CLPHA Press Room

On July 6, CLPHA submitted comments on HUD’s Notice for comment on potential changes to their Housing Choice Voucher renewal funding formula. Thank you to members who provided feedback. Please see below for our final comments and send any questions or comments to Emily Warren at ewarren@clpha.org.

The proposed elimination of the tax exemption for private activity bonds (PABs) in the House tax reform bill, along with elimination of the Historic Tax Credit and the New Markets Tax Credit, will be devastating to the production and preservation of affordable housing (see CLPHA Report 11/13/17). Housing bonds are responsible for approximately half of Low Income Housing Tax Credit (housing credit) production annually. Together, the housing credit and housing bonds finance approximately 50,000 affordable housing units each year.

While Congress is home for recess, it is critical that Members hear from you about the impacts PAB elimination will have on affordable housing.

We urge you to reach out to your Congressional representatives with the following messages:

• Preserve the tax exemption of Private Activity Bonds to support the production and preservation of affordable housing
• Make changes to the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit to strengthen the program and offset the impact of a lower corporate rate on the value of the tax credit by including S. 548, the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act, in the tax reform bill
• Maintain the Historic Tax Credit and the New Markets Tax Credit

CLPHA and stakeholders such as the ACTION Campaign (CLPHA sits on the Steering Committee) have continued to educate and press Congress to preserve these important housing production instruments. CLPHA has sent letters to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, the respective tax-writing committees in Congress, whose chairmen and ranking members will probably serve as floor managers for their respective bills and conference committee leaders for any eventual, final legislation.

Additionally, we encourage you to engage with your local media and news outlets to spread the message that the tax reform bill negatively impacts affordable housing. The Seattle Times recently published an op-ed from CLPHA Board Members Stephen Norman (King County Housing Authority) and Andrew Lofton (Seattle Housing Authority) about the elimination of private activity bonds. You can read the full op-ed here.  

CLPHA participated in a call this morning with HUD to discuss next steps in the implementation of the Small Area Fair Market Rent Rule (“Rule”) in light of the preliminary injunction was granted in the Open Communities Alliance litigation challenging HUD’s suspension of the Rule (see CLPHA Update 1/3/18). Participants on the call included officials from HUD’s Offices of Policy Development and Research (“PD&R”), Public and Indian Housing (“PIH”), Housing Choice Vouchers, and General Counsel. Below are the major takeaways from the call:

• Effective date of April 1, 2018: HUD announced that full implementation and compliance with the Rule and the to-be-issued guidance will be effective as of April 1, 2018.
• Comments due January 11, 2018: HUD encouraged all interested parties to submit comments in response to HUD’s December 12, 2017 “Notice for Suspension of Small Area Fair Market Rent (Small Area FMR) Designations; Solicitation of Comment” Docket No. FR-6070-N-01. Comments are due by January 11, 2018 and may be submitted by mail or electronically atwww.regulations.gov. We will be submitting comments accordingly. We request members to provide us information regarding adverse rental housing market conditions specific to your area so that we can, in turn, include in our comments to HUD.
• Substantive Issues Addressed
  • Request for suspension of Small Area FMR designation – HUD noted that the Court in theOpen Communities Alliance litigation did not invalidate any portion of the Rule, but rather concluded that HUD did not properly suspend the Rule’s implementation. HUD went on to clarify, however, that HUD still has the discretion, on a case-by-case basis, to suspend a Small Area FMR designation for a particular area or temporarily exempt a PHA from using the Small Area FMRs based on documented findings of adverse rental housing market conditions. While HUD is working on guidance to instruct PHAs on how to request such a suspension or exemption, HUD is aware of the difficulties PHAs face given the short implementation timeframe and encourages PHAs not only to highlight these difficulties by submitting comments to its December 12, 2017 Notice, but also to submit these difficulties in any forthcoming suspension or exemption request for HUD’s consideration.
  • ​​​Administrative fees – PIH was not able to provide feedback regarding whether PHAs will be provided increased administrative fees to assist in the implementation efforts, as was done for the demonstration project participants using extraordinary administrative fees. 
  • FMR “groupings” – While HUD will continue to issue Small Area FMRs at the zip code level, HUD also encourages PHAs to create Small Area FMR bands using the surrounding zip codes that fall within the 90%-110% FMR range. HUD acknowledged that such groupings are not specifically authorized under the Rule but noted that they will be addressed in the forthcoming guidance materials.
  • Guidance forthcoming: HUD anticipates issuing implementation guidance materials by mid-January. This guidance will include:
    • PIH guidance document(s)
    • Technical assistance task order(s)
    • A dedicated technical assistance page on HUD Exchange
    • FAQs document(s)
    • Guidance regarding the process for requesting Small Area FMR suspensions

The guidance materials will include information on best practices, outreach to tenants, managers, and owners, impact on current technical and organizational systems, and other similar information. HUD also committed to using the findings from the Small Area FMR demonstration project to inform such guidance materials.

If you have any questions about HUD’s Small Area FMR Implementation, you can email or call (202-638-1300) Research & Policy Analyst Nicole Barrett (nbarrett@clpha.org) or Deputy Director Deb Gross (dgross@clpha.org).