SEC-233 -- HOUSING EDUCATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT.


 (a) In General.-The Secretary is authorized to provide education and
organizational support assistance, in conjunction with other assistance
made available under this subtitle-

 (1) to facilitate the education of low-income homeowners and tenants;
and

 (2) to promote the ability of community housing development
organizations to maintain, rehabilitate and construct housing for
low-income and moderate-income families in conformance with the
requirements of this title.

 (b) Eligible Activities.-Assistance under this section may be used only
for the following eligible activities:

 (1) Organizational support.-Organizational support assistance may be
made available to community housing development organizations to cover
operational expenses and to cover expenses for training and technical,
legal, engineering and other assistance to the board of directors,
staff, and members of the community housing development organization.

 (2) Housing education.-Housing education assistance may be made
available to community housing development organizations to cover
expenses for providing or administering programs for educating,
counseling, or organizing homeowners and tenants who are eligible to
receive assistance under other provisions of this title.

 (3) Program-wide support of nonprofit development and
management.-Technical assistance, training, and continuing support may
be made available to eligible community housing development
organizations for managing and conserving properties developed under
this title.

 (4) Benevolent loan funds.-Technical assistance may be made available
to increase the investment of private capital in housing for very
low-income families, particularly by encouraging the establishment of
benevolent loan funds through which private financial institutions will
accept deposits at below-market interest rates and make those funds
available at favorable rates to developers of low-income housing and to
low-income homebuyers.

 (5) Community development banks and credit unions.-Technical assistance
may be made available to establish privately owned, local community
development banks and credit unions to finance affordable housing.

 (c) Delivery of Assistance.-The Secretary shall provide this assistance
only through contract-

 (1) with a nonprofit intermediary organization that, in the
determination of the Secretary-

 (A) customarily provides, in more than one community, services related
to the provision of decent housing that is affordable to low-income and
moderate-income persons or the revitalization of deteriorating
neighborhoods;

 (B) has demonstrated experience in providing a range of assistance
(such as financing, technical assistance, construction and property
management assistance, capacity building and training) to community
housing development organizations or similar organizations that engage
in community revitalization;

 (C) has demonstrated the ability to provide technical assistance and
training for community-based developers of affordable housing; and

 (D) has described the uses to which such assistance will be put and the
intended beneficiaries of the assistance; or

 (2) with another organization, if a participating jurisdiction
demonstrates that the organization is qualified to carry out eligible
activities and that the jurisdiction would not be served in a timely
manner by intermediaries specified under paragraph (1).
Contracts under paragraph (2) shall be for activities specified in an
application from the participating jurisdiction, which application shall
include a certification that the activities are necessary to the
effective implementation of the participating jurisdiction's housing
strategy.

 (d) Limitations.-Contracts under this section with any one contractor
for a fiscal year may not-

 (1) exceed 20 percent of the amount appropriated for this section for
such fiscal year; or

 (2) provide more than 20 percent of the operating budget (which shall
not include funds that are passed through to community housing
development organizations) of the contracting organization for any one
year.

 (e) Single-State Contractors.-Not less than 40 percent of the funds
made available for this section in an appropriations Act in any fiscal
year shall be made available for eligible contractors that have worked
primarily in one State.