Federal / Agency News

To help renters in multifamily properties stay in their homes and to support multifamily property owners during the Coronavirus national emergency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) are allowing servicers to extend forbearance agreements for multifamily property owners with existing forbearance agreements for up to three months.

The House Democrats’ recently released infrastructure bill, Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), includes a myriad of housing provisions. A vote on the legislation is expected before the Fourth of July recess. While the bill is likely to pass the Democrat-led House, it will face greater resistance in the GOP-led Senate. The bill does not include any pay-fors and Republicans are already panning the bill as dead-on-arrival. However, the bill may set an important marker for future infrastructure negotiations. The Trump administration is reportedly drafting a $1 trillion infrastructure package aimed at spurring the economy.

HUD recently published a notice of annual factors for determining public housing agencies (PHAs) administrative fees for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, Mainstream and Moderate Rehabilitation programs for calendar year 2020. The adjustment factors back date to January 1, 2020.

As a reminder for fiscal year (FY) 2020 Capital Magnet Fund applicants, the deadline for online submission of the SF-424 Mandatory through Grants.gov for this year’s funding round is June 26, 2020 at 11:59 pm ET. The deadline for online submission of the rest of the application materials through the CDFI Fund’s Awards Management Information System (AMIS) is July 27, 2020 at 5:00 pm ET.

HUD’s National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) demonstration has postponed all field testing until further notice following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, refinement of standards and scoring testing remain ongoing to further the development of the NSPIRE Model and HUD is still seeking the voluntary participation of properties.

Earlier today the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) held a virtual hearing on The Rent Is Still Due: America’s Renters, COVID-19 and an Unprecedented Eviction Crisis. Witnesses Cashauna Hill, Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center; Mike Kingsella, Up for Growth; Ann Oliva, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Jenny Schuetz, The Brookings Institution discussed the need for ongoing financial assistance to families.

The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on June 9 entitled Oversight of Housing Regulators. The witnesses included HUD Secretary Benjamin Carson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria.

The HUD Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a report evaluating HUD’s use of agency-wide telework in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They found telework severely impeded business processes dependent on paper records or facility access; bandwidth constraints with the HUD information technology (IT) infrastructure and the lack of government-furnished equipment for some employees disrupted HUD operations; and respondents reported HUD was generally well-prepared for mandatory telework.

HUD published a Federal Register notice adjusting the Annual Indexing of Basic Statutory Mortgage Limits for Multifamily Housing Programs. The percentage change in the consumer price index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) is 2.3 percent and the limits have an effective date of January 1, 2020.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Notice 2020-39, providing guidance for investors in the Opportunity Zones (OZ) incentive in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidance provides that taxpayers whose last day of the 180-day period to invest capital gains in a Qualified Opportunity Fund (QOF) falls on or after April 1, 2020, and before December 31, 2020, to postpone the last day to December 31, 2020

HUD’s office of Policy Development and Research published a NOFA to study the “Impact of RAD on Children in HUD Assisted Households.” The NOFA makes $750,000 in funding available to be split among one or two potential awardees. The objective is to support research project(s) that will produce policy-relevant evidence on the implementation of the RAD program and its effect on children’s well-being

HUD published a 60-day notice of proposed information collection on the evaluation of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program’s choice mobility option and long-term affordability. Congress requested and HUD provided two previous evaluations of RAD and the 2018 budget legislation that extended and expanded RAD provided funds to conduct a follow-up evaluation. This notice provides an opportunity to comment on the information collection. Those