Recent News
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Public and Indian Housing published a new fourth chapter for its Housing Choice Voucher Guidebook as part of an ongoing, incremental update. The Payment Standards chapter includes updated information on small area fair market rents (SFMRs), including what a public housing agency should consider to determine whether to apply SAFMRs to project-based vouchers.
Legislation to permanently authorize and reform the Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) program was introduced Thursday in the House of Representatives. The Reforming Disaster Recovering Act of 2019 would require a one-for-one replacement of public housing and other federally subsidized rental housing in the case of CDBG-DR funding after natural disasters.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today that it will provide $150 million in grants for affordable housing for non-elderly people with disabilities. Funding for the Mainstream Housing Voucher Program will assist approximately 18,000 people gain affordable housing, according to a HUD news release. The grants will be awarded to eligible public housing agencies. Applications are due Sept. 5.
The percentage of cost-burdened renters dropped slightly, but there remains a significant gap in affordable housing, according to the State of the Nation’s Housing 2019 report issued by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. The annual report says that 1.5 million units of housing should be built each year, which is 260,000 units more than were built in 2018.
President Donald Trump today signed an executive order to establish a White House Council on eliminating Barriers to Affordable Housing Development. The group will consist of members from eight federal agencies and the chairman will be Ben Carson, secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
