Deals, subsidies, gossip, taxes, and sneaky fine print in the world of rental real estate, from the editors and writers of Apartment Finance Today and Affordable Housing Finance magazines.
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Paper 2530s OK through April '06
In the continuing saga of HUD's paperless-office paperwork reduction paperwork, the law firm of Nixon Peabody this week got hold of an official memo saying HUD-2530 Previous Participation Certifications may be filed on paper, i.e. not necessarily through the electronic Active Partner Performance System (APPS), until April 30, 2006. Nixon Peabody's accompanying memo warns:
If you have not completed the APPS process, it is critical that you file paper 2530s during this window for any transactions you think you may be involved with. We had a good number of unhappy clients who had not completed the APPS process but had failed to file a paper 2530 before the end of November, while paper filings were permitted. Do not let this happen to you.
- Washington housing news in the Dec. 23 NLIHC Memo to Members includes a rundown on the unreconciled budget reconciliation, and mention of the Violence Against Women Act, which has passed the House with extensive housing provisions. It says some of these would benefit domestic violence victims with grants and required efforts by housing authorities, but a further provision would specifically allow the eviction of a victim whose abuser also endangered other tenants.
- HAC News has a further, more recent legislative and regulatory update, much of which will be familiar to readers of this space, but there's an item that hasn't been much covered elsewhere on the passage and imminent signature of HR 797, the Indian housing bill.
We're still sorting out a recent kerfuffle over property tax exemptions at the California Board of Equalization.
At issue, at least in part, was whether or how much to tighten the standards that developers' limited partnerships must meet to receive a "welfare exemption" from property tax under Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code Sec. 214(g). This state tax law section lifts the tax for low-income housing properties owned by limited partnerships that have nonprofits as managing general partners. Some of the recently debated regulatory language defines the extent to which a nonprofit must show "material participation" in a development's literal management process to qualify formally as a "managing general partner," as well as the extent to which tenants must continue to receive benefits at a property that receives a long-term continuing exemption.
We'll have the issue better parsed, with more on the taking of sides, in an upcoming Affordable Housing Finance, probably February's issue -- but it sounds like, in one corner, some county assessors, nonprofits, and others were contending that nonprofits should be more strictly prevented from lending their names to partnerships without considerable "material participation" -- while in another corner, a coalition of nonprofit and for-profit entities were defending an approach closer to the status quo.
The big moment was at the Board of Equalization meeting of Dec. 13, 2005, where the Board approved publication of new Rules 140, 140.1, 140.2, and 143 (no, that's not a typo for 140.3; the numbering is irregular). If we understand correctly, these imposed somewhat stricter limits, but not what the assessors' side would have preferred. [CLARIFICATION: We now understand that the assessors did find the Board-approved rules to be an acceptable compromise, though some other members of their coalition held out for stricter language.] The full Dec. 13 minutes have yet to appear on the BOE meeting records page, but Page 17 of the "Board Action" summary says the "authorization to publish" the four regulations was approved, on a staff recommendation, by a vote of 4-1 with member Bill Leonard dissenting. A further hearing on the matter was set for March 28, 2006.
An extensive procedural history of this rule dispute, including many prior drafts and texts of organizations' comment letters, has its very own page on the BOE site.
Wow, that was fast. HUD has already posted its final rule, with neither notice nor comment preceding, to interpret the brand-new law banning students from Sec. 8 housing who are not over 24, veterans, married, or parents, if they are "not otherwise individually eligible, or [have] parents who, individually or jointly, are not eligible, to receive assistance under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (42 U.S.C. 1437f)." This quick action is "to comply with a statutory directive to issue final regulations within 30 days of enactment of Public Law 109-115."
Odd: of all the genuine emergencies that have existed in the past year, why preempt normal procedure so completely just to evict students from public housing?
HUD Community Planning and Development sent out an urgent message this week noting a whole page of new forms and guidance for the KDHAP-SN hurricane relief program. This is the Katrina Disaster Housing Assistance Program - Special Needs," which is the HUD relief program for hurricane victims who fit special categories based on homelessness, illness, or disability -- including many who formerly received housing aid through regular Continuum of Care mechanisms such as Supportive Housing Program. The new material makes clear that each Continuum must name a "KDHAP-SN Authorizing Agency" or "KAA" in order to receive such aid.
