HUD

A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Poverty & Race Research Action Council examines where families with children use housing vouchers in the 50 largest metropolitan areas. This report is the first metropolitan-level analysis to explore the concentration of families using vouchers across multiple neighborhood characteristics.

HUD issued a notice of Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 Annual Adjustment Factors (AAFs) for certain properties in HUD’s Section 8 housing assistance payment (HAP) programs. The AAFs are provide annual adjustments to rents based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index survey.

Congress is readying a short-term continuing resolution that would fund the government through Feb. 8 and avert a partial government shutdown on Friday, Dec. 21. Seven appropriations subcommittee bills, including Transportation-HUD, still have yet to receive funding for all of Fiscal Year (FY) 2019. Five of the twelve appropriations subcommittee bills are funded for all of FY 2019 and won’t need a CR to continue operating.

The 2019 Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) rents are now available, which will be used any new awards issued starting in 2019.

HUD recently issued Notice 2018-10 that details best practices to help ensure guest suite use is consistent with National Housing Act prohibitions against transient or hotel use of multifamily properties. HUD acknowledges guest suites as an amenity may contribute to the marketability of certain multifamily projects.

The House Financial Services Committee (HFSC) will hold a hearing on “A Legislative Proposal to Provide for a Sustainable Housing Finance System: The Bipartisan Housing Finance Reform Act of 2018” on Friday, Dec. 21 at 9 a.m. EST in Rayburn House Office Building, room 2128.

HUD’s 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress found that 552,830 persons experienced homelessness on a single night in 2018, an increase of 0.3 percent since last year. The report did note significant declines among veterans as well as families with children experiencing homelessness with a 5.4 percent and 2.7 percent nationwide decline over 2017, respectively.

HUD Deputy Secretary Pam Patenaude announced she will be leaving HUD in the new year. FHA Commissioner Brian Montgomery has been named as Acting Deputy Secretary.

President Trump signed an executive order creating the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council. The council, led by HUD Secretary Carson, spans 13 federal agencies with the intent of prioritizing opportunity zones in a variety of federal efforts, including grant funding, loan guarantees, infrastructure spending and crime prevention.

A new Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) notice from HUD amends the previous final notice by stating that “that execution of a Project Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) contract as a result of the conversion of Rent Supp, RAP, Mod Rehab, or Mod Rehab SRO contracts through RAD after the publication of this notice does not trigger Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements.”

HUD published the Utility Allowance Adjustment Factors (UAFs) for 2019 which will be effective on Feb. 11, 2019. Compared to 2018 UAFs, oil increased by 3.35 percent, natural gas increased by 12.62 percent, electric increased by 3.61 percent and water, trash and sewer increased by 0.09 percent nationwide.

Funding for the federal government was scheduled to run out on Friday, Dec. 7. On Thursday, Dec. 6 Congress passed a short term continuing resolution that funds the remaining seven appropriations subcommittee bills through Dec. 21. President Trump signed the bill on Friday, Dec. 7.