VAWA Has Passed the Senate
This Tuesday S.47, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization, passed the Senate with a recorded vote of 78 to 22. VAWA was designed to strengthen and improve existing programs that assist victims and survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking. S.47 includes a number of housing provisions from the Act’s previous reauthorization in 2006. The legislation creates new VAWA protections and extends them to the programs, which now include:
- Section 8 housing choice vouchers;
- Section 8 project-based programs;
- Low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) properties;
- Sections 202 and 811; and
- All rural housing programs administered by USDA.
The VAWA reauthorization for the 113th Congress also adds new owner/agent rights that clarify the self-certification issue. If the O/A finds inconsistent information in the self-certification document from the tenant, the O/A may require an applicant or tenant to submit third-party documentation from a lawyer, medical/mental health professional or an employee of a victim service provider. The owner or agent of the housing is also required to provide the tenant/applicant with their rights under VAWA in these circumstances:
- At the time the applicant is denied residency in a dwelling unit assisted under the covered housing program;
- At the time the individual is admitted to a dwelling unit assisted under the covered housing program; and
- With any notification of eviction or notification of termination of assistance.
S.47 has specific mandates for emergency transfers as well, which allow the tenant to transfer to another available housing unit if:
- The tenant expressly requests the transfer; and
- The tenant reasonably believes that the tenant is threatened with imminent harm from further violence if the tenant remains within the same dwelling unit;
- In the case of a tenant who is a victim of sexual assault, the sexual assault occurred on the premises during the 90 day period preceding the request for transfer.
NAHMA’s legislative strategy now shifts to the House of Representatives. We will continue to advocate for more specific language approved last year by the House in H.R. 4970, the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization from the 112th Congress. H.R. 4970 addressed most of the industry concerns regarding emergency transfers and notification requirements.
To see the full text of S.47,
please click here.
Testimony from HUD Secretary on the Consequences of Sequestration
On February 14, the Senate Committee on Appropriations held a hearing addressing the effects of sequestration upon federal departments, which featured testimony from:
- HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan;
- OMB Controller Daniel Werfel;
- Secretary of Education Arne Duncan;
- Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter; and
- Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
Secretary Donovan’s delivered testimony outlined the severe effects that the March 1 sequester will have on HUD programs and American jobs. While he did not make reference to Project-Based Section 8 specifically, he did explain the consequences to other HUD programs:
- Roughly 125,000 individuals and families, including elderly and disabled persons, could lose benefits from the Housing Choice Voucher program and be at risk of becoming homeless;
- More than 100,000 formerly homeless people, including veterans, would be removed from their current housing and emergency shelter programs;
- 75,000 fewer households would receive foreclosure prevention, pre-purchase, rental, or homeless counseling through Housing Counseling grants;
- The sequester would prevent state and local communities that receive HOME grants from building and rehabilitating 2,100 affordable housing units for low-income families; and
- Significant cuts to community development funding for public services, facilities and infrastructure improvements, reducing confidence in the long-term sustainability of the private market rental housing that HUD supports.
The March 1 sequester will likely cut 5.1 percent of non-defense programs budgets. The Office of Management and Budget Secretary Daniel Werfel acknowledged that this 5.1 percent would be closer to 9 percent for non-Defense programs and 13 percent for Defense programs because the original sequestration date of January 2, 2013 was delayed until the first of March and all the cuts will be applied over seven months.
The President and many members of Congress have stated that sequestration was not planned to be an actual method for deficit reduction. Yet, if Congress fails to agree on a replacement proposal, sequestration in its current form will take effect.
To view Secretary Donovan’s testimony and that of other agency leaders,
please click here.
Banking Committee
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee released its agenda for the 113th Congress on Tuesday. The agenda compiled by Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) will focus on strengthening the nation’s economic recovery, with top priorities including continued oversight of Wall Street Reform, building bipartisan consensus on the future of housing finance, and reauthorizing expiring programs within the Committee’s jurisdiction. Chairman Johnson has emphasized bipartisanship as the key to effective legislating.