Lagniappe: the acronym "KAA" is already claimed by a variety of entities, ranging from architectural, anime, and computer programming firms, to professional groups including the Kentucky Alpaca Association. Childhood readers of Kipling may also remember Mowgli's friend Kaa the Rock Python, featured in the Jungle Books most thoroughly here and perhaps most memorably in the hair-raising late tale called "Red Dog." Well, there's a new connotation for the syllable now, and may the Kansas Anthropological Association, the Kittery Art Association, and the Maori television personality Kaa Williams all find it a worthy neighbor.
Sorry for the gap in posting due to holidays. Catching up here on several major Federal Register regulatory items:
- The Federal Housing Finance Board has posted a 25-page proposed rule that would make major revisions to its Affordable Housing Program. The Board has issued a separate notice updating its definition of a "Community Financial Institution" by asset size -- now $587 million -- directors' pay rates, and handling of Affordable Housing Program contributions.
- HUD's final rule is out on electronic grant applications through the Grants.gov Web site. It looks like a pretty uniform requirement for all HUD grant applicants to use the online process unless they receive specific waivers to act otherwise. By reference to the existing 24 CFR 5.1001, the only applicants left out of the requirement are those seeking FHA insurance or "loan guarantees that are not associated with a grant program or grant award."
- All five of the federal banking regulators have issued a proposed guidance document on "nontraditional mortgage products," by which they appear to mean such things as interest-only mortgages. All five of the agencies can receive comments; those received by the Federal Reserve will be posted here.
- HUD has issued a highly technical notice for housing authorities on the coefficients used to calculate project expense levels under the new Operating Fund Formula for public housing operating subsidies.
- The Office of Thrift Supervision has posted a final rule, without prior notice or comment, issuing what it characterizes as "technical and conforming amendments" that "include clarifications and corrections of typographical errors." If anyone sees a substantive effect anywhere in this grab bag of small alterations, please do let us know.
If the weather outside is frightful, you might want to curl up indoors with David Smith's perspectives on affordable housing. Right now his weblog is leading with a full archive of his New Orleans posts, followed by an international perspective on the U.S. model for housing subsidies through tax credits.
Should you find yourself in further need of ruminations for long winter evenings, there's Brookings on the Katrina recovery progress here and here... NPACH on Katrina and homelessness... the newly released third-quarter U.S. Housing Market Conditions report from HUDUSER... and if that's not gripping enough, there are always (vaguely) affordable-housing-related classics available online: Charles Dickens' Bleak House with its cautionary tale of housing blight due to excessive litigation... Ibsen's The Master Builder... or Jane Addams' Twenty Years At Hull-House... heck, browse on over to The Online Books Page and pick one out for yourself.
- Also new at CPD are invitations for comment by Jan. 6, 2006 on new screens for the IDIS computer interfaces affecting the CDBG, ESG, and HOPWA programs, and a revised request for comment on the HOME screens. It's nice that HUD folks are realizing computer interfaces can have the same kind of substantive effects as paper forms and that they're seeking comment accordingly.
- The National Multi Housing Council is offering would-be campaigners an anti-NIMBY presentation complete with suggested script and Power Point slides.
An interim rule out from HUD today is about to limit the use of Community Development Block Grants for "job pirating." "The rule also applies to section 108 loan guarantees, and the use of Brownfields Economic Development Initiative and Economic Development Initiative funds with section 108 loan guarantees and CDBG funding." Grant-funded projects will be barred from helping to move "any industrial or commercial plant, facility, or operation" out of one labor market into another, where job losses in the former market could result. The rule is effective Feb. 21, 2006, the same day comments are due. It follows a Proposed Rule issued all the way back on Oct. 24, 2000.
- In the California appellate case of Greystone Homes, Inc. v. Cake, a housing development under construction with the help and at the behest of a local redevelopment agency was found not to be a "public work" for purposes of the state prevailing wage law. Private parties paid all the demolition and construction costs, but the agency had agreed to pay for the land.
- Rural Development Administrative Notice 4128 addresses the enforcement of environmental requirements when developers start construction before they apply for Rural Development assistance.
- Rural Development Procedure Notice 393 re-releases the state-by-state list of authorized property management fees -- Attachment 3-G to the Rural Development Multi-Family Housing Asset Management Handbook -- just two weeks after the last revision in order to add a change in management fees for the state of Idaho. PN 393 also contains several technical-looking revisions to the Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Origination and Servicing Handbook. CARH has background on the management fees' history and recent changes over here.
