The City of Gastonia, a city government and entitlement community, is seeking a consultant to develop a Five-Year Consolidated Plan and associated documents for the community for HUD Program fiscal years 2025 – 2029. The City of Gastonia's Housing & Community Engagement Department requests proposals from qualified firms and/or individuals with experience developing Consolidated Plans — or similar planning documents — in compliance with all associated federal laws and regulatory requirements. The Division intends to submit the Consolidated Plan to the HUD Greensboro Office by approximately Thursday, April 24, 2025.

Background. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requires entitlement communities to submit a Consolidated Plan (CP), a comprehensive planning document for local government that serves as an application for funding under the HUD Community Planning & Development suite of programs. The formula grant programs received by the City of Gastonia are the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Program and the HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME). The City of Gastonia is a CDBG Entitlement Community and a HOME Participating Jurisdiction.

The city's most recent annual allocations of each CPD formula program were approximately $561,053.00 in CDBG funds and $708,500.75 in HOME funds. The Consolidated Plan is designed to be a collaborative process whereby a community establishes a unified vision for affordable housing and community development actions. The Consolidated Plan must identify a jurisdiction's housing and community development needs, set priorities, and describe how HUD funding and other resources will be used for activities designed to meet those needs. The Consolidated Plan also creates opportunities for comprehensive strategic planning and citizen participation.

SCOPE OF SERVICES

A. Objectives: The following objectives should be considered in the development of the Plans:

• The Plans should meet HUD's requirements and deadlines.
• Development of the Plans should use existing data to help determine housing, homeless, special population, and community development needs. To the extent available, development of the Plans should incorporate the most current data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS).
• Development of the Plans should foster an inclusive process that facilitates participation at all levels, especially with low and moderate-income persons, racial/ethnic minorities, and persons with barriers to participation, including all legally protected classes.
• Development of the Plans should involve consultation with a broad sector of public and private organizations for collaboration and collective problem solving in determining needs, objectives, goals and priorities.
• The Plans should consider all community needs and resources available to meet those needs.
• Based on identified community needs, the Consolidated Plan should:
  • Indicate general priorities for allocating funds to the various housing and community development needs identified in the Plan;
  • Indicate the basis or reason behind the priority level (and relative priority) given to each category of priority need;
  • Identify any obstacle to meeting underserved needs;
  • Summarize specific objectives for meeting the needs in each priority area describing funds reasonably expected to be made available;
  • Identify quantifiable proposed accomplishments for each specific objective.
• The Annual Action Plan should illustrate specific uses of the first year's funding under the 5-Year Consolidated Plan.
• The Plans should report on specific items required by HUD, such as reducing the number of families living in poverty and removing barriers to affordable housing.
• The Plans should be structured to serve as a basis for the City of Gastonia's funding allocation processes and for assessing performance on an annual basis.
• The Plan should consider established planning documents for the City of Gastonia, including, but not limited to Comprehensive Plan and the Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing.

B. SERVICES.

The services to be performed under the proposal include, but are not limited to:

• Statistical and informational data collection and preparation of charts and narrative necessary to prepare a housing and homeless needs assessment (24 CFR 91.205) and housing market analysis (91.210);
• Consultation with public and private agencies as outlined in 24 CFR 91.100, including those that provide affordable/subsidized housing; health and public/human/social services; state or local health and child welfare agencies regarding lead based paint hazards; adjacent units of local government, including planning agencies; and the Gastonia Housing Authority; Citizen participation activities such as publishing information, surveys, coordinating meetings, focus groups and hearings, and summarizing. Such activities must be carried out consistent with HUD guidance regarding providing meaningful language access and must respond to public comments as outlined in 24 CFR 91.100;
• Using needs information obtained through data collection, consultation and citizen participation to make recommendations for a Consolidated Plan as outlined in 91.215 and for any associated policy issues.

C. DELIVERABLES.

The consultant will be responsible for providing one original paper copy and one electronic copy submittal in HUD's required eCon Planning Suite web-based format of the Five-Year Consolidated Plan and First Year Annual Action Plan.

1. Consolidated Plan, Action Plan and Citizen Participation Plan

• The consultant will be selected to prepare (and assist with the submittal in the format/form as may be required by HUD and/or the HUD Greensboro Field Office) one or more of the following Consolidated Planning documents required to receive a direct allocation of CDBG and HOME funds.
• Develop 5-Year plan for the program year beginning 2025-2029 and the required Annual Action Plan for the 2025 program year in accordance with HUD requirements.
• Prepare a Consolidated Plan in accordance with Chapter 24 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91, and which addresses 24 CFR Part 570 and other applicable federal regulations and current requirements.
• Perform relevant consultations and data collection to complete the required HUD tables and the analysis of housing and non-housing needs.
• Prepare an Executive Summary for the Consolidated Plan and Action Plan. Assist City of Gastonia staff to assess the existing community need as necessary to develop new strategies, goals, and priorities.
• Assist City of Gastonia staff with development of new strategies, objectives, priorities and programs for inclusion in the Consolidation Plan and Action Plan.
• Develop and incorporate a performance measure component as required by HUD regulations.
• Conduct at least 2 public hearings, with additional public hearings and information sessions being conducted with the City of Gastonia City Council, the City of Gastonia Community Development Citizens Advisory Board, and the Gaston County Commission as needed.
• Prepare draft public hearing notices and other public notices as may be applicable.
• Conduct consultations with public and private organizations and community groups as required.
• Assist City of Gastonia staff with review of the current Citizen Participation Plan to determine whether any changes are needed in order to meet HUD's current requirements.