White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing; Request for Information, 64549-64553 [2019-25388]
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requirement at 24 CFR 891.805 to allow the
projects to be owned by a single for-profit
Limited Partnership to facilitate tax credit
financing. Granting this waiver allows the
projects to participate in LIHTC financing
and meet the Department’s criteria with
respect to the refinancing and rehabilitation.
Contact: Crystal Martinez, Senior Account
Executive, Department of Housing and Urban
Development, 451 Seventh Street SW,
Washington, DC 20410–8000, telephone (202)
402–3718.
III. Regulatory Waivers Granted by the
Office of Public and Indian Housing
For further information about the following
regulatory waivers, please see the name of
the contact person that immediately follows
the description of the waiver granted.
• Regulation: 24 CFR 5.801(c) and 24 CFR
5.801(d)(1).
Project/Activity: Municipality of San
Lorenzo (RQ037).
Nature of Requirement: The regulation
establishes certain reporting compliance
dates. The audited financial statements are
required to be submitted to the Real Estate
Assessment Center (REAC) no later than nine
months after the housing authority’s (HA)
fiscal year end (FYE), in accordance with the
Single Audit Act and OMB Circular A–133.
Granted By: R. Hunter Kurtz, Assistant
Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
Date Granted: August 30, 2019.
Reason Waived: The HA requested relief
from compliance for additional time to
submit its financial reporting requirements
for the fiscal year end (FYE) of June 30, 2018.
The HA is still recovering from damages
resulting from Hurricane Maria that were
compounded by Hurricane Dorian, which
began September 5, 2019. The circumstances
preventing the HA from submitting its FYE
2018 audited financial data by the due date
was acceptable. Accordingly, the HA has
until August 31, 2019, to submit its audited
financial information to the Department. The
approval of the Financial Assessment
Subsystem (FASS) audited financial
submission only permits the extension for
filing. The HA is required to contact the
HUDOIG Single Audit Coordinator at
HUDOIGSingleAuditCoordinator@hudoig.gov
for Single Audit extensions applicable to the
Federal Audit Clearinghouse.
Contact: Dee Ann R. Walker, Program
Manager, NASS, Real Estate Assessment
Center, Office of Public and Indian Housing,
Department of Housing and Urban
Development, 550 12th Street SW, Suite 100,
Washington, DC 20410, telephone (202) 475–
7908.
• Regulation: 24 CFR 5.801(c) and 24 CFR
5.801(d)(1).
Project/Activity: Puerto Rico Department of
Housing (RQ901).
Nature of Requirement: The regulation
establishes certain reporting compliance
dates. The audited financial statements are
required to be submitted to the Real Estate
Assessment Center (REAC) no later than nine
months after the housing authority’s (HA)
fiscal year end (FYE), in accordance with the
Single Audit Act and OMB Circular A–133.
Granted By: R. Hunter Kurtz, Assistant
Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
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16:57 Nov 21, 2019
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Date Granted: August 30, 2019.
Reason Waived: The HA requested relief
from compliance for additional time to
submit its financial reporting requirements
for the fiscal year end (FYE) of June 30, 2018.
The HA is still recovering from damages
resulting from Hurricane Maria that were
compounded by Hurricane Dorian, which
began September 5, 2019. The circumstances
preventing the HA from submitting its FYE
2018 audited financial data by the due date
was acceptable. Accordingly, the HA has
until September 30, 2019, to submit its
audited financial information to the
Department. The approval of the Financial
Assessment Subsystem (FASS) audited
financial submission only permits the
extension for filing. The HA is required to
contact the HUDOIG Single Audit
Coordinator at
HUDOIGSingleAuditCoordinator@hudoig.gov
for Single Audit extensions applicable to the
Federal Audit Clearinghouse.
Contact: Dee Ann R. Walker, Program
Manager, NASS, Real Estate Assessment
Center, Office of Public and Indian Housing,
Department of Housing and Urban
Development, 550 12th Street SW, Suite 100,
Washington, DC 20410, telephone (202) 475–
7908.
• Regulation: 24 CFR 983.503(a)(3).
Project/Activity: Housing Catalyst in Fort
Collins, CO, requested a waiver of 24 CFR
983.503(a)(3) to set payment standards
specific to its HUD–VASH program for onebedroom and two-bedroom units.
Nature of Requirement: The regulation 24
CFR 983.503(a)(3) states that the PHA must
establish one payment standard for each unit
size in its program.
Granted By: R. Hunter Kurtz, Assistant
Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
Date Granted: July 19, 2019.
Reason Waived: Housing Catalyst has
demonstrated that a high percentage of HUD–
VASH voucher recipients were unsuccessful
in finding a unit due to extremely low
vacancy rates, increasing rents, and scarcity
of one-bedroom units. The higher payment
standards for HUD–VASH participants will
help participants find housing in a
reasonable timeframe.
Contact: Becky Primeaux, Housing
Voucher Management and Operations
Division, Office of Public Housing and
Voucher Programs, Office of Public and
Indian Housing, Department of Housing and
Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW,
Room 4216, Washington, DC 20410,
telephone (202) 708–0477.
• Regulation: 24 CFR 985.101(a).
Project/Activity: Cozad Housing Authority
in Dawson, Nebraska, requested a waiver of
24 CFR 985.101(a) for HUD to approve their
SEMAP certification submission after the end
of the fiscal year.
Nature of Requirement: The regulation at
24 CFR 985.101(a) states that the PHA must
submit the HUD-required SEMAP
certification form within 60 calendar days
after the end of the fiscal year.
Granted By: R. Hunter Kurtz, Assistant
Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
Date Granted: July 23, 2019.
Reason Waived: Due to unexpected staffing
and system related issues, CHA was not able
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to submit their SEMAP before the deadline.
Approval of this waiver prevents the waste
of staff resources and funding needed to
complete corrective action plans and conduct
site visits at an agency that does not have
compliance related issues.
Contact: Becky Primeaux, Housing
Voucher Management and Operations
Division, Office of Public Housing and
Voucher Programs, Office of Public and
Indian Housing, Department of Housing and
Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW,
Room 4216, Washington, DC 20410,
telephone (202) 708–0477.
