Tuesday mix: signs of the times

- NLIHC is awfully proud of the House Financial Services housing subcommittee for holding Katrina field hearings "at last." The new Memo to Members provides a summary of this past week's hearings in New Orleans and Gulfport and says Senate field hearings are on the way too. Also in the M2M: FEMA has again been ordered to extend hotel stays, this time to the end of January and in some places to March 1... FEMA has contracted with the United Methodist Committee on Relief for case management services to hurricane survivors... NLIHC discusses last week's project-based Sec. 8 rules... and a new study says that getting people into their own homes as soon as possible is a really good way to cure homelessness.

- GovExec looks at debate on whether the federal government should back up insurance companies' disaster coverage.

- Rent levels covered by the eviction freeze under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act have increased from $2400 to $2615.16.

- The Federal Housing Finance Board is requesting public comment on the process for gathering data on its "community support requirements," i.e. Community Reinvestment Act compliance and lending to first-time homebuyers.

- Last week the banking regulators expressed worry about institutions with high "concentrations" of commercial real estate lending, issuing a guidance document that told such institutions to take greater precautions against loss.