These are significantly higher than last year's figures, which set the single-unit "floor" at $172,632 and the single-unit "ceiling" at $312,895. This may be a response to the criticism that FHA mortgages have been becoming less practical for homebuyers in expensive areas where many home prices have risen above the "high-cost" limits.
The Gulf Opportunity Zone bill is ready for signature. [UPDATE: No, it was signed this afternoon.] Sec. 104 extends the duration of special mortgage revenue bond provisions in the earlier Katrina Emergency Tax Relief Act of 2005 from 2007 through 2010. But most of all, Sec. 1400N(c) increases low-income housing tax credits by $18 per person in the entire Gulf Opportunity Zone along the Katrina-affected Gulf Coast; it raises the Texas and Florida tax credit ceilings by $3.5 million each; and it treats the entire Katrina, Rita and Wilma GO Zones as "Difficult Development Areas," entitled to extra tax credits per project, through the end of 2008. (Thanks to NH&RA for help parsing this item.)
[NH&RA also notes that HUD did get around to sending over some officials to respond to Congress on the agency's Katrina and Rita responses. The House Financial Services Committee has prepared statements posted for Chairman Oxley and HUD Assistant Secretaries Montgomery and Cabrera.]
- Those CDFI Fund revised dates and deadlines are in the Federal Register today for the CDFI Program (financial and technical assistance) grants and for Native American CDFI Assistance. (As for the on-and-off glitch in the press release earlier, it probably had something to do with viewing last week's version of the release using a Firefox browser.)
- Not quite $20 million in ROSS grants for "self-sufficiency" services awarded yesterday at HUD.
- The question of the proposed discretionary spending cut still hasn't been resolved. NLIHC is still campaigning against it.
- Check NMHC.org for several recent FEMA and Congressional updates.
HUD has announced $1.33 billion in 2006 homeless assistance awards under the McKinney-Vento Act programs, consisting of the Emergency Shelter Grants and the Continuum of Care programs: Shelter Plus Care, SRO/Mod. Rehab, and the Supportive Housing Program. HUD announcements here and here. The figure is below last year's $1.4 billion, but the programs seem not so badly cut as some other forms of housing spending.
Odd how Congress finds it relatively easy to reduce rent subsidies such as Sec. 8 that keep very poor households out of homelessness, but it has a harder time cutting the McKinney-Vento rescue programs for people who already are homeless. True, it costs less tax money to place a person in supportive housing than to pay for the government services affecting that same person in a state of homelessness -- think of the jail, court, paramedic, hospital, and morgue expenses alone. But long-term homelessness inflicts lasting material and emotional damage in ways that cost time and money to heal if they can ever be healed at all. So wouldn't it save even more money to increase simple rent subsidies and keep more people from ever becoming homeless in the first place?
Martha, I checked all the links myself and also called two individuals outside the Fund (one from an industry group) and asked if they had any problems last week when they received the press release. Neither they did or I did. It was opened by well over 2,000 people and yours is the only communication we received. So, I'm not sure what happened. And I know the industry group I called would have called or e-mailed me had they experienced the same thing. Bill
When I went to the same site this morning, the links worked properly, bringing up the texts of some draft Federal Register language. But when I went back to the version I saved Friday, it still took me to this Danish site with a polar bear on it. Odd. I've sent a note back to Mr. Luecht with a copy of the Friday version. Further bulletins as events warrant.
[LATER: Mr. Luecht reports no luck finding polar bears in the Friday version at his end. So maybe it's something to do with our connection here. I swear, I'm not making this up. Yr humble blogmother saw it. So did the blogmother's spouse, using a different computer on the same DSL line. But it's not there any more. Guess this might remain a permanent mystery, I dunno..... YET LATER: It's possible we were both using Firefox browsers. Maybe that's it.]
In Friday's Federal Register, HUD revisited the vexed question of how best to update its "Fair Market Rent" metropolitan area definitions based on 2000 Census data without jolting suburban towns by defining them in or out of high-cost cities' peripheries. Comments are due Feb. 14, 2006 on a couple of proposed approaches, with and without "hold-harmless" provisions that would at least "selectively" stop "Fair Market Rent" amounts from dropping as a result of metro area definition changes.
