Federal / Agency News

Last week the House passed fiscal year (FY) 2022 funding for nine of the 12 appropriations bills.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published Notice 2021-45 advising Housing Credit allocating agencies that qualified for disaster credits authority under the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 of the population residing in qualified disaster zones.

HUD published Housing Notice 2021-03 Forbearance Relief and Associated Tenant Protections for FHA-Insured, Section 202, HUD-held, and Risk Share Multifamily Loans, which details tenant protections during Multifamily forbearance.

The federal eviction moratorium will expire on Saturday, July 31. On-going state and local eviction moratoriums may still apply to your residents/properties. Last week, the White House held an eviction prevention progress report webinar. The full recording is available here and a summary is available here. The Department of the Treasury released slides on the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, as well as slides detailing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resources made available through their Housing Insecurity campaign. 

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced it will propose rescinding the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rule issued in May 2020. This decision follows the completion of a review initiated by Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu shortly after he took office.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, released the following discussion drafts in her legislative housing package: 

On Friday, the full House Appropriations Committee approved FY 2022 funding for HUD with a 33-24 vote. The bill includes $56.5 billion in HUD funding, a $6.8 billion (12 percent) increase over FY 2021. If enacted in its current form, several programs would see substantial increases over FY 2021 levels. This includes $500 million in additional funding for the HOME program, a $545 million for project-based rental assistance contracts (sufficient to renew all PBRA contracts), $3.4 billion in additional tenant-based rental assistance ($1 billion of which would be set aside for new vouchers) and $1.2 billion in additional funding for CDBG. 

In a press release, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) announced she secured a commitment from President Joe Biden (D) to include housing in the partisan, reconciliation bill. In a speech on July 7 in Illinois, the president said the following on the reconciliation package, “We need to deal with the shortage of affordable housing in America. Over 10 million renters in this country […]

NH&RA signed a letter to Congress along with 120 organizations supporting federal legislation that would create tax credits for zero-carbon buildings and retrofits. Buildings are the largest single contributor of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, producing approximately 40 percent of global emissions.

On Monday, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee approved FY 2022 funding for HUD. The bill includes $56.5 billion in HUD funding, a $6.8 billion (12 percent) increase over FY 2021. If enacted in its current form, several programs would see substantial increases over FY 2021 levels.

A new proposed rule from HUD, Reinstatement of HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard, would rescind the Department’s 2020 disparate impact rule and restore the 2013 discriminatory effects rule. Comments are due by August 24.  

The Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) issued a temporary stay on a lower court ruling seeking to overturn the federal eviction moratorium issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The eviction moratorium will remain in place through July 31, 2021.