Department of Housing and Urban Development May 2007 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This final rule establishes standards for recipients under the Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program to purchase insurance through nonprofit insurance entities owned and controlled by Indian tribes and tribally designated housing entities (TDHEs). This rule follows publication of a March 7, 2006, proposed rule, and takes into account the public comments received on the proposed rule. This final rule provides additional clarifications in the preamble and adopts, with one change, the regulations in the March 7, 2006, proposed rule.

The proposed information collection requirement described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

This Notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus Federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for possible use to assist the homeless.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal. Lenders must provide mortgagors with adjustable rate mortgages an annual ARM Disclosure Notice at least 25 days before any adjustment to a mortgagor's monthly payment may occur, and the mortgagee must inform the borrower of the changed interest rate, monthly mortgage amount, the current index interest rate value, and how the payment adjustment was calculated. HUD reviews lenders loan files to ensure lenders are in compliance.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal. The Mortgage Insurance Termination Information is used by FHA- approved lenders to terminate FHA insurance to comply with HUD requirements. The Application for Premium Refund or Distributive Share Payment is used by homeowners to apply for the unearned portion of the mortgage insurance premium or a distributive share payment.

This Notice identifies unutilized, underutilized, excess, and surplus Federal property reviewed by HUD for suitability for possible use to assist the homeless.

In accordance with HUD's acquisition regulations (HUDAR), this notice announces HUD's designation of a competition advocate. Under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), each agency designates a competition advocate whose responsibilities include, but are not limited to: Promoting the acquisition of commercial items, promoting full and open competition, challenging requirements that are not stated in terms of functions to be performed, performance required or essential physical characteristics, and challenging barriers to the acquisition of commercial items and full and open competition such as unnecessarily restrictive statements of work, unnecessarily detailed specifications, and unnecessarily burdensome contract clauses.

Pursuant to the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988, as amended, and the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Guidance on the statute, HUD is announcing a new a matching program involving comparisons between data provided by applicants or participants in HUD's assisted housing programs and applicants for RHS's rural housing programs. The matching program will be carried out to detect excessive or duplicate housing assistance as result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The matching program will be accomplished by comparing income, family size, family address, family identity, and benefit data for individuals participating in HUD's assisted housing programs and subsidized multifamily housing programs with rural housing assistance data maintained by RHS in its HS Multifamily Programs (MFH), Multifamily Information System (MFIS), Single Family Housing Programs (SFH), Dedicated Loan Origination and Servicing System (DLOS), and Guaranteed Loan System (GLS) databases within its system of records known as System of Records titled ``USDA/Rural Development,'' last published 63 FR 38546 (July 17, 1998). Specifically, HUD will compare the RHS identity, income, family size, and benefit data to tenant- reported data included in HUD's system of records known as: (1) the Tenant Housing Assistance and Contract Verification Data (HUD/H-11), last published at 62 FR 11909 (March 13, 1997); and (2) the Public and Indian Housing Information Center (HUD/PIH-4), last published at 67 FR 20986 (April 29, 2002). The tenant comparisons will identify, based on criteria established by HUD, tenants whose incomes, family size, address, or benefit levels, etc. that require further verification to determine if the tenants received excessive or duplicate rental assistance. The program also provides for the verification of the matching results and the initiation of appropriate administrative or legal actions.

Through this proposed rule, HUD submits, for public comment, specific standards governing a mortgagor's investment in property for which the mortgage is insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). Specifically, this proposed rule would codify HUD's longstanding practice, authorized by statute, of allowing a mortgagor's investment to be derived from gifts by family members and certain organizations. The standards would address a situation in which the mortgagor's investment is derived from a gift, loan, or other payment that is provided by any donor, including an individual or an organization, and would also specify prohibited sources for a mortgagor's investment. The proposed rule would establish that a prohibited source of downpayment assistance is a payment that consists, in whole or in part, of funds provided by any of the following parties before, during, or after closing of the property sale: (1) The seller, or any other person or entity that financially benefits from the transaction; or (2) any third party or entity that is reimbursed directly or indirectly by any of the parties listed in clause (1).

