Federal / Agency News

The bill retains most of the provisions from the version that was introduced in the 116th Congress, with two notable exceptions in the bond arena. The minimum four percent rate floor has been removed since it was passed into law in the 2020 year-end bill. The new version of the bill lowers the 50 percent bond-financing threshold to 25 percent.

HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing recently published a Housing Notice, “Continued Availability of Funds for COVID-19 Supplemental Payments for Properties Receiving Project-Based Rental Assistance under the Section 8, Section 202, or Section 811 Programs.”

From 2-3:30 p.m. ET on April 29 HUD’s office of Policy Development and Research will host a panel discussion on services in HUD-Assisted Housing, including services offered through HUD’s Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) and Resident Opportunities and Self-Sufficiency (ROSS) programs.

Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Rob Portman (D-OH), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Todd Young (R-IN) along with Representatives Don Beyer (D-VA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Jackie Walorski (R-IN) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) introduced the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2021 (AHCIA).

Last week, President Joe Biden sent the administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 discretionary funding request to Congress. The HUD budget requests $68.7 billion, a $9 billion or 15-percent increase from the 2021 enacted level. The funding request does not include line-by-line program requests, but rather requests for a few key HUD programs. A full budget request is expected later this spring.

The Faircloth-to-Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) pathway represents an innovative solution for Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) to use existing federal authority to create up to 220,000 new units of deeply affordable housing.

Last week HUD announced an allocation of $689,565,492.92 to states via the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF).

HUD is soliciting feedback on its National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) inspection standards, with the following specific questions…

HUD released the median family incomes and income limits for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021. Median incomes are used as the basis for income limits in several HUD programs, including the Public Housing, Section 8 Housing Choice and Project-Based Voucher, Section 202 housing for the elderly and Section 811 housing for persons with disabilities programs, as well as in programs run by agencies, such as the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

HUD’s Office of Housing and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) posted an updated Multifamily Q&A for COVID-19 as of April 2. To find new or revised answers in the PDF, you can search the date 4/2/21.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced the Housing Supply and Affordability Act to create a new $300 million per year grant program to help localities develop and implement comprehensive housing policy plans.

Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Darin LaHood (R-IL), Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced a new version of the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (HTC-GO) in the House of Representatives.