News

NH&RA joined the Campaign for Housing and Community Development Funding’s (CHCDF) letter to Congressional appropriators urging the highest possible funding amount for Fiscal Year 2022 funding for HUD appropriations. NH&RA encourages our members to also join the letter by the April 9 deadline.  

HUD will host a webinar at 3:30 pm ET on April 20 to provide an overview of the new Section 3 rule and its implementation in Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) conversions. In the fall, HUD updated the Section Three rule in order to focus on economic opportunity outcomes while simultaneously reducing regulatory burden, improving Section Three’s effectiveness, streamlining some processes that have not yielded significant benefits and encouraging HUD grantees to focus on sustained employment for low- and very low-income individuals.

The National Housing Trust (NHT) released a 2020 update to its 2017 State Strategies to Increase Energy and Water Efficiency in Low Income Housing Tax Credit Properties, which reviewed hundreds of state Housing Finance Agency (HFA) documents, including QAPs, LIHTC applications, Design and Construction Guidelines and other documents, to identify the ten most prominent strategies in use by HFAs to advance water and energy efficiency.

In a new brief, Federal Reforms to Strengthen Housing Stability, Affordability and Choice, the authors highlight the following eight frequently proposed federal reforms to existing housing programs and policies, identify their support among relevant housing stakeholders, and discuss evidence of their impact on housing stability, affordability and choice.

On March 16, the U.S. Department of Treasury updated its Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document regarding the administration of $25 billion in emergency rental assistance. The updated FAQs address questions regarding rental security deposits, hotel and motel stays, rent-to-own agreements and manufactured housing. Treasury is expected to release additional updates in the coming weeks.

Tia Boatman Patterson will serve as the associate director for Housing, Treasury and Commerce in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Boatman Patterson previously served at the California HFA Director.

NH&RA joined an industry letter calling on HUD to implement the $25 million for the Family Self-Sufficiency program that was appropriated in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget. The letter also reiterates key points from shared comments on the new FSS regulations that were submitted with broad support in November 2020.

Fannie Mae announced that it is offering Sponsor-Initiated Affordability (SIA) incentives for multifamily borrowers, with the aim of preserving naturally occurring affordable housing (NOAH) and workforce housing. Property owners seeking Fannie Mae financing will be encouraged for rent and income restrictions for residents living in conventional workforce housing.

A new report on Household Rental Debt During COVID-19 from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia estimates that in March 2021, 1.8 million renter households, representing 5 million individuals, will owe $11 billion in rent—approximately $6,100 per household. That number represents 5.4 percent of all renter householders and 15 percent of those who experienced job loss due to COVID-19.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) released its annual report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, which finds that extremely low-income renters in the U.S. face a shortage of nearly seven million affordable and available rental homes.

On April 14 from 1 – 3 p.m. ET HUD will host a webinar on environmental review procedures as a part of its public housing repositioning Wednesday webinar series. This webinar will discuss environmental review procedures as Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) plan and implement public housing repositioning.

HUD updated the fair market rents (FMRs) for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program and other programs for Fiscal Year 2021 for four areas based on new survey data: Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX HUD Metro FMR Area (HMFA), Knox County, ME, Lincoln County, ME and Waldo County, ME. Further, HUD responds to comments received on the FY 2021 FMRs.