Tri-Met's Congressional Hearing Testimony on Sustainability in Practice References HUD Grants.

On March 10th Tri-Met General Manager Fred Hansen testified before a House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on Sustainability in Practice. This hearing immediately proceeded a second panel with HUD Deputy Secretary Sims and a DOT official on sustainability provisions in the FY 2011 budget.

General Manager Hansen's testimony is HERE (file will open to page discussing HUD grants); HUD Deputy Secretary Sims Testimony is HERE.

Director Hansen had this to offer about the transit connection to HUD Livability/Sustainability Grants:

What the Administration has proposed will go a long way toward supporting the development of livable communities. One concern is that initial proposals out of HUD for their Sustainable Communities grants do not mandate a role for transit – which we know is essential for making livable communities. This may be appropriate for the regional planning grants, but not so for the community challenge grants, which appear more focused on implementation. Supporting actual project implementation that embodies the outcomes we’re striving for will be key to building sustainable communities. Transit agencies must be at the table with cities, metropolitan planning organization (MPOs) and housing developers to make this happen. The importance of this region-wide coordination is a key lesson from our experience in the Portland region.

There are numerous examples of promising projects underway in our region, which could use direct support and which might be models for other areas. For example, we are currently working with the Housing Authority of Portland to improve transit access as part of the Hillsdale Terrace redevelopment project for which they have applied to the HOPE VI program. While we recognize that the current use of Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) to fund the initiative may dictate which recipients are eligible for grants, there is a way to ensure transit agency participation in these planning efforts, either through heavily weighted criteria for partnership or through a direct requirement that transit be at the table.

It would also seem that, although we do need to strengthen capacity-building among MPOs for integrated regional planning, these initiatives must also support technical capacity-building within transit agencies (something we have, but most do not) to be viable partners with MPOs on these planning efforts, especially those that are modeling-heavy.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.