The White House’s Rental Policy Working Group recently released realignment requirements for several critical administrative policy areas in order to better align Federal rental policy. As one of the first initiatives to be tested, the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) has been selected as the nation’s first housing authority to implement federal subsidy layering review realignment.
HUD, USDA, and Treasury all require subsidy layering reviews for their various affordable housing development grants which essentially allow the agencies to confirm that the total subsidy being provided by public sources does not exceed eligible costs. It is a process that is meant to ensure that Federal resources are neither duplicative nor wasteful when applied to affordable rental housing. However, many affordable housing developers utilize multiple sources of public funding and are consequently subject to multiple subsidy layering reviews which often causes delays and adds unnecessary costs to the process. Under this pilot program, MSHDA, USDA, and HUD will work together to determine if the subsidy layering review realignment can be quickly implemented at the State level and will identify how data can be shared between parties to assure that future funding review and approval decisions are made using the same information in an efficient manner.
MSHDA, HUD and USDA have created a Subsidy Layering Review Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that clearly outlines the process for which the three agencies will work together to accomplish the ultimate goal of better aligning state and federal affordable rental housing program policies.
To read more about the White House’s Rental Policy Working Group, click here.
To read more about Subsidy Layering Review Realignment, click here.
To view the Memorandum of Understanding and related documents, click here.
