This Notice provides the estimated median family income estimates for fiscal year 2005 for 356 metropolitan areas and 2,302 non-metropolitan areas in the U.S. and its territories. The estimated median family income for the U.S. is $58,000; it is $62,500 ($63,100 metro; $49,100 non-metro) for California. The estimated median income is used as the basis for setting income limits for a variety of programs including because they are used as the basis for income limits for several HUD programs, including the Public Housing, Housing Choice Voucher, USDA’s Rural Housing program and the Low Income Housing Tax credit program. The FY 2005 Income Limits page on the Huduser website provides links to a table of median income estimates for specific metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas across the U.S. and other useful links. [Download]

Explains Bush’s New Freedom Initiative and Executive Order and guides PHAs and HUD field staff regarding initiatives that can be implemented to assist persons with disabilities and their families searching for housing under the Section 8 Voucher program. Among other things, this Notice instructs PHAs to be “generous” in establishing the permitted search time for a unit, permitting PHAs to go beyond 120 days so long as the time period is not indefinite. The Notice also encourages PHAs to provide families with lists of organizations and agencies offering supportive services, including “state protection and advocacy agencies, Centers for Independent Living, State Medicaid agencies, and disability advocacy groups that represent individuals with a variety of disabilities.” [Download]

The Consolidated Plan on “ConPlan” is a document that jurisdictions must submit to HUD in order to obtain HOME, CDBG and other federal monies to fund programs that primarily benefit lower income persons. Among other things, the proposed regulations require more consistency between the ConPlan and PHA (Public Housing Agency) Plan, “clarify” the definition of “chronic homelessness” purportedly to bring the ConPlan regs in line with the Administration’s goal of ending homelessness by 2012, and require jurisdictions to described specifically what steps they will take to remove barriers to affordable housing. Comments due January 31, 2005. [Download]

This is the first comprehensive update of these regulations since they were first issued in 1989. Among the objectives of the regulations is to ensure that persons displaced as the direct result of federal or federally assisted project are treated fairly and equitably – “that they will not suffer disproportionate injuries as the result of projects designed for the benefit of the public as a whole.” 49 C.F.R. 24.1(b). The regulations govern 18 federal agencies, including HUD. (Adapted in part from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) summary in the NLIHC newsletter published January 7, 2005.) [Download]

This notice implements the funding provisions resulting from Congress’ enactment of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2005. The notice locks in the budget-based process for allocating Section 8 voucher funds to public housing authorities (PHAs) implemented in 2004 and offers guidance to PHAs as to how HUD will make such allocations. [Download]

This notice provides guidance to public housing authorities (PHAs), project owners and other interested parties regarding the determination of annual and adjusted income in HUD’s assisted housing programs under the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003, Public Law 108-173. The notice provides that “in calculating annual income for a family, any assistance or benefit received from the Medicare discount card or the transitional assistance [subsidy] must be excluded … for the purpose of calculating any rent or assistance … [and] must be treated as a standard medical deduction when determining the family’s medical expense deducation.” The notice also provides guidance for PHAs and owners on how to verify a tenant’s status as a beneficiary of the Medicare discount card program. [Download]