In early June, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that it would continue to stay a lower court ruling seeking to overturn the CDC eviction moratorium. In the lower court ruling, a federal judge set aside the CDC's nationwide moratorium which expires on June 30, 2021 [Alabama Association of Realtors, et al. v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services]. The decision was based primarily on the judge’s reading of the Public Health Services Act.
The Biden-Harris administration recently announced a set of proposals designed to help narrow the racial wealth gap and reinvest in distressed communities, focusing on expanding access to homeownership and small business ownership. The administration’s announcement provides new information regarding President Biden’s American Jobs Plan proposals to create jobs and build wealth in communities of color.
On May 5, 2021, a federal judge in the District of Columbia set aside the CDC's nationwide moratorium on residential evictions, which the CDC had recently extended beyond its congressionally approved expiration date of March 31 to June 30, 2021 [Alabama Association of Realtors, et al. v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services].
On March 29, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced an extension of the federal eviction moratorium through June 30, 2021. Before this extension, the moratorium was set to expire March 31, 2021. This recent order is the moratorium’s third extension since it was initially enacted on Sept. 4, 2020. As before, individuals who are unable to pay their rent in full must sign and submit a declaration form to their landlord to invoke the eviction protections and can apply for emergency rental assistance.
On average, developers needed to layer an average of 3.5 different funding sources to finance developments built between 2000 and 2018, according to a recent report published by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley. One in four sites layered at least five (and in some cases as many as 11) sources. The average number of sources has also increased over time, in line with the rise of development costs, according to the report, “The Complexity of Financing Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Housing.”
In a recent case from Alaska, an LIHTC site owner tried to exercise an option to be able to exit the affordability restrictions put in place by the extended use agreement. There are two ways an owner can escape extended use commitments, but the court ruled that neither applied here. In applying for LIHTCs and signing the restrictive agreement the owner clearly showed an intent to commit to maintaining affordability requirements for 30 years.
A recent study sought to glean lessons from the state and local rental assistance programs launched in 2020 before the emergency rental assistance programs funded by the coronavirus relief package signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020 ramps up. The difficult task of administering these funds will fall to state and local governments, many of which have never provided direct rental assistance, or will need to scale up their 2020 efforts significantly.
President Joe Biden recently unveiled his “American Rescue Plan,” a $1.9 trillion package of policies to address the healthcare, economic, and societal harms caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. He described it as an “emergency legislative package to fund vaccinations, provide immediate, direct relief to families bearing the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis, and support struggling communities.”
Janet L. Yellen was recently sworn in as the secretary of the Treasury Department. Ms. Yellen is the 78th Treasury secretary and the first woman to head the department. As Treasury secretary she will be involved in the design, negotiation, and passage of a stimulus package intended to revive the economy. The Treasury secretary also oversees the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which administers the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program.
LIHTC supports a little over 40 percent of the multifamily housing market in rural Persistent Poverty Counties (PPCs), according to a new Freddie Mac white paper.
