HUD recently awarded nearly $5 million to six communities to help create plans to redevelop severely distressed HUD assisted housing and revitalize neighborhoods. Funded through HUD's Choice Neighborhoods Initiative, these grants are intended to help local leaders to craft comprehensive, homegrown plans to revitalize and transform these neighborhoods.

HUD and the City of Houston today announced a joint agreement designed to expand housing choice and mobility for lower income residents, including those experiencing homelessness and victims of Hurricane Harvey.

The agreement requires the City of Houston to adopt multifamily priorities and a policy for objectively evaluating federally supported affordable housing developments in all areas of Houston; to seek to invest additional funds in homeless assistance progra...

The National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) recently released a new report, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, which finds a national shortage of 7.2 million affordable and available rental homes for extremely low income (ELI) renter households. These are households earning up to 30 percent of their area median income. The report also shows that there are only 35 affordable and available units for every 100 ELI renter households nationwide and that 71 percen...

The Trump administration recently announced the proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Budget for HUD. The budget proposes an 18.3 percent cut from FY 2017 enacted levels. The goal is to reduce the federal involvement in housing assistance and “recognizing” that states and local governments should shoulder that responsibility.             

At the request of House Committee on Financial Services Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-CA), the Government Accountability Office (GAO) undertook an additional review of the Moving to Work Demonstration (MTW), with a focus on how the demonstration affected public housing and voucher tenants.

HUD recently announced that it has reached a Conciliation/Voluntary Compliance Agreement with the Housing Authority of the County of Contra Costa (HACCC) and the Vallejo Housing Authority (VHA), both located in California, resolving allegations that they violated the Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act when they allegedly denied a request by a resident with disabilities to extend her search time to fin...

Congress recently passed a short-term funding bill that will continue to fund government activities through Feb. 8, 2018. There’s a good chance that Congress won’t reach a compromise that funds the government through the Sept. 30 fiscal-year end, which will likely result in another short-term funding bill or another potential government shutdown.

The House of Representatives recently passed a bill reauthorizing the “Family Self Sufficiency Act” (HR 4258). Since its establishment, the FSS program has enabled families living in public or project-based assisted housing or using Housing Choice Vouchers to access workforce training and other resources to pursue higher paying employment opportunities. Families enrolled in the FSS program receive an interest-bearing escrow account, allowing them to save and...

The Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs recently voted to recommend two nominees for HUD assistant secretary positions. The nominees will next be voted on by the full Senate; the timing for such a vote is uncertain. The nominees are Brian Montgomery for HUD assistant secretary for Housing and commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration and Robert Kurtz for assistant secretary for Public and Indian Housing. Both Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Kurtz wer...

President Trump recently signed into law a Continuing Resolution (CR, H.J. Res. 123) to keep the federal government funded through Dec. 22. The new CR funds federal programs, including HUD, at FY 2017 levels and extends the National Flood Insurance Program and the Children's Health Insurance Program through Dec. 22 and 31, respectively.