The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs will hold a confirmation hearing for HUD Secretary-Designate Carson at 10 am ET on Thursday, January 12, 2017. The hearing will be held at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Room 538.
The confirmation hearing will be webcast live on the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs hearing website.
NAHRO will cover this hearing and other HUD-related transition events in the coming weeks.
Today, the HUD Office of Community Planning and Development (CPD) published a final rule that will “modernize” the consolidated planning process (24 CFR 91) for CPD formula grantees. The rule adds the concepts of broadband access and vulnerability to natural hazard risks to the Consolidated Plan’s existing housing market analysis. According to HUD, this rule seeks to “promote a balanced planning process that more fully considers the housing, environment, and economic needs of communities.”
Under the new rule, States and local governments must analyze the broadband needs (i.e., broadband wiring and connection to broadband service in the household unit, or the need for additional broadband Internet service providers to increase competition) of housing occupied by low- and moderate-income (LMI) households, including housing in rural areas. The rule also requires States and local governments to assess the vulnerability of housing units occupied by LMI households to increased natural hazard risks, particularly risks associated with climate change.
HUD does not expect the new regulations to result in significant additional expenses and administrative burden to jurisdictions since the requirements are similar to existing planning requirements, and the data necessary is readily available on the internet. HUD plans to input data for both broadband and resilience assessment requirements within the Consolidated Plan pre-populated data tables for use by jurisdictions, though jurisdictions can opt to use other data of their choice. HUD will provide grantees with this data early in Fiscal Year 2018.
Compliance with the requirements of the final rule will apply to Consolidated Plans submitted on or after January 1, 2018. Additional coverage of this final rule will available in the forthcoming edition the NAHRO Monitor (members only).
As NAHRO previously reported, HUD recently finalized a rule that will provide expanded housing protections for survivors of violence and fully codifies the provisions of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act (VAWA) of 2013 into HUD regulations.
HUD has made available the relevant forms necessary under the new rule:
HUD is currently translating these forms into 8 main language.
The final rule become effective on December 16, 2016 and housing providers must now include the Notice of Occupancy Rights and the new certification form with future denials or admissions of assistance notices and future eviction or termination of assistance notices.
Additionally, housing providers have until December 16, 2017 to provide existing tenants with the Notice of Occupancy Rights and the new certification form (via the annual recertification or lease renewal process, or through other means). Compliance with the final rule’s emergency transfer provisions is required no later than June 14, 2017.
Read more about HUD’s implementation of VAWA 2013 in the October 31, 2016 edition of the NAHRO Monitor (members only).
On December 14, HUD issued a final rule titled “Housing Counseling Certification” that codifies statutory requirements that housing counseling required under or provided in connection with all HUD programs will be provided by HUD-Certified Housing Counselors. In order to become certified, housing counselors must pass a standardized written examination and work for a HUD-approved housing counseling agency (HCA). The goal of these new requirements is to improve the knowledge and effectiveness of housing counselors that serve HUD-assisted renters, prospective homebuyers, or existing homeowners.
The final compliance date for the certification requirement is three years after the date the certification examination becomes available. HUD will publish a separate Federal Register notice to announce the start of the testing and certification process. However, some of the provisions of the final rule will become effective on January 13, 2017, including:
Access HUD’s resource page on the final rule here.
It is important to note that this new rule now covers not only participants in HUD’s Housing Counseling Program but also participants in other HUD programs including HOME Investment Partnerships, Community Development Block Grant, Public and Indian Housing, and FHA Single Family. Covered stakeholders will have three years from the date the certification examination becomes available to comply with the housing counselor certification requirement. A resource sheet for other HUD programs covered under this final rule is available here.
Additional coverage of the final rule will be available in the forthcoming edition of the NAHRO Monitor (members only).
On December 6, HUD will issue a technical correction to the “Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013: Implementation in HUD Housing Programs” final rule. This correction updates the compliance date for completing an emergency transfer plan and providing emergency transfers, and associated recordkeeping and reporting requirements to June 14, 2017. After the rule’s publication last month, HUD discovered the compliance date was incorrectly listed in the preamble as May 15, 2017, while the regulatory text provided the correct date of June 14, 2017. The final rule’s effective date (separate from the emergency transfer compliance date) is still December 16, 2016.
Today, HUD issued an interim final rule for the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program that makes changes to how the Department will determine participating jurisdictions’ (PJs) compliance with the statutory 24-month commitment requirement.
Starting with Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 HOME grants, HUD will begin determining compliance using a grant-specific accounting method. In order to prevent PJs from losing appropriated funds when they expend program income, this rule also establishes a new method of administering program income.
