Community development and housing news for May 30, 2019

Disaster relief package proceeds to the House for a final vote, THUD appropriations bill continues to move forward, and other stories we're following this week.

Breaking news

Last week the Senate passed a long-delayed disaster relief package that includes $900 million for Puerto Rico.

The vote represents a step toward ending a impasse that had prevented the release of billions of dollars in aid for farmers and communities struggling to recover from an onslaught of natural disasters over the last two years. House leaders hope to pass the emergency spending bill when the full chamber returns from a weeklong Memorial Day recess. Read more

The House THUD subcommittee has approved its FY 2020 appropriations bill.

The proposed funding bill would provide $50.1 billion for HUD programs, $5.9 billion more than the FY 2019 enacted level. It would also prohibit HUD from implementing the “mixed-status” immigrant family proposed rule or any final rule substantially based upon and would prohibit HUD from implementing, administering, or enforcing a proposed rule, announced as part of HUD’s upcoming regulations list, that would repeal the equal access rule for LGBTQ persons utilizing housing resources. Read more

Officials broke ground on a 39-unit building for homeless veterans in Nashville last week.

The project is the first of its kind in Nashville to provide permanent affordable housing to formerly homeless veterans. Read more

What we're reading

Relaxing rules on “Accessory Dwelling Units” drastically increased affordable housing stock in the small city of Durango, Colorado.

From 2009 to 2013, confronting development pressures and concerned about housing, Durango overhauled its Land Use and Development Code, which called out Accessory Dwelling Units as an acceptable component of housing stock. Read more

The idea of combining public libraries with affordable-housing projects is starting to catch on.

“There are some cities that have done library and housing projects around the country, but combining them in just the way that the Chicago Housing Authority and the library and the City of Chicago did is fairly novel,” says David Block, director of development at Evergreen Real Estate Group, which was selected to develop two of the three projects in Chicago, including Northtown. Read more

On Friday in the Federal Register, HUD’s Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) published several technical corrections and clarifications to the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) provisions of the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA) it had issued on January 18. These changes are in part based on public comments from the first notice. In brief, the corrections and clarifications are as follows:

• The original notice used the phrase ‘‘50 percent or more’’ to define a level of control that constitutes a controlling interest and would thus indicate PHA ownership. The threshold for control should be ‘‘more than 50 percent’’ rather than ‘‘50 percent or more.’’
• The original notice inadvertently excluded from the list of excepted units those units that have received assistance under Section 201 of the Housing and Community Development Amendments of 1978. Today’s notice adds the Flexible Subsidy program in both lists.
• The original document inadvertently referred to the ‘‘site of the original public housing development’’ instead of ‘‘site of the original development.’’ To avoid any indication that this requirement is only applicable to former public housing units as opposed to all the covered forms of HUD assistance, ‘‘public housing’’ is removed from this part.
• The original guidance states that ‘‘if the FSS family fails to successfully complete the FSS contract of participation or supportive services objective and consequently is no longer eligible for the supportive services, the family must vacate the unit…and the PHA shall cease paying housing assistance payments on behalf of the ineligible family.’’ To avoid misinterpretation that could imply that a PHA could, under HOTMA, establish a supportive services exception based exclusively on participation in FSS, rather than in combination with another supportive services option where participation is voluntary, and to avoid being misconstrued that this conflicts with current FSS requirements, which do not allow termination from the housing assistance program for failure to complete the FSS contract of participation, HUD has amended this language to eliminate the ambiguities.
• The definition of new construction units was previously inconsistent in the January 18 guidance, and has been updated to be both correct and consistent in sections referring to project-based voucher (PBV) assistance.
• HUD stated in the original document that in order to avail itself of the exemption of the competitive award of PBVs, the PHA must “be planning rehabilitation or construction on the project with a minimum of $25,000 per unit in hard costs.” However, because this would not be applicable in a situation where the PHA is replacing a public housing site or property, or a site with PHA-owned or controlled existing housing, several corrections to Section H of the notice have been made.
• Other typographical errors have also been corrected, as specified in today’s notice.

In a separate correction entry for the January 18 notice, PIH also noted that the original document had been published in the Proposed Rules section of the Federal Register, when it should have appeared in the Rules section. The effective date for the original notice—April 18, 2017—remains unchanged.

Got questions about HOTMA? All of NMA's HCV classes have been updated for the new payment standard rules. Register at least 45 days in advance for most seminars and you’ll receive a 10 percent discount. (The discount does not apply to seminars hosted by housing authorities or associations.)

