Housing Miscellany
- Meant to mention yesterday's OFHEO final rule on mortgage fraud reporting. - NH&RA notes a Fannie Mae report of $11.8 billion in rental housing investment "during the first half of 2005," and they've spotted a HUD release of new Section 8 utility allowances earlier this month. [UPDATE: Apologies, this utility allowance notice appears to be relevant only to the state of New Jersey.] - Odd wording at least: HUD has appointed one person to serve as the "board of directors" for the Housing Authority of New Orleans, succeeding another one-person "board" who has served since the agency first came under HUD receivership in 2001. (Any readers here feel able to tell us what's up with that?)
A HUD definition that privileges loners?
Interesting position paper here from three advocacy groups suggesting that the McKinney-Vento definition of "homelessness" is unfair to people who live "doubled up" in others' housing as opposed, for example, to campsites or shelters. The paper's main point is that the definition leaves out young people and families, instead favoring single adults. Might add that it seems to penalize people for maintaining strong social networks in which they can impose on friends or family at need. Incidentally, federal homelessness and housing subsidy policy imposes a terrible bind on extended families in which one household becomes homeless while another lives in subsidized housing. Programs such as Section 8 tend to have rules against long-term guests, which means that if a family in subsidized housing charitably takes in a destitute relative, the good deed could actually be punished by eviction. So our "safety net" programs wait too long for lives to become badly broken before offering to help fix them. So what else is new?
Rental disability discrimination still serious
Nasty news from HUD: rental inquiries from people with disabilities get discriminatory responses up to half the time.
Senate Appropriations rundown from HAC
Three SuperNOFA competitions reopened
In today's Federal Register: further signs from HUD that the electronic Grants.gov application process is not the best thing since sliced bread. The annoucements reopen three application periods that otherwise closed in early summer. All three notices state, "HUD understands that many eligible applicants may have had difficulty submitting their applications..." In explaining that the idea is to allow more time to apply, two of the three put it this way: "...sufficient time to submit completed applications and ensure Grants.gov registration is complete." Affected programs are Youthbuild, the Community Development Block Grant Program for Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Villages, and -- possibly most important for developers -- the Brownfields Economic Development Initiative. This is the second time HUD has extended SuperNOFA deadlines citing glitches in the application process: it already did so for several programs in May. Also in the Federal Register: - A final rule authorizing HUD to take quick enforcement action against lenders in the Multifamily Accelerated Processing system. - Requests for comment (by September 26) on a handful of FHA and Ginnie Mae forms.
Senate appropriations followup
Here's Reuters on the Senate Appropriations action Friday, which included saving the Community Development Block Grants. More details at NLIHC, along with the news that the newly proposed Senate counterpart to the HR 1461 GSE's bill does not contain the affordable housing fund that had been sought in the House version. Oh -- and just in time for this year's definite defeat of the "Strengthening America's Communities" proposal, the advisory committee has released its recommendations. Well, as those Red Sox fans kept on saying, there's always next year.
HUD audit: enforce record tracking system
Newly posted by the HUD Office of Inspector General: an audit saying HUD should more fully enforce its April rule requiring all multifamily program participants to go through automated "previous participation certification." The process sets out evidence of parties' past history with HUD multifamily programs through the online "Active Partners Performance System."
Senate Appropriations update
Yesterday's full Senate Appropriations markup has apparently kicked the CDFI Fund appropriation from the subcommittee's $45 million back to the $55 million level that Sens. Santorum, Corzine and others had been seeking. This per an email just circulated by the CDFI Coalition. Senate Appropriations has posted a helpful press release summarizing what the subcommittee markup did with the TT/HUD appropriations bill this past Tuesday. No posted summary up yet for yesterday's action but it might be worth checking the Senate Appropriations "Press Room" page later on. So far THOMAS is just posting the same July 19 press release, but might want to keep checking over there too.
In your home town...
There's a NOFA out today from HUD offering $5 million for a rather nice purpose: construction or redevelopment of affordable housing as part of efforts to reawaken small-town Main Streets. Applications due September 2, grants to be announced by September 30.
"Fervor" Sayings Of The Chairman...
A lot of visitors to our site seem to be looking for news of Chairman Greenspan's testimony, so here are some links on same: - A straight news account from the International Herald Tribune - Comments made and compiled at The Housing Bubble 2 (your mileage may vary). - The Financial Times on the outlook for interest rates. - And the testimony has brought us a new oracular phrase. No, not "irrational exuberance," not "froth"... this time it's " speculative fervor."
