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HUD recently published the Operating Cost Adjustment Factors (OCAFs) for fiscal year 2020. These factors are used for adjusting or establishing Section 8 rents under the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Affordability Act of 1997 (MAHRA), as amended, for projects assisted with Section 8 Housing Assistance Payments. The factors are effective Feb. 11, 2020. The OCAFs can be found here.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs recently confirmed Brian Montgomery’s nomination to become Deputy Secretary of HUD. The committee approved Montgomery, who is HUD Assistant Secretary for Housing and FHA Commissioner and currently also serving as Acting Deputy Secretary, by a voice vote of 20–5. The nomination now will progress to the full Senate for a vote. Ranking Member Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jack Reed (D-RI), Elizabeth Warren (D-...

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) recently announced that she will introduce a Senate companion bill to Representative Nydia Velazquez’s (D-NY) “Public Housing Emergency Response Act,” which was introduced in the House in September. The bill would create a one-time, $70 billion appropriation into the Public Housing Capital Fund to address the estimated $70 billion backlog of maintenance and repairs in public housing.

HUD recently published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment on federal, state, local, and tribal laws, regulations, land use requirements, and administrative practices that artificially raise the costs of affordable housing development and contribute to shortages in America’s housing supply.

HUD recently awarded $131.3 million to 325 local public housing authorities across the country to provide affordable housing to approximately 15,363 additional non-elderly persons with disabilities.

Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently introduced the “Green New Deal for Public Housing Act.” The legislation aims to retrofit, rehabilitate, and decarbonize the entire nation’s public housing stock. It would invest up to $180 billion over 10 years in sustainable retrofits that include all needed repairs and eliminate carbon emissions in federal public housing. The legislation would also provide funding to electrif...

Democratic presidential hopeful Mayor Pete Buttigieg from South Bend, Ind., recently released An Economic Agenda for American Families, which includes spending $430 billion on affordable housing measures.

Q Some of our applicants, especially those from Puerto Rico, have a second last name on their birth certificate that isn’t on their Social Security card. How should this scenario be handled?

HUD issued its final rule for the implementation of Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) in November 2016. In August of 2017, HUD attempted to suspend the SAFMR rule, but in December of 2017 a U.S. District Court judge ordered it to be reinstated. The new rule became effective in January of 2018, with implementation in mandatory areas beginning in April of 2018. And there are currently 24 metropolitan areas mandated to implement SAFMRs.

President Donald Trump has nominated Federal Housing Administration Commissioner Brian D. Montgomery to fill the Deputy Secretary position at HUD. As HUD’s second-most senior official, Montgomery would manage the agency’s day-to-day operations and advise and assist HUD Secretary Ben Carson in leading the agency’s nearly 8,000 employees.