National Housing Law Project Housing Preservation

Technical Assistance

Technical Assistance Funds are available through Outreach and Training Assistance Grants (OTAG), and Intermediary Technical Assistance Grants (ITAG). In-kind assistance has also been provided through a HUD contract with Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA).

OTAG funds are awarded through a HUD Notice of Funding Availability process (issued in 1998 and 2000), which funded organizations for three years to provide assistance to tenants at eligible buildings in a geographic area. A directory of existing OTAG grantees is available at HUD’s web site: [link www.hud.gov/offices/omhar/tenants/grntmenu.cfm]

ITAG grants are obtained through an "Intermediary" who contracts with HUD to make small grants. These have been available on an ongoing basis since 1998, however HUD has suspended funding new grants since about September 2001. HUD may release new funds after October 2002 when the annual $10 million is made available to the program. There are three different types of ITAG grants:

• Resident Capacity Grants (up to $20,000) for resident outreach and coordination, establishing a resident counsel, holding elections, or hiring an architect, engineer or other consultant to advise on the adequacy of the M2M needs assessment;
• Pre-development Grants (up to $70,000) for legal services to form a purchasing entity, accounting services for budgeting and planning, preparing offers to purchase the property, developing management contracts, engineering studies, securing financing, or creating marketing studies;
• Public Entity Grants (up to $20,000) for all of the above activities and training residents or other organizations associated with the M2M process.

Applications are available from the current ITAG grant-makers:

Northwest & Central: Amador Toulumne Community Action Agency
Contact - Diane Bennett (209) 533-1397 atcaadb@goldrush.com
States Covered: AK, OR, CO, HI, UT, ID, WA, WY, MT, IL, MO, IA, SD, KS, NE, MN, ND

Southwest & South east: Low Income Housing Fund
Contact - Abigail Rowe (415) 777-9804 arowe@lihf.org
States Covered: AL, FL, GA, KY, MI, NC. SC. TN, VA, Carrib., AZ, AR, CA, LA, NV, NM, OK, TX

Northeast: National Center for Tenant Organizing
Contact - Roslyn Morris-Davis (202) 662-9601 rm89@law.georgetown.edu
States Covered: CT, DE, DC, ME, MD, MA, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT