Healthy Housing Workforce Toolkit
One of the greatest challenges for municipalities is identifying funding opportunities to support the development of workforce programs. Municipalities need to harness federal, state and local funding sources to create strategic short- and long-term investments.
Local leaders can support workforce investments with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and grants like HUD’s Lead Hazard Reduction Capacity Building Grant. Municipalities need to be innovative to effectively leverage all available funding opportunities to ensure programs can be sustainable in the future. A strategy that some cities use to stretch their available funding is federal fund braiding.29 This allows funds from specific federal programs to be used to meet the match requirement for a local match.
It is important to understand that funding streams are constantly changing as new opportunities become available. Based on the community’s needs, local governments must develop a system to aggregate and process information from multiple sources and identify the relevant grant opportunities that fit the municipalities’ needs. Each grant will have its requirements, prerequisites and deadlines. By focusing a funding search on projects that are related to addressing community needs—in this case, developing a workforce pipeline for healthy housing—local governments can narrow their searches.
Tools and Resources
Because the funding landscape is constantly changing, these resources help connect local leaders with funding navigators and directories to understand where existing funding is available. Some resources break down large grants like IIJA and present the different programs available under the grant.
- HUD’s Funding Navigator30
- Brooking’s Federal Infrastructure Hub31
- NLC’s Local Infrastructure Hub32
- Local Housing Solutions’ Federal Funding Directory33
Local governments that use HUD funding for housing rehab and development can participate in HUD’s Section 3 program. Section 3 “requires recipients of HUD funding to direct employment, training, and contracting opportunities to low-income individuals and the businesses that employ these persons within their community”. This funding opportunity is used to assist housing and community development projects by promoting the development of construction-related training, jobs, and contracting opportunities. Section 334 takes an equitable approach by focusing on offering these training services for low- and very low-income individuals and businesses that employ people in their communities.
Identifying potential grants is the first step in obtaining funding for workforce development programs. Writing a compelling grant application is the next task. HUD offers tools, resources and application templates for those interested in applying.
End Notes
29 “Ways Local Governments Can Make Their Federal Match.”
30 “Funding Navigator – HUD Exchange.”
31 “Federal Infrastructure Hub.”
32 “Local Infrastructure Hub Initiative.”
33 “Federal Funding Directory.”
34 “Section 3.”
35 “Welcome to the Section 3 Video Series!”
36 “Section 3 Resources and Tools.”
37 “Learn Grants | Grants.Gov.”
38 “Tips and Tricks for Writing a Winning Grant Submission – HUD.”
39 “Application Bootcamp.”