Beginning in 2013, HUD has provided frequent discussions and training on the transition from the cumulative method to grant-specific method of accounting for its formula grant programs. With the exception of the new requirements related to program income, this rule does not establish new and unfamiliar requirements for PJs. Thus, HUD has elected to omit the advanced public notice and comment process. This interim final rule becomes effective on January 3, 2017
HUD is still accepting public comments on the rule however, and requests comments on the best way to treat program income to avoid loss of appropriated HOME funds. Public comments are due by January 31, 2017.
NAHRO staff will provide with a section-by-section analysis of this rule in the forthcoming edition of the NAHRO Monitor (members only).
[Note: This article previously reported erroneous effective and comment due dates that were included in HUD’s final rule. HUD has since issued a technical correction and this article has been updated to reflect the correct dates.]
Earlier today, Wednesday, November 30, HUD released a press release for its final rule on smoke-free public housing. Secretary Castro announced the final rule in Boston, Massachusetts at a gathering that included NAHRO National President Stephen Merritt.
The smoke-free final rule will require PHAs to implement smoke-free policies over the next 18 months. The final rule “prohibits lit tobacco products (cigarettes, cigars, or pipes) in all living units, indoor common areas, administrative offices and all outdoor areas within 25 feet of housing and administrative office buildings.”
The rule makes two changes from the proposed rule. First, waterpipes (i.e., “hookahs”) are included in the list of products that may not be used in restricted areas. Second, HUD has changed the term “lit tobacco products” to “prohibited tobacco products.”
HUD’s full press release can be found here.
The text of the final rule can be found here.
Today NAHRO provided members of President-elect Trump’s HUD transition team with the NAHRO Transition 2017 recommendations. All recommendations and positions in this document have been previously approved by our standing committees and the NAHRO Board of Governors. We also intend to make ourselves available to the new transition team and supply them with any and all information and assistance they may require from us to make the transition at HUD under the Trump Administration as smooth as possible.
The transition recommendations can be used as you reach out to your local HUD officials, your elected officials who will be seated in the new Congress, the media and your own state and local officials in a united effort to move a responsible and responsive housing agenda forward at HUD and on Capitol Hill. In addition to this document, the association will also be producing the NAHRO 2017 Regulatory and Legislative Agenda, which will be drafted over the coming weeks with input from NAHRO membership and leadership and will be available at the NAHRO 2017 Washington Conference.
NAHRO’s Transition 2017 recommendations for HUD may be viewed here.
On November 29, HUD will publish a solicitation of comments regarding the implementation of income limits for public housing residents. A provision limiting incomes for public housing residents was included within the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) of 2016 (members only). Section 103 of the bill contains language oriented to limit the tenancies of over-income residents in a responsible, effective way that still provides significant discretion to PHAs. The language in HOTMA places the threshold for over-income families as those with incomes over 120 percent of area median income (AMI) for the most recent two consecutive years. If a family meets this threshold, PHAs have the option of either charging the higher of the fair market rent for the unit or the monthly subsidy (operating and capital fund), or terminating the tenancy within 6 months. Language in HOTMA also provides the Secretary the discretion to establish different income limitations based on local construction costs or unusually high or low incomes, vacancy rates, or rents. Prior to HOTMA’s passage, HUD also solicited comments on income limitations for public housing residents via an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (members only).
HUD is soliciting comments on its proposal to use its calculation of very low-income (VLI) to determine income limits. VLIs are preliminarily calculated as 50 percent of the estimated area median family income. VLI limits include several adjustments to align the income limits with program requirements including: high housing cost adjustments, low housing cost adjustments, state and non-metro median family income adjustments, and ceiling and floors for changes. HUD is proposing to use the VLI as the basis for the 120 percent income limit by multiplying the VLI limit by a factor of 2.4. Areas without a VLI adjustment would result in an income limit of 120 percent of AMI. Areas with an adjustment would be higher or lower than 120 percent AMI, depending upon the adjustments made.
Comments are due Thursday, December 29 at midnight.
Today, HUD published a final rule in the Federal Register that provides expanded housing protections for survivors of violence and fully codifies the provisions of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013 (VAWA 2013) into HUD’s regulations. At its core, VAWA 2013 prohibits housing providers from denying or terminating housing assistance on the basis that an applicant or tenant is a survivor of violence.
The rule’s regulations become effective on December 16, 2016, and compliance with the rule with respect to completing an emergency transfer plan and providing emergency transfers, and associated recordkeeping and reporting requirements, is required no later than June 14, 2017.
Read more about the rule’s provisions in our blog post, published last month. A more in-depth analysis of the rule is also available in the NAHRO Monitor (members only).
[Note: After the final rule’s publication, HUD discovered an incorrect compliance date in the rule’s preamble, with respect to completing an emergency transfer plan and providing emergency transfers, and associated recordkeeping and reporting requirements. The compliance date was incorrectly listed as May 15, 2017, while the regulatory text provided the correct date of June 14, 2017. This blog post has been updated to reflect the correct compliance date of June 14, 2017]
The NAHRO Blog: Legislative & Policy Updates from Washington, DC 