The Department of the Treasury, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995. Currently, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund), U.S. Department of the Treasury, is soliciting comments concerning the Capital Magnet Fund (CMF) Application and the CMF Annual Performance Report (CMF Performance Report).
The Capital Magnet Fund was established through the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (Pub. L. 110-289) or HERA, as a competitive grant program administered by the CDFI Fund. Through CMF, the CDFI Fund provides financial assistance grants to Certified Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) and qualified non-profit housing organizations. These awards can be used to finance affordable housing activities, as well as related economic development activities and community service facilities.
CMF Award Recipients are selected through a competitive process involving a careful review of their Application for program funding. The Application requires the submission of quantitative data and narrative responses for three parts: (1) Business and Leveraging Strategy, (2) Community Impact, and (3) Organizational Capacity. The Award selection process is defined in the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for each funding round.
In addition, the CMF Award Recipients are required to submit the CMF Annual Performance Report. The information collected in the CMF Performance Report is reviewed to ensure the Award Recipient’s compliance with its Performance Goals and contractual obligations, as well as the overall performance of the program. Data collected through the CMF Performance Report consists of three categories of data: (1) mandatory data points, (2) conditionally required data points based on project characteristics, financing type or other condition, and (3) optional data points.
The CDFI Fund has posted the proposed CMF Application and CMF Performance Report to its website here for public review. Comments are invited on all aspects of the information collections, but commentators may wish to pay particular attention to the series of questions in the Request for Public Comment notice that focus on specific aspects of the CMF Application, the Application evaluation process, and the CMF Performance Report. These questions cover topics such as the impact of the program; how different eligible entities should apply for the program; High Opportunity Areas and Areas of Economic Distress; rental and homeownership housing; Economic Development Activities; Application service areas for the program; and other important elements of the program’s Application and compliance requirements.
Comments must be submitted in writing by 60 days after the date of publication of the Federal Register notice via email to Daniel Aiello, Program Manager, Capital Magnet Fund, CDFI Fund, at CMF@cdfi.treas.gov.
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