"New Freedom" CDBG procedures explained
Yes, the program has an unfortunate name. But it's an interesting program. An announcement out today (filed at HUDCLIPS as Community Planning and Development Notice 05-03) advises local administrators of Community Development Block Grants on ways to assist and involve people with disabilities. The "New Freedom" program follows from the 1999 Supreme Court case of Olmstead v. L.C. and its implementation through Executive Order 13217. HHS maintains the initiative's home page.
A chance to comment on major HUD regs
HUD announces today that it's posting a draft of proposed changes for its multifamily occupancy "handbook," which is an important regulatory text in the administrative law of housing subsidies. Follow directions on the page with the proposed changes to comment by email. But hurry up if you want to comment: a note on the page says it will be removed August 2. The comments are due August 9.
CRA rules finally appear; $45M for CDFI Fund
Well, the CDFI Coalition's Joe Akman sent out an action-packed email this afternoon that I hope will appear on the Coalition's website soonish. If you can tear yourself away from the Roberts nomination, he has spotted the following very important items: - The long-awaited Community Reinvestment Act enforcement revisions have finally emerged from three of the four main banking regulators. As folks following this issue may recall, the Office of Thrift Supervision took the rather radical step quite some time ago of deciding that savings and loans below $1 billion in assets -- which is most of them -- could get the reduced review accorded to "small institutions." The FDIC, Federal Reserve, and Comptroller of the Currency have been dithering ever since about whether to follow OTS' lead, stand pat, or take a midway position. (If you care about such things, there's a nicely detailed procedural history in the preamble to today's draft of the final rules.) The three agencies as of today have decided to take the midway position: a new "intermediate" standard for institutions between $250 million and $1 billion. It's stricter than the OTS rule, but still folks like the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, when they get around to updating their website on this subject, will presumably point out that less enforcement means less of the kind of community investment that entails higher risks, lower profits, or ruffled majority-group sensibilities -- and in the immortal words that Senator Dirksen may not have uttered after all, pretty soon you're talking real money. This was the NCRC's take on the previous stage in the FDIC/OCC/Fed rulemaking process. You can read comments received by the FDIC last spring over here. - The TT/HUD Senate Appropriations subcommittee markup today picked only $45 million for the Community Development Institutions Fund, which is less than the $55 million the industry had sought, though far more than the Bush Administration recommendation, which had called for no grant programs at all, just a little under $8 million to administer the New Markets Tax Credit. Also in Mr. Akman's newsletter and of interest to close watchers of the industry: the Community Development Bankers Association and its most noted spokesperson, former CDFI Fund administrator Jeannine Jacokes, have joined the CDFI Coalition.
Senate Appropriations HUD markup today
Senate Appropriations subcommittee markup is scheduled for today on the Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary & HUD bill. For yr use in following developments, here's the Senate Appropriations press release page, and the THOMAS appropriations boxscore page. ...of course we may have a Supreme Court nomination by afternoon, in which case the mundane business of government will be less than fascinating by comparison...
Funding opportunity from Commerce Dept.
Lose your job? Then lose your housing too...
Sheila Crowley of NLIHC reacts with alarm to news that the Atlanta Housing Authority intends to evict non-disabled tenants of working age if they can't find and keep jobs. (Apparently the housing authority doesn't want to be a "safety net" any more, and HUD is allowing it to drop that role. In which case, where is the safety net for people who lose their jobs? Or has it been decided that they don't deserve one?) Also from NLIHC, an expectation of action yet this month on the HR 1461 GSE's bill, with the redesigned regulation of Fannie and Freddie plus the much-debated affordable housing fund; a possible new HOPE VI bill; and a useful analysis of the recent HUD guidance on "preservation" vouchers.
Study looks at rent errors in Sec. 8, 202/811
New on HUDUSER: a study of what causes rent errors in what it terms the "deep subsidy" programs -- primarily public housing, Section 8, and 202/811 senior/disability housing.
New Markets applications invited
The Community Development Financial Institutions Fund has just published its invitation for applications in the 2006 award cycle of the New Markets Tax Credit. Applications must be submitted electronically or postmarked by September 21. Premable material says "Business Strategy" and "Community Impact" will get extra consideration as they did in the last cycle. For more details and application materials see the CDFI Fund's own site, which is also advertising an August 4 "informational workshop" on the program. Also in today's Federal Register, the Federal Housing Finance Board has identified the banks it will review this summer for compliance with community support rules, and HUD has posted the information collction notice preliminary to conducting its planned study on the fortunes of formerly homeless families who have spent time in subsidized transitional housing.
Washington miscellaneous
- Looks like the Senate TT/HUD appropriations markup, previously scheduled for today, has been put off. The current schedule shows subcommittee markup July 19, full committee markup July 21. - The NH&RA newsletter is out, with much state-level LIHTC news and also word of legislative responses to the Supreme Court's already-notorious Kelo decision. - The new HAC News has rural housing developments and a selection of recent study results, including a USDA finding that child poverty is actually worse in rural than in urban areas.
