News

A new report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Household Rental Debt During COVID-19, estimates that by December 2020, 1.3 million renter households will owe $7.2 billion in rent, which is around $5,400 each.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced restoration of $466 million of housing cuts in FY2021 to the city’s department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD). Mayor de Blasio’s decision to reverse course and restore HPD’s 2021 capital budget will produce roughly 11,000 units of affordable housing, at a time when those homes are […]

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia updated its Rental Housing Affordability Data Tool for households in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. The newly updated data suggest that housing insecurity was widespread among lower-income renters in the Third District even prior to the Coronavirus pandemic and the associated economic downturn.

On Monday, the Senate voted down a motion to consider the House-passed resolution of disapproval (H.J. Res. 90) to nullify the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s new rule on Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The Federal Reserve’s advanced notice of proposed rulemaking was officially published in the Federal Register. Comments are due by February 16, 2021; NH&RA will submit comments and encourages our members to do so as well.

Representative Katherine Clark (D-MA) introduced the Support Allowing Volume Exception for (SAVE) Federally-Assisted Housing Act, a targeted effort to address the national shortage of affordable housing units by freeing up the availability of private activity bonds used to support the preservation, improvement or replacement of federally-assisted housing facilities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new resources on its eviction moratorium, including a declaration template and FAQs, prepared in consultation with the Department of Health and Human Services, HUD and the Department of Justice. 

After 28 years of federal service working on the American Housing Survey (AHS), Dav Vandenbroucke’s last working day will be Wednesday, October 14. Vandenbroucke was the senior economist at HUD and leaves the AHS in the capable hands of George Carter and Portia Hemphill.

A new report from the National Leased Housing Association warns, “in the long run, the negative impacts on housing providers, if not addressed, will result in lower housing supply, reduced renter mobility and foregone benefits to low- and moderate-income communities. However, if housing providers can recover financially and restore investments in new housing developments, including affordable housing, the industry can play an important role in the economic recovery from COVID-19.”

HUD published the Resident Declaration Form required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium in 20 different languages: Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, French, German, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Italian, Khmer, Korea, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Spanish (Puerto Rican), Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published Revenue Procedure 2020-42 announcing $3,105,001 of unused LIHTCs allocated from the national pool to 33 qualified states for calendar year 2020.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Development’s (RD) Office Multifamily Housing (MFH) announced that, effective October 11, 2020, Becki Meyer, Byron Waters, Karissa Stiers and Laurie Warzinski will become the first Regional directors of MFH’s Field Operations Division.

The Bipartisan Policy Center’s (BPC) Housing and Infrastructure Project released federal policy recommendations designed to dramatically reduce the number of working families with destabilizing rent burdens and at risk of eviction, minimize the number of people experiencing homelessness, and prevent further spread of COVID-19.