RHIIPping good reading

The multifamily housing section of HUD's Rental Housing Integrity Improvement Project (RHIIP) recently posted the first online archive of wide-distribution emails from its rapidly improving listserv. This relatively new service -- the opening welcome is dated Jan. 13, 2006 -- began by simply reminding housing managers of lesser-known regulations, in a manner that yr humble blogmother began by taking in vain. However, it has grown steadily in thoughtfulness and depth of interpretation over the past couple of months.

Unfortunately the public archive only seems to have posted the first ten items thus far, so I can't yet provide a public link to the excellent Listserv #13, which arrived by email this past week. The items I've already posted on tenant income verification and tomorrow's big Mark-to-Market conference call are both out of #13, and the issue also provides recaps of some Federal Register publications that we've covered here otherwise. Further items of possible interest to AHF readers include a link to the "Fair Market Rent (FMR) Documentation System," which details how each set of local FMR figures was chosen, and a note of a new HUD-9624 form for multifamily Section 8 contract renewal requests. But if you're managing HUD-subsidized multifamily housing you should really just subscribe to the thing.

In other recent bursts of official helpfulness:

- The administrators of Mark-to-Market -- the Office of Affordable Housing Preservation (OAHP), formerly OMHAR -- have realized that their online resources are somewhat confusing and have helpfully posted a new site map with a topical index of M2M-related Internet sub-pages.

- The IRS is inviting suggestions for its next Guidance Priority List. Your chance to ask the rule writers for explanations. (Year 15 qualified contract rules, anyone?)