Department of Housing and Urban Development February 6, 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In this notice, HUD solicits comment on the effectiveness of increasing efforts to reduce regulatory barriers to affordable housing by establishing, in HUD's competitive funding allocations, a policy priority for increasing the supply of affordable housing through the removal of regulatory barriers. A description of this policy priority, along with the Department's other policy priorities for competitive funding allocations, can be found each year in the Department's annual publication of its General Section to HUD's Super Notice of Funding Availability (SuperNOFA). Policy priorities provide applicants with the opportunity to obtain higher rating points if the applicants can demonstrate they are undertaking activities that promote the policy priorities. The publication of the General Section of HUD's FY2007 SuperNOFA on January 18, 2007, marks the fourth year that HUD has included the removal of regulatory barriers as part of its policy priorities. In 2007, HUD is implementing the renewal process, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act, for the questionnaire that must be completed to obtain the higher rating points for the regulatory barriers policy priority (if an applicant chooses to seek points for this priority). As part of this renewal process, HUD is seeking additional input on the effectiveness of the questionnaire in contributing to or promoting efforts to reduce regulatory barriers, and whether HUD should either (1) continue to implement this incentive criteria through the questionnaire or (2) consider any alternative and more effective means of providing incentive criteria for higher rating points in HUD NOFAs for removal of regulatory barriers. HUD will take this input into consideration in the development of HUD's FY2008 SuperNOFA.