• Regulation: 24 CFR 983.301(f)(2)(ii).
Project/Activity: The Housing Authority of
the City of Buenaventura (HACSB) in
Ventura, California, requested a waiver of 24
CFR 983.301(f)(2)(ii) to establish a sitespecific utility allowance for all project-based
voucher units at Westview Village 1.
Nature of Requirement: The regulation 24
CFR 983.301(f)(2)(ii) states that the PHA may
not establish or apply different utility
allowance amounts for the project-based
voucher (PBV) program. The same PHA
utility allowance schedule applies to both the
tenant-based and PBV programs.
Granted By: R. Hunter Kurtz, Assistant
Secretary for Public and Indian Housing.
Date Granted: July 31, 2019.
Reason Waived: HACSB has demonstrated
that the utility allowance provided under the
HCV Program would discourage conservation
and ultimately lead to inefficient use of HAP
funds at Westview Village I.
Contact: Becky Primeaux, Housing
Voucher Management and Operations
Division, Office of Public Housing and
Voucher Programs, Office of Public and
Indian Housing, Department of Housing and
Urban Development, 451 Seventh Street SW,
Room 4216, Washington, DC 20410,
telephone (202) 708–0477.
[FR Doc. 2019–25390 Filed 11–21–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210–67–P
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND
URBAN DEVELOPMENT
[Docket No. FR–6187–N–01]
White House Council on Eliminating
Regulatory Barriers to Affordable
Housing; Request for Information
Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Policy Development and
Research (PD&R), Department of
Housing and Urban Development
(HUD).
ACTION: Request for Information.
AGENCY:
Consistent with President
Trump’s Executive Order 13878,
‘‘Establishing a White House Council on
Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to
Affordable Housing,’’ dated June 25,
2019, this document informs the public
that HUD requests public comment on
Federal, State, local, and Tribal laws,
regulations, land use requirements, and
administrative practices that artificially
SUMMARY:
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raise the costs of affordable housing
development and contribute to
shortages in housing supply.
DATES: Comment Due Date: January 21,
2020.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are
invited to submit comments responsive
to this request for information (RFI) to
the Regulations Division, Office of
General Counsel, Department of
Housing and Urban Development, 451
7th Street SW, Room 10276,
Washington, DC 20410–0500.
Communications must refer to the above
docket number and title. There are two
methods for submitting public
comments. All submissions must refer
to the above docket number and title.
1. Submission of Comments by Mail.
Comments may be submitted by mail to
the Regulations Division, Office of
General Counsel, Department of
Housing and Urban Development, 451
7th Street SW, Room 10276,
Washington, DC 20410–0500.
2. Electronic Submission of
Comments. Interested persons may
submit comments electronically through
the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
https://www.regulations.gov. HUD
strongly encourages commenters to
submit their feedback and
recommendations electronically.
Electronic submission of comments
allows the commenter maximum time to
prepare and submit a response, ensures
timely receipt by HUD, and enables
HUD to make comments immediately
available to the public. Comments
submitted electronically through the
https://www.regulations.gov website can
be viewed by other commenters and
interested members of the public.
Commenters should follow the
instructions provided on that site to
submit comments electronically.
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Note: To receive consideration as public
comments, responses must be submitted
through one of the two methods specified
above. It is not acceptable to submit
comments by facsimile (fax) or electronic
mail. Again, all submissions must refer to the
docket number and title of the notice.
Public Inspection of Public
Comments. All properly submitted
comments and communications
submitted to HUD will be available for
public inspection and downloading at
https://www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Contact Pamela Blumenthal, Office of
Policy Development and Research,
Department of Housing and Urban
Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room
8138, Washington, DC 20410–0500;
telephone number 202–402–7012 (this
is not a toll-free number). Persons with
hearing or speech impairments may
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access this number through TTY by
calling the toll-free Federal Relay
Service at 1–800–877–8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Context: Why the White House
Council on Eliminating Regulatory
Barriers to Affordable Housing
(Council) was Established
President Donald J. Trump
established a White House Council on
Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to
Affordable Housing 1 because for many
American citizens, the supply of
available housing has not kept pace
with the demand for housing by
prospective renters and homebuyers.
Rising housing costs are forcing families
to dedicate larger shares of their
monthly incomes to housing. In 2017,
approximately 37 million renter and
owner households spent more than 30
percent of their incomes on housing,
with more than 18 million spending
more than half of their incomes on
housing. Between 2001 and 2017, the
number of renter households allocating
more than half of their incomes toward
rent increased by nearly 45 percent.2
Driving the rise in housing costs is a
lack of housing supply to meet rising
demand. Research has provided
evidence that a major driver of high-cost
housing is compliance with overly
prescriptive construction and
development requirements or
regulations.3 Regulations are often
necessary to protect the health and
safety of American citizens, such as
clean air, water or disaster mitigation
practices. However, outdated and overly
burdensome, time-consuming, and
costly regulatory requirements and
restrictions prolong the completion of
new housing supply and those costs are
shifted to the consumer, particularly in
tight markets.
As the Executive Order states,
‘‘Increasing the supply of housing by
removing overly burdensome regulatory
barriers will reduce housing costs, boost
economic growth, and provide more
Americans with opportunities for
economic mobility. In addition, it will
strengthen American communities and
the quality of services offered in them
by allowing hardworking Americans to
1 Executive Order 13878 of June 25, 2019.
‘‘Establishing a White House Council on
Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable
Housing,’’ 84 FR 30853. June 28, 2019.
www.federalregister.gov/d/2019-14016.
2 Joint Center for Housing Studies (2019). State of
the Nation’s Housing 2019. https://
www.jchs.harvard.edu/state-nations-housing-2019.
3 Joseph Gyourko and Raven Molloy, ‘‘Regulation
and Housing Supply,’’ (working paper No. 20536,
National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge,
MA, October 2014), 1.
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live in or near the communities they
serve.’’
