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HUD recently published a final rule requiring installation of broadband infrastructure at the time of new construction or substantial rehabilitation of multifamily housing that has more than four rental units funded or supported by HUD.

A recent study published in Cityscape titled “Vouchers and Neighborhood Distress” finds that Housing Choice Vouchers utilized by female-headed families are underrepresented in neighborhoods with low levels of distress and overrepresented in neighborhoods with high levels. The Cityscape journal is published by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research. The authors suggest that governments have to help voucher holders overcome racial barriers to ac...

A Capital Needs Assessment (CNA) is a plan for a site to address existing deferred maintenance, to modernize and rehabilitate, and to ensure that all the needs of a site are addressed well into the future. The assessments are used for applications for funding, planning for rehabs, corrections for handicapped accessibility, and the development of plans for interior updates. Specifically, the purposes of CNAs include:

In August 2015, HUD issued a new Section 8 Renewal Policy Guide. Section 9-23 of the Guide provides instructions for comparing the median rents as derived by the appraiser in a rent comparability study (RCS) with Census Bureau estimates of the median rents in the project’s ZIP code. Should the rents in the owner’s study exceed 140 percent of the median ZIP code rent threshold, then HUD would secure a third party to create a RCS for comparison purposes. When ...

HUD and the U.S. Census Bureau released the results of the 2015 American Housing Survey focusing on 25 metropolitan areas across the country. The data includes detailed information on everything from monthly housing costs to hunger and neighborhood characteristics including crime and the prevalence of rodents and cockroaches.

President-elect Trump recently announced that he’ll nominate Dr. Ben Carson as the new secretary of HUD. As HUD secretary, Carson would oversee a budget of nearly $50 billion that provides rental assistance for more than 5 million households.

President-elect Trump will have an opportunity to reverse a number of the Obama administration’s regulatory rules through a rarely used law called the Congressional Review Act (CRA). The CRA was passed as part of the Contract With America Advancement Act by Congress in 1996 when Newt Gingrich, now a close Trump adviser, was House Speaker. To invalidate a rule, resolutions must pass both houses of Congress, then either be signed by the president or passed over the ...

HUD recently released the final rule requiring public housing agencies (PHAs) to implement a smoke-free policy. Specifically, no later than 18 months from the effective date of the rule, each PHA must implement a “smoke-free” policy banning the use of prohibited tobacco products in all public housing living units, indoor common areas in public housing, and in PHA administrative office buildings. The smoke-free policy must also extend to all outdoor areas up ...

HUD published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comment on how HUD proposes to implement the new public housing income limit provision of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA).

HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) recently issued Notice PIH 2016-18 providing guidance regarding the ability of small public housing agencies to use capital funds and operating resources in a flexible manner for any activities eligible under the capital fund program and operating fund program, regardless of which fund the money comes from.