(a) No application will be considered unless it supports at least one of three National Objectives. The application must identify which of the three needs it meets. Not all National Objectives can be applied to all project types. The Division of Investment Ready Communities should be contacted to determine how a particular project might meet a National Objective. The three National Objectives are: - (i) Benefit to low and moderate income families;
- (ii) Aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight;
- (iii) Activities designed to meet community development needs having a particular urgency;
(b) Activities considered to benefit low to moderate income families are divided into four categories: - (i) Area benefit activities;
- (ii) Limited clientele activities;
- (iii) Housing activity; and
- (iv) Job creation or retention activity;
- (A) Area Benefit Activity.
- (I) An area benefit activity is an activity that meets the identified needs of low to moderate income families residing in an area where at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the residents are low to moderate income persons. The benefits of this type of activity are available to all persons in the area regardless of income. Such an area must be the entire area served by the activity. An activity that serves an area that is not primarily residential in character shall not qualify under this criterion.
- (II) To document area benefit the applicant must:
- (1) define the service area, and
- (2) collect income characteristics of families and unrelated individuals in the service area. The applicant may use either HUD provided data comparing census data with low and moderate-income levels or locally provided survey data that is methodologically sound.
- (B) Limited Clientele Activities.
- (I) Limited clientele activity is an activity that benefits a specific group of people rather than all the residents in a particular area, of which at least fifty-one percent (51%) are low to moderate income persons. To qualify under this category, the activity must meet one of the following tests:
- (1.) The project must exclusively benefit a clientele who are generally presumed to be principally low and moderate income persons. The following groups are presumed to meet this criterion unless there is evidence to the contrary:
- e. Handicapped adults meeting the Bureau of Census' definition of severely disabled adults (See 24 CFR 570.483(b)(2)(ii)(A);
- g. Persons living with AIDS; and
- (2.) Require information on family size and income so that it is evident that at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the clientele are persons whose family incomes does not exceed the low and moderate income limits.
- (3.) Have income eligibility requirements limit the activity exclusively to low and moderate income persons.
- (4.) Be of such a nature and location that it may be concluded that the activity's clientele will primarily be low and moderate income persons.
- (II) Limited clientele projects also include special projects directed to the removal of material and architectural barriers in existing buildings restrict the mobility and accessibility of elderly or handicapped persons to publicly-owned and privately-owned non-residential buildings, facilities and improvements, and the common areas of residential structures containing more than one dwelling unit.
- (C) Housing Activities.
- (I) A low and moderate housing activity is an activity that adds or improves permanent residential structures which will be occupied by low to moderate income households upon completion. The housing can be either owner or renter occupied units in either one family or multi-family structures. Rental units occupied by low to moderate income households must be occupied at affordable rents and the applicant must have criteria for determining affordable rents for this purpose.
- (D) Job Creation and Retention Activity.
- (I) A low to moderate jobs activity is one that creates or retains permanent jobs, at least fifty-one percent (51%) of which are either taken by low to moderate income persons or considered available to low to moderate income persons. This applies to economic development projects with the purpose of creating/retaining permanent jobs. It does not apply to community development projects with the purpose of providing a service to the community or limited clientele, such as a community center, child day care facility or a senior center. In counting jobs, the following applies:
- (1.) Part-time jobs must be converted to full-time equivalents.
- (2.) Only permanent jobs count. Temporary jobs may not be included.
- (3.) Seasonal jobs may be counted only if the season is long enough for the job to be considered as the employee's principal occupation.
- (4.) All permanent jobs created by the activity must be counted even if the activity has multiple sources of funding.
- (5.) Jobs created indirectly by an assisted activity may not be counted.
- (6.) As a general rule, jobs from different businesses may not be aggregated. However, in certain cases such as where CDBG funds are used to acquire, develop, or improve real property, (e.g., a business incubator or an industrial park) jobs may be aggregated for all of the businesses located on the property.
- (7.) In any case where CDBG funds are used for public improvements (e.g., economic development infrastructure) jobs to be considered for meeting the job creation/retention requirement shall be all jobs created/retained by the business(es) originally assisted as well as any other business(es) that locate in the area within a period of one year following the completion of the funded activity. Except that, in any case where the amount of CDBG assistance provided for the public improvements in relation to the number of jobs projected to be created/retained by the originally funded business(es) is such that the amount per job does not exceed $10,000. Jobs created by businesses that locate in the area and benefit from the improvements need not be considered.
- (II) To qualify for job retention, there must be clear and objective evidence that permanent jobs will be lost without CDBG assistance. In addition, at least fifty-one percent (51%) of the jobs at the time the CDBG assistance is provided must be held by low to moderate income persons or the job can reasonably be expected to turn over within the following two years and that it will be filled by, or steps will be taken, to ensure that it is made available to a low or moderate income person upon turnover.
(c) Activities that aid in the prevention or elimination of slums or blight. To qualify under elimination of slums and blight, an application must demonstrate that the following criteria have been met. An activity may qualify on either an area basis or a spot basis. - (i) Elimination of slums and blight on an area basis:
- (A) The area must be designated by the applicant and that area must meet a definition of a slum, blighted, deteriorated or deteriorating area under state or local law. (See Wyoming SS 15-9-101 to 15-9-137 ).
- (B) Throughout the area there is a substantial number of deteriorated or deteriorating buildings or the public improvements are in a general state of deterioration.
- (C) The project must address one or more of the conditions contributed to the deterioration of the area.
- (ii) Elimination of slums or blight on a spot basis. To comply with the National Objective of slums or blight outside a designated slum or blighted area, a project must meet the following criteria:
- (A) The project must be designed to eliminate specific conditions of blight or physical decay on a spot basis not located in a slum or blighted area; and
- (B) The activity must be limited to acquisition, clearance, relocation, historic preservation or rehabilitation of buildings. Under this criterion rehabilitation is limited to the extent necessary to eliminate specific conditions detrimental to public health and safety.
(d) Activities designed to meet community development needs having a particular urgency. An activity will be considered to address this objective if the applicant certifies, and the state determines that: - (i) The activity is designed to alleviate existing conditions pose a serious and immediate threat to the health or welfare of the community. For example, damage to a municipal sewer lagoon due to a flood.
- (ii) The threat is one of recent origin or one recently became urgent. A condition will be considered to be of recent origin if it developed or became urgent within eighteen months preceding the certification by the applicant.
- (iii) The applicant is unable to finance the activity on their own, and other sources of funding are not available.
(e) To qualify for National Objective #1, at least 51 percent of the persons benefiting from the project must be from low and moderate income households. However, applicants are cautioned that they must show that moderate income families are not being benefited to the exclusion of low income families. The state will use the HUD section 8 limits for each county. (See Attachment A for limits).
(f) The state must show that at least 70 percent of its total federal funds, by activity, benefit low to moderate income families. Therefore, applicants applying under the remaining National Objectives may not be funded if the statewide 70 percent minimum is not met.