News

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Internal Revenue Service today issued Notice 2020-53 to provide tax relief to issuers, operators, owners, and tenants of qualified low-income housing projects or qualified residential rental projects financed with exempt facility bonds, and state agencies that have jurisdiction over these projects.

The Internal Revenue Service issued a proposed rule on the compliance-monitoring duties of state agencies for purposes of the low-income housing credit. The proposed regulations relax the minimum compliance-monitoring sampling requirement for purposes of physical inspections and low-income certification review, providing flexibility and reduced burdens with respect to the requirements set forth in the final regulations published on February 26, 2019.

The House of Representatives voted along party lines to pass a resolution of disapproval to nullify the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s new rule on Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). The Congressional Review Act of 1996 gives Congress the power to rescind administration rules within 60 calendar days. The bill (H.J. Res 90) would need to be passed by the Senate (with a simple majority) and be signed by the President, both of which seem unlikely to happen.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) focuses on rental housing from 2001 through 2017 and analyzes the share of households that rent, the affordability of rental housing and rental housing conditions. In 2017, almost 7 million more households rented their homes than in 2001, which brought the share of households that rent from an estimated 34 percent to 36 percent.

To help renters in multifamily properties stay in their homes and to support multifamily property owners during the Coronavirus national emergency, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) announced that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the Enterprises) are allowing servicers to extend forbearance agreements for multifamily property owners with existing forbearance agreements for up to three months.

The House Democrats’ recently released infrastructure bill, Moving Forward Act (H.R. 2), includes a myriad of housing provisions. A vote on the legislation is expected before the Fourth of July recess. While the bill is likely to pass the Democrat-led House, it will face greater resistance in the GOP-led Senate. The bill does not include any pay-fors and Republicans are already panning the bill as dead-on-arrival. However, the bill may set an important marker for future infrastructure negotiations. The Trump administration is reportedly drafting a $1 trillion infrastructure package aimed at spurring the economy.

HUD recently published a notice of annual factors for determining public housing agencies (PHAs) administrative fees for the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher, Mainstream and Moderate Rehabilitation programs for calendar year 2020. The adjustment factors back date to January 1, 2020.

As a reminder for fiscal year (FY) 2020 Capital Magnet Fund applicants, the deadline for online submission of the SF-424 Mandatory through Grants.gov for this year’s funding round is June 26, 2020 at 11:59 pm ET. The deadline for online submission of the rest of the application materials through the CDFI Fund’s Awards Management Information System (AMIS) is July 27, 2020 at 5:00 pm ET.

HUD’s National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) demonstration has postponed all field testing until further notice following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). However, refinement of standards and scoring testing remain ongoing to further the development of the NSPIRE Model and HUD is still seeking the voluntary participation of properties.

Earlier today the House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) held a virtual hearing on The Rent Is Still Due: America’s Renters, COVID-19 and an Unprecedented Eviction Crisis. Witnesses Cashauna Hill, Louisiana Fair Housing Action Center; Mike Kingsella, Up for Growth; Ann Oliva, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Jenny Schuetz, The Brookings Institution discussed the need for ongoing financial assistance to families.

The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on June 9 entitled Oversight of Housing Regulators. The witnesses included HUD Secretary Benjamin Carson and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Mark Calabria.

The HUD Office of Inspector General (OIG) published a report evaluating HUD’s use of agency-wide telework in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They found telework severely impeded business processes dependent on paper records or facility access; bandwidth constraints with the HUD information technology (IT) infrastructure and the lack of government-furnished equipment for some employees disrupted HUD operations; and respondents reported HUD was generally well-prepared for mandatory telework.