St. Paul staff report NCDA conference takeaways, warn of HUD funding uncertainty for CDBG, HOME and ESG

Deputy Director and CFO Nicole Green and the city’s grant management team reported key takeaways from the National Community Development Association (NCDA) conference and warned that a federal continuing resolution could delay final HUD allocations for St. Paul’s entitlement grants.

Beth Ulrich, grants program administrator in Planning and Economic Development (PED), said NCDA provides legislative updates, technical assistance and training that help jurisdictions manage complex HUD programs such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) and the Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG). Ulrich said NCDA helped coordinate member responses to a last‑minute congressional bill provision that would have increased consolidated plan reporting obligations; NCDA’s intervention helped get the provision removed.

Deputy Director Green told commissioners the federal fiscal 2025 budget remained under a continuing resolution and that the city would not know final HUD allocations until after a top‑line budget passes and HUD issues allocations (staff quoted a 60‑day period after passage as a typical lag). She said the House and Senate budget outlines had been roughly flat with prior years; nevertheless, last‑year allocations arrived late, in August, and staff expect another delayed allocation if the continuing resolution persists.

Jessica Deegan and Ulrich described regulatory developments discussed at the conference: the final HOME rule (Home Investment Partnerships Program) had been delayed for review; anticipated CDBG final rulemaking did not reach completion before the administration change; and the OMB uniform guidance (2 CFR Part 200) updates were in effect as of October and require substantial local implementation work. Staff emphasized peer‑to‑peer learning at NCDA and noted that St. Paul’s practices on tenant protections, homeless assistance and grants management drew positive attention from peers.

Commissioners pressed staff on operational impacts. Staff provided order‑of‑magnitude figures for typical annual entitlement funding: roughly $6.7 million in CDBG, about $1.8 million in HOME and about $570,000 in ESG. Of the CDBG total, staff said roughly $2.0 million is typically allocated to subrecipient partners and roughly $4.7 million is used for city programs and capital projects; about $1.4 million of CDBG funds commonly pays for grant management within PED (supporting approximately six FTEs), and roughly $500,000 is used for youth programming in parks. Staff said HOME funds support approximately $1.9 million in housing production activity and ESG supports homeless assistance programs that the county and subrecipients administer.

Staff reported that some jurisdictions, including Ramsey County, had publicly paused new spending and contracting while the federal budget remained unsettled. St. Paul staff said the city had not paused programs that are currently operating on 2024 grant dollars; the city’s CIB (Capital Improvement Budget) process had already allocated some 2024 and 2025 funds and, where contracts have not yet been signed, payments would ultimately depend on federal allocations. Staff said they were meeting with the Office of Financial Services and central grants staff to review contingency options and possible pivots if federal funding were reduced or delayed.

Staff also described the value of NCDA membership for discounted training, rapid regulatory summaries and networking, and said they would share NCDA email updates and training opportunities with commissioners and legislative aides.

The HRA did not take a formal vote on policy changes; the item was presented as an informational staff report and discussion.