Rural Housing Service 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Through this proposed rule, the Rural Housing Service (RHS or Agency) is proposing to amend its regulations to update and improve the direct Single-Family Housing (SFH) loans and grants programs. The proposed changes would increase program flexibility, allow more borrowers to access affordable loans, better align the programs with best practices, and enable the programs to be more responsive to economic conditions and trends.

This notice announces implementation of several provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill related to the Rural Housing Service (RHS) and the Rural Utilities Service (RUS) agencies of the Rural Development mission area of the United States Department of Agriculture, USDA, sometimes hereinafter referred to as Agency. Specifically, it provides notice of the population change in the rural area definition for the Community Facilities (CF) Guaranteed Loan Program and the Water and Waste Disposal (WWD) Guaranteed Loan Program and priorities for each program. It also provides established fee levels for Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 for the CF Guaranteed Loan Program. This Notice is being issued prior to enactment of full year appropriation for FY 2020. The Agency will publish the amount of funding received in the final appropriations act on its website at https://www.rd.usda.gov/newsroom/fy2020-appropriated-funding.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS or the Agency) is proposing to amend its regulation to remove the stated amount that the Agency will charge for the initial and annual guarantee fees. The regulation change will allow the Agency the flexibility to establish or make any future changes to the initial and annual guarantee fees without the need for a regulatory change.

On July 22, 2019, the Rural Housing Service (RHS) published a final rule concerning construction to permanent loan financing, repair or rehabilitation financing, and the removal of a maximum the interest rate cap for the Single Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program. The effective date was published as August 21, 2019 and is being deferred to October 1, 2019.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS or Agency) published a proposed rule on June 20, 2018 to amend the current regulation for the Single- Family Housing Guaranteed Loan Program (SFHGLP) Single Close Combination Construction to Permanent Loans (aka ``single close loans''), and now adopts the proposed changes in this final rule with some modifications. As proposed, the Agency will amend the regulation to ease the financial costs of interim construction financing for non- depository lenders (warehouse line of credit lenders or warehouse lenders) by allowing a temporary interest rate higher than the permanent note rate for interim construction financing, remove the requirement for loan modification or re-amortization once construction is complete, and allow for the reserve of regularly scheduled principal, interest, taxes and insurance (PITI) payments during the construction period. The final rule clarifies that the PITI reserve is an eligible use of single close loan funds. In addition, based on comments received, the Agency will allow single close loans for the rehabilitation of existing dwellings upon their purchase and eliminate maximum interest rate cap requirements for all SFHGLP loans. For clarity and completeness, the final rule also provides a definition of a warehouse lender and updates lender mortgage record retention requirements.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS or Agency) published a proposed rule on August 31, 2018 to amend its regulations for the direct and guaranteed single family housing loan and grant programs. Through this action, RHS finalizes the rule as final based on public comments, but with a revision to the definition of rural area to cite the statute which defines rural area and with a technical correction to the suspension or debarment requirement.

The Rural Housing Service (RHS), an Agency within Rural Development, announces that it is soliciting competitive applications under its Housing Preservation Grant (HPG) program. This action is taken to comply with Agency regulations which requires the Agency to announce the opening and closing dates for receipt of pre-applications for HPG funds from eligible applicants. The Agency will publish the amount of funding on its website at https://www.rd.usda.gov/newsroom/notices-solicitation-applica tions- nosas. Expenses incurred in developing applications will be at the applicant's risk.

In accordance with the requirements of the Privacy Act of 1974 as amended; Section 12204 of the Agricultural Act of 2014, Rural Development (RD) gives notice of its proposal to modify the system of records entitled USDA/RD-1 Current or Prospective Producers or Landowners, Applicants, Borrowers, Grantees, Tenants, and other participants in RD programs. To communicate the revision to the USDA RD-1 Systems of Records Notice in which the addition of Routine Use 26 below is published. However, this was not the only revised Routine Usethese were also revised: 1. Routine Use 21 was revised, 2. Routine Use 22 was added [OMB M-17-12 items], 3. In addition, Routine Uses 23 and 24 were renumbered to 24 and 25, respectively.

This Notice announces that the Rural Housing Service (Agency) is accepting Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 applications for the Community Facilities Technical Assistance and Training (TAT) Grant program. The Agency will publish the amount of funding received in the final appropriations act on its website at https://www.rd.usda.gov/newsroom/ notices-solicitation-applications-nosas. Awards will be made from available funding on or before September 15, 2019.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, this notice announces the Rural Housing Service's (RHS) intention to request an extension for the currently approved information collection in support of our program for Complaints and Compensation for Construction Defects.

In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, the Rural Housing Service (RHS) invites comments on this information collection for the Housing Preservation Grant (HPG) Program, which approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will be requested.

The Rural Housing Service announces the low loan-to-cost ratio required for loans guaranteed under Option Three (Continuous Guarantee) of the Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program (GRRHP). The low loan- to-cost ratio is defined as a maximum of 70 percent in order for a loan to be eligible for a single continuous guarantee for construction and permanent loans. The Rural Housing Service is not modifying the lease- up reserves or percent of guarantee previously established for this program.