Nixon Peabody's Affordable Housing team provided a mid-year update on regulatory and transactional trends affecting the affordable housing industry. Topics include a Washington Update and a look at the federal budget, a discussion of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's ( HUD's) new 202 program, a RAD (Rental Assistance Demonstration) update— including public housing, 202 PRACs (project rental assistance contracts), and the Moderate Rehabilitation (Mod Rehab) program—non-shelter services and Section 8 rent adjustments, Department of Justice (DOJ) website issues, transaction trends, and a Federal Housing Administration (FHA)-closing update and closed out with hot button low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) issues for developers. The panel is moderated by Richard Price, and the speakers included Monica Sussman, Chaundi Randolph, Kathie Soroka, Harry Kelly, Nathaniel Cushman, Alexander Rosso, and Aaron Yowell. The panelists provide insights on the following affordable housing and real estate-related topics:
- Monica Sussman provided us with a Washington Update and walked us through the FY23 budget, noting the tremendous growth in the HUD budget, especially with respect to renewals, but also how the budget as-is remains held up in Congress
- Chaundi Randolph walked us through HUD's new 202 program, which is the only program provided by HUD that exclusively supports housing for the elderly, outlined the history of the program, and discussed the increase in 202 funding in the FY22 budget
- Kathie Soroka went over the three components of RAD: public housing, Mod Rehab, and RAD for PRAC, including the trajectory for the program in the coming years and the important items to keep in mind with each component
- Harry Kelly gave a background on non-shelter services and Section 8 rent adjustments, providing reasoning for the continued importance and relevance of the non-shelter services program for owners to provide to their renters, but also issuing concern for how this will affect the HUD budget
- Nate Cushman highlighted some of the main issues that the DOJ sees across company websites with respect to Americans with Disabilities Act compliance and noted the DOJ's expectation that every company should be making an effort to make their websites accessible to all
- Alex Rosso detailed some of the recent trends of note with respect to FHA closings, including the recent improvements in the efficiency of application processing by HUD and the new stricter standards to be aware of with respect to environmental review requirements, and encouraged getting out in front of these potential issues
- Aaron Yowell rounded out the panel by highlighting five key hot button LIHTC issues for developers: 8609 delays and administrative adjustment requests, income averaging, return of loss adjusters, purchase options, and post-removal indemnity
Our panelists covered a number of topics at a high level in a short amount of time. If you have any additional questions about the related topics after watching the recording, be sure to reach out to our panelists! We hope you will join us for future programs.