HUD’s CPD Announces CDBG Duplication of Benefits Quick Guide

HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) sent a HUD Exchange email on December 4 announcing a Duplication of Benefits Quick Guide for Community Development Block Grant-Coronavirus (CDBG-CV) fund grantees. The Quick Guide is not on the CDBG-CV webpage, but is on the HUD Exchange CDBG COVID-19 webpage.

The Quick Guide includes little new information, instead mostly reiterating information already provided in CDBG-CV Fact Sheets (see Memo, 7/20), Memorandum (see Memo 8/3), and a waiver notice (see Memo, 8/17). The Quick Guide does offer two examples, one of which uses CDBG-CV for emergency rental assistance to cover three months of rent arrears and two months of current and future rent.

The CARES Act requires CDBG-CV comply with a duplication of benefits (DOB) analysis. A DOB occurs when a person, household, business, government, or other entity receives financial assistance from multiple sources for the same purpose, and the total assistance received for that purpose is more than the total need for assistance.

To comply with DOB requirements, grantees (cities, counties, and states receiving CDBG-CV) must require any person or entity receiving CDBG-CV assistance (including subrecipients and direct beneficiaries) to agree to repay assistance that is determined to be duplicative. This may be documented through a subrogation agreement or similar clause in an agreement with a person or entity. A grantee should establish a protocol to monitor compliance based on the risk of duplication of benefits for each activity.

In addition, grantees must have a method of assessing whether the use of the funds will duplicate financial assistance that is already received or is likely to be received (such as insurance proceeds) by acting reasonably to evaluate the need and the resources available to meet that need. Grantees should evaluate current programs available at the local, county, state, and federal level as well as current and anticipated non-governmental assistance from nonprofits or faith-based groups and establish lines of communication for preventing duplication of benefits. CPD encourages grantees to target CDBG-CV activities to address unmet needs and gaps to reduce the risk of duplication of benefits.

For grantees that have experience with CDBG-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds after natural disasters such as a hurricane, flood, or wildfire, CPD clarifies that CDBG-CV grantees do not need to follow a statutory “Order of Assistance” for delivery of different federal and non-federal programs. This means that grantees do not need to validate whether other funding sources are available or will be available before allocating CDBG-CV assistance (as opposed to CDBG-DR, which generally requires a grantee to check to see whether FEMA assistance was provided before making an award).

The CDBG-CV Quick Guide is at: https://bit.ly/3gu4pby