HUD Withdraws Five Proposed Rules

As part of the efforts of HUD’s Regulatory Reform Task Force, HUD recently announced that it would not pursue five proposed rules published in the Federal Register and, as a result, is withdrawing the rules from HUD’s Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. HUD stated it is taking this action consistent with Executive Order 13771, “Reducing Regulation and Controlling Regulatory Costs,” and Executive Order 13777, “ Enforcing the Regulatory Reform Agenda,” which, among other things, require that the cost of planned regulations be prudently managed and controlled. HUD proposed to withdraw the following five rules:

• Demolition or Disposition of Public Housing Projects and Conversion of Public Housing to Tenant-Based Assistance (Oct. 16, 2014)—This proposed rule was intended to better protect public housing residents from PHA abuses in the demolition/disposition application and implementation process.
• Streamlining Requirements Applicable to Formation of Consortia of Public Housing Agencies (July 11, 2014)—This was a proposed rule to allow two or more PHAs to join to carry out planning, reporting, and other administrative and management functions. The revisions would allow for the formation of a single Annual Contributions Contract cross-jurisdictional consortium to administer either the Section 8 voucher program or the public housing program.
• Public Housing: Physical Needs Assessments (July 20, 2011)—This was a final rule to require PHAs to use a Physical Needs Assessment (PNA) to project current modernization and life-cycle replacement repair needs of its projects over a 20-year period, rather than a five-year period, to better coincide with the useful life of individual properties and their building components and systems to ensure the long-term viability of the property.
• Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing Rural Housing Stability Program (March 27, 2013)—This was a proposed rule to implement the Rural Housing Stability Assistance Program (RHSP).
• Floodplain Management Protection of Wetlands; Minimum Property Standards for Flood Hazard Exposure; Building to the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard (Oct. 28, 2016)—This is a three-part rule proposed after Hurricane Sandy.