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HUD recently issued a letter to the City of Los Angeles, detailing the city’s ongoing failure to provide accessible housing for low-income persons with disabilities. HUD’s Supplemental Letter of Findings expands on observations the department first made in 2012 when it notified the city of its noncompliance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

April is Fair Housing Month, and the Fair Housing Act makes it unlawful to discriminate in housing transactions based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or family status. This year, HUD is especially focused on protecting the rights of individuals to feel safe and secure in their homes, free from sexual harassment or unwanted sexual advances.

President Trump recently released his fiscal year 2020 budget request. The 2020 President’s Budget requests $44.1 billion for HUD, approximately $8.7 billion less than the 2019 Annualized Continuing Resolution (CR). According to Secretary Carson, the budget strategically invests in programs and advances key priorities. The key investments include:

Recently, NBC News found that at least 11 deaths in federally subsidized housing since 2003 were caused by carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, most recently in January when two men died in a public housing site in Columbia, S.C. HUD doesn’t require CO detectors in public housing and, according to housing advocates and public health experts, has been slow to combat the hazards posed by the gas.

The FY 2018 Appropriations Act authorized the conversion of properties assisted by Section 202 Project Rental Assistance Contracts (PRAC). HUD has requested comments to a new draft Section 4 to be added to the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) Revised Notice. The new section would allow for the conversion of these properties, and HUD has indicated it intends to alter this guidance in response to feedback. Here are some highlights from the Section 4 draft:

HUD issued a joint notice implementing the use of the $5 million set-aside included in the FY 2018 appropriations for tenant protection vouchers (TPVs) for low-income households who may have to pay more than 30 percent of their adjusted incomes for rent if they live in certain HUD-assisted multifamily housing in low-vacancy areas. The $5 million is a set-aside from the $85 million FY18 appropriation for all TPVs.

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs recently approved the nominations of Seth Appleton to be Assistant Secretary of HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research and Robert Kurtz to be Assistant Secretary of HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing. These nominations head to the full Senate for consideration.

After the signing of the bill that temporarily ended the government shutdown on Jan. 25, HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs published a memo regarding the resumption of asset management activities. The memo identified the priorities the staff will have in tackling the backlog of work submitted during the shutdown period.

HUD recently sent proposed changes to the disparate impact regulations to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) at the Office of Management and Budget. HUD’s disparate impact rule was enacted by HUD during the Obama administration and is used as a way to enforce the Fair Housing Act. Under HUD’s rule, lenders, landlords, and other housing providers can be held liable for discrimination against protected classes even if it wasn’t their...

U.S. Senators Todd Young (R-Ind.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) recently introduced legislation to provide greater choice and mobility to participants in HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher program. The bipartisan bill builds on the same legislation introduced by Senators Young and Hollen during the 115th Congress.