As referenced in the Executive Order,
common examples of regulatory barriers
include: overly restrictive zoning and
growth management controls; rent
controls; cumbersome building and
rehabilitation codes; excessive energy
and water efficiency mandates;
unreasonable maximum-density
allowances; historic preservation
requirements; overly burdensome
wetland or environmental regulations;
outdated manufactured-housing
regulations and restrictions; undue
parking requirements; cumbersome and
time-consuming permitting and review
procedures; tax policies that discourage
investment or reinvestment; overly
complex labor requirements; and
inordinate impact or developer fees.
These regulatory barriers increase the
costs associated with development, and,
as a result, restrict the supply of
housing, particularly unsubsidized
middle market housing affordable to
working families.
Many of the markets with the most
severe shortages in affordable housing
contend with the most restrictive
regulatory barriers to housing
development.
II. Overview of the White House
Council on Eliminating Regulatory
Barriers to Affordable Housing
The Executive Order directs the
Secretary of HUD, or his designee, to
chair the Council, in tandem with the
Assistant to the President for Domestic
Policy and the Assistant to the President
for Economic Policy, or their designees,
as Vice Chairs. In addition to the Chair
and Vice Chairs, the Council consists of
the following officials, or their
designees: The Secretaries of the
Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Labor,
Transportation, Energy; the
Administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency; the Director of the
Office of Management and Budget; the
Chairman of the Council of Economic
Advisors; the Deputy Assistant to the
President and Director of
Intergovernmental Affairs; and the
heads of such other executive
departments and agencies (agencies)
and offices as the President, Chair, or
Vice Chairs may, from time to time,
designate or invite, as appropriate.
The Executive Order directs the
Council to:
(a) Solicit feedback from State, local,
and Tribal government officials, as well
as relevant private-sector stakeholders,
developers, homebuilders, creditors,
real estate professionals, manufacturers,
academic researchers, renters,
advocates, and homeowners, to:
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i. Identify Federal, State, local, and
Tribal laws, regulations, and
administrative practices that artificially
raise the costs of housing development
and contribute to shortages in housing
supply, and
ii. Identify practices and strategies
that most successfully reduce and
remove burdensome Federal, State,
local, and Tribal laws, regulations, and
administrative practices that artificially
raise the costs of housing development,
while highlighting actors that
successfully implement such practices
and strategies;
(b) Evaluate and quantify the effect
that various Federal, State, local, and
Tribal regulatory barriers have on
affordable-housing development, and
the economy in general, and identify
ways to improve the data available to
the public and private researchers who
evaluate such effects, without violating
privacy laws or creating unnecessary
burdens;
(c) Identify and assess the actions
each agency can take under existing
authorities to minimize Federal
regulatory barriers that unnecessarily
raise the costs of housing development;
(d) Assess the actions each agency can
take under existing authorities to align,
support, and encourage State, local, and
Tribal efforts to reduce regulatory
barriers that unnecessarily raise the
costs of housing development; and
(e) Recommend Federal, State, local,
and Tribal actions and policies that
would:
i. Reduce and streamline statutory,
regulatory, and administrative burdens
at all levels of government that inhibit
the development of affordable housing;
and
ii. Encourage state and local
governments to reduce regulatory
barriers to the development of
affordable housing.
III. Purpose of This Request for
Information
The purpose of this Request for
Information (RFI) is to solicit feedback
that will assist the Council in
identifying Federal, State, local, and
Tribal laws, regulations, and
administrative practices that artificially
raise the costs of affordable-housing
development and contribute to
shortages in housing supply. It also
seeks data, other information, analyses,
and recommendations on methods for
reducing these regulatory barriers.
The Council encourages participation
from Federal, State, local, and Tribal
government officials, as well as relevant
stakeholders, including developers,
homebuilders, real estate professionals,
affordable housing advocates,
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manufacturers, architects, engineers, fair
housing professionals, urban planners,
economists, academic researchers,
renters, homeowners, creditors,
multifamily-housing owners, and
public-housing agencies.
IV. Specific Information Requested
While HUD welcomes comments on
all aspects of developing a plan for
reducing barriers to affordable housing
development, HUD is particularly
interested in receiving information,
data, analyses, and recommendations on
the following:
(1) Federal Barriers to Affordable
Housing Development. HUD requests
comments that identify specific HUD
regulations, statutes, programs and
practices that directly or indirectly
restrict the supply of housing or
increase the cost of housing. In thinking
about the impact that the laws,
regulations, statutes, programs and
policies of HUD programs may have on
the housing construction and
development industry, please consider:
a. Federal laws, regulations, and
administrative practices of HUD
programs that directly or indirectly
artificially raise the costs of housing
development and contribute to
shortages in housing supply, in HUD’s
program implementation itself, or
because of their impact on State, local,
and Tribal government policymaking.
Do these laws, regulations, or
administrative practices produce any
benefits to the resident, homeowner,
state, or locality that would be
eliminated if the requirement were
reduced or eliminated?
b. Recommendations, strategies,
solutions or best practice models that
have been established to streamline,
reduce or eliminate overly restrictive
construction and development
regulations, requirements or
administrative practices identified
above.
c. What are the policy interventions,
solutions or strategies available to
federal decision makers for
incentivizing state and local
governments to review their regulatory
environment? To aid them in
streamlining, reducing or eliminating
the negative impact of state and local
laws, regulations, and administrative
practices identified in the questions
below?
d. What is the potential impact,
positive or negative, of streamlining,
reducing, or eliminating the identified
regulations, requirements or
administrative practices?
(2) State Barriers to Affordable
Housing Development. Since the 1920s
States have given ultimate zoning
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authority to their local government
units. Additionally, States have left it to
the local jurisdictions to create their
own governing structure and to delegate
further authority across local
government silos, often leading to
fragmented, overlapping or duplicative
review processes of construction
projects. Finally, States almost always
impose a bifurcated review process for
larger scale infrastructure projects that
require environmental review. However,
States, by their regional nature, are more
attuned with how local policies have
larger economic consequences to
regional economies. In thinking about
the role of the state in the building
construction industry, consider the
following questions:
a. In what ways do State-level laws,
practices, and programs contribute to
delays in the construction industry? Are
there particular laws, practices and
programs that could be reviewed for
potential barriers?
b. What are the policy interventions,
solutions or strategies available to State
decision makers for incentivizing local
governments to review their regulatory
environment? To aid them in
streamlining, reducing or eliminating
the negative impact of local and State
laws, regulations, and administrative
practices identified in the question
above?
