Member Content
Last Week of August Advocacy: Support HUD Funding!
It’s the final week of August advocacy! We’ve sent over 2,000 letters to Congress in August – a good number, but still well below our goal of 3,000 letters. Please take action now to support responsible funding for housing and community development in FY 2019. House and Senate Appropriations staff are currently working to negotiate a … Continue reading Last Week of August Advocacy: Support HUD Funding!
HUD Awards FY 18 Emergency Safety and Security Grants
HUD has awarded on $5 million to 22 public housing agencies across the country for Emergency and Security Improvements. The FY18 omnibus provided $21.5 million for grants to PHAs for emergency capital needs resulting from unforeseen or unpreventable emergencies and natural disasters, excluding presidentially declared emergencies and natural disasters under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief … Continue reading HUD Awards FY 18 Emergency Safety and Security Grants
HUD Creates New Landlord Task Force
Earlier today, HUD published a press release announcing that it would create a new Landlord Task Force. The task force is being created as a response to two new studies which found that most landlords do not accept vouchers and, in those instances where landlords do accept vouchers, the landlords are dissatisfied with the administrative … Continue reading HUD Creates New Landlord Task Force
Federal Judge Dismisses AFFH Suit
In an opinion published on Friday, a federal judge dismissed a suit brought by several fair housing organizations. The fair housing groups wanted HUD to reinstate the local government assessment tool as part of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) process. The court found that the groups did not meet the requirements to sue and … Continue reading Federal Judge Dismisses AFFH Suit
HUD Files Complaint Against Facebook
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 … Continue reading HUD Files Complaint Against Facebook
Brookings Publishes Guide on Writing Effective Regulatory Comment Letters
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 … Continue reading Brookings Publishes Guide on Writing Effective Regulatory Comment Letters
HUD to Reopen AFFH Rule
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 … Continue reading HUD to Reopen AFFH Rule
HUD Publishes Notice on HOME Homebuyer Program
On August 8, HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development posted Notice CPD-18-09, “Requirements for HOME Homebuyer Program Policies and Procedures.” The Notice provides guidance to HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) participating jurisdictions (PJs) on requirements for the homebuyer program. Requirements include: homebuyer underwriting standards, responsible legal standards, and standards for refinancing and subordination of … Continue reading HUD Publishes Notice on HOME Homebuyer Program
Senate Approves FY 2019 Transportation-HUD Spending
This afternoon the Senate voted 92-6 to approve a four-bill spending package that includes the FY 2019 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) bill. Details on the Senate’s THUD bill can be found here (NAHRO log-in required). The bill was passed without major changes; no funding levels were altered and only a couple of housing-related amendments … Continue reading Senate Approves FY 2019 Transportation-HUD Spending
HUD Implements Over Income Limits for Public Housing Residents
On July 26, HUD posted a notice in the Federal Register implementing Public Housing income limits as required by the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA). 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 … Continue reading HUD Implements Over Income Limits for Public Housing Residents