On Wednesday in the Federal Register, HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) published a notice implementing several of the provisions of the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act (HOTMA) that impact the housing choice voucher (HCV) and project-based voucher (PBV) programs, in addition to requesting comments on both current and future implementing requirements. The HOTMA implementation notice is broken down topic-by-topic, followed by specific questions for comment in each corresponding section. The first sections of the notice address:

• Allowing PHAs to approve tenancy and commence HAP payments when a unit fails HQS, but only if it has non-life-threatening deficiencies.
• Authorizing occupancy prior to inspection if the unit passed under an alternate inspection within the previous 24 months.
• Amending the definition of units owned by the PHA so that the unit is PHA-owned only if unit is in a project that is: owned by the PHA, owned by an entity wholly controlled by the PHA, or owned by an LLC or limited partnership in which the PHA or entity wholly controlled by the PHA holds a controlling interest in the managing member or general partner.

The notice also addresses numerous statutory changes to the project-based voucher (PBV) program set forth under HOTMA, covering implementation requirements for the following:

• Changing the terminology in the statute from “structure” to “project.”
• Changing the PHA HCV program limitation on PBV vouchers from a 20 percent funding limitation to a 20 percent unit limitation calculation and allowing for additional project-basing of vouchers by raising the limit an additional 10 percent for homeless families, families with veterans, supportive housing for persons with disabilities or elderly persons, or in areas where vouchers are difficult to use.
• Changing the income-mixing cap on the number of PBV units in a project to be the greater of 25 units in a project or 25 percent of the units in a project (the project unit cap), and making changes to the categories of PBV units that are excepted from this project unit cap.
• Allowing the PHA to provide for an initial PBV contract of up to 20 years and to further extend that term for an additional 20 years.
• Allowing the PHA to establish a selection preference for families who qualify for voluntary services, including disability-specific services, offered in conjunction with assisted units, provided that the preference is consistent with the PHA plan.
• Allowing the PHA to attach assistance to structures in which the PHA has an ownership interest or control without following a competitive process.
• Allowing PHAs to project-base HUD–VASH and FUP vouchers in accordance with statutory and regulatory requirements of the PBV program without additional requirements for approval by HUD.

The implementing requirements set forth in today’s notice become effective April 18, 2017. Comments on the specific questions posed in the notice are due by March 20.

Got questions about HOTMA? All of NMA's HCV classes have been updated for the new payment standard rules. Register at least 45 days in advance for most seminars and you’ll receive a 10 percent discount. (The discount does not apply to seminars hosted by housing authorities or associations.)

Bloomberg: Wall Street, America's new landlord, kicks tenants to the curb

Brookings: 3 opportunities for Ben Carson as the next HUD secretary

Chicago Business: What Chicago learned from privatizing some affordable housing

Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies: Housing policy in the next administration

Homelessness Law: The top 5 threats to people experiencing homelessness

NCSHA: Senate banking committee holds nomination hearing for Carson

Next City: Ben Carson on 5 big issues facing U.S. cities

Next City: NYC releases design guidelines for public housing

NHC: Placing housing costs in context

NLIHC: 115th Congress begins 2017 term with flurry of legislative activity

NLIHC: Families with vouchers are underrepresented in low-distress neighborhoods

New York Times: D.C. homelessness doubles national average as living costs soar

Rooflines: Carson tries to please everyone in confirmation hearing, mostly succeeds

Rooflines: Take the best of public housing, and make more

Urban Wire: What is the Obama administration's legacy on housing?

Urban Wire: Is Ben Carson ready to handle America's rental housing crisis?

Urban Wire: How a voucher program sparked interest in housing homeless veterans

Urban Wire: The role of housing in stabilizing children's lives

Washington Post: America's concern for the poor is about to be tested

CBPP: Housing voucher reform will boost efficiency and opportunity

CBPP: Veterans' homelessness cut in half since 2010

Chicago Business: CHA tests new timer on housing vouchers

Chicago Tribune (via Planetizen): Chicago to co-locate libraries and public housing

CityLab: Fighting loneliness with public living rooms

CMHA: [VIDEO] VASH vouchers: How veterans and their families are housed

Curbed: Low-income housing doesn't hurt property values, says report

Curbed: The affordable housing crisis is a rural issue, too

Delaware Public Media: Delaware becomes third state to end veteran homelessness

Fast Company: In cities across the country, voters passed affordable housing measures

HUD: Renters more likely to be food insecure than homeowners

HUD: HUD and VA announce additional VASH funding

Next City: D.C. mayor says city's taking affordable housing to "next level"

Rooflines: 74% of U.S. households who are eligible do not receive Section 8 assistance