News

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) recently unveiled The Economic Justice Act, a proposal to invest $350 billion in communities of color as a component of the next federal COVID-19 stimulus relief package. The Economic Justice Act would expand LIHTC by $5 billion over five years. In addition, it would provide a renter tax credit that would reduce rent and utilities for low-income individuals and families.

HUD released a proposed rule on rent adjustments in its Mark-to-Market Program, which would revise the Mark-to-Market program regulations to clarify that all annual rent adjustments for projects subject to a restructuring plan are by application of an operating cost adjustment factor established by HUD. Comments are due by September 14.

Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) announced the Rent Emergencies Leave Impacts on Evicted Families (RELIEF) Act on July 16, legislation aimed at keeping residents in their homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NH&RA is leading a sign-on letter urging HUD to extend the current moratorium on Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) inspections for all Multifamily programs through the end of 2020, except where there is a documented threat to health and safety at a property. The letter also requests that HUD waive the 14-day property specific scheduling notice and permit a 30-day scheduling notification. Click

Yesterday, the full House Committee on Appropriations voted along party lines to approve the fiscal year (FY) 2021 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies (T-HUD) bill. A summary of the HUD provisions can be found here. The full committee added the and amendment that allows certain CDBG-DR grantees to request relief from recaptures for overpayments.

The eviction moratorium for HUD-assisted multifamily properties authorized by the CARES Act will expire on July 24. Last week, HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing published guidance for multifamily property owners on promoting housing stability during the pandemic. Separately, HUD published Notice H 2020-7, Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act Eviction Moratorium that extends […]

HUD’s Office of Asset Management and Portfolio Oversight (OAMPO) has issued a memo providing instructions for processing special claims for vacancy for properties affected by COVID-19. This memo expands the applicability to properties being developed under the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. For properties undergoing initial rent-up the 60 days starts as of the date of the permission to occupy the unit or the effective date of the contract, whichever is later.

HUD’s Multifamily West Region is extending the audited financial reporting deadlines until September 30, 2020. This waiver is limited to entities, which are required to submit the referenced annual financial information on or before June 30, 2020.

The Health@Home webinar series consists of four webinars that provide affordable housing rehabilitation specialists and program managers with information on integrating healthy housing techniques into their rehabilitation projects and best practices from practitioners who have successfully implemented these techniques.

The Urban Institute argues that the new CRA regulations suffer from four big problems: (1) There is no evidence of the impact of the new regulations; (2) The primary metric used for assessing CRA compliance neglects community needs; (3) The regulations create a limited and unforgiving test on retail and community development lending, with limited community coverage; and (4) Public data will be lost while bank reporting burdens will increase.

The National Low Income Housing Coalition released its annual Out of Reach report, which shows that even before the onset of the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis, millions of workers were struggling to afford their homes.

In a recent issue of Health Affairs focusing on investments in social determinants of health, a new study examined how renovations of a property in Queens, NY that converted through RAD may improve the health of public housing residents.

HUD released the full report, “Examining the Effects of the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) on Children Living in Public Housing in Fresno, California,” which assessed outcomes and the well-being of children living in developments that have undergone rehab and conversion under RAD.