(3) Local Barriers to Affordable
Housing Development. While a
traditional characterization for the
adoption and maintenance of some
barriers to affordable housing
development is that they reflect a ‘‘Not
in My Back Yard’’ (‘‘NIMBY’’)
disposition, their widespread and longterm prevalence suggests some
substantive bases for their existence. For
the purposes of this RFI, we define
‘‘local’’ to include all local government
units that have constitutional authority
given by the State to make decisions on
land use planning and growth
management, including cities, towns,
parishes, designated places, counties,
and rural communities, as well as
regional entities that have decisionmaking authority on these land-use
issues under State statutes. When
identifying regulatory barriers and
understanding the impacts on housing
costs, there are several issues to
consider:
a. What are the common motivations
or factors that underlie the adoption of
laws, regulations, and practices that
demonstrably raise the cost of housing
development? Do these considerations
vary geographically?
b. How do local decision makers
determine whether laws, regulations, or
practices artificially or unnecessarily
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contribute to this problem? Do decision
makers undertake cost-benefit analyses,
and if so, how do they use them?
c. What are the policy interventions,
solutions or strategies available to local
decision makers for streamlining,
reducing or eliminating the negative
impact of these laws, regulations, and
administrative practices identified in
the question above?
(4) Basis for Reducing Barriers to
Affordable Housing Development. In
thinking about streamlining, reducing or
eliminating barriers to affordable
housing development, please consider
the following:
a. What are the economic and social
benefits to American families and
individuals, the local community, the
State or Tribe, and the nation that
would be realized by reducing
regulatory barriers to affordable housing
development?
i. To what extent is there agreement
that specific regulations and
administrative practices result in higher
cost or reduced availability of affordable
market rate housing for potential
homeowners and renters?
ii. Assuming agreement that specific
regulations and administrative practices
create impediments to affordable
housing development by increasing the
costs of either construction of housing
or preservation of housing supply, are
these costs of such regulation and
practices quantifiable? What evidence is
there to support this finding?
b. Are there regulations that may
delay the process of building affordable
housing but are necessary to ensure a
certain level of quality is achieved in
the construction?
c. How should one evaluate the cost
of burdensome regulations on the local
housing market? How should one
determine the benefits of reducing those
costs?
i. If you have knowledge of
jurisdictions that have successfully
implemented creative solutions to
reduce regulatory barriers, please
describe specific land use requirements
that were demonstrated to have raised
the cost of housing.
ii. In responding to item (i) above,
please discuss how these jurisdictions
offered incentives, sanctions or
implemented policies that effectively
reduced or eliminated overly restrictive,
outdated, or otherwise burdensome land
use regulations.
iii. For jurisdictions that considered
reducing the barriers but ultimately did
not take action to do so, what was the
basis for that inaction?
(5) Plan Development and
Implementation. In general, HUD is
interested in what actions it should
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recommend or implement to assist
States, Tribes, and local governments in
reducing or eliminating barriers to
affordable housing development.
a. Regarding HUD’s rules, regulations,
and statutes, what actions can the
Department take to significantly reduce
(or eliminate) barriers to affordable
housing development while remaining
committed to its mission to expand
affordable housing options and support
decent, safe and sanitary housing for all
Americans? Please provide detailed
examples, if possible.
b. Regarding the recommendations
provided to HUD above, what actions
could the Department implement to
create incentives for States, Tribes, or
local jurisdictions to encourage
regulatory review and reform? For
communities that have achieved
regulatory reform, how might the
Department learn from successful
policies that were adopted at the State,
Tribal, or local level? How might the
Department create guidance for other
jurisdictions looking to achieve reform?
(6) Research Questions.
a. What peer-reviewed research and/
or representative surveys provide
quantitative analyses on the impact of
regulations on cost of affordable housing
development? Do these analyses
demonstrate evidence on the degree or
severity of impact? How strongly
supported are the conclusions of the
research? Provide citations for research
referenced.
b. What performance measures,
quantitative and/or qualitative, should
the Council consider in assessing the
reduction of barriers nationally or
regionally? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each measure? Among
the measures recommended above, how
should they be prioritized? Such
measures could include, but would not
be limited to, the following:
i. The rate of housing production,
considering a range of cofactors,
including domestic and international
migration patterns and rates of family
formation;
ii. The number of housing
construction permits, construction
starts, and completions;
iii. The number of burden-reducing
legislative or regulatory actions,
considering suitable baselines;
iv. A list of best practice models based
on recommendations from stakeholders
and the public and reviewed by subject
matter experts;
v. Housing development processing
times and costs, considering a range of
cofactors;
vi. Whether jurisdictions’ barrier
reduction was temporary (e.g., a project-
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or grant/program-specific waiver) or
permanent;
vii. Whether there are fair housing
barriers to the development of
affordable housing; and
viii. Whether the permitting process
poses a greater, comparable, or smaller
barrier to building housing than do the
regulations, such as regarding timeliness
and consistency of permitting decisions.
c. HUD’s Regulatory Barriers
Clearinghouse (RBC) 4 was created to
document the prevalence of regulatory
barriers that influence the cost of
affordable housing and offer best
practice solutions for their removal. The
clearinghouse is an easily searchable
electronic database that contains more
than 4,800 barriers and solutions and
catalogs information that spans all 50
states and more than 460 cities and
counties. Best practices have been
previously highlighted in a HUD
publication called Breakthroughs,
which was a bi-monthly e-newsletter
accessible where community actors
could share their stories about reform
strategies that work. Representatives
from the housing industry, the National
League of Cities, the National
Association of Counties, the National
Association of Mayors and many other
private, public and advocacy groups
have contributed to these efforts. HUD’s
Office of Policy Development &
Research continues to manage the RBC
database and staff are developing ideas
for how the research community could
use the information to conduct
regulatory barriers research. For the
purpose of this RFI, we ask for
recommendations on how best to utilize
this important source of information for
States, local governments, researchers
and policy analysts who are tracking
reform activity across the country.
