Local Early Action Planning (LEAP) Grants

Background

Increasing the availability of affordable homes statewide is critical to bettering the quality of life of all Californians and to ending homelessness. In the 2019-20 Budget Act, Governor Gavin Newsom allocated $250 million for all regions, cities, and counties to do their part by prioritizing planning activities that accelerate housing production to meet identified needs of every community. With this allocation, HCD established the Local Early Action Planning Grant Program (LEAP) with $119 million for cities and counties. LEAP provides one-time grant funding to cities and counties to update their planning documents and implement process improvements that will facilitate the acceleration of housing production and help local govts. prepare for their 6th cycle RHNA much like the SB2 Planning Grants.

The 2019-20 Budget Act provides a spectrum of support, incentives, resources, and accountability to meet California’s housing goals. Some specific elements include:

• Local and regional planning grants (LEAP and REAP)
• Prohousing preference points on competitive funding applications
• Additional funding resources
• Accountability (penalties for noncompliant housing plans)
• Reform (collaborative processes to reform regional housing needs)

For regional governments and entities, funding is available through the Regional Early Action Planning Grants (REAP). For more information, please visit the Regional Early Action Planning Grant Webpage.

Purpose

The Local Action Planning Grants (LEAP), provides over-the-counter grants complemented with technical assistance to local governments for the preparation and adoption of planning documents, and process improvements that:

1. Accelerate housing production
2. Facilitate compliance to implement the sixth-cycle Regional Housing Needs Assessment.

Application Review and Requirements

Applications will be submitted on an over-the-counter basis.

Jurisdictions must submit their applications by January 31, 2021; however, HCD strongly encourages jurisdictions to submit their applications as soon as possible.

For more information on the application process, please refer to the NOFA under Get Funding below.

Eligible Activities

Eligible activities must be related to housing planning and facilitate the streamlining and acceleration of housing production.

For more information on eligible activities, please refer to the NOFA under Get Funding below.

Eligible Applicants

Eligible applicants are limited to local governments, i.e., cities and counties.

However, local governments may partner through legally binding agreements with other forms of governments or entities where the proposal will have a direct effect on land-use or development within the participating localities. This includes, but is not limited to, partnerships with other localities, regional governments, housing authorities, school districts, special districts, community-based organizations, or any duly constituted governing body of an Indian Reservation or Rancheria.

Applicants forming partnerships, must submit separate, complete, and signed application packages, including resolutions and a copy of the signed agreement between partners to in order to be awarded funds.

Program Timeline

February 2020 - NOFA Release: Early-Mid February 2020
July 2020 - Over-the-counter period: NOFA Release - NEW DEADLINE! Deadline has been extended from July 1, 2020 to January 31, 2021
2020 - Awards: Ongoing, upon the submission of an application
December 2023 - Expenditure Deadline: December 31, 2023
2020-2023 - Technical Assistance: March, 2020-2023

Get Funding

• NOFA (PDF)
• Application (PDF)
• Maximum Grant Amounts per Jurisdiction (PDF)
• Government Taxpayer ID Form (PDF)

Workshop Dates and Locations

In addition to the NOFA Workshops below, HCD will be hosting regional technical assistance workshops at a regional, sub-regional, and county level. In the event that you are not able to attend one of these workshops, there will be additional opportunity to learn about the program and receive assistance on applying.

LEAP NOFA WORKSHOP Monterey, CA Monday March 30, 2020 2:00 – 4:00 P.M. Location: AMBAG Offices - MBARD Board Room (3rd Floor) 24580 Silver Cloud Court Monterey, CA 93940 Register for the Workshop

LEAP NOFA WORKSHOP San Diego, CA Thursday, March 12, 2020 3:00 – 4:30 P.M. Location: UC San Diego Price Center, Marshall Room (2nd Floor) 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093 Register for the workshop

LEAP NOFA WORKSHOP – Completed Los Angeles, CA Thursday, February 20, 2020 Recording of this workshop (YouTube)

LEAP NOFA WORKSHOP – Completed San Francisco, CA Friday, February 21, 2020

LEAP NOFA WEBINAR For a recording of this webinar, please use this link: LEAP NOFA Workshop Webinar (YouTube)

LEAP NOFA WORKSHOP – Completed Butte County, CA Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Coming Soon – Technical Assistance Workshops April – May 2020 Technical Assistance Workshops will be hosted at a regional, sub-regional, and county level and will provide applications with targeted TA such as application assistance.

Technical Assistance

LEAP’s TA program is coming soon! TA services will include

• Assistance with identifying activities
• Feedback on applications
• Review of draft applications
• And more!

Resources

Visit HCD’s Accelerating Housing Production webpage.

OPR and HCD’s Integrated Planning Concepts (PDF): This guide provides concepts on different ways to integrate various policy topics to meet and keep-up with changing state requirements when updating local plans. This document was created by OPR in collaboration with HCD. It highlights changes to state laws regarding updating different local planning documents such as General Plans, Housing Elements, and other local plans.