Tax Extender Bill As Passed by House, Including Housing Trust Fund Language.

H.R. 4213 passed last week. Housing Trust language is Title VI, Section 606, begins at bottom of PDF Page 364:

SEC. 606. HOUSING TRUST FUND.

(a) Funding- There is hereby appropriated for the Housing Trust Fund established pursuant to section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568), $1,065,000,000, for use under such section: Provided, That of the total amount provided under this heading, $65,000,000 shall be available to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development only for incremental project-based voucher assistance to be allocated to States to be used solely in conjunction with grant funds awarded under such section 1338, pursuant to the formula established under section 1338 and taking into account different per unit subsidy needs among states, as determined by the Secretary.

(b) Amendments- Section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568) is amended--

(1) in subsection (c)--

(A) in paragraph (4)(A) by inserting after the period at the end the following: `Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for the fiscal year following enactment of this sentence and thereafter, the Secretary may make such notice available only on the Internet at the appropriate government website or websites or through other electronic media, as determined by the Secretary.';

(B) in paragraph (5)(C), by striking `(8)' and inserting `(9)'; and

(C) in paragraph (7)(A)--

(i) by striking `section 1335(a)(2)(B)' and inserting `section 1335(a)(1)(B)'; and

(ii) by inserting `the units funded under' after `75 percent of'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:

`(k) Environmental Review- For the purpose of environmental compliance review, funds awarded under this section shall be subject to section 288 of the HOME Investment Partnerships Act (12 U.S.C. 12838) and shall be treated as funds under the program established by such Act.'.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Tax Bill Passes House, Housing Trust Fund Still Alive.

H.R. 4213 was passed today, HT fund still included.

Email from Sheila Crowley, NLIHC explains:

"National Housing Trust Fund. The bill would provide a one-time capitalization of the National Housing Trust Fund (NHTF), which will provide communities with funds to build, preserve, and rehabilitate rental homes that are affordable for very low income households. These homes will help address the serious shortage of affordable housing for lowest income families, including people who are unemployed or employed in the low wage work force, veterans, and elderly and disabled people on fixed incomes. It is estimated that an infusion of $1 billion in capital funds into the NHTF and $65 million for project-based vouchers to couple with NHTF capital grants will support the immediate production of 10,000 rental homes, creating 15,000 new construction jobs and 4,000 new jobs in ongoing operations. This provision is estimated to cost $1.065 billion over 10 years."

The margin of victory in the House was quite narrow (215-204). The difficulty in passing the bill had little or nothing to do with the National Housing Trust Fund provisions.  H.R. 4213 was a very large bill ($200 billion) that was winnowed down ($115 billion) over the last week because of complaints that some provisions did not have offsets and thus will add to the federal deficit.  Items that were cut include Medicaid payments to the states and extension of health insurance benefits for unemployed people.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Only 1 Comment Submitted So Far on HUD Housing Trust Fund Allocation Formula Reg.

Comment period expires next Tuesday, Feb 2nd.

Comments are HERE.

Page to submit comments is HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

NLIHC Posts Audio of Conference Call of National Housing Trust Fund Update.

From NLIHC:

"Listen to a recording of Sheila Crowley’s January 19, 2010, national conference call to discuss the current state of play on the National Housing Trust Fund. Click here to listen to the call. Note: Play this audio recording from the 1:20 mark for best quality."

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Oregon Senators Ask for Housing Trust Fund $1 Billion Allocation in Upcoming Federal Budget.

NLIHC says HERE that Oregon Senator Merkley is circulating letter for signature; Wyden has also signed letter requesting that FY 2011 Budget include $1 Billion for Housing Trust Fund. (Budget is scheduled to be proposed on Feb. 1).

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

Jobs Bill Severed from Defense Appropriations Action this Week, Moves to Slow Track.

So says The Hill story HERE; means that Housing Trust and Public Housing Capital Grant funding will be on a much slower track, and may indeed not pass at all in the Senate,

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

House Jobs Bill Amendment Includes $2 Billion For Public Housing Capital Grants and New Housing Trust Fund.

The House Rules Committee has posted amendments to the House Defense Appropriations bill to be considered by the House this week. They include $1 Billion in additional HUD Capital Grant program funding and $1 Billion+ for the new Housing Trust Fund.

Not clear as to what will finally pass the House or Senate or when, but HUD provisions are in the amendment HERE titled House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 2847 - Jobs for Main Street Act, 2010.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

More Details on Amendment to Add Housing Trust Fund to Defense Appropriations, Including Project Based Vouchers.

Culled this from (Connecticut) Partnership for Strong Communities website HERE.