IV. Request for Information Response
Guidelines
If you submit comments by mail, your
response should be no longer than 50
pages. Please provide the following
information at the start of your response
to this RFI: Company/institution name
(if applicable); contact information,
including address, phone number, and
email address. Do not submit
Confidential Business Information (CBI)
in your response to this RFI. Responses
identified as containing CBI will not be
reviewed and will be discarded.
Please identify each answer by
responding to a specific question or
topic if applicable. You may answer as
many or as few questions as you wish.
HUD will not respond to individual
4 https://www.huduser.gov/portal/rbc/home.html.
E:\FR\FM\22NON1.SGM
22NON1
Federal Register / Vol. 84, No. 226 / Friday, November 22, 2019 / Notices
submissions or publish publicly a
compendium of responses.
To help you prepare your comments,
please see the How Do I Prepare
Effective Comments segment of the
Commenting on HUD Rules web page,
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/
general_counsel/Commenting-On-HUDRules#1. While that web page is written
for commenting on regulatory proposals,
these tips are generally applicable to
this RFI.
Dated: November 14, 2019.
Seth Appleton,
Assistant Secretary for Policy Development
and Research.
[FR Doc. 2019–25388 Filed 11–21–19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210–67–P
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND
URBAN DEVELOPMENT
[Docket No. FR–6183–N–01]
Notice of Certain Operating Cost
Adjustment Factors for 2020
Office of the Assistant
Secretary for Housing—Federal Housing
Commissioner, HUD.
ACTION: Notice.
AGENCY:
This notice establishes
operating cost adjustment factors
(OCAFs) for project-based assistance
contracts issued under Section 8 of the
United States Housing Act of 1937 and
renewed under the Multifamily Assisted
Housing Reform and Affordability Act
of 1997 (MAHRA) for eligible
multifamily housing projects having an
anniversary date on or after February 11,
2020. OCAFs are annual factors used to
adjust Section 8 rents renewed under
section 515 or section 524 of MAHRA.
DATES: Applicability Date: February 11,
2020.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Carissa Janis, Program Analyst, Office of
Asset Management and Portfolio
Oversight, Department of Housing and
Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW,
Washington, DC 20410; telephone
number 202–402–2487 (this is not a tollfree number). Hearing- or speechimpaired individuals may access this
number through TTY by calling the tollfree Federal Relay Service at 800–877–
8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
khammond on DSKJM1Z7X2PROD with NOTICES
SUMMARY:
I. OCAFs
Section 514(e)(2) and section 524(c)(1)
of MAHRA (42 U.S.C. 1437f note)
require HUD to establish guidelines for
the development of OCAFs for rent
adjustments. Sections 524(a)(4)(C)(i),
524(b)(1)(A), and 524(b)(3)(A) of
VerDate Sep<11>2014
16:57 Nov 21, 2019
Jkt 250001
MAHRA, all of which prescribe the use
of the OCAF in the calculation of
renewal rents, contain similar language.
HUD has therefore used a single
methodology for establishing OCAFs,
which vary among states and territories.
MAHRA gives HUD broad discretion
in setting OCAFs, referring, for example,
in sections 524(a)(4)(C)(i), 524(b)(1)(A),
524(b)(3)(A) and 524(c)(1) simply to ‘‘an
operating cost adjustment factor
established by the Secretary.’’ The sole
limitation to this grant of authority is a
specific requirement in each of the
foregoing provisions that application of
an OCAF ‘‘shall not result in a negative
adjustment.’’ Contract rents are adjusted
by applying the OCAF to that portion of
the rent attributable to operating
expenses exclusive of debt service.
The OCAFs provided in this notice
are applicable to eligible projects having
a contract anniversary date of February
11, 2020 or after and were calculated
using the same method as those
published in HUD’s 2019 OCAF notice
published on November 23, 2018 (83 FR
59404). Specifically, OCAFs are
calculated as the sum of weighted
component cost changes for wages,
employee benefits, property taxes,
insurance, supplies and equipment, fuel
oil, electricity, natural gas, and water/
sewer/trash using publicly available
indices. The weights used in the OCAF
calculations for each of the nine cost
component groupings are set using
current percentages attributable to each
of the nine expense categories. These
weights are calculated in the same
manner as in the November 23, 2018
notice. Average expense proportions
were calculated using three years of
audited Annual Financial Statements
from projects covered by OCAFs. The
expenditure percentages for these nine
categories have been found to be very
stable over time but using three years of
data increases their stability. The nine
cost component weights were calculated
at the state level, which is the lowest
level of geographical aggregation with
enough projects to permit statistical
analysis. These data were not available
for the Western Pacific Islands, so data
for Hawaii were used as the best
available indicator of OCAFs for these
areas.
The best current price data sources for
the nine cost categories were used in
calculating annual change factors. Statelevel data for fuel oil, electricity, and
natural gas from Department of Energy
surveys are relatively current and
continue to be used. Data on changes in
employee benefits, insurance, property
taxes, and water/sewer/trash costs are
only available at the national level. The
PO 00000
Frm 00101
Fmt 4703
Sfmt 4703
64553
data sources for the nine cost indicators
selected used were as follows:
• Labor Costs: First quarter, 2019
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) ECI,
Private Industry Wages and Salaries, All
Workers (Series ID CIU2020000000000I)
at the national level and Private
Industry Benefits, All Workers (Series
ID CIU2030000000000I) at the national
level.
• Property Taxes: Census Quarterly
Summary of State and Local
Government Tax Revenue—Table 1
https://www.census.gov/econ/
currentdata/dbsearch?program=
QTAX&startYear=2017&end
Year=2019&categories=QTAXCAT1&
dataType=T01&geoLevel=
US¬Adjusted=1&submit=
GET+DATA&releaseScheduleId=12month property taxes are computed as
the total of four quarters of tax receipts
for the period from April through
March. Total 12-month taxes are then
divided by the number of occupied
housing units to arrive at average 12month tax per housing unit. The
number of occupied housing units is
taken from the estimates program at the
Bureau of the Census. https://
www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/
histtab8.xlsx.
