Weekly update from the National Housing Conference
In this issue
April 2, 2023
Issue 92-12

· FHFA makes pandemic-era deferral option permanent
· CFPB targets small business lending discrimination
· HUD seeks comments on NSPIRE 
· Letter to Feds lists ways to address affordable housing crisis
· HUD updates Sec. 8 guidance
· Pew Research reveals the state of the racial wealth gap


Chart of the week: Only 25 percent of eligible renters with disabilities receive aid
Lisa Rice, Susan Dewey, and Doug Bibby to be recognized at NHC Gala

By David M. Dworkin

One of the best parts of my job is helping identify honorees for our Annual Housing Visionary Awards Gala, to be held at the Anthem on June 20, 2023. We work with some incredible people, but there are always a few that truly stand out. Recognizing their contribution to our mission is an important part of what we do at NHC. We celebrate with a great party, but it’s the work we celebrate that really matters.

This year, the National Housing Conference (NHC) is thrilled to recognize some of our most impactful colleagues: Lisa Rice, President and CEO of the National Fair Housing Alliance, and Susan Dewey, CEO of Virginia Housing with the Housing Visionary Award, and Doug Bibby with the Carl A.S Coan, Sr. Award for Public Service. Lisa, Susan, and Doug are distinguished leaders in housing and community development whose work has helped move our nation toward NHC’s goal of decent, affordable housing for all.

Lisa’s leadership at NFHA is at the forefront of efforts to advance fair housing principles, preserve and broaden fair housing protections, and expand equal housing opportunities for millions of Americans. She played a major role in crafting sections of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and in establishing the Office of Fair Lending within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She also helped lead the investigation and resolution of precedent-setting fair housing cases, which have resulted in providing remedies for millions of people as well as the elimination of systemic discriminatory practices involving lending, insurance, rental, and zoning matters.

NFHA’s Keys Unlock Dreams is a nationwide initiative dedicated to providing consumers and communities with the resources and expert advice they need to build thriving, inclusive communities and make homeownership a reality for millions of people. She is also a founding member of the Steering Committee of the Black Homeownership Collaborative. more...
News from Washington | By Brittany Webb
FHFA makes pandemic-era deferral option permanent

FHFA announced an enhancement of Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s (the Enterprises) payment deferral policies to allow borrowers facing financial hardship to defer up to six months of mortgage payments. The change makes permanent a COVID-19-era policy that effectively avoided thousands of foreclosures. Deferred payments will move to the end of the loan as a non-interest-bearing balance.

“The Enterprises completed more than one million COVID-19 payment deferrals during the pandemic,” said FHFA Director Sandra Thompson. “Based on the success of the COVID-19 payment deferral, we are making this solution a key part of our standard loss mitigation toolkit that is available to all borrowers with eligible hardships.”

NHC was among the groups applauding the decision. “The enhanced payment deferral policy will provide critical relief for borrowers facing financial hardships outside of their control, allowing them to keep their homes and avoid foreclosure. It will reduce foreclosures, strengthen sustainable homeownership, and stabilize many at-risk neighborhoods,” said David Dworkin, NHC’s President and CEO, in a press release.
CFPB targets small business lending discrimination

The CFPB finalized a rule requiring covered institutions to collect and report data on applications for credit for small businesses, including those owned by women or minorities. The final rule amends the Equal Credit Opportunity Act’s Regulation B, created by section 1071 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. The required data includes information about a small business applicant’s status as a minority-owned, women-owned, and LGBTQI+-owned business and the applicant’s principal owners’ ethnicity, race, and sex.

“Many local businesses were shuttered during the COVID-19 pandemic after they struggled to obtain credit under the Paycheck Protection Program,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “This small business loan census will give the public key data on this market to ensure that banks and nonbanks are serving small businesses fairly.”

CFPB will implement the rule over three years. The announcement noted that the bureau understands that implementation for small businesses has key differences from larger lenders already reporting mortgage data. Therefore, the implementation strategy will phase in the largest lenders first, looks to reduce duplicative reporting requirements, and allow new digital tools to collect data.

The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) and House Financial Services Chair Senator Patrick McHenry, pushed back on the ruling. “Not only will these data reporting requirements place a significant compliance burden on small community banks, but this final rule does not address the significant concerns ICBA has raised about the privacy of applicants, particularly in smaller communities. The CFPB’s rule will make it possible for loan applicants to be identified, especially in rural areas — potentially driving small-business owners away from community banks and local communities while having a chilling effect on small-business lending,” the ICBA said in a press release.

CFPB published a simplified fact sheet alongside the announcement.
HUD seeks comments on NSPIRE 

HUD published a proposed scoring notice for the National Standards for the Physical Inspection of Real Estate (NSPIRE) to the Federal Register and is seeking comments from stakeholders on NSPIRE’s scoring and ranking methodology. NSPIRE aims to strengthen and update HUD’s physical conditions standards and replace the Uniform Physical Condition Standards (UPCS) and the Housing Quality Standards (HQS). Specifically, NSPIRE focuses on the health and safety of residents over curb appeal, with particular attention to life-threatening and severe deficiencies inside units.

