- HUD, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Labor released “Veterans Homelessness Prevention Demonstration (VHPD) Evaluation Final Report” evaluating a program designed by Silber & Associates and the Urban Institute.
- CFPB released report on student loan financing finding that the current collective student loan debt is at $1.2 trillion, the second largest form of consumer debt behind mortgages.
- The Commerce Department released report on consumer spending, which showed that it was largely driven by housing and healthcare.
Tag Archives: US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Friday’s Government Reports
- The U.S. Census Bureau/HUD has released the New Residential Construction Statistics which show new building permits down slightly since August but 4.5% higher than Sept. 2014. Housing completions are up both month over month and year to year.
- The New York Federal Reserve has released a paper: The Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and a related blog post: Evaluating the Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in which the authors evaluate the now seven years and running government conservatorship which injected $187.5 billion into the two entities. The authors conclude that the short term intervention was necessary “because of the central role of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the U.S. mortgage market, and the GSEs’ interconnections with the rest of the global financial system.” They go on to argue that the conservatorship was meant to be a temporary “time out” and characterize the lack of mortgage finance reform a “striking failure” and cite broad consensus that the GSEs should be replaced with a private system.
Thursday’s Advocacy & Think Tank Round-Up
- The Furman Center has released discussion 16, A New Approach to Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing in its ‘The Dream Revisited’ Series, a “slow debate.” Discussion 16 contains five essays on the subject of affirmatively furthering fair housing. This Author recommends HUD’s New AFFH Rule: The Importance of the Ground Game, by Michael Allen, which argues the HUD lacks the resources to enforce its rule which requires grant recipients not just avoid housing discrimination but “affirmatively further fair housing.” Allen believes that the only way to hold the public housing agencies and block grant recipients accountable is through grass roots and legal advocates implementing their own enforcement strategy, through litigation if necessary.
- The National Association of Realtors’ Pending Home Sales Index is up for the 12th straight month, year over year, despite a slight decline from July to August. The index decreased 1.4 percent to 109.4 in August from 110.9 in July but is still 6.1 percent above August 2014 (103.1). Watch NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun discuss his view of the housing market.
- The National Housing Conference has released Paycheck to Paycheck a database that compares wages for selected occupations to assess the affordability of housing for full-time employees in different areas of the United States. A companion report, A Snapshot of Metropolitan Housing Affordability for Millennial Workers explores housing affordability for millennials in five occupations, including: administrative assistant, retail cashier, e-commerce customer service representative, food service manager, and cardiac technician.
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has announced that the Choice Neighborhoods Program (CNP) has selected five cities to receive $150 million to revitalize distressed HUD housing. CNP is a part of the White Houses’ Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative, which seeks to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty through public/private partnerships and broad collaboration to promote healthier neighborhoods. The CNP program specifically seeks to work closely with stakeholders, such as residents; police; and educators, at the local level, to address challenges facing their communities. The goals of the program include: revitalizing housing, improving social mobility and educational outcomes, and encouraging investment in the community. The CNP grants have been made to Atlanta, Georgia; Kansas City, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Sacramento, California. All five cities submitted a comprehensive neighborhood revitalization plan to transform an area of concentrated poverty.
Friday’s Government Reports Roundup
- Authorities partnered with NGOs to create “Community and Supportive Services” Programs (CSS) under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere (HOPE VI) grants for public housing redevelopment. A study analyzed the programs in Nashville and Atlanta, and found several shortcomings.
- The S. Census Bureau released information from 2014, finding that there was no significant change in median household income or official poverty rate since 2013, but the percentage of people without health insurance decreased.
Tuesday’s Regulatory & Legislative Round-Up
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recently released a final rule on Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing. HUD’s rule clarifies and simplifies existing fair housing obligations for HUD grantees to analyze their fair housing landscape and set locally-determined fair housing priorities and goals through an Assessment of Fair Housing (AFH).
Friday’s Government Reports
- Federal Housing Finance Agency released its annual Guarantee Fee Report, which tracks the upward trend in single family guarantee fees charged by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 requires FHFA to submit a report to Congress annually on guarantee fees. Guarantee fees are intended to cover the costs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac incur for guaranteeing the payment of principal and interest on single-family loans they purchase from mortgage lenders. These costs include projected credit losses from borrower defaults over the life of the loans, administrative costs, and a return on capital.
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in conjunction with Vanderbilt University released the Family Options Study in which presents the short-term impacts of the interventions in five domains related to family well-being: (1) housing stability, (2) family preservation, (3) adult well-being,(4) child well-being, and (5) self-sufficiency.