- The NLIHC Memo to Members includes this year's Out of Reach report, per which the "housing wage" -- the hourly pay that makes it possible to spend just 30% of one's income on a two-bedroom apartment -- has increased again, this time to $15.78.
Sorry blogging has been a little slow this past week. Here are some items from throughout the week that we wouldn't want to let slide.
- GovExec's Fedblog mourns the death on Thursday of former Sen. William Proxmire, implacable enemy of red tape. Perhaps fittingly, HUD issued a press release Friday offering awards "to recognize local communities for their outstanding leadership in reducing excessive or unnecessary regulations that effectively discourage the production of housing that is affordable to working families."
- Sen. Trent Lott has joined a lawsuit against his insurance company for money to replace that famous house of his on whose porch Pres. Bush one day looks forward to sitting. The issue in the suit is a serious one affecting quite a few of the Senator's constituents: the difference for insurance purposes between "flooding" and a "storm surge."
- Rep. Richard Baker, R-La., has introduced HR 4100, which would create a government-financed "Louisiana Recovery Corporation" to purchase and redevelop Katrina-damaged properties. Seems to involve privately owned properties, so public housing might not be included.
- NH&RA spotted an announcement in which the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee smooths out its procedure for reassessing some developers' tax credit amounts. The change affects developers using state low-income housing tax credits who were recently told they did not have to obey California's prevailing wage laws.
- The Washington Post tells the epic story of Capital Manor, a large apartment complex purchased with great difficulty by tenants living on low wages and public benefits.
Dull stuff first: The CDFI Fund changed some application deadlines and "information session" dates through a press release dated Tuesday. Confusingly, the announcement on the CDFI Fund site superseded deadline announcements appearing in that same day's Federal Register. The "CDFI Program," which combines Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance grants, moves its application deadline from Jan. 23, 2006 to Feb. 13, 2006. The Native American CDFI Assistance program moves its deadline from Feb. 14, 2006 to March 1, 2006. Some information session dates have also been changed, and together with these announcements the CDFI Fund has included a 12-page set of instructions for Grants.gov online applications.
I'll get to the polar bear now: if you open up the press release announcing the deadline changes, there are two links at the foot of the page that you're led to think will take you to extremely dull draft copies of the Federal Register notices that will formally change the deadlines. But if you assumed that you would be wrong. Click on either of the links and you get this document in what appears to be Danish, with options for translation into English or Greenlandish, and an attractive picture of a polar bear. The site asks: "Hvad er Artek?" And that's just about what I'd like to know.
- HUD has released an "Affordable Housing Needs" report to Congress stating there are no more than 5.18 million households with "worst case needs" for housing -- slightly fewer than the agency reported in 1995. "Severe rent burden, not severely inadequate housing, is the only priority-housing problem for most (91 percent) [of] households with worst case needs." (Housing advocates and providers, does this match your experience out there?)
- A release dated Monday summarized final results in HUD's assessment of the GSEs' compliance with 2004 housing goals. It said Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac both counted as having complied, "but the Department penalized Freddie Mac's 2004 performance for Freddie Mac's failure to obtain HUD's approval during the 2004 performance year before counting certain mortgage purchases." (Note that the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight released its fiscal 2005 Performance and Accountability Report on the GSEs back on Nov. 15.)
- An announcement headlined as a HUD-HHS agreement "aimed at protecting HUD rental housing resources" turns out to mean that HHS will let HUD can use its New Hires database to catch tenants who don't report employment income.
Apologies for the slow posting these last couple days. Some of the items in the current mix:
- The Economic Development Administration of the Dept. of Commerce has just posted amendments to the interim final rule that it issued Aug. 11 to detail program changes imposed by the Economic Development Administration Reauthorization Act of 2004. It's also pushing the effective date of the rule forward to today, Dec. 15 -- the second postponement in a row.
- Yesterday's HAC News lays out the housing proposals before Congress as members work to wrap things up for the holiday recess. It seems an across-the-board discretionary spending cut is still possible. The newsletter also notes Tuesday's introduction of two new bills, HR 4514 and S 2088, expressing the White House proposal for "homesteading" as an approach to the Hurricane Katrina displacements. Neither one of these is posted at THOMAS yet, but it might be worth checking back later. [MORE: Here's Sec'y Jackson on that homesteading business.]
