The Shape Of Regs To Come

All the federal agencies published their semiannual regulatory agendae in Monday's Federal Register. These are worth a look because they provide some advance notice of rules not yet proposed.

The news on affordable housing includes a statement from the Federal Housing Finance Board that it "is considering adopting comprehensive amendments to its Affordable Housing Program regulations."

At HUD, plans include a rewrite of HOME Investment Partnerships regulations, rules implementing recent Mark-to-Market legislation, a rewrite of the grant formulas governing Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), and perhaps most dramatically, a big clutch of rewrites affecting Section 8 and public housing. For those last, look in the HUD agenda, find the the Office of Public and Indian Housing in the table of contents and, within that, see the "Proposed Rule Stage" items, starting with No. 1426. Affordable housing dealmakers may especially want to look at No. 1429 in this section on "Streamlined Mixed Finance Application Review."

Also of possible interest is Treasury agenda item No. 2472, regarding an upcoming proposed rule on "amendments to the general public use requirements in the low-income housing tax credit program."

But this is just a taste of what's in the agenda documents. If you work in affordable housing it might be worth taking the time to wade through these.