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A study from Arizona State University, Affordable Housing and Walkable Neighborhoods: A National Urban Analysis, shows that 23 percent of all renter-occupied housing in the United States is located in neighborhoods with walkable access to services and amenities, including schools, parks, and grocery stores.

Q: HUD won’t approve withdrawals from the residual receipts account for making mortgage payments when a mortgage default has occurred or is about to occur. True or false?

A: False. The Handbook lists two permissible uses for residual receipts that apply to all sites. HUD should approve withdrawals from the residual receipts account for:

The Public Housing Authorities Directors Association, a group representing housing authorities across the country, recently sent a letter to HUD Secretary Julian Castro and members of Congress stating that a report highlighting “over-income” tenants that triggered a change in policy was deeply flawed.

At HUD’s recent 2015 Fair Housing Policy Conference, HUD Secretary Julian Castro highlighted some of the progress made since the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968 and the pro-active steps taken to promote greater housing choices for all. “We’ve come a long way since 1968. For example, this past June, the Supreme Court upheld the disparate impact standard, making it clear that the Fair Housing Act prohibits discriminatory policies, whether they’re intentional or not.

HUD recently published the final rule amending the Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) portability regulations. The purpose of the amendments is to clarify existing requirements, streamline the portability process for public housing agencies (PHAs), and make it easier for families with vouchers to relocate to areas that may offer greater opportunities. Portability allows a family with a voucher to use it to rent a home anywhere in the country where there is a PHA operating a HCV program.

HUD recently released a proposed rule revising its previous participation reviews of prospective program participants seeking to take part in multifamily housing and healthcare programs administered by HUD’s Office of Housing. The proposed rule would clarify which individuals and entities will be reviewed, HUD’s purpose in conducting such review, and describe the review to be undertaken.

HUD recently issued Notice PIH-2015-12 to help public housing agencies understand the Community Service and Self-Sufficiency Requirement (CSSR) for public housing residents so that PHAs can more effectively administer the requirement. This notice was a response to a report from HUD’s Office of the Inspector General on Feb. 13, 2015, that was critical of how CSSR has been implemented.

HUD recently announced Wave 4 of the Multifamily for Tomorrow Transformation. This initiative is designed to streamline HUD’s Multifamily field structure into a five-region model with five Regional Centers and seven Regional Satellite Offices. By doing so, HUD’s Office of Multifamily Housing Programs is facilitating clear communication, consistency, and the flexibility needed to effectively execute its mission.

To help prevent victims of domestic violence living with HIV/AIDS from falling into homelessness, HUD is making more than $9 million available to state and local governments and nonprofits through the VAWA/HOPWA Project Demonstration–a collaborative effort between HUD’s Office of HIVAIDS Housing (OHH) and the Department of Justice’s Office of Violence Against Women (OVW). More than half of women living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S.

If you manage a site with unusual long-term management problems or extra administrative burdens, you may be able to get an “add-on fee” from HUD. Add-ons are additions to management fees, designed to give incentives and compensation to managing agents who can show that site conditions make management of a property more demanding than normal. Add-ons are intended only to compensate agents who are dealing with long-term site conditions. And it’s in addition to the percentage-based, standard management fees an owner pays an agent.