Partner provided Technical Assistance in the preparation of past HUD Environmental Review Records (ERRs) to various Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) and Responsible Entities (REs) in Michigan.

Several cities in Michigan were audited and found to be non-compliant with HUD’s Part 58 environmental review requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for grants awarded years earlier. Each city was required to comply and show “no harm” resulted from the project activities or grant funds would require repayment.

Susan Cook and her team assisted HUD by running breakout sessions during HUD sponsored NEPA trainings, providing 3+ years of technical assistance in preparing environmental reviews to comply with HUD’s NEPA requirements under Part 58, conducting bi-weekly progress monitoring meetings, completing monthly progress reports and acting as a liaison between HUD and the PHAs/REs, as well as reviewing all ERRs for accuracy and completion.

Through being conscientious, knowledgeable, organized, reliable, thorough, and flexible, Partner overcame challenges throughout the project. These challenges included working with a wide variety of environmental reports prepared by other consultants, supplementing environmental reports that were insufficient, convincing the PHAs/REs to devote resources to hiring consultants to prepare the environmental reports for the past grants or risk repayment of grant funds that were expended from non-grant funds, and resolving push back regarding ERRs scope of work.

With Partner’s assistance, the cities achieved compliance saving millions of dollars and learned how to prepare ERRs acceptable to HUD for future grants.