Distressed Cities Technical Assistance

The Distressed Cities Technical Assistance (DCTA) Program is designed to build the administrative capacity of smaller distressed communities recently impacted by a natural disaster. The focus of this TA includes financial management, economic development, and disaster recovery planning.

This program has three main goals:

1. 1Adopt effective, efficient, and sustainable financial management practices. This includes the management of disaster recovery and resilience funds;
2. 2Build capacity for financial management, economic revitalization, affordable housing, and disaster recovery and resilience by building partnerships with public agencies, community members, non-profits, and private organizations; and
3. 3Improve knowledge of federal development programs. This includes indirect subsidy sources, such as Opportunity Zones and the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.

This program allows HUD to develop a set of best practices and recommendations to share with other communities facing similar challenges.

If your community meets these criteria and may benefit from Distressed Cities TA, you may request TA via an email to distressedcities@hud.gov.

It is recommended that your city manager, mayor, planning director, or the equivalent submit the request for TA. This person will be encouraged to participate in preliminary phone calls with the DCTA Team. The request must be submitted by an employee of the Unit of General Local Government.

The request must be submitted as a PDF document which includes the following details:

• Name of Unit of General Local Government:
  e.g., City, County, Township, Village, etc., for example Sample City


• State:


• HUD Field Office:
  Note: It is strongly encouraged that you contact your HUD Field Office prior to submitting a request for TA


• Point of Contact:
  Name, Title, Organization, Email, Phone Number


• HUD Background:
  i.e., Dates and details of TA consultations in past 3 years


• Unemployment Rate:
  If your community’s average unemployment rate is 9 percent or more over the past 3 years, please provide the average unemployment rate from the most recent ACS 5-Year Estimates.


• Poverty Rate:
  If your community’s poverty rate is 20 percent or more among individuals not enrolled in higher education, please provide the community poverty rate from the most recent ACS 5-Year Estimates.


• Population Decline %:
  If your community’s population declined 5 percent or more between the 2010 Decennial Census and the most recent ACS 5-Year Estimates, please provide the population decline (as a percentage) since 2010.


• Disaster Number and Year:
  If your community has experienced a major presidentially declared disaster since 2015, please provide the most recent disaster number and year. If your community has not experienced a disaster since 2015 you may still submit a request, however your request will not be prioritized.


• Total Population:
  If your community’s total population is between 8,000 and 40,000, please provide the total population from the most recent ACS 5-Year Estimates. If your community's total population is not within these boundaries, you may still submit a request, however your request will not be prioritized.


• Please list the topic(s) for which the recipient community needs assistance:
  This is required. You must list at least one topic. It is strongly recommended that you provide some contextual information as to why your community needs assistance in the listed topic areas.


• Please attach relevant documents. The following documents are required for consideration:
  1. Most recent comprehensive plan (master plans and consolidated plans are appropriate alternatives)
  2. Most recent annual report/update on your community's comprehensive plan
  3. Most recent financial audit
  4. Organizational chart
  These are required documents for consideration. If, for example, your most recent financial audit was five years ago, the DCTA Team is still requiring you to submit that audit report. If you do not have a current organizational chart, you may provide a written description of your organizational structure. This description should be no longer than 500 words.