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The Senate recently confirmed President Obama’s nomination of Nani Coloretti to serve as HUD’s Deputy Secretary. As the second most senior official at HUD, Coloretti will manage HUD’s day-to-day operations, including a $45 billion annual budget and approximately 8,500 employees.

A report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) examines the extent to which the Housing Choice Voucher program helps families with children move to low-poverty neighborhoods. According to the report, nearly 4 million children live in families that receive federal rental assistance.

On Oct. 16, HUD and the Census Bureau released the first findings from the 2013 American Housing Survey (AHS). The AHS is the only comprehensive national survey focused on housing. Released every two years, the survey tracks the same units over time, in order to show changes to the housing stock. The 2013 survey included new questions regarding disaster planning and emergency preparedness, public transportation, household involvement in neighborhood and community activities, and “doubled-up” households, focusing on adult children who live at home.

On Oct. 31, 2014, HUD issued Housing Notice 2014-15, “Passbook Savings Rate Effective February 1, 2015 and Establishing Future Passbook Savings Rates.” Currently, the HUD passbook rate is 2 percent. Effective Feb. 1, 2015, the HUD passbook rate will be reduced to 0.06 percent.

On Oct. 22, 2014, the Social Security Administration (SSA) announced that the cost of living adjustment for 2015 benefits will be 1.7 percent. This means that recipients of Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits will see a 1.7 percent increase in their monthly benefit amount as of Dec. 31, 2014.

On Oct. 3, HUD issued the final 2015 Fair Market Rents (FMRs). FMRs are used by HUD to set rents for the Housing Choice Voucher program and the Project-Based Voucher program. Project-based housing assistance payment (HAP) contracts also refer to FMRs for eligibility purposes in the Option 1 Entitlement Mark Up to Market rent increase mechanism. The FY 2015 FMRs are effective as of Oct. 1, 2014.

On Oct. 2, HUD published new Operating Cost Adjustment Factors (OCAFs), which will be effective for project-based assistance contracts for eligible multifamily housing projects having an anniversary date on or after Feb. 11, 2015. OCAFs are annual factors used to adjust Section 8 rents renewed under Section 524 of the Multifamily Assisted Housing Reform and Affordability Act of 1997 (MAHRA). In other words, under certain Section 8 contract renewal options, HUD uses OCAFs to increase Section 8 contract rents annually for sites with multiyear contracts.

On Sep. 26, HUD published a proposed version of an Assessment Tool designed to assist HUD recipients in their “affirmatively furthering fair housing” (AFFH) obligations by facilitating the analysis of barriers to fair housing choice and setting goals to address them. The new tool would replace the current Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing Choice (AI). The draft tool is open for its first round of public comment through Nov. 25, 2014.

On Sept. 22, HUD's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing, Ben Metcalf, issued a memo that clarifies the review and approval of a multifamily property owner’s Affirmative Fair Housing Marketing Plan (AFHMP). This memo supersedes a May 2014 memo from the Office of Asset Management.

HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) is required to review initial AFHMPs for multifamily properties and any existing AFHMPs that have been updated based on the owner’s internal review and determination that the plan required modification.

HUD recently updated and posted a new HUD Form 92006, “Supplement to Application for Federally Assisted Housing,” to the HUDClips website. This form has an updated expiration date of Nov. 30, 2015. And owners and managers must begin using this new form immediately. The form can be found at www.portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=92006.pdf.