eCon Planning Suite

In May 2012, HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) introduced the eCon Planning Suite, including the Consolidated Plan template in IDIS OnLine and the CPD Maps website. The eCon Planning Suite is designed to support grantees and the public to assess their needs and make strategic investment decisions by providing better data and tools and by creating a seamless planning and grants management framework.

Consolidated Plan Template in IDIS OnLine

HUD grantees are now required to submit their Consolidated Plan and year one Annual Action Plan using the Consolidated Plan template in IDIS OnLine. If grantees have an approved multi-year Consolidated Plan, they are not required to use IDIS to submit their Annual Action Plan until the next multi-year strategy is due. CPD Notice 12-009: Use of IDIS to Submit the Consolidated Plan provides an overview of the requirement for HUD grantees to submit these reports in IDIS.

Grantees have the option to use IDIS to submit a standalone Annual Action Plan for an existing Consolidated Plan until their next Consolidated Plan is due to HUD. If grantees choose this option, they will need to complete the screens for the Action Plan as well as enter information about Geographic Priorities, Priority Needs, and Goals from their previously approved Consolidated Plan. Once grantees submit an Annual Action Plan in the system, they are required to submit all subsequent Annual Action Plans and Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Reports (CAPER) in the IDIS. Grantees are not able to use IDIS to submit a CAPER until an Annual Action Plan (or multi-year Consolidated Plan) accompanied by an Annual Action Plan has been submitted in the system. 

Benefits of the Consolidated Plan template in IDIS OnLine to grantees include:

• The Consolidated Plan template provides a uniform, web-based format to help grantees ensure that their Consolidated Plan includes all required elements per HUD regulations. A Quality Check allows a grantee to review the plan for missing elements before submitting the final version to HUD. In addition to completing the minimum required elements, the template allows grantees to customize their plans by adding maps, text, tables, and JPEG images throughout.
• With the incorporation of the Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan into IDIS OnLine, all key elements of the grants management cycle are integrated into a single system. This will ensure consistency among the goals described in the Consolidated Plan and Action Plan and the activities and accomplishments entered in IDIS and reported in the CAPER, making the Consolidated Plan a more useful management tool.
• Many of the data tables within the Consolidated Plan template are pre-populated with the most up-to-date housing and economic data available. Data is provided to help grantees develop their funding priorities in the Strategic Plan and to save time in searching for, entering, and compiling the data.
• The Consolidated Plan template is integrated with CPD Maps. Together, maps and data can help grantees to assess market conditions, and to present this information in a clear and compelling fashion.
  • Data that pre-populates tables in the template comes from the CPD Maps database, providing consistency between the data grantees use to make planning decisions and data that is available to the public.
  • Grantees can also insert maps and data tables from CPD Maps throughout the template.
• The Consolidated Plan template provides appropriate menus for Consolidated Plan requirements specific to local jurisdictions, States, consortia, and colonias.

The new Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan templates are created and accessed by approved grantee users via IDIS. The local (grantee) IDIS Administrator, or local HUD Field Office IDIS Administrator, can provide existing IDIS users with privileges to access the new Consolidated Plan module. The Log On screen contains instructions to request an IDIS ID through the IDIS OnLine Access Request form for new users.

Consolidated Plan access privileges for grantee users include:

• Create/edit/submit – Allows the user to create a new Consolidated Plan or a new version of a plan and submit a completed plan to HUD for review.
• View/Edit – Allows the user to view and edit an existing plan in the system, but not to create a new one or submit a completed plan to HUD.
• View – User can only view an existing plan in the system, and cannot make changes or submit to HUD.

The same three types of privileges are necessary for grantee users to access the CAPER module in IDIS, but these privileges are separate from the Consolidated Plan privileges described above and apply only to the CAPER.

CPD Maps

CPD Maps offers extensive place-based data in a user-friendly online mapping application. Users can search, query, and display information by census tract or larger geographies to better understand their affordable housing and community development needs. Because CPD Maps is accessible to grantee users and the public alike, it will help to facilitate fruitful dialogue about priority setting, and targeting limited resources to accomplish community development and affordable housing goals. CPD Maps includes data on the locations of existing CDBG, HOME, public housing and other HUD-funded community assets, so that users can view past investments geographically when considering various strategies for future funding. For grantee users, CPD Maps is integrated into the Consolidated Plan template in IDIS, so that maps and data tables from CPD Maps can be inserted with ease, throughout the plan.

Go to CPD Maps.