Department of Housing and Urban Development October 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

In accordance with section 102(a)(4)(C) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989, this announcement notifies the public of funding decisions made by the Department in a competition for funding under the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the HUD Community Compass Technical Assistance and Capacity Building program for Fiscal Year 2014. This announcement contains the names of the awardees and amounts of the awards made available by HUD.

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

HUD is seeking approval for the proposed information collection requirement described below, and will be submitting 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 use to assist the homeless.

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 proposed rule would revise and update HUD's regulations governing the demolition and disposition of public housing. Currently, demolitions and dispositions are approved based on certification by a public housing agency (PHA) that certain conditions are met. This rule increases the oversight of demolition and disposition of public housing by requiring PHAs to submit more detailed justifications supporting such certifications, and specifying the requirements concerning the use of disposition proceeds, and other matters. The rule would also clarify and provide more detail related to existing requirements applicable to demolition and disposition such as resident relocation, and fair housing and civil rights compliance to ensure that PHAs properly abide by such requirements. The rule proposes to allow a PHA to request HUD permission to retain public housing property free of restrictions under the declaration of trust and annual contributions contract. In addition, the rule would update regulatory provisions to conform to certain requirements under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, and clarify the definition of ``conversion'' in HUD's conversion of public housing regulations.

In accordance with Section 102(a)(4)(C) of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Reform Act of 1989, this announcement notifies the public of funding decisions made by the Department. The public was notified of the availability of the Emergency Safety and Security funds with PIH Notice 2014-09 (Notice), which was issued May 12, 2014. Additionally, Public Housing Authorities (PHAs) were notified of funds availability via electronic mail and a posting to the HUD Web site. PHAs were funded in accordance with the terms of the Notice. This announcement contains the consolidated names and addresses of this year's award recipients under the Capital Fund Emergency Safety and Security grant program.

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 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.

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.

The Section 184 Indian Housing Loan Guarantee program (Section 184 program) provides access to sources of private financing for Indian families, Indian housing authorities, and Indian tribes that otherwise could not acquire housing financing because of the unique legal status of Indian land, by guaranteeing loans to eligible persons and entities. Over the last 5 years, the Section 184 program has doubled the number of loans and eligible families being assisted by the program. For HUD to continue to meet the increasing demand for participation in this program, HUD is exercising its new statutory authority to implement an annual premium to the borrower in the amount of 0.15 percent of the remaining loan balance until the unpaid principal balance, excluding the upfront loan guarantee fee, reaches 78 percent of the lower of the initial sales price or appraised value based on the initial amortization schedule. Effective November 15, 2014 the new annual premium of 0.15 percent of the remaining loan balance will apply to all new loan guarantees, including refinances. This notice also provides guidance on the cancellation of the annual premium when the loan reaches the 78 percent loan-to-value ratio.

This proposed rule would implement amendments made by the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the Elderly Act of 2010 (Section 202 Act of 2010) and the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2010 (Melville Act) to the authorizing statutes for HUD's supportive housing for the elderly program, known as the Section 202 program, and the supportive housing for persons with disabilities program, known as the Section 811 program. These two statutes were enacted on January 4, 2011, and made important reforms to the Section 202 and Section 811 programs, several of which have already been implemented through separate issuances, as discussed in the Supplementary Information section of this rule. In addition to proposing regulations to implement reforms of these two statutes, this proposed rule would implement several other changes to align with the amendments made by the January 4, 2011, statutes, and streamline the Section 202 and Section 811 programs to better provide supportive housing for the elderly and persons with disabilities. This proposed rule would establish the requirements and procedures for the use of new project rental assistance for supportive housing for persons with disabilities; the implementation of an enhanced project rental assistance contract; allowance of a set-aside for a number of units for elderly individuals with functional limitations or other category of elderly persons as defined in the notice of funding availability (NOFA); make significant changes for the prepayment of certain loans for supportive housing for the elderly; implement a new form of rental assistance called Senior Preservation Rental Assistance Contracts (SPRACs); modernize the capital advance for supportive housing for persons with disabilities; and provide grant assistance for applicants without sufficient capital to prepare a site for a funding competition. This rule also proposes to establish the regulations for the Service Coordinators in Multifamily Housing program and the Assisted Living Conversion program.

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. This notice publishes the final FY 2015 FMRs for programs operating under Section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937 (The Act) or directed to use FMRs as calculated under Section 8 of the act. Currently the programs operating under Section 8 of the act are the Housing Choice Voucher, the Moderate Rehabilitation, and the project- based voucher programs. Additionally, based on Section 210 of Division L, Title II of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, Public Housing Authorities administering Public Housing must use these FMRs in calculating Flat Rents for public housing. Today's notice provides final FY 2015 FMRs for all areas that reflect the estimated 40th and 50th percentile rent levels trended to April 1, 2015. The FY 2015 FMRs are based on 5-year, 2008-2012 standard quality rents collected by the American Community Survey (ACS). These 5-year rents are updated by one- year recent-mover 2012 ACS rents. HUD uses the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rent and utility indexes to further update the data from 2012 to the end of 2013. HUD continues to use ACS data in different ways according to the statistical reliability of rent estimates for areas of different population sizes and counts of rental units. The final FY 2015 FMRs in this notice have no methodology changes. HUD continues to use the Puerto Rico Community Survey (PRCS) data (the PRCS is a part of the ACS program) and the Consumer Price Index data calculated specifically for Puerto Rico, as it first did for the FY 2014 FMRs. HUD also continues to adjust the FMRs for Puerto Rico based on validated information related to utility rates, which have not shown up in the gross rent or CPI data. The trend factor, applied to all FMR areas, is the average annual change in national gross rents between 2007 and 2012. The final FY 2015 FMR areas use the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) metropolitan area definitions as updated through December 1, 2009 and include HUD modifications that were first used in the determination of FY 2006 FMR areas. The February 28, 2013 update to the OMB metropolitan area definitions are not been incorporated in the FY 2015 FMRs process due to the timing of the release and the availability of ACS data. HUD will work toward incorporating these new area definitions into the Proposed FY 2016 FMRs. The Department hopes to provide more implementation details in an anticipated publication in January 2015. The January 2015 notice will also discuss and solicit comments on several topics related to the calculation of FMRs, including the implementation of the February 28, 2013 OMB Metropolitan Area Definitions and possible measures the Department is considering that would reduce the concentration of Section 8 voucher tenants. For example, HUD is evaluating alternatives to the current 50th percentile FMR program whose purpose was to mitigate excessive geographic concentration of voucher tenants. HUD will solicit comments to determine interest in a program that is based on different measures for determining how many and which areas would receive special FMRs to encourage deconcentration, as well as on alternative FMR-based tools for promoting deconcentration such as Small Area FMRs estimated at the ZIP code level. The final FY 2015 notice updates the FMRs for Bennington, Windham, and Windsor counties in Vermont to incorporate the results of surveys received after publication of the proposed FY 2015 FMRs. These surveys result in increases for all three nonmetropolitan counties.

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