News

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published Notice 2021-45 advising Housing Credit allocating agencies that qualified for disaster credits authority under the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2020 of the population residing in qualified disaster zones.

HUD published Housing Notice 2021-03 Forbearance Relief and Associated Tenant Protections for FHA-Insured, Section 202, HUD-held, and Risk Share Multifamily Loans, which details tenant protections during Multifamily forbearance.

The federal eviction moratorium will expire on Saturday, July 31. On-going state and local eviction moratoriums may still apply to your residents/properties. Last week, the White House held an eviction prevention progress report webinar. The full recording is available here and a summary is available here. The Department of the Treasury released slides on the Emergency Rental Assistance Program, as well as slides detailing Consumer Financial Protection Bureau resources made available through their Housing Insecurity campaign. 

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) announced it will propose rescinding the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) rule issued in May 2020. This decision follows the completion of a review initiated by Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu shortly after he took office.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual “Out of Reach” report for 2021, detailing the gap between the cost of rental housing and tenants’ incomes across the nation. This year’s report reveals the extent to which costs have outpaced wages far before the economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has further exacerbated hardships and inequalities for low wage workers disproportionately affecting those who are Black, Brown, Indigenous and/or Latino. Whether the market is in a period of economic growth or downturn, low-wage workers struggle to find affordable homes.  

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, released the following discussion drafts in her legislative housing package: 

On Friday, the full House Appropriations Committee approved FY 2022 funding for HUD with a 33-24 vote. The bill includes $56.5 billion in HUD funding, a $6.8 billion (12 percent) increase over FY 2021. If enacted in its current form, several programs would see substantial increases over FY 2021 levels. This includes $500 million in additional funding for the HOME program, a $545 million for project-based rental assistance contracts (sufficient to renew all PBRA contracts), $3.4 billion in additional tenant-based rental assistance ($1 billion of which would be set aside for new vouchers) and $1.2 billion in additional funding for CDBG. 

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced the appointment of Tiena Johnson Hall as the new executive director of the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA). 

Johnson Hall, a member of CalHFA’s Board of Directors since November 2014, has served as a senior vice president and manager of community development finance for BBVA Compass Bancshares Inc. since October 2014. Prior to that, she held various housing positions in both the private and public sectors. 

The fiscal year 2021/2022 Pennsylvania state budget includes funding for the development of affordable rental housing in three main program areas: 

On June 29, the Arizona state legislature passed a State LIHTC in S.B 1124. The state credit available to properties placed in service after June 30, 2022 is equal to at least fifty percent of the federal credit with a $4 million annual cap. Governor Doug Ducey (R) has until July 12 to sign or veto the bill, otherwise it will become law on its own. 

Governor Gavin Newsom (D) recently approved California’s 2021-2022 budget, which includes the following investments in affordable housing:  

A bill recently approved by California legislature and Governor Gavin Newsom (D) extends the state’s eviction moratorium through the end of September and will pay off 100 percent of all past due rent from April 2020 through September 30, 2021 for tenants making less than 80 percent of the area median income. The state will also assist with unpaid utility bills.