| For
further information about programs in this issue or other HUD Programs
visit the links listed or go to www.hud.gov.
Armando Fana, HUD Miami
Field Office Director
All
About HUD
Do
you really want to hear all about HUD, when it happens? Subscribe to HUD’s RSS
or Really Simple Syndication. It may be a lot of information, but all
our national releases will be there. RSS is an easy way to keep up with
your favorite news and information. An RSS feed contains headlines,
summaries and links to full news stories on www.hud.gov. Since you do
not view RSS content through a browser, you will need an RSS reader. Take a look;
we can walk you through the process.
Requirements
For Designating Housing Projects
If
you are interested in expressing your opinion on the Requirements for Designating
Housing Projects, the deadline
is August 20,
2007. Read the notice
Avoid
Foreclosure!
Save
the Date:
September
20 & 21
HUD’s
Miami Field Office and local partners will host a FREE
workshop for Faith- and Community-based organizations to assist in
avoiding foreclosure and predatory lending
Miami
Dade College, Downtown Miami,
September
20 & 21, 2007
For
additional information contact :
Adoniram.A.Vargas@hud.gov
FREE
Single
Family FHA Education Session
Tampa,
Florida
August
6 and 7, 2007
|
|
Miami
Field Office
HUD
Highlights
| | A
Quarterly Newsletter About HUD in South
Florida
| | SUMMER
2007
| | Hurricane Season Is Here!
The Department
of Housing and Urban Development’s Miami Field Office recently
participated in an exercise with State and local officials that
included a worst case hurricane scenario: Hurricane Ono is a
Category 5 (155 winds) large hurricane that cuts across 10 counties and
produces 22 inches of rain in the region. Winds and storm
surge damage or destroy 1,005,526 structures in the most impacted
areas. An event as large as hurricane ONO will require assistance from
local, state and federal government agencies, however the first 72
hours of relief can ONLY be provided by your agency. No one
is going to be able to assist in the first 72 hours or possibly longer.
What
can you do now to prepare (if you have not already done so) for this
hurricane season? Start with visiting some or all of these websites for
plans, guidance and speakers who are willing to visit your non-profit,
management company, housing authority or other form of business to talk
about hurricane preparedness. It is highly
recommended that any organization have a Continuity of Operations
(COOP) plan in place. There are several free resources that you
can access to help your organization create a COOP plan. Once
your COOP is created you must test it by conducting exercises and mock
scenarios at least once per year.
| | How
To Become A HUD Approved Housing Counseling Agency
Housing
counseling is one of the best tools to help prepare future homeowners
for the challenges of buying and maintaining a home. Given the current
mortgage environment, housing counseling by HUD approved non-profit
agencies is more important then ever. Here is what you need to do to
become one. |
Creating A Task Force
Your
organization has been discussing Regulatory Barriers to Affordable
Housing and is thinking of participating in a task force? Check HUD’s guide to creating one. It is
a 16-page booklet created by our Office of Policy Development and
Research. It will guide you from the origins of Not in my back yard to
key points to keep in mind such as growth control, land, use, zoning,
subdivision ordinances, etc. From reports to checklists it is all
there, including good examples from several communities.
| | FHA National Appraiser Exam, Updated
The FHA
national appraiser exam has been streamlined from a 50-question
multiple choice exam to a 10-question, essay type, open-book test which
is part of the appraiser application. The new exam is on page three of
the revised application (form HUD-92563), available online at http://www.hudclips.org.
Take a look at the new form: FHA appraisers form
| Is
Your Local Housing Authority Having A Review?
Some mistakes
happen over and over again. Check here to view what are
the common audit findings when HUD reviews Public Housing Authorities,
from reimbursement of ineligible activities to lack of internal
controls. Hopefully this will help you avoid these common mistakes.
| | Impact Fees And Housing Affordability
HUD's Office of
Policy Development & Research published the document Impact Fees and Housing Affordability: a Guidebook for
Practitioners, an analysis of the
status of impact fees as they relate to housing
affordability. The Guidebook
reviews the history of impact fees, discusses a range of infrastructure
financing options, summarizes the roles played by states that have
passed enabling legislation, and recommends methods for calculating the
fees that will have the least adverse effects on housing affordability.
Decision guides and case studies of local impact fee programs are
included. |
Affordable
Yes But, What About Good Design?
Affordable
Housing Design Advisor http://www.designadvisor.org/ is a
new website developed to help anyone involved in the production of
affordable housing achieve higher design quality. If you're part of the
solution to America
's critical affordable housing challenge, this site is for you. The
Affordable Housing Design Advisor brings together experience and ideas
from successful affordable housing projects all over the country, and
the people who developed, designed and built them.
The Affordable
Housing Design Advisor was completed under contract to the Office of
Policy Development and Research of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development and it is currently managed by the Center for Architecture and Building Science
Research at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Take a look
at it; you will bookmark it as one
of your favorite reference sources.
|
|