- John Henneberger of the Texas Low Income Housing Information Service is quoted at length in the Austin Chronicle calling for more solid long-term hurricane relief planning.
A few weeks ago we noted here that FEMA had offered to release names of all participants in the interagency/public/private Joint Housing Solutions Center, which had apparently become an important idea shop for the federal Hurricane Katrina recovery effort. After a few false starts, I got in touch with Kwong Hui of FEMA's Region II, who sent the list right over. It turns out that, contrary to earlier impressions, the JHSC does include multifamily housing entities -- among them the National Multi Housing Council and the National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders. Mr. Hui advises: "It is important to note that not all members are equally active, but all have participated and are part of our information distribution." Also, the list appears to contain a few small errors (I've noted/corrected some of them in [] square brackets below), and when it comes to some of these acronyms, your guess is probably better than mine -- but it's an interesting list and a surprisingly diverse one. List herewith:
For All Kids-Rosie O'Donnell Foundation
American Red Cross
American Institute of Architects
Fannie Mae
National Apartment Association
United Jewish Communities
Katrinahousing.com [Possible incorrect address?]
IAC
TCG International LLC
Family Corps
Second Harvest
Habitat for Humanity
National Association of Home Builders
National Multihousing Council
HUD
Home Depot
Gove[r]nor's Office
LDOL
Veterans Benefit Administration
USACE
The Communities Group
NMHC
National Development Council
Advancement Project
Architec[]ture for Humanity
United Way
Church World Services
LA Department of Social Services
USDA
National Association of Realtors
Rebuilding Together
Lowes
NIPC
New Orleans Network
ACORN
Public Architecture
LA Housing Financing Agency
LA Department of Labor
FEMA
USDA - Rural Housing Services
US AFCE
Salvation Army
LA Recovery Authority
National Association of Affordable Housing Lenders
Any comments, additions or clarifications would be extremely welcome.
Per yesterday's court order in the ongoing McWaters v. FEMAclass action, Gulf Coast evacuees living in hotels in any state get to stay through at least Jan. 7 and possibly Feb. 7.
There are several more important housing-related details in the full text of the Temporary Restraining Order by Judge Duval of the Eastern District of Louisiana federal court. The document begins with a bracing description of the Katrina disaster's toll, then proceeds into an analysis beginning: "The Government's primary defense is sovereign immunity." All worth reading but if you want to cut to the chase, the actual terms of the court order begin on Page 24.
It says what's now known as "the Short-Term Lodging Program" -- that's the hotel program -- is not to stop any sooner than Feb. 7... also that any current hotel resident in the program gets two weeks after receiving any definite eligibility decision before having to move out, unless Feb. 7 comes first... FEMA has to stop requiring applicants for Temporary Housing Assistance to complete SBA loan applications as well.
On the other hand, the judge denied a request to stop FEMA's application of the "Shared Household Rule," which prevents unrelated people who were roommates at the time of the disaster from collecting aid separately, and he refused to impose a definite timetable for FEMA's processing of remaining pending applications for aid. The judge wouldn't issue an order either when it came to "re-certifying" the benefits of people who received $2,358 initial aid grants and were threatened with aid cutoffs because they spent that money for purposes other than rent. However, the judge noted FEMA has already agreed to continue aid to people in this category if they sign sworn statements saying they were never told their use of the money was restricted.
It doesn't sound like anyone involved in the case is thrilled about keeping people in hotels over the long term. Judge Duval wrote: "The Court is well aware that this remedy is neither a panacea for those in hotels and motels nor for the Government."
- The NLIHC Memo to Members reports that HUD officials have agreed to attend a second hearing on the agency's Katrina response, after declining to appear alongside FEMA officials last week.
- Further on the Katrina beat, empty FEMA trailers sit in Arkansas... The London Observer reports on evictions, rent hikes, and lockouts in New Orleans' suddenly overcrowded rental market.
- There's controversy over a group of HOPE VI evictions in South Carolina.
- The Rural Housing Service has posted a correction to the disbursement rule it published in October.
- HUD is asking for comment on forms, including the contractor's request for distribution of insured mortgage proceeds and the request for distribution of capital advance/loan funds under Sec. 202 or 811.
- Earlier this week the House passed HR 4440, the Gulf Opportunity Zone hurricane relief bill. Novogradac notes the bill would temporarily increase low-income housing tax credits in the designated Zones and would give them a special Difficult Development Area status.
