Department of Housing and Urban Development 2008 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This interim rule would make conforming amendments to the regulations of the Public Housing Operating Fund Program to reflect recent statutory amendments that allow for: The maximum term of an energy performance contract (EPC) between a public housing authority (PHA) and an entity other than HUD to be up to 20 years, and the extension of an existing EPC, without reprocurement, to a period of no more than 20 years, to allow additional energy conservation improvements. The increase in the maximum EPC term, which is currently limited to 12 years, is provided by statutory amendments and will enable longer payback periods for energy conservation measures.

Through this notice, HUD is announcing the availability on its website of HUD's Fleet Alternative Fuel Vehicle Acquisition Report for Fiscal Year 2007, which was prepared in accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 1992.

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 final rule makes changes to the Department's Mortgagee Review Board (Board) regulations to clarify and better reflect statutory directives and amend current practice, and to modify the Board's procedures governing hearings. This rule also removes provisions that unnecessarily duplicate the authorizing statute and clarifies the authority and duties of the Board in taking administrative action against mortgagees approved by the Federal Housing Administration. This rule separates and clarifies the grounds for administrative action and the factors considered by the Board in evaluating whether to take administrative action, as well as requiring the mortgagee to address these factors in its response to the Board's notice of violation. This rule follows publication of a March 28, 2008, proposed rule on which HUD received one public comment. At this final rule stage, HUD has decided to adopt the proposed rule with minor changes, as described below.

On July 10, 2008, HUD published the NOFA for the Continuum of Care (CoC) Homeless Assistance Program. Through this NOFA, HUD is making available approximately $1.42 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 for the CoC program. On August 13, 2008, HUD published a notice that established the deadline date for the submission of applications and corrected or clarified portions of the CoC NOFA. Since that date, Hurricane Ike has greatly impacted Continuums of Care in Texas, Louisiana and other places. In response to this disaster, today's publication extends the deadline date for the submission of applications.

This notice describes the statutorily required reconsideration of additional waivers and alternative requirements applicable to the CDBG disaster recovery grant provided to the State of Alabama on June 14, 2006, for the purpose of assisting in the recovery in the most impacted and distressed areas related to the consequences of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. HUD previously published an allocation and application notice on February 13, 2006, applicable to this grant and four others under the same appropriation and extended that notice on August 8, 2008. As described in the Supplementary Information section of this notice, HUD is authorized by statute to waive statutory and regulatory requirements and specify alternative requirements for this purpose, upon the request of the state grantee. This notice for the State of Alabama also notes statutory provisions affecting program design and implementation. The original notice has been reconsidered and the waivers are being retained.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) proposes to amend one of its Privacy Act record systems subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended. The amendment is to reflect changes in the system name, location, new system managers and current updates to the ``Purpose'' and ``Systems Security Measures'' statements. This system is managed and operated by HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing. IMS replaces the former Public and Indian Housing Information Center (PIC) system. The notice for the PIC system was published at 67 FR 20986. This record system supports the administration of programs for families receiving housing assistance for those entities that administer HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing rental assistance programs. The entities that administer PIH's rental assistance programs are the Public Housing Authorities (PHAs). Additionally, as part of HUD's oversight responsibility, the collected data maintained in IMS is used to calculate the amount of subsidy authorized and disbursed to PHAs and to monitor PHAs' overall performance and use of HUD funds. The existing scope, objectives, and business processes in place for this program remain unchanged. System Security Measures: The availability and data in IMS are important. Much of the data needs to be protected from unanticipated or unintentional modification. HUD restricts the use of the information to HUD's oversight responsibility, and access to the IMS is controlled by using the Web Access Security System (WASS) security module, which requires users to use the single sign-on security interface. WASS consists of a secure connection component and a secure systems component. WASS provides an overall security umbrella for thousands of HUD-wide system users. The secure connection component of WASS includes online registration forms that are accessible via the World Wide Web and are used by HUD's trusted Business Partners to submit requests for the authority to access secure systems that reside behind HUD's firewall. The data captured by the secure connection registration page is used to establish authorized user on the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server. Secure connection provides system level security by validating users against the LDAP server prior to providing users access to HUD's Secure System environment from the internet by: (1) The WASS module controls a user's access, updates access, read-only access, and approval access based on the user's role and security access level; (2) unauthorized system access is reduced by restricting access by job function and by the use of user identifications (User IDs) and password and user IDs that are utilized to identify the transaction by users; (3) inaccurate and incomplete data are identified and eliminated with extensive edits; and (4) data corruption/ destruction is handled by limiting user IDs that have update rights to the production server/databases. Data Quality: PHAs enter management, building and unit inventory details, and family information into IMS. Family data includes the families' names, social security numbers (SSN), and dates of birth. The social security number search feature was established to help HUD maintain data quality and integrity and to support one of its strategic objectives to prevent fraud and abuse. This search feature: (1) Helps to confirm that those families entitled to benefits receive benefits; (2) assists in limiting the duplication of benefits; and (3) helps to prevent submission of false applications for benefits, thereby ensuring data quality.

