Nearly 500 housers attend NHC’s Solutions for Affordable Housing 

Last week, NHC convened its annual Solutions for Affordable Housing convening in Washington, D.C. Nearly 500 housers from across the country came together in person and virtually to discuss the nation’s most pressing housing issues while focusing on tangible, impactful, and achievable actions.

White House National Economic Advisor Lael Brainard opened the event by discussing the Biden Administration’s housing agenda, which is focused on “increasing the availability of housing that Americans can afford, lowering costs for homebuyers, and lowering costs and promoting competition and fairness for renters.” Dr. Brainard’s remarks are the focus of this week’s Member Note.

“When you look at today’s housing market, the affordability issue is very acute,” said FHFA Director Sandra Thompson. “Home prices are really high, and when you look at the supply side issue, there’s just not a lot there.” Director Thompson spoke with NHC Board of Governors Chair Steve O’Connor in a fireside chat during the lunch session. Alongside addressing the nationwide affordable housing shortage, Thompson discussed recent political disagreements around loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs) being tied to loan-to-value (LTV). “Many people don’t know what a LLPA is or DTI [debt-to-income] or LTV, and so translating mortgage speak into language that people aren’t in this business can understand is a big part of what we need to do,” said Thompson. She also updated attendees on FHFA's recent actions regarding credit scoring and its comprehensive review of the Federal Home Loan Bank System.

Senior staffers from the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the House Financial Services Committee shared their insights on navigating the legislative and regulatory landscape in 2024 and beyond, stressing that “there is always opportunity for bipartisanship.” The staffers highlighted several bills, including the Affordable Housing Credit Improvement Act and the Neighborhood Homes Investment Act, as examples of legislation supported by both Republicans and Democrats.

Attendees also heard from a diverse group of panels, focusing on a wide range of timely topics, including the influence of climate on housing insurance, housing concerns within the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, multifamily housing challenges, special purpose credit programs, mortgage servicing tactics to support families in keeping their homes, modernizing the Housing Choice Voucher program, and the interplay between institutional investors, community needs, and government policies in the single-family rental market. NHC is making these panel sessions, Dr. Brainard’s and Thompson’s remarks, available in the upcoming days at nhc.org.

NHC is grateful to Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, TD Bank, Rocket Mortgage, Living Cities, the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks, Freddie Mac, the Mortgage Bankers Association, the National Association of REALTORS®, NeighborWorks America, Pretium, Zillow, and Habitat for Humanity for their generous sponsorship of this event.

HUD to propose making 30-day eviction notice rule permanent

HUD will publish a new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that would require public housing agencies (PHAs) with tenants in public housing and owners of properties participating in HUD multifamily project-based rental assistance programs to provide their tenants with 30-day written notice before filing for an eviction due to nonpayment of rent. The proposal intends to reduce the costly consequences of unnecessary evictions by giving tenants an opportunity to catch up on rent payments, affecting an estimated 3.9 million people across 2.2 million households. It fulfills a commitment made by the Biden administration earlier this year through its Blueprint for a Renters Bill of Rights. 

“HUD-assisted rental housing allows millions of people to achieve stability for themselves and their families,” said Solomon Greene, HUD Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. “This proposed rule would give many HUD-assisted renters an opportunity to catch up if they fall behind on rent and avoid the harmful consequences of evictions, while also preventing landlords and PHAs from encountering costly unit vacancies.”

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, public housing residents only received a two-week notice before a PHA filed for eviction. Other programs were primarily governed by state and local laws. In Nov. 2021, the federal government extended the notice period to 30 days as a crisis response. The new rule would make the mandatory notice permanent.

Comments on the rule are due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. 

OMB catalogues rulemakings

The Office of Management and Budget published its Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions, which lists current and new rulemakings. Housing related rulemakings include:

• The Federal Reserve Board, Office of Comptroller of the Currency, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s Basel III Endgame capital requirements. NHC and other housing leaders have raised significant concerns about the impact of this rule on affordable housing and investment in underserved communities;
• CFPB’s rule to “simplify and streamline the mortgage servicing rules” based on lessons learned in pandemic-era forbearance and other loss mitigation programs;
• FHFA’s comprehensive review of the Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) System, including new rulemakings on the Community Investment Cash Advance Programs, Affordable Housing Program (AHP), and Subsidy and Revolving Loan Funds;
• FHFA’s Enterprise Liquidity Requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac;
• HUD’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing final rule;
• FHA’s Servicing and Conveyance Requirements, to streamline and revise assumability and conveyance restrictions for FHA mortgages; and
• The Energy Department’s Energy Standards of the Manufactured Housing Construction and Safety Standards Regulations.