Newsroom
Senate Appropriations Committee FY 2016 THUD Bill Virtually Eliminates HOME
Earlier today, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 20 to 10 to pass the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies funding bill. Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), and Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined the Republican members of the Committee to report the bill for consideration by the full Senate. Full Committee consideration of the measure followed the Subcommittee mark-up on June 23.
Supreme Court Upholds Disparate Impact Standard for Violations of the Fair Housing Act
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court today issued its opinion ruling that disparate impact claims may be used to support plaintiffs’ claims of alleged Fair Housing Act (FHA) violations. Justice Kennedy wrote the Court’s opinion, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan in the case of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (DHCA) v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. The decision remands the case to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for further proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court’s opinion.
Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies Releases Annual Housing Report
Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) releases today its annual report entitled The State of the Nation's Housing 2015. This year's report highlights low homeownership rates and continuing renter housing cost burdens as areas of concern.
CFPB Announces Delay in Integrated Mortgage Disclosure Rule Effective Date
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced yesterday that it will delay the effective date of its Integrated Mortgage Disclosure rule by two months.
House Financial Services Committee Considers How to Measure Success of HUD Programs
On June 11, the House Committee on Financial Services heard from HUD Secretary Julián Castro at a hearing titled “The Future of Housing in America: Oversight of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.” The hearing focused on oversight of HUD programs and how Congress might measure their success and efficacy.
HFAs Receive Nearly One Million in Supplemental Counseling Funds for FY 2015
HUD announced earlier today that it will award $6 million in supplemental housing counseling grants for fiscal year (FY) 2015, including over $836,000 combined to 20 state HFAs. The grants are designed to supplement the $36 million in FY 2015 HUD counseling grants HUD provided in April. NCSHA summarized the initial round of grants on its blog.
Senator Boxer Leads Letter in Support of HOME and Housing Trust Fund
On June 5, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and 30 other Senators (28 Democrats and two Independents) sent a letter to Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), to express support for both HOME and the Housing Trust Fund (HTF) and urge them to reject any effort to “reduce, divert, or eliminate funding from either program.”
House Passes FY 2016 Housing Appropriations Bill
On June 9, the House voted 216 to 210 in favor of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies (THUD) funding bill (H.R. 2577). The bill provides a total of $55.3 billion in discretionary spending for transportation and housing programs, but funding under the bill for housing programs falls $1.5 billion short of what HUD says it needs just to maintain current programs in FY 2016, and is $9.7 billion less than the Administration's Budget request.
FTC and HUD Issue Warning about Section 8 Website Scams
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are working together to alert consumers of scams aimed at people who are seeking Section 8 housing.
The Fed Proposes Classifying Some Municipal Bonds as High-Quality Liquid Assets
Last week, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Fed) released a proposed rule that would change how certain municipal bonds are classified under federal banking liquidity standards. Specifically, the proposal would allow large banks to count some of their municipal bond investments as high-quality liquid assets.
Franken and Portman Introduce Bill to Exempt Homeless Youth and Veterans from Housing Credit Student Rule
On May 21, Senator Al Franken (D-MN) and Senate Finance Committee member Rob Portman (R-OH) introduced the Housing for Homeless Students Act, S. 1412, which would add a new exemption to the Housing Credit student rule to allow full-time students to qualify to rent a Housing Credit apartment if they were a youth experiencing homelessness at any point within the seven years prior to moving into their Housing Credit apartment (according to the definition of homeless children and youth used in the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act) or if they are a veteran and were homeless at any point within the five years prior to moving into their Housing Credit apartment.
House Subcommittee Considers Consolidating the Rural Housing Service
Earlier this week, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance held a hearing examining the Rural Housing Service (RHS) and the role it plays in the single-family mortgage market. During the hearing, Subcommittee members debated the findings of a 2012 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that suggested that RHS's single-family lending programs be consolidated with similar programs administered by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The witnesses at the hearing were Tony Hernandez, the Administrator of RHS, and Mathew Scire, the Director for Financial Markets and Community Investment at GAO.
