NMA Blog

Today in the Federal Register, HUD published three notices concerning its suspension of implementation of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) final rule. Draft versions of the notices were posted on May 18 with an accompanying press release.

The notices include:

• Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing: Withdrawal of the Assessment Tool for Local Governments
• Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH): Responsibility To Conduct Analysis of Impediments
• Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing: Withdrawal of Notice Extending the Deadline for Submission of Assessment of Fair Housing for Consolidated Plan Participants

In January, HUD announced the extension of the deadline for submission of an assessment of fair housing (AFH) by local government consolidated plan program participants until at least 2020. Earlier this month, the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA) announced that it filed a fair housing complaint against HUD over suspension of implementation of the AFFH rule.

In today’s first notice, HUD announces that it is withdrawing its January AFH suspension notice. In the second notice, HUD announces its withdrawal of the local government assessment tool “because it is inadequate to accomplish its purpose of guiding program participants to produce meaningful AFHs.” The third notice states that without the assessment tool there can be no AFH, and by extension the AFFH rule and its other components cannot be implemented. Any local government that has not yet submitted an AFH that has been accepted by HUD must instead conduct an analysis of impediments (AI), which was required prior to 2015.

For more information, see the AFFH page on HUD Exchange.

In a press release last week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced that it has awarded $28 billion in funding to support long-term disaster recovery in nine U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. According to the press release, the grants are funded through HUD’s Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (CDBG–DR) program. They include more than $12 billion for major disasters that occurred in 2017 and nearly $16 billion to support “mitigation” activities in areas that were impacted by major presidentially declared disasters since 2015. Mitigation is broadly described as “actions taken to protect communities from the predictable damage from future events.” A complete breakdown of the awards by year, grantee, awards based on remaining 2017 unmet needs, awards for mitigation, and the totals can be found in the press release.

The PIH office has also updated its Excel spreadsheet listing PHAs that offer preferences for families displaced by disasters. Information on preference systems and any related data is provided for 680 PHAs. The list, which has been updated to show preference data as of April 13, is intended to serve as a resource for PHAs, families, and HUD staff in locating potential housing options.

PHAs that wish to supply additional information or to correct erroneous spreadsheet data may contact the disaster preference project team at disasterpreferences@hud.gov.

 

Today in the Federal Register, HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) published the 2018 administrative fee rates for the voucher program. The notice follows the February 16 release of a 3-page document describing the 2018 rates. As previously reported, the document initially recommended an estimated proration of 77 percent for portability billings. HUD later revised its estimate to 76 percent.

Today’s notice describes the two admin fee rates for each PHA listed in Column A and Column B. As usual, the Column A rate applies to the first 7,200 unit months leased in calendar year (CY) 2018, and the Column B rate applies to all remaining unit months leased. These fees apply to PHA-owned units as well as to non-PHA-owned units. As the notice also explains:

• PIH will once again follow a “hold harmless” rule. So PHAs that would otherwise have seen their fee rates go down in 2018 will receive the 2017 rates instead.
• The fee rates for each PHA are those rates covering the areas in which each PHA has the greatest proportion of its participants. A PHA with participants in more than one fee area may request that the PIH office establish a blended fee rate schedule that will consider proportionately all areas in which participants are located. Once a blended rate schedule is calculated, it will be used to determine the PHA’s fee eligibility for all quarters of CY 2018. Instructions for applying and the deadline date for submitting requests will be detailed in the 2018 HCV funding implementation notice.
• A PHA that operates over multiple counties may request higher administrative fees. To request higher fees, a PHA must submit specific financial documents to the Financial Management Center (FMC). Documents, submission requirements, and the deadline date for submitting requests will be detailed in the upcoming implementation notice.
• In addition to the voucher program, the 2018 administrative fee rates apply to the Moderate Rehabilitation program and the Five-Year Mainstream program.

You’ll find links to the 2018 administrative fee tables and the document that accompanies them on the HCV home page.

To receive updates and analysis on the latest PIH news, subscribe to NMA’s PIH Alert and receive a daily email with breaking news and other important information for PHAs and housing professionals.

HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) has issued Notice PIH 2018-05 to provide guidance on funding for the housing choice voucher (HCV) program for calendar year 2018. The notice discusses eligibility for potential shortfall funding as well as calculation of administrative fees.

Since the notice was prepared prior to the March 23 approval of a 2018 omnibus spending package, it states that HUD is currently operating under a continuing resolution (CR) which provides voucher funding at 2017 levels:

Based on possible funding scenarios if a full-year CR is enacted, or if an appropriations act is enacted at either the House or Senate proposed levels, a deeper HAP proration than previously experienced may occur.

Below are a few highlights from the 5-page notice:

• PHAs identified by the shortfall prevention team as having a potential shortfall must cease issuing vouchers to applicants and rescind vouchers issued to applicants who have not yet leased a dwelling unit. Affected agencies must also stop absorbing portable vouchers and must not issue tenant-based vouchers to families who wish to move out of project-based voucher (PBV) units.
• At the time of the notice’s issuance, there was no full-year CR or full-year appropriation in place for HUD to provide shortfall funding to any agency. If shortfall funding is made available, a PHA’s eligibility for such funding will be contingent on the PHA having taken the actions described above.
• PIH intends to make available up to $10 million in administrative fee funding, subject to availability under appropriations, for homeownership fees, special fees for multifamily housing conversion actions, audit costs for HCV voluntary transfers, and special fees for receiving PHAs where portability vouchers are a significant portion of vouchers under lease.
• Applications for blended rate fees (by PHAs serving multiple administrative fee areas) must be submitted by Monday, April 16, 2018. Requests for higher administrative fee rates for PHAs serving large geographical areas are due by May 22, 2018.

Requests for blended rate fees and higher administrative fees may be submitted via email or regular mail, but PHAs may not submit requests using both methods.

To receive updates and analysis on the latest PIH news, subscribe to NMA’s PIH Alert and receive a daily email with breaking news and other important information for PHAs and housing professionals.

Late Thursday the Senate approved a 2018 omnibus spending package for HUD and other federal agencies. The 2,232-page bill had been approved earlier on Thursday by the House of Representatives. President Trump signed the bill Friday, averting a government shutdown.

The bill provides a significant increase in funding for HUD programs. With a 10% one-year increase, many programs would be funded at levels significantly above what was proposed in either the House or Senate draft bills. The National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) has posted an article detailing provisions of the bill and an updated chart comparing fiscal year (FY) 2017 funding levels to proposed and final levels for FY 2018.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) announced Friday that it has scheduled a free webinar titled “The Final 2018 HUD Budget and Its Implications.” The presentation is scheduled for Wednesday, April 4 between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Eastern time (11:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon Pacific). Click here to register.