| Volume I : 1 | April/May 1999 |
| Volume I : 1 | April/May 1999 |
| The Commissioner's Corner | ||||||
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William Apgar was sworn in as Assistant Secretary for Housing-Federal Housing Commissioner, October 23, 1998. Bill is on leave from Harvard University, where he was the Executive Director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies. The Center is responsible for the annual report The State of the Nation’s Housing, a widely referenced account of long-term trends in housing. Apgar was originally selected to head up the Office of Policy Development and Research, but was tapped by Secretary Cuomo last October for the top job in Housing. Gary Eisenman joins Housing as General Deputy Assistant Secretary. He came to HUD in 1997 as Deputy General Counsel. Before coming to HUD, he was Associate General Counsel at the New York State Urban Housing Development Corporation. He was also a real estate attorney for Cravath, Swaine & Moore. These are exciting times at HUD! Congress has given the Department a vote of confidence with the best HUD budget in a decade, and HUD’s programs are reaching more people than ever. HUD also had the first piece of major Housing legislation passed in more than 6 years. Clearly, the Department is on the right track! This year, HUD will enable more families to become homeowners through increased FHA loan limits . These higher loan limits will enable buyers in both low- and high-cost areas to qualify for higher mortgages—ranging from $115,200 in low-cost areas to $208,800 in high cost areas. For the first time in 5 years, the Department will be able to help more families find decent housing with 90,000 new Section 8 vouchers. Another achievement will allow as many as 50,000 families to use their Section 8 rental assistance vouchers to become first-time homebuyers. The President has proposed an even stronger FY 2000 budget for HUD that will build on this record. As things grow and change at HUD, we look forward to sharing them with you, our housing partners, through this new publication, HOUSINGtoday. Andrew Cuomo HUD on the Fast Track! It won’t be long before City of South Lake Tahoe seniors can move into some new digs. A 45-unit affordable senior housing project that could have taken years to complete took just a little over 1 year because of some HUD staff and business partners dedicated to getting it completed quickly. HUD’s Sacramento Area Office closed a Section 202 project in only 8 months from the date of Fund Reservation. That’s a significant improvement over the normal 2-3 year processing period. What is the difference with this project and others like it that are popping up with fast turnaround times all over the country? It had a committed and driven sponsor, a knowledgeable consultant, and dedicated HUD staff, all with a mission to push the project through. The City of South Lake Tahoe needed to fill a critical need for affordable senior housing. In June 1997, a City representative attended HUD’s Sacramento Area Office’s Section 202 workshop, to see if the program would work for them. The City also obtained the technical assistance services of an experienced nonprofit sponsor, American Baptist Homes of the West. American Baptist engaged the services of a seasoned consultant, Community Economics, to prepare the Section 202 application. Getting help worked, because in October, the City won a $3.5 million Section 202 award for Capital Advance Funds to develop the 45-unit Tahoe Senior Plaza in the Tahoe Basin. They also put together a $975,000 funding package for its first development for very low-income senior citizens. Within 2 weeks of the award, the sponsor and the City were in predevelopment meetings with HUD’s Sacramento staff. An aggressive time table was set up to allow the project to meet construction start and obtain necessary documentation and financing within the prescribed deadlines. When HUD received the application for Firm Commitment in April 1998, the Sacramento team worked quickly to ensure that all HUD requirements were met. Remaining issues were handled by phone and fax to save time and, as a result, the Firm Commitment was issued May 22 and closing was held June 9, 1998. The project is completed and tenants should move in during March. The grand opening is scheduled for April 16. The quick turn-around was due to the excellent work of Kevin Knudtson, the consultant from Community Economics, and the sponsor’s attorney, Gary Hoshiyama of Michaud and Hoshiyama, who were quick to respond to HUD and the sponsor on any issues, while working off of the draft commitment until final typing and signatures could be obtained. Patrick Conway, the Housing Coordinator of the South Tahoe Redevelopment Agency, and Cathy Kope, Housing Assistant, kept things moving on the local level. The HUD Team was made up of Diane Brambila, Bob Bourbeau, Rhea Perales, Jason Dongses, Lorrie Hohman, and Dexter Bergounous. Diane will be happy to share strategies. Call her at (916) 498-5220, x343. The Los Angeles Hub had similar success when it issued Firm Commitments within 30 days and closed five projects in Kern and Fresno in less than 60 days, getting 538 units of affordable housing to low- and moderate-income families faster. Reengineering Effort Will Use Latest Online Technology! HUD will