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

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gives notice that the State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), on behalf of the State of New Jersey through its Department of Community Affairs (NJDCA), as the recipient of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant funds, and as the ``Responsible Entity,'' as that term is defined by HUD regulations at 24 CFR 58.2(a)(7)(i), intends to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Rebuild by Design (RBD) Meadowlands Flood Protection Project (the Proposed Project). The State of New Jersey, through NJDCA, has designated the NJDEP as the Lead Agency to prepare the EIS for the Proposed Project in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The EIS will analyze the environmental effects of alternatives for the construction of flood risk reduction measures within the Boroughs of Little Ferry, Moonachie, Carlstadt, and Teterboro, and the Township of South Hackensack, all in Bergen County, New Jersey (the Project Area). Such measures will be designed to address the impacts of coastal and riverine (fluvial) flooding on the quality of the human environment in the Project Area due to both sea level rise and storm hazards, including heavy rainfall events and intense coastal storm events. The approximate Project Area boundaries are: Hackensack River to the east; Paterson Plank Road and the southern boundary of Carlstadt to the south; State Route 17 to the west; and Interstate 80 and the northern boundary of the Borough of Little Ferry to the north. The State of New Jersey through NJDCA is the Grantee of HUD Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funds that have been appropriated under the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2013 (Pub. L. 113-2, approved January 29, 2013) related to disaster relief, long-term recovery, restoration of infrastructure and housing, and economic revitalization in the most impacted and distressed areas resulting from a major disaster that was declared pursuant to the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act of 1974 (Stafford Act) in calendar year 2012 for Hurricane Sandy. The Proposed Project was developed and selected as a winning concept through HUD's and the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force's RBD competition. The RBD competition promotes the development of innovative resilience projects in the Sandy-affected region. HUD has allocated $150 million in CDBG-DR funds for the planning, design, and implementation of this Project. Receipt of CDBG-DR funding requires compliance with NEPA. This Notice of Intent to prepare an EIS is, therefore, being published in accordance with NEPA, the Council of Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA Regulations found at 40 CFR parts 1500-1508, HUD implementing regulations at 24 CFR part 58, and HUD's additional environmental review requirements for the Project published in a Federal Register notice on October 16, 2014 (79 FR 62182). This Notice of Intent to prepare a EIS (as defined at 40 CFR 1508.22) is in accordance with CEQ Regulations, and represents the beginning of the public scoping process as outlined in 40 CFR 1501.7. A Draft Public Scoping Document, or Draft Scope of Work to prepare an EIS (Draft Scope of Work), for the Proposed Project is available at www.rbd-meadowlands.nj.gov. The Draft Scope of Work outlines the Proposed Project's purpose and need, initial range of alternatives, resource areas to be addressed in the EIS, proposed analytical methodologies, and other elements associated with the Project and this NEPA process as known at this early stage. Following the public scoping process, a Draft EIS will be prepared that analyzes the Proposed Project. Once the Draft EIS is certified as complete, a notice will then be sent to appropriate government agencies, groups, and individuals known to have an involvement or interest in the Draft EIS and particularly in the environmental impact issues identified therein. A Notice of Availability of the Draft EIS will be published in the Federal Register and local media outlets at that time in accordance with HUD and CEQ Regulations. Any person or agency interested in receiving notice and commenting on the Draft Scope of Work or Draft EIS should contact the individual named in this notice under the heading FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT no later than July 20, 2016.

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 interim final rule amends HUD's civil monetary penalty regulations by making inflation adjustments as mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. HUD also removes three obsolete civil monetary penalty regulations previously authorized under statutes for which either HUD no longer has enforcement authority or the program is no longer active. Lastly, HUD makes a technical change to the regulation language implementing the Program Fraud Civil Remedies Act which, due to a typographical error under the last civil money penalty adjustment, failed to include language assigning a penalty for causing a false claim or statement to be made.

On July 31, 2012, HUD published an interim rule entitled ``Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing: Continuum of Care Program.'' The Continuum of Care (CoC) program is designed to address the critical problem of homelessness through a coordinated community-based process of identifying needs and building a system of housing and services to address those needs. This rule amends the CoC program regulations to allow individuals and families to choose housing outside of a CoC's geographic area, subject to certain conditions, and to retain the tenant-based rental assistance under the CoC program. In addition to allowing individuals and families to choose housing outside of the CoC's geographic area, this interim rule exempts recipients and subrecipients from compliance with all nonstatutory regulations when a program participant moves to flee domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking. This relaxation of conditions is consistent with the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013, directing greater protections for victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, or stalking.

Pursuant to the Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a(e)(4)), as amended, notice is hereby given that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Policy Development and Research provides public notice regarding its Choice Neighborhoods Evaluation System of Records. This evaluation will study HUD's Choice Neighborhoods program, which is intended to help people living in HUD- assisted housing developments and surrounding distressed neighborhoods improve their quality of life. This study will allow the Department to evaluate the benefits and impacts of the Choice Neighborhoods program, to determine whether it accomplishes its goals, and to inform policymaking decisions. The data sources covered in this notice are gathered from Federal, local, and private databases, and directly from individuals that the program intends to help. A more detailed description of the proposed requirements is contained in the purpose section of 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 January 1, 2016, and ending on March 31, 2016.

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 Budget-Neutral Demonstration Program for Energy and Water Conservation Improvements at Multifamily Housing Residential Units (Pay for Success Pilot) authorizes HUD to establish a competitive process for selecting one or more qualified intermediaries who will, per agreements with HUD, be responsible for initiating and managing an energy and water conservation retrofit program. These retrofits are authorized at properties participating in the project-based rental assistance (PBRA) program under section 8 of the United States Housing Act of 1937; supportive housing for the elderly program operating under section 202 of the Housing Act of 1959; and supportive housing for persons with disabilities under section 811(d)(2) of the Cranston- Gonzalez National Affordable Housing Act. The documents that are the subject of this notice are those used by applicants applying to participate in this program.

