Community Development

Tell Your Senators to Support LIHTC!

~ Jenny Hsu ~ Leave a comment

In 2015, supporters of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) achieved a major victory with the permanent authorization of the 9 percent LIHTC rate, but a 4 percent housing credit rate remains unauthorized. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) have introduced S.548, The Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, to permanently authorize the 4 percent rate and expand the program’s overall allocation authority by 50 percent, allowing more public housing agencies (PHAs) and local redevelopment authorities (LRAs) to access the credit.

Affordable housing stakeholders should take action today and support Sen. Cantwell and Sen. Hatch’s critical legislation by asking your senators to join the bill as co-sponsors and urging them to include this bill in any tax reform agreement that is reached. Help NAHRO achieve its goal of sending 2,500 letters to members of Congress in August.  Continue reading →

HUD Provides $179 Million to States for Disaster Recovery

~ Jenny Hsu ~ Leave a comment

Earlier this week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Ben Carson announced an additional $178.5 million to help hard-hit areas in several states recover from severe flooding that occurred in 2015 and 2016. State grant recipients include Florida, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas. This new allocation will be provided through the Community Development Block Grant – Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Program, where HUD has previously provided nearly $947 million in these areas for recovery efforts. The CDBG-DR grants will support a wide range of activities, including housing redevelopment, business assistance and infrastructure repair.

Below is the full list of grantees for this announcement and their allocations to date:

Continue reading →

Senate Appropriations Approves Transportation, HUD Bill

~ Tess Hembree ~ Leave a comment

In other news from the Senate yesterday, the Appropriations Committee voted unanimously to approve its FY 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) bill. The bill provides $60.058 billion in funding overall, $2.407 billion higher than current funding levels and $3.5 billion higher than the House. Considering the constraints of the FY 2018 budget cap, the increased THUD allocation is a huge win and allowed appropriators to avoid making the same types of cuts seen in the House THUD bill. The House Appropriations Committee approved its bill on July 17.

NAHRO will provide a detailed analysis of the bill next week.

The future of THUD in both the House and the Senate is unclear, though it is unlikely either chamber moves its THUD bill to the floor. Yesterday, the House approved a four-bill minibus package of spending bills, dubbed the “security-bus” because of its composition of defense and security-related bills. The House will likely adjourn for August recess this afternoon without passing any additional spending bills. The Senate, shifting its focus away from health care this morning, delayed August recess by two weeks to work on nominations and the debt ceiling. It may also choose to move appropriations bills to the floor during that time, assuming Majority Leader Mitch McConnell does not adjourn the Senate earlier than expected.

Housing and Community Development Highlights

  • Rental Assistance Demonstration- cap eliminated, sunset date removed
  • Public Housing Capital Fund- $1.945 billion, $4 million higher than FY 2017
    • Jobs Plus- $15 million, level funded
  • Public Housing Operating Fund- $4.5 billion, $100 million higher than FY 2017
  • Choice Neighborhoods Initiative- $50 million, $87 less than FY 2017
  • Section 8 Housing Assistance Payment Renewals- $19.37 billion, $1.015 billion more than FY 2017
  • Administrative Fees- $1.725 billion, $75 million higher than FY 2017
    • Ongoing Administrative Fees- $1.715 billion, $75 million higher than FY 2017
    • Additional Administrative Fees- $10 million, level funded
  • Family Self-Sufficiency- $75 million, level funded
  • Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance- $11.507 billion, $691 million higher than FY 2017
  • Community Development Block Grant- $3 billion, level funded
  • HOME Investment Partnerships- $950 million, level funded
  • Homeless Assistance Grants- $2.456 billion, $73 million higher than FY 2017

 

Application Deadline for 2017 ConnectHome Nation Cohort is July 31st

~ Jenny Hsu ~ Leave a comment

As NAHRO previously reported, EveryoneOn, in partnership with HUD, has announced the expansion of the ConnectHome pilot program. First unveiled in 2015, ConnectHome is a White House initiative aimed at narrowing the digital divide within 28 pilot communities (which includes participation from 23 NAHRO member agencies). ConnectHome tested the impact of cross-sector collaborators using non-government resources in order to accelerate the adoption and utilization of broadband technology by families living in HUD-assisted housing.

Continue reading →

Senate Committee Votes Favorably on Three HUD Nominees

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

This morning the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs voted favorably and sent to the full Senate the HUD nominations of Mr. J. Paul Compton, Jr., to be General Counsel; Ms. Anna M. Farias, to be Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity; Mr. Neal J. Rackleff, to be Assistant Secretary for Community Planning and Development.

The committee conducted individual voice votes for each nominee. Mr. Compton’s nomination went to a roll call vote (15 favorable, 7 opposed.) Sens. Brown and Menendez spoke after the vote. Sen. Brown voted “opposed” on all three HUD nominees because of concerns with the nominees’ application and enforcement of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule. Sen. Menendez only voted “opposed” on General Counsel nominee, Mr. Compton, because of AFFH concerns where Mr. Compton’s written question answers backtracked on the support for AFFH Mr. Compton expressed during the hearing.

The FY 2017 Continuum of Care Program Competition is Now Open

~ Jenny Hsu ~ Leave a comment

On July 14, HUD announced the publication of the FY 2017 Continuum of Care (CoC) Program Competition Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), making available approximately $2 billion in FY 2017 for the CoC Program. The CoC Program is a HUD administered program designed to promote a community-wide commitment to the goals of ending homelessness and provides funding for efforts by nonprofit providers, States, and local governments to quickly re-house individuals and families experiencing homelessness. As of July 18, the FY 2017 CoC Consolidated Application and project applications are available in e-snaps.

The submission deadline is Thursday, September 28, 2017 at 8:00 PM EDT.

Listed below are a number of highlights and special considerations for the FY 2017 competition. More information can be found on HUD’s FY 2017 CoC Program Competition: Funding Availability Page.  Continue reading →

HUD to Publish Technical Corrections to Certain HOTMA Voucher Provisions

~ Tushar Gurjal ~ Leave a comment

Tomorrow, June 14, HUD will publish in the Federal Register a notice titled “Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act of 2016: Implementation of Various Section 8 Voucher Provisions; Corrections.” This notice makes technical corrections to the prior notice published by HUD implementing certain HOTMA voucher provisions. The effective date for the original notice and the corrections remains April 18, 2017.

Corrections in this notice include the following:

  • Clarifies that in the “Units Owned by a PHA” section, the threshold for control should be “more than 50 percent” rather than “50 percent or more”;
  • Units receiving assistance under section 201 of the Housing and Community Development Amendments of 1978 (the Flexible Subsidy program) are now excepted (i.e., not counted towards the limitation) from the Project-based voucher (PBV) general cap and income-mixing cap;
  • For PBV new construction units that qualify as replacement housing for covered units and are exempt from the general cap, one of the requirements should read “site of the original development” instead of “site of the original public housing development”;
  • Clarifies that PHAs may not rely solely on a supportive services program that would require a family to engage in the supportive services once the family enrolls (e.g., Family Self-Sufficiency), for the unit to meet the supportive services exception (which excepts families eligible for supportive services, instead of receiving supportive services from the PBV income-mixing cap);
  • Clarifies that projects in a census tract with a poverty rate of 20 percent or less are subject to a alternative income mixing requirement of the greater of 25 units or 40 percent of the units (the original notice implied that these projects were completely excluded from the income-mixing cap);
  • Corrects an incorrect definition of new construction units that qualify for the exception as replacement housing for the income-mixing PBV cap–the definition in C.3.D(2)(b) (describing projects not subject to the income-mixing cap) is supposed to match the definition in section C.2.C(2)(b);
  • Clarifies that in those instances where a PHA is engaged in an initiative to improve, develop, or replace a public housing property or site to attach PBVs to projects that a PHA has an ownership or controlling interest without following a competitive process, the requirement that rehabilitation or construction on the project must have a minimum of $25,000 per unit in hard costs is not applicable in a situation where the PHA is replacing a public housing property or site with existing housing owned or controlled by the PHA; and
  • Makes numerous typographical corrections.

The pre-publication notice making corrections can be found here.

The original notice implementing certain HOTMA voucher provisions can be found here.

NAHRO’s prior blog post on the effective date of these certain HOTMA voucher provisions can be found here.

HUD Seeks Comment on New Housing Rehabilitation and Modification Program for Disabled and Low-Income Veterans

~ Jenny Hsu ~ Leave a comment

On July 12, the HUD Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) published a notice in the Federal Register announcing HUD’s intention to develop a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Disabled and Low-Income Veterans Housing Rehabilitation and Modification Pilot Program (Program), which was authorized by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (Pub. L. 113–291, approved December 19, 2014), as amended. HUD is also seeking input from interested parties and stakeholders to inform the development of the NOFA so that the funds are “used efficiently and fulfill the statutory purpose.”  Continue reading →

RAD Seminar in Washington, DC – August 16-18, 2017

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

NAHRO Professional Development with MARC-NAHRO are offering a special training opportunity – Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Seminar with Proficiency Test.

The seminar will be held in conjunction with MARC-NAHRO’s Annual Conference, August 16-18, 2017, in Washington, DC. See details below.

For additional information and to register, go to www.marcnahro.org. RAD Flyer

 

 

NAHRO Submits Regulatory Reform Comments to HUD

~ Georgi Banna ~ Leave a comment

On June 14, NAHRO submitted its comment letter to HUD’s request for comment on Reducing Regulatory Burden; Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda Under Executive Order 13777.

NAHRO identified many regulations that would make good candidates for streamlining. Each of the regulations met at least one of the following reasons for streamlining:

(a) The regulation results “in the elimination of jobs, or inhibits job creation”;

(b) The regulation is “outdated, unnecessary, or ineffective”;

(c) The regulation imposes “costs that exceed benefits”; or

(d) The regulation creates a “serious inconsistency or otherwise interferes with regulatory reform initiatives and policies.”

The regulations listed are non-exhaustive. NAHRO’s comment letter is a start of a conversation between the Department and NAHRO. Given the limited time to compile this list, NAHRO expects to identify additional avenues for further regulatory streamlining, which we will share with the HUD.

NAHRO’s comment letter is organized into three sections: Public Housing and Section 8 recommendations; Community Planning and Development; and recommendations on cross-cutting programs and initiatives. Within each major section are topic headers with NAHRO’s recommendation on each topic.