Author: Tushar Gurjal

HUD Files Complaint Against Facebook

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

On Friday, HUD published a press release announcing that it was filing a housing discrimination complaint against the social networking site Facebook. The Department claims that Facebook has a series of options which allow advertisers to control which groups can see their advertisements. By allowing advertisers to restrict certain groups–defined by protected characteristics–from viewing advertised housing, HUD believes that Facebook is discriminating.

For example, advertisers may restrict the viewing pool of users based on protected characteristics like race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, and disability. Facebook mines data on its users and classifies its users based on protected characteristics. Advertisers may then choose to restrict which groups see their advertisements based on those groups’ interests. The Department found that Facebook allows the following:

  • Advertisers to discriminate based on sex by showing ads only to men or women;
  • Advertisers to discriminate based on disability by not showing ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in things like assistance dogs or mobility scooters;
  • Advertisers to discriminate based on familial status by not showing ads to users whom Facebook categorizes as interested in things like child care or parenting;
  • Advertisers to discriminate based on national origin by not showing ads to users whom are interested in certain countries or geographical regions like Latin America or China; and
  • Advertisers to discriminate based on race or color by allowing advertisers to advertise to certain zip codes.

The Department’s press release can be found here.

The Department’s complaint can be found here.

Brookings Publishes Guide on Writing Effective Regulatory Comment Letters

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The folks over at the Center on Regulations and Markets at Brookings have written a handy and short (seven pages!) guide to commenting on regulations. It discusses the federal rulemaking process; how to structure a comment letter; some things to consider about a regulation; assessing the legality of a regulation; and the mechanics of commenting on the rulemaking process.

If you’re interested in writing effective comments to HUD (or any other federal agency), this may be a good guide to take a look at.

The guide can be found here.

HUD to Reopen AFFH Rule

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Earlier today, HUD published a press release announcing that it published a notice inviting public comment on amendments to its Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) regulation.

[8/16/18 Edit – the notice has been published in the Federal Register. It can be found here. The comment due date is October 15, 2018.]

The Department wishes to receive comments on amending the rule so that it does the following:

  1. minimizes regulatory burden while more effectively aiding program participants to meet their statutory obligations;
  2. creates a process focused primarily on accomplishing positive results, rather than on analysis;
  3. provides for greater local control and innovation;
  4. seeks to encourage actions that increase housing choice, including through greater housing supply; and
  5. more efficiently utilizes HUD resources.

Currently, HUD has suspended the obligation of local governments to file Assessments of Fair Housing (AFHs) using the local government tool. The Department believed that the tool was “confusing, difficult to use, contained errors, and frequently produced unacceptable assessments, and otherwise required an unsustainable level of technical assistance.” There is currently a lawsuit brought by three civil rights groups filed against HUD on its action suspending requirements of the rule.

NAHRO will provide additional information to our members as we continue to read through the notice and as additional information becomes available.

The Department’s press release can be found here.

A pre-publication copy of the Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking can be found here.

[8/16/18 Edit – the published copy can be found here.]

RAD Roundup – RAD Supplemental Guidance

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There has been a lot of activity around the new RAD guidance documents over the past few days. This post is meant to compile a lot of that information in one place.

New RAD Guidance Documents:

Additional HUD Documentation of new RAD Guidance Documents:

Additional non-HUD Posts:

 

HUD Publishes Notice on Voluntary Transfer and Consolidation of HCV Programs

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HUD has published PIH 2018-12 titled “Process for Public Housing Agency Volunteer Transfers and Consolidations of Housing Choice Vouchers and Project-Based Vouchers.” The notice describes the process by which a PHA may request a voluntary transfer or a consolidation of the agency’s Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program. In a voluntary transfer, one PHA’s identifying number and Consolidated Annual Contributions Contract (CACC) remains intact, while in a consolidation, both or all of the PHA’s names, CACCs, and identifying numbers are terminated and replaced. The notice applies to PHAs that administer the HCV program, including project-based vouchers (PBVs), but excludes the Public Housing Low-Rent program and the Section 8 Moderate Rehabilitation program.

Click below for additional information.