Amendment is HERE; would provide $1 Billion AND $65,000,000 for project based vouchers OR project based assistance.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

NLIHC Estimates Oregon Would Receive $15 Million in Housing Trust Funds from $1 Billion National Allocation.

NLIHC M2M report item is HERE.
Their state estimates are HERE.

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.

BIG Item UPDATE: HUD Proposed Rules for Housing Trust Fund Allocation.

Link below was temporary, actual publication in Friday Dec 4th Federal Register is HERE.
---------------------------


Will appear in tomorrows Federal Register, but advance copy is available HERE.

Will study today , but very PLEASED to see that the HIGHEST weight is given to:

"The ratio of the shortage of standard rental units both affordable and available to extremely low-income renter households in the state to the aggregate shortage of standard rental units both affordable and available to extremely low income renter households in all the states"

[Formula description begins on page 18].

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog

NLIHC to Host Thursday Nov 5th Conference Call on New Funding Source for Housing Trust Fund.

Full NLIHC Action Alert information is HERE.
Call details pasted below, note call time is 10 AM our time (PDT).

Please join a national call with Sheila Crowley, NLIHC Executive Director, to learn about the latest developments affecting implementation of the National Housing Trust Fund.

Date: Thursday, November 5

Time: 1 PM (eastern), noon (central), 11 AM (mountain), 10 AM (pacific)

Call in Number: 1.877.486.3171

Pass code: 967187

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog

HUD FY 10 Budget, Includes $1 Billion for Trust Fund, Full CDBG.

Omnibus FY 09 appropriations bill passed yesterday in the House, and now moves to Senate.

Meanwhile, back at the pass, the FY 2010 budget was introduced today. They are kinda slow with the release of full details , but the "overview" sales pitch has been released and can be found HERE. HUD Section is on pages 73-75; Highlights

• Provides full funding for the Community Development Block Grant program at $4.5 billion. In addition, the Budget reforms the program’s formula to better target economically distressed communities. The program will also stimulate innovations in metropolitan sustainability, university partnerships, and rural housing and economic development.
• Provides $1 billion to capitalize and launch an Affordable Housing Trust Fund that will develop, rehabilitate, and preserve affordable housing targeted to very-low income households. The Fund will help to prevent homelessness and strengthen families.
• Increases funding for the Housing Choice Voucher program, which likewise makes housing affordable to very low-income households. The Department of Housing and Urban Development will also introduce legislative reforms to address the program’s costly inefficiencies.
• Enables the Department to preserve approximately 1.3 million affordable rental units through increased funding for the Department’s assisted multifamily properties.
• Combats mortgage fraud and predatory loans. The Budget funds enhanced enforcement of fairhousing, mortgage disclosure, and settlement requirements.
• Creates a new Energy Innovation Fund to catalyze private sector investment in the energy
• efficiency of the Nation’s housing stock.
• Creates a new Choice Neighborhoods Initiative to make a range of transformative investments in high-poverty neighborhoods where public and assisted housing is concentrated.
• Eliminates funding for ineffective and duplicative programs, including the Section 108 Community Development Loan Guarantees program and the American Dream Downpayment Initiative.

Much more to follow once documents become available.

Senate Housing Bill Uses Trust Fund Provisions to Help Pay for FHA Foreclosure Program.

National Low Income Housing Coalition has a press release HERE that explains how funding for Housing Trust Fund would be generated and allocated in the recently passed Senate markup of the FHA/GSE reform bill. Release says that 50% of the trust fund funding would be diverted to pay for FHA foreclosure relief provisions in first year, and 25% in the second year. Earlier bills had diverted trust fund money for disaster housing use in the first year, so it it unclear to me what the push back will be from states who would no longer receive that special allocation. As Bush administration has previously opposed housing trust fund it is also unclear whether that opposition will continue.

Elimination of Housing Trust Fund May Allow FHA Reconciliation Bill to Move Forward?

A Knowledgeplex headline in the right pane of my blog caught my attention this weekend: " Negotiators Resolve FHA Obstacle".

In reading the Congressional Quarterly story HERE headlined by Knowledgeplex,it appears that House Financial Services Chair Barney Frank has agreed to drop the housing trust fund provisions of the House passed FHA reform bill so that a bill reconciled with the Senate passed version can move forward. The CQ story notes that the Budget Committee has been asked to provide additional budget authority to hire staff for FHA to deal with increased loan volumes and that the sole remaining obstacle to passage of a reconciled bill may be differing loan limits found in the Senate and House bills.

Housing Trust Fund Bill Passes House; President Threatens Veto; Senate Yet to Act on Three Bills

On October 10^th the House of Representatives passed the Housing Trust Fund bill (H.R. 2895) with amendments. The amended bill is available HERE.

