HUD

HUD has released a map-based app for iPhone and Android that will allow users to search Fair Market Rents (FMRs) and income limits by current location or by metropolitan area, county, zip code and/or address.

HUD recently released the Community Planning and Development (CPD) Income Eligibility Calculator, a new tool to help CPD grantees determine income eligibility and assistance amounts for beneficiaries of CPD programs.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced in Revenue Procedure 2012-41 that it has set the inflation-adjusted State credit ceiling for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program and private activity bond caps for calendar year 2013.

HUD has issued a notice establishing operating cost adjustment factors (OCAFs) for project based assistance contracts for eligible multifamily housing projects having an anniversary date on or after February 11, 2013.

HUD has published Comprehensive Housing Market Analyses for three new metropolitan areas, Wichita, Kansas; Oakland, California; and Salinas, California.

HUD recently published Housing Notice 2012-20, FHA Underwriting Instructions for Projects Converting Assistance under the Rental Assistance Demonstration.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that 17 communities across the country have been awarded $4.95 million in Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grants. HUD’s Choice Neighborhoods Initiative promotes a comprehensive approach to transforming distressed areas of concentrated poverty into viable and sustainable mixed-income neighborhoods.

HUD has issued a call for entries for the 2013 Housing & Community Design Awards. The awards, which are co-sponsored by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the HUD Office of the Secretary, recognize excellence in affordable housing, community-based design, participatory design, and accessibility.

HUD has issued a Notice of Intent to conduct an Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing program in the Baltimore, Maryland Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA). The Agency will make available certain incentives to developers in order to encourage the production and availability of more affordable housing units in “communities of opportunity,” as defined in the Thompson vs. HUD settlement, in the Baltimore SMSA.

HUD has published its final Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for the Housing Choice Voucher Program and Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program and any other programs requiring their use for Fiscal Year 2013. The FY 2013 FMRs are based on using 5-year, 2006-2010 data collected by the American Community Survey (ACS).

HUD recently issued Housing Notice 2012-14 which offered guidance on use of “New Regulation” Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments (HAP) Contracts Residual Receipts to offset Project-Based Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments.

The US House of Representatives recently passed a continuing resolution (CR) (HJ Res 117) on September 13, 2012 by a vote of 329-91, followed by passage in the Senate by a vote of 62-30 on September 22, 2012. The CR effectively delays final decisions for fiscal year (FY) 2013 spending until after the elections and will allow, if necessary, the Federal government to run uninterrupted through March 27, 2013 until a new Congress takes office.