- Newly sworn Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing Orlando Cabrera, interviewed in GovExec, offers some details on his personal history, plus comments on the new operating subsidy rule and on the Katrina recovery. E.g.:
We've had a good amount of success [with the Katrina Disaster Hurricane Assistance Program]. We're trying to encourage people to utilize it, and believe it or not, it's tough. When a hurricane hits, there is this myth that [people] go and live in hotels. They don't. Or that they go and live in shelters. They do, for a very short while. Most folks go live with friends and family. And, notwithstanding everything we've read in the press about people not wanting to go home, they desperately want to go home. That's what they know. And if they don't now, they will.
HUD announces today it is both allowing and inviting prospective 2006 grant applicants to get a head start registering with the Grants.gov online application system. Probably a good idea, since trouble navigating this same system delayed so many applications last year that several deadlines had to be postponed.
Reps. Barney Frank and Maxine Waters, ranking Democratic members respectively of the House Financial Services Committee and its housing subcommittee, are calling on subcommittee members to issue a subpoena to HUD for testimony about its response to Hurricane Katrina. HUD officials chose not to appear when called to a hearing specifically on the Katrina housing response.
FEMA did send David Garratt, the acting director of its recovery division, to testify before the housing subcommittee today. His prepared testimony is already posted.
[MORE: The Post-Intelligencer says FEMA came in for some pretty strong criticism too, and it provides some explanation on the HUD absence: "HUD spokesman Jerry Brown said Jackson asked subcommittee chairman Bob Ney, R-Ohio, for a separate hearing. Ney hinted that the panel might subpoena Jackson."] [FURTHER: Here's the Times-Picayune writeup of the hearing.]
- A Rural Development Procedure Notice appeared yesterday with revisions to a number of regulation handbooks, including a change in maximum management fees for Rural Development multifamily housing in several states. ("Attachment 3-G is partially revised to correct published fees for MS per state fee amendment requests for MD/DE, PA, AZ, NV, CA and WA.") In the revised Chapter 3 of the Multi-Family Housing Asset Management Handbook, the changes to Attachment 3-G are on the 59th and last page.
- Multifamily housing people should check HUDCLIPS "What's New" today -- there are a number of new versions of forms affecting Sec. 8 and other multifamily rentals.
- The HOME program's November monthly reports are posted as of today.
- Today the Department of Labor issued a regulation on "accommodations to be made for employers impacted by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma regarding the filing and processing of permanent labor certifications." (Such certifications allow foreign workers to work permanently in the United States.) The new regulation sets procedures for correspondence with employers in areas where normal mail service is still not restored and waives some employers' deadlines. In other hurricane news... Rep. Ney is looking to extend the new HUD hurricane mortgage assistance to flooding victims in his own Ohio district.... while a Washington Post editorial tries to put the Katrina home-mortgage crisis in perspective.... Federal offices are slowly reopening in New Orleans.... but they're imposing layoffs at Tulane.
The National Alliance to End Homelessness has posted a number of hard-to-find regulatory announcements, including several dated December 5, regarding a sub-category of the HUD hurricane relief program, KDHAP-SN. The "SN" stands for "special needs," and KDHAP-SN serves not only people who were homeless at the time of the hurricanes, but also those who lost rentals financed through HOPWA, Shelter Plus Care, or the Supportive Housing Program. Go to the group's Katrina page and scroll down to the HUD section.
Additionally, the Homeless Management Information Systems listserv (see below for more subscription information) sent out a new document today captioned "KDHAP-SN Administering Agency (KAA) Fact Sheet." This one doesn't seem to be posted online yet. A lot of it consists of definitions -- including for three kinds of help the program will pay "KAA" agencies to provide. These are: eligibility verification; "housing search," which includes paying transportation and phone bills for home-seekers, and "housing stabilization," which includes referrals, "coordination with PHA for rental assistance, intervention with landlord and PHA if necessary, and establishment of long term housing plan in preparation for end of KDHAP-SN assistance." It's possible for "KAA" agencies to collect as nearly $4,000 for each household that it assists in all three ways, and "grant amounts may be supplemented"... It being an interesting further question whether the said households could themselves find uses for $4,000 cash money about now.