An earlier blog story that I did on the Housing Trust Fund bill explains the relationship between the housing trust fund bill , and FHA and GSE reform bills that would provide the money for the Housing Trust Fund. (see earlier story HERE). To make it clear, unless the two bills that fund the Housing Trust Fund bill are passed , the Housing Trust Fund would have no money to be allocated.

The day before the vote on H.R. 2895, the administration raised the threat of a veto of the Housing Trust Fund Bill , see their statement of administration policy HERE.

Bill Status—Counting Housing Trust Fund Bill Just Added, Senate Has Yet to Act on Three Bills

Back in May , the full House passed the GSE reform bill, H.R. 1427 . Full text of that legislation as passed by the House is HERE.

And in mid September the FHA reform bill , H.R. 1852, was passed by the House. The text of the bill as passed by the House is HERE:

Statements of Administration Policy on Funding Bills

In addition to the threatened veto of the Housing Trust Fund bill, the president has raised concerns about the bills that would fund the housing trust fund.

Presidential concerns about the FHA reform bill H.R. 1852 are found HERE.

And for the GSE reform bill,H.R, 1427, the President expressed support for passage, yet looked forward to “strengthening the legislation as it moved through Congress”. That statement of administration policy can be found HERE.

IPOD AUDIO: Complete Audio Record of 2007 House Financial Services Committee Hearing and Approval of Housing Trust Fund So Far, Including Amendments

I think I can safely say you won’t find these anyplace else ( and yes, I realize some of you may be thinking.. "and for good reason").

July 31 Final Markup. HERE is an .mp3 audio file of the House Financial Services Committee July 31^st markup of the national Housing Trust Fund bill (HR 2895) I reported on yesterday. This includes Committee discussions and votes on a number of amendments. The file is 19 MB; the duration is 2 hours and 35 minutes.

July 19 Initial Hearing. I have also posted HERE the audio of the July 19 initial House F.S. Committee hearing on this bill, which includes a number of witness statements as well as statements and questions from the members of the Committee. The file is 26 MB; the duration is 3 hours and 44 minutes.

(With a combined length of more than 6 hours, these files may require a recharge of your IPOD or audio player to listen to them completely):

As I said in my story from yesterday, the expectation is that the full House will take up consideration of the Housing Trust Fund bill in September, after their August break.

As members of Congress will be in their districts in August, NOW is the time to get their commitment on this legislation.

House Financial Services Committee Completes Markup of Housing Trust Fund Bill; Action on Related Funding Bills Still Pending.

On Tuesday July 31^st Chair Barney Frank pushed through the Financial Services Committee, by a 45 to 23 vote, the Housing Trust Fund bill (H.R. 2895). This sets the stage for later consideration by the full House after the August recess. It appears that a Chairman’s amendment to the bill, designed to address objections raised during a prior hearing, was also adopted—it is not clear at this moment what additional amendments were offered and the Committee action on any of these additional amendments. The current summary of H.R. 2895 can be found in the press release section of the House Financial Services website, HERE.

Funding for the Housing Trust Fund depends on Congressional adoption and Presidential approval of two additional bills still pending:

1. The GSE Affordable Housing Fund (H.R. 1427) which passed the House in late May. NOTE—In this bill for the first year funding, 75% of the funds would go to the State of Louisiana and 25% to the State of Mississippi for the rebuilding and repair of housing affordable to very low and extremely low income families. Said differently, there would be no funds available from this source for the first year.

2. FHA savings that result from the enactment of the Expanding American Homeownership Act (H.R. 1852), which was passed by the Committee but has yet to be acted upon by the full House. (Funds generated from an expansion of the FHA Reverse Equity Loan program for seniors, AKA “the HECM program” would be the primary source of FHA funds for the Housing Trust fund).

OK, OK—How much for Oregon?

I have not been able to locate any estimate of how much of the annual funding from H.R. 2895 would flow to Oregon. The general formula in HR 2895 is that 40% of available funding would go to states and tribes, with 60% for local jurisdictions, with individual states guaranteed a minimum of 1% of the allocation made to the states. (If the FHA funding made available was $300 Million and 40% of that was allocated to states, this would mean the minimum allocation to all states would be $1.2 Million. The ADDITIONAL direct allocation to qualified local jurisdictions in Oregon is impossible to predict at this point). Note that there are a number of conditions that would result in local jurisdictions below a threshold receiving nothing, with the amounts below that threshold reverting to the states. Note also that states would be required to develop and submit an allocation plan to HUD for approval for the funding they receive.