CUOMO PRESENTS AWARDS TO COMMUNITIES ACROSS NATION FOR OUTSTANDING MANAGEMENT OF HUD-FUNDED PROGRAMS

Cuomo announced the winners of HUD's new John J. Gunther Blue Ribbon Practices Award at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in San Francisco.

The awards recognize the top performing cities, towns, counties, states and territories among the 1,000 communities around the nation that receive about $7 billion in block grants and competitive awards from HUD's Division of Community Planning and Development (CPD) each year for housing and community development projects.

The new HUD award is designed to highlight the best managed housing and community development programs so they can be used as models to improve programs around the nation.

"President Clinton and Vice President Gore have set a high performance standard for federal programs to make sure taxpayer dollars are invested wisely," Cuomo said. "HUD is improving its management practices to meet this high standard by eliminating waste, fraud and abuse in all our programs. We need more than programs with good intentions. We need programs with outstanding results."

The programs use CPD funding for a wide range of housing and community development activities, including: economic development and job creation, community revitalization, consolidated planning, creation of affordable housing, increasing homeownership, homeless programs, and improved grants management.

"It's always important to point out what government is doing wrong, but it's also important to point out what government is doing right," Cuomo said. "By spotlighting programs that work, we help them spread across the country."

The winners of the awards were chosen by HUD field offices around the country after a careful evaluation, Cuomo said.

HUD will ask officials from the award-winning communities to work closely with other localities to help them improve their housing and community development programs, Cuomo said.

In addition, descriptions of the 386 programs in the 238 communities receiving awards will be posted on HUD's WEB site -- www.hud.gov -- to enable communities around the nation to learn from them.

The award-winning programs will also be the focus of a HUD- sponsored conference July 8-10 in Houston on best practices.

Award winners get a certificate from HUD and recognition by communities around the nation for their excellence and creativity. The idea for the awards was developed by Cuomo when he was a HUD Assistant Secretary.

The awards are named for John J. Gunther, who was Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 1961-1987. He died April 14.

"John Gunther was instrumental in shaping many of the housing and community development programs now used by thousands of communities across the country," Cuomo said. "These awards a tribute to a great man who inspired us by his example."

Gunther was an early supporter of a Cabinet level department that would work for America's cities. He worked with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson and many other officials to help establish the Department of Housing and Urban Development.