Department of Housing and Urban Development April 4, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Section 3 of the Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968, as amended by the Housing and Community Development Act of 1992 (Section 3), contributes to the establishment of stronger, more sustainable communities by ensuring that employment and other economic opportunities generated by Federal financial assistance for housing and community development programs are, to the greatest extent feasible, directed toward low- and very low-income persons, particularly those who are recipients of government assistance for housing. HUD is statutorily charged with the authority and responsibility to implement and enforce Section 3. Elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register, HUD published a proposed rule that would amend the Section 3 regulations to, among other things, increase the impact of the Section 3 requirements, and streamline and update HUD's reporting and tracking requirements. The proposed rule includes a requirement that HUD set Section 3 benchmarks by publishing a notification, subject to public comment, in the Federal Register. The proposed rule provides that HUD will set benchmarks based on the number of Section 3 workers and a subset of Section 3 workers, defined as Targeted Section 3 workers. If a recipient complies with the statutory priorities regarding effort and meets the outcome benchmarks, HUD would presume the recipient is following Section 3 requirements, absent evidence to the contrary. These proposed outcome benchmarks are being published concurrently with the proposed rule so the public can comment on the proposed benchmarks and methodology for setting the benchmarks prior to adoption of the final rule and benchmarks.