General News

A new report from the National Leased Housing Association warns, “in the long run, the negative impacts on housing providers, if not addressed, will result in lower housing supply, reduced renter mobility and foregone benefits to low- and moderate-income communities. However, if housing providers can recover financially and restore investments in new housing developments, including affordable housing, the industry can play an important role in the economic recovery from COVID-19.”

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Housing and Infrastructure Project released federal policy recommendations designed to dramatically reduce the number of working families with destabilizing rent burdens and at risk of eviction, minimize the number of people experiencing homelessness, and prevent further spread of COVID-19.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) awarded 397 Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) $204.1 million in awards.

Minnesota Housing will hold a hearing on its proposed 2022-2023 QAP on October 21 from 10 to 11 a.m. CT. Minnesota Housing plans to release a revised 2022-2023 QAP Self-Scoring Worksheet, and methodologies for LIHTC and deferred projects in mid-October. The second round of public comments will run from October 12 through 5 p.m. CT on October 26.

In July, 77 percent of adults said they were doing at least OK financially, up from 72 percent in early April, and 75 percent in October 2019. This increase is likely due to some people returning to work, as well as the availability of assistance programs either from the government or from charitable organizations.

The Kentucky Housing Corporation (KHC) closed the Universal Funding Application (UFA) for multifamily developments utilizing Tax-Exempt Bonds (TEB) and the Federal four percent LIHTC due to limitations on available private activity bond cap.

The National Leased Housing Association (NLHA) has formulated a survey to collect data to further inform what impact the pandemic is having (both short-term and long-term) on housing providers and the rental market. A report will be produced to assess the negative impacts of COVID-19 on rental housing providers, which will be widely distributed. The deadline for completion is Tuesday, August 18.

Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb (R) recently announced that the state will allocate an additional $15 million to the COVID-19 Rental Assistance Program. Governor Holcomb also announced that he intends to allow the rental property eviction and foreclosure moratorium and ban on disconnecting utility services to expire on August 14.

Effective July 1, 2020, the Virginia Fair Housing law was updated to include four new protected classes; source of income, status as a veteran, gender identity and sexual orientation in addition to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status and disability.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) and the Departments of Housing (DOH) and Family and Support Services (DFSS) announced an expanded Housing Assistance Grant program and a new online portal to assist Chicagoans who have been adversely impacted by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The California Department of Housing and Community Development (CalHCD) released a NOFA for $600 million in Homekey funds. Building on the success of Project Roomkey, Homekey is the next phase in the state’s response to protecting Californians experiencing homelessness who are at high risk for serious illness and are impacted by COVID-19.

The Urban Institute argues that the new CRA regulations suffer from four big problems: (1) There is no evidence of the impact of the new regulations; (2) The primary metric used for assessing CRA compliance neglects community needs; (3) The regulations create a limited and unforgiving test on retail and community development lending, with limited community coverage; and (4) Public data will be lost while bank reporting burdens will increase.