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The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance recently held a hearing to review “The Cost of Regulation on Affordable Multifamily Development.” At the hearing, expert witnesses identified specific regulations at the federal, state, and local levels that can increase the cost of affordable housing development.
A public housing provider in Florida recently agreed to pay a $100,000 settlement to resolve a female resident’s allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation.
The case began when the resident filed a HUD complaint, alleging that one of the provider’s maintenance workers subjected her to a severe incident of sexual harassment. The woman alleged that the PHA retaliated against her after she reported the alleged incident.
HUD recently announced in the Federal Register the publication of FY19 Fair Market Rents (FMRs). FMRs are used to determine payment standards for the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) program, initial renewal rents for some expiring project-based Section 8 contracts, initial rents in the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program, and rent ceilings for the HOME Investment Partnerships program and the Emergency Solutions Grants program. They are also used in the calculation of flat rents in public housing.
HUD recently awarded $98.5 million to 285 local public housing authorities across the country to provide permanent affordable housing to nearly 12,000 additional non-elderly persons with disabilities. The housing assistance is provided through HUD’s Section 811 Mainstream Housing Choice Voucher Program, which provides funding to housing agencies to assist non-elderly persons with disabilities who are transitioning out of institutional or other separated settings; at serious risk of institutionalization; homeless; or at risk of becoming homeless.
According to the new 2017 American Housing Survey recently released by HUD, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), renters are three times more likely to need financial assistance to evacuate during a major disaster than those who own their own homes. The new survey finds that of the nearly 44 million American renter households, approximately 39 percent indicated they don’t have access to $2,000 to cover evacuation expenses.
HUD recently announced a new task force aimed at boosting landlord participation in the Housing Choice Voucher program. HUD’s HCV program is the nation’s largest rental subsidy program, assisting more than two million low-income households each year. The announcement comes on the heels of recent studies commissioned by HUD from the Urban Institute and Johns Hopkins highlighting issues within the HCV program that leave more than 10 percent of vouchers nationally unused each year.
A judge for the D.C. district court dismissed a lawsuit brought by fair housing advocacy groups for a preliminary injunction against HUD for withdrawing the Local Government Assessment Tool, which communities have been required to use in completing the Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) that determined whether they are in compliance with the 2015 Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Rule.
HUD recently issued Notice PIH-2018-13 providing additional information on calendar year (CY) 2017 executive compensation reporting. The notice specifically instructs PHAs on how to use the HUD-52725 Form that reports executive compensation for CY 2017. PHAs must report compensation for the top management official, the top financial official, and the highest compensated employee who is neither the top management official nor the top financial official.
The Senate recently passed its Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) Transportation-HUD spending bill with a 92-6 vote. The $154.2 billion package combined four separate spending bills for FY19, appropriating funding for the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Treasury, and the Interior. Overall, the legislation largely rejects the Trump administration’s budget proposal and provides HUD programs with more than $12 billion above the administration’s FY19 request and more than $1 billion above the house bill.
Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) is a legal requirement that federal agencies and federal grantees further the purposes of the Fair Housing Act. Currently, as provided in the rule, AFFH means:
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