Newly proposed amendments to tweak TRID were not the only thing to surface from Washington the last weekday of July. President Barack Obama signed the Housing Opportunity through Modernization Act on July 29.
The law was introduced by Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) on Oct. 7, 2015, to modify HUD’s rental assistance (including Section 8 vouchers) and other public housing programs, the Federal Housing Administration’s (FHA) requirements for condominium mortgage insurance and the Department of Agriculture’s single-family housing guaranteed loan program.
The law is divided into seven titles:
Among the requirements discusses within the law, public housing agencies (PHAs) will be required to review the incomes of assisted families in dwellings upon the initial provision of housing assistance for the family, annually thereafter and any time the family’s income and deductions are estimated to increase by 10 percent.
HUD is required to develop a mechanism for disclosing information to PHAs for employment and income verification and ensure that the PHAs have access to information contained in the Do Not Pay system established by the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act of 2012.
If a PHA determines that a tenant’s income is greater than 120 percent of the area median income for two consecutive years, the PHA must charge the tenant the greater of the fair market rent or the amount of the government subsidy for the unit, or terminate the tenancy.
HUD may increase or decrease the income limitation based on unique local conditions, such as construction costs, unusually high or low family incomes, vacancy rates or rental costs.
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