Federal / Agency News

Opportunity Zones (OZ) led to Qualified Opportunity Funds raising $75 billion in capital by the end of 2019, according to a Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) report released on August 24.

HUD published a notice of fiscal year (FY) 2021 fair market rents (FMRs) for the Housing Choice Voucher program, Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program and other HUD programs. Comments on the notice are due September 30 and the FMRs will be effective October 1.

The Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 made significant changes to the Historic Tax Credit, turning it from a one-year credit with a five-year compliance period to a five-year credit taken ratably. Transition rules were set in place that permitted some projects currently underway to be grandfathered in under the former one-year credit. That grandfathering rule had an end date in June 2020. Now, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS has provided an extension of the grandfathering rule, into 2021.

Over the weekend, President Trump issued three COVID-19 related executive orders (EO) on “Deferring Payroll Tax Obligations,” “Providing Assistance to Renters and Homeowners” and “Other Needs Assistance Program.” The presidential action comes as Congressional and White House negotiations over the next COVID-19 aid package have stalled.

HUD announced that it will begin Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) inspections of HUD multifamily and public housing properties and units later this year. REAC will prioritize inspections in states and localities based on the latest COVID-19 data from Johns Hopkins University and health risk scoring methodology from the Harvard Global Health Institute.

On July 31, HUD issued its first update of its Q&A for Multifamily Housing programs since May 21. HUD’s Q&A document relays HUD’s guidance on operational and procedural questions related to the safe administration of HUD-assisted programs during COVID-19. 

Last week the House passed H.R. 7617, which provides fiscal year (FY) 2021 funding for six appropriations subcommittees, including HUD. The House bill is expected to provide adequate appropriations to renew existing Housing Choice Vouchers and Project-Based Rental Assistance, and provides increases for most programs, including the Community Development Block Grants, HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME), Section 202 and Section 811, which would also receive additional funding through emergency infrastructure investments. The bill also contains two amendments that would block the Trump Administration’s recent regulatory action on the Disparate Impact Rule and the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH).

On July 31, a bipartisan group of 103 Representatives, including 44 Republicans and 59 Democrats, sent a letter to House leadership urging the inclusion of LIHTC priorities in the next COVID-19 response package.

HUD released a fully updated set of NSPIRE Inspection Standards, version 1.3, which improves technical accuracy, relevance, clarity and better defines the applicability to HUD’s Housing Choice Voucher program. HUD welcomes public comments on all aspects of the standards. Feedback on the revised list of standards can be submitted here.

HUD has posted to the RAD Resource Desk a new “Post-Conversion Approval Processing Guide,” which provides information to Owners and PHAs on how to process post-closing issues that may arise after RAD conversion, some of which require HUD approval.

IRS recently published Notice 2020-58 which extends the measuring period used in satisfying the substantial rehabilitation (sub rehab) test requirement for historic tax credits. Projects with a 24- or 60-month measuring period ending on or after April 1, 2020, and before March 31, 2021, now have until March 31, 2021 to incur sufficient qualified rehabilitation expenditures to satisfy the sub rehab test.

Rural Development (RD) at USDA announced that, effective August 17, 2020, Ernie Wetherbee will become the first Director of RD’s Multifamily Housing’s new Field Operations Division. Wetherbee has extensive leadership experience at RD, including 11 years implementing Rural Housing programs in the field, which makes him uniquely qualified to take on this new position.