Administration Announces Updates for Housing Supply and Multifamily Housing

The White House released two announcements last week, outlining actions to boost the housing supply, and offering guidance for multifamily properties. These announcements are follow-up items to the President’s Housing Supply Action Plan and Blueprint for a Tenant’s Bill of Rights, respectively.

Specifically, the announcements detail the following new items:

Housing Supply:

• The creation of a competitive $85 million grant program to help communities identify barriers to affordable housing production. Communities in need of affordable housing and are working to actively address the issue can receive up to $10 million in grant funding. Activities eligible for grant funding include updating zoning for multifamily and mixed-use housing, streamlining affordable housing development, and other land use requirements. Applications to apply for grant funding are due October 30, 2023 and can be found here.
• Updated guidance from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to emphasize grant funding for more efficient land use in higher density areas.
• Streamlined financing through the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) that allows larger loans to participate in the department’s Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. HUD also released new guidance for those participating in the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program, creating additional resources to rehabilitate affordable housing.
• The creation of an interagency working group to determine opportunities that will encourage the conversion of commercial properties into residential or mixed-use housing.

Multifamily Housing:

• Several federal agencies (HUD, the Department of Agriculture, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Trade Commission, and the Federal Housing Finance Agency) released guidance to housing providers on tenant screening reports that outlines expectations on communicating what information led to the denial of an application.
• $10 million in funding for tenant education and outreach in properties they support. This funding will be used to educate renters on how to strengthen communication and relationships with property managers in project based rental assistance (PBRA) housing.
• A commitment to proposed rulemaking for renters in PBRA and other public housing programs that will finalize existing-HUD policy which requires housing providers to give 30-days’ notice for lease termination because of nonpayment of rent. As noted in the announcement, this is already existing HUD policy.
• Additional guidance for public housing authorities (PHAs) and multifamily housing providers participating in RAD tied to tenant engagement.

NAR supports the Administration’s efforts to increase the affordable housing supply and will continue to work with the White House and Congress to ensure that mom and pop housing providers continue to play a critical role in communities across the country. Similar to the White House’s announcement in the weeks prior, there are no new mandatory policy changes for housing providers.