• Goods, Supplies, Equipment: May
2018 to May 2019 Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS) Consumer Price Index,
All Items Less Food, Energy and Shelter
(Series ID CUUR0000SA0L12E) at the
national level.
• Insurance: May 2018 to May 2019
Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS)
Consumer Price Index, Tenants and
Household Insurance Index (Series ID
CUUR0000SEHD) at the national level.
• Fuel Oil: October 2018–March 2019
U.S. Weekly Heating Oil and Propane
Prices report. Average weekly
residential heating oil prices in cents
per gallon excluding taxes for the period
from October 1, 2018 through the week
of March 25, 2019 are compared to the
average from October 2, 2017 through
the week of March 26, 2018. For the
States with insufficient fuel oil
consumption to have separate estimates,
the relevant regional Petroleum
Administration for Defense Districts
(PADD) change between these two
periods is used; if there is no regional
PADD estimate, the U.S. change
between these two periods is used.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/pet_pri_
wfr_a_EPD2F_prs_dpgal_w.htm.
• Electricity: Energy Information
Agency, February 2019 ‘‘Electric Power
Monthly’’ report, Table 5.6.B. https://
www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_
table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_5_06_b.
• Natural Gas: Energy Information
Agency, Natural Gas, Residential Energy
E:\FR\FM\22NON1.SGM
22NON1
Agencies
[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 226 (Friday, November 22, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 64549-64553]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-25388]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
[Docket No. FR-6187-N-01]
White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to
Affordable Housing; Request for Information
AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and
Research (PD&R), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
ACTION: Request for Information.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: Consistent with President Trump's Executive Order 13878,
``Establishing a White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers
to Affordable Housing,'' dated June 25, 2019, this document informs the
public that HUD requests public comment on Federal, State, local, and
Tribal laws, regulations, land use requirements, and administrative
practices that artificially
[[Page 64550]]
raise the costs of affordable housing development and contribute to
shortages in housing supply.
DATES: Comment Due Date: January 21, 2020.
ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit comments responsive
to this request for information (RFI) to the Regulations Division,
Office of General Counsel, Department of Housing and Urban Development,
451 7th Street SW, Room 10276, Washington, DC 20410-0500.
Communications must refer to the above docket number and title. There
are two methods for submitting public comments. All submissions must
refer to the above docket number and title.
1. Submission of Comments by Mail. Comments may be submitted by
mail to the Regulations Division, Office of General Counsel, Department
of Housing and Urban Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 10276,
Washington, DC 20410-0500.
2. Electronic Submission of Comments. Interested persons may submit
comments electronically through the Federal eRulemaking Portal at
https://www.regulations.gov. HUD strongly encourages commenters to
submit their feedback and recommendations electronically. Electronic
submission of comments allows the commenter maximum time to prepare and
submit a response, ensures timely receipt by HUD, and enables HUD to
make comments immediately available to the public. Comments submitted
electronically through the https://www.regulations.gov website can be
viewed by other commenters and interested members of the public.
Commenters should follow the instructions provided on that site to
submit comments electronically.
Note: To receive consideration as public comments, responses
must be submitted through one of the two methods specified above. It
is not acceptable to submit comments by facsimile (fax) or
electronic mail. Again, all submissions must refer to the docket
number and title of the notice.
Public Inspection of Public Comments. All properly submitted
comments and communications submitted to HUD will be available for
public inspection and downloading at https://www.regulations.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Contact Pamela Blumenthal, Office of
Policy Development and Research, Department of Housing and Urban
Development, 451 7th Street SW, Room 8138, Washington, DC 20410-0500;
telephone number 202-402-7012 (this is not a toll-free number). Persons
with hearing or speech impairments may access this number through TTY
by calling the toll-free Federal Relay Service at 1-800-877-8339.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Context: Why the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory
Barriers to Affordable Housing (Council) was Established
President Donald J. Trump established a White House Council on
Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing \1\ because for
many American citizens, the supply of available housing has not kept
pace with the demand for housing by prospective renters and homebuyers.
Rising housing costs are forcing families to dedicate larger shares of
their monthly incomes to housing. In 2017, approximately 37 million
renter and owner households spent more than 30 percent of their incomes
on housing, with more than 18 million spending more than half of their
incomes on housing. Between 2001 and 2017, the number of renter
households allocating more than half of their incomes toward rent
increased by nearly 45 percent.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Executive Order 13878 of June 25, 2019. ``Establishing a
White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable
Housing,'' 84 FR 30853. June 28, 2019. www.federalregister.gov/d/2019-14016.
\2\ Joint Center for Housing Studies (2019). State of the
Nation's Housing 2019. https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/state-nations-housing-2019.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Driving the rise in housing costs is a lack of housing supply to
meet rising demand. Research has provided evidence that a major driver
of high-cost housing is compliance with overly prescriptive
construction and development requirements or regulations.\3\
Regulations are often necessary to protect the health and safety of
American citizens, such as clean air, water or disaster mitigation
practices. However, outdated and overly burdensome, time-consuming, and
costly regulatory requirements and restrictions prolong the completion
of new housing supply and those costs are shifted to the consumer,
particularly in tight markets.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ Joseph Gyourko and Raven Molloy, ``Regulation and Housing
Supply,'' (working paper No. 20536, National Bureau of Economic
Research, Cambridge, MA, October 2014), 1.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
As the Executive Order states, ``Increasing the supply of housing
by removing overly burdensome regulatory barriers will reduce housing
costs, boost economic growth, and provide more Americans with
opportunities for economic mobility. In addition, it will strengthen
American communities and the quality of services offered in them by
allowing hardworking Americans to live in or near the communities they
serve.''
As referenced in the Executive Order, common examples of regulatory
barriers include: overly restrictive zoning and growth management
controls; rent controls; cumbersome building and rehabilitation codes;
excessive energy and water efficiency mandates; unreasonable maximum-
density allowances; historic preservation requirements; overly
burdensome wetland or environmental regulations; outdated manufactured-
housing regulations and restrictions; undue parking requirements;
cumbersome and time-consuming permitting and review procedures; tax
policies that discourage investment or reinvestment; overly complex
labor requirements; and inordinate impact or developer fees. These
regulatory barriers increase the costs associated with development,
and, as a result, restrict the supply of housing, particularly
unsubsidized middle market housing affordable to working families.
Many of the markets with the most severe shortages in affordable
housing contend with the most restrictive regulatory barriers to
housing development.
II. Overview of the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory
Barriers to Affordable Housing
The Executive Order directs the Secretary of HUD, or his designee,
to chair the Council, in tandem with the Assistant to the President for
Domestic Policy and the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy,
or their designees, as Vice Chairs. In addition to the Chair and Vice
Chairs, the Council consists of the following officials, or their
designees: The Secretaries of the Treasury, Interior, Agriculture,
Labor, Transportation, Energy; the Administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget;
the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors; the Deputy Assistant
to the President and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs; and the
heads of such other executive departments and agencies (agencies) and
offices as the President, Chair, or Vice Chairs may, from time to time,
designate or invite, as appropriate.
The Executive Order directs the Council to:
(a) Solicit feedback from State, local, and Tribal government
officials, as well as relevant private-sector stakeholders, developers,
homebuilders, creditors, real estate professionals, manufacturers,
academic researchers, renters, advocates, and homeowners, to:
[[Page 64551]]
i. Identify Federal, State, local, and Tribal laws, regulations,
and administrative practices that artificially raise the costs of
housing development and contribute to shortages in housing supply, and
ii. Identify practices and strategies that most successfully reduce
and remove burdensome Federal, State, local, and Tribal laws,
regulations, and administrative practices that artificially raise the
costs of housing development, while highlighting actors that
successfully implement such practices and strategies;
(b) Evaluate and quantify the effect that various Federal, State,
local, and Tribal regulatory barriers have on affordable-housing
development, and the economy in general, and identify ways to improve
the data available to the public and private researchers who evaluate
such effects, without violating privacy laws or creating unnecessary
burdens;
(c) Identify and assess the actions each agency can take under
existing authorities to minimize Federal regulatory barriers that
unnecessarily raise the costs of housing development;
(d) Assess the actions each agency can take under existing
authorities to align, support, and encourage State, local, and Tribal
efforts to reduce regulatory barriers that unnecessarily raise the
costs of housing development; and
(e) Recommend Federal, State, local, and Tribal actions and
policies that would:
i. Reduce and streamline statutory, regulatory, and administrative
burdens at all levels of government that inhibit the development of
affordable housing; and
ii. Encourage state and local governments to reduce regulatory
barriers to the development of affordable housing.
III. Purpose of This Request for Information
The purpose of this Request for Information (RFI) is to solicit
feedback that will assist the Council in identifying Federal, State,
local, and Tribal laws, regulations, and administrative practices that
artificially raise the costs of affordable-housing development and
contribute to shortages in housing supply. It also seeks data, other
information, analyses, and recommendations on methods for reducing
these regulatory barriers.
The Council encourages participation from Federal, State, local,
and Tribal government officials, as well as relevant stakeholders,
including developers, homebuilders, real estate professionals,
affordable housing advocates, manufacturers, architects, engineers,
fair housing professionals, urban planners, economists, academic
researchers, renters, homeowners, creditors, multifamily-housing
owners, and public-housing agencies.
IV. Specific Information Requested
While HUD welcomes comments on all aspects of developing a plan for
reducing barriers to affordable housing development, HUD is
particularly interested in receiving information, data, analyses, and
recommendations on the following:
(1) Federal Barriers to Affordable Housing Development. HUD
requests comments that identify specific HUD regulations, statutes,
programs and practices that directly or indirectly restrict the supply
of housing or increase the cost of housing. In thinking about the
impact that the laws, regulations, statutes, programs and policies of
HUD programs may have on the housing construction and development
industry, please consider:
a. Federal laws, regulations, and administrative practices of HUD
programs that directly or indirectly artificially raise the costs of
housing development and contribute to shortages in housing supply, in
HUD's program implementation itself, or because of their impact on
State, local, and Tribal government policymaking. Do these laws,
regulations, or administrative practices produce any benefits to the
resident, homeowner, state, or locality that would be eliminated if the
requirement were reduced or eliminated?
b. Recommendations, strategies, solutions or best practice models
that have been established to streamline, reduce or eliminate overly
restrictive construction and development regulations, requirements or
administrative practices identified above.
c. What are the policy interventions, solutions or strategies
available to federal decision makers for incentivizing state and local
governments to review their regulatory environment? To aid them in
streamlining, reducing or eliminating the negative impact of state and
local laws, regulations, and administrative practices identified in the
questions below?
d. What is the potential impact, positive or negative, of
streamlining, reducing, or eliminating the identified regulations,
requirements or administrative practices?
(2) State Barriers to Affordable Housing Development. Since the
1920s States have given ultimate zoning authority to their local
government units. Additionally, States have left it to the local
jurisdictions to create their own governing structure and to delegate
further authority across local government silos, often leading to
fragmented, overlapping or duplicative review processes of construction
projects. Finally, States almost always impose a bifurcated review
process for larger scale infrastructure projects that require
environmental review. However, States, by their regional nature, are
more attuned with how local policies have larger economic consequences
to regional economies. In thinking about the role of the state in the
building construction industry, consider the following questions:
a. In what ways do State-level laws, practices, and programs
contribute to delays in the construction industry? Are there particular
laws, practices and programs that could be reviewed for potential
barriers?
b. What are the policy interventions, solutions or strategies
available to State decision makers for incentivizing local governments
to review their regulatory environment? To aid them in streamlining,
reducing or eliminating the negative impact of local and State laws,
regulations, and administrative practices identified in the question
above?
(3) Local Barriers to Affordable Housing Development. While a
traditional characterization for the adoption and maintenance of some
barriers to affordable housing development is that they reflect a ``Not
in My Back Yard'' (``NIMBY'') disposition, their widespread and long-
term prevalence suggests some substantive bases for their existence.
