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Every week, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) publishes news about important events within the agency. The following are summaries of this week’s news for low-income renters:
- Disaster funding signed into law
- HUD Secretary discusses lead poisoning awareness
- HUD employees earn service award
- Secretary Fudge speaks about housing goals
Disaster funding signed into law
Date Posted: November 1, 2021
HUD highlighted funding that was signed into law on September 30th, called the “Extending Government Funding and Delivering Emergency Assistance Act.”
The law grants $2 billion in funding to go to 10 states and help assist households affected by disasters. The disasters include fires in California and Oregon, hurricanes in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida, floods in Michigan and Tennessee, and an earthquake and tropical storm in Puerto Rico.
HUD has a climate action plan that it uses to help guide its actions and funding. One of the stipulations of the plan is to equally invest in underserved communities, especially communities of color.
HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge said, “With these allocations, we are addressing climate justice in hard-hit communities that can now begin the process of building back better from disasters and improving long-term, equitable resilience to future impacts of climate change.”
More information about this funding can be found here.
HUD Secretary discusses lead poisoning awareness
Date Posted: October 29, 2021
HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge had a conversation with Dr. Tom Mihaljevic, the CEO and President of the Cleveland Clinic, about the problems of lead poisoning. They talked about the importance of raising awareness of the harmful long term effects of lead exposure to children and the disproportional occurrences of lead poisoning in underserved and communities of color.
HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes made $450 million available to assess and remediate lead-based paint and other housing related hazards, and to also make home modifications and repairs for low income elderly homeowners for repairs on health hazards and to make improvements in energy efficiency.
More information about this discussion can be found here.
HUD employees earn service award
Date Posted: October 28, 2021
HUD employees working to house and support youth leaving foster care, won the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals (Sammies).
The group received the Management Excellence Medal awarded through the Sammies, to recognize a significant accomplishment in efficient, effective, and results-oriented government. The group provides 18 to 24 year olds with rental assistance and other supportive services so they can work toward their educational and employment goals and reach self-sufficiency.
More information about this award can be found here.
Secretary Fudge speaks about housing goals
Date Posted: October 19, 2021
HUD Secretary Marcia L. Fudge went to San Diego, CA to speak to an organization called the Mortgage Bankers of America. In her keynote address, she talked about HUD’s efforts to expand affordable homeownership, and to focus on racial equity in the housing market.
HUD already has a few affordable homeownership programs that are available to qualified low income families. Read our Affordable Homeownership Guide to see if those homeownership programs can work for you.
In recent weeks, Secretary Fudge has visited six states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands on behalf of the Build Back Better Act proposed by President Biden.
The Build Back Better Act has yet to be passed into law. Congress keeps trimming or cutting funding proposals included in the plan, mostly for social services and climate change programs. It still includes 150 billion in proposed funding for housing tax credits, government financing to support affordable housing. and new construction or rehabilitation of one million homes. Hopefully, if the bill is ever passed, it will still contain these desperately needed housing programs.