Department of Housing and Urban Development December 2013 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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.

HUD has submitted the proposed information collection requirement described below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, in accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act. The purpose of this notice is to allow for an additional 30 days of public comment.

This document advises the public of a HUD regulation that has been temporarily waived in order to facilitate voluntary PHA participation in the FSS Program Demonstration. The FSS Program Demonstration is a study using a random assignment methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of the FSS program. Specifically, this document announces a temporary, partial waiver to the SEMAP rating criteria at 24 CFR 985.3(o) (``Family self-sufficiency (FSS) enrollment and escrow accounts''), for PHAs with a mandatory Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) FSS program who are participating in the FSS Program Demonstration.

HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, HUD is requesting comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, HUD is requesting comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

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

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

This notice advises public housing agencies (PHAs), as well as members of the public, that HUD intends to reinstitute, temporarily, the award of 5 points for the occupancy sub-indicator of the Capital Fund Program Indicator to all PHAs for the PHAS Capital Fund Program Indicator. This award of points is provided as regulatory relief from a non-statutory element of PHAS and intended to help lessen the impact of decreases in funding in recent appropriations acts. Adding automatic points for the occupancy sub-indicator will allow PHAs to focus on the statutory criteria for assessing performance under the Capital Fund Indicator, which is timely obligation of the Capital Funds and will in no way limit HUD's oversight and monitoring of PHAs. HUD welcomes public comment on the scoring adjustment HUD intends to make as provided in this notice.

Section 106 of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989 (the HUD Reform Act) requires HUD to publish quarterly Federal Register notices of all regulatory waivers that HUD has approved. Each notice covers the quarterly period since the previous Federal Register notice. The purpose of this notice is to comply with the requirements of section 106 of the HUD Reform Act. This notice contains a list of regulatory waivers granted by HUD during the period beginning on July 1, 2013, and ending on September 30, 2013.

HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, HUD is requesting comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, HUD is requesting comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the information collection described below. In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act, HUD is requesting comment from all interested parties on the proposed collection of information for Applicant/Tenant's Consent to the Release of Information and the Authorization for the Release of Information/Privacy Act Notice. The purpose of this notice is to allow for 60 days of public comment.

Through this final rule, HUD establishes a definition of ``qualified mortgage'' for the single family residential loans that HUD insures, guarantees, or administers that aligns with the statutory ability-to-repay criteria of the Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) and the regulatory criteria of the definition of ``qualified mortgage'' promulgated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act) created new section 129C in TILA, which establishes minimum standards for considering a consumer's repayment ability for creditors originating certain closed-end, dwelling-secured mortgages, and generally prohibits a creditor from making a residential mortgage loan unless the creditor makes a reasonable and good-faith determination of a consumer's ability to repay the loan according to its terms. Section 129C authorizes the agency with responsibility for compliance with TILA, which is CFPB, to issue a rule implementing these requirements, and the CFPB has issued its rule implementing these requirements. The Dodd-Frank Act also charges HUD and three other Federal agencies with prescribing regulations defining the types of loans that these Federal agencies insure, guarantee, or administer, as may be applicable, that are qualified mortgages. Through this rule, HUD complies with this statutory directive for the single family residential loans that HUD insures, guarantees, or administers.

This notice announces HUD's intention to sell an unsubsidized multifamily mortgage loan, without Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance, in a competitive auction limited to participation by Units of Local Governments (ULGs) and Non-profit Corporations on December 12, 2013 (MLS 2014-1). This notice also describes generally the bidding process for the sale and certain persons who are ineligible to bid.

This final rule amends the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards by adopting certain recommendations made to HUD by the Manufactured Housing Consensus Committee (MHCC), as modified by HUD. The National Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974 (the Act) requires HUD to publish in the Federal Register all proposed revised construction and safety standards (Construction and Safety Standards, or Standards) submitted by the MHCC. The MHCC prepared and submitted to HUD its second group of recommendations to improve various aspects of the Construction and Safety Standards. HUD is including a number of revisions in this final rule to reflect recent changes to code standards adopted by private standard-setting organizations and recommended by the MHCC or members of the public. However, HUD has decided at this time not to go forward in this final rule with certain revisions contained in the proposed rule due to pending regulations for improving energy efficiency in manufactured homes currently being prepared by the Department of Energy (DOE). HUD has also decided not to move forward with its proposal to establish maximum formaldehyde emissions standards for particleboard materials used in Manufactured Housing flooring applications so that HUD can consider standards for formaldehyde being established by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

This notice announces the inaugural year of the Innovation in Affordable Housing Student Design and Planning Competition. The competition requires teams of graduate students from multiple disciplines to submit plans in response to a real life affordable housing design issue. The goals of this new competition are: To encourage research and innovation in quality affordable housing design that strengthens the social and physical fabric of low- and moderate- income communities and neighborhoods; to raise practitioner and future practitioner capacity to produce more livable and sustainable housing for low-and moderate-income people through disseminating best practices; and to foster cross-cutting team-work within the design and community development process.