Sustainable Housing - Blog Post

This afternoon, the Senate Transportation-HUD (T-HUD) Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and passed its FY 2013 T-HUD appropriations bill. The bill includes $53.4 billion in appropriations for all the programs it funds—$3.9 billion, or 7 percent, less than the FY 2012 enacted level of $57.3 billion. The bill would flat-fund the HOME program at $1 billion, equal to its FY 2012 funding level. The bill would reject HUD’s proposal to short-fund, or provide less than a full 12 months of funding for, project-based Section 8 contract renewals in FY 2013 by providing $9.8 billion for the project-based Section 8 program, including more than $9.6 billion for contract renewals.

On March 21, the House Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee held its hearing on HUD’s FY 2013 Budget request. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan was the sole witness. In his opening statement, Subcommittee Chairman Tom Latham (R-IA) stated that he is concerned the HUD budget has reached a “tipping point,” with the cost of renewals overtaking the rest of HUD’s budget. In his opening statement, Subcommittee Ranking Member John Olver (D-MA) stated his concern for the shortfall in proposed funding for the PBRA program and said he wished that the fiscal situation allowed for HUD to request more funding for capital programs.

Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a series of findings designed to reduce unnecessary duplication and overlap across federal programs and save tens of billions of dollars annually. GAO's findings include recommendations for creating greater efficiencies in affordable housing, green building, and housing counseling programs.

HFA directors and staff, Administration officials, and industry partners came together last week for NCSHA's HFA Institute MRBs and Federal Mortgage Insurance conference. For three days, attendees took advantage of the opportunity to network with their peers and receive top-notch education during more than a dozen sessions.

On October 19, NCSHA participated at HUD’s request in a conference call HUD held for more than 100 stakeholders across the country as a follow-up to the October 12 White House Convening on affordable housing NCSHA attended and described in its October 14 blog. NCSHA was one of four organizations HUD invited to make presentations during the call on their efforts to achieve the highest funding level possible for HUD programs.

This morning, the Senate Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee marked up and passed its FY 2012 T-HUD Appropriations bill. The full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to markup the bill tomorrow afternoon. According to a summary of the bill, the bill would slash the HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) program to $1 billion. This is a $607 million, or 38 percent, cut compared to the FY 2011 enacted funding level of $1.6 billion and it is $200 million less than the level included in the House T-HUD Subcommittee-passed FY 2012 bill.

On August 22, HUD announced the availability of $25 million in grants for energy efficiency upgrades at multifamily properties as part of HUD’s Multifamily Energy Innovation Pilot Program. The Energy Innovation Fund was created as part of HUD's FY 2010 Budget to encourage private investment in replicable cost-saving energy efficiency retrofits.

On June 7, HUD published a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) for the Capacity Building for Sustainable Communities program, announcing the availability of $5.65 million for capacity building support grants.