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HUD Publishes New RAD Guidance

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Tomorrow, HUD will publish new Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) guidance in the form of two new Federal Register notices. The Department has also published a new RAD Public and Indian Housing (PIH) Notice. The three new guidance documents are the following:

  1. Rental Assistance Demonstration: Implementation of Certain Fiscal Year (FY) 2018 Appropriations Act Provisions (link is to a pre-publication copy);
    1. [7/3/18 Edit – The final, published document can be found here];
  2. Rental Assistance Demonstration: Supplemental Guidance on Final Notice (link is to a pre-publication copy);
    1. [7/3/18 Edit – The final, published document can be found here]; and
  3. PIH-2018-11 – Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) – Supplemental Guidance.

[7/2/18 11:55 am edit – At the same time this post was published, HUD sent a RADBlast! email with additional information.

  • Modified FY 16 RAD Rents can be found here.
  • HUD will host a webinar on July 9, 2018 at 2 pm ET. Registration can be found here.
  • Finally, a version of the RAD notice revised version 3 as amended with the Supplemental Notice can be found here.]

The first notice announces several things:

  1. HUD will use rent levels based on the FY 18 RAD rent base year for Commitments to enter into a HAP contract (CHAPs), portfolio awards, and multi-phase awards issued on or after January 1, 2019. Those rent levels will be published once the final public housing operating subsidy obligation is made for FY 18.
  2. For awards before Jan. 1, 2019, HUD will modify the FY 16 RAD rent base year by replacing the PHA’s FY 16 Capital Fund Formula Grant  with the PHA’s FY 18 Capital Fund Formula Grant (i.e., in calculating RAD rents before Jan. 1, 2019, HUD will use FY 18 Capital Grant allocations, but FY 16 Operating Fund allocations and tenant rents);
  3. The Department can award RAD authority to certain projects where PHAs have submitted Letters of Interest (LOIs) to reserve their position on the RAD waiting list if they submit a complete RAD application within 60 days of publication of the notice;
  4. For all multi-phase awards issued after March 22, 2018, PHAs will have until September 30, 2024 to submit an application for the final phase of the project covered by the multi-phase award; and
  5. HUD may approve a replacement CHAP without new application materials, when a PHA voluntarily withdraws a project and requests new RAD authority for the same project within one month thereafter.

The second notice summarizes certain aspects of the PIH notice. It expands Rent Bundling such that PHAs may bundle between RAD project-based vouchers and non-RAD project-based vouchers. It allows PHAs to establish a project-specific utility allowances for Covered Projects. It provides alternative developer fee limits when a PHA adopts a waiting list preference for households exiting homelessness. It establishes that HUD will disapprove a proposed conversion where a PHA is disposing units at a proposed project and HUD determines that the use of disposition and RAD undermines the unit replacement requirements of RAD. It creates a streamlined conversion option for PHAs that have a very small public housing portfolio of 50 units or less that will not involve any rehabilitation, new construction, or relocation.

NAHRO members will receive additional coverage on these notices and the RAD program.

HUD Voucher NOFAs extended

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NAHRO members recently emailed me to let me know that HUD has extended two of their voucher NOFA deadlines. According to information posted on HUD’s Public and Indian Housing website the following voucher Notice of Funding Availability (NOFAs) have extended deadlines:

  • New 2017 Mainstream Voucher Program Deadline – June 20, 2018; and
  • New Family Unification Program NOFA for Fiscal Years 2017 and 2018 Deadline – July 26, 2018.

Additionally, the new deadline for joining ConnectHomeUSA is June 29th, 2018.

HCV Forecasting Tool Updated

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I have received word from a HUD official that the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Forecasting Tool has been updated. The forecasting tool provides the means to successfully plan and manage a voucher program. The tool has been updated with the final funding numbers for 2018, as well as reconciled 12/31/2017 Restricted Net Position (RNP) numbers for most PHAs.

Additionally, the tool has been updated with several new features:

  • the ability to automatically populate PIC EOP report information;
  • the ability to incorporate different success rates and time from issuance to HAP rates depending on the voucher type;
  • the ability to quickly move information from an old tool to a new tool on the Success Rate Tracker Tab; and
  • a better method for estimating potential offset numbers, based on HUD’s most recent offset-calculating methods.

The tool can be accessed from HUD’s Office of Housing Choice Vouchers webpage.