News

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.

The California State Assembly approved Assembly Bill 1487,that would authorize the creation of the Housing Alliance for the Bay Area, tasked with raising public funds and providing technical assistance to create and preserve affordable homes and offer tenant protections across the region.

During the 2019 legislative session the state of Minnesota allocated $180.6 million towards building and preserving homes, increasing home stability and strengthening homeownership around the state.

The Boston Housing Authority will become the first in the nation to voluntarily adopt small area fair market rents (SAFMRs). Doing so would link the value of a housing voucher to rent levels by ZIP code rather than to rent levels for the housing market overall, meaning that people with vouchers may have greater access to higher-cost neighborhoods.

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System has released its Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2018. It shows that three percent of renters were evicted or moved because of the threat of eviction in the prior two years. It also shows that over half of U.S. renters needed a repair to their homes at some point in the prior year, and 15 percent of renters had moderate or substantial difficulty getting their landlord to complete the repair.

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