HUD Initiative to Overcome Regulatory Barriers of Affordable Housing - 5/24/2004 - Mortgage Loan Refinance Debt Equity

HUD Initiative Aimed at Overcoming Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing

The publication, “America’s Affordable Communities Initiative: Bringing Homes Within Reach Through Regulatory Reform,” discusses ongoing efforts at HUD to expand the American dream of homeownership to middle-income workers such as police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses “and other vital contributors to our society;” low-income families and minorities; the elderly and young married couples.

“Our initiative team will carefully review all HUD rules, policies and notices of funding availability to ensure that no unnecessary barriers exist or are proposed,” HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson, said in a letter to public officials included in the brochure.

“To help ensure that all available measures are being taken to eliminate regulatory barriers, we are proposing to include in the notice of funding availability process a series of questions to be answered by all applicants about what their respective jurisdictions are doing to address regulatory barriers,” he added.

“We want communities to understand the impact of regulatory barriers on affordable housing,” Bryant Applegate, HUD senior counsel and director of the initiative, said at an April 22 conference in Washington, D.C. focusing on scholarly research on such issues as building codes and standards, land use regulations, impact fees and environmental regulations.

Applegate said that further research on regulatory barriers is needed so that localities can address the impact of their regulations, which are unique in each community, and policy makers can address them.

Applegate recommended HUD’s Regulatory Barriers Clearinghouse Web site as a resource for reducing regulatory barriers.

The department’s “America’s Affordable Communities Initiative” got underway last June.