Federal / Agency News

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released FY-2016 income limits to be used when setting maximum rental rates for housing financed using Low-Income Housing Tax Credits or Tax-Exempt Bonds, as well as income limits to determine eligibility for HUD-assisted housing programs.

Preparing for an unprecedented number of RAD transactions this year, HUD is already seeing requests for extensions to Financing Plan submission deadlines. HUD will host a listening session to discuss incentives or remedies short of revoking CHAPs to keep PHAs on schedule and to mitigate the surge of volume at year-end.

Over the next 60 days, HUD is soliciting comments on the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing Assessment Tool for States and Insular Areas. One of three AFFH Assessment Tools, this tool is to be used where the State is designated as the lead entity.

The deadlines for Congressmen to sign-in to the letters of support for HOME funds are this Friday, March 11 in the House and March 15 in the Senate.

The Internal Revenue Service updated the regulations that set the minimum number of low-income units in a Low-Income Housing Tax Credit project for which a housing finance agency must conduct physical inspections and low-income certification reviews.

The Fiscal Year 2015 Annual Report from the National Park Service, Federal Tax Incentives for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings, reveals a program that helped provide homes for low- and moderate- income residents, boosted local economies, and created jobs.

Section 9-23 of the new Section 8 Renewal Policy Guide provided instructions for comparing the median rents as derived by the appraiser in a RCS with Census Bureau estimates of the median rents in the project’s zip code. HUD has recently published the new median zip code rents and the 140 percent thresholds.

The President’s proposed FY-2017 budget shows support for several of the key tax credit, HUD, and rural development programs that spur the development of affordable housing by private developers.

CDFIs and qualified non-profits can use Capital Magnet Fund awards to create financing tools such as loan loss reserves, revolving loan funds, risk-sharing loans, and loan guarantees.

The new MAP Guide delegates more underwriting responsibility to approved “MAP lenders” and includes all relevant guidance published by FHA since the MAP Guide was last updated in 2011.

Funds are available to CDFIs and qualified non-profit organizations. Capital Magnet Fund awardees are able to utilize funds to create financing tools such as loan loss reserves, revolving loan funds, risk-sharing loans, and loan guarantees. Applications are due March 16.

The CDFI Fund received 238 applications for New Markets Tax Credit allocations from 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Guam. The CDEs requested more than 5 times the available authority of $3.5 billion.