National Housing Law Project Housing Law Bulletin

The following are housing-related regulations and Notices that HUD has recently issued. For the most part, the summaries are taken directly from HUD’s summary of the regulation in the Federal Register. The Notice summaries are taken from each Notice’s introductory paragraphs.

Copies of the cited HUD documents may be secured from various sources, including (1) the Handsnet folder at Legal Services/Substantive Law/Housing Forum, (2) the Government Printing Office’s spot on the World Wide Web,/1/ (3) bound volumes of the Federal Register, (4) HUD Clips,/2/ and (5) HUD./3/ Citations are included with each document to help you secure copies.

Summary: This rule establishes procedures to file a complaint for a claim of discrimination under HUD’s community planning and development programs funded under Title I of the Housing and Community Development Act of 1974. The procedure is modeled on HUD’s regulations implementing the prohibition against discrimination in the federal programs on the basis of disability, race, color or national origin. The rule also provides that a hearing on complaints be conducted in accordance with HUD’s consolidated hearing procedures for civil rights claims. This rule is needed to inform members of the public how to file complaints and how HUD will act on them. The rule also informs the public of HUD’s procedures for conducting compliance reviews.

Effective date: February 24, 1999.

Summary: HUD is establishing a Negotiated Rulemaking Advisory Committee under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The establishment of the committee is required by the Quality Housing and Work Opportunity Act of 1998, which requires issuance of regulations under the Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990. The purpose of the committee is to discuss and negotiate a proposed rule that would change the current method of determining the payment of operating subsidies to public housing agencies (PHAs). The committee will consist of representatives with a definable stake in the outcome of a proposed rule. In accordance with Section 564 of the Negotiated Rulemaking Act of 1990, this Notice: (1) advises the public of the establishment of the committee; (2) provides the public with information regarding it; (3) solicits public comment on the committee’s proposed membership; and (4) explains how persons may be nominated for membership. HUD’s tentative plan is to hold the committee’s first meeting on March 23-25, 1999.

Comment due date: March 15, 1999.

Summary: This rule requires mortgagees that hold or service multifamily mortgages insured by HUD to submit certain data electronically to HUD in a HUD-prescribed format. Electronic submission is necessary because the manual submission of HUD forms has become a burden to servicing mortgagees, as well as to HUD. This rule applies to all multifamily mortgagees in their responsibility to report mortgage delinquencies, mortgage defaults, mortgage reinstatements, elections to assign mortgages to HUD, and withdrawal of assignment elections.

Effective date: March 1, 1999.

Summary: The purpose of the Section 8 Welfare-to-Work Rental Voucher program is to provide tenant-based rental assistance that will help eligible families make the transition from welfare to work.

There are approximately $248.2 million in available funds.

Eligible applicants would be housing agencies (HAs), Indian tribes, and tribally designated housing entities (TDHEs). Two or more HAs or Indian tribes and TDHEs may apply jointly.

Application deadline: The application deadline for Section 8 Welfare-to-Work Rental Vouchers under this NOFA is April 28, 1999.

Summary: The Tenant Opportunities Program (TOP) and the Economic Development and Supportive Services (EDSS) Program have been restructured and consolidated to concentrate more on employment readiness training and moving public and Indian housing residents towards economic self-sufficiency. The restructuring represents a major HUD initiative to improve the targeting and management of limited resources for public and Indian housing residents’ self-sufficiency. The goal is to more effectively focus these resources on "welfare-to-work" efforts and on independent living for the elderly and persons with disabilities. Although both programs fund similar activities, housing authorities, Indian tribes and Tribally Designated Housing Entities are funded under EDSS, and resident associations are funded under TOP. Accordingly, HUD Form 50080, LOCCS/VRS [Line of Credit Control System/Voice Response System] Payment Voucher, has been revised to include Budget Line Items (BLIs), consistent with program changes that have been included in the LOCCS for draw-down purposes. The BLIs must match the budget on the EDSS and TOP Fact Sheet in the Application Kit.

This Notice establishes new BLIs that have been added to the Consolidated EDSS and TOP Payment Voucher Form 5080 in the LOCCS/VRS in accordance with FY 1997-1998 grant categories. All grantees will access grant funds through LOCCS. The disbursal of grant funds is recorded by the grantee on the Form 50080 Payment Voucher. The BLIs on this form correspond with major activities in the grantee work plan.

Effective date: This Notice is effective immediately.

Summary: This Notice applies to HAs administering public housing programs (low-rent conventional) or tenant-based Section 8 rental assistance programs (including the project-based certificate program). This Notice explains the requirement that all HAs that administer public housing or Section 8 tenant-based assistance programs must submit, on a timely basis, 100 percent of family records to HUD’s Multifamily Tenant Characteristics System (MTCS) as set forth by 24 C.F.R. Part 908 and Notice PIH 98-30. Form HUD 50058 data must be submitted electronically to HUD for all current public housing and Section 8 families. The records must be accepted by MTCS to be considered successfully submitted. MTCS is HUD’s official system to track and account for public housing and Section 8 family characteristics and occupancy. Under the Consolidated Annual Contributions Contract (CACC) and HUD regulations, HAs are required to submit 100 percent of MTCS data (public housing and Section 8 family records) as required by HUD. To avoid sanctions under this Notice, the minimum acceptable reporting rate to MTCS is 85 percent.

Summary: This Notice serves to correct specific paragraph references found in Paragraph 7, page 2, of Notice PIH 98-65, issued on December 30, 1998. Paragraph 7 should read:

DETERMINING THE BUDGET AUTHORITY TO BE ALLOCATED: The Department will take the number of units for each PHA which are expiring during Calendar Year 1999 and multiply them by the cost per unit determined in accordance with Paragraph 6 of this Notice. Renewal funding sufficient to cover a 12-month term will be assigned quarterly for units expiring within each quarter (e.g., the fund assignment for the first quarter of FY 1999 will fund all units expiring from January 1, 1999, through March 31, 1999). In addition, the Department will fund the difference based on the comparison between the units under ACC and the units under lease as of October 1, 1997 (as noted in Paragraph 5), using the per-unit cost determined in accordance with Paragraph 6.

Notes

1    At http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs.

2    At http://www.hudclips.org/cgi/index.cgi.

3    To order Notices and Handbooks from HUD, call (800) 767-7468 or fax (202) 708-2313.

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