlined analysis for ``small program participants,'' which are either QPHAs or local governments that received a CDBG grant of $500,000 or less in the most recent fiscal year prior to the due date for the joint or regional AFH or a HOME consortium whose members collectively received less than $500,000 in CDBG funds or received no CDBG funding in the most recent fiscal year prior to the due date for the joint or regional AFH. In addition, this Assessment Tool will be used by other local governments and public housing agencies when these entities collaborate with a State agency that is acting as the lead entity for a joint assessment of fair housing. HUD recognizes that questions within this Assessment Tool have been written primarily for States with inserts for QPHAs and small program participants. After this 30-day public comment period HUD commits to update the Assessment Tool to facilitate collaborations with local governments and PHAs which are not QPHAs or other small program participants. On March 11, 2016, HUD solicited public comment for a period of 60 days on the State and Insular Area Assessment Tool. The 60-day notice commenced the notice and comment process required by the PRA in order to obtain approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information proposed to be collected by the State and Insular Area Assessment Tool. In this Notice, HUD is also announcing an extended two-stage process for soliciting public feedback on this Assessment Tool. This process is being implemented in response to the substantial public comments received during the 60-day comment period for this Assessment Tool. HUD is committed to providing the public with this opportunity. This 30-Day Notice is intended to solicit comment relating to the Assessment Tool, the instructions that accompany the Assessment Tool, and the descriptions of the contributing factors contained in the Appendix. The second stage is intended to elicit feedback on the beta Data and Mapping tool for States, allow for feedback on the interaction of the Assessment Tool and the supporting Data and Mapping Tool, and make any feasible improvements to the final Data and Mapping tool for States, as well as make any necessary conforming changes to the Assessment Tool. This process is described in more detail in the Notice below. To facilitate public input on the State and Insular Area Assessment Tool, HUD will post the revised Assessment Tool as well as a compare of this revised Assessment Tool to the proposed Assessment Tool from the 60-day public comment period at www.hudexchange.info/programs/affh.