Policy
AAHSA Needs You
HUD Publishes Section 8 Savings Notice
Senate Appropriations Falls Into Line
Jackson Faces the Music on President’s Budget

Member Highlight
RHF Dedicates New Facility in D.C.

New and Notable
HUD to Announce Webcast for FY2005 Grants New HUD Report Released
HUD Issues Final Report on Fair Housing Accessibility Requirements


Housing Report

Policy
AAHSA Needs You
As you know the President has proposed eliminating CDBG funding in FY06 and is interested in block granting the Section 202 program in FY07. Both of these moves spell trouble for providers and low income seniors that have limited housing and service options. AAHSA is working to protect funding for housing providers and residents, but we need your help with two things.

Take a few minutes to help us in the fight to protect funding for affordable senior housing. First, go to Contact Congress and send a letter to your Representative and Senators today. Second, if your organization has used CDBG funds for development, programs or services and you have not already contacted AAHSA or your state affiliate with the information, email Alayna Waldrum.

HUD Publishes Section 8 Savings Notice
To meet the requirements of the FY05 housing spending bill, HUD has issued guidance to public housing agencies intended to help manage their Section 8 voucher programs and stay within restricted budgets. As expected, the suggestions indicate ways to cut costs. The actions include the following: reduce payment standards and request regulatory waivers to implement the reductions without delays; reduce utility allowances; deny portability moves to areas with higher payment standards; review rents to determine reasonableness and reduce unreasonable rents prior to contract anniversary dates; terminate contracts if insufficient funds are available as long as the termination policy is included in their administrative plan; stop issuing turnover vouchers; reduce bedroom size eligibility sticking to 2 persons per bedroom and reducing “empty nester” subsidy standards; accelerate income matching enforcement; conduct interim reexaminations; and increase minimum rents to $50. Read HUD’s notice.

Senate Appropriations Falls Into Line
The Senate has come closer to reorganizing its appropriations subcommittees to reflect the recent change on the House side. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Thad Cochran, (R-MS), announced that the Senate will follow the House lead to break up the VA-HUD subcommittee, a priority for Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA), Chair of the House Appropriations Committee and the House leadership. The House has moved HUD appropriations to a new Transportation, Treasury and Housing subcommittee, which is chaired by Rep. Joe Kollenberg (R-MI). The Senate has made a parallel change for HUD programs to a new Transportation, Treasury, the Judiciary and HUD Subcommittee. The current VA-HUD Chair, Kit Bond (MO) will assume the Chair of the new subcommittee and Senator Patty Murray of Washington will serve as ranking member. Membership of the new subcommittee, like the House, is comprised of the former members of the Transportation Subcommittee including Republicans Richard Shelby (AL) who is the current chair of the Senate’s Banking Committee, Arlen Specter (PA), Robert Bennett (UT), Kay Bailey Hutchison (TX), Mike DeWine (OH), Sam Brownback (KS), Ted Stevens (AK), Pete Domenici (NM), and Conrad Burns (MT); and the Democrats Robert C. Byrd (WV), Barbara Mikulski (MD), former ranking member of the VA-HUD Subcommittee, Harry Reid (NV), Herb Kohl (WI), Richard Durbin (IL), Byron Dorgan (ND), Patrick Leahy (VT), and Tom Harkin (IA).

Jackson Faces the Music on President’s Budget
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson appeared before the House Committee on Financial Services on March 2, 2005 to respond to questions about the President’s proposed FY2006 budget that cuts a number of key programs and eliminates the essential CDBG program. Jackson repeatedly cited the Administration’s commitment to homeownership and gave a lukewarm defense for the cuts referring to the current budget situation and the need to "prioritize" funding. The proposal in the President’s budget eliminates the $4.6 billion CDBG funding in HUD, consolidates CDBG with 18 other programs and moves them to a $3.7 billion initiative within the Commerce Department called "Strengthening America’s Communities."

The primary concern for the committee members was the impact the CDBG dollars had had in their district and uncertainty about whether those funds would continue under the proposed Commerce program. Representatives cited the success of the program in its current form and their opposition to eliminating or re-creating it in another department where the priority would be shifted from community to economic development. Jackson had no answers regarding the new program and said that since legislation for the new program hadn’t been written yet it was not clear what would be eligible, where the almost $1 billion reduction would be taken from and how communities could access the funds. View the statements by Secretary Jackson and Committee Members.

The Democrats on the Financial Services Committee submitted comments, views and estimates to the House Budget Committee expressing their concerns with the President’s budget proposal. Read the views and look for Democratic budget views.

For more information, contact Alayna Waldrum.



Member Highlight
RHF Dedicates New Facility in D.C.
Retirement Housing Foundation CEO, Dr. Laverne Joseph, was in D.C. recently to dedicate a new Section 202 housing project, Plymouth at North Capitol. The new community, cosponsored with Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ (UCC), features 69 subsidized, one-bedroom apartments, including some accessible units for impaired residents. The project is close to shopping, medical care and transportation. Supportive services will be provided by Plymouth Congregational church and local community groups.



New and Notable
HUD to Announce Webcast for FY2005 Grants
HUD is planning to hold a webcast for organizations applying for the FY2005 SuperNOFA to explain the new applicant registration and electronic submission process. The registration process will take two weeks to finalize. Members can go click here and follow the steps to begin registration now. According to the HUD Grants office, a webcast will be scheduled for applicants to detail the new procedures, sometime within the next month or so and a notice will be posted on HUD's website soon with details. For more information, please contact Alayna Waldrum at 202-508-9476.

New HUD Report Released
In late February HUD released Why Not in Our Community?, its first report in 13 years studying the impact of regulatory barriers on the development of affordable housing. The report examines recent regulatory trends and major obstacles to affordable housing development, including environmental regulations, the misuse of smart growth principals, NIMBYism in suburban communities, impact fees and barriers such as, building codes.

HUD details efforts by state and local governments to reduce regulatory barriers. The report highlights strategies used in several states to modify regulations to eliminate barriers including California, Florida, Idaho, Ohio, Minnesota, Arizona and New Jersey. HUD has also sought out comments on its own program regulations and how they hamper affordable housing development. Download the report Why Not in Our Community?. Visit the HUD Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse.

HUD Issues Final Report on Fair Housing Accessibility Requirements
HUD has released its Final Report of HUD Review of the Fair Housing Accessibility Requirements in the 2003 International Building Code. The final report provides HUD’s review of certain accessibility provisions of the International Building Code, 2003 edition, published by the International Code Council (ICC). ICC requested that the Department review the accessibility provisions of the 2003 IBC to determine whether the provisions are consistent with the accessibility requirements of the Fair Housing Act (the Act); the regulations implementing the 1988 Amendments to the Act; and the Fair Housing Accessibility Guidelines. The ICC intends that the 2003 IBC be recognized by the Department as a safe harbor for compliance with the law. However in order to be considered a safe harbor, the report notes that the IBC 2003 should be appended to say that an accessible pedestrian route must be provided from site arrival point to accessible building entrances of buildings required to provide Type B dwelling units, unless site impracticality applies. For more information see HUD Clips.