Technical Assistance Helps Coamo Improve Economic Outlook

Map of Puerto Rico highlighting Coamo, the first approved municipality under HUD's Distressed Cities Technical Assistance program.

The Municipality of Coamo was the first local government approved under HUD's Distressed Cities Technical Assistance (www.hudexchange.info/programs/dcta/#:~:text=The%20Distressed%20Cities%20Technical%20
Assistance,governments)%20that%20are%20economically%20distressed.) (DCTA) program. CTA is designed to improve fiscal health and build administrative capacity and improve internal processes of relatively small units of local government that are economically distressed. The economic distress may be attributable to multiple factors including changing market dynamics, emigration, and/or natural disasters.

Once Coamo was approved for a total of 605 hours of technical assistance, the municipality's leadership, along with HUD's Puerto Rico team and the technical assistance provider, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), assessed their needs, identified their financial baseline, and evaluated the community's capacity to engage in the effort.

Working groups were created for focus on housing and economic development, financial management, partnership building, and attracting investment. Results are beginning to emerge.

A framework was developed for the most productive use of HUD's community development programs such as CDBG (www.hudexchange.info/programs/cdbg/) and CDBG-DR (www.hudexchange.info/programs/cdbg-dr/), including Coamo's revitalization grant from the Puerto Rico Department of Housing (a CDBG-DR grantee). The municipality is also reviewing the business model of its affordable housing HOPE VI Main Street Housing Grant.

To improve its fiscal management, Coamo is developing a 10-year fiscal sustainability plan, updating, and unifying financial management and procurement policies and procedures across all programs to comply with all pertinent regulations.

To help spur economic development, Coamo is creating strategies to increase cultural tourism, guidance for small business, microenterprise loans, and grant programs.

The technical assistance for the municipality of Coamo is expected to conclude in December of this year, subject to extension due to any delays caused by COVID-19 pandemic. For more information on the program please visit HUD's Distressed Cities Technical Assistance (www.hudexchange.info/programs/dcta/#:~:text=The%20Distressed%20Cities%20Technical%20
Assistance,governments)%20that%20are%20economically%20distressed.) page, click here for resources (www.hudexchange.info/programs/dcta/resources/#resources-and-guidance), or for information on the progress of the program in Coamo, contact HUD Program Analyst Charlene Rodríguez.

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