News

Rep.  Maxine Waters (D-CA), chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, announced the following housing-related hearings in the month of April. All the hearings will be livestreamed here.

The California Department of Housing and Community is updating its California Statewide Housing Plan and seeking public input via this Housing Plan survey by April 23.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed into law legislation creating a state LIHTC. S.B. 1197 creates the Virginia housing opportunity tax credit, which will have a $15 million annual allocation for five years, applying to taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2021. The state credit will match federal four and nine percent LIHTC allocations.

This morning the White House released a fact sheet on the American Jobs Plan, a $2.25 trillion infrastructure proposal with several investments in housing. President Joe Biden (D) is expected to give a speech in Pittsburg today at 4:20 p.m. ET to officially unveil the plan. Proposed pay-fors include an increase in the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent and a “global minimum tax” on U.S. corporations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) extended its eviction moratorium, which was set to expire on March 31, through June 30, 2021. A recent ruling in Skyworks v. CDC from the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Ohio found the eviction moratorium unlawful. The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) joined the suit and had representational standing on behalf of its membership. As such, the CDC extension of the eviction moratorium may not apply to NAHB members as of March 10, the date of the ruling.

President Joseph Biden (D) nominated Adrianne Todman as the deputy secretary of HUD. Todman is currently the CEO of the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO). Todman will need to be approved by the Senate.

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.