This Notice provides prospective applicants for HUD's competitive funding with the opportunity to become familiar with the General Section to HUD's FY2013 Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs) for Discretionary Funding (program NOFA), in advance of publication of any individual FY2013 program NOFAs. This General Section and the individual FY2013 program NOFA Sections comprise the entirety of the FY2013 NOFA instructions.

• General Section
• FONSI
• New Application Attachment Filename Requirement

Funding Opportunity Number: FR-5700-N-01
Opportunity Title: Policy Requirements and General Section
Competition ID: GS-01
CFDA No.: 14. - All of HUD programs will start with 14.___
Open Date: July 23, 2012
Close Date: December 31, 2013

Contact: For further information on HUD's FY2013 Policy Requirements and General Section, contact the Office of Strategic Planning and Management, Grants Management Division, Department of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street, SW, Room 3156, Washington, DC 20410-3000, telephone number (202) 708-0667. This is not a toll-free number. Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access this number via TTY by calling the Federal Relay Service at 800-877-8339.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: To help applicants with electronic application registration and submission, HUD advises applicants to use the help features on the Dun and Bradstreet (D&B), Central Contractor Registration (CCR)/ SAM.gov, and Grants.gov websites. These sites all have User Guides and Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) which are updated on an ongoing basis. HUD believes that early publication of this General Section is beneficial to prospective applicants by providing advance notice of the Department's Strategic Plan Goals, Policy Priorities, NOFA threshold requirements and other requirements that are applicable to individual FY2013 program NOFAs.

• Individuals looking for assistance, please note:  HUD does not provide grants and/or loans directly to individuals – the funding is made available to state and local governments; public housing agencies (PHAs); nonprofit organizations including colleges and universities; Indian tribes and tribally designated housing entities (TDHEs); graduate students; public housing resident organizations; owners of federally assisted low-income housing; and for-profit professional and technical services companies, however we do have a website, which provides resource information which may be of assistance to you.  Individuals may visit the USA.gov website.  This site allows you to complete a questionnaire; all of the questions must be answered in order to obtain an initial list of benefit results and to move on to the next sections of the Benefit Finder. Providing any additional information will further increase the accuracy of the individuals result. The website is user friendly; once the questionnaire is complete the site directs the individual to click the "View Benefit Results" tab to see a listing of programs that they may be eligible to receive.

• For individuals wanting to report fraud, visit the Office of Inspector General website or call 1-800-347-3735.

• For individuals seeking information on submitting a FOIA request, the FOIA website provides various links and instructions for submitting a request.

• For individuals seeking assistance or guidance related to CCR/SAMS or DUNS the contact person is Loyd Lamois (202) 402-3964.

• For individuals seeking assistance or guidance related to the Grants.gov posting, NOFA Application Submission or Requirements the contact person is Rita Yorkshire (202) 402-4336)

• For organizations with specific program questions see the attached spreadsheet.