Federal / Agency News

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on HUD’s Real Estate Assessment Center (REAC) with 14 recommendations to improve the inspection process.

President Trump signed a memorandum that directs HUD and Treasury to draft administrative and legislative options for housing finance reform to be submitted to the President for approval as soon as practicable. HUD will prepare a reform plan for the housing finance agencies it oversees, and Treasury will prepare a reform plan for Fannie Mae […]

Freddie Mac announced that Donald Layton will retire as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and that the Board of Directors has appointed David Brickman to succeed him effective Monday, July 1. Mr. Brickman will become a member of the Freddie Mac Board of Directors at that time.

Secretary Carson recently traveled to Miami to tour Tuscany Village Housing Complex, an apartment community located in an Opportunity Zone. Tuscany Village Housing Complex was recently built to provide affordable housing for low-income, elderly families in the neighborhood. This Miami community is just one of 427 Opportunity Zones which were designated by the Florida Governor […]

Secretary Ben Carson said HUD will give preference to developers and investors who build affordable housing in federal Opportunity Zones when it comes to certain grants. In an interview with The Real Deal, Sec. Carson said, “if you are doing a project within an Opportunity Zone and you are applying for one of our grants, you get some preference. So that, along with the tax advantages, will drive people to look at those (areas). We are also offering very specific technical assistance to help them coordinate their efforts.”

Six Senators sent a letter to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Charles Rettig requesting he issue a notice clarifying that affordable housing projects for veterans that comply with the LIHTC General Public Use criteria are also eligible for Private Activity Bonds (PABs). Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris (D-CA) Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) argue that, “given that LIHTCs and PABs are designed to be used in tandem, the General Public Use criteria explicitly laid out in the LIHTC statue should apply to PABs as well.”

The Internal Revenue Service published Notice 2019-19, which provides population figures to use in calculating 2019 volume limits for the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) and private activity bonds (PABs). The LIHTC cap is the greater of the population multiplied by $2.75625 or $3,166,875 and the PAB cap is the greater of the population multiplied […]

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and 17 other Members of Congress reintroduced the American Housing and Economic Mobility Act. The bill would invest about $475 billion in federal programs over a 10-year period to preserve or create more than 3 million housing units for low- and middle-income families. An independent analysis from Moody’s Analytics estimates that the investment would bring down rents by 10 percent and create 1.5 million new jobs. The bill would also change existing laws that protect discriminatory housing practices and lead to segregation.

HUD is inviting a second round of public housing agencies to join the Department’s expanding Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration program. MTW allows public housing agencies (PHAs) to practice greater program flexibility and encourages housing choice and self-sufficiency among low-income families. Currently, there are 39 MTW PHAs throughout the nation. In 2015, Congress allowed HUD to expand the MTW demonstration program to 100 additional PHAs over a seven-year period.

HUD released the updated Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for the FY 2019 Housing Choice Voucher Program and Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program for ten areas based on new survey data. The new FMS are effective as of April 15, 2019 and based on surveys conducted by the area public housing agencies and reflect the […]

The National Park Service (NPS) recently released it Federal Tax Incentives for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings annual report. In FY 2018, the Historic Tax Credit (HTC) helped rehabilitate 6,994 housing units, create 12,527 new housing units and create 6,152 low- and moderate-income housing units. NPS issued 1,013 certifications of completed work and has over 3,000 projects […]

The US Interagency Council on Homelessness released a new report, Aligning Affordable Housing Efforts with Actions to End Homelessness. The report recommends nine strategies for aligning action to prevent and end homelessness: