[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 24, Volume 4]
[Revised as of April 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 24CFR791.404]

[Page 30-31]
 
                 TITLE 24--HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
 
 CHAPTER VII--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN 
 DEVELOPMENT (HOUSING ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS AND PUBLIC AND INDIAN HOUSING 
                                PROGRAMS)
 
PART 791--ALLOCATIONS OF HOUSING ASSISTANCE FUNDS--Table of Contents
 
    Subpart D--Allocation of Budget Authority for Housing Assistance
 
Sec. 791.404  Field Office allocation planning.

    (a) General objective. The allocation planning process should 
provide for the equitable distribution of available budget authority, 
consistent with the relative housing needs of each allocation area 
within the field office jurisdiction.
    (b) Establishing allocation areas. Allocation areas, consisting of 
one or more counties or independent cities, shall be established by the 
field office in accordance with the following criteria:
    (1) Each allocation shall be to the smallest practicable area, but 
of sufficient size so that at least three eligible entities are viable 
competitors for funds in the allocation area, and so that all applicable 
statutory requirements can be met. (It is expected that in many 
instances individual MSAs will be established as metropolitan allocation 
areas.) For the section 202 program for the elderly, the allocation area 
must include sufficient units to promote a meaningful competition among 
disparate types of providers of such housing (e.g., local as well as 
national sponsors, minority as well as non-minority sponsors). The 
preceding

[[Page 31]]

sentence shall not apply to projects acquired from the Resolution Trust 
Corporation under section 21A(c) of the Federal Home Loan Bank Act.
    (2) Each allocation area shall also be of sufficient size, in terms 
of population and housing need, that the amount of budget authority 
being allocated to the area will support at least one feasible program 
or project.
    (3) In establishing allocation areas, counties and independent 
cities within MSAs should not be combined with counties that are not in 
MSAs.
    (c) Determining the amount of budget authority. Where the field 
office establishes more than one allocation area, it shall determine the 
amount of budget authority to be allocated to each allocation area, 
based upon a housing needs percentage which represents the needs of that 
area relative to the field office jurisdiction. For each program, a 
composite housing needs percentage developed under Sec. 791.402 for 
those counties and independent cities comprising the allocation area 
shall be aggregated into allocation area totals.
    (d) Planning for the allocation. The field office should develop an 
allocation plan which reflects the amount of budget authority determined 
for each allocation area in paragraph (c). The plan should include a map 
or maps clearly showing the allocation areas within the field office 
jurisdiction. The relative share of budget authority by individual 
program type need not be the same for each allocation area, so long as 
the total amount of budget authority made available to the allocation 
area is not significantly reduced.

[61 FR 10849, Mar. 15, 1996, as amended at 64 FR 26640, May 14, 1999]