Friday, Feb 17 2012 5:11PM

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced it is awarding $20 million in funds to provide technical housing assistance to help local communities stabilize neighborhoods that were hit hard by foreclosure throughout the housing market slump. The additional funds will help both state and local governments implement already existing grant programs.

Through two programs, OneCPD and Core Curricula, the HUD is making around $62 million available for funding. The agency says this fund will receive up to $61 million while Core Curricula will be up to $995,000.

OneCPD will fund comprehensive assistance to help recipients improve their performance and help recipients restructure their housing and community development programs to better fit the needs of their communities. The money will work to assist local governments, HOME programs, public housing authorities, Native American tribes and other for-profit organizations.

Those eligible for Core Curricula include public or private nonprofit organizations or intermediaries such as educational institutions or area-wide planning organizations as well as for-profit organizations.

"These funds will help our partners work smarter and stretch federal investments for the greatest possible benefit to the people and places we serve," said Mercedes Márquez, HUD’s Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development. "In today’s budget environment, we not only have to do more with less, we have to perform at a very high level to make certain limited taxpayer dollars have the real and lasting impact."

In 2011, Rural Community Assistance Corporation (RCAC) received a OneCPD award as part of the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) consortium.

For further information, check out this source: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development