NSPIRE standards apply to public housing, multifamily housing, and HUD-insured multifamily programs. NSPIRE’s public review and comment periods are part of HUD’s upcoming final rule.
“HUD is prioritizing the health and safety of our residents by taking this step for the first time in 20 years. NSPIRE will formally align expectations of housing quality and consolidate inspection standards across HUD programs to raise the bar for what conditions exist in HUD-assisted properties,” said HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge.

The deadline to submit comments is April 27, 2023.
Letter to Feds lists ways to address affordable housing crisis

Last week, J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Housing Policy’s Advisory Committee members penned a letter to six Cabinet Secretaries outlining ten principles and recommendations for federal spending to address the affordable housing crisis. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and EPA Administrator Michael Regan received the letter.

The ten principles include taking a “healthy communities” approach, encouraging public-private partnerships, streamlining regulatory requirements, incentivizing private investment, collaborating of federal agencies, reducing development costs, addressing funding gaps, and moving with urgency. The final two recommendations include taking a long-term view that includes measuring outcomes by a third party and lessening regulations by authorizing federal agencies to adopt a “multi-agency demonstration program framework” to fast-track impacts. Lastly, the letter applauds the Biden administration’s whole-government approach to increasing housing affordability.
HUD updates Sec. 8 guidance

HUD announced new guidance in the Section 8 Renewal Policy Guidebook for property owners of the Section 8 Project-Based Rental Assistance (PBRA) program. HUD intends the updated guidelines to streamline the preparation and submission of Rent Comparability Studies, which are used to establish contract rents. Key changes to the guidebook include revised options for owners seeking to renew their contracts without a rent comparability study, enhanced consistency in valuing non-shelter services to support sites with resident services and allowing internet and broadband services to be considered eligible services for valuation.

“The changes provide clarity and process improvements for owners and encourage high-quality resident services at a time when this nation needs to preserve and expand the availability of affordable homes,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Multifamily Housing Ethan Handelman.

The updated Guidebook Chapter Nine of the Section 8 Renewal Guidebook takes effect on May 1, 2023.
Pew Research reveals the state of the racial wealth gap 

Earlier this month, Pew Research Center published a fact sheet highlighting the profile of the demographic, geographic and economic characteristics of the U.S. Black population in 2021. The data demonstrated the disparate effects of the racial wealth gaps which reinforce barriers to wealth creation and financial independence for the Black population. The Pew data revealed that the median household income for Black families in 2021 was $46,400. This is 42% lower than the median income for the overall population at $70,784. Further, 52% of Black households in 2020 earned less than $50,000 meaning that one White household makes the equivalent of income for 2 Black households.

This racial wealth gap contributes to the inability to prepare for retirement, limited savings, higher probability of late payments, limited access to homeownership opportunities, and overall wealth creation. While the White population continues to make economic gains, the Black population remains economically behind most populations due to historical-systematic barriers that keep the racial wealth gap persistent.  
Chart of the week
Only 25 percent of eligible renters with disabilities receive aid

A new report from the Government Accountability Office examines the challenges low-income households with members who have a disability face. For example, many households who qualify for HUD rental assistance do not receive it due to a lack of available funding. The report used data from the 2019 American Housing Survey and found that about 7.4 million renter households with disabilities were income-eligible for HUD assistance, but only 25% of those eligible received aid. Further, more than half of the income-eligible households with disabilities were in the Survey’s lowest income bracket and did not receive assistance.
What we're reading
Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr delivered remarks at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s Just Economy Conference, offering insights into the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA). Barr noted that the three regulatory agencies responsible for CRA have been “inclusive and analytical” in their approach to the upcoming rule, focusing on addressing inequities in access to credit, addressing changes in the banking sector, and providing greater consistency and transparency.

A National Mortgage News article reported that the homeownership gap between genders widened in 2022, wiping out the previous six years of homeownership rate gains among single women. The homeownership rate for unmarried women dipped from 28.6% to 24.5% last year, while for single men, the rate grew by 2.7% to 33.1%. A Zillow report argues that the decline stems from women leaving their jobs during the pandemic to assume caregiving responsibilities, such as child and eldercare.

A new Brookings Institution research report looks toward urban downtowns’ futures as headlines claim cities are facing an “office real estate apocalypse,” “urban doom loop,” and risk becoming “ghost towns.” A group of large cities, including New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Seattle, came together at Brookings Metro to discuss how public and private sector leaders can reassess the condition of their city’s downtowns. The report notes that downtowns have faced similar rhetoric before and that cities have, post-COVID, a unique potential to rebuild their downtowns stronger than before.
The week ahead
Sunday, April 2

Monday, April 3

Tuesday, April 4

Wednesday, April 5

Thursday, April 6

Friday, April 7
The National Housing Conference is a diverse continuum of affordable housing stakeholders that convene and collaborate through dialogue, advocacy, research, and education, to develop equitable solutions that serve our common interest.
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