Department of Housing and Urban Development October 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

This proposed rule would revise HUD's regulations governing floodplain management to require, as part of the decision making process established to ensure compliance with Executive orders on Floodplain Management and Federal Flood Risk Management, that a HUD assisted or financed (including mortgage insurance) project involving new construction or substantial improvement that is situated in an area subject to floods be elevated or floodproofed between 2 and 3 feet above the base flood elevation as determined by best available information. The proposed rule would also revise HUD's Minimum Property Standards for one-to-four unit housing under HUD mortgage insurance and low-rent public housing programs. Building to the proposed standards will, consistent with the Executive orders, increase resiliency to flooding, reduce the risk of flood loss, minimize the impact of floods on human safety, health, and welfare, and promote sound, sustainable, long-term planning informed by a more accurate evaluation of flood risk that takes into account possible sea level rise and increased development associated with population growth. This document also proposes to revise a categorical exclusion available when HUD performs the environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and related Federal laws by making it consistent with changes to a similar categorical exclusion that is available to HUD grantees or other responsible entities when they perform these environmental reviews. This change will make the review standard identical regardless of whether HUD or a grantee is performing the review.

This rule proposes to codify HUD's policy regarding enhanced vouchers, a type of tenant-based voucher provided for under section 8 of the U.S. Housing Act of 1937 in the following four scenarios, which are prescribed and limited by statute: The prepayment of certain mortgages, the voluntary termination of the insurance contract for the mortgage, the termination or the expiration of a project-based section 8 rental assistance contract, and the transaction under which a project that receives or has received assistance under the Flexible Subsidy Program is preserved as affordable housing. Specifically, this rule would codify existing policy concerning the eligibility criteria for enhanced vouchers, as well as provide rental payment standards and subsidy standards applicable to enhanced vouchers, the right of enhanced voucher holders to remain in their units, procedures for addressing over-housed families, and the calculation of the enhanced voucher housing assistance payment.

This notice advises that HUD is extending the deadline for submission of an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH) by consolidated plan program participants that received in Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 or receive in a subsequent fiscal year a Community Development Block Grant of $500,000 or less, or in the case of a HOME consortium, whose members collectively received a CDBG grant of $500,000 or less, from the program year that begins on or after January 1, 2018, to the program year that begins on or after January 1, 2019 for which a new consolidated plan is due, the same date that qualified public housing agencies (PHAs) are to submit their AFHs.

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.

On July 29, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2016 (HOTMA). This new statute provides updates and improvements to statutes that authorize and prescribe requirements for multiple HUD programs and the Department of Agriculture's single-family housing guaranteed loan program. The purpose of this document is to advise HUD program participants and interested members of the public of those statutory provisions that are effective immediately and those provisions that will require further action by HUD to become effective or to be used by HUD program participants.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development announces the establishment of two Performance Review Boards to make recommendations to the appointing authority on the performance of its senior executives. Towanda A. Brooks, Sarah L. Gerecke, Keith W. Surber, Joy L. Hadley, Craig T. Clemmensen, and Barbara M. Cooper-Jones will serve as members of the Departmental Performance Review Board to review career SES performance. Laura H. Hogshead, Rafael C. Diaz, Tonya T. Robinson, and Patrick J. Pontius will serve as members of the Departmental Performance Review Board to review noncareer SES performance. The address is: Department of Housing and Urban Development, Washington, DC 20410-0050.

HUD is seeking approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for renewal of 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 final rule revises HUD's regulations for reviewing the previous participation in federal programs of certain participants seeking to take part in multifamily housing and healthcare programs administered by HUD's Office of Housing. The final rule clarifies and simplifies the process by which HUD reviews the previous participation of participants that have decision-making authority over their projects as one component of HUD's responsibility to assess financial and operational risk to the projects in these programs. The final rule, together with an accompanying Processing Guide, clarifies which individuals and entities will undergo review, HUD's purpose in conducting such review, and describe the review to be undertaken. By targeting more closely the individuals and actions that would be subject to prior participation review, HUD not only brings greater certainty and clarity to the process but provides HUD and program participants with flexibility as to the necessary previous participation review for entities and individuals that is not possible in a one-size fits all approach. Through this rule, HUD replaces the current previous participation regulations in their entirety.

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.

HUD is issuing this document to supplement its responses to certain insurance industry comments to HUD's proposed rule implementing the Fair Housing Act's (``Act'') discriminatory effects standard. These commenters requested, inter alia, total or partial exemptions or safe harbors from liability under the Act's discriminatory effects standard. After careful reconsideration of the insurance industry comments in accordance with the court's decision in Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCIAA) v. Donovan, HUD has determined that categorical exemptions or safe harbors for insurance practices are unworkable and inconsistent with the broad fair housing objectives and obligations embodied in the Act. HUD continues to believe that the commenters' concerns regarding application of the discriminatory effects standard to insurance practices can and should be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

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.

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 (5 U.S.C. 552a, as amended), HUD is notifying the public of its intent to execute a new computer matching program with SSA, for a recurring matching program with HUD's Office of Public and Indian Housing (PIH) and Office of Housing. The most recent renewal of the current matching agreement expires on November 7, 2016. HUD will obtain SSA data and make the results available to (1) program administrators such as public housing agencies (PHAs) and private owners and management agents (O/As) (collectively referred to as POAs) to enable them to verify the accuracy of income reported by the tenants (participants) of HUD rental assistance programs and (2) contract administrators (CAs) overseeing and monitoring O/A operations as well as independent public auditors (IPAs) that audit both PHAs and O/As.

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.