News

The Supreme Court agreed to review a challenge to the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) authority. Plaintiff, Sheila Law LLC, is arguing that a legal provision stipulating that the director can only be removed by the President for cause violates the constitutional separation of powers. The CFPB director, like the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) director, serves in a five-year role and cannot be fired at will. The Supreme Court’s decision will have implications for both the CFPB and FHFA.

The Senate is expected to vote on the four-bill spending package today and lawmakers are now considering a not-so-short-term CR that would fund the government through the new year.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released the 2019 Strategic Plan for the Conservatorships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a new 2020 Scorecard for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Common Securitization Solutions.

On Tuesday, the Senate advanced a spending FY 2020 funding package that includes funding for Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment and Transportation-HUD. The full Senate is expected to vote on the package this week or early next week.

The Federal Housing Administration released three draft chapters of its Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) Guide: Chapter 1 Introduction, Chapter 10 Management Analysis and Chapter 14 LIHTC Guidance. Comments should be provided on the Response Worksheet and emailed to [email protected]. Comments are due by November 15.

Senators Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) introduced the Historic Tax Credit (HTC) Growth & Opportunity Act (S. 2615). The bill would eliminate the HTC basis adjustment requirement, increase the HTC from 20 percent to 30 percent for properties with rehabilitation expenses of less than $3.75 million (capped at $750,000), make it easier to meet the substantial rehabilitation test and create greater flexibility for nonprofits to partner with developers.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS) published a Final Rule that would eliminate the requirement for the annual publication of a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for its Section 538 Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing program. The rule becomes effective on November 14, 2019. The Section 538 program will follow procedures similar to other Rural Development guaranteed […]

The MIT Sloan School of Management recently announced the appointment of Edward L. Golding as executive director and senior lecturer at the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy (GCFP). Golding, a former head of the Federal Housing Administration, will help lead the GCFP in its mission to support governments in their role as financial […]

HUD released an evaluation of its Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), which finds significant evidence that RAD is stimulating billions of dollars in capital investment, improving living conditions for low-income residents and enhancing the financial health of these critical affordable housing resources. The report says that the 956 RAD conversions studied leveraged $9.66 for every dollar provided through HUD’s public housing programs, that all rehabilitation projects covered their rehabilitation needs, that there is an 87 percent post-conversion decrease in unscheduled capital needs for completed RAD properties and that tenants were pleased with the improvement.

A new working paper from Jacob Cosman and Luis Quintero of the Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University cites concentration of developers as a reason for the dearth of affordable housing. From 2006 to 2015, the number of builders who controlled 90 percent of a typical market dropped by a quarter, which has cost the country approximately 150,000 additional homes a year and decreased the annual value of housing production nationwide by $106 billion — all else being equal.

A new report in Health Affairs examines whether expansions of Medicaid can prevent evictions from occurring. Early Medicaid expansion in California was associated with a reduction in the number of evictions, with 24.5 fewer evictions per month in each county from a pre-expansion average of 224.7.

Energy Efficiency for All (EEFA) released two new reports to provide industry experts and contractors the information needed to help make healthier building materials the easier choice. The first study by Elevate Energy provides a case study on the Energy Performance of Chicago Properties Retrofit With Fiberglass Insulation. The second study by Three3 examines Drivers, Adoptability and Performance of Healthier Energy-Efficiency Retrofit Materials in Affordable Multifamily Housing.