Administration announces rental fee reduction efforts

President Biden and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Marcia Fudge announced new coordinated actions to increase the transparency of housing fees for three of the largest online rental platforms: Apartments.com, AffordableHousing.com and Zillow. Rental fees, including rental application fees and convenience fees, increase renters’ cost burdens. Convenience fees often exceed the cost of the provided services. Each platform will launch new tools to provide a more transparent consumer experience. The White House released a fact sheet noting that this announcement is part of the Administration’s effort to crack down on consumer junk fees.

“Given that prospective renters often apply for multiple units over the course of their housing search, these application fees can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the White House said. “Even after renters secure housing, they are often surprised to be charged mandatory fees on top of their rent, including ‘convenience fees’ to pay rent online, fees for things like mail sorting and trash collection, and even so-called ‘January fees’ charged for no clear reason at the beginning of a new calendar year.”

Zillow will provide a Cost of Renting Summary for renters to see their total rent cost, including monthly and one-time expenses. Apartments.com will launch a calculator to help renters determine a unit’s entire costs. And AffrodableHousing.com will require property owners to disclose all refundable, non-refundable, and upfront fees on their listing. The website will also launch a “Trusted Owner” badge to signify owners who have adhered to the platform’s best practices.

“Too often, renters are hit with unexpected fees on top of their rent. Today’s announcement shows the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to lower cost for renters and build a fairer, more transparent rental housing marketplace,” said HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge.

HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research also released a new brief highlighting the agency’s actions to combat excessive junk fees. These efforts include encouraging strategies to cap or eliminate rental application fees, allowing prospective renters to provide their screening reports, and limiting the allowable fees and deposits at the time of move-in or lease signing.

Choice in Affordable Housing Act reintroduced in House

Reps. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), ranking member of the Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) reintroduced the Choice in Affordable Housing Act. The legislation seeks to reduce burdensome regulation from the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCV) and expand access to affordable housing. Specifically, the bill will create a fund to recruit and train landlord participants, improve using data to set rent prices, reduce inspection delays, and modernize HUD’s evaluation of public housing agencies. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) introduced accompanying legislation in the Senate earlier this year with support from NAA, NMHC, Habitat for Humanity International, BPC Action, NAHB, and NAR, among other organizations.

“The greatest threat to our economic recovery is the housing affordability crisis that is holding back hardworking families in communities across the country,” said Cleaver. “To ensure working-class families have access to affordable housing options, it is imperative that Congress work to remove burdensome barriers within the Housing Choice Voucher Program that limit landlord participation and where vouchers can be utilized. The Choice in Affordable Housing Act will implement long overdue reforms to the HCV program to increase the number of landlords offering units in the private rental market, while also providing low-income families greater access to housing options in higher-opportunity areas.”

Legislation introduced to curb institutional investors

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Chair of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, along with Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Jack Reed (D-R.I.), John Fetterman (D-Penn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) introduced new legislation to restrict tax breaks for corporate investors in housing.

The Stop Predatory Investing Act would prohibit an investor who acquires more than 50 single-family rental homes from deducting interest or depreciation on the properties and incentivize large investors to sell single-family rentals back to homeowners or community nonprofits. It would also protect renters who live in existing rentals by not disallowing deductions for single-family rental homes purchased before enactment. The legislation would also support the construction of new rental supply by allowing owners to continue taking deductions on sites financed through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit program or newly constructed for rental. According to research by the Joint Center for Housing Studies, investor activity in the single-family market significantly increased at the start of the pandemic, and investors are more likely to purchase lower-cost homes, which can restrict the supply of affordable homes available for purchase by owner occupants."

“Everyone deserves to have access to a home they can afford. As a national nonprofit with more than 40 years’ experience making good homes possible for the millions of families without one, Enterprise commends Chairman Brown for introducing this important proposal to protect housing affordability and stability nationwide. We must all work together to address the severe affordable homeownership and rental shortages facing our communities, and this bill is a step in the right direction,” said Andrew Jakabovics, Vice President of Policy Development at Enterprise Community Partners.

While this legislation is focused on curbing the influence of institutional investors, some housing groups believe a multipronged strategy focused on reforming zoning regulations and improving affordable housing programs is preferable to address the shortage of affordable housing in the country.

The National Association of Local Housing Finance Agencies, Enterprise Community Partners, the Local Initiatives Support Corporation, the National Community Stabilization Trust, the National Housing Law Project, the National Low Income Housing Coalition, and the National Housing Resource Center support the legislation. 

Senate passes bill to accelerate mortgages for Tribal lands

The Senate passed the Tribal Trust Land Homeownership Act of 2023, which will create statutory timelines for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to process mortgages involving property on tribal trust land. The bill, introduced in January by Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), aims to expedite the mortgage approval process and encourage more lenders to provide mortgages across Indian Country, hopefully expanding homeownership opportunities. The bill’s cosponsors include Sens. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.), and Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.). The bill passed the Senate unanimously and now heads to the House. 

“It is essential that Native people have equal access to mortgage transactions, just like any other citizen in this country,” said Chelsea Fish, executive director at the National American Indian Housing Council. “This bill focuses on aligning the processes of the BIA with standard practices in the private mortgage industry. We commend legislators for prioritizing mortgage processes within the BIA and promoting a culture of accountability.”

“Affordable housing opportunities on tribal trust land can be hard to come by in South Dakota and across the nation due in part to the BIA’s challenging mortgage approval process, which can complicate lenders’ ability to provide financing to prospective homebuyers and participate in federal tribal housing programs,” Thune and Rounds said in a press release. 

HUD announces Thriving Communities Technical Assistance recipients

HUD announced the initial recipients of technical assistance through its Thriving Communities Technical Assistance (TCTA) program: Syracuse, N.Y.; Rockford, Ill., Redmond, Wash., and Sun Prairie, Wis. TCTA seeks to integrate housing needs into local governments’ infrastructure investment plans and foster equitable development in disadvantaged communities. The program comes as a response to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocated historical resources to build and maintain infrastructure nationwide. HUD offers the TCTA program as an interagency initiative between the Departments of Transportation, Energy, Commerce, Agriculture, the General Services Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“These funds will ensure that housing is considered and addressed alongside those investments. The nation faces a growing shortage of affordable housing, and this program is designed to help communities leverage infrastructure investments to help fill that gap,” said Soloman Greene, HUD's Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research. 

HUD seeks comments on improving access to benefits programs

HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research is seeking comments for improving access to public benefit programs and the administrative burdens of applying for and maintaining eligibility for such programs. In its request for information (RFI), HUD acknowledged that such administrative hurdles often disproportionately fall on the most vulnerable people and become barriers to accessing programs they would otherwise qualify to receive. Hurdles cited by HUD include the time needed to gather, fill out, and certify documents, travel to and from offices, and take time off work to complete the process. The RFI builds on efforts to reduce paperwork burdens, such as an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo titled “Improving Access to Public Benefits Programs Through the Paperwork Reduction Act.” OMB issued that memo in April 2022.

HUD’s RFI notes, “Every step in applying for or maintaining eligibility for public benefits represents a burden that could result in individuals or entities justifiably becoming too discouraged to complete the process and thus not receiving public benefits for which they are legally eligible.”

HUD requests comments on the RFI by Aug. 14.