CARH’s BROADCAST EMAIL – Legislative Update

July 19, 2016

On July 14, 2016, he Senate passed the H.R. 3700, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act of 2015. President Obama is expected to sign the bill into law soon. As explained by Michael Reardon of Nixon Peabody, LLP, a number of the provisions are items that the affordable housing industry has been trying to get passed for several years and others are new. CARH was part of the diverse group of interests from the affordable housing industry that worked on passage of the legislation.

One notable change is a provision in the new law that amends the limitations on the number of Section 8 Project-Based Voucher (PBV) units in a project serving families. Previously, the law required that the number of PBV-assisted units in a family project could exceed 25% only if families in the project were “receiving” supportive services. The new law provides that the 25% limitation shall not apply to dwelling units made available to households “eligible” for supportive services. This should eliminate the difficult issue of mandating that families, or at least a member of a family, participate in a supportive services program or lose their assisted housing.

A couple of other provisions of note:  the new law allows a Public Housing Authority (PHA) to offer an OCAF on PBV contracts, although does not provide any funding to cover this; a PHA can provide a 20 year PBV contract, bringing it in line with the allowable term of PBRA contract under RAD.

In addition, a PHA can, without competition, award PBVs to a project under an initiative to redevelop a public housing site in which it will continue to have an interest.

Please contact the CARH national office at carh@carh.org or 703-837-9001 should you have questions.