News

On April 16, 2021, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed into law the COVID-19 Emergency Rental Assistance Program of 2021 (the “2021 Act”).  The 2021 Act allocates $2.45 billion in rental relief for New York households, including $2.35 billion in federal funds and $100 million in state funds.  Each state or other jurisdiction receiving federal funds is charged with administering those funds through new or existing rental assistance programs in that state or jurisdiction. This advisory provides a general background on the current need for rental assistance and New York’s previous attempt at rent relief, describes the relevant details of the 2021 Act, and highlights what is next with respect to rental assistance.

Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Rob Portman (D-OH), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Todd Young (R-IN) along with Representatives Don Beyer (D-VA), Suzan DelBene (D-WA), Jackie Walorski (R-IN) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) introduced the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act of 2021 (AHCIA).

Last week, President Joe Biden sent the administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2022 discretionary funding request to Congress. The HUD budget requests $68.7 billion, a $9 billion or 15-percent increase from the 2021 enacted level. The funding request does not include line-by-line program requests, but rather requests for a few key HUD programs. A full budget request is expected later this spring.

The Faircloth-to-Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) pathway represents an innovative solution for Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) to use existing federal authority to create up to 220,000 new units of deeply affordable housing.

Last week HUD announced an allocation of $689,565,492.92 to states via the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF).

HUD is soliciting feedback on its National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) inspection standards, with the following specific questions…

HUD released the median family incomes and income limits for Fiscal Year (FY) 2021. Median incomes are used as the basis for income limits in several HUD programs, including the Public Housing, Section 8 Housing Choice and Project-Based Voucher, Section 202 housing for the elderly and Section 811 housing for persons with disabilities programs, as well as in programs run by agencies, such as the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Agriculture and the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

HUD’s Office of Housing and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) posted an updated Multifamily Q&A for COVID-19 as of April 2. To find new or revised answers in the PDF, you can search the date 4/2/21.

Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tim Kaine (D-VA) introduced the Housing Supply and Affordability Act to create a new $300 million per year grant program to help localities develop and implement comprehensive housing policy plans.

Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Darin LaHood (R-IL), Brian Higgins (D-NY) and Terri Sewell (D-AL) introduced a new version of the Historic Tax Credit Growth and Opportunity Act (HTC-GO) in the House of Representatives.

The Center for Active Design released a new report detailing the growth in demand for healthy buildings. A New Investor Consensus: The Rising Demand for Healthy Buildings summarizes a comprehensive health and wellness study of global real estate investment managers and stakeholders representing an aggregate $5.75 trillion assets under management (AUM) and portfolio investments in real estate totaling approximately $1.03 trillion.

Energy Efficiency for All (EEFA) will host a briefing on the challenges and opportunities involved in protecting physically and socially vulnerable communities from the worst impacts of climate change from 2 to 3:30 p.m. ET on April 16. Register here.