In case you hadn't heard, bedbugs are returning in force to New York City and San Francisco, and they're not just for poor people any more. They're all over, causing itching, allergies, and the occasional lawsuit. They seem to have come back to the U.S. via foreign travel and the banning of DDT, and once they're in your building, they're hell to remove. Apart from pesticiding, the main techniques include tidying, washing, heating, freezing, and putting bedstead legs in pans of soapy water. Ugh.
A bunched group of announcements emerged this week from the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. First of all, two new Notices of Funding Availability (NOFAs): one for Native American CDFI Assistance (NACA), the other for the renamed "CDFI Program," a combined version of the former Financial Assistance and Technical Assistance grants -- from which, however, the Bank Enterprise Awards would appear to remain separate. A road-show series of "Information Sessions" are set for Dec. 12 through 19, with a satellite broadcast available Dec. 14.
More important, the agency has posted 55 pages of Revised Interim Regulations for the "CDFI Program," soon to appear formally in the Federal Register with a 60-day comment period. Additionally, the combined press release states the CDFI Fund has posted a new "amendment" to the Bank Enterprise Awards NOFA, but I admit not being able to find it on the BEA Program section of the site. (We'll pick it up when it hits the Federal Register of course, but in the meantime, could anyone else who spots an online edition of this "amendment" please drop us a note in Comments below?)
Application forms are already available; further application instructions are to be provided in January. In the "CDFI Program," applications will have to be filed by January 23, 2006 through the Grants.gov Web site, whose troubled handling of HUD's 2005 SuperNOFA programs underscores the official advice that "Applicants are encouraged to start the registration process now at www.grants.gov as the process may take several weeks to fully complete." The NACA deadline is Feb. 14, 2006.
- AP, via the NYT, reports Sen. Thad Cochran, Republican of Mississippi, is pushing for an increase of some $18 billion in hurricane relief aid, much of it in the form of Community Development Block Grants.
- This morning's Washington Postlooks at questions surrounding the nomination of Ameriquest founder Roland Arnall to be Ambassador to the Netherlands.
- The Low Income Housing Coalition emerges from its Thanksgiving break with a fresh Memo to Members. Note especially the HOME policy material on regulatory waivers and recent "HOMEfires" policy statements -- but there's much else worth reading including a helpfully engaging Texas report on the hurricane aftermath.
- HUD Community Planning and Development is seeking comments on its HOME "performance measurement" computer interface. The Dec. 2 announcement says comments will be received "now through December 2005," hence presumably 'til the end of the month.
- There's a step toward stricter monitoring of HUD contracts among the HUDCLIPS "What's New" items posted Friday. The item is a rule change affecting Handbook 2210.3 Rev. 9, and what it does is to take away the unilateral power of the program office heads to appoint certain representatives who negotiate and watch over HUD's public contracts. Interesting, because program office heads are at least sometimes political appointees. (The term is defined on the second page of this form.) As of Friday's rule change, the program office heads still get to nominate candidates to be Government Technical Representatives and Government Technical Monitors, but the relevant Contracting Officer is to approve the said nominees, if and only if the said nominees appear qualified. Here's the transmittal letter, which is from HUD Chief Procurement Officer Joseph A. Neurauter, and here's the rule book chapter that he just revised. By the way, GovExec did a profile of Mr. Neurauter in September and he looks like an interesting guy. It says he's an ex-military man who just last year was investigating "an information technology contract administered through the Interior Department that was used to supply the Army with civilian interrogators in Iraq."
Also in recent federal housing announcements:
- The "What's New" page also has a slew of redrafted forms posted this past week, including some of interest to multifamily developers.
- Your chance to comment on how HUD might better conduct its next study of multifamily buildings' compliance with the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines, LIHTC properties specifically mentioned. Comments are due Feb. 3.
As promised by yesterday's news report, here's the press release on HUD's $200 million mortgage assistance program for victims of hurricanes who have houses to pay mortgages on.
Still no Sec. 8, and apparently not enough other help, for people who have neglected to acquire houses. Sigh.
There's a long news analysis in the Washington Post today discussing possible next steps for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- including the possibility of their getting farther into multifamily housing.
This AP story has early word that there'll be a new announcement tomorrow (Monday) of an FHA program to pay hurricane victims' mortgages for a year or more. (Lovely if you're a disaster victim with a mortgage. But what if you're a disaster victim with a lease on a waterlogged apartment...?)
