HUD

HUD has published its quarterly notice of all regulatory waivers that the Department has approved for the Office of Community Planning and Development, the Office of Housing, and the Office of Public and Indian Housing. The notice contains all regulatory waivers granted during the period of April 1, 2011 through June 30, 2011.

President Obama intends to nominate Maurice A. Jones to succeed the retired Ronald C. Sims for the position of Deputy Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Mayor Peter Carlisle today announced the mission of the Honolulu Affordable Housing Preservation Initiative, which will help to secure the affordability of twelve of the city’s low-income rental properties.

A new Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report finds that the recent House Appropriations vote to reduce funding for public housing in 2012 by $1.4 billion, or 20 percent below the 2011 level, would place a significant burden on the quality of public housing and would likely raise future federal costs of maintaining these properties.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has released the newest version of the Multifamily Accelerated Processing (MAP) Guidebook.

The House of Representatives Appropriations Transportation – Housing & Urban Development Subcommittee has released a draft funding bill for FY-2012. It is scheduled to be marked up by the committee today, Thursday September 8. The measure calls for $55.15 billion in discretionary spending across the two agencies, $19.8 billion less than President Obama’s request and $217 million below current spending. The bill would provide $16.7 billion to the Transportation Department, a $3 billion increase over current spending, and $38.1 billion for the Housing and Urban Development Department, a $3 billion cut.

In a primetime speech before the US Congress on September 8, President Obama announced proposal called the “American Jobs Act”. The proposal includes a major new $15 billion initiative called “Project Rebuild” that is targeted towards Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and Communities. The proposal builds on the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).

National Housing & Rehabilitation Association Executive Director Thom Amdur announced today the recipients of NH&RA’s 2011 Affordable Housing Vision Awards: Sandra Henriquez, Assistant Secretary for Public and Indian Housing at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; and Boston accountant and past NH&RA President John Mackey. The pair will be honored at a ceremony on Monday, November 14 at the Intercontinental Hotel in conjunction with NH&RA’s Fall Developers Forum.

HUD’s Economic and Market Analysis Division has prepared Comprehensive Housing Market Analysis for the Tyler and El Paso, Texas market areas.

HUD recently announced Chicago, Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Seattle as the cities to receive the first grants under the new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative which aims to transform distressed neighborhoods into sustainable mixed-income communities. These grants are meant to build upon the successes of HOPE VI which provided support for the rehabilitation and preservation of public and HUD-assisted housing in order to better approach concentrated poverty.

A new report released by HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research titled “Memphis Murder Revisited: Do Housing Vouchers Cause Crime” examines the link between the presence of Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) holders in a neighborhood and crime.

Responding to this need for better coordinated Federal rental policy, the White House’s Domestic Policy Council established the interagency Rental Policy Working Group in 2010.