On December 2, LeadingAge issued a call to action, urging our members to call and email their representatives and senators in support of funding for new homes in HUD’s Section 202 Housing for the Elderly program.
Just before Thanksgiving, Congress made progress on year-end spending negotiations and is now finalizing details of HUD’s fiscal year 2020 appropriations bill.
Congress has enacted a second continuing resolution (CR) for fiscal year 2020. This latest CR, adopted as the first was expiring on November 21, keeps federal programs funded through December 20.
Congress did not pass any of its 12 annual appropriations bills in time for the October 1 start of the new fiscal year.
Congress is currently funding all federal discretionary programs at fiscal year 2019 levels until midnight December 20 under the CR.
On November 21, House Financial Services Chair Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) introduced identical bills, the Housing is Infrastructure Act. The bills would invest $100 billion in the construction of new affordable housing units and maintenance of existing subsidized housing.
In a November 22 Notice, HUD announced a 60-day comment period to receive ideas for the White House Council on Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing.
On November 22, HUD published new Operating Cost Adjustment Factors. The new OCAFs are effective 2/11/20. The OCAFs are annual factors used to adjust Section 8 rents renewed under section 515 (mark-to-market) or section 524 of the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Accountability Act of 1997 (MAHRA).
All federal programs that rely on annual appropriations, such as HUD’s housing programs, are being funded at FY19 levels for the duration of the CR because none of the 12 appropriations bills have been enacted. The new federal fiscal year began on October 1.
“As both the number and share of older households in the United States increase to unprecedented levels, inequalities are becoming more evident,” says the introduction to the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University’s Housing America’s Older Adults 2019.
Congress has just over a month to complete the FY20 HUD appropriations bill or HUD and providers could be faced with another Continuing Resolution. The current Continuing Resolution keeps HUD and other federal programs funded at FY19 levels through November 21. LeadingAge is urging its members to reach out to their representatives and senators in support of strong funding for affordable housing for older adults.
On October 9, HUD issued two notices of funds availability for the Section 811 Housing for Persons with Disabilities program.
The $112 million in funds now available include $75 million for Section 811 Capital Advances and $37 million for Project Rental Assistance that would be coupled with other funds that build the units.
The deadline for applying for these funds is February 10, 2020.
HUD has been under pressure from Congress and advocates to release these funds, which were appropriated in Congress’s fiscal year 2018 and 2019 spending bills.
“Nonprofit Transfer Disputes in the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program: An Emerging Threat to Affordable Housing,” documents how “some private firms have begun to systematically challenge nonprofits’ project-transfer rights and disrupt the normal exit process in hopes of selling the property at market value.” The vast majority of LIHTC developments are reaching year-15 as planned, but a small number of nonprofits find themselves struggling to retain their communities after tax credits have been absorbed by the investors.
