On July 27, the Treasury Department released new guidance to increase the flexibility of how governments can use State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) to expand affordable housing in their areas. The new guidance:  

1. “Increases flexibility to use SLFRF to fully finance long-term affordable housing loans” 

2. “Expands presumptively eligible affordable housing uses to further maximize the availability of SLFRF funds for affordable housing” 

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In May 2022, NYU researchers Ingrid Gould Ellen, Katherine O’Regan, and Katharine WH Harwood published “Advancing Choice in the Housing Choice Voucher Program: Source of Income Protections and Locational Outcomes”. This blog post summarizes the key findings from their paper, which explores how source of income (SOI) laws impact locational outcomes for housing choice voucher (HCV) holders.  

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In May, the White House released a report titled Advancing Equity through the American Rescue Plan (ARP). The report explores 32 different ARP programs– each with a roadmap on how to improve their policy design and better serve historically marginalized communities. This blog post summarizes the sections of the report on the Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program, and the Homeowner Assistance Fund.  

Emergency Rental Assistance Program 

The ERA program provides $46.5 billion in federal funds to state, local, Tribal governments, and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to support low-income households impacted by the economic consequences of the pandemic. The program also provides housing stability services, including access to legal counsel for eviction prevention. 

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HUD will continue its Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) Landlord Engagement webinar series beginning Tuesday, June 28. The series is designed to address utilization challenges in competitive rental markets. The Zoom link along with a schedule for the series are listed below:  

Zoom link for each webinar session 

Landlord Financial Incentives  

Tuesday, June 28, at 3 pm EDT 

This webinar will focus on creating financial and other incentives to encourage private market landlords to lease their units to EHV households.  

Marketing, Outreach, and Retention Strategies 

Tuesday, July 12, at 3 pm EDT 

This webinar will focus on landlord engagement and retention strategies and best practices for CoCs, PHAs, and other community partners.  

Landlord Engagement and Unit Identification Webinar Wildcard (Office Hours Session) 

Tuesday, July 26, at 3 pm EDT 

During the webinar series and office hours, participants can let HUD know what they would like to see in the final webinar regarding EHV landlord engagement and unit identification. 

Previously recorded webinars from the EHV Landlord Engagement series can be found here.