Business View Magazine - November 2016

96 Business View Magazine - November 2016 there weren’t budget caps in place,” she adds, rue- fully. “For the future, it depends on who’s elected to Congress from year to year. In terms of the homeless programs – they enjoy very wide support on the Hill, so we usually do not have to advocate very much for those; they usually get an increase, every year.” While the NCDA helps to work the levers of Congress, the organization’s leadership also liaises with the Ex- ecutive branch of the federal government, via its di- rect access to senior officials at HUD’s Washington D.C. headquarters. “It’s not just about the budget,” says Look, “it’s also about what the federal govern- ment does with the program and the various regula- tions they impose or change over time. So, at our con- ferences, we can ask them directly: ‘What does this regulation mean; how do you want us to implement it?’ And sometimes, the discussion veers towards: ‘Are you seriously asking us to do this, because it creates additional regulatory burdens on us, and we’ll need to spend more time and money?’ Both Watson and Look are intent on increasing the NCDA’s membership in order to extend its educa- tional outreach, while increasing its political strength. “We’ve made an effort, this year, to reach out to those communities that are not members, by both email and direct mail, and through contacts with their fel- low peers in their areas,” Watson says. Look reports that the Association also obtained a master list from HUD of all jurisdictions across the country that receive CDGB funding. “And we compared that with our current membership and then targeted those who weren’t on our membership list,” he says. The NCDA has several different membership tiers: Its regular members, known as Entitlement Members, are those cities and counties which receive an annual CDBG formula grant and/or an annual HOME Program formula grant from the U.S. Department of Housing