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.

In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974, as amended, 5 U.S.C. 552a, the Department's Office of the Executive Secretariat proposes to update and reissue a current system of records notice (SORN): Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), Privacy Act, and Administrative Appeals Request Files, ADMIN/AHFDC.01. This SORN was previously titled ``Privacy Act and Appeals Request Files,'' CIO/QMPP.01, and published at 79 FR 44854-55 (August 1, 2014). This amendment consolidates under one notice FOIA, Privacy Act, and administrative appeals procedures for requests and disclosures and updates the SORN, categories of individuals covered, categories of records, authority for maintenance, routine uses, storage, safeguards, retention and disposal, system manager and address, notification procedures, records access, contesting records procedures, and records source categories to indicate that the SORN now includes FOIA-related records. This notice deletes and supersedes SORN CIO/QMPP.01, Privacy Act and Appeals Request Files. This updated publication will be included in the Department's inventory of SORNs. Detailed information pertaining to this amendment appears under the SORN's ``Supplementary Information'' caption.

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 possible use to assist the homeless.

This rule proposes to codify several significant changes to FHA's Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program that were previously issued under the authority granted to HUD in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013, and to make additional regulatory changes. The Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program is FHA's reverse mortgage program that enables seniors who have equity in their homes to withdraw a portion of the accumulated equity. The intent of the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program is to ease the financial burden on elderly homeowners facing increased health, housing, and subsistence costs at a time of reduced income. FHA's mission is to serve underserved markets, which must be balanced with HUD's inherent, as well as, statutory obligation under the National Housing Act to protect the FHA insurance funds. The impacts of the recent financial crisis, including a decline in property values, shrinking retirement accounts, and changing borrower demographics placed seniors with Home Equity Conversion Mortgages at an increased risk of losing their homes due to their inability to make tax and insurance payments. During this time, the FHA HECM program was the only reverse mortgage program available for seniors. The above referenced economic and market factors, combined with certain program features, resulted in increased risk to the Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (MMIF). This rulemaking strengthens the FHA HECM program and codifies changes made under the Reverse Mortgage Stabilization Act of 2013 that reduce risk to the MMIF and increase the sustainability of this important program for seniors.

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's Consolidated Plan is a planning mechanism designed to help States and local governments to assess their affordable housing and community development needs and to make data-driven, place-based investment decisions. The consolidated planning process serves as the framework for a community-wide dialogue to identify housing and community development priorities that align and focus funding from HUD's formula block grant programs. This proposed rule would amend HUD's Consolidated Plan regulations to require that jurisdictions consider two additional concepts in their planning efforts. The first concept is how to address the need for broadband access for low- and moderate-income residents in the communities they serve. Broadband is the common term used to refer to a high-speed, always on connection to the Internet. Such connection is also referred to as high-speed broadband or high-speed Internet. Specifically, the proposed rule would require that States and localities that submit a consolidated plan describe the broadband access in housing occupied by low- and moderate-income households. If low-income residents in the communities do not have such access, States and jurisdictions must consider providing broadband access to these residents into their decisions on how to invest HUD funds. The second concept to be added to the Consolidated Plan process would require jurisdictions to consider incorporating resilience to natural hazard risks, taking care to anticipate how risks will increase due to climate change, into development of the Plan in order to begin addressing impacts of climate change on low- and moderate-income residents.

On August 10, 2015, HUD published in the Federal Register, a proposed rule that would revise HUD's regulations for reviewing the previous participation of Federal programs of certain participants seeking to take part in multifamily housing and healthcare programs administered by HUD's Office of Housing. Specifically, the rulemaking proposed to clarify and simplify 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 approach offered by the proposed rule was to not only bring greater certainty and clarity to the process but greater flexibility, avoiding a one-size fits all approach. This document opens the public comment period solely for the provisions addressed in this document to address concerns that while the proposed rule provided greater flexibility, it lacked the greater certainty to which HUD committed, and how HUD would provide such certainty.

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.

In this Notice, the President of the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae) retains authority and redelegates authority granted to Ginnie Mae to the Executive Vice President and other subordinate employees.

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

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 proposed rule would revise regulations for HUD's Native American and Native Hawaiian programs to incorporate existing rules that require HUD programs to be open to all eligible individuals and families regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status. Since HUD promulgated the ``Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity'' final rule in February, 2012, HUD has required that HUD-assisted and HUD- insured housing be made available in accordance with program eligibility requirements and without regard to sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status, and has generally prohibited inquiries into sexual orientation or gender identity. In applying these non-discrimination requirements to HUD's Native American and Native Hawaiian programs, this proposed rule would further the Federal goal of providing decent housing and a suitable living environment for all.

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 Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) established the Housing Trust Fund (HTF) to be administered by HUD. Pursuant to the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Security and Soundness Act of 1992 (the Act), as amended by HERA, Division A, eligible HTF grantees are the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. In accordance with Section 1338 (c)(4)(A) of the Act, this notice announces the formula allocation amount for each eligible HTF grantee.

HUD is extending the comment period to solicit recommendations for specific policy proposals and methods of research and evaluation to be implemented as part of the expansion of the Moving to Work (MTW) demonstration program. The original comment period will end on May 4, 2016, but HUD is extending that period for 14 days to allow interested parties to prepare and submit their comments.

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.