- Property owners and other residents have finally been allowed back into New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward. What's left of it. And for some, aid still doesn't come. While the Bayou Buzz notes that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco has just formally sent Congress her side of the story. [LATER: Mayor Nagin pleads with New Orleanians in Atlanta to come home.][MORE 12/4: As the NYTreports, Gov. Blanco has also made available a huge archive of state documents both to Congress and to news reporters. Instructions for members of the press who wish to request access are available here.][AND YET MORE: Here's the Post writeup on the document release.]
- I don't generally link to HUDUSER's steady trickle of regional market analysis reports but there's an interesting one this week on the Vallejo-Fairfield area outside San Francisco, which is one of the main places renters go when they get priced out of the region's better-known cities.
- An unfavorable audit of the Atlanta HOME program. Hard to tell if this is an OIG report or what. If so, it's not posted in the Georgia section yet.
- Possibly interesting: a First Circuit federal appeals court decision, Vistamar, Inc. v. Fagundo-Fagundo, has just dismissed a Puerto Rican property owner's Sec. 1983 civil rights lawsuit over an eminent domain action. The dismissal was on statute-of-limitations grounds, but the circumstances of the case are interesting in light of Kelo etc.: Vistamar alleged its property was taken, with compensation paid, in the 1970s, on the understanding it was to be used for an expressway -- but the expressway was never built and the property ended up in the hands of other private owners who refused to sell it back.
GAO is concerned about whether HUD is being sufficiently thorough and attentive about accepting and following up fair housing complaints. Study results are here; backup material on surveys here. Looks like one more thing to address for HUD's new Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity: attorney Kim Kendrick of Pittsburgh and the DC Housing Authority, sworn in this past Oct. 20.
The HUD Public and Indian Housing (PIH) site has just posted operating requirements for the special KDHAP hurricane housing relief voucher program. The document is PIH Notice 2005-36, and the alternate (probably more durable) link for the rule in Word form at HUDCLIPS is here.
The Census bureau is seeking public comments, due Jan. 31, on the way it surveys local officials who issue building permits. Your chance to suggest, among other things, "ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected."
- The Arkansas Traveler student paper reports on the evacuee situation in northwest Arkansas. Sounds dismal, though the local Salvation Army major told the paper, "Most of these folks were city people... They found the [northwest Arkansas] area refreshing and beautiful."
- A fresh retrospective on HOPE VI just out from the Urban Institute.
- An historical preservation group was just barred on procedural grounds from challenging a low-income housing project in San Diego.
- Sec'y Jackson present at the bill-signing ceremony to place a statue of Rosa Parks in the Capitol building.
....yep, miscellaneous federal housing announcements. To wit:
- HAC notes this link to USDA's unnumbered letters for October and calls special attention to the letter of Oct. 22 on the Rural Development Capital Needs Assessment Process. No, there's not much in the equivalent file for November except that folks working with Sec. 521 probably already know they have to submit information by Dec. 9 describing any improper payments and what they did about them.
- GAO has some worries about Ginnie Mae's loss of volume.
- This is a single-family item, but it's interesting as a sign of the times: HUD has just approved two new entities -- the National Foundation for Credit Counseling and Money Management International -- to provide counseling on risky Home Equity Conversion Mortgages ("reverse mortgages") anywhere in the country. Previously AARP was the only entity authorized to provide such counseling nationwide, though other entities and organizations were allowed to provide the counseling under narrower conditions.
- Back on Nov. 15, the HUD Inspector General's internal audits page posted "additional details" that it states are a supplement to a previous report on HUD's 2005 and 2004 financial statements. (Odd: the page lists previous audits of the FHA's and Ginnie Mae's statements, but not an audit of the whole shebang. Anyone know why?) This Nov. 15 report contains a number of scoldings about failures to take back or "deobligate" HUD funds that have been issued but not verifiably spent as authorized. Among these, the harshest comments have to do with the Sec. 236 Interest Reduction Program -- so, folks involved with same, best go take a look.
Effective today, Dec. 1, HUD has posted its Annual Adjustment Factors to allow rent increases under original Housing Assistance Payments contracts for several major Sec. 8 programs. Increases, granted by region, range from nothing at all to 6.5%, with most hovering in the 2-3% range.
[Reader Lew Weinberg wrote in to report a problem with the link. Should be fixed now, please leave a note below if not. -- M, 12/2/05]
