HUD Committed to Improving Rental Assistance Programs, Official Says

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Tax Credit Advisor, December 2009: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is exploring ways to enhance its rental assistance programs and may unveil some new initiatives as early as next February in its FY 2011 budget proposal, according to HUD official Barbara Sard.      

Sard, appointed by Secretary Shaun Donovan to the new post of Senior Advisor for Rental Assistance, spoke November 2 at the National Housing & Rehabilitation Association’s 2009 Fall Developer’s Forum in Boston.

“There is a future for rental assistance policy at HUD,” she said, noting that Secretary Donovan and his team are “fully committed to rental housing” and believe that rental housing is a very important part of national housing policy. “Part of that is getting HUD back into the development business,” Sard said.

She said the Administration is committed to “really re-think the rental assistance programs that we have, to create the next generation of programs that will do better for people, and to serve the literally tens of thousands of partners and private developers, agencies, communities around the country that rely on HUD programs.”

Sard said Secretary Donovan has laid out four principles for HUD’s rental assistance programs going forward:      

  • To make rental assistance funding reliable.
  • To streamline and simplify existing policies.      
  • To encourage resident choice and mobility, and combine the best features of HUD’s project- and tenant-based rental assistance programs.
  • To bring market investment and discipline to HUD’s programs.

“We hope that we’ll be unveiling new initiatives in the context of the 2011 budget,” she noted.      

Sard reported steps HUD is already taking. First, the Department is reviewing proposed and pending pertinent bills in Congress (e.g., preservation, Section 8 voucher reform) to make sure they contain nothing inconsistent with HUD’s vision for improving its programs.

Second, HUD is evaluating its regulations to see what it can do to make program improvements through rulemaking, without new legislation. One example is a final regulation that HUD must issue to make effective certain 2008 statutory changes to the project-based voucher program that haven’t yet been made effective. “As part of that rulemaking, we want to take the opportunity to make any other good changes in how the project-based voucher program operates,” said Sard.

A second regulatory initiative, on a “slower track,” is a commitment by HUD to “revamping” how it determines Fair Market Rents (FMRs). Sard indicated that HUD is reconsidering the data it currently uses to determine FMRs, as well as possibly updating FMRs more frequently. “We’re also re-thinking the geography used in the policy so that FMRs are better designed to achieve the goals of providing a reliable benchmark for modest rents for decent housing in the market, not overpaying in some neighborhoods and underpaying in others.” Sard suggested that some changes would require legislation, while others could be accomplished through rulemaking or perhaps even informal action.

New Challenge for Industry      

NH&RA Executive Director Peter Bell, another speaker, praised the new leadership, openness, and attitude at HUD. But he added that the environment in Washington has changed, presenting a “new challenge” to multifamily housing advocates.

 “Washington for years has been moved by anecdote,” said Bell, noting advocates previously could successfully advance their proposals with anecdotes. Today things are different, he noted, explaining that decision-making in the current Administration is “evidence-based,” and that advocates must furnish convincing statistical data and information to back their proposals to be successful.