The Committee will continue strong oversight of the final stages of Dodd-Frank, exploring the appropriate steps to improve the effectiveness of Wall Street Reform. The Committee will also work to stabilize and strengthen the housing market recovery and continue to seek bipartisan consensus on various long-term housing finance policy options.Timing and certainty of Section 8 reform legislation is less definite. According to the Chairman Johnson’s agenda:
“The Committee may also consider proposals to streamline and improve the Section 8 and public housing rental housing assistance programs. The Committee may also conduct hearings and consider additional legislation on issues confronting the HUD and USDA federal rental assistance programs, including the need to preserve or replace affordable assisted housing that could be lost through expiring assistance contracts or physical obsolescence.”
To view the full agenda of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee for the 113th Congress, please follow:
Agenda
Hurricane Sandy Expedited Processing for FHA Multifamily Mortgage Insurance Applications
HUD has released a housing notice that provides for priority processing of multifamily mortgage insurance applications for transactions in New York and New Jersey. These changes are intended to facilitate recovery efforts by ensuring the timely availability of the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA’s) Multifamily Housing programs. Applications submitted under the terms of this Housing Notice will receive priority processing.
To read more about the processing measures in this notice, please follow:
Expedited Processing
S.290 and S.291: Legislation to Establish the Council on Healthy Housing
On Wednesday, Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) introduced two bills that aim to improve federal coordination of healthy housing efforts and strengthen activities into the ongoing lead poisoning prevention work at HUD. The first bill, S.290, seeks to reduce housing-related health hazards including contamination from lead-based paint, asbestos and other harmful substances. S.290 debuts after the release of the Advancing Healthy Housing Strategy, issued earlier this month by the Federal Healthy Homes Workgroup (to view the strategy, please click here). This bill will enact the recommendations of the Strategy from HHW by calling on Federal agencies to address barriers and disincentives to the delivery of services to improve housing conditions, particularly among low-income families with young children. Also, the bill seeks to replicate successful local healthy housing programs on a larger, national scale, and conduct more research into cost-effective advances in healthy housing programming.
In tandem with S.290 is S.291, The Healthy Housing Council Act. This bill would establish an independent interagency Council on Healthy Housing in the executive branch in order to improve coordination on healthy housing policies. The bill also calls for the council to convene periodic meetings with experts in the public and private sectors to discuss ways to educate individuals and families on how to recognize housing-related health hazards and access the necessary services and preventive measures to combat these hazards. The overall goal for these bills is to help reduce the more than 5.7 million households living in conditions with moderate or severe health hazards.
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Assignments
Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies:
- Mark Pryor (Chair) (D-AR),
- Tom Harkin (D-IA),
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA),
- Tim Johnson (D-SD),
- Jon Tester (D-MT),
- Tom Udall (D-NM),
- Jeff Merkley (D-OR),
- Roy Blunt (Ranking Member)(R-MO),
- Thad Cochran (R-MS),
- Mitch McConnell (R-KY),
- Susan Collins (R-ME),
- Jerry Moran (R-KS), and
- John Hoeven (R-ND).
Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies:
- Patty Murray (Chair) (D-WA),
- Barbara Mikulski (D-WA),
- Richard Durbin (D-IL),
- Patrick Leahy (D-VT),
- Tom Harkin (D-IA),
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA),
- Tim Johnson (D-SD),
- Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ),
- Mark Pryor (D-AR),
- Jack Reed (D-RI),
- Susan Collins (Ranking Member)(R-ME),
- Richard Shelby (D-AL),
- Lamar Alexander (R-TN),
- Lindsay Graham (R-SC),
- Mark Kirk (R-IL),
- Daniel Coats (R-IN),
- Roy Blunt (R-MO),
- Jerry Moran (R-KS), and
- John Boozman (R-AR)