Six housing subsidy notices out from HUD
Lots of new housing subsidy notices posted under the July 12 date on HUDCLIPS "What's New". These are Public and Indian Housing Notices 2005-22 through 2005-27, available more permanently under "2005 Public and Indian Housing (PIH) Notices" over here. Topics addressed include enhanced housing vouchers granted under "preservation" settlements, and a weighty chunk of regulation characterized as "guidance" on the vexed subject of public housing authorities' operating subsidies. Also housing development cost limits, and energy efficiency, and Indian Housing Block Grants, and the Fiscal Year 2005 Capital Fund Grants Processing Notice. Anyone who has had a chance to digest these notices, please use the comments section to let us know what you think, OK?
Procurement document out from HUD
If you're in a position to sell goods or services to HUD, or if you're just interested to see what HUD's shopping list might reveal about its future activities, you might go take a look at the agency's Annual Forecast of New Procurements, released yesterday. Any comments on the contents thereof would as usual be emphatically welcome.
New federal energy conservation site
It's Energysavers.gov, and here's the HUD press release about it. The site is designed to draw in homeowners at first glance, but a second glance reveals sections for builders and building managers.
Replacement plan for CDBGs still cooking
The Bush Administration proposal to replace a slew of community development grant programs with a single formula grant is decidedly on the back burner for this year due to Congressional opposition. However, within the last couple of weeks the advisory committee for the "Strengthening America's Communities Initiative" was still discussing the proposed catchall grant program in the future definite tense. The transcript of the advisory committee's June 27 conference call takes some wading through, but bits of it make interesting reading, if only for clues to what might happen in next year's budget cycle. Much of the discussion is the equivalent of a markup on the committee's recommendations, which are presumably to be included in legislation to be submitted to Congress later this summer. The draft recommendations document does not itself appear to be available, but clues to its contents are available in the transcript. For example, on Page 11, Wanetta Ayers of the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference objects to a provision that would make "challenge grants" the "prevailing model" for grantmaking. So for the long term if not the short term, it might be worth a look.
HUD Q&As, including tax credit issues
The Novogradac Property Compliance Report has spotted a 40-page Q&A document that adds clarification for HUD Handbook 4350.1, REV-1, the important set of regulations on "Multifamily Asset Management and Project Servicing." Topics include low-income housing tax credit housing, 202/811 developments, and disability accommodations. (For the handbook itself go to the HUDCLIPS search page, select the search function for "Handbooks and Notices," and enter "4350.1 REV-1" in the upper search field.)
Company towns... in a good way?
That would be the recently proposed Employer Assisted Housing Act , supported by the National Housing Conference, featured in the NH&RA Weekly, and introduced in the Senate as the Housing America's Workforce Act, S. 1330, with a draft for the House available here. Raises some interesting ethical issues, doesn't it? A company's housing subsidies can do a lot of good, especially in an overpriced market -- but what if the employment relationship turns sour? Any thoughts about whether employer housing subsidies can be designed to avoid unhealthy levels of paternalism?
A McKinney-Vento lobbying wrinkle
The National Policy and Advocacy Council on Homelessness ( NPACH) is urging against a proposed requirement for at least 30% of McKinney-Vento funds to be spent on permanent housing.
...and a meatier comment request from OTS
Form 8693 up for comment
Tax credit housing folks, this summer is your time to comment to the IRS on Form 8693, used in posting a Low-Income Housing Credit Disposition Bond in lieu of recapture tax. Comments are due September 6. Note that the 8693 was the subject of an announcement last month giving a new address for filing the form.
A new look at Rural Housing figures
A "Statistics of Income" nugget
Housing finance people with an interest in Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) may be interested in this spring's IRS Statistics of Income Bulletin. It includes a report on the Taxable REIT Subsidiaries created in 2001, the first year they were allowed to form. The report says the new entity "allows a REIT to offer a more complete range of services to its tenants without jeopardizing its status as a REIT."
Today in the Federal Register
Newsletter roundup
In housing advocacy newsletters: The National Housing and Rehabilitation Association has more on the GSE's bill, state tax credit developments, and other updates. The Housing Assistance Council has detailed rural housing and HUD budget breakdowns, a USDA request for public input toward the 2007 Farm Bill, and -- whaddayaknow -- the cancellation of the "Welcome to the Neighborhood" reality TV show that had those weensy Fair Housing Act problems.
To read more please refer to our Archives
(see links in right-hand column).
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