HUD proposes to establish a new record system to add to its inventory of systems of records subject to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a), as amended. The purpose of the proposed new system of records, identified as the Financial Data Mart (FDM, A75R) will be used by HUD's Chief Financial Office to store financial, limited personnel, vendor, and customer data.

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 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.

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.

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.

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. HUD will conduct various customer satisfaction surveys to gather feedback and data directly from our customers to determine the kind and quality of services and products they want and expect to receive.

Section 8(c)(1) of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (USHA) requires the Secretary to publish FMRs periodically, but not less than annually, adjusted to be effective on October 1 of each year. The primary uses of FMRs are to determine payment standard amounts for the Housing Choice Voucher program, to determine initial renewal rents for some expiring project-based Section 8 contracts, to determine initial rents for housing assistance payment (HAP) contracts in the Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy program (Mod Rehab), and to serve as a rent ceiling in the HOME rental assistance program. Today's notice provides final FY2009 FMRs for all areas that reflect the estimated 40th and 50th percentile rent levels trended to April 1, 2009. The FY2009 FMRs are based on 2000 Census data updated with more current survey data. For FY2009, FY2008 FMRs are updated using 2006 American Community Survey (ACS) data, and more recent Consumer Price Index (CPI) rent and utility indexes. HUD continues to use ACS data in different ways according to how many two-bedroom standard-quality and recent-mover sample cases are available in the FMR area or its Core- Based Statistical Area (CBSA). Revised 2006 FMRs based on Census and ACS data have been updated with CPI data through the end of 2007 and then trended to April 2009, the mid-point of FY2009.

This notice announces the mortgage insurance premiums (MIPs) for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) multifamily mortgage insurance programs that have commitments to be issued or reissued in Fiscal Year (FY) 2009. The FY2009 MIPs are the same as in FY2008. This annual notice includes for the first time two additional MIPs for the hospital mortgage insurance programs: (1) Supplemental loans for hospitals; and (2) refinancing for existing FHA-insured hospitals. These are not new MIPs and the amounts charged for them will be the same as in previous years. In addition to announcing MIPs for FY2009, this notice announces that credit subsidy obligations are required for firm commitments issued or reissued for FHA's three positive credit subsidy programs: (1) Section 221(d)(3) New Construction/Substantial Rehabilitation for Nonprofit/Cooperatives; (2) Section 241(a) Supplemental Loans for apartments only; and (3) Section 223(d) Operating Loss Loans. These obligations are not new for FY2009.

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.

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.

This Notice announces a debenture recall of certain Federal Housing Administration (FHA) debentures, in accordance with authority provided in the National Housing Act.

This proposed rule would amend HUD's regulations governing manufactured homes that are to be the security for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) Title I loans and Title II insured mortgages. The proposed rule would permit, as eligible for FHA insurance, mortgages on manufactured homes to be installed in accordance with the Model Installation Standards, which were the subject of notice and rulemaking that resulted in a final rule published on October 19, 2007. Acceptance of mortgages on these manufactured homes for FHA insurance will provide for greater flexibility of design, thereby permitting additional options for affordable housing. This proposed rule would apply to all newly installed manufactured homes that are to be security for Title I and Title II loans and any manufactured home that has been previously set up and erected at another location and that is to be security for a Title I loan. An existing manufactured home that secures a Title I loan and that has been installed or erected on a homesite in compliance with the manufacturer's requirements for anchoring, support, stability, and maintenance would be exempt from compliance with this proposed rule, unless it is relocated from the site of its original installation after the effective date of this proposed rule.

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. HUD staff, Mortgagees, and Contract Administrators complete the form HUD-9834 during on-site reviews. The information gathered from the form is used to evaluate the quality of management, determine causes of problems, and devise corrective actions to safeguard the Department's financial interest and ensure that tenants are provided with decent, safe, and sanitary housing.

This proposed rule would amend HUD's regulations for the Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) program by prohibiting Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages from using ICDBG funds to facilitate the relocation of for-profit businesses from one labor market area to another, if the relocation is likely to result in significant job loss. The proposed rule would prohibit Indian tribes and Alaska Native villages from using ICDBG funds for ``job pirating'' activities that are likely to result in significant job loss. ``Job pirating,'' in this context, refers to the use of ICDBG funds to lure or attract a business and its jobs from one community to another. To prevent the rule from having an effect in situations where the relocation of a business causes an insignificant loss of jobs, the proposed rule would provide that a loss of 25 or fewer jobs from an area, as a result of an ICDBG-funded economic development project, would not constitute a significant loss of jobs.

This proposed rule would amend HUD's regulations implementing the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act of 1986 (PFCRA), which were codified in 1996 and were amended in 2003 to include inflation adjustments. The purpose of this proposed rule is to more closely conform the PFCRA regulations with the PFCRA statutory language, to incorporate additional definitions into the PFCRA regulations, and to add an additional item to the list of factors the Secretary shall consider in determining the amount of penalties and assessments to be imposed.