News

A FY-2014 report from the Housing Assistance Council provides an overview of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) rural housing loan and grant obligation activity. For multi-family programs, the report looks at how Section 515 funds, multi-family housing vouchers, and rental assistance contracts were awarded.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development published June 15 a revised Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Notice. On Friday, July 10th, HUD will hold live Q/A sessions on the revised RAD Notice that was published on June 15, 2015.

On June 25 the United States Supreme Court issued a decision upholding the use of the “disparate impact” analysis in the Fair Housing Act. The decision upholds an important and longstanding principle of the Fair Housing Act, namely that housing policy can be discriminatory by showing that what may seem like neutral policies have the effect of furthering discrimination.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development approved Tuesday a FY-2016 THUD funding bill that slashes funds for the HOME program, which often provides vital funding for housing credit developments.

HUD published a notice outlining a new sampling methodology to calculate utility allowances for several multifamily affordable housing programs. The notice standardizes the methodology used to calculate utility allowances across many HUD housing programs and bases the calculations on actual consumption.

NH&RA calls on its members to stop the Senate Appropriations Committee from slashing funding to the HOME program, join efforts to strength LIHTC, help preserve tax-exempt multifamily bonds, and advocate for the historic tax credit.

Despite this split incentive problem, HUD has considerable leverage to reduce utility costs in its portfolio, which can benefit both HUD and households receiving a rental subsidy. While certain changes to HUD’s utility scheme would require congressional action and are therefore outside of HUD’s direct power to change, HUD administrators could change regulations and guidance […]

Household energy consumption is crucial to national energy policy. This article analyzes how the rules covering utility costs in the four major federal housing assistance programs alter landlord and tenant incentives for energy efficiency investment and conservation. We conclude that, relative to market-rate housing, assistance programs provide less incentive to landlords and tenants for energy […]

This notice provides instruction to owners and management agents (O/As) for completing the utility analysis required at the time of the annual or special adjustment of contract rents and when a utility rate change results in a cumulative increase of 10 percent or more from the most recently approved utility allowance. A significant new development, […]

The CDFI Fund announced more than $3.5 billion in New Markets Tax Credit awards aimed at stimulating investment and economic growth in low-income urban neighborhoods and rural communities nationwide. Thirteen NH&RA members were among the 76 organizations across the country that will receive tax credit allocation authority under the 2014 round of the New Markets Tax Credit Program.

The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund will implement a new enterprise-wide Awards Management Information System (AMIS). Beginning August 2015 through the fall of 2016, the CDFI Fund will transition from using the myCDFIFund Portal to using AMIS to track organization and application information.

The House passed the FY-2016 Transportation-HUD spending bill on a vote of 216-210. The legislation includes funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Transportation, and other related agencies through the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2016.