CUOMO ANNOUNCES AWARDS TO 277 COMMUNITIES FOR OUTSTANDING MANAGEMENT OF HUD-FUNDED PROGRAMS

NOTE: Descriptions of award-winning programs available from HUD Public Affairs Office and local HUD offices.

RENO, NV - Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo today honored 277 communities with John J. Gunther Blue Ribbon "Best Practices" Awards for outstanding management of programs funded by HUD.

Cuomo announced the awards at a meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Reno, NV.

The Gunther Awards honor state and local governments that do the best job administering HUD-funded programs to expand the supply of affordable housing, create jobs, strengthen local economies, fight housing discrimination, reduce homelessness, increase homeownership and accomplish other goals to improve life in America's communities.

"Winners of these awards are doing an excellent job working in partnership with HUD and can serve as national models," Cuomo said. "We are calling attention to the good work they are doing because we want to help communities around the country learn from their success."

HUD will help states, towns and cities around the nation learn from the successes of the communities winning Gunther Awards this year in several ways:

• Detailed descriptions of the winning programs will go on HUD's web site - www.hud.gov - and will also go to all of HUD's 81 field offices to make them easily accessible to HUD staff and local government officials. By using a keyword search, an official from one city can look up successful programs in a particular category - such as homeless assistance - in all winning cities on the web site. The official can then learn about strategies that have proven successful for dealing with homelessness in other communities, and apply this knowledge to help local homeless people. "We're using the newest technology to help find solutions to some of the oldest problems facing America's communities," Cuomo said. "We're creating a national town square in cyberspace where a mayor in California can learn from the success of a mayor in Florida."

• HUD is inviting officials from all communities winning Gunther Awards to attend a conference June 29-July 2 in Charlotte, NC. Officials from other communities are also invited to attend. Winners will discuss their best programs at the conference in an effort to help more localities implement successful programs of their own.

• HUD will study the best local programs to determine if their successes can be used to inspire improvements in HUD programs on the national level.

The Gunther Awards, first given out in June last year, are named for John J. Gunther, who was Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors from 1961-1987. He died last year.

Award winners were chosen by HUD program offices and field offices around the country.

See attached chart of award winners