NHLP News

NHLP is pleased to announce the publication of "Maintaining Safe and Stable Housing for Domestic Violence Survivors: A Manual for Attorneys and Advocates."

NHLP has joined over two dozen civil rights and legal services organizations in supporting the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposed rule on the Fair Housing Act’s (FHA) discriminatory effects standard.

On October 26, the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a major decision affecting the preservation of Low-Income Housing Tax Credit developments. In Nordbye v. BRCP/GM Ellington, the court ruled that tenants have the right to enforce restrictive covenants that, among other things, do not allow a state credit allocation agency to terminate a property from the program for an owner’s noncompliance...

Longtime NHLP supporter and leader, I. Michael Heyman, died on November 19 at his home in Berkeley, California. Mike had a legendary career as chief law clerk for Chief Justice Earl Warren, law professor and Chancellor of UC Berkeley, and leader of the Smithsonian Institution. Less well known was his dedication and passionate commitment to civil rights, environmental, and public interest causes, including NHLP. He helped establish NHLP as part of the UC Berkeley Earl Warren Institute in the late sixties and served as an NHLP board member from 1979-1991, seven years of which he served as Board Chair, After leaving the Board, he remained a steadfast NHLP supporter for the remainder of his life.

Thousands of low-income tenants nationwide face the expiration of federal use restrictions when their mortgage or use agreement expires. Rents may increase, sometimes substantially, where market rents exceed current restricted rent levels. Although Congress studied the problem back in 2004, it has so far failed to enact provisions to protect tenants or preserve affordable housing. If Congress abandons these tenants, it would mark the first time in history that the federal government has refused to protect federally subsidized tenants facing a change in status. A recent article from NHLP’s July Housing Law Bulletin provides a brief summary of the scope of the problem and the necessary policy response.

In response to a complaint from the Community Services Society in New York, Assistant Secretary John Trasviña issued a letter on July 26, 2011 to the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) affirming that any contract that provides operating subsidy funds to the New York City Police Department (NYCPD) is subject to Section 3 and declaring that HUD would work with NYCPD and NYCHA to ensure that they meet their compliance obligations.

In a June 27, 2011 letter to Secretary Donovan, NHLP requests that HUD promptly clarify its rules to support adult Section 8 tenants seeking to further their education. Under current HUD policy, some adult tenants with no dependents that receive student financial assistance for necessary college fees and expenses beyond “tuition” face unaffordable rent increases, forcing them to abandon their education in order to keep their affordable housing. Since Congress in 2005 sought to count as income for Section 8 only financial assistance available for living expenses, the letter seeks a revised HUD policy that would exclude from income any student financial assistance covering necessary fees and expenses of college attendance, not just what the school terms “tuition.”

NHLP’s San Francisco office seeks fall law clerks and volunteer attorneys to work on a variety of initiatives.

Park Village Apartments, a rental housing community for senior citizens, was developed in 1978 with federal project-based Section 8 rental subsidies. In July 2008, the owner finally gave legally sufficient notice to opt out of the project-based contract, to be effective in July 2009. In the federally required notice, the owner certified that, after termination of the project-based subsidies, he would honor the tenants’ right to remain in their homes with enhanced vouchers. However, when attempting to increase the rent to market-rate, the owner refused to honor his prior certification.

Linked here are the bill text, NHLP's summary of the bill, earlier hearings, and the archive of the markup, including the text of the amendments adopted and rejected. The Committee will likely file its report in September, setting the stage for consideration by the full House.

It includes information on the subsidized housing application process, common barriers to housing that survivors face, and strategies for challenging denials of housing. The manual is available here.

HUD has published a Proposed Rule which in its final form, will govern all aspects of the creation, operation and oversight of the National Housing Trust Fund. The NHTF, created by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 Pub. L. No. 110-289, tit. I, § 1131, is the object of an ongoing campaign seeking funding from Congress. Eighty percent of NHTF funds must be used for rental housing. Seventy-five percent must benefit extremely low-income families (less than 30% of AMI) and twenty-five percent must benefit very low-income families.

NHLP has submitted a friend of the court brief in Guggenheim v. City of Goleta, a case challenging the constitutionality of the city’s mobilehome rent control ordinance. The case will be heard by the en banc Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in late June. A panel of the Court previously held that ordinance constitutes a taking. If left to stand, the ruling could provide a means for park owners everywhere to bring new challenges to rent ordinances.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded an additional $1 billion in Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funds to states, counties and local communities. The grants are the third round of NSP funding and will assist state and local governments in acquiring, redeveloping, or demolishing foreclosed properties.

Each grantee must use 25% of its award to house families at or below 50% of Area Median Income. To determine how much additional NSP funding your jurisdiction received, visit HUD’s website.

On August 26, 2010, the Rural Housing Service (RHS), whose programs are administered by the Rural Development (RD) Division of the Department of Agriculture, announced a new program to help guaranteed loan borrowers who have defaulted on their loans, or who are facing imminent default, avoid foreclosure. Under the program, lenders are authorized to modify the loan by reducing the mortgage interest rate to a rate that is at or below the maximum RHS allowable interest rate and to extend the loan term to 40 years from the time of loan modification. If the modification does not reduce the borrower’s payments to 31% of income, RHS may make a mortgage recovery advance to the borrower.

Preservation, Enhancement, and Transformation of Rental Assistance (PETRA): What is it, what issues have residents raised and how has HUD responded?

NHLP has joined national housing allies, led by the Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC), in urging HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan to halt delays on its “Demonstration Project of Small Area Fair Market Rents (FMRs) in Selected Metropolitan Areas for Fiscal Year 2011.” HUD designed this pilot project to remedy de facto urban segregation caused by metro-wide subsidy caps, an important first step in creating meaningful housing choices for families using housing choice vouchers. Although HUD pleased housing advocates with a May, 2010 announcement that it would invite PHAs to apply to participate in October, nearly one year later no invitation has been issued.

In Bank of New York Mellon v. De Meo, the Arizona Court of Appeals held that the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act (PTFA) requires a tenant to receive an unambiguous 90-day written notice before any eviction proceeding may be commenced. In this case, Mellon Bank foreclosed on the home Patricia De Meo occupied under a rent-to-own lease agreement, which had converted into a month-to-month tenancy. Mellon Bank gave only a five-day notice, addressed to the former owner and all other occupants, but filed the eviction action 97 days later. It argued in the trial court that it satisfied the PTFA by waiting more than 90 days before filing the eviction.

The New York Times - October 24, 2010 - "Public Housing Repairs Can’t Keep Pace With Need" - By Cara Buckley

Public housing is falling apart around the country, as federal money has been unable to keep up with the repair needs of buildings more than half a century old.

Over the last 15 years, 150,000 of the nation’s public housing units have been lost, officials said, as agencies have sold or torn down decrepit properties. An additional 5,700 units are pending removal from federal public housing programs.

The National Housing Law Project joined several housing rights organizations, led by Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, as amicus in Intermountain Fair Housing Council v. Boise Rescue Mission Ministries, a case on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The appeal asks the Court to overturn a District Court ruling finding that homeless shelters are not “dwellings” for purposes of the Fair Housing Act. The case could significantly impact thousands of homeless individuals and families who should be protected from discrimination in shelters.

Working with national advocates and HJN members from around the country, NHLP has recruited a representative group of public housing tenants and their partners and a representative group of voucher participants and their partners to engage with Secretary Donovan and HUD senior staff to discuss:

-The future of the HUD rental assistance programs
-Ways to maintain resident voices as policy proposals move forward
-Building an engaged and informed group of residents with ongoing, meaningful participatory role in HUD policies and programs

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