soon begin using an automated certification process that uses Internet browser technology to determine individual or corporate entity eligibility to participate in HUD’s multifamily programs. Currently, before entities can participate in multifamily programs, they must get approval from HUD by submitting a paper form. HUD staff receive and review the information that entities submit on what has been called the "2530" form and determine whether the applicant has carried out past financial, legal and contractual obligations in a satisfactory and timely way. The Business Performance and Review Division is reengineering the paper process to use Internet browser technology. When implemented, the new system will permit applicants to submit their requests to participate and all accompanying information over the Internet. This streamlined process will reduce paper processing time and improve the accuracy of the information. A small focus group of HUD industry partners has already had the opportunity to test out the new system. Once their feedback is incorporated, the system will move forward. For more information about the new process, contact Beverly J. Miller at (202) 708-1320. Cuomo Announces Appraisal Reform at NAHB Conference Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced a major change to the Department’s appraisal process January 16 at the National Association of Home Builder’s Annual meeting in San Diego. The "One Stop Appraisal Process" requires a builder to obtain a comprehensive appraisal on only one model home in a subdivision. Appraisals for other homes in the subdivision will build off of it, saving thousands of dollars on the cost of obtaining subdivision appraisals. HUD is also reducing the required builder warranty on new homes with FHA-insured mortgages from 10 years to 1 year. This action will reduce the cost of buying a home up to $500 and will also encourage more builders to participate in the program. DID YOU KNOW that FHA insured more than 1 million loans in Fiscal Year 1998? Last year HUD simplified its process for applying for funding under a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA), a national competition for HUD funding. The SuperNOFA process offers one-stop shopping for all HUD grant programs. On February 28, Secretary Cuomo announced the availability of approximately $2.4 billion in HUD program funding covering 32 grant categories. Look for complete details in the February 28 Federal Register or check HUD’s website http://www.hud.gov/pressrel/pr99-45.html. In just a year, the number of transactions completed through HUD’s FHA Connection has more than doubled. In February 1998, FHA processed just 20,000 transactions daily, while today, some 95,000 transactions are processed each day. To date, 30,000 user IDs have been assigned. FHA Connection allows FHA-approved Single Family lenders to have real-time access to several FHA systems over the HUD internet system. The system was implemented in several phase-in stages beginning in 1997. Initially lenders were able to perform functions such as underwriting registry, appraiser reassignment, CAIVRS authorization, case query, and lender/sponsor transfers. The system has grown to include all loan origination functions with the capability for lenders to submit delinquent loan information, query portfolios, and make mortgage record transactions. Since June, the FHA Connection now supports case processing, single family servicing, and mortgage record changes, and the system promises to add even more functions in the future. FHA Connection was developed to be more efficient and more responsive to customers—at less cost! The system was designed with help screens to assist the client with every transaction. If lenders have questions that cannot be answered with the aid of help screens, lenders can send an e-mail to sfadmin@hud.gov or contact their local Homeownership Center for further assistance. Lenders can access FHA Connection at https://entp.hud.gov/clas. Vice President Gore Announces Central Cities Building Initiative Vice President Al Gore recently announced the creation of a partnership between the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National Association of Home Builders, and HUD to build 1 million homes in America’s central cities over the next 10 years. Currently, only 50 percent of city dwellers own their own home, compared to 73 percent of suburbanites. HUD Community Builders will help mayors and home builders identify and coordinate Federal resources. The NAHB will encourage home builders to pursue urban residential development opportunities, while the Conference of Mayors will work with HUD and NAHB to help cities develop and implement strategies for removing barriers to new home production. A study by the Joint Center for Housing Studies concluded that new home construction has largely bypassed cities. An advisory council, the Council on Building Homes in America’s Cities, will determine selection criteria for a pilot program to be established in five to ten cities. HOUSINGtoday is a bimonthly publication of HUD’s Office of Housing. Look for this newsletter and other information about Housing at www.hud.gov. Editorial Staff Maryl Kerley, Theresa Oliver, Paulette Grayson To comment or contribute to HOUSINGtoday, contact the editorial staff at (202) 708-1020. |