Some funding is aimed at a place rather than a population or a topic: a distressed neighborhood, a rural county, a region with a shared economy. For those programs, a generic need statement with a few national statistics won't do. The reviewer wants to see that you know exactly where the work happens and why that place.
This article covers how to define your place, which local data to use and how to match it to the boundaries a funder cares about. It also covers how to show that the partners and plans around you belong to the place. You'll finish with a folder of materials that every place-based application can draw on.
Know what the funder means by "place"
Place-based programs define their target area in different ways. A funder may name a type of geography (a neighborhood around distressed public or assisted housing, a rural community under a population limit, a region designated for economic development) or let you propose your own boundaries and justify them.
HUD's Choice Neighborhoods program is a clear example of the first kind. HUD describes it as supporting locally driven strategies that address struggling neighborhoods with distressed public or HUD-assisted housing. Planning Grants support the development of a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plan, and Implementation Grants support communities that have already been through a comprehensive local planning process.
Before you write anything, find the definition in the notice. Look for the eligible geography, how the funder will check it and whether the scoring rewards a particular kind of place. The guide to reading a funding notice shows where those definitions tend to hide.
Draw the boundary and defend it
If you get to choose the boundary, choose it on purpose and say why. Reviewers should be able to picture the map.
- Name the edges. Streets, a river, a school attendance zone, a county line. "The east side" isn't a boundary.
- Say why this edge. A boundary might follow where residents say their neighborhood ends, where a service area ends or where a plan already exists.
- Show the population inside it. A reviewer needs a number, and the number needs a source.
- Explain why this place and not the next one over. The case for the place is the heart of the proposal.
Use data at the right geographic level
County-level data can hide a struggling neighborhood. The Census Bureau describes census tracts as areas that generally have a population between 1,200 and 8,000 people, with an optimum size of 4,000, and says tract boundaries are drawn with the intention of being maintained over a long time. That makes tracts a common building block for neighborhood data.
Two cautions help you avoid mistakes:
- Choose the right American Community Survey (ACS) product. One-year estimates are limited to areas with populations of 65,000 or more. For tracts and other smaller areas, the Census Bureau points to 5-year estimates, which are more reliable but less current.
- Don't treat a ZIP Code as a neighborhood. The Census Bureau's ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are generalized representations of ZIP Codes, and not all valid ZIP Codes are represented by one. If you use them, say so.
Say a neighborhood association wants to apply for funding for its own area. Its boundary covers all of Tract A (3,900 residents), about half of Tract B (4,400 residents, so about 2,200 inside) and none of Tract C. This hypothetical application would report roughly 6,100 residents (3,900 + 2,200), say that the Tract B figure is an estimate and name the source and years of the ACS data. That sentence takes ten seconds to write and saves the reviewer from wondering where the number came from.
Add local data the census can't supply
Federal data tells reviewers what the place looks like on paper. Local sources tell them what it's like to live there:
- Administrative records: school enrollment, clinic visits, code enforcement calls, transit ridership, food pantry visits. Ask the holder what they can share and under what terms.
- Community-generated data: resident surveys, walk audits and listening sessions. Community voice in the proposal explains how to gather and show this input.
- Your own program data: counts of who you serve and where they live, which is often the best evidence of unmet need.
Keep the source and date of every figure in one place. You'll reuse them in every application for the same area.
Align with the plans that already exist
Funders in place-based programs often expect you to fit into what the community has already decided. Gather the plans that cover your area and note which of their goals your project advances:
- a comprehensive or master plan;
- a neighborhood or corridor plan;
- a regional economic development strategy;
- a hazard mitigation or housing plan.
If your jurisdiction takes part in the HUD community planning and development programs covered by 24 CFR part 91, it files a consolidated plan. Under 24 CFR 91.15, the housing and homeless needs assessment, market analysis and strategic plan must be submitted at least once every five years, and a summary of the citizen participation process is submitted annually. Those documents describe the needs your jurisdiction has already put on record, so ask your local government where its plan lives and when it was last updated. See finding state and local funding for more on the local side.
Partner with organizations that belong to the place
A proposal for a place should be written by people with roots there. Look for three kinds of partners:
- Local government: it owns the plans, the data and often the land.
- Anchor institutions: schools, hospitals, libraries and employers that will still be there in twenty years.
- Resident-led groups: tenant associations, block clubs, faith communities and neighborhood associations. They hold the trust that no outside organization can borrow.
Put what each partner will do in writing. Letters of commitment and MOUs show how to document it. A partner whose headquarters and board are elsewhere isn't disqualified, but the reviewer should still see who from the place has a role and a voice.
Your next step
Create one folder for your service area before your next application. Put in it the boundary description, the tract list and population figures with sources, the local plans, your own program data and the contact for each plan's owner. Then read your next place-based notice against it and see which gaps you need to fill.
SoliContraX is built for the stretch from funding notice to finished application. Once the folder exists, upload the notice and work from a draft written from your own plans and data, then check it against what the funder asked for. Start your next application.