Last week, HUD announced that it had finalized a grant agreement with Puerto Rico that would release $8.2 billion in CDBG-DR funding that Congress appropriated in 2018. In 2019, HUD ignored a statutory deadline to issue a Federal Register notice outlining how Puerto Rico can use the disaster relief aid in its ongoing recovery efforts.
As of January 1, 2020, California has a state-wide law prohibiting landlords from rejecting potential tenants solely on their use of a housing voucher. The law, known as Source of Income (SOI) protection, replaces SOI ordinances that were previously in place in several California cities, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Clara County to cover voucher holders across the state.
On December 20, President Trump signed HR 1865, the “FY2020 Further Consolidated Appropriations Act” the second minibus funding bill for FY20 containing appropriations for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), among others. The bill was signed into law (PL 116-94) with just hours to go before the continuing resolution keeping the government funded expired at midnight.
On January 14 at 10:00 a.m. ET, the House Committees on Financial Services and Veterans Affairs will each hold hearings on critical housing assistance issues.
The most recent issue of Cityscape, the journal from HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research, is devoted to research on the impacts and implementation of Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs).