Topic: In the News

HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) was recently presented with an Energy Star Special Recognition Award for its dedication to furthering the Energy Star program. To promote energy efficiency in public housing, PIH has instituted guidelines, policies, and practices to encourage energy conservation.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released online videos developed to educate deaf and hard-of-hearing consumers about their fair housing rights, housing counseling services, and loan programs offered by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).The videos released on YouTube and Facebook include topics such as: FHA Reaching Out to Lenders; Keep Your Home, Know Your Loan (English and Spanish versions); My Money, My Home, My Future; and a series on Tips to Avoid Foreclosure.

March 30, 2009, marked the date that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) new rule on annual income was initially due to go into effect, changing the way that HUD and tax credit sites are expected to calculate annual income. In the final rule, Refinement of Income and Rent Determination in Public and Assisted Housing Programs, HUD amended 24 CFR Part 5 as follows:

While federal guidelines suggest limiting occupancy to two persons per bedroom, sites cannot use occupancy standards to discriminate against residents based on their familial status. Residents of an Albuquerque, N.M., site filed that complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in June 2008 against the site owners and manager.

In an RHIIP Listserv posted on Jan. 5, 2009, HUD alerted owners that it will soon publish a final rule revising regulations on the disclosure of Social Security numbers. The final rule will require all applicants for, and participants of, HUD's rental assistance programs to disclose their Social Security numbers.Once the final rule is in effect, owners must obtain and verify the Social Security number of all applicants and their household members before approving them for housing.

In October, single-family housing starts dipped 4.5 percent, from 549,000 units to 531,000, according to Census Bureau reports.The slowdown was expected as “surveys of builder confidence and market expectations have been hovering in a historically low range for the past nine months,” says Sandy Dunn, president of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB).The multifamily housing starts rate paralleled the continued deterioration in the single-family market, dipping 6.8 percent in October from 279,000 units to 260,000 units.

The provisions of the recent 2008 and 2009 HUD Consolidated Appropriations Acts (P.L. 110-161, P.L. 110-329), and the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA; P.L. 110-289), will affect the preservation and development of affordable housing, as well as HUD's administrative policies, warns attorney Michael Reardon, a partner in the Washington law firm of Nixon Peabody LLP.These provisions relate to:Section 213's (formerly Section 318) transfers of assistance contracts and use restrictions;Section 220's foreclosure provision; and

Since June 2008, tax credit prices nationwide have fallen almost 5 cents per 10-year tax credit dollar. As of Oct. 1, 2008, tax credit prices are in the range of 75 to 82 cents per dollar. This figure represents a steep decline in value from a year ago, when prices were in the range of 90 to 95 cents per dollar.There are a number of reasons for the decrease in equity, including reduced demand by investors who are seeking higher yield investments, says affordable housing consultant A.J. Johnson, an expert in the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program.

The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (H.R. 3221), which generally applies to buildings with placed-in-service (PIS) dates occurring after July 30, 2008, is expected to provide a boost to developers, says Glenn A. Graff, an Illinois attorney with Applegate & Thorne-Thomsen, PC, in Chicago.One of the main reasons for the boost is the provision that sets the minimum credit percentage at 9 percent for both new construction and non-federally subsidized major rehabs.

In August, the manager of a tax credit site in Newark, N.J., reported that during this past summer, residents have suffered an increase in criminal activity that has been unusual even for inner-city housing projects. For example, as reported in the New York Post on August 6, four teenage students who were listening to music in a parking lot not far from a local housing project were shot by a group of armed thugs.