On March 26, LeadingAge president and CEO Katie Smith Sloan sent a letter to housing authorizing committees on our wish-list for affordable housing within any infrastructure package. President Biden is expected to release an outline of his infrastructure proposal, Build Back Better, the week of March 29 and congressional hearings have begun on the topic.
LeadingAge’s housing priorities for an infrastructure bill include:
The House Committee on Financial Services is circulating a discussion draft of the Supporting Seniors and Tenants in Subsidized Housing Act. The draft bill, a version of 2020’s Emergency Housing Assistance for Older Adults Act introduced in the House (as HR 6873) and Senate (as S 4177). The draft bill is sponsored by Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), the chair of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development, and Insurance.
On March 22, HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing released new tools for residents and owners. HUD has a new guide for tenants and owners, “Rights and Responsibilities for Tenants & Property Owners” and a new guide for tenants, “Managing Your Finances During COVID-19 Pandemic.” Both are available in English and Spanish.
On January 26, President Joe Biden issued a Memorandum, “Redressing Our Nation’s and the Federal Government’s History of Discriminatory Housing Practices and Policies.” The Memorandum directs HUD to take very specific actions to overcome and redress the nation’s racially discriminatory housing policies that contributed to segregated neighborhoods and inhibited equal opportunity and the chance to build wealth for Black, Latino, Asian America
On April 9, the National Fair Housing Alliance released a resource on COVID19 and the Fair Housing Act.
The resource states that people who currently have COVID-19, those who have a history of having the virus, and those who are perceived as having the virus may be protected against housing discrimination under long-standing interpretations of the Fair Housing Act and other civil rights laws.
On Thursday, April 16, Toby Halliday, Director of HUD Multifamily Housing’s Office of Asset Management and Portfolio Oversight (OAMPO), will speak on LeadingAge’s daily COVID-19 3:30pm ET call.
OAMPO has broad jurisdiction over the operational and asset management aspects of HUD’s multifamily housing portfolio, including Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance, Section 202, and Section 811. Mr. Halliday and OAMPO are pivotal LeadingAge partners.
On April 7, HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing issued a recorded update on COVID-19 issues. Toby Halliday, Director of HUD’s Office of Asset Management & Program Oversight, began the April 7 recorded session after a welcome from Office of Multifamily Deputy Assistant Secretary Lamar Seats.
A general transcript by LeadingAge of Mr. Halliday’s portion of the recording is below:
USDA Rural Development updated its FAQs for multifamily housing providers on April 6. USDA Multifamily Housing reminds owners that their assigned Servicing Official remains their primary contact.
HUD’s Office of Multifamily housing has announced it will replace its COVID-19 calls for stakeholders with recordings. HUD said on April 3 it expects to distribute its first such recording on April 7.
On the recordings, HUD Office of Multifamily staff will provide updates and answer questions, which can be sent to MFCommunications@hud.gov. Questions hoped to be answered for the April 7 call should be submitted to this email address by noon, Monday, April 6.
On HUD’s March 26th national multifamily housing (MFH) asset management stakeholder call, core members of the MFH team gave updates on housing operations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The call had around 700 attendees at the beginning, and HUD will be making the recording available on the MFH webpage. This article references and mostly reiterates information in HUD’s Question and Answer document, which HUD is updating every days.
