FY23 HUDRD - Closing the Homeownership Gap and Preserving Homeownership During Economic Decline | FR 6700 N 29I

Opportunity Information: Apply for FR 6700 N 29I

FY23 HUDRD - Closing the Homeownership Gap and Preserving Homeownership During Economic Decline is a U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) research funding opportunity that supports rigorous, policy-relevant studies on why homeownership rates differ across demographic groups and what helps households keep their homes when the economy weakens. HUD is making up to $1,000,000 available under this notice of funding opportunity (NOFO) and expects to make multiple awards (the NOFO lists an anticipated total of about four). Awards are made as cooperative agreements, meaning HUD expects substantial involvement during the project, including regular coordination around deliverables, methods, and reporting. The program is tied to HUDs research and evaluation mission (CFDA 14.536) and is categorized as discretionary funding.

The NOFO is organized around two related research tracks, and applicants can propose work on either one or both. The first track focuses on the homeownership gap: identifying and quantifying the drivers of differing homeownership rates across groups defined by race, ethnicity, gender, age, and other characteristics, and evaluating how public policies or other interventions (including private sector or philanthropic initiatives) affect those gaps. The second track focuses on preservation during economic decline: understanding what puts existing homeowners at risk of losing homes during downturns and assessing how various responses (again, public, private, and philanthropic) help stabilize ownership, prevent foreclosure, or reduce distress. Across both tracks, HUD is looking for studies that advance scientific knowledge while producing evidence that is directly useful for policy design, especially for communities of color and other underserved groups.

The rationale for the opportunity is rooted in the idea that homeownership is a major pathway to intergenerational wealth, but that pathway is unevenly available. The NOFO highlights that lower homeownership among underserved populations contributes to wealth gaps, and because wealth is closely connected to outcomes like educational attainment, health, and employment stability, closing the homeownership gap can have spillover benefits well beyond housing. HUD frames the problem as not only about whether households become homeowners, but also where homes are purchased and how neighborhood conditions influence long-run equity building through appreciation. The NOFO points to longstanding and evolving forms of discrimination and segregation, noting that while explicit historical practices such as redlining have changed form, discrimination in mortgage lending, home appraisals, and related market processes still affects opportunities to buy and to build equity.

A major theme in the background section is residential segregation and its measurable consequences. HUD references the index of dissimilarity as a way to quantify how separated groups are within metropolitan areas and notes that segregation remains high in many major cities. The NOFO links these residential patterns to unequal appreciation and unequal returns to homeownership, emphasizing that borrowers from underserved groups are often concentrated in areas where home values have not risen as quickly as in neighborhoods where non-disadvantaged borrowers tend to buy. It also highlights unequal access to mainstream financial services, citing disparities in unbanked or underbanked status, which can affect readiness for mortgage borrowing, credit access, and the costs of financial products.

On research objectives, HUD is explicit that projects should assess the size of homeownership gaps, identify barriers that keep renters from becoming homeowners, and analyze threats to existing homeowners during economic downturns. The NOFO flags several example barriers: discriminatory treatment by lenders, disparate outcomes by applicant demographic group, credit history standards, collateral requirements, and other underwriting or market features that may systematically disadvantage nonwhite households. It also acknowledges that some renters could become homeowners absent financial constraints and discriminatory hurdles, and that careful research is needed to separate these effects and pinpoint which factors are most responsible for observed gaps.

Methodologically, the NOFO signals a preference for quantitative designs capable of credible causal inference, while allowing qualitative work as a supplement when it strengthens interpretation or context. Studies may be longitudinal or cross-sectional at the borrower level, and they may use loan-level, home-level, or locality-level data, potentially combining multiple datasets. Projects can focus nationally or concentrate on specific jurisdictions, particularly places where gaps are severe or where local programs have attempted solutions, but HUD expects applicants to justify that the chosen geographies and sample sizes support statistical power and credible comparisons. A recurring expectation is that proposals will define an explicit counterfactual and explain how the design estimates what would have happened in the absence of a policy or initiative, which is central to evaluating program impacts.

HUD also expects applicants to address common evaluation challenges head-on. Proposals should explain how they will control for confounding influences on homeownership rates, such as federal, state, and local regulations; access to financing and program rules; differences in housing prices and regional market conditions; and consumer familiarity with mortgage shopping and the buying process. Applicants are encouraged to anticipate and mitigate selection bias (for example, self-selection into programs), account for household demographic differences, and be transparent about data limitations and methodological risks. Applicants are expected to demonstrate access, or a highly feasible pathway to access, to homeownership rate data and other key measures, and to describe experience linking datasets and managing matching or integration across sources.

Eligible applicants are broad and include public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, private institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status), Native American tribal organizations (other than federally recognized tribal governments), and for-profit organizations (other than small businesses). Eligible activities cover the full lifecycle of a research evaluation: developing research questions and literature reviews; designing the study; acquiring data; executing data collection, analysis, and interpretation; and producing publication-quality reports and presentations. The NOFO also treats project management as a core part of the funded work, including the tools HUD requires for cooperative agreements and ongoing coordination with HUD staff. Budgets can include data acquisition costs and dissemination activities such as seminars, presentations, and workshops.

Deliverables are a central feature because of HUDs cooperative agreement structure and intent to publish results. Required project management deliverables include an opening meeting with HUD, a Management and Work Plan (with tasks, timeline, staffing, roles, and resource allocations), a Quality Control Plan, and quarterly progress reports. Research-specific deliverables include a Research Design and Data Collection and Analysis Plan (RD/DCAP) that serves as the technical blueprint for the study, an interim report around the midpoint that summarizes progress and allows course correction, and a draft and final report that presents objectives, data, methods, and findings in a stand-alone, publishable format consistent with HUD publication guidelines. Awardees must also provide briefings to HUD near mid-project and after the final report, and must submit data files and documentation (including code and syntax) sufficient for HUD or its contractors to reproduce analyses and potentially conduct meta-analyses across studies.

Key administrative details in the listing include the funding opportunity number (FR 6700 N 29I), the initial posting date (May 25, 2023), and the original closing date (July 24, 2023) with an application deadline of 11:59:59 PM Eastern. The ceiling listed is $1,000,000, and HUD indicates it may make more than one award from the total amount available. Overall, the opportunity is designed to produce credible evidence about the mechanisms driving unequal access to homeownership and the effectiveness of interventions intended to expand and sustain homeownership, particularly for households and neighborhoods that have historically been excluded from the full benefits of the housing market.

• The US Department of Housing and Urban Development in the housing sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "FY23 HUDRD - Closing the Homeownership Gap and Preserving Homeownership During Economic Decline" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 14.536.
• This funding opportunity was created on May 25, 2023.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Jul 24, 2023 The application deadline is 115959 PM Eastern time on. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $1,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 4 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Private institutions of higher education, For profit organizations other than small businesses.

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