(a) A consortium of geographically contiguous units of general local government is a unit of general local government for purposes of this part if the requirements of this section are met.

(1) One or more members of a proposed consortium or an existing consortium whose consortium qualification terminates at the end of the fiscal year, must provide written notification to the HUD Field Office of its intent to participate as a consortium in the HOME Program for the following fiscal year. HUD shall establish the deadline for this submission.

(2) The proposed consortium must provide, at such time and in a manner and form prescribed by HUD, the qualification documents, which will include submission of:

(i) A written certification by the State that the consortium will direct its activities to alleviation of housing problems within the State; and

(ii) Documentation which demonstrates that the consortium has executed one legally binding cooperation agreement among its members authorizing one member unit of general local government to act in a representative capacity for all member units of general local government for the purposes of this part and providing that the representative member assumes overall responsibility for ensuring that the consortium's HOME Program is carried out in compliance with the requirements of this part.

(3) Before the end of the fiscal year in which the notice of intent and documentation are submitted, HUD must determine that a proposed consortium has sufficient authority and administrative capability to carry out the purposes of this part on behalf of its member jurisdictions. HUD will endeavor to make its determination as quickly as practicable after receiving the consortium's documentation in order to provide the consortium an opportunity to correct its submission, if necessary. If the submission is deficient, HUD will work with the consortium to resolve the issue, but will not delay the formula allocations. HUD, at its discretion, may review the performance of an existing consortium that wishes to requalify to determine whether it continues to have sufficient authority and administrative capacity to successfully administer the program.

(b) A metropolitan city or an urban county may be a member of a consortium. A unit of general local government that is included in an urban county may be part of a consortium, only if the urban county joins the consortium. The included local government cannot join the consortium except through participation in the urban county.

(c) A non-urban county may be a member of a consortium. However, the county cannot on its own include the whole county in the consortium. A unit of local government located within the non-urban county that wishes to participate as a member of the consortium must sign the HOME consortium agreement.

(d) If the representative unit of general local government distributes HOME funds to member units of general local government, the representative unit is responsible for applying to the member units of general local government the same requirements as are applicable to subrecipients.

(e) The consortium's qualification as a unit of general local government continues for a period of three successive Federal fiscal years, or until HUD revokes its designation as a participating jurisdiction, or until an urban county member fails to requalify under the CDBG program as an urban county for a fiscal year included in the consortium's qualification period, or the consortium fails to receive a HOME allocation for the first Federal fiscal year of the consortium's qualification period and does not request to be considered to receive a HOME allocation in each of the subsequent two years. However, if a member urban county's three year CDBG qualification cycle is not the same as the consortium, the consortium may elect a shorter qualification period than three years to synchronize with the urban county's qualification period. During the period of qualification, additional units of general local government may join the consortium, but no included unit of general local government may withdraw from the consortium. See 24 CFR part 91, subpart E, for consolidated plan requirements for consortia, including the requirement that all members of the consortia must be on the same program year.

(f) The consortium agreement may, at the option of its member units of general local government, contain a provision that authorizes automatic renewals for the successive qualification period of three Federal fiscal years. The provision authorizing automatic renewal must require the lead consortium member to give the consortium members written notice of their right to elect not to continue participation for the new qualification period.

[61 FR 48750, Sept. 16, 1996, as amended at 67 FR 61756, Oct. 1, 2002]