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Ithaca delays parts of annual action plan as HUD funding and implementation guidance remain uncertain
Summary
Staff moved parts of the annual action-planning schedule to January and set the application deadline for Feb. 20 at noon, citing slow HUD allocation notices and missing implementation guidance for new requirements including the 'SAVE system.'
Ithaca City staff told the IRA committee they are postponing portions of the 2026 annual action-planning cycle until January because HUD allocation notifications and implementation guidance remain uncertain. The committee set the applicant deadline for Friday, Feb. 20 at noon and confirmed the program year will still begin Aug. 1.
Staff (Speaker 3) described the difficulty of estimating entitlement funding this year and said they used conservative modeling—reducing expected CDBG by 2.5% and HOME by 5%—to prepare materials. Staff also estimated roughly $166,000 in CDBG program income and said an approximate total entitlement pool could be near $900,000, while stressing that the numbers remain tentative pending congressional action and HUD notices.
The committee and staff discussed contingency planning if one or more federal funding categories were zeroed out. Speaker 5 asked for a contingency outline and staff agreed to raise the topic with department leadership (Nels) and the board. Staff noted there is limited alternate local funding to replace federal entitlements.
On federal compliance, Speaker 3 said HUD headquarters has not yet supplied guidance for new requirements—specifically for the "save system" that projects are expected to use to verify applicants’ legal status—and that regional staff advised that projects may proceed as designed until guidance is issued. "As soon as we get guidance, it will be distributed, and compliance will be expected going forward," Speaker 3 said. Staff also said they will issue a memo to applicants explaining the new requirements and their current unknowns.
Staff additionally noted a regional staffing change: the regional director of HUD CPD in Buffalo is retiring after more than 20 years, and regional HUD staffing levels are reduced, which committee members said contributes to slower guidance and review timelines.
What’s next: staff will run public-input sessions for applicants with the updated schedule, distribute the memo on new HUD requirements once available, and present a contingency-planning topic to the board at an upcoming meeting.