The proposed information collection requirement described below will be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

On January 18, 2007, HUD published its Notice of HUD's Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) Policy Requirements and General Section to the FY 2007 SuperNOFA for HUD's Discretionary Programs (General Section). On March 13, 2007, HUD published its FY 2007 SuperNOFA for HUD's Discretionary Programs (FY 2007 SuperNOFA). In this notice published in today's Federal Register, HUD announces that it has posted corrected materials to Grants.gov, extends deadline dates for submission of applications, and clarifies requirements for submitting faxed documents. HUD is also providing supplemental information for and making technical corrections to the General Section and several individual program NOFAs. HUD has found that the Logic Models posted to Grants.gov included an error in the instructions and programming errors that could lead applicants to submit deficient or less competitive applications. HUD is posting corrected Logic Models to Grants.gov. Applicants who have signed up for the Grants.gov notification services will be automatically notified when the corrected Logic Models and these technical corrections are posted to Grants.gov. Applicants that have not signed up for the notification services should check the Grants.gov Web site for the modification to the announcement posting following publication of this Notice. In order to give applicants the opportunity and time to submit or resubmit their applications with the corrected Logic Models, HUD is reopening competition for program NOFAs whose deadline dates have already passed and extending the deadline dates for all NOFAs. Applicants that wish to resubmit their applications must submit an entire, complete application. Applicants that submit more than one electronic copy of the same application must resubmit all faxed documents after receipt and validation by Grants.gov of each revised application. This will ensure that the faxes are associated with the revised application. Finally, this document provides supplementary information for and makes corrections to the General Section and the individual NOFAs for the following programs, which were included in the FY 2007 SuperNOFA: Community Development Technical Assistance Programs (CD-TA), Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control Grant Program, Lead Hazard Reduction Grant Program, Operation Lead Elimination Action Program, Technical Studies Programs (Lead Technical Studies and Healthy Homes Technical Studies), Lead Outreach Program, Healthy Homes Demonstration Grants Program, Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) Program Coordinators, Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency (ROSS) Elderly/Persons with Disabilities, ROSSFamily-Homeownership, Self- Help Homeownership Opportunity Program, Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA), Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Program, Section 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with Disabilities Program, Early Doctoral Student Research Program, and Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant Program. Applicants who have submitted their applications prior to this publication should resubmit a complete, updated application that reflects any applicable corrections and clarifications, along with the corrected Logic Model described below in section II. The last application received and validated by Grants.gov by the deadline date will be the application that is reviewed, rated, and ranked. The supplementary information and technical corrections in this notice are reflected in the instruction packages but do not affect the application packages on Grants.gov.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for emergency review and approval, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for emergency review and approval, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal. Public Housing Agencies (PHAs) must submit 5-year plans and annual plans for tenant-based assistance and public housing operating subsidies, including Deregulated and Streamlined Plans. Through these plans a PHA will advise HUD, its residents, and the public of the PHA's mission for serving the needs of low-income and very low-income families and the PHA's strategy for addressing those needs.

This notice invites interested persons to submit recommendations related to proposed changes to the Federal Manufactured Construction and Safety Standards and Manufactured Home Procedural and Enforcement Regulations. The recommendations are to be submitted to the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (Consensus Committee) for review, and consideration for providing periodic recommendations to the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development to adopt, revise, and interpret the Federal manufactured housing construction standards and proposed procedural and enforcement regulations.

The proposed information collection requirement described below has been submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Department is soliciting public comments on the subject proposal.

This proposed rule would revise the low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) rent provisions of HUD's final Project-Based Voucher (PBV) program rule, which was published on October 13, 2005, and took effect on November 14, 2005. The October 13, 2005, final rule capped the PBV rents at the LIHTC rent in buildings with LIHTC units, even in cases where HUD formerly permitted such units to receive the higher rents permitted under the PBV program. After giving the issue further consideration, HUD now proposes to revert to the regulations that address this specific issue and were in effect prior to issuance of the October 13, 2005, final rule. The regulations in effect prior to the October 13, 2005, final rule did not necessarily require public housing agencies (PHAs) to cap section 8 maximum rents at the tax credit rent. PHAs may not enter into assistance contracts until HUD or an independent entity approved by HUD has conducted the required subsidy layering review and determined that the assistance is in accordance with HUD requirements.