Project Based Section 8 - Blog Post

NCSHA's 2012 Legislative Conference concluded on Wednesday, April 25 with a special tribute to an affordable housing champion and an update from HUD. Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) was honored by MassHousing Executive Director Thomas Gleason, NCSHA Executive Director Barbara Thompson, and all in attendance. HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan praised Frank for his service and gave attendees an update on HUD's plans and priorities going forward. Charles Coulter, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Single Family Housing, and Marie Head, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing, delved deeper into HUD's affordable housing policies.

On April 20, NCSHA submitted comments to HUD on its Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) proposal. The comments were developed with input from state HFAs.

It’s a pleasure to join so many representatives from our nation’s Housing Finance Agencies. Whether it’s providing affordable mortgages to low- and moderate-income families or expanding access to affordable rental housing, HFAs have always been a critical partner.

On the second day of NCSHA's 2012 Legislative Conference, Housing Finance Agency (HFA) staff and other affordable housing advocates continued their efforts to tell Congress to stand strong for housing. In the morning, attendees received a Washington update from political prognosticator Charlie Cook, learned the latest tax, banking, and spending news from key congressional staff, and heard insights on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from Acting Director Edward DeMarco of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

On April 23, NCSHA's 2012 Legislative Conference kicked off with addresses from Idaho Housing and Finance Association President and Executive Director and NCSHA President Gerald Hunter, NCSHA Executive Director Barbara Thompson, the Department of Treasury's Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Mary Miller, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Housing Commission Co-Chair Former Senator Christopher Bond, and a panel of housing industry experts.

On April 19, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the FY 2013 spending caps, known as 302(b) allocations, for the 12 individual appropriations subcommittees, including the Transportation-HUD (T-HUD) Subcommittee. Immediately after, it approved its first two FY 2013 appropriations bills—the T-HUD Subcommittee-passed bill and the Commerce-Justice-Science Subcommittee-passed bill.

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.

Today, HUD issued a new Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program Notice, providing clarification on components of the demonstration and extending the comment period. HUD will now accept public comments through April 23.