Federal / Agency News

On Thursday, June 20 at 9:30 am EDT, the House Ways and Means Committee will markup The Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019 (H.R. 3301), which would extend the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) through 2020. The NMTC will expire at the end of 2019 absent congressional action. The bill would also […]

HUD recently published a Notice of Annual Factors for Determining Public Housing Agency (PHA) administrative fees for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, Mainstream and Moderate Rehabilitation programs.

Senator Todd Young (R-IN) reintroduced the Task Force on the Impact of the Affordable Housing Crisis Act along with 15 of his colleagues.

On June 4, Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2019 (S. 1703) while Representatives Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Don Beyer (D-VA), Kenny Marchant (R-TX) and Jacky Walorski (R-IN) introduced companion legislation H.R. 3077 in the US House of Representatives. The ACTION Campaign is submitting a letter to Congress demonstrating the strong support for the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act. The deadline to sign-on to the letter is Tuesday, June 11.

HUD published a notice of proposed changes for estimation of Fair Market Rents (FMRs) in the Federal Register. In response to frequent comments on the need for more local and timely data, HUD is considering updating its FMR methodology to include Trend Factor Changes and to use neighboring zip codes in place of county-based Small Area FMRs.

HUD posted new closing checklists for use with the recently revised FHA closing documents. The new checklists include non-substantive changes to the layout, re-ordering of certain items, removal of items that have been added to other form documents, and a new checklist for the “Heavy” 223(f) closings.

HUD published an updated RAD Inventory Assessment Tool. The tool is designed for PHAs that are newly considering or re-considering RAD at RAD rents based on the FY 18 Appropriation levels.

On June 4, the House Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2020 Transportation-HUD appropriations bills on a partisan 29-21 vote. The bill provides $50.1 billion for HUD programs, $5.9 billion of the FY 2019 enacted funding level.

Last week HUD released Version 3 of the Location Affordability Index (LAI) dataset. The LAI is a nationwide database of modeled household housing and transportation costs launched by HUD and the Department of Transportation in 2013. The updated version provides greater insight into how these costs vary by geographic and household characteristics. Version 3 primarily uses data from the 2012-2016 American Community Su

The USDA announced the appointment of Bruce Lammers as the new Rural Housing Service (RHS) Administrator, effective May 28, 2019. Mr. Lammers will report directly to Joel Baxley, who formerly held the position and is now the Acting Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development.

Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) announced $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credits (NMTC) for 73 Community Development Entities (CDEs). Congratulations to the ten NH&RA members that received NMTC awards!

Two HUD proposed rules seek to create flexibilities in the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships programs to incentivize their use in Opportunity Zones.