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HUD recently announced that it will cover expanded housing and neighborhood choices for more than 800,000 total households using Housing Choice Vouchers to find and secure affordable housing. PHAs in an additional 41 metropolitan areas that cover more than 440,000 housing vouchers will now be required to use Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMR) under HUD’s 2016 Small Area Fair Market Rent Final Rule when setting the maximum rent that Housing Choice Vouchers will cover, instead of setting rent maximums for the entire metropolitan area.
The White House recently made a formal request to Congress for $6 billion to extend the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). The ACP offers free or discounted high-speed internet to qualifying households. It provides a monthly internet discount of $30 for low-income households and $75 for residents of Tribal lands, more than 20 million households in total. Participants can also get a one-time $100 device subsidy. The program is in danger of running out of money next year.
The case shows how mishandling situations involving assistance animals could cost you.
HUD recently charged an owner with violating the Fair Housing Act by refusing a resident’s request for a disability-related reasonable accommodation to keep an assistance animal and by subjecting the resident to retaliation for requesting a reasonable accommodation.
HUD recently announced settlements with housing providers in Nevada and California, resolving allegations that they denied housing opportunities to two women because they experienced dating violence and stalking.
HUD is required by law to set Fair Market Rents (FMRs) every year. They represent HUD’s best effort to estimate the 40th percentile gross rent paid by recent movers into standard quality units in each FMR area. With the latest release, FMRs will increase by an average of approximately 12 percent nationally for FY24, and many metro areas with recent significant rent increases will have large increases to FMRs.
The Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) was created by Congress in late 2021 and implemented by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to replace a previous pandemic-related subsidy program. The FCC recently announced that it will provide a monthly discount of up to $75 toward internet service for eligible households in certain high-cost areas. The monthly discount had been capped at $30 a month.
The Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University recently released its annual report, State of the Nation’s Housing 2023. The report combines analyses of data from the U.S. Census Bureau, HUD, Freddie Mac, the National Association of Realtors, RealPage, and other sources to provide a comprehensive snapshot of the country’s housing supply and demand.
HUD recently announced a nearly $1 billion Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) transaction with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) that will enable major upgrades for more than 2,000 affordable rental units in the Bronx. This is the largest transaction to date under the RAD program. Through RAD, these homes will be converted to Project-Based Section 8 housing using a RAD/Section 18 Blend, a component of RAD that allows for higher levels of funding to directly support improvements to resident units.
HUD is accepting applications for green retrofit loans and grants until spring of 2024.
HUD is making funding available to support green and resilient retrofits of properties participating in Multifamily Assisted Housing programs. According to HUD, this funding will allow owners to invest in technologies such as solar panels, heat pumps, wind-resistant roofing and other measures that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and make properties healthier and safer for residents in the face of more severe weather and a changing climate.
The Pew Charitable Trusts recently published a brief that outlines the challenges and opportunities of providing broadband internet access in federally subsidized housing. The brief highlighted HUD programs such as ConnectHOMEUSA and the use of pandemic funding to accelerate broadband deployment and access for residents. However, the report finds that funding remains limited, and broadband expansion is competing with basic maintenance for resources in many communities within the HUD portfolio.
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