News

In November, HUD and the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing issued a Request for Information seeking public comment on Federal, State, local and Tribal laws, regulations, land use requirements and administrative practices that artificially raise the costs of affordable housing development and contribute to shortages in America’s housing supply. Comments […]

HUD released a proposed rule that would amend its Fair Housing Act design and construction regulations by incorporating by reference the 2009 edition of International Code Council (ICC) Accessible and Usable Building and Facilities (ICC A117.1-2009) standard, as a safe harbor.

HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes launched new training and web pages to help users review federal lead regulations and the Lead Safe Housing Rule Amendment for pre-1978 housing. The goal of these pages is to help Public Housing Agencies, grantees and owners respond to cases of elevated blood lead levels in […]

On the one year anniversary of Microsoft’s $500 million investment in affordable housing, the company announced an additional $250 million investment in affordable housing. The new investments will be placed with the Washington State Housing Finance Commission to allow them to bridge tax-exempt bond cap as well $50 million to seed the new Evergreen Housing Impact Fund.

HUD released its 2019 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, which found that 567,715 persons experienced homelessness on a single night in 2019, a three percent increase over 2018. Homelessness among veterans and families with children continued to fall, declining 2.1 percent and 4.8 percent, respectively, in 2019.

The Inspector General of the U.S. Department of the Treasury launched an internal investigation on abuse in the Opportunity Zone program. Rich Delmar, the department’s acting inspector general, said in a statement he expects “to complete our work and respond to the congressional requesters in early spring.”

In 2016, the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) Office of Multifamily Housing Programs introduced a voluntary green building standards program that allowed for a reduced annual mortgage insurance premium (MIP) at the rate of 0.25 percent for properties that are committed to green building practices. The reduced MIP for industry-recognized green housing encouraged owners to adopt higher standards for construction, rehabilitation, repairs, maintenance and property operations.

A bipartisan group of four Senators recently introduced a bill that would require that ten percent of the annual New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) allocation be made to community development entities (CDEs) for investment in developments in Indian and Native lands

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, announced several updates to the Committee schedule:

January 29 at 10:00 am ET – The full Committee will convene for a hearing entitled, “The Community Reinvestment Act: Is the OCC Undermining the Law’s Purpose and Intent?”

January 29 at 2:00 pm ET – The Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance will convene for a hearing entitled, “Examining the Availability of Insurance for Nonprofits.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the following financial services bills to support veterans, benefit investors, provide housing opportunities, hold regulators accountable, promote Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs) and improve cybersecurity:

Governor Gavin Newsom (D) issued an executive order on January 8 to expedite the state’s response to the homelessness crisis in advance of 2020-21 budget negotiations.

On January 7, in his State of the City address, Mayor Martin Walsh (D) pledged to dedicate $500 million over the next five years for affordable housing. These new investments will create rental and homeownership opportunities, preserve public housing, and establish a city-funded rental voucher program.