HUD

HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge sent a letter to public housing authorities (PHAs), Continuums of Care (CoC) partners, multifamily owners and HUD grantees, clarifying that returning citizens—formerly incarcerated individuals returning to their communities—who are at-risk of homelessness are among the eligible populations for the recently awarded 70,000 emergency housing vouchers funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

President Joe Biden (D) nominated Julia Gordon to serve as Assistant Secretary for Housing, Federal Housing Commissioner and Dave Uejio for Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at HUD.  

The Michaels Organization announced that it held a groundbreaking and blessing ceremony for Halewai`olu Senior Residences in downtown Honolulu in partnership with the City and County of Honolulu and the State of Hawaii. Scheduled for completion in 2023, the 17-story mid-rise development on a 26,925-square-foot parcel owned by the City and County of Honolulu, will provide 156 one- and two-bedroom affordable rental units for seniors. 

Last week the Senate held a voice vote to confirm Adrianne Todman as deputy secretary at HUD. NH&RA looks forward to continuing to work with Ms. Todman in her new role! 

HUD published an interim final rule, which partially restores the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rules promulgated under President Barack Obama (D). The rule requires HUD grantees (PHAs, as well as state and local governments) to  regularly certify compliance with the Fair Housing Act’s AFFH requirement and, in doing so, commit to taking steps to remedy their unique fair housing issues. 

The St. Paul Public Housing Authority (PHA) is offering up to 50 Project-based Vouchers through the Consolidated RFP with an additional 20 Project-based Vouchers specifically for HUD – Veteran Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH). Applications will be accepted through Minnesota Housing’s Multifamily Customer Portal. Applications are due by noon on July 15. For information on Project-based Vouchers, please visit the St. Paul PHA website or contact Dominic Mitchell, St. Paul PHA Housing Choice Voucher Programs Director at 651-292-6191 or dominic.mitchell@stpha.org.

Join HUD, the National Low Income Housing Coalition and the Housing Initiative at Penn at 2 p.m. ET on June 10 for a webinar on the emergency rental assistance (ERA) programs throughout the country. The webinar will feature ERA tools from NLIHC and Penn, as well as insight into the lessons and recommendations they discovered in their research to best assist communities and priority populations. Register here.

HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) is hosting Opportunity Zone (OZ) Roundtable virtual events in conjunction with regional offices. This webinar will provide CPD grantees with a baseline understanding of CPD funding possibilities in designated OZs, and how to proactively support OZ projects and investments. 

The administration says it will launch an interagency effort to address inequity in home appraisals and publish next week in the Federal Register a proposed rule on countering housing practices with discriminatory effects and an interim proposed rule on HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing.

Last week, President Joe Biden (D) released the administration’s full 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.

HUD has made available a new Guide to Public Housing Repositioning, which reviews the different options, and associated planning considerations, available to Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) as they consider the long-term future of their portfolios.

HUD Exchange announced the launch of a new Davis-Bacon training on Payroll Analysis. The second of a two-part training, this new set of modules walks Local Contracting Agencies (LCAs) through the correct way to conduct a payroll analysis.