For the purposes of this RFI, we define ``local'' to include all local
government units that have constitutional authority given by the State
to make decisions on land use planning and growth management, including
cities, towns, parishes, designated places, counties, and rural
communities, as well as regional entities that have decision-making
authority on these land-use issues under State statutes. When
identifying regulatory barriers and understanding the impacts on
housing costs, there are several issues to consider:
a. What are the common motivations or factors that underlie the
adoption of laws, regulations, and practices that demonstrably raise
the cost of housing development? Do these considerations vary
geographically?
b. How do local decision makers determine whether laws,
regulations, or practices artificially or unnecessarily
[[Page 64552]]
contribute to this problem? Do decision makers undertake cost-benefit
analyses, and if so, how do they use them?
c. What are the policy interventions, solutions or strategies
available to local decision makers for streamlining, reducing or
eliminating the negative impact of these laws, regulations, and
administrative practices identified in the question above?
(4) Basis for Reducing Barriers to Affordable Housing Development.
In thinking about streamlining, reducing or eliminating barriers to
affordable housing development, please consider the following:
a. What are the economic and social benefits to American families
and individuals, the local community, the State or Tribe, and the
nation that would be realized by reducing regulatory barriers to
affordable housing development?
i. To what extent is there agreement that specific regulations and
administrative practices result in higher cost or reduced availability
of affordable market rate housing for potential homeowners and renters?
ii. Assuming agreement that specific regulations and administrative
practices create impediments to affordable housing development by
increasing the costs of either construction of housing or preservation
of housing supply, are these costs of such regulation and practices
quantifiable? What evidence is there to support this finding?
b. Are there regulations that may delay the process of building
affordable housing but are necessary to ensure a certain level of
quality is achieved in the construction?
c. How should one evaluate the cost of burdensome regulations on
the local housing market? How should one determine the benefits of
reducing those costs?
i. If you have knowledge of jurisdictions that have successfully
implemented creative solutions to reduce regulatory barriers, please
describe specific land use requirements that were demonstrated to have
raised the cost of housing.
ii. In responding to item (i) above, please discuss how these
jurisdictions offered incentives, sanctions or implemented policies
that effectively reduced or eliminated overly restrictive, outdated, or
otherwise burdensome land use regulations.
iii. For jurisdictions that considered reducing the barriers but
ultimately did not take action to do so, what was the basis for that
inaction?
(5) Plan Development and Implementation. In general, HUD is
interested in what actions it should recommend or implement to assist
States, Tribes, and local governments in reducing or eliminating
barriers to affordable housing development.
a. Regarding HUD's rules, regulations, and statutes, what actions
can the Department take to significantly reduce (or eliminate) barriers
to affordable housing development while remaining committed to its
mission to expand affordable housing options and support decent, safe
and sanitary housing for all Americans? Please provide detailed
examples, if possible.
b. Regarding the recommendations provided to HUD above, what
actions could the Department implement to create incentives for States,
Tribes, or local jurisdictions to encourage regulatory review and
reform? For communities that have achieved regulatory reform, how might
the Department learn from successful policies that were adopted at the
State, Tribal, or local level? How might the Department create guidance
for other jurisdictions looking to achieve reform?
(6) Research Questions.
a. What peer-reviewed research and/or representative surveys
provide quantitative analyses on the impact of regulations on cost of
affordable housing development? Do these analyses demonstrate evidence
on the degree or severity of impact? How strongly supported are the
conclusions of the research? Provide citations for research referenced.
b. What performance measures, quantitative and/or qualitative,
should the Council consider in assessing the reduction of barriers
nationally or regionally? What are the advantages and disadvantages of
each measure? Among the measures recommended above, how should they be
prioritized? Such measures could include, but would not be limited to,
the following:
i. The rate of housing production, considering a range of
cofactors, including domestic and international migration patterns and
rates of family formation;
ii. The number of housing construction permits, construction
starts, and completions;
iii. The number of burden-reducing legislative or regulatory
actions, considering suitable baselines;
iv. A list of best practice models based on recommendations from
stakeholders and the public and reviewed by subject matter experts;
v. Housing development processing times and costs, considering a
range of cofactors;
vi. Whether jurisdictions' barrier reduction was temporary (e.g., a
project- or grant/program-specific waiver) or permanent;
vii. Whether there are fair housing barriers to the development of
affordable housing; and
viii. Whether the permitting process poses a greater, comparable,
or smaller barrier to building housing than do the regulations, such as
regarding timeliness and consistency of permitting decisions.
c. HUD's Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse (RBC) \4\ was created to
document the prevalence of regulatory barriers that influence the cost
of affordable housing and offer best practice solutions for their
removal. The clearinghouse is an easily searchable electronic database
that contains more than 4,800 barriers and solutions and catalogs
information that spans all 50 states and more than 460 cities and
counties. Best practices have been previously highlighted in a HUD
publication called Breakthroughs, which was a bi-monthly e-newsletter
accessible where community actors could share their stories about
reform strategies that work. Representatives from the housing industry,
the National League of Cities, the National Association of Counties,
the National Association of Mayors and many other private, public and
advocacy groups have contributed to these efforts. HUD's Office of
Policy Development & Research continues to manage the RBC database and
staff are developing ideas for how the research community could use the
information to conduct regulatory barriers research. For the purpose of
this RFI, we ask for recommendations on how best to utilize this
important source of information for States, local governments,
researchers and policy analysts who are tracking reform activity across
the country.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ https://www.huduser.gov/portal/rbc/home.html.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV. Request for Information Response Guidelines
If you submit comments by mail, your response should be no longer
than 50 pages. Please provide the following information at the start of
your response to this RFI: Company/institution name (if applicable);
contact information, including address, phone number, and email
address. Do not submit Confidential Business Information (CBI) in your
response to this RFI. Responses identified as containing CBI will not
be reviewed and will be discarded.
Please identify each answer by responding to a specific question or
topic if applicable. You may answer as many or as few questions as you
wish. HUD will not respond to individual
[[Page 64553]]
submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses.
To help you prepare your comments, please see the How Do I Prepare
Effective Comments segment of the Commenting on HUD Rules web page,
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/general_counsel/Commenting-On-HUD-Rules#1. While that web page is written for commenting on regulatory
proposals, these tips are generally applicable to this RFI.
Dated: November 14, 2019.
Seth Appleton,
Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research.
[FR Doc. 2019-25388 Filed 11-21-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P